Welcome to another installment of my favorite day of the week,
Vintage Thingies Thursday, hosted by Suzanne of ColoradoLady. This is the day to dig in your basements and attics and find your long-forgotten treasures, or show off your collections and flea market finds. Most of my vintage thingies have been discovered in the basement of my parents' house, where they have lived for 45 years.
Today's offering actually comes from their dining room. Originally it was a piece of equipment at my grandfather's bakery, which I wrote about a few months ago. I remember it being on Papoo's desk in the den. All of the grandchildren loved to play with it.
It's a vintage adding machine from the
Victor Adding Machine Company in Chicago. The company began in 1918 and is still in the calculating business today. On their website they have a fun slide show of vintage advertisements and a time line of their company in relation to important world events.
While working at the bakery during high school, my mother used this adding machine all the time. You'd enter the numbers by selecting one digit from each column. The two black columns on the right would be the decimal places. In the advertisements there were many that had more than a "thousands" column and read that companies could order what they needed.
Any good stuff in your house with stories to tell? Then share them with us next week on
Vintage Thingies Thursday hosted by ColoradoLady!
It's amazing how far things have come in really a short time! Why do all kids love old adding machines and cash registers! Must be the real buttons!
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the adding machine my dad's cousin used each and every year they did my parents taxes. Oh, I could not stand to go over to their house...the had no kids and of course we were supposed to be quiet and not get into anything...that was the most longest and most boring day of the year....and I ALWAYS wanted to work the adding machine, but of course it was off limits. Oh, Elizabeth I had not thought of that in years....great memory (or not so great) this brought back. Happy VTT
ReplyDeleteYou better keep digging around. If all your finds are like this one today, you have some real treasures stored away. Enjoyed hearing the story behind the adding machine.
ReplyDeleteI remember something similar in at dad's office. As kids I think we liked the click-click of the keys and black and red ink. It's cool that you did a little homework on it too.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing old calculators, but I never learned to use one because electronic calculators were just starting to be used at that time.
ReplyDeleteI used to work in a little dress shop in my small town that used an adding machine AND a cash register very similar to this. Such fun memories. Yours sounds like fun memories are associated with yours too.
ReplyDeleteWOW what a great old adding machine. And it is in great shape too. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThat's great! And I love that you were able to find the old ad for it.
ReplyDeleteI remember having seen one of that kind. Looks really cool!
ReplyDeleteWow!! what a great old machine. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteNice family story. I used one of these many years ago, and it was old (cheap or free for the thrift store I managed). They are fun, and incredibly well built, withstanding the grand kids it sounds like.
ReplyDeleteKathy
My Dad had a regular 9-numbers and 0 adding machine that I was allowed to play with...the one like yours was off-limits!
ReplyDeleteVery cool find! I don't remember reading about your grandparents owning a bakery!!!
ReplyDeleteJustine :o )
How cool!!
ReplyDeleteNow you make me feel old! I had to use one of these in my bookkeeping class in high school!
ReplyDeleteWhat a really neat old piece- I would love to mess about on it a bit....
ReplyDeleteMarie @ Lemondrop ViNtAge
Happy Chinese New Year giveaway
when we were kids we used to go to work with my mom and dad (they owned a small shoe shop) We used to love to play with the adding machine cause it was so loud!!! it looked very similar to the one you shared today... thanks for the memories
ReplyDeleteThat is very cool! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Elizabeth,thank you for your visit today. I have been away from your blog too long. It is fun to see the vintage adding machine. I have used adding machines but it was some time ago. It is hard to imagine we thought an adding machine was a great working too. Such is life huh. Progress is amazing.
ReplyDeleteHugs, Jeanne
How lucky you are to find such fun things in your parents basement! This calculator is in great condition, love how it has a story and family history to it.
ReplyDeleteOh I used to love playing with my mother's old typewriter and adding machine when I was little. Pressing all the buttons and "working" gave me the biggest kick! What a neat find!
ReplyDeleteGreat memories and great decorative piece.I love that you have the ad to match!
ReplyDelete