Glass Beach

My nirvana is Glass Beach, in Fort Bragg, California.  It was an old bottle dump and now the beach is all beach glass.  The first time I went in 1995, I was unprepared for what I found.  My automatic camera was in my jacket pocket.  It flew out of the pocket and broke on a rock but I didn't care, I was too busy stuffing my jeans pockets with glass.  I had so much glass in them that both pockets ripped out of the pants.  That trip was forevermore known as, 'The Greedy Grab at Glass Beach'.  

The second & third times I went, in 1998 and 99, I brought a baggie.  Taking gobs and gobs of it is definitely frowned upon, so I only dug for and selected extremely rare pieces.  I really didn't take that much, considering it's all beach glass.  I do kind of regret that but I was trying not to get in trouble with the locals that were there too.  And to be honest, once you're there, it's just so full of regular white, brown and green that all you want to do is look for the other colours, because you know they're there.  You don't have to settle for white, green and brown.  Now that the internet has made info and photos of this beach so easily available, more people are visiting and stripping the place by the bagful, which is also unfortunate.  There is a jewelry page I follow on Facebook that makes beach glass jewelry and they put up as a status, "Just got a fresh batch of glass shipped in from Glass Beach!" That really bummed me out. I've had photos of it posted to my Facebook wall multiple times, so people are very much aware of this once-hidden gem.

Took mom and dad there when they visited in the spring of 1999, right before I moved north to Washington.  My mom always complained that she could never find beach glass so I took her for a foolproof hunt.  My dad proved very adept at spotting red pieces.  I also collected a lot of ceramic or china shards here.

Surprisingly....or not....these are the only 3 photos I took of Glass Beach.  Maybe I was too busy digging to bother?  That's probably it.

Here are some pics of the stuff I collected at Glass Beach.  

 

Red is the rarest colour of them all.  Early glassmaking used gold to make red, so it was very expensive and people were less likely to toss red glass items in a bottle dump.  All the red I've ever found was at this beach.

I also picked up quite a few pieces of beach crockery too.  You never see that on the east coast.

While digging for glass, I also found these cool shells.

Funny Wedding Stuff

Let me first start by saying that we have not set, nor are we even close to setting, a date for our wedding.  I cannot emphasize that enough.  This particular post is just for fun.  It'll be awhile before we get married.  I haven't seriously given anything a thought at all - elope vs. wedding, date, clothes, etc.  The first time I got married, I eloped, and never regretted it.  I could actually remember my wedding day b/c it was so low key with just us and our 3 best friends.  There was no stress, no whirlwind of activity and frenetic reception with toasts, dancing and cutting the cake or people tapping their forks on their glasses to get us to kiss.  By the time I got married to Brian, I was a veteran of the Large Italian Wedding  & Reception thing and knew that I never, ever wanted to have that kind of ceremony.  The thought paralyzed me with fear then, and does now.   

Ideally, I see us eloping and then coming back and having a big party or something, probably rent out the Legion Hall and invite everyone to get together with us there.  On the other hand, I realize that it would be a snub to our families and friends not to do anything at all....so many of them played a role in our getting together, keeping secret so that I could extricate myself from my marriage without the ex finding out just how involved I was with Russell, plus it would be cool if they could be there on our special day.  

That said, I am greatly enjoying my friends' various and sundry funny ideas and suggestions for my wedding.  The ideas have all been very colourful and sparkly, including tie dyed bridesmaid dresses, which of course I gleefully showed Russell who got a look on his face like, "What have I gotten myself into?"  When the following photo turned up on my timeline from Deb with 'You need this for your yard', I commented back, "Are you trying to get him to break up with me?".

She also posted this as a dessert suggestion.  Lurving the gumball machines.  

There have actually been some really cool ideas too.  Mina thought the picture of our initials and heart done in pebbles would make a good 'save the date' card.  That's pretty brilliant!!!  I probably have a dozen friends who have offered to marry us.  My friend Sue up in Eastham said that her husband can marry us aboard their sailboat.  How cool would that be?  And could it be possible to actually have all of them take a turn in our ceremony?  So much for keeping things 'toned down'.  

I'm not a dress-wearer.  I don't even own one.  Well I do own one, but it's purple and black velvet with dragons embroidered all over it in red and gold thread.  I've never worn it, but I had to have it even though I know it doesn't fit anymore.  Not sure I'd wear it to get married in though, but I do like these threads:

This would make a cool cake.

Oooo or this one!

But I really love this one.

Here's a project I would love to make, but even that would be funny!  The first map is 'We Met', the second is 'We Married' and the third 'We Live.'  Then I realized that, unless we elope, it's going to be the same map for all three hearts!!  We met in Sandwich.  We will probably marry in Sandwich.  We may or may not live there after our wedding, but we'll be close by.  Russell suggested we elope to Vegas, at least that way the middle heart can be different.

Isn't this a riot?  Couldn't you just see Sagan with one of these on?

Whatever we end up doing will be awesome and special, whenever that may be.

Edmund Fitzgerald

Having just been to Niagara Falls in the fall of 1975 and seeing a couple of the Great Lakes, I was very fascinated by the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on November 10, 1975 in Lake Superior.  The Big Fitz was an American freighter and was one of the biggest on the Lakes when it was launched in 1958.  Less than 20 years later, she'd be at the bottom of Superior, with her 29 crew still on board.  

"Big Fitz" was making its last run of the season, loaded with iron ore pellets.  A second ship, the Arthur Anderson, was following about 20 miles behind the Fitz. The storm overtook them both. Captain Cooper  of the Anderson maintained radio contact with Captain McSorley throughout the storm.  Captain McSorley's last words were, 'We are holding our own'.

Various theories have been put forth about what could have caused the invincible ship to go down. Some thought that the ore hatches weren't secured correctly, causing the hold to fill with water.  Some thought the ship bottomed out on the shoals approaching Whitefish Bay.  Others thought a rogue wave crashed on deck, splitting the ship in half and sinking it.

It's wreckage was found shortly after it went down.  In 1995, to mark the 20th anniversary, the ship's bell was brought to the surface, and a new bell installed on the wreck with the names of all who perished.  Further dives to the ship are illegal and forbidden.  

Finally I leave you with Gordon Lightfoot's haunting ballad from 1976, a song which brings me to tears every time I hear it.

Dennison Seals

I Heart Dennison Seals.  Oh how I wish I still had all the ones I had when I was little.  One of my dad's salesmen used to bring me shopping bags full of these charming little stickers.  I had all of them.  All the animals, birds, holidays.  I stuck them everywhere.   

Seeing these pictures really takes me back

I've looked for these online and they sell for quite a bit of money now on eBay.  If I had a disposable income I'd buy them but alas, the photos must suffice. 

I can still taste and smell the glue used on the backs that you'd lick to stick them.  And then your fingers would get all sticky from it.

Anyone else remember these seals and stickers?

Cryptozoology

Cryptozoology is the study of mythical creatures and it fascinates the hell out of me, especially the Big Three:

Bigfoot

Loch Ness Monster (I was crushed to find out this picture had been faked).

And the Yeti.  Bumbles is so CUTE!

But Sasquatch/Bigfoot, that's my main cryptozoological interest.  Northern California and the Pacific Northwest have always been a hotbed of sightings, although all 50 states and Canadian provinces have reported sightings of a big, hairy apeman.

The above still photo of Bigfoot was taken from the famous Patterson/Gimlin film from 1967, shot at Bluff Creek, California.  When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, I went to the movies with my friend Sheila for her birthday.  Back then, they used to show a film short prior to the main feature.  That was the first time I'd ever heard of Bigfoot, when the Patterson/Gimlin film was shown in the short.  I was fascinated from that point forward.

When we lived in California, the ex and I used to head north to Humboldt County, on 'Bigfoot Expeditions'.  They weren't real searches as we never got out of the car, and kind of hoped one might cross the road.  I know it seems unlikely that an unknown ancient apeman species has gone undetected but after seeing the dense woods, shown here at Berry Summit on the way to Willow Creek, I can believe it.

Plenty of woods in which to hide; plenty of salmon in the rivers...this is the Trinity River on the Hoopa Indian Reservation in Humboldt County.

This is Bluff Creek, although the actual location of the Patterson Gimlin film is quite a few miles away, deep in the woods.  I shot this from the road.

Bluff Creek

Of course the locals have capitalized on the phenomena.  Avenue of the Giants.

Willow Creek.

The local Hoopa, Yurok & Karuk tribes know the creature as the Oh Mah.  I remember asking the proprietor of the cottage we rented if she ever saw one.  She said no, she didn't, but her daughter had one cross the road in front of her, just east of town in the Trinity Alps.  She also told me that people in the area see them all the time, but don't report it for fear of ridicule by the outside world, but mostly to protect the creature from hunters.

Oregon & Washington State have laws on the books about the illegality of harassing or killing a Sasquatch.

This is the place we owned in Neilton, on the Olympic Peninsula.  It came with 7 acres of dense woods that backed up to the Quinault Indian Reservation.  I only spent one night here in the year we owned it, and I admit, I got the heebie jeebies about the possibility of a Sasquatch looking in the windows late at night.

 The truth is out there....

Bead Brain

I've loved beads for as long as I can remember.  I know, huge shock right?  I don't know where the obsession started, but for a vague memory of going to the bead shop in Yonkers with my grandmother when I was about 4.  She worked there, sewing beads and sequins onto gowns that were sold in the boutiques in Manhattan.  At her apartment, she always had a couple of cookie tins full of beads and sequins, which I always begged to see and play with and she was only happy to oblige.

I have no memory of this, but my mom likes to tell the story of when I shoved a bunch of beads up my nose. I must've been 2 or 3.  One was stuck but good, up by the bridge of my nose.  Right then, the refuse company showed up to get the trash from our house.  The woman driving the truck had a whole passel of kids herself, so mom darted outside to ask for her help.  But all she could advise was to just keep working it down from the outside instead of trying to use tweezers up my nostril.  Mom said she finally got that bead out.

Many years later, when I was at Channel 56 in the late 80s, I went to see an allergist, who took a bunch of xrays of my sinuses.  He told me that one cause of my constant stuffy nostril on that side could be the small bone spur that was in my sinus.  I didn't think anything of it.  A few years later I mentioned it to Brian and he knew the story of the beads up my nose.  He wondered if it was possible that the bone spur was actually a bead that calcified over.  

I'd like to think that it is and that it's the source of my creativity.  

Antique Beaded Purses

I bought my first antique beaded bag, right after Christmas of 1994.  I saw it as part of a holiday window display at an antique store in San Anselmo, CA on Christmas Eve, and I had to have it.  I couldn't wait till the store reopened a few days later!  Here are some pics of my modest collection (not all of them).

I got this one at an antique store in Sebastopol, CA in December, 1998.  I used to try and buy one around the holidays, each year, if I could afford it. 

I found this one in Fort Bragg, CA in the mid to late 90s; not sure which trip it was.

From the Palmer Wirf Antique Show in Puyallup, 2008.

Another one from San Anselmo, CA, purchased in 1996.

Victoria, BC, Summer 2005.  The store proprietor put a Canadian quarter in it for good luck.

From Chemainus, BC, Summer 2007

This one is very heavy as the tiny beads are made from cut steel.  It's bottom ribbon is broken and this must be handled with great care.  This was a gift from a friend of my mom's.  She gave me 2 other purses as well.

I used to have them on display, but moved most of them to an acid-free storage box because the dust, damp and pet dander was making them begin to deteriorate.  Someday I hope to have a glass case into which I can place them for display.