Pneumatic Cashier

[patyrn]

I don't recall having a "tube tester" in Howard.  We would call Jr. Perkins (GE products) or Dennis Crisp (Zenith products) and they made house calls.

[larryJ]

After I left the Army in 1968, I decided to take a course in electronics with the help of the G.I. Bill.  I learned enough that I could repair TVs, radios, etc. before the company that sent lessons and materials went out of business.  I never pursued a career in this field.  However, in those days, all types of electronic equipment stores (one being Radio Shack) had "tube testers" and I used them a lot.  Not too long after I learned all of this valuable information, the electronics world changed drastically by not using tubes and more transistors.  Oh, I could repair those also, but things were moving too fast for my tiny brain.  Still, to this day though, I can determine what is wrong with something.  As mentioned though, sometimes it is just easier (and sometimes cheaper) to buy a new one.  I still have my soldering iron, too! 

Larryj

[Wilma]

I don't know if I have mentioned this, but my brother was a professional tube tester, self-taught through a correspondence course.  Right out of high school he went to work for Beech Aircraft.  While working there he took this correspondence course and as soon as he could survive on what he could make repairing radios, he set up business.  Through the years he took the courses to enable him to move on to TVs, but he really preferred the old fashioned tubes.  He has been retired now for several years but still does work for his old, as in age, customers (like me).  His preference in brands was Zenith, which I have two of now, old ones, and he can tell me over the telephone what is most likely wrong with them.  Thank goodness neither of them has completely gone out.  The oldest one turns itself off at times (the soldering iron would fix that) or I lose the cable channels (I accidentally hit the wrong button on the remote).  If either of them quit entirely, I will make do with a cheapie new one that I will most likely outlive.

[W. Gray]

There were days when a portable radio or a radio in one's room was unheard of, especially for a kid around eight years old.

My first radio was a crystal radio set for which I paid $1.98 plus two or three mills sales tax, which probably pushed the price to $1.99.

The radio consisted of about an eight inch square flat piece of quarter inch wood stock on which stood a tuning coil consisting of copper wire bound around a tube and a small rock about one-half inch, or so, in diameter, the crystal. This rock was critical to the function of the radio.

A thin flat piece of metal had one end attached to the wood plate and the other end rested on the copper wire tuning coil. I moved the metal back and forth across the copper wire to bring in a station. However, I was only able to bring in one, but it was our local country and western station and I was happy with that.

I think I also had a ground wire attached to somewhere.

There was no amplifier, but it did have a single ear phone about two inches in diameter, which I had to hold next to my ear. There was no volume control.

It would not work without an aerial, so my dad strung a length of wire from my bedroom window about 25 or thirty feet to a tree limb.

The radio had no battery and ran entirely off the energy from the sound waves received in the aerial. I think if I could have had a 100 foot wire for an aerial, I probably could have received more stations.

Times were changing fast back then and it was a couple years later that I had a portable Sivertone radio, manufactured by Zenith for Sears. It was big and weighed a ton. A couple years after that I had a very small, lightweight transistor radio with a leather carrying case that cost all of $34.95.

[patyrn]

But $34.95 was a BIG amount of money then.........................

[larryJ]

I could never afford a portable radio growing up.  One day, at a rodeo going on in town, I bought a raffle ticket for 25 cents and won a transistor radio.  It was really cool to have the radio.  One day, my middle brother came to visit from New Mexico and when he left, so did my radio.  I accused him of taking my radio to which he denied any knowledge of any radio.  But, I know-----I know he took it. 

Larryj

[W. Gray]

I was around 12 and was working a few odd hours part time for $1 an hour--pretty good as some other guys were getting only 50 cents an hour at their part time job.

My mom and I took a bus to town (five cents each) and we went to Goldman's Jewelry store on the public square. The store had the radio advertised in the local paper for $1 down and $1 a week. She co-signed for me and this was my first taste of credit. I don't have a clue as to how much the interest was, but it was probably steep.

After that, on each Tuesday, I did not take the school bus home but walked from the school to Goldman's, paid my $1, and then went to the City Cafe that had a waiting room and announced arrivals over a loud speaker. I took the 5 cent bus ride home.

The credit lady at Goldman's had alphabetized file cards with a metal frame fixed to the top of each card and it sat on the top of her desk. I think the metal frame on each card kept the cards from wearing out from her frequently flipping through them.

There were not that many names in her file, though. She would leaf through, pull my card, and annotate my $1. If someone had stolen or lost that file, I doubt if there was any other store record available that would reflect my payments. I can recall that at one time she complimented me for being timely as some of her customers were not. I was quite proud to receive such words from an adult.

[W. Gray]

When I was small, my folks had a white porcelain kerosene powered stove and oven.

It had maybe four burners and was on six tall spindly legs.

A clear glass jug sat inverted at one end filled with kerosene. That jug had a spring loaded feeder at the bottom that had to be either primed or jump started to get it to feed kerosene through a line to the burners and oven. I remember my dad messing with it many times to get the kerosene to feed.

Each burner and the oven had to be lit with a match. The oven portion was at waist level to the right of the burners.

Spare kerosene was kept in a glass jug holding about one gallon. When we ran out of kerosene we went to the local mom & pop grocery store where they had a tank in the ground. The proprietor operated a hand pump to refill the jug.

About 1948, or so, my folks installed a Robert Shaw modern range that was uptown, but we were still using an ice box.

The ice delivery man came around on a regular schedule and put a big block of ice into what would now be the freezer compartment. There was, generally, no such thing as frozen foods at that time. The ice man had a leather apron of some kind that he kept on his back. He would pick up the ice block with tongs and then lift the ice over his shoulder resting it on the leather apron. The leather kept his shirt from getting wet.

My mom had to constantly throw out water from a water collection pan at the bottom of the refrigerator.

Pretty soon we had a General Motors Frigidaire refrigerator. It was a boon but the freezer compartment had to be completely thawed out every two months or so. Grocery stores, by then, had very small frozen food sections.

The kerosene stove was much better than what my grandparents had southwest of Howard. They had a wood burning stove and oven. My grandmother also used what were really "irons" that she placed on the stove to heat up and then did her ironing. How she kept from scorching the clothing is beyond me.

As much as I can remember my grandparents right in Howard always had a modern stove and oven.

[Wilma]

How she kept from scorching the clothes?  She tested the iron on old newspaper before touching it to cloth.  My mother used flat irons off and on for a long time.  I say off and on because at times we had electricity where we lived, then we would move to where we didn't have electricity.  When we made the move to Elk County, there was no electricity.  By this time she also had a gas iron that you filled with white gas, pumped it up like a Coleman lantern and lit it.  I never did learn to use this iron.  When my husband and I moved away to a community where we had electricity, she sent her electric iron with me.

I don't remember the bottle on the coal oil stove needing to be primed.  On ours the lid was spring loaded and when you inverted it into it's holder, the spring was pushed in and the oil came out.  It could get messy if it wasn't inverted correctly and quickly.  To turn a burner off, the wick was turned down until the flame went out.   To relight, the wick was turned up and a match applied to it, much the same as a coal oil lamp.  There was no heat regulator on the oven.  You had to learn just where to set the burner height for the heat you desired.  I remember cooking on this old stove, but I never learned to regulate the oven.  Mother always made sure it was set right for baking.

[sixdogsmom]

And those old kerosene stoves smelled bad! I vaguely remember my mother using one when I was very small. I remember all the neighborhood men got together and dug the trenches, threaded and laid the pipe for natural gas. The gas company had agreed to providing the service, but wouldn't provide the lines. I guess that they checked the work after the fact before turning on the gas. Mom was thrilled to have a hot water heater and gas stove. It was some years before we had an indoor bathroom though.