Show and Tell: DIY Bubble Calipers

How an unusual baseball card inspired a very cool personal keepsake.

Show and Tell is an occasional recurring feature of Inconspicuous Consumption, with most of the entries contributed by IC readers. Today’s installment is from reader and fellow Substacker Matthew Algeo. You can see additional Show and Tell posts here.

By Matthew Algeo

In 1975, Major League Baseball and Bazooka Bubble Gum sponsored a bubble-blowing contest. The finals were televised during the pregame show for Game Three of that year’s World Series. I was nine years old at the time, and one of the two finalists, Johnny Oates, played for my favorite team, the Phillies. Man, I was so disappointed when he lost the finals to Kurt Bevacqua of the Brewers. The next year, 1976, the Topps baseball card set included a card showing Bevacqua blowing his winning bubble.

Card No. 564 in the Topps 1976 baseball card set featured Kurt Bevacqua blowing a contest-winning bubble on the front, with the contest bracket shown on the back.

For some reason I just had to have my own bubble-measuring calipers like the ones shown on that card. So my dad, who had a little workshop in the basement, made me some.