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Café Du Monde, 1965

July 22, 2012

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We continue our review of old color photos with one of the New Orleans of 1965.

When I was a kid we lived in Louisiana for a few years, and going to the Café Du Monde at the Farmer’s Market in New Orleans was always a big treat. The puffy and powdered beignets with the strong coffee in teeny cups was something I looked forward to. The location, then as now, was by the levee and the old Jax Beer factory.

In this photo are my mom, me with the glasses and my younger brother, Jeff. The nifty beige car behind my mom is a 1961 Plymouth Savoy.

All Hung Up!

July 21, 2012

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My son, Aaron, and I are both members of the Hyattsville Community Arts Alliance, and are proud to announce that six of our works are now on display (and sale!) at local restaurants; four at Franklin’s and two at the Calvert House.

Aaron does his digital paintings from scratch on the PC and I recreate and revise ancient comic book covers on the Mac. These images are then printed on canvas and placed on wooden stretchers by my daughter, Colleen.

So it’s a family project and we are having a lot of fun doing it!

The giant copper vats shown in the photo collage are where they brew their own beers and ales at Franklin’s. If you remember the actress Karen Allen from Raiders of the Lost Ark, she’s sometimes seen at the Calvert House, which has been her favorite restaurant from childhood.

The company I started with my brother, Jeff, is called Page Bros Prints and you can see our website at www.PageBrosPrints.com. We have some historic prints for sale at the Surratt House Museum in Clinton, Maryland. That was where John Wilkes Booth stopped for some previously stashed stuff after he shot Abraham Lincoln.

You Can Go Home Again, Thanks To Google Maps . . .

July 21, 2012

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Google Street Views is so cool! Thanks to it, I was able to find the house we lived in over 50 years ago, as seen in these two photos.

The photo on the left is from 1961, with my first-grade brother Jeff in the foreground. On the right is the Google street view, present day. The three-car garage has been modified to what looks like living space, but otherwise it looks much the same.

Leaving The Station With A Lunchbag In My Hand . . .

July 21, 2012

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For the train buffs out there, here’s a photo from 1961 showing our cub-scout pack bravely going off to camp.

Behind me (I’m the kid being scolded by his mom) is the Kansas City Southern’s “Southern Belle” passenger train, which provided service between New Orleans and Kansas City, and the Pullman car shown is the “Siloam Springs” double-bedroom sleeper.

My mom was the most nervous den mother the Scouts ever had! I’ll never forget her trying to teach our pack how to make a Play-Doh Thanksgiving scene. She finally wigged out when it came time to teach us how to make a covered bridge out of toothpicks.

My little friends and I were shocked when she grabbed the toothpicks and paste and threw them into the trash, saying “To Hell with it!” while lighting a cigarette. Those were the days!

Bye-Bye Beach House!

July 21, 2012

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In this photo taken Saturday, September 12, 1964, my mom and I check out our destroyed duplex beach house in Fernandina (Amelia Island, Florida) after Hurricane Dora.

When Patty and I visited the scene a few years ago, we were able to find part of a concrete block from the house.

Unfortunately, flood/storm insurance was not available on ocean-front property in those days, and my dad even had to pay $600 to have the rubble bulldozed away. Of course, that house was WAY too close to the water!

The Beatles played the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville the next evening, having flown to Key West to avoid the storm. My Uncle Johnny’s girlfriend was ill, and he offered me the ticket he had purchased for her. I was bummed and decided to stay at the family farm on the mainland and play Scrabble with my cousins. BAD DECISION!!!

What’s That Smell?

July 21, 2012

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I’m going to recycle some recent Facebook entries of mine to kick off this blog. It’s the eco-friendly thing to do!

If anyone wants to know what the weirdest, most pungent smell in the world is, my vote goes for a menhaden fish-processing plant, more commonly called a “pogie plant.” This one was on Highway 87 between Port Arthur and Sabine Pass, Texas, and owned by a friend of my dad’s, John Quinn.

My dad was fascinated by menhaden fish; he’d spot huge schools of them in the Gulf of Mexico from his plane, radio the fishing boats as to the location, and they’d pay him a percentage of the catch’s proceeds. That was called “fish spotting” and some pilots made a lot of money doing that!

A Texas marine biologist’s report from 1960 that I found on the web claimed that this plant, and one other in Texas, processed 60 MILLION pounds of menhaden in 1959. Holy mackerel, that’s a lot of fish!!!

The lettering on the front of the building cracks me up!

Photo from 1958 (I think!).

Here’s another photo of this plant. Aren’t the old vehicles fun to see? My dad’s car is the 1952 DeSoto Custom Club coupé which looks black in this photo, but was actually a very dark green. He loved that car and so did I. I’m guessing that bright-red object is either a gas pump or– and this is entirely possible– Dr Who is visiting Sabine Pass, Texas, for some reason.

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