HALLOWEEN'S A'COMIN!

I am not totally sure that this is the way to introduce you to my husband, but with the spooky holiday right around the corner I think he'll understand.

Those of you who are "in the know" will recognize by the pix of Jerry that I am learning a little something about Photoshop, and while mostly what I've learned thus far has been applied to photos that need a tinch of editing or restoration, the capability of distorting things has given me a whole lot of ideas to play around with. So far I've distorted myself, my daughter Erin and Jerry. I must admit Jerry's face has far exceeded in drama the faces Erin and I ended up with.

I have always enjoyed Halloween. When we were kids mother used to pick our costumes for "trick-or-treating." In those days neighborhoods were safe, neighbors were kind, and we could count on getting enough candy to eat for the next year.

The picture is from my "baby book" and mother noted that I was four years old, which would make my little sister Ginnie Lou two. I can remember putting on the witch's mask that went along with my costume and hearing Ginnie Lou shriek with fear. I always thought that I didn't get to wear the mask in the picture because of that, but in thinking about it now, I suppose mother wanted a picture that included our darling little faces; posterity would not be served if they were hidden behind masks! And I'm sure our trick-or-treating at such a young age was just a token tour of our apartment building.

Later as we got old enough to go by ourselves, my sis and I tended to want to dress in attractive costumes and not look like witches, devils or ghosts. The picture below was taken when I was 11; I wanted to be a gypsy and my mother was able to sew up a costume for me that was satisfactory. I thought I was quite stunning in this outfit. As I recall, my sister was a pirate, also in a costume made by my mother.

It was long after my own children were of a trick-or-treating age that it became dangerous to go door to door on one's own. And dangerous to eat any treats that were given. It is such a shame that our society has gone down this path of meanness. Not all of society, of course, but enough that little kids today don't get to experience the wild runs from house to house lugging a pillowcase full of penny candy, excitedly beating on door after door and yelling "TRICK OR TREAT." Our parents did not have to go with us; they told us how far from home we could go. They expected us to obey and we did. We are always disgruntled at people who gave us apples instead of candy, and thought people who dropped a few pennies, or maybe a nickle, in our pillowcase were real skinflints. We wanted CANDY!

Since we've been retired and living in senior apartments, we never even see kids in Halloween costumes any more. However, I still remember with great fondness my many years of trick-or-treating and later on as teenagers, the parties we went to where haunted houses full of gross things to feel had been prepared by the parents.

This year, the nearest I can get to the real Halloween feeling is by turning my family into Photoshopped monsters. I must be honest and tell you I am having a great deal of fun doing this! I probably won't even miss the trick-or-treating this year.

BOOKS, WONDERFUL BOOKS!

I have such a tough time turning my back on books. I have always loved to read. Even as a small kid I always had a stack of books waiting for me. But as an adult with 4 kids and a full-time job, there were just some periods in my life when I couldn’t read as much as I wanted to.

I always assumed I’d have more time to read when I retired. And I must honestly say I do, but there also seem to be a lot more books I want to read. I subscribe to the NY Times weekly book review online, and many of the books they review are of interest to me. I also subscribe to the Riverside Library’s Newsletters for Fiction and for Non-Fiction.

Here’s how I keep things straight. I have a “TO READ” list on the computer. Book titles and authors get put on that list. I put books on hold at the library from this list. Then as I read them I transfer the title to my “BOOKS READ” spreadsheet, which I consult fairly often, since I have been known to forget that I’ve read a book and check it out again. So these two lists help me keep straight whether I am coming or going on a book!

At this exact moment, I have 56 books on my “TO READ” list. Can you believe that? Here’s a few of them:

Some are by familiar writers:

Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

Some by authors I haven’t read yet:

Making an Elephant: Writing from Within by Graham Swift
A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit
This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
The Amateurs by Marcus Sakey
American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods by Bonnie Tsui
There are some biographies or autobiographies:

Moon River and Me: A Memoir by Andy Williams
The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by J. Randy Taraborrelli
Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon

Some just plain non-fiction:

Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, And Rent Boys: Professionals Writing on Life, Love, Money, and Sex
The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy by Sally Jenkins

What I read and the order in which I read them depends entirely upon how fast the library can get them to me. I am truly a reading fool. I usually have two books going at once; occasionally I can do three, but it evens out to about one book a week. But even at that you can tell that I am getting behinder and behinder.

The only way I can make any headway is if I stop doing genealogy, stay up later and/or get up earlier, never knit or do cross-stitch again, or cut out my social life. Since I’m not about to do any of these things, I suppose I will have to settle for just continuing to slog along as usual and hope I live many more years!

A long time ago I had a t-shirt given to me by my son and his wife who are probably more avid readers than I am. On the front it said, in both Latin and English, “So many books, so little time.” I wore that T-shirt so much it finally looked like it should be a dust rag, and when it used up that second life it was tossed in the dumpster. Today I have ordered myself a new T-shirt, which is what precipitated this blog. The saying will be in English only. I’m anxious for it to arrive. Wearing those words on my chest will keep me from having to verbally complain to one and all about all the books I don’t have time to read. That will be very satisfying!

E-COLI FOR THE MASSES

Sunday’s LA Times had an eye-opening article on a young woman who, after eating a hamburger her mother grilled for her, became very sick and after being in a coma for nine months ended up paralyzed. The doctors think she will never be able to walk again. The hamburgers that her mom bought were frozen and from a large, well-known company. They were labeled “American Chef’s Selection Angus Beef Patties.”

Let me tell you that reading this article made me shudder. Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder, like we suppose. Instead, records and interviews show that a single portion of hamburger meat often contains various grades of meat from different parts of cows and maybe from different slaughterhouses. The Times reports that grinding logs and other company records showed that hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria.

These cuts of meat are particularly vulnerable to E. coli contamination, food experts and officials say. Despite this, there is no federal requirement for grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen.

The article goes on, allowing what happened to this beautiful young woman illustrate at every step just what these dangers can mean, in part because our government lets each company to decide for themselves what precautions they want to take. And as jaded as it sounds, I’m sure the “decider” in this case is M-O-N-E-Y.

Nothing against Uruguay, but frankly I want to eat beef from that hasn’t been shipped from another continent. The other day at our local supermarket I found a packet labeled “the meat might be from Australia, New Zealand or Canada.” To be perfectly honest with you, I never was a big meat eater, and I’ve now decided I will no longer knowingly eat ground beef. The thought of it simply turns my stomach.

I know e-coli gets in other things, like packaged salads. I also know you don’t have to literally eat something to get e-coli. I have read the reports of what goes into wieners. When Consumer Reports told me about the percentage of maggots allowed in canned mushroom, I never again have used canned mushrooms. Instead, I buy fresh mushrooms and inspect them as carefully as I can before I use them. At least I can eat them with a clear conscience. I bought plastic boards to use when I cut up chickens, instead of my nice but unsafe wooded cutting. I know I can’t stop eating because of all the things I don’t know about. But all along I have little by little decided to eliminate certain things from my diet just because I feel better about doing it. And ground beef is next.

I am sending along the URL to the NY Times article, because you should do yourself a favor and read it. Might be the best thing you ever did for yourself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?_r=1

OWEN BROWN - SON OF JOHN - II

Pasadena Standard 12 January 1889

Died, at the residence of his brother-in-law, Henry Thompson, in this city, on January 8, 1889, Owen Brown, aged 64 years, 2 months and 4 days.

Owen Brown was born at Hudson, Ohio, November 4, 1824, and was the third son of John Brown's first family, there being twenty children in all. Owen was with his father all through the struggle between the free state men and border ruffians in Kansas in 1836 and following years, and took part in the first pitched battle at Black jack on the Missouri and Kansas border, and also at Ossawatomie where his younger brother, an unarmed lad, was deliberately shot down in the street. Jason [another of Brown's sons] was also in these battles.

Owen was with his father at Harpers Ferry, a participant in that memorable raid which struck the death knell of slavery, not only in the United States but throughout the civilized world. He was one of seven who escaped from there through mountain fastnesses and swamps and forests and sassafras leaves, and such things as they could possibly devour without making a fire to cook.

...
About five years ago Jason and Owen Brown took a homestead on a bench of mountain land five or six miles north of Pasadena, at the settlement now called Las Casitas. This they subsequently sold and took land higher up the mountain side, built a cabin, cleared and worked a few acres, and lied there-two feeble old men, alone. (Jason was with his father in the Kansas struggle, but was not at Harpers Ferry.) They were much visited by tourists and citizens, some from mere curiosity and others from a warm sympathy with the historic career of the family.


...
The Funeral.-The last rites were paid to his mortal remains on Thursday, January 10. It was a historic day in Pasadena. The tabernacle was well filled-about 2000 people in attendance. The exercises were conducted by Rev. R. H. Hartley, pastor of the Friends church. The great choristry was filled with singers who sang appropriate hymns with fervor and pathos as if the very spirit of the Browns had woven itself into heavenly music.



Owen Brown was buried on top the hill pictured above. The recent Station Fire swept over this hill and if you do a google image search on Owen Brown, you will be able to see how it looks now. The grave marker no longer exists.

I got to know Owen from his ficticious voice in Russell Banks' amazing book, "Cloudsplitter." The full copy of his obituary is also worth reading. I have excerpted it here from Tom Chester's posting here: http://tchester.org/sgm/msc/brown_funeral_notice.html

OLD JOHN BROWN - I

Just about everyone will recognize this picture as being a portrait of John Brown, the old abolitionist. And if you don't recognize that one, perhaps this one is tucked somewhere in your memory.


I think without knowing the full story of John Brown, if you based your opinion of him on either of the above pictures, you'd describe a crazy man. And there are plenty of historians who would probably say you are close to being right. Not his looks but his actions might also lead one to suspect he was afflicted with a major mental disorder of one type or another.

I'm sure somewhere in my schooling I had seen these pictures and just assumed that "John Brown" and "crazy as a hoot owl" were synonymous. But I have no recollection of being taught much about abolition in school other than its connection to the Underground Railroad. I was not interested in history and really didn't pay too much attention to it.

But in 1998 I read a review of Russell Banks' newly published book "Cloudsplitter" and knew that I needed to read this book. By that time I was a genealogist who had discovered that her family lived in Douglas County, Kansas, at exactly the same time that Brown and his band of antislavery terrorists were getting ready to commit their brutal guerrilla warfare on that county -- so of course I had to read the book. It is a historical novel but solidly built on facts. Banks has given the job of narrating the book to John Brown's youngest son, Owen. And Owen takes over 700 pages to tell the story. It is so fascinating I have already read it twice and intend to read it again.

In 2002 I found, at the UC Berkeley library a small manuscript in the Bancroft Collection written up after an 1888 interview with my great-grandfather Jim Dobbins when he was living in Colorado. In 1856 he had come with his family to Kansas from Illinois as an 18 year old and they had settled in Prairie city, fairly close to Osawatamie, where Brown and his group had their headquarters. Here's what the manuscript says:

He first came westward in 1856 and settled at Lawrence, Kansas, when he arrived just in time to witness the famous career of John Brown. Being of Republican parents, and adhering closely to their political beliefs, he soon became an earnest sympathizer with that party and afterwards a zealous and important factor in the support of their cause. As a follower of the Browns he was engaged in a number of skirmishes of a thrilling and interesting nature.

Unfortunately none of those skirmishes were reported, and until I turned up that document no one in the Dobbins family even knew that he was connected to John Brown in any way.

It was finding and reading this tiny little document that made me turn to "Cloudsplitter" for a second time. And it certainly has kept me interested in not only John Brown but also his family, especially Owen.

Now as to Brown's appearance, he did not always look like he is portrayed in those paintings. To do him justice, I think it is necessary to show how he really looked, without adding on all the accoutrements that suggest "demon," "possessed," "crazy" and those types of descriptors. I like to think that my great-grandpa, after living his entire life in the shadow of his Dobbins Grandfather, a well-educated Presbyperian Circuit-riding minister and staunch abolitionist active in the underground railway (and who had his tombstone engraved "Against Freemasonry and Slavery,") would naturally be drawn to an abolitionist cause, especially if headed by a normal-looking man.


Because my great-grandpa Jim Dobbins is not named in any of the records as one of Brown's guerrillas, I am convinced that those "skirmishes of a thrilling and interesting nature" were not conducted with swords and sabres!

To Be Continued.

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

The year was 1955. I was a sophomore at George Pepperdine College at 79th and Vermont in Los Angeles, having the time of my life. Thanks to my dad for picking up the tab for both my college education and my "social life," I didn't have to work. In looking back, that was probably to my detriment, because I think my grades would have been a lot better if I hadn't had so much "playing" time on my hands. However, it was what it was, and life was good.

Between the yearbooks that I still have and the photo albums I made during my time at school, I can take a pretty good trip down memory lane. And I figure that I'd better do it from time to time while I still have a working and fairly decent memory. (Sometimes I can't remember what I had for breakfast...but at least I remember having eaten!)

There were two restaurants near Pepperdine that we frequented a lot in those days. The first one was Chalon's, which as I recall was west of the college on Manchester. We spent a lot of evenings there over cups of coffee. It was a good place to hold discussions and of course the subject matter ranged from chapel services to course subjects to college romances. We covered it all.

The second place we frequented, though not as often because it was a little further away, was Mac's Restaurant at 84th and South Fig. In my scrapbook is a wonderful full menu from Macs, a part of which is shown here. There is a date at the bottom of the menu - Sunday, April 24, 1955. In looking at the prices I just have to laugh. It was a coffee-shop type restaurant, a place college kids could go for a good meal that we could afford. But again, at least the many times I went there it wasn't to eat but to drink coffee and talk. Oh, sometimes we paid an extra 15 cents and got a piece of pie to go along with the coffee, but mostly we talked. Often that was where we went on a first date, after we went to a movie. It was a good way to get acquainted.

Jerry and I had dinner this week with one of my high-school friends and we were regaling each other with stories of what we earned on our first job. We all remembered when payments on our first house we bought were between $65 and $80 dollars a month. We remembered when minimum wage went from 75 cents to $1.00 an hour. And of course I remember when tuition at Pepperdine was $18 a unit. It was all this talk that made me dig into my old scrapbook and pull out that Mac's menu to share with you.

Our young ones will hardly believe their eyes, but the rest of us remember, don't we!

NONE

I’ve been busy watching what is being said about the “Nones” – that group of people who, like me, when queried about what their religion is check the box that says “None.” According to the poll takers, this group presently includes about 19% of U.S. men and 12% of women. It also seems to draw the highest percentage of “nones” from the 18 to 29 age group. As one would expect, older people choose “none” less often that the younger ones.

There also is some talk about this trend which, the sources I read speculate, might possibly be the prelude to another “Great Awakening” – a massive Protestant revival, or immigration bringing in more Catholic believers.

Neither of these happenings seem to be likely, as far as my thinking goes, but I doubt that immigration would do number-wise what the “Great Awakening” did the last time around. Can you imagine having a massive Protestant revival where all the “awakened” align themselves with the religious right? If I’d have to pick one or the other, I’d choose the immigration!

There also is a lot of talk about exactly what the founding fathers meant when they talked about religion. Steven Waldman's book, Founding Faith: Providence, Politics and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America is a good place to get an earful (or an eyeful, actually.) He reminds us that Thomas Paine wrote The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology and didn’t take too kindly to either the bible or religion. And as for Thomas Jefferson, he edited the bible, removed anything “divine” and left in what he agreed with.

So the next time you think to use the Founding Fathers' religion to bolster your argument, you'd better think twice. I don't think it is a very valid argument.

I’m not a “for-er” or an “against-er” I am all for everyone to his own religion. But I do think it is an exceptionally interesting thing to read and ruminate about!