I've been writing stories from my early life and I put the cart before the horse, saying the name of the place, Sugarhouse. That grabbed the attention of friend, Kass, who immediately wanted to know specifically where in Sugarhouse. While I slowed the story-telling in order to lay a foundation, she patiently awaited the release of my address. I posted it Sunday.Yesterday she went out with her camera, and I don't think that's much different from many of her days, even though we are of short acquaintance and she hasn't told me her schedule. The bloggers were pretty quiet Monday, but just as I was about to lock up the office and call it another long day, she popped up. I hurried to Old Sugarhouse and when the first image came up, I had to push the chair back from the desk and take a very deep breath.
For there, right before my eyes, was the red b rick duplex and the long asphalt driveway. Exactly as I remembered them. I'd been typing about that driveway 15 minutes previously. It's the stage upon which Tiny Tears and I played out a bicycle drama. There was the pine tree, a behemoth now, but after all, it's been 51 years. She took photos of the neighboring houses and various items of interest throughout the neighborhood. We now know we grew up in very close proximity to one another. Later in the evening, she let me know she'd PhotoShopped a sepia image of my home, and that gives it a distinct 1950s flavor, even though the picture was shot in 2009.Looking at these places I remember (yes, that's a Beatles song I love) at the same moments I'm writing of them feels surreal. I am struck by this blogger's kindness, energy and creativity. Last night on her other blog, she commented: "Since I bought my little, inexpensive digital camera, I am in LOVE with taking pictures." I would say so, Kass! We can see that you do! Please keep doing it. Thank you for sharing what you see in the world with your own creative spin.
Photo credit with sincere thanks: Kathryn Feigal
In my ears right now: Rolling Stones, "Waitin' on a Friend". I've always loved the song and I'm playing it now in the spirit of making and keeping new friends.
Something that charmed me: Well,l what do you think? That travelogue through Sugarhouse and the pilgrimage to 2503 S. 6th East!
Limes, it doesn't take much to get me out on a photo assignment. Anything else you would like more currently brought to mind? In reference to the loomingly large building on 6th East - yes, it DOES take a conscience to object. Well put. It took me about 35 years of objection before I could totally unsign myself (you've probably observed or guessed, that is a rare occurance in my family - and not to be forgotten or forgiven. I am OFF THE BEAM, according to my many).
ReplyDeleteWV= prons - Limes, you can modify that with your last WV
Good morning! I'm glad you're out in the world snapping photos. I appreciate you for that. I'm going to write a post in that theme - not simply appreciation of you, but about people finding what THEY do well and not needing to do EVERYthing well. Which is impossible, anyway, so why do I get into such a twist about that?
ReplyDeleteI did figure out that you'd stepped away from the hallowed halls. The Badger had asked me about that and I told him you rant about it in some of your earlier posts. He and I (and millions of others) have both run screaming from Catholicism all of our lives. And, no, the families don't get it, forget it or forgive it.
My adjective trumps your prons!
It's a shame about the bike and Tiny Tears. Pretty traumatic, I'd say. As for my first ride on a bike, it belonged to some neighbor kids. I got on and rode the two wheeled beast the first time, like I was made for it. Stopping was another matter, however. Until I learned the braking system, I would roll onto the grass and fall off!
ReplyDeleteI've heard that anecdote a time or two, I believe! You've just given a beautiful comparison of an eventual cyclist to just a girl and her Tiny Tears riding a bike with a basket and a bell. Do you suppose this trauma could have been the reason for my eventual . . . . nah. It wasn't that traumatic. I'm glad you learned to brake, Badger.
ReplyDeleteWithin a week of first learning to ride my new J.C. Higgins bicycle, I rode out into the street from in between parked cars. I was pitched onto the graveled road by an oncoming car, but sustained nary a scratch.
ReplyDeleteLimes I love your reminiscenses.
WV informs I have a gymyon my roof.
Hey, Tag, I've been missing you. I was concerned that you'd gone very quiet. Ha ~ one of those damned kids who can sustain being hit by a car and walking away from it. Good for you! I'm pleased you're enjoying the walk through my cobwebs - there is so much more to come. It is really, really good for me to be doing this. I'm compelled to tell my stories - just let them out of me. The fact that nice people then say, "Yay!" or "That must have hurt." or "I'm sorry." or "How funny!" is a bonus, of course. But I'm really getting the most from just telling it the way it all happened, from my perspective.
ReplyDeleteDo you work out in that gymyon your roof? Could I buy a membership?
You lived in a duplex? So did I for part of my childhood. It looks like yours may have had seperate driveways. We and the neighbors had to share ours.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the present should be sepia toned.
Hiya, Kirk! No, we shared the driveway you see, and the garage back there that is now yellow. Most families in those days only kept one car, so that garage was adequate. That driveway seemed a mile long to me, if you read some of the writing I did before Kass took the pictures yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI feel kind of sepia toned, a little venerable, a little antiqued and worse for wear and tear, so why not the duplex?
The reason I thought there might be more than one driveway is because I only see one entrance. I figured the entrance I didn't see was paired with another driveway. So where is the other entrance? You didn't share with the other family, did you?
ReplyDeleteKirk, if you visit Kass's Old Sugarhouse, scroll down to her post of yesterday: For Limes - A Visit to Your Old Neighborhood. Look closely at the third picture down. The Christensen's concrete stairs can be seen at the far right edge of the duplex and one can see that their wall was very close to the property line and the neighbor's driveway.
ReplyDelete"Yes, I know one doesn't post huge photo files on blogs, but I needed the 'glyph details to be visible. I can live with the shame."
ReplyDeleteAm I committing some sin by posting big pictures on my blogs? Too much scrolling? What am I missing? I wonder if there is a blog about blog etiquette.....?
WV=dizinger - If I post big pictures, will it make people dizinger and dizinger?
Kass, I'll try to put it in context. My quote there is a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction after a photographer and more experienced blogger than I chided me and suggested I learn to reduce the resolution of some of the pictures I post to appropriate web publication size. This was good-natured chiding, but one doesn't want to appear to be a rube, and neither do I. I hadn't realized I was being inappropriate, but I caught on pretty quickly because I don't care to have the blog picture posting police giving me warning tickets. "Sin" is a nasty word and you're already on record about how you feel about those who determine what is sin, so my vote is that you keep on doing what you do so well.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I love that you brought up blog etiquette! It's a subject that's intrigued me since I started reading blogs and writing on one. I once had to ask a blogger,"HEY, can she do that?" when one of the followers (with whom I wished to have no direct contact) began to pick me off in the Comments section across all the other discussion that was happening. She targeted me and I didn't care for it. The blogger replied, "I probably need to manage some of that exchange when I decide whether to publish a comment or not."
Something I want to post about, except I'm currently writing so many pieces I may never rest again: the oddities and intricacies of Blogger. I've made some observations that make me scratch my head. Yesterday I got an e-mail to say "WTF, I just ______ on Blogger and ______?" Another head scratcher. I'd love to hear what other bloggers run up against and how they work out the little wrinkles in this program we all enjoy so much.
I don't post pictures for the simple reason that I use the computer at the library, and don't want to waste limited time trying to figure out exactly you go about doing that.
ReplyDeleteOne of these days, I'm going to have to give it a try.
Well, Kirk, of course you have to measure how you want to spend your time. I might suggest that your absence of photos lends a certain mystique to you and your blog and also serves to make your readers pay close attention to your words.
ReplyDeleteI caught on to managing the images pretty quickly - getting them to a small size, etc. On another note, however, I suffered a little angst for awhile that I couldn't manage to both write and go out to seek my own images to illustrate my writing. I was e-mailing back and forth last evening with someone and out popped a little surprise. I found myself saying (and meaning), "I can't do everything. If I try to do everything, I won't do anything well. I'm a wordsmith. That's all I need to be." And my dear friend said, "Now take it and run." So I let myself off the hook, recognized that I can do some things well, but not everything. And today feels better.
I don't have a burning desire to have pictures on my blog, Limes. And some pictures might clash with the newsletter-style template (as sometimes does the ad box, which I'm thinking of getting rid of). I just wonder if having only words turns some people off. Then again, two of my followers have blogs that rely almost entirely on pictures, so maybe opposites attract.
ReplyDeleteI guess the first thing I'd say is that these blogs are vivid representations of who we are and what we're about. And you're right - there are the ones that are almost exclusively photos, music or videos and others that are nearly entirely written words. Having only words MAY turn some people off, but there's nothing you can do to guarantee turning nobody off. Those of us who blog have something to express and we go about it differently. I enjoy checking out widely divergent presentations. I'm interested in how anyone puts their statement forth.
ReplyDelete