Railroad Night Report: The Past & Future

We had a double turn out.
An early crowd:

And a later crowd:

A woman engineer/designer for the B&O when women in jobs of such import was unheard of, jewelry/watch shops in downtown Grafton, cinders covering the town...

Our railroad history is a fascinating and valuable part of our past; it can be a part of our future, too.

While the railroad memorabilia (The Wonder Drink Company!) and memories were worthwhile & fascinating....

...the greatest part of the evening, for me, was what can best be described as 'generativity.'

To use Erik Erikson's word, 'Generativity' is the need to do something productive and worthwhile with one's life in order that there be something to give to the next generation.

The past: Grafton was a railroad boom town that burgeoned with industry & ideas.

The future: Grafton's rich history is the foundation for building a solid tourism-based economy that will allow us to share our memories and keep them alive.

We can look over our shoulder at where we've been, but we have to look toward the future to give something worthwhile to our children and grandchildren.

Grafton was, is, and will be a good place to call home (or if you're not so lucky, just stop in for a visit when you can).

Thank you, Ray, for sharing with us.

I hope that you'll consider doing it again.

Tonight is Railroad Night

Remember:

7:00pm
Railroad Enthusiasts

See you here.

Need more details? Here's the link to the original post.

Taking Applications

We will be taking applications for employment.
Please call MaryKay at 304-672-6490 for more information.

Live Music: Meghan King Johnson

Meghan King Johnson will be playing for us on Saturday January 31 starting at 7pm.

You can take a listen over at her My Space page (http://www.myspace.com/meghankingjohnson).

A perfect winter evening thing to do: relax and listen to Meghan's clear voice and unique musical view in the cozy comfort of The 123.

See you soon!

Railroading Night

It was 62 years ago this month that the Grafton Railroad Shops & Yards became the home of streamlined locomotives that powered the Baltimore to Cincinnati daylight luxury train, "The Cincinnatian."
Several lavishly illustrated books describing the make-up, appearance, and route of this train that passed through Grafton between January 1947 and July 1950 have been published. Included photographs show the train in various scenes all along the Baltimore to Cincinnati route. Because it was the location of changes of locomotives and crews, Grafton is featured in many of these photographs.
On Friday January 30 beginning at 7:00pm Ray Shaw, a Grafton native and B&O Railroad enthusiast will be present at The 123 to share insights and photographs from these books and lead discussion about this train that made a significant contribution to Grafton life and economy in the immediate post World War II period.
All are invited to join Ray Shaw in remember a "DE-LUXE ALL COACH STREAMLINER" passing through Grafton.

Thank you, Ray!

*to be cross-posted at the Taylor County Blog Project

Making a Mess (Again)

After the asphalt came up, the diggers came in:

And then then comes the concrete:

Final grade on the footing:

Thanks to CJ Landscaping for their site preparation for the concrete pour.

I'll be posting about CJ Landscaping over at the Taylor County Blog Project in the next few days;

I'll come back and update links to their information, too.

*update:

Here's the link to the Taylor County Blog Project's Small Business Highlight of CJ Landscaping.

Pulling Up Asphalt

PC & PR pulled up the asphalt where the first floor of the new addition will sit:

As usual, I'm behind on blogging. The footings have already been dug and poured and the parking lot is a huge mess. A huge construction mess.

Construction Drawings for the New Addition

These are the line drawings of the new construction.

This one is the West Side view - if you're standing at the Caboose Park or at the Courthouse, this is what you will see:

You can see that it is 2 levels. The missing piece underneath at the back of the building is where the existing stone/concrete walls are at the back of the parking lot; the back part of the second floor will be built into the hillside. In the next post I'll show you pictures of the parking lot asphalt being removed in preparation for digging in the footings.

Here's the streetside (south face) view:

These pictures are just pictures of drawings on paper. I didn't realize that the existing building looks crooked until I uploaded this. It wasn't drawn that way; the paper was not flat when I took the picture.

Here we go again (construction) & catering (yum)

Kind of a mixed post, but, hey, a lot is going on right now...

Yep. Back to construction.
Our building permit was approved yesterday and we will be adding on approximately 1500 square feet (right now we occupy about 800sq feet and we're feeling the cramp already).

Construction will not interfere with our regular hours, so keep stopping by; you'll be able to see how things are going.

More on construction later...

I almost feel like I know more about construction blogging than I do about posting information on everyday Coffee House operations; I will try to keep up the proficient construction blogging and, at the same time, improve my skills at covering food, drinks, & the basic goings-on around here.
Here goes with the day-to-day update:

We catered our first office meeting yesterday. It was a two day long meeting, so we had the privilege of serving lunch today as well.

Yesterday's menu:
An assortment of sandwiches on our fresh white & whole wheat bread.
Hummus platter with carrots, tomatoes, pretzels, bagel chips (that's something else I should tell you about - Cheryl made them and they're good!), and grapes.
Tabouli ('what's that?' you say? It's a middle eastern bulgur wheat salad with tomatoes & fresh parsley)
Pasta Salad
Peanut Butter Cookies

Today:
Beef Stew
White & whole wheat rolls
Fresh Fruit (Wow! This was some good looking fruit, too: Strawberries, green grapes, red grapes, & blackberries)
Cream-filled chocolate cake for dessert

As always, everything is fresh and homemade - nothing pre-packaged here, just good, fresh ingredients and a skilled hand (hands, actually) for preparation.
Very simple.
Very Good.

Teapot for One

A perfect little one cup tea pot with it's own mug:


This is how our in house tea is served.
We have a nice selection of bagged teas, but soon we will have a couple of local, organic loose tea options.

Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans

These things are really good!

Good-for-you Carrot Cake

A wedge of this and a cup of coffee served very well for my breakfast this morning:

Wireless!

This picture was taken 2 days after Christmas:

The intention of the picture was to show 3 separate laptops all in use at the same time. However, you can't see that clearly (remember I've never claimed to be a photographer).
Our wireless network is capable of supporting approximately 10 laptops before it bogs down (16MB). However, I can't claim to know much about that either, so it was good to see 3 laptops all being put to use simultaneously.
I think 3 was a record at that time, but I've seen it happen a couple of times since AND as I sit and write this, there are 4 (yes, 4!) being used downstairs right now. Count this one and we've got 5 (yay!) on the network!
A wireless hotspot was obviously needed; I am so glad we've been able to help!