Ouch

I feel for this woman. A couple of days ago I was sprinting across the subway platform trying to catch the train when I tore something in my calf. I didn't work enough last year to qualify for health insurance through my union, so I'm sitting around wondering how long it's going to take to heal. If my Internet diagnosis is right, and it probably isn't, I could be hobbling around for the next couple of weeks. Ouch.

Feeding the Cat to the Calf

All kidding aside, I wonder how many people in the United States have never been on a farm. Is it a good thing to know where our food comes from? I've worked on a farm, and I've been in a slaughter house, and I'm not sure such familiarity is a bright idea.

Tales of Kittanning

I was born in Kittanning, way back in 1955. When I was growing up, the Armstrong County Court House was overseen by Judge J. Frank Graff, the hanging judge of his day. I haven't been able to confirm it, but when I was growing up, we were led to believe that Judge Graff had condemned more men and women to death then any other judge in American history. When I was in college, one of my classmates liked to hang out on the Allegheny River just a few miles north of Kittanning. A good place to smoke marijuana and get stoned. Or so he thought. I warned him that Armstrong County was not a place to break even minor laws. He thought that I was being silly. The worst that would happen for a minor, first time, marijuana bust would be probation. He got caught, and Judge J. Frank Graff sentenced him to a year in county jail. On the postcard, it's the squarish tower on the left. He served the full year, never returned to college. I don't know what happened to him after that.

The German American Collection, A Single Roll of Film

I hope Kodak survives bankruptcy and comes back better than ever. I really hope that Kodak continues to make film, paper, and chemistry. Anyway, this post is a bit of Kodak history. There was a time when the company made automatic film printing machines for the local film lab. Press a button, and focus would set for whatever film format was being used. Then, it was time to set exposure. Unfortunately, the earlier automatic printers could only do one exposure setting per roll. A mythical average setting which sometimes didn't work for a single frame. (Without seeing the negatives, there is no way I can tell if good prints can be made from some of the darker images.) And finally, the photos made on a pre-perforated sheet of paper and then loaded in a Kodak supplied folder, printed by Kodak, with the local photo finishers name and address, and a nifty Kodak advertisement on the back cover. As usual, click on German-American in the labels section to bring up the whole collection.

Ladies Like Hats

They also like fur.

3 Sisters

An early suburb, with three sisters posing on a tree stump? It does look as if all the houses are similar enough that they were probably built by the same developer. The little girl on the right, I think, wants to have a bit of individuality.

Grab Bag Photos

It was a very simple deal. An envelope, guaranteed to have at least 100 photos for five dollars. Well, that's the explanation on why I have this color snapshot from the disco era. Very strange indeed to put up a picture of people who may be younger than me. And by the way, the envelope had 103 photos, and most of them were black & white and a lot older than this one. Some have already been posted, with many more to come.