A Reader Notices Something and Gives me a Post Idea

Monday,October 6, 2014
  A mix of sun and cloud, and older

A Reader Notices Something

and Give me a Post Idea

   I received an e-mail  on Friday (October 2) that was very gratifying for me. The reader complimented me about my blog, better still he write about collecting cast iron taxi cabs and even attached 2 nice examples of his collection. I wrote back and asked if he'd like to be a guest on my blog. I'm hoping he will, because he had some astute observations that I did not mention in my previous posts about the Arcade cast iron taxis.

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Some Pages from a 1936 Arcade Catalogue

If you're a cast iron toy collector, and more specifically an Arcade cast iron collector, you'll be familiar with the 4 man in toy drawings on the cover page of the 1936  Arcade catalogue.

Well, there is certainly another idea for a post!

I'll let you read the descriptions, but what's interesting is that the Arcade taxis were very good sellers. Arcade made them in 3 different sizes.

Arcade Taxis also came in different designs and colours.

Here is where the reader gave me the idea.

Arcade made  some cast iron taxis as banks. 

There is a slot (small long rectangular opening) to allow for coins to be deposited into the bank.

The money can be removed  "by unlocking the floorboard washer".

What the reader mentioned was that these taxi cabs sometimes came with telephone numbers.

In the early decades of the telephone (invented by a Canadian!),  telephone numbers were 2 letter and 4 numbers.  The full name was used in phone books to make in easier to remember the letters.

Below the number would have dialled as PA 1345 but in the phone book would have appeared as Park 1345.

By the time I was a child in the 1950's my telephone number still had letters, but now with 5 numbers. It was CR 7-6738 , with the CR abbreviated for Crescent.

The Yellow Cab Company was in fact an actual American Taxi Cab Company  in the USA. 

In the early years of the taxi, most American taxi cabs  were in fact  painted in  yellow or yellow colours. In 2014 in New York City, they still are! 

If you look closely at the hood, you can barely see a small slot where the coins 

would be dropped into the bank.

 

Another observation that I noticed from the readers's taxi photos was that tires came in 2 types - metal and rubber.

I hope the reader will take up my offer and be a guest on my blog.

I would finally like to see some photos of the actually deposit slot , as well as the opening for removing the money from the bank.

After all, what's a bank for, if you can't get at the money and spend it - especially if you're a kid!

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

Please feel free to write to me anytime at

toysearcher@gmail.com