Warren Pennsylvania from Washington Park: Not Just a Picture-Postcard View

This Maxell Tape Still Plays Ringingly Clear After 33 Years

One of my favorite home-recorded cassestte tapes.  It has provided the soundtrack for yard work through the years.

Side 1


Tom Scott & the L.A. Express, "Spindrift".

"Orange Peel"











Side 2




Hookfoot, "Flying in the U.S.A."

"Theme from the Planet Eros"

That Was Then, This Is Now: Bullock's Pasadena (Macy's Pasadena)

From PreserveLA.com:     The existing building was constructed in 1947 as a Bullock's Department Store. Located on South Lake Avenue, promoters touted it as the "store of tomorrow" and Arts and Architecture magazine described it as "one of the world's most modern buildings." In fact, the design was recipient of an AIA Merit Award in 1950.

Above 2 illustrations from Shopping Centers:  Design and Operation.  New York, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1951, pages 46-47.  (Personal copy)

 LINK

 Google satellite view
No rooftop parking anymore.

That Was Then, This Is Now: Washington Elementary School, Davenport, Iowa

Source of illustrations:  "Six New Community Schools for One Community" in School Planning:  The Architectural Record of a Decade.  Compiled by Kenneth Reid, A.I.A.  New York, F. W. Dodge Corporation, 1951.  (Personal copy)

 LINK

Grandma Luthgren's Afghan

Been doing some household cleaning and reorganization this weekend and found this afghan my Grandma Luthgren crocheted for me nearly 62 years ago.

Grandma and me

Related post:
The Luthgren Family, Springfield, Massachusetts 1910.  (2/18/2010)

Warren, Pennsylvania: A View of and Views from the Soon-to-be Repaired Clark Street Parking Garage

Clark Street Garage slated to get $879,575 in repairs. (Warren Times-Observer, 6/24/2011)

Photo #1.  The former Pennsylvania Bank & Trust Building, Warren's tallest, at left; Northwest Savings Bank at center left, plus walkway to operations center in the former Levinson's Department Store; the Warren National Bank (former?  I can't keep up with all the name changes) at center; the Library Theater in center-right background.  See the van in the lower-right-hand corner?  Used to be a 4-story brick building situated here, with an A&P grocery store on the first floor.  I'm sure the Warren County Historical Society owns an Everett Borg photo of this lost building.  I purchased dozens of his reprints during the final years of his studio business on Pennsylvania Avenue West, just east of Market Street.

Photo #2:  Close-up view of Warren's tallest building.  Mr. Sayles, hearing aid salesman, Cutty Sark connoisseur, Buick Riviera owner -- never quite figured out his relationship with Yolanda -- had an office on the top floor back in the 1960s.

Photo #3:  Commercial building along Pennsylvania Avenue West; tower of First United Methodist Church at left; Warren Area Elementary Center at center-right background.

Photo #4:  Hickory Street Bridge crosses the Allegheny River.

Headline News

What else am I going to think about after reading this headline?

Happy Birthday to You

E.I. du Pont (1771-1834)

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913)

Irving Pichel, actor/director (1891-1954)

Memphis Minnie (1897-1973)

Norman Cousins (1915-1990)



Jack Carter  (1923-)

Lawrence Block (1938-)

Michele Lee (1942-)

Mick Fleetwood (1942- )

Jeff Beck (1944- )

Robert Reich (1944-)

At this point, everyone is younger than I am.

You Get What You Deserve

For your stupidity.



From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Three robberies, two shootings tied to Craigslist ad.

In all three instances, the seller set up a meeting place and instructed the potential buyers to bring cash. All meetings were scheduled to take place late at night, or in the early morning hours.

Buyers, didn't you hear this go off?

The Grotto in Dickeyville, Wisconsin

The Grotto is a series of shrines built by a priest from 1925 to 1930. They are created primarily of stone, mortar and brightly colored objects and include (according to the website) materials collected from all over the world: gems, pottery, porcelain, stalagmites and stalagmites, sea shells, starfish, petrified sea urchins and fossils, corals, amber glass, agate, quartz, various ores, fool's gold, rock crystals, onyx, amethyst and coal, petrified wood and moss. You could call it a religious version of The House of the Rock, another famous, over-the-top Wisconsin tourist destination.

Ducks and a Heron @ Tiedeman Pond

Sunday Morning

Getting ready for its Bastille Day 2011 close-up.