And how's ol' Whats-His-Name?

My husband gave me a Kindle a year or so ago.  I just love the thing.  I get books from the library and play games on it.  Lately, with age creeping up on little cat feet, I got some of those memory games.  Mom had dementia and couldn’t remember too much, but she was 92.  Not bad, but I figured might as well do the best I can to stave it off for the next 30+ years.

The games really help.  When I first started I could barely score a 14 on one game and now I score a 23.  Not that the score tells you much, but I’m improving.

The Kindle is a great little device to travel with, and since we are down here in Irvine, California this week dividing up our mom’s estate, I brought it along.

I was mighty glad that I’ve been playing those memory games when my brother asked me to go along with him to church.  Mom was one of the founding members of this particular branch, and when we lived here, I was a member.  When we moved to Seattle, I’d attend when down visiting, so I’ve known some of these people since the 1970’s.  There were lots of us who were young moms together, having babies, starting playgroups, sending Christmas cards, and hearing about the families as we went along through life.  Since I am here going through one of life’s passages, it was good to connect and remember old times.

It was great seeing old friends, especially Diane.  We don’t exchange Christmas cards anymore, so I wanted to hear all about her family.  She told me all about her son and daughter, then I got a shock when I asked about her husband.  Foot in mouth time!

“And how’s Steve?” I asked.

“Steve?” she some slightly perplexed.

OMG I thought. She looked so surprised.  Don’t tell me he’s passed away and I didn’t know.  How awkward.

“Steve moved to Texas,” she said.

“What?” I said.  They got a divorce!  I can’t believe it.  They’ve been married as long as I have.  This is shocking.  She seems so calm.  How did I not hear of this?

“Yes, he got remarried!”

“Oh,” I gulped.  “I guess I’m really behind the curve.”

“Yes, he and Carol bought a place there and just love it.  There’s a few others from the church that have moved to Texas too.”

How many others had gotten a divorced and moved to Texas?  What’s in Texas, I wondered.

“Oh yes,” Diane went on, “Steve moved away some time ago.”

I think at that point my brother took my elbow and steered me to the door as all I could do was stammer about being behind the curve and who knew.

“I didn’t realize that you and Steve were such good friends,” Diane called after me.

Really? I thought.  I’ve only known him for over 30 years.

As my brother propelled me out the front door, I was shocked to see none other than Steve himself standing in the bright California sun.  Now I was really messed up.  Was it something I ate?  Was it those new essential oils I’ve been using?  Did I have heat stroke?

“Oh hi Bob,” called my brother to him.

Oh, geez.  Of course, her husband’s name was Bob, not Steve!  How could I?  Thirty years!  That Steve guy she was talking about?  I suddenly remembered him too.

I’m going to go right home and start playing more of those memory games on Kindle.  Now, if I could only remember where I put it…

America: From Rural Times, Through Steam, to World War II—The Guts and Glory Years Discovered in Dearborn, Michigan

It’s tempting to look back on the agricultural years of the past as being romantically perfect.  Yanking us out of the past was no easy task.  It took brilliance and dedication to discover the machinery that would not only change our economy, but change our thought.  As new inventions occurred, they moved us from a nation that used slaves to one with a new character.  The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village depict the change in America from rural times, through the steam era, and through WWII. A trip to Dearborn presented not only a museum full of inventions, but insights into our national character.

The Firestone Farmhouse, demonstrates life as it was in rural years.  Yes, they eat the pigs they raise.  The picture here on the right is of hams they have raised and smoked.  They heat water and launder clothes by hand.  They have a charming little parlor, but also an outhouse.

At the Henry Ford Museum, steam power is displayed, from mighty locomotives that got the nation moving to mine equipment.

My friend Sue by two steam engines.

The textile mills girls stood long hours at their machines, but it pales to the slave labor in the cotton fields.  

Mill girls from 1850.                                                             A replica of Thomas Edison's Menlo Park.


The struggle to move the United States past a slave labor economy has outdistanced the social challenges of race relations, and you can see the chair in which Lincoln was assassinated  as well as the bus in which Rosa Parks defied the system.

 

At Willow Run airport, the B-17 is still available to scare the pants off you and bounce you around in the air until you wonder how anyone could keep their breakfast down.  The sheer guts it must have taken to get in a newfangled machine like this, go up in the air and get shot at.

I asked the man at the Henry Ford museum what was one idea he’d like to see visitors come away with, and he said that change was necessary to development, that stagnation was our enemy, and that new ideas take work and failure, on the road to success.  As a historian, I'm grateful to those who came before us, but find glory in the future.

When You Grow Up...

When you grow up, if you become a forest ranger, I will climb up your mountain and visit you.

When you grow up, if you become an engineer, I will drive across your bridge.

When you grow up, if you become a pilot, I will fly on your plane.

When you grow up, if you become a garbage collector, I will put out my garbage for you.

                                           

When you grow up, if you become a concert pianist, I will come hear you at Carnegie Hall.

When you grow up, if you become an oceanographer, I will get in my submarine and go to the SeaLab to visit you.

When you grow up, if you go off to Africa to study elephants, I will go on safari and find you. 

When you grow up, if you become a fashion designer, I will wear your dresses.

When you grow up, if you become a captain on a boat, I will go a-sailin’ with you.

When you grow up, if you are happy, I will dance with you.

When you grow up, if you are sad, I will sit with you.

When you grow up, if you want to call me, I will listen.

For I will love you all my days.

And even after all my days, Memories will come and sit beside you and you will never be alone.

For love is greater than all of these.