Smilin' Jack

The other day when looking around on the net, something caught my eye and took me back to being a little girl again - a comic strip  that I used to read.  Here is handsome, dapper, brave Smilin' Jack.  I kind of think he probably was pretty well pleased with himself, also.

Now this is the fellow who stuck out in my mind and I couldn't for the life of me remember his name.  All I could remember was the chicken always there always ready to catch the button that popped off his shirt.  So I did some more searching and, lo and behold, his name is  Fat Stuff!

  I don't remember Dixie, but do remember Jack's "hill billy mechanic" Rufus Jimpson. 

Here's Jack in his goggles - just as handsome as ever.  Note that the strip started in the Chicago Tribune in December of 1933.  Long, long ago.  I probably was reading it in the late 30's and early 40's.  Lots of fun old comic strips back then - will look one up once in a while if folks enjoy this sort of thing.

For Keeping Warm and Cooking

I started to thinking about our life when I was a little girl growing up in Rome, Illinois.  I have posted pictures of the very modest home we lived in - my parents, my brother, sister and I.  There was no bathroom - and, of course, no central heating.  This is a picture of a heating stove that is similar (as I remember) to the one that was in our living room.  I don't think it had the ornate doodad on top, but it did have a fender.   The fender was chrome and had cutouts in it.  That is clear in my mind since, when we were little, we would put kitchen chairs on either side of the stove and put our basin of water on the seat of the chair.  That is where we gave ourselves a "bath" so we didn't freeze to death!  One morning my little sister backed her little bare bottom against the fender and had imprints of the fancy cutout on her poor little butt.  It is such a vivid memory.

This is similar to the cookstove in the kitchen, and, of course, it helped heat the house.  The doors over the top were for the warming oven where you could keep food warm until dinnertime.  What a handy place, also, to hide things like dirty skillets that you hated to wash!  Jo and I were responsible for the dishes getting done and did hide things in the warming oven sometimes.  The right side of the stove had a reservoir of hot water that could be used for instant hot water when the stove was being used.  Oh, my, so many memories stirred up with this post. 

In the summer, of course,  it was way too hot to use the coal stove so we had a kerosene stove similar to this.  The four little cannister like things along the bottom had a reservoir of kerosene in each with a wick that could be turned up and lit (like a kerosene lamp).  I can't remember how the oven was heated - probably one of them was for the oven.  There were little windows made of something called micah (I think) in the cannisters.  I was always fascinated by that. It's been a long, long time since I have thought about all this.

 Here are a couple of accessories for the coal cookstove.  The top one is to attach to the stove and shake the ashes down into the ash receptacle.  The other with the coiled handle is to life the lids from the surface of the stove.  There would also be a poker.  I would say alll this is quite a stretch from the microwave!  I marvel at all the things that have come - and so many of them gone - in my lifetime.  What on earth will another  83 years bring? 

Items from 1965 Spiegel Catalog

Love to look through the old catalogs.  I have two of them - the 1961 and 1965 Spiegel wishbooks.  Here are some of the familiar items listed that were in many of our homes back at that time.  Melmac dinnerware - unbreakable everyday dishes was used by many families for their family meals.  I kept a meat platter for years and I think my daughter has it now.

Another item in most homes - the pole lamp.  The one at our house had the glass shades - in an amber color.  I always rather liked pole lamps.

This is very similar to the stereo we had.  You could pile on 10 or 12 records and have music for a long time.  How cool it was to have the sounds coming separately from the speakers.  I recall one record we had
we had - Enoch Light and the Light Brigade - where the separation was awesome.  Can't believe all that has come and gone since then.  I found a little video on Youtube that is from the old album we had.  I think I recognized the cover - but regardless it's Enoch Light.  http://youtu.be/K7wldS-N92Y.  Hope this works in case you would like to hear it.  Goodness, this was a long time ago!  I also discovered that it's Enoch Light's music that is used for Mad Men's theme song - http://youtu.be/5YE088AE_4Q - you might want to check that out also. 

Back to 1936

Some more pictures from the little book published in 1936 with pictures of the businesses and residences in the little town of Chillicothe, Illinois.  Since I lived in Rome and not Chillicothe as a child,  my mom never shopped at this little neighborhood grocery.  I believe there were at least two other ones in town.  Mom would shop at Kroger or the A & P when we made the three mile trip to Chilli for groceries.  Back then, it seemed like a long way.  Rome had it's own little store and you can check out a post I did on that earlier by clicking on  Lawson's  

One of the two drug stores on the main street in Chillicothe.   Carlisle's was there forever, but Moffitt's was the one the kids liked since it had a soda fountain.  What a treat it was to have some chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and pineapple.  Yummy!  Cherry cokes were also a tasty treat.  Chillicothe's main business district was two blocks long on Second Street.  It was a thriving little place for a lot of years but then went the way of most of the businesses in small towns when people started to travel further to shop in big malls in larger cities.  In this case, it was Peoria that lured the shoppers to come spend their money outside of town.   

An added note - this weekend was the Alumni Banquet in Chillicothe.  This is the 65th anniversary of my graduation from high school with a class of 45 - 30 girls and 15 boys.  Our class has had a reunion every five years in connection with the banquet which meant that you not only saw your class members, but many of the people who were in school at the same time with you.  This is the first one I have missed - makes me a bit sad as I think you feel more like siblings than classmates when the class is so small.  Five years ago my daughter drove me there and that was a lot of fun.   Maybe I will get there for my 70th!!  If my sis were still living, I would have been there for sure.  Life continues to change and we just have to continue to embrace the changes!  I hope they had fun and I am sure they missed me!   (Click to enlarge)

A Very Old Quilt

I know some of you who read this blog know that I am an obsessed quilter and have been for over 35 years.  I love anything and everything about quilts and do have some lovely old things that I treasure.  Back in the 1930's,  it was quite a common practice for newspapers to publish the patterns for quilts  by doing it a block a week.  This came from the Peoria Journal Star and the blocks were embroidered by my husband's mother, Clemie, and I believe the blocks were made into a quilt and quilted by Ray's grandmother on his father's side. 

A hoot owl sits on a branch in this block and

a pretty blue bird sits on a branch with blossoms.  It is a very pale quilt but pretty regardless. 

Here is a shot of the quilting which is very nice and even.  The colors are quite true in the picture.  A very lovely "piece of the past" I am happy to share with you.  (Click to enlarge)

Vintage Sextist Ads

So awesome how the use of certain products can change your life and make you so amazing!  Even toilet soap.  This one reminds me of a lame joke way back when I was a little kid.  Are you ready? 

What did the red soap say to the green soap?  May I kiss your palm, Olive?

And what did the green soap say to the red soap?  Not on your life, Bouy!

For you younguns out there, Palmolive was green and Lifebouy (a deodorant soap) was red.  Couldn't resist!

How all ladies dress when they are in the food preparing mode!  Or maybe she is a guest in the fellow's home!  Anyway, enjoy these ads of yore. (Click to enlarge)

Cute Vintage Ad

Illustrations from the twenties and thirties are my favorites.  Here is a colorful,  cute ad that makes me want to go out and buy some pretty garters!  Probably could not find one anywhere.  An easy on the eyes ad.  (Click to enlarge)

Happy Mother's Day

This is also posted on my Funoldhag blog - but it certainly is vintage and a big piece of the past so I am also posting it here. 

This would have been printed on a hectograph by Miss Placher, who taught the one room school that I went to.  The poem was probably written on the board for us to copy and we colored the flowers.  It's so much fun to find something like this done when I was a little girl of  9 going on 10.  There is not much in the way of keepsakes from my childhood.  Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there!  (Click to enlarge)

Old, Old Hatpins

This weekend is our guild quilt show and I bring two old, old quilttops to use for table covers every year.  So I was rummaging through the old chest I keep them in and came across this tattered old box from Skagway, Alaska.  In it are hatpins from the early 1900's.  These were in my mother-in-law's  things, but I have no idea who had owned them.   Maybe they belonged to her mother, but that will never be known.

The pins are really long and sharp.  I think most of the woman had very long, thick hair and wore it in buns or braids so needed large pins to hold their big hats.  One of these has initials and the date 1909 and is very decorative.  They are lying on one of the old quilttops I am taking to the show.  Next week, I will take pictures of the old tops and do a post of them.  They are really very pretty.  The quilt show is always a lot of fun and something I look forward to.  We have an extraordinary group of good quilters and we put on a good show!  (Click to enlarge)

So Glad They're Obsolete!

It's almost inconceivable to me now that I baked my first cake in the oven of a stove like these.  I am thinking our old coal stove was probably like the $23.99 model since we did have a warming oven and a reservoir.  Mom turned out some wonderful meals on that old thing and it kept the kitchen cozy and warm in the winter.   That, and the coal stove in the living room, is what heated our entire house.  My sis and I were moved upstairs when we were a little older and the heat for the rooms up there came through vents in the floor.  At night, the fires would go out and dad would be up early to get them going.  He always slept with his trousers and a flashlight beside the bed and a ladder under the porch that would have given access to the upstairs in case of fire.  The summer was another matter for cooking.    For that, there was a kerosene stove that didn't heat things up so much.   I think growing up like that has a tendency to make you a little "tough" in the sense that you can adapt to some adverse conditions easier.  I know I have mentioned that our "bathroom" was outside and down the path aways which also tends to make you hardy!   But I can truly  say, I did not feel deprived or unhappy as a child - I think it was just the opposite.  Would I want to go back to living that way now?  OMG, NOOOOOO! That is why I am not a camper!   But there are no regrets.
(Click to enlarge) 

This picture was taken long before we lived in the area, moving there in 1936, but I think it is such a wonderful old photo and is another from the old book of Chillicothe businesses and homes.  When do we ever see bushel baskets anymore?  They were free and wonderful for so many things.  You could buy oilcloth liners and put your dampened ironing in them so it would not dry out before you finished your chore.  Believe me, it was a chore!  I did a post on the rigors of washday some time ago and if you wish you can read it here.  We lived in Rome, a little town about three miles south of Chilli, and back then it seemed so very far away.  My mother didn't drive, so we would all pile into the car and head north to Chillicothe to go grocery shopping or whatever other shopping that needed to be done.  Dad always parked on the side street right beside Kroger which you can glimpse in the picture.  Sometimes mom would take one or two of us into the store with her - that was fun - but lots of times we waited in the car with dad.  How I wished that he would have parked on the main street so we could see what was going on.  Funny how little things stand out in your mind from over the years?  (Click to enlarge)

Ads You Won't See Anymore

Here is an old ad for Chesterfield cigarettes - no more are there ads like this in magazines, newspapers, billboards, etc.  I don't know if there are even Chesterfields anymore, although I do know there are lots of other brands.  When I smoked (for years and years, sorry to say) it was Marlboros.  It's been nineteen smokefree years for me now.  I used to really enjoy smoking and grew up in the 40's when smoking was everywhere.  The reason I quit was there was no longer anyplace to smoke - and I am so very glad I did.  Aside from the scary health effects, I cannot see why anyone would start it today just from the cost of it.  Won't lecture as I am not a righteous ex-smoker - each person must make their own decisions.  (I love the outfit on the lady - especially her shoes!)

Here is another pretty lady hawking Camels.  That's the way it was.  (Click to enlarge)

The Old Book of Chillicothe Buildings

One of four houses in the old book published in 1936 of  the residences, businesses, churches, etc., in Chillicothe, Illinois, my old stomping grounds, that look like the house we lived in when Bill was born. 

And another one -

 A third...........

They certainly look alike, especially since I scanned the first three from the book before I got up and found the only one I could remember that showed the exterior of the house.  The first one is definitely ruled out because of the columns.  The other two the doors are wider in the other two pictures. Going back through the book I found the fourth one above - I think it is a match to the picture I found in an old album where Sherry is sitting on the front steps when she was about three years old.

That was kind of a neat old house - there was a built in china cupboard in the dining room and a clawfoot bathtub and corner sink in the bathroom.  It also had a little back porch.  It certainly has been some time ago!  (Click to enlarge)

Young Quilters Long Ago

I found this picture online and absolutely love it.  All the pretty girls in their long skirts, pretty blouses and cute hairdos working on their quilt blocks.  They are wearing ribbons of some sort pinned on their bodices.  All of the girls are so young and probably working on something for their "hope chests" - I don't think the young women of today have those, do you?  Right in front is an open sewing basket belonging to one of the young ladies and another one is at the left.  Wonder what they were talking about.  Sweet, sweet picture.  (Click to enlarge)

Yummy

A favorite of mine when I was a kid - haven't seen these for a spell.  Found this old ad and saved it.   Good grief, it makes me hungry.  Can you imagine all that yumminess for 5 cents?  Was never crazy about the licorice one - ate it last but ate it.  Time to go to the grocery store and I will get things for my empty snack drawer! 

Another Great Catalog Page

From a 1975 Sears catalog - don't you wish this style would return?  How cool can one get?  Love it.(Click to enlarge)

From FOH Fashion Friday

Our models today are my cousins in California, Ken and Bob, and Uncle Lambert, the sons and husband of Nelle, my mother's sister who is in so many of the pictures. The boys are wearing uniforms and I am unsure if they are Boy Scouts or not. Bob, in the center, has some really great high boots. Now Uncle Lambert - what a great outfit he is clad in. A checked sweater, knickers and checked socks - handsome attire. And it is topped by a really good looking cap. Looking good, fellows! I am sorry this photo doesn't enlarge - I would love to see it closer.  (This was posted on Funoldhag in January, 2010.  Ken, the older brother, just passed away a few weeks ago not long before he was to turn 90 years old.  It was interesting that I really got to know him in the later years over the intermet.  My brother, Ken and I did a lot of e-mailing about the Pearce side of our family.  What a nice man he was.)   

My How the Friendly Skies Have Changed

Not too many years ago ads like this were common.

I wasn't doing any flying when the girls were dressed like this  or

this -they were color cooridinated with the interior of the plane.

Another look at some of the cuties who looked after the passengers in days gone by.    (Click to enlarge)

Old Chillicothe

I was able to find this picture on the internet of a beautiful, old home on the highway that went through Chillicothe, Illinois.  This is the Mead home.  I don't remember what the first name of the man was that was the head of this household, but I do know he was one of the mainstays of  the city of Chillicothe.  How I would love to have been able to go through this wonderful old place.  It was such fun to drive by when we went "uptown" for groceries.  This was torn down a long time ago and replaced with a gas station, I think.  So sad.  In my next life, I would love to buy a really old home and have it all fixed up - that would be wonderful.

Here is the Methodist Church in Chilli.  This is actually where my husband and I were married.  His family had been Methodist forever, and mine was a potpourri.  I wonder what the little arrows on the left of the pictures point to - probably someone was indicating where they lived.  Should have saved this for PFF, but have some others for that.  (Click to enlarge)

A Word to the Wise Woman

 Life can be so wonderful when you use the right products!

 By shopping wisely and saving money on everyday essentials, you will even be able to treat yourself to extras such as this beautiful girdle which will further enhance you.

 How wonderful to be so smart and know what to use to make yourself beautiful and desirable for your "significant other".

You could receive the gift of a lifetime that you had been yearning for for so long from the man of your dreams in appreciation of the way you take care of yourself by using the right products.  (Click to enlarge)