Little Gem

This little building on the southwest corner of Main and Madison is known as "The Little Gem."

This building was constructed and opened as The Little Gem Restaurant in the early 1920s, as I understand it.  That not only was nearly half-century before I moved to this community, it was also a number of years before I was born.

During my years here, it has operated as a sandwich shop, a soda fountain and ice cream store, under different proprietorships, and most recently as a beauty salon.  It is currently vacant.

The larger properties visible behind the little store and the Gem itself are apparently on the market.  Many people, myself included, hope that whoever acquires the property will preserve the landmark building.

Here is the "news" aspect of this report.  The City of Tipton is currently occupying temporary headquarters as City Hall since the demolition of the previous municipal home.  The city council is considering purchase of this property for use as City Hall and municipal utilities offices.  It has been suggested that should they do this, The Little Gem might well be preserved!  Now there is a reason for me to support this move by our leaders!

Redhead is Fifteen

The youngest grandson turned fifteen a few days ago.  I stopped by to visit with him a bit.  He owed me a chat because he went to Australia this summer and he had not yet given me a report on the experience.  

Brayton shared his pictures with me and gave me some commentary on the trip.  Not bad, really, for a teenage boy to be able to talk with his grandfather even if the two of us do occupy different worlds.  Or so it seems to me sometimes.  Young people these days pick up electronic gadgets and almost without conscious thought push the right buttons to obtain their desired results.  Anything with more than three buttons is a mystery to me, with the exception of the standard qwerty keyboard.  And do you know how long that has been standard?  I don't even use the AC and the radio in the car because I have to know the three buttons for lights, wiper, and seat adjustment because BBBH drives the car too.  Don't get me started on buttons within buttons and multifunction "stalks" sticking out of the steering column.

Anyway, back to Brayton.  It is interesting the things that impressed the lad.  In one picture he was holding a koala in his arms and the pleasure of the experience was evident both on his face in the picture and in the response to my comment, that response being, "Yeah."  But when I noted a picture of the Sydney Opera House and asked if he had had the opportunity to visit its interior, the boy lit up.  Yes.  It was fantastic.  And what impressed him most?  The basement area and its work rooms, the commodious space for people therein to practice their skills or their arts.  The size of the rooms.  You never know what someone else will enthuse about.  See, I didn't even know the place had a basement.  (Though of course I was not surprised.)

Conjecture might conjure up some of the ways in which the world might change in the next sixty-some years before Brayton attains my current age, but likely with much inaccuracy.  Little do we know what might develop, just as I am amazed at the developments that have occurred in the short space of my own memory.  I won't get to see Brayton's world of 2075, but I wish for him the maintenance of the sense of awe and wonder that will enable him to absorb and enjoy the changes as they come.

Fortunately,

these ads won't be published again. My friend, Larry, sent me a collection of old advertisements that he asserts will not be used again, ever. Okay, except that I will use them here as a reminder of how far we have come in the past eighty to one hundred years

My grandma started me on coffee when I was five, but I probably never had cola until I was seven or eight. Today, I will drink fifteen cups of coffee a day, but maybe five colas in a year.

Note that the organization which ran the ad resolved the issue of whether the stuff should be called "soda" or "pop."

They opt for either and/or both.

The notion of raising a Blatz baby just seems way beyond the pale. Of course, the idea of coming home to a "Blatz Mama" isn't all that appealing, either.

Oh, yes. Eat, drink, be merry-- and smoke; for tomorrow we die.

This one rather gives a different point of view on the "coke baby" thing, doesn't it?

What ads that run now will be shocking, nay, horrifying to a future generation? Among others, perhaps this one, if the food police have their way. Maybe sooner than you expect. Bon appetit.

In the Paper

Tuesday morning when I went to the post office I found the demolition had progressed to this point. Two days in a row we made the front page of the local paper, this time below the fold. No, I have no journalistic aspirations, but I will continue to carry a camera with me.

About two in the afternoon I made a couple of grilled cheese-and-ham sandwiches, after which we decided that since, in all likelihood, this would be the last warm day we would have until, oh, until we go to Texas, we would take a nice scooter ride. We put in about twenty miles and scared ourselves only once.

It was a fantastic afternoon, mid-seventies, wind from the south. Oh, why can this sort of thing not last for several months? And then spring could come. (That might even save us the cost of moving south for the winter.)

Commencement

The first week of June. High School Graduation time.

High schools are winding down their year all over the land. Commencement exercises were recently, or soon will be, held. The gown, the cap, the tassel. The endurance of speeches from those much older and ever so much wiser; the march across the stage, probably in the gymnasium, to receive the diploma are all a part of it. The part that you have been anxiously looking forward to if you are a graduating student or a parent of such an one.

This year we have a granddaughter and a great granddaughter who will forever identify themselves as "Class of '11." The celebrations, the open houses, the hugs will mark the point in the lives of the grandparents where the separation from these girls will come starkly into focus as they move on to college and into their "adult" lives.

The next family high school commencements: two years for a granddaughter, five years for a great granddaughter and a granddaughter, six years for a grandson, and seven years for the last of the grandchildren.

Advice? Stay well and do good.
Congratulations Dakota and Ariel!

904

The Walking Dredge

This piece of equipment was built by Bay City (Michigan) Dredge Company in the 1920s. It was used to dredge limestone from beneath the spongy earth across the Everglades to build the roadbed for the Tamiami Trail.

The machine now rests in Florida's Collier Seminole State Park, near the end of the work it completed in 1928. Two engineers with their crews ran the dredge 18 hours a day. The limestone was broken up by blasting, the project consuming over 2,500,000 sticks of dynamite. The material was moved one yard³ at a time, as that is the capacity of the bucket.

Though by modern standards this is a very "primitive" machine, it is so ingenious in its design and its accomplishment so important to the development of South Florida that the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has recognized it for its historic significance.














And How it Walks

This Bay City Walking Dredge, also called the Monegan Walking Dredge, is listed on The National Register of Historic Places.

More on ASME web page.

Retrofarming

The annual Mid-America Threshing and Antique show was conducted at the Tipton County Fairgrounds this past weekend. This provided an opportunity for collectors and old machinery aficionados to get together for show and swap. The sound of steam whistles cutting the air throughout the day on Friday lured me to the fairgrounds Saturday morning. Couldn't go on Friday: too hot.

Photos: Tipton County Tribune

The steam powered stationary threshing machine brought back memories from my early childhood; for until I was five years old, we lived in a tiny Nebraska village where our house abutted a huge wheatfield. One of my earliest memories was harvest time, watching the workers bringing the sheaves to the thresher as it stood in the field behind our house, belching smoke as it did whatever it did.

Wind Farms

Our trip last weekend took us along US 52 through Benton County, Indiana. This route passes through the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm which currently consists of 222 power-generating windmills, jointly owned by BP Alternative Energy and Dominion. It is an awesome sight driving along for miles and seeing these towers marching along from the eyeball to the horizon.

This facility is the first of two phases on this "farm" and is rated at 400Mw. It is much easier for me to understand when I am told that this set of windmills can produce enough electricity to power 120,000 average homes. The second phase is currently under construction and is scheduled to go on-line in early 2010, bringing the total rating to 750Mw and making it one of the largest wind farms in the world.

This is not the only such producer in Benton County, as there is an older though somewhat smaller collection of mills at Goodland. Nor is this the only wind-powered generation facility we passed through on our trip. Along Illinois route 47 is a similar sight with both completed towers and towers under construction.

When I was a kid we used to visit friends who lived on a farm. They had a "wind charger." It's mounting frame was on the gable of the barn. The fan had two blades and made a distinctive "whap-whap-whap" sound as it turned in the breeze. It provided enough power for a twenty-five watt light bulb in the kitchen, and a refrigerator! The light flickered as the whap-whap could be heard outside the window. The point of relating this is this. The technology existed to generate and utilize wind power in the 1930s. So why did we drag our feet so long? Really, I know the answer to this, but there isn't anyone who would hang around long enough to read it if I were to post it!

It was announced in July this year that we are to get a wind farm right here in Tipton County. Pending approval, construction is to begin early in 2010.

(Fowler Ridge photo from Wikipedia. I could have stopped and taken a picture, but I didn't. When we travel, BBBH avers that for me the destination is the trip, whereas she believes the trip should be the destination. If that makes no sense, try: she believes half the fun is getting there, I believe I'll have fun when I get there. I doubt if BP will object to the use of the logo. After all, this whole article is almost an advertisement for them, and I didn't get a dime for it.)

Guess who does the driving.

Unintended Consequences

In a post entitled "Reshaping Tipton" we noted a possible facelift in the downtown area. Now three months down the road, we note that construction equipment still partially blocks the main drag, and that while the original 'target' of the makeover has a plywood facade, plenty is going on on either side of the project.

The building to the left now has new windows and the creation of a new facade is well underway. But on the right of the 'target' building, the entire facade is missing, and to the right of that, we see a rather large chunk along the top of the front missing .

Since there are four buildings involved and since the original project is no where near completion, presumably because someone had to take care of 'collateral damage' in the surrounding area, one wonders whose pocket is being emptied.

Juneteenth

Today, June 19, is the holiday, Juneteenth. This celebrates the abolition of slavery and in Texas it is a legal holiday. Thirty other states recognize the holiday, although they do not require closing of state offices as Texas does.

It is a day of jubilation. How about a good old- fashioned picnic in the park? A few fireworks and a band would be in order, too!

Commerce on East Jefferson

Two days ago I showed you a demolition project on West Jefferson. Here we are today a block to the east, just beyond the courthouse. Jeweler actually built a new building on one of the "gaps" and conducts a tidy little business there. The picture, though, is a sign that appeared recently in front of the establishment.
Yes, we are that kind of community!

On this date in 1812, President James Madison declared war on England. This has been forever after known as "The War of 1812." As is most often the case with war, nobody won. It was ended by the Treaty of Ghent in December 1814, but fighting continued until the spring of 1815.

And It Didn't Do the Railroads Any Good

Ford Model T: the car that put America on wheels. The last "T" was built on May 27, 1927. The plants were closed to retool for the new Model A.

Henry Ford: an amazing man.

His cars: amazing vehicles.

Kitchen Kapers

Neighbor gave us elderberries from his nice stand of bushes this fall.

This afternoon BBBH and I made elderberry jelly.

Mmmm!

The Father of Mischief

Continuing my reading of Washington, I find his very clear analysis of games of chance.


.....avoid Gaming. This is a vice which is productive of every possible evil, equally injurious to the morals and health of its votaries. It is the child of Avarice, the brother of inequity, and father of Mischief. It has been the ruin of many worthy familys; the loss of many a man's honor; and the cause of Suicide. To all those who enter the list, it is equally fascinating; the successful gamester pushes his good fortune till it is over taken by a reverse; the losing gamester, in hopes of retrieving past misfortunes, goes on from bad to worse; till grown desperate, he pushes at everything; and loses his all....few gain by this abominable practice (the profit, if any, being diffused) while thousands are injured.
To Bushrod Washington, January 15, 1783. Writings Vol. 26 p. 40


Doesn't it just make you proud to be a citizen of a state that sponsors gaming of the very nature above described, promotes it as good fun, then adjures the citizenry through advertising to "play responsibly;" and gives a helpline telephone number for those who can't help themselves? And there are still those who believe it is, at worst, okay; and better, beneficial.


For this and a thousand other reasons, we must be thankful that those who fought to build a nation on solid principles cannot see us now.

Weir Cook

Appropriately opening on Veterans' Day the new airport terminal in our neck of the woods has been named the H. Weir Cook Terminal, returning a hero's name to the local transportation facility. Weir Cook, WWII flying ace and war hero from Wilkinson, Indiana, has been re-honored as he rightfully should be.

I have a small connection to Wilkinson. I lived there for a few years as my younger self while I taught the local sixth-graders. Nice community. Good people. The school building still stands, but the school no longer exists. Consolidation, you know.

Good times.

Honor to all the heroic service people who have protected our rights and to those who still serve on our behalf.

(Oh, did I mention $1,100,000,000 ?)