A cold Sunday of reality in this World of sadness and tears...Let us Pray for the ones they call the Children of today!

Sometimes I wonder what is wrong with people today.  I think some have never had real hardship in their lives.  Can we have compassion for animals but not for other people?

This weeks news headlines set off a whole flood of feelings I did not want to let into my mind right now.  I have been following some Italian news because of my 500 year ago cousin and the 150^th Anniversary of the Italian Red Cross, when I can across an article on the plight of Libyan refugees trying escape in rafts and boats  across the Mediterranean to the various posts on the European side.

A policy of trying to pick them up and saving them from drowning has been called foolish…”that it is encouraging them to try it”.  In other words if they pick them up and save them from drowning they are causing this problem to escalate.  So we as humans should let them drown?  The reality is they should not have to take such extreme methods to save themselves and especially their children from starvation and war.

On line, via the web, the global warming people are screaming about climate change causing these extremes in weather…while the disbelievers are screaming back that this is all hype and just a way for some to make more money… Some say that we need more oil…OIL?  They say that we have given too many subsidies to “green energy” a source that has produced little energy? 

Mean while people in our own country are freezing and we are cutting programs to our own poor, disabled, or elderly and don’t recognize the marginalized poor that have lost their homes that have become “our boat people” living in tents and shelters?

We are a crazy lot….”War”, greed and religion, has wrought all of this…”Men fighting with GUNS and hatred”.

I guess we have forgotten too soon the price of WWI and WWII.  Herbert Hoover was the man in charge of the rescue of millions of starving people after and during both conflicts.  He had an unbelievable job considering the food had to be brought in because war had devastated the land and infrastructure…not to mention the men and animals lost! Countries unable to feed themselves.

Not good thoughts…

I am stuck here in old Eaton this year trying to save and find homes for a few cats…”dump offs”…I can’t stand to see an animal ill, injured, starving or hurt. I try to help everyone I can and …for the life of me… I can't understand why men go to war for power or religion…and how anyone could condone just letting people drown while they are just trying to save themselves and their children. 

In America we are raging against immigrants…but in reality we are raging against ourselves… as almost all of us except the “First Natives” were brought here for a better life or for religious freedom by our forefathers and mother’s.  So on this Sunday in the blog...I pray for all the “children” of the world….”The ones we call the Children of Today!”

With that thought I whipped out my guitar and sang this old Gordon Lightfoot tune...listen to the words…understand the meaning!

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!

New Years thoughts, Museum, WWI, Pope Francis and the Maria Dolens

History is a mystifying seductress to some of us.  Everywhere we look we find a piece of history that we are curious about.  Myself  I am continually looking into the history of everything and many times finding that I know very little of the history of things at all..

For New Years we all set goals for the new year and tonight we had a museum dinner meeting to celebrate New Year and also to talk about what to do about the museum for 2015.  This little band of helpers and myself have struggled, poured much energy and money into keeping the museum open. The question that came to my mind was, ”should I continue after 20 years?” 

After all left I thought about the New Year as most of us do and I tried to find something that would guide me.  I asked myself if you didn’t work on the museum what would you do?  The answers were pretty simple since I try to do them now… 1. Help wipe out poverty!  2. Work to end all Wars.

I am adamant that we are in a terrible time of class separation, I remember a line from a song…”The hands of the have not’s have fallen out of reach!”  They have and are becoming more so everyday. We are also in a time of world wars and skirmishes that are killing thousands of innocent people...and for what?

So I went on line and tried to find out what that great guy Pope Francis...who signs everything just Francis…said in his New Year message.  His message fittingly came on January 1st and the 48th anniversary of the Day of World Peace, and the Maria Dolens bell was shown ringing in the background.  The Maria Dolens? And so I was off on my newest history quest.

The Maria Dolens is the name of a bell that was cast from the bronze of many of the cannons - 19, one from each countries that participated in WWI.  It sits in Roverto, in today’s northern Italy and it rings 100 times each day in the evening to honor the fallen and to many to act  as a symbol for peace and an end to war.

The Bell was the idea of Don Antonio Rossaro,  called the Bell of the Fallen.  It was given the name Maria Dolens and placed on the Malipiero tower of Castello di Rovereto.  It has been recast many times because of fractures from ringing 100 times a day no doubt... but it has always been recast and returned to the tower where is nightly reminds the world of the price of war.  The latest recast was blessed by Pope Paul VI and on November 4^th, 1965 was placed on the Colle di Miravalle where it today rest above the city of Roverto.

On the bell, which is the second largest swinging bell in the world, were added at its recasting the statements of the Pontiff Pius XII "With peace nothing is lost. Everything is to be lost through war." John XXIII: "In pace hominum ordinata concordia et tranquilla libertas."

Today it rang 100 times at midday and was shown on the large screen in St. Peter’s square.

It is said that it tolls in the hope that Man, in the memory of the Fallen of every war and every nation in the world, may find the path that leads to Peace….

I say AMEN to that… Happy New Year!

Nursing, Agatha Christie, Miss Marple, Hercule Periot & Me!

I was going through my Internet posting yesterday and came across one sent by my "almost a cousin" Emma Messere who works with the Red Cross in Italy. The post was from the UK asking for volunteers to help transcribe WWI card information on Nurses who served during that time.  The picture furnished was of a woman who had served at the hospital in Torquay, England.

Torquay had been a spot on the English coast that was a favorite spot of the wealthy because of its warmth and location near warmer waters.  I realized ...ah, yes Torquay...once home of one of my favorite writers as a young person.

As I studied the picture I realized that the card was the registration for that person ...Agatha Christie.

Agatha Christie was resident of Torquay while her husband was in the service and she indeed had served as a nurse and as a worker in the dispensary where they mixed potions and medication.  As a matter of fact she hated the mixing of medicines as she had nightmares of making mistakes.  This service did her a favor however, working there she learned about poisons.

It was in Torquay at this time that she thought of writing mystery novels and it is there that she wrote her first novel ... The Mysterious Affair at Styles... and it is there that the famous character Hercule Periot was born, a character who would appear in 33 novels and over 50 short stories.

My favorite of her characters was Miss Marple and I love and use Miss Marple’s wisdom that I believe to be true...that there are only 30 “types” of people (personalities) and they keep repeating themselves with each new person you meet.  Though with today’s cookie-cutter society I have narrowed in to 15.

Christie’s love of travel, something she had started as a child with her mother, and which she continued with her husbands, brought her to many locations and allowed her observations of different people that would lead to a career that would make her one of the world’s most prolific writers. …And interestingly enough…there were over 80 poisonings in her books…information she gained in her service as a nurse and dispenser of drugs in Torquay.

Disasters and their history including one in CNY at Split Rock 100 years ago!!

We here in Central New York had a major industrial disaster at Split Rock, and just this week I was reviewing it for a friend who was interested in it, so here it is!

...On July 2, 1918, the Split Rock Quarry blew up. The shock waves and sound of this disaster rocked the area for miles and people who had no phones or radios would have to wait to find out what had happened or if the United States was being attacked. WW I, the “war to end all wars” would continue until November 11th of that year, yet the tragedy and uncertainty of those hours will live forever.

The plant was originally part of the Solvay Process Company and the overhead buckets that carried the limestone to the Solvay plant are gone as well. Today all that remains are a few remnants of the plant and an open space that many believe is haunted by the ghosts of the men that died there. The plant crusher is in part visible and there are natural limestone caves and man made underground rooms in ruin, but most haunting there is the quiet.

The cause of the blast was eventually stated to be a motor that overheated in a wooden building, which eventually made its way to the plant and a storage area. In fact some luck was with the area that night, since the other storage facility lay across the valley and did not detonate with the main blast.

In all 50 men died, but many others lost limbs, sight, hearing and certainly the trauma of the event remained for many years afterward. For those that thought they had found a good wartime job, the consequences proved enormous.
 Today visitors and ghost hunters alike tour historic site and look at the ruins, trying to picture what the place was like the night it blew up.

*A personal note is that my mother who was 5 year old at the time remembered hearing the blast and being frightened and screaming. Her mother, she said, gathered all of the children and went out under a tree and kept them close to her until word arrived as to what had happened. Her neighbors, the Hazel’s, received word that their son was alive but had lost limbs. A night remembered by all and a tale passed down from generation to generation..
For more on the Split Rock Disaster you can find a wonderful book by Janesa R. Foley titled “The Night the Rock Blew Up”.

For more CNY history articles and video go to my website at www.historystarproductions.com.

View video..some see faces in it....besure to have your sound on!