Relics from years gone by
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (326100)
Rockingham, Australia
November 19, 2021 6:20am CST
Recently, when we visited our old home town of Donnybrook in Western Australia, my friend and I had coffee at a new cafe. The old railway goods shed has been converted into a coffee house.
It is a big building and part of it is devoted to a few artefacts from the early days of the town. Donnybrook was first famous for its apples and there is an apple-grading machine on display. The apples moved down a conveyor belt and rolled off the belt under a bar according to the size of the apple. It is a simple enough construction but quite ingenious.
Another display under glass showed classroom items from early in the century. One of the items in the top right photo is a grater. Until we moved, I had one just like this.
24 people like this
25 responses
@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
19 Nov 21
We had that type of grater when I was a kid on the farm. The grater Pretty and I have looks like this one.
8 people like this
@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
19 Nov 21
@JudyEv We never used any of the other ones.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (215688)
• Chile
19 Nov 21
I still have a grater like that. But I don´t use it any longer.
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@JudyEv (326100)
• Rockingham, Australia
19 Nov 21
@TheSojourner The one I use now is a sort of cone-shape.
3 people like this
@marguicha (215688)
• Chile
19 Nov 21
@TheSojourner I now bought a new one. It might have only a decade
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@marguicha (215688)
• Chile
19 Nov 21
@JudyEv My new grater has a small "drawer" where the grated stuff is kept.
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@BarBaraPrz (45560)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
19 Nov 21
I guess it was used to grate those big yellow bars of Sunlight soap before they figured out how to make the liquid or powder forms.
3 people like this
@Fleura (29199)
• United Kingdom
19 Nov 21
@BarBaraPrz Yes it must have been, before they invented soap flakes. I didn't realise that for years.
2 people like this
@JudyEv (326100)
• Rockingham, Australia
20 Nov 21
@Fleura @BarBaraPrz I have a cone-shaped grater now that has three different sizes of grater. I can remember Mum grating soap into hot water.
1 person likes this
@wilsongoddard (7291)
• United States
19 Nov 21
I love stuff like that. If I had my way, by now my husband and I would be living in a large old house filled with antiques and retro pieces. Of course, that is not the way things have worked; he doesn't seem one who wants to plant roots in one place, unfortunately.
1 person likes this
@wilsongoddard (7291)
• United States
22 Nov 21
@JudyEv Every time I "declutter," it seems that circumstances conspire to ensure that even more stuff pops up.
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@JudyEv (326100)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Nov 21
@wilsongoddard Yes, any spaces you manage to create, quickly become full again somehow.
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@RasmaSandra (73637)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
20 Nov 21
That sounds interesting I love to see old things
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@RasmaSandra (73637)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
21 Nov 21
@JudyEv I also love old antique shops and the smell there and then walking around and looking at all the things
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@xFiacre (12619)
• Ireland
19 Nov 21
@judyev I can see my mother’s grater sitting on the kitchen table, just like the one in the photo. However dairy wasn’t a thing in rural 1960s Malawi so the grater never got used. Nearest place to get cheese was in the city 500 miles away. Cook never got to make anything cheesy.
2 people like this
@JudyEv (326100)
• Rockingham, Australia
20 Nov 21
@Fleura When I picked up apples once we were told to twist the apple a little and not to pull it straight down. If you did it wrongly, you could see the imprint of your fingers on the apple. I guess that's a bit different to them just rolling down a chute.
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@JudyEv (326100)
• Rockingham, Australia
20 Nov 21
I didn't explain it well and the photos don't show it well. The lower right photo is the apple sorter and the base is a flat board angled to one side so the apples all travelled down, say, the left side. If they were small enough they slipped under a vertical board near the top; otherwise they rolled (gently one hoped) further down till they could fit under the board. Hope that helps.
The lower left photo is I think a conveyor system for potatoes.
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@JudyEv (326100)
• Rockingham, Australia
20 Nov 21
I'd love to go through a printing factory and see the newspapers come flying out. And seeing pill bottles get filled on those conveyor belt things. They're more modern I guess but the old ways of doing things has always interested me too. My great grand-father rode his bike 100 miles to watch a demonstration of a new hay-baler because he didn't believe a machine could tie a knot.
1 person likes this
Now I do understand, no need to e that old
@snowy22315 (170302)
• United States
20 Nov 21
I think seeing the custard powder in a can is funny.
1 person likes this
@rebelann (111236)
• El Paso, Texas
19 Nov 21
Wow, kool shots and items. That grater reminds me of the old vegetable grater mom would use way back in the 60s and late 50s. I hated that thing because whenever she would ask me to grate potatoes I'd end up scraping the tips of my fingers as the tater got smaller.
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (86833)
• United States
19 Nov 21
What an interesting place Judy..I love all this thank you for sharing it.
Now fancy that , you had that grater.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (156807)
• United States
20 Nov 21
The grater I have has all the different holes; but it is in one solid piece -- rectangular shaped. Interesting.
1 person likes this
@nitirrbb7 (4317)
• India
20 Nov 21
That was nice of you to collage the picture I too like to visit old places.
1 person likes this
