You know what I've noticed? People have birthdays. Practically every day is somebody's birthday. I'll pause while you absorb that bit of wisdom.
OK, have you recovered? Well, today is JB's birthday! And Sue B. knew it, don't you worry. Here's a series of vintage birthday pix for this special occasion.
Don't have the kid's party in the former dining room, they'll just make a mess. Cake will be dropped on the floor, sodas will be spilled, ice cream will get knocked over. The solution? Put them in the laundry room! If they don't like it they can lump it (whatever that means).
Those party hats are so stylish that I would wear one in daily life. Why wait for a birthday? The pink dots go with my eyes (yes, I am a white mouse). That kid better not be spitting on the cake - I'd be watching to make sure.
Time has gone backwards, and the candles that had been extinguished have relit themselves. Obviously Superman caused the planet to reverse its rotation by flying around it really fast! Knock it off, Kal El. I just noticed that the little girl's shirt is made out of a "Twister" game mat.
I am not quite sure what to make of the boy's expression. He's feeling the pain of childbirth, but that's impossible. Maybe he can see that the beautifully-wrapped gift is a book of poetry, or some equally-undesirable item. Notice the cupcake wrappers that contain a selection of pills, what a great idea. The girl is interested only in her cake.
Happy Birthday, JB, and thank you to Sue!
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Here are two random slides from Vintage Florida!
First up, two photos from "Horn's Cars of Yesterday". I guess if your name is "Horn", you are bound to collect cars. According the the Interwebs, The Horn’s collection of cars began as a hobby for the brothers (Herbert and Bob Horn). They were based in Fort Dodge, Iowa and were in the farm and school equipment business. They had been collecting old cars and restoring them to showroom condition for years. If they couldn’t find a part for a car, they simply made a new part to fit in its place!
While on the road as salesmen for the equipment company, the brothers often spotted old cars in people’s sheds, back yards or barns. By the early 1950s, their collection of cars was so large that they decided to do something about it.
After visiting Sarasota in the early 1950s, the Horns decided to shift their attention to antique cars exclusively. In March of 1953, “Horn’s Cars of Yesterday” opened for business.
According to a November 3, 1957 article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, the Horns had more than 70 cars on display in their museum, ranging from the oldest, a 1897 Duryea Buggyaut to the latest addition, a 1948 Lincoln Continental. The collection also includes the 1914 Rolls Royce Town Car used by John Ringling and the Pierce Arrow owned by Mable Ringling. Also included in their collection was a large array of music boxes, ranging from an organ with 176 pipes to an early version of a juke box that was built in the 1870s. Horns’ Cars of Yesterday was an immediate success.
It's interesting, Florida really was a popular place for antique car collectors to show off their stuff. We've seen the "
James Melton Autorama" (in Hypoluxo!), and the "
Carriage Cavalcade" in Silver Springs. I'll bet there were more. Maybe Bonanza Bill's
Jaunty Jalopies? Or (Milton) Frunkle's
Flivverville? I made those last two up, but don't you wish you could go to them?
Meanwhile, over in St. Augustine, you'd find the exciting and smelly Alligator Farm, full of playful reptiles. It still exists, now called The St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park. It is one of Florida's oldest continuously running attractions. The park began in 1893 on St. Augustine Beach as a minor attraction at the end of a railway running through neighboring Anastasia Island. The alligators were added at first to get visitors to buy souvenirs and see the museum there. Soon, the reptiles themselves became the main point of interest.
Gators are so tame and plentiful in Florida that they are still used to pull wagons and buggies to this day.
I hope you have enjoyed your visit to Florida!
Happy Birthday JB-!
ReplyDelete(I hope you enjoyed celebrating your birthday party at the same 'venue' as I did for mine, just one week ago-!) I think Sue is [secretly] in control of the space time continuum, as your celebration also includes some of the same faces who attended mine, but seem to have aged in reverse-! There must be something in those birthday cakes - or perhaps, judging from the expression of the birthday boy, in that "present" he's ripping open... This is all very troubling-!
Major-
As far as Horn's Cars of Yesterday is concerned, in 1965 the brothers sold the business to Water Bellm, who expanded the venue into Bellm's Cars & Music of Yesterday. I spent a good amount of time in 1977 with a number of Scopitone "music videos" (actually 16mm films), joyfully watching some of the most tacky, silly and provocatively-produced musical numbers aimed at 'adult audiences'... "To stand out in dimly lit bars and lounges, choosing from a selection of 36 films (from a 'library' of about 500-600 titles, produced between 1958 - 1978), each Scopitone utilized vibrant Technicolor and typically featured elaborate stage sets, dancing showgirls, and colorful choreography". Mid-century entertainment, in all of its wonder-!
Regrettably, the current version of the museum closed in June, 2023.
Thanks Sue for birthday trip [even further] back in time. Thanks, Major.
Yay me, I'm 73!
ReplyDeleteLooks like these kids got wrist watches(?) for party favors. What, were they out of Fabergé eggs? The colors on that cake are reminiscent of the Knott's locomotive, the Red Cliff. Look away, Chuck, look away! Judging from the groovy pink and orange design on the cups and plates, this is probably late '60s or early '70s. And look! The kids are having balloons for their first course! Excellent choice; low in fat and sugar. Kinda chewy though.
Thank you, Sue. Your contributions to GDB are my birthday present!
That roadside sign was done really well! It's a flat cutout but looks like 3D with nice artwork. I think I'd be more interested in hearing that 176 pipe, organ music box (band organ?).
Until I clicked on the full-size image of the gator pulling the wagon, I thought it was real! I was getting all worked up thinking that they have alligators pulling little kids around in wagons... what the?!?!
Nanook, yeah I noticed the similarities between our birthday parties, like that washing machine. I didn't notice that some of the kids were the same though.
Thank you for the road trip, Major.
It looks like Snoopy is on the party plates, cups and napkins! Nanook's party supplies had The Flintstones. And that is quite the upgrade in party favors, if those are real watches. Maybe they're just "pretend" watches. I kept trying to figure out the design on the wrapping paper, in those first three pics. Fortunately, the fourth image shows us a closer view. It looks like "Kids at a Carnival" is the theme. We can see at least one "spinning flat ride" and maybe a roller coaster. And in that last pic, it looks like "mom" has a faded spot on the backside of her pants. Maybe she sat in some bleach while everyone was partying in the laundry room. ;-)
ReplyDeleteIsn't there a vintage alligator farm postcard out there, showing a little girl in a cart being pulled by a real alligator? It's all fun and games until someone gets dragged into the Seven Seas Lagoon.
Happy Birthday, JB! And thanks for the vintage pics, Sue and Major!
I did a search. Here is that vintage image of a girl in a wagon being pulled by a real alligator:
ReplyDelete<a href='https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f48f5f2/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1611x1039+0+0/resize/1440x929!/format/webp/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5d%2Fef%2F5e6f63c8415ca3171e731daa7b01%2Falligator-cart-front.jpeg">Vintage Alligator Wagon</a>
And not to be outdone, this girl climbed on the back of the alligator and said to the other little girl, "IN YOUR FACE, SISTER!!!"
<a href="https://www.stamps-auction.com/girl-riding-alligator-farm-california-old-postcard-usa-for-sale-60752">Vintage Alligator Riding</a>
I'm not sure why those two links didn't show up as links. I think I coded them correctly. But I also think Blogger has been having some problems with stuff like that lately. Let's see if this works. Both images of kids with real alligators can be seen here:
ReplyDeleteVintage Kids Having Fun With Alligators
Happy birthday, JB! “73” was used by Morse code telegraphers as shorthand for “best wishes,” and I think that’s appropriate. And if we only count prime number birthdays, you’re just 21.
ReplyDeleteNanook, it makes sense that some of the same people were at both of your online parties. Don’t we all hang out online together anyway?
These are fun fotos of Florida before Disney and Universal. Horn’s Classic Cars looks pretty neat, and you can see how the St Augustine Alligator Farm has cemented itself a place in Florida attraction history. I’m the only member of my immediate family who has never been to the Alligator Farm. I’m also the only one with all ten fingers. Not sure if there’s a correlation.
TM!, those postcards, showing just a relatively small strap holding that alligator’s mouth closed, reminded me of a random factoid I picked up at a reptile show at Silver Springs (also in Florida) when I was a kid. American alligators have exceptionally powerful jaws (2,000-3,000 psi of bite force), but that force only goes one way. During that same show, one of the hosts held a ‘gator’s jaws closed with two fingers.
Happy Birthday JB!
ReplyDeleteOdd think about old cars. In the 1950s, a car from 40 years ago was nothing like a current car and an amusing ride at a museum. I can't imagine anyone getting the same excitement for a ride in a 1986 Dodge now.
Happy Birthday JB! Many Happy Returns of the Day!
ReplyDeleteSue seems to have an endless collection of kid’s birthday parties and they are all great. Imagine getting a Tiffany Tank watch for a party favor, especially when you wanted a Rolex. I can imagine having the washer (and maybe the dryer too) in the kitchen, especially in an older home.
Old car museums are always fun. There’s one in Sacramento in an old warehouse by the river. Atmosphere inside smells great, that combination of fuel, lubricants, rubber tires, etc. like an Air Force hangar. Have you been to the Petersen Museum in LA, Major? Fun story about these collecting brothers.
Thank you for these pics.
JG
Nanook, whoa, I sure did not notice that some of today’s birthday photos had some of the same kids as the photos from your day! Thank you for the further info about Horn’s Cars of Yesterday. I wish he’d collected used margarine containers, now THAT would be a museum! But I guess old cars are OK too. I’ve seen just a few Scopitone “videos”, I wonder how many survive to this day? I’m amazed to learn that 500-600 titles were produced.
ReplyDeleteJB, hooray! I hope you have a fun day going to the hardware store and asking employees questions. “Which toilet plunger did Cary Grant prefer?”. “WHO??”. You have to be careful eating balloons. I won’t say why, but I learned the hard way. I’m still fascinated by the fact that car museums, and people with private car collections, was such a big thing in those days. I think I might have shared a similar photo of that same gator pulling that same wagon many years ago, once you look closely at the gator you see how it looks like it’s falling apart. Happy birthday, JB!
TokyoMagic!, I’m sure I had at least one birthday party with Charlie Brown or Snoopy plates, at around 7 or 8, before my Disneyland obsession, I was really into Peanuts comics and characters, and drew them (badly) all the time. One of my birthday parties had a theme, based on the 16th century Protestant Reformation. I dressed as Martin Luther! Gosh it was fun. Seeing “mom” with that bleached spot made me think of my own mom, who had plenty of dish towels and other items with bleached spots. There are actually quite a few old postcards with carts pulled by alligators, I have some going back to the 1910s.
TokyoMagic! thank you for the links, yes, I think I have those same cards! I don’t know if the one with the kid riding on the gator had a live animal.Maybe they wired its jaws shut? Still, they have powerful tails and could knock a kid for a loop, so… it might just be stuffed.
TokyoMagic!, my evil friends at Blogger purposely messed up your links. And they LAUGHED!
Chuck, I never trusted Morse code telegraphers, and now I see that my distrust was justified. While I have never been to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, I did go to the one in Buena Park. Those scaly beasts were fascinating, but oh, the smell! Not recommended. Ah, good eye on that strap around the gator’s jaw. Still, how would you like to be the guy who has to put that thing on, or take it off? CHOMP. My bite is 6,000 psi, just sayin’.
Dean Finder, maybe it wasn’t so much the relative age of cars in the 1950s, but the fact that the general form for automobiles had changed so much. Comparing an old Flivver to a tailfinned beauty is like comparing a rocket to a Pez dispenser. Well, OK, bad comparison.
JG, Tiffany Tank watches are often appraised at tens of thousands of dollars on Antiques Roadshow! If you have the original receipt - fugettaboutit. I really enjoy the Petersen Automotive Museum, and there is the lesser-known Nethercutt museum in Sylmar that is also worth a visit. It used to be open 364 days a year and was free, but I don’t believe that’s the case anymore.
@ JB-
ReplyDeleteI think I'd be more interested in hearing that 176 pipe, organ music box (band organ?)".
I wonder what musical device that refers to-? And if it was still a part of the collection when Bellm's took over. The 'grande dame' of Bellm's in terms of player organs was their Mortier Saturnus Dance Organ, containing 639 pipes. Bellm's sold a number of records with the 'ol gal playing.
Major-
"Comparing an old Flivver to a tailfinned beauty is like comparing a rocket to a Pez dispenser. Well, OK, bad comparison".
Actually, that comparison makes more sense than you know... especially for those who own a rocket-powered Pez dispenser-!
Happy Birthday, JB! At 73 I don't know how you stay up that late.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Major and Sue for the cake.
Zach