WUNDERKAMMER III
OK, I’m having a great time
digging in corners and finding stuff with a history.
Of course I don’t enjoy the
cleaning part, but cleaning as a part of preparing to photograph makes the
necessary chore less painful. Here’s another batch of “wonders”.
I can’t even guess what some of
these remotes came from.
FOUR of them are
currently active, one (the left-most white one) is still sealed in plastic, and
the others belong to long-gone electronics. Why do I keep them?
They make neat
paperweights.
In the very early ‘60s I was working for the Michigan State Highway Department (MSHD) in the eastern part of Lower Michigan. Passing through a small town one day I saw this typewriter in a storefront window and it called to me. I checked it out and ended up buying it for $5. A family friend reconditioned typewriters and he performed his magic on this one. It was out of my sight for a few years – Army and Bangkok assignment – but is now a prized element of my Wunderkammer. It is an L. C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter Co. No. 8.
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Measuring 4 ½” diameter, more
than 5/8” thick, and weighing 13 oz., this is a hefty chunk of magnifying glass.
I can’t tell you where it
originated, but I don’t recall a period of my life when I didn’t have it. As a youngster, I was intrigued by its heft and
perfection. As a child, I learned the value of magnification,
both to see small things better and to fry insects and bits of paper and wood. As a budding scientist, I found it useful when I
did not have access to a microscope.
And now, the nostalgia makes it
irreplaceable. |
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These items date back to the
Papa days when JR and Stuart were very young and called me that.
As they grew, it became Pa.
As they chilled it became Po. And now that they are both middle-aged, I am
Pono. You will find Papa on the white rock, the clock, and the letter-opener. JR still maintains the clock when he visits. |
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Once I left home-ownership, I
realized that my need for tools diminished considerably.
I took a bunch of screws out of
my toolbox and sowed them in the green pot, fed them with WD-40, and was
rewarded with an array of assorted screwdrivers.
I sowed nuts and bolts in the
yellow pot but no wrenches or pliers ever appeared.
On my daily walks I pass a
number of trees that produce the seed pods seen in the reddish pot.
The thing that caught my
attention was that the slots where seeds had been were spaced interestingly.
Example: III I IIII IIII. On close examination, I found one with the last
four digits of my Social Security number, so I gathered a bunch of them to
protect my privacy.
The items in the plastic cup
followed me home from a hospital stay. I can’t believe that someone actually makes and
sells these items of torture, but here is the proof.
When you wake from the
anesthesia after an operation and beg for water, nurses are trained to put four
drops on one of these spongecicles and present it to you with a smile.
We bought a pair of Celadon
lamps with Thai silk shades when we lived in Bangkok.
Although the shades are aging,
the grace and beauty of the lamps remain.
Remember the dial phone.
This phone was issued to us in
1971 as a rental.
Sometime later the phone
companies allowed us to purchase the phone and stop the monthly rental charge. We bought it and kept it for years. When I first moved to Maui, I placed this phone
in my bedroom and used it as a backup well into the 2000’s. Now it is a treasured antique while still
sporting the same number as assigned to us in 1971.
The Polaroid Land camera – need I say more?
The Bell & Howell Filmo
Companion 8mm movie camera dates back to about 1950.
I have films from that era that
are priceless.
At one point I took it
in to D. P. Hinchey who owned the jewelry store in Perry and hocked it for
enough money to pay for college enrollment.
I didn’t make it through
that term for a number of reasons, but eventually I redeemed the camera and it
is a respected (though unused) element of my possessions.
Recognize these two beauties?
Well used bucksaws from the
times when I trimmed trees and cut up branches for the fireplace.
They are aged, but still
functional.
Old timers in the computer
business will remember when they were first able to put 100MB on a single disk
(whew!).
I have a disk labeled 2010
representing the last time I backed up a few files on that drive!
Do you suppose I’m the last
person on earth to actually use a ZIP drive?
AFTERWORD
Several readers have wondered
where I keep all of these artifacts, since I only have a one-bedroom condo.
The answer is that I have five
bookcases, a four-drawer file cabinet, three closets, two desks, one chest of
drawers, a night stand, two Army foot lockers, a 10-drawer card file and more boxes than
you can shake a stick at.
The kitchen,
little hallway, and both bathrooms have drawers and cabinets, the closets have
shelves, and the washer/dryer area off the lanai holds a few things.
Boxes are “neatly” stored here
and there and I’ve gotten very creative at tucking things away or displaying
them.
You have seen some of these
storage devices in pictures and you will see more of them in the future.
The Wunderkammer series will be
printed out and added to my safe deposit box as an inventory of personal
household goods.
Of course I will not
trouble you with numbers of forks, spoons, sheets, pillow cases, and other
mundane stuff – I will have to add that kind of detail before I put the list
away.