Estate Sale finds & other assorted relics

 

Been almost 2 years since I posted here. Good times & bad, sickness & struggle, triumphs and life's tragedies.

I did manage to hit a few estate sales recently. Picked up a few gems...

1st up a room key & fob from the defunct Dearborn Hyatt Regency Hotel. 

I'm not the type to go for "fake nostalgia"...how people pine away for olden days they weren't there to remember or experience baffles me. And bores me.

My Gramps worked on this hotel back in the 1970's....halcyon days. That hotel aways makes me think of him.

I came across the Wayne Creamery milk  bottle at an estate sale that had hundreds of bottles. Is it from the Wayne Eloise Hospital? Don't know, won't waste my time wondering. Was the best looking bottle they had.

Everybody loved Kmart. A Detroit original. Old peanut jar...pre barcode. Great shape, too.

If you were alive in the Detroit metro area during the 60's to the 80's you probably knew who Ollie Fretter was. 

In the days before Corporate America and the "McDonaldization of America" ran the "Mom & Pop" stores out of business, local small businesses thrived.

Ollie was a local appliances merchant. He had crazy commercials on local TV. His slogan "I'll give you 5 lbs of coffee if I can't beat your best deal" made him a local celeb. I'd never actually seen a can of "his" coffee...or even imagined that such a thing existed. But here we are. Really...a local treasure.

The obligatory Velvet Peanut Butter jar? Of course I picked one up. I remember when "Crunchy" peanut butter came along...but who knew that Velvet had "Super Crunchy"?!? Anywho...here ya go.

  But...is it the right lid for the jar? Is it period correct?!? Does it really matter in the Grand Scheme of the Universe? 

"Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect".  Exactly, exactly. 

And that's all we have time for today...

Velvet Peanut Butter & Pin up gurls! The kitschy advertising art of Gil Elvgren

 

Picked this relic a while back...guessing from the late 1940's/early 1950's. Pin up girl art was the rage and Gil Elvgren was the man for the job. 

Just your standard cheese cake gurly paintings...with a bit of ol' Detroit throw in for good measure. 

The last "sassy Lassy" has the Velvet Peanut Butter logo on Santa's bag 'o goodies! Obliviously a bit of frivolous advertising for around the shop or office back in the "mad men" era.

Just more rare DETROIT & VELVET artifacts....I know....youse welcome.

A Cornucopia of Heirlooms & Hogwash

Don't call it a comeback....well, a long absence certainly. Not like I haven't been both "...a pickin' and a grinnin'" in the last year or so...
Here's a look at a few things I've picked up since I last checked in here....enjoy....or weep...you martyr you!

Yeah....that's just the tip of the 'ol iceberg. I've neither the time or inclination to post more. Just time for more "winning".
EXCELSIOR!

Frozen in Time: Velvet Freezer jars from Yesteryear

Greetings and salutations true believers! More useless junk of a bygone age, pulled from the maw of the scrapheap!
4 Detroit's own Velvet Peanut Butter jars, 3 of the Freezer variety plus one 3 lb Crunchy jar.
Hit an estate sale a couple of weeks back....tons of toys & clothes & dolls and such. Nothing I'm ever interested in. Off to the garage.....and behold! A plethora of aged junk just waiting to be tossed into the trash.
Being that I've got a reputation to uphold as a 1st class Nemesis....I jumped right into the fray and salvaged the only jars with paper labels intact. The 3-4 others without? Banished to the Fist of Doom....or some such forgotten nonsense!

Yes indeedy, these 4 have the labels & lids to match! Sparkling like the Sun of the effervescent 1960's!

2 with the latter day font & no 3 kids on the label...These 2 still bare the Detroit address of production.

This jar has the 3 Norberts....and the Livonia, Mi address, making it the youngest of the bunch.

And them there's this old salty dog! Older style font.....possibly early 1960's?!?

And on the back of said jar....the ultra rare ***2nd label***.....I ""know"" of another jar with a back label....but finding them is a rarity like spotting the legendary Dog-man or Bigfoot!

Detroit Rarities: More Wonders from Yesteryear

"I know this guy..." Don't we all? Well, you should. I know this guy that deals in all sorts of "Odds & Sods"...mostly the flotsam & jetsam of the past. The good stuff. The stuff you don't seem to find at either the estate or garage sale. I don't often get the chance to catch up with "the Guy", but it always pays off when I do.
1st up....the "Liar's License"....

As you can see....you can fill in the date yourself...starting with 1890....an old piece for certain. 
M. B. Curtis was an actor & self made man. Hopefully he found the humor in this "license"....
Next, a J.L. Hudson's plastic "Charge Plate" in store credit card

Plastic case with "Hudson's Detroit"....and the tin "card" belonging to somebody from A2.
 Next....and Vintage Channel 50 Sgt Sacto autographed card

For those of us too young to remember a mid-1960's kid show host....it's Sgt Sacto aka Detroit radio DJ Tom Ryan. Better known to genX viewers in Detroit as Count Scary! One of my best college friends Mother was his childhood neighbor! Harkens back to the glory day of Channel 50!
and lastly...a vintage bit of Coca-Cola advertising 

A cardboard Santa Claus toy....toss the circle onto Santa's manly mustache. If you can find one of these the mustache is usually broken off!

Made to be given out as gifts around the holidays.....

Santa has brilliant color and is virtually spotless!
My source has set me up with some other impossible to find artifacts....truly "one-of-a-kind"....but that'll be for another day...perhaps, if I'm ever so inclined....