I did some research about what life was like and what things happened in the news the year my house was built.

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Below shows some of the items you’d see in 1917.

A 1917 Rolls-Royce pickup truck

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Most houses still used iceboxes. (I’m happy to say we have one of these beauties.)

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The most popular music of 1917. You can see the songs that were published, here. It includes such songs as “Over There.”

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Erie High School Football Team, 1917 Erie, PA

Click on photo for link to enlarged picture and names.

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Erie Academy High School in Erie, PA was started about 1917 but not occupied until September 1920.

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Some fashions 1917

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Here are just some news results below per Brainy History.

January 30 - 1st jazz record recorded (Dark Town Strutters Ball)(released May 31st)

January 31 -Germany notifies U.S. that U-boats will attack neutral merchant ship.

March 23-Tornadoes kill 211 over 4 days in Midwest U.S.

March 26-Stanley Cup: Seattle Metropolitans (PCHA) beat Montreal Canadiens (NHL), 3 games to 1 - Seattle is 1st U.S. team to win Stanley Cup.

April 6-U.S. declares war on Germany, enters World War I.

May 12-43rd Kentucky Derby: Charles Borel on Omar Khayyam wins in 2:04.6

June 8-Walt Disney graduates from Benton High School.

June 28-Raggedy Ann doll invented.

November 1-In WW I, the 1st U.S. soldiers are killed in combat.

November 3- 1st class mail now costs 3 cents per ounce.

November 6-New York state allows women to vote.

November 22-NHL forms with Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Maroons, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators and Quebec Bulldogs; National Hockey Association disbands.

December 19-1st NHL game played on artificial ice (Toronto)

December 26-1st NHL defensemen to score a goal: Toronto Maple Leaf Harry Cameron

In my previous posts I showed you the little antique dresser I was working on. When I took the replacement hardware off I came across an odd screw and nut. As I unscrewed it I was surprised that the nut was just soldered wire. How ingenious if you didn’t have a nut to fit. It was very strong, too, and it screwed on and off just like a nut. It looks a bit crude but works great. If you wrapped the wire around the threads a bit more carefully, it would be a great way to make a nut to fit any size screw (in this case it didn’t matter, it worked great even messy.) I suppose you’d wrap the copper around the threads tightly and then unscrew it carefully and wipe with flux and solder it while it was off of the screw threads. I’m not sure if the solder would bond to the screw if you soldered it in place while it was on the screw or not (depends on the metal I think.)

I can think of many times I could have saved myself a trip to the hardware store looking for an odd-sized nut I didn’t have on hand because I do have copper wire and soldering tools. I wouldn’t use it for anything that would carry weight or could be dangerous in case of failure, but for furniture hardware and the like it is a great idea I think.

Kelly Kuppersmith of Athens, GA sent me pictures of the linoleum he found in his house. Click on the thumbnail below for a slideshow of his photos.   Via email……

(I thought they were pretty cool. The “rug” that was in my dining room was covered by a newspaper dated Sept 19, 1965.)

If anyone can further date these it would be appreciated. Since his was covered by 1965 newspapers is probably much older than that.

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Please read the history of linoleum here. Vinyl became popular in the 60s and nearly took the place of linoleum as new flooring. But linoleum is making a comeback because it is made from natural materials. Here is a link to my Linoleum Page.

If you have pictures of your antique or vintage linoleum, please send me your photos and I’ll include them in my blog with credits to you. Many of our linoleum patterns aren’t shown in the Linoleum book by Jane Powell (great book!!.) It would be nice to get a really good additional collection with clues (like under dated newspapers etc.) to try and date our linoleum.

Please make a notation if you are from the Erie area as I’ll include them in the Erie links, too. Email photos to: thisolderiehouse@verizon.net

I finished the antique dresser I was working on. I have the original hardware back on. Some of the hardware holes had been filled with dowels and I had to knock those out. Otherwise they went back to their original places easily.

The picture makes the dresser look too shiny but in reality it isn’t near the shiny look the picture shows. I painted some dark green over the black but left some black showing through. Then I used a crackle medium before using the colonial red paint. Then I took some water-based fumed-oak color of dye and rubbed it in to dull the red and give it a little aged look. I finished the dresser with 2 water-based satin urethane coats because my Waterlox had gelled up and could not be used. I’m excited about the extra storage I’ll have plus the additional space to display my collectibles.

My next post will show you the “mickey-moused” hardware that I found when I took off the mismatched hardware. Those old timers really had a knack for invention. (I used the “cutout” function for the pictures below because my floors aren’t refinished yet. That’s my next big project.)

Before

After