[gin blossoms] and [applesauce]

several small things have happened in the last few weeks that stirred up memories in my mind that all remind me of fall. some of them are purely seasonal, but some seem to have been brought up from deep in the storage vaults of my subconscious.

a few of the more standard memories are fairly easy to place. the cooler mornings forced me to bring my plethora of jackets our from the summer hiding places to find a more accessible location on my coat rack. i've also been enjoying riding my bike to work, reminding me of the days before i had a car, or living near campus. i also recently took a revit class. having to follow along in a text book, only to be quizzed at the end of chapters was eerily similar to my grade school days. the couple with an 8 am to 4 pm schedule, and i felt like i was in home room again. two memories, however, took a little more time to figure out their connection to the season.

at the store the other week, i had a mad craving for applesauce, but not just any applesauce, cinnamon applesauce. now this is not standard on my shopping list, so my craving struck me as a little odd. i however brought a pack home and dug in. i was enjoying my first couple of spoon fulls, when i thought to myself, " this feels life fall". upon saying that a rush of memories came back to me. years ago, me and a group of friends would head out into the country, one of their grandparents farms. on this farm were a cluster of apple trees. we would spend the day up in the branches picking apples and dropping them down to our mothers, waiting on the ground. by the end of the day, we would have bags and bags of fresh apples! our mothers wouldn't then spend the next couple of days making batches of cinnamon applesauce and canning it into jars. the rest of the school year, a staple item in the paper bags of our lunches was cinnamon applesauce. although we enjoyed it year round, it was in the fall that it was really enjoyed. i came close to satisfying my craving with the store bought sauce, but nothing beats the homemade stuff i enjoyed as a child.

the other memory took a little longer to figure out. while at work on day, the "gin blossoms" found their way through my speakers. once again, i thought, "this is perfect fall music!" however i couldn't figure out why i thought that. why were the "gin blossoms" fall music? i pondered this for several days.

whenever i hear the gin blossoms, i'm reminded of my middle school years, right around 93 or 94. it was about that time that girls went from being people you wanted nothing to do with, to suddenly being somewhat of an interest. i remember specifically thinking that thought the first day of seventh grade. all of a sudden there were girls in my class, and they were kind of cute! that fall semester, the conversations between my friends quickly switched from discussing the latest episode of the teenage mutant ninja turtles, to something like the following:

"whoa, she's hot, do you think she'd 'go with me'?"

"i don't know dude, i think she likes someone else"

"really? you don't think she'd go for a guy like me?"

"i don't know dude, she's in volleyball, and you're in the marching band."

"true"

simultaneously, this was also about this time that i really started paying attention to and appreciating music, mostly because it seemed like it started to relate to my life. a very popular band at this time was the "gin blossoms". you can play just about any song from their catalog and see why this was the perfect soundtrack for this time in my youth. i'd like to think that i've learned a lot since then and relationships have become easier, but i don't' think that's the case.

i also think just about everyone feels this way too.

so zip up your jacket, turn up the "gin blossoms", enjoy your applesauce, or anything else you can think of to put you in a "autumn" mood, and sit back and enjoy the season.

hang your [vintage] coat up

some people love shoes...
some people are obsesed with music...
some people have sworn revenge on albino whales...

i, however, am a bit of a jacket fanatic...


what can i say? i just love having the options there, so that no matter what temperature/occasion situation may present itself, i'll have the perfect coat. this obsession however, coupled with my lack of closet space, led to the problem of jackets scattered throughout my apartment.

i've been in the market for a coat tree for a while now.

since moving back to wichita and rediscovering down town, i find myself walking the sidewalks, looking through windows once packed with the latest in fashion and merchandise, but now only provide views into the interiors of long forgotten structures.

one day, while peering into one such building, through a storefront, that at one time must have been a barber shop, i spotted it! the most perfect coat tree i had ever seen! there, on the corner of douglas and market, it stood, inside the vestibule! eight hooks! chrome! vintage! long! and lean! i was in love, but alas, it was not to be, as our love was guarded by two locked doors and a chain.

for over a year, i've scavenged local thrift stores and antique malls looking for something similar, to take my mind off of it. i've included friends and family in this search, but to no avail, nothing presented itself.

this coat tree became my white whale.

now, i didn't pursue it quite as hard as ahab...probably because the coat tree hadn't taken my leg during battle at sea...i just thought it looked cool.

this past thanksgiving, when asked what i wanted for christmas, almost jokingly i said,

"the coat tree on douglas and market."

i had no idea the chain of events that were about to begin.

now the details are a little fuzzy, as the story has many twists and turns, but from what i can gather, it started with an initial call to the county appraisers office, which led to a call to a secretary that worked at the bank next door to the building the coat tree was in, which was forwarded to the the loan manager of the bank next door to the building the coat tree was in, he gave a number, that led to a call to the previous owner of the building the coat tree was in. not owning the building the coat tree was in, anymore, he gave a number which led to a call to the attorney that aided in the sale of the building the coat tree was in. he had the paper work, but needed to dig them out of the archives. a few weeks later he had the number to the current owner of the building the coat tree was in. that number however, led to a guy that never answered his phone. a message was left. finally, after a few weeks, he called back! finding out he knew of the above mentioned coat tree, and not having a use for it, a deal was struck.

i met the owner at the building last week. we talked briefly about development downtown, and future plans for the building. business cards were exchanged, and i rode home with a "white whale" in the back of my truck.

so as promised, here are the pictures, and the post, commending the efforts of those involved. although cell phones replaced harpoons in this battle, the feat was still as intense.....well, as intense as it gets in wichita.

thank you.