Old artifacts found.

[Greg G.]

Phase 2 of remodeling - New storage cabinet. We contracted with a cabinet maker to design and build a custom cabinet to increase our storage capacity in this old house. It will replace the 60s-era 2-piece cabinet that was between the living and dining room. The old one only had storage on the kitchen side and a counter. The new one will be one large cabinet with more storage area on both sides.
The contractor came yesterday to remove the old one. We found a bunch of paper artifacts that were between the wall and the cabinet. The are dated from the mid-50s to 70s, but some look like they were from the 30s or 40s because they had 6-digit phone numbers. There was even an arrest warrant from 1957.
We also found some artifacts in the duct work below the cabinet:
6 empty crumpled-up packs of unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes.
A toy soldier and his jeep.
5 marbles.
An amber-colored ashtray.
A vintage metal toy car.
8 cents, consisting of a nickle and 3 pennies dated from 1941 to 1976.
3 small balls of various sizes.
Nail file.
A small metal cap with holes, looks like it belonged to a small salt-shaker.
A large yellow wooden bead of some sort.
A white plastic button.

As you can imagine, all of the artifacts from the duct work was coated with crud, I cleaned up most of them to take the picture. I've also blurred out any personal info on the paper artifacts for obvious reasons.  The bill for a newspaper subscription shows that 6-digit phone numbers were still being used in this area in 1957.  Funny thing is I still remember the jingle and commercial for Smyth, the Smoother Movers from the late 50s, early 60s.

[twocvbloke]

Seems whoever it was had a few money troubles given the warrant and the letter about storage repo...

And the car make, is that MERC for Mercedes or Mercury?

[Mr. Bones]

Nice treasure-trove, Briny!

Heck, I'd put most of that stuff on display, in my curio cabinet / hutch, or framed, lol!

Best regards! Good luck with the remodel.

[Greg G.]

Seems whoever it was had a few money troubles given the warrant and the letter about storage repo...

And the car make, is that MERC for Mercedes or Mercury?

My first guess was Mercury. 

[Phonesrfun]

Almost looks like an Olds, but no ports on the side.  Sometimes those toys were not even intended to look like any one car in particular.

[WesternElectricBen]

Cool stuff, love finding the old artifacts. Are you remodeling a home for yourself, Briny?

Ben

[Greg G.]

Cool stuff, love finding the old artifacts. Are you remodeling a home for yourself, Briny?

Ben

Yes, it's the house we live in.

[Greg G.]

All the paper artifacts layed out.  I counted 44, not including the folder.  Envelopes were counted separately.  The artifacts range from mundane scraps of paper with a name and number to the more official warrant.  One of them was an old note that Anita had wrote about cat-sitting for a neighbor about 12 years ago.  There were 4 carnival ride tickets for the Kenmore Merchants Fun Festival.  Kenmore is the next town SE of us.  There was no date on them, but from the condition and price for a ride (10¢) I would say they're from the 60s.  I sent those to the curator of the Kenmore Historical Society.

[19and41]

Here is your red car with the white top...

http://tinyurl.com/nj9hard

[Fabius]

Almost looks like an Olds, but no ports on the side.  Sometimes those toys were not even intended to look like any one car in particular.

Did Oldsmobile also have ports? I thought it was the Buick.

[Phonesrfun]

Now that you mention int, yes, Buick has the ports, not Olsmobile.

[19and41]

Those bolt on fins are the giveaway.  At first I thought Riviera, but the '54 Skylark is the one.