Thrifty Vintage Thursday Thingies

Today I will be joining two different blog parties, which is OK, because I have two different things to show off.

I am joining:
Vintage Thingie Thursday at The Coloradolady
Because, although I don't know all the details, they sure look vintage to me,

And, I will be joining: Thrifty Thursday at Tales From Bloggeritaville
Because it doesn't get much thriftier than this.


First of all, I have to say how and where I got them.

Those who read Diann's post Wednesday about junking, will know I am not above a bit of dumpster diving, curb crawling or various other means of acquiring treasures.

Well, I was just driving down the road, minding my own business, when I saw this big pile of trash bags sitting out at the curb, with legs sticking out from the top of the pile.

Not people legs, of course, but table-ish legs. So, I stopped to see what it was.
Someone had thrown these two treasures out with the trash.

Now, I don't know when this telephone table was made, but Diann and I were just talking about what The Princess will think in a few years when she hears the term "telephone table".

Um sure, I can set it on a table if you want, but why not put it back in my purse?

Kind of like the 53 Cadillac, some things are just gone from todays world...




It's rough, but I think I can work with it, to give it some new life. It has some neat detail in it.



And this one was made sometime between 1974 and 1979, if my research is reliable. Which makes it younger than me, so not technically vintage, but well out of its' youth.








I haven't even plugged it in to see if the motor works yet, but I did notice that it has a belt, a needle, and a bobbin, in fact there is still thread in the bobbin, so I think it has all its' parts.

Somebody here collects old sewing machines, I don't remember who, but I'm sure once I start playing with it, I can get some good advice on how to make it work.

I like to tinker and play with stuff like that. Refinishing the table won't be as fun, but you have to take the good with the bad, I suppose.

Now, I admit, they both need some TLC. But you can't beat the price.

Heck, they would have been a good deal at twice the price!

~{@ @}~ ~{@ @}~ ~{@ @}~ ~{@ @}~

Be sure and join me each Tuesday for Tuesday Trivia Tie-in, where readers are invited to share trivia and show off their treasures.


Read all about it here

Vintage Thingy Thursday - Jumpin Jack Flash!

Today is Thursday, and that means a visit to:


The Coloradolady for Vintage Thingy Thursday

To explore the treasures of yesteryear.

Check out the cool cookie jar that she got and while you read, here is something to think about.

We know that Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, and that he had a great fall, and that all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. But here is the real question: What, exactly, did they expect the horses to do?

OK, now that you have pondered that, it's time for my vintage thingy!

Way, way back in the early fall of 2009, (remember back then?) Diann was posting about some good deals at Aldi's and she posted about a great deal they had on a generator. I saw that post and dropped a hint to Santa that he may want to do some shopping at Aldi's.

Well, Santa is no dummy, he knows a good deal when he sees it, so he ran (flew?) right over and got one. (He actually got two of them, one for me and one for my Father-in-law but who's counting?)

So, knowing that I may be getting a generator for Christmas I let Diann know I would be interested in getting a couple of gas cans. I wanted to be able to take our trailer back into the woods and not be running out for gas every day.

I could have just gone and bought a new one, but it really bugged me to pay $15 for an empty plastic bottle.

Well, Diann is every bit as smart as Santa, so she watches for good deals too. We spent most of last summer camping, while she combed the flea markets, thrift stores, antique barns, yard sales, bargain barns and other secret sources for bargains and deals.

So, I was not surprised when she showed up with this beauty.



I WAS pleasantly surprised when she told me how much she had paid for it.



This was one of those, OK, I'll buy item A if you throw in Item B for 50 cents kind of deals, so as part of a package deal of bargains, this one was less than a dollar.



It has a bit of a dent in the top. I think I can straighten it out a little, I haven't tried yet, but, the lid still screws on and off, so it's not critical.





I'm not sure of the details, but check out the vented lid, with the
spring loaded vent.





I don't know exactly how old it is, but I do know that plastic cans were developed and introduced into the general market in the mid 1970's, so for a metal design to be a "new" design, as specified on the side, I imagine it is somewhat older than that.


And now, since I can't seem to post something without a touch of trivia, here is a tidbit or two.

This can was made by the Eagle Manufacturing Company of Wellsburg, West Virginia. Eagle was founded in 1894 as a decorative glass company. They started with metalwork when they needed to make metal lids for their glass jars. Then, as industry demand grew, they grew to meet the demand. By 1907 they were making metal cans for the railroad industry. In the 1970's, as Occupational Safety became more of a concern, they expanded their line to include a wide variety of safety items.

Incidentally they still make a 2.5 gallon metal can. You can buy them brand new online if you want. Check out the price.


The very best vintage thingies are the ones where you get a really good bargain! So, although Diann did the bargaining on this one, it was still a thrifty purchase. That's why I feel good about linking this post to

Thrifty Thursday at Tales From Bloggeritaville Check out the other thrifty blog posts over there!

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway, you can be entered up to 6 different times!


Read all about it and enter here.


Be sure and join me each Tuesday for Tuesday Trivia Tie-in, where readers are invited to share trivia and show off their treasures.


Read all about it here
I apologize in advance to any anonymous posters. Because of the large amount of SPAM I was getting, I had to block anonymous comments.
Sorry,

Troy

A Good Deal Popped Up

I have never been one to call myself cheap. Thrifty, frugal, economical, maybe but not cheap.

But that doesn't mean I don't like cheap things.

One of the things we have really been trying to do is find cheap snacks. It seems like there are two kinds of snacks.
Type A) Expensive, fattening and delicious.

Or

Type B) Cheap, nutritious, and unsatisfying.

Maybe that's an exaggeration, but not a very big one.

But one thing that Diann and I both like is popcorn. Now, you can go buy those bags of microwave popcorn, if you want, and I admit, they are quick and easy if you are desperate, but nothing beats the taste of real fresh popped corn.

We have a popcorn popper. It's a really nice one. It looks kind of like this:



It has a 12 oz kettle and is capable of popping about 250 oz. of corn an hour. For those of us who aren't math whizzes, I got out a pencil and paper and figured it out. That's about 15 lbs of unpopped corn. For reference, when you go to the movies and order a large popcorn, you are getting about 3 oz. so our popper can make somewhere around 80 large theatre sized popcorns an hour. (I bought this back in the mid 90's, and it was a thrifty deal when I got it, but that's a different story for a different day.)

So, we don't use it much at home. It's great for family reunions, neighborhood parties, or church and PTA carnivals, but for home we needed something a little smaller.

We have been looking, and to buy a new popcorn popper we couldn't find anything less than about $30, so we have been putting off buying one. We have been checking thrift stores, trying to find a used one, but all we could find were those air-pop poppers, and we weren't quite willing to sacrifice the flavor of "real" popcorn yet.

So Diann has been making popcorn the old fashioned way, in a 6 qt pot, on top of the stove. I've never made popcorn this way, and have no idea how to do it, so every time I wanted popcorn, I had to give Diann some subtle hints, like leaving the pot on the stove along with the canister of popcorn, a bottle of oil, and maybe a couple of empty bowls. (yeah I know, subtle isn't one of my strong points.)

The worst part of this deal is that since Diann made the popcorn, it was only logical that I should clean up. Burnt on oil is really hard to scrub out of the bottom of a stainless steel pot.

Well, the other night, at the thrift store, I found this treasure:



And what made it more of a treasure was the price. I paid $3.99.

Just for reference the same model popper, numbered 099 (mine is number 040) was listed on E-bay at the time I wrote this for $89.36.



It was made by the Robeson Cutlery Company at the Perry NY facility. There isn't a manufacture date on it, but it says "PAT PEND". Since some research on the company shows that they applied for the patent on this particular popper on January 17, 1966, and the patent was granted on October 12 1971, so I surmised that it was made between those dates.

A little bit of history on Robeson Cutlery:

Beginning:

Millard F. Robeson founded the company which bore his name in 1879 as a cutlery jobbing firm, operating from his home in Elmira, NY. Selling knives was, at first, a side-line but business grew. Robeson’s first storage area was his dresser drawers but, as additional space was needed, it overflowed into the closet and underneath the bed. Upon returning from a business trip and finding his cutlery inventory moved to the porch, he agreed with Mrs. Robeson that larger facilities were needed. They first came in the form of a new room added to the house, next a new building adjacent to the home, and finally a move to the New York town of Camillus.Read more.

And ending:

...in the 1960’s Robeson soon found itself and its products out of place in a world of big companies, foreign competition, and demand for more basic, non-premium cutlery... ...In 1971, Ontario Knife Co., Franklinville, NY, bought what was left of Robeson cutlery business. The Perry cutlery facilities closed in 1972 with the Robeson line being discontinued in 1977. Read more.

We tried it out tonight.





Now all we need are a couple of good movies to watch.

I will be linking this post to a couple of different blog parties:

Vintage Thingie Thursday at The Coloradolady

And

Thrifty Thursday at Tales From Bloggaritaville