I know I have mentioned it before, but I am in the mood to talk about it again..... 9/11.
We were living in Cleveland Ohio at the time, and I was still doing social work. I was downtown helping a client apply for some benefits. I had a lot of clients, and this was one that was only on my caseload a couple of weeks. They were pretty high functioning and really didn't need my help. I can't even remember their first name as I think about it.
We were in an office, and I kept hearing about planes crashing. People around me were talking about it. I asked a staff person at the office what was going on. He told me that a couple of planes had crashed into the World Trade Center. My brain totally didn't get it at the time. I just assumed someone in the military or at a tower screwed up and told two planes the wrong information, causing the crashes.
I talked to another staff person there and they explained that two planes had crashed, and at least a couple more had been hijacked and were still in the sky. I do remember someone mentioning that military fighter jets were following one, and they may possibly shoot it down. By then, I understood roughly what was going on.
A couple of local DJs were talking to someone they knew in NYC and they were giving updates. I listened to them through the day. I still kept my appointments and did my job, though everything that day was kind of edited down.
We had our British friends staying at our house too. They started watching coverage after the first plane hit, and they saw the second one hit the second tower on live TV.
Since then, I have been to the crash sites and have mentioned them on this blog.
I heard on the radio that Columbia House was finally going out of business. I honestly wasn't aware that they were still in business. If you told me they folded 10 years ago, or 20 years ago, I would have believed you.
Most people remember their deal- you could get something like a dozen albums, tapes or CDs for a penny, but you had to agree to buy a few more later at regular price plus shipping. BMG had a similar club/deal.
Most people got the initial batch of albums then quickly forgot about the club and ignored future mailings.
I remember one kid in middle school saying that he had some albums sent to the address of a vacant home on his street, which he claimed when they were delivered.
I joined these clubs several times and completed my membership honestly each time. Even if you were honest, it was a great deal back in the day. Also, if you referred a friend, you got an extra 4 or so albums. I literally referred myself and got the extra albums more than once.
Even for those of us who have always loved physical media, there was a point where this stopped being a good deal.
When I moved to Cleveland in the late 90s, I found used CD shops everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Of course, the big hit albums that everyone had were plentiful, and they were marked down quickly. For several years, rarely did I pay more than a couple of bucks for a standard CD. It was great.
It still kind of is.
I still scavenge used book and music stores for CDs, but I have most of what I want.
Those days of getting excited about your box full of CDs from Columbia House are long gone.
I will occasionally pay up for a CD or album, if I am buying it directly from an artist, or if there is something special about it.
I saw an article the other day about counterfeit t-shirts at concerts. It was a discussion about the value of knock off shirts, often sold in the parking lot at bigger venue shows.
These days I rarely go to concerts, but there was a time in my life when it wasn't uncommon for me to go to multiple in a week. I have had a lot of concert shirts in my time.
A few I have saved, though I have passed many on to some of the kids of friends when they have asked for them.
Probably the first few shirts (legit and counterfeit/fan made) were Grateful Dead ones. The band, and the fans were great about making cool, colorful shirts. I had a ton at one time. I remember buying several around venues before and after shows.
I remember buying a cool Tori Amos shirt from a guy after a show in 1998. Literally, right after I bought it, security chased the guy off.
Probably the same year, I bought a beautiful tie-dyed long sleeve shirt after leaving a Bob Dylan show. I felt no guilt whatsoever about not buying an official one- Dylan's performance was terrible that night, and I thought he owed me anyway.
On my was to see the Eagles on their first reunion tour, a guy was holding up some really cool shirts he made right at the exit off the interstate. He probably sold at least one to every other car, including mine.
After a Kiss show on their first original line up reunion tour I crossed paths with a guy selling very cool shirts in the parking lot. The design was a bit off (right year, wrong tour dates, etc) but they were still very cool. He was looking to unload quick, and I bought several from him for less than $10 each. Several friends got one for Christmas that year.
I would love to hear from others who bought unlicensed shirts at concerts.
I was at an event the other night with my wife, and another couple. We started talking, and I mentioned to them the story of when I flipped a four-wheeler upside down when I was a teenager. I walked away unscathed, but it was a miracle.
We all joked about it..... what if things hadn't worked out so well.
With a bit of dark humor, the REAL possibility of my getting hurt permanently (or worse) was talked about.
We joked about the 3 of them hanging out that night, without me..... just a fourth, empty seat.
It was a bit sad, and I did spend a moment thinking about... "what if".
I wouldn't have gone to college and met my future wife. She (and I) would have never met our friends.
Then,you have to take that next step when considering such things.
I'm sure there are holes in my life where friends I could have made died or had life altering moments before I had the opportunity to meet them.
The History Press again delivers with a nice, complete and easy to read volume on an unsolved case.
In 1967, young Brenda Joyce Holland starts work in the season play production of "the Lost Colony". Being friendly, kind and attractive made her popular among the actors and locals.
Sadly, she went missing and her remains were later found in water, though the cause of death was found to be strangulation. This was no accident.
The investigation involves several young men who knew or dated her, and a local dentist who was married to a young lady who looked a lot like Brenda.
mishandled evidence and a false confession derail the investigation, but author John Railey is confident he knows what happened. In fact, he devotes several of the last pages to telling what he believed happened that night, pointing his finger firmly at one suspect.
This is one of the most interesting true crime books I have read... and the author gets bonus points for his own research and for wrapping this one up as completely as possible.
I have talked a lot about my love of books. If you are like me, they do become a bit of an obsession. An addiction even. The rule around my house is "if you buy it you read it"- I'm pretty religious about that too, though there is the occasional book that I have to abandon after a bit. That's rare though.
Books are special, and I love a unique book too. I love signed books, and books with a little something more to them. I have a few books signed by the author, and I have books signed by people mentioned in the volume or associated with it. A particular favorite of mine is a signed Meatloaf biography- I keep the photo of me with him as he signed it in the book.
I have some special magazines too. Some signed, some about a family member or friend....
I also have some nice programs and Playbills from here and there.
As a packrat, I save just about everything. I have programs with event tickets, signed by athletes and actors. They all mostly have little financial value, but they have a lot of sentimental value to me.
Recently, at a favorite used bookstore, I found several nice Broadway Playbills for a buck each. I looked inside, and some even had the event tickets tucked away.
I greedily bought most, as they were plays that I like, or have some interest in anyway.
BUT, I thought of the person who accumulated the nice collection. I hate to say it, but I pretty much assume that they probably passed away, and a family member sold this nice collection to the bookstore, probably in an effort to downsize and move on.
If they did pass away, I hope they know that I appreciate their leftover souvenirs.
Those are some pretty heavy rumors to consider.
The Bostic Lincoln Center sells a couple of books, authored and coauthored by Jerry A. Goodnight, that address and explain those legends.
"Tarheel Lincoln" is the first book and mostly addresses the local legend of Lincoln's origins.
"Searching for Lincoln: Amid the Rumors, Legends and Lies" is a bit of a follow up book, digging deeper into variations on the North Carolina rumors and some other stories. He covers, in detail, the 17 or so men who have been mentioned as possible fathers of Lincoln.
Goodnight is academic and mentions his sources and where the stories originated- while his books are still easy to read and follow.
The rumors and legends are uncomfortable but interesting. One name pops up in almost every variation on the story. These books are thoughtful and thought provoking, and they are worthy of inclusion in any serious Lincoln Library.
Back around 1999-2000, a small group of veterans found an old LST ship, and decided to go to Greece (the US had lent it to them in the 60s), fix the ship up, and bring it back to the US for display.
The story IS as crazy as it sounds- the average age of the participants was 72, there is a bit of a mutiny to oust an unpopular leader early on, the men get little help from their own government for the project... etc, etc.
I don't want to give away the ending but.... since the ship now sits in Evansville Indiana its no secret tthat the men were able to take the ship 6,000 plus miles to bring her back home!
Jornlin writes knowing that many of his readers will not be military or even nautical types... He keeps the language basic and easy to understand.
My best pal Jimmy is a pretty smart guy, who has worked his way up from literally nothing. He has his own company. He is solid.
Well, he told me a story about when he was a teenager, and his getting involved with a mall modeling agency.
It's something he is embarrassed about now, and I am sure that, as an adult, he wouldn't fall for the scheme again. In all honesty, it was his mom who fell for it.
I don't recall anything like this in the mall I grew up in, but I have seen retro 80s TV shows making fun of the whole thing. Some sales guy at a mall convinced Jimmy's mom that Jimmy had "It" and could be a model.
He even jokes now about how they would go on and on about how he had the look, and the attitude. Jimmy's mom paid a lot of money, to this company, for pictures and for him to be at model events.
Even though I don't remember any businesses like this when I was a kid- I can say that I once worked next to a similar modeling agency.
My company at the time and the modeling agency were in a very run-down old building. I'll just say that mostly shady businesses were run out of the place. That didn't keep the parents from bringing their perfect, model quality children into the building for the modeling business.
It was mostly moms and their kids too. The moms were the ones I noticed mostly walking out with their attitude, and their noses in the air. Moms love to hear how great and perfect their kids are. Moms will pay lots of money to a modeling business that goes on an don about how perfect their little kid is.
At this dilapidated building, there was a bin under a stairwell in a rarely used area. It was off to the side, where the offices were vacant... Only a few people who worked in the building ever used these stairs.
The bin was huge. I'm not sure why it was there, but a couple of businesses, including the modeling agency, started to put their trash in the bin, instaed of taking it to the outside dumpsters.
Well, one day we noticed that the modeling agency had put a ton of "publicity photos" in the bin. When I say a ton, I mean that somewhat literally. There were thousands of these photos, I am sure weighing in at close to a thousand pounds. I assume these were unpurchased pictures that they tried to sell to those moms with perfect children.
We looked at the pics.... I don't recall any standing out.
My friend Jimmy, by the way, said that he threw away all of those photos his mom bought years ago.
A long time ago.... Heck, in the 90s, I spent a bit of time in Nebraska. I spent a cold January there.
It's a long story, for another day- I have talked some about it here, but it was actually a pleasant time in my life, though I was very isolated.
I did not have a car, and I did a lot of walking. It was nice (though again, Nebraska in January=cold). A couple of nights I walked to a restaurant by myself and enjoyed some meals there.
The restaurant.... doesn't matter. It was a fast-food place.
But the whole experience and time there was very sweet to me, and it was a major moment in my life. When I came back to Kentucky things changed, in a good way. Spending time away was good for me, and I would start dating my future wife right when I came back home.
The trip, and the time away was a significant moment in my life.
And there are days that I think about hanging out at that restaurant. Some days I look it up on googlemaps and think about how lucky the people are that get to go there and work there. I am kind of jealous of them.
I feel a bit of an attachment to this odd little restaurant, in smalltown Nebraska.
I was going through a drawer the other day, doing some downsizing. I came across some covid masks that we had.
My mother-in-law made a ton of them- for us, for friends. A half dozen would have been plenty, but she probably made 50 or more for everyone she knew.
We had a few masks that we picked up in our travels. There was a cool free one that was given away at a Tennessee visitor center. I remember they were giving everyone a bag with some travel brochures, a mask (with the 3 starred flag on it) and some hand sanitizer. I also had a Similar one from Indiana that I can't recall how I acquired. There were a couple of others too.
I feel bad about throwing them out, because, again, my mother-in-law made them..... but I am so gla we are done with all of that.
This postcard was sent in 1944.
It is unused and undated.
