Author: Pam's Pictorama

Wound Up and Rolling Along

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This splendid fellow came into the house just before the en masse exodus to New Jersey in August. He was part of the haul from the British sale that brought numerous Felix treasures into the house. The items included a Felix walking statuette (that post is here) and a sort of box of Felix which included a rather extraordinary Felix hanky (post is here) and some Felix pins (which can be found here).

This is such a great item that I wanted to make sure he got his fair due. He caught my eye because although I guess he is a bear he is very black cat like. Although he comes from Britain he was listed as German, made in the 1930’s. No maker identified. I would have thought he was British and out of the Felix factories of the day. (See my post about those Felix factories of the day here.)

He perches atop of a spinning part and this helps direct him around in circles when wound.

Watch him turn his elderly circles!

I think there is a Felix version of this toy out there, but they are rare (if I haven’t imagined them) and I cannot even summon an image of one. This fellow works, albeit in a sort of desultory fashion. I think his days of ribald pedaling are behind him which is fine for his retirement here at Pictorama.

For some reason toys on wheels have always interested me although I mostly think of pull toys. I do love a good wind-up toy and this one is a wonderful combination of both.

Today is the first day back here at Deitch Studio in Manhattan when I have time to start to put things in order and Kim has pledged to help. For readers who have been following over the summer there was a harrowing period of moving Kim out of his warehouse space followed by moving the whole crew to New Jersey.

Cookie captured earlier this week looking quite chuffed at being back in NYC.

A delightful summer there followed (with some regional collecting), but now we are all back to work and Deitch Studio is working on all cylinders! At the office the orchestra’s season is set to start this week and Kim has finished the color work on his book he started in New Jersey. The cats are surprised to be back. Cookie is delighted and walked around the apartment crowing with pleasure. Blackie seems to be in a funk and is spending his days in the closet for the most part right now.

Meanwhile, the apartment is in a bit of chaos and it is hard to fit ourselves back in our single room. However it is comforting to be amongst the toys again and there are a few other items that came into the apartment either right before we left or during our time in New Jersey. So stay tuned – some more fascinating things to come!

Jersey Finds: Four Feet of Fun

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: For those of you keeping track, a few weeks ago I featured a panorama photo of a local high school on a class trip to Mount Vernon in 1931 and I promised a follow up. (That post can be found here.) Mere days after that purchase I can across the one I am featuring today and snatched it up as well. It too is a Jersey image – the First Annual Outing and Picnic of the F and M Foremen’s Club of Garfield. (Of course I have been left to ponder what a Foremen’s Club might be – a gathering of various foremen? From one place? Many?)

At 46 inches long (click on the photo and try to blow it up) the size of this photo is clearly one of its most outstanding features. Unlike the photo from Mount Vernon, this one is a parade of period picnic attire. While a few men hold out for jackets, others have ties even if no jacket, for the most part folks were letting their hair down in the literal sense here. There is no date and because of the nature of the clothing it is a tad difficult to date it. A few of the bathing suits (on both the men and women) convince me that this was probably the 1920’s. Most of the women are in variations of pretty cotton dresses which in terms of style could stretch over several decades.

IThe accordion player is a good addition. I like to think of him roaming around and playing in the late afternoon after the lunch hampers were largely repacked and everyone was sated and resting while considering another dip in the lake or perhaps a lazy trip in a boat. The kids in their various states of attire are great. Some kids are even wearing ties (hats) while others are stripped down for action.

Unlike the other photo this one has noticeable distortion with the people on the viewer’s far right significantly larger than those on the other side. The guy who is blurred is the distortion line, with it increasing from there going right.

Neither of these pics grace the walls yet, but I am enjoying living with them and getting to know them. More to come about further acquisitions of this kind – and other Jersey finds from this trip. However, as Kim recently said as he looked around the living room – it is starting to look like we live here.

Vacation Days: On the Move

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I am writing this, at least starting it, on one of my last day’s commuting to work from New Jersey at the tail end of a rather glorious vacation here. Kim, cats and I will make the trek north on Sunday, perhaps when you are reading this, and reinstall ourselves in our tiny Manhattan abode.

It took all these weeks but Blackie discovered the kitchen on our last day here!

I’m not sure what Blackie will make of the move, over time he has adjusted handsomely to his somewhat more expansive New Jersey life and the existence of five other cats – at least somewhat. He has annexed the east end of the house, taking our room, my mom’s old bedroom and three bathrooms as his territory. He has never seen stairs and has not mastered that concept yet so while he has acquired about half of the downstairs, little does he know that there is a cat warren in my office upstairs.

Kim and Cookie.

Cookie has fared less well and has spent her time behind the chair where Kim prefers to work in our bedroom. She has let her displeasure be known in numerous ways, most notable with some disrespect to said chair and Kim’s clothes there overnight. We hope this too will pass.

Tomatoes still ripening on the deck.

Kim seems rested and is back to work on his book while I commute to the city and back each day, reentry into the madness of fall in Manhattan and the kick off of our season at work upon me like a switch has been flipped!

These dahlias have just kept on keeping on.

I have made trips to the New York apartment and even spent the night there. It seems so empty without Kim and the kitties. I told Kim that the apartment is full of ghost cats which spend the night with me there.

Lettuces, cukes and mums for fall.

Starting next week my schedule becomes such that commuting would become very difficult, dinners and evening appointments are starting to dot the calendar. I will be back and forth to Jersey but gone will be the long quiet nights on the deck with the bats and fireflies – and slugs. I discovered slugs at night there.

Jasmine plant which seems happy and blooming.

I am realizing that this is really my first vacation in years, since before the pandemic easily, although the summer of ’19 was not a relaxed one either. (For posts about that summer, the work trip to California, the kitchen renovation and a long business trip to South Africa  you can find them here, here and here.) All the recent years in memory have had me either working around the clock (the pandemic years) or ferrying back and forth to mom and taking care of her.

This summer strung out like glorious pearls and I enjoyed my time with Kim and ALL the cats, my newfound love of gardening and working on the house. I refinished furniture, planted, pruned, cooked and enjoyed long evenings on the deck.

More cucumbers and lettuce.

Saturday night now. The bags are (mostly) packed. Cookie and Blackie are unsuspecting about the trip back to Manhattan tomorrow, but somehow Beau (the other big black cat) knows and he’s very sad and clingy. Today started rainy, a humid sun came out for much of the afternoon before thunderstorms rolled in this evening so it is hard not to feel glum about vacation’s end.

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We’re back in Manhattan. Tough ride in with the thunderstorms and cats howling! They are considering this cosmic shift in the universe from under the bed. Whew!

Pickled Pepper Post

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: We haven’t had a recipe post in a very long time and I guess today’s pepper post falls roughly in that category. Jumping back a little, ongoing readers know that Kim and I have been spending a long summer vacation in New Jersey. (Some of those recent posts can be found here, here and here.)

Recent night in the porch.

Further back, some folks also know that I lived in this house during the first months of this year with my mom during her final illness, managing a consistent group of two caregivers on every shift during the 24 hours. I have spoken about the extraordinary loving care mom received from this group of women and among them was the major-domo Winsome who remains my New Jersey sister and Chief of Staff now after mom’s passing in late April. (Some of those posts are here and here.)

This strawberry plant wants to take over the world!

Part of my summer vacation project has been maintaining and adding to my mom’s beautiful backyard garden. Mom loved the garden and although unable to go outside, she followed its progress from her window perch and worked ongoing with her long-standing gardener.

My additions have largely been of the vegetable and herb nature. Blueberry and strawberry plants (largely enjoyed by the bunnies and chipmonks), a fig tree, an overflowing herb garden. And peppers. Although my lone bell pepper plant produced precisely two peppers, a couple of scotch bonnet plants brought over by a friend and a random jalapeno plant bought from a damaged shelf have produced prodigiously.

Recent small haul…

Aside from a grilled cheese sporting some chopped jalapenos there was no way I could use (or give away) so many hot peppers before they went bad so Winsome offered to show me how to pickle them. We assembled the bits and Saturday morning we got underway. Winsome hails originally from Jamaica so what follows is a somewhat Jamaican influenced version.

Pimentas are very much like black peppercorns.

First Winsome introduced me to a vegetable called a chayote which seemed to be a cross between a turnip and a pear. Under her instruction I peeled it lightly, cut it open and sliced out the seedy center. Carrots, onions (red and white for a variety of color) and of course the peppers were cut in quarter inch strips, not thinner. Peppercorns she called pimientos were used whole but these are similar if not the same as black peppercorns, we pulled about two dozen out.

Chayote, slice out the middle.

Strap on your gloves if you haven’t already! Also I recommend using all glass dishes (I ruined some plastic containers) and a plastic cutting board or disposable cutting surface. Remember that once you start cutting the peppers you need to be careful not to touch your face or eyes and also that the knife and surfaces will have pepper oil on them. I nibbled a raw piece of chayote and realized that I had cut some more of it with the pepper covered knife! Ouch!

My peppers were supplemented with some W gave me!

Combine salt, white vinegar and the peppercorns and heat for about 5-10 minutes, just to dissolve. At the same time boil the jars and lids. Begin layering the carrots, chayote, and onions and then the pepper slices. Make sure you drop some of the peppercorns into the lower layers, begin spooning the vinegar and salt solution in. Fill to the top and add liquid to cover.

I didn’t use garlic but you certainly could. An easier method of saving and using the peppers would be to freeze them and cut bits off as needed. I will likely do that with my next batch so I will report back!

Heat vinegar and sugar with the peppercorns.

What you need:

  • Disposable gloves
  • Chili Peppers
  • Sugar (teaspoon)
  • Salt (half teaspoon)
  • White vinegar (about 1.25 cups to start – you may need more liquid)
  • Chayote
  • Red and white onion
  • Jars
  • Peppercorns or Pimiento peppercorns
  • Jars
Our finished product!

Jersey Finds: Foot Long Photo Fun

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This the first of a wealth of posts with some nice New Jersey items purchased in the antique markets here. This photo was my first purchase – and one of the best! I have wanted the right panorama photo for a long time and have looked at and dismissed or lost out on many over the years. This one won with both a local New Jersey related subject and for being a great photo.

I have endeavored to photograph it in a variety of ways to give you the best view – my own panorama, a video and several still photos taken of the parts. If you made it to the end you see that this was the Middletown Township, Leonardo NJ trip to Mount Vernon on May 15, 1931.

A local friend who is also a professional photographer told me he thinks this one was made with a banquet still camera, which I believe means that it was a camera set to take this size photo with one still take, as opposed to the sort of camera that might move to get the full (and I guess larger) group in.

Larry also told me that he has one similar to it, taken of his dad at Mount Vernon at approximately the same time. (He’s promised to dig it up for comparison!) Another friend online (@marsh.and.meadow via IG) has clearly seen these Mount Vernon group photos before although Google images doesn’t turn them up as a genre. Larry thinks his has a different view of the buildings so presumably they didn’t just set it up in the same spot every day. He is going searching for it so we’ll see.

One of the things I love about this photo is how dressed up everyone is for their trip! We get some great eyeball kicks of clothes from the day and it gives a great sense of the time. Those were the days when girls put on their best fur trimmed coats and cloche hats for such a trip and boys wore suits or at least ties with their v-neck sweaters.

We get a nice view of the buildings behind them and other folks are milling around up there too. The fellow at the lower right sports a cane and a careful look shows us that he has a wooden leg. He looks utterly undaunted by this and is embedded in a likely crew of boys. The group is lightly integrated.

Middleton High school graduates about 350 students annually so class size has grown over time. It appears to have been a prosperous enclave at the time and remains so today.

For me this is a great inaugural piece for decorating our New Jersey home away from home. However, it was just the first in a buying fiesta here recently in Monmouth County so stay tuned.

The Fair

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Our beach town summer idyll continues and tonight Kim and I enjoyed one of the pinnacles of a Jersey shore summer and attended the local fireman’s fair a few blocks away here in Fair Haven. After dinner on the deck Kim and I wandered out as the sun sank in the west, an increasing number of people as we got closer and could hear the shrieking of the ride participants.

I want the cat knockdown dolls rather than the prizes offered but they weren’t an option!

Early in this blog I wrote a bit about this fair which I researched and discovered that it is one of the oldest and longest running fireman’s fairs in the country dating back to a more carnival form in 1906. (That post can be found here.)

Kim was very entertained by the colors of this one.

Tonight, night two in a week long run, it was jam packed with families and teens. We got there too early for the full brunt of couples on date night and instead caught a lot of young parents of toddlers. Without really knowing (tickets have gone digital and you use a quasi-ATM machine to get “Magic Money” and the lines for that and the rides were long) it seems like an expensive proposition with kids between food, rides and games.

This fireman didn’t have any takers for this rather traditional display of strength.

The fair raises enough money to pay for our volunteer First Aide force annually and is populated by volunteers. It seems like the rides and games are a set package that must just move around with some nominal personalization for the town it is in. The food concessions seem to be part of this, with the exception of clam chowder which was being sold at its own booth and I think made locally.

While I was tempted by the Ferris Wheel – I wondered if we could possibly see our house about a mile away – I was daunted by the rigamarole. Instead, Kim and I decided to buy tickets for a ride through the neighborhood on a fire truck. I don’t remember this as an option as a kid or a teen so maybe this is a latter addition. Like the chowder, the rides on the fire truck had its own ticket counter and took cash and handed back real tickets. We handed over our six dollars and got into what turned out to be a slow moving line of very small children and parents. An extended family was together in front of us.

The truck seats around 10 but there is much lap sitting among children. We were the fourth load of folks after getting in line. You bounce hard in the back of a fire truck and really you have to hold on. We of course weren’t going especially fast but it made me wonder about the art of holding on if you are racing to a fire. (Very short videos above – fun to turn the sound up!)

Kim was very enamored of this one and the possibilities for painting the sides as a job!

We transversed a very residential neighborhood and I wondered how they felt about the endless fire trucks passing all night for a week. Of course the siren and lights were an important part of the ride. The group was offered lollipops upon entry but the kids were already feted on sugar so the parents declined. (Kim and I had even just finished soft serve ice cream cones ourselves.) I don’t tend to run through this area but I think I will make a trip over there and see these homes over by the Navesink River.

Even the crankiest kids became enchanted with the few block drive through the dark of the night. Eventually we took a turn back onto the main drag and then back to our starting point and Kim and I headed home through the dark suburban streets.

Our Friend Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today I write of another delightful addition in a long line of my real photo postcards of people posing with Felix. These were mostly taken in Great Britain (although Australia and New Zealand were in it too, although those appear to largely be of the tintype variety) and this one made the trip across the ocean to join the Pictorama archive.

Like virtually all of these cards this one is postally unused and nothing is written on the back. Although I am not in New York with my full collection at my disposal, I realized almost immediately that this Felix is likely the star in at least one if not more of my other photos.

First there was this most recent purchase, shown below (with a post that can be found here) and while it is possible, the ears are perkier in the prior post and possibly a big white tooth missing or not shown in the latest one. The window backgrounds are also very similar.

However, in an earlier post, this one is pretty much a cinch to be the identical fellow – missing or unshown tooth and all! In some ways it is surprising this doesn’t happen more often. After all there are only so many places taking these photos and presumably not that many Felix-es in play. (The post with the below photo can be found here.)

Images from Pams-Pictorama.com collection

While both these little girls are cute the older one with the hat steals the show – even from Felix. She is delighted to have a hold of Felix’s outsized and overly long arm (all the better for throwing around fellow subjects it seems) and she grins broadly. Her outfit is pitch perfect with that lovely straw hat, decorated with flowers, embroidered collar, short pleated skirt and right down to her white ankle socks and black Maryjanes. The younger sibling (we’ll assume) is in layers of pretty white cotton, complete with bonnet and matching Maryjanes, but she has just been place in front of Felix and shows no real interest.

Of course Kim, cats and I are spending a few weeks at the Jersey shore and having a true summer vacation experience. Tomorrow night we are slated to enjoy the local fireman’s fair (which I wrote about a long time ago here – it turns out that my childhood fireman’s fair is quite a well known one) which I have not attended in decades. While I am excited for some cotton candy or perhaps a candy apple and a ride or two, sadly it seems unlikely I will get to pose with Felix for a photo – the seaside not being what it used to be. More to come about that, perhaps, on Sunday however.

Kid Stuff

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Vacation dawned here in NJ yesterday. Kim and I are officially “off” although I have to report to work one day this week and perhaps another the week after, nonetheless we are kicking up our heels a bit. Pictorama readers who have been following in real time know that although we had some trouble settling in, we have already started to adopt a vacation frame of mind. (Prior posts include ones here, here and here.)

So today, a quick little post devoted to one of a few bits of family art that survived the moves my parents did in the later years of their life. Having gone from a house chock full of art to much smaller digs, sadly not all the art made the moves. (I am most sad about a bronze sculpture of a horse running with a dog along side which my mom gave away.)

The painting I am posting about today was recently pulled out of a closet and hung over our bed. My mom said it was by Carolyn Wyeth (1909-1994), sister to Andrew and daughter of N.C., which is likely because my dad filmed a documentary on her many decades ago. Dad did most of the art buying and he would have found the opportunity like catnip and he held the opinion that she should have been better known.

I can’t find a signature on it but frankly not willing to take it off the wall to see if there’s one on the back. It could probably use at least a light cleaning and perhaps that would reveal a signature on the front. However, stylistically it seems right, especially the trees.

Anyway, I write about it because I have been very enamored of it since it arrived in the house when I was a small child. Although the wintery scene is not the most cheerful, it occupied my imagination for hours on end. I cannot remember what stories I made up about it in my mind, but as soon as I took it out the memory of making up such stories came racing back to me.

The lack of definition in the figures, bundled up against the snow and the cold, bothered me a bit. I guess I had my critical chops as a small child. But the not quite entirely monochromatic nature of it interested me even then. The tiniest bit of red on the figure on the porch was of great interest to me, long before I would have been able to explain why. The texture of the paint is satisfying, even without being thick.

It gave me satisfaction to have it back up and I find myself getting lost in it again, which after all, is what paintings are for.

Bonus photo of Blackie, embracing his Jersey adventure, earlier today.

Jersey Livin’

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: As I start this I sit in a train tunnel to NYC from NJ with an absurdly loud snoring generating from the seat in front of me. This man needs help I think.

The great summer experiment of 2023 got off to a rocky start (see the cats not eating post here) and although it has improved (cats have resumed eating and now are focused on fighting with the NJ cats) we are still in somewhat dubious turf, especially when it comes to developing my commuter chops.

Local honey. I run past here frequently and am tempted but how to get the honey home?

Last week, after a debilitating trip in for a breakfast appointment which was stymied by an express train that went local, I made it to Penn station in the nick of time to hop on. My commuter skills have been acquired painfully. I hopped on a train one evening in the nick of time only to discover that you cannot buy a ticket with a credit card on the train.

Anya and her double decker cat stroller.

To pay cash you pay a hefty fee so the conductor left me to try to put the app on my phone but it went into a repeating ring of spinney ball Hell, perhaps because the internet signal was coming and going. Much to my surprise, a very nice gentleman who was sitting next to me spontaneously bought my ticket for me which was lovely of him.

Then there was that Friday when the line I take stopped working and I hopped the ferry instead. A nice ride for me but miserable traffic for the friend who picked me up.

Historic house in Red Bank turned restaurant.

I am slowly returning to running here in Jersey. I lost the habit here toward the end of my mom’s illness when mornings were busy times. I got out and turned toward Red Bank the other day. I had a look at the summer set up – the main drag is closed to car traffic and created a pedestrian path and eating area.

Fig tree awaiting trnasplanting.

Post pandemic the town has suffered a loss of retail like many other places. Restaurants have done best in the rebirth thus far. There is a Tiffany – it is a wealthy area after all. I think of how we used to say that Tiffany set up in the beach communities to salve the conscience of the guilty husbands coming from Manhattan for the weekend, leaving their summer seasonal mistresses in New York. This year I have a taste of being the husband but I can assure Kim (and cats) that they have nothing to fear from my evenings alone in Manhattan – hence no trips to Tiffany.

Local Tiffany’s for those last minute gifts…

For all of the trouble settling in and getting settled, we are now and we are having good days here. The cats are eating on their own. Blackie has annexed a bedroom next to ours and now has two rooms firmly in paw. (Approximately the size of our apartment in Manhattan ironically.) He is finally appearing to enjoy himself some. Cookie has decided that most of her days will be spent behind Kim’s chair, less pioneering spirit in her. Thus far the New Jersey cats seem to take them with a grain of salt.

Lunch and dinner is mostly consumed on our deck off the kitchen where we can survey the beauty of the garden. A fig tree is the most recent acquisition, purchased with two figs on it and several more already peeking out. Tomato and pepper plants are producing now and the herbs are in full cry. A jasmine plant acquired a few months back has its first bloom although my vision of evenings heady with the smell of jasmine may have to wait for another year.

Ferry was crowded last Friday when train went down.

I have strung fairy lights around the deck and added solar ones in both the front and back which also pop on as it gets dark. A portable speaker and my phone are all we need to play some music. Hummingbirds make a sunset appearance at some flowering trees. As dark falls and the lights twinkle on, tiny bats swoop in to feast on the mosquitoes – which have been feasting on me. Fireflies blink (do the bats eat them too?) and I think that yes, this is summer at its best and at last.

Tuxie

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I have always been partial to tuxedo cats. There were several prior to Cookie who is the current puss to claim that title here at Deitch Studio. This old photo postcard came in over the transom recently. It was never mailed and there is nothing written on the back. I think there is something very sincere about it – not a great photo but perhaps a beloved one. It is unclear to me what kitty is perched on but it creates a seamless background.

I like his mug. Uneven spotty nose markings, not unlike Cookie whose markings are a bit uneven as well. He looks right into the camera – either getting up or settling down. He has a nice white chest, long whiskers and fat white paws.

A tiny Blackie from 2013.

The first tuxedo of my acquaintance was a cat named Mitzie. She was one of a bevvy of cats during my childhood, a small friendly female. She lived quietly and well behaved, sort of in the middle of the pack in the house at that time. (A photo disclaimer – I cannot access my full library of cat photos from NJ and my mom’s are still in disorder so you are not getting a full cat display today, just Cookie and Blackie!)

A no nonsense Cookie recently. Mom loved photos of Cookie sitting this way.

And my first very own cat was a tux and she was a girl cat I named Otto Dix. She had perfectly even markings and was an especially smart cat and we were truly of one mind. She slept on my pillow at night and picked and choose through my boyfriends in an opinionated way. My mom broughther home for me from the local farm, Sickles, still known for its corn. (She swooned over the smell of corn silk her entire life.) Otto famously puked up a stomach worm on the pillow of one paramour – you don’t forget something like that too quickly. Luckily she adored Kim from day one.

My sister adopted a tux she found in a parking lot here in New Jersey while walking her dog. It was the dog’s cat and therefore she named her Milkbone. Milkbone was a good mouser and a lovely cat. Loren always said that she should have been my cat but I had just adopted my next tuxie named Zippy.

An equally early Cookie – they are siblings.

Zips was an unqualified and undeniable moma’s boy. He pretended fear of Kim roughly up to his dying day. I found him in an antique jewelry store. I had gone to look at lockets and came back with Zippy. He lived to a very long life. During Zippy’s reign there was the very wonderful tux named Roscoe who was a huge lovable fellow.

Our Blackie, all black except for a white spot on his chest, like a badge, is a not quite tux to Cookie’s tux-ness. (He has white underpinnings too but you need to know him well to see those.)

Blackie eating on his own at long last!

In wrapping this post, I will report that this morning, as I waffled on whether or not I needed to hand feed Blackie so he could get a shot of insulin, he marched over to his dish like a regular fellow and ate some breakfast. I would say he and Cookie are not quite up to their usual consumption but both are eating out of dishes, a bit more dry food than usual, but in approved normal fashion. Whew. Now they are starting to eye the threshold of the bedroom and what is beyond. I’m sure there’s more to come!