# What's The Oldest Thing You Use Everyday?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [November 19, 2011, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449 "2011-11-19T13:25:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/61 "2011-11-21T00:36:43Z")
Hydrogen atoms that have been around for 13 billion years or so.
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### Author:  [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2011, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/62 "2011-11-21T00:49:42Z")
I have lots of old stuff - antiques I inherited and thrift store things I’ve picked up over the years, but for daily use, the most notable old thing I have is a 20+ year old tv. When my brother gave it to me, it was huge at 32". Now it’s just ordinary. It just won’t die, and I likely won’t replace it until it does.
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/63 "2011-11-21T00:51:35Z")
I play a couple of guitars that are each over 60 years old.
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### Author:  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/64 "2011-11-21T00:52:10Z")
> [@Ann\_Onimous](#):
>
> Beautiful! For me, it’s my purple Game Boy Color.
I must ask: what games?
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### Author:  [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/65 "2011-11-21T01:15:33Z")
My beautiful cast iron bed! It was a present from my parents, they bought it at auction and it came from a farm in the Welsh valley where they used to have a holiday cottage. I haven’t a clue how old it is, but it was handmade and it’s so old it’s from when people were smaller. It’s also no ‘proper’ size & wonky, so we had to have the mattress made.
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### Author:  [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/66 "2011-11-21T01:21:56Z")
If it’s not the house (built in the early 1950s), it’s probably a set of end tables I inherited from my maternal grandparents. Maybe +60 years old. We have things that are older (books, furniture, jewelry, tools, objets d’art) but not used everyday.
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### Author:  [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2011, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/67 "2011-11-21T01:58:25Z")
oh lordy, I completely forgot my dresser. It is birds-eye maple, hand carved and uses pegs instead of nails. It has a hat box on one side of it and a gorgeous hand-carved mirror above it. It was my great grandmother’s. My mother gave away the matching dressing table before she realized the value of it. I’ve been using this dresser my whole life.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/68 "2011-11-21T04:15:19Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#):
>
> I love the new math.
Did I mention the month old baby and the no sleep? 141 is the correct number of years.
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### Author:  [@codgerone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codgerone)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/69 "2011-11-21T18:46:22Z")
My father’s wedding ring (ok, don’t use but wear every day) 65 years old
Sharpening steel with bone handle and silver accents c80 years old
Grandmother’s mirror c100 years old
My brain - 56 years old and fading fast
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### Author:  [@Kiber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiber)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/70 "2011-11-22T13:57:59Z")
Not quite as old as other things mentioned here - but I use my HP 11C scientific calculator 4-5 days a week. I got that in June of 1987, making it roughly 24 years old. And after some of the previous posts, I just used it again to confirm it’s own age.
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### Author:  [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/71 "2011-11-22T19:33:29Z")
Our bed and dresser dates back to the mid-1880s. There’s a grandfather clock in the kitchen that dates back at least to the 1840s. although it’s getting tempermental these days and we don’t wind it as much as we used to.
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### Author:  [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/72 "2011-11-22T20:18:09Z")
I can’t say that I use them five days out of every seven, but I do use my wooden hand planes pretty frequently. To me they’re an everyday object. Some of them are from the 1880s.
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### Author:  [@Bri2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bri2k)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/73 "2011-11-22T22:43:03Z")
Everyday: circa 1981 General Electric digital alarm clock/radio.
Seasonal: M-1941 field jacket made 10/18/1948.
Bri2k
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### Author:  [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/74 "2011-11-23T02:02:31Z")
I had two I was going to mention, but it is with sincere grief that I announce the death of The Cheese Slicer, a mere 15 minutes ago when slicing some sharp cheddar. I can’t get a precise date on it, but I’ve used it all my life, so it’s at least 54 years old. It was the best cheese slicer ever…non-adjustable, which was a plus, because those adjustable ones always slip out of position. The wire just…snapped. It was plain, but elegant in its simplicity. I found a similar style at either Sur La Table or Williams-Sonoma a few months back while in North Carolina, and bought one, just as insurance against this day, but did not divulge its existence so as not to hasten the inevitable. No one living in this household knew of the replacement’s existence. In fact, I had even forgotten I bought it, until I heard that awful “SNAP” and found myself with a half-sliced slice. Now I need to figure out where I hid it. Rest in piece, Cheese Slicer. (oh, you know I’m going to try to find a way to replace the wire. Not throwing that puppy away while there is even a chance…). Almost no modern cheese slicers are the same quality, even at 50 times the price. Mom thinks it may have cost a dollar way back when.
The other item is the kitchen table, a beautiful pedestal 60" round table my father made my hand, also over 54 years ago. We only see the actual glorious unblemished surface once every few years, because it is kept covered by custom table pads and a tablecloth at all times. I think it is oak. It is way too big for the kitchen, but it is my favorite thing in the world.
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### Author:  [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/75 "2011-11-23T03:35:51Z")
My first thought was my penis, which dates back to the mid fifties. I have many old books, but a can’t say that I use them everyday, even my CRC handbook. I do have a sweater my mother bought for me around 1980 that I still wear regularly when it is chilly. I think 30 years is quite elderly for a piece of clothing that is worn regularly.
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### Author:  [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/76 "2011-11-23T03:57:54Z")
My gas stove is from the 1930s. You light the oven with a match, kids.
I have my father’s Navy peacoat and canvas hammock from 1944-45, which both get a lot of seasonal use.
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### Author:  [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/77 "2011-11-23T04:25:47Z")
Does the English language count? How about carbon atoms or hydrogen ions in my tissues?
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### Author:  [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/78 "2011-11-23T04:56:49Z")
Okay, house, the sun, hydrogen atoms, the sidewalk, and the English language are all cheating. My answer is my clothing iron, which I suppose is cheating too since I only use it about 3x/week, but I don’t own anything else that’s old. My iron I’ve had for 13 years. My next oldest items would be my sofa and bicycle, which are maybe 5 or 6 years old.
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### Author:  [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/79 "2011-11-23T05:48:56Z")
I use a Revere Ware one gallon sauce pan regularly that is sixty plus years old. Got it from my mom. Don’t use the pistol all that often, it’s 68. And the cast iron “spaghetti sauce” pot, which I really don’t use very often is over 200 years old. That was my great grandmother’s heirloom from her family. Living alone, you don’t make a two gallon pot of much of anything all that often.
Tris
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### Author:  [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-thing-you-use-everyday/603449/80 "2011-11-23T07:04:44Z")
Acoustic guitar, around 40 years old.
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