November 2013

November 7, 2013

The Heritage Trio

I posted a shot the other night of a couple of young women playing a guitar and singing on Water Street.

Well, with my readers, you never know what kind of memories are going to get triggered. Brad Brune posted a long, hilarious account of his musical career that I’m going to let you read under the original story. You might have to press Ctrl-F5 to refresh your browser to see all the new comments.

To give you a hint at his prowess, after taking a test in his early grade school days and asking how he did, he was told, “Don’t worry, Bradley, Brunes are good at sports.”

Linda Stone weighs in

Before long, Linda Stone Schrimsher said she had a photo of the The Heritage Trio, a band featuring Gary Fischer, David Hahs and Brad. Here’s what the boys looked like.

A more cleancut set of lads could not be found in Cape County. (Here is Brad today.)

Highway 74 Barn Gone

In March, I wondered how much longer this old barn on Hwy 74 would last. Click on the link to see more photos of the barn.

Here’s the answer

When I made my normal Sunday night call back to Cape a few weeks ago, I got my answer from Mother: it was gone.

I guess I’d better get busy and shoot some of the others in the area before time and weather get to them.

November 5, 2013

Hopalong Cassidy Lunchbox

Brother Mark is as big a pack rat as I am, except that he’s a lot neater about it. I was looking around in his St. Louis kitchen last night and noticed an old red lunchbox in the corner.

“Hey, is that my old Hopalong Cassidy lunchbox?” I asked.

“Do you want it back?”

I said no, but then got to looking at what they were going for on line. Mine has a few miles on it, but some mint ones are going for as much as $200.

Big seller for Aladdin Industries

I was in good company with my lunchbox: in 1950, Hopalong Cassidy was featured on the first lunchbox to bear an image, causing sales for Aladdin Industries to jump from 50,000 units to 600,000 units in just one year. In stores, more than 100 companies in 1950 manufactured $70 million of Hopalong Cassidy products, including children’s dinnerware, pillows, roller skates, soap, wristwatches, and jackknives.

What lunchbox did you have in grade school. Do you still have it?

November 4, 2013

Down by the Riverside

When I went to school back in Ohio, we had the Hocking River flowing through the campus (REALLY through it when it flooded every couple of years). I used to say, though, that to somebody who grew up on the Mississippi, the Hocking was barely a creek.

It was fun taking Ohio Curator Jessica down to the Mississippi at night. We happened to run into a couple of crewmen from the buoy tender Pathfinder who told us what it was like putting out the markers that keep the huge tows in the channel.

We heard music

We could hear music drifting over the floodwall. Jessica identified one of the sounds as coming from a trombone. She knew it was a trombone, she said, because she used to honk one.

I confessed that I could identify a drum or a cymbal on a good day; otherwise my knowledge of musical instruments was limited. “Is a trombone that horn with a slidey thing?” I asked.

I could hear her eyes rolling, even in the darkness.

The Crystal and Anna Serenade

When we got up on Water Street, we ran into Crystal Lander of Jackson and Anna Nice of Cape doing some pickin’ and singing.

Showing my newly-acquired musical sophistication, I observed that a trombone was not involved in their impromptu performance.

Month: November 2013