from north of the big river

One year since the last time I'm back on the James River. And riding the Jamestown Ferry for the first time in four years. This time on the ferry Pocahontas pulling out of Jamestown and heading south for Scotland Wharf.

back to the James

During a trip to Virginia to visit family and attend the Richmond Folk Festival, I did some field recording.

Having been by, but never to, Ragged Island WMA, I thought it'd be worth a try to record both the James River Bridge (longtime fixture in family history) and the river itself.


I started near the bridge. Which was fine for that objective. But later took the observation trail to further down river. Both places I used the highly kludged together Big Fluff windscreen made with fake fur on plastic cross stitch grid whatever.

James River at end of observation boardwalk trail, Ragged Island WMA, Carrollton VA, noon 8 October 2010


Roughly a 1/4 mile away, the bridge traffic is still a big part of the sound. Noontime sirens sound across the river in Newport News.


Birdsong at Tredegar Iron Works 9 October 2010


The next day at the Richmond Folk Festival, I barely had time to get out my lo-tek MP3 player to do a quick and dirty recording of this birdsong coming from a small tree near Tredegar Iron Works.

Train passing overhead on trestle near Tredegar Iron Works/James River, Richmond VA, 10 October 2010


That following day I took a break by the riverside and a train came over the trestle.

The last day there I went down to Chippokes Plantation State Park, where I hadn't been in over 3 years. Once there, I found a spot on the James I wanted to record.



Forgetting some essential adapter gizmo for mounting my recorder, the tripod was dead weight (on a very mosquito infested trail) and I had to improvise.



James River near end of James River trail, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010


I recorded a couple of other spots on the beach, then switched to some DIY piezo mics for my first outdoor attempt at using them as hydrophones. Below is the sound of them dragging in shallow surf on sand and broken shells.

DIY piezo mics as hydrophones in the James River, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010


Time allotted was running out. I went by the Visitor's Center to see if there was any last fast opportunity.



Near a picnic shelter I just fitted the recorder with the Lil' Fluff windscreen my wife had kindly fashioned from the aforementioned fake fur.



And pointed it down to the banks of the James roughly 100 feet below.



James River surf below Shelter 1 near Visitor's Center, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010 A



James River surf below Shelter 1 near Visitor's Center, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010 B

33rd Floor

Elma Seward, 1921-2010

From EJSeward

Early and often, things posted here were from a trip taken with my mom. Or things she had kept.

This Wednesday the 20th, she passed away.

Much as it's been for my brother who died February last year, this blog is an extended remembrance of the world in which she lived.

From EJSeward

Ida & the ferry

Tropical Storm Ida, originally uploaded by VaDOT.

More from the aforementioned VDOT TS Ida set. This one at Scotland Wharf.

Long Gone Away

This homebrew music video uses some stills from the Night Wanderer post and one of the razed Walnut Mall lot. And an unblogged photo of the Coliseum Mall demolition.

Plus Super-8 footage circa 1998 of the so-called ghost house in my old neck of the woods and other area bits & pieces.

Like Pons Store or the James River seen from Hog Island.

friends in vinyl

As this bit of arcana is more about "getting away" than "looking back", check out this link for the full story . . .

recent and not so recent

The Smithfield Times kindly shares a few of the sights and sounds from this year's Pork, Peanut and Pine Festival.

Think it's been quite a while since I went.

Meantime, here are some images of cool old newspaper ads someone was good enough to post on Flickr.

Includes old Leggett, Home Quarters Warehouse, Circuit City, Revco and Roses ads. So check it out.

cars going by January last year

Old recording of an old place. Kinda faint, so crank it to hear it.


The aforementioned passing cars, dogs faraway, wind and the creaking door.

what the moon said a year ago

or sometime thereabouts . . .

hats off to agribusiness

Some cool old swag circa 1980 back when United States Steel was into agribusiness.


Another artifact, likely from a decade or so ago, this hat from the Peanut Growers Cooperative Marketing Association:

A cursory Google search shows the PGCMA is still in the news.

Maybe a color image of the once ubiquitous blue Bravo hat is somewhere.

Till then, here's a detail from a black & white photo my oldest brother took. Not intended to show off the hat, the image may jog the memory of anyone who ever saw one of these.

book of Surrey House matches

The Surrey House Restaurant has come and gone and come again.

These matches came from whenever it was that the management there also ran the Coppahaunk Restaurant in Waverly.

A bro'

My brother, Philip Alexander Seward, passed away last night at age 62.

He started out a young fellow who many thought would be on his way someplace. He'd graduated a year early from high school, attended Virginia Tech for a time, then VCU. Went on to work as an bank auditor and an accountant.

But he had chronic health conditions that made his life an uneasy roller coaster ride in both mood and metabolism. Ultimately, any conventional plans he had were undone.

After doing what he could and living everywhere from New York to Florida, he moved back home to live with his mom.

Restless and seeking sociability, he'd frequent restaurants, cafes, truck stops, diners and convenience store counters in nearby Surry, or in Ivor or Windsor or Waverly or Suffolk or Portsmouth. Out there somewhere he might talk to a trucker or a farmer or a waitress or the owner of where he was or someone else passing through.

In later years at home, he'd watch international business news on satellite TV, always seeking information and looking for a connection to the flow of events that his plans might have made for him out in the world.

As his physical condition became less steady, he chose to go out less frequently and to places closer by.

He moved to a rest home in Richmond early last year. His health continued to decline despite the efforts and attentions of so many, including his mom, eldest brother and sister-in-law. In form and comprehension, he was shrinking and becoming ever frailer. And at some point, the coming of this day became obvious.

So I created a label that tied together the bits of him I'd shared here with everyone & anyone & no one in particular.

He's the second sax player from the left here:



The wild knit shirt there are two sides to is one he wore (no doubt while dancing the Hustle in Va. Beach) in the '70s. The jacket from Loraine's Restaurant in Ivor is his old jacket from his old haunt. He was the one who told me there was a Stuckey's coming. Or the one I met for lunch at a now long gone Smithfield steakhouse.

He was a big part of this vanishing world, where I'd grown up and where I'd go back to visit.

And now like Elvis (or I should say James Brown), he's left the building. And the stage lights are down.

3 1/2 sunsets in June 1998

a blue kerchief

tie of many colors

The NRC forbids me to put this tie anywhere close to this shirt.

(This tie was indeed worn by the same fellow, but never at the same time.)

Please use its power wisely.

ads from '52

An old print ad for Peebles.



Geo. Delk is no stranger either.



If memory serves, Bett's later became a Southern department store (which later became a Peebles).



One can find a Smithfield Farmers sticker here.



The face of the independent phone company back then.



I recall a very cool old neon sign at the Virginia Kernel. So far this ad's all I've found of the now long gone establishment.

All the above are more hasty photos, these being of ads in a program for Surry County's tricentennial celebrated in October 1952.

there was a band

Nope, not mine (before my time) . . .



Theirs.


(Click picture for a bigger, better view . . .)

there was a boy

Well, a boy and a deer . . .


In this detail from the top pic, you can better see the collar and cowbell (deerbell?) on the deer:


Thus, a tame deer and the relatively calm proximity.

4 views of an old house

You'd think an old house in Dendron VA wouldn't gather so much notice.

But Flickr, with its long reach and aggregate worldwide view, shows otherwise.

Since the first pic I saw posted, a Polaroid taken by Look In The Tunk, I've found 3 other Flickrites who've clicked a pic or two or more of the same house.

One intrepid band indeed appears to have noticed the house on a roadtrip north from Carolina up through the counties of Southhampton & Sussex. Another explorer took a close view, probably wondering how long such a house might stand.

I can only very hazily recall that maybe 40 or so years ago I might've known some folks who lived in that house. Or was it some other house?