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I'm so old I remember when they use Aluminum for the top of the Washington Monument, because it was way more valuable than gold. I got to actually see it in 1934 while examining the lighting rods that are up there. They are gold-plated, and platinum-tipped lightning rods. The aluminum pyramid was doing just fine.
However, I don't even know if the lightning rods are still there now.
I remember incinerators. Well, just one, actually. My dad was a holdout on getting a gas forced-air furnace, so until I was about 7 or 8 years old our house was heated by a coal incinerator in the basement. My older brother was tasked with shoveling coal; what an awful job. A coal truck would come once a month in winter and dump coal into a chute which led to a large bin in our basement. It was messy and dusty. Worst of all, we breathed that coal dust 24/7/365. The coal-laden air left blackish marks on the heating grates and on the walls above the grates. A few times a year, we had a family cleaning day, and one of my jobs was to scrub the coal marks off the grates and walls.
I remember the "clinkers" that formed in the bottom of the incinerator and that I brought one to my second-grade class for Show and Tell.
We were so thrilled when Dad finally caved and bought a "real" furnace like those that everyone else in the neighborhood had.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PJSaturn
I remember incinerators. Well, just one, actually. My dad was a holdout on getting a gas forced-air furnace, so until I was about 7 or 8 years old our house was heated by a coal incinerator in the basement. My older brother was tasked with shoveling coal; what an awful job. A coal truck would come once a month in winter and dump coal into a chute which led to a large bin in our basement. It was messy and dusty. Worst of all, we breathed that coal dust 24/7/365. The coal-laden air left blackish marks on the heating grates and on the walls above the grates. A few times a year, we had a family cleaning day, and one of my jobs was to scrub the coal marks off the grates and walls.
I remember the "clinkers" that formed in the bottom of the incinerator and that I brought one to my second-grade class for Show and Tell.
We were so thrilled when Dad finally caved and bought a "real" furnace like those that everyone else in the neighborhood had.
.
Yep, Tammy, I also remember the clinkers, coal trucks and chutes. My mom had to go down to the basement of our apartment and shovel the coal into the furnace. (Dad was in England WWII)
How I dreaded those cleaning days with a bucket of Spick and Span.
Was that recent? I thought they'd all be out of circulation by now, one way or another.
I've got a couple of $1 and $5 ones stashed away. Probably pretty useless but I like looking at them sometimes.
Recent? Early 1970s.
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