Pluggers by Rick McKee for July 01, 2019

When the internet goes down, they will come in handy.

it’s not even easy to give thrift stores outdated encyclopedias (like the 26{?}-volume set with which I grew up stopped at the Reagan presidency)

yep!! we still have ours!!!

I tried to give mine away…. no luck. So now they sit in my basement because I needed the shelf space for other things. Still can’t bring myself to just throwing them away… Paid too much money for them.

Theylook very impressive on floor to ceiling book shelves. Think of their contents as short stories. Easy to read.

Back in the 50s, Britannica used real leather binding. I’m thinking of using the covers as an accent wall covering.

Remember an episode of the “Twilight Zone” where the electric memory machine went down and they had destroyed all the books. Thus no information :-(

Funk and Wagnalls. One a week at the grocery store.

World Book Encyclopedia – 1968 edition was the one we had. I used it when in school for certain reports, supplemented by the updated version in the school library. But - I once read a couple volumes at a friend’s vacation home from even earlier: 1958. If you are super sensitive to racial or gender roles, or anything else, that version of the encyclopedia is best avoided… I was a little surprised, and bemused by the attitudes that prevailed, even in a book for educational use… :)

It’s a pleasant nostalgic diversion to browse through the volumes of the old “Book of Knowledge”, “Lands and Peoples”, and “My Book House”. As all these are editions sold in the ’50s, they also present a historical commentary even it is a somewhat idealized one.

I have the first decade of The Mother Earth News downstairs. Haven’t looked at one in 6-7 years.

I have been chair bound and having to read the internet. Volume P is incredibly thick, but it’s mostly pictures.

Our World Book is dated 1971, and I still use it from time to time, as I can often find what I want more quickly than trying to search the Internet. I also have my grandfather’s Book of Knowledge, from 1910! It is full of “regular” encyclopedia stuff, but there are also projects that are interesting for children – a model village, sewing projects, “A Little Garden, Month by Month”, and condensed versions of classic stories.

It’s great seeing Al Batt from Heartland , MN contribute another

I remember answering an ad in the paper offering an opportunity to earn really good money selling encyclopedias. I also remember my dad’s laughter when I told him about it…

I have a set from 1911 – well-thumbed.

I have a set that stopped with FDR!

I wish I still had my 1950s childrens’ encyclopaedias…. my father decided they were out of date and burned them. I still have the huge Webster’s dictionary that came with them.

Sorry, but I just gotta say somethin’ that’s slightly “out of character”, for ME. So, with that being said: I LOVE coming to “Pluggers”, to visit, remember(generally-good!)things from “back-then”. Tho’ I don’t know any of you personally? I still feel “among friends”, even if/when we disagree.Man, if only there was a real-life “Cheers”-style bar around for us! But assigning the “characters” would be a real-job. I mean, who’d be our “Norm!!!”? We could fill “Frasier”, with relative-ease, I’m certain. And—though I can’t recall the name just right now?—-of the lady-bartender, with the “street-smarts”? I’d say we could cover-those candidates quite-easily, too!Sorry for the “book”, here. I’m just in a sentimental-mood today, for some reason? (Blame it on the heat/humidity!) You-all’s guys-n’-gals make me laugh at my/our good times—and you soften the blows of at least, MY-“not-so-good” times, of days’-past, as well, and for that, I Thank You…ALL-of you…!!!☺