30 May 2012

I forgot to mention that I bought a book about Scottish tartans at a yard sale on Saturday. This is my third on that subject. I hope to one day assemble an entire library on the subject of Scottish tartans, all purchased at yard sales.

I'm not Scottish in the least bit as far as I can tell, but that doesn't matter nowadays. One can wear a tartan that reflects one's interests or geography from a number of patterns. For instance, I know that there is a Clark tartan that reflects not only Scottish members of a particular Clark family, but also clerks, or the clergy in general. Since I suspect that it is likely that the earliest-surnamed member of my family was probably a priest, I could wear this. (I used to have a tie in this pattern.) Or, since I'm from California, I could wear the California tartan. Is there a Los Angeles tartan? Indeed. Burbank is a suburb of L.A.; I could wear that. Since I'm an American, maybe one of the United States tartans. Or, because I'm now a Virginian, the Virginia tartan. The U.S. Marine Corps tartan is an appealing idea, as is the Scottish national rugby team's tartan. (Except I usually root for England or Wales.) I like the Utah state tartan; it's pretty loud. Since I'm a Mormon and went to school at BYU that might be appropriate. (All Mormons have claim to Utah more or less in the way Muslims have claim to Mecca.)

Is there actually such a thing as a Volkswagen tartan? Hmmm.

I posted an aerial photo of a section of Burbank to my Burbankia page yesterday: Disney Studios, 1940s. The studios are those buildings in that somewhat trapezoidal plot of land at left. Nowadays there's a big hospital complex across the street: St. Joseph's. Not only did Walt Disney die there, so did my father. But this photo was taken before they started work on the hospital.

It's interesting to note that this photo shows where Walt Disney at first planned to put his smaller-scale original Disneyland, near his Burbank studios. As his plans developed and became more grandiose, he looked for more space. Eventually, as we all know, he bought an orange grove in Anaheim. The rest is theme park history.

Here's another curious Burbank image: The hillside. Specifically, those are the Verdugo hills. But what's that curious colonial-looking tower in the foreground? Doesn't seem to fit, does it? A bit of Philadelphia nestled among the Verdugos. It's part of the Bellarmine Jefferson Catholic High School, popularly known in town as "Bell-Jeff." Funny thing is, while there are in fact three high schools in Burbank - Burbank (where I went), John Burroughs and Bell-Jeff - the rivalry is between Burbank and Burroughs. For many people Bell-Jeff just sort of doesn't exist. I mention Burbank and Burroughs in my Burbankia page rather often and, after eight and a half years on the Internet, a Bell-Jeff grad finally surfaced to take me to task for ignoring his high school. I appointed him the Bell-Jeff point of contact on the spot, and asked him to supply material about the place to rectify the problem. I haven't heard back from him since.

The Bell-Jeff tower is a landmark in town, however. I mention it in this video.