Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Bare legs, and some things you can't see anymore...

First, a comment about this particular post.  A couple of days ago, I thought I clicked "save" to a new post by a variation of this name...and all of a sudden the draft I'd been working on was gone.  Instead, it was posted...in incomplete format.  So I "reverted it to draft status"...which is where it has been till right now.  Didn't realize it would show up on any linked blogs...sorry about the confusion. 

But like MacArthur (and Arnold Schwarzenegger), it has returned.

Early this week, we had some errands to run.  

When we got up that morning, I found I'd be wearing a pair of ballerinas with my shorts.  I've been going bare-legged in sandals and capris (or shorts) for quite a while now.  So, to continue the habit of keeping my legs nice and smooth, I epilated them.  Then I showered and put on my pantyhose.   But "It's still summertime, so you won't need pantyhose.  Wearing ballerinas with bare legs will be a better choice."   So that's what I did, for our visit to a grocery store and the shopping center.  

Every girl we saw, who was wearing any style of ballerinas, was like me - bare-legged - whether they wore shorts, capris or (a few) in skirts.   So I guess I won't be needing pantyhose for a while...  

We went out for dinner a couple days later, to celebrate my wife's birthday...it was a seafood restaurant about 15 miles from home.  (Since we live in seafood country...we enjoy seafood!) For this occasion, she wanted me to dress up a bit.   I chose my white capris with a women's polo, and once again, ballerinas were the shoes to wear (with bare legs, of course).  We were addressed as "ladies"  for the meal (by a female server.)

Other female customers were all very casual...shorts, or "short shorts" and sandals or (a few) with slip-on sneakers.  Only four of us in the whole place (including my wife and I) were wearing capris...  But we girls all had one thing in common:  bare legs.  Lesson learned...there's lots of time when the weather cools off to enjoy pantyhose!  (And I'm getting used to wearing shoes without any socks or stockings...though it's not an easy thing to learn.)

On the way out after dinner, a teenage boy walked toward the door faster than we did, and held the door open for both of us.  We thanked him, and he returned "you're welcome, ladies."  Nice to see a male teenager with manners...you see it so rarely lately...but it does still exist.

As for things you can't see anymore:  

Back in the late 1990's, the reincarnated Northern Central Railway began operating on the abandoned PRR Northern Central out of New Freedom, PA.  And, there were occasional forays into downtown York, PA.  

This former Canadian National Alco FPA-4 locomotive (masquerading as an ex-B&O 800, on the former PRR main line) was pulling one of the last such trains on N. Pershing Avenue in York, before all trains were discontinued in September of 2001.  Though my notes on it aren't too good...I believe this was taken was in the summer of 2001.


In the interest of full disclosure, the locomotive itself still exists, in operating condition.  It's now in service (still in B&O livery) at a much different venue - the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, near Cleveland, OH.  Following is a picture of it, and another FPA-4 as well, in their shop. 

And a chunk of the old Northern Central (at New Freedom, PA) has reincarnated itself once again,  as "Steam into History", with a brand new "antique steam engine" and brand new "period" passenger cars.


The following picture was taken in January of 1993.  Yours truly was riding in a private railcar on the rear of the Lake Shore Limited, as one of the Turboliners whooshed by on the other track.  It was an experience which can no longer be re-created.  While the Lake Shore still operates, and can carry private railcars, Turboliners are long since out-of-service.  I believe they have been (or soon will be) scrapped.


Below is the saga of the Lee-Huckins hotel (later just Huckins) in Oklahoma City.  It's permanently entwined in the history of the State of Oklahoma.  And, it's such a shame that this grand old hotel,  a classic piece of history (completed 1909, razed 1969), had to be destroyed - in the name of urban renewal.  But that's another topic...

Oklahoma became a state in 1907.  State capital was Guthrie, and it had been the Territorial capital before statehood.  For many years, even before statehood, there was agitation by one town or another for the honor.  It was initially placed in Guthrie by the federal government, but other towns coveted that designation.

The Enabling Act, which created the Constitutional Convention, specified that the capital would remain Guthrie for at least six years following statehood.  An election was scheduled between Guthrie, Oklahoma City and Shawnee for the capital's location.  The date was set for June 11, 1910.  When votes were counted, it was found that Oklahoma City had 96,261 votes, Guthrie had 31,301 and Shawnee had 8,382.



Governor Haskell wanted the capital moved to Oklahoma City during his administration. Therefore, upon learning that Oklahoma City was destined to win the election, he took a train directly to Oklahoma City, and opened his office in the new Huckins Hotel (rebuilt in 1909 after the prior hotel had burned) the next day.  He then instructed his secretary, W. B. Anthony, to go to Guthrie and to bring back to Oklahoma City the necessities of the office, including the state seal.   The Huckins remained the Capitol of Oklahoma until the new Capitol Building was completed in 1917.


But in the late 1960’s, the by-then-vacant-and-derelict Huckins building met its fate, as seen in the above pile of rubble.  I took both the pictures, as I was located in Oklahoma at the time...

And lastly, from 1999 (how appropriate):


My antique car's odometer, as it prepared to turn over 100,000 miles. (I have the corresponding picture...at 00000.0 as well).  It now has been driven 126,500 miles...and it took 15 years to add the 26,500 miles.   Thus, I doubt I'll be around long enough to add another 75,000 miles and see that row of 9's again!

But we can hope so...

Cheers,

Mandy

4 comments:

  1. I really find it interesting that your wife seems to be generally fine with you wearing woman's clothes, to a point, and that when out together you are jointly referred to as ladies. Your attire of capri's, ballerinas, a purse, painted nails and long hair are all clearly part of a woman's presentation.

    When the weather is hot and sticky that is not a time when most women wear panty hose. This morning I was in a public place with about 50 other people of which approximately 20 were female. I only noticed one waring pantyhose with her skirt. I wondered if anyone there knew the guy in the gray suit had pantyhose on under his slacks.

    On an non-trans but car related point back in 1973 (perhaps 1972) I was pulled over by a cop in my first car a 1968 Mustang, 3 speed manual for speeding and then blowing a stop sign. The cop asked me if I realized I had been speeding on the parkway and then blew the stop sign at the exit. I told him no and that I was fixated on listening to Don McLean's "American Pie" on the radio and watching my odemeter turn 100K. He must have liked my honesty and after looking at my odemeter he let me go without a ticket.

    Pat

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    1. Hi Pat,

      "Generally fine...to a point..." is correct. However I'm a "doubting Thomas" that all this can last. I'm hopeful, but realistic. In the past, that "other shoe" has always dropped! Time will tell.

      As for people noticing that the guy in the gray suit was wearing pantyhose...it's doubtful, very doubtful. Maybe one of the women would notice (and I would probably be one of those women)...but guys in general? Naahhh.

      Back then, some police officers probably were more friendly and receptive to reasonable excuses.

      But not all.

      In 1969 I was sightseeing in Wichita, KS and pulled up in front of a house to talk with a female acquaintance who lived there. We were in front of her house, with me sitting in my car.

      Trouble is, I had to park on the wrong side of the street to do it without getting out of the car. As we sat there talking, with the engine off and the car in "Park", a city policeman pulled in front of my car, put the reds on, and got out to have a "friendly little chat."

      To make a long story short, my car had Oklahoma plates, and I was indeed parked on the wrong side of the street in Wichita (though in a quiet, low-traffic residential area). He pointed out that I had to have driven on the wrong side to get there. And would have to drive on the wrong side again in order to leave.

      I apologized, and offered to put the car in neutral to push it over to the other side. That way I wouldn't have to drive it. (Fortunately there was a slight down hill slope.) Or I would gladly even have called a tow truck.

      He told me that he was going to drive away, but he'd be back in just a few minutes. He reminded me that he had my plate and driver's license number and that I should leave immediately. If he ever saw me or my car in the area again, he'd write me up for so many things that I'd be staying in Wichita long enough to become a Kansas resident - and then some.

      Do ya think maybe he hated Okies? LOL! There are rotten apples in every barrel, and always have been. Then, as well as nowadays. You got lucky and stumbled into one of the good ones!

      Needless to say, I left immediately, and headed straight back to Oklahoma. I haven't set foot in Wichita since, and don't ever plan to. Haven't been to Kansas by car, either, except one time, to drive through on the interstate when I moved out of Oklahoma. He wasn't there...

      That officer caused a monetary loss for both the city and state...she was a nice girl and I would have spent lots of money in the area (food, entertainment, hotel, gas, etc.) if we had dated... So, their loss was my gain!

      Funny how things like that come back into focus after all these years!

      Mandy

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  2. While our levels of dressing in public are different I am very aware of the mercurial nature of spousal acceptance. She knows that I almost always have pantyhose and panties on under my slacks and that from time to time will also wear a slip and/or bra. I almost always sleep in a nightgown and will often be dressed around the house and she knows about my feminine wardrobe. I think that for the most part she recognizes and accepts the feminine part of my personna as one of the things that make me who I am. On the other hand she lives in fear that someone else may find out that I have these issues and the overall image of who I am will be tarnished. Now that she is way past menopause the ultra mecurial component of her acceptance seems to have mellowed.

    There is not question that some cops are better than others. Some get hung up on their own power trips while others understand that they are their to serve the public. Several years ago I was able to get out for an evening down the Jersey Shore. I was driving back from Georgie's in Asbury Park wearing a coral lace dress, high heels, hose, makeup and a wig when I was pulled over and given a speeding ticket for doing 41 mph in a 30 mph zone. If I was not dressed as I was I would have given the cop, who was young enough to be my son, a piece of my mind. It is almost more embarassing to get a ticket for doing 41 than it would be for being out in a dress and heels. Of course, I had also had a few adult beverages and I did not want to press any of the wrong buttons.

    Pat

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    1. Completion of that mercurial stage may be what I'm experiencing now...the envelope is being pushed further than ever. But like any elastic, there may be a snap back...always has been. Time will tell!

      As for the 41 in a 30 zone...sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. I'd have held my mouth closed, too, under the circumstances!

      Mandy

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