Review of July 16, 2011...

...back at Huey's Home Base in the Ham...

FIRST, Thanks to everyone who has commented and left links to Gingery goodness over the last week...honestly, I am just now 'catching up' with the comments... can't wait to check out all the stuff! I will 'backtrack' over the next day or so, and hopefully respond to all comments (it's kind of a 'pet peeve' of mine, that I have to reply to everyone... not to 'get the last word in', but to make sure folks know I have read comments...which are ALWAYS greatly appreciated, since they make G-ology 'tick'!)

SECOND, I will have the pics ready in a day or two... our picture 'process' is an arduous one, with my wife's computer crashing recently (she loads the pics on her machine), but...should be able to get them loaded soon... I will probably just post the pics in its own post, if that's cool, y'all... they are pretty cool, not really much you haven't seen before, except I DID pretty much go around the perimeter of the house and took pics at various angles...the front view is generally what you see everywhere, so hopefully the 'rest of the story' will be of interest...

THIRD, I again want to give a 'shout-out' to Kat and Baby (Fred and Ginger Mad), whom I met on the right day at the right place...it was very nice to meet y'all! Sorry we didn't have a heap of time to talk, but we had an 'agenda' with the folks we were staying with... but hey, we did what we set out to do, right? F&GM actually went IN the house, y'all, whereas I did not... I talked to the owner, who said it was pretty 'modernized', but yeah, it would have been cool to see it, anyway...so that's one ya got on me, F&GM!!! :-} ...Hope y'all found some great Gingery stuff in California...there's a good bit out there, but not sure how 'accessible' it is... I will hopefully trek out there one day to do the 'GingerTrail'!

FOURTH, As to the day itself for Huey...
Actually, I was kind of jazzed up the night before...not much 'deep sleep'...at one point I looked over at the clock, and it said 1:45 A.M....which, of course, got me to thinking...Ginger came into the world at 2:00 A.M. of July 16, 1911...so, for all intents and purposes, the 'official' 100 years was to be in 15 minutes...so I grabbed the iPhone and scrawled out the 'Happy Birthday' post...waited 5 or so minutes to make it EXACTLY 2:00 A.M., of course... when I crawled back into the bed, my wife mumbled, "You just blogged something, didn't ya?"
Guilty as charged, of course... but seriously, now is a good point to note that my wife was just AWESOME in this endeavor, driving out with me to Moore Street and Bellefountaine - although she stayed in the van with 'Bam-Bam' and the A/C running full blast, because, well, it was dang near 100 degrees, y'all! Anyway, she was MOST supportive, and for that I say, Thanks, Margie!!!
We arrived at 100 West Moore Street around 10:30 A.M., and drove around a time or two, mainly to figure out where to park - we ended up across the street - honestly, West Moore is not that wide... my wife said that an 18-wheeler came through while she was sitting there and she thought she would have to move...it got through ok, tho...I didn't remember that, but I may have been in the back of the lot...
As we drove up, I saw a lady and child walking nearby, and sure enough, it was Kat and Baby! I introduced myself, and jumped out to greet her. My wife said hi, but had to stay in the van with Bam-Bam. She did get some pics and even a video of the proceedings - I will sort all that out and post accordingly at a later date...
Anyway, Kat and I talked a bit, and turned our attention to the house, of course... we took pics of the plaque from the 'dedication day' back in 1994. Then Kat knocked on the door, and a minute or two later, the homeowner came out. He was a younger fellow - for some reason I thought an older lady lived there...not sure where that idea came from.  Anyway, Kat and I both proceeded to bombard him with all the reasons why we were there bugging him on a Saturday morning... he was quite friendly, and seemed pretty cool with the idea that folks were there for the occasion. He said an older couple came by earlier in the day for a few moments, so at least he wasn't totally taken by surprise by us.
I asked him if it was OK to take some pics around the outside of the place, and he was fine with it...so off I went. The house is on the corner of the block, so it's pretty easy to walk around, although the 'next door neighbor' side was fenced up a bit, with a patio area...probably not original to the house. The 'street' side and the backyard area was pretty 'open', with no fences, and just a driveway at the back of the lot... so it was pretty close to how it was 100 years ago, although the smaller trees were obviously not there.
After my 'survey' of the house exterior, I talked to the homeowner about the historical board in Independence, and their 'interaction' with the house. He said the main thing is that any work he wants to do to the place has to be reviewed and approved by the board before commencing with it, which is pretty common for historical buildings. I also asked if there were any plans by the board to assist in restoration of the house, the answer to which was no... but, he is planning on doing a few things, including possibly replacing the front porch columns... I gave him my info and said if that ever happens, call me...I'll gladly take the originals off his hands!
We yakked a bit more about general stuff, but soon I had to leave out, since we had to meet up with other folks for lunch...and I still wanted to hit 3306 Bellefountaine, so...off we went! Said a final bye to Kat and Baby, who were to leave that night for L.A. and the GingerTrail out there...
As for Bellefountaine in KC, the distance was really not that far, well, on the interstate, anyway...maybe 15 minutes - once you know where it is. It was pretty much what I thought it would be...a vacant lot... BUT, it was cool to see the street in general, and see the other houses, which had to be of the same time frame, since 3306 was slap in the middle of the block. So, I can at least say 'been there, done that'.
Well, that's about it...a very neat day, and really the best place I can think to be on 7/16/11... but the 'down' side is I did miss a lot of the proceedings that took place that weekend, including Maggie's 'GingerFest'...hope that went well, Maggie! Looks like quite a few participated...hey, maybe we can do that again sometime... maybe when an anniversary of one of Ginger's big movies occurs...
I will sort out the pics soon and post - probably this weekend - the best ones of the lot, and will 'caption' each of them...more thoughts will be conveyed with the pics.

Until then, y'all... as always and FOREVER,

KIG!!!

VKMfanHuey
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