Matt Gaetz has a Very Bad Day

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Another day, another GOP sex scandal.

Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz did not have a very good day yesterday.  The 38-year-old Republican who is in his third term in the House was forced to go on the defensive when someone leaked a story to the New York Times alleging that Gaetz was being investigated by the Justice Department for violating sex-trafficking laws.   The investigation reportedly centers on reports that Congressman Gaetz paid for a 17-year-old girl to travel with him a couple of years ago - and that Gaetz was having sex with the minor.

The Times noted that "Federal statutes make it illegal to induce someone under 18 to travel over state lines to engage in sex in exchange for money or something of value."  The Associated Press then confirmed through an unnamed third party with knowledge of the case that Gaetz was indeed under investigation to determine if he had violated sex-trafficking laws.  

Gaetz is denying that he ever had any type of relationship with a 17-year-old girl.  He also said:

“I have definitely, in my single days, provided for women I’ve dated.  You know, I’ve paid for flights, for hotel rooms. I’ve been, you know, generous as a partner. I think someone is trying to make that look criminal when it is not.”

Gaetz said that he and his family are the victims of an organized criminal extortion to the tune of $25 million dollars, and he indicated that the extortion was coming from within the Department of Justice.  He said the FBI had been investigating that matter when the story of him being investigated by the Justice Department was leaked to the New York Times.

Yesterday before the sex-trafficking story broke, there were reports in the news that Gaetz was telling friends that he might resign from Congress before his term ends, and would then accept a position with Newsmax.

Congressman Gaetz, a bachelor who has recently become engaged, made news last summer when he suddenly revealed that he had an adopted 19-year-old son, a young man from Cuba whom he had adopted seven years earlier when the lad was twelve.   Up until that disclosure Gaetz had officially described himself in biographies as single with no children.

Ironically, when Congress passed a bill in 2017 to increase funding for law enforcement to combat human-trafficking, Matt Gaetz was the sole member of Congress (House or Senate) to vote against the measure.  He probably won't be highlighting that vote in any future political battles.

Vaccine Passports? Bring 'em On!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

After a very long year of sitting at home, I am more than ready to get out and resume my retirement travels.  To that end, I have three important documents at the ready:  my passport, which I had renewed for 10 years in the fall of 2019, about six months before the pandemic began, my COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card which has no identifying information other than my name and date of birth, and my brand-spanking-new driver's license which is also a "real I.D."    The photo on my passport is of an old fart with short silver hair who is clean shaven.  The one on my real I.D. looks more like Gabby Hayes than it does the fellow pictured on my passport.  And the shot card, of course, has no picture at all.

In the event that I wind up having to board a passenger plane this year, I will have all three of those documents on my person.

Yesterday, after receiving my "real I.D." in the mail, I sat down and studied the plastic card.  It resembled by old driver's license but had a couple of other features indicating that it was legitimate and less likely to be copied or forged.  As I looked over the special markings and raised numbers, I thought about how simple it would be to have that identification card contain more information:  an emergency contact, for instance, and important medical information such as blood type, allergies, and a record of inoculations.

Right now the Biden administration is struggling to come up with a plan to verify who have and have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus.  While whipping out a card to prove that you have been vaccinated against the dreaded disease sounds like something anyone would be happy to do, America is saddled with way more than its fair share of conspiracy nuts and people with an irrational fear of their own government - and they see every effort by government to protect them as some "big brother" plot to steal their information, track their movements, and generally control their lives.

This whole notion of a machine-readable shot card is drawing fire from the paranoid element in American society.  Conservative figures like congressmen Jim Jordan of Ohio and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia have condemned the plan as government overreach, and Florida's irrational governor, Ron DeSantis, is vowing to quash the notion of vaccine passports through an executive order.  It almost feels like some of these people are rooting for the success of the pandemic over the health of the nation.

I'm not scared of my government - at least not any more - and I would like to have some way to better insure that I rub elbows with as few vaccine-deniers and COVID-deniers as possible.   If they are proud of their ignorance, let them proudly display that ignorance on mandatory government I.D.s  before they are allowed to mix with people who have a higher regard for their own health and safety.

Vaccination passports are a move in the right direction.  Bring 'em on!

Lindsey's Got a Gun

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Now that John McCain is no longer around to tell him to sit down and shut the hell up, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina seems to be constantly in the news.  Even crusty old McCain, who himself managed to squeeze two or three Sunday morning news shows into his schedule each week, might be impressed at the amount of time that Lindsey.dedicates to sniffing out news crews.  If only he had something newsworthy to say!

Over the past few days Lindsey has traveled to our nation's southern border along with seventeen of his senate GOP colleagues to draw attention to immigration issues and to try to scare Americans into believing that a.) there is an out-of-control crisis at the border, and that b.) that crisis somehow originated with Joe Biden and has absolutely nothing to do with the four years of cruelty inflicted upon immigrants and refugees by Donald Trump and his sadistic administration.   The trip to the border was great political theatre that generated lots of fine campaign film footage.

Then after a pair of mass shootings - Atlanta and Boulder - Lindsey tried to quiet rumblings about the need for more effective gun policies by telling America about his own cherished AR-15, a fully automatic weapon that he has for protection in his South Carolina home.   He shared a scenario in which some natural disaster hits, and then "gangs" begin attacking private homes - like his own - in search of loot - or food - or whatever.  "Gangs" is South Carolinian for two or more young black men standing together on a street corner, or anyone lined up at a taco truck trying to buy a Pepsi and a burrito.

Yesterday Lindsey went onto some of John McCain's old haunts - the Sunday morning news shows -  and accused Joe Biden of playing the "race card" when he rightly pointed out that Georgia's new spate of racially motivated election laws were a continuation of the South's infamous "Jim Crow" legislation from the last century.  Lindsey's Fruit-of-the-Looms got themselves into a big old knot over that, yes they did! 

This week Lindsey Graham will be in the news again - and again - and probably yet again.   He just can't help himself.  And when he's not speaking to reporters, or on the floor of the Senate trying to thwart government assistance to the poor, he will probably be sitting at home in his camo jammies and bunny slippers - and lovingly stroking his AR-15 as he fantasizes about driving those immigrant hordes back into Mexico!  

And as Lindsey Graham races across the bloody, burning sands of the Sonora Desert, firing his trusty AR-15 with one hand and lobbing grenades with the other, John McCain's voice comes booming in above all of the chaos yelling "Lindsey, sit down and shut the hell up!"

Sinema Is Making Some Dumb Choices

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Chuck Schumer would like to have the iron-fisted control over Democratic senators that Moscow Mitch has over Republican members of the Senate, but as long as West Virginia's Joe Manchin claims to play for Democratic team, that is unlikely to happen.  Manchin has a long history of placing his own interests above those of party or country.  And now, by being the maverick Democrat in an evenly divided Senate, Manchin sits in the sweet spot of being the key vote on many important issues - and key votes attract a lot of attention - and cash.

In an evenly split Senate, one rebellious senator can be a major pain in the ass - and one is plenty of bad news for the affable Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, but Democrats, being Democrats, have a long history of not being the best team players.  Earlier this month after the Senate parliamentarian had ruled that a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour could not be considered in the COVID relief package as a part of the budget reconciliation process, Bernie Sanders tried to push it into the package anyway through a legislative maneuver, but eight Democratic senators voted against the Sanders move and the effort died.

One of those eight Democrats was Senator Krysten Sinema of Arizona.   Sinema had no doubt caught Schumer's attention a bit earlier when she announced that she opposed doing away with the filibuster, a legislative ploy in the Senate that requires a super-majority of 60 votes in order to pass many pieces of legislation.  Sinema and Manchin were both opposed to removing the filibuster from the Senate voting process.

And now she was voting against a measure that would open the door to substantially increasing the minimum wage for many Americans.  But Senator Sinema didn't just vote to block a pay raise for impoverished Americans - she did it with dramatic flair.  When it came time for the senator to cast her vote, she marched down to the front of the chamber, announced her vote, and gave the motion, quite literally, two thumbs-down!

While the senator's motivations for casting her vote in such a flamboyant manner remain unclear, what is becoming obvious is that her adolescent theatrics are not playing well back home in Arizona.  This morning Daily Kos published results from recent Civiqs Polling that suggests Sinema's constituents are not amused.  That polling, which compares her popularity to Arizona's other Democratic senator, Mark Kelly,  has her overall rating at 29% favorable and 40% unfavorable compared to Kelly's 48% favorable and 41% unfavorable.  It also shows her being seriously behind Kelly among both Democrats and Independents.

Senator Sinema may feel that nudging a few more Republicans into her column will help her win future elections, but those votes will be useless if she loses support among her Democratic base and independents.

Arizona is turning blue, Senator Sinema.  You can either ride that tide to a long career in public service -  or you can be washed away by it.   This would be a great time to smarten up!

The Passing of Two Literary Giants

by Pa Rock

Reader

Two of America's pre-eminent authors passed away this week, both on Thursday.

Beverly Cleary, the author most closely associated with bringing realism to children's and adolescent literature died at the age of one-hundred-and-four in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.  Ms. Cleary was a former winner of the National Book Award, the Newbury Medal, the National Medal of Arts, and the "Living Legend" award from the Library of Congress.  She has been credited with writing that makes young girls feel confident about themselves.   Her best loved characters are the memorable Henry Huggins, and Henry's neighbor Beezus Quimby and her little sister, Ramona Quimby.  Their adventures have entertained children for generations.

I will admit to never having read any of Beverly Cleary's many books and that even includes during time that I spent taking children's and adolescent literature courses in college - and that omission, I am certain, is my loss.

I have, however, had a great deal of exposure to the other author who died on Thursday.  Larry McMurtry passed away in his hometown of Archer City, Texas, at the age of eighty-four.  Archer City was the dusty Texas town that served as Thalia in the movie "The Last Picture Show, which was based on a novel by McMurtry.  "The Last Picture Show" was, in my opinion, the best American movie ever made.

My first experience with Larry McMurtry's work was watching the movie "Hud," a Paul Newman film that was released in 1963.  It was based on McMurtry's first novel, "Horseman, Pass By."  In college I read his book, "All My Friends are Going to be Strangers," and I liked that so well that I re-read it just a few years ago.  And then in the mid-1980's I joined the rest of the world in reading "Lonesome Dove," McMurtry's epic novel of the old west that went on to win the Pulitzer Prize.  McMurtry later won an Oscar for co-scripting the movie "Brokeback Mountain" with Diana Osana, another exceptional motion picture.

Larry McMurtry's writing credits, especially for novels and screenplays, seem almost endless, and his works have been brought to life by some of the most talented actors in the history of American film.  He wrote five pages a day, and only five pages,  throughout most of his life, and those pages quickly piled up into a monumental body of work.

The impact that both of these late authors had on the landscape of American culture is profound.  Beverly Cleary and Larry McMurtry, though they had little in the way of common interests, both used their time on earth to tell tales that will forever influence how we see ourselves and the world around us. Both were gifted storytellers and true giants of American literature - and both will be sorely missed.

Maglev Trains: The Future Awaits

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

 

Magnetic levitating trains sound like science fiction, but the fact is that they already exist in three countries - China, South Korea, and Japan - and plans are in the works to expand them into several other nations.  A few brave souls have even begun discussing the idea of starting some limited maglev rail lines within the United States, but wild notions such as that would likely not go unchallenged by America's oil and gas industries.

The "maglev" concept is exceedingly simple in design.   Instead of running on a pair of rails, like traditional trains or even suped-up "high-speed" public transports like Japan's famous "Bullet Train," this new generation of trains travel on one rounded rail.  Strong electro-magnets attached to the underside of the train cars and to the rails attract and repel each other to raise the train off of the rail (or "levitate" it) in air a few inches above the rail, and then pull and push the car into motion.  As the train speeds along without actually touching the rail that is guiding it, there is no friction from large metal wheels to slow it down, and its speed can increase to well beyond what the traditional trains, or even "high-speed" trains can do.

Right now maglev trains are being built that have the ability to run over 300 miles per hour.  The air between the train and the rail does cause a small amount of friction which limits the potential speed of the trains, but technology is quickly being developed that will circumvent that hurdle and will allow for the creation of even faster trains.

The technology is already here, and if the infrastructure was in place, people in the United States could travel, in the comfort of extra-wide train cars, from New York City to Los Angeles in under eight hours!

Right now there is some talk within the halls of our government about making major improvements in rail travel in the US, but most of that talk is centered on increasing the routes of the more traditional "high-speed" trains that operate on the existing rail system.  That method has more political support than the "maglev" option because it would be cheaper to implement.  Many existing rails could be updated and used for high-speed trains, but maglev would require a totally new one-rail system - probably an "elevated rail" that would not interfere with existing highways and rails.

However, once the large expenditure for a new elevated, single-rail system had been made, operation of the maglev trains would be much cheaper than operating traditional diesel or electric-powered trains, and maglev trains produce almost no pollution - and are quieter.  By riding on a cushion of air, there is essentially no wear-and-tear on the undercarriages of the trains, which translates into less money being spent on repairs.  Maglev trains can make tighter turns than normal trains, and are far less likely to jump the track, and if they are on elevated tracks they will not be subject to crashes with vehicle traffic.  Also maglev trains can climb steeper grades than traditional trains which would create less need for tunnels or long routes around mountainous features.

In short, maglev trains are cheaper to operate than traditional trains, and they are faster, safer, and greener - but as long as the United States remains under the strong political influence of the airline and fossil fuel industries, the notion of magnetic levitating trains is likely to be ignored by our government and treated as though the whole notion was nothing more than Buck Rogers' science fiction.

But the truth is that that they aren't science fiction.  Maglev trains are operating in some of the more advanced parts of the world today, and at some point the United States of America will enter the 21st century of transportation - whether it wants to or not!

Ancestor Archives: Eugene Marshall Stanley Pritchard (1851-1921)

by Rocky Macy

Eugene Marshall Stanley Pritchard was born on July 11, 1851, in Jacksonville, Pulaski County, Arkansas, to Marshall S. PRITCHARD and his wife, Caroline (possibly HOLLAND).   “Gene,” as he came to be known, married Julia Ann MARTIN in Newton County, Missouri, on February 20, 1870.  Gene PRITCHARD passed away in Newton County, Missouri, on July 11, 1921.

 
Eugene Marshall Stanley PRITCHARD was my great-great-grandfather.
 
Gene PRITCHARD was unique in that he died on his 70^th birthday.  There is no existing tombstone for Gene, and his death certificate proved to be the best source for determining his actual date of birth.  The original Missouri death certificate had left the line for his date of birth blank and in the section which delineates the deceased’s age in years, months, and days, a section which is usually completed, it had “70” for the years and the spaces for months and days were left blank.  All of that could indicate that he had died on his birthday, at 70-years-of-age, with no additional months or days to report.  But then a supplemental form was attached to his death certificate specifically to include his date of birth – which was reported on that document as July 11, 1851.
 
There is one contradictory piece of evidence regarding Gene PRITCHARD’s date of birth, and that is the 1900 census for Newton County, Missouri, which lists his birth date as June of 1851.   Census takers, however, are often less reliable than coroners and medical people who fill out death certificates.  The census taker in 1900, for instance, listed Gene’s name as “Eugine Jutchard.”
 
The public record on Gene PRITCHARD is exceedingly light.   Marriage records in Newton County, Missouri, show that he married Julia Ann MARTIN there on February 20, 1870.  He was mistakenly listed on the marriage certificate as “Mr. Hugh G. Pritchard,” a name which sounds like “Eugene.”  That mistake has played out through the work of several family researchers who mistakenly refer to him a “Hugh Eugene.”
 
Gene and Julia Ann PRITCHARD had three children:  Louella December 5, 1871 – June 6, 1954)) who married William Stephen MACY, Andrew Marion (April 3, 1873 – December 31, 1932)) who married 1. Belle HOLMES, and 2. Maud May MARTIN, and Walter (August 13, 1877 – August 2, 1933) who married Minnie PETERS.
 
In addition to Gene’s name being wrong on his marriage license, it was also misspelled or incorrectly noted on each of the four US Censuses that managed to record him.  In 1870 he and his bride, Julia Ann, were living with his parents, Marshall and Caroline PRITCHARD in Lost Creek Township of Newton County, Missouri – and his name was recorded as “Eugene Prichard.”  In 1900 "Eugine Jutchard” and his wife, “Julian Jutchard” were in Neosho Township of Newton County along with their 22-year-old son, Walter.  The 1910 census found “Eugene M.O. Pritchard” and his wife, “Juliene Pritchard” living by themselves on their farm in Neosho Township, and in 1920, the year before he passed away, “Eugene Richards” and “Julia A. Richards” were still on the farm in Neosho Township.
 
Gene’s full name was clearly spelled out on his death certificate as “Eugene Marshall Stanley Pritchard, and his son Walter PRITCHARD, who was forty-three-years-old at the time of his father’s death, was the informant.    A second source for his formal name would be the application for a marriage license between his oldest child, Louella, and William S. MACY which is on file with the Newton County, Missouri, Clerk’s Office.  Louella, whose name was spelled “Luella” on that document, was only seventeen-years-old and she had to have a parent consent to the marriage.  The document noted that she was under the age of eighteen years, and “E.M.S. Pritchard, father of Luella Pritchard, (was) personally present and giving his consent to issue of license.”
 
The origins of Gene’s full name are unclear at this point.  “Marshall,” of course was his father’s name.  And two land claims cite the father’s middle initial as “S,” which could be for “Stanley.”   Wherever “Eugene” came from, it managed to stay with the family.  Gene’s only daughter, Louella, named her youngest son “Charles Eugene MACY” (my paternal grandfather), and his second son was my father, “Garland Eugene Macy,” and my middle name is “Gene.”
 
And that basically represents the entire existing public record regarding Eugene Marshall Stanley PRITCHARD – with a couple of minor exceptions.
 
There are some very poor quality black-and-white photos in Betty TUGGLE BELL’s book, “MACY Family,” which she compiled in 1998.  One showed five individuals standing in front of a house and the caption read:  “Luella (PRITCHARD) MACY, Ina Pearl (MACY) LOWE, Aunt Matt (W.S. MACY’s sister), W.S. MACY, and Pa PRITCHARD – Valley Street, Neosho, Missouri. “   Ina Pearl was the youngest child of William and Louella  (PRITCHARD) MACY, born in 1903 – and she appears to be an older teen or young adult in that photo, so it would have been taken not too long before “Pa” PRITCHARD passed away in 1921.  In that photo Gene appears as an older gentleman with white hair, a receding hairline, moustache, and a slender build.
 
The other historical encounter with Gene PRITCHARD involves his burial.  Both his and Julia Ann’s death certificates indicate that they were buried at New Salem Cemetery in Newton County.  That cemetery was started with an acre of land donated for the purpose of being a cemetery by her uncle, Hezekiah M. MARTIN, a wealthy farmer in that area.  
 
A survey of New Salem Cemetery by Janet Ehrhart Wright in April of 2007 (which is available on the internet) did not find a grave marker for Gene or Julia Ann PRITCHARD, but I did come across their stones while walking through the cemetery back in the 1980’s.  It was at a time when I was just beginning family research and I walked the old cemetery just to see which dead relatives I could encounter.  I was more focused on MACY tombstones, but as I stepped across an overgrown depression that almost looked as though a small creek might occasionally flow through it, I saw two small stones.  One was Julia’s and the other Gene’s.  I don’t remember anything about Julia’s, except that it was nondescript and not imposing, but Gene’s almost appeared to be homemade.   It said simply, “Jean Pritchard.”
 
“Jean.”  One final indignity for a man whose name was spelled differently by almost every official with whom he came in contact, and a man who marked his 70^th birthday by passing away!
 
Rest in peace, Old Timer, and know that your great-great-grandson thinks he spelled your name correctly and got your birthday right!

On the Right to Safely Shop for Groceries

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Even if there was some uniquely American, constitutionally-sanctioned right to walk around carrying a fully-automatic weapon  - which there clearly is not - that right would still not "trump" my right to buy groceries without without constantly ducking from aisle to aisle in fear of running into some heavily-armed, deranged moron who is having a "really bad day."   There is no "right" for angry young white men to compensate for their sexual shortcomings and impotency issues by marching out into the civilized world with what is essentially a bullet-spiting, penis-extender strapped to their backsides.

In a capitalist economy, such as the one we have in this country, I not only have a "right" to shop, I am heavily encouraged to do so.    Merchants advertise and rollout special bargains to lure me into their stores.  And I comply.  I go to town, walk through the stores, and spend my money.  My father was a small town merchant, and I have an affinity for small, family-run businesses.

But hear this world, I will not shop in stores that allow those pot-bellied, Rambo-wannabes to roam the aisles carrying assault weapons.  America learned to shop at home during the pandemic, and if stores refuse to keep customers safe by banning weapons from their premises, then the trend to on-line shopping will continue to grow.  We know now that the US Postal Service, FedEx, or UPS will bring toilet paper, potato chips, or anything else that we order on-line right up to our front doors.

This past Monday evening a young man walked into a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, carrying  fully automatic weapon.   He didn't stay long.  The man opened fire on the shoppers and killed ten - including a 51-year-old cop who was a the father of seven.  When he had either sated his bloodlust or shot all of the moving targets that he could see, the killer put down his AR-15 and allowed police to calmly take him to jail.

Poll after poll shows that a majority of the American public favors stricter gun-control legislation - as do a majority of law enforcement officials.  The public wants commonsense things like mandatory background checks on everyone buying a weapon, whether it is from a licensed gun dealer or a private individual - and they want a waiting period long enough to insure that the government has time to properly do those background checks. Most people are also opposed to the private ownership of military style assault weapons as well as to individuals being able to own high-capacity ammunition magazines.   Military assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in the hands of ordinary citizens are for show and/or for killing large numbers of human beings quickly.  They are not used for hunting squirrels, rabbits, or deer!

Every now and then Congress or some maverick state legislature shows signs of some backbone development favoring gun restrictions, but then Wayne LaPierre of the NRA puts on one of his fine Italian suits and snarls his displeasure at legislators daring to put the public interest ahead of the profits of gun manufacturers, and the legislative courage evaporates like so much fog in the sunlight.

Now, however, there are indicators that the NRA influence over legislators may be on the wane.  For one thing the lobbying group seems to have been fleeced by some of its leaders - like the one with a closet full of fine Italian suits - and the money that it once lavished on politicians is no longer available in such large amounts.  And some (a few at least) politicians are getting braver as people favoring saner gun legislation - like Mark Kelly of Arizona and Lucy McBath of Georgia - are being elected to office.  They see now that it is possible to put commonsense limits on gun ownership without committing political hari-kari. 

And then there is that wildcard "consumer" element of the equation.

Some states and some communities allow the open and/or concealed carrying of different types of firearms, but they do so a a definite risk to the public.  Sometimes businesses have a choice as to whether they allow guns on their premises or not, and sometimes they have no choice.  But consumers always have a choice of where they do their shopping, and if a consumer feels that shopping at a particular store poses a risk to their health and safety - or to the health and safety of family members - that consumer will spend his money elsewhere.

This consumer damn sure will!

I vote, and I consume, and I say whatever is on my mind!

Birthday Scattershot

by Pa Rock

Ancient American

I woke up this morning to the realization that I had made it to another birthday, my 73rd.  I know it's my birthday because I had birthday emails awaiting me from a dear friend in Japan, my bank, my eye doctor, and the Missouri Lottery. The folks at the lottery even sent me a coupon good for a free one dollar lotto ticket - which I will use later today.

I finally gave up on the lottery a few months ago and have been saving piles of dollar bills ever since.   I did the math and figured out that people who play regularly are far more likely to lose than they are to win, but I will redeem the lottery's free one dollar coupon because you never complexly know for sure - do you?

One of my beautiful granddaughters phoned early this morning to wish me a happy birthday, and the other signed a card that her family sent.  In fact, I have heard from all six of my grandchildren!  Yesterday afternoon I walked out to the mailbox and found four birthday cards - jackpot! - which I added to the three others that I had already received as a part of a nice display on my coffee table.  (And today's mail isn't even here yet!)

I've seen two studies on the internet that claim a person has a slightly higher probability of dying on their birthday than any other day of the year.  Maybe that's why people tend to enjoy their birthdays - because they sense that they have beaten the odds.  That has been on my mind, not only because I have always had a whiff of a notion that I might "go" on my birthday, but also because I am currently writing an ancestor profile on one of my great-great-grandfathers who died one hundred years ago this July 11th - on his 70th birthday.

What a let down that would be!

There is a club for people who died on their birthdays, but it doesn't meet often.  Some members include Renaissance painter Raphael, William Shakespeare (the Bard of Avon), actress Ingrid Bergman ("Casablanca"), feminist author Betty Friedan, gangster George "Machine Gun" Kelly, U.S. Vice President Levi P. Morton, artist Grant Wood ("American Gothic"), and King Kamehameha V of Hawaii.

And speaking of Hawaii, one of the seven cards that I have received was from my friend Valerie who lives on Oahu.  She sent a beautiful Hawaiian-themed card and some warm breezes and good wishes from the islands.

My daughter-in-law sent some much needed birthday sandals, my daughter in Oregon wrote to say that she will soon be paying her dad a visit, and my oldest son made French toast for my birthday breakfast.  (I am a French cuisine fan with an overt fondness for both French toast and French fries!)

All of that - and the sun is coming out!

Monday's Poetry: "Lines Written in Early Spring"

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

It feels like Mother Nature is aware of the calendrical fact that “spring” officially sprang this past Friday.  The grass is greening and the trees are budding.  I noticed this morning that the lilac bushes are already sporting tiny leaves.     The bulbs are sending up their foliage, with some of the small jonquils blooming and the narcissus – my most dependable bulbs - are getting ready to bloom.  The wild onions – they are bulbs also – have sprung up all over the yard, and while they don’t bloom, the first few mowings will send the scent of onion wafting through the neighborhood.
 
I am down to the bottom of the barrel on bird feed, and when it runs out later this week my little feathered friends from this winter will be on their own.  We do that dance every spring.  I know from experience that they will be hanging about the feeders expectantly for a day or two, but they will soon resume foraging like normal, healthy birds – and build their nests and lay their eggs and continue the cycle of life.
 
This spring feels especially welcome after what seems like the fourteen months of emotional desolation that we have just endured.
 
Today’s poetry selection is “Lines Written in Early Spring” by 19^th century British romantic poet William Wordsworth.   In it he seems to extol the dependability of nature and lament the sad impact that man often has on the otherwise wonderful scheme of nature.
 
Open the windows and welcome spring!

 

Lines Written in Early Spring
by William Wordsworth
 
I heard a thousand blended notes
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to mind.
 
To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.
 
Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ‘tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.
 
The birds around me hopped and played, 
Their thoughts I cannot measure –
But the least motion of which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.
 
The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.
 
If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason t lament
What man has made of man?

 

South Florida Is a Hotbed of COVID Activity

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Recently Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, has been busy lifting every restriction that he can find regarding the coronavirus pandemic.  He wants his state to be wide open to tourists from America's colder climes - and their money.   The pandemic is over in Florida because Ron says it's over. 

Except, of course, there is still a coronavirus pandemic in Florida - and it is raging - particularly in south Florida!

There is currently a COVID spike in Miami, a city which is also in the middle of a "spring break" crush of young revelers from across the nation.  Miami enacted an 8:00 p.m. curfew last night in an effort to clear the streets and restore some sense of order and safety.  Many of the public partiers, however, disregarded the city's order to clear the streets, and the cops had to be brought in.  Chemical agents were deployed, stampedes ensued, and the virus undoubtedly spread with wild abandon as people were herded up and down the city's street's like so many steers being driven to market.

 Meanwhile up the road in Palm Beach, parts of the Mar-a-Lago members-only club had to be closed due to a COVID outbreak.  The club, which is the home of one former US President, has recently hosted large charity events that appeared to be essentially mask-less and with little or no social distancing.  Now it has been revealed that because of COVID outbreaks among members of the club's staff, the dining room and beach facility have been temporarily closed.

So with COVID running rampant up and down the streets and beaches of Miami and even into the rarified air of private clubs, the state's governor thinks this is a great time to declare the pandemic deceased and lift all government restrictions that had been put into place to protect the state's residents from the dreaded disease.  Ron DeSantis, a man who is available to run for President if anyone wants him to, is a big supporter of personal freedom.   He believes that the government should not be in the business of restricting anything - except, of course, the voting rights of certain groups.

But that is fodder for a whole other posting.

Greene Wants to be Noticed

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Freshman US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is an attention-hound who constantly fights to be noticed -  but when the cameras turn her way she quickly assumes the pose of a victim.

This has been a red-letter week for the backwoods, gun-toting, conspiracy-spouting Georgia politician.  On Monday Guam's non-voting Representative to Congress stopped by her office - along with a uniformed contingent of the Guam National Guard - to drop off cookies and a tourist brochure, and even though Greene was out, she returned later and quickly began cranking out letters complaining about the military being used to "intimidate" her.

(That's the same Marjorie Taylor Greene who had posted a video of herself on social media stalking and harassing college student David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland High School massacre.   Greene has a history of promoting conspiracies alleging that some of the nation's mass shootings - including Parkland - were fake or staged productions.)

On Tuesday Greene fired off letters to the Secretary of Defense and the head of the National Guard to complain about the use of American military in partisan political matters.  And nowhere - nowhere - was there a single word of thanks for the cookies!

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy rushed to Greene's defense labeling the Guamanian cookie delivery a "political stunt."   That was presumably not long after McCarthy had unpacked from his own political stunt trip to the US southern border to pose indignantly for the press cameras.

Later in the same week a fellow representative, Jimmy Gomez of California, introduced a motion to expel Ms. Greene from Congress due to what he perceived as threats from her toward Democratic members of Congress based on her "liking" and "sharing" posts on social media that promoted violence against Democrats.  Gomez had seventy-two co-sponsors signed onto his bill to expel Greene from Congress, but Speaker Pelosi has already torpedoed his effort saying the Democratic leadership would not support the measure.  (It would take a vote of two-thirds of the House to expel a member of Congress - which, in addition to all Democrats would also require somewhere north of seventy Republicans voting to remove the member as well - an unlikely eventuality.)

But Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn't get bogged down in things like vote counts and the minutiae of governance,  She is just serving to make a spectacle of herself and to get noticed. She is undoubtedly focused on bigger and better things than just  being in Congress. With the right sort of luck and a boost from Fox News she might hit the big time and score a spot as Matt Gatez's Secretary of Defense.

Or maybe even his running mate!

Ancestor Archives: Mary Jane Meador (1834-1897)

by Rocky Macy

Mary Jane MEADOR was born on May 4, 1834 in Breckenridge County, Kentucky, to Thomas and Sarah “Sallie’ (SNYDER) MEADOR.    She married Charles MACY on February 19, 1852, at the home of her parents in Breckenridge County.  Mary Jane passed away in Newton County, Missouri on July 27, 1897.

 

She was my great-great-grandmother.

 

Charles and Mary Jane, both natives of Kentucky, began their married lives in Breckenridge County near all four of their parents.  While they were living there, Mary Jane gave birth to three children:  Robert Taylor (December 24, 1852), Mary Elizabeth (September 15, 1854), and Sarah Lydia (October 1, 1855).  Sometime after the birth of Sarah Lydia – probably in the spring of 1856 or 1857 – the young family removed to Edgar County, Illinois, along with several of their relatives, where they joined a wagon train headed to Kansas Territory.
 
(Kansas had been opened for settlement in the spring of 1854 by virtue of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  During the next few years many immigrants from other states flooded into the state - some seeking land and opportunity, and others trying to stack the populace politically with either abolitionists or pro-slavers.  The MACY family appears to have been seeking land and opportunities, and Charles MACY did not participate in the upcoming Civil War on either side.)
 
In March of 1857 Charles and Mary Jane settled near the new community of Emporia in what was then Madison County.   There, according to the book “Macy Family” that was compiled and published by one of their descendants, Betty TUGGLE BELL in 1998, they purchased land for $1.25 an acre.    The neighboring parcel of land was purchased by Jesse MACY and his wife, Theodocia (MEADOR) MACY, who had come to Kansas in the same wagon train as Charles and Mary Jane.  Jesse was Charles’ next younger brother, and “Docia” was Mary Jane’s sister.
 
According to Betty TUGGLE BELL’s account, Theodocia MACY died on October 20, 1861, presumably during childbirth, along with an infant, and is buried in Topeka, Kansas.  Jesse went back to Breckenridge County, Kentucky, where he was living when he registered for the Civil War draft in 1863.   He remarried in Kentucky and died in Breckenridge County on November 9, 1921.
 
Charles and Mary Jane stayed in Kansas for about ten years.    While they were there Mary Jane gave birth to four children:  Nancy Elizabeth (November 8, 1858), William Stephen (January 17, 1862), Martha Jane (January 23, 1864), and Rachel Frances (February 26, 1866).
 
The family moved from Kansas sometime after the birth of Rachel Frances and relocated to Newton County in southwest Missouri.  There they had two more children:  Charles Thomas (October 2, 1868), and Laura Isabel (November 26, 1874).
 
(The first two of the MACY children died young.   Robert Taylor passed away in either Kansas or Missouri on November 7, 1866, at the young age of thirteen, and Mary Elizabeth lived less than three months after her birth in Breckenridge County, Kentucky, and died there on December 11, 1854.)
 
The next five children – Sarah Lydia, Nancy Elizabeth, William Stephen, Martha Jane, and Rachel Frances – were all attending the Reding School in rural Newton County in 1872, and it would seem likely that the younger two children went to school there as well when they were older.   The Reding School became known as the Belfast School in the 1880’s.
 
My father’s double-cousin, Helen MACY PEARMAN, gave me a few handwritten records from the Reding School which I have sadly misplaced.   She also gave me another handwritten document – one page - that listed some of the children living in the area surrounding the Reding School, and that document I have managed to retain!
 
The document was an area “child census “ of sorts that listed the children of the surrounding community and specified which ones were attending the school by providing the ages of those children.  The names were on a formal register sheet that had been designed and printed for that purpose, and it was full, bearing the names of twenty-six boys in one column and twenty-six girls in the other.  The fact that it was full would indicate that there would have been at least one more page, but Cousin Helen apparently felt that I needed only this one because it contained the names of the five MACY children who were attending the Reding School at the time this “child census” was taken.
 
For the sake of posterity, I am going to list all of the children whose names appeared on that register.  If there is a number following a name, that indicates the age of the child and the fact that he or she was enrolled and attending school.  Those children without their ages listed were not attending the school.  The heading states that the information was collected between the first and third Saturdays in April of 1872.  
 
The boys were:  Frederich A. WILLERT (6), William WILSON (10), William MARTIN (16), William C. CARPENTER (14), Edmund T. SHEWMAKE, William R. SHEWMAKE, William T. JOHNSON (18), James H. JOHNSON (9), William C. JOHNSON (13), A.N. JOHNSON, John E. REDING (13), William J. REDING (9), William S. MACY (10), John C. VIRGIN, Lynn A. VIRGIN, Michael HALPIN (15), Lyda HALPIN (12), William F. BUZZARD, John S. BUZZARD (16), Jonathan L. BUZZARD (12), William A. SPEARS, Francis M. SPEARS (10), John H. SPEARS, Henry F. WILLERT (7), William H. BAKER, and Thomas BAKER.
 
Of the twenty-six boys, sixteen were attending school, and an astounding eleven were named William – including my great-grandfather, William S. MACY, who was ten-years-old at that time.
 
The girls were:  Martha REDING, Sarah A. SPEARS, Hetty H. SPEARS (12), Mary A. HALPIN (6), Charlotte SCHWEITZER, Elizabeth BAKER, Margaret A. BAKER (14), Louisa BAKER (12), Alvira BAKER (10), Minnie WILLERT (8), Angeline BURCH, Gellisfy A. MARTIN, Emma J. MARTIN (11), Martha E. CARPENTER (12), Nancy N. PIRTLE, Noreisfa A. SHEWMAKE, Lucinda T. SHEWMAKE, M.E. SHEWMAKE, Sarah Ann JOHNSON, Elisa W. JOHNSON (13), Lizzie JOHNSON (6), Sarah MACY (16), Nancy MACY (15), Martha J. MACY (8), Ratchel F. MACY (6), and Annie VIRGIN.
 
Fourteen of twenty-six girls were attending school, including four from the household of Charles and Mary Jane MACY.  (“Ratchel F.” on the roster should, of course, have been “Rachel F.”)  It’s interesting to note that the MACY family had five children who were old enough to be attending school, and all five were enrolled.  According to the 1870 US Census for Neosho Township of Newton County, Missouri, neither parent, Charles or Mary Jane, reported that they had attended school themselves, yet both claimed to be able to read and write.   (Though when Mary Jane signed a property inventory following the death of her husband, she did so with “her mark,” an “X.”)   Seeing that the children received an education was obviously a priority of at least one of the parents – and perhaps both.
 
Charles MACY passed away under mysterious circumstances in 1876.  At that time only their oldest surviving child, Sarah Lydia, had married and left home, and Mary Jane was left to raise the remaining six on her own.   Mary Jane lived another twenty years, long enough to see each of her seven surviving children married and with their own families.
 
Sarah Lydia married William Nathan SPEARS,  Nancy Elizabeth married John McNeal WHITE,  William Stephen wed Louella RITCHARD,  Martha Jane “Mattie” married William M. CRISWELL, Rachel Frances married 1. Aiden (Arthur) E. EDSON, and 2. William E. O’CONNOR, Charles Thomas became the husband of Minnie. A. HARGRAVES, and Laura Isabel wed William E. CARUTHERS.
 
According to the Macy family Bible that remained in the possession of the youngest child, Laura Isabel, Mary Jane MACY passed away on July 27, 1896, but her tombstone at New Salem Cemetery in Newton County, Missouri, clearly states that she died on July 27, 1897.  On the bottom of her tombstone is this:  “Mother is gone but not forgotten.”
 
And to this day her memory lives on.
 
(Post Script:  In her 1998 book, “Macy Family,” author and compiler Betty TUGGLE BELL included a recipe for “Cheese” that was thought to have been passed down from Mary Jane (MEADOR) MACY.  She said that the recipe had been used by several of Mary Jane’s granddaughters, and that she (Betty) had received it from her grandmother who was also one of Mary Jane’s granddaughters.  That recipe follows.)
 

Cheese:
 
One quart of cottage cheese (homemade from raw milk) run thru a food chopper to  make it fine.  Add one teaspoon of soda, one-and-a-half teaspoons of salt – and let it stand for half-an-hour.  Then mix in one tablespoon of butter and let it stand for two hours.  Dissolve one-quarter teaspoon of pimento cheese coloring (or pimento pepper) in one-half cup of sour cream.  Mix in pan with wide bottom and set it in a skillet of hot water and place it on the fire.  Stir until the white curds are dissolved.  Pour in mold and let it cool.  It takes about three small pimentos ground.

 
Good luck with that heritage recipe from the kitchen of Mary Jane (MEADOR) MACY!
 

The GOP's Dirty Dozen

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday the United States House of Representatives passed legislation to present the Capitol Police and the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department with Congressional Gold Medals for their heroic efforts in protecting members of Congress and the legislative branch of government during the rioting and insurrection of January 6th.  The measure also included a third gold medal to be presented to the Smithsonian for display and research purposes.

The bill to award those Gold Medals passed 413-12, with all Democrats and a majority of Republicans voting to bestow that honor on the brave police who had placed themselves between the rioters and the members and employees of Congress.

Speaker Pelosi described January 6th as "a day of horror and heartbreak."  She added that it was also "a moment of extraordinary heroism" when police put themselves between members of Congress and the violence.

While the legislation passed in a highly non-partisan manner, the twelve negative votes did all come from Republican members, and all but two of them were from states that had been part of the Confederacy in the Civil War.

(Several of the rioters had carried Confederate flags on long staffs through the Capitol Building during the insurrection, and some had even used their flags and staffs as weapons.  One Capitol policemen and four other individuals died during the attack, and there were numerous injuries and untold amounts of property damage.)

The members voting against the legislation honoring the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police were: Tom Massie (Kentucky), Matt Gaetz (Florida), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia), Andy Biggs (Arizona), Andy Harris (Maryland), Lance Gooden (Texas), Michael Cloud (Texas), Andrew Clyde (Georgia), Greg Steube (Florida), Bob Good (Virginia), and John Rose (Tennessee).

Some justified their negative votes by saying that they had been offended by the use of the term "insurrection" to refer to the events of January 6th in the legislation, and Rep. Gohmert submitted an alternative bill that dropped the use of that word.

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the number three Republican in the House hierarchy, termed Gohmert's alternative bill "outrageous."   She declared forcefully, "What happened on January 6 was an attack on the Capitol.  The officers who defended us, both Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police, all the law enforcement officers who defended us put their lives on the line - some lost their lives - and there should be no question that we're awarding people a gold medal for their actions that day."

But twelve Republican members of Congress did not see the events of that day in exactly the same way that Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney did.

The Senate passed a similar bill last month, but their version awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to just one person, Officer Eugene Goodman of the Capitol Police Department, the man who put himself between rioters and the Senate Chamber and misdirected the rioters elsewhere.  Now the two bills - the one from the Senate and the one from the House - will have to be "reconciled" into one bill to be approved by both bodies.

Perhaps then America will have a clearer picture of how our congressmen and senators actually feel about the men and women of our country's law enforcement agencies.    Do our national politicians really believe Blue Lives Matter - or is that just a handy political slogan that they use to fire-up voters?  Twelve Republican representatives have already given some indication of their true lack of support for law enforcement, and maybe now we will be able to see where the other members of Congress stand as well.

America is watching, Congress.  Tell us how you really feel!

It's Good to have Human Beings Back in the White House

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I respect Joe Biden's skills as a politician and his decency as a human being, but in all honesty I am not an ardent Biden political supporter.  Last year I voted for another candidate in the Missouri presidential primary, even though by the time that the "show-me" state finally got around to holding a primary, Biden was already the de facto nominee.  Being a practical and sane person, however, I did vote for Biden in the general election.  Practical and sane people really had no choice in the 2020 general election.

So far I am pleased with the Biden presidency.  I feel personally safe and I feel that the country is safe under his leadership, and that is clearly something that many of us never felt with his predecessor.   The nation seems less angry and much quieter on Biden's watch.  We don't wake up every morning to an onslaught of rage tweets coming from the occupant of the Oval Office, and minor political incidents aren't amped up to the level of national or international incidents.

Calm is prevailing, and I like calm.

But lest we forget how awful things were just a couple of months ago, the bills from that four-year fiasco are still coming due - literally.

Monday the Daily Beast ran a report saying that a political junket that the son-in-law of the last guy to inhabit that White House before Biden had resulted in a hotel bill in the amount of $24,335.  That, of course, would be an outrageous hotel bill for even an actual diplomat.  But Jared and Ivanka Trump won't unpack their bags in places where most Americans would feel comfortable and safe.  They're special.

That junket was in December after Ivanka's daddy had already lost his re-election effort and the Kushner's knew that their time on the public payroll was careening to an end.  At about that same time they moved out of the White House and into a private home in Washington, DC.  As a part of that move they spent over $100,000 of public money to rent an apartment across the street from their new digs because Ivanka refused to let those common Secret Service agents use any of the five bathrooms in her new home.

Another much ballyhooed instance of the Kushner's living large on taxpayer money occurred in 2018 when they took a weekend vacation to a resort in the Dominican Republic.  During that outing they spent $58,000 just for accommodations for their security detail.

Joe Biden is not be as noisy and as self-absorbed as the guy who was President before him, and I like that. I also like the fact that his family doesn't behave like they are all a bunch of entitled British royals.  

It'sgood to have human beings back in the White House!

The Bundy War on Government Rages On

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

As of a week ago more than three hundred people had been arrested in connection with the Capitol insurrection of January 6th, and it looks as though there will be plenty more to follow as those taken into custody quickly rat out their friends and co-rioters in an attempt to curry favor with the government they once fantasized about overthrowing.  And while the ranks of those taken into custody form a crazy quilt of colorful characters, a few stand out:  the Arkansas hillbilly who posed with his feet on Nancy Pelosi's desk  and then whined about being kept in a cell like a common criminal, the horned, tattooed, and painted shaman who demanded (and got) vegan meals while in the hoosegow, the princeling who requested to be released to the supervision of his parents - the same parents who had driven the get-away car as he fled the Capitol, and the Texas woman who asked the judge to release her from jail so she could go on a vacation that she already had planned before trying to overthrow the government.  

Poor babies, one and all.

So many characters, so many tales still to be told - and yet, quite oddly, so far no representatives of modern America's premier insurrectionist family - the Bundys of Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho - have been linked to the treason that took place at the US Capitol.  Perhaps the Bundys were too busy with their own causes to participate in the insanity fest that descended on Washington, DC, on January 6th.

The Bundy family first came to national attention in 2014 when the patriarch, Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who had for years been grazing his cattle on US government land while refusing to pay grazing fees, became involved in an armed standoff with the government when federal agents began rounding up his cattle.  Seven years later that case is still bouncing around the courts

Then Cliven's son, Ammon Bundy, and others seized control of a federal game reserve in Oregon in 2016 which they managed to hold for several weeks.  Ultimately one member of the group was shot and killed at a traffic stop by government agents, and the protesters were dislodged.   Some government errors in that case resulted in it being dismissed and charges dropped.

And now Ammon is in the news again.

Last year Ammon Bundy was arrested at the Idaho statehouse when he showed up to protest government measures to control the pandemic.  He was scheduled to appear in court yesterday to stand trial on charges resulting from that protest and arrest, but as Bundy tried to enter the courthouse in Boise he was stopped for not wearing a mask.  (Another danged government measure to control the pandemic!)   After being told that masks were required for entry, he declined to put one on - and was denied entry into the building.  The judge inside of the building responded by charging Ammon Bundy for "failure to appear," and he was promptly arrested and carted off to the local pokey.  Bond was set at  $10,000.

The Bundys probably see themselves as standing up to an overreaching government, a government that they fail to recognize as being legitimate, while others view them as outliers of society who regard themselves as being above the law.  Whatever their motivations, the Bundys are undoubtedly serving as an inspiration to other would-be "freedom  fighters" who see some romantic glory in trying to bring down the government that protects them and  provides them with the basic right of protest.

But there is a difference between peaceful protest and outright anarchy, and a nation without government and laws would be a nation without safeguards for basic human rights - and a very dangerous place to live.

If any of the Bundys move into my neighborhood, I hope that it's Al and Peg.  Them I could tolerate!

COVID Shots Should be Mandatory

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I heard on the news this morning that over seventy million Americans have had at least one COVID shot, and now literally millions are being given each day.  But that does not mean that we are out of the woods because clearly we are not.  Thousands of new infections are still being reported daily, and "spring break," an event when young Americans typically rush to warmer climes - places like Florida and Texas whose state governors literally ignore all safety precautions and, in some cases, make setting safety standards illegal - is upon us.

I also heard a few days ago that there is one element of the population that is proving exceptionally resistant to getting inoculated - rural supporters of the last guy to live in the White House, the one who left in abject humiliation on January 20th.  Not only is he not openly encouraging his supporters to get vaccinated, some of his acolytes appear to be openly advising against it.  Every other living US President is encouraging people to get the COVID shots, but not Fat Boy.  He and his porn model wife sneaked around and got theirs, but then declined to pass that valuable advice on to his followers.

It was good enough for me, but clearly not for thee.

My first inclination is just to bow to this mass ignorance and let natural selection rule the day - just one more proof that Dawrin absolutely knew what he was talking about.  But unless this disease is pulled up by the roots and allowed to expire in the bright lights of reason and modern medicine, it will still be with us, mutating, and eventually come roaring back in some new form.  So while I respect a person's right to die from being willfully ignorant, I cannot respect their "right" to live life on their own terms if that lifestyle leads to the death of others who have been following the rules of social order.

I didn't like being marched down the elementary school hall for polio shots more than sixty years ago, but it was part of the price that had to be paid for the privilege of living in an otherwise free and open society.  As the gun nuts like to wail, "Freedom isn't free!"

The last guy to serve in the White Hosue sneaked around and got his shot.  He didn't want anyone else to know because he was taking care of himself but didn't want his successor getting credit for ending the pandemic..  But a vaccination program is about more than just protecting oneself.  The ultimate purpose of mass vaccinations is to rid society of the scourge of a disease - and that won't happen until everyone participates.

And if government has to get a little pushy in order to protect us from ourselves, so be it.

Maybe getting vaccinated against COVID should be a requirement for receiving the next stimulus checks.

 

Back to Missouri

by Pa Rock

Road Warrior

Rosie and I are safely back home following another long day on the road.  Friday, as we headed to Kansas City, we drove through about 200 miles of hard rain, but on today's return trip we only had to suffer through about 90 miles of rain - though some of that was in Kansas City itself.  We made a few stops on the way home - and always in dry weather, which was nice.  We pulled in at the Osceola Cheese Store and bought some cheeses for my good neighbor Rex and his wife.  It was a 'thank you' because Rex had come by on his tractor during the big snow and cleared my driveway.  

A lady working at the Cheese Store told me as I walked in that they are now selling wine and had free samples.  I told her that it was too early (about 10:00 a.m.) - and walked away whistling "Never on Sunday."   I don't know if the Amish own that store or not, but it is definitely an Amish-centric business - so I thought the addition of wine to the inventory was interesting - and especially the free samples!

Other observations:  There is a homeless encampment in a park right next to the shops of Westport in Kansas City.  It looks as though a group of people are living under a large blue tarp.  When we pulled up in front of the half-price bookstore in Westport, we parked next to a nice car (nice by my standards) whose backseat and front passenger seat were completely full of trash - up to the car's ceiling.  (It reminded me of a mobile home that I visited once as a social worker.  That place had at least four feet of trash wall to wall, with a trail leading from the front door to a couch in front of the television.   Another time I was called in investigate a situation in a mobile home that was inhabited by a family and their kennel of eighty dogs!  There is a sub-sub-culture of poverty in rural America that is beyond the comprehension of most Americans - and certainly below the radar of our political leaders of both parties.)

They're tearing down the Macy's that used to sit as an independent building out close to the neighborhood where my son lives.  My understanding is that the company is closing stores nationwide.  (I hope they don't sell the Thanksgiving Day Parade to Walmart!). According to two large billboards that I happened to notice, Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede in Branson has been renamed Dolly Parton's Stampede.  I've never been, but I understand that it's a great place to watch people do acrobatics on running horses  - or ride racing ostriches - all while you are enjoying a nice meal!

(I fought an ostrich once.  I didn't want to fight, but he did - and he ripped my shirt right off with his large toe and claw!  After that whenever I went out to feed, I took along a garbage can lid that I used like a Roman shield.  Emus are sweet and docile - ostriches are not!)

The trip is over, and other than the time changing while I was gone there is nothing else to report.  The bird feeders are empty and the red birds seem to be preparing to protest en masse, so that it the next item on my agenda - and then I will come back inside and put away all of the booty from Costco!

Hasta mañana!

Pa Rock and Rosie Take a Road Trip!

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

Rosie and I are in the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City, our first trip up this way since late January of 2020.  Of course we had no idea when we drove out of town that last time that it would be so long until our next visit.   But America is starting to get vaccinated, I've had my shots, and here we are!

The drive up yesterday wasn't much fun.  We ran into heavy rain around Mountain Grove, Missouri, and drove through more or less steady rain until we reached Peculiar, Missouri - which is a suburb of Kansas City.  And, because it had been so long since I have made the drive, I managed to miss a turn in Springfield that cost us about an extra fifteen minutes on the road.  Potty breaks were also difficult, especially for Rosie who is no fan of going in the rain!

The only thing of interest that we saw on the drive up was a horse-drawn wagon with an Amish couple racing like hell along the side of the road to reach cover.  They were about a half-mile south of the famous Osceola Cheese Store and tour-bus-trap south of Clinton, a place that sells many fine Amish cheeses, jellies, and jams, so I'm sure the couple found sanctuary there - though the poor horse probably did not!

The big news from the trip so far is that I got a haircut, my first in fourteen months.  Tim took me to a "Great Clips," and a very nice lady got out her pruning shears and went to work.  By the time she finished there was enough gray hair on the floor to stuff a throw pillow!     Haircuts are great - I may get another one next year!  (And it's a painless way to lose weight!)

There was a political science professor at Southwest Missouri State years ago who would use this question in one of his exams in the intro course:  The capital of Missouri is  A. Kansas City.   B. St. Louis    C.  Jefferson City   D. Peculiar  - and he accepted "C" or "D'" as correct.  That's just more proof that some things never change!

Costco today - and probably more rain!

Ancestor Archives: Charles Macy (1831-1876)

by Rocky Macy

Charles MACY was born in Kentucky on February 4, 1831 to William Blain MACY and Mary Elizabeth “Polly” (HUFF) MACY.  He married Mary Jane MEADOR on February 19, 1852, in Kentucky and died on February 28, 1876 in rural Newton County, Missouri.

Charles MACY was my great-great-grandfather.
 
Charles and his young family migrated to the Kansas Territory from Breckenridge County, Kentucky, sometime after October of 1855 and, according to a territorial census of Kansas taken in 1859, they settled in Hartford Township of Madison County, Kansas, in March of 1857.   At that time his family was listed as having five members.  Although the other four were not named on that census (the territorial census only listed the names of voters), they would have been his wife, Mary Jane, and children Robert Taylor and Sarah Lydia who had been born in Kentucky, and Nancy Elizabeth who had been born the preceding year in Kansas.
 
Next to Charles MACY on that census was a “Jessie” MACY with his own family.  That MACY family had also settled in Hartford Township of Madison County, Kansas, in March of 1857, and it included a total of three members.
 
The following year the US Federal Census of 1860 clarified the situation somewhat because it listed each member of the families by name.   That census placed Charles MACY’s family in Hartford Township of Madison County, Kansas, as Family Number 598 in Dwelling Number 730.   Family members included Charles (age 28, born in Kentucky), Mary (26, Kentucky), Robert F. (7, Kentucky), Sarah L. (4, Kentucky) and Nancy E. (2, Kansas).
 
Family Number 599 in Dwelling Number 731, the next door neighbors, were Charles’ next younger brother, Jesse MACY, and his wife, Dosha (Theodocia), who was Mary Jane’s younger sister, along with their two children.   The census listed them as Jesse (age 26, born in Kentucky), Dosha M. (20, Kentucky), Roxana (4, Kentucky), and Thomas W.  (1, Kansas).
 
In her very fine 1998 family history book entitled "Macy Family," compiler Betty TUGGLE BELL, a descendant of Charles and Mary Jane (MEADOR) MACY described how the MACY brothers and their MEADOR wives came to Kansas from Kentucky:  

"In the middle 1850's Charles and his wife Mary Jane left Kentucky and along with Mary Jane's sister Theodocia and her husband Jesse Macy, Charles's brother, they joined a wagon train of immigrants that set out from Edgar County, Ill. and trekked to Lyon Co. Kansas.  There they purchased land for $1.25 an acre.  In this wagon train were Cornelius Pinson (wife was Eliza Meador);  Henry Stratton (his wife was Nancy Jane Macy);  Lucinda Macy Yeager (the widow of John Morgan Yeager);  Calvin Meadows;  Samuel Macy;  Robert Macy; and Ann Meadows (the widow of Gamaliel Macy).

(Betty's narrative said that the families located in Lyon County, Kansas, but that is not technically correct.  They arrived in Hartford Township of Madison County, as stated above.  That was in 1857.  Kansas became a state on January 29, 1861.  Two days later Madison County was eliminated and its land was divided between Breckenridge County to the north and Greenwood County to the south.  The MACY's were then located in Breckenridge County, Kansas.  Breckenridge was named after John C. BRECKENRIDGE who had just finished a term as James BUCHANAN's Vice President.  When the Civil War started, BRECKENRIDGE declared his affiliation with the South and went on to become a Major General in the Confederate Army.  Kansas, a newly formed "free" state, decided to rename Breckenridge County due to John C. BRECKENRIDGE's political leanings.  Therefore, Breckenridge County was renamed Lyon County on February 5, 1862.  That made three distinctly named Kansas counties where the two MACY families had lived  - and yet they remained in their same homes!)

"Find a Grave" on the internet states that Theodocia MEADOR MACY died on October 20, 1861, in Breckenridge County, Kentucky, and is buried there.  Betty TUGGLE BELL states in her "Macy Family" that Theodocia died in Kansas along with her daughter (presumably an infant during childbirth) and that they are buried in Topeka.  Regardless of where his wife passed away, Jesse was back in Breckenridge County, Kentucky, with the two older children by 1863 where he registered for the Civil War draft.   Jesse remarried a couple of years after Theodocia's death, and he remained a resident of Breckenridge County, Kentucky, for the rest of his life, passing away there on November 9, 1921.

 
Charles and Mary Jane MACY remained in Kansas for several years where they resided near the community of Emporia in Lyon County.   They relocated to Newton County, Missouri, sometime between February of 1866 and October of 1868 along with their older surviving children.  Two additional children were born once the family established their new home in southwestern Missouri.
 
The nine children of Charles and Mary Jane MACY were:   Robert Taylor (1852-1866), Mary Eliza (1854-1854), Sarah Lydia (1855-1937), Nancy Elizabeth (1858 – 1922),  William Stephen (1862-1938), Martha Jane (1864-?), Rachel Frances (1866-1934), Charles Thomas (1868-1939), and Laura Isabel (1874-1947).
 
The seven children of Charles and Mary Jane MACY who reached maturity married the following individuals:  Sarah Lydia (William Nathan SPEARS), Nancy Elizabeth (John McNeal WHITE), William Stephen (Louella PRITCHARD), Martha Jane “Mattie” (William M. CRISWELL), Rachel Frances (1. Aiden (Arthur) E. EDSON, and 2. William E. O’CONNOR), Charles Thomas (Minnie A. HARGRAVES), and Laura Isabel (William E. CARUTHERS).
 
Charles and Mary Jane and their family lived in a rural area of Newton County, Missouri, that became known as “Belfast” in the 1880’s.   The name was chosen at random from a list of available names provided by the government to the local merchant who ran the store where the community’s first post office was to be located.
 
At one time my father’s double-cousin, Helen MACY PEARMAN, (their fathers were brothers and their mothers were sisters – like the earlier families of Charles and Jesse MACY) provided me with a few hand-written records from the old “Reding School” which later became known as the “Belfast School.”   It was the school that the children of Charles and Mary Jane MACY attended.  In those records it was stated that Charles was one of the directors of that rural school.  It also showed an account of expenditures in which he was paid a small sum for selling firewood to the school.
 
I have since misplaced that record, and those facts are drawn from memory.
 
CHARLES MACY passed away less than ten years after moving his family to southwest Missouri.  According to probate records in Newton County, he died on February 28, 1876, at the very young age of forty-five.  At the time of his death he had six children still living at home and one daughter, Sarah Lydia, who had married and moved out a little over a year before.  The baby of the family, Laura Isabel, was less than a year-and-a-half-old when her father died.
 
My father told me that Charles’s fate was actually unknown.  He said that a group of masked men broke into his and Mary Jane’s house and abducted Charles - and he was never heard from again.  That was right in the middle of the time that the Bald Knobbers and other vigilante groups were riding roughshod across southwest Missouri (1855-1889).  Some of the vigilantes were settling grudges left over from the Civil War, but Charles had been living in Kansas at the time of the war and had not served either side in uniform.  Some vigilantes, such as the Bald Knobbers, also considered themselves to be adjuncts to law enforcement who were helping to keep the peace.   And some of the night-riders were focused on correcting abusive husbands by taking them out and whipping them – or even worse.
 
Whatever the circumstances of Charles MACY’s death, Mary Jane was able to file a claim on his assets in probate court six months later on August 31, 1876.
 
One indicator that the abduction story may be true is that Mary Jane, who passed away in July of 1897 and is buried at New Salem Cemetery in rural Newton County, Missouri, seems to be resting alone.  There is a stone for her, but none for Charles.  (Although “Find a Grave’ on the internet states that he is buried there also.) Charles’s estate was meager, so perhaps Mary Jane did not have the resources to procure a tombstone for him.    Her children were all grown by the time she passed away and some of them  undoubtedly could have purchased her tombstone.  Or, perhaps the abduction story is true and his body was never found – and hence no burial – but enough people knew the truth about what really had happened to him (masked neighbor co-conspirators) that they convinced the Court to go ahead and settle his estate.
 
It’s a mystery!
 
When Charles MACY disappeared and/or died in February of 1876, he left behind an estate of personal property valued at $245.25.  In a handwritten inventory of his worldly goods dated August 31, 1876 and filed with the Court by his administrator, H.H. BAKER, the estate, excluding real property of a house and land, consisted of:
 

"Five head of hogs  (valued at $4.00 per head ($20.00), one hog ($8.00), one black two-year-old mare colt ($25.00), one bay two-year-old mare colt ($18.00), one black four-year-old mare colt ($12.00), one red and white spotted cow and calf ($25.00), one roan cow and calf ($25.00), one lined-back red heifer ($12.00), one yearling steer ($4.00) One six-year-old bay mare ($45.00), one wagon and harness ($20.00), farming implements ($10.00), five bushels of wheat at 80 cents per bushel ($4.00), Invoices as juror for two days in the Brittin case in June 1875 ($3.00), and invoices as juror in the Thomas Ashley case in February 1876 ($1.50) – for a total of $245.25."

 
The invoice was signed with the mark of Mary MACY and with the signature “A. Hays” as the witness.
 
There was no obituary recounting the life of Charles MACY, and his entire existence on this earth is summed up with census entries that showed his movements during life as well as the names of his parents, siblings, wife, and children, an inventory of personal effects that reflected what he had managed to accumulate during his forty-five years of existence, and dates entered into an old family Bible.   The details of his death are not a matter of public record, but I suspect that the abduction story that my father related, and which had been passed down through family members, is as close to an actual accounting of his death as will ever be known.
 
Perhaps the most fitting legacy for Charles MACY is that for a brief while he headed a family that was able to survive his passing and carry the family genetics across generations.  As far as I know, every MACY in southwest Missouri today, and there are many, are descendants of him and Mary Jane.
 
Rest in peace, Charles, wherever your bones may be.