January 2015

January 30, 2015

Department of “Why Bother?”

I didn’t pay much attention to this building when I was northbound through Glouster to the Burr Oak Lodge where I was staying the last time I was in Athens, Ohio, but I did a double take on the way south. (Glouster is the place where I shot the epitome of a small-town football game last fall.)

That is one skinny building

I had to stop to make sure it wasn’t an optical illusion.

No, it really WAS that skinny. It got bigger at the other end, but I could easily span the back wall without having to stretch my arms out as big as I had gestured before to describe the size of a fish that got away. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Only eight bricks wide

That wall was only eight bricks wide. If a standard brick is eight inches long, and you figure the space for the mortar between the bricks is half an inch or less, that would be, let’s see 8″ x 8 bricks x 7 mortar rows @ 1/2 inch equals just 67.5 inches or a little more than 5-1/2 feet wide. Allowing for the thickness of the walls, the open space inside the thin end would have had to have been less than four feet.

Why would anybody use that many bricks, not to count the labor of laying them, for such a small return of space?

I don’t know the answer to that question, but my guess is that both bricks and labor were cheap in Glouster when that building was constructed.

Bricks were a big deal

Here’s a really good history of the region that explains how important the iron, coal and brick industries were.

Curator Jessica is somewhat of a brick expert, so she’s always looking for SE Ohio bricks like this Hocking brick she spotted when we were walking around the Ray Charles Plaza in Albany, Ga.

January 29, 2015November 22, 2020

Nellie Vess Revisited

Back in 2012, I did a piece titled Turtles, Frogs, Dogs and Desperation where I explained how I come up with story ideas. (The key word was “desperation.) It’s worth a visit, even if I say so myself.

In it, I introduced Mrs. Nellie Vess, one of my favorite subjects. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

Rhonda and Patty Sue

It told the story of how an elderly woman found that puppy Patty Sue attracted the neighborhood kids like Rhonda Kay Judson, 5. The headline of my 1968 Athens Messenger Picture Page was Lonely No More.

‘Now I have lots of company,” Mrs. Vess told me.

Fast-forward to 2015

I love getting comments, but today’s mail brought one from Sheila Knott that was super-special:

“This is my sister and our neighbor years ago!!! It was such a joy to see this. I knew Mrs Vess very well and she was a wonderful woman. I was born a year and 5 days after these pics were takin! Thank you so much for sharing and I’ll have to show my sister (Rhonda) the second one, I don’t believe she has ever seen it!”

Speaking of desperation

I mentioned over the holidays that I had some stuff that I needed to get done and that I might slack off for a week. As it turned out, I produced rerun pages during that period that took almost as much time as if I had come up with fresh content.

My van buying / selling experience put me even further behind.

On top of that, I may have a chance to pick up some freelance work that may actually mean that Wife Lila and I won’t have to fight Bleeping Cat for dinner. (We haven’t bothered to name most of our feline parade over the years. Oh, yes, there is an official name on file with the vet, but we usually just call them “Brown Cat, Big Cat, Little Cat, Orange Cat or, in the case of the current resident, “Bleeping Cat.”)

So, don’t be surprised if I come up missing from time to time or all that gets posted is a photo gallery of what I happen to be editing at the time.

Of course, while I’m gone, don’t forget to click on the tiny yellow DONATE button at the top of the page to keep Phoebe the Bleeping Cat fed.

January 28, 2015

Turn Right to Downtown

This General Sign Company invitation to “Stop ‘n Shop – Turn Right Foot of Bridge to Downtown Cape Giardeau takes us back to the day when Main Street was THE shopping area for the region. The photo is part of the collection Terry Hopkins loaned me from his dad’s job at General Sign Company.

The sign must have been located in East Cape since that’s the only place a “Turn Right” would make sense.

See the smokestacks?

When the picture is blown up, you can see two smokestacks off to the right, one of them puffing black smoke.

The cement plant would have been way off to the left, so these stacks must belong to the shoe factory and the power plant north of it. I’m not sure what the white building off to the far right would be. Click on the photos to make them larger.

Here’s what they would have found

If our shopper had turned right, this is what they would have encountered. Follow this link to see other downtown stories. Here is a collection of links to stories about Main Street businesses and buildings.

January 28, 2015

Cairo: Turn Out the Lights

I think of the old cliche, “Will the last person leaving Cairo, please turn out the lights.”

This was shot July 25, 2014, through an opening in yet one more building being torn down in Cairo. Click on the photos to make them larger.

Didn’t look bad in 2012

The building didn’t look too bad from the front in November 2012.

Appearances are deceiving

Like with so much in Cairo, a second glance tells a vastly different story. The walls were getting ready to cave in, and part of the roof had already collapsed.

It’s all over

There wasn’t much left by the summer of 2014.

Some bricks being salvaged

I saw bricks stacked on pallets, so maybe the building will reborn somewhere else. I’m always happy to see things being recycled.

Speaking of recycling, I’ve photographed Cairo since the 1960s. Here are some older stories and photos.