Monday Meanderings - 7.29.2013

Let the count down begin.

 I am not ready to see Back-To-School merchandise in the stores. No, I'm not. Doesn't seem to matter, though, because it's all out there. Why, school doesn't even start until... Oh. Uh, never mind.

Austin has added another big crowd-drawing event to the schedule - the Summer X-Games. The TV program about extreme sports is moving from Los Angeles to Austin for the next several seasons. Most activities will be held at the Circuit of the Americas, but some of it, of course, will be downtown in the "Entertainment District (6th Street).

Speaking of traffic, for three days in a row there were accidents involving overturned 18-wheelers on I-35 and on the Toll Road. Sort of brings things to a dead stop when that happens. One of the wrecks was a single-vehicle accident - no other vehicles involved!

The other day a little old lady got on the treadmill next to me at Silver's Gym. I wasn't sure she was even going to be able to get up on the device, but she managed, and in a minute I looked over and noticed that she was outpacing me! Time to up the effort.

Artifacts retrieved from the recent attic clean-out:
According to old W2 forms for the tax year 1984, it was a busy year for the family, employment-wise. I worked for Nash Phillips-Copus and the University of Texas. Barb worked for First Presbyterian Day School, the University of Texas, and Today's Temporary. Julie worked for SoFro Fabrics. Rob worked for Abilene Christian, Nash Phillips-Copus, Bill Milburn Homebuilders, and Scarborough's Department Store.

Yesterday in church, a friend sitting next to me received a word - or several - from on high. He was following along in his Bible App on his iPad as the minister was reading the sermon scripture. One wrong touch, and the App begins reading the verses aloud and my friend couldn't get it silenced. I thought we were going to get all of 2 Corinthians read aloud before he could get up, clutching the iPad to his chest, and flee the auditorium.

And speaking of embarrassing moments, the other day when I was ready to check out and pay for my groceries the cashier said, "Strip down, facing me."

After the shrieking and hysterical shouting finally subsided, I found out that she was referring to how I should position my debit card.

Nonetheless, I've been asked to shop elsewhere in the future.

They really need to make their instructions more clear for us seniors. Man, I hate this getting old stuff.

The Telephone - Stories from the Attic

In our great attic clean-out, we came across a couple of family "heirlooms." This is the story of one of our finds.

Of all the items we drug out of the attic, these may be the only things that actually have any value:

In telephone parlance, this box is a 1940's era Magneto Desk Set. The phone attached is circa 1930, known as the "French" phone. And it still works. Either one is a collector's item - but not in the price range of that Picasso I hoped we would find in the attic.

My father was a telephone man his entire working career, so it was not unusual to have various phone parts and pieces around the house; the U-shaped magnets that are part of the magnetos were among my first toys. And the magnetos themselves provided a lot of excitement as well. More about them in a moment.

The oak box - the "Desk Set" - was actually normally mounted on the wall; its only purpose was to hold the magneto, the bell, and provide mounting points for the phone line, the cord for the transmitter and receiver (which was probably of the "candle stick" design) and for the wires from the battery, which were placed elsewhere, not in the box (telephone systems have always provided their own power, but in the rural areas it was often necessary to boost the signal with batteries).

The low voltage in the phone line was sufficient to power a voice conversation, but ringing the bell was a different story. That of course, is the reason for the magneto; when you give the crank on the side of the box several good turns, you can generate quite a few volts - 50, 60, or more. This current "rings" the operator: "Hello, Central!"

The magneto in this desk set is a "three bar" unit - three U-shaped magnets. Four and five bar units, as well as other designs, were also used over the years. You may be able to see that this unit was made by the Kellogg Switchboard and Supply Company of Chicago, and that provides a clue as to how this particular device might have come to be in my father's possession.

Kellogg was a competitor to the Bell Systems; they provided equipment for many of the independents around the country. Back in the day, anyone with the capital and the equipment could go into the telephone business. My grandfather, my mother's father, had just such an exchange located in his home in Johnson County, Texas. The older children in the family worked as operators and repairmen! Here is a picture of my mother's sisters, my Aunt Lou Amma and Aunt Elna "manning" the switchboard.

So it is possible, if not likely, that my father installed a Western Electric (manufacturing arm of the Bell System) telephone in some rancher's home as Southwestern Bell began to provide service in an area previously serviced by just such an independent. He pitched this "off-brand" unit in the back of his truck and it eventually ended up in his garage. I think the penciled-in date, 3/14/1946, is in his hand writing; it is perhaps the date that he took this unit out of service.

The attached telephone, however, is genuine Bell System. Designated the "D1," it was an early 202 model, a series introduced in 1930, and was among the first telephones in the United States with the receiver and transmitter in one piece. It was called the "French" telephone because it was modeled after similar European units.

So why did these two unmatched components end up connected to each other?

The bell. The 200 series hand sets did not have an internal bell - they depended on a smaller, external (usually plastic) box, or "subset" to house the bell. I have no doubt that my father needed a phone somewhere around the house - perhaps an extension in the garage. He had the old D1 hand set (Bell was replacing them with the new, improved, internal-bell 300 series by 1938), and he had a bell unit with the old Kellogg desk set. The magneto was an unneeded part of the equipment at this point.

For many years, old telephone magnetos were highly sought after by fishermen; attach a couple of wires, drop the ends overboard into the water and "telephone for fish" by cranking away on the magneto. The voltage temporarily stunned nearby fish, particularly cat fish, and they floated to the surface to be scooped up. And yes, it is now illegal to do so. So old telephone magnetos are now useful only for practical jokes, and as collector's items. And family heirlooms.

Monday Meanderings - 7.22.2013

Rain in July is a rare occurrence around here, but we enjoyed several inches of rain over a four day period this past week. It is amazing how quickly the landscape can turn from brown to green, if only for a little while. Now it's back to watching for something to come ashore from the Gulf of Mexico. But not too big a something, please.

I'm sorry. The middle of July is just too early to start advertising back to school supplies. Why, school doesn't start until... until... wow!

And speaking of school, we frequently pass an athletic field at a high school in the wealthier part of town. Like most fields, there are signs on the fences, posted by businesses. At this school, just about every other sign has been put up by Orthodontists.

A treasure from the attic: I am a published playwright. Here's the certificate to prove it.

Unbeknownst to me, my roommate in college entered a play that I had written in the TIPA competition one year. Skeet, my roommate, was a journalism major and editor of the Optimist, the school paper, and he said that the school needed entries in a lot of categories to make a good showing, so he gathered up anything that he could find. Notice the First Place part!

Supposedly, winning First Place meant that the play would be published by Samuel French and Company - the dominant publisher of theatrical properties. Not sure that actually happened, because I'm sure my little one-act play would have gone straight to Broadway, or maybe Way-Off Broadway, and since I never heard from the company... Oh, well.

High School days - Stories from the Attic

In our great attic clean-out, we came across several boxes full of keep-sakes - old photos and such. From those, I have mined some blog stories.

During my senior year in high school, I was on the Annual staff. I don't remember how I got that assignment, but it was a demanding position - here we are, hard at work.

We had the last period of the day for Annual staff duties, we were often away from the campus on assignments, and best of all, the entire staff enjoyed a yearly trip to Austin to attend a conference and workshop. More about that trip in a moment.

My official title was "Art Director." That meant I was responsible for the art in the book. Here's the art. Somehow I ended up with the original, scotch tape-stained drawings, stored away in a box in our attic.

The character is a "Nebbish," based on a comic strip drawn by Herb Gardiner that was popular in the day. I drew them to use on the divider pages introducing the various sections of the book; Sports, Personalities, Classes and Organizations. Here's the the finished product.

About that trip to Austin - I have mentioned before that the UIL and extra-curriculum trips to Austin were highlights of the academic year, and we worked hard to get in on as many as possible. Here's the Annual staff, in front of the venerable Driskill Hotel, waiting for our chariot.

 Burk and I seem to have some kind of weapon in hand. I guess what happened in Austin should stay in Austin.  At least the UT campus police were not involved. Not on this trip.

Monday Meanderings - 7.15.2013

One of the regulars at Fran's is a fellow everybody calls "Coach," because he was for many years a coach at Reagan High, just across the highway. He has retired from active coaching but evidently his expertise is still in high demand: the other morning he received two phone calls while he was eating breakfast, both were complicated questions - judging from the half of the conversation we heard - about rules and regulations governing the game of baseball.

After he hung up, he said the two calls were from umpires at a youth baseball tournament. I asked him if he could explain the offside rule in soccer. And he could.

July is service month for Barb's Honda. After our visit last week for dealer service, we got new tires, and the other day a fellow from church who has a mobile brake service came by to check her brakes. She's good to go, but then it looks like August will be service month for the Highlander.

Reading at Learning Ally is heating up. I mentioned that I had taken a break while they were trying to get the AC repaired at the studio. Turns out that getting the place cool again is easier said than done. The architectural genius who designed the building placed the main AC unit in an attic space, but did not plan for adequate access to it.

There is not a door to the attic big enough to get the old, broken unit out and a new working unit back up there. To compound the error, the room with the access door to the attic was converted into a server room, and there are racks of computers and miles of wiring strung through the space now.

While they try to figure out how to deal with this double delima, they are limiting readers to morning sessions only. I read mornings, so I returned to duty this week. If you dress appropriately (read: hang a sheet over the window to the booth and slip into something comfortable) and you take frequent breaks, it is doable. Toasty, but doable.

Only 34 more days until Hatch Green Chili Festival, for those of you who are interested.

After setting aside the Attic treasure that we wanted to keep, and sorting out the ten boxes of Goodwill-worthy items, the rest went into the trash, or recycling bin. If you have more trash than fits in your bin, you have to buy "tags" to put on the extra bags or the city won't take them.

So far, in the great clean-out we have used five tags. There is no tag requirement for recycling - just put it out in recyclable containers and flatten cardboard boxes and tie them into 2X2 bundles. The only problem is that they only pick up recycling every two weeks. In the mean time, we have a garage full of items to be recycled. Looking forward to Wednesday!

Found in the Attic treasures -- a to-do list with only two items:

• Take car to mechanic
• Get marriage license

And speaking of cleaning out things, Barb has moved from the attic to the kitchen cabinets. Nothing is safe. In fact, I catch her watching me with a "Do we really need that anymore?" look. I'm getting nervous.