Author: Pam's Pictorama

Open – Sez Me: Part One

Posted by

2

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Not often, but occasionally my purchases are essentially practical and today’s purchase was one, although certainly some style here. Somehow in the most recent office move from my last job I failed to pack my letter opener which was of the most utilitarian variety although I had some fondness for it because of the sheer number of years (decades) it had been in my possession, however there was nothing notable about it.

I have been in the work force long enough to have gone through a period with a lot more physical mail than I currently receive. Early in my career I have distinct memories of opening piles of mail every day at the Met. In fact sometimes I worry that the mail at work has failed because we go so long with absolutely none. Physical mail is so seldom now that I had a staffer who didn’t seem to know where to place the stamp on a letter he was sending for me.

Meanwhile, as a fundraiser I was surprised that my current office had never used a business reply envelope. For those not in the know, that’s what those envelopes which allow you to respond for free are called. (There is a permit number on the return address and sometimes it says, A stamp here will save XYZ money.) The postage for each envelope received back is paid by the organization, but hey, if you are sending me money I’ll pay a dollar for your envelope back to me. It’s a good return on investment and removes at least one impediment from making a gift – having to find a stamp.

When I discovered this a few months ago I went down the specifically postal rabbit hole of applying for a permit. I never worked any place without a permit so this was all new to me, nor could I find anyone else who had to apply for one within my circle. After getting an old account out of the way (a ghost account which seemed rather romantic but, not surprisingly, didn’t seem to actually do anything) I spent a lot of time on the USPS website and on the phone with their service people. I, in fact on some bad advice, went to the Main (Farley) Post Office here in NYC. As some might know, the building was purchased by the city and space recently carved out under this grand building to create a new home for Penn Station.

The interior of the post office, the James A. Farley building, is beautiful and I couldn’t resist a few shots despite my disappointment.

It was my first (and likely my last) visit to this post office as they do absolutely nothing there. (Does this mean there is no main post office in NYC?) Yes, you can mail things and yes, you can evidently apply for a passport there, but even an attempt to buy stamps will send you online. As you can imagine, I was told that the administrative office I was seeking was now long gone. They did, to their credit, supply me with the number to phone for help.

I am here to report that, once you get through the red tape of an annoying phone system and get to the folks (all women in this case and I spoke to several) to help you they are a great, smart and helpful group. My hat goes off to Ana, Sabriya, and Arkeda. They know their stuff and they were dogged in their efforts to help me. They coached me through filling out arduous forms, filing them and then shepherding them through the various routing. They even told me when they would be on vacation and who I could work with during that time. I praised them unstintingly in a series of final surveys and thanked them profusely. Frankly, I would hire any of them in a heartbeat if I could.

But come on, they don’t even sell stamps?

It has left me with mixed feelings about the post office. At their instruction I went to the local post office to my job to file the forms with a check to cover the annual fee and open the account. The staff was rude and at one point stood around in a group talking about me in the third person and told me to shut up when I tried to speak. What’s more, I probably shouldn’t need someone to coach me through a labyrinth site and series of mystical forms. So although I give the women above the highest grades, I give the USPS a failing grade in general. My experience as it relates to this interaction is that these women are an island of competent help in a morass of sub par service. (With apologies to others at the USPS who are hard working and doing their job!)

This was the Plain Jane variety opener I had been using for decades.

Anyway, all this to say, if I have my way more mail will come to my office shortly, hopefully in the form of contribution checks. And, to bring us back to my recent purchase, I actually like to open envelopes neatly with a letter opener. When you are handling money coming into an office for various reasons the envelope can be important (proof of mailing date, return address) so better if you don’t end up tearing it to shreds to get it open. I have keenly felt the lost of my letter opener, but did decide that rather than purchase another ubiquitous one from Staples that I would look for something a bit more interesting.

Of course my mind turned first to cats and if I had been willing to invest some real money in a vintage letter opener I found on eBay I could have had a honey. For a variety of reasons this wasn’t a moment I was inclined to do that.

Top of a very nice cat letter opener I deemed to expensive to buy. Tempting though…

A week or so ago one of the dealers I purchase from on Instagram (@Reds_Antiques or via eBay at www.ebay.com/usr/reds_antiques) had a bunch of smalls he was selling and I picked out two advertising letter openers he had listed. I’ve bought some lamps, photos and other bits from Reds, he’s a dealer on the west coast and he lists some cabinets and tables I drool over but can’t see getting across the country to us. The vibe of his stock is a little masculine for me overall (think gas and oil signs, vintage tools and car related ephemera), but we align on certain things and he has a good eye.

Anyway, I figured one opener goes to the office and one stays here or goes to Jersey. That still leaves room in my life for a good cat one should I come across it.

Detail of the top of the letter opener.

As is clearly stated on the back it is solid copper and it is from Red Lodge Montana. The top boasts a somewhat cheesy scene of a teepee and two figures, one on a horse. A tiny banner declares Festival of Nations.

Back markings.

First of all, Red Lodge (for the ignorant like myself) is a town, not a lodge as such, found at the entrance to Yellowstone national park. The area, full of skiing and hiking, looks stunningly beautiful with a downtown full of period buildings that have been preserved. (For a post on the adventure Kim and I had at a whorehouse museum in Butte, Montana, go here.)

Starting in the 1950’s the Festival of Nations was launched as an annual festival to celebrate the various (European) cultures of the area which had never much mixed beyond some tentative cultural experiments such as a unified local band, all this according to a local historical society website. It seems to still run in August of each year.

I think this one is likely to stay in the apartment. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post and the other one I purchased which will head to the office, reporting for envelope duty, next week. Could be a cat one in my future as well.

Cat Tales

Posted by

0

Pam’s Pictorama Post: I have used the term little gem before, but I can’t think of an item it fits better than this one. Within days of purchasing the Neatness award (featured in a post from last week here) the folks at Curiosities Antiques in Texas (@Curiositiesantiques or via their website here) inquired if I would be interested in this little book – and would I!

I have one or two similar period volumes in my collection, at least from the same period and sort of litho images. The one that immediately comes to mind is one I hunted for an ultimately purchased on eBay I think. It is The Cat’s Concert and a 2018 post about it can be found here.

Today’s post is going to attempt to give you the chance to really see this book so many images coming up. I hope I do it justice. Obviously I had to be careful about how I propped the book open in order to take the photos so they are less than perfect, but I would not have been able to scan them which would have required flattening the book.

Inside front cover which peeks through. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

To start, the peek-a-boo cut-out cover which has kitty peering between the cat tails is the most fragile part of this book, folded almost to pieces from opening; the entire book held together with a ribbon. Kitty is a nice tortie and sports a bow in the same shades and shapes as the reeds decorating the front, very elegant and I assume that the gold and silver of the reeds were shiny in their day. These elements on the cover are embossed, the decorative plants and the cat on the inside page too, the whiskers especially stand out. This little volume was lovingly printed and produced.

Title page. No copyright information but a printing number in the lower left?

Inside it is inscribed on the inside cover, A Merry Christmas , Dec. 25th 1893. To: Miss Lola Ritter, With Best Wishes, Lizzie. This decorating the cat part of the inner cover.

The contents are poems, cat verse. They are original works by Edward Oxenford. This little book was printed in Germany and published and printed by the Art Lithographic Publishing Company, Munich, German and New York, USA. Edward Oxenford has a few other available titles to his credit I could find, one book called Sports and Play which is a similarly litho edition to Cat Tales, but cut out in the shape of a saddle. (Apologies for not providing an image but there’s only one online and it wasn’t willing to be grabbed. An odd looking volume though.) As for the publisher, this sort of novelty book seems to have been their meat and potatoes, although I did not find any real history about it. Seems like they may have produced postcards as well.

The other book of his is called Holy Gladness and it also sports beautiful lithographs but unlike the other two books, it is a larger bound edition. Neither of the other books are widely available and Cat Tales seems somewhat rare as well. Edward shares a name with a much earlier writer who also went under the name of Edward de Vere and has much more writing and controversy to his credit.

This illustrator gets a credit at least! Not in the Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

I’m a bit surprised (and sad) that the artist of these illustrations isn’t identified and get credit. These are wonderful illustrations beyond having been beautifully printed. There is no copyright date, only the inscription on the front identifies the year.

I’d like to point out that there is a Miss Blackie’s Yarn below. My Mr. Blackie is decidedly unimpressed by these so called Christmas verses at the close of this book. Oddly all three of these poems seem to end badly for the cats in question. Not at all sure I approve either. A jolly volume, these last few verses notwithstanding.

Neatness

Posted by

7

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Some Pictorama readers will remember previous posts on a small (but now clearly growing) collection of medals I have acquired. These award pins I assume were given out (at school?) to encourage various virtues.

I found one for Improvement and purchased it for my birthday in the winter of 2020. It was meant to commemorate how well I felt I had grown into my job over the first few rough years there. I had spotted it while getting some jewelry repaired – probably one of the watches, they seem to need to go frequently. Anyway, I fell in love with the idea. I do like encouragement.

That one and the one that came after for Excellence, purchased on eBay, were both made of 10k gold. This too amazed me. There was a time when real gold medals were given as awards to children at school. Man, I was happy when someone put a sticker with a star on my paper! (A post on the prior prizes can be found here.) I would have been over the moon for one of these pins – as I am sure the youthful recipients were.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

I believe I only got to boast Improvement on the lapel of a jacket a few times before the world shut down for the pandemic. A few years later Excellence joined on the same jacket and people would frequently remark on them. (One of my staffers surprised me as he had read the post here.)

In many ways Neatness is another whole kettle of fish. Unlike my others, this one is made of silver. The other two date from 1910 and 1945 respectively. This one dates back to 1881! (This was clearly a longstanding tradition. It should be noted that my Excellence came from Canada, so we know that it was popular there too.)

I wonder how far back does the tradition go? Of course many of these were considered special and therefore saved over the years. Once I got the hang of the right search numerous ones seem to pass through the portals of eBay and Etsy. I am highly selective however about the message and have to have some sort of kinship to it.

This one is so special though. I love how it has a star shape and hangs off a banner – both declaring Neatness and the date above. It is a little like being the sheriff of neatness. In the center of the star shaped charm it also says 85 and I have no idea what that refers to since the date is so clearly marked as ’81. Twice on the back, top and bottom, it has the recipients initials and this gave me a giggle too. They are N.P.B. so it was in a sense clearly meant for me.

Back of pin. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Alas, I’m afraid however that an award for neatness is indeed only aspirational in my case. I may strive for it, but neatness is more of a goal than a given. It is unlikely I would have earned it. As I look around our treasure filled single room abode, let’s just say neatness is not a concept it was built around. Our books and my toys and photos grow like topsy and cat hair and New York sooty dust is to be kept at bay. Luckily we now have the house in New Jersey for some of our booty.

Still, when it came up for sale via my Texas team on Instagram @Curiositiesantiques (or via their website here) I knew it should be mine. While Jason and Sandi thoughtfully keep a weather eye out for things that might interest me, resulting in a mounting number of cat related items of various kinds, they may not know that these are a developing passion.

I am told this pin belonged to Terry, Jason’s mom – thank you Terry! (A few prior purchase posts from this Dallas duo can be found here and here, for starters.) Sandi as a regular reader knew I might find it of interest. Here’s to hoping I find myself in Dallas and can meet them one of these days – or perhaps a meet up at Brimfield. Hmmmm. A girl can dream.

I need to find the right jacket to pin this to, although maybe a black sundress will do for summer. I always think that it’s good to have ideals and I will indeed strive to exhibit and embody all these desirable qualities.

A Bowl of Cherries

Posted by

2

Pam’s Pictorama Post: A few different things conspired to prompt a rather wonderful childhood memory recently. The first was our friend Bruce bringing over a bag of Ranier cherries – the ones that are sort of orange fading to a bright red, rather than the dark maroon of the more common ones. Despite the story I am going to tell, I somehow came to gobbling cherries late in life, but have eaten them with an abandon to make up for lost time. I generally buy the dark red ones, but cast no shade on the Ranier variety.

The next things was this little device shown at top – a cherry pitter. I also use it for pitting olives. I was in New Jersey a few weeks back and realized that I only had my decades old one, acquired in cooking school tucked happily away in our New York apartment.

Not much to look at yet it is perfectly adequate for these two tasks and if you are trying to cook with either cherries or olives it is a much needed and appreciated tool. To be without it means any chance of a perfectly sliced cherries or olives for decorative effect will likely not happen. I promptly ordered the contemporary equivalent from Amazon. I searched cherry olive pitter and there is was. The beauty of the internet age. I sent it to NJ and it was waiting for me when I got here on Wednesday; it is a decidedly zippier, upgraded version. A happy summer of cherry and olive pitting awaits.

Meanwhile, the memory in question was one of an annual cherry picking at my grandmother’s house. She had an enormous Ranier cherry tree in the backyard. In retrospect as an adult I don’t think I realized that cherry trees got that big. It required a proper ladder to get to the top.

Was actually a bit hard to find a photo online of a large-ish one. My grandmother’s was much larger than this! It makes me remember it being in bloom though.

Anyway, the kids, spouses of kids and grandkids were all assembled and we picked cherries all day. There were sea green plastic buckets I can still see in my mind and we filled them with those orangey red cherries. My grandmother would then take them and cook them down and can them. They would supply pie filling and get spread on toast for the rest of the year and long winter ahead. (Mom’s mom who I have written about before here with a historic photo of that yard – sadly the tree was in the other direction and would have been tiny!)

These are exactly as I remember them.

Oddly, I don’t remember eating them off the tree. Now, I was at the time probably the youngest family member of the team, probably about five or six at the time I am describing before my brother was born. Perhaps my mother, always a worrier, didn’t want me eating pit filled cherries. I can see her fretting about that. Anyway, I didn’t and somehow didn’t really get into the swing of eating cherries until I was more or less an adult. If I were able to visit that tree today I’d be popping half in my mouth as I went, eating my body weight in cherries off the tree.

On one of those days I remember it ending in, if not a barbeque at least a picnic. (My Italian grandmother wasn’t really much into barbeque – she liked to cook her food on her stove and in her oven and make the table grown with delicacies which were not of the grilled burger variety.) I wandered around and found my way to a small tree. Much to my horror, as I touched the tree I was immediately covered with ants! I screamed the way only a small child shocked by ants can scream. It took a minute for mom to figure out what was wrong with me, get them off and set me right. (Tree must not have been well to be full of ants, but I don’t remember much about it.)

Dusk on the deck with the fairy lights on. Deck (and lights) had to be completely redone last fall – boards were all rotted! This is my first evening of return on investment! Well worth it.

Perhaps that memory came back to me because as I write this I am sitting on my deck in New Jersey, in the evening of July 4. Next to me on the fence I share with my neighbor, I discovered a huge and evidently industrious ant colony. I can see those hard working fellows even by the dim light of my fairy lights out here. Do ants ever stop and rest? These don’t appear to as I spotted them early this morning and they are still at it.

On of the solar lights I have around which I love!

A gentle boom, boom of distant fireworks is going off, but not enough to bother either me or the five New Jersey cats who have had their dinner and are largely sleeping. Fireflies have come out and look like miniature versions of the fairy lights. (People ask me if we still have fireflies and I am glad to assure them we do – have they really disappeared from places?) The mosquitoes, whose enthusiasm for my flesh has been somewhat tempered by some spray will chase me in soon. But my first evening on the deck this year and I guess summer has begun.

The back gate! Newly installed light here also last fall – so we have a bit of light coming and going at night. It is motion activated.

Black Cat Couture

Posted by

2

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Many of us have a period in the past and it is certainly no secret that my affinity is for the 1920’s and early ’30’s. Let’s face it, this was a very Felix-y time. However, it was a time a very black cat time in general – reaching a bit earlier to the ‘teens.

I have previously opined with some lust over items like the Halloween decor of the earliest part of the 20th century. (Some posts boasting extremely jolly Dennison’s Halloween decorating books from the teens can be found here.) The dress being sported in the back row of this photo does make me yearn for a time when lucky black cats decorated both items and clothing. Interesting that this is not at all a costume, not festive Halloween wear, just an otherwise white summer dress.

My own version of black cat clothing from a post last fall. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Obviously this photo came to my attention due to the fashion statement of the woman with the large black scaredy cat on her dress. Pictorama applauds her attire and I am so glad it is memorialized here. The seller on eBay states that this is the 1920’s and also that it was from Newark, New Jersey. That these are fellow Jersey Girls makes me like it even more.

It is a small photo, not a postcard. It is a petit 3″x 4.5″ and the rounded edges is a slightly unusual printing style. On the back it is stamped 516 LxL Newark, NJ and something that didn’t come out. Sadly no identifiers or date.

Not clothing, but an arresting cat pillow image here from a post last September. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Nine women are gathered in this grouping. It’s hard to say from hairstyles and clothing if the seller is right about the date or if this might creep into the early 30’s. The back row of younger women all wear white while the front row, seated on benches in front the women look a bit older and are wearing floral prints and a bit more dressed up.

My friend with the black cat dress has had the good sense to stand apart a bit so we get pretty much the full effect, while the three woman at the end are sort of grouped naturally together. In the front two women sit with their heads together – makes you wonder about the relationships represented here.

Took this photo of a friend’s daughter’s shoes last summer. Were beloved hand me downs from another friend. Who wouldn’t love these?

This appears to be a nice backyard on a spring or summer day – too hot for using the fire pit and wood right in front of the scene and a large garage with double doors (just like my NJ grandmother had) behind them. To my knowledge, Newark and the immediately surrounding area were more residential at this time than the very urban way we think of it now. The amateur photographer has the top row of women butting up against the outside of the frame, but this way we do see a bit more of the yard. I’ve improved it a tiny bit, but it is also overexposed.

Part of me wonders how the black cat dress was received – it certainly is the most sporty bit of attire here. Were the back row of women following some general mandate to wear white and did this qualify? Perhaps ironic that it has saved this photo from complete obscurity and earned it a perch here at Pictorama.

Goodbye to Earth

Posted by

0

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s card wandered in via eBay. It belongs to a series of such images made by various studios and photographers contemporaneously including a favorite I own and blogged about previously here and here. What is it about kittens drifting along in the sky that proves so irresistible? This pair looks remarkably unconcerned about their voyage.

This rather identical pair sit in a small basket which is almost entirely obscured by the darkness at the bottom of the photo. I can’t imagine they packed many provisions for a trip all the way to the moon. Such small fellows, can’t expect them to plan well I guess. It is a benign looking (paper?) moon they are heading toward, smiling kindly, so I am sure it will be fine.

Is it a coincidence that these kittens look pretty much identical to today’s pusses? Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

A close look reveals that the “balloon” is actually a small ball (label almost visible on the right) covered in a small fish next and with a string on top to produce the clever effect of a floating balloon. At the bottom it says Goodbye to Earth and the maker, Rotary Photo, E.C. is noted. On the left it is blurry where the photo was laid down to be reshot for the card but it says something A.

I have probably written about Rotary which back in its day was a bonanza producer of such cards and one could devote oneself to a collection made up solely of cute cat cards produced by these folks – I don’t seem to have ended up owning many however. I sometimes imagine a studio with kittens in various stages of growth bounding around. I don’t want to know what happed to the grown kitties – bet there was nary a mouse around there though!

On the back of this card it notes that it was Printed in England. It was never mailed. In the ten years I have been producing Pictorama posts (yep, we are hard on an actual 10 year anniversary as it believe it was July of ’14 – yay Pictorama!) I think this is the first time I have encountered an item that seemed to have a message for me. For whatever reason I had not read it before purchasing the card.

The German version I posted about back in 2014. Link above for post. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Some folks know that I have been in the midst of some ongoing, and at times extremely painful, oral surgery. Among other things it has kept me from running and in general has pretty much made me remarkably miserable. However, as we head into this summer holiday week I especially enjoyed the message in a neat script penned on the back – no note who it is to or from – This so all our cares for a week or so more, and our return will be much like a fall would be to the “pussies”. A safe July 4 week landing to all!

Bahr’s Landing

Posted by

2

Pam’s Pictorama Post: One of my favorite new hobbies is purchasing bits of local memorabilia to decorate the New Jersey house. Having grown up in the area I have always found local history interesting and I am having fun finding ways to celebrate and embrace it as well as my own history there. Along those lines I picked up this postcard recently with the intention of framing it for the house there. This is a bit of a long summer and childhood post so settle in if it appeals. I guess I am kicking off summer officially today.

In a parallel universe I think I bought a tiny wooden house in Highlands on the water and live there. In that world I either live with and/or disregard the constant flooding of the area and I have no idea what I do for a living. There was a moment in this world where I gave serious consideration to such a purchase for a weekend house (affordably due to the aforementioned flooding), but my ever practical minded mother talked me out of it. I lived through enough flooding to hear her talking sense about it. Nonetheless, my heart does remain with the idea of a few rooms in a wooden house, just a few minutes walk from the river and ten or so minutes over the bridge to Sandy Hook beach.

Back in the early days when Bahr’s was still a rooming house and bait and tackle shop.

When I was very young, we had a house – one sold by Sears and Roebuck – on the nearby spit of land in Sea Bright we call the North Beach. I adored that house and did consider making it my home when my parents sold it in my early 20’s. My earliest summer memories are there, with beach access across the (incredibly busy) street and clubs with pools where I would ultimately learn to swim. In recent years, the bridge between the two, Sea Bright and Highlands, has been remade from a simple old fashioned one (up from the glorified foot bridge that would have existed at the time of this postcard) to a very high, super highway version which I guess you can walk over, but seems a bit threatening.

Anyway, Highlands and its kissin’ cousin tucked nearby, Atlantic Highlands, were always there as part of my childhood. It has an interesting mix of real estate, multimillion dollar homes on the steep hilly incline overlooking the water (mom and dad would speculate on how terrible winter driveways and roads they must have) and down to the small, wooden homes near the shoreline. For those of you who followed my nascent ferry adventures to and fro Manhattan, this is where the ferry leaves you, or conversely picks you up. As a child we mostly drove through it as a way of avoiding round trip beach traffic to Sea Bright or a to get out on the highway.

Nearby ferry landing.

One of the fixtures of Highlands is Bahr’s Landing restaurant. It is currently billed as the oldest restaurant in New Jersey, dating back to its earliest incarnation as a seasonal houseboat chowder and boarding house for those working the waterfront in 1917. Boats were rented and on the off season the family went back to their necktie business in Newark.

Eventually the business took off sufficiently in the 40’s to become year round and, according to the article I found, the original houseboat established the existing building today. Oddly, I only learned recently that the family is one I know – I went all through school (kindergarten through high school) with the current generation owner, Jay Cosgrove. Yay Jay!

Undated photo from their site but maybe not too far off from when this postcard was made.

In an unconscious way, Bahr’s played out through my childhood, young adulthood and has come back for me in middle age. As a small child I remember off-season celebratory birthdays there – as year round residents my parents preferred it in any season but summer when the local traffic would increase ten fold overnight. I could be wrong, but they may have introduced oyster crackers into my life which I adored as a child.

Postcard not in my collection shows rickety original bridge between Highlands and Sea Bright to Sandy Hook beach.

As teenagers and on summers home from college we didn’t care and braved the traffic cheerfully. The restaurant proper was too expensive however and we were instead content (very content indeed) to sit next door on benches near the water for services outside until late in the evening, eating lobster rolls and juicy fried clams. There was a movie theater a few blocks away which showed second run and old films for 99 cents and so a reasonably affordable date night was established.

I had not been inside the restaurant for many years when my sister Loren suggested it for a birthday lunch one year, shortly before she died and we celebrated our childhood there. Bittersweet, it was my first and last time there for a number of years as I thought going back would make me sad.

Bars from the water side in an undated photo.

However, in my mother’s final year or so we ordered in food a fair amount and I figured out Doordash from there on a few occasions which we enjoyed. I did it weekly or so until they could no longer find drivers. Mom was a vegan, but there were a few vegetable dishes she liked and everything we ordered from there was delicious and a wonderful change of pace.

In the subsequent year since mom died, a good friend and I have taken it up again as our occasional treat. We generally go at lunchtime during the week, occasionally dinner, when even the summer traffic is more bearable, taking an inland route which spares us some tussle.

Yup, the mug I purchased full of the chowder and some of those oyster crackers from my childhood shown here.

I wish I had copies of the old photos the interior of Bahr’s is decorated with – some go back to the days of it as a houseboat, renting rooms. Others show fishing in the immediate area – I always take time to study them. There was also a time when it had an early life as a ferry stop for cruise ships that would head down to the South from New York City. Ancient majolica oyster plates fill another vitrine. A small gift shop is at the front, near the bar and the oldest part of the building. I recently purchased chowder size mugs, one for the house in NJ and one for 86 Street.

This is the bar area where for some reason I have never eaten. I think we favor the water views. I always like to go and look at the photos and art in it though when I can.

The fare at Bahr’s is the absolute top shelf of what you expect and want from a local seafood restaurant, perched right over the water. Plates groan with ultra fresh local scallops, clams, oysters, lobster and various other kinds of fish. I remain partial to a warm lobster roll which has come to define this item to me, simply lobster chunks with butter on a traditional roll, served with homemade potato chips if I feel decadent. Homemade biscuits are served for starters – this is not diet dining. My friend Suzanne remains largely devoted to a plate of scallops and vegetables. We both occasionally go off script however and in this way I discovered their “original recipe” spicy clam chowder which is stupendous! I am a fan and have begun buying a container for the freezer in NJ each time I go and it makes for a very happy meal subsequently.

Recent image from the parking lot at Bahr’s.

The postcard I have acquired appears to most likely be from the 40’s given what I know and that it is a linen postcard – those were produced in the 30’s and 40’s. As you can see from my recent photo, not much as changed, down to the neon sign which must flash to boats like a beacon. That is Sandy Hook, now a state park, across from it on a tiny spit of land with the ocean beyond. Seen today the immediate surrounding area is a busy dock, as shown in my photos, and Moby’s, the affordably cousin they also own, next door. If you sit outside near the water and the docks, fat seagulls rule while ducks and geese placidly come and go. There is a parking lot where it is just sand here.

Verso of card.

On the back in very neat pencil print it says, The air is wonderful here on river. There are five children here & they have such a good time. Hope everything is well with you. Love Marg. It is addressed to: Mrs. M. Martin, PO Box #137, Gibbstown, New Jersey without a stamp so maybe it went in an envelope or just was never sent. On the back of the card, printed at the top it says, Bahr’s Seafood Restaurant Highlands NJ. Lobster and Fish Dinners. The “Half Moon” Bar and Cocktail Lounge, Charter and Deep Sea Boats for Hire. Est. 1917 – Highland 3-1245.

So Bahr’s has earned its place to be enshrined at our New Jersey residence. With any luck, some old photos will show up to join it and I look forward to treating you to a bit more of that local lore.

Spare Felix?

Posted by

0

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Portland, Oregon! Although the seller of today’s find was in California, this photo obviously appears to hail from Portland originally. Rogue homemade Felix seems to have proliferated in Portland back in the day and I would love to know why that city seems to have had a special relationship with him.

It’s been quite a while since I have purchased a Pacific Northwest Felix, but I had a spate of them early in my collecting career which gave me the idea that they had a specific yen for him. Parade floats and costumes – there’s was homegrown Felix fun in that part of the country and I am sorry to have missed it. (These location specific Felixes form a sub-genre of my collection. Posts for these pics can be found here, here, here, here and here!)

One of a clutch of photos of the same batch from an early post. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

This natty fellow and his slightly off-model Felix-y wheel cover fits well in the group. While Felix looks slightly more like his identical cousin than himself, it is a pretty good likeness. the gentleman posing is so clearly pleased to show this off I’d say. Bow tie, vest and jacket, he’s dressed and posing for the photo.

An early Portland parade post. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

It’s a small photo. Only a little more than 3″ x 2″. Like the other photos I have mentioned above, there isn’t a lot of information in the image. There is a nice cottage in view behind him, trees and telephone poles. There’s no back license plate which might have supplied a year, and nothing is written on the back. However, Oregon (and our assumed place of origin) is supplied over Felix.

Another Portland parade post (although a not Felix), pic from 1909. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

I do not own a car and don’t really drive, although I assume with the house in Jersey this is something I will need to fix over time. Oh to be able to do it in style like this however.

Elliott

Posted by

2

Pam’s Pictorama Post: I guess I have on occasion posted about father’s day. (Most notably in an unusual post before he died which can be found here.) Generally I tend to find it painful and assume others may as well. However, I just came across this photo of my dad the other day while looking for something else and I decided I would share it today.

November of 2017 seems like worlds ago for me, for all of us I guess in many ways since we managed to have two pandemic years we didn’t see coming in the midst of it. I had started my new job at Jazz at Lincoln Center earlier that year after almost 30 years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I had already been to Shanghai with the orchestra and was trying to adjust to a very different pace of work. (Posts about leaving the Met and that wild trip to Shanghai can be found here and here.)

Shanghai toy cafe.

Meanwhile, my parents had recently moved into this house, the house I inherited and will visit later today. That alone has changed so much. First my mother directed much of the planting in the yard which went from somewhat neglected to a sanctuary, but even in the year since she passed I have transformed it further with more plantings, a vegetable and herb garden and made the deck an oasis.

The NJ garden in clean up mode a month of so back. Strawberries and cherry tomatoes are evidently already producing. More on that later today.

The years she and my father spent in this house were years of caregiving and the house was set up around that. The bedroom I have taken was my father’s. (I used to sleep in a sunny room on the second floor which in some ways I preferred, but mom wanted me to take the main bedroom at a later time and ultimately it made sense so I could be closer to her at night.)

Recent photo of the front of the house in NJ.

Pictorama readers have seen, most notably, the garden transform. However, I have made many changes inside, redoing the floors, adding furniture, rugs, lamps and, of course since it is me we’re talking about, interesting stuff I have collected – already.

An older Milty on a very recent visit.

Still, this view out the window remains largely unchanged. It is a sunny, favorite window. I still have that chair, but it was moved a bit during mom’s last illness and has remained there. (That chair is Beauregard the cat’s favorite spot and if you sit in the chair with him he will pat your head.) For several years it gave first dad and then mom the best view of the small but cheerful yard to enjoy daily.

I remember the day I took this photo very well. It is the only picture I took that day. Dad had returned from a stint in the hospital and Kim and I were visiting and I snatched it discreetly. He had a rare very good day that day, arguably the last really, and I pretty much knew it was a real moment of grace in an inevitable decline. I remember him being very lucid and remembering all sorts of things in conversation with some prompting by me and mom; his memory turned to Swiss cheese at the end – bits he would recall perfectly and then complete holes. He was very candid about it.

Dad is taking a rest and enjoying the sun here. His extremely devoted cat Red on his lap. (I have written about Red here – a real prince among cats that one!) Our other cat, Milty (still around today at about 20 years of age and one of the New Jersey five) is observing from a favorite spot on the window sill – much beloved. Mom filled it with plants over time and although I keep fewer there than she did, there are still a bunch. I’ve changed the blinds as the existing ones (like so many things – think roof, deck!) broke shortly after mom died.

Red on my bed, a photo taken about a year after the one of dad.

Also on that window sill are some reproduction Remington bronze sculptures which were among dad’s favorite possessions. He always loved bronze sculptures and liked to have these around him. (There was at least one other, enormous one, at one time.) I recently found myself in someone’s office who also had some of these, including a large reproduction made for a restaurant, and immediately felt at home. All the walkers, bottles and other paraphernalia of illness is there too.

I have written posts about my father and his interesting and fulfilling life as a cameraman for ABC news, and about his youth and riding a motorcycle across the country (those can be found here and here), but today, just a small tribute to that moment in 2017, coughed up by my phone and as a gentle nod to the Father’s Day holiday today.