History Adventuring

I was watching the old comedy western "Support Your Local Gunfighter" (highly recommended!), which I hadn't seen since I was a kid, and this is the first time that I've noticed the historical transition from riding horses to not. In a funny line, the main character gives the answer as to why he doesn't have a horse, and I quote: "A man's gotta be numb on both ends to ride a horse! I'm a train man, at least a carriage"! And just like that, I saw the historical transition men from riding horses in the old west to refusing to do so. A man in a suit with a silk shirt wouldn't dream of riding a horse, any more than nowadays a man in business suit would ride a bicycle to work, it just isn't dignified. Of course, in the old west often there wasn't any other choice than riding a horse. Although many small towns in the west had train service, after you got off the train, you really had no choice but to walk, or ride a horse. Asking for carriag...

Time-travel with me back to October 16th, 1977, the day that this ad was printed, and let's go buy a portable 8-track player. This will have to be an imaginary journey, although I had moved to Phoenix in August of '77, when I was 19 I didn't have the budget for something so extravagant. Come to think of it, I wouldn't have bought an eight-track player anyway, and would have probably gone for the AM/FM Stereo Cassette. But I didn't have an extra $99.97 sitting around either, so I guess it's a moot point. If you've never listened to music on an 8-track player, you're not missing much, it was just awful, and it didn't last very long. I had a Bee Gees album that I got for Christmas, and in between each track the music just faded away, there was a hesitation, and then it resumed. I don't remember how I played it, my parents must have had an 8-track player. It was a clumsy system. This ad, as you can see, was from the "Arizona" supplement to ...

If you've never heard the expression "hard candy Christmas", it's not surprising. It's an old-fashioned term, and it means being so poor at Christmastime that the only thing that parents could afford for the children was some candy, and the least expensive candy at that. I've been lucky - times may have been hard for me, or my family at times, but I've never had a hard candy Christmas. And you've been lucky too, this will take a bit of imagination, but let's try. When I was a kid, all of the old people had some type of hard candy that they kept in a decorative container which we kids just ignored. Our tastes never ran to hard candy, we preferred chocolates, or any other type of candy - you know, the kind that goes stale if you don't eat it right away. Hard candy lasts just about forever, and that's part of the reason that it was so cheap. Of course kids don't know, and often even after they grow up to become adults they never give it a ...

Time-travel with me back to 1977, and let's buy a Microwave Oven from Sears. We can save $50, as it's only $379.95 (Regularly $429.95). I have to admit that this ad surprised me, as I hadn't realized that microwaves were once so expensive, and were even available in 1977. It must have been state-of-the-art stuff, for the rich people! 1977 was the year that I got my first apartment in Phoenix, and I sure didn't have a microwave, nor do I imagine that I had ever even heard of one. This morning I'm pondering when I got my first one, which was probably some time in the '90s, and it doesn't seem like it was all that expensive, more like buying a coffee maker or something like that. I didn't show it off to people who visited me! Now that I look at the ad more carefully, this must have been absolute top-of-the-line. Kenmore was a very respected name for appliances, so much so that nowadays it's still on appliances made by Whirlpool (they bought the name). A...

Let's time-travel back to 1977 and invest in some Phoenix Real Estate. This property is somewhere in the Phoenix area, but I'm not exactly sure just where. If you can figure it out, or if you live there, please let me know! I found this in the January 21, 1977 edition of Arizona Living, and while I respect the copyright on the editorial content (that is, everything other than the advertising), as an old advertising guy myself I know that there's no way that any advertiser would want to limit their exposure. This is free advertising for Fannin and Associates and Peter Blair, although I'm thinking that this particular property sold a long time ago! Let's take a closer look. Looks like a nice place. The description doesn't state the square footage, or anything like that, but it comes with 20 1/2 acres of citrus, so it isn't as if you'll be crowded by the neighbors. Plus there's even separate servants quarters. It says "A Spectacular view of Phoenix...

Yesterday one of my top history adventurers was kind enough to give me some 1970s magazines that his mom was getting rid of, and what really caught my eye were the ads, especially this one from 1977, for Pinnacle Peak Village in Scottsdale. I thought that you might enjoy taking a closer look, and and maybe give me your opinion. Like the ad says, "for a certain few. You know who you are." By the way, if you live there, or visit there, and can tell by the mountains exactly where the photo at the top of this post was taken, please tell me. Hopefully the spaces are still that wide open - I think they are, that was the idea.  Here's an architectural rendering of the Plaza de Alamos. They call it an old-style Spanish-Western village look, which is actually Mission Revival, which a lot of Scottsdale buildings used at that time. 1977 architectural rendering But this is what really caught my eye about the ad - the "old-time" general store complete with antiques, soda fou...

Today I'd like to time-travel into the future, and ponder what it would like for me to live on a spaceship for a long time. This is a journey of imagination, come along with me. I don't know about you, but I've always had a touch of claustrophobia, and I need to get outdoors on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, I'm no outdoorsman, hiking into the wild, I'm just someone who enjoys a cup of coffee on the patio, or maybe a couple of beers outside of a restaurant (especially if you're buying!). I dislike enclosed places, like dentist's waiting rooms, and I'll usually excuse myself to go stand outside. So living in a spaceship probably wouldn't work for me, not matter how big it is, or how comfortable. In the old science fiction movies that I used to love, you would rarely see someone taking a spacewalk just for fun. But if someone looked out of the porthole on any spaceship I'm on, they'd see me. "Yep, there's Brad out there space...

 

 

Welcome to history adventuring, this is episode number 472, I'm Brad Hall, and today we're promoting the Rhode Island State Police in the 1950s. Let's time-travel back to Rhode Island in the 1950s and give a boost to the fine men of the State Police. The life he saves may be yours! I found this photo on the Duke University site ROAD (Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions) and it caught my eye because of the cool old motorcycles. They're interested in historic advertising, but I'm interested in vintage motorcycles. Let's take a look. Now calm down there, I'm no expert on motorcycles, in fact I don't even know how to ride one. But I still like looking at them, and these are worth looking at. If you know more about them, please let me know. I'm gonna say that the bikes are early fifties, although they might even be late forties. Again, please tell me if you know. The first things that catch my eye are the crash guards. I always see them on motorc...