Busy Week Ahead

Ron (me)  working on my skin cancer on our townhouse roof deck in Philadelphia 1978

Tomorrow starts the beginning a very busy week for me.  First thing in the morning I have to get up at 4:30 am to get ready to catch the American Legion Post 28 van for the Wilmington VAMC.  Yes folks, it's time for my semi-annual dermatology appointment.  As I have mentioned before in many previous posts, I am now paying the price for all those youthful days of lying on the beach "working on my tan."  Ah,,,the Folly of Youth.  

I was digging through some more old boxes in my basement storage room this morning and I came across another treasure trove of old photos.  The one posted at the top of this post is of my sunning myself on our roof deck at 2409 Naudain Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the Year of Our Lord 1978.  By the way, I never did get much of a tan on the roof deck.  The best tans are had by working in the backyard.  I haven't laid out in the sun for years (twenty or more) and I get the best tans I've ever had in my life.  Just goes to show you that natural is best.

So anyway, tomorrow during my visit to the VAMC (Veterans Administration Medical Health Center) I'm going to try and squeeze in a blood test, and a visit with my doctor to have him check my swollen ankles and lower legs.  The water pills are working somewhat but I still have swelling.  I'm not scheduled for an appointment with my doctor, the only appointment I could make was in the afternoon and since the van leaves at 12 pm, that was impossible so I'll have to charm my way into an appointment in the morning.  It's worked in the past but I'm older now (and grumpier) so I'm not as sure but I'm going to do my Boyish Best.

When I get back from the VA, it probably won't be until about 12:30 or 1:00 so it's a quick lunch and then to work at the hotel. Yes folks, I'm working at the hotel this week Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  I'm surprised I'm not scheduled for Christmas Day but I'm not holding my breath because we're not there yet.  I'm ALWAYS ASKED to work Christmas Day and New Year's Day.  We'll see if this year is an exception.  

I was talking to a friend on the phone this morning.  He recently completed his radiation treatment for prostate cancer.  Monday he goes back to see if the cancer is cleared.  My biopsy to check if I have prostate cancer is scheduled for Friday, January 6th, 2012.  I've been dreading this.  I feel like I'm walking around with a dark cloud hanging over my head.  Bob says I'm driving myself crazy.  Well...yes.  I just want to get all this over with so I can sit at my computer and scanned the remaining THOUSANDS of pictures I have left.  That's all I ask.

Ron (me) scanning old photos into my computer a few minutes ago (Bill took the picture)

Olde Time Photos

Me and Larry June 21, 2011 Rehoboth Beach, DE

The first time I visited Provincetown was in the summer of 1974.  I remember it clearly because it was during the summer of Watergate.  The Senate subcommittee hearings on Watergate and the coverup seemed to be the only thing on TV.  It was good to get away and visit this gay mecca that I had heard so much about.  I made the visit with my good friend Bob M.  To commemorate our visit I persuaded my friend Bob to stop by one of those tourist sucker Olde Time Photo shops on the main street of Provincetown.  The picture you see above is the result of that visit.  We were two Old Time Cowboys for sure.  This was back in our gay bar days when we used to frequent the 247 bar in Philadelphia which was a leather and western bar.  Not for us the fey dance bars of those Other Gays (the Dancing Queens).

Bob M. and me July 1974 Provincetown, Mass.

Fast forward thirty seven years and here you see me again in my Cowboy Pose.  This time I'm with my longtime friend (even longer than Bob M.) Larry.  My gay bar days are long behind me but still I yearned to have another Olde Time Photo taken of me with a friend.  I've been trying without success to talk some of my current friends into having a picture taken with me but they will have none of it.  I guess such activity is too immature or childish.  Hey, I may be 69 years old but I still have a lot of the Kid in me yet.  As does my longtime friend Larry.

So I arranged to meet Larry last Tuesday (June 21st) in Rehoboth and we had our pictures taken as two over the hill old time desperadoes.  We had great fun during the shoot (no pun intended).  Listen, when the day comes when I'm an old curmudgeon who can't grab a little bit of 'immature' fun like this, is the day I want to check out and go to the Big Ranch in the Sky.

Me and Larry about to take each other out

Olde Time Pictures

Me and my friend Bob McCamley - Provincetown, Mass 1974

Anyone who has been to a seashore town in the summertime knows those Olde Time Photo shops that grab the tourist dollar.

The first time I used one was during my very fist visit to Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1974.  My good friend Bob Mc (all my friends seemed to be named "Bob") and I made the trek to Cape Cod because we heard that the gay life was wonderful.  Well, we found that to be true.

We both loved Cape Cod and Provincetown from the moment we entered it on the main street which was called Commercial Street (not a whole lot of imagination here) on a crowded, summer night.  We couldn't believe the number of people walking in the street but we soon got used to it.

The next day while were were scoping out the situation we stopped at one of those Olde Time Photo shops and got this picture done.  All we needed for props was the cowboy hats.  We already had the western shirts and leather vests.  Remember, we were making our grand debut in the Gay Disneyland of the East Coast.  That's another whole story which I will probably tell in a future blog.

The Olde Time Photo store in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

Well, all these many years have passed and I never took advantage of getting another Olde Time photo until yesterday.  Last year I noticed in Rehoboth Beach there are two Olde Time photo shops.  I made a mental note to stop in sometime before the kids got in there.  I don't take good pictures when there are a lot of jumpy and screaming kids around.  That is exactly what happened this past November when I went to J.C. Penney's in Dover to get my Christmas card pictures.  While they were taking my pictures, there were two screaming (and I mean screaming) little girls in crinolines doing cartwheels in my line of vision while I was having my picture taken.  Not a good way to get your picture taken.

Lots of costumes and backdrops to choose from - that saloon girl costume really look interesting

Yesterday was different.  After my walk on the boardwalk (which was over about 8 am), I hung around (actually walked around town) for a couple more hours until the store open at 10 am.

I was their first customer.  I was in luck.  I assumed that I would do the western look again until I saw the range of costumes they had.  So I opted for the Civil War.  The very accommodating young lady asked me "Confederate or Union?"  Well, Union of course.  My great-great grandfather John Tipton was a Union soldier during the Civil War.  He lived in the hills of western North Carolina and was recruiting his fellow neighbors for the Union Cause when he was ambushed and killed by a Confederate Calvary headed by a Colonel Wichter.  I have all this information because his widow, my great-great grandmother Martha "Patty" Bailey Tipton supplied all this information for her application for widow's benefits at the end of the Civil War.  One of her nine children (they had a lot of kids back in those days to help out with the farm work)  was my great-grandfather Hiram Tipton.  One of Hiram's sons was my grandfather Fieldon Tipton.  And of course on of Fieldon's eleven sons was my father Isaac Walter Tipton, Sr.  So here I am in honor of my great-great grandfather John Tipton 1830-1863.

Me channeling my great-great grandfather John Tipton 2010

Black and White Photos

Remember when the only pictures your could take were black and white? This was back in the Fifties when I first started to take pictures. Then color photography arrived on the scene. It didn't take too long before almost all amateur photographers took color pictures. Unless you were Annie Leibovitz, most didn't realize the dramatic effect and beauty of black and white photos.



On this rainy Wednesday afternoon I was looking through some old photo albums and I came across one with black and white photos. I don't remember where I got the black and white film but here are some of the photos that I took of myself. The date was 1981 (almost 30 years ago, hard to believe) at my previous home in Pennsylvania. Nice beard.