The Set-up

Before I start on the next group of caps, I'd like to whine about the difficulties in setting even such a humble site up, in the hopes that someday Blogger might see it and say, "Y'know, we do get a LOT of complaints about that..."

First thing that slowed things down (after I finally talked myself into this and convinced myself that the pictures I can take would have to do) was the name.  Not so much choosing it, but the spelling.  I left the second "c" out of collection, and only saw it while trying to deal with the second problem.  Thought I was going to have to delete the blog at first, then saw I was being a double idiot and edited it.

Lesson #1 for Blogger:  Spell check on set-up, too.

Next, I selected for my header a pic of me with the two caps I found in Johnny Appleseed Park a few weeks back.  And, as usual, it was way too big (excuse me, WAAAAY too big) and Blogger gives few options for resizing.  Suggestions included shrink to fit (which was an option I didn't have on pictures downloaded from my computer) and changing a certain piece of html code (which I couldn't find on my header). Finally, after reading so many "Blogger is stupid" complaints that I thought I was listening to Laurie playing a new online game w/o the rules, I found the suggestion to download the pic to Photobucket and re-size it.

Lesson #2 for Blogger:  give us a sizing option on set-up, huh?

So I go to photobucket and try to sign up for a free account to re-size my one lousy picture.  Put in screen name (cw martin) and password ( containing one or more of the following: !@#$%^&**()_+).  Sorry, can't have a space in your screen name.  WTF not??? Okay, so out goes the space.  Sorry, name already taken.  How about cwmartin1? sure, that's okay.  Sorry, password cannot have symbols, only letters and numbers.  WTF?  Hello, what about security?  Fine, here, let me take !@#$%^&*()_+ out.  Okay, you are the proud owner of a free photobucket account.  How about paying some money to make it a premium account?  To re-size one lousy picture? I think not.

Lesson#3 for all you websites- security in passwords is generally recommended.  ALLOW SYMBOLS!!!

Figuring out how to re-size was simple- figuring how to get it onto my header was not.  Especially as I was tired (I'd been suffering from some kind of fatigue spell all day) and frustrated, and kept forgetting to save this, check that, uncheck the other.  Finally I had the right picture, now to choose the font for the title.  Hmm, this "lobster" looks neat, let's try it.  Sorry, we won't let you have that one on your header. WTF?  Okay, fine, let's try this one. Or this one.  In fact any of the others on the list gave me something- except lobster.  Fine, do this one instead.

Lesson #4 for Blogger- if you can't USE it, don't LIST it.


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Okay, onto the next picture.  Maestro, if you please:

This is the bottom of board one in book one.  You might recognize the little West Virginia silhouette map in the middle of the first on in the top row.  That is indeed a WVA A-B Natural Light, complete with STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA and the state motto (in Latin, natch) printed on it.  Another Florida trip baby.  Next is one final ABNL, this one a straight opener needed cap.  These all have the trademark KPP on the side, which I believe is a symbol Kerr used for their caps.  Next we have another Black Label; this time the center band simply says Union Made.  I believe he is a Floridian like his brethren.  The remainder of this page is Budweisers.   The next cap (fourth on the top) and the one in the middle of the second row differ in that the top one is a metallic silver background (made by KPP) and the bottom is in flat silver ( made by ZapatA, which was a Kansas outfit who had some lawsuit problems in the 1980s). They likely both came from the tavern in Zulu, and weren't as common there as you might think.  As I've said, my dad was a PBR man; His one brother, and my brother-in-law, were Falstaff dudes; another uncle was a Blatz guy; among the other long timers were aficionados of Old Chicago and Strohs.  Very light on Miller there, though Miller Lite was making some inroads.  I'd guess the biggest seller was Falstaff, followed by PBR and then Bud.

Anyway, a simple Bud twist-off (or use opener) rounds out the top row. On either side of the bottom row are two more Floridians; one says "e-z twist GEORGIA", and the other says "e-z twist FLORIDA".  Flanking the ZapatA cap are two aluminum "tall twists"; the second one of those much rarer red background-silver text ones.

This will go a bit faster in future posts as I run out of stories and extraneous crap to lead off with (maybe).
Bottoms up!