Day 116: Open that Desk Drawer!

 (I'm back! Many apologies for the long long gap between posts. I have many more photos of the house to write about, but today I took some new photos as I was going through a couple of small boxes. They contained the contents of my parents' desk drawers from John Street. (And some items would have been in those drawers since the Gardena house!) Let's dive in, shall we?

Scissors! These three are so familiar to me. The first pair was my father's, in that desk drawer since before I was born I reckon, although I don't recall even seeing them since I was in elementary school. The middle pair were my mother's, from the early seventies. And the third pair were around almost as long, and were the ones my dad used till the end, to cut apart those tiny labels for his moths.

Every desk drawer needs a box of paper clips! This one has four, including that Tiger Brand. I wonder if "Millions Daily" are still sold!

More staples - we've got all kinds of staples, including a box of the type for my tiny (long gone) "Tot" stapler.

My mom was a gunslinger, a staple gunslinger that is. This was her piece, and the very one which I borrowed when I was aged ten, to fasten something to a tree in my back yard. When I pulled on a stapled string I nearly put my eye out! But I survived. And the gun survived. There are still plenty of staples in that $2.59 box!

While we're on the fascinating subject of fasteners, who remembers brads? We've got plenty!

No burrs! (What are burrs?!) Completely safe for school children! What a relief!

"Reinforcements! Reinforcements!
I could use a strong rear guard..."

(I don't think that this is what the Sparks song is about...)

And if you cannot remember what reinforcements were used for, see below. This box was a steal at 19 cents!

The object on the right is part of a notepad given our by the carpet company at which my mother worked before I was born. It's perforated; you write a note and rip it out! Wow! Can't stick it anywhere though.

Though not always!!! Sometimes you had to double up. And they would always stick to your fingers!

Still life: a pen knife showing an African scene, made in Korea, a square 5 cents from the Netherlands (now they just have boring Euro cents), an unknown plastic object, a modern colored paper clip, safety pins of various sizes, Habitat for Humanity hammer, two hat pins (ouch!), a button, a plain keyring and a dirty pushpin; what more could you want?

More miscellaneous objects: a sand-filled fridge magnet, a strap to who knows what, a made in Korea necklace and some hopscotch chalk, perhaps was mine.

One of my dad's many magnifying glasses. (A necessity for examining micro moths.) And a carved letter opener that stayed in the drawer; he normally used this one that had a real deer or antelope hoof on it. That creeped me out. I just used my fingers.

More Dad stuff. I'm surprised he never used these 10-cent stamps (must have been for post cards at some point.) The NWF decorative stamps from 1997 are probably newer, and the moth on the bottom is just a cut-out picture.

And what have we here?

Why, it's butterfly potpourri!

A fine selection of paperweights. Do people still use paperweights? Do they have paper to weigh down? I had a resin kit and made a couple of them in the seventies. Maybe they will pop up in another box.

JL were my mom's initials so someone must have given her this thing, which might be a letter opener. Then again, it doesn't have a point; does anyone know what it is? The pin on the left would be hers; she was a Sunday School teacher. The thing on the right is a button of some sort.

And the last thing was the most puzzling item. The little guy has wire wrapped around him. And he's really little - see below. The button is about the size of a dime!

Day 115: China Animal Families

My sister and I collected china animals when we were young. Most were purchased in the gift shop of this tiny natural history museum that used to exist on the way to our cabin, but many other gift shops sold these animal family sets (usually a male, female and their offspring, or a mother and two kids) which were glued to a piece of card.

Here are some classics: German Shepherds, some kind of terrier, and brown (black) bears:

These antelope fawns have lost their mother as well as a limb and horn or two. Our critters were often in the china animal hospital, which existed in our father's "Bug room."

These were a favorite pair as I was always a Lear fan: The Owl and the Pussycat. Below them you can see part of a puffer fish (yes, real) and some mice characters, also favorites.

These fawns were once chained to their mother but have since broken away. In the bottom right you can see a porcelein corgi.

We also had some glass animals. A lot of these were acquired at our school fair in Gardena, though I think the green deer on top were my grandmother's.

And here's another salt and pepper shaker set. This would have been my grandmother's, because by the time I got to New Orleans, I was into other things.

Here's a squirrel family, and I believe the fish and donkey were given to me by my mom from when my parents went on a trip to Mexico.

I belive I have shown you the cat with too many kittens once before... There's a solo grey squirrel and a wandering calf.

More solo animals here: a rat, another squirrel, a mouse (they still sell that model in the gift shop in Knott's Berry Farm), a chipmunk and a springer spaniel. Most used to be part of a set.

More chipmunks, a squirrel family, a solo fox, a seal family, a fox terrier, a Siamese cat family with dried glue still stuck on their legs, a paraplegic elephant family and a Basset hound with some even shorter than normal legs...

Here you can see the seal family, (or sea lions I suppose), a fawn, some Persian cats, a boxer pub an its mother who can no longer stand, and my first and favorite china animal back then, a begging dachshund, who lost its tail outside the garage of my parents' friends in Palos Verdes when I was about five years old; don't ask me how I remember that, but I spent ages looking for it!

Here come the polar bears, with some gunk on their fur!

Day 114: Young Miss Part Three; Far Out Fashion!

It's March 1973. Parents are divorcing, The Waltons are going through some Depression-era hard times and Young Miss readers are down in the dumps. But Richard and Karen Carpenter are beaming as they've got Flower Power!

Here's how to cheer yourself up after Dad moves in with his secretary or after watching one too many depressing episodes of The Waltons... Get yourself a kicky new plaid pantsuit and pair of clunky platforms!

Don't forget your hat when you're clicking your cloggy heels in that baby doll top...

In the late 90s a friend and I were discussing old TV shows, and he said that watching To Rome With Love made him feel really grown up and worldly. I remember feeling the same. In fact I remember that feeling much better than I remember the program.

The middle letter is kind of interesting, but see the last one for hints on how to get your parents to stop smoking - soak their cigs in water and put hot sauce on the tips! And don't forget to burn all the matches! (I think they did not have disposable lighters back then.)

I want this coat! And the cape is pretty nifty, too.

Nice pantsuit too!

Early days of The Partridge Family!

I simply don't know how I passed up this opportunity! And that Four Leaf Clover Pendant Necklace! Though I'm not sure how that proves that you can easily earn $300 or more...

And what ARE those cards? Those are some strange blurry photographs there...

Now that we've sold some cards and earned more than $300, let's see what fashions we can purchase... Since when do peasants go midnight prowling?

Here are some more granny dresses; I'll take the psychedelic paisley print the blonde is wearing! Though the other two are pretty groovy, too...

Let's make another cool hundred, assuming your relatives and neighbors are not sick of your wares already. How many people do you think really managed to sell one hundred boxes of these cards?! I like the lovely everyday gift wrapping assortment, though ("15 gay, colorful large sheets. Terrific"), and especially the paisley heart-shaped LUV stationery ("Latest rage")!

A variation; just check out THAT wrapping paper!!!

These were the feminine idols of the early 70s: Bridget Hanley (I'd ask whatever happened to her, but I did see her in a one-woman show in the Edinburgh Fringe in the mid 90s) and That Girl, Marlo Thomas (saw her at the Festival of Books last year...) I think I wrote something across Bobby Sherman's face; I could not stand him!!!

Mad, mod zodiac wall posters! And check out that top hits album by top group the Kings Road. (Yes, who?) Not available in stores!

More mod maxis, granny glasses, and don't forget your crocheted caps!

Nice shapes!

I don't remember anyone with stripey tights back in those days! I had to wait till the 80s to get some.

More snazzy pantsuits...

And look at these groovy get-ups!!! Matching hat or scarf, too!