Historical practices

[TC Chris]

In Bill's Sylvania post under "Other Consoles," the link leads to a page with a "company history" link. That tells us that Sylvania's earliest predecessor was a company formed in 1901 to renew burned out light bulbs. Think about that: it seemed financially feasible in 1901 to replace the filament and renew the vacuum in a light bulb. OK, within my lifetime, people used recapped tires. (Chris raises his hand). In those days, people had their TVs and radios fixed when they stopped working. There was once an active picture-tube rebuilding industry. Now we throw away light bulbs, old tires, and electronic devices that cease working. My mother raised 4 children on cloth diapers. Yes, you washed out the debris and re-used them. Later when all children were potty trained they made wonderful work rags, and got washed after that use too.

When my Dad was in college (late '30s), he and his brother shipped their laundry home, 250 miles away, and then it was sent back to them. Me, I waited until each and every usable bit of clothing was used and re-used until too dirty and smelly, and then hiked down to the laundromat, hoping I had enough quarters. Of course, in Dad's day there were no automatic washers and no dryers, and no laundromats for that matter. But surely there were people who took in laundry in Ann Arbor. I figure it must have been cheaper to send the stuff home on the train than to pay Ann Arbor prices, even in the '30s.

And I haven't even mentioned returnable milk, beer, and pop (soda, easterners; dope, southerners) bottles.

Chris Campbell