I sent one of the neighbor kids on an errand the other day.  I guess he's not really a kid, as he has his first car, so we'll just call him a young adult.

I really didn't need anything, but he's just gotten his first car.  He picked up a Chevy Malibu from the government owned car company, and he's been out trying to impress everyone by racing the engine, thus disturbing my slumber.  I can't blame him much.  I remember many days when I would annoy anybody I could by revving an engine.  But back then, they were real cars and not the ridiculous, overpriced and underpowered, contraptions they sell nowadays.

Young adults, these days, miss out on so much.  They don't know what a real car is.

I guess they also don't know about money as well, for desiring to return to my nap, I called him over and said,  "Here's a sawbuck, how about pointing that Chevy towards town and picking me up a box of nails".  He glanced at me with a confused look as he grabbed the ten spot and questioned, "Sawbuck?".

So here's some misc. notes about Notes, or how real "young adults" used to talk back when they were still able to drive real cars.

A "sawbuck", of course, is a ten dollar bill.  Back in the days, money had roman numerals and the X appeared similar to a sawbuck, thus the nickname.

A twenty dollar bill, being twice the amount of a ten, was called a "double sawbuck".  So when your annoying brother in-law dropped by to borrow a double sawbuck, he was looking for a twenty so he could spend the evening in the local gin mill.

A $5 dollar bill was always called a "fin".  Why?  I don't know and never thought about it.

A "C-Note" meant that you had hit the jackpot, being a $100 bill.  There was a time when that was a lot of money, particularly if you were young and just starting out in life.  Getting your first C-Note was always a great thrill and something to brag about.

And, just to raise the dander of you politically correct folks, "pushing the queer" referred to counterfeiting.

That's pretty much the basics and should get you through any of the good old gangster films.

As I explained it all to the neighbor kid, and being as perceptive as I am, I noticed he was anxiously waiting to get a word in and muck up my entire teaching moment, so I dragged him into the house by the arm to show him something I knew would keep him quiet for awhile. 

That would be my genuine $1000 bill that I keep around for a rainy day, though it's also useful for quieting down "young adults" who think they know enough about life to impress people by talking nonsense.  After taking a few minutes to convince them that it's not fake, there's usually a few moments of amazed silence as most people have never seen one before.

The days were that the politicians trusted their constituents in this country, and larger denomination bills were readily available even if the average person never had them.  $500 were the most prevalent, but I've heard that they were available in demonimations up to "ten grand" (being $10,000).

The notes are still legal currency although the government took them out of circulation in the late 1960's, apparently because of organized crime.  As far as I know, you can't get them from a bank anymore, although I'm sure they probably have some collector value.  I'll probably have to lend it to the neighbor kid though, when he has to replace the rubber bands in that government car of his.

Phineous Zivick Huntington
February 15, 2010

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At least that's what I told Mrs. Huntington to excuse my long term absence.  However, she seems to be watching the same episode of Little House On The Prairie that was responsible for my decision to take a stroll to begin with.  She'll probably have more to confront me with once it's over.

I suppose that's one of the advantages of having a website.  One can take a long term break from it and who really notices? 

Which isn't entirely true as I did have an email from Tricia Boyle, "Anonymous" asking if I planned on sharing any more Billy Williams soon.  Well, in good time, I might do just that.

Another advantage of having a website, at my age, is the ability to feign total ignorance when it doesn't work right.  Obvious to anybody with a sharp eye is that I've changed some of the layout around here, something which takes me a lot of time to struggle through and hopefully nothing's totally mucked up.

That all said, Mrs. Huntington is still involved in her program which gives me some free time to dig out some unique things to talk about the next few days.  I just can't watch the show with her as it's never been anywhere near a favorite of mine.  This might upset some people, but Michael Landon never did anything good after Bonanza and, even then, Dan Blocker was the real star of that classic Western.

I'm clowning of course.  They were all great.

Phineous Zivick Huntington
February 15, 2010

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Back in my younger days when I was starting in the antique business, I made a spectacular deal on a trailer load of Shoe "Last's".  The things were ancient and I only paid a nickel a piece for them.  I really thought the big money would come rolling in.  They were all hand-carved out of hardwood, and what I thought would be highly prized heirlooms from an earlier time.

Now a lot of people don't know what a Last is.  Many more have seen them, but mistakenly call them forms.  Basically a Last is a sample foot which cobblers used to use to make shoes, and they still do.

Modern last are made out of molded material, but it wasn't very long ago that they were all custom made from wood.  Those were the days when the best shoes were made in the Northeast US,  instead of the Chinese junk you have nowadays. 

There's never been anything better than a good pair of, properly made, shoes.  And it's something that most folks neglect to appreciate.  You just cannot buy the same quality shoe today that was available even 25 years ago.  They just don't exist, it's a dying craft.  

I often suspect it's been a major contributing factor to the world becoming more and more uptight.  Folks are just more miserable these days becauase their feet hurt. But, back on track, here's a picture of some assorted Shoe Last's:

As far as Lasts' go, those are dandies.  They've seen better days, but they're made of hardwood and are truly things of beauty.

Anyway, it took me about 20 years to sell that trailer load of firewood.  I was dead wrong about them, nobody wanted the things at all.  I would have had better success trying to sell Perry Como t-shirts at a Led Zeppelin concert.

They did come in handy for putting nails in the wall and other odd tasks.  But, after tripping over them for 20 years, I was happy to see the last one go. 

Now one of these days I'm going to talk about the silly things people buy at yard sales.  Maybe you go to yard sales and, if so, perhaps you've ran into Mrs. Huntington in your travels.  She never misses them and I have the clutter to prove it.

It seems Mrs. Huntington has decided to work on her fortune now….. we've got another box of these durn Shoe Lasts'.

Phineous Zivick Huntington April 21, 2007

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