THIS 1970 MONTGOMERY WARD CATALOG IS GROOVY COOL

Let's travel back to the age of grooviness and view some select pages from a 1970 Montgomery Ward Fall Catalog.    

What the heck are these two hip teenagers looking up at?  Maybe they're watching this!

Ascot or dickie?  No matter what you call 'em, they'll always be the lamest men's fashion accessory ever! 

Now we know which catalog Mrs. Brady ordered all those outfits for Marcia, Jan and Cindy!

Back in 1970, these gals were very dangerous.  They belonged to the infamous Acrilan Knit Jumper Gang and this catalog page was actually a tear out recruitment poster.  It even says, "join-up" in the upper corner.   

Wow, forty bucks off a color TV!  

Shagadelic baby, yeah!

 

Hard to believe that you could buy bathroom carpeting in a nice shade of Pepto-Bismol!

  Hey lady!  Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is calling and she wants her leopard print satin sheets back!  

There's no way that these were comfortable.  No way!

The famous Naugahyde Nauga monster makes an appearance!  Not familar with the Nauga?  Visit here, here and here.

We end with a cool pair of Knights just hanging around.  They're wall decorations and I'm sure they looked great on some classic wood paneling!  

MY KID ART: SHOGUN WARRIORS

One of my favorite comic books from when I was a kid was Shogun Warriors written by Doug Moench with art by Herb Trimpe.  Even though I only had one Mattel Shogun Warriors toy, I was crazy for this comic series.

Flipping through my stack of old kid artwork, I came across two Shogun pieces from when I was nine.  I've paired up my drawings with my childhood issues and the panels that I used for reference way back in 1979.

Looks like with this one, I drew the arm and then erased it for some major battle damage.  I'm sure I added some sound effects as I doodled.  Most of the time my imagination carried me away and I'd get so lost in a drawing, that it would sound like WWIII for anyone in the house.      

METEOR SPICE TIN CO-STARS IN THE MOVIE RANGO

This rare spice tin from the small town of Lebanon, Missouri, co-starred with Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, a Prince Albert tobacco tin and a Pepto-Bismol bottle in the animated movie, Rango. 

The image above shows the Meteor spice tin doing a fine acting job as the watchtower.    

Naturally, the watertower was made from a Thyme spice tin.  Get it?  

Flickr user and eagle eye *Julia brought the Rango appearance to my attention in the comments section for the above flickr photo.  This Ginger Meteor spice tin has been in my collection for years and has become one of my more popular flickr photos.  Seeing a real shooting star is much more common than finding a Meteor spice tin, but they do surface once in awhile.  (I just did an ebay search and sure enough a seller has one for sale but the auction ends tonight.)  

Here's a great split second view and the only time the Meteor logo can be seen.  You can catch this scene towards the end of the movie.  Hmm...I wonder if my Meteor spice tin flickr image inspired the designer(s) of the Rango town or did they find their own Meteor spice tin to draw from?        

Now this is interesting!  When I visited the official Rango movie website, I noticed another tin from my collection has a Rango connection! Not seen in the actual movie, but only on the website and in the general store, are some Sprinkle-Kleen Carpet Cleaner cans.  Wow, I've never seen another Sprinkle-Kleen can before and I can't find any images on the internet except for the one I have on flickr. 

Maybe it's just a coincidence that Rango made use of two rare items found in my flickr photostream. 

Rango was one of my favorite movies from last year and I'll be rooting for them to win best animated movie at this year's Academy Awards.  Maybe the Meteor spice tin will win for best inanimate object!  

----Bonus Meteor photos----     

Here's a rare all cardboard Meteor spice box.  I'm guessing not too many of these survived.  This one belongs to my brother, an item I gifted him long ago.  

Below is a a smaller 1oz tin that my friend paperpayline sold on ebay last year.  

TWO EMPTY BOTTLES OF SCHILLING DECORS

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #63

The world just might be a happier place if more cartoon animals could be used in packaging design.  I got a big smile when I found these two 1970s bottles and I'm guessing the happy giraffe and the happy elephant will make you smile too!

FOUND PHOTO: TAKE THE DAY OFF AND GO BOWLING

You can almost hear the sounds of the bowling alley when you look at this found photo slide from the 1960s.  These guys probably took the rest of the day off from the office to play a few frames of bowling.

A SALUTE TO JOHN GLENN ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF FRIENDSHIP 7

Fifty years ago today, Mercury Astronaut John Glenn blasted off and made history to become the first American to orbit the Earth.  Here's my small tribute to a true hero!

 

NASA has created an excellent tribute page celebrating the 50th Anniversary.  Click here to visit the site and be sure to watch the video!  

A vintage postcard that John Glenn signed for me through the mail.

I had the pleasure of meeting John Glenn back in 2004 during the weekend festivities for the opening of the Clinton Presidential Library.  I met some important and amazing people that weekend in Little Rock, Arkansas but John Glenn eclipsed them all.  At the Museum of Discovery, he gave an inspirational talk and spent the next hour or two meeting and greeting everyone with a smile, a handshake and few nice words.  

It really was an honor to meet John Glenn and his amazing wife Annie.  Truly a memory that will be everlasting for me!  They both graciously signed Glenn's excellent autobiography John Glenn: A Memoir.  If you don't have this book in your library you really should.

The next year after meeting Glenn, we made a pilgrimage to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.  Below are two (not the greatest photos) of John Glenn's spacesuit and spacecraft, the Friendship 7.

Since today is also President's Day, here's an appropriate item that I found in a flea market a few years ago.  It's a letter from John Glenn during his presidential run in 1984.

 

Hopefully man will continue to reach outside of our own world in the same spirit of NASA's first astronauts.  And maybe one day in the future, the first humans to orbit Mars will do so in a spacecraft named the John Glenn.    

DESKTOP WALLPAPER THE SILVER AGE MARVEL WAY

Need some new desktop wallpaper? Like classic Silver Age Marvel comic covers? Then here you go!  Click on the image and right click away. All are 1920 X 1080, so depending on your monitor, you might need to adjust the images. If you want to see the original comic that I based these after, just click on the issue link.

Captain America #109

 

The Amazing Spider-Man #44

 The Amazing Spider-Man #66

Fantastic Four #112 

Silver Surfer #4

Not sure if this last one works or not, but I was kinda going for a black light look.

WHAT IS A SLINKY THE SNAKE?

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #62

Snakes alive!  Recently I found a cool little premium that I'd never seen before and until yesterday I had no clue what it was from.  As you can see in the photo, the vacuform snake says he's Slinky the Snake and he was free on a 39 cent economy size roll.  Was Slinky found free on a roll of toilet paper?  Maybe a roll of wrapping paper?  Hmm...I had no clue.     

Slinky looks kinda gross with his separated upper jaw and head.  For some reason it reminds me of that scene when King Kong snapped the jaw of the T-Rex.  I'm sure Slinky looks better when he's popped out and assembled.

Anyway, the mystery of Slinky the Snake was solved just yesterday when super collector Dan Goodsell posted his collection of Snap-Pets on his flickr photostream.

Yep, ol' Slinky was part of the Snap-Pets family that was once included free with a roll of Scotch tape back in the 1950's.  I love the names like Willy the Whale and Ally the Gator. 

Check out Dan's other Scotch tape premiums here, here and here.  So very cool that Scotch gave away Disney's Lady and the Tramp figures and flying saucers.  

Dan's flying saucers reminded me about a similar vacuform flying saucer that I have.  Here's a bonus photo of a Jets Red Ball Shoes flying saucer premium.  

  

 

CHIEF MOBILE SIGNS POSTCARDS

Postcard collecting can be such a rewarding hobby, especially when you find tacky and mundane examples like the ones below.  Words can't express the awesomeness of these cards!  

  

THE RETURN OF MY 4TH GRADE VALENTINE'S DAY BOX

A few years have passed since we last looked inside my old 4th grade Valentine's Day box.  Here's 14 more cards from the 70s & 80s from my old classmates!

From Heather

From Matty

From Kelly

Not Signed

From My 5th Grade Teacher, Mrs. Kahrs

From Raynetta

From Eric M.

From Jeff P.

Not Signed

From Heather 

Not Signed

From Roger

From Loretta

This last one is a special one!  It was given to me by my Grandmother, the one who helped me make the Valentine's Day Box.  I can't remember, but I bet she snuck it inside my box before I went to school.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!