My blog friend Fashionista of Out and About in New York City features a photograph or two of the city’s many rooftop water towers on Wednesdays. I’ve have had severe case of water tower envy because we don’t do that here in Oklahoma and the water towers we do have are not near as stylish as those in New York.
I was delighted however to find a photograph of a water tower in my Dad’s collection of slides that I recently scanned. He told me that he got to tour a paper mill in under construction in Snowflake, Arizona way back in the 50’s and that was the mill’s brand new shiny water tower. I remember that paper mill. We used to drive by it now and then and it stunk! It stunk to high heaven for miles. It was flat awful. Talk about a good reason for air pollution laws.
So, I got to thinking. (I’m not used to thinking and it does kind of hurt when I try, but I kept at it, and worked through the pain) and I got to wondering what happened to the old paper mill, and, if the mill was still around, was the water tower still around. So I turned to my old friend Google, and found out that the mill’s owners shut it down last October because the newsprint it produced was no longer in demand and sold the facility early this year to a company who then went and auctioned every single thing they could in a very detailed list 24 pages long.
As far as the water tower is concerned above is a screen shot of the present water tower, at least as it existed last August. I can’t really tell if it is the present water tower or not. I’m betting with the dismantling of the plant that it is not long for this world. Maybe somebody bought it and is moving it to a rooftop in New York City.
And so anyway I guess that it is all kind of sad and everything and I feel bad for the workers who lost their job but things such as this happens as our economy changes and reacts to technology. So those of you who longer subscribe to daily newspapers are to blame! How is that for a parting guilt shot?
Oh, I always love your posts and your humor!!! You never fail to bring a smile to my face and a bucket full of giggles! Thank you — today was no exception!! I hope the remainder of your week is full of smiles and giggles, too!
We’re doing our part–our newspaper just started rural deliveries again so we have resubscribed. It was so exciting to have a paper delivered for the first time in years last week. Thanks for sharing dad’s slides on your blog.
Ah, the story of the water tower. We had one that talked. Well, the kids thought so for awhile – or pretended they did. When he was about 4, number 2 son, Don, would talk to things from the back seat as we drove down the street, “Hi, telephone pole. Hi, car. Hi, store. Hi, water tower….” One day I responded in a pretend voice, “Hi Don. How are you today?” Don asked, “Who was that?” “That’s me, the water tower. How nice of you to say hello to me. I just stand here all day and usually no one talked to me.”
That became a family event every time we passed that water tower and all the kids would say, “Hi, Water Tower!” so the water tower would talk back to them.
Kids are such fun. 😉
This evokes memories of a couple paper mills in WA that stunk to high heaven. If they’d just stop bleaching the paper I don’t think it would be so bad. Like, why does toilet paper have to be white? Sorry got off track. Nice shiny water tower. I grew up with water towers and kids used to dare each other to climb to the top and paint something, not usually very nice, on them.
We have a lovely old water tower about a mile from where I live and it evokes memories of my childhood whenever I pass it in my car.
As for my daily newspaper, I couldn’t be without it.
Just a bit of guilt, but I’ll live with it. A few towers left around here in So. Maine.
We get 3 newspapers in our driveway every morning so I don’t feel too guilty.
My recall is that in Oklahoma most every small town has (or had) a water tower with the town’s name on it….sort of a pre-GPS way of letting you know where you are. 🙂
…okay, but in all honesty, I never liked newspapers even BEFORE technology. Their stories, etc. are and have always been quite biased in my opinion.
A local newspaper is delivered here for free twice a week. It’s paid for by advertisers. (And yes, tons of ads come with the paper.)
Sad to say, even I whose father worked for the LA Times now rely on NPR and the internet for news. We do take a local weekly paper, though.