When I made the decision to create a retro kitchen (for now . . . the rest of the house may follow), I struggled with the knowledge that while I loved the retro look, a potential home buyer may not. We’ve been in our house for ten years, but that certainly didn’t mean that if the perfect house came up for sale on an acreage somewhere near us that I wouldn’t drop everything to go buy it.
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I absolutely love this slang dictionary from the ’40s that is posted over at Square America. While you’re at it, if you haven’t yet discovered this awesome site, take a look through all the great photos. It’s like your family’s photo album, but way better.
Happy Easter, everyone!
It’s the end of the quarter at school, which not only means that I get to spend my weekend correcting mountains of papers, but I’ve also lost most of my ability to form paragraphs longer than a sentence or two — which yes, I know, isn’t really a paragraph. My brain is tired, but I have had some interesting things happens lately. The result? Snippet-writing time.
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I’m 36 today.
I’m twice the age I was when I graduated high school.
The age itself doesn’t bother me so much; I’m not one to be dramatic about mere numbers. The second revelation, however, is a little startling and it makes me think: I’ve spent half my life as an “adult” who was on my own and trying to make my own way in the world.
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Captain 11 has signed off for good.
If you understood what I just wrote, then you must be from South Dakota or a bordering state. I grew up around Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and we knew a man named Dave Dedrick as “Captain 11″ – the host of a kid’s show of the local television station, KELO. The Captain 11 show rain for many years — 1955-1996 — and was modeled after a similar show being broadcast out of Minneapolis. The ultimate honor for kids in the area was being able to be on the Captain 11 program; most kids have a memory of either being part of the show for their own birthday or tagging along with a birthday party group. I was on it a couple times, I think, although the memories are now so faded that they have become a composite of all I remember about the show in general.
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Another item I received for Christmas immediately took me back to my younger days as soon as I saw it; my mom gave me a Kitchen-Klatter cookbook from the early 70′s. Mom might not even realize how much Kitchen-Klatter is ingrained into my early memories, but she knows I like old cookbooks, so the gift fit.
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I am continually fascinated by trends — why something is so hot and fashionable one moment only to be considered kitschy and dated the next. Understandably, we all want something different to spice up our everyday surroundings. But still, I wonder why some things were trends at all. The fashion trends I went through in elementary and middle school (but often didn’t partake in, thank goodness) are a perfect case in point. Read the rest of this entry »
You learn something every day. At least I do. Ok, I try. Whatever the case, I ran across something interesting when I was leafing through a 1950 edition of Better Homes & Gardens — a tiny little ad for Chore Girl.
It seems surreal to be sitting in my house on November 8th with all the windows open and the furnace off. And yes, I know what you’re thinking: why am I inside and not out there enjoying all of it? Oh, I have been — trust me. The boys and I went for a 3 1/2 hour walk through a nearby state park, walking the trails and doing boy things like digging in the stream and finding cool rocks. Imagine my shock when I reached into the stream and pulled out this little gem:
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I know it’s a bit cliche to do a post about the search strings people use to find a person’s site. But ya gotta admit — some of the ways people stumble upon a personal blog are amusing, and a bit disturbing. Today, in the absence of having anything more interesting to report or blog about, I will attempt to address and greet my somewhat wayward visitors. Read the rest of this entry »