The Busy Signal....forgotten things from recent past...

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
a reply to: Anyafaj

No military but most people I know my age do stand when they hear the national anthem although I'd laugh at them if they took it to the extreme and put their hand over their heart as well. Just too nerdy.

I'll admit, I'm a nerd. Then again, I'm a science geek as well. LOL For me, I think some of it is habit.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

The space beneath the stairs is very narrow. Now I'm gonna look at the floor for scars. We put walls up down there to help keep the stair area warmer but if something was at the bottom if the stairs there might be some clue left behind.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe



Ha! I had a similar childhood....they still have the wall of Britannica, wall of National Geographic, and a massive leather bound dictionary on a stand in his office. If we ever asked about how to spell a word or what something meant, he would always tell us to go to the office, find the word, memorize the definition and how to spell it, then come back and tell him.

Yup, your dad and mine must have been friends! Mine would make me find the definition, write the word and the definition and write at least ten different sentences using that word, then I must use that word ten different times that day. Mean old coot! My favorite word to this day, Mooncalf! Go ahead and look it up, I'll wait.

(We had the Nat. Geo's as well. I admit I'm a documentary junkie on Netflix thanks to that old coot!)

a reply to: Anyafaj

Don't worry I won't laugh...




To your face anyway lol

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
a reply to: Anyafaj

Don't worry I won't laugh...




To your face anyway lol

You're much too kind, my darling. LOL

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
a reply to: Vasa Croe

The space beneath the stairs is very narrow. Now I'm gonna look at the floor for scars. We put walls up down there to help keep the stair area warmer but if something was at the bottom if the stairs there might be some clue left behind.

The chains may have been connected to a dial on the wall at some point as well......would have had a control dial similar to this.....



or



or



Similar to how a thermostat dial was, but much more old school!

originally posted by: Anyafaj

originally posted by: Vasa Croe



Ha! I had a similar childhood....they still have the wall of Britannica, wall of National Geographic, and a massive leather bound dictionary on a stand in his office. If we ever asked about how to spell a word or what something meant, he would always tell us to go to the office, find the word, memorize the definition and how to spell it, then come back and tell him.

Yup, your dad and mine must have been friends! Mine would make me find the definition, write the word and the definition and write at least ten different sentences using that word, then I must use that word ten different times that day. Mean old coot! My favorite word to this day, Mooncalf! Go ahead and look it up, I'll wait.

(We had the Nat. Geo's as well. I admit I'm a documentary junkie on Netflix thanks to that old coot!)

Ha....nice word!

And yeah....huge docu fan here as well....I could spend days watching them.

Card catalogs at the library! The Dewy Decimal system. Polaroid cameras were cool. Also, CB radios. When I was a kid most cars had one. Speaking of cars, ashtrays. I miss those.

There are not so many pay phone boxes in the UK now, but still a few within a couple of minutes walk. I haven't used one for years though.
I remember knowing the numbers of lots of phone boxes in my area as a kid. If I needed to contact a mate after school then you would arrange to be at certain boxes at certain times to call them. Often answered by strangers lol.

Oh, and this is not a 'thing' but in pre-mobile phone days people were much more accepting of strangers on a night out.
Losing your mates while drinking at packed pubs and bars was a regular event, and with no way of contacting each other it was a case of either go searching or bump into someone else who had lost their mates.
I had some amazing nights in the early 90's hooking up with random groups and enjoying the new found drinking partners.

These days if you said you'd lost your group then you would be faced with a look as if to say weirdo, why don't you call them.
I think mobiles have totally killed that random community interaction thing from back then, hell I even see groups of 'friends' out together now and everyone is just looking at their own screens.

originally posted by: grainofsand

I think mobiles have totally killed that random community interaction thing from back then, hell I even see groups of 'friends' out together now and everyone is just looking at their own screens.

I think this is one of the most annoying things about the culture nowadays. Nobody interacts when they are out anymore. Just glad I am raising my kids to want to play outside rather than sit and watch/play TV/games all the time.

a reply to: Anyafaj

But of course.
( and that's funnier if you read it with a French accent )

a reply to: Vasa Croe
When I was a kid, my family went away to Charlotte, NC to visit my Aunt during the winter. My grandfather took care of feeding our coal furnace while we were away form home.
He didn't pay attention and had a piece of clinker stuck in the draft door when he left. when we got home, all of the candles in the house were melted.
Your pics of draft regulators reminded me of that.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Not either of those things. It's a metal disc about three inches wide and says closed /open/ lock with a thin black chain that looks like a bicycle chain only much thinner. It's just hanging there at the top of the stairs. The chain is stuck now. It's about six feet long loop.
There not enough light in the stairwell go get a picture.
Too much junk stored under the stairs to see any defects in the concrete .

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
a reply to: Vasa Croe

Not either of those things. It's a metal disc about three inches wide and says closed /open/ lock with a thin black chain that looks like a bicycle chain only much thinner. It's just hanging there at the top of the stairs. The chain is stuck now. It's about six feet long loop.
There not enough light in the stairwell go get a picture.
Too much junk stored under the stairs to see any defects in the concrete .

Yeah....I would bet money it is an old wood/coal furnace control. They put them in, typically, directly above where the furnace was and you could control the furnace from the room above, for convenience, via the chain. It would rotate the damper to open or closed or locked it sounds like.

Usually in houses built in the early 1900's I believe, from what I have read.

Pretty cool!

Does it look like the chain in the second pic I posted? There is a "catch" cog under that black disc that is likely rusted up so the chain won't move anymore. If you can take the disc off you will see the pulley with cog underneath where the chain links fit each tooth of the cog, allowing you to use/rotate the dial to set the furnace with.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Encyclopedias must have been one of the purchases that said you were being a good parent. My folks bought a set too and the update yearbooks annually after that. Them and a collection of classic novels like Moby Dick, a children's garden of verses, Alice through the looking glass and in wonderland, the hounds of the baskervilles etc. I think there were about twenty books in the collection.

Then...........Go on holiday,get the film out of the box,load it into the back of the camera in partial darkness,pull the film wind on lever a couple of times to get it ready to take the first photo,take photos,travel home,put the film into a Kodak envelope,go to the post box,wait two weeks,open the little plastic box they sent the slides back in,get the projector and screen out,put the slides into the magazine making sure they are all upside down and round the wrong way,draw the curtains,switch the lights off and keep on pulling a handle in and out of the side of the projector.Oh and while on holiday keep an eye on how many photos you had taken as they were only ever a maximum of 36 on a roll of film and you only had four rolls of film with you.

Today.......Take one memory card with you,switch camera on,take 4000 photos,see them all 1 second later,delete 3950 of them,view photos on your tablet every night in the hotel room.Upload the photos of the synchronised jumping in the air to Facebook.

Kodak had the higher quality looking cardboard slide mounts I seem to remember,while was it Fuji who used the horrid plastic ones that you could open up to take the transparency out?

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
a reply to: Vasa Croe

Encyclopedias must have been one of the purchases that said you were being a good parent. My folks bought a set too and the update yearbooks annually after that. Them and a collection of classic novels like Moby Dick, a children's garden of verses, Alice through the looking glass and in wonderland, the hounds of the baskervilles etc. I think there were about twenty books in the collection.

Yep....I think I had all the Hardy Boys books passed down to me as well.....read those all the time, some more than once. I always loved series books!

a reply to: Vasa Croe

The house was built in 1914 so it's the right age. Yes the chain is exactly like the second picture and the disc is similar to the third photo. Where are you finding these? Oh and the chain is stuck between the wall and the step. It's jamed. The stairs have probably shifted since they were built plus this old house did a little jig when we had that earthquake here a few years back. It rose up went back down then shook from side to side. Weeeeee! ! !

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
a reply to: Vasa Croe

The house was built in 1914 so it's the right age. Yes the chain is exactly like the second picture and the disc is similar to the third photo. Where are you finding these?

My grandmother had one like it in her house. I used to play with it as a kid since theirs was not hooked up but still rotated and remember talking to my grandfather about it and what it was for.

I found the pics by searching "wood furnace chain damper control" on Google. I believe theirs was more basic like the one you are describing, but couldn't tell you exactly.

One thing that saddens me is the death of the jukebox. They're disappearing and becoming relegated to the man caves of hipsters and museums. I remember an old cafe where I grew up that had a jukebox, we'd order a plate of chili fries, fire up "Mary Jane's Last Dance", and play pool until we ran out of quarters.

Ahhnnn, I'm feeling nostalgic now.