Obsolete Technology: Standard Issue c1960

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Melissa Kean

This communications technology (down on the floor) is even older than the portable Compaq I found the other day:

girl in dorm likely late 50s but nd 049

I love the chairs too. And the lamp. And the floor. And her socks. All of it really.

Bonus:

IMG_2854

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16 Responses to Obsolete Technology: Standard Issue c1960

  1. Bill Peebles, Hanszen '70 says:
    March 9, 2016 at 5:41 pm

    I have an HP 41CV calculator I still use on a daily basis that I bought in 1983.

    Reply
  2. Walter Underwood says:
    March 9, 2016 at 6:00 pm

    She didn’t always wear shorts and socks. Tucked in behind a chair is a hem marker. I used to help my mom with one of those.

    It looks like this:

    https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2016/03/07/families-integrated-housing/22003/

    Also, the plate on the back of the typewriter appears to say “Underwood”.

    Reply
  3. Karen says:
    March 9, 2016 at 9:39 pm

    We had a T I 57 back in the late 70s. As I recall, at least the 59 had a reader for programs. Don’t remember if the 58 did or not. The 57 didn’t. I remember typing in instructions to play a lunar landing game on the calculator. I don’t remember whether we ever made a successful landing!

    Reply
  4. Paul E says:
    March 10, 2016 at 8:37 am

    For me, the astounding thing is that I can tell that is a Jones College short-end suite, just from the location of the private bathroom door and those marble walls. I can’t see anything through the window to know if it’s North or South, though. I think they still had those dressers when I was there in the late 80s…

    Reply
    • Melissa Kean says:
      March 10, 2016 at 8:45 am

      This is exactly the type of comment that keeps me writing this blog, which is harder than it looks. Thank you!

      Reply
    • Melissa Keane (Jones '72) says:
      March 10, 2016 at 4:16 pm

      You are exactly right, Paul. We called it the “Senior Suite” (you can guess why). In the fall of 1969, Jones was overcrowded due to a bumper crop of freshman, and four of us sophomores offered to live together in one of the Senior Suites in Jones South. Julie Williams Itz’s dad made two sets of bunk beds for us (I have wondered how many years those bunk beds remained in Jones). I, too, recognize the dresser. And, YES, it is a hem marker, for sure!

      Reply
  5. Marty Merritt (Hanszen '84/85) says:
    March 10, 2016 at 9:48 am

    Yeah, love the dresser, too. And the blog!

    Reply
  6. marmer01 says:
    March 10, 2016 at 9:54 am

    Terrazzo tile. Love that too. If you zoom in, you can see that she is smoking, which is what people did back then, and that she has groovy glasses.

    Reply
  7. Steve Lukingbeal says:
    March 10, 2016 at 10:14 am

    You know you are really old when you see a picture like this and nothing stands out as unusual. Except that our Hanszen College HVAC vents were closer to the floor.

    Reply
  8. Carolyn Brewer says:
    March 10, 2016 at 12:53 pm

    That is Nancy Head Bowen (class of 1958), later got her MA & PHD from Rice. I just had lunch with her in San Antonio yesterday, March 9. Yes, that is a suite in Jones South which Nancy & I shared in 1958-59. I believe that would be our typewriters on the floor. Nancy is sitting at my drafting table & I do not think we had a hem marker ! Carolyn Satterwhite Brewer

    Reply
    • vkbenson says:
      March 11, 2016 at 7:10 pm

      I hope Nancy has given up smoking!

      Reply
    • nahbow36@yahoo.com says:
      March 19, 2016 at 1:42 pm

      We did have a hem-marker, one given to me by my mother who hoped I would use it. If I recall correctly, I hauled it out two or three times over the next sixty years .Carolyn, we need to tell Melissa that wearing shorts or jeans or even slacks outside the dorm or dining room was not the common or “proper” practice in the olden days. One could, however, “dress down” for the gym, the zoo, or a similar outing.
      Nancy Head Bowen

      Reply
  9. marmer01 says:
    March 10, 2016 at 2:47 pm

    Yeah, I thought that looked like a drafting table. But that sure looks like a hem marker, too. Maybe someone borrowed it and, unable to return it to the proper owner, asked you to give it to them? Now we’ve really got a mystery on our hands!

    Reply
  10. Deborah Gronke Bennett BSEE Hanszen 1982 says:
    March 18, 2016 at 1:26 am

    I had a TI-57 just like that when I was at Rice. I wonder what ever happened to it? I still own my favorite calculators, the HP-15 (scientific) and HP-16 (hex and binary).

    Reply

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