Flashback today not to an event commemorated on film but to a tired old gadget, long in the tooth and ready to be retired … but not if Basil has his way.
In fits and starts, he continues to clear out files and the desk drawers. As though part of an archaeological dig, slowly but surely, we can make out the top of the desk.
In the process, however, new piles of crap have cropped up in fresh spots while he decides what he’s doing with that stuff. Other things are being stashed in odd spots.
Take this adding machine. Please.
What a dinosaur.
I found it on a shelf of a closet that is slated to get the full clean-out treatment after the desk (which in my mind means, don’t toss more stuff in there!!).
It’s been far too long since I’ve heard the click and whir of this machine. Its ivory facade is nearly brown now and the roll of paper curled inside is yellow and brittle with age. Picking it up, I was struck by how heavy the darn thing is.
I suggested perhaps this should be given away or tossed out altogether.
“When was the last time you used it?” I asked.
“It’s a good machine. That’s a great machine,” Basil countered, shades of his Depression-era parents shining through.
And then this chestnut: “Maybe Catherine will want to take it to college.”
Right. ‘Cause that’s what all the cool college freshmen will have in their dorm rooms.
Pushing on a Rope 
Think I’ll save it and give it to her as a wedding gift! So unique, don’cha think? 📠
Posted by murphyslaw | May 9, 2014, 12:35 pmLol!
Posted by Terri S. Vanech | May 9, 2014, 1:17 pmHey! If Bill deep sixes it, you can have dad’s! Just in case you’re sorry you made Bill get rid of it! 😂
Posted by murphyslaw | May 9, 2014, 9:33 amMaybe Catherine will want to take Dad’s to college…
Posted by Terri S. Vanech | May 9, 2014, 9:35 amIn our house, it’s books and software stuff. I found a box of software in the attic about 15 years ago. BIG box, so full I couldn’t move it. As I looked through the stuff on the top, I found it was all software on floppies. Hmm. I went downstairs and asked Bill why he was saving it, and was told that it some of it was to teach kids programming and when we have grandkids, it’ll come in handy. So I asked if any of it would run on any machine that we’d owned in the last 5 years — or any machine we might own in the next 20. Well, no…. So I sat in the attic and threw bits down to him, and it finally was trashed. He won’t throw out manuals either. Doesn’t use them, but he might.
Posted by Karen Waggoner | May 9, 2014, 8:00 amLol!
Posted by Terri S. Vanech | May 9, 2014, 8:10 amOh, good, it’s going to Pris’s house so I can feel free to make a comment. I hesitate to say that I actually miss having an adding machine. There’s something about having a piece of paper with the numbers on it to check when you don’t quite trust the answer, that reassures me. I always add something on the calculator at least twice.
Posted by Karen Waggoner | May 9, 2014, 7:55 amKaren, say the word and I can have Basil turn the car around!
Posted by Terri S. Vanech | May 9, 2014, 7:56 amMy WH has a man cave filled with old relics like that. Only he scours yard sales and brings them home deliberately. LOL Oh, and don’t tell Basil where we live, please. ❤
Posted by Priscilla Stone Sharp | May 9, 2014, 7:29 amPris: I’m putting him in the car with the adding machine and several other things, and pointing him in your direction right now!!
Posted by Terri S. Vanech | May 9, 2014, 7:31 am