Greetings from Mystery Island where the cool kids are hanging out this week.
And we are having fun–if only it weren’t so darn hot! Most of our VBS activities are outside and it is literally 100 degrees in the shade. But I am keeping up with my 10-year old charges, who are good sports and are staying hydrated.
I have my own fond memories of Vacation Bible School. Back in the day my Episcopal church held a VBS with two other churches (Ladue Chapel Presbyterian and Second Baptist). Although practically 50% of my school class went to my church, no one went to VBS. It wasn’t cool and everyone was busy at their country clubs. But we went and my mother even helped. I always had fun and made a few new friends.
Many years later, when I was a junior at Williams College, my friend Bob from Long Island went skiing in Switzerland over spring break. While he was on the ski lift, he started talking to the young man in the seat next to him. When the other young man said he was from St. Louis, my friend said, “Oh, do you know Katie Chamberlin?” and the guy said, “Yes, I do! We went to Vacation Bible School together!”
They had a good it’s-a-small-world laugh over that, but I think it really blew Bob’s Jewish mind.
The heat has been turned up and they are forecasting that our flyover high will hit over 100 degrees today. Yippee.
Daughter #1 returned from her conference in San Antonio and I picked her up at the airport. She stayed for the weekend because she has a work thing today, so we were able to indulge in a good bit of patio sitting and a few estate sales over the weekend. We also attended the home and garden tour presented every June by Historic Saint Louis. There are 25 homes on the tour and this year we picked two we had never visited.
First we visited the Hawken House in Webster Groves. It was the home of Christopher Hawken, the great-grandson of Niclaus Hachen (Hawken) who came to America from Switzerland about 1750, settling in York County, Pennsylvania. His father, Jacob, came to St. Louis in 1807, where he began crafting the famous Hawken Rifle in a shop on the Mississippi Riverfront.
You will recall that the coveted Hawken Rifle was the “gun that settled the west,” since it was prized by so many famous westward explorers and trappers, including Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, John Fremont, Jim Bridger, and Robert Campbell, the famous St. Louis fur trader.
Anyway, Christopher’s wife, Mary Ann Kinkead Eads, was the eldest of three daughters of Granville O. Eads and Lucinda Sappington. Lucinda was the only child of Thomas Sappington (of the Sappington House) and his first wife Mary Ann Kinkead. They built the Hawken House in 1857.
The beautiful home was moved (intact) about half a mile to its present site when it was threatened with demolition in 1970. It was the first home in Missouri to receive federal funds for restoration, which matched the amount raised by the citizens of Webster Groves and is listed on the National Historic Register.
The informal parlor where (allegedly) Ulysses Grant played cards with Mr. Hawken.
Next we ventured to Overland to visit their historic circa 1850 Log House…
…which was likewise moved from another location (in Wildwood) under threat of demolition. This small group of local preservation enthusiasts, however, moved the cabin piece by piece and rebuilt it on the present site themselves! This project took eight years to complete. I was very impressed. The museum features exhibits of Overland and the Overland Trail, displays of antique toys, accessories, and firearms. As Overland is part of the Ritenour School District, the OHS displays memorabilia from the district.
The two historical societies with homes we visited could not be more different. Webster Groves is a large, prosperous town with a lot of privileged residents, while Overland in North County is a small, working class municipality. However, both have residents who are interested in history and actively work to promote its preservation. I find this heartening and I salute them!
In other news, I stayed after church again to help set up for VBS and to have a tour of the campus so I will know where I am going on Monday. There were over a hundred volunteers–men, women, teenagers! My dread was somewhat assuaged, but I tell you, I am kind of freaking out. At first I was just worried about being too old and decrepit to do this, but now I am wondering if I am even up to leading my eight ten-year olds in devotion time. I tell myself that until recently I was the director of an institute at a large university for many years, and I can handle this…but can I?
Last night I was in the mood to watch an old movie and was lucky enough to find a good one that I hadn’t seen before, The Real Glory (1939) directed by Henry Hathaway of True Grit and The Sons of Katie Elder fame and starring Gary Cooper, David Niven, Broderick Crawford, Reginald Owens and Andrea Leeds. Set in 1906 during the Moro Rebellion in the Philippines, three American soldiers (one a doctor) at a remote outpost try to train the local Philippine Christians to fight off the marauding Moro tribesmen who are Muslims. It’s quite an adventure.
The plot shares standard elements with films such as Gunga Din and various later westerns: the trio of friends stationed in a remote location; a local sidekick; competition over the love interest; scary enemies, and plenty of opportunities for bravery. In this photo we have the calm before the storm: Broderick Crawford, who plays the sweet but distracted dreamer of the trio, shows his buddies his prized orchids, while they exchange witty banter about a bud.
Somehow the film manages to combine the set pieces into something original and much more complex that this post suggests. At the obligatory party, for example, the boys vie for the attention of an officer’s newly arrived daughter,
but the fun ends when one of the sneaky Moro assassins machetes the commander to death in front of his horrified wife – a disturbing but skillfully handled scene.
The Real Glory is not afraid to be edgy. When members of the local militia fall sick from fear of the Moros, Gary Cooper heads into the jungle, captures one of the rebels, and threatens to sew the Muslim’s body into a pig skin so he cannot go to paradise.
The ruse works without use of the pigskin or any violence. The terrified Moro reveals that he is all too human, and the militiamen recover their will to fight.
Eventually, the Moro rebels dam up the river leading into the town, leaving the people to rely on one measly well. Soon cholera breaks out, and Doctor Gary Cooper is nearly overwhelmed with sick and dying people. David Niven comes down with the disease, but his friend’s capable treatment is able to save him.
In desperate need of fresh water, Gary leads an expedition to blow up the damn and save the people, but while he’s away the Moro attack. A great battle ensues – will the dam-blowing crew return in time to save everyone? I’ll let you find out the answer. The Real Glory is available to watch at Amazon or you can pay to watch it on YouTube.
Wikipedia dismisses the movie as propaganda, but I don’t think that is a fair assessment. The action took place in 1906 and the movie came out in 1939, just after the Nazis invaded Poland. What is wrong with depicting men and women as brave and upstanding? We could use such role models now. In the Real Glory all the main characters behave admirably: the female lead is plucky and competent and never complains; the heroes are brave; the Padre is wise and supportive, and the Filipino militia stands its ground. Calling such a film propaganda suggests that people did not have those qualities. History has proved otherwise.
I have to admit that my reading material has not been terribly cerebral these days. But it is summer and that’s my excuse.
I have been re-reading books from Craig Johnson’s Longmire series and enjoying them anew. Walt and Henry Standing Bear are old friends and it is always a treat to be reunited.
I am also reading Confessions of a French Atheist, which I heard about on Carl Trueman’s Mortification of Spin podcast. Guillaume Bignon is an analytical philosopher and computer scientist working in New York’s financial industry. He is also an evangelical Christian whose conversion story is very interesting. “As the foundations of his unbelief began to crumble, Bignon discovered the wonder of a God that offers salvation freely and not by good works.”
Chris Kyle’s American Gun, which he was writing at the time of his untimely death, is a timely read.
“There’s a saying that to really know someone you have to walk a mile in their shoes. I’d add that to really know our ancestors, we have to put on more than their shoes, which were generally poor- fitting and leaky. Hitch a plow to an ox and work a field for a few hours, and you come away with a whole new appreciation for what your great-great-grandpa did come spring on the Ohio frontier. Pick up a Kentucky long rifle and aim it at a fleeing whitetail, and you’ll learn real quick about how important it is to use every bit of an animal you harvest; you may not have another one down for quite a while.”
This man understood context.
“Whether they’re used in war or for keeping the peace, guns are just tools. And like any tool, the way they’re used reflects the society they’re part of. As times change, guns have evolved. If you don’t like guns, blame it on the society they’re part of.”
As for what I have been watching, it is a combination of the usual old and vintage movies and some newer documentaries. I watched The Jesus Music (2021), directed by the Erwin brothers, and featuring interviews with prominent Christian artists like Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Toby McKeehan, Kirk Franklin et al. I am old enough to remember the Jesus Freaks of the 1970s, but I had no idea there were Heavy Metal Christian bands in the 1980s. It really is fascinating to watch.
I also watched The Capote Tapes (2019) which is another look at the court jester of the rich and powerful set. There is nothing really new revealed in this documentary, but I have always liked Truman Capote. He was a very talented writer and his demons were real and actually quite relatable. At the end of the movie Andre Leon Talley talks about the items he bought at the auction of Capote’s estate. The thing he wishes he had gotten was an old tin still filled with the cookies Truman’s Cousin Sook had sent him long, long ago. That just about did me in.
(Both documentaries are available on Hulu.)
Meanwhile, I am gearing up and getting my head in the right place for Vacation Bible School next week. Again, I say, keep me in your prayers.
P.S. How could I have forgotten to mention that the wee twins “graduated” from pre-kindergarten last week. What ho, on to kindergarten in the fall!
Daughter #2 is filling in while Daughter #1 is in San Antonio, TX for a conference. Good timing, since I’m happy to share an update about sweet Katiebelle and her second birthday! Can you believe it?
“Who, me?”
Katie is officially in an “early pre-school twos” room at daycare and seems to have grown up immensely in the past few weeks. She talks in full sentences — mostly demands — and can hold a genuine conversation.
One of her favorite refrains, if DN and I are talking in adult voices, is to shout “Mommy daddy no talking!” Sometimes her father replies, “Oh, ok, does Katie want to talk instead?” and she says “Yeah,” so he asks, “What do you want to talk about?” She grins and says “Mommy mommy mommy mommy.” I find this very endearing. She is increasingly independent, but I think we know around whom the world still turns.
A fun day at daycareKatie has learned to pose for pictures, but in most, she’s actually saying “Mommy no cheese!”
We had a low-key birthday at home — though we are throwing a party with friends this weekend — where Katie was surprisingly interested in and adept at unwrapping her gifts.
Cherries and trucks: Katie contains multitudes“Rip, tear.”
The biggest hit, as expected, was a toddler-sized vacuum cleaner that lights up and spins confetti. She immediately took to the rugs, exclaiming “More clean floor!” and mimicking my vacuum lunges exactly. She even knows to vacuum “under chair!” to get all the dust. Brilliant.
So, while there is certainly a lot of increased shrieking, running, and general havoc-wreaking, Katie is just about as sweet as can be. Feel free to check in when we reach “threenager” status, but for now, we are doing OK!
This week marks the anniversary of a great barbecue held in honor of Daniel Webster in 1837, the highlight of the statesman’s visit to St. Louis.
When news of Webster’s proposed visit reached St. Louis, arrangements for his reception were made at a meeting in the Masonic hall. A boat, the H. L. Kenney, was chartered to meet the steamer Robert Morris on which the Webster party was journeying through the West. The two boats met a little below Jefferson Barracks, and the committee of welcome boarded Webster’s steamer to greet the orator. The boats passed by the St. Louis wharf to give the visitors an opportunity to view the city and then returned to the Market street landing. Webster and his family stayed at the National Hotel during their stay in St. Louis.
A crowd of about 5000 gathered to hear the “God-like” Daniel speak on the day of the barbecue. A long procession of citizens, led by Charles Keemle as marshal of the day and accompanied by “a choice band of music,” escorted Webster to the site of the barbecue, a grove owned by Judge J. B. C. Lucas. After the barbecue, Webster delivered his address, which lasted an hour and forty minutes.
Although most contemporary historians and newspapers praised his speech, the Missouri Argus, voice of the Jacksonian Democrats, stated that Webster as an orator was “almost below mediocrity, or else at this city he made a most miserable and complete failure.” This attack was “probably more partisan than truthful”–gee, do you think?–the editor fearing the political effect of Webster’s visit and hoping to neutralize it. (You will recall that Webster joined with other Jackson opponents in forming the Whig Party, and unsuccessfully ran in the 1836 presidential election.)
Other writers praised the speech highly. Elihu Shepard wrote “…the great orator rose amid the acclamations of thousands and enchained their rapturous attention for eighty minutes”…. J. T. Scharf called the admiration expressed for Webster “one of the grandest demonstrations that ever took place in this country in honor of any public man.”
Shall we not, in all honesty and sincerity, with pure and disinterested love of country, as Americans, looking back to the renown of our ancestors and looking forward to the interests of our posterity, here, tonight, pledge our mutual faith to hold on to the last to our professed principles, to the doctrines of true liberty, and to the Constitution of the country, let who will prove true, or who will prove miscreant?
–Reception at New York, 1837
I must admit that I did not know that Daniel Webster ever visited St. Louis. Traveling to St. Louis back in the 1830s was, after all, quite an undertaking. Indeed, Francis Parkman did not visit until 1846. I’d love to know more, wouldn’t you? What did they serve I wonder?
All the past we leave behind;
We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied
Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor,
and the march, Pioneers! O pioneers!
–Walt Whitman
(Information about the barbecue from St. Louis Day By Day by Frances Hurd Stadler)
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night…
Psalm 92: 1-2
How was your weekend? We enjoyed another sunny, beautiful weekend in flyover country with plenty of patio sittin’.
On Saturday daughter #1 and I attended a special Flag Day luncheon at my DAR chapter. We both are officially members now, she in Jefferson City and I in the local Olde Towne Fenton chapter where you will recall I gave a talk about the Santa Fe Trail back in November. I knew not a soul when I joined, but I am enjoying this group of patriotic, history-loving women. My daughter, having been an active member of her college sorority, is even more at home in this organization. It is all new to me–the rituals etc–but I am learning the ropes.
Our becoming members was facilitated by my grandmother having been a member, since she had done all the work researching our patriot, Moses Wheeler. All I had to do was fill in the intervening years since she joined in 1938. I am looking forward to finding out more about our other family patriots, notably in the Carnahan, Putnam, Stanley, Tukey, Sargent, Chamberlin lines. (The Houghs were Quakers–I assume they didn’t fight in the Revolution, although some Quakers did participate, notably Thomas Paine and Nathanael Green.) It is good to have a project! Hopefully my DP will get involved as well.
The rest of my weekend was relatively quiet. I stayed after church on Sunday to attend the training class for VBS volunteers. Yes, you read that correctly. I volunteered to help with the Vacation Bible School being held the week after next. There will be 225 little kids (!) there, so they were desperate for volunteers! I heeded the call. I am the crew leader for a group of 4/5th grade girls. Zut alors! I hope I can handle it. Also it occurred to me (belatedly) that it will no doubt be 100 degrees in the shade and we will be outside the whole time…Pray for me.
Meanwhile, dear Katiebelle celebrated her 2nd birthday and I was sad to miss being with her…
…but we FaceTimed. We’ll see her in three weeks!
The wee laddie went with his dad over to Illinois across the river to the first ever Nascar race in that state. They even had pit passes. He was, of course, in hog heaven…
Finally, the DH and I actually did something with other people! Las weekend we drove down state to celebrate James’s birthday and hang out with Tim and Abbie and her family (alas, Chris and Nicole couldn’t make it). The weather was fantastic and we had a wonderful time! Our Airbnb was just ‘round the corner from Tim and Abbie’s apartment. Here Abbie shows off the dining room:
After we settled in, we went to a concert at at a farm-turned-distillery set on a hill. Abbie’s dad played drums in the band but I only got a photo of the groupies admiring the view.
Here’s what they were looking at.
We were in a very pretty area on the edge of the Adirondacks near Lake George.
The next day, we toured the future wedding venue situated in a similarly picturesque locale. Mark your calendars for October, 2023 (our affianced couple is remarkably well organized). I don’t want to show too much now, but I heartily approve of the choice.
Next, we concentrated on celebrating the birthday. After James opened his presents,
we went over to Abbie’s parents’ house for a barbeque and birthday cake.
Here we are left to right: Abbie’s brother Liam, James, Tim, the DH, yours truly, Abbie’s mother, her uncle and her grandmother. Her dad had another concert and her sisters were at work, but that left more cake for the rest of us, so we were quite content.
Speaking of cake, I made what we call “Sarah’s special cake” — chocolate cake with white buttercream frosting and dark chocolate drizzled on top à la Jackson Pollock. Everyone seemed to like the cake, but a recent trip to the dentist to get a crown required too much Novocain that resulted in bothered taste buds, so it tasted funny to me. Never one to pass up cake, I indulged anyway. Incidentally, I highly recommend buying a Rubbermaid cake carrier (see on table in photo above). It traveled very well over bumpy mountain roads because the DH seat-belted it in place — he’s so helpful!
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. We hit the road on Memorial Day morning and made it home by late afternoon. It’s good to get out of town for a short break now and then, and of course it’s always wonderful to get together with family. Short breaks are restorative and make it much easier to endure the daily grind. If you get the chance, sneak away for a weekend!
Well, here we are–a new month and the year almost half over! It is also the start of the festivities celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee.
We wish her well. Here are some thoughts on a long monarchy and what comes next for the church. “Queen Elizabeth is a devout Christian and has increasingly made this clear through her annual Christmas broadcasts. At the same time, she is the representative of a sort of national folk-Christianity; a symbol of a time when Britain was a Christian nation. As such, she has allowed us to fool ourselves that things are not as bad as they could be. The nation still has a Christian heart.”
And, boy, this rings true:
“Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.” ― C.S. Lewis, Present Concerns
Do you think he was talking about us?
Anyway, it is feeling decidedly like summer around here. Here’s a summery snapshot of my grandmother (Catherine) and her beau/future husband (Bunker Cameron) circa 1919 with some great-aunt in between.
Bunker is, of course, goofing around wearing someone else’s hat. Catherine thinks it’s hilarious. Who knows what the old lady thinks–but she was probably amused by Bunker too.
I went to the dances at Chandlerville, And played snap-out at Winchester.
One time we changed partners, Driving home in the midnight of middle June, And then I found Davis. We were married and lived together for seventy years, Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children, Eight of whom we lost Ere I had reached the age of sixty. I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick, I made the garden, and for holiday Rambled over the fields where sang the larks, And by Spoon River gathering many a shell, And many a flower and medicinal weed– Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys. At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all, And passed to a sweet repose. What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness, Anger, discontent and drooping hopes? Degenerate sons and daughters, Life is too strong for you– It takes life to love Life.
–Edgar Lee Master, “Lucinda Matlock–Spoon River Anthology”
I am becoming one of those people who is chronically afflicted by lack of bookshelf space. But who wouldn’t want to be able to sit down and open a book and just start reading?
“Dagobert is always thinking of ways for me to begin a novel. He has the mistaken impression that I am happier when occupied.
The sun was setting in the hills somewhere and the bay had gone pink and blue; the water was so smooth and nebulous that you couldn’t tell where it left off and the sky began. I continued to sip my Dubonnet and watch the frocks along the Promenade go by.
Gradually I became aware of a familiar face above the shrubbery which divided the Negresco terrace from the pavement. It regarded me interrogatively. Where, the dark, reproachful eyes seemed to say, had I gone so suddenly? My admirer caught up with me again.
I looked away feeling foolish, only to realize that he was now making his way towards the deserted table just beside our own. Dagobert, too, had noticed him. He came out of brood suddenly.
“Say, for instance,” he said towards the newcomer, “that man suddenly fell dead.”
Dagobert does not always realize how far his voice carries. My friend stopped short in his tracks and look acutely uncomfortable. I smiled at him vaguely, handed Dagobert the dish of olives and tried to change the subject. Meanwhile a waiter had installed him at the table beside us. He ordered black coffee and unfolded a newspaper.
“There is a knife in his back,” Dagobert said.
I heard the paper beside me rustle. I hastily finished my Dubonnet and gathered up my handbag.
Corpse Diplomatique, Delano Ames
“That ride was perhaps the most wonderful thing that happened to them in Narnia. Have you ever had a gallop on a horse? Think of that; and then take away the heavy noise of the hoofs and the jingle of the harness and imagine instead the almost noiseless padding of the great paws. Then imagine instead of the black or grey or chestnut back of the horse, the soft roughness of golden fur, and the mane flying back in the wind. And then imagine you are going about twice as fast as the fastest racehorse. But this is a mount that doesn’t need to be guided and never grows tired. He rushes on and on, never missing his footing, never hesitating, threading his way with perfect skill between tree-trunks, jumping over bush and briar and the smaller streams, wading the larger, swimming the largest of all. And you are riding not on a road nor in a park nor even on the downs but right across Narnia, in spring, down solemn avenues of beech and across sunny glades of oak, through wild orchards of snow-white cherry trees, past roaring waterfalls and mossy rocks and echoing caverns, up windy slopes alight with gorse bushes and across the shoulders of heathery mountains and along giddy ridges and down, down, down again into wild valleys and out into acres of blue flowers.”
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
“I’m sitting in a small screening room waiting for a movie to begin. The room fills up. There aren’t enough seats. People are bunching up in the aisles and looking around helplessly. I’m next to my friend Bob Gottlieb, watching all this. The director of the movie decides to solve the problem by asking all the children at the screening to share seats. I watching in mounting frustration. Finally, I say to Bob, “It’s really very simple. Someone should go get some folding chairs and set them up in the aisles.”
Bob looks at me. “Nora, he says, “we can’t do everything.”
My brain clears in an amazing way.
Nora. We can’t do everything.
I have been given the secret of life.
Although it’s probably a little late.”
The Story of My Life in 3,500 Words or Less, Nora Ephron
dual personalities 