Mt. Airy Days

Christmas past

2011-12-29T18:20:00.000-08:00

I remember a few Christmas holiday years from the mid 60s. I would sometimmes go to my grandparents' house after school. It got dark early in the winter time, sunset is at 4:30 in December. My grandmother would turn the light on for me in the living room as I built stuff using the Erector Set or the Kenner Girder and Panel Set. My grandfather would get home around 5. Sometimes he would drive me home right away, other times I would stay for dinner and my father would come over and pick me up and take me home. They were the dark days of winter time. I did not care for winter too much back then. The days are too short. Can't wait till spring time and the days getting longer. I have my race car set up now, with a straight track of the trains running in the middle, just for Christmas. But I will always remember the Christmas times from the mid 60s.

July Fourth

2011-07-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

I recall going to Edmunds Elementary School to watch the fireworks bCK IN THE 60S AND 70s. Not every year. Some years we went to the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf on Germantown Avenue. You could feel the big fireworks in your chest back then. It was fun, we left home just as it got dark and always found a spot to sit and watch. THis was before I was taking pictures, so I have no pics of these events. In an hour, I will be climbing up to the roof of our duplex to watch the fireworks around the county. I think they have been cancelled in Marina Del Rey. I hope I can see the fireworks in other spots. Plus, the neighborhood show in the local city park should be happening. Guess I'll make some dinner and get on the roof around nine.
Happy Fourth Of July Everyone!!!

New Movie

2011-07-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well, summertime is here. The days are getting shorter. When I was eleven, I did not realize it, but as I got older, I would track sunset in the newspaper. At this point, the sunset is around eight forty-five back in Philly. Out here, its further south, sunset is earlier. I have been in Wyoming and Minnesota around this time of year, and the sun sets late, very late. Back when I was young, the summer was just getting started.
I saw two movies this weekend, Super-8 and Green Lantern. I wish the movie special effects guys were this good when I was a kid. I would love these movies. All of the reviews I read or hear are from adults who forgot what being a kid was all about. I would have loved these flicks if I was eleven. I liked Star Wars, and I was grown up when that came out. Twenty matter of fact. And it cost a dollar fifty to get in for the afternoon matinee. What a gyp I thought at the time, I had a girlfriend back then, I was a junior in art school. I had to buy her earrings that cost eighteen dollars on time, I paid six dollars a week to get them for her. That was a ton of money back then. Anyway, Star Wars was great at that age, and the grown-ups back then kept tell us it was just like the old movie serials they saw back in the thirties and forties. We had not seen them, so it was new to us. And we ate it up. So, now, young people raised on video games and other super hero movies, should be given a chance to like these new movies. If I was eleven again, I would have liked it. But being middle aged, I wondered what I was doing in the theater, except to see some new special effects. So, like I said, it was good.

Hello, its been a long time....

2011-05-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I wrote anything on this blog.
Its now May of 2011.
I thought I should write something about Mt. Airy.
At one time, we had a dog. Her name was Cindy. My father took us with the dog to Valley Green, in Fairmount Park a few times, usually on Sunday mornings. It was in the fall, the leaves were turning colors, red, yellow, orange, no blue leaves. On one Sunday morning, we walked for longer than usual. The park was great, the path is called, Forbidden Drive, no motor vehicles allowed. Just pedestrians, bikes, and horses. The Wisahickon Creek runs next to Forbidden Drive. You can’t imagine how cool it is unless you see it. Sunday before Thanksgiving, we went to Valley Green, walked a long time, came home. We lived across the street from Cliveden Park. I ran across the street to the park, out the front door, down the steps, jay walked across the street. Heard the front door slam shut. As I was about to climb the three rail fence to go in to the park, I heard the front door slam again. I looked back at my house, and saw my dog, Cindy, running down the steps towards the street. I went to the curb, put my hands to tell her to stay, but she ran to me across the street, a car speeding up the street from the Johnson Street light. I looked at the car, and the stupid thought crossed my mind that it might stop, but instead it hit my dog, Cindy, and sped off. I saw Cindy spin around and fall to the ground, crying. The car sped up the street, never to be seen again. I ran into the street, stopped traffic, lucky me, since I was only eleven, and why would anyone driving a car stop for a child? At any rate, I picked Cindy up and carried her our front lawn, and put her down gently on the grass. One of our neighbors, Mr. McDowel, came out, and told me to get Cindy to the vet’s as soon as possible. I looked at him, holding back tears. My father came out of the house, and I seem to recall he looked at the situation, and went back into the house. He drove the car around to the front of the house, and I put Cindy on the floor in front of me in the front seat. I do not know how we got to a vet’s office that was open on a Sunday afternoon, but we did. I can’t recall anything the vet said. I do remember the vet put Cindy on the operating table, and I just looked at her, and kept stroking her head. After a while, we left her there. A few days later, we went to visit her, and I do think she was at the vet’s office anymore, seems like she was at the local SPCA offices. She was on the floor, in a big space. She wagged her tail when I got there, but she could not walk, there were bandages on her legs, and she was able to raise her head, she was partly on her stomach and on her side. I think we were there for about half an hour. Then we left. I think on the Friday after Thanksgiving, my mother told me they had to put Cindy to sleep. She said they had done all they could for her. I was with my friends in front of our house when my mother told me the news. I was very sad. I knew it was too dangerous to have a dog in the city. And I never have since then.
So there you have the story of how we lost our dog. It was very sad. If I ever get another dog, I would want her to be something like my old dog, a mixture, of pointer, springer spaniel, cocker spaniel, and whatever else makes a friendly dog.

walking

2009-10-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

I'll be post ing a new blathering soon, memories of Valley Green from when I was child. Its the autumn weather that does it for me. Back in Fairmount Park, the leaves are falling/fallen, all the great colors are there, its cold, the ducks are still in the creek, and they want to be fed. Anyway, I'll write something and post it later about early memories of the park. And my last trip ther as well. Took video this time.

Valley Green

2009-05-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

I was home in April to visit family. Didn't get to Valley Green on that visit, but I was there in October-November. Took a few pictures. Valley Green is the place my father took us back when I was child on Sunday mornings after breakfast for a walk down the path, Forbidden Drive. It was always so quiet and peaceful there. I always remembered those walks with my family on Sunday mornings. Then we stopped going after a few years. When I got my ten speed bike, I found my way there again, and would ride down the path just enjoying the beauty of Fairmount Park. When I moved to California, I would look for areas as beautiful as Valley Green where ever I went. The closest I came was Yosemite National Park. That was a knockout! But it is also spread out over the undeveloped land, whereas Fairmount Park is in the city. Anyway, Valley Green has sentimental value to me, which is why I go on and on about it. Here is picture I took back in the fall last year.

This is the Wissahicon Creek, with just the right amount of sentimental sun flare/glare.

houses in Mt Airy

2008-12-06T20:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some houses in Mt Airy. Old classic stylings. Very interesting lines and shapes. These are in my old neighborhood, around the corner and up the street. I saw them most everyday or week, depending on where I was going.

Valley Green

2008-12-04T08:35:00.000-08:00

I am back from a few trips to Philadelphia, with a couple of new pics to share. Here is the bridge at Valley Green in Fairmount Park. THis was shot back in October on a typical fall day in the park.
I took a walk to the end of Forbidden Drive, Northwestern Avenue. About 5 miles. Good walk that day.
This was taken with the cell phone, small jpeg size, uploads with no changes.
More pics to follow....

The park after the storm...

2008-08-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures of Cliveden Park after the twister/tornando. It looks kind of eerie now, like some monsters are gonna come out from under the wreckage and chew off your leg or something...

Cliveden Park

2008-08-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures taken right after a small twister/tornado blew through Cliveden Park, across the street from my house. I took a bunch of photos that day to record the aftermath of the storm. It was pretty dramatic, lots of wind, and the sound of the trees breaking at their trunks and falling on each other. More trees getting uprooted. Some of those trees were a couple of hundred years old, maybe more. It was a Sunday afternoon. I was out on my bicycle riding around the block. When I got to the front of my house the wind picked up, and blew me UP the street, uphill. I figured it was not too cool to be out in this, whatever it was. The wind was swirling around, and lots of dust was kicked up. It was either April or May, no snow. Just dust. I went into my house, and looked out the front door as the brunt of the storm hit the park. It was very dark, cloudy, but it was the middle of the afternoon. The circular motion of the debris looked like a twister was settling in the park. It just kept getting stronger and faster, and within a few minutes, a tree snapped, then another, and another. More loud winds. Trees were uprooted. It lasted for what seemed to be a half hour, but must only have been four or five minutes. Then it was done. Finished. It just dissipated. Afterwards, I went out and took pictures. I just had these printed for the first time since I took them.

Cars

2008-07-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

A couple of drawings I did some years back, and I need to add some color to them. These are in the style of Dave Deal. He used to draw for CarToons magazine back a few years. He did these great drawings of some hot rods that were turned into plastic model kits by Revell. He also did some drawings for Hot Rod magazine as well.

A school around the corner

2008-04-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

These two pics are windows of a school, taken back in the 70s.

City Hall

2008-04-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a different view of City Hall, Philadelphia. I took this back in the day, and have been meaning to upload it for some time now. Also included are a couple of views of some water dripping in Valley green, Fairmount Park. Taken in 1990, December.

Downtown again....

2008-03-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

I guess its been a while since I last posted. I saw the opening titles to the TV show Cold Case, and thought I should put something up and write a few words to go with the picture.
This is City Hall again, looking down one the four streets that run right into it, I can't recall which one, its been so long now. But the main titles of the show use a couple of shots of City Hall, and the music is good, too. Its a good main title. It makes me think of the many times I went downtown between 1973 and 1979. I was downtown every week in those years. I went to the record stores, Radio 437, Zounds, Jerry's Records, the bookstores, Robbins, Encore, the comic book stores, Ed's, Ron and Bob's, Fat Jack's Comic Crypt, and the art supply stores, Taws, Utrecht, and working. I worked for the Bell Telephone Company, Cousin's Restaurant, Wawa Food Markets, Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company, And the Penn Central railroad Corporation. Then I went to Los Angeles. And instead of having A center city, Los Angeles has several such districts. But I found the record stores, comic book stores, and used book stores as soon as I got off the plane. But I don't think, after all these years, that Los Angeles has a building that has as much personality as Philadelphia's City Hall. Its one of a kind. And when I rode the train into Downtown Philly, and saw City Hall, I felt at home. I can't think of any building like that out here in Los Angeles.

Memories of Cliveden Park

2007-10-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Cliveden Park. I grew up across the street from this park. Its nice to wake up everyday and see a park, instead of more houses, or an empty lot. I had lots of fun over there through the years. Played softball and tackle football, and walked my dog there everyday. My dog and I played in the park everyday of her short life. She was only six months old when she was hit by a car trying to cross the street to get to me in the park. I watched her get hit and felt powerless and guilty and extreme sadness all at the same time. She was put to sleep later that week, Thanksgiving, of all times.
When I was really young, I used to play softball in the park with the neighborhood kids. Once as I stood watching from behind home plate, a girl was up to bat. She hit the ball, and slung the bat, it came right at me, and hit me square in the chest. I fell down, could not breathe, and ran up the slight hillside to the street to catch my breath. I collapsed on the hillside, gasping for air. The whole time I thought I was going to pass out or die. I eventually got my wind back, but I was scared to death.
We used to play tackle football in the park, we waited for fall, and slightly colder weather, it made it more fun. It seemed like we played for 5 hours at a time. Players ranged in age from 9 to 15. When I finished playing, I came home, washed the mud off my sneakers, and watched NFL football on CBS. The sun set through our living room window behind the TV set as the game was played on TV on Sunday afternoon/evenings. School the next day, depressing.
On one side of the park, there were hills that went up to the street. We played army in the hills. Just running back and forth, capturing prisoners, but mostly shooting each other. There were lots of bushes to hide in, and some escapes were made under the cyclone fence to the street and freedom.
The park also had a building in it, seems like it used to be a house. It was used as meeting place for among other things, the girl scouts and the neighborhood associations.
All in all, a really nice place to have in the neighborhood. I missed it when I moved to California. Ther are parks out here, but not as many. This is after all, a desert. But it great in its own way, and the Kenneth Hahn Park between La Brea and LaCienaga is a nice park. Good landscaping, and nice views. Probably the best park in the county.

More junior high school

2007-09-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm in 7th grade, and the math teacher is a real pip. He had us do our homework on tablet paper, 5x8, vertically held, and it had to be set up in a cetain way. Name at the very top. Section, or class number next line down. Date. Number one, with a circle around it for the first problem. The solution is to be written like this: ans.,_______. This he read to us, like this, "A-N-S, period comma, and a line for the answer." If you miss this on any problem, that answer is wrong. Now comes the hard part, he calls on you to come up to the blackboard to write an answer to a problem. If you got the answer right, no problem. But if you got it wrong,.... He would look at the blackboard from his desk, then he would look at you, standing there waiting for his decision. He would then look down at his grade book, and tell you and the class, in a very loud authoritative voice, "Zero recitation, "E" cooperation, and you're a failure." The first time he did that, I think we were in a state of shock. After that, it changed to hurt, then it became a joke that we repeated over and over again. What kind of statement is that to make to students? He must have been some kind of monster. He was really tall and evil loking, you've seen my drawing of him on my drawing blog.
One Monday, he did not show up to school, we had a substitute teacher. The next day, still no Mr Abrams.
Wednesday, he showed up. We walked into the classroom for advisory, and he was seated behind his desk. We sat down in silence, he had no patience for kids who spoke out of turn, and looked at him. He was there alright, but there were crutches behind him leaning in the corner against the wall. Then, he had to get up for some reason or other, and he reached back for the crutches, and hobbled across the room. He had a cast on one leg, up to the knee. We all almost broke our faces trying not to laugh out loud.
And he was looking at us too. He sat down, put the crutches back in the corner, and went back to his paper work.
The next week, he still had the cast on his leg. During math class, David London did something to get Mr Abrams angry, and instead of just telling David to come back after school for detention, he decided to walk out from behind his desk to physically grab David. But he had the cast on, so he dragged his foot behind him as he walked. David jumped up and ran to the other side of the room. Mr Abrams gave chase, dragging his foot the whole time. Everytime he got close to grabbing David, David would walk a few steps out of reach. Then David started to drag his foot like Mr Abrams, just to entertain us. Up and down the aisles of the classroom the chase continued. It was like something out of the Little Rascals. The whole class was laughing up a storm. I think Mr Abrams gave up and sat down, red faced from exhaustion.
Mr Abrams was probably the worst teacher I ever had all through school. He most likely got his teaching degree from a matchbook cover, and I'll bet he took the test 20 times before he passed.

September

2007-09-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

I was going to write about how I hate the month of September. But decided I would write about only one year in particular, the year I started junior high school. A new school, more homework to do, and a bigger school. There were 17 or 18 classes of each grade. 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. I really did not want to be there. I wanted to do something else, anything else, rather than be in school. I wished I was already a grownup so I would be past all the schooling rigamoroll. Then I could watch cartoons all day. Hmmm, sounds like working at Cartoon Network. But junior high school was not fun in September. I remeber the science teacher, Mr Tracton, had a daily assignment of work for us to do, and I did not want to do it. What threw me for a loop was the fact that he wanted to see that daily work a week before report cards came out, to see if we did it or not. And I didn't do it, so I had to scramble to find out what daily work entailed, and try to do eight weeks worth in 2 days. I gave up, turned in what I had, and basically failed the class. My first time failing a class. I remember that he kept telling us that our daily work began on 9-9, and went to mid-October. I asked the girl next to me, Nanette Perotto, what all this work was, and she told me to look back in my notes and see what we wrote done the first few days of school. I saw some chicken scratches I made back in September, and had no memory of what it meant. I asked the teacher, and he explained it to me, but I think I fell asleep whaile he was talking to me. It was just, "blah blah blah blah, your final grade." Then came report card day, and I was a little nervous. Our advisory teacher handed out the report cards. I did not look at mine, I just put it into my briefcase. My family went to my grandparents' house for dinner that night. I still did not look at my report card. When we got home that night, I went to my room, opened my briefcase, and pulled out the envelope. I pulled the card out, saw my name at the top, so I knew it was mine, and opened it up. There in front of my face was a row of bad grades I had never seen before. E was a failing grade. And I had 3 of them. D was the next worst grade, two of those. A couple of C's maybe one B. I had never had a report card like that in my short school life. I almost cried, I thought I was going to get punished by my parents that night and everyday of my life thereafter. My mother called to me to show her my report card. I took the long walk down to the kitchen. I handed the card to my mother, waiting for her to yell at me and tell me what kind of punishment she had in mind for me. Maybe I would have to shovel snow for the entire neighborhood for the rest of my life for free. Or mow lawns for the entire town. Or just have everybody in school line up and laugh at me for all eternity. But none of that happened. She just told I would do better next time. Wait, no yelling? No punishments? Was it because she didn't love me anymore? And my brother and sister would do better than me anyway? Nope, just that she thought I would do better next time. I felt a sigh of relief running around inside my head. I was going to be alright after all. Till next report card. Hoo boy.

Ming

2007-09-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

This is my cat, Ming, 1975. We had Ming from 1974 to 1987, when we had him put to sleep. He had kidney failure. I was trying to scan the negative of this picture, but for some reason I can't seem to get the negative scanner to work. But I found this print
I made in Photography class back in the old days. This was from my very first roll of 35mm film, and I processed it and made the print. It was very enjoyable making prints, watching the image come up in the chemicals. All of that is lost with the digital age. I had lots of prints from back then, but they were damaged by a small flood some years ago, and had to be tossed out.
Ming was the cat who attacked people that tried to pet him. I made him that way by teaching him to fight. I used to wear a leather glove to make him fight, after he tore my palm up with his rear claws. I did not know he would get so ornery and bite everybody. I have more pictures of him, and when I get the negative scanner to work, I will post them.

old photos

2007-07-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

Now, here are some pictures from the winter of 1987-1988, a cold one as I recall, but not as cold as the winter of 1993-1994.
These are taken around my old neighborhood, and I just walked to Awbury Park and snapped these. I think its good to show them now, in the middle of July, in a small heat wave here in Los Angeles. I think the picture of the car front really shows how cold it was.

A little memory of my Schwinn....

2007-07-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

Here is the story of how I learned to ride a bicycle.
I remember,
when I was learning to ride a bike,
I was six, and my father ran alongside,
holding the bike up to balance me.
My friends ran along too, cheering me on.
I couldn't maintain balance and my feet hit the ground to stop every time.
This must have gone on for three weekends at my grandparents house.
At least the weather was good, fluffy clouds in the sky, sun shining, light breeze blowing. My father would release the bike, and I would just put my feet down on the ground and stop. I just couldn't do it. I didn't know why. After a few weeks of this, I thought I would be on training wheels forever.
This must have been in the spring. One day after school, I took my bike out of the basement in to the alley, took the training wheels off and just sat there. Some time went by as I was alone with my thought. Finally, I walked the bike up the alley a little ways, and sat on the seat. I was pointing downhill. I took a deep breath, and picked my feet up off the ground. I coasted a couple of yards, then put my feet on the pedals, turned the bike uphill, and pedaled. To my amazement, I was able to keep my balance! I stopped, put my down on the ground, exhaled, and almost laughed out loud. I had surprised myself. I never thought I would be able to ride a two wheeler. But I had to do it again to make sure I had not imagined the whole thing. I walked the bike back to the starting line, and got on. I lifted my feet up off the ground, and coasted again down the alley. After a few feet this time, I turned and pedaled uphill again. I did not lose my balance, I did not fall down. I did it all by myself, no one cheering me on. No one watching me. It was more fun and exhilarating that way for me.
I turned the bike around and coasted down to my house. I ran in and told my mother that I could ride my two wheeler, and to come out on the back porch and watch me ride. She laughed and walked out onto the porch. I ran out to the alley and got on the bike. I stood there for what seemed like an hour while I tried to recall how I did it. Then I took my feet off the ground, and coasted down the alley again. I was kind of wobbly and thought I would fall off the bike. But I didn't. I balanced, and turned the bike around and pedaled uphill again. It worked! Now I knew I had not just dreamed it all. I was actually riding my bike and staying on it.
Now I had enough confidence to stay on it and turn around and ride downhill to my house. The next time I looked up, my father was on the back porch with my mother
watching me ride. He was smiling and clapping his hands for me. I had achieved.

the old days....

2007-05-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

I should have written something by now, but, oh well, sometimes you get sidetracked. I was recalling some of my oldest memories. I remembered walking to my grandparents house for lunch and afterschool when I went to Emlen school. It was a very short walk through a very quiet neighborhood. Tree lined streets, Pleasant Playground, the Quick Shop corner store. It was
pretty quaint, like a Norman Rockwell painting, but in the city. In my grandparents basement, I would watch TV while my grandmother ironed clothes. The floor was smooth concrete, and my grandmother would give me a soup can of water and a half inch paint brush so I could draw on the floor in water. No paint, just water. The pictures would dry and fade away after a few minutes. She would feed me lunch and I would walk back to school. All within an hour. Then if my mother was still not home after school, I would go back to my grandparents' house and stay there till my father drove over to get me and take me home.
I remember the year I got an Erector set and a Kenner Girder and Panel Building set for Christmas and I think I kept them at my grandparents' house. That winter I went to their house after school and watched cartoons, Roger Ramjet, Eighth Man, and played with my building sets. The sun set around four thirty and I can still remember my grandmother turning on the living room lamps so I could see what I was building. Sometimes I would stay for dinner, do my homework there, then my parents would come over and get me and take me home.
I had a whole other set of friends in my grandparents' neighborhood. I'll write about them in the future.

Clouds...

2007-03-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some clouds I saw in Philly back in January on my all too short a visit. They were striking that day.

Summer of 65

2007-02-16T21:08:00.000-08:00

A Day in the Summer of 1965

I think it was in the summer of '65.
I remember there was a big party at Pleasant Playground, up the street from my grandparents' house in Mt. Airy, probably July Fourth. I can't remember anything about the party at the playground, but I do recall that afterwards,
my grandparents' neighbor, Mr Baynard, ran down the alley with a bag of candy, throwing handfuls of it out as he ran, and a bunch of kids, me included, ran after him, picking up the candy in a frenzy. I had a little red wagon that I pulled behind me as I ran. And for some reason, the wagon was full of blank drawing paper. Needless to say it flew out as I ran and was all over the alley. I think I also fell and skinned my knee, as I was prone to do in those days, being a child whose feet sometimes ran ahead of me. I saw that alley so many times in my lifetime. On my last trip home, I went to the old neighborhood and took some photos of the alley. The first picture is the entrance to the alley, the second and third pics are the views looking up the alley to the playground. as you can see, people built decks in back of their houses in the 80s and 90s. They did not do that in the 60s and 70s. That's about the only thing that looks different from '65. These rowhouses were built all over the north west and northe east of Philadelphia back in the late 40s and early 50s. So there are many similar looking homes all over the city from the same time. Big expansion times. I'll figue out later which cut rate architect designed these things.

Valley Green/Wissahickon Drive

2006-12-09T21:06:00.000-08:00

This was taken in Fairmount Park back in the 80s. Its on Wissahickon Drive, in the fall, near the Park Police Barracks. Fairmount Park is the the greatest place to be to enjoy nature, and just sit and think. Very calm and away from the city even though its in the city. I have a bunch of these pictures posted on Flickr, Yahoo's picture sharing site. Just search for Valley Green Fairmount Park, and you'll see my pictures under the name of soscott3. You can see tons of pictures by everyone in the world of anything and everything. Lots of great pictures of life unfolding in front of people's eyes.

Forbidden Drive

2006-11-20T22:34:00.000-08:00

Another view of Forbidden Drive in the fall of 1991. THis path runs near it for a short distance, I think. Its been a long time since I was there at this spot. But autumn in Philly is the most beautiful place to be for the intense colors.

The bridge to the Valley Green Inn

2006-11-19T22:28:00.000-08:00

This is the bridge to the Valley Green Inn in Fairmount Park. Once you cross this bridge, you are walking on Forbidden Drive. Only pedestrians, bicycles, and horses are allowed on Forbidden Drive. A really cool place and I don't know why I took so long to post any pics from this trip. This and the next pictures I will post are from a trip I took to Philly in November 1991. I think this is a walk I took with my father, the first time I could recall being there with him since the 60s. We took a slow walk through the park on really nice day, and I snapped a couple of rolls of pictures. I take many rolls of pics whenever I go home, especially in Fairmount Park. I will be posting even more pictures on my Flickr page soon, like tonight.

It's Halloween, 2006

2006-10-31T20:12:00.000-08:00

Well, its Halloween. I recalled that my parents gave me a Halloween party when I was eight. About thirty kids showed up. I had fun, and I guess everybody did. There are pictures from that event in my parents' photo album. THis year my parents sent me a box of goodies, which are so much darn good eating, I don't want to share them with anyone. At the office, there was a costume contest and a haunted house and free hot dogs, and soda, and cookies and candy and and and.....it was a good time. But I made it home in one piece from the Los Angeles freeway system.
Well, I need to scan a picture or two and post them from the old days.
Later.

Leaving Mt. Airy

2006-10-24T23:39:00.000-07:00

I have been out here in Los Angeles for twenty seven years now, I still miss Philadelphia. Its why I take so many photos when I go home. I will post some more pictures soon.

Valley Green

2006-10-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

Today I thought about Valley Green in Fairmount Park, and how much I miss it. I have two photographs hanging up in my cubicle that I look at while I am working to take me back to the park whenever I look up. Most of my memories of it from the 70s are taking long bike rides on Forbidden Drive whenever I needed to not hear the sounds of the city. I had a Fuji bicycle back then, and I loved to ride it as much as I could. And riding in the park back then was a good long ride. This is the path I would ride on, very cold on this particular day in 1990 when I took it. Winter time, January to be exact. The Wissahickon Creek runs parallel to the Forbidden Drive, and its sound is very relaxing. The top picture is the Henry Avenue Bridge, which crosses over the park at a tremendous height. The park is in a valley, hence the name, Valley Green.

Old Comics...

2006-10-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

Marvel and DC comics

I just pulled down a bag of comics from the shelf, and recalled a time when my parents took my comics away from me in grade school. I wasn't doing my homework for some reason, and my parental units decided it was because I was reading a bag of comics given to me by a friend of my mother's. It was a shopping bag full of comics. And I could not get enough of them. I found them to be more fascinating than anything in school, so I read them constantly. And it showed in my schoolwork. As in, I did not do it. So, the teacher probably sent home a note, asking my parents where my homework projects were. And my parents asked me, and I answered that I did not know. They knew what was going on, and hid my comic books in a secret place. It took me months to find them. And when I did, I kept it to myself. I was on the way down the wrong road of life. I was about to become, a comic book geek. Mothers, don't let your sons grow up to become comic book geeks. That bag of comics had such gems as Fantastic Four Annual number 4, and Spiderman Annual number 2, I think. They became my escape from school, and I should have figured out how to balance school work and comics through school. Oh well....

Cliveden Park

2006-10-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

Cliveden Park is a great park in Philadelphia. Its at Johnson and Musgrave Streets in Mt. Airy. Its a large city block, and its part of the Philadelphia Park system, probably the largest park system in a city in the world. I grew up across the street from Cliveden Park. My dad taught me how to throw and catch a baseball there. I played softball there, and tackle football, and ran through the hills on the Cliveden Street side throughout my childhood. In 1976 I think, a tornado touched down in the middle of the park, and took out many of the old trees. It was a scary Sunday afternoon, and I took pictures of the aftermath. The park was not the same after that. Whenever I go home to visit, I drive past the park, just to look at it and remember. I took pictures there last year, and will post some of them later. There was a muddy gully in the park, right where we played softball. It was probably part of an underground creek. When I played softball in the park, there were a bunch of older guys playing, and sometimes girls too. Once I was standing beside the big tree at home plate, and an older girl was up at bat. She swung and hit the ball, and slung the bat really hard. It hit me square in the chest, and I almost passed out. I ran to the hill which was next to Johnson Street gasping for air. I was crawling up the hill as the other kids ran to me to see if I was okay. I can still remember trying to get air into my lungs, and I thought I was done for. It took a while to get my breath back, and the other kids told me I was standing to close to the plate. I stood behind the tree after that. I played softball for couple of years in the park after that, but those kids left the park, and a new bunch came in, and we switched to tackle football in the soft leaves of autumn. We played that for couple of years then stopped playing in the park. After that, I would ride my bike through the park, and take pictures, but not hang out there. Matter of fact, nobody hung out and played in the park anymore. But it was a beautiful park back in the sixties and early seventies.

Johnson Street

2006-10-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

A Saturday morning walk

I remember one Saturday morning when I was about six or seven years old, my father took me for a walk up Johnson Street to Germantown Avenue. I don't know why we were walking up Johnson Street, maybe to go to a store for a certain item. Somewhere on Germantown Ave., my dad bought a toy fire engine for me, a small metal hook and ladder truck. It was so cool. I wash I still had it, just remind me of that day, which I think was in the fall. I missed the Saturday morning cartoons, but it was okay, because I was walking with my dad. Johnson Street was the way to drive to West Philadelphia to see my dad's side of the family. My mother's family all lived in Mt. Airy, very close to home. But to see my cousins who were my age, we had to drive to West Philly, a twenty minute trip through Fairmount Park. And Johnson Street was the first part of the trip. I took some pictures last year of Johnson Street, for an idea for a story I want to do about animals living in Cliveden Park who need to journey to Fairmount Park on Lincoln Drive. To take the pictures I had to drive there, get out of the car and walk around the neighborhood. It reminded me of the walk up Johnson Street I took with my dad so long ago. I am still looking for that fire engine in toy books and e-Bay. If you see it, let me know.

Dark Side of the Moon

2006-09-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

I listened to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon today, and yesterday, and the day before, and it is still a great album. When it came out, the only cut to get air play in Philadelphia was the top forty hit, Money. I had no idea there was such good music on the record until I heard it on the radio in art school in the etching studio. The radio was usually tuned to 93.3 WMMR, a progressive rock station, which meant they would play cuts from albums that were more than three minutes long. And sometimes these pieces would come on and stay on, for twenty minutes.
And sometimes the DJ would actually tell you what the cut was he just played. And one time he said it was Pink Floyd. I looked at the album in the record store, and it had two prisms on the cover, with a rainbow. Pretty cool. But I had other records to buy, with what little money I had at the time. I heard a cut from one of their albums, Welcome to the Machine which is on Wish You Were Here. That record blew me away. I still did not buy Dark Side of the Moon. So years pass. I came to Los Angeles. I found Pink Floyd's album, Animals, used, $1.19. I had heard a couple of the cuts in school, a few years before, and it was another great record. I Realized I had to buy Dark Side of the Moon. I was not disappointed. This album is so great, it stayed on the Billboard top 300 list for years. If you don't have it already, get it. It'll blow yer mind, as they used to say back in the day.
I'll be back next week with another memory of a great record and how I first heard it on the radio.

Finding a song heard on the radio....

2006-09-13T21:55:00.001-07:00

Today is September 13, 2006.
I was thinking about a time when I was trying to find a record I heard on the radio.
I was supposed to be studying for final exams, but was listening the radio. I switched stations alot, sometimes coming in on the middle of a song. At some point, I heard couple of good songs on one station, and taped them. I switched the station, listened for a while, then swiched back to the first staion. A song was on, and it sounded like a new sound to me. It was a very stong guitar and hand clapping. Nobody did that back then. I had taped the last part of the song, thinking the DJ would announce the title afterwards. Of course he didn't, and I was left trying to find this song/group for the next few years. Remember, this is before the internet. I walked into the local record shops, asking if anyone knew of a song that ended with guitar and hand clapping. Blank stares is what I got. Nobody knew anything. I asked people in school. More blank stares. Years go by. I was in a record store in New Jersey, talking to the one of the guys who worked there, and asked him about the song. He said it sounded like a group called King Crimson, and that it might be on this record of theirs called Lizard. I bought it for $3.99, took it to my cousin's house, and it was not the record. But something about it told me it was this group. I just had to find the catalog. So I bought more of their records, still no luck with the song I heard on the radio. I was in a record store in downtown Philadelphia, talking to a guy who worked there, describing the song, and said it might be on this record, King Crimson's Starless and Bible Black. A really great record, but still not the one. Next trip downtown, I walked into the store saw the guy in the back of the store, and without saying a word, he handed me a record called Red, by King Crimson. He said this was the one. I took the record home, put it on the turntable, and listened to a few bars of each song. The third song on side one was THE SONG. It was called, One More Red Nightmare. It blew me away! It was the most intense record ever recorded in the history of rock music. It made everything called HEAVY METAL sound like whiny crap. It blew Black Sabbath to the back wall. I had always heard that Sabbath was the epitome of Heavy Metal. I bought one of their records, the one with Iron Man, and it was so weak, I laughed at it. I realized you had to be high on something, like airplane glue, to really like that music. Listening to Crimson was a revelation of what music could be, and should be. It was amazing. I have a lot of Crimson music now, and whenever I need a brain blast of real music, I listen to Red. My brother says I looked like I was in a very far away place when I listened to the album Red. Well, that was memory of King Crimson. The other music on the original tape I made was a song by 10cc called The Worst Band in the World, and a song by Yes, called The gates of Delirium. Not a bad mixture of music. I wish I had saved that tape. They do last a long time.
I will post more music memories later.

Back in junior high school....

2006-09-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

September 9th is coming up. For me, its a bad date. In 7th grade, it was 9-9. That was the first day of notes to take for science class with Mr. Tracton. And just before first report cards came out, he wanted to see all of our "daily work" and other notes from the first day of class, all the way up to that point. 9-9. And someone in class kept asking him about the first date that should be on the daily work, and he kept repeating, with a smile, "9-9 is the first day of daily work, and you should have that page on top." I, of course, had nothing to hand in. Because when I got to class, I more or less daydreamed until he began talking. Which was ten minutes into classtime because he was late. So the daily work was to keep us busy until he got there. Once, I was at his desk with Nanette Paroto, asking him a question about an "E" I recieved on a short quiz. I asked why the answer to one question was wrong, and Nanatte pointed to the numbers on the weather map I had written down. She said barametric pressure never goes as high as thirty-seven. If I had done the daily work, or paid attention in class, I would have known that. I think I got an "E", Unsatifactory, for science class first quarter. And I always remembered that, it started on 9-9.

The Doobie Brothers, summer of 1973, and comic books

2006-09-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

I heard the Doobie Brothers song, "Free Ride" on the way home today. Took me an hour and a half to get home from Burbank. Its the start of the holiday weekend. I took surface streets the entire way. Took me an hour to get to downtown LA. On the radio at one point, the Dooboie Brothers song, Free Ride was playing. I thought back to the summer of 1973, when I got my first summer job, working at the telephone company. In the office was a radio tuned to a top 20 station. That was the summer of big hits like Free Ride, Smoke on the Water, Feelin' Stronger Everyday, and We're an American Band. Those songs were drummed into my head. For lunch, I would eat at the hot dog stands for $1.50, or go to Dewey's for a burger and soda, $2.00. One lunch hour, I was walking down 20th Street, and almost walked past a store that sold back issue magazines, and, it turns out, old comic books. I walked in, just as the owner, an old lady, watched a man walk out. She told me that she was pretty sure he had just stolen a copy of Oui magazine, a porno mag, by slipping it under his suit jacket. I saw on the counter some boxes of comic books, and started to flip through them. They all cost 50 cents. No matter how old they were. I picked up some Thor comics that filled in the gaps in my collection that my cousin had given me the year before. I knew there was a market for old comics, I had read about it in a school magazine called Scholastic. Needless to say, I was in the store at least 4 times a week. Buying comics.
Then, one day I walked in, and the old lady was not there. There was a guy behind the counter, named Ed. He charged dollars for old comics. And they were exspensive. I kind of introduced myself, and figured out he was now charging market value for the old comics. The good times were over. I dropped a lot of dough at the comic shop that year. I would go downtown after school and buy comics instead of studying, instead of saving my money for college. Well, I guess it wasn't so bad. I did not go overboard and wind up with ten thousand comics. But I had a few.
Somewhere in that time frame, a 2nd comics shop opened downtown, right around the corner from Ed's store. It was run by Ron and Bob. And it was located above a porn supply shop called The Pleasure Chest. Every once in a while, somebody would wander in, look around for a few seconds, and Bob would tell the person, "its downstairs", and the person would smile, nod, and walk out. Bob would just shake his head and smile. Ron and Bob sold comics in a well lit store on Walnut Street, and they had glass cases to disply the comics. It was the exact opposite of Ed's store. It was air conditioned and the heater worked in the winter. A very good place to buy comics, and they were very knowlegable about their products. I think I spent more coin there than Ed's place. Its where I bought a Russ Cochran black and white reprint of Frank Frazetta's old comics, "Untamed Love". Seven dollars well spent. I became a Frazetta geek at that point. I spent some weeks debating whether or not to buy it. And there was also a set of Famous Funnies covers by Frazetta, reprinted by Cochran, for twelve dollars. Could not bring myself to spend the loot. I wish I had now, they were beautiful. Now, you can see them on the internet, but back then, you could only see them on old comics or in this collection by Cochran. I also bought the Steranko History of the Comics. That really put the hook in me. I wanted to get into the comics field as an artist, and draw as well as Frank Frazetta, Neal Adams, Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, and a slew of other guys.
So that was the summer of 1973. The beginning of my descent into the artworld.
I'll have more memories later.

Another memory...

2006-08-31T08:57:00.000-07:00

I have something to write, but it will have to wait till I get more time. I recalled something that triggered another old memory, and then thought about how to write it so it would be more interesting to you, the reader.
Its on the way.

Today is August 18th, 2006.

2006-08-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

The other day, I saw a news item about John Glenn, the senator-astronaut. I kind of remembered when he went up into space into orbit back in the early sixties. Was it 1960, or 1961? I think it was on TV early in the morning. Silver shots onscreen from Cape Canaveral. Black and white TV sets. Our TV set was in the living room of our first floor apartment.
Not a very big apartment, but two bedrooms and a kitchen that you had to walk through to get to the bathroom. My memories are fading about the place, but my parents have a bunch of photos from that time. I remember when we moved, I was six years old, and I don't think I wanted to go to the new house. Or the new school. At six years old, I had no desire to make new friends, or begin attending a new school mid year. I was in first grade. My old teacher was named Mrs. Van. My new teacher was named Mrs. Reese. She did not like children to erase anything they wrote, so she ripped the erasers off
all of our pencils. The new school had a strange smell. There was a lot of wood in the design of the school, I wonder if the smell was cleaning solution on the wood? It was a three story school, and had a small school yard, just like my old school.
A couple of the kids in my class I knew all the way to high school. That doesn't sound right, grammar wise. But I think you get my meaning. Well, I started this with a memory of John Glenn. When I hear his name or see him on TV, I think back to my childhood, and watching him blast off into space. I think everyone was excited about this launch. It was important, it was ground breaking. He was going to orbit the earth. I think he was the first to do that. Looking back, everyone must have been a little nervous, thinking he might not get back alive. Well, he made it back, and the American space program was off
to a roaring start in ernest. After that, the space program was mentioned in the Weekly Reader every week, or so it seemed. I should see if anyone is selling Weekly Readers on eBay from the sixties.

First Day Posting...

2006-08-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a new blog for you to read, based on my memories of growing up in Philadelphia Pa.
I'll include old photos I took back in the day of various locations, just to give some color and variety to an otherwise text heavy blog. Well, look for postings in the days to come. I do not know if I will post daily or once a week. Be ready. You have been warned.