East Lake Story

[kodydog]

I found this tag inside an East Lake style platform rocker and I punched the name into my browser. The search took me to an article in the Chacago Tribune about the furniture industry in that city around the turn of the century. Chicago was the hub of furniture at that time and built 90% of the furniture for the country. The chair looks to be about 100 years old.

Here is what they said about Bruschke & Ricke Parlor Furniture in their Sunday, January 15, 1984 edition;
"Less plain and less practical was the 'Combined Sofa and Bath Tub' The Common Sense Invention of the Age. The sofa/tub held 18 gallons of water, concealed a gas fired water heater in one end and featured a rubber apron to protect the parlor carpet. Unfortunately the heater had a tendency to ignite, turning a relaxing soak into an exciting incendiary event. As a result, the only Bruschke & Ricke sofa/tub available for the show was merely depicted on an advertising poster."

The first two hand written words are illegible but the second two are Pittsburgh Pa. I'm thinking the destination point. Kinda neat to wonder about the person who wrote this so many years ago and if they ever thought that someone might see this tag for the first time in nearly a century.

[gene]

My guess: Haenry Berger Pittsburgh, PA

I wonder if 'Henry' was misspelled or a foreign spelling of Henry.

Is that a date hand written above the name that has been worn and torn off?

Also, the guy who wrote this may have had a 6 grade education and look at the cursive handwriting. That is pretty awesome. Compare that to the 19 year old HS graduate at the Trevon Martin trial who could not read cursive, let alone write it, as she claimed she had. (And, no prosecution for perjury there.)

Combined Sofa and Bath Tub: Benjamin Franklin met with visitors while soaking in a bathtub. ???

gene

[kodydog]

I would love to find a date. I'll look closer tomorrow.

[byhammerandhand]

Tangent:

I got a refund check from the doctor's office this week.   The person at the clinic signed it, IN ALL CAPITALS NON-CURSIVE.  Sad.  A friend of mine passed away a couple of years ago, his cursive handwriting was just beautiful - reminiscent of the 19th century.  I must say, the more I type and less I write, I try to write as fast as I type and it's gotten sloppy.

[Dede]

Also, the guy who wrote this may have had a 6 grade education and look at the cursive handwriting. That is pretty awesome.

Someone in her 20's commented the other day on how beautiful my handwriting is.  My cursive is definitely not "beautiful" (I know what good handwriting looks like, and mine ain't it)... but compared to today's sloppy printing, I guess it is.  Sad, actually.

[Darren Henry]

My mother had beautifull handwriting until she got frail---mine was never worth mention and when I went to university it went south. trying to write as fast as the prof was talking and still think killed it. Add in some pinched nerves that give me shaky hands---even my printing sucks now. I should go back to writing cursive, people will think I'm a doctor LOL.

[sofadoc]

I think we all tend to have a bad case of "Good ole' days" syndrome.

We romanticize about how everyone's cursive penmanship was so beautiful back in the day. But truthfully, most of it wasn't. I've gone through tons of old letters from my ancestors, and can barely make any of them out. Might as well be ancient hieroglyphics.

When my mother ran the business, she was always too lazy to write down the customer's info. So she would just hand them a piece of paper and let them write it themselves. Then we would spend the next 2 or 3 weeks trying in vain to figure their handwriting out. We would usually just give up and wait for them to call back.

Even now, when I endorse the back of a check, I put about 3 extra humps on the N's in Dennis.

I don't really have a problem with poor penmanship as much as I do poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Some kids now will type out 3 paragraphs without so much as a comma separating any of their thoughts (notice that I said "their thoughts".........not there thoughts.).

[byhammerandhand]

I've been on a couple of forums...where people just can't end a sentence...just a few ellipses and continue on...then it's one thing or another...hard to read...too much work...so I normally hit the ignore button..and just continue on...and on... and on...it's really quite depressing...flirting from one thought...to another..and back...just get on with it...


My philosophy is, if they are not willing to put in enough work to put together a cogent sentence, I am not gong to spend my time trying to decode it.  And multiply that by the number of other people who have to do the same.

I am one that carefully considers my works to be concise and precise.   We have a woman in church who is a master of TMI.   She can't get through saying anything without filling it full of irrelevant information and repeatign points two or three times.   She was at one point a teacher and I can't imaging being a student in her classes.

[SteveA]

Church Friends - gotta smile !     - we have one parishioner everyone avoids.  The census is I'm told - ask him what time it is and he'll tell you how to build a watch.  As if the Homily isn't long enough he'll keep you standing there 30 minutes after the final Blessing.

SA

[gene]

I like the Joe Friday approach to talking: "Just the facts, mam."

I find that I really have no interest in what your neighbors are doing, or the endless details of some TV show that you watched last night.

At least everyone loves my jokes.  :) Especially when I'm telling the same joke for the umpteenth time.  :o

gene

[sofadoc]

I like the Joe Friday approach to talking: "Just the facts, mam."

Actually, the correct spelling is "ma'am". The apostrophe is a substitute for the letter "d". By using the apostrophe, one no longer has to painstakingly spell out the ENTIRE five letter word  "madam". This allows much more free time to do things that you otherwise might have to put off (such as listening to the TMI woman at church).

[gene]

I always thought Joe was using the word 'mam' as a shortened version of 'mammary'. 'Mammary' as in 'breasts'. 1960's LA was a hot bed of sexist pigs who saw women only as sex objects who's sole place in life was to be pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen.

But then, if Joe was gay, he was probably using the 'ma'am' version of the word. (Drag - net)

I've never seen Dragnet with subtitles so I don't really know.

Here's a classic:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKGtb1t9iVw

gene