I watched a television programme on BBC2 this week – The Supersizers Eat…..The Eighties. The programme looks at the food, diet and lifestyle of different decades and this week it was the turn of the Eighties. It is quite funny and interesting and the presenters certainly get immersed in the period. The link for the programme is – http://bbc.co.uk/i/l9ryq/
They featured the power suits of the decade and the start of mobile telephones which are slim and chic now but back then the first phones were more like bricks. This reminded me of the first printers I encountered when I worked in an insurance office, they were around 8 times the size of the standard laser printer you might see now and I recall there was a special room dedicated to them because of the heat and noise.
But two of my favourite retro products are still around – a red dial telephone with the old fashioned but very lovely clear ringtone and a calculator with a small printer attached (again like the mobile phone this has reduced in size, although I am not sure this is a good thing in this case). The calculator is very useful with invoices and receipts. Although there is Microsoft Excel which does calculations sometimes you just want a quick tally and it helps to have a print out to check.
Which would be your favourite retro office product?
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As a US citizen, the blockage of BBC downloads for TV is not what I would wish! Any way to see the show here? Thanks
We got one in our house, an old retro blue telephone but you bet, it’s still working.. haha.. it’s now a relic in our house.
Hello Mike, unfortunately BBC I Player is only available for UK citizens, however if you go to You Tube there are videos of the show there. The Eighties one is not yet on You Tube but it has the Regency and Edwardian shows. The link for the Regency one is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1w-6aLlATQ