Tuesday, May 8, 2018

OLD TECHNOLOGY REVIVED


    Friday May 4th a powerful 110km wind howled through our area and knocked down trees and created huge power outages. The above photo is a candle on my highboy reflecting a bit off the photo of my three childres' collection. It was past 9pm and I retreated to my room to listen to an old walkman that I had in a nearby drawer. All it needed was fresh AA batteries and I had those too. I had intended to gift the walkman to a Cuban but it never left my drawer. It is pictured below. It needed headphones to pick up reception and to listen to anything. No built in speakers came with that model. It was also useful for playing and recoding tapes. I still have a few the kids made.
   It was a comfort to listen first to a thought provoking talk prgram and then to a comedy channel that presented jokes from comedians 
dating back to my youth, names like Jack Benny and Dudley Moore. By 10pm I had had enough so I removed my ear buds , switched off the battery supply and blew out the candle. After a few moments I  drifted into a deep sleep.
     In the morning I awoke to a silent house and I realized it was still   power is out . UGH!!! So I decided I needed to search for a transistor radio with speakers to listen to programs. With no power a bit of radio news and music would be pleasant. I soon found one. Although it was last used in 2013 the battery was still good. 
I just had to post pictures of my old devices that I once marvelled at and thought were once very high tech. LOL
What is remarkable is that these items were returned to us after a house fire 10 years ago. They had survived and were still in good working condition when I unpacked them from the boxes of saved stuff put together by the insurance people.(We are still waiting for money for the fire damage though!)
I used to have that transistor in the last photo on my classroom desk over 35 years ago to play classical music while my pupils did their math work. They enjoyed the background music.
Saturday afternoon we went to hubby’s office to charge our devices for the upcoming day. We stayed a bit and watched streaming videos while hubby did his thing. At 7pm we headed home. Since our gas worked using a match we were able to heat water and food. We had candle jight dinners both nights.
Our power finally came back that evening around 9:30 pm after we had relit the candles. Of course we took time to watch a bit of TV.
    Since the weather was cool our food in the freezer and fridge remained safe enough to be consumed. We were spared losses. Others were not so lucky.
Do you have any of your old tech around that still works?

7 comments:

MadSnapper said...

I am smiling as I read this because it is old Tech and I remember when all this came out I wanted all of this and could not afford it we could not afford a Walkman or a transistor radio. So I never had one. It's a wonder it survive the fire and here it is this many years later still working. It was a true blessing that you had gas to cook with and candles to light and these old time technology things to help you through all so good that you could go to your husband's office and use the power to recharge

Sandi said...

"We are still waiting for money for the fire damage though!"

From ten years ago??

I remember marveling at my mom's digital watch that lit up when she pressed a little button on the side. I think we were at the new Star Wars movie in 1977 when she showed us. It was cutting edge!

George said...

I did a quick check and found we have very little 'old text' around the house. If our power goes out for any extended period of time we are going to be in a world of hurt!

Arkansas Patti said...

Old tech comes in handy when the new tech goes powerless. Can't believe you still haven't been paid for the insurance. That is shameful.
Glad you survived the dark in good shape.

Olga said...

I think I would find it quite hard to endure any length of time without electricity. I do have a kerosene lantern from camping days and I would maybe have to knot for entertainment. Can't get much lower tech than that.

Linda Reeder said...

We do still have battery powered "boom boxes" and transistor radios around.

Dee said...

Dear Heidrun,I have a device I played audio cassettes in while I walked. It must be 25 years old and it still works! Glad to know all is well with you. Peace.