Chapel Hill Leather Shop - The Only Real Thing Left T-shirt

David Honigmann owned and operated the Chapel Hill Leather Shop from 1964-1984. Located at 133 ½ East Franklin Street, his shop was always packed with customers wanting to buy his custom-made sandals and hand-made leather goods. 

 

 

 

 In the autumn of 1964, David and friend Betty Bishop began exploring Franklin Street for a storefront, so they could open up their own leather goods shop. They found a place upstairs at 133 1/2 East Franklin Street, which rented for only $35 a month, and they named it the Chapel Hill Leather Shop. 

 

 

 

 It was just one, big room, owned by Alexander Julian’s father, Maurice Julian. Word spread of David’s excellent craftsmanship, and the shop became very successful, very quickly. They were so popular, in fact, that advertising was never necessary. They just had a sign out front that read the Chapel Hill Leather Shop with a pair of sandals nailed to it, and another sign outside the entrance to the store, and that was enough to keep them in business. 

 

 

 

 By 1984 the added recession was making it even more difficult to keep the shop going and after twenty years in the leather business, they felt it was time to move on. (Via Chapel Hill Recorder)

Relive the memories from the Only Real Thing Left with this 70s t-shirt - vintage 70s tee CHAPEL HILL leather shop t-shirt Small soft thin burnout

 

Behind the T-shirt: Uncle Sam's Nightclub

 Uncle Sam's was a disco nightclub chain in several US cities from the mid 70s to the late 80s. 

 

There were clubs in Houston, Detroit, Providence, Levittown, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Des Moines, and Syracuse. At least. There were probably more. 

 

Uncle Sam's - "Let's Spend the Night Together"

Shiny Happy Customers Night in Buffalo looks like fun.

Shot of the Minneapolis merch table in 1977. T-shirts cost $3.99!

This 70s Uncle Sam's t-shirt seems to be from 1976. It's in great shape and ready to do the hustle. Check it out at Skippy Haha Vintage Etsy now!

Behind the T-shirt - Amigos Say Olé Elway!

 

When I saw this t-shirt graphic, I thought Amigos was a Mexican restaurant/bar in Denver celebrating some big wins by Elway in 1980, 1982, and 1984 with endless nachos.

 

I was way off. 

The 3 Amigos were Elway's wide receivers, and those were their jersey numbers.

 

According to the Mile High Report: "For about two years starting in 1987, there was John Elway and then there were the Three Amigos - Vance Johnson (82), Mark Jackson (80), and Ricky Nattiel (84). They were larger than life for that short period of time and it was a fun ride." 

No confirmation on whether they all fit under the same sombrero.  

Check out the Amigos Say Olé Elway! t-shirt on SHV Etsy.

Behind the T-shirt - Cap's Place

Here's a 70's t-shirt from Cap's Place Island Restaurant and Bar - Lighthouse Point, Florida

The back says it's been there for 100 years so I did some digging. 

Their website claims they're Broward County's oldest restaurant - "with roots as a 1920's casino and rum-running speakeasy, it sits on an island off Lighthouse Point and can only be reached by Cap's motor launch.

 

Back in the 20's in No-Man's Land Florida, Cap Knight, Lola Knight and Al Hasis brought together a group of wooden shacks attached to an old barge which was floated up the present day intracoastal waterway from Miami to its location on Cap's Island near the fabled Hillsboro lighthouse north of Fort Lauderdale.  This was a rum-running restaurant and gambling casino, nestled on an island in the coastal marsh."

 

 Look familiar? 

"Among some of the notables who have enjoyed Cap’s creative cuisine are Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, Casey Stengel, George Harrison, Errol Flynn, the Temptations, Susan Hayward, Gloria Swanson, Mariah Carey, "Norm" from TV's Cheers and Joe Namath. Cap's has hosted the famous and infamous for decades."

 

NORM!  

For this incredibly soft and thin authentic wearable piece of Florida's rum-running and gambling history, please visit -

vintage 70s t-shirt CAP'S PLACE bar florida soft thin burnout tee Medium Small

Behind the T-shirt: First of Denver Cup Jacket Skiing Sheik Hoax

Check out this "First of Denver Cup" ski jacket I found last week. 

 Little did I know it is connected with some "Fake News" from 1977. 

The First of Denver Cup was a Pro-Am ski race held at Winter Park Colorado from 1977 to 1982 to benefit the Winter Park Handicapped Program. 

It was also the site of controversy when Sheik Abdul Haddad raced the slalom wearing flowing Arabic robes in the wake of the OPEC oil crisis in 1977.  

Turns out, however, the Sheik was a shoe salesman named George from Minnesota, and all the major international newspapers had been snookered. According to Skiing History Magazine,

Sheik Abdul showed up unannounced to compete in the Pro-Am charity race held during the First of Denver Pro Race weekend. The fundraiser supported Hal O’Leary’s innovative Winter Park Handicapped Program. The sheik was placed on the team captained by pro racer Jake Hoeschler (who was also director of skiing at Winter Park), with Heisman Trophy-winning football player Doak Walker and Andy Love, son of former Colorado Governor John Arthur Love. As the sheik flapped and fluttered across the finish line, the press corps clustered around him.

The sheik was a sensation: in the aftermath of the OPEC crisis, the very idea of an oil sheik carried the aura of vast wealth and veiled threat. The press wanted pictures, and quotes. All the VIPs wanted to meet him. The sheik’s bodyguard and translator intervened, explaining that Haddad spoke no English.

It turned out he spoke no Arabic, either. When photos and stories about the skiing sheik went out over the AP and UPI wires people in Duluth, Minn., chuckled. Color photos of Sheik Abdul made the papers in Paris, Moscow and Tokyo. But the Duluth papers quickly identified him as George S. Haddad, 56, owner of the Haddad Family Shoe Store and of Lebanese descent. The shoe store was located a few doors up from the Continental Ski Shop, where George was a frequent customer. He was also a well-known figure at Lutsen and other local ski areas, where he often skied in his “Arab” robes, no doubt avoiding entanglement in rope tows. The robes had been sewn by his wife, Dorothy Marie Haddad. Haddad even owned a U.S. patent on a bit of ski equipment he had designed: a retractable crampon to help a skier climb.

When the Duluth papers had their say, the story unwound. Hoeschler had arranged for Gerald Ford, Ethel Kennedy and Clint Eastwood to ski in the Pro-Am, but when Winter Park shifted the dates, Ford and Kennedy cancelled in favor of previous obligations.

A few days of panic ensued, and then Hoeschler, passing through Continental Ski Shop, spotted a poster of Haddad skiing in Aspen, robes and all. If he couldn’t get an ex-president onto Eastwood’s team, Hoeschler figured he could get a sheik.
And so, with the complicity of Winter Park President Gerry Groswold, Sheik Haddad arrived at Winter Park in a limousine. He came with a bodyguard in the person of Jim Bach of the Continental Ski Shop, and with translator George Abdullah, who taught at Drake University in Iowa. Haddad later claimed he was scared to run the course: With oil prices so high, he was afraid “some fanatic” might take a shot at him.

When the Duluth papers broke the story of the hoax, officials at AP and UPI were furious. UPI, in particular, had been burned in 1976 when Vail sent them a photo of a blizzard that had been taken two years earlier. They felt that the reputation of the press was at stake. But no one from any of the papers or wire services had bothered to fact-check any of the “oil sheik” stories.

The fallout for Hal O’Leary’s program was spectacular. People around the world saw the story and felt inspired to send checks to the handicapped ski team. “We raised 20 times as much over the course of the year as we had ever done before,” O’Leary told Hoeschler.

Haddad went back to his shoe store, and to Lutsen, where he was now a local hero. Hoeschler ran out his contract with Winter Park and returned to his law practice in Minneapolis.

All's well that ends well. Now you can own a very special piece of ski history and fake news history: First of Denver Cup Pro-Am Obermeyer 70s Ski Jacket

Behind the T-shirt: San Nicolas Island Sweatshirt

I found this 70's San Nicolas Island souvenir hoody sweatshirt recently, and never having heard of the place, did some googling.

Turns out it's one of the Channel Islands off the coast of central California, known for the story of Juana Maria, the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island.

Basically in the 1830s, her island was invaded by Russian fur trappers, and then soon evacuated by missionaries from Santa Barbara, but she somehow missed the boat.  She survived on San Nicolas Island alone for 20 years, in a hut made of whale bones, until she was found and brought over to Santa Barbara in 1853, where she smiled and and sang songs and was very happy, by all accounts.

Until she died 7 weeks later from dysentery.

Link to the sweatshirt here: 70s vintage San Nicolas Island raglan hooded sweatshirt

Behind the T-shirt: Erasmus Hall High School

i found this soft, thin 80's t-shirt last week from the Erasmus Hall High School Bicentennial celebration.

The wikipedia tells me it closed in 1994, but for 207 years was a high school in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY.

Some notable alumni/attendees include: Neil Diamond, Joseph Barbera (Hanna Barbera), Billy Cunningham, Al Davis, Clive Davis, Bobby Fischer, Jim Florio, Samuel LeFrak, Gabe Kaplan from Welcome Back Kotter, Barbra Streisand, and Mae West, among dozens.

Here's former EHHS Dutchman Neil Diamond modeling the shirt.

KZOM Zoom 104 1/2 T-shirt

I recently came across a vintage 70s to early 80s soft thin t-shirt with this logo: 
KZOM 
Zoom 104 1/2 

Which led me to this youtube of KZOM's final sign off in 1984, Richard Jones playing The Who's "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay."

KZOM-FM 104.5 (ZOOM 104 1/2) was an Album-oriented rock radio station that served the Orange/Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas and Lake Charles, Louisiana areas from 1978-1984.

(Aircheck, Photos and station logos by Larry King)



looked like a pretty cool station. RIP KZOM 104.5.

all i really needed to know about religion i learned from a t-shirt

this vintage 1990 t-shirt has to be the most concise and brilliant summary of comparative religion in existence:

Taoism: Shit Happens
Hinduism: This shit happened before.
Buddhism: It is only the illusion of shit happening.
Zen: What is the sound of shit happening?
Islam: If shit happens, it is the will of Allah.
Jehovah's Witness: Knock Knock. Shit happens.
Atheism: There is no such thing as shit.
Agnosticism: Maybe shit happens -- and maybe it doesn't.
Protestantism: Shit won't happen if I work harder.
Catholicism: If shit happens, I deserve it.
Judaism: Why does shit always happen to me?
Televangelism: Send money or shit will happen to you.
Rastafarianism: Smoke that shit.
Unitarianism: Who gives a shit?

Behind the T-shirt: I Heard That

This one goes out to the two older gentlemen who work at the Tunnel Road Goodwill, bringing out the racks of "new" items from the back.

They are friendly with all the customers, but especially with the little old ladies shopping there. 

Their two responses to almost everything they hear is, "I heard that!" and/or "You know that's right!" 

I think these are fantastic sayings, both.

So fantastic that I ironed fuzzy flock letters onto a soft, thin, broken in 80's t-shirt.

vintage 80's i heard that t-shirt