Protesters Attempt to Deny COVID Vaccine to Others

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

At this point in time I don't have a major problem with people who decline to be vaccinated against COVID.  Their denial of science just means that others will be able to get the life-saving treatment earlier.  I do, however, realize that sooner or later most people will have to be vaccinated in order to put a permanent end to this cruel pandemic - but for now let's focus on the smart end of the gene pool.  The others will come around eventually as pandemic deaths begin to devastate their numbers.

So, for the time being, let the alarmists alone as they increase their own risk and provide extra vaccine for the rest of us.

But I do have a problem with the shot protesters using their unhinged conspiracy theories to try and deny life-saving medical treatment to others.   There are people fighting the inoculation program who believe  the pandemic is not real, and that the nearly half-a-million US deaths were the result of other causes.  Those people are dangerously ill-informed about the ravages that COVID-19 is unleashing on the entire planet - as well as just plain stupid.

At the same time there is also a small but growing anti-vaccination community that stretches across the United States, people who believe a range of blatant falsehoods from the rise in cases of diagnosed autism is a result of childhood vaccinations to the freakish claim that the government has placed a tracking technology in inoculations so that it can monitor the movement of citizens.

And now all of these science-deniers and kooks are coming together in a crazy mix that is focused on disrupting the program to immunize Americans against COVID-19 - and their goal has gone beyond just refusing shots themselves to the notion that they are somehow responsible for denying them to others as well.  They have stepped beyond their own self-interest and are now trying to force others to live in their fantasyland.

Los Angeles has set up a mass COVID-19 clinic at Dodger Stadium where the city is attempting to vaccinate 12,000 individuals a day.  Yesterday that clinic was stopped for nearly an hour as the city attempted to move protesters away from the entrance.  Protesters also took to the main highway arteries serving the stadium and disrupted and stalled several lanes of traffic.

There is a difference between placing your own health at risk - and deliberately interfering with the health practices of others.  When the protesters began feeling a misguided urge to protect everyone else, they crossed a line.  It's one thing to endanger your own life - and quite another to endanger the lives of others!

Whacko conspiracy theories are a danger to the health of individuals, our nation, and the planet.  Let science rule!

 

COVID Shots Arrive in the Ozarks

by Pa Rock
Local Yokel

This past week I began focusing on COVID-19 vaccinations with a vengeance.  I was already on two waiting lists - one with the county health department and the other with our local hospital group - but had received basically no information from either of those sources as to when the vaccines would reach our local area - if ever.  On Monday I sent a polite but pointed email to my state representative, a Republican ex-judge whom I do not know personally, asking about the state's plan for getting the vaccine out to his rural district.   Now, five days later, Rep. David Evans still has not provided me with the courtesy of a response.

On Tuesday and Thursday I directed tweets to our state's governor, a Republican by the name of Mike Parson, asking him about the state's vaccine distribution.plan.  Governor Parson also did not deem me worthy of a response.  On Wednesday I masked up and went to the local Walgreen's where I do all of my considerable pharmaceutical business.  I asked the young man at the window if they had a sign-up sheet yet for COVID inoculations, and he sheepishly told me that would be "months away."

So I sucked it up, went home, and waited on the killer virus to find me.

But then Thursday afternoon, not long after I had sent another POT (pissed-off tweet) to Governor Parson, things suddenly changed for the better!  As I was sitting at the computer working on the day's blog entry, an email dropped into my in-box from the county health department and the local hospital group.  It said that a mass COVID inoculation clinic would be held the following day at our local Civic Center, and that I met the requirements for getting the shot.  I was to arrive between the hours of noon and two p.m. and was cautioned not to arrive early.  (Shots were being given all day on a schedule defined alphabetically by last names.)

So yesterday I got in my old flivver and headed to the Civic Center - early of course - where I got in a long line of slow-moving cars that were being marked and directed into the Center's large parking lots by uniformed members of the Missouri National Guard.  (The one thing that Governor Parson has done right in this whole mess was to turn distribution of the shots over to the Missouri National Guard.  Those folks get things done!)

Once parked, I was told to remain in my car and that someone would come and get me when it was my turn.  I chatted with the Guard member who was wearing an Air Force uniform, and learned that he was based at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis - the place where my father had enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942 just after he turned eighteen.  Cars were still coming in, bumper-to-bumper, so I settled in with my Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine expecting it to be late in the day before I was finally called.

Less than thirty minutes later, however, another young man in an Air Force uniform tapped on my window and asked if I was ready.  (It's a wonder I didn't knock him over as I hustled out of the car!).  I was driven to the front door of the Civic Center by a non-uniformed person who was operating something that resembled an agricultural golf cart.  (Similar vehicles were everywhere transporting us frail, elderly types around the parking lot like a colony of deranged ants at a picnic.). I chatted with my driver - because that's what old people do - and he told me that he was employed by the city street department.

Human foot-traffic inside of the Civic Center was being carefully directed by members of the National Guard.  I talked to another guardsman, a young woman in an Air Force uniform, and asked if she was based out of Jefferson Barracks.  It turns out she was from the other side of the state and was working out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Johnson County, near Kansas City.  She led me into the Center's gymnasium, the place where the teams from the local university play their home basketball games.

I was quickly shuffled to one of many small tables that were being manned by young women in what appeared to be blue nurses uniforms.  It turns out they were student nurses from our local university.  Mine took the forms that I had downloaded from the internet and carefully filled out - and she transferred my information to another similar set of forms.

And then . . . and then . . . she plunged that blessed needle into my right arm and delivered my first COVID shot - Pfizer - and handed me a card with instructions to appear at the follow-up clinic which will be held at the same location on February 19th.  

I was then shuffled along to another part of the gym where people were seated in groups and required to sit for fifteen minutes until released by the timekeeper.  While sitting in the large time-out space, I overheard a conversation between a fellow with shoulder-length gray hair, like my own, and a friend whom he had apparently not seen in quite some time.  The friend was commenting on the man's long pandemic hair, and the guy responded, "Yes, my sister says that the longer I stay at home, the more I look like a homeless person!"  And that sounded like something my own sister was probably thinking about me!

After being released, I was shuttled back to my car and allowed to be on my merry way!   (Shuttled, shuffled, shuffled, shuttled - there's a poem in there someplace!)

And now I am beginning to feel empowered.  The shot didn't hurt and I had no side effects other than a bit of a sore arm late in the evening - and that has now passed.

I feel both pleased and very honored to be part of the Biden administration's ambitious goal of inoculating 100 million people during Biden's first 100 days in office - and I know that it would not have happened without the highly coordinated efforts of our local medical community, county health department. local college students, city employees, and the Missouri National Guard.  You guys rock - and help to make West Plains, Missouri, a great place to live!

Many thanks!

Ancestor Archives: Etta Orvilla Griffith (1873-1950)

by Rocky Macy

Etta Orvilla GRIFFITH was born on August 17, 1873, in Sarcoxie, Jasper County, Missouri, to Orville and Lucinda M. (JONES) GRIFFITH.   She married Thomas Franklin NUTT in Neosho, Newton County, Missouri, on March 31, 1893.  Etta passed away in Neosho on June 13, 1950.

Etta Orvilla GRIFFITH was my great-grandmother.
 
Although Etta (Griffith) NUTT was born in Jasper County, Missouri, she and her family were residing in Van Buren Township of Newton County, Missouri, by the time the 1880 census was taken, and in each of the censuses from 1900 through 1940 she was a resident of Neosho in Newton County, though she did spend time residing in Florida and California between some of those census years.
 
Etta and Tom had eight children:  Claude Franklin (September 7, 1893-July 19, 1980), Mable May (September 20, 1896-January 7, 1979), Ethel Blanche (June 3, 1898-May 3, 1968), Ina Eskil (August 21, 1900 – September 18, 1980), Hazel Josephine (July 28, 1902-October 29, 1975), Daisy Orvilla (February 13, 1904-March 5, 1963), Robert Eugene (February 19, 1908-April 14, 1998) and Lawrence “Earl” (August 27, 1911-March 21, 1973).
 
Spouses of the children of Etta and Tom were as follows:  Claude (Jeanette A. CUSHMAN), Mable (Charles SOUR), Ethel (Walter “Jack” MACY), Ina (Lewis Eggleston JOHNSTON), Hazel (Charles Eugene MACY), Daisy (1.) V. Desmond WHEELER,  2.) E.T. LINDBLAD), Robert (1.) Verna Unknown,  2.)  Gladys Unknown), and L. Earl (1.) Isabel WOODWARD,  2.) Ruthella M. WADE).  Robert divorced his first wife, and L. Earl’s first wife died at a young age in Riverside, California.
 
There was a “news stand” on the south side of the Neosho Square up at least through the 1960’s, and probably beyond that, which sold a variety of newspapers, magazines, and paperback books.  I remember making several trips through that small building when I was in high school and would occasionally purchase a magazine or book while I was there.  I heard a few years ago that the news stand had been operated by Etta NUTT at one time, and while researching her, I found several mentions of the news stand which, it turns out, was the property of her and Tom’s oldest son, Claude.
 
Claude NUTT appears to have been the quintessential all-American boy.  He served in the US military on three separate occasions – with the Army along the Mexican border in 1915, with the Army in France during World War I, and a third stint with the Army during World War II.   Between his service along the Mexican border and his enlistment to fight in World War I, young Mr. NUTT made a name for himself in the Neosho business community.  A notice on page one in “The Neosho Daily Democrat” on November 26, 1915 informed the public that F.C. ARMSTRONG had sold the “Neosho News Stand” to Claude NUTT.  
 
Two days later, on November 27, 1915, the following notice ran on page four of the same newspaper:
 

“Notice!
 
“All accounts on papers due the Neosho News Co. should be paid either at the news stand or to Mrs. Etta Nutt, collector.  Phone No. 2.  Claude Nutt.
 
“Will move Monday to South Side Square, 2^nd door east of McGinty Bros.”

(Telephone No. 2 – how cool is that!  Who had Telephone No.1?  The mayor?  The president of the bank?)

The following month, on December 29^th, 1915, Claude NUTT ran an advertisement in the same newspaper which listed the names of the newspapers that his business sold.   They included:  “The St. Louis Republic,” “The St. Louis Globe Democrat,” “The St. Louis Post Dispatch,” “The St. Louis Times,” “The Kansas City Post,” and “other Kansas City papers”  that could be purchased as single copies or by the week or month.  The advertisement also mentioned that the business sold magazines.  It was signed by Claude Nutt, Agent.
 
Over the next year there were other advertisements for Claude’s news business in the “The Neosho Daily Democrat” and also in “The Neosho Times.”   Finally on March 25, 1917, after Claude was making plans to rejoin the Army  or possibly had already rejoined, this very short notice ran in “The Neosho Times”:
 

“News Stand for sale or trade.  See Mrs. Thos. Nutt.”

Etta NUTT who had a taste of managing a business was not destined to stay at home mothering and grand-mothering her large family.  By mid-March of 1920 she was managing another business, this time on the West Side of the Neosho Square.  The following ran in “The Neosho Times” on March 16, 1920:

 

“Ladies, you are invited to inspect our stock of ladies’ and children’s hats before buying elsewhere.  Royal Millinery.  Mrs. Thos. Nutt, Manager.  West Side Square.”

The hat business did not last long either because by 1923 Tom and Etta had packed up their younger children and moved to Florida to pick fruit in the groves.  They were listed in the Orlando City Directory of 1923 where Tom’s profession was given as that of a carpenter. 
 
The family excursion to Florida did not last long and soon Tom and Etta were back at home in Neosho.   Ina had met a young man by the name of Lewis Eggleston JOHNSTON while they were in Florida, and he followed the family back to Neosho where he and Ina were soon married.  She then returned to Florida with her new husaband where they raised a family and spent the rest of their lives.  

A couple of years later Etta was back at work at the news stand which had been renamed “The Southand News Stand. "  An article in the local newspaper on December 29^th of 1928, reported that Mrs. Thomas Nutt, an employee of the news stand, had been confined to her home by illness for the past two days.

By the mid-1920’s all of their children were grown and out on their own except for the two youngest boys, Robert and Earl, who were teenagers.  That gave Etta some time to begin concentrating on her grandchildren.   On September 3, 1926, “The Neosho Daily Democrat” ran this brief story about a party that Etta hosted  for one of her granddaughters:
 

“Small Guest Entertained
 
“Mrs. T.F. Nutt entertained for her granddaughter, Mary Ruth Nutt of Wichita, Kansas, yesterday evening, inviting several of Mary Ruth’s cousins to spend the evening with her.
 
“Joy Cushman of Neosho, and Mildred Nadine and Lynn Earl Sour of Joplin, were among the small cousins who enjoyed the time, and the ice cream and cake which were served late in the evening.”

 
The next mention of Etta NUTT in the local press – “The Neosho Times” – was on March 12, 1936 when it was reported that she had just returned to Neosho following a stay of almost a year in Los Angeles, California, where she had been visiting her son, Robert, and her daughter, Daisy.   Five years later, on April 4, 1941, “The Neosho Democrat” carried a report that Etta and Tom had sold their property in Neosho and had moved to Corona, California, to be near a number of relatives.  (At least three of their children were living in southern California at that time:  Daisy, Robert, and Earl.)
 
Etta and Tom eventually returned to Missouri, and she passed away that their Neosho home on June 13, 1950.  Her death certificate listed congestive heart failure as the cause of death with “senile dementia” as a contributing factor.   The document also stated that she had been bed-ridden for several years.

My father, Garland Eugene MACY left handwritten family notes in which he described his Grandmother Etta this way:  

"My Grandmother Nutt (Etta) died when I was 26.  She was irritable and cranky with us kids, probably (because) she was sick.  We stayed with them so (often) when I was small (that) she was probably sick of us.  We would stay with anyone that would have us.  We were hungry.  We liked to eat."

 
Etta’s obituary ran in “The Neosho Daily Democrat” on the day of her death:
 

“Mrs. Etta O. Nutt Dies This Morning
 
“Mrs. Etta O. Nutt, 76 years old, died at 4:15 o’clock this morning at her home on Neosho, Rt. 4, following a week’s illness.
 
“Mrs. Nutt, the wife of Thomas S. (sic) Nutt, was born in Sarcoxie  and had lived in the Neosho area since she was three years old.
 
“Surviving besides her husband are three sons:  Claude F. Nutt of Wichita, Kans,, Robert E. Nutt of San Diego, Calif., and Earl Nutt of Riverside, Calif.  Five daughters:  Mrs. Jack Macy and Mrs. C.E. Macy both of Neosho, Rt. 4, Mrs. Charles Sour, Joplin, Mrs. Lewis Johnston of Winter Garden, Florida, and Mrs. E.T. Lindblad of El Monte, Calif.
 
“Mrs. Nutt was a member of the Baptist Church and the Royal Neighbors Lodge.
 
“Funeral arrangements will be announced by Clark-Bigham Mortuary.”

I was just two-years-old when my great-grandmother, Etta Orvilla NUTT, passed away, and I have no memories of her.  She does seem to have been an ambitious person who successfully raised a large family, held down a variety of jobs, and liked to travel.   Etta seems to have been the type of person who was driven to experience what life had to offer – and she did it well.

Blood Victory

by Pa Rock
Reader

"Blood Victory" is the third novel in what author Christopher Rice has termed his "Burning Girl" series.  The first two titles in the series were "Bone Music" and "Blood Echo."

The "burning girl" at the center of these thriller novels is Charlotte "Charley" Rowe, a young woman who, as an infant, fell victim, along with her mother, to a married pair of serial killers.  The mother was killed by her captors, and the killers raised Charlotte as their own daughter.  Young Charlotte, not knowing her personal history, was eventually rescued from the captivity of her mother's killers and sent to live with her biological father, a parent she never knew and who had been estranged from her mother.  The father raised her more as a sideshow freak than as a daughter, and he concentrated on enhancing her "story" of captivity and making a living off of exploiting her to the curious world.  Eventually Charlotte reached an age where she was able to understand that her father was manipulating her for profit, and she escaped to the home of her maternal grandmother in California who gave the girl her first experience with some form of a normal life.

That bit of normalcy was short-circuited when her grandmother died, and Charley, now a young adult, fled to Arizona to hide from curiosity-seekers and stalkers and to enter therapy.  Unfortunately she chose the wrong therapist and soon found herself the emotional prisoner of yet one more person who was not acting in her best interests.

The therapist, who was really a chemist working for a multi-national pharmaceutical concern, slipped Charley a special drug that he had invented which he hoped would give her super physical and healing powers when the was emotionally triggered.    Then he created and cast her into a position where she was emotionally triggered.    A  physical marvel - or monster - resulted that could challenge and destroy some of the most savage criminals in the world.

The new Charley was a killing machine who began working in partnership with the young head of the pharmaceutical company that developed the drug that gave her the special powers.  Together with a team of experts and some cutting-edge technology, they began identifying serial killers and eliminating them via Charley's special powers.  Once a serial killer had been identified and his method of operation sussed out, she would manage to become his next victim to learn the details of the operation, look for any hidden survivors, and then take him out.  

"Blood Victory" has Charley being captured by a trucker in Dallas, Texas, a man she and her team believe tortures and kills young women in the back of his truck.  It is only after Charley is abducted, however, that it becomes obvious that this serial killer is actually part of a much larger operation, and that in addition to saving herself, Charley and the team must also be concerned with identifying and rescuing other women who are in other trucks - and all being transported to an unknown location and fate.

"Blood Victory" is an exciting tale with plenty of action and cutting-edge science to keep the pages turning, and it also offers up a couple of romantic storylines to occasionally calm the pace.  It's a well plotted story, well told through the exceptionally fine writing of Christopher Rice.  

And Christopher Rice never disappoints!

Bigfoot Season

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

As a general rule, at least here in the Great Midwest, people with Mensa-level IQ's don't gravitate into state legislatures.  In fact some would argue that state legislatures are little more than political cesspools where turds fight for dominance in the hope of one day floating all the way to Congress.  I've mentioned the Missouri State Legislature in this space previously, an overpaid group of basically white bumpkins who meet a few months each year to try to figure out ways to help gun manufacturers sell more weapons and devise ways to give women even less control over their own bodies.

I began this week by sending an email to my state representative asking a simple question:  When would our remote area of the state begin receiving COVID vaccines?  As soon as I hit the "send" button a response popped up in my inbox.  My representative wanted me to know how honored he was to be serving our district, a nice bit of fluffery that did nothing to provide me with the information that I requested.  Two days have passed and I am still waiting.  My representative is a Republican, so he may not even believe in vaccinations, but it still looks like he could get someone in his office to answer the damned email. 

But it could be worse, I suppose.  I could be living in Oklahoma.

A state legislator in Oklahoma (a Republican, of course) made news this week when he introduced a bill that would create a Bigfoot hunting season.  Seriously - I think!  Oklahoma has been trying to horn in on the Bigfoot tourist trade by claiming that the legendary Sasquatch may inhabit more of the United States than just the heavily-timbered Pacific Northwest.  In fact, for several years now an annual "Bigfoot Festival" has been held in the Ouachita Mountains in southeastern Oklahoma near the Arkansas border.

So now a state legislator is proposing a season to hunt a species that is so endangered that no sober person has ever seen one.  Yee-haw, good buddy!   Just what the world needs - more drunks in the woods with guns!

A representative of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation was not impressed.  He said that his agency, which oversees hunting in the state of Oklahoma, uses science-driven research and does not recognize Bigfoot.  (I may not know much about Bigfoot, but I do know that promoting "science-driven research" in this day and age could get you fired!)

My oldest grandson, Boone, and I took a road trip to Oregon in the spring of 2014.  On the way home we drove across the heavily forested mountains of Northern California, true "Bigfoot" country.  On June 9th, after a hard day of driving through those mountains, I wrote the following in a blog-posting entitled "Eastward Ho!":

"Today we drove the beautiful Oregon coast from Newport down through Brookings - and on into California as far south as Eureka.  There we turned the wagon east and headed up through the mountains in the general direction of Redding.  Tonight we are in a very small town of Willow Creek staying at the Bigfoot Motel.  (Seriously!)   We managed to get a thirty-dollar room for just ninety bucks in a sad little motel that banks on its unique name and the fact that it is the only available hostel for weary travelers within miles.  Our innkeeper looks as though he might be Bigfoot in his off-duty hours."

The Bigfoot industry is already in a pitiful way, and now Oklahoma wants to take a bigger piece of it.  That's just sad!

Harriet Tubman Twenty Dollar Bill to be Resurrected

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Harriet Tubman was a black woman who had been born into slavery but managed to escape her human bondage.  But being free herself was not enough for Harriet, not while others still lived their lives in chains.   She turned around and went back into the slave states thirteen times to lead relatives and other enslaved peoples to freedom.   Then later, during the Civil War, Tubman worked as an armed scout and a spy for the northern armies.  She was a true American patriot in every sense of the word.

The Obama administration announced in 2016 that it was moving forward with plans to put the face of Harriet Tubman on the twenty dollar bill.  She was to become the first woman as well as the first black person featured on American currency.  The New York Times managed to acquire an image of the proposed new twenty dollar bill and publicized it nationally.

Then Donald Trump was elected and all of that quickly changed.

Trump, a man who had long been accused of racially-biased business dealings - and a man who built his political base through spurious claims that Barack Obama had not been born in the United States,  quickly stopped the move to change the twenty dollar bill.  He claimed the bill was being proposed solely out of a sense of political correctness, a concept that he opposed.  Trump also made a big show out of declaring Andrew Jackson, the white man who currently decorates the twenty, to have been a personal hero of his - and he even had a portrait of Jackson hung on the wall in the Oval Office.  There would be no women, and especially no black women, on US currency while Donald Trump was in charge!

But now Joe Biden has been elected, and things are fixing to change again.  Andrew Jackson's portrait has been taken out of the Oval Office - and Harriet Tubman is once again preparing to take a place of honor on our nation's currency.  

Harriet Tubman survived life in the chains of slavery, numerous trips into the South to rescue other slaves, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the early years of Jim Crow America - and now she has even survived Donald Trump!   She's more than earned her place on the twenty dollar bill!

Thank you, President Biden, for helping to bring us out of the racist backwater of the Trump years!

The Power of the Secret Ballot

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist 

When people go to the polls to vote, they don't stand out in the parking lot and announce their position on every candidate and every issue - for all of their neighbors to see and comment upon.  No, they step into a booth, of sorts, and mark their ballot so that others cannot observe how they voted - and then they slip that ballot into a box or a machine to be counted by people who will no idea who cast each ballot.

Generally voting in America is a secret exercise and it is done that way intentionally.   Being able to cast a vote in secret allows people the ultimate freedom to vote the way they want, without interference from a controlling spouse, a party committee, or an angry mob.

This evening an Article of Impeachment regarding Donald John Trump will be delivered from the House of Representatives to the Senate where it will be read into the record.  The Article will accuse the former President of inciting a mob to attack the US Capitol.  Tomorrow the one hundred members of the Senate will be sworn in as jurors for the upcoming trial that results from the House's impeachment of Trump.  An actual trial will begin in the Senate in two weeks, a constitutionally-mandated event that will require all one hundred senators to be seated at their desks as the House and the former US President present their respective cases.   When the trial has run its course, the senators will vote on whether to convict the former President of the charge brought by the House.  A conviction will require that two-thirds of the Senators agree with the allegations - or 67 senators voting to convict.

Two-thirds is a high bar in just about any set of circumstances, but with the Senate being evenly divided with fifty members caucusing as Democrats and fifty as Republicans, it is extremely unlikely that two-thirds would vote for a conviction.  That possibility is made even more remote when the senators must cast their votes publicly - with the whole world watching - the equivalent of regular voters standing in the parking lots of their voting places and publicly announcing their votes on each candidate and each issue.

If we want to know how our senators truly feel on something as important as a charge that the President of the United States helped to foment an insurrection against the government he was elected to lead, serve, and protect, then forcing them to announce their votes in public is a poor way to do it.  Senators are subject not only to pressures from their constituents back home, but also to the pressures exerted by a multitude of party bosses, both in the Senate and back home, cable news pundits and other journalists, social media influencers, campaign donors, irate friends and relatives, and even random armed lunatics.

If the members of the United States Senate would allow themselves the freedom to determine the guilt or innocence of Donald Trump by a secret ballot, they would forgo an immense amount of needless aggravation and possibly even personal danger - and, in the process, America would learn how the senators truly felt about the matter on which they were voting.

Secret ballots are far more likely to yield honest results than public votes - and honesty is what we are after, isn't it?

Arizona GOP Goes to War with Itself

by Pa Rock
Former Arizonan

Just a few short years ago the Republican Party had a fairly tight grip on Arizona politics.  That is no longer the case.  

Not only did Republican Donald Trump lose Arizona in the 2020 presidential election, over the past two election cycles the  GOP has lost both US Senate seats from Arizona, and three election cycles ago the state party's most controversial officeholder, Joe Arpaio, the long-term sheriff of Maricopa County, finally went down to electoral defeat.

It's been a hard few years for the Republican Party faithful in Arizona - and some believe that the bad situation that the GOP finds itself may have just gotten even worse.

Yesterday the state Republican Party met at a church in Phoenix to reorganize.  The current party chair, a former state senator named Kelli Ward, had ingratiated herself to Donald Trump by challenging the state's voting results in a legal proceeding that was ultimately thrown out of court.   In spite of the evidence that her party was literally falling apart, Ward was seeking to be elected to another term as the party chair.  As a central part of her bid to get re-elected, she played a recorded audio message from Donald Trump in which he said of Ward, "I give her my complete and total endorsement."  After two rounds of voting, Ward was re-elected to the party chairmanship by just three points.

But the re-election of Kelli Ward to head the state party was just the second tier news to come out of the meeting.  The big news was that the state party used the occasion to censure three very prominent state Republicans.   They officially tried to shame a former US Senator, the widow of a former US Senator and GOP presidential candidate, and the current Governor of Arizona.

The notion of censuring popular members of the party was not new to the Arizona GOP.  The party had censured Senator John McCain in 2014 over his alleged "liberal record."  This time the party tried to officially shame former Senator Jeff Flake who had been openly critical of Donald Trump and had even endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 election.  The party also censured Cindy McCain, John's widow, because she, too, had been associated with several "leftist" causes and, like Flake, she had also endorsed Joe Biden in the presidential race.

But then the state GOP went after Doug Ducey, the party's own sitting governor of the state.  The party hierarchy was angry with Ducey over his imposition of emergency rules regarding the COVID-19 that was surging across Arizona.  They claimed that Ducey's emergency orders to contain the virus violated the Constitution and amounted to the governor enacting "dictatorial powers."

None of the three targets of the current Arizona GOP censuring spree seemed overly concerned, and Cindy McCain, a Phoenix native who chairs one of the largest Anheuser-Busch distributorships in the United States, leveled her sights on the state party and fired back:

"It is a high honor to be included in a group of Arizonans who have served our state and our nation so well . . . and who, like my late husband John, have been censured by the AZGOP.  I'll wear this as a badge of honor."

Hear that, Kelli?  No Bud for you!

New York Times Plays 'Choose the News'

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist 

The venerable New York Times, a national news rag that wallows in its reputation as "the Old Gray Lady" of journalism, is guilty of doing what all of the major news outlets do to a certain extent:  it creates the news by what it chooses to cover in its pages.  Back in the day, of course, when there were fewer news sources, a big publication like the Times  could also shape the news by what it chose not to cover, but today with all of the outlets available on the internet, its much harder to ignore a story to death.

Here are a couple of "less than critical" stories from this week's "news."   One the New York Times chose to cover and seemingly try to make it a political issue, and the other apparently received none of the Old Gray Lady's ink at all.

In the first instance a photo of newly-sworn in President Biden seemed to show a Rolex watch on his wrist.  The Times ran with that.  Somehow the idea of a public servant sporting a Rolex seemed newsworthy.  Joe Sixpack from Scranton was going to want to know about a man who purported to be just like him wearing a timepiece that might have extended into the four-figure range.  That was news.  Real news.  And if it wasn't, it would be when The New York Times finished with it.

But Joe Biden has been in the Senate almost all of his adult life, and he has undoubtedly been involved in a few business ventures, written a few books, and bought and sold property along the way.  He has, like most Americans, accumulated money across his lifetime through an assortment of honest means, including saving, and he has a wife who works.  It would not be much of a stretch to assume that somewhere along the way he chose to reward himself with a nice wristwatch - or, more likely, it was a gift from his wife or children.  A successful person wearing a Rolex really isn't much of a news story - unless your goal is to stir up some resentment among the working classes.

But on the same day that The New York Times was dragging Biden for wearing an expensive timepiece, there was another story running rampant across many other news sources about a public servant putting on airs - and if the Times covered that story, this poor news consumer could not find the mention.  The other story was about the outgoing President, Donald John Trump, living like some oriental potentate while "serving" the American public.

Trump, it seems, had a special red button on his desk in the Oval Office, and whenever he was feeling stressed or in need of a caffeine buzz, all he had to do was press that red button and a butler would enter bringing him a Diet Coke on a silver tray.  (Seriously!  I checked it out with Snopes, the internet's premier fact-checker, and Snopes says it is true.). But Joe Sixpack out in Scranton has long since conflated Trump with Jesus Christ, so a butler hustling in with a can of Diet Coke on a silver tray was'' not something that The New York times could use to shape public opinion.  Trump-haters already knew he was a self-serving pig, and Trump-lovers felt that the Son of God was entitled to butlers with silver trays playing step-and-fetch-it.  No news there - at least none that appealed to the Times. 

The "red button" story also mentioned that the person moving into the Oval Office, President Biden, immediately had it removed.  The Times certainly had no interest in that because it went against the image of Biden that they were building with the Rolex story!

(Can you imagine the furor that would have been unleashed if President Obama had been spotted wearing a Rolex?   That "news" would have lasted for months!)

Ancestor Archives: Thomas Franklin Nutt (1870-1958)

 by Rocky Macy

Thomas Franklin NUTT was born to Miss Angeline NUTT, a single lady who lived at home with her parents, on September 20^th, 1870, in Neosho, Newton County, Missouri.  He married Etta Orvilla GRIFFITH in Neosho on March 31, 1893.    Tom NUTT passed away in that same city nearly nine decades later on May 14^th, 1958. 

Thomas Franklin NUTT was my great-grandfather.

Tom NUTT’s mother, Angeline, married a young man by the name of Isaac N. LAWS on February 16^th, 1873, and she had two children by him who were half-siblings of her older son, Tom:  William Henry LAWS was born in 1874 and Mary LAWS was born 1876.  Tom NUTT grew to adulthood in the home of his maternal grandparents, Henry and Celana (RUTLEDGE) NUTT of Neosho, and he referred to them as “father” and “mother” throughout his life, although he did know who his actual mother was and that William Henry and Mary were his half-siblings.
 
By the time of the 1880 census William Henry LAWS and Mary LAWS were both living in the household of their maternal grandparents, Henry and Celana NUTT of Neosho, along with their older half-brother, Thomas Franklin NUTT – and there was no further mention of Angeline NUTT or Isaac N. LAWS in the public record.
 
My paternal grandmother, Hazel NUTT MACY was Tom NUTT’s daughter.  I asked her many years ago about her family history.  She told me that she did not know who her father’s father was, but that Tom had told her that his dad had left for Texas with another man shortly after Tom was born, and that the other man eventually returned alone and said that Tom’s dad had been killed by Indians.  Maryruth NUTT, the daughter of Tom’s oldest son, Claude, repeated that same story in some personal correspondence with me years later, only in Maryruth’s version, the returning traveler said that Tom’s father had been killed “and scalped” by Indians.  
 
Tom NUTT’s father may have been an adventurer who was killed by Indians, or he may have just been a young man who hit the road and chose to keep traveling in order to avoid the responsibilities of parenthood.   Regardless of the father’s story, young Tom did have an independent streak and a strong personal drive that propelled him forward throughout life.
 
A few years ago I came across a some NUTT family history on the internet that incorporated what appeared to be a set of notes written by Tom’s granddaughter, Maryruth NUTT.  Cousin Maryruth was a skilled genealogist who was a member of several family and lineage societies and did extensive research on her own family lines.  She and I had exchanged a series of letters in the early1980’s, but during our information swap she had failed to mention a story that I found among her notes on the internet. 
 
I recounted that story in my blog on March 11, 2016.  The piece was titled “Tom Nutt;s First Trip to the Coast,” and it focused on a walking trip that Tom and another young man took from southwest Missouri to California sometime around 1890.  The following is taken from that blog posting:

 

“ . . . Tom Nutt and one of his Rutledge cousins decided to go on a walkabout and check out the land situation in other parts of the country.  The young men probably started walking west from Neosho, Missouri, in the very early spring of 1889, 1890, or 1891 – and they walked all the way to the Pacific Coast!"

 

“In later years Tom recalled segments of the trip including the wide expanses of prairie that gradually rose into the foothills of the Rockies, the beautiful Arkansas River Valley that was visible for miles, the groves of cottonwood trees along the river banks, and the glimpsed tribes of Indians and sporadic views of Indian encampments.  Tom found some land that he liked near Wichita, Kansas, and filed a claim on it, but after eventually returning to Neosho he decided not to “prove” his Kansas claim but instead to marry Etta and remain in Neosho near friends and family. His logic was that Kansas was still too wild and untamed, and Neosho was better suited to raising a family.”

 

Tom NUTT married his sweetheart, Etta Orvilla GRIFFITH of Sarcoxie, Missouri, on March 31^st, 1893, and their first child, Claude Franklin NUTT, was born less than six months later on September 7^th, 1893 – proving the old pioneer adage that the first child can come at any time, but after that they always take nine months!  Tom the wanderer had been tamed, temporarily, but his days of travel were far from over.
 
According to information provided by Maryruth NUTT, Tom and Etta found a piece of land on the Old Pineville Road near Neosho that they liked, and because of its location they assumed it was owned by the railroad.  They made inquiries with the railroad about purchasing the parcel, but learned that the railroad did not own that particular piece of land – and it was available to claim under the Homestead Act.  They quickly filed a claim on what was reportedly the last land available for homesteading in Newton County.  They erected a cabin on the property and it became their original family home.    Tom and Etta called their new home “Bonnie Crest,” and Maryruth related that most of their children were born there.
 
Tom and Etta had a total of eight children as well as a couple of still births..  The children who survived all reached adulthood and all outlived their parents.  The eight NUTT children were:  Claude Franklin (September 7, 1893 – July 19, 1980), Mable May  (September 20, 1896 – January 7, 1979)), Ethel Blanche (June 3, 1898 – May 3, 1968), Ina Eskil  (August 21, 1900 - September 18, 1980), Hazel Josephine (July 28, 1902 – October 29, 1975), Daisy Orvilla (February 13, 1904 – March 5, 1963), Robert Eugene (February 19, 1908 – April 14, 1998), and Lawrence “Earl” (August 27, 1911 – March 21, 1973).
 
Spouses of the children of Tom and Etta NUTT were as follows:   Claude (Jeanette A. CUSHMAN),   Mable (Charles SOUR),   Ethel (Walter “Jack” MACY),   Ina  (Lewis Eggleston JOHNSTON),   Hazel  (Charles Eugene MACY),   Daisy  (1. V. Desmond WHEELER, 2. E.T. LINDBLAD), Robert   (1. Verna Unknown, 2. Gladys Unknown), and L. Earl  (1. Isabel WOODWARD, 2.  Ruthella M. WADE).   Earl's first wife passed away at a young age in Riverside, California, and Bob divorced his first wife.

During the years preceding World War I, Tom and Etta's oldest child, Claude, bought a news stand in Nesoho.  His parents apparently helped out with the business.   Etta sold papers and was listed as the "collector," and Tom delivered some papers.  The news stand moved into a permanent location on the Neosho Square while it was being run by the Nutt family, and it remained on the Square until well into the second half of the 20th century.  The following article from "The Neosho Times" on January 25, 1917, (page 5), tells about Tom being robbed of sixty-one cents by vagrants  as he was delivering newspapers:

"Tom Nutt, carrier for St. Louis papers, was held up at the alley on Brook Street between Ed. Haas' residence and the Planing Mill Sunday night by two men who compelled him to give them the 61 cents he had in his pockets.  After the robbers had searched him they told him to go on down the alley while they went down Brook Street.  Mr. Nutt climbed the fence and went to Ed. Haas' residence where he telephoned officers.  The officers started at once on a search and in about an hour two men were arrested in a box car near the elevator by Night Watch Severs and Joe Pearman.  These men were identified by Tom Nutt as the robbers who had taken his money.  One of them, a short man, had a pair of scissors and said he was a tailor.  They did not have a gun and Mr. Nutt is sure now that the short man used the scissors for a gun in making him hold up his hands.  It was so dark he couldn't tell a pair of scissors from a gun and very discreetly "took no chances."  The two men were taken before Esquire Pence Tuesday and fined $25 each for vagrancy.  They are now in the county jail.

 
In the early 1920’s Tom and Etta took their four unmarried children – Ina, Daisy, Robert, and Earl – to Florida with plans to work in the groves picking fruit.   The Orlando, Florida, City Directory had Tom and Etta listed as residents of that city in 1923, with Tom's profession being that of a carpenter.  While they were in Florida, Ina caught the interest of a young Florida man by the name of Lewis E. JOHNSTON.  When the family returned to Neosho, Missouri, Lewis followed along.  He married Ina in Neosho on August 27, 1924.  Shortly thereafter Lewis took his bride back to Florida where they raised their family and spent the rest of their lives.
 
Tom NUTT worked as a carpenter and a concrete finisher.   He built a couple of rooms onto the small house that his daughter Hazel and her husband Charles Eugene MACY received from Charles’ parents.   During the 1930’s Tom was often employed by the federal government’s new Works Progress Administration (WPA) where his plied his construction skills.
 
I requested Tom NUTT’s employment records from the WPA and was provided with time sheets going back to late 1933, which was about a year-and-half before the WPA was even formed.  The pre-1935 work as listed as being for the Civil Works Administration, a forerunner of the Works Progress Administration.  In the early days with the CWATom cleared $19.50 for every 30 hours of work.  Later, as a foreman with the WPA he was working 120 hours most months and taking home $90 for his efforts.
 
During the time that Tom NUTT worked for the federal government he was involved in the construction of the new courthouse on the Neosho Square, improvements to the National Fish Hatchery in Neosho, and general street projects in Neosho.  The courthouse and fish hatchery are still in operation ninety years later.
 
Tom and Etta moved to the area around Los Angeles, California, where they remained for much of World War II in order to be near three of their children who lived and worked in that area:  Daisy, Robert, and Earl.  A brief article in the "Neosho Daily Democrat on April 4, 1941, had this to say regarding their move to California:

"Mr. and Mrs. T.F. Nutt, long-time residents of Neosho, have disposed of their property on Coler Street and have gone to Corona, Calif. with the intention of making their home there, where they have a number of relatives."

After the war Tom and Etta returned to the Neosho, but Tom was not done traveling..
 
Etta apparently suffered a stroke sometime in the late 1940’s and spent her last couple of years in a disabled state.  After she passed away from congestive heart failure on June 13^th, 1950, Tom began shuffling between the homes of some of his children.  In the early summer of 1955 he made his final trip to California.  I know about that journey because I was with him – at least for most of the trip.
 
I was seven-years-old and had just finished first grade.  My little sister Gail was four.  Our family was in the driveway of our home in Goodman, Missouri, loading our luggage and supplies for our first-ever vacation to see Dad’s relatives in California.  Just as we were about to leave, my Dad’s aunt, Ethel NUTT MACY came wheeling in with Grandpa NUTT in tow.   She announced that we would be taking him to visit his children in California.  After some discussion, Grandpa NUTT got in the backseat and sat between my sister and myself.  My mother, who was not happy with the situation or with my dad’s pushy aunt, did a slow burn most of the way to California!
 
It was a long, arduous trip that was done on the cheap.  The Macy’s would never waste money on things like motel rooms, and most meals were homemade sandwiches in the car.  It would have been a stressful trip without Grandpa NUTT, but his presence certainly made things harder to endure.
 
Somewhere in Arizona, I suspect around Yuma, our travel adventure came apart.  Grandpa NUTT became disoriented and decided that he was being kidnapped.  He began swinging his old cane around in the crowded car, striking all of the occupants – with Gail and I catching the brunt of his attack.  My parents left him at some sort of care facility in Arizona and phoned dad’s Uncle Bob in Los Angeles to come and collect his problem father.
 
Bob NUTT drove to Arizona and picked up his father and then took him to his home in the Los Angeles area.  Once he got him home, Bob looked for the old man’s wallet and couldn’t find it.  Grandpa NUTT told him that the people he was riding with were planning on robbing him, so he had hidden his wallet in a gas station restroom.  Poor Uncle Bob got in his car, drove back to Arizona, and was actually able to find the wallet where Grandpa NUTT said that he had hidden it!
 
Grandpa NUTT’s first trip to California had probably been on foot sometime around 1890.  His final trip out west had been with a carload of thieving kidnappers!  What a life that old man had led!

In handwritten notes that my father, Garland Eugene MACY, left, he described his grandfather, Tom NUTT, this way:

"My Granddad Nutt (Tom) was a carpenter, a little wiry guy with a good disposition.  He helped my family a lot.  He died when I was 34, so I got to know him pretty good."

 
Tom NUTT passed away in Neosho on May 14, 1958 and was laid to rest next to Etta at the Belfast Cemetery in rural Newton County.   His obituary ran in “The Neosho Daily News” on May 15^th.

 

“Thomas F. Nutt, Rt. 2, Neosho, died at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday at Sale Memorial Hospital after a four week illness.  He was born in Neosho and had lived here his entire life.

 

“Mr. Nutt was a concrete finisher.  His survivors include five daughters and three sons.  Mrs. C.E. Macy Rt. 3, Mrs. Jack Macy, Sr. Rt.2, Mrs. Daisy Lindblad, Temple City, Calif., Mrs. Ina Johnston, Winter Garden, Fla., Mrs. Mable Sour, Joplin, Robert, El Monte, Calif., Earl, Riverside, Calif., and Claude, Wichita, Kans. 

 

“Funeral services will be conducted from the Clark Funeral Home Chapel at 3:30 p.m Saturday with burial in the Belfast Cemetery.”

I like to think that the old traveler, my great-grandfather, was preparing to set off on another adventure!

The Senate's Bitter Red Edge

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

One of Kamala Harris's first official duties yesterday as the new Vice President of the United States of America was to swear in three new US senators.   After the three - Alex Padilla of California and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia - were duly sworn in, the Senate officially had fifty members from each party.  In that event, the title of "majority party" in the Senate goes to whichever party also has the ability to cast the tie-breaking vote, a responsibility that belongs to the Vice President.  And, as of noon yesterday, the Vice President is a Democrat.

So the Democrats are officially the majority party in the US Senate for the first time since 2014.  But a 50-50 membership still leaves room for constant surprises as individual votes shift around on various matters.

Yesterday afternoon, after the new senators had been sworn in, there was a significant vote in the upper chamber as the Senate voted to confirm the first official member of the Biden Cabinet.  Avril Haines was confirmed to the post of Director of National Intelligence by a vote of 84-10, with six members not voting.

As a rule, voting to confirm cabinet selections is a matter of routine and a courtesy that is extended by members of the Senate to the incoming administration, except in cases where the nominees enter the process as controversial or become controversial during the confirmation hearings.

Ms. Haines stirred the concern of Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas who had questions about her response to a particular question in her hearing.  Cotton placed a hold on her nomination until she answered his concerns, and he ultimately withdrew the hold and wound up voting to confirm her.  But ten others, all Republicans, did not.

The ten negative votes may have revealed themselves to be the core of the problematic senators with whom Biden will have to deal.  Those voting against Haines were:  Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Mike Braun of Indiana, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Mike Lee of Utah, Roger Marshall of Kansas, James Risch of Idaho, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and, of course Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

The new Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell of Kenrucky, did not have a problem with the nomination of Avril Haines - and neither did Republican Policy Committee Chairman Roy Blunt of Missouri.  Heck, even Tommy Tuberville, the outspoken new GOP senator from Alabama, supported her confirmation.  

Ms. Haines was an appropriate selection, someone with the training and experience to handle a very demanding position, a person who was relatively controversy free.  Her approval was a foregone conclusion - a routine courtesy to the new administration.  

But ten voted against her.  Those ten have now identified themselves as senators with politically based agendas who bear watching.   If they feel emboldened to fly their flags of dissent on this relatively non-controversial matter, they are likely to stand in opposition to the majority of what the Biden administration tries to accomplish. 

Those ten are likely to become the Senate's bitter red edge - and it's good to know who they are.

Hit the Road, Trump - and Don't You Come Back No More!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist 

There was a very funny and uplifting video circulating on Twitter yesterday evening.  Unfortunately the video was fake, but it was still wickedly funny, nonetheless.  

The video showed a military band marching past the White House while loudly playing "Hit the Road Jack!"  The video was old footage of a military band taken in front of the White House some other time, and the music was apparently a recording of the song as it had been performed by the Ohio State University Marching Band and then cleverly dubbed into the video.

Did I mention that it was hysterically funny and extremely uplifting?  I retweeted it with wild abandon.  The devil made me do it!

I am so pleased that I lived long enough to see Donald Trump driven from power.  His insufferable arrogance, bigotry, greed, gluttony, and general nastiness pulled us apart as a nation and weakened us as a world power.  I'm tired of the pandemic that the Trump administration tried to ignore and did little to contain.   I'm wearied by the inherent racism extolled by travel bans and border walls, and I'm damned angry about white police continually being cast as peacekeepers as they beat down and kill black Americans.  People who deny rights to others based on race are not "fine people," and I am tired of hearing that they are.

A leader who mocks a disabled individual mocks us all, and I resent that cruel affront to common decency.

And I am worn down and worn out by the lies - and lies - and lies - and never-ending noise!  

But now Trump is in the air flying to Florida - his last trip aboard Air Force One - and all is finally quiet - and decency once again prepares to reign across the land.

God grant Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the wisdom and strength to get the United States back onto the path to greatness!

It's a new day in America - and the darkness has flown off to Florida!

Three Ladies of January

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

January would seem to be a very good time for bringing baby girls into the world.  Just this past Sunday, a mere two days ago, we witnessed the birthdays of two exceptional American women:  Michelle Obama, the woman who showed the world how vital and important a nation's "First Lady" could be, had her fifty-seventh birthday, and Betty White, a lady who has been a television star almost since television first began, turned ninety-nine.   And today another female American icon is having a birthday:  Dolly Parton is seventy-five!

I've never seen Michelle Obama or Betty White in person, nor is it likely that I will ever have that privilege.  But I did see Dolly many years ago - when she was in her twenties - at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield, Missouri.  It was a great show that included Dolly's famous singing partner - of that time - Porter Wagoner.  Dolly, the buxom blonde with the voice of an angel, and Porter with his own pretty hair and a sequined jacket - they were quite the pair!

Porter Wagoner was a native of West Plains, Missouri, the town where I currently live.  He performed locally here in his youth, and made a few trips back to West Plains as an adult.  One of our major streets here is named after him.  Last year I was bragging to my barber about having seen Dolly in Springfield while I was in college, and he one-upped me by saying that he had seen her on the square in West Plains singing from atop a hay wagon!

Never try to upstage a local!

Did you know that Dolly Parton wrote the song "I Will Always Love You" that Whitney Houston turned into a monster hit?   And did you know that she wrote it for Porter Wagoner?  Well now you do!

And did you know that Dolly Parton is a genuine philanthropist, one who has supported a wide variety of charitable causes including child literacy and hunger relief, and who donated a million dollars for research on a COVID vaccine?  Well, now you know that, too!

Happy birthday to three ladies of January - and thank you all for making our lives so very much brighter!

Silence from Trump Is Golden

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

"Speech is silver, silence is golden"

That old saying, which some believe originated with Muslim philosophers more than a thousand years ago, reminds us that sometimes a bit of silence can be more powerful than the spoken word, and there are certainly times when silence is much more appreciated that a string of pointless chatter.

I developed a new appreciation for the power of silence over the last week or so after Twitter at long last dared to silence - permanently - the personal account of Donald John Trump.   It wasn't until that glorious event happened that I started to realize just poisonous Trump's speech on the Twitter platform had actually been.

There are all kinds of ways that a person as powerful as a national leader can express himself and get his thoughts out to the public, but Trump's preferred method of communication had always been Twitter.  Tweeting was expedient.  It allowed him to get his message out quickly, in short bursts that were aimed at inciting rather than inspiring.  Trump quickly learned that wherever he went with his tweets, the mainstream press would rush along behind and dutifully turn his musings into major stories - and on days when the national narrative was not going to suit Trump, a tweet could quickly redirect the press and the public's attention.

Donald Trump was loud, and mean, and arrogant, and blatantly dishonest on Twitter, day-in and day-out, for four solid years.  His tweets were big noise aimed at drowning out decency, and they were wedges that sought to divide us as a nation.

But now Twitter has pulled the plug on Trump and we are suddenly thrust into vast amounts of silence - soft, restful, invigorating silence - and it is very golden indeed!

Thank you, Twitter, for shutting Trump up by shutting him down!

Three Generations Span Forty-Six Administrations!

by Pa Rock
Family Historian

Over the years I have used Pa Rock's Ramble to preserve fiction that I have written, family history and stories, book and movie reviews, tales of the farm, travel adventures, and plenty of political rants.  It has, at times, also functioned as a scrapbook where I preserve stories from the press that capture my interest.  For instance, I wrote a couple of pieces about the fellow on the Greyhound Bus who cut off the head of the passenger sitting next to him late one night as their bus rolled across the Canadian prairie, and I have at times  printed items of interest, at least to me, about Queen Elizabeth's dogs, or even her kids.  Today's entry falls into that "scrapbooking" category.  It is something that I read on the internet yesterday and wanted to preserve for the enjoyment of any researcher who has to dig through The Ramble centuries, or even weeks, from now.

This story also ties in nicely with our nation's next presidential inauguration - that of Joe Biden - which will occur this Wednesday.

John Tyler, the 10th President of the United States, was the first Vice-President who was elevated into the Presidency.  He took over as President in early 1841 when his boss, William Henry Harrison, died just 31 days after being sworn in as President.  Tyler, a Whig, had a tumultuous four years in office which included an attempt by Congress to impeach him, the death of his first wife, and a marriage to a much younger woman.    He was ultimately denied his party's nomination for a second term.   John Tyler left office in March of 1845 - a little over 175 years ago.

John Tyler had been born on March 29, 1790, in Virginia just eleven months after George Washington, another Virginian, was sworn in as our nation's first President.   Tyler died in Richmond, Virginia, in 1862 during the Civil War.

The article that I came across yesterday had to do with Harrison Ruffin Tyler, a grandson of John Tyler - and also a Virginian.   Amazingly Harrison Ruffin Tyler, President John Tyler's grandson (the son of Tyler's son, Lyon Gardiner Tyler), is still alive and kicking.  President John Tyler's grandson is 91 and lives in a Virginia nursing home.  (Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States at the time of John Tyler's death - although, at that time, Virginia was no longer a part of the United States.)

John Tyler had more children than any other US President - fifteen - and Lyon Gardiner Tyler was a child from the second, younger wife.  Lyon Gardiner Tyler was born in 1852 when his father was a spry 62-years-old.  Lyon Gardiner Tyler, in turn, was 75-years-old when he blessed the world with Harrison Ruffin Tyler.

Harrison Tyler's older brother, Lyon, Jr., died this past October at the age of ninety-five.

And this Wednesday, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the grandson of a man who was born when George Washington had been President less than a year, will be able to switch on his television, using a remote control, and see Joe Biden sworn in as our country's 46th President.  (Or he might pull it up on his laptop or listen to it on his smart speaker.)   That is quite a stretch of history for just three generations of one American family!

Not many of us can boast of having a grandparent who was alive during the administration of George Washington - during the first year of his first term, no less!

No Honor Among Thieves

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump have more than just a lawyer-client relationship.  The two old New Yorkers have run in the same circles for years and are friends of longstanding.  And while some question Rudy's legal abilities and even his mental acuity, Trump has seen fit to entrust the aging former Mayor of New York City with his legal maneuverings as he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election with a variety of legal challenges.

Rudy was Trump's guy, and he dutifully charged at every windmill as both old men did their damnedest to change the results of a free and fair election.  But none of those windmills fell.   

On January 6th everything came apart.  Congress was meeting to certify the electoral votes and officially declare Joe Biden the winner, but Trump, who believed that his Vice President could derail that process and invalidate the election, had encouraged people to show up in Washington, DC, for the purpose of intimidating the Congress.  That morning Trump went out on the Ellipse and addressed a large group of tattooed hillbillies and other Trump supporters, many of them armed, and encouraged the maladjusted miscreants to march on Congress.  Rudy was there too, and he spoke to the crowd of a "trial by combat."  Then both of the old men tottered back into the White House to watch the revolution on television.

The crowd went to the Capitol, forced their way in, and spent the morning creating havoc.  Five died as a result of the invasion, many more were injured, and damage to property was extensive - and before another week had passed Donald Trump had been impeached for a second time, this time for inciting a riot.  Congress was not happy, the country was not happy, and Trump, who never takes responsibility for anything, began casting about looking for people to blame.

And Donald Trump, who has a long and well known history of being a deadbeat, and in particular of stiffing his attorneys, turned on Rudy.  Trump informed his closest aides to quit paying Rudy, and he also instructed them to begin going over Rudy' travel expenses with a fine-tooth comb.

Rudy, whose legal expertise had produced nothing of apparent value in Trump's struggle to remain in office, had been billing the Trump campaign $20,000 per day, plus expenses, for his services.  He was over -charging, but it made no difference because Trump wasn't planning on paying anyway.

In the end Trump got what he paid for - nothing, and Rudy was compensated with an amount relative to the value of his services - again, nothing.  

And this coming Wednesday the government of the United States of America will be blessedly rid of the both of them!

Ancestor Archives: Louella Pritchard (1871-1954)

 by Rocky Macy

Louella Pritchard

At the time of her birth on December 5^th, 1871, Louella PRITCHARD was already a 4th generation resident of Newton County, Missouri.  Louella’s mother, Julia Ann MARTIN had also been born in Newton County (1852), and Julia Ann’s father and grandfather had settled in the county by the mid-1840’s.  

Louella PRITCHARD married William Stephen MACY on April 3^rd, 1887.  She was fifteen-years-old and William was a far more mature twenty-five.   Individual photos of the two taken at about that time suggest that they were a strikingly handsome young couple. 
 
Louella was a life-long resident of Newton County, and when she passed away on June 6^th, 1954, in Neosho, she had 133 living descendants, many of whom were also residing Newton County.  The impact that Louella PRITCHARD MACY had on her county and her community was far-reaching and immeasurable.

Louella was the oldest child of Eugene Marshall Stanley PRITCHARD, an Arkansas transplant to Missouri,  and Julia Ann MARTIN.  According to the 1940 US Census, Louella had an 8^th grade education.   It was not long after she completed the 8^th grade that Louella became a bride.

 
(There are several variations of Louella’s given name on different historical records.   She was listed as “Luella” on her marriage record in 1887 and on the 1920 US Census, as “Lu” in the 1900 US Census, and “Louella” in the 1910 and 1930 US Censuses,  and “Lou Ella” in the 1940 US Census.    Her death certificate recorded her given name as “Louella,” as did her obituary, and her tombstone reads “Lu Ella Macy.”  I have also seen the pushed together form of “LouElla” used to refer to this lady, and a letter to her from her grandson Wayne MACY who was serving overseas in World War II was addressed to “Mrs. Lue Macy.”  I have chosen to go with the more common “Louella” for this biographical sketch.)
 
Louella and William Stephen MACY had seven children, six of whom survived their parents.  They were:  William “Arnold”  (1889-1963),  Claude (Edgar or Everett) (1891-1930),   John “Orville”  (1893-1978),   Amia Bell  (1895-1977),   Walter “Jack”  (1898-1974),  Charles Eugene  (1900-1972),  and  Ina “Pearl”  (1903-1989).   
 
William Arnold MACY married Annie L. Gay WILLARD;  Claude E. MACY married Byrl Lelia WALKER;   John Orville MACY married Ida Belle CRABTREE;  Amia Bell MACY married Harry BUZZARD;   Walter Jack MACY married Ethel B. NUTT;  Charles Eugene MACY (my paternal grandfather) married Hazel Josephine NUTT;   and, Ina Pearl MACY married Cloyce Otis (Jack) L0WE.   (Ethel and Hazel NUTT were sisters.)
 
William and Louella were married young, and even though their marriage lasted more than fifty years until William’s death in 1938, the union was not without difficulties.   There was a ten-year period between 1918 and 1938 in which William published three notices in Neosho area newspapers where he disavowed debts incurred by Louella, clear indications that there was trouble in the marriage.  Those notices follow:
 

Neosho Daily Democrat, June 25^th, 1918:
Notice
“Neosho, Mo, June 22.  After the above date I will not be responsible for any debts contracted by my wife, or for any checks written by her or anyone else signing my name.  W.S. Macy”

Neosho Daily Democrat, December 15^th, 1925:
NOTICE TO PUBLIC  
“This is notify anyone concerned that I will not be responsible for any debts made or checks signed by anyone but myself.  W.S. Macy”

Neosho Daily News, January 7^th, 1928:  
NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC
“My wife having left my bed and board, I will not stand good for any debts made by her or cash and checks issued by her.  W.S. Macy”

Part of the friction between William and Louella may have centered on her spending habits.  I remember listening to a conversation between my father, Garland Eugene MACY and his younger brother, Tommy Dean MACY.  Uncle Tommy was talking about their grandmother, Louella, and said, “Do you remember, Garland, how Grandma would buy anything – whether she needed it or not – if the salesman would let her have it on credit?”  William, who made his living farming and buying and selling land, may have not felt that he was in a position to support his wife’s careless spending.
 
After William Stephen MACY died in 1938, Louella spent most of the remaining sixteen years of her life residing in the home of her daughter, Ina “Pearl” LOWE in Neosho.   Pearl and her husband, Jack, ran a taxicab company in Neosho before, during, and after World War II.   (After my father, Garland MACY, completed school at the rural school of Westview - which only went through tenth grade - he moved to Neosho and lived with the LOWEs while he finished high school.  He also worked for their cab company.)
 
A discussion of Louella PRITCHARD MACY’s later life would not be complete without a mention of her most notorious bad habit:  she enjoyed smoking a corncob pipe, and, according to my father, could usually be found sitting on the front porch of Pearl’s house in Neosho with her bare feet propped up on the porch railing while she smoked her pipe.  Dad said that some of the people in Neosho regarded it as scandalous behavior.
 
My mother had issues with Louella’s pipe.  I was just barely six when Grandma Louella passed away, but I have a few memories of her sitting in our kitchen smoking and talking while Mom stayed busy with household chores like cooking or ironing.   Grandma Louella would light her pipe by striking a long kitchen match across the wooden bottom of our kitchen table – and every time the pipe would go out she would strike another match.  Those matches left long black marks on the underside of the table, and after Louella would finally leave, my mother, a fastidious housekeeper, would crawl under the table and scrub off the black marks – and she would have plenty to say as she did it!  
 
When my little sister, Gail, would get fussy or angry, Mom would invariably start calling her  “Miss Pritchard!”
 
My aunt (by marriage) Mary Olive DAY moved to Neosho from Kansas City when she was in high school.  She later married my Dad’s oldest brother, Wayne Hearcel MACY just before the outbreak of World War II.  Aunt Mary tells the story of walking home with her new Neosho school friend, Jane LOWE, one day and being surprised to see a little old woman sitting on Jane’s front porch smoking a corncob pipe.  She said she was kind of shocked, but Jane reassured her that it was just her grandmother - and she enjoyed the pipe!
 
Aunt Mary also said that there was some irritation among Louella’s grandchildren because she seemed to show a preference for her grandson Wayne – which Mary said was because Wayne (whom Mary later married) “was so cute.”  In a letter to his grandmother dated January 1^st, 1944, Wayne, who was then serving with the US Army in Wales, seemed to play on her fondness for him.  (In the salutation Uncle Wayne refers to the old lady as “Grunt,” which is apparently a nickname or a name with some special meaning to the two of them.   Here is what he had to say in that V-Mail:
 

“Dearest Grunt, 

Hello my Sweet, and how are you these days, spry as ever I know. 

I ought to be ashamed of myself because I don’t write more often, but you are so hard to keep track of.  I tell everyone to give you my love and I (am) 100% ok.   Just homesick naturally. 

Are you staying home much this winter? 

I told mother to give you some pictures of me, did you get them? 

Well my Darling, bed time.  Tell them all hello and to write. 

Always thinking of you. 

Wayne”

My father, Garland Eugene MACY, who was three years younger than his brother, Wayne, described his Grandmother Macy in handwritten notes this way:  

"My grandmother Macy, (LouElla) died when I was 30, so I got to know her better, even lived with her one time as did most of her grandkids.  She was the greatest.   (She) smoked a cob pipe and would let you get away with anything."
 
One of the few trips that Louella PRITCHARD MACY took beyond the borders of Newton County, or at least outside of Missouri, occurred in 1942 when she was apparently the chaperone on a road trip with three of her grandchildren.  In March of 1942 my father, Garland MACY, aged 17, and Jane (aged 17) and Buddy LOWE (aged 7) drove from Neosho to Fort Riley, Kansas,  to visit Jane’s boyfriend who was stationed there.   My Dad and Jane were probably planning on having a great weekend on the road until Aunt Pearl LOWE, Jane’s mother, put little Buddy and Grandma in the car with them!
 
Here is the article that ran in the "Neosho Daily Democrat" on March 6^th, 1942, about that trip:
 

“Jane and Buddy Lowe, Garland Macy, and their grandmother, Mrs. W.S. Macy, drove to Ft. Riley, Kansas, last weekend and visited Grady Colvin who is in camp there.”

 
Twelve years after that Buddy Dean LOWE, then 19, was himself in the Army and stationed at Ft. Bliss, Texas.  On February 2^nd, 1954, the following piece ran in "The Neosho Daily News:"
 

“Pvt. Buddy Dean Lowe who has just completed his basic training at Ft. Bliss is spending the day in Neosho.  He is visiting his grandmother, Mrs. W.S Macy of Ford Street, his sister and family, and will go on to Stella to visit his other grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. R.L. Lowe.  Pvt. Lowe will be stationed at Ft. Bliss following his leave.”

 
Louella, who had been in residence in Buddy’s home for most of his life, undoubtedly enjoyed getting to see her grandson one last time.  She passed away just a little over four months later on June 6^th, 1954.
 
The obituary of Louella PRITCHARD MACY ran in “The Neosho Daily News” on June 7^th, 1954:
 

Mrs. Louella Macy
 
Mrs. Louella Macy, 82, died in Sale Memorial Hospital at %:10 o’clock Sunday morning. 

She is survived by six childen, Arnold, Orville, Charlie and Jack, Sr., of Neosho, Rt. 4, Mrs. Harry Buzzard of Neosho, and Mrs. Jack Lowe of Joplin;   40 grandchildren, and  87 great-grandchildren. 

Funeral services will be held at the Belfast Church of Christ at 2;30 o’clock tomorrow afternoon with Rev. James Hall of Monett officiating. 

Burial will be in h Belfast Cemetery under the direction of Thompson Funeral Home.

 
Today Louella PRITCHARD MACY’s legacy lives on through hundreds of descendants.  She was a unique individual who lived life on her own terms – and if her corncob pipe wasn’t buried with her, it should have been!