Modern Technology



What we think as modern conveniences and gadgets in the 21st century were not even thought of during the 20th century. Yet, our ancestors thought they were using the most modern technology and gadgets available.

Let us look at what your ancestors during most of the 20th century thought was modern.

Housewives were thrilled to have a small box with index cards and each card was a recipe. These recipe cards were in a neat small box made life getting a favorite or useful recipe very handy.

Having in the house a perfectly formed and easy to handle broom was great. An old-fashion uneven straw broom had its drawbacks.

Before microwave ovens where you use microwave safe dishes or paper plates, there was ‘Fire-King‘ the original oven proof dishes. You used them in an oven.

Popular for anyone were thermoses. They were large, had a handle and their own drinking cup and kept drinks, soups nice and hot.

There was no cable TV or streaming of shows but your ancestors used ‘rabbit ears‘ – no not real ears from a furry rabbit. These metal antenna attached to the family TV and two long tubes went up in a ‘V’ shape to bring in TV stations’ broadcast. Any bad weather, it was harder to bring in the station. No matter the size of the TV set, you had to have rabbit ears and learn how to adjust them to bring in a channel clearly.

Every family had an address book, a listing of friends and family handwritten in alphabetic order. Here at your fingertips were their name, address, phone number and maybe a listing for birth dates and anniversary dates.

Include some of these items in your family history.

Photo: Rabbit Ears on a 1950s TV set

Related FamilyTree.com Blogs:

Your Ancestor the Inventor

New Items Your Ancestors Had

Family Outhouse

< Return To Blog My childhood! Actually, I have all that now, except maybe the rabbit ears.
Sara N Martin 27/05/21


Great !!
alice 27/05/21




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