Saturday's postcard: Miniature golf at Raven Rock

At one point I was going to do a week's worth of posts about miniature golf postcards that I've accumulated, but instead I think I'll just sprinkle them throughout the rest of the summer and early autumn.

Leading off, we have this undated postcard by Frank D. Kelly Studios featuring an aerial view of Raven Rock Campground, with its swimming pool and "unique" miniature golf course that spells out the words Raven Rock, presumably for any hot-air ballonists, patrol helicopters or spy satellites that might be staring down from above.

All of this is gone now. Raven Rock Campground was plowed over and became a Maryland housing development (in late 1980s/early 1990s, I believe). For posterity, this was the caption on the back of the postcard:

RAVEN ROCK CAMPGROUND

Smithsburg, MD 21783

This beautiful camp site is high in the Catoctin Mts. 12 miles E. of Hagerstown, Md. on state route No. 491, near Fort Ritchie, Md. Turn N. off I-70 at exit 35 and follow the state camping signs to a great camping experience. Card shows the trading post, pavilion, swimming pool and unique miniature golf course. CB KFE 2251 (The Raven) Phone 301-824-7101

Completely guessing, I'd say this campground was located about 10 miles south or southwest of Raven Rock Mountain Complex, aka Site R, the U.S. government's not-so-secret military installation and underground nuclear bunker. The bunker also isn't far from Fairfield, Pennsylvania, where I covered a lot of high school sporting events when I worked for The Gettysburg Times. I distinctly remember driving around that general area south of Fairfield.

Happy 140th birthday, Ruth Manning-Sanders!

Time flies! On this date 140 years ago — August 21, 1886 — Ruth Vernon Manning was born to John Edmondson Manning and Emma Manning (nee Brock) in Swansea, Wales. She later married and became author Ruth Manning-Sanders, of the beloved fairy tale compilations.

I also did posts for her 130th and 125th birthdays. (That's how long this blog has been around!) Overall, there are nearly 90 Ruth Manning-Sanders posts on Papergreat, if you want to dive in and learn more about her life and books. The birthday posts are good places to start, as is this 2011 post about Peter and the Piskies.

If you're seeking affordable and quality reprints of Manning-Sanders' books, Mab's Media is the place to go.

And if you want to hear some Manning-Sanders tales read aloud by some awesome humans, check out the Fairy Tale Fix podcast.

Here are some photos of a 1910s [?] edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales that I acquired a while ago in a sale of items from the Manning-Sanders family estate. The Ward, Lock & Co. publication is well worn and stained, and one can just imagine Ruth thumbing through it over and over. There are even some margin notes. Were those notes in the final photo written by Ruth Manning-Sanders herself? I also like that there's a mention of crab-apples on the page.

Giving schoolchildren a proper monster education in 1976

Fifty years ago, in our bicentennial year of 1976, Scholastic published an amazeballs guide to monsters. School was just cooler then, wasn't it? Movie monsters, mythical creatures and cryptids could be mixed into the lesson plans alongside multiplication tables, the metric system and spelling quizzes. I'm guessing Pennywise, Slender Man and the backrooms don't get that same treatment today, but what do I know? 

Well, what I do know is that this 32-page staplebound booklet rocks. I mean, it has Blacula (William Marshall) right there in the center of the cover, alongside such icons as Lon Chaney Jr., Medusa, Frankenstein's monster and King Kong. Fredric March's Hyde gets a very prominent spot, as does one of the Village of the Damned kiddos. 

What a cover! According to the credits, it was designed by Bonnie Bishop, who also served as the booklet's overall designer and art director. Some of Bishop's papers ended up at the University of New England Library, which notes that she had loved drawing, writing and making books ever since childhood and later became a full-time book artist. That love shows on this cover.

Let's hear it for the rest of the booklet's production crew, too. Lewis Gardner (1943-2020) was the editor and contributed a poem and a short story. Katherine Robinson was the supervising editor and Eve Sennett was the production editor. Ira Peck and Margaret Ronan handled some of the writing, which included retellings of classic horror stories. As a teenager, Ronan corresponded with H.P. Lovecraft (!!) according to the website Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein, and those letters informed some of her work at Scholastic.

In addition to those already mentioned, this book pictures and/or mentions the big-headed alien from 1957's Invasion of the Saucermen, Paul Wegener's 1920 performance as the Golem, the Loch Ness Monster, The Thing from Another World, Cat People, Bigfoot, zombies (but only the kind who obey masters — Romero's flesh-munching zombies might have been a bit much), The Incredible Shrinking Man and Michael Landon's teenage werewolf. 

There are photos of both Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee as Dracula. The book doesn't sugarcoat Lugosi's life for the young audience. Ronan notes: "When Lugosi was 70, he admitted to being a drug addict. He kicked the habit in a hospital. A year later, he died. He had no money left from his days as a monster star. About all he had left was his Dracula cape. So he was buried in it."

The last page of the book is titled "People and Monsters" and has this introductory paragraph: "Why do some people believe in monsters? And why are monster stories popular? Here are some possible answers. Which ones do you think are true?" There are then 11 short paragraphs, all of which seem plausible but some of which are very bizarre for a school activity book:

• Some people fear others who are strange looking or deformed. They may have trouble seeing such people as fully human. They may believe such people have special powers and are evil.
• Drugs have been used in magic and religious ceremonies. After taking drugs, people have seen monsters. They have also imagined themselves as having supernatural powers.
• Monsters usually do horrible things. Deep within us, we may wish to do horrible things. Normal people keep these wishes under control. They may not even be aware of having such wishes. But they may enjoy hearing about monsters that break human laws.

If you're hankering to get your hands on one of these absolute-gem booklets, there's an eBay seller who apparently has a whole stash and is selling them for $12.99. It's well worth the trip down monster memory lane.

 

Are you a lemon or a peach on the party line?

This is the last page of the July 1950 telephone directory for Kingsville, Texas. The Southwestern Bell Telelphone Company lists the do's and don'ts for the polite use of party line telephone service, which was still widespread in the United States at that point.

You're a LEMON if, among other things, you refuse to give up the line during an emergency (and you could have been criminally charged, too, I might add).

You're a PEACH if you extend courtesy, teach your children phone manners and generally just follow the golden rule. 

Like many members of Generation X, I suspect that I mostly learned about party lines by watching midcentury sitcoms. The Andy Griffith Show and Dennis the Menace are two in particular that used them as plot points.

In a 2017 article for the Adirondack Almanack, Lawrence Gooley provides a humorous anecdote about how some party line systems worked when it came to calling your neighbor:

"Calling someone on the same party line was an interesting adventure. If you can believe it, you dialed their number, hung up your receiver, and waited until you thought the person might have picked up their phone (it was basically a wild guess), at which point you picked up and said, 'Hello?' If no one replied, you waited a bit, and if that didn’t work, you either assumed no one was home or you started all over again. What a great system!"

Seems it would have been easier to just go knock on their door.

1986 computer game: "Come party with Jane Austen"

This quarter-page advertisement appears in the May 1986 issue of Computer Gaming World magazine, which features MicroLeague Baseball, Autoduel and Alter Ego, among other games, on its cover. 

It represents a bold move, for sure: Trying to cater to the segment of 1980s computer nerds who were just champing at the bit for a good Jane Austen game. Sold by New Mexico-based Berserker Works Ltd., Pride and Prejudice let one to six players roleplay as young women in Regency era London. 

"Your object — achieve the best possible match and above all avoid spinsterhood," states the advertising copy. The game was available for Apple II, IBM-PC and Commodore-64 computers and cost $34.95, which is the equivalent of $106 today — more than the $99.99 for the Ultimate Edition of this year's release of Grand Theft Auto VI.

I uncovered more about Berserker Works and this game than I thought I might when I started this post, so let's dig in:

• According to this site, author Fred Saberhagen (1930-2007) and Joan Saberhagen led the design and distribution for seven Berserker Works games from 1982 to 1989. In addition to Pride and Prejudice, there were Wings Out of Shadow, Berserker Raids, Sign of the Wolf, Wizard War, Star Ball and Electric Dragon. Pride and Prejudice was designed by Walter Jon Williams. 
• Another advertisement featured on Games That Weren't states that the game involved balls, parties and hunts. "Compete for the fickle attention of Regency bucks! Spread vile gossip about your rivals!" Games That Weren't also has an image of a 1986 review of the game by Bob Lindstrom for The Guide to Computer Living. Lindstrom writes: "Six spinsters take what money a poor family can muster to spend a 15-week season amid London's social whirl. ... Each turn in the game corresponds to one week in London. During a turn, a player can choose to attend a social event, get tutoring or visit the Duchess. ... Though not a game of unlimited complexity, Pride can provide some provocative fun, particularly when played with a group of live, conniving human opponents. And for those who think the game is sexist, the manual explicitly states that the values and goals reflected in the game were chose only to recreate the priorities of their period."
• Some screenshots for the game can be found at this My Abandonware page. One screenshot lists Williams as the creator and Steve Perrin (1946-2021) as the writer.
• Documentation for the game is part of the Fred Saberhagen Papers at Northern Illinois University.

If you have more to share about this game, please leave a comment!

Radio Shack's "Getting Started with Color Basic"

When I was an eighth-grader at Madeira Beach Middle School during the 1984-85 school year, I took an introduction to computers class taught by Joseph Ventimiglia. I think this was the textbook we used to learn about and program the TRS-80s that were stationed around the sides and back of the classroom with Color BASIC. We had to supply our own cassette tape to save and load our programs. I remember that someone in the class made a biorhythms program, a concept that made no sense to me then or now. Between this and the Commodore Plus/4 we had at home, it was definitely the jumping-off point for me in terms of home computers and programming. At one point I was even considering majoring in computer science in college, before shifting gears to journalism. Anyway, this book brings back a lot of memories and is instructive of a time when computer users had to put in some effort to make their computers actually accomplish anything.

• Title: Getting Started with Color Basic
• Author: None credited. It was produced in-house by Radio Shack's technical writing department. Though I have not done any original research or intensive internet-sleuthing, I would say there's a reasonable chance that David A. Lien was a primary author. But that's solely speculation.
• Cover illustrator: None credited.
• Publisher: Radio Shack, a division of Tandy Corporation (1919-2000).
• Copyright date: 1980 (most sites list 1981 as the official first year of publication)
• Pages: 151 (with several blank pages at the back for notes)
• Format: Paperback
• Dimensions: 11 inches by 8¾ inches
• Cover price: Not listed. Contemporary accounts indicate it cost $5.95.
• Excerpt from the Introduction: "This book is for those of you who don't know anything about Computers, and would like to be spared the long, technical explanations! Using this as your guide, you'll be able to interact and enjoy your Computer right away! Later, you'll probably want to read some of our thorough and detailed books. ... There's an infinite number of things it can do for you."
• Excerpt from To Get Started: "Connect your Computer by referring to the Chapters on 'Installation' and 'Operation', and to Figure 1 in your TRS-80 Color Computer Operation Manual. Then power up your Computer:

— Turn ON your television set

— Select channel 3 or 4

— Set the antennae switch to "COMPUTER"

— Turn ON the Computer. The POWER button is on the left rear of your keyboard (when you're facing the front)."

• Excerpt #1: "One of the things that makes your Computer so powerful is its ability to remember anything you ask it to."
• Excerpt #2: "Your Computer has all the attributes of a natural born teacher. After all, it's patient, tireless, and detail conscious ( ...perhaps a bit nit-picky...)."
• Excerpt #3: "One of your Computer's greatest skills is its gift with words. It can tirelessly twist, combine, or separate words to anything you want. Because of this gift, you can teach it to read, write, and even carry on a halfway decent conversation."
• Excerpt #4: "You'll find the Computer much more adept by getting it to constantly watch and react to everything you do. By 'watching you,' we mean watching the keyboard to see if you ware pressing something. The word INKEY$ makes this possible."
• Online memories #1: In a 2024 post on his blog, Jake Levirne writes: "This still stands out as one of the best written computer manuals I’ve ever seen. It gave clear, helpful explanations that even a kid could understand. And it let you know that it was ok to get things wrong, experiment, and try again. This is a lesson that’s served me well for decades in my career."
• Online memories #2: In 2014 blog post that's all about this book, Glen C. Ford raves about how it changed his life: "This hefty tutorial involved no heavy lifting. It was incredibly gentle yet thorough, and never scary. So many times as an adult I've found it daunting to return to a how-to book every day, yet when I was a kid all I wanted to do was plow through this amazing paperback. Anyone responsible for technical documentation (and product managers should be) would benefit from studying Getting Started With Color BASIC to discover and try to reproduce its pedagogical magic."

August & Postcrossing

I received the above Postcrossing card a couple days ago in the mail. It had been mailed from Germany in late July, and its sender wrote:

Hi Chris, I was very impressed about your profile & your philosophy about life & the world. I had to check twice if you're from America, as for me it doesn't sound like typical American values. Speaking of, I live in Cologne, Germany, but in memory of the attack on the Berlin CSD last weekend, I thought I'll send a Berlin postcard. Be brave and keep on fighting for the right values, Chris!

It's sad and depressing that some people don't think the values I mention in my Postcrossing profile are American values. I merely write of the hope for "a world filled with peace, acceptance, equality, inclusion and freedom. A world in which we trust and listen to science and health experts. A world that embraces everyone."

But I can certainly understand how the news reports of America's leadership and government actions that reach the rest of the world convey the idea that the United States, as a whole, doesn't actually stand for those values. We have, deservedly, lost a great deal of our international standing.

* * *

Meanwhile, here are some of the emails I've received from folks who have received Postcrossing cards that I sent around the globe this summer:

Jens from Germany writes: "I was so happy to receive your beautiful card, the kind words, and the lovely stamps. Finding a beautiful and creative card in my mailbox often brightens up my stressful everyday life. I find it wonderful to be part of something bigger as I read your message, and that's what makes Postcrossing such a special hobby.Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the opportunity to get to know you a little through your card. I wish you good health and happiness for the future."

Dominika from the Czech Republic writes: "Warm greetings from Czechia!  The postcard you sent us arrived with today’s mail. Thank you. Nice to 'meet' you! Mr. Angelino is really cute. Greetings to all your animals too. Thank you for sharing a card that was sure to please us all. We are very happy to add it to our growing collection. When we find cards in our mailbox that match one of our preferred postcard styles, we feel especially grateful to be part of this lovely community. Wishing you a great day, a wonderful year, and an incredible life filled with family, friends, many joys, amazing adventures, and precious Postcrossing moments!"

Monique from the Netherlands writes: "Hi Chris thanks for the very nice postcard I received today with the tomcat on the front. Nice you rescued him and he can live in your house. We had years ago 2 cats. But they died. One was 22 years old. You have a beautiful handwriting. Wow. Greetings from me in the Netherlands. Here 21 degrees now."

Darya from the Murmansk region of northwestern Russia writes: "Thank you for your postcard. We have very bad summer this year (it’s really cold outside). Have a good day!”