32 replies to this topic

[Amishway Homesteaders]

Are there things you 'still use' that people would have no idea what you are talking about?

Just the other day I was talking about my "tomato pin cushion" and maybe needing a new one but haven't seen them at any rummage sales or yard sales lately? I would NEVER think of buying a 'new' one because when you get a used one second hand you ALWAYS get a bunch of free needles with it!

Anyway I was talking and the people I was with had no idea what one was or WHY I would need one? Who sews anymore was the reply when I told them what it was.

[CrabGrassAcres]

Yeah. A lot of folks seem to want to know why I need two heads.

[Cat]

When our youngest was three years old, I pulled out my ironing board and iron to iron something. She wondered what THAT was!


To be fair, I had ironed in the basement by my washer a few times. But it never crossed my mind that I just don't iron much anymore unless I'm sewing. Big DD didn't even get an iron for a wedding gift.

[Ambergris]

How many people who do sew also know why they should pass pins and needles through the "strawberry" attached to the tomato?

[Cat]

How many people who do sew also know why they should pass pins and needles through the "strawberry" attached to the tomato?

I know why.

[arby]

How about the old ice trays, where the divider had the lever you pull up to separate the icecubes? Anyone still have those?
They certainly lasted and were more stable than the plastic ones!

[arby]

* has my own tomato and strawberry with sewing stuff

** and I know what the strawberry is for! ( I am pretty sure. )

[Amishway Homesteaders]

How about the old ice trays, where the divider had the lever you pull up to separate the icecubes? Anyone still have those?
They certainly lasted and were more stable than the plastic ones!

Have them and Lori Still uses them!
The cat will come a running when she hears that 'crack' because she knows there are always little chips that mom will give her to eat.
Yes that is also the cat that we have to go outside in the winter and get her bowl full of snow so she can eat it. And if it starts to snow in the middle of the night , she will come to bed, wakes me up and then race downstairs to sit by the 'snow bowl'.

[Amishway Homesteaders]

How many people who do sew also know why they should pass pins and needles through the "strawberry" attached to the tomato?

Why Yes I do! most of the ones I find have that part missing? I guess most people cut it off?

[CrabGrassAcres]

Arby, those old trays were so much easier to get the cubes out of!

I have 3 sewing machines and one is an old treadle. I have a spinning wheel and a loom. A cabinet incubator for hatching eggs that doubles as a dehydrator. A Swing-a-way can opener mounted on the wall in the kitchen. Various oil and kerosene lamps. I use a shovel, hoe and rake to garden, no tiller, but how many garden any more? A manual pasta machine for noodles. Various grain grinders, but who grinds wheat and makes bread? I even have about a ton of wheat! (Maybe a bit more! LOL) Cast iron skillets, several pressure canners, a 10 gallon pot for making cheese or huge quantities of stew to can. People don't even cook, much less can, freeze or dehydrate to have stuff for later.

Yes, some folks think I have 2 heads. You can see it in their eyes.

[Amishway Homesteaders]

Our glass orange juicer!

"Why do you have one when you can 'buy' juice in the stores?

Answer: Haven't you ever had fresh orange juice?

Why have one when you can just use you electric mixer?

Answer:Maybe because we DON'T have an electric mixer.

[arby]

AH, my parents had a cat who was a tough mountain cat and loved to play in the melt water when it snowed, trying to get the pretty stones in their driveway gravel, dipping his paws right in for those pretty rocks. I can just see your cat wanting a snow bowl....

His name was Joe Catwright of the Konderosa.

Edited by arby, 24 April 2012 - 06:40 PM.

[sewandsew]

I have 2 old metal ice trays and I do know what the strawberry is for. I have one also.

[Jori]

Stop! No one ever showed me what the strawberry was for, and I took sewing classes. The tomato my mom had is floating between one of three houses, I just don't know which one.

I have a pasta maker and registered for an iron but didn't receive one. I made a comment that I picked my pattern board and a clothes line and received strange looks.


(Edited by Cat because Jori was trying to type with a sick little guy on her lap, and it came out ummmm... *interesting*. )

Edited by Cat, 25 April 2012 - 06:12 PM.
trying to help clarify

[dogmom4]

I had the tomato pincushion when I was a teen and I remember metal ice cube trays. Wish I had the metal ones still... The one thing I can't figure out.....

Why oh why does CGA have two heads???

[winknasmile]

This is a YOU GOT ME post. I have sewn (sewed?) for years, using the tomato pin cushion and had NO idea the little strawberry was for anything except to be in the way. I wasn't smart enough to even question that it might be for something. Wow, this is cool. Is it to sharpen pins and needles?

Edited by winknasmile, 24 April 2012 - 10:21 PM.
spelling

[Cat]

Is it to sharpen pins and needles?

Pins and needles can get tiny little burrs from normal use. The sand in the strawberry knocks them off, thus "sharpening" them.

[Ambergris]

Some strawberries have emery in them. They're also good for polishing off that line of rust the pins can pick up.

I still remember my little cousin standing in the living room holding the strawberry and whirling the tomato over his head, and the thread broke, and the tomato whizzed right past my grandpa's nose. He looked around and kept drinking his tea.

[Cat]

I still remember my little cousin standing in the living room holding the strawberry and whirling the tomato over his head, and the thread broke, and the tomato whizzed right past my grandpa's nose. He looked around and kept drinking his tea.

[Amishway Homesteaders]

Arby, those old trays were so much easier to get the cubes out of!

I have 3 sewing machines and one is an old treadle. I have a spinning wheel and a loom. A cabinet incubator for hatching eggs that doubles as a dehydrator. A Swing-a-way can opener mounted on the wall in the kitchen. Various oil and kerosene lamps. I use a shovel, hoe and rake to garden, no tiller, but how many garden any more? A manual pasta machine for noodles. Various grain grinders, but who grinds wheat and makes bread? I even have about a ton of wheat! (Maybe a bit more! LOL) Cast iron skillets, several pressure canners, a 10 gallon pot for making cheese or huge quantities of stew to can. People don't even cook, much less can, freeze or dehydrate to have stuff for later.

Yes, some folks think I have 2 heads. You can see it in their eyes.

Have you been looking in our Kitchen?

LOVE our swing-a-way! And like most of the 'old things' we use we have one or more in storage as backup because they are getting harder and harder to find!
And yes we too get looks whenever we talk about making things like noodles at home "BY HAND" using a hand cranked machine of some kind. Like when I happen to tell someone that I made bread yesterday with my bread machine, I always get “Oh I saw that machine on TV once and I have to tell them no my is NOT electric but a hand cranked 'VERY OLD' bread machine. Which will most always get the reply . . . . . . WHY?