A New Hot Wheel Decade...1970!!!

This week we're going back to the ol' display case to feature Hot Wheels from 1970! By this time Mattel was the king of die cast cars and they decided to expand their kingdom by including trucks (The Heavyweights) and stock dragsters (Spoilers). Also, they introduced the Hot Wheels Club (because everything is cooler when you're in a club!) complete with chrome cars to go with it! So, let's jump right in to the first groovy eight cars, shall we?

First, we have the Heavyweights Ambulance. I guess Mattel saw how kids played with their cars and they figured this was really needed for those tiny imaginary drivers...

The Boss Hoss Club Car in all of its chrome glory! You could only get a club car by joining the Hot Wheels Club, and you had no way of knowing which car you were going to get! If you wanted a Boss Hoss in 1970, this was the only way to get it. The regular car wasn't offered until 1971.

Although not my favorite, the Carabo was actually pretty cool with its operating gull-wing doors.

The Heavyweights Cement Mixer was exactly that. They didn't go all out on clever names for the Heavyweights for some reason...

The Classic Nomad modeled a 1955 model quite well. It's such a classic car that it seems a little weird that it took Mattel three years to get around to it.

The Demon was modeled after a real show car called the "Lil' Coffin." You could (and I think still can) get a plastic model version of it. I kind of like that name better that "The Demon," but nobody asked me...Hey, I was seven.

One guess as to what this Heavyweights was called. Yep, it's the "Dump Truck." Come on Mattel, you aren't even trying!

The Ferrari 312P in dark blue is actually a handsome car. I have more appreciation for it as an adult than I did as a kid. 

So there are our first eight! Of course there will be more to come, so keep those bell-bottoms handy and we'll see you next time!

And until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Coincidence in Denison

I have shared this story on Facebook before, but I thought I would put it in my blog, so here goes...

A number of years ago I was looking around in an antique mall in Denison when I found this:

It was a little grubby and worn, but it held a very special meaning for me. You see, my family went here! In fact, here we are!

Here are my folks again:

Yep, my dad was the music director, and my mom played the piano! By the way, this is where we lived:

1223 Woodlawn Circle. We were the first family to live in that house. It actually looks pretty much the same as it did when lived there...on the outside anyway. I have a feeling the inside might have been updated over the years. By the way, my phone number isn't HO5-3879 any more...

So, I was pretty excited to find this little item! I didn't notice the coincidence until a little later. You see, Dick and Marian Ringgold and their kids were our next door neighbors and good friends. They also went to church with us. That's why it was a shock to see this on the inside cover:

Yep, Richard T. Ringgold. After about 45 years, the directory found it's next door neighbor. Pretty wild, huh?

They say that once you've lived in Denison, Denison will always remember you. I think this kind of makes that point.

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Bottled History- Part Two

Last week I shared a bottle from my collection from the Waldron Drug Store in Denison, Tx (owned by J. F. Tinsman). Denison historian, Jim Sears, was able to answer many questions about the store and it's owner. Mr. Sears states,

     "When John F. Tinsman bought the Waldron Drug Store in 1906, it was at 223 W. Main Street. He had been working there as a clerk. T. B. Waldron and F. R. Guiteau arrived at the Alamo Hotel from Freeport, Illinois, in February of 1878. The following month they opened the Guiteau & Waldron Drug Store at 309 W. Main. Guiteau sold his interest in the business a few years before Waldron sold out to Tinsman. For more on the store's history:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txgrayso/ANewLand/Towns/Denison/WaldonDrugStore/WaldronDrugStore.html"

He also shared an article that shows that Mr. Tinsman passed away in 1935, and was a illustrious member of the Denison community. Thank you for the help, Jim!

     This week, I have another Denison bottle. Here it is!

The text reads, "Red River Mfg Bottling Denison Tex"

The bottom features a big "R."

I think I picked this one up at Main Street Mall a few years ago. If you're downtown, be sure to drop in and say "hi" to Jay and Cindy!

     Anyway, using Google I found an article from the Herald Democrat about the Red River Bottling Company by Donna Hunt. Here is some of it;

     "The Red River Bottling Works opened in 1901 by Cass Cameron and possibly is the most remembered early day soda company. It was located in a historic site at the northeast corner of East Woodard Street and Houston Avenue. That site later became the location for the Southern Ice Company.

John Clark bought the Red River in the early 19-teen years and moved it into the old City Bottling building at 209 West Woodard. Denison Crystal Ice that owned the entire block of East Woodard, decided to expand operations and needed the Red River building for that project. The old original Red River Bottling building was kept intact with new structures built up around it. That structure survived until 1993 when Ready Ice demolished the old ice company." 

She also stated that the company lasted until 1928, when it merged with other companies to become the Dr. Pepper Bottling Company. 

This fact was actually a little surprising to me, as I thought this bottle was newer than the drug store bottle. As it turns out, they were contemporaries! 

The bottle is a good, heavy example and it sits proudly on my kitchen window sill with the drug store bottle.

So there you go! Denison is always a good place to keep searching for treasure!

Bottled History

Sometimes items that I pick up remain complete mysteries to me, and other times I can (usually by way of Google) actually find some information about them. The item I'm featuring this week falls in the latter category.

A while back I found a bottle online that featured the Waldron Drug Store from Denison, Tx. The owner was a certain "J.F. Tinsman." Here are a couple of pictures...

As it turns out, this was enough information for Google to do it's magic. For example, I know that the store was open in 1906 because of an article explaining how Mr. Tinsman was pushing toothpaste at that point. It was also open in 1911, because that was the year that Tinsman got in a bit of trouble for selling a medicine for purposes that it was not intended for. This was actually pretty common back then, when advertising pushed the envelope on what medicines could actually do... Here are the articles:

So now we know quite a bit more about Mr. Tinsman. However, whenever you find out more answers, you get more questions. For example, we don't know where in Denison the drug store was. We don't really know when it opened or when it closed, or whatever happened to its owner. If anyone knows, feel free to comment!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

A Book of Buildings

Sometimes I find really neat stuff that at first glance seem to be something else. For example, at a church sale I thought I spotted a book about HO scale buildings. However, upon further inspection, it was a book CONTAINING HO scale buildings! Take a look!

The book contains paper models of each of these buildings!

A little more information...

An example of the instructions

The full color buildings are all on heavy card stock.

This book is from 1979. It's cool, but it puts me in a tough spot. You see, I'd love to build these, but I don't want to destroy the book... So it sits on my bookcase. Oh well...maybe I can make copies!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Keeping the Trains Running on Time

Well, I assume the person that owned this item had something to do with keeping those trains rolling on schedule....or maybe not. Anyway, my item for this week comes from my good ol' hometown of Denison, Tx. I'm always on the lookout for Denison related items and railroad related items and this checks both boxes! Here is is:

Now, I don't know who R.A. Douglas is (or was) but apparently he was the assistant auditor for the Katy Railroad! Note that the stamp was actually made in Denison, which means it's even a little cooler.

Now anybody that knows anything about Denison knows that it was born because of the railroads. It was the jumping off point in the trip west, and in it's early days was pretty much the stereotypical wild west town. Heck, even Doc Holliday set up shop there!

The town was born in 1872 when the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad put a depot there. Soon it was overrun with a curious combination of saloons, brothels, and churches. If you are a history buff, Denison has a great story to tell!

Anyway, I have no idea what era my stamp is from, other than it hails from before the late 1980's. It seems fairly new, but it's hard to tell. Anyone with more info is more than welcome to comment and let us know!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

A Reel Deal!

You never know exactly what you'll find at a yard sale. Usually, the stuff is not too wonderful. After all, how many Trivial Pursuit games with pieces missing does one really need? Still, every once in a while you stumble into something like I did this past weekend. You see, for a very low price I picked up these:

Yep, 17 reel to reel tapes of some great music! Phil, the guy I bought them from, said that he joined a Columbia "tape of the month club" back in the early 1970's and he had been dragging them around ever since...even though his TEAC tape machine had long since died and been sold off.

For the young whipper-snappers out there, reel to reel four tracks were the state of the art in musical reproduction in the 1960's and 1970's. The sound quality was actually better than a vinyl LP, and you didn't have any snaps and pops to worry about! They were the king of the home hi-fi until compact discs dethroned them in the early 1980's. However, many folks still think a reel to reel tape sounds better than a CD.

And by the way, I just happen to have this...

...and even though she needs a bit of service (who wouldn't after almost 50 years?) she will soon be up and playing my new fantastic collection!

So if you drive by my house and the windows are rattling a bit, don't worry. I'm just spinning my reels!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!