Who remembers?

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

Hey, Disco Duck!

 

 

Thanks ome, have been looking for those for ages. Couldn't remember where I left them.

[Old Koreelah]

[onetrack]

It must be a Left Coast thing to call them hill trollies. All the locals know what I'm talking about.

 

https://www.facebook.com/LostPerth/posts/did-you-build-a-billy-carthill-trolley-as-a-child-image-1-boys-pulling-billy-car/2252908908113484/

 

https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/resources/aus/word/map/search/word/hill trolley/Perth Region/

 

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

 

My faith in modern kids was restored a few years back when my grandies and their cousins visited. 7 year old city boy spied our old laundry trolley laying folded down in the long grass. Within five minutes he and 5YO granddaughter were using it as a billy cart to rush down the steep sides our rocky gully and up the other sides. 

 

If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[facthunter]

Attention spans are shorter these days. Get it off the shelf and wreck it as quickly as you can. Short term  hedonism and pressure marketing. The joy and satisfaction of fixing or making something is far more than just possessing it. often just showing you had/have money . Nev

[ClintonB]

19 hours ago, old man emu said:

Too young, eh Clinton?

Born at that time, my Father was a country lad and late having kids so I grew up with country music, and sixties/seventies from mothers side. Always felt like I was a decade too late. Could have had a new Charger or Valiant as a teen instead of an old one.

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

@ClintonB - same.. and there as an 18 year gap between my mother and father.

 

I had dinner last night with an old work colleague turned friend. He has done well for himself, but he is the same old person he was when I first met him. He has a Corvette, but nothing special about his one.. a 2014 model or something. He lives in the US and resists the peer pressure to upgrade. He lives in a, by US middle class standards, modest house in Portland. He wears more utlility type clothing than anything fancy - certainly none with logos on them. He still fixes things when they break.. Still a genuine fella (or, guy, I guess). The only thing he does these days is travel business or, with frequent flyer miles (as he does a lot of miles for work), first class, as his body is somewhat broken from is military days (not combat related - but accidents at his base when he wasn't in the theatre) and he needs a but more space than cattle class gives. However, he flew here economy class.. 

 

He still enjoys the simple things and never stresses about anything.. Even when his business looked like it had hit the wall... he just plodded on in the knowledge that if it did all go belly up, apart from not travelling anywhere, he would have more or less the same simple life (maybe an old banger instead of a non-chalant Corvette). Helps his wife has the same outlook.

 

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[facthunter]

There was a time when I was going to live in the states and Oregon was the Place I  would have chosen.  Nev

[willedoo]

I don't have a photo of it, but I have an old vintage reel lawn mower in the shed. It looks like the one in the attached photo, an Atco. Mine is complete except it doesn't have the front guard.  It would be a good restoration project as it's all there apart from the guard, and the wooden roller and handle grips are in good condition. The Villiers engine would need a rebuild to get going.  I bought it about thirty years ago at an auction for $10. I had a second one in not so good condition that I gave away for as a garden ornament.

[willedoo]

Here's an interesting pdf on those old mowers:

 

https://oldlawnmowerclub.co.uk/sites/default/files/opmanual/Atco IB36H.pdf

[old man emu]

"Wash your hands, Geoffrey.

With the Solvol, Geoffrey."

   Well, now Geoffrey has greasy hands. Workers from Sydney-based disability service provider Civic Industries packaged and distributed Solvol soap bars for a decade before its partnership with WD-40 Company ended in 2020.

 

Solvol is wholly owned and manufactured by WD40. “This bar of soap has been packaged here at Industries since 2010,” says Peter Moore, GM of Civic Industries. “This partnership has allowed us to create meaningful work, whilst upskilling up to 50 supported employees, and providing significant opportunities for people living with disability. The WD-40 Company, originally the Rocket Chemical Company, is an American manufacturer of household and multi-use products. So the bottom line for a foreign corporation is more important than Aussie icons and a source of employment for people with disabilities. 

[onetrack]

Willie, you'll be able to retire on the money you get for that vintage ATCO reel mower, now! The lawnmower aficionados kill for anything like that today. Old Scott Bonnars bring 3 times the money they cost when new, today!

 

https://www.outdoorking.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/113562/atco-standard-the-brilliant-allen-millyard.html

 

 

[onetrack]

OME, a lot of people, myself included, were disappointed when the WD-40 company stopped producing Solvol bar soap 2 yrs ago - citing "production problems". Any Solvol bars left around today, are fought over.

I just watched a carton of 100 surplus Solvol bars sell for $414 at auction ($360 bid price, plus 15% buyers premium). The "entrepreneurs" on eBay are asking ridiculous amounts for their remaining stock.

 

https://auctions.com.au/auctions/2022/05/26/mining-stores-ppe-hardware-and-consumables-online-clearance-auction#catalogue-49

 

But I've found that the NZ product - Henriettas Soaps, "Farmers Pumice Soap" is a satisfactory alternative. But the supply of Farmers Pumice Soap is a bit hit-and-miss, too.

I bought a carton early last year, and it wasn't going to be in stock again until March this year. I don't know if they actually got any in on that date, but now the next expected delivery time is August this year.

 

https://www.madken.com.au/henrietta/13060-farmers-pumice-soap.html

[old man emu]

I read that the "production problems" related to the rate of wear of the machinery that makes the solid cakes. The grit erodes the machine's parts. You can still get the formula in liquid form, but I bet that you would tend to use more of that each time you washed than if you used a bar of soap. Also, the cake is wrapped in paper. The liquid is in a plastic bottle. Which one uses less resources to make and is easiest to recycle?

[onetrack]

I've got a couple of bottles of the Solvol liquid, but I use them sparingly. The liquid isn't as good as the bar, where you can rub your hands against the firm surface of the bar, to get more effective cleaning.

The only problem with Solvol is its ability to block up sink plumbing. It's terrible stuff for forming a slug of solid pumice in S-bends, and other areas where it can settle.

[willedoo]

I love old stuff. Maybe that's why I have very little usable shed space left. I once bought an old timber box from a second hand store for next to nothing in price. It was a well made stylish box, possibly factory made to hold a certain type of tool or something. I bought it for the box, but some of the contents were interesting. On opening it up, it had that smell of ancient oil combined with old timber. There were some old NOS bearings, a couple of steam gauges and odds and ends. Also a RAAF MK3 gunsight, the type found in Lancaster gun turrets. Another sight, I've never identified. It's small, in Army OD paint and I suspect something to do with artillery. Aside from that, there were some old reel tapes. I assume they are audio, and are marked in relation to New Guinea and Port Moresby etc.. I've always been curious about what they contain, but don't know what player they would play on.

 

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

curious about what they contain, but don't know what player they would play on.

Contact the National Film and Sound Archive. They will have the gear to play them

[Old Koreelah]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

I love old stuff. Maybe that's why I have very little usable shed space left. I once bought an old timber box from a second hand store for next to nothing in price. It was a well made stylish box, possibly factory made to hold a certain type of tool or something. I bought it for the box, but some of the contents were interesting…

…there were some old reel tapes. I assume they are audio, and are marked in relation to New Guinea and Port Moresby etc.. I've always been curious about what they contain, but don't know what player they would play on.

 

Might be historic treasure!
 

At a clearing sale I bought a standard 8mm film projector in a box. When I got it home I found the box was full of ancient monochrome cartoons, plus lots of colour footage of local events from the 1950s. Precious local history.

[red750]

Got another email with plenty more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[onetrack]

Yep, I remember them all. The pneumatic system to send invoices and dockets in the big retail stores was pure magic to a 5 or 6yr old! Those front-fork-mounted generators sure made pedalling a lot harder than it already was!

[Old Koreelah]

Our local mens wear shop closed a couple of years back, but inside, still operational, is the overhead wire for cash management. A demonstration for my computer class showed how ultra-efficent it was: cost bugger-all to set up in the 30s, they could do a cash transaction quicker than a computer-based system. Only operating cost was a new rubber band a few decades ago.

[old man emu]

Woolworths Supermarkets still use the vacuum operated system. Who of us didn't spend their pocket money on one of those balsa gliders? They were the insidious first slippery step towards recreational flying.

[pmccarthy]

A model Auster for my tenth birthday took days to build. Cutting out the ribs etc from a marked balsa sheet. Assembling wings, fuselage etc then covering with tissue paper and dope. Wind up the rubber band, launch it, a stall and crash and smashed to bits. No one told me about balance and trim.

[facthunter]

That's what happens if you are working on your  own. You learn the hard way. Nev

[onetrack]

I made one when I was about 9, and I was stupid enough to let a mate fly it. He flew it straight into the water tank stand, and smashed it to bits! Right about then, I determined to possess toys that were better built, and which could withstand a bit of abuse! That's why I got into earthmovers, and why my restoration collection today, comprises old engines that are built like tanks, and old bulldozers, and old tractors!