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Why, suddenly, all these front wheel drive compact cars, with cross mounted engines?
How can so many drawing boards come up the same design at the same time?
Who first patented the idea?
Are they all copies of an oriental import?
If they have advantages, are more practical, why haven’t they been offered to the auto buying public long before this?
Just for Fun
by Dwight Cross
I have never done printing commercially.
At one time the plant – vegetable oils – where I work printed their own labels. The printer was going to recommend me to take his place during vacation.
“Don’t you dare!” I told him. “I like printing. I’m not about to learn to hate it.”
To a Blossom
by Lenore H. Hughes
A tiny coil
Of petals small
Slowly unfolds
Magenta hues
Which vibrant tell
Of wondrousness
Caught in a quiet
Unknown place
Beside the wall.
Creative
The tool shop on the farm was one wheat bin of a granary. Mostly, it was a catch-all for all kinds of scrap iron and discarded parts of farm machinery.
We were able to make almost all of our own repairs on implements, with comparatively few machinists tools.
We had no electricity. No power tools at all.
The coal burning forge was fanned by a squirrel cage type blower, spun by a ratcheting pump handle lever. As the younger son, this confining, arm aching chore too often fell to me. I got told off vehemently if I did not heap the coal right. Openings could allow the blower to cool the iron instead of heating it. Also, I had to watch to get the iron red hot, without melting it.
With the forge, we could bend and shape bar iron or round rods. We were not handy with heat welding, so most broken parts of machinery were spliced with another piece of iron. Or splinted between two or more pieces.
That meant several bolt holes must be drilled through various layers of iron or steel. The drill bit was hand cranked, too. That took lots of muscle and sweat. Plus lots of patience.
Farmers saved every piece of iron taken off any machinery. The walls of the tool shop were covered with all kinds of small parts, hung on nails. Others suspended from rafters or cross wires. Nail kegs were umbrella stands for strap irons and rods.
We were often able to use, or reshape to adapt, a machine part for some implement entirely different.
We loved to tinker and “invent” things. Many of the latches on farm gates and barn doors were homemade of odd pieces of iron scraps.
All things beautiful!
Delicate detail by Lisa Rodriguez
Handy Hanky
by Aimee Odessa
When did the handkerchief come into use?
Was it a utilitarian accident?
Its services are manifold.
Imagination takes us back to the beginning of man when the fig leaf served its purpose and the woven cloth took its place. The hot desert compelled the Israelites to take shelter from the sun under a canopy.
This very useful square comes in various qualities and colors. There is the delicate Swiss linen hanky with tiny embroidered edelweiss flower in one corner. The Irish linen handkerchief for men with a hand rolled edge comes in handy on a warm day for mopping up.
Now, what would one do without a hanky in time of a head cold? Keep a large hanky in the corner of your pocket. It takes very little space and may be useful on a cold windy day to be used around the neck or head.
Four large paisley printed squares make a pretty dress.
When knighthood was in flower, men sported a hand-made lace-edge hanky from their wrists. Ladies, besides having the habit of fainting (probably because of wearing the constricting corset) often dropped their dainty hanky to attract a gentleman. This sometimes resulted in marriage.
When the tears of the bride was gently brushed aside by the groom’s hanky, heaven indeed was calling.
Hankies come in handy as a tourniquet.
Arabella ran after her hanky on a windy day, thereby falling into the lake. Wasn’t Don Juan there in time to save her? Indeed he was – Juanny on the spot.
A hanky makes a fetish when your favorite puppy, horse, or flower is embroidered or painted in one of the corners.
Do you like your hanky in blue, yellow, pink or white? Or, for that matter, any color edged in tatting, roll-edged with lace or the kind with pulled threads? Which will you have?
Do you remember when Mommy pinned a hanky to your dress, so you wouldn’t lose it?
Hankies of famous theatrical stars are handed down to other actresses as a token of love and good-will.
Hankies are given as gifts.
Hankies welcome ships in and aureviour then out with a bon voyage.
Magicians can’t do without their colored silks by the dozen.
Add a word “panky” and what have you got?
Lopsided
We have been told, as in portrait photography, that the two sides of the human face are seldom, if ever, symmetrical.
Ever notice how many announcers, newscasters, and persons in TV commercial closeups, twist their faces to talk out of one corner of their mouths?
I Wonder Why?
by Irma Bachman
I wonder why the sky’s so high,
The ocean is so deep.
I wonder why some creatures fly
While others have to creep.
I wonder why some live a life of ease
While others have to struggle to survive.
I wonder why some try so hard to please
While on troubles others thrive.
Some day I may know the answers;
I’ll no longer wonder why
When I reach my Heavenly Home up in the sky.
Inspiration
by Blythe Colleen
Enchanting as a summer’s eve,
As warm as a winter’s fire.
Exciting as a mellow wine,
Embracing as the hands of time.
Jubilant as a day in May
Of fragrant blossoms in bouquet.
You’re much too much upon my mind
For work and play I have not time.
And so as those in love do find
I’ll try my hand at writing
Verse and rhyme!
Marooned
Is it too late in the season to tell more tales of the hard winter?
I asked a rural friend if they had trouble getting the car out their farm lane. (During the deep snows that repeatedly piled higher.)
He said, “With our tractors, we cleared our driveways wide enough to slip out.”
Then he added, “But – ! We were afraid to leave home. For fear that our roadway would be drifted full again by the time we returned.”
Retroactive Costs
A farmer told me he had to replace 65 broken fence posts along the public roadway, because of the winter’s deep snows.
Snowplows pushed ridges so high and so hard along the edges of the road that there was no place to heap later snowstorms.
Bulldozers were called to shove the snowbank ridges into road ditches.
Which meant jamming the white mounds against farm fence lines.
Part of You
by Edna Johnson
You prayed for Me to help:
I answered –
Seek inside yourself,
For I am there and all around you
In everything;
I am your strength
And your guidance –
Hear Me, and you know I am a part of you –
Learn to know Me.
Reference File
I’ve always had problems storing dingbats so I could find the ornament or pieces of border I wanted when I needed them.
The important thing is to have the type pieces sorted according to sizes and standing upright in rows so they can be seen. I have tried separating rows with leads or strips of cardboard. That does not allow enough space between for fingernails (or the tweezers!) to get hold of them.
Another mistake is crowding one size against another (like 18 point decorations too close to 12 point) and not providing room for more of each size to be added.
I like my present arrangement. Using a worthless old news lower case type case, with bad bottom and many partitions broken out, each size has ample room to expand. Rows are held apart by strips of hardboard (masonite) from some scraps that I had saved some time.
Forever Forward
by Remelda Gibson
Time goes by
On fast feet,
In complete
Do or die
Attitude,
Minus mood
Mind or eye.
Hours retreat
Like a fleet
Toward the sky.
Colophon
Type: 10 point Kennerley
Headings:
12 Cheltenham Oldstyle
14 Bodoni Bold Condensed
18 Goudy Bold Italic
24 unidentified italic
Paper: 20 lb. Exact bond
Ink: Von Son rubber base
Press: 1890s 10×15 Jones-Gordon
Lauren R.“gehry” Geringer
Iowa City, Iowa 52240