A vintage drugstore revived as an ice cream parlor

copied from USA Restaurants

" Price’s is located in the former Price’s Drugs building off Main Street in Pinson, AL. The building had been on this corner since 1898, then was remodeled in 1943. 40 years later, the original owners, the Price brothers, shut their doors permanently." (copied from Bham Now)."

I dropped by with a friend just to see what it looked like.  It has a totally nostalgic feel to it as you'll see in the pictures below. So much of what is on the shelves was left as is when they closed permanently in the 1980's. That is what I was told by the ice cream person.  

An E-Bay seller would hit a goldmine here.

I was familiar with a few of the products. I wasn't born until the 1950's so many of them aren't familiar to me. I tried Googling some of the products but couldn't find anything about many of them  . 😲

These shelves appear to have items not used for consumption. Shoe polish, plastic toy kits,
shoe dye.

There's a section with tables where you can eat if you don't want to sit at the ice cream counter.

This is the ice cream counter, very memorable of what I've seen in vintage teen movies. There are several flavors of ice cream to choose from.  I chose vanilla soft serve.

To the left is what appears to be a hand crank ice cream freezer. We had a green wooden one when I was a kid.  Funny how long it lasted being made out of wood and wrapped with wire. To freeze the cream you have to add ice and salt to the barrel which would seem to be conducive to early rot. I'm seeing an old electric fan, several LP albums and a lantern.  I have no idea what the yellow contraption with 244 on it is.

The chips of course are new but the notebook paper isn't. THIS I remember.  The teacher would ask if you needed Supplies. Supplies included anything the school office sold that was needed to perform schoolwork i.e. paper, pencils, ink pens, crayons etc.  Notice closely that this paper is for a TOP HOLE tablet. That meant you added the paper from the top and not the side.  I had a top hole tablet that even had a compartment for two pencils.  The problem with the top hole was that if you dropped it, it would easily  disgorge all of its contents. That left its owner scurrying around picking up wayward paper.  Eventually it was uncool to have a Top Hole.

The things that they sold were pretty varied. Swim Fins, Not sure if that is underwear or swim trunks. My best guess would be swim trunks.  The faded green item appears to be a swimsuit. And just in case you forgot your tie on the way to an affair, pick one up at the drugstore.

You can find more about Price's at these links: Bham Now, Facebook, Trussville Tribune

That's it***

ROKU

Streaming TV

In my quest to get free TV and rid myself of pay TV, I bought a ROKU streaming stick.

Before you give me advice on the many antennae, converter boxes and etc., let me stop you and tell you I've tried them all or investigated the possibility. None of them work to get ALL of the local stations. That's all I really want is the free stuff that we were all once entitled too.

You'd think that by paying for the local stations that would qualify me for each local station's sister station such as channels 10, 10.1, 10.2.  But no, I only get one of them.

I've watched HULU and YouTube on my desktop, for free. I wanted to take it to another level and watch those stations along with others that can be streamed through ROKU on my flat screen.

 Notice from the box all of the stations you can stream with the streaming stick. There are even more that you don't see on the box.
BUT, KNOW THIS, you must pay a monthly fee just like you do with cable, DISH,  DirecTV and any other(s) I failed to mention.

There's a free movie channel known as CRACKLE.

It's true name should be CRAP because that's what it is.  Crackle showed me  about 20 minutes of a movie before it went to commercial. I watched five ads. Three of them were the same ad. When Crackle proceeded to show me a sixth ad, I turned it off.  It was as if they were trying to hypnotize me into buying that particular product by continuously showing it to me. If I want to watch a bunch of commercials, I'll just watch regular TV.   You get what you pay for and in this case I didn't pay so I got nothing,

   If I watch vintage TV programs on HULU on my desktop, it's free, yet I can't watch the freebies through the streaming stick. I must register and pay for HULU.

The only thing I was able to get for free with clarity was YouTube. I was able to watch through ROKU the same things I watch on my desk top. The disadvantage with YouTube and ROKU is the inability to read the information (i.e. Subscribe, Show More,Views, Share,  Comments) that's beneath the movie before you watch it, to determine if you want to watch  it at all.  I was willing to accept that.

Deciding which vintage movie to watch from YouTube using the ROKU streaming stick on the flat screen.

 

 

 

 

Overall, I'd have to say, ROKU  does what it professes. If you want more you  pay to play.

P.S.   If you're wondering why the flat screen isn't flat and at an angle, it's because it's housed in a niche, not on a swivel stand and it's a pain to turn it around to unplug DISH and plug in ROKU.  Yes, it's a pain but things could be worse.



That's All***

Vintage Inspiration Bracelet

I was inspired by  this vintage bracelet at Estate beads.com

Since I'd come across another empty cardboard tape holder??? I decided I'd make another bracelet. I had eggshells that I've used in other projects and at first I was going to paint them with acrylic paint and let them dry.  But, maybe because the Easter weekend was not far away, I decided against it and chose to dye the shells the old-fashioned way.



Acrylic paint was my first idea to paint the eggshells. Too messy.



Eggshells that were dyed with food coloring, vinegar and water.



I reused 4 foam cups that I'd had from my frequent fast food visits.  I put vinegar, hot water and food coloring in each. I mixed a little yellow and green to get the neon green color you see.. After about an hour I rinsed the shells in cold water and spread them out on paper towels to dry. I came back a few times and spread them around so that they would dry evenly. I placed each color in a separate bag or recycled junk mail envelope. (I save those too.)

I painted the cardboard tube inside and outside with bronze mettallic acrylic paint and let it dry.



No reason to throw away the leftover shells so I'm saving them in this empty pharmacy bottle.

  Taking a few eggshells of each color, I placed them on paper and crushed them  with a jar into manageable sized pieces suitable for the bracelet. Using white glue, I painted a thick coat onto the outside of the bracelet and rolled it in the eggshells. I did this in sections until I'd coated the entire bracelet. 

After it was dry, I went over it with a watered down acylic black paint. I'd black wash it then blot it until it looked the way I wanted it to.I still wanted a bit of the bronze to show through.


You can see there are some jagged shells along the edges . These will be filed off later.



I propped up the bracelet and allowed it to dry.

I use toothpicks and a piece of foam as drying tools. This way I can paint or seal all sides and let it all dry at one time. I used several coats of sealant allowing each to dry in between.  This entire project was done over a course of days. It probably could have taken less time but I wasn't in a hurry and I was doing other things.

And now the BIG REVEAL



Outside of bracelet



The inspiration bracelet has a matte finish. I wanted more shine. So I used gloss sealant.



This shows a little of the inner side of the bracelet.




I'm pleased as punch with the results. It turned out great.











If you're wondering how to PREP EGGSHELLS  for craft use, it's very simple. After using your egg contents, place the shells in a cup of water with about 2 TBS of vinegar.  Microwave it for two minutes. When it's cool enough to handle, gently peel down an edge to remove the membrane. This is important. If the membrane isn't removed then your color or glue won't take hold.

Another to add to the collection.
That's It ***