Nostalgia

Fun Things to Do in Greenfield Mass.

by Deb C September 30, 2022

There’s many fun things to do in Greenfield, Mass.

We had never been or heard of Greenfield, Massachusetts. It’s out near Amherst, Mass, off of Rt. 91, along the Mohawk Trail. When we looked for things to do one weekend, we came across “Greenfield Vintage Days.” We unexpectedly found many fun things to do in the city of Greenfield, Mass.

Greenfield Vintage Days, Greenfield, Mass.

Greenfield Vintage Days event was on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We went on Saturday as there were the most things to do. The core of the event, and where we started exploring Greenfield, was in Court Square. Free parking was available in nearby city lots. Several of the shops lining Main Street had Sidewalk Sales. It’s easy to navigate across streets with pedestrian traffic signals. We hopped a free Trolley Ride to visit historic and vintage places around the city.

The Farmer’s Market is a fun thing to do in Greenfield, Mass.

The Farmer’s Market boasted several stalls of freshly harvested local produce as well as crafters. The Taco Food Truck attracted a long line of customers. During Greenfield’s Vintage Days, a group of vintage tractors attracted a lot of interest. There was also a blacksmith demonstrating his craft over an open flame. Members of the Historical Commission were in period costume.

Finding art on Main Street is a fun thing to do in Downtown Greenfield, Mass.

The Downtown is alive with color: sidewalks, parking meters, the sides of buildings are all brightened by vivid paintings of all kinds. Even parking meters pop with color.

Chairs in the park offer a bright rainbow of seats:

Then there’s the sidewalks. Here’s one with a bee theme:

The sides of buildings with wide alleys beckon the eyes with their murals:

A Fun thing to do in Greenfield, Mass. is to “bee” on the lookout for bees in painting and sculpture

Why bees? Greenfield was the home of Lorenzo Langstroth, pastor of the Second Congregational Church during the mid-1800s, who is known worldwide as the “father of modern beekeeping.”

Reverend Langstroth was the inventor of a revolutionary moveable-frame beehive, patented in 1852. The hive made it easier to inspect the hive and harvest honey. He wrote the first American manual on honeybees and beekeeping. First published in 1853, and reprinted multiple times since, it’s still considered the “Beekeeper’s Bible.”

We discovered that a Langstroth Bee Fest is celebrated downtown with a parade, children’s activities, bee-related displays and talks, and more fun. In 2021, six large bee sculptures painted by local artists were installed around the downtown area and were unveiled during the Bee Fest. More have been added since then.

Here’s the Celtic Bee:

There are other bee-related features, such as the cross-walk shown earlier in this post, as well as paintings like this incorporating bees:

Browsing vintage, secondhand, and thrift shops is another fun thing to do in Greenfield, Mass.

There are several vintage, secondhand, and thrift shops within walking distance of each other in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Many are on Main St. Each of them has their own personality. During Greenfield Vintage Days, many had sidewalk sales and specials. They all had unique personalities and plenty to browse. One, John Doe, Jr. specializes in vintage vinyl records.

Down on Hope Street, which is off Main Street, you will find a Salvation Army Thrift Store and Innovintage, a woman-owned vintage and artisan collective. Innovintage is located in an old brick mill complex. The vendors offer a variety of vintage and antique furniture and furnishings, vintage accessories, upcycled wedding decor, and handmade items. Unfortunately, the trolley tour we were on only allowed us time for a brief peek at the goodies. We thought the prices we saw on vintage wooden items along the deck were very reasonably priced. There was plenty of parking and the day we were there there were also several vendors set up in the parking lot.

The Historical Society in Greenfield, Mass. is a fun place to stop in

The Greenfield Historical Society is housed in a well-kept Victorian building. The displays are well thought out with lots of informative signage. For a small museum, it packed in a lot of items. I’ve owned a vintage shop, bought and sold antiques and collectibles for decades , attended auctions since I was eight, and I saw things there I’ve never seen elsewhere.

This self-propelled wheel chair, circa 1890, is unique in my experience.

One room is devoted to children’s items and pastimes. They are invited to sit at a wooden desk and look at stereoscope slides.

Here’s a few other displays at the Historical Society in Greenfield:

The Museum of Our Industrial Heritage is another fun thing to visit in Greenfield, Mass.

The Museum is rather small, tucked into one part of an old mill building, but makes good use of the space with family friendly displays.

Call ahead as it’s open Summer Saturday afternoons and by appointment. Visit industrialhistory.org for information and group programs. The museum has a library of past technology that researchers may request access to.

Dining out is a fun thing to do in Greenfield, Mass.

Some restaurants in Greenfield, Mass. may have bee or honey-themed art or specialties. The ones we saw popped with personality and pride.

There’s Bonnie B’s Restaurant:

It was hard not to stop in at the colorful Rise Above Bakery and Cafe, but we wanted to be on time for the Trolley Tour:

We did end up having bread from the Rise Above Bakery when we had a late lunch at The People’s Pint, a family-friendly brewpub, on a side street in Downtown Greenfield.

They offered sidewalk seating, as well as indoor booths. Sorry that the sun was so bright that day, it affected my outdoor photo. Here’s some photos of the interior, food, and a beer flight:

They brew their own beer, bake their own desserts, and source from local farmers and suppliers. They are very environmentally conscious, not using disposable plastic, minimal paper goods, composting or recycling everything they can. The brewery grain is fed to pigs and goats in Gill, Mass.

So many fun things to see and do, you’ll “bee” sure to have a fun time in Greenfield, Mass.

Know before you go:

We went when there was a special event and many venues were open for it that have limited hours. We also went in early fall on a bright warm day. The Trolley Tour was a special part of the event and not regularly offered. Greenfield Vintage Days was a brand-new event and it will probably return with many new features. For those who like old fire department equipment, Greenfield is planning on a museum and raising money for it.

Check the City of Greenfield’s website for any events. Also be sure to check this website: Visit Greenfield, MA.

Plan ahead by checking to see if the places mentioned in this post are indeed open, or schedule an appointment, if they offer that option.

There are many more things to see and do than we knew about, or had time for. OH, and the Franklin County Fairgrounds are nearby, so you could coordinate a trip to the fair and the city. See also Wikipedia for more information about Greenfield, Mass.

Also check the local newspaper, the Greenfield Recorder, for information about special events and venues.

If you go…please let me know and leave a comment below.

Want to learn how to start a blog?

Here’s some courses to get you started: Start A Travel Blog

or Start A Blogging Business.

Keeping Track of Craft Beers

While many use an app for tracking their brewery visits, physical journaling is very popular, too. Consider: Keeping Up with Craft Beers: A Journal for Your Tasting Adventures, for yourself or for a gift for a friend. You can keep more detailed records of where you went and what beer you enjoyed. You can list up to 100 beers, as well as list breweries and brew pubs you liked as well as beer festivals.

September 30, 2022 0 comment

Budget-minded Discounts Nostalgia Quirky Finds

If You Like Collectibles and Consignment Shops, You’ll Love Classic Consignments

by Deb C August 31, 2022

You don’t have to be 50plus to love shopping in consignment and thrift shops, but you tend to have more time to do so. Also, you may have more reasons to do so, like new hobbies, stretching retirement funds, and people to buy for, like grandchildren.

If You Like Collectibles and Consignment Shops, You’ll Love Classic Consignments, a shop on Rt. 20 in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

I love shopping at thrift and consignment shops, and Classic Consignments is my favorite. It ticks all the boxes.

Note: It is not a clothing store, but might have vintage and quality fashion accessories.

If You Like Collectibles and Consignment Shops, you’ll love the selection at Classic Consignments

The sandwich board sign reads: “home furnishings, jewelry, etc.” Well, the “etc.” is a bland word for what you may find at Classic Consignments. Unlike some shops, that limit themselves to recent decades, or to mostly furniture, or to antiques and collectibles, or a niche, items hundreds of years old may be mixed in with items across the years to today. The items range from practical to whimsical, from paper to chrome, and cover a broad range of interests and collecting niches. And it’s just plain fun hunting for collectibles and antiques there.

You may find items about British Royalty:

to immigrants:

What kind of collectibles might you find at Classic Consignments?

One day when I walked in, I was greeted by several boxed dolls circa the 1950’s. One of the boxes had a note that said something like “to Gramma, love from xxxx.” Evidently it was time for the collection to be disbursed and enjoyed by new owners.

It often seems that way, as you might see a large grouping of items, like miniatures, such as Sebastian figurines, or Longaberger baskets, Flow Blue or Dedham pottery, or its re-iteration of style from The Potting Shed.

Some shelves and cabinets are designated areas for things like linens, quality handbags, pottery, and vintage kitchenware and glassware.

The linen corner.

Long view of kitchenware, vintage cans and bottles, and utensils etc.

Handbags and totebags.

Close up of jugs on kitchenware shelf.

Here’s some Hall’s and Fiesta-style ware:

If you like British Royalty memorabilia, they often have something or other in china, tin, or paper.

They occasionally have comic books and usually have ephemera, from postcards to early advertising.

The walls and floor space offer an ever-changing cornucopia of visual and collecting delights.

What I also like about Classic Consignments is their pricing and mark down policy.

The staff at Classic Consignments work with their consignors to price their items fairly, given local and online markets. They urge their consignors to point out anything that will indicate what their expectations are and what characteristics might influence the price. They also have a computerized ticketing program showing automatic markdowns at dated intervals. If you are a buyer, this may influence your buying decisions. I know I am more likely to buy something if it’s marked down. Sometimes I pass on an item at full price, because I don’t NEED it, but figure if it’s still there the next time I visit, I can (sort of) justify buying it.

Here’s a ticket example on a Boyd’s Teddy Bear:

The original price is on the bottom and the markdowns with dates appear above the barcode.

What I also love about Classic Consignments is the staff and ambience.

The staff members are always pleasant and helpful. The employees are also very patient and tactful with customers and consignors. They wrestle with all kinds of calls, sometimes those that are all about the would-be customer’s needs and wants and last minute, that kindly, but firmly have to be told, “No, we can’t take…or you need an appointment…or just sorry, but no.”

They really should keep a journal of some of their stories. I know when I had my shop, I should have written down some of them.

One time when I was shopping, a woman who I gathered had been living in Japan for quite some time, and was now returning state-side, was particularly showing off her knowledge of Asian china to a friend. She insisted to the staff that some of the china should be priced higher, because she knew it was all hand-painted. She also talked down to one of them, as if the shop was a charity shop and the woman behind the counter just a volunteer, not a knowledgeable employee. The atmosphere in the store changed for the better once she and her companion left. I went over to the employee and made a commiserating comment and we both had a chuckle.

If you love jewelry, you will love Classic Consignments

David, who is their jewelry expert, and from what I gather, truly trained and certified in fine gems and jewelry, is particularly friendly and ready to share his expertise and recent consignments. He made a point of showing me a particularly unusual neck ornament, I would call it, that had just come in. It has a wonderful story, too.

According to him, the jewelry was consigned by a woman who was an Olympian in Paris in the 1970’s. Someone there gave her the neckpiece in honor and memory of her being an Olympian. The owner is moving away from the area and was downsizing. David noted that the style was “kind of Twiggy-ish” and that you would have to have a long neck to wear it. He said it is made of chrome, a mirror, and with sterling chain links. It came in the box he is holding. I looked up the name and it is of a chic hair salon in Paris.

David sang the praises of a particularly lustrous string of Mikimoto pearls. David also pointed out this custom-made shade to refurbish a period lamp. They used Czechoslovakian beads and re-purposed some embroidered linens and Chintz fabric.

David and I have discovered a common bond. Not only are we from the same hometown, we share our first childhood experience – I was probably 8 – of visiting a consignment shop. Our mothers both took us to a shop that we recall as a maze of piles of stuff and was only open at night. Hence, it’s name, The Owl Shop. When I cleaned out my Mom’s house a few years ago I found something that I bought there . It still had the faint consignor number and price written in pencil.

What the bargain-hunter in me really loves about Classic Consignments

The bargain-hunter in me really loves, not only the mark-downs, but the “back room.” As unsold items enter their final month of their consignment period, the staff move them to a back area of the shop. I generally save that section to browse in last. There I have picked up some great pictorial or coffee table books that were marked down to $2. I also find items that I hadn’t noticed before, as well as some that are marked down to what I am willing to pay. (Or justify buying.)

Here’s a few photos of the back area from a recent visit. There had been a round table there that they kept marking down. (It seems they sometimes keep furniture past the sell buy date and drastically mark it down.) I don’t know why, but I liked it, but had no use for it. Even at I think $10. I was glad when it wasn’t there anymore.

If you love collectibles, some final reasons to love Classic Consignments

With some exceptions for holiday weekends, Classic Consignments is open seven days a week. Yes, seven days to feed your browsing, collecting, and bargain-hunting soul. It’s a collector’s paradise.

Classic Consignments can be the best free entertainment if you like a fun, eclectic shopping experience with nostalgia and history thrown in.

The inventory is ever-changing as new consignments are going on the floor with regularity. Appointments are booked up months ahead.

The employees are continually moving and removing items, and rearranging so that browsers have a great experience as well as get a sense of how an item might look at home.

Finally, the consignors, customers, and staff are all interesting and entertaining in and of themselves. There is that saying: “You can’t make this stuff up.”

And you can’t. The synergy of the shop comes together all on its own.

—–

Do you have a favorite consignment shop? Do you love browsing thrift and consignment shops?

Please share below.

Also visit my other blog posts about collectibles and consignment shops:

7 Reasons why I love consignments shops and not just for saving money

The British Royal Family: Memorabilia feeds collectibles mania

Want to learn how to start a blog?

Here’s some courses to get you started: Start A Travel Blog

or Start A Blogging Business.

August 31, 2022 0 comment

View of Dahlquist Headstone in Cambridge Cemetery

Ancestors New experience Nostalgia Travel in the United States U.S. History

Digging Up Ancestors in Cambridge, Mass.

by Deb C April 5, 2022

Digging Up Ancestors in Cambridge, Mass.

On a warmer late winter day, my husband and I went digging for ancestors in Cambridge, Mass. Cambridge is under a half hour drive for us so we didn’t have far to go.

We decided to visit the famous Mt. Auburn Cemetery as my recollection was that my grandfather was buried there. I remember my mother taking me to the grave, and my thinking how great that he was buried in a nationally famous cemetery. Well, it turned out that my memory was a little off, but not far off.

Before we started out, I did a little searching online for my grandfather, or any of his siblings or parents. I used Findagrave and the Mt. Auburn Cemetery website. I was surprised not to find anything for them, although there was a grave for some people with the same last name. Still, we thought it would be nice to get out of town and get some fresh air and sunshine while walking through the cemetery. I had more optimism than my husband about locating my grandfather.

Mt. Auburn Cemetery a local and national attraction

It was a Sunday afternoon and we discovered that a LOT of other people had decided it was a great day to get out and enjoy the outdoors by visiting the Mt. Auburn Cemetery. We were totally floored by the number of people who were walking through the cemetery, whether singles, couples, or family groups. Many appeared to be walking for the exercise, more than looking at the monuments and headstones. No dogs, bikes, or picnicking is allowed. A family that tried to picnic was asked by cemetery personnel to pack up.

If you think it strange to want to picnic there, Mt. Auburn is as much a park with statues and sculpture, as a cemetery. It’s fame is due to its design as the first ” garden or rural cemetery” with winding paths and small hills and clusters of trees and bushes. It’s atmosphere is more soothing than the usual row upon row of headstones. Many famous people, including Mary Baker Eddy, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Charles Bulfinch, and the actor Edwin Booth, are buried or honored with memorials there.

Not Digging up ancestors in Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass.

When you arrive at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, you quickly realize that there isn’t a formal parking lot. Visitors are directed to park to the side of the paths that have green lines, avoiding the grass. Near the entrance is the chapel, library, and Visitor’s Center within the chapel and public restrooms. Staff and volunteers are on hand from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Visitor’s Center to answer questions about finding a grave or other monuments. The attendant couldn’t find my grandfather, either, but she did give me a map and indicated where the grave was of the people with the same last name. It was in an area where people were buried around the time my grandfather died. She also gave me the email of the archivist if I wanted to ask for further help.

As we followed the map and walked the grounds, I soon realized that my idea of finding my grandfather by checking names on gravestones wasn’t practical. I had no idea how extensive the cemetery is. I just remember my mother and I at the grave of my grandfather, not how we got there. The graveyard in Essex, Mass. was much easier to explore. We stopped to look at some of the more striking sculptures and memorials. I took a few photos, but it turns out that Mt. Auburn Cemetery frowns on publishing them. The photos on the website are better, anyway. More about the memorials later.

We did find the grave and headstone of the people with the same last name, Dahlquist, but the headstone was carved with a “v” instead of a “u.” That is “Dahlqvist,” not “Dahlquist.”

More digging for ancestors in Cambridge, Mass.

As we walked along, we noticed that there was another cemetery along with a church, adjacent to Mt. Auburn, that was accessible just by connecting walkways. I later searched for the cemetery, and others in Cambridge. online to see if that’s where my grandfather was. No luck.

In the weeks following our visit to Mt. Auburn, I did more online research. I found mentions of my great-grandfather’s company and obituaries for family members on Newspapers.com. I mean, my great-grandparents and great-uncles lived in the Boston area and they had to be buried somewhere in Eastern Massachusetts. After several hours and days of searching, I found my Grandfather’s obituary. The thing was, it came up due to his last name, not his first. His obituary said “burial in Cambridge City Cemetery.” Bingo.

The woman at the Mt. Auburn Visitor’s Center had suggested that I contact the Cambridge Cemetery. She confirmed that those graves aren’t listed online. The Cambridge Cemetery is run by the Cambridge DPW. The automatic answering system didn’t have an extension for the Cemetery Dept., so I chose the option to leave a “non-urgent” message. Well, two weeks went by without a return call. The second time, I chose “0” and a pleasant live person connected me with the Cemetery Department voice mail. I left a message with my grandfather’s full name and date of burial. Within a few hours, a pleasant woman called me back with information where my grandfather was buried, and who was also in the plot, as well as information about another Carl H. Dahlquist, buried four decades earlier in another area.

Finally digging up ancestors in Cambridge, Mass.

About a month and a half after our first foray for digging up ancestors in Cambridge, Mass., we went back to the same area. The Cambridge Cemetery is just across the street from one side of the Mt. Auburn Cemetery at the corner of Mt. Auburn and Coolidge Streets. We were so close.

It was a mild early spring Sunday. Unlike the almost bustling atmosphere of the Mt. Auburn Cemetery, the Cambridge Cemetery was deserted. There were a few cars out front, and one or two that we saw actually in the cemetery. The atmosphere was very different, and the land mostly flat, with some trees, but not a lot of large and striking sculptures or monuments. The cemetery was laid out with the more usual lines of headstones.

I had downloaded a map from the City of Cambridge website and highlighted where the graves are. They weren’t that far apart. After finding the road within the cemetery where we needed to be, we parked the car. The roads and sections have signs to help guide us.

There are also square stone markers with lot numbers. We were looking for Range 77, Grave 27. And, there it was, the gravestone, with Dahlquist on one side, and my great-grandfather, my grandfather and two of his three siblings.

When I saw the gravestone, with the name “Ruth” and that she died within a year of her birth, I remembered that my Mother said she was named for Grampa’s sister, who died young. And there is the verification.

While I didn’t remember the graveyard where my Grandfather was buried, I did remember that there were other people in the plot so that there was no room for my Grandmother when she died, over 10 years later. My Grandmother was cremated so my Mother sprinkled her ashes on the grave.

I took some wider photos of and near the gravestone in order to better find it next time and to share with my siblings.

Some advice about digging up ancestors in Cambridge, Mass. and anywhere

Write down what you and your family members know, or remember about family history in regards to burial.

Check on FindaGrave, Google, Ancestry.com, and newspapers.com, and genealogybank.com. Try different spellings or just the last name. For some reason, my Dahlquist ancestors weren’t on FindaGrave and my Grandfather’s first and last name didn’t come up in newspapers.com. It was only because I kept searching the last name that I finally found my Grandfather’s obituary.

Pick times to search online when you have an hour or so to devote to it. Look for clues in other family member’s obituaries. I was almost at the point of calling the funeral home named in my great-uncle’s obituary for information.

Just because you did, or didn’t find your ancestor on one site, or found some material, doesn’t mean you should give up. I found much more material on genealogybank.com than I did on other sites.

If you don’t want to, or can’t afford to pay for online searches, just sign up for a trial, or use a public library that has a subscription to such databases.

What advice do you have about digging up ancestors?

Please share your thoughts.

Want to learn how to start a blog?

Here’s some courses to get you started: Start A Travel Blog

or Start A Blogging Business.

April 5, 2022 0 comment

Nostalgia

A Peak at Comic Book Auctions

by Deb C April 30, 2021

Comic book auctions keep making headlines

The comic books that you read to rags or your Mom threw out are making headlines at auctions. You might have been aware that some of your childhood possessions are now desirable on the vintage market. One of the categories that’s bubbled to the top as far as value is comic books. Like baseball cards, some are attracting bids over a million dollars. Note my previous blog post about Christmas Memories and Rudolph the Reindeer as far as valuable childhood items.

Recently, a comic book sold by an auction company for over $3 million

So what prompted me to write about comic books? A news item about a recent sale of a Superman comic, Action Comics #1, selling for $3.25 million. What is special about the comic is that it was the first appearance and origin of Superman. Published in 1938, it tells how Superman came to earth and lived as Clark Kent. Thousands were printed and perhaps a 100 still exist and their condition varies.

Well, I wasn’t around in 1938 and I doubt that I ever saw a copy, but comic books were definitely part of my childhood.

Comic books my first auction purchase

I was an eight year old third grader and lived in the small town of Newmarket, N.H. An auction was held in a old hall within walking distance of my house. Somehow my Mother allowed me to take what money I had, probably no more than $5, and go. Well, a large lot of comic books, bundled and tied with string, came up. I was an omnivorous reader and I had to have them. The bidding started low, probably 50 cents, I kept counting my money and jumped in to bid. I don’t remember what I bought them for, but I know I was excited and bouncing up and down on the wooden folding seats. I certainly got the auctioneer’s attention, because he eventually said, well, I better sell these to that young lady or she’s going to burst!

There were probably 75 or so comic books all told. If I had my way, I would have read all of them in short order. My mother had other ideas. She used them as incentives to get me to help around the house and with my younger sister and brother. I’d get permission to take one or two at a time and scoot off to read my treasures.

I have no idea what happened to those comics. I do remember there were several Classics Illustrated. We moved some months after the auction so I doubt my parents bothered with packing up and moving them with us.

After that auction, I don’t remember buying many comics, but my younger brother accumulated a stack. A local gas station and store sold them with portions of their covers cut off. For some reason, the owners let me sit by the bookcase where they displayed them, and let me read them. Perhaps it was because my Mother would send me down to buy things from time to time. Those were different times.

My last memory of comic books in my younger life was when I was a camp counselor. For some reason my brother decided he didn’t want his anymore. I took the milk crate full of his comics and put it in the staff cabin. We all enjoyed reading them during breaks. I left them behind when the summer was over.

Sotheby’s and my first comic book auction

When I read about the record-breaking sale of the Superman comic, it reminded me that I witnessed a record-breaking sale of a Batman comic. I dug around in my archives to find clippings about it.

Back when I was a free-lance writer writing about auctions, antiques shows, and the Antiques Roadshow, I attended Sotheby’s, first ever comic and comic art auction. It was in December of 1991 and even Sotheby’s was becoming aware of the pull of early comics on collector’s wallets. If you Google Sotheby’s comic book auctions, you will now find plenty of other entries.

I was in New York City to cover a separate auction and decided to look in on the comic book auction. I was glad I did as I ended up writing about it for two publications. Antiques and Collecting Hobbies Magazine featured it on its March 1992 cover: “Holy Record Breaker!” $55,000 Comic:

Antiques and Collecting Hobbies cover March 1992:

The comic book auction prices were eye-opening. Detective Comics #27, May 1939, D.C. Publications, introduced “The Batman” drawn by Bob Kane. Batman was on the cover, swinging on his bat-line towards the bad guys. His cape was in two parts like bat wings and the cover price was 10 cents. At the auction, the comic book sold for $55,000, a then record price. It was the second highest lot of the day. The #1 Batman issue, in the spring of 1940 and with the addition of Robin, The Boy Wonder, sold for $15,400.

In the same auction, Action Comics #1 with Superman’s debut, sold for $29,700. Quite a leap to today’s record of $3.25 million.

The auction included artwork and comics from Marvel, including the “X-Men.” Speaking of Marvel, a bidder representing Marvel turned up at the auction in a Spiderman costume. He was there to buy some of its historic items, which Marvel never bothered to save. “Spidey” raised his auction paddle and bought, among other things, a prototype cover for the first Marvel Comics that was never used for a reported $15,400. Spiderman comics and artwork mostly exceeded their estimates at the sale. Wonder Woman comics also brought top prices at the sale.

Due to the prices that some comics now command, the Baby Boomers who buy for nostalgia have heavy competition from those who buy on speculation. At the Sotheby’s auction, Bill Woo of Comic Mania in Stanton, DE determinedly countered every bidding increment on the artwork for the original X-Men #1, August 1991. He eventually won out with a top bid of $44,000. He also bought the artwork for X-Force #1, July 1991. Both of these comics ranked as the largest selling comic in history when they were issued. And this auction was held only months later, in December. In an article reporting the comic book auction results The Washington Post quoted Woo’s reasons for buying the artwork: “First, I love his art; second, it’s an investment; and third, it’s for my store.”

A fun mug for comic book collectors. Click on it to order.

Comic Books, Nostalgia, and being 50 plus

So, to circle back to how I came to write this post about comic books and something I realize about being a Baby Boomer. And that is, take, or make the time to go through old records and revisit past experiences. This does a couple of things: you start the process of weeding out, and you find reminders of fun times and accomplishments. It also may bring to mind things that you haven’t shared with your children or grandchildren. There are lots of stories of people finding letters and journals of their family members and regrets because no one ever talked about the family history.

Those article clippings I mentioned I saved in binders. I’ve moved the binders around my house a few times, but the comic book auction prompted me to start going through them. As the saying goes, what a trip down Memory Lane. If you have old files or boxes from your past, I suggest you go through them. And make notes to share your stories with your children, if you haven’t.

Going to New York City and having an entry to Sotheby’s was special. To experience the reaction of those in the auction room as the bidding wars raged was awesome. I used to feel so privileged when I used to receive Sotheby’s auction catalogs in the mail. I had totally forgotten about that phase in my life. I used to interview bidders and buyers, and high end antique dealers like the Keno brothers and auctioneers at Skinners, and several others that you see on Antiques Roadshow. (In person and on the phone the Keno brothers are very polite, sociable, and easy to talk to.)

Interested in other posts about collecting and collectibles? See my posts about British Royal Memorabilia and consignment shops.

Doing Yourself and Your Kids a Favor

My kids were young when I was covering the New England antiques scene. I am realizing that they may not even realize the extent of my writing and antiquing adventures. Things that mean something to me will probably end up in an dumpster. My sons don’t seem to have the inclination to look through my things after I’m gone. I know I have to do something now to preserve, dispose of by sale or gift, or toss.

So, my resolve, and also recommendation, is to commit to a time frame to sorting through memorabilia and making a concise record of past accomplishments and items that should be saved as part of family history. As the Pandemic has taught us, we may not have as much time as we think to do so. I talked about going through old files in a previous blog post.

Your thoughts?

Are there things in your career path or life that you haven’t revisited or shared with younger family members? Are there documents and archives that may prompt some good stories or memories? Please share.

Want to learn how to start a blog?

Here’s some courses to get you started: Start A Travel Blog

or Start A Blogging Business.

April 30, 2021 1 comment

Nostalgia U.S. History

A Baby Boomer’s Christmas Memories

by Deb C December 30, 2020

For this blog post, I am traveling down a Memory Lane. A Baby Boomer’s Christmas Memories are of simpler versions of how Christmas is celebrated today. There were more homemade decorations and gifts, less lights, and lower priced and less gifts in the stockings and under the tree, but the underlying love and giving spirit are comparable to today.

Christmas Traditions of Baby Boomer Days

TV Specials are a big part of a Baby Boomer’s Christmas Memories

Some of today’s traditions, such as A Charlie Brown’s Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman TV Classics, first aired when Baby Boomers believed in Santa. According to one source, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is the longest continuously running Christmas TV special. For me, it was great to be able to sit down and watch my childhood favorites with our kids. “Holly Jolly Christmas” sung by Burl Ives became a favorite song for one of them.

The songs, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman” were both big 1950’s song hits for Gene Autry, “The Singing Cowboy.” Yes, we Baby Boomers heard them first, as well as “‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and other Christmas pop/rock recordings still popular today. Debuting in 1949, Gene Autry’s version of “Rudolph” has sold over 25 million copies worldwide.

When I was sorting through my record stash, I actually found a 78 rpm record of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by Gene Autry and The Pinafores with Orchestral Acc. I have no recollection about why or how I have it. I don’t think it was from my parents. I do remember that they let me make crafts out of some of their 78’s. Like making a rippled bowl out of them by placing them over a can and heating them in the oven.

Sometime in the 1960’s my Mother picked up some flannel elves and reindeer figures that I’m sure were inspired by the Rudolph film. When we cleaned out her house, we divided up some of the Christmas decorations. My sister provided these photos of the elves and reindeer. The Santa is from a dollar store.

Santa with vintage elves and reindeer on 50plusses.com

photos by Sandi Regan

There are a lot of collectibles made over the years that are based on Christmas TV specials. I picked up a Rudolph ornament and one of the dog from the Grinch show. They run the gamut and you can look for your favorite characters on websites such as eBay and Etsy. I picked up a like-new “Yukon Cornelius” stocking with tags on it at a thrift store.

Original Rudolph figure makes history, again

I recently heard that the original Santa and Rudolph figures used in the Rudolph Rankin/Bass Productions TV special still exist. My Internet searches led me to learning the back story about the original story, the making of the TV classic, and what happened to the figures.

The original story was written in 1939 as a seasonal children’s book giveaway of the Montgomery Ward Department Store, a Sears rival. The brother-in-law of the author later wrote the song which became Gene Autry’s huge hit.

Image of Rudolph figure released by Profiles in History

The TV Rudolph’s nose still glows and Santa’s beard, of Yak hair, is still a snowy white. The Japanese puppets made for Rankin/Bass Productions were given to Arthur Rankin Jr.’s secretary and kept in the family until about 15 years ago. Then, after they were appraised on Antiques Roadshow for a pre-auction estimate of $8,000 – $10,000, they were sold on eBay. The buyer, the owner of the collectibles toy shop, Time and Space Toys, had them restored. They had been played with and stored in a hot attic in between family Christmases and needed some TLC. You can see some before and after images on Youtube. Unfortunately, other figures from the film deteriorated and melted due to attic conditions.

After restoring the puppets and getting publicity for saving some of the World’s most famous Christmas icons, Time and Space Toys sold them to a huge fan of the movie for over $30,000. In November, 2020, “the most famous reindeer of all” made history again as the Rudolph and Santa puppets sold for a whopping $365,000, way over their $150,000 – $200,000 estimate. That makes them amongst the most valuable items of TV memorabilia ever sold at auction. (What they mean to children of all ages is priceless.)

Profiles in History catalog – Santa and Rudolph

Profiles in History, a major auction house that specializes in Hollywood memorabilia, auctioned off Santa and Rudolph. They created a catalog just for the Rudolf auction and you can see it here. You can read their press release for the auction here.

Decorating the Live Tree

One of my first Christmas memories is of my Mother making ornaments from walnut shells. Now, you can find all kinds of ideas for crafting with walnut shells on Pinterest. Tree ornaments were made by carefully prying open the shell, gluing a toothpick inside to hold a string or ribbon, gluing the halves back together, and painting them.

Those ornaments my Mother made survived several moves, and were used for decades. I wasn’t sure what happened to them. I thought that they had gone into the dumpster when my Mother went into Assisted Living a couple of years ago. A few weeks ago I decided to pull out the one box of ornaments that I brought home from my Mother’s house. It’s a small suitcase sized clothing or suit box from Sears, with a foldover cover, perfect for storage. After poking around among the graying tissue paper wrapped ornaments, I found four of them in a small plastic bag tucked into one corner. The halves of one of them had separated. I noticed that my Mother had numbered the halves, “15” and “15.” This must have been so that she knew which ones went with which when regluing after placing the toothpick and string inside and painting them. So now I know that she made at least 15. Whatever glue, string, and paint she used has held up over 50 years. There’s no paint on the string so it’s doubtful that she repainted them.

Armed with a thimble, needle and thread and bowls of popcorn, or cranberries, my Mother and I would work on stringing them while watching movies like White Christmas or holiday specials with singers like Bing Crosby and later Andy Williams. My Mother was big on silver for the tree. She worked at making everything balance with an equal portion of the tinsel. She also carefully removed and re-packaged it for use year after year. The newer plastic tinsel that became available had no appeal in our house.

As far as ornaments, we had a couple of precious boxes of fragile glass ornaments generally made in Europe. There were a few plastic ones and a few felt ones like Rudolph and elves Made in Japan. And there were some that we kids made in school or with craft kits. One year I made plaster ones that were from a kit. You mixed up the plaster and poured it into molds. When the plaster was dry, you popped the ornaments out and painted them.

Christmas Treats

Stockings, Stocking Stuffers and Such

For many of us, there weren’t special stockings. We just picked our largest sock. Then in the 1960’s, we started to get store bought flannel stockings. Sometimes someone at the store or we would use a special paint tube to write our name on it.

It never failed that there would be ribbon candy…and that it would break into splinter like pieces. Good thing we four kids really didn’t like it. Candy canes were welcome, but we really liked anything chocolate. Mom/Santa would buy bags or boxes of M and M’s, gumdrops, foil wrapped bells, chocolate covered mints and maybe candy bars. Then she would divide up the candy, repackage it, and fill our stockings with it and small gifts like transparent tape and scissors (as we kept borrowing hers), and small games like jacks or some marbles. Sometimes there was a package of Lifesavers candy that came in a hinged type gift box that opened up to reveal rolls of candy on either side. Speaking of gifts, gift bags weren’t used. Everything was wrapped, sometimes in the Sunday Funnies newspaper, if budgets were tight. Also, my Mother cautioned us to open the presents carefully so as not to rip the paper. We saved and used it from year to year. Some patterns were very pretty and I enjoyed using them over and over again.

Fruitcake

I’ve never understood the jokes about fruitcake, because I always loved it. Sometimes we would make one, and once in a while receive one as a gift. My best “fruitcake memory” is of watching the TV special Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” which first aired in 1966. The story is from Capote’s 1930’s childhood when his parents left him with relatives. It centers around a Christmas-time ritual of making fruitcakes from scratch with his elderly cousin who is also his best friend. They used pecans poached from a neighbor’s pecan grove and bootleg whiskey . You can find the story on You Tube.

Gingerbread Houses

Now you can buy kits with premade gingerbread, frosting, and candy. Boomers would make their own gingerbread, or use graham crackers. Homemade frosting, peppermints, M and M’s, and gumdrops were mostly used for cementing the parts of the “house” and decorating.

Christmas Cookies

What’s Christmas without Christmas cookies? Especially those decorated with frosting and sugar sprinkles. Everything was made from scratch. There weren’t any pre-made waiting in the refrigerated food section of the grocery store. Dough was rolled out and aluminum cookie cutters used for stars, bells, trees, gingerbread men and Santa shaped cookies. Frosting was also made from scratch and either applied with a knife or with an aluminum cake decorating tool. Nonpareils or colored sugar sprinkles were a final touch. You can find such vintage cookie cutters and aluminum cake decoration tools on eBay and Etsy.

My first memory of Christmas cookies must have been a cookie swap. In the mid-1950’s we lived in Alexandria, Virginia as my Father was stationed there while in the Navy. We lived in an apartment complex with a large basement with laundry facilities. I remember long benches set up full of cookies and being able to choose some cookies with sprinkles. This was a huge deal for a not yet three year old.

A Boston Area Baby Boomer’s Special Christmas Memories

There were some things for Boston area Baby Boomers that were just a must-do at some point, and some of them are still available today.

Even today, local kid’s parents, or grandparents make sure that they see a Boston performance of The Nutcracker ballet.

Another Boston must was to visit Santa and “The Enchanted Village” of mechanical figures in old-fashioned dress and scenes which took up an entire floor in Downtown Boston’s Jordan Marsh store. My recollection is of holding my Mother’s hand tightly as we walked along winding ramps and being a bit overwhelmed by all the figures and decorations. After Jordan Marsh was folded into Macy’s, the village was taken on and displayed by the City of Boston at City Hall Plaza and the Hynes Convention Center. The “Village” was bought at auction by Jordan’s Furniture ( no connection to Jordan Marsh), refurbished, and since 2010 is on display at Jordan’s Avon, Mass. location during the holiday season.

If you lived in or near Framingham, Mass., the “old” Shoppers World was the place to visit at Christmas. The original mall had a large open courtyard in the middle. Twenty-four 12 foot tall wooden toy soldiers stood at attention around the courtyard, with a 24 foot tall “General” rotating on platform in the center promenade of the courtyard. Santa’s live reindeer visiting from the North Pole stayed in a pen at one end. And there were bright colored lights and Christmas trees as well as Santa himself.

There’s a Facebook group, The Old Shoppers World was better, where you can see photos and learn more about it.

While the original Shoppers World was razed and there’s a modern replacement, the toy soldiers survived. They are now placed around the city of Framingham during the Christmas season. The DPW even made additional soldiers using an original one as a pattern. The “new recruits” help spread holiday cheer even further.

Yesterday’s Christmases live on in Today’s

So, for this Baby Boomer, a trip down Christmas “Memory Lane” doesn’t have to travel far, as many things from my childhood are still part of today’s decorations and activities. You can find a lot of nostalgic and traditional holiday items on Etsy and eBay. Some things have new twists, or materials. More things are store bought, rather than handmade, and now there are sequels to some of the original Christmas TV specials, but the basic characters and premises are the same. So too is the spirit of giving.

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December 30, 2020 1 comment