Lackawanna Coal Mine, Scranton, Pennsylvania

     Mike and I like caves so we thought we would also like visiting a coal mine.  The Lackawanna Coal Mine is a retired anthracite mine located in McDade Park in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  I think everyone knows that mining was/is a dirty and dangerous occupation. Going into a mine with a guide who has worked in the mining industry helps turn the "knowing" into really understanding.  The mine is open from April 1st through November 30th from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. with the exceptions being Thanksgiving Day and Easter when the facility is closed. Admission prices are $10.00 for adults, $9.50 for senior citizens, $9.00 for members of the military, and $7.50 for children ages 3-12.  The Lackawanna Mine opened in 1860 and closed in 1966.

Each visitor gets a hairnet and a hard hat.  It's a good look for me, don't you think?  The mine temperature is in the 50's all year.  If you didn't bring a jacket, they will loan one to you.  This yellow car is called a mantrip.  It takes a few minutes to descend into the mine.  We spent most of our time in the mine in what is known as Slope 190. 

Our guide Lou showed us some old mining tools.  Not all men who worked in mines held the title "miner."  A miner was an experienced worker who acted as a sub-contractor.  He had a crew of two miner's helpers.  He was assisted by other mine workers who performed various duties.   

My grandmother heated her house with coal.  It came in small pieces that my grandfather shoveled into a big, blazing metal furnace.  The coal comes out of the mine in much bigger chunks.  A miner knew just how to drill his holes and just how much explosive to use to get "just right" lumps of coal.  Any other rock of this size would be very heavy.  Coal is surprisingly light weight.

We saw several mannequin miners during our tour.  The Lackawanna Mine was known for having veins of coal thick enough for a man to stand up straight when he worked.  The thinner veins, where miners had to bend or crawl, were called monkey veins or belly veins.  Work in a thin vein might go to a miner from an unpopular ethnic group or to a miner who was lazy.  Sometimes miners were assigned to thin veins as punishment.

This little guy worked as a nipper.  Nippers might be as young as eight years old.  This was one of the two entry level jobs at the mine.  A nipper's job was to open and close doors in order to keep fresh air flowing through the mine.  The other entry level job was sorting rocks out of the coal at a machine called a breaker.  These workers were called breaker boys.  This was probably the one job in mining where girls could get a job if they could pass as a boy. 

After working as a nipper or breaker boy for a few years, a young teenager might be promoted to mule driver.  The next step was to become a miner's helper.  Many never advanced beyond being a miner's helper.  If a man did become a miner, he might eventually become a mine inspector.  

After the coal was mined, the spent areas of the mine were collapsed.  Our guide explained that in modern coal mining big machines chew the coal out of the seams in front of miners while, at the same time, the previously mined areas behind the miners are being collapsed.  Now that's just plain scary.  

After our tour, we received a certificate which certifies that we are qualified to work in Slope 190.  I want to be a mule driver.

Wellsboro, Pennsylvania

     The base of operations for our Pine Creek Gorge/Corning Museum trip was Wellsboro, Pennsylvania.  They say people are nicer "down south," but southerners have nothing on Wellsboro's citizenry.  Folks in Wellsboro are some of the nicest I have ever met.  We chatted with a real estate agent who saw us looking at the pictures in his window.  So what if we weren't in the market for one of his listings.  He enjoyed meeting out-of-towners, and we enjoyed meeting him.  We got a kick out of the cashier at the Tops Friendly Market.  He made sure we got the discounted price on a case of bottled water even though we didn't have a club card.  Then he gave us extra game pieces for the store's Monopoly contest.  We pulled into a parking space and found two dimes and a nickel sitting on the parking meter.  The person who parked there before us evidently didn't have a quarter to feed the quarters only meter.  Now that's just plain nice.
   

We stayed at Bear Meadows Lodge, about a mile out of town.  That entitled us to a $10.00 discount on breakfast each morning at the Wellsboro Diner.  The diner was manufactured in 1939 and was originally known as Schanaker's.  

Not much has changed in the last seventy seven years.

There is nothing old fashioned about this cross walk button.  When pressed a voice barks. "Wait!"  When it is safe to cross, the voice directs you to proceed across XYZ Street.  This audio assist system is a big help to the visually impaired.  It was a form of entertainment for me.

We decided that the Steak House was the best restaurant in town.  They make a delicious lemon drop martini.

Funny.

There is a nice square in town.  The fountain in the center contains a statue of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.  In 1938 Judge David Cameron gave the statue to the town's children in memory of his deceased wife.  

     Check out this book about Wellsboro:  https://books.google.com/books?id=pRRxCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=elizabeth+cameron+bailey&source=bl&ots=1p0P-Aisvk&sig=UjzyFFbGCCOxxjss6IYbruCYpDw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwio5sXcwa_MAhVBWh4KHVhgCUsQ6AEIUTAM#v=onepage&q=elizabeth%20cameron%20bailey&f=false
     

Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York

     Corning, New York lies just north of the Pennsylvania border.  We had one cool, windy day so we decided to do an inside activity.  Seeing the Corning Museum of Glass fit the bill.  The museum has a good balance of displays and live demonstrations that appeal to both children and adults.  Admission is free for children under age 17, $15.30 for college students and military members, and $18.00 for adults.  The admission fee allows entry for two consecutive days.  If you do everything the museum has to offer, including making your own piece of glass, you'll need both days.

A column of glass tendrils greets visitors at the entry.  At first I said, "Wow!'  After seeing the treasures inside, I said, "Meh."

This tower is made from 680 casserole dishes.  We have one of the white ones.
The display is part of  the story of glass ceramics.  Donald Stookey accidentally discovered glass ceramics when he left some samples in an oven overnight.  The samples overheated, but instead of melting into a puddle, they remained solid.  When Stookey dropped one of the samples, it bounced.  You can thank Mr. Stookey for freezer-to oven-to table casserole dishes, ceramic cooktops, and telescope mirrors.

This is a cross section of a bundle of copper cable that is six feet in diameter.  One fiber optic strand, just a bit thicker than a human hair, can transmit as much information as this huge copper mass.  Verizon FIOS is a revolution of sorts.   

There is a 750 seat theater.  We watched a glass artist make a pitcher.  The museum provided a Mandarin translator for this demonstration because there was a group of Chinese tourists in attendance.

The process of making the pitcher involved dipping into molten glass, rolling the molten glass in colored glass to achieve a design, shaping with various methods and tools, and leaving the finished pitcher in an oven to cool slowly over night - a process called annealing.  The pieces of glass art along the front of the stage were made the day before.  Two lucky winners in our audience won one of these objets d'art. 

There is a camera inside the oven and a camera at the work station that projects what the artist is doing on wide screen TV's.

One area of the museum is dedicated to modern glass art.  I loved many of these pieces.  Here are some of my favorites.
This is called Fog by Ann Gardner.

I looked at this and imagined water droplets in various shades of gray.  I saw a curtain of fog.  Mike saw a really big mobile.

To Die Upon a Kiss by Fred Wilson
This chandelier's name was inspired by Othello's dying words.  The coloration symbolizes the life force draining away.  The English major in me loved it. 

Continuous Mile by Liza Lou
This is a one mile long cotton and glass bead rope that is coiled and stacked.  Ms. Lou and a team of  South African bead workers spent two years completely the project.

Here's a close up.  Sure looks like kumihimo to me!

Evening Dress with Shaw by Karen La Monte
It is breathtaking to see a substance as heavy as glass seem to float.

Melancholia by Narcissus Quagliata
This is a piece in the Ben W. Heineman, Sr. Family Collection of Contemporary Glass.  The artist is an Italian immigrant.  He depicts a man on an airplane leaving loved ones behind.  I looked at this, and all I saw was Eric Estrada.

Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania

     They call it the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.  The correct name of this natural geologic formation is Pine Creek Gorge.  At a depth of 800-1450 feet and a distance of about 4,000 feet from rim to rim, it doesn't hold a candle to the real Grand Canyon.  Calling it Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon was a genius piece of marketing.  That marketing made us curious enough to go there.

This is the observation point on the east rim in Leonard Harrison State Park.  The Pine Creek runs at the bottom of the gorge.  Between 1838 and the early 1900's, just about all of the trees in this area were harvested and floated down the Pine Creek to the Susquehanna River and onward to the Chesapeake Bay, where they were used for ship building.  Floating logs and breaking up log jams was dangerous.  Toward the end of the 1800's a rail line built along the edge of the creek moved the logs.  By the early 20th century, the area contained nothing but dried out stumps.  Between the fires and the floods, most of the animals in the area died, and it became known as "the Pennsylvania desert."  In the last 100 years, nature has regenerated the forest.       

We saw these kayakers.

At first we took one of the park's easy trails.  

There was a pump along the trail.  It took a little work, but the water eventually flowed. 

Mike took advantage of this well placed bench to rest and enjoy the view.

The sky couldn't have been a prettier shade of blue.

There were many stands of birch trees.  Unfortunately, this one has fallen and is returning to Mother Earth.

All of the big pine cones were screaming, "Take me!"  That is probably against the rules, so I reluctantly left them on the ground. 

I liked these pieces of hollow tree trunk.

Issue a warning like this, and I interpret it as a dare.  I HAD to hike down and back.  Mike wisely passed on the experience.  

Yes, it was steep.

Yes, there were hazards - roots, rocks and loose leaves, and wet spots.

This series of water falls made it worth the trip.  Pretty. 

Oh yeah, there were lots of steps.

I made it to the creek, and I have a canyon floor selfie to prove it.

     What do you do when you climb back to the top?  You do a victory dance, of course.


  

Lessons from "The Walking Dead" TV Series

     How did a couple of old farts like Mike and me get hooked on "The Walking Dead?"  People in the 18-49 age group are the biggest fans of the show, so our eligibility for Social Security Retirement Benefits puts us outside the norm.  I have to look down at my lap when bloody stuff happens on "Code Black."  I stopped watching "Outlander" because Black Jack Randall is too sadistic.  However, splatter a zombie in an especially creative manner, and I scream with laughter.

     Why do people love this show so much?  A psychologist, Dr. Frank Gaskill, says it's about stress levels and the idea that humans are wired for violence.

http://www.shrinktank.com/a-psychologists-take-on-why-we-love-the-walking-dead/
   
M. Farouk Radwan, a well educated guy, who calls himself an entrepreneur and dot.com millionaire has laid out seven reasons for the show's popularity.

http://www.shrinktank.com/a-psychologists-take-on-why-we-love-the-walking-dead/

     Why do I love the show?  I love it because it teaches some very fundamental life lessons.

1. Sometimes there can only be one leader (and that's Rick).

2. Everyone needs a family.  Just be sure to ask prospective family members how many walkers they have killed, how many humans they have killed (and why) before you adopt them.

3. Never take the easy way.  You might end up like the Donner Party or you could land in Terminus.

4. We all have a job to do.

5. You always end up loving the one you're with - Rick and Michonne being the most recent example.

6. No matter how much you try to blend in, something will give you away.  Even a zombie can spot a phony.

     Oh yeah.  I also love the sounds the zombies make.  Is it me or are those raspy sounds kind of like babies working their vocal cords?  Just sayin'.
 
       
     
     

What a Great Idea!

     Remember this?

This Year's First Trash Pick
Subject of 3/16/16 Blog Entry

   
     I loaded the car on Saturday, April 16th and headed to my friend's house to participate in her neighborhood yard sale.  Among my inventory was this chair.  A young woman purchased the chair, explaining that it would be perfect as the bride-to-be's seat of honor at a wedding shower.  All the chair might need to make it more like a throne for the queen of the party would be some tulle or a big bow.  My customer entertained the idea of trash picking her own chair and refurbishing it, but this one was perfect for the job and would save her all that work.
     I love the idea of the bride's special chair.  Does this mean that today's brides don't have to wear the hat made of bows glued to a paper plate?  One can only hope.
     Here are some bridal chair ideas.  They go from super simple to dressing the chair in its own wedding gown.

So easy - add a banner to any chair.  You can buy this from ABannerAffair located in Virginia Beach, VA.  They sell on Etsy.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ABannerAffair

With a little more effort, you could do this.  The materials list and directions are on yourweddingcompany.com.
http://www.yourweddingcompany.com/index.php/action/showProject/projectId/27/categoryId/109/

Nneka Saran designed this chair cover,  You can see the process step by step on her blog.
http://nnekasaran.blogspot.com/2010/08/bridal-shower-chair-for-bride-to-be.html

Is this inspired by Vera Wang?  I found it on a website that shows a collection of bridal shower chairs and bathroom shower chairs.  Google "shower chairs" and that can happen.
http://foter.com/explore/shower-chairs 

You could rent a chair.  Westmont Pary changes the color of the tulle - white for weddings, blue for baby boy showers, pink for baby girl showers.
http://www.westmontparty.com/babybridalwedding1.html 

  

Spring Cleaning, Vintage Thread, and a Patchwork Quilt

     Every spring I go through the household inventory and decide what to toss, what to donate, and what to sell at the next yard sale.  I found plastic bags full of fabric squares.  Once it was my intention to make a patchwork jacket similar to (but so much nicer than) this one:

Susan Bristol Jacket from Google Images

That was then, and now I wouldn't be caught dead in such a garment.  I also found about two dozen partial spools of thread with matching bobbins.
     I decided to make a quilt with the squares and odd lengths of thread.  My reasoning was that a quilt of many colors could be sewn with threads of many colors.  Quilt seams are pressed to one side, not pressed open as in normal sewing.  The reason for this is to prevent batting fibers from working their way out through the seams.  The color of the thread is hardly noticeable when seams are pressed open and would be completely invisible with seams pressed to one side.  I arranged my 725 squares into a pleasing pattern and began sewing.
   

There were so many almost-gone spools.  It was a little annoying to continually toss empty spools and re-thread the machine, but I was committed to this upcycling project.   

   
     I was running through the thread at a pretty good clip until I found a spool of peach colored polyester.  I remembered this old, wooden spool.  It was almost full.  The only thread missing was used back in the mid-1970's to make a bridesmaid dress.

Me in My Homemade Attendant's Gown

Using wooden spools for home sewing thread began in Scotland in 1820.  At first customers paid a deposit on the spool.  It could be refilled time and time again, like a soda bottle.  Spools were included for free with a thread purchase once mass production made them cheap enough to throw away.  Then enterprising individuals collected them and sold them for kindling.  Eventually, wood was replaced by metal and metal replaced by plastic.

     I was surprised to learn that these wooden spools, both empty and full of thread, were collectible.  I was even more surprised to discover so many articles about the history of thread. There are a lot of thread geeks out there.
     My spool of Belding Corticelli has lots of history and a little bit of mystery attached to it. Belding brothers, Hiram and Alvah, began selling silk thread from their home in Michigan in 1860. They became so successful that a third Belding brother named Milo, who lived in Massachusetts, started manufacturing thread to supply his brothers.  After starting up two factories in Massachusets, the Beldings opened a mill in Belding, Michigan.  Belding merged with Heminway Silk Company in 1925 and shortly after acquired Corticelli Silk Company. They operated as Belding Heminway Corticelli until 1932 when the Michigan operation closed.
     So, what happened between 1932 and the 1970's when I purchased my Belding Corticelli thread (and beyond)?  As far as I can tell, in 1932 Belding Corticelli moved production or sold it's name to a mill in Putnam, Connecticutt.  That mill closed in the 1950's.  Manufacturing of Belding Corticelli thread went from Connecticutt to Hendersonville, North Carolina after the closure of the Putnam mill.  In 1960, Belding merged with Lilly Threads located in Shelby, North Carolina.  In 1997 shareholders of Belding Heminway Company, Inc. voted to sell the thread division to subsidiaries of a British company, Hickings Pentecost, PLC.  The thread company was renamed Carlyle Industries, Inc., and Hickings Pentecost retained ownership of the Belding name.  Today Hickings Pentecost is out of business.  It's a wild guess on my part that Coats owns the Belding name today though it doesn't seem that any thread is presently marketed under the Belding Corticelli name.      
     Having incorporated the Belding thread into my quilt, I now have to decide what to do with my vintage spool.  Should I keep it, sell it on Etsy, use it for kindling?  I'm leaning toward building a roaring fire in the chiminea and making a little ceremony of tossing in my spool.

Mike and His New Quilt

 
If you want to read more about it:

http://info.fabrics.net/vintage-thread-chart/

http://www.belding.michlibrary.org/our-history-1/belding-brothers-company-silk-manufacturers.html

http://www.athousandcountryroads.com/category/personal-history-business