Cooking and Heating Back in The Twenties

I thought it would be good to take a trip back in time today to the mid 1920s,

The add  is for a manufacturer "Kalamazoo" who sold cookers, heaters and a furnace targeted at the Farming community.

The cooking ranges included, oil, Coal / Wood and Gas and starting from $37.95 . ( about $600 in today's money )

The Furnace was $59.95 and the heater was $27.95


Much of the farming community bought clothes, furniture, appliances, toys and just about everything else through catalogs which is why the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs were so popular, Sears were based in Chicago where they still are today and the catalogs featured everything from a toy car to a semi assembled house that was delivered to your door.


Because Catalog Sales were so dominant in the sale of anything and everything manufacturers who were not included would sell direct to the public through Newspapers and Magazines, this is a great example

Home Computer From Then To Now

While researching I often find things that trigger my own memories, this is one of those , featured is a Tandy TRS80 Home Computer System.

Like so many of those in my age group 60+ this was our introduction to the world of computers

If you remember those days you can also remember the thrill of getting it to work and the frustration of spending hours entering in code by hand for a basic game from a Home Computer Magazine and it failing.


If there were no mistakes in the code in the magazine and "You Made No Mistakes" during typing it in and The Tape Player was saving well with clean tape head and the computer did not crash during your data entry then you might end up with a game where you could shoot an alien on a blocky screen 


So what did you get for your money and how much did it cost

For a TRS 80 with screen, keyboard and tape player etc. you were looking at between $600 and $1,000 ( in today's money that is between $2,000 and $4,000

The processor was a Z80 the current processor found in most basic tablets is up to 200 + times faster

Memory ranged from 4K to 48K  the Galaxy Tablet for example has 16 million times more memory

Video was 128x48  
lets call it pixels per screen about 6,000 then today the screen I am typing this on has 2073600 pixels

Tape / Game Load Speed was diabolical no other way to describe it  it could take up to 35 minutes to load a game and that was if you were lucky enough no errors encountered while loading the tape

I should mention the Tandy was just one of a few home computers at the time, others included the Apple II, the Commodore Pet, Heath Kits, Ohio Scientific, Processor Tech and many others


The Apple II was considered by many to be the best of them all and was priced at around $2,000 or in today's money up to $6,000


From the late 1970's to the early 1990's I had more than 15 different home computers as each year they would become better and more efficient with more ways to load S/W , I believe many are still in my mums loft today.  


It was due to my interest in home computers that led me into a career in the computer industry which served me well for 25 years


Today's 
Taking You Back In Time
moment

Marlboro Man Advert 1980s

As we continue with our research for The People History sometimes I come across something I think is worth sharing

 This is a 1980 Advert for Marlboro Cigarettes, Every where you looked from the 1920's through to the 1990's Cigarette Advertising was used heavily in all forms of media but one of the longest and most successful campaigns was for Marlboro Cigarettes using a Cowboy ( Marlboro Man ) , this add is a great example, the logo for the product does not detract from the great photograph of a cowboy on his horse.


I think this add features the rancher / cowboy Darrell Winfield who was used for nearly 20 years up to the mid 1980's in Marlboro Man adds. ( Please correct me if I am wrong )


As I look through our research material I am struck by the fact nearly 1 in 4 adds in magazines of every type was for cigarettes,

Others who were used in Marlboro Man Adds included Wayne McLaren, David McLean and Dick Hammer who all died of Lung Cancer,