1931 Ford Pickup

Towards the far left center (as you enter through the front door) at the LoneStar Antique Mall, there sits a beautiful example of American engineering – an 1931 Ford pickup truck.

It’s displayed with some vintage looking Mobil oil signs, oil cans, etc.

Remember when they were called “service stations” and they really were full service?

“Check your oil for you?” the uniformed man would say as he was cleaning the windshield.

Sigh.

I digress. You can go here for the Wikipedia article on the 1927-1931 Ford Model A.

Because of so many other items surrounding it, I couldn’t get a good photograph of the whole truck.

If you can’t go to the LoneStar Antique Mall in Haltom City, Texas, you can go here to see a nicely restored one.

This vehicle is on my fantasy wish list.

Vintage Teacher Valentine

Can’t tell for sure, but this one looks like late 30s or early 40s (the teacher’s hairstyle, the girls dress and the children’s hair).

The Ettiquette of Notes and Letters, 1937

Oh, how things have changed.

Consulting my 1937 copy of The New Ettiquette by Margery Wilson, I learned that one never refers to the paper used in letter writing as “stationery”. The correct terms are “letter-paper, note-paper or writing-paper.”

Nowadays folks would just be happy to be on the receiving end – regardless of what it’s called.

(I apologize for the fuzzy quality of these scans. The book is 75 years old, fragile and slightly warped. It becomes a little clearer when clicked on and enlarged. When I find my camera, I’ll try photographing the pages and see if that improves the appearance.)

Judy Garland Paper Dolls

When I was in elementary school at Mingo, one of the local television stations would broadcast The Wizard of Oz on Easter weekend. I don’t know what TWOO has to do with Jesus’ resurrection, but there it is.

This was way before personal movie collections, video rental, cable television or even home video recorders. If you wanted to watch something, then you’d better catch it when it was broadcast because it might take a long, long time to have a chance to see it again.

We didn’t even get to see It’s a Wonderful Life every Christmas.

But we did get to see The Wizard of Oz every Easter.

And if you were blessed enough to have a friend like Mary Jane Matthews, you got to watch it in color. (Mary Jane was a bright and lovely girl in her own right, quite aside from having a color television).

This set of Judy Garland paper dolls are from the book Glamorous Movie Stars of the Thirties Paper Dolls, by Tom Tierney, 1978.

Unfortunately, a few years ago I wrote the year of each movie under the title and it looks a bit messy.

Londonderry Air

(Click on the images for enlargement.)

The origin of this tune is shrouded in mystery, although there are several theories (as is the case whenever historians get involved in anything). I first knew it as Danny Boy, but those lyrics are 20th century. Then in Mingo Glee Club we learned the traditional words under the title “Londonderry Air”. Apparently, it first appeared in print in 1855, after being submitted by Miss Jane Ross, who was taking down traditional Irish folk tunes and heard this one from an itinerant fiddler in the county of Londonderry.

Go here for a more complete account.

These pages are from the Treasure Chest of World-Wide Songs, published in 1936, Treasure Chest Publications, New York, New York.

Go here for the music to Killarney.

Movies Watched, 2010

AT THE THEATER

*Secretariat
*Tangled

That’s it.

Only 2 movies seen at theaters for the whole year.

That seemed a little light (shall we say), so I checked the screenit list for 2010, and believe-it-or-no, that’s it.

We used to go 2-3 times a month.

Is Hollywood getting the message? I seriously doubt that we’re the only ones that have given up paying for garbage and insulting garbage, at that. Surely the theater owners are getting nervous. High backed rocking seats and cup holders can only go so far. And it’s not even the cost (which is getting ridiculous), it’s the movies themselves.

Then again, here are the movies we watched on video this year. We don’t have cable; in fact, we don’t even have broadcast (you can read about that here if you’re interested). Most of these we own, some were checked out from the library. In fact, this week, I was able to buy Anne of Green Gables: the Sequel , Anne of Green Gables: the Continuing Story, The Sound of Music, Cool Runnings, and Pollyanna at the thrift store (Graceful Buys) in Grapevine, Texas for $1.00. That’s right. 5 vhs tapes for $1.00.

(We do have lots of old television programs on dvd and vhs. I’ll post something about that soon.

MOVIES ON VIDEO
Adventure and/or Mystery
Cloak and Dagger, 1984
Hatari, 1962
Manchurian Candidate (Classic), 1962
Miracle at Midnight, 1998
The Net, 1995
The River Wild, 1994
The Sundowners, 1960
The Village, 2004

Human Interest
The Blind Side, 2009
Harvey also Comedy, 1950
The Kid, 2000
The Story Lady, 1991
The Trip to Bountiful, 1985

Family
Kit Kittredge, 2008
Lt. Robin Crusoe, 1966
The Rocketeer, 1991
The Wizard of Oz,1939
Yours, Mine and Ours also Comedy also Romantic Comedy, 1968

World War II
Force of Arms, 1951
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, 1957
The Stranger (Classic), 1946
Since You Went Away (Classic) also Romantic Drama, 1944
Steal a Pencil for Me (Documentary), 2007

Mystery
In the Heat of the Night, 1967
Shadow of a Doubt, 1943

Romantic Comedy/Drama
The African Queen (Classic), 1951
The Awful Truth (Classic), 1937
The Bishop’s Wife (Classic), 1947
The Cutting Edge, 1992
It Happened One Night (Classic), 1934
My Big Fat Greek Wedding, 2002
My Favorite Wife (Classic), 1940
Sabrina (Classic), 1954
While You Were Sleeping, 1995

Musicals
The Glenn Miller Story also World War II, 1954
Oliver!, 1968
Scrooge, 1970
Showboat, 1951

Comedy
A Christmas Story, 1983
Groundhog Day, 1993
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, 1963
My Summer Story, 1994
Napoleon Dynamite, 2004
Uncle Buck, 1989
What About Bob?, 1991

Drama
Citizen Kane (Classic), 1941
Tomorrow is Forever (Classic), 1946
The Whole Wide World, 1996

Westerns
Destry Rides Again, 1939
Silverado, 1985

Vintage Pickup Trucks

1933 International Model D-1 truck

1946 Dodge truck

1950 Chevrolet pickup truck

1958 Ford Styleside truck

1968 Dodge Adventurer truck

Bucket seats, 1 383-cubic-inch V-8, and “car-type air conditioning”

1978 GMC

“Civilized in town as a car”

I apologize for the low quality of the pictures when enlarged. Even scanning them at the highest level didn’t help much.

Items from this post are from American Heritage magazine, November 1996.

Co-ordinated Bookmarks

Many of the books I read (both fiction and non-fiction) were either written in the past or are about the past. And since I’m very interested in cultural history, I like to make bookmarks that co-ordinate with the time period I’m reading about.

Last week, I re-read “Julia’s Hope”, a novel by Leisha Kelly, set in 1931.

I am currently reading “So Well Remembered” by James Hilton. It was published in 1945, but most of the story centers around 1921. When I looked in my paper stash, I found this image from a John Peacock fashion book and it just fit. The tag was one that an ebay seller enclosed with my purchase.

It’s a free craft because I use only what I already have and it adds a little extra pleasure to reading. And opening the book to a co-ordinated bookmark is a lot nicer than opening it to an old receipt or envelope (which I’ve employed many times).

It’s What You Do With What You’ve Got That Counts

Sometimes I get a little behind reading my favorite blogs. I was doing a little catch-up yesterday when I discovered this poem on Sandra’s “Add Humor to Faith…mix well”.

Sandra’s mother had written a book of her own memories and at the back of it had recorded songs and poems she’d learned as a girl. This one her father had taught her and it’s a very clever play on words.

One comment on the post mentioned that children don’t seem to commit things to memory as they did in past days. My own public schooling began in 1960 and we seemed to be at the tail-end of that method of learning. We were assigned to memorize the first bit of the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution and the Gettysburg address. To my discredit, I don’t think I ever completely memorized any of these except the Preamble.

In this science fiction age of instant internet information (not all of which is accurate), some think that memorization is passe. I disagree.

My mother has been a good example to me all my life,- in the importance of memorization, as well as many other things. Even at 95, legally blind and suffering from Alzheimer’s, she’s still a good example.

She was always a great reader and I treasure that legacy from her. Sadly, her ability to comprehend started failing about the same time as her eyesight. Her memory has a lot of holes in it, but she has retained the songs and poems she learned as a child. The thieving Alzheimer’s may cloud her recognition of me at times, but she can still recite “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” and praise God with hymns. It’s amazing and I rejoice at her memory which remains.

A pleasant childhood memory of mine, is hearing her singing hymns in her sweet soprano voice as she went about her housework. (She worked in a faded housedress and an apron because you took care of your better clothes and saved them for visiting or going to town. But the cotton work dresses and aprons were always clean and ironed.)

She was full of old sayings for every occasion. My sister recalls that they were sometimes contradictory. Mama would say “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” as well as “Out of sight, out of mind.”

The one that Mama always lived by was “It’s what you do with what you’ve got that counts.” Make the best of the situation. (I doubt she ever heard the phrase “if life gives you lemons – make lemonade” but it surely fit) Even if you don’t have what you need to do the optimum, do something; do what you can.

That attitude kept her going when her home in Kentucky was under water (up to the roof) for 2 weeks in 1937. She and her parents lost almost everything due to the severe flooding and they became homeless. She had recently married and her husband had gone to Indiana to find work. Shortly after the flood, he wrote her that he didn’t want to be married anymore. She brushed off the river mud and moved to Texas, which required a one year’s residency before filing for divorce.

She stayed with relatives until she found a job at a Mexican restaurant. A uniform was required, so she sewed her own and hand washed and ironed it every night in the room she rented. And even though the salary was only $1.00 a day + tips (and she always said that during the Depression you didn’t get many tips), her rent was $3.00 a week. After a year, she had bought new clothes, saved money and obtained her divorce and moved on to California. About 5 years later, she married my dad who had also been kicked around by life, but he had the same confidant, forward-looking attitude that she had.

So although Stella Sexton had lost all her worldly goods in the flood and was left homeless and rejected by her first husband, she didn’t spend any time feeling sorry for herself. She did what she could with what she had.

And that’s what my mother is still doing.

Landmark Booksellers

In the movie “Silverado”, Paden tells Emmet “You know, a smelly saloon is my favorite place in the world” and then upon entering Stella’s, he takes a deep breath.

Now, the only time that I’ve been been in a saloon, was in Bannock, Montana and Bannock is a ghost town; and the only time I’ve ever been in a bar, was when I was about 5 years old (just hold on – it’s not as bad as it sounds) and I went with my dad into the local bar because it was the only place open where he could buy cigarettes. They were not my favorite places.

But I have the same feeling as Paden when I’m in an empty theater, an old school, church building, or bookstore. So it was a real pleasure to walk into the antebellum building on Main Street in Franklin, Tennessee which houses Landmark Booksellers.

The owners are friendly southern folks. When I told the gentleman that we were headed to the Christian Dior exhibit in Nashville, he told me that his aunt had been a dressmaker there and showed me the scrapbook of her shop. It was a fascinating journey through changing styles of wedding gowns through the years.

History books are in the front near the desk.

On the wall above the sitting area are photographs of southern writers.

A mixture of old and new abounds in the children’s room. Joe chose 2 new books for our grandsons and I chose 2 old ones for myself: an old reader from the 1940s with great illustrations, and a craft book – probably from the 1920s or 30s – I don’t remember. We purchased these 4 and 2 others books which weren’t going to fit in our carry-on luggage, so we had them shipped to us and I am eagerly awaiting their arrival. Story Times are Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 10:00 a.m.

Go here to explore the shop on their website.

Cookbooks and books about the movies are on the second floor. I’m really sorry that I missed that section, but hopefully, we’ll go back sometime. The good news is that they have some of their collection online and ordering is available.

The anniversary sale is buy 2 and get the third one free, and follows the norm that the free one is the lowest cost book of the 3. Also, at least one of them must be a used book.

A good deal of the stock is used but many are antiquarian. Joel showed me a particularly lovely one (and quite costly) from the early 1800s, with hand tinted pictures. And that reminds me of the scene in “You’ve Got Mail” when Joe Fox was shown a valuable book in The Shop Around the Corner. He exclaimed when told the price and asked if the hand tinting was what made it cost so much. George then replied “that’s what makes it worth so much”.