By Staff
Old Cardinal Charlie's memories are dwindling away.
I've asked some of my friends to try and come up with some old things I could write about.
One nice lady even went up in her attic and found some of her mother's things from years ago.
She found an old 1911-1912 book of Michigan Farm Laws for Cass County farmers.
The book was given out by State Savings Bank of Dowagiac.
(In my 1911 city directory, this bank was at 148 S. Front.)
Ad ad in this book was for Boyd Redner and Son.
In my days it was Vern Redner Grocery.
My friend also found some little booklets from the 1939 New York World's Fair.
They told all about precious stones, lead and manganese that come from Brazil.
An old 1928 Elks magazine had a couple of ads for a 1928 Hudson Essex for a mere $795, plus an ad for Johnny Walker "cigarettes," claiming to be "extremely mild" (do you suppose they were soaked in Johnny Walker scotch? Ha ha!)
There was also a 1946 official directory and log of the National Air Races at Cleveland.
This lady sure had a mother who used to love to cook, as she found a lot of old cookbooks – some from even before the 1930s.
A lot of them were put out by different companies, like a 1931 Clabber Girl, a 1934 Chicago World's Fair, a Royal Baking Powder, a Calumet Baking Power, a Jewel Tea Co., an Arm and Hammer, a Borden's canned milk, Campbell's and Birds Eye.
She even found recipe books from Frigidaire (1929 and 1934) which came from Howard Goodsell's store on Front Street.
Two of the books of interest were a 1949 PTA book from the old Oak Street Schools. The PTA book cost $1.
Two names were familiar to me, Mrs. Virgil Shaffer and Mrs. Leo Cligh.
The other book was one of recipes from Dowagiac's FIrst Methodist Church.
I guess a lot of old cookbooks like the ones I've mentioned are for sale on eBay. Some go as high as $25.
There in all of the books I had to look at, one was a book of recipes and how to save money.
It was from Lydia Pinkham, which was a medicine of vegetable compound for women and was popular in my old days.
You know what is a very important thing in our house? It is our 2008 calendar, and I guess that holds true for a lot of folks.
Like many, we use ours for doctor and dentist appointments, birthdays, anniversaries, luncheon dates, trips, dates to pay bills and even Beckwith play dates.
I found out recently when we tried to make a date to meet two other couples for a visit that we were not alone in having to go to the calendar.
The first person I called said let me check my calendar. The other person said the same.
After some jigging and jagging, we finally found a time and day we were able to get together for our visit.
I guess things have changed since I was a youngster, as a I don't recall our calendar in the 1930s as being so cluttered like ours is now.
Please tell me what is a copper-lined dry sink in a home in olden days and how was it used?
E-mail him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.