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Old Stuff That Still Works
Many things we buy turn out to be a bad investment. We get little in return for the money we spend. Other times, we do better. My Dad cooks his breakfast every morning in a cast iron skillet which has been in our family for around 150 years. It shows no sign of wearing out. Whoever paid 50 cents (or whatever) for that pan in the mid-late 1800s got their money’s worth.
In my house, we have a few things like that. For example, this clothes hanger that came with the dry cleaning. Apparently a long time ago, because the business phone number is “Westhampton 1019.” We still use it every day. Whoever paid for dry cleaning that day got their money’s worth.
How many of you have one of these teapots in your house? I don’t know how old it is. My wife says it’s just always been around. I use it every morning to boil water for my coffee (I use a French press). Every morning. How much water has this little pot boiled over the years?
We also have old furniture and pictures of course, but it’s the little doodads that are old, inexpensive, and unremarkable that I find fascinating, for some reason. If only they could talk – the stories they could tell. I’m using them without thinking of them, just like many of my relatives who died long before I was born.
I love my new cell phone, my new laptop, and my spiffy new car.
But I love my old stuff too. Can’t help it.
Do you have any old doodads that you still use?
Published in General
We have a Kenmore refrigerator that’s at least 25 years old. We’re looking for a new one and to put this one in the garage for overflow. The salesmen we’ve been talking to say the average life of modern refrigerators is eight to ten years.
My daughter is using the round oak table from her great grandparents on one side of the family, with oak chairs from the other that were Sears and Roebuck from the 1920’s. It is interesting that the table is low, and we considered raising it, but after using it, think it is just right.
I have several of those, they do work good. I also have a large Tupperware canister that holds 10 lbs of flour that I got about 40 years ago, and have used continuously.
They were great, my parents bought one in 1962 and it is still running.
We have the same experience. Ours was bought in New Orleans in the 60’s and resides in Northern Michigan today.
My Kenmore freezer died a few months ago at 45. RIP.
My dad still has the same stereo speakers from the mid-eighties and they are incredible. Big wooden frame, clunky and loud. The volume dial at “five” shakes the entire house. It goes up to twenty. I’m not sure if anyone has ever turned the dial to twenty. If they did, they probably wouldn’t be here to tell the tale.
I’m still using a pair of Sansui speakers I got in 1970.
And I have a cast iron griddle from my grandfather. I remember him using it in the early fifties on his wood fired cook stove. He probably got it in the twenties, but it is possibly from the 1890’s.
Can I borrow it? You can use it again after I’m done.
LOL I knew where you were going with it from “useless little gadget” . . .
It’s the same here.
I have a pre-WWII Millers-Falls hand drill from my maternal grandfather, a bit banged up but still works fine. A backup to the convenient battery drill these days, just in case of dead power pack or disaster.
There’s a Remington 25 slide-action rifle inherited from the paternal side, known to have been built in 1929 from the serial number. Still goes to the range at least once a year, make a bang just fine. I feed it reduced power hand loads in deference to its age, but the steel is still bright, could likely take a full charge if needed.
From my parents I got a 1950s vintage solid cherry end table, in that kind of funky deco/aero streamlined style. I refinished it back in the ’80s when it came my way, and it’s in service today, right now holding a side lamp and some of my home brewing supplies and notes.
I have a Hidatsa Indian hammer out in the garage with my other tools, but I can’t say it works just as well as it ever did. It needs a new handle.
An item that sits in the tool box and I enjoy having, but don’t use, is a crescent wrench from one of the Model T Ford cars that my grandfather bought new in Detour, MD.
Sorry. That’s a pipe wrench. It may have been manufactured by the Crescent company, but it’s not a Crescent wrench.
Looks like a monkey wrench to me.
Could be that, too.
My grandfather was an auto mechanic/shop foreman at the Chevrolet dealer in the small town of Quanah, Texas in the early 1950’s. I still have many of his automotive tools, some no longer applicable but wrenches and screwdrivers and an iron used to remove dents will surely outlive me.
Let’s hope she doesn’t read what’s in dental fillings . . .
I still use all my Tupperware that I bought in the mid 1960s. I especially like the salt and pepper shakers sitting on my stove.
The Brown-Eyed Beauty, whose real name, Kate, has recently been leaked by the press, relates that in the 70’s, she was asked to host a Tupperware party and she couldn’t say no.
Also that she subsequently learned to say no. In some ways, especially Tupperware ways, I think that was a positive development.
I’d like to note that the are exceptions to this theme.
After my parents passed away, my siblings and I were cleaning out the house. We found a drawer filled with S&H Green stamps. It was not difficult to decide how to deal with the stamps.
Tupperways?
Yes. In NonTupperways, negative.
I have enough Tupperware, since I was 25 and got hooked into Tupperware parties, to last me until I’m 90 or 100, should I live that long. I think the first thing my daughter will do cleaning out my apt, is to trash the Tupperware. I had no idea the stuff was near indestructible.
Just put in the microwave with anything greasy. You’ll find out it’s not nearly indestructible ;>) Or on second thought, don’t, it tends to upset those who share your domicile .
@okiesailer, are you sure about that? I have a Tupperware microwave bowl and have been using it for about 15 years and it hasn’t melted yet.
As I recall from the days of Tupperware, it actually forms thick, protective formations–ridges, gullies, and bumps–consisting of some tough material formed by the reaction of plastic, tomato sauce, and hot grease.
Only the stuff made for the microwave. Early Tupperware is not a good match for the microwave.
I’ve moved to only using glass in the microwave. Hilarious me in the kitchen taking something out of the freezer in Tupperware, to put in a glass bowl.
I’ve done the exact same thing.