'Who's Home' Board - 23 January 1943

Junior Chamber of Commerce - Marion Ripple and Betty Sunseri.

 

Frozen Time

Saw that the river was frozen - so me and RJ stopped to check it out.

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Looking up the Stonycreek from the opposite direction...

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Heading to the Incline...

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It's nice that someone keeps the observation deck clean. 

Morrellville - 1940's

My grandparents Carmela and John Cacicia standing on K Street with my Aunt Lucy and her husband Charlie Wiley. Also a nice look at the street above - Mercury Avenue. This was taken in the early 1940's.

Backyard Garden

That's the Cacicia Clan in our backyard garden in Morrellville. 

 

Morrell School - 1940's

You can just see the old Morrell School in the background. St. Francis Church occupies the spot now. My grandmother Helen (Hanzel) Lenz is holding a baby of a family friend. My mother Patsy (Lenz) Cacicia is on the left and her cousin Butch Pynkala is on the left.

They are standing on the roof at Bucky's at the corner of Fairfield avenue and D street. They lived in one of the apartments there...and as they all used to say in later years....the place had the biggest cockroaches they'd ever seen and they used to chase them around the apartment!

Chrysler Time

 

My grandfather and his car - even though he didn't drive. My uncle would drive them around to wherever they wanted to go.

John's Shoe Shop - The Sign

 

John's Shoe Shop - Silk Screen on Glass - only one of two pictures hanging on my wall - (the other is my maternal grandmother's 8th grade class at St. Stephen's). It took many hands to make this finished project. First off - my friends at Big City Signs in Ferndale -  CLICK HERE for more on their wonderful shop - Bob Hovanec and Pat Kerr
kicked off the project. Bob is working on pieces for a new show.

Bob looking for ideas for his show - decided a picture that I had posted in the past of my grandfather's shop fit the bill - so he worked to exactly recreate the window. Me and my brother Bob Cacicia - went to the shop on a Saturday morning and were taught the fine art of silk screening and exactly what goes into the creative process. Simply amazing if you ask me! After leaving the shop with my treasure....next came to problem of how to present it.

After thinking and thinking about it - I came up with the idea of having my grandfather standing inside his shop - looking back out the window - as if you are standing outside - looking inside his shop. Then came the problem of what should his shop look like. Not having any pictures of the inside - I found this generic image of an old shop - though not a shoe shop. Next - I cut out an image of my grandfather standing in front of his actual shop - but not being an expert in Photoshop - that's when my friend Natalie Dreier came to the rescue - since I couldn't figure out how to resize the image. She put both of them together for me - just perfectly.

My clever woodworking brother Bob - made the picture frame out of some old scrap wood from the mill to finish off my treasure. Though hard to tell from this shot - in person - it almost looks three dimensional - because the image is not pressed up against the glass - but set back. It's usually me helping people out with odds and ends when it comes to old pictures - which I love doing...but I have to be honest here and say it was a very nice change of pace - with the tables turned on me - for someone else to do something this beautiful - which I will treasure my whole life!

K Street - Morrellville

My grandfather John Cacicia (1892 - 1968) in our backyard on K Street around 1920 or so. Members of my family have always enjoyed dressing up in costumes and doing little skits along with showing our creative side. John in this picture is dressed up as Pancho Villa in the wilds of our backyard in Morrellville.

Johnstown - 1918

This is my grandfather John Cacicia (1892 - 1968) on the right and a unknown friend of his around 1918. I know it's the Johnstown area - but I'm not sure of where exactly.

Halloween - October 30, 1942

Vintage Repeat - my father Robert and Aunt Mimi (Mary Jane Adams) Cacicia are somewhere in this mix of kids in costumes - posing on K Street - October 30, 1942.

And here they are finishing up their parade around the neighborhood and heading back into our beloved Bheam School - now gone but not forgotten.

Attention Johnstown Residents

Trick or Treat Night has been cancelled for October 31 due to Hurricane Sandy. It has been rescheduled for Saturday - November 3 from 6pm to 8pm.
Now as for the picture - that is brother Bob on the left as a bunny rabbit and me on the right in my Casper the Ghost get up. The only store bought costume I ever remember wearing. To this day whenever I go down Sheridan Street I think of that silly little costume because I somehow lost the mask (my mother was none too happy) on the way home from Chandler school. We were living in the Oakhurst Homes at the time. Funny how the stupidiest things sometime stick in your brain. 

Watch and Wait

As I sit here writing this with Hurricane Sandy bearing down on the East Coast - I have to admit I am a bit on the scared side - especially this time of year. This is my father Robert standing next to our crick. Those of you that live near streams like this - the worry about it overflowing after a rainstorm is always in the back of your mind along with falling trees from the hillside. But the #1 fear - that shows it's ugly head at times like this - is memories of the '77 Flood seeping in to your brain and just how quickly things can go downhill in a heart beat - we are all helpless against the power of water. But having said that - the Flood taught a lot of us how to better plan ahead for times like this and how you can live for days on very little but the clothes on your back.

Some people would say you're stupid for living there. But I say for the most part - you can't help what neighborhood you live in around the Johnstown area - you live where you live and that's that. When you stop to think about - the '77 Flood proved that no neighborhood is really as safe as folks living there think it is anyway.

For those of you on Facebook - Hurricane Sandy has her own page: CLICK HERE.

A Boy and his Dog - 1939

This is my father Robert Cacicia about 1939 with their dog in our yard on K Street.

New Wheels - 1920's Style - Morrellville

This is one of my grandmothers brothers - I think this is Jimmy Vaccaro showing off his new set of wheels - around our house on K Street in Morrellville.

A Trip to Vale Wood Farms

Just a perfect saturday to take a little ride to the farm. In this case - Vale Wood Farms - The Official Dairy of Vintage Johnstown. We are longtime customers and besides loving all their wonderful products - it's great to be able to enjoy home delivery.
There was a little bit of everything for the kids to enjoy at: The Annual Vale Wood Farms Pumpkin Patch will be October 1-21 from 11 am to 5 pm

Come visit the farm for hayrides, games, a maze, pumpkins, fall decorations, pumpkin pie and apple ice cream, apple dumplings, and more!

You can also check out either their FACEBOOK PAGE or their website valewoodfarms.com.

Who can resist this cute little baby calf. Valewood prides itself on being a Certified Cow Friendly Dairy along with being hormone free.

 RJ with a smile on his face.

And of course pumpkins from the small....

to the large...

 RJ trying his hand at milking old Bessie

He's milking it for all it's worth

Some of the animals the kids could see - from this pair of piglets who went wee, wee, wee all the way home

to Susie the Goat - a 4H project - who went to the Cambria County Fair and wasn't supposed to come home. But the teenager who raised her couldn't bare to part with her.

One of the chickens - showing off and strutting around

RJ with his dad - Roger Edwards

Having a ball at the hay maze

Picking out just the right gourds for the Angry Gourd Game

Heading over....

with his mom - Kelly (Cacicia) Edwards

While the boys try to launch their gourds to outer space.

of course - they didn't hit a single target.

After the fun and games - we stood in line to go on a hay ride and tour some of the farm complex.

Just beautiful countryside.

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The milking cows enjoying a snack.

Hay!

The milking barn - sorry this picture isn't the greatest - it was hard taking shots in a moving hay wagon.

The nursery where the newborn calves are kept for a few days.

What a little sweetie

They put these jackets on them to help keep them warm the first couple of days.

As we were waiting in line for the hay wagon tour - RJ was not a happy camper. All he kept saying was that he didn't want to go on any "lame" tour.

 Well - this is the boy at the end and guess what he said - "lets go for another ride!" We all loved it and a special shoutout to the young woman who was our tour guide - she did an excellent job at explaining everything and answering all our questions.

Next up - the corn maze

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To help make it even more interesting and educational - they set up neat questions that you had to guess the answer to. Like this one - how much honey do bees produce in their lifetime - 1/12 tsp or 1 tbsp - the answer 1/12 tsp. No wonder they are always so mad.

This concludes your visit to Vale Wood Farms. Oh and before I forget - what do you think their best selling product is.........why it's 2% milk.