Update: Marti Frumhoff Memorial Garden

I haven't been chasing brick because I've spent most of the last month putting plants in Marti's Memorial Garden along with Peggy and Gen. This week I bought and planted 85 more plants including hydrangeas, various roses, gayfather, dianthus, liriope and little henry.

All five trees (three cherry trees and two red maples) are thriving.
Next week two benches will be installed during the day (date not set yet) want to help?
Here's a link to my online fundraiser for the garden:
http://christian-herman.blogspot.com/

The Highlands

This is a sketch my mother drew in the late 50's. It's a ride that was in The Highlands which used to be where FPCC is now located. Our school picnics were held at The Highlands, it also had a wooden roller coaster and a terrifying ride called The Bobsled.

Comment on The Big Cut

I hit the wrong key while half awake and this comment didn't get posted:
brian has left a new comment on your post "The Big Cut":

How depressing. Glad someone else has cut back like I have. Sometimes I feel like such a loser. Your post made me feel better because I'm not the only one.

What are these light bulbs and where do I get them? Are those the ones that are twisted like a phone cord?

Brian, I was bragging and writing about deliberate choices. I have everything I need but then I am a couple of days away from turning 56 so I had a head start. There's a few things I haven't given up: Smoking (working on it!), hair color (at this point it's naturally black and gray. I would be happy to have white hair, I just can't deal with the black), and dining out. Not only am I a talentless cook, I don't like eating food I've prepared unless its a sandwich.

The CFL bulbs can be bought at any hardware or grocery store. There's a local chain that has a 10.00 off on some Thursday. Look at the flyer that hits your mail box on Monday, it's advertised in there. Spend 50.00, get 10.00 off. You can then get the lightbulbs (that look like an ice cream cone to me) for free.

The Big Cut

Recently Bruk and I were chatting on the subject of cutting back. She asked, What more can we cut, we've already cut so much.

This means we have basic phone service with Internet, no cell phones, or cable TV.

My monthly power bill, when I'm not running the central air is 22.00 monthly. Two years ago I replaced all light bulbs with CFL's. My power bill dropped from 70.00 per month.

When I use the washing machine it's cold water only (it's the detergent that cleans the cloths, not the water temperature, Hot water contributes to fading) and the cycle is shorter.

I unplug everything that uses vampire power (that's anything with a clock in it like the microwave or anything that uses a remote) when not in use.

My budgeted gas bill for my 1,400 sq. feet is 60.00 monthly. It gets chilly in here during the winter, especially in bed when I'm doing late night reading and have turned the heat down to 58.

I went off a prescription antidepressant that was offered to me the last time I was told I had cancer. I told my doctor I wanted off and he panicked: You just can't stop taking it, you have to cut down gradually. I went from 150 mil to 75 for three months then a month on 35 and have been off the stuff for five months. Savings: 30.00 monthly.

I do an annual yard share from my back yard. It's open to 9 people every year, they pay 25.00. I do all the labor and while it's really time consuming I love being outside. I'm currently growing a variety of peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. In the fall I will dig up and sell some of dozens of hosta to expand the vegetable garden next spring. I've been composting for over a decade and have pure black soil and not a speck of clay.

Any additional tips are always appreciated.

Online petition to SAVE MANN SCHOOL

Click on the title above then scroll down to the orange Go to Form link.

Help Preserve Mann Scool this Saturday

Mann School in TGS is on the closure list for 2011. A small group of TGS residents have formed the Alliance to Preserve Mann school:

Stop into Hartford Coffee this Saturday between 10:30 and 12:00 and help keep Mann Elementary off the St. Louis Public Schools Closure List so that it can continue operating as a model neighborhood school. There are a few urgent and EASY things
that you can do with just a few minutes of your time.

If you only have ONE minute:

Sign our petition to take Mann off the closure list.

If you have TEN minutes:

Write a letter to your state legislators telling them that you want
stimulus money used for school renovation (instead of demolition and
new construction). Renovating our existing historic school buildings
saves money, saves resources, and preserves our community heritage.
We will have sample letters, envelopes, and stamps available for you
to use.

If you have TWENTY minutes or more:

Get a cup of coffee and a muffin and take a seat! We'd love to hear
about why Mann Elementary matters to you and what you think would help
convince the Special Administrative Board to remove it from the
Closure List. We can also give you materials (petition forms and
sample letters) so that you can help us with outreach on your block.

Members of the Alliance to Preserve Mann Elementary steering committee
will be at Hartford Coffee this Saturday, May 2nd, from 10:30 to
12:00. See you there!

Also, if you want to make sure you always receive Mann Elementary
updates, join our announcements listserve at:

http://groups.google.com/group/preserve-mann-anncmnt

3800 Humphrey in Tower Grove South

These speckled bricks have such a low sheen if I hadn't noticed a dull glare as I passed I wouldn't have known they were glazed.
Tragic that the dyed pink mortar is popping out.



This block has some great stone faced buildings:

White dogwood blossoms in front of white stones.



Perma-stone. It's fake and a bad fix.

Third floor windows vary from house to house and one still has leaded panes..



Ouch. Painted limestone.

Before Dillard's

It was Stix, Baer, and Fuller with the very best logo. This tag is from the 50's, the colors used changed over the decades.

Fly me to the Moon

When I was a child my family took a train to Los Angeles to visit my uncle and aunt who were living in Torrance. Both of my relatives had Top Secret jobs. My uncle was an aeronautical engineer and never revealed his employer. My aunt was a secretary. She told us the ribbons from all typewriters were collected at the end of each day and burned. The Cold War was all that.

In the 60's Torrance was a sunny new development of split level homes and kidney bean shaped swimming pools. I mostly remember the white concrete streets (and in retrospect, no litter) and the rocket ship slide in Los Arboles Park:

I found the photo on google, its by Chris Minerd. If you look closely you can see the slide in front.

The St. Louis version of Rocket Ship playground is on Boyle in the CWE. The rocket slide is pocket size and is the only remaining piece of the playground:


Other Rocket slides:

Landings and a steering wheel in the cone of the rocket:

Brooklyn:

Updated slide in Boulder:

Submarine:

Rocket reentry slide:

Kansas:

Texas:

Pop Quiz

Answer this question without using google:
Where are poplar trees usually planted and for what purpose?

Olive Oyl

Five Corners

I am enamored of disorienting five corner intersections. This treasure is in Clifton Heights.

Fire escapes

Fire escapes on homes in the CWE. Originally built as single family homes they morphed into rooming houses during the Great Depression and were required to have a third floor fire escape. I lived in a similar home on McPherson that had a fire escape and an iron ring bolted to the floor with a rope ladder on the other side of the house.

Granitoid sidewalk

When I was a child a hundred years ago this is how the sidewalks looked throughout the city. They presented a cohesive path for walking to school but were hell on roller skates.

They also didn't age well. Water would snuggle between a piece of granite and the mortar, freeze during the winter and float the rocks out in the spring rains. By the 70's sidewalks were being replaced. I remember the brass sidewalk markers on our street that read Laid 1910 and the red and yellow fire alarm box in the corner of McDonald and Roger.

Granitoid sidewalk, Kingshighway Hills:


Iron in granitoid curb

Glazed bricks on a garage in Bevo

Charming that a glazed terra cotta pyramid was added:

Glistening Mortar

Rats.
My camera couldn't capture the flecks of mica in this dyed black mortar which caused the wall to glisten as I strolled by. I turned my head to affectionately acknowledge the shimmering little flecks of light then stopped to gawk and relax into a trance.

Inevitably, someone stops to stare at me with my head a foot away from a brick wall. This happens more than I care to dsclose and usually an interview convenes in which I reluctantly participate.

I've developed a new response to the question about the tattoo on my forearm: Everyone in my coven has this tattoo. I know! It's rude but I can't spare the time to discuss the golden ratio.

This mortar is baited with sparkly bits:

Working the Angle

Along Morgan Ford Rd in Bevo there's three blocks of apartments built on angles but only on the East side of the street. If you live in one of this buildings you would open the front door and your shoulder would be facing the street. Thinking about living in a building on an angle makes me dizzy. It's oddly disruptive and mildly annoying because everything, and I mean everything, is about the rectangle. Even the shape of a brick.

Painters must know this: a square painting is a hard sell because we humans are self referential. We intuitively prefer a rectangular building and inside that building most of our furniture resonates with the shape of our bodies. No one has a square mirror in a square bathroom, it's too challenging of a read. When I open the rectangular door to my pantry I see a series of rectangle boxes.

I once owned a painting that was a circle but it was created by an Inuit Indian and Natives insist on circles. It troubled me and I eventually sold it on ebay.

This is my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Morgan Ford Rd at Neosho:






Nothing like a home depot door to queer up some historic terra cotta.