Author Archives: Pistol Pete

While perusing Facebook last night I came across a page devoted to the photographic history of my town. Some of the things were way before my time, but there were a lot of memories. Here is the opening of a website about our town:

Knowing the history of the city lets you know its character, and the character of the people that make it up. The history of Rockford, Illinois is quite interesting. This mid-sized city in northern Illinois turned 150 years old in 2002. The city was founded in 1834 and called the “Village of Midway” initially. This is because it was located at the midway point between Chicago and Galena. This name stuck around until 1837 when it was officially changed to Rockford because of its location on the Rock River. This name was chosen because of the good “ford” on the Rock River. A ford is a naturally occurring low water area in a river, allowing people to walk or drive across without a bridge.

Rockford is located 70 miles northwest of Chicago, just south of the Wisconsin state line. It was at one time the machine tool capitol of the country. Camp Grant was an Army training facility located at the Rockford Airport, which was renamed the Rockford-O’Hare airport after UPS built a huge distribution center there. When the Concorde first flew, it landed here because O’Hare didn’t have a long enough runway for it to land.

As with most towns,the downtown was the heart of the city. There were 5 movie theaters, businesses and recreational facilities, like a bowling alley/pool hall and a roller skating rink where the family could go. We have a landmark movie theater named the Coronado, which I’ll post about at another time, given I don’t want to use up a lot of space.

We are not without our celebrities, like Perry Mason co-star Barbara Hale, Olympic skaterJanet Lynn, the Rockford Peaches baseball team, and our hometown heroes, Cheap Trick. I thought maybe somebody would enjoy something that wasn’t a political rant. You can get those anywhere. Bear with me, I’ll try to do some regular stuff after my Thursday breakfast meeting with my kin.

THESE ARE THE ROCKFORD PEACHES AT BEYER STADIUM,IN 1950. WE PLAYED OUR HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAMES ON THAT FIELD UNTIL THE CITY BUILT A STADIUM ON OUR SIDE OF TOWN IN THE LATE 70’S.

THIS BRICK ARCHWAY WHERE THE TURNSTYLE WAS IS ALL THAT’S LEFT OF THE OLD STADIUM

THIS IS WHERE I HAD MY FIRST HOURLY-PAYING JOB IN 1965. HAMBURGERS WERE 12 CENTS, CHEESEBURGERS 15, AND HAND-CUT FRENCH FRIES AND MILKSHAKES .20. STANDING OVER A FLAT IRON GRILL IN THE DEAD OF SUMMER WAS NO FUN, BUT IT DIDN’T KILL ME, SO IT MUST HAVE MADE ME STRONGER.

THEY WERE CALLED ROOT BEER STANDS BACK THEN. THIS ONE WAS BUILT NEAR HARLEM HIGH SCHOOL, HOME OF THE HARLEM HUSKIES. MY WIFE IS A HARLEM ALUM. SHE SAID SHE SPENT MANY A MUGGY SUMMER NIGHT HANGING OUT HERE, QUAFFING ROOT BEERS, FRIES AND GOSSIPING WITH HER GIRLFRIENDS. WE KNEW HOW TO HAVE FUN>

THIS WAS THE DRIVE-IN THEATER ON THE WEST EDGE OF TOWN. IT WAS WHERE WE ALWAYS WENT. WE POPPED CORN AT HOME, TOOK SODA IN A COOLER, AND DRESSED IN OUR PAJAMAS BECAUSE HALFWAY THROUGH THE FIRST FEATURE WE WERE ZONKED OUT IN THE BACK OF THE STATION WAGON. I EVEN HAD MY FIRST CAR DATE HERE. IT STOOD UNTIL THE 80’S WHEN A BAD WINDSTORM BLEW DOWN THE SCREEN. IT WAS NEVER REBUILT. IT NOW HAS SELF-STORAGE UNITS ON THE GROUNDS.

THIS HAD TO BE ABOUT 1974-75. DW WENT TO SCHOOL WITH THE DRUMMER,BUN E. CARLOS (BRAD CARLSON) AND RICK NEILSEN’S DAD RALPH OWNED THE BIGGEST MUSIC STORE IN TOWN. BY THE TIME HE FINISHED HIGH SCHOOL, RICK COULD PLAY MORE THAN 20 INSTRUMENTS AND WAS ALREADY DESIGNING HIS OWN GUITARS, AS HE STILL DOES. I HAD A MUSIC THEORY CLASS WITH HIM AT OUR COMMUNITY COLLEGE. I WORKED MY BUTT OFF FOR A ‘C.’ HE SHOWED UP FOR ABOUT TWO CLASSES AND ACED IT. GO FIGURE. CAN YOU IMAGINE SEEING ALL THESE BANDS FOR TWELVE BUCKS?

THESE WERE SOLDIERS TRAINING FOR WAR AT CAMP GRANT

THERE WAS AN AMUSEMENT PARK CALLED KIDDIELAND. EVERY TIME A KID WENT BY IT THE WHINING WOULD START. I THINK WE WENT TWICE OUR WHOLE ADOLESCENT LIVES. IT HAD A TRAIN, A ROLLER COASTER CALLED ‘THE LITTLE DIPPER’, A PONY RING AND BOATS THAT WENT AROUND IN A RING OF WATER. IT WAS MAGICAL.

EVERY CHANCE I GOT I HEADED FOR THE RECORD STORE TO BUY THE LATEST 45s FOR 1.49. IN THE PICTURE YOU CAN SEE THE PALACE SHOE REPAIR. OUR FIRST DRUMMER WAS THE NEPHEW OF THE OWNER. HE WORKED SATURDAYS SHINING SHOES. THE GUITAR PLAYER,BASS PLAYER AND I WOULD GO IN AND MAKE HIM SHINE OUR SHOES FOR FIFTY CENTS. HE GOT EVEN BY STOPPING PLAYING IN THE MIDDLE OF A SONG. IT WAS WORTH IT.

I WAS THERE! JULY 27TH,1980. JUST ME AND ABOUT30,000 OTHER PEOPLE AT THE ROCKFORD SPEEDWAY. THIS WAS BEFORE ANN WILSON BLEW UP TO 200 POUNDS. IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST CONCERTS I EVER SAW

This is not your grandkids’ website.

There’s a Cecil the Lion Beanie Baby now
Plush toy manufacturer Ty Inc. announced Monday that it’s making a Beanie Baby to commemorate Cecil the Lion, a Southwest African Lion killed last month by American tourist Walter Palmer.

The company says it will donate all profits from the new toy to the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit of University of Oxford, the organization that had been tracking Cecil since 2008.

http://fortune.com/2015/08/03/cecil-lion-beanie-baby/

WHAT DO BEANIE BABIES HAVE TO DO WITH VINTAGE TOYS? SO GLAD YOU ASKED.

First,there are two basic determining factors that affect the desirability of any collectible….condition and rarity.
How hard is it to find?
What condition is it in?
This applies to any collectible from stamps and coins to antique cars.

About 20 years ago my wife suggested I start collecting something. At a big flea market held bi-annually at our county fairgrounds I came across a dealer who had some old cap pistols on his table. There was a mattel Fanner 50, just like the one my mom bought me for my 10th birthday in 1960. I bought it and I was hooked. The hobby became an obsession. The internet was in its infancy in the early nineties and the joy was in going to auctions, flea markets and estate sales looking for treasures.
There was a paper that was published every two weeks called The Toy Shop, which had ads for people selling toys and looking to buy certain items. I met some of the biggest toy dealers in the country that way.
There was a very large toy show held twice a year in St. Charles, Illinois, just west of Chicago. Dealers came from all over the country back then.
Of the scores of toy shows, flea markets, and antique shows, I can’t remember a time when somebody didn’t come into my booth, pick up a tin toy, cap gun or old pressed steel dump truck and say ‘I had one of these when I was a kid.’
Therein lies the inherent value of old toys. People equate them to a happier past and the good times they had. Somebody would pick up an item and look at the price tag and lament: if they’d only known. The boxes, some now more valuable than the toy that came in them, went out with the wrapping paper the day after Christmas. Alas, the collectibles market has been saturated with the advent of e-bay. I bought and sold thousands of items through that site. Sadly, there’s not much challenge to finding anything you want anymore. You can’t even find a good deal at auctions because you don’t need any knowledge anymore. Everybody has smart phones they frantically tap on, looking up prices of things.

OK, the beanies….
Most dealers I knew were in agreement that Beanie Babies would be a fairly short-lived fad. People used up their savings, took out second mortgages, and went through Junior’s college fund to buy cases of these things, envisioning great wealth. Trouble was, kids didn’t play with them. It was driven by adults speculating that they would go up in value. Like a Ponzi scheme, the ones who got in early made out OK, but after a while they devalued to junk status. Now you can find them at garage sales for .50 or a dollar.
Remember condition and rarity? There is one beanie, the holy grail of beanie collecting: the 1st issue of the Princess Di bear, which came out right after hr death.

You might want to see if you have one of these; in mint condition the value is somewhere between $100-150,000 (if you can find somebody to pay that much).

WHY IS THIS CLOWN BORING US WITH THIS CRAP?
Because I can.

Last weekend, more than a thousand vintage Barbie collectors came to DC for their annual convention
Welcome to Barbie world: More than 1,000 fans turn out for National Barbie Doll Collectors Convention in Washington DC
National Barbie Doll Collectors Convention 2015 taking place in Arlington
Thousands of plastic dolls sold and Barbie Broadway play auditions held
First Barbie doll released in 1959 and she has had 150 career guises
THE FIRST SIX BARBIES WERE ALL HAND-PAINTED, WITH #1 AND 2 IN JAPAN. THESE ARE SOME OF THE VINTAGE DOLLS.
THEY CAME WITH TWO HAIR STYLES, PONYTAIL AND SHORT-HAIRED, REFERRED TO AS A BUBBLE CUT. THE HAIR WAS BLONDE, BRUNETTE, BLACK, OR TITIAN.
IF YOU CAN READ THE PRICE STICKERS, IN A REPRO BOX THEY’RE WORTH $150-200. WITH THE ORIGINAL BOX AND ACCESSORIES, EVEN MORE. ALL THE ORIGINALS CAME WITH THE BLACK AND WHITE SWIMSUITS.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3181135/Barbie-Doll-Collectors-Convention-Washington-DC-attracts-1-000-fans.html#ixzz3hxO6lyO3

HASBRO INTRODUCED G.I. JOE IN 1959.
HE WAS NOT A DOLL, HE WAS AN ACTION FIGURE!
The original Joes had painted hair. Collectors referred to them as ‘painted heads.’ They came out in 1964.
In 1971, they came out withe these; it was the Adventure Team Joe, and were referred to as ‘fuzz heads’ because of the flocking. The commander figures had talk boxes attached by a string to the plastic dog tag they came with. The basic figure today can be had in decent shape for $30-40. It’s the outfits and accessories that get pricey.
This concludes todays lesson.

This is the regular post, but I wanted to take a minute to thank our friend Mindful for the comment he made yesterday. He said that for a time he was a comic book critic. That brought back memories of hopping on my J. C. Higgins bicycle and riding off to the nearby drug store. As you walked in the door the first thing you saw was the comic book rack. The high point of the month was when the newest comics came out. I’d take a dollar and buy 4 or 5  10-cent comics, a 10-cent bottle of Nehi strawberry soda and a bag of penny candy. Then it was off to find a shady spot to read, drink, and sink into a sugar-induced coma.

When I started school we had something called phonics, which was a method of learning to read by learning the sounds each letter made then sounding words out. I was a champion speller and was reading at 9th grade levels when I was 8 years old. About that age my interests ran toward books like these:

I also favored Woody Woodpecker and had a really bad crush on Betty from the Archie scribes.

Then I got into (what else) western comics (Granny always called them funny books).

Then I matured and started collecting Marvel comics.

For reasons I can’t justify, my favorite was Sgt. Fury and The Howling Commandos. I had the entire series from issue #1 to the last issue, all numnbered in sequence and boxed. After I went off to college, Granny took some of the hundreds of books I had and gave them to the local barber shop to be destroyed by rowdy juveniles and the rest she simply threw away. I really wsh she hadn’t. I got this scan off e-bay of issue #40,the seller is asking $140.00.

I bought comics as the price went from a dime to 12 cents, to 15 cents. When they reached 25 cents they became too expensive for me. Now they’re a couple dollars for 8 pages of artwork and 14 pages of advertising.

Still and all, it was great fun remembering when my biggest concern was what comics my friends would have to trade. That’s how we rolled back then.