calendars for the year 2007
One-by-one my many calendars for the year 2007 are arriving.
Anyone who has ever been here knows I have a surfeit of calendars. I predict sonorous blustering from West Bridgewater.
But I don’t have them to keep track of dates — in that case, one would be enough.
I get them because they have pretty pictures.
My first calendar this year came from Ghosts (Ghosts). It is my largest, and is usually available online in August.
It’s a color calendar of WWII warbird photographs by Philip McKenna.
It’s pretty good, but every once in a while a ringer sneaks in, like a Piper Cub, an old biplane, an ME-109 or a Japanese Zero.
I’m partial to the American single-seat fighters: e.g. the P40, the P38, and the P51 Mustang. Also the Navy fighters like the Hellcat and the Corsair.
Every once in a while a bomber slips in, like a B17, a B24, or heaven forbid a B25. Apparently quite a few B25s are still around; they seem to be a dime-a-dozen.
And every once in a while a Gooney-Bird flies, the DC3. Nice, but a turkey. Worse yet is the ugly Curtiss C46.
The PBY wasn’t too bad, although bog-slow. The Geneseo warbird association had one — but I haven’t seen it for a while. I doubt it would float (the PBY was supposed to be amphibious).
My second calendars are railroad calendars. My Leanin’ Tree (Leanin’ Tree) catalog arrives in September, and the other used to be CEDco. Leanin’ Tree is the source for my train Christmas-cards, and CEDco went bankrupt last year. Usually what I’d do is pass Leanin’ Tree’s train-calendars, and get my two train-calendars from CEDco: an All-Pennsy color calendar, and another (Howard Fogg or Ted Rose watercolors).
But this year, since CEDco was gone, I ordered a Howard Fogg calendar from Leanin’ Tree.
But then a catalog appeared from Charles E. Ditlefsen (Ditlefsen train calendars), the old head-honcho of CEDco, back in business. The All-Pennsy color calendar was available again.
Everything was online.
Next was my catalog from Paul Oxman (Oxman), which has two calendars I get: one of hot-rods, and one of legendary sportscars.
I have two calendars to go: 1) my infamous Audio-Visual Designs All-Pennsy black-and-white calendar, and 2) My Norfolk Southern color calendar.
My Audio-Visual Designs calendar goes back to 1967 or 1968 — I’ve gotten it every year since.
It was mainly comprised of photographs by Don Wood, but he died recently, leaving behind some of the most dramatic photos of late Pennsy steam ever taken: e.g. impossibly heavy ore drags with doubleheaded Decapods on each end slogging up the branch along Shamokin Creek to the Lehigh Valley interchange at Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania; K4 Pacifics storming the Long Branch in Jersey, and Mountains on the main-line across Pennsylvania.
The Audio-Visual Designs calendar has gone beyond Wood, but he set the tone. They also began running a color-photo for December: e.g. the restored Pennsy E9s at the Gallitzin tunnels. (I’m not sure Pennsy ever had E9s; they’re actually Erie-Lackawanna E9s repainted in Pennsy tuscan-red — including the gold cats-whiskers.) There also have been color photographs of GG1s.
And my Audio-Visual Designs calendar is not available online, that I know of; only Ebay. I’ve had to use snail-mail in the past.
My Norfolk Southern calendar is photos taken by NS staff; trainmen (not official photographers). Regrettably it seems to be biased toward recent purchases — e.g. the old Pennsy, Conrail, etc. Some of the most dramatic NS lines are down south: the Rathole, Saluda Mountain (not the tea, Bubba), and Norfolk & Western.
Never in the calendar.
I also used to get an official John Deere calendar, but it seems to be more recent stuff than the classic two-cylinder Johnny Poppers.
I think I’ll pass this year — too many train calendars.
I once got an old-car calendar from Hemmings (Hemmings), but ended up sending it back. Too grainy — you had to be at least 12 feet from the calendar to not notice the grain.
I also used to put up a calendar in my cubicle at the mighty Mezz. Last year it was Roy Rogers; two years ago Elvis. I had the NS calendar there once.
Once I had a Ducati calendar in place of the John Deere calendar, but it was kind of putrid. Too much ancient stuff, and poor printing. Never again.
Anyone who has ever been here knows I have a surfeit of calendars. I predict sonorous blustering from West Bridgewater.
But I don’t have them to keep track of dates — in that case, one would be enough.
I get them because they have pretty pictures.
My first calendar this year came from Ghosts (Ghosts). It is my largest, and is usually available online in August.
It’s a color calendar of WWII warbird photographs by Philip McKenna.
It’s pretty good, but every once in a while a ringer sneaks in, like a Piper Cub, an old biplane, an ME-109 or a Japanese Zero.
I’m partial to the American single-seat fighters: e.g. the P40, the P38, and the P51 Mustang. Also the Navy fighters like the Hellcat and the Corsair.
Every once in a while a bomber slips in, like a B17, a B24, or heaven forbid a B25. Apparently quite a few B25s are still around; they seem to be a dime-a-dozen.
And every once in a while a Gooney-Bird flies, the DC3. Nice, but a turkey. Worse yet is the ugly Curtiss C46.
The PBY wasn’t too bad, although bog-slow. The Geneseo warbird association had one — but I haven’t seen it for a while. I doubt it would float (the PBY was supposed to be amphibious).
My second calendars are railroad calendars. My Leanin’ Tree (Leanin’ Tree) catalog arrives in September, and the other used to be CEDco. Leanin’ Tree is the source for my train Christmas-cards, and CEDco went bankrupt last year. Usually what I’d do is pass Leanin’ Tree’s train-calendars, and get my two train-calendars from CEDco: an All-Pennsy color calendar, and another (Howard Fogg or Ted Rose watercolors).
But this year, since CEDco was gone, I ordered a Howard Fogg calendar from Leanin’ Tree.
But then a catalog appeared from Charles E. Ditlefsen (Ditlefsen train calendars), the old head-honcho of CEDco, back in business. The All-Pennsy color calendar was available again.
Everything was online.
Next was my catalog from Paul Oxman (Oxman), which has two calendars I get: one of hot-rods, and one of legendary sportscars.
I have two calendars to go: 1) my infamous Audio-Visual Designs All-Pennsy black-and-white calendar, and 2) My Norfolk Southern color calendar.
My Audio-Visual Designs calendar goes back to 1967 or 1968 — I’ve gotten it every year since.
It was mainly comprised of photographs by Don Wood, but he died recently, leaving behind some of the most dramatic photos of late Pennsy steam ever taken: e.g. impossibly heavy ore drags with doubleheaded Decapods on each end slogging up the branch along Shamokin Creek to the Lehigh Valley interchange at Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania; K4 Pacifics storming the Long Branch in Jersey, and Mountains on the main-line across Pennsylvania.
The Audio-Visual Designs calendar has gone beyond Wood, but he set the tone. They also began running a color-photo for December: e.g. the restored Pennsy E9s at the Gallitzin tunnels. (I’m not sure Pennsy ever had E9s; they’re actually Erie-Lackawanna E9s repainted in Pennsy tuscan-red — including the gold cats-whiskers.) There also have been color photographs of GG1s.
And my Audio-Visual Designs calendar is not available online, that I know of; only Ebay. I’ve had to use snail-mail in the past.
My Norfolk Southern calendar is photos taken by NS staff; trainmen (not official photographers). Regrettably it seems to be biased toward recent purchases — e.g. the old Pennsy, Conrail, etc. Some of the most dramatic NS lines are down south: the Rathole, Saluda Mountain (not the tea, Bubba), and Norfolk & Western.
Never in the calendar.
I also used to get an official John Deere calendar, but it seems to be more recent stuff than the classic two-cylinder Johnny Poppers.
I think I’ll pass this year — too many train calendars.
I once got an old-car calendar from Hemmings (Hemmings), but ended up sending it back. Too grainy — you had to be at least 12 feet from the calendar to not notice the grain.
I also used to put up a calendar in my cubicle at the mighty Mezz. Last year it was Roy Rogers; two years ago Elvis. I had the NS calendar there once.
Once I had a Ducati calendar in place of the John Deere calendar, but it was kind of putrid. Too much ancient stuff, and poor printing. Never again.
posted by BobbaLew at 9:14 AM
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