It was never one of the top ten wishes of my life, but as a boy I kind of wondered whether I wouldn’t like to drive the street sweeper. This was a tanklike one-person vehicle with a spinning brush underneath, which went along the street sweeping the dust so that…well, I don’t know what,Continue reading “Streets and San”
Tag Archives: Postcards
Promoting Your Lunch Special
Now, as we have had occasion to mention, this is NOT a food blog. This is a blog wherein I discuss cultural matters, usually involving some of the postcards I have for sale (which none of you have rushed to buy yet. I know I have not yet optimized your blog-reading experience by makingContinue reading “Promoting Your Lunch Special”
No Place for Duckies
I had some thoughts about considering the role of pie un postcards of yore and easing into a discussion of my mother’s pie recipes. But pies serve only one real purpose in postcards (they are made to be stolen) and I must remind you that this is NOT a food blog. (The articles onContinue reading “No Place for Duckies”
Laugh In Peace
If you cast your mind back to last Friday’s column (I know: you worked so hard to forget it, but be brave; this will be over soon) you will recall my hunt through my inventory of elderly postcards in quest of Halloween-related images. This was very nearly fruitless, but on the way, I did notieContinue reading “Laugh In Peace”
Still On the Line
Before we abandon the subject of clotheslines and their place in the lives of ages gone by, there is one more theme in postcards to be considered. It is a mysterious concept, and an elusive commodity nowadays, but SOME of our ancestors prized it highly. They called it “Privacy”. It is one ofContinue reading “Still On the Line”
Online
Just in the interest of full disclosure, our ancestors did not consider sex and romance to be the only concepts associated with clotheslines. There were practical considerations as well. Our ancestors were a little more accustomed to the great outdoors than we are, and their towns and cities contained a good many moreContinue reading “Online”
Love Line
So after two weeks of discussing potties, indoor and outdoor, on the modern postcard (or at least those I have on hand), what can we discuss? Well, looking over the array, I noticed a strange preponderance of postcards dealing with something else most humans used to do outdoors and now primarily do inside theContinue reading “Love Line”
Goimg, Goimg….
There are those who have exclaimed at the array of outhouse postcards seen so far, and wonder why our ancestors (to say nothing of some bloggers) insisted on dwelling on such a subject. The fact of the matter is that human beings refuse to take our bodies for granted. Every normal function has becomeContinue reading “Goimg, Goimg….”
Another Game of Go
There was no way we could cover the complex issues covered in modern American outhouse postcards in one column. I promise we will not dive too deeply into the sociological implications of the cards, as we are certain to come up in worse condition than we went in, but I hope you have notedContinue reading “Another Game of Go”
Going On the Road
You weren’t expecting to see a fishing postcard again so soon, eh? Well, Cheddar Macaroon, you actually are NOT seeing one. This card is a representative of another mighty theme in postcard sending in the mid-century: the Outhouse Postcard. Technically, an “outhouse” is any farm building which has been constructed outside the mainContinue reading “Going On the Road”
Blogsy Babbles 