Delving into the Undeveloped

 I had about 3 weeks worth of pictures in my camera. You’d think that was a lot of pictures but the roll of film only has 12 negatives on it. I had been careful not to “waste” any pictures with impromptu shots, so from the first to the last shot was about 17 days. During that time, I could only hope that something worthwhile was captured. I had to wait until I developed the roll to find out.

    On Wednesday morning, the day before Thanksgiving I set out my supplies, checked my chemicals and removed the film from the camera. Then, after a good cup of coffee, I was ready to start.

    I needed an open workspace, so I used the base of my enlarger in the darkroom. I dusted the enlarger itself and wiped off the base. I didn’t want any dust particles landing on my film. I set out the developing tank, its lid and the spool where I could easily grab them in the dark. I set the spool on its side with its opening at the top. I set the reel in a U-bolt which I have been using to help keep it from rolling. I also had a pair of scissors sitting near-by.

    After I turned out the light, I felt around to make sure I knew where each piece was. I looked to make sure there weren’t any new light leaks since I did my last roll. Satisfied that I knew where everything was and that I was in total darkness, I slit the paper band on the roll and started unwinding the film.

    The film I was working with was black and white, 120 Kodak T-Max 100. This size of film is a lot more flexible than 35mm film and it can be tricky lining it up the opening of the reel. It had been almost two months since I had done a roll this size and I was glad that I had practiced beforehand. After a couple attempts, the film went in as planned. I only hoped that I hadn’t put any creases or marks on the negatives.

    There is always a fear that I’ll drop the film or part of the tank during the loading process. I don’t want to be feeling around on the dirty floor in the dark looking for the lid or even worse, the strip of film! I put the reel into the tank making sure the lid was on properly and then turned on the light.

    I cleaned up and re-covered the enlarger before I did anything else. If I didn’t do it now, I figure that I’d probably forget about doing it and everything would be even dustier the next time I used it. This is something I learned from my machinist days.

    The chemicals were put in a water bath to bring them to the proper temperature, 68° Fahrenheit. I had previously looked at the Massive Dev Chart online. (Massive Dev Chart Film Development, Film Developing Database) This is a great site to determine what the times for various films and developers should be.

    I wrote the times for all the steps on a piece of paper and hung it up near the timer. After a couple more sips of coffee I was ready to go. I set my timer and started the first step, a prewash.

    After finishing the developer, stop bath and fixer steps, I was able open the tank and see if everything had gone as planned. Even though I have done this numerous times, I am still apprehensive about what I’ll find when I open the tank. I removed the lid and slid the reel out and was happy to see images on the film! Now, I only had to worry about whether any of them were any good! It really isn’t as worrisome as this but I have had rolls go through that I inadvertently exposed to light, and I’ve developed a few rolls in which the camera wasn’t working properly. It is always a good feeling to see that everything came out OK.

    Finally the washing process was finished along with dipping the reel into some Photo-Flo, I was now able to unwind the filmstrip from the reel and see what I had taken. After 2 weeks, I tend to forget exactly what pictures were on the film and it is always a nice surprise to re-live these bits of the past once again. Looking at the strip as it hung to dry, everything looked OK. I didn’t see any bends or creases made by my attempts at loading the film onto the reel. The negatives all looked properly exposed and looking quickly, everything seemed to be in focus. I closed the door and let the film dry.

     So far, so good! It was now time to do some Thanksgiving preparations.

    An hour later, the film was dry. I took an archival filmstrip holder and labeled it. Then I cut the negatives into strips of three and slid them into the holder. Using a light box with my digital camera positioned overhead, I took a picture of the proof sheet and then a picture of each of the negatives. Using Adobe Photoshop I cropped the negatives, straightened them and then made a copy, inverting the negative into a positive. I saved the negatives and the positives in a file on the computer with the days date and a brief description of what they are. The “actual” negatives were placed in a 3-ring binder with other negatives from the current year.

    With the pictures on the computer, I will be able to look them over and decide which ones can be used to make prints. This will probably be done some time later in the winter, on those days when I don’t want to go outside into the cold.

    I cleaned up the tools I used and put the chemicals away. The area is now ready for my next chore…doing my laundry. Once again, I came out with another good batch of negatives. Practice makes perfect, or at least close to perfect. 

    You should give film developing a try; take a step back in time and experience the fun of doing things the old-fashioned way. It is a great hobby. I find that it is a great sense of achievement when I open up that tank and see properly developed negatives! If I can do it…so can you!

The Bayless Paper and Pulp Mill

 Frank and I hadn’t been on an adventure in a while so we put our heads together and started planning. We decided to take a trip into Potter County to visit the ruins of the Bayless Paper and Pulp Mill.

    Our scheduled date was for Thursday, a day which turned out to be wet, cold and even snowy at times. This didn’t deter us, we dressed accordingly and hit the road. Our departure was very early since we had about a 3 and a half hour drive ahead of us, if we went straight there. Of course, we weren’t going to do that; there are always detours and stops on any good trip!

    I left my house at 4AM. There was a light drizzle, just enough to have the windshield wipers on low. Traffic is nearly non-existent at that time of the morning; we were well away from the suburbs before rush hour started. After loading up on some fresh coffee, we attempted some photos of the steam coming from the power plant across the river from New Kensington. Our first geocache find was still 30 minutes away, in the darkness beside the road. The car headlights were shining on “the spot” while Frank and I rooted around using flashlights trying to locate it. Every so often a big truck would come around the bend, blowing a blast of noise and cold wind at us as it rushed by. Our next geocache further up the road was found in the daylight. 

    We stopped for a couple caches at Scripture Rocks outside of Brookville. In 1908 Douglas Stahlman started carving passages of scripture onto the rocks here. By the time he carved his last passage, in 1913, he had worked on over 500 rocks in the area. He had some "issues" and ended up in a mental hospital where he lived out the rest of his life. A park has been made to help prerve his work and his memory.

    We followed rt.28 up to its’ northern end in Brockway. Continuing on, it wasn’t until nearly 11 before we arrived in Austin, a short distance away from the ruins. Expecting a walk of about a mile in the rain we were happy to find a road led right to where we wanted to go. Parking on the edge of a steep hillside, we left most of our camera gear in the car rather than carry it with us. This made it much easier to maneuver around and through the brush and over debris.

    A large three-legged cement structure stood near where we parked. Doing a bit of research later, I found out it was a Jensson Acid Tower.  Built in 1917, the tower produced sulfite acid liquor for the paper making process. This liquor was produced by mixing limestone, water and sulfur in gaseous form in this tower.  It would have been fun to climb up the tower but unfortunately, it was beyond my abilities. Sitting beside the tower was a concrete structure which was the sulfur house. Chemicals in it were flammable and had to be kept away from the rest of the plant.

    We then worked our way through some high brush and grasses in a swampy flatland over to the remains of the mill. It appeared to be three stories high at one time. The stairs to the upper levels were broken and so we stayed on the main floor. Numerous holes in the floor showed us a water filled basement. The water was very clear with nothing growing in it. Water was in the basements of all the structures we came across.

    A broken set of steps took me down into the basement but that was as far as I could go. Water was dripping from the ceilings leaving small stalactites and also small waterfalls that we had to be careful to avoid. I was glad to be wearing a hat! 

    The Bayless Paper and Pulp Mill remained in business from 1900 to 1944. It was flooded twice and rebuilt. It was a fire that finally shut the plant down.

    We wandered around the ruins trying to comprehend what we were seeing. This place looks so different now as compared to when it was working. It provided jobs and security to the people of Austin and the surrounding areas. What did these various structures do when they were being used? We had to be very careful where we stepped as we roamed around, avoiding the numerous holes and the thick bolts sticking out of the floors. After taking way too many pictures, we made our way back through the brambles to the car.

    We then headed a few miles up a near-by road to where the dam was built. A park and campground is situated below the ruins. The dam was made by the company to provide water for the paper making process. Unfortunately, the company skimped on materials when making the 50 foot high concrete structure. Money for the project was running out and the owner decided to cut back on a few things. This eventually caused the structure to break apart during a period of high water. When built in 1909, the dam was the highest of its type in Pennsylvania. In 1911, three years later it failed and destroyed the Bayless Paper plant, the town of Austin and another below it, and killed 78 people. The town and the company rebuilt. When it was first built, the townspeople called it, “The Dam that Could Not Break”. Looking at the concrete blocks scattered around below the structure, you can’t help but realize the power of all the water held behind it.

    The rain had turned into snow while we explored the remains of the dam and followed us on and off on the way home. We left the snow behind us above rt.80, though the rain stayed with us for the rest of the trip. The day worked out well, when we were out of the car, there weren’t any extreme rains. The ride home was faster than the ride up since we only stopped for a quick lunch at a fast-food joint. There were no geocaches or photo stops on the way back.

    I returned to my house at 5PM, 13 hours after I left, almost to the minute. We didn’t see the sun rise or set on the trip, but we still had a good time. Good conversations, exciting spots to visit, some good pictures, along with some bad ones also, it was a great day. It was everything we expected it to be!

Sitting Out the Rain

 

The day was befitting of a day in fall, dismal with a light rain. It was a day that made you want to sit and do nothing, depressing. It was a good day to leave the house and lift our spirits!

    Ann Marie, Jim and I headed down to the Northside, to a favorite spot to hang out and visit, City Books. There was no doubt that it was autumn, leaves were floating in the puddles, people were wearing jackets and carrying umbrellas and those with shorts on were regretting their choices.

    Inside the store, it was warm and inviting. Boxes of Holiday shipments sat waiting for delivery. The furniture had been rearranged leaving a nice conversation pit surrounding a small round table. There weren’t many walk-ins so we took advantage of this and sat down with Arlan, the store’s owner and started to solve the world’s problems. Books were discussed along with interesting stories and recent travels. It was comfortable sitting in a small circle, watching people rushing by outside in the rain. All it needed was a small fireplace with some crackling logs in it.  

    This made me remember sitting in a small bookstore in Oakland. Sitting off of South Craig Street, Townsend Books was situated in a small house. There were two floors; the owners lived upstairs and the books downstairs. Bookshelves were everywhere.

    One special memory stands out; it was a snowy day, back when a forecast for snow meant more than just a light flurry. The weather was very cold and when I came inside my glasses fogged over. Knocking the snow off my boots the smell of a burning fire hit my senses. After saying good afternoon to the man behind the counter and loosening up my coat and scarf I started browsing the shelves, working my way back to the room that had the fireplace in it. I can remember to this day how I thought that this was exactly what a bookstore should be. A congenial owner behind the counter, lots of exciting books to look through, a couple chairs to sit in while contemplating my purchases and a nice warm fire to sit beside. It didn’t have any animals in it, a dog or a cat would have made it perfect but I’m not going to hold that against them.

    In those days there were three bookstores situated near each other in the Oakland area. I made sure to visit all three whenever I was there. Only a couple blocks separated Townsend Books from Bryn Mawr-Vassar Books and the Caliban Book Shop. Townsend Books lasted 21 years before it shut down in 2012. Bryn Mawr shut down earlier in 2005 after 33 years in business. In this section of Oakland, only Caliban Books survives to this day.

    History is no stranger to City Books. It was first opened as City Books and Antiques in 1984 on Carson Street on Pittsburgh's South Side. One of the interesting things about this store was the spiral staircase in the middle of the shop and the coffee bar on the 2nd floor. It had a cat or two that would sleep in the window, basking in the sunshine. It remained in the South Side until the final day of 2014. Arlan then bought the store and relocated it to the Northside. It is the oldest Independant Bookstore in Pittsburgh!

(The pictures above were taken on Dec.31, 2014)

    Ann Marie and I visited the original store on December 31st, 2014, its last day open. I still have the book I bought that day, The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, written by her daughter Caroline Kennedy. Slipped inside the book is a newspaper article about the store closing. Little did we know that it would soon be re-opened and we would become regular customers and friends with the owner.

    Our world takes us on some strange journeys and we never really know how anything will turn out or where we will end up. The best thing I can suggest is go along with the flow and enjoy the ride!

   After an hour or so, we said our good-byes and let Arlan get back to her work. Stepping out into the wet world outside the comfortable confines of the store, I thought about how good it is to have a local bookstore near-by. I can both feed my literary addiction and spend some time with a friend, or should I say friends? (We can’t forget “the books”!)

On the Road - Election Day 2024

 

The political calls and messages I have been getting over the past couple weeks has driven me close to madness. I don’t even open them anymore to see if they are from a friend or doctor, I just delete them! (Sorry to anyone who might have sent me a text recently!)

    I woke up early enough on Voting Day to get a shower and some breakfast before I went down to my local polling spot. I was happy to see a larger than normal group when I arrived. I stood outside the building for about 5 minutes before the doors were opened and I was pleased to be number 18 this year. The line strung out to the door as I headed back to the car holding my “I Voted” sticker tightly in my hand.

    Ann Marie had already voted by mail so we both were finished with our political obligations. Those that don’t vote can’t complain…

    The temperatures were supposed to be going into the 80’s so we decided that it would be a great day for a drive. We got a couple cups of hot coffee and headed south. We ended up on Rt.40 as we passed Uniontown.

     Just past the Summit Inn at the top of the mountain, we stopped to visit the Wharton Furnace. We’ve been here before when we had just started dating, it is a place I like to visit whenever we pass by. The furnace was first fired up in 1839 and finally went out of blast in 1873. They used steam power to raise the temperatures in the furnace. It was rebuilt back in the 1960’s.

    Back on Rt.40 we did a couple quick geocaches and then stopped to visit the Youghiogheny River Lake and to walk across the “historic” Great Crossing Bridge. The bridge and the town of Somerfield were submerged in the 1940’s when a dam was erected, creating a lake out of the Youghiogheny River. Normally covered with 50 feet of water, during drought conditions the bridge reappears. Foundations of many of the town’s buildings are exposed also.

    The town of Somerfield was laid out in 1818, the same year that the bridge was opened. The bridge crossed the Youghiogheny River and was part of the National Pike as Rt.40 was called then. The town had two streets, Bridge Street and River Road along with a few assorted alleys. In 1883 there were five stores in the town including a Department Store! The residents earned their livings by working in lumber and coal industries in the near-by areas.

    When the dam was built to provide flood control and hydroelectric power, 176 people were forced to leave their homes. Jockey Hollow which sat on the far side of the bridge was destroyed also, along with 9 other small communities.

    This isn’t uncommon, in Moraine State Park there is another community that was displaced when Lake Arthur was made in 1970. The village of Isle was relocated before the dam was built. The original rt.422 can still be seen going into and out of the lake on the shores.

    Walking down a boat ramp which used to be the National Pike, we passed the cement foundations of houses and stores. The sidewalks are still there along with the stumps of trees that used to line the street. Wandering around the town we came across numerous remains. Just when we thought we’ve seen them all, we would see another one.

    There was a large crowd of people who had come to see the bridge due in part to newscasts and social media, much like us. We were thinking that there wouldn’t be many there on a Tuesday but we were sorely mistaken! Perhaps they were trying to avoid all the election brouhaha also. In some ways it resembled a pilgrimage.

    Later we stopped a short distance away from the lake to take some pictures of an old restaurant or night club that had been destroyed by fire decades ago. A sign remains but it can no longer be read. There were two large fireplaces at either end of the building; unfortunately there are no floors underneath them. Burnt doorframes on the bottom floor show evidence of what helped destroy the building.

    Proceeding north we came across a sign saying that a covered bridge was a mile away so we took the turn just to take a look. The Lower Humbert Bridge was built in 1891. We stopped to take some pictures and to enjoy the sights and sounds of the stream and the smells of the day.

    Back on the road we came across a nice-looking barn with not one but two Mail Pouch Tobacco signs on it. We made another stop, because we weren’t in any rush. We had the time to enjoy the scenery!

    Soon we were in Somerset and heading back towards home. We had both of our phones and the radio turned off so we weren’t bothered by any election updates or notifications. We had voted and whatever was going to happen was beyond our control. We drove with the windows open letting the smells of autumn flow through the car. We returned home happy, relaxed and ready…for whatever the election might bring!