Wandawega Blog Archive
The next project: Wandawega Postal Center
I’ve sort of been obsessed with collecting vintage postcards of the Elkhorn area. After years of amassing a proper collection, we found a great printer to recreate them all on vintage linen stock, just like the old-school originals. Then we scored an original United States Postal Service stamp dispenser (ebay) to accompany a box of New Old Stock “sanitary stamp sleeves” with old advertisements. To complete the installation, we scored a 1950s postcard rack on etsy. Finally, my OCD postcard-station-wall will come true. Next post will be the finished product. Stay tuned & don’t forget to write home! SOME INSPIRATION…
Icicles don’t give a damn what year it is #2014
Another reason to skip the interstate and take the surface roads home: #Vintageneon
Spring-like weather in Beardstown today. Enjoying it while it lasts. It’ll be below zero when we get back to #campwandawega
prohibition survivor:
Here in Wisconsin, at a little hole-in-the-wall gas station, I ran across a bottle of booze that looked like it was just pulled from a prohibition basement. It was Jacquin’s Rock and Rye – the label alone has clearly never been altered. So although I knew it would probably taste like gasoline- i had to take it home. A little googling this morning shed some light: “as early barroom staple, made its way into the medicine cabinet during the temperance movement” Full story on Saveur Apparently, around the turn of the 20th century, makers of Rock and Rye blurred the line…
COMING SOON! The Wandawega mobile souvenir shop.
Before the construction of the modern Interstate system, roadside America was dotted with souvenir shops. Just about every landmark, point-of-interest and motel had one. Our own Route 12 passing through Elkhorn and Sugar Creek, Wisconsin was no exception. In homage to the sorts of tchotchkes sold at the original prohibition-era Wandawega Hotel, we’re retro-fitting our vintage cigarette machine to dispense the same nostalgic and odd mementos of our childhood. We discovered a souvenir maker that’s been supplying Wisconsin tourists for over ninety years and tasked them to create a custom batch of iconic American camp favorites. Very soon, you’ll be able to stop by the Camp Lodge…
The basement Punch House at Thalia Halll
A call from Bon Appetit…
I burn ramen noodles. So getting a call from these guys was a surprise to say the least. But then it made sense, because all that they really wanted was my point of view on “Making a case for bringing back the dinner bell” (something that i can’t burn) Here’s the scoop on our own Wandawega Camp Store dinnerbell: “Classically functional, dinner bell Triangle. When dinner was ready at the messhall, an iron dinner bell was rung to call in the campers from their work in the fields and barn. This was the most popular style bell for decades in…
A camp snowman for Warby Parker
The fine folks at Warby Parker sent us one of their “Make-a-Snowman” kits to help promote their Winter 2013 line. In spite of the frigid Wisconsin temperatures, It was a blast. Here is our version of Frosty, as well as some outtakes.