Sliding Through Summer

You know you have a problem when you find slides you don't recall buying.  I either picked these up in a huge lot of banking-related slides I bought at an estate sale about a 2 months ago, or these are two sets of slides I picked up at an estate sale off of Becker Road about a month ago.  Does it really matter?  Either way, it's time for slides once again.  These slides date from 1968 through 1972.

Slides anyone?

No-Tell Show 'n Tell

In my younger days, I knew about the Coral Court, but never thought much about it.  By the time I was passing by, its glory days were long gone and it just looked "depressing", to coin a word my mother used to describe such motels.   It's shadowy grounds and oddly-shaped buildings were more of a curiosity: who would stay in such a run-down looking place?   Coral Court by that time (and even  many years prior) was known as a "No-Tell" Motel.  Rates by the hour and discreet garages to guard any recognition of your car from the street by friends and family.  A getaway for adulterous affairs and pre-marital shenanigans.

 

Coral Court in its finer days

Leveriffic

A couple of weeks back we had a power surge at our house.  Nothing seemed to be affected with the exception of both of our alarm clocks in our bedroom.  The odd thing was, on one the radio worked, but would not display time, the other would display time, but the radio didn't work.

Coincidentally, while out garage saling with my wife the following Saturday, she spied this 1959 RCA Victor Levermatic AM Radio/Alarm Clock.  It's a model C1E.

Here I Come to Save the Day!

I found these frame tray puzzles at a garage sale a couple weekends ago for a quarter a piece.  They date from 1969.

When Toys Were Dangerous

When I was little, just because something could kill you was no excuse not to play with it.  I used to sneak into my brother's closet and get his bow and arrow.  I would spend hours shooting the arrow straight up in the air and watching it come down.  Most people are familiar with the Longfellow poem The Arrow and The Song, or at least it's opening stanza, "I shot an arrow into the air, it fell to Earth I knew not where..."  Fortunately for me, it wasn't my head...or anyone else's.  Only slightly less dangerous was when I would do the same thing with Jarts.  Jarts, a contraction of Javelin Darts, was the brand name of lawn darts, a game similar to horsehoes involving metal-shafted projectiles you would launch at round target rings.  Brightly-colored plastic fins guided the darts to their mark.  Lawn Darts were offered by various companies in the 1960's through the 1980's.

I found a couple different sets in the past month at garage sales.  The graphics on this box bring back memories.

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

I know what you're saying, "Two posts in one day?!  Has Tom gone mad?"  No, I just have the day off and I'm trying to make up for the past 2 months.

Today's afternoon installment brings a slight change for "What was on TV".  Typically, I profile a TV Guide.  This time, I present the June 24-30, 1979 Television magazine from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  Gracing the cover is Barney Miller himself, Hal Linden.

Unsung

While out estate saling last Friday, I stopped at a sale in Mehlville.  While I was browsing, I heard people talking about the owner of the home being a local coach.  His name was Coach Raymond Cliffe and after doing a little research found he was well known and fondly remembered in the high school level sports scene, having taught over 40 years from 1948 through 1992.  In fact, he was inducted into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame.  He was also a locally exhibited artist, helping design the scenery for the first holiday lights show at Tilles Park in Ladue.  The Post-Dispatch wrote a nice article on him when he passed.

But with all due respect, this blog is not about Coach Clifffe.  It's about his wife.

While rummaging through a box of photos and various ephemera, I came across what appeared to be publicity photos for a Miss Shirley White.