San Francisco 1992

In 1992, we took a little vacation to the Bay area. We were to meet up with a bunch of relatives who were flying in from all over the place, and we all converged upon cousins living in Santa Rosa. I had never been to San Francisco before, except just passing thru, and I didn't realize how dog gone cold it gets there in the summertime at night. Windy and freezing! We traipsed around China Town and found an excellent hole in the wall Chinese restaurant where we ordered almost everything on the menu.





There is the required photo of the the Golden Gate Bridge. It really was something to finally see in person.

We went to visit friends near the Stanford University area. They took us all over College town, where there were really unique murals on the storefronts.






One of the best Chinese restaurants we ever ate at was in college town Stanford University area. We were charmed with this area. Those students are so fortunate, first of all to get into such a great school, but also to have a great little commercial area to spend their free time. They had a cool old movie house, a big bookstore, an awesome cooking supply store, and a place that made good quality bagels, I think it was called Noahs.



Can't leave the area without finding a Post office and getting the photo.

A Postal Worker's Perspective

Times are bad. That is no news flash to anyone on the planet. For some people, these are the worst of times, as Charles Dickens put it. There are lots of people out of work, with no benefits, and no prospects on the horizon. I am thankful that I have not been affected that way. Yet. As a long time US postal worker, I offer my own perspective of what is happening within my workplace.

Up until just a couple of years ago, business was good. Why was business good? Because everyone's business was good. Business and the USPS have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship over the decades. They used our service to get their message out to the public, and we provided the service and in the process employed hundreds of thousands of people, enabling them to live the American dream, paying mucho taxes, paying our kids way through college, and putting away for our retirements so no one would have to take care of us in our old age.

Most people just think of the Post office as a line to stand in to mail a package or buy stamps. Or the Letter Carrier who brings you your mail every day. Yeah, thats part of it. But then there is us, the people you don't see. The ones behind the scenes. We take the mail everyone drops in the blue boxes, or hands over to the window clerks, and we get it to that letter carrier who takes it the final mile. There are lots of carriers. There are as many of the rest of us that no one ever sees. We work at huge processing plants that operate on a 24 hour clock, with three shifts. Millions of pieces of mail come through the loading docks of our plants every day. And all those millions of pieces need to go out and on to their destinations before the sun comes up.

So year and year, day after day, we show up to mountains of mail, get it all sorted, trayed up, containerized, out to the loading docks and onto to trucks for dispatch. then we go home tired but satisfied that we did what we were supposed to do. We come back the next day to tons more mail. We do letters, bills, catalogues, magazines, newspapers, packages, you name it.

In the old days, there was so much mail coming in everyday, that there was mandatory overtime calls, and you would likely have to work holidays, even Thanksgiving. We complained of course, but we came in and worked. Got good paychecks too. It seemed like this reality would go on forever, for the 30-40 years it takes before a postal worker can retire. Then the winds of change began to blow.

It blew gently at first. The USPS got new-fangled machines that could read the addresses, with computers that could sort to an address. Doing what we used to do. Now instead of 18 people on a sorting machine, there would be 2. People started losing their positions and having to settle in somewhere else within the Postal facility. So we did. Then came robotics, machines that didn't really need anyone except the mechanics to keep it running smoothly. More people had to look elsewhere for different postal positions. And they did.

The wind blew a little harder, bringing with it Direct Deposit. No more Social Security and retirement checks by the millions going through the post office. All done electronically. More jobs gone. We looked for new positions. The winds of change got a little brisker, with the internet, and fax machines and scanners. Letters, documents, birthday greetings, love letters, dear john letters, all started being sent through the internet. Hiring freezes. More jobs gone. We kept looking until we found different positions yet again.

Full out Storm time: 9/11/2001. Planes grounded. Mail delayed. Then right on its heels, Anthrax in the mail. People became afraid to get their mail everyday. Those who didn't like the internet before Anthrax flocked to it after Anthrax. More jobs lost. Hiring freezes again. We found new positions again.


Hurricane strength winds blew in 2008. Stock market, economy tanks. Businesses closing. Houses foreclosing. Nobody buying, nobody mailing. With every business that folded went their advertising mail,what you all might call junk mail. This is not junk mail to the businesses, their employees, or to us. Think of the places that closed last year. Circuit City. Linens and Things. Look in your own neighborhoods at the shuttered storefronts. All those places used the US mail. More volume gone. But now, no new positions to seek refuge in.

2009: The Winds of change caused migrations of postal workers. Vacant jobs are being saved for postal workers in other areas. Some are being offered positions 20 miles away, others 120 miles away. You have 65 year-old window clerks being told they must move 100 miles away and start working as a letter carrier, with seniority starting all over again, and having to walk all day long when they were not accustomed to such a strenuous routine. Some are now being offered jobs 1100 miles away. People have to leave their spouses, their kids in school, etc, to move halfway across country in order to not lose their job. Because they can't sell their houses to move away. No one's buying houses these days. And the Storm isn't over for us yet.

Machines are being tarped and removed. Mail volume continues to drop. You know its bad when Supervisors are now experiencing a RIF (reduction in force). Carrier routes are being consolidated. Truck drivers routes too. Any new positions being posted are going up as part time jobs instead of full time.

The USPS is destined to go broke by November 2009, barring a miracle. Neighborhood post offices are slated for closure. 6 day delivery is being put on the chopping block. Layoffs are around the corner.

Postal Workers have house payments, car payments, kids in college, and they counted on having a secure job until the day they decided to retire. That is not their reality anymore.

It will be sad to see the demise of a very productive venture. It will be depressing to see how some of the employees handle the stress of foreclosure, pulling their kids out of school to move several states away. It won't be good. It will be terrible to see old people getting hurt as they try for the first time to carry a satchel of mail around unfamiliar neighborhoods in unfamiliar cities and states. People will get hurt, or, if the neighborhood is bad enough, will get victimized.

I have to keep the faith that things will turn around for the country. For as the country goes, so goes the USPS and its people who represent the Eagle.

When was the last time you actually mailed a letter? Sent away for a magazine subscription? Ordered products from a catalog? Do you think saving the trees is more important than saving the economy, and its people? We've got to prioritize. We have to think of people first. And people need jobs. Not just Postal jobs, but sales and service jobs. Because how do you all think everything gets taken care of in this country, from roads maintenance, to police and fire fighters, to trash pickup, to clean drinking water, to free education? It's the Working people who are paying tons of taxes to support their neighborhoods and infrastructure. When people lose their jobs, everyone loses in more ways than meets the eye. We've got to get America working again. It isn't too late. Patronize the businesses that are still mailing you their sales offerings, so they too, can continue to keep their own employees at work. And just for old times sake, mail a letter the old fashioned way. We will either all rise from the ashes together, or we will sink lower into a depressive abyss. It's really up to us.

Alaska, 2004

Our family took an Alaskan Cruise in June of 2004. I was expecting it to be kind of chilly and rainy, but it was actually quite pleasant. We saw Bald Eagles, Whales, Glaciers and Totems. We ate some of the freshest seafood imaginable. It was the trip of a lifetime.



We flew to Vancouver BC, and boarded our ship there. This is our embarking photo. Yes, its a huge group. Grandma, Grandpa, Uncles, Aunts, and lots of cousins. We lovingly referred to our huge group as a "pod," since we were kind of traveling the seas like the whales do, in big family groups.



This is our excellent ship, the Seven Seas Mariner. This was cruising to the max. All of our rooms had decks we could go out on. The fridge was stocked with soft drinks every day. There was a huge library, a great gym, and service, service, service. The food was amazing, the nighttime entertainment and daytime lectures kept us from getting bored on cruising days. This is a small ship, and we never saw very many people. It was quiet, dignified, and relaxing. I would recomend this cruise line, which is now called Regent's Seven Seas.



Here is our official ship photo.



This one with the ship's Captain.



In Anchorage, they had all sorts of artsy fish all over town. A funny thing I remember: We were bopping around Anchorage, enjoying the sights and doing window shopping, when we all of sudden realized nothing was open. It was still light out and everything closed? Then somebody looked at their watch and we realized it was 10:30 PM. Even though it stays day-like, the people close shop, go home, and go to bed. Unlike Vegas, this is not the city that doesn't sleep, even though it stays light most of the time all summer long.


This is Fireweed. It grows wild all over Alaska and its quite beautiful.


I never saw a tsunami evacuation sign before.


A view from the ship's deck. A simple photo doesn't do it justice.


Ketchikan was fun to walk around. We went on a walking tour of the Native Alaskan's Totem Park. We also saw Dolly's House, which was originally a Brothel back in the wild days in 1919.



One of the many Totems in Ketchikan.



In Sitka, we visited the Raptor Center, where you can see eagles and other birds of prey up close. Sitka has a Russian heritage, and you can still see signs of the old days in the architecture of the churches and some of the houses there. We walked through the forest and saw some of the biggest slugs I ever have seen. We put a penny next to one so you could see how large it was.


Juneau was a great port. We took a side trip to do some whale watching, and we did see big whale tails. In town, the big attraction is the Red Dog Saloon. We walked around the shops and noticed that they were all very hot inside. They don't run air conditioning like they do in San Diego, and we got pretty warm inside.




This is Patsy Ann. She was a special dog who liked to meet the ships. Click on the next two pictures to learn about her.





Ok. You know the Drill by now. We have a thing about finding the local Post Office and getting a picture. Here is Sitka's. Its a combo USPS/Court House.



How about one more? Here we are at Skagway's USPS.

We also took two train rides through mountains, up above the tree line. Alaska is awe-inspiring and amazing. I would go back to visit again if I ever had the chance.

Franklin Indiana

Having lived all my life in San Diego, I wasn't quite ready for my 18 months in Franklin Indiana. I lived there in 1980 and 1981. Things were different there.



In Franklin right across from the courthouse. We lived in an upstairs unit in this two story brick building for a few months. Word was that it had once been a mortuary, and the viewing rooms were converted to weekly rental units. There was a beauty shop on the main floor, and the awful smells of permanent curl chemicals wafted upstairs during the day. For fun on Saturday nights, you could sit at the window and look down at all the Franklin kids driving around and around the courthouse block all night long during the summer. There just wasn't much else to do. The shop that you can just barely see on the left side of the photo was a dry cleaners and also served as the Greyhound and White Star Line bus stops. That's where the Greyhound dropped us off in April of 1980, and thats where we caught the Greyhound home in November of 1981.


The long rural route that led to the farm house we lived in for most of the 18 months we were in Franklin. I think it was about 3 miles from town, give or take. Corn, soybeans, or wheat, there was always something growing. I remember it was a long way to bicycle or skateboard when it was snowy or sweltery. And you could count on getting chased by territorial country dogs. What I remember about the rural routes was the ditches along both sides. People tossed out their soda pop cans in the ditch the whole length of the road, and the first time I noticed them, I got all excited thinking I could take them to the aluminum can recycler and get some money. But when I got a bag and went to collect them, I discovered they were not aluminum and wouldn't get me a nickel. I was shocked that Indiana didn't have aluminum cans for their beer and soda yet. I thought the way things were in California was how it was across the country. I was wrong about that.


If you look closely, you'll see the Artcraft Theatre. This was a old fashioned movie house, with only one screen and lots of seating. A great vintage theatre. I saw "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Xanadu" there.



The little grocery store in town. If you wanted to go to Krogering at the Kroger store, you needed a car, because it was on the outskirts of town. If you had to stay close, Browns or Marsh were the two grocery stores right close to courthouse square. I used to every now and then splurge on a Faygo soda. Which I guess was the midwest version of Shasta.



I never got tired of looking at the Johnson County Courthouse. It was distinctive. It was the biggest thing in town. It seemed to me that if Franklin was a living body, then the Courthouse was the heart of that living organism. Everything revolved around it. The teens drove around and around this building on weekends in the summertime. In the basement, they had the remnants of the old Cold war bombshelter. And a scale to weigh stuff. One year, some pesky kids planted some pot in the courthouse landscaping. It was funny seeing marijuana growing amongst the more respectable plants.



Franklin Indiana also has a nice College. Of course it is called Franklin College. I hung out there alot, because I loved their library. They also showed movies that had been at the theater 6 months to a year before. I was young enough to look like a student, and no one ever made me feel like I couldn't hang out on campus. Look closely at the photo and you'll see a statue of Ben Franklin. The tradition is that he gets painted every year, sometimes several times for various holidays. He is painted in this photo too. I don't know what the occasion was.



Main and Jefferson streets. The business district. There just wasn't too much about the town that impressed me back then. Not enough to do, not exciting enough. After spending decades in the hustle and bustle big city world, I think I am ready for it now.




Of course, I have to include the Franklin Indiana 46131 post office.

Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania

Th trip to Beaver Falls PA included a visit to Pittsburgh.





This is the best way to see what the Inclines actually are. We rode up on the Duquesne Incline.


A place called 444 Flags. They really did have that many. It was a place that honored the hostages in Iran back in the 1970s that were held for 444 days. This place is officially the Avenue of Flags, in Hermitage, Pennsylvania.



The Duquesne Incline is a little train/elevator that takes you up the side of the steep hill into another Pittsburgh neighborhood. The view of the rivers is amazing. The ride creeped me out at first, but I got over it.



Another photo in front of another post office in Wampum PA.

The trip to Beaver Falls, PA in 1994. We had gone with the hope of meeting my birthfather. He didn't know about my existence. I had a contact in Wampum PA, who had been a childhood friend of my bio-mom, and she knew the whole story of how I came to be. This trip to my bio-Mom's hometown was like an excursion into her history. This little town has seen its better days. With the mills closures and malls opening on the outskirts of town, this place is suffering. But, even in its crumbling state, I could feel its past energies. It was a strange experience.I almost felt like a voyeur.




The Polish Falcon's Nest was a private club in the basement of the building. Julius, my first Dad, worked there as a bartender. This is where he agreed to meet me that first day.






I have learned that its easy to locate relatives if they are deceased. We found the graves of my German Grandpa, Great Grandparents, and Great-great Grandparents in a Beaver Falls Cemetery.



This old, grey building was once the bustling Brodhead Hotel. When Julius came to the USA from Hungary in 1957, he got a job as a chef in the kitchen there. He met Shirley, my bio-Mom, there, when she got a job as a kitchen helper. The result was me. Except he didn't know about it. The Brodhead Hotel, when we visited, had been converted into a convalescent home. Looks like a really depressing place these days.




Here is Carl and me at Beaver Falls.




The major chain restaurant in Beaver Falls in 1994 was the Eat N' Park. They are famous for their smiley cookies that they give kids. When we ate there, we went to pay with a travelers check, and the girl at the register had never seen one. When we told her we had come on vacation from San Diego, she stared at us and asked, "Why would you come to Beaver Falls?"



This is Joyce, the lady who told me who my dad was and pointed me in the right direction. She was the kid sister of my Bio-Mom's high school sweetheart, and she knew the whole secret story.



A Beaver Falls street. We don't have cute little mini Letter boxes like this in San Diego.


We took a side trip to Pittsburgh and couldn't resist a post office picture.



Beaver Falls Post Office




Mayer China. A China factory right on the Beaver River,now shuttered. Bought out and consolidated with an out-of-town Pottery plant.It's just a past history for hundreds of people who worked there, including my great Grandfather Adam Hahn, according to his death certificate. Mayer China used to make the heavy duty restaurant and airline dinner plates and coffee cups. You can still see some of their stuff for sale on E-Bay.

New York before 9/11

Jerome and I took a trip to NY in 1989. We visited his old neighborhood in Brooklyn, family and friends that still lived there, and saw the sights. The one place I really really really wanted to go to was the American Kennel CLub Library, at that time on Madison Ave. I had lots of pedigree research I wanted to do there, and I brought the names of a whole bunch of dogs I wanted to do genealogy on. Jerome teased me about it: Of all the great sights in New York city, where do I want to go? The AKC Library!






Doing Pedigree research at the AKC Headquarters, 51 Madison Ave NY, NY.



A street in Jerome's old neighborhood in Brooklyn. Thought it was kind of prophetic to see a Postal eagle sticker on a dead end street sign.



This photo was just another travel photo until 9/11/01.



The Statue of Liberty is awesome and inspiring.