I am sometimes more fascinated by the history of chain restaurants in this country than the restaurants themselves. One exception to that is Howard Johnson’s. When I was a kid, the Howard Johnson’s chain was the epitome of high-class dining (maybe because I was a low-class kid). So it was with a certain amount of... Continue Reading →
Snapshot 07B: Old Postcards, Part Two …
Welcome back to Part Two of my look at my collection of old postcards, primarily linen ones. For a complete introduction to this two-part series, please visit my previous Snapshot post by clicking here. Here are ten more classic postcard images, along with some info, including the publisher and excerpts from any pithy and amusing... Continue Reading →
Snapshot 07A: Old Postcards, Part One …
I’ve been a collector all my life. The big thing has been, of course, as any regular reader of this blog will know, comic books. When I was a kid, my brother and I searched and searched for something to collect. I tried coins, even buying the blue books that had the slots you could... Continue Reading →
Snapshot 06: All About the Toys …
As I’ve grown older, I realize that Christmas is really a time for the young. My fondest memories of the holiday season go back to when I was a kid and the magic that surrounded that time of year. A lot of that magic was inspired by the Sears catalog, which my grandparents got each... Continue Reading →
Snapshot 05: The Way We Were (Comic Book-Wise) …
Maybe it’s my age or maybe it’s retirement, but I have been having very warm, nostalgic feelings about comic books. Or maybe it’s the disconnection I feel from the comics of today. I still go to my local store every Wednesday and pick up at least a few books each time, but I find myself... Continue Reading →
Snapshot 04: The Family Business …
Long ago and far away, in my childhood home of Tamaqua, PA, I was a very small (and young) part of a family business. To be honest, it was just a store that I visited. I never worked for it, I was too young. But when I stop and think back on it from this... Continue Reading →
Snapshot 03: The Theater of My Mind …
I can’t begin to count how many movie theaters I’ve been to in my lifetime. There have been spectacular ones, like Radio City Music Hall in New York City and the Odeon Leicester Square in London, and rinky-dink ones, like the little shoebox one (also in NYC) where I saw the Tower Records documentary, All... Continue Reading →
Snapshot 02: Heisler’s Cloverleaf Dairy …
I came across this postcard (above) on eBay of Heisler’s Cloverleaf Dairy Bar, one that focussed on the golf course, and it, of course, brought back a flood of memories. Not enough to warrant the price wanted for the postcard, but a fond flood nonetheless. My father worked for Heisler’s as a milkman when I... Continue Reading →
Snapshot 01 …
I was walking over to my local grocery store just now and for some reason it made me think of my neighborhood mom & pop stores when I was a kid. We didn’t call them convenience stores then; that came later with the dawn of chains like 7-11 and AM/PM. They were just little stores... Continue Reading →
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