Child Life October 1978

 I never read Child Life magazine as a kid. In fact, I never even saw it until I began finding them at estate sales. But anytime I find an October issue of anything, I'll pick it up.  For your perusal, here are the better parts of the October 1978 issue of Child Life.  The cover features a witch and her familiar being terrorized by jet-pack wielding Elves.  Kind of a metaphor for how stores push Christmas during Halloween these days.

Peck Witch and Petrified Cat

Sorry for the lapse in posting this weekend.  We've been having some house renovations done, a result of a tornado in March of 2025.  Our house had minor damage, but we decided to redo the whole house exterior as a result.  It's coming along very nicely, thanks for asking.

My first die cut of the season is this Peck (I believe) Witch and Black Cat.  The artwork looks very much like Peck, but I couldn't find an example on the internet and apparently neither could Google.  It likely dates from the 1970's based on the style.

 Clearly, this is this cat's first journey as a familiar.  Or maybe not, and he knows what's coming.

Ichabod Framed

I came upon this framed print of Ichabod Crane at an estate sale this past summer. The person whose estate sale it was had a house filled throughout with shelves of books.

Halloween -- It's My Bag and Welcome to It

"First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys." 

    -- Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes.

A rare month indeed.  One I await the whole year.

I begin this season as per usual by sharing a Trick or Treat bag I've found in the past year.  This one was found at the same sale as the "Sprint" magazine I posted recently. 

The Golden Age

For years I joked about finding a box of Golden Age comics at a garage or estate sale; like those people that find the first Superman or Batman comic inside the wall or mixed among a bunch of papers in Grandma's attic.

The "Golden Age" of comics, for those unfamiliar with comic books, dates from essentially 1938 with the appearance of Superman in "Action Comics" #1 to 1956 with the appearance of the "Silver Age" Flash in Showcase #4 which heralded, of course, the "Silver Age" of comics. When the terms were coined, they were basically 50 year-old and 25 year-old comics (hence Gold and Silver). It was my fantasy that I'd come upon a box of superhero comic books dating from the 1940's some day.

Last weekend, my fantasy became reality, although not with superheroes.

I was at an estate sale for a 95-year-old woman who'd recently passed away.  She was an Italian war bride whom neighbors described as sweet, but stern.  From the pictures of the estate sale, the house was packed with vintage items.

I had gone to this sale in the hopes of snagging a vintage Frankenstein character glass I'd see in a box on the estate sale's website.  When I got there, I was 40th in line and they were letting people in 10 at a time.  By the time I got inside, the character glasses were picked over and the Frankenstein glass was gone. Oh well.  I looked around the rest of the house, focusing on the basement as I typically do before moving on to the kitchen and then the bedrooms, which are typically my last stop. We were an easy 45 minutes into the sale at this point.

In one bedroom, my wife pointed to a box and said, "Did you see the comics?" I hadn't.  I pulled the box out and my eyes bugged when I saw 10 cent cover price issues.  The box was marked $1 each.

 

"Sherry the Showgirl #3" Dec. 1956

Sprint Magazine

I thought I'd make an appearance before the upcoming "Countdown to Halloween" begins (if it still begins this year).  I assure you, despite my absence, the garage saling force is still strong in this one.  I'm still out there every weekend, rain, shine or snow, attending garage and estate sales, though the volume of product I'm buying has decreased significantly. I quit selling on eBay over a year ago, so I don't have a good outlet to offload excess product or a reason to buy something simply to flip it.  But I still pick up things that interest me, including this Scholastic Magazine from September of 1977, Sprint. I found it among the rubble of a basement at an estate sale home which I can only describe as an explosion of the 1970's.

Lucy's a Real @#$%&!, Charlie Brown

Originally posted in 2014. I thought it was time to revisit some oldies but goodies.

For several years, I’ve followed Chris Sims and his Funkywatch blog which details the endless cycle of misery endured by the cast of Tom Batiuk’s “Funky Winkerbean” comic strip.  What began as a lighthearted strip featuring high school students in humorous and sometimes improbable fantasy situations devolved into a spectacle of death, misfortune and schadenfreude firmly grounded in hell on earth.  While many believe Batiuk invented this comic form, Charles Schulz mastered the art of morale-crushing criticism and shaming with Lucy Van Pelt.  Existing solely for the purpose of antagonism, Lucy’s constant berating and belittling left an indelible and incurable swath of emotional duress, angst and disempowerment.

Let’s take a look at the atmosphere of menace and hostility imposed by Lucy and its effects on the well-being of her family and “friends” through the pages of these coloring books from the 1970's I recently purchased. And I swear I didn't modify the captions on any of these.

Lucy begins her devious mission.  Who will she choose to pick on?