I remember hearing about that too - the total delight when people got TVs for the first time and took their old upright pianos in the street and smash them up with a sledge hammer. I guess it felt like a freedom of sorts - no more enforced sing songs. The habit of everybody knowing how to played died so fast.
I still have a small Hoe that was my grandads. My mom reckons he bought it in the 1950's. I use it to weed the veg trug as the shaft snapped years ago leaving a convenient small handle! I wonder if it makes him smile, wherever he is!
Gardening. The cause of, and solution to, all of my problems.
I was given my set of hand tools as a wedding present in 1983. They are still the only ones I use. They are aluminium, all in one piece (cast I think) and ergonomically designed. I doubt if I even knew what that meant in 1983 (although the point was made at the time). They are almost identical to these except I didn't get a two pronged fork (and the skinny spoon is all worn down one side ) @Hostafan1 your sewing machine is a picture. A thing of beauty indeed.
I was given my set of hand tools as a wedding present in 1983. They are still the only ones I use. They are aluminium, all in one piece (cast I think) and ergonomically designed. I doubt if I even knew what that meant in 1983 (although the point was made at the time). They are almost identical to these except I didn't get a two pronged fork (and the skinny spoon is all worn down one side ) @Hostafan1 your sewing machine is a picture. A thing of beauty indeed.
Aw thanks @plant pauper I have memories as a very small child threading the needle for my Mother who could never manage it and then just watching, transfixed , as she used it. ( not very often it has to be said, ) I was hooked.
I was lucky enough to have access to a treadle machine in Primary School and a fancy electric one at home. My mum got a second hand Singer in a heavy wooden case when she got married. It has/had (she'd better still have it somewhere) a knee lever thing rather than a foot pedal and it weighed about half a hundredweight!
The only thing mine doesn't have is a little hand winder which I've seen attached to the hand wheel on other machines. My Mother told me they never had one. From what she told me, she'd never replaced the needle in the 50 odd years since she started using it and she died in 1992 so even the needle is heading towards "antique" status.
I too picked a bowl up from a charity stall @josusa47 , so have a smaller one to go with Grandma's, in the shops have seen modern copy for over £45 for a mixing bowl! Sheesh.🙄
My mum had a treadle Singer just like yours, Hosta, when I was little. She never used it, I don't know where it came from. It had a cloth over it and was used as a sort of sideboard in their bedroom. I was fascinated by it and used to climb under the tablecloth, sit on the treadle and rock back and forth - which wasn't easy as obviously there was quite a mechanism to offer resistance! I loved the intricacy of the metalwork, but I have a horrible feeling it went to the dump...
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
My mum had a treadle Singer just like yours, Hosta, when I was little. She never used it, I don't know where it came from. It had a cloth over it and was used as a sort of sideboard in their bedroom. I was fascinated by it and used to climb under the tablecloth, sit on the treadle and rock back and forth - which wasn't easy as obviously there was quite a mechanism to offer resistance! I loved the intricacy of the metalwork, but I have a horrible feeling it went to the dump...
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@Hostafan1 your sewing machine is a picture. A thing of beauty indeed.
@plant pauper
I have memories as a very small child threading the needle for my Mother who could never manage it and then just watching, transfixed , as she used it. ( not very often it has to be said, ) I was hooked.
From what she told me, she'd never replaced the needle in the 50 odd years since she started using it and she died in 1992 so even the needle is heading towards "antique" status.