"Post No. 713"

A really nice snag at the local flea market today; a copy of the first issue of Life Magazine from 1936 for fifty cents. I also bought four other issues of Life from the 1940-early 50's and a small stack of comics, the best of those being Incredible Hulk 195 & 196 and Marvel Tales 57 & 61 for a total of $5.50.

This makes to second copy of Life No. 1 I've had over the years, the other found at a flea market or antique store (I forget) in Louisville, Ky. around 1968, but that one had the centerfold missing (but a better conditioned front cover).

Business has been picking up pretty good sales-wise at the retail store where I work. A lot of people traveling, and not just one shorter trips as in previous Summers. Already I've had people from Florida, North Carolina, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Tennessee, Indiana, Arkansas, and Ohio (and those are just the ones I recall). Even my wife sold better at the flea market set up this weekend with her crafts. Of course, this could just be a peak inbetween recessions.

My good friend Steve gave me a copy of the book, Ticket To Ride, written by Larry Kane and I've been reading through it. It's difficult for me to find anything new about the Beatles after reading probably 50+ books on the group, but this book is about their first 1964 (and '65) tour of the U.S. where Kane was their exclusive interviewer. Those were strange times for America. We'd just lost a beloved president a few months earlier and we were looking for something to cheer back up the nation as a whole. The Beatles accomplished this in many ways, and, even for those who didn't like them, it gave them something else to talk about and get their minds off of their sorrow.

This book shows the beginnings of John Lennon's controversies due to his many statements which you either loved or hated, and a joyful time for the band before the real beginnings of the drug culture and the hippie movements, right smack on the middle of the civil rights movement and the beginnings of feminism. Well recommended reading, and it comes with a free CD of Beatle interviews.