The Other Side of Postcards

A couple of months ago I gave a talk to the local genealogical society.  I chose to talk about postcards, not because I thought any of them would be interested in collecting postcards but because of the information on their writing side (their "other side").  The things people wrote about provide a wealth of information about the life and times of the people that wrote them.

For most collectors, postcards are divided into categories such as holiday, comic, romantic, real photo, sports, patriotic, etc.  I looked on the internet but I couldn't find where anyone had categorized postcards by their messages - so I made up my own categories.  Like postcards from people with little to say...

 

 Some had even less to say...

But the most interesting showed what life

was like at the time.  This next example speaks of illness and death.  This is a little hard to read so here's the main part of the message: "...Aunt Lamire had bad luck.  She lost little Hilda & Norman in four day.  Norman died on the 20 of Jan. & Hilda the 23 Jan and nobody was about to go there they had scarlet fever and Diptheria..."

 Some of the "news" in postcards is not nearly as serious...

"... I hope its nice Easter although I have not got my new hat ..."

There are hundreds of postcards for sale at Antiques on Main so come in and see if you can find some that interest you.

TV Lamps

That might be a lamp on the right on top of the TV.

 

I'm a Baby Boomer so I remember when we got our first TV in 1955, when I was 6 years  old.  I also remember Mom warning us we would go blind or something like that if we sat too close to the TV or watched it in the dark.  These early TV sets had pretty dim images, and we were in an era of "going to the movies".  We were used to watching movies in a darkened theater, so why not do the same at home? Well... even the experts agreed with Mom.  The remedy was to place a lamp on or near the TV to provide indirect lighting (and somehow protect our eyesight).  And an industry was born - TV lamps.  These lamps became an important decorative home accent and zillions of styles were produced: cats, deer, panthers, fish, birds, dogs, ships, covered wagons, horses, people, shells, etc. etc.

In case you wish you still had one of the old TV lamps, now is your chance.  We have lots of them in the store - since one of the dealers bought a large collection of them recently.  Here's a sampling of them.  Come in and get one before they're gone.

Beer Steins

Christmas is over and I got one of my favorite presents ... Belgian beer.  In this case, I got some Rochefort made by the monks at Abbey St. Remy and some St. Bernardus, technically not an abbey beer but just as good.  So with beer on my mind, I thought I would have a blog post on beer and beer steins.





I checked the internet and have to conclude that there has never been a brewery in Anoka County.  Washington County and Stillwater, on the other hand, boast some of the earliest in Minnesota.  One of these was the Aiple brewery that has direct links to the Kimmick brewery that was started in Stillwater in 1852.  The Aiple brewery closed in 1896.  This is a stein promoting their Aiple-Brau that I was very fortunate to pick up for my collection, and since the brewery closed in 1896 this is one of the oldest I have.

Idyllic tavern scene

Many German steins are decorated with an idyllic tavern scene with some appropriate saying.  In this case it says "Drink what is clear, Speak what is true." 

Barroom brawl

So I couldn't pass up acquiring this stein that shows a great barroom brawl.  The German on this translates to "Card playing farmers" and "Barley and hops make great drops", drops meaning drinks, I think, unless it is referring to being clobbered with a beer pitcher.

But enough of my collection.  There are numerous steins and lots of other things to buy at Antiques on Main.  Come in and check us out.

Book Signing

Author Laurie MacKechnie

Believe it or not, the dealers at Antiques on Main and their families have interests outside of antiques.  In this instance Laurie MacKechnie, wife of dealer Mac, has written a book titled The Child Who Changed the World. She will be at AOM for a book signing on December 14 from 1-3PM. Come in and meet Laurie.

Her book is an engaging story for children four years old and up. The story shows how children can make a difference with a simple act of kindness. A young child offers a friendly, helpful hand, which has a domino effect of goodness on those around him. Anyone, even children, can make the world a better place by “paying it forward.”

This book will delight and captivate children of all ages, helping them to think how they can change the world at daycare, school, home, or in their neighborhood. They’ll also have fun tracking down the sneaky squirrel in each illustration. It was written by Laurie MacKechnie, an elementary school teacher for some years and now a college professor working with teachers, helping them to help children make reading an exciting part of growing up. The illustrator, Jelena Modec, was born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia, and has been an elementary school art teacher for eight years.

Post Halloween Thoughts

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays and by chance I was working at the store on Halloween this year. The dealer I would be working with called a couple of days before to make sure I would come in costume. I was planning to anyway.  So here we are...

Working with the devil was kind of tricky as it was often difficult to avoid stepping on her tail. And I think I've heard that stepping on the devil's tail can bring bad luck - or something like that.

I also dressed up as "Indy" when passing out candy to the trick-or-treaters that came to our door. It's kind of fun because all the kids know who I'm supposed to be (in spite of the mustache) and ask questions like "Are you the real Indiana Jones?" Then there was the kid who said only one thing while holding out his bag for candy: "I like your whip, mister"

As I said at the beginning - this is a favorite holiday of mine. Mom and Dad were supportive of us going trick-or-treating at all the neighbors and Mom spent the time and effort of making costumes for us. Here's a photo of my brother and me in 1952. I'm the one on the left. As silly as we might look, we were pretty proud of our costumes. Although... I'm not sure if my hat was part of the costume or my normal winter hat.

Anoka is the Halloween Capitol of the World and there are always lots of good Halloween items available at our store.  Come in and check us out.

 

Recent Arrivals

I think I mentioned that this has been a very busy summer and I have not spent as much time in Antiques on Main as I normally do.  My real job (remember... antiques is just a hobby) took me to Hawaii, Kentucky, Hastings and along the St. Croix River.  I even got to volunteer at an archaeological dig for the Science Museum of Minnesota.  But now summer is behind me and my schedule is back to "normal" and I have time to add to this blog.

For this post, I thought I would feature a few items that have recently shown up in the store ... because of their story and because they are interesting.

First is this metal funnel.  The funnel itself isn't very interesting but the person it promotes is.  A.M. Smith, wine merchant, is Andrew M. Smith, born Anders Madsen Smedt in Denmark.  He worked as a merchant sailor from 1857 to 1860, when he came to the U.S.  After serving in the Civil War, he worked on the Transcontinental Raiload, before settling briefly as a Farmer in Elko, Utah in 1870.   He moved to Ogden in 1871 and with $10 in his pocket opened a business in Salt Lake City as a wine dealer (the California Wine Depot) in 1872.   He operated in Salt Lake City from 1872 to 1875, before moving the business to Philadelphia (1875-1886) and finally to Minneapolis in 1886. In his autobiography he identified himself as “Soldier and Sailor, Moulder and Merchant, Tramp and Trader, Soap-boiler and Scribe, Peddler and Philosopher,  Overseer and Understrapper,  Jack-of-all-Trades and Master of Fortune."  He was the classic American success story.

Another new arrival at AOM is this fabulous bird's-eye-view map of Niagara Falls. The color is vibrant and it is a particularly large format.  It is a lithograph published in 1893 by the American Fine Art Co.  Although not stated, the map maker is probably Henry Wellge who did many bird's-eye-views and published some through the American Fine Art Co.  Views like this have been created for centuries.  The oldest in my collection of maps is ca. 1590.  Obviously the mapmaker could not actually have seen views from these elevations so imagination plays a large role.  This would be a great addition to anyone's collection including mine, but so far I have resisted.

Here is another fun item - a 1950's license plate topper advertising Long Beach, Washington.  The claim of the World's Longest Beach (28 miles) is interesting, I suppose, but I found the claim to have the world's largest frypan irresistible.  A bit of research found that this 9.5-foot diameter pan was used to fry omelets at the Farmers-Merchant Picnic in 1931.  A Gibson Girl greased the pan by strapping slabs of bacon to her feet and "skating" around the pan.  The original pan no longer exists but has been replaced by a fiberglass copy.  Nevertheless, according to RoadsideAmerica.com "Long Beach's frying pan serves as a nice photo backdrop for families who couldn't get a decent picture in front of the Alligator Man across the street at Marsh's Free Museum."  What can I say - except come into Antiques on Main and see these and other great items.

 

Last, but not least, is this great wall clock advertising Mercury Outboard Motor Sales and Service.  It has great graphics and is in great condition.  And it works - lights up and the clock runs.  It was made by the Pam clock company that went out of business in the 70's

World War II in the Pacific

Waikiki Beach as seen from our dinner table

I've been unusually slow to add a new post to this blog but my excuse is that I've been out of town on business.  Truth be told, I've been in Hawaii but it was still business.  I did manage to have about 2 hours of vacation and was even able to walk in the water at Waikiki beach after a fabulous dinner overlooking the ocean.

My work in Hawaii was as part of a group doing a historical study of Ewa field (or more formally Marine Corps Air Field Ewa).  On their way to Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attacked Ewa field to prevent the US from initiating an air defense against the attack.  You can still see strafing damage on the runway where parked planes were shot up.  We stayed at Hickam Air Force Base which was also attacked the same time as Pearl Harbor and where you can still see damage from the attack.

Being so involved with WWII history made me think of Dad, who was wounded at Guadalcanal.  So I thought I would share a couple of "souvenirs" he brought back from the war - rare photos of civilian prisoners of the Japanese, probably somewhere in Indonesia.  The one where the soldiers are sitting with the children makes me feel pretty uneasy although there is no obvious mistreatment going on.

These photographs are not for sale, but there are plenty of other WWII related items for sale at our store.  There are other WWII photographs, a practice bomb, Navy binoculars, and many other WWII items waiting for you to discover as you explore Antiques on Main for its many treasures.