Bugs Bunny Sticker Fun

A couple months back I went to an estate sale in Webster Groves.  I didn't find much there, but as I was leaving, I saw this on top of a wardrobe, only visible as I was coming down the steps to the basement. 

The Shopping Center Game

 I picked this game up at an estate sale a few months ago.  You wouldn't know it to look at the state of shopping centers today, but there was a time when they were booming and the place to be.  After World War II and with the rise of the suburbs, shopping centers began to sprout up meeting the needs of growing families.   This Whitman game from 1957 is a reflection of those times and allowed, if not encouraged, children to emulate their consumer parents.  The object of the game is to navigate your shopping cart to each of the 6 stores -- Bakery, Toy Store, Clothing store, Grocery store, Ice Cream and Candy store, and Book store -- picking up an item at each store and returning to your home base.  I liked the graphics and the stories they tell.

I'm not sure of the motivation of the gentleman weighing down the scale as the woman looks on, horrified at her additional poundage:

I can't be sure, but I believe the dog being pursued by the catcher below has left behind a trap:

The balloon man has created quite a bit strife in the lives of a number of parents and their children.  From the boy who's not allowed a balloon, to the boy losing the ballon causing the loss of groceries in his mother's bag, to the popped balloon at the mercy of it's owner's mother's foot, mirroring the deflated tire she's just discovered.  Not a good day all around.

Adding to the bad day, one gentleman backs into a lamp while a lady discovers she has lost her car keys, much to the chagrin of the bag boy balancing her week's supply of groceries.

I take back what I said earlier.  I don't think this game was really promoting shopping.  Actually, I think it may in fact be the best example of why online shopping exists.

Crushed

I headed out this morning in hopes of scoring this midcentury sectional couch:

It was already sold when I got there.  The lucky buyer got it for $100. 

Smoke in the Box

I found a stack of vintage Jack in the Box ashtrays at an estate sale about a month ago.  I'm not a smoker, nor have I ever been a big fan of Jack in the Box, but vintage fast food items are of interest to me and I recall similar stamped foil trays being in other fast food restaurants I did frequent.  I believe I paid 50 cents for all of them.

I believe this logo dates these trays from the late to the early '70's.



More Glasses with Character

I picked up some more vintage Pepsi character glasses at an estate sale last Saturday.   These were a little more than I like to pay at $2 per glass, but a lot less than they charge in the antique stores and not ones I see too often.

Porky Pig, of course.

Modeled after Edgar Bergen's Mortimer Snerd Beaky Buzzard first appeared in the short "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid."

A nice Woody Woodpecker glass with some good color.

I'm Nuts, You're Nuts, We're All Nuts for Peanuts

I mentioned in my last post I had gone to an estate sale last Saturday morning looking for several key items. One of them was a set of early Peanuts figures I had seen on estatesales.net. The figures were Charlie Brown, Sally, Lucy and Linus. I knew they were early because Sally was still a baby. The sale actually started on Friday, so I wasn't hopeful they would still be there. I showed up about 15 minutes before the doors opened and was 11th in line. When the doors opened, I was able to get in and immediately proceeded to canvas the house, not knowing exactly where they might be. After pausing for some character glasses (more on those in a later post), I found the figures. Unfortunately, someone had bought the Lucy. Just the Lucy. Who does that? You can't break up the Peanuts gang! I grabbed the 3 remaining figures which turned out to be made of plaster. They appeared to something you might buy at a pottery shop, paint and have fired, so not a commercially released item, but still nicely done.

Estate Sale Archeology

No, it's not the name of a new reality trash to treasure show on the History Channel.  I was at an estate sale off of Milburn Road in Oakville Saturday morning with the specific intention of buying a few key items (more on that later).  This house was packed from top to bottom.  I wouldn't call the previous owner a hoarder, but they certainly had tendencies toward that.  The basement in particular was a scattered mess of items, many laying on the floor covered in dirt and dust.  There were so many items, I must have gone through each room of the house at least 3 times.  On the last pass through the basement, I noticed a box of what appeared to be rocks laying on a shelf.  They turned out to be arrow points, mostly pieces.  The box was marked $2, but it was 50% on Saturday, so a dollar brought it home.

Like I said, most are pieces and not full points, but here a few of the nicer pieces:

And the best piece in the entire box, was almost overlooked, being so small.  A stone bead.  I have no idea how you would drill a star-shaped hole through a rock.  I suspect with great patience and diligence:

When I was a kid, I would often search my father's garden after the spring plowing looking for arrowheads.  By the time I came along, most choice points had already been found by my older siblings, but I still managed to find one here and there.  My father initially thought these had been left by Native Americans passing through on the Trail of Tears.  I now know these are artifacts from the Mississipian Culture, commonly know as the Mound Builders, that lived throughout the Midwest from 800 to 1500 AD.