A Departure

Today has been a reflection - of the events of 9/11 nine years ago and of the subsequent deaths of my parents and my daughter. I reflected that I've always been left handed in a right handed world, always been right brain in a left brain society, always been just a bit out of step with the rest of the world, and always been a night person in a daylight world. The reflection put me in a mellow mood so I looked back over my own life and offer you these thoughts:

“There are only two kinds of people in the world – day people and night people. And they always marry each other.” Will Rogers

Music of the Night resonates for me not only because The Phantom of the Opera is one of my favorite musicals – seen it more than a dozen times in London, New York, LA, and Las Vegas - but because I’ve always been a night person trapped in a daylight society.

As far back as I can remember I hated getting up in the morning. I hated breakfast. My mother was always very conscientious to make sure her brood of four always got a good breakfast and dinner (which in those days we called supper). Lunch was taken in school. But my body was not set up for breakfast. Everybody always said it was the most important meal of the day but I just couldn’t eat at that early hour.

As I got into high school I stayed out later on weekend nights and slept late. I felt great but my father told me I was a lazy ne-er do well and a slacker for sleeping until noon. My mother told him that a growing boy needs lots of sleep.

My epiphany came the summer before going to college. I’d graduated high school (barely) and my father, who worked for the city, pulled some strings and got me on as night watchmen at the municipal swimming pool. I loved it! Never felt better. Worked all night and slept until noon. Ate a hearty lunch when I awoke and my paper thin body (5’11” 128) began to get some bulk to it. It was a great summer. In college I took late classes and was up late even though the town rolled up its sidewalks at 10. Every summer I found jobs that allowed me to work nights.

Then I graduated and went into the work force. It did not matter how much sleep I had – 8 hours, 10 hours, I was still dead tired in the morning and my mind did not begin to function until after 10 a.m. I suffered through being a night owl in a daytime world for the next 30 years. Early in my career I was unable to find a job in my chosen field so I took a job teaching elementary school in Pocatello, Idaho. The school was near a freeway off ramp and a 24-hour gas station. My meager salary as a teacher was supplemented by pumping gas from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. then taking a shower and heading for school. It is amazing what the body can tolerate when you’re young. On slow nights I took to writing short stories for Romance magazines (5-cents a word; that came out to about $ 300 per story) for extra income.

My salvation was when I moved to Las Vegas and took a second job to support my family – driving taxi from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. On nights I did not work I’d write and discovered I was most productive between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. and most creative between 11-2. I also discovered a completely different world that operated at night. The neon shone brightly at night and the drunks, hookers, tourists, dealers, performers and assorted others who took cabs at night were nearly always generous tippers, happy, and talkative. Whether it was a bartender who got off shift and told stories of his day on the way home, or a showgirl who just ended her late show and headed home in the quiet of the back seat, or the hooker who had been called by a bellman to service a well-to-do guest, the people of the night reeked with intrigue and personality.

The smells were different too. Something about the night air is different from day air. It is rich with aromas that simply do not exist in the daylight. Music wafts from showrooms and lounges and even an occasional street musician plies his trade to glassy-eyed tourists. And no sight is more beautiful than a dawn that signals the night is over as it edges out the neon and it is time to put away the dark beauty and go to sleep.

The years can do unkind things to one’s body, mind, energy level and the like. These days I have the energy to focus on only one task at a time, and creativity that used to come almost on instinct sometimes takes many minutes to organize and implement. I still prefer to create at night, but the nights now end far earlier than the dawn. I do try to keep my mind from totally turning to mush by doing daily crossword puzzles and spending some time each day on my computer. But oh, how I miss the Music of the Night.

Those Were the Days

Over My Shoulder a Backward Glance

Thank Goodness 2009 has ended. Let’s take a look back. The year is 1909.
One hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes!

The average life expectancy was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles Of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower

The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour.

The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year ..

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.

Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!

Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND government as 'substandard'.

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, And used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason..

Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!

1910 Politics: The close electoral split between Democrats and Republicans in the years following the Civil War was altered in the elections of 1896. In that year the Republican William McKinley won the presidency with a decisive victory over agrarian Democrat William Jennings Bryan. Thereafter, the Republican Party held a majority of congressional seats for twenty-six of the thirty-four years from 1896 to 1930 and, with only two exceptions, won every presidential election from 1896 until 1932. Except for the 1910s the Republicans dominated American politics for the first third of the twentieth century. From 1910 to 1918 the Democratic Party held a majority of seats in Congress, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson won both presidential elections held during the decade.

On the national level, the United States faced such issues as immigration, the living conditions of the poor, political corruption, conservation of natural resources, women suffrage, child labor and labor working conditions. William Howard Taft was president, having succeeded Teddy Roosevelt who was president from 1901 to 1909. Taft, a Republican, lost his popularity due to his defense of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909. Tariffs were a leading political issue and the Republican platform in 1908 sought to lower tariff rates. Big business favored tariffs because it protected their products. Southerners and farmers in the Midwest wanted to lower tariffs so that their products would be more affordable. Taft worked closely with Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island, the boss of the U.S. Senate, to create a bill that instead of lowering tariffs increased them. In so doing, he alienated his party as well as the former president, Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt was committed to regulating big business, also known as the Trusts, lowering tariffs and conserving the environment. His platform was named, the “New Nationalism.” Taft, as a conservative Republican, turned his back on reform and in the process, helped precipitate a split in the Republican Party. As a result, Teddy Roosevelt created the Bull Moose Party. With this split, it ushered in Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson.

Wilson, a southerner who had been a professor and president of Princeton University, was running for governor of New Jersey in 1910. He advocated reform of Princeton along the lines of the English university house system which became unpopular. Therefore, he ran a successful race for governor where he pushed through important reforms such as a primary elections law, anti-corruption measures and employers’ liability. In running for president, he consulted with Louis Brandeis of the U.S. Supreme Court and came up with the platform of the “New Freedom.” This platform advocated freedom from monopolies as opposed to Roosevelt’s attempt to regulate monopolies. Later as president, Wilson accomplished much: three constitutional amendments that dealt with direct popular election of senators, prohibition and suffrage for women; the Clayton Antitrust Act, establishment of the Federal Reserve banking system, and the Federal Child Labor Law.

Teddy Roosevelt in 1910 was on safari in East Africa, enjoying his freedom from the strain of politics in the wake of his presidency. Of note during his administration was the creation of the Panama Canal, his negotiations for a cessation of hostilities of the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, his Nobel Prize for Peace, the regulation of big business, and the conservation of national resources. Teddy selected Taft, the secretary of war, as his successor for president. However, Taft never enjoyed his job as president. He would much rather have stayed with jurisprudence. As a result, he lost his reelection bid and ultimately would become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1921-1930.

Eugene Debs, a socialist, had the most radical political outlook. The national secretary and treasurer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, he was a leader in the Pullman strike in 1894. He later organized the Social Democratic Party of America and became the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party from 1900 to 1920. He was imprisoned for three years, convicted and sentenced for violation of the Espionage Act of 1918.

Aren’t you glad all the political hatred is behind us?

A little blogging music Maestro: Anything patriotic!

Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com

A real Wrap Around

Sunday Musings - This was sent to me by my good friend Dr. Loraine. The author is anonymous

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.
I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron......

But Love

A little blogging music maestro, Ziggy Marley's album, "Good Old Days."

Dr. Forgot