My newest discoveries

We continue to find the strangest things in this house.

Strange thing #1
Know how I was talking about all of the Polish eagles in here on the light switchplates? There was even a metal eagle over the front door on the inside. Just when I thought I removed all of them, I discovered this:

More eagles! On the darned porch light and the light on the front lawn. What the heck?! Since they’re part of the fixtures, they’ll be staying.

Strange thing #2
I was doing laundry the other day — I cannot profess enought my love of having a washer and dryer in the house after renting for 11 years and never having my own — and for some reason, I happened to look up at the beams in the ceiling. Sticking out was an old accordion file.

Naturally, I pulled it down, and couldn’t believe the papers I found in it. The previous owner kept every instruction booklet for everything. Carpet installation and care instructions? Check. Owner’s guide for the old fridge, dryer and dishwasher? Check. A receipt for a $50 part on a microwave in 1990? Check. (You can buy a microwave for that price today!)

There were a few things that stood out.
— This instruction booklet for something called a Vita Mix Liquefier (aka a blender). The company still exists today, but this handy piece of equipment seems to have been sold sometime in the 1940s, based on what I found in the booklet.

*Some pics are uploading SIDEWAYS and I can’t figure out why!

Inside, there’s a chart for the SEVEN food groups:

This chart was first introduction by the FDA in the 1940s. Butter & Fortified Margarine are the seventh food group. Interesting. The fourth is Milk, Cheese and Ice Cream!

Another interesting tidbit on page 14: “This is the basic 7 guide for well-balanced meals. In time of emergency, you need to eat less of the scarce foods, more of the plentiful. FOOD IS NEEDED TO FEED THE HUNGRY — DON’T WASTE IT.”

One recipe is for “Soup from Leftover Bread” — it mixes the bread, 1 or 2 carrots, 1 onion, 1 Tbsp. butter, chives and water. Put it into the Vita Mix and liquefy it.
Mmm.

There’s also a page dedicated to recipes for those following a “Liver Diet” and another for baby food. The salads section says that all ingredients “must be as cold as an Eskimo’s heart!” Most of the alcoholic drinks contain eggs; one gives the option of shelling the egg if desired — seems you were adding the entire egg without cracking it!

The dessert introduction includes this gem: “Keep [the desserts] varied and not only will they keep your husband interested, but you will stay out of the well-known cooking rut.” Seriously? Under cookies: “Cookies are heaven’s little cakes and just what the doctor ordered to keep yoru husband feeling lucky and pampered.”

Elsewhere is a paragraph about parsley, praising it as a “vegetable of extremely high value.” Really?

But the booklet in the file that really caught my attention was one for the “Gas-Fired Steel Winter Air Conditioner.” It’s not an air conditioner. It’s our FURNACE. Which solves the mystery of just how old the furnace is — it’s original to the house, circa 1950. There’s even a note on top dated 9-2-54 that says that’s when a “new dust stop” (filter?) was installed.

I can only imagine what else we’ll discover in this house.