There hasn't been much activity on this blog for quite a while. However, I have been at my newer blog, Three Makes A Collection, so check it out. You may find something you need to collect!
If you are into genealogy or just like to look at old photos, you can check out the blog I did in honor of my mother. I scanned and posted the school yearbook for the year she graduated high school at my blog Fairforest High School Spartanburg, South Carolina Class of 1940.
I have another blog that I've started AND finished....as far as I know at this moment. It was done on a whim and for only one purpose. I recently ran across my Mama's 1940 Fairforest High School yearbook. Fairforest High was located in Spartanburg, SC. The 1940 yearbook was, according to the dedication page, the very first edition of Fairforest's yearbook, Forest Views.
There is not much on the web that I can find about Fairforest High, at least not from the 1940s, so I decided to scan all the pages in the Forest Views and put them in a blog. Maybe someone will find it interesting....or maybe someone will find a picture of a loved one that they did not have before.
Since the blog is new, and since I won't be adding much to it beyond what is already there, it may not get into the search engines quickly (or at all), so I decided to put a link to it here and perhaps get Fairforest High, Class of 1940, a little publicity. Here is the link to the yearbook of Fairforest High School Spartanburg, South Carolina Class of 1940 .
Sports has never been important to my husband and I. Oh, we did the obligatory T-Ball and Soccer when our son was growing up, and we went to a few Braves games in Atlanta. But overall, he and I are indoor people who like books, computers, TV, movies and video games. EXCEPT once a year on the 4th of July, the only time we tune in ESPN to view our favorite sporting event.....Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.
We have watched this event for several years now and once again "our boy" Joey Chestnut retained his championship Mustard Belt for the 4th straight year by downing a grand total of 54 Nathan's hot dogs in 10 minutes.
I'll have to say, this years competition was not as intensely competitive as previous years due to the fact that Takeru Kobayashi, a previous Mustard Belt champ, was not in the competition because of a "contract dispute". It also seems that Kobayashi had some trouble with the police at the end of todays contest. Kobayashi had previously won the Nathan's competition every year from 2001-2006, but placed 2nd to Joey Chestnut in the years 2007-2009. The years with Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut cramming in those dogs side-by-side were very exciting.
I don't know how they do it, but it's both amazing and scary to watch. If you missed today's competition you can catch it in the video below. Hope you had a Happy 4th!
When I was between 12 and 14, I watched a lot of TV. On Saturday afternoon, after a morning of cartoons followed by Shock Theater, I watched wrestling. This was way before video games. Kids either watched TV or actually played outdoors!
Now the wrestling I watched was not your high school/college/olympic real wrestling....this was "wrasslin' ". The showy kind where the wrestlers throw chairs, yell and stomp around, and sometimes wear masks or flashy robes. Generally this was just entertainment, but these wrestlers had lots of fans. During this period some of the wrestlers in the Southern viewing area (Jim Crockett Promotions) were The Bolos, Rip Hawk, Swede Hanson, Tiny Anderson & Big Boy Brown (The Kentuckians), George Becker, Haystacks Calhoun, and Johnny Weaver to mention just a few.
Here are The Bolos on the left and on the right are Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson.
When my son was a kid, he watched "wrasslin" too, and I guess I watched with him. Some names from those days were Hulk Hogan, Andre The Giant, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Wahoo McDaniel, and "Nature Boy" Ric Flair.
Here are (L-R) Andre The Giant with Hulk Hogan and the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair.
A few months ago, I saw a TV ad for a NC State Lottery scratch off game, featuring Ric Flair wearing a flashy outfit and promoting the game which was called...."Woooooo!". I wanted to go across the state line from South Carolina where I live, just far enough into North Carolina to get a Ric Flair scratch off card. I just never made it.
A couple of weeks ago from another room, I heard Ric on TV yelling "Woooooo!" once again. I made it into the den in time to see that now South Carolina has the Ric Flair "Woooooo!" scratch off cards. I had to have one. One day when we were out, we stopped at a local neighborhood convenience store just to get a "Woooooo!" card, but they were sold out! UGH! I rarely buy scratch offs, but I just wanted the Ric Flair card. Today at the grocery store, we remembered to look at the lottery scratch off display at customer service. There we saw Ric Flair staring back at us and the service clerk was not busy with customers, so today I finally got a "Woooooo!" scratch off.
Was it worth it? Yes, just to be able to say out loud "I want a "Woooooo!" card please." I think that is what I wanted to do all along. Did I win big?? Well, no....but I did win back the $5.00 cost of the card itself, so nothing was lost. Will I get another one? No, but since I have to turn my "Wooooo!" card in to get the $5.00 winnings, I scanned it before and after scratching to preserve my "Woooooo!" experience.
Just for fun, here's a video of Ric explaining his trademark "Woooooo!"
I just wanted to say that I have started a second blog which will be about things that I collect. It is called Three Makes A Collection. My first post is titled Family Treasures. Click the link to check it out. I hope you like it.
This was a nice day for going to the flea market. Sunny, warm-ish, and not windy. My husband chose the White Horse Flea Market and across town we went.
We found a few odds and ends and had an enjoyable time. My husband got a couple of LPs and a few videos. My find was much better......an addition to my fear of clowns collection.
At first glance, I thought this clown picture had a red light bulb for a nose which would in theory light up if it worked. When I picked it up though, the bulb was actually a red wooden knob that would turn. I looked and there was a square plastic box on the back of the picture behind the nose area. Hmmmm.........I was thinking while my husband bargained. He got the picture for $2 instead of the $3 that they first said. Then I decided to turn the nose more and suddenly it tightened. Then click, click, click..........I let go and BINGO, a few music notes. It was a music box on back! I turned the nose more and listened carefully, picking out the notes a few at a time in the noisy crowd. Then I realized I was hearing "Send In The Clowns". Perfect. Best buy of the day.
Mardi Gras parades and New Orleans are far away from where I live in South Carolina, but they are close in my heart. Years ago the Travel Channel at times would televise some of the Mardi Gras parades and my husband and I would take a day off from work and watch and celebrate, even though we could not be in New Orleans for the real thing. Now we have to rely on parade cams which sometimes work, but the experience is lacking.
Today we were lucky enough to find that our Publix bakery had made King Cakes. I had to get one even though it may not taste the same as the ones we have had when in New Orleans. It looks good though and it is the closest we will come today in Upstate SC to having a Mardi Gras celebration.
Art Clokey passed on to the eternal claymation heaven, wherever that may be, at the age of 88 on Jan. 8, 2010. Art gave us Gumby and Pokey and even though you may not have known hisname, I cannot imagine anyone who had not heard of Gumby.
I remember watching Gumby in black & white on TV when I was little. Those fond memories carry forward to this day as I approach the dreaded senior years. (Though some may think I am already there, I say you are only as old as your mind makes you!)
I have a faded stuffed Gumby that is packed away now, but many years ago, he used to ride with me on the dash of a van we had. I had bought or made seasonal "garb" for Gumby to wear, like a Santa hat at Christmas. I also have a larger Santa Gumby which can be seen on my fireplace hearth in my Giant Elf Invades Home entry as well as in Santa Is At My House.
I have always, as far as I can recall, had a fear of clowns. Maybe that is why they also fascinate me.
One of the earliest memories I have of this fear/fascination is being in the Big Star grocery store in Spartanburg, SC, where my Daddy worked and Mr. Peanut (of Planter's Peanut fame) was there. Now I know it was just a man in costume, but for a small girl (maybe 4 years old) this was a scary thing. For some reason Mr. Peanut was giving away prizes. Maybe this was a "grand opening" for the store or some other promotion by Planter's. I remember my Daddy urging me to go up and get my trinket, so finally I did. It was the tiniest harmonica, about 1/2 inch wide and 1 1/2 inches long, maybe a little smaller. Anyway, in today's world it would definitely be a choking hazard, but in the early 1950's it was OK for any small child. This experience definitely has stayed with me. I remember being glad to get the harmonica and very relieved that I could get away from this huge Mr. Peanut.
I find it interesting that I loved watching Howdy Doody and thought Clarabell was great....on TV! I also watched a show called The Big Top (or Sealtest Big Top) and part of its opening showed the words "The Big Top" written on the top of a clown's head. This clown was portrayed by Ed McMahon, the future Johnny Carson sidekick. Needless to say, there were lots of clowns on The Big Top and I enjoyed watching them. I also watched BOZO the Clown when his show was on television.
In the mid 1950's we moved from Spartanburg to Greenville, a town about 30 miles away. In the early 1960's, my Daddy was transferred from the Colonial Store on Pendleton Street to a brand new Colonial Store on Laurens Road at Hwy 291 in the "modern" Pleasantburg Shopping Center. I remember one time there were clowns in the parking lot. Maybe it was another "grand opening", but I also recall on occasion there were small carnivals that came through and set up in an area of the shopping center parking lot. My Mama and I were in our car leaving the parking lot and a clown came up to our car window and wanted to give me a balloon. Scared me to death and I was about 10 years old then. I didn't take the balloon!
I am currently reading a book about the Howdy Doody Show and on this first day of 2010, it made me search on the internet for information on Bob Keeshan (who once was Clarabell on the Howdy show). I was looking for information "Tinker's Workshop", a show he did after leaving "Howdy". I didn't find much, but one thing led to another and I ended up looking for information on Sealtest Big Top. I found some video on YouTube. Here is one of them.
In my early childhood I had a tray puzzle which featured the clown that Ed McMahon portrayed on Big Top. I don't know what happened to it, but I remember it and the clown's big red & white striped square glasses very well. A few years ago at an estate sale, I found another tray puzzle featuring the Big Top clowns. I added it to my "clown collection".
On a wall in our computer room, this collection stares at me. I guess I put it there to face my fear every day. So far, it has not helped.
I even have this bumper sticker, but won't put it on my car, it might attract those crazed clowns!
Each Christmas a Giant Elf invades our home and passes out the presents from under our Christmas tree. It's been many years since we first took a picture of this Giant Elf. The first photo was taken with a Polaroid camera! Polaroids do not hold up well and the picture, which hangs year round on our bulletin board, has scratches and fading.
This Christmas we had the opportunity to grab a new picture of the Giant Elf with our nifty digital camera. Who knew that a Giant Elf would become even more giant! Here is what he looks like now.
I also notice that my Santa collection was not very big when the Giant Elf was first photographed.
I thought I would give you a look at some of my Santa collection. What you see above is how our fireplace basically looks every Christmas. I have so many Santas that I cannot put them all on display every Christmas. It's not that I don't want to, I just hate packing them back up. Years ago I had Santas and Christmas trees in every room in my house. I still have all of them, but laziness...ugh ....has taken over.
So every year I get my favorites down and put them in our den where they would be seen the most. It makes me happy to see them every year and they bring back wonderful memories. Included in my favorites recently are my Mr. Bingles, even though they are not Santas, they are Santa helpers! Below you can see my 3 Mr. Bingles are keeping company with my (year round) Buddah in his Santa hat, 2 Coca Cola Santas (neither has a Coke), a chalkware Santa (on right between the Coke Santa and Charlie Brown), and various smaller stuffed and animated Santas. OH, and I cannot forget my husband's favorites! He has 2 Sugar Bear (stuffed) ornaments which you can see hanging on the handles to the firescreen doors, in the company of a sock monkey Santa ornament and a crazy felt triangle Santa ornament made years ago by my favorite "crafty" Aunt Vera in North Carolina.
Here is our tree. By the way, I have a small Mr. Bingle on the tree too. My favorite ornaments are vintage translucent red plastic bells and various colored vintage mercury glass pine cone ornaments. We also have a couple of vintage mercury glass UFO shaped ornaments that are fun. I don't care how old or scratched vintage ornaments become, they are much better than bright, shiny new ones.
See that large stuffed Santa on the left under the tree?? That was made over 30 years ago for our then infant son.
Here are some vintage Santas on a bookcase in the hallway. The large gold one is a favorite. Not sure what it is made of, but the face appears to be painted paper mache or something of that sort. He is very old, I would guess from the 50s. The white Santa on the left and the red one at far right have "bags" that are planters. The small red Santa kicking his leg up is a musical Santa with a red top hat and cane, which was given to me many years ago by my parents.
And, below, is one of our favorite decorations...our LEON....well, to anyone else it would be NOEL, but every year in our house it is LEON!
Finally, here is a picture of a very special little plastic Santa (blowing his yellow horn) that has gone through MANY years with me. I have had him since sometime in the 1950's. So long ago that I don't remember NOT having him.
Hope you enjoyed seeing some of my Santa decorations. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
"ATOMis the acronym for theAluminumTree andAesthetically Challenged Seasonal OrnamentMuseum & Research Center. Established in Brevard, North Carolina in 1997,ATOM is the world's only Museum dedicated to the preservation and public display of vintage aluminum trees. "
The above is a direct quote from the website for the ATOM museum. I have heard about this museum before, but almost forgot about it, until I ran across something on the internet recently. The museum has 2 locations, one in Nashville, TN and the one in Brevard. Since Brevard is not far from our SC home, my husband and I decided a visit to the museum would be a perfect day trip. We own 4 aluminum trees: a 2 foot hanging wall tree, a 4 foot, 6 foot and 7 foot tree. Space is limited in our house and we have not set them up in several years. We like them though, they take us back to the days of our youth...uh, well....many years ago.
So off we went last Wednesday and here is a taste of what we saw...
Above are the Dolly Parton theme tree and the Elvis theme tree.
The tree above that is veiled in nylon net is the Tammy Faye Bakker theme tree. Decorations on this tree include false eyelashes, various makeup, pointy toe high heel shoes, a wig with hair curlers and putty knives which the sign at the tree states are to be used to apply the makeup!
I also found a short video to give a better idea of the museum contents.
Although the museum was small, the visit was fun and we both enjoyed seeing all the trees in their various heights, colors, and decorations.
'Tis the season.....for Mr. Bingle, Santa's little snowman helper. More on that in a minute.
Today we went to Walhalla, SC, for "business" and pleasure. One part of the pleasure was eating at the Steakhouse Cafeteria, where they don't serve steak. Well, maybe country fried steak. We have heard that they only have steak ONCE a year....Christmas Eve, I think. But if you ever go and have their fried chicken, then you are hooked on it! Today they had my favorite dessert, Apple Dumpling.
We missed the Christmas parade this year in Walhalla. We like to attend every year. Their parade is not so "citified" and commercial. They have tractors! Lots of them. My favorite is an old red Farmall. And horses every year after Santa! This years best theme float winner was Sons of Confederate Veterans, Rebels in Gray. Wonder if they fired their rifles this year? One year they did and it was deafening.
After our visit in Walhalla, we came back by way of Seneca and Easley, stopping at several thrift stores along the way. At one store in Seneca, I looked at the Christmas decorations, remembering a couple of years ago when I found a Mr. Bingle at a Goodwill in Greenville, and said to my husband, "Wish I could find another Mr. Bingle." One last Goodwill on our way home was in Easley. I looked at the clothes while my husband looked at other stuff. I wandered over his way and there, sitting right on the top of a pile of stuffed toys was.....MR. BINGLE!! Waiting there just for me!! I have never had a wish granted so quickly! I grabbed him up and hugged him to my chest and off we went to the register to make Mr. Bingle mine. He rode home on my lap. Now, here is my new Mr. Bingle. He is from 1996 and is in very good condition.
For those who don't know, Mr. Bingle is a New Orleans institution! He was created and designed by Emile Alline, an employee of Maison Blanche department store, in 1947. Mr. Bingle shares his initials "MB" with the store.
Here is a video to show you how Mr. Bingle became Santa's little helper.
If you want to know more about Mr. Bingle you can go here:
Now I have to get my Christmas decorations down so my other two Mr. Bingle's can join my new one. Here is a picture from a couple of Christmases ago. That is me with my 1987 Mr. Bingle (the Goodwill find) on the left and my 2007 Mr. Bingle which I purchased at Dillard's on our trip to NOLA that year.
Jingle, jangle, jingle
Here comes Mr. Bingle
With another message from Kris Kringle
Time to launch your Christmas season
Maison Blanche makes Christmas pleasin'
Gifts galore for you to see
Each a gem from MB!
LaMotte's Drive-In Restaurant - West Main Street - Spartanburg, SC (circa ?? I found this picture a long time ago somewhere on the internet and grabbed it for my memories.)
I remember going here with my parents in the early 1950s when I was under 5 years old. They ordered me a pimento cheese sandwich “lightly toasted” and we ate in the car . Although I know that is what they ordered me a lot, I mostly remember the BBQ sandwich....minced pork with a delicious red sauced, finely minced slaw on it and a toasted bun. I remember my mother saying, “It's cool weather now, we can go to LaMotte's and get the BBQ” because she was afraid of spoiled meat in the summer. LaMotte's is long gone. I wish I could find a BBQ like this again....it wasn't REAL (pit cooked) BBQ, but I liked it.
Well, I finally got busy and planted the Angel Trumpet and it has been a while, so I am just going to post a couple of pictures.
This one is just after planting and I added some mums to the birdbath "planter" for extra color.
Here it is after a few weeks. No blooms on the mums here, they had just been deadheaded. Cooler weather coming....hope I can get it to winter over. I have seen a few Angel Trumpets in other yards recently. I am going to keep an eye peeled to see how these people handle their "trumpets" in colder weather.
We went to Hendersonville, NC, to the library book sale. Today was half-price day, so we bought a good bit. My favorite find of the day was this Heino album...Great Hits No. 6. I could not resist the artwork of this album cover......but should I get it....it's gonna cost me....12 1/2 cents!!!! I went for it and I don't regret it. I have owned this for only a few hours and not even played it yet, but I have received way more than my money's worth just looking at it. Then I decided to see if I could find Heino on the interwebs....of course!.......there he is on YouTube! Truthfully, I really do like his sound. It reminds me of watching The Lawrence Welk Show with my mother. Take a look at Heino in action in the video here. There are more on YouTube if you like, including a 1970's TV Christmas special which is about 23 minutes long.
My Angel Trumpet is blooming! Isn't it pretty? There are many buds, but I couldn't wait to take a picture. The fragrance is wonderful. I see many of these when in New Orleans, not so much when we return to South Carolina. So this year I decided I had to try my hand at having one in my yard. It is still in the ugly plastic pot from the nursery. I cannot decide where to put it permanently and I am really afraid that if I actually get it in the ground it will die. Meanwhile, I am really enjoying the blooms every evening. It makes me happy like my little Buddha.
For lunch today we decided to go to the Wade Hampton Clock. We felt a need for grease....good hot dogs, onion rings, slaw, and sweet tea. Also there for a "grease fix" were Bill and Susan Smith. They are great people. If you live near Greenville, SC, and are able to go to their "place" .... Cafe And Then Some ... you will really enjoy the show. I found a clip of Susan as her alter ego "Norma Jean" and Bill (aka Bubba) is in it too. Enjoy......
This little squirrel usually has a play companion but was alone today, so he decided to strike a pose. I could not resist taking a photo even though I was inside, shooting through a window & screen and had to use lots of zoom. It was too cute.
