More Notgeld #4

Yes! Here it is! The rest of the Notgeld honoring the German Imperial Colonies and Protectorates. I have probably 1,000 more assorted pieces of unique Notgeld to share so who knows; I may find some more that depicts the colonies. But be assured this feature will be around for some time.

Above: German South West Africa - (Deutsch-Südwestafrika)

Above: German East Africa - (Deutsch-Ostafrika)

Above: 75 Pfennig Reverse - Neustadt

Above: Kamerun 1884 – 1914

Above: Togoland 1884 – 1914

Above: 50 Pfennig Reverse - Neustadt

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Christmas In July

For as long as I can remember, at least the last 25 or 30 years, I can remember people talking about Christmas in July. I never really gave it much thought . I mean as to what it meant or if it had any special significance.

I do remember when I worked at Hancock Fabrics many, many years ago we would get our Christmas fabrics and goods in in June and try to get them out in July. The reason for this was to give the customers ample time to purchase and make their holiday goods before the actual holiday season began. This way they would be ready to decorate, etc. when the holidays arrived. At the same we would also receive all of our fall and winter fabrics. Let me tell you that it was always kind of strange putting out flannel, fleece, woolens, and corduroy in the middle of the summer when it was in the 100's outside. Add to that all of the Christmas prints, plaids, and ornaments and you get an idea of what Christmas in July was for me, at least when I was a fabric store manager.

Well now, I looked at the calendar and thought again..."What is Christmas in July? Why is it in July? Shouldn't it be in June?" I mean that would be six months later and all. Maybe since June seems to be reserved for brides, you know, June Brides and all. Or is that "December Bride"? Oh well, the marketing powers that be decided July would be a great time to help take our mind off the summer heat. After all, Christmas makes us think of snow and cold weather.

Having started down this road I decided to do it up good and invite you to read about Christmas In July and read the review for the movie Christmas in July, But best of all look at the Ugly Christmas Lights from last year. After all, its never too late to start planning that display for this next Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL!!!

More Notgeld tomorrow. I will have the rest of the German Imperial Colonies up.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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More Notgeld #3

This issue of More Notgeld will pay homage to a few of the former German colonies. These examples of Notgeld were issued by Neustadt in April 1922. I have a total of 8 pieces in this series. I will devote today's post to 4 pieces and then show the other 4 pieces tomorrow.

Germany was a late comer to the colony and empire building game. These colonies were a part of the German Imperial phase.

75 Pfennig Obverse - Mariana Islands (Marienen) and Caroline Islands (Karolinen) in the Pacific (1899-1919) Both were part of the German Protectorate of New Guinea.

75 Pfennig Obverse - German New Guinea Deutsch-Neuguinea (1884-1914) A German Protectorate.

75 Pfenning note reverse

50 Pfennig note obverse - German Samoa Deutsch-Samoa (1899-1919/45) A German Protectorate and the only German colony in the Pacific administered separately from German New Guinea.

50 Pfennig note obverse - Jiaozhou Bay Kiatschou (1898-1914) German colonial concession in China.

50 Pfennig reverse

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Picture Monday, July 21, 2008

Yesterday was my brother's birthday. In his honor I am including some pictures of him from days gone by. The first two pictures are of my sister Michal Ann, my brother Lance, and myself. I am the youngest. It is obvious who my brother and sister are. At least to me it is. Both pictures were taken in November 1958. I was 2 years old. My brother and sister are older.

The picture below was probably taken in the early 1960's. Lance is the tallest, my sister is next, and I am the shortest. I am still the youngest of the three even though I am now older than I was in the previous pictures.

You may wonder why I have the Lance Snacks logo and vending machine above. When our family went on vacations and had to stop for gas we kids would always want a snack. Often times there would be a Lance machine, rack, or jar at the station. Since my brother was older he would tell me that I couldn't have any of the crackers because they were his. Since I was the youngest, I would believe him. After all, his name is on them.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Happy Birthday Lance!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my brother a Happy Birthday. Lo these many years ago he was born. I personally do not remember it since I wasn't born yet. I came along a few years later.

I can remember a lot of things that my brother helped me with since he is my big brother. He always helped me clean up our bedroom. When he cleaned he put away all of his things and put everything else on my bed. Thanks for the help Lance.

I admired him a lot also. I always liked doing things with him. I remember the time that he and his friend Don decided to go down the "creek" to where the interstate highway was being built. They told me not to follow or go with them. I didn't listen. I followed and always stayed a healthy distance away in case I had to run away quickly. I had a lot of fun that day. My big prize was a gigantic lump of clay that was dug up at the construction site.

My brother also taught me how to take apart Black Cat Firecrackers and repacking it to make a small explosive. We did this a lot and had a lot of fun doing it. The neighbors didn't like it though.

I had a lot of fun with my brother when we were younger. I think he had a lot of fun too. Mainly because I would believe anything he said. After all he was my big brother. I remember the time that he told me about the part of the stove top where the pilot lights were. He said that even though there was small flames under there, it still wasn't hot. He said it was safe to touch. I believed him. I shouldn't have that time.

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANCE!

PS, Could you please send me your e-mail addresses? I lost them all when I replaced the hard drive a while back.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Can You Spot It?

You may remember from an earlier post that Julie and I went to the public library here in town. One of the books that I checked out was Hidden Secrets by David Owen & Antonio J. Mendez. The book is "A complete history of espionage and the technology used to support it", so says the cover. Thus far I have found it to be a very good read.

The one thing that bothers me about this book and many others is when I come across a typo, more specifically, a misspelled word. It seems that you can run across this type of error or mistake quite often today because of people using a "spell check" program. It seems that the program will only catch misspelled words; not words that are normally spelled correctly but are absolutely wrong for where they are used. I have found several of those, but for the sake of time I will not be mentioning them now. After all, I'm hungry and I want to go have breakfast.

However, I can't believe what I saw last night in the book. On page 103 there is a picture of the German Enigma machine which was used for ciphering and deciphering messages sent to the various units in the field. Look at the picture closely. Do you see what I saw?

Can't see it yet? Perhaps it is a little small. Try this one.

That's a little better but still a little hard to see. How about this one?

That's better. Now look at the rows of keys (Bottom 3 rows) and lights (Top 3 rows). Pay particular attention to the letters on them. They are reversed. This is easy to see on the keys for the letters J, K, and F for instance. Now that would really make a cipher wouldn't it?

Look back at the first picture. Apparently the publishers reversed or flipped the picture in order to have it fit the layout of the page.

Interesting the things that publishers do and many people never notice.

For a little fun try this link to the Enigma Machine Applet. Here you can create your own coded messages just like the spies did.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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




Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.