These are the days to take long walks and savor all that blue sky and colorful autumn flora and crisp fall temperatures. Until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes…at 5:00 p.m.!
For those of us who work from 9 to 5, it means we come home in the near-dark and our evenings seem so much shorter! No walks. It seems like we eat dinner, watch something, read, and go to bed.
Well, c’est comme ça. Lately I have been watching Sons of Anarchy (2008-2014)–the show about a motorcycle club that operates both illegal and legal businesses in the small town of Charming, CA. It has a good cast headed up by the very appealing Charlie Hunnam
(an English actor), Katey Sagal and Ron Perlman.
So far in season one, they are developing interesting and three-dimensional characters–the guys in the MC are pretty great–so we’ll see if I can hang in there despite a good amount of (you can imagine) violence.
I do love watching shows on Netflix without commercials. (I had to laugh when Castiel, the angel on Supernatural, in response to someone asking what he was doing while recovering from nearly dying, said, “I’ve been binge-watching the first season of The Wire.”)
On the book front, I am reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015.
Set in occupied France during WWII, the novel moves back and forth in time, centering on a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths eventually cross. It is excellent. Sometimes “highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning” authors actually deserve the accolades.
How was your weekend? Mine was quite enjoyably low-key.
On Saturday evening the OM and I went to the members’ preview of the new exhibit “St. Louis Modern” at the SLAM.
Luckily, he found something right away to admire.
As readers of this blog know, my own home is filled with antiques and reproductions. My taste certainly leans toward 18th and 19th century American style. I am, however, a great appreciator of mid-century modern–i.e. the 20th century stuff of my youth. The aforementioned exhibit was full of the contents of some pretty great Bernoudy and Armstrong and Dunn homes and offices and included the design products of Charles Eames, Russel Wright, Eliel Saarinen, et al. It prompted me to look around my own house and find the odds ‘n ends of this period that I love.
I mean who doesn’t love mid-century modern pottery and china?
Church on Sunday was enjoyable–the only blip being when our female assisting priest referred in her sermon to Beethoven’s “Erotica” symphony instead of the “Eroica”. Talk about your Freudian slip! I refrained from correcting her after the service, because I hate people who do that. You know–the ones who look for typos to point out in newsletters etc. Like they’re being helpful. I always say, “I know everyone thinks I’m perfect, but really I’m not!”
One hundred and thirty years ago today, workers drove in the last spike to complete the trans-Canadian railway. Gordon Lightfoot commemorated the event in this wonderful song.
After hearing it again, I got thinking of family history, and while our Scottish great-grandfather did not work on the railway, he did work lumber. You can read my earlier post here. It was hard, dangerous work, and sometimes very cold.
I’ve always been curious about Daniel’s employer, the Robinson-Edwards lumber company. Recently, I discovered that the company was based in Ottawa. In fact, W.C. Edwards, the company’s vice-president, also served on the Canadian Senate. A New York Times article, “Canadian Lumberman’s Mistake about Victoria’s Successor”, that I found here had this to say:
Senator and Mrs. W.C. Edwards of Ottawa were the recent guests of Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Robinson. Senator Edwards is Vice-President of the Robinson-Edwards Lumber Company and has extensive lumber interests in Canada. He was appointed Senator last Winter and has been prominent in political affairs in Canada for years. The following story about Senator Edwards is circulating in the lumberman’s papers.
W.C. Edwards, one of the newly appointed Senators, is a lumberman who operated far up the Gatineau River, and he tells this story in the Toronto Globe of a shantyman who had spent a couple of seasons working for him in the bush and was coming out again shortly after the death of Queen Victoria
At Maniwaki the shantyman made his first stop on the way down and in a chat with the hotel keeper asked what was the news since he had gone to the woods. “Oh, there’s nothing much new. I s’pose you heard up there that the Queen was dead?” “No, you don’t tell me that the Queen was dead. I’m sorry to hear that. She was a good woman, the Queen, and a good Queen too. Well, we’ll all die sometime, even the Queen.” After a respectful pause, he asked, “And who’s got the job now? Who’s the head now?”
“Oh, Edward’s the king now. It’s King Edward for the last three months.”
“Edwards the King! Well, well, you don’t tell me Edwards the King. He’s a big man in the lumber business but I never expected to hear of him become the King. What a pull that man Edwards must have with Laurier!”
It’s a charming story, but Edwards proved to be a typical politician out for his own glory and power. Anyway, by the time that story was written, my great-grandfather was company treasurer in Burlington, Vermont, during the logging heyday when there were vast lumberyards on the Lake Champlain shore. According to one source, “there is not a single extant building as a visible reminder of the immense lumber industry” of the period. Well, time marches on. At the height of its production, the company was huge.
Burlington 1900_029
That’s the fire insurance map of the sawmill. But all good things must come to an end, and the industry and company were in decline during the 1920s. Here’s what my great-grandfather wrote to my great-aunt Hazel on December 19, 1928:
My dear Hazel,
Xmas will soon be here, time goes quickly. It just seems to me that everybody is saying I must hurry on, for we are all on the dead jump and everything does seem to move too fast. I hope this festive season makes it happier for you. It is a treat to see everybody rushing here and there buying presents, and it must be wonderful if one could know how much is being spent in dollars and cents. Mama has got all her parcels done up, and I have finished with mine, and that is sending a check for uncle Kenneth. I always regret the smallness of my donation, and I always wish it was larger. I hope I have not reached the time when I must reduce, ill health and our present business will do that. It may come soon now. Our people at Ottawa evidently want to close the business here. They have said to continue until April 1, after that I don’t’ know but I keep on smiling just the same. I am enclosing a small check, hoping it will be of some service. Last year I was richer and had more to do with. I wish you would get well. The future ought to look good to you. We all have our blessings and I am sure if we would only stop and count them there would be many. Please remember us to Harry, and to you our hearts go out wishing all good things this coming year. Keep up your courage and all will be well. Wishing you a happy New Year and Merry Xmas.
Yours very affectionately, Pa
The company did, indeed, go out of business, and my great-grandfather lost his job. Here is what he wrote to my grandfather about it in a letter dated February 6, 1929.
My dear Bunker,
I received your letters and thank you very much for the same. I left my reading glasses at home, and have a hard time to write with the temporary set I have here. I was glad to get your prices for my duty, although I don’t think he will order until spring. Regarding the Brett affair, I do not know what to say. My advice on the spur of the moment would be to stay where you are for several reasons. The principal one is that I will be out of a job on April 1. I will then have to look elsewhere. I have received my notice to walk out then — that is April 1st. Your mother says she cannot go out of Burlington, so you see I am tied down. Anyway I have to work in order to live, and Burlington is a poor place to work out a new job. Mr. Smith still stays on, and all invoices are to be made at Ottawa. He is to be agent for W. C. Edwards and Co. Now then, how am I [to manage?] If I was able to lend or loan money in a new business [it would be fine]. I am up against it, as I am not in shape to be knuckled down at any job and I have not the means to carry on. Still I have hopes that I will be able to make it a go on a smaller wage. If I can only keep your mother and myself from having to go on you fellows, I will be tickled. Just now everything is blue and is not bright. I hope you will never experience anything such as I am going into. I cannot explain things in a letter but will when I see you, which I hope will not be long. Mother is keeping fairly well but this notice of quitting the job has been a great blow to her. Please remember me to Catherine and the children. I hope they are well.
Yours very faithfully, Pa
The poor man, who was in his seventies by this time, had worked hard all his life — most of it with the Robinson-Edwards company. Those were the days before retirement benefits or social security, and clearly W.C. Edwards didn’t feel the need to reward loyalty. My great-grandfather died May 1st, 1929 — just a month after he stopped working.
This November we have many things for which to be grateful — our jobs and our hardworking ancestors chief among them.
*Gordon Lightfoot, “The Canadian Railroad Trilogy”
Earlier in the week it was the birthday of character actor Martin Balsam (1919-1996) who, I was reminded, was in a lot of my favorite movies. For instance he was in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)–
playing O.J. Berman, Holly’s agent. (“Hey, Fred-baby!”)
He was in A Thousand Clowns (1965)–
as Murray’s brother Arnold. (He won an Oscar for this one.)
He was in Hombre (1967)–
playing Paul Newman’s friend Henry Mendez.
Indeed, he was all over television and movies in the sixties and seventies and all the way to end of the millennium. As an ethnically-ambiguous Jew from the Bronx he could play everything from Mexican bandits to Wasp admirals and he did, over and over. He was like Ward Bond in an earlier generation, always popping up in random movies. What a career!
So I suggest you watch a movie with Martin Balsam in it. There are a lot of good ones from which to choose!
I will also note that I watched Melissa McCarthy’s Spy (2015) the other night.
I am not a big fan of Ms. McCarthy–she is frequently over-the top in the vulgarity department–but I thought this movie was really funny. Besides McCarthy, the movie features Jude Law as a James Bond-type spy and Jason Statham in a parody of himself. Allison Janney is great as the Boss Lady who is a super bitch, but has been there and seen that and, in the end, understands.
The use of the f-bomb in this movie is a parody in itself. As Rose Byrne says, “What f**kery is this?”
When all is said and done, Paul Fieg (the writer) manages to make some good points about women who are ignored, stereotyped, laughed at, and generally under-appreciated because they are not traditionally beautiful, thin, assertive etc.
Anyway, I laughed non-stop to the point of embarrassment. My eyes were streaming with tears. The OM sat stone-faced throughout, of course, but he did stay for the whole movie, which is unheard of practically, and I think he smiled a few times.
In case you missed it, last Saturday (besides being Halloween) was Reformation Day. This is the day Protestants celebrate Martin Luther’s nailing of his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg in 1517.
This event is usually credited with opening the flood gates of the Protestant Reformation.
In reading about Reformation Day, I ran across the interesting fact that in 2008 Chile set a regional precedent, declaring October 31st a public holiday in honor of “the evangelical and Protestant churches”. What?! you say. Indeed, five centuries after the region’s forced conversion to Catholicism, Chile’s new holiday is a cultural milestone. In fact, in a once staunchly Catholic country, 15% of Chileans identify as “evangelicals” (a synonym in Latin America for Protestants). State schools now offer a choice of Catholic and evangelical religious teaching, and the armed forces have chaplains from both denominations. Furthermore, Chile is not alone. More than 15% of Brazilians and over 20% of Guatemalans are now evangelicals. (The Economist)
Well, well. I know what I will be toasting tonight.
I also may track down and watch Luther (2003) with Joseph Fiennes as Martin Luther. Here’s a snippet.
Today is the birthday of American photographer Walker Evans (1903-1975). Evans was born in St. Louis and attended Williams College for a year before dropping out and heading to Paris to be a writer.
He took up photography in 1928 after returning to the U.S. In the summer of 1936 he and writer James Agee were sent by Fortune magazine on assignment to Hale County, Alabama for a story the magazine subsequently opted not to run. (I wonder why?)
In 1941 Evans’s photographs and Agee’s text detailing the duo’s stay with three white tenant families in southern Alabama during the Great Depression were published as the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. I remember reading this book in school–I can’t remember when, but it was quite a book.
Anyway, Walker Evans’ photographs surely prove the old adage: A picture is worth a thousand words.
A toast to Walker Evans tonight! And another toast to another birthday boy, Charles Bronson (1921-2003)–actor and all-around cool dude.
On the set of “The Magnificent Seven” with Steve McQueen, 1960
*Walker Evans…The boy said something very similar as a small child once. I asked him why he never used color in his very detailed pencil drawings. He replied, “Color is evil,” which stopped me in my tracks.
I went to see The Yeoman of the Guard by Gilbert & Sullivan on Friday night.
The scene of this opera is laid within the precincts of the Tower of London, in the period of the 16th Century.
Admittedly, it was not the D’Oly Carte Opera Company, but I thought our local Winter Opera company was really quite wonderful.
My mother was a fan of Yeoman and we had the record.
I think she liked it because it is the only W&S opera with kind of a sad ending. She could always relate to the fool/jester character in anything and there is a stellar one in Yeoman.
Anyway, I dragged the OM and the boy along (daughter #3 was otherwise engaged) and they enjoyed it also. We were all proud of ourselves for getting out and participating in a cultural activity.
It reminded me of the time back in 1964 when my mother bought tickets to see the actual D’Oyly Carte Company perform The Mikado. She took my brother and me. I was in the second grade, but she thought I was old enough to enjoy/appreciate this opportunity. (She may have over-estimated me.) Anyway, my father took my little sister (who was not old enough to enjoy/appreciate light opera) to see It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Ironically this film was on TCM last week and I DVR’d it and then watched it this weekend. It features literally every American comedian (plus Terry-Thomas) alive in 1963. It is overly long and drags some, but it does have its moments. Jonathan Winters is great and the scene in the gas station with Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplan is priceless. There is a lot of yelling in this movie.
Speaking of movies, I also watched From Hell (2001) on Halloween and, despite the presence of Johnny Depp, I thought it was dreadful. Apologies for recommending it on Friday!
Sunday, as you know, was All Saints Day and we had an interminably long service complete with a children’s sermon dissecting the hymn The Saints of God. Oh, did I mention it was also pledge Sunday? Well, it was. On top of this, the woman sitting behind me was a beat behind or a beat ahead during every prayer and every hymn to the point where I was ready to slap her and slap her hard. I hate feeling that way in church.
And now it is November and the long slide to Christmas begins. Deo gratias.
That’s about as close to Halloween that we are going to get today, since I’ve pretty much run out of pictures of cute children wearing costumes and I’m not even carving a pumpkin this year. That said, I am going to deal with both love and ghosts, at least in so far as they concern family history.
Last week as the DH moved things around in our overstuffed attic to make room for the roofers, he uncovered a file box full of my papers, including a large number of family letters that I had xeroxed from the originals when I visited my aunt Susanne many years ago. What a treasure trove! Among them I found this letter written by my great aunt Leila Cameron Kessler to my grandfather, Daniel (Bunker) Cameron:
Dear Bunker,
I was very glad to hear from you (as) I was beginning to think that my brother had forgotten me. Still I knew you were busy, of course, in school this winter and with studying and social affairs it keeps one on the go. You are taking dancing lessons too aren’t you? I guess you had a fine Christmas and I am so glad that you got a mandolin. Dan and I are both glad. Are you going to take lessons this winter or wait till when you haven’t so much school work? You must bring it when you come visiting us so we can (make) some music. Dan made my buy a volume of Mozart’s (sic) Sonatas – it is so big and heavy and each sonata is very long, but we can play them in a kind of a way – we just murdered Beethoven – that is, I did. They were so hard. You know that Dan belongs to the music club at the Bureau of Standards. He has to practice every Friday after work. It would be nice if you could learn to play real well and get in the mandolin club at High School wouldn’t it?
Yes, I enjoy the club, more because I get acquainted and the ladies are so nice than to play cards. It seems to be the only thing to do out here in the winter time. Dan and I play cribbage often in the evening, too. We go to the movies once a week at least, in the evening. They have fine pictures at the Columbia Theater and though we have to pay more, we like them better. They have the very best there.
Has there been much snow up there this winter and much skiing or snowshoeing, etc..? We’ve had only two snowstorms this year and it lasted only about one day. One morning I had to shovel off the walk all along our sidewalk and then by night it was all slush and by the next day it was virtually gone. There isn’t a bit now but it is awful cold and windy.
I hear that you go to see the girls. Well there is no harm in that if you do not let them know you care for them too much – and there is safety in numbers. There is no harm in being friends with any girl who is nice but where you are you cannot be too careful – we never seem to care for the same ones when we get older that we do when we are going to school and sometimes we hurt people’s feelings and never get good friends again just by going with one too much, and then maybe something changes and we stop going with them so much and then they are hurt and mad, maybe for always. It is a problem to know always what to do – but mama always knows best even though it doesn’t seem so at the time. I know.
Please write to me anytime you want — about anything. I like to hear about school and the parties and the girls. You didn’t tell me what her name is. Did she think I was a cross teacher?
I wish you could see Louise. She says such cute things. I bought her a set of blue enamel dishes and she was having afternoon tea today with cookies and water for tea. She pours it out of her tea pot just as cute as can be.
It is dinner time and Edna has it on, so I must close.
Write soon again. Dan will write to you soon. Your loving sister, Leila C. Kessler
Isn’t that a nice letter? I am guessing it was written in about 1916 because Leila got married in 1913, and, when she wrote the letter, her daughter was old enough to hold a pretend tea party. Bunker would have been sixteen, which sounds about right. I imagine that the sisterly advice was inspired by Leila’s parents’ concern over Bunker’s interest in the ladies. Incidentally, I believe my brother now has the mandolin mentioned in the letter.
Poor Leila died in 1917 shortly after giving birth to her son, Edwin. Family lore has it that she died in the influenza epidemic, but given the timing, I think it must have been from complications of the birth. Although she lived in Maryland, she was buried in Burlington, Vermont. I suspect her parents bought the family plot at that time. Her death must have been a terrible blow, coming as it did while Leila’s brother, Erskine, was away in France fighting in WWI.
So on this Halloween, while you’re handing out candy to tiny ghouls and ghosties and things that go bump in the night, remember your family ‘ghosts’.
From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!
Every year at this time I wrack my brain for a good movie recommendation for Halloween. I usually come up with something, but what is there new to suggest? As I have said many times, I am no fan of horror and I do not like gratuitous violence and bloodshed. So what does that leave?
How about some good old-fashioned Sherlock Holmes?
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) with Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson is hard to beat.
Holmes and Watson investigate the legend of a supernatural hound, a beast that may be stalking a young heir on the fog-shrouded moor that makes up his estate. Yes, fog-shrouded moors are a good choice for Halloween, don’t you think?
I seem to remember that The Scarlet Claw (1944) is also pretty scary.
When a gentlewoman is found dead with her throat torn out (!), the villagers blame a supernatural monster, but Sherlock Holmes, who gets drawn into the case from nearby Quebec, suspects a human murderer.
Of course, there’s always Jane Marple–and by that I mean Margaret Rutherford.
There are four of these movies, but Murder Most Foul (1964)–when Miss Marple joins a theatrical company after a blackmailer is murdered, and then several members of the troupe are also dispatched by a mysterious killer–is my favorite.
But come to think of it, Murder She Said (1961), Murder at the Gallop (1963) and Murder Ahoy (1964) are all wonderful and hilarious! One could have a wonderful night of binge-watching all four.
I have not seen it in a long time, but M(1931) with Peter Lorre, Fritz Lang’s haunting, German-language crime drama, in which the Berlin police are hunting a whistling killer of children, is a great film.
The criminal underworld is after the killer as well, since the police manhunt has put a damper on their activities. And Lorre as the creepy killer is almost sympathetic in the famous confession speech where he describes with anguish his horrible compulsion. And who does creepy better than the Germans?
Another movie I have not seen for a long time, but liked when I first saw it, is From Hell (2001). Johnny Depp stars as an opium- and absinthe-addled Scotland Yard man assigned to the Jack the Ripper case, Robbie Coltrane is his stalwart partner and Ian Holm is the creepy royal surgeon who offers his advice. I’m sure I recall gratuitous violence and bloodshed, but nothing’s perfect. And it is scary.
Well, these are just suggestions.
I may binge watch Supernatural…remember Garth from season seven?
It almost being Halloween, I thought I’d share a picture of the costume that epitomized the zenith of our mother’s costume-making endeavors.
In 1956 she made a Donald Duck costume for our older brother without a pattern and without all the add-ons that are readily available today. I think she even made the hat/mask. She poured all of her not negligible creative powers and seamstress-y talent into it. It was not easy to do and she was very proud of it.
I hope our brother was proud to wear it. Does he look proud? Somehow I think he would have preferred to have been armed and dangerous and Davey Crockett.
I hope our mother received lots of high-fives. Doubtful. This was mid-century California after all where I’m sure those newfangled rayon-taffeta store-bought costumes were all the rage.
A few years later she made a pretty awesome black cat costume for my brother and a clown costume for me.
But after that, she was done (except for a witch costume which we used for-ever after.)
Well, Sic transit gloria mundi…
On another note–happy birthday and a toast to Dan Castellaneta, who has voiced the character of Homer Simpson on The Simpsons for 28 seasons. Zut alors. Or should I say:
“Everyone knows rock n’ roll attained perfection in 1974; It’s a scientific fact.”
![Walker Evans, [Floyd and Lucille Burroughs, Hale County Alabama], 1936. Gelatin silver print. Mandatory Credit: ©Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art /Published: The New York Times on the Web 07/18/99 Books PLEASE CONTACT Margaret M. Doyle, Senior Press Officer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (212)-650-2128 FOR FUTURE REPRODUCTION USE.](https://dual-personalities.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/evans-4-1.jpg)
