A Crummy Commercial

Mentioned a work related story about Summertime in the blog yesterday.     This one ?:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onTWpZalc7c No, no, not Summerland (although that's a wonderful composition and rendition), I want SUMMERTIME ! How about this ?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK_z73tVbgU NO, That's Summertime, Summertime https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BE55yOQ_2to Yeah, that's the one ! The way Dizzy is looking at Ella is amazing - a decisive moment kind of like the pictures Cartier-Bresson or Gary Winogrand took - this picture was by William Gottlieb  https://www.newsweek.com/30-stunning-photos-golden-age-jazz-1582109 I *think* it was the first holiday season I worked at GTE (1977).  I went to the lunchroom as usual but in addition to the usual fare we were all treated to a mini-concert.  GTE in Northlake IL had clubs, all kinds of them - even photography and ham radio as I recall.  But they also had a music club of some kind because...

I thought of this record recently: Here is the album on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nHqkXrnPs7k_Vd2dNwa78EZ3KE02orHpQ I never owned a copy but I did know about it.  (I do have a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band greatest hits CD somewhere though).  I became aware of this particular album and remember it because of this: the S-120 had really nice audio in my opinion (we won't talk about selectivity or sensitivity or dial calibration or precision though) Yes, I have a Hallicrafters S-120 and in addition to trying to listen to hams, I also used it to listen to AM broadcast radio AND especially to shortwave radio.  I listened to Radio Havana, Radio RSA (South Africa), the BBC, Radio Austalia and also to the Voice of America.  All of those stations share one characteristic, a good loud signal to the middle west of the USA at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s.  With an S-120 a good strong signal was needed due to the inadequacies of the radio, it w...

I bought both creamed corn and saltines at Mann's recently.  So this Thanksgiving I thought I'd try making my Grandmother's corn pudding recipe: front . back But forgot to get milk !  I'll try it on Sunday if I go to the store.  Anyway when I tried it in the past it always came out not quite right, usually too watery.  Maybe my ingredimunts aren't the same as Catherine Olson used to get at the National Tea supermarket ? I wish I could ask my Mom or my Grandmother, but I can't :( Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

Still thinking about Halloween: we used to do the quizzical arched left eyebrow in Wisconsin, too :) , and what's more Halloween than The Zombies: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4nmxz5bQhk Which led me back to Digger: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/11/this-shorpy-picture-takes-me-back.html I finally found the picture of my Digger model: Somebody should have done a better job of dusting (also painting).   BTW, that's our female Siamese cat, Chibby-chan looking on. =>   See you in Dragsville ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

to 1964 - the kid on the left has what I think is a Digger mask: Digger was a character from the Hawk plastic model line of Weird-Ohs. https://www.shorpy.com/node/27843 Here it is on the LOC site: source:  https://www.loc.gov/item/2021636510/ I built that kit but never saw such a mask !  They had stuff in New York that could only be imagined in Milwaukee.  Also, is that a cab in the background taking these kids Trick-or-Treating  ?  In 1964 Wisconsin you walked ! source:  https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hawk-530-100-digger-way-out-dragster--1235633 More on Digger and the Weird-ohs: history:  https://www.oldmodelkits.com/blog/plastic-model-kit-history/history-of-the-hawk-weird-ohs-plastic-model-kits/ Digger model:  https://modelingmadness.com/review/misc/figures/gooddigger.htm The photographer, Angelo Rizzuto is famous for his pictures of New York: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_Rizzuto Mentioned him previously: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/20...

 

The Best Years of our Lives is often shown around November 11.  It's a long movie, but a good one.  Dana Andrew's character, Fred, comes home to the somewhat non-prosperous folks but his wife has moved out:   Frederick March's character, Al, comes home to surprise Myrna Loy and the kids so it's easy to think he will be OK.   But the first homecoming that always gets me is when Harold Russell's character, Homer, gets out the cab, toting his duffel with the hooks, and his kid sister starts yelling: HOMER ! HOMER !  A sure fire tear jerker of a scene: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLDBiSPKgKI On a happier note: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK9HNd1UADA 18 sergeants and a gal trombonist - big bands live !   Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 For Halloween I thought of this picture: I remember the phrase:  "El gato negro"  The black cat  :)    This is one of the FSA pictures from1936 by Walker Evans via Shorpy: https://www.shorpy.com/node/21397 Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm