Saturday, September 06, 2003
SLAVE HOMES
The geographical spot on which I happen to live , was, many years ago, a working plantation of the Old South. That was in the 1840 decade when the Weller family, who owned the land, was actively engaged in the processing of leather as part-time, year round round occupation.
They raised animals of various kinds, purchased others, and used the hides to make much needed leather. The skins were were cleaned and dried, tied in flat bundles and - for a time – sent down river from a site located to the north about a mile and half on the North fork of that river - the Shenandoah – which spreads throughout the area as North, Middle and South portions. The hides were rafted downstream to Port Republic where they were transferred to one of the larger river rafts or “gundolas” being built at that port site to be poled down the Shenandoah and the Potomac Rivers to Baltimore markets on the Chesapeake Bay.
The operation here at the Weller plantation called “Lofton” was, of course, a slave labor operation. The area is a sub-division now and the old brick home built by the Weller family with brick made right down the slope from the large house in 1844-1845.
I watched the bulldozers hit the sturdy, two-foot thick brick walls on the morning of my 80th birthday and today, looking at some of the four hundred houses being build on the land. I had lived there in that fine, old house for some years. Today I can stand at the edge of the area where the slave quarters were located, but the main portion of the site is now under portions of two houses. The main portion of the is under two of the new homes.
I know where the slave houses - three of them – were located because when we plowed that area in the 1940's we constantly turned up the foundation stones - long, limestone slabs - used as foundations as the four corners of four log structures measuring about fifteen feet long by twelve wide. The area had been used as had been used as a wood cutting and firewood storage area and had not been plowed within the memory span anyone on the old place. Local lore held that the slave quarters for the Weller Plantation's leather making operation where in back of the big house - to the west of the building called The Wash House. We used it as a cover for the woodcutting saw and for firewood storage, but, today I can stand in somebody's front yard and look out over where the three slave houses.
I find it difficult to try to to explain to others the feeling that comes over me when I do such things. I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I have been chosen to “see” such things from the past.
We get a new and improved estimate of the true worth of our own heritage when we reflect on the amazing accomplishments of those who have gone before us.. .both masters and slaves.
A.L.M. September 5, 2003 [c538wds]
Friday, September 05, 2003
STUDENT STATUS
Far too much loose talk and mis-information is being bandied about these days concerning the much criticized SOL tests which were designed to see where children really should be when they arrive at a specific grade level.
In general most people seem to feel the tests have been a lamentable burden for young people and they tend to work have them dropped. As a general rule both make a rather dismal showing at all levels. They have brought to light many things many parents would rather not know about the educational system. Summer School attendance has trippled in most areas but it is voluntary and not compulsory, so few take it seriously. Parents feel frustrated when they find that their "A" student can't read, for instance. They are chagrined when their child needs to attend "summer school" which, to most, has always been a degrading term. School official have been calling it by other names as much as possible alluding to "Intensive Study", "Reassessment Sessions", and avoiding use of the term "remedial" at all costs. That has been saved to use as a threat against anyone who refuses to attend summer classes setting forth the idea that, when the regular school session starts in the Fall, they will be "required" to take special "remedical " or "make-up"classes.
I have been amazed at the fact that the teacher's unions allowed the exams to be. Much of the difficulties the students are experiencing are being attributed, as some might have foreseen, to inadequate teaching by poorly qualified people. The NEA is usually more alert to such threats.
The Federal government rushed in with a "solution" to meet all such educational lapses. President Clinton elected to set aside $1.3 billion to hire 30,000 new teachers! Just where he found 30,000 qualified teachers and suitable classrooms in which to place them, has not, as yet, been determined ,or, it seems, even considered. It is largely election time talk and is not intended to be fullfilled.
A.L.M. September 4, 2003 [c366wds]
Thursday, September 04, 2003
VERY FEW DO
Very few accidents just “happen. Bad luck is often invited.
It may be difficult for us to determine cause, primarily because doing so might show up poor judgment on our part.
That would suggest that we can eliminate many of these accidents, or at least cause them to be less costly insofar as injuries are concerned.
We are most concerned with the every-increasing number of automobile crashes. There are so many variables in the formula bringing about such incidents, including simple negative attitudes by many drivers. We tend to legislate against mishaps and to devise “rules” - even laws - whereby others are supposed to improve the vehicles we drive on our behalf. Very often, the new legislation, actually brings about new problems and invites other accidents to happen.
Each year during this fall portion of the year, as our school system begin functioning, a great deal of special attention is given to safe playground equipment; revision of building standards to eliminate all sort of potential problems, and the media does a good job of spreading the word about safety rules when walking or rid or riding. Such actions are commendable, but more accidents of this nature occur at home or near home than at school. Statistics are vague and inspection of facilities virtually impossible, but the average backyard play or sand play area is a haven of accidents waiting to happen.
That's where the average one of us might make ourselves more useful. Each year there are accounts of children hanging them selves on fault ropes and wire attachments to non-school play ground equipment. Much of it is often simply worn out and needs replacement. Know where your children play after school . You will find some home-made rigs which are less expensive to built, perhaps, but more costly in accident percentages. You do not have to be a Ph.D. in mechanical theory to know when equipment is unsafe for your, or any other child,to ride. They are in even more danger at home if they have learned to place their trust in the newer, more modern equipment at school on on public property.
We all have “at home” areas of safety we might tend to with greater care. In doing so we can get at the reasons behind many accidents, before they take place.
A.L.M. September 3. 2003 [c402wds]
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
ALL SPEAK
Years ago we sang a popular song which had the lyrics: "T'ain't What You Do; It's the Way That You Do It!." The lyrics to that song were written by versetile James Young ; music by Sy Oliver and I remember Louis Armstrong singing them for us.
A recording of that old tune should be required listening for all those indivudals and groups presently pontificating on the pitable place of programming for television.
They are words basic to much commo-sense qualites.
I cannot abide the type of TV program in which there are three or more individuals who are supposed to give their opinions on a subject when all three are allowed, and even encouraged to talk at the same time. This format, if it can be called one when it goes beserk, is a valid means of passing information along. If the speakers observe common rules of politeness one to the other, everything goes well. Such “shows”get out of hand far too often and you wonder if the networks have called in Jerry Springere to producer their news shows.
It is witnessed on TV often and seems to stem from a urban mindset concerning common politiness. That may be unfair on my part, but the majority of this discussion-type shows originate in metro areas. I have seen it on ABC's "Night Line" and it drove me away from a favorite person in Ted Koppel. An otherwise enjoyable and profitable show is sacrificed. One revent afternoon FOX network providediced such an "arena" which kept going on -and-on. The plan calls simply for lining up three talking heads and make sure that they all three talk at the same time eagerly tryingto out shout the other. This can go on for five minutes or more at a clip in many cases and after a moment's respite during which we hear a commercial insert it can , and usually goes back for more of the same argumentative muddle! For long stretches the viewer gains nothing from the mass harrange. Emcees seem to be not only powerless to curb it, once it starts, and some even join in on it in an attempt to outshout others. Panel members, as they berate each other, or go right on lecturing steadily with no indication the others might be talking.
Certainly we deserve better treatment than this from guests invited into our home. It seems to be becoming more common, too, so I leave at the first indication of any such impolite exhibition. Certainly the network executives must realize this is talking place. I often wonder if TV people every watch TV at all. So called "new programs" are echos of others far too often and panel shows are, I suppose, low-budget time fillers as are so many of the magazine-type shows. Small wonder the major networks are steadily losing out to cable, individual superstations and to Internet and the computer world.
Comedy scripts – many of them of worthy material - are mis-handled in like manner. A display of cleavage is not cleverness, nor is cussing commendasble for comedy offered as family fare.
A.L.M September 2, 2003 [c523wds]
Tuesday, September 02, 2003
AREA LIT
Prose and Poetry - by place.
That seems to be an odd way in which to seek to classify that which we write, but we continue to do it as long as we insist on publishing and sustaining the highly subsidized “little”or “literary” magazines.
Each lays claim to being an entity, yet each strives constantly to be like all the others. After a time, reading each of them, you come to know the “DNA” of the areas, yon can single out specimens of each by linguistic clues.
One guide I find to be particularly useful concerns the manner in which writers use profanity, obscenity, sac religious terms, references to specific biological functions and eclipse ... the use of “beeps” or graphic representations of such a sound for intended but unwritten words.
Modern literature makes wide use of all of these mannerisms, of course. The very cause of generation of such terms comes from the users basic lack of vocabulary and that creation of such supplements will fill in and have shock value, as well. So much of such mis-usage it comes about when young people are away from parental and home-town social controls for the first time and striving to assert their worldliness. Gaudy embellishments are used by writers who simply do not have the vocabulary scope needed. There are still publications which do not, as a rule, accept such material, but they are rare.
Literature is also a commodity today and is marketed as such. The halcyon days of such generalized magazines as “The American . “Collier's”, Saturday Evening Post”,, “Delineator”,” Redbook,” supplemented by a host of magazines called - and often ridiculed as - “the pulps”- “Astounding Stories”,”Ellery Queen”, “Doc Savage” are gone. Many of the magazines of that day, all of which displayed what is now considered to have been puritanical pretense. The use of profanity was curbed unless it was considered essential to the story. It was seen as sign of weakness in the writing of stories to depend upon such additives. The responsibility was largely with the editorial control of the magazines - from Publisher through various Editorships.
The so called literary magazines today seems to divided themselves into geographical areas. Content is supposed to reflect such-and-such an area. Profanity is used and augmented form time to time with with other such colorations. Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, South, Deep South - with ethnic pockets found in each of them, tend to use profanity often, augmented by physical and biological terms, and religious oriented terms. The style is brisk, sketchy, profane and biased. In the West we find a more masculine type of profane usage with biological coloring. In the far west, coastal areas the tone seems to be more feminine; drifts from pole-to-pole and is quite prone to excess in any one pattern .Oriental allusions are more frequent, too, especially in the loose ,so-called poetry which clutters many half- pages. It seems to feel it is setting standards by which the rest of the writing world must use. Our fiction writing and poetry are very sensual today ...profane, I think, on purpose and ,quite often, ineffectively so..
The entire concept will be readily evident if you will read a few pf the many college and university quarterlies. Not all are, as yet, infected and some of the finest writing and reading is to be found in those which have maintained a standard of decency. But many are “carriers” infected beyond any possible reclamation. Many are repositories for all types of profane usage and sophomoric pretense.
Our “Little”magazines are committing suicide and, quite possibly, taking with them many individual creative talents worthy of more proper and proved attainment.
A.L.M. September 1, 2003 [633wds]
Monday, September 01, 2003
WHERE DO WE GO FROM THERE?
In September and the Fall of the year of 1999, you may recall ,we, as a nation, were faced with a series violence in our public schools system which shook the very foundations of our educational system.
Much talk was heard in those days about new and better ways to avoid such tragic events in the the future. Some of the suggestions for change, we now see, were as silly as were the suggestions were for many of the New Century crisis conditions we worried about so extensively at about the same time.
What changes will be made in our public education system as result of of that surge of violence at the end of the old century?
Very little, it seems.
There was an upsurge of "at home " teaching, I would say and, perhaps, a resurgence of the private school on the American educational scene.
All fifty states have already legalized "at home" tutoring if parents choose to do so and teach their own children. Some 700,000 such students are so enrolled and it is a short step for several families to group together; hire teachers and have their own private schools. There are religiously oriented "Acadamies" scattered through out the country now and these, I think, will also prosper as a result of the violence. Many of the schools in this group have remained small because they cater primarily to those within the religious denomination or sect sponsoring them. They were all started as a direct result of the segregation legislation of the 60's. As they have grown they have relaxed religious rules somewhat and are more open for new membership than they were originally.
Gun control areas for discussion, remains pretty much the same now as it was three years later. In our immediate area of Virginia where deer hunting is, for many, a basic part of the school year, bickering continues as to determine if an unloaded shotgun may be left locked in a pick-up truck on a school parkig lot, while the student-driver-owner is inside at his studies. Is a locked pickup a properly storage container for the gun as long as the
student-owner,or user, has the truck key and the ammunition supplies for said weapon sequestered? Such nicities as that have crowded the acceptance of such legislation out of the practable picture.
Even while much talk about "changes" in the school system continue, I I doubt that much will move. The "system" is too deeply established to expect it to change to any marked degree. The teacher's "labor unions" are in control and have been for some time, while ,at the same time, administrative personnel are so deeply entrenched in a tenured structure of academic ignorance that they find it difficult to accept. Whatever changes we see in the educational system will hit in time, as a result of the frightening new upsurge of violence, but that too will be more or less forgotten quickly. Many states rushed legislation through three years age, There was a clamouring for re-establishment of old "standards" and " values" and the politicians climbed on popular bandwagon for a time.
That surge of violence was one of the most disruptive things to come up on the American social scene in a long time and, coupled, as it was with excessive scandals in government and a generally lowering of morality in our culture, it was taken seriously by many people. But this year, locally, just before the opening of school this past week, the “crisis” in schools demanded the prompt removal of carpeting from all class rooms and replacement with tiles flooring. A threating mold had been discovered.
So, somebody's out there making changes, you see. All is not lost.
a.l.m. August 31, 2003 [c618wds]
Sunday, August 31, 2003
RETURN TRIP
It often strikes me that the return trip from vacation takes longer than it did to go away.
The last fifty miles or so of road home seem endless! That final fifty makes you want to get back home where you belong... makes you wonder if going away was such a bright idea after
all.
Another idea haunts me so often in those last few miles before getting home. Suppose our house had burned down while we were gone! Everything gone! Where would we all stay that night? Who would take you in? What would become of all of you? Then, the last mile or so. You inspect the sky and don't see any billowing smoke from houses on fire and don't see any billows of black smoke, then, sure enough. You turn the corner and there's your house right where you left it. Every thing is the same except the grass has grown another inch or so and needs mowing. There is such a feeling of gratitude from being home that you even anticipate the privilege of revving up the mower and doing the lawn again.
You are thankful, too you have found your favorite spot once more after a week or so of wandering in strange places. There is comfort in familiar surroundings and the fact that you all arrived home without physical damage is seen as a special blessing.
I happen to be writing this during the Labor Day Week End period which is often a costly time for us in human lives lost or injuries sustained. I wonder,as I write, how many parents and grandparents are sharing the same thoughts and concerns about their traveling offspring this day.
A.L.M. August 31, 2003 [c279wds]
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