The Good Old Days

 And you knew who you were then.  Girls were girls and men were men, Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.

Didn't need no welfare state, Everybody pulled his weight,  Gee our old Lasalle ran great. Those were the days. 

Theme song for All In the Family as sung by Archie and Edith Bunker.

I've finished four of the big, thick historic novels my friend Christie gave me.  So I can officially say the part of my brain that processes large amounts of information in a timely manner seems to be up and running again.  

As with each of these books, The Saints of Swallow Hill is not a fun read. I was reminded why I've always had a "depression mentality."  And I learned something.  I had never heard the term "Turpentiners."  I had no idea turpentine was extracted from tree trunks.  It's why North Carolina is the "Tar Heel" state.

The book takes place in the south during the depression.  The vast majority of people were poor.  Turpetentiners did hard, dangerous work. No bonus for excelling but harsh punishment for falling behind. There was no safety net.  "Didn't have no welfare state." 

Rae Lynn Cobb and her husband were turpentine farmers but they were barely hanging on.  When her husband unexpectedly dies, Rae Lynn takes to the road to find the only work she knows how to do.  She ends up in Swallow Hill.  Knowing they wouldn't hire a woman, she disguised herself as a young man.  She worked hard but couldn't quite make her numbers, so she was punished.  

And this brings us to the sweatbox.  The small sweatbox is a form of torture that, I'm sad to say, was popular in the south during times of slavery and beyond.  It's still used in some parts of the world.  The sweatbox, a draconian form of solitary confinement,  is most effective in hot, humid weather. 

Rae Lynn was put in the sweatbox for three days. When she's freed, not quite dead but close, the novel takes a different direction. 

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More Than a Woman

 For the past couple of weeks I've been reading a few pages a day of Jim Harnish's new book, Surprised by Mary.  

In it he refers to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and he reminds us of who she was and who we are.  In a Facebook note I quoted Jim's words about some Christian believers who struggle with the virgin birth.  Jim's comment was, Life is complicated enough without confusing theology with gynecology.  

When I read those words I did not think Jim was denying the virgin birth, but rather, inviting us to contemplate a bigger view of who Mary was and is.  

However, two friends have reached out to remind me of The Immaculate Conception. I had to (kindly of course) remind them that The Immaculate Conception is part of Roman Catholic dogma.  It states that Mary herself was conceived from a virgin mother and Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus.  The Immaculate Conception is not in the Bible and, in fact, was not officially defined as Catholic dogma until 1954 when it was made official by Pope Pius.  

But, for me, the book  Surprised by Mary , goes much further into who Mary was while she was on this earth.  She, along with her husband, raised Jesus.  She stayed with Jesus throughout his entire life.  She asked him to perform his first miracle.  She was momentarily rejected by him.  She was there at the cross.  She delivered The Magnificat, one of the most powerful  messages in the New Testament. 

She was in the room where it happened!  All of it.  

Why does any of this matter?  Because we all know how the church has categorized women since the very beginning.  Because my own gifted pastor, Rachel, was told last week that she should not have leadership in the church.  

Why?  You know why. 

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Rules and Regulations

 I finished reading "Hour of the Witch" this morning.  My best take-a-way is, I''m so, so, grateful I didn't live in Massachusetts in 1662.  Not a safe place for a woman, especially a woman with a brain. 

Mary Deerfield's long, circuitous journey from being a battered wife to being accused of witchcraft and more (what an ending!) started with acquiring two forks. For starters, forks at that time were seen as pretentious. 

 They were also seen as "The Devil's Tines."

 Mary"s problem was, she was smart.  Her extremely abusive, older husband reminded her often that her brain consisted of "white meat." His assumption was his downfall. 

The Puritans were't the first to go off the deep end.  The church has had to have "Come to Jesus Meetings," literally, since The Sermon on the Mount.     

After finishing the above book this morning, I looked up some of the rules and regs in Deuteronomy. Here is part of the 5th verse in chapter 13......"so you shall purge the evil from your midst."

Please don't judge us by our forks.  

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Book Returns

 I've been a little under the weather for a few months.  And, what with all the symptoms and medications, I found myself unable to concentrate enough to read meaty books the way I have for the last seven or so decades. 

I've always been a reader.  That's why I'm a writer.  You can read without writing.  But you can't write without reading.  

Anyway, I'm much better.  A couple of weeks ago, without warning,  my friend, Christie, presented me with five New York Times best selling books. 

What was she up to?  She knew I wasn't up to concentrating.  But, I thought I'd give it a try that afternoon,  I started with Before We Were Yours by master story teller, Lisa Wingate.  Once I started, I couldn't stop.  My favorite genre is fiction, along with real history.  

Before We Were Yours is set in the past but also the present.  It reminds us of the havoc wrecked on countless lives of children, as well as both birth and adoptive parents.  It exposes, in a new way, Georgia Tann and her Memphis Tennessee Children's Home Society.

So, how did I like this tragic, long, complicated story?  I loved it. 

Now I'm reading Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian.  It takes place in Boston in 1662.  It's about culturally, religiously, sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt. 

As a side note, I have misplaced all my bookmarks.  But, I have several cards made from my husband, David's, paintings.  One of them is of a graveyard, so cards in this set have never been given away.  It just doesn't seem right to send someone a card featuring a graveyard.  Especially if it's a birthday card for an older friend. But it's a perfect bookmark for Hour of the Witch.

What Was Your Favorite 4th of July?

 

This morning I looked up the 4th of July blog postings I've written about over the decades.  I've seen fantastic, over the top, Disney extravaganzas. 

And here where I live in Central Florida, I've seen our Red, Hot and Boom display that draws around 200,000 people.  But we can see it from where I live.  Some years I've watched it from the lake, some years while swimming in the pool.  

And I love the Boston Pops and all that patriotic music.  

But, below is my very favorite 4th of July event ever.

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On July 4th, 1976 my husband, Ken, was invited to take part in the swearing in ceremony for brand new Americans.

This was in Fort Lauderdale in the middle of summer. The auditorium had no air conditioning. I envisioned a dozen immigrants standing in front of the judge, answering his questions and Ken offering a blessing.

Boom, we're done! Now everybody to the beach.

But, no, it wasn't like that. The auditorium was jammed with people, mostly Cubans. Many of them had experienced tremendous peril coming to the U.S. Almost every person carried an American flag.

We sang patriotic songs and when the time came for swearing in, hundreds of people came forward.

The judge gave a speech about how fortunate all of us in the room were to be living in the United States of America.

After the swearing in there was wild waving of flags, hugging, crying, laughing and singing.

Along with the other nationalities, hundreds of men and woman arrived as Cubans and left as Cuban Americans.

I was moved beyond measure.

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