So, if you are SNOW over it. If you are sick of your kids being home all week. If you want to stab everyone with an icicle. Then you are most likely experiencing your second snow storm in five days. I swear, the only ones enjoying all of this snow are my dogs. Watch this video and it will warm your cold, pissed-off, sick of all of this snow, heart!
Final measurement at 8:30 am on Saturday was 25 1/4 inches. Holy Bejesus!
Yesterday, BFF Jill, her brother in law, Brian and I took the Flip Cam out into the snow and filmed his audition video for Survivor. We decided that his angle should be that Ford City needs a better representative on Survivor than one we had in the past. We came up with our shots and headed out! We had a blast filming this! I hope Brian makes the cut!
Yesterday was Captain John B. Ford's 198th birthday! John founded Ford City, the wonderful town that I have lived my entire life in. BFF Jill and I celebrated his birthday, at the statue in the Ford City Park.
We had Red Velvet cupcakes and party hats. Boy, I am sure we put on a good show, trying to get that stupid hat on his head. Listen, I was standing on the TOP RAIL of a step stool, with the party hat taped to the end of a broom handle. Two attempts from behind were failed because, even though the hat was on his head, you could not see it from the front. Finally, after attempting from the front, we got it right.
Happy Birthday John!
Some people collect figurines, dolls, baskets or other things. I, collect yearbooks. I mainly collect Ford City High School (my alma mater) yearbooks. I also have some Kittanning High School yearbooks that were my fathers and some Lenape Elementary yearbooks that came with some other ones I purchased.
I have 1951, 1952, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1970, 1975, 1978, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1996, 1998, 1999 from Ford City. I also own a 1930 Ford City Senior Book. If you have any of the missing years that you would like to sell or know of any that someone wants to find a good home for, please let me know!
Now, here are my favorites and why.....
This is the 1930 Senior Book. This is a small book and only features the seniors of that year.
The most bizarre thing about this book is when you open the cover, inside is a vellum sheet, which is not uncommon. What is bizarre is that it is embossed with spider webs and spiders. I am not sure why, but it has always fascinated me.
This is the 1952 Trireme. It is the 50th Anniversary of the yearbook. In 1902, the first class graduated from FCHS, there were six graduates. This was, however, when they had a three year program. The first four year program graduates were the class of 1909, which is what most people, including the Alumni Association consider to be the first official graduating class. There were four graduates that year. This yearbook is my favorite of all because it has a ton of history about the school.
This is the 1981 Trireme. This was my first year in high school, ninth grade. I came from Ford City Catholic. This yearbooks is a favorite because I spent HOURS looking at it every night. I swear, I memorized every one's faces and names from grades seventh through twelfth. My friends in the nail world refer to me as The Mayor because I know everyone and if I don't know you, give me five minutes and I will. I like to think that this reputation started in 1980-81 with this yearbook.
This is the 1984 Trireme. This was my senior year, so of course, this would have to make the favorites as well.
So, again, if you or anyone you know wants to find a good home for their yearbooks. I can provide that home. I love all things Ford City, especially Ford City High School yearbooks.
Founder's Day is really on Tuesday, November 17, however Ford City is observing it today. Captain John B. Ford is our town's founder. He was born on November 17, 1811. He established Ford City in 1887, which was a company town for Pittsburgh Plate and Glass (PPG) which he also founded.
In 1891, in honor of Captain John B. Ford's 80th birthday, the workers of PPG erected a statue of him in the Ford City Park. He died May 1, 1903. You will recall this spring, when BFF Jill and I found the site of his grave, totally by accident in Allegheny Cemetery in Lawrenceville, PA.
BFF Jill and I have been taking questions for a few weeks to make a "Everything you ever wanted to know about Ford City" video. We had some great questions, that made the video. We also had some silly ones like "Did Karl Troth and Ellie Mae Walters ever hook up?" that we left out. We also had a lot of great questions about things in the area that are NOT in Ford City, they would be in Manor Township. We focused on Ford City Borough for this video.
We hope you enjoy it. If you are in town on Tuesday, please visit the Ford City Park and go visit John and thank him for the beautiful town and community that he founded for us.
Happy Founder's Day, Ford City!!!
BFF Jill and I have been working on a new video, "All you wanted to know about Ford City" for Founder's Day, which will be observed tomorrow. We released a bloopers reel earlier this week and a lot of our footage was at the John B. Ford statue in the Ford City Park. This is bringing up a lot of comments about a past "incident" with the statue.
In 2004, a group of young adults, after a night of drinking, came up with the brilliant idea of stealing the statue. Rumors went wild, that they had tried to behead the statue, that they had a rope around it's neck and were dragging it to the river to throw it in.
The town was in an uproar. The Mayor, at the time, tried to make an example of these kids. People wanted to hang them and their parents by their toenails.
A lot of people don't know some real truths about this incident. First, this wasn't the first time this happened. In the 70's, it happened and the kids involved not only got a slap on the wrist, they didn't pay ONE DIME to refurbish the statue. Charles Hanna, a local art teacher at the time, reset the statue. I remember working with Mr. Hanna at Custom Design Monuments, and he told me the story and said that he set that statue so efficiently that "No one will ever get it down again".
Well, I guess they found a way. Yes, they did knock it down and yes, they did try to steal it. They did NOT, however, try to behead it. See, the artisan that restored the statue and reset it reported that the cuts on the statue were over TWO YEARS old. This was reported, quietly, in borough meeting minutes. Most never heard this information. The newspapers never reported this, the Mayor never made a big deal out of it. So, everyone, to this day, still thinks that they tried to behead the statue. TOTALLY NOT SO.
The whole situation totally pissed me off at the time. People were LIVID at these kids, even though they paid every cent to have the statue restored AND did countless hours of community service. The kids in the 70's never even got punished at all. When people would bitch about this situation I would say to them, who can honestly say they have never gotten drunk and decided to do something stupid? If you say you have never, then you are either a liar or a saint.
To those parents who were degrading these kids AND their parents, I would congratulate them on having so much confidence in their children that they thought that they would NEVER do something stupid in their lives. I informed them that WHEN their children do, because we all know we all do stupid things in our lives, I hoped that people would have a little more compassion to them as a parent, than they were having for the parents of these kids.
Again, they got drunk, they did something stupid, they PAID to have it fixed, they DID NOT try to behead the statue and no one went out of their way to publicize this information once it was known. So here, I will do it for them.
I've planned to be Carrie for Halloween for three years now. I've had most of the supplies to do her for at least three years. Between working at Scarehouse and other issues, I wasn't able to pull the costume off until this year.
It started with the dress and wig. On Monday, I had Tammy help me by squirting four tubes of fake blood on me while I was wearing the wig and dress. Little did I know that fake blood, when it dries on objects, turns purple. Now usually I am all about the purple, but not when it comes to blood. So I mixed up some acrylic paint and went to town adding about three layers of paint over the next few days. I finally got it bloody enough.
Halloween night, I started getting ready two hours before we were all to meet. I wanted the blood to be really dry on my body so that I didn't ruin the car seats or furniture. I decided to take progression photos. This is the start photo.
I then used pale face powder to make my tan skin look pale like Carrie's is. I then applied light blue eye shadow and the basics.
Then came the fun. I started dripping my face with blood. I then moved onto my arms, neck and chest. I used a hair dryer to assist in drying.
After it was all dry, I got dressed. I was ready to head to Becky's to meet everyone!
Becky was Octo-Mom!
Jill was Ugly Betty
Natalie was a Pirate Wench
Amanda was Erica Estrada aka Punch
Sandy was the Original mother of the year. We got her in a witches hat later that evening.
As we made our rounds, we met up with some old friends, here I am with Miss Ween, my former boss Bryan.
We met some new friends too, here Carrie meets Mike Tomlin!
We won some contests. Natalie won Sexy Costume, beating out the Slutty Cop. WHOO HOO! Take that slutty girls!
I won Scariest and Octo Mom took third in another contest at a different bar.
I hope everyone had as great a Halloween as I did!
It has taken me three months to write about this. I am so ticked off, even today, it makes me want to find the jackass responsible and hurt them. Last September, I wrote about Grunt's Leg. I, like many others, grew up with that leg. I've taken joy in introducing many people to the leg, many of whom have lived here their entire lives and didn't know about it's existence. Grunt's Leg was a part of Ford City and part of our heritage.
It started with a simple Facebook status. "This nip in the air is making me want to get my knitting needles out". That simple status resulted in may friends asking me to teach them how to knit. My Aunt BJ suggested that I start a Stitch 'N Bitch since they are all the rage in New York.
Ford City Stitch 'N Bitch was born. What is a Stitch 'N Bitch, you ask? Well, it's a gathering, where you stitch and bitch! You knit, crochet, do counted cross stitch, embroider, anything you want, you can even just sit and visit and not craft. One hundred percent participation is required in bitching, though. If you don't know how to knit or crochet, someone will teach you!
We held our first Stitch 'N Bitch on Monday at The Purple Pinkie. It was a great success! Our plan is to move the monthly gatherings to another female-owned business each month. Many made pot scrubbies as their first project. BFF Jill made a penis lip balm holder, if you look closely at the photo, she is holding it!
BFF Jill and I have been wanting to make a second how-to video since vacation. We decided to do one on "How to make your own crocheted tampon" We learned about these and that people were actually making them and USING them on The Burgh Blog, which is now named That's Church. We have joked about these for over a year. I think our second video turned out fabulous!
In the bathroom at the salon, we have a louvered door, which the hot water tank is behind. Every single child that enters that bathroom has to snoop behind the door. We can tell because the door does not sit on the track correctly and it falls off and is very difficult to get back on track.
We've only had ONE adult that was snoopy and that was The Corn Skank. What is a corn skank you ask? Well I've only ever met two of them.
When I worked at the credit union, each summer, when corn was in season, The Corn Skank would hit town. She was a trashy little number that was hired by a farmer to sell corn on the corner of Ford Street in front of the old Greenbaums Building. She was always dressed with T & A hanging out, which should have been covered because it wasn't prime, want to look at T & A. She had a perpetual cigarette hanging out of her mouth. She also had about six of the most dirtiest, stickiest kids you've ever seen running amok up and down the street. When they left for the day, you could see their remnants on the sidewalk and street: Cigarette butts, candy wrappers, corn silk, spilled sticky stuff, you name it. The street needed a good disinfecting when they left.
A couple of years ago, a new, younger, less skanky Corn Skank set up shop in the parking lot next to the salon. When she came in asking to use my bathroom, I agreed after she gave me a dozen ears of corn. I figured I have bleach.
Well, I go in to disinfect the bathroom when she left and the door was hanging wide open. I don't know if she was looking for our stash of tampons, or maybe she thought this was where we hid the liquor. It was obvious that she didn't attempt too hard to try to hide the fact that she was snooping.
I haven't seen any Corn Skanks this year. That's a good thing, they usually make my blood pressure go up. I've also noticed that most places along the highways have the self-serve things. I guess Corn Skanks are being hit by this recession too, huh?
Last night, BFF Jill and I went to the Ford City Park and attended the Memorial Day candle light ceremony that the Lion's Club and VFW put on every year. It's been years since I've attended one of these ceremonies, so I was really happy when Jill asked me to go.
The ceremony is always on Sunday night at 10:00 pm. They block the streets off. They turn all the street lights off and encourage all residents to turn off their lights for the ceremony. The town is dark. Then everyone lights candles. As a kid, I remember lighting our candles and sticking them to the sidewalk in front of our house.
The town has a speaker system that plays then entire ceremony to the town. I live approximately two miles from town and I can hear parts of the ceremony from my yard. It usually starts with the Heritage Days Choir singing, a key note speaker and more singing. It concludes with the Honor Guard shooting guns and the playing of Taps.
It is a very moving ceremony. It is very touching to see how many people strolled down to the park and stood with candles. Small children, standing quietly, babies in strollers sleeping. All ages were represented.
We are getting older. A former classmate, Mike Klingensmith is now the head of the Lion's. It's time for our generation to take over these traditions and make sure they continue. Mike ended the evening by saying, "Thank you, God Bless and God Bless America."
Yesterday, I drove past the park and saw that they were set up for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. I was appalled! There were roped in areas and eggs just laying everywhere. Where is the fun in that? In 1972, you actually had to HUNT for eggs. They were in bushes, trees, behind benches, etc. They weren't just scattered around for everyone to step on.
When Jill and I were in Lawrenceville this past weekend, it was such a beautiful day that we decided to go to Allegheny Cemetery to take pictures of the newly blooming trees and flowers. We also were told that there were many notables like the Carnegies and Mellons buried there.
We stopped at the front office to obtain a map and other items, one of which was a tour guide brochure. Jill and I, seriously, nearly peed our pants when we saw that John B. Ford was buried there. After confirming that it was "our" John B. Ford, that was our first stop.
Captain John B. Ford is the founder of Pittsburgh Plate and Glass (PPG) and Ford City's founder. We have a statue of him in our park. The high school kids take part in Founder's Day activities each year. We Ford City people LOVE John B. Ford. So, how in the hell did neither of us know where he was buried? I guess I just assumed that he was buried where he originally came from and I must admit, I don't know that either!
The brochure stated that Ford is entombed in one of the very first private mausoleums in the cemetery. It is gorgeous and looks very church like. Two beautiful statues sit in front as well as granite planter pots that sit at the very end. 
Stained-glass windows, in the most gorgeous combination of periwinkle and blue are in the bell tower. Some of them are missing.
The view through the window shows the tomb.
We were on the lookout for "The Angel". We were told that there was this giant angel statue that had patina'd. We found her. She was at least six to seven feet tall. It was noted by Todd, on Facebook that she is doing something with her fingers and he wondered if it was something symbolic.
This private mausoleum had a fresh bunch of flowers placed on it. I just loved the starkness of the granite, against the patina of the door, which makes the colors of the flowers totally pop out.
Inside, was a very beautiful stained glass window.
There were some unusual ones as well. This one had a gold or bronze door, which was really taken care of.
Two sphinxes were guarding the outside.
The cemetery is filled with wildlife. It also houses two ponds that are totally inhabited by Canadian geese. Jill and I snapped some photos and then sat on one of the benches. All of a sudden, one of the geese got all pissed off and one that was near us and literally charged it. I had my camera all ready, while Jill is getting ready to jump on my back to save herself.
All ended well, the picked on goose went to the other pond.
While visiting this cemetery, we noticed a lot of walkers and runners. This is a wonderful place to get some exercise. The view is awesome and the artwork can keep you busy for hours. While driving through, I couldn't help but wonder how many of the monuments there I had lettered while working many weekends at Carlini Brothers. Some days I miss that craft. It's been said that it gets in your blood. I guess that is why I am always drawn to cemeteries.
