2010: A SPACE ODDITY BY BRAD BLUEBERRY

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #77

Recently I picked up this oddball puzzle made by Springbok Editions. It's from the late 60s or early 70s and was part of a series of paperback book puzzle parodies. Before I found this one, I had never seen or heard about these fun puzzles. Since this was a cheap find I didn't care if the puzzle was complete or not. I just wanted it for the silly front and back cover. Thanks to Wacky Packages, I've always been a fan of parody stuff and this box is brilliant in so many ways. 

Reading the back cover is pure silly fun and it makes me want to hear Huck the Robot - Computer's voice!

As you can see this puzzle is complete! I always get a little nervous putting together a second hand puzzle. I've worked on found puzzles before and at the end I've been short a piece or two. Ug, that's such a horrible feeling.

Whoever the artist was for this puzzle did an amazing job! He managed to capture the style of the original 2001 artwork by Robert McCall.

For a comparison, here's the original album cover for 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Uploaded to flickr by goon_town_killer.)

Okay, that was fun. Now if only this book parody was a real book. I would love to read 2010: A Space Oddity!

A FEW CRAFTY CREATIONS FROM MY GRANDMOTHER NITA

Juanita Franklin at the Mary Ann Sweet Shop in Mexico, Missouri. 1930s. 

Today would have been my Grandmother Nita's 100th birthday! She was only nine and half years shy of the centennial mark when she passed away in 2003. It's hard for me to believe that she's been gone that many years. I don't want to blubber all over the blog here, but today has been up and down for me. My original goal was to write up a nice post to let everyone know how amazing a woman she was. I'm not sure why, but I'm having a difficult time putting it together. My emotions keep getting the better of me. So instead, I'm just going to show off a few of her crafts. She could pretty much make anything as long as she had a needle and some thread. Below is a small sampling of her handy work and all of these items were made when she was in her late 70s to 80s.  

Apple Head Doll (A true Ozark tradition!) 

 She made these 1950s style teenager birds after one of my drawings.

 In the late 1980s and early 90s she made colonies of bunnies and sold them to local craft shops. She made the girl bunny for the first lady of Neato Coolville and the baseball bunny was for me! 

 She made this Christmas lamb for us. He's always a welcomed site when we dig out the Christmas decorations.

Ribbit! This silly frog always makes me laugh!

I guess that's it for now and maybe I'll share more of her creations in the future. Sorry for the irregular blog post, but I just could not let this special day pass without recognizing the importance of it. If it wasn't for her spirit of creativity and her encouragement to collect, there would not be a Neato Coolville. Happy 100th Birthday, Grandmother Nita!

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF VINTAGE PRICE STICKERS

Since today is Black Friday, or as I call it Black Eye Friday, this is a good day to look at vintage price stickers.

Say what? Price stickers? Yes, that's right. Price stickers!

A price sticker serves one purpose and one purpose only and that's to let the consumer know the price of a product. Most of us never pay much attention to the stickers. We just take a glance at the price and move on our merry way with or without the product. No big whoop, just another day in Consumerland.

As a collector of old toys and food packaging, price stickers have always been a nuisance. I've spent many hours trying to remove the sticky little buggers without damaging the box or the item they're stuck on. A few years ago as I was trying to remove a sticker and then it hit me. No, the sticker didn't rise up and punch my face, but instead I realized something. The price sticker helps tell a story of a different time and of the product that it's stuck on. Right then and there I decided to always leave the price sticker stuck on vintage items. Soon after, I started documenting the stickers and posting them to flickr. The collection looked kind of cool all together and individually they started to look kind of pop art-ish!

Eventually my small flickr set of price stickers grew into a flickr group of price stickers thanks to my pals Snapatorium and Glen Mullaly! Click here to visit the Vintage Price Stickers group! 

These stickers do have history as so many stores are gone. Also, have you noticed that price stickers seem to be going extinct. Most of the times the prices are printed directly on the product or the store relies on posted signs and bar codes.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM NEATO COOLVILLE & MUTT AND JEFF

There's no better way to say Happy Thanksgiving than with an old advertising card featuring Mutt and Jeff! Let the shootin' begin!

Years ago a friend found a small stack of these cards from the American Rifle Range in Klamath Falls, Oregon. I'm not sure, but I bet this card is from the 1920s or 30s. Boy is that a good deal! Five shots for 25 cents and you get to see a mother and baby monkey for free! 

FOUND PHOTO: G.I. WITH A BOX OF KIX CEREAL

Today's Found Photo post is dedicated to all the veterans! Thank you for all that you do and Happy Veterans Day!

In this found photo we have a G.I. acting silly for the camera. He's ready to eat a big bucket of Kix cereal!

Here's a magazine advertisement showing the same Kix box from a 1944 issue of Saturday Evening Post. This ad comes from the amazing Flickr archive of Wishbook.

Here's another snap taken before he got the milk for his cereal!

BELIEVE IT OR NOT....1929 THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE ARTICLE ABOUT ROBERT RIPLEY

The other day I was digging through some of my stuff and ran across a 1929 issue of The American Magazine. Inside is a nifty article about the amazing Robert Ripley! Click on the pages for a closer look. 

VOTE MAD VOTE ALFRED E. NEUMAN FOR PRESIDENT