The picture below , taken in Arizona in 2001 (same trip as my earlier post about Winslow) isn’t really noteworthy for any good reason. Me, and a nice young saguaro… Based on the saguaro cactus I planted from legally purchased seeds when we got home, it’s probably only sixty to 80 years old, and has yet to produce its first flower. Mine is 19 years old and still just over a foot tall! A veritable baby in the cactus world. They can live to 200 years old, and have as many as 45 arms!
However, there is a bit of an illusion going on here with my attire. I’m wearing a womens’ gray polo shirt and a “bottom” – with my women’s sandals. Yes, I wore them even back then, ladies! Anybody care to guess what my bottom was – a skirt, skort (oh that’s right, they hadn’t been made popular yet) or shorts?
Is it, or isn’t it?
If you guessed a skirt, you’d be wrong. Back that far, I had some skirts but only wore them on excursions. Since my wife was along, they’re shorts! But in retrospect I wish they could have been a skort! (At least they were womens’ shorts!)
This one is of an endless southwest country road out in the wilds of Oklahoma, intentionally superimposed (via a film-camera double-exposure) over a wall map of the US. Taken in the early 1970’s, it demonstrates a long-standing fondness for traveling. (Haven’t been able to do this yet with any of the digital cameras…)
And until the virus hit, I continued the excursions – it was always fun, whether as “me” or “Mandy.”
Perhaps things will improve soon – at least I hope so!
It looks as though I will soon need to cross the bridge for a couple of errands. I’ll take the necessary precautions (lots of hand sanitizer, staying away from other people, and wearing a mask.)
I’m hoping to sort of turn at least part of this into a Mandy event, even though I won’t be able to put on much makeup since I’m not going to be home alone. At this point, I’m figuring on wearing my white shorts, and I may try to find a convenient corn field, change to my white skort (old style – looks like shorts from the back and a skirt from the front.) A file picture is below, from mid-2016.
There’ll be a couple of differences from typical Mandy events…my toe nails will be pedicured and painted white, and I’ll be wearing a pair of sandals, to put them on display. I’ll likely be wearing a non-polo-type of top, to accentuate the necklace and earrings.
Update after the excursion: I didn’t wear the skort at all. Everything else went just fine. At all destinations, I was addressed appropriately to my appearance. And it was wonderful to be able to partially transform into Mandy for a few hours. Such is the way it is with the virus issue still going strong!
I took this back in 1970, just before Amtrak’s inception, at the former Santa Fe station in Gainesville TX.
The coaches on this train were are all Budd-built stainless steel, and were in good shape at the time. It was not unusual to see ice delivered to the train on luggage carts such as this, for use on board. In some of the older equipment being used back then, ice was loaded into onboard tanks to allow air conditioning to function.
A “corner” in Winslow Arizona, complete with a Flatbed Ford truck (reflection visible in the window!) Taken 4/1/2001, this is with apologies to the Eagles, and their 1972 hit titled “Take it Easy”…
Until the 1960s, Winslow was a thriving town in northern Arizona just off Route 66. Construction of the $7.7 million bypass around Winslow began soon after 1977. When I-40 bypassed the community, many local businesses disappeared, the tourism sector being among the hardest hit. While some local jobs remained (as Winslow is the base of operation for one thousand railroad workers), the local downtown was badly hurt by the influx of national chains (such as Wal Mart and McDonald’s) along the new interstate highway to the north of the town. Twenty years passed and Winslow was stuck in a commercial rut.
Winslow was the next to last town to be bypassed… they would watch hundreds of trucks roll by day and night. Then one morning, they opened (I-40) and everything stopped. For about 20 years, nobody knew what to do.
In 1997, the La Posada (a former Harvey House on the Santa Fe Railroad, long at risk for demolition) was restored and reopened. Listing of the La Posada Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places served as a first step toward re-awakening the town.
The “Standin’ on the Corner Foundation” was formed to create a renaissance of Winslow. Determined to build on tourism, the foundation took advantage of the town being mentioned in the song “Take It Easy” made famous by the Eagles. From 1997 until 1999, the foundation was busy finding donors and planning design concepts. On September 10 and 11, 1999 the park was opened to the public.
The 2006 release of the animated film CARS brought renewed attention to the efforts to save local U.S. Route 66 main street businesses in towns long bypassed. While Winslow itself is not depicted on-screen, the movie’s credits list both La Posada Hotel and Diane Patterson’s souvenir shop at Standin’ on the Corner Park among the many Mother Road locations at which Pixar studio personnel conducted exhaustive interviews as part of extensive research for the film.
On October 18, 2004, there was a fire at the Standin’ on the Corner Park. While the face of the building and the actual corner survived, the rest of the building behind it burned down. And if you look on the Street View of a program such as Google Maps, it confirms that the facade shown in my picture survives, but “just that one wall.” The rest of the building is gone, replaced by a park. Sad.
Wifey and I spent a couple of weeks visiting our son, D-I-L & granddaughter in TN recently, and had a wonderful time. After the rainy drive south, skies cleared and stayed sunny (but fall-like) for our entire visit. It was wonderful to see everyone again, and we had a great time!
While we stayed at their house most of the time due to virus concerns (no visits to any restaurants or local sites), there were a few errands which needed to be run. At the grocery store, wifey and I were addressed as two ladies (I was wearing stirrup pants, a turtleneck, ballet flats (without socks or pantyhose) and with my long hair and nails on display.) A couple of days later, we were at the Home Depot. I wore different stirrup pants, a car club polo (men’s) and ballet flats with socks. Despite my credit card with my real given name (now exclusively used for girls), I was addressed as a guy. Interesting.
However, a couple of days later, dressed as I was (above) at the grocery store, we were again seen as two women. And the real shocker: our son’s mother-in-law had made an appointment at our son’s place for a serviceman to give a quote on a repair. Then she had to cancel it. But the serviceman came by anyway. (Not sure why…apparently they don’t have good lines of communication!)
At any rate, when I answered the door, I was wearing a plain gray jogging suit, with no purse, just long hair and nails. The serviceman addressed me by M-I-L’s name. And our son who came to the door with me never corrected him…left my gender as female, while he explained that the appointment had been canceled with the office because she had been called into work unexpectedly. And the rep’s office had forgotten to inform him. So he said “Bye sir” to our son, and “bye ma’am” to me. Interesting.
I changed clothes and had to run to the bank to cash a check and ask a local bank employee a question about my account. There was no doubt in his mind about my gender…female. Yes, I got the answer I sought!
Haven class hospital ships were built for the United States Navy (USN) during World War II. Haven-class ships also served in the Korean War as well as the Vietnam conflict. They were advanced for their time: among the first ships to be able to receive casualties directly by helicopter and were the first fully air conditioned ships in the US Navy. Below is a picture of the last ship in this class, which resided in Baltimore as the Ex- USS Sanctuary until 2011, when it was sold for scrap.
The first ship in the class was laid down in July 1943, while the last was launched in August 1944. In that span the United States produced 6 Haven-class hospital ships. The class was based upon the Maritime Commission’s Type C-4 ship (as C4-S-B2 design).
The last Haven class ship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1989. One ship sank in a collision in 1950; four others have been scrapped. The last Haven-class ship, the ex-USS Sanctuary (AH-17) was scrapped in 2011. Haven-class hospital ships were replaced with the Mercy-class hospital ships.
Not sure when this was taken but I’m glad I found the picture in my files.
While searching through my photos for a specific picture not related to this blog, I came across this picture taken as while traveling in Solomons, MD many years ago…and decided to share it with you.
Moonrise over Back Creek
Back Creek is a small tributary of the Severn River, right at its outlet into the Chesapeake Bay at Solomans, near Annapolis. There certainly are some lovely boats based at the marina there!
This beautiful scene is a reminder of how good pictures can be “stumbled upon,” essentially by accident as you are driving through unfaniliar territory, even in areas so close to big cities.
It was time for early voting in a local (as opposed to state or national) election. A couple representatives were to be stationed outside the courthouse, open to the air for safety, with the proper documentation to identify that voters were registered, applications for the ballot, freebee pens (which we got to keep), envelopes to assure anonymity and security, and a ballot box. We decided to give it a try.
So we showed up a half hour after the appointed opening time, and were far from the first voters, based on ballots already given out. I was wearing capris, flats, a women’s zip front cardigan over my feminine blouse, and carrying my purse with my ID. My wife wore ankle-jeans, a tee top with jacket over it, sneakers, and her purse. Both of us wore masks, with no make-up or earrings. The 20-something women at the table addressed us as two women: “Hi, ladies!” And after checking our ID and checking us in, reviewing the records and giving us our ballots, continued to address us as two ladies in some small-talk after we voted. Either they didn’t notice that little “M” on my record/ID, or they were simply being polite in front of other folks. Whatever the reason, it was fine with me.
On the way home we stopped at the post office to pick up a package. And again, the female clerk there addressed us as two women. As did an elderly male customer on the way out. I could get used to this!
And my wife said nothing about the incidents later. I guess she’s already used to it…
Speaking of outfits, I previously ordered a new zip-front cardigan from one of the women’s catalogs I now receive on a regular basis, and in addition, a lightweight long robe in black, which will work fine around the house. They recently arrived and the fit is good. (I really love the pockets!)
The only problem is that the robe is long enough to trip on while navigating our steps! My wife suggested I take it to the cleaners, to have them do the work so it will be even all around and look ok on me. When I get a chance, I’ll drop it off! (And when I get it back, I’ll try to post a picture of it. )
Another of my historic “it’s not around any more” pictures: Comiskey Park stadium:
This picture was taken from Amtrak’s Broadway Limited back when it made its daily run from New York to Chicago through Philadelphia, in the mid 1980’s.
Comiskey Park was a baseball park in Chicago, IL which was located in the Armour Square neighborhood on the near-southwest side of the city. The stadium served as the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League from 1910 through 1990. Built by White Sox owner Charles Comiskey and designed by Zachary Taylor Davis, Comiskey Park hosted four World Series and more than 6,000 Major League Baseball games. Also, in one of the most famous boxing matches in history, the field was the site of the 1937 heavyweight title match in which Joe Louis defeated then champion James J. Braddock in eight rounds that launched Louis’ unprecedented 11-plus year run as the heavyweight champion of the world.
The Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League also called Comiskey Park home when they weren’t playing at Normal Park, Soldier Field or Wrigley Field. Much less popular than the Bears, the Cardinals had their last season at Comiskey in 1958, and they left for St. Louis in March 1960. The Chicago American Giants of the Negro American League called Comiskey Park home from 1941–1950.The park was also home to Chicago Mustangs and Chicago Sting of the NASL, playing host to the final edition of the original Soccer Bowl.
Adjacent to the south (across 35th Street in the former parking lot), a new ballpark opened in 1991, and Comiskey Park was demolished the same year. Originally also called Comiskey Park, it was renamed U.S. Cellular Field in 2003 and Guaranteed Rate Field in 2016.
Mandy's Miscellany 