advent-ure

For the second year in a row I bought a Christmas ornament sight unseen. My wife and I didn't get a souvenir from Lake Winnipesaukee during our trip there in July. We buy ornaments when we find ones we like but we don't go too far out of our way to look.

Last year I persuaded a sales clerk in Branson to describe some ornaments to me. I picked one and had it shipped here. Earlier this week I called The Christmas Loft and asked if they had what I wanted. The clerk described a porcelain piece made by Barlow Designs that sounded just about perfect. It arrived yesterday with plenty of time to spare before we begin decorating.



In other Lake Winnipesaukee news, I may finally get around to watching "What About Bob?" Although filmed in Virginia, the story is set at the New Hampshire lake. It will be shown on Starz Comedy this coming Friday. My DVR is set.

Christmas in July

To remember our travels, my wife and I like to collect Christmas ornaments from the places we visit. They make perfect souvenirs because the memories are refreshed each year when the ornaments are unpacked. Sometimes it's difficult to find holiday decorations during our summer trips. Last year Byron Chesney helped me track down an ornament from Hot Springs, Arkansas.



We assumed there would be plenty of New Hampshire ornaments at Clark's Trading Post but didn't see any while we were there. Somebody working in the gift shop suggested it was the wrong time of year to be looking. Yeah, I know.

We did not find one at Lake Winnipesaukee either because we were too busy looking for a place to change out of our wet bathing suits. I'll have to contact some of the gift shops at Weirs Beach to see if I can order one over the phone or Internet since the lake was my wife's favorite part of the trip.

It was easy to find an ornament at our first stop in Vermont, Sugarbush Farm. At the time I thought it unusual that they would sell Virginia Tech magnets up there. Oh, wait.



It was a little harder to find one in Maine. We stopped at a few stores before finding Moody’s Giftshop, where we bought a miniature lobster trap that could easily be hung on the tree.



My wife found a brass ornament she liked at the Lexington visitors center. Its shiny surface made it as hard to photograph as a mirror. Eventually I got the idea to position so it would reflect some leaves. It is from the Lexington Battle Green after all.



At Hershey's Chocolate World, we bought a heavily discounted Kurt Adler ornament. Years from now we may find it confusing that the ornament says we went to Hershey a year earlier than we actually did.

change is just around the corner

During the heated political campaigns of my youth, I would ride my bicycle down to the local Republican and Democrat headquarters to get free campaign buttons for my collection. Amidst all the Nixon, McGovern, Ford and Carter pins that I stored in a huge maraschino cherry jar from Baskin-Robbins were my two of my favorite buttons: "Wally Ballou for Mayor" and "Wintergreen for President." Both are fictional candidates. Wally Ballou was a creation of radio greats Bob & Ray. John P. Wintergreen is the lead character in a musical by George & Ira Gershwin and George S. Kaufman & Morrie Ryskind.

"Of Thee I Sing" is about a presidential candidate who knew he was unelectable based on the issues and decided to run on emotion instead. His advisers choose a one-word platform that, "everybody's interested in and that doesn't matter a damn!" John P. Wintergreen was swept into office on a platform of "love." The satirical show features songs such as "Love Is Sweeping the Country" and "Who Cares?"

My wife and I took in a student performance of the Gershwin musical while visiting with family members over the weekend. I knew I had seen a televised production of the play back in the '70s but could not recall any of the plot points or songs. As I watched the students sing and dance, I kept trying to remember who played those same parts in the TV version. The president was easy. I could picture Carroll O'Connor's face on my Wintergreen campaign button. However his running mate, Alexander Throttlebottom, and his First Lady, Mary Turner, stumped me. The young lady we saw playing Mary had a beautiful, operatic singing voice.

Thankfully IMDB came to my rescue. Throttlebottom was played by Jack Gilford, who I mainly remember from some old Cracker Jack commercials. During the play I kept thinking that Wintergreen's wife was played by another television star, maybe even O'Connor's "All in the Family" costar Jean Stapleton. However her off-key singing as Edith Bunker made me think it had to be someone else. Still, I was quite surprised to find out that the lovely Mary Turner was played by the same woman dancing across my TV tonight, Cloris Leachman.

two chairs, no waiting

The stein collection that my grandmother gave me is visible in the background of a photo I posted here a year and a half ago when my wife and I showed off our new hairstyles. Grandma used to work at the Villeroy & Boch store in Southampton and would buy things that she thought her children and grandchildren would like. That's where the mugs came from. She also started me on a great collection of state quarters.

One of my wife's relatives showed us an impressive display of a different kind of mug recently. He has two sets of shelves full of authentic August Kern occupational shaving mugs. The August Kern Barber Supply Company of St. Louis made barber chairs and just about anything else needed to operate a barber shop. The man who showed us his collection is a direct descendant of Kern. Back in the late 19th century when men would go to the barber for a shave, it was considered unhealthy to share the mugs that the barber used to whip up the shaving cream. Yet I suspect they all shared the same razor. Each customer would get his own mug that he left in the barber shop. Sometimes their names were inscribed but the main way of differentiating the mugs was by the picture representing the owner's occupation. There are many examples online including mugs that belonged to a steam tractor operator, a telephone operator and a hunter. If the mugs pictured below are worth somewhere between $500 and $1,500 each, you could be looking at $10,000 to $30,000 right now. And that doesn't count the mugs we saw displayed on another wall.

je me souviens

An article in last Sunday's paper served to remind me to seek out some souvenirs from the road trip we took in August. The New Sentinel's travel editor interviewed several Knoxvillians about the items they bring home from their various trips. Most of the people collect the kind of knickknacks that in turn collect dust in the family room at home.

Instead of tschotskes that take up counter space, my wife and I prefer to collect Christmas ornaments from our destinations. While the tree is on display, we can remember our travels from the previous years. Maybe this year I'll remember to post a few photos of our more interesting souvenirs.

This summer we picked up a not-too-cheesy guitar shaped ornament at Graceland but had trouble elsewhere. The only ornaments we saw in Branson were generic. We didn't find any at all during our limited time in Hot Springs. Between now and Christmas, my goal is to find places online where I can get souvenir ornaments from Branson and Hot Springs. Any suggestions would be welcomed and appreciated.

numa numa numismatics yay!

Tomorrow will be a big day for coin collectors. The United States Mint will reveal the proposed designs for the first four $1 Presidential Coins. Four presidents will be honored each year starting in 2007 and continuing for 10 or 11 years. I don't consider myself a hardcore coin collector, but I do treasure our collection of state quarters from the Postal Commemorative Society. We received a gift subscription a few years ago from my grandmother.

One of the things I like best about the state quarters is the knowledge that in a couple of years we will have a complete collection, unless the country starts adding states again. By design, the presidential coin set will never be complete, which will drive me crazy. Any ex-presidents who are still alive (or who have been dead less than two years) in 2016 will not get a coin. The series will end when all the eligible dead presidents have been honored. This means it is unlikely that Bill Clinton or George W. Bush will get coins in their honor. Both men will be only 70 years old or so when it's their turn for a coin. By comparison, Gerald Ford will turn 103 while Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush will both be 92 in the year 2016.

Perhaps Congressman Mike Castle or Senator John Sununu can amend their legislation to make provisions for a new coin following the death of each ex-president. I would hate to be deprived of all the truck stop vending machine comedy that Clinton and Bush coins would eventually provide.