Strange Things Found in Alabama Stores (3)

Here's my introduction to part 1 of this ongoing series. Part 2 is here. 


Going through some photographs recently I came across a couple of examples of the random things I encounter here and there in stores and other public places. When I do I take photos. I've decided to share some of them in a series of posts on this blog.

These images may strike many as just silly, and some are, but I prefer to call them strange, weird, unexpected, something different springing out of the halls of American commerce. Or whatever. Let's begin. 

Feel free to tell us about your own strange finds in the comment section!

Just like the Easter Island heads in part 2, I found this classic in Old Time Pottery in Pelham this past spring. Now wouldn't this look good on YOUR front porch?  

A bit of philosophy spotted in Old Time Pottery & I heartily agree with it.

Well, maybe this one is not so strange if you're a fan of the 1983 classic A Christmas Story. Wish I had these ornaments AND a real leg lamp! These were seen at 2nd & Charles in Hoover.

Even drug stores get into the strangeness sometimes!

Another classic! This poster is above one of the booths at the Smokey Hollow Restaurant in Jemison. The whole place is decorated in Route 66 chic. I've written about various adventures there in another blog post.

And I'll conclude this episode with these two cuties, spotted at a Home Accents store in Pelham. In a back corner, of course. 

Until next time!!

Strange Things Found in Alabama Stores (2)

Here's my introduction to part 1 of this ongoing series:

Going through some photographs recently I came across a couple of examples of the random things I encounter here and there in stores and other public places. When I do I take photos. I've decided to share some of them in a series of posts on this blog.

These images may strike many as just silly, and some are, but I prefer to call them strange, weird, unexpected, something different springing out of the halls of American commerce. Or whatever. Let's begin. 

Feel free to tell us about your own strange finds in the comment section!

Children's toys sure can be weird sometimes, as exemplified by these two found in a Tuesday Morning store in Huntsville. "Meowlody, Daughter of a Firecat"?

We found this display box at Vintage Interiors in Pelham. What intrigued me was this message on the back. I wonder where that St. Joseph School was located.

These dolls were found creeping people out at Encore Resales in Pelham. 

Did you know that in some areas of the country boiled peanuts are only available in cans? This situation is shocking. These cans were on the shelf locally, but boiled peanuts are best hot from the kettle. We get ours at a little shop down US 31 toward Alabaster, Wayne's Produce. Yum, yum!

My wife Dianne is a big fan of Peeps, but sometimes the new flavors are just too strange for her. 

Easter Island came to Old Time Pottery in Pelham this past spring. 

Strange Things Found in Alabama Stores (1)

Going through some photographs recently I came across a couple of examples of the random things I encounter here and there in stores and other public places. When I do I take photos. I've decided to share some of them in a series of posts on this blog.

These images may strike many as just silly, and some are, but I prefer to call them strange, weird, unexpected, something different springing out of the halls of American commerce. Or whatever. Let's begin. 

Feel free to tell us about your own strange finds in the comment section!

Well, obviously I didn't photograph this 1964 grocery store promotion from the Alabama Cattlemen's Association. I found it via Alabama Mosaic for one of my "Holidays Past in Alabama" postings on Father's Day. The ad just seems to set the right tone for this series. Beef, beef, beef! Oh, and Father's Day!

This little cutie made an appearance at the most recent Pelham Palooza last May. Blind in one eye, she is a permanent resident of the Alabama Wildlife Center located in Oak Mountain State Park. If you've never been to the AWC, it's well worth a trip--and your support. 

I turned a corner in a Pelham consignment shop and there it was. I did not check the price. 

This image is one of several delightful coffee signs decorating Kai's Koffee in Pelham, a place Dianne and I visit often. 

I found a pile of these on the book table at the Hoover Costco. I leave it to readers to unpack the multiple ironies. 

I spotted this delicacy at a Tuesday Morning store in Huntsville. I probably should have bought it even if the market for Elvis memorabilia is falling. 

Stories about medical people and places form a major genre in publishing just as they do on television. One subgenre is nursing stories and that includes titles like this one for younger girls in the Sue Barton series. This first title in the seven-book series was originally published in 1936. I found this paperback reprint in a Pelham consignment shop. 

Tune in next time boys and girls for another adventure in strange encounters!

Christmas Shopping in Gadsden in December 1940

These nine photographs were taken by John Vachon in Gadsden, Alabama, apparently on a Saturday in December 1940. Vachon was one of a number of photographers who traveled America from 1935 until 1945 documenting conditions and activities during the Depression and WWII for the U.S. Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information. He worked for the OWI in 1942 and 1943. Almost 8300 of his photographs can be seen here. Vachon was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1914 and died in 1975. 



John Vachon in 1942


In the 1940 U.S. Census Gadsden had a population of almost 37,000. Many seem to have come downtown that December Saturday to take in the shopping opportunities; no doubt many others from surrounding Etowah County were there too. 

We can see some specifics in a few of these photos. On the right of the fifth photograph a temporary "Grant's Toy Land" sign hangs above the store's permanent sign. Grant's was a variety store chain that operated in the United States from 1906 to 1976. A Texaco sign is visible in the next photo, and in the one below that we see signs for a shoe store, loan operation and a law firm. The county courthouse is prominent in two photographs. The streets and sidewalks are crowded with cars and people. One of Vachon's photos has an artistic tilt to it.

These photographs caught my attention because I was born in Gadsden and over the years visited my paternal grandparents there many times. I remember my grandmother taking me to that Grant's store when I would stay with them for a week in the summers in the late 1950's and early 1960's. I also have numerous other ancestors buried in cemeteries in the area. 

My grandparents and father [who had turned 14 in August of that year] may have been in the crowd. This Christmas was probably another sad one for them. My father's older sister had died just before Christmas in 1939 at the age of 18. Of course, by the Christmas following this one the United States would be at war. 

































All of Vachon's Gadsden photographs are available at Photogrammar a site maintained by Yale University. The site features photographs taken by photographers for the U.S. Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information between 1935 and 1945.