Valentines Day surprises, the weather and an armchair trip to Florence, Italy!

Emma Messere Elena Branca

What a year so far…Mother Nature has been throwing all kinds of terrible things at us from snow, sleet, wind, blizzards and record breaking cold.  For Valentine’s Day I am stuck here in Eaton staring outside and sitting by the woodstove trying to keep it chuck full of wood. 

For Valentine’s Day getting a card was as far from my mind as possible…who in the world would send me a Valentine?  Then came a knock on the door…the mailman???

He handed me some mail, one piece I had to sign for… my curiosity was peeked.

One was a card from Rascal my cat….I opened it and sure enough it was signed Rascal and it even read as if Rascal had picked it out…”You do a lot to keep me happy and healthy and in return,  all I do is sleep, shed, and complain about the food! So since it is Valentine’s Day, I want you to know---I’M WORTH IT!”  I immediately suspected Sarah Curtis…

The second piece of mail was a donation to “Rascal’s Find homes for the Cats”  fund I have been working on…from Florida…Thank You Bob Sherburne!

The third was from Italy…my 500 year ago cousin Emma…(a genealogist said we were related 500 years back) I tore it open and to my surprise it was a book on Florence where she had gone for a special seminar and celebration of not only World War I, but of the Italian Red Cross.  It was research she and a friend, Elena Branca, had been doing on the woman doctors who served in that war…some research that I had tried to help them with.

The book titled “Americans in Florence” is a complete guide to the city and the places associated with Americans past and present…a great “History Book”  filled with information that proved to be a most interesting read on this 35 below zero weekend.

The book is “cock-full”  of information on the famous Americans from James Fenimore Cooper, the Browning’s, Henry James, Mark Twain and anybody who was anybody… describing where they stayed, what they thought about this fabulous city, a city that was indeed “The Birthplace of the Renaissance”.

One story that I found most interesting was the story of the Ponte Santa Trinita Bridge over the Arno after WWII.  The retreating Germans blew up the bridge just before the Allied Forces liberated Florence.  To the great honor of the citizens of the town, who sought to rebuild it exactly as it once was, and with the donations of wealthy American’s like Samuel Kress, and collectors like Peggy Guggenheim,  it was rebuilt using the original plans and using the original material.  To accomplish this… the stone quarry where the original stone came from was actually reopened. 

The statues and artifacts were repaired and replace on the bridge.  One interesting story is that the head of one of the “Seasons” statues was not found and many believed an American GI took it.  The President of the Parker Pen Company offered a $3,000 reward to find it using its advertising outlets. 

Parker put out a WANTED poster stating - Age; 350 years, Size; 20 inches; Color; marble white; Weight; about 120 lbs with a previously damaged nose!  This produced nothing, it wasn’t until years later it was discovered after the dredging of the Arno,  where it had rested all along! 

Great book…I think Emma is trying to lure me into visiting Italy….  No Emma, but you should come visit me here in boring old Eaton, New York…but a word to the wise…not in the winter!!

The book is available on line ISBN 88-09-03157-1 at Barnes and Noble I bet…and worth it if you or someone you know is going to Florence … It is complete as a guide with walking tours, where to eat, galleries, what  to see…everything!

Halley's Comet, Mark Twain & Elmira all related?

When you talk about landing on a comet or the Orionid Meteor Shower ...I think about Halley's Comet ...and I am reminded of one of my favorite people...Mark Twain...Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens came in at birth with Halley’s Comet and left in death on its return trip…a man of high ideals, wit, and a man who has made history in our own backyard in Elmira, not Missouri!!

As many times as I visit Elmira, I always pay a visit to its cemetery and follow its well-marked trail to Mark Twain's grave. I found it by chance many years ago and since then it has become more landscaped and more signs enable the visitor to find it. I guess it is called "cemetery tourism".

Other signs take you to "Twain Country" and maneuver you to 1 Park Place, which is in the middle of Elmira College Campus in downtown Elmira. There in a park like setting is the steamboat captain shaped - gazebo like structure - built for him by his sister-in-law as a summer retreat. The structure once stood on a high hill above Elmira on her property called Quarry Hill Farm. Today it has been moved to the campus and inside is the desk that Twain used for 20 years to write many of his classic American stories like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

His wife Livy Jervis Langdon was from Elmira and in truth the Clemens family are all burred on her fathers cemetery plot! So it really it is "Twain Country" down there.

Twain considered himself "The American" and he truly was a part of the fabric of what makes us...us! His quips were so American humor and as funny and pertinent today as ever....Here are two I like....

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself.”

Another favorite of mine is, “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress!”

Not as well remembered however, were his continual efforts to promote equality and dignity for all of human kind. Twain was a member for almost 10 years of the American Anti-Imperialism League – he was the Vice President until his death.

This group opposed imperialism by America for any reason. They believed that by joining the rest of the world (at that time) in its conquests for commercialism or religious means, America would be abandoning the ideals of self-government and non-interventionism ideals expressed in the United States Declaration of Independence or in Lincoln’s precepts in the Gettysburg Address.

Twain was an interesting man...the quintessential "American"!

Have you hugged a newspaper today??? Why not!

I am becoming very skeptical about the future of newspapers in print!

You know this is going to be terrible for historians and writers if the newspapers in print continue to slip away.  I myself prefer a newspaper, even though I dash around to all of the on-line new sites during the day and night.

In the past local history, national history, and world history, have been clipped and snipped and pasted into scrapbooks for future generations to view in museums and archives. 

History hoarders tell me that have kept every one of my local history articles for their children’s children.  Right now I have 2 over 100 year old newspapers on my desk to read and get information from, information that really can’t be gleaned in many cases from a history book written on the subject.

It is said all of the news will be scanned and saved for the future…but in what form?  Will someone have to continually update its form to be viewed on new software as the old is discontinued?

Obituaries of the past are so useful in locating relatives when doing genealogy, some of the information is of course a little tilted or skewed…but overall it is there…dates, places, relatives, reasons for death...all of it.  Museums are filled with this kind of thing.

To truly know about your area in the past the old newsprint is vital…let alone know what's going on locally.  Think of those famous newspapermen of the past like Ben Franklin and Mark Twain..we have actual copies of what they wrote!

I really wonder how many people are going to print things out to clip and save...and if they do…is the ink they use going to survive or will it fade???? Good question…

So support your local historian and museum…buy a newspaper…enjoy holding it while you sip your coffee or tea….and remember  newspapers have been around for a long time……and I hope it stays that way!