Cribs

Spent the morning cleaning, dusting, sweeping, smoking and feeling good about life. It's been another beautiful day. A bit chilly, but not so much that I couldn't air out the house with the doors and windows open. Cleaning up always feels good. It's nice to be in a clean house.

After dusting the Victrola and applying a nice coat of Murphy's Oil Soap, I decided, what the fuck. . . why not fire up the old boy and give it a listen. I wonder if the phrase "Crank it up" came from the Victrola? I don't know, but that's what I did. I cranked up the handle on the side, put in a new needle and listened to the distinctive sound of recorded music being played on a non electric record player. To make it louder, you just open the doors under the turn table.

I've also been working in the garage. Starting to unpack a bunch of boxes that just got stuck in the back of the garage. Trying to go into clutter reduction mode, I wonder if it's not time to relinquish my coveted cigar box collection. I mean really. . . how many empty cigar boxes does one man need? I used to think about doing decoupage on them, but never got around to it.

I was the lucky one of the kids who ended up with some family heirlooms. The Victrola belonged to my great grandfather Charley Frank. It sat untouched in my Uncle Jimmy's garage in Boston for 40 years! The tall mirrored chair, umbrella stand and hat rack was from my Aunt Marion's home and the bedroom set and china cabinet belonged to my grandmother Florence Frank. It's nice to feel surrounded with some family history. The desk that I'm working on right now, was the vanity (part of the aforementioned bedroom set). One of my fathers interests is genealogy and he's tried to give me a connection to our family's past.





This is a picture of Charey (Shaiya Graubart) Frank. On board are his sons, George (3yrs) and Arthur (my grandfather 2yrs). This picture was taken in 1909, 3 years after the Victrola was manufactured.

Click pics to enlarge.

Nice stoogie. . . A man after my own heart