 I’ve been listening to S-Town, a podcast made by This American Life (not to be confused with That American Life). As with many podcasts, the narrator is not a professional. Sometimes that works; sometimes you just get irritated by another voice with a nasality and hint of fry and uptalk? and general impression of a smart kid who was a dork in high school, and had a doting mother. Who was and is so proud.
Which is fine! I just get tired of hearing one podcast after the other sound like it was narrated by an NPR intern? In this case I don’t know if that’s what the guy’s like, and the voice was initially off-putting, but then the other voices in the story come in and it’s fascinating. The voice of the guy who kicks the whole story off is a real piece of work: a super-smart backwoods Town Freethinker who believes the planet is doomed and humanity is horrible, and all will dissolve. (We will soon run out of oil, for example.) He also is a master clock repairman.
Then it takes a turn. If you’re interested in true-story podcasts, give it a listen. I’m four eps in and it’s good - not for the narrator, who is serviceable, but the story he tells and the Alabama voices.
Anyway, as noted: busy week, so let's start padding this baby out!
It's been a while since we visited my favorite antique-store / museum. I don't know where they get this stuff. I'm just happy it survived.
Frightening Alky-Crow! You hope he's on your side. If not you'll have fun for a while.
It's big. I should have bought it. I was reluctant to see what it cost, because if it was just a tad over what I would have paid, I would have bought it.
Now that I think about it I should go back tomorrow and see if it's there. Now I really want it.
Still made:
The name would have been familiar.
Virginia Dare (born August 18, 1587, date of death unknown) was the first English child born in the British Colonies in the New World.
What became of Virginia and the other colonists remains a mystery. The fact of her birth is known because John White, Virginia's grandfather and the governor of the colony, returned to England in 1587 to seek fresh supplies. When White eventually returned three years later, the colonists were gone.
During the past four hundred years, Virginia Dare has become a prominent figure in American myth and folklore, symbolizing different things to different groups of people. She has been featured as a main character in books, poems, songs, comic books, television programs, and films. Her name has been used to sell different types of goods, from vanilla products to soft drinks, as well as wine and spirits.
But not today; the name has passed from popular consciousness.
Billion Bubble Beverages!
Vess! The very name hisses with effervescence. Sylvester Jones foudned hte company; "Vess" was his nickname.
But what was the flavor? Vess was the name that encompassed many flavors. What was basic Vess? Cola, probably. You hate to think it was Lemon-Lime.
More bottles:the middle one speaks to me.
It's the classic OFF! color scheme. I was unaware that Rexall went pink for a while; seems at odds with the orange color of its signage.
The mystery is the one on the left.
Down the hallway in the basement, one of those tableaus that explains why I love this place: this just appeared one day.
Someone's home art project? A bit large for paint-by-numbers; it stands 6 feet tall.
A tableau made from an old ad and some toys:
The glamorous age of bus travel, when streamlined Greyhounds roamed the land, populated by decent people wearing nice dresses and suits and ties. No one threw up in the toilet and there were no crying babies.
I had a few of these records as a kid, and let me tell you: that Cricket bothered me.
He was from a different era. It's from the early 50s, but the style is 40s all the way. Wikipedia:
Record collectors regard most Cricket Records – indeed, most vinyl products produced by Pickwick – as "junk." There is a measure of affection for the label among baby-boomers and collectors who specialize in kiddie records, though finding copies of Cricket Records with the sleeve intact, and in excellent condition, remains a challenge.
Well, here's one.
About two feet away from the Cricket record, one old photograph.
"Maribel McDonald '18" She had no idea that she'd end up looking out of the window in strangers's homes all over the country - the world - for just a while in 99 years.
Yesterday's Bleat Ban, explained:
IBM's proto-computer museum says:
In 1891, Edward Canby and Orange O. Ozias, two businessmen from Dayton, Ohio, purchased the patents for the newly invented computing scale and incorporated the Computing Scale Company for the production of commercial scales.
Now why would IBM care about that?
In 1911 the Computing Scale Company, the International Time Recording Company, and the Tabulating Machine Company merged to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. In 1924 the company changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation, now known as IBM.
You're looking at the Apple ][ to the modern iPhone.
This made me smile: from my old era at the University, a piece of old Dinkytown.
Seven dollars? Nah.
You can see the old signage here: all four (Perines is dimly visible on the left) are gone, as is the Campus Cobbler on the building by the right.
They were there once, though, and for the people who still call Dinkytown home? We remember.
Because we spent so much time at Campus Frame, framing things.
He looks as if he's been stunned since his wedding night:
About that marriage:
In 1926, Hellinger was one of the judges for a beauty contest sponsored by the Daily News. The winner was Ziegfeld showgirl Gladys Glad, and on July 11, 1929, the two were wed. She divorced him in 1932, but after a year the two remarried on the same date as their original wedding, and they remained wed until his death from a coronary thrombosis.
Now the fate any writer would appreciate:
He was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on Christmas Eve.
Anyway, Gladys went into journalism as well, as noted; here's a picture of the two working at the same desk.
Before that, when she was a glamour gal? Ah, the Twenties.
 Twenty-three thousand souls - the perfect size for a downtown of substance. Or one that once had substance, and now hears the wind whistle through the windows.
Says its Wikipedia page: "Amtrak's Empire Builder passenger train passes through, but does not stop in, Watertown."
Interesting group, and it must annoy local anal retentives. Not for the window arches.
Modernization, in one of its few iterations: the 50s Stone Jumble.
Wikipedia:
Growth of the city was substantially hampered when Watertown issued almost half a million dollars in bonds to support the building of two railroads to town to encourage further growth: the Chicago & Fond du Lac Company and the Milwaukee, Watertown & Madison Road.
That's a lot of money. It was really a lot of money in 1853. Then came the Panic of 1857, which would depress the economy until the middle of the next decade.
But that was all before they built the things you see here.
It does lend variety to the street, this pretence that the middle building is its own man:
But I'd argue against it. Unless they painted them all.
Well, that's not uncomfortable at all:
That's about the worst ground-floor bank renovation I've seen in all the years we've been doing this.
This was the Bank of Watertown. The original building was constructed in the 1850s, and survived the Panic. This building was erected in 1915/. It looked like this in 1957.
Here's a fellow with a nice-sized ego:
There a several references to the Herro family in Watertown history page. One of their businesses was the Tot & Teen Shop.
That's a name for Moms, not kids.
Legend says it turns to glass if you utter the word "OrreH" three times while turning counter-clockwise:
Oh now COME ON.
It's not listed on the historic buildings site, perhaps because they're ashamed. It looks as if there was something quite nice and civilized that had to be exfoliated with extreme prejudice.
A view of the alley, with a ghost sign and a bit of Buckaroo Revival.
Looks like Hoffman Clothing.
Sometimes a building looks as if it's lifting up its skirts:
The Carlton House.
There's really quite a lot more - I could have done another episode. And I did! More next week.
That'll do. That was a lot. See you around! |
