History – Page 2 – movingforwardslowly

Hartell Reunion 1993

Grandmother & Grandfather Hartell’s church

I recently received some old family pictures from my stepmother Marilyn. She is my father’s widow. Most all of the pictures were from a Hartell family reunion that took place in Plattsburgh, Missouri back in 1993. I had forgotten the exact date, and the pictures did not help with this. Then I remembered the quilt square my cousin Pam had made for all of Florence Hartell’s grandchildren. Fortunately, she had written the date of the reunion on the back. I have taken good care of my square.

I was surprised to see the picture of my husband, Jim, holding our daughter Laura. She was 3 years old at that time. He is dressed up and smiling. I had never seen this picture before I received this recent package. I had to post this to show what a handsome man I married.

I was raised a Disciples of Christ. My grandparents Hartell attended the First Christian church in Plattsburg, Missouri. My parents, siblings, and I attended the First Christian church in 7-Corners, Virginia. I posted a screen shot of the Plattsburg church, and a screen shot about the Disciples of Christ faith. I was baptized in the First Christian church in 7-Corners, Virginia (Falls Church) I posted my grandparents church because several reunion pictures were taken there, and I remember attending this church from time to time when we were visiting them. The picture of my husband and daughter was taken in the general vicinity of this church.

Red Hats

I just finished reading Ursula K. Le Guin's book Voices. The priests in this book all wore red hats. They were called the Red Hats.

Coincidentally, I have been seeing a lot of red hats in catholic news these days.

The Red Hats in Le Guin's book were not kind men. I am not making any kind of comparison to the real cardinals wearing red hats and working together to pick a new pope in the Sistine Chapel.

Out of curiosity I did a quick search of catholic hats. I was surprised to find so many official hat names.

Earth Day and Pope Francis

My time has been preoccupied with family illness.
Today is Earth Day.
Pope Francis spoke up about our responsibilities to take better care of our planet Earth. May he rest in peace with God.
Both need to be honored on this day.
I discovered today that a plant was named after him.

This picture was taken from the URL copied into the picture. The naming of this plant was many years before his death.I saw evidence that an orchid was also named after him.
I do not have more time today to research this, however, I needed to take the time to honor Pope Francis's devotion to God, our planet, and the common man on this Earth Day 2025!

Natural Bridge in Virginia

The 2025 calendar on my refrigerator was purchased from the National Park Foundation. April 16 in 1908 the National Bridges National Monument in Utah was designated.

Our family trip to Natural Bridge, Virginia came into my mind, though, this is a Virginia state park, and is not the one advertised on my calendar. We have not been to the Natural Bridges in Utah.

This was a pleasant reminder of our trip in 2011. I have posted a few pictures from our trip.

Perhaps one day we will visit the National Bridges Monument in Utah.

This is a screenshot. It is incorrect with the claim of it being the largest natural land bridge in the North American continent. I believe the Rainbow Bridge in Utah might be the largest.

This is the park my calendar was referencing.

Don’t Quit

I was reminded today of the Middle School I attended in 1972-1973.
The most interesting things I remember about these years were the sludge test we had to do in science class,and my confrontation with a male student in band class. He was a trumpet player, and I played the timpani (aka a kettle drum). He kept trying to put his hand up my skirt on several occasions. I told our band teacher, and he told me I had the right to defend myself.(In other words, he was not going to stop the boy.) So, one day when the boy was harassing me again, I tried to slap him, and he jumped down a step and grabbed my hand. I had no other recourse than to kick him, and because he had jumped down a step, my kick landed squarely between his legs. He immediately let go of my hand. He spent the whole class on the floor in the instrument room. He never bothered me again. Neither one of us was ever reported nor punished for this conflict. He did not appear to suffer any permanent damage from my kick.

In case you were wondering what a sludge test is, here is a good description:
"A 'sludge test' for students is a hands-on science activity where students are presented with a mysterious mixture (the "sludge") containing various unknown substances, and they must use scientific techniques like filtration, distillation, and observation to identify the individual components within the mixture, essentially acting like mini-forensic scientists to "solve" the sludge puzzle; often used as an assessment to test their understanding of different chemical properties and separation methods.

Times have changed dramatically since my middle school years. Sexual harassment is taken much more seriously than back in 1972-73. Also, a sludge test would not be attempted today since open burners were used, and there were a few other dangerous components of this assessment.

My old middle school was named J.G. Whittier. The school was closed back in the 80's.

Tonight I decided to look up the poet J.G. Whittier. I found a poem of his which I really like, and think is motivational for anyone facing difficult times. See below a copy of this poem.

In Honor of President Jimmy Carter

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1762479

Jimmy Carter became president of the United States my senior year in high school. My mother was a Carter delegate from Virginia. The Robbs from Virginia stopped by our house briefly for a campaign event. My mother was very excited. I don’t remember this belt buckle, however, it was used in his campaign advertising. It is representative of his Georgia family history.

Jimmy Carter was an honorable man. I want to recognize and honor his contributions to this country and to humanity. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

To read a little about his campaign history you can go to the American History museum and their collection of President Jimmy Carter memorabilia.

One of his greatest contributions to society was his work with Habitat for Humanity. Look here:

https://www.habitat.org/carter-work-project

His life history speaks for itself. He was a great man and will be remembered for his faith and his integrity. Amen.

Happy Birthday! Dad

My dad was born December 30, 1930. He passed away in 2013. I was inspired for several reasons to find the picture of him climbing a palm tree in Hawaii when he was stationed there with the Navy. My brother was born there.

The background picture today on a new family computer was full of needle palms, and I recently purchased a new shower curtain with a palm tree and beach scene. The ponytail palm I purchased within the past 12 months is doing well. In any case, all these connections to palms, and the fact that today was my dad’s birthday, made me remember the picture of him climbing a palm tree. Happy Birthday Dad– you are remembered fondly!

I also added the picture of myself, my dad, and my brother pictured next to the Lincoln bust located at the Gettysburg, PA cemetery. My brother was the family comedian and always had us laughing as we were growing up. My brother and dad were about the same height around 6’1″-6’3″. In this picture my brother looks much taller because (if you notice his feet) he is standing on his toes with his heels resting on the back wall. He is pranking my dad.

Another funny thing I remember fondly about my dad was his sense of fashion. Being a farm boy he was always early to rise in the morning. I have several memories of him getting ready to head out to the hardware store early on a Saturday morning wearing a combination of clashing colors all connected to the red color family. It turns out he was partially color blind, and he could not distinguish the difference between colors in the red, orange and maroon family. When going out to an important event he needed to rely on others to help him coordinate his colors.

Today I found a good graphic which tries to illustrate how different people can perceive or not perceive colors. There are several different types of color blindness, not just the total absence of color. This problem is apparently more common in men than women.

There is much more available information about this topic today than when I was growing up. I did not include it here because it can be easily researched now.

Shakespeare Sunday

AI generated image with the prompt: “Prim-rose path with gate”

I was looking through my medicine cabinet this morning when I saw the Prim-rose Oil hiding in the corner. I have not used it in a long time, and I decided to look up “primrose” in my dictionary, even though I knew it to be a yellow flower.

Right below the “prim-rose” entry was the entry “prim-rose path”. This turned out to be far more interesting. This phrase was made famous by William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. According to my dictionary, it means “an easy or pleasurable way of life, especially one that leads to disaster.”

I pursued this idea further and discovered a great webpage: https://nosweatshakespeare.com/blog/what-is-the-primrose-path/

At this website I learned that Shakespeare used this metaphor in more than one place. I also learned that Shakespeare’s idea goes hand in hand with the bible verse: Matthew 7:13. So, I looked up this bible verse. It states: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.”

I am not a Shakespeare expert nor a Bible expert, so I will leave the comparison for you to explore, and to draw your own conclusions. I do think the lovely primrose should not be maligned for it is those who knowingly walk the wrong path with evil intent that are at fault. It matters not whether the path has flowers or whether the gate is narrow or wide.

A Castanet Celebration

Young woman dancing flamenco with castanets.

I went to Spain with a student group when I was in high school.
During this same period of time, I played several percussion instruments.
My husband tried to teach me Latin ballroom dancing. This was long ago.
My love for watching and listening to Flamenco dancing and its music has stayed with me.

In anticipation of Hispanic Heritage month, here is a mini celebration of the castanet.
Castanets, also called clackers, are a percussion instrument often used in flamenco dance.

This is an AI generated image. The prompt was “dancing with castanets”. It successfully created the dancer, though it never was able to create the castanet as I envision them used in dancing.

Unofficial End of Summer

Labor Day is around the corner. It is a celebration of American workers. In 1894 Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.

American workers, and most likely workers around the world, have to struggle for fair treatment and decent wages and benefits. Leaders at the top give generously to themselves, and often it is the worker that gets the short end of the stick.

An official holiday does not fundamentally change this. It is basically a PR move. However, we all can enjoy a parade or a picnic. Though, not all workers enjoy a day off. I feel fortunate to be getting a four day weekend from school work. I still have to work for my family 24/7, so technically it is not really time-off the clock.

Labor Day has also acted as an unofficial end of summer. This is changing since by the time Labor Day rolls around, I will have been back to work for about three weeks. There are those who want school to follow a year round calendar. Most children want and need a summer break to rest and play. However, child care can be a problem for working families.

On a lighter note, the end of summer leads us into cooler weather and darker colors. Summer white darkens to a winter white and continues along the spectrum to tans and beiges, and then brown. Flowers in hats are acceptable year round. Though perhaps, the straw should be changed to felt, and this makes me think of Octoberfest. Something to look forward to.