Posted on 10/13/2015 2:38:31 PM PDT by Utah Binger
Robert Clunie was born June 29, 1895 in Renfrewshire, Scotland. He began painting outdoors in his native Scotland at the age of 13 and was accepted to the Royal Scottish Academy. However, he cancelled his enrollment choosing instead to go to America.
In 1911, he and his older brother William boarded the S.S. California for New York. Upon their arrival to the United States, they joined relatives in Saginaw, Michigan. In January 1918, wanting to escape the dark cold Michigan winters, Clunie boarded a train to Pasadena, California. It was on this return train trip back to Saginaw that he first saw, and fell in love with, the Sierra Nevada, taking the northern route over Donner Pass from San Francisco. By the end of 1918, he and his older brother drove to California.
The Edson and a sister ship were in a twilight zone episode. (30 Fathom Grave)
I was up in Chester, Vermont last summer, very small town, and I passed a building with a sign that said something about “Merritt Edson Day” and I was looking at it thinking...where have I heard that name before...
Then I remembered: USMC, Guadalcanal...Medal of Honor...
Chester, VT was where he grew up, and they remember him still...
I’m going to have to check that out!
Watching it now...I HAVE seen it before!
My mom lived near Clunie St. in Saginaw. It’s on the West Side of town.
I remember going for rides at night across the bridge, and seeing the Jackrabbit Beans sign all lit up, with the jumping rabbit.
I think the “Beans” sign has a jackrabbit on top. It was for Jackrabbit Beans.
As far as I can find, the Jack Rabbit didn’t appear until 1935. It is a well known landmark around here.
http://jameshowephotography.com/blog/2010/12/michigan-bean-bunny-saginaw.html/
according to the link I posted, the sign was put up in neon in 1947. Just saw that this morning when showing it to my sons. I’m pretty sure that’s the same building, and it has the neon sign on it now too. In the ‘60’s when I was a little girl, we would look for it in the night sky on car rides to cool off in the summer before bed. That was when it was still safe to drive on Saginaw’s East Side at night.
I knew some Clunies growing up, I wonder if they are related to this artist.
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