The subject line was the store's advertising slogan a few years ago. Myer is a large department store based in Melbourne and has stores in other regional cities and states, but it is very much a Victorian (state based) company, now a public company listed on the stock exchange. We like Myer or as it was known in my younger years, Myers, and we have spent many a dollar at the store and rarely regretted any money spent.
Myer is promoting a display at the moment, so I went to have a look. It is on the sixth floor, where there are a lot of apples and other technology. It had less on display than I thought it would, but it was interesting enough and I certainly connected with much of what was on display. I had little chat with a very old woman, like about 90, who was looking at the display with great interest.
The blurb.
We had one of these machines on a shelf in our kitchen in Waverley Road in the 1980s. We mostly used it to listen to AM Radio. I don't remember the Garfield Telephone but I do remember car service stations toys for kiddies. I may have even had one.
You women of a certain age, did you have an Glomesh purse or handbag? If you still have them and are using them, do no admit it. I never really liked Ken Done designs but he was very popular in Japan and with visitors to Australia from Japan. I remember Frij bags, but we never owned on.
This photo is a real tick. We had the Sunbeam electric frypan, well R did. By the time I came along, it was warped and no good for frying but great for boiling smoked cod. Yes, we had a Breville Toaster and I remember so many women having and using a curling wand.
A bit before my time but Mother's first washing machine was a Stampco and was similar to this, except it would spin, rather than having a mangle.
Long did we debate about buying a Commodore 64 computer in the 80s. I expect we didn't because we could not really see a use for it. I think we made the right decision.
In my wardrobe and in R's, you will respectively find one of these Sharp organisers. The records I kept on mine were a list. I also kept work times. It had a back up battery to save the data if the main battery went flat. Eventually the back up battery went flat and all data was lost, but not missed. Ugly cordless phones. So much nicer now. R used to occasionally use a fax machine at work. It is one piece of technology that I just skipped.
Oh yes, I had one of those waistcoats. And yes, a hyper colour tee shirt that changed colour depending on your body heat. They were always so bright at the armpits.
We didn't but a friend did have a Panasonic Genius microwave. When he first bought it, he would gather an audience to sit around watching it boil a cup of water to make coffee. I had a few Sony Walkmans, perhaps three.
I didn't have a Handycam, but a friend lent me one to record things in Thailand in late 1980s. I filmed the lady boy show at Alcazar and decided that I missed a lot of the show because I was busy recording it. No more video recording for me. Our phones can now make much better recordings than this old clunker. Yeppers, more than one pair of Le Specs did I own.
Step Mother used to use one of these to set her hair if she wasn't wearing her Liza Minnelli wig. It was rather noisy. It also had a fingernail drying warm air outlet.
I learned to type on one of these, in my case a Hanimex portable.
My step brother had a reel to reel. I didn't but I used to buy Scotch brand cassette tapes. They were the best, but TDK tapes were pretty good too. Is the TDK tv ad on Youtube? I hope so. "TDK does amazing things for your system".
Etch A Sketch, I had one and even Little Jo had one. So trans generational. View Master, cutting edge technology in the sixties, with stereophonic views. That particular Sunbeam toaster was owned by Mother for about three decades. I asked her about it and I learnt that my paternal brain damaged Uncle bought it for her and he paid £15 some time in the sixties. It never abruptly popped up the toast, but gently and stylishly raised the toast. I think it only lasted about three decades.
A bit like Grandmother's vacuum cleaner. God, hers was noisy.
Our first family television in about 1965 was an AWA Deep Image. It was bit more modern than this model, in fact it was very stylishly modern. That was back in the days when Australia used to make things.
I did not spend that much time in our garage in Waverley Road but what time I did spend was spent in the company of a bakelite radio tuned to 3LO. It was left by a former owner. I bought new valves for it and it was fine. Yes, I made bad Meccano models like this one in my youth. I inherited my maternal grandfather's Remington electric razor. You had to flick a wheel to kickstart it. Paper bags from Myers to celebrate the crowning of our queen. Envelopes containing your Melbourne Olympics tickets in Melbourne, 1956. I never cared for Bill Haley, comets or otherwise.
A late version of a Coolgardie safe, perhaps once draped in wet hessian to keep food cool and last for longer than one day in the fierce Australian heat. No, that is not right. I remember one in a shed at home or at my grandparents. I can't remember what it was for? Bread? Anyone? I think I may have had one of these metal aeroplanes and I had a book similar to the one pictured.
I can only remember Singer treadle sewing machines. Perhaps
Victor took particular notice of Victor sewing machines.
Not so interesting to me, but maybe of interest to some.
Drug addict clothing, which reminds me of shell suits, a most ghastly outfit seen mostly being worn by female American tourists in Australia in the 90s.
I think this was the first Apple computer with the guts contained in behind the screen, rather than in a separate tower.
I am not so interested in female fashion, but I I like this outfit.
Tesla cars are rather topical. Myer had one on display. I saw the front doors open electrically, the rear doors rise electrically, and the boot lid rising electrically is nothing new. Did you know that in Japan they drive on the left as we do, and the taxi rear door opens electrically for you to get into the cab and then closes itself once you are in. Well, you might remember that if you were a blog reader of mine back in 2010.
Why does Japan drive on the left when other Asian countries don't and left hand driving is pretty well only found in British Commonwealth countries and former colonies. The answer
is here, with a decent little world map to show which side of the road people drive on.
When travelling six storeys, I prefer the lift over escalators.
Later at Domayne, pineapple and cockatoos. Somehow I doubt
Snoskred will rush out to buy this pineapple to add to her collection.