Monday, May 23, 2016

Memory Monday: Modern Conveniences of the Time

My maternal great-grandmother
My great-grandmother was born in Russia and came to America as part of the great Mennonite migration.  She married in 1889 while living in Kansas. I’m not she ever read the book 1000 Shorter Ways Around the House: A Handbook of the Horne, The Building, the Furnishing and the Work Therein by Mae Savell Croy, published in 1916. I’m not even sure she could read English. I know her daughter (my grandmother) could. But even if my great-grandmother couldn’t read about these modern conveniences, she might have seen them in the local mercantile.
As you read through these new-fangled items, what do you think about them? Would you like to use them? Would they help you and save time in your day?
For keeping food warm a hot water platter is most satisfactory as the lower vessel can be filled with hot water and a plate set on this any length of time without injury to the china. They are very cheap in price.
A combination mayonnaise mixer, egg beater, and churn comes in glass, enabling one to see just when the ingredients are properly mixed. They are in various sizes and at different prices.
An egg fryer made of aluminum and shaped so that the sections containing the eggs do not rest directly upon the stove is made with a long handle, and each egg being in a separate compartment is cooked in nicely rounded shape.
An excellent dish-washer is a string-mop with a rectangular brush set in one side. The tool is small enough to allow the mop to be used for washing cups and glasses, while any material that has a tendency to stick can be loosened by means of the brush. Dishes can be washed rapidly by it without a dish pan and with merely a fine stream of hot water from the faucet. Only silver and glassware require drying.
An inexpensive silver-clean-pan renders the task of cleaning silver an easy one. The process of cleaning is merely to put a little salt and soda in hot water and pour into the pan and let the silver soak in the solution for half an hour. If it is then washed with soapy water no tarnish will remain.
A gas-saver consists merely of a piece of sheet metal lined with asbestos. When placed over a gas-flame, three irons can be more evenly heated than over the burner alone and in less time. Four irons can be heated and kept going on ironing day.
I think these items should stay in the books as curiosities of a bygone era. Give me a microwave, a dishwasher, stainless steel flatware, and NO asbestos, thank you very much.
What are your thoughts on these modern conveniences?

2 comments:

  1. I'm sure glad we don't have conveniences like those. It would be nice to be able to go back in time to visit our ancestors briefly and experience some of their "new" gadgets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with you--especially the "briefly" part.

      Delete