Tom and Jerry

Watching that show is how Dominick learned what a typewriter is. A sad commentary on the childhood my kids will know as opposed to my own. Lucky for him I collect typewriters and rotary phones and assorted other items such as old cameras (that don't work), old books and old kitchen ware. Some would call that a pack rat (my husband sure does) and wonder why in the hell I need such things...I will tell you why. So that I don't forget the sounds and smells of my childhood and my kids learn that

1. phones are supposed to be connected to a wall with an impossibly long cord and ring REALLY loudly AND are not dialed but rotated with your finger

2. that to "print" something required accurate fingers striking metal keys that made a cool clickety-clack sound and a ribbon and a return carriage

3. that to take a picture, I once wound a thin piece of slick black paper into the back of a black box and and then focused my eye through a small hole and hoped to God my picture turned out ok but I wouldn't know for certain until I went to the photo lab

4. that old glazed pottery bowls with stains in the bottom means many good meals have been made with love by someone.

Here is my latest garage sale find that my kids are obsessed with-

and it works!

I am not asking my kids to revert back the horse and buggy or candlelight-I just want them to understand that life was happily lived with much less for a long time and it wouldn't be a bad thing to try that now and again.