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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Some Blue December

A deserted patch of country land feels even emptier, somehow, when it exists beneath clear, dry cold. I took pictures — less so of the cold, but I hope some notion of temperature is conveyed in the below photos.

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grape branches

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And, finally, a shot of a brick branded with the name “IONE.” Such bricks exist in great numbers in San Benito County — and possibly other places too. As a kid, I had always read the name as “1ONE,” — or “one one.” I read it correctly for the first time only this past Christmas.

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9 comments:

  1. Isn't that brick a memorial to the career of one Ms. Skye?

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  2. Gigi's Ranch! Do you know why those bricks are stamped "IONE"? (I also wondered as a kid.) Those bricks were made at a brick plant in the town of Ione (up by Stockton-Sacramento) In the old days, the Swanson brothers were big into buying estates around the San Franciso area. Clifford had a load of those bricks from a wall in SF and my Dad bought some from him, hence explaining the presence of the bricks in our backyard. I can imagine that is why they are around your parents house too. Yay for traveling bricks!

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  3. Very pretty pictures, also i think 1ONE would make a fun license plate ;)

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  4. George: Don't be mean to Donovan's children. Ione Skye was on Arrested Development, so you can't say anything bad about her.

    Alice: Thanks so much.

    Jenny: Thank you for being the first person to explain that to me. I guess I just thought those bricks were everywhere since I saw them at Gigi's and your place and, well, my world was very small when I was young. I'd never heard of Ione, California, before, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. It basically sounds like the best town ever. Not only does it allegedly get its name from the heroine in a play called The Last Days of Pompeii, but it was also known to miners as either "Bed-Bug" or "Freeze-Out." Which is amazing.

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  5. No prob Drew. By-the-way, I did feel cold! You captured the feeling perfectly!

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  6. Ione Sucks! Fuck Ione!

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  7. I'll be in SB for a few days in Feb. Call you?

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  8. Totally. Am still here, in the same house, at the same job. Would love to have you come and stir up trouble.

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