AZURE

Photoessay #1942 - Dead end

2012-01-30T15:12:00.000-08:00

Today Gin and I looked for some descendants of Reginald Zunder, Maier's youngest child born in 1880 when Maier was 51. I was hoping to trace his descendants and ask them if they had any pictures.

But I think I hit a dead end.

We know that Reginald lived in the greater New York area and worked as an executive of some sort with B'nai B'rith. We know his wife was Mae. We know they had two daughters. Myra (b 1911) and Ruth (b 1914). I knew that Myra married Herbert Henry Lewson (a soldier) in 1942. He died in 1987. She died in 2007.

By screwing around with the New York Times, we found that Myra and Herbert had a son Robert Z. Lewson in 1948 but he died at age 57 in 2005. No marriages or children listed in his obit. Ruth Zunder married Hymen Shapiro and she died in 1966. No children mentioned in her obit. Still possible that Ruth Zunder Shapiro and her nephew Robert Z. Lewson had children that we just don't know about. But I would think they would be listed on the obit.

I wanted to find somebody to contact to see if they had pictures.

I have no pictures of Reginald at all. I'm thinking there have to be some but where to find them? He's buried at Mt Ararat Cemetery in New York.

This picture of Mishkan Israel cemetery is taken from somebody else's photo album. Shows how we are all lost.

Is that East Rock or West Rock in the background...I should know.

Photoessay #1941 - 1953 christening

2012-01-29T11:33:00.000-08:00

We've had this picture up in our dining room for a long time. Just relocated it when I introduced the new Irwin pastel picture and moved things around.

On the back is written in Lanays's handwriting.

Dennis Christening picture (5 mos old) 1953 taken by Bill Ransdell (his godfather)

Lanaya, age 26, holding baby Dennis, big baby in his mother's lap. Lanaya, always photogenic. Their friend Bill Randsdell took many pictures of Lanaya and sold some of them for commercial use.

We liked Bill Randsdell a lot, he was part of Jim's 'Alki Boys' crowd. He had a beloved first wife who died young and two children. With some crazy romantic attachments afterwards (including Marni Nixon, a celebrity singer). Jim and Dennis were very sad when we realized he had died and we hadn't known.

But it's a nice period picture of it's time and deserves a place on the wall.

Photoessay #1940 - Senior panels

2012-01-28T17:07:00.000-08:00

Today Dennis and I listened to presentations for the Shorecrest Senior Projects. We were on separate panels. I listened and participated with students who

Learned how to take and edit photographs
Designed and planted a fern garden
Choreographed and presented a hip hop dance number
Explored how to make a football highlights video
Wrote and illustrated a children's book

My two favorites were the young man who presented as extremely passionate about ferns, learning about the different kinds, propogation and showed us pictures of his fern garden...and the young woman who worked on the choreography including her mentor Rex who was one of Danny's good friends back in the day. Her presentation included a video of the final dance number.

The young man with the football video barely got through. But he did. He stood in front of the panel of four community members and gave his presentation with his cue cards and did his own voiceover. He passed.

Some fail and they are given at least one other chance. Our neighbor's son failed and one of the neighbors was on the panel. His mom thought it was fair as he had not prepared; saw it as a learning experience. I believe the panel of last resort consists of members of the custodial staff.

I took a picture of a bulletin board recruiting members of the Highland Dance Team, who do traditional Scottish Highland Dancing. Naomi did this; it was a great source of affiliation and status for her. The second shot which I featured earlier was my favorite Lassie picture, taken on the Parliament Steps in Victoria BC during her senior year (as senior captain)

Photoessay #1939 - Hospital

2012-01-27T14:07:00.000-08:00

All is ok, don't worry, loyal readers.

Today, I went to Swedish Hospital and University Hospital (aka University of Washington Medical Center) dropping $12 in parking charges before 12:30 pm. I went to University Hospital to visit a friend who ended up in ICU after a bad reaction to something in a routine biopsy. Her daughter asked me to come which I did. I promised her daughter I would stay with her mom. She did have some pain medication and was getting drowsy. I asked, after a while, if she's like to take a nap, she said she would so I left. She's looking in good shape and expects to be released today.

You know what they say. What's the difference between major and minor surgery? Minor surgery is when it happens to somebody else.

Earlier I had gone to the large Swedish Hospital complex for a routine periodic appointment with an endocrinologist. I stayed a little longer, went to the cafeteria so I wouldn't be looking for lunch at the second hospital.

James and his helpers have been here most all week working on our hall/wall board/molding/door issues. We had two areas of panic dog damage from our previous dog, some wallboard work needs to be finished for the fireplace installation. We hadn't done anything to our hallway in the 24 years we've lived here in this conventional 1970s era split entry house. The old plastic molding was chipped and falling off, the doors had holes and marks on them, we decided to get it all fixed up. We are going to have the most beautiful hallways for miles around. I figured there are seven doors off that hallway. That's a lot of doors and little pieces of molding and trim.

Picture is of University Hospital. It is quite near Husky Football stadium where they have already dynamited my section in the stands.

Photoessay #1938 - Tenth and Eleventh House

2012-01-26T14:36:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I had a special session with Betsy Gutting regarding birthplace, my writing and a start with astrology charts. I thought that there might be some special connection that I would automatically have with my birthplace (Pasadena CA). I had written about it and, based on my various versions, it seemed clear that I had a stronger connection with the citrus groves, to the trees. Which does make sense to me.

But I wondered about astrology, an ancient science, how the planets align at the moment of your birth. So Betsy ran my astrology chart (pictured). She said that it was quite unusual that I had four planets in the eleventh house.

She explained that the eleventh house was the house of friendship and working within groups. From another source "It rules friends, groups, our social circle, membership in societies and organizations, ideals and aspirations shared by the groups to which we belong." She said that it was not surprising to her that I had so much strength in this house considering I had a leadership position in a group we both belong to which relies heavily on mutual personal support in family issues.

I have stayed in this group for twelve years still enjoying the weekly and more intense team meetings. I confirmed to her that friendships have always been important to me.

I was somewhat shocked but somehow reassured when looking at the tenth house which is the house of career, achievement and ambition.

The tenth house was empty. Nothing there.

I wondered what THAT means. As I, in late middle age, have turned away from the conventional work world (after losing my job) and am now focusing on community support (through this personal growth group) and personal expression.

Have I been on this path all along?

Lots to think about. I found myself exhausted after our session.

I highly recommend Betsy as a personal coach. Be sure to check out her website!

Photoessay 1937 - 1997 Library of Congress

2012-01-25T11:04:00.000-08:00

When Ilana was 11, we made an impulse trip to Washington DC. We certainly were not in a financial situation to do it. But Ilana started coming home from school saying "If I went to Washington DC, I would go to the Washington Monument. If I went to Washington DC, I would go to the Smithsonian." Obviously they were studying this in school and she was really interested.

So I blurted out "Let's GO to Washington DC!" So we did. Just Ilana and I. I think we were there for 3 or 4 days. We had so much fun planning it. She was so into it. I called our legislators and got some 'special passes'. We stayed with my cousin June and her husband who toured us around. Ilana loved all the sites. I realized that with Susanna, we could go to maybe one thing and the rest of the time would be spent in the neighborhood pool.

Here we are getting a 'special tour' at the Library of Congress. I think she looks like she was truly enjoying this. She's wearing my red sweater, it was kind of chilly.

We went everywhere, took a bus tour the first day. There was a large African American bus driver named Dave. He made it very clear that we belonged to him and we would do what he said. He did not intend to lose any tourists. At each stop, Dave told us when we had to get back. And you better not be late because then Dave would come searching for you and you would not like that. He made us all say in unison before each stop "My bus is number 36 and my bus drive's name is Dave." We loved it.

My cousin June's husband, Eric had been the counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee and we wandered around freely (pre 911 days). He introduced us to the current staff and showed us the ice cream place in the basement where the staffers got treats. We went into an empty conference room; the microphone was on. I remember he went to the front and said in a very professional voice "Now Mr. Chairman, from the state of Washington, I present Ms. Ilana Barnes." Ilana squealed and ran out of the room.

A great trip; I'm glad we did it.

At the Library of Congress. The print a little worse for wear from being on my wall.

Photoessay #1936 - Great old books

2012-01-24T18:30:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a project for my class involving 19th century school prayer. In relation to Maier Zunder, of course. I've really enjoying finding lots of essays and chapters in books that are way back in the Suzallo stacks or in storage. I've got a whole bunch of them (see photo, I have then stacked up alongside the desk, that's why it looks so weird). But it's great, some of them have some handy information. For example,last night I found the original court case for the Cincinnati schools which spelled out some basic issues for school prayer.

Possibly nobody has looked in these books for several years.

This topic so relevant, it could happen today, even with the same language. I hope that I can write it effectively. Including Maier Zunder's role in facing down a formidable self-appointed committee of distinguished Catholic and Protestant clergymen. He's not intimidated, he's not going to let an involved devotional exercise which distinguishes children on basis of religion be implemented in the New Haven schools in 1878. As with so many other things he did, he proceeded with great skill and purpose.

And he knew how many votes he had.

Photoessay #1935 - Mishkan Israel Cemetery

2012-01-23T15:56:00.000-08:00

For my mother, my cousin, for me, Mishkan Israel Cemetery is center of the historical universe. And I never lived in New Haven. My mother would always want to go to the cemetery to visit her relatives from the old Bavarian Jewish families. My cousin and her husband do any special maintenance to make sure that the sites look nice.

I've always enjoyed learning about these families who came to New Haven in the 1840s and 1850s mostly from Bavaria and formed the core of the original Jewish community. The formed Temple Mishkan Israel and started the Horeb Lodge of the B'nai B'rith. Many became successful businessmen and factory owners and their families participated in a lively social scene.

I go and visit and take pictures; last time in November. I was a little distressed that day because I was looking for my parent's gravesites for the first time since their committal in July 2010. Heavy leaves covered the grass in the area we remembered. But at first we couldn't find it. Myself, my cousin Mary Ann and her husband searched the area, focused, kicking the leaves away, looking back at the large tree for perspective. Kicking kicking the leaves. We finally found it, whew.

We checked everybody out including my current focus, Maier Zunder and his family. Right in the center of other family members. With his two wives and some of his children. I had never noticed that 'Z' on the top. I don't know what the shape on the top means. The round thing with the drapery?

There's some connection for me there....

Photoessay #1934 = UW yesterday afternoon

2012-01-22T12:54:00.001-08:00

After we visited the Burke museum gift shop we went over to Suzallo library to pick up some books and generally hang out. Why not? I like that place myself. I know we are getting way ahead of ourselves but we make a point taking 11 year old Melina to the University of Washington quietly saying "If you want and keep getting good grades, you could go to college here." Right now she says she wants to be a 'professional hairdresser". Suzallo Library is always a trip; I know there are a lot of other libraries done in this same gothic style. But this one is ours.

Melina was working on a school project about the "Millau bridge". Never heard of it. We found out that a book existed in the Oedgaarde Undergraduate Library. Never been there, great excuse to go. After a librarian assist, we found the book. Dennis and Melina search for the bridge in the book. We find it, here's the illustration. Pretty impressive!

Turns out there are many pictures of this bridge online.

Hey, we know how to have fun! Right now we just have the one granddaughter and she likes to do this stuff. Especially if we get to come to our house later so she can throw the ball for Teddy.

Photoessay #1933 - Making crystals

2012-01-21T17:49:00.000-08:00

We spent the day with Melina today; something which we haven't been able to do for a few months. At the Burke Museum, Melina was looking at a crystal growing kit in the gift shop. Dennis thought we might have something (which I didn't remember) at home. So now they are upstairs trying to make crystals from the kit that we had way up on a shelf in the laundry room. Unknown date and provenance. As in we have no clue where it came from or how old it is.

So they're up there fooling around with goggles, rocks and mysterious packets of colored something. We'll see if it works.

I had a $50 gift certificate to the University Book Store. Our first stop on this slushy slushy day was to there to get Melina a sweat shrt. Darn, don't think I took a picture of it. She chose a yellow one off the sale rack because it was her elementary school colors. Also a Roz Chast book and some books off the sale table--a book of Ansel Adams photographs marked down to $4.99 and a crazy yarn project book for Naomi. Then over to the UW Suzaallo and Odegaarde libraries to pick up some books and also to look for books about Cambodia and the Millau bridge (in France). There are rows of bookshevles about Vietnam and quite a bit shelf space for Thailand. But for Cambodia, just a very few books????? The Millau bridge was for a class project for Melina. We found one book that had a few pages. Turns out there's about a jillion pictures on the internet through Google. Pretty amazing structure, never heard about it.

Now, today was the first day in a week where people could get out. On Thursday night, the word came out from the City of Seattle....just go home. The storm was supposed to be done but wasn't. So wherever you were, working or shopping or visiting, just go home. So, on this Saturday, guess where EVERYBODY went. Including us. Costco, of course. I've never seen it so packed, you could not find a parking space in that huge lot. Plus you could barely get around. But we did it and even brought home a pizza for dinner.

Then Melina and Dennis started that science project....

My gas fireplace is still working great!

Photoessay #1932 - Susanna warmer day

2012-01-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

No more snow pictures. No more fireplace pictures. Where is that darn rain they are promising that will melt all this crazy snow.

Dennis went to work mid-morning mainly because he's tired of hanging around here. Once you get out of our cul-de-sac, it's not so bad. And Amy made it out of her rural home near Monroe to come and clean for me. Same thing. She said that the power went off for the 10th time this week. Her husband put chains on the car and I think she may as well get out of the house and make some money!

This storm this week was so wacky. Even with the fancy new radar, it went different places than the experts thought, snowed when it wasn't supposed to. Didn't snow when it was supposed to. Generally buried people in snow.

Remember, in Seattle, you are allowed to cancel anything ANYTHING, if it snows. Everything I was going to do this week was postponed.

I wanted a Susanna picture today so decided to raid her facebook page. Yup, that's my girl. Nice day at the beach! I didn't know she could do that but if it's a physical thing, she can probably do it. Um, that was how she came to be an all Pac 10 performer. Because she can do this kind of thing. As well as play softball.

I'm putting it out into the universe that she gets accepted into one of the occupational therapy programs she's applying to. Any one is fine!

And for Ilana to get a good job coming out of graduate school.

If Susanna reads this blog, she can tell us where and when this picture was taken. Somewhere warm and sunny.

All I have is bunch of gloppy snow. It is melting, just now real fast. Where's all that rain they promised?

Photoessay #1931 - It's installed!

2012-01-19T14:49:00.001-08:00

Our gas fireplace is in and it's working. It doesn't look gorgeous right now but it's functional. James was here from 5-9pm last night. Showed up here at 9am in the middle of freezing rain that turned back into snow (despite the forecast). By 1:30, it looks like this. It's doing it's initial burn. One issue is that when it's on, the thermostat might get messed up and it gets cold in the rest of the house. His workers all couldn't work because of the snow which opened up his schedule to put in our gas fireplace. Yay!

But it's working and it's warm. We're in the middle of a big weather event here. As I've written, this area is not set up for snow and when it does snow, everyone panics. You can cancel anything at all when it snows. I haven't been out of the house since Sunday night when I (rather unwisely) went out to a Starbucks to talk about writing with a friend. And it's now late Thursday afternoon. This event was supposed to be over today. But it's not. I just heard that 212,000 are out of power in our region. Huge! I cannot believe (knock on wood, don't want to jinx it) that we have been spared so far. The houses in back of us were without power last night. We didn't have power for four hours on Sunday.

But now, we have a nice new gas fireplace. So we won't be cold if we do lose power. We also have a gas stove and water heater. Things are really looking up. It will cost a pretty penny but it will help with my 'oh no! we'll lose our power!' freakout.

Another client of James had a carport collapsing in the snow so he had to ditch us to work on that. But it's operational, that's the most important.

Happy! Happy!

Photoessay #1930 - Soooo close!

2012-01-18T11:23:00.000-08:00

I freely admit it. I'm one of those annoying clients who dismiss the idea of a gas fireplace in July when we have everything torn apart and then decide in December that I must have it! In fact, I must have it NOW in the middle of the biggest snowstorm.

I convinced James to come over yesterday. We knew the fireplace was in; James went over to pick it up in his small truck and came over and started installing it. He had already put in the gas piping. I plied him with pineapple upside down cake. It's almost installed, so close!

But today is the biggest day of the storm. He wrote, said it looked too scary right now, would re-assess in the afternoon. I replied that Cliff Maas, THE weather guru of Seattle, the guy who knows, in fact he's in charge of everything meteorological around here says, he SAYS the precipitation will be over by 1pm (currently 11:30). However there is about 3 inches on the ground which is pretty daunting.

Yesterday, I was stunned that a truck with a plow came into our cul de sac. Unheard of! Never has happened ever! But they did such a lousy job, just went around and backed up and left. Nothing was any better at all! What's the deal! Such snow amateurs around here.

When James was doing the installation, he found this picture. Looks completely unfamiliar. I'm guessing this is 1986 and that's baby Ilana on the right. This isn't our house (never had a couch like that) but I was part of a baby group with Ilana (even though it was my 3rd child). My mother had made a yellow baby sweater and that baby's got on pink bootees, the kind that my mom (and now Naomi) made. She was small by birthweight.

A blast into the past. Isn't everything? She's 25 now. She called me today excited that she got a phone interview.

So if I could just convince James to come and finish it. But it has something to do with the roof so I dunno.....

Photoessay #1929 - Quasi-con

2012-01-17T11:47:00.000-08:00

My daughter Ilana, a masters student at the University of Michigan School of Information is heading up a student-run conference this Saturday in Ann Arbor. The conference is being run by the student chapter of the ALA American Library Association (she's president) and sponsored by Gale Cengage learning.

She thought it would be a great idea to have a student run conference with student presenters. So she (and the other members of the steering committee) gave it a shot. Build it and they will come. For $5 you get a whole day of workshops, lunch AND a tote bag. They hoped to have 75 people; when they closed registration the other day, they had 88 people! Had to order more tote bags! You can just show up but you won't get a tote bag.

So, if you're in Michigan and would like to have an interesting day on Saturday, show up! Participants include current students and alumni of the Information School, local librarians, some people from Wayne State, even somebody from Kent State in Ohio. The students are very excited and the Information School people are thrilled.

Looks like they have everything in place. They're encouraging first year students to be in front so they'll do it next year. Ilana's teaching one session on GIS resources.

I think this will have some real positive impact for her and her fellow organizers. Because she IS on the job market!

Snowing here. Am hoping against hope that James will come and install our gas fireplace. Cliff (the weather ruler who is in charge of all weather) is scaling back his forecast from 14 inches to 2-6 inches tomorrow. I am just so sure we'll lose our power so I really really hope that fireplace gets installed. Still pretty iffy. Here in Seattle, you are allowed to cancel ANYTHING if it starts to snow. I've cancelled 4 things myself.

So, what did I do? What I always do when it starts to snow, make a pineapple upside down cake!

Photoessay #1928 - Wimp snow town

2012-01-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

Seattle is a wimp snow town. When it snows, the whole place goes into a panic, things get cancelled, nobody goes anywhere. You ALWAYS carry chains. But, when I talk to family members who live in snow climates (my sister in Indiana, Ilana in Michigan), I find that they don't carry chains, nobody has chains, things carry on, it's just no big deal.

Ilana goes into this funny comedy routine for her Michigan people in a mock alarmed voice "Look, guys, there's snow, uh oh, that changes everything, hey we can't go out, we can't go anywhere, oh oh do we have enough eggs?"

But it's not widespread group paranoia. In Seattle, during a snow event, most streets don't get plowed, there's very little sanding or salting. The temperature hovers around freezing so part of the snow melts and then refreezes. Several times. So the roads get covered in glare ice almost immediately. I unwisely went out yesterday evening to meet a friend at a Starbucks to talk about writing. Not a wise decision. I got there and home mostly ok. But the roads were covered with black ice, I could see the glare from the lights.

What do I mean mostly ok? Dennis suggested taking the van rather than the Prius. The Starbucks parking lot was treacherous to walk on (nobody does anything to parking lots). When I got back in, I mistakenly hit the power door button and the van side door tried to open but it was frozen shut. I couldn't get it open or closed. When I put the car in gear, it buzzed. I didn't want to slip and fall in the parking lot covered in snow and ice. I thought I would drive with the buzz and figure out the door when I got home. The cross street NE 120th to get out of Starbucks ends at Lake City Way in a hill. Not plowed or sanded. Cars slipping down hill into busy street. But I couldn't turn left. So I turned right looking for a way to turn around. Tried a u turn over snow and ice, lost traction, gambled that the forward slide would put me back on the wed pavement of Lake City Way, that worked. Carefully made the way home seeing reflection of ice everywhere. See what I mean?

Dennis did go to work this morning. He doesn't work far, less than 5 miles away. He usually goes surface streets but today he decided to go hwy 99. He reported that past the Snohomish County line, Hwy 99 was mostly covered with ice. And that's a main highway. He thought that King County people had sanded.

So it's just below freezing and more snow expected today and through Wednesday. Really there's not much snow on the ground but Seattle grinds to a halt. My appts for today and Tuesday are cancelled. We're already talking about cancelling Parent Group on Wednesday. Looks like Inner Circle on Wednesday morning might also get cancelled. I'm pretty sure they would close the schools if it wasn't MLK day.

Picture of my street this morning. Not much snow, right? Why would you cancel school over such a small amount....that's why.

Photoessay #1927 - This morning

2012-01-15T14:33:00.000-08:00

Here's the view from my dining room this morning. Yes, there's snow, but not that much. Though it's enough to make our cul-de-sac unnavigable. And, yes, there's Teddy our pitbull/grayhound/take-your-pick/could-be-anything dog. Notice anything else?

Notice that it looks kinda dark? No, that's not a bad exposure (though that could be true too). But our power is out again!!! It did come back on after being out 3.5 hours. I hate it when our power goes out. And our gas fireplace is still not installed!

One possible good thing about moving eventually to the Edmonds Bowl. I'm assuming no power outages because of the dense population. Dennis is ready to move except for the pets. Process currently stalled but we are not in any hurry.

Photoessay #1926 - Edmonds Sunset

2012-01-14T14:27:00.000-08:00

Last night, Dennis and I went out for his birthday. We went to one of the nice seafood restaurants in Edmonds which offer lower-priced dinners if you come earlier. Limited menu but still very nice. So we went that route.

We got there just at sunset and I took this picture...this right out of the camera. F4 1/35, amazing that it's in focus. The poles sticking up are masts of boats as we are right near the marina.

Pretty nice

The condo deal is coming along but this is what we look out over from our living room view. We drove around the neighborhood in the dark yesterday after dinner. You really do get a different feel for it. How dense it is with so many condo buildings. You can look into a lot of people's places. Not the one we are looking at.

Jan was over last night and one of the things we figured out was that there were no comps....

I remember, writing on this blog, that I Edmonds Beach was one of my favorite places...

Photoessay #1925 - Picture of Irwin and Gertrude

2012-01-13T15:11:00.000-08:00

My cousin found this picture of our grandfather Irwin Baumann and his sister Gertrude in her basement probably from my grandparents house. I took it and had it reframed. It looks good! We have a really great art restoration place right nearby. Pricey but they are great. I had so much fun with the person there picking out the frame and the matting colors.

There was the matter of me sticking my finger through the paper on the way over there but look how nicely they fixed it. Mary Ann said she was sure she was going to do that. I told her not to worry because I ended up doing it.

I have it provisionally in the corner in my dining room with some orange things and family heirlooms, from all different areas of the family. But I think it looks nice.

Remember that nice condo in Edmonds we were thinking about? We may go through with it. It might happen.

Picture of the pastel of my grandfather and great aunt outside (trying to avoid reflections) and in my ldining room.

Photoessay #1924 - White lab coat!

2012-01-12T14:11:00.000-08:00

My friend Karen from my Inner Circle writing group is going through some intensive training to be able to do some medical treatments at home. Four weeks downtown, it's a commitment. What she didn't know was that she was going to get to wear this cool white lab coat. How good is that? Sometimes potentially stressful changes can bring some new benefits that we can't foresee.

She feels quite accomplished medical expert wearing it.

James is here running the gas line for our new gas fireplace. Teddy is thrilled.

Does she get to take it home? Can she wear it for our next meeting?

Photoessay #1923 - M Zunder, prop.

2012-01-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

Some of Maier Zunder's business cards or advertisements from the scrapbooks. Just including the earliest and the latest. The first card is from 1852 soon after he arrived in New Haven showing the old location on Church St.

The second one is from later in his career in 1892 in his sixties. This shows his final State Street address. I think he had some 'house brands' of liquor. One of the barrels on the left states "Old Yankee Whiskey - M. Zunder & Sons - New Haven Conn."

Notice the bell telephone logo. New Haven had one of the earliest phone systems in the country, the first phone book anyway.

Photoessay #1921 - Saving "The San Gabriel Valley"

2012-01-10T13:38:00.001-08:00

My piece of writing not the actual valley. I envisioned this piece as one in a series about my relationship to California.

So I started with my birthplace, Pasadena.
For international readers, a fairly large city east of Los Angeles in Southern California, part of the giant urban sprawl.

Why Pasadena? Location of St. Luke's hospital where my mother gave birth to me, her first child at age 27 on April 19, 1952. The hospital, a leading medical facility when it opened in the 1940s has long been closed but production companies use it for a location for movies and TV shows.

Where did my mother and father live when they first became parents? Duarte, a town in the San Gabriel Valley not far from Pasadena

Did they grow up there or did they move there? They moved there in 1950 from New England. My father, 25 was a recent graduate from Harvard and Cornell and came to Southern California to take a job at a new company Aerojet which started with rocketry and moved into defense contracts in the post-war boom.

What was the San Gabriel Valley like when my parents moved there and when I was born? The valley was trnasitioning from a citrus culture economy to an urban/industrial area. Before, the entire landscape was planted with orange groves. I was born two years after they arrived in Southern California.

How did they feel about their new home? I don't know if they thought they would stay. They did buy a small house in Glendora just east of Azusa (where Aerojet was located) which had 17 orange trees in the back yard. My mother thought it was quaint and amusing. She was busy with me plus my brother 2 1/2 years later. My father always worked long hours. In between the babies, we went to Oak Ridge Tennessee for 9 months so my father could attend reactor school. I know my mother didn't really want to live in South California but they made some friends with the neighbors.

So what happened to all those miles of citrus groves? They were cut down to make way for towns and industry. Some ended up in prople's back yards. Like ours.

Did you and your parents stay in the San Gabriel Valley? Not for long, by 1955, my family moved to Sacramento (in the central valley of the state) to work in a new plant near Nimbus in the foothils of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Did they ever go back? No.

So what part of you belongs in the San Gabriel Valley? Not very much, it's my official birthplace but I just passed through like thousands of others with no regard for the natural landscape or the citrus economy. Isn't that the tragedy of southern California? That so many people take advantage of its climate and industry but callously toss it aside.

Do you remember the orange groves? I have some vague early childhood memories of the backyard full of trees and one tree that I got to climb. In the 1960s I remember some trips to southern California and seeing some of the surviving orange groves. I'm pretty sure they're all gone now.

Why is it important? I was born there and we all only have one birthplace. Where my own life began. I feel like I threw over the place like thousands of others and the orange groves disappeared. Somehow culpable though I certainly had no personal control.

----------------------

Very interesting interviewing myself. I've written a piece containing most all this information. Had some workshopping and several wondered what I was really writing about. I repackaged it with other sketches illustrating 'passing through' and that didn't work at all. So now I'm back to working on my original piece. I think this exercise helped!

Picture of the San Gabriel Valley used without permission from http://valleys.co/valleys/san-gabriel-valley/ "Valleys of the World"

Photoessay #1920 - I'm on a roll!

2012-01-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

I've had two writing pieces accepted for publication in the last 4 days. Recently I had collected a large number of rejections. I was discouraged, I wondered if I should continue. I had received something like 24 rejections in a row.

But things are looking up in the new year. I received an acceptance from an online journal Milk Sugar for "Sleepy Sickness". Readers of this blog will remember how I was investigating my husband's grandmother and encephalitis lethargica.

This encouraged me ( a bad sign!). I really only had one piece 'ready' left. "Person of Color", it's about when I realized I was not white and Jewish identity issues. I wrote it as a 'risk' piece for Theo's Memoir 2.0 class.

So I started in going through Duotrope looking for some possible places. I found outwardlink.net. Sounded good:

Welcoming writers of all ages, backgrounds, capabilities, cultures, ethnicities, faiths, genders, nationalities, and orientations who seek to advance the dialog of diversity within their communities and throughout the world.

That fit my piece pretty darn well. I sent it off. And it's already accepted! I'm very pleased. That's four essays accepted since the summer.

My writing is not up yet on either of these sites. Milk Sugar says Feb 1 and outwardlink.net says a few weeks.

Photoessay #1919 - Dinner in Tacoma

2012-01-08T20:58:00.000-08:00

Today Dennis and I went to a family dinner at a waterfront restaurant in Tacoma to celebrate January birthdays (mostly Dennis and Grandma Anne) We visited Anne in her new place at a Wesley community in Des Moines and brought her a pot with narcissus.

We had been to this same restaurant in December to celebrate Aunt Emily's birthday (who actually is the same age as me). They were handing out coupons for substantial discounts in January. We decided to gather up the coupons and use them for another birthday dinner. Originally we were going to use a location closer but Aunt Emily has had some back surgery and Tacoma was the better location for her.

We got there close to sundown and I took this shot just as we got to the reataurant. Looking across Commencement Bay to Brown's Point at the edge of Federal Way. Pretty! Lovely colors in the Puget Sound region even in dismal January.

Partway through the dinner, my brother in law Bryan announced that since he has stopped smoking three months ago, he's been putting the money he's saved into a special account. Plus he had recently gotten a raise. He wanted to use the money for special things including some charitable donations. He wanted to pick up the tab, this birthday dinner was on him. I think there were 13 of us! We accepted his offer and thanked him.

So I will feature a picture of my brother in law who turned out to be out host this evening. Thanks, Bryan!

Photoessay #1918 - New Haven sites

2012-01-07T14:25:00.000-08:00

The other day I found a site associated with the Yale library with historical maps of New Haven. They were in a special format where you had to download a plug-in. My history with this kind of thing is dismal. But I tried it (Lizard Tech) and, to my surprise, it worked.

I worked mostly with the 1852 map which was when MZ moved to New Haven.

My thrill yesterday (or one of them) was to find Cherry St!!! Of course this is related to my great great grandfather Maier Zunder. He listed his address as 41 Cherry St. But, according to Google, no Cherry Street in New Haven. Mary Ann had never heard of Cherry St, neither had the archivist Marvin. But it had to be there.

I was eyeballing the 1852 map and I found it! It no longer exists, disappears from the map in 1955. Cherry St. was a short street that ran east from State Street in the Nine Squares area between Chapel and Court Sts. It crossed the railroad tracks, ran a few blocks. At Olive, it became Wooster St, which still exists. The westernmost end still contains the train tracks and a small park area, the Union Street Parkway. Torrington Supply and associated parking lots now occupy the Cherry St. site. An industrial style building with a For Lease sign stands where Cherry St. intersected with Union St.

Flat out not there

Here are the sites marked on the 1852 map

A - 41 Cherry Street, Maier's 1870 address
B - 212 Orange Street, residence when Reginz Zunder died, now the Post Office and back of City Hall
C - 352 Orange Street where Maier lived at the time of Delia's wedding in 1894
D - 54 Church Street site of Samuel Zunder's store, really nothing there now
E - 221-7 State Street - site of Maier Zunder's wholesale grocery. Still a commercial site.
F - 74 Pearl Street - first home of Maier's daughter Cordelia and her husband Paul Weil. Maier had obtained and furnished the house. It still stands

Yale College is shown in the small area just west of the Public Square. It now takes up many blocks to the west and north almost all the way to Orange St.

Took me quite awhile to put this altogether even though I had most of the addresses.

Good luck to Janine who will be interviewing for a PhD program at Yale very soon. Go Janine!

Photoessay #1917 - Annual xmas picture

2012-01-06T12:58:00.000-08:00

On Christmas morning, we took an informal family picture as we have done many years. Dennis is taking this shot, after a few tries, Matt took the picture so Dennis could be in it. But, well, none of those pictures turned out so I'll go with this one. Myself, my four adult kids plus Matt, Ilana's boyfriend. Usually Jessica, Danny's girlfriend comes but took a one day trip to visit her family in California this year.

Plus Teddy in his winter sweater. I think I have the only dog that could generate a serious discussion whether he was a pit bull or a greyhound. What? Those dogs don't look alike at all ???? Check out my particular mutt!

I've been writing about how we all just pass through. I know that all things will change as my adult children find their own ways. Will Ilana have a business librarian job far away next year? Will Susanna be enrolled in an occupational therapy program in another state? Though I'm not wild about them going far away, I hope that they both can accomplish their goals.

New carpet this year....

Photoessay #1916 - A Christmas gathering

2012-01-05T13:50:00.001-08:00

On Christmas day, my family (except Danny who had to work) went down to Des Moines (that's Washington) to my brother-law and sister-in-law's house for an afternoon gathering. Here's my sister-in-law celebrating her buffet she put together for the afternoon gathering. We brought the strange platterful in the foreground,'dessert-henge' put together by Matt from a spice cake, slices of date nut and some chocolate mnt cookies.

All that stuff was yummy and I don't think any of 'dessert-henge' lived to see the next day. The spice cake tasted especially good. I sent the rest of the chocolate mint squares back to work with Dennis for where they came.

I worked to try to keep all those holiday goodies out of my house because I knew I would eat them. A losing battle, I know, but I try. No plates of Christmas cookies! Chocolates go into the freezer. Almost every day Dennis brought something home from work. I sent a lot back the next day.

But, as usual, with my family, we make a huge impact on any gathering. There's not that many times when we all go somewhere together. But we're still the party when we arrive. Danny had to work but we had Matt. So we arrived at their small home with six people. Other guests included Grandma Ann, Uncle Alan and my other brother-in-law Brian.

Nice spread, Loreen!

Photoessay #1915 - Danny's column

2012-01-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

Danny wrote a column for the magazine "WACAP Today" put out by the adoption agency that we used when we were adopting 27 years ago. I worked there for awhile myself.

Danny cares very deeply about issues in his life and he likes to give back to organizations involved in his life sometimes in surprising ways. He writes and speaks very articulately (he always has) and contributes by speaking at parent group (the families love hearing him speak), on adoption panels as an adult adoptee and for a YMCA program for first time juvenile offenders.

His theme is often gratitude for the blessings in his life. Of which I am also grateful and proud of his accomplishments.

His article concludes "There are so many children out there who need love. We didn't choose our prior circumstances. A loving home and a strong family system can execute awesome things."

My reaction as an adoptive parent is to wish that parenting by adoption was so simple. Many of us are faced with extremely difficult parenting situations that people outside can't even imagine. Not really my situation, especially now, but many children placed transculturally present enormous challenges.

But naches to me for having such a wonderful son who can write such a heartfelt column and can so eloquently appreciate his family. Few of us can receive such a gift.

I'm so proud of my son Danny Barnes!

Follow the link to download a .pdf file of this issue of the magazine. Danny's article is on page 10.

The picture is a recent picture of Danny and his girlfriend Jessica.

Photoessay #1914 - Passing Through

2012-01-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

And abstract expressionism. which I might have mixed up with abstract impressionism (thank you wikipedia).

I'm struggling with my writing right now. I worked on doing a lot of submissions in December which has resulted in a lot of rejections. I found an online criticism group and submitted my piece "The San Gabriel Valley", got a lot of good feedback. Some questioned what the piece is really about. I decided to deconstruct it and make it into an essay with the theme 'Passing through'.

I have four 'parts'

Myself passing through time as my children grow up

My parents passing through the San Gabriel Valley in the 1950s unwittingly participating in the destruction of the citrus groves (originally in 'The San Gabriel Valley'.

An account of myself at age 11 on a trip to the east coast going to an art gallery (could have been Yale University Art Gallery) with my relatives as we all struggled to understand the abstract expression pieces on display. Canvases with just one blue square on them, etc Were these really art? My view that this WAS art as it was in the gallery not realizing until 50 years later that abstract expressionism was just passing through.

Myself coming of age in the midst of counterculture in California (I was 17 in 1969), my enthusiasms for parts of it and we passed each were passing through taking bits of it with use.

I really wanted some lyrics, considering using some 'catch the wind' and making wind/breeze mentions throughout. But don't know if that's a bit too precious.

I want to add some dialogue to the art gallery part. I know I have to guess at the art gallery, make up what could have been on the walls and what my relatives might have said to advance the story.

But writing comes with struggle and strife.

Picture of Hans Hoffman "The Gate" 1959 from the wikipedia site.

Photoessay #1913 - Can't complain

2012-01-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

My friend Mary Ann and I did our annual sum up as we've done every New Year's for many years.

I know I've sacrificed some image focus for taking the picture with natural light. But that was the only shot we took so we'll go for it. A little fuzzy but we look pretty good.

As usual, we checked what we wrote last year in Mary Ann's calendar book and noted what had changed...and what had stayed the same. We decided "Not bad, can't complain" was the theme. In general, we are thankful.

We have known each other since before we adopted Danny and we've been through it ever since.

Old friends can be the best.

Photoessay #1912 - Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T19:12:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe that the end of the holiday season is here. As my friends Perry and Laura say, the thing that distinguishes the holiday season from the rest of the year is butter. Lots and lots of butter. And I, like most, love that stuff. We went to these friends today to have eggs benedict with Laura's famous hollandaise sauce. this stuff is the real thing with plenty of butter. Yummy, is it good? Dennis and Naomi as Dennis pours that delicious sauce. Yum!

Nice to visit with their daughter Monica who is starting a new job this week in her field of animation and video production and she is SO excited.

We will end the holiday season with a pizza.

Went to some friends (former neighbors) for New Year's Eve last night, came home around 10 and watched "King of Hearts".

Photoessay #1911 - And there was light

2011-12-31T16:30:00.000-08:00

Somehow I think I should write a wrapup piece for 2011. A good year for me; I didn't have a 'for pay' job. I spent a lot of time writing (*2* publications!) and working at Parent Group, being the rep for the Seattle group, giving programs, serving on teams. Went on a trip in March to Virginia, Tennessee and Michigan, another to California at Kit Carson. My adult children all good. Financially fine. Health ok, lost 20 pounds. A surprise death and an unscheduled housefire at my friend's (while we were there!) during this holiday season. Which is almost over, yay!

I enjoyed this book recommended by JJ. Had to get it through Interlibrary Loan at UW as they didn't have it. (I LOVE Interlibrary loan!) This author has a tremendous ability to describe his feelings and inner talents. Blinded during childhood, he developed and was able to access an extremely rich inner world. A brilliant student, he found a niche as an extremely talented administrator coordinating a lot of alternative newspaper printing as part of the French Reisistance. Caught by the Nazis, he spent some time (a year!) at Buchenwald but still was able to keep himself centered to get himself and others through. He made these alternate realities very accessible to me and encouraged me to think in centered ways maybe I had not considered in the past.

I really loved this book and highly recommend it.

Photoessay #1910 - Ilana and Matt

2011-12-30T15:45:00.000-08:00

Ilana leaves EARLY tomorrow morning to go back to Michigan. She's wondering now why she made those reservations on Dec 31, she could have stayed an extra few days. I said I wanted to take their picture before they went off to meet some friends for coffee. I originally went with an underexposed picture now at the bottom of this post. I'm having real trouble with the color in this shot. The faces especially, I don't know how to explain it but the color is all off.

They were mugging for the camera here with Teddy, who's always nearby.

Dennis just came in and says it's a 'gamma problem' which I don't know what that means.

Ilana picked this other picture instead. Clearly I have too long of a shutter speed but there's movement.....

Matt's been here for as long as Ilana's been here..a week. And it's all been fine. He's been helpful and attentive here and really pitched in with the greater Gellerman house fire and aftermath.

Preliminary lessons from that experience:

a. do not have a house fire
b. never light candles. Ever. Except for hanukah candles
c. even though your adult daughter insists on putting out the fire herself and even though you know there's no way to stop her, it's not a good idea. Even if she does manage to put out the fire
d. sprinklers, overall, are a good thing but the water damage can by way worse than the fire damage.
e. an argument could be made that the reason why there wasn't much fire damage was because the sprinklers came on.
f. if you are a renter and maybe if you're not, you have to completely move out so the rehabilitation people can do their job
g. this was not what you had in mind between xmas and new years
hi naches to me that three of my adult kids plus boyfriend matt went over there at least once to help
h. having two dogs visiting for the duration doesn't really help

And we are all grateful that all present, 9 people, 5 cats and 3 dogs are all fine.

Back to Matt and Ilana ... they both graduate in the next six months ... from different universities in different states (Ilana masters degree in Library and Information Science from University of Michigan and Matt bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from University of Washington). And what happens next is up to them.

My talk went fine at the Shoreline chapter last night.

My original picture

Photoessay #1909 - Strudel

2011-12-29T15:36:00.000-08:00

Time to introduce the new member of my brother's family. Strudel! Age 10 weeks. Yes, it's a kitten. He already has two cats who are used to being together but he decided on an addition. He brought Strudel with him when he went to visit my sister and nice for Christmas and my niece's 18th birthday.

They all had a great time playing with the kitten.

My talk last night went ok, not great. When I went to write this entry, I realized that I had completely forgotten my cool "Say yes to the dress" opening. Completely slipped my mind, that's age for you. But luckily I had another chance because I'm giving it tonight at the Shoreline group.

Cute kitty!

Photoessay #1908 - Our issues

2011-12-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

I will be speaking tonight in Seattle (and tomorrow night in Shoreline) giving one of our Changes 101 programs. A few years ago, we developed a number of basic programs teaching core Changes principles and decided to give them all periodically. New people come all the time and it doesn't hurt for all of us to hear about it again.

Tonight, my topic is "Separating your issues from your child's issues." Not an easy one because it's hard to put your finger on. One clue is when the parent uses the first person plural "we". As in "We need to make a court appearance." or "We need to get through the ninth grade with some credits." The parent is taking ownnership of things that the child needs to do.

Or more often, the parent has their own personal issues that are causing them to manipulate the child. Easiest example is education. The parent believes education is important and will do ANYTHING to keep the child in school.

This particular program came up last week when Curtis gave a good program on Emotional Blackmail. How our family members can use these blackmail techniques on us to get what they want. Or we ourselves have done this ourselves to get what we want. Learn to recognize when you are doing it; the best thing we can do is model. We are vulnerable because of our own Fear, Obligation and Guilt. Curtis talked about those and Rodney (another member) pointed out that this related directly to 'separating the parent's issues form the child's" Bingo, I knew that I would give this program the following week.

So what does the picture have to do with this topic? If you live with young women, you probably have seen this program "Say Yes to the Dress". Women planning to get married come, often with their friends and relatives, to this high end bridal salon to find a wedding dress. As far as I can tell, the show features real brides, salespeople and families.

I like this show because it features real women interacting about issues important to them. Sometimes the mother wants something so badly for herself. Or a hidden agenda is driving the decision. The salesperson finds out what the bride says she wants and gets a budget number then the bride tries on some dresses and comes out to show the family and friends who are there to help. Often they aren't talking about the dress at all.

So often we, as parents, find ourselves in the same position. Something stressful comes up and we feel SO strongly but we don't recognize why. Maybe our own parents did not provide for us monetarily. Or an uncle disrupted their childhood with his violent behavior. Or the family was always late because of the grandmother's alcoholism. And we get our feelings all mixed up with the situation.

If you can recognize them, you can work to set them aside.

Part of this program is to list some moral qualities and think about how it affects your parenting:

INTEGRITY? COMPLIANCE? PROPRIETY? PIETY? SOBRIETY? MODESTY? LAW ABIDING? STATUS IN COMMUNITY? MONEY? PUNCTUALITY? LOYALTY? FILIAL RESPECT?

Add your own, how about academic achievement? How about well dressed?

Other aspects of this same issue include trying to control things in regards to your child that you cannot control.

And your own disappointment and feelings of loss about the relationship that you thought you were going to have with your teenage or young adult child. This was not the way it was supposed to be! A long time ago, a parent gave a similar program. She had a little handout printed on light blue paper. She explained that this color was West Seattle High School blue. She had bought the paper in anticipation of how she would be so involved with her daughter's high school activities. She now recognized that this high school career was not going to happen. So she wanted to share her special blue paper with us.

Picture taken from Valerie David's TV News and Reviews site, used without permission.

Photoessay #1907 - Dinner, a little bit too exciting

2011-12-27T12:10:00.000-08:00

Last night, we went over to a nice dinner at a family we consider kin though we haven't seen them much this year. But, it's about time! Two adult sisters live in adjoining townhouses. Their brother Uncle Jerry is visiting and he has cut a hole in the wall on the balcony between the two units. We're enjoying a dinner of spaghetti and salad and garlic bread around the table on Linda's side. The cooking and buffet are set up next door on Nancy's side. We're having a great time talking and telling stories; we're planning a New Year's Eve party.

This picture isn't the best as Nancy and Nancy's daughter Janine have their eyes closed. But the door to the balcony between Linda (with her hands clasped) and Janine (short white blonde hair) is important.

In a few minutes, Janine will hear something funny and will get up and open the door to investigate. She returns a second later, screaming. Nancy's living room next door is on fire! Crazy what you do in an emergency. Nancy runs over, makes sure all of the cats are in the back bedroom, opens the window and wets a towel and puts it by the closed door. Janine (in heels) has picked up a mat and is pounding on the bookcase on fire, screaming for bowls of water. Matt's trying to call 911 from his cell phone and tries to get somebody to tell him the address. Somebody else else calls 911. Jerry and I are filling bowls with water. Meanwhile people have gathered as smoke pours out the window. Janine gets the fire out. The sprinklers in the living room start coming on. People are calling "Get out! Get out!". Which is what you should probably do in the case of the fire. Don't endanger yourself trying to put out the fire. So we get Janine and Nancy out of there. Linda takes the three dogs and we all go outside. Where's Janine? Where's Nancy? Everybody accounted for.

Nancy realizes that she had left a holiday themed candle on the bookcase and somehow the ribbon caught fire and ignited the books and videotapes.

The fire trucks come. Pretty impressive response, four fire trucks and several aid cars. They make sure everybody is out and makes everybody else get out of the way. Meanwhile Janine is sitting down coughing pretty bad, she does have asnthma and she was the one insisting on putting out the fire (which she did do). The aide guy approaches her and leads her away to the aid truck. I go with her, I think somebody should be with her. They give her oxygen and keep her for awhile. Nancy, her mom, eventually comes; I'm glad because Nancy's not looking too good to me. Linda and Ilana are sitting in the car with all the dogs.

The fire engines light up the dark. Lots of firefighters doing something going in and out. They take out most of a coat closet and some pictures. I take them and put them in Linda's garage. No more fire luckily (Janine really did put it out) but lots of smoke and water in the dark. Somehow, I decide that my job is to stick right close to Nancy (it's her house). I mean, I've attached myself to her. At one point, a firefighter comes out with one of the cats and hands her to Nancy.

The firefighters will not let anybody in but eventually they do and we find coats and purses and shoes and cell phones. Nancy and the firefighters go in the back bedroom (where the sprinklers have luckily not come on) and they retrieve the rest of the cats, safe and sound.

What a mess! Eventually we've all gathered back on Linda's side. The firefighters come in to interview and the landlord is called. We go home and Dennis brings back our blow up mattress.

Now the next day, Matt, Ilana and Naomi have gone over to help with the cleanup. They'll all come over here for dinner.

Whew! That's a lot of excitement that nobody wanted!

Picture of a fire engine in the dark from wikipedia, just to give the idea. I didn't take any picture as it happened.

Photoessay #1906 - Arduino, who knew?

2011-12-26T14:54:00.000-08:00

Ilana gave her boyfriend an Arduino item for xmas (that would be outside the family pick-a-name scheme).

A what?

They both seemed quite excited about it and merrily got down to work on it. Especially Matt who will graduate from the Mechanical Engineering program at the U this year.

Um, so what is it? Looks like a circuit board with all kinds of little parts.

I look it up ...

Arduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller, descendant of the open-source Wiring platform

OK, but ....

After several hours Matt shows me how he's programed it to turn a red light on and off.

Cool. I think.

Picture of Matt holding it and then working on it at my kitchen table.

Photoessay #1905 - Making Breakfast

2011-12-25T16:34:00.001-08:00

My four adult kids plus one extra (Matt) making xmas breakfast this morning. Susanna's working on the eggs and sausage, Ilana's making the buttermilk waffles. Naomi was in charge of setting the table. Matt's taking care of the sparkling cider. I had cut up the pastries and making fruit salad.

If you look, you can see Teddy the dog hopeful that he can snag a waffle. Danny's hurrying everybody along because he didn't arrive until 9:15 and has to leave by 10:30 because he has to work at the restaurant.

Our decorative hanukah candles are in the menorah. The spray bottle of cleaner is a vestige of a garlic disaster earlier. I had dumped a whole Costco size jar of cut up garlic on the floor, fishing for something else in the refrigerator. Since it was me who last used it, the top was not on tight enough and a large amount of garlic dumped on the floor, me, the cupboard and the rug we have in front of sink.

We had the big breakfast, everything on schedule, gave the presents (everybody gives and gets one present, $30 max). My kids liked the green blankets my sister sent. I made more fruit salad and we all, except Danny, went to my sister in law's where we populated most of the party (this has been the case for us all along). Too much food!

Now Ilana and Matt are down at a fancy restaurant downtown with his mom and step dad. Really would not want more food!

Photoessay #1904 - Register Articles

2011-12-24T15:56:00.000-08:00

And an entire ream of paper and related trees hit the dust.

Like I mentioned, whenever happened in New Haven, a reporter had to go ask Mr. Zunder what he thought about it. I'd heard of the New Haven Register but the articles in the scrapbooks were from the New Haven Union, New Haven Journal & Courier and New Haven Union. Not the Register.

But there's no Connecticut papers in the 'Chronicling America' website maintained by the Library of Congress. The only Connecticut paper in the 'Geneaalogy Bank' website through the Seattle Public Library is the Register.

So I look for articles for Zunder and I get over 1000 hits. No lie. I printed out most of them and put them in my new binder with extra special fancy tabs. Really, these articles only start around 1878 so the 1877-8 devotional exercise drama is only half covered. This man really liked to be on committees on boards, I'm still finding new ones. But reading these articles, I can see that the Register was not always a pro-Zunder paper. There were vague statements about how Mr. Zunder had signficant amounts of opposition, or that Mr. Zunder was supporting a superintendent or principal that the Register though should go or that Mr. Zunder was not familiar with the schools and other jibes.

Got quite a bit of moire pattern and interference in this shot. Those lines of text on the left are straight lines of dashes and the pattern on the desk chair is pretty weird. And the upper left text definitely has soemthing optical going on.

Melina didn't come over so a lot of our xmas eve activities were affected, too bad!

Photoessay #1903 - Snap!

2011-12-23T15:01:00.000-08:00

One of the things I learned in Theo's memoir 2.0 is the snap ending. She instructed us when we are looking for ways to end our writing pieces is not to write something else but start cutting sentences from the end until you get something that's crisp and ends definitively.

Can't say I really have had the nerve to do it.

BTW, I submitted my piece "San Gabriel Valley" to an online critiquing group, so far I've got three critiques; two were nice and all but not too helpful but the third (from central Israel) took me to task in some important constructive ways. What is this piece really about? my critic asks. About the couple? about that valley in Southern California? I think to myself, it's about 'Passing through'. I could write a triptych piece like Theo taught. I could write something more like the style of Ann Lamott where you might have several different pieces with a unifying theme. I have my theme. It's fine to tear a piece of your writing apart if you have an idea where you want to go. I'm grateful.

Back to the snap ending, this one really caught me. From the Dec 3, 2011 New Yorker, the opening in the Talk of the Town entitled "Burning Love" by Elizabeth Kolbert about a new energy source, Shale Gas. The last two paragraphs:

The trouble with this argument [ie the dangers of harvesting this source is at least as bad as others] is that in the absnece of rational energy policy, there's no reason to substitute shale gas for coal. We can combust the both! The way things now stand, there's nothing to prevent us from getting wasted mountains and polluted drinking wate, and a ruined climate to boot.

In the coming decades, ever-improving technologies will almost certainly make new sources of hydrocarbons accessible. At some point, either we will outgrow our infatuation or we will burn our way to a very dark place.

Very dark place. So many images come to mind. Dark houses, dark lives. Dark cities, cold babies. A great ending. It snaps.

A lot to aim for....

Picture used without permission from Cornerstone Home Learning, a home schooling blog.

For those who are wondering, here's how Naomi's candy cane bark came out. Not bad after all of those challenges. She took all of it to a holiday party last night with strict instructions not to bring any of it home.

Though, in the past 24 hours, a big box of fancy chocolate mint cookies has arrived plus Nobuko's chocolates from Japan. Those things are so so good. Last year I threw them in the freezer. Can we resist? Can we?

Photoessay #1902 - Christmas denial

2011-12-22T16:18:00.000-08:00

I will tell you with a completely straight face that we really don't do much at xmas. I've killed most of it. Nope, we're not doing all that crazy stuff. Very simple, the very minimum.

I say this every year and then a few days before, it occurs to me that it's really a lie. It has to do, like much of my life, wirh my cast of thousands. I wouldn't trade all this extended kin for anything except now.

I have long overwhelmed the rest of my family demographically. My sister has her daughter about to turn 18, My brother has my sister and me and now three cats.

I have a husband, four adults kids, their (currently three) significant others, 1 granddaughter and her whole family (the Cambodian side of my family), Dennis' adoptive family (not much around any more), his birthfamily (which is around A LOT) which involves his mother, 2 brothers, one sister in law, niece (with boyfriend), plus 4 aunts and uncles that are always getting together. Our dog, Danny's dog (a yorkie poo who is the boss of everything) and 2 cats.

The din that has captured most of my last 30 years has not abated.

So, it occurs to me

Ilana and Matt come on the plane tomorrow from Michigan/North Carolina
The xmas eve, we have my granddaughter Melina; we have not been able to get together this whole month and we never finished her birthday last month (including an item from the Burke Museum gift shop) plus I have a $50 gift card from the University Book store to get a UW sweatshirt. Plus a cupcake and maybe one for her mom who has a birthday. How will it be hanging around those popular places on Christmas Eve. We'll find out.

Then we usually go out xmas eve to the local chinese restaurant. But Danny and Susanna have to work and Susanna lives in Tacoma and Danny won't have a car so we have to arrange that because Jessica is making a quick trip to California. Susanna will likely sleep on the couch.

Then we have a big xmas breakfast (likely all my kids plus Matt). Again somebody will have to go get Danny. Bought most of the fixings today.

Now my sister in law is having a xmas afternoon affair (a late add) down south so that will involve several pot luck items. I bought some cake and loaf plus I will make a fruit salad.

Then Matt and Ilana have to go do something with Matt's family.

But we don't do anything, right. In denial as usual.

Meanwhile Naomi decides to make candy cane bark. Much drama as we try to figure out how to crush candy canes. Much pounding and false starts. Then I drag out my food processor from WAY back there that we only use for potatoes for latkes. That is, if anybody makes them. Then she need to melt things in a double boiler. I kind of think she could use the microwave but .... now in what decade was the last time I used the double boiler part. Much scouring way back in the cupboard and, I am not lying, we find it.

So the kitchen is totalled up there.

The picture of the crushed candy canes and Naomi melting whice chocolate in an actual double boiler.

Update: Here is very important information: If you buy white chocolate chips to use in your peppermint bark, you can melt it very easily in a double boiler. BUT if you end up melting it at the wrong time and you let it cool, you cannot remelt it, It stays the consistency of play dough no matter what you do. Ask us why we know. I don't know what that stuff is chemically but it's not real food.

Photoessay #1901 - Those Christmas goodies

2011-12-21T13:42:00.000-08:00

Last year, whenever something yummy (we're talking the floor/sugar/butter power triad) came into my house, I threw it in the freezer. I think there's some pretty good eating there in the back. So far, likely due to my waning popularity, we haven't much in the way of christmas cookies given to us. And I'm not making them!!

There was the tin of espresso frangos that Dennis brought home and I indulged in some grieving frango eating. But only for one evening! I insisted that Dennis take that tin of frangos back to work with him the next day. What was left of them, anyway. They were good (sigh).

But I know they're around. I just haven't been getting out much. Naomi has been here. Mostly knitting. I've been working on printing out the articles about Maier Zunder in the New Haven Register. And I know that many of the articles were in the other papers. Heavens. nothing could happen in that town that they didn't go ask Maier Zunder what he thought about it. Mercy! I bought a brand new thick binder with extra fancy dividers and it's almost full of New Haven Register Maierisms.

Hmmm, maybe I can bring out a 'best of Maier Zunder' series. Worth a thought.

Christmas has gotten complicated. Not the presents, I've nearly killed them. Along with the Christmas goodies. And I scornfully sneer if anybody brings up Hanukah. Dang, that first night snuck up on me, didn't even know it. So it's probably just as well that I'm in my house printing out newspaper articles from the 1880s.

You probably don't even want to talk to me. A pox on Christmas goodies!!

Love 'em though, I've eaten my share in my time (dreamily)

Picture used without permissiong from http://toomuchonherplate.com/how-to-avoid-holiday-overeating/

Photoessay #1900 - Ellie

2011-12-20T10:20:00.000-08:00

I received a Christmas letter today and a picture of my friend Ellie fell out as soon as I opened the envelope.

You can immediately see the problem with this picture. The second set of dates. That set of dates usually means the person has died. What? What?

My mind can't really comprehend this. What can this mean? Inside is note from her husband, looks kind of like the Holiday Letter that I usually received from Ellie.

But it's not.

He writes:

This letter brings hard news. My dear Ellie passed away November 17th after a brief illness.

He does go over news about his children and about trips that he and Ellie had taken this year. For a long time, he had worked some days during the week in the Seattle area returning on weekends to the town in eastern Washington where they had moved a built their 'dream house'. At the bottom is a picture from one of the trips, an amusement park. Rick's on the roller coaster, going down.

Died after a brief illness? What? What? What does that mean? Ellie's only 55.

We weren't in contact a lot. In recent years, she would send out the Christmas letter. Often she would write a note on the bottom with something on her mind about her family, her children and want to talk about it. We would have a flurry of emails and phone calls. About difficult issues, usually about adult children by adoption. Who almost always present with challenging situations. A few years ago, the two families got together for a meal in a restaurant.

Ellie had embraced her new home in a small town. She worked tirelessly especially for the library. I will write a note to her husband and sent a contribution to the Oroville Library Fund. I'll do it now.

So I present the picture of Ellie Braman. It's a good picture, Ellie looking straight into the camera; direct and clear. Having a good time, looking forward.

Peace to all among us.

Photoessay #1899 - Reflecting on job loss

2011-12-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

I lost my job just about two years ago. As is often the case (though not 'in this economy'), my former employer did me a favor.

Wasn't it a year or so ago, that I read a quip ...In this economy, you must start every sentence with 'in this economy'. Love that self-referential stuff.
OK, back to the hard stuff. It was a time when lots of people (especially people my age) became 'no longer employed'. And, if you are pushing sixty, are you really going to work again? And what does that mean anyway?

Looking at the big picture, it's all good. Because my participation with my employer was not working out. By two years ago, communication had broken down so much that I wondered if we all were working for the same company. I stopped working just about the same time that my mom took a bad fall. Check out my story called "The Winter Olympics" if you want to know more. So I was free to go to Rockford for as much as I needed to. Indeed I spent over half of January and February of 2010 in Rockford. After my mom's death, our financial picture changed and I got the chance to 'pursue other opportunities'.

I had worked for that company for fourteen years. I was one of the very first people they hired. I had drifted into sales because nobody else would do it and I knew how. Most of the conflict came from the fact that their internet-based product which was The Bomb in 1996 didn't make much sense in 2010. When I wanted to talk about it, the results were:

a. Shoot the messenger and I would be blamed

b. My comments were dismissed and I would be accused of being 'resistant to change'.

Both results humiliated me especially because I really wanted substantive change. I had promised myself that I would quit if I started fuming or fretting. But I didn't take my own advice. I never lost hope that this was all a bunch of misunderstandings and, one of these days, we would get down to working on how to transform the product. I had joined the company as a 'true believer' and that's hard to let go.

I might add that they fired the one good marketing person they brought in (I loved working with her because we could actually get some things done rather than going into a six month protracted control battle about everything), they fired my manager, they fired the person they hired to be my replacement who I had trained.

And they fired me. That's really what happened. I had never experienced that before. Ever.

I talked with my cousin about it. She lost her job about the same time. And, my other cousin, lost his job when he experienced some health problems. We talked about how hard it is to get over it.

It's hard to let go. That's the main thing. I'm fortunate that it didn't mean financial ruin.

One door closes and another opens.

Picture used without permission from Lee Disability

Photoessay #1898 - Maier and me

2011-12-18T15:40:00.000-08:00

So here I am, continuing to commune with Maier. That would be Maier Zunder (1829-1901), my great great grandfather, born in Bavaria, apprenticed to a printer, emigrated to the US. He went to New Haven CT in 1852 when his brother Samuel died and Samuel's widow with a baby asked him to come and help with the small grocery business. From there he became prosperous and successful. Built up the business with a partner, served as a bank president at the same time. Etc etc readers of this blog have already heard about him plenty.

However, he cared most about his involvement with the Board of Education. I admire Maier because he cared so deeply about all aspects of the public schools. The teachers, the buildings, the reading books, the boilers, the children, the classrooms, the locations, the plumbing. He did not grandstand, did not come in with an agenda like some.

I believe that he must have had tremendous social and persuasive abilities to get so much accomplished. Plus he always knew how many votes he had. In one of his obits, one reporter commented on his photographic memory. The reporter said that when he needed to know what had happened thirty years ago, he could ask Maier and he could recall exactly. So when the moment came in 1878, when all the eyes were upon him, in New Haven and beyond regarding a controversial school prayer decision, he quietly and competently turned the tables on an august and distinguished array of senior clergyman who wished to institute an elaborate devotional exercise curriculum.

Sholem Macher – a peacemaker He always had a sensible comment ready to bring the many sides together.

Realistically, as a woman in his family, Maier probably would not have had much to do with me. He was known as devoted to his family, but he was used to running things traditionally. My grandmother had written that her own mother Delia (Maier's daughter) complained that she didn't have much to do after finishing high school, the only option was to teach, and even that was not open to her because of her father's resources and position.

Another likeness of Maier, supposedly in 1875, in his late forties.

Photoessay #1897 - WWI medal

2011-12-17T15:25:00.000-08:00

We've had this medal on our mantle for a long time, probably since Dennis' dad died in 2006 and I never took a good look at it. Dennis thought it was some medal that his grandfather Victor Anderson got in World War One.

It is a 'Victory Medal' and the metal clasps around the rainbow ribbon indicate the soldier's involvement:

Oise-Aisne: August 18 to November 11, 1918 (85 Days of Combat - 3 Divisions)

Meuse-Argonne: September 26 to November 11, 1918 (46 Days of Combat - 25 Divisions)

Defensive Sector: For participation in any 'minor' battle that is not honored with any of other 'named' Combat Clasps: April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918 (584 Eligible Days - Typically for 1 Day of Combat - 2 Divisions, plus anyone engaged or wounded in combat)

His two main battles overlap in dates; guess he was in both. He always told Dennis that he got so cold in France that he never ever warmed up.

Photoessay #1896 - Naomi 22 years old!

2011-12-16T13:19:00.000-08:00

So, not only do we have the expensive holiday season upon us, two of my kids have birthdays that fall in the last half of December.

How's that for planning?

Naomi, my baby is 22 years old today! Big anniversary for her. And for me. Because those children by birth, both of you are involved on a very elemental level.

Family planning? Ha! We didn't pay much attention to all that. Which could be the reason we have four kids.

But Naomi is my baby, my youngest.

Pretty good celebration going on around here. She picked out a cover for her IPad and there's a few other wrapped gifts. We went out to the neighborhood Greek place for lunch (hey, I always wondered why Dennis always ordered the Greekburger, now I know, delicious). I've made her a lemon pie. Actually all my kid pick the lemon pie for their birthday. My mother's recipe. I think her friend Leslie and her parents are coming over later. And we're going to have the big dinner at a restaurant with all the sibs that are around plus significant others. I believe we'll have seven. Ilana and Matt are somewhere below the Mason Dixon line currently.

'Tis the season to pick up expensive restaurant bills...

We went out into the backyard to take some birthday pictures. With Teddy with his special fleece coat. An action shot then a nice smile from Naomi, 22 years old!

Photoessay #1895 - Maier Mysteries

2011-12-15T11:28:00.000-08:00

My paper about my great great grandfather Maier Zunder for my family history class is coming together in my head. I see it as a series of essays. The whole thing is bigger than is required for my certificate class and I would anticipate working on it. If I'm clever, I might be able to make each part stand on its own merits.

Introduction and afterword

I would use the remarks of Rabbi David Levy about Maier Zunder on the occasion of his special memorial service given at the Horeb Lodge of B'nai B'rith in 1906. It gives an excellent view of his character by a contemporary especial as a "sholem makor" peacemaker. This would give a larger context to the paper.

Then I see several sections and chapters each accompanied by a specific essay

such as

A. Maier Zunder was born in Furth Germany in 1829...sketchy information of Moses and Aron Zunder.

essay on conditions in Bavaria at that time, Edict of 1813, Maier did refer to this in his short history of the New Haven Jewish community

B. Maier Zunder emigrated to the US in 1848 at age 19. He came with his brothers Louis (Lazarus) who made his home in Jackson and Grand Rapids Michigan, and Seligman (who never married and worked for Maier in New Haven. An older brother Samuel preceded him.

essay on the Jews from the German states who emigrated to the US during the 'second migration" form 1820-1880. The '48ers'. Characteristics of the mostly young Jews from Germany and their embrace of America as the true land of opportunity. Maier fit into almost all of these parameters except for his strong presence in the overall German community.

C. He immediately got a job as a printer and soon was promoted. He became vice president of B'nai B'rith Zion Lodge #2 in New York City.

essay on the rise of this new organization, B'nai B'rith which gave young Jewish men a place for fraternity and community involvement.

D. Maier moves to New Haven. Samuel (with his wife Regina) had been hired by Congregation Mishkan Israel as a cantor and secretary in 1850. He became embroiled in a series of disagreements (describe them) and finally 'quit the ministry' and started a grocery in New Haven in the central 'nine squares' downtown area. Unfortunately he dies 5 months later leaving his wife Regina, and infant daughter Isabella. Regina asks Maier to come to New Haven to help with the business. He does and marries Regina in 1853.

essay on what New Haven was like in 1853 and a description of the development of the grocery into a prosperous wholesale grocery which provided an ample income for Maier and his family.

E. As Maier works hard at his grocery business and also organizes and serves as president of a bank. He raises a large family with Regina, and becomes extremely active in the community. In 1854, he sends money to Bavaria for his mother and two sisters to join him in America. Another sister Babette had arrived in 1950. Write about his children, Maier founds a new B'nai B'rith lodge (Horeb Lodge #25) which immediately becomes one of the most imjportant institutions of the Jewish Community. Regina dies in and asks him to bring over her sister Mina from Bavaria who had been deserted by her husband along with her three children. He does, incorporates these three children into his family and marries Mina in 1879. Another son is born, Reginald, in 1880. Maier is married twice but does not choose his wife either time and raises four sets of children.

Make a list of all the commissions, Boards, memberships in the community. Was there anything that this man didn't join or direct?

essay on the wedding of Delia Zunder (my great grandmother) to Charles Weil. I have a great picture plus elaborate newspaper articles on the event.

F. The Board of Education. Maier Zunder was elected and served on the Board of Education from 1868-1889. He saw this as his most important contribution. The only Jew elected, he was presented to the populace as the candidate nominated by the German American Association. Known for his hard work, he became involved in every aspect of the schools. He visited the classrooms more than any other Boar member and tackled every issue diplomatically and thoroughly, teacher training, new schools, boilers, minority communities (he insisted that all ethnic groups deserved good facilities), development of 'special' subjects such as art, penmanship and needlework. He advocated for employing school administrators such as principals. He considered every aspect of the schools as important.

In 1895, he was honored to have a new school named after him; Zunder School.

essay on his handling of the most high visibility conflict on the School Board, devotional exercises in the schools which attracted the interest of the New York Times in 1877-8.

G. Maier dies suddenly in 1901 at age 72 of gastritis during a heat wave and likely a heart attack. The obits.

Conclusion: return to Rabbi Levy's essay

OK, this is all good work but what ARE the mysteries....here are two on my mind.

1. Getta. I've been working with a genealogist who specialized in Bavarian emigration. In 1854, Maier sent 600 gilders for the travel expenses for his mother Besla and his sisters Sarah and Gretta. I have the Bavarian papers specifically identifying them. I can see his mother, Besla, in Maier's household in the 1860 census, identified as Betsy Zunder age 74. I can see Sarah (she married Ernest Feuchtwanger). But Getta? Where's Getta? I can't find her anywhere. Did she ever come??? Did she die? For awhile I tried to convince myself that she was really Babette, but no.

2. The memorial service at Horeb Lodge in 1906. I understand 'The Picture' was presented to the Lodge at that time. And David Levy gave those wonderful remarks. I found them the full text in the scrapbooks. But Maier died in 1901. Why are they having the memorial *5* years later????

I debated whether to feature this better version of "The Picture" with the frame or not. I guess I will show both.

Photoessay #1894 - James in the dining room

2011-12-14T14:15:00.001-08:00

Let's go a bit lighter, not trying to put ourselves in the context of the Jewish Pale of Settlement. I didn't even know about it until the other day but one set of my grandparents participated in that huge emigration.

Last weekend, we went looking at those condos with Jsn and knew we would have to leave immediately to go to this birthday dinner for Dennis' aunt in Tacoma. When we got back, we saw James' big van sticking out of the driveway. James, our trusted contractors of many years had done a big project in the summer. Parts never got finished, plus we added back in the gas fireplace. We have a running joke that he's always working on our projects during Christmas week because nobody else wants work done at that time. He joked in the summer that he would miss Christmas week. Au contraire, I think he will be here Christmas week after all. He had said that he might come over this weekend to look at ways he might be able to run the gas to the proposed fireplace. And the moldings and doors in the hall, etc.

So I come upstairs and ask Naomi, "Where's James?" She replied "in the dining room." I go in there and I find James.

Or at least that bottom half of him.

It just looked so funny.

When he emerged, he declared that he would be able to run the gas line just fine.

Plans for Naomi's birthday are coming together. What kind of family planning did we use (oh, right, no family planning, none at all) to have two kids with birthdays in the last half of December. So far, we will go out to dinner with three of the four kids and two significant others at a new Italian place, I will make a lemon pie on Friday and maybe we'll look for an IPad case.

Plus we will have Melina on Saturday. We never quite finished her birthday celebration last month. We had promised her some cupcakes and something from The Burke Museum of Natural History gift shop. Instead, she talked Dennis in waiting by the football stadium for over two hours so she could see the UW band, cheerleaders and the football team. I gave her a UW hat which she really liked. I have a certificate to the University Bookstore and we'll get her a Husky sweatshirt for Christmas.

Photoessay #1893 - Jewish Pale of Settlement

2011-12-13T11:16:00.000-08:00

Last night, Naomi and I went to a meeting of Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington at the Stroum Community Center on Mercer Island. Likely I have been there before in all the years I have lived here, but I don't remember it. Large impressive facility even though we kind of got lost in the freezing fog trying to find the freeway entrance.

I've also never attended this group before. The speaker was Hal Bookbinder who gave two valuable talks on the changing borders of central Europe over the last thousand years and the Jewish Pale of Settlement. He had a lot of maps of entities that I've never heard of. I wish I had those maps so I could study them more.

I had heard the term "Pale" before but I didn't understand what it meant until last night. In the face of constant anti-semitism from the tsars and concern that the Jewish population would increase, the authorities set aside a fairly large part of western Russia, the Balkan areas and the then boundaries of Poland into a "Pale" which comes from "polis" or staking out a state, as the only places where Jews could live. Even at that time, the Jews didn't make up more than 11% of the population. The Pale existed from 1797-1917. I asked specifically and Poznan (now in Poland, in Prussia at this time) was not included in the Pale.

Starting in 1880, a large number (hundreds of thousands) of Jews from the Pale emigrated to the US constituting the third wave of Jewish emigration.

My paternal grandmother (Betty Cohen)'s parents emigrated from the Ukraine (in the Pale) in 1890 which puts them squarely in this wave of emigration from the Pale. According to my aunt, my young great grandparents Edward Cohen (the family story was that this was not his real name --maybe Kahn or Kingon and he took the name Cohen when he arrived because it was a Jewish name and short) and Sonia Roytenburg were already married in the Pale. My aunt's story continues...a Canadian citizen came to visit her ancestral village and they came to American posing as brother and sister, children of this Canadian. The boat stopped in Boston and they got off. Edward, a painter, immediately got a job in construction in Martha's Vineyard and Sonia stayed in Bostong likely working as a domestic.

The speaker's thesis last night was "Why did the Jews leave the Pale?" He didn't get to elaborate due to time limits. He pointed out that conditions were quite favorable for the Jews, the pogroms had not started up again and though, they were violent and destructive, they didn't affect that many Jews. The forced conscription had stopped. The Pale had strong educational facilities and a strong system of social welfare caring for the homeless, widows and orphans. Many Jews were able to provide for themselves financially.

The Jews (men and women) had literacy rates twice that of the rest of Russia. Better communication brought stories of opportunity in America. Previous immigrants sent back stories of prosperity. New railroad made it easy to get to the ports; previously they had to walk long long distances. Passage on steam ships was cheap ($7-$11), still a sum but most could put together the fare. The steamships crossed the Atlantic in 10 days. Why not?

I'm including a map of the Pale of Jewish Settlement and a picture of my great grandparents Edward and Sonia Cohen. I don't know when or where this photo was taken and is in an elaborate carved frame. They look young here; I'm guessing that it's in the New World (after 1890) and before the birth of their first child (Fannie in 1895). They had three daughters and then three sons. My grandmother was the third daughter and all through her life, she opined about her sad state "Who needs a third daughter?" yet I believe she was her father's favorite.

I met Edward Cohen as a young child. On my birth in 1952 he purchased a $750 Israeli bond for me. In 1964, my father converted it into a $1000 savings bond and I still have it. Always has been a rainy day fund for me.

Photoessay #1892 - Condo in Edmonds

2011-12-12T12:14:00.000-08:00

I've been saying for years that I would like to move to a condominium in Edmonds, an attractive community just west of here on the shores of Puget Sound. About a year and a half ago, my friend Jan (who sells real estate) and I looked for an afternoon.

Seemed like it was time to go again and bring Dennis along to see what he thought. The first one we saw (pictured above) was by far the best one. Also the smallest as far as square footage. Really a gem. We would buy it, rent it out and have it 'for later'. Superb location just off the main street, it really would be a 'walking community'. Really a gem especially in regards to light. I really want good light. We went on a dark rainy December afternoon, perfect day to look says Jan because you can see what it really is going to be like.

We looked at several other condos and discovered the obvious but unknown to us. We were looking in mid price range. In order for the front room to have a view, you have to stick everything else in back and try to get in a window. So the door is in the back and you walk down a hall with the other rooms off the hall up to the front. Dennis says it reminds him of a motel room. Agree. And the kitchen doesn't have a window. Dark, dark, dark. Dennis and I agree that we don't want a unit like that. Some had large well-equipped kitchens but dark.

The one we liked had good light throughout. Very small kitchen. No window but a big skylight which gave amble light. It would be hard to have pets. We currently have two cats and one dog. Everybody is used to going outside. Plus we still have quite a group of folks coming and going. Happens when you have 4 kids plus a granddaughter. Will things be different for us in 5 or 10 years? Probably. No place for the corner cupboard.

But still this place is a gem. Good view too.

Great that Dennis came along because it gave us an opportunity to really picture what we might like now and in the future. All real estate is emotional anyway. Dennis ended up being more committed to our current house.

Photoessay #1891 - Dick's Drive-In opens in Edmonds

2011-12-11T12:28:00.000-08:00

Dick's Drive-in is a locally owned chain of old-style burger places in Seattle. They have garnered tremendous good-will over the years. Everybody knows that Dick's pays higher than average wage and provides medical and tuition benefits to its workers.

Everybody goes to Dick's. We got to Dick's. It truly is a drive-in, there's no inside eating area just windows in front. Very limited menu, I think there's two hamburgers (Dick's deluxe is my favorite), fries, onion rings, soda and shakes. That's it.

A number of months ago Dick's announced that it was gong to open a new location in Edmonds north of Seattle, their first new store in 37 years. Amazing buzz, everybody's so excited, it's all over facebook. Dick's is opening in Edmonds! Big news, we can hardly wait. Did you hear?

So you wonder, what other burger place is going to generate so much excitement over a new location. On their website they have 34 media references to their announcement, and that was before they decided where the new location would be.

So, on Oct 20, they open, huge crowd, the mayor's there, the local high school band marches and plays. Also the local bagpipe band. They've got a great video on their site if you have 4 minutes to invest. Huge event. And, up to a few weeks ago, every time we drove by, the lines would be long, night or day. Dennis finally walked over and had a burger this week.

Dick's has been around for a long time, a contributing fixture in the community. It's paid off for them. What a tremendous brand.

Picture from their website; an aerial view for their grand opening

Photoessay #1890 - Teddy's new coat

2011-12-10T18:28:00.000-08:00

Naomi's here for the duration from Central Washington University where she just finished her first quarter as a junior transfer on her way to becoming an elementary school teacher. She brought a fleece coat for Teddy. Which he's been wearing. I don't know that he really likes it. But this dog always tries to please. If he has to wear a cone, he makes do. If he's supposed to wear a weird green and blue dog garment, well ok. He looks rather handsome.

Had a great session this morning; a tour of the main branch of the Seattle Public Library for genealogy resources. They have almost a whole floor full of more stuff than you can imagine. European and American oriented, of course. Plus some librarians. Very interesting. They had some genealogy guides for Jewish ancestors but didn't find anything particularly useful. I talked about finding a passenger list in 1848 and the librarian insists it's on ancestry.com and I just haven't figure out how to find it.

Photoessay #1889 - Furth

2011-12-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

My research this morning takes a dark mysterious turn. I was very excited to receive some books I had requested through Interlibrary Losn. Especially "The History of the Jews in Furth", a slim tourist oriented walking tour sent by the University of California, San Diego (thank you UCSD). Furth was a center of Jewish culture throughout the 17th-19th centuries.

Maier Zunder (my great great grandfather who I'm writing about) emigrated from Furth in 1848. He subsequently made a very successful life for himself in New Haven, prospered and was very active in many communities. But where did he come from? What motivated him to emigrate? And what would it have been like if he'd stayed?

I believe he emigrated with his three brothers, and in 1854 had enough money to bring over his mother and two sisters. His experiences are consistent with the description of the migration of German Jews in "A Time for Gathering; the second migration 1820-1880" by Hasia Diner.

But what if he had stayed? I often find that German descriptions of things Jewish always have an odd twist. This small book (in translation) does not use the word "Nazi", instead uses "National Socialist period". The author doesn't duck the wholesale destruction because she needs to explain why a lot of the important sites she mentions aren't there or greatly transformed.

So from that book, I feature some pictures of some major synagogues in Schulhof (synagogue area) with at least two large synagogues Altschul (Old Schul) and Neuschol (New Schul) in 1935.

And what those same sites (you can pick out the arch and the sides of Altschul) after Kristalnacht 1938.

I learneed about Jakob Wasserman and his novel "The Jews from Zirndorf" and the influence on the emancipated Jews coming into the twentieth century. But these images are enough for now.

Photoessay #1888 - Generosity

2011-12-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

I gave my gift-giving program at the Seattle group last night. A little bigger crowd, 25.

I realize that gift-giving behavior touches a lot of nerves, in the same territory as sex, money, politics and religion as far as sensitivity.

Two people last night were visibly upset at the idea of giving their acting out child a modest gift. Even though other parts of the celebration would be kept steady:

The child is still fully included in any family event including festive meal or rituals

The child is not criticized or lectured about their behavior.

The parent doesn't act angry.

The only difference is that instead of the lavish display that parents often indulge in, they give their acting out child a very small gift, the iconic 'socks'. The idea is to treat the holiday as an opportunity to demonstrate that 'things have changed'.

One dad last night, questioned quite forcefully why you would set up a situation for an angry outburst during an important family celebration. Aren't you just asking for trouble?

Another parent this morning wondered why a parent might choose to reward a child for NOT making a big scene by generous gifts. One Changes precept is that you don't reward a child or young adult for doing things that they should be doing anyway.

In Redmond on Tuesday, a parent connected this to a particular roller coaster that her daughter was directing, criticizing the parent for not rewarding the daughter enough when she does do appropriate things. It can get so twisted where the child can attack the parent when they act out and when they don't. Either way, you're under fire. The idea here is to abandon incentives.

It always comes back to 'generosity doesn't work'. And we all so love being generous, we're so glad to be able to do it and it makes us feel so good.

Alas

Some parents also try to control through generosity and that almost always brings heartbreak.

I introduced this alternative view of holiday gift-giving to another parent a few weeks ago in a team meeting. The mom kept shaking her head "No no no, I couldn't do that. no no no". This couple has 3 sons 16-25 with the middle son as the starchild. They used Christmas as a buying spree for electronics. The dad felt that maybe this could be a good idea. I pointed out that her sons were not really children any more. When I talked to her last night she thoughtfully said that this elaborate gift-giving was really for her own benefit and she reflected that her sons probably didn't really like all that stuff they bought.

One grandmother fairly new to the group looked very upset at the idea. She was in my small group; "My husband and I have always prided ourselves on our generosity to the children. Now I see that I'm going to have to go home and think about this."

That's the idea anyway. No right or wrong way to do it. If you want to continue your elaborate gift giving, it's up to you. You might think of the message that you are giving for a child or young adult with destructive or violent behavior.

And it's a great opportunity to signal that "things have changed'.

Children of parents in our group are likely older than the child in the illustration,. But sometimes we forget that.

Picture used without permission from christmasdeals.org

Photoessay #1887 - Shots from the U

2011-12-07T16:13:00.001-08:00

Way back last month, we took Melina out for her birthday. We like to hang out at the University of Washington; always a lot to see. Plus we want Melina to know about it; that it could be a possibility that she could go there. She's only in fifth grade now so there's lots that could happen (Don't I know!). But her family would not have any reason to be on the UW campus. That's the day that we never finished. I had to go work at the football game. And Melina convinced Dennis to wait for the band and cheerleaders to come out when the football team enters. We did promise her something from the gift shop at the Burke Museum and some cupcakes.

I had received that hat as part of a breast cancer awareness thing at the football games. They gave them out to everybody and then said that they had used them for a number of years and we could keep them. So I gave mine to Melina, which she's wearing.

A clear but pretty chilly November day. On really good days, you can get a good clear picture of Mt. Rainier behind the fountain. But we were just looking around making our way to the football stadium. Every year, the engineering folks have a contest to see who can design the best way for the ducks to get into the pool around the fountain.

Second picture is a mallard who figured it out for himself. I just liked the picture.

Gave the gift-giving program last night in Redmond, tonight in Seattle so I've got to get busy!!

Photoessay #1886 - Gift-giving

2011-12-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

Tonight and tomorrow night, I give my most unpopular program at Parent Group:

Gift-giving with acting-out kids

Questioning holiday gift-giving can drive people off the emotional cliff more than just about anything else.

I usually make at least person visibly upset or, as Freda who is in a leadership position says "make a number of us distinctly uncomfortable".

I question why we, as parents, give material purchased gifts to our children at the holddiay season, specifically Christmas presents. Very in-grained culturally, the idea of a good Christmas, pleasing your children, indulging in generous behavior, giving into demands and expectations. Once you really start going into it, you realize how complex it really is.

Are you afraid of not satisfying your acting-out child? Making them angry? Is there a little part of you holding onto the idea that if you just get them that IPad or other consumer item, that this could make the difference?

What if you didn't give gifts? Or you gave a very small gift. The traditional Changes parent gift is socks.

You can think of a lot of punitive reasons that you probably wouldn't want to see yourself thinking. Don't go there.

Your child does not really need those items on their Christmas List (think about it, isn't that a terrible invention!!). They'll be just fine. Consistent with the Changes idea of changing yourself, not giving Christmas gifts could demonstrate in a very dramatic way that

THINGS HAVE CHANGED!!

As one parent mentioned recently "Instead of me trying to figure my son out, he's having to figure ME out."

Don't let this opportunity go by for you to really showcase that YOU have really changed and in the direction of not trying to satisfy your acting out child's demands.

Not for punitive or retaliatory or bad-hearted reasons, but just that, for you, your relationship with your child is changing. Things are not going to run the same way.

Put that out there and these beat down desperate parents are completely appalled.

"I couldn't do that!" they wail. "It's just not right!"

Why not?

"My child will think I don't love them!" they worry.

Really? Coming up with a big ticket consumer items is proof of parental love and affection?

Often we, as parents, are trying to throw a wrench in what's going. Mess up an existing system where teens and young adults are engaging in destructive behavior and likely controlling the household.

You want to make a difference, change things up. Christmas gift-giving is a great opportunity; don't let it pass by. You give the smaller gift but it does not come with a lecture or criticism; nothing like that. Just shows that you are changing your behavior.

This is usually meant by stunned silence.

"what about my other kids? I don't want to ruin their Christmas." I reply that you don't have to. Only change your gift-giving behavior with your acting out child.

And it's not forever. In the future, you can go back to your old ways. But maybe you will choose not to do that.

Another interesting idea that's come up in recent years....Parents giving lavish high priced gifts keep their young adult children in a juvenile position. You can do this because you are so powerful. They can't possibly reciprocate and we are enabling their lack of their own gift-giving. Is this what we really want to demonstrate?

I challenge them to consider it.

Usually nobody wants to talk to me after the program.

But they remember it...they do.

Picture taken refinwery29.com, used without permission

Photoessay #1855 - Teddy's three years old!

2011-12-05T14:44:00.000-08:00

My dog Teddy is three years old today! He's a puppy of a rescue dog. The mom was some kind of shepherd-whippet thing. Certainly a mutt, you can make up the name however you want. Dennis calls him a giraffe-hound because his neck is so long. At first glance, people are afraid "Is that a pit?" they ask cautiously. "He's not a pit," I always say defensively. Basically Teddy loves everybody and he's sure that everybody loves him. I did pick him from the litter as the most laid back. The other puppies took off chasing the birds but Teddy just liked watching them. Very submissive, everybody's the boss of him, especially the cats. He's known as a sweet boy or, as James says, a sensitive boy because he's so cautious about everything. He's not about to cross that vacuum cleaner cord or that toolbox.

Dennis described Teddy's activities very well the other day. He follows me around everywhere. I talk to him and he listens.

Teddy loves to fetch; it's the reason he's on this earth other than loving everybody. Chasing the ball is everything to him. "See," he says, "we could play this great game. You throw the ball, I go get it and bring it back and drop it at your feet. Then you throw it again, it's great!" Many men have admired his retrieving. "How'd you teach him that? That's some quality fetching." Of course, I didn't teach him at all. When he was about a year old, the fetch portion of his brain fired up and that was that.

Watch out, he's a major league greeter. If you come over to my house, you can expect Teddy to make a really big deal about it. He's so thrilled to see you, he'll prance and fuss and wag and wiggle and moan. "You coming is the BEST thing that's happened to me ALL DAY!"

Happy birthday Teddy!

Photoessay #1854 - Geography

2011-12-04T15:01:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning and knew that I had to get this central european geography figured out. Where are all these places in relationship to each other.

One problem is there seems to be two Schmeiheims in Germany, one north of Nuremberg in Baden and one near the French border. I seem to remember something about the Black Forest which makes me think that it's the one near the French border (where I've marked it).

My main story is about the Zunder family, they lived in Furth just north of Nuremberg (marked). The Roesenthal family which contributes 3 great grandmothers is some miles northeast in Hittenbach (marked). Paul Weil, another great grandfather, came from Berlin (marked). Samuel Lederer and his wife Maria Abeles came from different towns in the Czech Republic.

Moving to my father's side, the Ginsburghs came from Poznan (a city and district now in Poland) (marked). Edward Cohen came from Odessa and his wife Sonia Roytenburg came from Kiev in Ukraine (off the map to the east). According to my aunt, they had married in the Ukraine and had posed as brother and sister coming into the US on a Canadian passport of a visitor to an ancestral village. His name was not Cohen, he changed it to Cohen because it was short and Jewish.

Not sure I have the dates of immigration

Zunder 1848
Baumann 1883
Cohen/Roytenburg 1890
Weil 1856
Ginsburgh 1887
Lederer 1850
Hervitz 1875
Weil, Johanna 1860

All pretty close to the second wave of immigration. 1820-1880 or a little after

Photoessay #1853 - New library

2011-12-03T15:21:00.001-08:00

Ilana works at a new library for maps, governments and data services which just had its grand opening. She won a lottery among the student workers for four seats at a special dinner given for the main donor the day of the official opening. She reports that only sixteen people were invited, nice music, many forks, wonderful food and a chance to meet the donor and the top library staff.

She had been talking about this fancy dinner for "Mr. C." for weeks; she was quite excited that she would be able to attend.

One of the many opportunities she's had at this large highly ranked midwestern university. A great program especially for a motivated student.

A picture of the new library from its website.

Photoessy #1582 - Good news/Bad news

2011-12-02T15:04:00.000-08:00

I know this format can be irritating but it just fits in so well with my experience today.

I already featured this image Oct 16. It's a pastel from the mid 1890s of my grandfather and great aunt. My cousin asked who wanted it. I raised my hand first me, me, me

But then maybe my second cousin Flash might want it because it's a childhood picture of her grandmother. But my other cousin Mal came to the rescue and made a high quality photo and Flash will make it up for her mother.

When I was in New Haven, we looked at it and the big ugly ornate broken frame. We decided she would send me the picture without the frame.

So now we start

The good news is that I received the picture safe and sound yesterday.

More good news is that I can bring it to the art restoration/framing place that's right in my neighborhood. I have time today. I better get it over there before something happens to it. I wrap it carefully in a towel.

The bad news is that I pick it up incorrectly inadvertently putting some pressure on the paper and I hear a very bad popping ripping noise. Did NOT sound good

More bad news, I go by the restoration place and it's NOT THERE! Vacant storefront. Yikes, and I just checked their website out too. I'm near the library so I stop and look for a book, get their number from the website.

Good news I call them, they answer. They've moved just across the street. Oh! I go over, they're in this nice big space where the goodwill used to be about a million years ago.

Bad news I carefully unwrap the picture and there's this big ugly rip in the top part of the background. The rip extends into my grandfather's red hair

Good news I'm in the exact right place, I'm at the restoration place where they know how to fix this sort of thing. These people are not cheap but they do good work. I work with Sharon who I've worked with before. We decide to make it more horizontal rather than vertical. Which means we can ignore most of the rip. The restoration person says she can fix it for $160. Oh well, charge it to the Maier Zunder account.

More good news I have a great time with Sharon picking out frames, mats and sizing that are going to really improve this picture. Don't ask what it's costing.

So it all worked out in the end. I had my challenges and setbacks. But I have overcome!

With the attendant bill.

Isn't it great that I'm working so much with my cousins? It's fun; we've never done it in all the decades that we've been cousin.

Photoessay #1581 - The Crock

2011-12-01T13:10:00.000-08:00

My crock from M. Zunder & Sons today. Purchased from an antique dealer in Connecticut. 'M. Zunder & Sons' on top, the "New Haven CT. With the funny little symbol at the bottom. Maier Zunder operated a very prosperous wholesale grocery. When he took the little grocery over from his late brother Samuel, he took a partner. The business was known as:

Zunder & Metzger until his partner retired then

M. Zunder & Co then

M. Zunder & Son when he included his oldest son Albert then

M. Zunder & Sons when his next youngest son Theodore joined.

Theodore was born in 1858 so this must date from the 1880s? The deal thought that it might have been used to store oil or wine. Which sounds rather biblical, doesn't it?

I put my Maier Zunder picture next to it. For right now, it lives on one of my marble topped tables in my dining room.

Last night, Dennis was figuring out ow to pay our Visa bill. It's over $3000 he says.

"How'd it get so high?" I ask.

"First, there's the $2100 you spent at the Changes auction." Actually I got over $500 back because we went in on the Board dinner with the other members of the table. Still, it is a lot.

"Oh right, yeah, hmm", I mumble. All my doing.

Then he says quietly, "I guess the rest can be charged to the Maier Zunder account

Photoessay #1580 - The Picture

2011-11-30T16:02:00.000-08:00

At the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven, this is known as 'The Picture'.

Probably almost 3 feet tall. The second picture is inside with May Ann on the left and me on the right (two of his great great grandaughters). I don't know why the upper left part of my head looks like it's bashed in. You can get an idea of the glare and reflections from a windowless industrial sort of building with no natural light.

It's Maier Zunder, natch. Apparently it was given to the Horeb Lodge in 1906. Probably in that memorial honor event they had with the excellent speech by Rabbi David Levy. I don't know why it was done five years after his death.

I think it's a photographic image, the small picture I have is derived from this. Initial provenance unknown. I know that Harvey Ladin had it in his house in the 1970s.

When Mary Ann and I were there last week, I couldn't get an image without a bunch of glare and reflection. Thanks to my other cousin Mal who went with Mary Ann to the Jewish Historical Society today and took a better shot. They ended up taking it outside for a short time. I'm sure the Jewish Historical Society people (likely Marvin and/or Werner) supervised this operation very closely.

Mal took a lot of different settings plus a RAW file. I'll let my brother decide which is best but will feature one version here.

Another example of coming home; not knowing what I will write about and something presents itself.

Many thanks to my cousin Malcolm Leichter who took the time to take the pictures and to Marvin Bargar, the archivist at the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven.

Photoessay #1579 - 1878 prayer school drama

2011-11-29T19:55:00.000-08:00

All day yesterday, I was absorbed in reading newspaper accounts put into a disintegrating scrapbook by a member of my great great grandfather's family.

The shot is of the articles (many just crumbled when touched in the disintegrating scrapbooks. I am so grateful for whoever put them together as I would never have been able to follow the story.

I'm so struck by the courageous calm that Maier Zunder exhibited all the while contributing to his community according to his own maxim:

Wirken und wachen fur Menschen und mit Menschen

As best I can translate:

Working and caring for the people, with the people

Shortening up the story taking place in New Haven in 1877-78.

A number of school board members felt that the somewhat casual devotional exercises they were using to open the school day really weren't contributing much. The population was diverse and there really was no guidance. So several school members suggested that they be eliminated. So the board voted.

When word got out, petitions were received by the Board in protest. The Board voted to restore the rule regarding devotional exercises and refer to the matter to their Committee on Schools; Maier Zunder as one of the three members. The committee came back and again recommended for the devotional exercises be removed. Their report was published and a minority report was also included.

During the next Board election, a Bible party organized to challenge for the open positions with the mandate to restore the Bible to the New Haven schools. A number were elected. During the first meeting in 1878, the new members moved to restore the devotional exercises. The matter again went before the Committee on School which consisted of Maier Zunder and two Bible party members. Meanwhile, august distinguished clergyman from throughout the city and from Yale appointed themselves to come up with an appropriate devotional exercises "repugnant to no one" which is a pretty low standard in my opinion. They were not formally asked by the Board to do so. They decided that if 30 per cent of the school was Catholic then the Catholic children could withdraw and have their own devotion. The rest would do the Protestant service as written by all of these powerful clergyman including Rev. Woolsey past president of Yale.

Though the Board had not asked for this, the Committee on Schools agreed to consider the suggestions.

The subject was picked up by the New York Times and beyond.

On Nov 15, the Committee gave their opinion. Maier managed to turn one of his Bible party colleagues to his side and reject the whole thing. In front of God and country and all the clergy and the esteemed Yale officers.

I would like to share the entire majority opinion:

To the Board of Education:

The Committee on Schools to whom was referred various plans and suggestions regarding conduct of devotional exercises, beg leave to report by a majority of their number that having considered the matters referred to them, they recommend that no change be made at present in the mode in which they are now conducted.
Accompanying the report, we make the following statement:

In obedience to what they understand the expressed wish of the people, the Board of Education, on the 21st day of September last, restored the rule requiring that the morning sessions of the schools be opened with appropriate devotional exercises.
Under this rule, before its repeal in December last, there had existed a practice which was simple, tolerably uniform, and which so far as your committee can learn had never considered any serious irritation or trouble.

Your committee being charged with the duty of putting the rule into operation directed the superintendent to instruct the teachers to resume devotional exercises in accordance with the former practice. This has been done and your committee have obtained from each of the teachers a report of the manner in which they were conducting them. The resumption of devotional exercises, in the manner described, has not caused any difficulty or complaint so far as your committee are informed, and we believe that its continuance would not do so. The teachers ought to be, and are competence to exercise some discretion in this matter as they do in many other important matters of discipline, punishment and instruction. Besides they are subject to the constant supervision of a well-qualified and vigilant superintendent and always under the control of the Board of Education. And thus the practice is wisely rendered flexible enough to meet the requirements of the varying classes in the schools.

Various plans and suggestions were referred to your committee and we have given a careful consideration of the subject. That which was presented by Rev Drs. Bacon and Harwood, with the sanction of nearly every clergyman in New Haven, providing that in any school in which Roman Catholics numbered 30 per cent of the whole, they should be allowed to have separate devotional exercises was urged upon our favorable consideration by those with so much earnestness by those distinguished gentleman and has attracted so much attention, not only in New Haven but elsewhere, that we cannot dismiss it without indicating some reasons for doing so.

Apart from the practical difficulties attending its adoption, we think it's not judicious at present to make a change so radical and unexpected. If a separation of children according to their religious faith is demanded as a right, arising out of conscientious scruples (and that seemed to be the ground on which it was urged upon us), it is certainly a right which each individual possesses, and which should be accorded to every one who demands it, and no agreement among the clergy can make its recognition dependent upon an arithmetical computation. Moreover, if this be once conceded to be a right, there is no limitation which can be put upon the subdivisions of the schools.

But it is not heretofore been claimed as a right by those in whose behalf it is now described (sic) not does it seem to us that to be present with respectful silence, without being required to participate, while a devotional exercise like that in use is performed, is a real invasion of religious liberty. If it is not claimed as a right and only rested upon the ground of wise policy we still think it would be undesirable to accord to those of one religion's faith privileges that are denied to all others, and that such an arrangement would lead to constant complaint, criticism and dispute.

But practical objections occur to us in the way of carrying out such a plan as that proposed.

1. The school buildings of the district have no common room in which the children can assemble for devotional exercises. They are all, except for the high school building, divided into small classrooms.
2. In each room, a desk is assigned to each child where he places his books and school apparatus, of which he has the care and for which he is responsible, and the invasion of the school room by other scholars would produce confusion and disorder.
3. In some of the schools, there are no teacher who would be willing to conduct the proposed separate exercises on account of their conscientious scruples.
4. The ascertainment of the proposed 30 per cent, a number likely to vary from day to day or from term to term would be sources of uncertainty and dispute.
5. In a given school, 30 per cent of the whole number might not be Catholics, while in some of the classes there might and probably would be 30 per cent of Catholics.
For these and other reasons your committee are not prepared to recommend that so radical a change be made now nor until the people have had the opportunity to discuss the plan and express their opinion upon it, in the choice of the members of the Board of Education.

At the recent election, no suggestions were made indicating, as far as we know, than anything beyond the restoration of the rule repeated with the practice under it, was expected or demanded.

We therefore recommend none of the plans proposed and without further instruction from the Board shall continue the practice now in operation.

Arthur D. Osborne
Maier Zunder

Photoessay #1578 - Ilana's professional picture

2011-11-28T13:42:00.000-08:00

This picture appears on Ilana's professional site that she's put together as part of her search for a professional librarian job when she graduates from the University of Michgan this spring.

I like this picture a lot. I like the off-center presentation with the other side of the image substantial looking marble implying a strong academic background. The colors are mild and in the same value (nothing way brighter than anything else. She looks serious but not severe.

I'm confident that she will find a good professional job even in these hard times. The librarian community still exists and there's often emphasis on early career applicants.

Go Ilana! Go Big Blue!

Photoessay #1577 - Rich and poor

2011-11-27T13:07:00.001-08:00

I submit to you these facing pages of todays Northwest magazine section of the Seattle Times, pgs 20-21. Page 20 talks about a local program in Nicaragua to help with maternal health for the desperately poor women in the local area. The last picture of the story shows one of the homes of the women, a shack really with a tin roof, saying that 73% of homes lack a sanitary water supply.

On the opposite page, is the ending of the weekly series the Times features regarding unique homes, usually with transformitive remodels. The beautiful downstairs room is shown with exercise room and wine refrigerator.

I couldn't scan the facing pages on my scanner so you have to believe me....

Just saying..

I came roaring down to the Wallingford Tully's to meet with Bebette and Meryl because they wanted to know about my trip. I get there at 1pm. Where's my peeps? At 1:15 I call Bebette who informs me that *I* set the meeting for 2pm. Oh. Yeah. Right. Now I remember. My fault. And I have a 3pm team meeting. Bebette says she'll come right down.

Pictures to be posted when I get home...

Photoessay #1576 - Yarn

2011-11-26T12:33:00.000-08:00

My mother could never have too much yarn. She loved to buy it even though she knew she already had plenty of yarn, she could knit for years and years and never run out of yarn. She swore that it multiplied of its own accord in the night.

Naomi is the same way. When we broke down the house, we decided that Naomi should inherit my mom's yarn which side-stepped a potentially charged sorrowful issue. My mom lived with a lot of yarn and had a bunch when she died. Naomi picked out what she wanted and the rest went to Sandy P for their church craft projects. Naomi also feels she's powerless against the pull of more and more yarn.

She knits like her grandmother, she always has projects going. She knits the booties and gives those away. She knits scarves and hats and gives those away. And, though she knows she has plenty of yarn, well we just can't resist going to JoAnn's on Black Friday.

And bought more yarn. I bought more baby bootie yarn, She bought other yarn and Naomi ended up with two more bags of yarn.

Photoessay #1575 - Lederer Bar Mitzvah picture

2011-11-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

This picture of the Lederer family belonged to my mother and now belongs to my sister. Taken in the 1880, the entire Lederer family posed on the occasion of the youngest son's bar mitzvah. My great grandmother Clara is in the middle row, second from right.

It's been unavailable for awhile but my brother visited my sister for Thanksgiving; they found it and took a shot of it to send to our third cousin Sue. Mary Ann sent a whole bunch of individual pictures that we looked at last week to Sue also. Some of these faces are looking darn familiar.

Regarding turkeys, I've always maintained that you don't need to cook them as much. And I have a meat thermometer given to me some years ago by my sister in law to help with the endless discussions "You think the turkey is done?" "I dunno, what you think?" "Beats me, let's give it a little more time". My mother always believed you had to cook whatever turkey for 8 hours. Both of my turkeys this year have been 22-24 pounds. Fully stuffed, Close to room temperature. Star tat 450 degrees, immediately but down to 350 degrees. 4 hours and it's fully cooked.

So my sibs take an 11 pound turkey, I had advocated fresh, they had 'fresh frozen' whatever that means. They cooked it nearly 3 hours and they said the dark meat was not cooked. So I give up; I give up my mantle as the turkey expert.

Photoessay #1574 - Ann Marie's cake pops

2011-11-24T16:32:00.001-08:00

Susanna's best friend Ann Marie has got a cupcake business going down there in Flagstaff.

I love Ann Marie too so I decided to order some for Thanksgiving. I ordered a dozen pumpking and a dozen chocolate cake pops. They look like tootsie roll pops, cake covered with a candy coating. I didn't even tell anybody I had them until today because you know what happens when you do that. They's all gone before the event.

Ann-Marie only ships cake pops. She thinks actual cupcakes would get damaged en route.

So here are the cake pops displayed before the meal. We only had seven for our Thursday Thanksgiving this year. My kids said 'Is this all?" but it was still nice.

And the cake pops were delicious. Especially the chocolate, I highly recommend.

Photoessay #1573 - Another primary source

2011-11-23T15:37:00.000-08:00

I located the 19th century Proceedings of the Board of Education for New Haven in the archives of the New Haven Museum and Historical Society located in a beautiful house on Whitney Ave in New Haven. Mary Ann and I went over to take a look last week.

This library is spacious and beautiful as compared to the high spirited Ethnic Heritage Center in the industrial building housing the materials for the Jews, Ukraineans, Irish, Italian and African Americans. Still I know that those groups really appreciate their own space.

We found the proceedings in neatly and carefully written hand script in handsome bound volumes. No mistakes, nothing crossed out. And really hard to read for us twenty-first century folks. I picked the end of 1877 because that's when the devotional service issue was discussed. If I tried real hard, I could read the handwriting but I would look over several paragraphs and realize that I didn't know a thing that was on the page.

Newspaper articles about the topics of the day gave more information. But I did look at them.

The important part is

Rule 4 Sec 27 of the Manual which provides the morning session of the schools shall be opened with appropriate devotional exercises was repealed to take effect from and after the beginning of the next school term.

I knew that was what I was looking for and I also knew that it was taken up again over the next year. But seemed impossible to really follow it in the Proceedings.

Maybe another time....

Shot of the book and the library. The archivist and other staff were very helpful.

Photoessay #1572 - Lederers!

2011-11-22T12:52:00.001-08:00

Mary Ann had an old box of pictures in her basement that she had cleaned out of my grandparent's basement. Just needed somebody there for moral support to look through them; I think she was waiting for Charlie. Turned out to be dozens and dozens of individual pictures taken in Germany, New Jersey and New Haven. From our grandfather's mother's family, the Lederers. Maybe half of the the pictures had names on the back. And some were, rather unfortunate to look at.

Nary Ann and I are not too up on the Lederers and even with the names, we're vague of who they are are and where they fit in.

But, we have this third cousin, Sue, who is really into the Lederers, done a ton of work on the large Lederer family from New Brunswick New Jersey. So, immediately it became clear that all of these pictures should go to Sue. Yes, yes, a good home, she will love getting them! They will keep her busy and entertained for weeks. I suggested a shoebox. Yes, yes, Mary Ann fetches one and the plan is hatched.

She's sending me a special picture, of our grandfather as a young child with his younger sister. Originally I thought maybe I could carry it on the plane with me; I brought an extra big suitcase. No, wouldn't work. Mary Ann called me today; she was shipping the picture so I assume she's sending these pictures to Sue.

I arrayed them on the table for a picture. Keep in mind this pile was four or five pictures deep. But they're going to a good home.

Photoessay #1571 - Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven

2011-11-21T13:33:00.000-08:00

The largest part of our research time last week was at the the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven which is located at the Ethnic Heritage Center at Southern Connecticut State University. The actual building is very plain and industrial; looks like it should be an equipment shop for motorized vehicles. At least five historical societies have come together to share the space:

The Greater New Haven African American Historical Society
The Connecticut Irish American Historical Society
The Italian American Historical Society of Connecticut
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven
The Connecticut Ukrainian American Historical Society

A picture taken outside of the building including my cousin is at the bottom of the post. Not much to look at from the outside.

But busy on the inside. Fortunately for us, Werner Hirsch came by for a meeting and helped us by looking at some old German documents plus showed me how to scan on their computer as well as sharing his own Maier Zunder sources with me. He tried to translate some old papers from bavaria. My cousin Mary Ann looks on. Notice that she's wearing my mom's iridescent seagul pin on her sweater. Marvin Barger, the archivist has his back to us. He was extremely helpful during our three days 'on the ground' I think he expecially enjoyed our hunt for Abraham Saveliwitz the last day.

One of the New York Times articles featured the battle about prayer in the New Haven Schools. Maier was known in the press as the German representative not the Jewish representative. He worked to get prayer taken out of the schools in 1877. This sounds SO familiar. So in 1888, a coalition of protestant and catholics form a "Bible" party to get the Bible back in the schools. This coalition had written this very elaborate guide about religious exercises for the different kids by religion. Many of the these Bible party candidates were elected. So it comes down to the Committee on Schools. Three members. Maier and two Bible party guys. He clearly does not have the votes. Maier somehow turns one of the Bible party guys to his side, completely squelching the whole deal. 2-1, Maier wins. The Board supports Maier. The Bible party platform does not make it to the schools.

Wow, how did he DO that?? I believe that Maier had tremendous social and persuasive skills. As Dennis says, WE need Maier Zunder NOW.

Photoessay #1570 - Thanksgiving 1, 2011

2011-11-20T16:37:00.000-08:00

Today we had our Thanksgiving 1, the Sunday Thanksgiving mostly with Dennis' family. The only one of my kids here was Danny who brought Melina. Susanna is in Colorado, Ilana is in Michigan and Naomi is in Ellensburg. The weather conditions and pass were iffy and I encouraged Naomi NOT to come. She'll be here on Wednesday for the usual break. We planned for 12, we had 11, Jessica had to work. We took a group picture but I like this picture better.

Dennis had to do his usual engineering job. How to sit enough people and where. He came up with this solution. Put all of the leaves in my mother's table and put it in the living room. Put a card table in the dining room for serving and desserts. Worked out fine. A step up from our 4x8 sheer of plywood.

Melina was here' also Matthew, Ilana's boyfriend. Krystal brought her boyfriend also named Matt. Danny also brought his dog Maddie (yorkie-poo) which added a loud layer of chaos but eventually the dogs settled down. Maddie is definitely alpha iver Teddy. Everybody is alpha over Teddy.

A shot of the group as we start passing around the food and a picture of my own plate. We are indeed fortunate.

Photoessay #1569 - Abraham Savelewitz

2011-11-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

An unanticipated reward as part of our three days of research undertaken by my cousin Mary Ann and myself was the information about her mother's first husband which had been kept a secret from my cousins. Apparently, she married him while he was in the service in 1842 right before he shipped out. The story is that, while he was overseas, he sent her a "Dear Jane" letter and they never got back together. Circumstances unknown. When my aunt wanted to marry a few years later, she traveled to Nevada for a month staying at a dude ranch that catered to the population.

Mary Ann knew the name because her mom was listed with that last name on a work recognition program. On Thursday, Mary Ann found an announcement in the scrapbook. Marvin, our archivist, knew of a scrapbook that somebody had made of Jewish soldiers from that area. He climbed up way high and came down with this scrapbook. Heck if this guy doesn't have his own page. Some volunteer kept track of all this information. Shows him married to Ruth Baumann.

Nice looking picture. Turns out Mary Ann has some pictures of her mom and this guy is in some of the pictures. Bonus! His family were poultry farmers in Ansonia 'out in the valley'.

Many squeals from our corner the Ethnic Cultural Center at Southern Connecticut State University.

A picture of Abraham Savelewitz' page in scrapbook.

Photoessay #1568 - On my way home

2011-11-18T20:28:00.001-08:00

Ah, the familiar Alaska Airlines gate L1 in Chicago’s O’Hare airport. I’ve been here many many times. The flight out here and home by myself brought back to me all the trips I made to Rockford prior to my mom’s death in 2010. Certainly, I don’t regret them but they were exhausting and demanding. I didn’t go as many times as my brother and sister who lived in the Midwest. But I went plenty and a lot there at the end. The convenient loss of my job and my kid’s independence cleared my time so I was able to spend a lot of time those last six weeks.
.
Having your parents pass is always difficult in ways you cannot see before you experience it. I did have a little come-apart when we couldn’t find their grave yesterday. I’ve promised a picture. I l8ikely can prepare it as I wait here at gate L1. My cousin’s husband Denny insisted that Mary Ann and I don’t wander around the cemetery by ourselves as it was in a ‘ bad’ area of town. So he met us there and the three of us looked at the usual Zunder/Weil/Baumann monuments. All of a sudden I just HAD to visit my parents site. We knew about where it was, on the flat area near the street right near that big tree. But the day was chilly and dizzly and the ground was covered with leaves. This part of the cemetery only has sones flat on the ground which meant covered with leaves. The three of us searched and searched, kicking away leaves, trying to remember where the graves were in relation to the tree. They had to be here; we had left them there, the stone had been 8installed, they hadn’t gone anywhere. Somehow not being able to find them upset me. So the three of use kept kicking away leaves and reading markers. The stones were in lines. Still we could not find them.

Finally, Mary Ann felt something hard under some leaves where she was not expecting and there were the stones. The trick is that the stones are in the middle of the row. We don’t know why. So, if anybody else goes to look, that’s the trick.
I am grateful for my cousin and her husband for tending these grave sites. I am grateful for my cousin and her husband for hosting my visit. I enjoyed meeting her grandchildren;l those boys were fun. Mary Ann and I truly spent 3 days on the ground reading and scanning and researching. One thing beside Abe Sevelewitz fell out. The last time we did a tour of the houses, Mary Ann had pointed out a blue frame house as Maier’s house. In the same Orange/Canner st neighborhood. But somehow I thought it should be bigger. We came up with other addresses that were in the original nine squares. Mary Ann reflected that she had always been told that that was the ‘Zunder house’, but maybe that was Theodore Zunder’s house (Maier’s son) not Maier’s. So that mystery still remains.

Also, some person (Vinick,who’s THAT?) put together those deteriorating scrapbooks of programs and newspaper articles which I scanned. A lot about the Board of Education but not a word about the German American Association and the celebrations at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, I’m sure it was written up.
Also some notes mentioned that Maier had been defeated in 1892 due to his position that those who were able, should pay for textbooks. Nothing about that at all.
Still, I have a lot of material.

Picture of Mary Ann and Denny searching for the grave sitel. I’m holding the camera and I’m searching too.

Very successful third day

2011-11-17T18:32:00.000-08:00

We've gotten everything done that I wanted.

Today we spent the morning at Jewish Historical Society, more and more Maier Zunder clippings. The highlight was a side search for Mary Ann. Back in the day there was a Secret. Which I kind of knew. Which was that Mary Ann's mother had been married before she married her father. She had married a soldier right before he shipped out in WW II and then she got a 'Dear Jane' later saying ... saying ... something. When she wanted to get married again she, like many others in her situation, went out to Nevada and got a divorce.

Mary Ann knew his name Seveliwitz, aaack I've already forgotten how to spell it. We found the announcement in a scrapbook (first name Abraham) and then Marvin, the archivist climbed up wayyyy high and came down with a scrapbook of Jewish soldiers in WW II and found a record, anyway I have some cool pictures. Plus we did a bunch of squealing.

And we went out to the cemetary even though it was cold and rainy and we couldn't find my parent's stones. Mary Ann, Denny and I searched and searched, finally found it but I'll have some pictures for that too.

Going home tomorrow! Many thanks to my cousins for hosting me.

No pictures from this trip because I can't get wireless for my net book and Mary Ann and I don't know how to process pictures on this machine. I would have to make the pictures smaller at the very least.

I have a large amount of Maier Zunder material, huge.

Wednesday - two archives

2011-11-16T19:36:00.000-08:00

Today, I was a lot more focused during my time at the Jewish Historical Society, mainly scanning newspaper accounts of Board of Education happenings, accounts of Delia's wedding, and the many obits. I have a lot of material.

We went and had lunch near Yale and then went to the New Haven Museum. The archivist was very helpful. We found the Proceedings; I had a date of Dec 1877 in mind as there was a controversy about taking the prayer out of the schools.

We found the right books but these meetings are all done in script handwriting and it's SO HARD to read. I did read through Dec 1877 but it's very hard to pick out. The archivist said they've never been transcribed. I can see you would have to be very dedicated.

Mary Ann and I continue to mess around with our pictures and, after several tries, managed to scan a picture of Nanny as a baby on her scanner.

Tomorrow, morning at the Jewish Historical Society, lunch with Ruthie and the neighborhood tour and then to the cemetery. I'll take Denny and Mary Ann out to dinner and it will be a wrap!

Tuesday in New Haven

2011-11-15T19:01:00.000-08:00

I have some great picture but due to technical issues, I can't quite get them up tonight.

Mary Ann picked me up this morning and we went directly to the Jewish Historical Society which is housed in an Ethnic Cultural Center at Southern Connecticut State University. Building industrial but tons of stuff. We met with Marvin Barger, the archivist who was extremely helpful. Then Werner S came in and he really helped even more. We found some old birth records in German and he worked on translating them, showed me how to scan on the computer. They looked at the things I brought. Mary Ann and I were very busy. Most interesting to me are the old German documents also the articles in the New Haven papers from the latter half of the 19th century about the Board of Education. Really good things. Looked at two scrapbooks, most interesting was an elaborate B'nai B'rith memorial for MZ held in 1906, 5 years after he died.

Werner S also showed me a lot of hits on Google Books plus he gave me his collection of articles.

Later we came back to Mary Ann's house, had a delicious dinner made by Denny and then Mary Ann dragged out an old box of pictures from her basement she just found. Inside were dozens and dozens of pictures of the Lederers mostly not identified from Germany, New Jersey, Paris, New Haven. We will send them off to Sue Geiger, she'll love them!

Photoessay #1568 - On my way

2011-11-14T09:58:00.000-08:00

I'm on my way for my family research trip to Connecticut. Discretionary. I could call it a memorial trip, I know that my mom was especially interested in that family history I wrote in 1974. So she would be glad that I'm going to New Haven and working on this project with my cousin Mary Ann.

I wrote a German genealogist last night and got a response this morning. I saw that Besla Zunder had emigrated in 1854. Somehow my grandmother thought that Maier Zunder had brought over his mother to the US from Bavaria when she was quite old. But not the case. Reinhold wrote back and said that she had traveled with two daughters Getta and Sarah. I don't think I've ever heard of them before.

I'm hoping for some insights and surprises on our three days 'on the ground'. As usual I brought a ton of stuff, binder, notebook, a few books, pictures for Jewish Historical Society. My theme is 'what Maier Zunder tick?" What motivated him. What happened in Bavaria that influenced him. I have that one good book that centers on Jewish 'emancipation' in Bavaria but much of it discusses events after Maier left.

I have plenty of information about what he did and new things come up all the time. But merely enumerating would be boring.

Flight delayed out of Seattle but they insist I'll make my connection in Chicago.

I may or may not have a picture.

---------------

Later, made it to my hotel in Hartford, my cousin will pick me up tomorrow morning. Flying into Chicago by myself really brought back all those dozens of trips I made to Rockford in the last 11 years. So many.

Photoessay #1567 - Dennis at Carnaval

2011-11-13T21:06:00.000-08:00

Actually at the Carnaval exhibit at Melina's favorite museum, the Burke, during our outing for her 11th birthday last weekend.

Quite a large area on one side of the exhibit with all kinds of masks to try on. Which could be appropriate when marching in a Carnaval parade.

Dennis modeling several numbers that feature curved and straight horns. I think he looks GREAT.

Hmmm probably should leave town after posing these pictures. Actually I am going to New Haven this week to do some family research about The Man Maier Zunder with the help of my cousin Mary Ann. We will have a busy three days on the ground. One of those 'if not now, when?' events.

I''ll be in touch!

Photoessay #1566 - La Raza Taqueria Mexicana

2011-11-12T20:44:00.000-08:00

Dennis and I bought one of those big coupon books from our neighbor to benefit the high school orchestra.

All kinds of little places have coupons in there. The idea is to get you to come into their restaurant and give it a try. A few weeks ago, picked out this mexican place up in Lynnwood. Right near Edmonds Community College. Nondescript place in the middle of a strip mall. Two tables, bunch of counter seats. Mexican kick boxing or soccer on.

I tried the shrimp burrito and Dennis the smothered burrito. Soooo good, we've been back 4 times in the last 3 weeks. Most items priced under $10. Everything we've had there is excellent.

I don't know how well cold mexican food in styrofoam photographs but here's what I took home. The shrimp burrito with cream sauce and vegetables. And check out the guacamole, cubed avocado with apples, celery and peppers. All around yummy.

Went to 2 1/2 tam meetings this afternoon. I'm developing a cold but am looking for ward to my trip to Connecticut on Monday. Finding out what made Maier Zunder tick. Got some materials from the New Haven Public library today. They said they charged $20 plus .50/page to send it. They didn't tell me if was $20 PER article. Oh well, two out of the three articles are new to me so I'm good.

Photoessay #1565 - Difference between Allopathic and Naturopathic medicine

2011-11-11T14:36:00.001-08:00

Here's an example:

Have you ever felt like some major force has hit you. Fatigued and fuzzy. All you want to do is just crawl into bed. That sounds like a better idea that going to UW Bothell and trying to figure how to read newspaper from microfilm. Sounds like a better idea than just about anything. Do you recognize it as a sign that you're probably going to come down with something any minute now or tomorrow.

I felt that way last Monday and Tuesday. I worried because I'm going to Connecticut on Monday and I do NOT want to be sick. Just so happened that I had two doctor appts scheduled on Tuesday. One with an MD endocrinologist who I see every 10 weeks for various. And my naturopath I see every two weeks for my upper back condition.

So I tell the first doctor (MD) how I feel. He looks at my throat, listens to my chest, takes my blood pressure. Says he doesn't see anything, I just fine, just worried about my trip.

Later I tell my second doctor (ND). She listens and says "Sounds like something is happening, here why don't you take these supplements (Andrographis Complex), this will beef up your immune system to beat off whatever you're trying to get. Take two right now and one with every meal for awhile."

So, I buy the jar of whatever it is and start taking it. By the next day, I feel fine. Fatigue is gone. I'm going to keep taking these until I leave.

I reflect, isn't that the way? Western medicine looks at some body parts, doesn't see any obvious disease and dismisses your fatigue, tells you there's nothing's wrong. Naturopathic medicine acknowledges your symptoms, recognizes them as real and meaningful and gives you some tools to address what is obviously happening. Are you really making up your extreme fatigue to be difficult or lazy or something?

From a naturopathic website:

Any sign of sickness is the body’s way of saying balance needs to be restored in order to ensure proper functioning. In absence of balance and an ignorance of warning symptoms, the body will submit to disease.

I support naturopathic medicine. It's worked very well for me. We are fortunate in Seattle because of the presence of Bastyr University which has resulted in respect for naturopathics in the conventional medical community.

Photo taken from www.everything-beautiful.com used without permission

I got a call from somebody involved with the Lake Forest Park Farmers Market. They
re putti8ng together some notecards to sell to raise funds. Could she use some of the pictures on my blog if they credit me? Why sure, I'm honored!

Photoessay #1564 - Stratus finally!

2011-11-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

One of my two 'acceptances' so far with my writing was at Stratus a new literature and arts journal that University of Washington Professional and Continuing Education is publishing to highlight the students and teachers in their writing and arts programs.

I submitted "Winter Olympics" this summer and it was accepted and now it's out.

Kinda

You can read it online by downloading it from the link above. My piece is on pages 28-34.

But a paper copy is spendy. It's print on demand, but you can only go through this one service so you get to pay shipping and handling. Base price is $23 which will discourage your casual readers. Add on the postage and everything and you're cresting $40.

But still.

I'm ordering one copy to see what I think about ordering others for family members, etc.

Still, there it is, crazy, I like it. Looks like they did a good job putting it together.

I haven't had much time to work on writing more memoir as I'm so busy with my family history class (Maier Zunder, Middle Franconia, etc). I'm still writing to keep up with my Inner Circle group but, so far, have not been able to establish a real critical writing group. Nor have I had to spend the time trying to place my existing pieces. Which is time-consuming!!!

This all keeps me busy, very very busy.

So please look at this journal online! Cover taken from the link above.

Photoessay #1563 - Middle Franconia

2011-11-09T16:22:00.000-08:00

I am reading a very important book "The People Speak! Anti Semitism and emancipation in Nineteenthe Century Bavaria" by James F. Harris.

I thunk it's giving me a central question to anchor my paper I will be writing. Where did Maier Zunder come from and what motivated him? For occasional readers, Maier Zunder (1824-1901), my great great grandfather came from Bavaria in 1848, moved to New Haven CT and lived a fruitful accomplished life, establishing a successful business, founding a being president of a bank, serving 24 years on the School Board, founding a B'nai Brith lodge. On and on. More and more. A busy busy man.

This book describes conditions for Jews in Bavaria during the nineteenth century and it's not prtetty. The Jewish degree of 1813, designed to give many citizenship rights to Jews also included many limiting provisions including restriction of occupations, restriction of marriages, restriction of residence, restriction of organizations. At the time, proponents saw it as a means of 'Christian Social Engineering', a way to improve the lot of Jews, make them more civilized. I haven't read all of it and I know things get unstable in the 1840s. Given this constriction of your future, one can see why young Bavarian Jews would want to emigrate to the US. Maier Zunder would never ever had the commercial or service activities in Bavarian. In the US, he could use his broad array of talents freely.

America truly was the land of freedom and liberty.

Map taken from page 12, used without permission showing the areas of Bavaria after the Napoleonic wars. Maier Zunder came from Furth, near Nuremburg in the left upper middle; in Middle Franconia.

Have I mentioned that I'm going to Connecticut to do research next week?

Photoessay #1562 - 1976 engagement

2011-11-08T16:13:00.000-08:00

Dennis and I decided to get married in Jan 1976 and did get married the following June. June that traditional wedding month. Actually it was June because my parents could combine the trip to Sacramento with my brother's college graduation in San Diego. We were both 23.

We decided to take the 'engagement' picture. I don't remember who took it (maybe we set the camera up). Or where we were. Looks like evergreen trees in the background. Tahoe? Were we dressed up to go somewhere else?

I don't remember.

We thought we were plenty old to get married; seemed like a good idea at the time. All but Naomi of my own kids are past that age now. And Naomi's not that far behind as she turns 22 next month.

Those birthdays just keep rolling around for everybody.

We look pretty silly, don't we? But bright smiles. We've been married over 35 years. Neither of us are that thin....

Photoessay #1561 - Teamwork

2011-11-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I attended three team meetings for parent group.
Interesting, the three teams did not have anybody in common; I was with different people all day. Also another member had had a moveout the previous day (Parent Group members carefully planned an event where an adult son's belongings were moved out of his mother's house). It usually involves many people; all day I heard versions of the event from different people who had been there. Parent group usually doesn't do many moveouts, years can go by and we don't ever do it but there's been a whole bunch lately. In this case the young man was there and it went smoothly. Non-violence is strictly oserved.

Just to give an idea of what teams talk about

Team meeting one for a single mom with a 19 year old daughter. This mom has been working with her team for at least six months. Daughter has anxiety and drug problems and has completed inpatient treatment and is now living in transition housing and holding down a nearly full time job. Daughter has been abusive and disrespectful and the team has encouraged the mom that the daughter cannot live with her. This mom and the daughter have a close warm relationship in a lot of ways and it's so hard for the mom to hold the line that the daughter cannot live with her. The daughter expects to enter college soon and also expects that her parents will pay for everything but this is not possible for the mom to pay much. The ex-husband often destabilizes the situation and initiates a triangle with the mom always looking bad. One team member suggests that all email that comes from the ex-husband should be vetted by the team member. She'll let the mom know if there's something she needs to do anything about. Much of the meeting was spent drafting a letter to the daughter being as clear as possible about what the mom will and will not provide. The team members agreed that living in sober housing and holding a job showed huge progress for the daughter and would be actually better than attending college at this time.

I have decided not to include anything about the second team meeting.

The third team meeting was for a couple with a 22 year old son in college. the parents have rescued the son constantly monetarily and a dynamic has developed where the son demands money and the parents give in. Parents want to stop but it's so hard. This is a new team and we've been meeting weekly. Last week, the parents expected the son to ask for money for food. We made a plan which sorta worked and sorta didn't. The result is the dad bought some groceries to the son. We talked over how that situation developed. The dad really wanted to give the son some notice so the team and the parents drafted up an email which clearly laid out about giving money for food. Team members suggested that the son would not starve and there likely was a food bank nearby. Then the team challenged the parents to really think through what they really were willing to offer the son for next semester. No magical thinking like "Well if he got a job and was really trying." Nope figure out nothing is really going to change between now and January. The couple's homework is to really figure that out. The most important part of the meeting was challenging the parents to think differently about their son. They are used to describing him in negative terms and those expectations color the ensuing events. The team suggests that the parents endeavor to change their own view of their son as a capable responsible young adult even if they have fake it. The team mentioned a stand from another mother to an adult son "I will embrace the idea that my son CAN live independently". She had to work very hard to get there but the son IS now living independently.

Such is the nature of parent group teams

Photo used with permission as long as I credit thegoldguys.blogspot.com/ or www.lumaxart.com/

Photoessay #1560 - The Zone

2011-11-06T17:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we took Melina for a birthday outing at UW. We walked to Hed Edmondson pavilion to drop me off at 3:15 pm as I was working the football game as an usher. They let all three of us in to look around and we got to watch the women's basketball team practice. The main draw to come a bit early was a free lunch. Afterward, Melina really wanted to see what was going on at Husky Stadium. She convinced Dennis to stay until 5:45 when the band and the cheerleaders welcome the coaches and players into Husky Stadium. When I got up to my section about 4:45, I was surprised that they were still there.

The Zone is an area outside of the stadium where some restaurants and special tents are set up and they do serve alcohol there. It's free to get in. So there's Melina and Dennis at the very center of the photo. Dennis is wearing a red sweatshirt. I took this picture from my section in the South Stands.

Melina really wanted to see the band and the cheerleaders and just be part of the whole crazy scene. The lower photo the team buses approaching and the band and cheer squads awaiting the player. We're looking east across Lake Washington so it's not really a sunset but a lovely violet sky.

My view had the very best view. Demolition starts tomorrow.....

Photoessay #1559 - Ushering Crew

2011-11-06T00:23:00.002-07:00

Another midnight update.....

Just got back from my job as an usher for the football games at the University of Washington. This was the last game in this stadium. They're going to completely redo it. So the last game (Apple Cup) for this year and all of the games for next year will be at SeaHawks stadium and they have their own staff.

So no more ushering for awhile. Which is fine with me. We'll see if I want to go back in two years.

At my suggestion, we took this shot of the ushers for the Lower Portion of the South Stands. The upper stands. Which makes sense if you know Husky Stadium or the old Husky Stadium. The South Stands were the original high stands and they're going to be demolished and replaced. So my section will be no more. But this is the crew for the lower part of the stands.

Nearly a sellout tonight and we had problems with seats, people in wrong seats refusing to move, some duplicate tickets. And the fans did not do their share of demolition as we feared. They took the seat cushions which we allowed.

The game? Oregon 34 Washington 17

Today was Melina's birthday, we went to the Burke and they walked me down to the athletic facilities. Dennis and Melina waited in the Zone and watched the band and cheerleaders perform as the team walked in.

Night!

Photoessay #1558 - Autumn in Seattle

2011-11-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

Beautiful fall colors from tree at Lake Forest Park Town Center. Taken last Wednesday on my way out from my writing Inner Circle group. Lately we've been meeting at 9am which, now that Sarah has retired, appears to work for our small group. I've noticed that many retired older people gather in the morning at Third Place Books to meet, play cards, socialize. Really a good venue for that.

And for our group of five, I'm in the middle of the age group and I''m pushing sixty. And not working. So I'm different from those senior citizens, how?

I've written my short piece about my memories from the day JFK was assassinated. And continue to work on that Maier Zunder guy. I know that it might be getting stressful because I'm out in some way almost every evening. Parent group, class, team meetings, swimming. I bet Maier Zunder was hardly ever at home......

Photoessay #1557 - Jews in New Haven

2011-11-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Many years ago (33 years ago?), my mother gave me a copy of this book "Jews in New Haven" published by the Jewish Historical Society of New Haven. I had put together a typewritten family history building on one that my grandmother had done in the 1930s (ostensibly to get my aunt Ruth into some school) and supplemented with interviews of my relatives. The first article in the book is about Maier Zunder, the basis of my current work.

Many volumes in this series followed, they're now up to volume 9. And I now own the whole series. I have also arranged to purchase an antique stoneware crock from an antique dealer that hailed from Maier Zunder & Sons wholesale grocery.

I'm going on a fact finding trip to New Haven week after next. I hope to be able to talk to Barry Herman, author of that original article if he's well enough. Today, I located the "Proceedings" of the New Haven Board of Education from Maier Zunder's era. He served on the Board for 24 years 1868-1892 and was president for much of that time. I can go read them at the New Haven Museum and Historical Society.

My cousin Mary Ann is hosting and accompanying me on this quest. Just heard from her today. Remember that snow on last Saturday? She doesn't have her power back YET! Shades of the 2006 Hanukah Eve storm here. She's on 4 nights, it's such a pain.

So let's all visualize the power restored in Cheshire, CT.

PS I have 3 copies of vol. 1 so if anybody else wants one....

Photoessay #1556 - Those dang traffic cameras

2011-11-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

What I want to know is...

Where are the teenage vandals when you need them??

A little bb gun action might be what's called for. I'm talking about those dang traffic cameras which naiil otherwise law-abiding citizens. Really more a money stream for the small city of Lake Forest Park. This particular one is located two blocks over from the elementary school. You have to go under 20mph 7-9:30am and 2-4:40 pm

See how well they have me trained?

And, if you forget, you get flashed. Even if it's hours before school starts. Then you get the bill for some amount over $120. You can moan and get the fine reduced. Everybody I know has gotten these tickets. Me more than once. There's no recourse.

I certain want to keep the kids safe. But I'm more likely to run over a kid because I'm staring at my speedometer making sure I don't go over 20 mph.

So a little vandalism would be in order, don't you think? As Dennis grandfather used to say "What you see when you don't got a gun!"

I noticed our local little revenue source being serviced this morning on my way back from my Inner Circle writing group.

This time's prompt was "The first time". I wrote about the first time I realized I could read.

Next prompt is "Your memories of the day that JFK was assassinated"

Photoessay #1555 - Maier Zunder

2011-11-01T18:29:00.001-07:00

Here's the man. My great great grandfather Maier Zunder. Born in Bavaria 1824. Died in New Haven 1901. Leading citizen, big time. He built a successful wholesale grocery business, was president of a bank, served on New Haven Board of Education for 24 year, many of those as president, was treasurer of Congregation Mishkan Israel for 25 years. He also was trustee of many other organizations, parented 4 sets of kids, also was active in German-Ameircan Associations.

Had a school named after him. None of his descendants matched his achievement.

Makes me tired just writing all of this. Not much written about him at all.

I'm working on it! Don't know when this picture was taken. He doesn't look too old to me.

Made a run to UW libraries in Seattle AND Bothell.

Photoessay #1554 - A fright!

2011-10-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

The people across the street from my friend Lee's house go ALL OUT for halloween. I visited over there this afternoon and the maestro (in the white t-shirt in the lower picture) was busy making last minute adjustments. Apparently it's great in the dark with lots of lights and sounds and smoke.

He proudly showed Lee his new scary faces; new for this year. More scary stuff than you can imagine.

Fun! You can't miss it!

All this morning I was working New Haven. The City of New Haven. The New Haven Public Library. New Haven Public Schools. Yale. New Haven Museum. Tried to track down Barry Herman. Found some stuff but not much. I'm still working it.

Tomorrow, a picture of Maier Zunder, the MAN, I promise

Photoessay #1553 - Breakfast with old friends

2011-10-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

Dennis and I went out to breakfast with friends of long standing. We chatted and chatted (and not that much about our kids, but what we were indivudually interested in). We chatted for so long that the waitress came and asked us if we wanted to order lunch!

We've had Thanksgiving with these friends since Before Kids. Over 30 years and being with them always made it so fun. This year they've decided to do their own and I'm disappointed (I won't lie!). I hope that maybe we can resume in future years.

But we had a wonderful time at breakfast enjoying each other's company.

Photoessay #1552 - Late football night

2011-10-30T00:24:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this after midnight....just got home from my job at the Husky game. My crazy part-time usher at UW athletic events mostly football. Washington beat Arizona 42-31 or something like that. Crazy game, I thought the first quarter lasted about 2 hours, it was so bad. Lots of reviews and penalties and crazy plays.

Plus a late start, people have way more time to drink. I had wobbly folks in my section but no incidents. The older gentleman I walked back to the parking lot with had all sorts of noisy loud profane people, it got so bad, he had to have six cops come and sort it out. Just about 60K people there.

So I took the first football picture I could steal. Desmond Trufant, I think he's a free safety, I think he covers receivers on the defense. There's one man, one of my regulars, comes with his two young sons and every time the other team catches the ball he yells loudly "You suck Trufant!!!" Anyway, he wasn't there.....

All's well

Photoessay #1551 - Magic Cat Press

2011-10-28T13:42:00.001-07:00

Woot, woot! I have another publication. I submitted my piece "The Sign" to Magic Cat Press and they've accepted it. Oh yeah.

There are a few pieces that I really hope will be picked up by specific journals but I am beginning to form a strategy.

Let's look at some numbers

52 submissions
11 rejections
2 acceptances

A lot of those places will never reply. My strategy now was to submit to new places that publish on-line. Yes, there are those lovely literary journals put out by MFA programs. They're only going to pick 4 pieces and let's face it, ok?

I found out about duotrope from a flash fiction workshop I took at the Edmonds Writing Conference. I've never written flash fiction; the teacher said that you could find places at duotrope that would take your work and you could build up your resume that way. Sounded good so I've started trying it. A lot of work, you have to identify the places, read their submission guidelines, they're all different, etc

So Magic Cat Press was new, they publish online. So, bob's your uncle.

Duoptrope uses their submission tracker (which I've started to use) to chart acceptance rates. I didn't quite see this before I submitted (late at night, blah).

This is for 'fiction and poetry' for Magic Cat Press

Accuracy We have received 33 reports within the past 12 months, not including pending responses (see below). The more responses reported, the more accurate the info. Rejections are often underreported, which skews the statistics in favor of acceptances. Most markets have a lower acceptance rate than indicated here.
Days Reported 0 min | 4.7 mean avg | 4 median | 16 max days (4.1 std dev)
Responses (100.00 %)
Acceptances: 96.97 % (4.5 avg. days per acceptance)
Rejections: -
Rewrite Requests: 3.03 % (12 avg. days per rewrite request)

Most acceptance rates are like 3%. Or less. Their acceptance rate 97%

Now those are MY kind of numbers, oh yeah.

They look legit. I'll let my greater blog community know when this happens.

So far, my acceptances have been in the "You Showed Up" category. Whatever works.

Photoessay #1550 - The Michigan hand

2011-10-27T15:03:00.001-07:00

Ilana is spending her two academic years in Ann Arbor earning a masters at the School of Information at the University of Michigan. One regional practice she just loves is how people in Michigan describe where they live in the state.

The hand of Michigan. See if you hold your hand just like this, it's kinda the shape of the state. So then you can point to the place on your hand to locate your hometown. Or where you're going.

Where on the hand are you? People ask that.

You can see that Ann Arbor is in the fleshy part of the palm near the thumb.

Photoessay #1549 - Baby Regina 1896

2011-10-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

Readers--I'm taking this genealogy and family history class and I've got a fair amount to work with so you're coming along for the ride

Picture of the infant Regina Zunder Weil (my maternal grandmother), a few months old in 1896. I'm sure that's NOT my great grandmother Delia, just the hat gives it away. Undoubtedly a baby nurse hired by the family. Delia, daughter of the affluent self-made Maier Zunder had married Charles Weil (her first cousin) whose own father had been a successful merchant.

The family's affluence would not last with the depression wiping out the wealth and this baby would grow up to support her husband and daughters working in a dry goods store. But that's over 30 years in the future and the future of this baby looked bright, born into a family of means.

But check out the yard and yards of linen in this baby dress. I had a beautiful hand smocked baby dress that I had for awhile and photographed some of my own daughters. Hope my sister has it. And the starched collar and cuffs of the nurse. Those leg-of-mutton sleeves of the 1890s.

Shot taken at a photographer's studio? The picture is securely glued to the baby book so I can't tell.

A time that seems so lost in the mist. Yet secure in itself, I'm sure that this pictures was accepted and expected in the time.

PS I think I will be able to buy that antique crock from M Zunder & Sons

Photoessay #1548

2011-10-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

I know it's 'sloppy and amateurish' but here's the trademark or shield that Maier Zunder & Sons put on their display crockery (and maybe other things). I tried yesterday to buy the crock, apparently it's been sold but the dealer thought he might be able to find another.

I've also talked to the Jewish Historical Society of New Haven. I will complete my library of their publications (they have nine volumes, I already own 5). And talked to the archivist. As I suspected, the full length picture of Maier Zunder is now hanging in their office. It had belonged to Harvey Ladin back in the day.

I looked at their holdings and there are at least 3 boxes with Maier Zunder documents. I'm going. Pretty soon too. Dennis doesn't even know about it yet. But I need to visit there, I hope within the next month. Sooner rather than later.

Sooner rather than later was the girl scout code for "come quick, emergency!"

I'll be able to visit the Maier Zunder picture. Truly the center of the known universe for Maier Zunder materials. Whose dates are 1928-1901. Born in Bavaria.

Cool little symbol though

Photoessay #1547 - M Zunder & Sons

2011-10-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking for my topic for my paper for my Genealogy/Family History class. Gotta go with the obvious...Maier Zunder 1824-1901. My great great grandfather. Born in Bavaria, he emigrated to New Haven by way of New York. Had several successful business under the name "M Zunder & Sons" handling dry goods, groceries, liquor, also agents for steam ship tickets. Maier also served as President of the National Savings Bank of New Haven. His most lasting achievement was 24 years on the School Board.

Blog readers...somehow I think you are going to hear more about Maier Zunder in the months to come. There is a nine volume series "Jews in New Haven, I have 5, so must complete my collection. More on all this later.

But surfing the net, I find 3 items for sale from M Zunder & Sons. The first, a two gallon crock from M Zunder & sons with that cool trademark on the bottom. Offered for $275 from an antique dealer in New Haven. I'm thinking I must have it.

Then there's this jug offered for $125 by some ebay seller in Italy. With that same way cool trademark. That would suffice if I could figure out how to buy it.

And finally this sports-oriented tobacco tin from the 1880s. Pop Smith labeled with "M Zunder & Sons". The Y clearly for Yale, also in New Haven. A collector bought this tin in 2007 for $1174. Out of my league.

I love LOVE these artifacts!

Photoessay #1546 - Teddy and laps

2011-10-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

Teddy is a fairly large dog (approx 60 pounds), kind of a shepherd/lab/pitt/whippet mutt. LOVES to chase the ball so somebody had to be a retriever and a work dog. He also loves everybody and is sure everybody loves him. Naomi has been home this weekend and Teddy was delighted. He got to sleep in her room just like old times from this summer.

He also feels like he could be a lap dog. Really, he would be SO good and wouldn't be ANY trouble. So Naomi was sitting on the floor and Teddy decided this was a good lap dog opportunity.

Naomi will be leaving in the next hour or so to go back to Ellensburg. It's so much easier when the college is nearby. So much easier then the six hours plus to Pullman. So easy when Ilana attended University of Washington right here in town. Ann Arbor, well, that's way way far away.

Having four kids mean that you pay many dollars to many college and universities.

So far:
University of Oregon
University of Washington
University of Michigan
Washington State University
Central Washington University
Shoreline Community College
North Seattle Community College

and Susanna is applying to OT school

Rather an impressive list.

Naomi just left