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Haul on the Bowline!

Today as I was getting the urge to do a little show and tell it occurred to me that I was in the process of doing the same thing that I had laughed at while surfing YouTube. Kids now days, mostly girls, will come home from shopping and make a video of the stuff they purchased, usually with a running commentary. These are called "haul videos" (for you grownups who don't keep up with the kiddies). The Wikipedia article on the subject http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haul_video says that by late 2010 there were a quarter of a million haul videos on YouTube alone.

So this is a haul blog post. Today I got some really, uh, what's the latest way to say "cool?" stuff in the mail, stuff I had found on eBay. (Is that how it is capitalized?) So here it is:

1. Some dark read trade beads, supposedly made in Russia and used by the Hudson's Bay Company. They came from an antique dealer in Manitoba.

2. A token from Erickson's Saloon. The place with the "mile long bar," the giant gorilla bouncer, and the shanghai tunnels.

3. A postcard, postmarked 1886, of the Portland waterfront. This is the oldest postcard of my hundred plus collection of Portland images, mostly of the river, wharfs, and bridges.


It's nice to have a few artifacts around from the old days. It's even more fun to share them. No more laughing at haul videos for me folks.

The title of this blog was inspired by a shanty to be sung while hauling on the bowline to lift the square sail and bring the ship into the wind.

Haul in the bowline, my Kitty comes from Liverpool
Haul in the bowline, the bowline, ho!
Haul in the bowline, Liverpool's a fine town…
Haul in the bowline, Kitty's on the game again
Haul in the bowline, the bully ships a-rolling
Haul in the bowline, the old man is a-growling
Haul in the bowline, its a far cry to pay day
Haul in the bowline, and bust the chafing leather
Haul in the bowline, well either bend or break her
A pint of rum, a glass of beer, a sailor likes his pint of rum



Comments

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