Off The Editor’s Desk – 7-24-2019
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Carlton & Al
I like old things!
I might be alone in not embracing new things and new technology that has changed our ever-changing world with new gadgets and electronic items, which have improved our lives.
I can remember as a kid that we did not have a telephone in our home. Most Main Street businesses had phones. Phones back then were not like the ones today. The instrument was a wooden box that was attached to the wall and had a mouthpiece that you talked into and the earpiece was on the end of a wire. The box also had a small platform that allowed one to write a note of the conversation. If you were to use the machine, you picked up the earpiece and turned a crank and a sweet voice (called the operator) came on the line asking, “Number please.”
You would give the number you wanted, like a number of 128R4. That was a signal for the operator to connect you with telephone on line 128 and the R4 as the code for the party on that line. There might be as many as a dozen phone customers on that line and that created a new term called, “Rubbering”. That’s where you heard the neighbors call code and you could pick up your phone and listen in on that conversation involving your neighbor and of course they could do the same to you.
It was not until the early 1960s that we got dial phones, but we still had “Party Lines”. We were on a two party line with the older lady across the street. However, we could not “Rubber” on her conservations, because she spoke German and I could not understand it. It was not long after that; we converted to a single line. Ask some young person if they know what a dial phone is and how it operates.
Now we all have a phone in our pocket, it’s a phone, a camera, a date book, a dictionary, an encyclopedia and a personal secretary. Let’s not call it a telephone; it’s a personal communication device. My phone is programmed to start my car, change the heat at the cabin and let the fire station know that I am on my way for a fire call.
But new technology has touched every element of our life. I am in the printing business and many years ago the single letter type used to print changed with the introduction of the Linotype and then we moved on to photo typesetting and now it’s all electronic. We have stopped using our printing press for all of our commercial printing and have gone to printing using a digital press, what is basically a copy machine, but it does great work. Set up the job on the computer and send it to the printer and the job is done. It does a wonderful job of printing with great detail and best of all; I don’t have to wash the press after the job is done.
But, we still love old things and antiques are of great value as I watch the Antiques Roadshow on PBS every week and see what value there is in those old items. I would think our home is like many others in that we have several pieces of antiques, besides Paula and myself, like a couple of old Seth Thomas clocks, one belonging to her grandparents and one from my grandparents.
We also have a “Water Fountain” that we purchased many years ago while in Reno, Nevada. It’s a stoneware six-gallon crock with cover, stand and spout and two catch bowls. We had it on display in our office downtown for a while and Gladys Bonte stopped in one day and noted that it was just like the one that was used for water at the old rural Camp Fourteen School where she taught. She said, “We had to make sure that the water was drained out at night so the crock did not freeze and break.
And, finally that brings me to the old steam train engine called the “Big Boy” that was on display at Union Depot in St. Paul last week. I accompanied Dean Anderson and his father Al one day last week to see the restored steam engine and rail coaches that accompanied it. Many, many people were at the showing of the engine as it was marking the 150th anniversary of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah that noted the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad connecting the United States from sea to sea.
Thanks for reading! ~Carlton