Back in the Jurassic Era(2001), when I was constantly bombarded with PEOPLE & STUFF (born of people) and I would go home to EVEN MORE STUFF (and people) the thing I most longed for was… quiet. And it always made me feel gaboozlely because I was sure I was just a fiend for not wanting to be around PEOPLE & STUFF 24/7 (okay, mostly never, if I’m being honest)…
…and then I came across this wonderful Ernie Pook comeek, by Lynda Barry, titled ‘Coelacanth’
Lynda Barry, sweatergawd.
This little gem .. it was as if Lynda Barry had written is Just For Me. My whole life in an angry household, spent chasing peace and quiet, the epitome of my desire found in the pages of The Chicago Reader. I cut it out, saved it… then.. poof! Vanished. Couldn’t find it.
No worries, right? I’ll just go on the good ol’ World Wide Web – EVERYTHING! is on the World Wide Web.
Except this one comic. Years of searching, even as Goog attained World Domination, gathering all intel from all over the globe… still no Comeek. I knew I’d stashed it somewhere – I couldn’t have imagined it (not that many frames – just not possible…right?) … so about a year ago, when things had settled down to a dull roar, I decided to think about where I might’ve put it (20+ years ago) and go on the hunt.
And..on a hunch I quieted my mind, then got a… ‘maybe’….looked in That One Place I hadn’t looked and vi-ola! I found it! Tucked in the back of the back of an old Filofax (remember those? I’ve kept all of them! Probably time for a Swedish Death Cleanse) it was still as Perfectly Me as ever – but more important, the finding of it confirmed that I hadn’t lost my mind and made that whole comeek up. Because, guess what? I STILL cannot find it on the DubyaDubyaDubya. (insert shrug emoji).
It got me thinking about other things in Life that have vanished: Christmas in July dusting powder – my mother had a box of this on the pink toilet tank in our bathroom and while I couldn’t tell you what it smelled like (this screenshot, from a 1948 ad, says it’s ‘green-cool’. Alrighty then. Early Gooble searches came up with red tins – NEWP! I remembered it as a round white box with pastel stars…and I was about to sign myself into a’facility’ because….until the Fleabay seller Mirluck put 1948 Christmas in July cologne dusting powder woman swimming vintage ad | eBay up for bid. Thank you, Floyd (and Mirluck) – tis PERSACKLY as I remembered it!
Thanks Mirluck!
Y’all remember The Hunt for Ondine? A pretty-but-forgettable (imo) perfume by Suzanne Thierry, for some reason it was the display at Marshall Field’s in Oakbrook that stayed in my mind, all cool white flowers atop a round table at the entrance to the beauty department. I’ve smelled Ondine since – and it’s still pretty – but nothing can ever replicate my delight at seeing that display.
photo stolen: ebay
My first bottle of Je Reviens by Worth, worn as a teenager. I don’t even know what I would be hunting for – my lost youth, perhaps? It was a buttery, big white floral – and it was the name of Rebecca de Winter’s boat, the one in which she allegedly drowned when it sank (no spoiler: read the book. Or watch the excellent film). I always felt weird that I wanted to be Rebecca because Good Catholic Girls were supposed to want to be The Second Mrs DeWinter. Squoo that. Rebecca was FABULOUS! imperious, impetuous, amoral, corrupt…Max may have hated her – but hate is incendiary…and takes no prisoners. Certainly beats a tepid affection – at least it does in fiction. As lovely as the Worth perfume is, it was not Rebecca’s – hers would’ve been Mitsouko. And she was never forgotten. Make mine Rebecca.
Do you have any mutable memories or have you hunted down everything that has popped into your mind from your childhood and beyond? Lmk! I’ll have M. Jacques pull a winner!
Speaking of winners MAYA is the winner from ‘What’s in a Name?’. Maya, gmail evilauntieanita and give me your deets – M. Jacques will get some fun out to you pronto!
Thank you thank you thank you. Boy was I surprised!
The answer to your 2 questions is “yes” but there is too much, so that nothing really comes to mind.
don’t forget to gmail me.
I am not familiar with the cartoonist, but I 1000% feel that sentiment! Recently I joined a “Swedish Death Cleaning” group and it helped me view material things in a new way. These past few months, my husband and I have pared down unneeded/unwanted/unloved belongings, which gives me much peace toward minimizing my footprint for when I leave this planet. Also I love being able to find things quickly and my home is so much easier to keep clean. Less places for spidey to hide!
I am not familiar with the cartoonist, but I 1000% feel that sentiment! Recently I joined a “Swedish Death Cleaning” group and it helped me view material things in a new way. These past few months, my husband and I have pared down unneeded/unwanted/unloved belongings, which gives me much peace toward minimizing my footprint for when I leave this planet. Also I love being able to find things quickly and my home is so much easier to keep clean. Less places for spidey to hide!
I’ll be doing a post on SDCleaning in the very near future – it’s been done before (notably by March) but it’s time for a revisit, I think.
You’ve posed a real “thinker” of a question today. Have to pop into the Way Back machine and see what I dig up. I used to have and love a scent called Flora Danica put out by Royal Copenhagen, the china company (!) in the 80s. Used it all and stupidly threw away the beautiful bottle. Was greatly relieved to see someone on the internet knew what I was talking about when I started my perfume hobby in the 2000s. It was a green floral. I saw someone selling the empty bottle on ebay for stupid money later on, too. I don’t know where I got mine in the first place. Probably a gift from my mom.
omg. Flora Danica – not the scent, but the china. I PASSED UP an opportunity to get it at near-wholesale, back in the mid-80s. YIKES! I love the coffee service (the dinnerware is a bit much) – I ‘settled’ for Wedgwood ‘Colonnade Black’ (though I’m still lusting for the coffeepot)
Like you, I love fine china. I mourn with you the loss of that opportunity. But hey, Wedgwood is great stuff! Love that, too!!
Not the same glamour, but years ago on here I wrote about finding an Avon Trailing Arbutus scent that I still had in my scent memories from my teenage years. I think I passed the bottle on, but I was happy to have confirmed the memories. I spent a bit looking for that comic online and couldn’t find it anywhere either! It’s too bad, those Lynda Barry gems should all be online.
Most of them are, which is why the omission of this one is so baffling. Nevertheless, I found mine, I have it in a frame now…and I also have it in the cloud. So…
I’m with you on the comic strip. “I vant to be ahhhlone” could be my catch phrase!
Chasing my youth would explain my 4 or 5 bottles of vintage Opium & the same of vintage Poisons. The saddest is the empty bottle of vintage Houbigant Quelques Fleurs extrait that I foolishly unsealed to try it. It was utterly glorious! Like letting the genie out of the bottle. A few years later I craved wearing it. The genie had almost flown, despite having replaced the stopper properly, stored it in its box, in a box in an in heated, north facing room, all that remained was the pure oil. Gutted!
I know the feeling – mine was a small decant of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL vintage Coty Chypre.
Ah Je Reviens, my signature scent for many, many years. I did find some vintage but I wear it sparingly.
My other find was one of my first cosmetic purchases back in about 1971 or so, a Yardley Glimmerick eye shadow paintbox. How I loved it. It was a metal box and even came with a little paintbrush. Like this:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/174752356/rare-vintage-glimmerick-eye-shadow-paint?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details
Je Reviens is/was a beauty!!!
and that is a cool little eyeshadow box!
Everybody I know wanted to be Rebecca. The second Mrs. deWinter was such a drip.
And as far as not being able to find something- there are a couple of photos and a bumper sticker (!?!) that I know are somewhere around and I am going to find them if I have to rip up the floorboards to do so..
oh Tom.
I do love you so!
In the late 60’s my mother used Madame Rochas perfume and soap for the shower. It smelled beautiful and I wanted to use it too. As it was a special splurge, at least in my house, I was told keep my hands off and stick to the Dial!
Lol! I’ll bet that smelled divine!