For My Sister, Tina

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Tina, I wanted to show you and those who have not been to Evansville for awhile, a big change in the Evansville high schools. As you might remember quite some time ago, the "new" Central High School was built in the north on First Avenue (further north than Ivy Tech which was Rex Mundi High School). Central was built close to the center of Vanderburgh County; however, it was a lot more north than North HS. But this year, all of that has been corrected with the building of the new North HS on U. S. Highway 41 near the northern county line! So, finally the directionally named schools are back to the proper directions!!! The first photo is a shot at the front of the school facing north. This building is somewhat unusual in that from the right side going south the structure has sections or what I call "modules" that each module is a section of a fan-shaped larger structure making it circular. I could not get an angle to get a shot that might show that. The left side of this photo shows the back side that circles around to this point leaving an indention like that of a handfan! [Please click on photos to get a larger, better image.]Below is a close-up view of the front entrance.In this photo you can see the front door and a sign for the school's name.Now, in this shot below is a look at the "module" section I mentioned. It is somewhat modernistic for solar energy and designed for maximum energy use. Note that every exterior doorway has a number. Notice all of the color variations. From the highway each of these sections look like fan blades that are the latest in condo housing!Wow, North HS has this great football/track arena... very nice!Below is another view facing north.I took these photos on 15 Feb 2012 on a beautiful sunny day which was probably the coldest day of this whole winter with some very high winds making the windchill at least at zero, making it very, very cold to take these photos.

- Photos taken by JGWest

"For My Sister, Tina"

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Tina, this has been around for the last five years or so, but thought you and others who live far away might appreciate seeing these changes in Evansville.

First off, we have a dinosaur downtown pointing the way to the Koch family "Children's Museum of Evansville" (cMoe)... my grandkids from Cincinnati love this place!

Below is the home of cMoe... yes, it is the former building for the Evansville Central Library that has now moved to its new home a few blocks away.

Below is a photo of the new Central Library - a very nice facility. It is across the street from The Center in the southeast corner. The northwest corner is where the Executive Inn used to be... Tina, I guess I will need to show you photos of that in the next few days or so.

As you can see there is lots of construction going on with the demolition of the Executive Inn on one corner and the demolition of the parking garage on the other.

- Photos taken by JGWest

"For My Sister, Tina"

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Tina, this is the recently completed "Bicycle Pathway" around Pigeon Creek. This "six-bladed fan" is a beautiful creation that is south of the Lloyd Expressway and on the east bank of Pigeon Creek. You can see it from the expressway quite easily (it is large) and it took me about 6 months to figure out how to get to it! Access is a road off of Ohio Street... with a nice parking area. I took several photos of most of the individual parts to try to capture this unique monument to Evansville's history.

[Click on photos to enlarge the images.]

The fan-like blades remind me of airplane blades. Not sure if the artist had that in mind, but Evansville was a major shipyard during World War II, where Dad helped to build the P-47 Thunderbolts. Nearby, Evansville manufactured LST boats at what is now known as the Mead Johnson Terminal on the west side of Pigeon Creek.

- Photos taken by JGWest

From the FIRST MATE's PHOTO ALBUM...

APRONS...

...The common everyday apron that Mom wore almost everyday around the house!

Remember... making an apron in Home Economics Class in School or for your exhibit at the County Fair for the 4-H Clothing Project? I remember about 50 years ago watching (with 3 of the boys of my 4-H Club) the older Mike Phillips & Anthony Long (the two being cousins to each other) wearing aprons that they had made in the 4-H Dress Revue. They were laughed at in those days since boys were not expected to wear house aprons, but they were showing that boys could do what girls do. In those days girls/women were trying to show that they could do what the boys/men could do. It was the beginnings of the “Battle of the Sexes!” The four of us pledged to do the same for the next year... it is hard to believe how foolish young boys can be!!! My sister Tina can back me up on this story. Dennis Avery, Dana Hart, Freddie Isaac and myself made our aprons (not an easy task using that old foot-pedal Singer sewing machine). Freddie “chickened-out”... but Avery, Hart & I walked on stage and modeled our aprons during the 4-H Dress Revue. We got even more laughter than Phillips & Long! Amazing that Phillips & Long became attorneys and very active politicians along with Avery becoming an Indiana State Representative (Phillips became the Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives). In politics, I became the Superintendent of the Evansville/Vanderburgh Levee Authority and later Evansville City Manager of Locust Hill & Oak Hill Cemeteries. Hart had a life-time career with Alcoa. I had heard that Isaac had a career in the coal mining field. I wonder what happened to that blue apron with clouds & sailboats that I had made & never worn except on stage for that 4-H Dress Revue? - Written by John G. West

The Apron Pattern photos and the History of Aprons were found on the Internet & sent to me by Don Counts.

The History of Aprons

I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath,because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.. From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds. And when the weather was cold grandma wrapped it around her arms. Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folks knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

“For My Sister, Tina”

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This is the first edition of a new feature that I am calling “For My Sister, Tina.” It will be labeled for the right side index as "For Tina." One of the missions of the TSGS Cruiser Blog in addition to news of the society & genealogy is little tidbits or glimpses of the tri-state area for our members, friends & family that live away from the Evansville area. Tina, my sister, moved to Charleston, SC almost 30 years ago near where our older brother Glen lives. Much has changed since 1980, here and everywhere. She has a subscription to the Evansville Courier & Press and she visits Evansville when she can, but even then things have vanished, changed or new things have been created that she does not know about.

She will send me ideas to report on for her... and I encourage everyone interested to submit ideas for me to report on the blog. This will not be a regular weekly feature like the “Monument Monday” or Wednesday's “First Mate's Photo Album” or “Tombstone Thursday,” but will be posted when I have something to report. Ideas could include: what is new, what is no longer, what has changed, what is special.

Please send me some ideas! John G. West, TSGS Blog Master

"Brief Look at the Former Selvin High School"

Selvin High School Class of 1959

Celebrate Their 50th. Anniversary Reunion

Larry Oxley acts as class representative to welcome all Selvin School students to the reunion and remembers those Selvin students who passed away in the last year. Selvin School began in the 1880's and closed completely in 1963. The high school was closed as part of a large statewide consolidation of schools in 1962. I was a freshman at Selvin that year in 1962... they sent me to Dale High School in Spencer County for my Sophomore year. Then in 1963 the state closed Selvin Grade School and my sister Bettina (Tina) West was a member of the last Eighth Grade to graduate from Selvin Grade School. That year they closed Tennyson High School south of Selvin on Indiana Highway 161, sending those students to Boonville High School (Warrick County) and they decided to reduce out of county tuition payments to Spencer County by transporting me with the Tennyson kids to Boonville to attend my Junior year of school. I lived in one house and attended 3 high schools in 3 years. I graduated at Boonville High School in 1965, while the 15 freshmen students from Selvin in 1962 when they closed our school ended up, without moving from their homes, graduating from 5 different schools: Lynnville, Boonville, Dale, Holland & Jasper high schools. My younger brother, Donald West, entered Selvin Grade School as a first grader in 1959... so, for one year all four of us were in school at Selvin: Glen, me, Tina & Don.

Above is the Class of 1959 from Selvin High School in Selvin, Indiana (located in northeastern Warrick County). L-R: Roger King, Joyce Moesner, Larry Oxley, Ronald Dowdell, Jim Osborne, Gaither Glennis West(II), Larry Powell. [NOTE: Lanny Ingram was unable to attend. Only one of the graduates of this class has died - Carmen Surkamp (about 1990).]

-Photos taken & submitted by JGWest

"Happy Mother's Day!"

Happy Mother's Day to everyone! I can not go visit Mom, but I can remember her today in a special way:

Bernadine Long

11 Jul 1921 - 01 Oct 1997

My favorite photo of Mom

One of my very first photos that I took as a kid was of Mom in our house in the country (Warrick County, Indiana)

She was the mother of four children: Glen, me, Tina & Don.

She told us story after story about her family that always fascinated me and kindled my life-long love of genealogy. Mom did not like country living and times were kind of tough for work for Dad as a construction worker during the two economic recessions of the 1950's. After I graduated from high school, we moved back to Evansville: Mom's beloved city and home. Every year, without fail, Mom went out to decorate all of the local family grave sites in all of the various cemeteries with flowers... it was a very important responsibility on Memorial Day to remember family members who had died. Don, took her around each year after Dad died with me taking her around every two or three years. Now that Mom is gone and younger brother, Don, passed away in 2000, the responsibility, actually duty, is for me to decorate the family graves. I try to make Mom's the first & most special grave to decorate & remember. I miss you, Mom!

While Mom was the first woman in my life, this is the second woman... the mother of my three sons! Becky McIntyre [adopted name... birth name Meredith] with our first son, Phillip G. West (the other two sons are JJ & James). Happy Mother's Day, Becky!

- Submitted by JGWest