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Santa’s Workshop and the Worst Bathroom Ever

Santa's Workshop, Hambug NYI just got back from a trip to Western New York to visit my family for Christmas. On Christmas night, my brother and I were out walking and happened to go past “Santa’s Workshop” in the Village of Hamburg. I remember seeing Santa here when I was a kid, except it was in a different parking lot. I can’t help but find it funny that kids think Santa resides in a log cabin/single-wide trailer in the middle of a plaza, but it worked on me when I was a kid.

Santa's Workshop, in the Parking Lot Santa’s workshop from afar.

At some point I ended up at the Old Pink on Allen St. in Buffalo. If you haven’t been to this bar, you really haven’t been to a dive bar. It’s filthy, open until 4am (4:30 sometimes) and doesn’t get crowded until at least 2am, the building is well over 100 years old and has never been cleaned, all the lights are red, people still smoke indoors and there is no running water in the bathroom. I even took a picture of the trough in the men’s room for you:

Men's Room at the Old Pink

If you can find bathroom worse than this please let me know. Other bars in Buffalo don’t count.

Old-Timey San Francisco: Cable Cars and Rotary Phones

California Street Cable Car at Night

The prestigious California Street Cable Car whisked us to the top of Nob Hill

On Sunday, Rob and I went into the time machine known as Nob Hill. We took the California Street cable car up to the Fairmont hotel, and then walked over to his apartment and used the rotary phone (yes, you can still use rotary phones). We had to take this adventure at the beginning of the month after he had bought a new transit pass but before his old one expired. There was no way I was going to pay $5 to ride the cable car three blocks.

Feel like you need a rotary phone of your own but you don’t have a land line? Have I got the solution for you. A rotary phone with a slot for the SIM card from your mobile phone! Okay, so maybe this is the equivalent of having a horse pull your Prius around town, but what’s more satisfying than slamming down a nice heavy phone when a telemarketer wakes you up on Saturday morning?
me on a rotary phone

The author enjoying an old-timey phone conversation

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