Dear Clara: —Maude, Lottie, and I will be down Sunday if nothing prevents. Thanks for the invitation.LovinglyE.M.A.
Sunday, March 19, 2023
1913 postcard: A melon field in Montoursville (plus ginseng farming)
Monday, March 13, 2023
1959 Fleer baseball card showing the "Ted Williams Shift"
- Down memory lane with 1983 Topps Baseball Sticker Album
- Collection of Phillies ticket stubs
- Baseball-themed advertisements from a 1953 Phillies scorecard
- Inside the 1973 Spartanburg Phillies program
- Some Phillies Fever from the Bicentennial summer of 1976
- It's been five years since Harry Kalas, the Voice of the Phillies, died [2014 post]
- Steve Jeltz's greatest day (Phillies 15, Pirates 11)
- Connie Mack has some advice for the 2013 Philadelphia Phillies
- For Opening Day, great Phillies hairstyles of the late 1970s
- Ches Crist, baseball player
- It's Opening Day! Do you have Phillies Phever?
- Philadelphia Phillies spring training photos from March 1984
Saturday, March 11, 2023
Book cover: "The Wolf in Olga's Kitchen"
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Two postcards mailed by my
great-grandmother Greta
Sat a.m.Off for Capri, a nice warm day. Shops open at 8, so I have already been in there. Woke up early. You would love it here! Met some nice people on tour. Glen Ridge, N.J., couple I have talked to alot. No real young people. Lots of Americans here.Love,Grandma
The second card show Piscadera Bay Club in CuraƧao, Netherlands Antilles. Apparently it's fun to relax on the cannons there. This card is dated April 1, 1966, and Greta mailed it to her daughter, who she oddly addresses as "Mrs. Adams Ingham" (my grandmother Helen was long since divorced at that point). This message states:
How are you? Hot weather Wed. & Thur. On ocean to-day so cooler — just right. Went in bathing & heard lecture about Jamaica & Haiti & a travelogue. What about perfume for you? Not heard. No parka around. Still meeting new people. No rain.
L---,
Mother
Sunday, March 5, 2023
"Satan's Bid for Your Child" and where have I heard all this before?
"Florida legislators have proposed a spate of new laws that would reshape K-12 and higher education in the state, from requiring teachers to use pronouns matching children’s sex as assigned at birth to establishing a universal school choice voucher program."The half-dozen bills, filed by a cast of GOP state representatives and senators, come shortly before the launch of Florida’s legislative session Tuesday. Other proposals in the mix include eliminating college majors in gender studies, nixing diversity efforts at universities and job protections for tenured faculty, strengthening parents’ ability to veto K-12 class materials and extending a ban on teaching about gender and sexuality — from third grade up to eighth grade."
- "The truth is that many parents do not know what is happening in our public schools. Hence, I am going to be very frank tonight and spend myself to save your boys and girls."
- "Have you ever been taught evolution?"
- "Do any of your teachers wear pant-dresses?"
- "Have you ever heard the American way of life, the establishment, and capitalism criticized by a teacher?"
- "Have you been asked to read such books as Of Mice and Men, Soul on Ice, The Grapes of Wrath, Catcher in the Rye, or any other book that includes cursing?"
- "That battle is not just to save a country; it is to save your children!"
- "Satan is after your child. He has pointed every gun in his arsenal at the soul, body, and mind of your child, and he is basically doing it through the school room."
- "During the years of this extensive effort to use our educational system to help change the American way of thinking, a key propaganda gimmick used to keep communists, socialists, and other undesirables on teaching staffs was the cry of 'academic freedom.'"
- "Many of you do not know what your kids are reading. You have not checked. You have no idea, so I have to tell you. I'm going to open a few of the books. I will not say the bad words; I'll just spell them."
- "Television and radio programs by the dozens which have traditionally been for good solid music now have on their programs such guests as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. I can't sing, I don't know much about music, but I know that is not music!"
- "We must get back to decency. Rock music is ruining our young people and overwhelming our country with communism. What can we do about it? Here is what we must do: 1. Teenagers, destroy every record, picture, and magazine you have that has anything to do with these revolutionary singing groups. Don't give them away. Burn them! Break them! Destroy them!"
- "Sensitivity training is sex education encouraging students to express all points of view freely. They also use four-letter words."
- "Get your child into a Christian school. I mean it."
- "It is time we called a national emergency on the devil. We've got to do it. Let's save our children!"
- Vintage, foreboding religious tract: The Mark of the Beast
- "Atomic Explosion and the End of All Things" By H.E.M. Snyder
- 1976 booklet on UFOs, occult from Southwest Radio Church
- "The Women Who Knew Jack Hyles" (by David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, Sept. 5, 2021): "Each of these testimonies agree in major points that should cause any Bible-believing preacher to reject Jack Hyles as a gross hypocrite who was unqualified to be a pastor and as a cult leader rather than a true shepherd under Jesus Christ."
- "Let Us Prey: Big Trouble at First Baptist Church" (by Bryan Smith, Chicago magazine, Dec. 11, 2012): "Multiple websites tracking the First Baptist Church of Hammond have identified more than a dozen men with ties to the church — many of whom graduated from its college, Hyles-Anderson, or its annual Pastors’ Schools — who fanned out around the country, preaching at their own churches and racking up a string of arrests and civil lawsuits, including physical abuse of minors, sexual molestation, and rape."
Friday, March 3, 2023
Great links: "Do youz want dippie eggs or eggie bread?"
- my story: one's favorite soap opera.
- night fishin: from Sunbury ... Building fires at the Susquehanna River at night so you can fish for carp. The fishing area was first seeded with hard corn in the afternoon, then the hooks were baited with sweet corn upon returning at night. The two to three foot carp were taken home and buried in the garden for fertilizer.
- slidin' board: the children's park or playscape item that kids slide down. To the rest of the world, it's a slide. To the coal region, it's a slidin' board.
- tamayta or tamayda: tomato
- warsh, worsh: wash, usually the laundry. (I use "warsh" all the time!)
Monday, February 27, 2023
From the readers: Hatchy Milatchy, library tales, Maude Adams and more
WNEP-TV staff from 1975, including Miss Judy: Anonymous writes: "Hatchy Milatchy was magic. When the gates would open at the beginning of the show, my brother and I would be on the floor as up close to the TV as my Mom would let us and for that hour every morning life was magic! Was it an hour or less, I can't recall. The kid has become an old lady."
"I started reading Martin Short's autobiography on vacation this past summer, but didn't quite make it to the end (a couple chapters left). It was good and I need to finish it. I find it hard to sit and read at home. I suffer like you do from the inability to stay awake more than 15 minutes when I read.
"Beverly Cleary's books were some of my favorites as a child as well, especially Runaway Ralph."My mother read Dr. Seuss and The Berenstain Bears to me and I have fond memories of that."I had a run during college where I read a lot of Stephen King (and Richard Bachmann). I went through them pretty quickly, reading for hours at a time."I belonged to a Science Fiction book club during college as well, so I ended up with quite a few books I wouldn't have normally read simply because I didn't return the refusal slips in time."I've been thinning my book collection recently and came upon the paperback version of The Three Investigators in The Mystery of Monster Mountain and thought of you. You've probably already read it and/or have it, but if you want it, drop me a line."
Thanks, Tom! And congratulations on spelling The Berenstain Bears correctly, even if that spelling is from an alternate universe than the one in which we grew up. Regarding your kind offer, about a year-and-a-half ago I came across someone who was reading the Three Investigators books to her grandchildren (or maybe it was her nieces and nephews), but she lamented that they were impossible and/or too expensive to find. So I sent most of my mine to her; that's where those books needed to be.
And, while we're on the topic, one final Three Investigators note...The Three Investigators #1: The Secret of Terror Castle: Tom from Garage Sale Finds writes: "I found this page because I was looking for those graveyard endpapers. I still am a fan of the series that I started reading about 1970-71. The end of book #2, The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot, has a great, spooky scene in an old cemetery. That chapter and the conclusion that follows are some of the best writing I ever have read in a children's book!"
1970 calendar tucked away inside 1936 book about Blacky the Wasp: Anonymous writes: "Black Sabbath's debut LP was released on February 13, 1970. I am so glad this handy source clarified the date."
Snapshot & memories: Our little bookstore: Tom from Garage Sale Finds, who has been super-generous with comments this month and has a blog you really should check out, writes: "I just recently winnowed my own Amazon bookstore collection for similar reasons [to the reasons that Joan and I left Amazon circa 2015]. Too many listed that would actually result in a loss after Amazon's take. The books I have listed now easily fit on half of a small bookcase. Organizing by color is actually genius, I wish I'd thought of it when I had my full volume going. It was always a pain searching through my tubs to find that one book that sold. It was always the last one in the tub."
Finally, while it doesn't relate to a specific blog post, Christelle in Belgium shared some kind thoughts in early February after receiving a postcard from me through Postcrossing: "Hello Chris! Thank you for the nice postcard you sent me. I had a look at your blog and your cats' pictures on Instagram. ... About your blog, as you, I love old pictures and postcards! I like the story they can tell or the one we can imagine!"
Sunday, February 26, 2023
Package-filler postcards deserve some attention, too
Saturday, February 25, 2023
Book from the Renaissance Festival: "Hill Walking in Snowdonia"
One of the things that was most interesting to me is that there was a full-blown bookstore on the premises! It had four rooms and wide variety of new and used books focusing on medieval history, English history, magic & mysticism, various religions, Shakespeare, royalty, costume-making, craft-making and much more. Several frightful books piqued Ashar's interest, possibly because we had just come out of the museum of torture.
I was "good," mostly because I didn't want to haul heavy books around the rest of the afternoon (the car was parked a mile away). So the only thing I bought was a lightweight booklet for $2. And so that will be today's book to examine here.
- Title: Hill Walking in Snowdonia
- Subtitle: "Routes up fifty 2000 foot peaks in the Snowdonia National Park"
- Where's Snowdonia? It's a mountain region containing a national park in northern Wales.
- Author: E.G. Rowland (Edward George Rowland, 1879-1958, though I found just one source on the year of birth)
- Photographer: W.A. Poucher (William Arthur Poucher, 1891–1988)
- Publication history: The book was first published in 1951. It was then fully revised in 1958. This is the 1972 reprint edition by Vector Publications.
- Cover price: 25 pence
- Dimensions: 4¾ inches by 7⅛ inches
- Binding: Staplebound
- Pages: 80
- Dedication: "Dedicated to the youth of Britain"
- Title page note: "Indication of a route in this book does not imply a right of way"
- Providence: Written in cursive on the title page is "Barbara Be---- Wales 1973." I can't decipher Barbara's last name after the "Be."
- Excerpt from back cover: "While the main object of this book is to encourage beginners to come to the hills for a sport that will give them lifelong pleasure, more practised walkers will find new routes to interest them. It is not a rock climbing manual — the average holidaymaker with a clear head and reasonably strong leg muscles should have no trouble on any of the walks."
- Some of the 53 mountains in Snowdonia with distinct peaks of 2,000 feet or higher (as spelled in the book): Snowdon, Crib y Ddysgl, Carnedd Llywelyn, Carnedd Dafydd, Penyrolewen, Foel Grach, Elidir Fawr, Moel Siabod, Pen Llithrig-y-wrach, Drum, Yr Aran, Garnedd Goch, Cnicht, Tal y Fan.
- Excerpt #1: "Snowdonia, a name with some warrant from antiquity, covers some three hundred square miles of mainly mountainous country, centred on Snowdon itself."
- Excerpt #2: "The big moorland rising up from Pen-y-Gwyryd to Siabod is not very inviting, but it gives a pleasant stroll on a clear evening."
- Excerpt #3: "All hill walkers who take more than a very casual interest in the sport should pay the modest membership fees necessary to join one or more of the following Associations. This will keep you in touch with those that share your enthusiasm and you will receive much useful guidance. Even if you prefer to ramble in solitude, you should support movements that do much to preserve the countryside from threatened spoilation and provide facilities for those of moderate means."
- List of Associations: The Rambler's Association, The Camping Club, The Youth Hostels' Association, The Holiday Fellowship, The Central Council of Physical Recreation, The National Trust, The Council for the Preservation of Rural Wales.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Vincent Price and "The Devil's Triangle"
- Vincent Price's narration
- The original poster, which far outkicks the documentary's quality
Monday, February 20, 2023
Snapshot & memories: Our little bookstore
- Adorable little me on Mulberry Street
- Kitchen at Willow Street house in Montoursville
- Me and Pop-Pop in the kitchen
- Commodore 64 corner
- (Missing) snapshot & memories: Thanksgiving
- Me & Cyrano
- Me in a Star Trek shirt
- All kids do these days is play video games
- Posing with a Saturn V in 1982
- The Phillies are hot, and so was I
- Relocated fire engine in Montoursville
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Paperback cover: "Tales from the White Hart"
- Title: Tales from the White Hart
- Author: Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008)
- Cover artist: Richard M. Powers (1921-1996), according to Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Original publication date: 1957
- Publication date of this edition: Third printing, November 1966
- Publisher: Ballantine Books (U2113)
- Cover price: 50 cents
- Pages: 151
- Dedication: To Lew and his Thursday night customers
- About: This is a collection of short stories by Clarke with the shared theme of being club tales told by a man named Harry Purvis. For more about club tales and Lord Dunsany's part in the subgenre, see the 2020 post "Stay-at-home shelfie #57."
- Table of contents: You can find it on Wikipedia, with hyperlinks to most of the individual tales.
- First line of preface: "These stories were written in spurts and spasms between 1953 and 1956 at such diverse spots on the globe as New York, Miami, Colombo, London, Sydney, and various other locations whose names now escape me."
- Colombo? He's talking about the city Sri Lanka. Clarke lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in 2008. He was an avid diver and wrote books about his underwater explorations.
- First passage of collection: "You come upon the 'White Hart' quite unexpectedly in one of these anonymous little lanes leading down from Fleet Street to the Embankment. It's no use telling you where it is; very few people who have set out in a determined effort to get there have ever actually arrived."
- Random sentence from the middle: "It was obvious that the orchid had a highly developed nervous system, and something very nearly approaching intelligence."
- Goodreads rating: 3.93 stars (out of 5)
- Goodreads review excerpt: In 2020, Erik wrote: "I read this when really young up at paternal grandmother Lajla's cottage on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan — on the great wicker couch in the living room, to be exact. It was a cool night outside. Clarke's device, setting up his stories in the context of tale tales told in a pub, the whole grownup Englishness of it, enchanted me thoroughly, made me think consciously that 'now, this is a good book!'"
- Amazon rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
- Amazon review excerpt: In 2011, Paul wrote: "Readers of some of my other reviews know that I am partial to science fictional tavern or club stories. There are basically two ways of relating fantastic events in such settings. The first is to have the events occur in the tavern itself (as in the Gavagan's Bar stories or the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon tales). The second method is to have a "tall tale" spun out by a plausible narrator (as in the Jorkens stories or the Brigadier Ffellowes tales). ... The White Hart stories are funny. I have read them over a dozen times, and I still laugh at them. But you should understand. The humor is not a slapstick American humor. It is a dry British humor. Alec Guinness rather than Jerry Lewis."
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Sunday's postcard: Christmas greetings with Mary Kelynack
My dear Lily,Glad to hear you liked Washington. We trust you and Mr. Marshall will enjoy good health & be spurrd [?] & see old England again some day. Often think on you and pleasent [sic] hours we use to enjoy together.With kind love & best wishes,Alfie [?], Aunt M. [?]God be with us till we meet again.