The Red and the Pink

2018: Dribs and Drabstracts

End of the year once more, and here are a few odd ones out from 2018.

Parallelogram, Cannon Beach OR

Five Logs, Christiansen Nursery, Mt. Vernon WA

Loading Dock, Cottage Grove OR

Unilluminated, Cottage Grove

Final Frontier, Eugene OR

What Makes It Tick, LaConner WA

Lines, Pike Place Market, Seattle WA

Diptych, Bellevue WA

Three Nines, Renton WA

Nucleus, Rockaway OR

Burning of the Houses of Parliament, Juan Ferry, WA

Rorshach, Seaside OR

Landscape with Truck, Seattle WA

Veiled, Sky Nursery, Lynnwood WA

Evolution, Tacoma WA

To the Bone, Tacoma Maritime Museum, WA

Visions of Academe

Here are a handful of great old-fashioned postcards that my father Nelson sent to my mother Beth (before they were married) and to his dad George, from Seattle to Michigan. They show the University of Washington campus and environs. He'd just gotten a teaching job there (1952) and seems to have already fallen in love with the place.

 He sent this first card to both Beth and George, upon arrival. This aerial shot is looking west from above Lake Washington, with Puget Sound and Bainbridge Island in the background.

The following shot looks east across Lake Washington toward the then new
(almost invisible among the trees) city of Bellevue.

The lawns shown below between the Suzallo Library and Administration Building were replaced in the 1970s by brick, hence the nickname of Red Square.

The last two he never sent. The first looks north over downtown Seattle
toward Queen Anne Hill and Lake Union.

Sepia Salesman

This week I cleave to the Sepia Saturday theme of hotels by remembering my maternal grandfather, Art Singer.

Art and a sample suit.

Art was a travelling dress salesman. Twice a year, for the fall and spring fashion seasons, he and a passel of his fellow salesmen would make their way up the coast bearing dozens of dresses to show to the buyers of all the major department stores. In 1960s downtown Seattle, these were Frederick and Nelson, I. Magnin, The Bon Marche, Rhodes, and a few others. The guys would hole up in the Benjamin Franklin Hotel and invite the buyers up to peruse their wares.

Most of the buyers were women, I believe, and for this purpose Art, always had a box of See's chocolates on hand to help soften up his customers.

For the male buyers, and Art's cohorts, there was also a bottle of Johnny Walker and a Playboy magazine.

Anyway, there is oddly a lot of online information about the old Ben Franklin. Built in 1929, it was the second largest hotel in Seattle, with 359 rooms in its 14 stories. 

One of the big draws for the salesmen, as well as others, was the "tiki bar" conveniently attached to the Ben Franklin. Originally named The Outrigger, it soon expanded and transformed into the famous Trader Vic's.

Note the quaint, politically incorrect signage. Our family car, by the way, was a two-tone (banana and battleship) 1950 Chevrolet, named"Uncle Wiggily" and very similar to that one on the right.

(Photo from Seattle's Historic Hotels by Robin Shannon.)

Note the stunningly affordable 1960s prices.

Alas, the hotel closed in the 1980s, although Trader Vic's carried on for some years catering to "Mad Men" and hipsters.

If you're into tiki bars, check out this feature on the Ben Franklin Outrigger at Tiki Central.

My great-great uncle on my father's father's side owned a hotel in downtown Detroit, the Blindbury Hotel. But that's another story!

Found verse recipe

Spotted in front of a house during a dusk walk through the Columbia City (Seattle) neighborhood.

Black Friday

Bicycle police on guard

Man with a mission

Belting it out

Cowbells

Political ranters

Yet more security

Art and entertainment

Religious ranters

The Market at 10 PM

Apologies to Giacometti.

Hardly a palace, especially at 10 PM -- let alone 4 am -- Seattle's normally bustling Pike Place Market does settle down a bit at night.

Took these on my circuitous way home from a neighborhood "Harvest Festival."

Revelers

Lurkers at the Gum Wall

The Night Watch

The Crafts Bazaar

This Way Down

The Sanitary Market