Pensupreme and other vintage milk cartons... do people collect these?

 In the last year, I have noticed how a lot of people collect vintage glass milk bottles, which I remember when I was a kid, how the milkman would deliver these to our house several times a week. Mom would put the empty bottles in the insulated galvanized metal milk box out on the porch, and the milk man would take the empty bottles and replace them with full ones. The service was getting too expensive for my parents to afford, so they did like a lot of people did and opted to get their milk at the grocery store/ corner stores for a bit cheaper in wax or plastic coated disposable quart, or half gallon cartons. When I was a kid in the mid 1960's, all the local dairies started to sell their milk this way as well as continue the home delivery service in glass bottles, as well. The  thing that caught my eye as a young preteen boy was the more colorful graphics these cartons were able to have over the glass bottles, and I kind of liked playing with these colorful cartons once they were empty, and Mom would rinse them out and give them to me. I tried to make them into bird houses, and hang them up outside, but no birds ever used them, and I ended up taking them down, and would cut the things up to use for other model building projects. Money was tight, and the cardboard these had in them, even though they were plastic coated and resisted drawing in them, was a cheap source for craft material. Most people back in the day would just crush these things and throw them away, and if they were used for anything,the bottom halves were cut off and they were used for starter planters for starting seeds for vegetables or flowers. It amazes me that when they show up intact now, as to how they have even survived this.

To me, finding an intact milk carton from the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's or even the 1980's is an amazing bet beyond all odds that they survived to this point, and for that reason, besides the nostalgia I have in association for these cartons, makes them more desirable to me than the glass milk bottles from that same time period...

The top picture is a mid 1960's Penn Dairies of Lancaster, Pennsylvania Pensupreme plastic coated Vitamin D half gallon carton. This image here is of two late 1950s to early 1960's wax coated quart cartons from the same dairy.

This picture, here is a carton from Penn Dairy's biggest competitor in Lancaster, PA, Queen Dairy. This is a waxed carton with the older style peel open corner spout from the early 1960's. These cartons once they were opened did not reseal tight, and if knocked over, even when closed would spill out the opened corner. That is why the paper companies developed the "PurePak" design. These also would leak when opened but would close up tighter, and less milk would be lost that way if accidentally knocked over, until you had the chance to set up upright, again.

When we moved to the North side of Lancaster, Mom would send me to the A & P that was one block down from where we lived, and I came home with milk in cartons like this early 1970's quart carton...

Here is a quart Pensupreme milk carton from around 1966. I figured it was from around that time period as it has a purple ink stamped price mark of 25 cents on the top panel of the thing there.

Here is a rare Pensupreme waxed pint carton from the late 1950's to early 1960's of what they called "H.V.D." milk. AKA Homogenized Vitamin D Milk. 

There is a lot of cool old stuff out there in the way of  cardboard dairy ephemera, but you really have to keep your eyes pealed to find it!

Here is another A & P carton to complement the quart carton I have in the pic above. Like that one, this half gallon carton also is pre barcode from the early to mid 1970 as there is still an encoded date stamp on the badly wrinkled spine on the top of the carton. Notice the "A & P" circle logo is not printed like a dish as like the prior quart carton here. It is just a flat red colored disc, here.

Here is one of my latest additions. a Lenkerbook Farms carton out of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles from here in Lancaster County. It looks like it dates from the early 1970's as it is also pre barcode, but it does have an embossed numerical month a day only sell by date on the top spine.

Here are two more quart cartons that are from local dairies here in Pennsylvania. "Dairimaid" Brand from Chambersburg Dairy Co. in Chambersburg, PA. These are also pre-barcode, so they are from the late 1960's to mid 1970's

This is one of my most recent additions. This Sealtest Vitamin D milk carton from the late 1960's. I remember my Mom buying these cartons of milk when I was a kid with these sweet looking graphics. These cartons are practically non-existent, now. Found this on eBay about 2 weeks ago as of this update.

Here is a nice Bohack 1 gallon milk carton from the early 1970's from the grocery chain of the same name in New York City. They went out of business in 1977.

Jim.

Reproduction Circa 1965 Land-O-Lakes butter box.

Being off work and under self isolation due to corona, and upon hearing that Land-O-Lakes is dropping Mia, the Native American maiden from their box art logo, as an honor to her, and Land-O-Lakes, I decided to make this replica of a 1965 1 pound four quarter stick box. Using 4 different computer applications, and two images I got from the internet, a bit of heavy gauge paper, a straight edge ruler and some white glue, I threw together this full scale reproduction in about 8 hours earlier this week.

 I'd much rather have a nice original box from that time period, though, but I guess this will have to do for now.

The box in this picture below that I'm holding is the last in the line of boxes that have Mia on them. As I type this, the new packaging that is being phased in do not have her on it at all anymore. Just the forests and the lake in the background. Notice, that this last incarnation of her is chest up to keep bad boys from making her do bad tricks!

This is the genuine article. A waxed cardboard Mia Land O' Lakes carton from 1965-1972 (No barcode) 1 pound 4 quarter stick butter box I found on eBay. Yes, people actually did save these back in the day, but for what reason, I have no idea. But anyway, it still exists. It has that "old cardboard" odor like really old cardboard vinyl record album sleeves have.

Just finished doing two more reproduction Land O Lakes butter boxes. This one is of a mid 1930's box was able to use images I found on line I was able to manipulate into images I could use for reproducing the box from. It takes 4 different computer apps to do these... The images I used were from photos of an actual 1933 butter box, not from the metal recipe file box that LOL offered in the early 1980's.

Here is my reproduction of an early 2000's Land O Lakes butter box. I fashioned my own end panels for the box that is more in line with the graphics designed theme of the carton, and got rid of the barcode and Nutrition Facts box that mess up the box design. This basic design of the Mia graphics with the curved "Land O Lakes" font was used up until 2018, then they replaced this with Mia only being visible from her shoulders up with a straight "Land O Lakes" font.. This year, she has been removed all together.

My reproduction Land O Lakes boxes
From bottom to top. 1930's, middle 1950s through the 1990s, top 2000 until 2018.

Jim.

Non-bilateral gynandromorph Cecropia Moth.

This is, I believe, a non bilateral gynandromorph Cecropia Moth. What that means is, It has features of both sexes in one individual. This moth eclosed about 2 weeks ago, of which I first thought was a normal male. But it started acting odd, doing things a normal male OR female Cecropia would not do. It was gyrating its abdomen in circular movement, and I thought it was injured or something. Later on it did it again, and this time I really looked at "him", and my eyes grew open wide. Here, its abdomen was the size of a females abdomen, even after his wings were fully dried and hardened. I went to get it out of the emergence cage, and turned him over. That is when my eyes could not believe what I was seeing. He opened his anal claspers to reveal dual sex organs, both an ovipositor, and directly below that, a reduced penis. The last time I saw that was in a gynandromorph Luna Moth I raised back around 2003. Aberration that does not happen very often, but it does happen. This specimen is proof of that...

Notre-Dame Cathedral 1972 "Pizza Box Model", Revisited...

Because of recent events in Paris with the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral, I thought it would be a good time to do some refurbishing work on my old 1972 model. It is like the real building in dire need for some maintenance/ repair and enhancing work. The way the model was, it is still the way I completed it in '72. It has  silverfish damage that needs to be addressed. I was 14 when I built this, but I am now almost 62. I feel this is my last chance to solidify this model one last time before I pass on...

This will be an ongoing project, and as I make progress I'll add new pictures, here.

As you can see, I have painted the roof and repainted the spire. I have also added cut bamboo skewers to the outside edges of the flying buttresses to simulate the spires that were incorporated on them on the actual building.

 More later as I make progress, mostly refreshing the window and door details on the old model

This picture shows the model with the new  south side transept spires in place. They are more proportionately correct than the old ones were. This would be the view one would have of the cathedral if you were on the Seine River looking back at it. Note now that all the window details have been highlighted with a No. 2 lead pencil to make them stand out more.

 This is the view of the north side with the new transept spires in place there.

This is a before photo showing the old and incorrectly proportioned transept spires.

What you are looking at here is the demolition debris of the 47 year old transept spires which I made at the time out of acid based typewriter paper. They were so brittle with age that they literally crumbled in my hands when I removed them from the model building. Also in this picture is a spare new transept spire along with an extra spire tower tube sheet that I did not need to use and fold up into a tube as I only needed to make 4 of these, and I did enough to produce 6. I did make 5 complete ones, though.

Replacing the North and South transept spires alleviates almost all the serious silverfish damage the model did have, There is some minor silverfish damage to what I now call my incorrectly installed transept wings, but nothing serious that would affect the structural integrity of them , or the model as a whole. Anyway, I have been thinking about removing these as the actual building never had them. The view of the photo I used showed these what I thought were attached, they way I did with the model, are actually completely detached parsonage buildings.  They way they are actually positioned, they will not fit on the existing posterboard baseplate the model is built on. The transept facades actually have doors located there, instead.

R-34 scale model project isolated image pic.

This photo brings out the most detail of the overall model, and is pretty much a pictorial summary of the project.

Jim.

All balsa wood construction scratch built 1959 Cadillac coupe from November of 1975.

 Here is a model that I have not paid any attention to for years and years. To tell you the truth, I kind of forgot that I still have this thing. It is kept in a really dark and secluded spot in my hobby room. It dates all the way back to the same year I got my 5 speed Schwinn Corvette bicycle, only in the fall of that year, right before I turned 18.

Series sixty-two 1959 Cadillac coupe is a scratch built model that I made in November of 1975 entirely out of hand shaped balsa wood, except of course for the window "glass". I was a senior in high school when I made this. I did it because at the time, there were no model kits of this car available, and I wanted one. Plus the fact by that time, 1959 Cadillacs were considered to be just old junk, and not worth anything by the general public. So I drew up plans for it, based on some pictures of a 1959 Cadillac that was sitting in front of the Goodwill building on N. Plum Street in Lancaster, and a coupe picture I found in a magazine. When I was done with it, I took it in to my high school, and showed it to my industrial arts teacher, and he really thought it was neat. It is approximately 1/22 scale, about 10 + inches long.

Jim.

R-34 scale model project... Completely done and on display; April 21, 2014!!

I finally completed all work on the R-34 airship model, today, about 2 years and 3 months after I cut out the keels for the thing.I actually was not working on it steadily most of that time because of some bad health issues I had to deal with along the way. Now that the model is done, any subsequent pictures that are taken of the model will go in this final post of this subject. It is completed 5 years and 3 months ahead of the 100th anniversary of this historic vessel of the air's double trans Atlantic flight which took place in July of 1919.

In the above picture, you will notice the upward horizontal cant or dihedral angle of the horizontal fins on this model. This is correct, and not a mistake, as the actual ship had this feature. It provided extra aerodynamic lift for the tail as the ship was moving through the air to supplement the static lift of the hydrogen gas in the  gas cells in the ship. Picture below shows this feature in the actual ship.

 Above, what my model looks like in a Sepia tone style photo that looks like it was taken in 1919.

Same image in normal color with brightness and contrast adjusted.

Jim.