Moving On...Changing My Focus

It was on July 18, 2010, 15 years ago today, that I first posted something on my blog site.  I have regularly published posts regarding historical, food, family, travel and restaurant experiences for most of the past many years.  At one point I was posting to the site 3 times every week.   Most recently, it's been twice a week.

I've decided to cease any regular publications/posts to the site.  Not gone...still will publish something from time to time as the spirit moves me, but my focus is moving elsewhere.  I want to spend more time researching our family histories and I've gotten much more involved with a local Knoxville collector's club.  I do enjoy the time spent in that endeavor...even with the work involved. 

What follows are a scattering of the many photos dating as far back as last October...a sampling of those taken near the conclusion of our long road trip through parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia.  I'd never completed the Virginia portion of the trip...

This is the entrance to the Reeves Museum of Ceramics at Washington and Lee University in Lexington Virginia.  The Reeves collection showcases one of America's best collections of Chinese export porcelain as well as European and American ceramics made between 1500 and 1900.

FYI, Washington and Lee University is the 9th oldest college in the USA.  Originally known as Liberty Hall Academy, it was renamed Washington Academy in 1796 and Washington College in 1813.  A gift of stocks from George Washington had saved the school from financial ruin.  Robert E. Lee, who had led Confederate forces throughout the Civil War, had previously been the Superintendent of the West Point Military Academy.  A few months after the war, he became President of Washington College and he helped build the university for the future.

In today's highly charged political atmosphere, Lee's name being attached to this University has been controversial.  For the university's outlook on this subject, go to https://www.wlu.edu/about-w-l/university-history/university-namesakes.

During our visit, there was a exhibition of ceramics adjacent to artwork with blank spaces in the paintings that are related to the ceramics.  I still don't get it...but both Laurie and I do love ceramics and this plate was a stunner!

I just had to include this 'fowl' piece of porcelain in my post.  Love the brilliant colors involved!  

Then there was this gorgeous brown and yellow teapot with raised decorations.  This teapot from the Yixing Dynasty teapot dates somewhere between 1725 - 1775.

This stunning hard paste porcelain 'tea pot' from China didn't start its life as a tea pot, but rather as a wine pot.  The English later repurposed it as a teapot.  Note the 'bamboo bundle' shape that was created by a master ceramics maker sometime between 1700 and 1720.

Moving on down the road, it was time to find a place for dinner.  Research had revealed the possibility of a fine German dinner near Staunton Virginia.  The Edelweiss Restaurant is a log structure in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The family that built it came from Karlsruhe Germany.  The menu is loaded with German specialties, something one doesn't see very often.

While Edelweiss is well rated on the Internet, Laurie and I weren't feeling it... The food was decent but not great and the service was rushed.  This restaurant is popular with long waits for customers so maybe our lack of enthusiasm isn't typical.  Check it out and give Edelweiss a try.  Let us know what you think... Website: https://edelweissvirginia.com/.

I love taking photos like this and imagining what might have been... Located at the eastern foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains on US Hwy. 60 in Amherst County Virginia, Forks of Buffalo refers to the place where the North and South Forks of the Buffalo River come together.

Since I like researching places, I came across this photo from the Forks of the Buffalo area, showing the Myers' Cash Store, United States Post Office and Esso Gas Station.  Perhaps the early to mid-1960s, the store opened in 1937.  Unfortunately, I also came across another photo from December of 2024, only 2 months after I took that first photo, now showing that the front of the old building had fallen down... Timing is everything.

This well preserved and restored railway depot is located at Amherst Virginia.  Amherst was founded in 1807 and it is the county seat for the county of the same name.  The town's population has never been much higher than its current level of about 2,200 residents.

Amherst was first known as Dearborn and the first depot here was completed in the late 1800s for the Orange and Alexandria Railroad.  It was replaced in the late fall of 1913 by the Southern Railway.  As was typical, the ticket booth extended outward from the center facing the tracks, with waiting rooms on each side...one for black folks and the other for white folks.  Three passenger trains stopped at the depot every day until the mid-1940s.  Passenger service was completely discontinued during the 1960s and finally freight service ceased in the mid-1970s.

So...just where is this old structure located?  Our next significant stop was at the Appomattox Courthouse National Historic Park at the village of Appomattox Courthouse...redundant I know.  This is not the original Appomattox Courthouse, but rather a reconstruction.

In the 1800s the original courthouse gave its name to the village around it.  As many of us know, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army here in 1865.  I always thought that Lee had surrendered to Grant at the courthouse but the courthouse was closed that day so the surrender took place in a nearby home.  In any case the village was already in a state of decline in the 1850s.  The original courthouse burned down in 1892 and the county seat was relocated.  This structure was rebuilt in 1964 and it now serves at the Visitor's Center for the more than 1,700 acre Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park.

So this is the house...or an almost exact replica of the house...where Lee surrendered to Grant, virtually bringing America's long and painful Civil War to an end.  This is the McLean House at the Appomattox Courthouse National Historic Park and it was chosen for the surrender as it was the most substantial home or building in the Village.

The McLean House was originally built by Charles Raine in 1848.  It had served as a tavern/inn and it was sold to Wilmer McLean in 1863.  In an interesting historical quirk of fate, the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) took place on McLean's farm.  Seeking to avoid the war, and too old to serve in the Confederate Army, McLean moved here to 'avoid the war'.

This is a recreation of the setting where Lee formally surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant.  The original furniture is in the possession of the Smithsonian and the Chicago History Museum.

The terms of surrender were: "The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of their commands,"... neither "side arms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage" to be surrendered; and, as many privates in the Confederate Army owned horses and mules, all horses and mules claimed by men in the Confederate Army to be left in their possession.

As for the McLean house, Wilmer McLean was broke as all his money was in Confederate dollars, which he'd accumulated by running sugar through the Union blockade during the war.  Ownership passed from one person to one scheme or another.  At one point it was disassembled and labeled for possible reconstruction as an attraction in Washington D.C.  That project never got off the ground and much of what was left of the house was pilfered over the years.  The re-built house was opened to the public on April 9, 1949.  Over 5,000 of the home's original bricks were used in the construction.

To learn more about the Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park and to plan a visit, go to https://www.nps.gov/apco/index.htm. 

This is the Booker T. Washington National Monument near Hardy Virginia.  Booker T. Washington was born a slave on the 207-acre farm of James Burroughs in April of 1856.  Following the Civil War, he became the first principal of  the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School.  Later, as an advisor and confidant of President Theodore Roosevelt, an author and orator, he became the most influential African American of his era.

Booker T. Washington (1856 - 1919)

To learn more about Booker T. Washington, you can go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington.

This National Monument preserves portions of the tobacco farm where Booker T. Washington was born and where he lived for the first 9 years of his life.  The facility also provides interpretation of Washington's life and achievements as well as an interpretation of slavery and farming in the 1850s through the use of buildings, gardens, crafts and animals.

You can learn more about The Booker T. Washington National Monument at https://www.nps.gov/bowa/index.htm.  

The last stop on our long but interesting and relaxing road trip was of course, dinner on the last night of the trip.  We were tired and looking forward to getting home.  The decision was made that we should go casual for our final meal on the road so we picked JJ's Restaurant and Sports Bar in Abingdon Virginia from my list of dining options.  Laurie stuck to soup and cornbread and I went for fried catfish, beans, coleslaw and cornbread.  The food wasn't gourmet but it was tasty, reasonably priced and satisfying.

JJ's Restaurant and Sports Bar is located at 115 Charwood Drive in Abingdon Virginia.  Open daily for lunch and dinner.  Phone: 276-525-4999.  Website: https://www.eatatjjs.com/.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, I'll be back from time to time and I'll also check in on those who I've been following...

Just click on any of the photos you'd like to enlarge.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care...and, as the saying from the 50's (the era of 45 rpm records), "I'll see you on the flip side".

Big Daddy Dave

No Post Week! (Almost...)

We're so tied up this week with the pending neighborhood garage sale that this will be the closest thing to a blog posting I'll even attempt.  Seventeen houses in the immediate area are all having garage sales on Friday and Saturday from 8 AM until 2 PM.   

We are still digging for other items to sell and we seem to be constantly reorganizing our garage sale offerings... We did sell one set of ladies golf clubs already.

Laurie caught 'some old guy' in this photo of one side of our garage.  We have signs on all the upper shelves stating that nothing on those shelves is for sale.  We've also covered our yard tools...rakes, shovels, etc. as they aren't for sale either.  I did sell a sledge hammer and an axe to one of folks from the crew that washes our windows a couple times a year.

This is a view of the other side of the garage.  Note the hanging items on the wall plus all the fishing rods and reels along the wall.  More golf clubs too.  That couch/love seat at the left by the garage door was sold today and it's gone.

I am selling a bunch of 'collectables' including some Olympic Games vendor's pins... This is a Vons Grocery Store pin from 1984.  I have lots of them from Atlanta and even a couple from Barcelona.  In addition, since I spent my career in retail security and loss prevention I have over 100 security badges bagged for sale.  Who knows?  I might sell a few of them.  Also on sale are 3 Montgomery Ward collectable trucks in their original boxes...

We did manage to sell a set of Mikasa China on-line and we just pulled a scattering of these Czechoslovakian plates and serving pieces out of storage, even matching boiled egg cups.  My mother inherited them from my great aunt Elsie ca. 1951 or so.  Someone might buy them... If not we'll find a home for them in a thrift store.

This rain-style shower head came with the house when we bought it.  It's been in the garage ever since... It will sell or it will become recycled metal!  We are running out of things to put out for the sale.

We have sold a number of furniture items in addition to that love seat previously mentioned.  This antique table came from my mother's house where it served her well for years.  We also sold a buffet, a baker's table with an attached hutch and 2 rocking chairs.  Basically the big stuff is gone and the sale doesn't start until this coming Thursday.

The weather forecast for the sale is that there is a 40% rain on the first day and 60% chance of rain on Saturday.  Whatever will be, will be!

All I know for sure is that this will be our first and last garage sale!  We are looking forward to 'just chillin' with a beverage on our screened porch after the madness we're expecting to take over the neighborhood.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!  I'll be back with a new post on 6/10.

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave and Laurie

Family Visit from Michigan

In 2022 Laurie and I went on a road trip that was primarily centered on Michigan, my home state.  I was born in Carson City Michigan and lived in and near Jackson until I relocated for my career when I was about 25 years old.  I am now the oldest living member of both my paternal and maternal family lines.  

During the aforementioned road trip in 2022, we stopped and visited my cousin Nathan and his better half, Janice.  Well, ever since then I've hassled them just a bit.  It was past time for them to come down to East Tennessee and pay us a visit!  Despite a close family life and having two of their children, as well as young grandchildren living near them, us oldsters finally prevailed!  

But, before I start posting photos regarding Nathan and Janice's visit, here's a little family historical background.

This is Nathan's father and my uncle Nathan. (There have been 4 Nathans in the family to date) However, that beautiful little boy being held by Nathan's father is yours truly.  That dates the photo somewhere between late 1944 and mid-1945.  The photo was taken in front of my grandfather and grandmother's home on Prospect Street in Jackson Michigan.

This photo is from the wedding of my cousin Nathan's father Nathan and his bride Ruth.  The person at the left is unknown but the second from the left is a photo of a very young (pre-US Navy) Uncle John.  Then Uncle Nathan, Aunt Ruth, Ruth's sister Billie and my mother Elizabeth's second husband, Hugh Thomson. (My father Ronald was KIA in Czechoslovakia on May 6, 1945)

Another wedding photo.  Aunt Ruth and Uncle Nathan were cutting the cake...with my mother, Elizabeth watching the action. (Wearing the hat at the left)

One more family photo tied to Uncle Nathan and Aunt Ruth's wedding.  From the left, Ruth's parents, William and Ruth (yes...a second Ruth too), then Uncle Nathan and his bride, then Nathan's parents (my grandparents), Estelle and Nathan (Sr.) 

I've accumulated a lot of family history with a number of old photos.  Thanks to my cousin Nathan for sending his parents wedding photos.

Speaking of my cousin Nathan...that's him above...headed straight for my mother's camera.  Whatever happened to that cute little tyke?  That's his mother Ruth at the left and his sister Susan is playing at the right of the photo.  This was at their home in the Detroit area.

This photo was taken during our visit to Nathan and Janice's home back in 2022.  As you can see, he's all grown up and chilling with a cup of coffee.

This photo is of Nathan and Janice (center) with most of their clan. (so far).  From the left is their daughter Elizabeth with her husband Justin and their children Ian and Craig.  At the right are daughter Nadine with her husband James and their children Charlie and Sherman.  Nadine and James are expecting a third child...a girl to be named Elliot.  

The photo was taken at the Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport at Oscoda Michigan.  This airport used to be owned and operated by the United States Air Force and today it's owned by the local community and it hosts a small museum and aircraft maintenance operations.  

The one person missing from the preceding family portrait was Janice and Nathan's son 'wee' Nathan as he is referred to.  He's the fourth of the 'Nathans'... This photo was taken during our Michigan road trip in 2022.

...and now, ready or not, I'll take you through a part of Nathan and Janice's visit to our home here in East Tennessee.

We did some cooking and a lot of eating during their visit.  Nathan took the photo and he likes his photos to be unposed or impromptu.  He captured Laurie serving apple crumble for dessert and Janice struggling to open a container of gelato.  At least they were both smiling!  

Nathan also snapped this photo... I'm not known for my big smiles but this is the extreme opposite look.  I was studying one of the items in the gift basked that Janice put together for us...and Laurie was in motion doing... It was a great gift basket with a Scottish theme...appropriate because Janice is from Scotland and Laurie and her sisters are headed to Scotland later this year to visit relatives.  Janice is headed for Scotland again even before Laurie's trip.

Note: If you have a chance to visit Scotland, don't pass it up!  It is one of our all time favorite places and we've been there twice.  

So, when we have visitors, we do have a number of automatic and preferred destinations listed that are entertaining and speak to the area.  Tellico Plains Tennessee with the Tellico Grains Bakery and Bald River Falls were destinations when Janice and Nathan visited us a few years earlier.  But we hadn't taken them to the Everhart Lumber Company or the local museum in Tellico Plains.

Our first stop was at Everhart Lumber...  The particular piece in the photo above is part of the company's collection of wooden folk art creations that they've accumulated from families living or who lived in this mountainous area.

Although Everhart Lumber specializes in 'natural wood furniture', slabs of wood for woodworkers and specialty building products such as wood mantles, they have expanded a bit, adding a very nice collection of gift items for the discerning shopper.  Janice did make a purchase...

Laurie took this photo of Nathan as he perused some pottery, examined that nifty stag wine holder and admiring the shelving itself.  

Nathan turned the table on Laurie and took this photo of her as she scanned the shopping opportunities.  I'm not a shopper but I do like this shop.  It's even improved recently with the expansion of the non-wood but classy gift items.  

Everhart's is a wood specialty and furniture store.  They offer ready-made and custom-made furniture made from a variety of unique woods.  Reclaimed wood is made into furniture, charcuterie trays, frames and more.  Fireplace mantles are available for builders, homeowners and  interior designers and beautiful slabs of wood are on display for purchase by craftsmen who want to do their own thing. 

The Everhart Lumber Company is located at 911 Veterans Memorial Drive in Tellico Plains Tennessee.  Phone: 423-253-2323.  Website: http://www.everhart-lumber.com/.  There are lots of photos of the lumber related products/furniture that is possible on the website. 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them... More about this visit, including food of course, will follow.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Luray Caverns Virginia - Heritage Village (Not Just Caverns #3)

...continuing with our Fall 2024 road trip and it's last 2 or 3 days, which were spent in Virginia.  After visiting Luray Cavern's toy exhibit and completing our pilgrimage through their great automobile collection, it was time to move on to our last attraction at the Cavern's complex.

This is the Shenandoah Heritage Village at Luray Caverns... The building visible through the arch is the Luray Valley Museum.  The Village itself is a 7 acre recreation of a small farming community from the 1800s.  It consists of restored historic buildings, some moved and reassembled, cottage style gardens and a small vineyard.  The setting is striking as well with an attractive mountain range in the distance.

The Luray Valley Museum focuses on the display of early decorative arts, clothing, early toys and varied artifacts of daily life ranging from the 1750s until about 1920.  The view above shows decorative side plates from early iron stoves.  I've always been fascinated by these apparently popular yet unnecessary bits of early decor from early European settlements.

This is a close up of one of those stove side plates.  This one came from a 5-plate stove that dated back to the 1740s in Pennsylvania.  It depicts a "Samson and Delilah' theme.  This ornate design is based on a German Bible wood cut that depicted Samson carrying the Gates of Gaza...and then to the left he's reclining on Delilah's lap.  

The wording across the bottom of the side plate is taken from the Book of Judges Chapter 10.  To quote "When at last Delilah learned how to overcome Samson's strength, she brought him to it on her lap".  I know the oft quoted story but the wording above is certainly vague and open to interpretation.   

Laurie and I both love these old cast iron stoves.  If time, money and space weren't obstacles, we'd collect both stoves and side-plates.  They really are utilitarian works of art.  

This is a Six Plate Stove with a heart and tulip motif.  Six Plate stoves were the earliest of American 'leg' stoves.  It's German-American and it came from the Warwick Furnace in Pottstown Pennsylvania.  Early stoves stuck to religious themes and the German reference above translates to "Eschew evil and do good".  Later stoves remained ornate but they contained less biblical imagery. 

Why another stove photo?  Mainly because I really like these decorative and purposeful creations.  This is a Ten-Plate Stove.  Built ca. 1808, it was made by the Isabella Furnace located at Pine Furnace Pennsylvania.  The phrase on the side plate reads "Liberty Be Thine", a popular phrase during the American Federalist period.

Laurie and I love stoneware but quality stoneware is just a bit pricy so we only own a couple examples of this craft.  But nothing stopped us from gazing at this handsome display and appreciating the variety and quality of the stoneware.

More stoneware...this time displayed in an antique corner cabinet.  Corner cabinets, with their triangular shape, were designed to fit into corners in the kitchen, thereby eliminating wasted space and providing needed storage.  Some were very fancy with glass panels at the top to secure 'better' china or flatware but many simpler versions were built for use by farmers and settlers.

This is a hand painted 'dower' chest, aka a hope chest or dowry chest.  They were once commonly used by unmarried young women to collect items, such as clothing and household linens, in anticipation of married life.  

This particular dower chest was painted in 1798 by Johannes Spitler. (1774 - 1837) He likely painted it for young Barbara Lionberger, a member of the local community in Page County Virginia.  Spitler is known to have taken traditional Swiss-German designs and then transformed them to more playful abstract designs.  His works were prolific from the mid-1790s until 1910 when he moved to Ohio.

Early painted dowry chests are very collectable and many can be found as part of art exhibits in major museums.  As collectables, you can find them on-line for anywhere around $600 or $700 up to $3,000 or more.

I like quilts but Laurie loves quilts!  She took this photo of a bevy of quilts in the museum.  Upper left: Album type applique quilt from ca. 1850 with 16 hand-stitched patterns.  Upper right: Shenandoah Valley tulip and rose quilt from ca. 1860.  Middle left: A quilt made in 1840 and donated from a local family.  Middle right: A quilt made between 1845 - 1848 that was given to a woman by her friends with 'well wishes' notes in each square.  Bottom left: A mid-1800s Blazing Star quilt donated by a local family.  Bottom right: Another mid-1800s quilt with coordinating pillow covers...also donated by a local family.

More stoneware but this time the varied pieces are displayed on one of the largest 'pie safes' I've ever seen.  The origin of the pie safe is traced back to the early 1700s in America.  It was probably introduced by German immigrants aka Pennsylvania Dutch and these pieces of utilitarian furniture was an important item in American homes through the 1800s.

The doors and sides of a typical pie safe were usually ventilated with tiny punched holes that allowed air to circulate, but protected bread, pies and other perishable items from insects and rodents.  As you can see in this example, the holes were often punched to produce a desired image.  This particular pie safe has a lot going for it from a collector's point of view.  It is large, it has the original paint and the punched pattern in the tin is very intricate.

Laurie took this photo.  The display is apparently dedicated to the ladies back in the day.  Note the dress or hoop form, the fancy blouse, that handbag, lots of needlework, a variety of hats or bonnets, the baskets, boots and more.  Of particular note is the clay pipe on the hatbox at the lower right of this picture. 

I'll end this post with a reminder of just how busy housewives were in the early days of the USA.  Premade clothing was too expensive for the average family so sewing skills were a necessity.  To make clothing one needed not only material but also thread.  This is easily the largest and most ornate thread display case I've ever seen.  I also discovered that there was a reason for it being so fancy...

The Brainerd-Armstrong Company was a silk mill based in New London Connecticut...so this wasn't your everyday cotton thread display.  The company made the finest thread, used for fancy clothing as well as embroidery.  I found references to this thread which is still coveted by those who love to embroider.  I was unable to find out much about the company, surprising given the size of the factories I did find photos of.

I found much more about Diamond Dyes...the fancy cabinet with the painted tin vignettes at the right of the thread display.  The company was a leading dye company in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s.  It was known for its prolific print marketing strategies and the company printed colorful chromolithographic trade cards, almanacs and pamphlets. Diamond Dyes was based in Burlington Vermont.  Their parent company was Wells Richardson and Company...which manufactured food colorants and wholesale drugs.  Both companies began to decline after the Federal government passed the Food and Drug Act in 1906 and operations ended completely in 1942.  The cabinets and marketing materials from Diamond Dyes are highly collectable today.

That's all for now... Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave