Saturday, January 16, 2010

Excavation

Here are some more close-up shots, these taken in my grandfather's basement in Dayton, Ohio. The basement always looked the same, from when we first visited as small children. Now, in preparation for selling the house, it's being slowly cleared out. I wanted to document the parts of it that always lived in my memory, and which will stick with me the most, specifically this old cash register we always used to play with...


5 comments:

  1. Hi Kirsten! A Burroughs Adding Machine! Maybe your already know, (I didn't) that those were invented by the great-grandfather of William S. Burroughs. Ross was thrilled to find one at a thrift store once. But did he spend many hours adding on it? Did he do our taxes on it? Let's just say it took up a good chunk of space on our shelves. But they are pretty cool looking! And it's fun to push the buttons.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like these.

    I took a bunch of shots of my grandparents' house before my grandfather moved to a condo. I still can't imagine that house being anything other than how I remember it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Shena! I didn't know you had a blog! Is it okay if I link to it on mine? I had no idea that was a Burroughs adding machine, but that is a fun piece of trivia. It does have this neat, anachronistic look that I was always drawn to. I can see it being a bit hefty as a decoration, though...hopefully this one will fall into the hands of a collector.

    Tina - Isn't it funny how much our grandparents' houses live in our memory? I have such vivid memories of all the random stuff that populated their houses, and how everything used to look. On this same trip, I also found all these beautiful turn-of-the-century letters and WWI postcards from the front. It was so neat!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That looks like an old comptometer, not a cash register. Love the keys, so tactile and solid. Take a look.

    Check out someone named Jay M. Goldman in Montreal or James Redin. They collect old calulators. There's also a museum, Victor Museum.

    I love old machines. They remind me of my grandfather.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cleemckenzie - Thanks for stopping by! I found out from a friend that this machine is a Burroughs Adding Machine.

    ReplyDelete