Car Phones 1978

We watched Roller Boogie (1978) last night. Once we discovered the trailer on youtube we had to Netflix the film ASAP! It starred Linda Blair as a rich, Beverly Hills brat seen here sporting the epitome of luxe, a car phone in her vintage roadster. The movie was uber fun, lots of cool and tres cheezee rollerskating moves. It really did live up to all of our expectations.

Realities

En route to Seminole Canyon this weekend my mother told me I had been to Marfa when I was four or five years old. I thought I had no recollection of this. She said my Grandparents drove us all to Marfa to board a train headed for Mexico and there was nothing in Marfa. Still no recollection. I asked my Grandparents who told me they sure did remember that trip because Mexican Federales were positioned  on the train cars because we were heading into the mountains and then I remembered! I always had that  memory of fully armed, scary Mexican Federales standing on train cars but always thought that memory was from some movie. It was no movie, it was real and it was between 1975 and 1976. 

I always thought I had seen the remains of the house used in the movie Giant but didn't know we had actually visited the old film set from the highway. I always remembered seeing the silouette of an old house  from the road and was impressed with how it sat against nothingness and loved the nothingness more than the house. I remember it was windy and I was bored but the adults were going on and on.  I filed this memory to maybe a visit to Langtry or a dream.  It was part of that Marfa trip.

Dusting off old memories and putting them back into place is something that doesn't happen often. I now have a list of memories to ask my mother about. I'd like to know what else is real or only part of a dream or a movie.

I do remember sitting on my mother's lap in a car once and turning around to look at my baby brother in the back seat. He was tiny and his feet and hands were covered as he slept on a blanket stretched out in the backseat. I remember the sun began to come through the car window and it illuminated his face.  Then I looked out the window and saw nothingness.  I would like to know where we were headed, maybe my Mother remembers the first trips made right after my brother was born.

Bruised

Seems the fall I took at my skating lesson was harder than I thought. When I landed I felt pain but my coach said skate it off and that wasn't hard to do. I only went back to try the cones again. I didn't fall due to a bad skating move, I fell because I lifted my leg way  above the cone, for fun, too see if I could and then fell. My coach didn't think it was a graceful nor a smart move. I skated for two hours after that fall.

A bruise did not appear there for several days however I had a dull ache that just worked to distract me from everything. I saw the doctor who showed me the x-ray and said it was the deepest bruise she had seen in a long time. She showed me all the nasty shadows and said six to eight weeks and it should heal on its own.

I looked up rolller derby injuries and sure enough, my killer, mega-bruise could be found on all of those injury pages.  I am holding off skating  until I heal. If I were to fall right now, it would really hurt. I don't think I would fall although I feel it would be my bad luck to fall.  My coach thinks I'm a badass, that is what he said a week later when I told him what came of the fall. He said the fall looked bad but I got right up so he figured it wasn't too bad. He said my skating a full session later made him think it was nothing. Then I skated full sessions for a week after that.

What I don't like though is people telling me skating is dangerous because of this recent injury. Stories about blood clots stemming from hip surgeries and death by all sorts of head injuires, blood clots and so on.  I try to explain, I wasn't even doing a skating move, I was being stupid.  Lesson learned. The floor is cement not hardwood. I heard of a hardwood rink in town on the east side. I will be checking that out soon.

Some co-workers got together and thought it would be funny to send me this lil note:

Dear Roller Derby Queen,
It has been brought to our attention that you are in need of a serious intervention. To be more specific, an intervention involving the selection of a more safe and appropriate past-time!

We, therefore, have chosen a list of safe, enjoyable, and non-mobile hobbies than hopefully can replace your current addiction to the roller rink and its mesmerizing speed and whirling winds and sparkling disco lights…not to mention all that great retro music!

So, we hope you will choose one of the following activities and send those roller skates to Roller Rink Heaven!
Here are your options:
1. Knitting (in a chair)
2. Crocheting (in a chair)
3. Reading (in a chair)
4. Watching movies (in a chair)
5. Watching TV (in a chair)
6. Shopping at a Mall (in a wheelchair)
7. Talking on the Phone (from bed)
8. Petting your Chickens (from a seated position on the ground)
9. Light gardening (from a kneeling position on kneepads and foam kneeler)
10. Snacking (anywhere except the Roller Rink)
We hope you will appreciate all the concern that has gone in to this written intervention and remember that we only have the best interests in mind for your elbows, knees, and hips!
No need to respond. Merely ponder!
CARRI
(Citizens Against Roller Rink Injuries)

Has it really been five years?

I guess so! Five years of typing out most of my ponderments and some of my opinions du jour. There are plenty of ... ideas.  I've told you of  a few daily activities. Reading my entries of these past five years will result in a notion of who I am. Oh but I do hold back. Not enough time in the day and a woman needs mystery. Ruth would agree.

Be Mine

My friend had her annual Valentine making party. Wine, French music and yummy eats complimented a table covered with stamps, ink, paper punchers, gorgeous sheets of paper and even an embossing kit among other inspiring supplies. We should have pulled an all nighter, the food and supplies were there.
 As always it was a most lovely time and when I leave I really can't wait until next year.

Today I *HEART*

Lenny and the Squigtones



Vikki Carr



Rollerskate Films


Watching the intro to Taxi

Du Jour

It seems that all of us vintage lovers heard the same NPR story about this Korean television set. It also seems we were all so uber excited with it that we are all blogging about it. I hope we get this in the US soon because I have the perfect place for this set!

The mid-century aesthetic is really getting a lot of love. I recently found a computer styled to look like a Predicta attached to a vintage typrwriter keyboard. I don't know if I am 100% into the look but I can see how it might look nice on a Heywood-Wakefield desk. I think there should be more a merge between the new technology and old aesthetics. I'm not too crazy about the whole steampunk look though. I'm talking about what they quite frequently do in the UK.

Actually, I wouldn't mind a rotary Princess phone sans any upgrades sitting on my desk. Rotary phones gave you a few more seconds to think of what your going to say. I loved hearing the sound the dial would make as it ran over all the numbers. There was a heaviness to the dial.

Philco PC from Dave Schultze on Vimeo.

Yesterday, as I was driving, it occurred to me that my husband and I had John Lennon until we were nine years old. It's weird to think of all those born after he passed.  There is something really poignant about having been able to live in a world that still had John Lennon if only for the first nine years of our lives.

Tony Sarg, please come back!

All those beautiful Tony Sarg books need to be re-published. They are too beautiful to be left only in the hands of collectors, never finding their way to a child's bookshelf today. Tony Sarg made several mechanical books and from what I can find online, they are all works of art. I have been lucky enough to have been given The Tony Sarg's Treasure Book, printed in 1942. It is a super deluxe mechanical book containing Alice in Wonderland, Rip Van Winkle and Treasure Island.

The Desk Set

We just got a brand new desk  and chair from Furniture in the Raw. It's a nice, sturdy desk with clean lines and we are fighting over who get's to sit in the matching chair and hang out at the new desk. New desks are like clean slates. I can remember several new desks growing up. The fun for me was first getting it all organized and then getting started on work. A new desk always made homework more fun and inspired stories. I would just write and write to stay at the desk. In college whatever writer's block I had was easily cleared by just moving on to a new desk in the library or sitting at my roomates desk instead of mine while she was working at the library. Mr C seems to feel the same away and is really amped about sitting here at our new desk to begin his projects. Eventually the new desk luster wears off and the ideas stop coming as fast as they did but not for a long, long time because this desk is awesome and it faces the window. Now I must go because someone would like to sit here, man, I had no time to even upload a pic.....

All Skate

Tomorrow is my last skating lesson for awhile. I begin again in the Spring. I do love my coach, he is really an awesome and enthusiastic skater. What I truly appreciate is his other worldly patience for someone like me who couldn't do anything except skate round and round in the most boring way possible and was afraid to fall. His ability to teach skating is really a skill. Now I'm doing ribbons, skating on one leg, going backwards and doing cross-overs. I do need work on spinning and turning  and I could also practice the switching leg thing.  Now I just practice, practice, practice. I still don't come close to looking as good as the regulars on Tuesday night. Not even. Since the rink won't be open to me like it was during lessons, I'll be at the tennis and basketball courts taking spills.

It's been years since I picked up something like this. When I was in ballet, there were lessons five days a week, bloody toes and practice was after school where I had a full hour of running and jumping rope, sit-ups and chin ups. I continued being athletic on some level through college  but it all came to a screeching halt when I turned 26 or 27 because all of a sudden I felt old.  What was I thinking?! I should have kept it all up.  It had something to do with being around other late twentysomethings who felt old.

It feels good to be involved in some sort of sport again. It took awhile to work up the enthusiasm for a more active lifestyle. It was finding the right gym a few years ago that put me back on track.  Skating practice has been three hours of non-stop movement three days a week and that is nothing compared to the speed skaters I see practicing or the roller derby girls.  Now that it's up to me to practice, I feel the need to really push it.  I would like to be able to skate every day for at least two hours.

When I skate I am using all my concentration because it's all new, so there is no room in my head for anything else.  My coach has said a few things regarding how to attack skating and skating form that I find myself thinking of when I am not in the rink like always chin up, never look down,  then there is stay flexible, bend those knees because stiffness causes falls and he is always reminding me of the constant trust I have to have in myself and in what I can do. For all those people who spend money on life coaches, taking up a sport keeps you nice and fit and you get plenty of life coaching, teehee.

Early to bed...sniff

Goodbye Conan,
We'll be tuning in for the last time.
How we will miss you after the news.
We were always loyal fans.
On the bright side,
I guess it will be easier to get up
in the mornings for work and
we won't bave dark circles
under our eyes.
XO, The Crains
PS: Loved seeing Pee Wee  again!

One talented and classy television host.

Sunday Night Games

We found these cool board games at a toy show in San Antonio. They were priced at only $1 and $3, not what I expected but I think it's because the boxes are slightly marked or we just found the most reasonable dealer there. Otherwise, both games were in really great shape and complete, including instructions. We had fun playing while listening to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack late on a Sunday night and into early Monday morning. Even Mona was really into it.

Mi Tierra

After a long, tedious week nothing could cheer me up more than driving to San Antonio. Being at El Mercado and dining on mole enchiladas  at Mi Tierra was just what I needed. Mr. C. bought me a beautifully embroidered Mexican shirt and paid for a Mariachi to sing my favorite song.

Nice bumping into you...

I love finding new blogs or websites with photos of things that just make me happy.  I usually come upon them during those moments when I am in most need of a distraction or visual pick-me-up.
Thank you El Phicks for all your help! I can always count on the PFTP blog to turn my frowns upside down and send me soaring in directions far from dullsville. Working girls need these cyber cigarette breaks or they'd all go mad.

Oooh and how could I not mention Girard....delicious!

Eric Rohmer

How we adore his films.