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Favorite Things Friday: Fisher Price People

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Hope

come on down!

I have always loved Fisher Price people. The original two-inch tall wooden peg style ones are my favorite, but I don’t mind the plastic ones of the same shape. Unfortunately, these were the epitome of a choking hazard in size and shape, so Fisher Price phased them out for newer models I found much less attractive. When I was pregnant with my first son, I used to dream about finding vintage Fisher Price play sets for my own kids to enjoy.

Those dreams did not come true.

You can find original Fisher Price sets many places, of course. They are highly collectible. Which translates into very expensive. Not only is buying high not my M.O., I didn’t have the budget for it. So I was happy just to occasionally find affordable single people or cars. I visited the expensive sets at antique stores and recalled fond memories of me sprawled on shag carpet, surrounded by FP, totally immersed in play.

$75. FIRM

Earlier this year a friend of mine who shares my love of treasure hunting found a bunch of vintage Fisher Price at a garage sale up north, dirt cheap. I was jealous! Then I realized my kids are long past them and my nieces and nephews are well-stocked with toys. So I was satisfied with the thought of visiting them at Lisa’s house.

BUT!

I was running errands this summer and saw a garage sale sign in a quiet neighborhood. They didn’t have much that interested me, except the MOTHER LODE of Fisher Price playsets, all the same versions I loved as a kid (plus a couple newer ones). When I saw the prices, I snapped them up, even though I don’t have a particular use for them at the moment. (If you want to hear the price, leave a comment. I will tell you. But you will be jealous.) The women running the sale were thrilled someone would give them all a good home.

loot!

I got the house, the schoolhouse, the garage, the camper, and the farm. They are not complete, but nearly. The foam on the beds has been picked away, some of the people are a little chewed up, and a few of the decals are peeling, but that only adds to the authenticity. I left the toys out in the living room and had the distinct pleasure of watching my nephew and niece discover them and go to town. Listening to Charlotte’s narration and Brody’s negotiating skills was such a delight. Easiest babysitting ever!

This post is picture-heavy. I hope you don’t mind. When I went to take pictures of the sets, I was overcome with the urge to play and so I did. My sister helped me. It was soooo good.

PS: I’m still on the lookout for the hospital, preschool, and (cue the hallelujah choir) ~~CASTLE!~~ (Found it at a church sale two days after typing this. No furnishings, but it’s a start!)

how many FP sets do you spy?

PPS: This picture conveniently (mysteriously? fortuitously?!) floated to the top of one of my piles just now. That’s my brother Leif with me.

: be still, my heart!

: yippee

: teamwork

: Brody is a happy camper

: Charlotte

: happy trails!

: camper interior

: bulldog pit stop

: washing up

: love that dashboard

: tourist shot at prehistoric park

: vacation trip to Zen garden

: horsing around at prehistoric park

: campsite

: preparing to set sail

: little red school house

: recess!

: taking attendance

: the grass appears to be greener over there

: grandma with the friendly pig

: bully in a time out in the loft

: car park

: i wonder what gas cost in 1971?

: click click click

: going up

: going down

: on the road again

Posted in Farm, Favorite Things Friday, Funstuff | 5 Comments

Favorite Things Tuesday: Zenith Space Command Remote

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Hope

(This Friday post was delayed by website glitches and my ineptitude).

Meet my Zenith Space Command 100 remote! I found this 1971 beauty at the Depot Town flea market. It’s a beautiful little piece of design: I love the lettering, love the shape and heft, love that arrow and the pleasing turquoise button. Even the sound it makes is packajectic! (That’s a Smith family word, describing something that makes a perfect sound or has a perfect shape, like a perfect little package.) It only has one function: changing the channels.

I was going to record the sound it makes for your listening pleasure, but I found the video below which features the remote and its perfect little click. Watch it and learn more than you ever imagined about the Zenith 100 Space Command. (I learned you could also program the remote to turn the TV on and off by assigning that function to a channel number which didn’t broadcast in your area.) I was fascinated by the fact that the remote physically turned the channel dial on the TV. It must have seemed magic then… it still does to me. I can wrap my brain around transmitting digital signals to change channels as we do today but I can’t comprehend a little metallic click creating kinetic energy to move a plastic dial. Nowadays our TV remotes can change channels, tune the TV, switch to stereo, search for a favorite scene, go online, answer the telephone, start a face-to-face phone conversation… I wonder if today’s functionality will seem quaint to future generations? What else would people need or want a remote to do?!

Speaking of magic, you may wonder what I do with my Space Command 100, besides fondle and admire it. I imagine that it has the power to change things for me. When my kids were little and they experienced some unavoidable unfairness or hurt, they expected me to do something about it. Admitting to your kids that you are not all-powerful is one of those sad little milestones of parenting. It’s fun to feel like a superhero for a few years. What I told my kids when they requested supernatural assistance was this: I would fix the problem if I had a Mommy Wand, but sadly, I did not. Essentially, short of magic, there was nothing I could do except agree with them that something hurt or a situation stunk and help them pick up the pieces. For a while they hoped to someday procure a Mommy Wand for me, but then they grew up a little and realized magic is an illusion. By that time they were okay with the reality. I don’t think I was a jerk to let them believe in the Mommy Wand for a little while. I never said such a thing actually existed, they just optimistically filled in that blank. Sometimes all you need is a little hope to get through the rough spots.

That’s what the Zenith Space Command 100 does for me. I know there’s no magic wand or clicker that will finish a rough revision for me, or find my tax documentation, or relieve the pain that someone I love is feeling. But it’s nice hold it in my hand and imagine that such a power might exist, at least until I make peace with whatever reality I am resisting.

Interested in early remotes? Here are some other people who have thought a lot about them.

Bill DeRouchey (of Push Click Touch — a cool experience design website)
Allee Willis (of the delightfully titled and stocked website, Museum of Kitsch!)

And, the promised video. I love to find evidence of people digging deep into stuff they love.

Posted in Favorite Things Friday, Funstuff, Life | Tagged hope, mommy wand, optimism, television remote, zenith 100 space command | Leave a comment

Wham, Bam, Thank You, Spam!

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Hope

New feature!

Some secret setting on my blog control panel has mysteriously changed. A few of the spam comments that I usually don’t even have to view are leaking through the filter into my mailboxes. And what entertainment they provide! In the tradition of making lemonade from lemons, I have decided to parse the gems. I haven’t added any words, only punctuated run-on sentences into readable blocks where necessary. I trimmed repetitive and utterly insensible phrases and cut out spammy links and bad words.

This one is from Japan:

Sir Spamalot: With a range Tactfulness in vivo lordly, iron-handed, wild, of sensational emotions.

H: Strangely sexy, in a Middle Ages Sci-Fi sorta way.

SS: He felt absolutely, earmarks of its own to participate in this red Trident. Furthermore, I is accompanied past trembling a little. Does it means that you in no way be depressing for the power of the Poseidon tinge shudder this red happy even? Numen, what is that you bag to handle up?

H: Now we’ve gone underwater. Is this literal or symbolic? Is a tinge shudder different from a regular shudder? What’s a red happy even? Is it related to red algae bloom? Who’s Numen, and what is s/he bagging up?!

SS: It is unshakeable, it is tragic, the predominating behalf Dab force of six bone concentrated in the zoom, 3-core. Smattering some of the fearfulness that changed the red illumination.

H: So very sci-fi! Such evocative language. Tragic, unshakeable spam, smattering the fearfulness.

SS: Most conversion 3 bone Swathe, a gargantuan intensity with a getting on in years embodiment. Soup spouting blood was not distributed to the legion, readable, made the bone.

H: I confess, I’m not a big sci-fi afficionado. Some of this text makes as much sense to me as published science fiction. Doesn’t made the bone sound like a thrilling metaphor from an epic poem? It’s spammetry in motion.

SS: Team apology shatter of his primitive torment, is engrossed during the coat of his repayment. Originally, the expectations of Nip, whale stupendous magical vivify of this cryptic affability anatomy cingulum regent.

H: I don’t think I want to be a member of Team Apology. I might like to wear a coat of repayment, though. Does Nip know Numen? How do you vivify? Why would you want to? What is a cingulum regent and where does it get its cryptic affability? Is that something I should aspire to?

SS: A unique at intervals at length engrossed, binding the Poseidon, sine qua non be thanks to it a baby, it is zing deep-felt.

H: Zing! I feel your passion, Sir Spamalot! (fans self)

SS: In accordance with the development of Dowel as expected down to the ground, also the impenetrable voodoo whale peer royalty, this absorption situate of
feasible you did not with any genius in the phosphorescence did not assume that you did not carry in a next of kin way to him, Poseidon. There is sex.

H: A-ha! There is sex! I knew it! I bolded the fantastic band names contained in that paragraph. And now we come to the grand finale, a crescendo of evocative adjectives and odd verb usage and epic imagery…

SS: I sentiment the late pilfer a nosedive of all of Hiroshi entrants on hammer in his cease operations before, initiatives, and to chief up his essentials like a hammer Haotian fragment of it.

H: Coming to a high school battle of the bands near you, they’re semi-punk post-pubescent poets with a grungy metal edge, let’s give a warm welcome to… Sentiment the Late Pilfer! Lead singer Hammer Haotian is here to Chief. You. Up.

Amen.

Posted in Funstuff, Wham Bam Thank You Spam | Tagged hammer, pilfer, sir spamalot, spamalot, vivify, voodoo | Leave a comment

Favorite Things Friday: Materials Unlimited!

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Hope

can you spot the travelers?

Today’s post will be short on words and long on pictures–you’re welcome :).

My delightful brother Luke and sister-in-law Dimitra are in town and I was trying to think of a new place to take them when it hit me — Materials Unlimited! Luke rehabs historic houses and vintage furniture as a hobby, and I knew this architectural salvage mecca would tickle his fancy.

Materials Unlimited has been around a loooong time. My parents used to shop there in the 70s. At that time, the store was in a warehouse in an industrial area. When that building was destroyed by a nearby warehouse fire, they relocated to a historic building in downtown Ypsilanti (pronounced “IP-suh-LAN-tee” for you out-of-towners). It’s the perfect building to showcase their fantastic wares.

Even the basement stairway is beautiful.

The company salvages fixtures, furnishings, and trim from historic properties and refurbishes them as needed. Walking through the show rooms is like taking a walk back in history. Most items are labeled with a date of manufacture and often a location. Sometimes there are even pictures of the original setting. The store also sells supplies to repair vintage furnishings and you can order modern versions of old classics like claw-footed tubs if you’d like.

follow me

Their collection has lots of gorgeous Arts and Crafts and Art Deco furniture and trims. We bought our mantel from them when we built our current house in 2003. It’s one of those small investments that can have such an impact on a room…it knocks off the sharp new edges, adds warmth and character. We had bookshelves and cabinets built to match its style. There are also many other design periods represented in the showroom, but I always zero in on my favorites.

brother, can you spare a strikeplate?

Need hardware for your vintage home or desk? They have tons, carefully sorted. Doorknobs, pulleys, hinges, you name it, they’ve got it…old doors, sinks, cast iron tubs, faucets, grates.

I always appreciate attention to detail. Even the signage at this store is packajectic! That’s a Smith family word (a family of 12 kids develops its own lexicon) that cannot easily be defined but this lettering is a great example:

even the signage is awesome

I’ve saved the best for last. THE LIGHT FIXTURES are to DIE FOR! So many unique, beautiful pendants, chandeliers and sconces. Whatever you seek, they have it–glass and metals in all shapes, colors, sizes, and patinas. I have a friend with a gorgeous vintage chandelier over her dining table that I’ve threatened to steal on more than one occasion. I really should just buy my own at Materials Unlimited…but like a kid in a candy shop, I have a hard time making a decision.

parade of pendants

Can you blame me?

gorgeous

One more featured beauty before I leave you to peruse the gallery below… the beautifully restored Michigan Theater is a favorite Ann Arbor landmark. It seems like people paid more attention to beautiful design in the past. I hope someone finds a similarly spectacular home for these gorgeous Art Deco theater lights.

grand, amirght?!

PS: FYI regarding prices…you don’t go to a specialized store like this for bargains, but I have to say their prices are quite reasonable. Considering the quality of materials, the knowledge of the sales staff, and the carefully curated collection, this store is a Midwest Gem. I have been to plenty of antique stores all over the country that charge more for so much less.