It’s the thrill of the hunt. The discovery of something ‘missed’ by the auctioneers, something left in the bottom of some box or old suitcase. But usually they do a good job of finding interesting items and listing them in the auction flyers. Here are a couple of my latest purchases:
This trike, along with several others, was suspended from the ceiling of an automotive shop. It collected layers of dust for many years.
And after a quick rinse with the hose:
Unusual, in that it has a grab-bar and small platform for a second passenger to ride on, behind the driver. The head stamp (logo) is missing and I see no identifying marks. If anyone recognizes it (brand/approximate year) please chime in.
My other recent find - some leaflets dropped on American troops during WWII. Every war features some type of PSYOP operations. Each side attempting to influence the enemy, cause homesickness, jealously, rage, trying to make the enemy lose the will to continue the fight - or even surrender. Sometimes the content is sexual, or racist, political or class envy.
Here are the three I just purchased from a veterans estate:
The wife/girlfriend pleads: “Please! Come back. Don’t die. It’s terrible to be dead. We need each other. It would be awful if you’re crippled. I wouldn’t know what to do if you were.” ( The background of the writing - is a field of human skulls. )
On the reverse side are the directions - how to surrender.
This one shows two solders wading ashore and a man and a woman kissing. The ‘girlfriend’ writes: “You above all men. Do you have to bear the brunt of this war alone and for so long? You never seem to think of me. I’m lonesome without you. Tom has come home months ago. And Thomas still admires me as you know. Sometimes, I really do lose confidence in myself…”
* A handwritten note (up the side of this item) from the WWII veteran who mailed it home states: “The Japs think we will give up by printing things like this.”
This one shows a ‘businessman/wall-street type’ surrounded by large buildings pushing the soldier forward, as the soldier seems to push back from the
“Unknown” grave marker on some remote isle.
It states: “Framed. You did not want to fight. You did not want to leave your sweetheart, your mother, your kids… You did not think it would ever be necessary for you to dig your own grave … He did it all for you!”
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More on the subject here:
Japanese PSYOP During WWII
Here’s to the Greatest Generation!