All aboard. People I very much appreciate:

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Winter Memories and Questions

In winter of '81, we bought the remains of a farmhouse ruining in a fallow field. We worked hard and now it's almost livable. I don't know what the rest of this post will be about. Let's see where Brain goes:

In the1960s I drove truck in the hop harvest --late summer-- and tutored English Composition in the other seasons. I earned enough to keep fed, sheltered and, quite often, clothed. I'd drive past unpaved lanes off Calvine rd., some with their own signs --brush-painted on posts by owners. My favorite was "Helluva Road" --as much warning as sobriquet, full of dips and holes. It intersected Calvine across from the new Kingdom Hall --yes, even Jehovah's Witnesses have a sense of humor. However, when the High School got built, the name changed to "Kingsbridge". Go figure.

In 1972 I became a custom picture-framer and fine-arts restorer. I worked on J street in Sacramento. One day, a soft-spoken, sophisticated lady came to my shop with some antique prints she needed matted and I recommended rag-paper. She asked why and I told her 100% cotton rag mats were chemically inert and would not contaminate the artwork. No one else had told her that so she hired my service. I filled out the invoice and asked what street in Amador she lived on. She leaned in and whispered, "Pig Turd Alley".

Brain jumped ahead 48 years to see if Pig Turd Alley would suffer the same sanitizing as Helluva Road. Here's what I found...er find:



It hadn't. Now I hear the sort of metallic creaks one makes rolling over in an old bed. Is it Brain telling me to get a proper post-subject or just me rolling over in an old bed? 

In closing, Norma supplied all photos above while getting several other things done. So, for (y)our consideration, one more question: How is it women can attend gracefully to 5 different things in as many directions at once?

27 comments:

  1. I love those descriptive names of roads. They are so much more interesting than Main Street. Years ago, I lived in a town in the mid-west called Bad Axe. It was named so because of old axe-head that was embedded in a small section of a tree. It was near Grindstone City.

    We women are the wheels on the bus and get things done.

    I hope you are doing better, dear friend, Geo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Arleen, Wow! I wish I came from a town called Bad Axe --nobody'd mess with me. I have tremendous respect for the administrative energies of women (also their longevity) and sometimes tell Norma I might have chosen my gender unwisely. I am doing better, except for the permanent jumps. Will know more next month.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for sharing a trip down memory lane with us. It was an enjoyable trip. Too bad they changed the name of that first street. I'd kinda like to live a helluva life on Helluva Road, wouldn't you? It tickled my funny bone that the sophisticated gal lived on Pig Turd Alley. Our friends in Tennessee live off of Pig Path Road, but that isn't nearly as funny.

    You tell your Brain that whatever you choose to write about it a proper post topic. Matter of fact, I'd say this was... a helluva good post. :)

    Have a super weekend, dude.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Susan, every trip down Memory Lane must include Pig Turd Alley --Pig Path and Helluva Road. We need important intersections like that. Real glad you liked the post and super weekend to you and Smarticus.

      Delete
  3. Thank you for this post and your turns of phrase that leave me smiling, Geo.

    Out standing in your field, indeed :D

    I've never lived in, or on, or even near, an interesting place name. But if you check the internet for our neighbouring province of Newfoundland, it may tickle your funnybone!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Jenny, thank you! Thanks also for sending me off to some very enjoyable place-names. Didn't know there was any place named after the thole pin of a rowboat or "Joe Batt's Arm" --delightful!

      Delete
  4. One can never go wrong on journeys down Memory Lane - I've traveled that road more times than I can remember (no memory pun is intended). Glimpses of your past are always welcomed and interesting.

    Helluva Road is an apt description of my entire life, although now I seem to exist on Stuck-in-the-Mud Trail.
    I have a feeling Pig Turd Alley is located in an area that's now too expensive to live in...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jon! I haven't been through Amador in many years, but wouldn't be surprised if the town's been built up. Here in the Vineyard area, thousands of acres have been sold and subdivided. Housing tracts everywhere. We're still surrounded by 17 acres and an olive orchard, but notice more and more wild things seeking refuge in Norma's thickets and stumpery.

      Delete
  5. To answer your query, women have been the leaders in the world since the days of Amazonia. In more current times, they have been relegated by men to such tasks as cooking, cleaning and cohabitation. But today, TODAY, my friend, they have come out of the shadows and are talking increasingly about running the world. Considering the mess men have made of it, I say "You go, girl!"

    ReplyDelete
  6. Enjoyed the notes from your earlier years. I can only imagine how wonderfully homey you have made that once ruining farmhouse in a fallow field.
    And for the 64K Question you close with...well, they are the original multi-taskers. And since there are no eyewitnesses to any origin story, perhaps Woman was the beginning. What followed (and what follows) is life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, dear Tom. The house has got quite comfy over the years and doubled in size. Four feral children were raised here and scattered beyond the prairie into the arts across this great nation. Norma's gardening has made an adventure of our yard. Doing fine. As you know, where women are involved, life follows --in every mythic structure, in every culture. Good thing too.

      Delete
  7. Replies
    1. Dear Delores, true.
      Indeed I trust
      That needs must.

      Delete
  8. Cornwall has some good names; Ventongimps, Praze-An-Beeble, Brown Willy; we specialise in pronouncing and spelling things differently too. (Mousehole, pronounced Mowzle, gives hours of entertainment in tourist season) My current favourite is Telephone Lane, which does indeed have a working example of this amazing new fangled technology.
    Women can deconstruct in multiple directions too :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Lisa, I love the peculiar names given to things and places in England, a tradition carried across the sea to brighten our version of English language. Being a Californian (and half Portuguese), I also find a workable knowledge of Spanish useful, and a bit enigmatic --like, why was one of our most diligent Spanish explorers, diplomat to native tribes, healer and all around survivor, Cabeza De Vaca, named "Head of Cow?"

      Delete
    2. Head of Cow does sound like an important position though. I would like that on my CV :-)

      Delete
  9. Geo:

    I am glad Pig Turd Alley still is intact..... but it saddens me that Helluva road is no more.

    PipeTobacco

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True Prof., "Helluva Road" should have been retained after the High School got built. It offers a comment apropos to some elements of past and modern education systems.

      Delete
  10. 5 things at once. It's witchcraft. Many of the mysteries of my life can be blamed on witchcraft. Fortunately, I've mostly known good witches.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same here, Squid. Can't help it if we're lucky.

      Delete
  11. Dear Geo., I don't know funny road names but will be on the look-out from now - but I have a keen eye on name-plates, especially names of dentists. Wonderful! Especially those like "Dr. Auweh" - might be translated into "Dr. Ouch", or "Dr. Bohrer", which would be "Dr. Drill"
    As to Norma's multitasking - I adore that but might be the only woman on earth who just can't do it - I can always work only on one thing, and mask this incapacity behind little labels like "Zen" - sounds so much better... :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear beautiful Brigitta, I delight in your comment and collection of unusual --but appropriate-- doctor names. I especially delight in your return to this site. I have missed you.

      Delete
  12. Pig Turd Ally...I'm guessing not a major thoroughfare. THey should never change that name. I remember years ago passing a hand painted sign advertising for a lawyer "I M Zamost."

    I like your style.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Joeh, I'm pleased that at least a couple stretches of Fleehart St. are still mapped as Pig Turd --I'd hate to think all historically correct street names have been lost. I was born 100 years after the 1849 Goldrush that produced these old towns --spent my first 10 years on a subsistence-farm property that Grampa bought from John Sutter's son in `1914. We usually had a pig, and pig turds. There was no indelicacy in the expression; it just meant we'd have linguica in the smokehouse and things were okay. There a couple times I could have used "IMZamost"esq?'s services in the past 40 years when two relatives' wills turned into tontines. I withdrew and try not to look back, and yet, sometimes the best one can do is declaim, "it's ZAMOST I can do," and keep working with clear conscience and untroubled mind.

      Excuse my expository reply --I like your style too.

      Delete
  13. There was a road in Western NC named shit pants road that was changed to dirty pants road... Wonder where hat name came from.

    www.thepulpitandthepen.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Sage, I imagine it came from too few highway rest stops and subsequent discards. Happily, these wacky road names leave few specifics. Wife and I lived a year (1970-71) in Chico, Ca., and made the mistake of taking Humbug Rd. up to Paradise (not the eternal reward but the town overlooking Chico)in our '52 Dodge 3/4 ton pickup. It is an old switchback trail that got paved, maybe 1&1/2 car-widths wide. I unwisely declared, "well, it SAYS road". 2 downcoming cars approached as we drove up --all participants screamed in terror --including me. Humbug Road indeed!

      Delete

Please comment! Stats are just numbers and don't really represent you. I need to read what you think and thank you.