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?

Finally found a vintage TV, actually two! I Predicta you're going to like these

So I've been wanting to find a reasonably-priced vintage TV set for the house, preferably one that works.  I have this idea of setting it up to play old black and white TV shows (3 Stooges, Leave It To Beaver, stuff like that).  I look a lot.  Sometimes I'll find something I like on that auction site, but it's usually 2,700 miles from me and the seller won't ship!  I also check the local Craigslist, but you don't see too many vintage TVs on there.

On Memorial Day weekend I spotted a sweet looking Predicta on Craigslist, but it had two problems:  one, it was kinda highly priced at $249, and two, it was in Annapolis.  That was Memorial Day weekend.  NO WAY was I going to try driving toward the beach, I would die of old age trying to get there and back with all the beach traffic.

But seeing that ad prompted me to check ebay, and I spotted some TVs that were in Rockville, MD, just around the beltway and not real far from where I work.  I contacted the seller and he said he had a bunch of TVs and old radios he bought from an estate, and he said I could come look at them.  I noticed a number of portable TVs in his auctions, and also, a Predicta that had a starting bid of $19.99 with no reserve.

So I took a long lunch on Wednesday to check out the stuff.  I had enough cash in my pocket I figured to get something.  After looking things over I asked if he would end auctions early if we could agree on a price for something and he said yea, it would save him having to package and ship things.  So we cut a deal on these babies:

This one is small and light weight but has great lines and matches the colors of our 1962 Shasta camper - woo hoo!

This beauty is the perfect size and color to use with our 1962 Shasta Airflyte camper.

 I plan to take it apart and clean it then find someone who can go through it and make it work.

Don't you love the details that went into the channel selector?  Why can't design today be this good?

Even the antenna housing looks cool!

So that's the GE portable.

And this, dear friends, is one awesome Predicta!

I have to do some research on both of these before I even attempt to plug them in.  From what I know there are people who know a lot about the Predicta, and one or more who will even restore them.  In the meantime, I'm now looking for the right TV stand for the Predicta.  Being a fanatic for black wrought iron hairpin legs, I want one of those TV stands that has a swivel base - I think that would be perfect for this set.

So, how will these sets look after they're cleaned up? Don't touch that dial!  I'll be back with more on each of them once I make some progress.

Road Trip Report from Sled Fest at the Old Sled Works, Duncannon, Pa.

Okay, hearken back with me to, let's see, yesterday, and the Sled Fest.

I already posted about some of my vintage finds at the Old Sled Works Antique and Crafts Mall, so here are some photos from the Sled Fest and from the inside of the mall, which has a great collection of arcade games and a vintage soda fountain.  It also has a small exhibit of artifacts from the building's original purpose, manufacturing Lightning Guider sleds.

First, the sleds.

It's great that they retained some of the old signs, including this awesome one.

And check out the wall clock.

This diorama depicts the starting point for wood used in building the sleds.  The diorama itself looks vintage.

Sleds had names, and they were printed on the wood during the construction process.  Here's the huge old printing press.

And they have some examples of sleds from different decades on display, natch.

This rare one really caught my eye.  Wouldn't you want your kid to barrel down a slippery slope of snow on the Master Bomber?  Made in 1936 at the height of the Depression.

I love looking at these old sleds, but like pedal cars, I resist the urge to start collecting them.  You need a lot of display room to do them justice.

So, once you've enjoyed looking at the Master Bomber, just work your way through the crafts portion of the mall and keep going until you find...an awesome arcade, where you can practice your aptitude for growing up to be an...

I have never seen one of these anywhere else, but then, I don't know of any other vintage arcade collections other than in private hands, or in Amber's garage!

Here are some more shots from the arcade:

Skee Ball

This is one of the coolest looking games, check out those spindle legs!  It's a basketball game.

They even had one of those newfangled high-tech Pong games

Beyond the arcade games you'll find the soda fountain with some old diner booths and more eye candy, like this jukebox, and not one, but a bunch of original Predicta Television sets!  Oh, and inside the front entrance, more mid century TV sets, and they're usually running old Three Stooges shows.  Unbelievable.

  

They had the soda fountain closed when I was there for a professional photo shoot with a pinup girl.

There were quite a few ladies in pinup or vintage attire,  I didn't get pics of them, sorry, but I did get a few car photos.

That pretty much wraps up my photos inside and out during Sled Fest.  One of the highlights for me was meeting Mod Betty and Retroroadhusband.  She is planning to do a blog post on the Old Sled Works, so if you're interested, keep an eye on Retroroadmap.com for Mod Betty's coverage.