2021 – Heads or Tails?

(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on April 10, 2021)

The reason this looks a little rough on the middle edges is that it was part of a spinner that attached to the coin on the sides. You’d sit the spinner on your desk and when you had a difficult decision to make, you’d just spin the coin. According to some listings, it’s possibly from the 1940s.

Here are a couple of those spinners:

 

Also showing heads and tails, is this 6” boot mug from The Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, NJ:

 

The first car I remember my mother driving was a 1954 Mercury, so that might be where this came from:

 

Hmmmmm………….did she drive the Merc with Dad to McAfee, NJ, to pick up MORE PLAYBOY STUFF at the Playboy Resort and Country Club at Great Gorge? Let’s see………..we have Playboy writing paper and envelopes, Playboy postcards from the Resort/Country Club (I’ve copied and superimposed the postcard blurb onto the writing paper so you can read it) and – of course – a Playboy ashtray:

 

Meanwhile, a little pilfering also went on at the HKH. I wonder what happens when you hang both of these from your hotel room door:

 

Words of wisdom from Salada Tea:

 

This is an odd find: a Sal Mineo bubblegum card (it IS from Topps). Is this Mom’s?

 

These are definitely Mom’s. What’s with the Princess phone obsession? (and why does one have a diaper pin?):

 

This pen is definitely mine. We went on a driving vacation in 1958 that included Catskill Game Farm, Niagara Falls, Canada, Ausable Chasm and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY:

 

I have no idea to whom this tube and exciting contents belongs:

 

Risque 1960s Father’s Day card?

 

These were t-shirt iron-ons from The New York Daily News Sunday comics section in 1975 that my mother must have saved for some reason. Apparently, none of her kids were interested in them:

 

I think these space-related items were also hers:

By the way, Wally Schirra was from Oradell, NJ, where I went to high school, but he was born in Hackensack, which gave him a parade in 1962………….and Mom was there to take this picture of him (he’s to the immediate right of the man on the left who’s eyeing Mom suspiciously):

 

Oh, Lord………I just found two of my baby toys: Raggedy Andy and Chief Wahoo:

Andy’s looking a bit……well, raggedy. The Chief – shown here holding someone’s scalp – is no longer the Cleveland Indians’ mascot due to current perception of him as being racially-insensitive. If anyone would like to register a complaint regarding this subject, kindly address it to Mr. Fred Reinert, as listed on the back of Wahoo’s scalp:

 

Little Green Sprout was NOT my toy (it’s way after my time), so maybe a sibling may recall it as being theirs (though I think it’s after their times too):

 

So I found this little 3” square box that had a little weight to it:

 

and look what’s inside:

My mother was not a judge, but she DID work in a court. This was also a very popular comedy phrase on TV’s “Laugh-In” in 1968.

 

This is a pair of my mid-to-late 60s cufflinks:

Pretty snazzy, huh?

 

These interesting-looking necklaces were also in that little box. I couldn’t tell you anything about them, but maybe my sisters can:

 

This necklace was too bulky to fit in that box. I know nothing about this one either and can’t decipher anything on the back:

 

I’m gonna finish this up with something I hadn’t been able to find for a long time. Fortunately, Mom saved a bunch of things from my career and since she had the Daily News delivered to her door every day, this was a particularly easy one to save.

This is the centerfold of the March 12, 1976 New York Daily News. Most of it is devoted to a concert at Madison Square Garden the night before by The Who:

 

This is the left half of that centerfold. It might be hard to read, but the photo credit says that the pictures were taken by Richard Corkery, who I’m sure was a nice man, but he was no concert photographer. I used to see him at a lot of concerts and he always looked so bewildered and uncomfortable. He was not in his element and neither was the Daily News (look at that dopey headline!)

And look at Mr. Corkery’s blurry, faceless pictures. This man was right in the photo pit in front of the first row. He had no obstructions and no excuse to not produce stunning images.

Yes, I shot the same show, but I was in the audience. I’m not going to post what I shot here, but if you’re curious, go to https://bobleafe.com/, look for The Who listing and scroll down to 1976, where you’ll find a half-dozen shots from that night.

Richard was a bit better at shooting crowd shots. He turned around in the pit and shot this, which was an accurate accounting of the crowd that night:

 

But the bonus in all this is found in the middle right of that picture. That’s me and my then-girlfriend Debbie in the fourth row. I’m taking those pictures you saw on my site. Debbie has one of my cameras, but looks too overwhelmingly joyous to shoot:

As far as I’m concerned, that’s Richard Corkery’s best concert shot ever, so thank you, sir, and thank you Mom for saving this photo from the only time I ever made it to the centerfold of the New York Daily News.

 

Debbie – unfortunately – is no longer with us and I have not been able to reach anyone connected with her, but I will continue to try to find someone – maybe her daughter – and get these images to her.

 

So that’s it………WAIT – there’s late-breaking news and an image coming over the wire………………………after months of waiting, it’s finally happened!

This was two days ago (April 8, 2021) and I’m writing this the next day because I’m home feeling achy – a normal reaction to the second Moderna dose. In two weeks’ time, I’ll be immunized as much as I’m gonna get from these shots and I’ll be able to hug other immunized people without a mask……….but only SOME people, as per my shirt.

I guess my gastroenterologist will be the initial beneficiary of that since I’ll be undergoing upper and lower endoscopies the next day, with cameras coming in from both ends and meeting in the middle. I hope he’ll give me a print of that shot to post! (“C’mon, Doc………….I’ll give you a hug if you do.”)

 

“Umm………get dressed first, Bob”.

 

 

3 Comments

  1. Geralynn Bobay April 11, 2021

    No clue on any of these pictures except the Princess phones. No leaf or crucifix necklaces either.

  2. E April 12, 2021

    As always, interesting stuff. I’ll have to make time to go through the boxes in my attic. You make me curious as to what I may find. Loved the shirt at the end. I got my second shot on the 10th. So I get a hug ! Lol it hit me like a ton of bricks. Feeling fine today. Good luck on your procedures.

  3. Annemarie April 12, 2021

    Hope your scopes went well and the post-vax achiness is gone. Great shirt!

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