Mr. Haney

I always cring when I run into Mr. Haney down at Drucker's store!

It has been a VERY long time (1994, I think, was the last time), but I have done drag a couple of times. The first was Halloween in the Castro in SF in about 1979, again in 1980. Then a couple of times for parties in the '80s, once as Glinda the Good Witch. My biggest complaint about doing drag was that it is hard to find women's shoes in men's sizes! So, mostly joking, I told my sister to always be on the lookout for high heels in size 13!

Well, she did! She recently surprised me with a pair of 4" heels (2" was the highest I could find before!). I have NO idea when or if I will ever wear them, but they are fun!

What the NRA was in the past!

This is a little booklet I've had around for MANY years. I'm not sure exactly when it was published, but it is pre-ZIP code. One thing of interest - it has a section titled "How Old is Old Enough?" Here is the first paragraph:

How old is old enough for your boy or girl to handle firearms? Usually youngster are old enough to start shooting when they have shown a sense of responsibility in other fields. This may be 12, 13, or 14 years of age.

Interesting, especially in light of the recent shooting death of a 2 year old girl by her 5 year old brother. He shot her with the 22 he was given as a Christmas gift.

It seems the NRA used to advocate safe and sane gun handling. Now their only interest seems to be to bow to the gun manufacturers and advocate buying guns - more and more, and more, guns. Guns for everyone. Pink guns for girls, fearsome weapons for young men, guns for every occasion.

I posted this on Facebook on April 18, the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco. This is a scan of a very small photo, taken shortly after the earthquake and fire. It is Jersey Street, in San Francisco's Noe Valley, where my grandmother and all her sons were born.

The strange looking things in the street are makeshift kitchens that most people had to set up, as almost everyone's chimney was damaged. It was a good thing people checked - fires from damaged chimneys were responsible for much of the damage following the earthquake.

My grandmother's family was lucky, though - their chimney was NOT damaged.
My great-grandmother ended up cooking for many of the neighbors.

The picture is very rough, as it was printed on heavily textured paper. I'm hoping that some day I might find the original negative so I can get a better scan!

Old photos!

This is a picture from about 1919. I have hundreds of old negatives, and this was one of the negatives I scanned, then cleaned up in Photoshop. I had never seen the picture (though I later actually found an original print in another box of old photos!).

Left to right are my father, his fraternal twin brother, and their older brother. They were born in San Francisco, and moved to Richmond in 1920.

These pictures are too, too cool!

V-O mug

Nick and I found this mug at a thrift store several years ago. We're not sure if it was an advertising piece, a one-off pottery project, or what! Whatever it started as, it sure is TOO TOO COOL!

Jeepers!

My dad gave this little jeep to my mom when he went into the Army in 1941. Fortunately, he kept it out of my reach when I was growing up, so it's still in pretty decent condition!

It measures 4" long, and is stamped tin, with no type of lettering or identification to say who made it.