Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: oklahoma (Page 85 of 115)

Back when dinosaur tech was Normal…

The suspect’s car disappeared around a corner, and the police – slowed by a backing dump truck that momentarily jutted into traffic – lost sight just long enough to end the chase.

“Over there,” said the officer riding shotgun. “We’re out of our jurisdiction. Better call it in.”

The car had barely stopped rolling when he threw open the door and trotted over to the phone booth, jerked the handset off the hook, and slammed a quarter into the slot.

Phone booth?

Dr. Who fans will recognize the “callbox” but there are plenty of folks who have grown up as dinosaur technology has gone extinct. I was reading a book by suspense novelist Sue Grafton – the first in her long-running series – and was taken aback by the prehistoric references. The novel was written in the 1980s. Some things have changed a little. Some things have changed a LOT.

I should have gone into it understanding that it was historical fiction at this point. The forensic pathologist (and I think Ms Grafton was a little ahead of her CSI-time back then) and her associates had to share a behemoth computer that squatted on a desk like an elephant. There was a point where, if I remember correctly, the police DID have to pull the patrol car over to make a phone call.

It was before cell phones were in wide enough usage for readers to be familiar with the terms.

John Nance writes fiction set in the airline industry and one of his early works has the pilot comfortably smoking in the open-door cockpit as the passengers are boarding. Airline-related stories are certainly among the most-dated. The rules of flying changed dramatically post-911.

Tom McBride and Ron Nief have put together a collection of generational ‘Normals’ and called it the Mindset Lists of American History. They don’t list every year, but skip five to seven years in documenting what was important to graduating classes in their own diploma-year. For example, the Class of 1983 were mostly born in 1965, and include comedian Chris Rock and actor Robert Downey Jr. For this class, Malcom X, Alan Freed, and Nat King Cole were already historical figures.

There was no armed forces draft, the ecology movement had been around forever. Radio ads for cigarettes were long gone. Separate-but-equal facilities for different races were a thing of the past. Those of the class of 1983 never did and never will see the Beatles in a live performance. They never saw a slide rule in a classroom, and did not have to wait until age 21 to vote.

Plenty of things that I considered ‘normal’ are completely unheard of by younger groups. Rotary-dial telephones. CB radios. 8-Track tapes.

It seemed like it was only yesterday that the corner grocery offered S&H Green Stamps with every purchase, to be pasted in a book and saved until redeemed for some frivolous purchase at the ‘Stamp Store.’ Now, it seems that even US postage stamps are threatened.

The authors make some bold predictions for future classes as well, including an outbreak of ‘carpel thumb syndrome’ brought on by excessive texting.

We’ll have to see how that turns out. Meanwhile, I’ll keep tapping away on the massive laptop that my son-in-law makes fun of, the one with the Cinemascope-sized screen and fonts the size of billboard lettering. You know – something big enough for me to see.

Movin’ & Shakin’ on Main…

Dishes are stacked in the kitchen. They are waiting. I am waiting, too. A break in the action. Today was Red Hat Lady Day. I’ll get to the washing and cleaning in a minute.

The tables at lunchtime were turned over to the group today, and since I’m still a one-man show with limited seating, it threw a kink in the dining plans of a couple of parties of nice folks who had driven over from Tulsa. I hope to be able to make it up to them in the near future.

In truth, this afternoon I was a one-man show with help from a kind-hearted sister. Kathy was kind enough to bring in a helper to cover at her store – Martha’s Heath Food and Herbs – so she could come down the street and bail out her brother by carrying bowls and refilling tea and lemonade glasses. A great help in serving all the Red Hatters at once. (Thanks, Sis!)

Meanwhile, the Ladies were suitably-attired in their matching-color-appropriate hats and enjoyed Irish stew, bread, and fresh-baked cookies before convening their meeting. I snapped a photo of the tables, all ready and waiting. Needless to say, once the chairs were filled there was no more time for my photography.

It wasn’t the only dining action in the Rose District today, although the chewing in the next block south was being done by a big, growling machine. They’ve taken down the building that will be replaced by a new structure to accommodate the In The Raw sushi restaurant. It’s great to see progress, even if it means seeing it with demolition-created-dust blowing into the eyeballs.

I took a stroll down to the bank (not remembering it closes at 4pm, just like in the olden days) and decided to snap a shot of the construction-destruction.

According to an email from one of my merchant neighbors, it was quite a show when it came down yesterday. One of my lunchtime guests yesterday mentioned there was work going on at the site, but I figured it was more of the just-puttering-around kind. Didn’t realize it was the kind of activity that brings down the house. Literally.

So, goodbye to a vintage Broken Arrow structure that probably dated to statehood, and hello to plans for a structurally-sound replacement that will help revive the commerce on Main Street.

Great things are in the works and great work is going on already.

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main Street, BA

Physical fitness vs. physical fatness…

Maybe you never heard of Joe Weider. It is pronounced like Joe WEE-der. To me, it seems like I’ve known him all my life.

Big Joe started out as Little Joe, one of those 98-pound weaklings – OH, wait a second… there is probably no one reading this that remembers those old comic book ads that promised a body-builder’s-body to anyone who sent in the money for the booklet.

Those ads showed a scrawny guy lounging on the beach with his beautiful girlfriend, perfectly happy until the big beach bully strolls up and kicks sand in the poor guy’s face. It was the basis for a series of ads that became a national joke, of sorts. The 98-pound weakling. It was like saying Loser! Or Whatever! Or LOL ROFL OMG! Everybody knew what it meant.

Little Joe became Bigger Joe. If he was scrawny to start with, he worked out to make up for it. Then, during the Great Depression, he started what became an empire of muscle magazines, equipment designed for bodybuilding and fitness, and diet supplements. He was one of the backers of bodybuilding contests that featured superstars like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In truth, Weider discovered the bodybuilding formula in a magazine. An immediate devotee, he continued his fitness formula for life.

He died yesterday, at the age of 93. He wasn’t infirm or out of shape, but his heart gave out.

Even in his latter years, ages 70s and 80s, he was chiseled and fit. After all the years, he still had a following of readers, people who took up Muscles and Fitness, Flex, Fitness, and Shape, a magazine for women. All together, it amounted to some 25 million readers. In those pages were people like Schwarzenegger, Cher, and Sylvester Stallone.

For my part, I remember thinking about getting in shape. I laid down on the couch until that thought went away. Joe Wieder was a product in my mother’s health food stores and not so much a destination for my lifestyle intentions.

Here’s the weird part: I remember the canisters of the Joe Weider products more than the man himself. I guess that’s proof that his legacy will live on. RIP Mr. W. When I was stocking the shelves for one of the country’s health food pioneers, you were just a name on a product.

Age 93.

In anybody’s book, the man achieved a ripe old age. Probably moving around in his latter years faster than I am now, and I’m many, many years his junior.

For many pioneers of the heath food and body building industry, Joe Weider was the Jackie Robinson, the Charles Lindbergh, the Lewis and Clark, and the Edmund Hillary. (Google them, if you don’t know these pioneers in their own fields…)

RIP Mr Weider. You were ahead of your time, and lived long enough to see the results of your efforts.

I’m thinking about getting in shape and it is in no way an intention of disrespect, if I lay down for a minute or two to think about it first.

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