Garage, basement, attic,... Top O' My Closet Archives.

Started by Biggus Dickus, March 07, 2017, 09:05:53 PM

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Biggus Dickus

This thread is a place to put pictures, and/or descriptions of the junk and sentimental stuff you have at home hidden and packed away in those out-of-the-way places... items such as your first pair of high-tops, or the ticket stub to your first Kiss concert, or maybe a pen you stole from Leonard Nemoy when you were a boy.

(Idea for this thread came JoeActor's dump thread, where he described getting Mr Spock's autograph, stealing his pen, and then getting written up for the crime in the local newspaper, apparently he is still on the lam for this)

I'll start it off.

Recently I came across my dad's old "Letter Sweater" from high school. Not sure if all schools do this, so a brief explanation may be needed. Here in the states when you are in high school you receive a letter, normally the first letter from the name of the school when you achieve varsity status in sports and academia, as well as music.
This is then attached either to a sweater or jacket, and the sport or activity you lettered in signified by a pin or emblem you place on the sweater.

This is my dad's from Wilbur Wright High School in Detroit (Built 1929, torn down in 2010), and if you look closely at the the top of the letter you can see the bats and balls representing baseball.
On the top of the lower right pocket you can see his name . W. Baron



I had it professionally cleaned, and gave it to my son who was really excited to receive it, he has it displayed in his room.

The sweater is circa 1942.


My dad graduated the following year, enlisted in the Army, and then fought his way across Europe. Came home and played some minor league ball with the White Sox, sustained a critical career ending injury, returned to Detroit were he finished college at the University of Detroit, became an engineer for General Motors where he worked for the Cadillac Car Division (Clark Street Plant)

Baseball was his passion, his life and dream. I still even have his old glove somewhere. I'll have to find that and post a picture of that also (Old style glove from the 40's).

He died 30 years ago this Thursday the 9th.

He had dropped his car off at the dealer, and then took a bus to work. It was an extremely windy day as he was walking up toward the plant on Clark street that morning, hunched over against the wind, his hand on top of his head to hold on to his hat, the other clutched around the opening of his overcoat to keep out the cold when he stumbled or tripped according to bystanders and hit his head against the large stone retaining wall that lined the street.

The blow to his head caused him to have a massive heartache, and he was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. He was 45 days short of retiring after having worked at GM 32 years.

He loved his work, and the city, so I think he would have found some solace in fact that he died in the heart of the city, so close to the old ballpark he loved so much, so close to where he was born and raised.

Sorry, didn't intend to get so gloomy, but seeing the sweater and thinking of him got me to reminisce.


Anyway let's see what you got hidden away in your archives.




"Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair."

Dave

Nice momento, Bruno, great that your son also treasures it.

Don't have any souvenirs of the past that I feel strongly about. Got my old RAF service record book but, well, not that attached to that. Nothing that has survived the years that reminds me of my family.

So, I am gowing to pick something that still gives me a sense of achievement, a reminder that - feeling low after being made redundant after falling out eith my manager and failing to establish a small business for myself - the grey matter and the drive where not dead. I worked, at age 60 and over 30 years since any formal education, my way through a course of preperation for university entry, passed with high grades and got a full grant. Unfortunately my health got in the way 6 months into my course and I dropped out.

Got the certificate but this "collage" reminds me of the great bunch of fellow students on the course. I was a sort of "uncle" figure to a couple of the much younger and less confident ones so it gave me gave me a dimension that I had missed since my nieces and nephews grew and dispersed.

I was, and still am, proud of that achievement! Even without achieving a degree.

Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

joeactor

This thread is a very cool idea, Bruno!

Lovely stuff, gentlemen. Can't wait to see more...

Magdalena

Quote from: joeactor on March 07, 2017, 10:22:28 PM
This thread is a very cool idea, Bruno!

Lovely stuff, gentlemen. Can't wait to see more...
:this:

"I've had several "spiritual" or numinous experiences over the years, but never felt that they were the product of anything but the workings of my own mind in reaction to the universe." ~Recusant

Arturo

Oh shit I have so much stuff, I won't post it all due to sheer volume.

Stand by
It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱

Arturo

Incoming!!!





Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.
It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱

joeactor

DBZ, Looney Tunes and Star Wars - a winning combo.

Arturo

It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱

Biggus Dickus

Quote from: Arturo on March 09, 2017, 12:39:18 AM
Quote from: joeactor on March 08, 2017, 09:13:26 PM
DBZ, Looney Tunes and Star Wars - a winning combo.

I only watch the best

And of course Dragon Ball Z. I think we still have a box of DBZ stuff in our garage that belonged to my son. Mostly VHS and some comics.
"Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair."

Biggus Dickus

Like I mentioned in the OP, here is the ticket stub to not only my first Kiss concert, actually the first concert I ever attended. Kiss with Cheap Trick at the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit.



July, 1979, the summer before I began High School. I wasn't really a Kiss fan to be that honest with you, yeah I liked some of their songs, and their live album which had been recorded the year before in Detroit was really cool, but they weren't my favorite band at the time, or certainly the band I would have chosen to be my first concert. However, my best friend was a Kiss fanatic, or Kiss Army as they called themselves. He was simply obsessed with all things Kiss, and if your were going to hang out with him you simply had no choice, but to get caught up with his freakish excessiveness with the band.

Concert was a lot of fun and we certainly had a blast especially as young 12-13 year olds, and it certainly opened our eyes to the culture of concerts we would soon come to love and enjoy throughout our teenage years. Not to mention, but back in those days Kiss was at the top of their form and putting on a pretty spectacular show.

Truth be told I actually enjoyed, and was a much bigger fan of Cheap Trick who opened the show for Kiss. This was just a year after they released what was to become their number one album "Cheap Trick Live at Budokan", which is also ranked by Rolling Stone as being one of "the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" (#426 to be exact)

I'll let Damone from Fast Times at Ridgemont High explain it from here:



The second ticket is for the Rolling Stones also at the Pontiac Silverdome, which was a horrible place to see a concert. Actually it was the sound quality that really sucked, or to quote Pete Townsend who said in an interview after performing a concert at the Siverdome, "This place is a real piss-hole, horrible fucking hole to have to perform in, but worse for our fans who have to come here and listen". (I saw that concert as well)

Seeing the Stones was cool, though to be quite honest even back in the early 80's when this concert took place they really weren't much of a live band. I've seen them twice and didn't really care for either show, but still it was fucking cool to see the "Stones"

The great thing about this first show, which I believe was in 1981 was they had two bands opening up for them .The first was Iggy Pop, and the second was Santana.
Due to the fact that it was general admission I was able to get up quite close to the stage to see Iggy perform, which was bloody fantastic, but by the time Carlos came on I kinda of got push back toward the rear of the main floor, but still he was completely awesome.

Once the Stones came on I was kind of whipped so I joined the rest of my friends in the seats toward the side of the stage.

This Stones concert took place just after the Who concert in Ohio, and the tragedy that took place there when 11 fans were trampled to death outside the concert hall waiting to get in with General Admission tickets like we had for the Stones show.

My father didn't want me to go, but my friends and I skipped school that day so we could get out to the Silverdome early in orfrt to stake out some good seats or positions on the main floor; which as close as I got to see Iggy was totally worth it.

I do remember calling my dad that night to tell him where I was and to let him know I went to the concert despite his concerns and him simply asking me if I thought it was worth skipping school and disobeying him...I told him yes sir I do, and I'm sorry for going against your wishes, but it was the Stones and I had to go.

I could tell he was disappointed in me, but he never said another word about it. As a parent now myself I can completely understand what both him and my mom must have been going through that night.

I do wish I could tell him sorry, and I also wish I hadn't found it necessary to feel and act so rebellious in my youth, sometimes amazed I made it through okay, but now I think back and it's like what the hell were we really rebelling against?

Truth be told we just wanted to do what we wanted without concern for the outcome or end results, live for the moment, damn the future and all that.

But hey, I saw the Rolling Fucking Stones, amirite?

"Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair."

Arturo

The silver dome should be in this thread. It's still there, no one uses it, and it's annoying to everyone that it's still here
It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱

joeactor

Wow, Father Bruno, you've seen some great concerts! 8)