The Gems of Sharpless: June 20, 2012

The coolest thing at Sharpless today turned out to be parked in the parking lot out front: the above dune buggy. It is amazing to see all the weird stuff people have (or had). Frankly, it is sometimes scary. Where the hell does it all come from?

There was not much of interest today, and there was a surprising dearth of beer-related stuff, but here are a few gems.


A straw lion that was probably used as a theater prop.


A slicer for home. This would actually come in handy.


An interesting sleeping mask.


I have no clue what this was but it looked cool. I wondered if it was a tray but it was not very sturdy. It also did not have hooks on the back so it could be hung on a wall.


A big can full of old Iowa license plates. The 1952 plate was the oldest among them. The “52” along the side was the county code for Johnson County.


An autographed portrait of the 1976 Cleveland Indians. Those jerseys are pretty cool.


This is also something I often see: commemorative Iowa-Iowa State bottles. This one was from 1978, the second year of the current rivalry. The score was printed on the other side: Iowa State 31, Iowa 0. Ouch.


This is truly a gem: a mirror with the Hawkeyes’ 1985 football schedule. I am willing to bet this brought a lot of money. Notice that the first game was against Drake at Kinnick. Wow. I cannot even imagine the ass whooping that was. (Checking the Internet, I found the score: Iowa 58, Drake 0.)


More memorabilia from the 1982 Rose Bowl team.


A Tecate guitar.


This looked like a homemade skateboard. It was heavy as hell, though I am no expert on skateboards.


This right here is the most disturbing thing I have seen at Sharpless: two lion cubs behind bars. Their faces were partly raised in relief to make them more realistic.


I don’t know about you, but I thought this was a very awkward representation of the Last Supper, especially because of the prominent nipples at the top. Plus, I just noticed the figure in the center (who I assume is Jesus) is forming a gun with his right hand.


I only took this picture because of the Food 4 Less logo. I do not know if there is a Food 4 Less nearby (there are probably locations in the Chicagoland area) but there was one somewhere near Santa Cruz when I lived there. The Food 4 Less radio commercials featured a jingle I may never forget.