Saturday Evening (Blog) Post

I bought this 1947 copy of "The Saturday Evening Post" from an estate sale for $1.  I loved the cover.

Mystery Game -- No Longer a Mystery!

Not so much a game about mystery as I just don't know what this game is.

I Am Forever Blowing Bubbles

With the coming of Memorial Day and the official start of summer, I'm reminded of what that meant to me as a child.  First, and foremost of course, was no school. Other benefits included sleeping in, family road trips,watching daytime television, playing in the woods behind our house, swimming in the backyard pool, reading comic books and generally just loafing around.  Inevitably, some portion of the summer would be spent blowing bubbles.  It wasn't something my sister and I did frequently, but at some point during the summer, we would decide it was time.  Sometimes, we even had the store-bought bubbles in the small plastic jar that came with the two-sided wand that would always slide down inside the jar causing you to search in frantic circles in the slippery liquid.  Actually, I believe only one side was meant for blowing, the other for your finger, but frankly, I didn't see a difference in the bubble quality of those blown from either side.

My mother would chase us outside on the patio (no bubbles in the house, they stain the walls!) at which point my father would run us off the patio (no bubbles on the patio, it stains the concrete!)  Once out in the grass, we'd blow bubbles to our heart's content, chasing them, popping them with our fingers, catching them on your tongue and deciding to never try that again because they tasted so awful, and trying to catch them on the wand so we could blow the elusive double bubble.

More often than not, we didn't have the store-bought bubble variety.  My mother convinced us the magic solution was nothing more than soap detergent and water (actually, it also contains glycerin which gives bubbles their elasticity and which is why I could never blow a decent bubble with my mom's concoction.)  But her mixture was effective for bubble blowing pipes where only a frothy mixture was needed.

I found these vintage bubble pipes at a garage sale for a quarter.  It brought back bubble-blown memories of summer.

What was on TV May 19th through 25th, 1979

Schlemieling and schlimazeling all over the cover of this week's TV Guide from 1979 is another Richard Amsel painting of Laverne & Shirley.  I'm not sure why TV Guide always had paintings instead of actual photos.  Maybe they didn't have to pay stars if they didn't use their actual image.

Bowl-Up

I found these "Bowl-Up"  playing cards at a sale a few weeks ago.  I like the artwork.  It seems recognizable, but it might just be a familiar style.   This Flickr page has a set that's signed "Vic Take" which is probably a pseudonym.

Zorina

I found this wall hanger figurine last weekend for $1. 

Her name is "Zorina" and she was made by the Ceramic Art Studios of Madison, Wisconsin -- in 1951, according to the year pencilled on her back.  She is typically accompanied by "Zor".

The Ceramic Arts Studio of Madison, Wisconsin began in 1940, originally selling hand-thrown pots. A chance meeting with a secretary and amateur artist named Betty Harrington who stopped by to have an incense burner she had modeled fired lead to her employment with the company for the next 13 years.  Until the studio closed in 1955, Betty was the chief designer and even created the molds for the 500,000 figurines annually produced.  Cheaper Japanese imports eventually put the company out of business.

All's Fair in Love and Wallets

When I was about 10 years old, I bought my first wallet.  I believe It was a souvenir of The Shepherd of the Hills in Branson, Missouri. It was red-dyed leather with a tooled image of a horse head and had black, plastic-thong-wrapped edging and a button snap.  It came with an ID card to fill out, which I did of course, writing my name in my best script.  I had an allowance, so I did have occasion for using it, although my money typically went quickly to comic books and candy.  I believe I also carried a school photo of my 5th grade girlfriend.  All of that is what made this weekend's find personally relatable.