Hint: Old rusty railroad spikes can often be found in large numbers alongside railroads, where these are left after railroad repairs.
I learned not long ago, via one of my British Flickr contacts, that Toppers is an old British term for hats.
This is the first time I’ve seen this type tall Texaco oil bottle. Usually, these are all shaped like the Gulf and John Deere ones adjacent to the Texaco bottle.
Apparently, enclosed cog wheels was an advanced feature in the age of this wringer washing machine. Probably a safety feature.
A pre-computer version of a home office.
The Garret is an old home that is now filled top to bottom with old stuff everywhere. It is run by an elderly couple that purchased the old home many years ago. I was not able to stand back far enough to get the best shot, especially after having to edit the original photo to make this structure look more upright. I was inspired to take this shot by the clouds in the blue sky above. It reminds me of something that might have appeared in the movie “Ghost Busters”.
Visits to Indiana with my wife always require visits to local, and sometimes not so local, antique stores. To occupy my time I look for interesting photo subjects for my camera phone.
I used such equipment as this waveform generator in a physics lab.
On a road trip to Santa Fe, NM and Colorado, our first night stop over in route was in Lubbock, TX. Lubbock is not along the shortest route to our final destinations, but I decided a new route was desirable, having often repeated the same route in that direction.
After checking into our motel, we had a little time to kill before dinner. Looking around for something to do, my wife found a number of her favorite type places to visit, antique malls. So we picked one that was only a few miles away and was still open, but closing soon.
I found a number of old cameras to inspect and photograph with my iPhone.
It is amazing how many different makes, models and designs there were in the earlier days of photography.
In my high school days and on into college years, I worked in an old style drug store in a small town. The store had only two cash registers, both manual types, similar to, but more basic than those in the images in this post, one small one and one larger one.
This particular antique store had old style drugstore furnishings, including many glass display counters and behind the counter shelves with sliding glass doors, similar to those in the store in which I worked. I only recently learned that the reason for such furnishings were that people were not trusted to have access to the products and open style shelving is a relatively recent development, first introduced in Piggly Wiggly grocery stores in the early 1900.
These bottles still contain liquid, although they are no longer full. I’m guessing the wine is no longer good, even though it is well aged.
Many other beverage types and brands are always found in these old stuff stores. Coffee seems to be one of the favorites.
Those stripes look black to me. Maybe it is navy blue?
Tobacco related items are also popular. I did not recall Diana Lynn, which prompted me to do a brief internet research. I’m thankful that the internet allows for such easy research on almost any topic from almost anywhere. No library browsing required. If not for this old advertising poster, I might never have known anything about Diana Lynn.
My wife recently purchased an old Singer sewing machine. It is the same model as her mom used, so the purchase was based upon nostalgia. The machine works, but I replaced one of the electric cords, since the original one looked hazardous. I had to refinish an old cabinet for the machine, too. But not the original cabinet that the machine came in, since that one was not acceptable to my wife. Now we have an extra sewing machine in our garage that was in the refinished cabinet. Contact me if you are in the market for a sewing machine, no reasonable offer will be refused. Heck, I’ll even give it away to anyone that will take it away.
Some items in this store were subject to censorship.
This is enough to drive one to drink.
But here is an ice box to keep our beer cold:
I hope to have regained my sanity before the next post.
One of my wife’s favorite pastimes is browsing in antique stores and malls. I frequently accompany her on these visits, occupying my time shooting photos, usually with an iPhone, of items or displays that I find interesting and/or nostalgic.
I recall seeing the Memorex magnetic recording tape commercials many years ago, but I do not recall Memorex brand radios, which seems strange, since Memorex came into existence in 1961, while I was in high school. I had a Westinghouse clock radio in my bedroom then, not Memorex.
Having photography as a hobby, I’m always drawn to displays of old cameras.
The vendor of the booth in which this odd electronic device is displayed has an elaborate description of its ability to transport one in space and time. I see no Flux Capacitor, but there are numerous potentiometers in its Circulator panel.
Cameras, comic books and yams. What can be better?
Remember when cameras were manufactured in the U.S.?
Six-20 Camera, as opposed to Brownie Scouts or Fudge Brownies.
Not sure what makes these “Lucky”, but it was a popular brand for years.
Sieves used for sorting some materiel by diameter, probably have/had numerous application in industries. Maybe these even were even used for particle size distribution analysis of data that I used in my job, prior to retirement.
Colorful lamp shades hark back to the early days of popular home electric lighting.
Rows of colorful glassware always catch my eye,
as do rows and shelves filled with old cameras. Such displays remind me of how fast technology advances. This image (and all others in this post) were made with a device that is obsolete, even though it is only a few years old.
Not Dak Prescot, but seen in Dallas.
From Wikipedia: “An anastigmat or anastigmatic lens is a photographic lens completely corrected for the three main optical aberrations: spherical aberration, coma, and astigmatism. Early lenses often included the word Anastigmat in their name to advertise this new feature”.
Antique automobile related items always catch my eye.
I do not recall Mickey Mouse advertising Sunoco products. Do any readers recall this?
I see lots of these old glass motor oil containers, but these were before my time. I’ve never seen these in use. I’m guessing these date to the time motor oil came in bulk containers, like metal barrels or drums and the oil was dispensed into these containers, which were then used to pour the oil into an automobile engine.
Judging by the price tags, these must be popular with collectors.
Maybe these galvanized cans came into vogue after the glass bottles? I can’t recall seeing these in use, either. The glass bottles were probably superior in keeping the oil clean and uncontaminated, but were obviously not as durable as metal containers.
The bottles are more esthetically appealing than the galvanized cans.
The tiger on the Power-Lube bottle made me think this is from the early days of Exxon/Esso, but research seems to indicate that a company called Powerline (of Denver, Colorado?) may have produced or at least marketed this oil. Anyone out there know the history of this product?
The Farmall bottle must have been an advertising item, since as far as I know that company never refined motor oil, but might have marketed oil with its brand on it. I do not find any information online regarding any such motor oil product.
This vendor had lots of these old motor oil bottles.
Glassware of all sorts and colors are in plentiful supply is such places.
Monochrome conversions often work well for images of the glassware.
Wooden crates are common offerings in antique stores. I’m old enough to recall the time when these crates were used and most soft drinks came in glass bottles, rather than cans or plastic bottles. These crates were useful for sitting on, when placed on end and it was not uncommon to see these used in such a fashion.
I do not recall these Campbell soup crates in use.
Instead of an RC cola and a moon pie, how about an RC and a vinyl record?
This is continuation of the iPhone photography in Indiana antique stores during the early days of our two week fall stay in Indiana.
Older photographic equipment always gets my attention. I’m glad I do not have to use those items.
Some of those pictured in this poster, seem to be misclassified as Rock and Roll musicians. After noting one such collage of these bad criminals, I began to see these more often in this area.
Bad guy entertainers may be unpopular here, but alcoholic beverage items are prominently celebrated.
And Bing Crosby is ok.
I started this post with pottery items, so maybe I should end it with pottery.
This is the third year of visiting Indiana in the fall. The first visit was mostly to attend a few of the Covered Bridge Festivals, visit my wife’s relatives and see the fall color. We were about a week too early for the fall colors during the first visit. We visited a little later in the fall last year and we were late for the fall color peak. Many of the larger trees were already bare, thanks to a storm that came through the week prior to our visit. We thought we had the perfect timing this year, but we were early, fall color was late. Most of the trees were still mostly green and just barely beginning to show some color.
We were staying two weeks this year, so I decided there was no need to rush out to photograph. I could wait a few days and hope for the color to arrive before we departed for home.
During the early days of our time here, I went out with my wife, sister-in-law and brother-in-law to do those things they wanted to do. The first full day we were here was the last day of the Covered Bridge Festivals, so we went to one of those that day.
I’m not convinced that this sign conveys what the creator and seller of this product intended. It seems to suggest that there may already be indications of health issues associated with tobacco smoke. Wouldn’t effective advertising avoid bringing attention to any possible risk to using a product?
The following early days of this visit we drove to antique malls or stores, which the others liked to browse. These drives allowed me to monitor the fall color progression and I used my iPhone to practice getting mostly indoor photos of various objects in the antique places.
I could, at least, reminisce about watching Saturday morning cartoons as a child.
The one on the left might shoot the other two, so maybe they were not amigos?
Surely, the Wicked Witch of the West wore these in The Wizard of Oz?
This is a continuation of my iPhone photography in Indiana Antique Stores in October, 2020.
I think the camera in the middle is an Argus brand. I had an Argus C3 that I acquired, when I was in high school. I do not know what happened to that camera.
There are always lots of old jars, bottles, dishes and glassware in the antique malls. Sometimes the displays make interesting photograph subjects, sometimes not.
Lard was a common cooking item up until not so many years ago and I suppose some people may still use it. It was a common item in my childhood home.
One of those tools looks out of place. I even have a rusting Sears Craftsman handsaw in my garage, that I’ve not used for many years. It does not have the carvings on the wood handle that this older one has.
More bottles and jars.
Was this bottle used to contain gasoline or motor oil?
This wheel was still attached to an old automobile or truck in the backyard of an antique store in a Indiana small town. The blue bottles in the photo above the wheel photo were in the same outdoor space near the automobile.
That’s it for the antiques and this wraps up photographs from our fall trip to Indiana.
A cold front blew through on one of our days in Indiana in October, 2020, bringing rain and significantly colder temperatures. The wind caused a temporary power outage in our country cabin that lasted for a few hours.
My wife had been out into the local area with relatives, visiting antique and craft stores, while I was out shooting photos. She wanted to see a few more of these places and venture further away, so we made plans to do this, during the colder, rainy weather.
I did not take my DSLR on our outing, but I used my iPhone to capture a few images of some of the items on display in the antique stores.
I’m not much for acquiring these old items, but am intrigued by some of these items. Especially, the old craftsman type tools, maybe because I’m a bit of a do-it-yourselfer, with some experience with woodworking.
I actually have a collection of old rules (and a few marking gauges, too). My rules are very much like those in the photo above. I was into collecting these years ago. I still like these old rules and I’m tempted to purchase others, but so far, I’m resisting the urge to acquire more.
I wonder what the honeymoon was like after consuming a bottle of Golden Wedding Whiskey?
Maybe with Marilyn it would still be a good honeymoon.