A Century Ago

A few days ago, I took this volume from the bookcase. I have been enjoying the perusal of the children's reading material, 1909. A mere one hundred years ago, ten and eleven year old tykes were reading this. The heroes were such as the gentleman pictured in the frontispiece. I found no mention of "Power Rangers" or Harry Potter.

If you can magnify this preface, you might read a statement of the aims of the compilers for the youngsters who were exposed to this. I'll assist you a bit. The penultimate paragraph says,

"As the best literature makes a distinct moral appeal to the reader, it is evident that the subtle influence of such selections as this book contains will help boys and girls to live more happily and helpfully." (Double click on the image to enlarge.)

As there are nearly 400 pages in the book and since there are about 100 authors represented, it would be too tedious to list the contents, but a suggestion thereof might be made by listing just a few of the authors represented. Some of them are Robert Browning; Edward Everett Hale; William Cullen Bryant; Helen Hunt Jackson; Henry David Thoreau; John Milton; John Bunyan; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Louisa May Alcott; James Whitcomb Riley; Robert Burns; James Fenimore Cooper; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Benjamin Harrison. I think you may get the idea.

I offer here no moralizing, no judgments; but I do ask that you reflect on this a bit. You might look at your kids' current reading materials as you do so.

Good day.

Interstate Highway System

Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956

was signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower, June 29, 1956.   Been somewhere, or going somewhere?  Or using products delivered by truck?  You are the beneficiary of this federal project.

Does one say "happy birthday" to a road project?

Jesus and Paul

As I move into my fourth year of teaching, I leave my position and move to a new situation.  As my trustee told me, Sure, we hire the young teachers, train them, then they move on for more money.  I took a position at School in a Soybean Field, a small 1-8 school, as teacher of sixth grade and science teacher for grades five through eight.  Thus it was that three periods a day my homeroom class was under the care of another teacher while I made the rounds of grades five, seven, and eight to instruct in science.

In my homeroom was a young man, Paul Ramirez, whose family were migrant farm workers.*  In the fifth grade was his brother, Jesus.  Two boys could hardly have been more different; they could have been from different planets rather than from the same home.

Paul was a dedicated student who had determined to get the most from his limited opportunities for an education.  He spoke and wrote immaculate English, and his grades were solidly in the "A" range in all subjects.  In the introductory paper at the beginning of the year, Paul delineated his ambitions and hopes for the future.  He asserted that following university he would enroll in medical school, and he had already set his sights on Baylor.  His aim in becoming a doctor?  He would follow the migrant stream from the south all the way into Michigan, then back again to the Rio Grande Valley in the late fall to provide medical attention and wellness instruction to the people, for this was an area of great need.

I once asked Paul if he had been christened "Paul."  No, actually, he said, my birth name is Pablo.  I just think Paul is easier and more readily received and it is the same, anyway.  Mama calls me "Pablo."  This from an eleven year old boy.

Jesus was a year younger than Paul, and though he was in fifth grade it was clearly a placement he had earned simply by staying alive year after year, for he had no academic record to support that placement.  Jesus was not dull-witted or lacking in basic intelligence.  This I know, for while he obstinately and steadfastly refused to learn English, I communicated with him via the expedient of using his brother as translator.  I asked if he knew English but refused to use it.  No.  His Mama spoke Spanish, his Papa spoke Spanish, so he too would use Spanish.  Had you not picked up some English over the years simply by being exposed to it?  No.  I get what I want; why do I need language?  Do you have any ambition?  What are you going to be when you grow up?  I am good worker;  I will pick fruit and plant crops like my Mama and Papa.

This vignette could be utilized as an illustration for so many things.  I choose not to be judgmental even though Jesus frustrated the living daylights out of me when I was his teacher.  Teachers often find themselves in the position of having higher aspirations for some students than the students have for themselves.  And yet...

*Thousands of farm workers follow the labor needs of agriculture, starting in the deep south and moving northward, finally going back to the South, usually in late October.  Thus so far as students are concerned, in our area we usually had the youngsters in our charge from early May through mid-October.  In a different school from the one in which this tale is set, I have taught in the summer migrant program, learning sufficient Spanish to tell my charges "No!" in their native tongue.

Almost Wordless Wednesday, Architecture

Adams at Independence

 Southwest corner

 Northwest corner

 Northeast corner

Southeast corner

BREAKING THE "WORDLESS" FEATURE.  MY SISTER AND BROTHER-IN-LAW HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO EVACUATE THEIR HOME IN COLORADO SPRINGS.  PRAY FOR COLORADO AND THOSE WHO HAVE LOST THEIR HOMES, AND FOR THOSE WHOSE HOMES ARE THREATENED.

Butler and Other Funny Business

Samuel Butler was an English author, born 1835, died 1902.  My attention to Mr. Butler was directed by my re-reading of  Poor H. Allen Smith's Almanac in which I found this snippet:

"On his deathbed Samuel Butler indicated that he wanted to say something, and what he wanted to say was that he had once written that life was ninety-nine per cent chance and now he wished to correct this figure to one hundred per cent."

A couple or three* additional Butler quotes:

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.

All Animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.


A drunkard would not give money to sober people.  He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and send their children to school with it.

*Did I ever tell you about the third-grade teacher on my staff whom I could drive up the wall by incorporating the phrase "a couple or three" into the conversation?  She was a very nice young lady from Michigan upon whose ear certain "Hoosierisms" grated, and hence the dickens that lives within me could not resist planting them occasionally.  Where are you now, Lauren?  Well and happy, I hope.

Random, Very Random

It has been a day.  Detail would not edify you.  Then it occurred to me that I had no post ready for the four ayem posting.

I thought about the day, the thoughts, the sights, the experiences and still, it would not edify you for me to elucidate.

Aha!  I thought.  I shall get random.  I am sitting at the old computer upstairs, seldom used old computer which has old, seldom viewed pictures stored on its hard drive.  (BBBH is watching a 48 hours or something similar mystery, a sort of programming that does not appeal to me; hence I am sitting at the...)

Thus I pulled up the Pictures, shot the cursor at a random folder, and here we are.  Six years ago we were frozen in time, posing in these Western-style shirts.  Have you seen our shirts?  No, seriously, they are missing.  I know, I know, you are thinking "Why would you care, if the shirts are that old?"

1.  We only buy stuff we like.
2.  We don't necessarily keep stuff forever, but we "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."
3.  I bought my shirt at an open-air market in Black Canyon City, Arizona, hence there is an aura of nostalgia and fond memories about it.
4.  We hate to lose stuff.

Somewhere in time, say probably three years ago, we had worn these shirts to an event (definition of event: going to dinner at the local restaurant on Senior Night.)  The next time we wanted these shirts, we could not find them.  Nor have we yet found them.

Seriously, have you seen our shirts?

They That are with Us

The King of Syria came down upon Israel. He counseled with his men, saying we shall camp just there. But Elisha warned the King of Israel to avoid that spot; and this happened yet again, and again. The Syrian King was so vexed that he called his cabinet together and demanded, “Which of you is for Israel? And they answered and said, “None of us. It is Elisha that tells the Israelite King even those most secret words you speak in your bedroom.”

 Then the King demanded to know where this Elisha person was, and it was told him that he was in Dothan. So he sent a great host of men with horses and chariots down to Dothan by night, and surrounded the city. When Elisha’s servant arose and went out he beheld this sight. He ran to Elisha and said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?" And Elisha answered and said, “Chill. Have no fear: for they that are with us are more than they that are with them.” and he prayed and said, “Lord, open his eyes that he may see; and the young man’s eyes were opened and he saw. The mountain was filled with horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

When the Syrians came down to him, Elisha again prayed, “Lord, smite these people blind.” and so it was. Then the Man of God told them, “This is not the way, nor is it the city. Come, I will take you to the man you seek.” So he took them into Samaria and prayed the Lord to open their eyes. And when they saw, they beheld that they were in the midst of Samaria. And the Israelite King said to Elisha, “My father, shall I smite them?”

“Nah,” said Elisha. You wouldn’t smite those that you captured by the sword and the bow. Set food and water before them that they may eat and drink, then send them on their way. The Syrians ceased for a time from pestering Israel.  (Based on 2 Kings 6)

What are we to take away from this account?

1.  Elisha was not called "the Man of God" for nothing.

2.  Elisha kept his cool in a troubling circumstance.

3.  Elisha prayed, not once, but at each turn of events.

4.  Elisha saw clearly God's power in the event.

5.  Finally, Elisha dispensed mercy when he could have just as easily meted out death.

What key phrase should we commit to our heart's storehouse?

--They that be with us are more than they that be with them."--

  When we give control to God, there is no foe who can overcome us, for He provides a    host sufficient to overpower the evil that would swamp us.

Hair Today, Hair Tomorrow

If it seems to you that these people look somewhat familiar and yet they are much too young to be anyone you know here in Perfect, that is understandable.  It is a much younger vanilla with his young bride, for this was taken about a month before our marriage.

My hair is much whiter, and so is the 'stache.  The eyebrows are still black, though!  The furrows are a little deeper and possibly more numerous.  But I can still rise from bed in the morning and for that I am truly grateful.

The Lady, though, hasn't changed all that much.  You said I'm angling for points?  Shame on you.
What has changed is the length of the hair.  She has adopted a much shorter style, not so much to be stylish (she is a fanatic about looking her best, and I am glad of that) as to follow the convention that older women should have shorter hair.

So last evening she said to me, "I'm thinking of letting my hair grow again.  What do you think?"  Which brings me to the point of  bringing such personal stuff to the blogosphere.  I am asking those of you who are of the feminine persuasion, "What do you think?"

jsyk, BBBH is a professional cosmetologist.