Obsolescence

Here's a long list of obsolete skills many of us have. I admit that I don't know what a lot of them even mean, because they refer to old computer gaming systems and other early tech stuff, but here are some of my favorites from everyday life:

• Adjusting rabbit ears on top of a TV
• Calling collect on a payphone (or using a payphone at all, I might add!)
• Changing the ball on your IBM Selectric typewriter  
• Cranking up or down a car window
• Dialing a rotary phone
• Extending the antenna on a cell phone (or cordless home phone—remember those early Seinfeld episodes?)
• Getting off the couch to change channels on your TV set
• Mailing in the order form of a catalog
• Making a chain of pop-tops
• Placing a coin on a tone-arm to prevent skipping
• Using carbon paper to make copies
• Using a pay toilet (I was thinking about this recently—what a strange practice to have come and gone!)
• Winding up loose cassette tape with a pencil

It's funny to consider how commonplace these activities were in my childhood—and even young adulthood—and yet my own kids would have no idea what I'm talking about! Some of the items on the list were that way for me too, like starching a removable collar or using a clothes wringer. And some others are not yet obsolete; I still whip cream with a whisk, adjust the pendulum on a clock (we have a few antique clocks), use the Dewey decimal system, and rewind videocassettes.

Comments

[Janeen]

I still adjust rabbit ears on my TV and crank up and down my car window!

[jo]

I often tell the peeps in my class that i WAS the remote control growing up.
I had to stand next to the T.V., off to the side of course, and run through the, oh 5 maybe 6 channels we had.
Fun times!

[Susan]

I still rewind videotapes, as that's primarily what the kids watch. I find DVDs to be highly overrated when children are involved. Fingerprint city. On a sort of related subject, do you have Oscar picks?

[Deborah]

Wow - I just dug out an old pair of rabbit ears for my best friend yesterday and thought "when was the last time anyone mentioned these?" Luckily, even though we're the same age (30), when she had no idea what to do with them, I dug out a vague memory of using them when I was about 5.

And as for the pay toilets - we took my stepson to London last March. The first time he had to pay to use a public toilet, he seemed to think that it was against the very idea of freedom. Apparently, in his world, "freedom to pee" is somewhere in the Bill of Rights.

[Debra Hamel]

Great list!

I find the idea of pay toilets pretty objectionable myself. When you're desperate for the bathroom, it's not the right time to find you don't have any loose change. I just barely remember them from my youth.

[Anne Glamore]

When we went to Portugal last year, one of the "sights" Porter took bunches of pictures of was a pay phone.

I tried to tell him we have those here in the US, but when we cruised around town we couldn't locate a single one.

[Florinda]

Pay toilets never made much sense to me in the first place - just a bit sadistic, in a way.

We were watching something recently (I forget what, but it was set back in the '70's) where someone not only used a pay phone, they checked the coin return afterwards to see if their dime had come back - remember doing that?

A few months back, my husband had a very basic rental car that didn't have power anything. When my stepkids got in the car, they asked what the window cranks were - they'd never seen them before.

[mommyralf]

Whoa, IBM Selectric, the Humvee of typewriters! Which balls did you have?!? Wasn't it "Elite" and some other main kind? And with a key next to the keyboard to tell which point size, 10 or 12? You lift the little lever at the top and gently yank the ball out...I can hear the clatter of the type right now, and the quiet electric hum. Ahhhh...

Thank God they finally gave us Selectrics with correction keys. I was not the best typist.

I bought a red Princess rotary phone on eBay last year because I so missed the feel of dialing. I keep it in the kitchen, and while I rarely use it, I just love the shape and weight of the handset. Can't beat it. It totally baffled the kids, needless to say.

What a fun topic!

[B.O.B.]

OK I admit to still having antennas on all my tvs (although the main antenna is a big rooftop with the dial-thingy, the rabbit ears are only on the bedroom tv) and using payphones (which are getting to be a royal pain to find). Just call me a luddite. I refuse to pay for either tv or the privledge of people bothering me anywhere anytime.

Oh and aren't there fancy pay toilets in downtown Boston now? The hose themselves down after every use or something.

[clare d]

Hi Karen, just come over from Debra Hamel's blog. Good list...I just have to tell you that in UK train stations you still have to pay to get in to toilets through a turnstyle. It is 20 pence in London but 30 pence in Manchester. Don't know why the difference, but it's pretty annoying. You look in your purse and think great, 20 pence, I have 20 pence! Yes!...and victoriously feed it in. It is a cruel blow to find you need another 10 pence.

[B.O.B.]

After doing some searching I've discovered that the Boston pay toilets are these
http://www.bestrestroom.com/wall_fame.html

I'd glady pay a quarter to use one of these if the option is the disgusting public toilets at some of the T stations (and I'm thinking specifically of alewife) around Boston.

[clare d]

Hi Karen,

I tried to reply to your email yesterday but it bounced back on me so I'm posting here. Can't quite recall what 'my words of wisdom' :-) exactly but something on the lines of B.O.B.' s I guess. Public conveniences in general were so disgusting when I was a child that I had a bit of a phobia about going anywhere near them. Actually, thinking about it, that was when paying to go was more prevalent...now they tend to be free (except round train stations) and they are much better. That is quite strange, really isn't it?