Garbology pt.2

After my last blog post I received 93$ in donations. Thank you for that! Any money I receive will go towards maintaining the blog, and ensuring that my garbage picking operation runs as smoothly as possible.

A few different people mentioned the possibility of generating revenue from placing ads on the blog. I’m skeptical of the idea for a few reasons. For one, I don’t think the blog would make much money at its current level of popularity, which is very good but nowhere near the levels of the most viewed blogs. Second, ads are often pretty ugly. Third, I wouldn’t have much if any control over what ads ended up on the site. I don’t want to end up promoting low-quality watches from Alibaba, for example – I want people to buy less junk, not more.

This blog post sums up my views pretty well. However, I’ll admit to not knowing much about online advertising, so feel free to offer a rebuttal in the comments if you think I’m wrong.

Anyways, today I’ll show you a bunch of the old paper stuff from the spot I mentioned in my last post. I don’t think the person who lived here (I presume, because of the age of the items that they are no longer with us) was much of a tosser, given that a lot of this ephemera dates back to the 1940s. That Shirley Temple colouring book, for example dates to the early 40s.

(Just to remind you, you’ll notice a lot more details if you click on these pictures and zoom in!)

Someone here was a Royal watcher – I found lots of clippings and documents relating to the Crown. The scrapbook in the first picture is filled with articles relating to the death of King George VI and the coronation of Elizabeth (1952).

I love finding scrapbooks because they’re always unique, and sometimes contain neat old stuff that wasn’t often preserved.

Those Guy Laviolette children’s books must have been pretty popular back in the day; I’ve found them on a few different occasions now. That Purity cookbook was published in the early 1940s and is in excellent condition for its age. That “Faune illustrée du Québec” book is fun, and should do well at a yard sale.

This stuff is a little newer. There’s a “Photo Police” tabloid from 1980, a program from a 1980s kickboxing event in Verdun, a calendar from a church, a tourist guide to Seattle, and a couple of postcards, among other things.

Here’s the ticket to the kickboxing event. Jean-Yves Theriault has a surprisingly detailed Wikipedia page, which tells us that he won his fight against Danny Macaruso (who does not have a Wikipedia page) on August 23 1983.

The scrapbook at top left featuring the Queen and Prince Philip is empty. Otherwise, there’s a report card from 1946, a gas station calendar, a certificate from 1949, a book titled “Where to Buy Handicrafts in Nova Scotia – 1950,” an old snakes & ladders board, and a couple of typed / handwritten letters.

I’d assume that the Maine pavillion papers (there are two) came from Expo 67. That Labatt calendar is from 1966, while that Horoscope calendar is probably from the 70s. There’s a couple more kids books here, including one titled “L’histoire de Dieu” (History of God). Otherwise we have some old receipts, a train whistle guide (which I think came from an old Muffets cereal box), and a Catholic school workbook.

Here’s a couple more old colouring books, this time featuring Santa and Wyatt Earp. The baby boxer and Queen Elizabeth pictures are clippings – they’ll go into my yard sale collage box.

Above you can find a book filled with Red Rose tea cards (I’ve seen some of the loose cards before, but never the album), some old photos, a receipt book from the 1940s, a Canada centennial dish, a “Want list for Genuine Ford Parts” notebook from the 40s, and an old book sharing “new” coin tricks.

The Newspaper on the bottom left is a St John (New Brunswick) Telegraph Journal from February 21, 1952. It seems that the previous owner(s) had roots in New Brunswick, if you’ve been zooming in you may have noticed other items from the province.

That L’Évangéline newspaper bills itself as “le seul quotidien Français des Maritimes.” It stopped printing in 1982, but apparently it was once the main newspaper for Acadians in Eastern Canada. These folks likely had Acadian roots, based on the presence of those papers and other things you’ll see later on. I like that old Royal Bank receipt book a lot (unfortunately I didn’t takes pictures of the inside), as well as that copy of “The Digester.” I didn’t look at it long enough to figure out what the R.C.L. was, but it may have been some kind of company.

I saved lots of newspapers! We’ll see if anyone wants them at my yard sale. I figure my archivist friend might have interest in the old Montreal papers.

Let’s finish up with some miscellaneous papers. I found a couple different posters advertising Sirbain faux fur.

This large poster looks to be signed by Marie-Paule Belle, a French pianist and singer. I doubt it’s super valuable, but maybe someone at a yard sale will want it.

It looks like someone in the family ran a gas station in the mid 40s and early 50s. I think there’ll be some more old Esso stuff in a future blog post, but I can’t remember for sure. If I’m lucky there’ll more to come, as petroliana is a hot market these days.

This attractive map was made by Eric Aldwinckle for Maclean’s magazine. It shows “The Queen’s Realm,” or the British Colonies as they existed in the early 1940s. This antique map store has one listed at 375$, though I doubt it will sell at that price anytime soon. Still, it might be worth listing on eBay. It doesn’t seem to be very common.

These maps were printed by the Department of National Defense in the 60s. They’re quite large, measuring around 2′ x 1.25′ (from my memory).

Finally, I saved a roll of about 20-30 papers featuring what looks to be aircraft engineering drawings. Each page is headed with “Aircraft Sheet Metal W.E.T. No. (x)” and dated December 1941. These had been rolled up for quite some time, and I had to weigh them down with that cast iron dutch oven to get a decent picture. If you know what they might have been for, let us know in the comments!

Otherwise, I’m starting to get sick of the winter, which I think has been one of the snowiest and coldest in several years. Garbage is still pretty good (if maybe not quite as good) in the winter, it’s just that the actual picking is about 500% more frustrating. A partial list of annoyances include: the cold; the snowbanks; the fact that everything (including my boots) is often damp; the snow and little pebbles that get tracked inside my house, garage, and car; the parking issues and snow removal operations; and the fact that I can’t take any pictures outside. Those factors combine to sometimes make picking feel more like a chore rather than a fun and profitable pastime. Anyways, it’s almost over, right?

I haven’t had much luck picking this week, but I’ve made a few fun finds that will make the blog at some point. Stay tuned!

Links

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3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Contribute to garbagefinds.com
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Email: thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. I often fall behind on emails, so I apologize in advance if it takes me a while to get back to you.