The day I met Miss Sunnyslope of 1949


I remember the day that I met Miss Sunnyslope, although the year, which must have been in the early '90s, is kinda foggy in my memory. But she made a vivid impression on me!

She was in a thrift store in Sunnyslope that I used to go to, on Hatcher and Central Avenue, where I looked for antique cuff links, tie pins, and that sort of thing. I wore a suit to work, and enjoyed the slightly-goofy aspect of "accessorizing" with old-time stuff. I was on the lookout for Valley Bank cuff links, and never found them, but I found a lot of cool old stuff at that thrift store. And Miss Sunnylope of 1949.

She overheard me talking to the clerk and approached me, saying that she had a whole collection of wonderful stuff that her husband had left behind. I asked her if she would bring them there to the thrift store, where I could see them, and possibly buy them. Looking back now, that wasn't really fair to the store owner, but I didn't know what else to do. She did. She insisted that I come and look at them, at her house nearby.

I went there a few days later with my girlfriend, and it was quite a sight. She lived there with her sister, and from what I could tell having won Miss Sunnyslope in 1949 had not made her rich. She showed me a newspaper article, and I've been looking for it ever since. There she was, young and beautiful in a one-piece "bathing beauty" swimsuit in 1949.

I don't recall if I paid her for the collection of tie pins, cuff links, etc. that she gave me, which included the case. She may have just given it to me, she was so pleased to have visitors. It didn't look like the ladies got many visitors!

I still have the case, and over the years I added more things to my collection. I haven't worn a suit for many years, but through the '90s I did, and if you looked carefully I was also wearing a bit of Sunnyslope history.

Thank you, Miss Sunnyslope!

Update: her name was Gloria Brady, and she was Miss Sunnyslope until 1964.

Miss Sunnyslope in 1948, Gloria Brady

Become a PhD (Phoenix History Detective) with Brad today on Patreon!

Click here to become a Patron!
History Adventuring posts are shared there daily including "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, videos, and super high-definition photos of historic Phoenix, Arizona. Discounts for seniors, students, teachers, and veterans.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more