Design Rocket: Books

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VINTAGE EYEWEAR
Well, you can go get glasses at the local Lenscrafters, OR you can hunt down some spectacular vintage hand cut frames at your local antique shop and have them fitted with your prescription lenses. Or maybe---do both. I have some very normal, "don'-t-cause trouble" frames, and some "in-your-face" frames I like to wear when I am feeling "con cohones" and have had a drink or two. Better to buy "new old stock", if you are going to invest much in the lenses. It is not good to throw money into old frames in bad shape that will fall off your head or lose an arm and need that proverbial piece of masking tape to keep them together. Unless that is the look you crave--the look of half the boys in my nerdy seventh grade class circa 1965. If so, I have an old briefcase and a pocket pen holder I would like to sell you. I'll throw in the slide rule.
Lawn art and ashtrays
Back when guys stayed home more, listened to the radio and do other things at the same time, they probably labored over homemade lawn art, standing ashtray holders, and door stops. Usually they were made out of plywood, then painted. Look for slightly crackled paint. Many of the best of these were old comic strip characters like Jiggs and Maggie, or the ocasional Disney character. Black cats are plentiful. Also Butlers. You do not have to smoke to appreciate them.
old silhouettes
Many of these come from the 20's and 30's. You can often guess the age of the piece by the dress of the person whose portrait it is. Hung together on a wall, they have a wonderful impact.
Old cookbooks by local groups: i.e. Grange cookbooks, church cookbooks, college cookbooks, etc.
Tacky Souvenirs from old site seeing locales

Diner Deluxe Tribute

Are you old enough to remember when most diners consisted of a lot of chrome, had wall box jukebox players at each table, and served cream for coffee in tiny little glass containers instead of plastic ones? Do you have other memories of actual car hops coming out to your car and taking orders for food, and then delivering it on tray that hooked to the car by the driver's window? Have you ever had a hamburger, fries and a coke for $.50? Oh good! You are a kindred spirit!

I have strong memories of diners and car hop places going way back to the fifties. For years I could not hear a doo-wap song on the radio without seeing myself sitting in a diner booth. I have always loved diners, their aesthetic and their ambience.

Somewhere around 1979 0r 1980 I purchased this book.

Oh, good! I thought Someone else loves diners and appreciates them.

Little did I know then that I would actually get to know Richard Gutman when our children were at the same school in the 1990s! Here is a nice article about him. I mentioned that I had the book and he told me even THEN it was already a collectible. I subsequently bought this book:

And, to be honest, many others, all with picture of diners that brought back find memories for me.

Since then, some years have passed. I have a book of my own in progress and I continue to seek out as many authentic period diners as humanly possible to enjoy a nice burger in. I also bought one of these, by Jerry Berta:

Until my own book comes out, I have my own little tribute available now: my latest fabric collection! Check it out and look for it at your favorite quilting fabric stores on line and in person.