September 2011 News from Readers

We recently wrote about dunce stools and wondered if they could still be found in schools. A reader wrote that back in the late 1970s she was walking down a hall in a school in rural Minnesota and peeked into a classroom. She saw a teenager wearing a pointed dunce cap sitting on a high stool just like the one we described.

Reader “V.R.” from Indiana wrote: In the June 2011 newsletter, you picture a cast-iron advertising match safe shaped like a fly. It’s marked “W.D. Ellis Lumber Agency, Ypsilanti, Mich.” and “Simpson Iron Co.” I have had one for 50 years that is identical except it’s stamped “Made in Italy” on the side. Is it from the same mold? It may simply be from a similar mold made as a copy of the Simpson mold. The fly match safe has been copied many times. We have seen another Simpson fly that says, “No flies on Green Joyce and Co. hosiery, underwear, shirts, o’alls or pants.” The English phrase “Made in Italy” on your fly suggests it was made after World War I.