day of the Chuck

Well, the backyard woodchuck is hanging in there as of this 1st day of November.

As these blurry photos can attest.

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 . . .

two turkeys roosting

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 . . .

backyard deer

Yesterday at twilight.

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.

pen from Loraine's

You've seen the jacket, now the pen.

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.

signing off

Earlier this month.


And some years back, on a once familiar road . . .





Click images for a closer look.