Look Homeward, Angel.

[Simon of the Playa]

rochester is not yet a ghost town, but it is a town of ghosts,

ghosts from a past era when the city was the Great Lion of the West.

ghosts of Hiram Sibley and George eastman whose names appear on every corner.

Claude Bragdon Haunts me every day when i see his exquisite architecture as i walk around.

Frederick Douglas and Susan B. Anthony have coffee at the Mt. Hope Cemetary

and Mr Wilson is still xeroxing, making copies that no one will see.

we cling to our ghosts, our past greatness like wet polyester to a rain soaked body...

desperately, fiercely.

many dont see it, but i see phantoms every day here, i hear the past singing a melody i know, but is still just out of reach.

the spiritual movement and the Fox sisters were situated and grew out of a western new york phenomena that spawned many religious communities ranging from the mormans to the shakers and spiritualists.

we have a deep yearning for god that seems to be imprinted upon us from early on.

i cannot explain it any other way than that.

[Elorrum]

About 8 years ago I happened to find myself working with someone who lived on my street when I was growing up. He had been sort of the street bully. Someone who when we were really little was a neat kid, and as we grew up, he sort of turned into a somebody I rather feared. By high school, we didn't speak to each other at all. Well, as adults, we had so much to talk about! How we built forts in the apricot and plum orchards. His parents ran the local Rexall pharmacy, and we hung out there all the time, to look at 45's and comic books. It was great to connect to somebody who's bank of memories synched so well with my own. I really enjoyed working with him. I've been to a couple of high school reunions and had the same experience with people who were pretty much social assholes in highschool, but we went to elementary school, and jr. high together, and the earlier stories were wonderful to reconnect to. My mother after years away, moved back to the town in Washington she grew up in. I went to a few luncheons with her and her gang of pals who graduated from HS in 1949. Some great stories. It's the people recalling the place and the time. And I agree it's about a time when all you had to do was wake up, get dressed, and go out and play.
Cupertino has a history of maybe three generations as a city, and then it was orchards. Silicon Valley was Blossom Valley when I was young. So few ghosts. Nothing like the East Coast as far as history goes. it's just a shifting veneer of strip malls and condominiums filling in where the orchards were. David Beers wrote a good book about the area Blue Sky Dream about post WWII boom of bright young men at Lockheed, and Fairchild and the instant suburbs that sprung forth.

[AntiM]

While going through the old papers in dad's house, I found an old deed to a house in Cupertino.

[Elorrum]

While going through the old papers in dad's house, I found an old deed to a house in Cupertino.

Was he at Moffet Field?

[theCryptofishist]

Sometimes you get to talk to old timers living in a small town, and they proudly tell you, "I lived here all my life--5th generation in the same house"! Which is worse, moving out and on, or never leaving your hometown?

I suspect that that looks a lot less weird in Europe. And then there are, or at least have been, people who rebuild there house every year or every few years.

I think that Americans drive themselves crazy (okay, low-level crazy) with the constant moving and proving themselves and wild frontier stuff.

[pinemom]

Hmmm, Hometown?I have a different perspective on where my hometown is....

I grew up a Gypsy. Was moved here and there, went from mom's to dads' to grandmas to aunts to.back again......I guess I should say I felt more like a suitcase that was passed around the family as My mom was to young to really understand, stability.( and yes it carried over to my young adulthood.)

I guess when it came down to it, North Lake Tahoe, Nevada was my truest idea of a hometown.I moved there when I was 10yrs old, so seems about the same as waking up to adolescence.
"when you truly become"

I went to elementary school there. Jr/High small town had it all in one location when I was in Jr high, 6-12th....ya that'll make you grow up faster!

Met and married the boy from the next town over type deal. Had my first child there.Moved to AZ to be closer to his family.After the divorce I was no where near the lake anymore. Went to my family down in the San Joaquin valley. went to college. Then attempted to go home...

Things were so beautiful, as I drove into Kings beach via 267, the tears just filled my face as I was home.

Things were different...my fun friends of yesteryear, were, well, idiots thieves and cranksters!



I lived there for 27 yrs....I still Love the lake and plan to be dusted there. But for its people, I live 25 minutes away...and have not gone back for 3 years.

I miss the beauty but not the ugly.

[cowboyangel]

When I was a kid there was this car explosion one block away. I ran up to the scene with my gang and saw the burning car and Zeke the Greek (that's what we called him I'm not sure why....maybe the dense black curly hair) being comforted by his girlfriend. Zeke was bleeding from the nose. Nearby was the car's owner, a Lithuanian guy named Alex. He had just punched Zeke in the face for using a zippo lighter to help Alex find something in the car's trunk as the two of them were about to embark on a camping trip. There was a gas can in the trunk. The last I heard of Zeke the police were looking for him as a suspect in an indecent exposure case in my neighborhood. Near that same spot a few years earlier, Sam Balin's son was found on the street bleeding from 2 or 3 gun shots. That guy must have weighed about 350 pounds. He survived. That spot must have had some interesting karmic stuff happen there in the past.

When I used to walk home from school, I passed by this street, I think it was Waverly St or something and this guy with greasy slicked backed hair dressed in black used to time his street appearance to when we kids were getting out of school. Anyway this guy used to crack two enormous bull whips in the middle of the street knocking down weird little things like cigarette packs and stuff. That was Worcester in the late 50's 60's

There's more......bad boy stuff wanna know?

[Simon of the Playa]

There's more......bad boy stuff wanna know?

of course.....Duh!

[Cheyenne]

The train station in Detroit. I have a fondness for decay. However, it's safe to say I will never go into one of those abandoned buildings exploring.

Talking of Detroit, I spend quite a bit of time there during DEMF season and visit friends in the Metro Area and over the border in Windsor/London/TO.. and as much as people lament about the mnemonic aspects of how the city has become such a beacon for decline, I like to point them to something which has mustered hope for both old and new residents of the city:

http://www.palladiumboots.com/exploration/detroit

A little bit of positivity amongst all the retrospect

[Sail Man]

The train station in Detroit. I have a fondness for decay. However, it's safe to say I will never go into one of those abandoned buildings exploring.

Talking of Detroit, I spend quite a bit of time there during DEMF season and visit friends in the Metro Area and over the border in Windsor/London/TO.. and as much as people lament about the mnemonic aspects of how the city has become such a beacon for decline, I like to point them to something which has mustered hope for both old and new residents of the city:

http://www.palladiumboots.com/exploration/detroit

A little bit of positivity amongst all the retrospect

The old Packard Plant, I finally got around to checking it out last year

[theCryptofishist]

http://www.palladiumboots.com/exploration/detroit

A little bit of positivity amongst all the retrospect

Yeah, I love that kind of stuff. I hope that Detroit comes back and I hope it keeps a lot of that really cool architecture. We have some of it out here. I'ts kind of foolish to keep all that unreinforced masonry in earthquake country, but the stuff we're building now doesn't have much character.
Looking at that, I can almost see Detroit showing us a thing or two about racial plurality in the country and to my generation, that's ironic.

[theCryptofishist]

Since we're in Detroit, I gotta say that I love this book about the implosion of the American auto industry.

[neon tetra]

Exploring old abandoned places was one of my favorite pastimes. I don't do it anymore though, b/c the authorities seem to be cracking down on it more and more. A buddy of mine got a bunch of trespassing charges just from pictures he posted online.

Back on the topic, I honestly feel the most at home when I'm on the road. National Parks, festivals, exploring new places. That's when I feel the most alive as well.

[AntiM]

While going through the old papers in dad's house, I found an old deed to a house in Cupertino.

Was he at Moffet Field?

At some time, yes. I need to look at the date, I was an infant, or possibly conceived there.

[Cheyenne]

Yep - the obligatory Packard plant...

I took my friends who have never been to Detroit there in May on the Tuesday after the DEMF wknder...

they spent about 2 hours there taking pictures..

.... Next stop, the Michigan Theatre (ahem, sorry, Car park!)

That book about working the Auto Assembly lines in Flint is something I'll check out if we can get it over here in UK.

...Talking about Flint - thats the town I am from in North Wales funnily enough... I'm not sure if the Flint in Michigan was named after it.. but in Welsh - the town I am from is spelt 'Y Fflint' and pronounced: 'er-vlint'

I don't feel much of a connection with my home town when I am away from it, but do appreciate its quietness now when I visit my parents. Its the kind of place that one doesn't really visit, but rather, passes through - although its claim to fame is that it was the location of the first castle in Wales built after Edward I's conquest in ad1277.

http://www.greatcastlesofwales.co.uk/flint.htm

C

[cowboyangel]

The train station in Detroit. I have a fondness for decay. However, it's safe to say I will never go into one of those abandoned buildings exploring.

Talking of Detroit, I spend quite a bit of time there during DEMF season and visit friends in the Metro Area and over the border in Windsor/London/TO.. and as much as people lament about the mnemonic aspects of how the city has become such a beacon for decline, I like to point them to something which has mustered hope for both old and new residents of the city:

http://www.palladiumboots.com/exploration/detroit

A little bit of positivity amongst all the retrospect

Wow..Love the Cadillac in Detroit. If you're gonna drive a Cadillac, it's gotta be in Detroit.

[cowboyangel]

Me and my Catholic altar boy gang used to walk home after vespers practice in the Lithuanian Church. You see Worcester was divided up into these tiny little ghetto-like neighborhoods. The French had their church and their parcel, the Irish another, the Lithuanians and Poles, the Armenians and Italians and the Jews on Water St. Most of my grandma's great cooking recipes were from the Jews. Worcester actually had the first synagogue in Massachusetts I think, on Providence St. (neat names ha?) Anyway, we had this superiority attitude that we had the only true religion, that we were God's gift to the world and no one compared to us. That bullshit was what we were taught and believed. In Catholic school we were taught about the Crusades and how evil the Moslems were in trying to take over the "Holy Land" Yeah...kill the Moslems! We had Catholic comic books that reinforced these beliefs. JMJ ...in school we had to underscore any paper we wrote with JMJ (Jesus Mary and Joseph) so I reproduce it here outa respect.

So one evening after altar boy practice, me and my tiny Lithuanian gang decided that the weird little religion that moved down the street from the Lithuanian Church suddenly had no right to be there....they were after all infringing on our sacred turf with their erroneous religious beliefs. The place was called, "The Gospel Hall". I'm gonna burn in hell for this. So we decided to become "crusaders" and we broke into the Gospel Hall and wrecked the shit out of the place, tossing bibles (remember they weren't the "Catholic Bible") overturning chairs, pissing on the floors, and breaking as much as we could as fast as we could. We ran like evil bandits from the place in the New England night air, and were never caught. We believed that we had done a righteous thing.

To this day, I understand religious bigotry and the reasoning behind anti-religious anything inspired violence. That was how we interpreted what we had been taught in the Catholic school. The same kind of shit is passed onto kids today.

Lithuanian vandalism .....more.........

[Cheyenne]

it takes a lot to admit something like that on a public forum - but if you can turn an experience like that around and educate the nutjobs that spin such webs of lies to youngsters now, then maybe there are some karmic influences that render action meaningful in hidden ways.

Just a thought