A Shirt I REALLY Liked....
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I'm about 16 years old in this photo.
Sophomore in high school at Bishop England so it's probably 1954 or 1955.
This was taken downtown on the peninsula in
Ansonborough back when the area had just about
"bottomed out." We - and all my friends in the neighborhood - were renters.
Maybe one family owned their home but the rest of us had landlords.
Cousin Leslie, visiting down from Camden, snapped a picture and, recently, she came across it and sent me a print.
I actually do remember that shirt.
Looking at the scene, I wondered if I could take a picture from the exact same spot.
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So, here it is 55 years later.
A friend from Chicago is a good photographer so I challenged him.
Holding the original picture and his camera, he had me move closer, step back, move right, little to the left....hold it. Then he snapped the shutter.
Of course it's digital now instead of Kodak film.
And the tall palm tree is new. And the buildings are cleaned up, painted and very expensive.
None of my friends still live in the borough. I live in Hanahan.
My photographer buddy Ron is also very good at manipulating pictures so I asked if it were possible to
copy-and-paste so I appear to be wearing the same shirt.
He did a great job!
My cousin Leslie was impressed that I still had that shirt.
[Of course
Photoshop was used...or maybe Ron did it with
WIMP.]
Labels: 1950s, Ansonborough, Chicago, Cousin Leslie, favorite shirt, historic Camden, manipulate a picture, peninsula
Everything changes...
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I grew up downtown on the peninsula in the area called
Ansonborough.
The house is on Meeting at Society Street in the
"Old" area where my boyhood friends and I were tenants.
Maybe one or two families owned their homes, but mainly, we all were renting back then in the 1950s.
My two brothers and I went to grade school at St. Joseph's around the corner on Anson Street, and then walked up to Broad and Queen Streets to attend Cathedral Grammar school.
We all three graduated from Bishop England high school - walking in the other direction - on Calhoun Street.
All of those schools are gone now.
The Anson Street building is still there but is no longer a school. The others have been torn down.
I passed my old house the other day at the corner of Meeting Street and apparently it's awaiting BAR approval of paint samples displayed on the front and sides.
It also is no longer
270 Meeting Street. The address has been changed to Society Street.
We seldom used the front door so I'm glad the back entrance is now officially recognized.
Even by the mailman..
Labels: Anson Street, Ansonborough, Broad Street, Meeting Street, Queen Street. Cathedral Grammar School
A GREAT Way To Celebrate A Birthday...
Now that everyone (well, those who read this blog) saw my old college student ID card, you know I just had a birthday.
It's at the end of April so I'm a Taurus. It's my 68th.
Hopefully many, many more to come!
Growing up on Society Street in Ansonborough, we had an unusual family tradition of borrowing a camera to take snapshots of birthdays and other important events across the street
"in front of Mrs. O'Rourke's house." There are no photos of
OUR house or our backyard.
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See, across the street, the sunlight would shine over my Mom's left shoulder ...just as Kodak suggested.
Or with the sun directly overhead so your face was mostly in shadow.
We had a lot to learn about photography and, getting our own camera would be the first step.
But, this posting is about
my birthday and a suggestion on how to celebrate your birthday so others can enjoy it for a long, long time.
In honor of my turning 68, I sat down with a Funeral Director and planned my funeral. We even wrote an obit.
My children will not have to make these decisions at a sad time and I bought it with today's dollars. The funeral is all paid for and I can cross that off the list of
"things to do before I die."Labels: Ansonborough, birthday, funeral, Kodak, pre-need
My Blog Does NOT Have A Permit
A recent news article about the size of cities in the Charleston area surprised me. Sure I expected Mt. Pleasant and North Charleston to be among the leaders but my tiny little town of Hanahan posted a 6% gain since last year!
Of course, with 3,800 as a total population that's only about 230 new people.
Municipal governments of all sizes have to eke out income every way it can and Hanahan has found the mother lode : permits.
Nearly 50 years ago my parent left Society Street in Ansonborough (that's the "old Ansonborough" where nobody owned, everybody rented) and moved into their 800 square foot home on a corner lot out in the country just off Remount Road.
My dad was an expert carpenter and cabinetmaker so the first thing he did was extend one side of the house to build his 50' by 20' workshop. The porch out front was moved forward later and the kitchen grew about 20 feet toward the rear. Today, the modest home has 2000 sq.ft upstairs (
under air as they say) and another 2,000 square feet downstairs including a huge workshop.
Couldn't do that today. Not in Hanahan. Nope.
Permits would be required for every step of the way. My dad was not a patient man and did not suffer fools too kindly. I chuckle to think of an inspector coming to HIS house to tell him HOW to do anything! He didn't take such comments from me and I was his middle son.
I am trying to keep the house nice for my elderly widowed Mom and I have met the enemy. Wish me luck.
Labels: Ansonborough, building permits, Hanahan, workshop
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I'm about 16 years old in this photo..jpg)
So, here it is 55 years later.
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