About Roy and Dale and Seymour

Probably the names Roy and Dale don't jump out at you. I'm talking about Roy Rogers and his wife Dale Evans. Maybe even now knowing their last names you still don't know who I mean. Wouldn't surprise me. Roy died in 1998 and Dale in 2001. That's not that long ago really, but we tend to forget people quickly. Roy and Dale are dead dead, not like Marilyn Monroe and some others who are alive dead. Nearly every antique shop I visit has some type of Marilyn memorabilia. Only one time have I seen a Roy Rogers item, and that was a 5 x 8 photo signed "Happy Trails," Roy Rogers. It was buried on a shelf with a $2 tag on it. I have never seen a Dale Evans item. 

Seymour isn't a who...it's a what. Seymour is a small central Wisconsin town whose sole claim to fame is that it is the site of the annual Outagamie County Fair. Outagamie County is pretty much nothing but small towns except for Appleton. Appleton has a much larger population than Seymour and was founded 20 years earlier, so I don't know why the fair ended up in Seymour but there it is. I'll get to what got me thinking about Roy and Dale and Seymour in a minute but first I want to explain how the topic came to mind in the first place.

In the last few days while on the internet reading news and what have you I have been receiving advertisements pointing me to articles about the closing of the Roy Rogers museum. I didn't know that there was a Roy Rogers museum so out of curiosity clicked on one of the links. It turns out that the museum closed in 2009. It took me awhile to come up with a theory as to why I'm getting these articles now. About a week ago I Googled birthdays on December 12 to see who else was born on that day. Going back to the museum article I saw that the museum was closed on December 12, 2009. I'm guessing that an algorithm in somebodies software matched the dates and automatically sent the information to me. I don't know how else to explain it.

It was sometime around 1974 that my ex-wife and son and I were in Seymour at the County Fair. So were Roy and Dale. Now, I've learned that memory is a piss-poor tool for recording and playing back history, but I do have some recollections of what I think I saw and thought during that day 46 years ago. 

It was a typical county fair with emphasis on future farmers and their animals. There were a few food and novelty kiosks. There was what looked to be a hastily erected small stage. I remember that there were various acts on the stage; singers, saw players, comedians and the like, all of them probably local, and all were accorded polite applause after their act was finished. Then Roy came on stage and sang a song, backed up by a small band. Then he gave a speech about how great it was to be in Seymour and how great the crowd was. I seem to remember that the 'crowd' was about 30 people. After the speech Roy got off the stage and mingled among those present but I don't think it was what he expected. Most of the folks paid little attention and I remember as he walked past me that he looked like just any other guy trying to find the restroom. 

Dale got on stage next. I don't remember if she sang, but I do remember her speech about how society was moving away from basic values. She talked about men being men and women being women and that both had natural roles in life. She scoffed at the women's liberation movement and the notion of unisex. She finished with something like, 'Am I right about that ladies?' I think she was expecting a rousing approval but instead there was almost a complete silence. Obviously the women in the sparse audience didn't share her views. 

Another memory I have of that day was one of Roy's crew announcing over the public address system that there were some men amongst the audience that had signed photos of Roy and Dale; that they sold for one dollar and they didn't have many of them. I bought one, I don't know why and I remember my ex-wife looking at me like I was crazy. The question did cross my mind, "Are they reduced to this?...playing county fairs and selling one dollar photos?"

I wondered about the careers of Roy and Dale. If you're playing the Outagamie County Fair in Seymour, you're either at the bottom of your entertainment career and just beginning or at the bottom and washed up. Roy and Dale were no longer celebrities...no longer household words. They had gone from being mainstream entertainers to successful business people. Roy lent his name to a restaurant chain, and had his image on everything from action figures to lunch buckets. There was a ton of Roy Rogers merchandise, which is why I'm surprised I don't see any in the antique shops. It's either in the hands of collectors or in landfills.

Roy started a museum that contained his stuffed horse Trigger and lots of other memorabilia. He reportedly told his children that if the museum ever became a financial burden to 'close it up.' As already stated the museum closed in 2009 and all of its contents were actioned off. 

I don't know what happened to the photo I bought that day, and was not tempted to buy the one I saw in an antique shop. Roy and Dale are gone, and I don't think it's likely that I'll be in Seymour again to see who is playing there these days. 

Sail Away, sail away, sail away

My intention is that this will be the last post about my 80th birthday. I've written everything there is to write about it, except for one last happening that has to do with the black balloon with the number 80 on it in the photo below.

We took that balloon with us from Pete and Kim's house and upon returning home tied it to a dinning room chair. Curiously, though it's not round the number seemed to always be facing me whenever I looked at it no matter which direction I approached it from. I almost felt like it was trying to communicate with me; wanted to tell me something. But what? That I'm 80? I know that! I received two t-shirts and birthday cards and emails and phone calls telling me that. I don't know if it was taunting, sympathizing or celebrating with me, but after a couple of days of feeling intimidated by the balloon I decided to get rid of it. It was Maribel who suggested that we do something symbolic with it, as sort of the official ending of what turned out to be my four day birthday celebration. So we took it into the front yard and after a rousing chorus of the birthday song, released it. 

Not having any experience in releasing helium balloons I expected it to rise to a modest height and them drift off with the slight breeze to the south. It didn't. It rose nearly straight up with a slight declination to the south. When it was a mere speck in the sky I thought of the song Orinoco Flow by Enya and the lyrics sail away, sail away, sail away. I wondered how high it was, what the view looked like from there, how long would it stay up, where would it come down...would it come down? Then my thoughts turned philosophical. Here's this black balloon, number 80, sailing off to parts unknown and probably the end of its existence. If it were sentient what would it be thinking? Would it be thinking about the events in its brief life? Would it be fearful of this last journey or would it embrace it? 

Maybe it was thinking of some of the words from Enya's song: 

From the North to the South, Ebudae into Khartoum

From the deep sea of Clouds to the island of the moon

Carry me on the waves to the lands I've never been

Carry me on the waves to the land I've never seen

We can sail, we can sail with the Orinoco Flow

We can sail, we can sail.

And then it was gone.

There's Too Many of Them!

At a recent gathering the subject of  internet and telephone scamming was briefly touched on. Each of us commented on the number of scam contacts we receive and how we disregard them, but there were also some examples of family members or friends who had fallen or nearly fallen for a scam and lost money. At one point I commented that the root of the problem is the scum who are doing this. Someone else responded that, "There's too many of them!" Shortly thereafter the conversation moved to another topic. I would have liked to pursue the subject but that's not the kind of thing you do at a social gathering. 

There are a boatload of statistics detailing the magnitude of cybercrime. For example, according to the Federal Trade Commission there are 1.5 million phishing sites set up every month. According to a 2018 report from McAfee, the global cost of cybercrime is almost $600 billion a year. And that staggering figure does not include the billions lost to scams and rip-offs that are not internet-related. There are statistics profiling the types of scams, ages of victims, average money lost per victim and on and on. That's informative but not what I was looking for.

The one statistic I wanted most and was unable to find went back to the "There's too many of them" comment.  What I was looking for is an estimate of the percentage of a given population who perpetrate these frauds. I found nothing. How many people does it take to set up 1.5 million phishing sites in one month? How many people does it take to swindle their fellow human beings out of 600 billion dollars annually? It's more than two men and a woman operating out of the back room of a pawn shop in Toledo. 

There are some 209 million people in the US age 18 and over. How many of them are scammers...internet, telephone or otherwise? Five percent? That would be 10,450,000 people. That number is equal to the entire population of the state of Georgia. But let's say it's only two percent. That's 4,180,000 vultures preying on us, a number equal to the population of Los Angeles. Think about that. 

In an older post I wrote that the people of Peru do not accept corruption, but that it is so commonplace that they expect it. I think that that is where we're at with scammers. We expect it and when it happens we try to ignore it and move on. There have been wars on drugs and organized crime. Let's have an all-out war on scammers, and while we're at it let's throw in hackers and trolls. If these creeps are smart enough to hack into bank accounts, there must be good guys smart enough to find them. It's likely that the FBI and other agencies know about some of the larger internet scam organizations. Maybe they can't shut them down for lack of evidence. I say to hell with evidence. If there is good reason to suspect that an individual or organization is internet or telephone scamming, go get them, and if it means trampling over their civil and constitutional rights so be it. 

I fantasize sometimes, usually about situations that I think need to be changed but am powerless to do anything about. The topic I'm writing about is one of those situations. In one fantasy I am a trillionaire, and somehow magically am able to identify every one of the scammers. I offer each of them one million dollars, with the condition that they face a five-member panel of psychologists and psychiatrists, and present to the panel a rational and justifiable reason for why they do what they do. And saying that they do it because they need the money doesn't cut it. If they're smart enough to set up a scam they're smart enough to earn an honest living. Every one of them...scammer, hacker and troll would have to walk away without the million. There is no justification for what they do.

In another fantasy I have, all of the parasites mentioned above are assembled in the Great Basin Desert. Each of their names are called out so that friends and family know who they are. Then I vaporize them. Poof!....gone! Extreme?...sure but it's only a fantasy. Or maybe wishful thinking. They don't deserve to live among decent people.

Excuse me, I have to go because my phone is ringing. The caller ID says "Unavailable". 

I Made It

On December 12, 2020 at 7:35 PM I reached the age of eighty. I know that there seems to be a lot of people living past eighty these days, but still, the 2010 census shows that only 4.8% of the population made it that far. I had my doubts that I'd make it, particularly during the past couple years when out-of-control blood pressure issues and a triple by-pass made things look bleak. And then there's family history. To my knowledge I am the first male in both my paternal and maternal line of male ancestors dating back to the early 1800s to reach eighty. I would have liked to have had a celebration, but circumstances are not what they were when I wrote the following post on my old blog in Peru five years ago:

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Yesterday me and Frank Sinatra celebrated our birthdays. Frank was 100, or would have been if he hadn’t died in 1998. But when you’re a somebody like Frank it doesn’t matter if you’re dead…people continue to celebrate your birthday. Family, Friends and wannabes show up at some posh location decked out in their finest hoping to be seen on the next day’s news. And they don’t have to pony up for presents.

I was 75 yesterday. I didn’t think I’d make it this far. When I was a kid life expectancy was 67 years. You retired at 65 and died two years later, hopefully having enjoyed the allotted 730 days of your golden years. Now life expectancy is 79. That raises a question…which mortality table applies to me? If I go by the 1940 table I’ve lived eight years longer than average. Based on the 2014 table I’ve can expect maybe four or more years before my ticket to the white light express gets punched. But I guess it doesn’t matter. I’m still on the right side of the grass and enjoying life and that’s what counts.

the Tom Filipowicz Combo 

Frank and I have more in common than just birthdates. Frank was a singer. I was a singer. Frank earned a lot of money and won many awards for his singing. I did not. In the late 1950s and early 60s I had a band called the Tom Filipowicz Combo. There were four of us. I was the vocalist. We performed for weddings, birthdays, graduations and other activities, earning not much more than expense money. I added a female vocalist to the group who turned out to be pretty good, and shortly after that two of the guys suggested we go to Vegas and take a shot at breaking into the big time. I chickened out. They went, and one-by-one became disillusioned and went on to other things, except for Terry (playing the guitar) who stayed in Vegas and lived out his life as a session musician. Those were different times. The band and my voice are long gone, though I can still occasionally be heard in the shower belting out, ’…and that’s why the lady is a tramp!’

as Herr Schultz in Cabaret singing the pineapple song

Frank was an actor. I was an actor. Frank earned a lot of money and won many awards for his acting. I did not. I was okay as a community actor; at least the local reviewers thought so. My favorite role was that of the defense attorney Sir Wilfrid Robarts in Agatha Christie’s…’The Witness for the Prosecution.’ My favorite production was ‘Cabaret’ staged by the Actors Repertory Theater. I portrayed Herr Schultz. The male and female leads were New York professionals as was the director. The rest of us were locals. We did 17 evening shows and two matinees – each performance to a packed house. That was my first paid acting gig. I still have a copy of the first check somewhere. My acting in Cabaret led to some paid script writing and acting for in-house promotions for a Green Bay television station for about a year, but that was the extent of my paid entertainment career. Thankfully I never gave up my day job. For the next few years I acted in and directed more plays at the community level than I can remember, but it gradually reached a point where it wasn't fun anymore, so that facet of my life ended. 

There were gala celebrations for Frank in many major cities in the USA and around the planet plus an all-star television special, but the “really big shew” as Ed Sullivan used to say was at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills. Frank Sinatra Jr. and everyone who is anyone was there. Afterwards they probably dined on exotic dishes like Coquilles Saint-Jacques followed by bùche for desert and drank Dom Perignon at $400 a bottle.

My birthday party was at a back table in Chili’s restaurant in the Chiclayo, Peru mall. We dined on exotic dishes with names like ‘big mouth burger’ and ‘chicken fried chicken’ and drank Peruvian beer at $2 a pop. Okay…so it wasn’t the Saban Theater and there were no television cameras or tuxedos or fancy foods, but friends being together sharing convivial conversation and laughter aren’t the exclusive domain of high-rollers at celebrity parties, and we had our share of both.

   

In the evening there was another celebration, this time with family at a restaurant on the sixth floor of the Saranga Hotel. These are some of the same folks I celebrated my sixty-fifth birthday with, except for my niece CJ who is seven. At that time I had known them and Maribel for only four days, being on my first trip to Peru.

After returning home Maribel commented that “the whole day flowed like a river.” It really did. This was one of my more enjoyable birthdays. It was a relaxing day spent with friends and family. I couldn't ask for more.

Maybe in five years I’ll write another post about our birthdays when Frank is 105 and I’m 80. I’ll bet Frank’s party won’t be nearly as spectacular as the one this year. Reaching 105 is no big deal if you’re dead. It’s automatic…everyone does it. Turning 80 will be a milestone for me and I’ll be ready for another party. But this time no Chili’s restaurant. I’m thinking that the San Martin Ballroom at the JW Marriott Hotel in Lima Peru will be the place to be Saturday evening, December 12, 2020. Watch your email for the invitation.

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It feels like just yesterday that I wrote that post, and yet so much has changed since then. There was no party at the Marriott Hotel in Lima. There was no party anywhere. We had begun thinking about one earlier in the year, considering several commercial venues in the Chattanooga area but ultimately decided that it would be more fun and less formal if we did it at our house. We settled on six couples, totaling fourteen people with me and Maribel. It would have been cozy in our house but doable. We were already apprehensive about Covid-19 and when the "Thanksgiving surge" began we agreed that we did not want to be responsible for a social gathering where the virus could spread so cancelled the plans. I'll admit I was disappointed but as it turned out that wasn't the end of the story. 

A celebration doesn't have to include lots of people, music, dancing or speeches. All that is necessary to commemorate a special event is to have people who think enough about you to want to be with you to mark the occasion. So last Saturday night on my birthday me, Maribel and our neighbor friends Tim and Alisha enjoyed a good meal and conversation at Logan's Steakhouse, followed by cake and beverage at our house. I very much appreciated them being with us. 

And it wasn't over yet. Today there was another celebration at the home of some Chattanooga friends, Pete and Kim (lower). Also there were Dave and Vickie (right). Kim had prepared a great lunch and Vickie had baked my favorite cake...cherry nut.  

A word about friends. In my 80 years I have seen so many friends come and go. It's sometimes sad to think about the people who for one reason or another are no longer in my life, but drifting apart seems to be inevitable. I am happy now with the people who I call friends, and hope that they'll be around for my 90th. 

So considering the birthday dinner with Tim and Alisha; the luncheon with Pete, Kim, Dave and Vickie, plus according to Maribel the seventy eight electronic birthday wishes from friends and family in the US and Peru, and having the best wife a man could have at my side, I would say that I couldn't have asked for a better birthday celebration.

Confederate President Jeff Davis would have understood Donald Trump

It's March, 1865 and the Confederate capitol Richmond was in turmoil. The civilian population and soldiers were deserting is staggering numbers. Inflation had priced most goods, when available, out of the reach of most people. Even the most optimistic realized that Richmond would fall, though many could not imagine that the Confederacy itself was doomed. President Jefferson Davis was one of the hopeful. Despite the urging of his cabinet members and advisors to evacuate, he clung to the belief that a telegram would come from General Lee informing him that General Grant's forces had been defeated and were retreating in disarray toward Washington. It was probably with shock and disbelief that Davis read the telegram from Lee telling him that the line of defense could no longer be held and that Richmond should be evacuated immediately. 

Davis kept his cabinet members and other officials waiting on a train for several hours while he waited in a telegraph office, expecting to hear that the military situation had changed and that Lee had prevailed. This was the first of many times that Davis would experience denial, refusing to accept that his army had been beaten; that the Confederacy was tottering. Davis expressed to his personal secretary Burton Harrison that, "I cannot feel myself a beaten man!" During the days of his exodus from Richmond in March to his capture May 10 in Irwinville, Georgia he continued to cling to the hope of eventual victory, but showed frustration as his entourage encouraged him to accept the inevitable, and then one by one abandoned him. He became what could only be described as irrational, insisting that the thousands of southern soldiers who had deserted would again rally to the flag. In one of the last letters to his wife before being captured he wrote that, "....it may be that a devoted band of cavalry will cling to me, and that I may force my way across the Mississippi and if nothing can be done there I can go to Mexico." He probably hoped to build an invasion army from the many confederate soldiers and officers who had escaped to Mexico. For him the Confederate cause had become personal. He could not concede defeat and in fact never did.

After his release from prison he moved his family to Canada, which he found distasteful, and after awhile eventually moved to Louisiana, where he wrote "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government." It is a two-volume largely self-serving work justifying the Confederate cause and his actions in it. It is not an easy read.

I can see so many correlations between Davis's personality and behavior and that of Donald Trump...the denial and inability to accept defeat, the focus on self, the not listening to and in fact turning on advisors who did not tell him what he wanted to hear, and grasping at every straw until there were no more straws to grasp. And like Jeff Davis I would bet that there will be a Trump memoir forthcoming, detailing how victory was stolen from him. But maybe he'll surprise me.

The Fraternal Order of Dead Christmas Carolers

Maribel likes to sing Christmas carols. Unlike me she enjoys Christmas music. This morning she was singing along with the song 'Have a Holly Jolly Christmas', and doing it with vigor. On a whim I asked her if she knew who the vocalist is, knowing full well she did not. She was unimpressed when I told her it was Burl Ives and that he has been dead for 25 years. The next tune was sung by Andy Williams. That is not surprising. I think that Andy recorded every song that was ever written and some that weren't. His annual Christmas program was always popular. He died 8 years ago. 

Following Andy's song was a song was by 'mumbles' Presely. I was never an Elvis fan. Nor am I a fan of mumbling. If a Christmas song has to be sung, at least do it so that the words can be understood. I'llhavabooCismasthoutyo doesn't make it. Maribel says I shouldn't call him mumbles. Says it's disrespectful. She's probably right. And I guess I should stop referring to a bowel movement as a 'Trump dump'. Anyway, mumbles...I mean Elvis has been dead 43 years. So about this time I started wondering how many of the Christmas songs being played are sung by dead people. Besides Burl, Andy and mumbles...I mean Elvis, there's Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Gene Autry, Nat Cole, Bing Crosby, Karen Carpenter (tragic loss), Ella Fitzgerald, and...the list goes on forever! I tried searching the internet to see if, 1) there are any new Christmas songs and 2)  any living people who recorded them. It turns out that there are a few of both but I never heard of them so they don't count. Okay...Maribel pointed out that there's Jose Feliciano who is alive and regales us with "I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas" every 30 minutes or so, but he's 75 and could die at any moment. 

So I'm guessing that Christmas is not "...the most wonderful time of the year" from the viewpoint of the legion of carolers singing to us from the beyond.

Thoughts while going Nowhere on a Stationary Bike

One of my favorite morning experiences is the stationary bike. Not riding it, but getting off when I've got my five miles in. Riding a stationary bike can be really boring. The time goes much faster if I can let my mind wander. If I just stare at the computer read-out it takes forever for the numbers to progress. Usually I have background music. Not the jazzercise stuff most people listen to. I like relaxing music, like light jazz by Bony James  or most anything by Yanni. 

I don't like Christmas music so almost always listen to a CD. I forgot that this morning so was forced to listen to whatever 'Sunny 92.3' was playing, which off course was Christmas music. A couple of selections did get me to thinking. For example, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. It had its origin in 1939 as a promotional book by the Montgomery Ward Company. Think about the story line. 

A reindeer named Rudy had a shiny nose. Because he was different, all the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. And they wouldn't let him play in reindeer games. That's bullying. That kind of behavior is totally unacceptable today, and probably was not approved of in 1939. And don't tell me that Santa and Mrs. Claus didn't know about it. I mean, Santa is there 364 days each year. He don't go nowhere. Have you ever seen him at an IHOP or any restaurant? On a beach? In a movie theater? Anywhere? No, and not Mrs. Claus either. Both of them knew full well how Rudy was being treated and they ignored it. They were complicit. By the way, being that they never leave the house, where are all the little Clauses'? Do they have a platonic relationship, or is there some factor prohibiting them from being parents? Who is there to take over the business when Santa checks out? 

Anyway, there came a Christmas eve when Santa was fogged in. He's got no headlights on the sleigh and apparently no other source of illumination, so he has the gall to ask Rudy to guide his sleigh. And upon hearing this, all of the other reindeer starting sucking up to Rudy, thinking that he might become a favorite of Santa. If I was Rudy I would have told Dancer and Prancer and the rest to ****off! Then I would have turned to Santa and said, "Now look here Claus...let's talk about this." I would have demanded better food than the other reindeer got, and my own indoor heated room, and the services of an elf as my personal groomer.  

Essentially Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is a song about discrimination and probably slavery. I would not be surprised if the liberals in the Biden administration try to ban it.

There's another Christmas song that got my attention; Do You Hear What I Hear? This one is a newcomer, going back to only 1962. Here's the setting. A group of friends have gathered at someone's house one cold December evening. They're just sitting around being social, drinking Christmas type drinks and doing the chips and dip thing when one of the men walks to a window to see how deep the snow is. Suddenly he shouts out, "A child is shivering in the cold! Quick! Somebody bring him silver and gold!" 

To my knowledge silver and gold have no warming properties. I don't know what the guy was thinking. It seems to me that child clothing (if available), blankets and a hot toddy would be more suitable. Better yet, how about bring the kid in the house! 

To be fair, many if not most songs, not just Christmas carols have nonsense lyrics, probably just to make the words rhyme, whether or not they make sense. I guess that's why I prefer instrumental music. The notes don't have to rhyme.  

Another Choice Between AIDS and Cancer

Lots of headlines this morning all saying pretty much the same thing; that the political eyes of the nation are on Georgia. At stake in the January run-off election in Georgia is the control of the Senate. I had long ago decided to and in fact did vote against Trump in the Presidential election, but also decided that I would vote Republican in the senatorial elections to keep control of the Senate to preserve conservative principals. I am still of that mind but am wavering. I don't trust Kelly Loeffler or David Perdue. Every time I see a political advertisement for either of them, I have the impression of plastic people, trying to be everything to everybody but saying nothing. But it's not just an impression about those two that bothers me. For one there is the congressional investigation in which both were investigated for corruption. An article from Wikipedia explains:

"On January 24, 2020, the Senate Committees on Health and Foreign Relations held a closed meeting with only Senators present to brief them about the COVID-19 outbreak and how it would affect the United States. Following the meeting Senator Kelly Loeffler and her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, made twenty-seven transactions to sell stocks worth between $1,275,000 and $3,100,000 and two transactions to buy stock in Citrix Systems which saw an increase following the stock market crash.^[2] Senator David Perdue made a series of 112 transactions with stocks sold for around $825,000 and bought stocks worth $1.8 million. Perdue started buying around $185,000 in stock in DuPont, a company that makes personal protective equipment, on the same day as the Senate briefing up to March 2. On May 26, the Justice Department announced that it had ended its investigation into Feinstein, Inhofe, and Loeffler. "

The investigating committee found no wrongdoing violating either lawful or ethical standards. Loeffler says that third party financial advisers did the trading, unknown to her. Yeah...the financial advisors just happened to do that shortly after a confidential senator briefing, and made all the right choices on what stocks to buy and sell. The same goes for Perdue. I recall that old chestnut that says "If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quakes like a duck, it's probably a duck."

Another thing that bothers me is their fawning over Trump; acting like puppies trying to impress their master. That includes parroting his nonsense and lies and dismissing contrary information as "fake news." And like Trump they downplayed the coronavirus. What I find really interesting is that in their earlier advertisements each of them played heavily on their relationships with Trump, but now that Trump is on his way out he has virtually disappeared from their paper and television advertisements. That's probably a smart political ploy but doesn't say much about friendship or loyalty. 

The options are Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, who in my opinion are way too far left, both spouting the same old tired liberal rhetoric. I don't want them and the rest of the liberals controlling the Senate. I am in favor of climate control, but not at the cost of immediate destruction of industry. I am in favor of equality, but not preferential treatment for every minority group who feels they've been ill treated. I especially don't want to see reparations paid for slavery that occurred 200 years ago, or illegals with voting rights. I don't even want to see illegals period. 

Once upon a time there was an American culture. Remnants of it still exist but it is slowly and perhaps irretrievably disappearing. Conservative principles and values are the best hope to preserve what remains. It is my hope that the Republican Party can regroup and once again focus on supporting and defending American ideals rather than an individual, especially one who seems hell-bent on destroying democracy. But I'm not sure that Loeffler or Perdue have the character to defend American ideals. I don't know who does at this point but I am sure it's not Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. 

The Price of Freedom

This from Kayleigh McEnany, President Donald Trump’s top spokesperson in a recent Fox News interview:

“The American people know how to protect their health. We’ve dealt with Covid for many months,” she continued. “But it’s Orwellian in a place like Oregon to say, ‘If you gather in numbers more than six, we might come to your house and arrest you, and you get 30 days of jail time.’ That’s not the American way. We don’t lose our freedom in this country. We make responsible health decisions as individuals.”

I am so damned tired of hearing about how wearing a mask and taking health precautions is an infringement on personal freedom. If someone takes a shot at you and you have the opportunity to duck, do you duck or continue to stand because ducking would infringe on your freedom to stand? You duck! In many ways Covid-19 is even worse than a bullet. The 250,000 people dead in this country didn't hear the shot or see the bullet coming...didn't have the opportunity to duck. Or maybe some of them did. Maybe some of them killed themselves by ignoring all of the medical experts. A nurse recently interviewed said that dying patients told her that it can't be the virus, it must be something else killing them because the virus is a hoax. 

Ms. McEnany, half of the people in this country don't "...know how to protect their health", or, "...make responsible decisions as individuals." They refuse to wear a mask. They refuse to avoid gatherings. They refuse to accept that the virus is real, and by their cavalier behavior are endangering the health and perhaps lives of others. And if/when the vaccine is made available, those same people will refuse to take it. And some of them will die, still doubting that the virus exists. So, Ms. McEnany, when you say, "We don't lose our freedom in this country", you should probably add that the price of that freedom could be our lives. 

Maybe what I wrote in this post has offended someone. I don't care. I may not understand or agree with someone else's opinion but I respect their right to hold it. It's okay to have different opinions, but not regarding Covid-19, because your opinion and resultant behavior may be responsible for me or my wife's death. That's not okay. Wear a mask, maintain safe distancing, avoid gatherings, and most of all, get off of this 'loss of freedom', and 'hoax' thing! Geeze! 

Judge Gordon, We Are Already There

This from an ABC news article this morning:

"When Republican lawyers in Nevada complained their observers were not close enough if they could not hear everything poll workers were saying, U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon pushed back. "At what point does this get ridiculous?" the exasperated judge, an appointee of President Barack Obama, asked before ruling against the Republicans."

Judge Gordon, it has passed the point of ridiculous. With every passing day, Trump and incredibly the majority of the Republican party leadership, either by their open support or silence are making a mockery of conservative ideology. Voters in 2024 will carry with them to the ballot box the images of a leaderless political party in shambles and a President who's sanity must soon be questioned, and who had to be physically ejected from the White House while shouting "I was robbed!" Don't laugh. This is Trump we're talking about...it could happen.

Four years is a short time. Can a coherent platform of conservative policy and principles be reestablished by 2024? And who would be a candidate? It will have to be someone who is not now on the horizon...someone who is not associated with Trump or those still openly supporting him; someone who is intelligent, mature and has the wisdom and leadership ability to carry the banner of conservative thinking. 

(A little later) I've been thinking about the scenario I painted above about Trump not voluntarily leaving the White House and wondering how far fetched that is. There are plenty of ultra-right bubas here in Appalachia who would be perfectly willing to jump into their Trump banner bearing, muffler less, vintage pick up trucks with their AK rifles and drive up to Washington to protect their leader. If that were to happen I would be shocked but not surprised. Nothing that is Trump connected surprises me anymore.

Why there will never be a Walmart in Peru

Walmart has thousands of operating units around the world but except for Chile has very few in South America. There's a reason for that. Walmart doesn't build in countries lacking political stability. Peru is one such country, and the root cause of Peru's instability, as with many other South American countries is corruption. To understand the magnitude of the problem you need to see and experience it as I did, for nearly ten years. Corruption is the name of the game.  It covers the spectrum from the President of the country to the lowliest desert village official. It is the way of life, deeply imbedded in the Peruvian culture. The population assumes that all public workers are corrupt. They don't accept it but they expect it, and there is not much difference between the two.

Jobs and positions can be bought, laws can be circumvented, and fortunes can be made by greasing the appropriate palms. I could offer so many examples of everyday, every situation corruption but will limit it to one. Chiclayo is the fourth largest city in Peru with a population of about 224,000. The long-time mayor was up for reelection and running on the platform of 'manos limpias' (clean hands). At a ceremony in city hall the mayor, along with the director of tourism presented Maribel and I with awards for service to the city. Less than a year later the mayor was charged with corruption; ran, was captured in a small village, and to this day is still in jail. The director of tourism and her daughter (the mayor's girlfriend) were also charged and jailed. Nobody was surprised. Everyone knew these people were corrupt when they were in office, and anyone who didn't know assumed it. 

Peru has a history to the present day of deposing Presidents because of corruption, the deposing usually orchestrated by one or more of the opposing political parties, who are also corrupt. A few years ago Pedro Paul Kuczynski was elected President. Pedro was Peruvian and also a citizen of the United States. He had taught in the states and owned a farm near Madison Wisconsin. Everyone thought that they had finally elected an honest politician who would root out corruption. It wasn't long before an opposing political party charged him with corruption in past business dealings. Kuczynski denied the charges, but suspiciously quietly gave up his office and dropped out of site. 

Up to this week Martin Vizcarra was the President of Peru. The Peruvian congress has removed him from office, because they don't like the way he has handled the coronavirus, and because of some corruption allegations from years ago when he was a regional governor. Most of the population believed him to be an honest man, and most people, including the local population, many expats living in Lima and me still believe in him. As of this writing thousands of Peruvians are protesting in the streets of Lima and other cities. The protests will do no good...they never do. Soon the unrest will quiet down to be replaced by grumbling and joking about the corrupt man who displaced Vizcarra. Actually, some of the elements of the Peruvian intrigue resemble the current political climate here. The difference as I see it is that America has just gotten rid of its worst President while Peru got rid of its best. Don't expect a Walmart in Peru anytime soon.

Celebrating the Longest Election in History

Maribel and I are celebrating tonight. Not because Biden won. A Democrat in the White House is not something to be celebrated. Kamala Harris as VP is even less comforting. I understand why Biden tabbed her as a running mate; to bring in the minorities of all types and flavors who feel they have not been given enough by this great country of ours. What concerns me is that she's too far left and the thought that she could be the President if something happens to Biden, or will be the Democratic candidate in 2024 is disturbing. Never the less we are celebrating...we're celebrating that the 'Man Who Would be Emperor' has been voted out. 

Never has anyone so divided this country like Trump has. This guy is a disgrace. He's disgraced this country and himself, though through his eyes he probably sees himself as a savior, though savior of what I don't know. The ship is rudderless. He's been combative, tactless, graceless and incompetent throughout his four year term, and now at the end he can't even graciously leave the scene. One of his favorite expressions is, "No body has ever seen anything like this." He's got that right.

In a way I even blame Trump for the cancelation of my 80th birthday party this coming December because I didn't want to be responsible for the possible transmission of the virus. Yah, I know that sounds like sour grapes but think about this. If, instead of his initially ignoring the virus, and if he had taken the advice of medical experts seriously, and if he had stopped his absurd speculations about the temporariness and treatment of the virus, might we be in better shape than we are now? Could I have had a party without feeling apprehensive about it? What would a real leader have done? A leader would have defined the goal, (defeat the virus) assembled a team with expertise in line with the goal, explained the goal to the team, assured the team that they will be supported with whatever they need, and then gotten the hell out of the way! But not Trump. Trump has to be center stage in the middle of the spotlight, confusing the public and making his team members walk on eggs for fear of contradicting him with facts that rebut his foolishness. And if they should happen to stray from the Trump line they're dismissed as "idiots" and "disasters". It's not reaching too far to say that his meddling, interference and lack of understanding may in part be the reason for the 250,000 deaths we'll soon be facing, and to this day the lack of a coherent plan to combat the virus. 

I think that Biden will do a much better job of bringing some semblance of order and structure to the issues of the virus and the economy. Hopefully whatever his plans turn out to be will help to unite us rather than further divide us. At the very least we'll be back to some sort of normal governing structure. And who knows, maybe I can have an 81st birthday party.

Coincidently and completely unrelated to the announcement today of Trump's election loss we said goodbye to the 'otwor na odbytnice' this afternoon. Somehow it seemed like a fitting day to do it.

A Shining Example

I've been avoiding political commentary lately mostly because I'm tired of the inane ads coming from both sides and the baseless rhetoric from all candidates. I'm at a point where I just want it over with...let the chips fall where they may. But Trump's comment yesterday riled me. I've grown accustomed to his downplaying the Covid virus and saying that we're rounding the corner as we approach one-quarter million people dead, but his reviving an old conspiracy theory (see my post "If you can't back it up don't say it"), with the words he used is way over the line. He said:

 "Our doctors get more money if someone dies from Covid. You know that, right? I mean our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say 'I'm sorry but everybody dies of Covid' ". Trump said that, without citing any evidence at a rally in Waterford Township, Michigan.

He didn't say some doctors or a few doctors, his statement was all inclusive...that all doctors are dishonest. By association that must include nurses, technicians and hospital administrators as co-conspirators, because a doctor couldn't get away with it by him/her self. What an incredibly stupid thing to say! But that's what Trump does...he says stupid things.

If you were a parent and your child came home from school complaining about 'crazy Nancy' or 'flaky Freddy' or 'weird William', and dismissed his/her teacher as an idiot or as a disaster, wouldn't you as a parent step in and discourage such behavior? Right now the child has the President of the United States to point to as a model; as justification for obnoxious and irrational behavior. Trump does that daily. And now he not only ignores and denigrates the advice and opinions of nearly every legitimate medical authority, he calls the doctors crooks. If those actions aren't indicators of his maturity and intelligence levels, than what in the world would be? Look up counterfactual thinking, cognitive dissonance, denialism...Trump could be the poster boy for all of them. 

And yet somewhere around half of the voters in this country will vote for him. That thought alone is enough to blow my mind, but if the unthinkable happens and he is reelected, well, I won't have enough margarita mix on hand deal with it. 

The Revival of an Ancient Ritual

I like raking and burning leaves on a cool fall afternoon. It's good exercise, it's being outdoors, and it doesn't take any brain power which means that the mind is free to roam where it will. It is during such times that I occasionally come up with unusual thoughts that sometimes evolve into strange tales. I wonder if that's how Stephen King gets his weird ideas?...raking leaves. 

Edward Gorey, like King was another figure who took an unconventional view of what we define as the real world and the normalcy of the human condition. Interestingly, what was considered as a weird work by Gorey depicting people in an unusual grouping is a perfect example of today's social distancing. 

Abstract thinkers, when not being called weird are usually regarded as being of the somewhat respectable surrealist genre. I appreciate surrealism and its breaking with convention. Sometimes I think that maybe I'm a closet surrealist. Anyway, what follows is an example of my thought process one afternoon last week while raking leaves. Some of it is true, some is imagination. It doesn't make any difference...it's just a story.

Long, long ago there was and still is a village that at various times has belonged to Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and today Belarus. In the days when it was first forming - this was in the early 1000s it didn't have a name. There were only a handful of families living there, most of them related, and they worked from sun up to sun down tending their meager gardens and gathering whatever wild food nature offered. As time went by the population increased and the Grand Prince of Kiev, Yaroslav the Wise ruling some 360 miles to the east took notice. He concluded that the community should have a name, be fortified to protect against invasion from the south, and pay taxes to the king's coffers. The origin of the name he chose is unknown, but with the stroke of a quill the village of Yaskevichi was created.

Yaskevichi at first had no formal leadership structure, though people usually called on Szymon Filipowicz with their questions or problems (I have traced my ancestors to Yaskevichi in the early 1700s but have been unable to locate records earlier than that time period). In due time Szymon was elected 'burmistrz' (mayor) and did his best to look after the interests of the new village. 

Now, in those days sanitary facilities consisted of heeding nature's call whenever and wherever you were. As the population grew and the village square and streets filled with human droppings this became a problem. Szymon ordered the villagers to go outside of the village to relieve themselves, but this led to arguments about where and how far was out? Szymon's solution was to have a hole dug in one specific location, and decree that all must use it. Immediately there was a problem. People squatting over the hole would sometimes fall in as the earth beneath them crumbled, an event they did not appreciate. 

After months of puzzling about the problem, Szymon had an idea. He ordered some village men to dig two smaller holes, and surround each hole with a square of mud bricks. The villagers eventually called this a "two holer", and it solved the problem of falling in but was uncomfortable to sit on. In a stroke of genius Szymon had some men cut boards with oval holes in them to be placed on top of the brick squares. Villagers referred to the boards as 'otwor na odbytnice' (hole for the rectum), a phrase which evolved to today's 'asshole'. The villagers were satisfied, but as a final touch, and at the request of several women asking for privacy, Szymon had wooden walls erected around the two holer and a roof placed above. That structure was forever after called the 'z dala od smierdzacego domu' (stinky house) which became today's 'outhouse'. 

The 'z dala od smierdzacego domu' was low maintenance but periodically the 'otwor na odbytnice' would become raunchy. Eventually someone would shout out, "Let's burn that 'otwor na odbytnice'! Scholars disagree on when and how the burning of the 'otwor na odbytnice' became a ritual, but there is no argument that the burning became a solemn occasion, officiated over by the 'burmistrz' and other authorities. No one has recorded when or why the practice ended.

Last week while I was checking crawl spaces looking for the main water shutoff I came upon an old wooden 'otwor na odbytnice' with a lid. While pondering what to do with it, I recalled the ritual of my ancestors long ago in Yazkevichi, and had an idea. Some evening in the near future, I will start a fire in the backyard firepit. I will assume the role of Szymon Filipowicz as 'burmistrz' and Maribel will be the 'wysoka kaplanka' (high priestess). As I slowly place the 'otwor na odbytnice' into the fire, Maribel will wave cornstalks from her garden (grown from Peruvian seeds which failed to produce corn for the second consecutive year!) over the flames. And as the fire, having done its work begins to fade, we will circle the flames while chanting 'pie jesu domine, dona es requiem' (but not with the self-flagellation of the original ritual) until the 'otwor na odbytnice' is no more. I think that Szymon would be proud. 

Let's Get IT Over With

In 2006, the year I moved to Peru, a presidential election was held. The candidates were Alan Garcia and Ollanta Humala. When I'd ask people who their preference was, more often than not I'd get the standard joke, "It's like a choice between AIDS and cancer." That pretty much sums up my opinion regarding our election, and tonight's debate confirmed that. 

The absolute biggest 'piss me off' was Biden's comment that he would, "...lay out a path to citizenship for the eleven million undocumented people in this country." They are undocumented because they are here illegally. They know that and they knew it when they swam the Rio Bravo or however else they snuck over the border. My paternal grandparents were immigrants, and they did it the right way, coming through Ellis Island, as did my maternal great-great grandparents. And they applied for citizenship, and learned the language, and adopted the culture and became Americans. Nobody gave them anything. 

Maribel loves this country. Her biggest wish is to become a citizen. We met the residency requirement last July and filed the application immediately. Three weeks later we received notification that an interview was scheduled for November. Two months later the interview date changed to August, 2021. Now it's changed to November, 2021. We're hopeful that we'll have resolution in 2022. What is it that's blocking her path to citizenship, Mr. Biden? And I doubt that Trump would give a rat's butt if he knew about the situation. During the last four years I kept expecting him to put a hold on all pending citizenship applications and revoke permanent resident status. 

Judging on substance I think Biden probably 'won' the debate. On force of presence and presentation Trump gets the nod. I read an article this morning by a Trump supporter who suggested that we not vote against Trump because of his personality, which the writer basically acknowledged was obnoxious, but instead vote for Trump because of his accomplishments. In the debate I once again heard Trump brag about all the things he has done, but I don't hear the substance behind those claims. He is especially poor at talking in detail about his plans for the next four years. His whole shtick is "Everything's going to be great."

I don't want liberals in the oval office. I absolutely don't want Trump in there either. AIDS or cancer.

 

Who Says They Have To Match?

You're having two couples over for lunch, and then maybe playing a board game...no, forget that, I hate board games, or watching a movie or just talking. It's in the early planning stage that it dawns on you that you only have stuff for four. By stuff I mean placemats, plates, knives forks and spoons, water glasses, coffee cups, and worst of all, wine glasses. Why didn't you think of that when you were furnishing your new home? Maybe it's because there is only the two of you, and you didn't know a soul within 500 miles of your new location and you didn't imagine that you would have friends. So now what?

You've already looked for another four-place silverware setting but can't find one identical or even close to your original purchase. Same goes for the water glasses, dinner plates, and salad dishes. And matching the wine glasses?...forget about it! All your stuff is less that three years old and already the "patterns have been discontinued" and your stuff is obsolete. 

You have basically three options; you can uninvite one of the couples (but that would be awkward), you can hurriedly purchase new six or eight place settings of everything (and eat rice with weenies for the next six months to pay for it), or you can, horrors of horrors, seat your guests at the four matched place settings while you and your spouse use the odds and ends pieces we all accumulate over time, knowing that your guests will be on their cell phones even before leaving your driveway, commenting on the "interesting" place settings. 

Or.....or.....you could be bold, adventuresome and creative, daring to flaunt the proper etiquette for place settings that has prevailed since we stopped eating with our fingers. Here's how you do that. Go to local antique shops. What you're looking for are one-of-a-kind vintage pieces of flatware, plates, bowls, water and wine glasses. Vintage pieces have history and souls, your guests will become part of a chain of that history and you can tell them that, plus anything you may know about the individual pieces. And you'll pay a lot less than you would for new stuff. And it will be better quality. Forget placemats, go with the 'repurposed' fad...use appropriately folded pages of yesterday's newspaper. They would come in handy during those lulls in the conversation, and you don't have to wash them afterwards. Think about it. Each guest will be dining with their own place setting unique to them. And there will be no confusion about whose plate is whose when going for seconds, or mixing up silverware, or refiling the wine glasses. And speaking about wine glasses, don't get locked into what Emily Post or the glass manufacturers say is a wine glass. At that antique shop you'll see many one-of-a-kind glasses that will catch your interest. It may be a sherbet glass, a martini glass, a large goblet or a small vase, but if you want to say it's a wine glass, then it's a wine glass. If you have the cojones to do what I'm advising, I guarantee that the cream of society wherever you live will be checking their mailboxes daily hoping for an invitation from your address. Brush up on your guest speaker skills.  

If somehow your guest list expands to say ten or twelve, that's a different deal and I recommend a trip to Dollar General for paper plates and plastic glasses and flatware. On the way home stop at KFC for a couple of buckets of chicken. 

Kind of as an aside and to illustrate that we practice what we preach, below are four matching forks recently purchased at an antique shop. They were laying loose among at least 1500 other forks, knives and spoons in four different boxes. Maribel purchased twenty five pieces in total, being very selective. They are Rogers Brothers silverware and from the stamp on the back we know they were made pre-1892. Each piece has the initial "F" ornately engraved on the bottom front, which we assume to be the family initial and just happens to work for us. A few minutes with silver polish brought them back to near new. The photo doesn't do them justice. They gleam so brilliantly that they almost look white, as quality silver does. The cost?...25 cents each or five for a dollar.

How Chiclayo, Peru is Dealing with Covid 19

Peru's population of 32 million ranks 8th in number of Covid 19 cases with 849,371 total cases, and 33,305 deaths. Chiclayo, located on the Pacific Ocean coast is Peru's fourth largest city with a population of 552,508. It is Maribel's home town and the city where I lived for nine years up to 2017. We still have many friends and family members there so try to keep up with what's happening. 

Maribel's son Brian works full time as a business administrator, and recently started working weekends as well as a census taker. I saw this as an opportunity, if Brian could and would do it, to to find out what Chiclayanos and those in the surrounding villages thought about the virus and how they were handling it. Brian did a good job of interviewing during the census taking, and shared his findings with me.

First, regarding Covid 19, given the responses Brian was given they show that people are people no matter where they live. There is a national mandatory mask mandate, but some follow it while others ignore it. Police are apparently not enforcing the mandate. Public transportation vehicles, combies, vans, taxies and busses are required to have plastic separators, and to disinfect regularly, as shown below. Some are...some aren't

Restaurants also need to follow regulations, including wearing protective gear and regularly cleaning. I noticed that in many of the photos Brian sent, those people dealing with the public wore full face shields and protective suits. I haven't seen that in the states. In the few restaurants we've been to here in Georgia, about half the employees weren't even wearing masks, and in the antique shops almost none of the proprietors. 

Regulators are especially stringent for medical providers. Pictured below is my Chiclayo dentist Amalia on the left and the technician Luz. I'm waiting for a response from Amalia as to how inhibiting it is to work in those spacesuits.

This family and their home are typical of people living in the smaller cities, in this instance Monsefu. It is typical at this time to wear masks in the home, and always when out of doors. Brian is doing the interviewing.  

Street venders will be working rain or shine, Covid or not. And even they are carful about wearing masks and handling food correctly. 

Many of the financial functions we do here are through the internet or at the point of purchase, but in Peru many of those functions are forced through a bank. One of my biggest headaches in Chiclayo was having to go to a bank, where there are always long lines to pay utility bills and other transactions. 

Social distancing has made that problem even larger. The people below are waiting for their turn to enter the bank. That line (cola in Spanish) could wind around and extend for several blocks.

Brian summarized what was told him by saying that many people are being extremely cautious about the virus, though some are disregarding it. He noted that Peruvians are aware that there have been Covid 19 parties in the USA, and said that some in Lima also have parties.

Chiclayanos in general feel that President Martin Vizcarra is doing a good job in dealing with the virus, though cries of corruption are often heard from the opposing political parties. Surprisingly to me, the Chiclayanos Brian spoke with did not have personal views on Donald Trump or the election. Most said they were not informed enough to have an opinion, but some commented that they thought he is a racist, and a few said when he was quarantined in the White House he deserved it. 

Peru's borders are still closed. Rumor has it that they will open up for international travel in December. Maribel and me are eager to see our family again...it's been three years for me, but even if the border opens it will again be a decision just like here as to how much risk we're willing to take.

A Toast to C. C.

Maribel and me drank a toast to C C last night. He wasn't here and we don't know much about him, but from information we do have we can make some reasonable assumptions, to the point that we feel comfortable lifting our wine goblets in his honor. But before getting into that let me take this back to where the toast really had its beginning.

In 1841 in Hartford, Connecticut brothers William, Asa and Simon Rogers were starting out as silversmiths. There was nothing to set them apart from the many other silversmiths working in New England until 1847, when they perfected the silver plating process. Their business grew rapidly and they started stamping their products with the Rogers & Bros trademark. For whatever reasons the brothers sold their business to the Meriden Britannia Company in 1862. Meriden continued the Rogers line of silverware after moving the business to Meriden, Connecticut, and they continued to use the Rogers trademark.

I am assuming that the number 2225 1/2 is a mold or style number but have been unable thus far to confirm that. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Meriden either sold the business or simply changed their name, I don't know which, but in 1898 they became the International Silver Company, which continues today and continues to produce under the Rogers name. Okay, enough history. Where does C C fit into the story? 

Fast-forward to a day last week at the Relics LLC antique shop in Cleveland, Tennessee where, in a corner on a table among other items was the three-piece tankard set seen below. All three pieces bare the ornate monogram C C. On the tankard below the monogram is engraved the date 1880. Each piece has the trade mark stamp and number shown above.

Now, about those 'reasonable assumptions' I referred to earlier regarding C C. At first we thought that he lived in or near the state of Connecticut because of the proximity to the manufacturing site, but have since learned that Meriden Britannia had sales offices in London, Hamilton Ontario, San Francisco, Chicago and New York, so we can't even say for certain that he lived in the United States. We say 'he' because women had little stature in those days and probably would not be the recipient of such an expensive set. By the way, it is probable that the set consisted of more pieces than these three. We don't believe that C C would order the set for himself, so we're assuming it was a gift. A birthday gift is possible, but it could also have something to do with the Civil War. The war had been over for only fifteen years when C C received his gift, so it's possible that he fought in the war or had some other association with it. Lastly, we're assuming that he was of at least middle age; at least in his forties, which would put his birth year around 1840. It doesn't seem likely that an unmarried young man would receive such a gift; more likely an older head of a household. And lastly, we assume that he was successful in whatever his occupation was. So putting all those assumptions together; a successful middle-aged family man probably living in a larger USA city, right or wrong we have a generic image of C C and his family, possibly resembling this 1880s family. 

It was a unusual, almost surreal feeling, drinking that first sip of wine from the same goblets that he and his family drank from one hundred forty years ago. 

On a practical note, the pieces are obviously badly tarnished. On the bottom of the tankard I used MAAS metal paste polish, a product I've had good success with in the past, as an experiment to see if it would improve the appearance. To my surprise it completely removed the tarnish in the small test area. It is literally going to take months to polish all three pieces, especially getting into all the nooks and crannies on the tankard but we're determined to do it. The finished pieces would make an attractive display if we can find someplace to put them, and we think that C C would be proud.

UPDATE - the day after. This tankard set has got me acting like a kid at Christmas. I was so happy with the success of my polishing test that I couldn't wait to begin on one of the goblets. There are some spots that no matter how hard I rubbed or how many times I tried, the tarnish will not give way. But the spots aren't that big and the overall appearance is much more than I'd hoped for. 

It does take effort...a lot of elbow grease, polish and time. I'll work on the other goblet next, because I am not looking forward to tackling that tankard. But the good thing is that every little bit of progress results in a brilliant shine that spurs me on.