Who comes up with this stuff? Who watches this stuff?

Run!

What is it about writing and directing on TV and movies that show absolute stupidity? The other evidence of missing intelligence is that it repeats itself, just with different words, throughout the rest of the show.

"Let's split up, so we can cover more area."  This is a pure sign of disaster.  In a haunted house where blood runs down walls?  In a cemetery known for flesh-eating inhuman monsters? In an alligator infested forest where bikini-clad teen females bounce around? (The alligators have been genetically modified which causes 4X growth and longer legs.)

"You're going to be fine! You'll be okay!" This is being said to a cognizant dying person who is bleeding buckets out within his line of sight. This is being said to some other person whose guts are being held by his rescuer.

"Don't touch that button, whatever you do, don't touch that button!  Certainly,  destruction looms. There will be explosions or maybe open the gates of hell to release damned souls. Why can't these people just follow directions?

Don't touch that button!

"Run! Go get help! We'll hold them off!" This directive is give to the weakest, least athletic person in the group.  He/she takes off, running down the center of the road while a howling monster on a flaming motorcycle chases him/her.

I know all this because my husband watches these shows and movies while I write. My comments: Really?? You have to watch this again?! Headphones are wonderful inventions.

Honor the Heroes

Pinterest

California is ripe for the burning, as wildfire season kicks in. 

Last year was a record for the wildfires suffered in California. One fire lasted two months, finally reaching containment in December.  It was huge in the numbers of deaths and acreage of land burned.

What kept more from dying and homes from being burned? Firefighters. Heroes.

This week is Fireman Week, and should be honored by all. Please remember this, and thank every firemen you see or meet.

History of Firemen from 1920s, 6 minutes long 

Brave then, and brave now.

They don't even flinch. 3 minutes long

Our community of elderly people (we are the age of their children) depends on the vigilance of the firemen just down the street. They are live-savers, literally. 

There is a homemade strawberry rhubarb pie from my kitchen with their names on it.

Veterans of Steel, Homes of Steel

Lustron homes, a novel home for a unique time in history

After WW2 ended, veterans came home wanting normalcy in their lives.  They wanted wives, children, jobs, and a place to live.  #1, #2, and #3 were readily available, but finding affordable homes was not.  

But then American ingenuity kicked in. The Greatest Generation had struggled through the Depression and then WW2. What they needed would be created and now.

Lustron Corporation, a division of Chicago Vitreous Enamel Corporation, was founded in 1947 and began to construct 15,000 homes in that year and then 30,000 (according to this info above) in 1948. The houses cost between $8,500 and $9,500

These houses were unique, to say the least: all steel. 

The houses are made of steel, top to bottom. Cabinets, closets, kitchens, doors, walls, door jams, support beams---everything is steel.  (Notice the built-ins throughout the house in the YouTube video below.) Houses were pre-fabricated and assembled on site, in two weeks. Steel slates are on the roof. Enameled steel square panels cover the exterior. No repainting, roof repair, termite damage are in these houses.

4 minute video

 Sears and Roebuck had perfected the mail-order houses and Lustron houses were equally well-designed. To try to describe the process is impossible in just a few words. So the reader may find the information at the site above.

Only about 2,500 or so homes remain, some on the Registry of Historical Houses.

What amazes me is that my hometown of 3,000 has seven or more of these houses in Illinois.  They are all occupied and enjoyed by people whose names I know. Five of the seven are shown below.

Construction

  

Newspaper article from hometown newspaper

Newspaper article from hometown paper

And these are the houses in my hometown:

North of the town in a more rural area

This house was occupied by State Congressman Paul Findlay in the 1960s

Note the square panels, made of enameled steel. Most houses have replaced porches, since they are of wood which decays.  

On North Franklin St.

The Johnson family lives here.

These homes have lasted for nearly 70 years. 

Pretty amazing. A need arises and then some creative individuals come up with a solution, American ingenuity at its best in an incredible time.

P.S. The largest number of homes are in Ohio (a plant that built the Lustrons),  and Illinois.