Buyer BEWARE and Then Some

This is just a little note to tell people to think twice about buying any of my books from third party sellers. First they jack them up to ridiculous prices and secondly they don't actually have the books; this is on both eBay and Amazon. They are scamming you to pay for something they never acquired themselves and then charging insane prices for the book and the shipping. Please think twice about buying from them. This is sort of a crooked thing Amazon is aware of and allows to happen. Just buy the book direct if you want one. They're nice books and I don't want people to have bad experiences trying to get them. I have pride in them and these sellers just make me want to take a shower to wash off the disgust.

And now back to my regular programming.

This is a photo my friend Bert gave me. Cute little fella with a very tiny wagon. I mean a really tiny wagon. Not much would fit in that wagon except maybe some gumdrops or a tiny bear. You have to use your imagination with a wagon that small.

There's no information about the little fella or the photographer.

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 9 available at Amazon.

DR. BAKERS MEDICINES Door to Door

I'll let the photos and the Iowa newspaper clippings tell the story. All I know is this man's name was Jim Saunders and he was a salesman for Dr. Bakers products. If you do a google search you'll find a lot of Dr. Bakers so it's hard to discern if the ones in the news clippings below are all about salesmen for the same company.

This is my selection for Sepia Saturday. Though not in sync with this week's prompt, I'm willing to bet there were plenty of sales reps nearby hoping to entice some of the fair attendees to sample their wares.

Either way, enjoy medicine the way it used to be. No insurance required. No cures guaranteed.

Click on images to see them larger.

Algona Courier, Sep. 27,1895

Quad City Times, Oct.11, 1879

Des Moines Register, May 22, 1887

Opinion Tribune, Dec. 10, 1896

Sioux Valley News, Feb. 6. 1902

Sioux Valley News, Sep. 7, 1905

Greene Recorder, April 1, 1908

Greene Recorder, Mar. 22, 1922

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 8 available at Amazon.

LOAD UP THE CART, we're leaving Bahrain

Though there are still more slides of Bahrain I'm going to put an end to it. You've seen the best and the rest are real yawns. Besides, I have to admit it's questionable to be spending so much time on a country where torture is government sanctioned. Indeed, we have the humiliation of knowing we've done it too.

So pack up the wagon, we're out of here.


Click on image to see it larger.
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to find the perfect gifts for those hard to buy for friends.

Volume 6 will be for sale soon!

TAXI?

Of course it's not a taxi, but what if it was? Or could it be what a long haul trucker looked like in Spain in February 1956? Nah, I don't think so. But I do think he might be hauling a barrel of wine. And could that be a hose that allows him to tap the barrel while on the road? Now that I'd like to see.


Click on image to see it larger.

This is from the Betty Schnabel estate collection. More countries to come, but next we'll have some photos of Betty.

MARX TOYS for Buckaroos and Buckarettes

When I was around 5 or 6 I remember the boy across the street had the Roy Rogers Chuck Wagon made by the Louis Marx Company. I loved that chuck wagon. I coveted that chuck wagon. I STILL want that chuck wagon.

The set came with all sorts of accessories, including all the pots and pans that were kept in the back of the wagon. You can see one here on ebay (the link of course will not work once the item is sold). Marx made a lot of toys I either wanted or in some cases had.

Among the most enduring Marx creations were a long series of boxed "playsets" throughout the 1950s and 1960s based on television shows and historical events. These include "Walt Disney's Davy Crockett At The Alamo", "Gunsmoke", "Wagon Train", "Battle Of The Blue and Grey", "The Revolutionary War", "Tales Of Wells Fargo", "The Untouchables", "Robin Hood", "The Battle Of The Little Big Horn", "Arctic Explorer", "Ben Hur", "Fort Apache", "Johnny Tremain", and many others.

Playsets included highly detailed plastic figures and accessories, many with some of the toy world's finest tin lithography. A Marx playset box was invariably bursting with contents, yet very few were ever priced above the average of $4–$7. Greatly expanded sets, such as "Giant Ben Hur" sold for $10 to $12 in the early 1960s. This pricing formula adhered to the Marx policy of "more for less" and made the entire series attainable to most customers for many years. Original sets are highly prized by baby boomer collectors to this day. Collector's books titled "Boy Toys" and "The Big Toy Box At Sears" feature the original advertisements for many of these sets and are well worth having as a visual reference. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

This little fella with his fort, wagons, cowboys, and indians was in seventh heaven and obviously one of his parents wanted to capture what he'd created. He too is in my book Tattered and Lost: Buckaroos and Buckarettes.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: The Work Horses

The family work horses with the house off in the distance. On a snowy cold Nebraska morning that would be a real trudge through the snow to get to the barn.

YOU HAVE A CHOICE this holiday season

The holiday season is upon us. Dance and be merry! Or be like me and sit on a log and stare at some guys butt.

HARVEST Time Has Come

It's harvest time here in the Wine Country which means the grape crush is on. How do I know the crush is on? Because I can hear it. I mean REALLY HEAR IT! All day and night the wineries are working, and there is a metallic thunderous sound that can be heard. Manmade thunder cracking the silence of the night. It's okay, it only happens for a few weeks then things get quiet, except for the annoying tourists with their winery maps.

The leaves on the vines are starting to change and soon there will be rivers of color bursting along all the hillsides, flowing up and over into the next vineyard. Mile after mile of them.

This is the only time of the year I can stand the vineyards. The rest of the year I detest them. Too much land is now devoted to vineyards and only vineyards. Hillsides have been destroyed, forests clear cut, other crops displaced. I call grapes the yuppie crop. Only those with full pocketbooks can afford what grows around me. It doesn't feed anyone.

I have no idea when or where these harvest photos were taken.




Click on either image to see it larger.

ANNIE HALL down on the farm

Now I'm not claiming that this is another time-traveling-celebrity, but this might be the first shot of someone from long ago workin' the Annie Hall look. A relative of Diane Keaton? An inspiration?





Click on any image to see it larger.

We used to be CLOSER TO THE LAND

These days few of us are really close to the land we live on. We don't pay much attention to where our food comes from or the people who raise it. I'll be truthful and say I'm perhaps a little closer than most because I live in a working orchard. I feel the seasons change. I look anxiously for the bees each year when the trees have blossomed. I anticipate the harvest.

For most of us we can easily trace our ancestors back to those who in some way made a living off the land. On my father's side I need only go back to his childhood to find him living on a ranch. On my mother's side I must go back to her father and his youth.

Our ancestors knew what it was like to breath in the dust of a newly plowed field. To watch the weather in anticipation of how it would affect the growing season.

These photos were all bought at estate sales. The first group is of farmers in Nebraska.

Click on any image to see it larger.

On the back of the shot above it says "preparing ground for alfalfa."

And these are from California.

And though these have been posted before, they fit the theme perfectly.

This is my submission to this weeks Sepia Saturday theme of "work."