Posted tagged ‘San Pedro’

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S.S. Lane Victory

June 26, 2015

2015-06-26 13.56.30Paula and I were feeling kind of bored this morning. We were all caught up on our errands. Nothing on our OES or Assistance League calendars. And, Mary didn’t have anything on her agenda. Seeing as we didn’t just want to just hang out. We decided to take a ride down to the harbor and take a tour of the SS Lane Victory. The Lane Victory was holding a grand celebration of the 70th anniversary of her launch at the end of WWII

The Lane Victory is one of only six remaining Victory class cargo ships built during WWII. There were over 5000 victory ships built during the war The Victory ship design was based on the earlier Liberty ship. The Victory ship had a larger engine and slighttly larger cargo capacity. Faster speed allowed them to better evade German U-Boats. Victory ships could do about 14-16 knots while Liberty ships only about 10 knots.
 We had a personal tour done by Art Morrison. .Mr Morrison is one of the few remaining veterans of the US Merchant Marine and served during WWII. He did pretty good for a 90 year old man going up and down the steep steps.

We started with a tour of crew quarters, then officers’ quarters then up to the bridge. There were a few modern devices add to the bridge (eg. ship-to-shore radio). Here’s the views from the bridge.

 
  
  

Then we headed down to the number 2 hold. The hold is set up as a mini-museum with four Jeeps, a steam engine, a torpedo and a mine plus a ton of other memorabilia.

  
  

Here are a few more outside views.

   
     Finally, we finished our tour with a hamburger, chips and a beer that was being served as part of the anniversary celebration.

Categories: Los Angeles, San Pedro
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Mary

May 25, 2015

Time for another update on Mary. Overall, she is well, but she continues a long slow decline.

She survived our trip to Boston last week with the help of care givers from CarenetLA. We arrived at LAX on last Tuesday. We took Mary to Bible Study on Wednesday.

It seems that she is moving even slower than in the past. She seems to always need to hold on to one of us. She is suffering more and more with dizziness.

A couple of days ago I asked her what she would like for breakfast. She says I’d like a waffle. I told her no waffles to day. Choices were toast or cereal. If you want a waffle, you will need to get it at Gaffey Street Diner on Sunday. So we got her some frozen waffles to try. We’ll see how that goes.

Her memory is also fading. On Friday evening, we were eating dinner at our dining room table. Mary asks us if we were going anywhere on Saturday. We told her that Paula and I were going grocery shopping and that she had nothing on her schedule. The thing that was very odd, was that she asked the same question two more times over the next 30 minutes.

We took her with us to church on Sunday at Ocean View. She seemed to do well. We went out for brunch afterwards to one of our favorite spots, Gaffey Street Diner.
Last update, I promised pictures.

Here are a couple taken at Gaffey Street.

   
 

Categories: Family, San Pedro
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Shrine picnic

September 29, 2014

Yesterday we attended the annual picnic of the Beach Cities Shrine Club at LA Harbor Lodge. This is an annual event where the Al Malaikah Potentate visits. Al Malaikah is the Los Angeles affiliate of the Shriners. Shriners run children’s hospitals across the country for either burn cases or orthopedic injuries or diseases in children.
 
 So our son Neil who is down from Salt Lake City visiting for the week, joined us at the picnic. Here is the view from LA Harbor Lodge. It was a beautiful clear day in San Pedro. The view is of LA Harbor. One can almost make out the mountains across the bay. Temperature was in the mid-seventies.

 So we had a conflict. Our church was having their annual picnic. But we decided to do the Shrine event. The shrine was doing steaks, corn on the cob and beer. Also, the venue was a lot easier for Mary. We often choose events on how fall-safe the venue is.
 
 Mary had a great time. The bar was stocked with her favorite white zinfandel. She had two glasses, which for her was one glass too many. Luckily she wasn’t driving. We made sure one of us was on each side of her.
 
 Mary got to see a lot of old friends that she doesn’t often get to see. There was a drawing for many prizes to raise money for the hospital.
 
 So Paula wins a bottle of Johnny Walker Black. Not too shabby. I would drink it, but Paula doesn’t care for Scotch. So one of the brothers who won a bottle of rum asked if we would care to swap the scotch for the rum. Seeing as we both don’t care for rum that much, we said no. But, we said, if you swap the rum with the person who won the bottle of Tanqueray Gin, we would swap the scotch for the gin. So the deal got done. Everybody was happy.
 
 – Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Categories: California, Family, Freemasonry, San Pedro
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Dodson House – San Pedro

December 20, 2013

Last week we had the opportunity to tour the Dodson house on 13th Street in San Pedro. Here is the entry from sanpedro.com

Built in 1888 by the Sepulveda family as a wedding present for their daughter Rudecinda and her husband, James Dodson, a merchant and one-time postmaster. Rudecinda Dodson dwelled in the home for the duration of her long life, becoming a notable local figure. Dodson House, one of San Pedro’s best examples of Victorian architecture, was originally located at the corner of 7th and Beacon Streets. Since then, it has been moved twice and has undergone restoration. Private residence, not open to the public.

Here’s an article written by The Daily Breeze writer Donna Littlejohn.

The two-story, gingerbread Victorian house — built in the 1880s by one of the port town’s early families — is getting some lively interest from potential buyers since it was put on the market and open for public viewing a couple of weeks ago.

Normally, the house has not been open to the public, but for weekends during the month of December it has been open for viewing. The reason it has been open is that the house is up for sale for a tidy sum of $800K. Such a bargain.

Here are some pictures.

The house has been beautifully restored. Someone probably put a lot of money into it. Here are some interior shots. Note the stain glass windows. Most of the plumbing has been updated except for the claw foot bathtubs. I can’t for the life of me figure out why one would replace all of the sink fixtures with ultra modern ones and leave the antique bath tubs.

So, who would pay $800K for this gem of a Victorian house? Not me certainly. The house is on the historic register, so you can’t change almost anything. The location stinks. It is right across from the San Pedro HS athletic field. Not exactly a tony upscale neighborhood.

Bed & Breakfast perhaps? Maybe, but there is no parking to speak of.

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Location:San Pedro, CA

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Little Fish Theatre – Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!)

December 6, 2013

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
 


 Thus began the play “Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And then Some!)” at the Little Fish Theatre in San Pedro. And it went downhill into silliness after that. Of course to my ear, tuned to Boston accents, it sounded to me like “Molly is dead”. Who the hell was Molly? Oh Marley, I get it. And then it goes down hill into serious silliness.
 
 So in two hours the cast of Chris McNair, Daniel Tennant and Stephen Alan Carver proceed to mash up just about every Christmas Story ever told. The full house hardly stopped laughing through out the entire show.
 
 They covered the Grinch. They talked about Christmas traditions from other countries. Particularly funny was the Netherlands. The Dutch Santa Claus (named Sinterklass) had helpers named Black Pete and arrived by way of steam boat from Spain. Tis true, look it up on Wikipedia. Actually right now, the Black Pete’s are causing a bit of a stir in the Netherlands.
 

 So the play continued, hitting on The Grinch, Frosty the Snowman, and many other beloved Christmas Characters and stories. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer became Rudolph the Green Nose Reingoat due to copyright issues.
 
 So Chris kept trying to get back to Marley, but never got far. It somehow got mashed up with George Bailey (“It’s a Wonderful Life”). The audience was asked for their input on Christmas traditions. They even mentioned the Red Rider BB gun. (You’ll poke your eye out, Ralphie).
 
 The Little Fish Theatre is a cozy little theater in San Pedro that seats 65 people. The theater is located at 777 Centre Street. There is limited parking next to the theater. The prices are very reasonable. ($20 for students and seniors, $23 for everyone else) Donations are welcome. Seeing as yesterday was the first Thursday, many of the galleries on 6th and 7th streets were open late. Also, several food trucks were on hand for your dining pleasure.
 
 – Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:San Pedro

Categories: Reviews, San Pedro
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About me

November 22, 2013

There has been a FB meme going around lately where one is given a number and the receiver of said number is instructed to write n things about themselves. No one has bothered to send me a number, but I have decided to write about myself anyhow. I’ll let you know the number that I have given myself when I am done.

  1. I play the piano. It seems that I have always played the piano. I first started when I was about 7 years old. I took lessons until I was about 18. I am certainly no Artur Rubinstein, but I can read music and belt out a tune. One of the first things that we bought when we moved to Cal last year was a Piano. When one of our lodge members found out that I played the piano, he asked me how long I had played. I told him that I had picked up a book at Barnes & Noble titled “Piano playing for dummies”. He believed me. There is no such book. Musical instruments are best learned as children. My two brothers and I all took piano lessons as children. I am the only one who still owns a piano and plays.
  2.  Seeing that today is the 50th anniversary of John F Kennedy’s assassination. I was 15 at the time and I learned of the event while I was in religion class at BC High. I remember seeing the afternoon newspapers on the newsstands on the way home from school. Back in the day there were such things as afternoon newspapers.
  3.  And while we are talking about 50 year anniversaries, next year will be my 50th reunion for BC High (Boston College High School). I have no use for high school reunions and have no intention of attending. I have little or no use for the Roman Catholic church, though I like the new Pope. I’ve told a few of my RC friends that I would return to the RC Church when the Pope ordains women and allows priests to marry. Oh yeah, add LGBT weddings too. I doubt that I will see that in my lifetime.
  4. I am active in Masons. I am a member of LA Harbor Lodge F&AM #332 in San Pedro and Thomas Talbot Lodge AF&AM in Billerica, MA. So I am a bi-coastal Mason.
  5.  My wife and I are members of OES (Order of Eastern Star) which is a fraternal organization for men and women. I play the piano for both Lodge and OES.
  6.  I was born in Brighton, MA at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and spent my early years living in Brighton and West Roxbury (parts of Greater Boston).
  7. I taught math for a couple of years at the Junior and Senior high school level in the early 70’sin Boston. I wasn’t very good at it. I have great respect for good teachers, especially good math & science teachers. I was good at math, just not good at teaching it.
  8. I worked for Digital Equipment Corp (DEC), Compaq, and HP before getting laid off in 2008. To this day, the layoff still bugs me. People were being discarded like used junk. Ken Olsen would never have done that. When people asked me what I did at DEC, I tell them that I fixed stuff. The “stuff” that I fixed were complex computer systems.I also worked as a contractor for IBM for a couple of years, once again fixing stuff. I left in 2012 to retire and moved west.
  9. I live in San Pedro with my wife of 35 years along with my mother-in-law. We moved out here to take care of her mother who is 89. I have found that I can make one woman happy. Making two women happy is an extraordinary challenge. So I try to bite my tongue and STFU. Lodge (for a couple of nights a month) gives me a chance to get out without the ladies in my life. I truly don’t understand how the Mormons (and other polygamous cultures) could possibly live with more than one wife. The same goes for a wife and a mistress.
  10. I attend the Ocean View Baptist Church in San Pedro. I would prefer going to a UCC (Congregational) church, but this is the church that our extended family goes to. So I am okay with that. I have started to push back a little bit on LGBT issues. The pastor is good guy and listens to my point of view.
  11. My wife and I are registered Democrats. My Mother-in-law is a Republican. We rarely discuss politics. Explaining why Obamacare is a good thing to my mother-in-law is like explaining algebra to Boomba (Boomba is a chocolate lab retriever). Also, for the same reason we don’t watch Fox News (or MSNBC or CNN) EVER. I would sooner have root canal surgery without anesthesia.
  12. People often ask my wife and I whether or not we met on the San Pedro or Boston. Here’s the story that has been told and retold. We met in Boston at a MIT folk dance. One of Paula’s roommates was dating one of my roommates. That was November of 1976. We were married in October 1978. We lived in Billerica for the next thirty odd years. Paula can embellish the story a bit. She would be happy to do that.
  13. I keep in touch with all of our east and west coast friends by way of Facebook. The move would have been a lot more painful to me without it.

There, that’s enough. 13 it is. That’s a good number.

Location:San Pedro, California

Categories: Boston, Family, Freemasonry, Piano, San Pedro
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SS Lane Victory

November 16, 2013

This afternoon Paula, Mary and I attended the annual meeting for the San Pedro Historical Society (See http://sanpedrobayhistoricalsociety.com/)
 The meeting was held at the Limani Taverna (previously known as Papadakis Taverna).
 
 After lunch and brief business meeting we got to hear from Capt. Greg Williams, US Merchant Marine (ret). The subject was the US Merchant Marine in WW2 in general and the SS Lane Victory.
 
 During WW2, the merchant marine was called upon to transport most of the supplies needed to run the war. Sometimes, new Liberty ships would not get far out of harbor before being sunk either by mines or German Uboats.
 
 Capt Williams told us the during the war, the press was prohibited from writing about the loss of Merchant Marine ships at sea. Indeed, the loss was great. The fatality rate in the Merchant Marine far exceeded that of the other services. Over 700 merchant ships were sunk during WW2.
 
 Click here for the wikipedia article on the Merchant Marine.
 
 The SS Lane Victory is the last operational Victory ship in existance. The Lane Victory saw service in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam providing the delivery of much needed supplies to our armed services. It is moored at pier 49 in San Pedro.
 

 The Victory ships were much like their predecessors the Liberty shops. They were mass produced in shipyards around the country. The Victory ships were faster than the Liberty ships (making 15-17 knots) and had a longer range. This made them less vulnerable to Uboat attacks. Click here for the Wiki.
 

 The Lane Victory is open for tours six days a week (closed on Thursday). Admission is $5 for and adult and $2 for children. The Lane Victory runs several day cruises around LA Harbor each year. Donations and volunteers are much appreciated. It costs a lot of money to keep the ship operational.
 
 Every five years, the ship goes into dry dock for inspection, bottom cleaning and painting. The Lane Victory is scheduled for dry dock in 2014 and they have a ways to go to raise the $900K for the overhaul and inspection.
 
 For additional info, click here for the Lane Victory web site.
 
 
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Location:San Pedro

Categories: San Pedro
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Labor Day 2013

August 30, 2013

Well, Labor Day weekend is almost upon us once again. Somehow, it doesn’t feel like Labor Day. So I was thinking, why not?

First thing different is that Paula and I are retired. Have been now for a little over a year. So holidays don’t matter so much. I don’t have to go back to work on Tuesday. We have been out here in the LA area now for a little bit over a year. For Paula, this was coming home sort of. She still runs into people around Pedro that she went to high school with me, the only people I know out here are the folks at blue lodge and OES. Even when we were living in Billerica, there was no chance that I would ever run into high school or even college friends. The community is way too diverse.

Another difference is that back east I would be putting the boat away for the season. Summer’s over. It starts getting chilly fast. Certainly too chilly for being out on the boat. I no longer have a boat. I didn’t have the urge to get a new boat either. No place nearby to use it. Besides, the kids are all grown up and don’t have the time.

Now, let me tell you about the weather here in LA. September is hot. Heat will continue probably through mid October. Even here close to the ocean, the daily high temp is in low 90’s. Monsoon season is also starting. It doesn’t rain much, but when it does, it comes down in buckets. Riverside (East of LA) had major flooding yesterday. Click here for a local story on the flooding. Of course with the flooding comes mud. Lots of it. Sometimes the thunder storms don’t bring much rain. They bring forest fires. Luckily for us, we are not anywhere near the big fires this year.

So Paula was looking for something to do over the holiday weekend. One thing she found that looked interesting was a bus tour of Art Deco architecture around Long Beach done by the Long Beach Historical Society and the Queen Mary. Here’s a link to the Art Deco Society of LA.  Lots of interesting examples of Art Deco around LA. Unfortunately, the tour was sold out. I put a reminder in my calendar to check next year. There is also a big affair going on at the Battleship USS Iowa. I suggested that we wait and go on Tuesday or Wednesday when all the kids have gone back to school.

I received a flyer from the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. Someone figured out that I like classical  music. I told Paula that a concert would be a good birthday present next March. There will be an all Brahms program with Piano Concerto No 2 in B Flat and Symphony No 1.  in C minor. I will be getting tickets ASAP.

That’s it for now. Have a great Labor Day weekend.

Joe

Categories: California, Retirement
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