This morning while thrifting I came across this set of six Morphin mighty Power Rangers by McDonald's. McDonald's was part of the movie promotion and offered six different Power Rangers. This is unusual because there are still sealed and all six are present.

I've offered them for sale in my Etsy shop. hopefully there will be somebody that can't live without a collection of Power Rangers. I gave it a lot of  thought and decided I could live without this collection.
Here's a link to my Etsy shop if you can't live without the mighty Power Rangers.

Docortiques

Old Toasters and Selling on line

Pictured is a hot point toaster made by Edison electric sometime after 1914. Plug the toaster in, put your bread in, let it brown and hope it doesn't burn, turnover, rinse and repeat.
This is one of the many items I am selling on Etsy. My store name is Decortiques. I sell decorative items and a few antiques, therefore my store name is Decortiques.
At Etsy I have a lot of ties, a few kitchen items and the mix of other collectibles. Here is a link to my shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/Decortiques?ref=hdr_shop_menu.
I hope to feature other items from my shop and even other shops, and items I find interesting.

Continuing car saga

In the spring of 1990 we moved back to Ohio. At that point most of the cars we owned were just the average run-of-the-mill transportation type cars. We had two Oldsmobile Cierra Cutlass. We also had the following: a Chevette, a Toyota Nova, a couple Caprice cars, and my current truck. The Toyota Nova was actually a Chevrolet Nova built by Toyota.

My son Steve, gifted me money to buy a collector type car. I ended up purchasing a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible. I bought it at an auction, I should've shopped more I bought it at a good price however it did need some work. It needed new brakes, brake lines, fuel lines, plastic inserts or bumper fillers as they are called. I also replaced all the fluids.

The car still needs quite a bit of work. I've replaced the top, done other extensive repairs. I replaced the bumper fillers I have a blog concerning that ordeal. Because it sits so much we've replaced two fuel pumps. At present it needs a paint job, trunk liner, interior work and Lord knows what else.

I like convertibles and this car is a lot of fun, however it has a 500 CC engine and it gets 8 to 10 miles per gallon. So in the days of four dollar gas I have not driven it as much as I would like. The Cadillac Eldorado's are front wheel drives, which were unusual in the 70s. This car was to be the last of the convertibles and Cadillac made 14,000. A lot of these cars are still around as people thought they would be collector cars. At this point they are not worth anymore in a nice convertible of that era. The exceptions are a very very low mileage auto in perfect condition. Cadillac also made about 200 Bicentennial editions which are highly collectible.

Two finger keyboard dance

From 1960 to 1964 I had the privilege of attending St. Charles Borromeo Preparatory High School. Now one would think that a school that prepared you to attend college would require a typing course. Back in those golden years before computers and word processors a typewriter was essential at the college level. Instructors supposedly would not grade down for a hand written paper but encouraged you to have a typed report.

While I attended college there was an entire industry devoted to typing papers for students. However they charged by the word or page not sure which, more than likely the page. I never could afford to pay to have my papers typed, nor did we own a typewriter.

So now in the days of computers I wear calluses on one or two fingers trying to navigate emails , blogs and other computer operations which require typing. Recently I have purchased Dragon software, which is a voice recognition program. So far it has proved to be interesting and considering the fact that my dictation is fair at best, the program works well. I am also learning to speak clearer while using it and it is trying to learn my poor dictation.

Even though the process requires proofreading, it is not perfect, I find it easier to use than typing. It also provides some very interesting errors. So if sometime you are reading a blog or an email from someone and it makes no or very little sense you might find that they used this software and did not do a good job of proofreading.

Selling on line

 

Before I retired I sold on eBay. I sold my dad's collection of  brewania. Brewania is signs, glasses, posters, patches, and other items related to the brewing industry. I also sold items I picked up at yard sales, flea markets, Goodwill and my wife's extra crafts . I sold enough items that I had a feedback of over 800.

At some point eBay decided that it did did not need the small seller. So when it got very expensive and I did not want to work for eBay or so it seemed, I closed my store. My protest of exorbitant fees had very little effect on eBay and they continue to thrive. The price range of the items I was able to sell made it unprofitable for me to continue on eBay.

So after retired I found Etsy. They have low insertion fees and very reasonable, actually low final value fees. That being said traffic and sales are much lower than eBay. I have two stores on the Etsy website. One store is named Decortiques, the other is Thriftpickers. Decortiques sells vintage and some handmade items. Thriftpickers sells supplies and some vantage patterns. Originally Thriftpickers was designed to sell vintage under $10. That did not work out well and I am not sure what I will do with that store.

I was considering closing both stores but since I have this new speech recognition program Dragon, I may continue on Etsy for awhile. Not being able to type quickly made it very difficult to list items and do the correct amount of tags. I also I'm planning to focus on some type of specialty items for the stores. If you are in the market for vintage items or just want to browse, go to Etsy and search for Decortiques or Thriftpickers.

The 1956 caddy

I traded for the 1962 Pontiac Catalina while we lived in Akron Ohio. I felt the payments on the 67 Galaxy were too high. The Catalina was a four-door sedan, however it had a 389 engine with tri-power. The car would get up and go and was a lot of fun at the traffic lights. It was a real sleeper.

In 1967 we moved to Atlanta, Georgia. While in Georgia I traded for a 1963 or 64 Oldsmobile 88. In 1969 or 1970 I bought my second new car, which was a 1970 Plymouth Duster with the slant six engine with a standard transmission. My wife did not drive so the three on the column was not an issue. Overall the duster was a nice car although very basic.

In 1972, a new job brought me back to Ohio. Someone at the store I worked at gave me a 1955 Oldsmobile. It did not run, I was going to fix it and drive it as I liked old cars. It made a very nice yard ornament as I never had the time nor money to repair it. Another car I could not afford which I would love to have was a 1939 Lasalle sedan. The lady who owned it worked for Buckeye Mart and said the car once belonged to Gov. Bricker. I did not buy the car because I could not afford it.

In 1974 or so we moved to Jackson, Ohio. My wife had learned to drive and we bought a second car. It was a 1957 Plymouth four-door sedan. My wife loved the car, it had a push button automatic transmission. Another interesting fact with the exhaust manifold leak, giving it a unique sound. At some point the torsion bar broke making the car another junkyard candidate. Also while in Jackson I traded the duster for a 1965 two door Thunderbird. I really like that car. In 1975, we bought a new Pontiac Catalina. We sold the Thunderbird. We bought a car to replace the Plymouth because I was traveling, we bought a 19 something Vega. I think it was a 1971 station wagon. I drove that car round trip Jackson to Athens for about eight months. The engines in those cars were aluminum and were crap. I sold the car to a guy who needed a good body for his Vega.

While in Jackson, I bought one of my dream cars. I just liked the styling of the early 50's caddy's. A friend of the family had a 52 when I was younger and I always wanted a car like it.  It was in 1956 Cadillac sedan. It needed a lot of cosmetic work that never got done.  The car drove well and was a lot of fun. I owned this car from about 1977 to sometime in the 80s. I drove the car from Washington Courthouse,Ohio to Sandusky, Michigan. Eventually the car needed some engine work which I could not afford, so I sold it to a local car lot.

The next blog will continue the car saga.

The History of my Cars

In 1966, I took a job with a Woolworth company in Marietta Ohio. Since at that time I did not own a car, I went to Marietta on the Greyhound bus. I worked at the Woolworth store as a manager trainee and receiving manager. One of the employees found out that I did not have a car and sold me a 57 Rambler station wagon for the princely sum of $75. Looking back, it was really a good deal. I drove the car for a considerable amount of time. Being young and foolish I had no fear of taking it on the highway. I drove it from Marietta Ohio to Columbus Ohio and from Marietta to Sandusky Ohio.

Most of the trips were to Sandusky where my future wife resided. This was about 200 miles one way which I made usually two times a month. The other feature that I found useful, was a front seats folded flat. I do not remember how long I had the car, it was less than a year as I was only in Marietta about a year. The car gave up the ghost one weekend  trip in Sandusky. Again lacking the funds to have it repaired,  it went to the junkyard. I made the trip back to Marietta on the Greyhound bus. It took around 12 hours,  it seemed like forever. I got back to Marietta in time to go to work.

My next car with a 1951 Chevrolet two-door. I only had it for a couple weeks. I bought it for $75, drove it to Sandusky one weekend, where the muffler went out. When I got back to Marietta I sold it for 50 bucks, I should have had it repaired.

My next car was a 1967 Ford Galaxy 500. My dad pretty much picked it out and I was happy with it. It was a nice green, power steering, power brakes and of course the radio.After I had it about two weeks some clown pulled out front of me. I was okay, the car suffered a damaged front fender and hood on the driver side. I owned the car until about 1968 or 69 when I felt I could not afford to continue to make the payments. I was married and 67 we moved to Akron in 67 and then Atlanta,  Georgia in 68. We traded the car for lower payments on a 1962 Pontiac Catalina.

My First Car

The first car I owned was a 1953 Chevrolet utility sedan. The utility sedan was a two door car with a plywood board in the back were the seats would go. The car that I had was originally a telephone company car. Back in 1963 my neighbor sold it to me for the price of a tire he just put on it. The cost was $16.

I placed a couple of galvanized buckets in the back for seats and my sister told all her friends that I had a car with bucket seats. When they had the chance to ride in the car they were not impressed. Eventually I was able to buy a set of seats at a junkyard.

The car had multiple colors of paint showing through, my dad told me to get a painted. I found you cannot put a primer on in the sun with a brush. I drove around with a rust red primer on for a long time. Dad and mom went on vacation and I was told to have it painted by the time he got back. I selected a beautiful Rustoleum red paint. My dad was not happy with my color selection. He said it looked like a fire engine and wondered if I was going to a fire somewhere. Mom said to dad, you told him ti paimt it but you never said what color.

One day taking my brother to the swimming pool on Hall Road in Columbus Ohio, the hood came loose in wrap itself around the windshield. That was an exciting ride. I also found how hard it was to find a new hood for a utility sedan. Nothing in the junkyards fit. So, the rest of the time I owned that car it had a huge dent in the hood and a very rough paint job.

After owning the car about a year of the clutch went out. Not having the money to repair it, the car went to the scrap yard. The next car I owned was a 1957 or was a 59 Rambler station wagon. That story we will be told in the next blog.

Witches

Many years ago we burned witches for practicing magic. We did not get all of them. There were thousands and we only burned a few hundred. Well, the witches are still here. No, they are not the nut cases you see on TV talk shows or the ones you read about in the tabloids.

You must understand that most witches are smarter than us " normal" (whatever normal is) humans. After a few of their friends were roasted, and the not how we roast people today but burned at the stake, they realized that there was no future in the witch business. So the witches the world decided since that was politically and religiously incorrect to be a witch, they would change how they did business. Sometimes it does not pay to advertise.

First thing they did was change their name from witches to inventors. Let me say now, not all inventors are witches, but quite a few are witches. The way you tell the difference from a witch inventor and a regular inventor is that item uses magic.

A Tupperware lid uses no magic. A door lock is not magic. The original mechanical cash register and was not magic but then the witches took control of NCR and changed us over to magic cash registers.

Orval and Wilbur Wright were witches. So was Alexander Graham Bell, Marconi, Morris, Bill Gates, and anyone in the entire computer industry are witches. Can you truly believe electric and a bunch of switches will make figures move on video games. Computers without many moving parts  can do magic things. A piece of paper can be copied and sent anywhere in the world seconds. Magic.

So you see witches have used magic to take over the world. When they invent something, they worked their spells on the item, then they tell us how it works.

What most people do not know is that physics was invented by witches to explain the magic. I don't believe we need to burn these witches, for the most part they do good work. The spells are usually good. When you computer fails it's just a bad spell.

I just thought you should know the truth about witches. Don't waste your time trying to figure out how computer works, and airplane flies, or how electricity gets to your house, it's just magic.

1976 Cadillac Eldorado Bumper Fillers

I have this 1976 Cadillac convertible that I bought a few years ago. My son Steve gifted me the money to buy it. It was missing front bumper fillers. I thought it should be an easy fix. I found out later that Cadillac = neither easy nor inexpensive.

So after years of missing bumper fillers I bought the replacements thinking it should be an easy fix. The original material the fillers were made were of poor quality rubber like stuff, and are not reproduced. If you can find new old stock of these parts more than likely they rotted right in the box. So you have a choice of fiberglass or ABS plastic. Neither fit as they should, the molds these company use are at best poor.

After lots of research I found that the fiberglass were less expensive but most owners preferred the ABS. The fiber glass ones are sold by one company in Alabama and the ABS are made by one company and sold by many vendors. I found one ABS seller recommended by others at a reasonable price. They were slow to ship and left out two pieces. They quickly shipped the missing pieces after I called them so no problem.

The installation process was a real pain. I looked on line and found a very helpful source for instructions to install the rear set but nothing for the front other than you need to remove the front bumper. The rear fillers I got installed after hours of fiddling and cutting brackets and dremeling the fillers to make them fit.

The front required removal of the front bumper , parking and headlights. The access to the bolts to attach to these fillers do not accommodate these huge hands I inherited. So thanks to my daughter and grandson for their help. Then bumper removal is not a one person job. Thanks to my oldest son for his aid..

I now have the replacement fillers on the car. Moral of the story Cadillac bumper fillers are a pain, not cheap, not easy to replace.

Garrett Brick wall breaks

After hours of research and thought I have concluded that Charles F Garrett's parents were Orville Lyman Garrett and Mary D McColem.
Using many sources I have come to the above conclusion.

Here are some observations:
 

In 1860 Orville Lyman Garrett is living in Jackson County Ohio with his family. See Census. Matthew Garret listed as James M. Source Census.

In 1863 Orville dies in McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio. http://files.usgwarchives.net/oh/newspapers/telescope/1863/obits.txt

1870 Mary D is remarried and is married to Samuel Barr in Mercer County Pa. Note children from marriage to Orville still with her.

Annie M, Matthew J, and Charles F Garrett, George Garrett age 6.

Annie M Barr age 4.  Source Census.

In 1880 Mary D Palmet is living in West Middlesex, Mercer County Pa.

George Garrett is 16 living there. Also a Mary E Palmet age 14 is this Annie M Barr ? Living next door is Charles F. Garrett's future mother in law Marilda Reed Davis mother of Mollie Reed, Charles' future wife.   Source Census.

In 1880 Charles and Matthew are in Minneapolis Mn. Source Census.

1930 Census Orville Lyman Garrett living in West Middlesex Pa with George H Barr and Anna Barr listed as cousin. In 1972 Orville is living in Mercer county working at a Sanitarium......... source WWII draft registration.

Charles and Mollie had the following children,

Orville Lyman Garrett, Charles F Jr, Harry Primrose, (named after Mollie's brother), Thomas Matthew, William Edward. Maude, Elizabeth, and Mabel.

At some point I hope to get to Mercer County Pa to do additional research.

I'm Rich --- Springer Hoax

It is well documented that I am related to a Springer line. Seems like the earliest proven Springer in our line is Dennis Springer and his wife Ann Prickett. Great grandpa John Holt states in his journal that his grandmother Hannah Springer Mccoats (or was it his mother Lydia McCoats Holt) sent money to get her share of the Springer fortune.

Anyway I have been able to buy a share of stock issued in 1908 for the Springer Heirs Associated Company. My money should start pouring in any day.

Ooops according to many sources these Springer Heirs Companies were hoaxs. Dang Bernie Maddox on a smaller scale.

Well at least I have an interesting piece of history over 100 years old. I guess I can put this with my Ames stock. Did not get rich with Ames either.

Telemarketers

Since we had a hail storm a few weeks ago, the home improvement telemarketers have came out of the woodwork.
Yes, I am on the no call list, but that does not stop these scum bags.
So after I tell them they are violating the law, and getting the bull sh32 answer, I report them to the no call list police. Just google no call list
More than likely this is a waste of time, but I feel better.
I never buy from a telemarketer and I am usually rude to them, but I am the one paying for my phone.

Failed Business

I was going to start a roofing business. Lots of hail damage in the area. I was sure I could make a fortune.

My Downfall ? I can not speak Mexican !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sun Room

Uncle Franklin or Uncle Jim is getting rid of his Sun Room. Actually Shirley is getting rid of it and a Green House or Solarium is replacing it.

I am guessing he was happy the way it was. The contractor wants 500 bucks to take it down and get rid of it. SOooooooooooo why not sell it on Craig's List ? It is there now.

If you need a sun room I'm guessing he will make you a sweet deal.

Blending in

Ever felt like you are part of the furniture. Do you want to blend in at parties. If so maybe you should take a look at your wardrobe.

Rump Chiropractic Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Next time your Rump Roast is sore or stiff take it to Rump Chiropractic to get it fixed. Or do you take your own rump to this place for an adjustment ?

I never knew Chiropractors were such specialists. looks like this guy has an unfortunate name. Xenia Oh has a Dr Hyman. No he is not OBYN, he is a heart specialists.

Scraggly Santa

This is one of my favorite photos. It was found in an old album. Unfortunately no names are given so I only know one person in the pic. Of course the one I know is Santa.

The little girl looks like she would like to be anywhere else but where she is. The other gal is well ok hurry up and get this over with.

Santa looks none to happy either. Looks like this was a home snapshot, notice the porch support and siding. Check out Santa's gloves, maybe those were used on Halloween for monster gloves.

Maybe Santa is related to me in someway also.

How many more children are going to suffer through the dreaded Santa visit ? Today it might be worth it, when this shot was taken these kids were lucky to get a orange, piece of candy, and a new home made dress. If it was a really good year a doll might be sitting under the tree.

How many ways can you spell a name ?

One of the 1st things you learn in genealogy research is to look for different spellings of your surname. Well grandpa Reagan used 3 different spellings in his lifetime and even after he died.

Look at the pictures, pretty simple Reagan, but his death certificate says he was Regan. Check the census, well you can find him and family as Ragan, Regan, or Reagan depending on the year or whatever.

Grandma Reagan gave the info for grandpa's death certificate. Either she could not spell or did not check the spelling on the death certificate.

Genealogy can be interesting, grandpa Davis signed his name as x. One researcher said grandpa Davis changed his name after he had a falling out with his father and Church. He might have been German. Since he could not write I guess Davis was easy to spell than some German name with 5 syllables.

Me and the Grand Ole Opry

Was married 43 years this August, so I took the Wifey To the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. We also ate lunch on the General Jackson Riverboat, the had an excellent show and very good vittles.

I am not a great fan of Country Music, although I like some classic stuff by Hank Williams, and a couple others.

My dad loved country and as a captive child we got to listen to a lot of country music. And then Dad was a serial record player. He would play the same song over and over and over, like a 2 or 3 year old watching Shrek or Toy Story. He would wear the groves off a record, I have a couple of those 45's to prove it. One of the songs Dad wore out was Patti Paige and the Tennessee Waltz.

Anyway, we go to the Opry, it's at the Ryman cause of the May flood. So the show starts and the 1st guy on is Bill Anderson and of course he is older than dirt and he is going tp perform a Country Classic. He fires up the band and launches into the Tennessee Waltz. I wanted to jump up run out of there pulling out my hair. 3 problems with that. There are two guys sitting beside me, blocking my escape, #2 my hair left my head many moons ago, #3 my best run would be a slow jog and he would finish before I hit the exit door.

In all fairness he did a good job on the song, it was a very good show and I would go bask even if they sang that song again.