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Fifty years ago, in our bicentennial year of 1976, Scholastic published an amazeballs guide to monsters. School was just cooler then, wasn't it? Movie monsters, mythical creatures and cryptids could be mixed into the lesson plans alongside multiplication tables, the metric system and spelling quizzes. I'm guessing Pennywise, Slender Man and the backrooms don't get that same treatment today, but…
This is the last page of the July 1950 telephone directory for Kingsville, Texas . The Southwestern Bell Telelphone Company lists the do's and don'ts for the polite use of party line telephone service , which was still widespread in the United States at that point. You're a LEMON if, among other things, you refuse to give up the line during an emergency (and you could have been criminally charged,…
This quarter-page advertisement appears in the May 1986 issue of Computer Gaming World magazine, which features MicroLeague Baseball , Autoduel and Alter Ego , among other games, on its cover. It represents a bold move, for sure: Trying to cater to the segment of 1980s computer nerds who were just champing at the bit for a good Jane Austen game. Sold by New Mexico-based Berserker Works Ltd., Pride…
When I was an eighth-grader at Madeira Beach Middle School during the 1984-85 school year, I took an introduction to computers class taught by Joseph Ventimiglia. I think this was the textbook we used to learn about and program the TRS-80s that were stationed around the sides and back of the classroom with Color BASIC . We had to supply our own cassette tape to save and load our programs. I…
I received the above Postcrossing card a couple days ago in the mail. It had been mailed from Germany in late July, and its sender wrote: Hi Chris, I was very impressed about your profile & your philosophy about life & the world. I had to check twice if you're from America, as for me it doesn't sound like typical American values. Speaking of, I live in Cologne, Germany, but in memory of the attack…
Title: The Ghost Hunter's Road Book Author: John Harries. According to the blurb on the back cover: "John Harries has been a full-time writer since the war, in which he served with the R.A.F. A specialist in travel, he has visited every corner of the British Isles in search of the unusual and tourist-appeal material and currently lives in the Chiltern Hills, within audible distance of one of the…
This is probably the best photo I'll take in 2026. Cats Spice , left, and Smoky , right, are looking out the kitchen window at Poe the fledgling raven, who is sitting on the outside table to stay cool in the blazing heat and/or get my attention so I'll bring him/her some Temptations cat treats. Sitting in the sink and looking directly at me, annoyed, is Monkey , who wants me to turn the faucet on…
I'm in a Facebook group in which folks share memories of the old WKBS-TV (Channel 48) out of Burlington, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. (I've mentioned this group before on Papergreat.) In recent months, users have been sharing and commenting upon a wide variety of bumpers that were used by the station, mostly in the 1970s. I want to reshare them here for posterity, to give them a greater…
Sorry it's been so long between posts. 1 Title: The Haunted Mountain Author: Mollie Hunter (1922-2012). Her full name was Maureen Mollie Hunter McIlwraith and she was known for her fantasy-tinged tales that are inspired by Scottish history or folklore. Her 2012 obituary in The Scotsman notes: "She produced most of her books from her home in Milton, a small village near Drumnadrochit in the…
I'm estimating that this photo is from 1978 or 1979. My sister Adriane and I are at the Stone Harbor, New Jersey , beach house of our friends from Delaware County , the Mancills. We look very spiffy in our matching sweaters, which tell us that this wasn't taken in the middle of the summer. I don't know if I can say anything nice about either of our pants, though. I have three specific…
