Thursday, May 7, 2015

5/7/2015 Throw-Back-Thursday: Barbershop Quartet

For today's Throw-Back-Thursday, I came across this picture and then realized I still have the audio files!  The event was a Talent Show at St John's United Methodist Church in Dover, NH, sometime between 1984 - 1990.  Anyone remember exactly when?

The Barbershop Quartet members were (...if I remember correctly!):
John Blackadar, Tenor
Everett Bean, Lead
Bob Johnson, Baritone
Gus Korn, Bass

Gus had been a member of local Barbershop choruses for a long time.  The rest of us had done it sometime in our past!  John and I both went to West Virginia Wesleyan College, and I think we may have both sung in a Barbershop quartet during that time.

Amateurs.... but fun!





My Wild Irish Rose

Wait till the Sun Shines, Nelly

Down Our Way

Shine On Me

10/17/2017 Update:  These 4 songs can now be found here:
Barbershop Quartet during Talent Show (1980's)

 

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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

About my new blog "Bob Johnson's Misc Stuff & Things"

I like to archive information about a lot of stuff.... everything from shopping receipts (which I will NOT be posting here!) to photos and text about all kinds of things (one of my biggest computer folders is "Appliance & Equipment Info").  It seems like, quite often, I will go online to find out more about something..... and I find almost nothing.  And to someone like me, that's frustrating.... especially, since I may be holding one of those things in my hand!!!  "What do you mean?  The internet knows nothing about this???"

So in my own crazy way, I'm going to start blogging about some of this "stuff", in the hopes that this info will become the results of someone else's online search, and, then, maybe not feel so lonely out there!

Oh, and about the origin of "Stuff & Things":

I used to work in a small town hardware store.

The owner was anything but "small town"!  He had been a regional sales manager for a large light bulb manufacturing company.  But at one of their management meetings, he could not morally subscribe to the direction the company was taking, told them so, and walked out of the meeting.... and quite his position.  After returning home, realizing he'd just quit his job, he asked himself what he was going to do for a living.  Since he needed some eye-bolts for his dock at the lake, and none of the three hardware stores in town had them, or even seemed to be able to get them, he decided to open his own hardware store!  After setting up a relationship with a distributor he'd known, he opened his store, and got his eye-bolts!

But one of the stories I remember best that he would tell customers around the wood stove in the middle of the store, in the middle of winter, when things were a little slow, was about the secretary he had during his previous employment.

His secretary was sent on business trips occasionally.  When she returned, she'd turn in her expense report, and promptly get reimbursed.  After several trips and reports, he'd been noticing the same line item at the bottom of each report: "S&T".  Trusting her implicitly, he did not want to ask... but finally had to.  Her response:  "Oh, that's just stuff and things."

He continued reimbursing her without any further questions.

Hirsch 8019B Frustrators Finger Fidgit Puzzles

This item is 6 finger puzzles that came in a box.
The info from the box is as follows:

Made in Hong Kong
Distributed by Hirsch Co.
Elk Grove Village, Illinois 60007

Object of the 6 Frustrators(TM) in this box...
1.  One large and one small on each step.
2.  One ball in each cup - each cup in a hole.
3.  One ball in each ring.
4.  Two puzzles in one: balance ball in holes on either side.
5.  3 balls in holes of each triangle.
6.  All balls in the ring.

I did a search for info about this set of finger puzzles and found only one, a "for sale" listing on Ebay!

So I'd like to archive images of the box here, to make it easier for others to find info about this item.

Note: No UPC code on the box.

PS:  My family received this as a Christmas gift from my bother's family in 1982.

I've played with them some, but do get frustrated......