“An amazing invention – but who would ever want to use one?”
The paper mentioned the soil is 50°, and we are two weeks ahead on the growing cycle. I knew that when I saw my forsythia this morning. It is a glorious yellow, full and beautiful. It was a housewarming present thirty three years ago.
Life used to be so much simpler. This morning I went looking for the USB connection for my camera. It wasn’t in its usual spot, the place where I keep most of the connectors, like the ones for my cell phone and my IPod. While rummaging, I did find three orphan wires which must connect to something or I wouldn’t have saved them. I did find my camera’s wire but I’m still curious about the other three.
When I was little, just about everything connected to outlets on the wall. A couple of lights and the TV shared an outlet in the living room. My mother had several cords connected in the kitchen. Her Mixmaster, her radio, sometimes the iron and the fry pan were all plugged into a single outlet. They piggybacked. Cameras were one of the few devices with batteries. The first camera I remember had a huge flashbulb screwed into a circle of silver. It was bright enough to light up the room. The shadow of the flash stayed in my eyes for ages, and I remember my father oohing and ahing from the heat of the flashbulb on his fingers as he tried to replace it.
The radio we had wasn’t clunky. It was small and square and had only an am tuner and a volume control knob on the front. The wire came from the back, out of a hard piece of what I think was cardboard with holes for ventilation. It hid the tubes. When portable radios arrived, they were called transistor radios. Now there were two: radios and transistor radios. That way we never got confused. My first transistor was huge by today’s standards, and it still had only two knobs: one for volume and one for am radio. I used to lug mine everywhere. I thought it a marvel.
I got older and the world changed. Transistor radios got smaller, flash bulbs were blue and square with four bulbs in one, Polaroid pictures were born and the TV was in color. I thought those were the wonder years. Who could ever have suspected today?
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
April 6, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Roberts Radios were the big thing when transistor radios appeared. Ours was green and my grandparents was red. They had a turntable on the base so that they could be easily turned to get the best reception.
I had an ITT KB which had a rechargeable battery and extendable aerial. Had to find those changing signals from Radio London and Radio Caroline
April 6, 2010 at 4:50 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I hadn’t heard of Roberts Radios so I did some sleuthing and found out its early business was totally in England though they now are worldwide. I even found a bit on the radios you mentioned:
April 6, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Love it – That is exactly the vintage of Roberts – There is a whole retro thing going on.
Really liked Zoey’s comment about the flash cubes, and remember they turned on the camera.
I do love gadgets but can find no particular reason to buy an first generation ipad – heck I couldn’t even read KTCC and listen to music at the same time.
April 6, 2010 at 12:42 pm
We are a couple of weeks behind here. There are still snow on shady places.
My whole day can be disturbed when I place things on other places than usual. The flashes i remember are the squares with four flashes and they were really hot too 🙂 I did have a polaroid camera too. It worked ok, but they were just clumsy and messy to be honest. All those photographs are greenish today 🙂 🙂
I bought a digital box for my tv today, so now I can see all comedies again 🙂 But the best thing is fridays Sci-Fi nights 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
April 6, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Christer,
My nephew in the Rocky Mountains is still getting snow and I find the whole idea appalling.
I’m with you in getting really disturbed when things aren’t where they are supposed to be. I am such a creature of habit that I can be put of all day by something I’ve lost.
I love scifi. The Science Fiction Channel has an original movie every Saturday night-they are really bad, just like the old ones were. There have been mega crocodiles and mega storms. I love watching!
April 6, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I remember the cube flashes too and loved the Polaroid when they first came out. Actually they were used in NY five years before mass manufacturing and by the time we used the black and white, NY was using color. I could never figure that out. My cousins were raving about it while we flat out didn’t know what they were talking about. I remember the Hoffman Corporation coming out with the first solar radio and God what a pain to have to always go outside for an hour to hold it towards the sun. Well, it was the first one mass produced so it had bugs in it. We DID grow up in an exciting time, didn’t we Kat?
April 6, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Z&Me,
We did grow up in a world filled with changes, filled with wonder. I remember sputnik and ushering in the space age. All my science fiction movies were becoming real! Then we have all those fancy gadgets starting with those transistor radios and now the IPad. Wow!!
April 6, 2010 at 6:39 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I thought the radio was cool-we had nothing like it.
I want an IPad. Though I do love gadgets, I haven’t bought many. I figured my next would be an SLR digital, but I know an IPad shot close to the top of my wish list!
April 7, 2010 at 8:00 am
Nikon D90 🙂
April 7, 2010 at 9:58 am
Thank you!!
April 6, 2010 at 6:43 pm
I remember one Christmas when my friend got a “Polaroid Swinger” camera- (I can still hear the TV commercial: “meet the swinger, polaroid swinger; it’s more than a camera, it’s almost alive; it’s only nineteen dollars and ninety five; swing it up -yeah yeah-it says yes-yeah yeah-take the shot-yeah yeah- count it down-yeah – zip it off!”) Oh how I coveted that camera, although I never got one of my own!! I still have a few photos she gave me (I’m thinking this had to be around 1966-7? It came with this little spongey thing in a vile that had an equally vile gunk in it that you then had to shmeer over the photo to put the glossy finish on. I still remember the smell of that stuff that was probably so caustic that it would be banned today- we used to rub it on with our fingers! My first camera would come a few years later in 1970 when I was given a Kodak Instamatic 124 for Christmas- and yes, it used those flash cubes! I still have every single photo I ever took with that camera, and have never been without a camera since!
April 6, 2010 at 9:00 pm
gretchen,
I remember really well those Polaroid Swingers and now that silly commercial is stuck in my head. I also remember the pictures were small compared to those from other cameras, and I do remember that God awful smell.
Like yours, my first camera was a Kodak Instamatic. It was a present from my parents when I was leaving for the Peace Corps, but I had no flashbulbs with me so I have all outside shots.
I always carry my camera. You never know what shots you might just run into.