It\u2019s a 35-year-old promo piece for AC\/DC\u2019s \u201cFly on the Wall\u201d album:<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s maybe<\/em> kinda sorta appropriate, right? It\u2019s still on the card and in better shape than my walls.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n BACK ROOM:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Aside from a TON of suspiciously-missing money belonging to dozens of photographers, this is what\u2019s left of the agency I was with for the majority of my career. It breathed its last in 2006. This 28.5\u201d x 29\u201d framed shot of the Jimi Hendrix Experience was on their wall for as long as I can remember. The brass plate that sits atop it is what graced the agency\u2019s front door:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2, 3. The sign is 43.5\u201d x 48\u201d and the clock is 18\u201d x 23.5″. The small paper attached to the bottom left side of the clock is an auction ticket. I don\u2019t recall where I got either of these.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4. Cubby\u2019s is a BBQ restaurant in Hackensack. Someone gave me the jacket, but I\u2019ve never worn it, The second pic is me there in 2013. The carrier bag is mine from the early 60s when I was a paperboy (https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/?p=272<\/span><\/a>). Both of these items hang from the door of my abandoned darkroom. Next to it is a 1935 picture of a NJ State Trooper on a motorcycle:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n BATHROOM<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Remember this pic from https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/?p=6541<\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2. Aside from the mirror and the light fixture, this is what\u2019s hanging on the wall:<\/span><\/p>\n The car was in my parents\u2019 house – also in the bathroom – so since my father worked in automotive management (and since the THINK sign was also his), I kept the pair together.<\/span><\/p>\n My parents did not play with cars in the bathroom (or anywhere else), so what purpose did this one serve?<\/span><\/p>\n It was an AM radio. One spare tire was the on-off switch and the other one was the tuner (let\u2019s see\u2026\u2026\u2026the WMCA Good Guys were at 570, WABeatleC was at 770, Murray the K at WINS was at 1010 and Peter Tripp (the curly-headed kid in the third row) was heard on WMGM, 1050. How\u2019s THAT for a memory?)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n HALLWAY<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a small hallway – one side\u2019s for history and the other\u2019s for fun.<\/span><\/p>\n Hanging on the history side is a 3\u2019 x 2\u2019 repop 1896 map of Hackensack, complete with 35 illustrations of some of the local estates and businesses of the time:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Leaning on the wall below that is something very similar, 30\u201d x 20\u201d, NOT a copy or a repop, but MUCH more interesting (and 20 years older). It comes from what is considered to be the \u201cbible\u201d for local historians – the Walker 1876 Atlas of Bergen County: <\/p>\n Someone I was involved with offered to buy me one of these Atlases for my birthday 16 or 17 years ago for $500. I said \u201cNO! It\u2019s WAY too much money to spend!\u201d. I just did a search for one and that\u2019s exactly what I found\u2026\u2026\u2026.ONE for sale\u2026\u2026\u2026.for $2500!<\/span><\/p>\n Oh well.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s considered serious<\/em> sacrilege among historians to buy these books, dismantle them page by page and sell individual pages on eBay (or anywhere), but when people see the pages of their town for sale, they figure the damage has already been done (by someone else), so it\u2019s OK to acquire it (guilt-free!) and frame it for their walls.<\/span><\/p>\n A very-related story: twenty or so years ago, I was buying up everything in sight on eBay that was Hackensack-related. I was an extremely efficient bidder and lost very few auctions.<\/span><\/p>\n That changed a bit one day when I started noticing a bidder who had the same interests and he was beating me. He didn\u2019t seem to care about price\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026the guy had bucks to spare.<\/span><\/p>\n I noticed that his eBay ID had \u201c430\u201d in it – the address on my building. Coincidence? A couple of weeks later, I was picking up my mail when another tenant came by, said hello and then mentioned some detail about an auction I lost\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.TO HIM!<\/span><\/p>\n Motherjumper!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Needless to say, I didn\u2019t exactly bond with this guy over our shared experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n A few months (or maybe it was a couple of years) passed when I got a call from his roommate telling me that the guy died. He also told me about the guy\u2019s obsession with beating me (I didn\u2019t know it was THAT serious).<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, he then said that he didn\u2019t approve of his roommate\u2019s actions toward me and asked me if I would come downstairs to their apartment\u2026\u2026\u2026..he had something for me (?!)<\/span><\/p>\n I went downstairs, expressed my condolences and was presented with this:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was (framed) pages 52 and 53 of the 1876 Walker Atlas, showing the part of Hackensack I live in! The roommate didn\u2019t want it and was moving out anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n I graciously accepted and felt quite guilt-free because I didn\u2019t pay for it and support whoever dismantled a perfectly good atlas\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026my eBay enemy did.<\/span><\/p>\n I examined this map very closely and circled the corner where my building stands\u2026\u2026\u2026..where houses were back then:<\/span><\/p>\n Houses also stood where the churches on either side of me are today. The church across the street was there in 1876, but Anderson Park is about a third of a block longer than it is today.<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019ll note that two doors south of me (to the left), it says \u201cGeo. DeBaun\u201d. Would you like to know what Mr. DeBaun did there?<\/span><\/p>\n So if I lived here then and my horse or buggy ever broke down, I wouldn\u2019t have to go far for repairs, but then I wouldn\u2019t be here to tell you about any of this today.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the fun side of the hallway wall, we have Van Camp\u2019s Pork and Beans – not the actual food, but original cels created for advertising.<\/span><\/p>\n The first item is the original sketch with added hands holding product. I could find no reference to a name for what was referred to in one online auction as \u201ca dancing hot dog for a 1980s TV commercial\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is actually two separate cels: the dancing hot dog and the store. This is how I originally positioned them. Yeah, I know that the store is upside-down, but I liked the products and their crimson carrier standing against the yellow better than against the much-darker blue):<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, the upside-down store started getting to me and now it’s the way it should be: <\/p>\n KITCHEN<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Well, where else would you put melons? Speaking of double-entendres (was I?), I\u2019m pretty sure that “melons” were featured in most 42nd Street movies in the 70s:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n LIVING ROOM<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n You may remember this Muhammad Ali-signed image (with the Beatles) from a recent post:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n To counter the effects of the back-room Coca-Cola, I have this tribute to Pepsi products (the Mountain Dew lighted sign\/clock was featured in the \u201cCollections: Signs of Illumination\u201d post (https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/?p=8452<\/a><\/span>):<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you look towards the bottom of the Pepsi machine front plastic piece, you can see the opening where bought cans of soda were dispensed. I inserted a relevant sign.<\/span><\/p>\n I attended some kind of \u201ccool stuff\u201d sale on its third and final day. I saw this piece listed for $45, thought \u201cmaybe\u201d and kept it in mind while I looked around at everything else.<\/span><\/p>\n Later, I decided to buy it, and as I approached the seller\u2019s table, I saw him sitting down and writing something on the sign. It must have been Final Day Markdown Hour. It pays to wait – I got it for $25:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ve never worn this jacket (or chawed that tabacky), but they look kinda cool together. I can almost envision some guy wearing this jacket with a pouch of Yankee Girl chew hanging out of his right rear pocket while I\u2019m mentally begging him to NOT turn around so as to not blow the cool image with a bunch of dried tobacco spit stains on the jacket\u2019s front:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Uh-oh! Am I in trouble now that Quaker just pulled Aunt Jemima from their products (AND that I’m publishing this on Juneteenth)? I DID try to balance that with the album cover I shot for the (all white) Uncle Floyd Show:<\/span><\/p>\n (I\u2019d better hide my Amos \u2018N Andy tapes!)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I wrote about my one and only pinball machine in the 1998 post (https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/?p=885<\/a>):<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was so enamored of this machine that I tried to buy anything I could related to it. Of course, eBay came up with something unexpected – a brand new playing field:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n You never know when I might wear the old one out. The seller had a bunch of these and I got one for a lot less than the sticker price: <\/p>\n Even if I never needed it for my machine, I could envision putting it in some sort of box with flashing lights of various colors in or behind all the holes and colored lenses – a possible art piece.<\/span><\/p>\n It hasn\u2019t exactly worked out that way so far, but I DID plug my 7\u2019 roommate\u2019s guitar into it and added some other connector. I don\u2019t know what good it\u2019s done for him, but he hasn\u2019t complained:<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/1-IMG_8297-6-15-20-WM-min.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n