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

ye olde Tinder Box

Revisiting a post at That Mall's Sick And That Store's Dead! about the old Newmarket North mall, I recalled still having this stuff from the Tinder Box that was there three decades ago.

Pipe cleaners . . .



Pipe . . .



Everything but the three decade old pipe tobacco. (Huh . . .)

A closeup of the pipe's Tinder Box label:



Another view of the bag:

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.

like old, only new

Since my post about the old, long gone Thornburg VA Stuckey's, something odd has emerged.

Not a new Stuckey's, but a combination Miller's Mart/Dairy Queen that gives this ol' wayfarer déja vu all over again.

Like it's Stuckey's for a new millenium.


Or for an old era, watched over by a figure from a Captain Morgan's ad.


Old mainstays like bottle rockets, pop-its & other fireworks can still be found.


And questionable figurines of times past have been transmuted into howling wolves, dark castles and questing elves.

Now if I can only find the jokey trucker hats.

And someone to wear them.

friends in vinyl

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

picking up hay bales

courtesy Open Source Movies

Though several states north of and decades before my time & place, feel a bit of deja vu watching this film.

Esp. where the bales are hoisted into truck and barn by human hands.

Modern Trends in Swine Production-1961

courtesy Prelinger Archives

The pastures and bigger lots seen later in the film are closer to what I remember. Some of the sights and all of the sounds match recollection.

Esp. the muted grunts and slamming feeder lids in this section and this one.

And the US Steel logo that appears is very familiar.

Film link and thumbnails at the Internet Archive . . .

roadside goodness returns

Just FYI, folks: agilitynut is out in the Midwest and posting the pics and such to prove it.

Oh, ye olde Krispy Kreme . . .

And former Arby's . . .

And lend this an ear . . .

And a moment of silence for a good pig remembered . . .

wayback with Stuckey's

To file under Stuckey's . . .

As things online have a pretty fast turnover, it's thanks to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine that old websites can still be visited.

The Stuck On Stuckey's site being a case in point . . .

There's a whole list of links to different editions, but this one will get you there.

As Petersburg gets mentioned here now and again, here's a postcard image of an old Stuckey's on US 301. From this list of Stuckey's images.

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.

seven on the flip side

click for a closer view

The above is from circa spring 1978 when my oldest brother kindly send me a clipping of a Richmond Times-Dispatch article on jazz music.

Thirty-one years later, sifting through my old old stuff, I found these movie ads on the back.

Of all of these movies, I've only seen Which Way Is Up?. If working my way through to watch the others, the Pam Grier and Rudy Ray Moore look the most promising. The Other Side of the Mountain Part 2 will likely wait.

IIRC, these were all Neighborhood Theatres. The GNH seen in the movie times was short for Good Neighbor Hour and designated the cheaper matinee showings.

Only the Byrd and the Towne (now known as the National) are still standing. The Byrd shows movies and features a cool theater organ. The National is a concert venue.

But even the fallen Colonial, Capitol and State theaters live on at Cinema Treasures. All sorts of links to photos and such can be found, including this old newsreel of the State Theatre's opening in 1933 (no audio):

your handwriting analyzed

Well, actually, as mentioned long ago, my handwriting (digitally scrubbed away):


Analyzed circa 1971 by a computer set up in Mercury Plaza in Hampton.


While one or two out of the five results were somewhere in the ballpark, the others were pretty off base:


I had just learned cursive lettering (and have since sworn off of it).

Sound '78 @ the Virginia Beach Dome

Yeah, back in July 1977, my brother took me to the Sound '78 expo at the Virginia Beach Dome and all I got was this frisbee.

Oh, and a program . . .


Rather like the stereo man. It's like some dude really wanted to be John Lennon but instead became a reel-to-reel based component stereo system.



Nope, sorry, no memories of the wondrous Klatu the Quasar robot. [UPDATE: very cool Quasar image here.] Just my cluelessly wandering through display tables of stereo gear . . .




Gotta love the tie-in here to the 1976 Presidential Debate (my highlighting below):


This was before my days as a noisy popster, so I didn't even notice any instruments and music gear there.

But it's funny now to see vintage gear like the Electro-Harmonix Small Stone and Big Muff listed so clinically under their model numbers. Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to 1977 . . .

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.