New Love Seat, Pole Lamp, and a TV Pole

Hi there loyal Uncle Atom reader!  I won't recite all the reasons Uncle Atom has been wallowing in lameness this past month, but I needed to take a break.

Project wise, I haven't finished anything new, and I haven't gotten out to any sales either.

But, I do have a few photos I can share.

I mentioned before I had quite a haul from the estate sale where I got the vintage fridge.

Here's the white vinyl love seat.  It was part of a set that included a turquoise sofa, and orange and turquoise chairs, all of which were bought by others at the sale.

The wood is in pretty nice shape, and the cushions don't have any tears, just a little wear in a couple of places.

The previous owners had this in the basement party room, and I had the joy of cleaning off a pretty heavy layer of old cigarette smoke.  Mr. Clean erasers did a nice job overall.

I also used the erasers on this white Stiffel tension pole lamp, which was also coated in smoke.

Once I went over the pole and lamps with the eraser, the yellowish tint was all but gone.  I like the difusers in this lamp.

This last item came from eBay.

I stumbled across this tension pole designed to hold an old tube-style portable television, and I had to have it. Luckily there was no bidding competition.

A "portable" TV would hang by it's handle from the two brass hooks (I've inverted them here to loop over the top of this TV), and the base sat on a flat piece of metal sticking up from the lower part of the pole.  I managed to use some strong hook and loop webbing and mounting screws on the back of the flat screen TV to get it mounted to the pole.  I have another piece of hook and loop holding the base of the TV to the flat metal piece.

So far no issues, although I'd really like to clean up the look of the back of the TV.  If I really get ambitious, I might try to cover the black TV edges with a light wood grain or some other color besides black. I'll have to ponder that - don't want to ruin the TV with something that would look cheesy.   For now, it's kinda nice to have a working TV in the Rumpus Room again.

Some recent pickups: firewood stand, monkeys, flamingoes, and camper parts!

Hey everybody, Uncle Atom here.  I won't bore ya with everything I've found recently, but here are a few highlights:

I've been looking for something to store firewood in, and I recently found this hoop setup with hairpin-style legs at a local thrift store.  Not bad for $10!

On a day trip yesterday to Charm City (Baltimore ya know), we found a few things, including these great plastic monkeys for just $5.  I didn't notice until I got them home that they're each different - see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.  They're perfect for the tiki screened porch!

From the same vintage shop, I also scored my third brass metal framed/lightup/3D picture.  A deer in the woods to go with fat Elvis and the Last Supper.  So it's official, with three I've got a collection. How hooked am I?  I actually paid $27 for this!  I know. You don't need to say it.  Lunatic! Still, if I average the three together, I've only got about $40 tied up.  And they're so Kitschy!

I'm really curious to know what other pictures came in these brass lightup frames.  Could there be one out there with a bullfighter?  Jesus?  Or maybe Marilyn Monroe?  Who knows, but if Uncle Atom spots one, rest assured you will read about it here.

UPDATE - ADDING  THE FORGOTTEN FLAMINGOES:
Across from where I got the monkeys and picture frame I found a local shop carrying new pairs of made in the USA flamingoes.  These guys will go along on camping adventures.

Here's one thing in Baltimore that I came very close to buying - an awesome Delmonico console stereo/record player/television set.  The store owner wanted $100.  We got both AM and FM stereo to play and they sounded pretty good after the tubes warmed up.  But the record player looked like it was missing parts, and it would not even spin.  I did not want to try the TV.  I'm not a fan of black laquer wood,and I'm not interested in fooling with vacuum tubes and electronics - I've got enough projects and I know my limits.  I want one of these that works!  But despite the things I didn't like, this was tempting because it looks so darn awesome.  I mean, I could just sit and look at this and keep smiling.

My big find this week was this mint/aqua stove/oven, exhaust hood, and sink taken from an old truck camper.  I found a 1964 date code under the sink, and the Shasta was built in 1962.  The colors really are nearly perfect for the Shasta!  I spent a good part of today installing the stove and hood.  It's so great to replace the ugly brown stove and hood, and the plain white sink.

  

Luckily the dimensions were very close to the original pieces. I did have to get out my tin snips and cut off about an inch or the back of the exhaust hood I have the countertop pulled and the old white sink out.  As soon as I can get some replacement formica I'll finish installing the sink.

So that's about it for now.  Did anyone else find some great stuff?

The Uncle Atom Channel

Five jillion channels and nothing to watch?  This past year I finally decided to drop cable TV.  It's been a mixed bag.  We have a Roku box that streams Netflix videos to our HD TV, and I used a month's worth of the money we used to pay for cable to buy VHF and UHF antennas that I set up in our attic.  We already had coaxial cable in the attic, so it was pretty easy to hook up the antennas to a splitter and run the cable to a couple of digital TV sets.  Once I figured out how to aim the antennas, the reception is really good, and it gives us all the over the air networks.  I miss a few channels and shows, but I can live without them.  Has anybody else cut the cable out?

I also figured out how to add Youtube to the Roku box, so now we can watch Youtube on the digital TVs.  I hadn't played around with Youtube much, but I'm starting to find a lot of cool old TV content on there.

So you're probably wondering, Uncle Atom, what the heck does this have to do with this blog?!?!?

Well, I'll tell ya.  I've added a link on the top right to my Youtube channel. It's not a polished, finished product.  It's more like a late 1990s website, "Under Construction".  A work in progress.  (Yea, story of my life and my projects too!).

So far, I've put together a collection of the opening intro theme music and videos for many 1950s and 1960s televisions shows.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

My Three Sons

The Mod Squad

Daktari

I've also found some classic TV advertisements, from old kids cereal commercials to some classic toy commercials, and I'll be adding more to these as I find them.

Here's a good one for Zenith console TVs

I've got an old car favorites list started, there are some really great slice of life films, and I've also started a "Future Perfect" category to collect some of the cool looks at the future.  

The real Mr. Potato Head

Creepy Crawlers

None of this is my own content, but I'm saving my favorites and I figured while I'm at it I'll make it easier for like-minded enthusiasts like yourselves to enjoy these video clips.  

If you have some Youtube favorites or your own channel that somehow fits into mid century atomic topics, share them here in the comments section and if you like I'll try to add them to the Uncle Atom channel or link to your channel.