Recalling Old Tech

[Wraa]

What is some of the oldest tech you remember using as a kid?

I remember when my grandparents upgraded to a color tv, when they got a microwave. Mom got a floor model VHS player from Best Buy back when they also rented videos.
Later, my first computer was a handmedown Tandy TRS-80 Model IV.

[Voidbane]

Depending on definition; a OLD typewriter and a cast iron stove.

[Wraa]

Ah, those are certainly 'old tech'.

What about old/early electronic tech?

[Voidbane]

Walkman cassette player, Hard oak speaker system that plays records, and a old telegraph.

[Wraa]

Oh nice!

I love the idea of those old cabinet stereo systems. They always seemed to have a warm rich sound to them. You can often find them at Goodwill, if I had more space.... I'd totally consider it.

I've never gotten to mess with a telegraph before.

My grandparents had an old RCA Victrola. When I found it in the basement, the electrical cord had hardened and become so brittle I had to cut it off and replace it. Once I did though, the AM radio worked fine (the tuner string was a little loose so you had to fiddle with it to tune it). The 78rpm record player still spun, but the needle was dead. I solved that as a kid as well by cannibalizing and old 1970s recordplayer with a good needle. For only having one speaker and being from the 1930s or 1940s, that thing sounded damned good. I regret having to have given it up when I moved.

[Dreaker]

Typewriter as oldest mechanical.
Oldest electronic is my dad calculator. It was heavy.
Oldest in general? Hammer! XD

[Wraa]

I hear you on the Typewriter Dreaker.

My grandparents had an older Underwood typewriter that I loved to type on as a kid.
Within the last few years, I've been going to Goodwill stores and found a couple of typewriters that were pretty cool.
One of the best finds though was in an abandoned house that was due to be torn down as a construction project.

Normally, my efforts at exploration follow the very strict guideline of 'take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints'. However, in this case, the 'tip' I got was from a friend who was, shall we say, well in the know of the situation of this house and they advised me the house is going to be bulldozed into a pile of rubble and burned. When I found an old 1930s/40s era Royal typewriter, well...

I just could not bring myself to leave it behind. It took only a bit of cleaning and TLC and the typewriter is easily one of the most comfortable I have ever used.

Now that you mention it, my grandparents had an older electronic calculator as well that I messed with as a kid.

Hammer. Nice one Dreaker. 

[Risha Kalsyhan]

I'm pretty sure I'm still the baby of the group. 3.5" Floppy Disks in a Gateway desktop computer running Windows 95 with a hideously bulky CRT monitor and an all off-white plastic exterior. Mice still had balls back then.

[Dreaker]

First computer was a commodore 64.

[Wraa]

My first 'computer' was a Tandy TRS model 4 computer.
My first real computer was a Compaq 486/SX with 4 megs of RAM.