Category: Flotsam

Posted in Back in My Day, Flotsam, In the Shop

Don’t throw the radio in the river

Posted on by NeverJetHot

My dad bought this model GE radio for my mom, I think for their anniversary? They were listening to it at the breakfast table, it woke me up so I got the treat of having a pre-dawn bacon and egg breakfast with my parents. This was much better than fighting over the Quisp or Cap’n Crunch when all the other Everett brats were up.

I think it was 1967 because they were playing “Ode to Billy Joe”, so I was 7. I don’t know when the radio made the transition from the kitchen nook to the garage, sadly I have inherited it (It was in the back of a closet and hardly plays, I guess dad didn’t have the heart to chuck it, sentimental reasons.)

They make a rebuild kit to make it play AM good as new, and a kit to make it function as a bluetooth speaker; but the handle is broken. I have no idea how a double stitched leather strap breaks right across the top, but this one did. There is also paint on the case but I could clean that off. They made this model for years so maybe I could find a good one for parts. Stay, uh, tuned.

Posted in Flotsam

This is bloody hilarious

Posted on by NeverJetHot

A friend of ours was going through her dad’s hilarity and knick-knack box, and found this old practical joke.

(Everybody’s dad has a drawer of stuff. My dad’s mainly had coins and tokens, one from a place called “The Stork Club” which sounds expensive.)

Anyhoo… The idea here was that you talked into the little microphone/speaker, then you were supposed to “press button firmly” – but the “button” concealed an inverted thumbtack that would impale your finger, much to the delight of the other drunken fools in the room. Probably there would usually be someone so drunk, they would say “Oh! Let me try!”

Posted in Flotsam

These are the sounds of your life

Posted on by NeverJetHot

This was one of those yard sales with dozens of boxes o’crap on tables in the yard, most with no price. They had I think grandma sitting in the carport taking payment. She had no idea what this little box was, pushed the “Yee Haw” button and cracked up.

I lumped it in with all the junk my wife was getting and got it for a measley dollar! (Actually, free- Teresa paid for it)

The grandma asked what it was, I said it was just a little noise box to annoy my wife. I like to press the “fart” button during dinner.

Posted in Back in My Day, Flotsam, Mildly Interesting

Happy to be playing again

Posted on by NeverJetHot

I got caught up in bidding frenzy and wound up buying this old Zenith Trans-Oceanic at the Saturday auction for forty bucks.

I figured to put a kit in that bypasses the old capacitors and the power tube, but no need! It plays perfectly here, at least on AM radio. I haven’t picked up any shortwave, but didn’t try that hard yet.

I found the original manual and schematic tucked inside. It was originally owned by a man named Delbert. Boy, you don’t meet too many Delberts these days. I plan to add a dial light and bluetooth; because that’s what Delbert would want.

Also I’ll run a wire antenna out the window, and stay up late some night, bet it will pull in KGO down in San Francisco, as my Orange GE AM radio did with the wire antenna added, when I was a kid staying up at night listening to KING, KOOL, and KJR battle it out for our hearts and minds.

Posted in Flotsam

Fun facts to know and tell

Posted on by NeverJetHot

There is something wrong with this, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Apparently pigs used to brush their teeth with their own hair? The “photomicrographs” make me want a hog bristle toothbrush, it looks like it would get between teeth better than rounded plastic bristles.

Ma pig is just set in her ways.

Posted in Back in My Day, Flotsam

DO YOUR BEST or I will do my worst

Posted on by NeverJetHot

I was in the Cub Scouts a million years ago. Still smarting from my parents selling my train set to pay for the uniform which I did not want to wear anyway.

I think we got on our den mother’s nerves. One time she was driving kids home in her behemoth station wagon, and piped up with, “Let’s play a game! See if you can not make a sound as long as the light is red!” I thought, what a stupid game! There is no skill in it! Anyone can do THAT!

I lost.

Posted in Flotsam

Baltic Shoplifter?

Posted on by NeverJetHot

I went to the saturday auction by myself yesterday, but I picked up this little figure for Teresa.

Some guy at the auction thought she “looked Lithuanian” but didn’t explain why. I think Russian?

Looks like she has diverticulitis. Also, she appears to be hiding about 30 pounds of kielbasa in her skirt. That’s a clue.

Posted in Back in My Day, Flotsam

Be the life of the party (until you’re not)

Posted on by NeverJetHot

When I was a kid, some comic books would have ads proclaiming that you could “Throw your voice”; as I recall, it strongly implied that I could do things like make my mother think that my sister was talking back to her. Apparently they would send a non-rusty version of this device, and instructions of some sort. But what if someone asked you something? Were you supposed to keep a handkerchief or Kleenex handy to pretend to cough into?

This is some Jeff Dunham level stuff here. That would be most amusing to see what would happen if mom heard Evelyn say “I keeeel you!!” But I would have started cracking up and probably end up with this thing lodged in my trachea.