The missing family tikis

BigBro was right when he said something about tiki falling into a black hole of American collective memory (or something to that effect). For many years since the mid 1960's my parents had a pair of wall-hanging tikis. Through at least two moves, they were always on display until 1981 when my parents divorced and the house was sold. The tikis have not been seen since. After 20 years it finally dawned on me that I hadn't seen them in a long while although I couldn't describe them to save my life. Turns out my Dad was the one who originally bought them even though Mom did the decorating in the house (another trend?). I've since searched through all my Dad's old boxes to no avail. I know my Mom doesn't have them, at least not anymore.

So the question becomes, does ANYONE out there have a pair of these guys? My Dad couldn't have been the ONLY one who bought these. I'm pretty sure they were ceramic (maybe).

The only photo I have that even somewhat shows them was taken by me when I was about 14. Here's the overall shot and a blow-up of the tikis. Anybody have a clue?? I'd love to find a pair of these guys again.

Classic Silver Line Boats

[ Edited by: SilverLine on 2005-04-20 17:43 ]

Great story...the story of all our lives.

It is hard to say with the angle and quality of the pics. The only one that comes to mind is a Maori style Tiki made from plaster, and I cannot recall right now where I have seen it...at somebody's house..?...hmmmm

Did they have round button-like eyes?

From reading Silverline's post, it occured to me that we should have a thread for people to post stories and pictures about their tiki family heirlooms. I have a couple of tiki masks that my dad brought home from Hawaii when he was stationed there in the army in the 1950s. I remember the masks being displayed on the wall of our patio when I was growing up. I even have a picture of me at age 5 with one of the tiki masks in the background. Later, when my parents redecorated the patio, the masks were put on a shelf behind the bar and were forgotten. A few years ago, I looked for the masks and gladly inherited them. (Well, that's not ENTIRELY true, unless you substitute the word "pilfer" for "inherit.") In any event, I'm sure many other TCers have stories just like Silverline's, or they still have the family tikis that they grew up with. It makes it more special to me that these tiki items have a family history.

Here are some pictures of my family heirlooms:

[ Edited by: joefla70 on 2005-04-21 11:00 ]

A thread on missing family tikis might be helpful to people like me who don't remember much about that odd figure the folks used to have around.

I found the negative of my only shot of the tikis (I save/saved all my negatives from day one) and got a better scan of them. Still far less than optimal. I don't recall and jewel eyes, but plaster rings a bell. I think the backs were chalk white. I've been watching eBay off and on and still haven't seen anything like them.

I asked my Dad about them again today and he says he bought them at some store in Cape Canaveral, FL. probably in the late 50's early 60's when he was still in the Army.

Classic Silver Line Boats

[ Edited by: SilverLine on 2005-04-21 19:37 ]

[ Edited by: SilverLine on 2005-04-21 19:38 ]