Behind the T-shirt: Tillie the All Time Teller

Florida National Banks' Tillie says, "I'll make your life easier."

Who is Tillie?

She's the ATM.

photo via Wells Fargo

(via Wells Fargo History Blog: Tillie the All Time Teller)

First National Bank of Atlanta  was concerned that the relatively new automated teller machine (ATM) it introduced in 1974 would appear cold and difficult to use.

In those days, customers were accustomed to walking inside a bank and chatting with a pleasant teller. So First National named their ATM “Tillie the All Time Teller,” and put the face of a smiling blonde girl on the front of the machine. “Tillie” looked inviting to customers and suggested that the machine was highly user-friendly.

 Did it work? In a word, yes. Tillie launched one of the most successful ATM systems in the banking industry.

This particular shirt says "GO GATORS" on the back. Yay unnecessary punctuation!

Available here from Etsy.  Here from Defunkd for a few dollars less!

Vintage Valentine's Day T-shirts

For anybody who celebrates Valentine's Day, by dressing themselves up, or giving a present to another human as an act of love, may I present 22 vintage t-shirts from the 70's and 80's in a variety of colors and sizes, each one with a heart somewhere on it or implied.

Skippy Haha Vintage t-shirts involving hearts.

These 2 in particular would be fun to wear.

80's I [Heart] YOU t-shirt

Jenn & Tony Mall Airbrush t-shirt - two  hearts that beat as one - only $10

See, also last year's Valentine's day post on chocolate, flowers, and booze.

 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Vintage Halloween Costume Ideas

No need to rub dirt on your face and call yourself a hobo this year.

Be Michael Jackson!

Michael Jackson "Beat It" t-shirt. 

 Be a 7-Eleven Worker!

7-Eleven uniform zip-up polo shirt

Be an Oscar Mayer Wiener Man!

 Oscar Mayer Polo shirt

Be Bruce Springsteen's Mom!

 Irene Springsteen t-shirt

Be a Rabbit Chow Salesperson!

 Rabbit Chow uniform polo shirt

 

Be a Radiotherapy Technologist!

  Radiotherapy Technologist t-shirt

Be Richard Simmons!

 Richard Simmons sweatshirt

Be a Dog!

Dog t-shirt

Be Uncle Jim!

 Uncle Jim t-shirt

Be James Worthy!

LA Lakers James Worthy t-shirt

Be a Jazzercise Goddess!

Diagonal stripe leotard

Be a psychedelic Native American!

Feather fringe vest

Click on any of the pictures to see the Etsy listings. Watch out for razor blades in the apples.

Guadalajara Joe Cat Crop Top

You either love Guadalajara Joe, or you don't know who he is.

Who is the only Puerto Rican Weimaraner lover cool enough to rock a hot pink cat half shirt?

GUADALAJARA JOE!

Check out his online presences:
http://www.guadalajarajoe.blogspot.com 
http://www.myspace.com/guadalajarajoe 
http://www.guadalajarajoe.org 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Guadalajara-Joe/96001293962

Go see him live if you are in the Hollywood area! Letzdewit!

Queen of My Soul Vintage WTF Wall Hanging

I found this at the Value Village in Gastonia, NC. 

I left this at the Value Village in Gastonia, NC. 

I would like to know:

1. How many of these were made? 
2. How many of these were sold? 
3. Did anybody hang this in their house? 
4. Where in their house would such a thing hang? 
5. Do these people know each other?

Guadalajara Joe - Buck Wild! and Cat Shirts!

New video from Skippy Haha Vintage's old amigo, Guadalajara Joe!



You can dress like Guady: All the Skippy Haha Vintage cat t-shirts on Etsy!


Here he is performing in fly Zubaz pants!



Check out his unforgettable performance if he comes to your town!

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.