Things that have (almost) disappeared

A

alec

White heterosexual male
Orderite
I'm quite depressed today, people, and I'll tell you why:

As some of you may already know, I'm a writer, and although I'm still quite young, I'm also somewhat old-fashioned. I have this thing with old stuff and I tend to use it as long as I possibly can. So, instead of writing my texts on my computer (which is quite old too as a matter of fact) I still use a good old mechanical typewriter. I know that sounds stupid, but it's a thing I can't quite explain. Maybe I just like hurting my fingers when I'm writing, I don't know. Anyway: today I went into the city to try and find a new ribbon for my typewriter, but without any luck. I went to several stores and most shopkeepers actually taught I was goofing around when I asked them about it. The thing is: mechanical typewriters are not really manufactured anymore. There may be some company still making expensive ones, but I can't find a ribbon for my beloved Olivetti and, well, that hurts.

So, while walking home, I was thinking about other stuff that kind of "disappeared" from our lives, or almost. Like singing teakettles, you don't see those very often anymore as well, do you? Most people I know of have those electric waterboilers or whatever those contraptions are called. Another thing would be a knife grinder, I guess, probably because knives and scissors are so goddamn cheap nowadays.

I know this is probably a very western thing and these things might still be very common in, let's say, Togo. But the fact is that they have kind of disappeared from the world I know, and I was wondering:

do you guys know of other things that have disappeared?
 
Huh? Okay, I can understand not seeing any more typewriter inks anymore, but the rest of the items on your list I see on a very regular basis.

I don't know anybody who has an electric water boiler, they're all "singing teapots" here still. Razors are still used a lot by people, as I'm one of them. I always see knife grinders in every single silverware drawer I've been in.

Maybe it's just a Euro thing?
 
Ozrat said:
Maybe it's just a Euro thing?
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Nah, Blade Runner is just rich upper-classer

I have an old-fashioned whistler. And I occasionally sharpen knives, tho' rarely. No need, really, Opinel makes excellent cheap knives.

And people still use razors, yeah, but who uses good old-fashioned Western razors. As in not this:

razor.gif


But this:

razor.jpg


I personally only use those old-fashioned razors for doing my hair. Never for regular shaving.

Electric razors are for pussies, tho'
 
Ozrat said:
I don't know anybody who has an electric water boiler, they're all "singing teapots" here still. I always see knife grinders in every single silverware drawer I've been in.
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Uhm... so Ozrat... you Canadian or what? :rofl:

Nah, you see, what I meant with knife grinders are actually the guys on bikes that went from door to door and asked people if they had knives or scissors that needed to be sharpened. The knife grinder was attached to the bike and when they started cycling (without actually moving, that is - D'oh!), they could sharpen them knives. See? Okay, so they are not really 'household items', sorry about that. But these knife grinders were fairly common here. It was a job. It doesn't exist here anymore, that's for sure.
 
I use a old style razor. And have whistling tea kettle. Ceramic too.

And, I still gots an old typewriter that still works, even though it's never used. Don't know where I would find tape for it... :)
 
I am not reoffering to the gillette razor but the old ones, the kind Captain Ahab Melted in order for the blacksmith to craft a harpoon for him, the harpoon that would kill Moby Dick. That kind of razor is something that can be found in antiquity shops around here.
 
Daemon Spawn said:
Blade Runner said:
Hey, what about fax machines? Not much of them around these days, eh?
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Now you're joking. Way to kill your own thread.
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Hey, I'm not kidding, man. Try to find a fax machine in Belgium, seriously. I worked for De Standaard for awhile, when I still didn't have any Internet. I wrote columns and shit, and I asked the chief editor if it would be alright if I faxed the articles to the newspaper. He laughed. No kidding. The few articles I did fax ended up with the janitor of the building in which De Standaard houses. I HAD to use email if I wanted to get published and get payed, honestly. And that was two years ago!

I think the only reason they still had one was to be able to receive messages from Botswana and... Canada. :rofl:

Oh sure, you can still buy fax machines, but who does? An Internet connection is way cheaper and it doesn't use paper and ink to transmit data. I'm surprised to hear that comment from an American, really. Aren't you the guys that went to the moon and stuff? Damn, fax machines are like from the Middle Ages.

Phew. I guess Belgium isn't such a bad place to be living in after all. Guess we're too civilized and developed for our own good... :roll:

Telegrams, then? Who uses telegrams nowadays?
 
That was two years ago? Wow.

I know we aren't behind anything here, but fax machines exist everywhere. Hell, I know places that aren't even up to the fax machine level yet, and still use the telephone for international transactions.
 
With email these days fax machines are practicly useless, you can just email the documents you need to get from one place to another.
 
Oh yeah, you're going to love this Blade, my grandmother has this really old sewing machine, the kind that works manually, er you make it run by balancing this big pedal forth and back. Look ma, no electricity involved!
 
c0ldst33ltrs4u said:
Oh yeah, you're going to love this Blade, my grandmother has this really old sewing machine, the kind that works manually, er you make it run by balancing this big pedal forth and back. Look ma, no electricity involved!
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Hey, my grandma in Chiapas, Mexico, has a similar "singer" pedal-powered sewing machine :D
 
I thought fax machines are still pretty common everywhere- a lot of companies still want you to fax your resume or purchase orders to them. Also, if you have documents that require signatures, some people want you to fax a copy first.
 
Hey, my grandma in Chiapas, Mexico, has a similar "singer" pedal-powered sewing machine
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You're kidding me! My grandma's sewing machine is a singer too! Could this mean we are long lost brothers?
Now seriously, are the side legs or whatever made of iron, withs a sort of loose model and singer written on them, as well as the central bridge, or something, that keeps them together? And the actual machine should have a wooden case, and the machine can be tucked into the case and it would end up looking like a weird table?
Oh, and if I am not making much sense it's not my fault, it's 5:50 AM in this part of the world so I am rather confuse and my vision is rather fuzzy :roll: .
 
Heh, it's 5:08 here and a quarter bottle of vodka gets on one's central nervous system.

As far as I can remember, the whole thing is made out of iron, with "singer" written on the side legs. Not sure about the "place" where the whole sewing in going on, though. And no, the sewing machine stands proudly in its sewing room, it doesn't shove inside a box to look like a table ;)

All grandmas worldwide have indestructible iron cast singer sewing machines+5, transmitted from grandma to grandma, enduring the worst environments to sewing machines.

Even Vault-Tec can't beat granny's sewing machine.
 
Grandmothers and Singer sewing machines?

You guys are talking about antiques now. :lol:

Oh, and it's 5:23 where I am. No booze for me. I kind of cherish my insomnia lately. :tired:

You know what else has almost disappeared in Belgium? The house sparrow. That's not a thing, of course, it's a bird, but stuff like that just scares the living daylights out of me. I mean: house sparrows, wtf? I remember there were plenty of them when I was a kid.
 
Well I have a monster headache to boot. And the sewing machine doesn't fold into a box, it has the top side made out of wood, and just the actual mechanism could be folded in the ... aw wtf, who cares anyway? Especially this early in the morning!
 
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