Yard-Garage Sale Finds

[HobieSport]

I see your knowledge of music trivia is great for such a young dude!

Nah.  We all know that Tom was born well before his time.  Maybe in the early 50s.   Hey Tom, do you enjoy Sam Cook?  How about The Persuasions?  I love that 50s-60s vocal stuff.

[Tonyrotary]

That Princess phone really cleaned up nicely!

[AET]

I like Sam Cooke very much!  And anything oldies, classic country, soul, motown, or doo-wop!  Love it love it love it.  It's kidna funny, my folks and I were just having a conversation about how they've said I was an old soul since I was about 3 or 4 years old.  Today, I rolled into the Driveway listening to "I wish it would rain" by the Temptations, from 1968 if Memory serves me.  David Ruffin's last big hit with them, the B-Side was I could never love another after loving you.  Another tune that I like.  But I digress. 

Heard a good Phone-Related tune on my favorite radio station, AM900 today, LOnesome7-7203 by Hackshaw Hawkins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUHqM3j7n5Y

I see your knowledge of music trivia is great for such a young dude!

Nah.  We all know that Tom was born well before his time.  Maybe in the early 50s.   Hey Tom, do you enjoy Sam Cook?  How about The Persuasions?  I love that 50s-60s vocal stuff.

[Dennis Markham]

Thanks for that Tom.  I've never heard of the song or the singer.  I enjoyed it.  The photos were great too.

[bingster]

Hawkshaw Hawkins was one of the guys who died with Patsy Cline, if I'm remembering correctly.

[Dennis Markham]

How right you are Bingster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawkshaw_Hawkins

I can't believe I have never heard of him until now.

[Dan]

Went out to a sale today, a huge estate sale without an auctioneer so it had great prices. I asked them if they had any telephones (the recent 75 year old man just died and he was a big time hoarder) and they said the family had just got him a cordless phone and they threw away a box of old phones because they figured no one wanted them. She saw the reaction on my face and said "Oh ,did I make a mistake?"

Yes, I said. She said they were those old dial phones that no one used anyway and they had a few strange colors.
I went over to a box of old stuff and pulled out a tin wind up toy from Japan (1950's) and a  talking 1962 Woody Woodpecker mattel hand puppet. I checked the value online now and the   tin toy sold  for $80 and the puppet is worth $20. I paid two bucks for both.

I heard a little "Oh my God "from the  old woman next to me and she opened an old tin up and there was a STACK of $100 dollar bills inside. She gave them to the guy who was running the yard sale (the son of the deceased) he gave her a big hug!

How does all this deal with phones--well, my wife's girlfriend was there, she must have overheard me and  she said she had on old black dial phone with white paint spots @ her house and she would drop it by free.
I got it and noticed it may not be what it seemed...

http://tinyurl.com/oadnec     "white paint splattered phone"

http://tinyurl.com/qejoxd        inside of housing

What is interesting here is it was a soft plastic color 60 light beige. The underside of the housing is 5  1  59  3 (third shift)

The handset is a G1, with six holes that is frozen shut on ear and mouthpieces. The retaining  cord metal things (what are they called ?) are both 1963, the back of the phone is 10-?(painted over) the feet are the rubber triangles (not  leather), bell network is IV58. The dial fingerwheel is METAL, the underside is 7C 60, 10-58.

Was this a black color change by WE from  light beige to black in 1963, or is this a frankenphone? I've never seen a painted one and wondered if they are common.

[McHeath]

Ma Bell painted lots of phones, I have a couple of factory paint job phones that are pure mix and match dates.  For example my 554 was made in 59', but the plastics are all colors and range from early 60's to early 80's, all painted ivory. 

[HobieSport]

...and they said the family had just got him a cordless phone and they threw away a box of old phones because they figured no one wanted them. She saw the reaction on my face and said "Oh, did I make a mistake?" Yes, I said. She said they were those old dial phones that no one used anyway and they had a few strange colors.

Oh the horror. I hope Mediterranean Blue wasn't considered on of those "strange colors".    My sister's father in law threw out a couple of 302s last year without even asking anyone if they wanted them.  Of course this is the same guy who one day and without any prior discussion removed a couple of 150 year old perfectly healthy shade trees from in front my sister's and husband's yard (grandpa owns the place) with a backhoe while they were at work, and neatly covered the bare patch with leaves, as if nobody would ever notice...

Neat phone you did get there though, Dan.

[McHeath]

Ah yes, it's often amazing how some folks toss things, cut down things, etc, that they see as surplus.  There is a nice little Queen Anne house here in town, maybe built around 1900, nothing grand but nice, single story, rambles a bit, nice two tone green paint.  It was surrounded by magnificent trees, huge London Planes, really made the place fabulous.

Well it sold one day a few years ago, and the first thing the new owners did was cut them all down.  All of them. 

Brilliant. 

[AET]

Oh boy when she said there was "strange colors" I'd be about soiling my drawers!

[Dan]

I was so sick when she said she threw out a box of phones I didn' ask her the specifics of the  strange colors . Sometimes it's better not to know the details of a tragedy 

[McHeath]

Yeah I agree, maybe better not to know that she threw away all the early rare color 500s and a 1949 500 to boot. 

[HobieSport]

Yeah I agree, maybe better not to know that she threw away (...) a 1949 500 to boot. 

Okay, that's not even funny.

[AET]

You ever get that feeling where it feels like your heart sank into your stomach, just got that.