(Ignore May 1, 2017 publish date – this was published on August 28, 2020)

 

This is one of those catch-all categories that will lend itself to either a Part II or LOTS of late additions to this post as I find things while searching for other items.

So let’s start with one I really like:

Why do I like it? I’ll show you one good reason later.

 

Crazy Eddie Electronics was VERY well-known in this area from the 1970s to the 1990s. Almost as equally well-known were their commercials, which featured a fast-talking, high-energy pitchman named Jerry Carroll, a former DJ. You can find lots of these commercials on YouTube.

I bought a lot of stuff at their Paramus store on Rt 17, but I especially recall my last purchase at that store. In 1989, they filed for bankruptcy and started their liquidation sale, which – of course – included fixtures and SIGNS.

This 4’ x 4’ sign hung over (or on the wall of) their home entertainment area and later did the same in mine:

 

Specific sales had their own signs. Who could resist a SIX-FOOT by TWO-FOOT Lincoln & Washington double-barrel BIRTHDAY BLOWOUT BLITZ sign that featured Jerry Carroll’s likeness on Mt. Rushmore?

 

Comparatively tiny was this 39” x 20” Back to School………sorry, “Skool”…Blowout Blitz sign:

 

I also picked up a couple of Crazy Eddie bright yellow t-shirts (not that I would ever wear a yellow t-shirt, but I knew someone who would. More on THAT later).

BTW – I couldn’t find these shirts to photograph, so this image came from eBay:

 

Guess what? LATER has arrived for both LATERed items, courtesy of my friend, Chris. I’m sure I must have these in color somewhere, but this is what I found and you already know what the colors are:

 

Switching gears slightly, I offer you this little item from 1915:

 

More gear-switching: this item was posted in the 1998 listing. I acquired it that year in an auction in North Carolina. It’s a 3′ x 8.5′ Super Bowl XXVIII (1993) hanging, heavy-vinyl, double-sided street banner from Atlanta (the Super Bowl was held in the Georgia Dome that year). Apparently, only 200 were made:

 

Checkout dividers! Remember them? I think they still have them, but they’re pretty generic and nondescript. Sometime around the end of last century, I saw that interesting ones were fading out, so I managed to get a couple. I think you can still find a Pepsi one online, but not “King of the Hill”:

While we’re on the subject of Pepsi, this came out of my parents’ house:

 

Anybody have (or ever seen) Pepsi hats stitched together from Pepsi cans in Viet Nam? My faceless roomie has two:

 

And I bought two of these on eBay at least two decades ago, but I don’t know why (I’ve never even opened them). They can’t be worth much if they say “Collectible” on the box and there are about 50 of them currently on eBay:

 

All this soda needs to wash something down…………how about a pizza? This is a big (42.5” x 21.25”) plastic piece that might replace a window in a pizzeria (or hang in your kitchen):

 

 

“Putney Swope” was my favorite movie back in ’69-’70, so that’s why I have this stuff:

 

 

I’m a Mac guy, so I never opened this box:

 

 

It’s not ALL fun & games, as this WWII poster attests:

(Sound familiar?)

 

 

Well, back to fun and games. This church – where I was baptized – is two blocks away and the posters are from 2012 and 2014. I’ve gone to the carnival a couple of times, but only for the moving lights photography, which can be found elsewhere on this blog:

 

 

This is posted elsewhere on this blog, but it fits here too. This is where I worked the midnight shift for 3 years in the early 70s while I was in college:

 

 

I’ve had this African(?) mask for a long time, but I don’t know where I got it or when. It – along with the next item – can be seen in a photo in the 1975 post. It’s 9.5” x 25.5”:

 

 

I’ve never been able to figure out what this is. It appears to be wood and is segmented, but it does not open up to reveal a weapon, like a dagger in a cane. I figure that this is the mythological ugly stick (“you so ugly you musta got beat with an ugly stick”). The head on top has seen better days:

 

 

This c. 1950 framed image – that I found behind a bunch of other stuff – shows an “industrial terminal” 3-4 miles from where I live that includes Teterboro Airport:

 

But it’s obvious that there’s larger (27” x 19”) image underneath it. Omigod – it’s a gorgeous 1949 photo of a Boeing Stratocruiser passing over the George Washington Bridge as it heads south down the Hudson River:

 

Personally, I prefer this more dynamic cropped version. Actually, I really wish I was the photographer who got to shoot this (though I DID shoot the GWB from the air in a similar location – it’s in the 1982 post – just not with a big plane coming at me):

 

 

Sneaking back to Teterboro for a minute…………. After 9/11, prices shot up when there was a run on eBay for anything connected with the now-gone Twin Towers. I found this small Teterboro shoulder bag that was pretty cheap and being offered by a WAY-out-of-state seller, who obviously wasn’t aware that the WTC was depicted in its image.

I really didn’t need a little shoulder bag, but I bought it anyway and a decade later, it turned out to be perfect for carrying small digital cameras:

 

 

Anybody still have a BodySonic chair? I do. You just sit in head-to-toe, body-vibrating sound (see description in third image):

Here’s mine in ’89:

 

 

Or you could just sit on a thin pad on a hard seat at MetLife Stadium. I think I got this at a garage or yard sale years ago. I also think it’s worth more unopened with a $1 yard sale sticker price on it:

 

 

In another garage sale, I found this 1930 poster for Amos ‘n’ Andy’s “Check and Double Check” movie (with an all-white cast in blackface) in a 12.75” x 16.75” frame that had to be at least as old as the movie:

 

 

This will no longer stick to my refrigerator…………maybe it grew up:

 

 

This is a framed 14” x 20” eye-catching copper sculpture by Peter Friedling. It’s called “The Rescue” and it would be well-worth your time to research this retired fireman’s work. The detail is incredible:

 

I think the back of the frame reveals the cause of the fire: faulty wiring.

 

 

This is a 13.75” x 9.5” print on a 16” x 20” board. The photo was taken by staff photographer Eddie Hill from The Record newspaper on the morning of April 9, 1968. The conflagration took place at 16 W. Palisade Ave in Englewood, NJ.

It was given to Eddie Hasse by someone whose name appears to be John Bongiovanni. I think I found it on eBay:

Cropped:

What’s on the back (an empty, yellowed envelope that says “Spot News”):

 

 

One more photography-related item: F-Stop Fitzgerald’s 7.75” x 6” studio, complete with Louise Marie, model – a gift from my youngest sister. A signature on the back looks like it says, “John D. Richards” or something close to that, but I could find no further information. Anybody have a clue?

 

 

 

MUSIC-RELATED (in no particular order)

 

A 1978 30” x 40” sign from E.J. Korvettes in Paramus, NJ, suggesting that you go meet Meat:

 

 

I must have found this 24.75” x 18.5” piece after a show:

 

I’m guessing the flip side shows their initial idea (“Missfitzz of Metal”). If you sat behind the girls, this side is what you’d see. “White Northern girls” sounds about right:

 

 

First pic (and from my site): I had a shoot with Masters of Reality on Feb. 11 1989 – the same day as the show – so either there was a loose poster on the wall behind them or I grabbed one later that evening at the club:

 

 

These 23” x 9.5” Robert Plant/HoneyDrippers pieces appear to be zeppelin-shaped. Imagine that……………

 

 

This unopened box is a tribute to my favorite Blue Oyster Cult song:

 

 

Maybe they should change their name to “Granite-ica”:

 

 

Nice 3’ x 2’ tribute to Pink Floyd’s back catalogue:

 

 

This is a 24” x 18” heavy-duty Pearl Jam door mat from 1990 in almost perfect condition. It was a promotional item for the band’s “ten” album. I’ve had it for 30 years and done nothing with it.

As I write this, someone’s selling one in slightly worn condition for $300.00, plus $20.00 for shipping:

 

 

This children’s zither is 12” x 17.5”. I think I found it in my parents’ home when I cleaned it out, but I had never seen it before and have no idea why it was there:

Sound hole closeup:

It came with instructions, a zither-ring (thumb pick), a tuning device and 20…………I don’t know what to call them………sheet music? playing instructions?…………for German and American toe-tappers:

 

 

 

SHEET MUSIC

 

“On The 5:15” sheet music (from 1914): it sounds like it might be a song by the Who, but instead, it’s about an old Erie Railroad line – what we call today the Pascack Valley Line. The front cover shows the timetable of the trains as they head north from Hoboken – it’s the NYC commuters coming home to this area after work (and after they took the Hudson Tubes from Manhattan under the Hudson River back to NJ).

You can see the various stops in Hackensack. I live a block from Anderson St and the station is about 3 blocks up Anderson. I can see the trains from my kitchen window:

Here’s a current map of the line:

 

 

Sheet music regarding the aforementioned Hudson Tubes was posted elsewhere on this blog (https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=6696), but here is the cover, which may or may not tempt you into hitting that link:

 

 

There are many versions of this particular 1924 sheet music. I used to own at least 4 or 5 of them:

 

 

I wrote extensively about the George Washington Bridge and this sheet music here – https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=8341. This shows the original design of the GWB:

 

 

 

TEST PRESSING

 

OK – I took all the photos for the Uncle Floyd Show album:

 

But it wasn’t until years later that I got myself a test pressing of the album:

 

But where did THAT image of Floyd come from? It looks kinda familiar………….

Oh yeah…………..

 

 

 

Let’s finish this post with the epitome of class. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you something you never knew existed, but will probably crave the rest of your lives because it’s signed not only by country legend Neal McCoy and rock legend Joe Walsh, it also bears the signature, a self-drawing AND a lofty comment from Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen.

 

It’s the greatest guitar you never heard of………………..it’s…………….

 

THE GUITOILET!

 

I always forget about it because it’s still covered up (to protect the signatures), it’s mounted almost at ceiling level behind a door in a back room and is hooked up to its own fire alarm.

I won it in a Leland’s auction from this catalog 20 years ago:

 

………….it was the first signed guitar listed on page 73:

 

………and here are all the details:

 

 

 

TAKE THAT, GUITAR SNOBS!