I was looking at the house I grew up in on Google Maps, and I noticed something that kind of made me sad. That tan roofline behind the house. Apparently somebody build a house right in our back yard! Took out the tree my sister used to climb. Probably the swamp with the frogs you…
Category: Back in My Day
Man in blue doing a crackerjack job
The reason I think this guy came out of a box of Crackerjacks, is I think I got one in like 1966 or so. He is about 1 7/8″ tall, and somewhat thin by “army guy” standards. I wonder what he did to get traffic duty. He has been doing it so long, that he…
Tune to the UHF channel located for your vicinity
Before my dad had cable, he had a standard roof antenna, or on the other TV, just “rabbit ears”. The roof antenna usually would do OK just pointed toward Seattle’s Queen Anne hill, from our outpost in what is now Shoreline. But if you wanted to tune in KVOS out of Bellingham, it would have…
The Army needs men to work in movies
My sister was complaining that she spent the whole morning looking for this particular “army man”. Her grandson claims that this one is the “chief”. She finally found him. He doesn’t look like any NCO to me. Years ago I tried to play a movie in our VCR, but it just sort of groaned and…
Nobody fixes anything anymore.
Another item from my dad’s old 1958 Jensen-Byrd catalog, supplier to hardware retailers all over the west. This is a set of the locking mechanisms for card tables (Playing cards was a big thing too) – Today’s card tables have cardboard surfaces that tend to warp, and these lock assemblies today are easily bent or…
Time to tighten the belt
This postcard suggests that President Reagan and Nancy simply shaved their heads, to save money on tonsorial services. It seems like a small sacrifice, and I would suggest that our current president should do that also. I have been cutting my own hair since this pandemic shutdown began, three times so far. Why do I…
Drawing = Sitting down and being quiet
This is a project from my son in 2nd or 3rd grade I guess. Apparently the idea was to draw an anti-pollution poster. Because pollution is BAD I don’t know what they made in that factory at the top. Frank sees pollution, I see an investment opportunity. Nobody knew when these posters were drawn pointing…
Stacks of wax
Teresa still has her KJR cash card! We go way back listening to Seattle radio. When I got my first radio, there were THREE competing “Top 40” stations on the AM dial; KJR, KING and KOOL. I preferred KOOL. One time they had a special feature on cryogenics; the idea of being frozen when I…
Home of the future of the past
From my wife’s 1962 World’s Fair stuff, a guide to the “plywood house of light”. Look at the curves! Kids were probably punished by being told to stand in the corner. It looks like a nice place, but I would worry about moisture damaging all that plywood. This house allows the owner to control all…
We’ll see.
It is father’s day again, but I don’t even have a recliner, I have to envy my dad’s. I will probably get a “World’s Greatest Dad” trinket today, but let’s face it, my dad could dad circles around me. I remember one time he was calmy sitting in that recliner smoking his pipe, and I…