Ode to 2019

Ode to 2019

My resolution to write more in this year gone past,

has come up short and not only because the time has flown fast.

One major occurrence at the beginning of the year,

the death of My-Favorite-Father-In-Law dear.

The caring for his widowed spouse,

the running and maintaining of her and our house,

has left me little time in my blog to post,

and this loss of time is what I regret the most.

Despite 2019 passing in the blink of my eye,

  I was able to give 31 posts (and my resolution) the old college try.

Old Spanish forts in lights,

and ancient Spanish citrus delights.

Making Bigfoot tracks leave a trace,

and sending my name to Mars in outer space.

Becoming suffragette Susan B. Anthony,

and Hester Prynne with Pearl, her baby.

Just to list a few of the few I did write,

to list them all would take too much of 2019's last night.

I do hope 2020 will not be a repeat,

and time will pass gently and sweet.

I hesitate to make a resolution to write more next year,

as last year's decidedly kicked my rear.

Me as Susan B.

Susan B. Anthony (February 15, 1820 - March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. She was born into a Quaker family that was committed to social equality.

Susan B. Anthony (image from Internet)

In 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting in the presidential election and was convicted in a widely publicized trial. Although she refused to pay the $100 fine, the authorities declined to take any further action against her. In 1878, Anthony and her associate Stanton arranged for Congress to be presented with an amendment giving women the right to vote. This amendment was eventually ratified as the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920.

The Nineteenth Amendment prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. It was initially introduced to Congress in 1878, several attempts to pass a women's suffrage amendment failed until 1919, when suffragists pressed President Woodrow Wilson to call a special congressional session. On May 21, 1919, the proposed amendment passed the House of Representatives, followed by the Senate on June 4, 1919. I was then submitted to the states for ratification. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee was the last of the necessary 36 states to secure ratification. The Nineteenth Amendment was officially adopted on August 26, 1920.

The 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment's official adoption is coming up next year and to honor this anniversary I was asked if I would portray Susan B. Anthony for one of my DAR chapter's meetings. My DAR sisters know that I dress up and portray different characters for the county programs I work and thought I would be the most logical person to ask. Of course I said I would help them out.

This November's dinner-meeting was the meeting I portrayed Susan B. Anthony. Myself and four other ladies became the "Hickory Bluff Players" as we, dressed in suffragette costumes and performed our "skit" for the chapter members and their guests as they ate dessert.

The ladies and I walked into the dining room and paraded around it as we chanted, "Votes for women" and waved a 'votes for women' sign.

Susan B. Anthony was introduced and I made my way to the podium. I read the speech that Ms. Anthony gave after her arrest in 1872.  

Here are two of my fellow Hickory Bluff Players dressed as suffragettes and myself as Susan B. Anthony.

A few of the ladies who attended the dinner-meeting also dressed as suffragettes but were not part of the skit. Those of us in costume had a group photograph taken.

Our DAR chapter had a guest speaker joins us at the meeting. She is the Vice President of the League of Women Voters of Charlotte County (the other reason we had our little suffragette skit). Her name is Jean. Jean was impressed with our skit. She said we had done our research well and she really liked my performance and costume as Susan B. Anthony. She liked it so much that she asked me if I could possibly appear as Ms. Anthony at one of her organization's meetings. I emailed her later and said I would be happy to accommodate her. She emailed me back and said she had spoken with a friend of hers who is part of one of Friends of the Library groups and told her about my performance. Her friend just may be interested in a performance too.

Little did I know that donning a gray wig, olde-timey glasses and reading a speech would lead to any encore performances. My 2020 may become a lot busier if  more women's groups hear about my portrayal of Susan B. Anthony.

A bit of trivia...

Question: What does the "B" in Susan B. Anthony stand for?

Answer: Brownell. One of Susan's aunts married a Mr. Brownell.

Getting Medieval Again

The Colonel and I attended the Sarasota Medieval Faire again this year. Every year it seems to get bigger and better. This was the 16th annual faire.

This year's theme was Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orleans (1428 AD). The siege was part of the Hundred Years War between England and France.

The young woman that portrayed Joan of Arc looked authentic to me. She and her soldiers fought against the English army on the Human Combat Chess Field.

The day we attended the faire, a Joan of Arc costume contest was held. Our friend (who happens to be our "boss" for the county history programs we work) was one of the contestants. Crystal is a fabulous artist. She designed and built her costume from scratch. The Colonel and I were impressed with her costume (we had seen the preliminary sketches). She portrayed the burning Saint Joan of Arc. Crystal won the contest.

Many people dress up for the faire, adults and children alike. It is always fun to people-watch. Here are just a few interesting costumes we saw.

Cast In Bronze was at the faire again this year. This musician and his instrument are incredible. The instrument he plays is called the carillon.

 Frank DellaPenna studied music in Valley Forge, PA and is a graduate from the French Carillon School of Tourcoing, France.

As a Master-Carillonnuer, Mr. DellaPenna expertly plays an instrument that was created five centuries ago in Flanders. The carillon has a modified keyboard that is played with fists and feet.

Originally, carillons were located in bell towers around the world. In the 1960's, a Dutch foundry made the first mobile carillon.

The carillon that Mr. DellaPenna plays contains 35 bells and weighs four tons. It takes musical dexterity, strength and endurance to play the instrument. Mr. DellaPenna has played this instrument since 1991. He combines the many bells of the carillon with other musical instruments to create unique and beautiful music.

Mr. DellaPenna spoke to the audience when he was done playing. He told us that he was not a young man (68-but not ready to retire just yet). He told us about his non-profit organization that he formed to create scholarships for qualified musicians to study at the North American Carillon School; The Cast In Bronze Society (CIBS).

I met and spoke with Mr. DellaPenna. I told him I agreed with his philosophy of "passing the torch" of  his unique musical talent to future students and that The Colonel and I would become supporting members of the CIBS.

There was a new addition to the faire this year...Mini Pigs!  OMG...they were soooo cute. For a nominal fee of three dollars one could hold and feed the little darlings...and I did.

After paying my fee, I was let through the gate and into the fenced enclosure. The straw-strewn floor was home to several mini pigs. I carefully stepped my way around the pigs to a straw bale and sat down. The "pig wranglers" put a large towel on my lap and handed me a small plastic cup that was filled with minced veggies. 

As soon as I had my cup-o-veggies, one of the smallest of the mini pigs jumped into my lap and began to scarf down the food. The lady sitting next to me asked one of the wranglers if the pigs could bite. He said that anything with teeth could bite....duh.

Once the food was gone, the mini pig didn't stay long in my lap (another slightly larger one tried to join us but realized the food was gone). It was time for me to leave the enclosure and make room for the next person in line. 

Mini Pig factoids: On average a properly fed mini pig will reach 35-55 pounds, about the size of a medium sized dog. The pigs have a lifespan of around 15 years.

The Colonel and I are looking forward to next year's faire.

Before we headed home, we traveled a bit further north to put some pretty, holiday flowers on the graves of My-Favorite-Father-In-Law and The Colonel's grandmother.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

An Overnight Vacation

I have a little bit of free time on my hands, so I thought I had better catch up on one of the posts I have been wanting to write for some time now.

Way back in May (of this year, at least), The Colonel and I had to renew my military I.D. We decided to go to Patrick Air Force Base which is on the east coast of Florida, near Cocoa Beach instead of the closer, MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa. Patrick is a more laid back, less congested base than MacDill.

It had been several years since we had been to Patrick and we were looking forward to an overnight vacation tied to the I.D. renewal.

We stayed at the La Quinta Inn in Cocoa Beach. That hotel at one time was co-owned by and home to the original seven astronauts (and their families) during their training while in the Cocoa Beach area .

The lobby of the hotel was sprinkled with historical photos and mementos of the Mercury Seven.

Mercury 7 - Back Row: Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper. Front Row: Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter.

Across and down the street from our hotel was a park and to get to the park's beach we had to walk along I Dream of Jeannie Lane.

An informational board at the base of the street sign stated that I Dream of Jeannie was part of Cocoa Beach when a television sitcom ran from 1965-1970 starring Barbara Eden as a 2000 year old female genie and Larry Hagman as an astronaut. The television series was set in and around Cocoa Beach. Barbara Eden visited Cocoa Beach in 1996 when the "I Dream of Jeannie" street sign was placed at Lori Wilson Park.

Here are a few photographs of Lori Wilson Park.

The Colonel and I visited The Dinosaur Store in Cocoa Beach. What a terrific place! A must see! The store has two floors of exhibits on dinosaurs and ancient human cultures. The gift shop was amazing as well.

We had our dinner at our favorite place in Cocoa Beach called Florida's Seafood Bar & Grill. The shrimp there are very delicious!

The next morning we stopped at the Cocoa Beach Pier. It has several shops and a couple of restaurants on it. Rikki Tikki Tavern is at the end of the pier. I was closed at the time we were on the pier. I bought a couple of t-shirts and two coffee mugs (one or two items had a mermaid on them of course).

Cocoa Beach is famous for surfing. It is the birthplace of Kelly Slater. He won eleven world championships for surfing.  He was born in 1972 and is a pro surfer, author, actor and model. He is regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time. There is a bronze statue of him on his surfboard as you come into Cocoa Beach. (We shopped at Ron Jon's Surf Shop while in Cocoa Beach...I think you have to before they let you leave town).

 As The Colonel and I were standing on the Cocoa Beach Pier, we watched a man (we thought he was around 65 years old) and a young woman (maybe in her mid to late 20's) catching some waves along the beach.

As we stood on the pier, we could see NASA's launch areas in the distance.

It was a quick, overnight vacation but we sure made the best of that limited time.

Throwback Thursday

Another "Blast from the Past" to deconstruct.

I think there are 10 or 11 candles on the store bought (yum) birthday cake (the pic is kind of grainy...it was taken in 1971 or 1972 after all, making it a bit difficult to pin down...love digital cameras). I seem to recall having those eyeglasses (what in the world was I thinking?) in sixth grade, so I was probably having my 11th birthday that day. I also have the straight (although you can see a corona of frizzy curls), parted-in-the-middle, long hair that nearly every girl in the 1970's sported (Marcia!, Marcia!, Marcia!).

As you can see by my dazzling white t-shirt, I was active in 4-H at the time and until I was in high school. I enrolled in the usual activities for a young girl: Baking (I was awarded decent ribbons...I do not care to bake much now as an adult), Sewing (I made a drawstring bag...did not get a stellar ribbon and still not a fan of sewing but wish I had paid better attention and had more discipline back then), Home Furnishings (I refurbished an antique frame and trunk...lots of time and elbow grease involved) and my favorite, Fine Arts (one of my drawings made it to the State Fair where it won a Reserve Grand Champion ribbon).

You can see my younger sister's arm in the picture. She would have her own birthday seventeen days later and between our birthdays would be another sister's birthday...can you say September Sugar Overload?

On the other side of the photograph, opposite my sister's arm, is the hindquarters of my birthday present. It is a Breyer Hereford Bull statue. That was the first of many Breyer cow/bull/calf statues I collected as a youngster. I believe I still have the bull somewhere but all other statues were given away through the years, post marriage...military moves do not lend themselves to the hoarding of collectibles (although Yam's Breyer Horse collection replaced my bovine one).

As you know, I like to look at the background of photographs. In this photograph, the wall behind me is minimally decorated. My mom always had a clock on the wall (you can barely see the bottom of it above me). It was a kit she purchased. The face of the clock was a cross stitch she had to sew before she assembled the clock. If I recall correctly, it was a battery powered clock. I wonder whatever happened to that clock? There is a round, ceramic plate on the wall that looks like it is a basket full of flowers. I do not know where my mom got that. Finally, on the wall you can see a small framed picture. I think it is a Currier and Ives winter scene containing a cabin of some sort. I can see why my mom would have liked that on the wall, she lived in a cabin in for a while as a girl in southern Indiana. She and my dad were married in a little log church also in southern Indiana.

I think it is interesting to see what people choose as "hang-worthy" on their walls. They are important enough to them that they hold special places within their homes.

This "deconstruction" has made me look again at what I have on my walls. I am currently happy with what is displayed upon my walls. I would not mind if they showed up in a photograph that may one day be scrutinized by someone like me and hopefully they would not give them cause to say, "What the heck was she thinking, hanging that on her wall?"

Now, what is piled upon my dining room and coffee tables at any given time is another issue altogether...