Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Walkin' around Caty

Hey, it's a fact. We look better when the sun is setting. You probably do too (god, I hope so). Today we decided to take a walk around Catasauqua (hereon known as Caty), our new hometown, and look at the cool old homes dotted around the neighborhood. Back in the 1860's, and thru the early 1900's, this town was a seriously happenin' spot. Some of the wealthiest folks of the Industrial Revolution made camp in town, and their way-big mansions are still standing, as are some of their old industries (something we'll see in a later post).


This is a cool old church that's been turned into a home.
Check out this wacky place. We live on the top floor. Dang!
"Is our picture gonna be in the newspaper?" they asked. I frickin' hope not!
This is our block...

Tie up yer horse here
The basement of this church is the town library.

David Thomas and his son moved to Caty in 1839, and less than one year later, on July 4, 1840, the first successful anthracite iron furnace in the United States began operation, and the Industrial Revolution began.Check out their house(above).
There are about 167,000 churches within 2 blocks of us. This is only one of them. I think it's for sale. Actually, so is this awesome old home that's been turned into apts.
Couple of good examples of 100-140 year old houses still keepin' people dry (or warm, or cool).

This (below) is by far the largest house in town. The guy who built it was an Austrian fella named D. George Dery who created a vast industrial empire based around silk mills that he built in the area.( We'll take a look at his original Mill later this week.) The section you see is only about a third of the place. The original three-story colonial structure was expanded and enlarged until it disappeared entirely. A long, south wing was added to the house as an art gallery. Elegant porticos with delicate fluted columns and ornate pilasters added a touch of neo-classical grace. Equipped with a library and astronomical observatory, it also contained a large ballroom and indoor swimming pool. Modeled after the palaces the very rich built for themselves at Newport, R.I., it was a home worthy of a man of wide interests and social connections. Naturally he lost it all...
Not sure what the deal-e-o is, but I dig this house.

We got some old, OLD sidewalks in town! See ya next time
LELKO


Sunday, September 12, 2010

Stuff N' Stuff

What haven't we been doing. you may be asking. Well, nothing, I may say in answer. Let's see, I built this bridge... went back in time to the caveman days..., turned Emily into a goat, then a chicken, then a peacock, and then, very briefly, a cow. And that was only today!

I like to drive around these parts, and that works for us in a couple ways; first we get to drive around the old country roads (which are five minutes in any direction) and see cool old farms and towns and just plain old stuff that we both enjoy lookin' at. Second, I get paid to drive folks to the airports around here 'cos I've been working for Marty, and he owns a limo service. Pretty cool, huh?



Today we went and got some raw cheese from a farm about 15 miles away and then we went cruising around. There's an old bridge in Reigersville that was built by the guy that built the Brooklyn Bridge, and its a mini version of that bridge. we also went to the Lost River Caverns to look around (too cheep to actually go IN the caverns, but the gift shop had cool old stuff), a place I went to a long time ago with my Grammy.


Check out these tiny sewing machines they had on display at the Lost River Cavern!
There are a bunch of old canals around these parts that used to have mules and or people pulling barges down them. I have to read up on that for more info. Any way, the apartment is coming along nicely (finished the bathroom, more or less) and now we both have a chair to sit in and our bed arrives this coming Friday (after a month and a half of sleeping on the floor!). The cats frickin' love our place with all of its windows and nooks to hang out in.


There are twenty million Yacco's within four miles of us!


The weather is startin' to cool off, and the very beginnings of the Fall can just barely be felt in the air and seen in the trees.


See y'all later
LELKO