The audio recorder days -- remember those 1950s luggable cases?

by FatFreek 2005 9 Replies latest jw experiences

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  FatFreek 2005

  I don't remember why they met at our New Bedford, MA, tenement, a $5 weekly cold water flat. Mom took home some $37 per week and Dad was disabled. There were no food stamps, no SSI.

  While we couldn't afford one, the 3 prominent servants (they were called) gathered there to collect their order for a portable audio recorder for which they paid some $100 each. All Dad and I could do was lust for a machine that could magically store and play back keynote talks from circuit and district speakers. Each of the servants tried out his new toy as that reel-to-reel device (luggable at some 30 pounds, my estimate) stored and played back our voices with amazing clarity. They would never miss each glimmer of new light from the platform again. For several years, these monstrosities made their way into many kingdom halls of that day. Len Miller.

  
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  kaik

  Ouch, memory of the childhood. We had one audio case like this, in brown color, and it was heavy. My elder had two, because he was copying tapes all time. That thing was expensive. I think my dad paid two months of salary for it.
  
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  Godsendconspirator

  So i guess writing notes were out of the question huh?
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  Village Idiot

  My mother had, in the 1960s, one of those spool audio recorders. It was a bit smaller than the one you show. She would tape radio shows of one of her friends.

  In the 1970s I had a big, heavy cassette recorder that I would tape convention talks with. I remember having it in my lap in a special talk (1974 - 10,000 JWs in attendance) were Frederick Franz explained how the great tribulation/Armageddon would start within months or years - not decades - of September 1975. I forget what I did with that Cassette but if I still have it it would be a jewel.

  I also remember, in the 1960s, seeing IBM computers that were the size of a huge refrigerator that used magnetic tape in spools. A modern day calculator has more capacity than one of those.

  My first calculator (Texas Instruments), in the early 1970s, cost a hundred dollars (the equivalent of several hundred dollars in today's money) and could only add, subtract, multiply, divide and do X2.

  My mother also had one of those vintage "portable" 1960s typewriters that used ink spools. I still have it.

  

  
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  James Mixon

  The good days, three TV stations and nothing after 12 O'clock.

  We have a old Royal typewriter, my grandson ask what is that and how does it work.
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  kaik

  Electronics was big and expensive at that time. I still remember we had TV on legs with a rabbit ears. My mom managed to brake the TV during vacuuming by knocking out one of the leg, and the TV crashed and broke. Also my grandmother had old radio. It was from 1920/30's or so and it was still functional in 1980's. There was registration sticker on it by German occupational force as back then it was required to register all radios. My mom still has the type recorder from 1900's. My great-great grandfather was a city lawyer and it been in our family for over 100 years. It is not functional, but my mom still has it at her study. I do no know what happens to that radio, but we threw the tape player out in the 1980's. We got cassette player, and I had my first walkman in mid 1980's.
  
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  Village Idiot

  kaik: "Also my grandmother had old radio."

  Ah yes, I remember that we had a vacuum tube radio. I also remember my teenage cousin showing off her new technology transistor radio.
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  kaik

  My grandmother had the radio through most of her life. My grandfather bought before WWII; she had her in kitchen, so when she cooked, she could listen to the music or announcement. My father told me that as kids they listen illegal broadcast BBC from London during WWII. What I know, this radio had two knobs on the either side, and middle there was tube with green color and we could adjust between stations. It was functional for years, because my grandmother listened to it well to the 1980's. Back prior TV, family sit by radio and listened to the broadcast. I think it was made by Phillips. If anyone in my family still has this radio in the attic or basement, it must be 80 years old.
  
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  blondie

  I think it is bad enough to remember reel to reel tapes. It was cheaper to send those back and from Germany and the US than to use the phone. My father had to have everything new electronically. I knew only the tv, only the radio when the tv broke. Now there are generations that will have always lived with computer, laptop, smartphone, etc. I see so many under 30's with the face glued to the phone playing games while the beautiful word goes past them. I'd like a little less technology nowadays.
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  WingCommander

  My 11-yr old son didn't know how to use our regular dial-up telephone. (about 20 years old) It's in a cradle, and he asked how to dial a number when there is no "green" or "red" buttons. I was floored. He had not idea what a "rotary" telephone was.....no clue at all. He really has no concept of VHS tapes. They are an oddity. He is going into 6th grade. This year, everyone is being issued iPad mini's, and all of their textbooks are on them, so no textbooks to carry around even. Streamlined simplification and portability, I'll give them that. As for playing games, he has a Nintendo 3DS (portable handheld), but I will not allow a full Sony PSP, XBox one, or similar in our house, even though I have a 70" LCD HDTV. Why? Because I want him to experience life, not be glued in front of the TV playing games becoming a fat sloth like so many of the other neighbourhood kids. He is active. We have a pool, he plays basketball, goes to a local park for summer camp. This being glued to a rectangle is BS. Oh, and he doesn't have a phone or iPod either. Totally unnecessary at this age, and nothing but trouble.