Ice Capades Program, 1983

The Ice Capades was a traveling ice show that ran from 1940 to 1995 that featured ex-Olympian skaters,  elaborate set-pieces/themes, and costumes that could have been featured in a 1930s Hollywood musical.

Where Are We? [Red Robin Comment Card], 2006

Halloween Party Invitation, 1990

R.I.P., 1987

Need Help, 2004

The Exquisite Corpse Adventure

The Library of Congress has recently revamped their literacy outreach website in anticipation of the 9th annual edition of the National Book Festival. The new read.gov site contains tons of classic texts you can read/browse with an all new fancy page-turning technology. Also on the site is the LOC’s own creation, “The Exquisite Corpse Adventure” (long title: “The Exquisite Corpse Adventure: A Very Unusual and Completely Amazing Story Pieced Together Out of So Many Parts That It Is Not Possible To Describe Them All Here So Go Ahead and Just Start Reading.”)

Exquisite Corpse Adventure

In name, this collaborative writing project harkens back to the original Surrealist exquisite corpse game, which was in turn based on an old Victorian parlour game called Consequences. Our more modern Mad Libs owe a huge debt to these games, as these games provide methods by which a collection of words (or images) are collectively assembled in some sequential manner. The LOC’s Exquisite Corpse Adventure will have 26 chapters contributed by famed authors of children’s books.

I think this is a supremely cool idea to get kids interested in reading, writing, and the power of collaboration with friends and peers, whether it be in a serious artistic endeavor, or just to prove that your creativity can be augmented tremendously just by rappin’ with your pals. Some of my more treasured memories center around collaborative writing activities: working on a newspaper column with my pal Billy, the word games our creative writing club used to play in High School, penning a dirty Mad Lib with friends, relieving bathroom boredom with roommates in college (in word/picture form), collaborating on a zine, working on a goofy short story with a friend by swapping back and forth each sentence, etc. I can only hope that innovative literacy projects like this one will help inspire new generations of young people to new forms of creativity.

Color Word Monsters, 1982

Passed Notes: The Tiffany Files

When I was in junior high and high school, it was pretty common for girls to pass notes. The notes were generally pretty inconsequential; but occasionally contained juicy gossip, or a funny anecdote from the days proceedings. I suspect the passed note (along with other forms of handwritten communication) has probably become an artifact in teenagerdom, given the ascendancy of e-mail and text messaging.

World Wrestling Federation Card, May 30, 1991

I was really into professional wrestling when I was a kid. I don’t exactly know what interested me , but here’s what I now suspect was going on.

GAG CARDS – Each Gag Card is a Carload of Laughs! 1958

One time when I was a kid, I stumbled across a cache of little white cards in my mother’s box of school mementos that she kept under her bed. She had collected the little business-style cards embossed with the names of her classmates, the kind of cards that seniors generally hand out with their yearbook picture. Mixed in with these cards, I found some that didn’t seem to fit. They were the same size, but had weird slogans printed on them instead of names. I surmised that they must have been jokes — even though I certainly did not understand what in the world they were about. I hadn’t thought of this experience until I saw this ad from the Sept. 1958 issue of ‘Teen Magazine for “Gag Cards.” This is exactly what those cards were! It’s kind of fun to look at these as an early form of text messaging or social networking. I realize the cards just contain goofy jokes and expressions, but they come from an era when teens didn’t have many avenues for getting their snark on. These gag cards allowed them to cut loose in at least some way, with some mild-mannered innuendo. These are relics from the original era of the teenager, ephemeral items that few probably thought worthy enough to save. I am definitely going to ask my Mom if she kept those cards now that I know what they are.

GAG CARDS
Each Gag Card is a Carload of Laughs

1st Grade Drawing Exercise, 1983

I guess I was trying to go for Hitler for the “bad lad.” And “rat on a cat” came out looking a little obscene.

In Soviet Union, World’s Fair Exhibit YOU!

From the Official Guidebook of the 1939 New York World’s Fair:

“Visit the Soviet Pavilion and become acquainted with the 170 million people of the Soviet Union in their daily life, their work and their achievements in the first Socialist country in the world.”

The Soviet Union was one of sixty nations who participated in the Hall of Nations at the 1939 World’s Fair. Each participating country had their own pavilion, complete with exhibits, artifacts, performances, and food. Visiting the pavilion was to be an ersatz approximation of a visit to the country itself; it was to be both educational and entertaining. This is precisely where the EPCOT World Showcase concept comes from. In fact, the guidebook says the following, and these words could have came from the pen of Walt Disney himself:

It’s a Mod, Mod Birthday

I really dig this totally mod birthday card from the age when teenagers had pencil-thin limbs, giant bouffants, and cool shift dresses, and when musical notes and record albums would just magically appear out of thin air when one started rockin’ and a rollin’.

The Story of the Sponges, 1969

The following images are from a 1969 postcard album titled “The Story of the Sponges – Tarpon Springs, Florida.”

Poop Doodles III

Yet another remnant of the bathroom from a college apartment that I shared with my BFFs Billy, Kari, and Jamie in 1998-1999 in Urbana, IL. See the two earlier posts here or here.