Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A Little Surprise in a 1953 How-To Book

One of the early postwar magazines in my collection is this delightful "how-to" book on building your own garage published by Popular Mechanics in 1953. The cover art is rendered in that colorful "commercial art" style that was prevalent in the late 1940s and '50s, somewhat reminiscent of Norman Rockwell. The cover art is signed "Korta," and in about, oh, 2 seconds of Googling, I found his bio. Robert Korta was head illustrator for Popular Mechanics for many years before becoming a freelancer. You've got to love "the Google!"

The surprise mentioned in the title? After several chapters on various types of garages—wooden frame, cinder block, and brick—is this chapter on building a bomb shelter, "What about an A-Bomb Shelter?" It really took be aback, although the timing of the book, 1953, places it squarely in the Cold War and McCarthy's "Communist around every corner" period. I remember a few homes in our neighborhood that had their own bomb shelters, and they were available to us in the event we needed it. I've always wondered what happened to those subterranean structures, but the original families have all died or moved away, and I'm not the type to knock on doors and ask strangers about their properties. The tone of the artwork is oddly light-hearted, with a bomb dropping out of the sky that looks like it could be stamped "ACME" on the side as in the Roadrunner cartoons. But then again, this was Popular Mechanics, not The New York Times.

The second spread of the bomb shelter chapter includes helpful sidebars such as which supplies needed to be kept at the ready in a shelter, distances from ground zero that would cause death and destruction and possible safety and a list of "things to do" when the bomb siren sounds. 

I've scanned three sidebars and grouped them together here for easier reading. The list of supplies reminds me of the "duct tape and plastic window shields" we were told about after 9/11. Check out number 10 in the list on the left: "If you are within 1/2 mile of burst, and are still alive..." Yowsah!

B L O G   N O T E — I finally have several days ahead of me without any work scheduled for my publisher and no gardening or watering to do, so I'll be working on new art. I'll be sanding and cutting wood, painting and everything else that I do for my pieces. I've been working on new pieces hit-and-miss for a couple of months, but I'm now going to get serious about it for a few weeks. I'll still put up a new post, probably every day, but I might not be "on" here to answer comments as much as I usually do.  I tend to work 20 hour days when I'm creating, and don't get near my Macs with my paint-splattered hands and clothes. Wish me luck, lol!

11 comments:

  1. Well "Happy Painting". I hope you will find a minute or two to stop by, I'll leave some milk and cookies out for you.

    I had some fun with my camera today and put up a few in today's post. I picked a nice windy day, my cap flying... for a bit I thought I might take flight like Mary Poppins.

    Work hard but not too hard. :)

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  2. Norman Rockwell is by far one of my favorite artists of all time, Casey your up there too. His depiction of American life during and after the WW2 presented America as a family oriented and pleasant place to live. He also used "innocence" and a bit of humor to lighten
    the atmosphere, especially with the use of children.
    http://tiny.cc/igipn

    If he were around today, I guess he would paint pictures of the police and fire fighters saving lives during 9/11.

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  3. JUST CHECKING IN.IT'S AFTER THREE AND I NEVER GOT OUT OF MY PJ'S TODAY. FOR WHAT, I'M ONLY GOING BACK TO BED IN A FEW HOURS. LOL. NOT REALLY,I JUST GOT CAUGHT UP ON THE COMPUTER WATCHING TOWN HALL MEETING IN UPSTATE N.Y. WHICH I DO EVERY MONTH. TAXES ARE GOING UP FOR THE TOWN. I FEEL SO BAD FOR THE SENIORS. NO INCREASE IN SS FOR TWO YEARS BUT THEIR EXPECTING TO PAY. REAL SCARY. YOU CAN'T GET BLOOD OUT OF A TURNIP. THE SENIOR WILL BE SAYING [HERE TAKE MY HOUSE] MORE SENIORS WILL BE ON THE STREET IF THEY KEEP GOING THE WAY THEIR GOING..

    NOW I'M GOING TO READ YOUR POST FOR THE DAY. I HOPE YOUR FEELING BETTER TODAY.

    GRANNY

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  4. YOU JUST KEEP PAINTING AND I'LL JUST WAIT FOR THE ART TO SHOW UP HERE. IF YOU CAN'T PUT SOMETHING ON HERE, DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. WHEN I'M DEEP IN THOUGHT SOMETIME AND DOING MY THING I DON'T EVEN WAIT TO BE BOTHER. I HAVE MY DAYS. SO GET BUSY AND BRING EVERYONE SOME OF YOUR NEW PIECES.IS YOUR BOOK OUT YET?

    GRANNY

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  5. GOOD NIGHT GUYS AND GALS.

    CASEY, ROSS IS ON LENO TONIGHT.

    GRANNY

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  6. PBS Independent Lens has a new show called Art & Copy on tonight, you might be interested in seeing it.

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  7. Thanks for the Ross info, Granny. I'll watch. What's happened with his blog? He used to get hundreds of comments on every post, and now he gets very few. It seems the same blog to me.

    and thanks, Annie, but I don't know what PBS Independent Lens is! Is that a separate network from PBS? I'm not sure my Comcast has it. I ran through the channels but didn't see it.

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  8. Here you go Casey, you can watch it on HULU
    http://video.pbs.org/video/1618687064/

    I recorded it and was flipping back and forth during the ballgame but will watch it in its entirety later.

    I think you will find it interesting.

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  9. Casey I just wanted to say that I look at your blog everyday. It's a tranquil sort of place compared to most of the blogs I read (I think you know what I'm talking about). So keep on doing what you're doing.

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  10. Thank you Annie!

    and thank you, Ish. That really means a lot to me. There is so much awful politics going on right now, so many really bad people with ugly views, that I appreciate being considered a refuge of sorts. I've spent years and years trying to find some peace in my life, maybe I am.

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  11. HOW I WISH I COULD REALLY MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND HOW THIS BLOG AS MADE ME FEEL.IT'S JUST BEEN SO WONDERFUL TO COME AND NOT HEAR SOMEONE BASHING WHAT EACH PERSON BELIEVES IN. IT'S NICE TO COME TO A BLOG THAT'S NOT FULL OF SWEAR WORDS AND BASHING. WE ARE WHO WE ARE, PERIOD. JUST GIVE ME A BUNCH OF FLOWERS ANYTIME AND I'M HAPPY.EVEN GRASS IS PRETTY.THE GREEN STUFF NOT THE FUNNY STUFF.

    GRANNY

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