Goodbye Burrrrr!!

It's been a very long, cold, snowy, icy winter.

But now now my neighbor's front yard is covered in daffodils--and the cherry trees are filled with pink blooms.

 

Better still--"Garage Sale" signs are popping up everywhere.

Goodbye cabin fever, welcome spring!

A Century Of Progress

When the Worlds Fair came to Chicago, it was called “A Century Of Progress International Exposition”.  It was originally to run from May 27^th 1933 until November 12^th 1933, but it was such a success that the Fair was opened again on May 26^th the following year and ran until October 31^st, 1934.

There were many exhibitors at the Chicago Worlds Fair, some of the exhibitors were automobile manufactures (some of the manufactures were Cadillac, Nash, Pierce Arrow, Packard, and Lincoln).  Another exhibitor was the Union Pacific Railroad, and they introduced their first streamlined train, the M-10000.

The Chicago Worlds Fair of 1933-1934 has a vast area of souvenirs that you could collect.  There are programs, buttons, flyers, coins, badges, ash trays, photographs, tape measures (I’m not joking on the last one), banks, and the list just goes on and on.

I can find plenty of different items here in the Ozarks when it comes to collecting the Chicago Worlds Fair.  The prices are all over the place, it really depends on how rare and well preserved the piece is.

The great thing about any Worlds Fair is that every piece that came from it is marked with the year and the name of the Fair that it came from.

Harold Bell Wright

One name that has remained popular here in the Ozarks is Harold Bell Wright, an author that wrote books about my area.

One such book that he wrote is called “The Shepherd of the Hills”.  This story is based mainly in the Branson area, and at one time was second in sales only to the Bible.

Even to this day, you can still catch a play at the park that has the same name as the book.

All of his books are still well received here in the Ozarks, and you can still find them in just about any flea market or antique mall you go to here.

Handmade Primitives

The great thing about the Ozarks is the great selection of handmade primitives.  Whenever someone has seen an item that has outlived its usefulness, a great idea hits them like a ton of bricks.

Why not turn it into something else?

Take this pitcher, for instance.  The body itself is one complete piece with no noticeable seam, and has an applied handle, probably from another pitcher that has become obsolete, and a lid that is also from somewhere else.

Who ever made it even went that extra mile and made a spout as well.

That’s the great thing about this area of collectibles, you never know what kind of great things that could be used differently.

Collectibles Of A Different Sort

Every area of the country gets the benefit of enjoying collectibles that other areas don’t get to see that much.  In my neck of the woods, primitives are seen here more often than things like Chippendale furniture.

There’s a wide range of primitives here in the Ozarks that you could run into, like this scythe.

 When you travel to another part of the country, it would be fun to see what kind of collectibles you run into.