Then and now

Auburn

Last night was the final men's basketball game to be played in Auburn's Beard Eaves Memorial Coliseum. Auburn won it's first ever game there, beating LSU and Pete Maravich 90-71 in 1969. In last night's game, Auburn defeated Mississippi State 89-80.

I was at Auburn from 1972-1981 ( I stretched out my education as long as I could) so I was there when the coliseum was still impressive and sort of new.

After I left basketball really took off with Charles Barkley and Chuck Person and other quality players leading the team.

But other sporting events took place in the Coliseum, and I was there for some of those too.

I took my trusty Minolta SLR camera.

That camera once took a dive in Hatchet Creek. My friend Walter and I were canoeing and came suddenly upon a tree downed across the creek. The current was pretty fast and we couldn't avoid the tree and we flipped, the canoe was bashed under water from the force of the current, and the Minolta went under. We were actually very fortunate that we didn't get trapped under water tangled in the limbs of the tree. It could have been bad. We had to walk a long way back to where the drop off car was parked along Hwy 280 where it crosses Hatchett Creek.

Here's an unnamed gymnast performing at a meet. I remember hearing complaints about the sound from the shutter on my camera, especially during the balance beam events. I don't think that would be a concern now.


I attended many wrestling matches as well.


Auburn's new facility will open next year, and the Tigers should get a boost from their $90 million new home.

Here's a short video of what canoeing the Hatchett is like. This is not me, it's Dan Wood and Jerry Saulsbury. How fun!!!



Historic Bessemer

Historic home restoration never ends, and I am working on an upstairs bedroom this month.

I want to save the wallpaper that is below the picture rail, but am removing the paper above the rail and on the ceiling. There's a lot of wood trim in the room, and I haven't decided yet what colors to use on the wall and the trim.




Here you can see an area where the vintage paper has separated from the wall and will have to be reattached. There are also multiple tears and other defects that I will have to repair. But I like the paper and consider it worth saving. I labeled the picture but the words may be too small to read. Oh well.



There are at least five layers of wallpaper under the existing paper, it appears. In this area, the paper has become detached and pulls some of the plaster off with it. This must have happened years ago, and had been repaired with massive numbers of staples to hold the paper back into the plaster. that has all broken down now, and I will have to carefully remove the staples and repair the missing plaster and glue the paper back. Fun.

Here is a close up of the paper. I'm not sure exactly what the paper is made of, but there are these fiber elements running vertically that I really like. Anyone with wallpaper expertise is welcome to come take a look.

After this room, there will be one other upstairs bedroom, the upstairs hallway, and the downstairs study left to do. The upstairs hallway is going to be the most difficult because it appears that the plaster on part of the ceiling is separated from the underlying lath to which it is supposed to be attached, and is only being held up by the paper that covers the ceiling. Not fun.