Hibou

On July 17th, I took this picture... And a little over 24 hours later, I sent an email to the Huber Breaker Preservation Society. I wasn't expecting an answer, as that is how things seem to go these days, but I did receive a response... one which I read with great enthusiasm! My email to them was basically mentioning that I had been to the site and was impressed with the amount of information that was made available. I then went on to mention that I had ventured 'off the trail' and discovered what looked like blue dye and was curious how that could be possible. This is exactly what I got in response... "David, The blue dye was in unopened bags that were scattered when the breaker was torn down in 2014. We the members of Huber Breaker Preservation Society are trying very hard to make improvements to the park. This week, a contractor was grading the north and south property lines in preparation for fencing..." This individual sent me many pictures to buttress his response... and here is one of them. You'll see the time stamp on the bottom right hand corner... In other words... they had just gone through this area to prepare it to be fenced off and then I showed up, out of the blue (coal), and started stealing history! I'll call this serendipity. No, this is Tom Middleton... not Tom Hiddleston.

Weekends are really tough on me, especially Sunday evenings. I'm guessing that will be this way for the rest of my life now... It was very good to get together with Rob yesterday as it was a nice reminder of what my life was before... the person I was before, but I noticed myself slipping as the night dug deeper. We ended the night at the brewery by playing a game of shuffleboard and Deadpool pinball. Rob won the shuffleboard match and I won the pinball match so I guess that's called a wash. It was a nice way to close out the evening. So... Have I mentioned how entranced I was by this blue dye that was found near the great chimney at the old Huber Breaker? Like I wrote in the previous post, I had to find the answer as to how in the world I was able to find (what looked like) Blue Coal blue dye on the ground in various spots. Since I was on vacation for the week, I was able to invoke my inner Shadow and do a little detective work. That effort enabled me to discover the Huber Breaker Preservation Society... also known as, my new friends. More info here: http://huberbreaker.org/home/home/

FF 22 I'll take it @ 70.00

And for tonight... back to intermission. Goodnight.

We decided to meet at one of our local spots and I was shocked to see these two awesome pinball machines when I entered the establishment as I hadn't been here in a year. Seeing these was absolutely a good sign as it told me that I was on the right path here... For once, I arrived first and sat down with a nice Marzen beer and Rob showed up within a matter of 15 minutes. It wasn't more than 45 minutes in to our get together when I received a call from my wife as she thought that an electrical fire had started in our house. Ultimately, after talking with her for a few minutes, I excused myself and hurried back home. Trying to find the correct circuit breakers in the house is a challenge but once that was identified and shut off - I removed the faulty dimmer switch (that was what had actually sparked) and then went back to the brewery I left Rob at. It was a bit of a reserved meetup but he did give me this awesome book and the story behind it is pretty cool. He told me that ten years ago (yes, that's 10 years ago), he purchased a book for me from Comiclink and forgot all about it until now. The book is a CGC graded copy (8.0) of Tales of Suspense #80 and the first appearance of the Cosmic Cube! He showed me the invoice and had paid $66 for it in 2013. I'll certainly have more to add on this later...

Seriously though... I met up with Rob this evening and it was the first time since the midsomer months. Yes, I spelled it that way for a reason.

Intermission... (I know... how can this be intermission already without any posting?!) Well... I guess all of the rules have been broken.

July 17th (Monday), 2023 at 5:32pm EST I had spent just about a half hour at the old (Maxwell) Huber Breaker site and was walking back to the Jeep parked next to the big yellow house... as I mentioned when I got back, I had to explain to my wife and daughter what had just happened. First I had to rinse off the blue dye that was all over my hand using bottled water... even though I really didn't want to. After we left the area, I made our way to a McDonald's in Wilkes Barre. Through all of my excitement, I had worked up a bit of an appetite and got the family a bite to eat too. Afterwards, it was time to finish off the last stretch of this trip back home. This was when I explained to my daughter just how relevant I thought that the Blue Coal sponsorship of the Shadow radio program was to the formation of pop culture and the "super-hero" genre. I couldn't help but to be fascinated by the discovery of the blue dye and kept talking about it to my wife... I'm sure she was thrilled by this discussion. She theorized that perhaps it was placed there by locals as a novelty or maybe just a hoax. As plausible as that might've been, something seemed off about that seeing how this area didn't look like it was part of a current 'tourist trail'. I needed to find some answers but first I just needed to get us all back home As difficult as it was, I tired to put my mind at rest on this mystery of mine, knowing that I would pick it back up in a day or two as I was on vacation for that entire week. The Maxwell Breaker in Ashley was damaged during a strike in 1937 and was ultimately replaced by the the Glen Alden Co., Huber Breaker in 1939. Picture taken from: http://www.halslamppost.com/Miscellaneous Mining Items/slides/Maxwell Breaker L and WB Coal Co 1910.html

As I mentioned in a few posts above, I had been desperately searching for examples or samples of Blue Coal that was processed at the breaker in Ashley and thought I had lucked out when I found those 4 salesman sample bags. But seeing this fresh dye on the ground that Monday afternoon as we were headed back home from NJ was just over the top for me. I absolutely lost track of time and I was unknowingly making my wife nervous who was patiently waiting in the Jeep with my daughter as I was stealing history some yards away. As I was seeing more and more sporadic evidence of this blue dye on the ground, I figured that somehow, someway that was the real deal and it was right here, almost miraculously waiting there for me to discover. Like I said earlier, from the ground, I had collected a few pieces of the broken windows that was made of reinforced glass and I also collected some scattered pieces of Anthracite as well. So it was just a natural thing to do, but I sat there among this rubble and, using the blue dye I was finding in various spots, I proceeded to make my own Blue Coal! In case anyone was wondering, after the Anthracite was cleaned, sized and sorted within the coal breaker, it was then loaded into the rail car hoppers and then those were moved through the breaker underneath a large sprayer that would spray the car load of coal with the blue coloring. This is a model train example of a Blue Coal hopper... I was able to also preserve some of the dye as well... for me, at this moment, I was in another state of existence. Once I got back to the car, my wife had to tell me that she was getting worried because I had been gone so long and I told them that I would only be a few minutes seeing how I initially thought I was only going to be taking a few pictures. I had this huge grin on my face and I had to tell my wife and daughter that they had no idea what had just happened back there... I was just somehow given an opportunity to touch history at the exact moment that I needed to. Additionally, I may have stolen it too...

We didn't stay very late at the bar and after I left, I decided to take the scenic route home as there was a slight chill in the air which I thought was odd as this was a late July evening. I had to turn the heat on a little in the Jeep as I thought back to the story I told Rob of my miraculous discovery at the Huber Breaker just a week earlier. Yes, I know I jumped ahead a bit here but now I can go back and finish up that story of how I was seeing fresh blue dye on the ground in Ashley, PA.

The weekend before we were to leave for Pittsburgh (this now being the end of July), I met up Rob for a late birthday and beers at the brewery he lives upstairs from. It was a great time as I got to tell him about my adventures in Pennsylvania and especially at the site of the old Huber Breaker. I got him a few things for his birthday... just things that were kind of humorous to me although it was my wife that found the wooden circular advertisement sign.

And here we are...

Hell Week.

Intermission ... for my own sanity.

Now, this weekend that we picked up our daughter from the NJ airport, that happened to coincide with my 'in-between' vacation weeks... (Meaning - I would have this week off and then have to go to work for a week before having another week off... just in time for the PulpFest in Pittsburgh, PA.) I also wanted to meet up with Rob for some beers and a late birthday before going to Pittsburgh. I had no idea at this time though that these events that were all lining up was a prelude to my own personal hell.

While I was at this site... I let my mind wander... thinking back to what it was like here in 1937/1938. And yet, here I was, looking on the ground for evidence of The Shadow... strange, right?! Black Coal and Blue Dye Blue Coal... the colors of Batman.

There was absolutely no way imaginable that this was the actual blue dye that was sprayed onto the coal after it was processed here at this magnificent Coal Breaker that was torn down nine years ago. It was just sitting there fresh as day... almost asking to be discovered. Now in case anyone is wondering, I was desperately trying to find samples of actual Blue Coal last year. I figured there had to be some out there simply for nostalgic purposes and that's how I found those salesman sample bags along with this historical collector card which I thought was pretty cool... But this... this was potentially living, breathing history! But was it? Was it all just an illusion?

"Is that the actual Blue Coal dye?! No way, it can't be. This place was shuttered in 1975 and demolished in April... of 2014!"

Now, if you're seeing that image as I did, well... it's no big deal. Just a coincidence, right. But then, I found this... And then this... And this was precisely the moment when I felt like I had stolen time somehow. Yup...

Intermission. Before the snap...

As I (nervously) walked towards this last piece of history, that remained that I so strongly feel was the heart of our pop culture that we love today, I noticed that there was a lot of rubble surrounding the structure. Now of course I picked up a few pieces of glass and metal around that area that looked interesting but what I was not prepared to see, was this image here.

Now of course once I realized this, I had to wander off... wouldn't you?! Once I walked off the 'guided path', this is what I was faced with. Right. Up. And. Personal. (Oh, yes...)

Once I started to walk around and appreciate this site for what it was, I started to try to look at this area that I was standing in, as it would've appeared during it's time of peak operation... in other words, what it would've been like to park the car and walk through these gates in the early 1940's. Lunch-pail in hand... And so, I took more pictures of the region. But then... then, I took this picture and this was the moment that I think changed my own personal timeline. "Wait, that damn smoke stack is right behind this tree line..."

Since I feel like I'm stuck within the Doctor's Confession Dial - let's go with time... July 17th (Monday), 2023 at 5:02pm EST As I've attempted to write about numerous times here before, but got (let's call it) sidetracked, on our way back up from NJ when we picked up our daughter, I (for some unknown / known reason) took her on a field trip through the NEPA (North East Pennsylvania) coal cracking region. When I set out to go on this impromptu excursion, I didn't realize what was in store for for me, but as I mentioned before, it was on this day, on this hour that I felt like The Shadow was guiding me. Well... rather, the ghost of corporate sponsorship leading to the immediate success of one of our most treasures cultural icons of the 20th century, was guiding me. (Ahem) So... After Centalia, after "Santa Claus Coal Town", we arrived here in Ashley, PA. The home of the Huber (Maxwell) Breaker... home of Blue Coal. I parked the Jeep right where I showed that red arrow in the image above. I told my wife and my daughter that I would "just be a few minutes". You see, from where I was parked, all that could be seen was the great smoke stack, as that's all that remains here. In this series of photos, it shows the scale of what was once here in this location and that which remains... that being, the great tall smoke stack. My own photos... I knew that there was some sort of remembrance park here and that's all I was expected to find... which is why I told my wife and daughter that I would only be a few minutes. So as I mentioned before, I parked our vehicle, got out.... took some pictures and proceeded to the park. Once I walked through the gates of what was left of these hallowed grounds, I took more pictures! Again, in my mind, without the sponsorship of Blue Coal, there is no Shadow as we know...

I think I've found a format which just might work here...