Asprin, Bellybuttons and Bandaids

Ah, spring.

This past weekend presented a couple of perfect 70F days with little or no wind and so we set out to rake and plant and sow seeds and celebrate the coming of a verdent summer filled with the smell of roasting brats and roses. Sunday evening, as we sat on the deck overlooking our day's work with a cold beverage in hand, it started. The first itch.

By Monday morning, my neck, nose (nothing's sacred) and chin were blistered. By Tuesday, the small families of ivy rash had moved to the top of my feet and legs. Clearly, maximum doses of Benadry and witch hazel weren't doing the job, so I cried uncle and called the clinic.

It was fairly obvious to my fellow patients why I was there. "Did you try a mud poltace?" A sweet voice whispered over her Ladies Home Journal. "Witch hazel" I replied. She nooded.

My mother grew aloe vera plants and at the onset of a rash, burn or cut would snap the end off a stalk, spit the shoot in half and bandaid the gooey mess to the injury.

We all have our traditions. I thought I'd share some from "American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940."

• Colds: Turpentine and lard rubbed on the chest. If turpentine isn't available, use coal oil or kerosene.
• Measles and Smallpox: Dried and baked sty-pig dung made into a tea. Sheep dung works too.
• Sore Throat: place a small amount of powdered sulphur in a paper funnel, and place the small end of the funnel in the sufferer's oral cavity and blow. If the victim coughs or blows first, the cure becomes a two-fer.
•  Motion sickness and allergies: place an aspirin in your bellybutton and secure it in place with a bandaid
• Warts: gather as many pebbles as you have warts, rub one pebble on each wart, then take them to a crossroads and throw the pebbles over your left shoulder. The warts will go with them.
• Warts (version 2): Take a chunk of dried mud fallen from a hoof of a mule, and rub it on the wart. Spit on the under side of the chunk, and then place it on a gatepost.
• Stiff neck: wrap a pair of underdrawers which have been worn more than two days around the neck.

A cortisone shot and a day one dose of my methylprednisole multipack complete, I look almost human. But it probably wouldn't hurt to tape an asprin to my bellybutton.

Loosing your Marbles

Two weeks ago, I drove to Nacogdoches to spend summer break with my granddaughter Lily, a fifth grader. Since we really didn't have anything planned, each day unfolded much as it did when I was 10. We woke up when we liked, ate what we liked, and spent most of the morning poking fun at one another's hair and choice of clothes.

The first day, I scanned the Internet looking for cool things to do in town. They'd just moved to Nacogdoches in January and immediately settled in to a new job and new school and so had not had the opportunity to scout out local fun spots. We had a picnic lunch at the arboretum and walked the azalea trail, and visited Millard's Crossing Historic Village where Lily tried the hand pump and corn husker. We made shrinky dink charms and shamrock-shapped cookies for St Patrick's Day. We didn't spend any time in front of the TV.

Since we didn't have television for most of my childhood, my brothers and I spent weekends and summer vacations in the creek catching crawdads, in trees, or playing with green-plastic army men in dirt and tree twig forts. One of my favorites, was a marbles game called "ringer."

You start with either a chalk line on the sidewalk or by drawing a 2 foot circle in the dirt. Each player choose 10 marbles (typically ones they weren't afraid of loosing) and their best shooter. The goal is to knock a marble out of the circle; if you succeed, you get to keep the marble. If you don't, your opponent gets to take a crack at it.

Shannon had Saturday off, and so we decided checkout the historic district and some antique shops. Lily stuck with me as I pointed at one old game after another shaking my head that they were now considered "antiques." We came across a ziplock bag of about 50 Tree Frog Marbles that included a couple of nice-sized shooters. I smiled and handed them to Lily. "Why are you buying those?" she asked. "Because I lost mine."

I have a bid in on these beauties through eBay...now to find a steelie.

How to Play Marbles  ( <---- click here for a little refresher)

Brownies

According to Kodak's history of page, the Brownie Hawkeye Flash Model camera was manufactured from 1950 to 1961 and sold for $7.00. The Brownie Hawkeye featured a molded Bakelite body, brilliant viewfinder, a rotary shutter and a Meniscus single element lens that was in focus from 5 feet to infinity and used 620mm film which I was surprised to find is still in production.  As are replacement spools, how-to articles, development houses both locally and online who specialize in black & white photography, and much more.

I found a model just like my father's (shown here) on eBay for $45.00 including the box and pamphlets.

I'm sure all of my baby pictures and those of my mother and brother were captured through the lens of this camera, but I'll save those stories for another time. Instead, I'd like to share an article from The Ladies' Home Journal, November 1892 and my thanks to Chuck Baker for posting (http://www.brownie-camera.com/articles/origin/origin.shtml).




DURING the publication of the series of the "Brownies" just closed in The Ladies Home Journal, the question has often come to me "What is the origin of the Brownies?" And perhaps there is no better time to answer this question than now, before the next series of "Brownie" adventures shall begin on this page.


The "Brownie," as the cyclopeaedia informs us, springs from an old Scotch tradition, but it leaves us to follow up the tradition ourselves and learn how far back into the past it may be traced. Now a tradition, or legend, is about as difficult game to hunt to cover as your literary fowler can flush, but enough can be found to prove that the "Brownies" were good-natured little spirits or goblins of the fairy order. They were all little men, and appeared only at night to perform good and helpful deeds or enjoy harmless pranks while weary households slept, never allowing themselves to be seen by mortals. No person, except those gifted with second sight, could see the "Brownies;" but from the privileged few, principally old women, who were thus enabled to now and then catch a glimpse of their goblin guests, correct information regarding their size and color is said to have been gained.

THEY were called "Brownies" on account of their color, which was said to be brown owing to their constant exposure to all kinds of weather, and also because they had brown hair, something which was not common in the country where the "Brownie" was located, as the people generally had red or black hair. There are different stories about the origin of the name. One is that during the time the Covenanters in Scotland were persecuted because they were said to teach a false and pernicious doctrine, many of them were forced to conceal themselves in caves and secret places, and food was carried to them by friends. One band of Covenanters was led by a little hunchback named Brown, who being small and active could slip out at night with some of the lads and bring in the provisions left by friends in secret places. They dressed themselves in a fantastic manner, and if seen in the dusk of the evening they would be taken for fairies. Those who knew the truth named Brown and his band the "Brownies." This is very plausible, but we have too high an opinion of the "Brownies" to believe that they took their name from a mortal. We are inclined to believe that the well-deserving hunchback took his name from the "Brownies," instead of the "Brownies" deriving their name from him. Besides the story does not reach back far enough.

THE "Brownies" were an ancient and well-organized band long before there was a Covenanter to flee to caves and caverns. Indeed, from what can be gathered from the writings of ancient authors, one is led to believe the "Brownie" idea is a very old one. It is fair to presume that the "Brownies" enjoyed their nightly pranks, or skipped over the dewy heather to aid deserving peasants even before the red-haired Dane crossed the border to be Caledonia's unwelcome guest. Every family seems to have been haunted by a spirit they called "Brownie" which did different sorts of work, and they in return gave him offerings of the various products of the place. The "Brownie" idea was woven into the affairs of everyday life. In fact it seemed to be part of their religion, and a large part at that. When they churned their milk, or brewed, they poured some milk or wort through a hole in a flat, thin stone called "Brownie's stone." In other cases they poured the offerings in the corner of the room, believing that good would surely come to their homes if "the Brownies" were remembered. On out of the way islands, where the people could neither read nor write, and were wholly ignorant of what was going on in other parts of the country, so much so that they looked upon a person that could understand black marks on paper as a supernatural being, the "Brownie" was regarded as their helper.


The poet Milton had doubtless one of these "Brownies" in his mind when he penned the lines in "L'Allegro" to the "lubber fiend," who drudged and sweat

"To earn his cream-bowl duly set."


But, strange to say, he was not as complimentary as the untarnished reputation of the "Brownies" might lead one to expect. In some villages, near their chapel, they had a large flat stone called "Brownie’s stone," upon which the ancient inhabitants offered a cow’s milk every Sunday to secure the good-will of the "Brownies." That the "Brownies were good eaters, and could out-do the cat in their love for cream, is well proven in many places.


IT may be gratifying to some to know that even kings have not thought it beneath their dignity to dip the royal pen in the "Brownies" behalf. King James in his "Demonology" says:" The spirit called 'Brownie' appeared like a man and haunted divers houses without doing any evil, but doing as it were necessarie turnes up and down the house, yet some were so blinded as to believe that their house was all the sonsier, as they called it, that such spirits resorted there." Other writers say that the "Brownie" was a sturdy fairy, who, if he was fed well and treated kindly would do, as the people said, a great deal of work. He is said to have been obliging, and used to come into houses by night, and for a dish of cream perform lustily any piece of work that might remain to be done.


The superstitious inhabitants had absolute faith in the "Brownies" wisdom or judgment. The "Brownie" spirit was said to reach over the table and make a mark where his favorite was to sit at a game if he wished to win, and this "tip" from the "Brownie" was never disregarded by the player.
THE seeker after facts concerning the origin of the "Brownies" will find it difficult to gather them in. He may visit the largest libraries in the land and turn the leaves of old volumes that have been neglected for centuries, and fail to find more than that at one time in the long long ago, the "Brownie" was a power in the land that no well-regulated family could fail to do without. One thing is certain, however, the more we learn about the "Brownies" the more we like them. Theirs is a genealogy that one can trace back through the dusty centuries of the past without finding one blot on their scutcheon, or discovering that they descended from a race of robbers or evil doers. It is indeed refreshing to learn that at a time when the age was so dark that even Christianity could scarcely send a ray of light through it, and when every man's hand seemed to be against his brother, when poachers, moss-troopers and plundering men of might were denuding the land, the "Brownies" through rain and shine were found at their post every night, aiding the distressed, picking up the work that weary hands let fall, and in many ways winning the love and respect of the people.

Uphill in the Snow, Both Ways

It took me 20 years to appreciate pinto beans and cornbread.
Mom was fond of reminding us of the starving children in Biafra and although I had no idea where that was, knew that it didn't make the weekly pot of beans and ham hocks taste any better. And it wasn't that I didn't like the taste of beans; I didn't like the thought of beans.

One of the patrons at the library today brought in stories written by his grandmother, one of the original settlers in northern Minnesota. As Jack read, he'd throw in a personal experience here and there: growing up without electricity or indoor plumbing, and riding 30 miles to school every day, in a wagon... in the snow, both directions. And so it started.

Pretty soon we were all bragging about who had the most snow on their bidirectional hill. Rita grew up in rural Wyoming (as if there were a part of Wyoming that was not rural) and shared stories about canning, baking bread and making the kid's clothes. I was still reading Jack's grandmother's journal and announced that she'd put up 500 jars of tomatoes, beans and fruit. "In one year??" Rita replied. "Yep...that's what it says. Sears and Roebuck must have thrown a party when they got the order for canning jars that year."

I didn't like wringing out wet towels and jeans any more than I liked hanging the laundry on lines strung in a cat's cradle across the kitchen, livingroom or bathroom to dry on cold winter days. But I loved bathing in the rinse water. We didn't have a washing machine, so mom filled the bathtub with towels, coloreds and a cup of powdered Tide, and then whichever child was handy would roll up their pants legs, climb in and stomp the mix until the sudsy soup turned a light blue. Then she'd pull the plug and refill the tub until the water level just touched the overflow. After ringing out the last of the wash, we'd hop in and stir up the remaining suds playing submarine until our fingers and toes shriveled like pink raisins.


I probably lost 90% of my potential reading audience with the title alone, but for those of you remaining, rest assured that one day you too will be sharing tales of yore with anyone not quick enough to see them coming and dodge for the nearest exit (uphill, in the snow, both ways).

Military Monday that I didn't finish until Tuesday



LST 374 (1942 - 1945)

When my father died, my brother and I found an old briefcase hidden under a table on the patio of his apartment. His wife Madeline didn't know it was there and suggested that we just throw it out. In the briefcase was his old address book, the Scrabble game he played with me and my brothers over 40 years ago, a couple of pictures of me and my brothers, my mother, and my children. And an envelope with 30 or so photographs of his ship and his shipmates.



LST 374 (1942 - 1945)



LST 374 (1942 - 1945)



Like many impassioned young men of the time, my father enlisted in the Navy in July of 1942 with a falsified birth certificate. He was 16 at the time and had just completed his junior year in high school. After recruit training at the NTS Newport, RI, he was transfered to the US Navy Training School and received a completion certificate as a radioman with a second-class petty officer rating. After a quick trip to the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, he was transferred to the Amphibious Traning Base in Solomons, MD where he joined his shipmates on the LST 374. 

LST 374 (1942 - 1945)

According to Wiki and the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, LST-374 was laid down on 12 November 1942 at Quincy, Mass., by the Bethlehem Steel Co.; launched on 19 January 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Victor D. Herbster; and commissioned on 29 January 1943.



LST 374 (1942 - 1945)



During World War II, LST-374 was assigned to the European theater and participated in the Sicilian occupation in July and August 1943 and the invasion of Normandy in June 1944. She returned to the United States and was decommissioned on 29 May 1945 and struck from the Navy list on 12 March 1946. On 14 January 1947, the tank landing ship was sold to A. G. Schoonmaker. LST-374 earned two battle stars for World War II service.



Don Hanson (top right), USS LST 374



This morning, I completed a Flag Order Form and sent it and a check for $18.00 made payable to The Keeper of the Stationery, The Honorable Mark Pryor, 255 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510. I've asked that the flag be flown for my father and the men of the LST 374.



Rainy Days

In her later years, my mother began our telephone conversations with a weather update. "Are you okay?" she'd start. "Yes mom, why?" I already knew the answer: she'd called to advise me of the tornado over Tulsa and to remind me to stock up on candles, fresh water and canned soup. When we were children, our home in Dallas had a fallout shelter in the back yard and at the first scent of metal in the skies, we'd scamper across the wet grass, bedclothes under arm to sit in the damp darkness and listen to the wind howl overhead.

The skies today are gray with a low-hanging fog lying heavy on the lake. A pile of research notes, journals and several wads of first drafted letters to the Board for Correction of Naval Records crowds my keyboard. I'm not sure how to finish the drafts. And not ready to turn my back on them either.

Sometimes my research takes me in directions I'd not expected. For all of the sunny day discoveries I've made, there have also been gray days. Generational grandparents, uncles, and cousins who were slave owners. Some who fought honorably in wars; some who did not. Some who worked hard to support their families and communities, and some who turned their backs. I can't undo those events, but I can pick through the scattered pieces of their lives and shed light on their contributions, their successes and marvel at our ability to endure.

Facebook for Farmers

Thurman Dudgeon age 25
Capricorn. Single farmer from
Kentucky, doesn't chew or drink,
likes watermelons.

Ever wonder how your parents met? Your great-grandparents?

I've succumbed to a daily dosing of Facebook to catch up on friends, my kids, my grandkids, the status of our pending 40-year high school reunion and to get the skinny on who's-dating-whom. Technology has made it possible for that information to be available realtime on my moble phone, on my desktop computer, or as a picture-in-picture snapshot on my HDTV. Rather than a paper-based subscription to our local newspaper with my morning tea and banana, I subscribe to an online feed through iGoogle. This morning's eye catcher focused on social networking.

"1 in 6 Marriages Met Online" I found the headline interesting and unnerving at the same time and so I read on. Match.com recently conducted a survey of 11,000+ of their members who'd met and married within the past three years to determine the number who had met through an online dating service. Admittedly, the article was a sales pitch and the metrics, a reach:

1. Through Work/School 36%
2. Through Friend/Family Member 26%
3. Via Online Dating Site 17%
4. Through Bars/Clubs/Other Social Events 11%
5. Other 7%
6. Through Church/Place of Worship 4% 

“The world has changed,” said Greg Blatt, CEO of Match.com. “We get married older, we work longer hours, we move around more, we’re generally busier. These changes have put pressure on the way we traditionally have met our significant others. Luckily, with these changes has come an increasing openness to doing new things. Online dating has grown so much in part as a response to these societal changes, having become the third most important way we meet our significant others, even though it didn’t even exist 15 years ago.”

He's so wrong. Although technology has expedited the transaction, the underlying vehicle, correspondence, hasn't changed in thousands of years. The median age for first marriages in the United States in 2007 was 27 for men and 25 for women (my great-grandparents were 27 and 20, respectively in 1892). The typical workday in 1890 was 10 hours 6 days a week; for farmers, the 7th day was only shortened by the amount of time it took to drive the surrey to church. And as for an increased openess to doing new things...



Julia Pigg age 19
Scorpio. Farmer's
daughter from
Kentucky; loves
watermelons.



As Chris Enss explains in Hearts West: True Stories of Mail-Order Brides on the Frontier:  "The vast acres and the trees and the gold were all there, and the men set about carving their place in the wilderness. By the early 1850s, western adventurers lifted their heads and realized one vital element was missing from the boundiful western territories: women." The Matrimonial News, a San Francisco-based newspaper was dedicated to "promoting honorable matrimonial engagements and true conjugal facilities" for both men and women through advertisements. Published weekly in San Francisco and Kansas City, Mo, gentlemen's ads under forty words were published for twenty-five cents in stamps or postage; ladies' ads under forty words were published free. Anything over forty words cost either sex a cent a word.

Ads were fairly progressive conversation for the time. The letters ranged from fun a flirty to down to business: "I am fat, fair and 48. 5 feet high. I'm a No. 1 lady, well-fixed with no encumberance; I am in business in the city but want a partner who lives in the West. Want an energetic man that has some means, not under 40 years of age, and weight not less than 180. Of good habits. A Christian man preferred."

The point that Mr. Blatt failed to mention, but that his survey clearly pointed out, is that 77% of us still meet and establish relationships through personal introductions, though work or church. The scarcity of women in the West in the 1800s and rapidly-changing times challanged traditional-thinking men and women to find new ways to secure a mate. Sometimes the relationships failed. Most of the time they endured.

I don't know how Thurman and Julia met, but they worked together to build a home, a farm and a life together. It's not the way you meet your partner that ensures longivity. Respect. Common interests, common goals, joy and the affirmation that you're both taking the journey together seems to be the key.

A newspaper article in the local newspaper written by Ms. George Scott  around 1930 reads:

"The quaint little city of Orrick and community has many places and people of interest...if you were to travel west of town for four miles you would find one place of great interest. There a west road loses itself behind a screen of maple trees, flowers, paw paw bushes, honeysuckles and sumac. There a wife, modest and unassuming, and farmer with his hospitality dwell. Their home is know as the Riverside Home... Upon approaching the home one is attracted by the inscrition on the cement walk: If you can't smile don't come in.

As one enteres the house, a moto upon the wall bears these words: "I'm satsified, My little home is poor and plain, No tapestries are there. No marble statues grace it and no clock is on the stair. But I've a little plot of ground, we labor in each day. So thankful for the growth and yield, we often stop to pray. A tree nearby gives gracious shade and God is there to guide; My little home is plain and poor, but we are satisfied."