Change of pace

I was going to start building the shelving behind the bar today but when I looked through my box of mirrors last night, I discovered that I didn't have a mirror that would work so tentatively planned to go to Dollarama today and see what I could find. Then I'm not too sure exactly what would go on the shelves and don't want to build them until I have a plan.

While these rooms are supposed to be 1940s, I had sort of picked the year 1940 - even found Edmonton telephone directories from 1940 and sized and printed out the covers. Was interesting to see that in 1940 they printed two directories - one in January and one in July! Edmonton Telephones has a wonderful website with pages and pages of pictures of telephone directories over the years - and telephones too. Unfortunately the telephones aren't dated so that part of it isn't the great resource it could be.

Last night, my mind had been playing with the idea of sports memorabilia. Period NHL logos, Edmonton Eskimos, etc. Well, the CFL as we know it and the Eskimos didn't exist then and the Six Team NHL started in 1942. Scratch that idea!

Lying in bed this morning pondering all this, I had my "aha" moment. Remembering how I wrote yesterday that the beer stein wouldn't be appropriate in the bar since we were at war with Germany, I decided to redate the rooms to late 1944/early 1945 and use it to pay tribute to my family members who served in WWII.

As the neighbourhood bar, it will have newspaper clippings and pictures of 'neighbourhood' men serving overseas, a map of Europe, a pictures of King George VI, the Union Jack, Red Ensign and the RCAF flag. Maybe even a picture of Hitler pinned to the dart board?!

I'll have to go over to Mom's and borrow some pictures and newspaper clippings. And reinstall my scanner to get it working again.

All of this is going to take some time so for today at least I'm going to put the barroom aside and build the blanket chest I mentioned yesterday and get it ready for the next project, the bedroom.