Born Mary Louise Broadhurst in Swansea, Wales, she married George Wood, a tunnel digger in London, and immigrated to the United States. She died in 1977 at age of 89. She was my father's, mother's mother, my great grandmother. I took this picture in about 1975 in the dinning room of the old farmhouse on the farm in Michigan.
For most of the last decade of her life she lived with my grandparents, on the farm in Michigan in the summer, and several winters in their second home in Istachatta, Florida (google it.)
I didn't know she was Welsh, until 1990, when I was planning my first trip to England and my mother gave me a photocopy of her birth certificate. She had always said she was English, if we were taking her to Canada for lunch or tea, she would tell immigration that she was born in Toledo, Ohio - they always believed her. I have been to Swansea, been to the place that she was born. I remember her once, on a dare from my grandmother, speaking Welsh. It would have been nice to know more about her history.
Spending time with her in my teens shaped who I am today. Hearing her story of immigration, good times and challenges.
She was the only one of my great grandparents that I have memories of. Her husband died the year I was born. My paternal great-grandparents died within a couple of years of my birth. My mother's grandmother died of tuberculosis when my grandmother was an infant. The other three great grandparents on my mother's side were gone before I was born.
Did you know any of your great-grandparents?
I have had three experiences recently in the heart of the Washington DC subway system, the Metro, that have caused me to pause and go, Huh?
First was a nice young man carrying a large trophy. The trophy was at least two feet tall, with blue columns with an icon on of achievement at the top. Now it is rare to see someone carrying a trophy, any trophy on the subway in the middle of a major city, but the thing that stopped me in my tracks was the icon on the trophy, a Tractor, as in a major piece of farm equipment. At least 20 miles and a couple of million people from the nearest farm, he was proudly carrying a trophy with a tractor on top. How did that end up there?
Shortly after that I was on the lower platform at Gallery Place, waiting for my train home. A Green line train was boarding and I noticed a nice tight pair of skinny jeans boarding. As I am prone to do, I looked down to see what kind of shoes he was wearing (remember I sold shoes in a department store of 9 months one time, I will never be the same) and I noticed the ankle bracelet. I am not talking gold, or silver, or diamonds, I am talk home confinement, GPS tracking black box ankle bracelet. As he walked away the jeans slid half way down his ass and I couldn't help but think, he better get home in time, he is going to be very popular in ways he is unlikely to enjoy if he is late getting home and they lock him up tonight.
The following day, I was getting off a Red line train at Gallery Place, heading down to the lower platform to catch my Yellow line home. An enormous person stepped in front of me as I was exiting the train. I slowed down and let her go. I didn't have a lot of choice, she was a good 6 inches taller than me and at least a 100 pounds heaver. She was very fast, and no one, I mean no one, stepped in her way or impeded her movement. I followed along in her wake, sucked along like a race car in the draft. The easiest time I have had in that station in days. The next time a see a fast moving fat person, I am giving way and following along for the fast ride.
What has stopped you in your tracks recently?
My Uncle Dick was a test track driver in the research and development department at Ford. He spent the last 20 years of his time in the emissions certification lab, but for the first decade he drove thousands of hours, and thousands of test miles for Ford. They would drive a car 100,000 miles in a couple of months, and take apart every nut and bolt to see how things stood up. When I was a little hamster, he took us on a tour and I vividly remember the car disassembled into thousands of pieces carefully arranged on the floor in a room the size of an airplane hanger. They drove the cars lots of miles, as long as someone didn't crash the car before then. And that happened. After one of Dick's "incidents" his colleagues gave him a plaque that read "It Is Better To Be Late To The Golden Gate, Than To Arrive In Hell On Time." The plaque was on the fireplace mantel in their house on the lake. It is one of my early memories. When we studied California geography in the 4th grade, I recited that little rhyme to my teacher, she didn't think it was cute - but it was memorable, here I am 50-odd years later and I still remember it. I remember making the connection between the rhyme on the plaque in Dick's basement, with the story of the bridge that couldn't be built.
Do you recall saying anything that shocked your teachers?
This is on the California Street Cable Car line in San Francisco. We were walked out, and didn't stop. But it will inspire the Sunday Five.
1: Have you bought and worn clothing from a "thrift store" or "resale" shop?
2: What is in your closet that is "fabulous?"
3: Are there things you should get out of your closet?
4: Do you wear clothing designed with a different gender in mind?
5: Who wears it better, Rue Paul or Kim Kardashian?
My answers:
1: Have you bought and worn clothing from a "thrift store" or "resale" shop? Yes, if only it still fit I found an incredible Austin Reed wool suit - to die for.
2: What is in your closet that is "fabulous?" I have a couple of great Hawaiian shirts and one great pair of jeans.
3: Are there things you should get out of your closet? Clothes my fat ass will only fit into if I am terminally ill.
4: Do you wear clothing designed with a different gender in mind? No, not really.
5: Who wears it better, Rue Paul or Kim Kardashian? Kim who?
Your answers
So what could this be advertising, a house of ill repute? a bar with stylish bartenders? a filly undies store? a bakery?
A bakery, a tiny little specialty shop that sells cookies. Fresh hot cookies.
Wanna sample?
This was taken at 3:00 in the afternoon, on a Tuesday, in San Francisco - now it was Castro Street, but I was still surprised. So I wonder?
1: Who wears it better, this guy or the guy in the subway with his jeans hanging below is his ass and his boxer shorts hanging out?
2: Does his mother know he dresses like this in public?
3: What does he list as occupation on his tax return?
What would you like to ask him?
My great grandfather was a tunnel builder. His specialty was working in soft or wet ground like under a river or lake bed. They lived in Chicago for several years, he built a couple of water inlet tunnels under Lake Michigan. Near the bottom of this image, is one of the inlets for one of the water tunnels he built. Tangible evidence of his life’s work. I love the work I have done, but 100 years from now no one will fly over and say, David did that. At times I wonder if I should have become a brick layer or stone mason.
Three of my high school teachers have died in the past few years. When I was in high school, I thought of them as older and so much more mature, the reality is a couple of them were just 4 or 5 five years older than I was. I was 18 my senior year of high school, a couple of my teachers that year were barely 22. They had finished high school a year younger than I did, went straight through college in 3 or 4 years. No wonder one of my high school teachers married a student the summer she graduated from high school (it was a scandal in small town America.)
Looking back at it, most my teachers were just kids. It was a rural school district, that didn't pay top dollar. It was a place that new graduates got there first teaching job - after a couple of years most of them found better paying jobs and moved on. Some of them stayed, they liked living in a rural area, in very small town America. A few saw teaching in a rural area as a mission, a calling. I recall one guy who taught for a couple of years. His family owned an international commercial construction company, he drove a Porsche. He was very idealistic that teaching in a rural area was his lifetime calling. If not for a fatal fall climbing in the Swiss Alps one summer he would likely have stayed - buoyed by a family trust fund.
The way we were was young, surrounded by very young teachers.
What do you remember about your teachers?
Shortly after my father was diagnosed with the second terminal illness, I was talking to him on the phone one afternoon. I said, "if you ever wanted to buy a convertible, put the top down and cruise around town, now is the time to do it, you can't take it with you, enjoy it while you can." He never understood the appeal of a convertible, but he got the concept of enjoying life while you can.
I have rented convertibles three times, they are fun. If I drove more, I'd buy one. (I have driven my car less than 1,000 miles in 2018.) At this rate, I have bought my last car - it will outlast me.
Put the top down on your life. Enjoy the day, have a little fun, eat a little of the good stuff, drink a little of the best, listen to music that makes you smile.
On the plaza in Toronto, they set up artificial turf one morning and did a Rugby exhibition all day. I like the game, it moves along at a nice pace, hands and feet are used, it is not unnecessarily brutal, and the uniforms can be interesting. There is not a lot of Rugby played in DC - though there is a little. When we were in England one trip, I paused to watch a few minutes of a Cricket match - I don't know as I would ever understand the rule of Cricket - but it was fun to watch.
When traveling, have you paused to watch a sport you have never played.
I had to be fast to get this shot, someone stepped in front of me to take a picture of her family.
1: Would you wade in the fountain in the shadow of the no wading sign?
2: Have you ever sneaked a picture in a no-photo zone?
3: Have you ever walked a dog, in a no-dogs zone?
4: Ever hopped the fare-gate in public transit?
5: Ever sat in other than your assigned seat on a plane or train without asking permission?
My answers:
1: Would you wade in the fountain in the shadow of the no wading sign? probably not
2: Have you ever sneaked a picture in a no-photo zone? Yes, a time or two, smart phones make this easier.
3: Have you ever walked a dog, in a no-dogs zone? Nope, I don't keep dogs.
4: Ever hopped the fare-gate in public transit? What is the statute of limitations in France? The last time I flew out of Paris, I took the local train to the airport and my ticket wouldn't open the gate to let me out. The attendant was no place to be found, so over I went.
5: Ever sat in other than your assigned seat on a plane or train without asking permission? A few times when there were empty rows.
Your answers in the comments,
Sometimes I envy the night owls, those who are going out, as I am going to sleep. I suppose it is habit, or maybe it is just the way my brain works, but I am not a night person. My idea of a late night is dinner at 7:00 and being home in bed by 9:00.
Back in my younger days, I enjoyed going out to the clubs, none of which really had a crowd until late, one of my favorites didn't open the doors until 9:00 PM. I'd go home from work, take a nap for a couple of hours, then go out to the Firestone for a couple of hours. Getting home at midnight or after. Those days were short lived, and never easy for me.
When I travel west, into earlier time zones, and the dinner reservations are for 7:00 PM Pacific time, my body still thinks it is 10:00 PM, and wonders why I am eating when I should be sleeping. I do it, because I need to be social, not because I enjoy it.
One nice thing about Toronto, was being in the same time zone. Even there, I was invited to dinner at 8:00 PM, on the day I had flown in (getting up at 5:00 AM,) I sent regrets on the dinner invitation, I just don't do well on 18 hour days anymore.
Are you a night owl?
A friend posted a picture of a single engine airplane doing an extreme climb on Facebook. I commented that the real fun was the spin at the top.
My father was a private pilot, he had commercial and instrument licenses, but he never flew for money, just for the love of flying. He wanted an instructors certificate, and never finished it. He came close and made a silly mistake (tuned the communications radio to the wrong frequency) and never left the ground on the exam ride, and gave up. I wish he had tried again, he really loved flying and he would have shared that love with a new generation of pilots.
While he was working on the instructors rating, he decided he should brush up on basic acrobatics. When he learned to fly in the 1950's, the basics were required skills. He spent an hour with an instructor and then went out for some practice and I went with him.
We did stalls and spins. As I recall it was a Cessna 172, a comfortable four place single engine (might have been a 150.) To stall the airplane, you get it to a point where it is not producing enough lift to fly. You do this either by sheer force of will, pulling back into a steep climb until it does not have enough horsepower to continue, or by throttling back and pulling back. To recover, lower the nose and add power. Stalls are a piece of cake.
To spin, when the plane stalls, you kick in full rudder in one direction or the other, while holding the plane in the stall (pulling back on the controls), the plane gently rolls over upside down, turns nose down and start to spins downward toward the ground. The longer it spins, the faster it goes. Generally you let it go three rotations and then kick in full rudder in the opposite direction of the spin, as it stops spinning add throttle and away you go. We did this for a couple of hours one gentle sunny January afternoon above central Florida. Because he was working on an instructors rating, he did the first one, and I did the next 10. It is surprisingly gentle, in fact my reaction was, "is that all there is to it?" One of the reason that they teach spins and recovery, is to get you to realize that this is a life threatening condition and if you don't fix it, you will spiral faster and faster until you have an uncontrolled impact with terrain. In other words crash and burn.
We didn't do loops, the aircraft we were flying were really not built for that. We didn't fly upside down (for more than a couple of seconds) as the engines didn't have pressurized oil systems and once centrifugal force subsided major engine damage would ensue (we had a friend with a plane that was built to be able to fly inverted (upside down) for as long as the pilot could stand the strain - as I recall he bragged about flying upside down most of the way home to his farm field one afternoon.
I have very fond memories, of doing things very few people will ever do.
Thanks for the memories!
Would you do a spin with a pilot you trusted?
American politics are a lifetime of bizarreness, making life in DC a bit complicated.
No one wins a trade war, and someone is proving their stupidity one Tweet at a time. It is not that complicated.
We are starting work on updating the Condo, and Lowes sent a tractor trailer and a forklift to deliver flooring to my home on the third floor. The driver called from outside and said, NO WAY. Now I paid Lowes to send someone to come out a measure, and create a plan for putting in the floors. It isn't that complicated.
My department at work is being defunded by our host organization. We have reserve funds, so we have a couple of years for a transition, but we either need to develop a plan that allows us to exist entirely on outside funding, or we all need to figure figure out what next. I have three options, find additional outside funding, find another position within the organization (in a different department), or move onto another opportunity. I had hoped that the work would outlast me, this brings me up a few years short of not needing to rely on this for an income and health insurance. Change and new opportunities are never easy, but frequently leave us in a better place than staying static. I need to keep reminding myself, it is not that complicated, look at all three options and create the way forward.
So, sometimes things are complicated.
Hows things with you?
Happy Independence Day - the 4th of July. This image was captured at a school function in 1975 or 1976 - not all of my high school memories are in black and white, in time they will all fade to grey.
When I was growing up, summer was prime working season on the farm, from April through late September, we made our living for the year. It was rare for us to shut down for the day, the exceptions were decoration day, and the 4th of July. We frequently took the day to visit my Aunt and Uncle (I only had one) on the lake - boat rides and fireworks. Then it was back to work, pretty much non-stop until the end of September.
At times I wonder if we apologized for the revolution, if the Queen would take us back.
Doing anything fun today?
I took this the first day out, with my first digital camera. To put it bluntly I was blown away by the color and detail. I had bought a digital camera as a toy, thinking it would be a nice novelty, it was so much more than that. It quickly became my primary camera, I have owned several since, they keep getting better and better. My current Nikon SLR is lite weight, easy to use, and has amazing technology. I take more pictures today than I did before.
Do you take more pictures today, than you did before digital?
It takes a bit to get me to say, well I never saw those before, but here we are, green almonds. I have never seen these before, and I have no idea what you do with them. Eat them, but how? Do you shell them, eat them shells and all, raw or cooked?
What would you do with these?
We are getting started on a series of home improvements to the Condo, updating it and getting it ready for our old age. A few questions for this week.
1: Have you ever replaced a kitchen?
2: Should I replace the tub/shower, or put in a walk in shower only?
3: Pergo Laminate or ceramic tile for the kitchen floor?
4: Should I splurge on two ovens?
5: Do we want to do a drawer for the trash and recycling?
My Answers:
1: Nope, I have built a couple of houses, but never done a major remodel.
2: I am leaning toward a shower, I NEVER use the tub, can't imaging that I will start doing so at this stage of life.
3: I am up in the air on this choice.
4: I want two ovens!
5: I don't know what to do on this, I like the clean look of the drawers, but I am concerned about odors.
Your answers in the comments!
