WUNDERKAMMER IV
Here we are with yet another batch of wonders. I’m as shocked
as you are. Seems like all the corners are wrung out, but,
no, there are more artifacts.
From Thailand, carved teak. The coffee table is 24” x 50” and
has two matching end tables that are 24” x 24”.
The elephant stands 30” tall. It is carved from one piece of
teak except for the tusks. This one was the daddy.
It’s been poked and prodded and straddled by many children and has lost a
chip from each of the tusk holes.
We sent similar but smaller elephants to my parents and Clae’s parents.
I learned years later that when my father received it he was sure I was
razzing him for his lifelong Democratic views. Nevertheless,
they kept it until just before moving into a nursing home.
The abacus-like device was purchased when I worked for Abacus and wasn’t
actually used. In fact, the one-up, five-down format seems to
be a cross between a soroban and an abacus. The large slide
rule (log-log duplex decitrig) was given to me by my father when I was in an
engineering program at Michigan State University. At that
time every engineer carried a slide rule and the Engineering program included a
mandatory, albeit non-credit course in its use. The rest of
the calculators and slide rules found their ways into my possession somehow and
never went away.
Here we have six different disks and a thumb drive to illustrate just a few of
the ever-changing types of offline data storage. You may
recognize disks by size – 16”, 8”, 5 ¼”, 3 ½”, by name – Zip, or by capacity –
4.7 GB. The flash (or thumb) drive in the center of the 16”
disk holds 16 GB. These are just a few of the many varieties
and sizes. If I could keep up I’d show you a device that
holds a terabyte – Costco has one for offline backup. Last
night I read about telescope programs that will generate petabytes and even
exabytes of data.
Yes, I smoked like a chimney for a few years and I probably lost more lighters
than pictured here. See
Ponogram #11, Pono the Addict.
I was surprised to find this cache, including a cigarette case.
I don’t recall adopting the affectation of a case, but here it is with my
initials on it.
The leftmost ring is from my high school graduation. The next
ring came from Thailand. I really don’t know if I wore it or
if we gave it to my father. The diamond is my mother’s.
The next is a piece of hematite (grape ore) my father found when he was
working in the iron mines in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan.
Dad had the hematite mounted and wore it for most of his life.
The rightmost one is my father’s Masonic ring. Many
memories.
When I returned from Germany on the way to Chicago and discharge from the Army,
I packed up two broken-down foot lockers with all of my treasures and shipped
them to my hometown. As you can see, times were simpler then
– name, town and state were sufficient as an address. I must
open them one day and see what they contain.
This is a 10-drawer card file. Each drawer is just the size
of a Hollerith card and would hold several hundred of them.
Each drawer has a movable restraint to keep the card deck firmly together, and
each drawer is separately removable from the cabinet for transport to a
workstation or for processing by a computer. I acquired the
piece when Abacus had no more use for card deck storage. It
is great for heavy things like tools.
Tiepins and tie clasps! I’m pretty sure this is only a subset
of what I have (or perhaps had). The cutout Indianhead penny,
abacus, switch, and Thai headpiece reflect a hobby, an employer, an occupation,
and a place we lived. The stones were all purchased in
Bangkok when shopping was a fun thing to do on a Saturday.
The two tie clasps were more practical than decorative.
Ah, neckties!
Aren’t they beautiful? The last time I remember
wearing a necktie was in 2001 at the 50th anniversary of my high
school graduation. Time was when I was strangled by one
nearly every work day.
Why do I have tire chains in Hawaii? Crammed into a small
box, they make a very effective door stop. These chains fit a
1971 Pinto and were either used or threatened to be used during a trip to Big
Bear in California in the mid-70s.
In a moment of lucidity a few years ago, I allowed JR to sort through my tools
and select any that he wanted. For obvious reasons, he left every pipe wrench he
encountered. I doubt if this assortment would be worth more
than the value of scrap iron – does anyone have lead pipes in their properties
anymore? I think copper and PVC has replaced close to 100% of
lead and even steel pipes.
AFTERWORD
Surprisingly, I have received zero bids on these wonders from my vast audience
(some say the audience is only half-vast). I could be
disappointed, but I choose to be pleased. I take the
disinterest to mean that apparently nobody sees anything worth robbing me to
obtain!
Many years ago, one of my sons called dibs on the carved teak coffee and end
tables – now if I could just remember which one. (Just
kidding – I’m sure I’ll remember if he offers me a room when I visit his town.)