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Saturday, February 26, 2005
ONE OF THREE Here in the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia three housing styles dominated construction dominated construction. General classifications have been used calling them "Pioneer", "English" and "German". There were, of course, variations on the overall theme of housing and many combination of features from in other styles was common. Contrary to much general opinion few log houses were found in any of the colonies. The first such dwellings were built by Swedes and Finns who settled in the New Jersey area. That was in 1638 and the log buildings did not become widely seen until the mid 18th Century when the Scots, driven westward into mountainous, heavily-forested areas by economic factors, used materials at hand to construct homes, farm buildings - even churches such as Tinkling Spring and Augusta Meeting houses in Augusta County. Both were originally log structures around 1740, as were new fortifications built in the wilderness to the west.. Augusta's "Ashley Manse", just across U,.S .Route 11, is a log structure with some later-era modifications. The type of house called "Pioneer" is much the same as that called "Salt Box" in New England. In the deep south they are called "Cats Slide" and in the mountainous regions - "Dog Walk" houses. English settlers in Tidewater Virginia brought with them tradition of a sixteen foot square, single room dwelling with a door in the front and perhaps, one window. Oddly enough the first slaves brought to Virginia - African coastal dwellers built single room houses with fourteen or eighteen foot dimensions. A fire place was often added to one, a chimney for all-purpose family use. A loft was built in the roof area for sleeping. Subsequent improvements or changes called an "ell" added usually with a roof slanting downward from the main roof. In New England this new area often became a "Birthing Room". In the Shenandoah Valley it seems to have been more commonly called a "Keeping Room". It was also used for cooking, food preparation, as a store room or pantry for foodstuffs or for storage of supplies, seeds, and seasonal items. Usually this simple type of home served the needs of the first generation but it time, as families grew larger a need for expansion was met simply by adding another house of the same type and leaving a space open or covered - between which became the "Cat Slide"or "Dog Walk" designations. The Lincoln Homestead in Rockingham County, Virginia is an example of the finer, larger, brick homes built in this manner... one room at first with a duplicate house erected next door as the fail grew and more room was needed. A.L.M. February 26, 2005 [c450wds]
Friday, February 25, 2005
PRO DAYS I have always accepted the idea that I was old enough to remember the days when we were trying out the idea of a nation prohibiting making and selling of alcoholic beverages. I have always associated that era with the period just after World War I - about 1919 into the mid-l930's I was unbelieving recently when I read that the State of Kansas went "dry" in 1881. That early? They banned all alcoholic beverages, at the time, the biggest industry in the territory - not yet a state, and I wondered if that action played a part in the plans they had to show merit sufficient to become a star in our national flag. The southeastern section of the state - Crawford and Cherokee Counties, in particular, which is said to have been rich in local traditions, folklore beliefs beyond imagining, and strong "western": values to which they held stubbornly. Writers have called that portion of Kansas "the Little Balkans" and with good reason. They proved to be a fermenting agent in the brewing "Saloon War" of 1880 . Shooting and stabbing occurred almost nightly when the "drys"and the"wets" were at odds which was most of the time. We sometimes overlook the fact that this era and this locale had such regular citizenry as that associated with local names such as Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Luke Short and the James Brothers. The people of that area "worked hard and played even harder" it has been said, and the laws which permitted liquor by the drink were meaningless in the face of the fact that the state prohibition ruling was made by means a of a change in the state constitution. One of the key personalities in the Kansas "Saloon War" was, however, was not from this list of lusty benders and breakers of the law. The keynote activist was, rather, a woman. The keynote activist was from Garrard County, Kentucky where she was known as a quiet girl - "not too strong" - who spent most of her time reading the Bible. She fell in love with a young doctor named Charles Gloyd and moved to Belton, Missouri. They had one child who was "afflicted" at birth and the mother blamed the flaw on her husband who had become a habitual drunk. He drank himself to death within in the next six months. His widow tried school teaching for a time but without success. She decided the only way to be ahead was to re-marry. She selected a man who was nineteen years her senior. He was a combination lawyer-minister-editor. They moved to Texas and when husband David was named Minister of the Christian Church at Medicine Lodge, Kansas they moved once again.. There, they settled down a bit. She organized the Women's Temperance Union at the church, served as a jail evangelist, taught Sunday School, and started lecturing on the evils of tobacco and strong drink use. One night she dreamed and heard a strong voice ordering here to "go to Kiwoa!" Obeying the voice, she, the very next day arrived in Kiwoa and physically trashed out her first prosperous saloon - as of June 1, 1900 - and became known nation wide as a Carrie Nation - ax wielder, rock tosser, thrower of bricks gift-wrapped in old newspapers, often an iron rod affixed to her cane and a leader of furious groups of screaming women furious groups of angry women seeking to "Protect Our Homes! She wrecked over thirty saloons and paid her fines by using money which flowed her way from the sale of pewter badges and pins - replicas of her crusading hatchet. Carrie Nation was also a skilled merchandiser and public relation operator because she quickly expanded her protests to include woman's suffrage, prison reform, prostitution, illegal gambling and anything which would enlarge her support base. So many people think of Carry (Amelia) Nation as a small, rather petite woman; a somewhat subdued little lady. I held that view for many years but I found that she stood a full six feet and threw one hundred eighty ponds or better behind every brick, iron rod, hatchet or ax blow while mocking her opponents as "rum-soaked, whiskey-swilling, Saturn-faced rummies!" and yelling at her helpers: "Smash, ladies, Smash!" Her rough tactics gained growing sympathy all across the nation.. It is generally said she did more to enforce prohibition than all others combined. She dictated her own epitaph: "She Hath Done What She Could". A.L.M. February 25, 2005 [c758wds]
Thursday, February 24, 2005
PRIZED POSESSIONS What are the true values of our times? What on things or quality is it which is most esteemed of all that we have at this moment in our lives? And - more important, perhaps: how does it, or they, compare to what we have called "good" and "most valued" in the past. By knowing this we can best plan for a future that shows progress rather than decline. The more I think about such things, the more convinced I become that mankind does not change as much as he likes to think he does. All of us are still pretty much what we have been, as a family, for generations. Oh, yes... we are, indeed, "better off " - much more better off because the outer structures have changed, become more refined, perhaps, more enjoyable, much safer, and re-fashioned to assure us greater creature comforts. Within each of us changes have been more or less forced upon us by circumstances, but it is amazing how - in spite of the many improvements made in our overall situation - many individuals have retained concepts of hate, distrust, envy chicanery, lust, avarice, and all such negative qualifications which were, perhaps, common in man's path from primitive crudeness to comparative maturity. I, for some reason I never explain honestly -even to myself - I find it difficult to believe that which so many self-appointed authorities seem to be ever ready to tell me that "Mankind is going to hell in a hand basket." Some where, away back in the shadowy portion of our minds we know so little about - there seems to endure an unquenchable spark of an idea which insists we, indeed, are all created beings of a Higher Power. Our best is His best. We all strive to attain to a level which will sustain a connective reality with thing which might be "out there" in the void beyond out present understanding. The knowledge we have gained is, to me, the most valued single unit of progress. Electronic marvels have come to us in recent times which could increase man's knowledge of that which is good and available to all. It may be equated with Man's discovery of how best to make use of fire. The flame of the future awaits ignition. You may be the means of doing so. The simple belief that you are such a person is the best thing in your life and worthy of working toward as a goal. The fact that we are still here speaks well for our conduct up to now. Use the wealth of your present abilities to improve your lot, and of those about you, and the future will be bright and welcome. A.L.M February 24, 2005 [c-460wds]
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
A LL-CARD TIME
Look, Ma! No Buttons!
Now, just when I have about become used to getting along very well in a "push-button" world the "Bose" boys bring out a fine new, home super audio system which features a total lack of buttons across the front. Not a button, lever, arm, toggle or touch area!
All such operating aids are to be found on a "remote control" said to be about the size of a credit card assuming, of course, that you can find it.
I realize this is "progress", but, as usual, I have some difficulty fitting into things progressive. It takes a while, before I become accustomed to such changes. I think a great may people feel the same way; not opposed to change but comfortable for a time when established rules and regulations are being modified or expelled. have to use it a while - unlearn those things I have acquired through past encounters with such unknowns.
The next important invention needed, I feel, is now a hand-held "finder" for misplaced controls containers - or cards. I assume we already have buzzer-type gizmos which can locate lost control bars under pillows, in upholstery, in the bathroom, bedroom or kitchen. Certainly our put-upon cell phones can ring out such items for us. What we really need now, is, however, one card which will change colors when told to do so. One card does all. It operates anything. Use it when colored green, for instance, and you have complete control of your TV; click it to become purple and you take over our computer or audio system or heating and air conditioning for you home. Gray to run the vacuum cleaner; whatever color you prefer to renew prescription medications and to decide what furniture needs to be sold this month in order to pay for them. Many of the mundane household jobs can be done with such a card of many colors and we are right on the edge of the roadway leading to automobiles which are coming to be more computers than cars In the near future, if the family SUV suffers from some malfunction, you can press the "All-Card" and restore any ailing software in your car's make-up.
Switch to pink and you become an expert barbecue chef; try brown an and, blues, shades of green and shocking tones of bright orange just to see what happens.
There will be need for just one such card. And, in keeping with the need to eliminate all buttons - the point at which we have currently arrived -
consider having the All-Cards card tattooed on your forearms, your lap or made available on your eyeglasses by means of a chip or two inside.
I wonder if I will ever be ready for that special time of super-attainment people call "tomorrow".
A.L.M. February 23, 2005 [c496wds]
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
WHICH FITS YOU? Are you viewed as being "resolute" or merely "stubborn"? If you have been listening with close attention this past week to the speeches being made by our President George W. Bush the past week or so, you may have wondered if he has suddenly shifted to a whole new new crew of presidential speech writers. It is a refreshing and most encouraging thing to see and hear a President of the United States telling other nations what they must or must not do. We have, for much too long, witnessed our leaders moving among the nations cajoling, suggesting, wishing and even begging or buying cooperation in areas of mutual need. We now have a president who seems ready to set forth his views in more deliberate terms. He has been telling our sometimes weak and vacillating allies not what he wishes they would do - but, rather, what they "must" do. He has rather skillfully cajoled his way past the critical, areas of stuffy state protocol, routine and habit and telling them not what he "hopes" they might, in time, decide to do, but what he expects them to get done - and right away, too. There has been an unusual amount of individual, personal and sincere praise and sincere appreciation for their limited support in the past, too. Bush has, wisely, not held back on that important ingredient. One gets the feeling, too, that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in her initial get-acquainted visits to leading capitals, might well have set the stage for such a shift to more positive position assertions to follow with the presidential appearances. Reaction to such rather stern instructions as those President Bush has been issuing to Germany and to Putin in Russia has been keyed to alert some disbelief overseas. Here at home our media ind-moulders have not yet seen the picture or even heard - much less credited - the more aggressive tone of what is being said. The George Bush we are seeing in action in the middle of the month of February 2005 is somewhat different from the way many of them have pictured him to be. The George W. Bush we are now seeing and hearing is more aggressive in tone, text and intent. He can be what he is becoming for several reasons: one - with the presidential election over much of the petty political quibbling has ceased and he fact that he now leads in a "lame duck" situation is something which encrouages him to take chances, to "let fly" and suggest ideas which have a better chance of success in an atmosphere of unity. He can now tell nations what their place might be in building a better future for the peaceful democratic nation of Iraq - put some teeth in their talk about their willingness to combat poverty, disease, ignorance, and other such seeds of terrorism. Bush can now speak to the United Nations as a kindly old Grandma character telling them to get their nasty, little, stained hands out of the "Oil For Food" Cookie Jar - or else. He might even get tell to them to clean up their Living Room a bit ...now... right away! By 3 A.M. next Tuesday morning, at at the latest. Go Bush! Go. Be resolute. Be stubborn. Good work. A.L.M. February 22, 2005 [c559wds]
Monday, February 21, 2005
ETHICS? MORALITY? Recent shifts of rather large segments of our national population in regard to problems of morality and ethics concern suggest that we might take an inventory of just what our present holdings are of such commodities. Divergent groups seem to anticipate our becoming more active in the morality/ethics area than many have been in our campaign roiling. I find some people thinking the move toward piety and purity to be a positive one, but I am also aware of groups which express fear rather than favor of considering the wisdom of taking such a problem engendering political pathway. It seems to me this problem has been nagging us ever since Vice-President Dan Quayle had nerve enough to become openly critical of a nationally popular TV star of that day who was playing the role of an unwed mother in a sit-com type comedy farce. His error was in naming a popular TV star and in condemning the roles unmentionable nature of her physical change. Had he stayed with politically safe areas and been critical of the "stage", or of the "theater" is comments may well have gone along as standard politician;s talk about the source of much "evil in this great nation of ours"...but to zero in on the specific form of Murphey Brown was a error which cost Dan Q his career. Since that incident "m&e" has not been what it once was in a political sense, and is best avoided. We will need some time to try to determine what we have done; what we are doing now and what we intend to to do in the near future. If we set our goal too high we can be certain of failure; if we keep them low, we are merely passing time and fooling ourselves more so than others. We can spin wheels for a long time by arguing over the results of the most recent elections. There is strong evidence that the religious groups among voters propelled the Bush ticket back into office for another term. Such groups are accepting congratulations when they hear such those sentiments and trying to ignore anyone who refutes them. Do we actually need new laws created especially to curb the very methods which have out us in a position where we can even consider making such laws which would make everything or much of what we have done in the past seem wrong...evil. I doubt that our ultimate arrival a such a near-perfect situation will ever come about in the form of codified laws. I think, rather, that are gradually discovering that fact that humility, love, compassion - along with morality and ethical conduct are all states of becoming...of being to which we all must strive, rather than a possession to be grasped; not a physical goal to be arrived at by a planned route but more of a condition, place or situation not physically astride of a set spot to be captured and held. True morality and ethical conditions are basic concepts and attitudes we come upon, respect and hold dear. Do we even know what it is we are said to be searching for in such a despondent quest? We are a loose wagon in need of a horse. We are a wandering star seeking an orbit. What are the realities of our dream? A.L.M. February 21, 2005 [c577wds]
Sunday, February 20, 2005
WORDS, THESE DAYS We are using up words faster today. It seem to take far more of them to explain what they are and are not and to set new meanings or to firmly set new modes in our mind and memory. Isn't it true that we used to take on new words which entered our language gradually? It sometimes took years before some were "accepted" No more. Now, they are thrust upon us and we, in short order join, gleefully, it seems, in beating them to death with overuse. It just might be that the technical nature of our society today may have added this tendency toward new words being contrived, but the new meanings of old words seem to outrun actual innovation's, I'm sure. When I was a youngster my folks ,when speaking of the street cars which operated suburbanly from the actual geographical limits of our City of Norfolk, Virginia to the beach resort strip called Virginia Beach, same state, called that street-car rail service "the shuttle" . I liked the sound of it because I knew a shuttle to a a wooden bobbin-like things that wiggled back and forth and got nowhere in knitting machinery. It seemed so apt to the idea of cars shuttling back and forth, day after day - going nowhere. Years later my brother and I, on a trip which for called us to fly from Washington, D.C. to New York City caused us to "take the shuttle". It was sort of loosely-scheduled airline connections by Eastern, as I recall, operating old, well-used Trans-Pacific "Constellations" which still had Pan-Am "Survival at Sea" things on their monogrammed seat covers. They departed when it appeared they had a full load ready. My grandchildren now speak of shuttles and do not feel it necessary to preceded the term with the word "space" We have really seen changes in the word "shuttle". The advertising people, long ago, learned to get a good grasp on a word no one was using, and spread around to their particular business needs. Pretty soon everyone was using it and they were using a "buzz"" word .Such terms used to endure for years, but their span of life has been shortened by excess of radio, TV sage - and our own loose lips. Right now buzz word is:"awesome" with younger people' "anti-bacterial" with older folks. We over used "lipator","cholesterol," "chlorophyll"," lanolin", a host of shortened medical terms, word lifted from popular songs, and a few outright sillies back to where I remember when saying "twenty-three skidoo!" was "in". We also have a multitude of words coming in an out of the language which are cut-downs of long, technical names and designations. Some, will, in time, replace the long jawbreakers entirely. We should all be grateful that ours is growing language. Let's try to keep it that way even when we tire of buzz words. Try your hand and head at predicting what the overdone word will be one year from now. Write down your choice and check it next year at this time. You might hit it. Awesome! We should count ourselves to be very fortunate to be living in a free nation which does not sponsor, favor or permit a national academy which determines and decrees which words shall be allowed to enter the language and which ones will be excluded. A.L.M. February 20, 2005 [c577wds]
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