Jim Participates in the Abolition Walk

As with most people who have lived more than three-quarters of a century, I have a few pet peeves. I’m aggrieved that we don’t use math classes to teach kids the skills they need to avoid making terrible financial decisions as adults because they don’t know better. (If someone knows and wants to make the same bad decisions, I cringe, but it’s their choice.) Another thing that concerns me is our general woeful lack of knowledge about history, and willingness to believe politicians with historical “facts.”

For example, did you know that the maximum federal estate tax was 77% from 1941 through 1976? Yup, and most states had estate taxes as well. The top marginal federal income tax rate hit 94% in 1944-45! It stayed at 70% or above from 1936 through 1980. Keep that in mind when today's gazillionaires complain about today’s “ruinous” tax rates.

My son, daughter, one sister, and me being recognized at the
2025 Abolition Walk as descendants of James Caleb Jackson

Which leads me to another area where many are blowing smoke: slavery and the Civil War in the United States. The secession of the states that formed the Confederacy was driven by concerns by the wealthy slaveholders that the Republican Party, antislavery as they were, would strip them of their major asset: other humans that they owned. Oh sure, the southern states had other grievances, but their articles of secession mention only slavery.

And those living in the northern states often paint their history as righteously against slavery. They ignore that New England ships took part in the slave trade, and that until well into the 1850s anti-slavery movements were despised more than approved. Just as today when both sides of many issues cherry-pick Bible verses to “prove” their point, Americans were passionately doing the same with slavery. Which brings me to the Abolition Walk.

In 1835, 600 delegates met at a Presbyterian church in Utica, New York to organize the New York State Anti-Slavery Society. (The City of Utica revoked its previously issued permit to meet at the City Hall, and members of the church arranged the changed venue.) My great-great-great-grandfather James Caleb Jackson was a delegate. A large group of anti-abolitionist protesters, led by Congressman Samuel Beardsley, threatened violence, including burning down the building, unless the meeting dispersed. (They cited the slavery provisions in the Constitution for their justification, ignoring the assembly and free speech provisions in the same constitution.)

Gerrit Smith invited the delegates to reconvene the following day in Peterboro, NY (about thirty miles away). Some had carriages or horses. Jackson did not, having walked to Utica from his farm in Mexico, NY. He, and a William M. Clark of Syracuse, convinced an Erie Canal packet boat to load up with 104 men and take them to Canastota, the city closest to Peterboro. Then the two of them led the group on foot for the 9.1 miles from the canal to Peterboro. As they got close, Jackson went on ahead (i.e. walked faster up the hills—Peterboro is about 900’ higher than Canastota) to arrange breakfast for 100 at a tavern. Later that day, Jackson was one of the signers of the articles forming the NYS Anti-Slavery Society.

Peterboro is home to the National Abolition Hall ofFame and Museum. Some of those involved with the museum created an annual commemorative walk to remember these events. This being the 190th anniversary—and as a former actuary knowing the likelihood of my making it to celebrate the bicentennial of the event is not great—I convinced most of our small family to join me on the walk. There are only five living ancestors of James Caleb Jackson. Four of the five of us made it, and Jan came along with me, so we had five participating in this year’s walk.

The weather was cool and sunny, great for walking the 5.4 miles (up to Clocksville and back). Jackson’s name and picture are on the historical markers present in both Canastota and Clocksville that provide information about the walk. His memoir provides the only extant first-person account of the walk.

During the day, I talked with many of the participants, organizers of the event, caretakers of the Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, descendants of former slaves whose ancestors had taken the Underground Railroad to the area, and others, like us, keeping the memory alive, knowing there is still work to be done.

Someone asked me if I was proud to walk in the footsteps of my ancestor. My answer was no; I was humbled to walk in his steps. James Caleb Jackson was twenty-four years old. Some are born to lead.

History shows that serious issues affecting nations are significantly more complex than suggested by the black and white of social media and news headlines. Historical novels, and even contemporary thrillers like I write, can explore that complexity when they incorporate issues such as militias, illegal immigrants, big corporations, the environment, and different rules for the powerful and the powerless.

Writers, how do you handle those issues? Readers, what books have you read that did a good job addressing complex issues without turning preachy?

* * * * *

James M. Jackson writes justice-driven thrillers with brains and bite, including the Niki Undercover Thriller series and the Seamus McCree series. To learn more information about Jim and his books, check out his website, https://jamesmjackson.com. You can sign up for his newsletter (and get to read two free short stories, one featuring Niki and Seamus and the other taking place at Seamus’s camp in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula).

Memorial Day by Nancy L. Eady

 Every holiday owns a history, and Memorial Day, which is being celebrated today, is no different. I had never heard it called anything but Memorial Day until I was an adult at a funeral in Illinois, where relatives called it “Decoration Day.” Thinking about that this weekend, I wondered what the difference was. It turns out there is no difference. The two terms are synonymous, although the federal government tipped the balance toward “Memorial Day” by making it a federal holiday. 

Whether it is called “Memorial Day” or “Decorations Day,” the day itself is a day to remember and honor all military personnel who died in the line of duty. There is a federal statute that requires it to be held “the last Monday in every May.”  36 U.S.C. § 116(a). Among other things, the statute requires the President of the United States to issue a proclamation “calling on the people of the United States to observe Memorial Day by praying, according to their individual religious faith, for permanent peace." 

Memorial Day did not exist until shortly after the Civil War. According to the website for the National Cemetery Association for the Veteran’s Administration, the Ladies Memorial Association in Columbus, Georgia started a campaign to clean up the city cemetery, which was in disarray, and announced the date to do so as April 26, 1866. In a letter to the local paper, the secretary of the Ladies Memorial Association said their purpose was “to set apart a certain day to be observed...and be handed down through time as a religious custom of the country, to wreathe the graves of our martyred dead with flowers.” In one of those odd flukes of history, the city of Columbus, Mississippi, held a similar event that same year on April 25, 1866. 

The first national event, according to the same website, took place on May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where around 11,250 Union soldiers and 350 Confederate soldiers were buried, over half of them unknown. The state of New York was the first state to recognize Memorial Day as an official holiday. After World War I, celebrations of Memorial Day expanded to honor all the nation’s fallen service members, not just those from the Civil War. Memorial Day was first recognized by statute as an “official” federal holiday in 1971, although Congress had passed earlier resolutions requiring proclamations from the president on May 30 at least by 1950.  

One of the best expressions of the purpose of Memorial Day was one of the earliest. The leader of a veteran’s group in 1866 issued a general order for a Memorial Day which included the following language: “Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”

I hope you have had a good Memorial Day weekend, and that in the middle of it all, you had time to stop and reflect on what it means. 

Election Day—Vote!

 by James M. Jackson

If you have already voted in today’s elections, thank you—assuming, of course, you are a legal voter. Even if you voted for the “wrong” candidates, thank you for helping to maintain a fundamental pillar of our representational democracy—the right to vote as you think best.

The first presidential election for which I was eligible to vote was 1972. I couldn’t vote in 1968—even though I was eighteen and eligible to be cannon fodder in the Vietnam War—because in New York, the “age of majority” was then twenty-one and there was no overriding federal law. That changed in 1970, when The Voting Rights Act of 1970 lowered the voting age for federal elections to eighteen.

After the Supreme Court ruled Congress could lower the voting age for federal elections, but could not for state elections, Congress passed the 26^th Amendment to the Constitution in March 1971. In just over two months, the required 3/4ths of the states ratified the amendment, and President Nixon signed it into law on July 5, 1971.

I didn’t recall until I researched this blog that in the 19^th century, it was not uncommon for states and territories to allow noncitizens to vote. (There were often other requirements, such as property ownership, paying taxes, or other restrictions to limit voting to “responsible” adults. And in most states voting privileges applied only to males until passage of the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1920.) At the turn of the 20^th century, states began forbidding any noncitizens from voting. Alabama kicked off the movement in 1901. By the 1928 elections, all states had banned noncitizen voting. While not legal, not until 1996 did Congress criminalize noncitizen voting in federal elections.

In 1992, a spark of a movement began when the City of Takoma Park, Maryland, became the first municipality to restore noncitizen voting for local elections. The argument leaders gave was that citizenship was irrelevant when voting for those responsible for delivering local services, such as public transportation, garbage collection, water, sewage, parks, and recreation, etc. (And, the Maryland constitution expressly delegated the authority to determine suffrage requirements for municipal elections to the city charters.)

In 2016, San Francisco voters (Proposition N) gave noncitizens the right to vote in school board elections. Several other cities followed soon after. Every attempt to allow noncitizens to vote has gone to court. Some cities won in court, some lost, and seven states have already amended their constitutions to forbid noncitizen voting for anything. Eight more states have similar measures on today’s ballots.

I grew up in a Republican home and counted as my Jackson ancestors Whigs, then early supporters of the Liberty Party (1840s), Free Soil Party (early 1850s), and ultimately the Republican party (late 1850s). In grade school, I was “for” Nixon, and “against” Kennedy. In 1972, I was against Nixon and for McGovern, and I knew what that meant (including that I was probably the first of the Jackson clan to ever vote for a Democratic presidential candidate). Of course, despite my vote, Nixon won in a landslide.

In 1980, I took a “principled” stand, and voted for John B. Anderson, a liberal Republican Congressman. Across the country, only 5,719,849 other people voted for my candidate. Ronald Reagan crushed President Jimmy Carter. Even if everyone who had voted for Anderson had voted for Carter, Reagan would still have trounced Carter, but that was the last of my principled presidential stands.

I came to realize that as much as I wished for a third party that represents my views, what mattered was who gets elected. I am better off choosing the better of the two candidates who could possibly win, and not “send a message”—especially since the winner doesn’t care about my message.

With primaries, I don’t take that pragmatic approach. I vote my conscience and hope the winner pays some attention. Hope springs eternal, as the saying goes.

I have heard some say, “Why bother? My vote doesn’t really count.” Well, maybe not in most elections. However, if more people who felt that way did vote, their combined votes might well change things.

Every once in a while, a single vote makes a difference. A few years back, a school bond referendum was on the ballot and it ended in a tie. Without my vote, the referendum would have been defeated. The tie meant the school board could place the referendum on the next ballot (a general election). With more voters, it received overwhelming approval.

So vote, if you haven’t. Again, thank you if you have.

* * * * *

 James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree series. Full of mystery and suspense, these thrillers explore financial crimes, family relationships, and what happens when they mix. To learn more information about Jim and his books, check out his website, https://jamesmjackson.com. You can sign up for his newsletter (and get to read a free Seamus McCree short story). 

Notes

1. Liberty Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Party_(United_States,_1840)

2. Timeline of voting rights in the United States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_voting_rights_in_the_United_States

3. Laws permitting noncitizen voting https://ballotpedia.org/Laws_permitting_noncitizens_to_vote_in_the_United_States

Bibliophilic Friday: The Miracle at Belleau Wood by Alan Axelrod (Review by Nancy L. Eady)

For this month’s bibliophilic Friday, we’re going to take a brief detour into military history. World War I in America often seems to be the forgotten war. As a nation, we remember World War II much more clearly and talk about it more. We certainly were involved in World War II much longer than we were in World War I, which might explain it. However, there are lessons still to be learned from World War I, and those military members who fought in that war deserve to be remembered as much as the fighters from World War II. 

 One book on World War I takes a snap shot of a single battle. The Miracle at Belleau Wood by Alan Axelrod deals with one of the first battles fought solely by a battalion of Americans – in this case, a group of United States Marines.

 As a rule, I find military histories hard to follow – I get lost in a maze of place names and general’s names and dates and lose track of where I am in both time and space. This book, focusing on a single battle, is an exception.

 The book provides the reader with a good description of trench warfare in World War I at its full maturation. It delivers a hard-hitting, clear view of the reality of terms tossed around in history books such as “the fog of war.”

 More than anything else, this book is a coming of age story about the United States Marine Corps. The author’s contention is that this battle consolidated the position of the USMC in the public eye as the leading edge fighters of the United States military, the all-volunteer force that is proud to be “the first to fight.” The USMC, of course, needed no such consolidation in its own mind; it has always known who it is.

 Alan Axelrod does a good job of presenting the build-up to the battle and the battle itself in an engaging manner, but without glorifying the concept of war. The book is replete with anecdotes from people who were in the battle which highlight not only the bravery but the humor men seem to find in even the grimmest situations. One of my favorite anecdotes is the Marine officer who received a message from a French officer that the Marines were supposed to retreat as the French were retreating. The Marine looked up and told the messenger, “Retreat? Hell, we just got here.” My second favorite anecdote is the exchange between one officer and another when the first officer, Major Thomas Holcomb, came forward to meet with Major Frederic Wise, whose battalion he was to relieve shortly. As he arrived, the Germans cut loose with a fierce artillery barrage. Holcomb looked at Wise and asked, “Is this celebration due to my arrival?” Dead pan, Wise replied, “No…This is only routine.”

 Axelrod does not shield the reader from the horrors of war in the trenches, either. The casualties in this battle were horrific – over 120 officers and over 5700 men. As Americans rediscovered in another war a generation later on the shores of Normandy, in spite of their heavy losses, the Marines at Belleau Wood ultimately succeeded because American commanders and officers explained to their troops their objectives and how they intended to achieve them. American soldiers then used their ingenuity, experience, and gut determination to achieve that objective – if they were cut off from their squad or platoon, if the higher ranking officers were killed, the individual soldiers still strived to forge forward to win the battle.

 During the battle, the Marines were commanded by an army general, General Harbord. By the end of the battle, the Marines voted to make General Harbord an honorary Marine, an honor he ranked personally as the highest honor he ever achieved.

 One reason the battle of Belleau Wood was important was that it was the first time that United States fighting forces would fight the Germans essentially on their own. (See footnote.) The Germans hoped that they would be able to squelch and demoralize the American Marines completely, gaining a psychological edge on the battlefield. The Germans also were racing against time – the sheer number of men the Americans would be able to field on behalf of the Allies would ultimately overpower Germany, which was reaching exhaustion. For the Germans to win the war, this last offensive push had to succeed – and at Belleau Wood, only the Marines stood between them and a break in the lines to reach Paris.

 The extent to which the German troops were able to “squelch” and “demoralize” the Marines can be judged by the nickname the German soldiers gave to them – the Teufelhunden, which means “Devil Dogs.”

Surprisingly, among the forces on the field during the battle, only the Marines emphasized the importance of marksmanship in regular battle as well as for snipers. Common military practice at the time was to teach troops to simply point in the general direction of the enemy and shoot, the theory being that you would have so many bullets flying at the enemy at one time that he was bound to suffer casualties. Not so the Marines – each Marine aimed at a target when he shot, and what he aimed at, he hit.

 It does take the author several chapters to ease the reader into the battle – about four – and I would have liked to know a little bit more about what happened to various people after the battle throughout the rest of the war. The first four chapters, however, provide the reader with important background information without which the reader would be unable to appreciate exactly what the Marines did at Belleau Wood.  There are a few references throughout the book about what happens to certain of the Marines in the future but I would like to have known more.  

 The author’s assessment of the final result of the battle is unusual. Many historians credit the Marines in this battle with preventing the fall of Paris in Ludendorff’s last offensive to break through the trench lines. However, most historians also believe that once the Marines had done this, early in the battle, the rest of the fight to take the wood, which cost so many Marine lives, accomplished little. The author agrees, and yet, as he explains, after listing the terrible tally of the battle – 126 Marine officers and 5057 Marine men killed along with many more Germans: 

For the U.S. Marine Corps, this investment in blood has never been subject to question or controversy. It was a mission. That in itself is all that really matters. Beyond this however, it was a test of American military capacity and American character, and the Marines felt fortunate that they were given the responsibility for taking and passing this test. … The reputation of the marines as America’s fiercest warriors, the nation’s elite fighting force, was forged in this battle. After Belleau Wood, the Marines claimed the right to be regarded as the American vanguard, the first to fight and if necessary, the last to leave.

 

Kindle Loc. 2842-2845. 

This book is definitely worth your time.

   Try reading this book, or another outside of our beloved mysteries, then play around with ideas for a while to see what mysteries you could put together from it. What ideas might you come up with? 

FN. An army unit temporarily “on loan” to the French had acquitted itself well a few weeks earlier as well in stopping a German advance. As a rule, General Pershing, the overall commander of the American Expeditionary Force, wanted the U.S. troops to fight as their own units rather than interspersed between French and English troops; however, one of the Ludendorff offensives compelled him to loan the artillery unit to the French. 

Combinations by Nancy L. Eady

In another life, I was a high school math teacher, which meant my major in college was math education.  One type of math problem I encountered both at college and when I was teaching was figuring out how many possible combinations of various things were possible.  So, for example, if you have a drawing for the numbers 1-6, you have 6 possible numbers you can get on the first draw.  If the number is not replaced after the drawing, then on the second draw, you can get five possible numbers.  If the number IS replaced, then you still have six possible numbers.  So, in one drawing with six people where the number is not replaced, you have a possible 720 (6x5x4x3x2x1) ways in which the numbers can be drawn.  However, in one drawing with six people where the number IS replaced, the number of possibilities increase to 46,656 (6x6x6x6x6x6). 

I would assume (although I haven’t looked it up) that the range of sounds the human voice can make is close to infinite.  But somewhere along the line, as we were evolving, humans started associating certain sounds with certain meanings.  The number of possible combinations of sounds was (I am again assuming) close to infinite but over time in different groups of humans, the sounds used to express meaning became standardized, and language was born.  

Keeping both those thoughts in the back of your mind, now, take a minute to appreciate the genius, whoever he or she was, who invented the Western alphabet.  Other systems of writing stemming from pictographs, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics and Babylonian cuneiform, were in use, but weren’t universal.  Some unknown person (a Phoenician, historians are pretty certain) decided to associate a limited number of symbols with specific sounds, and the idea caught on, revolutionizing written communications in the Western world.  Because the alphabet has a limited number of symbols, the number of possibilities to create words was not infinite, although still incredibly high.  Ideas could not only be expressed but recorded. 

And from that critical insight, developed the English language that we use today, in all of its glorious richness and versatility.  That's a good thought to take with you into a Monday, isn't it? 

They Didn’t Really Get It Right by KM Rockwood

“Predicting the future is easy,” goes an old saying. “Getting it right is the hard part.”

My grandmother used to say that during her lifetime, transportation had undergone so much change it was hardly recognizable. Her father would hitch the horse to the buggy for a trip into town, which was about as far as they ever went. And later in her life, she rode on jet planes to visit her grandchildren and great grandchildren, sometimes overseas.

While many people had faith in the inventions we take for granted now and worked diligently to make them feasible, there were always skeptics. Many of them were well-known figures who made predictions that were proven spectacularly wrong.

"How, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you, excuse me, I have not the time to listen to such nonsense.” — Napoleon Bonaparte, when told of Robert Fulton’s steamboat, 1800s

"Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia." - Dr. Dionysius Lardner, 1830

"No one will pay good money to get from Berlin to Potsdam in one hour when he can ride his horse there in one day for free." - King William I of Prussia, on trains, 1864

"The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty--a fad." -- President of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Company, 1903

In the March, 1904 issue of Popular Science Monthly, William S. Pickering opined about the possibility of transatlantic flight: “Even if a machine could get across with one or two passengers the expense would be prohibitive to any but the capitalist who could own his own yacht.”

Things as basic as electric lights had their doubters.

"Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as a conspicuous failure." - Henry Morton, president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, on Edison's light bulb, 1880

“When the Paris Exhibition (of 1878) closes, electric light will close with it, and no more will be heard of it. – Oxford Professor Erasmus Wilson

Most of us are dependent upon computers and their word processing programs in our writing. But when they were new, not everyone saw the advantage.

“I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.” Editor of Prentice Hall business books, 1957 New York Times.

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” – Ken Olsen, chairman of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

Even those who embraced progress could miss the reality of coming technology.

“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” Popular Mechanics, 1949

Much as we depend upon photocopiers rather than carbon paper, in 1959, executives at IBM told the upstarts who would found Xerox, “The world potential marketing is 5000 at most,” and said there was no market large enough to justify production. 

I don’t know if I would be writing if we didn’t have modern technology. I know that if I tried, I would be a lot more frustrated (how many messy corrections before you have to retype the entire page? Ever get tangled in a typewriter ribbon that decides to jump track and smear its ink all over both you and your work?) 

 

Sources for the information in this blog include:

“25 Famous Predictions That were Proven To Be Horribly Wrong,” List 25  25 Famous Predictions That Were Proven To Be Horribly Wrong (list25.com)

Kelly, Gene. “History’s Most Boneheaded Predictions’” Washington Post, September 7, 2021

 Tina Sieber, “8 Spectacularly Wrong Predictions About Computers & the Internet, March 15, 2011 8 Spectacularly Wrong Predictions About Computers & The Internet (makeuseof.com)

Szczerba, Robert J. “15 Worst Tech Predictions of All Time, Forbes, January 5, 2015

 

 

 

 

HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING AS A NATIONAL HOLIDAY by Nancy L. Eady

             This Thursday is Thanksgiving. Because I post on the fourth Monday of every month, and because we at Writers Who Kill change our schedules from Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day, 2020 is one of the very rare years when I post the week of Thanksgiving. Usually, the fourth Monday in November happens after Thanksgiving. Wherever you are, here in the United States or overseas either with our armed forces or as an expatriate, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving in spite of COVID. 

           Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays; it is a time to breathe before I am pushed into the Christmas season, relax with my family and, most importantly, thank God for the many, many blessings in my life. It’s hard to imagine a year without a Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving hasn’t always been a national holiday. Curious, I decided to look into its history. NOT the history of the first Thanksgiving; I love that story too much to clutter it with inconvenient historical facts (although I know my share of them). I prefer to leave my mental image of the grateful Pilgrims with the helpful Indians intact. Instead, I looked up how Thanksgiving came to be the beloved national holiday it is today. 

            During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress declared one or more national days of official Thanksgiving, as did George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison as presidents. In 1817, New York became the first state to adopt an official day for a yearly Thanksgiving holiday. Several other states followed suit, but in keeping with the unanimity we expect from the separate 50 states, each state selected a different day. In 1827, Sarah Josepha Hale began campaigning to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. As the editor of first The Ladies Magazine and then Godey’s Ladies’ Book until the age of almost 90 (she retired in 1877), she had, as Teddy Roosevelt would have said, a bully pulpit from which to lobby. (Ms. Hale was also the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”) 

            After 36 years of hard campaigning, which included editorials and dozens of letters to governors, presidents, congressmen, and senators, she achieved her goal when in 1863 Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday in November as the national holiday of Thanksgiving. In his proclamation, made in the second year of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln asked Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” 

           The first Thanksgiving Day parade was held in Philadelphia in 1920; the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Day Parade began in 1924, along with America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit. In 1934, the Detroit Lions hosted the first of their annual Thanksgiving Day games, a tradition that continues even today. The only years since then that the Detroit Lions haven’t played a Thanksgiving game were in 1939 through 1944 during World War II. They’re even playing this year, in spite of COVID-19, although the fans won’t be able to attend in person.  The Dallas Cowboys began their annual Thanksgiving Day game in 1966. Then, in 2006, the NFL added a third game to the schedule, completing the slate of Thanksgiving Day football games as we know it today. 

                Thanksgiving continued to be held every year on the last Thursday of November until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the middle of the Depression, attempted to move it up to the third Thursday in November in an effort to increase holiday retail sales. This change was incredibly unpopular (some critics called it “Franksgiving”) and in 1941 he reluctantly signed a bill from Congress establishing Thanksgiving as occurring on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains today. 

            Because Thanksgiving has been a national holiday since the Civil War, most families now follow their own special traditions. My husband, daughter, and I travel somewhere in our camper, just the three of us, for Thanksgiving weekend. Usually, we go to the Gatlinburg area. If we can, Kayla and I watch at least part of the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade together, because I know my Mom and sisters are doing the same wherever they are. It gives us a sense of closeness even though we are apart. What are your family traditions?

The Great World War II Meet-Up

Like many people my age, both of my grandpas served in World War II.

My generation is attached to the Greatest Generation by a few degrees of separation and the kind of time that makes it difficult to associate either grandpa with his vitamins and cranberry juice and attachment to Matlock with the square-jawed young men raising the flag at Iwo Jima or posing in uniform in the German countryside.

And like many grandchildren of vets, the stories I know I only know in fits and starts. Either because I was too young to understand or the stories, even decades later, were still too fresh to be told.

Still, what I do know is that home was a talisman, at least for one of my grandpas.

R. Gregory Warren was only a year into military school in Claremore, Oklahoma, when he enlisted and was sent to Germany in May 1943 as a paratrooper. He was an only child, famously ornery, and pretty much joined up to learn some discipline along with the fact that he was compelled that fighting against the Nazis was the right thing to do.

He doesn’t tell many stories about the war. Mostly mentioning how he was super careful about having clean socks and took up smoking because personnel got cigarettes for free. (He quit smoking when he returned but has been obsessive about cleanliness ever since.) No stories of bravery or killing Nazis or saving innocents, though, I’m sure there’s some mixture of those things locked up tight in his 89-year-old mind.

But the story he does tell, and that I’ve heard many times, is about when a piece of home found him in the middle of Germany.

As I’ve mentioned, he was an only child—The Great Depression kind of ruined his parents on having other kids—but he was very close to his twin female cousins, called Bob and Frank by the family and everyone else (though their names were Barbara and Frances). They were like his older sisters and they were extremely important to him and he missed them dearly, though both had wartime jobs as nurses.

One day, in the middle of Germany, Greg’s supervisor drove up in a Jeep and said, “Warren, come with me.” Of course, he did, because by then the orneriness was under wraps, and he was pretty good at doing as he was told. Plus, in an active war zone, you always do as you’re told.

He followed the commanding officer over to a Jeep. There, in the back, was a woman. And as he got closer, his heart started racing.

It was his cousin, Bob.

The nurse had been given time off and went in search Greg, and in doing so, both found a little home, there in the middle of Germany, in the middle of a war.

Greg’s commanding officer waited for the pair to stop hugging before clearing his throat and saying, “Warren, can you drive a Jeep?” Greg nodded. And was told he had three hours and the Jeep to do with as he pleased.

The pair jetted off as far as they could go, trading stories and catching up half a world away from the farm in Oklahoma where they’d pal around each summer together, along with Frank, who was on leave in England and missing out on the fun Greg and Bob were having in Germany.

And fun they did have, even taking a picture together in front of a bombed out church: My grandfather’s only picture from Germany during his entire tour.

Today, it’s hard to imagine how amazing that experience must have been for both of them. Now, we’re all so utterly connected, and finding a friend in a crowd or even a foreign country is as easy a single text, an address and time. Maybe an email, if necessary.

It will probably always be exhilarating to get a taste of home when far away, true. But I’m fairly certain that feeling doesn’t hold a candle to his surprise and her delight at connecting a world away.

I hope everyone had a fine Veteran’s Day this week and got a chance to remember those who have served or are serving at this very moment.

Freke Dorothy Fluck Lane

by Kara Cerise

If you're like me you look at some of today's baby names in amazement. For instance: Pilot Inspektor, Audio Science, Moxie Crimefighter, Blue Angel, Sage Moonblood, and Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa.

Singer Frank Zappa and his wife gave three of their children creative names: Moon Unit, Dweezil, and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and his wife bestowed sweet names upon their children: Buddy Bear, Poppy Honey, Daisy Bunny, and Blossom Rainbow. (Do you think the Olivers watch Sesame Street?)

Unusual baby names are a contemporary trend, right? Wrong! Apparently people in past centuries liked unique names too. Researchers in Britain have compiled more than 1,000 unusual names from birth, death, marriage and census records going back to the 16th century.  

I’m guessing that these kids born before the 20th century were teased because of their names:

• Boadicea Basher
• Philadelphia Bunnyface
• Leicester Railway Cope (He was born in a train carriage at Leicester Railway Station)
• Freke Dorothy Fluck Lane (I picture her as the historical counterpart to the little girl in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off who sits by herself on the school bus holding melted gummy bears.)

These children in the 1800s may have had inferiority complexes due to their first names:

• Friendless Baxter
• One Too Many Gouldstone
• That's It Who'd Have Thought It Restell
• Offspring Gurney

Arthur and Sarah Pepper had a baby girl in 1882 and gave her a name for every letter in the alphabet:

Ann Bertha Cecilia Diana Emily Fanny Gertrude Hypatia Iug Jane Kate Louisa Maude Nora Ophelia Quince Rebecca Starkey Teresa Ulysis Venus Winifred Xenophen Yetty Zeus. Her last name, Pepper, accounted for the 26^th letter of the alphabet.

Can you imagine a teacher taking attendance using the girl’s full name?

Today, some parents try to be clever with their kids’ names. My friend’s niece has the last name of Kane. Her parents named her Candace. Yep, Candy Kane. Actor Rob Morrow and his wife named their daughter Tu—Tu Morrow. Then there's Filet Minyon, Dyl Pickle, and Ben Dover.

However, parents in earlier centuries had a sense of humor joining first and last names:

• Mineral Waters
• Zebra Lynes
• Thomas and Alice Day named their son Time Of—Time Of Day.
• Windsor Castle (Her mother’s maiden name was King.)

We've all snickered over marriage announcements where contemporary couples have interesting last name combinations:

• Partee-Moore
• McDonald-Berger
• Looney-Ward
• Hardy-Harr
• Jaeger-Meister

Do you think people chuckled when these duos married?

• Nicholas Bone and Priscilla Skin in 1636
• Charles Swine joined Jane Ham in 1711
• John Mutton and Ann Veale in 1791
• Richard Dinner with Mary Cook in 1802

We may be separated by centuries, but we're not that different after all.

Have you heard any unusual names?

Do you give your characters creative names?

Women's History Month

This is the last week of Women’s History Month, a month dedicated to women’s long struggle for equal rights as well as celebrating the historical contributions to society they made.  The month observation started in the United States as a day - International Women’s Day, and eventually became Women’s History Week in various places in the country. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a proclamation declaring the week of March 8^th as National Women’s History Week. Eventually in 1986, Congress passed a statute designating the Month of March as Women’s History Month.

Abigail Adams

It’s been a long battle over the years going back to Abigail Adams. She was intelligent, had strong political viewpoints and was a prolific letter writer. Because of these qualities she is one of the most documented First Ladies. A March 1776 letter to her husband John Adams and the Continental Congress is well-known and often quoted. In it she requests that to “. . . remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.” The letter didn’t change her husband’s or the Congress’s minds, but those words lived on in the hearts and minds of women. 

Abigail and John Adams believed that slavery was evil and a threat to the American democratic experiment. Harriet Beecher Stowe also believed this and bravely fought for the slaves’ freedom with her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. We all know what she accomplished with that book. When she visited Abraham Lincoln in the White House in 1863 to urge him to remember the slaves, he greeted her as “the little woman who wrote the book that made this Great War.” A strong woman in many ways, she supported her family with her writing while her preacher husband went on rural retreats for long periods to sooth his nerves. Harriet Beecher Stowe considered slavery a masculine enterprise, and thought women with their feminine conscience were better able to see the evil of slavery. In a way Abigail Adam’s threat of a women’s rebellion came through, albeit in the form of a subtle or not so subtle advocacy against the laws of slavery. A little aside here, more writers of books and novels during this period were women than men, but how many women writers of this period are taught in literature classes? Not many.

Susan B. Anthony 

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) with a Quaker upbringing was very active in the anti-slavery movement. In 1848 when working as a teacher in Canajoharie, New York, she became involved with the teacher’s union after discovering that male teachers had a monthly salary of $10.00 while female teachers earned $2.50 a month. From this as well as her temperance and anti-slavery reforms she started the battle for women’s rights. She’s probably the best known of the suffragists of her generation. But it was through meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton and hearing a speech by Lucy Stone, that they formed the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. All students of history know what a long hard battle that was. As a final tribute to Susan B. Anthony, the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote was named the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. It was ratified in 1920.

Harriet Taylor Upton 

Another woman, not as well-known as the three mentioned above, was Harriet Taylor Upton. She was born in Ravenna, Ohio and moved to Warren, Ohio which is only a few miles from where I live. She was a key organizer and the first president of the Suffrage Association of Warren, and was a member of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1890. In 1880, her father was elected as a member of the United States Congress, succeeding President James Garfield in the position. Her father’s position gave Harriet the opportunity to meet leading political leaders of the day, including Susan B. Anthony. She brought the headquarters of the organization home to Warren from 1903 to 1910.  Her home remains as a National Historic Landmark. Although she died in California in 1945 at the age of 91, recently her remains were brought home to Warren and are buried here.

Harriet Taylor Upton House in Warren, Ohio

Although women have made great strides in our country and many others, there are still gaps. Women earn only 77% of what men do. Teachers in a field which is preponderantly female except for higher education are paid far below what they should for the amount of education they have and the additional classes they are required to take. Administrative positions in higher education have been traditionally staffed by men although that has evened out in English departments, which is now close to 50-50. Women are only recently making gains in business. In investment banking only 18% of the managers are women. Of the fortune 500 companies there are only 23 CEO’s who are women. Not much, but still higher than it’s been in the recent past. And in government and other fields that have been dominated by men over the years women are making gains, too. We are slowly and steadily making progress.

What inequalities between the genders have you seen or experienced?

What advantages do women have today that our mothers or grandmothers didn't have?