Sadly, I have kind of slacked off on my Retro Blog the past several weeks… well really over a month! I guess I took a Christmas break? I thought I’d chime in to make an official “Happy 2025” post, even if it is several weeks late! But I don’t think my posts show any kind of publishing date, so most would never know. I have not been hibernating the past month and a half! Although with the snow we got a few weeks ago, which is rare in Alabama, I highly considered it! But besides my “real job”, I have kept myself busy with drive-in speaker projects and gumball machine projects as well.
One cool thing about this hobby is meeting interesting people from all walks of life and locations who share some of the same passions you do. A speaker set went out to Texas to a man that will be using it as a prop for his upcoming 50th High School Reunion later this year. The Drive-In Theater will be the theme of the reunion, and I think that’s just awesome! Another drive-in speaker set went out to a man that has designed amusement park rides for nearly 50 years and will be using a speaker set to display in his house next to a restored 1953 Lusse bumper car from The Pike in Long Beach, CA! And finally, a beautiful early Acorn gumball machine restoration went out to North Carolina to a guy who I’ve had many interesting conversations about concerts and music since being introduced. You just never know who you are going to meet next.
The Christmas holidays were a blast this past year. It was honestly one of my favorites ever because my son came home from his first semester of college. Those of you that have been through that can probably relate, as it’s our only child so we’ve had him on our mind and dealing with the empty nest. To help pick our spirits up, the three of us went to Disney World for the holidays and put in some wonderful family time. I am no stranger to Disney parks, but this was the busiest I have ever seen it at WDW – but it was also one of the most successful trips regarding the amount of rides and attractions we got on. Thanks to planning, rope dropping, and Lightning Lane Single, Multi, and Paid passes we crushed it there!
I got around to scanning and editing even more vintage photographs that I’ll need to add to the photograph page that I have here, as well as a super nice 1940s Sinclair Gasoline calendar that came from the Norwood community in Birmingham, Alabama! That calendar will be going to live in France very soon!
So January is nearing its end. I’ve got a few drive-in speaker projects lined up that I hopefully will get to tackle very soon. Of course, you can count on those projects being updated here on my page. If you’ve made it this far with my ramblings, thank you! And thank you again for visiting my little place in cyberspace!
Jason