turkeys out back

This past Saturday morning, a hen and her young (ten or so chicks) stroll through.

(Later, this evening, a different set of wings . . .)

circa '45

Yet more postcards. The ones above from Chicago, the ones below from California.

persistence of vision: street view

Type in a town, a street, maybe a full address and you might get more than a map or an aerial view from Google Maps. You might get a street view of the recent past.

Above is Little's Supermarket. Below is Angelo's. (Again, both images courtesy Google . . .)


Both are closed. And both are still standing (or were as of late June). But they may not stand like this forever. Here they are, probably as they were one day last fall.

And near or far on any road that's been documented, you can see a little ways back in time.

With tiled images creating a 360 degree view at any given point, it's like nostalgia's become a video game.

scanning the past

Some picture postcards from old family correspondence during World War II. (A current photo of the scene above. Or check out Street View on Google.)




A color logo from USO stationary:



A logo from a USO envelope flap:



The blog USO Clubs in World War II has picture postcards from various USO locations during the war.

more of the less-Bennigan's, Steak & Ale

That Mall's Sick And That Store's Dead! (aka Sickmalls) posts photos of a Bennigan's and a Steak & Ale. Evidently, I'm not alone in wearing a black armband for Butters.

Not being much of a theme restaurant goer, I find my interest is more about how these places become landmarks in current and (later on) remembered space. These two are on the outskirts of what was Coliseum Mall, Hampton VA.

persistence of vision: Walnut Mall, Petersburg VA

As posted back in the fall of '06, I tried taking my mom by the Walnut Mall where she used to go way back when. It was by then a red clay lot awaiting a new Food Lion to be born. The adjacent Crater Cinema building was still there (repurposed as a church), but the mall was gone.

Thanks to the online sleuthing of That Mall's Sick And That Store's Dead! (aka Sickmalls) one could check the Virginia Film Office location site & find interior & exterior shots of the vanished mall.

Unfortunately, though the location page still exists for Walnut Mall, the pictures are gone. Perhaps deleted--I can't say for sure.

UPDATE 29 Sept 2008--Forget what I wrote above and try this link for the VA Film Office pics of Walnut Mall:
http://va.reel-scout.com/loc_detail.aspx?id=2657&g=

(Thinking out loud: If these images have been ever are deleted, I hope the Virginia Film Office will pass along copies/hard originals to the Library of Virginia or some appropriate historical group or archive. Perhaps make them available online again as images of Virginia's recent past.)

Thankfully, an informative Labelscar post about Walnut Mall still has two cool pics from 1991. While some things had likely changed, I know these pictures revive my own faded memories of the mall (of Thalheimer's and Peoples Drug, in particular) as it was in the early 1970s.

Also the Labelscar post links to aerial images of the area that still (so far) show the old Walnut Mall.

Sometimes it's good when things lag a bit and information is not so up to date.

two sides to every shirt

Well, this shirt anyway.

Recently decommissioned by an anonymous acquaintance who once upon a time tripped the light fantastic in such as this. Down Va. Beach way, or so I'm told.

Even long gone and reduced to pixels, the shirt puts out quite a vibe. Click either side if you dare to look closer.

add on without permit

Here's one way of expanding your living space.






Tho' things soon become a blur . . .


And you realize it's all a mirage.

fuzzy photo of a cool concertina

An er, umm informally photographed concertina animated and joined by this singing gentleman.

At this festival.

Taken by one who was no less than a loyal fan of both . . .

c'mon Revco light my fire

Another Revco item, this from circa 1980-1981 (back when I had a Zippo lighter and before I quit smoking).

supermarket arcana

The above image is nowhere near actual size (something like 3/4" high by 1/2" wide). I'm not sure what one could get with enough Sav-A-Stamps saved (before the expiration date--here it's January 1, 1960). But I do recall the Colonial Stores supermarket in Smithfield.


Below are the front & back views of a old Food Fair courtesy card from the early 1970s:

1990 ticket from Smithfield Little Theatre

As the stub is still attached, I'm not sure if this ticket was used.

The Smithfield Little Theatre is still going. Back when this ticket was sold, its home was the Cotton Gin Theatre. Since then, a new theatre has been built.

chipmunk and chipmunk observer

last fall's unseen Flickr

I posted a lot of pictures from Virginia last fall, but I didn't get around to these.

this Bicentennial Minute is brought to you by

Another ad from the July 4, 1976 Richmond Times-Dispatch:



Though the above image can be clicked for a closer look, I rather liked the logo (and vaguely remember it from phone books gone by):




And here's a clickable & somewhat less blurry look at the Virginia Independent Telephone Association members as of 1976:



Actually, from what I can tell these nearly 32 years later, close to half of these independent phone companies still exist on the membership roll.

But the "IT" in VITA has since switched to "TI" as in the Virginia Telecommunications Industry Association (VTIA). And joining the locals are big dogs like Cox, Comcast, Sprint and Verizon.

Such changes notwithstanding, the existence of these small independents is of interest . . .

Little's Supermarket ad 1994

Having posted about the closing of Little's Supermarket last year and such, I thought I'd put up this item I found clipped from the March 2, 1994 Smithfield Times:



Click on the image for a closer look.

Spirit of 17.76

Back when my mom saved sections of the July 4, 1976 Richmond Times-Dispatch, I doubt she foresaw that I'd be paying more attention to the ads. Click the images for a closer look.

An ad for sight n' sound's bicentennial sale (please note the $17.76 pricing on the speakers and portable cassette recorder):




Here's a Murphy's Mart ad:




And an ad for Moore's Building Materials:

the tom turkey strut

Local turkey hopes to attract any hens in viewing distance. At 3:46 he even flaps his wings.

UPDATE: On audiokayness, the sound of one turkey gobbling. Also the sounds of the same turkey in a thunderstorm . . .

Home Quarters Warehouse

More old receipts, these from the Home Quarters Warehouse that was in the now long gone Mercury Plaza on Mercury Blvd. in Hampton VA. The receipt above is from 1990 (over 18 years ago). The one below from 1995 is shown in detail only with accompanying details from the delivery slip.










UPDATE August 2008: Found the following HQ tag:




UPDATE July 2009: A Flickr friend posted this cool old HQ newspaper ad from 1995.

And as of August '09: same Flickr friend posted this image of the Hampton HQ store from a newspaper clipping.