Stooges on Film

Warning: This is going to be a wordy post.  But I hope you'll agree it has a pretty good payoff.

Last fall on a late September morning, I set out bright and early for an estate sale with one particular item in mind.  Browsing through the listing on estatesales.net earlier that week, I'd spotted them sitting on a shelf.

What was on TV March 24th through 30th, 1979

Sweet 70's Comic Book Finds

As my wife and I were out driving Friday, I noticed a surprising proliferation of garage sale signs in the neighborhood.  The weather was expected to be in the 60's on Saturday, so I guess people were going to take advantage of it.  So, Saturday morning we headed out for our first garage sale excursion of the 2014 season.  The first couple sales were mediocre and I didn't have much hope, but the last sale we attended had some treasures.  Among those were some 1970's comics priced at 50 cents.  These aren't worth a whole lot, but they're still fun.

What was on TV March 19th through 25th, 1983

It's 1983 and we're entering TV Guide: The Fat Years.  I didn't have cable until I got married in the 90's, so all of these extra channel listings were just mocking annoyances to me growing up.  They also make for hard scanning, so please excuse the skewing. 

Mico Tele-Vue

I found this Mico Tele-vue 35mm slide viewer at an estate sale about a month ago.  It's not like I needed yet another slide viewer, but I loved the look of this one.  It reminded me of a 1950's portable television.

What was on TV March 17th through 23rd, 1979

Welcome to this week in television, 1979 when Mash, Jiggles and Cusswords ruled the airwaves.

Maxed Out

When radio controlled cars first came out, I really wanted one, but with their price, it was unlikely I was going to see one for my birthday or  underneath the tree that Christmas.  Then while dreaming over the J. C. Penney's catalog in the months leading up to Christmas of 1977,  I saw it.  Max Machine.  With a price of $11.44, it was possible I might get it.  At least it was worth circling.  

What was on TV March 3rd through 9th, 1979

For those of you who may have joined more recently, I thought I'd take the opportunity to explain what old TV Guides have to do with a Garage Sale blog.  It takes several leaps of faith, so bear with me.

Originally when I started this blog, garage sales were my main source of cheap goodies.  But even by the time I started this blog, the golden age of garage sales was coming to a close.  With the advent of eBay and the generation whose items I was looking for aging out of the garage sale demographic, I was having trouble finding interesting buys.   To remedy this, I began attending estate sales and perusing thrift stores.  I decided to not confine the blog to garage sales, but anywhere I found affordable neat stuff.  Occasionally, either through curbside finds or other sources, I would get things for free and decided those had to qualify for the blog as well.

That brings us to the TV Guides.  About 6 years ago, someone posted these on a local Freecycle group I belonged to.  I was lucky enough (or no one else was interested) to get them.  I decided to start writing a blog about them called Saturday Morning TV Zombie.  It was less than a stellar attempt and I ended up only making a few posts before realizing if I limited myself to Saturday Morning TV, I was going to run out of ideas pretty quickly.

So after I started this blog and had made all of the leaps described above, I thought why not.  Sometimes you start something with a goal in mind and by the time you get to where you going, it's become something else.

Sorry for the rambling intro, but now let's get on with March of 1979 and a Gary Coleman cover.

What was on TV March 1st through 7th, 1980

Welcome to Fantasy Island.  Or at least an Al Hirschfeld cover of it.  Hirschfeld is probably the most published caricaturist (or character-ist as he considered himself).  At one point, it seemed every newspaper and magazine columnist had an Al Hirschfeld caricature to represent their column. Hirschfeld was known for hiding his daughter's name (Nina) in a lot of his paintings.  There might be one on this cover, but I think it's obscured by the address label.  I see a suspicious sideways "N" at the bottom.  He passed away at the age of 99 in 2003.

Letters Never Sent

I found this Olivetti Underwood Lettera 31 typewriter at an estate sale last weekend.

Gone Fishing

Today is the first day of Trout Season here in Missouri.  Thousands of anglers line shoulder to shoulder along the banks and in the waters of Missouri streams casting lines and snagging rocks all in hopes of catching that elusive lunker.

These slides were among those of the family I previously blogged about here and here.  I'm not absolutely sure, but these may have been taken at Montauk State Park.  The slides date from 1969.  It looks like they had a good time and even caught a few.

Check out the vintage Hi Ho crackers box.

The women watch patiently

Nice Camper Truck in the background.

Even Grandma gets in on the action

A stringerful