OLD TIME BANDS

This is a photograph of my grandfather, Scott Walter Dobbins, Sr. The image is lifted from a picture of the full Midway Railway Band of Colorado City, Colorado and probably was taken about 1898.

Scott was born in Lawrence, Kansas in 1873 to James Sellers and Nancy Corel (widow LaHay) Dobbins. Sometime around 1875 the family, which also included Scott's older brother Gaston, left Kansas for Las Animas, Colorado, where Scott lived for the rest of his life. His father homesteaded east of the town of Las Animas and that's where the boys were raised. When Jim died in 1902, the boys inherited the land; Scott bought out his brother and then sometime around 1908 sold the property.

Both boys were musicians. Gaston played the trombone and Scott the cornet. In those days every town of any size had a band, and the boys played in the Las Animas Band. But during the summers they also played in the Midway Railway Band in Colorado City (which is now the western side of Colorado Springs). The uniform that Scott is wearing in the above photo is that of a Railway conductor. However, for major performances and competitions, the band also appeared in full Indian regalia.

I have two pictures of the Las Animas Band. I'd guess this photo dates from around 1898. Gaston is on the right of the bottom row and Scott is barely seen on the right of the last row. All you can see of him is a round face with a shako.


This second photo can be dated around 1908. Scott is on the left side of the front row, and Gaston is behind him. The little kid in front is Percy, Gaston's youngest son. I suspect that the young man with the clarinet behind Percy is Traber, Percy's older brother. Traber played the clarinet and after high school began playing in the Sells-Floto circus headquartered in Florida.


What I have learned from my genealogy studies is that music played a large part in the life of the Dobbins families. Even James Sellers Dobbins's uncles taught in a shape-note singing school on the plains of Illinois back in the 1840s.
My father played, or rather played at, the banjo and the piano. And my generation dabbled at a few music lessons - violin, guitar, piano, bassoon - but no one ever ended up making much in the way of music! But I am proud to have the Dobbins musical heritage show up in my son Sean and his family. Sean and Brendan play horns and Nancy and Caitlin play flutes and handbells. All are accomplished musicians.

Although pre-genealogy I knew that my Grandpa Dobbins (who died in 1917, long before I was born) was a musician, it is from my genealogical research that I'm able to document by pictures just what form that musical talent took in the lives of my family.

MASTERS AND JOHNSON

For some strange reason, the books that are reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, my home-town newspaper, not only never seem to be my cup of tea but also are written in such abstruse language that I can’t understand what the reviewer is saying. So I am really beholden to the New York Times weekend book review online for my ideas of what new is in print that I might like to read. That’s exactly where my idea of reading Thomas Maier’s new book MASTERS OF SEX: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love came from.

This was an extremely interesting book to read – well, that’s true but saying it that way is a little misleading. With its subject matter, it was neither scurrilous nor titillating, neither embarrassing nor boring. Right off the bat Maier’s following the childhoods of Bill Masters and Virginia Johnson (a married name) helps the reader understand how the subjects maneuvered through such an amazing adulthood and such a surprising profession. The story is not so much of sex but of the lives of these two people as they progress through researching that ultimately will change them and society alike.

Maier uses the same clinical and appropriate verbiage in describing the ground-breaking sex studies that Masters and Johnson did. His sensitive handling of this material makes this book very readable and of such interest that it is hard to put down. In reading the book there is no cause to titter, which may be a disappointment to some but which I, with my sometimes prudish bent, found very gratifying.

But the big surprise for me was that although I remember when the Masters and Johnson report came out, I don’t look back on it and say it changed my life in any way like Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” did. I guess I didn’t pay much attention to it. In the seventies I was busy moving through a divorce and later a new marriage and I suppose this society-changing study just wasn’t on my radar. But in reading this book I was astounded to see in black and white where people were in the ‘50s and ‘60s with their understanding of sex – and where this study allowed us to be taken in the 70’s and 80’s. It seems now as if we have always known these things. But as the book points out, in the 50s the word “pregnant” could not be used on TV. Such a change!

As a biography the book is a stunner. Dr. Ruth Westheimer, whom we all know from those years, says of it, "No novelist could come up with something as remarkable as the real life story of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the married experts giving advice to America on sex and love. With insightful reporting and writing, Thomas Maier has captured this extraordinary relationship between these male and female sex researchers, a legacy that transformed the way couples live today."

It’s a very good book.

TREASURES OR TRASH

AOL had a list today of 21 items that we could do without. Here's its list:

1) Ice Cream Makers, 2) Rice cookers, 3) Shoe inserts, 4) Polaroid camera, 5) Iron, 6) Hobby Kits, 7) Tie Racks, 8) Give-away thumb drives, 9) Trade show giveaway junk, 10) Bargain DVDs, 11) Ear candles, 12) Books in a Kindle World, 13) Home Theater Sound Systems, 14) Bread Machines, 15) VCRPlus Gizmos, 16) Ionic Breeze, 17) Piggy Banks, 18) Ab Rollers, 19) Radar Detectors, 20) Baby Wipe Warmer, 21) Happy Meal toys.

Now I have to agree on some of these as being totally useless. I’ve had Ice Cream Makers, Rice Cookers, and Bread Machines pass through my kitchen almost unused. I did try extra-hard with the Bread Machine but I never ever got a decent loaf out of it. All it ever did was wake me up in the middle of the night kneading away with a godawful noise just so I could have fresh bread in my kitchen at 7 a.m. (which never happened). I just must not have the touch, because even after taking a bread-making class where we learned how tto knead our own bread with our own hands, I still never got a good loaf. But to this list I’d have to add these items that rested in my kitchen for years until I hoisted them: nutmeg grinder, meat pounder, vegetable steamer, springform pan and a wok.

I would take issue with AOL’s list in that I could never think an iron or real honest book could be considered useless! I don’t iron Jerry’s underwear but I do iron lots of my summer cottons. And it’s too late in my life to consider changing to reading my books on Kindle.

There are two other things on the list that I would never remove. First is the piggy bank. When I go to baby showers, I always find a big ceramic piggy bank and place enough coins in it to equal what I would have spent on an ordinary gift for the baby. On the bottom of the pig I use acrylic paint to put my name and the date of the shower. Then the pig gets dressed up either in boy or girl decorations – or in merely unisex style if the baby’s gender is unknown. It is wrapped and presented at the shower. I couldn’t do without Piggy Banks. And I probably would be disowned by my two youngest granddaughters if the Happy Meal toys were abolished. They may be useless to them tomorrow, but for today they are the driving force of my taking them out to lunch. “Girls, where shall we eat?” I say to them. “McDonalds!” they shout with one voice. It’s the Happy Meal draw!

Jerry and I have yet to part with our slide projector, 3 carousels of slides (although we got rid of about 1000 individual slides), and hundreds of audio tapes on which we put all of our record albums. We only look at the slides at Christmas when the families get together and the latest little grandchildren want to see what their daddy looked like when he was a baby. And very honestly we never listen to an audio tape anymore. We are too spoiled by CDs, although our CD collection is very slim and sadly all of our old Chicago albums from the ‘70s are on tapes, not on CDs.

But for the most part I have to agree with AOL’s 21 items. Things come and go in their usefulness, and I’d add that a trip through the 99 cent store sometimes causes us to buy on impulse other things that really shouldn’t even see the light of day into our house. Nevertheless, seeing AOL’s list will help me look at my remaining “things” with a new eye. Does it fit on AOL’s list? I can ask myself. If so, I can ditch it (or pass it on to a thrift shop where maybe someone will see it more as treasure than trash.)

WHO NEEDS WORDS?

I have been working intensely on an article for use in a booklet I'm putting together for genealogical purposes and this morning I am just on the verge of having no words left. So I'm going to share a few photos with you with simple comments. All these photos have been sent to me by daughter Kerry. They are snaps of her little girls that she's taken in the course of their growth. Olivia is now 8 and Justine is 6. They were younger in these photos.


The photo above makes me laugh. I can see tiny Olivia's mouth telling that big horse to stop immediately. "WHOA" she demands.


I'm not sure when or where this was taken but of course Olivia is a very happy cat, actually much cuter than my own Squeaky, if you ask me.


I love this photo. How can a tiny child appear in such a dramatic photo. Justine ("Tini") is the child with the widest smile. Where did it go?


Tini is dressed as a princess and is celebrating her 4th birthday. Such a lovely photo, and such a funny child.

With photos like these, who needs words?

FOR OR AGAINST, THAT'S WHAT I'M ASKING

There is always something new to learn about. I guess that is one reason I am crazy about Google: I can hear or read something and immediately find out probably more than what I wanted or needed to know. In 99.9% of the cases, if learning about them meant I had to go down to the library to do some research on the subject, I'd figure it just wasn't worth the time and energy spent. Life with Google is, for me, the good life!

Until a week ago I didn't know about vuvuzelas. But the LA Times in their June 28 issue had an interesting article about them. As you can tell by the picture above, they are plastic horns, and in South Africa they are identified as a cultural object - a special kind of noisemaker that is blown into like blowing into a trumpet and what comes out the other end can be one of two things: something very good, or something very bad.

Music of sorts can be made on them. Here's a You-tube site where you can hear something agreeable and music-like sounds emanating from them (you'll need to cut and paste): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkN_PCsPl6w

Now that isn't actually symphonic music, but as a cultural offering it is not all that hard on the ears. But mostly the vuvuzelas are not used that way. It seems that in South Africa, blowing the vuvuzelas continually throughout an entire soccer game is "de riguer" and is actually used by the fans to give support to their home team.

As I read this article, for the most part the people quoted were in favor of a ban on the use of the horns anywhere but especially for the 2010 World Soccer Cup being hosted by South Africa. Those who oppose the ban say that blowing the vuvuzela is no different than cheering and no one would want to ban that. Those who believe a ban is definitely necessary says the only way they can stand the noise is if they watch the matches on TV and mute the sound.

As I read the article, I wondered just how bad the sound was. Surely the "ban-ers" were just purists who would prefer the type of participation one hears (or more accurately, doesn't hear) at a golf tournament. So I asked Google to give me a video that would let me decide where I stand on the issue. So I'll give you the link and let you decided, along with me, where on the ban/no ban continuum you would place yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCbP-iZb0D8

WELL?

QUICK GARDEN VEGGIE PLATTER

This is one of my favorite recipes from a microwave cooking class I took over 25 years ago. It's exceptionally colorful, and awfully good, as well as good for you.

QUICK GARDEN VEGGIE PLATTER

2 small yellow summer squash, sliced
1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 small white onion, sliced and separated into rings
1 tomato, thinly sliced
½ t salt
½ t basil
½ t thyme
2 T grated Parmesan Cheese (optional)

Using a glass pie plate microwave 2 T of butter until melted.
Stir onion rings into butter and microwave for 1 minute.
Mix in squash and tomato, stirring to coat
Sprinkle with salt and herbs
Microwave mixture on high 2 minutes or until squash is crisp-tender.
(Actual time depends on individual microwave.)
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese while hot and serve immediately

Feeds 3 or 4.


Enjoy!

ADS - A NEW CREATIVE APPROACH

Sometimes I find things that are just too good to leave unacknowledged. So this morning's blog is an article about something clever (or outrageous, depending on your particular mindset) that is going on in New Zealand.

By RAY LILLEY
Jul 3, 7:37 AM (ET)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - New Zealand's national airline has adopted a cheeky way to encourage passengers to watch its in-flight safety video: The cabin crew's uniforms are nothing but body paint.

The "Bare Essentials of Safety," screening in the cabins of planes flying Air New Zealand's main domestic routes, has gone viral online. It had 1.2 million YouTube views by Friday, four days after it was launched.

In the video, three cabin staff and a pilot, all in full body paint applied to look like their uniforms, talk viewers through the aircraft's safety procedures.

A demonstration seat belt, life jacket and arm rests are strategically positioned during the 3 1/2-minute video to protect the cabin crew's ... discretion. Passengers are shown ogling, mostly in appreciation.

The body paint idea is also being used in a series of television advertisements in New Zealand for the airline, which include the promise: "At Air New Zealand, our fares have nothing to hide."

One ad even features chief executive Rob Fyfe in body paint.

"We think in tough times there's a premium for making people smile, and it gives the opportunity to stand out in a crowd," Air New Zealand's marketing general manager Steve Bayliss told The Associated Press.

Each crew member spent about three hours having the body paint applied.

The video needed "a little bit of a hint, but every frame has to be as modest as anything you see at the local swimming pool or the beach in summer," Bayliss said.

After all, the people in the ads are not models or actors but work colleagues, he said.

Now I think that's a really clever approach, although I'm not sure the actual message of safety procedures gets through to the brain while the eyes are so busy ogling. Better, I think, is the simple approach in doing body painting just for the fun of it, as shown in the photo below. A group of 8 or 10 photos taken of different people with different paintings was forwarded to me some time ago, and while I've laughed my head off over most of them, the one below is about the only one that I feel comfortable enough to use on this blog, as it is the least outrageous.

Anyway, reading all this is a good way to start your day, don't you think?