Sometime in the early 1960's, two trick or treaters stopped in front of the news-stand to pose for this Halloween snapshot.

What a great photo!  It combines two things I love – old magazines and Halloween.  Anyone over forty will probably admit to going out on Halloween wearing one of those lame, out-of-the-box costumes at least once during their trick-or-treating years.  It was so easy for parents.  I know I had a Minnie Mouse costume, and Jim was Donald Duck more than once. They were made of a silky, synthetic fabric that I believe was flammable.  The plastic masks were held on with thin elastic bands, but at least they were easy to flip up on top of your head for better vision when walking from house to house.

By the early sixties, Hanna-Barbera was on a roll.  Huckleberry Hound was introduced in 1958, and Yogi Bear became a break-out star in 1961.  The older kid on the right has the cool Yogi costume; his/her younger sibling appears to be wearing a more generic clown costume.

Of course, what really makes this photo for me are all of the magazines on display behind the kids.  It looks like Fidel Castro is on the cover of the “Look” magazine.  This could very well be from Halloween 1962, in which case the Cuban Missile Crisis had, literally, just ended.  The kids, however, probably don’t care.  They just want to load up on those nice, full-size candy bars that everyone got back then – and avoid the apples at all cost!

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It’s October, the month when grown men do crazy things like this.  This vintage photo, most likely from the 1960’s, is from my collection.  It’s hard to say why these men are in costume, but let’s assume it’s a Halloween party at the local American Legion or men’s club.  The guy who’s supposed to be Mr. Clean REALLY looks like Mr. Clean.  My favorite is the “house frau” on the right.  Note that the youngest guy has the lamest costume.  One of the best parts of getting older is not caring what others think.  By that measure, I’ll bet the man in the coconut bra is the oldest!

Get your costume on.  Halloween is coming!

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But the thing that just about any kid wanted more than anything else was the hat. We all wanted a coonskin cap with a genuine raccoon tail hanging out the back. After all, that’s what set Davy apart from everyone else. I got mine that Christmas of 1955 and it was the genuine one that came in the box with Fess Parker’s picture on it. The box called it the “Official Davy Crockett Indian Fighter Hat”.

Inside the box was a hat made of real animal fur. Let’s just say that 1955 was not a good year to be a raccoon. The term “Indian Fighter” would not survive our current wave of “political correctness” either. My original hat disappeared years ago – probably thrown out after my head got too big for it and the fad had come and gone. Fortunately about three years ago I was able to purchase another one from its original owner, a man who apparently never wrecked any of his toys.

As with many old toys from my youth, the box was almost as good as the toy. In the case of the Davy Crockett hat, it was the only way to tell it was the real deal. I remember that my Davy Crockett hat had a round cardboard picture of Fess Parker attached to it which I suspect was detached from my current example years ago to make it look more realistic. The man I bought it from, however, claims that it never had anything attached to it.

Disney would go on to make two more episodes for the Davy Crockett series and edit four of the five episodes into two feature length movies (in 1955 and 1956) but the fad had run its course.
Soon Disney would give us “Zorro.” The sign of the “Z” could soon be found everywhere.

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I really liked the Nashville store.  First of all, it’s in a great old brick factory building, the Marathon Motor Works.

We were heading into Nashville on I-40 from west to east, and our GPS took us through the city, past Fisk University, for quite a few blocks.  Getting back on I-40 was very easy.  The whole Marathon Motors complex looks like something being re-purposed into a trendy shopping area.  Next to the Pickers’ store, for instance, is a candy store.

Unlike the Iowa store, which had an intimate feel to it, the Nashville store is quite a bit larger.  I’d say it has close to three times the square footage.  If nothing else, it has very high ceilings.  Whoever arranged the stock did a great job.  It was almost like walking around through a really cool museum of wacky retro stuff.  (And, since the prices were astronomically high, just like in the Iowa store, we knew we couldn’t afford anything, so it WAS like visiting a museum.)  This is the view when you first walk into the store.

One of the recognizable things was the huge Piggly Wiggly head.

There was a fabulous canvas circus sideshow sign up on the ceiling.  Who wouldn’t pay money to see a pig with an elephant’s trunk?

There were great advertising pieces, funky one-of-a-kind things like the giant bib overalls or the 1940’s slacks with the first names of Big Band music greats (Benny, Bing, Frankie, Dina, etc.), rusty bicycles and motor parts, and manikin heads sporting hats, helmets, and goggles.

As we did in the Iowa store, we searched for something small and affordable.  It was tough.  They had a lot of 1990’s music trade magazines that were supposedly picked from Mickey Gilley.  Priced at $5, they fit the bill.  We also found a wire basket with a handful of paper items in it for $5 each.  There was an ad for the Chile pavilion at the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo.  (That’s the same exposition where William McKinley was shot by an assassin.)  Five dollars didn’t seem too outrageous at all.  Those were our “old” finds.

As with the Iowa store, there were plenty of t-shirts, hats, magnets, shot glasses, metal signs, paper fans, playing cards, etc., etc. for sale.  (I particularly liked the baby onesie that said, “Future Picker” on it.)   I’m sure sales of those items are the main source of revenue for the store.  There definitely were a lot of shoppers – or at least “lookers” – at this shop.  There were two counters for sales, one to the front left side of the store and one in the back, staffed by pleasant young people who looked like they could be college students.  Based on what the young man who waited on me said, it sounds like Mike shows up about once a month at the store.

We’re glad we’ve seen both of the American Pickers’ shops.  If you’re a fan of the show and ever get to LeClaire, Iowa or Nashville, Tennessee, do stop in.  Then, when you watch the shows, you’ll have a reference point when they show interior/exterior shots.  Believe me, things never look the same in person as what you imagined.

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The phrase “elephant in the room” has become popular in the last few years, often referring to an object too big to ignore or perhaps even a person or topic that simply cannot be overlooked.   For the purposes of this story,  we are talking about a large object, one that has occupied our family room for nearly thirty-six years and is definitely hard to ignore.

By the spring of 1976, Carol and I had been collecting all kinds of stuff for several years.  We got married in 1974 and started our lives together in a one bedroom apartment that was, after a couple of years, full of our growing collection of old stuff.  I would say that antique advertising was a particular favorite at that time and remains so to this day.

On this particular day, we went to a nearby high school for their special one day “Bicentennial” flea market.  We got there fairly early and had barely parked our Ford Pinto wagon when I heard Carol let out a scream and start running  ahead of me.  Lo and behold, someone was just pulling out of her van a vintage Mr. Peanut costume.  Before I could react, Carol inquired, “How much is it?”  The dealer replied that the grand sum for this prized piece of American popular culture was ………… four dollars!

“Sold !”

Even though I had nothing to do with the transaction, I was more than happy to reach in my wallet and give the dealer her four dollars.  Hauling this rather large object back to the car required both of us, and we decided the best thing to do at that point was to skedaddle out of there before someone told the dealer she had made a big mistake in selling our new prized possession so cheap!

I should mention that this was not like a Halloween costume; it was actually hand made out of what appears to be layers of material that were put over a form to make a hardened shell – it is a peanut after all!   The wearer would provide the arms and legs and look out the eye holes and several other seeing holes strategically placed on either side of the costume’s big peanut face.  Planters has more recently produced newer plastic costumes, but this one would date to the 1940’s, give or take a couple of years.  These were used at Planters Peanut stores to promote sales and get people to come through the door.  Also produced for store display were Mr. Peanut shaped penny scales, Mr. Peanut figural counter displays, Mr. Peanut “window tappers,” and other incredible figural Mr. Peanut items.  Any of these objects are rare and highly collectible today.  Planters also produced glass jars for use in candy and grocery stores from the 1920’s through the 1960’s.   Made for public consumption and available for sale in stores were plastic toys, banks, utensils, condiment sets, etc.

We have displayed our Mr. Peanut on an old dress form since we got him. This way we can look at him pretty much eye to eye or, more accurately, empty eye socket covered with screen to eye.  His big red lips are forever formed into a slight grin, and his top hat and monocle permanently give him a dapper look.

Now I realize that not everyone wants a giant Mr. Peanut costume in their family room.  Our kids have even admitted that when they were little, he kind of creeped them out.  For us, however, he has always been a welcome member of the family.  We probably take him a little bit for granted after all these years, but he always makes an impression on anyone who visits our home for the first time.

I think it wholly appropriate that the elephant in the room should be a peanut!

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