The Right Mat

Michael's finally called to tell me that my actual mat order was in, so I made yet another trip over there to pick it up. And let me tell you, it looks fly. Now all I need is a picture for the extra 3.5"x5.5" hole that will tie the whole thing together. I'm thinking old school, to match the music that was apparently printed in 1913.

eBay has a wealth of old Purdue postcards, and I think I've whittled the field down to two. What do you think?

Choice #1: Aerial view

I like this shot, and it seems to be fairly close to the right time period. It has the old Heavilon Hall, which was torn down in 1956. It has Matthews (built in the 20s) but not Stone (built...I don't know, but it's old). Plus it has a nice old feel to it.

Choice #2: Ross-Ade Stadium

By definition, this is too new because Ross-Ade wasn't even built until 1924 (You can see the old stadium next to the Armory on this postcard). In fact, from the information here, this would seem to be from around the 1930s. But come on- it has the band doing the famous Floating Purdue! How can I resist that? Anyway, feel free to cast your vote.

One of the odd things about shopping online for antique postcards (because there are so many) is that most of them don't list the size. This forced me to write lots of sellers asking for more detail, and all the answers I got were a touch flippant, and included the phrase "regular size." Some of them said "4x6 - just like a regular postcard." Others said "It's a standard postcard - 3.5x5.5." At first I thought I was dumb for not knowing what a standard postcard is, but apparently people can't even agree on a standard. This leads us to today's tangent!

When I worked at McDonald's, we had three sizes of fries: Small, Large, and Super Size. What happened to medium? I don't know. But many, many people would stroll up to the counter and order medium french fries, forcing me to say "We have small, large, and super size." This would elicit one of two responses, but they were both delivered as though I was the biggest imbecile they had ever seen. They were:
"Then give me large!"
"Then give me small!"
To truly understand, you have to picture these statements with the accompanying eye roll, and implied "moron!" and the end. It was lose-lose. The official company directive was to give them large when they asked for medium, but after a handful of overly pissed-off customers I abandoned that plan. Also, lots of people would say regular for the size of anything (nuggets, drink, fries, whatever) but of course, regular means something different for everyone. Once a guy asked for a regular fry, and I said "Would you like small, large or super size?" He leaned in close over the counter, looked me dead in the eye, and said in a voice that was somewhere between stern and yelling "regular...means...SMALL!" I jumped back a few inches and said something like "Okay...y-you're the boss."

So there you go: next time you need to associate vintage postcards with fast food, I've got you covered.

In other news, tomorrow I'm off to Indy for Carly & Daniel's wedding. This should include all manner of standard wedding fun/tears but to make things more interesting, I'm bringing Erica along. At long last we'll get to see what happens when a quiet introvert wanders into a gathering of Rowdens and Burgesses. I appreciate her courage, because she's been warned. I can't wait!