Curator of Flotsam. Goes off on tangents.
Since cellphones with the WAZE app installed did not yet exist in 1906, motorists of the day resorted to using confetti flung across the roadway to warn other drivers of a “police trap” ahead.
Since speeds were limited by the capabilities of your horseless carriage, I have to assume that such traps involved general police harassment, and perhaps a nightstick on the noggin. One would be well advised to purchase the proffered tickets to the Policeman’s Widows and Orphans Ball.
An old postcard from the Outrigger Prince Kuhio, featuring some people sitting around in the lobby wearing Leis (Am I spelling the plural of that correctly?) Teresa can’t take me anywhere; I would drop my lei in the nearest trash can.
These are probably timeshare salespeople waiting to pounce on people coming down the elevator if our trips to Las Vegas are any indication. It should be illegal to harass tourists. People have only so much vacation time and spend a bundle to do it. For some, it’s a once in a lifetime trip. LEAVE US ALONE!
It’s 1946, the war is over, and Look magazine asks people what they want. to buy. Because apparently everyone has piles of cash now. They want a pony, a convertible, a cruise. But Dominic just wants a simple gold band…
“No, Dominic, I don’t know what you mean… Exactly what are you interested in having her do?” – Quebec girl’s dad
We cancelled our newspaper subscription, the plastic bags were a nuisance and not recyclable. But I missed doing the crossword puzzles at the kitchen table. I can do crosswords online, but I like getting away from the screens all over creation, and doing it the traditional way.
So sometimes I will find a puzzle and print it. This one I scanned, enlarged, and printed. It’s from 1956 so there are some references I won’t get. Have at it, maybe you will do better.
I was rooting around for something and found these old paystubs, and an electric bill, from 1943.
Looks like they took out about 14% for taxes; I thought taxes were lower back then… Maybe making a whole $1.07 an hour bumped you into a higher bracket? Doesn’t sound like a lot, but his electric bill from a few years previous was only a buck eighty. That’s for 52 killowatt hours. Google says the average household today uses well over 1000 KWH a month. Where is it all going?
Also note the insurance deduction. It’s just for if you are hospitalized. I guess you paid the doc for office visits (Or house calls!) out of pocket, or gave him some chickens? or a bushel of corn?
I was just looking at my son’s insuance plan, it doesn’t kick in until you spend $3000 a year. So I guess that’s like hospitalization insurance too.
Typically, I will take a postcard and add some wiseacre or snarky comment or caption to make it more “honest”. This one, however, is plain and simple, a plea for the recipient to stop whining, because “dis ain’t no morgue”. I don’t know what you would send to cheer up someone who worked at the morgue.
It should be noted that this postcard was printed a scant few years before a global flu pandemic. At that point the thing to do about someone sniffling, would be to get as far away from them as possible.
I was shopping for discount plane fares, and noticed that Alaska Airlines used to be McGee airways.
This was during the Heyday of the Fibber Mcgee and Molly radio show. They probably changed it because of situations like this:
I am terribly sorry to inform you that we are currently unable to locate your luggage. Customer: ‘Taint funny, Mcgee!!
They should have just went with it, and used Johnson Wax on the aisle, and maybe a terrible crash when anyone opened the cockpit door, like Fibber McGee’s closet.
When I was in boot camp, they usually just yelled and banged garbage cans. It didn’t matter to me, I was usually awake, hearing people that got up even earlier marching in the distance, or at least the wind whistling off the lake.
This card was sent to Billie R. From Virgil, and I have several of them, I suspect she kept them all her days. As far as I can make out, it says;
Hello Billy! I received your sweet letter today and was sure glad to hear from you. I guess that I did tell Eddie that you were working every day, I allow that (something) short of hands…. He would give you a job while school was out but it would be too much on you for regular work. You need to rest and play while you are young and can enjoy yourself —-
Truer words were never spoken, Virgil!
P.S. What is the guy in the next bunk dreaming about?
Years ago, women were so bored out of their skulls that they would flock to a man wearing a “Kiss me in the dark, baby” glow in the dark tie.
It didn’t hurt his odds any that they were attending parties where everyone would get drunk and someone would put Johnny Mathis on the hi-fi and turn the lights out.
Looks like I will be sporting my Archie Bunker campaign button again in 2020, since I don’t have a button for Pat Paulsen. I remember my dad hated that a comedian candidate was able to get into the voter guide. But Even then I thought that parody and mockery have a place in political discourse.
Dad should have ran, I would have voted for him, “the cribbage candidate”.