History Adventuring

It's 1927 and we're in Los Angeles driving north on Figueroa towards Pico, and look, I think I see my next car, an Erskine Six. Luckily, the dealership is just ahead on the right. I found this photo while I was browsing the Duke University Libraries Digital Collections site a few days ago, and it caught my eye mostly because I was convinced that it was Los Angeles, which it is. I saw a lot of clues, but I couldn't figure it out myself, so I called on the assistance of my top history detective who solved the case just about right away. The first clue that I saw was the distinctive shape of the street lights in downtown LA of that time period, which I had seen before. There was also the billboard, which said Paul G. Hoffman Co., Inc, 1250 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, Calif (that's how they used to abbreviate California in those days). And then there were the 1927 California plates (look at the car on the right, you can just barely see 27). But it was still circumstant

It's New Year's Eve Day of 2020, and as usual I pedaled over to my local McDonalds this morning to get a to-go coffee, which I carry around on my ride. The dining area has been closed since April, but they've allowed people to go inside to get to-go stuff. I guess the sign says "Take out", but I've always said "To go". My friends in the UK call it "Take away". Of course, most people use the drive-through, but I haven't owned a car for years, so I go inside, get my coffee, and take it away. 2020 turned out to be an interesting time, which reminds me of the curse "May you live in interesting times!" Speaking for myself, I'm fine, things haven't really changed all that much for me, I spend most of my day in cyberspace, and my mornings pedaling around. I'll tell you what I see. The biggest change in the last few weeks as I pedal around Peoria, which is a suburb of Phoenix, is that the Trump signs are now all gone. For

It's New Year's Eve Day 2020 as I write this, and my mind is drifting back to the year 1999, when planes were supposed to suddenly fall from the sky, because computers didn't know how to write 2000. I was there, living in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, which is where I still am, and had been teaching computer graphics for a few years. And while I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a "computer guy" (I just taught graphic design on Apple computers), I knew enough about how computers work to know that a small glitch like that would have been patched a long time ago, and besides, airplanes don't just suddenly start falling from the sky because the computer doesn't know what day it is. But I'd learned enough about how nervous people felt about computers if they didn't understand them to become sympathetic, and even gentle (which is rare among people who know how computers work, I know!). I'd like to believe that I'm still that guy. Hist

It's Christmas Day 2020, and the world is in the midst of one of the worst pandemics in history. Or not, of course, depending on who you talk to. I live in Arizona, and opinions are very strongly divided. Speaking for myself, I'm inclined to agree that there's a disaster going on all over the world, especially in the United States, but I know a lot of people who firmly believe that it's all an exaggeration, invented by the media, that sort of thing. Since I've been wearing a mask since last April, when it wasn't even suggested to do here in Arizona, you know where I stand. I also wore a seat belt long before it was required, too. So the best that I can do for you on this Christmas morning in the year 2020 is to tell you what I see. Right now, it's dark with a light rain so I'll be waiting a bit before I head out to pedal around, which is what I've been doing for about three years now. I own a recumbent trike and live in a quiet suburban neighborhood

I've never had any kids myself, but I used to be one (that's me on the right with the G.I. Joe in 1965), and I know how clueless parents can be about what toys kids want for Christmas, even the most affectionate ones, so I applaud my parents for their use of the Sears Wish Book when I was a kid. It was absolute genius! Of course, when we were tiny tots, my parents could choose a gift that Santa would bring us, and I have fond memories of my Quickdraw McGraw when I was three, and my farm set when I was four. But as we got older our tastes became more sophisticated, and since Santa brought us the most wonderful gift on Christmas day and our parents didn't want it to be a disappointment, they had us pick it out, in the Sears Wish Book. I told you that they were geniuses! The last gift that they gave me, as Santa on Christmas morning, that I didn't pick out myself was a G.I. Joe, in 1964, when I was eight. After that, I was old enough to get involved, and with the help of m

Working for Valley National Bank in Phoenix was wonderful, especially around Christmastime. When I tell people how much I enjoyed the corporate life, most people don't believe me, but it's true, it was wonderful, and I have been very lucky. I always went to corporate events, which always included good food, and goodies to take home (usually with logos on them, but I like that kind of stuff). There was a time when just about all of my casual wear had the Valley Bank logo on it. The photo at the top of this post is from December of 1991, and I'm on the right. I really don't know who arranged all of this, but doing this kind of stuff had been a tradition for Valley Bank for almost 90 years by the time I got there. I liked to talk to the old-timers about Christmas parties past, and I'm told that back in the day alcohol was served (not at the parties I went to, and it's hard for me to imagine being drunk, or even slightly tipsy, around your co-workers. I'm glad t

Like just about everyone, I love to sit and people watch. Being a red-blooded American boy, I'm usually girl-watching, but as someone who has always loved to draw, I enjoy looking at everybody. And that's why I'm inviting you to time-travel to Atlantic City in 1937 with me. We're mostly gonna people-watch on the boardwalk. By the way, the only reason we're going to that time and place is because I just found this wonderful photo on the Duke University site. There are many images there, intended for study, of the R.C. Maxwell advertising company. So let's look studious! But really, we're doing this just for fun. As someone who has taken a lot of photos in my day, the first question I always ask is "point of view", that is, where the photographer was standing. And since this is our point of view, and we're well above the hats of the men in front of us I'm going to assume that we're standing on something. Of course, the photographer could

It's Christmastime as I write this, and lately I've been doing some sentimental journeying into my favorite Christmases past. And one of my favorite Christmas memories is the one I spent with Jesus, in 1985 in Santa Barbara. Jesus was the brother of my next-door neighbor José, and I distinctly remember going over there at Christmastime so that I could remember being with Jesus, Joseph, and Mary. And if you're not familiar with Hispanic names, it was Hay-SOOS, ho-SAY, and Maria. I've always had a sense of humor like that, which puzzles some people, and which I like to call being facetious. If you're offended, or you don't understand, you're probably saying, "Are you being funny?" to which my answer would be, "Well, apparently not." But this still makes me smile to this day. When I tell people that I lived in Santa Barbara for a few years, most people imagine that I was wealthy, living the lifestyle of the rich and famous, but in reality I

I love the road less traveled, and have spent most of my life there, for various different reasons. And the people that I've met there, although everyone is different, have tended to mostly be what I call my "frightened little animals", and since that's how my journey began, I understand. If there were a way to Google "frightened little animal in Minneapolis as a kid" it would be a picture of me. I was so shy as a little kid that even doing the simplest social tasks was extremely painful for me, right up through high school. If you went to high school with me, you may not even remember me, or the people that I hung around with, we stayed in the shadows, which was safer. But after high school I had decided that this was no way to live, and that I would throw myself out into the cold cruel world, and become more sociable, which I made an attempt at, when I moved to Phoenix at age 19, and then when I moved to Los Angeles at age 25. And I did make great progress

It's Monday, December 21st as I write this, and I'm thinking about how much I loved working at Bank One, especially at Christmastime. And I'm being serious here, it was wonderful. In addition to being a great job for a company that paid well, had health care benefits, etc., it was an especially great place to work during the holidays. That is, if you worked for Marketing, in the tower downtown. When I tell people that I used to work for a bank, they picture me at a branch or something, but that wasn't what I did - I was a corporate graphic designer working on the 31st floor downtown. I just loved that building, it had everything you needed, including a post office, a cafeteria, and... (well, I could go on, but I want to talk about Christmastime!). As an old bachelor (which I still am), and someone who had absolutely no desire to fly back to my hometown in the winter (Minneapolis) I really had nothing better to do at Christmastime than go to work. And I use the term &quo

Of course I don't remember Christmas of 1958, I was only eight months old, but I have this wonderful photo, and since it's the season, and I'm feeling all sentimental, I thought that you'd like to time-travel with me. When I can tear my eyes away from how cute I was as a baby, my eyes go to that chair, which was very modern, very "space age"! And that's my big brother there, who became my big protector, and still is to this day. We didn't live in Brooklyn Park (which is a suburb of Minneapolis) for very long, because I can remember riding around on my tricycle in Mankato, which is south of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis & St. Paul). This year I'm trying to remember all of my Christmas, which will be my 62nd in a couple of weeks. And I have to admit that Christmas has always been good to me. My parents were typical frugal and thrifty Midwestern people (like I grew up to be!), but at Christmastime they were wonderful, and generous. Whatever negativ

I moved to Los Angeles right after I got my degree at ASU, which I finished up at the end of 1982 (although officially my diploma says 1983, because that's when the graduating ceremonies are held). But by June of 1983 I was long-gone, and living in Hollywood. Like most college grads, I had done absolutely no research on where I would work, and I just had a vague notion that I wanted to work in "the big city", which to me was Los Angeles. I had a degree in graphic design, and I figured that the best place to look for a place to work would be at an advertising agency, and I knew that advertising agencies were in two places: Madison Avenue in New York, and Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. And since I had absolutely no interest in moving to New York, I tried to get myself an apartment as close to Wilshire Boulevard as I could. And that's how I ended up in Hollywood, I just drove there, and found an apartment that seemed relatively cheap, the Argyle Apartments. For those

I've lived in Phoenix for so long that my memories of the snow in my childhood home of Minneapolis, Minnesota are pretty hazy. Every December I think about it, and how glad I am to be well away from the snow and cold. And every once in a while I try to describe it to my friends who were born and raised in Phoenix, and no matter what I say it just sounds like a wild exaggeration. It snows a LOT in Minneapolis, which is why the big snow of December 1982 was so memorable. It shut down Minneapolis for hours. To give you some idea of how efficient Minneapolis is with snow removal, for twelve years I never, ever had a snow day off from school. That is, not ONE day off from kindergarten to the end of high school. Grumble, grumble! There could be the kind of snow that would shut down places like Buffalo, and the Minneapolis snowplows would have the streets cleared by morning, and life would continue as normal. Every morning my brothers and I would sit in the kitchen, eating Quisp or Quake,

Aloha! I just found this cool old pic of Honolulu in 1971 on the Duke University Digital Libraries site, and since I could read the street signs, I thought that it would be fun for us to visit there in our imaginations, and with the help of the nice people at Google Street View, see what it looks like nowadays. It's Kalakaua Avenue and Paʻū Street, looking south. I've never been to Hawaii, although I'd like to visit there some day, and the only images that I have in my mind are from when I was a kid watching "Hawaii 5-0", which was a cop show. Considering that Hawaii is a beautiful and exotic place, it seems to me that my memories of them driving around Hawaii was that it looked pretty ordinary, 1970s cars, gas stations, hotels. And usually when I look at old photos, the new photos look pretty sad by comparison, but I gotta admit that when I did a Google Street View of this intersection I was very impressed by how beautiful it is today. The gas station is gone, of

Let's time-travel to Trenton, New Jersey in 1950, at Christmastime. This imaginary journey is courtesy of the nice people at the Duke University Libraries, who scanned in this image with very high resolution and a lot of interesting detail. We're at State and Broad in 1950, and I know that, not because I'm any kind of expert on Trenton, but because it's right there in the photo. Of course the Duke site is all about the advertising, which is interesting, but to me I just get a big kick out of the old images. My eye went immediately to Santa, and his reindeer friend, and I got to wondering when Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer became popular, so I thought that I'd look it up. Hang on a second. Looks like Rudolph first appeared in 1939, but on this particular drawing, the artist stayed with a more traditional reindeer nose. Speaking for myself, as a cartoonist I've always drawn Rudolph when I've drawn Santa, but of course artists are free to make their own aesth

Around this time of year the Christmas spirit hits me, and I try to remember Christmases past. This can be a bittersweet thing to do, so if you're doing it right now with me I recommend caution. I pride myself on being able to handle the harsh reality of history, even my own, but I'm only human, so what I do is to try to look at it all, and come away with something positive. And that's always possible. Let's time-travel back to Phoenix in 1989. 1989 is the year that I tell people that I came home to Phoenix, from California. My hometown, where I grew up, is Minneapolis, but I had left there at 19, and it had never really felt like home. I lived in Arizona from 1977 to 1983, getting my four-year degree at ASU (yeah, it took a while), and then I moved to Los Angeles. And when I was laid off from a great job in LA, in the spring of 1989, I was lost, and floundering, so that summer I decided would be a good time to visit Phoenix, see some old friends, good for the soul. I r

It's Christmastime, and lately I've been feeling nostalgic, and trying to remember my Christmases past. Today I'd like you to walk with me on Christmas Day in Canoga Park, California (which is a suburb of Los Angeles), in 1986. I found myself all alone on Christmas once again since I'd been trying to get my career in graphic design going. I was 28 years old, and I could feel 30 bearing down on me and I didn't want to still be stuck in a dead-in job in a small town, so I just up and left and got an apartment in Los Angeles, seeing if I could make it in "the big city". And while Canoga Park isn't as crowded as downtown Los Angeles, it was very crowded to me. The traffic never seemed to end, there was alway noise and commotion, and it gave me what I call the "LA Hee-Bee-Jee-Bees". But Christmas morning was different. I had no place to go, so I just took a walk. And it was amazingly quiet. I still remember it as something of a Christmas miracle.

Let's take a walk on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1924. I found this image on the Duke University Digital Libraries website, and although I know nothing about Atlantic City, I thought that it would be fun to do some time-traveling. Come on! The Duke University's collection is all about advertising, and the boardwalk had a LOT of ads. Nowadays they would probably be annoying, but looking back at them gives me a kick, and helps me to see what ordinary life was like back in the day. Of course my eye immediately went to the bathing beauty on the billboard for the beauty pageant. I can't help but wonder if she was so scantily clad that little boys would stare up at it, and prim and proper people would disapprove, wondering what the world was coming to? I find it interesting that the word "bathing" once meant going swimming, so there would be a bathers revue, which nowadays would sound kinda strange. Looks like they paraded the girls in those rolling ch