#scranton

[newm8n]

finer things ,, ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

[mydailyvintagephotos]

Remembering

Lizabeth Scott🌹🕊️

On her Birthday 🎂

September 29th 1922

[pangeen]

" Leucistic Monocled Cobra " //© Nathan Jordan

[zenythycal]

Watch your step! Or you might just fall between realities!

[unteriors]

S Decker Court, Scranton, Pennsylvania.

[lexi-mariee]

i am her , she is me.

[myemuisemo]

The fiery bowels of hell are the setting for chapters VIII and IX of The Valley of Fear, in the two most recent Letters from Watson -- or, it's Pennsylvania.

Referring to "this most desolate corner of the United States of America" as of 1875 made me think first of Pittsburgh, but that's not possible, as Pittsburgh's steel industry didn't start until that year. This place in the grimy folds of the Allegheny mountains has been going for a while.

My heart says that the Vermissa Valley is an expy of the Wyoming Valley in the northeastern part of the state, where there is a string of towns from Carbondale at the northern end, through Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, down to Nanticoke. The iron furnaces of Scranton, Grant, and Company had the largest production in the United States in 1865, according to the Anthracite Museum. This is anthracite coal-mining territory, as well: the hardest, blackest, and purest grade of coal.

(Had I known I'd be reading this novel in 2024, I'd have made a point of visiting the Anthracite Museum when I went to Scranton in 2019. I was mostly there for the Steamtown National Historic Site, the massive railroad museum.)

The little single-line railroad could be any of a number of lines, since the Scranton area was the birthplace of railroading and very heavily served. It's possible that the train is a narrow-gauge line, better designed for handling mountains.

Given the meanness and muddiness of the settlement where the twinkling-yet-threatening John McMurdo stops, it's probably not Scranton: that had already passed 35,000 in population by 1875. Wilkes-Barre was a bit above 10,000, which still seems large. Of course, the point of the Wyoming Valley is that there is an almost continuous string of little towns, and we don't know why McMurdo wants any one town more than another.

The presence of a Market Square in chapter IX doesn't indicate much, as that was a common design wherever Connecticut settlers had perched -- which includes Wilkes-Barre, the site of the post-Revolutionary War scuffle between the states of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, known as the Penn-Yan Wars. ("Connecticut sea-to-sea" is also why Ohio has a Western Reserve where the towns look straight out of New England. The Nutmeggers calmed down before getting west of Ohio, though.)

By 1875, the Wyoming Valley was loaded with Germans, Irishmen, and Welshmen, all jostling for mining work that was, in the aftermath of the Panic of 1873, increasingly ill-paid. It was thus a scene of great industry but not great happiness.

I'm not sure what Doyle has in mind for the shacks with verandas lining the streets, so I'll just share an example of an 1876 "company town" house from New Haven, Connecticut. The big factories build tons and tons of these. At one point in the 1990s, I lived in one (not this one). This sort of house typically has three bedrooms on the second floor, a little bedroom off the dining room on the first floor, and enough space for two bedrooms in the attic. So you could squeeze a boarding house in here.

With the boarding house comes the landlord's beautiful daughter. Poor Ettie! She can't get McMurdo to leave her alone, nor can she shed her other suitor. Did she have friends among the daughters and wives of her neighbors, or is she another rose blooming alone in harsh soil?

The Eminent Order of the Freemen are presumably expies of the Freemasons: I guess if the members are going to be dreadful in an organized way, it's necessary to invent a pound-shop knock-off (though the Mormons certainly didn't get that courtesy in A Study in Scarlet).

We're still in the era when fraternal organizations were vital in giving a man entry into society in a new place. You might know no one -- but if you knew the secret handshake, you were instantly provided with friends and business partners. The Welsh Philanthropic Order of True Ivorites was present in the Wyoming Valley; and of course, Odd Fellows were everywhere. (Throw a stone in an old mining town in the U.S., and you'll hit an Odd Fellows Hall. it'll often be one of the oldest buildings still standing.)

The fact that the Freemen's lodge leader is called the Bodymaster -- I assume this is supposed to sound menacing, but it has the ridiculous feel of something the Clampers would have come up with. Yes, fraternal orders were so popular that there was a parody version formed in the 1850s: E Clampus Vitus. The Clampers faded, with the rest of the fraternal movement, after the 1870s -- only to rise again in the 1930s and establish their mission as preserving local history in the West. So many an historic monument in small-town Caliornia has E Clampus Vitus on its plaque as the sponsor.

Since the Bodymaster is excited about making counterfeit currency, I feel this secret society will not be as fun as the Clampers. Having a side line in murdering people, as the Scowrers, also is not quite a gentleman's work.

I'm presuming McMurdo is Douglas, so he's going to get the girl and not get killed -- but something else will surely go very, very wrong.

[o0o-gh0ulio0o-0o0]

APOCALYPSE

FEST 2023

“If you mean it, you’ll make it.”

- 570 by Motionless In White 🖤🫶🏻😘

[thebohemianloner]

Nay Aug Falls and Treehouse • Scranton, PA

[darlingzelda]

I FEEL LIKE THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENT OF MY LIFE.

I work as a receptionist at the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders where I live.

On Halloween, we’re having an office party, and I decided to dress up as Pam Beesly from The Office. We’re both receptionists, we both work with watercolor, and we wear almost the same styles to work.

I usually stay in my office to answer phones and emails, but my boss has given me a special task for the day of our Halloween party.

I get to stand outside the screening rooms and HAND OUT CANDY TO THE CHILDREN WHO COME IN FOR AUTISM SCREENINGS.

How cute is that?! I feel like this will be the sweetest moment of my entire life.

It’s also totally something Pam would do! I remember that episode where all the office workers took their kids to work and Pam put out extra candy on her desk to get the kids to come and talk to her, and I feel like I’m getting that full circle moment here.

…..

I also have to save all the black jelly beans for Dwight.

[fishmech]

At the mine museum and in the mine itself, the Lackawanna County Mine Tour in Scranton, PA

[mydailyvintagephotos]

Remembering

Lizabeth Scott🌹🕊️

On her Birthday 🎂

September 29th 1922

[the-gone-ton]

Part of the reuse of the Mall at Steamtown is the conversion of the food court into the Scranton Public Market. Vacant food court units have been walled off, and tables were removed to make room for a bunch of small, basic spaces for locals to set up stalls for cheap. This doesn't look like it was very successful since only maybe 2 of the units were occupied.

[daloy-politsey]

[unteriors]

Hamilton Street, Scranton, North Dakota.