Calling all older folks

I'm loving this thread but can we backtrack a second to the CONCEPT of the knife sharpening truck? Because that's the most horrifying thing imaginable. Gather round children, that blaring Heavy Metal music means it's time for the knife truck. Little Billy thought it was an ice cream truck once and he was never seen or heard from again.

If anybody ever told me that they sharpened knives out of a truck... Goddamn y'all will trust anything. No wonder there used to be so many unsolved murders.

"Well now, last I saw him, he was walking up to the knife truck."

The guy in the truck also sharpened scissors, hedge clippers, axes, sickles and lawn mower blades (from the unmotorized reel mowers). I don't see a problem with it.
BTW, there was no heavy metal music. The sharpening guy had a big bell with a pull cord and had a signature ring. You knew he was around right away when you heard it. Sometimes you had to run with scissors to catch him.
 
We still have a local knife sharpener. He works from a shed in his garden and will sharpen garden tools such as shears, secateurs, lawn mower blades (cylindrical and rotary) as well as kitchen knives and diy tools such as saws.
 
In the UK we had much smaller ones, many hand-cranked because we might not have power at the time of an air raid. We didn't have enough gas to run petrol-powered ones.

When I was looking for the earlier pictures, I also found this one that gave me a good chuckle.

https://www.thesirenboard.com/images/corbis4.jpg

That would have been about as effective as hiding under the little wooden desk. I could hear it start up and idle from a 1/4 mile away. You did NOT want to be standing next to one.
 
Wait why did a cowpoke have an A-bomb? I might have fundamentally misunderstood the Lone Ranger.

I thought it was on some RedDead shit.

No, it was just a gimmick to capitalize on current events, sell stuff, advertise the radio program, etc. As I recall, one episode (circa 1948) centered around some bad guys trying to swindle an old west mine out of its owner, and the Lone Ranger describing how the rocks inside sparkled and might someday prove valuable (implying uranium)...yeah lame, but it sold air time.
 
No, it was just a gimmick to capitalize on current events, sell stuff, advertise the radio program, etc. As I recall, one episode (circa 1948) centered around some bad guys trying to swindle an old west mine out of its owner, and the Lone Ranger describing how the rocks inside sparkled and might someday prove valuable (implying uranium)...yeah lame, but it sold air time.

Not... not a great thing to work around day in and day out.
 
An awful lot of people used to wear Radium on their wrists.
 
Central Cashier and Cash Carrying System

I remember when larger stores used to have a cashier's office with a system of transferring bills and cash either by hand-operated levers or pneumatic tube.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/86/30/b7/8630b7e675a93b4e0dd7d2d10640de50.jpg

The sales assistant would write the invoice by hand and total it. You handed over a banknote which was put in the container with the invoice and shuttled off to the central cashier who would receipt the invoice and return it with the change. It was slow, long-winded and a pain but meant only one person in a sealed office handled bulk cash.
 
Yeah, I remember the vacuum tube systems used for various reasons.
 
I also remember that is was common to have clothes fitted and altered. Not the rare exception it is today.

Pants were displayed by waist size but the leg length was unfinished. You tried them on, the attendant marked the length and adjusted the waist. 'Come back in a week to pick them up'.
 
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^^ I still have most of mine.


Including a French Curves set.
 
BC, before CAD. took mechanical drawing in high school.

I look at a lot of plans and the ones that are the best laid out in CAD are from people who took Mechanical Drawing and performed manual drafting at one time.

In Anchorage, all boys took a 1/4 class in Mechanical Drawing in 7th grade when I was a kid. All boys also took a 1/4 class in wood shop where you learned to use hand tools.
 
Taxis in London:

During the late 1940s and early 1950s most London Black Cabs were still 1930s survivors like this:

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/uploads/cars/austin/2290205.jpg

The modern ones were:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7009/6714191991_65b0b4a077_b.jpg

You can see part of an older one behind the central lamppost.

In the early 1950s buses like this were still in use in Gibraltar. You had to climb up into them:

https://www.igg.org.uk/rail/00-app1/bus1920a.jpg

The bus blind says “Hammersmith BDY”, followed by locations along the route.

I have no idea what “BDY” means but would guess something like “via”.

Anyone know?
 
The bus blind says “Hammersmith BDY”, followed by locations along the route.

I have no idea what “BDY” means but would guess something like “via”.

Anyone know?
possibly short for Broadway?
 
The bus blind says “Hammersmith BDY”, followed by locations along the route.

I have no idea what “BDY” means but would guess something like “via”.

Anyone know?

Hammersmith Broadway, Kings Cross and Kensington:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Buses_route_73

That particular bus would terminate at Hammersmith Broadway - the destination in larger type.

Most London Bus route numbers have been the same for nearly 100 years. The one most tourists use is number 15 which runs between the Tower of London and Trafalgar Square. There is also a Heritage Route 15 which uses old Routemaster buses on that route at weekends.
 
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I look at a lot of plans and the ones that are the best laid out in CAD are from people who took Mechanical Drawing and performed manual drafting at one time.

In Anchorage, all boys took a 1/4 class in Mechanical Drawing in 7th grade when I was a kid. All boys also took a 1/4 class in wood shop where you learned to use hand tools.

Same.

Also a 1/4 electronics and 1/4 metalworking
 
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