Irv, Cleanup in Aisle 5!

My siblings and their respective families have taken an extended  family vacation three times since 2002. We rent a single, very large, and very expensive beach front property for a week. In 2002 and 2004, we were at Nags Head and in 2008 at Virginia Beach. It is always a lot of fun and, as one would expect, there is usually an interesting social dynamic on display when you throw thirty or so people (who don’t normally live with each other) together for a week. (Don’t worry – no dirty laundry will be aired – in this post at least).

Meal ownership is divvied up among the families, with each sub-family responsible for planning and execution of a dinner for a night. As with most everything else in life when compared to my siblings, I usually underachieve on the beach dinner. I wimp out and go with pizza (if that hasn’t already been taken). I think I also cooked hamburgers one year. 

Haggling At Schulman’s

Schulman’s was a downtown Altoona landmark institution. Sitting on the main thoroughfare of Eleventh Avenue, Schulman’s was the de facto place to go to buy work clothes in the city. I remember my Mom telling me that they had near-monopoly status in Altoona’s glory days in selling work clothes to the railroaders working at the Downtown and Juniata shops. I think they also got a pretty healthy cut of the regulated school uniform market for various Catholic schools in the area. You could do a lot worse than targeting and owning those demographics in Altoona.

Schulman’s was a family-owned business. I am pretty sure that my Dad graduated with one of the brothers (there were like five or six of them) at Altoona High in 1941.

I Didn’t See You!

It is probably difficult for the whole current generation of fans to understand, but the Pittsburgh Pirates actually have a rich tradition. I was certainly reminded of that tradition reading the various stories associated with the passing of Chuck Tanner (aka Captain Sunshine), who managed the Pirates to their last World Series Championship in 1979. Bob Smizik posted an excellent obituary on Tanner on his blog last Friday. For those of us growing up in the 70s as Pirate fans, those stories brought back so many pleasant memories.

Though the Pirates had wonderful runs in the 70s and early 90s, they certainly have had many other periods of success and a large collection of great players and managers. Consider that the Pirates have multiple players who are in the Baseball Hall-of-Fame, yet whose uniform numbers have not been retired by the team. I have always thought that was a pretty good indication of a franchise’s tradition.