Emmett Till.(July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955)

{audio details}

Emmett Till:wikipedia

adronitis

Last week.... Frank and Mary commented ...."I felt bad at first, viewing the picture of the "fallen teddy bear," but then it was bemusing....." .And so it is also with me.Dear ßenchers, are you ßemused as well?
adronitis. n. frustration with how long it takes to get to know someone—spending the first few weeks chatting in their psychological entryway, with each subsequent conversation like entering a different anteroom, each a little closer to the center of the house—wishing instead that you could start there and work your way out, exchanging your deepest secrets first, before easing into casualness, until you’ve built up enough mystery over the years to ask them where they’re from, and what they do for a living.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

This week's prompt is around the theme ".....We're looking for any bodily adornments: from girls with pearl earrings to gents with an impressive medal collection (or vice versa), even tattoos would fit the bill I'm sure....." Which brings me to "Alfie" my wife's favourite teddy bear as an infant......they went everywhere together.Almost a "bodily adornment" Non? It's marginally excentric I suppose ? Next week (probably Thursday & Friday) me & Chris travel to stay overnight in Carlisle (near the Scottish border).The plan is we walk 100 yards from Home to The Keighley Road.Jump on the "500" bus to Keighley.There we catch the "Settle -Carlisle" Train A pleasant & dramatic 2 hour journey[photos}.
It's a good excuse for me to get a over-60's discount Railcard (3rd off every journey!).That should arrive this Saturday..then I can book the tickets.
We spend Thursday looking at Castles & stuff.... [+ Perhaps? the odd Stone Circle? ]+ then stay in the IRBIS Hotel next to the Railway station& the next morning visit Carlisle Turkish Baths for 4 hours or so...then jump back on the train (just across the road from the Baths} & head home in the afternoon!
It's one of the last few remaining working Baths in the UK.One I have never been to before.A listed building I believe. So far , I have been to  10 Turkish Baths .In Edinburgh (still open);Rochdale (shut) :Blackpool (shut): Islington (open): Harrogate (open):East Ham (shut) ;Paddington (open)+ 3 in Istanbul.....Another one for my check list! Check here to read about the decline&fall of British Turkish Baths...........
{lyrics}

In July I go see British Sea Power (4th time) at The Hebden Bridge Trades Club.'Taking Chris with me.
A film (just released) about Football (soccer):Photography & British Sea Power [here]

Above a photo taken of Fallingroyd Bridge near Hebden Bridge in the 1930's (near The Clog Factory for those that know)Dig The Road Sign !

The Past Is Another Country---->"A legal action for the loss of a nose in Turkish Bath"

"The bloke said to me: 'Tell the wife if she finds any more, put them in a nice neat heap and we'll deal with them all at once'."

You know some kind of pleasing symmetry is going on here! My father-in-law Brian Highley took these photos.
in 1950's Halifax.Brian worked as a draughtsman at Ajax (later Philips) on Queens Road (they later moved to Hipperholme).They designed Washing Machines.His wife,Jean,stayed at home and washed with one!

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

Meanwhile! In the 21st Century........Her husband, ....., said: "I heard a rattle in the kitchen and saw she was washing it in the blooming sink."..... {Read More}

No Flys On Dot.

I have 4 weeks worth of comments to catch up with this weekend!

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

Uncle Gordon:my Aunty Brenda (his half-sister):Cousin Pat (Gordon's daughter)on the beach in Southport (mid-50s?)

Well, I'm back here.Thank You for the kind messages.I bang in this post just prior to Me & Cathy driving to Bury this afternoon.We go with Don & Margaret to see Fairport Convention at Bury Met.I may tag on at the bottom a video and/or photos of the gig.(Saturday ,probably)
Chris is much better.
A lovely sunny day.I went into the garage this morning.A worrying buzzing noise coming from the electric meter by the metal garage-door.I looked up (the inside of the door was horizonal ,inches above my head)A Wasps Nest was being built on the metal!!!!!!! So .........Ive been busy destroying Mother Nature,I'm afraid..............
The photos are mainly of my Uncle Gordon & Aunty Dot.Taken in the early 50s in England. My Aunty Dot Was always a quite an exotic creature to my humble Northen eyes as i grew.The nearest I will ever get to Virginia Wolfe i suspect.She told me once she believed in reincarnation.She believed she would come back one day as a fly.........
I visited them once in 1967 for a week in Buckinghamshire.They took me to see a play in Oxford with Spike Milligan in it.Rather Cool,Non?
Gordon was  much quieter than Dot.He had been in the RAF during the War.He was kept as a Prisoner-of-War for 3 years.People said he was "never the same"on his return.(I have nothing to compare with the man I knew.)
They grew old together.(Dots first husband had died young on a motorbike before the war)Their final couple of years saw them move into the same Old People Home.They eventually had to move them to seperate rooms & seperate ends of the Home because they were always fighting.No Flys On Dot!


Aunty Dot,Cousin Pat& Uncle Gordon.1950's,unknown location.

.............Her husband, in an attempt to prove to her that these were hallucinations, took pictures of the neighbour’s yard and the bed in their house. Surprisingly, when shown these photos, the patient continued to identify the same children playing in the yard and the same brunette woman sleeping under the covers. This perception was present every time the patient looked at these photos. Within 6 months of stopping ropinirole and titrating quetiapine to 75 mg every night at bedtime the hallucinations were less severe and shorter in duration, but the patient continued to see them in the photos.......[from:]


Pat

Dot,Pat& Brenda.

Saturday update: Thanks to Don & Margaret for a nice meetup at the Fairport Convention gig in Bury last night.And thanks for the Warren Ellis CD.I will burn Mr Nick for you.
I am really pissed-off .I rushed home to look at the Video& audio on my camcorder...and nothing had recorded????I really dont understand...[especially]...as i saw the video on -screen during the gig (& the machine has a secondary backup memory as well as the card.)Yet nothing, either on the camera itself or when i popped the card into the reader.How Odd.Especially as The Fairports gave  such a good show.
Another oddness ..when i first switched the camcorder  back on at home, the language display settings+instructions had switched ,somehow,to Turkish!(honestly! I wasn't even aware at that point about events in Istanbul..'might sound like bullshit,but i swear it's true!)
So Sorry Folks.......in recompense ...above is one they did earlier.
And here are the photos i took of them a couple of years back Also.Here is the FULL (one hour+51 minutes !) video of the 1987 "It all comes round again"......which is true,but I better sort my camera out before the next time! Thanks Again to Don & Margaret for a splendid evening.
SATURDAY NIGHT UPDATE: I am very sad to hear  what is happening in Istanbul at the moment .Lord knows Turkey has never been perfect (!).But countries like the USA & (say) Pakistan & (even) Britain could learn a lot from them about how to run a Secular State which had clear boundaries between Religion & State. This looks like the start of a right-wing drift towards dogma.I do wish all these Religious People would keep their "Invisible Friends" to themselves.

I have been to Istanbul 4 times. here are some photos I took.Here is a photo of Mine["Minny"] & Ayse in The Blue Mosque. © His Drayness

this live feed tonight shows burning in Taksim Square....Prominent in the pictures is a large statue.........the very statue Me & Chris stood in front of to have the photo taken.It was 4pm in the morning.We had been on a guided tour of Folk Clubs & Disco.A very friendly atmosphere .Thousands of (mainly young folks.).milling around..like a busy Oxford Street in daytime.but people were kissing & buying flowers.buying ballons......no trouble at all (unlike it would have been in England).how times change! Minny took this photo and said it was tradition to stand in front of this statue "and make a wish".We did.....

weightless again......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handsome_Family

Chris is tons better.I should be back soon.Me & Cath went to Hebden Bridge Trades Club last night to see Albuquerque's fine Handsome Family.I took this video.And here are the photos i took.

Radio Goddard.

My Son Chris has not been well these past 10 days or so. He is mendiing slowly.

Of course this blogspot flim-flam has taken a backseat during the process (i make the odd perky brief appearance on facebook.,otherwise.... my life is mostly RT at the moment.).

Luckily my last post (Sepia Saturday)was mostly already written-up & all I needed to do was press the "publish" button.
When I will be back here on full-cylinders i dont know.......

(maybe tomorrow..maybe gradually over the coming weeks.....who can say?)

.I love blogging but it has its limits.

Things are quiet tonight at Zimnoch HQ,Hence this post.

singing at the spaw

Smells & Chemistry is my interpretation on this week's Sepia Saturday When i go Harrogate Turkish Baths I will also go & fill up an empty Pop Bottle full of Harrogate Sulphur water I use on it my skin (great for Athlete's Foot & suchlike !) also once when in Italian Mountains,Me & Chris both had Sulphur Baths
I found out this week that a Sulphur Spring exists only 3 miles from home.I must visit & fill-up.

Local children in their Sunday Best “taking the water” in 1911

In medieval times and earlier, winter was a very difficult time for local inhabitants. The long season of cold and darkness, with limited food, caused hardship and ill health. Consequently, people looked forward to the onset of spring with warmer weather and more food. It was the custom in early spring for people to gather at the spa to drink the water and cleanse themselves of their winter ailments, and to give them strength to face the coming year. Whether or not the water had a medicinal effect is debatable, but the waters were a way of celebrating the passage of winter and the beginning of spring – and there are anecdotes from a number of local octogenarians of the curative and restorative properties of the Spaw waters, attributing their long standing to regular draughts of Spa water!In the 19th century this event usually occurred on the first Sunday in May and was called “Spaw Sunday”. It was said that on this day the water at Cragg Spa took on “an especial different taste”. Local children in their Sunday Best “taking the water” in 1911 All you needed was a medicine bottle, filled with the spa water, liquorice was added (to make it more palatable for drinking) then the mixture was thoroughly shaken and – if you didn’t want to look like a cissy! – swigged down in one. The sulphurous water from the spa was deemed to be excellent for making tea, although some recommended a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to take the edge off the “bad eggs smell”. As time passed these gatherings became quite popular, and attracted tourists and early socialists as well as local people. At the beginning of the 20th century the Independent Labour Party saw an opportunity to play an important part in the “spaw” celebrations locally, and the early religious orators gave way to those of a political nature. In 1906, a report on a pilgrimage to the Cragg Spa and then onto Blackstone Edge, noted that numbers at the event were becoming fewer and only 500 people went onto the White House where the Hebden Bridge band was playing.The Second World War ended “Spaw Sunday “celebrations at Cragg Spa.........{source:}
 Below the old stone bridge almost forgotten Water gurgles quietly from subterranean fault
The surface air scented with sulphurous stink.
 Contrasting with earthy woodland and river mix The nose turns towards the Spa lending it’s name to nearby cottage row and farm.
 Celebrated in past times with ‘Spaw Sunday’ Religious and Political gatherings drew crowds in hundreds After the confinement of winter, a time of Cleansing Parents and children dressed for the occasion ‘Taking the Waters’ with a little Spanish to stop the Retch “Get it down, it’ll do you good”
 Black Crow and Gray Heron watch from a distance Speeding Dipper stitches the torn river with a bubbling silver thread Brown Trout pushes against the flow avoiding the throng {Graham Ramsden}

 see:  Fickr :Cragg Vale Spa Set

Blessing the spa with a rosemary bough.
Hold your nose. It's tradition................... "Welcome to the world's shortest pilgrimage" announced James, the vicar, as the procession prepared to set off from the church of St John the Baptist in the Wilderness. This gathering was part of the 'Spaw Sunday' celebrations, ('spaw' being the dialect word for 'spa'.) ...."{The Guardian:Calderdale Religion}

Singing at The Spa.

HEPTONSTALL SHADOWS: John Billingsley: Sunday 5th May 2013

*This is a continuation of Last Wednesday's post*

One of the nicest things about Heptonstall is that ,unlike Haworth & it's Bronte Sisters up the road,it has never become a tourist trap.Not a single "Yea Olde Sylvia Plathie Tearooms" in sight!
 If your around Calderdale this year..& you fancy a nosey & an excuse to stretch yer legs, this is Calderdale Heritage Walks;s schedule......

{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heptonstall}

Click Here to see video&photos+More videos & audio will appear as if by magic soon.....
HEPTONSTALL SHADOWS:John Billingsley:Sunday 5th May 2013

My Thanks to John Billingsley for the day's splendid walk&talk.

Sylvia Plath reads Daddy :

A composition of abstract images and excerpts from the poem 'Daddy'by Sylvia Plath.
A celebration to life, love, reincarnation and evolvement. love conquers all. even death.

+ Cragg Vale Sulphur Spa

*This is a continuation of Last Wednesday's post*

busted tooth and a smile

"I wish I had a Sylvia Plath Busted tooth and a smile And cigarette ashes in her drink The kind that goes out and then sleeps for a week The kind that goes out on her...."

~Ryan Adams:"Sylvia Plath"

Photo of a white dog taken at the north end of Church Street, Heptonstall in 1921.

'Sylvia Plath was a lifelong anti-smoker, though she did begin to smoke in the last six months or so of her life. (Ted Hughes mentions in his letters how much this surprised him). Since Sylvia never really had time to settle in to smoking it is likely she would have smoked mild cigarettes - perhaps Embassy, Strand, or Guards. She would not have been smoking Senior Service or Capstan'.........{source} Or "Black Cat" Presumably.which is a great inconvenient shame as that's the Theme of this week's Sepia Saturday 

[Here are a few photos I took in 2006 of the Heptonstall Grave of American Poet & Novelist Sylvia Plath .]

I shall ignore the facts  about Heptonstall being a smokeless Zone& swiftly move on.................Although Sylvia didn't smoke Black Cats, she did inhale the word "black"......e.g.  

......I have been drugged and raped.

Seven hours knocked out of my right mind Into a black sack

Where I relax, foetus or cat,

Lever of his wet dreams.......

 The Jailer by Sylvia Plath

Heptonstall:25th April 2012:Pace Egg Play.

[click here to read about "The Pace Egg Play"}
HEPTONSTALL SHADOWS
"Explore streets and ginnels around Heptonstall for tales from the shadier sides of its local history with witchcraft, dark deeds and other lamentations ...........!"Meet John Billingsley at 2.15 pm Sunday May 5th 2013: at the main Heptonstall carpark, near the Bowling Club (follow the signs).
I go with Cath to this on Sunday.We know John.He's a good bloke:local librarian : He loves folk music & I often talk with  him at gigs with his Japanese Wife. Below ,I hope to add photos/video of his walk& talk here.........
High above my house in Hebden Bridge is the hilltop village of Heptonstall. Cute steep place.Funny though, remember I bought a cheap derelict place in Italian Mountains?I am {sporadically }"doing-it-up" as they say in D.I.Y. circles.........Anyhow.The more I consider it,the more that Italian Village { Pennadomo} Reminds me of Heptonstall.
The same Quietness:Isolation;Old Large Stone Buildings:Narrow Winding steep cobbled streets.The feeling that the buildings are squeezing & trying to smoother you.Quite why I should be attracted to 2 similar places/so far apart......I do not understand.The topic will be on my mind as i walk around the village on Sunday.....I Take It Everybody does know who Sylvia  was? If  you don't,here's the full dope from
{ wikipedia }

"They put me in bloody Heptonstall. Now don’t get me wrong this is a beautiful village and is one of Yorkshire’s best kept secrets. But this was a village high above the main valleys. Not far above tis true but it meant a second bus ride or a steep walk up the hill for a mile or more. When I say steep, I should really say very steep, even bloody steep. You could go the long way up the road that went up the hill from Hebden Bridge or you could take a short cut up the lines of steps and paths that cut across diagonally from the centre of the town and then met the road halfway up. It was an old ancient path and stone step way, ‘the buttress’, that dated back hundreds of years to a time of cottage weavers and an age when everybody walked up and down that hill, usually carrying great packs on their backs of provisions, cloth or goods to trade.
By gum they must have been fit people. Or were they? Most of them were dead by the time they were 50 or by the time they got to the top of the hill. .......".{Read More>>} Dave Thomas

HEPTONSTALL SHADOWS:John Billingsley:Sunday 5th May 2013

ex-Inmates (&warder) from the Old Turkish Baths in Rochdale meet for a reunion in Manchester

Apologies.No Sepia Post this week.

Instead, some photos from a reunion in Manchester on Friday night.I met up with some of the lads from from the Late Great Rochdale Hamam A good day was had by all.Thanks to Capo Martin for the organisationalism. Hopefully ,such reunions will become a regular thing. Yes!An Important Evening.

R.I.P.Neil Hartleynotices.menmedia.co.uk/25620023

Noise Killer Acoustics Ltd. Address: Unit 7 Parkside Industrial Estate Edge Lane Street Royton, Oldham Manchester OL2 6DS. Contact: Steve Bithell

in your eyes

When I First Read That Alan's Prompt For This Week'sSepia Saturday was "odd photos" I thought "Great! I can do 'odd'! But,on refection its proved  difficult .I have no definitive oddness to share.But let me,instead, whistle bravely  and skate  gently a around the  topic..............

Really, I could have copped-out completely and re-posted This Image from a previous Sepia post(.Taken in 1994 of my Uncle by me on The Family's farm in Eastern Poland .It is both odd & has a chicken in it!)
But no.Let me give you somethings that are new here .

 Now! The above photo IS odd! Taken in 1985 in Cyprus.Me & Cathy had taken my Mum there at Christmas on the first anniversary of my Dad's death.I wandered into a dusty old shop in Nicosia.It was totally full of wax baby doll candles. (whole& separate limbs).Most were 1&2 foot tall.I took this photo & quickly buggered-off out.Never did find out what that was all about.........

Finally.An example of oddness that didn't work out.We came across this burnt out car in Nicosa.I had never seen one before.The caption was supposed to read "These Crazy Foreigners" But ,in Post-Thatcher Britain it became a familiar sight .Expect to see many more burning British cars in the next 12 months.......

Hebden Bridge:A vicious  mob  of angry young anarchistic s protest  while Thatcher' (spit) was funerealised   on Wednesday  in London.

Hebden Bridge's web forum .Read[  Here ] what my local town thought of Thatcher.