Frank Sinatra's Tony Rome shot in Hotel Dolphin

 

When I was a young man in the '60s, I quickly learned how to identify a good hotel. You must realize that my definition of good was generous as a young fellow even if it was governed by the application of a set of rules. The goal was to find a hotel with a past, a good past but a checkered present.

When I visited Miami with a good friend, we found the beach area impossibly expensive. We had friends staying at the Deauville Beach Resort while others were staying at the Fontainebleu Miami Beach. This meant we could party with the spring break crowd at these hotels, our friends would get us in, and with luck all our drinks would be free. There most certainly would be lots of free stomach-filling finger foods. But when it came time to crash for the night, we could not stay at either place.

And so, we headed for Miami and sought out the atmosphere of a deteriorating neighbourhood. The Hotel Dolpin popped out. It was old and large but had no parking. It did have fully tiled bathrooms, complete with showers, attached to each room: a plus. It was not a shared-washrooms-off-the-main-hallway hotel. The Dolphin had been a high class place when new.

The lobby was large with a wrap around mezzanine ringing the lobby. Off the mezzanine there had been stores and a barbershop. By the time we stayed there, all the businesses were closed as were the ones at street level that once enjoyed walk-in traffic. The elevator was amazing. All shiny brass and covered with very ornate designs. It required an elevator attendant and he was proud of his elevator. It was his baby and his love of the old lift was the reason it sparkled so. He spend his days polishing his love.

Staying at a place like the Hotel Dolphin was like staying in a hotel museum. It was steeped in historic atmosphere. And, best of all, it was cheap. In the mid '60s it may have cost a couple of bucks. This price was a fraction of the cost of staying at either the Deauville or Fontainebleu.

Today the Hotel Dolphin is gone. The once beautiful Deauville ran down, right on schedule, and suffered the indignity of a serious electrical fire making the place all but uninhabitable. Instead of becoming a worn, faded jewel welcoming those folk who are money-challenged, the Deauville is being torn down. Despite its heritage, dare I say, designation, the historic hotel resort is being demolished.

A slice-of-life picture

 

Please allow me to share another picture from the past. The best enterprise pictures taken by news shooters capture neat moments: simple slices-of-life. Sadly, many of the images taken by news photographers are set-ups. The photographer, desperate for a perfect pictures acts as the art director as well as the photographer. 

This image was not a set-up. I did not carry a pair of roller skates with me in order to set-up a picture when the moment was right. No, this was a true slice-of-life captured and shared.

Spring in the '70s: the decade not the temperature

Photographers at local papers are all well aware of the "enterprise" photo. These pictures are used as filler for inside pages. If an image is good enough to spur news stand sales, it may run large above the fold on the front page. Of course, that only happens if there is no important front page story complete with art available.

Tidying the basement today, I discovered this enterprise image from the five decades ago. It was spring in Sault Ste. Marie, the snow was melting, coats were unbuttoned and the short skirts were reappearing after month of hiding.

Today this image says more than spring. Now, it also says '70s in Canada.

One little girl glowed at seeing her "kitty".

 

The kids have their painted pottery back. What a difference a week plus a visit to the kiln makes. Some of the glazes on the fired pieces sparkled. And some did not. But one piece, a small kitten, not only sparkled but so did the little girl who painted it. It's nice when things work out.

LOVE art has roots going back 5 decades or more

 

It was 1970 when (reportedly) the first LOVE sculpture made its appearance but its origin goes back at least as far as the '60s and a Museum of Modern Art Christmas card. It may even have been in the formative stages back in the '50s according to Ursinus College. The college reminds us that "by 1973, the image was so popular that the U.S. Postal Service incorporated the design into one of its stamps, which sold about 330 million copies."

In today's world, the LOVE sculpture is as popular as it has ever been. The little paint-your-own pottery operation in London moves a lot of the LOVE art. This fact makes me smile and gosh it can be difficult finding stuff that puts a smile on one's face today.

Crock A Doodle

It is called Crock A Doodle. It's a franchise operation. Crock A Doodle supplies the green-ware and the customers then paint it. It's a cool place to hold children's birthday parties, ladies nights or teambuilding and corporate events.

It was a fairly popular place before Covid-19. The pandemic must have been tough on it. There might be a good story behind it's survival. Possibly a generous landlord? A franchise owner with incredibly deep pockets?

Hopefully, the pandemic problems are now behind us. The problems were nowhere to seen when I took four little girls to the studio over March Break. It was like old times. The girls wore masks for the ninety minutes they were there but there were no complaints. The kids clearly thought that for the pleasure of again spending some time with friends painting pottery the small inconvenience of face masks was simply no big deal.

This hawk is a crow, a scarecrow

 

When the tulip bulbs push little green sprouts up above the earth in the early spring, the rabbits eat them. The result? No sprouts, no tulips, no flowers. My wife has tried numerous ways to keep the rabbits away but all to no avail. This year she has a new approach: a scarecrow. So far the hungry, little. hopping monsters have not dared to brave the gaze of the "hawk" guarding the flower garden

Bubbles: fun to make, fun to pop

 

Before the arrival of the dollar stores, seeing a bubble making child was a relatively rare occurrence. Not today. With these little stores pushing an array of inexpensive stuff, children are now frequently sighted making big bubbles. Often one child makes 'em and another child pops 'em. Not here though; here we see cooperation.

If you leave tracks, turn back.

A few days ago I posted a picture of a family struggling to hike beside a snow-melt soggy trail. The exceeding wet trail itself had been left deeply rutted by previous hikers. At the time, I wondered is hiking down a trail in such condition, or even beside it, wise?

I now know the answer: It isn't.

To quote the Dogwood Audubon Center: "So who cares about a few ruts or a bit of mud?" The Centre's answer is "We all should" and continues by explaining why. Proper land management and erosion control are two big reasons.

 

Other sites may advise not hiking on trails left soggy from melting snow or a heavy rain as it is simply good trail etiquette. We all must strive to minimize trail destruction.

https://www.deschuteslandtrust.org/news/blog/2019-blog-posts/2019-muddy-trails                       "Hiking and biking on muddy trails is destructive . . . "

Going around muddy spots on the trail widens the trail and erodes the trail. Widening trails kills or harms fragile plants along the trail. It also turns lovely small trails into wide roads. This in turn requires time and money to repair. The good news is trail widening can be avoided if everyone follows the “If you leave tracks, turn back” adage.

Google "stay off muddy trails" and in under a second you will have 13 and a half million hits! (Like the following.)              

Off to shoot some hoops

 

These two boys are heading for the basketball court at the neighbourhood school. The plan is to shoot some hoops but if there are some other boys hanging about the court, maybe a pick-up game can be arranged.

Bike Rack Doing Double Duty

Although these girls had fun stuff to do inside one of the strip mall stores, the warm, sunny spring day beckoned. They found a spiral bike rack a fine spot to park themselves while they chatted and enjoyed the warm, breezy afternoon during spring-break.

These bike racks, so common throughout the city, are made by the same Ontario company that makes a lot of the fancy, twisted-metal playground equipment found in city parks.

A slippery slope

 

Getting a bike up the slope at the edge of the former gravel pit can be tough at the best of times. In the spring with the prevalence of mud on the trail, it can be downright impossible for some. Almost everyone must stop to get a second wind.

Not my kind of hiking trail

 

My nephew and his wife took their teenage daughter and two of my granddaughters on a hike in the Westminster Ponds area of London. My youngest granddaughter and I bowed out. The hiking trail was simply far too muddy for us. I was not all that gracious when making my displeasure with the choice of trails known.

Would you have taking children hiking in this muck? Or was I a wimp and party pooper? I'd love to hear your opinions. I'm in the proverbial doghouse with my nephew and his wife.

Spring has arrived!

It may be only March17th but spring has arrived. The high today was nicely into the 70s. Winter jackets were abandoned and basketballs appeared all over town. This boy was caught shooting hoops at what the kids  call the Lego School thanks to it colourful exterior and simple geometric decorative shapes.

Hints at Western false front architecture

 

These condos have a roof line treatment reminiscent of Western false front architecture. This is the look exhibited by buildings gracing the main street in Hollywood westerns. The buildings feature vertical facades with a square top hiding the simple inverted "V" roof-lines.

The interesting thing about these square tops is window in the square top. It appears to be a working window bringing light into a small room at the front of the attic.

Townhouse construction continues unabated

 

It is amazing how many townhouses are going up all over London The number of different designs is also amazing. Oh, the looks repeat, it's true, but not as often as one might think. And to just what design classification should each of these rows of townhouse be slotted? Modern, retro, contemporary? In April, my oldest nephew is coming for a visit. We will be touring some of these new developments. Possibly he will be able to proffer an informed opinion.

Townhouses are more common today

 

Land is expensive in Canada. On a map, Canada looks huge. But the truth is that most folk live on the southern edge of the country, close to the U.S. border. That narrow band of land is but a small part of the total land mass that we think of as Canada. Now, think farmland. Go too far north and the winters get too harsh and the summers too short to support the successful farmings so common in southern Canada.

When I was a boy, single family homes on full-sized lots almost the only option when it came to housing. Townhouses were rare and highrise apartment buildings non existant. Today, with a population more than double what it was when I was a boy and land becoming more and more valuable, townhouses are incredibly popular and may be the big wave of the future, unless highrises edge out townhouses. Time will tell.

A new crop growing on Canada's farmland

Surrounding London is some of the finest farmland in Canada. Mix land blessed with deep with rich topsoil and a temperate climate, often with the perfect amount of rain, and you have the recipe for growing great crops. Sadly, Canadians also need land for housing. So land that would serve the world best as farmland pushing up crops is pushing up housing instead.

"Em"posters made me smile

 

When the little girl reached into the bag of M&Ms, she pulled out a number of weird, large candies. Each contained two peanuts. No M&M was stamped on the outside. She gave each one a careful inspection and then confidently declared these were definitely "em"posters.

Christmas in March

All signs of last Christmas, now months past, have disappeared from my neighbourhood, all that is but for one display that may still be standing come spring--which is but less than two weeks away. I'm reluctantly beginning to root for the snowman: "See if you can make it to summer. You go, snowman!"

Fine heritage streetscapes are being destroyed

I read that the Opera House in Kharkiv was bombed along with nearby Freedom Square. The attached image shows a street in the Opera House neighbourhood. A whole way of life is being systematically destroyed. This is a horror unfolding before our very eyes. So very disheartening.

Many towns and cities in the Ukraine have retained many examples of functioning, heritage neighbourhoods. As the invasion continues, many of these wonderful places are being lost. All too sad to contemplate.