Not My Victrola

A jazzy number recorded in 1923.

Poets' Corner

pete s holiday

we found a hill all green with grass
and cool with clover bloom
where bees go booming as they pass
boom zoom boom

my master took me in the car
and high upon the hill
we lay and stared up at the clouds
until the day grew chill
and moths came floating from the sky
and shadows stroked the ground
and we lay still and stared and stared
and what do you think we found

we found a star between the clouds
upon the edge of night
but when i jumped and barked at it
it hid itself in fright

then we drove back to town again
with my head on his lap
it tires a dog to scare a star
and then he needs a nap

my master is the same as god
when he thumps with his hand
people bring us hamburg steaks
at any eating stand

o master let us go right now
and find another star
and eat another hamburg steak
at a refreshment bar

pete the pup

From: the lives & times of archy and mehitabel by don marquis doubleday & doran

Not My Victrola

Here is another treat from our You Tube friend Rolf. If you go to the video's comments you will see some discussion about the speed at which this piece is played. It is a great performance regardless of the speed, and it was recorded in 1926! I am sure you will enjoy it.

Weekend Steam

This weekend's featured steam photo is from the July-August 1968 Iron Men Album. This is a Best engine, and the photo was given to The Iron Men-Album by Robert Culshaw, Advertising Division, Caterpillar Tractor Co, Peoria, IL.

Below is a video from You Tube of a Best engine under steam.

Crankin' It Up

You will notice that Uncle Josh Buys an Automobile is another well worn veteran. I am always a bit surprised at how much I enjoy this type of entertainment; I guess I am old fashioned. Just in case this one is not enough: *.

Tonight I pulled the motor out of the old Brunswick and oiled the bearings and gears. I had run out of adjustment on the governor and the motor was running at 79 RPM with the needle on the record. I was able to move the governor's rubbing block a bit, and now the phonograph is turning a very proper 78 while playing records. My ears aren't sensitive enough to notice a problem with one or two extra turns per minute, but some of the You Tube critics have commented.

Easy Street

A common complaint I hear about today's cars is that the owner can no longer work on them like we could in the not too distant past. We still have to change oil, change various filters, plus grease a few joints, and change the antifreeze occasionally. These are all tasks that are easily done at home.

We used to service the ignition system much more frequently than we do now, and I really like the longer service interval. The points and condenser had to be changed every 10,000 to 15,000 miles before we had electronic ignition, and after changing those parts you had to adjust the timing. Some cars do not even have a distributor now, and on those cars you only need to change the sparkplugs once in a while. The 2000 Chevy we drive now still uses a distributor, and the only difficult part of servicing it is getting to it. We put nearly 160,000 miles on the old distributor cap and rotor before they failed, so we have had to service this assembly only 1/10 as often as we would have in the good old days.

In the first photo you will see that I have marked the sparkplug wires before I pulled them (with a marker or a pen; not a pencil), then removed the old cap and rotor, which each were secured with two screws.

Here are the new parts which were purchased at a local parts establishment. The rotor can only fit on its boss one way, so you can't put it on wrong. Install it with the two new screws supplied in the rotor package.

The distrubutor cap goes on next, and you only have to snug down two screws to install it

Give each sparkplug wire and the coil wire a little shot of silicone spray and install them on the cap

Crank it up. It should run just fine now. If your ignition coil has 100,000 miles or more on it, you should change it while you are under the hood. I didn't, and two weeks later the car let me know about my mistake.

Pals

Scooter and Petey are two more of our rescued pets. Scooter was dumped as a kitten, and Petey wandered in for meals as a young adult. They come running every night to greet me when I come home from work.

Struck By Lightning!

Lightning does not always kill trees when it hits; it often wounds. Trees commonly have scars caused by minor strikes which heal over and do not seriously affect the health of the tree. What should you do if one of your trees takes a hit like this one? The answer depends on the location, possible targets, and your reasons for growing your trees. This fresh wound is on a black oak, which may now become infected with the oak-wilt fungus. The tree will die if that happens so there will be no decision to make in that instance. If the tree survives, it will begin decaying. If there are targets within reach of a tree with damage this severe, you should cut your losses and remove it in the near future.

This white oak was hit several years ago, and rot is progressing nicely in this tree. It is located in timber far away from any high value targets, and though it is now worthless as timber, it is still valuable for wildlife food, seed to regenerate this stand in white oak, and for wildlife dens.

It is not crowding any future crop trees, so it still has a positive benefit balance, and is not hazardous to anyone unless they stand under it in a storm. Even though it is in bad physical shape, it will be left in the stand. If this tree happened to be in a park, next to a house or next to a high value tree, it would need to be cut.

100%

This is a test for old kids!

1. After the Lone Ranger saved the day and rode off into the sunset, the grateful citizens would ask "Who was that masked man?" Invariably, someone would answer "I don't know, but he left this behind." What did he leave behind?

2. When the Beatles first came to the U.S. in early 1964, we all watched them on The _______________ Show.

3. Get your kicks, ___________________.

4. The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed___________________.

5. In the jungle, the mighty jungle, ________________.

6. After the Twist, The Mashed Potato, and the Watusi, we 'danced' under a stick that was lowered as low as we could go in a dance called the ___________.

7. N_E_S_T_L_E_S, Nestle's makes the very best....... _______________.

8. Satchmo was America 's 'Ambassador of Goodwill.' Our parents shared this great jazz trumpet player with us. His name was _________________.

9. What takes a licking and keeps on ticking? _______________.

10. Red Skelton's hobo character was named __________________ and Red always ended his television show by saying, 'Good Night, and '________ ________'.

11. Some Americans who protested the Vietnam War did so by burning their______________.

12. The cute little car with the engine in the back and the trunk in the front was called the VW . What other names did it go by? ____________ & _______________.

13. In 1971, singer Don MacLean sang a song about, 'the day the music died.'This was a tribute to ___________________.

14. We can remember the first satellite placed into orbit. The Russians did it. It was called ___________________.

15. One of the big fads of the late 50's and 60's was a large plastic ring that we twirled around our waist. It was called the ________________.

I'm old enough to know all of these, and just young enough that I haven't forgotten them. If you need help, ask in comments and I will post the answers.

Monday Again!

Back to the old grind!

Not My Victrola

This excellent recording of Do You Ever Think of Me? was made for Columbia on January 21st, 1921. I have listened to this song many times on my Great Aunt Bessie's player piano, so it is one of my favorites. kspm01 over at You Tube recorded this one for everyone to enjoy. Check out his channel; he does excellent work copying old records.

Poets' Corner

IF I ONLY WAS THE FELLOW

While walking down a crowded

City street the other day,

I heard a little urchin

To a comrade turn and say,

"Say, Chimmey, lemme tell youse,

I'd be happy as a clam

If I only was de feller dat

Me mudder t'inks I am.

"She t'inks I am a wonder,

An' she knows her little lad

Could never mix wit' nuttin'

Dat was ugly, mean or bad.

Oh, lot o' times I sit and t'ink

How nice, 'twould be, gee whiz!

If a feller was de feller

Dat his mudder t'inks he is."

My friends, be yours a life of toil

Or undiluted joy,

You can learn a wholesome lesson

From that small, untutored boy.

Don't aim to be an earthly saint,

With eyes fixed on a star:

Just try to be the fellow that

Your mother thinks you are.

Will S. Adkin