Strange Stuff in my Basement

This actually started as Facebook posts. Several times a week I would post interesting things I found in my basement while I was cleaning. Well now I decided I would expand this to a bigger audience.As you can see I enjoy collecting a wide range of strange and interesting things!

I picked this up for $5 at a community garage sale last summer, it was missing the battery tray cover so I fabricated a new one from some plastic I had left around from my model train hobby. I was even able to find a PDF of the original manual on a web site. After a little cleaning up the Big Trak was as good as new.

This was my sister's Barbie doll RV from the 1980's On more then one occasion my GI Joe commandeered this vehicle making it the command center and kicking Barbie out. I am cleaning it up so that my daughter can play with it.

This is a must have for your basement, not only does it play the newer 7800 Atari games but it also plays the earlier Atari 2600 games. I purchased this at a garage sale for a couple of bucks. I never had an Atari growing up as my dad was afraid it would ruin the picture tube on the only TV we owned.

Don't know where I got this from but I thought I'd add it to the list.

I built this motor in 8th grade shop class in 1981. I hooked it up to a DC source and it still runs!

I was a big fan of Chicago before I got hooked on grunge (Nirvana) and industrial music (NIN) in the 1990's. I know, there is a big transition between Chicago and Nirvana ;-)

I can't tell you how many summer days I spent in our neighbor's air conditioned basement playing D&D. I should have been outside playing!Now I sit in an air conditioned office wishing I was outside playing ;-)

I built and launched various model rockets during my childhood. I made a display out of the surviving model rockets. I designed the red and blue rocket myself.

Star Trek TOS (The Original Series) mug. When you put hot liquid in it Kirk, McCoy, and Spock disappear as if they were "transported".

I don't have the 95 Mustang anymore but I still have the heat shield. Wooh, I hope the new owner doesn't park over any dry brush!

Remember the Disney Movie "The Black Hole" from 1979? Well I got the story book from this movie. Hellooooo, this is 1979 calling, we want our "The Black Hole" storybook back ;-)

Fight song sheet music (Circa 1987) from my days in the high school marching band. This must have been my sister's music because I played Sousaphone, not trombone.

When my uncle Andy passed, my dad fished out his Fisher stereo from the trash when my uncle's niece was tossing everything that my uncle valued to the curb. My father built the Healthkit stereo in the early 1960's and I inherited it after he passed. The little black box is the multiplexer, the Heathkit stereo was build before the days that the multiplexer was built into the stereo receiver. My dad purchased the cassette deck in the late 1970's from a local electronics store call Tokyo Shapiro, I was with him when he purchased it. My wife found the Craig 8-track player at a local garage sale for one dollar. The Alvin stereo (in wood cabinetry) was given to me by an elderly man that I used to do yard work for. All of this stereo equipment still works!

Sony Watchman circa 1988, amazing, I can't seem to get any analog TV stations ;-)

This is a strange novelty item. You fill the base up with water. When you open the outhouse door the little man in the out-house turns around and "squirts" you ;-)

Japanese throwing "stars" from my rebellious teen days.

My Uncle Ray's old oscilloscope, my uncle was an electrical engineer, he gave it to me in the early 1980's when he was cleaning out his garage. I believe he built the oscilloscope from a kit. It still works!

Regenerative short-wave receiver I built from parts I had lying around.

Star Trek TOS (The Original Series) mug. When you put hot liquid in it Kirk, McCoy, and Spock disappear as if they were "transported". I like this mug so much I thought it was worth mentioning twice!

High voltage generator I made when I was in high school. Used the old ignition coil from my mom's 75 Monte Carlo.

Hood ornament from my first car, a 1980 Thunderbird. It fell off about the same time the car hit 100,000 miles and the timing chain broke, bending all of the intake and exhaust valves in the engine. Guess the bird couldn't take it anymore.

Cleveland Free Times (Alternative Weekly Newspaper) mug that used to grace my desk during my term as IS Manager there.

Concert t-shirt I purchased at the 1991 Lollapalooza concert in Blossom Music Center.

1985 Mopar catalog....this is indeed strange as I am not a Mopar fan.

Radio I built in high school vocational electronics class around 1986.....yes it really works!

I won it by collecting tickets I won while playing skee-ball at a Geneva on the Lake arcade.

Actually this is not my first cassette recorder but the same model of my first cassette player, I picked it up for a dollar at a church rummage sale.

Radio Shack robot bank from the 1980's

Al Copone's vault, Geraldo Rivera you were looking in the wrong place! Actually I wanted to see if you were still paying attention ;-)

Who is Pablo Cruise? I don't know but I have an 8-track tape of his music. Remember with an 8-track tape it would change tracks in the middle of the song? For the longest time I thought the song "Hit me with your best shot" by Pat Benetar went "Hit me with your best shot ,click, hit me with your best shot".

As I find other "strange stuff" in my basement I will be sure to update this Hub!