Sepia Saturday 299: Candy is Dandy

Sepia Saturday - A weekly meme providing a visual prompt for participants to share their own photographs. (I'm going to share some poetry as well.)

Excerpt from: Reflections on Ice-Breaking, by Ogden Nash (1902-1971)

Candy
Is Dandy...

Everyone is familiar with the last two lines, right? If not, follow the link.

This week's image prompt is an advertisement for Wampole's Preparation, which was marketed as a tastier way to deliver cod liver oil. (Cod liver oil has a high vitamin-D content, which is useful in preventing Rickets.) In addition to the cod liver oil, the 'preparation' contained 12% alcohol.

Today's parents might receive a visit from Social Services if they regularly gave their child alcohol-based tonics.

Today, October 2nd, marks one year since my wife and I sat in a courtroom and promised a judge that we would continue to love and care for our two twin boys, always and forever. They had been living with us many months, but it was on this date that the judge finally removed the adjective 'foster' from our relationship, and we legally became their parents, and they became our sons.

Here are a few photographs. I promise they are drinking apple juice in the first one. One thing the images illustrate is how my wife and I like to dress them in 'coordinating, but not matching' outfits. It helps to be able to tell them apart.



A Flight Shot, by Maurice Thompson (1844-1901)

We were twin brothers, tall and hale,
Glad wanderers over hill and dale.

We stood within the twilight shade
Of pines that rimmed a Southern glade.

He said: “Let’s settle, if we can,
Which of us is the stronger man.

“We’ll try a flight shot, high and good,
Across the green glade toward the wood.”

And so we bent in sheer delight
Our old yew bows with all our might.

Our long keen shafts, drawn to the head,
Were poised a moment ere they sped.

As we leaned back a breath of air
Mingled the brown locks of our hair.

We loosed. As one our bow-cords rang,      
As one away our arrows sprang.

Away they sprang; the wind of June
Thrilled to their softly whistled tune.

We watched their flight, and saw them strike
Deep in the ground slantwise alike,      

So far away that they might pass
For two thin straws of broom-sedge grass!

Then arm in arm we doubting went
To find whose shaft was farthest sent,

Each fearing in his loving heart      
That brother’s shaft had fallen short.

But who could tell by such a plan
Which of us was the stronger man?

There at the margin of the wood,
Side by side our arrows stood,      

Their red cock-feathers wing and wing,
Their amber nocks still quivering,

Their points deep-planted where they fell
An inch apart and parallel!

We clasped each other’s hands; said he,      
“Twin champions of the world are we!”

The Fine Art of Record Destruction

If everything goes according to plan...and the puzzle pieces are coming together...my wife and I will be moving to a new home in a month.

It's been fifteen years since I last moved, and there has been a lot of accumulation. I have to decide what to keep and what not to keep. My wife isn't the pack-rat that I am, but she does appreciate nostalgia, and historical record keeping, so at least she isn't encouraging me to toss everything.

I don't think I need to save all my school papers. The collection of newspaper articles I wrote for a college newspaper, and a collection of English papers from my Senior year in high school should be sufficient. I don't want anyone reading anything earlier than that anyway. Except, perhaps, a poem I wrote when I was six, but since I scanned in the crumbling pages, I don't really need to save the original. (My handwriting has improved, a little, but not my artistic skills.)

I do wish I had a copy of several letters I've written over the years, but alas, that is the way things are with letters. The sender doesn't usually retain a copy. That is an advantage with email - if one doesn't delete them.

The photograph of some pigs I took at summer camp when I was 14 can be pitched, along with several other similar photographs. I'll try to follow the Practical Archivist's advice on what to keep, and what to toss.

I might scan some of those in, too. Scanning before pitching makes a lot of sense, however, if I do too much scanning, I'm less likely to complete the task in the month we have before closing...

A Year Ago Today

This is a picture of Jen and myself a year ago today, on April 22nd, 2012.

It's amazing how quickly a year goes by.

I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.

Song of Solomon 2:16

New Year's Resolutions

Below are my New Year's Resolutions from December of 1975.  

As is my habit, I have protected the names of the living, in this case both of my siblings, to whom apparently I must have believed I wasn't being good enough. (The spelling errors are embarrassing, but I was only one month shy of 7.)

I suspect I was also trying to cure myself of calling my mother, 'Mommy,' as I can't think of anything else I would have called her at that age.

In first grade I was participating in an annual reading challenge at my school. I happened to know the neighbor across the street held the all-time record, and I apparently initially resolved to break that record. I was either told it was an inappropriate resolution, or decided it was on my own. (I did break the record. The school closed five years later with my record unbroken. 1509.)

My kind and loving wife tells me there is still one of these I need work on. I will let everyone guess. She tells me also that my handwriting was better back then.

I'm still working on my 2013 Resolutions

Just Married!

This post is to announce that the blogger ... (b'lil ayin hara) .. is now a married man.

Naturally, there are no photos to share yet.  As a placeholder...Here's a photograph of my great grandparents' Barney Newmark and Bertha Cruvant on their wedding day.

This post has been previously written and scheduled - hence the Hebrew phrase at the top. This blogger is not the type to spend his wedding day writing a blog post.

March 22, 2011

On Tuesday, March 22, 2011 I asked the woman of my dreams to marry me.

She said yes.

A date has not been set, but there is a distinct possibility that this blog may in the future discuss several new surnames, as well as Scottish, Irish, Norwegian, and/or German genealogy research in greater depth than it has.

Amanuensis Monday: Beshalach - 5742

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

This week I am departing from my project slightly to transcribe a historical artifact of my own life.  The Hebrew lunar calendar and the Civil solar calendar move around with respect to one another such that anniversaries on the lunar calendar are often able to sneak up on me unnoticed.  However, Jewish weeks are often identified by the Torah passage that gets read at the synagogue on Shabbat.  And this past weekend the Torah passage was the same as the one at my Bar Mitzvah 29 years ago, on Feb 6, 1982.  The anniversary of the lunar date, the 13th of Sh'vat, is actually tomorrow, January 18th.  Below is the sermon/speech I wrote, and delivered at my Bar Mitzvah.  (I received some editing help from my parents.) There are some edits within the text on the images that suggest this may not have been the final clean draft from which I read.

Changes/Adjustments

My blog archives in the left sidebar indicate the number of posts per month.  A quick glance suggests something happened at the end of May.  Posts dropped significantly.  And in July they dropped further.

We only have 24 hours in a day, and 168 hours in a week, so doing everything one wants to do is a matter of setting priorities.  In recent months I have had to budget time for something that I didn't need to budget time for the first half of the year.  I'm certainly not complaining, but blogging was and is a lower priority. 



In the past few months my weekly Sunday and Monday posts absorbed most if not all of my blogging time.  That's going to change.

I'm dropping my Sunday "Weekly Picks." I'm also going to decrease my Google Reader subscriptions significantly.  I'm hoping that the time I've spent each week in this area can be redistributed to more than one post.  And may even leave some additional time for other things.

Eight Years ago

Here's what I said on September 11, 2006, on the five year anniversary of 9/11/01

I was still working at AG Edwards in their IT department. Very little got done that day, as there was a television in the hallway that was constantly set to the financial news network, which like every other news network, focused on that morning's events. And when half the department is standing in the hallway watching television, not very much gets done. When not in the hallway, I was at my desk. Had to look like I was doing something. But I was following the news on the Dow Jones Newswires, which we could access from our computers.

It was a Tuesday, so that evening I was at Writer's Group. There were more people there than one might expect. Why weren't we with family? We were. Which shouldn't be interpreted as a slight against our biological families. But we'd either spent several hours that day already with them, or knew we would in the days to come.

I can do it!

Terry's inspired me.

As I mention on my new blog, I've done this before, seven years ago, before I knew about blogging.

Conspiracy Theories

Several genea-bloggers are conspiring against me. That's how I view it at least. Here I create a separate blog for genealogy and family history, separate from my usual in(s)anity, and try to remain serious with the exception of an occasional Friday Five. And first there was Cow Hampshire's challenge back in September to have fun for a day, so I created a Hobbit Family Tree. That was OK. Didn't mind that.

And then Terry created H.O.G.S. blogs, so I created my G.H.O.T.I. logo in response. (pronounced 'fish' by the way)

And now Terry (again) has issued a photo challenge to all H.O.G.S. bloggers. Well, he did offer me membership into his club, even though I had declared myself a GHOTI, and I did accept. The challenge is to post a photo of one's self - dressed up as an adult in costume - and it should be a 'defining moment'.

Randy responded with a wedding photo...but I don't have that option, unfortunately. I could post a picture of myself at age 13 in suit and tie...and try to claim that the Law of Moses declared me an adult, but I know that would be stretching things. (sigh).

So I've made my choice of photos. Two of them. Together, they do a good job of defining me.

the first picture



This was taken in 1992 or 1993. I was in my mid-20s. That should be of sufficient adult-age. You can see I am wearing a Star Trek uniform, and I am sitting in front of a phone. In 1992 i joined Starfleet International, the Star Trek Fan Association. I was, and am a Trekkie. The local chapter has always been very active in community service (striving to make the future like the one we see on television) We were volunteering for the Jerry Lewis Telethon. I am still a member of the chapter.



Second photo



(I've smudged the faces of some innocent bystanders)

It's May 2002. I am 33 years old, and I am at a Renaissance Festival with the same group of Trekkies I've been with for the past 10 years. (We like to have fun in the future, present, and past.)

This is defining, because I lost my job in Feb of 2002. I was laid off from a place of work I had been at for ten years. Despite still being unemployed in May, I insisted on going to the Renaissance Festival with my friends. I was still going to have fun. (Note: I grew the beard you see in my blog's profile in 1994, and have kept it since. However, I shaved it off while looking for a job.)