Local Attractions: Keeneland in Lexington

Some families move as the bread-winner's job is transferred.  Perhaps they change cities and/or states in search of better jobs.  They might think they won't move again and put off checking out what the local area has to offer in terms of fun places to visit.  I used to think that but now I know: don't wait - you might not live there forever!

Since the year 2000, I've lived in Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.A.  There are so many places to explore, I've really enjoyed most of them several times.  The Kentucky Horsepark is a particular favorite of mine.  It's the place if you have visitors you first want to take them to visit.  There are an uncounted number of "horse" farms, horse-themed places to wander around.

Then, how did I miss going to Keeneland, the premier horse-racing center here, until last year?  I blame it on my nursing job with its variable schedule and requirements!  Anyway, my daughter and other friends and I went to Keeneland Race Track for the day last Friday.  We had a terrific time!

Marie, daughter #7, left, & me at Keeneland's Thoroughbred Club for lunch, 4-25-14.

From left, Stuart, one of Rosemary's visiting friends, Peggy, Rosemary, Marie, & Jan, having lunch, 4-25-14.  

After lunch, the bunch of us took the shuttle over to the track.  It was packed with visitors!  We strolled around, watching the beautiful horses being shown.  We went and viewed several races.  Particularly interesting were the huge screens opposite the stands which showed the exact position of the horses during the races in progress.  We were too busy to notice if any of us actually bet on the horses or not.  Don't miss Keeneland, if you're in Lexington during racing season!

Dozens of beautiful horses were paraded before the races.  4-25-14. 

Rafting on a River

Picture this: Travel on the Hwang Ho, which we know as the Yellow River in China, was mostly accomplished in 1932 and for the previous 2,000 years, on home-made rafts using sheepskins for flotation.  W. Robert Moore describes the process in Raft Life on the Hwang Ho, National Geographic Magazine, June, 1932.  "It is a long, breath-taking task to inflate all of the sheepskins, even on this small raft.  Some of the larger freight rafts, however, have as many as 500 skins bound together" (photo caption, p. 745).

At that time, there were no dams on the river.  The many rapids were extremely dangerous to navigate and required great skill to steer.  "Whenever one of the sheepskins is torn in going through the rapids or grounding on sand bars, the hole is sewed up and the hide reinflated.  Skins can be used three seasons" (photo caption, p 747).

The skins are inflated by one man blowing through an opening in the end of one leg of a sheepskin.  What a strange sight!  Many skins are stuffed with wool to bypass taxes on transporting wool.  The skins are lashed together with wood strips.

The Hwang Ho River "is the second largest river in China. . . all along its 2,500 mile path to the sea, it is not navigable for steamships or other deep-draft craft.  It is alternatively either too swift and broken by turbulent rapids or widens and becomes too shallow and filled with sand bars to allow the use of large boats" (p 742).  Isn't the Chinese invention amazing!

Hungary's Largest City

For centuries, the Danube River was the chief and only highway of a large portion of Europe.  Flowing through the Hungarian cities of Buda and Pest, each on opposite banks, in 1932, the river was still quite prominent in the area's trade.  J. R. Hildebrand described the importance of the river as "the commercial focus of the vast plain that pours its grain and wines, its cattle and wool, into warehouses and factories to be shipped or fabricated for the Danube trade, Budapest, Twin City of the Danube, National Geographic Magazine, June, 1932, p. 731.

In addition, "in its busiest years Budapest has ranked second only to Minneapolis as the premier milling city of the world" (p. 731).

Budapest is a city of sidewalk cafes, "proportionately more prevalent . . . than in Paris."  The author counted "47 thermal springs in use" as medicinal baths (p. 732).  They claimed a climate similar to the American state of California, with "bathing (swimming out-of-doors) . . . the universal sport" (photo caption, p. 734).

With a past history of government by kings, Hungarians have a unique perspective.  "Through the ages the kings of Hungary have worn as a revered emblem the crown of St. Stephen (the first Christian king of Hungary)  . . . our king (formerly) swears allegiance to his people and not the people to the king" (photo caption, p. 735).

The Hungarian language is singular.  "Few aliens learn a tongue which has no kindred roots or relation with any other European tongue.  Fortunately, English is widely spoken" (p. 741). The land was settled a thousand years ago by Magyars from the Ural Mountains in Russia and "they still remain the dominant race" (photo caption, p. 728).

Hungarians appreciate classic architecture and monuments as is evidence in the text and photos of this article.  It is an ambition of mine to cruise the Danube River and pass through Buda and Pest, Hungary.

The Summer Exile

Heretofore, the travel articles I have perused in the pages of the National Geographic Magazine have been written by temporary visitors to the particular country of note.  Today's article, Hungary, a Kingdom Without a King: A Tour from Central Europe's Largest Lake to the Fertile Plains of the Danube and the Tisza, Elizabeth P. Jacobi, June, 1932, was penned by an actual resident of that country.

Mrs. Jacobi, her husband, and two school-age boys lived in the city of Budapest, Hungary.  To escape the fumes from their apartment while being re-painted and redecorated, this young mother took her boys on a summer adventure around the countryside of Hungary.

The country lost two-thirds of its land after the "World War" (World War I).  We were instructed on the long history of Hungarian rulers, 150 years of Turkish rule, and then recently ruled by a Regent in anticipation of perhaps a king returning.  Like all other European countries, governments have come and gone, and the people in the countryside carry on as best they can.

FYI: Hungary, in 1932, was bordered by Czechoslovakia on the north, Yugoslavia on the south, Rumania in the east, and Austria on the west.  Budapest actually is the cities of Buda and Pest, opposite each other on the Danube River.

After hiring a car for the journey, the family's first goal was to spend time on a feudal estate in the country.  They enjoyed the trip through small villages.  Agriculture was strictly by primitive methods of hand-harvesting.  Major products were a large silkworm industry, Indian corn to which two million acres were devoted; cattle farming, both meat and dairy, tobacco, and "Paprika, a powder made from the dried fruit of red peppers widely grown on the farms of Hungary, appears on almost every table.  It is cheap and plentiful" (photo caption, p. 723). "Between three and four million of its fertile acres are planted in wheat.  Other important crops are potatoes, sugar beets, corn, rye, barley and oats" (photo caption, p. 724).

Next destination: Lake Balaton, the largest lake in central Europe.  ". . .we took the children on a motor-boat trip around the lake, visiting the twenty-odd small resorts and the few, larger places - Balatonfoldvar, patronized by the wealthy; Siofak, summer paradise of Budapest tradesmen's families; Balatonfurad, a health resort whose hot springs, baths, and sanatorium are visited at all seasons of the year" (p. 705).  The lake is very shallow, seemingly a lake impossible in which to drown.

The family attended a wedding of their cook's family in a small town.  There were fourteen pages of beautiful native costumes and countryside  in this article.  Every locality has distinctive dress, quite beautifully and elaborately embroidered.  The women wear so many petticoats that they have to be put on out-of-doors, otherwise, they couldn't pass through their doors! The headpieces are also quite elaborate, especially that of the bride.  Around her neck she wore a necklace on which was a picture of her bridegroom.  Mrs. Jacobi writes, "Girls of Decs, proud to wear their beautiful national costume.  The rural districts of Hungary have resisted the invasion of conventional prosaic, machinemade clothes better than most other parts of central and southeastern Europe" (photo caption, p. 727).

Finally, Mrs. Jacobi received a telegram from her husband: "Carpenters departed; fall cleaning completed; cook returned; paprika preserves in full swing.  Longing for my family."

"There was no resisting such a summons.  The next day saw us on our way home, to tell about our experiences and to discuss what would be the best thing to do the next summer" (p. 721).  Plus, the boys had to return to school!

'Round the World, 1931 Style (Part 2)

Our gutsy flyers, Gladys and Charles, left the beach on the Bay of Bengal and headed across the Yoma Mountains with a repaired engine but with no working radiator.  Twenty-five miles short of Rangoon, they were forced to make another emergency landing.  The pair refueled, kept going east to reach Bangkok, Siam (Thailand).  There, the leaky radiator was repaired.

Meanwhile, hostilities between China and Japan had started north of Siam.  The flyers progressed in the Errant and reached Hanoi, French Indo-China (North Vietnam) and were advised to not fly over China.

Gladys and Charles were determined to visit Hong Kong so proceeded to fly up the Chinese coast.  Gladys writes, "On October 9, when we landed to refuel at Swatau, we were surrounded by Chinese soldiers dressed in irregular uniforms, but equipped with bayonets which might have been all too effective if we had not been able to show that ours was not a Japanese plane" (p. 686).

The last city in China on their trip was Shanghai.  Intending to ship their plane across the Pacific, they were not prepared for the difficulties that ensued.  They had to obtain a release from the Chinese government in Nanking.

While the American Embassy was negotiating this, they hoped to at least dismantle the Errant and pack it in crates.  They were not even allowed on the field.  "The reason was soon apparent.  A plane arrived amid great excitement among the crowd.  A few minutes later a car raced out of the field carrying a man in military uniform.  It was General Chiang Kai-shek, the President of China and the principal figure in China's resistance against Japan" (p. 687).  After more delays, they finally left and stopped in Japan before their trip across the Pacific.

"It was a joy to reassemble the Errant in San Francisco and soar over the Golden Gate" (photo caption, p. 688) after wandering over the rest of the world.  "At Los Angeles the skypath turned toward the east and home . . . the flyers felt relief in freedom from frequent customs inspections and from the necessity of obtaining information through interpreters" (photo caption, p. 689).

Gladys and Charles were most impressed by the American Luxuries of having an airport and ground crew at every major city, radio communication between the fields and weather reports.  "We had been away almost eight months.  Now we saw America in perspective. . . It was time for the Errant, home from its wanderings, to rest" (p. 690).

Personal note: my parents lived for years in California.  Dad was famous for being a horrible driver (I promised my children, "You will never again have to ride with grandpa).  One time when mom, dad, and I were on a road trip, dad nearly got us killed by turning left in front of a truck.  After he got out of the car to pump gas, I commented to mom, "I think he just used up his Guardian Angel."  Mom sighed, "I think he just used up about two dozen of them!"  Gladys and Charles must have used up about a hundred Guardian Angels on their world-wide tour in a primitive airplane with no communication, no radar, not much else!

'Round the World, 1931 Style (Part 1)

Here we have Charles, an engineer-airplane designer, with time off, married to Gladys, an adventurous woman who loves to travel. One evening they contemplated flying around the United States. She offered, "if we can get the plane?"  He countered, "Get the plane?  Why not build it?" Flying the World: In a Homemade Airplane the Author and Her Husband Enjoy 16,000 Miles of Adventurous Flight Across Europe, Asia, and America, Gladys M. Day, National Geographic Magazine, June, 1932, p. 655.  And that's exactly what they did!

"We built our plane in the spring of 1931.  We then shipped to England, where it was reassembled.  From England we flew to France . . . to Germany . . . over the Balkans to Istanbul . . . across Palestine, Persia, and India . . . up the Chinese coast to Shanghai, in the shadow of impending war between China and Japan . . . we shipped to San Francisco and flew home across the American Continent in December" (p. 655).

Some statistics: total distance: 24,000 miles (as in the title, 16,000 miles of flying).  Gasoline consumption: 1,240 gallons, "ranging in price from as low as 22 cents a gallon (in America) . . . to as high as $1.50 per gallon at an English fort in the middle of the Syrian Desert" (p. 655).  Total expenses, including hotels and ship passage: $6,000.

Their plane was christened the Errant; high speed was 105 miles per hour, cruising speed was 85 miles per hour, and landing speed was 30 miles per hour" (p. 656).  One unique feature of the Errant was that the passenger seat was beside the pilot's seat.

After procuring the necessary maps, passports, visas, and flying permits, they took off from London on May 28.  "The thrill of that first take-off, the feeling of the plane lifting from the ground after so many months of waiting and planning, will not soon be forgotten" (p. 657).

It didn't take long for the couple to get lost,  They were running out of gas and had to land soon; they weren't sure over which European country they were flying.  They chose the next flat field for landing.  They feared they were in the Netherlands, in which they had no flying permit. The plane turned out to be in a potato patch in an insane asylum's field in Germany.

All was well.  They were "declared welcome and escorted into town . . . Really, we could not have landed in a more charming or picturesque place if we had tried!" (p. 659).

They enjoyed flying over Western and Eastern Europe and eventually crossed the Black Sea into Turkey.  "The difference between the East and the West is apparent to the flyer in more ways than simply the change in dress and customs of the people.  Beyond Istanbul, flying accommodations were at a premium.  It became difficult and often impossible, to obtain weather reports" (p. 662).

After leaving Jerusalem, they turned west, "directly over the Syrian Desert, which in that season of the year was a furnace of heat, a white, glaring expanse of sand, where to lose our way meant almost certain death" (p. 664).  I'm reminded that these brave adventurers could not fly more than several thousand feet in the air.

The dangers they survived were many and varied.  In Cologne (Germany), their gasoline tank started leaking.  The mechanics at the airport wouldn't weld it closed and had to construct a new copper tank (while they waited).  In the middle of the night at a hotel in Baghdad (present Iraq), they had to leave because the hotel was on fire!  (Let's not forget, in 1931, there were no night flights.)  The monsoon season in India made air travel difficult.  The two contracted dengue fever in Calcutta and ended up staying there one month.

Due to total engine failure, they had to make an emergency landing on the beach of the Bay of Bengal (India).  Charles asked Gladys to drop a smoke bomb so he could determine from which direction the wind was blowing.  She did, but it didn't go off.  He managed to land just inches from the water.  Burmese natives came from the jungle to inspect the strange craft.  Both parties decided the other was friendly.  The natives helped move the plane close to the trees so the tide wouldn't flood the plane.  Then they guided Charles and Gladys, all the while, carrying the plane's engine on bamboo poles through a jungle full of poisonous snakes,  six hours to the nearest road close to which there was an actual automobile. 

I admire Charles: no one could help him repair the engine so he took it apart and rebuilt it himself!  He decided that it would be easier to float the engine back to the plane by water in a 'dugout' canoe.  This in itself was another adventure but the two were able to continue their journey after that.

(Please note: this article is as interesting as a juicy romance novel, but it is long!  I will finish it another day and report the continuing progress and conclusion!)

Frog or Toad?

"A man can make a running jump of not more than four times his length, while any two-inch frog worth his salt thinks nothing of a jump of twenty times his length," Our Friend, the Frog, Doris M. Cochran,  National Geographic Magazine, May, 1932, p. 645.  This is but one of many amazing qualities of those amphibian animals we call frogs and toads.

*Only the males can sing.  "The inflated vocal pouch of the calling male extends in the front of the head," (photo caption, p. 649).

*Their long, sticky tongues are attached to the lower front of their jaws for maximum length in snaring flying insects.  One species has no tongue but has claws on its feet.

*You can distinguish terrestrial/land/tree climbing frogs from aquatic frogs by the appearance of their feet.  The land-dwellers have round knobs on their feet for better attachment while the aquatics have webbed feet for more efficient swimming in the shallow ponds they prefer to inhabit.

*Females lay a large quantity of eggs, as many as 240.  Only one in a hundred usually survives the metamorphosis from tadpole to adult.  Enemies of the newly hatched eggs are fish, turtles, and crayfish.

*Frogs secrete a slimy substance on their backs to make most of them inedible.  Some are poisonous.

*Frogs hibernate in the winter in the mud; they do not breathe.  In tropical countries they don't hibernate.

*"The insect-eating habits of the tailless amphibians are of great economic value to man.  Toads especially take enough food to fill the stomach four times completely in twenty-four hours," (p. 645).

*A wide-spread habit in the southern United States, especially in small towns or rural areas is "frog gigging."  Done in the darkness of night using a flashlight, frogs are poked or captured live with a loop or nail at the end of a long stick and put into sacks.  The Bullfrog is large enough to be eaten.  (This is generally a 'guy' thing!)

*"The nutritive value of frogs' legs compares favorably with that of chicken and fish," (p. 648).

*Some frogs have teeth and will bite if disturbed.

*Frogs make good pets.  They need an environment that is always moist.  Frogs are toads and toads are frogs.

*There is no truth in the belief that touching frogs cause warts on your hands.  The author attested to this.

Ms. Cochran obviously greatly appreciates these interesting creatures.  The eight-page section of color drawings were lovely, if you like frogs.  "I have not spoken of the real beauty of some species of frogs.  Their slender, graceful proportions, their waxlike, nearly translucent skin, glowing with the soft, rich tones of old pottery; their brilliant expectant eyes, with irises of gold and iridesant colors - these are sufficient to make an esthetic appeal to anyone who is sensitive to beauty in all its forms," (p. 649).

The Second Canal Across Central America!

The Panama Canal was completed by the United States in 1914; traffic through it was so great that in the late 1920s, the United States was considering building a second canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific across the Central American country of Nicaragua.  Lieut. Col Dan I. Suttan (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) describes the two years he spent there surveying in An Army Engineer Explores Nicaragua: Mapping a Route for a New Canal Through the Largest of Central American Republics, National Geographic Magazine, May, 1932.

We cannot imagine the hazards in an undeveloped country of mostly jungle so dense "that you can rarely see ten feet in any direction," the daily rain, the threats of bandits, plus the ever-present mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, and snakes.  "The troops were never dry; but fortunately, although being wet constantly is not comfortable, in Nicaragua his condition does not lead to colds and pneumonia, as would be the case in the United States" (p. 592).

The idea for a canal to shorten the ocean route was not new.  When first proposed, the choice was between Panama and Nicaragua.  Panama was chosen probably because it had no smoking volcanoes, as did Nicaragua.  In 1931, Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, was almost destroyed by an earthquake and fire.

As I've been reading about countries of this era since the National Geographic Magazines of 1926, I find Nicaragua to be among the most primitive, in terms of culture, communication, trade, politics, and infrastructure (few passable roads, few railroads).  Most of the population was native Indian and Spanish, with a few wealthy individuals of Spanish descent.

Here's an interesting geological feature: "Once Lakes Nicaragua and Managua were parts of the upper end of a large salt-water bay, a portion of the Pacific Ocean.  In the course of time, volcanoes ejected huge quantities of lava, which closed the entrance to the bay. . . swordfish, shark, and tarpon, all salt-water fish. . . were entrapped in the lake and as the water freshened, gradually they were able to adapt themselves to the changed conditions" (p. 613).  The natives were terrified by the sharks!  (So would I be!)  A quick internet search reveals that these oceanic fish in Lake Nicaragua are the only oceanic fish in the world in a freshwater lake.

American Marines were invited by the military leader to keep the peace in the country from 1912 to 1925, then asked to come back in 1927.  They were supposed to leave after an election in 1932.  Sound familiar?

Our soldiers are extremely adaptable in the countries around the world.  What a wonderful attitude: "We made numerous friends in Nicaragua and left the country with many regrets. We hope to return with steam shovels and dredges to dig a new interoceanic canal, but we are happy to have known Nicaragua and the Nicaraguans with all their charm of to-day, untouched by the outside world."

The Grand State of Ohio, Part 2

My lifelong impression of Ohio is that the people are busy, hard-working, serious, and energetic.  Coming from the "southern" state of Kentucky directly from high school in 1961, I was not prepared for the fast-paced Ohio life.  In Kentucky, when a stoplight changed to green, drivers would go.  In Ohio, drivers immediately ejected themselves into traffic.  Horns would blare if you weren't quick enough!

Another change I encountered was the snow and cold weather.  Dayton is not that much farther north than Louisville, Kentucky, but the city has so much more of winter.  Snow starts before Thanksgiving and remains on the ground until Easter.  I learned to slide around our subdivision streets which were never plowed.  One January, the temperature never ranged above zero for an entire month!

"Wright Field, on the outskirts of Dayton, is the center for the development and testing of all types of aircraft for the U.S. Army Flying Force" (photo caption, p. 589).  This ultimately morphed into the United States Air Force's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where I worked as a clerk for one summer.

In 1932, National Cash Register corporation had a giant factory in Dayton.  It remained a major employer for many years.

The city of Toledo, another large manufacturing center, is in northwestern Ohio, at the southeastern point of Lake Erie.  Toledo is a straight shot north up Interstate-75 from Lexington, Kentucky, an easy trip to visit daughter #4, Theresa, when she lived there.  (Please see this blog, Saturday, August 31, 2013: "First Time in Toledo!" and Sunday, September 1, 2013: "A Play Day in Toledo.")

Toledo, Ohio skyline, September, 2013.

Maumee River, from a riverside park in Toledo, September, 2013.  This river empties into Lake Erie a short distance north of this point.

At left, granddaughter, Heather, with her mother, Theresa, daughter #4.  We're ready to see the theatrical production of "Wicked" at the Stranahan Theater in Toledo.

Even in 1932, Ohio was a highly industrialized state.  "Of her 6,647,000 people, only 16 per cent are found in agricultural regions" (p. 587).  Cincinnati, the City of Seven Hills, "was a great manufacturing and distribution center. . . by virtue of its proximity to regional raw materials - iron ore from the North, coal from the East and timber from the South" (p. 589).  There is a large German population in Cincinnati who "brought with them an entire culture, that of well-beingness, conviviality, music, literature, language" (p. 590).

One winter day in 1962, my ancient French professor at the University of Dayton invited me and another student to accompany him and a German professor to the German festival in Cincinnati, a one-hour trip south by car.  We ended up lost in the city, unable to locate the event but had an enjoyable dinner in a German restaurant.

That summer on a hot Sunday afternoon, my dear dad asked if the family would like to take a day trip to Cincinnati.  I remembered touring beautiful gardens when my sixth grade class visited the Cincinnati Zoo.  Dad agreed and pulled out a map.  We located "Cincinnati Garden."  We found the place and were highly disappointed.  Cincinnati Garden was a boxing arena!  So we went home to Dayton.

The Cincinnati Zoo of today is beautiful, a fine place to enjoy animals in their natural habitat.  The Zoo of 1932 was a series of cages: lots more animals, mostly lying around doing nothing.  It is amazing to me that in the Zoo today, you can feel close to lions, tigers,elephants, all the animals, and actually touch the tall giraffes!  They have done well.

Giraffe viewing at the Cincinnati Zoo, 9-13-2012:  Look how close you can get!

The Monkey Island at the Cincinnati Zoo, 9-13-12.  The monkeys appeared to be having a lot of fun!

View of Cincinnati skyline taken from Purple Bridge (pedestrian) spanning the Ohio River, 4-13-11.

Cincinnati Reds Stadium, taken from a "Duck Boat" in the middle of the Ohio River, June, 2011.

The city of Akron, Ohio, was the headquarters for the 'dirigible' building industry, you know, like the "Goodyear blimps" you see at important baseball games or at the Daytona 500 races.  Cleveland is another giant metro-area city in northeastern Ohio.  Situated on Lake Erie, it is also a large industrial center.  Years ago, I visited Cleveland when my brother, Don, and his family lived in Mentor, Ohio.  We enjoyed the lake-front park.  Columbus, Ohio, the home of Ohio State University, is also the home of another brother, Bob.  Bob and I enjoyed a visit to the museum there.

Mr. Melville Chater ends his account of the Grand State of Ohio the way he began it, with the Ohio River.  "With the modern dams and locks rendering the Ohio permanently navigable, and with proposals for a state waterway system connecting that river with Lake Erie it is quite possible that he (the Ohio River) may yet enjoy a renascence surpassing even the steamboat era" (p. 591). This article was especially enjoyable to me because I had traveled to many of the cities in every direction and once lived in Dayton.

The Grand State of Ohio, Part 1

Questions: Why would pioneer Ohioans call their State, "The Gateway State?"  And why would they name the capital city they created in the center of the state in the middle of virgin forests, "Columbus?"  Answers: In the mid-1800s, these statesmen were one-month's journey by horseback from the East coast.  They saw their new state certainly as the Gateway to the western part of America, stretching 2,000 miles west of Ohio to the coast.   "And, since the far traversed of virgin forests and that of virgin seas have somewhat in common, why not call their new capital "Columbus?"  (Ohio, The Gateway State,  Melville Chater, National Geographic Magazine, May, 1932, p. 525).

*This long 68-page article lays out a detailed history and geography of the state since pioneer times.  We get a bonus: the history of travel on the Ohio River, equally as interesting.  With no suitable roads, the state, and indeed, the country was settled using the rivers as highways, in large part.  "In that steamless era the Ohio was a one-way river.  At its head (in Pennsylvania) the pioneer bought lumber, built an ark, and having floated his family downstream, broke up the craft into the makings of a cabin. Soon, there being no shops, came the Salesboat - a red flag indicating groceries, a yellow flag indicating dry goods - at the sound of whose conch-shell horn buckskin-clad planters or their sunbonnetted wives would hoist the stop-signal to barter tobacco, dried venison, or furs for store goods" (p. 547).

With the advent of the steamboat in 1811, traffic on the Ohio River was now two-way (downstream and upstream).  Mr. Chater, in 1932, predicted that since that there were plenty of roads and highways for cars and trucks, the steamboat would soon fade into oblivion.  However, in our time, there are still steamboats on the river for entertainment and travel.

Steamboat, paddlewheeler, the Belle of Louisville.  Last fall our church group had a fine outing on the Ohio River.  Every year during Kentucky Derby week, the first weekend in May, the Belle of Louisville races the steamboat from Cincinnati, Ohio, the Delta Queen.  The Delta Queen is much larger and faster and usually wins the races but it takes a shorter distance for the Belle to turn around and she wins once in a while!  Nobody really cares who wins and can claim the 'antlers' trophy for their boat for another year - we just have fun!

FYI:  The Ohio River is widest at the city of Louisville, Kentucky, at one mile width.  I would have guessed it would be widest at its entrance into the mighty Mississippi River.

In addition to the Ohio and other rivers in the state, Ohio developed a system of connecting canals, 800 miles of them.  There was not only transporting of products in the canals, there was passenger travel as well.  "For over 30 years Ohio's canals constituted the chief factor in developing her toward a rank among the Union's foremost States" (p. 561).  Then in 1839 the railroads started building their transcontinental lines which effectively ended the canal traffic.  Isolated parts of those canals survive today.  I have crossed a few of them.  Some are used for recreation; some are Historic Landmarks.

This Ohio River forms the southern boundary of the state as well as the eastern boundary clear to the city of East Liverpool, where it turns east into Pennsylvania.  "As a ceramics producer, Ohio takes first rank in the United States, its 490 plants making tableware, art, tile, brick, electrical porcelain, sanitary ware, and other clay products . . . East Liverpool now has upward of 300 kilns" ( photo caption, p. 573).

Ohio was in 1932 and still remains a vast industrial state.  Ranking 35th in land area, in 1932, Ohio ranked 4th in population in America.  Ohio is ideally situated for iron and steel production.  Youngstown, Ohio, is situated near the eastern border of the state.  The city was actually named after a real person named John Young, who settled there in 1797.  Six years later Daniel Eaton built Ohio's first blast furnace.  This was the first of what would become a major industry for the state, production of iron and steel.  In 1932, Ohio produced 1/8th of all steel made in the United States.  At that time one of the steel mills covered an area three miles by 3/4 of a mile in area and employed 15,000 workers. "One-half of its homes are occupant-owned" (p. 550).

As a freshman at the University of Dayton, Ohio, in 1962, I visited a steel mill with my colleagues in the American Chemical Society.  It was awesome. At night, everything was dark, lit only by the furnaces and immense vats of liquid steel transported from overhead and dumped into molds.  The weather was cold but we were warmed by this molten steel.  Awesome and unforgettable!

Of the cities in Ohio, I am most familiar with Dayton, having lived there for two years, and Cincinnati, visiting there many times, beginning when I was in the sixth grade.  I've also visited Toledo, Columbus, and Cleveland, and traveled the interstate highways between these cities.  The next blog entry will give a few facts about these cities and perhaps several photos.

*My apologies for the delay in writing about "Ohio."  The weather here in Lexington, Kentucky has been so warm and clear for the past three days, I chose to spend most of the time outside in the yard, cleaning up weeds and dead branches, planting daisies and mulching. This article is long - 68 pages - too long to sit down in an hour and digest!

An Ancient Working System

In our world of polyester fabrics closely mimicking real silk, we never pause to think of how authentic silk fabric from authentic silkworms is manufactured.  In 1932, two ladies, Alice Tisdale Hobart and Mary A. Nourse traveled to the far-away country of China and wrote about ancient methods of manufacturing still being practiced, How Half the World Works, National Geographic Magazine, April, 1932.

The story is quite fascinating.  Silkworms are "So small at hatching that 700,000 weigh only a pound. . . within 42 days they have shed their skin four times, and the same 700,000 worms weight 9,500 pounds" (photo caption, p. 511).  From the rural countryside, family workers (including children of all ages) feed the worms, captive in trays in the semi-darkness, fresh, finely cut-up mulberry leaves.  As soon as they make their silk cocoons, the silkworms are finished with their part.  The families work to harvest the silk by unwinding the strands of silk carefully from the cocoons.

It is in the city factories that the silk strands "are painstakingly turned into beautiful silks and satins" (p. 513) by the spinners and weavers.

In addition to silk production, other major products from small farms in China are rice and wheat.  "Since earliest historic days the bulk of the Chinese people have been farmers - frugal, hard-working, conservative. Governments and dynasties have come and gone, but the methods of these people and their devotion to the land remain steadfast" (photo caption, p. 519).

"In the north wheat is commonplace, rice a luxury, while exactly the reverse holds true of the south.  China's production of rice in a normal year exceeds 700,000,000 bushels" (photo caption, p. 520).  Yet, in 1932, China had to import rice to feed its people.

Chinese people do not waste anything!  Even human waste was used to fertilize their fields.  If we break a dish we certainly would throw it away.  In the China of 1932, there were those who could put together the pieces of pottery by glueing together the pieces or by drilling small holes and inserting metal 'bridges.'  There were women who would patch any article of clothing while-you-waited.  There was "No machinery, only the simple tools that have been passed down, like a legacy, through the generations, from father to son" (p. 522).

The authors conclude, "So, century after century, generation after generation, life in China has flowed in the old accustomed paths, unbroken, unjarred by the other half of the world that lives by the creed of efficiency and speed.  Each year the invasion of machinery is greater. . . yet the old order gives way reluctantly" (p. 524).

Modernizing an Ancient Country

We in America and Western Europe have no idea of the cataclysmic changes a primitive country undergoes when suddenly its people must adapt their ways to fit in with the rest of the world.  The country of Turkey, in 1932, was such a country.

The short article and 8-page photo section, Looking in on New Turkey, National Geographic Magazine, April, 1932, tells us of many such giant cultural leaps for the ordinary citizen.

1)  Citizens no long owed allegiance to a sultan but "serves the Turkish Republic" (p. 499).

2)  "By Government order he doesn't wear a fez any more" (p. 499), so that they could better compete with the Western world.

3)  "In accord with another official promulgation, a Latin alphabet has replaced the beautiful but cumbersome Arabic script" (p. 499), because only a few could read or write.

4)  98% of the population were farmers using primitive equipment.  Tractors were gradually being utilized.

The native clothing was largely made from goats' wool, hand-woven, dyed and embroidered.  Women were said to be "as free as the men of her tribe" (photo caption, p. 509).  The country has remained democratic since 1923 after a War of Independence to overthrow the Ottoman Empire which had ruled since the 13th century.  Viva Democracy!

Hopping Over Mountains!

Walter Mittelholzer loved to fly in airplanes in the 1920s & 1930s.  He writes, "To me, flying has always been a means of which, without the assistance of photography, the mountains and the secrets of the vast world can be shown from a point of view hitherto unknown," Flights From Arctic to Equator: Conquering the Alps, the Ice Peaks of Spitsbergen, of Persia, and Africa's Mountains of the Moon, National Geographic Magazine, April, 1932, p. 445.

By his own count, this adventurer crossed the European Alps a hundred times.  This was not without risk: once he crashed on a snowy peak and broke a few bones.  He particularly enjoyed employment from the Shah of Persia, hired "to demonstrate the great value of air travel to his country . . . The culminating achievement of my Persian flight was to cross the premier mountain in Persia, the ice-crowned Demavend, which towers to a height of 18,600 feet" (p. 448).  He was the first to fly over it.  At other times, his plane developed engine trouble.  Always challenging was making preparations for fuel, not to mention lack of unreliable maps.

FYI: The Matterhorn is a towering Swiss mountain, "too steep for any great depth of snow to cling to" (photo caption, p. 450).

The stories told by all adventurers are so interesting.  On the shores of a Swiss lake, at Morgarten in the 1800s, the French were attacking.  "The Swiss ran low on ammunition, and one soldier is reputed to have extracted a French bullet from his own wound and, loading it into his gun, to have fired it back at the enemy" (photo caption, p. 464).  The Swiss were victorious that time.

Who could not be enchanted with travel over tall mountains in a small plane?  "Now and again, through gaps in the clouds, I could see, far down in the narrow ravines, mountain villages hanging like birds' nests to the green slopes traversed by foaming watercourses" (p. 463).

What a beautiful sight it must have been to view the volcano of Mount Etna in Sicily when it was smoking!  "The 10,758 foot volcano dominates the Sicilian landscape and is visible far at sea" (photo caption, p. 468).  Captain Mittelholzer also flew near and photographed the smoking volcano of Mount Vesuvius.  "The last three centuries have seen a continuous state of subdued activity, with occasional serious flare-ups, the most recent of which was in 1929" (photo caption, p. 470).

FYI: The word, 'assassin,' comes from a "notorious band of murderous hashish eaters" who attacked caravans in the Middle Eastern desert roads between Tehran to Kazvin (photo caption, p. 472).

Once the Captain was "flying in complete darkness" over a jungle.  "Sinister violet gas flames shot out from both the red-glowing exhaust pipes.  Inside, in the pilot's seat, I could no longer read any instrument.  Long ago I had been obliged to lay the map aside.  I must land, go down, cost what it would" (p. 474).  At last he found a sixty-foot wide sand bank on a river and landed.

Particularly interesting when flying over and photographing Africa were the many herds of elephants, zebras, giraffes, gazelles by the hundreds, and buffalo. Can you imagine the joy of flying over a group of elephants swimming across the Nile River!

My own conclusion is that in addition to being a skilled aviator and photographer, Walter Mittelholzer is an engaging writer.

The Country That Values Freedom

If we had to name the second-most freedom-loving nation in the world, after us passionate "Give me liberty or give me death" Americans, it would have to be Poland.  MelvilleBell Grosvenor, who would go on to become Chairman of the Board of the National Geographic Magazine, tells us of Poland's post-World War I rebuilding in Poland, Land of the White Eagle,  April, 1932.  "The symbol of Polish patriotism is that combination fortress, palace, and cathedral, the Wawel. . . the pride of every Pole" (p. 435).

On one of the Cathedral's steeples, "a huge white eagle spreads its wings.  This defiant bird appears prominently as a shield on most public buildings and monuments everywhere throughout the country and is the central motif of the national flag and crest" (p. 435).

Another venerable Polish institution is Krakow University, founded in 1364. It is second in age in Central Europe only to the one in Prague.  Mr. Grosvenor reports that "Poland is a land of fervent faith.  At home, in the fields, by the roadside, or in city streets, shrines and calvaries, chapels and churches testify to the intimate part religion plays in the daily life of the people" (photo caption, p. 443).

This article was short but there was a beautiful 8-page section of color photographs.  In 1932, most people in the countryside still wore their native dress and lived in thatched-roof homes.  The country was mostly agricultural at that time.

Krakow's main church, St. Mary's, continues a practice started in the 12th century.  On the hour, a trumpeter plays a call then abruptly stops, in memory of a trumpeter shot to death by an arrow as he called the city to defend itself against the invading Tatars in the 1200's. The people of this old and proud European nation have suffered through uncounted battles and periods of rebuilding!

Not the Same Old Trip!

This evening, I took a trip back through time, 2,000 years of time!  Among the privileged large crowd on hand to experience An Easter Oratorio, "Thy Will Be Done," by very talented Lexington (Kentucky, USA) composer, Angela Rice, I went back to the Holy Land where Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead.  It was an amazing work, brought to life through the talents of the singers, orchestra, conductor, and directors.

This is the third year for an Easter Oratorio by Mrs. Rice.  Each year, more songs are added and the production gets larger.  When Jesus was tempted by the Devil, I could picture Jesus at the very top of the temple in Jerusalem with all the lies of the Devil.  When Jesus called the four-day-dead Lazarus from the tomb, I fully expected a man to emerge surrounded with the cloth wraps. Judas' performance was chilling; he betrayed Jesus with a kiss.  Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, the Woman at the Well, and Elizabeth gave very touching performances.  The choir, or "Ensemble of Followers," were outstanding, as were the narrators.

I won't name names because every one is of international, national or local importance and fame, that is, except one I will name, the Executive Producer, Dr. Everett McCorvey, perhaps the most well-known.  Every production Dr. McCorvey is involved with is tops, as you know.

Tonight's performance was at my home church, Christ the King Cathedral.  There is one more performance this season,  next Sunday at the Tates Creek Presbyterian Church.  I won't spoil the Finale for you, just know, you won't be disappointed by any part of this!  Mrs. Rice's work is unique, beautiful, and most inspirational!

The "New" San Francisco in 1932

When I first visited San Francisco, California, USA, in the 1980's for several days, I had an almost overwhelming feeling that I must live the rest of my life there!  It was that beautiful and exotic then, something this Kentucky girl had never experienced.  Mr. Frederick Simpich will tell us how the city was in 1932, Out in San Francisco: Fed on Gold Dust and Fattened by Sea Trade, a Pioneer Village Becomes a Busy World Port, National Geographic Magazine, April, 1932.  "It is not the city's size, or the manner of its structure that sets it apart.  Rather it is a quality of spirit . . . this much you must accept on faith" (p. 395).  I believe it!

San Francisco suffered a massive earthquake in 1906.  The subsequent fire destroyed most of the city.  Hence, it had to be completely rebuilt.  "It was an infant Mexican village when the gold rush of '49 (1849) peopled it pell-mell with frenzied, shouting thousands, who made it, almost overnight a fighting, gambling, gold-mad city whose uproar echoed around the world" (p. 395).  The sea has shaped San Francisco even more than gold, Simpich concluded.  I loved to watch the giant ships from far-away ports in the harbor.

in 1848, the State of California was annexed to the United States.  The population then was 900 citizens.  In 1932, San Francisco had a population of 1,750,000.  Today the Bay Area is home to 7.15 million, considerably larger.  The city is famous for its hills and cable cars, old Spanish missions, and giant redwood forests.

One long-standing area is the Presidio, an Army base built by the Spanish in 1776.  The Army hospital there is located directly under the Golden Gate Bridge.  In the 1989 great earthquake, I was watching the World Series baseball game coming from the stadium in San Francisco.  All at once the TV picture, coming from the Goodyear blimp overhead, started shaking. Horrified, I watched the city go dark while many fires broke out all over the city due to ruptured gas lines.  At the time, I knew my parents were in the Presidio Army Hospital because mother was going to have should replacement surgery the following day.

I heard no news about my parents until Thursday!  It took them that long to get home to Sacramento.  Mother recalled, "Dad and I were in the basement of the hospital having supper when the walls stared shaking around 5 o'clock (p.m.).  I thought we were finished, the shaking was so violent.  But the hospital didn't come down although there were large cracks in the walls.  There was no power.  They told me to go back to my room (by flashlight) and take three showers during the night because I would have my surgery as scheduled the next day.

Your Dad held the flashlight over the shower and I took the three showers.  In the morning they told me, "The surgeon had to stay up all night doing emergencies.  We can't do your surgery now."  She had the surgery 6 weeks later.  Meanwhile, till I heard from them, I was sick with worry.  The area experiences a lot of mini-earthquakes and everyone jokes, "Oh, California will fall into the Pacific Ocean any day now!"

The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937.  Eight miles long, it spans the bay from San Francisco to Oakland.  It was proposed to be a Toll Bridge.  It is magnificent, high above the water, and vibrates noticeably, even if you're in a car.  The wind is incredibly fierce.  When we visited the Presidio, we had to wear winter coats in July.

Don't think I'll complain about the cost of mail anymore.  In Gold Rush times in San Francisco, "There was the pony express to St. Joe, Missouri, with postage at $5 a letter" (p. 410).  I couldn't believe how large the gold mines in that area are.  While in Kentucky the coal miners travel in a line of bucket railcars single-file, the gold mines in California have bucket railcars nine cars wide.  As my mother once told me, "California is different.  Everything is BIG!"  I certainly hope to return some day!

Kentucky SunRise Today!

Yesterday, Monday, March 31st, Rosemary, Pedro, and I bid "good-bye" to Peggy early and were back on the road again.  We drove from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA, to Atlanta, Georgia.  Rosemary wanted to pick up her sister, Rebecca, visiting from San Francisco, California, on our way back to Lexington, Kentucky.

Our last sunrise at Hilton Head Island for who knows how long?  Taken on the bridge over the bay between Hilton Head and Pinckney Island, 3/31/14.

Hello, Georgia!  It's not far south from Hilton Head Island.

Skyline, Atlanta, Georgia.

Sisters!  From left, Rosemary, and Rebecca.  We're eating a very good Mexican lunch at Mezcalito's Restaurant, down the street from where Rebecca's son lives in Atlanta.

Skulls & skeletons help Mexicans celebrate "La Dia de los Muertos," the Day of the Dead, celebrated October 31st (All Saints' Eve), November 1st, (All Saints' Day), and November 2nd (All Souls' Day).  They remember, honor, and pray for their dead relatives and friends on those days every year.

This cross on the restaurant's wall was decorated with bottle caps.

Shrine in an alcove just inside the restaurant's entrance, honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron Saint of Mexico and of all the Americas.  The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, appeared to peasant Juan Diego in 1531 on a hill in Tepeyac, Mexico, and asked him to tell his bishop she wanted a church built on that site.  The bishop didn't believe him and asked for a sign.  Juan Diego asked the Lady for a sign and she gave him roses, which didn't bloom in that part of the world, to put inside his tilma (cloak).  When he opened the tilma to present the roses to his bishop, not only did roses fall out, but the lady's image was imprinted on the cloak.  Witnessing this miracle, the bishop built the church!

Painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe and prayer on the wall in the Women's Restroom.  Our Lady of Guadalupe's Feastday is celebrated December 12th in the United States.

The trip through Georgia was full of bright sunshine, swamps and forests alongside the road, still full of the familiar Palmetto Palm Trees until Atlanta, and very straight.  There seemed to be few exits south of Atlanta.  Interesting names on signs included Black Creek, St. Augustine Creek, Magnolia Springs Park, Skate-R-Bowl Road, and lots of Native American names: Ogeechee River, Ohoopee River, Oconee River, Ocmulgee River, Hiwassee Occee River. Then there was Indian Springs State Park; they needed a park named after them!

We saw a familiar Georgia sign, "$1,000 fine for throwing trash on highway."  There was no trash on the highway!  There were billboards with Whistle Stop Cafe, home of (the movie) "Fried Green Tomatoes," and "Gone with the Wind (movie)" museum and tours. There were many ads for pecans and peaches in Georgia.

At last, on Interstate-75 north, in Tennessee, shortly before the going into the State of Kentucky, we passed the Titan Rocket on the left, in front of the Fireworks store.  It was the fourth time I had passed by there in a week!  This time, since Rebecca was driving, I noticed that there were two small ferris wheels, and that the elephant there was pink!  One can not notice the details when one is driving on interstate highways!

It's hard to snap a photo of the mountains and valleys along I-75 in Tennessee, north of Knoxville, because there is no place to stop.  The mountains and valleys are awesome, even before spring.

Oh, Kentucky and home!  No matter how far I have come or how tired I am, when I reach the Kentucky state line, whether north, south, east, or west, I am energized and have to drive all the way home to Lexington.  Home is wonderful!

This morning, I watched a Kentucky Sunrise from my bedroom window.  From my kitchen window, I watched a red Cardinal bird hop among my barren flower pots and smaller birds at the Finch feeder.  Then I walked around my yard and noticed the first gala and bright yellow daffodils.

First daffodils in my yard this year!

My tulips are tall but there are no buds yet.  The first tiny yellow leaves have popped out on the forsythia bush.  Other bushes and trees have started to bud out.  Yes, it is GOOD to be HOME!  Praise you, Lord, for keeping us all safe on our travels this past week!