A Souper Candle????

Chris and I went shopping earlier today. We stopped in at the Dollar General in Hewitt. I was looking at candles. It's kind of fun to smell them and see how close the scent is to what they describe. I came across a candle I've never seen nor smelled. It was a Campbell's Tomato Soup Candle that sells for $2. I don't mind seeing it again. But I don't want to smell it again. EVER! It is supposed to smell like tomato soup. Chris said if she wanted to to smell tomato soup she would just take a can out and make it. Then she could have it for lunch. At least you can eat the soup, you can't eat the candle. If you don't believe me the picture of the candle is below. Don't try to smell it though. I couldn't find the right html or javascript to make it come through.

I wonder if they will ever make a Chicken Noodle Soup candle?

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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A Few Random Memories of New Years Past

Happy New Year to all.

This is truly the beginning of a great new year. The new year can be a new beginning for all of us. We can leave all the baggage behind that we picked up through 2007 and start anew.

I think we all start a new year with big expectations, looking forward to making changes for the better. This is a grand goal. I hope that all of us can do this. However, it takes more than a few simple ticks of the clock, or a ball falling in Times Square to do this. All of us have to want to change in our heart. then practice this change until it is now longer practice but "old hat". Unfortunately, many that started with grand intentions will slowly, imperceptibly slip back into old habits because for many of us, our situations have not changed. WOW!~This is getting to be deep. Let's move onto another subject.

I had to go to Hillcrest Hospital yesterday to make a payment. I drove by the house where I lived while in junior high and high school. Since it was New Year's Eve, it brought back a lot of memories. My parent's would always have a get together (Polite word for party) with a lot of the friends from church and work. My parents spent most of the day preparing, cleaning, cooking, and cleaning some more. For the most part I stayed out of the way. [Side note to something that is coming up--My mother loved to do crafts. She decided one day she would make some candle holders that looked like tiki torches for the yard. She used these for years. She still had them when she passed away 12 years ago. I don't have them now.] While I generally stayed out of the way, it was my responsibility to place these "tiki torches" at intervals along the sidewalk. Later, just before the festivities got under way, I was in the yard trying to light all of these.

Then people would start arriving. When I was in my early teens I stayed in my room during most of the party until on of the football games came on. Then I went to the den where the men were playing dominoes and watching the game. It seems that the game was the Bluebonnet Bowl from Houston. As I got older I spent less time at the house for the party because I had to spend more time with my friends. Regardless of my age my mother still expected me to place the "torches" in the ground and light them. By the time I was in Baylor I worked on New Year's Eve and Day, but I still put the "torches" in until my father passed away, which is when the parties stopped. Every New Years Eve I think of those parties and the good times that were had by all at them.

A year or two later, still at Baylor, we had one of our New Year's Eve ice storms. We had freezing rain, sleet, and snow until the entire city was shut down. I couldn't go to work because no one would be out shopping. I was trapped in my apartment. Just me and my cat. My roommate had gone home for the holidays. Thank goodness I had cable TV. Not cable TV like we have now. This cable TV from the 70's in Waco, TX. It was 12 channels. One channel was a "Weather" channel. It had a camera that panned across a thermometer, anemometer, and wind direction indicator. High tech stuff for Waco, TX in the 70's I guess. Another channel was a "Movie" channel. It showed a variety of 8 or 9 movies daily and changed the times for each movie daily for one week. After a week the movies would be changed. High tech stuff for Waco, TX in the 70's I guess. After that our channel choices were Channel 6 (NBC) and Channel 10 (CBS), both from Waco-Temple. The other available channels were 4 (CBS), 5 (NBC), 8 (ABC), 11(Independent), and 13 (PBS). The movie channel I mentioned earlier was on 12. I really can't remember where the weather dials were; I think maybe they were on 9. That leaves 3 channels that I believe were random scrolling messages and advertising for Cablevision, the provider at the time. Can you imagine being trapped in your house for a couple of days now and that is all you had to watch; no computer, no DVD's, no VCR's, no 200+ cable channels, no cellphones. And we thought we were civilized and living in the lap of luxury then? (If you are from Waco and remember the cable "from the day" write me and I'll add to the post.)

Better go now! It is late or early-Depends upon your perspective on this New Year's Day.

Once again, I would like to wish all of you a Wonderful and Blessed New Year!

© 2008 Barry T Horst



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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

This Just Can't Be Right!!

I snapped this picture today. I suppose this Burger King should "resolve" to check their spelling and then be "resolute"in correcting their sign.

© 2007 Barry T Horst



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Retro Goes Only So Far

I was flipping through the latest issue of Old House Journal yesterday. I came across an ad for Big Chill Retro Appliances. For those of you that do not know, there is a massive business in this country and others helping the world take a step back in time. I decided to see what I could find.

I began my search in earnest at the Big Chill web-site. I came across fridges and stoves that certainly looked out of the 50's but were equipped with many of the amenities that we come to expect today (Ice-maker, Frost-Free, Radiant burners under glass, etc.). Many of the colors are truly retro. Although, I am not quite sure about red and orange. The web-site indicated they also had dishwashers but I never located them except on the Price Sheet page and in a few of the customers pictures.

I continued my search for retro-appliances and wound up at Elmira Stove Works in Elmira, Ontario. They have a complete line of 1850's style stoves to 1950's style models. They also have refrigerators and wall ovens. ESW advertised dishwasher panels. Apparently they do not make the dishwashers, only a panel to place on the front. At first I thought that's probably what Big Chill did. I looked back at their site for the price, $1695. Nope, that's got to be a real dishwasher. ESW shows a microwave also. Their web-site says the microwave is a "...deluxe 2.1 cu.ft...that matches the entire Elmira line." At least it is not as big as the first commercial microwave which was introduced in 1947 and was nearly 6 feet tall and weighed in at over 750 pounds. The first domestic microwave was introduced in 1957.

Moving to something smaller, I found a line of small appliances by Hamilton Beach that are somewhat reminiscent of some small appliances from the 1950's. The line is called Hamilton Beach Eclectrics.

Doing the research I found a fellow that made a scooter out of old appliance parts. I thought it was interesting and so I included it here. Give "The Retro-Future Scooter" a look.

For the past few years I have been seeing a lot of radios and phonographs designed to look like their distant cousins from the 1930's to 1950's. Of course, these have been modernized with current electronics as well as current features. Imagine, a radio from the 1930's with a cassette slot on the side or a CD slot on the front. Now they even make a retro phonograph with CD burner so you can record your old vinyl to CD. Cool!! If you would like to check out some more retro radios, clocks, juke boxes, etc. try CAMZ Retro, Inc, Retro Wonders, or Crosley Radio.

If you need other items for the kitchen, say a diner booth or some boomerang laminate then you need to visit Bars & Booths. You could spend like forever on their site looking at all they carry. Also, they have a page with links to several of their other web sites devoted to retro items. Click here and scroll to the bottom for the links. You can also try Lehman's. They offer many retro items. They stock various items ranging from hand crank ice cream freezers and butter churns to old fashioned steel cut nails and spoke pointers. You see, much of their trade is directed to the Amish. To help out with the retro feeling in the bedroom you can get an iron bed at American Iron Beds.

When you are almost finished with the decorating and remodeling and need a rest you can visit Kiddie Records Weekly and listen to many of the children's records from the 1940's and 1950's. Or visit Radio Spirits or Radio Lovers and listen to many of the radio shows from yesteryear. Another interesting site is Classic Themes.

I guess I'm through for the day. I suppose tomorrow I'll work on the bathroom and bring it up to retro specs. Would you like one hole or two? Do you prefer the Sear's catalogue or a corn cob? Or maybe just a chamber pot will do for the cold weather. Maybe that's taking this whole retro thing a little too far. I reckon I'll just pass and be content with the modern bathroom for now.

© 2007 Barry T Horst



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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

I Remember........

Last night,Tom and Ruth Ann, Chris' brother and sister-in-law visited. As happens when family visits the conversation eventually shifts to memories when we were young. The same thing happened last night.

Our trip down Memory Lane began when Ruth Ann asked about the Christmas candles I had mentioned in an earlier Blog post, the Gurley/Tavern candles. Chris pointed them out and then Chris, Tom, and their Dad began to discuss the various candles that they had when they were younger living in Kansas. They not only had candles for Christmas, but they had some for Spring, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. At about this time I remembered a catalog I had from the Vermont Country Store. I mentioned that our candles were the originals from long ago, but the candles were being made again. Look at the new candles here.

While we were flipping through the catalog, someone asked, "Do you remember Soaky Toys?" They are the old bottles for bubble bath that were made to look like various cartoon characters popular at the time. Chris and Tom both reminisced over the various ones they had and played with. I remember Mr. Bubble. My parents didn't buy bubble bath for me or my brother and sister very often. I suppose they thought it was a waste of money. They did buy shampoo though. For a youngster shampoo made pretty good bubbles. I wonder if it would have been cheaper to buy bubble bath and not have to buy so much shampoo because I was using it for a bubble bath?

While I was still pondering the bubble bath issue someone else started tugging us to a different location on Memory Lane. This was a very dangerous location on Memory Lane. It involved past girlfriends. Just prior to this Tom was relating his memories of going to an early Pro-Bowl at Arrowhead Stadium shortly after it was built. Then it happened. He mentioned having taken a girl to the game. Ruth Ann said that she has heard the story many times but this was the first time she heard the part about the girlfriend. We are beginning to slide down the slope now. Then, someone (Probably his sister Chris) asked Tom just how he knew how many girls he had dated before meeting and marrying Ruth Ann. He simply said he kept a list of their names.

Not content to be sitting on the sidelines I decide to wade in with both feet. Out of the blue I say, "I remember the funniest thing that happened to me on a date." Too late now, I'm committed. They want to hear it now. For a time in high school I worked at The Cinema movie theatre. We could get discount tickets to other theatres in town. There was a new girl that started at the Cinema and I decided I would ask her out for a date. She said yes so on Saturday night we wen to a movie at the 25th Street Theatre. I don' remember what was showing but I do remember what the fellow taking tickets at the door said. He looked at my date and said, "You must have like this movie a lot to come back again tonight!" As I said, I don't remember the movie and I really don't remember the girl.

During this whole episode I look over and Julie has picked up the Tavern Puzzles. You know, they are the metal puzzles (horseshoes, etc.) where you have to take off a ring or some such object and it looks near impossible to do. It is possible with a great deal of patience. Julie had involved her self with trying to solve the puzzles and then all of us get into the act. At that point Memory lane was left behind. I guess you could say it was just a memory. We were now busy making new memories with the puzzles. Undoubtedly, Julie will relate these memories to her children many years from now.

More memories later. I have to go make a few more for the future.

© 2007 Barry T Horst


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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Last Night Was 1936, 1938, and 1959

The movie, "Joy of Living" 1938, came on TCM on December 20th. I was busy that night preparing for the last day of school before Christmas holidays so Chris recorded it on the DVR. Well last night we watched it. It was a cute movie which Irene Dunne and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Irene Dunne played a Broadway star whose family sponged off of her. Irene fell in love with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. who wanted her to leave the stage if they married. Of course, the family was against this. Hilarity ensued as they went back and forth. The movie was very enjoyable and definitely worth another look. However, the real reason I am writing is this...If our lead character was an actress and she fell in love how could the object of her love tell if she was sincere or merely acting?

I suppose you would call this one of life's imponderables. Here are a few more of Life's Imponderables:
Why do we sing "Take me out to the ball game" when we are already there?
Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?
Why is it called "after dark" when it really is "after light"?

Moving right along,

Chris and I watched two more good movies that were DVR'd from TCM earlier in the week. They were "The Next Time I Marry" 1938 and "Petticoat Fever" 1936. "The Next Time I Marry" starred Lucille Ball, who incidentally was also in "Joy of Living". Lucille played an heiress who must marry "a plain American" in order to inherit a fortune. "Petticoat Fever" starred Irene Dunne and Robert Montgomery. He portrays a wireless operator in Labrador that falls in love with a woman, Irene Dunne, that is stranded at his wireless base only to have his fiancee' show up. Both are great and are highly recommended.

Finally, after the old movies I popped in a DVD, Perry Mason-Season 2, Volume 2. I watched Episodes #21-23. What a great night; Old Movies and Old TV Shows.

© 2007 Barry T Horst



This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.