Mailed from Boise, Idaho to Mrs. Frank Vermilya of Mount Holly, New Jersey on August 24, 1953: Dearest Darling Thelma, We arrived here at 8 to-night and have a small lay-over. I just finished shaving and changing socks. I am always thinks of you sweetheart. I miss you something awful. I’ll always love you Fran
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“Fearless” Farris Lind had an eye for adventure. Born in 1915 outside of Twin Falls, Idaho, he graduated from Twin Falls High School in 1934. Shortly thereafter he worked as an attendant at a local gas station and then became manage of a small theater. Not too long after, Lind received a “Spanish Prisoner Letter”…
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WHERE THE WORLD MEETS TO EAT 100% Waiterless Restaurant It’s Electrical It’s Fascinating It’s Sanitary It’s Beautiful It’s Mechanical It’s Novelty It’s Progress It’s The Show Place of Idaho These words appeared on the back of a 1941 postcard advertising Boise, Idaho’s only mechanical cafe cleverly dubbed the Mechanafe. For more than a decade, the…
Read MorePeter “Cactus Pete” Piersanti was born in 1917 in Superior, Wyoming. The youngest of six kids to Italian parents. The family moved to Ogden, Utah. Growing up poor during the depression, Peter had always dreamed of being rich. In 1941, Peter purchased a local bar and grill with a card room in the back. Shortly…
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The Brunswick Cafe and Tepee Room with its now very much non-PC mascot named “skookum-um-chuck” was located at 411 Sherman St. in downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Advertisements encouraged people to look for the “SIGN OF THE INDIAN.” According to the back of the postcard above: THE BRUNSWICK CAFE & TEPEE ROOM, located right downtown in Idaho’s…
Read MoreThese ads ran in the Idaho State Journal (Pocatello, Idaho) on October 6, 1966. I had fun putting this together. I was taken aback by how many small supermarkets existed in a town of about 40,000. If you like Boston Butt, large colored chickens, electric chord organs or toothpaste twins then this is the week…
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