Thursday, November 23, 2006

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Enjoy being with your family and friends! Now go eat a turkey leg!!

CLICK FOR A CLOSER LOOK

Monday, November 20, 2006

TWO NEW SUPER CEREAL SITES

Ok boys and girls go get your favorite spoon and bowl, because two new sites dedicated to the wonderful world of vintage cereal just made their debut yesterday.

The first one Cereal Bits is a place for collectors of vintage cereal boxes and premiums to hook up and talk and trade all things cereal. I’m sure this site will be a big success!



The next one is a Flickr group called the Sugar Frosted Cereal Museum where friends of the museum are uploading some great vintage cereal images.


Check both of these sites out for a sweet sugar rush of nostalgia!

Friday, November 17, 2006

WAFFELOS CEREAL

“Howdy Pardners! To start the day right you need the right kind of breakfast. So here’s one breakfast that fills the bill.
First. You get yourself a bowl, fill it with Waffelos cereal, and pour on some milk.
Second. Have some fruit or juice.
Third. Try a little warm toast with butter or margarine.
Fourth. Wash it all down with a glass of milk.
My horse reminded me to tell you that Waffelos with 1/2-cup of milk give you 25% of the recommended daily allowance of 8 essential vitamins plus iron.
There’s a lot more to Waffelos than great Taste!”
Waffelo Bill



This good advise from the one and only Waffelo Bill was found on the side of each cereal box of Waffelos.



Introduced in 1979 by Ralston, this cereal was mighty tasty and a real hoot to boot! Waffelos came in two flavors Maple or Blueberry. Waffelo Bill rode into the sunset with his guitar playing horse in 1982, but luckily he left behind some nifty premiums.

Reminiscent to the 1948 Lone Ranger Frontier Town cut-out buildings on the backs of Cheerios boxes was Waffelos own version called Waffeloville. (You know, that’s just down the road from Neato Coolville)



You had the opportunity to collect all nine buildings off of the backs of Waffelos cereal. To have the complete town you needed Bill’s Milk Bar, Waffeloville School, General Store, Waffeloville Bank, Railroad Station, Blacksmith, Livery Stable, Waffeloville Hotel, and the Stage Coach Office.


Also as a bonus, each box came with one of five Waffeloville stand-up characters!


Some of the other premiums that were made available was a maze game, a belt buckle, Wacky Packages stickers, and two Wacky Packages posters (box panels). You can see those and a scan of the Blueberry Waffelos box over at Wacky-Packages

Also there were these three glass decals for drinking glasses, windows or mirrors.


Now I think I’ll go an fix me up some waffles then break off the squares into a bowl, pour in some maple syrup and milk and relive a childhood memory.

Hmm... You know that sounds like a bad idea. I’ll just go buy some of that new Eggo cereal instead.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

LAND OF YESTERYEAR ANTIQUES

Something that was a big part of my life for many years came to a close this month. It was the Land of Yesteryear Antique Mall located in Osage Beach, (part of Lake of the Ozarks) here in Missouri. It officially closed on October 31.

MOST OF THESE PHOTOS ARE FROM 1997 &1998


It started out as the Americana Antique Store in a smaller building at a different location back in the late 1960's. It changed ownership about three or four times until the current owners Sarah and Garland Land purchased it in the early 1990's. I have fond memories of going to the original location back when I was a child and as a young collector I always seemed to find something like an old comic or toy to spend my allowance money on. In 1992 the Land’s moved the store up the street and into a new larger building and changed the name to Land of Yesteryear. I showed up a few months later to work behind the counter.

ME 1998



Land of Yesteryear or LOY as we called it was such a fun and happy place for everyone that stepped foot in the door. The timing was perfect since the collecting boom/craze was really heating up. Seems like everyone was collecting something in the 90's and we usually had an item or two that would help feed any collector’s habit. Besides the many opportunities for myself to add to my many collections I really enjoyed when someone found their own treasure. One customer actually found the very book that belonged to her Grandmother that she remembered as a child. Still inside the book was a pressed four leaf clover that she gave to her Grandmother. This lady had never been in the store before and was from another state. Needless to say she purchased the book with tears in her eyes.

We sold the hefty share of oddball stuff and whatisit? type of things, but the weirdest item was a real human skull. Yep, that’s right, a real human skull. Not sure who was missing their head, but we did know it once belonged to a school and it had a hinged skull cap and study markings all over it. A physician purchased it and ended up taking it to some of her speaking engagements. She even named the skull after me! Yikes!

The store was known for it’s excellent supply of glassware, advertising, toys, furniture, primitives and general antiques. Plain old junk and reproductions were always kept out. The store’s success came from the high quality dealers that rented showcases and booths. Most of the original group of dealers from the beginning stayed on until the end.


Being a part of this antique mall was such a wonderful experience for me as I made so many close friends and learned so much about so many things. Even though I left the store little over 2 and half years ago, I stayed connected because of my booth.

MY SHOWCASE 1997

MY SHOWCASE 1997


FIRST YEAR BUSINESS CARD

SEPT 2006

Land of Yesteryear will now just be a fond memory from yesteryear!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

VETERANS' DAY

Thanks to all the men and women who have ever served and are serving now!

Friday, November 10, 2006

1976 KOOL-AID AD

“Hurry up kids! You only have until December 31, 1976 to send in your envelopes and money for these spiffy Kool-Aid customized items!”



There’s a lot of things going on in this ad. I first noticed the imposter Kool-Aid man as he is one of those cheap inflatable type of costumes. I guess the real Kool-Aid man was busy busting thru a brick wall in his latest TV commercial.


What’s the deal with the girl’s glowing ball? It sort of looks like something out of the world of Tron and the boy looks kind of afraid as if he’s waiting for her to zap him with it. I guess in reality they had a Kool-Aid ball that wasn’t ready to be included as one of the premiums, so they blotted it out.


Another thing is that I think they’re hanging out in the backyard of the Brady Bunch. Check out that Astroturf.


The best thing in the ad has to be her tube socks. Those socks rock!

I leave you with the one and only giant pitcher wrecking machine. Kool-Aid Man, SMASH!!!


Tuesday, November 07, 2006

1957 PREPARATION FOR MARRIAGE LEAFLETS

This old set of leaflets put out by the Methodist Church are a real hoot!

Ward Jenkins with his great Ward-O-Matic blog and super Flickr set has created another fun Flickr group called The Retro Teen and I just added these crazy leaflets to the group! Also if you haven't seen or noticed the Retro Kid group on Flickr yet, go check it out. It’s one of the more fun groups on Flickr and was also started by Ward.




I’m afraid I couldn’t resist and just had to paint this kids face green and add a thought balloon.

Monday, November 06, 2006

JELLYSTONE PARK EUREKA MO

Back in late September we made a quick tour of Jellystone Park Resort & Campground located in Eureka, Missouri and next door to Six Flags. Of course everyone knows that Jellystone is the home to our favorite picnic basket thief Yogi Bear!

Enjoy the photos from this fun easy going place that seems to be stuck in a more simple time.









Also for a great post on the history of the Jellystone parks and scans of the old brochures check out a sampler of things.