June 4, 2005
This morning I started in on several art pieces for the Blaze Away poster, utilizing a yellow-sepia color scheme Struggling (what else is new?) Need more courage. Bolder, faster, more direct.

Joined Kathy at nine and took a truckload of glass, paper and plastic up to recycling. Also took along Buddy for a vet check and he put his big slobbery face on my shoulder and stuck his ample ass in Kathy’s face. Wouldn’t straighten out in the seat (the Ranger has a very small cab). Fortunately he didn’t pass any gas, although I was secretly hoping he would.

At three Kathy and I went over to Mother Radina's for an early dinner. We stopped at Safeway and got groceries (saw True West for the first time in there. Thanks Dick Glassman!) I made tacos and guacamole salsa and we drank beers and solved life. After dinner, the girls played cards and I looked at a 1963 Fall and Winter Sears catalogue that Betty picked up at a yard sale. Besides the hilarious B-52 hairdos and bizarre fashions (I can't believe we wore some of that stuff, or thought it was stoked), I was struck with the many items that were mainstays at the time but today are gone, with entire industries out of business. Granted, it has been forty years, but it was a sobering insight into the brutal nature of business trends. For example:

• The Tower Typewriter ( typical price, $164.95, two pages worth) History.

• The Adding Machine ($99.95, one page worth). History.

• The Tower Mimeograph machine ($149.95, one page worth). History

• Self-threading Automatic 8mm Home Projector Outfit ($159.88, eight pages worth!). History

• Robert’s Stereophonic Tape Recorder ($369.95). History

• Stereo Console Phonograph ($287.95). History

• Triple bunk beds ($67.95). History?

• Women’s Pheasant Cloched hats and Mink Pillbox hats. History

• Men’s hats (The Tapered Telescope and the New Swagger Style, $5.74) History (at least in Sears)


• Pocket watches. History.

• Bra Slips. History (and by the way, illustrations of products and models is also history)

• Full Cut Bloomers! History

• Slipper socks ($2.84 a pair) History

• Imported Capeskin Gloves (two pages). History

On the other hand, some merchandise still thrives and survives:

• Controlled massagers (vibrators, $7.50)

• Tot Guard Car Seats ($6.49).

• Nylon Tires ($16.85 each—I’m not making this up!)

• Mo-ped motorbike ($199.95)

• Allstate Scooter ($269.95)

• A V-8 Rebuilt engine ($299.00)

• U.S. Savings Bonds (one page)

Other things, like Stationary bikes, home intercom units, encyclopedia sets, table radios, towel poles, stretch pants, “fancy knee-high socks”, long-leg panties (front paneled for tummy control), cossack boots and panel dividers are on the bubble, still going strong or have morphed into entirely new industries. Amazing.

And, of course, it makes me think about what will disappear in forty years hence from our little world. My predictions:

• External hard drives

• 62” HD Ready DLP TVs

• Home phones

• Google type search engines (or the need for them)

• Wireless-G Broadband Routers

• Cordless phones

• iPods

• Cusinarts

• NBA tatttoos and couladts

Of course, I could be wrong, but that's my best guess.

"The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory."
—Paul Fix

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