Behind the T-shirt: Carrara's Mountain Moose

(via sunjournal originally printed 10-24-2006 - bangor daily news) 

SHREWSBURY, Vt. (AP) - It was 20 years ago that a love affair between a moose and a Hereford cow caught the imagination of a nation and literally put this tiny mountain town on the map.

For 76 magical days in the fall of 1986, a bull moose variously dubbed "Bullwinkle," "Josh," "Bruce" and "Valentino" by townspeople and tourists visited Jessica the cow in her pasture.

Photos of the two nuzzling against the bucolic mountain backdrop became iconic after the national media latched onto the story. Thousands of visitors flocked to the farm to watch the two animals.

Shrewsbury gained such notice that locals theorize that's why mapmaker Rand McNally decided to include the town of about 1,100 on a new world map.

Larry Carrara, the now retired farmer who owned Jessica, said he still gets fan mail.

The most recent letter was postmarked Oct. 12 from Lexington, Ky. Signed by the Anders family's four children, it asks if the moose ever returned to Carrara's farm after that fall.

He never did.

"The night before he left, he slept under our bedroom window," Carrara recalled. "I told my wife that night that I knew he was leaving. Sure enough, the next morning when I went to work he was gone and no one has seen him since."

On Sunday, residents gathered at the Shrewsbury Library for a showing of video footage from the time.

Carrara says he thinks what made the story catch on was that people were looking for something to smile about.

"Mostly, everything else was bad at the time," he said. "We'd just lost the astronauts (in the Challenger disaster of 1986), baby Jessica had fallen down the well and Gary Hart was getting caught cheating. You get so sick of seeing and listening to all the bad news that you need something good."

Find the t-shirt on Etsy here.

What the Flock?

I have started flocking up 100% authentic t-shirts and sweatshirts from the 70's and 80's.

The fuzzy felt iron-on letters are called "flock."

I take real vintage shirts, flaws and all, and iron letters on them.

They are all available in this section of my Etsy shop:  What the Flock

Nobody has to know that they are not straight from a thrift store.

They are quirky and charming and one-of-a-kind. Just like you!

Custom orders are welcome, please contact me to check out availability of blanks.

Behind the T-shirt: Meteor Crater Arizona

In February 2005, I drove cross-country with my brother and a Green Giant Little Sprout telephone. We took the mid-southern route along Interstate 40, which is the old fabled Route 66.

Not far off I-40 in Winslow, Arizona is a landmark called Meteor Crater.

(from meteorcrater.com) -

Meteor Crater is the breath-taking result of a collision between a piece of an asteroid traveling at 26,000 miles per hour and planet Earth approximately 50,000 years ago. Today, Meteor Crater is nearly one mile across, 2.4 miles in circumference and more than 550 feet deep.

Here is a 70's or early 80's souvenir t-shirt from this very place. It is soft and thin and silky and lovely. It may have been touched by aliens or alien dust.

T-shirt available on Etsy here.

More photos with Scout the Sprout here.

Crazy Critters and the Downtown Asheville Hurricane of Vintage T-shirts

I recently went downtown Asheville with a hamper of my finest Skippy Haha Vintage t-shirts.

Alli Marshall of Asheville StreetStyle had arranged for local rock band The Critters to meet up and shoot a video for their song "Visions of Light."

The rough concept was for them to try on a shirt, come through the Flat Iron, pose for the camera, go around back, take it off and try on another shirt, ad infinitum, until the hamper was empty. Something sped-up and lighthearted like the intro to the Monkees TV show.

What actually happened was, as the Mountain Xpress said - total mayhem. It was a hurricane of t-shirts, a t-shirt-ornado. No one could have been prepared for the energy and enthusiasm displayed by those Critters.

Here is the video, expertly edited by Steve Shanafelt of the Mountain Xpress. You can see me at the end, as shirts are being flung into the trees of Wall Street, silently screaming in my head "AAAAACKKK! My precious heirlooms! Save my precious heirlooms!"

No really, it was fun. Really fun. It was all over in under 10 minutes. I came home and washed all the shirts.

Mountain Xpress article here

Go Kiss a Drunk Moose

An apparently drunk moose was found entangled in an apple tree in Sweden last week.

Somebody needs to give that moose a kiss.

Sweatshirt link here.

public whale tails

1980 - 1983 Nike Orange Label Sportswear Velour Zipper Track Jacket, link here

1980's Tan Sherpa Faux Sheepskin Hoody Jacket link here

Bob's Big Boy Evolution

bobs big boy, originally uploaded by Skippy Haha Vintage.

All he does between 1981 and 1988 is put his arm down?

Link to t-shirt on Etsy here.