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🇺🇦✏️✒️📚📔🌜dreamer 🌕 thinker 🌕 aspirant📱📷🚴‍♀️🏕🍄🌻

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Category Archives: Reminiscence

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RANI incense cones

words and images Posted on March 25, 2023 by dlschirfMarch 25, 2023

Both my parents were born during the 19-teens and weren’t what you’d call “hippies.” We had something associated with hippies, though — incense. RANI incense cones, to be precise, usually pine. Gift? Sale? I don’t know, but my mother liked them even if we used them sparingly. I’ve continued the tradition, buying incense (if not RANI) sporadically over the years.

Something made me think of RANI, so I looked up images of the box and found RANI, marketed as “house deodorant,” came from Chicago 60616. According to the trademark database the Hindu Incense Manufacturing Co. , Inc., was located at 2620 South Dearborn St. Office? Factory? I may never know. Sadly, today it’s a vacant lot. You can sometimes find the remaining boxes for sale on sites like eBay and Etsy.

mark
RANI Hindu Incense (front)
I liked the graphic (photo from an auction site)
RANI Hindu Incense (back)
This one doesn’t show the ZIP Code of 60616 but others do (photo from an auction site)

More about the RANI mark:

Word Mark RANI
Goods and Services (EXPIRED) IC 003. US 006. G & S: INCENSE. FIRST USE: 19270415. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19270810
Mark Drawing Code (5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM
Serial Number 71527404
Filing Date July 5, 1947
Current Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Registration Number 0500209
Registration Date May 11, 1948
Owner (REGISTRANT) HINDU INCENSE MANUFACTURING CO. CORPORATION ILLINOIS 2620 SOUTH DEARBORN ST. CHICAGO ILLINOIS
(LAST LISTED OWNER) GENIECO, INC. CORPORATION BY CHANGE OF NAME FROM ILLINOIS 200 NORTH LAFLIN ST. CHICAGO ILLINOIS 60607

Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Affidavit Text SECT 15.
Renewal 2ND RENEWAL 19880511
Live/Dead Indicator DEAD

Genieco lead me to the current Gonesh brand website, from which I learned:

In 1923, a Lithuanian immigrant named Radzukinas acquired a small company, The Hindu Incense Company. For business purposes, he changed his name to Radkins and changed the fortune of his small company by dedicating himself to the manufacture of quality charcoal incense cones and incense burners. Laurent Radkins operated the Hindu Incense Company successfully from the 1920s to the 1960s.

In the mid-sixties, the second generation of the Radkins family entered the business and Genieco, Inc. was born. Soon, the product offering was expanded to include incense sticks. The new brand name was GONESH®, named after the Hindu Elephant Boy, the God of Luck. The name Gonesh was trademarked in 1965.

The Chicago-based Hindu Incense Manufacturing Co., Inc., owned and run by a Lithuanian immigrant, marketing made-in-U.S.A. “house deodorant” incense cones to Greatest Generation housewives — a very American American dream.

Posted in Blog, Chicago, Relics, Reminiscence | Tagged family, products, relics | Leave a reply

Backyard games

words and images Posted on March 18, 2023 by dlschirfMarch 31, 2023

On August 12, 2021, the United States Postal Service issued “Backyard Games,” sure to appeal to the nostalgic baby boomer like me.

481204-Z0
Backyard Games stamps
“Backyard Games” issued by the United States Postal Service August 12, 2021 (usps.com)

Per USPS:

The stamp pane features eight unique designs illustrating eight backyard games:

  • badminton
  • bocce
  • cornhole
  • croquet
  • flying disc
  • horseshoes
  • tetherball
  • variation on pick-up baseball

Each design emphasizes the movement of the game pieces, giving a dynamic quality to the artwork, with a simplified style that evokes the nostalgic feeling of playing backyard games as a child.

Later my brother scanned some old slides, likely taken when he was home from the Army. They included photos of two of my aunts and me playing Pop-A-Lot, a backyard game from Tupperware I’d half forgotten.

Our trailer was at the end of a row, with a field beyond. My dad and the trailer park owner had an understanding. We could use the field next to the trailer rent free if we were willing to mow and maintain it. Our yard on the other side was small and shrank more when my dad planted a shed in the middle of it, so this was a great perk.

field
Part of the trailer park’s field

The field offered us two to three times the space, up to the point it turned into an uneven, weedy, wet depression. My dad had borrowed a glider, which he put on that side of the trailer along with a table and umbrella. (Later he moved them behind the shed for shade. Your choices were roast in the sun all afternoon on one side, or get eaten alive in the evening shade by mosquitoes on the other.)

Dad put up a trellis or two for morning glories and, later, a wild rose he dug out of the wet depression. He got enormous tires to use as raised flowerbeds. He planted a rectangular garden with flowers like zinnias and vegetables like bell peppers, anchored by Virgil’s Arbor Day ash tree at the southwest corner.

Family
Dad’s garden with fence and a piece of the orange-painted metal table; this was around the time of the Pop-A-Lot games (I’m wearing the same shirt)
Frontier graduation 6-24-1979
1979 high school graduation photo shows horseshoes, garden minus fence, and trellis. The glider and table had been moved to the other side

A light pole next to the trailer sported a board with horseshoes tacked to it. I have no idea where they came from. We may have used them once or twice. I loved the idea of having horseshoes, once associated with luck, and wondered if ours had been worn by a horse.

Of course we tossed a flying disc around (maybe a Frisbee). We played badminton; I remember I hit the birdie too hard like it was a tennis ball. Virgil and his friends played a few games of pick-up baseball and even flag football. They were surprised that I could sometimes hit the ball almost as far as the woods. Not bad for a girl eight years younger than her brother and his friends. The trailer park also had a basketball hoop stuck to a light pole in the field. The last time the basket went missing it wasn’t replaced. By then, most of the people who would have used it were gone.

The backyard games we played that aren’t on the list: Jarts and Pop-A-Lot.

The last (and possibly first) time we broke out Jarts, my brother (if I recall correctly) speared the top of his friend’s foot. It was quite gory.

Pop-A-Lot’s packaging said:

  • Fun
  • Safe
  • Develops coordination

Could “safe” has been in response to Jarts, which were as unsafe as anything could get?

I recall it was fun. It looks like my dad’s sisters liked it too (as long as it didn’t muss their hairdos).

IMAG0246-4
Aunt Marietta playing Pop-A-Lot by the driveway
IMAG0247_popalot_thelma
Aunt Thelma playing Pop-A-Lot in the field (I recognize the sumac behind her)
IMAG0254 copy
Me playing Pop-A-Lot in the field with woods behind me

Although it wasn’t a game, the other backyard activity we indulged in involved water. For a while I had a wading pool — two, actually, one boat shaped and the next round. I outgrew both quickly. We also had a sprinkler attachment for the hose that spun around — it was great fun. The only reason I can think of for not using it more was not wanting to waste too much water.

Diane Virgil sprinkler
I’d forgotten about this sprinkler attachment
pool
The boat wading pool

Sadly, by the time I was old enough to play some of these games, my brother had left for the Army, and his friends had dispersed to begin their own futures. The demographic of the trailer park changed, too, with the families moving out and retirees trying to stretch their pensions moving in.

The Forest Preserve District of Will County’s “Winter Wonderland” at Messenger Woods reminded me of Pop-A-Lot and backyard games, even if they weren’t all “real” games. I could see myself working to consistently get a plushie snowman’s head into a basket on my head. After all, it’s fun, safe, and develops coordination.

Basket toss game
No backyard game is too silly . . .
Posted in Blog, Reminiscence | Tagged family, Forest Preserve District of Will County, Illinois, New York, nostalgia, photo, vintage family photos | 1 Reply

International Space Station (ISS) flyover

words and images Posted on September 17, 2022 by dlschirfSeptember 17, 2022

I subscribe to SpotTheStation, which tells you when you may be able to spot the International Space Station (ISS). Most of the time it’s at too low an angle (behind buildings or trees) or too late/early (or also too cloudy). Today, however:

Time: Sat Sep 17 7:44 PM, Visible: 7 min, Max Height: 89°, Appears: 10° above SW, Disappears: 10° above NE

Almost straight overhead and before my bedtime!

I walked to the park across 55th and got a great look at it until it disappeared 10º above NE. Even in all the light pollution. It took about six minutes from the time I spotted it until it disappeared. Here it is toward the end.

My dad would have loved this. We watched for the burn-up of Skylab together but conditions weren’t right. Still a great moment. And on the way home from family’s house in Eden, we saw a meteorite, which we were both thrilled over. Two of my fondest dad memories.

International Space Station flyover
Posted in Blog, Ephemera, Reminiscence | Tagged Chicago, family, Hyde Park, photo, weather | Leave a reply

Postcard books

In my younger days (1980s through 1990s, which, sadly, don’t seem that long ago), I’d collect certain things, like Renaissance music CDs and bookmarks. I also collected postcard books from 57th Street Books and other bookstores. After all these years, I’m finally returning to sending postcards, some yellowing, to friends and family.

The Sierra Club books were among the first I bought. Just looking at them reminds me how the photos took me away from what was then a tedious life. Sadly, I don’t see postcard books on the Sierra Club’s website, and now that I think about it I’m not sure when I last saw a postcard book in a store. I suppose I’m one of the few left who sends postcards.

Sigh.

Postcard Books
Postcard Books
22 photos
February 16, 2021 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Life, Reminiscence Tagged nature Reply

Marietta Schirf, WAC editor

words and images Posted on March 22, 2020 by dlschirfFebruary 4, 2023

Marietta Schirf was my dad’s youngest sister. He said he didn’t know how she snuck into the Armed Forces because he was sure she didn’t meet the minimum height requirement.

At a 1980s July 4th concert on Capitol Hill, E. G. Marshall officiating, veterans by branch were asked to stand up. When the turn came for the Air Force, she stood and whooped, to the surprise of our neighbors on the grass. I asked why Air Force, and she answered she’d been in the Army Air Corps. That’s the first I’d heard that.

Aunt Marietta died in the mid-90s. How she would have appreciated the resources of the internet. She once took me to the Library of Congress to look up articles on sugalite.

I will have to look up Front and Center. On the internet.

Marietta Schirf
Marietta Schirf at work on Front and Center
Posted in Blog, Life, Reminiscence | Tagged clippings, family, news, nostalgia, Pennsylvania, Schirfs, vintage family photos | Leave a reply

Virgil’s school photos

I can date only a couple of my brother Virgil’s school photos, but tried to arrange them by apparent (to me) age. I wasn’t born until Virgil was almost eight years old, and I don’t remember much before kindergarten (except, I think, climbing out of and dangling from my crib, giving my mother heart palpitations when she found me). My first day of kindergarten was his first day of eighth grade.

Virgil and Diane, 9/7/1966
First day of kindergarten!
Virgil’s school photos
Virgil’s school photos
7 photos
Virgil_school_2
Virgil_school
Virgil 64-65
Virgil 12 9th grade
photo of photo, not scanned
Virgil Schirf 1968-69
Virgil 70-71

Virgil’s reaction to these photos?

What a brutally handsome dude. Who is he?

That’s Virgil in a nutshell. Or old photos.

January 25, 2020 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Reminiscence Tagged family, photo, Schirfs, vintage family photos Reply

Shoebox gateway to past

Dad Oct1982
Dad in October 1982, age 69, with his reduced garden, about six years before offering to throw a lifetime’s worth of family photos away

I’ve seen vintage photos and postcards for sale, and even bought a few myself, such as postcards of Starved Rock State Park.

I understand wanting postcards, souvenirs of places that have disappeared, changed, or survived — time capsules of a not-too-distant, recognizable past.

It’s harder for me to understand buying mundane photos of regular people the buyer never knew. Do they hope the photos will turn out to be valuable? Do they want to make up stories about the unknown, deceased-these-many-years people? Do they pretend strangers are their own family members, giving them names and histories? Or do they simply want to add old photos to their decor for a vintage look?

I was thinking about this when going through two shoeboxes of family photos. I’d finally found the perfect scanner for small photos (e.g., 4” x 6”). Many of my oldest photos are smaller. Some have typewritten captions on the back. I suspect these were added by Aunt Marietta, who after World War II became an executive assistant with the Atomic Energy Commission, later the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I don’t think anyone else would have had access to a typewriter.

Some have handwritten captions. Many aren’t labeled — no subject, location, or date. Dad labeled most of his photos, at least later. I think these random, unlabeled photos frustrated him — even though he knew most of the subjects. I wonder what a photo buyer would make of them?

I don’t know what to make of some of them myself. There’s a little blonde girl who is not the daughter of my mother’s best friend. (She agreed it’s not her.) There are a boy and a girl. The boy could be my brother, but he doesn’t recognize the girl. two of my aunts are posed with a taller man. I can only guess he may have been Harold, a brother had had epilepsy and died before he reached 21.

I have two shoe boxes and a suitcase of my dad’s photos and a lot of scanning to do of the people photos. When he moved to Pennsylvania to be closer to family, he threatened to throw out every photo. Panicked, I hastily communicated he was not to toss a single photo, and I would take them. I was shocked, but he was in a purging mood. Who knows? A buyer may have wanted them.

All this is a long way of saying to expect to see small vintage photos posted here once in a while, along with anything I know and think about them.

June 24, 2019 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Reminiscence Tagged family, nostalgia, photo, Schirfs, shoebox, vintage family photos Reply

Happy Father’s Day, 2019 edition

Ralph Schirf
June 16, 2019 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Reminiscence Tagged family, photo, Schirfs Reply

Hike and a picnic

words and images Posted on January 28, 2019 by dlschirfFebruary 4, 2023

Today is the 100th anniversary of my mother’s birth. I discovered this delightful clipping about a hike to a farm and a picnic with storytelling under a big tree she helped to organize. It could be straight out of Anne of Green Gables.

I love finding these blurbs. This and others are giving me new insight into my parents’ early lives pre-me.

Posted in Blog, Life, Reminiscence | Tagged clippings, family, news, nostalgia, Pennsylvania, Schirfs | 2 Replies

Stop the presses! Family members visit other family members in Williamsport

words and images Posted on January 22, 2019 by dlschirfFebruary 3, 2019

I jest, but this does bring back memories of visits back and forth when I was young enough to be bored but old enough to appreciate any change in routine. This was a visit without us, though.

Posted in Blog, Life, Reminiscence | Tagged clippings, family, news, nostalgia | Leave a reply

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