March 8, 1974, Twin City News-RecordI'm in that auditorium somewhere during this event and I recall the trip to Milwaukee only too well. And despite the hoopla surrounding the whole "going to State" circumstance and the fact that our high school just had its first winning record in 13 years, the whole experience transcended the game itself. It was so exciting. I don't want this to come across like a "Wonder Years" rerun, but suffice it to say, it was a special time.
February 3, 1959, Appleton Post-Crescent
I missed this anniversary in February; I think I was concentrating on getting the blog going again the week after it, due to my recent eye surgery, but leave it to me to provide this a month or so later (better late than never). It's not often that most of us have a brush with history, even of the tragic kind. I'm sure many Menasha rock and roll fans had looked forward to seeing Buddy Holly and the others at the Cinderella, but it was not to be. One has to wonder if things might have been different if they'd gone ahead with their schedule and ventured down to Appleton to play instead of heading for Fargo after the Green Bay date.
March 9, 1965, Appleton Post-Crescent
Now available at Gibson's on Main Street. I was all prepared to tell you about this little number until I caught wind of the full ad with text the Gibson Company failed to include (see below). I was confused for awhile because the Wildcat was a Buick model in the 1960's, but the ad copy tells me that this LeSabre had a Wildcat V-8 engine, so that explains the tag line.
March 9, 1965, Twin City News-Record
In the doldrums of Winter, when Spring is just around the corner (we hope), we always look for a diversion to help get us through the season. For the local outdoorsman, this is it! A movie trip to the Arctic to hunt moose and bear, fish in pristine streams, and experience the outdoors in ways we cannot imagine, at least in our imaginations. Travelogues and other pictures like this are always a good bet for niche audiences and this one fit the bill perfectly.
March 7, 1958, Appleton Post-Crescent
Seeing as how yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, my eye was, naturally, drawn to this ad. Perhaps this offer was at odds with the whole idea and the "Lenten Special" was really a tongue-in-cheek dig at the custom, who knows. Still, I found it a refreshing respite from the usual 1950s take on starchy, serious public mores for its time.
Back when televisions were real pieces of furniture, this beauty sold at Drucks for $289. In 1958 dollars the price would have been $2,615.25 today, according to one inflation calculator I found. But fear not, for state of the art fine tuning was just around the corner with the remote that allowed you to not have to get up to change the channel among other things! Such luxury my boyhood psyche could not imagine! It would be many, many years before anything so fine crossed my childhood threshold, let alone a color set. In the meantime, I'd have to satisfy my television hunger with simple black and white viewing of my favorite cartoons. And making a groove in the carpeting between the easy chair and the TV set, in order to change the channel.
