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Home Again In Horseheads NY One Hundred Years Later

Here’s a neat story about another addition to my collection of “Treasures”.
Last month a family friend, Marcie Baer came up from her home in Maryland & spent the weekend. For a few years she had mentioned that she had a surprise for me, something that she had from a long time ago. She brought up with her an old piece of oak & glass furniture, an old retail umbrella sales & display case. It was in her Dad’s basement for many, many years until he died only a few years ago.
This case was manufactured by the Oscar Onken Company of Cincinnati, Ohio at the turn of the 20th century. Umbrellas were used a lot more back in those days, and were considered a vital and necessary part of every well dressed persons wardrobe. These cases were usually found in most clothing stores and haberdasheries. They were also commonly found in the general stores or local gathering places of smaller communities that sold tobacco, confections, newspapers, etc. So much for the description of what this piece was in it’s past life.
So Marcie knows I collect and appreciate historical items, and knowing that she did not have any practical use for this thing…it now became mine!
It was in terrible shape. It was watermarked, dirty, full of cobwebs, had 2 broken panels of glass. Despite all of this, I saw a real gem inside!
Over the past month, I cleaned it up, hand rubbed it all with Tung Oil, had the missing glass panels replaced, and in general brought this beauty back to life, as these images beautifully show. I actually use it now to hold the many umbrellas that I use here in my Studio. But the neatest thing about this whole story is that this case started out it’s life in the early 1900’s in one of those above mentioned little shops….a place called H.A. Messings – A store selling men’s furnishings – tobacco, magazines & books. It later was sold and changed names into Rudy Baer’s Corner, right on the corner here in Hanover Square, just two blocks away from where my Studio stands today, and where that case will now call home, at least until I retire!
Welcome home to an old friend, back home in Horseheads, NY…..where you began….where you belong!
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Dallas ’63 Remembered………. Fifty Years Later.

In 1994 we visited my good buddy Mick Lowman & his wife Denise at their home just outside Dallas, Texas. While there Mick showed us all the sites related to JFK’s Assassination. Dealy Plaza, the School Book Depository (now “The Sixth Floor JFK Museum”), the Texas Theater where Oswald was captured, and finally good ole’ Lee -O’s final resting place.

Mick was so proud to have found the grave, as it’s location was never published or really made public knowledge…but Mick made it his personal Mission From God to find it. Whenever he had a chance, he drove from cemetery to cemetery, looking, striking up conversations with groundskeepers until finally one old boy wouldn’t tell him exactly where the site was, but gave Mick a few clues and BINGO….the Promised Land! Here I am, laying down & resting for a bit with Lee-O.

Interesting little side note, that as the word got out as to where the burial site was located, Cemetery officials worried about the possibility of the grave being plundered some day. I can’t remember the exact year this was done, but to thwart that possible outcome the Cemetery dug up the casket, dug the hole much deeper than usual, replaced the coffin and then poured a few dump truck loads of concrete on top of it. So short of someone using a nuclear warhead to exhume ole Lee-O…..He aint’t goin’ anywhere for a long, long time!

Today hell, all you have to do is Google it and there are the EXACT GPS coordinates below.

Rest in Peace JFK……Fifty years Later.

If you are ever in Dallas/Ft. Worth & want to go spend some quiet time & visit Lee-O:

Final Resting Place – Rose Hill Cemetery
Fort Worth, Texas
32.732455°N 97.203223°W

 

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Me....& Lee!

Me….& Lee!

Air Supply – 10/17/13 First Arena

Some great shots from tonight’s fun show @ First Arena, Elmira, NY
One of the Guitarists had a little Jimi Hendrix going tonight too! I wonder if he knew that “The Legend” was Alive & Well and just outside these very Arena doors, Regularly Roaming the Streets of Downtown Elmira???
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“Big Dipper Delight”

Today’s Wedding of Sarah & Jarrett that took place at Seneca Springs Resort was my first visit to that great venue, and what a time we all had. As the night wore on, I set up my gear to get a shot across the pond and to catch some of the beautiful starlight in the skies tonight. The shots came out looking great, and then suddenly I realized that a little bit of luck never hurts either! I never even noticed while setting up the shot, that the Big Dipper was directly front & center in the image I was creating. Straight out of the camera….with no additional retouching…Now how cool is that?

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Frame From The Fog

All day today I had the pleasure to shoot & chronicle the delivery, installation & final mounting and presentation of a remarkably beautifully piece of art at the Rockwell Museum of Western Art in Corning, NY. This great painting, Mt. Whitney, painted by Albert Bierstadt,  got a brand new custom made, period accurate frame that reflects the period accurate style & grandeur of the 1860’s- 1870’s when this painting was created. A group of talented Framing Artisians from Manhattan NYC, who themselves hand crafted this one of a kind $70,000 Masterpiece Frame, were on hand to handle the painstaking set-up, fitting and installation of this remarkable piece of art. It was a very interesting day watching this collaboration all come together! A job well done by everyone involved!
PS: After looking at that next to last image of all the guys raising that painting up on the wall….the way some of them have their hands and arms outstretched reminds me of the famous flag raising shot from Iwo Jima in World War II.

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