Pause for a brief political posting

I don't do this often, but given all the big political news & events of the past few days, I wanted to pause to acknowledge some developments and also pose a question.

First, good on the Supremes for overturning DOMA.  Marriage equality is a good thing, a logical thing, a sensible, moral, and right thing.  And right on the heels of that, shame on the Supremes for that travesty of a verdict on voting rights. 

Also, yea on Ed Markey for winning our special Senate election.  But boo on Massachusetts for the totally lame 27% voter turnout, which I heard somewhere was the lowest ever.  Lame.  For the record, I voted.  Lucy helped me.  My ballot was number 20 in my precinct/ward.  Also, now we have to have yet another special election.  We're just really, really special here in Massachusetts.

There's much more to say (and many others who have said it more eloquently and before I've had a chance to sit down and really write about it), but the other thing that has really grabbed me in the past few days of news: I couldn't stop watching/following the tweets about Wendy Davis's filibuster in the Texas State Senate.  The point that really got me was that she got in trouble for getting help for putting on a back brace during the middle of her speech.  What struck me was the specificity of the rules that apparently say that the filibusterer must "stand continually without assistance and remain on topic."[I pulled that from one story about the scenario.]

What exactly are the filibusterers required to do and why is their physical ability to stand unaided the thing that makes them filibuster-capable?  Why is standing without assistance the issue?  What if someone is in a wheelchair?  How does that kind of rule square with the Americans with Disabilities Act?  What about those with all kinds of disabilities -- Wikipedia has a nice list of political figures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_physically_disabled_politicians#United_States -- that would make it impossible for them to adhere to these rules?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this, but it does make me wonder.  Back in December, the US Congress failed to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, even after Bob Dole showed up to speak in favor of it.  It's really, really crappy.  [I realize I'm not getting any marks on the eloquence of this post, but I think you understand what I'm saying here.]

So on that note, slightly trumping my awe of Wendy Davis's righteous standing & testifying, perhaps my favorite news video of the week was this one, of Representative Tammy Duckworth, who was the first female double-amputee from the Iraq war, laying into a guy who is getting a veteran's benefit (preference for gov't contracts) because of the sprained ankle he got himself while in military prep school.  It's really worth watching this:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/27/196277555/watch-rep-tammy-duckworth-dresses-down-irs-contractor

Tammy Duckworth and Wendy Davis, thanks for standing up, which doesn't always have to come in the form of standing (though it sometimes does).  As I assume most of my readers know, my Dad used a wheelchair, and while his political position was not aligned with mine, I believe he would also admire these strong women for what they've done (though he might possibly have called them "tough broads," a term I have decided to make peace with).

OK, I'll get back to the usual stuff for the next post.  Stay tuned.  I hope to fit in one more before the end of the month (eek!).

This just happened

We're standing in front of the Carlisle Theater, reviewing what is playing for the evening for the double feature.  Here are the three things that seem a significant trifecta:

1. The second film of the double feature is The Cannonball Run.

2. The theater is also advertising An Evening with Molly Ringwald (November 21st, w/ Molly in person, with a Special VIP meet & greet option, as a benefit for the theater).

3.  The car from Ghostbusters drove by us.

I am not kidding.  All three of those things are true and happened, in a 2-minute window.  So I think there was some kind of time warp. 

More soon, upon our return from Carlisle, PA, circa 1981/84-ish.

Project: Rose Containment

No, not that Rose:

Rose

This rose:

rose: in need of containment

 Or perhaps more generally, these roses:

Roses, in need of containment

They're growing over the fence and blocking the sidewalk and touching the ground.  Crazy.

They are out of control.  We got ourselves an archway trellis and after a few thorny scratches, some rope and zip ties, we're feeling much better:

Here's the view from the front:

We've been having good summer fun times lately, with more in store.  Last weekend we were at a fabulous Birthday party for Henry & Audrey, where there were a dozen children wielding water balloons and squirt guns.  Total mayhem.  After the party, I had this conversation with Lucy:

Me: OK Lucy, time to get ready for bed.
Lucy: I don't have to have a bath, do I?
Me: Hrm.  Let's see.  You were hit with several water balloons and numerous squirt guns, right?  I think that pretty much equals a bath.
Lucy: Yeah!

Mark that down as another Great Moment in Parenting, folks.

Our next door neighbor (who will be watching Norbert, the fish, while we're away) just stopped by to show us what she found:

He was in the middle of the road, with a lot of traffic flying by, so she picked him up.  Now he's in the pond in her backyard.  The girls are really excited:

I think it's a painted turtle.

Hats off to the Class of 2013; now facing the Class of 2026

It's that graduation time of year, and we're happy to congratulate all our various friends and family who have graduates in the family.

We were delighted to read this fabulous story about Dan, Pat, Eileen, and Natalie, who just graduated from High School:

http://fatcatwebproductions.com/the_paper/content/graduate-spotlight-woodlands-college-park-high-school

Here's an old photo I found of them back in the day:

Note that they are in matching clothes, but also please note, as Natalie says in the article: “As soon as we were old enough to realize, we stopped dressing similar.”

Cheers to you all!

It was also a delight to celebrate Angela's graduation from law school!  While going through the archives, I also found a photo of Angela with Natalie and Eileen! So here you go:

Congrats to all the graduates!

And today, in the mail, we received Lucy's official school assignment for this coming fall.  Yes, folks, she starts kindgarten in September!  And she's going to the Christa McAuliffe Elementary School!

And right there, in print, it says: Year of Graduation: 2026.  Yikes! 

Here's a couple of the 2013/2026 graduates together:

I have to say, the digging in the archives made me want to do a few photo archive editions of the blog....stay tuned (and be scared)!

Just another day in the nineteenth century

So I had a fun day today at the American Antiquarian Society.  I don't have time to post everything, but I'll share a few highlights from the day's diggings:

I got an issue of Life in Lowell, a newspaper from 1843.  Here's the front page:

And just in case you wanted to know just how gnarly things were back then, check out this fabulous list of possible ailments (and thankfully, Dr. F. Morrill claims he can cure them all!).

So that's:

• Coughs
• Diarrhea Gravel (WHAT???? OK, I just looked that one up and it's two different things: Diarrhea [which I assume you understand] and "gravel" which is basically kidney stones.  So hey, nineteenth-century typesetter, how about a comma in there?]
• Rheumatism
• Female Debility
• Glandular Affections
• Effects of Mercury
• Strictures
• Piles
• Diseases of the Skin
• Cholera Morbus
• Scrofula
• all the various forms of Secret Diseases

 Truly, I can't believe anyone made it out of the nineteenth century alive.  Don't even google those.  You really don't want to know what scrofula looks like.

And if you are afflicted by ailments of the unspeakable sort, Dr. Merrill's other ad is addressed to you:

But perhaps most awesome was the broadside included along with it, memorializing the Fourth of July Parade held in Lowell in 1845.  It was in pretty rough shape (I am guessing it was actually somehow "restored" or "preserved" using a method that has only served to make it deteriorate more), but the images are still great.  I particularly like that it calls itself "A Family Newspaper -- Neutral in Politics and Religion -- Devoted to Literature, Education, Science, General Intelligence, and Amusements."  Awesome!  So basically it recounts the various groups/parties/individuals who participated in the annual parade, with fairly silly pictures of each, and quite a bit of commentary.

The reverse side was in even worse condition, but my attention was arrested by this particular pictogram:

Yes, Lucy Marshal!  Awesome!

OK, there's lots more, but much of it is in some very bad handwriting that I'll have to transcribe. Stay tuned for more Tales from the Nineteenth Century (TM).

Conversations with Lucy (and a note about some new posts)

I have a large backlog of Conversations with Lucy (TM) to share, so I'll try to get some down while I have a minute.

Back around Easter, there was much cause for confusion:

Lucy: What do we celebrate when we celebrate Easter?
Me: Well, the Easter bunny comes.
Lucy: No, what do we CELEBRATE?
Me: Uh, well, for some people, it's about Jesus.
Lucy (without missing a beat): Why are there eggs?  What do eggs have to do with Jesus?  Were they his favorite food?





Anyone want to jump in on that one?  I mean, it's pretty late now, but, maybe for next year?  The conversation continued from there, with this:

Lucy: Who brings the eggs?
Me: Uh, who do you think?
Lucy: Santa Claus!
Me (totally befuddled by this): Why do you say that?
Lucy: How can a bunny carry a basket?

All I can think of is David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day and his hilarious "The rabbit of Easter.  He bring of the chocolate" when he finds out that in France, a big bell flies in from Rome to deliver Easter delights to the children.  If you've never read that story before, I highly recommend it.

So I've taken a little time to go back and fix up some old posts, and while doing that, I discovered a couple of unpublished drafts that never actually went live.  One of them is just a tiny kitchen update, which you can read here:
http://www.thischarmingoldhouse.blogspot.com/2013/02/so-it-took-us-few-years.html

And the other is a much more detailed story of my trip to Savannah, with lots of pictures, which you can read here:
http://www.thischarmingoldhouse.blogspot.com/2013/02/notes-from-savannah.html

Spring semester was really insanely busy, with lots of unexpected things happening; I talked about that a bit in my long April post about the very bad week, which was really mostly a very bad month; in general, it seemed like the world was upside down and I never found a moment to sit and write.  Most of the time, I try to post the new things at the top, and I haven't backdated entries before.  But these ones just seemed to belong in their chronological place, so that's where I put them.  I know regular readers might miss them otherwise, so that's why this note is here.

There's a lot to like about Lowell.....Cemetery Edition!

Today I went on a tour of Lowell Cemetery. I'm just going to assume that any of you who know me will not have any questions about why this is something I would be doing.

Back when we lived in our old apartment, we used to walk there fairly often. I've also been there before with some of our visiting teachers to talk about Lowell history. There are a few fairly significant stones that are always great for teaching Lowell history. My favorite story of all of them is that of Louisa Maria Wells



This is the marker for Louisa Maria Wells, who died in 1886. She had worked in the mills in Lowell, and also brought her mother to Lowell to run a boarding house. She was an only child, her parents had died before her, and she was unmarried and had no children of her own. When she died, a sum of $8,000 remained in her estate and her will directed all of it to be used to erect a monument on her grave. But Wells’ remaining cousins contested the will, objecting to the considerable fortune being used for a grave marker for an unremarkable woman. The case dragged on in the courts for twenty years, at the end of which, the courts sided with Louisa. And in a positive turn to this sad tale, the money had been well invested and by 1906, when the matter was settled, the executor of the will was able to use the funds to commission Daniel Chester French – the American sculptor you likely know as the creator of the seated Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial -- to create the gravestone. French himself did not complete the work; instead, he passed the project on to one of his female associates, Evelyn Longman, who would also eventually go on to create a monument in 1912 for the grave site of the 146 women killed in the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. So many stories there, all tied up in this gorgeous, humongous marker. That's an angel standing above a mill worker -- the crouching woman is wearing a smock and holds a bobbin in her hand. It's about 15 feet tall and in a lovely spot. She was one of thousands of girls who came to the Lowell mills and worked in some fairly harsh conditions to make a better life. It's a beautiful memorial.

There are so many beautiful monuments in this cemetery, and so many stories, too.

I'm rather fond of the markers that are made in an over-the-top naturalistic style, like the ones that look like trees that have been cut down:



This one is particularly sad, since Edwin and Alonzo were each just one year old.

Then there are ones meant to look like piles of rocks:



A couple weeks ago we took Lucy and walked around there. Again, you know that's totally normal.

It's a really gorgeous place to walk, and Lucy was especially excited about the giant field of dandelions:



But she really liked looking at the stones and kept asking me to take her picture with them. Like this:




And she delightedly asked me to take a photo with these two, who she deemed "The Spiderweb Twins!"



I expect I will have to write a story about them.

Also, I am totally bringing back the name "Mehitable." Oh, and "Ballard." (see below)



In fact, I will go ahead and tell you that you should look for the Lucy-Bridget co-written book series of The Spiderweb Twins, featuring Mehitable and Ballard and their wacky adventures. Maybe we should put up the kickstarter on that now?

One of the most famous monuments is the Ayer Lion:



Lucy liked him a lot:



But for the most totally out there monument, I think I have to place my vote for this one:



Horace F. Ebert (1853 - 1893), I like your style!

That's it for today's installment, but I'll give you a little teaser for next week. Do you remember how last year, I spent a week in the nineteenth century? Well, it's not a whole week this time, but I'm going for the day to work at the American Antiquarian Society library on Monday. I will bring back some good stories, I promise.
 

---