April 8, 2008
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PhotoPost: What's in My Wallet 1974
What's In My Wallet 1974 (and stuff from the garage) PhotoPost
A couple of weekends ago our landlord Anwer came to the door and told Cancerboy and I that there was liquid leaking from underneath our garage door. It turned out that when he and his ever present but hardly handy handyman installed the second bathroom on our neighbor's part of the duplex last year, they had forgotten to cap a pipe leading into our garage, and the spillover from a clog had spilled right into our garage, flooding the floor. While moving a lot of stuff from the garage so that he could find the leak, we "rescued" some of the more valuable stuff and took it into the house. I found a box with a lot of interesting and old stuff, including cards and photos from the photo section in my wallet from college, in 1974. I don't have a scanner, so I took individual photos of everything, and composed the following composites in my image editing program. Herewith: Some of the stuff found in a box in the garage. Everything was shot with the 7.2 megapixel camera and can be blown up by clicking on the image.
Here we have some assorted stuff from my wallet in 1974. The Driver's license expired on my birthday in 1977. The bad condition is owing to the fact I got a lot of dirt in my wallet and pants when working in the garden department at Ole's. Also seen here is a Magic Kingdom Club Card, for discounts at Disneyland, both sides (ah the wonder of digitizing) of the 1974 USC Trojans football schedule, and a photo of my sister Marijo and her husband Mark.
This image contains a photo of my mother (circa 1964, age 41), and one of my brother at age 9 (1965) still in the photo viewer from the wallet. I've superimposed a clay handprint of mine from 4th grade, which was in the box with the wallet. The background for this photo is a handprinted poem from 1984 for my then girlfriend Leslie. I don't think I have any other instances of this poem, so will be transcribing it to my poetry website soon.
Speaking of girlfriends, I don't have many photos of the women in my life. As anyone who has read "My Sexual History" knows, I've had lots of short but intense relationships. For some reason, I didn't take photos. In my wallet in college I carried the two photos above. To the left is Kathy, who graduated along with me from high school, and this is her high school graduation photo. She is the first great unrequited love of my life. The second, also named Cathy (not pictured), is the subject of the Cathy Poems from 1978. The Kathy above was my best friend's gal, and I loved her from afar throughout high school and college. She wrote on the back of the photo: "...always keep writing. I think you could be the great novelist of our times." On the right is my girlfriend Emma Sue, who was also my sister's best friend.
The first of my "collections", of which I have many, was my post card collection, begun when in the fifth grade. I went to a friend's house on one of those rare occasions when my mother let me out of the yard. (Or else I sneaked away to this guy's house after school on the way home.) The friend's mother had a big box full of postcards from the 20s to the then present. Here are old cards from Wildwood, New Jersey and Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, along with a post card from our church.
This image would best be blown up so that you can read the "invitation flyer" for my 60s "Acid Party" from 1980. This isn't the original. In fact I had forgotten about this piece of my "artwork" until I saw it in the box. This is a Xerox copy from 1980. I made party posters and flyers for a number of South Bay parties during the late 70s and early 80s. Also in this image is a box which contained a Big Daddy Roth model kit and a photo of Frank Sinatra singing at NBC studios. I believe Tom gave me that photo. I never saw Frank perform in person.
At the bottom of the box I found a lot of my old buttons and my work badges from retail. Here are various Ole's badges, a couple of FedMart badges, my certified forklift license from FedMart, and a Gemco pin from when we were on strike. The official looking bank certificate is my pre digital check card from Bank of America (expires 1976). A nickname of mine at Ole's was Wyatt (from Wyatt Earp, I wore western attire), hence the moniker on one of the badges.
I wonder how many people will remember these. I have a couple of Blue Chip books filled with stamps. Along with Green Stamps, Blue Chip stamps were given at markets at the end of a sale as a premium. You collected the books and then traded them in for goods at a Blue Chip Stamp store. Dig those "super 10 stamps."
I actually saved these from the garage during a previous cleanout last year, but thought I'd show some of my collection of "The Bible Story" books. I have the complete set of 10 volumes. Written by Arthur S. Maxwell, the set is a very readable retelling of the complete Bible, both Old and New Testaments. Filled with wondruos paintings, like Eve at the left, this is how I first encountered the Bible in the home. I've been rereading some of these stories again, and I am even planning of perhaps making a video of me narrating some of the passages while showcasing some of the art.
Here's another example of the fine paintings in The Bible Story Series, which Mother and Dad got for us back in the sixties. Here Jesus is at the front door.
In the late 70s and early 80s, I spent Friday and Saturday evenings on either Hollywood or Sunset Blvds. in Hollywood, seeing concerts and hanging out with my buds, including my best friend Tom. My attire was a cowboy hat filled with buttons and a red velvet jacket similarly adorned with plenty of buttons. Above are some of the many buttons I wore.
Lastly , along with postcards, I used to collect matchcovers, which was easy since both my parents smoked. There used to be many "themed" matchbooks which were purchased in a box at the market. My favorites were the antique autos, as presented here.
Comments (106)
This is fantastic! Thanks for sharing! I always saw all my trinkets as junk that I proscrastinated to throw away... thanks for giving me a new appreciation for them
Oh and I had some of those Bible Story books when I was younger. I don't know what happened to them, I'm going to ask my mom. Again, thanks!
wait... you have a cocaine research department button?
ive always been really into collecting things too, pins, coins, postcards, books, and so on
this was a GREAT post! love the acid party invite. i think you should have another one real sooN! he hee hee hee
I agree ,this is a great post! I have that Bible Story book too.
What great collections. thanks for sharing them Mike.
We had that bible story book too... must have been very popular. lol
I don't know why, but I love digging through people's stuff in an attic or someplace where stuff they haven't seen it in years. Though my allergies would often wreck havoc on me, it was worth it, as worth it as waiting for my computer to load the images so I could see what you're talking about. Thanks for filling my weird fascination of mine.
what a find! it's always fun to reminisce.
Wow, what a trip down memory lane! Ha, I'm too young to have remembered (or even lived through) any of this, but I used to go through drawers of old stuff in my grandparents' basement when I was little, and of course found all kinds of things like this. Right now, my family is tackling the arduous task of cleaning out my great-grandpa's house and garage (he died last fall, aged 98). Since he lived through the Great Depression, he never really got rid of anything. His house is proof of that. It's interesting, to me at least, to find things that haven't been touched in 30 years. I was looking through a cabinet and found a cup full of shiny new change. Upon closer inspection, I found that a penny was dated to 1978, but it was still as shiny as one stamped 2008 would be today.
In short, I love old things, and your post was a great depiction of some old things. The credit card was striking to me! I always wondered how they did that before digital scanners.
Troy
Your blog is so interesting, Mike. I love the pictures and all of the vintage stuff you have.
Love the pictures! I remember green stamps (and I remember pasting them in the books for my mother) but I don't remember blue chip stamps.
my gosh, you are just like my husband...you guys never throw ANYTHING away..hhahahhahha...now some of that stuff can get you a little coin, i understand buttons and postcards are very collectible
That is neat. I enjoyed "looking" thru your past!
you know I really like stuff like this. Of course,I love working at my booth at the antique mall and also volunteering at the thrift store. Buttons are so cool!
Wow!! This is awesome, Mike! :goodjob: Thanks for sharing it all with us! I very much enjoyed this!! Love Ya! (((Hugs)))
Nif-T
Loved seeing all the memorabilia! You have a very rich selection there. I love that your camera takes such clear photos, too. Probably better than a scanner. I bet the buttons alone have some value, but it sure would be hard to part with them. After all, they are part of YOUR memories! Thanks for sharing with us.
i don't recommend posts all that often, but this was another good one. it's a lot of cool stuff and memories. this is definitely the sort of thing you'd see from a poet or writer who treasures the little things like the buttons or the storybooks. reminds me of some of the pictures i'd see of bukowski or carver showing off t-shirts or cigar boxes or whatever stuff they had available at the time. good stuff, man.
Cool stuff........thanks for sharing it with us. :wave:
I love this post. Sure brings back memories. I used to love putting those silly blue chip stamps in the book for my mother and I think most of us had that same bible story book. The buttons are AWESOME (and probably worth $)
Hey Mike, thanks for the recommendation. I widened my column for you. Hope that helps.
Tina
Wow, I need to stop throwing so much stuff out.
I might want to look back someday...
I remember we had green saving stamp books. My mom used to let my brother and I put the stamps in the book each week. I also had a set of the Bible Story books. I don't know if I read them a lot, but I did look at the pictures often.
ooOOOooooOOOOoo...
I love all the stuff in your photographs. My scrapbooking itch sparked and I feel like laying my hands on those.
I bet you have a hundred stories and faint memory impressions for each particular item!
They look like they are in pretty good condition too.
Where are you going to keep them now?
RYC: Thank you for it. Yes - it does sound better in credits than "real" dollars. Hahaha..
=]
I have medicine. *hugs the little blue bottle with yellow'n'blue pills*
It should go away soon.
Thank goodness for modern medicine.
What a great post! This is the sort of thing the "internets" were created for.
ryc: You JUST found out the other day about people who make themselves throw up after they eat?
These are people who wants to seem like they're eating, so people won't know about their eating disorder. Then, there are others who eat food because they still like to eat food that tastes good, but then throw it up because they don't want it to stay in their body. It's very sad.
@Amandasbiggestfan - Dear Nori, You're pretty gullible sometimes, aren't you?
User has whispered to baldmike2004 ...
Yay artifacts! You talk about that Bible Story series of books a lot. Thanks for putting up a photo; it produced some visceral memories for me - mostly the smell of the books. I can't remember if we had them at home or if they were at one of the churches I spent a lot of time in. My wallet contains my passport, driver's license, credit card, library cards, gift cards, random receipts and scraps, loose change, a couple of comics my husband cut out for me when we first started dating, and usually my birth control pills. My wallet itself is an interesting artifact. It was the first thing I bought with my first real paycheck from Wendy's when I was 17 years old. I got it from a department store - real leather, good size, a whopping $20. It's almost exactly eight years in my possession, and I will hate to see it retire when it needs to. One of the zippers started sticking, so I had to cut my way into the back pouch. Now part of the wallet hangs open, but it still serves its purpose. I don't know if I'll buy another wallet for a long time. There are two or three hand-me-downs from a fashionable aunt sitting on a shelf in our coat closet just waiting for me to use or pass on to other needy folks. Perhaps when I do some cleaning this weekend, I'll put one of them in a pile for Goodwill. No sense in me hoarding potentially useful things when I'm so reticent to get rid of my well-worn but still-working ones. Haha, now that I've treated your post as a jumping point for an Internet Island-type blog-comment, I'll bid you adieu. I hope the weather is as beautiful there as it is here.
hooray for packrats. ;]
See, I'm female. None of the "from the wallet" things would have ever made it to the garage. They'd simply be transferred on to each new purse until such time as it became massive enough to 1) fill a greyhound bus and 2) collapse under its own weight and become a black hole.
At which point, we females curse, mutter, mumble, and still grumbling head off to the store to buy another purse and start over.
ooo we have the Bible story books as well (=
GREAT POST!
I know it's all just "stuff".. and that we can't take it with us when we go... but it would be nice to have more of my nostalgic childhood things. * sigh *
We had that entire set of bible books when I was little... I have no idea what happened to them.
Dear Mike,
I think this post is very cool.. very interesting. It's pretty neat you kept all of this. I'm a bit of a packrat myself but I think you have me beat. I remember reading it around the time it was posted but perhaps I read it from my site and never commented. It happens if I'm in a rush. Kathy is very pretty and Cathy is quite nice looking too. It seems you have decent taste in women.:wink:. We collected Green Stamps around my part of the country. It was such fun putting them in the book for mom! Have a great day.
peace,
Jane
Sure I must state that the lot you utter seems sincere
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