We were at The Christmas House in Elmira a few weeks ago (shame it’s closing at the end of the season, so trot out now if you’re interested), and we enjoyed seeing a very large piece of fine furniture, already with a “sold” sticker, not that we could have bought it or used it anyway. It was the large chest of little drawers, for a library card catalog.
I had a chance to buy a smaller one a few years back, and I was tempted, but the little drawers wouldn’t even fit my CDs, which are passé themselves now. But the catalog chest brought back a lot of memories of learning how to to use it at the library next door, and even learning to insert new cards properly, and all the exciting opportunities that you turned up with a riffle through the cards. The library was a treasured place, and the card catalog was its warm and generous heart.
Also outdated now is the little rubber stamp that rotated months and numerals, letting the librarian set it to the due date, then whonk it on an ink pad, and press it onto the slip at the back of your book, AND on the little card that went into her file until you brought the book back. Another, less-exciting method was a little fixture for the end of the librarian’s pencil, into which she would set the date and then press it into the ink pad. This object seemed particularly arcane, like the emblem of a lodge member, or the badge of a high official.
The Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature drifted into my memory, and how much fun that could be, though now we can do it all, and more, on line. Every library had at least one set of encyclopedias for adults, and one for children, not to mention a huge dictionary, usually on its own stand, like a pulpit Bible in church. There was usually a large world atlas, too, but it was often out of date.
Also departed these days is the phone book, or at least a useful and comprehensive version.
Cigarette lighters, once ubiquitous and even shown off, are much rarer now, which is all to the good. Cars don’t have running boards nowadays.
Typewriters became pretty much universal in a single decade, and pretty much vanished at the same speed, a hundred years later. We use the same “typing” skills on our keyboards, but the instruments themselves… by Remington or Smith-Corona… have either gone for scrap, or gotten shoved into some storage corner, probably at the bottom of a pile of later rejects.
“Records,” tapes, eight-tracks, cassettes, all mostly gone now, along with the equipment that played them. Betamax once seemed laughably out of date, but VHS has joined it. Even CDs and DVDs may be on their last legs.
Remember rabbit ears? To improve your TV reception? For that matter, how about aerials or antennas, maybe mounted on the garage, to pull in signals from farther away. When I was a lad, all we could get was the CBS and NBC stations in Providence. Then my father put up an antenna, and after that we could ALSO get the CBS and NBC stations in Boston.
Remember your camera? Maybe a Brownie Starmite from Kodak? Or maybe you had a Polaroid, with its instant prints? All you need now’s a half-way decent phone, and you don’t need to take your film (remember film?) to the drug store. I’ll bet you’ve still got little boxes and trays with your slides, but do you have a slide PROJECTOR?
How about Thermos bottles, for that matter? That’s a brand name, so I’ll say how about vacuum flasks? If I understand aright they’re still around, but some of the forms and the formats have changed. That’s good, too. Nostalgia is great, but progress is better, and novelty is always exciting.