The "We Shall Survive!!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a response to an email I had sent to friends in Sint Maarten a day or two ago.  You may remember, it was back on August 30 of this year that a hurricane developed in the Atlantic by the name of Irma.  The storm reached a Category 5 by the time it struck the island of Sint Maarten/St. Martin.  The devastation was unreal!  Pictures and films made immediately after the storm departed were heartbreaking.  Carol and I have traveled to the island over a dozen times in the past 10 years and have made many friends over that time.  Two of those friends, Barbara and Diederick, lived in the hills of Sint Maarten (Dutch side of the island) beyond the capital city of Philipsburg.  For days we worried about their safety and weren't able to correspond with them due to the lack of many services including WiFi.  Finally we received an email telling the horrors of what was done to their home and our beloved vacation spot in the Caribbean.  Well, over the past two months we have been corresponding whenever possible and they recently sent a email telling what has been happening on the island.  I asked if they would mind if I shared some of their comments and thoughts on my blog and they were most accommodating.  I should tell you that Diederick owns and operates a liquor store on Front Street in Philipsburg as well as maintaining a beautiful garden next to their home.  

Carol, on the left, looks with Dee and Barbara at some of
Dee's garden a few years ago.

We have made several visits to their home and Carol and Dee always walk through the garden, talking and viewing the many varieties of plants, bushes and trees that Dee has growing in his garden.  As you can assume, Irma decimated his beautiful garden, but their most recent email gave us an update.  Parts of Barbara's letter follows, telling what has happened since the storm struck.  I will share it with you so you are able to see what it is like to have to start you life over again through the eyes of someone who is at present going through it.  It reads:  Hi Larry,  Yes, the garden is coming back.  The island is getting nicely green.  This storm did not damage and burn the vegetation like Luis did (another fierce hurricane that struck in 1995).  I think because it moved fast and Luis stuck around.  So the garden is getting green again.  Rather bare, but green.  I can see the whole neighborhood now LOL.  The liquor store is open with no looting and no real damage, just problems with the wiring and the air conditioners which we are still trying to fix.  Most of Front Street is not open.  There is just no business.  

The garden as it looks today

The first cruise ship is scheduled for December 4th but we shall see.  Carnival and Disney refuse to come until the place is in better shape.  The island looks better every day, but there is still much to be cleaned up and repaired.  Most major hotels will not open at least til Spring of 2018 and some not in 2018 at all.  There is a lot of unemployment as a result of course and the economic outlook is really scary.  It's discouraging but everyone is trying to put one foot forward as much as they can.  We are all stressed and depressed though.  The Simpson Bay restaurants and beach bars are mostly open which is good.  Small businesses are trying to do the best they can.  Truthfully right now the Dutch side is looking much better than the French side.  Very little rebuilding has gone on there, mostly because of government and insurance.  Everyone is waiting for financial help I think.  

Orient Beach is bare after the storm.

Orient is bare.  It looks like it did 40 years ago when I came here.  It's kind of nice really ... the beach is beautiful.  But, I know it's bad econom- ically for all those businesses.  The roads are all open.  Getting around the island is fine.  It's dark at night, but I know you don't drive much at night.  The island is safe for the most part.  So, the 64 thousand dollar question ... should you come?  It's a hard question to answer.  Yes, we want you to come because it will be important to help bring up the economy.  Will it be the same island?  Absolutely not.  It will be very different and somehow sad.  And much quieter.  Of course by April it will be improved from what it is today.  Each day does get better.  Your choices for dining and activities will be more limited though, but I think people like you and Carol who know and love the island could handle that.  Think nice quiet beaches with not much to do.  We would love to see you.  We will be here.  We cannot go anywhere for a while.  We are tired ... so tired.  Every day its trying to get things fixed and not always succeeding.  I said to him the other day that this is supposed to be our golden years of retirement and we are working harder than ever.  Both of us are healthy though so that is good.  We are too old to go through this crap though, but here we are.  We shall survive.  Barbara's letter to me ended with her closing notes and as you see, life goes on, but it seems to get harder as the days progress.  It's easy for me to wish them well, and I'm sure they appreciate the kind words, but until I can walk in their shoes, I have absolutely NO IDEA what it must be like.  Can you imagine what would happen if your town or city was mostly destroyed by a storm?  I have an idea in my mind what it may look like, but then again it is in my mind and not in REAL LIFE!  And, at my age, I'm not sure I could handle it.  I'll finish my story with this small note to Barbara:  May God protect and strengthen you and Dee and may your hearts be filled with the love and encouragement needed to see the end of your journey to normalcy and know that it is near!!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Repairing Memories To Last A Lifetime" Story

Cameron Gallagher - a spitting image of his dad, Glenn.

It was an ordinary day.  Working at Grebinger Gallery and Frame Shop in Neffsville, PA.  Trying to catch up on all the work that had come in during my two week vacation to the Bahamas.  One of the neatest projects was trying to repair the 46"x32" matted frame which featured two Kansas City Royals baseball jerseys as well as a multitude of photographs which featured rookie catcher and Lancaster native Cameron Gallagher.  Cam's dad, Glenn was a student of mine when I taught high school.  He was an all-star quarterback for the Manheim Township High School Blue Streaks as well as a great pitcher for the Streaks baseball team.  Just an all-around nice kid who you knew was going to be a success at whatever he wanted to do.  

Cameron catching for the Royals.

The Clemson Tigers football coach offered him a scholarship to play quarterback and Glenn jumped at the offer.  In college he played both football and baseball and before long he was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays as a pitcher.  He played 6 years in the minors before a torn labrum ended his career.  His oldest son Austin was drafted by the Dodgers as a 3rd baseman and he went as far as A ball.  But Cameron, a catcher by trade, has finally made it to the majors with the Kansas City Royals.  

Must be a thrill to sit in the Royals dugout.

In the minors he struggled his first year and broke his hand by a pitched ball in his second year.  His defense is what caught the eye of the Royals and eventually his hitting improved.  He is selective with the bat and his walk rate of 9.2% shows that.  He is predicted to hit 6-10 home runs a year in the future and hopefully throwout close to 50% of the base runners who try to steal on him.  As a high school catcher he was one of the best catchers in Lancaster County which led to him being offered a scholarship to East Carolina University as well as being drafted by the Royals for a signing bonus of $750,000.  

Cameron hits his first homerun in the majors.

He chose the Royals!  The frame I'm going to try and repair for his mom and dad was damaged in shipping.  The glass and frame were broken.  The frame features both home and away jerseys as well as a small plaque and 10 photos.  Done in Royal's blue with gold trim, the frame is fantastic, and I'm going to try and correct all the problems that it now has.  Follow along while I show you what was necessary to repair the job.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Unwrapping the damaged frame from it's matting. 

Preparing to repair the frame with glue and metal corners. 

Glass and dirt had to be removed from the job.  The shirts had come loose and I had to reattach them to the board.

Placed the jerseys and photos into the frame and prepare to place a dust cover on it.  I needed to use two pieces of brown paper for the dust cover due to the size of it.

Dust cover in place I now add the "Wall-Buddies" for hanging.

And, the final result.  Great memories from Cameron's baseball career have been preserved for a lifetime.

The "It Took Me 73 Years To Learn This!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading post after post about the chemical element Radium.  When I was a junior in high school I took a course called Chemistry; big mistake!  My teacher's name was Mr. Livengood and I earned a "D".  When I began college at Millersville State Teachers College I was assigned a course called Chemistry; another big mistake.  My teacher's name was Dr. McIlwaine and I earned an "F".  I had to take it over and the second time Dr. McIlwaine gave me an "F".  If it hadn't been for those courses I would have had a fantastic QPA at graduation.  About the only thing I learned in those three courses was the Periodic Table of the Elements.  Oh, by the way, my college advisor was kind and allowed me to pick up that chemistry credit by taking Bowling 101.  I bowled three times a week for a semester and didn't learn a thing about chemistry ... but I did bowl a 209!!  Anyway, during the past eight years while writing this blog I have been reading more and more as well as exploring more and more and I have learned more chemistry than ever before.  

The "Radium Girls" working on clock faces.

I did know (really) about Pierre and Marie Curie discovering the element Radium-226 in 1898 and both being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, but I had never heard of the "Radium Girls" until recently when I was looking at photos of my mom working on the assembly line at Hamilton Watch Company in Lancaster, Pennsylvania putting watches together.  Lucky for her she wasn't born 20 years earlier or she might have been part of the radium-infused paint crew that used fine point brushes to paint the dials of watches with radium paint.  

Another young girl works on a clock face with paintbrush.

It was in 1917, when the U.S. was drawn into WWI in Germany, that many girls began working on the assembly line.  They considered themself lucky, since the pay was three times the average working girls' wage.  Day after day during the remainder of WWI, as well as many years after the war ended, the "Radium Girls" painted military and civilian watches and dials, licking their paintbrushes to gain a better point, and handling jars of radium tincture.  Naturally, the paint got all over the girls whose clothes and skin would glow when they got home from work.  

An add for radium water.  Click to read it.

They also used the paint to paint their nails, sprinkle flakes of the stuff in their hair and applied to their teeth to "give their kiss a pop."  They were told by their supervisors that they were perfectly safe.  Pretty hard to believe today.  But, that's not all.  At the time Radium was placed in drinking water, used to cure arthritis and impotence,  put in chocolate candy bars made with radium water,  placed in a toy known as a Radiumscope which would glow at night, placed in toothpaste, was an ingredient in the popular Tho-Radia brand of cosmetics that brightened the skin, placed in heating pads and suppositories used to treat rheumatism, used in health spas where men and women soaked in radium mud and used radium cream as well as being used on the faces of clocks as luminous paint.  

An add for toothpaste with radium.

So what happened to these "Radium Girls".  Well, in January of 1922 one of the "Radium Girls" got a toothache and went to the dentist.  She was told a molar needed to come out.  A few weeks later she had to the tooth next to it removed.  Neither wound healed and seeped blood into her mouth.  More teeth came out and finally the doctor, when examining her, had her jaw crumble in his fingertips like ashes in a fireplace.  The next summer the girl's jaw and her inner ear were removed.  The tumor in her mouth finally cut into her jugular vein and flooded her throat with blood, choking her to death.  By 1924 dozens of "Radium Girls" were sick or dead and a study established that the radioactive paint was what did it.  

The results as seen on this "Radium Girl"

The United States Radium Company, who was responsible for all these girls working without proper security measures in place, had their own study done which said that swallowing radioactive paint is good for you!  They were eventually driven into ruin by the medical community and court costs.  But, it was too late for most of the young "Radium Girls" who died young, usually in horrible pain and fear, while others lived many years with weakened bones, lost teeth and various forms of cancer.  The last "Radium Girl" died at the age of 104 in 2015.  She was one of the lucky ones.  As for me, I have never claimed to know much about chemistry and was lucky not to live in an era when radium was supposed to have cured arthritis or I may have tried it.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. 

The "When Smoking And Sports Went Hand-In-Hand" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting in my living room talking with Parke who was one of my Graphic Arts students when I first started teaching at Manheim Township in 1968.  Parke's father had a small company that made negatives and plates for printing companies.  When Parke graduated he took over his father's shop when his father retired from the business.  For years I made use of Parke's services while working for the high school as the in-house printer.  Eventually the school purchased their own copy camera and I didn't need to use Parke's services as much, but still took work to him to make sure he would still be available if I needed a special negative or couldn't do a project on the camera I had at the school.  One item Parke helped me with every fall was making halftone negatives for all the photographs I used in the football program which I did for the high school team.  I talked the Coca Cola Company into supplying the color covers as well as a color insert and used paper donated by one of the many paper companies that the school purchased paper from to complete the program.  I printed, assembled and stapled the 32-page program five times a year for home games and after about 15 years called it quits.  

Cover of the 1940 Eagles Program.

Well, a few days ago Parke called asking if I could look at one of the old Philadephia Eagles programs he had from 1940 and see if I could figure out how to frame it for him so he could give it to his nephew as a Christmas gift.  He wanted me to frame it so it could be removed in case his nephew wanted to view the inside of the program or show the program to his friends.  He left if with me and a few days later I called to tell him I had finished it.  I cut a double mat, making the inside mat smaller so the program could rest in the groove between the two mats.  Also added some depth to accommodate the thickness of the program.  I added a small black frame and held the mat, glass and program in place with black metal clips that could be opened and closed when needed.  

Team photo.  Click on photos to enlarge.

But, what was most interesting to me was the program itself.  In 1940 the Philadelphia Eagles were in the National Football League which at the time had these teams:  Green Bay Packers, Cleveland Rams, New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers, Washington Redskins, Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions and the Philadelphia Eagles.  

Team photographs

The program cost 10 cents to buy and had a team photo, individual player photos, team schedules for all teams, a few advertise- ments, a page devoted to the team they were playing and most impressive was a color page in the center with team rosters, player numbers with positions and names of the officials.  Much like the Coca Cola insert I used almost 30 years later.  But, one think I didn't have in the program I printed was a color ad in the center that featured Chesterfield Cigarettes.  

Ad from the program for Knox Gelatine.

The final result looked great and Parke loved it.  I asked him if he had any other old programs and he said he had quite a few in a box in his attic.  Told him I might be interested in them if he wants to sell them.  After he left I grabbed my laptop and checked eBay to see what old football programs were selling for at the moment.  Wow!  No, double Wow!!  A 1969 Bears program was priced at $36.99, a 1958 Chicago Bears program was priced at $86.25, a 1964 Cleveland Browns program was priced at $89.99, a 1953 Eagles program was priced at $109.25, a 1949 Pittsburgh Steelers program was priced at $143.75, a 1950 Washington Redskins program was priced the same as the Steelers program,  a 1957 New York Giants program was priced at $166.75 and a 1939 Detroit program was priced at $174.00.  And, this was all on page one of the listings.  What might the program I had just framed sell for?  And, what might the programs that Parke has in his attic be worth.  As the saying goes ... only time will tell!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The centerfold of the program with the Eagles and Giants rosters, numbers and positions.  And, sponsored by Chesterfield Cigarettes.

  

The "Visual Vacation Memories" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Searching through my photographs that I had taken while in the Bahamas for some of my favorites.  I took about 1,100 photos and had planned to use some to illustrate a few of my stories I had planned.  Others I took to share to show what the resort looked like where we stayed.  The rest were taken on visits to Nassau as well as places where we ate and while at the beach.  I have narrowed the remainder of the photographs and will post them today to give you a sampling of what I consider my favorites.  I picked them because of content, interest and composition.  Hope you enjoy a few of them as much as I enjoyed taking them.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Click on photographs to enlarge.

Colorful setting on Cable Beach

A Bahama Momma once filled this shell.

Circling for food.

The pastel colors caught my attention.

Just looked down and this pavement pattern appeared.

Painting themselves into a corner.

Colors of the Carribean!

What pic show couldn't use a geko? 

For Sale! along the dock in Nassau.

Our bus driver had a change of hats and ties right in front of him.

Cool photo!

Cruise ships at anchor.

Junkanoo dancer strolled through our resort.

Snorkel trip host taking a break on top of the cabin.

From my beach chair.

Small crab as seen by my iPhone macro lens.

Didn't care for the meal, but the dish was interesting.

Make a great car ad.

Christmas courtesy of Just Sue.

Views from the 9th floor were amazing.

Resort lighting was beautiful.

Seemed to never smile.

Caught in a window in Nassau.

So, what model car would this be?

Beverages arriving!

High-class ride.

So as never to forget his wife's phone number!