Caption this photo (#40)

I need help with this one...

The Trouble with Assistants

"Mommy, why are you taking a picture of those mailboxes?"

"I think they look pretty from this angle."

"Don't you think it would be a better picture if you took it down here?"

"I like it right here."

"Don't you think it would be better if I was in the picture?"

"Not this one."

"What if I was just in a little of the picture?"

"Next time."

"How about if I just barely touch one of the mailboxes? Won't that add something interesting to your picture? Then your picture won't be so boring, Mommy. Instead it will be a picture of the amazing spoooooooooky hand that came from the sky and covered the whole town! You'll see. Let me help you."

Sigh.

Everyone is an art director.

Art Director...

The idea: a gritty monochrome study of this corner of the South Pasadena Post Office -- an image to symbolize our crowded yet compartmentalized lives in the modern age.

Yeah, well, my little girl had other ideas: "I'm going to race to the end of that sad room and start dancing."

I like her concept much better.

People always say to me
"What do you think you'd like to be
When you grow up?"
And I say "Why,
I think I'd like to be the sky
Or be a plane or train or mouse
Or maybe a haunted house
Or something furry, rough and wild ...
Or maybe I will stay a child."

--Karla Kuskin

View from the Post Office

The South Pasadena Post Office exists in large part because of the New Deal programs instituted by FDR in the 1930s. Federal Relief Agencies put many South Pasadenans to work on projects ranging from building the Arroyo Seco control channel to adding terraces and walkways to Eddie Park. In fact, during this decade, most stores and businesses in South Pas hung up National Relief Administration Blue Eagle placards with the slogan, "We Do Our Part."

Since the city's incorporation, the post office bounced around from temporary place to place. It operated for a while out of a hotel, for a few years out of the Alexander Building. At one point it was a branch of the post office in Los Angeles and at another point it belonged to Pasadena. But in 1936 -- after some bickering with the federal government on architectural design standards -- South Pasadena finally got its very own post office building: the grand white structure still in operation today at the corner of Fremont and El Centro.

And who says big government programs can't work well! Not only did the city get a large, functional building, but it got beautiful art to adorn it. The Treasury Relief Art Project commissioned artist and former postal clerk John Law Walker to paint the mural in the new post office lobby. The scene represents a Concord mail coach -- a subject familiar to the brand new South Pasadena postmaster, George Hugh Banning. He had written all about the mail vehicle in his book Six Horses.

It gives me great inspiration to buy stamps here and think about how so much utility and beauty came from using governmental ingenuity as well as the talent and labor of the citizenry to demolish the chains of the Great Depression. We could learn a lot from our recent past.

100 Days ... and counting!

Today marks my 100th post here at Glimpses of South Pasadena. Let's head on over to Mission Wines and get a bottle of bubbly!

When I started this blog I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought it would be a nice little way to chronicle an exploration of my new town. I thought maybe five people would read it -- and all of them would be members of my family.

Instead, it has introduced me to a world of new friends starting right here at home. A big shout out to Scott Feldmann over at The South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. To Chief Dan Watson at the South Pasadena Police Department. To Steve Fjeldsted the oh-so-cool city librarian who doesn't even seem to mind the fact that I tend to obsessively prowl around the library after hours. And to Mister Earl and Trish -- South Pas residents and faithful Glimpses readers whose comments add the wonderful historic details to so many of my posts. This blog has connected me to all of you-- and many other fabulous South Pas neighbors who have either written or stopped me and said hello. It has also connected me to a wild and talented network of local area bloggers including (but certainly not limited to) Petrea Burchard at Pasadena Daily Photo, Ben Wideman at the sky is big in pasadena, Keith at Gem City Images, Kevin at The Jimson Weed Gazette, Cafe Observer, Miss Havisham, Pasadena Adjacent and Altadenahiker. Your photos, art and writing amuse, inform and inspire. Because of all of you, I feel like a welcome part of the community.

And that community has also extended across the earth! Glimpses has been graced with thousands of visitors from all over the planet. As part of the City Daily Photo family, I have been privileged to meet my world neighbors from almost every continent. Your comments here and your many spectacular blogs have given me insight I could have never picked up from history books or news sources. When I was a young girl growing up in Texas I always wanted to have a pen pal. Well, now I have dozens of them. Viva l'Internet!

So, here's to 100 -- nope, make that 1000 more posts, at least. Thanks for being here, everyone.

South Pasadena Post Office

The South Pasadena Post Office looks about the same as when it was built in 1932. With the exception of the handicap-access ramps out front, not much has been added or altered. You can even see the wonderful original mural inside next to the old post office boxes. Located on Freemont Street at El Centro across the street from Calvary Presbyterian Church, it has several of the things I love in a building: a cool deco transom over the door, ridiculously beautiful vintage street lamps along the walkway, and enough contrasting dark and light to, um, simply force me to present this photograph in black and white!