Reformation Day 2023

On this day in 1517, Martin Luther posted ninety-five theses on the door of All Saints Church in Wittenburg, Germany. He could no longer tolerate what he thought were errors within the Catholic church, including the collection of increasingly commercialized indulgences said to reduce the punishment of sinners seeking salvation. Today, Protestants commemorate this event every October 31 as Reformation Day. Luther chose this day, All Hallows Eve, because he knew the church would be filled with influential people within and outside the church as they gathered for a vigil in preparation for All Saints Day on November 1 and on the festival day itself. Luther's action became the tipping point for reformation within the Christian church.

Luther As An Augustinian Monk              Lucas Cranack the Elder, 16th century

Eight years later, Johann Sebastian Bach, the musical voice of the Reformation in the Baroque period, wrote the following cantata for Reformation Day 1725:



Gott der Her ist Sonn und Schild

1. Chorus

God the Lord is sun and shield.
The Lord gives grace and honor,
He will allow no good to be lacking from the righteous.

2. Aria A

God is our sun and shield!
Therefore this goodness
shall be praised by our grateful heart,
which He protects like His little flock.
For He will protect us from now on,
although the enemy sharpens his arrows
and a vicious hound already barks.

3. Chorale

Now let everyone thank God
with hearts, mouths, and hands,
Who does great things
for us and to all ends,
Who has done for us from our mother's wombs
and childhood on
many uncountable good things
and does so still today.

4. Recitative B

Praise God, we know
the right way to blessedness;
for, Jesus, You have revealed it to us through Your word,
therefore Your name shall be praised for all time.
Since, however, many yet
at this time
must labor under a foreign yoke
out of blindness,
ah! then have mercy
also on them graciously,
so that they recognize the right way
and simply call You their Intercessor.

5. Aria (Duet) S B

God, ah God, abandon Your own ones
never again!
Let Your word shine brightly for us;
although harshly
against us the enemy rages,
yet our mouths shall praise You.

6. Chorale

Uphold us in the truth,
grant eternal freedom,
to praise Your name
through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Martin Luther Seminary, Mequon, Wisconsin

We can only imagine the exhilaration Luther had on posting his objections. He placed his worldly apprehensions in the hands of Jesus, continued to call for reform within the Catholic Church, and eventually developed a new vision of faith all the while professing he ramained a Catholic. Luther wrote a number of hymns based on scripture during his last three decades. A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (Ein feste Berg ist unser Gott) is perhaps the best known.

Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason-I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other-my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.

          Luther in defence of his doctrine, the Diet of Worms, April 18, 1521

Sources:

Photos and Illustrations:
Conrad Schmitt Studios, Milwaukee, Wisconsin


Text:
Bach translation, emmanuelmusic,org

Halloween 2023

It's here!. An evening that promises to bring lots of fun to kids, and those who remember being kids, has finally arrived. Have a safe and happy Halloween and don't eat too much of your kid or grandkids treats.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mister Toad, a Walt Disney film classic was released in 1949. The Ichabod adventure appeared again in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a 1955 production for the television series, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. I turned nine years old in 1955, still the perfect age for the big event. By that year, our gang on Wood Street had already been veterans at looking out for the Headless Horseman and his fiery pumpkin on Halloween. In western Maryland the night was always an adventure with freezing winds, sometimes rain, and even heavy snow showers that roared off Lake Erie about 140 miles to the northwest. Those Halloweens were unforgettable rites of passage for us.

Hallowe'en

by Joel Benton (1832-1911)

Pixie, kobold, elf, and sprite

All are on their rounds to-night,—

In the wan moon’s silver ray

Thrives their helter-skelter play.

Fond of cellar, barn, or stack

True unto the almanac,

They present to credulous eyes

Strange hobgoblin mysteries.

Cabbage-stumps—straws wet with dew—

Apple-skins, and chestnuts too,

And a mirror for some lass

Show what wonders come to pass.

Doors they move, and gates they hide

Mischiefs that on moonbeams ride

Are their deeds,—and, by their spells,

Love records its oracles.

Don’t we all, of long ago

By the ruddy fireplace glow,

In the kitchen and the hall,

Those queer, coof-like pranks recall?

Every shadows were they then—

But to-night they come again;

Were we once more but sixteen

Precious would be Hallowe’en.

Paul Smith worked for Walt Disney Productions for over thirty years beginning in 1930. In 1939 he won an Academy Award for his collaborative work on music for the film, Pinocchio. In following years he had seven additional Academy Award nominations for work on films, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Song of the South, and Three Caballeros. In all, Smith provided arrangements and scores for more than eighty animated and theatrical film projects for the Disney company. I was ten years old when this cartoon appeared and just beyond the peak of my trick or treating days. It's now a classic in the Disney archive and one I've enjoyed for over 65 years. It's never aged and still makes me laugh.

Happy Halloween!

Octobers Never Change

It's that time of year for another Burlington memory harvest. The sights, sounds, tastes, aromas, and feelings are as fresh as this year's apple hrvest.

When an early autumn walks the land and chills the breeze

and touches with her hand the summer trees,

perhaps you'll understand what memories I own.

There's a dance pavilion in the rain all shuttered down,

a winding country lane all russet brown,

a frosty window pane shows me a town grown lonely.

In October 2008 I wrote the first of many revised editions of the story of the annual October closing of my family's "summer place" in West Virginia. It was nestled in the Patterson Creek Valley about twenty miles south of Cumberland, Maryland, and just under a three hour drive from my home in the Washington suburbs. Those who follow this blog likely know more about the Burlington campground than most current residents of that village. Still, it's an important story in my formative years and it's worth repeating, especially with revisions. The most recent change has been the loss of the magnificent two-story cedar pavilion that stood for nearly a century as the focal point of the property. For over 90 years it served as a Burlington landmark and with its loss a place that created so many memories has itself become one. And speaking of memories:

Repairing flood damage at the pavilion - classic outfit

In late October my mind floods with wonderful memories. From birth through my 27th year, the date marked an important event in my life. The story descends from my dad's membership in the Uniform Rank of the Knights of Pythias. The URKP was a military-style company within a fraternal organization born out of the search for national reconciliation following the Civil War. Every good military organization needed a campground with lodging, mess hall, recreation pavilion, and parade. The URKP built theirs in the small village of Burlington, West Virginia. It also served as a regional park, complete with playground, ball fields, and swimming in the creek. It was often rented for the day for family reunions, company picnics, church functions, and other large gatherings.

It was legal...and tasty, about 1966

"Camp" at Burlington was paradise for a young boy. A creek bordering the camp offered hours of fun. You could explore the woods and fields forever. The frequent social events made the playground a great place to meet new friends. But "camping" at Burlington was by no means a wilderness experience. We were lucky to have a cottage that offered every comfort of home. There was a drive-in theater next door where I enjoyed the snack bar as much as the movies. Across the road was a small airfield with a few Aeroncas, Taylorcrafts and Piper Cubs, and a hangar that gave birth to many "homebuilts" over the years. I can say with confidence that Burlington was never boring. The drive-in and airport were owned and operated by Dave and Georgia Baker, an entertaining and endearing couple I came to love and respect as family.

Today, the sycamores along the river may be a bit taller, but they still explode in yellow this time of year along with my favorite walnut tree. And the young maple I climbed as a boy has matured into a massive Fall fire tree. In 1950, I watched when the men brought in their bulldozers to shape a new channel and level the bank of Patterson Creek. The stone beach they built was much safer for the generation of bathers who enjoyed it, but creeks have a way of remembering affronts. By the mid '70's, the creek's waters restored the original course and bank to a scene my grandfather enjoyed in the 1930s. Although time changed the place I called "Camp" it will never erase the memories of this childhood paradise.

1959

Hulling walnuts, 1967

Through the summer of 1974, I spent many annual family vacations at "camp" and in later years, several weekends of "cold camping" in the off-seasons where I wrote many college essays including a graduate thesis. Opening the cottage and grounds for the summer though exciting was not especially memorable. Freezing temperatures lingered into May, so the campground usually opened on Memorial Day weekend.

When it's 48 degrees at noon in a pouring August rain

On the other hand, winterizing the place was like saying "Goodbye" to an old friend. Thoughts of family, friends, the big - or small - fish, fireworks, that scary movie, the old biplane, all those memories accumulated over the past six months filled your mind. Amid the blazing gold sycamores, brilliant fire oaks and maples, the smell of wood smoke, and a harvest of black walnuts, we went through the years-old closing procedure until the last item - pouring anti-freeze into sink traps - was checked. At that point, it was time to load the car, proceed with all those repetitive tasks one does "just to be sure," then close and lock the big red door until Spring.

Radical days with Marti, 1970

As American society changed, the URKP fell out of fashion. Lodge members grew old and passed away. In 1974, the lodge itself and all its assets dissolved. I haven't locked that big red door for 48 years now, but I still have the key and a remarkably detailed mental picture of the cottage and landscape that I loved.

Closing weekend, 1972

In many ways, Burlington is with me every day for my experiences there helped shape my values, and define my career, hobbies, and general interests. The impact has been so profound that I have asked my children to do their best to provide the same opportunity for their own families.

1949

In weaving all of the memories about this weekend, I ask you, my readers, to do the same: Find a nearby paradise and escape to it often while your children are young. And when they are older and have children of their own, they can join you and make even more vivid memories. There will be no sorrow there.






Sources

Illustrations and Photos:
all photos from the family archive

Text:
song title, "When October Goes", and opening quote, "Early Autumn", lyrics, by Johnny Mercer, Johnny Mercer, The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer, edited by Kimball, Day, Kreuger, and Davis; Knopf 2009

Dylan Thomas: A Man So Washed In October Blood

 

Two of the most lyrical writers of the past century were born in this last week of October. The American writer, Pat Conroy, was the subject of a post a few day ago. Today we remember Dylan Thomas (born October 27, 1914), an artist whose work reflected his immersion in the themes and images of living on the coast of his beloved homeland, Wales . His lyrical descriptive writing, poetry and unforgettable voice brought him great fame in the United States in the decade prior to his untimely death in New York in 1953.

Thomas in a London park

Both the writer and his native land have special meaning to me. My great grandparents on my father's side immigrated from Cardiff, Wales, to the United States in the 1870's. Though I never knew my grandmother - she died before my second year - my father often recalled how she took pride in her Celtic roots and the Welsh love for song and singing.

It is interesting that he should remember the talk of song and singing. Many critics and authorities write that Thomas's recitations are spoken words that approach song. Readers can reach their own conclusion by listening to the poet reading Poem in October, his recollections of his thirtieth birthday. Audio quality isn't the best. I suggest earphones and closed eyes for this sound journey.

Poem in October

It was my thirtieth year to heaven
Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood
And the mussel pooled and the heron priested shore
The morning beckoned with water praying and call of seagull and rook
And the knock of sailing boats on the net-webbed wall
Myself to set foot that second
In the still sleeping town and set forth

My birthday began with the water birds
And the birds of the winged trees flying my name
Above the farms and the white horses
And I rose in a rainy autumn
And walked abroad in shower of all my days
High tide and the heron dived
When I took the road over the border
And the gates of the town closed as the town awoke

A springful of larks in a rolling cloud
And the roadside bushes brimming with whistling blackbirds
And the sun of October, summery on the hill's shoulder
Here were fond climates and sweet singers suddenly come in the morning
Where I wandered and listened to the rain wringing wind blow cold
In the wood faraway under me

Pale rain over the dwindling harbour
And over the sea-wet church the size of a snail
With its horns through mist and the castle brown as owls
But all the gardens of spring and summer
Were blooming in the tall tales beyond the border
And under the lark full cloud
There could I marvel my birthday away
But the weather turned around

It turned away from the blithe country
And down the other air and the blue altered sky
Streamed again a wonder of summer
With apples, pears and red currants
And I saw in the turning, so clearly, a child's forgotten mornings
When he walked with his mother through the parables of sunlight
And the legends of the green chapels

And the twice-told fields of infancy
That his tears burned my cheeks, and his heart moved in mine
These were the woods the river and the sea
Where a boy in the listening summertime of the dead
Whispered the truth of his joy to the trees and the stones and the fish in the tide
And the mystery sang alive
Still in the water and singing birds

And there could I marvel my birthday away
But the weather turned around
And the true joy of the long dead child sang burning in the sun
It was my thirtieth Year to heaven stood there then in the summer noon
Though the town below lay leaved with October blood

O may my heart's truth
Still be sung
On this high hill in a year's turning

What an unforgettable voice. I first heard a recording of Thomas sometime in elementary school. There's a good chance few students in any grade have that opportunity today. How unfortunate. We often think education has come a long way over the last seven decades. Perhaps it has, but somewhere on that journey we have undoubtedly lost some very precious cultural experiences. If we could hear Thomas's truth singing every year, we would know so much better who we are as individuals and as a people.

Here is Thomas reciting most famous poem, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, a powerful, emotion-filled villanelle addressing the end of earthly life.

My family likely became aware of Thomas through his trips to the U.S. made over a span of about four years beginning in 1950. The journeys here always made sensational news for he was not only a rising star worshiped in metropolitan and university salons but also a boisterous character prone to drunkenness, colorful language, and wild behavior. Indeed, his trip to New York in 1953 ended in death from pneumonia likely brought on by his well-known excesses. One could say he covered the full spectrum of life and when he spoke of it in verse or prose he made music. It has been a pleasure to experience Thomas and his work for almost 70 years.

Theodore Roosevelt And Conservation: A Legacy From Sea To Shining Sea

Teddy Roosevelt at Union Station, Washington,DC, 1916

Theordore Roosevelt was born into a prominent New York family on this day in 1858. Through his strong determination and a robust program of excercise and outdoor activity, he overcame severe asthma in his youth to become our 26th President, serving from 1901 to 1909. On his way to the White House he wrung about as much out of life as possible. You can read a rather detailed outline of his life at his Wikipedia entry. For purposes of this post I would like to focus primarily on activities within our national park system that contributed to him being known as our conservation president. It is a remarkable record including law and policy that continues to impact us more than a century after its creation.

In his eight years as President, Teddy Roosevelt signed legislation creating five national parks:

Crater Lake, Oregon

Wind Cave, South Dakota

Sullys Hill, North Dakota (later deignated a wildlife preserve)

Mesa Verde, Colorado

Platt, Oklahoma (now a portion of Chickasaw National Recreation Area

Although the new national parks were landmarks in his presidency, his signing of legislation expressed in the Antiquities Act of 1906 would come to have a huge impact on our national landscape through the creation of national monuments. The act established the nation's first broad national historic preservation policy in addition to protecting natural resources. Futhermore, it allowed for the establishment of such monuments through administrative action rather than legislation as had been done in the creation of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, in 1872 and Casa Grande Ruins, Arizona, in 1892. In a matter of months following his signature of the act, Roosevelt proclaimed four monuments:

Devils Tower, Wyoming

El Morro, New Mexico

Montezuma's Castle, Arizona

Petrified Forest, Arizona (now Petrified Forest National Park)

Grand Canyon, Arizona, (now Grand Canyon National Park)

In addition he proclaimed several monuments that would later be transferred to the Department of the Interior and eventually administered by the National Park Service following its creation in 1916.

Theordore Roosevelt's role as an American president and conservationist is now commemorated at six legacy units established over the last century:

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, New York City

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, Oyster, Bay, New York

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, Buffalo, New York

Theordore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

Theodore Roosevelt Island, Washington, DC

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota

The next time you visit a National Park Service unit, large or small, there's a very good chance Theodore Roosevelt had either a direct link to its creation or to his remarkable conservation and preservation legacy. Although he never established the agency his work certainly formed its foundation ten years after he left the presidency. It's also important to remember that his work extended beyond the national parks to include 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, and four national game preserves. And in many ways his work has never ended. Our current generation and those to come will be far richer because Theodore Roosevelt, the conservation president, cared.




Sources
Photos and Illustrations:
All photos are public domain

Text:
https://www.nps.gov/thrb/learn/historyculture/trandthenpsystem.htm
https://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/theodore-roosevelt-and-conservation.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt

Pat Conroy: The Prince Of Prose

Even in his fiction, Pat Conroy had a way of writing about himself and all of us as we face the challenges and adversities - mental and physical - of growing into young adulthood and beyond. Stated another way, he had extraordinary skill in probing the long childhoods many of us face as we grow old. For him, it was an arduous journey, carried out with the same reality that comes with recognizing nature as a cruel mother. Yes, there is beauty and light along the way, but the mountains can't stand without the valleys, and Conroy's reality had its share of darkness. Some may not enjoy that journey, but it is a good dose of reality and I and millions of other readers hold Conroy in high esteem.

In 1977, Conroy's book, The River is Wide, was hardly five years old when I moved to the edge of the ocean east of Savannah and a mere five miles across the sound from the book's setting on Daufuskie Island. In a matter of months, I succumbed to life on a sea island and having lived there for eleven years - there's a poem about it - was never quite the same. The coast obviously had a similar effect on Conroy a decade earlier, and over the next forty years he would blend his experience with the Lowcountry setting and produce many books. One of his last, My Reading Life (2010), is a memoir of sorts recalling his love of reading as well as an interesting list the essential and influential books in his life.

Over thirty years have passed since those quiet evenings when I sat reading in my den, feeling and hearing the low frequency vibrations from ship screws in the channel a few thousand feet away. That may seem like an odd recollection from the complex experience of the natural setting and its cultural overlay, but it approaches the unique and remains one of many fond memories. For the most part - small flashes of creativity being the exception - I simply enjoyed them. Pat Conroy, on the other hand, took the everyday and unique events in his life journey and turned them into some of the most lyrical writing of our time.

Charleston has a landscape that encourages intimacy and partisanship. I have heard it said that an inoculation to the sights and smells of the Carolina lowcountry is an almost irreversible antidote to the charms of other landscapes, other alien geographies. You can be moved profoundly by other vistas, by other oceans, by soaring mountain ranges, but you can never be seduced. You can even forsake the lowcountry, renounce it for other climates, but you can never completely escape the sensuous, semitropical pull of Charleston and her marshes.

The Prince of Tides

Born on this day in 1945, Pat Conroy passed away in his beloved adopted hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina, in February 2016, not far from Charleston and Daufuskie Island where the wide rivers join the sea.

The image above is a screen capture of Conroy at a UNCTV interview conducted in Chapel Hill in February 2014. Interested readers may view this 27 minute program here. It's an informative look at the author's life and work and well worth your time, especially if you're a Conroy fan.

Pablo Picasso: A Genius For The Ages

 

Picasso in 1962

The world-renowned artist, Pablo Picasso, was born on this day in 1881 in the city of Malaga, Spain. When he died 91 years later in 1973, Alden Whitman said this about him in the opening paragraphs of his New York Times obituary:

There was Picasso the neoclassicist; Picasso the cubist; Picasso the surrealist; Picasso the modernist; Picasso the ceramist; Picasso the lithographer; Picasso the sculptor; Picasso the superb draftsman; Picasso the effervescent and exuberant; Picasso the saturnine and surly; Picasso the faithful and faithless lover; Picasso the cunning financial man; Picasso the publicity seeker; Picasso the smoldering Spaniard; Picasso the joker and performer of charades; Picasso the generous; Picasso the Scrooge; even Picasso the playwright.

A genius for the ages, a man who played wonderful yet sometimes outrageous changes with art, Pablo Picasso remains without doubt the most original, the most protean and the most forceful personality in the visual arts in the first three-quarters of this century. He took a prodigious gift and with it transformed the universe of art.

The artist in 1908

To learn more about Picasso read his biography here. The New York Times obituary continues here. It's impossible to select a representative display of his work in this small post; therefore, I recommend readers visit the extensive website of the Musee Picasso Paris where over 300 Picasso works can be viewed. The Wikipedia Picasso page has several external links that may be of interest.





Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
1908 photo, Musee Picasso Paris
1962 photo, public domain

The King of Late Night Television Still Reigns

Johnny Carson as Carnac the Magnificent

In light of the accelerating freefall of late night television at the hands of increasingly unfunny progressive democrat hosts and their managers it's a perfect time to mention Johnny Carson. He was born on this day in Corning, Iowa, in 1925. As an unbiased host - he was a liberal Republican in private life - of  The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for thirty years (1962-1992) he brought celebrity, entertainment, and his own brand of wacky comedy to millions of viewers. He was a major influence in the entertainment world and widely recognized as the king of late night television but his impact may never be well understood or appreciated because he led a shy, guarded life beyond the studio lights. A PBS American Masters documentary film by Peter Jones did much to open Carson's world to the public when it was broadcast in 2012 seven years after his death.

Here is a look at the master at work with his usual cast members and a host of notable entertainers and comedians. It's a one hour clip of the best of his first 25 years as host  . If you watch the first ten minutes there's a good bet you'll watch the rest.

Without a doubt Johnny Carson does indeed remain the king of late night television. His final show in 1992 drew at least 55 million viewers. On an average night around 9 million tuned in, a number which exceeds today's top three late night shows (hosted by Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel) combined.

Remembering Ike: General, President, Farmer, First Citizen Of The World

This weekend we recall the birthday (October 14) and significance of Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States (1953-61). 

Dwight Eisenhower's high school classmates knew he liked history and they envisioned him as a history professor at Yale. His older brother, Edgar, impressed them as well. They thought he would become President.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Official Presidential Portrait

There was no mention of Dwight Eisenhower's birthday in the long list of newsy bookmarks I review almost every day. That's a bit surprising because his stature among American presidents has increased greatly since he left office portrayed by many as an aging, mediocre, and out of touch executive. The C-SPAN Presidential Historians Survey of 2021 ranked him #5  behind Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt. The following quote from the Eisenhower National Historic Site credits him with these top five accomplishments:

1. He kept the nation at peace:

2, He ended the Korean War:

3. He balanced the budget not once, but three times:

4. He sponsored and signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956:

5. He sponsored and signed the Civil Rights Bill of 1957:

Eisenhower was confronted with major Cold War crises every year he was in office: Korea, Vietnam, Formosa, Suez, Hungary, Berlin, and the U-2. While more than once America seemed on the brink of war and those around him clamored to drop the Bomb, Eisenhower always kept a level head. He dealt calmly and rationally with each situation, always finding a solution that avoided war without diminishing America's prestige.

He alone had the prestige to persuade Americans to accept a negotiated peace and convince the Chinese that failure to reach an agreement would lead to dire consequences. Eisenhower considered this to be his greatest presidential accomplishment.

Despite much pressure to do otherwise, he also refused to cut taxes and raise defense spending. His fiscal policy contributed to the prosperity of the 1950's.

This gave birth to America's interstate highway system. Eisenhower worked hard to get the bill passed and it was his favorite piece of legislation.

This was the first civil rights bill since Reconstruction. Much to Eisenhower's dismay, Congress amended the bill and critically weakened its effectiveness.

 

Here are some links to the home places that were significant to Dwight Eisenhower. Each of them provides additional biographical information for readers who may want to learn more about one of our most significant presidents.

Eisenhower Birthplace, Denison, Texas

Born in 1890, Dwight David Eisenhower spent his first two years living in the small railroad town of Denison, Texas. Visit the Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site webpage for more information.

Eisenhower Family Hone, Abilene, Kansas

Eisenhower spent his formative years from 1892 to 1911 in the old cow town of Abilene, Kansas. He always called Abilene his hometown. It is the site of the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home.

Eisenhower may have appreciated the meaning and value of "home," but as a military careerist he and his wife, Mamie, often had nowhere to call their own. Their roaming ended in 1950 when they purchased a farm at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was in fact the only home they ever owned. Today, the National Park Service maintains the home and farm as the Eisenhower National Historic Site.

Sources:
title reference, "first citizen of the world," eulogy, President Richard M. Nixon, 1969, Dwight Eisenhower page, Wikipedia.com 

first quotation, Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home website.

A War Ace Goes Supersonic

The legendary test pilot, Chuck Yeager, passed away in December 2020 at 97. About twenty years earlier I had the good fortune to attend a conversation he had with his best friend and fellow flying ace, Bud Anderson, recalling their exploits over Europe in World War II. It was one of the most memorable events in the aviation history aspect of my career. Listening to them left me wondering how either had survived their antics let alone the combat. And although I had read hundreds of pages about them it took seeing them in person as old warriors to understand just how extraordinary they were.

On October 14, 1947, Yeager was in California and about to achieve a landmark in aviation when he flew his Bell X-1 into history on the shoulders of scores of aerospace pioneers who helped him pass through an imaginary doorway and reach the supersonic speedway in the sky.

Here, from is autobiography, is his description of that event:

. . . Bob Cardenas, the B-29 driver, asked if I was ready.

"Hell, yes," I said. "Let's get it over with.

"He dropped the X-1 at 20,000 feet, but his dive speed was once again too slow and the X-1 started to stall. I fought it with the control wheel for about five hundred feet, and finally got her nose down. The moment we picked up speed I fired all four rocket chambers in rapid sequence. We climbed at .88 Mach and began to buffet, so I flipped the stabilizer switch and changed the setting two degrees. We smoothed right out, and at 36,000 feet, I turned off two rocket chambers. At 40,000 feet, we were still climbing at a speed of .92 Mach. Leveling off at 42,000 feet, I had thirty percent of my fuel, so I turned on rocket chamber three and immediately reached .96 Mach. I noticed the faster I got, the smoother the ride. Suddenly the Mach needle began to fluctuate. It went up to .965 Mach - then tipped right off the scale. I thought I was seeing things! We were flying supersonic! And it was as smooth as a baby's bottom: Grandma could be sitting up there sipping lemonade. I kept the speed off the scale for about twenty seconds, and raised the nose to slow down. I was thunderstruck. After all the anxiety, breaking the sound barrier turned out to be a perfectly paved speedway.

I radioed Jack in the B-29,

"Hey, Ridley, that Machmeter is acting screwy. It just went off the scale on me."

"Fluctuated off?"

"Yeah, at point nine-six-five."

"Son, you is imagining things."

"Must be. I'm still wearing my ears and nothing else fell off, neither."

 . . .

And so I was a hero this day. As usual, the fire trucks raced out to where the ship had rolled to a stop on the lakebed. As usual, I hitched a ride back to the hangar with the fire chief. That warm desert sun really felt wonderful. My ribs ached.

His ribs ached but that ache had nothing to do with his record flight. He cracked two of them in a horseback riding accident a day and a half earlier but wasn't about to let the issue keep him from an important mission. This was but one example of many obstacles Yeager overcame on his way to legendary status in American aviation history.

Interested readers can learn more about the man and the early years of the nation's military aviation and aerospace history in Yeager: An Autobiography, an outstanding read originally published in 1985. A valuable companion book providing context and additional history on the nation's early manned space program is Tom Wolfe's 1979 classic, The Right Stuff.




Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Yeager with Bell X-1, U.S. Air Force, www.af.mil
Cover photo, Yeager: An Autobiography, General Chuck Yeager and Leo Janus, Bantam, 1985.

Text:
quotation, Yeager: An Autobiography, General Chuck Yeager and Leo Janus, Bantam, 1985.
www.wikipedia.com
www.chuckyeager.com

The Flying Lyric And Modified Stride Of Art Tatum

He had perfect pitch and came from a musical family. He was virtually blind but that did not stop him from reaching the pinnacle of piano jazz. Tatum's piano technique was all his own. As a child he learned compositions by ear listening to recordings, piano rolls, and the radio. He often had no idea that he was copying in two hands a musical performance by four hands. After basing his early performance on the stride piano style of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller Tatum's piano technique soon evolved into a flying lyric in the right hand riding on a modified stride in the left. In time his skills made him a magician at the keyboard. Here is his famous 1933 rendition of Tea For Two:

And a bit more up-tempo, here is the master of improvisation with the tune, Tiger Rag, also recorded in 1933:

When you have enjoyed jazz for fifty years and listen to Art Tatum you'll hear Oscar Peterson, Billy Taylor, Thelonious Monk, Johnny Costa and many others as Tatum dances effortlessly across the keyboard. He was so good, his legacy in music may be timeless. In fact, the great stride pianist, Fats Waller, once said upon seeing Tatum enter the club where Waller was performing, "I only play the piano, but tonight God is in the house."

At the Vogue Room, New York, 1948

Tatum was born on this day in Toledo, Ohio, in 1909 and died in Los Angeles in 1956. He was 47.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
William P. Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Text:
Art Tatum entry, wikipedia,com (for quote source see note 2)

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Forever England

The English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, was born on this day in 1872. The brief introduction to his biography appearing on the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society website says all that need be said about this beloved interpreter of the musical themes and varied landscapes of England:

[He] is arguably the greatest composer Britain has seen since the days of Henry Purcell. In a long and extensive career, he composed music notable for its power, nobility and expressiveness, representing, perhaps, the essence of ‘Englishness’.

Vaughan Williams expressed this "Englishness" as a prolific composer of a full spectrum of classical music grounded in the extensive research of English folk tunes and their preservation in his works.

I suspect the quality of music education in the public schools, if the curriculum exists at all, is not nearly as comprehensive today as it was in the 1950's or 1960's. In those years surrounding Vaughan Williams's death in 1958 he was revered as the beloved dean of composers in much of the Western world. In the 65 years following his death he remains a popular force in the music of our lives. Here are some likely familiar examples that renew themselves on every hearing:

I imagine hearing these pieces takes some readers back to those introductory music classes in middle school with their mechanics of music, basic performances, and musical history that included the great composers and their works. That was a long time ago but for me those introductions led to hours of enjoyment listening to all kinds of music over the past six decades. I'm very happy for that and trust that more than a few readers have enjoyed a similar experience.

Can You Imagine This Holiday As Bjarni Herjolfsson Day?

For more than a decade of Columbus Days I've referenced this interesting post by James C. Bennett on some surprising complexities regarding the holiday. Here's the summary paragraph from my post:

Caboto? Cabot? Yes, it's the same explorer. John Cabot, often identified as the "English" navigator, was really an Italian. In 1497 he financed his "discovery" of North America - not just a few islands as Columbus did in 1492 - with English money. Leave it to those crafty English to Anglicize him and create mass confusion among school children and armchair authorities for centuries to come.

Cabot in his Venetian robes, Guistino Menescardi, 1762

Putting aside Bennett's Calvinist Puritan "depravity of man" talk, readers know full-well my opinion on the superlatives and "firsts" regarding the exploration, occupation, and settlement of the planet. Whether it's Leif Erikson, Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Kennewick Man or whomever, we should know by now it's the politics that matters. Given that, Power Line's John Hinderaker offers his perspective on this day. Glenn Reynold follows up with his opinion on Instapundit, including a recommednation that readers explore Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus, a superb biography by the renowned writer and maritime historian, Samuel Eliot Morison.

Enough said. My you have an enjoyable Columbus Day holiday and thank Bjarni Herjolfsson for staying out to sea.

Happy Birthday. Dad!

 

Below is my dad's high school graduation photo. He was an honor grad and holder of class medals in English and debate. The year was 1925. He was seventeen. My dad was a mill town boy with high ambitions beyond the mountains of western Maryland but he had the security of a well-paying full-time job waiting for him after graduation in the midst of the Roaring Twenties. That job won out and he never pursued the college degree he wanted. Nevertheless he was successful, building on his strong Christian faith, steady employment, solid marriage, and remarkable work ethic.

1925

When I look at this picture I am reminded that he only had four "good" years before the Great Depression and World War II brought him and the country he loved into sixteen years of hard times. What I don't see are his weakened legs and slight limp caused by polio when he was a young boy. Through it all he survived as a member of the "Greatest Generation" and saw his nation prosper.

One hundred and sixteen years have passed since his birth on this day in 1907. That's a long time and one indication of why my value programming is different from that of most people my age. In short, I was raised by parents from the Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age while the majority of my classmates, friends, and many colleagues had parents come of age in the 1930's and early '40's. The often vast difference in attitudes, opinions and beliefs borne out of such a circumstance brings both opportunity and challenge in the real world for those born somewhat "out of synch" with their peers.

My children never knew my dad - he's been gone for over forty years - but I think they know him well. I've done my best to teach them who he was and honor him by carrying on his many traditions. How fortunate I was to have him as a beacon in my life. He was a great and careful teacher and, though we had our differences, a constant and trusted friend. Most of all he was my loving dad. I thank him every day,  will love him forever, and look forward to seeing him again.

4th Grade class photo, 1917-18