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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

Relics: Laundromat

words and images Posted on March 2, 2023 by dlschirfMay 30, 2023
IMG_9148
Wonder Wash, Anna, Illinois, evening of May 24, 2013

According to the Hyde Park Herald, Hyde Parkers who don’t have laundry facilities in their house or building now have to go outside the neighborhood for clean clothes.

Harper & 53rd Launder Koin, the last laundromat in Hyde Park, is closing for good on Tuesday.

The property, located at  5230 S. Harper Ave., is being purchased by the University of Chicago. According to co-owner Josh Hwang, Launder Koin’s last day in operation is technically Feb. 28, but “residents should try and get their laundry done before Feb. 26.” 

The laundromat has been operating off 53rd Street since 2002, predating large nearby developments like Harper Court. Back then, Hwang was only 13 years old and working at the business for his parents. 


Though demand for laundromats has dwindled nationwide in the last decade, Hwang said Launder Koin still services between 500 to 1,200 people a month. 

I’ve wondered if I should do a “Relics” post on the institution of the laundromat, but it never seemed to be the right time. After seeing this article in the Hyde Park Herald, I figure the right time is now. The laundromat is on its way to becoming a relic, and may be for many years.

I grew up in a trailer — no dishwasher, no washer, no dryer. My understanding is in the trailer park’s early days the women did the laundry in the building “down front” (the entrance from Rte. 20). There may have been an informal “laundry day” (Tuesday? Wednesday?). The building was shut up by the time I was old enough to peer through its grimy windows and appeared to be junk storage.

Later, my dad, the only licensed driver, took the laundry to a laundromat on South Lake Park Avenue (6000? 6150?) in Hamburg on Saturdays, mostly by himself. I think it was on one occasion when I went with him that a woman asked him, with his shock of almost snow-white hair, about his cute granddaughter. “That’s my daughter,” he corrected her. I’m sure the women at the laundromat looked at him with newfound respect after that.

Winter trips took longer because he had to dry everything at the laundromat. I tried to dry jeans once or twice in winter air, but discovered they could break (tear) when frozen.

In finer weather, the wet clothes and sheets came home so we could hang them on the clotheslines. After a few hours in the breeze, they really did smell great. They also could pick up bird droppings, stains from falling wild cherries, or, worst of all, in late spring, tent caterpillars. Around May a plague of them would infest the cherry trees over the trailer and clotheslines. You hoped to pick them off so you wouldn’t find any, or parts of any, on your clothes or bedclothes later.

I imagine the laundromat could be a social place, with regulars on Saturday morning who exchanged greetings and maybe chat — with no phones or devices to distract them. Of course, you could always step out and go to a nearby store. It wasn’t likely at that time your clothes would go missing.

After I came to the university, I didn’t need to use a laundromat. The dormitory had washers and dryers, and my apartments since have had on-site laundry machines. The first was tough — I lived on the fourth floor, and the machines were on the first. There weren’t enough, so I could go down and up the stairs several times before one was free. It used a quaint honor system. You were supposed to plug the machine you used into an electrical outlet associated with your meter. It was fascinating to me to watch the meter move with the increased load. It wasn’t so fascinating when you found someone else’s laundry running up your meter.

At the next apartment, a studio, the small laundry room was slightly below ground level in the next building, and served at least a couple of buildings. In rain, snow, or cold, I’d have to dress for the weather, carry the laundry through the courtyard and a bit down the street, pass through a gate, go down steps mostly too dark to see in the alley, and hope for the best. Then repeat back and forth until all the laundry was washed and dried. I don’t miss that, especially when the weather was grim. It’s hard to get motivated to go out a half dozen or more times in wind, sleet, rain, snow, etc., especially on a day off. If I could drive and a laundromat had been an option, I’d have used it.

I’ve used laundromats twice in the last ten years that I can remember. The first was in Anna, Illinois, during a visit to Cache River and Shawnee National Forest. The other was in the college town of Geneseo, New York, while in the area to see Letchworth State Park.

The one in Anna was almost empty at maybe 8 p.m.; I recall the one in Geneseo was more crowded mid-day. Both seemed well kept, and the one in Anna gleamed with stainless steel machines.

Sadly, I have never been to the laundromat on 53rd — I’m not sure I knew it was still open. The next closest one is in Kenwood, prominently situated in a a plaza off the 47th Street exit of Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable Lake Shore Drive. I haven’t been in there, either, although I would need to wash heavier items there. It gets mixed reviews.

In my dad’s day, the big deal would be to have enough change — lots of change. No credit or debit cards, no Apple Pay, not even paper bills. If the price went up a quarter, naturally my dad grumbled. Inflation! To him and some of his peers, it didn’t seem an insignificant amount of money. “It adds up,” he might say.

Laundromats may not entirely disappear, just get farther and farther apart — like Hyde Park residents having to go six blocks further north into Kenwood. Five hundred to twelve hundred people a month aren’t insignificant numbers for a neighborhood. Some laundromats, like the one in Hyde Park, are family businesses. How long will future generations want to carry on the laundromat business in a rapidly evolving society that values money and technology?

Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.

Benjamin: Yes, sir.

Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?

Benjamin: Yes, I am.

Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?

Mr. McGuire: There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?

The Graduate

Substitute “laundromats” and you’ll see what I mean.

I eagerly await the Star Trek “garment reprocessor”/”cleaning processor.”

Worf: Before being allowed to play, he was to put his soiled clothing in the garment reprocessor.


Keiko: One night goes by . . . two . . . a week . . . ten days . . . by now there’s a pile of socks half a meter high!

O’Brien: Come on . . . it wasn’t half a meter.

Keiko: After two weeks I couldn’t stand it any more. I bundled them up and put them in the cleaning processor. And I’m still doing it.

Eaton's trailer park, Hamburg, New York
Eaton’s trailer park, Hamburg, New York
Posted in Chicago, Relics | Tagged family, Hyde Park, Illinois, New York, photo, relics | 2 Replies

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

Meet the Schirfs, updated

Beginning with my paternal grandparents, we move on to my parents, my dad’s family, and my brother — characters, each and every one. Arranged roughly in chronological order.

Cast of characters:

  • Nicholas Peter Schirf and wife Anna Marie Shank, married c. 1910
  • Children Mildred, Ralph (my dad), Marietta, and Thelma, plus a possible appearance by Harold
  • Thelma’s husband John Conner and granddaughter Erin
  • Daisy (my mother), Virgil (my brother), and yours truly
  • Possibly a few unidentified family members and/or third parties
Meet the Schirfs
Meet the Schirfs
72 photos
Wedding, Nicholas Peter Schirf, Anna Marie Shank
Thelma, Harold?, Marietta
Thelma Schirf,  23 May 1940
Ralph Schirf, Army Air Force
"To a sister I love Marietta from Ralph"
Ralph Schirf
Ralph Schirf
Ralph Schirf with dog and guitar
Ralph, Marietta Schirf
Marietta Schirf keylining
Ralph Schirf with car
Ralph Schirf
Marietta at Lake Laure, Marlyand, Sep46
Grandmother Anna Marie, Mildred, Thelma, Ralph, Aug48
Grandmother Anna Marie, Mildred, Thelma, Marietta, Ralph, Aug48
Mildred, Grandmother Anna Marie, Thelma, Ralph
Ralph, Thelma, Aug1948
Ralph, Marietta, Aug48
Ralph, Marietta, Aug48
Ralph
Ralph
Ralph at Lincoln Park Zoo
Marietta, 24Aug1951
Daisy, Virgil, Diane
Virgil
Virgil, Ralph
Daisy, Virgil, 15Apr1956
Ralph, Virgil, Daisy, 1957
Virgil, Hamburg, New York, winter 1959
Virgil
John Conner, Virgil, Thelma, Jim Conner, Ralph, Marietta
Daisy, Diane
Ralph, Diane
Virgil feeding Diane
Diane
Diane, 4May1962
Diane and Virgil, December 1961
Diane, Virgil with sprinkler
Ralph and Diane, April 1965
Virgil and Diane, 7Sep1966
Diane and Virgil, November 1966
Virgil and Diane, March 1967
Diane in checkered dress, 4June1967
Diane, June 1967
Virgil birthday, 1967
Thelma and Marietta in matching dresses, 16Sep1967
Diane, Virgil, Christmas 1967
Thelma, Erin Conner
Mildred, Thelma, July 1971
Diane, Virgil with encyclopedias, January 1972
Virgil in Okinawa, November 1972
Virgil in uniform, January 1972
Virgil and Diane, January 1972
Diane, 6th grade graduation in 1973(?)
Virgil with wig
Daisy, Diane with Donna, 1977
Ralph and Daisy, 25th wedding anniversary
Virgil, Marietta
Marietta, Erin Conner
Virgil and Diane, 1981
Ralph, Diane, Daisy at Christmas
Ralph, October 1982
Virgil, Mildred, June (May?) 1983
Diane at convocation, 11June1983
Marietta and Diane in DC
Ralph, Marietta
Marietta and Ralph, August 1984
Ralph
Ralph
Diane and Courtney Lenna, November 1989
Diane and Virgil
Diane by Courtney L. Schirf, 28November1997
June 9, 2020 by dlschirf Posted in Blog, Life Tagged family, photo, Schirfs, vintage family photos 3 Replies

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

Dream: Camp, train, snow, bazookas, and apocalypse

words and images Posted on September 15, 2019 by dlschirfMarch 5, 2023

I was on a train in Indiana that had left a campground I was staying at (I remembered being at a camp but didn’t remember it). The train started to pass snow-covered fields, although it was only August. I thought, “Something is terribly wrong.”

Next I was in the bright atrium of an office building or a large department store. Slowly I became aware that someone was firing or about to fire a bazooka or something like it. I ran away and encountered a second person about to fire. I got away from that one too.

I found myself in a narrow street or an alley that should have been crowded with people but was quiet and lonely. I walked faster and faster, trying to elude whatever was lurking for me between me and the end.

I heard something, then saw my dad in his van, beckoning me to hurry. “How could Dad be here?” I wondered, but still I hurried to him . . . and safety.

Posted in Dream | Tagged dream, family | Leave a reply

Pennsylvania: Logan Valley Cemetery, Sinking Valley, Whipple Dam State Park

words and images Posted on September 2, 2019 by dlschirfApril 5, 2020
September 2

We visited my parents’ graves at Logan Valley Cemetery, located across from the high school. A cousin I haven’t seen in decades had left flowers at my dad’s grave. His flag holder for veterans still has a metal medallion. The newer medallions are plastic thanks to theft. Once upon a time I was young enough to find it shocking someone would steal the flag holder from a veteran’s grave.

Dad's marker

In Sinking Valley, this little mare and her young’un attract customers to Hilltop Farm. There’s also a wee donkey.

Wee ponies and donkey

On to Whipple Dam State Park, which was new to me. It’s yet another part of our legacy from the Civilian Conservation Corps. As it was Labor Day and central Pennsylvania isn’t rich with beaches, a college-age crowd had gathered at Whipple Dam’s postage stamp of sand to play volleyball and stand in the relatively shallow water. Despite the crowd, the surrounding woods gave the lake and beach an isolated feeling that reminded me of Pewit’s Nest in Wisconsin.

Whipple Dam State Park
Whipple Dam State Park
Autumn meadowhawk
Whipple Dam State Park

We’d passed the road to Shaver Creek Environmental Center and stopped on the way back. The buildings were closed for the holiday, so we relaxed on the deck’s Adirondack chairs. I kept hoping to hear a creek.

On the way to the park, V. spotted a plant she thought might be teaberry (ICE CREAM!). According to the folks of iNaturalist, it’s partridgeberry. Pretty, but perhaps not as weirdly tasty as teaberry. If you can’t get teaberry ice cream, try Clark’s teaberry gum. You won’t thank me, I think. It’s an acquired taste, associated with childhood 50 years ago.

Partridgeberry
Posted in Adventure, Blog | Tagged family, insect, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania state park, photo, state park, travel, wildlife | Leave a 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

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