starting to return to normal

For the last month or so I've been busy working on my zine for the Portland Zine Symposium. This is why things have been so quite here.

The zine I made this year is all about Vintage Postcards! I wanted to do some outreach, teach some folks about them and tell them why they're so neat. People seemed to be really interested in them at the symposium and I even gave away some applications to the local Postcard Club.

If you read this blog, you probably already are a collector, but if you're interested I thought I'd let you know about the new zine. Below is a picture of my table at the zine symposium last weekend. You can read more about that on my other blog here.

This new issue of my hodge-podge themed zine Paper Crush is Paper Crush #4. Each zine comes with a free vintage postcard. You can find it at here on The Cedar Chest shop.

Now, I am working on getting the house and my life back in order. A back injury and a cold haven't helped me much. Hopefully, I'll be posting more postcards and photographs soon.

NE Tillamook and 15th St

I'm incredibly smitten with beautiful and unique house that has long left Portland. I just found out about it from the blog Vintage Portland. This wonderful image is from the University of Oregon Libraries and when you look at the large image it is overwhelming how clear a picture it is. What a stunning house, I so wish I could see it.

This is what is there now. The little white house next door still stands, but unfortunately this run of the mill apartment building is now where this house once stood. The house was demolished in 1965.

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Not everything can survive of course, but I'm sure glad that at least someone got an image before the house was gone.

are you with the cats or dogs?

Did you're 4th of July weekend look like this picture above?

Or maybe it looked more like the one below?

Vacation or Staycation - whatever you did hope you cats and dogs had a great time.

These postcards were drawn by European artist Eugen Hurtung. The images were popular and used on postcards which are still sold today. They are usually called Mainzer cats after the name of the publisher. The really early cards from the 1950's were published by Kunzli in Switzerland. (information taken from this site>

let's get a treat

I would so love to go to this Soda Fountain in Portland. Unfortunately, it's long gone. I would like someone in Portland to make a sweet pretty place like this ( no more 50's style diners, please) where we can get green river sodas and malts with extra malt.

This soda fountain postcard was sent April 9th, 1914 to Mrs William Forest in Fairview, OR. It was sent by Lizzie and she started the note off with "Sisters".

Lizzie was taking care of some people who had the measles. The people with the measles lived at 1279 E Yamhill. The exact house number is not there. It could be gone or renumbered. There are some old houses in that neighborhood.

The Holland Restaurant is another lost restaurant I totally want to go. I see these postcards pretty regularly. The Holland was a pretty popular place from what I gather and I think there were more than one. The last one closed in 2001. It was in Vancouver.

The people behind the Holland are the same people who own the Burgerville Fast Food local chain. Which, by the way, is the best fast food ever. So, good, lots of quality, local foods and good vegetarian options.

Here's some good info about The Holland / Burgerville history:

In 1922, Jacob Propstra, a Dutch immigrant who had moved to the United States in 1912, and shortly thereafter took a job at the Old Imperial Creamery in Portland, founded the Holland Creamery in downtown Vancouver, Washington. The butter and egg business evolved into the Holland Butter and Ice Cream Co., and when Sunday visitors stopped by to sample the product, Propstra added cones. In 1928, the business moved to another nearby location. Propstra put in tables and chairs, and, in 1933, he began to offer cheese sandwiches at the newly expanded Holland Restaurant. The average per customer sale at the time added up to about 11 cents.

In 1935, shortly after the restaurant began to offer sandwiches, George Propstra, Jacob's son, who was three months short of completing a college business degree, joined his father in the family business. George Propstra had started out scooping ice cream, washing cans, and wrapping butter as a boy, along with his two brothers--all "part and parcel of being in one of those dairy families," as he described it in a 1982 Oregonian article.

In 1956, Jacob Propstra retired and George Propstra assumed control of the business and "realized that the butter, egg, and ice cream businesses were all to be dominated by big outfits. ... We finally saw the handwriting on the wall," he was quoted as saying in the Oregonian. "[A]t the time, we were a one-horse operation." However, there was room to grow in the restaurant business. "We had had a taste of the restaurant business and could see it was a small man's business. You could grow slowly and carefully, opening one restaurant at a time." In 1957, The Holland added a $30,000 bakery addition, located in the restaurant building; the bakery sold Danish and French pastries and all types of cakes. (info from here)

I could really go for a lime soda and a danish pastry.

parade

The Rose Festival is going on here in Portland. Not one for groups of 350,000 people, I prefer to watch the Starlight Parade and the Rose Parade on TV. But, I do like parades. Sometime I would like to go to a small town parade like the one here.

These pictures were taken July 22, 1979 during "Old Homesteaders Days" in Osborn, Montana. Each photo says this along with a short description on the back. I got these a couple years ago from a fellow Webfooter.

On the back: Marie and Frank Sinclair as Grand Marshalls

On the back: Dog holding on to mistresses back

before the eruption

Today is the anniversary of the Mt St Helen's eruption in 1980. I recently got a stash of Washington State memorabilia at the Webfooters auction and looked through it tonight for some Mt St Helen's related stuff. Sure enough, I found some things.

I have a number of photos from an aerial tour that a women took not too long before the mountain erupted. Judging by the photos I would guess they were taken around 1977-1980.

written on back: Mt Adams now directly behind St Helens.

written on back: more black smoke, we were six miles away

Below is some stationery from around 1930. It came in a set with other local mountains on other pages. The image is actually a linen type finish small postcard glued on the paper.

I wasn't living here when Mt St Helen's blew. I was about 14 and living in Southern California. I do remember it, though and all the footage.

I see Mt St Helens often from the Fremont bridge when I drive home from work. It isn't the perfect Mt Fuji of the America as they used to call it, but I like the weird shape of it.

professional

I love finding old Portland advertising postcards and ephemera. Here are two I got a while ago.

This postcard is advertising Dral Cleaners, which still exists in the same spot in the Sellwood neighborhood. I'll have to go visit sometime.

This other postcard ad is awesome. Ralph Vincent looks like quite the professional and serious photographer, don't you think? He looks like so many character actors, in fact he looks a lot like the guy who played the psychiatrist in Miracle on 34th Street.

The three month calender is curious. Was it his busy season? Also, why couldn't he take off his coat? His office in SW Portland is long gone.

Anyway, I like his style.

Maybe Ralph took the picture for the Dral Cleaners postcard.