Sunday, February 24, 2008

Antique Asylum - Friday 2/22/2008


Yeah, I already posted photos for today, but I really like this one. Another part of my Day of Freedom was spent poking around the Antique Asylum in Palmdale.

When this lovely woman sat for this photograph, I'll bet she never expected it to end up being sold for the frame for $5.00 half a century later.



I'd like to caption this one "Molly already had seven little darlings when the twins arrived."

I cannot imagine what her days must have been like.



These two scrapbooks caught my eye. Hydra remembers watching The Ding Dong School as a kid. (Click on that link for another link to a streaming video of the show! She reminds me of my kindergarten teacher, except that Mrs. E didn't smile that much.)

The show was aimed at pre-schoolers, but the owner of these scrapbooks seems to have been a bit older because of the articles cut and pasted from Lexington, MO and Kansas City, MO newspapers. One is dated 1959, the other 1960-64.

I gathered from flipping through the pages that the collector may have been a young African American girl. She was interested in a wide variety of topics, including the space program, Alaska's statehood and Cuba. Interspersed between these big stories were inside-pages coverage of notable women and African Americans, and bits about interracial marriage from clergy points of view to notes about famous interracial marriages (Eartha Kitt's caught my eye because I do love her voice.)

There were no prices on these scrapbooks, and I probably shouldn't be thinking about bringing other people's mementos into my house anyway. But after spending some time with this anonymous collector, I really liked her.

I wish she had written comments in the margins. I'll bet she would have kept a knockout blog.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

this blog must be very satisfying to you...what great pictures you do come up with...and partly, I suppose, because you are always on the lookout for them. Unlike the great oblivious gente out here in never-never land! :) k

Sundry said...

k- I have a feeling people are all living very interesting lives, they just don't feel compelled to take note of it all! ;)

Anonymous said...

Hey! I watched Ding Dong School. I loved Miss Frances. We didn’t get a TV until I was 8 but I was so happy I watched everything.

I was watching the day Pinky Lee had his heart attack on TV. He said, “Hey Kids, look what Tootsie Rolls can do for you!” Then he keeled over. Mr. Backwards kept running around like crazy and then the screen went black.

It was a loooong time before I got up the courage to eat Tootsie Rolls again. -Bells

Sundry said...

Yikes! That's amazing. I might avoid Tootsie Rolls from now on, too!

Anonymous said...

I did a paper on Pinky Lee once..a very interesting person. Lee collapsed on stage during the Pinky Lee show and it was actually an infection, but rumors about a heart attack--and even his death because of it continued for years. Pee Wee's Playhouse owes so much of its originality to the Pink Lee show.

Sundry said...

Anon- I'm curious! In what context did you write a paper on this? Did Pinky survive the collapse? I suppose the age of the audience has something to do with any misconceptions about what actually took place.

Anonymous said...

What prompted me to write the paper..Oh, that takes a bit of a story! There are a few few of us Women of a Certain Age who meet for coffee and/or other refreshments from time to time. At one gathering, I was relating how my 16 year old son complain with each and every word he wrote for his current research paper. We all remembered how we didn't value the process of learning either when we were that age. A few drinks and converstaion later we were all startled to discover how little new knowledge not revolving around work, family or long-held interests we had gained lately. An old fashioned enclopedia and some topics chosen at random and then drawn out of a hat...and we were students again. We researched, compiled and presented what we found.. It was great fun donning our learning caps again. We know more than we did before and little bits of that knoweldge creeps into conversations to this day. It was just a little experiment-that turned out to be so enjoyable. I drew Pinky Lee of course.
And, yes, he did survive--although there were many tall tales of his on screen demise.
I think I would love your job of researching such varied topics for scripts.
Thanks for asking..sorry for rambling!
Deb

Sundry said...

Deb! No apologies needed! What a wonderful thing you and your friends did. I'm really impressed and thrilled that you did that. Sounds like fun. Any chance you'll do it again every once in a while?

A lot of the info I research is pretty esoteric, but it does keep me interested. Just had a conversation with a contact at the Miami-Dade Police Dept. about the difference between a vehicle number and a unit number, for instance. (A unit number identifies a person.) Not exactly the sort of thing that will get me far at a cocktail party. ;)