Don't Worry, It's All Good

The last time I checked, my brain was still encased inside of my skull.  So that being the case, I can't figure out why I am so distracted!  Why I'm so lazy, and disorganized?  Well, I guess that's a bit of an exaggeration.  It's really more about guilt.  I am guilty of spending way too much time relaxing with my laptop, looking at all kinds of vintage fun stuff, digging through family albums, and taking pictures of items for sale for my website.  That was quite a mouthful wasn't it?   The point is, "The husband" as I affectionately call him, is feeling neglected. Sheeeesh! Just because he had to make his own dinner a couple of nights last week, tripped over the laundry pile in the bedroom, and ran out of clean underwear, you'd think I never did a thing around here!!  
I suppose I ought to look into one of those 12 step recovery programs for wives who can't balance hobbies and real life, or something like that.   Oh well, I think deep down, I know that everything is OK. Or as the new generation says "It's all good"
Seriously, if "The husband" doesn't feel like listening to me ramble about the good old days, or about how great Saturday morning cartoons used to be, then it's his loss. Actually, I bet he would feel a whole lot better if he DID listen.  Because, you know, you really can't beat those old Saturday morning cartoons from my day. It can bring a smile to my face just remembering those shows!  I can almost see Kerry and I sitting only two inches from the t.v. set, with our bowls of Captain Crunch, at 6:00 in the morning!!  We had an entire list of shows that lasted for hours.    
And actually, that's what I came across this past weekend while neglecting my household: Pictures of my favorite old Saturday morning shows!!!   Ya, it's all good.

The Bugaloos

Remember the song?  Roger Ramjet and his hero's fighting  for our freedom!!!

H.R. Puff-N-Stuff

Lid-Ville

The Groovy Ghoulies

The Flintstones

I was president of the Banana Splits fan club when I was 8!

It Was Better In MY DAY!!

I recently horrified myself by using the phrase "Well, when I was a kid,,,,,,"  I never thought I'd say that dated sentence!!   But I did.  It had to do with my reminiscing to someone about growing up in "My Day."   In My Day, you could ask for "Coke"and people knew you meant "Cola"  We never worried about being politically correct, because people had better things to do than sit around and think up ways to be offended by every word that came out of anyones mouth.  Being a "Do Bee" on Romper Room had nothing to do with a "joint", and on Sesame Street, Bert and Ernie could live together and no one thought it was weird.    

                               We started each school day with The Pledge of                           Allegiance, and it didn't offend anyone.  

                            At recess, we climbed on the monkey bars, on CEMENT! They are banned now. 

              We could play cowboys and indians, and our mothers didn't worry that we would grow up to be serial killers.    

    We grew up on Wonder Bread and Hi-C.  Ahhhhh, that soft, chewy, nothing to it, bread that stuck in your teeth.  Then you wash it down with a big glass of Hi-C!  I mean wow, it had a whole 10% fruit juice!!!      

   

     We had birthday parties at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor.  The kids sat at the table and didn't run all around.  The workers ran through the place with your ice cream, banging on a drum. There was plenty of excitement without arcade games and the stuff Chucky Cheese does.  

   

This lobby was the best!!!

 When we had a bad cough, we took a spoonful of Vicks Formula 44.  It used to be made with quite a bit of alcohol. Now they have changed that.  My sister Debby will never forgive them.  

                          

 And speaking of sisters, did anyones big sister have one of these huge hair dryers?  Mine did.  This thing scared the hell out of me!  

That blue color was big back then.  We even had a phone that color! 

Well, sort of that color.

We spent lots of time on the phone, but we couldn't take pictures with it, or play games on it.  Well, you kind of could play games on it:  You just dialed a number, and when someone answered, you asked "Is your refrigerator running?"  If they said yes, then you'd say "Well, you better go catch it!!"  ahhhhhahhhhahhhhahhhhhah!   

I won this record by being the 50th caller on the radio station.  Trust me, that was hard work with a rotary phone!!  

   I guess I could go on forever with all of this.  But the point is, it really was pretty simple back in my day.  And it was better.  Too bad it had to get so complicated.    

I almost forgot to add the best cop show of all time!!!  At least I thought so!                The Mod Squad!!!!!!

Wasn't every girl in love with Pete? I think I still am!!! 

RAGGEDY ANN, RUSTY NAILS and ROMPER ROOM.

Two weekends ago, my sister Debby and I went to the huge Antiques and Collectables show at the Expo. Center.   This is the first time that I have been to this function, so I assumed it was basically a whole bunch of tables filled with the kind of stuff that I love.  A sort of glorified garage sale maybe?

WRONG!!  This thing was huge!!!  Make that gigantic!!  A huge, gigantic display of vintage treasures!!!   I seriously began to wonder if I could find a way to just sort of blend in and stay there for a few months.

In the first hour of wandering, I found the exact Raggedy Ann book that I had bought for myself at age 7 at a neighbors garage sale!!  I instantly remembered  every picture,  and how I had set up my bedroom like the classroom in the book, so that I could pretend to be the teacher for the dolls.  

As I continued to stroll through this paradise, I found a baseball print of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. My brother had been a fan when he was growing up, so I knew I had to buy this for him.
Also at this spot, there was a box of movie star pictures from the 30's 40's and 50's  As I looked through, I came upon a beautiful, signed picture of movie star Vera Ellen!!!!  My brother is crazy about her!!!  Now I had another gift for him!!!!

At the next booth, I found a record with the clown "Rusty Nails" on the cover!!!  Remember him?  He was on t.v. in the early 60's.  I think his show would come on right after "Romper Room."  I used to fake being sick so I could miss kindergarten, and stay home to watch.  Hey, with "Rusty Nails" and "Romper Room," who needs kindergarten?  I wish they still had kid's t.v. shows like those. They were so much better than what is on for young kids today.

Debby and I didn't get to see everything.  We had been there for several hours, and we were beat.  It was time for a nice quiet drink and some nachos!!  It was a great day with my sister, who also loves antiques and vintage stuff.  I don't get to spend as much time hanging out with Debby as I would like. She is pretty busy with her work and her own life and friends.  So I always treasure the times when I get to do fun things with her.

That Saturday was a major day of family memories, and vintage pleasures for me.
And I loved every minute of it!!!

                         It Started At The Orphanage 

I like to think my love of dolls got started when I invented a game that I called "The Orphanage."  At around age 5 or 6, my mother was reading me a story about a mom and dad that wanted a baby, so they went to the orphanage to adopt one. Of course this required an explanation as to what in the world an orphanage was.   In my kindergarten mind, it became a big lonely place,  filled with babies that needed to be taken care of.  I was just the right girl for the job!

My bedroom, and every doll I owned, became The Orphanage.  I was the lady in charge of feeding, holding, rocking, kissing, and singing lullabies to all 28 of my dolls (plus 2 extra ones that I swiped from my sister's room, because I decided she wasn't taking good enough care of them)  Sitting in my rocking chair, trying to hold and soothe all of those dolls at once so no one would feel left out, I felt it happening.......DOLLY LOVE!!!!!!  The rest is pathetic history.

From Baby Secret to Mrs. Beasley, to Swingy,(she could walk AND dance!) I think I had just about every doll that was on the t.v. commercials.  And lets not forget Kiddles, Baby Beans, and Baby Tender Love!  I wish I had kept them all.  But hey, who knew I was going to grow up longing for those vintage dolls and the enchanting memories that never seem to disappear.

These days, whenever I come across a doll that signals DOLLY LOVE, I buy it.   And so begins my collection of vintage dolls. Or as my daughter likes to say "Those creepy dolls"  When she comes over to visit, I take her into my craft room to show her my latest addition, and she will look at me with her beautiful smile and whisper "freaky!!!"   A few months ago, when I was feeling sad, she sat down beside me, put her hand on mine, and said softly "Maybe you should order another one of those creepy dolls and you'll feel better"  Then she burst into giggles.  Really Sarah!!  Just because YOU never developed Dolly Love, you assume there is something amusing about it!!!  Brat!!!!   Oh well, she's still my baby.  And sometimes, she's kind of creepy!!

                     

                Please take a look at my doll collection!  Maybe one of them will stir up some vintage memories for you!!

A Week Of Rescue

                           A Week Of Rescue

I expect this will be a difficult week for me.  It is four years ago this week that I lost one of my sisters.  This year I decided to use my vintage passion to rescue my soul from the usual grief that resides there.

I love to remember when we were little, and how we would spend hours playing with "kiddles"  Anyone remember those? I no longer have my kiddles, but I have managed to find plenty of them on Etsy. Gazing at those little dolls on my computer makes me smile. It makes me remember.

One Christmas, my sister was given a tape recorder. She decided that we would act out her favorite Archie comic books while recording our dialog. As you may have guessed, with Kerry being a year older, the role of Veronica went to her.  I usually had to be Jughead, or Archie or Hotdog.  Hey, at least she was playing with me, right?  We would laugh our heads off, listening to our voices on tape, and at our attempts at "acting."  Years later, as a high school student, she would have starring roles in many of the school plays. As an adult, she would act in several theater productions in Portland, and even a few t.v. commercials.  I guess being Veronica had its benefits.

Another game Kerry created for us was called "Advertising Agency" This involved creating slogans for products, and then putting them in our "magazine."  She was Mary Tyler Moore. I think I was Lou Grant. Or Ted. Or maybe I was Murray.  Oh well, whoever I got to be, it was a lot of fun.  I always admired her imagination.

Our birthdays were just two days apart. One year, we were both given Disney watches. I got the Alice in Wonderland one, and she got a Cinderella one. They were so pretty, and we loved to wear them. Besides the fact that they were birthday gifts, we were also supposed to use them to come home for dinner on time.  We played with neighbors up the street every day, and we seemed to have a major problem with remembering to get home by dinnertime.  One evening, shortly after we got our watches, we blew it again. We were at least a half hour late!  As we hurried home, my sister came up with the brilliant idea of setting our watches back an hour. That way, we could simply smile our cute, innocent little smiles and say "But, it wasn't our fault. Our watches must be wrong! We left right on time!"  I thought she was a genius.  

So, this week, I'm going to spend a whole lot of time looking at all of the vintage stuff that take me back to our family house, that take me back to her.  Because I miss her.  Vintage will rescue me.

Memories Of A Little Sister

This past week, I spent many hours digging and sorting through boxes and bins from my closet.  This was a planned project that I figured would take a short time to complete. After all, I had labeled all of those containers years ago. How hard could it be? Well, as it turned out, harder than I ever imagined! Every bin and box was marked "Memories." No dates, no listing of contents, just "Memories"  Sheeesh!!!!  

As I dug in, I came across two plaques that were wrapped in tissue. I was surprised when I opened them. There in front of me were two painted plaques that were made especially for me in 1971. The artist was a young college girl named Diane Rukke.  Diane was my oldest sister's best friend, and the two of them were away at Oregon State University. My sisters name is also Diane, so I always referred to them as the two Diane's. Gee, wasn't I smart?  

I remember so clearly, writing to the girls, and asking Diane R. to paint something for me. I think I even sent her a detailed list of what I wanted in the picture.   And here they were!!  I thought it was great timing to find those treasures again after all of these years, considering I write about vintage things!

I remember feeling so special when those plaques were given to me. I was only around 9, and I missed the girls very much.  The fact that my sister Diane and Diane R. took the time to write to a little girl just about every week, when they were busy at college, says a lot. I always looked forward to the letters and cards that would arrive just for me. And I still have many of them. They were also in that bin. Silly, isn't it? how things like that can make you cry?

And to top it all off, I also found a recipe box that Diane R. put together for me as a shower gift when I was engaged to be married 10 years later!!  It's filled with simple recipes that she wrote out herself. 

I am so lucky to be a little sister to Diane, Dan, Debby, and Kerry, and I also have the added delight of being a little sister to another Diane!  

I have included pictures of the plaques and recipe box for you to enjoy.   And don't worry Diane R. these are NOT going to be sold on my web site!!!

I Refuse To Conform (And I'm So Glad)

I have always resisted change. I would rather have another four hour root-canal, than do something that I know will cause me to "give in" to what society says I should do. Take my hair for instance; I just can't change the style! I have pretty much worn it the same way since the 70's. All of those new styles make my head spin.  Literally.  There is just too much work involved.  I refuse.           

  I love to buy new clothes, but I just can't stand spending money on  pants that only pull up to below my belly button! And those shirts that are made out of whatever material it is that hugs your uh, extra skin?  Please!!  I like my own style, because I feel more comfortable that way.  My way. 

  Decorating my home is the same story.  I don't want the look that everyone else has.  I like things that remind me of who I am, and the times that I loved so much.  Friends call me an old soul, and that's ok.  Actually, I think I prefer the name "Vintage Soul."

  Being a vintage soul means I can shut out a lot of what I don't like in this world, and embrace the good stuff from the past.  Now don't get me wrong, I know we have to live with reality, and we can't go into a coma everytime life gets tough.  I stay on top of today, but I don't have to like it all.  AND, I refuse to conform.  It's no secret to family and friends that I make my own rules regarding my style, and my life.  Sounds kind of selfish doesn't it?  Thats ok.  This is a complicated world that we live in, and choosing to keep vintage in the front of my brain works miracles for me!!

  Please enjoy some pictures of some vintage things that make me feel good!                                                                

These items are all on my web-site!!!!!