An old card and a bit of Mexican history

I could fill several hundred blog posts with little snippets of things I am finding in my box of old letters, but I will spare my readers that. However, I can't resist one or two anyway (well, maybe three or four - we'll see).

In April of 1954, my last semester at Drury College, I had an unexpected opportunity to go to Monterrey, Mexico for a week. It is the only time I have visited Mexico in my life (so far!). It came about because my French professor, Dr. Margaret Kidder, was also the Spanish professor, and although I was not a Spanish student, she invited me to join a Spanish class trip to Monterrey because she needed a driver of one of the vans. She said that the total cost to me for the whole trip would be only $75! I could not resist that. So I went and had a great time.

In the letter archive is a postcard sent home from Monterrey and a letter I wrote my folks after I got back describing the whole trip down through Texas, across the border at Laredo, on to Monterrey, our time there, sidetrips to Saltillo to a serape factory and to Horsetail Falls (on a burro!), and then back through Galveston, TX and Texarkana, Ark., (where I had lived 12 years earlier). Since Mexico and the southern border of the U.S. are so much in the news of late, I thought I would post a bit of this experience. I will post here part of the letter, the postcard,  a bit of explanation of the photo on the postcard and a bit about the history of illegal immigration.

My description of the trip to Monterrey, including a meal at a fancy nightclub and Easter services

Picture postcard sent to my parents from Monterrey on April 18, 1954

Message on the other side of the card

The card identifies the hotel in the picture as the one we stayed in, but doesn't name it. Research identifies it as the Hotel Gran Ancira, one of the classic old hotels in downtown Monterrey, built in 1912. It is still in operation, and fairly reasonable - you can get a room there today for $70.

A recent photo of Hotel Gran Ancira

The other feature in the photo on the postcard is a statue. I was able to identify it - it is a statue of the "Father of Mexico" - Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. Hidalgo was a Roman Catholic priest who started a revolution in the early 1800s which led eventually to Mexico's independence from Spain. Here is a bit about Hidalgo:

Father of Mexico’s Independence
by Angie Galicia

Late one September evening the name of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla became forever engraved in Mexico’s history.  Since that night, his life as well as that of Mexico, changed radically.

Before that historic moment when his voice cried out to demand Mexico’s independence from the Spanish crown El Cura Hidalgo, Father Hidalgo, as he was called, was exactly that — an old priest from a parish in the small town ofDolores, Guanajuato.  It was there that he organized meetings with the townspeople and taught the farmers to work the land.

He was an enthusiastic and hard-working man, always worrying about the well-being of his community.  To help the indigenous, he built an estate where he established a pottery shop, a tanning shop, a blacksmith stable, a carpentry store, and a looming shop.  In addition, he sent for bees from La Habana and introduced apiculture to the inhabitants of Dolores.

Up until that famous night, Hidalgo was a Creole priest, born in a hacienda in Pénjamo, Guanajuato in 1753, and Mexico continued as a Spanish colony, one of the most prosperous ones though full of social injustice.

Hidalgo’s liberal ideas led him to join forces with a group of people who opposed the Spanish dominance. Together with this group of liberals, among them IgnacioAllende, Aldama and Abasolo, they reached an agreement in Queretaro to begin a revolution in October of 1810.  However, they were discovered and forced to move up the date to September 16, 1810. 

Hidalgo took the banner with the image of  Our Lady of Guadalupe and, ringing the church bell, he gathered many faithful Catholics from his parish to listen attentively to Hidalgo‘s speech.  He talked to them about Spanish oppression and about the impending need to free themselves from Spain.
The angry people shouted: “Long live independence!  Long live America!  Away with bad government!”  With that, the armed battle began which would give birth to a new nation, free and sovereign.

In 1811 Father Hidalgo fell in an ambush staged by Félix María Calleja and, after being relieved of his duties as a priest, he was sentenced and shot to death.

His fight was not in vain, as Mexico gained its independence September 21, 1821. Mexico would never have gained independence had it not been for Hidalgo’s calling on the people of Dolores. His grito brought about the birth of Mexico.

Contemporary portrait of Hidalgo

Unbeknownst to us, while we were in Monterrey in April, 1954,  the U.S. Immigration Service was preparing to put into effect "Operation Wetback" which went into effect May, 1954 and led to the arrest and deportation of over 1 million illegal Mexican agricultural workers that summer. Here's a bit about that:

Operation Wetback (1954)

Implementation and tactics

Operation Wetback was a system of tactical control and cooperation within the U.S. Border Patrol and alongside the Mexican government. Planning between the INS, led by Gen. Joseph Swing, as appointed by President Eisenhower, and the Mexican government began in early 1954 while the program was formally announced in May 1954.  Harlon Carter, then head of the Border Patrol, was a leader of Operation Wetback. On May 17, command teams of 12 Border Patrol agents, buses, planes, and temporary processing stations began locating, processing, and deporting Mexicans who had illegally entered the United States. A total of 750 immigration and border patrol officers and investigators; 300 jeeps, cars and buses; and seven airplanes were allocated for the operation. Teams were focused on quick processing, as planes were able to coordinate with ground efforts and quickly deport people into Mexico. Those deported were handed off to Mexican officials, who in turn moved them into central Mexico where there were many labor opportunities. While the operation included the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago,  its main targets were border areas in Texas  and California^. 
 
Overall, there were 1,074,277 "returns", defined as "confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable alien out of the United States not based on an order of removal"  in the first year of Operation Wetback. This included many illegal immigrants who fled to Mexico fearing arrest; over half a million from Texas alone. The total number of immigration enforcement actions would fall to just 242,608 in 1955, and would continuously decline by year until 1962, when there was a slight rise in apprehended workers. Despite the decline in immigration enforcement actions, the total number of Border Patrol agents more than doubled to 1,692 by 1962, and an additional plane was also added to the force. 
 
During the entirety of the Operation, border recruitment of illegal workers by American growers continued, due largely to the low cost of illegal labor, and the desire of growers to avoid the bureaucratic obstacles of the Bracero program. The continuation of illegal immigration despite the efforts of Operation Wetback was largely responsible for the failure of the program. 



Illegal immigration in that era was the direct result of the demand for cheap labor by US growers. In many ways, I feel, today's immigration crisis is the result of U.S. policies and practices for over a century, a fact that does not seem to be acknowledged very often in current discussions.

A beautiful day for a walk

Today I did something I haven't done for a long time. I drove over near Paul's old house and parked the car in a little park that was next to his house and then I walked up the road behind his house - up to the top of the hill. This is a walk that Ellen and I have done many, many times in the past. Today the road was snow covered, but I had cleats on my shoes so I had sure footing.  I also had two ski poles. It was a beautiful day for a walk, blue sky, sunny, pretty cold but not too bad. I enjoyed it very much.

A beautiful winter day above Paul's old house

 After my walk I went to pick up Max who usually is dropped off by the school bus near the site of the new house. He wasn't there yet, so I looked around the house in it's newly insulated state and then just as I was leaving, Max arrived. So I brought him home. Judging from what I saw today, I would say that Paul, Jenny, and Max are going to be snug as bugs in a rug in their new house.

The new house from the driveway

I was going to take several photos of the house, but just after taking this shot, the battery died on the iPod. It needs a new battery. It''s a very old iPod, but it still takes great photos. Just not very many! I'll take more tomorrow.

Earlier today, Ellen woke up with a bad headache. She came back to bed and I made her sweet tea which helped a bit, and we ended up talking a lot about our lives and changes we might want to make.

Tonight, Ellen made another delicious supper of roasted potaoes, squash, onions, sausage and apples, followed by a dessert of roasted pineapple, bananas, apricots, etc, with some rum sprinkled over them. We didn't have rum in the house so I went to the Bull Moose Liquor store in Alpine and got a small bottle of rum like you would get on an airplane. Just enough.

Getting there

I'm at the Library again - Ellen dropped me off - and I am almost down to the bottom of my stack of papers. All that is left to copy are oddly sized papers, or torn papers, that won't go through the copier. I just tried to run pages from a journal that Shirley had kept during a trip with two other women friends to Man-O-War Island in the Bahamas back in 1977 - a wonderful journal that captures the ecstasy she felt being near, on and in the ocean, snorkeling and sailing and swimming. I had torn the pages out of a spiral notebook, so one side was the rough side I had torn out, and the opposite was smooth. I thought the copier would take the smooth side, but pages kept jamming. So I ended up taking a photo of each page.

Here is just a taste - one page -  of Shirley's journal:

a page of Shirley's Man-O-War journal

 "...Freddie Aubrey brought cereal, bacon & eggs for breakfast before we did some snorkeling. My mask didn't fit and I found a new one but it fogged up because I breathed through my nose so I canned that act and watched the fish with my natural eye - grey snappers, blue parrot fish and others in Rusty's fish book -- and a view of a Ray - looked giant under the water and so close - tried to take pictures.

  So off to the beach & the waves on the other side and the aqua blue and the sparkling sand - oh! oh! I jumped in  -- Rusty wondered if I saw the Ray behind me - not until I got out - a good thing. The sun is hot & we found a shade tree and the first people  -  a couple under a tree, old and brown - walked among the flowers -- hibiscus and bougainvillia - to the village...more people in the village ..."


Earlier at the library I made .pdfs of scores of letters from Stanley Whittaker, written back in the 1990s, mostly.  Stanley was an African-American man whom I got to know through Gail Lobenstine, a saintly woman in Brattleboro who had met Stanley at a community meal for the homeless that her church ran, and I eventually sort of "took Stanley on" when she no longer could, which involved supporting him both morally and financially for close to 20 years, much of which time he was in prison, but most importantly after he was released from prison, helping him with housing, transportation and work in his effort to reenter the community.  I marshalled some support for him through both the Guilford Church and the Dummerston Church and we finally got him through to the place where he was off probation and could make a life on his own. I lost track of him after that and I wonder how he is doing. Those letters tell quite a story.

While at the library I took a break and walked to the Valley Pharmacy for saline nasal spray and Fisherman's Friend throat lozenges. They had both at a very reasonable price, and when I walked in the door the pharmacist said, "Hello, Mr.Crockett!" Now that's how to run a good business!  I'd like to take the whole store back to Brattleboro in my pocket.

Back to the Library just in time for Ellen to pick me up.

The Alpine Library

Be prepared!

Today, Max went for an overnight at the home of his friend, Aiden.  He put together all the stuff he thought he would want to have for the overnight, and this is what he looked like:

Max is ready to go!

I spent some time at the Library today doing more digitizing. The stack of papers is diminishing!

Ellen fixed  yummy supper tonight - a stew of pork, apricots, onions and herbs over rice with broiled broccoli and carrots.

Tomorrow I hope to make it to Star Valley United Church.

Movies tonight!

We came into Jackson this afternoon, and went to the movies tonight. We saw Greenbook, and enjoyed it very much.

This afternoon, after we got to Jackson, we went to the thrift shop at the Episcopal Church, which is called "Browse and Buy,"  where I bought a new jacket and a pair of slippers. My old winter jacket had come to the place where it wouldn't zip. Which is sort of an inconvenience. So I got a nice one for $25. Also my old slippers had developed holes in the soles, and yesterday when I stepped on a wet carpet in the garage, my feet got wet, so I got some new slippers, which actually are loafers, but they can work as slippers.

If you were playing a word association game, and you were given the word "MOVIES," what would you say in response? "POPCORN," of course!

Later: We are back in Alpine waiting for Max to come home from Idaho Falls. He went there for the day with his former neighbors,  Jayda and Aubrey. There was no school today. Why? Because of high school sports - teams have to travel such distances to play games that high schools decided to put all games on a Friday and have no school. Parents with  children in both high school and elementary school insisted that if there was no high school, there should also be no elementary school. So certain Fridays are vacation days for all children in the county. 

Popcorn at the Twin Cinema in Jackson

A touching letter

I brought a box full of old letters and other papers going back to the 1940s, 50s and 60s with me to digitize while here in Alpine. All part of my efforts to downsize. It is sort of a miracle that a 4-drawer file cabinet of papers can be reduced to a pin-head, so to speak, if you just take the time to do it. Up to now I've been photographing pages with my iPhone camera. That works faster than using my scanner back home, but it is still cumbersome. But here in Alpine, at the public library, they have a copy machine that has a scanner function that allows you to put a stack of papers into the feeder tray  - 30-40 pages at a time - and they run through in a minute or less and are turned into .pdf files that are then stored on a flash drive that you insert into the copier. You can even do double-sided pages. And you can adjust for density so that light typewritten pages come out with nice black type. This makes it possible to digitize a lot of pages in a short time and get really high quality copies. Then I can come home, transfer the files from the flash drive to my laptop, label all the files, organize them into folders and index them, so that I can easily find what I want. Eventually, given the time, I could have the contents of the two four-drawer file cabinets back in my study all stored on my laptop. If I could bring all the boxes of archival materials that are sitting back home with me here to Alpine, I could get the job done in short order. Or maybe a copier similar to the one here in Alpine exists in a library closer to home. I'll have to look into that.

In any case, knowing that this opportunity exists here, I brought one box with me. That didn't take up too much space in the car. One of the letters I digitized yesterday was written to me by my mother  back on February 27, 1960 - almost 59 years ago.  At that time, I was the minister of the Dummerston Congregational Church, Vermont, and she was an assistant minister in the Lakes Region Parish in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and living in Glover. My father had died about three years earlier, she had come to live with us in Dummerston for a while, then had become a lay minister and gotten this position in Glover, which actually worked out pretty well for her, at least for a time. For one thing, the senior minister there taught her how to drive, which she had never learned  to do as long as dad had been  alive, and she gained a degree of independence she had never had before, which she loved.

She wrote this letter as she was  looking out the window at a snowstorm, and she had gone into almost a state of reverie, thinking back to long-forgotten times in the past. And one of those memories was of the day I was born, March 2, 1933. She wrote a description of the circumstances of my birth which I don't think I had ever heard from her in such detail before I got this letter. I would have been 26 years old at that time. Reading it now (I had almost forgotten I even had  this letter!), I am very touched by it.  I realize with every passing year with even greater conviction that my mother was an amazing woman. Read the letter below and you will see that I was born somewhat prematurely in the hospital in Aurora, Illinois, several miles from Big Rock where dad was a student pastor. Dad was sick with the flu, managed to be with mother during the birth process but then had to go home, had a relapse and never got back to the hospital to be with her. Meanwhile, my survival was at stake - I would not wake up to take nourishment - and mother was there all alone, being told I might not live. Just put yourself in that situation!

Here is the portion of the letter about my birth (you should be able to zoom in on the letter to make it bigger and easier to read):

My mother's description of the day I was born

This is quite moving to me to say the least. There are also some details that are sort of hilarious - like the doctor having just bought a new car and was afraid mother wouldn't make it to the hospital and would give birth in the car and ruin it!

My mother, Olga W. Crockett, circa 1960

Insulation

We went over to Paul's house today to see the progress he has made. There were workers there putting in the insulation. And the system he is using is very interesting. A layer of about an inch and a half of foam is being sprayed between the vertical studs, and then a sheet of light fabric is tacked on top of the studs and a slit is made in that sheet between each of the studs and loose insulation is blown in to fill the space. This combination gives a high R-value and is more airtight than fiberglass battens which are more common.

Foam insulation between the studs

Fabric tacked over the studs - loose fill will be blown in through a slit in this fabric between each pair of studs to fill the space

Paul explaining how the area around the furnace ducts will be insulated

This will be Max's room

The "Bonus" room over the garage - full of stuff! This is big enough that it could be made into a little apartment

Remembering my brother, Stewart

Today is the sixth anniversary of my brother, Stewart's, death. It is hard for me to believe that it has been six years since he died. Six years ago, Ellen and I had visited Stewart in Elgin, and then on January 22nd, we drove to St. Paul to deliver Cynthia's harp to its original builder for repairs. While there in St. Paul, on Wed., the 23rd, we got a call that Stewart had collapsed in the shower and lost consciousness and had been taken to St. Joseph hospital in Elgin. We returned to Elgin right away and met everyone in his room at the hospital. Stewart had not regained consciousness and was not ever expected to; so after we arrived, the decision was made to end life support. We sang for him, and cried, told him we loved him, said goodbye, and let him go. He was 85 years old, and 7 months. I miss him so much - we enjoyed being together a lot! There are so many times I wish I could talk with him, share something I've discovered, ask about something in our  early family life I can't remember.

Stewart and me at a cairn on top of Black Mountain, behind our house - taken a few years ago!

Earlier today I was looking up the address of my friend, Phil McKean, and when I Googled his name, I found a lot of things, including a review he had written, back in 1979 or so, of a film, The Three Worlds of Bali, which he strongly recommended.  Phil was an anthropologist who did his doctoral dissertation on Bali and lived there several years. I found the entire film on YouTube (amazing!) and watched it. In it, a Balinese man studying to be a Hindu priest says that when he becomes a priest, he will have to cut all familial ties. If a loved one dies, he will not grieve, he will not cling to him or his memory, he will let him go, "and free his path to Paradise." Well, Stewart, I hope my continued love for you and memory of you has not in any way been an obstruction on your path to Paradise!

By the way, the film is well worth watching! It has some scenes of sacrifice of animals which can be disturbing, but it is a powerful rendition of Balinese culture, and in particular a ritual performed only once every one hundred years, the Eka Desa Rudra. The film-maker, Stephen Lansing,  was a student of Phil's.

A Balinese temple

Travel scenes

We've arrived in Alpine this evening at about 7:30p.m. We ended up having a relatively good trip - the road conditions were not great but they were not terrible either, and part of the trip the road was dry. Ellen could go 60 mph much of the time. So we left at 8:30a.m.and arrived 7:30p.m., - 11 hours - almost 500 miles on secondary roads - not too bad. Better than we feared, that's for sure.

Here are some scenes from various parts of the trip yesterday and today.

Part of yesterday we went through a stretch where all the trees were covered in frost

Today was a sunny blue-sky day much of the trip.

We got out at a convenience store and discovered the car was sheathed in muddy ice

No photo can capture the first glimpse of the Tetons, but these are a bit of a taste

And here we are in Alpine! Max keeps coming over to give us hugs

Lusk, WY

We had a very pleasant trip from Sioux City across Nebraska on US 20, which was essentially empty of traffic. The road was dry at first, then it started to very lightly snow, but that did not affect driving. That was pretty much the case until we got to far western Nebraska, about 3:30p.m. or so, and then it got snowier and the road surface was wet and the temp. around 30 degrees. It wasn't black ice yet but it was getting worse as we went along into Wyoming. By the time we got to Lusk, WY, which is about 22 miles from the Nebraska line, it was getting pretty iffy. It was much earlier than we normally stop - about 4:30 - but it could only get worse ahead. If the road had been dry we would certainly have gone on at least to Douglas, and maybe even Casper. But we decided to stop at the Town House Motel in Lusk, where we have stayed before. A good rate too - $54 inc. tax. But no breakfast. About average.

On the road, I read aloud from Elaine Pagels' Why Religion? for quite a stretch - a particularly harrowing section which included the death of her 6-year-old son, Mark, due to pulmonary hypertension, and then just a year later the totally unexpected death of her husband, Heinz, caused by a fall in Colorado when a trail collapsed and he fell over 1000 feet. This was hard reading, but she is very honest in relating these shocks and particularly honest in her description of how others responded to them. A virtual handbook of how not to respond!

We also listened to the remaining lectures in the presidential power series - dealing with the power to pardon, for example. It was a very interesting series, and very timely.

A bonus from our decision to stop - I discovered that the Tar Heels were just starting a game against Virginia Tech on ESPN. The two teams are evenly matched - ranked 10th and 11th nationally - but UNC just won by 21 points. Exactly the margin they lost by to Louisville just a couple of weeks ago!

Tomorrow is uncertain. When will the snow stop, how windy will it be, how much blowing snow, how bad will the roads be? We have to go over the mountains. We'll consult Wyoming DOT map before setting out. Hoping we can make it to Alpine by evening.

Wyoming DOT road cam at Casper, WY this evening

Sioux City, Iowa

Tonight, we are in a Days Inn at Sioux City. At first, I felt it was pricey at $84, but on reflection, I realized it was not that different from our "cheap" room ($47) in Richmond, IN, because that room did not include breakfast, and we spent $30 at an IHOP (with tip), which made that room $77.

Today we came all the way from Bartlett to Sioux City on Route US 20, through Rockford, IL,  Galena, IL, crossed the Mississippi at Dubuque, IA, and then across Iowa to Sioux City. It was lovely: sunny with blue sky and white snow, but it was also very cold, staying in the singe digits all the way. We listened to a Guilford Church service tape recording from March 9, 1997; I read aloud from Elaine Pagels" Why Religion: A Personal Story, which Katie Tolles gave me for Christmas; and we listened to lectures on "The Powers of the Presidency," (e.g., "Can A Sitting President be Indicted?"). The miles flew by. We left Maggie and Jerry's at about 9:00a.m. and arrived at the motel at about 8:00p.m.

The Mississippi at Dubuque

Dubuque is a very handsome city. It has several colleges,  universities and seminaries, and the housing costs look modest. It might be worth a look as a place to live! It is a much more thriving place than Richmond for sure. Here's a sample house:

700 sq ft, $62,000

Snowy world

The western Chicago suburbs are snowy today. An overnight storm dropped 4-5 inches. Jerry went out and cleared the driveway with his snowblower and then I went out and used a broom to clear off our car, which was parked in the driveway, then moved it and shoveled out underneath where it had been parked.

Looking out the bedroom window at the snow

Then I came in and watched the Tar Heels play Miami U to a 7-point win. Miami was really good,  but UNC had a deeper bench. Coach Williams rotated among 11 players, whereas Miami only played 7. That made a difference.  UNC is now 4-1 in conference play and is in 2nd place in the ACC. Lookin' good!

This evening, some of the Crockett clan will be coming over for pizza, assuming the roads are ok. Looks like the snow has stopped, so it will probably be all right.

Tomorrow we will resume our trip west to Wyoming. Weather looks ok.

Earlham College

We had an interesting time in Richmond, IN. The motel did not serve breakfast, so we had breakfast at an IHOP. We did a drive-by of the $15,000 house I had posted a picture of - it looked pretty beat-up and was sort of jammed in between two other dumpy houses. Not desirable. Cheap housing though!

The $15,000 house "in the flesh"

There are other residential areas of Richmond that are quite attractive, however. Downtown Richmond, on the other hand, is blighted: many boarded-up buildings, empty stores and several store-front ministries, suggesting the existence of a large homeless population. The strip development around the city seems to be thriving. This is all typical of many mid-western cities.

The Earlham campus is very handsome. It is large (600 acres) but more modest than Swarthmore College, which is posh by comparison. Earlham seems more Quaker in its modesty. I visited the Lilly Library, which serves not only Earlham College, but also the Earlham School of Religion and Bethany Theological Seminary. It is a very pleasant library to be in. I did my usual assessment of the holdings in the stacks: I went to the section devoted to the Gospel of Luke. I am so familiar now with the holdings in this subject area that I can make a pretty quick assessment. I would say the holdings are adequate, comparable to, say, Mount Holyoke Library back in Massachusetts, but also slightly dated. They are not nearly as complete as Wheaton College or certainly Princeton Theological Seminary (the most magnificent collection I've seen to date), but I would not expect that. I did find one book I had not seen before that cited my work, and there are probably others. The author of that book is an evangelical Christian at Dallas Theological Seminary. I've run into several other books and theses originating from Dallas TS, which have used my work. Maybe we should move to Dallas! (Just kidding).

A professional photo of the Earlham Campus in the fall

 Ellen was interested to see the sign outside the Stout Meeting House that says Earlham has an "unprogrammed" Friends Meeting - i.e., a silent meeting. Midwestern Friends are typically more like mainline Protestant churches with a pastor and a "regular" worship service (readings, hymns, sermon, etc.). She prefers the silent meeting. However, when I went to the Earlham website, it described the Meeting as "semi-programmed."  There is a period of silence and then a student or faculty member gives a brief talk. In any case, I am sure that Earlham would be a great place to be near. I can imagine there are a lot of programs and lectures of great interest, dealing with a wide variety of peace and justice issues, given the culture of the place.

The Stout Meeting House at Earlham

 Also outside the Meeting House at Earlham is a statue of Mary Dyer, a replica of a statue in Boston outside the Statehouse.  Mary Dyer was a Quaker who defied a ban against Quakers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was hanged for her effort in 1660.

Mary Dyer, Quaker martyr

So, pluses and minuses - like everywhere else. Definitely a possibility not to be written off.

Richmond, Indiana

Tonight we are in Richmond, IN. Why? Well, there is a story there. In the past, I have been asked, with regard to our living situation, "Larry, what do you want?" This is not an easy question for me to answer, because what I want is so easily influenced by what others want whose happiness is deeply related to my happiness. But I have often replied that it has long been a dream of mine to live in a college town and have access to an academic library. Recently, my attention was drawn to Richmond, IN, home of Earlham College. I happened to look at Richmond in the Zillow app on my iPhone and was surprised at how reasonable real estate is in Richmond. Take this place, for example:

A house in Richmond, IN

This place is being offered for $15,000.Three bedrooms, one bath, 1,085 sq ft. Maybe it's a total dump but it doesn't look like a dump in this photo. This is just one of many homes in Richmond under $50,000. So I thought, why not check it out? Richmond is pretty much right on the way to Bartlett from Swarthmore - we just came west on I-70 about 600 miles and here we are! We got here at about 8:30pm and are in a Red Roof Inn (also reasonable - $47!).  I don't know how realistic it would be to actually live in Richmond - e.g., it isn't near any family. But I would be very interested to see Earlham College, check out their Library, get a feel for the town. It doesn't hurt to look! In addition to Earlham there is also Bethany Theological Seminary - Church of the Brethren. So we'll have an interesting time here tomorrow and then head on up to the Chicago area and spend some time with Jerry and Maggie in Bartlett. They are gathering the clan for pizza Saturday night. We always enjoy that!

At Wallace's in Swarthmore

Monday morning we got up in good season, did our last preparations for leaving and were on the road by 10:20a.m. We had a pretty smooth drive to Swarthmore - we did run into some heavy traffic around NYC - but arrived by 6:20p.m., which wasn't too bad. We had pizza at Swarthmore Pizza and came back to Wallace's and visited for quite a while. But we were up at 8:30a.ma and went to Harry and Sarah's for breakfast. We ended up just hanging out there and eating all day! Wallace came over in the early afternoon, Harry made a wonderful all-vegetable soup and homemade bread; we took a short walk to stretch our legs. Just a nice, relatively quiet day.

Now, I'm back at Wallace's alone, Ellen and Wallace are at Bryn Mawr Cinema, and I am watching the TarHeels play Notre Dame.

Watching the TarHeels

Heels are ahead by 3 at this point. The team is inconsistent this season - some brilliant wins and some humiliating defeats. They are ranked 13th nationally at the moment.

Later:

A scrappy freshman, Nassir Little, came off the bench in the second half for the Heels and after about 15 lead changes, sparked a win! Their conference record is now 3-1. Not too bad!

At the Feinlands

We are with Ben, Max and Tamar. Max was just playing the flute and Theo was howling like crazy. It was hilarious. We aren't sure if Theo is singing or objecting! Max is quite accomplished on the flute!

Max playing Telemann

It's fun being here!

                                  Max, Tamar, Ben and Ellen

All is well!

Both of our concerts went very well. All was not perfect by any means, but we both felt that there was a good energy and passion in the performances. I was particularly pleased, really unexpectedly so, with my own voice in these performances. I was afraid I would be afflicted with hoarseness and phlegm attacks, but I actually had a pretty good voice for both concerts. I used a stool which helped me to take a little breaks  when I needed them. I feel I actually made a contribution to the bass section, which I'm happy about. We had very good audiences for both performances. John and Cynthia made it to the Friday evening concert, and Katie Tolles made it to the Saturday afternoon concert today. It was great to have some family there both times. 

Now we are in the throes of getting ready for our trip. I've been packing, gathering and organizing things. Tomorrow we'll go to church and then down to Northampton  to see Tamar and Max, and then to a concert that Savanna is in, in Leverett, Massachusetts. Then we will come back for the final push to get ready for our departure, which is Monday morning.

Sadly, I got no photographs of our concerts. But I did get this one of our squirrel which is a daily visitor who loves climbing up the side of the house or anything else he can find to climb up onto, and really is almost like a member of the family, he is around so much. Of course I'm assuming this is all the same squirrel. We could actually have 10 squirrels for all I know.

Looking back and ahead

This week has been dominated by preparation for our Concert Choir concerts coming up tomorrow evening and Saturday afternoon. Ellen and I worked on our music Monday and Tuesday and we had our dress rehearsal at the Latchis theater last evening. I think it went reasonably well, though I am not happy with my own voice - continual  problems with phlegm have really been a problem. So I'll need to warm up well tomorrow!

Right now I'm at the pool while Ellen is at the Mary Poppins Returns movie. I'll pick her up after 6pm.

Sunday we will go to church in Guilford, then drive to Northhampton to see Tamar, and then go to Leverett, MA for a concert that Savanna is in. And Monday, we leave for the west! That means a lot of packing and getting the house ready for a period of 5-6 weeks of not being inhabited. Saturday will be a big "getting ready day" in addition to being a concert day, because there won't be much chance for all that on Sunday.

We'll start our trip in Swarthmore Monday evening and Tuesday, then leave for Bartlett on Wednesday, be with Maggie and Jerry Thursday eve and Friday, and probably leave for Wyoming on Saturday, depending on how they are doing. We are hoping for good weather!

 Our concerts feature a work by Gregorio Allegri, the Miserere mei, Deus: 

By far the best-known and regarded piece of music composed by Allegri is the Miserere mei, Deus, a setting of Vulgate Psalm 50 (= Psalm 51). It is written for two choirs, the one of five and the other of four voices, and has obtained considerable celebrity. One of the choirs sings a simple fauxbordon based on the original plainsong chant for the Tonus peregrinus; the other choir sings a similar fauxbordon with pre-existing elaborations and the use of cadenzas. The Miserere has for many years been sung annually during Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel. Many have cited this work as an example of the stile antico (old style) or prima pratica (first practice). However, its emphasis on polychoral techniques certainly put it out of the range of prima pratica. A more accurate comparison would be to the works of Giovanni Gabrieli. 

The Miserere is one of the most often-recorded examples of late Renaissance music, although it was actually written during the chronological confines of the Baroque era; in this regard it is representative of the music of the Roman School of composers, who were stylistically conservative. The work acquired a considerable reputation for mystery and inaccessibility between the time of its composition and the era of modern recording; the Vatican, wanting to preserve its aura of mystery, forbade copies, threatening any publication or attempted copy with excommunication. They were not prepared, however, for a special visit in 1770 from a 14-year-old named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who, on a trip to Rome with his father, heard it but twice and transcribed it faithfully from memory, thus creating the first known unauthorised copy. However, there is evidence that copies of the work that pre-date Mozart's visit to Rome in 1770 had already been circulating in Europe, and Mozart may have heard the piece performed in London in 1764 or 1765 as well.
  

The other work we're doing is the Mozart Requiem Mass. Thus our concert spans Mozart's life from his transcription of the Allegri at age 14 to the Requiem which he left uncompleted at his death.

 

Twelfth-night party

We're just going to bed after our Twelfth-night party. It was a great success. We had 14 people, including ourselves, which is about the maximum for the space. They loved the food, which included snacks of assorted crackers and dips, raw veggies, salmon salad, cheese, etc., then three kinds of soup: lamb barley, chicken corn chowder and vegan squash curry, breads and an amazing assortment of desserts: tartes, cookies, etc. But mostly we sang - people brought a wide assortment of songs, some familar, some not, but nothing "standard." It was a great group of singers and we had a great time! Clean up wasn't too bad. We had a heavy snow squall in the afternoon which had us worried about people getting up the driveway and parking, but Zach came through and plowed and sanded just before people arrived and all was well. One couple said,  "this was a great idea - we're going to do one too." That is a good measure of success!

 

                The snack and dessert table

       Guests visiting

Robin talking with Mary Alice in the living-room. 

With tree and lights and candles the house looked very festive!

Pool day

Today was one of those lovely days where you look at the calendar, and the day is blank. No appointments, nothing planned. A sleep late day. Ellen was going out to do some errands and shopping, so I came with her and she dropped me off at the pool. So I just had some time on the machines and in the hot tub and pool. I'm limp as a piece of boiled spaghetti! Last night we watched a movie, Rainmaker. It was one of those "novice lawyer takes on the big, evil corporation" movies, starring Matt Damon as the young lawyer. We actually started watching The Devil Wears Prada with Meryl Streep, but the DVD proved to be defective, so we switched. Ellen had bought both DVDs somewhere for $1.

Tomorrow, we're supposed to have tea with John and Cynthia, and Kathy and Tom, at J&C's house, giving Tom a chance to look at the possibility of building an addition on their house, like a "mother-in-law apartment," for Ellen and me. That looks like a better option than buying a big house where we could both live, because big houses seem to always come with big problems. But new construction is also very costly. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for tomorrow afternoon is for freezing rain, so we may have to call it off.

Sunday I lead the choir in Dummerston in the morning, and then in the evening, we are having a Twelfth-night singing party at the house. About 14 of us. We'll be singing "carols we didn't get to sing" this season. That will be fun.

Pool Lobby with reflection in mirror

Happy New Year!

A knock on the door came this morning at 10:08a.m. It caught both of us in bed, sort of half-awake. I thought it might be Zach, who plows our road, bringing a bill, so I got up and went down.  But it proved to be two Jehovah Witnesses, two older women. When I explained we were in bed, they kindly let us off the hook.

We are finally getting a quiet day after a whirl of seasonal activity. Thus the late hour in bed. New Years Eve I visited Doug Hamilton at Grace Cottage hospital - he is slowly getting better but faces issues of what comes next because he can no longer live at home alone. Then we hosted Andy and Robin Davis, and Katie, Savanna and Brendon for supper and then we all went to the Amidon family's Last Night Concert, this year held  at Centre Church, and it was great as usual. But it was icing when we came out - scary, but we made it home ok.

The Amidon Family Last Night concert

Sunday, Max and Tamar came up to our place to make gingerbread houses. Ellen made the wall and roof panels and M&T built and decorated the houses. They had a good time! 

                              Max's house

                        Tamar's house

Tonight, Concert Choir resumes, with concerts looming on January 11 and 12. So we rehearsed our music last night and will again today. We also have Centering Prayer this afternoon.