The blog of a person....yeah that sounds good.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen.

Roughly a year ago I mentioned that my father had found some old journals in his attic. Seeing as my brother and I have now officially moved into the spare rooms in his little rent house, I've been waiting for a good opportunity to take pictures of the stuff on their pages and upload it online for all to see.

Well the office supplies here have been upgraded with a new FAX machine and a Brother DCP 7020 printer/scanner. So I decided today would be the day I scan them in and upload them.


The first journal was in very good quality. It also lasted quite a while in the person's life. It appeared to have been started in 1939 and then comes to an end around 1951.

(quick note: this post is VERY image heavy. most pictures i've ever put in a post.)


this is the first page past the front cover. its also one of the few pages in complete english. I cant read this person's name. Joe Matinson?



This is what most of the pages of the book are like. English to French translations on just about every page. With bits of textbooks and books here and there pasted in.


This was one of the first large things pasted into the journal. Its some sort of song. I dont know what this song is but check out the gorgeous old art thats cascading around the musical scales. I'd love to hear what this ditty sounds like.


the lords prayer translated into french.
I still am not sure if this person was trying to learn french or english.



As I was flipping through this journal one particularly neat thing fell out. A newspaper chunk from 1951. One one side was this beautifully preserved Prince Valiant comic.


And on the other side was this hilariously cloy advertisement comic for toothpaste.
Theres a beautiful painting of the Aunt and her niece on the far left of this that I couldnt fit into the scan.
How would this comic work today I wonder?
"AUNTI YO BREAF STANK"
"FUCK YOU"
"GIRL YOU AINT NEVA GON GET NO MAN WIT BREAF LIKE DAT"
"COLGATE"
"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMNNNNN" (search your heart you know it to be true.)



One of the last pages in the book is this neat little drawing the person who owned it drew on the page. Not a bad drawing at all.





Those were the highlights of that journal which despite being kept in the hot sweaty confines of a florida attic for several decades, was in surprisingly great shape. The same cannot be said for the journal from the 1970's. It was chewed on by many a squirrel and rat and was covered in filth. In fact before I even opened it, several pages fell out which I had to fix.
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On the plus side, unlike the other journal this one was a TREASURE TROVE of wonderful old photos from the 70's. Clips. Ads. And other neat things.


This was the first page of the journal. These people apparently lived in Fort Lauderdale which makes no sense as to how this journal wound up in Tampa. Especially considering that according to the journal, these guys later moved to New York somewhere.



The Journal appears to be a scrapbook of sorts owned by a kid (well he was a kid back then he has to be in his mid-30's now) named Steven Rose.



I knew I was going to like this scrapbook when I saw a friggin TOM TERRIFIC page pasted inside it. (if you are unfamiliar with tom terrific you should look it up. its adorable and great.)
Opposite is Steven Rose and the Amazing Technicolor Nightcoat.



I dont know what this sun is or where it came from but it is very scary.



Next are some pages describing some sort of vacation. Almost every page of this book is full of some wild photo or colorful thing that caught my eye.



Here is Steven Rose's father. A rather dashing chap. And a dead ringer for a Mr.Bob Dobbs. All he needs is a pipe. If I were a lesser man I would have photoshopped one in.


A badass advertisement for an old car. Cars in the 70's and 80's were so great. How they devolved into the HIDEOUS pointy cars of the 90's where everything looked like a tin brown box on wheels I cant imagine. Apparently Mr.Rose Senior later bought this vehicle.



The brother and his gal pal. Ah old fashion. How I wish you were still alive and well. Compared to what people wear now.



Here is Steven Rose and his grandpa. I dont know about you but this old guy looks awesome. Like he could take out a crew of bikers with one punch.



Here is his aunt. Gorgeous. And an advertisement for some sort of fancy color television.



The uncle. Some sort of ship captain or plane pilot or something.



Apparently this is where they all stayed on vacation. I really dig the primary color stripes on those umbrellas.



Oh Jimmy Carter! Will you ever catch a break!



Another relative and a very surprised carp.



Hell yeah! More Tom Terrific stuff! Apparently Steven was a big fan of TT.


A clip of a baseball star. Where this was pulled from I cant imagine. Its too small and leathery to be a magazine page.



The last pages. Which contain a pheasant. And an address. I wonder if this book shoppe still exists.


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And now we turn the blog over to Mike who will type something very enriching to finish this post off with:




The element that I especially like in this particular blog post is the pheasant usage. Usually, when I'm browsing along these lines of infinite bore and snore-ish type, I ask myself, "What kind of sick, sick man would not put a giant image of a pheasant on old parchment here?" The answer, dear readers, is the author of this very blog. Not only did he include a heaping amount of pheasant, he also saw it fit, in his wise brainworkings, to include a fish. Fish, fish that I love so very much. I love them, dear readers, because they reflect what I love most in life. What is that you may ask? What is that Mike? Well I have the answer for you my friends. That answer is...whiskers. Whiskers which are used to find disgusting muck and detritus to shovel into my slimy, fat, drooling mouth area. That, dear readers, is what we all desire.

~Michael

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, wish I could find some dusty old tomes to paw through.

Can you tell me the names of the songs that your little music player plays?

mrscriblam said...

mikes part was the best

Sir Thomas of Binkleshire said...

wonderful post nathan. I hope to come one day and see these for myself.

Jerry Chan said...

I wonder if anyone will ever find our blogs in like 50 years... preserved in the anals (anus?) of the internet and then go OH COOL!

Or if it'll all get lost in the upcoming robot apocalypse

Anonymous said...

I found marriage therapy papers in my attic.

"So and so doesn't like it when so and so calls him fatso in front of his friends."

It was a really funny read.

Anonymous said...

Yah so I didn't go to my attic. Nope, nope, nope... rather my basement where all things from my past apparently go to, well not die, but rather fester into some calling of wanna be wisdom long forgotten. I found my year book. I didn't remember the malice and discontent I felt for my class mates 'till I opened that thing. I hope one day I might find things from people long dead in my past that will enlighten me and inspire. Also, Mike had a strong end good night. :-)

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!