A little historical aside before I get to the subject.
If you ever drive on I-70 past the sign “Historic Downtown Rocheport” don’t waste your time getting off the highway. Here is a 1-second tour of the place.
Now get back on the road, you still have a couple of hours to go.
St.Louis Japanese Festival is one of the better-organized, meaningful and entertaining festivals in the country. I visited it once before and enjoyed it so much that I didn’t have any reservations about going there again.
The Japanese Festival is once-a-year occasion when otherwise shy Americans release their inner Japanese, normally hidden deep inside, wrap themselves in shower curtains and prance around in uncomfortable wooden flip-flops pretending to like weird-looking food.
My favorite Japanese traditional entertainer Masaji Terasawa was there once again making spun sugar sculptures, origami figures and making fun of the public.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6RRdVvMny8
I have few clips of his performance.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEmquClM-zw”
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU1bMlBNrg”
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om4ZSP6CBUc”
The Sumo demonstration was probably the highlight of the day since we decided not to stick around for karaoke.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kyfYldKDQM
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KteGdvDOQE
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0butoszJB6c
On the way back I was tempted to get some “Free water in the name of Jesus” but decided against it, just in case it turns into wine and causes me to get a DUI. I wasn’t so sure I could count on Jesus to pay the ticket.
Dean Reed was an American singer who was more popular in the Latin America and the USSR than in the USA. He would have turned 70 today. Because he was a communist sympathizer he was one of a few English-speaking performers approved to entertain the Soviet people. I remember as a child playing his records and watching him on TV and in cheesy Easter European Westerns. I read that he was sometimes referred to as the “Red Elvis” due to his popularity, I personally never heard anyone say that, but at the time I didn’t even know who the real “Not-Red” Elvis was, so I wouldn’t get the reference anyway.
These photos show how stores used to advertise goods and services but the most interesting thing is prices.
As always all photos are linked to their large versions.
People shopping in an auto parts store in Lebanon, KS. February 1957Sign on window advertising a variety of services available in Kansas City, MO. August 1945Sen. Edward V. Long's law office is maintained in Bowling Green, MO. May 1967Sign on liquor store encouraging customers to buy quantity in Kansas City, MO. August 1945
Nowadays even XO has to pay more than 75 cents for his haircut.
A man waiting in a barber shop for a haircut in Lebanon, KS. February 1957
Carton of cigarettes for $2.25.
Teenage girls drinking milkshakes at a local restaurant in Lebanon, KS. February 1957
Notice – old-timey cereal boxes on the top shelf.
Enos A. Axtell (R), a candidate for office, standing with his family in the grocery store owned by his parents in Kansas City, MO. July 1946A man buying a greeting card from a drugstore in Lebanon, KS. February 1957A man waits for customers at a counter in Lebanon, KS. February 1957Men standing on in front of a local drugstore in Lebanon, KS. February 1957
Sa-Tan-Ic Laxative Compound in the bottom right.
Medicines for sale at a local drugstore in Lebanon, KS. February 1957
Since my previous post on the subject I’ve found a few more photos of winter in Moscow. Sadly, no Russian bears got into the photographer’s viewfinder, but rest assured, the bears are there, probably in hiding or something.
