Proof

Last year when my main computer needed to be replaced, the new box came with Windows 7, which I like.  One problem, the Cannon scanner software doesn't communicate with the new system.  I considered upgrading the scanner software, but have decided to move it to my other computer instead, which is still using Windows XP.

Which means it's about time to pack away the old HP scanner, which is slow, noisy, sometimes balky, and not that user friendly.  I'd have jettisoned it long ago, except that:

A.  It still works, and
B.  It has a transparency adapter so I can scan in 35mm negatives and 2" x 2" slides.

All that preamble to tell you that I've started a massive project to scan all my slides.  I'm not very far into the project; I'm up to about 1956.  I had a rather exciting "Aha moment" when I noticed something in this slide, for the first time yesterday; and I've seen it many times over the years.  This is from my first birthday.

On or near November 12, 1954, and appropriate to this blog, this was in Grandma and Poppy's kitchen.  Left to right, my Uncle Bud, me, and my sister Connie (I'm not sure why she's staring at the wallpaper).  Now Cousin Mike, see if you notice anything...interesting about this picture.  I'll give you a few moments...

Hint:  I've mentioned this here before (paragraphs 17 & 18), it's an old family story.

What we have here is photographic proof of waaaaaay back when I started out as a lefty, before my dad trained me out of that, and made me mixed-handed.  Before yesterday, I didn't realize there was any evidence.  It's neat the things I discover when I look through old stuff.

Oh, and another bit of trivia.  The windowpanes slid into the walls, and you'll notice the one on the right side is open.  I'm sure this wasn't too late in the evening, but it was already dark.  And though this was in southern Missouri, November evenings are usually cool there.  But this was 1954, an unusually hot year, or so they tell me.

While I'm in the mood, here's a few more pictures from that evening.

This one was actually taken just before the one at the top.  I don't know if Connie's trying to get my attention or Bud's.  And I don't know if Bud just sampled some of the cake, or if he was prompting me what to do next.  Well, we can see the story, even if we don't know the dialog.  This next image I cropped...seemed to improve it, I think.

I hope you enjoyed those!



  

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.

The return of The Evening Rambler

Every so often I think of something I want to write here. Short stuff usually, a little of this and a bit of that. Of course I don't always have time right then to blog...and so I don't forget (ahem), I'll word process a list of titles or short descriptions.

An outline without the Roman numerals, capital letters, or indentations.
A grocery list without the food.
Yeah, I can hear you all now, "But Bob, a list is no good if you Can't Find It!"
So I guess I'll have to wing it...

Where are they now?

Last November I had a job assignment through a local temp agency, at a big insurance company with their North American headquarters in the metro. My task was to enter data into a secure database for the Salvage department; mostly account numbers and vehicle identification numbers. The paper file folders included photographs...some of the cars / trucks / etc. looked barely wrinkled, but were a total loss anyway. Others were barely recognizable as cars. Most were somewhere in between.

As I went along I noticed something interesting. Most of the vehicles were made in the 1990's or 2000's. Part of the reason was there were claims for entire car dealers with huge losses due to floods, hurricanes, etc...that, and attrition. There's just more of the "recently" made cars still on the roads...more that could be involved in accidents at any given time. There were quite a few cars from the mid and late 1980's.

Some days into the project and hundreds of listings later, I noticed I hadn't seen anything older than 1978, so I started keeping a mental list. Eventually I noticed some older cars, a handful from 1974 - 1976, and a very few from the early to mid 1960's, say, 1963 - 1965. Just two or three days before the end of the month long assignment I finally found one 1957 Chevy. Got me to thinking back...it doesn't seem all that many years ago that you'd still see lots of cars from the sixties and seventies on the road, and cars from the late fifties weren't all that rare. Not like they are now.

I did see one beauty of a classic, maybe six or eight weeks ago. It was either a 1955 or 1956 Chevy Bel Aire...in motion and just far enough away that I'm not sure which year. (And not that I'm a car expert - but I can recognize a few.) This car looked to have been restored, with a really nice dark blue and white paint job. I'd like to see it again.

So, my question for the evening...what old cars have you seen lately?

Logos! Get your logos!

Cousin Mike has been adding some eye catching logos to his blog (scroll down a bit an start looking in the column on the right). Mostly these are professional sports teams, and it's a neat assortment. I'd like to do something similar here, but right now I seem to be drawn more to scans of nostalgic stuff that has gone away...old pop bottle caps, old gas station signs, a stack of 45 rpm records...stuff like that.

So I need to figure out how I want to go about that. One thing I've thought of, a scan of the week "feature" might be fun. Something that would be in the same location on this page, just the image would change from time to time. I wonder if besides the Blog Archive I could set up a second "Scan Archive" for the older images. I'll have to read up on that.

In the meantime, I've started collecting images. A few days ago I got to thinking of old electron tubes. I have some from my dad's collection still in boxes, but I wanted to go online to see what else I could find. One thing I clicked on was a wall chart of tubes. This was in a photo stream called Diagram Diaries, on a site of charts and graphs...lots of creative ways to show data. I started clicking on the photos to see what else was there. I stopped when I saw something really different...which leads to the following...

Fun stuff...you've got to see this.

Check this out...click here.

I've got to admire artists who can work at that scale and keep that perspective all in their head.

September 18th

Happy birthday, Sis! I'll see you soon.

September 19th

Shiver me timbers, it's that time again!

Ahoy, mateys! Everybody be practicin' yer "Arrghs" and "Landlubbers" fer tomorrow!