steeber - I grew up in the Dayton area and also lived in Madison Township in the housing development (Westbrooke Village) next to Castlebrook Apartments.

 

The municipal garage was built in the late 1970's. I know because my Dad worked for the City of Dayton.

 

Wow.  I wandered around through the unfinished Westbrook Village,  at the time that my family moved to Castlebrook - Summer of '74.  Driving through that complex a couple of years ago sent chills through me.  It was a perfect fossil!

I do remember the municipal garage going up.  Must have been '79.  Nice to meet you, and thanks for commenting!

 

We moved in to our house in WV in 1968. Westbrook Village was supposed to be much bigger - stretching all the way to Union Road. Sadly that never happened.

 

Nice to meet you too and thanks for all of the pics of my hometown.

Yes - it's very sad. My Mom worked there on and off for over 20 years.

 

Growing up, the upstairs dining room was one of my favorite haunts.  I think they shared some of the career waitresses with the dining room Downtown.  All of that was part of a service age we have been convincing ourselves we no longer need or want.  Having a family connection there would be even harder.

RS:  So glad you posted these.  They date from a time when I had just spent a school year in Dayton -- 3rd Grade -- Cornell Heights School.  My family settled in Toledo that summer, so I lost a bit of time with the Gem City.  I recall riding through Dayton with my Aunt in 1970/71.  She was frustrated at the state of the "dirty" old courthouse (perhaps "new" too) and proclaimed that somebody needed "to do something with it".  She also pointed out the brand-new Winter's Tower.  Both she and my mother were born and raised in Dayton, so the city, for me, was viewed in glimpses, during visits.  My favorite place of all, at that time:  the Dayton Museum of Natural History.  I had spent a little pre-Kindergarten in Dayton, in '67.  Two things stuck out then -- the Victory (Disney) Theatre, where I saw Bambi, and Tikes/Santa Land -- wherever Santa Claus held forth, on the 8th Floor of Rike's.  I remember standing in line to see the corner windows.

 

You're quite right about the social landscape at that time.  Society has been pulling itself apart since about 1966.

 

Great to see a little bit of Malone's windows and some forgotten vestpocket business along Main (so many!!).  It was Loew's -- basically the distribution and theater company for MGM.  Dayton had one of the nicest of its houses.  I watched it go.  Thanks again.  Great collection.  Got more?

Thanks, guys. I'll dig around. I literally have thousands of neglected old negatives from the 60s and 70s.

 

Holy crap, the name of the mail order place where we ordered this recycled bulk movie film just occurred to me, and they are still in business: http://www.freestylephoto.biz/

 

It was bugging me. I wish I'd taken stuff like this on better quality film.

We moved in to our house in WV in 1968. Westbrook Village was supposed to be much bigger - stretching all the way to Union Road. Sadly that never happened.

Nice to meet you too and thanks for all of the pics of my hometown.

 

Glad to offer the pictures.  There are many more -- some even surprising me.

I was remembering the apartment buildings in Westbrook Village.  I know there were houses behind our unit in Castlebrook (which was once a recommended place to live).  I didn't know they may have been a part of the same complex.

Thanks, guys. I'll dig around. I literally have thousands of neglected old negatives from the 60s and 70s.

 

Holy crap, the name of the mail order place where we ordered this recycled bulk movie film just occurred to me, and they are still in business: http://www.freestylephoto.biz/

 

It was bugging me. I wish I'd taken stuff like this on better quality film.

 

Not to take the thread off topic, but that reminded me of my experience. There were other outifts, too, that sold repackaged expired movie film. In the early '80s I bought some color film from Seattle Film Works; they offered both negatives and transparencies, plus a new roll of film returned with each processing order. They loaded Kodak 35mm movie film into 35mm cassettes. No telling how old that stuff was when they sold it, but it sure faded terribly before not too many years had passed. I have Kodachrome and Ektachrome that I shot many years before, that have held up much better than that stuff.

These things were all over the bulletin boards in college -- super cheap "Hollywood grade" movie film usable in your camera.  I never got around to ordering any.  There was enough decent film on campus.

These are incredible--thanks so much for posting.

cool pics

yeah, looked at some pictures from a festival on Cincinnati Fountain Square from around this time.

NO fat people. It's pretty scary. I noticed on the bus awhile ago, everybody over 25 was overweight (including me).

I think I did a big series of posts on Trotwood that mentions Westbrook Village and similar plats stalling.....

 

 

In trying to capture seemingly hundreds of frames, it may be easier to group them into themes.  I've scanned some negatives which revealed scenes I hadn't looked upon since taking them, 34 or more years ago.  A few:

 

One of the most over-looked but masterful-looking buildings (owing to its location - kind of off to the side).  This is grand deco.  When it was the Ohio Bell Building (one of two Downtown), I tried to visit the lobby.  The guard wouldn't have it.  But I saw a glorious one.  This muddy shot (thanks, always to office building window tinting) was obviously from the First National Building -- a nice tower I once explored while still brand-new.  You could travel from floor to floor, enjoying the views -- not a guard or any other person in sight.  I still remember that 'new building' smell.  Ah, 1974.

 

The Grant-Deneau (since horribly re-named "The Miami Valley Tower", then "40 West 4th Centre") was a great place from which to see the city.  It would have been a great place for a roof-level cafe.  This is 1977 or so.

 

Another view from the same tower.  Courthouse Square was in its brand-new expanded state, not quite completed. 1977

 

Elder-Beerman as a shiny, new department store - 1977.  State Fidelity Savings, right, was quite new -- not yet open to cars and people.

 

This was sort of a return to the Reibold Building.  I'd say this is about March 1978.  At this point, The Mall Motor Inn had become a Sheraton.  The Ted Parker restaurant had been transmogrified into a lesser thing called "The Sundowner".  The Elder Beerman store sits empty, waiting for what should have been another tenant.  That was a great set of windows.

 

This is a lost view.  I shot it from Rike's parking garage.  The current garage doesn't afford anything like this view, and even if it did, you wouldn't see the Old Post Office - now thoroughly shrouded by the Municipal Parking Garage.

 

 

 

 

Again - March '78, I remember being a guest of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce (19th floor of Winter's Tower) through a high school project.  I had shot from there before, but this time, I wanted something a bit more comprehensive.  I shot images of Downtown as though it were all about to go away.  Somehow, I knew that this could all be temporal.  The march of time was tearing down everything in sight.  The above is a brand-new composite.  The 75mm lens made this fairly easy, although it has a weird unwrapped-globe appearance.  I have good negatives for all of the views.  There are all kinds of little treasures to be mined here.  It was fun revisiting these.  As I go along, particularly given interest, I'll add more of what I have.  For the purposes of sharing via the 'Net, these have been sampled way down.

 

More to come.

Time travel: Great stuff!

I can't believe that run down building was a Sheraton!

Is the 75mm lens on the Rolleiflex you mentioned earlier? The twin-lens Rolleis were/are magnificent cameras.

The very same.

At best, these Rolleiflex negatives reveal stunning clarity and tone.  My negatives were produced under varying conditions, are 30+ years old, and have seen a lot of weather conditions.  So I'm getting great to fair results.  The Rolleiflex was lent to me by my father, who bought it new in 1960 (or about).  I think it needed a good cleaning by the late 70's.  Not sure the meter and the shutter were always getting along by then.  I still have this magnificent camera.  I may load it up again and try it out.  Some of the other shots came from a Leica (which got sold a long time ago) and a Tower (Leica copy from Japan).  The wide angle on the Tower was decent.  The 50mm lens was cloudy.  These days our tools are a bit more advanced, but it's still hard to produce really top quality.

I can't believe that run down building was a Sheraton!

Sheraton should have spent some real money on it but mainly changed the designation.  The well-liked coffee shop was retained, but the rooftop dining room was no longer anything special.  Truthfully, I wondered why the restaurant was built facing the industrial belt.  Facing West would have made a lot more sense.  The hotel was an unusual pre-fab building.  The outer walls were cast first, out of reinforced concrete.  It met the same fate as another 60's hotel relic (which I liked as well) -- the Christopher Inn in Columbus.

These are fantastic. Please keep them coming.

 

Absolutely incredible. Thank you so so much.

These are fantastic. Please keep them coming.

 

Absolutely incredible. Thank you so so much.

 

Thanks gentlemen (or gentle people) for the encouragement.  These images have power in them, and they are affecting me too.  I will share what I have.  I think the push should be, always, to reinvest in Downtown Dayton (and Dayton in general and as a whole) in the spirit a worthy city with a grand past and endless potential (as I've always thought).

 

1976 or 77:  Note the hatter ("Wormser - Hatters to Men") and Fanny Farmer in the American Buidling.  The lamp in the foreground was there when Lincoln spoke, just a few feet away.

These are great. Very glad you are sharing them!

These bring back such memories for me - thank you for posting them. :clap:

I think I did a big series of posts on Trotwood that mentions Westbrook Village and similar plats stalling.....

 

 

Yes you did - I remember seeing the aerial photography that you posted that showed the house I grew up in.

We moved in to our house in WV in 1968. Westbrook Village was supposed to be much bigger - stretching all the way to Union Road. Sadly that never happened.

Nice to meet you too and thanks for all of the pics of my hometown.

 

Glad to offer the pictures.  There are many more -- some even surprising me.

I was remembering the apartment buildings in Westbrook Village.  I know there were houses behind our unit in Castlebrook (which was once a recommended place to live).  I didn't know they may have been a part of the same complex.

In the mid to late 70's, an apartment complex - called Westbrooke Village Apartments - was constructed around the northern boundary of the housing development (near the swimming pool complex). I am not sure if they were constructed by the same developer who did the homes in Westbrooke Village.

Yes - it's very sad. My Mom worked there on and off for over 20 years.

 

Growing up, the upstairs dining room was one of my favorite haunts.  I think they shared some of the career waitresses with the dining room Downtown.  All of that was part of a service age we have been convincing ourselves we no longer need or want.  Having a family connection there would be even harder.

Yes - it is hard to see that store go - especially since my Mom recently passed away. The Beerman family belonged to my synagogue so I have a long history with them.

 

Yes - it is hard to see that store go - especially since my Mom recently passed away. The Beerman family belonged to my synagogue so I have a long history with them.

Our families may have met somewhere.  Was it Beth Abraham?  Losing a parent as a part of something makes it even harder.  I do know this because my father (whom I lost in '09) was the catering manager of the Hotel Miami (across the street from the future Beerman's site) for a few years, shortly before it became a part of Rike's.  Just found some hotel material which I will share.  My parents were wed in the Sky Terrace.  My mother's first job was at Yeck and Yeck.  I believe they may have been located in the Kuhn's Building.  My great Aunts and grandmother knew the Arcade when it was brand-new.  Two aunts worked "at the NCR" as they would put it.  I was bar mitzvahed at Temple Israel.

Yummy.  Keep them coming!

Very nice work. Excellent vintage black and white.

God, you're making me cry with these images.  Speechless.

Thanks very much...  I will keep going!

I remember being a guest of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce (19th floor of Winter's Tower) through a high school project.  I had shot from there before, but this time, I wanted something a bit more comprehensive.  I shot images of Downtown as though it were all about to go away.  Somehow, I knew that this could all be temporal.  The march of time was tearing down everything in sight.

 

To have this degree of foresight and appreciation for the things around you as a high schooler, no matter how many of these shots were simply a product of a love for photography, is something I wish I had at that point in my life.  I think where I am now would have been much different.  It wouldn't have even crossed my mind several years ago to document what I see on a daily basis.  For all I knew, it would always be there.

I remember being a guest of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce (19th floor of Winter's Tower) through a high school project.  I had shot from there before, but this time, I wanted something a bit more comprehensive.  I shot images of Downtown as though it were all about to go away.  Somehow, I knew that this could all be temporal.  The march of time was tearing down everything in sight.

 

To have this degree of foresight and appreciation for the things around you as a high schooler, no matter how many of these shots were simply a product of a love for photography, is something I wish I had at that point in my life.  I think where I am now would have been much different.  It wouldn't have even crossed my mind several years ago to document what I see on a daily basis.  For all I knew, it would always be there.

 

I don't know how much insight I felt I had at the time.  I simply couldn't get away from the subject.  {I'm smitten with the same obsession in NY.} It took me over.  And it was a nice convergence with my growing love of photography.  As you, I wish I could have been on the scene 5 years earlier -- shooting even more and having a good 35mm SLR, so I could shoot a lot more.  The main camera I used offered 12 exposures, and even then the film was 89 cents a roll.  What is fortunate was just my not giving up.  I kept going back.  Sadly, I did lose a whole roll of Arcade Market shots, made just before the arcade closed for renovation.  Thanks for the kind comment.

 

Thanks to some discovered treasure in my personal effects, I can now offer a brief tour of the long-departed Miami Hotel -- since 1960 and until 1999, the red part of Rike's (or Shillito-Rikes, Lazarus, or what you will).  My personal connection to this is my father.  He was catering manager at the hotel for a couple of years just prior to the hotel's sale to Federated Department stores.  My father met my mother at the hotel and as fate would have it catered his own wedding there.  He was married at the Sky Terrace (at rooftop), and the sizable reception was held in the elegant Empire Ballroom.  It's hard to imagine how much the social scene has changed since 1958.  The family photos show a huge buffet table tended to by chefs and servers.  It would have sufficed for a state dinner.  My parents had their first apartment there, at the hotel.  I still have one of the chairs.

 

The Miami was built 1912-1913.  Its lobby somewhat resembled (in its Edwardian style) some of the public rooms aboard the Titanic, which went down the year the Miami opened (after drying out from the Great Dayton Flood).  I remember my father describing for me (as I had to know) the cloisonne porcelain lamps in the lobby.  You'll note the formal service on the tables in the dining room.

 

The Purple Cow Coffee Shop (part of the Albert Pick chain) entered from Second Street.  The Adam Room required that guests enter through the lobby, which apparently was a bit of an issue for unaccompanied women.  Traversing a lobby alone, in the late 50's, was still considered unseemly for a single woman.

 

 

 

 

All of this was chiseled apart (even the gold leaf ceiling in the Adam Room) in 1960.  Shoes were sold where the Adam Room held forth.

 

 

Part of the Empire Ballroom became the Rike's Auditorium.  You may remember it located on the Mezzanine.  The stage was retained.  Virtually nothing else was.

 

 

This material comes from two sources:  a hotel handbook and a convention prospectus.

Yes - it is hard to see that store go - especially since my Mom recently passed away. The Beerman family belonged to my synagogue so I have a long history with them.

Our families may have met somewhere.  Was it Beth Abraham?  Losing a parent as a part of something makes it even harder.  I do know this because my father (whom I lost in '09) was the catering manager of the Hotel Miami (across the street from the future Beerman's site) for a few years, shortly before it became a part of Rike's.  Just found some hotel material which I will share.  My parents were wed in the Sky Terrace.  My mother's first job was at Yeck and Yeck.  I believe they may have been located in the Kuhn's Building.  My great Aunts and grandmother knew the Arcade when it was brand-new.  Two aunts worked "at the NCR" as they would put it.  I was bar mitzvahed at Temple Israel.

 

It was Temple Israel, so our families may have crossed paths. My Bar Mitzvah was there in 1979. I just saw your post on the Miami Hotel. Amazing. My parents were married in the Van Cleve Hotel, which I think was just up Ludlow Street from the Miami.

 

Yes - it is hard to see that store go - especially since my Mom recently passed away. The Beerman family belonged to my synagogue so I have a long history with them.

Our families may have met somewhere.  Was it Beth Abraham?  Losing a parent as a part of something makes it even harder.  I do know this because my father (whom I lost in '09) was the catering manager of the Hotel Miami (across the street from the future Beerman's site) for a few years, shortly before it became a part of Rike's.  Just found some hotel material which I will share.  My parents were wed in the Sky Terrace.  My mother's first job was at Yeck and Yeck.  I believe they may have been located in the Kuhn's Building.  My great Aunts and grandmother knew the Arcade when it was brand-new.  Two aunts worked "at the NCR" as they would put it.  I was bar mitzvahed at Temple Israel.

 

Most interesting!

The Van Cleve I only know from lore, sadly.  My mother apparently slightly rebuffed my father when she met him, claiming to favor the Van Cleve in some way over the Miami.  It was a lot newer.  That favoritism didn't last.  The Van Cleve had the famous Wagon Wheel Bar and apparently great food.  The rooms were tiny, though.  I know Nathan Milstein (the famed violinist) stayed there once.  It was very close to the Miami.  That parking lot still wants its hotel back.  So - Irving Bloom, et al?  I did have some Hebrew school in the old Community House connected to the sanctuary.  Mrs. Fox was my primary teacher.  I did two years of Hillel too, and I know that's moved.  As they say - small world.

 

It was Temple Israel, so our families may have crossed paths. My Bar Mitzvah was there in 1979. I just saw your post on the Miami Hotel. Amazing. My parents were married in the Van Cleve Hotel, which I think was just up Ludlow Street from the Miami.

This is incredible.

Yes - it is hard to see that store go - especially since my Mom recently passed away. The Beerman family belonged to my synagogue so I have a long history with them.

Our families may have met somewhere.  Was it Beth Abraham?  Losing a parent as a part of something makes it even harder.  I do know this because my father (whom I lost in '09) was the catering manager of the Hotel Miami (across the street from the future Beerman's site) for a few years, shortly before it became a part of Rike's.  Just found some hotel material which I will share.  My parents were wed in the Sky Terrace.  My mother's first job was at Yeck and Yeck.  I believe they may have been located in the Kuhn's Building.  My great Aunts and grandmother knew the Arcade when it was brand-new.  Two aunts worked "at the NCR" as they would put it.  I was bar mitzvahed at Temple Israel.

 

Most interesting!

The Van Cleve I only know from lore, sadly.  My mother apparently slightly rebuffed my father when she met him, claiming to favor the Van Cleve in some way over the Miami.  It was a lot newer.  That favoritism didn't last.  The Van Cleve had the famous Wagon Wheel Bar and apparently great food.  The rooms were tiny, though.  I know Nathan Milstein (the famed violinist) stayed there once.  It was very close to the Miami.  That parking lot still wants its hotel back.  So - Irving Bloom, et al?  I did have some Hebrew school in the old Community House connected to the sanctuary.  Mrs. Fox was my primary teacher.  I did two years of Hillel too, and I know that's moved.  As they say - small world.

 

It was Temple Israel, so our families may have crossed paths. My Bar Mitzvah was there in 1979. I just saw your post on the Miami Hotel. Amazing. My parents were married in the Van Cleve Hotel, which I think was just up Ludlow Street from the Miami.

 

Yes, Rabbi Bloom officiated at my Bar Mitzvah and I had Mrs. Fox as a Hebrew teacher as well. The Community Hebrew School left Temple Israel in 1978 and moved to the new Jewish Community Center in Trotwood. That is now home to United Theological Seminary, which, like all of the Jewish synagogues has packed up and left Dayton View.

 

You might be interested in this website: www.daytonhistorybooks.com. They have a series of pictures of Dayton from the 10's through the 2000's. They also have a blog where people can reminisce about Dayton. They may interested in some of your photos.

Yes, Rabbi Bloom officiated at my Bar Mitzvah and I had Mrs. Fox as a Hebrew teacher as well. The Community Hebrew School left Temple Israel in 1978 and moved to the new Jewish Community Center in Trotwood. That is now home to United Theological Seminary, which, like all of the Jewish synagogues has packed up and left Dayton View.

 

You might be interested in this website: www.daytonhistorybooks.com. They have a series of pictures of Dayton from the 10's through the 2000's. They also have a blog where people can reminisce about Dayton. They may interested in some of your photos.

 

I'll never forget driving by on Salem and seeing that the Beth Abraham windows were now clear glass.  That did not feel good, needless to say.  I have a whole series of photographs of the sanctuary, with windows intact.  May share one or two of them.

 

I do know about DaytonHistoryBooks.com  They do have great images - true.  By the way, did you know that the B-52 was invented at the Van Cleve?  You can find that on Boeing.com.  Thanks, and my condolences.  I've no parents left, so I know all about it.

Thanks, much. I knew of the Pick-Ohio in Youngstown, which I assume is the same chain.

 

We talk so much about how the floorplates of historic buildings do not fit modern office needs today, but I can think of several 1960's era rehabs of former hotels (which would be subdivided with tiny rooms) into uses with large floorplates, such as the Deshler Hotel in the base of Columbus' LeVeque Tower.

They do them all the time.  The Miami became about a third of a department store.  It worked.  But the whole complex was imploded for the Schuster Center.

When in doubt - implode.

In the Winter of 1977-78, I was looking for photographic material for a high school paper.  I decided to focus on progressive urban renewal -- re-use and adaption.  So I chose one particularly grey and empty Saturday morning to get Downtown with my "new" Japanese Tower camera (similar to this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59255923@N02/5907087112/#).  The camera was nice but not in the best of shape.  The 50mm lens was cloudy, and even with the wide angel lens it was curiously hard to focus.  The shutter seemed to lag a bit, giving one a tendency to over-expose (even using a good meter).  So I captured something a bit more akin to Lomography rather than anything first-rate.  The scanner seems to have made the images a bit more ghostly in its attempt to remove dust and grain.  No time to re-do these;  The images work as they are.  I made a tour of views and vistas which I suspected needed capturing.  The sometimes frustrating and sad results follow:

 

 

Always great views from Rike's 2nd Street Parking Garage

 

 

 

 

 

Can't remember if this was on Jefferson or St. Clair.  Glad I got a shot of it before it vanished.  That's such a great sign.  I'm imagining it was a popular shop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's one of the success stories.  The current St. Clair Lofts is a wonderful outcome for a deserving block Downtown.

 

 

 

This building and its neighbor were snuck out of existence.  They added a density and beauty to the Downtown landscape.  Their facades were virtually in tact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just imagine how a grouping of buildings like these could have played into the current trend toward Downtown co-op, condo, and rental living.  No foresight -- just raze.  Replace, when possible, with a long-lived parking lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These buildings simply should not have been torn down.  The very fact that they were allowed to go, shows a distinct lack of local leadership and a complete disregard for canal relics which should have been designated as national treasures.  It's simply a tragedy that they are now well gone.

 

 

 

Rike's main garage (the older and more compact one being on Main Street) was a great place to see the city.  You kind of floated among various views.  Naturally, the powers that be decided to replace it with a lower and far less-exciting piece of real estate.  The current garage doesn't have a square foot of retail space to offer -- a mistake.

 

The sense of this tour was to see potential.  It must still be seen, and some of the wrongs of the past must still be righted.  The Canal buildings should be rebuilt.  Holes should be plugged everywhere, and the density of the center city should be enthusiastically and intelligently restored.

You can just see the decline just starting in these photos.  Such a shame but brilliantly photographed (as usual).

You can just see the decline just starting in these photos.  Such a shame but brilliantly photographed (as usual).

 

Thanks, CDM.  Though I'd say the decline really started as early as about 1957, when the highway started to make itself felt citywide.  By 1978, in many corners, you knew something wasn't right.  I added a missing Canal building photo.  It's as if the city knew how to target valuable material and wreck it -- almost on purpose, as was done with some of the other survivors.

I really like these. The camera's limitations and the dreariness of the day work together in many of them to convey a sense of rust-belt grittiness that one probably would not get from razor-sharp, perfectly exposed photos.

 

In the fifties and sixties and possibly later, Tower was Sears, Roebuck & Company's store brand for optics, photo equipment, and drafting instruments and related gear. Some of their store-brand products were quite excellent, some less so.

Awesome set.

These are freaking fantastic!

I really like these. The camera's limitations and the dreariness of the day work together in many of them to convey a sense of rust-belt grittiness that one probably would not get from razor-sharp, perfectly exposed photos.

 

In the fifties and sixties and possibly later, Tower was Sears, Roebuck & Company's store brand for optics, photo equipment, and drafting instruments and related gear. Some of their store-brand products were quite excellent, some less so.

 

Glad you see "the light", Robert.  I had never fully examined the set, but now I see they have a value in holding some unrepeatable scenes.  My uncle gave me the Tower (which was quality-made, just in need of service).  I actually have a hand full of genuine (vintage) Leica images (the camera the Tower was trying to emulate), and you can see how much sharper they are.  The Tower had been used at a factory where my uncle was a sales and technical manager.  Never patronized Sears for anything photographic.  That is interesting.  Once I moved to Brooklyn, the Tower, a Pentax, and a Minox were all relieved of me - right out of my bedroom.  Was a long time ago, but I'm still missing the cameras.  Thankfully, I still have the Rolleiflex and other good cameras.

Thanks!

These are freaking fantastic!

 

Thanks bumsquare and ink.  Here's to the importance of memory.

I think I figured out why interesting period pictures are always so rare to find and why they are therefore such a treat when they show up, like here.

 

It's the contempt of familiarity. People don't respect the familiar enough to preserve it. Especially when they're young.

 

In 1977 I was in college in Dayton, I'd never lived anyplace else, and I had a snide attitude toward everything Dayton. In my short life nothing around me had ever changed that much, so I figured, why should I document any of this dreary, bland, Dayton crap? It will always be here. That was my reasoning. My overly rationalistic, posturing, scientific pea brain could not wrap itself around the fact that one day, everything I lived and grew up around would be history.

 

Kids are so profoundly stupid, y'know?

 

I envy these pictures and I can think of hundreds more I wish I'd taken when I was growing up there.

 

At this point, I'd even like to have a decent picture of that stupid plastic Moler's Dairy cow that stood on S. Smithville Road. But nooo, when I was 18 I was TOO GOOD to lower myself to take that shot!  :whip:

 

Anyway, I digress. Steeber, this is quality work. Very evocative of a certain mood as already pointed out. And no sign of hipster-ironic Instagram manipulation, this is the real deal.

Rusty S:

  What a kind summary about what I did and how so many used to feel.

To let you off the hook, which is deserved, you're talking to someone who moved many times as a kid.  My father was an immigrant himself.  I was born in the Tropics, as a result of my father's job track, which did, via Toledo, eventually land us back in Dayton.  My mother's side of the family goes back to about 1900 in Dayton.  So I not only saw Dayton as an outsider, I got to see it at different times and from different points of view.  I loved the place as a child, as a kid.  It represented all that was good about the States.  It represented quality!  So your dairy cow sign becomes many other lost landmarks, for me.  The good news is, someone probably did photograph that sign -- if nothing else, for business reasons.  We do get some things back, just as I found the Miami Hotel this week.

    I will say that Daytonians, more than they should have, seemed to deride their town.  Clevelanders didn't deride their town, I noticed while there.  That was as important as the town itself.  Adoring one's own city is a prime ingredient for the city's survival.  The best local attitude I've ever seen:  Minneapolis/St. Paul.  But I can tell you that per potential:  Dayton is still a gem.  Thanks again.  Means a lot.

I will say that Daytonians, more than they should have, seemed to deride their town.  Clevelanders didn't deride their town, I noticed while there.  That was as important as the town itself.  Adoring one's own city is a prime ingredient for the city's survival.  The best local attitude I've ever seen:  Minneapolis/St. Paul.  But I can tell you that per potential:  Dayton is still a gem.  Thanks again.  Means a lot.

 

Amen.