Poll | 10/28/2008 12:00 am

What traditional technology do you still use?

Read more about: Communication, Science, Technology, Tradition

93 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Who’s gonna pay for these broken ribs and the gut I just busted?! YOU? *heads to MySpace to share video* THANKS!

By Kryssi K on 10/28/2008 11:40 pm

e-mail alert

VHS! I still use my VCR as much as my DVD player. But I also use fax machines at work and such…

By Kryssi K on 10/28/2008 12:31 am

e-mail alert

Hey, there needs to be a choice for all of the above…

By Elizabeth Bennett on 10/28/2008 1:05 am

e-mail alert

We still wash dishes by hand. We had a dishwasher in our house 30+ yrs ago when my parents bought it but my mother didn’t believe they got the dishes clean. It went unused until I moved back home 19 yrs ago. I thought, ‘what the hell, I’ll use it.’ Surprise! All the gaskets had rotted and I flooded the kitchen. After that my dad removed all the functioning parts and put in a shelf. It now continues, as it always had, to be our goodie cabinet. It is full of cookies, p-chips, t-chips, crackers, you name it…junk food and extra boxes of different size plastic ziplock baggies, waxpaper and plastic wrap. Everyone who comes to our house soon finds out that we don’t use the dishwasher to store dirty dishes until a full load. Instead, it is a dark hole for carbs and calories, and things to wrap them up in. We still wash our dishes by hand, but I must confess we also reuse our coated paper plates so we don’t have to wash dishes at all. We just wipe off our paper plates and save them for another day. I think living with my mother for all these years has helped me cross the bridge of sane over to insane. Some day I will write about the plastic bag drawer and the twist tie drawer. My mom was a child of the The Great Depression…she saves everything. Maybe we should all start paying more attention to those frugalities. I bet I’m not the only one who was sent to school with their lunch in the plastic Wonder Bread bag! CA

By C A Rose on 10/28/2008 1:20 am

e-mail alert

C A, my husband too comes from that time, hope we aren’t going there again, and he saves plastics bags, ties and almost everything. I sometimes have to put things in the recycle bin when it is out at the curb or our house would overflow. But a lot of his saving is useful. He also washes dishes by hand even though we do have a working dishwasher but I have had to stop him because he left the water running the whole time and it was NOT a savings. Somethings had changed since he was young and water was more plentiful and cheap.

By Sandbee (FB) 54 on 10/28/2008 5:29 am

e-mail alert

Sandbee , when my husband was still well, he was a pack rat, his studio is full of boxes and I have not had the heart to go and sort it all. I did find a box with the title : “Strings to short to save”. The box is full. I am not kidding!

By Jeannot Kensinger on 10/28/2008 7:55 am

e-mail alert

Jeannot: “Strings Too Short to Save” is a Zen paradox. Donald Hall’s memoir has that title.

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 10/28/2008 8:13 am

e-mail alert

I don’t think Bob knew that. I know I did n’t. But the box is still up there in his studio , I think it is going to stay in the family too. Thanks for the info, Phyllis, I will have to go and check out the memoir.

By Jeannot Kensinger on 10/28/2008 8:20 am

e-mail alert

CA, I, too, do dishes by hand. To me, washing is therapeutic, giving time to reflect on the day just past, and give thanks for the food eaten from these plates and cookware. Also, our Canadian friends can correct me, but I believe it is a health law up there, that dishes washed in a food establishment must be allowed to let dry naturally (air). I saw this first hand on a trip to The Pas in Northern Manitoba one summer, at least. I can sure understand that, when some kitchen towels are SOOOOO filthy, having been used for not only hands, but also for swiping something off the floor or a cabinet, and then (mindlessly) used to wipe a plate or glass! I now gratefully wash dishes after each meal (and some of these are miniscule-the meals!) and allow the dishes and utensils to dry on the dish drainer alongside my sink. It’s just what I love having the freedom to do. Ah, yes, I have the use of a dishwasher, but seldom use it.

By J Boylynn on 10/28/2008 10:10 am

e-mail alert

One time when my friend Patti Lou offered to help Mom with the dish drying after one of those long “discuss everything in the universe — including the quarks” Sunday dinners at our house, Mom told her, “Oh, Patti, for Heaven sake! Leave them to dry. That’s the only thing dishes will ever do for themselves!”

By Mugsy Peabody on 10/28/2008 3:42 pm

e-mail alert

Because of the twins, everyone in the family has dug in their closets and found all the Disney tapes - then I had to scramble to find a VCR. It has been wonderful watching all the classics - and once people found out that I had a VCR they have donated old cartoons they had for their kids. I must have a collection of atleast 50. The boys are lucky because if I had to buy these in DVD they would probably only have two or three. (Have to admit rewinding is a bitch now LOL)

By Maggi D on 10/28/2008 2:15 am

e-mail alert

Maggie, Where have you been…….missed seeing you.

By Dona Howlett on 10/28/2008 3:36 am

e-mail alert

Dona - I still check in almost every night - the discussions were starting to depress me - waaay to much hatred spewing back and forth, even slopping over into the fun articles. Can’t wait for this election to be over so we can TRY and regain some of our sanity. I have noticed that you have been helding your own LMAO! You must have thicker skin than I do :) I’ve just been skipping around the articles reading some of the fun answers.

By Maggi D on 10/28/2008 11:26 pm

e-mail alert

Maggie, You and I have had differences of opinion but we’ve always been respectful. I like that about you. Yes, I too will be glad when this election is over. The Negative energy on this Site has been overwhelming.

By Dona Howlett on 10/29/2008 12:03 am

e-mail alert

Dona - guess we were raised by people that believe diversity was a wonderful thing - not a reason to hate or disrespect someone with different ideas. I learn more from people that have a different opinion than I do from people that agree with me. Anyway - enough said. Still love the site and most of the responses to the articles. Like questions like this one that make you stop and think about your life and how you do things. Find out we are all more alike than we would probably like to admit :)

By Maggi D on 10/29/2008 11:28 pm