Atomic Living : living the 1950's future, today

MID-CENTURIA : Evelyn Ackerman Mosaics

2012-01-13T16:32:00.003-06:00

MID-CENTURIA :
Art, Design and Decor from the Mid-Century and beyond: Evelyn Ackerman Mosaics

www.midcenturia.com

Iconic mosaic works of the period. Design duo Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman were prolific artisans who virtually defined Mid-Century Modern home decor. Taking inspiration from Charles and Ray Eames, the husband and wife team decided to go into business themselves. Without a doubt, Evelyn's mosaics are her best known pieces.

My walls suddenly seem so neglected.

2012-01-08T22:08:00.004-06:00

The Incredibles snazzy living area. I want it . . . . with the Zanuso chair to boot!

You and the Atom

2012-01-07T18:00:00.008-06:00

It has been over 65 years since the harnessing of the Atom. What have we learned in that time? Have we proven ourselves that we are worthy to hold such power, or have we just been sheer lucky that we didn't unleash a monster run amock? On the flipside, the promised wonders of the Atom haven't exactly come to pass as originally envisioned either.

The Nagasaki bomb, Fat Man

“Considering how likely we all are to be blown to pieces by it within the next five years, the atomic bomb has not roused so much discussion as might have been expected.”

So begins George Orwell’s essay . . .

You And The Atomic Bomb (1945)

Two bombs had just been dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the world had witnessed their power. Let us continue with an abbreviated version of his essay . . .

“The newspapers have published numerous diagrams, not very helpful to the average man, of protons and neutrons doing their stuff, and there has been much reiteration of the useless statement that the bomb "ought to be put under international control." But curiously little has been said, at any rate in print, about the question that is of most urgent interest to all of us, namely: "How difficult are these things to manufacture?"

Such information as we--that is, the big public--possess on this subject has come to us in a rather indirect way, apropos of President Truman's decision not to hand over certain secrets to the USSR. Some months ago, when the bomb was still only a rumour, there was a widespread belief that splitting the atom was merely a problem for the physicists, and that when they had solved it a new and devastating weapon would be within reach of almost everybody. (At any moment, so the rumour went, some lonely lunatic in a laboratory might blow civilisation to smithereens, as easily as touching off a firework.)

Had that been true, the whole trend of history would have been abruptly altered. The distinction between great states and small states would have been wiped out, and the power of the State over the individual would have been greatly weakened. However, it appears from President Truman's remarks, and various comments that have been made on them, that the bomb is fantastically expensive and that its manufacture demands an enormous industrial effort, such as only three or four countries in the world are capable of making. This point is of cardinal importance, because it may mean that the discovery of the atomic bomb, so far from reversing history, will simply intensify the trends which have been apparent for a dozen years past.

It is a commonplace that the history of civilisation is largely the history of weapons. In particular, the connection between the discovery of gunpowder and the overthrow of feudalism by the bourgeoisie has been pointed out over and over again. And though I have no doubt exceptions can be brought forward, I think the following rule would be found generally true: that ages in which the dominant weapon is expensive or difficult to make will tend to be ages of despotism, whereas when the dominant weapon is cheap and simple, the common people have a chance. Thus, for example, tanks, battleships and bombing planes are inherently tyrannical weapons, while rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon--so long as there is no answer to it--gives claws to the weak.

From various symptoms one can infer that the Russians do not yet possess the secret of making the atomic bomb; on the other hand, the consensus of opinion seems to be that they will possess it within a few years. So we have before us the prospect of two or three monstrous super-states, each possessed of a weapon by which millions of people can be wiped out in a few seconds, dividing the world between them. It has been rather hastily assumed that this means bigger and bloodier wars, and perhaps an actual end to the machine civilisation. But suppose--and really this the likeliest development--that the surviving great nations make a tacit agreement never to use the atomic bomb against one another? Suppose they only use it, or the threat of it, against people who are unable to retaliate? In that case we are back where we were before, the only difference being that power is concentrated in still fewer hands and that the outlook for subject peoples and oppressed classes is still more hopeless.

We were once told that the aeroplane had "abolished frontiers"; actually it is only since the aeroplane became a serious weapon that frontiers have become definitely impassable. The radio was once expected to promote international understanding and co-operation; it has turned out to be a means of insulating one nation from another. The atomic bomb may complete the process by robbing the exploited classes and peoples of all power to revolt, and at the same time putting the possessors of the bomb on a basis of military equality. Unable to conquer one another, they are likely to continue ruling the world between them, and it is difficult to see how the balance can be upset except by slow and unpredictable demographic changes.

For forty or fifty years past, Mr. H.G. Wells and others have been warning us that man is in danger of destroying himself with his own weapons, leaving the ants or some other gregarious species to take over. Anyone who has seen the ruined cities of Germany will find this notion at least thinkable. Nevertheless, looking at the world as a whole, the drift for many decades has been not towards anarchy but towards the reimposition of slavery. We may be heading not for general breakdown but for an epoch as horribly stable as the slave empires of antiquity. James Burnham's theory has been much discussed, but few people have yet considered its ideological implications--that is, the kind of world-view, the kind of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a state which was at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of "cold war" with its neighbors.

Had the atomic bomb turned out to be something as cheap and easily manufactured as a bicycle or an alarm clock, it might well have plunged us back into barbarism, but it might, on the other hand, have meant the end of national sovereignty and of the highly-centralised police state. If, as seems to be the case, it is a rare and costly object as difficult to produce as a battleship, it is likelier to put an end to large-scale wars at the cost of prolonging indefinitely a "peace that is no peace."

Civil Defense paper with Dummy Headlines, Photo:1953

And now . . .

Man Recalls Day A Nuclear Bomb Fell On His Yard.

MARS BLUFF - Once or twice a year, folks call up Walter Gregg to talk about the time in 1958 when the Air Force dropped a nuclear bomb on his yard. (read more...)

Romantic Fallout Shelter, Photo: courtesy of James Vaughan / x-ray delta one

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, err, Ground Zero . . .

Duck & Cover

Teachers in selected cities were encouraged to conduct air raid drills where they would suddenly yell, "Drop!" and students were expected to kneel down under their desks with their hands clutched around their heads and necks. Some schools even distributed metal "dog tags," like those worn by World War II soldiers, so that the bodies of students could be identified after an attack. (read more...)

Watching an A-Bomb

There are very few people who have seen an atomic bomb explode – or who would want to. But in 1955, several Nebraskans who were among the 5,800 civilian and military witnesses to an atomic test blast. The civilians were there by choice, while most of the military observers had been ordered there. The experiment was known as Operation Cue. (read more...)

Planting Fields of ICBMs

In farm fields all across rural America during the late 50s and 60s, the U.S. Air Force was planting a new crop -- Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, or ICBMs, tipped with nuclear warheads. (read more...)

A Fallout Shelter for Cows

Human beings weren't the only species selected to survive a nuclear attack in Nebraska. In 1963, Roberts Dairy Company, outside of Omaha, conducted a two-week survival test for 35 cows, one bull and two student cowhands. (read more...)

And so, we have reached the end of our broadcast. Be Smart, be Safe, be Alert my friends . . . . . . and Beware of even the slightest possibility of ginormous mutant ants.

I would like to acknowledge the invaluable resources of
livinghistoryfarm.org / Living at Ground Zero
&
James Vaughan / x-ray delta one
visit his blog - atomic-annhilation.blogspot.com/

You may also want to visit
Civil Defense Museum.org

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Atomic Sex Symbols

2012-01-06T21:00:00.003-06:00

1952 - YB - 60 bomber, photo: courtesy of James Vaughan/x-ray delta one

The strategic bomber! The YB-60 Bomber was something of a less successful precursor of the iconic Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, but still - what an outstanding shot!! Both aircraft were long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bombers, forever associated with the Cold War.

1954 - Miss Atomic Test, Las Vegas Photo: courtesy of James Vaughan / x-ray delta one

Ummm... errr... uh, as you can see, this particular atom bomb test was, umm... hugely successful *cough*

The Red Phone at Strategic Air Command, head-quartered near Omaha, Nebraska, alerts nuclear bomber and missile crews in event of war. The individual buttons light as bases respond.

A 1955 Convair ad proclaiming the Nation's protective military defense:

"All over America these days the blast of supersonic flight is shattering the old familiar sounds of city and countryside. At U.S. Air Force bases strategically located near key cities our Airmen maintain their round the clock vigil, ready to take off on a moment's notice in jet aircraft like Convair's F-102A all-weather interceptor. Every flight has only one purpose - your personal protection!"

In stark contrast - did you know a nuclear bomber went down on U.S. soil? This photo shows the MK 39 nuclear bomb retrieved after the 24 January 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash. The weapon's parachute deployed, resulting in a soft landing and the weapon being recovered intact.

The YB-49 Flying Wing - at the time it promised to be the symbolic next big step in the future of aviation. It was simply an idea too far ahead of its time to become the ultimate jet-powered strategic bomber of the Atomic Age. It took another age, the Computer Age, to help the flying wing concept to finally obtain it's goal.

Men On Guard! The Unicorn Book of 1953

No self-respecting fighter jet pilot would be caught in front of the camera without the latest advancement in military issue pressure suit - now available with figure flattering two-way stretch!

And that ultimate symbol of the Cold War, the looming Mushroom Cloud, circa 1953.

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Fall Out Shelters are "In"

2012-01-05T18:00:00.001-06:00

photo: courtesy of James Vaughan/x-ray delta one

Here we are in American Suburbia. The kids are playing outside in the backyard with smiling Mother looking on. She knows that if the imminent threat of atomic annihilation should rear its ugly head, she has peace of mind thanks to good ol' American ingenuity - the family fall out shelter! She's ready to survive any menace.

No, no, no... that is not what we mean by surviving the nuclear menace! Let's try this again...

photo: U.S. Governement photography

Here we go! Now this is what your ideal fallout shelter would have looked like as envisioned in the early 1950's. It may not have quite the same appeal, but ummm... that's Life. In here, protected from the airborn effects of an atomic blast you would live with your family. Once you had your shelter structure completed and stocked, you could rest with some peace of mind. The family "foxhole" was much more convenient, practical and reliable than trying to reach a public shelter in times of emergency.

An example of a public fallout shelter as depicted on the January 1962 cover of LIFE magazine.

The public shelter. Crowded, no privacy, and probably has only one working bathroom on a good day. And wouldn't you know it? That nosey neighbor lady from down the corner is here to indulge you with her non-stop company for the next several weeks, prattling on about begonias and her gall-stone operation.

The Mrs: "Henry! I told you we should have built our own family shelter instead of wasting your time down at the pool hall, you lazy lummox!"
Hubby: "Yes Dear."

A swanky high-rise shelter; photo: courtesy of James Vaughan/x-ray delta one

A very stylin' backyard shelter as portrayed by the publishers of Fawcett Books.

The family fallout shelter would usually have been built by the home owner as sort of a do it yourself project, and the whole concept of "do-it-yourself" was quite the popular thing to do in those days.

The Family Fallout Shelter @ nebraskastudies.org states that according to civil defense authorities, a concrete block basement shelter could be built as a do-it-yourself project for $150 to $200. Exactly how much protection they actually afforded was an open question — one that, thankfully, no one has had to test.... yet.

Pre-fab shelter; Photo: courtesy of James Vaughan / x-ray delta one

In fact, if you had the money or were simply a lazy lummox like poor Henry, you could even order a pre-fabricated fall out shelter. Just dig the trench and in she goes!

Pre-fab shelter; photo: courtesy of James Vaughan / x-ray delta one

It was recommended that people stay in the shelter full time for at least 14 days after a nuclear blast. Families with children were advised to stock their shelter with recreational materials to break the monotony. Monopoly games were popular. Other suggested items included playing cards and diaries to keep a record of one's stay.

Photo: courtesy of James Vaughan / x-ray delta one

Be equipped, be organized and be prepared. Life in the fall out shelter was basically approached like you would a long family camp out, only you were isolated underground and you wouldn't be roasting marshmallows.

Photo: courtesy of James Vaughan / x-ray delta one

What would you do? Do you have a plan? What would you do if you were committing to protect you and your family with dead-certainty that atomic warfare was eminent?

Photo: courtesy of James Vaughan / x-ray delta one

And hopefully, when the all's-clear is given, and it's time to open that hatchway... there will be a mid-century modern world to return to.

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The Uranium Rush is On!

2012-01-04T09:41:00.012-06:00

Photo: courtesy of James Vaughan / x-ray delta one

Let's do a little prospecting! After decades of being considered as a waste product of vanadium mining, worthy of nothing more than a tossing in the scrap piles, Uranium ore suddenly came into demand as a key element for nuclear weaponry.

Photo: courtesy of gair_dunlop

In 1949, the rush was on. The U.S. Government launched the first federally-sponsored mineral rush in history. The Colorado Plateau, more specifically the Four Corners area (where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico all meet), was swarmed by prospectors in the greatest ore search since the gold fever days of the wild west.

All prepackaged and ready to go. Here's a vintage do-it-yourself prospecting kit - not for finding little trinkets of gold but for highly valuable Uranium ore! Ideally, you'd probably want a little more than this novelty kit has to offer. But hands down, a reliable Geiger counter or radiation detector was an absolute must. Anything else you could use was already available for cheap as war surplus.

In 1949 the boom was roaring! Any one able-bodied enough and daring enough to head out west with a Geiger counter in hand and dreams of riches in their head was prospecting for atomic age riches. See blog.Modern.Mechanix.com for oodles more articles of the Great Uranium Boom.

And what of all this uranium ore? What did it have to do with the threat of of atomic fallout on Mr. Everyman and Mrs. Everywoman? The unquenchable hunger for uranium ore was for the sole purpose of producing nuclear warheads, which were aimed right between the eyes of those who were also aiming their atomic arsenals at us. Without getting into the politics of it all, quite simply and against all the odds, the mad stalemate obviously stood.

So, its been a long day's work of sweating under the desert sun and getting rich from your haul of ore. Who wouldn't want to settle down after the night's dinner, relax by the glow of your cook stove and enjoy a lively round of the "Uranium Rush" board game? Maybe you could give your pack-mule companion a head start just to make things fair.

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Everything the Junior Atomic Scientist Could Want

2012-01-03T19:00:00.005-06:00

"Hey Mom! Can I have my very own atomic science laboratory and play with alpha particles in my bedroom? I promise to use it on the dog like last time" Maybe, but it looks like no good can come out of atomic power being put in to the lap of this child. But that's just what happened back in the 1950's thanks to the genius's at A. C. Gilbert Company.

I'm not sure if Mother is completely buying the whole "harmless" line, but I bet Dad can't wait to get it away from Junior's hands!

And here it is, the Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab - highly sought after and covetted by Dad and Junior alike. A.C. Gilbert Co. sold this kit from 1950-51, for $49.50 (kind of steep for a toy set!) which included the following highly scientific components:

U-239 Geiger-Mueller radiation counter
Electroscope - to measure radioactivity of different substances
Spinthariscope - to watch "live" radioactive disintegration
Wilson Cloud Chamber - to see paths of electrons & alpha particles at 12,000 mps
Three very low-level radioactive sources - Alpha, Beta, Gamma
Four samples of Uranium-bearing ores
Nuclear Spheres - used to build models of molecules
The book "Prospecting for Uranium"
The "Gilbert Atomic Energy Manual"
The comic book "Learn How Dagwood Splits the Atom"
Three "Winchester" Batteries - size "C"

Geesh! What a mouthful. Just repeating the names of some of these components is guaranteed to boost your I.Q. by 10%! My brother didn't have the Atomic Lab kit, but he did have a Gilbert chemistry set that included the 'spinthariscope' for viewing radioactive decay. When this kit finally was passed down to me I remember treating the scope with extreme caution. I was smart enough at an early age to know that radioactivity wasn't a plaything to be taken lightly!

And if Junior should ever get bored with his alpha particles, he could always go out and do some urnaium prospecting, to build up his atomic pile.

Science so simple that even Dagwood can teach you how to split the atom. I wonder how many U.S. nuclear physicists today got their start by reading this material?

There's that "harmless" word again.... and Mother still isn't buying it. "Absolutely not, Jimmy! I've just gotten these floors scrubbed and the laundry all put away. I will not have you messing-up this home with any radioactive fallout."

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Atomic Fallout Falling on eBay

2012-01-02T18:00:00.003-06:00

Yes, the nuclear menace and Capitalism have long gone hand-in-hand. Even today! Here they are, the threats of Atomic Annihilation being sold on eBay. Bid high and bid often while the bidding is hot! Or you can be like me and just look :)

1952 BOYS BUILD BOMB SHELTER COLD WAR ATOMIC BOMB PHOTO

I wish I could get Junior to show this kind of gumption as these boys are demonstrating. Usually it's a major achievement just to see him crawl out of bed and get dressed in the morning!

1950s Cold War Fallout Shelter Atomic Bomb-DOD Sign

This would be a good thing to put on the bathroom door. Of course!

CDV-700-GEIGER-COUNTER-RADIATION-777-SHELTER-KIT

It'd almost be a shame to have all this cool electronic gadgetry unless you found the occasion to actually use it!... Almost ;)

Original Civil Defense Atomic Bomb and Attack Survival Guide lot

I'd be so interested to see what the plans for my own home town were, though I doubt it was very high on the target list. There are some massive underground shelters dotting the town yet though.

Vintage Civil Defense Metal Helmet

The helmet would have been used more as an authoritative symbol to identify by more than anything else. Though in times of any kind of natural or man-made emergency, the wearer would have had to be prepared to put their self in harms way.

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Thirteen Men & One Ann Margret

2012-01-01T22:00:00.005-06:00

Yessssss... A little mood music to sooth the anxious soul during these troubling times that we now live in, brought to you by my very special friend, Miss Ann...

(Ann, if you're out there I'd like you to send yourself in a big envelope to my address!)

(Oh my, look at that kisser! I think I've just smitten myself... Yumm-o!)

Powered by mp3skull.com

"Thirteen Men" by Ann Margret (1962)
Last night I was dreamin'
I dreamed about the H-bomb
Well the bomb went off and I was caught
I was the only gal on the ground

There were thirteen men and me the only gal in town
A-there were thirteen men and me the only gal in town

And as funny as it may be, the one and only gal in town was me
A-thirteen men and me the only gal in town

A-there were two men every morning
I seen that I was well fed
And believe-a you me one sweetened my tea
While the other one-a buttered my bread

A-two men giving me oil wells
A-two men-a giving me gold
And another sweet thing bought me a diamond ring
About-a forty karats I am told

Thirteen men and me the only gal in town
A-there were thirteen men and me the only gal around

It was something I can't forget
Cause I think-a those were thirteen gentlemen yet
Thirteen men and me the only gal around

Well there were three guys dancing the mambo
A-three guys ballin' the jet
And all the rest really did their best
But surely was a lively clack

Thirteen men and me the only gal in town
There were thirteen men and me the only gal around

Though she won't tell you where she's been
Cause it was just a dream I hope I dream again

Thirteen men and me the only gal around
A-there were thirteen men and me around
(© copyright The Very Lovely Miss Ann M.)

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(that is unless I find a very large envelope delivered in my mail tomorrow... there might have to be a change in plans)

Thrive to Survive

2012-01-01T18:19:00.008-06:00

Today the world greets a new year... with an undercurrent of Uncertainty. Fear. Unrest. Monumental shifts in world powers. In America, our own government is seen to be out of control and the People are bearing its oppressive weight. More spending and rules, less and less freedom. Who could have imagined only a few years ago that as of today, January 1st, Edison's world-shaping invention, the ubiquitous electric filament light bulb is now declared officially off limits! Did the Mayans know something we didn't foresee? Are their predictions, that this year of 2012 the entire world would come to a great climatic "lights out," actually coming true???

What a different age we live in compared to some 60 years ago. But still, we can relate to the tinge of fear that pervaded a society that was determined to survive and thrive. Here's one public service film from those whirlwinds-of-changing times, and their own predictions for surviving the threat from atomic fall-out in mid century America:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Zgyp4HgNU

Hopefully Congress's plans to regulate the Internet has been held off long enough for me to share this link with you tonight. And that you enjoyed checking out some of the modern living homes featured in this short as well!

And, government-willing, I shall thwart the Mayan predictions
by returning with yet another installment ...

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Out with the Old, In with the FUTURE

2011-12-31T21:45:00.009-06:00

Prepared to watch the New Year's fireworks at Yucca Flats

Happy New Year's Eve my friends, aquaintences, and every body else! Tonight we're watusi-ing at a deadend little grotto I fell upon, Googie's. I suggest you should find time to drop in as well. We'll spin the vinyl on the TeslaTone Plasmatic Music Box featuring a red hot atomic-age selection, with aptly titled tags like 'Radioactive Mama', 'Love Goddess of Venus', 'Fallout Shelter', 'Knocked Out Joint on Mars' and 'Atomic Bomb Blues'. Swingin!

Stay tuned America!

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Atomic Ideal

2011-12-27T20:01:00.004-06:00

Always got to love the overhanging living rooms on a drop-off, the wall-to-wall windows, the easy-going slopes roof lines, the winding flagstone leading you to the entrance. You know, nothing fancy, just all the modest necessities for mid-century living!

MCM">

Cartoon MCM from x-ray delta one, on Flickr

Christmas Goes Ultra Modern

2011-12-25T23:55:00.003-06:00

Fifty years ago, You could celebrate a Motorola Christmas.

I think I could have handled that quite well ;)

from the flickr collection of x-ray delta one

1961 - Motorola Christmas
Artist- Charles Schridde

One Little Ornament

2011-12-25T19:31:00.007-06:00

One little ornament.

It's not very big. It's not fancy. It's not fashioned of blown glass. Nor is it considered to be of much value... except by me. I remember this ornament. It's been a part of every Christmas holiday. For a very long time. As long and as many as I can remember.

The little ornament hung on many real trees and artificial. It hung under the shade of natural green evergreen needles and silver. It was on the tree when carollers came knocking on our front door. And when my Uncle Richard, dressed-up as Santa, scared the daylights out of me so that I hid under the kitchen table and absolutely refused to come back out to claim my gift. In 1968, this little ornament was on the tree as our tiny black and white television transmitted images of astronauts on Christmas Day, orbiting around the moon for the history-making first time.

It was on the family's tree the Christmas I opened my best space toy ever - a Major Matt Mason astronaut action figure and his Star Seeker capsule. It witnessed my first Hot Wheels raceway set, and then a super-charged Sizzlers set. It was already getting old when I received a toy Batmobile all shiny new. And a Houdini magic set. A Cookie Monster hand puppet. And then all those Star Wars toys that came later.

This ornament saw our family temporarily shrink in size after my sister got married and moved out of town, and then grow again with three nieces and a nephew. And it was hanging there for Junior's very first Christmas too.

It hung there, a silent witness through Christmases of both good times and rough. In sickness and in health, 'til death took some away. And since this ornament originally belonged to my Mom, she's in affect still decorating our family Christmas tree.

I wasn't even Five years old. I remember looking at this ornament in wonder at it's simple molded plastic detail. It told a story. Joseph and Mary and the new-born Jesus in the manger. And how well I already knew that story. It's the story of what Christmas is all about.

Yep. She may have not known it, but my Mom sure got her 10 cents worth out of that one little plastic ornament ;)

A Christmas Card for You

2011-12-25T16:52:00.005-06:00

Warm Christmas wishes to You
from Junior and your friendly neighborhood Space Commander!

Hoping you take some time to relax and enjoy this special day

Listen to the old favorites of the holidays - Put on the classics

Its okay to let yourself go... and if you can, do it with family and friends
Don't forget, the spirit of Christmas starts within yourself

...and
Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!

Return of the Christmastime Playlist

2011-12-24T12:22:00.005-06:00

Here's my updated retro atomic listening for another holiday season - Enjoy!

Sputnik Tree Topper

2011-12-18T14:56:00.001-06:00

Ohhhh.... really wish I had stumbled upon this one earlier. 'Tis a little too late in the season to be ordering one in time for a Merry Christmas now.

Gold Sputnik Christmas Tree Topper - BillyBobBossen
"This is a fabulous piece that comes to us from the old Nordstrom display sale a few years back. The box these and the other colors came out of was labled al-tree topper-098. This is wild, and comes apart in pieces. It measures in at almost eight inches tall! We have four colors, and not many of each, there is aluminum red, aluminum green, aluminum silver, and aluminum gold."

Family Christmas Nostalgia

2011-12-17T11:36:00.000-06:00

Christmas at B Street, 1950's

Christmas-time at the new house, 1958 or '59 - Bro, Mom, Grandma, Sis & Pepper the dog

Christmas 1969 - Sis & me

The Atomic Christmas in Our House

2011-12-16T15:59:00.016-06:00

Junior's home from school sick in bed today, so there's nothing more for me to do than play at a computer in the meantime. Which has one good result -- I can get caught-up on some blogging! Here at the Space Commander residence we're still fixated on creating our Atomic Christmas theme for 2011 and how to bring all that old goodness together with a touch of new. Be warned, today's post might get a bit ranty :)

My color-coordinated tree - aluminum and blue are the swanky colors for this Christmas!

The last time you saw this aluminum tree, it was freshly set-up out of the box. Even without decor these trees are striking. But now it's sprouted ornaments all over! Instead of throwing my usual varied rainbow of vintagey bulbs on the tree, this season it's all gone color-coordinated... more or less... in shades of blue, cobalt, aqua, teal.... whatever. It's all blue to me!

Unfortunately after I had made up my mind to do the coordinated ornaments thing, I was horrified to learn that we barely had a bulb left after sorting out all the non-blues from my accumulated stash. "No problem!" I thought, "I'll run to the store and buy some cheap, plain ornaments to fake out with the real eye-candy!" One by one I'd enter with high hopes and left with broken dreams each store on my shopping list. I had come up empty handed. Nobody, it seemed, wanted to sell me one single, plain lousy bulb that was even remotely blue!

Well, to be fair WalMart had an assortment, but these looked just a bit too post-millenial 2011-ish for my tree. And Menards had a few medium blue ornaments with some dopey graphics that nobody wanted. So naturally I grabbed 'em up to fill out the back of my tree.

But I refuse to compromise any further! Being a somewhat stubborn man who has now become so set in my vision of ideal atomic Christmas tree goodness, I'm now beginning to play around with the idea of using spray paint on some discolored bulbs I had no use for. Hmmmm... that is, if I can only find the right shade of blue paint. Sounds like a plan! :P

Okay, I've done finished my wordy bit now. It's time for the fun part: Space Commander's Show and Tell!

One of the contemporary copies of the classic Atomic Ball Clock hangs over the kitchen entryway

One of Grandma's holiday craft magazines

For the holidays I hauled my Uncle's cedar chest in place of the coffee table to show the family's old nativity. The figures are over 50 years old, they're banged-up, glued and worn (probably due to a very young space commander-in-training) but each and every Christmas they have never failed to take their places.

Always hassling with your greeting cards blown over with each blast of Winter's breath from an open door? Why not try hanging them up instead

My brother rescued this Nativity-themed music box from the trash collection and passed it on to me. It pays to have family with connections!

For some reason Junior thinks we don't have enough stockings hung... just in case Santa is feeling very generous to him this year (yeah, well don't get your hopes up boy!)

Just because it's non-blue doesn't mean it's verboten! I set these ornaments out in a large wooden bowl which Dear Mom had often used for the same purpose.

A Shag Christmas Greeting

2011-12-10T19:31:00.002-06:00

From the local greeting card and gift shop... the Abominable Snowman living in MCM style on the slopes! Contemporary artist Shag (a.k.a. Josh Agle) never fails to recreate the humorous atomic graphic work of the past without sneering at it. He makes kitschy icons classy. His worlds are always populated by hip, swanky dudes and dudettes living the idyllic lifestyle.

The shop I recently stopped in carried a large number of Christmas-themed cards with the Shag illustrations... I like this piece the best (though all are worthy of admiration, I promise). And look at the Christmas tree ornament shapes of the ski-lift in the picture window!

For more Shag, please slink on over to: Shag official website

Hey! The stockings hung on the Wendell Lovett fireplace? That definitely has some possibilities...

Plunder from the Used Book Store

2011-12-06T22:55:00.004-06:00

While the kidlettes are shooosting down the snow-covered slopes of Suburbia (more specifically, my front yard) I went on a hunt ( more specifically a used book hunt at the Yellowed Pages Used Books store).

I love reading vintage paperbacks, especially the old science fiction of the 50's and 60's. And today I hit paydirt! Rocketship Galileo (originally published 1947) by Robert Heinlein is a classic. Likewise Fredric Brown's Martians, Go Home (1955). Murray Lienster is another top author of the period, I found his Space Platform (1953) in near-pristine condition. And there's one of the prized anthologies edited by Martin Greenberg (the co-founder of Gnome Press, which was always on the cutting-edge of the s.f. genre of the day). This one's titled Men Against the Stars (1950).

Oooh, which one to dig into first??

Another thing.... Who says you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover? Being unmistakably a product of their time mid-century book cover illustrations, especially for the science fiction, suspense, mystery (you know... the "manly-man" type of reading?), were almost never failing at being intriguing, inventive or creatively abstract and modern. And, of course, always eye-catching!

Invading a Christmas Tree Near You!

2011-12-05T22:48:00.000-06:00

Look what I found at a local retailer this year. Three contemporary yet authentic glass ornaments with a FAB retro space-age theme, ready to hang on the aluminum Christmas tree. These are full size ornaments, not plastic knockoffs. I almost fainted with holiday joy when I spotted these! Somebody pinch me ;)

Winters Past

2011-12-05T18:55:00.006-06:00

Recently while looking through boxes and boxes of family treasures, I found these two contact prints among my Dad's photography. Now that we've just had our first real snowstorm of the season, its as fitting a time as any to share them here.

It'd be interesting to go back and photograph the same locations today... if I only knew where exactly in town they were taken from! I can however photograph the weekend's first snow as it settles on our beloved ranch house which we call home.

Have an Aluminum Christmas This Year!

2011-12-02T19:15:00.000-06:00

It's the return of Grandma's Regal Sapphire aluminum tree, with the tinsel mechanically attached for that perfect hi-tech look!

Ahhh, all those Christmas seasons that I remember helping Grandma set-up and decorate this very tree. And what a spectacle it was, displayed in the corner of the living room near the kitchen entryway. The color wheel light endlessly casting reflections of red, blue and green, dance on the silvery needles. Soon it would be sheltering a colorful horde of presents, professionally wrapped ones by the retailers too!

When the first aluminum trees burst upon the scene in the 1950's, many people scoffed at the idea, and only treated as a fad by others. But not my Grandma. Unlike the nay-sayers and scoffers who never understood, Grandma "got it." And fortunately for later-comers like me, she still got it well into the 1970's so that I too could honestly claim that I had "gotten it" as well.

Today the Tree made of aluminum tinsel is enjoying renewed acceptance, not so much as a kitschy fad but more and more as trendy stylin'. In fact the trend has been gaining enough momentum that retails have taken notice and have been offering brand new renditions of the metallic icon in a whole host of color variations. What was old is new again!

So here's to you, Grandma and your forward-thinkingness... and thank you for all those memories you made that still keep me going forward today!

25 Days

2011-12-01T20:46:00.004-06:00

Twenty-five days 'til Christmas. Less than a month away. Three weeks left.

And I haven't even gotten all the Halloween decorations put away yet.

Ricky Rivets Prepares to Blast Off

2011-11-05T18:22:00.006-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you "Ricky Rivets" the robot. This Halloween my very own Junior is modelling a very vintage trick-or-treating costume, which I happened to win off of eBay earlier this year. And its a perfect fit! "Ricky" is a Collegeville Costume product which from the styling looks typically early 1950's. Junior also models to suit as an optional space ranger uniform. The red "Rocket Patrol Space Police" cap with rotating propellor (for providing maximum thrust during police hover craft chases) is another vintage find. It came from a local antique shop, still with it's original price tag of only 15 cents attached.

I could be slightly biased, but doesn't the little man look all spiffy in his improvised uniform? Enough to make any space commanding Pop proud!

(My apologies for this post coming to you a tad bit late for the holiday.... but better late than never)

Happy All Hallow's Eve

2011-10-31T18:20:00.001-05:00

May you have a Happy All Hallow's Eve!

If you'll please pardon me for not staying longer, but I have a date with the very bewitching Miss Veronica Lake... or at least I can dream of it while watching her starring role in 1942's fantasy comedy flick "I Married a Witch", directed by René Clair, with Fredric March,
and Robert Benchley.

Sa-woooon!

Gio Ponti Poalo de Poli Cat, a Bar and Zanuso too!

2011-05-26T09:31:00.010-05:00

Rain, rain, go away...

While shivering away in the very damp central States, waiting to resume the never-ending task of painting the home, I've been once again browsing through eBay for wonderful MCM treasures yet to discover. You probably know how dangerous that can always be. There are a few things that caught my eye, all hopelessly beyond my wildest dreams of aquisition...

But I can always dream!

Rare Gio Ponti Poalo de Poli Cat
Italy, c. 1956 fire-enameled copper- beautiful Blue enamels
$3,000.00 or best offer
offered by: Fast Growing Princess

INTERIORS + Industrial Design Magazine
Bonniers; Marco Zanuso; Felix Augenfeld; Today's House On 34th Street; R. Buckminster Fuller's Autonomous Dwelling Unit; etc.
June 1949
Marco Zanuso
$99.99
offered by: modernism101

Bar Cabinet By Gio Ponti
Italy 1950. 4 pieces, beautiful and rare. Marble top. Rosewood Bar and Back Bar set.
Brass legs. Display vitrine in the back bar cabinet.
$4500.00 or best offer
offered by: Nappi Antiques

Julie Newmar and the Swanky Apartment

2011-01-27T16:45:00.009-06:00

I was rummaging through LIFE.com (because I like rummaging through the virtual world about as much as I do in real life) and spied Julie Newmar's photo shoot showcasing a particular play she was appearing in back in the late 50's.

Now, when you usually think of Miss Newmar, you immediately associate her with Catwoman from the 1960's TV series. But indeed she was very busy slinky sedctress before then. So, let's get back to my point here... In 1958 she did this photo shoot/story in LIFE magazine after being cast for the Broadway play The Marriage-Go-Round.

Aside from Miss Newmar, the imagery we see is of the set from this Broadway production. We only get a glimpse of this backdrop, but sometimes that's all one needs for some inspiration. It's very 50's, with just enough Modern thrown in; there's those tall champagne-pink bookcases with matching sofa, all loaded with volumes and volumes, a touch of African art here and there, the sculpted glass brandy bottles and I love the built-in radio.

Now why can't my pad look like this? Because I'm not that suave, swanky and sophisticated, that's why!

Anyway, enjoy Julie and the setting, you can read the rest of the story by clicking on any of the photos -

The Derby Tradition is a Family Tradition

2011-01-24T15:00:00.001-06:00

Brother's 1957 Pinewood Derby Car

As some of you may know by now, Junior is active in the Scouts. Really active...

So far we've (because the dad's are supposed to be partners with their boys) been to weekend camp outs with several thousand other scouts, a couple parties, and a banquet with entertainment performed with Junior's help. He's helped clean a lake, studied science, nature, geology, history and how to properly respect the Flag. For a month he had to follow an excercise routine and show steady improvement. He can now read a map. Recently he's taken classes in First Aid and knows how to treat everything from snakebite to shock to performing the Heimlich Maneuver on a choking victim. I've been lucky not to have any of these performed on me yet!

This past weekend Junior participated in an annual event which has become a tradition with young American boys since the mid 1950's. It's his Scout Pack's Pinewood Derby. It's not his first derby – he's got two church-sponsored events under his belt – but this is his first time to have the grand experience where it all began, with the Scouts.

Page 59 in the October 1954 issue of Boys Life magazine, featuring the story of the first pinewood derby race

The first pinewood derby was the idea of Don Murphy, a Cub master in Manhattan Beach, California, back in 1953. His young son who was a cub scout who wanted in the worst way to try soapbox car racing which was a popular hobby with older boys at the time. Soapbox involved building a homemade car to compete in a sponsored race downhill. Since Don's son was a bit too young for soapbox, the Cub master came up with the idea of building miniature cars for all his scouts to race. He had his scouts and their fathers together shape cars from wood. Some fathers built a 31-foot race ramp with two lanes and a battery-run finish line made from doorbells and rigged with red and white lights to identify the winner.

Fifty-five Cub Scouts participated in that first Pinewood Derby race in 1953 and the event was a hit – not only with the young scouts, but their dads too (imagine that!).

This is an example of a Soapbox Derby racer which inspired the Scouts Pinewood Derby racers. Soapbox competitions were very popular in the 1950's, the one shown above was built by a cousin.

Like wildfire it grew and thanks to publicity provided by Boys Life magazine, spread to packs all over the country. Within a year the pinewood derby was adopted for use in all Cub Scout packs. By 1955 an official supplier was found to make ready-to-build kits containing nails, wheels and a block of white pine to carve anyway the young builder could imagine. From the start, Don intended the derby cars to be done as a father/son project, too. It grew, the annual races went from being a side event to becoming their own premier event. And generally the rules for the competition have stayed the same as Don Murphy had first laid them down.

Brother (playing the jug) and his Scout Den, circa 1957

All this means that when my own brother was a Cub Scout in 1957, the derby was still a fairly new deal, he was lucky to participate in the big event. Dad had helped him shape the body by taking it to work with him and using the electric equipment of the sign shop... Good ol' Dad! How did he do? He walked away with the bragging rights to First Place in "Best of Show." The trophy was simply a typewritten "plaque glued to a wooden base painted silver, but it was still a big deal to win it!

Junior's modern derby car kit

From what I've been able to piece together, the derby car kits themselves perhaps changed the most over the years. First the original wood block was changed to a length of 7" even. Some sources say around 1973 the block swapped its height for width, resting the wider dimension flat so as to resemble modern racer designs more closely. In 1977, the wooden struts were moved to the axle position used today, and then removed completely in 1980, leaving a solid pine block. The big notch cut out of the block for the "cockpit" would also eliminated. The wheels also changed from skinny wheels to a wider tread around this time.

And what does all that mean? It means when I was a Webelos scout in the 70's, that my derby car was a bit of the old mixed with the new. When Dad asked how I wanted to design it I said I wanted it to look just like my big brother's car from 17 years earlier... I had a big case of envy for that thing. So we shaped it together in Dad's workroom on a sanding wheel. It was one of my first experiences working with dad using big power tools. When all was done, I had my dream car. And when comparing cars at the next den meeting I was also the only scout in my den with a 50's style racer! But it looked good in it's shiny blue paint and a racing stripe down the center made of metallic tape. I even accessorized it with a pair of exhaust pipes taken off a toy car. It left some of the other kids filled with the envy bug because when we next met up the night of the race, they'd tricked-out their own racers too!

On derby night the whole Pack met, all the Cub and Webelos scouts in our neighborhood, which maybe amounted to no more than a dozen or so kids all together. Our pack was small! I was feeling very proud and optimistic, that is until much to my horror, the cool exhaust detailing on my derby car had to be snapped off because they extended out too far for the race track. So much for showing-off the best-looking car! By the way, our raceway was very, very simple compared to Don Murphy's back in '53. The track ramp was fashioned from a couple of plywood planks sloping straight out for about 16 feet. And there were no electric lights to at the bottom to indicate the first car to reach the finish, it was all eyeballed by volunteers. And I'm still grumbling because I'd swear that my racer beat that other kid's to the finish line first! Oh well.... it was sudden death elimination in those days. My derby days were over before they barely got started... the story of my life!

Now fast forward to the present. 53 years after the very first pinewood derby began by a Cub leader, Don Murphy. By now more than 90 million Pinewood Derby car kits have been sold since. And the event has long become synonymous with the Scouts. Saturday afternoon Junior finally got his opportunity to compete with almost 40 fellow racers (at the very same church activity center where, some umpteen years ago, I was doing the same thing with my scout pack in fact). He proudly showed off his racer, the one that both his dad (me!) and uncle helped him build. For today's meet, a computer was used to automatically keep tabs on each racers time. The brand new derby track was around 40 feet long, a perfectly smooth aluminum construction officially sanctioned by the Scouts... and with electric sensor beams at the finish line. Each and every racer got to complete in at least 4 heats, once in each of the four lanes, so as to be as perfectly accurate and fair as possible. It's all about the kids having fun.

Junior had a blast.

Junior's Big Day at the Pinewood Derby

By the way, those TWO trophies that Junior brought home at the end of the day? They definitely were not fashioned out of a couple of small wooden blocks painted silver ;)

- - -

Are you interested in more? For more on the beginnings of the very first derby, Pinewood Derby History is a great place to start.

Pinewood Derby Times has a nice timeline explaining the changes made to the derby car kit since the Fifties.

Those Outer Space PJ's

2011-01-17T11:40:00.006-06:00

A little late, but I knew there's was a shot our two of my beloved Outer Space Rocket pajama's... the best sleepwear a kid ever had! I was 5 years old in this shot and I've got my little junior tool kit (the kind that came with a rubber saw, a screw driver and a real hammer!) I also have it filled up with expended flash cubes that dad gave to me because I thought they were pretty cool at the time.

Acres of Vintage Space-Themed Fabric

2011-01-11T23:43:00.004-06:00

Sometimes I wonder if the title of this blog is a bit of a misnomer. It's going to be another trip into the Space Age life as I give a little update on a few finds I've managed to snag over the past month.

Space-themed flannel fabric
These two panels of orbiting rockets and rocketting robots remind me so much of my beloved space jammies I had as a kid. I loved those things so much that I've made sure that Junior's grown through several pairs of his own space themed sleep wear.

Perhaps these can become pillows? Junior really needs to stop growing up so fast.

Space Curtains
Futuristic USAF jets flying in formation, over a background of stars, rockets and telescopes. Can you believe I won two paired sets of these vintage barkcloth space-themed curtains for just 99 cents? There's some slight fading in areas, but I cannot complain at a price like that. These are now up in Junior's room.

Space Age Blanket
The pattern on this huge home-made bedding covers the dawn of the space age, with images of Sputnik, a Redstone rocket, and a realistically rendered Mercury space capsule ascending off the launch tower (dating the design to around 1961). The colors are vivid and the blanket's never been used. This will look just right on Junior's bed along with the new/vintage curtains.

Oh, to be a kid again! With all these fun space graphics to dazzle the eye in Junior's bedroom, I think I just might have to be a little jealous.

Swanky Television Viewing for Today

2011-01-09T12:55:00.003-06:00

Still on the prowl over the web today and made another hit that needs to be shared with all you MCM-conscious readers out there. It's Wilkerson Furniture located in Lake View Terrace, California, a contemporary maker of of fine furniture with a Danish Modern flavor. I especially like the M21 entertainment console designed to house today's flat screen TVs (and apparently hide all those accessories to boot). Its all encased by a vintage-styled hard wood cabinet, your choice of walnut or cherry. The site looks fairly new, so if you're interested in any of the products, you need to give them a ring. They ask for 12 weeks lead time and offer custom sizing.

What's in Your Backyard?

2011-01-09T11:12:00.006-06:00

So the Jones' are at it again. So they think that the new swing set they had installed for little Timmy is the best in the whole neighborhood, eh? And now Jone's keeps rubbing it in how sorry your own Junior's tire-swing is. Well you'll show HIM who should do the bragging... Just wait until the delivery truck brings this to your front door!

It wasn't supposed to be an ongoing series, but I have an update to my posts last summer on the influence of Mid-Century design and fads on children's playground equipment. But this has to be added! The very retro-looking robot slide above was taken from an manufacturer's catalog dated to the 1970's, obviously still influenced by the space-madness of the 50's and 60's. If you Google "robot playground" it appears that there's still one or two surviving examples hopefully still out there intriguing young and old alike today. So sad that a bunch of busy-bodies had to tear down most all this wonderful equipment from our city parks and school playgrounds as being unsafe. Silly adults!

But on to the link that I've included! Along with Giganta there's a rocket slide, lunar lander and a very Trekkie looking starship jungle gym. Now I'm not exactly sure where these images were originally posted, but I've seen this catalog first at Retro Playground Equipment @ Plaid Stallions along with other swell examples of jungle gyms shaped like castles, tugboats and a few which, umm, may be hard to describe.

The Divine Caroline.com article has a large number of additional images: rocket slides, barrel runs... all kinds of goodies to get the inner-child all excited. So just follow the link if you're ready for more. But be warned - there's much packed on this site in 3-parts... 70's Playgrounds @ DivineCaroline.com

The Beautiful Blonde with a Beauty Mark: Anne Francis . . . in Memoriam

2011-01-08T11:08:00.009-06:00

A long time heartthrob of mine is gone. Actress Anne Francis, forever iconized for her role as the unforgettable love interest in the 1950s science-fiction classic "Forbidden Planet" and in the 1960s for the sexy private eye in "Honey West" on TV, has died at age 80.

The beautiful blonde with a prominent beauty mark, Anne appeared opposite such stars as Spencer Tracy, Paul Newman, Robert Taylor and Glenn Ford in some of the most popular films of the 1950s.

in "Forbidden Planet"

"Forbidden Planet" was a science-fiction retelling of Shakespeare's "The Tempest." The 1956 film had Commander Leslie Nielsen and his crew land on a planet soley occupied by hermit scientist Walter Pidgeon, his daughter (Francis) and their helper, Robby the Robot.

as "Honey West" with her pet ocelot

In "Honey West," airing from 1965 to 1966, Anne was a private detective played as a female James Bond, who happened to keep a pet ocelot, bested her worst enemies with her martial arts and just as cool with a gun. It was one of the first TV series to star a woman in an action series. She won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy award for her role in "Honey West."

from "So Young So Bad "

Among Miss Francis's other films:

"Blackboard Jungle," the landmark 1955 film about an idealistic teacher (Ford) in a violent city school, Francis played his pregnant wife who is targeted for harassment by one of his students.
"Bad Day at Black Rock" with Tracy and Robert Ryan
"Rogue Cop" with Robert Taylor
"The Rack" with Paul Newman
"A Lion Is in the Streets" with James Cagney
"Hook, Line and Sinker" with Jerry Lewis

the young starlett with Jeffrey Hunter in "Dream Boat"

with Tom Ewell and her dog Smidgeon, going over the script for "The Great American Pastime"

In television, Anne appearing in dozens of series:

"Mission Impossible"
"The Virginian"
"My Three Sons"
"Ironside"
"Gunsmoke"
"The Twilight Zone"
"Charlie's Angels"
"The Golden Girls"
"Home Improvement"
"Nash Bridges"

with dark hair as Jess Belle

Born September 16, 1930 in Ossining, New York as Ann Marvak, she grew up performing for radio and television and on the Broadway stage. Anne relocated to Hollywood when she landed a movie contract at MGM (and later went to 20th Century-Fox) acting opposite the biggest male stars of the day.

According to sources, Anne had married twice and is survived by a daughter and grandchild. This last Sunday she succumbed after a long battle with lung and pancreatic cancer, in Santa Barbara at age 80.

Anne's website: http://www.annefrancis.net

Guard your Frigidaires People, it's Mr. Potato Head from Outer Space!

2011-01-03T17:14:00.008-06:00

50's Pressman SPACE FACES Playset
Create your own vegetable space people.

Tele Radar Helmet Disc - check...
Sonic Resonator Headpiece - check...
Super Sight Eyes - check...
Fission Control Nosepiece - check...
Sound Stabilizer Earpieces - check...
Anti-Gravity Feet - cheeeck!

I've seen this Pressman set before, offered for quite a bit lower (and lost my a bid on it too - boo!). Toys like this make me feel like I missed out on something special by not growing up in the Fifties. I love the whimsical slant that seemed to permeate so many of the space toys dreamed-up during the pre-dawn of the Space Age. It's a shame much of that had to disappear. Thanks to Sputnik, Americans seemed to have lost any sense of humor when the reality dawned upon them that they were suddenly behind in the great Race for Space.

But seventy-five dollars for the opening bid??? *Gasp* I'll have to let this guilty pleasure pass, this time. Let some one else with much deeper pockets have the fun of creating their very own veggie army of spacemen, and I shall keep typing up posts about those who do.

Sorry Space Commander, you didn't win this auction.

2011-01-02T18:44:00.003-06:00

*sigh*

Italian Modern Abstract Bowl 1950's Original w NR

Welcome to the Jet Age

2011-01-01T17:04:00.007-06:00

It's been a day for surfing the web and stumbling upon all kinds of goodies. And I wanted to share some highlights with you.

The Atomium
Views from all around the mega molecular model at Pictures Newsletter.

Check out the Webcam Atomium too.

TWA Terminal - JFK Airport
A little bit of Populuxe Space-Age feel good heaven to be seen in this wonderful little stock photographer's site: RonSaari.com

The Unisphere
A set originally uploaded to Fotki by Peirce Behrendt.

Atomic Dining for Space-Age Lovers, and a Resolution?

2011-01-01T14:29:00.004-06:00

Well another new year is born and another one bites the dust. It's a time when people often clean out the old to make a fresh start or make new year's resolutions. First of all I'm going to do a slight clean up to my blog by removing the playlist that's been floating at the bottom of the page for far too long - especially since it's been bogging-down the vintage Etch-a-Sketch computer that I use whenever I attempt to load the darned thing :)

The playlist will be kept archived here in this post since there may be someone out there who may still have some fun from it.

Next I need to make a New Year's resolution... hmmmm, that's quite a bit harder. Maybe I should resolve to put away all the Christmas decor before the end of January this year? Nope, that is a challenge for me, but not challenging enough!

The past is history and one should look ahead. It's time for a change. I'm bored of looking at these same four walls. I need something new, something exciting and different. Maybe Mid Century Mod has had it's day, it's dated and out of place today. Should I give this up, sell it all off and start decorating in vintage 70's decor with macrame owls hanging from the wall and some groovy lava lamps? Just as dated. A little Shabby Chic? Not in this man cave. Maybe we could go for a home make-over in all new post-millennial, like in the photo above? Let me think about that one for awhile. In the meantime I'll ask you this:

Do any of you make a resolution for the new year? And if so, just what is it that you're making a pinky-swear to do?

Auld Lang Syne

2010-12-31T20:20:00.007-06:00

Make it Merry and Happy

1950s_new_years_eve_party_2-1, originally uploaded by ashleyclaire617.

...And Loud!

Mix it, Shake it and Stir it Up

"Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 often sung to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight.

The song's Scots title may be translated into English literally as "old long since", or more idiomatically, "long long ago","days gone by" or "old times". Consequently "For auld lang syne", as it appears in the first line of the chorus, is loosely translated as "for (the sake of) old times", presumably reflecting a common Middle Germanic/low Scots root; " Vor Alte Lange Zeit" (And thanks to Wikipedia for finally answering all my questions of what the term really means).

3... 2... 1... Happy New Year!

1950's Space Traveler Paint By Numbers Set

2010-12-30T18:35:00.001-06:00

1950's Space Traveler Paint By Numbers Set + Box

And another one slips away... well, this one went quite a bit beyond that, finally selling for a grand sum of 89 smackers *sigh* ...I bid boldy and still got my tail whooped!

I've been watching this one all week - an unused vintage space paint-by-numbers set, complete with 6 unpainted canvases of rockets, spacemen and other worlds! Junior has a few paint-by-numbers works of art in his bedroom, but nothing quite like this to go along with it's space cadet theme. Do you think the manufacturers at the time had any clue that their work would someday become so collectible?

I was so tempted... and I tried but as is often the case with my eBay bidding, it was not to be... I'll just have to settle for painting my own :)

It might even be fun, considering I haven't done one of these since the set I got for Christmas when I was about 10 years old!

Vintage Russian Space Race Souvineer

2010-12-27T22:40:00.007-06:00

Oh my... just look at this will you!

A vintage space race ceramic space statuette, one of those dreamy items you see from Russia that make you wonder why our country hadn't come up with first. It's always interesting to me to see the similarities and the different tangents our two countries took in memorializing our passion for space travel. This particular piece is commorating the successful launch of Vostok 2 back in August 1961.

This would be absolutely amazing in the den with the other vintage space collectibles. And for only $250? Well I do love the look of this one, but I'm not about to start pulling my savings out from under the bed mattress just yet, even for this spiffy space ashtray.

Why is it Russian space souvenirs have to be so darned expensive anyway? :P

See the listing on eBay: 1960s VINTAGE RUSSIAN PORCELAIN SOUVENIR SPACE PROGRAM

Ho Hum... But in a Good Way

2010-12-26T13:48:00.006-06:00

It's another anti-climatic day after. For some perhaps Santa delivered the gifts that you wanted, and some of us had to settle instead with new underwear. I can't complain. A year ago we were buried under 10 inches of the white stuff with temps never climbing much higher than Zero. I'm basking in a heat wave of 27 degrees today :D Woohooo!

The holiday verdict for this year is that the oversized live Christmas tree was a winner! You don't need to have the aluminum tinsel or plastic white tree to feel Atomic (though there's nothing wrong with those choices either!).

Sure the live tree dropped needles and dried up to being dangerously combustible. And I don't know what was up with the lights. After all 20 boxes of bulbs were finally hung, one light set blew out. I fixed it, then it went out again. And then it took another string along with it. I'd already bruised a rib from shoving the storage boxes back up in the attic with the extra lights. So our tree stood there with a burnt out middle on Christmas.

Family heirlooms on the tree

And for some reason real honest-to-goodness tinsel is impossible to find around here. I tried the new-fashioned non-toxic plastic which the shops were selling instead - it reminds me more of Easter grass than icicles on the tree. Phooie! Next year I'll buy up all the tinsel in July if I have to! But despite all my decorative shortcomings and dead needles on the floor, our Scotch Pine was a cheerful sight to behold and was indeed the loveliest tree seen in this atomic home in years!

Junior did great in the Sunday School Christmas play (and reminded me just how big he's getting now). He'd gotten off easy though. After all when "I" was a kid, we had to dress up in uncomfortable robes and home-made costumes and recite entire speeches before the audience. There was nothing like the gnawing dread I had leading up to the night of the play. It would be begin the day that my teacher would hand me a strip of paper with about 200 lines and tell me to memorize it all. And as I got older and graduated from a Shepherd to a Wise Man, my part became even bigger, with singing even.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown!!

The night of the Christmas play, the building was all dark except for the stage, and one by one we'd take our turns and stand before the crowd of family and friends and all those strange faces we didn't know stretching back in the pews as far as we could see. I don't remember too much of taking the stage, after I started to open my mouth... it was all a blur. Then suddenly it would be all over, just like that. The organ music would play and I'd feel a tremendous weight lifted. I was FREE! Then we'd scamper off downstairs to dig in to the homemade fudge and sugar cookies and punch. And before we went home we'd each be given a paper bag filled with peanuts in the shell and Christmas candy and more fudge.

After the end of his play, Junior ran off downstairs with his fellow actors and dug into the cookies and fudge and fruit punch in those little white Styrofoam cups. He got his gift bag of peanuts and candy too. And it's kind of comforting to know that despite all the drastic changes made in this world over just a short few decades of my own lifetime, that some things and some traditions remain the same.

Now the Atomic-powered bachelor pad household has made it through another Christmas season. Now lets get ready to bring in a new year.

A Merry Atomic Christmas to You

2010-12-25T07:00:00.003-06:00

- to all of You and Your's this joyous time of year!

Finally It's Christmas!

2010-12-25T00:00:00.004-06:00

Brother and sis posing with their new toys from Santa. And there's that brand new electric robot I told you so much about before.

Looking Up for Ol' St. Nick

2010-12-24T23:51:00.000-06:00

I think he's worried whether Santa's got enough clearance down our chimney...

Under the Christmas Tree - The Gift Pile Grows

2010-12-23T23:31:00.001-06:00

Under the Christmas Tree - What's Cookin'?

2010-12-22T00:00:00.004-06:00

If it was made for girls during the mid century, odds were that it was coated in pink. And that it had something to do with making a home. And that it most definitely had to be the most Modern convient appliances of Today!

"Gee Beav... You'd better get your head unstuck in that oven before Mom and Dad get home!"

Christmas' Long Long Ago

2010-12-21T21:19:00.004-06:00

Brother and Sis under a very modest tree back when the family used to rent a small place near downtown, before moving to the suburbs.

And here's a rare Christmastime shot with me, about 15 years later after the fam had moved to the burbs.

Under the Christmas Tree - The Real Action Figures

2010-12-21T19:54:00.011-06:00

"Keep trying, Men! We absolutely must get through... I haven't missed an episode of 'Little Orphan Annie' in years!!

Yes, the original Adventure Team is back in action once again. Many a Good boy got one of these under the tree, but I acquired mine by sheer luck. I wasn't even Eight yet when the teenager next door gave me a box of his old 'junk' which he'd outgrown. Among the discarded items were two G.I. Joe figures! One was dressed in Army fatigues and the other in Navy dress. These were the original "action figure," both of the 1964 issue... before Joe grew that fuzzy flocked facial hair he was to became so well known for.

At it's beginning, the 12" G.I. Joe line represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Soldier (Army), Action Sailor (Navy), Action Pilot (Air Force) and Action Marine (Marines). And every figure sported a cool scar on the face to prove he was ready for action.

Soon after my lucky score, Mom was buying me Action Man outfits and equipment when she took me along on her weekly shopping sprees to the local K-Mart (by the mid 70's, after the Viet Nam War, manufacturers worried it was no longer marketable to associate toys with the military, so toy-maker Hasbro turned G.I. Joe into an Adventure Team adventurer). Since my two G.I. figures were identical, I figured they were twins, one I called Joe and the other John. Every day they went on a new adventure. Oh, the fun I had!

My current collection of Joes (at top). A few years ago Hasbro produced limited anniversary editions of the original action figures, complete with authentic packaging (immediately above)... *sigh* I couldn't resist.

The original 1964 issue!

Visiting Santa Claus

2010-12-20T18:12:00.003-06:00

I've been digging through some of the old photos for holiday shots. Here's a couple from when Grandma took my brother and sis to see Mr. C. at the department store.

I guess Santa had lost some weight back then...

Under the Christmas Tree - Batteries Not Included

2010-12-16T17:56:00.004-06:00

The Mid-Century was the real beginning of the battery-operated age for children's toys: Toy robots and vehicles, radios, walkie-talkies, and all types of imaginative electronically advanced gadgetry to equip the average All-American kid. Remco would have to be, without a doubt, one of my favorite manufacturers, for all the attention the toy company paid to that all-important imaginative ingredient. Plus their products from this time-period just scream the age they were made in!

Remco's Electronic Radio Station was manufactured in a number of versions and colors over the years between the 50's through the 60's, including a colorful and spacey Dan Dare version aimed at the fans of the British comic strip. The station comes with an operational searchlight that you can manually rotate (just who or what you were expected to aimg it at is unclear) , a telegraph buzzer with a handy built-in note pad for taking down those secret coded messages, and a set of the futuristic Remco hand-held walkie-talkies that could be plugged into the station's advanced communication center. Add to this the multiple dials and spiffy twin signal towers, and you have an almost guaranteed ticket for hours of kid-entertainment!

And in my case it would have meant Dad would have been bumping around in the dark at night since I would have quietly borrowed the batteries out of his flashlight so I could operate my new toy... hmmm, maybe that's what the searchlight was used for?

Under the Christmas Tree - Atomic Science for Fun

2010-12-15T23:28:00.007-06:00

In Atomic Age America, EVERYTHING was about Science. So naturally parents and toy companies lost no time in addressing the needs of that mid-century mindset.

This sweet chemistry set (#12066) in an all metal cabinet was made by the long-time premier name of science designed for the budding scientist, the A. C. Gilbert Company. Besides the long line of chemistry sets, the company also produced Erector sets, microscopes, and American Flyer trains.

The kit shown above are the remains of a set given to Brother Dear back when he was keen on science as many other kids back in the 50's and 60's. I got my little mitts on it when I found it in the family attic, forgotten for who knows how many years.

There used to be a experiment manual that fit in the left compartment, a complete set of test tubes, glass rods, chemicals and a little tube you were supposed to look through to discover the thrills and mysteries of the atom. I was old enough to be a bit wary of handling that tube since I didn't want to get any radiation on me. Sure, it said that the expirements were safe, but I knew better than to let an 8-year old mess around with atomic energy, even if that 8-year old was me... Such a smart kid, I was!

For a brief history of these sets, go to: The Chemestry Set Generation

Under the Christmas Tree - Toy Robots

2010-12-14T22:46:00.005-06:00

What kid could have resisted Robert the Robot and Electric Robot (aka E. Robot and Son) who has a nifty little drawer in his chest to store his tools. These were the first two examples of all-plastic molded body parts to be used in toy robots, which were always constructed of lithographed tin plate before.

In the 1950's Electric Robot and Son were manufactured in the U.S.A. by Louis Marx in response to the immensely popular Robert the Robot by rival manufacturer Ideal Toys. Electric was just different enough from Robert to avoid copyright infringement, yet the strong similarities undoubtedly appealed to young buyers with smaller budgets.

This toy robot was molded with a black plastic body (there was also a rare silver-brown version) with movable red head and arms was electrically powered by two batteries, allowing Electric to illuminate his bulb eyes, run along on manually steerable rubber wheels (forward and reverse), and make loud buzzings through a Morse code button on his back (a nifty code guide was inscribed on the back of his head). Also on his head is an extendible antenna with an adjustment knob, knobs for right and left arm movement and from his chest opens a small drawer with tools (aka the tool chest for a hammer, wrench & screwdriver).

Completing Electric's gadgetry is a smaller "baby" version of himself, all red, and clad in a silvery diaper who the proud Father could swing from one of his silver clawed graspers.

Christmas All Over the Place

2010-12-12T19:01:00.001-06:00

It's that time once again, children - time for the Space Commander to march out with some snappy tunes to help put you (hopefully) in that once-a-year Christmassy mood leaving you all warm, fuzzy and all that good stuff.

Now go get yourself a hot cup of cocoa, with a side order of margaritas, then sit back, relax and let the ol' Commander shoo those nasty old holiday blues away.

"Take it away, Myrone... And a-one-ah, and a-two-ah..."

The Playlist:

Outer Space Santa - Lennon Sisters
Hot Christmas - Squirrel Nut Zippers
I'm Coming Home for Christmas - Squirrel Nut Zippers
Here Comes Santa Claus - Gene Autry
Oh Christmas Tree - Vince Guaraldi Trio & the Peanuts Gang
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Gene Autry
The Chipmunk Song - Alvin & the Chipmunks
'Zat You Santa Claus? - Louis Armstrong
Little Saint Nick - Beach Boys
Sleigh Ride - Mitch Miller
Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio
Jingle Bells - Bing Crosby
One Foot in Front of the Other - Santa Claus is Comin' to Town
Dancing Snowmen - the Blenders
Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Burl Ives
Santa's Beard - Beach Boys
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - the Ronnets
It Must've Been Ol Santa Claus - Harry Connick Jr.
Hooray for Santa Claus - Milton DeLugg & the Little Eskimos
Snow Miser - Year Without a Santa Claus
Santa's Too Fat for the Hula Hoop - the Pixies w/ Thurl Ravenscroft
Shake Hands With Santa Claus - Louis Prima
Oh Christmas Tree - Vince Guaraldi Trio
Skating - Vince Guaraldi Trio
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas - Gayla Peevey
Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio & the Peanuts Gang
Hark the Herald Angel Sing - Vince Guaraldi Trio & the Peanuts Gang
I'm Gonna Lasso Santa Claus - Brenda Lee
All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth - Spike Jones & His City Slickers
I'm Gettin' Nuttin' For Christmas - Billy Gilman
Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
Rock 'n' Roll Santa - Little Joey Farr
Run Run Rudolph - Chuck Berry
Christmas is Coming - Vince Guaraldi Trio
Sleigh Ride - Squirrel Nut Zippers
Carolina Christmas - Squirrel Nut Zippers
Hanging Up My Stocking - Squirrel Nut Zippers

It's a Blizzard Out There, but Inside it's Cool

2010-12-11T16:02:00.020-06:00

Yep, it definitely is getting wintry outdoors now. Today the temp dipped from a grand high of 11 degrees (and plummeting), the blizzard winds are making the house creak, and the snow is whipping across the landscape in wispy white torrents trying to snake it's way into every crack and corner. But it's not getting into my home sweet home... Especially not after an emergency call to the furnace man to kick my heater a few times and getting it to work again!

As suddenly as if waking from a dream I realized that Mr. Winter has indeed arrived and Christmas is tagging inevitably along, not too far behind. Maybe I should start throwing a few decorations on the house?

It had all started a week ago with an unplanned visit to a Christmas tree stand and being uncontrollably drawn by a tree which beckoned me to please take it home. From that point on, there was no turning back.

Yes indeedy. Christmas has definitely arrived at the atomic man cave :)

I've clung to my Grandma's genuine aluminum tinsel Christmas year after year (and have incurred some unfair ridicule from friends over it!) Oh the memories of setting it up with her in the corner of the living room and hanging those really old decorations. But this holiday for some inexplicable reason I had a craving to go traditional and trim the real deal. There's nothing in the world like the smell of a real Scotch pine living inside your home, after all...

And Grandma's decorations look just as much at home on a traditional tree, don't ya think?

Oh, and here's the Sputnik lamp, decked out in an appropriately colorful attire of Christmas lights.

I've been waiting almost the whole year to fire up the electric fireplace...

Keep warm and toasty out there. Wear those wool socks and the long underwear, 'cuz Summer's a whole 4 months off yet. Until then, Ho ho ho ...and pass on down another margarita!

The Powers of 10

2010-10-10T17:30:00.005-05:00

On this historic date (10/10/10) I'd like to share with you a short work created by the Eames (Eameses?), namely the Powers of 10.

Basically, the Powers of Ten is a 1968 American documentary short film written and directed by Ray Eames and her husband, Charles Eames, depicting the relative scale of the Universe in factors of ten.

This film has been stuck in my mind since being wowed by it in my junior high school science class. Believe me, most of the filmfare we got in school was pretty dry stuff!

I'd planned to share a YouTube link with you today... unfortunately the video has since been removed... booo. Hopefully this new link below will remain active through today (crossing my fingers). If not, you can still visit the official website to learn more. I'm pretty sure it won't be removed anytime soon ;)

Today's Future - Yesterday

2010-09-12T19:58:00.006-05:00

I confess, being a longtime user of the internet and the Big Three social networks I've often thought how lost I'd be if I were thrown back in time before these techie luxuries ever existed. Now thanks to a little imagination from an ad agency, Moma Propaganda, we can all witness what life would have been like if Facebook was part of the mid-century daily routine -

If Mad Men Pitched Twitter, Facebook and YouTube / Lushpad.com

Who I'm Watching: Peter Gunn

2010-08-26T23:15:00.005-05:00

He was suave. He was sophisticated. And he was "like coolio-daddyo to all you cats!"

I only have a couple too few episodes that I picked up in one of those value-priced DVD tv collections. And I never was lucky enough to catch the series in syndication, though I've heard plenty of the series and the unforgettably suave yet danger-ladden theme music by Henry Mancini (Best Arrangement, Grammy Awards, 1958; Album of the Year). But I think I'd really like to see more this stylish private eye detective show. It's left me with a hungry appetite for more each time I've gotten to follow Gunn on a case.

Peter Gunn may have been the coolest gentleman private eye to be seen since the Thin Man series with William Powell. The epitome of cool as envisioned by the mid century, the original suave and sophisticated man's man. Remember, Peter Gunn was happening even before Agent 007 burst onto the big screens with the first Bond movie, Dr. No.

"Hot on the case, cool under fire," Peter Gunn originally aired 114 1/2 hour episodes from September 22, 1958 to September 18, 1961, preluding the years that brought us many classic spy and crime dramas such as The Avengers and The Saint. The show was the creation of Blake Edwards, the same mastermind behind the Pink Panther movies, starring Craig Stevens, Herschel Bernardi, Lola Albright. Stevens portrays the stylishly hip and ultra cool Mr. Gunn with an ample helping of wry humor thrown in for good measure. The cases takes him through an assortment of moody imagery: mod hangouts, avant-garde artists pads and film noir-esque back alley ways, always with the swanky sax, bass and drums setting the cool mood through it all.

Hmmm.... wonder if a cool cat wannabee can locate a copy of the complete soundtrack from the series?

Vintage Tourist Traps

2010-08-18T22:41:00.003-05:00

I posted a little about the old Sioux Trading Post earlier and got to do a little of my own research about the history. Here's a bit I found on the Ogallala, Nebraska store, not to be confused with the Sioux Trading Post in Rapid City, South Dakota (a native craft supply & dealer, which incidentally I've been to before) as well as some other facts about the colorful family-run operation:

In all three souvenir stores "Out West" have been owned by the Henline family over the years along the old Lincoln Highway. The Buffalo Bill Trading Post was on the west end of North Platte on Hwy 30, and was opened for business in 1950 and sold in 1954. The Sioux Trading Post (above) was in Ogallala, Nebraska, also on Hwy 30, was opened in 1952 and closed permantly in 1969. Fort Cody Trading Post of North Platte was first opened on Hwy 30 from 1963-1969 then relocated to be close to the new Interstate I-80 in 1968 where it continues to operate to this day.

First the Sioux Trading Post and later the Fort Cody Trading Post were the summer homes for the Whitecalf family of Pine Ridge South Dakota. (some members pictured above) The family lived in the back towers (at Ft. Cody) and performed their Native American Dances during the day for our customers. They also presented a half hour evening performance which featured traditional dances including the Hoop Dance. Their final summer in North Platte was in 1977, when they returned to live year 'round in South Dakota.

The Henline family also operated the Wigwam in Atlanta, Nebraska, and the Seminole Trading Post and Indian Village near Miami. They also ran the Dunlap-Henline Company that published postcards out of Omaha during the 1950's through 60's.

Great photos seen on the following two sites:

Fortcody.com

Fort Cody History

Tourist Traps

2010-08-11T18:13:00.005-05:00

Ugggh! Looks like they broke Flickr while I was gone. Don't you just love it when you PAY for a service and they decide to change everything so that you can no longer use it for the purposes you bought it for? Hopefully they will get the photo sharing options working for everyone again soon, otherwise this blog is going to be getting mighty boring fast with no piccies to show off!

Anyway, during our trip I kept my eyes open and camera lens focused to bring you some classic Old West American tourist traps. Yippee! I love tourist traps!

The first one is a diorama reconstruction of classic from the mid-century, the Sioux Trading Post once located in Ogallala, Nebraska.

This diorama is a new attraction added to the Fort Cody Trading Post (offshoot of the old Sioux Trading Post since the early 70's) located at North Platte, Nebraska. Part novelty shop, part museum, the Post is worth stopping for... especially on those long drives heading west on I-80!

- - -

There'll be more to come in a future post - stay tuned!

Pink Picnic Stove on Ebay

2010-07-24T11:02:00.005-05:00

It's very Fifties/Sixties, very Outdoorsy, and very Pink: Coleman Pink Single Burner Picnic Stove

I see these often on the auctions, and almost all are offered at very reasonably low bids (I could be mistaken but I'm pretty sure that your typical nostaligic outdoorsman manly-man-type isn't much interested in pink stoves. Undoubtedly when Coleman marketed these they were aiming for the manly-man-type's Better-Half. There was also a version of the same picnic stove in the more classic Coleman green.

Because it's a bit different than the typical camp stove, it caught my eye... just because I like the mid-century feel of this. I can see a family packing up one of these into the station wagon for an afternoon getaway at the lake.

Mind you, if you decide to bid on this, the stove was designed to use small LP gas cans that popped in easily for the stove fuel, also sold by Coleman. And I haven't seen these sold since I was a kid. So... unless you're handy and can rig-up only a SAFE means to hook up to a modern LP gas canister (which I am only guessing can be done - I'm not making any claims and taking NO responsibilities here!), remember that if you decide to bid that this will likely be useful only for a display item only.

Campground Cabins for the Modern-Minded

2010-07-22T16:30:00.002-05:00

SPECULATOR, NEW YORK Camp Of The Woods VINTAGE 1960s POST CARD, originally uploaded by Christian Montone.

Yes, I'm dreaming a lot these days of the upcoming camping trip I've got planned for next month.

Though Junior and I are not going to be staying in any ultra modern lakeside cabins like this one, I can imagine what it'd be like. Couldn't you imagine spending a nice long holiday in a setting like this? Glass walls, angled roof supports and bright colors... heck, I could live here!

Incidentally this is from a postcard dated back to the Sixties for Camp Of The Woods, Speculator, New York.

Cool Cooler on Ebay

2010-07-21T17:57:00.004-05:00

One of the things I seem to be accumulating are vintage camp thermoses and coolers. Not only are they still reliable for camping trips, but they look great above the cabinet in my kitchen! I really like the highly graphic design on this little cooler. I'd make a bid on it myself, but sometimes you just have to stick to the budget ;P ...but I can still look though!

Super Nice Vintage Cooler on Ebay

I Promise to "Do My Best"

2010-07-20T13:36:00.001-05:00

1954 - Cub Scout, originally uploaded by clotho98.

This year the Boy Scouts are celebrating 100 years of meetings, camp outs, pinewood derbys, and den mothers!

This year Junior is joining up!

This year I really really wish Dad took a photo of me sometime when I was wearing my own scout uniform!

How many of you were in the Boy or Girl scouts? Brownies? Awanas?

Cub Scout illustration published in the October 1954 issue of Family Circle magazine.

The Big One-Oh

2010-07-17T14:42:00.005-05:00

So... I haven't been seen too much in recent days, but I have a good excuse. Yesterday the formerly 9-year old Junior turned double digits - the big one as in the Big One-Oh (pssst... that'd be Ten-years old, btw)!

You'll be happy to know that he's been living it up on this monumentally big occasion, and that his Pop (that'd be me) is surviving fairly well, with all things considered. Junior started off his big day with a pancake breakfast in bed. Next he was forced to watch home movies of his original birth day from exactly ten years ago (muah-ha-ha!). Then we had a day at the waterpark followed by a night of video games (yes, he's earned it). We wrapped up the festivities last night by braving mosquito hordes to laze away in our over-sized kid pool while watching the moon and the lightning bugs dancing overhead.

Today we're headed to the lake. And tomorrow, if I can hang on that long, were aiming to go to the RR Days event up in Omaha.

Three days, three full days of fun-filled kid-excitement and thrills... what on earth was I thinking? =O

If you don't hear back from me again by Monday, send a rescue team - please!

= = =

So where's the vintage connection I'm supposed to make with this blog??? Worry not... Here's a few favorite pics from the family album of birthdays past...

Brother Dear's birthday goodies: A Merry-go-Round cake (probably made by Grandma) a gumball machine, a dump truck and a nifty tin machine gun!

Sis's baby doll cake, also likely made by Grandma... she was a cake designing genius!

A Snoopy-themed birthday party for the future Space Commander! Is there nothing in this poloroid shot that doesn't just scream "Seventies" at you?

One Small Space

2010-07-14T20:04:00.001-05:00

1957-8 Magnavox Record Player - Another Record Player!, originally uploaded by kerrybeary.

Retro artwork, a 1957-8 Magnavox Record Player, a pair of amorphic astrays, and that awesome atomic lamp!

Abstract Modern Painting

2010-07-14T19:55:00.002-05:00

Ab_Mod_06, originally uploaded by _Booka B_.

Acrylic 36" x 36" from _Booka B_

Finned Mailbox/Screen

2010-07-12T14:52:00.002-05:00

Finned mailbox post, originally uploaded by poweron.

Speaking of mailboxes and screens... here's one that does both for the price of one!

Also speaking of screens, here's a link to another imaginative screen design: Garden Screen.

Holiday Dream Shack

2010-07-12T14:49:00.002-05:00

Holiday 'shack' of my dreams, originally uploaded by tracey_lee1963.

Yep, I'm blogging at you through Flickr again today. There's too many inspirational examples I'd still hope to share! I like viewing all the different styles of homes, plain or fancy.

This small home was uploaded by tracey_lee1963... it may be little, but it's packed with MCM features! Wish I could get my hands on a mailbox like their's ;)

Molded Concrete Screen

2010-07-10T15:35:00.002-05:00

Molded Concrete Screen, originally uploaded by TK Smith.

Bit of German Atomic Living

2010-07-09T22:38:00.002-05:00

1959 Das Haus, Okt., Wohnzimmer, originally uploaded by diepuppenstubensammlerin.

1959 Das Haus, Okt., Wohnzimmer.

That floor lamp is mighty interesting, and the large indoor planter is reminiscent of what would be see in many American ranch homes, usually situated by the main doorway as a divider. And the muted colors make it more appealing to today's modern taste.

North By Northwest - the VanDamm Residence

2010-07-08T23:37:00.004-05:00

1959 ... North By Northwest- VanDamm residence S.D., originally uploaded by x-ray delta one.

I've always loved this bit of mid-century fantasy architecture that Hollywood created for the Alfred Hitchcock thriller "North by Northwest" in 1959. When I think of the movie, I think of this wonderful home situated in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I don't know if anything can come any closer to being the epitome of MCM design.

The above still needs to be viewed in full screen to be properly appreciated. Look at the concept of blending the structure in with the landscape... the low, long flowing lines... the floating, gravity-defying living area levitated over the canyon drop-off... floor to ceiling windows everywhere... all elements popularized in 50's modern architecture. That's atomic living.

As for me? I wouldn't want to live there, as much as I love the scenic Black Hills... but having a good hunk of my home clinging from a drop-off?? That would wear on my acrophobic nerves to no end :P ...Yet it sure is inspiring to admire it's style!

Strategic Air Command

2010-07-07T12:18:00.005-05:00

As requested by the Atomic Ranch Lady, for the first time ever here's my old snapshots of a bit of Cold War history.

I took these shots of the S.A.C. Air and Space Museum back when I was a mere kidlett, so remember that when you browse through! The whole museum complex (as well as the Base) was still located near Bellevue at the time and we visited the museum a couple times over the years since my Grandma E. lived in town.

Today the museum has moved to an entirely indoor modern facility 20 miles down the road, near Ashland, Nebraska.

It would have been one of the first times my Dad let me use his 35mm Pentax camera, and we probably developed the roll ourselves in our storeroom/darkroom as we often did.

Here's the Flickr link to all 15 photographs: SAC Air & Space Museum in the 70's/80's
And apologies in advance - Flickr is having loading issues today :(

Space-Age Playlands

2010-07-06T12:19:00.003-05:00

Yes.... there's More ;)

An article in Life Magazine "Playgrounds take a Space-age Spin", March 15, 1963

Rocket Climbers

2010-07-06T12:17:00.002-05:00

So much to be added and so little time...

Photographic series by Lauren Orchowski - Rocket Climbers

Bouncy Rocket Rider

2010-07-06T12:15:00.003-05:00

DSCF2305, originally uploaded by Nels_P_Olsen.

From Nels P. Olsen's Flickr photostream of vintage rocket slides & saucer go-rounds. An absolutely staggering collection to see here from a trip Mr. Olsen took across Iowa on a search for vintage playground equipment.

Saul Bass Playscape 1961

2010-07-06T10:59:00.005-05:00

Saul Bass Playscape 1961, originally uploaded by sandiv999.

Woohoo! I would have loved the plank-board jump into the sandpit idea when I was a kid. The builders probably would have had to conveniently locate this park next door to a hospital ;X

Children's Play Sculpture in Czechoslavakia

2010-07-06T10:57:00.002-05:00

Children's Play Sculpture in Czechoslavakia, originally uploaded by sandiv999.

Robert Winston Play Sculpture 1961

2010-07-06T10:56:00.002-05:00

Robert Winston Play Sculpture 1961, originally uploaded by sandiv999.

Noguchi Playground Art

2010-07-06T10:08:00.008-05:00

Remember all those funky designs in your playground as a kid? The equipment that you hardly ever see anymore made into freeformed concrete shapes such resembling large potato chips with holes or some other other-worldly half-dream, half-nightmare form as if from a Dali painting. I do... we had the big potato chip in the schoolyard and even more creations at the city parks (until city officials grew nervous about liability and replaced them with wall-to-wall foam padded safe parks).

Did you know that some of the top designers of the day worked on these creations? Here's a fine example of that playground art designed by none other than Isamu Noguchi.

The Noguchi Playground was the 1952 model made for the United Nations. Yes, apparently even the highest representatives of the world at that time needed a playground. This area was even to be given a special international diplomatic designation, but alas the park was not to become a reality, thanks to Noguchi's NYC nemesis, Robert Moses.

As it happened, Moses's blocking of the UN Playground was the fuel for MoMA championing the design, which in turn led to an exhibition at Creative Playthings' Madison Avenue toyshop. So as it happened in 1953, Creative Playthings approached Noguchi with a proposal for designing commercial playground equipment for thier new spinoff division, Play Sculptures. And the rest (I assume) is history.

You can find a whole heaping collection of Noguchi's broad range of work here on Raimist's Noguchi uploads at Flickr.

For THE book of Noguchi's creativity you can go to Amazon and purchase Ana Maria Torres' 2000 book Isamu Noguchi: A Study of Space.

Still here??? Why not go look at some more mid-century playground designs? Go to Aqua-Velvet.com fast!

Thanks to Daddytypes.com for some background info.

The Fourth of July

2010-07-04T14:08:00.006-05:00

My Country 'tis of Thee

Sweet Land of Liberty

Of Thee I Sing

Land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims' pride,
from every mountainside let freedom ring!

Have Yourself a Happy Independence Day!

Have a safe and happy 4th, originally uploaded by ~BostonBill~.

The Third of July

2010-07-03T14:15:00.004-05:00

Your friendly neighborhood Space Commander asks: "Have you got your box of sparklers yet?"

Perhaps going for something with a little more "umph!" Like maybe your very own neighborhood arsenal?

Thinking about cracking open his piggy bank about now...

I love this box! Guess that's why I'd kept it stored in our attic.

Cowboys riding rockets... you can't get anymore retro than that ;)

Every manufacturer is out to grab the buyers' attention with the most colorful packaging, and many until recently still drew on the same influences you'd see in mid-century tin-lithographed toys. They're bright, colorful, and promise hours of noisy fun! They have an artform all their own.

Lion Fireworks Box O Tricks, originally uploaded by EpicFireworks.

Vintage Standard Fireworks, originally uploaded by EpicFireworks.

And don't forget to grab some punks to set them off with too!

The Second of July

2010-07-02T14:35:00.007-05:00

My blog buddy Atomic Ranch Lady asked "what do we collect/display in celebration of Independance Day?" Mine would be the American flag that's been used by my family and displayed on this house every July 4th since the 1970's.... or as long as I can remember!

Above is one of a set of photos my Dad shot. It's still in the a.m. on this Fourth, the flag has been proudly unfurled on our home, and there's me sitting underneath with a string of ladyfingers and a handful of pop bottle rockets. Doing what I loved best! I was a bit younger than Junior's age here. Since then our flag lost its gold eagle mounting at the tip of the pole some years ago, and it's colors have become faded, but I think she still has a few good years of waving left in her ;)

Below it's the same flag, same house - today.

Here I am again, looking kind of sleepy. I would usually sleep in during Summer vacation, but this morning was an exception! Rain or shine I bet those cowboy boots never left my feet for longer than two seconds until I outgrew 'em... Ha :P

What I'd like to ask is this: "Do you have any favorite photos from the Fourth of July (and for our readers overseas, from any holiday special to you)?" It can be of family gatherings, parades, picnics, big events or small... something that says something important to you or what you remember. Share them if you'd like and Have fun remembering why the holiday means something to you.

The First of July

2010-07-01T22:22:00.006-05:00

It starts with a glimmer of anticipation deep in the back of the pre-adolescent boy's mind in early June. By late June, it's a burning coal that keeps growing until only one week is left and the countdown begins, then it bursts into flame and consumes him. No, we aren't talking about girls (that comes later on!) We are talking Fireworks. As in the FOURTH - Independence Day - one of the Big Three holidays of the kid year that takes a back seat to NO other day... short of your own birthday of course :)

No sooner were the tent stakes pounded in the ground than I would hop on my Stingray and pedal down the street, take a right and speed halfway across the neighborhood to the closest fireworks stand and spend every penny I could pack into both front pockets of my cut-offs.

Once back home I'd light my punk over the kitchen stove, then dutifully take up residence on the front steps of our home for the next four days straight. Those days were filled with dreaming up all kinds of new imaginative ways to light off a ladyfinger in the mailbox or perfecting the aim of a pop bottle rocket so that it could reach the very edge of space (at least I thought it did).

Yep, in my mind the Fourth of July was the best day of the year... even better than my own birthday!

Some of the old fireworks saved along with my cigar box from kidhood

Fiberglass Shades Go On Trial - Part II

2010-07-01T10:53:00.003-05:00

I warned you there would be more to come...

You remember my matched pair of fiberglass shades, right? They were yellowed from years of dirt, the metal hoops had turned brown and their lacing had disintergrated into fragments... These two were not in a happy place!

It was time to act and to coordinate a rescue effort. I removed the pieces of old lacing and the metal hoops, then smoothed off the corrosion and other yuckiness from the hoops with fine steel wool, and washed off any greasy residue. Now the hoops got several light coats of fresh gold (or brass) metallic paint to replicate the original finish. You could have the metal parts professionally plated, but ummm, I don't have any relatives in that line of business ;)

Next it was time for the fiberglass shades to get some attention. They weren't stained, just that overall they could use a thorough cleaning. I read somewhere about a fiberglass boat cleaner which might be used to reverse yellowing, but I was not willing to experiment on two irreplacable shades. I went with something less drastic, I filled the bathtub with mildly warm water, enough to immerse the whole shade and gently scrubbed any bug spots with a small bristle brush. The shades really soak up the warm water and it seemed to help smooth out some minor dimples too. I didn't use any detergent, otherwise I'd start with a dishwashing soap like Dove.

I had done some research if chlorine bleach might help brighten the yellowing, but after a little Googling I found that any products containing chlorine bleach could actually set stains in fiberglass, so I dropped that idea. And of course abrasive cleaners aren't recommended for fiberglass either.

After their bath I padded the two shades down with a bath towel so they weren't dripping wet and to help avoid any risk of water staining while they air dried. The results: though there's discoloring from age, they were noticably brighter after being cleaned.

Next up: there was the lace situation to be tackled!

Now that they were cleaned, the two shades could have the hoops reattached with new lacing. I went to Hobby Lobby to see what might be available. In the leather crafts they had a reel of goatskin lace in dark brown in two widths. I brought along a piece of my old lacing to compare and went with the smaller width. They also carried reels available in black, and a wider variety in shorter lengths on cards, including metallic colors (much like my original lamp lace still showed traces of) but the carded laces would have been too wide for my particular shades.

Restitching was the easiest part, with a bit of patience. I started at the seam and gradually tightening the lace as the hoop is secured (but not too tight). I double checked that I ran the lacing in the same direction both top and bottom, otherwise the effect may not have been a good one! Finally the two loose ends of the lace were tied in a sailors knot, in the same fashion as the original lace was knotted.

The Verdict: I solemnly swear that overall I am pleased with how my shades turned out, Your Honor. And I can testify that today I have a happy matching pair of nightstand lamps again!

= = =

A Friendly Disclaimer: This example illustrates what I did to repair my shades. I am NOT a professional fiberglass lamp restoration expert. Individual results will likely vary. You may choose to follow my methods, but I cannot be held responsible for any unforeseen results, including further staining, accidental dismemberment and worse. Please use your own common sense and judgement before proceeding!

Cleaning tips from:

Dealers and Suppliers:

Moonshine Shades

Find Your Monster Buddy

2010-06-30T23:38:00.002-05:00

Today I'd like to share with you a new blog that I was turned on to by my brother (a.k.a Brother Dear). It's called Tabonga Art. You'll be shocked, you'll be amazed, perhaps even made a bit dizzy, and you'll be in awe of the spectacle held in store for the brave viewer.

This super cool blog belongs to this super cool artist who's work is a garish mixture reminiscent of "Big Daddy" Ed Roth, tiki/totems, and old monster magazines. He offers everything on site for sale, and at reasonable prices too! How much cooler can you get than that???

It Came. I Saw. I'm Conquered.

2010-06-30T10:50:00.008-05:00

They say good things happen in bunches. Finally. The mail truck stopped at the curb, the doorbell rang, and the postman cheerfully handed me a big cardboard box. Hooray! Today's Sputnik Light Day! Thankfully the light arrived all in one piece - no bent or broken arms or any unmentioned problems (unlike most of the vintage Sputniks I've seen on eBay in the recent past). Even the gold finish looks good like it appeared in the dealer photos. The wiring looks to be in good condition too, but as with any out-dated cloth wrapped wiring it ideally should be replaced by a licensed electrician.

Overall I think I got lucky, considering things with the dealer didn't work out so well. I can finally breath again. And I'm pinching myself. A longtime Sputnik light dream has become a reality!

Did you know, that the famous atomic (space age, Eames-era) Sputnik light (ceiling, pendant, lightolier) was originally designed by Paul de Haan in the late 50's, taking it's inspiration from the Brussles "Automium" and the world's first satellite "Sputnik?"

On October 4, 1957, the Russians launched the world's first space satellite. The satellite, named "Sputnik 1" was a metal sphere with a diameter of 58 cm, a weight of 83.6 kg and 4 protruding antennae. The news broke all around the world like a bombshell. It was "the beginning of the space age".

And also on April 17, 1958, the World Exhibition opened in Brussels with the "Atomium", an enormous 102m high structure, as its central feature. The 9 metal spheres, each with a diameter of 18m, were linked by means of connecting tunnels 23m in length. The "Atomiun" represents a metal crystal 165 billion times its normal size. Once inside this gigantic model, visitors can use the connecting tunnels to move from one sphere to another.

Thanks to Lamplust.com for the light's historical background.

Looky What I Found Today

2010-06-29T18:27:00.006-05:00

Today was a good day. Then I went shopping. And Today got even better.

My eyes must have popped-out when they caught this atomic boomerang record album rack at my favorite hangout for the mid century style-concious. It has the hand-crafted look like it was made in shop class or someone's garage workshop, but it's all high-end styling! And look at the cool stringwork on the back rest...

Bandito the marionette wasn't spotted until I was being rung through at the checkout counter of another shop. He's now happily adding a bit of PeeWee bewilderment to Junior's abode.

Confessions of a Pop Bottle Top Popper

2010-06-29T00:45:00.013-05:00

So you wanna talk about pop, huh? Well you've come to the original soda pop bottle top popper kid himself :P It's practically 1 in the blessed a.m. and I can't sleep yet because our Atomic Ranch Lady got me started, so now I hafta go finish it.

Over here, in the center of the country where we lived in peace and harmony we called it pop, not soda. I try to correct Junior on this constantly because his Mother, who hails from Florida calls it soda, which is just all wrong when you're living here in the peacefully harmonious Midwest, dadgummit (if you'll please pardon my French, merci beau coup).

Now for all you POP aficionados out there who used to drink it straight down from the glass pop bottle (either clear or green-tinted) like I did (which incidentally is much more refreshing than a metallic tasting aluminum can) there's still opportunities for you to reclaim one of the original pleasures of your hopefully misspent youth.

For instance, in my local grocery stores here they sell real bottled pop (besides the "designer soda" or whatever it is that they call it to sell to people more sophisticated than I ever hope to be!). There's several flavors of Frostie available (yum!), and Sioux City Cream Soda, and in the ethnic isle there's the Mex version of Coke and Taqueria... it's very sweet! Another bonus of the Mex pops is that they are sold in the larger 12 oz. size bottle, just like the ones we drank from as kids.

I've got my ever diminishing collection of vintage pop bottles recovered from my Grandma's crawlspace basement. Why they were down there, I don't know. Except I did happen to find a few empty beer bottles of my Grampa's down there too (as well as up in the attic!) so I assume that my Grampa was umm, storing the evidence from Grandma ;D Anyhoos, I used to keep the better pop bottles in the fridge filled w/ appropriately colored water. That is until one night when the fridge got too cold and froze the bottles, which in turn made them busted bottles... Live and Learn *sigh*

Now remember, it's pronounced p-o-p, not s-o-d-a unless you happen to live in a different part of the country. But if youre gonna speak the same American language as I do then you have to use the term "pop" sans the "soda." Pop's also easier and faster to say than "that other multisyllable word" anyway, which means it'll give your mouth increased time to say more profound, thought-provoking stuff, just like I do.

So what was my favorite pop when I was a kid, you ask? My fave pop as a kid was Tru Treat, which was a lot like Squirt w/ some Mt. Dew influence. But I wasn't against experiencing the wonders of all the flavors that our super market had to offer: Dr. Pepper, Apple Beer, 7 Up, Nesbitt's, Shasta, any Root Beer, SunKist, Teem, Bubble Up, never too crazy about RC or Pepsi... But through it all, my family were diehard Coka Cola people... And I collected every pop bottle cap I laid my hands on.... And my Mom, who never really understood why kids see the real true value of such things, simply threw my pop bottle cap horde away!... And to this day I still feel the brutal pangs of a treasured horde's untimely loss.... and... I'm running off with my happy little fingers again, aren't I???

The end :D

ps. Pop bottles are the only proper launching method to use with your pop bottle rockets this Fourth of July... accept no substitutes!

Serving Up a Hot Dish of Envy

2010-06-29T00:16:00.002-05:00

Eames Bikini Chairs, originally uploaded by my.65.comet.

Sometimes a peek of another's accomplishment can fill you with inspiration, motivation and maybe a touch of awe.

Others can just make you feel like throwing in the towel, kicking the bucket, shooting yourself and say "stop kidding yourself, you ain't ever gonna even sit in the stands of the same ballpark where the big leagues play."

This dining room, for example, does a bit of both.

The Atomic Powered Bedroom Dresser

2010-06-27T21:03:00.002-05:00

this is my dream desk, originally uploaded by presidentadow.

Judging from the high voltage power cord, this thing runs on more than a couple of penlight batteries *smirk*

Tiled Objets D'art

2010-06-27T18:00:00.004-05:00

Kitchen Tile Back Splash 01, originally uploaded by MidModSTL.

This is it. This is what I would strive for if I had the option to do the kitchen back splash in any fashion I could choose. I don't even know if this example is actually vintage, but it sure looks right to me. The white flecked tile are classic mid century.

Tiles and mosaics were a very popular design element in the mid century. They moved beyond the walls of the bathroom and kitchen and became common on every day items, table tops and objets d'art (pssst... that's French for "objects of art", by the way).

According to what I've read, the 1/2-inch square ceramic tile size was seen in homes around about the early Sixties. It's use here in the photo with the 1-inch and other sizes make a mosaic eye candy pattern that's not too repetitive. The pale colors also help it to stay in the background without fighting for too much attention.

Brother Dear had made a tiled trivet in shop class back in those days. It's been in use in the kitchen every day since. I look at it, a little piece of MCM design history, and dream about having more of where these came from... it's light blue and white 1/2-inch ceramic tiles with gold flecks glittering off their surface. What I could do with a couple crate loads of those!

Happy Birthday Captain Kangaroo

2010-06-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

This world can use a bit of Bob Keeshan right now.

The Inter-Planetary Monetary Currency of the F-U-T-U-R-E

2010-06-26T15:51:00.007-05:00

Through the miracle of modern technology, I bring you Space Money - able to withstand the extreme stresses of space travel: high speeds, cosmic rays, zero gravity and the scorching temperatures of reentry. Good for the inter-planetary traveller on all the solar planets including Pluto (which incidentally is no longer classed as a planet)!

Images courtesy of usahousewares

Note:
Space Commander can not be held responsible for any illegal activities pertaining to this post, including the illicit downloading, photo-manipulation, counterfeit printing and trading of the a fore mentioned Space Ranger inter-planetary monetary currency items illustrated above. Remember, the forgery of play money is all good fun until someone gets hurt. Thank you, and have a nice day :)