A little yesterday, together
Family Nostalgia Night
Six familiar things. A few good questions. Room for everyone's story.
Make an ordinary evening a small trip back. Our free pack brings together a picture round, six conversation prompts and a separate answer sheet with sources.
About 20 minutes. Play together or in small teams. Name each object and say what it did. Accept everyday names and skip anything unfamiliar. Keep the answer sheet aside until everyone has had a turn.
Download the free 3-page PDF →Free PDF · 3 pages · About 5.8 MB · No email or signup required
Print on US Letter, or choose “Fit” for A4. Print page 3 separately for the host. You can also play from the pictures below.
What was this for?
Round oneName each object and say what it did. Everyday names count.
Reveal answer A
Rotary-dial telephone
A household telephone with a dial for entering a number, one digit at a time.
Cooper Hewitt: Model 500 telephone ↗
Reveal answer B
Hand-cranked eggbeater
Turning the crank drives the beaters through gears, mixing food without an electric motor. The picture is a stylized drawing.
Smithsonian: Egg beater ↗
Reveal answer C
Audio cassettes
Magnetic tape in a small case could carry recorded music, voices or a homemade mixtape. These are audio tapes, not videotapes.
Philips: First cassette recorder, 1963 ↗
Reveal answer D
Notched-log construction toy
Lincoln Logs is a familiar example. The notches help the little logs interlock. This is a 1920 patent drawing, not a photograph.
National Park Service: Lincoln Logs toy ↗
Reveal answer E
3.5-inch floppy disk
A removable magnetic disk used for computer files and software. The rigid plastic case protects the flexible disk inside.
Computer History Museum: Floppy disks ↗
Reveal answer F
Coffee percolator and its parts
Water rises through the central tube and passes over coffee grounds in the basket. The modern photograph shows the pot and loose parts.
Presto: Percolator tube and basket ↗Let the stories wander.
Take turns choosing a prompt. Listen, ask a follow-up, and let anyone pass. Different households had different routines.
The sound of home
Which everyday sound takes you back: a telephone bell, a kitchen tool, a door or something else? Describe it.
A place for everything
Where did your household keep its telephone, favorite tapes or small kitchen tools? What else was nearby?
Someone showed me how
Who taught you to use an unfamiliar object? What small trick made it easier?
The thing you kept
Is there an ordinary object you still have, or wish you had kept? What story comes with it?
One ordinary afternoon
Choose a year or a place. What might you have been making, listening to or playing with?
Tell me more
Ask someone about an object you never used. What would surprise a person seeing it for the first time?
Keep a copy for your next gathering.
Download the free 3-page PDF →Have an object with a story of its own? Tell us about your keepsake.
Picture sources and notes
Photographs show actual objects; B is a modern stencil illustration and D is a historical patent drawing. Object photographs are not presented as period family snapshots.
- A: File:WE500dialphone.jpg — ProhibitOnions at English Wikipedia, Public domain.
- B: File:Eggbeater stencil.svg — BDavis (WMF), CC0.
- C: File:Heap of tapes.jpg — Hmvh, Public domain.
- D: File:US1351086-Figure 1.png — Lloyd Wright John, Public domain.
- E: File:Frontside of a 3.5" Floppy Disk.jpg — DiscoA340, CC0.
- F: File:Perkulator2.jpg — Andreaze, Public domain.
Object descriptions were checked against the museum and manufacturer sources linked in each answer. Original layout and prompts by Back When Daily. Please share the download-page link so readers get the current edition.