Creepy House

There is this abandoned house down the street from me off Lucas Ave and what split's into Beverly and 2nd Street. I looks like it has been neglected for many year's. I am not sure how long it's been abandoned , or why nobody has bothered to touch it. The only attention it has gotten is from people catching spots (tags) on it. It is one of the few old houses left on Lucas Street since the new apartment complexes have gone up in the past five year's. The original state of the area is mostly long gone but a few still stand. A few year's ago there was a big hype about a 93-year-old man names Bob Pramenko who refused to sell his 1910 Craft man style home on Lucas Ave. It was said he got offered up to $700.000 to move but refused to budge until he passed away last year. He had a lot of pride and certainly loved his history and home. After he passed away the bank got the house and the property was recently sold to Essex property who owns the Belmont Station Apt Complex. Honestly it is kind of a shame that now there it is all apartments around here with a few scattered houses which look out of place now between the huge apartments. I used to come to the area when the Belmont Tunnel Graffiti pit was cracken and seen how the area changed quickly. I guess it is all just memories for some. I asked a friend who grew up in near-by Echo Park about the house and he said it has been tagged on and abandoned since he could remember. If anybody knows something about this house I would like to know. The closest address I could find on Google was 108 Lucas Ave.



This looks like the front of the house facing 2nd St along the 1st/Beverly bridge but there is no entrace in this part since it is on a steep hill. The staircase below leads up to the side of the house off Lucas Ave.
The staircase is overgrown with weeds and mud.


My homie is being silly in the picture

The Laundromat of my dreams!

A while back fellow blogger EL CHAVO! posted about a Laundromat he goes to near his house. I grew up going to them so I immediately took interest in the post and remembered all the long boring times I spent forcefully at the Laundromat. My mom and dad used to make me go every weekend up until I was like 12 or 13 years old. It was the worst thing ever, even though I never really helped wash the clothes I still had to go for some reason. Sometimes I would help fold socks or a blankets that was fun but aside that I had to make the Laundromat an adventure. When I was younger I would run around with the clothes carts, dash in and around the tables and washing machines, find the lint in the dryers or maybe put quarters in the soap machine. I went there so much I had a dream to open up my own Laundromat and make it a fun place to be. We visited all the Laundromats in San Pedro depending on the street we lived on at the time. They where all similar some better then others but they all had their creepy moments especially at night. It was the normal though you just had to keep a look out at some places and make sure nobody jacked your clothes.

I guess I gave up that dream sometime around 1997 when we moved to a new house we said good-by to the Laundromat days. We finally got our first pair of washer and dryer and that was the end to that. Laundromats are still interesting though I mean the new ones they are building look classy and hip like this Laundromat in San Pedro had air conditioning, flat screen TV’s brand new video game machines, steel tables and furniture, it is totally a “cool” modern Laundromat.

fancy laundromat (womp womp)

There is a built in washer and dryer where I live now so I do not have worries about going to the Laundromat but….when I walked into this magical place on Ave 19th and Broadway I fell in love! I wanted to be able to go to the Laundromat again and relive my childhood ha ha! I found a place that stands still in time, what a trip! It is grimy and old but it has so much character and it looks like it survived many wars. There was no cleaning lady around, the change machine did not work (that is why I went in there in the first place) but it was a dream, it was an art installation with out even trying to be . I think we went back a couple of decades in that place but it was worth it. Laundromat gentrification has not set foot in this joint it was totally amazing! At least in my crazy imagination lol….

I loved the studio lighting and the bars very nice!

Maytag washers in a mustard yellow color, they had to have been at least twenty years old.

You can't have an original laundromat with out the wood paneling


The coin machine was so discreet it had not sign or nothing. I tried to put my dollar in it but it was out of order. There was a nice paisa guy that ended up giving me change for a dollar so that was coo, I guess you got to get quarters elsewhere.

There was a very nice dim cutty area in the back. I loved it it was like a private VIP only area.

The table to fold your clothes.

The clothing carts where pretty gangster, the edges where binded in duck tape! that was a nice touch you can't hate on that.

These machines where my favorite as a kid.

I don't think these ones work anymore, but they have decade old scribes on them which where pretty interesting.







It looks like they do try to scrub off the graffiti that gets accumulated which is a sign they care a little. You can't help but love the orange, yellow and avocado green colors. Those colors totally back in style when it comes to decor. There are no video games or T.V's here so the place is pretty lonesome and quiet except for the rumbling of the machines but I guess the place lived a long life. It just wants to be left alone already but it still manages to keep it's door open for those that care to come here and wash their memories away.



My friend said he wants to play a show there a quick laundromat punk rock session, he said he has played spontaneous shows in laundromats around town. They just plug in their equipment and rock out till they get booted, I will keep everyone updated!.

Ralph's downtown and my coupon's

photo via google

My friend and I went grocery shopping last night at the Ralph's in downtown; we had spent Sunday night clipping coupons so we decided to use our coupons there since they double coupons still up to a certain amount. Well the downtown Ralph's is really nice and new, the selections are more gourmet and the "Fresh Fare" theme means it is more upscale targeting a different demographic (hence higher prices). But we decided to go anyway and use our coupons and only buy stuff on sale. As we browsed some of the isles we noticed that even the sale items weren’t that great of a savings. I was not sure how their double coupon program worked there since it had changed,so I decided to ask the customer service desk. There where two what looked like GM clerks setting prices I asked them how their double coupon thing worked, but they had no idea. One girl then spotted the manager and asked him about it. The manager was a young Hispanic guy with a shaved head you could see tattoos on his neck and arms under his white coller shirt. He looked like he could of been some gangster but it seemed more to me like he was just a LA guy who was trying making the "gangster look" cool and was tatted down like most people . He was nice and professional but he said that they don't double coupons, which got me annoyed. I told him the other Ralph's do double coupons. He said they did not there but he seemed confused about it as well. I told him dang this Ralph's is really tying to be all bougie. He just laughed. I guess they are not used to people really bothering with a coupon who knows. There is a Ralph's by my job in Lomita with a big banner that says " Double Coupons Everyday" I should have expected that from that Ralph's but I did not think they would not know anything about coupons. We kind of got annoyed at the high prices. We found a couple of good deals like on Ralph's brand bagged and sandwich cheese and toothbrushes in which we used one coupon we had at face value but that's it. We just decided to go randomly and look for only the sale deals that you can't pass by but as far as a full grocery cart we are heading elsewhere. We headed to Food 4 Less and tomorrow we are going to the 99 cent store. During these times you got to be smart about your shopping. It was shocking at some of the prices at that Ralph's. I worked at Vons when I was younger and the savings I got from using coupons was wonderful! This was back in 2000 thru 2004 when the prices where cheaper and they doubled coupons. I would get the best deals, now I gone to Vons and it is expensive and they don't double coupons. I had to give up going there even though I felt at home there.When I got home I went on the Ralphs.com website and signed up to get the weekly ad emailed to me. I also noticed there was a Ralph’s not much further to us on Third St and Vermont. I think I am going to start going to that one because I know it will be much cheaper then the downtown one. I also like going to all the smaller chain Hispanic grocery stores for their cheaper prices but it does mean going to a couple different stores to do your shopping. Again times are rough and we got to be smart to survive.

Does anybody have money saving shopping tips to share?