Happy New Year, Be It 1913 or 2017.

2017. The number looks so foreign to me. The teens are almost over and I still haven't gotten use to the 2000 part.

This postcard is postmarked December 31st, 1913 from Murphysboro, Illinois and was sent by the parents of Charles Kepferer to his residence at 1117 N. 18th Street, St. Louis, Missouri.  I wonder if they were used to writing the 1900 part.

A Happy New Year

Happy 2012!

Speaking of tooting my horn, I made a couple additions to my noisemaker collection this year. First up are two horns made by the U.S. Metal Toy Mfg. company.

They're made by the U.S. Metal Toy Mfg. Co., but I could find nothing on their history.  I suspect they date from the late '40's or the 50's.  They have metal noise makers inside, so they should last for New Year's Eves to come.

This rattle noisemaker is made by the same company.  I loved the graphics on it:

Happy 2012 and here's to a new year of garage saling!

Happy 1967!

I found this calendar at an estate sale this past fall.  It was given away by the Gravois Drug Company located at 4912 Gravois, St. Louis 16, Mo.  Phone, FLanders 2-1234.  Do businesses still hand out free calendars?:

I liked the Santa Claus image on it and the fact that it was 1967 (my birth year and first Christmas).  In fact, here's a picture of me from that December of '67.  I'll let you guess which one is me:

It begins with December of 1966 and coincidentally, the days aligned with December 2011 and will continue to align in 2012 at least until February 29th, as 2012 is a leap year.
The calendar contains information like sunrise and sunset times and even attempts to predict the weather for the entire year.  Important historical events such as "Rotary Organized, 1905" are noted along with suggestions for gentle relief of irregularity (Nujol heavy mineral oil, if you were wondering).

The building is no longer there.  It appears to have been torn down and replaced by a bank.  It was located just across the street from Bevo Mill.

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On the topic of the calendar, two professors at Johns Hopkins University are proposing a new calendar system based on a 364-day year, allowing for the days to fall on the same day of week each year.  For example, Christmas would always be on a Sunday.  The advantage, they say, is the elimination of recreating calendars and schedules each year. I think that would be boring and it would elminate December 31st as New Year's Eve, replacing December with a 30-day month.  Tooting my horn on December 30th would just seem silly.

Happy Noisy New Year!

When I was little, my parents always went out for New Year's Eve.  My brother would stay home and watch my sister and I (except for the year he told us not to kill ourselves and then left).  I usually made it until midnight, beating pots and pans together, but I was never still up when my parents got home.  Getting up the next morning, my sister and I always played with their hats and party noisemakers they would bring home with them.

A few years ago, I found some vintage metal noisemakers at a garage sale.  I love the graphics on these.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed inside that these had been made from recycled tin containers.  Most noticeably, one was an old Johnson & Johnson gauze bandage box:

This one had me baffled as it wasn't in English and had no noticeable graphics.  You really can't see much from this picture:

However, using a flashlight and looking further inside, I found the words "Peter Möller" and a picture of a girl thrusting a sword through a fish.  Googling Peter Möller, I found it was as cod liver oil company out of Norway.  The logo has changed slightly over the years.  No longer does the girl impale the fish, but rather now a ray of sun shines from a spoon in her hand:

As to why these were reused in the making of the noisemakers, I have a theory.  I would guess these were made in Japan and exported to the U.S. in the late 40's and early 50's. Being as devastated as Japan was following the war, they certainly would have needed bandages.  And according to a history of Moller's at their website, "After the war, medicinal cod liver oil retains its high status as an important dietary supplement in the “rebuilding" of the country. Cod liver oil becomes an 'emergency product in ravaged areas where the supply situation is difficult.'"

Medicines and bandages to heal the body converted to noisemakers to heal the economy.  That's a lot of history wrapped up in a simple noisemaker.