Happy Thanksgiving! And Happy Cake Day, Too!

Today is Thanksgiving, but it's also "National Cake Day." Incidentally, this Saturday happens to be "International Aura Awareness Day." Are you aware of your aura? A friend of my grandmother's once told her, that she and I shared the same aura, but that's a story for another time. Today, we are focusing on Cake Day! Who decides these "official" days, anyway? I didn't feel like doing any more research, to find out!

Okay...so I recently found this 1973 Wilton "Cake and Food Decorating Year Book," in my mom's kitchen cupboard.

As the cover states, it's "a month-by-month calendar of cake and party ideas." It starts out with some suggestions for January and February, and then continues with ideas for the rest of the year:

I actually remember this magazine from childhood, mainly because of the Disney cakes and cake pans that were pictured in it.

"Let's Take A Trip To Walt Disney World!" Walt Disney World would have only been two years old, when this was published.

What, no turkey-shaped cakes for November?

A special cake pan was available, to create Cinderella's cake-dress.

If you were going to make a princess or royal-themed cake, there were plenty of carriages to choose from.

More "doll" cakes:

Who knew you could make hard sugar figures and designs, out of just a little sugar and water? Here's the recipe:

The back cover listed a variety of molds that were available, for making solid sugar figures of the Disney characters.

And while we are on the subject of cakes and cake pans....in the 1990's, Disneyland sold these copper Mickey and Minnie Mouse pans/molds, in the "Le Gourmet" shop, located in New Orleans Square.

I bought these with the intention of hanging them in my kitchen, but instead they remained wrapped up with the tags still on them, for over 20 years!

The pans had been coated with a protective lacquer finish, to prevent tarnishing. If they were going to be used for actual cooking, rather than just for decorative purposes, instructions were given on how to remove their lacquer finish. It's nice to know that acetone is available from any chemist. Now, where do I find a chemist?

The Le Gourmet shop also sold a matching set of refrigerator magnets.

To give you an idea of the size of the magnets, I photographed them together, with the copper pans.

By the way, the Le Gourmet shop also carried "Unique cooking and serving accessories, exotic spices, and cook books for the connoisseur." That description is from a 1985 Disneyland Guidebook:

The shop opened along with the rest of New Orleans Square, in 1966, and closed in 1998....probably so they could sell more plush toys and T-shirts out of that space! (Remember the "people" who were in charge of the park, back in the 1990s?)

Here are a couple postcards, showing what the shop looked liked in it's original location, next door to "The Court of Angels." By the time the shop closed in 1998, it had been relocated to the space formerly occupied by the "One Of A Kind Shop."

 

Happy Thanksgiving, to all....and a very happy Cake Day, too!

A Vintage Halloween Potpourri (1960s & 1970s)

 

I thought for Halloween this year, I would share a selection of Halloween photos and "spooky" items from my childhood.  We'll start with some Halloween costumes.

This 1965 photo of my brother, shows him wearing his "scary" Halloween costume.  I say "scary," because doesn't that description apply to pretty much ALL clowns?  I wasn't even one year old yet at this point, so I'm pretty sure that I did not have a costume that year.

For 1966, my brother was the Hanna-Barbera character, Peter Potamus, and I was a "teddy bear."  Both of our costumes had huge rolled up cuffs on the pant legs.  There is a photo of us in our costumes from that year, but it is a little blurry.  Since we both wore the exact same costumes the following year, I'm only including this pic from 1967.  I'm assuming that my mom saved the costumes, because they were so big on us the previous year.  Why not get two years use out of them, right?  That was the only year that we ever reused a Halloween costume.

By the way, I still have those plastic pumpkins that each of us is holding.  And, I still have my childhood teddy bear, which I am also holding in the photo.  Those Halloween costumes however, did not get saved.

For the following year (1968), my brother was a "devil," and I was a "tiger."  These costumes were made of a flannel material and were similar to pajamas.   My teddy bear costume from the year before, was made of the same type of material.  Because of this, my mom let us wear these costumes as pajamas, after Halloween.

I also still have that large plastic pumpkin, which was new for me that year.  I remember my mom buying it at Gemco, which was similar to a Walmart or Target store.

For the next year (1969), both of our costumes came from Gemco.  Mine was a "skeleton," and I believe my brother's was "Igor."

I saved my mask from that year.  I remember that it was bothering my nose, so I cut a triangle shape out of it, for my nose to go through.  I thought I still had the costume that went with the mask, but I wasn't able to locate it.

For 1970, my brother was a "skeleton" and apparently, I wanted to be a "tiger" again.

 

Both my mask and my costume, managed to survive all of these years.

In 1971, I was "Dracula" and my brother was "Frankenstein's Monster."  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of us from this year, but I saved my mask and costume.  The teeth on my Dracula mask glowed in the dark!

My brother's costume did not survive, but I was able to find his mask on ebay.

Now we will switch gears a bit, here.  This book of "Spooky Tricks," belonged to my brother.  It was published by Scholastic Book Services, and was one of those books that was ordered through school.  Once a year (or maybe it was twice a year), the teachers would pass out order forms which included a list of books and their prices.  We would take those home to our parents, and check off the books we wanted to order.  After giving the forms back to the teacher, along with our money, we'd wait a few weeks and then our books would arrive.

There isn't a copyright date in this book, but I know it goes back to at least to 1968, because I have a picture of my brother from that year, and he is holding this book in the photo.

I've only scanned a few of the pages inside:

The back cover:

This is another childhood book from Scholastic Book Services.

This one has a copyright date, of 1972.

Again, I only scanned a few pages.  Some....okay, ALL of these jokes are real "groaners."

The back cover of the book:

We will end this post today, with some vintage Halloween Cards from the 1970s.  All of these cards were from my aunt and uncle.  They sent my brother and me Halloween cards every year throughout our childhood, and even beyond that.

 

 

 

 

This card is my favorite, out of all of them.  

 

 

The inside is "three-dimensional," but I pressed it flat to scan it.  When you lift the lid of the wooden crate, the ghoul and black cat "pop up" out of the tub.

 

This card even had graphics printed on it's backside.

 

I hope everyone has a very safe and happy Halloween!

 

 ****Update - 10-11-22****

To see even more vintage Halloween greeting cards, costumes, and "scary" themed children's books, click here for "Part 2" to this post:  A Vintage Halloween Potpourri - Part 2

 

**BONUS**

Last week, Elvira released a new Halloween video.  Just by coincidence, it includes both my brother's Frankenstein and Igor masks, and also my Skeleton and Teddy Bear masks.  Below, are a couple screen grabs showing these masks, along with the full video.