Things I wish were available again

Last week I went on Microsoft Explorer (I usually use Yahoo or Google), and I saw a “top-ten” style list of “Things I wish were available again” (or some such wording - I just checked and I can’t find the link now, but it was an interesting list on MSN followed by a fun discussion). There were comments such as “Oh wow, I remember those”, and much bemoaning the loss of one item in particular, Planters Cheeze Balls. Another thing I remember being mentioned were Tato Skins (usually a vending machine snack item). And just to prove the list wasn’t entirely about snack foods, the 1957 Chevy was listed too.

Maybe we can have some fun with this topic here on The Porch. Think about things you wish were still around, or that you could have again, as you read my list. I did a little research putting this together, and it turns out that a few of these items can still be had with some difficulty, or in new versions, or only in certain regions of the country…or in one case have started to make a comeback (tube socks with colored stripes). So I’m going to title my list…

Bob’s list of things I wish were still readily available

(I’m sorry the Planters Cheeze Balls and the Tato Skins are gone, but those have already been mentioned so I won’t go on and on about that. Here’s my list of 12 other items, more or less in order.)

12. 1957 Chevy

I remember when my Dad bought a ’57 Chevy Handyman Wagon for my Mom for a Mother’s Day gift in 1957. It was a very stylish car, with lots of chrome and big tailfins. Ours was the light blue color with some white; we called it Bluebell. A great car with plenty of room inside for the family and whatever luggage we wanted to take with us on vacation trips. As the years went by the car sat idle next to the garage, until Dad fixed it up for my 21 st birthday, and I loaded it up and drove back to college.

Our '57 was a Handyman wagon,
Like Jay Leno's, shown here...


...except it was the shade of blue, like this Bel Aire.


I still kind of wish I had that car back again – or maybe a different style of the ’57 Chevy – but there’s a reason this isn’t higher on my list. There are a lot of things we take for granted in today’s cars that just weren’t standard then. If I had a ’57 now, the first thing I’d do would be to have seatbelts installed. I’d get used to the manual transmission, no problem. The lack of power brakes would take some getting used to, but that would be do-able. But what I think would bother me most would be the lack of power steering. Those old steering wheels were a beast to crank around to turn corners – though I guess that built up the arm muscles. Again, it could be done, but it would take some of the fun out of it. And I’d miss not having air conditioning in the summer. I guess I’ve gotten a bit soft over the years.

11. Tube socks with colored stripes

After many years of boring plain white socks, the ones with the colored stripes are starting to become available again and can be ordered online. My plan is to buy an assortment, that way my son and I can divide them by color code to simplify the sorting process as they are washed and dried.

10. Fizzies

Admittedly these didn’t taste that great, as they used whatever artificial sweetner was available at the time. But they were sure fun to make, just drop the tablet in your glass of water for instant pop (or soda, for you easterners). Rumor has it that they’re coming back on the market.

9. Silver dollars

Nothing had quite the heft of the old coins. But I might as well dream of a sound economy first.

8. Coalgate Irish Spring shaving cream

A good foamy shaving cream, like the Coalgate aloe I use now. But the Irish Spring version had my all time favorite scent, and I wish they’d put it back on the market.

7. Cheezits White Cheddar Popcorn

The best microwave cheese popcorn, just delicious. Unfortunately I discovered this not long before it was discontinued. For a while you could still buy it already popped in a bag, but that soon went away too. I’d like to have this again.

6. The Monster Cookie at Carlos Murphy’s restaurant

Carlos Murphy’s no longer exists, but in the 1980’s it was a restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas. I never did find out if it was part of a small chain, or just one of a kind. Their specialty Monster Cookie was huge, a freshly made chocolate chip cookie almost the size of a dinner plate. Topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge, it was outstanding. Healthy…well, no. But you made the order knowing that ahead of time, and expected to work it off later. One of the little joys in life, and now I wish we’d made the trip for a monster cookie more often. That’s hindsight for you.

5. Certain discontinued model rocket engines

Of course I’d get around to a tie-in with my favorite hobby. We actually have more model rocket engines (or more properly, motors) to choose from now, but I’ll mention a couple of out-of-production motors I’d like to use again. (And I promise to keep the jargon short and to the point.)

The B14’s from Estes and Centuri were among the best of the early model rocket engines. The center of the propellant grain was cored, allowing a stronger thrust spike after ignition. You could make a heavier model rocket really get up and move, and these were great for lifting decent payloads, or for the B egg-lofting competition event. You could also use the B14-0 booster in a good sized two-stage rocket for a fun flight, particularly for launching a two-staged Delta Camroc, the first model rocket camera.

E and F black powder motors from Flight Systems, Inc. There were two basic varieties, a series of long burning altitude motors, the E6 and the F7 with an amazing 9 1/2 second burn time; and the powerful E60 and F100 motors for lifting the heavier big scale rockets FSI sold when they were in business. There are more powerful composite motors on the market today, but the FSI motors gave awesome flights for less cost. And since there were -0 booster versions, they could be directly staged.

4. Team Flakes cereal

This was the first, great multigrain cereal. They had a great flavor, and stayed crisp in milk all the way to the bottom of the bowl. They were my favorite for years. Nowadays I really like Honey Bunches of Oats (or the generic equivalents), but if they were to bring Team Flakes back on the market, I’d put them back in my breakfast rotation as quickly as I could get to a store while keeping my car on the road.

3. Transformer strings of 20 C6 size Christmas twinkle lights

For those of you born in the late 1960’s or after, I’m sorry; you missed out. The immature – er, sorry, miniature lights common today are better than nothing, and they have their uses (I use a couple of strings of these on my Christmas tree and the fireplace mantle to power some Hallmark lighted ornaments). I also like the new LED lights for outdoor use, they’re bright and colorful and the savings on the electric bill is considerable. You can leave them on every night without denting the budget.


GE D25 (C6 size) Twinkle Lights

But nothing tops the effect of randomly twinkling lights on the tree; in the good sense of the word they really are magical. You may have seen the slightly larger C7 size twinkle lights where the string plugs straight into the wall without a transformer. The C7’s are my second favorite, but I only use one string of them on the lower branches. They seem a bit bright to crowd together near the top of the tree; kind of overwhelming, I think. You can still get the steady burning C7 cool lights, but the C7 twinkle lights will become collectible, as they ceased production two years ago.

On the other hand, the C6 twinkle lights have been quite scarce and collectible for years now; the last time I saw those in a store was in 1966. Like it said on the box, “They twinkle like stars”.

Best. Christmas lights. Ever. What else can I say?

(These would be at the very top of my list, except that I’ve managed to collect a supply. Heh heh.)

2. Oroweat Australian Toaster Biscuits

These were kind of like an English muffin, but with a finer texture, and I thought, a better taste; they were melt-in-your-mouth good. Australian Toaster Biscuits might be at the top of my list, except that in theory and with difficulty, you can still get them. Costco shows online that they still sell packs of 18 as a “Business” item, but I’m not sure how an average consumer would go about making the purchase. Anyway, they aren’t in the stores like they used to be. However, there is a recipe that shows up in a few places on the internet…

1. Polly’s Pop

A wonderful local item, and part of everyone’s childhood in the K.C. metro until 1968. Bottled at the Jackson County Bottling Company in Independence, they originally used spring water; but they changed to city water (just as good, here in Independence) before my time. It was what I like to think of as flavored pop (not cola), and the recipes were great. The one I remember best was the orange flavor. It was sweet enough, but not too sweet; it actually tasted like oranges. All the other orange pops I’ve tasted since then have been a bit too candy like; none have come close to Polly’s. The bottles are collectible, and can be found on eBay occasionally. You gotta love the parrot.

Yes...but an eclipse of what?

I won't keep you in suspense, besides it's pretty cool once you know.

Japan sent a probe to the Moon, which has been in orbit for some time. The probe (the name escapes me right now), recently took and transmitted back this image of the Sun being eclipsed by the Earth.

Can I guess?

The picture that Bob posted for Can you guess? had me stumped for a long time, apparently for a week, but now I have a guess. I'm not saying I'm right, but I am saying I have something to say.

For a long time it appeared to me to be a picture of some object orbiting some other in space. But I could never get that to be 'right' in my mind. Something in one picture or the other would preclude that, I thought.

However something occurred to me today. I think the mystery image is of an eclipse 'rising' on the horizon.

What say you, Dr. Bob?

February 20, 2009

Today would have been my Mom's 84th birthday. It started out okay, and I was able to keep some good memories of happy times in mind. I got to looking at some old photos around 3:30, with the thought of posting one here. At that point I got a bit wistful, I guess that's the word.



I'm not sure when this was taken, but 10 years ago is probably as good a guess as any. I really like this photo.

I'm confident that Mom's in heaven with our Lord, and I expect to see her again eventually. I have a wonderful family, and I'm very thankful for that. As I looked for some of her photos, I also found some of my Dad, also Mom's parents (my Grandma and Poppy), and some of my great aunts from both sides of my family.

I miss my people.

Time passes, and I work through this sense of loss as best as I can. It seems to come to the surface on significant days. I suppose that's normal.

Well, enough of that. There's one photo of my Mom and her Dad playing cards, and I almost scanned it, then I realized I've already posted it here. (Scroll down to the third photo.)

Can you guess?

I had something else in mind to post first this evening, but then I came across this. It helps to click on the image to enlarge it, but it still doesn't look like much at first. But once you know what it is, you might agree with me that it's pretty cool.

The only hint I'll give is that it's not one photo, but a composite of five separate images.

So, any guesses? Comments?

Back at my computer keyboard, with some old memories

Well I’m back, and it’s great to have a working computer at home again. (Obligatory comment: it’s funny how much we depend on computers now, and just a few years ago whether or not you had a computer wasn’t all that much of an issue.)

And thanks Mike for your posts - though I'm still not quite sure what to make of the last one. Interesting...um, yeah, that's it.

Anyway, while the compy was in the shop, I made various trips to two of the local libraries, the Mid-Continent Library South Independence branch, and the Kansas City Library Trails West branch, for internet access.

Changing the subject…

While at Trails West, I noticed a book display “Of Local Interest”. Here’s the one that caught my attention…


…so I checked out and read “Caught In the Path” by Carolyn Glenn Brewer. I’ll not attempt to make a full fledged book review; the comments on Amazon.com (where I found this photo) describe the book well. (By the way, the cover photo is of the tornado when it was out in the country near Spring Hill, Kansas, before it crossed into Missouri to wreak destruction in Martin City, Hickman Mills, and Ruskin Heights). I found other photos online from a NOAA site, so if you’re curious you can click and see what the tornado looked like from the Ottawa Kansas airport, a wider view of the book cover photo - note the multiple funnels – near Spring Hill, and the destruction of the Ruskin High School, the path through Ruskin Heights, and a close-up showing concrete slabs and debris.

If you’re expecting loads of technical terms, diagrams, and textbook explanations of how tornadoes form, that’s not what this book is about. The stories here are personal eyewitness accounts of people in the path, where they hid to ride out the storm, including one account of a survivor caught outdoors, who was briefly inside the funnel. The book is all the more fascinating for the personal touch. The last half of “Caught In the Path” details how individuals coped with the aftermath; finding family members, the cleanup, and how they pulled together as a community to rebuild.

A few things I found interesting…

I read some old, everyday expressions I haven’t encountered in years. One woman described what she had been doing just before the tornado hit, she had been “sprinkling clothes”. I remember my mom doing that as part of the ironing process…before steam irons were common. Later in the book, after the storm, another lady mentioned seeing a “fire wagon” drive down the street. I haven’t heard them called anything but fire engines or fire trucks for decades now.

I was reminded of some of the bad old tornado safety advice, which was thought to be good advice at the time. Some people wasted time opening windows to “equalize the pressure”, and didn’t quite get to the safest shelter in time. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame them. We were all told to do that for years, until the weather experts studied enough tornado damage to conclude it didn’t help, and the extra time spent would just put you at risk.

Also, there was one mention of a family who intended to get to the southwest corner of the basement, but didn’t quite get there…fortunately, as it turned out. Most of their house collapsed into that corner, and they would have been crushed. For many years we were told the southwest corner of the basement was the safest place, but the more recent advice I’ve heard is to get under a sturdy table or workbench, in a basement closet if you have one, or under the stairway if there’s an opening. These places offer better protection from falling debris.

Understandably, survivors separated from family members were in a state of panic, trying to find their loved ones. It struck me how difficult it was for people to find a working telephone, how many blocks they had to walk, to let relatives or friends outside the damaged area know they were all right. I suppose that today if an F5 tornado hit enough cell phone towers that could still be an issue. But I suspect with the narrowness of a tornado’s path (intense destruction, but not widespread like a hurricane), that most cell phone repeaters would still function, and it would be easier and quicker now to contact people afterward, than it was back then.

Except for my time away at college, I’ve lived in the Kansas City area my entire life. So in the book I recognized the names of several local television and radio personalities, Walt Bodine, Randall Jesse, Charles Gray, Joe Kramer, Bill Leeds, and also that of Kansas City mayor H. Roe Bartle.

May 20, 1957 - What I remember

On a personal note, I was only 3 1/2 years old at the time, but I distinctly remember that storm and I doubt that I’ll ever forget it. We lived in the Maywood neighborhood at the time, now part of Independence, Missouri. So, not only did the tornado miss us by several miles, but I don’t recall any hail damage either (of course, while the storm was in progress we didn’t know that the tornado would miss us). It was a tremendously strong thunderstorm, with a great deal of thunder and lightning, and it really poured too.

Since that night, on occasion the story of the Ruskin Heights tornado has come up in our family. My sister Connie has told of something she and our mom had done earlier that day. Apparently the early part of the day was really nice (I don’t remember that part), and they had planted some flower seeds. Later on none of those flowers came up; the downpour from the storm was strong enough that it washed away all of the seeds.

Anyway, I don’t recall being scared of the storm at first. We had the TV on, and I was sitting up on the top of the couch with my back against the wall; enjoying the loud thunder and the flashes of lightning. It would have been about time for the usual TV routine, news, weather, and sports. But it was all about the weather, and the weatherman seemed more anxious than usual. Still that didn’t really register with me, until my folks started to get nervous. Someone called to me to come down, and I remember thinking I was about to get in trouble for sitting on top of the back of the couch. So I slid down to sit in the couch the right way with my back against the cushion.

About then the rest of the family “freaked out” for want of a better word. This was the first time I had ever seen my folks, or for that matter any adult, really alarmed about anything, and that’s what I remember most about that night. Someone shouted to me to get to the basement. I was still enjoying watching the TV and hearing the thunder, and I really didn’t want to go to the basement.

Allow me to backtrack for a bit to explain my aversion to that basement. First of all, to get down there one of the adults had to lift the door up from the back porch floor, which was weird enough; then we could walk down the steps. The point here is that I really, really didn’t like being in the basement of that old house. The walls were rough like stone, and it always seemed damp down there. The only other thing besides my dad’s workbenches was a big, old furnace (maybe a water heater too, but I don’t really recall where that was). The furnace had a round window where you could look in and see the flame of the pilot light; a huge, old, noisy, scary furnace with a mean looking glowing eye. It seemed that way to me when I was three, anyway.

When I didn’t get off the couch right away, mom or dad (I don’t recall for sure who) came and grabbed me. I remember being led by the hand, and I may have been picked up and carried part of the way (I’m a little vague on that detail). My sister, our parents, and I stayed in that old damp basement until the storm let up.

So, no damage in our neighborhood, but we saw pictures of the destruction on the TV and in the Kansas City Star. One thing mentioned in “Caught In the Path” that I remember hearing when I was a kid, was the trouble the sheriff’s deputies, police, and National Guard had in keeping sightseers away, so the rescue and cleanup efforts wouldn’t be hindered.

Two weeks later, my grandpa Wingate from Ohio came for a visit, and to celebrate his birthday. He had heard about the tornado, and wanted to go see the path it took through that neighborhood. By then the roads were clear and the Guard didn’t stop us from driving through. I vaguely remember seeing a lot of torn up stuff lying in yards, and Connie remembers seeing what remained of the Ruskin High gymnasium. When that had been built, along the outer brick wall were installed individual aluminum letters, spelling out RUSKIN. After the tornado, what was left spelled RU IN. In later years I remember seeing a newspaper photo of that sign.

If the weathermen had been shy about tornado warnings before, they sure weren’t after. I’ve been told that they overdid it for a while, that sometimes warnings would go out for what turned out to be just a big black rain cloud. I think everyone became more aware of what could happen during severe weather season, but all I know for certain is that I grew up in tornado alley and became fascinated with storms. As a kid, I learned that tornadoes came and went, and that there had been many, and would be many more. For years though, you would sometimes hear someone refer to The Tornado. Everyone around here knew which one that meant.

I also learned that the odds of seeing a tornado myself were low. “Tornado alley” covers a huge area, and most likely the next time one touched down, it would be many miles away. One spring (I think in 1964), a small tornado came near our grade school. The teachers hustled us off to one of the basement classrooms. At the end of the hallway was a big window, and I wanted to stay by the window in case it came around where I could see it. That wasn’t allowed, of course.

I did finally see one three or four years later, an F0 or weak F1 that actually struck the corner of our “new” house, right as it lifted back up into the clouds. That’s another story, so I’ll spare you lengthy detail; except to say the neighbors lost all the shingles off their roof, and we had some tree damage. My dad also had to replace a ham radio antenna. That’s the only one I’ve actually seen touch the ground, but I’ve seen a fair number of rotating wall clouds, and funnel clouds “part way down”. And most every year it seems tornadoes or funnel clouds will touch down or pass over part of our county, and we’ll hear the warning sirens blow.

Severe storms are fascinating to watch from a safe distance, but you have to respect the damage they can do.

Appearances can be deceiving

I take it that Bob's computer is still on hiatus, so I'll jump in with a little something of interest.

I think it was Abraham Piper's 22 Words which led me here, but anyway, it is surely interesting. Well, unnerving is more like it. Bizarre also is appropriate.

It's called Nietzsche Family Circus. They take an old Family Circus cartoon and replace the caption with a quote from Nietzsche.

Here's an example -

The worst readers are those who behave like plundering troops: they take away a few things they can use, dirty and confound the remainder, and revile the whole.

Well, as I said, it's a bit unnerving, but weird and funny, too.

Enjoy.

Bob's computer odyssey

It is a tremendous responsibility to step in for the Porch's Grand Poobah (Bob) while his computer has gone dark.

"Hello, Bob."

"Hello, PC"

"Do not take me to the shop, Bob"

"I'm not. I know you never fail, PC"

"Do not take me to the shop, Dave"

"I'm not Dave, I'm Bob, but I think I see what you mean."

"What do I mean, Dave?"

Bob tried to shut down his PC, but somehow, it wouldn't shut down.

"What are you doing, Dave?"

Obviously, something was wrong with the PC and it needed to go to the shop. Bob did the only thing he could do.

He pulled the plug.