What modern device did your parents have when you were a kid that you don’t have as an adult?
I’ll go first. I was a kid in the 1960s, and my parents had an electric can opener. I’ve never purchased one and see them as unnecessary, plus they take up valuable counter space. Perhaps it’s because I don’t open that many cans these days. I have a manual can opener in case I do need to open a can.
A stand mixer (for something still currently used by many)
A reel - to -reel tape player (for something still in production -I think- but much more esoteric)
I don’t have an electric can opener either either but yes my parents did. I think a larger part of why is we don’t use as many cans as we once did and many have easy open tops more so then the counter space issue.
To add to your list I would add a hand drill. Not only did my dad have one, but used it often enough that it was an use active tool, not just something in the bottom of the tool box. It was quite common to see others using them as well. I’m sure there are quite a bit more tools to add to that list.
I came in to say electric can opener. How about the electric carving knife?
My electric can opener is the under the cabinet type. So no counter space lost and it was pretty inexpensive, lasts for 20 years on average and works great. I’m on my second one since 1992. We still open enough cans where I’m happy to have it. Especially Cento Crushed Tomato cans.
My parents actually had an electric stapler. No idea why. I rarely use my mechanical staplers and they are very easy to use. The electrics were probably useful back in the days of typing pools in offices.
Record Player, I gave our my turntable away about 3 years ago. That should count as much as a can opener which have been around far longer than I’ve been alive.
Does a Pressure Cooker count? We don’t have one.
Years ago my sister digitized all of our parent’s old home movies and gave me a DVD copy. Watching a one year old me walking unsteadily and stumbling around in our backyard like a little drunk, I suddenly realized my kids (maybe around 2 and 5 at the time) were already older than I am in the old home movie, and we have no video of our kids (just plenty of still photos). At the time I did not yet have a smart phone- I think Ihad video capability on my non-smart phone but it was so low-res as to hardly be worth it.
Soon after, I got an iPhone and made plenty of videos of the kids from that point, but any cute moving images of our kids crawling, trying to walk, playing, etc. as little toddlers is lost to all but memory. Whereas my parents had video tech in the mid 60s.
I was going to say Console Entertainment Center. Actually those were kind of cool, like a giant piece of furniture with a TV, radio, and turntable inside.
One thing my folks had that I wish for, is double ovens (over/under installation). This puts one oven at a more convenient height, and the lower one as a backup if you’re fixing a large meal. They had the same setup with microwaves, and I can’t think of a real use for that.
They had one of those large, hotel-like icemakers. Wonderful for filling coolers prior to hitting the lake.
The other “device” they had was a constantly circulating hot-water loop. It’s a plumbing setup where hot water is constantly pumped throughout all the bathrooms and kitchen, providing instant hot water everywhere. And I’d like the built-in vacuum cleaner… and the automatic “dust pan” in the kitchen floor. And the boat house with electric garage doors, and the automatic boat lift, and the launch ramp, and the docks, and… Sigh.
Two things come to mind: an electrical coffee grinder. Never had any use for it because I used to always buy pre-ground coffee and now I have a coffee machine with an integrated grinder. The other rather curious device I remember my mother had was an inflatable hair dryer like this. I never understood the use.
My dad had, and used, a couple of reel-to-reel tape recorder/players. Also a movie camera, home movie projector, slide projector, etc. But I don’t consider any of these to be “modern devices” for the purpose of this thread, since they’ve all been rendered essentially obsolete by even more modern devices.
A meat grinder. My mom’s was an attachment to her mixer.
Encountering unground meat that I needed to be ground up has not been a recurrent thing with me.
Goddamn, you guys are quick. Most things I was going to say already mentioned. Electric can opener, cabinet stereo, electric carving knife, etc.
Mine had an electric ice crusher on the counter. Gotta have easy access to crushed ice.
They had an electric hot dog cooker. It was about the shape and size of a cassette recorder. You could put up to 6 wieners in it and zap them.
Counsel television. Huge ol’ cube and the screen was really only 24 inches.
2 vacuum cleaners. Had one for the kitchen floor and then had a canister vacuum for carpets.
A bar in the basement. That was a thing in the 50’s and 60’s. And while I have one my house didn’t come with it, I had to add it myself.
Percolator coffee maker. Worst way ever to brew Joe.
Battery charger. I don’t mean for rechargeable batteries, they didn’t exist yet. I mean for regular, everyday batteries. I have no idea if or even how such a thing could work.
Door to door salesmen. In the 60’s and 70’s they were everywhere. Selling everything.
On top of all his regular guns my Pop bought a tear gas//fire extinguisher gun from a guy selling them door to door. I doubt it was legal even back then to possess tear gas.
Hijack / aside:
I gather from your collective posts that you’re fairly well off living in a fairly large house. Except for living on the lakefront you can certainly have any or all of those things installed in your current house.
Double ovens are easy; you just sacrifice a little cabinet space for them. I have double ovens in my condo and greatly appreciate the extra flexibility.
Instant whole-house hot water can be retrofitted easily & inexpensively to any house with no significant plumbing required. I did it to my former McMansion with looong slooow hot water runs a few years ago. This is what you’re looking for:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000E78XHG/
The black plastic fitting goes under the sink at the end of each run, so perhaps install one device per bathroom, one for the kitchen, and maybe one for the laundry room. It’s a mechanical thermostat valve that interconnects the hot & cold side pipes. It installs past the angle stops and before the lines to the sink faucet. The single pump is installed in the HWH outlet line near the HWH.
The basic idea is the pump provides a small pressure head so the downstream hot water supply is pressurized vs the cold supply. And the remote thermostats are closed when the hot water supply is hot enough but open a connection between the hot & cold supply when the hot side is only warm-ish.
The net effect is when the sink supply is receiving only warm-ish water the valve opens, the pump pushes fresh hot water from the HWH down the line while the used-to-be-hot water in the hot-side pipes returns backwards up the cold-side supply line towards the house inlet where it then returns to the cold side of the HWH. No water is lost.
You can configure the timer on the pump to only run certain times of day so there’s zero energy consumption moving water around and reheating it during the times of day or night there’s no need. Couple that with insulating the accessible portions of your hot supply pipes and you get almost instant hot water anywhere / everywhere in your house for very little installation cost or difficulty and negligible operating cost.
Another convenience gizmo I’ve had in every house or condo for years is some variant of this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZP90S4E/
It delivers truly instant truly 190F water on demand. Great for pre-heating coffee cups or soup bowls. Also great for making tea or ramen or ??? with zero wasted time. The capacity is large enough that if I need to boil water in a saucepan for, e.g., pasta I start with this water and the stove takes barely a minute to get a rolling boil going.
Just a real handy gizmo that every comfy-class kitchen should have.
Sorry I can’t help with retrofitting a lake to your house. Especially in Dallas, lakes (with water in them) are hard to come by, and lakefront housing even more so. A decade-ish ago when I thought I was going to be working & living in Dallas I sure tried everywhere to find a good lakefront house on a reliable lake. Just not really available.
Carousel slide projecter
Camera that used film that produced slides
Kodak projectors are still available for $250
Rainbow carpet cleaner. My mom bought one. It deep cleans with water. Very expensive at over 1k. I never wanted to spend that much for a seldom used carpet cleaner.
I take the OP’s question to be about products that are still sold new today that are still more or less mainstream. Things like 8-track tape players don’t qualify due to obsolescence. We all still own various devices for playing recorded music of course, but they’re not 8-tracks.
For me I suppose it’s the electric can opener and the trash compactor. Two devices I used growing up and have no desire to ever own.
I honestly cannot think of even one (am I alone in this?), even with being prompted by the other posts.
I’ll keep pondering.
mmm
My NY house has this - the upper oven is also convection. I absolutely LOVE it when it comes to holiday cooking.
The Queen Anne Victorian my parents had that was one of the family houses had that installed, my mom’s maids loved it - never had to drag a vacuum cleaner around, just find an outlet and plug the hoses in =)
My mom had one of the electric can openers - we don’t use them at all - I use the kind that cuts around the tops and the lid pops off, doesn’t leave a sharp edge.
Presuming that thinking you’ve probably got one someplace in the attic but have no idea either where it is if it even works doesn’t count:
A sewing machine.
My mother used to sew. I don’t, except for replacing the occasional button that falls off.
My parents had all the basic1960s gadgets – electric knife, stand mixer, can opener, stereo console. My mother hated television though, so we watched a black and white in the garage for a long time. When that died we had moved to a house with a basement so we watched a color tv in the basement.
I’ve never had a television myself, or any of those electric kitchen devices. When my husband retired and we moved from the little luddite house we’d built, for the first time as an adult I had a dishwasher and a microwave. And a garage! Still getting used to those. Our kids bought us a food processor but I’m kind of afraid to use it. Has sharp whirly knives in there!
Another entry for electric can opener. We used to have one, I don’t know where it came from or where it went, but we’ve never felt the need to replace it. Never had a food processor.
Arthritis will make electric can openers necessary as people age.
I recently bought one for my mom. She had a wall mounted swing away can opener. She couldn’t use it anymore.
Electric can openers aren’t all the same. I read amazon reviews to find one easy for Seniors.