Firing up the wayback machine....

[Argabarga]

I have one in my closet that still has its original alphanumeric-prefix number in the center of the dial,

Nobody around here is old enough to remember what the old alphabet exchange was when it existed.

Those that ARE generally have moved here from someplace else, and remember what it was in their childhood home.

I don't remember how it came up, but a lady I used to work with remembered her old childhood home's was "Seneca" and later "Algonquin", they were both New York exchanges, unsurprisingly :P

[protege]

She still has a rotary phone that, as far as I know, will give you a dial tone if you pick it up.

My grandmother's farmhouse had rotary phones as late as 2007, when it was sold. Both still worked, but were very soft. I'm sure both phones dated from the 1940s. Not bad for 60-year-old items

But, closer to home, I inherited her console TV (a Zenith) set. My grandparents bought that in the early 1980s. Someone had fitted it with a coax cable adapter after the antenna (remember those...and their positioning motors?) came down during a storm. That TV was a bitch to move out of her house. Heavy and bulky as hell. It worked OK back in 2006-07, but hasn't been used since then. For now, it's sitting in my train room...waiting for me to get my act together and hook it up.

[ADeMartino]

We had one for almost two decades (I thought they were called cabinet TVs) that had a Rutherford name plate on the front and the back said it was built in 1980; despite my best efforts at looking through Google images and the like, I can't find it.

I'm going to guess that the Rutherford name was actually a 'house brand' from a department, electronics, or appliance-store chain, and there is also the possibility that it was as model/series name rather than 'brand' name. The electronics were probably manufactured by RCA/Sony, Panasonic, or Motorola, and the cabinet could have been made by almost anyone.

This practice is not that unusual; for instance, the 'Quasar' name I mentioned in the OP was actually a sub-brand of Motorola and later Matsushita (aka Panasonic). We also discovered recently that my brother's dishwasher (a Sears Kenmore) was actually manufactured by Maytag and sold under at least two other brand names.

My grandmother's farmhouse had rotary phones as late as 2007, when it was sold. Both still worked, but were very soft. I'm sure both phones dated from the 1940s. Not bad for 60-year-old items

But, closer to home, I inherited her console TV (a Zenith) set. My grandparents bought that in the early 1980s. Someone had fitted it with a coax cable adapter after the antenna (remember those...and their positioning motors?) came down during a storm. That TV was a bitch to move out of her house. Heavy and bulky as hell. It worked OK back in 2006-07, but hasn't been used since then. For now, it's sitting in my train room...waiting for me to get my act together and hook it up.

It WON'T work. Remember, we abandoned the ages-old NTSC system right around 2007. Now you'll need a converter box or NTSC-compatible CATV/SAT box to make that beastie do its thing.

And yeah, I remember the rotator antennas. My dad got one so he could get ON-TV back in the day (look that one up, kiddies, and revel in the primitive tech of that era!) Did your dad have the elaborate 'modern-art' UHF set-top antenna, too?

EDIT: Here, I'll save you the trouble of finding it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ONTV_%28pay_TV%29

[protege]

And yeah, I remember the rotator antennas. My dad got one so he could get ON-TV back in the day (look that one up, kiddies, and revel in the primitive tech of that era!) Did your dad have the elaborate 'modern-art' UHF set-top antenna, too?

I don't remember the UHF antenna, but I do remember the antenna box atop the TV...and having to bug my mother to turn the switch so I could watch cartoons on dad's old Heathkit TV. My family didn't even get cable until about 1985-86 or so

As for my old TV, I'll have to get another converter box before I can hook that thing up. Since it still works, I can't see getting rid of it.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I don't remember the UHF antenna, but I do remember the antenna box atop the TV...and having to bug my mother to turn the switch so I could watch cartoons on dad's old Heathkit TV. My family didn't even get cable until about 1985-86 or so

I remember rabbit ears on top of the tv set and only 3 channels (4 if you count PBS.) We didn't get Cablevision until around 1979 or so - and even then we only had HBO, a couple of indie stations from the DC metro area, WTBS and our local affiliates. Set top boxes didn't come into our house until about a year or two later - and those back then were expensive - Mom was billed not only a rental fee for each box, but if she wanted HBO on that second box, she had to pay TWICE for her HBO subscription (that practice changed not long afterward and we were able to get additional boxes and just pay a rental fee for each additional box.) Meaning I didn't get expanded cable w/HBO in my room until High School.

As far as the console tv sets go, we always had one - even though we didn't use our living room that much, we still had one sitting in there until around 5 or 6 years ago when our last one (purchased new in 1985) finally bit the dust.

You are definitely a 70's kid when you can remember watching George Carlin talk about the 7 words you couldn't say on tv.

[Cooper]

As soon as I heard 'console tv' I pictured this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51697165@N02/9479960262/

It was one of the coolest things I found in that house. I didn't dare try to pick it up though. (Even if there wasn't the "leave nothing but footprints; take nothing but pictures" rule it wasn't gonna fit in my car.)

[protege]

I remember rabbit ears on top of the tv set and only 3 channels (4 if you count PBS.)

My grandmother's place only had 4 channels (2, 4, 11, and 13) until about 1995-96 At the time, there wasn't any cable service down there. She lived on a farm 3 miles outside the nearest town. Most people had huge satellite dishes, mainly because the cable company didn't feel like running a cable out that far. The only way we could have picked up more channels, was if my grandfather put the roof antenna up on the hill. That wasn't going to happen. It was expensive, and we didn't watch all that much anyway. Of course that changed when I lived there for awhile--Grandma splurged and got Dish

As for my parents, IIRC, when they finally did get cable, the TV stayed on channel 3, and everything else was done with a set-top box. Crude, but it worked.

[EricKei]

did you work at Man of Swag?

'Twas Kroger, and verily, 'twas many ages past, in days of ancren rewel

My first job, and the one that introduced me to the concept of "layoffs" at the tender age of fourteen. >_<

[Cecily]

I remember the rotary phones my parents had, I loved the way the dial would click back in place by itself. I would play for hours just fake dialing (no lifting of the earpiece). Also the shared phone line... that was frustrating. Did you guys had to put steel wool pads on top of the rabbit ear antennas so you could catch a signal?

[judecat]

Did you guys had to put steel wool pads on top of the rabbit ear antennas so you could catch a signal?

No steel wool, but we made flags out of tin foil for the ends of the rabit ears to pick up the DC stations and the UHF stations back in the 60's

[sms001]

a couple of indie stations from the DC metro area,

Sonny Fox on WTTG! I loved Wonderama.

[morgana]

I had one of those console/cabinet TVs for years. Bought it between husbands, , and abandoned it in the house Clueless and I divorced out of. It still worked, had to have been at LEAST twenty-one years old.

[ADeMartino]

I had one of those console/cabinet TVs for years. Bought it between husbands, , and abandoned it in the house Clueless and I divorced out of. It still worked, had to have been at LEAST twenty-one years old.

they built them to last, for sure. My dad's console set was a monstrosity with like 22 tubes. Whenever that set was on, the living room was considerably warmer than the rest of the house, just from the heat that thing gave off. He bought it new in 1964 and it was in heavy use every day until 1982. The picture tube finally died and although he could get a replacement (!), he decided it wasn't worth fixing and bought another TV. Yup, another CONSOLE, which died only about a month out of warranty.

[raudf]

We had a lot of people bring in their older than the 80's console TVs, because one of our techs was well known for working on "antique" electronics. To give you an idea of how "antique," one customer's TV had the sonic remote! It had three bars in it and a little hammer for each button. On/Off was one tone, volume was another and the third was channel up. I didn't know those things existed until then.

If you had a Monkey Ward's Signature 2000 product, it was likely made by one of the big names, but rebranded for the Sig 2000. Our appliances could be Whirlpool, Maytag, Amana or Magic Chef. Our electronics were often Panasonic, Sony or Gold Star (don't get me started on Gold Star, that stuff was crap to begin with!) Our lawn and garden was sometimes Murrays and I can't recall the other.

How we would tell the manufacturer of the product was via the first two letters of the model number, but it really didn't matter in the course of MY job, because the microfiche cards would have all the listed parts for them... I was very glad when they upgraded the computers from the stone ages and we could just plug in the model number...

[DGoddessChardonnay]

My grandmother's place only had 4 channels (2, 4, 11, and 13) until about 1995-96 At the time, there wasn't any cable service down there. She lived on a farm 3 miles outside the nearest town. Most people had huge satellite dishes, mainly because the cable company didn't feel like running a cable out that far. The only way we could have picked up more channels, was if my grandfather put the roof antenna up on the hill. That wasn't going to happen. It was expensive, and we didn't watch all that much anyway. Of course that changed when I lived there for awhile--Grandma splurged and got Dish

My dad's house was like that too until a few years ago . . . for years he and my stepmom had no cable service, but they did have one of the huge satellite dishes where they could get the free channels. They had cable installed about 7 or 8 years ago finally but now have upgraded to Dish like we did.

As for my parents, IIRC, when they finally did get cable, the TV stayed on channel 3, and everything else was done with a set-top box. Crude, but it worked.

That's pretty much our setup with Dish . . . tv is either on channel 3 (if it's the tv in the same room with the receiver) channel 60 (for the ones marked tv 2, such as my brother's room, my bedroom and the dining room) or, as in the case of our kitchen, our 20 year old tv/vcr combo is connected to the receiver via audio/video cables and the tv is on line 1.

And there is my flatscreen in the office . . which is connected via HDMI. Can't figure out what channel it's on - my tv remote tells me that function is not available now.

I would have to have ONE tv in my house that has to be contrary and it would have to be my LG.