Suddenly the hot day seemed to stall. The sun disappeared. Everything got quiet and very still. Looking up into the sky, I was shocked to see it suddenly dark. Storm clouds crowded where the brilliant blue had been only minutes before. The entire sky was suffused in charcoal and shades of grey. Such majesty in that infinite depth defied reason and shocked us with the change from light to dark. The sheer power of thunderclouds which seemed to crash against…
COVID-19 dominates the news. It feels like the end of the world. Surely we will all die if we don’t listen to the authorities. We are in such danger from each other that we need to avoid people. Be frightened of your grandchildren, and grandchildren be terrified of “killing” your grandparents. What a terrible idea that is. Family is so important we must not ignore its importance in the face of a threat that is way over-hyped. We are supposedly…
Can you imagine not knowing how to swim by the time you graduated from college? Helen Dow couldn’t swim. But her finance Dr. William J. Hale wanted her to learn. Reading my grandparents’ letters to each other has been enlightening.It is hard for us to realize that swimming was not something that a lot of people knew how to do in the first couple of decades of the 20th century. Helen Dow had never learned how to swim. But Billy…
It started with constant yelping. There are several types of barking styles employed by my dogs. This was an “I have him cornered!” bark, not an “it’s a snake!” bark or the squealing call which indicates running after a squirrel or a deer.My three dachshunds are very different from each other, though all are extremely lovable in that way that dachshunds alone seem to know how to be. Magnus is sweet-tempered and awfully patient until it is time for a…
Is this the straw that broke the camels back? Back a few summers ago, I narrowly missed attending a rally in Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of the Statue of Robert E Lee from Lee Park. I felt so strongly about this that I wanted to go downtown and protest. It would be fun to join with other people like myself who were upset by the idea of dislodging General Lee. As President Trump said, there were a lot…
All summer of 1916 Helen wrote Billy Hale every day except on the days when they saw each other. While he was absent she spent a lot of time painting china. He visited her in Midland, which was a company town, with little else to offer the visitor. She writes of longing to see him, to kiss him, but not too much. She is clearly passionate about him, but circumspect in her writing about this part. They were still chaste…
My grandmother Helen Dow Hale was smart and funny. She was one of six children, the oldest one in her family. She had loads of friends when she went to college. She was young and vibrant and full of hope and plans for the future. She graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1916. While there, along with studying and joining a sorority Theta of Alpha Phi and making new friends, she fell in love with her…
Ever since I was a little girl, my mother, Ruth, told me stories about going to the cemetery to visit her dead mother on Memorial Day Weekend. They normally did this every Sunday. But Memorial Day was special. Perhaps it was a social event with others attending their own deceased family members. Sometimes they brought a picnic. Her father would tend to the gravesite. He would put fresh flowers there and trim the flowering shrubbery. He pulled the weeds that…
I sent out a joke, which I would think was obvious to all, but it caused a stir among my grandchildren. Perhaps it was a bit crude. It is almost certainly exaggerated. However, it is based on the truth that George Floyd was an addict and thief and in death he can do no more crimes. However, his family made out very well being given 27 million dollars by the state and getting 13 million from a go fund me…
This country needs to wake up while we still can. Today I discovered something that I had not realized before. Like most people who tend to think other people care about many of the same things they do, it never occurred to me that anyone would not want to do research on their own. Perhaps these “other people” care about the exact opposite. But at least they “care” about something. Or at least that is what I used to think….
A huge rift has developed in the way people think of masks, vaccines, and social distancing in this second spring of what the government calls the “Pandemic”. There are those who question authority about mask-wearing and those who believe in wearing masks and taking vaccines. Only the unmasked, un-vaccinated know that they are safe. They believe in their own immune systems. They believe the disease is treatable, especially if the person who contracts it is treated immediately. While the believers…
“They actually changed the definition of “pandemic,” removing the requirement of mass casualties, and if it wasn’t for that, COVID-19 simply would not qualify as a pandemic.” Quoted from Naomi Wolf on Dr Mercolas podcast. There is a private school in Miami that is actively “anti-mask, anti-vax” and it is causing quite a stir. The people who believe in masks are often also the people who believe in vaccines. They are often the same people who believe in government as…
It is hard to believe that this is my second year of being “motherless”. Because I had a mother for 77 years it is rather strange NOT to have one. Most people lose their mothers at an earlier age. Most people mourn their mother’s passing. But many were so old, tattered, gray, and wrinkled by the end that there was little left. They may have been ill for years or incapacitated. Not mine, though. She was vital until she was…
5 Reasons to Ditch the Mask. Number ONE reason is this: The mask has lost it’s original purpose. It is a mark of fear and a signal that the wearer will conform even when the thing conformed to is uncomfortable and unnecessary. It has become a method of separating one group from another. Social distancing has been enhanced by distancing from those who will and those who won’t wear one. This is what “the mask has really become. It’s gone…
Are you terrified of the Virus COVID-19? Please let me relieve your mind. Do you believe we are in the throws of a Pandemic? There are many authorities who do not believe that. Are you afraid you will catch the virus and end up in a hospital? Do you know what the chances of that are 1% – 5%? That is all. Most people do not get very sick with this virus. Yet the general feeling among people who only…
