Phone photo 3093

The other side of Santa and the reindeer

Montesano, Washington

Phone photo 3076

Christmas smile

Postcard - Olympia, Washington

"Olympia, Washington -- This is the Capitol City of the State of Washington, and also is a port at the southern tip of Puget Sound."

A view of downtown Oly in the 1960s, looking north on Capitol Way. I could tell 100 stories just from using parts of this image as a starting place.

For example: The Santa Claus character I used in the Bezango WA 985 series was based on a real person. The incident took place in that green building in the left background, the Mottman Building.

Weird Gifts From My Brother

I try to weed these things out every once in awhile, but for years my brother Bryan has exhibited a strange taste in holiday and birthday gifts. Some examples:


Bad albums are a staple (yes, I still play vinyl). This one is right up there among the worst, Come On In! by the New Hope Singers International, "A musical collage from Jamaican calypso to the sounds of ancient Scotland to American rock." This group was sponsored by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.


That's a picture of little Stevie sitting on a kiddie potty in Spokane, Washington back in the 1950s. The potty is adorned the head of some kind of poultry. I guess that makes it partly poultry. Get enough of these together and you can throw a partly poultry potty party.

Anyway, why is this photo encapsulated in a Kellogg's Corn Flakes place mat?


When I almost threw out this papier-mâché model of planet Earth (made by my brother when he was in grade school) as we were cleaning out the family farm in order to sell it a few years ago, Bryan stopped me and made a big deal of presenting it to me as a precious relic. And I, perhaps foolishly, accepted it.

My own name plate! How thoughtful.


Hey! Look! What every household needs, a concave Jesus face!

I think this is supposed to be something you can use in creating an illusion with light, either that or it is a really freaky gelatin mold.


My phone camera is not the greatest when it comes to close-ups. This amputee Leprechaun wasn't so lucky, apparently. Note the bloody stump. Maybe he was a leper, thus making him a Leperchaun. Also, leaving the tag with an obviously doctored inflated price is another frequent theme in these gifts as a demonstration of how "priceless" they are. In this case the cheap piece of crap was supposedly purchased for at least 22 bucks.

Ruth loved clowns so much she kept one in a jar!

Where does he get this stuff?

Santa has an array of little finishing nails in his beard. I think this is supposed to be an advent calendar, but the effect is quite creepy.


There has been much, much more over the years. I do look forward to receiving these fine items and perhaps I should start cruising garage sales now in order to return the favor next holiday season.

Phone photo 1023

Happy Holidays from McCleary, Washington!

The old locomotive and horse drawn fire wagon got spiffed up for this year

Phone photo 1019

Christmas, ca. 1964

Thanksgiving is over, let the Seasons Greetings greetings begin!

I found this large tempera painting on butcher paper in my studio yesterday. I'm guessing this was created about 1964. Santa and an elf are trying to move a stubborn reindeer in the snow. It is no accident the reindeer looks a little bit like a Shetland pony, since at that time we had a herd of about 70 ponies (mostly Shetland, some New Forest) on the family farm.

Christmas card, 1971

A silkscreen job. The card opens in the middle.

Retreads 9

1st edition, November 2005, 25 copies, white cover, regular digest size.

Trivia:

Pages 1-3: Yes, I really did interview J.P. Patches.

Pages 7-11: It is safe to say I did not enjoy the graduate school experience. But then again, I wasn't supposed to. The first panel portrays Lee Norton (who, for reasons I don't want to even begin to guess at, wore a duck decoy on her cranium once) interviewing Morty for an article entitled "Morty Dog, Come Home." This was originally in the Cooper Point Journal and reprinted in Retreads 4.

Pages 23-24: This particular teacher died last Fall at the age of 101. She was a sweetie. I hated algebra and used to draw cartoons on the margins. She would return my papers with the grade: "Math - D, Art -A." As you can see, I attended a pretty wild junior high during the Vietnam War era.

This is the only issue of Retreads still available at Poopsheet.