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You remember the noise that the bathroom door made when it was opened at dawn, the hardness of the floor under your feet, and the nervousness of getting on the scale? For many of us, those memories are intertwined with the most basic and powerful of everyday practices: recording our weight. The Health-O-Meter scale with the traditional design, a metal body and a large glass panel was used for this procedure most of the time. It was not only a tool, but a witness of all our successes and struggles in the process of overcoming the disease to achieve a healthy lifestyle.
Health-O-Meter is a brand that has been around since the early part of the twentieth century, and was born from the marriage of mechanical innovation and the growing concern for personal health. These scales were developed at the period when the culture of health awareness was slowly starting to develop in the United States of America. After the post-war period, with the economy on the rise and suburban living on the rise, the Health-O-Meter scale was widely used in homes. It was the age of chrome and the atom, the streamlined and the awareness of the body and its needs.
The scale was functional and had a good look about it. The base was metal, which provided stability; the dial was also usually quite large and sometimes protected by glass. These scales were made with the idea of durability and quality workmanship characteristic of the post-war period. Whereas today’s electronic models are somewhat unlively, the Health-O-Meter provided a haptic experience: stepping on it, hearing the groan of the metal construction, watching the needle move and stop. It was a process of the senses and of the present, of being in the moment.
In the 50s and the 60s the Health-O-Meter scale was not merely a tool, it was a representation of a changed culture. This period also known as the ‘Me decade’ witnessed the emergence of the wellness culture due to the awareness of the importance of exercise, healthy eating, and medical checkups. The Health-O-Meter scale was typical of the many ads that depicted the happy family as the emblem of the period of hope and the conviction that technocratic civilization would enhance the quality of life.
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