TREASURE SEARCHING

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #31

Just this past Wednesday I decided to break out of my recluse ways and step into the sunshine for a day of flea marketing. After all it was my birthday and I didn’t want to stare at the computer screen or dig thru boxes of junk in the basement on my day. So what the heck - I left Neato Coolville in search of some new junk. I just had to be back in time for the first lady to wine and dine me along with a night of mini-golf and skee-ball!

I was blessed on b-day, ‘cause I scored on some cool stuff. Like this 1970's Peter Pan Peanut Butter jar that is still full. Now I just need to find some 30-year-old bread and jelly and I could have myself some antique PB&J sandwiches. Yummy!


I like the graphics on this old BiOrell fish flakes tin. I guess you could call that fish a Pac-Man fish!


This K-Mart Instant Chocolate Mix box might’ve been bought during a blue light special back in the day.


No clue where this fun little souvenir dinosaur came from but I had to pick him up.


I love old travel brochures and I got a nice big stack of ‘em.


The best item of the bunch is this signed letter by John Glenn - the Mercury Astronaut and former U.S. Senator. The signature is real signed with a felt tip pin.


It was good day for this birthday bum and a nice evening thanks to my better half even tho she beat me at mini-golf : )

STAR WARS BIRTHDAY CAKES

The tradition for a themed Star Wars birthday cake started in 1978 on my 8th birthday. My eight year old eyes were glazed over with excitement when I walked into our dining room to find my birthday presents piled around the coolest cake I had ever seen. No more circus animals, no more clowns, no more dinosaurs - this large chocolate cake had a blazing Star Wars space battle on top.
My grandma created this frosted masterpiece from scratch, drawing the ships and the explosions simply with icing. Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos from my 8th birthday. For that matter, there’s not too many photos of my Star Wars birthday cakes except for year 13 and 14.

So we fast forward to 1983 the year Return of the Jedi was released and my grandma stuck with tradition with this nifty Jedi cake for my 13th birthday. She used Star Wars cookies made by Prepperidge Farms as a border.


I’m pictured with one of my oldest and best friends, Jeff Roemer.


Next year for my 14th birthday she made a caked based after the Empire Strikes Back using yummy marshmallow icing over a chocolate cake. Who knew that under all that ice and snow that Hoth was really just moist chocolate cake.


Again I’m pictured with Jeff and this time acting silly as usual. Apparently I’m trying to do my best Gene Simmons imitation. (Probably a good thing that my family wasn’t into photo taking!)

1983 BANTHA TRACKS CREATIVITY CONTEST

I was going thru my stack of old Bantha Tracks, the newsletter from the Official Star Wars Fan Club and found the sketch that I did for the club’s 1983 Creativity Contest.


Apparently my first choice was Yoda.


For some reason I gave up on Mr. Big Ears and switched to the loveable little Ewok, known as Wicket. My usual art choices were monsters and spaceships, so I’m not sure why I decided on a cute Ewok. My mom and grandma loved Ewoks and they probably had an influence with my choice. I mailed in the original, so here’s a poor quality Xerox copy of The Courageous Ewok.


Looking at this now I can see why this drawing never had a chance at winning. Besides being just an average kid drawing I didn’t do anything original as I used the fan club photo of Wicket as reference.


I should have drawn the Rancor eating Oola or Boba Fett trapped in the belly of the Sarlacc. At least those would’ve been more fun and exciting!

Don't forget to keep on looking for all those old kid drawings and snapshots from back in the day when every kid on the block was into all things Star Wars. Once you find them upload them to flickr and add them to the group Growing Up Star Wars!

MARK HAMILL - TEEN HEART THROB

1977 - 78 teen magazine scans of everyone’s favorite galactic farm boy, Mark Hamill. Click on the scans for a close-up view.

SHAUN CASSIDY, DARTH VADER & MEADOWLARK LEMON WALK INTO A BAR . . .

I scanned both of these photos from two different 1978 teen mags and neither magazine mentioned why these three icons are playing a game of hoops.

This rare meeting is probably from the 1978 Goldie Hawn TV Special.

Apparently Shaun was a Star Wars fan as he's featured on the cover of Dynamite with a furry friend.

1977 MEGO CONTEST FROM 16 MAGAZINE

I listed a small group of 1977 & 1978 Teen magazines on ebay and inside an issue of 16 Magazine was this cool Mego contest.


Be sure to click on the scan to see it larger!

JENNA FISCHER TALKS ABOUT LAKE OF THE OZARKS ON LETTERMAN

Did you watch the lovely Jenna Fischer on David Letterman last night? If you did - you saw the star of the hit TV show The Office talk about the Lake of the Ozarks and Bagnell Dam.


Jenna grew up visiting the Lake on weekends and summers as her parents have a cottage here. She's always good about mentioning the Lake of the Ozarks in interviews and talk shows. Last night on Letterman she and Dave chatted about the Lake.

It was fun to hear Jenna mention the famous Dogpatch outhouse, or as she referred to it as the “talking potty.” Here are some photos I snapped of the outhouse.



When I was a kid, the talking hillbilly always scared me. Of course my fear didn’t stop me from opening that door to hear the hillbilly yell and cuss at you for invading his privacy.

She also talked about the Larry Don dance cruise boat, located at the Casino Pier. Here’s an older postcard from the 1970's of the Larry Don.


Unfortunately, the Casino Pier and the Larry Don have fallen on hard times and has been closed since 2007 because of unsafe conditions. Not sure what the future holds for the once popular Lake attraction. This is a current photo from just a couple of days ago.


A big thanks to Jenna Fischer for plugging the Lake of the Ozarks and talking about the coolest part of the lake, the Bagnell Dam strip!

GROWING UP STAR WARS: 1977 - 1985 NEW FLICKR GROUP

Growing Up Star Wars: 1977 - 1985 is a new flickr group created by Glen Mullaly, Mike Middleton and yours truly. The group is a celebration of those fun and innocent times when most of us were living the Star Wars life!

Folks have already contributed some wonderful old snapshots, kid drawings, and local newspaper scans. Come for a visit and while you’re there checking out the shag carpet and the shag haircuts, be sure to join flickr, then our group. Flickr is free to join and you can post a limited amount of photos. You can also pay for a pro account for unlimited uploads.

Now go and dig out some of those old photos of you blowing out the candles on your R2-D2 cake or the snaps of you dressed like Yoda during Halloween. We would also love to see more vintage Star Wars kid artwork and crafts. Bug your mom to see if she saved any of your early masterworks and post ‘em to Growing Up Star Wars.

I added these to the group -