Why I Oughta...

I came across this vintage Chicago Bears helmet bank from All American Bank of Chicago up in Wisconsin at an Antique Mall.  There were a pair of them - this one and another one with a weird bird logo on the helmet.  Nat and I were puzzled by that one, so I only bought this one.  This is intended as a gift for one of my brother-in-laws.  Those of you who have kept up with the blog over the years might recall this sweet vintage White Sox bank that I posted back in 2014.  I gifted that bank to the same brother-in-law that this one is destined to be gifted to at some point.  Christmas is the likely time when I will give this, but maybe birthday season? This is from the All American Bank of Chicago, which appears to be a "failed bank" per the FDIC . As for the bank, you'll note that it has the all-white "C" on the sides.  According to this page, that logo was in use from 1962 to 1973 .     So this helmet was a give-away from the bank somewhere in the 1960'

My parents moved out of my childhood home a few years back.  I posted about it here on the blog in January of 2016 .  Right before they left, they had an Estate Sale that featured a bunch of their stuff, but mostly my Dad's collections.  Oil cans, automobilia, pottery, toasters, radios and plenty of junk.  There were also a few boxes that he had brought home from his office at Governor's State decades before that I didn't ever see or come across in digging through his stuff like up in Michigan and what-have-you.   In those boxes were a bunch of Chicago Bears memorabilia - pennants, glasses and this photo featuring my favorite player Dan Hampton and (in the background) Coach Mike Ditka (in a great pear of coaches shorts).   The writing on the matte say it is from August of 1986 in Platteville Wisconsin.   I've posted another Dan Hampton photo here on the blog from my childhood .   He was my favorite and I'm thinking he was my Dad's, too.   Ba

Over on eBay this weekend, I came across this beauty of a lamp .  It is listed at $85 and has no shade, so it isn't a steal, right? But it *is* awesome.  But right now, it isn't for me.  ( remember that whole Joe Rhode-thing about that says: " It is enough to enjoy the existence of things without possessing all of them" ???) Looking up the helmets in the Helmet Project site , it seems that this one with the blue facemask, the arched "Illini" that is outlined in blue is from a very specific few years:  1977 to 1979. As a child of the late 70's, I kinda love that.  We don't have a house yet, let alone a place for this lamp, but I bet it'd look pretty awesome in a rumpus room, right?  At $85, it might not go fast, right?  All it takes is one nutball like me to buy it, though!

I came across this table of mini helmets recently at an estate sale and had a fun time poking around the collection.  If you know guys born in the 60's or 70's that like old, vintage things and have an affinity for sports, they're probably nuts about gumball helmets .  My brother-in-law up in Park Ridge has a thing for gumball helmets.  Has a collection.  Has even made his own helmets, which is kinda neat.  While I can appreciate them, I'm not drawn to them - unless I see an Illini one, of course - and passed on these.  But, I did send the photo to said brother-in-law.  These don't appear to have any age to them, right?  All pretty much modern day versions? The part that jumps out to me here, though, is the four baseball caps at the bottom of the photo.  They appear to be NFL team hats like Quarterbacks wear on the sidelines.  Those are a thing now?

At the very same Estate Sale that I picked up that hobnail milk glass pitcher and the big set of vintage ornaments, I picked up this book from 1982 about the Chicago White Sox.  It is written right at the point when Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn took over the club and installed the big new "Diamond Vision" scoreboard out in centerfield with the old Veeck-era exploding pinwheels on top.   I thumbed through the book and it talks about the new arrivals like Carlton Fisk, Greg Luzinski, Tom Paciorek, Rudy Law, Ron Kittle, and Greg Walker who were all - incredibly - in their first or second year on the South Side.   Reinsdorf took over the team from Bill Veeck in 1981 and if you read the opening of this book (which...in the fine print states that the White Sox themselves cooperated with in terms of photographs and such), it reads like a love letter to the new ownership's commitment to making the Sox a winner.  And...just in looking at that list of players that they br

One weekend this summer, we were up in Coloma and Saturday was a bit rainy, so as we usually do, we found ourselves milling around at the Great Lakes Antique Mall.  Going up and down the aisles is kind of therapeutic and I seem to wander and linger in certain booths more than others now that I've kinda gotten to know them with each passing visit. In one of the booths that we've scored a few items, I came across this Chicago White Sox rocks glass.  It was all by itself, but I have to think it was clearly part of (at least!) a pair at one time.  Alas...this is the only one that's survived.  The booth was having a 50% off sale and this was only listed for $2.50, so I figured I had to have it for the $1.25 - no haggling necessary.  It was going to be a perfect gift for my brother-in-law who is both a Sox Fan and the owner of a basement bar.  It'd be perfect. Then I fell in love with it.  And...stuck it in the cupboard at our house.  To stay.

A few weeks back, there was a pretty awesome Estate Sale at a house in Elmhurst on Cottage Hill (the swankiest street in town, maybe????) and after taking my number and waiting to get in (yes, they had you take a number and limited the number of shoppers in the loaded house), I came out with a few items including this sweater that I just *had* to take a selfie of that morning. I snapped this pic and texted it to Nat with a 'What do you think?' and instead of her usual 'pass' on the garage sale junk I come across, she said 'of course!  Buy it!'  So...this sweet, kinda tight beauty came home with me and I can't wait to break it out on a college football Saturday this fall when I support Lovie Smith and the boys in orange fight against their Big Ten brethren. Last month, I posted 3 other Estate Sale sweaters , so I'm starting to wonder to myself is *this* becoming a thing now for me?

Yesterday, I posted a few vintage Purdue and Notre Dame football covers from the 1960's , and today comes another photo from the very same estate sale.  This stuff is just pretty amazing to me.  It is all associated with the 1967 Rose Bowl game that Purdue played against USC.  There's two different kind of bumper stickers.  The "Pasadena-a-do-do" ones are pretty rad if you ask me.  Then there's the various/different Rose Bowl pins.  And...that thing on the right says "Purdue University Rose Bowl 1966-7". It is from Conlin-Dodds Travel Service in the Memorial Union Building in West Lafayette, Indiana.  Says it is the 'Official Student Tour'. I didn't get my hands on it (it was kind of in this display case), so no idea what was in there, but guessing it was a full set of docs that included things like bus tickets, game tickets, hotel arrangements, etc. I didn't buy this stuff, but I'm sure hoping *someone* did.  This deserves a

In the same pile as the Student Power Magazine that I posted yesterday, there were also a bunch of football programs all from Purdue University.  Above is one against Notre Dame that features Neil Armstrong - a Purdue Alum.  This estate was chock'ed full of Purdue sports stuff. Below, is another Purdue vs. Notre Dame program from September 30, 1967 that features the returning 1966 National Champion Fighting Irish with South Bend being highlighted in the 'middle' of the 'D' and West Lafayette in the 'middle' of the 'P'.  Cute.  As you can see scrawled by hand is what appears to be the score:  Purdue 28.  ND 21. Also were a few other interesting ones:  This one directly below is from the 1967 Rose Bowl Game featuring Purdue vs. USC. And this was the only one featuring the Illini.  That's Bob Griese, too!  Which is pretty neat.  This Illini vs. Purdue program is the earliest from October 29, 1966. With us being in total disarray hous

I came across this jacket in the basement of an estate sale in Elmhurst over the weekend.  They wanted just $2 for it, but I couldn't pull the trigger.  Had never heard of St. Lawrence University.  A quick Google search tells you it is in upstate New York .  The house had a lot of artistic items in the Estate Sale - including paintings.  The jacket made a long trip both from New York, but also from way back in 1956.  Hopefully, someone else found it and it found a nice home and not in the bottom of a dumpster.

We picked up this kids bank at Affordable Antiques some time last year but we had to wait until this Spring to give it the intended target:  my brother-in-law. He's a hardcore Sox guy and also has an appreciation for old stuff, so it was a perfect fit.