It’s really no surprise that there is more and more antique industrial salvage proliferating boot sales and auctions these days. Scores of clothing stores and restaurants have taken up the aesthetic. Early on you could outfit your entire store with these pieces for 10 cents on the dollar, now these old relics are commanding big bucks. Supply and demand can be a bitch if you are just jumping on this band wagon.

I have always gravitated towards these old pieces and like to be surrounded by them in our design studio. They remind us of times past when sweat and tears seemed to be intertwined into their very fabric, when integrity and passion had not yet been replaced with units per hour. You can almost hear the salesman back then saying, “This here work table will hold 10 oxen, I guarantee it!”  It’s true and that’s another reason why we have old industrial furniture and machinery scattered around the Billykirk studio and in our personal lives – They are built to last and simply get better with more use. No modern table top can beat an 80 year old butcher block top that has seen action.

With the ground swell of people paying closer attention to an items providence, how they’re constructed, and appreciating an item that has a history there are a growing number of on-line antique industrial salvage businesses popping up.  Thankfully they exist for many of us who just don’t have the patience or wherewithal to wait and find certain pieces,  and have some money to work with.

I have been a fan of Modern 50 and Factory 20 web-sites for a while now and recently had a chance to interview Dino Paxos and Eric Ginter, the two men behind these two relevant and unique web businesses.

What are your backgrounds?

Dino – My artistic background started out in Baltimore City drawing tanks, making tiny ship models, and building fly jails out of wine bottle corks with my Dad. Much later, I was able to gain admission to a local county commuter college and I took some classes on and off for 8 years or so. But more significantly, a good high school friend of mine got me a job that turned out to be a 12 year career as a digital illustrator and iconographer at a D.C. internet start-up company. The creative types I met in that industry were incredible. I had never experienced anything like it. My college career was not really that “mentally” stimulating, granted enough to get my foot in the door, but the setting was just too distracting and mainly I was there to avoid working terrible jobs. But the commercial artist gig really started to change how I viewed myself, work, etc. All the people I worked with over the years made me feel very talented and creative, they really gave me the confidence to continue a life in art and design.

How did you get started in this industrial salvage business?

Dino – A close co-worker of mine, Eric Ginter, turned me on to mid-century furnishings, general procurement and reselling ideas. We’d go shopping here and there, dumpster diving, etc. He always found the good stuff, even if it was right under my nose. It was a little frustrating at first, but I was hooked. It felt like freedom, like money could be made out of thin air. It took me back to High School when I used to hit the North Point Flea Market on the weekends with my girlfriend, but that was just for fun, this felt like it had a future. I was getting frustrating with my painting, and I couldn’t figure out how to sell them. Not to mention, I was really attached to the paintings and that made it harder. But this mid-century stuff was flying off the shelves. So I started to really apply myself to it, and hunting Mid-Century Modern junk online, in thrift stores, sleeping in my van in front of estate sales and then charging into someone’s home in the early a.m. with lines of people right behind me. And we started the Modern50 website in ‘03. But after a year or so we just did not see any sustainability in our current business plan. The procurement process was really taking the fun out of everything; the estate sales were grueling, the investment required to get the good stuff was steep, and the competition relentless. When you are a picker, you want to find things, you have to find things, when you don’t it is mentally exhausting and very disappointing. And not to mention, if you are fulltime, you arn’t eating. So something had to change, I had artist friends calling me a “Merchant!” Things were looking bleak, my art studio was full of modern junk and half finished projects. We had to widen our scope, trust our instincts, learn to reinvent the procurement process, get creative, exercise a different eye. Try to gear things more to our artistic sides. Stop doing the things we hated and replace them with other new things. For instance, I always really enjoyed the product photography part so I let myself play there more. I started buying certain smaller things just to photograph them. I started frankensteining Eames chairs. For example, for the Fourth of July 2005 Website Sale Front page Image, I took a blue Eames side shell fiberglass chair, a red vinyl cover and placed it on a black Nelson swag chair base. It was awesome, totally wrong, but beautiful. It was a great photo, totally wrong, different, and alluring. The once insignificant parts of the process was where I would often find myself enjoying the most. Like, styling Craigslist ads with overtly sexual content; a fireman’s outfit, a fluffy pink feather boa, a buoy and a bat. I don’t even know what we were selling there…ahhh, costumes for the ‘06 Halloween. Anyway, it was ludicrous, and it was fun. By Spring ‘08 the situation was right and we decided to make a fulltime go out of it. Re-tooled the Modern50 site and Eric started the Factory20 website. And slowly people started to notice, it was great, some of our quietest gut instincts were leading the way, and clients from NYC and the West Coast were really starting to pick up on the new direction.

What it is about industrial antiques that you think appeals to so many of us?

Eric – Time, it is precious, beautiful and invisible. When I see intense wear on the surface of a piece of furniture or an object, it sends my mind wandering off into some imaginary past. It’s captured. You can be a child again, or go back to a time before you existed and wax your mustache in the general store. This feeling can be deeper and more inspiring than the form itself. You might not be able to sit in it, or eat off it, or even use it but I think everyone wants some of that feeling in their living spaces. Describe your clientele? Our clientele is very creative and successful. These people recognize our vision and can make it applicable to the real world. They like to challenge the constructs of their respected industries, be it, interior design, photography, retail design or their spouses’ idea of what goes in the living room. They are looking for inspiration, and energy. How often are you searching for items and where do you find it? I do much more research than hunting really. I hit the books everyday for an hour or two, right now I am working through a towering column of National Geographic Magazines from around 1900 to 1947, and a huge early century newspaper collection from LA, especially digging the old LA Home magazine inserts. All of this spawns Google searches and internet research, etc. Not only is it an organic and unintentional learning process but it helps keep your procurement totally unpredictable. We have spent the last two years amassing thousands of square footage of industrial vintage furniture, hardware, and salvage, so right now it is nice to be in the shop shooting this stuff and working on projects.

You are a supply and demand sort of business and therefore have prices that many people may scoff at. Besides simply selling to people with deep pockets how do you attract the Ikea customers of the world?

Eric - I think we are carving out a little niche that suits our creative whims for now. We really enjoy the eclectic clientele that our websites attract. A lot of what we do is born out of a very esoteric place, far off the American main street. So I’d venture, it’s a place most nesting shoppers aren’t even interested in visiting.

Who does the set design and photography for the items on your sites? In most cases, I find the styling of each of these installations as appealing as the item itself.

Dino – Eric and I both do the photograph and the styling of the products we sell. We are a two man show. We both enjoy the variety of tasks, especially compared to the very specialized corporate design jobs out there. Our business straddles a lot of disciplines, we are trying to create an ever-evolving nonlinear consumer lifestyles collection. It is infinite and undefined. The creative and marketing really start to make sense and intertwine. I was really never able to see the big picture in the corporations I was creating graphics and icons for, even in the tiny startups.

The author Kurt Reighley has a terrific book that is in bookstores now entitled, “The United States of Americana.” In his book there is a section on architectural salvage and in it he describes an ecological angle, amongst other reasons, for the interest in old industrial items. He says, “according to some estimates as much as 20% of the solid material dumped in America’s landfills comes from building salvage, much of it wood that could be recycled.” Relating to that, do you feel a certain amount of satisfaction for keeping these items out of the dump? Are the recycling aspects of your business something you dwell upon?

Dino – Well this question reminds me of a funny line I heard, I think it was a pro skateboarder or something he said, “I don’t go out to eat at a 5-star restaurant to take a shit.” I think once you start to realize the value of a dollar and the value of living the way you want to live, granted that came to me quite late in life, you start to find a use for all of your waste. I think it comes natural to artists especially, to make the next run or series more authentic or unpredictable, it’s about always evolving. This kind of wasting nothing really lent itself to creating a wonderful workshop. It opens up so many more creative options and magical combinations during the creation process. For instance, I’ll save the big tar chunks off of the back of salvaged slate paneling to make dye, or the dirt on the shop floor (sawdust, slate dust, paper, hair, soot, tape etc.) for texturing and dirtying. I have jars of all kinds of weird things like wood wedges from old mirrors, chair glides, rusty nails, turn of the century bolts, collars/cogs, name plates, drawer pulls, metal numbers, corks, etc., etc. I think it comes quite naturally if you allow it and of course have the space, the faith, and the patience to use all this trash. As a result, our workshop is always bordering on total chaos, but we have learned that this is really necessary for originality, but also totally challenging, overwhelming, and frustrating. We always joke that our scrap wood pile is the third member of our business, at times it has been over 6 feet tall, and very, very jagged. Everything you do does not have to have an immediate intention. The coolest is to save it long enough to find out what its new purpose will be.

My brother, Kirk, pulled 4 very nice Paul McCobb dining chairs out of Goodwill a couple of years ago for $10 each. Can you describe any interesting steals or special finds you have come across?

Eric – Early on I used to hunt for things around D.C. But competition and constant disappointment really unscrewed my procurement tactics. Sleeping in the van in front of Estate Sales, Watching dealers cheat their way into the sales early was just not my thing. It was too rough and not very creative. I really had to rethink everything if I was gonna stay in this business. And so I slowly gravitated westward
to the country for my junk.

Best Field finds:
-Donald Deskey Art Deco Mahogany Desk $40 in 2004 at a Church Rummage Sale.
-George Nelson Gate fold Desk and Credenza Black Micarta and Mahongany $80 in 2004 at a Church Rummage Sale
-Sergio Rodrigues Livingroom Set in Carmel Leather (Settee and 2 Easy Chairs) in a Auto body Shop waiting room, still there-will not sell it, now one of the chairs is just in a pile on the floor, and the guy still will not sell it or throw it out.
-Pile of 6 Knoll Stainless Steel and Bronze Table Frames $200 at a country warehouse in PA.
-Pair of John Follis Architectural Pottery Tire Planters $37 at a city thrift store in DC.
-50 pieces of Gustavsberg Stig Lindberg Bersa Ceramic dinnerware $100 at an estate sale in Maryland.
-Hans Hansen Rosewood and Silver Jewelry Box $6 at an estate sale in Maryland.
-HA Jakobsen G70 floor lamp $5 at an estate sale in Maryland.

Best Online finds on eBay and Craigslist:
-Paul Landacre California Hills and Other Engraving book for $500 in 2003.
-Jim Houser hand paint skate deck for $400 in 2003.
-George Nelson Pair of ‘Half Nelson’ chrome lamps for $400 in 2008.
-Arne Jacobsen Pair of Oxford Chairs for $265 in 2008.
-1977 Red Honda CVCC $500 in 2008
-50 Hot Pinks Eames Fiberglass Chairs, $5000 in 05.
-1996 Subaru Outback $500 in 2007.
-M*A*S*H* Vietnam Era 30 foot military telescoping encampment lights, two set in boxes the size of caskets for $150 in 2008.

Is there anything in your collection that you simply cannot part with? If so, what it is it?

Dino – My paintings, mainly, and some trinkets from my Father. Getting a painting out of me is like an episode of American Pickers when they can’t get the farmer to sell anything. It’s funny; at times I am that paralyzed, irrational hoarder, that can’t let go. This business unforeseeably teaches you a lot about spirituality, especially attachment and unattachment. To pick the next great thing you really have to love it and sell it, it’s one action. Perhaps spiritual lessons just come with age but I have gotten a lot of lessons from this business. I really liked the Basquiat Cafe Table that was really a very proud creation of mine. The magic workshop in action; from total chaos and the things that you’ve tripped over for months to the most childlike of results. I never even took it home to live with it, and now it’s somewhere in NYC. When you create a piece of furniture, selling it is the last piece of the puzzle. Even with painting; I say I paint solely for myself; however, I desperately want people to like it. Even if the art is a deliberate depiction of my hatred of those unbeknownst future viewers, I live and die under their opinions, and buying is today’s the ultimate sign of desire.

I know you’re based in Virginia and have a showroom there. Do you have plans to open any more stores/showrooms?

Dino - No plans for expansion. Just dreaming of buying a factory or farm to live and work. Expanding into farming or other means of revenue in-lined with the area we decide to settle into would be great. Keep things new, keep learning, I try not to narrow my possibilities when it comes to making a living. It took me a long time to realize and develop the confidence to choose how I earn a living and now I can’t get enough. I like working with my hands and I really like the people that I work around and meet, never a dull moment, and totally unpredictable. I could not have gotten further from the old corporate world. I never was going to learn to like myself in that construct. I like being tired at the end of the day. I like putting my back into it, while I can.

Certainly shows like “American Pickers” help keep the fires burning but what do you see happening in your future down the road?

Eric – Would love to continue doing what we are doing for a long time. It would be nice to buy a barn and some land, get out of the city/suburbs. Have some room in the yard for several rusty cars, a few 33 gallon drums of filtering veggie oil for the wagon, play around with some mammoth architectural projects, and learn how to build a house.

Thanks again for the interview gentlemen.

They make frequent stops to Brooklyn to deliver their finds (9/27 next shipment) so be sure to join their Twitter pages:  Modern 50 & Factory 20 to stay informed.

Below is just a small collection of the great industrial ‘furniture’ finds these expert pickers have come across.  Be sure to check out their “Oddities” and “Fashion” sections.

Toledo Drafting Chair

Clothiers Long Work/Display Table

Metal/wood Industrial Tall Chests

Amish Pine Workbench

Industrial Lab Desk

German Industrial Display Unit

Artist Desktop Drawers

Belgian Townhall Seats

Vintage French Smokehouse Cabinet

Steel and Brass Atelier Cabinet

I have always loved the Triumph TR6.  Not necessarily the electrical workings of one but the lines and sound under the bonnet are perfection in my book.  The lead designer of a lot of the Triumph’s, Giovanni Michelotti, got it right most of the time and though Germany’s Karmann (of Karmann-Ghia fame) did the facelift, Giovanni’s aesthetic is all over the TR6.

As a kid there was a yellow one that I would regularly see tooling around my neighborhood and the look of it never left my imagination.  So once I moved to So Cal in 1996 I set my sights on buying one.  I got involved with the great folks at the Southern California Triumph Owners Association (SCTOA) to learn as much as I could about the cars and who I could get to help me restore one.  In 1997 I finally found a rust free 1971 TR6 with the much sought after “overdrive option” from a guy who had already stripped it down but was going through a divorce and needed to sell it.  I quickly snapped it up and began the year long process of buying the odd part on Ebay, vintage car shows, and scouring the pages of the Moss Motors catalog for after market parts.  Luckily the SCTOA has a bevy of knowledgeable mechanics and I found a true friend in Greg Cole.   He let me keep my car among his throng of old Brit bangers and on most weekends I would drive to his place in Chino, CA to work on it.  Finally in late 1998 she was back on the road.   Old Blue was a fairly reliable companion for 6 years but I had to let it go when I moved to the East Coast in 2005.

I recently came across some of my old Triumph memorabilia and this story I wrote that got published in the SCTOA’s monthly membership newsletter/book back in 1999. I am still looking for my pile of TR6 photos to post.

Click pages below a few times to enlarge

When we were thinking of a ten year anniversary logo I knew we would design it around an old labor union button.  I have always liked the colors, old fonts, and how they could cram all the little bits of info onto that little celluloid disc.  Obviously, they held significant meaning to the wearer but the button companies outfitting the unions seemed to take great pride in what they did as well.   One such company that proved to be more than just design inspiration for our logo was  G.H. (Grays Harbor) Stamp Works out of Aberdeen Washington.  I had seen a number of their old political and labor union pinbacks from the 30’s and 40’s and noticed their name written on the side so I thought I would see if they were still around.  Sure enough, Ron, Ken and David Windell are keeping the business alive and well that their Grandfather, Clary Windell, founded in 1916.

Besides buttons they can make rubber stamps and a plethora of other advertising specialties to fit anyone’s needs.

Grays Harbor Stamp Works circa 1919.

A sampling of their labor union buttons from the 40’s.

Our “Labor Union” 10 Year Anniversary Button.  Note the states abbreviations.

Not only do they do nice work, use old machines/techniques and keep an eye on the small details they still use old receipts, labels, letterhead, neat old boxes and a typewriter to address it all.  This is the sort of customer service and pride in what one does that our parents and grandparents were accustomed to and when experienced nowadays feels like you’re living in a different era.

*Give them a ring and be sure to ask for Ken – 1 800 894 3830

I met Nicco from Nauti & Co. at the Hoboken, NJ Art Fair last year and we keep in touch from time to time.  He recently emailed me some images of a clever, nautical themed olive spear he recently designed.  I am more of an olive fan than a martini fan but these little sterling silver gems were just too cool to keep to myself.

Terrific packaging as well.

Besides designing little cocktail accoutrements he is also fairly adept at building things from salvaged barn wood, weathered pallet skids, old lobster traps, 18th Century carpentry nails, and hemp rope, etc.

All made in his amazing 17th century barn complete with a bunch of big game trophies, including a recent hippo.

Winn Perry of Portland, OR, arguably one of the finer men’s shops in the NW, just got his first shipment of Colchester Rubber Co. high-top basketball sneakers and he sent us a couple of pairs.   I am always a bit intrigued when an old brand re-surfaces.  I remember meeting Michael Cassel from Stronghold Denim at a  Project Tradeshow 5 or 6 years ago and hearing how they found the remnants of an old pair, did the research and were now trying to rebuild the brand that was likely the the first denim brand in LA.  Colechester is really no different – a guy finds an old pair of sneakers in a Victorian era trunk at a estate sale for $2, does the research and tries to re-build the brand.

Oddly enough, Gary Pifer, the man who bought the shoes, has received quite a bit of flack because there are some who think the shoes he unearthed are fake and his claiming that these were the first basketball shoes was simply one big marketing hoax (a) and hoax (b.) You be the judge.  Gary, in fact, responds to the hoax allegations with a pretty plausible explanation but does not have proof to just how old they really are:

“I am the owner of the sneakers. Yes they are real. Converse has known about the sneakers for 4 years. Calling them a hoax without meeting me or seeing the actual sneakers is very lame.  So I will invite David Prescovitz to come to Oceanside, Ca. to view the Original Basketball Sneakers, and while he is here, I will show him other original Colchester Rubber Company’s 1880’s Tennis Sneakers, Rubber Work Boots, Original, Catalogs, Advertisements.  So as a hoaxer, I figured out an old obscure company, hatched a plan, came up with the old Basketball Sneakers idea then with no footwear experience, I was able to create an old looking shoe, by using natural gum rubber, I was able to inject red mold into antique twill and button weave adobe colored canvas along with adding mold to the cotton and celluloid shoe laces and tips. Then I was able to vulcanize the sole into a solid slab of rubber leaving in the impurities, then I poured melted rubber into a hand-carved turkey feather design mold while hand carving the cooling rubber with finer details.  Earth to David, I may have a Moderate IQ, but I ain’t that smart.  It was much easier, finding the Original 1892 Sneakers.”

It’s a pretty intriguing story and hopefully someone will come along  to adequately pin-point when they were made.  I tend to believe the shoes are indeed old but seem more modern than what shoe companies were churning out in the late 1800’s especially since the shoes CRC was offering at the same time were quite a bit different.  Perhaps another person tried to revive the brand in the 20’s or 30’s.  All speculation and hearsay of course…..

An e-mail to Gary has not been anwered as of yet.  I will update the post if I get one.

**UPDATE

I received an email from Craig Huck, Strategic Advisor at Sneaker LLC, Inc.

“I oversee operations for Sneakers LLC which holds the license to Colchester and several other heritage shoe brands for Gary. Will see if I can answer your questions to your satisfaction.

Your analogy is a good, regarding the futuristic prototype. These shoes are indeed original, and dated 1892. The working on the sole alone predates technology from the 20’s or 30’s. Regarding the “hoax” theory floating around, we believe that it can be shown to be fueled by a competitor in the marketplace, who made some statements to one of the sites, but failed to disclose his own shoe line which bears a stricking resemblence to what he has denouced as fraud. The uppers to his shoes are a different material but the basic model is very very similar. We have chosen not to respond any longer, rather are letting our shoes speak for themselves.

The shoes actually cost 50 cents, which is one of the best purchases I have ever heard of!”

I got to thinking about my 20 year old Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars recently.  That’s right, these were purchased in Mankato, MN in 1989 while visiting my friend Michael’s hometown one weekend during my first year of college.   They have been a trusty companion all these years and logged a lot of miles.  My wife, myself and my daughter all wore our Chuck Taylors to the latest rainy and muddy All Points West Music Festival in Jersey City.  This photo was taken in front of The Black Keys stage.

I am not one to wear shorts with LL Bean duck boots or wellies and we both figured we would just throw them into the wash later anyways.  So we slopped through the mud and muck with nary a thought.  When all was said and done they came out a lighter shade of black than they used to be but I was fine with that.

Most of us have owned a few pairs.  I think I have owned 4 pairs over the years.  My first pair came from Sears in the Goldsmith’s Shopping Center in Memphis, TN.  I was in 2nd grade and saw these gold canvas shoes with a blue star and remember thinking how cool they were.  They even beat out the red, white and blue Bruce Jenner tennis shoes that were also there.  That day I am sure I also got a few pairs of Sears Toughskins and some football jerseys.  As you can see below, I tend to get good use out of my purchases.

The history of the Converse Rubber Co. (also known as the Boston Rubber Shoe Company) is pretty interesting and if it wasn’t for Chuck Taylor, a sales rep that came on in the early 20’s, the company would be nowhere near it is today.  With 800 Million pairs sold it is clearly heads above the rest.   Formed in 1908 in Malden MA by Marquis Mills Converse, his first offerings were winterized rubber soled footwear for men, women, and children and soon after also made tires.  A few years later they started making tennis shoes then finally in 1917 they started manufacturing the canvas All-Star basketball shoe.  In 1921 Chuck Taylor was hired to do sales but ended up being integral in the development of the canvas basketball shoe.  Not only did he suggest fabricating the shoe differently for greater flexibility and support, he’s the one who came up with the idea of stitching on a circular patch to protect the ankle.

The All-Star logo went on the patch immediately, and by 1923, Chuck Taylor’s name was on the patch as the shoe became the “Chuck Taylor All-Star.”

Chuck Taylor, a basketball player himself, would take his shoes on the road and introduce scores of Americans to the sport, do clinics with the shoes and pitch them to teams and stores.  Sales soared and the Chuck Taylor All-Star became standard issue on pro, collegiate and high school courts nationwide.  Oddly enough, Chuck, who catapulted Converse to epic heights never made a dime on his shoes aside from his salary.

During WWII, Taylor became a fitness consultant for the war effort, and soon GI’s were doing their drills in the olive or black high-top Chuck Taylor’s that became the official sneaker of the US Armed Forces.  During the war Converse also produced parkas, rubber protective suits, ponchos for pilots and troops and the A6 Flying Boot, which the entire U.S. Army Air Corps wore.

In 1947 white high-tops originated for the 1948 Olympics.

By 1950 virtually all pro players are wearing Chuck Taylor All Stars.   Hollywood also helped the wildly popular Chuck Taylor All-Star (a.k.a. “Chucks”, “Cons”, “Connies”) transcend the sport to become deeply entrenched in popular American culture, like Levi’s and Coca~Cola.

The 60’s and 70’s saw Converse producing new athletic performance footwear, apparel and accessories for basketball, tennis, football, track, wrestling and other sports.  In 1962 Converse developed the low cut version of its All Star, called an “oxford,” which soon became the shoe of choice for pro players.  By the time the mid 70’s rolled around the company was using more leather on their basketball shoes and Dr. J put his stamp on the Pro Leather series.

That’s where I will cut it off.  One sad note – in 2003 Nike bought Converse and the era of the 2 ply cotton canvas upper ended.

My friend Paul was in town from Los Angeles recently and one of his main missions was to look for any of the new Mattel Hotwheels Dragstrip Demons that he was missing.  Paul got into these little diecast beauties when his friends son Ziggy showed him one about 6 months ago.  I must admit I was a bit surprised that Paul was into collecting anything called Dragster Demons, much less Hotwheels toy cars.  But once he showed me the Hotwheels site and filled me in with the details I could see what he was talking about.  It really brought me back as I was an avid collector as a lad.

Though the name of the series, Dragster Demons, may suggest some dark, spaced out dragster on steroids that turns into a demon transformer they are actually quite tame.  In fact, they are mini replicas of super stock and funny cars that existed in the NHRA circuit back in the 60’s and 70’s.  Each tiny decal is meticulously added by hand, the wheels are real rubber, and they are true diecast cars without an ounce of plastic.  Once you hold one you can see and feel the quality.  This limited edition series has around 30 models so far with my favorites being the more super stock cars of the 1960’s.

Dave Strickler’s ‘65 Dodge Coronet A/FX

“Dandy” Dick Landy’s ‘65 Dodge Coronet A/FX

Don Prudhomme’s ‘70 Plymouth Baracuda

The Wilshire Shaker ‘63 Chevy Nova

If you are into vintage stock and funny cars here are a few links to check out:

60’s Funny Cars & 70’s Funny Cars has loads of great shots.

Hot Rod has a great article on a man living his dream of having a 1963 Chevy Nova. Photos are sweet.

Jungle Pam is a terrific site dedicated to Jim Liberman “Jungle Jim” arguably the greatest showman in drag racing history.  Be sure to check out “Pix of Pam.” I bet all the wrenches loved her.

Water Winter Wonderland has a pretty interesting section on old dragstrips and what they looked like then and now.

Jalopy Journal has a never ending thread featuring photo after photo of 60’s mopar stock and super stock dragsters.

Bicycles have been used in the military since WWI and if anyone has spent anytime at an Army-Navy Surplus you have undoubtedly ran into a couple.  The Japanese, Brits, Italians, Germans, Danes, and Chinese all had airborne bicycle divisions to get troops into enemy territory.  They were cheap, most were foldable, required no fuel and were virtually silent.  However, no military utilized the bicycle more so than the Bicycle Grenediers of the Swiss Army.  They disbanded in 2003 after 100 years of service.   Das Schweizer Militaerfahrrad & Militaer Velo shop has all your Swiss bike needs covered.  Army Bike Carl has some terrific info and photos of Swiss Military bikes as well.

Swiss Light Infantry Bicycle 1940’s-1950’s

Swiss Light Infantry Bicycle 1990’s

Apparently, the US military was not as keen on outfitting their airborne troops with bikes strapped to them.  That said, Huffman and Westfield Columbia both made excellent bikes for the US military.  The Westfield Columbia models are the most desirable and are quite rare. These were mainly used to get around the bases, airfields, depots and I suspect a great many beer runs.

WWII Westfield Columbia

McCellan Field, Sacramento, CA in 1942

If you want to learn more about military bicycle history look no further than this thesis by Major Stephan Tate from 1989 on the, “Suitability of using bicycles to enhance the mobility of U.S. light infantry units.”  It will no doubt educate your head off.  188 pages! I noticed this in Stephan’s thesis and it doesn’t surprise me in the least:

“The bicycle’s simplicity may be the reason it has been constantly overlooked by the American military.”

Located in England, Buy Vintage, is a very detailed and thorough site dedicated to buying vintage vehicles.  It’s packed with interesting, rarely seen gas and pedal powered modes of transportation.  I was skimming through it recently and ran across the English company BSA (Birmingham Small Arms Co.) who made airborne bicycles for the British paratroopers.  It turns out they made around 70,000 of these foldies from 1939-1942.  However, by the time the big invasions of 1944 came around the Brits had bigger aircraft than the Hotspur to fly in Jeeps, etc.  Apparently the soldiers disliked the bike intensely and discarded them within a few miles of the beach.  Can you blame them?  Just imagine hitting the beaches of Normandy with Germans firing on you with all that gear + a bike to lug in the deep sand.

British Commandos with BSA Paratroopers Bicycles Preparing for D-Day, June 1944

Enroute to Normandy

Canadian Troops Landing with BSA Airborne Bicycles

BSA Airborne Bicycle. After the war, Hudson Bay & Co. was selling them for around $5US.

More military bike info can be found here:

Strikehold

The Liberator

Bcoy

My daughter, Matilda and I were in NYC a couple of months ago and besides visiting our friends over at Unis and having some rice pudding at, “From Rice to Riches” we stumbled across a photographer named Ramon on Spring Street. He uses an old box camera and developes the image using a wet-plate process.  Matilda’s flowery frock and head-band made it look even more like 1969.

I mentioned this to my photographer friend Mikael Kennedy who will be shooting our Spr. 2010 collection and he told me about a woman, named Keliy Anderson-Staley who continues to use this Civil War era style printing process in her Long Island City, NY studio.   She uses wooden view cameras with 19th Century brass lenses.  Mikael and his GF recently sat for her and here are a few of the shots.

You may absolutely detest guns but to deny all of their lore, history, and design would be impossible.  I own a Winchester, a Ruger and a chrome Baby Browning .25 with pearl handle.  Here are a few of my all time favorite pre-war and WWII models.

Mauser C-96 model 712 – select-fire with removable 20 round magazine

Mauser HSC

Walther P38

Browning patent Colt 1904 Pocket Pistol

Colt 1873 Single Action Army, Cavalry model.  (This is for you Dad)

Apache Pocket Pistol

If you are into historic firearms and militaria check out N. Flayderman & Co. for a terrific collection.

Interesting, thought provoking quotes by modern leaders on guns

I was surprised to see this one by the Dalai Lama of all people:

“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” (May 15, 2001, The Seattle Times)