Santa Fe Trailways Find

Two years ago, I went to a most awesome farm auction outside Hiawatha, Kansas.  I purchased a huge lot of quilting fabric, quilt blocks and feed sacks.  I'm still culling items from the collection to place up for sale.

I have blogged about one of the finds from that particular lot HERE.

This time I found an old Santa Fe Trailways Identification Check from either the late 40's or early 50's. The owner of the fabric was using this as a template to cut quilt squares.  The front shows Topeka, Kans. and I can make out Hiawatha on the back.  Unfortunately the year stamp on the back doesn't show.  The ticket is listed in our Etsy shop for sale.  Neat, huh?

I looked up Santa Fe Trailways on Wikipedia and this picture was shown:

(Courtesy Wikipedia)

This is what Wikipedia says about Santa Fe Trailways:

The company was founded February 5, 1936, by Burlington Transportation Company, Santa Fe Trails Transportation Company, Missouri-Pacific Stages, Safeway Lines, Inc., and Frank Martz Coach Company.

The system originated with coast-to-coast service as the National Trailways Bus System (NTBS). Greyhound Lines had grown so quickly in the 1920s and 1930s that the Interstate Commerce Commission encouraged smaller independent operators to form the NTBS to provide competition. Unlike Greyhound, which centralized ownership, Trailways member companies became a formidable competitor while staying an association of almost 100 separate companies. In the 1950s, Morgan W. Walker, Sr., of Alexandria, Louisiana, became head of the southern division of the company. He had entered the business on a small scale during World War I as the Interurban Transportation Company of Alexandria.^[2]During the 1950s and 1960s, consolidation among bus operators resulted in four of the five original Trailways members becoming part of a new company, Continental Trailways, which eventually operated the majority of Trailways routes.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

In 1968, under the leadership of major stockholder Kemmons Wilson, Holiday Inn acquired Continental Trailways, which remained a subsidiary of Holiday Inn until 1979, when Holiday Inn sold Trailways to private investor Henry Lea Hillman, Sr., of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the years during which Trailways was a subsidiary of Holiday Inn, television commercials for Holiday Inn frequently showed a Trailways bus stopping at a Holiday Inn hotel.

Regular route bus ridership in the United States had been declining steadily since World War II despite minor gains during the 1973 and 1979 energy crises. By 1986, the Greyhound Bus Line had been spun off from the parent company to new owners, which resulted in Greyhound Lines becoming solely a bus transportation company. It was sold off to new owners headed by Fred Currey, a former executive with the largest member of the National Trailways Bus System. The old Greyhound parent had changed its name to Dial Corporation.

Under the new ownership in 1987, led by Currey, Greyhound Lines later acquired the former Continental Trailways company, the largest member of the rival National Trailways Bus System, effectively eliminating a large portion of bus competition.^[8] Although Greyhound negotiated cooperative schedules with Carolina Coach Company and Southeastern Trailways, two of the larger members of the Trailways system, many smaller carriers were effectively forced out of business. Most of the survivors diversified into charters and tours.

Why I Love Stoneware

I'm crazy about stoneware crocks and it really comes as no surprise considering my grandparents were avid collectors.  Their addiction was fed because of the chalet in their backyard.  Yes, a real chalet that they built in the 1960's with soaring wood ceilings and a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace.  Sounds like something out of a lake resort, doesn't it?  But it was located in the back yard of a small Illinois town 60 miles west of Chicago and luckily for 12 years, I grew up in a house right behind my grandparent's chalet which made it my play house of sorts.

Here's a few photos of it under construction:

And finished:

This was the view from our backyard.

See the red house?  That was our house until I turned 12 and we moved to North Carolina.

You'll notice they hung stoneware jugs on the front of the chalet and inside were walls full of crocks.  This wall had crocks and glass jugs on hangers as this picture shows taken from the loft area many years ago:

They also had shelving that span the wall space in the front of the chalet full of crocks and not wanting to leave one square inch undecorated, they used up the beams, as well.

The next picture was taken after my grandfather passed away and while my grandmother was consolidating her estate and planning to sell, so it's a bit of a mess, but look up at the beams and you'll see what I mean:

My grandparents loved antiques.  Much of it they purchased, but some came from other estates of the recently departed in the family.  The chalet is the most special place on earth and I miss it so much!  We celebrated many holidays in this building and it holds so many memories.

When it came time for my grandmother to consolidate, I drove out to Illinois and helped eBay much of her stuff.  She hired a handyman to take down all of the stoneware crocks and sold many of them at her various garage sales, but she also lined them up and hoped to sell many more on eBay.

When I was working with her antiques, I wish I would have known that a lake cottage was in our future.  I certainly would have taken her sofa and tables.  As it ended, the set went to a lake cottage up north in Wisconsin, so they are where they are meant to be.  I did, however, fall in love with the yellow crimped stoneware crock on the left.

It sits on our lake cottage mantle at the Lake of the Ozarks:

When I attend farm auctions, it's hard to leave all the stoneware crocks behind.  If I sold out of an antique mall, I'd pick them up all day every day, but shipping becomes such a bear, so I let someone else purchase the lovelies.

I do, though, pick up the small stoneware crocks and they are in the shop.  This is the oldest one:

Click here to take you to the listing.

While I'll never duplicate my grandparent's chalet and their stoneware collection, I can still pick up a piece or two here and there to share with my Etsy buyers as my way of paying homage to the most wonderful place on earth to grow up!  :)

Free Downloadable Vintage Valentine Cards

Just another reason to love Pinterest!  If you love vintage Valentine cards, I found this link that will take you to several vintage cards that are free downloads!

Here's a couple of my favorites:

Check out the bandana in her hair!  Adorable!

Click below and you'll be routed to intimateweddings.com.

Here's a link:

Free Downloadable Vintage Valentine Cards

The images can be printed on card stock and sent to friends and family near and far!

Enjoy!

Vintage Valentine's Decor

Have you decorated for Valentine's Day yet?  Now is the perfect time to amass your vintage red and pink items and turn them into vignettes around the house.  Here's a peek at our displays:

There is still time to search Etsy for the perfect Valentine's Day accessory.  How about a hand-sewn vintage housedress trimmed with bias tape?

This would be the perfect piece to use as an apron while baking, don't you agree?

Vintage Heart Housedress

Photography Collections

Dancing Bumblebee Cottage has a new look!  Over the past year or so, my shop has evolved from mainly primitives, to a plethora of farm-fresh goodies!  I felt as though my blog needed to reflect the change.  With the new look, I am anxious to start blogging again on a regular schedule.  You'll see entries revolving around antiques, of course, but with a personal touch.  My real-life-away-from-the-shop blog has been shut down, so I will be using this one as a place to write about diverse topics; favorite recipes, favorite collections, decorating, antiques and more.  Did I mention antiques?  :)

Speaking of collections, I bought myself a nifty wand scanner as a Christmas present this year.

I even chose the lovely animal-print design you see above!  :)  Here's a link and no, I'm not a paid advertiser, just spreading some scanner love:

Portable Scanner

When I went home to Illinois for Christmas, I brought along my scanner and when I was visiting my grandmother's house, we brought out the photo albums and I scanned some of my favorite photographs.    I don't know about you, but I LOVE family photos.  Not so much the professionally posed photos, but the ones taken by various family members over the years capturing happy moments.

This photo makes me smile from ear to ear.  My grandmother is holding my brother Jeff as my grandfather has his arm around her.  I love her looking to the side smiling and did you notice the shadow of the person taking the picture.  I imagine my grandmother was smiling at her parents seen in the next photo.

Here's a photograph of my grandmother as a little girl.  Next to her is Margaret, her older sister.

This photo was taken out on her sister Margaret and brother-in-law Ed's farm.  Ed loved photography and took this picture.  Look closely!  There's a kitten hanging on for dear life while feeding from her mommy!

Ed died last year at the young age of 101 years old!  :)

While I adore antiques and the stories each piece can tell, I love photography even more.  In today's day and age, digitally archiving photos is such a great idea! Don't keep your photo collection to yourself; share it with the world!  :)