Don’t touch that dial… these weird 70s bathroom music machines combined the utility of a toilet paper roll holder with the sweet sound of an AM radio.

Audio Waste Land

A visit to one’s parents or grandparents wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the “facilities”, where you stood (or sat, as the case may be) a fairly decent chance of finding a restroom radio. Encased in plastic dyed in unnatural hues apparently lifted from a 1958 DeSoto brochure, these incongruous yet ingenious multifunctional devices emerged at the end of a decade that witnessed one of mankind’s most historic accomplishments: landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.

American Ingenuity

A mere 16 days after Armstrong and Aldrin left the first human footprints on another heavenly body, the United States Patent Office formally granted patent #214,839 to John F. Lewis of Hawthorne, CA for his “Combined Radio Cabinet And Toilet Paper Holder”. No doubt Lewis was greatly relieved, having applied for the patent almost ten months previously. As for Armstrong and Aldrin, presumably they were relieved as well once they could relieve themselves in Earth gravity again.

The Rolling Tones

It wasn’t long before a number of manufacturers (including “Stewart“, above) began pumping out restroom radios that generally hewed quite closely to Lewis’ patented design. Among the differences – some might say improvements – were same-sized Volume and Tuning dials and the relocation of the battery compartment to the top of the unit, protected by a snap-on cover. On the downside, the dials’ milled edges were tough to clean… yuck.

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Rockn Rolls Retro Toilet Paper Roll Holder Radios

Key cutting shops may be circling the retail store drain but their doom isn’t quite locked in, as these 15 classic key cutting shops and signs illustrate.

Key cutters occupy a cluttered end of the retail spectrum… no one has, is or will make a living on key cutting alone. As such, key cutting gets lumped in with other “orphan” services like shoe repair. It’s hardly a battle of equals, however, and for some reason shop owners feel the need to state and re-state their ability to cut keys… are their aged customers hard of hearing AND seeing?

Take Frank’s, a small old-style department store in Dublin, Ireland, that advertises their key cutting services no less than EIGHT times on the front facade. Not only that, the words “KEYS CUT” are even larger than the store’s name.

Pyramid Scheme

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then this venerable key cutting corner shop is pretty much priceless. Flickr member nadzferatu captured a sunny street scene featuring some nifty non-hieroglyphic signage in an unnamed Egyptian town back in October of 2007.

Off to the Pound

They don’t give tenants much storefront down in London’s Kentish Town West so store owners take what they’re given and run with it. This shop, which doesn’t appear to have a formal name, takes a multi-dimensional approach when advertising their key cutting services. Note the signs at the upper left and lower left, plus the jumbo key sticking out into the street on the right side to catch the eyes of passersby… not literally, one would hope. Flickr member Steve Bowbrick snapped this snazzy discount key cutting shop in the summer of 2010.

You’re the Topy

“Topy” Quality? Is this some sort of obscure Ye Olde anglicism we’re not aware of? In any case, this rather posh combination key cutter, shoe repair, name-plater, watchband adjustment (and doubtless more) store must be goode – just look at all that woode! Flickr member brennSL captured the redolent retro retail outlet from London’s Crystal Palace district in September of 2007.

Who You Callin’ Hong Key?

This possibly defunct key cutting shop in Hong Kong boasts unusually restrained signage – at least, for a key cuttery – and may only cut one key per customer. Left unsaid is the “while you wait” or even “while U wait” legend that seems to be de rigueur for most key cutting signage. Flickr member Randall van der Woning (Hong Kong Photography) snapped the ancient storefront in late 2006.

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Good Lock 15 Kool Key Cutting Shops Signs

Stereotypically secretive and serious, these posters from the 1950s and 60s show another side of the NSA, full of strange art and bizarre messaging spanning from internal security to the drug war.

Stylistically, they are signs of their times, spanning typography, colors and layouts one might expect to find on book covers, movie adverts or propaganda pamphlets of the time (or retro motivational posters today).

Santa, the Mona Lisa, aliens and death itself become strange characters in these various otherworldly dramas, some of which seem to be set inside Alice in Wonderland or on extraterrestrial planetary bodies.

Given their limited agency-internal audience, they are surprisingly artful and well-executed. They were declassified after a recent Freedom of Information Act request.

But unlike redacted documents, there isn’t much to protect here, so the posters are essentially shown in their entirety.

“Information which would reveal NSA/CSS functions and activities and names of NSA/CSS employees have been deleted from the enclosure. These deletions are exempt from disclosure pursuant to the third exemption of the FOIA, which provides for the withholding of information specifically protected from disclosure by statute.”

Charming and quaint hand-painted knife sharpener vans are one of the few remaining holdouts from the golden age of hand-delivered household services.

There’s never a dull moment when the knife-sharpener van comes around, rolling along at walking speed and ringing its distinctive mournful bell. Humorously likened by some to “ice cream trucks for serial killers”, knife sharpener and blade-grinding vans can trace their roots back to hand-pulled carts and cries of “bring out your dead… er, dull blades!”

Though many johnny-come-latelies to the age-old trade have employed professional sign writers to decorate their late-model grinding vans, a substantial number of old-school knife sharpeners continue to operate decades-old vans displaying amateur artwork of a similar vintage. NYC-based Del Re’s Grinding is typical of the genre.

According to The Trowel Tribune, owner/operator Dominic Del Re began his career as a mobile blade grander back in the eighties after leaving his job as a commodities trader on Wall Street. Guess he couldn’t bear the bull anymore.

Long Hard Grind

Step-vans and re-purposed bread trucks are often the mobile knife sharpener’s fave choice, as seen by the mobile shop used by Carlo’s Sharpening Service of Ottawa, Canada.

Carlo flaunts his Italo-Canadian pride along with examples of various bladed tools on the sides of his van, as snapped by Flickr member Andrew Codrington (acodring) in 2008 and Twitter member Laura Dudas in 2015. The van’s sun-faded sides pay homage to 7+ years (and uncounted miles) of slow-motion service.

Gotta Look Sharp

Most mobile blade sharpening services are Mom & Pop-type operations (though we’ve yet to see an actual “Mom” at the wheel – or even riding shotgun), with the owner’s name painted on the van’s sides. As such, one “G. Vecchiarelli” does the needful within his spiffy red “Grinding & Sharpening Service” Grumman step-van – possibly an ex-mailvan – in and around the Greater Toronto Area.

Dude better mind his letters, as the sun is beginning to peel them. Flickr member Jennie Robinson Faber snapped the second not-so-sharp photo in early September of 2009.

Bob’s Yer Uncle

Bob’s Grinding Service has been a frequent sight in and around New York City for many years now. His sharp-looking Grumman-Olson van sports spiffy professional lettering offset by the charming folk-art Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner characters gracing the van’s back bumper – Tweety-Pie’s painted on the hood. Kudos to Flickr member Nicholas Noyes (niznoz) who captured Bob’s van going away in February of 2008.

“This is the second time I’ve seen this truck” states Flickr member Casey Holford (chachlate), who was evidently unaware blade sharpener vans were a thing. “It apparently drives around and SHARPENS TOOLS for people, just like streetside service out of the truck. There’s a guy in there right now sharpening some tools. It’s crazy.” Crazy like a blade-sharpening fox, Casey.

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Blade Rollers 11 Retro Style Knife Sharpener Vans

Most miniature golf courses have 9 or 18 holes per course. These dozen abandoned courses, on the other hand, have more holes than Blackburn, Lancashire.

Flickr user Tom Faulkner (tom faulkner photographs) has apparently done the impossible by turning an abandoned miniature golf course into an oasis of breathtaking beauty. The course is located somewhere in Maryland and though the artificial greens and fairways still reflect hints of their former verdant glory, the true glory of Faulkner’s images comes courtesy of Mother Nature in all her autumnal glory.

Pasture-ized

It’s so annoying when a perfectly good miniature golf course closes its doors and drifts into deterioration and decay. In fact, one might say it really… gets our goat. Kudos to Flickr user Isaac Sachs, who snapped the currently “now serving as a goat pasture” status of the former Scappoose Mini Golf in September of 2013.

Eurotrashed

Flickr user bertolino captured this baaadly overgrown and abandoned miniature golf course on May 2nd of 2009… hey, don’t they have goats in Europe?

Not Milwaukee’s Finest

Dead Kennedys; D K; decay… coincidence? We think not! Flickr user Retinal Fetish brings us these post-apocalyptic images taken in 2006 and 2007 at Willow’s Miniature Golf in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The graffiti’d divider wall looks a little like swiss cheese – gray and moldy swiss cheese but hey, beggers can’t be choosers. Hopefully it won’t attract giant rats.

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Putt Hurt 12 More Abandoned Miniature Golf Courses