Field Notes, Pre-Soviet Russian version. Though this is a 1918 datebook, it was probably produced before the October 1917 Revolution.

We haven’t seen much demand for 12″ x 3″ notebooks, the Mensheviks must have had interesting pockets.

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Thank heavens for Andy Forgash.

Andy was out junkin’ over the weekend and found this little memo book. He handed it over to his roommate Eric Lovejoy, who then brought it down to Field Notes West here in Portland, Ore.

So Mr. Forgash, just know: This book is home now. Its in good hands. Soon, it’ll be entered our “Memo Book Archive” database, and readied for a debut on the internet. Soon.

Thank you for your contribution.

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Here’s a memo book from one of the greatest American shoes retailer from back in the day: Kinney’s Shoe Stores.

The brainchild of George Romanta Kinney, he revolutionized the retail footwear industry by “offering popularly priced shoes to working Americans.” We like the sound of that. This all started out in 1894, in a little town in upstate New York. He grew that first little store into a one hell of a business, and 50 years later, the string of regional stores were crafted into a nationwide chain. Even more success followed, with mergers and new subsidiaries. So little over a century later, with billions in revenues, tons of stores nationwide and all sorts of slick spinoffs like Susie Casuals and Foot Locker under their belt, “Black September” of 1998 fell, and Kinney’s closed their many doors.

So get a load of the memo book we’re featuring today. These were items that were given out to customers in the stores. A way to advertise. Some added value. Functional. Useful.

A good way of going about things, if you ask us.

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A couple months back I was helping Willy Vlautin out on a little promo poster for his book tour promoting “Northline”. We shot the shit about everything under the sun and on the way out, he saw a pile of old memo books and on top of one of the stacks was this Cargill Farm Notebook from the 1970/71 season.

“I have a friend named Cargill. He’d get a kick out of that!” Willy exclaimed.

So this one is for Willy’s friend. And for Willy. Enjoy, fellas.

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We GIGANTICALLY recommend reading Willy’s new book, “Northline” and while you are at it, his first book, “The Motel Life” too. All of us out here at Field Notes West are no stranger to longing, sadness and peculiar beauty of the unapologetic “Real West.” Willy’s band Richmond Fontaine has been the soundtrack to countless trips back and forth to that Midwest.

Let’s forget about the mountains, happy hikers and rich people for a bit and dig on the folks who are doing their best to make it in the forgotten cities and towns, miles and miles away from all those bullshit ski resorts and all that. Willy gives ‘em a voice in his work and we thank him for using Field Notes.

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A SMALL ANNOUNCEMENT: Bullet pencils are things of the past, and that’s that.

Man, if that just doesn’t make us sad as hell.

After an extensive search, high and low, we’re ashamed to report the proud days of “getting custom-printed bullet pencils” are long, long gone. Even the crappy little ones from the mid-’80s it seems. We’ve been planning one up for Field Notes for some time now, and have more or less thrown the towel in on this one. The sad truth.

Now, there was a faint glimmer of hope in the “online circle of Umpire suppliers.” A couple phone calls to the proper suppliers put the ol’ kibosh on that one too. Sinking hearts. Turns out those heavily padded umpires out there making the calls prefer bullet pencils for the compact quality in a pocket of a pair of odd, polyester black slacks. Who would’ve thought? Makes sense, right?

So here’s the deal: Stock up where you can through vintage sources, flea markets and what not, and do what you can to keep the bullet pencil alive. Keep one in your pocket at all times. We do. Trust us on this one.

But don’t fret, we’ve got a couple tricks up our sleeve. Stay tuned for some big news.

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The good people of A Continuous Lean feel the same way. Get over there and check out some of their scores

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REQUIRED READING, PEOPLE: A hearthwarming article titled, “Memorabilia stir memories of old Midwestern yards.”

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NuTone Daily Memo Book, October, 1954.

NuTone Door Chimes, National Headquarters, Cincinnati, Ohio.

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Here’s a beauty we picked up in Iowa a couple Octobers ago: An Epley Bros., Shell Rock, Iowa Memo Book. “Something to Crow About, Indeed.” 1-color “Rooster Red” on an uncoated white. 1964.

From the liner notes on the inside front page: “Each year we have had a healthy increase of sales over the preceding year, which causes us to believe we have a Corn the Farmer wants.”

A safe bet, we’d say.

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Duncan Fraser of Nova Scotia offers up a quick-reference page of Morse Code for us to sharpen up on. Plus, if you were wondering, the “proper heat to dip chickens is 128 degrees.” Don’t really know what that means. Yikes. Good to know. We dig the meaty “lead work” in his handwriting. Thick and hearty, the way it oughta be.

Here’s the cover of this one, too, just so you know what’s going on here. Really nice serifs on this one.

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We’ve been, as the kids say, “Crazy busy” scanning, cropping and readying selected memo books for our “Vintage Memo Book Gallery” that is on the way. At last count, we were up around 200 examples. Really. That’s a lot.

And, we’re adding new ones to the master archives each Monday morning, once the weekend’s junkin’ routes have been pillaged, sorted and archived.

Special thanks to Field Notes “Sheet Team” member and all-around good guy Eric Lovejoy for having the guts to lovingly scan the whole mess in.

Here’s another beauty from the gallery from the good people at Federal Graduated Fertilizer. Their slogan: “The World’s Best Fertilizer.” We’ll take their word for it.

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Joshua Talbot’s got some kittens to give away. And he said the nicest thing one could say about getting memo books in the mail:

It reminds me of when I received my Jedi Fan Club pack in the mail. Or being a Cub Scout and getting a new badge.

I’d take a kitten, Joshua, but I’m allergic and I already have two anyway. I could ask Drap, but I don’t know how Gary feels about cats. Man, they’re cute, though. Aw, look at that, just crying out for some misspelled Impact Bold.

(For anyone disappointed that this post had nothing to do with Kim Gordon and Julia Cafritz, here’s this.)

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