Feed Sack Fashion

One printed, plain weave cotton feed sack, unstitched wtih band paper label.
Print is a purple ground with a pattern of mandolins with green and orange accents.
Label reads "PILLSBURY'S BEST/XXXX/FEEDS." "100 LBS." Circa 1940s.; MNHS

My Marilyn in a Potato Sack Post got me thinking about I adore feed cloth.  It's beautiful and usable.  Our industrious ancestors used this cloth not only to fold the life giving flour, but for a multitude of cloth articles in the home including towels, rags, clothing, toys, blankets, aprons, and a multitude of other amazing things.

Vintage Christmas - Street Decorations

1924

It's fun to see streets change through time.  I thought I'd take a look at how Christmas decorations changed on one street through time.  These photographs are of Nicollet Avenue in nearby Minneapolis.  I wish these kinds of decorations were still put up.  My favorite photo has to be 1937.  The sunburst star is quite striking.  What a glorious drive it must have been! 

1934

1937

1938

Tidbit Tuesday: Fredric March finds a Fierce Fan

Mrs. E Hunt was quite impassioned about Fredric March, TCM's October Star of the Month. Reading this letter, I'm quite curious which "hair-cut-less boys" she was referring too.


This is what Mrs E. Hunt's house looks like today. She no longer lives there, but I definitely think she earned her $15 prize. What an impassioned letter from a true Fredric March fan.

Weird Wednesday - Creepy Green Giant

I guess I generally think of the Green Giant as a lovable mascot since he was created in my home state, but this ad is totally creepy to me. Jolly Green is just supposed to be the man of the house, coming home to have his paper, slippers, and corncob pipe but instead he looks a creepy devil with an ulterior behind the niblets. What is in the niblets? Are the niblets taking over the world? Why won't the Corn Times tell us what is really going on? Ahhhhhhhh!?!

Mickey and Frances

Who is Frances Gumm? (Seen here with Mickey Rooney)

Dillinger 75th Anniversary

Today is the 75th Anniversary of the death of John Dillinger

He was shot down July 22, 1934 in front of the Biograph Theater







Newsreel with the body. WARNING - GRAPHIC



This is a fabulous book written by local Crime History God Paul Maccabee. It covers Dillinger's time hiding out in the corrupt St Paul of the bootlegger days when the law was on the take. Every once in a while he hosts tours of the sites. Unfortunately it always seems like I have to work those days. Sigh...

Vintage Inspiration July 15th

Feeling a little architecture today. House at turn of century in an area of St Paul MN called Swede Hollow.