Hudson Beach Combing part 3: Metal

(february...the month for tying up loose ends.  This blog entry should have been posted last summer...)

The metals can be divided into two simple sub-categories: the junk I bring home in my bike basket,




and the junk I must leave behind for future archeologists, like this portable typewriter

and this extreeeemly heavy rusty bucket of railroad spikes.

which was buried deep down in the sand when I discovered it.

Of all my metal finds, my favorite things are these little mystery trinkets:

which appear to be once-molten bits of aluminum (though they feel heavier than aluminum).  Some of them have a sort of liquidy, art nouveau feel to them. (click to enlarge)

I like to pretend the one pictured at right here 

was perhaps once a tiny pocket saint carried off to sea with some WWII sailor, and found its way back up the Hudson over the years.

Wow-- excellent weekend for finding Hudson memorabilia at local rummage/garage sales!  I got all this stuff in the last 24 hours....

Antique made-in-Hudson Gifford Wood ice tongs refashioned into a candelabra:

(Gifford had foundry here that specialized in ice-harvesting tools....)


1985 Fire Alarm Locator/Calendar, courtesy Register-Star:


Flip side is a calendar with reprint of the first edition of the Hudson Weekly Gazette,
March 31, 1785.

Ca. 1940 Elmer Swanson silhouette advertising thermometer:

Chocolate brown size 44 man's suit from Kritzman-Maskin Men's store, 511
(?)Warren St:


And my favorite, a tiny pocket sewing kit from the Orchard Dress Shop: