[AT] The Wreck Of The Old 97

[Francis Robinson]

--On Saturday, January 26, 2008 4:00 PM -0500 George Willer 
<gwill at gwill.net> wrote:

>
>
> It's interesting that spell checker doesn't recognize "Victrola"!
>
> George Willer
>

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


	Most of the spell checkers I use (Including MS-Office 2000) don't even 
recognize the word "Internet". I had to add it and numerous other computer 
terms. Go figure...   :-)

	BTW my sister and I wore out a lot of records on an old Victrola.
	I was just talking today about the Seth Thomas clock (I wound it today) I 
have that my parents bought when they got married in 1939. They never had 
an electric clock until about 1950. It was an alarm clock. They got an 
electric kitchen clock, bought used at an auction, about 1953. I thought we 
had hit the big time.   :-)   My folks needed that wind-up clock because 
one house they lived in shortly before I was born didn't have electricity. 
It also didn't have a well and they hauled water in old milk cans.
	I didn't live in a house with a furnace until I got married. We got basic 
indoor plumbing about 1953 but no bathroom. The TV came about then. The 
"indoor potty" came along about 3 years later. We had a crude shower in the 
cellar. We did have a phone (party line) early in the 1950's for business 
reasons since my father was selling steel buildings among other things and 
when we were selling a lot of purebred hogs (mostly Yorkshire) we had a 
phone in the barn. It was the talk of the neighborhood...   :-)
	Diana's folks never had any indoor plumbing except for a pitcher top pump 
on a cistern until after she and I were married. The well pump was outside. 
They never had a phone or bathroom while she was at home. They never did 
have a furnace until her dad died in his 80's and her mom moved to an 
apartment in town. They always heated with wood and coal. I believe Diana 
was in high school before they got a TV. We were married a while before we 
felt we could afford a TV then we got a used one. The first new one (B&W) 
was another one of those "we have hit the big time" events.   :-)   Now we 
have one in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in the solar room, one 
in the bed room, one that is headed for the basement family room, one in 
the farm shop, one in the wood shop and at least two extras. Times have 
indeed changed.
	We also have a furnace...   :-)  A couple of "indoor" bathrooms (we still 
have an outhouse, used at family reunions) and more phones than you can 
shake a stick at on two phone lines in addition to our two cell phones.
	The house we lived in when I was born was a former garage about 12' x 18' 
with a shed shaped room about 6' x 16' across the back that served as a 
kitchen. The only plumbing was a pipe sticking up out of the floor in the 
kitchen with a valve on it. There was my folks and my sister and I squeezed 
into it. Today Diana and I rattle around in about 5,000 square feet and on 
occasion call each other on the phone rather than walk around hunting each 
other...   :-)   The house where we lived when I was born would fit in my 
20' x 36' living room with a good bit of room left over. Maybe that little 
house is the reason that I get claustrophobic today...   :-)   When I 
visualize that little house I always see it with the McCormick 10-20 parked 
about 30 feet away and the 9N parked in the small shop building next to the 
house.




--
"farmer"


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
Robinson at svs.net