Compartment 18

On the left is an Oster Stim-U-Lax Junior massager. My uncle joked that these were sometimes used for purposes ‘other than massaging’, which is an obvious thought to have. The box says ‘Soothing…Stimulating’ on its cover, which is suggestive. I’ve heard that back in the day doctors, including psychiatrists, used to give massagers or vibrators to their anxious or depressed patients who might benefit from them – maybe it was purchased for a similar reason, or maybe it was innocently used for relaxing tense muscles and joints. The massager is still in the box and has all its parts.

I haven’t tested it and, because of my uncle’s suggestion of its potential use as a vibrator, I don’t really want to touch it, though I touched a lot of other dusty and dirty things in assembling these pieces and inhaled a lot of particles of various kinds, at times feeling somewhat congested as a result. It probably wouldn’t be that bad, and I could always use gloves. It might be worth seeing if it still works, just to add to the pile of evidence in this collection that they really ‘don’t make em like they used to’

The leather case on the right side is beat up and has a nice patina. It looks like it locks, but you just have to push in the keyholes to open it. I’m sure the keys are long lost. Inside is a shoe polish kit. It probably belonged to my grandfather Henry.