What's Wrong With This Cover?

 Going beyond the normal 'fill-the-album-spaces' mode of stamp collecting, I also enjoy an aspect of the hobby termed as 'postal history'.

Postal history entails stamps that are on-cover, i.e., envelopes and postcards. Each such piece has its own small story to tell, since the cover includes the name of the sender, recipient, a postmark cancellation which shows the date and postal facility through which the item was sent, as well as other interesting notations or markings that may have been applied during the piece's journey through the mail stream.

The cover shown in this post has such an interesting story... 

The letter is franked with a Christmas Seal rather than a regular postage stamp!

Normally, such a piece would be detected by a mail clerk and returned back to the sender with a note of  'insufficient postage'.

In this case, the clerk may have missed the error, perhaps due to the Christmas rush of processing high volumes of mail.

I like to think that the sender might have been a child who wasn't aware of the difference between a Christmas seal and a postage stamp. After all, they look about the same.  I envision a postal clerk recognizing the letter for what it was, smiling knowingly, applying the cancellation, and sending it on its way....

Something From The Ol' Stamp Collection

 As I mentioned in the introductory post to this blog, the subject matter herein is prone to abrupt changes based on whatever thoughts happen to pop into the mind of this grizzled old gray head at any given time.

Thus, the sudden change from music to philately.

Actually, this post is loosely related to the last one, being prompted by writing about the old Sears Catalog.

I was reminded that, back in the early to mid-20th Century, some U.S. postage stamps bearing interesting overprints could be found.

These are known in stamp collecting circles as 'pre-cancels'.  As the name implies, the Post Office would supply regular issue sheets of postage stamps to businesses who did a lot of bulk mailing. These stamps were overprinted with a city and state name situated between horizontal bars.  The business entities could purchase the stamps from the Post Office at reduced bulk mailing rates.

There are virtually thousands of varieties of such stamps in existence, taking into account the many city and town overprints on many different stamp types and denominations. Very few of these kinds of stamps are of any significant value, due to the huge numbers printed, but they do constitute a popular collecting specialty.

This small assortment of stamps I have scanned for this post goes beyond the normal pre-cancels with the addition of some extra overprinting - "SRC" followed by a month and year designation.

These, of course, were produced for use by Sears, Roebuck, & Company.

It took me a while to locate these stamps, as they resided in a box mixed in with about a thousand other loose, unsorted regular pre-cancels.

In addition, I found a handful of other similar specimens bearing a "MW" overprint.

Any guesses as to which business entity made use of these ones?

Cheers!

Music Instruments in the Old Sears, Roebuck Catalogs

 As I was writing the section in the previous post about my grandfather likely purchasing his old mandolin through Sears, I remembered that I have a couple reproductions of Sear-Roebuck catalogs in my library - a 1909 version, and a 1927 version.

I pulled out the 1909 copy and opened it up to the musical instrument pages.

There, I found a huge amount mandolins, violins, guitars, banjos, pianos, and tons of musical accessories.

Here are photos of some of these pages:

Man, if only we could get this stuff at these price points, nowadays.  But we must remember that the prices shown in the catalog are those of 1909, reflecting a time in America when working folks' wages weren't extraordinarily high.

Anyway, this catalog is definitely an interesting look at the past.  One can spend many hours perusing through this massive tome.  Its pages contain every item that was necessary for everyday life at the turn of the 20th century.   It's an intriguing snapshot of what things were like back then.

If you can get ahold of one of these Sears repro catalogs, it's well worth the money spent for the many enjoyable evenings that can be experienced exploring its pages.

An Antique Mandolin

 Besides playing violin and guitar, a third instrument I enjoy is the mandolin. A 'mando' is a nice juxtaposition between the two other instruments in that it tunes up and plays with the same four string tones as the violin, and it is fretted and picked like a guitar.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the instrument, a mando has eight strings arranged in four pairs that are each tuned to the same pitch. Tuning is in fifths, just like the violin (notes G, D, A, and E). The instrument is held in the same position as a guitar and played with a plectrum (pick).

The instrument is capable of playing not only single note melodies, but double-stops and chords, just like a guitar. It has a distinctive chiming sound.

Since the strings don't 'ring' for a long length of time, mando players use a technique called 'tremolo picking' where the pick is used to rapidly strike the strings in an up-and-down hand motion to play those longer sustained notes.

Mandolins are usually perceived as a bluegrass or folk instrument, but have also widely been used in classical, country, and rock genres.

Back at the turn of the 20th century, mandolins were quite popular. Many players formed entire mandolin orchestras, playing classical repertoire and popular music of the day.

From the 1940s onward, the instrument has been a staple of the bluegrass and country music scene.  Like the guitar and violin, mandolins are commonly found nowadays as acoustic/electrics which can be plugged into amplifiers.

Anyway, here is a picture of the first mandolin I have ever played:

This one belonged to my grandfather, and dates back to around 1912 or so. It was manufactured by Lyons & Healy, out of Chicago.  Lyons & Healy are more well-known for their full-sized harps, but the company produced other types of stringed instruments back in the day.

This mandolin has a sticker inside that reads "American Conservatory", which a little on-line research revealed as being one of the company's mid-priced, mid-quality offerings. There is a number printed on a wood support just inside the sound hole, but it is too faint to read clearly.

I suspect Grandpa might have purchased it through Sears sometime in the late 1910s.

The mandolin is a typical bowl- back instrument, affectionately referred to back then as a 'tater-bug'. 

An interesting bit of family history surrounds this particular instrument.  Apparently, Grandpa teamed up with a buddy to form a musical duo. Grandpa played the mando while his buddy sang.  They used their musical prowess to serenade the ladies they were courting at the time, who ultimately turned out to be their future wives! I sometimes wonder what tune(s) the pair might have employed to thusly win the ladies' hearts...

I never once heard my grandfather play this mandolin.  All the time I was growing up, I would see it hanging on a wall in his garage. My sibs and I would sometimes pull it off the hook and plunk around on it, but no-one ever seriously played anything.

After our grandparents passed away, my sister inherited the mandolin, but a few years ago she packaged it up and sent it to me, citing that I would probably make better use of it, being a musician.

Upon a close examination of the instrument, I found that everything was intact - no warpage or cracks whatsoever.  The lack of substantial changes in humidity native to the Colorado front range plains can largely be thanked for that.

The only flaw I could find is a cracked gear on one of the tuner machines, but it's not a deal killer.

I was amazed to find that the instrument still had the original strings.  They were pretty roached from age, but I was able to still tighten them and get them in tune!  They did sound very dead, though....

I was able to actually find some new strings especially made for antique bowl-backs on the Musician's Friend website.  Regular modern strings can't be used on such instruments because they are too high-tension and would cause major mechanical  stresses on the wood that could snap the neck or damage the body.

After re-stringing the mando and tuning it up, I found that it played and sounded excellent.  Perhaps like the day it was new!

Since then, I have played this old beauty regularly, and even used it onstage several times.  Because of the wide protruding round back, it has to be played while seated, and I usually have to belly up to a mic if I'm playing in a group situation.  

But, the old mando is one of my favorites in the stringed instrument arsenal.  

Now that I'm finished writing this post, perhaps it's time to sit down and run through the theme from 'Schindler's List'.

A beautiful tune when played on the mando....

My Ol' Beater Guitar....

 This is the acoustic guitar with which I started on my journey of being a self-taught guitar musician.  It's an Ibanez model 62 that I bought second hand sometime in 1977.  

This guitar had very bad action problems.  If one tried playing anything too much beyond first position, fingering on the fretboard became very difficult and the notes and chords would start sounding grossly out of tune. So, for a lot of years, I was limited to just playing the standard 'cowboy' chords.  At the time, I wasn't serious enough about playing guitar to take the instrument to a Luthier to have things fixed.

Around 2010, I acquired a new acoustic-electric guitar, so this old Ibanez got put in its case and relegated to storage.

In the meantime, I began learning how to do basic acoustic guitar setup and adjustment, so eventually  I pulled the old beater back out to see if there was something I could do to make it play better.

I immediately discovered that the bridge was too tall, making the strings too far off the fretboard. That is why the action and intonation were so bad, and the guitar so un-playable.

I set about filing off the bottom surface of the bridge to shorten its height.  I ended up taking off a full 1/8-inch of material to make it right.  After re-mounting the bridge and putting on a new set of strings, all it took was a minor truss rod adjustment to make things sweet.  

What a difference! Now the action is incredibly good all the way up the fretboard.  As a result, I leave the guitar out with the rest of the collection and find myself picking it up to play quite often.

Cheers!

My Ol' Beater Violin

This week, I am switching gears from the subject of astronomy to that of music. 

Beginning in about the third or fourth grade in the early 1960s, I took up playing the violin. My older sibs were already taking lessons on the instrument, so my folks thought it might be good for me, as well. 

The elementary school I attended was part of a school district that had a well-established string instrument music program, so I received my early violin training at public school.

The music teacher was a wonderful lady, Ms. Wanda Ballantyne. She took me under her wing and worked with me at the school on an individual basis. In my fifth-grade year, I had progressed to the point where I was able to learn a more advanced solo piece that I performed at a PTA meeting. I still have that music and pull it out once in awhile to give it a go.

Anyway, this is a picture of the old acoustic violin that I've had since those good old days:

It's really nothing special - an inexpensive student instrument. I don't even know the make or model.

Here is a picture of the battle-scarred bow:

And I literally mean battle-scarred!  The dents and marks are the remnants of a number of swash-buckling 'sword' fights with my fellow juvenile orchestra-mates.  When the teacher wasn't looking, of course!

Adds a little bit of character and 'patina' to the poor old instrument...

Despite the abuse, this old fiddle has been with me through a lot.  It followed me through my junior high school days.

 I played it while I was in college in a band with all of my room-mates.

It was my instrument when I began playing in church orchestras beginning in the mid-1990s.

It went on stage with me at my first-ever open mic performance.

It was even the violin I played onstage at a large church in Denver as part of a string ensemble backing up Christian recording artist Lincoln Brewster during his 2013 Joy To The World tour!

Sadly, I don't play this instrument much anymore, as I went full electric about ten years ago.  But I still pull it out of the case once in awhile, tune it up, and run through some of my old favorite fiddle tunes! 

Astronomy in 1987 - Bigger IS Better....

 ...especially when it comes to telescope objective lenses / mirrors.

By early 1987, I had saved up enough funds to be able to purchase a substantially larger instrument.

This time it was a Meade 8-inch Newtonian reflector!

This monster was, of course, equipped with an equatorial mount atop a large, and very heavy pier. The whole system was definitely at the limit of being able to single-handedly carry into the back yard or pack into my vehicle.

As with the smaller refractor, I soon purchased a couple of new 1.25" high quality oculars, and a set of color filters.

Now I was set to engage in some serious observing.

With Don Dekarske's continued guidance, I learned how to render drawings of my observations at the eyepiece. I still have all of these drawings, along with detailed notes, squirreled away in a notebook. I plan to scan some of these and post them here on the blog at a later date.

By 1988, I had joined two prestigious organizations, the British Astronomical Association, and the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO). I submitted several observations and drawings of Jupiter and Saturn to both of these groups.

Sadly, my involvement in serious astronomy took a huge hit in 1989, when I was part of a massive lay-off at my longtime workplace. I ended up having to sell the reflector telescope to help relieve the household financial burden caused by this event.  My last planetary observation submissions to the BAA and ALPO are dated in early 1990.

From there, I pretty much moved on from astronomy, never bothering to purchase another large telescope. On rare occasions, I will still pull out the little 60mm refractor if there is some notable celestial event I hear about, the most recent being the 2020 Jupiter/Saturn conjunction.

My First Telescope

 The instrument which I chose to begin astronomical observation was purchased at J.C. Penney.

There is no other brand name on it - only a tag stating that it was of Japanese manufacture.

The telescope is equipped with a 60mm (2.4") coated objective lens at 700mm (27.6") focal length.

Like all small department store telescopes of the day, this one is situated on an altazimuth mount with an adjustable wood tripod.  Surprisingly, the mount is very sturdy and introduces no wobble to the instrument, which is very beneficial to doing any type of observing.

The scope came with two ocular eyepieces, a 12.5mm and a 6mm, yielding magnifications of 56x and 117x, respectively.  These are both cheaper Huygenian type eyepieces, which are also typical of department store offerings.  I rarely, if ever, used the 6mm eyepiece because it is too much magnification for the size of the objective lens, plus the lesser quality produces less-than-ideal images.

My astronomy mentor, Don DeKarske, suggested that I purchase a couple more higher quality oculars.

After a trip to the local camera store, I came home with a new 25mm Kellner eyepiece and a 7mm Orthoscopic, giving magnifications of 28x and 100x.  The 25mm piece gives 'gosh-wow' wide field views, while the 7mm works very well for planetary detail and splitting double stars. 

Between the quality objective lens and oculars, there were virtually no chromatic aberration issues.

Upon trying out the telescope during our next observing outing, Don informed me that I indeed had one of the best 60mm telescope systems he has seen. 

The telescope also came with a few accessories:  a 2x Barlow lens, an image inverter, and a right-angle prism.  Again, I rarely used any of these features because of the introduction of additional lenses or mirrors that would unnecessarily absorb light.

Lastly, the telescope came with a moon filter. 

I found the small 5x finder scope to be quite useless, so I removed it from the main tube.  Instead, I became adept at finding celestial objects using the 25mm ocular on the main scope, then switching to higher powers if needed.

Another must-have I needed to purchase was something to replace the old dog-eared National Geographic Celestial map.  A new copy of Wil Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000 did the job...

Armed with all of this equipment, I was ready to tackle the heavens !

I still have this telescope and Sky Atlas.  Perhaps I'll just have to step outside on the next clear evening and do me some casual stargazing.

1986 - Diving Into Astromomy !

 Beginning in 1986, I began a serious foray into the realm of amateur astronomy. It had been over a year since I had disengaged from the model rocketry hobby and sold off most of the model fleet and associated support items. I found that I still needed some sort of activity to keep my mind engaged and my penchant for having some type of hobby satisfied.

The catalyst for my delving into astronomy came from association with one of my workplace peers, Mr. Donald DeKarske.

Don was an avid astronomy enthusiast who owned and regularly used a quality 101mm refractor telescope.  After spending many work breaks talking astronomy with Don, he invited me to come along to one of his observing sessions.

I was blown away by what I saw in the eyepiece. 

Hooked...new hobby found!

In short order, I soon had my own telescope and accessories. At the time, my hobby budget was quite limited, so I could only afford a small 60mm refractor, but it was good enough to get started.  Don pointed out that, despite the small aperture, my new instrument was far superior to any telescope that Galileo himself had at his disposal! 

Here's an old photo of Mr. Dekarske with 4" refractor telescope:

With Don's mentorship and guidance, I learned the ins and outs of proper telescopic observing techniques and skills. From my previous studies of the night sky during the elementary school and junior high days, I had a fairly good base on which to begin this new journey.

It was time to get rollin'....

A First Venture Into Astronomy

This week's post, the first on this new blog, is inspired by finding this old, tattered paperback book in my library:

Ever since I was a kid in elementary school in the 1960s, I've had an interest in the stars and planets.  I recall going on many class field trips to a planetarium at a local high school and being enthralled while watching the fascinating projected sky-gazing presentations. 

Of course, my classmates and I found it very funny when we learned that Orion, the Hunter had a huge cloud of gas under his belt, and that there was actually a star named 'Beetle-Juice'! 

Fortunately, I was able to move beyond these banalities and take a more serious interest in all things astronomical.

Around this time, National Geographic Magazine published an issue that contained a large pull-out Map of the Heavens. I glommed onto that map and it became my prized possession, enabling me to go outside on clear evenings to learn to identify the constellations, and figure out what parts of the sky in which I could follow the bright planets.

My folks happened to pick up on this interest, and before long I had this book. There is a huge amount of information crammed into this small package.

Thumbing through its pages, I've noticed that the book was written in a day when galaxies were still referred to as 'spiral nebulae' and 'island universes', and the Mount Palomar 200-inch Hale Telescope was the state-of-the-art in professional astronomy. 

We've learned so much in the intervening years...

Nevertheless, this little paperback edition became my astronomy 'bible'.  A short time later I had in my possession a small refractor telescope mounted on a very wobbly table-top stand. The aperture of this instrument couldn't have been more than 25mm, but I made do with it.

Armed with these items, I managed to make some marginally meaningful observations and learn how to navigate the night sky.

These early forays into the cosmos lasted well into my junior high years, but had pretty much waned by the ninth grade.

By that time, however, the groundwork had been established for what would come a few more years down the road.

That's for a future post.....

The Grand Introductory Post!

 Hello, Blog readers, and welcome to my newest blog, ever!

This one runs in parallel alongside my BlastFromThePast model rocketry blog, the Tales From The Double Decker Couch LEGO blog, and the handsawgeek woodworking blog over on LumberJocks.com.

So what kind of content will you find here at Eddie's?

Pretty much everything else that doesn't fit on the other blogs. 

My interests are many and varied. Many have been full-fledged hobbies in the past, which I still hold on to and occasionally tinker with. 

The list includes:

Music Performance, Practice, and Study

Coin Collecting

Stamp Collecting

Electronics

Cartooning and Graphic Arts

Astronomy

American Civil War History

Antiques and Vintage Toys

Gardening and Landscaping

Christmas Outdoor Lighting

Probably some other stuff that I can't think of as I write this.

I might even sneak in some posts about interesting life experiences.

An unusual aspect of this blog is that none of the post topics will be in any particular sequence or order.  Total chaos, in other words.  Post content will be driven by whatever tinkering I might be involved with at that particular time, or just whatever happens to pop into mind.

It is my hope that readers will find the future content of this space to be informative, interesting, and fun.

Apparently, writing has become another of my hobbies....

Cheers !!