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Perhaps some of you may remember "Willie and Joe." The two World War II infantry grunts created by Bill Mauldin. His famous infantrymen cartoons were featured in "Stars and Stripes," the American soldier's newspaper. The cartoons would depict life as the average American soldier
would live it during wartime. Some were comical,
others brought home the ugliness and tragedies of war. He didn't get along very well with most officers because would poke fun at them in his cartoons. This would irritate the younger officers and some older ones alike. Gen. George Patton
wanted him to stop drawing his cartoons but apparently the morale of the American soldier and the popularity of the cartoons and the good effect that "Willie and Joe" had on it won out even over
the General's wishes. These two cartoons came from the first collection of his work compiled in a book alled, "Up Front," which was a best-seller.
At age 23 he won the Pulitzer Prize. That was in 1945. He was assigned to the 45th infantry division, and was wounded by a shell fragment in Anzio for which he receive the Purple Heart. He also made the cover of Time Magazine in 1958.
Bill passed away in 2003 at the age of 81. Bill Mauldin was a great American!
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willie
joe
wwii
bill
mauldin
stars
strpes
cartoons
Added: 17th September 2007
Views: 302
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Back in 1982 the Timex Corp. and Sinclair research (of Britain,) teamed up and produced the Timex Sinclair 1000. It was a low-priced introduction to home computers. It sported 2K of onboard RAM, (yes, 2K! 2 kilobytes of memory!) You could also purchase a 16K add-on memory module called a RAM Pack, (lower right in the picture,) which increased the memory to 18K. I believe there was also a 64K RAM Pack available later. The ones sold in Britain were known as the ZX 81. It had no display but you could hook it up to the VHF antenna connections on the back of your television set. It also didn't have any sound. The operating system was a modified version of the BASIC computer language and it gave a lot of people, including me, their first taste of computer programming.
There were a number of programs that you could buy for it. They were all on cassette tapes. What you would do is connect the unit to your TV set, plug your cassette tape player into it and put whatever program you might have into the tape player. You had to turn the volume off on your cassette player because the programming code was just one continual screeching sound. I had a cassette tape that had a few different programs on it. All of the characters in the programs were block-headed type graphics, but they actually would walk across the screen and even jump up and down. Cool stuff back then.
I remember this costing me $29, as the store I bought it at was getting rid of them. I believe the original selling price was $99. I also bought the 16K RAM Pack for $25. I've kept it all these years in good condition thinking that someday it would be worth something, and I was right. They're selling for about 10 bucks on eBay! Win a few, lose a few. Ironically, these things have somewhat of a cult following, and I've even heard of clubs dedicated to the TS-1000!
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timex
sinclair
ts1000
computer
Added: 4th September 2007
Views: 445
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Remember these? 45 RPM record adapters which allowed us to play our 45s on our small spindled stereo record players when we didn't have the 45 adapter that came with the stereo. They came in all sorts of colors but all I have left are the black ones. I've shown these to a number of younger people and most of them don't know what they are... even some 30 year olds. Where have all the flowers gone, eh?
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45
rpm
adapter
record
player
music
Added: 27th August 2007
Views: 303
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I first saw this on a Johnny Carson show in the early '80s. I don't know who invented it but Carson had him on the show with it. When the fellow wound up the bowling ball, it kind of leaned forward and then quickly hopped down the lane and knocked over the pins. I laughed for a good long time after seeing that. Strolling
bowling has been re-issued and you can get them once again online. It's great taking it out once in a while to show friends. They get a kick out of watching it hop down the lane. (I don't really "play" with any of the few vintage toys that I own. I don't think that's a good idea with vintage toys that have wind-up springs. I just
basically show friends that they still work.)
Tags:
strolling
bowling
bowl
ball
game
classic
toy
carson
Added: 25th August 2007
Views: 491
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This is a Sony TC-630 reel to reel tape player. I had one of them back in the mid '70s. I bought it so that I could record a two man group that my buddy and I had. He played a 12 string guitar and I played a harmonica and the drums, (not at the same time... I wasn't that coordinated.) For those of you who might have had one of these wonderful machines you'll remember that it had what Sony called "Sound on Sound" capabilities. Simply put, that meant that after you had made a recording you could go back to whatever point you wanted to and record something else on top of what you had just recorded, without erasing your original recording. What I would do is record my friend and I playing a song, with me on my harmonica, usually playing something by John Denver. When we were through I would go back to the beginning of the song and using headphones, listen to what we had just recorded while playing my drums using the Sound on Sound function.
When we would play back the recording it would play everything just as if we had three members in the group! What a great machine this was! It weighed about a zillion pounds, though.
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sony
reel
tape
recorder
Added: 23rd August 2007
Views: 966
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This is a J.C. Penney model 6217 reel to reel tape recorder from the early '70s. All it says on the back is "made in Japan," possibly by Sony, I'm not sure. This was the first reel to reel that I ever owned... if you don't count a cassette player as a reel to reel machine. It had two speakers but was not a stereo. It played monaural out of both speakers which were built into the sides of the machine. A nice little reel to reel machine for a young man like me who didn't have a lot of $$$. Lightweight, with a protective cover, it got the job done rather nicely. I worked as a radio announcer when I owned his and it was super easy to record all my own music onto reels using the station’s equipment. Quite a fringe benefit!
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reel
tape
recorder
jc
penny
Added: 23rd August 2007
Views: 446
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This is a small, portable reel to reel tape recorder that was made in Japan for the "Career Academy School of Famous Broadcasters." I attended that Academy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin back in 1969. These tape recorders were offered to students so that we had something on which to practice our "announcer voice" while we were not in class. It could handle 5" or smaller reels. It still works. At the time I attended the school two rather famous people were sponsors of it. Broadcaster, author and lecturer Robert St. John, and NBA star Kareem Abdul Jabbar, (of course, back then in 1969 he was known as Lew Alcindor, and played for the Milwaukee Bucks.) I got to meet both of these gentlemen. Mr. St. John was actually the author of the textbook we used. I became a radio broadcaster… but never a famous one. :-( This was back in the days when you could lose your broadcasting license and even your job for saying ‘hell’ or ‘damn’ over the air. Somewhere along the way the FCC has curled up and died!
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reel
tape
career
academy
radio
Added: 22nd August 2007
Views: 670
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Here is a '57 Chevy AM/FM radio/cassette player from the '80's. The front hood opens to insert the cassette and the rear trunk opens to hold the batteries and AC cord. The headlights are the speakers, the windshield is the carrying handle and the antenna is, well, the antenna. The front driving lights light up when the unit is on. The front license plate says "RANDIX '57 Chevy." It was marketed by the RANDIX Co. but was manufactured in China! (It's probably been giving out melamine rays all these years!) I actually bought this at a Toys "R" Us. For those of you who watch reruns of "Home Improvement," you might have noticed one of these sitting on the shelf of the "Tool Time" set. (One of my favorite shows.)
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radio
57
chevy
cassette
classic
car
randix
Added: 22nd August 2007
Views: 879
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Hey Baby Boomers! Remember tonette’s? Precursor of the recorder, which in itself. is a misnomer. (It doesn’t record anything.) I think I received mine in the 5th or 6th grade. We all had to buy our own and my parents bought me a fire engine red one. (My sister got a green one ‘cause she said it looked like a pickle.) I can remember playing ”Jolly Ol’ St. Nicholas” at a school Christmas concert one year. All the boys had to wear black pants, black shoes, white long-sleeved shirt and a black bowtie. (Older is better!)
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tonette
recorder
instrument
classic
school
Added: 20th August 2007
Views: 437
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Coca-Cola ad from 1942. Great graphics. Too bad it didn’t say, ‘This Coke’s for you!’ When a nickel was worth something! It’s still Delicious and Refreshing… Just takes a few more nickels.
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coca
cola
ad
classic
bottle
coke
Added: 19th August 2007
Views: 409
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