Snake America Sixty Three
Snake is a bi-weekly email blast covering after-market items. This week: a moleskin boiler suit and some old felt ballcaps. Subscribe.
eBay: 40s Moleskin black coveralls, sold 40 pounds: On first impression these looked less like a pair of pre-Boom coveralls than a Nazi raincoat. These come from the same seller who had the overshirt from last letter. They're identical fabric. Moleskin, heavy cotton. A google search goes to Walgreen's' website, where moleskin is defined as a soft cotton fabric you put on a corn or callus on your foot. Searching "moleskin 1940s" yields a bit better ... 1940s European, mostly French, chore coats. With a proper coat of shellack these coveralls could look sinister. Like both repelled and repellant. Why would anyone need a slick pair of coveralls, unless they are moving in the night? Moleskine is also a name of a notebook company with a big footprint for a company that sticks to notebooks(1) ... their website has a Code of Ethics(2) but no pages mentioning the material except as a typo. Moleskine is listed on the Italian stock exchange, subsidiaries in America, Asia, France and Germany. The stock opened at 2 and is at like 1.5 now. I think. I am not sure how profit is measured in Italy. It might be in Pascals. The best thing about this auction are the buttons ... I once bought a dresser and the guy who rolled it up told me the pulls were worth more than the dressers, which is why he put them in a plastic bag. All purchasable goods should have that option. A necessary part should be also worth more than the actual item. That way there is twice as much.
eBay: Three 1940s felt baseball hats: The hats from before the 1950s look better than hats now or of any era since. Leafing through old photographs--mostly through the LIFE archive on Google Images--no one wore red hats like the one in this auction, which is apparent, given that the photography of the era was in black and white. But can it be apparent in monochrome whether someone is wearing red? A google search reveals a straightdope.com archived message board discussion where tips are shared as to whether that's possible. One guy says the original Superman show (Adventures of, USA, 1952) filmed George Reeves, its star, in a grey and brown suit since that resembled Superman's colors better. Another poster said his grandmother wore a gold wedding dress in a photo. In the photo the original poster is discussing, his mother, sitting down, is wearing a red dress:
Which is insane? In what universe is that dress red? Maybe she just lied to her kid. The bride looks like she has red hair. I bet the photo took a whole afternoon to take. It takes an afternoon to go to Ryker's and back. The hats in question ... all 1940s hats currently for sale come in sizes for small-headed people, generally 7 1/4 or under 7. The leather brim is wilting but that can be replaced by a tailor and with a spare hat. It's hard to tell whether this hat's bill is long--a longer-than-usual brim, a long brim, helpful for fishing and sent up by Polo--or normal. There's the argument that people's heads were smaller back then than they are now. It bears out with army fatigues--most WWII army khakis are like, size 30 by 29. Bruce Bochy, who managed the San Francisco Giants to three titles in an eight-year span and was born in France, has a hat size of 8 1/8. When he played for the Mets in 1982, they didn't have a helmet that fit him and had to call his Minor League helmet up. Bochy's nickname was "Heady." I was convinced, after Bochy put in a pinch-runner for Bengie Molina in 2008, on first after hitting it deep to right, and then replay overturned the call to a home run, and Molina didn't get the run, that he was a bad manager. He has since proven he isn't. And his head has always been big, even a generation ago. Bigger than anyone's today. Which shows progress is not linear.
Thanks for reading.
Snake
Last Snake: WWII indigo smock, disco yacht shirt (sold; ended)
Snake Before That: Boeing sunglasses, WWII machete (for sale; sold)
(1) They also make messenger bags ... whatever.
(2) Sample paragraph: Any transaction that may imply the slightest possibility of the company being involved in receiving stolen goods, laundering money or using assets or funds of illicit origin is strictly forbidden. Flows of funds must be managed in a way the ensures full traceability of the relevant transactions, with sufficient documentation being preserved, and in observance of the limits of responsibilityassigned to each individual. Compliance with the following principles regarding documentation and preservation of the accounting records is necessary for said purpose: (etc... from 4.4 Propriety regarding flows of funds)