The Disney Nautilus Window

Have you ever done that mental exercise where you pretend your house is on fire and you only have time to grab one item? Well this is that item for me. Yes even before I wake the kids to tell them they are on their own, I would race to save this item. (kidding)

If you were lucky enough to be alive when the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride was open at Walt Disney World (Orlando for those who are confused.) then you may very well have pressed your nose up onto this window as you peered into the forbidden depths of Capt. Nemo's undersea world.

20K was as far as I am concerned the greatest ride ever. It closed as it was simply too expensive and did not carry the number of passengers in a day that the other rides did. Not to mention being on some pretty decent real estate. In 1994 the ride ceased movement and the wonderful Nautilus submarines were taken away forever. But not before someone at Disney decided to take the windows off one and sell them at the Gallery in Down-town Disney, as well as the former Antiques and Collectible shop at the entrance of MGM. Disney only removed the windows from one submarine.

Less then 40 of these were available for sale. I believe the asking price was around $250.00. I have a receipt somewhere. I have not seen one come up for sale in over a decade.

Sometimes I wonder if I perhaps pressed my nose up to this window and looked down below at all the great stuff to see. Either way, this is one Disney Keepsake that will be with me for a long time. 

Now is that the way it happened....or did I hop the fence at the back lot and procured it myself? I forget sometimes.

World War One U-BOAT Gyro Compass

Catalog #08665
WW 1 U-Boat Gyro Compass

This is one of my favorite items. It is a possibly one-of-kind World War One German U-Boat gyro compass. There were no magnetic compasses installed in German U-boats after 1909. This came into my collection as a wedding gift. My wife's great Grandfather was the gentleman who procured this unknowing for my collection. This man was one of the first submariners in US history. He served on the Adder (A-Boat) in 1903. The adder carried a crew of 5 men and was only 50 feet long. After WWI he volunteered to crew the recently captured German U-111 (pictured third from the left in photo above). The U-111 toured the U.S. Waterways in 1919 in connection with the Liberty Bond tour.

While on his journey back from Europe he at some point removed this gyro compass as a parting gift. Good thinking Gramps! He passed away in the 40's and this was bestowed upon me by his son, who has since passed as well. I have decided to donate the item to the U-Boot Museum in Cux Haven Germany when I go, unless someone offers me a really good price for it before that happens.

Haunted Wooden Postcards

Catalog #147563

Haunted Wooden Postcards

Back in the 1960's there was a small family owned business at 111 S. 21st Avenue in Hollywood Florida. They made these particular wooden postcards shown in the pictures. They made other similar products, mostly items shops at the beach would pedal to the tourists. These are probably form the early 1970's, but the same ones were made in the 1960's as well. Today the addresses have shifted slightly, but if you know where to look you will find that this former location is now empty land wedged between the tracks and 21st Ave. The story is that the owner of the business, a Mr. Arnold Goodwin began to feel the pressures of his then failing business around 1972 and committed suicide in storeroom of the shop. His body was found on the following Monday by family members. A few days later the son of Mr. Goodwin shipped out the last remaining inventory of wooden postcards to their vendors. After this the doors were closed for good and the building razed a few months later. The property was subsequently sold to the city. When the news of Mr. Goodwin's death made it back to their vendors, they quickly starting associating odd events and happenings in their shops with the shipment of wooden postcards that were present in the stock room when Mr. Goodwin took his own life. Could the post cards have really been cursed? Was the ghost of Mr. Goodwin following up with his vendors, trying to get a re-order from the beyond? I guess only he really knows for sure. Haunted postcards or not...these are keepers!

Tom Gaskins Cypress Knee

Starting in the 1930's you could cruise down US 27 in Florida to a little roadside curiosity called "Tom Gaskin's Cypress Knee Museum" in the town of Palmdale. It was a wonderful little place that displayed the art of a special man. Tom Gaskins (1909- 1998) was a unique fella, he never wore shoes thus getting the nickname of "Ol' Barefoot", and he loved to have his picture taken with the tourists that came to visit. He cut cypress knees from the surrounding swamps and peeled and polished them for the tourists to take home as a unique and natural souvenirs of their visit to the swampy, mosquito infested armpit of Florida. This one is mine. I was ten years old when I acquired it. My family took the pilgrimage to see this "8th Wonder of the World" back in 1981. We had finished our visit and were on the way back to the car when I realized that my parents had cunningly bypassed the gift shop on the way out, crafty as they were I would not be denied this pleasure. I wanted a cypress knee from the gift shop and they knew it. I began to beg them to let me run back and get one. Just a small one. I begged like I never begged until that day, and somehow it worked. My mother handed me $10 and said, "It can cost no more then this.", Money in hand, off I went. Tom Gaskins' Cypress Knee Museum had giant display cases filled with bizarre cypress knees that resembled things, faces, animals, all kinds of stuff. It took quite a bit of imagination to agree with the labels sometimes, but it was at the least memorable. Now I had my chance in the gift shop to get one that looked like something special to me. I was looking around, shelf to shelf, turning each one in my hands as I looked it over hoping to find one that looked like Bruce Lee doing a flying dragon kick or something, but they all just looked like stumps to me. Then I saw Mr. Tom Gaskins himself. He was speaking with a women in the gift shop, I approached him, waited till his conversation was over and then asked him if he could assist me. I figured that this man if any could help me pick a really cool one, something awesome. I said to him looking up, "Mr. Gaskins, could you help me pick a cypress knee that you think is really cool like the ones you have in the museum?" He replied very kindly putting a hand on my shoulder "Come right along and I will show you my favorite one here." This was going to be great. The king of all cypress knees picking his favorite out just for me! Life is good when you are ten years old. We walked over to a corner of the store and he reached back behind a bunch of other knees, as if this one was somehow stashed away for a special reason. He pulled it out and looked it over. "Yes, this is the one I was thinking of. This is my favorite one in the whole store." He said. He handed it to me and I instantly began to carefully look it over, trying to see what he saw in it. Was it a dragon? A hippo wearing a Carmen Miranda hat? What did he see in this particular cypress knee. He bent over and whispered to me, "Do you know why this is my favorite one?" I replied sheepishly, "No?" He came in a little closer, as if a great secret was going to be bestowed upon me and said "Because it reminds me of nothing. Only one like it." I was sold. But crap, I only had $10 to spend. This very special one had to be more then that. I asked him how much it was, showing him the $10 bill in my hand. "This is all I have." I said. He turned the knee over to reveal $22.00 written under it in pencil. I saw it, he saw it, and then he said, proving what kind of man he really was, "This must be a mistake, it sure looks like a $10 cypress knee to me." He took the $10 out of my hand and wished me a good day. He walked off knowing that he had made a kids trip to his shop pretty memorable. Thanks Tom.

Introduction & Welcome

Greetings Friends,

My name is Artimus Freeman. I collect things. I have been doing so all of my life. I always admired people who could concentrate on a single collection and amass a great display of their efforts. I on the other hand was never able to concentrate on a single interest like that. I instead tended to be rather eclectic in my efforts. Some things I do have many variations of, but for the most part my collection is based on one-offs. This blog is really just a digital extension of where I keep all of my things, a little cottage behind my house I call the Sugar Shack. So now I figured I would share some of the items that give me joy. I will show you the item, describe it, and tell you a story that goes along with it, Then it is your job to decide whether the stories are true, or if they are simply good old fashioned flummery.