Did Ya Know ?
Midway between Las Vegas and Laughlin
located on US 95 and State Route 164 is a town named "Searchlight"...
...which happens to be the hometown of
Senator Harry Reid.
Many of us have passed by this town on
the way to the lights of Laughlin...
but...
Did ya
know...
...How the town
of "Searchlight" got its name?
According to the 2010 census the
population of Searchlight is 539...it was 576 in 2000
!
Looking for a place to see some
beautiful scenery?
Stop by Searchlight (for a few minutes)
and check out the beautiful Cottonwood Cove on Lake
Mohave...
...a breathtaking clear
lake in the middle of the desert....where a sunset is an
"experience"...
It's a quaint town that is picturesque
and serene with no hustle and bustle in the
streets...
...because there aren't many streets
!
..and if you're "into" big horn sheep,
coyotes, desert tortoises, roadrunners, deer, wild burros, and jack rabbits
surrounded by the beauty of desert flowers through the scenic trails and
mountain passes...
...this place deserves a visit
!
Though there are conflicting stories
about how "Searchlight" got its name, Senator Reid
has written extensively about his hometown and believes the city received its
name when a man named George Frederick Colton was
looking for gold in the area in 1897.
Colton said it would probably take a
searchlight to find gold ore there
!
Other stories as to the name
include one where Colton was lighting a "Searchlight" brand
match when he discovered gold, but Senator Reid dismisses that due to
that brand of matches not being available until 1898.
Another story says Colton thought the
area would be a good location to find gold, and because his
mine was located on a hill, it required a searchlight to
find.
Yet another tale has the town being
named after a man named Lloyd Searchlight...but no historical record of this man
exists....other than that of the "Lloyd-Searchlight Mining
Co."
No matter what the belief, it appears
that Searchlight was first discovered by George Frederick
Colton when on May 6, 1897, while searching to
find the legendary "Lost Dutchman" gold mine, he discovered gold in his Duplex Mine....naming his company "The Searchlight Mining
Company".
George Frederick
Colton
Today, this marker stands at the site
of Colton's Duplex Mine.
Shortly after gold was discovered, a
"boom era" commenced and at one time, the population of Searchlight was larger
than that of Las Vegas.
Between 1907 and 1910 the gold mines
produced $ 7 million of gold and other precious minerals, and the town's
population grew to 1,500.
But...
When the "boom" ended, so did much of
the population of Searchlight; however, the building of Hoover Dam would
revitalize the town and allow it to survive to this
day.
The last Searchlight gold mine closed
in 1953.
Some interesting people made Searchlight their home other than Senator Reid over the
years...
...most notably Edith Head, of Hollywood designer
fame; William Nellis, a heroic aviator in
World War II for whom Nellis Air Force Base is named; and silent firm stars,
Clara Bow ("The It Girl); and her husband, cowboy
star Rex Bell, who would subsequently serve as
Nevada's Lt. Governor from 1954 to his death while in office in
1962.
The music world would also remember
Searchlight when composer Scott Joplin wrote "The Searchlight Rag".
The old Colton home still stands today;
but believe it or not...the Colton family has no record of George Frederick
Colton's passing.
Searchlight...a small town down the road with a long and
enduring history...located in the state which we now call
"home".
Dick
Arendt
.
____________________________
We at Anthem Opinions ask all of you to proudly
display your flag this day...
...to honor the bravest who ever lived and died on
this date...
June 6,
1944
D-Day
To those 24,000
men from...
Canada
Great
Britain
and
The United
States
...who landed on the shores of
Normandy, we salute these nations for the victory that would become the turning
point of the European front during World War II...
Utah
Beach
4th Infantry
Division
197
Casualties
Omaha
Beach
1st and 29th Infantry
Division
741st Tank
Battalion
2,000
Casualties
Gold
Beach
British
Troops
1,000
Casualties
Juno
Beach
9th Canadian Infantry
Brigade
961
Casualties
Sword
Beach
British King's
Shropshire Light Infantry
1,000
Casualties
May we never forget the
cost of freedom...and the ultimate price these brave souls paid to preserve it
for future generations !
They
were...
The Greatest
Generation
________________________________
The
First
Dedications to those Americans who lost
their lives in service to their country can be traced back as early as June 3,
1861 when a Confederate Civil War soldier's grave was "decorated" in
Warrenville, Virginia.
On July 4,
1864, a ceremony was held in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to honor the 51,112
men who died in that tragic Civil War battle.
But...were either of those dedications
the first Memorial Day?
Actually, the first widely publicized observance of what has become Memorial Day took place on May 1,
1865...in the southern city of Charleston, South
Carolina...
...for Union
soldiers....by a black formerly enslaved
community...as part of their original African
heritage.
African Americans have fought and died for America
from its earliest days, from frontier skirmishes to the French and Indian Wars
to the death of Crispus Attucks at the Boston
Massacre, immortalized as “the first to die for American freedom”.
Crispus
Attucks
And...
...though most official histories of Memorial
Day credit its founding by a white former Union Army major general, John A. Logan...
... who on May 5, 1868, as Commander and Chief of the Grand Army of
the Republic, called for a "Decoration
Day"....
General John A.
Logan
...actual events indicate that not to be the
case.
Those recently freed
slaves...with a tribute to the fallen dead and to the gift of
freedom...may indeed be the first Americans to honor those who fought and
died in the Civil War.
The city of Charleston was, like many places in the
South, physically devastated by the conflict between the Union and the
Confederacy, which began in its harbor with the attack upon Fort Sumter in 1861,
but Charleston was more than just the place where the war of brother against
brother began...
... it was also the entry point for a
quarter of all enslaved Africans in the colonial period, accounting for more
than any other port.
As
the international slave trade faced its inevitable abolition, traders delivered
more than 90,000 humans into enslavement through the
port between 1803 and the (official) end of the American
slave trade in 1808.
Charleston was a center for the trading of enslaved
people across the Deep South and the exit point for the valuable crops of rice,
indigo, and Sea Island cotton produced completely by enslaved labor – crops
which made millions for the South’s wealthiest and most concentrated planter
elite.
The enslaved Africans who formed the majority of the
local population were some of the most un-assimilated blacks in North America at
that time.
They
were the Gullah people, descendants of
those sold into slavery from the rice-growing regions of West Africa and the
Kongo-Angola region of Central Africa.
The
plantations of the low country and the seedy streets of antebellum Charleston
were horrific places for the Gullah people:
...malaria, yellow fever, cholera, malnutrition, physical violence, sexual
exploitation, and the constant threat of separation
from the family abounded in the lives of the enslaved.
Tropical
diseases forced plantations into isolation and the Gullah
developed their own language, a unique religion blending African and
Christian elements, preserving names, stories, traditions and customs from
across the African continent.
One of the most important rituals that they preserved and passed
on was the honoring of the ancestral dead and giving
proper due to those transitioning out of this world.
When
the Civil War came, the response of the Gullah people was to use their knowledge
to further the cause of freedom.
They
were a uniquely cultured and empowered people who perhaps most enthusiastically
embraced both resistance to the planter regime while yearning for the American
dream.
On May 1, 1865, they performed an act of gratitude to the
country that had first enslaved and finally freed them, firmly based both in
their African and American heritage that became part of what
we now celebrate as Memorial
Day.
As
the Civil War ended, behind the Italianate grandstand at
Charleston’s Washington Race course – which, in the pre-war years had
been the playground of the rice and cotton planter elite...
...there was a mass grave holding over 200 Union soldiers.
That track of land served as an outdoor prison during the last
year of the war resulting in many prisoners dying of disease and exposure.
At
the war’s end, after the city was surrendered to African
American troops and largely abandoned by whites...
... the Gullah people were ready to begin facing a new reality of
emancipation...
... but
first they chose to pay homage to those who had died.
In the West African tradition from which Charleston’s Gullah
people came, honorable warriors deserved sacred
burial, and the dead were seen as part of a cycle of souls entering and leaving
the world.
To
disrespect those dead was to ensure a negative energy in the future, so 28 Gullah men dug up the 200 men in that mass grave behind
the grandstand and gave them proper burial – horrific work under the best of
circumstances.
On May
1st, “in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers”, 3,000 black children bearing roses led
women bearing wreaths and men, marching together in a circle to honor the
newly-buried war dead.
Black
troops were present at the commemoration...
...including
some of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (who were later memorialized
in the movie "Glory").
That
the Gullah people performed a march and parade in a circle was no accident
!
Movement
in a circle... The Ring Shout... was the most sacred rite brought by
the enslaved to North America.
In
a mixture of African and American custom, the Gullah
put to rest the Union soldiers, who in part, lost their lives to ensure
the freedom of those who later marched for them.
The Ring Shout...The First Memorial
Day
May 1, 1865
Black
people and white marched together, and the site was dedicated as a memorial
burial ground.
As the children sang “The Star Spangled
Banner”, the men and women wept and prayed as they expressed gratitude
that the long nightmare of slavery was over.
Three years later...
...just days before Major General John A. Logan declared that May 30, 1868 should be declared a "Decoration Day" to commemorate the war dead...
...many of the people who participated in the 1865 ceremony returned to decorate the graves of those that they had interred.
America takes time each year to celebrate the sacrifices of our war dead on the last Monday of May.
This year, we should take a moment to honor those who, despite facing hardships of their own, chose to commemorate the lives that had been lost partly in the service of securing their freedom from enslavement.
A wise man once said...
"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion --
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government
of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth."
Let's never forget....that includes all
men.
Dick Arendt
________________________________
Nevada
Did
Ya Know ?
(part
4)
Millions of tourists around the world and
travelers between Nevada and Arizona cross this massive structure each
year...the gateway to what some have referred to as another modern wonder of the
world.
But...
Did ya
know....
...How Hoover Dam
got its name?
As the Southwest began its
development, a resource necessary for expansion became the land's most precious
natural commodity....water.
...and the Colorado River was the
answer our pioneer forefathers eventually believed would solve the
problem.
But...what we know today as Hoover
Dam was not the original solution to the problem.
In the 1890s a man named William Beatty conceived an idea to divert water from The
Colorado River in the southern territory of Arizona near the Mexican border by
building the "Alamo
Canal".
Arizona did not join the union as a
state until 1912.
Beatty's idea was to have the water dip
into Mexico before it would be brought up through a desolate area of Arizona he
named "The Imperial
Valley".
Though the Alamo Canal greatly assisted
populating the area, the location of the Canal proved expensive to
maintain...
...and in 1905 a catastrophic breach in
the project resulting from The California Development Company's desire to
increase irrigation...
Alamo
Canal...1905
...caused the Colorado River to
overflow for two years, filling the dry "Salton Basin", accidentally creating
the "Salton Sea" in
California.
Salton Sea Flood...1905
The Salton Sea is located on the San
Andreas Fault in the Imperial and Coachella valleys and a result, became the
largest sea in California.
From 1906 to 1907 the Southern Pacific
Railroad spent over $ 3 million to stabilize the waterway; and though it
succeeded in that respect, it proved unsatisfactory largely due to landowner
disputes on the Mexican side of the border.
So...other irrigation methods had to be
explored !
As the technology of hydroelectric
power increased over the years, a number of ideas were discussed to solve the
water necessities of the Southwest including sites in lower Colorado, but after
research indicated those sites inadequate....The Bureau of Reclamation
eventually found the "ideal"
location...
Realizing that a railroad was a
necessity in building such a project, they investigated the Black
Canyon...
The Black
Canyon
(the future site of the
dam)
...and found that a railway
could be built between a sleepy little town in Nevada located near the top of
the proposed dam site, and the dam itself.
The name of that sleepy little town
?
"Las
Vegas"
...and that massive endeavor would be
referred to as "The Boulder Canyon
Project".
The answer was not as easy as it first
appeared.
As a result of concerns of years of
litigation between a number of states, a Colorado attorney brought up an
interstate compromise.
The representatives of seven states
(California, Arizona, Utah, New Mexicao, Colorado, Wyoming...and Nevada) would
meet with then Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, which initially produced
no result...
but... as a result of that
meeting....the Supreme Court in "Wyoming vs Colorado"
would undermine a number of various state claims.
The
result....
...an idea that would be known as
"The Colorado River Compact" being signed on November
22, 1922.
Still...the project would remain in limbo, but two
events would cause a change in sentiment in favor of building a
dam...
...a destructive 1927 Mississippi flood; and in
1928, the failure of the St. Francis Dam in Los Angeles that killed up to 600
people...
...causing Congress to authorize a review of dam
plans by a number of noted engineers.
Finally, as a result of that study, on December 21,
1928, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill authorizing construction of the
dam in addition to completely replacing the original Beatty Canal project built
in the 1890s...on the US side of the border.
The bill also permitted the "Colorado River Compact" to go into effect when at least six
of the original states approved it.
That occurred on March 6, 1928 with Utah's
ratification (Arizona finally approved it un 1944).
Originally the city of Las Vegas lobbied to be the
headquarters of the dam construction...even closing many of its "speakeasies"
when the decision maker, Secretary of the Interior, Ray L.
Wilbur, visited the town; but instead, in early 1930, Wilbur announced
that a new city would be constructed instead...and be named "Boulder City" in Nevada.
Ray L.
Wilbur
Secretary of the
Interior
Las Vegas did get the rail line joining the dam, and
construction began in 1930.
When Secretary Wilbur spoke at
the beginning of the building the railway on September 17, 1930, he named the dam "Hoover Dam",
citing a tradition of naming dams after presidents, justifying his choice on the
grounds that then Secretary of Commerce and current President, Herbert Hoover, was "the great engineer
whose vision and persistence...has done so much to make the dam
possible".
President Herbert
Hoover
But...the country being in the midst of The Great
Depression and holding subsequent President Herbert Hoover responsible for
creating it...
...on September 30,
1935, President Franklin Roosevelt, the first
president to visit Las Vegas, in 102 degree heat and 20,000 people in
attendance, dedicated the dam...referring to it as "Boulder
Dam", which it was referred to until 1947.
President Franklin
Roosevelt
(dedication of "Boulder"
Dam)
It was a deliberate attempt to undermine former
President Hoover and keep his name associated with the Depression, rather than
attach it to the monumental project that had commenced during his
administration.
True to Hoover's modest and reserved nature, he
never complained...but those who knew the former president believed it had hurt
him deeply.
Controversy arose over the years as to which name
would be used, and for years "Boulder Dam" and "Hoover Dam" names were used
interchangeably by most Americans.
Memories of the Great Depression faded, and
President Hoover went on to enjoy a rebirth of popularity as a result of his
good works during and after World War II, and on April 30, 1947 President Harry
Truman...
..despite the objections of
Herbert Hoover....
Presidents Truman and
Hoover
...signed the official congressional resolution
forever referring to our historical "wonder"...
Hoover
Dam
Dick Arendt
_______________________________
Did Ya Know
?
(part
3)
On the northwestern side of Las Vegas, there is a
section of town referred to as "Summerlin".
Did Ya
Know....
...how that section
of Las Vegas got its name?
It was in 1950 that a wealthy
entrepreneur named Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. decided
to purchase 25,000 acres of land in southern Nevada near Las
Vegas.
He planned to move his "Hughes Aircraft Company" from Los Angeles to Las
Vegas...and create a planned community for the company's
employees.
That never
happened.
The stories of the reclusive
aviation billionaire are unending, and eventually he would come to enjoy the Las
Vegas area, taking up residence in the penthouse suite at the Desert Inn Hotel on Thanksgiving Day in
1966.
While there, the 8th floor of the
Desert Inn would become the "brain center" of his
growing empire...
...but the owners of the hotel believed
he was a distraction to those who came to enjoy the "fun" of "Sin City" and
eventually they asked him to leave.
Howard Hughes, not being the type of
individual anyone said "no" to, then decided in his "Howard Hughes manner" to
solve the problem by simply buying the hotel !
His passion for Las Vegas would
continue as the next few years passed; purchasing the Castaways, the New Frontier,
Landmark, and Sands
hotels.
One the best "Howard" stories took place while residing at the Desert
Inn. It seems that the lights from a small casino next to the hotel kept him up
at night....
...his answer to the problem...simply
purchasing The Silver Slipper and repositioning the
hotel's trademark neon silver slipper sign !
.jpeg)
Over the years, the indelible mark
Howard Hughes would leave on Las Vegas would change the image of our town
forever.
He envisioned Las Vegas becoming more
glamorous, writing this memo as aid:
"I think of Las
Vegas in terms of a well-dressed man in a dinner jacket and a beautifully furred
female getting out of an expensive car".
How do you change an image?
You do it through the media; and as a
result, Mr. Hughes would purchase several local television stations (including
KLAS-TV), our present Channel 8.
And as the saying
goes...
"The rest is
history"
After Hughes died in 1976, the Summa Corporation was organized to oversee the vast Hughes
empire and land holdings...including a large parcel of land in the western part
of Las Vegas....the parcel originally purchased in the
mid-50s.
In 1988 the Summa Corporation exchanged
some 5,000 acres of land adjoining the beautiful Red Rock Canyon National
Conservation area....
...for 3,000 acres of land to be used
as a buffer zone to protect the beauty of Red Rock Canyon from future
development.
Construction began in 1990 on 900 acres
for set aside for residential use.
Another 1000 acres was set aside as a
nature preserve, which includes environmentally sensitive lands with 150 miles
of trails.
That 900 acre area would become known
as the "beginning" of ...
"Summerlin"
...and was named in honor of Howard
Hughes' grandmother...
Jean Amelia
Summerlin
Felix Turner
Hughes
&
Jean Amelia Summerlin
Hughes
"Summerlin"
was his grandmother's maiden name.
Jean Amelia
Summerlin was the daughter of Thomas Summerlin and Bathsheba
Robards.
She married Felix
Turner Hughes, President of the Keokuk & Western Railroad, on August
1, 1865 in Memphis, Missouri. They settled in Keokuk, Iowa in 1879, where Felix
Hughes was an attorney.
He was later elected a judge and mayor
of Keokuk.
The children attended First Ward School
and were educated in the arts, history and science.
Her children were
Greta Hughes (an opera singer who went by the stage
name "Jean Greta", Howard Robard Hughes Sr. (inventor and father of Howard Hughes Jr.) (1869-1924),
Rupert Raleigh Hughes (screen writer and novelist)
(1872-1956), and Reginald Hughes (who died at the
age of 5).
Three other children died in infancy:
Felix Jr. (1874), Jean (1880), Baby (1880).
Jean Summerlin
Hughes had a phobia of germs.
When her son Robard offered to build
her a house in Grand Avenue in Keokuk, Iowa, she asked the house be built
without closets.
She felt diseases grew in the darkness
within them.
This phobia was
inherited by her grandson Howard Hughes Jr.
She died on 4 November
1928 at age 86 in Los Angeles, California.
Today, the area of "Summerlin" (which lies partially in the city of Las Vegas
and partially in an unincorporated area of Clark County), has a population of
100,000 people living in more than 100 villages with various romantic names.
It is among the most desirable areas of
Las Vegas to live, and it's residents include several film and music stars,
having more than 150 miles completed of the Summerlin Trail
System, nine golf courses, more than a dozen places of worship, medical
and cultural facilities, business parks, 26 public and private schools, and the
recently completed Summerlin Shopping District.
...and only 19 of
the 31 planned communities have been completed.
The area is accessed by the Summerlin Parkway and there is also a fine medical center
named Summerlin Hospital in the area, both named after Jean Amelia Summerlin Hughes, who would never
know the extent of the tribute given to her.
As an interesting sidelight....the late film actor
Jason Robards...
Jason
Robards
...was a direct descendant of Jean Summerlin Hughes' mother Bathsheba
Robards.
Summerin...a tribute to
a grandmother...by one of the most amazing individuals in American
history...
..The "reclusive"....but
brilliant...
Howard
Hughes
Dick Arendt
__________________________________
Did Ya Know ?
(Part
Two)
As we
continue our march through Nevada history, today we'll look at anther aspect of
its past....the mining !
Did ya
know...
...how
the small town of "Beatty" got its
name?
Beatty is a small town in Nye County,
located approximately 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas, very close to Death
Valley.
...and its
past tells the story of a time past, better known as The Old
West.
.jpeg "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyzehZ1otW_e0L0oz5EB6G3NPSlT_kPcTh9pz31LgwoSKB_cm67ey2VRMYCxzdD_4-8151Wlr2V_AYAbkCW1K0vDpwYRokajhJHwFgWbj0whuBxcxT1wUVqVTPUrQFFrF8HfLDnp9QPfEJ/s1600/Beatty+Nevada+(2).jpeg")
Historians
generally consider the year 1890 as the
close of the American frontier. By then, most of the western United States had
been settled, ranches and farms developed, communities established, and roads
and railroads constructed.
The
mining boom towns, based on the lure of the overnight riches from newly
developed lodes, were but a memory.
Although Nevada was granted statehood in 1864, it remained
largely unsettled and unmapped.
In 1890 most of south central Nevada remained very much a
frontier, and it continued to be so for at least another twenty
years.
The great mining booms at Tonopah (1900), Goldfield (1902), and Rhyolite/Beatty (1904) now represent the last major thoughts
of the American frontier.
The town of Beatty began as a small "suburb" of the
glamorous Rhyolite, a town that faded as
quickly as it originally rose, and histroians now refer to Rhyolite as "Death
Valley's Ghost City of Golden
Dreams".
Although Rhyolite
experienced growth from 1904 to about 1907, the boom faded almost as quickly as
it had appeared.
The ore deposits,
apparently lacking size and depth, simply could not long support a boom
town.
Of all the towns spawned
from the Rhyolite boom—Bullfrog, Gold Center, Carrarra, Leadfield, Lee, Rose's Well, Amargosa, Transvaal,
Springdale, Pioneer, and many more—Beatty is the only one to
survive.
The discovery of large
deposits of silver in 1859 resulted in the migration of 60,000 people into the
Nevada Territory; and as a result of the rapid rise in population, Nevada
achieved statehood in 1864.
By 1880, the majority of these discoveries had followed a
boom-and-bust pattern, and most of the mining camps ..and
towns...vanished.
The result:
The state of Nevada fell on hard
times.
When Its population shrank to 40,000; there was concern that
Nevada might not survive as a state and might have to revert to territorial
status.
A man
named Jim Butler would then discover a fabulous deposit of
silver in Tonopah in 1900 that reversed the economic
decline.
Two years later, Frank
"Shorty" Harris and Ernest
"Ed" Cross would discover gold
while prospecting in the hills west of Oasis Valley in southern Nye County.
Their discovery led
immediately to the founding of the towns of Rhyolite and Beatty.
Today, of all the towns
spawned by the Rhyolite boom, the community of Beatty, Nevada, is the only one
that survived.
The others have vanished,
leaving only a few roads, rough building foundations, an occasional stone facade
of a bank or hotel, and scattered solitary mine
dumps.
The town of Beatty is named after an
early Oasis Valley resident...
Montillus (Montillion) Murray "Old Man"
Beatty
Beatty, a former Amargosa
borax worker, was a native of Iowa and served with the Union during the Civil
War.
He was discharged because of
disability and came West after its
conclusion.
By 1890 "Old Man" Beatty had
settled in Oasis Valley.
In the spring of 1896, Beatty
moved into a previously occupied ranch just north of the present town site and
remained in the area until his death in December,
1908.
He was Beatty's first
postmaster when the post office opened on January 19, 1905, though he could neither read nor write...except for his name
!
Beatty, who said he had crossed Death Vally every month of the year, was married to a full-blodded Paiute woman from the Death Valley area and the couple had several children.
Eugene Lander, a prospector from San Bernadino, is however, usually credited with being the first settler in the Beatty area.
Lander was known to be a hard working and industrious man...but...never lucky !
At least twice he was fairly close to the "big Bonanza", but he never managed to strike it rich.
At the age of 73, "Old Man" Beatty died of a fall from a wagon while
hauling wood from Bare Mountain.
Dick Arendt
_________________________________
Did Ya Know
?
(Part One)
Many of us are "replants" from other parts of the
country and have little, if any knowledge of the state we now call
home.
The Las Vegas Review Journal recently published a
quiz about our adopted state that we felt you, as a Nevadan, might find
interesting.
Rather than merely telling you the results, we
thought we would expand on the facts brought out by that
article.
...and...
Over the next few weeks we'll make you a bit more
aware of what being a Nevadan is...and the contributions of those whose efforts
have brought us to the present day.
Today we'll cover two facts about Nevada and how
we have evolved over the decades.
Did Ya
Know....
...how Mt.
Charleston got its name?
According to Clark County Museum System
Administrator,
Mark Hall-Patton, Mt. Charleston was named by
The US Army Corps of Engineers group surveying the area in 1869, and is named
for a member's hometown, Charleston, South
Carolina.
Ever watch Pawn Stars?
Mark Hall-Patton is the "history expert" often
called into the shop to verify the worth of historical
memorabilia.
How about this one?
Did Ya
Know...
...who Fremont Street
is named for?
What we now refer to as the main street
"downtown", Fremont Street is named for John C.
Fremont (1813-1890)...
John C. Fremont
"The Pathfinder"
...an army officer, politician, and
explorer, who typically ignored the orders of his superiors in Washington, DC,
and literally traveled where he wanted to go, or where his father-in-law,
Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, known to be an "expansionist", told him
to go !
He was not supposed to be traipsing
around an unknown land called "Nevada".
His first expedition took him through
what was then known as the "South Pass", a path across the Continental Divide
though what is now known as Wyoming, hiring a man named Kit
Carson to lead his 25 man expedition.
Kit Carson
Fremont's subsequent
expeditions...utilizing the services of Kit
Carson...would take him to The Great Salt Lake, down the Snake to
the Columbia River into Oregon.
His travels would take him into California,
eventually proving a route in which "the 49ers" would use on their way to the
California Gold Rush.
Kit Carson & John C. Fremont
He would fight in the Mexican-American War,
and was briefly named the Military Governor of
California.
When that state was admitted to the union in 1850, he was elected the first Senator from California; however he as defeated for reelection
as a result of his anti-slavery stance.
For that belief, he would become the first man
nominated by the newly formed Republican Party in 1856, losing to James
Buchanan, placing 2nd in a three way race.
John C. Fremont & William L.
Dayton
1856
The First Republican Presidential
Ticket
Four years later, a man named Abraham Lincoln
would be nominated...and the rest is history as to the Republican
Party.
He would fight in the Civil War and was an early
(1861) staunch supporter of another general who had a reputation as a "drunkard"
and "drifter" member of the Old Army....
Ulysees S. Grant
In the future, we'll have a detailed story of the
history of this man's contributions to our state...and
country.
See you next time....with..."Did Ya Know"
Dick Arendt
__________________________
Understanding
The Chinese New
Year
2015
The Year of the
Goat
We all know that it comes once a year and
that there is normally an animal zodiac symbol that represents each
year.
...but...other than that, just what does it
entail and what is the significance of this celebration?
How better to do that than look at its
history !
The Chinese calendar is "lunisolar", meaning its a calendar whose dates indicate
both the moon phase and the time of the solar year...
...and the Chinese New Year (also referred to as the Lunar New Year) normally falls between January 21st and February 20th each year of
the Gregorian calendar.
In 2015, it begins on February 19th.
In China, it
is also known as the "Spring Festival", the literal translation of the modern
Chinese name.
Chinese New Year celebrations traditionally run from Chinese New Year's
Eve, the last day of the last month of the Chinese calendar, to the "Lantern Festival" on the 15th day of the first month, making the festival the longest in the Chinese
calendar.
Traditionally, the festival is considered a major holiday and
a time to honor deities as well as ancestors...
...and is
celebrated in countries and
territories with significant Chinese populations, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Philippines, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere.
Often, the evening preceding Chinese New Year's Day is an
occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner.
It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse
the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for good
incoming luck.
Windows and doors will be decorated with red color paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity."
Although the Chinese calendar
traditionally does not use continuously numbered
years, outside China its years are often numbered from the reign of the 3rd millennium BC Yellow Emperor.
But at least three different years
numbered 1 are now used by
various scholars.
As a result....
AD 2015 is either the "Chinese
Year" 4713, 4712, or 4652.
New Year's Day itself was traditionally named " Yuandan"
which in English meant "the First
Sunrise" until in 1913
the Republic of China adopted the Gregorian calendar
and the Chinese New Year thereafter was referred to as
the "Spring
Festival".
Now, "Yuandan" refers to the first day of
one year
according to solar calendar and it is the same day
with
western New Year's Day in spite of the time
difference.
In the Chinese calendar, winter solstice must occur in the 11th month, which
means that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new
moon after the winter solstice.
Each New Year is welcomed with a different animal zodiac symbol...and
they include:
.jpeg)
And...like the zodiac we are accustomed
to...these
symbols also have
characteristics associated with them !
2015 is the "Year of the
Goat"
...but...if you look at the above zodiac...you
won't see a "Goat".
Why?
Because the "Goat" is also referred to as a
"Sheep" or "Ram"
!
Want to know what is characteristic
of...
"The Year of The
Goat"
?
The goat (sheep or ram), is among the animals that
people like the most ! It is gentle and calm.
Since ancient times, people have learned to use
its fleece to make writing brushes and skin to keep warm.
The white cute creature often reminds people of BEAUTIFUL things.
Lucky Numbers: 1, 3, 6, 7, 8,
and 10
Lucky Colors: yellow, green
and red
Lucky Flowers: Carnation, Primrose, & Alice
Flower
Lucky Directions: East, Southeast, and
South
Unlucky Numbers: 4 and 9
Unlucky Colors: black and
white
Unlucky Directions: West and
North
To all our friends in and outside the Chinese
Community....
We wish you a wonderful ...
"Happy New
Year"
Dick Arendt
____________________________
Ash
Wednesday...The Beginning of Lent
February 18,
2015 is the beginning of "Lent"...
...a season known by Christians, as a
period of religious observance that begins a 40 day period culminating on April 5, 2015, a day that defines the Christian
faith....
Easter
...the day Christians around the world
believe the Son of God arose from a worldly death to bring about a New
Testament...
...a belief in a rebirth of the
principles set forth in an Old Testament...
...by a simple man, merely 33 years of
age, born in a stable; who, alongside 12 devoted followers, roamed areas
of the middle east, preaching PEACE....
...looking at man not in the light of
"an eye for an eye", but instead, "loving those who call you
enemy".
During "Lent" many of the faithful
commit to fasting or giving up some types of luxuries as a form of
penitence.
In many parts of the
world, the day before this "Lenten" season begins, a grand festival is held
known as Mardi Gras, and this celebration ends on the
Tuesday before Lent begins.
It even has a
name...."Fat Tuesday".
But on the next day, "Ash Wednesday", the celebrations stop and a 40 day period
of penance begins for Christians.
And like Easter, "Ash Wednesday" is
kind of a moving target from year to year, with its date
decided by the JULIAN CALENDAR...usually between February 4th and March
10th.
Why 40
days?
According to the Christian gospels of
Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus Christ spent 40 days in
the desert before he began his public ministry at the age of 30.
It is ironic that most Western
Christian denominations such as the Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, and Western
Right Orthodox churches, have maintained a 40 day
period...
....yet the Roman Catholic Church, as
a result of the Second Vatican Council convened by Pope John XXIII from
1962-1965, the "Lenten" season was redefined to last only 38 days, from
Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday (but excluding
Sundays).
Holy Thursday is the day before Good
Friday, the day Christ was crucified.
Those holy scriptures bring out the
continual temptations of Satan during that period where it is believed he was
offered great riches and worldly favor if he would bow to the desires of
evil.
Despite personal agony...he resisted
evil, and emerged from the desert to fulfill the destiny Christians believe his
heavenly father commissioned him to do, while on earth in the form of an
ordinary man...
...an ordinary man who would have
emotions, experience scorn and belittlement by those of his own people and
faith, and eventually be beaten and executed in a manner similar to common
thieves.
In the 20th century, certain "Lenten"
customs, practices, and traditions derived from Roman Catholicism prior to the
Reformation which began in 1517 when Martin Luther published his "36 Theses" on
the door of a Wittenberg, Germany church, also became part of the Protestant,
Evangelicals, and Baptist traditions...
...most notably of which....was using
ASHES.
What is the
significance of ASHES ?
On Ash Wednesday a priest
places a "cross of ashes" on a worshipper's forehead
as a reminder of human mortality and also to prepare that individual for Holy
Week and the Easter celebration.
These ashes are from
burned and bless Palms from the previous Palm Sunday a year
ago.
Where does
the word "LENT" come from ?
In the late Middle Ages, as church
sermons became more common in the vernacular, rather than traditional Latin, the
English word "lent" was
adopted.
It initially meant "spring" and is derived from the Germanic word for "long" because...
...in
the spring, the days lengthen !
Was it
actually 40 days?
No one knows for certain, but there are
many who believe "40" has many biblical
references....and that is why the number "40" is
used.
For
example...
...Moses spent 40 days on Mt. Sinai.
...Elijah spent 40 days walking to Mt. Horeb.
...God sent 40 days and nights of rain to
Noah.
...The Hebrews spent 40 years wandering in the desert for "the promised
land".
...the 40 days Jonah gave in his prophecy to the city of Nineveh
in which to repent or be destroyed.
and in
Christian belief...
...the
40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days, being tempted by Satan.
...it is traditional
belief that Jesus lay in his tomb for 40 hours before
his resurrection.
As time passed, the traditional 40 days of Lent were marked by fasting...from both foods
and from festivities; and three traditional practices
which became common
over the centuries during that 40 day
period.....
...prayer to God (signifying justice toward
God)
...fasting (signifying justice toward
self)
...almsgiving (signifying justice toward your
neighbor)
So...Lent is a 40 day season of grief...ending in a great celebration
of....
EASTER
And...to conclude this
article, there are a number of aspects of Lent you may see, but may not be
familiar...
Some
Churches still veil all of their statues during this season of penance,
though this practice is losing popularity, and when used is often only during
the last two weeks of the Lenten season.
Catholic priests wear purple vestments during lent to
signify a period of penance.
Fasting and abstinence haves
radically changed over the years.
From the Middle Ages where
eggs and dairy products were generally forbidden, to today's world where the
Roman Catholic church, requires members to "eat less than is
customary for the day, with NO MEAT, eating only one full meal and two small
meals" on both Ash Wednesday and Good Friday ONLY",
the Lenten season continually has evolved in its definitions of "fasting" and
"abstinence".
The fourth Lenten Sunday is called "Mothering Sunday" and in the United Kingdom is also called
"Mother's Day".
The fifth Lenten Sunday is known as "Passion Sunday" and is more commonly referred to as "Palm Sunday" the beginning of "Holy
Week"...
... where the Wednesday of Holy Week is known by some as "Spy Wednesday", commemorating the day Judas conspired to
betray and sell him to the Romans.
...where Thursday of Holy Week is known as "Holy
Thursday", commemorated by Christians as the day of Christ's Last Supper
with his disciples.
...where Friday of Holy Week is known as "Good
Friday" when Jesus Christ was crucified and
buried.
...where Saturday of Holy Week is known as "Holy
Saturday" when Christ laid in a donated tomb while his devoted Mary
Magdelene, mourned him day and night.
...until
Sunday...Easter...when Christianity took on a
new meaning for the entire western world, as the belief of his rising from the
dead fulfilled the prophecies of the scriptures that man would again be given
yet another opportunity to repent for his sins....and be rewarded by doing
so....in Christ's words...
"in a
kingdom not of this world".
And now you know all about
"Ash Wednesday" and "Lent"
!
Dick
Arendt
____________________________
Goodbye "Mr.
Cub"
That Flag in Left Field
will Forever Grace Wrigley Field in Your Memory
.jpeg)
One of the dearest moments of my
childhood came to mind on Friday, January 23rd, when I learned of the death of
the greatest baseball player I ever had the chance to
meet.....Hall of Famer....Ernie Banks.
He was age 83 at the time of his
death....a week before his 84th birthday.
Growing up approximately 6 blocks from
Wrigley Field in Chicago made me a Cub fan for life.....and nothing....NOTHING....even waiting 106 years for
a Cub World Series, can compare to the sadness in my heart at losing a
man whose integrity and love of the game was an inspiration to whoever had the
privilege of meeting this GOOD and DECENT MAN.
It all started back in 1955....60 years
ago...at the age of 8 when I turned on WGN-TV to watch my first professional
baseball game (in black and white with rabbit ears on our 10 inch screen)
listening to a show called "The Lead Off Man" with
Vince Lloyd, while in the background a man named Pat Pieper could be heard
saying:
"Attention...Attention please...have your pencils and scorecards
ready, and I'll give you today's line-up for today's ballgame".
I later found out the Pat Pieper has originally been a popcorn vendor for the Cubs at "West Side Park" since 1904, and when the team moved to Weeghman Park in 1916 (eventually renamed Wrigley Field in 1927) he was named the first "field" announcer, originally running up and down the left and right field lines to announce the line-ups using a 14 pound megaphone....until the Cubs would eventually buy a public address system in 1932 !
To the day he died in 1974, he swore Babe Ruth called the center field home run "shot" during the 1932 World Series as he sat in the Cubs dugout with the Cub players during the game !
One by one, each name was
called...until the name Ernie Banks was announced as
the starting shortstop....and for some reason....the crowd of about 800....yes, 800, not 8,000, began to cheer
wildly.
...and then the game would start with
Hall of Fame Broadcaster, Jack Brickhouse, in the TV
booth...
...talking about this "kid" who hit home runs with the strangest batting stance
anyone had ever seen....using "wrist
action".
%2Bbatting%2Bstance.jpeg)
This had to be explored by an eight
year old kid in person...who would begin each summer day in the Mt. Carmel
parking lot at daybreak to join the other kids in a softball game that began
somewhere around 9:30am, broke for lunch (that mom made), and return for another
4-5 hours before the dinner bell sounded and dad got home, only to return
afterwards until it got too dark to play any longer !
The only exception to that summer
schedule....an occasional treat....going to a real
game in person....when the Cubs were home....
...and spending the 60 cents for a grandstand seat....with the money we earned
from our Kool-Aid stands in front of our houses ! (75 cents for a bleacher seat
was beyond our affordability).
And...our parents let us go by
ourselves too....there was never a concern as to safety
!
You see, those were the days when
baseball at Wrigley Field was only played in
the DAYTIME....there were
no lights in Wrigley Field until 1988 because the
owner's son, after purchasing them, donated them to the war effort before they
were scheduled to be installed in 1942....
...and it was a
joy....a wonderful joy....to watch baseball in the warm summer sun during each
and every home game.
Wrigley Field was (and is) in a
residential neighborhood where people actually live in apartment buildings
within 50-100 feet of the park...
...and living less than a mile from the
ballpark allowed us kids from Our Lady of Mt. Carmel grade school to WALK there....because we simply wanted
to save the 25 cents bus fare, and buy TWO HOT DOGS
at 10 cents each at the Waveland Bowl on Clark Street on the way to the
park.
The games might have actually started
at 1:20pm...but a kid on a mission, had to get there for batting practice at
about 10:00am for two reasons...
...first, to make sure you got your 60
cents worth...
...but more importantly, to get to that
special location across from the fire station on Waveland Avenue....where the players parked their cars
!
And that is where I met Ernie Banks for the first time !
While so many of the players would
hurry into the park to get ready for the game....
...not Ernie...no
siree....
Ernie would NEVER
refuse an autograph and ALWAYS showed his appreciation for the fans and
his love of the game he knew he was blessed to be able to play professionally
!
No matter what you had with you...a
scorecard, a piece of notebook paper...even an old Popsicle wrapper.....Ernie
would always sign it. He just LOVED KIDS.
But it wouldn't stop BEFORE the
game...
If you were a real "penniless fan" like I was....
...when the game ended, you had to beat
the other kids in the park in gathering up and turning in 15 of the rented seat
cushions in order to receive free admission to a future
game....
...and then
get back to the players parking lot to "attack" them
for more autographs AFTER the game as well !
Ernie Banks
grew up in Dallas, Texas; was a star football, basketball, and track and field
athlete, in addition to, baseball, and got to the "bigs" in a way so many black players did in the early
50s...
...by way of the Negro Leagues...riding
the buses to and from games....
...until another Negro League sports
legend, Cool Papa Bell...
...would be responsible for signing him
to a professional contract with the Kansas City
Monarchs.
Bell would
also eventually be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974 as one of the
greatest players in Negro League history.
The immortal Hall of Famer, Satchel Paige....
...once said of "Cool Papa" as to his blazing
speed...
“One time he hit a line
drive right past my ear. I turned around and saw the ball hit him sliding into
second.”
Ernie
would serve his nation in the Army, and after being honorably discharged,
returned to the Monarchs for one season, when a man named P.K. Wrigley came calling in 1953 with an offer to play
for the Chicago Cubs....where he would remain "a Cub" for
the next 19 years until he retired in
1971.
It was in
that 19 year span from my young age of 8, through high school, college, and
eventually into the working world, that I would learn to love and appreciate
this man for his abilities ON and OFF the
field.
He was the
most beloved player to ever play for the Chicago Cubs....for so many reasons
!
Of course
in addition to his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in
1977...his first year of eligibility.... there were his 512 home runs which places him #22 on the all-time home run
list (he was #8 when he retired...well before the era
of performance enhancing drugs); the only player to receive 2 consecutive back-to-back MVP awards in 1958 and 1959; was
named to 11 All-Star teams; won a
golden glove award in 1960 for his play at shortstop before moving to
first base in 1962; and appeared in 1,259
games....
...culminating with every Cub fan having May 12, 1970 etched in their memory
!
All
this....playing for a team that rarely finished above the .500 mark, and NEVER in a World Series during the 19
years.
Did that
ever change the attitude of Ernie
Banks?
Never.....that's why he will always be
affectionately known as ...
%2BMr%2BCub.jpeg)
After
receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in
2013.....Ernie's humility
continued...
But my
"Ernie" story doesn't end with his playing days.
The
best...and most memorable of them all....was in 1972.
He was
retired and I had been in my third year in the insurance business working for
Aetna Life in downtown Chicago.
Next door
to the Aetna office was a doctor's office, Dr. Alex Conway, who did insurance
physicals for a living....and between both of the offices...was the men's
room.
I "had to
go" and at the same time, Ernie was completing an insurance exam taking a
"specimen"....standing IMMEDIATELY TO MY LEFT at the urinal
!
For you
guys out there, have you ever had that uncomfortable feeling that you recognize
the guy "going" next to you....and don't want to make
it obvious that you're looking at him...for various reasons
?
Well...I couldn't resist ! I looked at him and asked if he
was Ernie Banks and sure as can be...he was, and as our eyes locked.... he
looked at me and said.....
"I'd shake your hand but it's busy right
now!"
We talked for a few moments...asking me my name and what I did
and where I worked...he seemed to really CARE about a FAN....no matter what
their age.
That was
Ernie
Banks...
....but
that IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY
!
Ernie went
back to complete his exam, and I went back to my office....smiling....in
awe...realizing no one would ever believe
me !
15 minutes
later, our receptionist called me to come to the front counter of the
office....that I had a visitor who wished to see
me.
I dashed
away from my desk to the front of the office and low and behold....it was ERNIE BANKS
!
He had
told the receptionist that he was in the neighborhood, and wanted to say HI TO HIS PAL, DICK ARENDT
!
What I
will never forget about that day was that office of over 100 people....all
running up to the counter....with the phones ringing and ringing...and no one
answering them !
Everyone wanted to meet Ernie Banks
!
He came
back to my office, and gave me a
wink...
....we
talked for a few moments, and as he left, I looked at him, and told him that was
the greatest act of kindness any one could have ever shown a kid....no matter
how old the "kid" was at the
time....
...that
from the moment I first witnessed the great game of baseball, he was not only a
hero to an 8 year old kid....but to a 25 year old one as well
!
The office
staff never looked at me in the same manner after that....after all....ERNIE BANKS CAME TO SAY HI TO...ME
!
Ernie Banks was voted the most beloved Cub player in
Chicago Cubs history...and for good reason....not just for his play, but for his
annual words of wisdom...
"The Cubs are due in
sixty-two."
"The
Cubs are gonna shine in sixty-nine."
"The
only way to prove that you're a good sport is to
lose."
"The
riches of the game are in the thrills, not the
money."
But the
most memorable of all....
"Let's Play
Two"
...and the
song every Cub fan has learned to love while thinking of old number "14" in his Cubby
blue...
Thank you
Ernie....thank you for allowing me to relive moments of my life that YOU were a part
of....
...those
innocent moments I will always
cherish.
You may be
in Baseball's Hall of Fame....
...but
you'll forever be in mine for reasons well beyond the diamond
!
Dick
Arendt
Anthem
Opinions
_____________________________
Saying Goodbye to Those
We Lost in 2014
(July through
December)
July
Louis
Zamperini
July 2nd...Age
97
(Olympic distance runner who, during
World War II, survived 47 days on a raft in the Pacific after his bomber
crashed, then endured two years in Japanese prison camps.....subject of the book
and recently released movie "Unbroken")
Alice
Coachman-Davis
July 14th...Age
90
(the first black woman to win an
Olympic Gold medal...in 1948)
Elaine
Stritch
July 17th...Age
89
(Actress....Broadway & Movies
"Cacoon")
James
Garner
July 19th...Age
86
(Actor...Brett Maverick in "Maverick"
and Jim Rockford in "Rockford Files" Television Shows in addition to numerous
films)
August
James
Brady
August 4th...Age
73
(Press Secretary to President Ronald
Reagan who was shot during Reagan assassination attempt in 1981...was
responsible for The Brady Bill)
Ed
Nelson
August 9th...Age
85
(American Character Actor...best know
for roles in "Peyton Place" and "Murder She Wrote")
.jpeg)
Robin
Williams
August 11th...Age
63
(Actor / Comedian.....Mork in "Mork
& Mindy" and numerous films, nominated for the Best Actor Oscar in "The
Fisher King","Good Morning Viet Nam", and "Dead Poets Society"...won Oscar for
Best Actor in "Good Will Hunting")
Lauren
Bacall
August 12th...Age
89
(Actress....married to Humphrey
Bogart and co-starred with Bogart in "To Have and Have Not", "Dark Passage", and
"Key Largo")
Don
Pardo
August 18th...Age
96
(Voice of "Saturday Night Life" and
numerous Television Shows)
Richard
Attenborough
August 24th...Age
81
(Actor / Director.....starred in
"Jurassic Park")
September
Joan
Rivers
September 4th...Age
81
(Comedienne)
Richard
Kiel
September 10th...Age
74
(Actor..."Jaws" in two James Bond
films)
Bob
Crewe
September 11th...Age
82
(American Songwriter writing numerous
hits for various artists....including "Big Girls Don"t Cry" and "Ragdoll" with
Bob Gaudio for the Four Seasons)
Polly
Bergen
September 20th...Age
84
(Actress...starred in films "Cape
Fear" and "Kisses for My President....and TV's "Desperate
Housewives")
October
Paul
Revere
October 4th...Age
76
(Band leader of Rock Group "Paul
Revere & the Raiders")
Jan
Hooks
October 9th...Age
57
(Comedienne....Star of Great '90s
Saturday Night Live" cast)
Oscar de la
Renta
October 20th...Age
82
(worldly gentleman designer who
shaped the wardrobe of socialites, first ladies, and Hollywood stars for more
than four decades)
Ben
Bradlee
October 21st...Age
93
(Editor of The Washington
Post...played by Jason Robards in the Watergate movie, "All the President's Men"
in 1976)
Marcia
Strassman
October 24th...Age
66
(Actress...Julie Kotter in TV's
"Welcome Back Kotter" and starred in film, "Honey I Shrunk the
Kids")
November
Acker
Bilk
November 2nd...Age
85
(Musician...whose clarinet will long
be remembered for his hit "Strangers on the Shore"...originally titled "Jennie"
for his young daughter)
Tom
Magliozzi
November 3rd...Age
77
(the car guy in TV's "Car
Talk")
Richard
Schaal
November 4th...Age
86
(Actor....roles in "Phyllis" and
"Mary Tyler Moore" TV show)
Carol
Ann Susi
November 11th...Age
62
(Actress....voice of Howard
Wolowitz's mother on TV's "Big Bang Theory")
Alvin
Dark
November 13th...Age
92
(Major League Baseball Player who, in
1969, was voted by the San Francisco Giants, as their greatest shortstop of all
time)
Jane
Byrne
November 14th...Age
81
(Former Mayor of Chicago...elected
following the "Great Snow Storm of 1979")
Jimmy
Ruffin
November 14th...Age
81
(American Motown Singer...best known
for hit "What Becomes of the Broken Heart)
Mike
Nichols
November 20th...Age
82
(Grammy and Oscar Winner for
Direction...most notable works include films "The Graduate", "Working Girl", and
"Primary Colors" and Broadway's "Spamalot"...was the former comic partner of
Elaine May....married for the past 26 years to News Anchor, Diane
Sawyer)
December
Mary
Ann Mobley
December 9th...Age
75
(Actress...Miss America
1959....married to Gary Collins who passed away in 2012....one of the "Elvis"
girls in the firm"Girl Happy")
Ernie
Terrell
December 16th...Age
75)
(Former WBA Heavyweight Boxing
Champion losing his title to Muhammed Ali in 1967)
.jpeg)
Joe
Cocker
December 22nd...Age
70
(British Rock Star....most famous for
his hit, "You Are So Beautiful")
.jpeg)
Dick
Dale
December 26th...Age
88
(Lawrence Welk Show...singer and
saxophonist)
Luise
Rainer
December 30th...Age
104
(American Actress...first woman to
win back to back Academy Awards for Best Actress...."The Great Ziegfeld" in 1936
& "The Good Earth" in 1937)
____________________________
(January through
June)
January
Phil Everly
January 3rd---Age
74
(Singer...The Everly
Brothers)
Alicia
Rhett
January 3rd...Age
93
(Actress...India Wilkes in "Gone with
the Wind")
Jerry
Coleman
January 5th...Age
89
(New York Yankee baseball
player...and inducted into the Baseball Broadcasters Hall of Fame after 40 years
covering games for the San Diego Padres)
Ariel
Sharon
January 11th....Age
85
(Israeli general and prime minister
who was admired and hated for his battlefield exploits and ambitions to reshape the Middle East)
Russell
Johnson
January 16th...Age
89
(Actor...The Professor on Gilligan's
Island)
Dave
Madden
January 16th...Age
80
(Actor...Reuben Kincaid on "The
Partridge Family")
Hiroo
Onoda
January 16th...Age
91
(The Last Japanese Soldier to
Surrender in World War II)
Pete
Seeger
January 27th...Age
94
(American Folk Singer &
Songwriter)
February
Maximillian
Schell
February 1st...Age
84
(Actor... Oscar winner "Judgment at
Nuremberg")
Philip Seymour
Hoffman
February 2nd...Age
46
(Actor...Oscar winner
"Capote")
Ralph
Kiner
February 6th....Age
91
(Major League Baseball Hall of Famer
, the first National League player to hit 50+ home runs in two
seasons....spending most of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates....eventually
becoming the New York Mets broadcaster for over 50
years)
Shirley Temple
Black
February 10th...Age
85
(Actress & US
Ambassador...America's Sweetheart)
Sid
Caesar
February 12th...Age
91
(Television Pioneer....."Your Show of
Shows")
Mary Grace
Canfield
February 15th...Age
89
(Actress.....Ralph the Plumber on
"Green Acres")
Jim
Fregosi
February 16th...Age
71
(Major League Baseball player who
also managed four teams, winning more than 1,000
games)
Garrick
Utley
February 20th...Age
74
(News Anchor...NBC Nightly
News)
Harold
Ramis
February 24th...Age
69
(Actor/Director....starred in
"Ghostbusters")
Jim
Lange
February 25th...Age
80
(Host of "The Dating
Game")
March
Sheila
MacRae
March 6th...Age
93
(Actress...2nd Alice Kramden on "The
Honeymooners")
March 15th...Age
78
(Stand Up
Comedian)
March 21st...Age
65
(Character Actor in Numerous
Productions)
April
Mary
Anderson
April 6th...Age
96
(Actress....Marybell Merriweather in
"Gone With the Wind")
April 6th...Age
93
(Icon Actor...."Andy Hardy"
Movies)
April 20th...Age
76
(Heavyweight boxer, who spent 22
years in prison for a murder conviction...portrayed by actor, Denzel Washington
in the 1999 film, "The Hurricane")
April 23rd...Age
102
(The Oldest Surviving Major League
Baseball player...dying 2 days prior to his 103rd
birthday)
April 29th...Age
87
(Actor....Cop Eddie Valiant in "Who
Framed Roger Rabbit")
May
Efrem
Zimbalist Jr.
May 2nd...Age
95
(Actor...Inspector Lewis Erskine on
"The FBI" Television Series)
May 8th...Age
79
(Actress...Many TV Shows.."The
Fugitive", "Twilight Zone", "Bonanza", "Dr. Kildare)
May 11th...Age
79
(Watergate conspirator-turned
minister who claimed in later years to have heard President Richard Nixon order
the infamous Watergate break-in)
May 18th...Age
83
(American Singer for
Decades)
May 19th...Age
88
(Three time Formula One Champion who
famously pushed his car to the finish line to claim his first season
title)
May 28th...Age
86
(Poet....First Clinton
Inauguration)
June
Anne B.
Davis
June 1st...Age
88
(Schultzy on "The Bob Cummings Show"
and Alice on "The Brady Bunch")
June 4th...Age
83
(Loveable Manager of several Major
League Baseball teams...most notable for charging the pitcher's mound at the age
of 73 and tackling pitcher, Pedro Martinez, in 2003)
June 9th...Age
57
(Major League Baseball 1990 Cy Young
Winner...Los Angeles Dodgers)
June 11th...Age
91
(Actress...."A Raisin in the Sun"...
married to actor Ozzie Davis for over 50 years)
June 13th...Age
82
(Pittsburgh Steelers Head
Coach...winner of 4 Super Bowls)
June 15th...Age
82
(National Radio DJ..."America's Top
40")
June 16th...Age
54
(San Diego Padres Baseball Hall of
Famer...one of the greatest hitters in baseball
history)
June 19th...Age
75
(Songwriter....co-wrote "Will You
Love Me Tomorrow" and "Up on the Roof" with former wife, Carole
King...subsequently wrote Monkees hit, "Pleasant Valley
Sunday")
June 22nd...Age
86
(straight man of famous duo
"Allen & Rossi")
Eli
Wallach
June 24th...Age
98
(Character Actor..."The Magnificent
Seven " and "The Good The Bad & The Ugly")
Howard
Baker
June 26th...Age
88
(Former Republican Senator from
Tennessee who made headlines during The Watergate
Hearings)
June 28th...Age
67
(Actor...."Designing Women" TV
show)
June 30th...Age
89
(Actor...Lt. Carpenter on "McHale's
Navy" TV show)
Hannukah
The Fesitval of
Lights
A Celebration
for both Jews & Christians
Beginning at sun down on Tuesday, December 16th, those of Jewish faith begin the eight day
celebration of Hannukah.
As many of us who live in our community
know, we have a diverse cultural mix that includes a number of religions...and
tonight...those of the Jewish faith will begin their annual
celebration.
...and I...am luckier than most who
live here !
Why ? Because I get the best of both
worlds !
Being a Roman Catholic who is married
to a lovely lady of the Jewish faith, I get 8 days of lights....and
then...follow that up with 12 days of Christmas !
...and being of the Christian
faith, having been educated in Catholic grammar and high schools, I was
fortunate to learn much of the Hebrew
traditions...because.....
...well...according to what I was taught
all those years ago....
Christianity would never have existed
had it not been for Judaism.
Surprisingly, so many people believe
the two religions are separate and distinct, when in fact....both actually
celebrate a number of holidays common to both.
...one of which is Hannukah !
Why do I say that?
...because Hannukah
is mentioned in the books of Maccabees in the
Old Testament....the "first half" of the Bible.....to us Christians
!
And so...since both Jews and Christians
celebrate it...I believe all of us should know about it
!
To find out what Hanukkah
commemorates, we have to look back at a specific time in history...a 400-year period between the closing of the Hebrew Scriptures and
the writing of the New Testament.
Biblical scholars sometimes call
this a “silent period,” and since the events of
Hanukkah took place during this time, we must turn to extra-biblical sources to
learn about them.
What we know about the history of
Hanukkah can be gleaned primarily from I & II Maccabbees, two non-canonical books, and also
from the Talmud, a collection
of the oral lore of Jewish sages and rabbis.
During that 400
year period, there was no king in Israel.
The Jewish people had returned from
exile in Babylon under the leadership of Nehemiah, but they were ruled over by a
succession of foreign empires.
Israel was ruled by the Persian
empire, which was conquered by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C.
When Alexander died in 323 B.C., his
empire was carved up by his four top generals.
Israel lay in between the kingdoms
of Egypt (ruled by the Ptolemic dynasty) and Syria (ruled by the Seleucid
dynasty), and was ruled by both at different times.
The Greek, or Hellenistic, culture
of Alexander was continued by both of these
empires.
In 198
B.C., Israel was under the rule of the Syrian empire.
These Syrio-Greeks had forced their
own Hellenistic culture upon the Jewish
people.
In 175 B.C. Antiochus IV
ascended the throne of this empire, and took upon himself the name "Antiochus
Epiphanes", meaning “the visible god.”
Antiochus truly believed that he was
a god.
His contemporaries may not have
shared this view, since he is often referred to in writings of the day as “the madman.”
Antiochus forbad
the Jewish people to keep the Sabbath, to read or study the Torah, or to
circumcise their sons.
He commanded that the temple in
Jerusalem should become a temple dedicated to worshipping the Greek god Zeus,
and even erected a statue of Zeus at the Temple – a statue bearing a resemblance
to Antiochus himself!
The final insult to the Jewish
people came when Antiochus entered into the Temple and slaughtered a pig on the
altar, then splattered its blood....a
complete desecration of the Temple
!
I
Maccabees tells us that living near to Jerusalem was
a priest named Mattathias who, full of
righteous anger at the abomination that had taken place, killed the priest who
had slaughtered the pig.
Mattathias then pulled down the altar
before fleeing to the surrounding hills of Judea, along with his
sons.
As he fled, Mattathias cried out,
“Whoever is zealous for the Law and maintains the Covenant, follow me!”
With his sons, Mattathias formed a band
of guerilla fighters who made frequent sorties against the Syrio-Greek enemy.
When the priest died, leadership passed to his
son Judah, who soon began being
called Yudah haMakkabi, or “Judah the Hammer,” because it was said that he was the
hammer of God, sent to smash the enemies of Israel.
Judah’s followers were referred to as
Maccabbeans.
The Maccabeans grew in numbers, and after 3 years of fighting,
miraculously defeated the far superior Syrio-Greek army.
After routing their enemies, the Maccabbeans marched into Jerusalem to rescue, restore, and
rededicate the Temple.
The Talmud records that the rededication
took place on the 25th day of "Kislev" in the Hebrew
calendar, exactly 3 years to the day after it had been defiled by
Antiochus.
Hanukkah means, “dedication” in Hebrew, so the
holiday is known as the "Feast of Dedication" to
commemorate the miracle of the rescue, restoration, and rededication of the
Temple by the Maccabbeans.
It’s a celebration of the faith that Judah
Maccabee and his followers had that God would keep His promises to preserve the
Jewish people, a faith that was amply repaid in the defeat of their
Syrio-Greek oppressors.
However, today when most Jews think of
Hanukkah, they do not think of the miracle of the
Maccabees defeating a much larger, better equipped army.
They associate a very different miracle with the holiday, one which
is mentioned only briefly in the Talmud.
According to the Talmud, once the Syrio-Greeks had been driven
away, Judah Maccabee ordered that the Temple be
cleansed and rededicated.
As they cleaned out the rubble, built a new altar, and crafted new
holy vessels for the Temple, a terrible discovery was
made.
There was only a single container of
consecrated ritual olive oil, which was required in
order to keep the menorah (the seven-branched
candelabra) in the Temple burning through the
night.
This lamp was known as the "Ner
Tamid", or the "Eternal
Light", and God had commanded it should never burn
out.
To allow that to happen would be like another
desecration.
The problem was that it would take eight days
for more oil to be pressed, prepared, and consecrated.
With a sense of helplessness, the Maccabees and the priests offered
their prayers and pleas for forgiveness up to God as they lit the oil they had.
Miraculously, this
one container of oil, enough only to last one night, burned for all eight days!
Jewish sages hence instituted an eight-day holiday commemorating
this miracle, customarily celebrated by lighting candles for eight
days.
This is the
miracle that most Jews think of as they celebrate Hanukkah, and the reason that it is referred to as the "Festival of Lights".
...hence.... significance of the Jewish
tradition of lighting candles in the menorah for eight nights
!
A candle is added each night, symbolizing each of the eight nights
the oil burned in the temple.
As each candle is added to the menorah, the blessings increase; and
by the final night, the room is completely filled with light, a symbol of the
glory and presence of God.
And so...as this eight days of celebration
commences this Tuesday evening....
...Anthem Opinions wishes all of
our Jewish and Christian readers...a joyous celebration of this event for one
reason....
We are all part of the
brotherhood of man !
Dick Arendt
________________________________
Do you know the facts
about..................
The Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier
Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to
God
How many steps does the guard take during his walk
across the tomb of the Unknowns and why?
21 steps
It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute which is the highest honor
given any military or foreign dignitary.
How long does the guard hesitate after his/her about
face to begin his return walk and why?
21 seconds
...for the same reason ...the 21 gun salute...the highest honor
given any military or foreign dignitary.
The guards gloves are wet.
Why?
His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the
rifle.
Does the guard carry his/her rifle on the same
shoulder all the time and, if not, why not?
The guard carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb.
After his march across the path, he executes an about face and
moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.
How often are the guards
changed?
Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day,
365 days a year.
.jpeg)
What are the physical traits of the guard
limited to?
For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be
between 5' 10' and 6' 2' tall and his waist size cannot exceed
30.
And...women are also
included in this honor.
What are the requirements for the guard's
uniforms?
The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to
keep the heat and cold from their feet.
There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of
the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a
halt.
There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform.
Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length
mirror.
Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniform ready for guard duty.
What other commitments must a guard make to protect the
tomb?
They must commit to the following
conditions...
...2 years of life to guard the tomb
...live in a barracks under the tomb
...cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for
the rest of their lives
....cannot swear in public for the rest of their
lives
...cannot disgrace the uniform or the tomb in any
way
The first six
months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone nor watch TV.
All off duty
time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National
Cemetery . A guard must memorize who they are and where they are
interred.
After two years, the guard is given a
wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the
tomb. There are only 400 presently worn.
The guard must obey these rules for the rest of
their lives or give up the wreath pin.
How
dedicated are these individuals to guard the tomb?
In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington, DC, our
US Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm.
On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the
dangers from the hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment.
They respectfully declined the offer, "No way,
Sir!"
Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical
storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the
highest honor that can be afforded to a service person.
The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930.
Most
importantly...
The Tomb
and its guards are the symbol of dedication to all who live in this great nation.
Dick
Arendt
_______________________________
(Part Three of
Three)
Helen J.
Stewart
The First Lady of Las
Vegas
(3)
Her husband having been murdered, she suddenly
became a widow with four children and pregnant with a fifth. Her husband died
without a will, and she felt it necessary to sell the ranch in Las Vegas in
order to provide for her children.
But...there were no buyers for two
years.
Suddenly, land speculation fever struck the Las
Vegas valley in 1889, and rather than sell....she
decided to buy !
She enticed her father and brother-in-law to buy
land along the Muddy River, by giving them a loan of 100
cattle.
Still...Helen Stewart
had one problem that needed solving....her dedication to educating her
children.
Then...one day, the dilemma was
solved.
An elderly man, James
Ross Megamgle, who had been in Lincoln County for over 20 years, arrived
in her life.
A graduate of Oxford, Megamgle was a teacher by profession, but was also a
writer, poet, orator, and could play a "passable" fiddle.
Helen's passion for education had been solved
!
They became dear friends; he became her soft
hearted mentor; and Megamgle agreed to tutor the
Stewart children...
..becoming the first teacher
in the Las Vegas School District for Lincoln County. (Las Vegas was part
of Lincoln County until 1909 when it became part of the newly established Clark
County.)
Helen's daughters were amenable to learning but
sons, Will and Hiram, had by then become "seasoned ranchers" and saw "book
learning" as a waste of time.
James Ross Megamgle
would take up permanent residence at the Stewart ranch and regularly taught
the Stewart children and others until contracting influenza in 1894, when he sadly died. He had become so close to the
Stewart family that he was buried alongside Archie Stewart, Helen's murdered
husband.
So convinced that education was imperative for her
children, she subsequently sent her daughters and youngest son, Archibald, off
to boarding school in California.
Two years later, another man would enter Helen's
life. In 1886 a man named Frank
Roger Stewart (no relation to Archie) arrived from Sandy Valley, where he
and a partner had operated a store and post office.
Frank Roger
Stewart
He needed work....Helen hired him, and he became a
valuable ranch hand...
...often entertaining travelers with his wit as
they passed through the area (supposedly spending a great deal of time in the
wine cellar with them).
Helen and Frank eventually married in 1903.
Because of the Stewart ranch location, over time
it became a message center for the region with travelers routinely leaving
messages for those behind them.
As a result.....in June,
1893, Helen Stewart was named postmaster of the "Los Vegas"
(not misspelled) post office. Authorities insisted
on the incorrect spelling to avoid confusing it with the territorial post office
in Las Vegas, New Mexico.
As the years passed, talk of a railroad through
the valley fueled further speculation in Las Vegas land.. but railroad magnates
became concerned about the inflated land prices.
As a result, early negotiations between local
landowners....including Helen Stewart....and the
Oregon Short Line Railroad began in 1901..
...but due to the fear of inflated prices...they
failed to exercise the option to build...and lost it
!
That decision would be a costly one
!
In 1902 Montana Senator William A. Clark made a trip to Las Vegas
with an idea that he believed would change the small dusty town of Las
Vegas...into a city.
Montana US Senator William A. Clark
Clark, the man for whom our
Clark County is named, had a rather "checkered" past.
Years ago, US Senators were not elected...they
were appointed by state legislators...
...and when it was revealed in 1899 that Clark had bribed members of the Montana
legislature to obtain the senatorial position, the US Senate refused to seat
him.
In responding to criticism of his Montana bribery,
his comment was...
"I never bought
a man who wasn't for sale".
A later Senate campaign would be successful, and
he served as Montana's US Senator for ONE TERM from 1901 to
1907.
It was during that senatorial term that he met
Helen Stewart in 1902...essentially making her "an offer she couldn't
refuse" !
Clark came to Las Vegas with the idea of building
a railroad that would connect Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, a frequently
traveled route...and Las Vegas was a half-way point for the train
route.
All he needed was a reliable source of
water.
And...Helen Stewart was
the answer !
Helen wanted to sell her ranch, and the Las Vegas Creek ran through the ranch
!
Stewart Ranch...Las Vegas Creek
And in 1902, Helen
Stewart, signed a contract that essentially became
...
...the de facto birth certificate
for the City of Las Vegas !
The contract, between the Stewart Ranch and the San Pedro, Los
Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad....
...for the sum of $55,000....
...sold most of the Stewart ranch and
the water rights.
Helen
Stewart and her children would keep only the
land where the family cemetery was located and a small part of the Las Vegas
Creek.
So..in 1902...The Stewarts were out of the ranching
business....
...but...knowing of the railroad's
plans for her ranch....Helen thought wisely....and...
..snatched up another 924 acres of land
where she lived adjacent to the "Four Acres" cemetery for the rest of her
life.
in 1905 the
railroad auctioned off 1,200 lots, creating the downtown core of Las Vegas,
which of course, included "Stewart
Street"
Senator William A. Clark in Las
Vegas...1905
Helen Stewart would
write:
"Following the
trail of the trapper and of the trail blazer, and the pioneer, came the iron
horse, that great annihilator of time and distance, bringing all the modern
ideas of advanced civilization in our midst, and we awoke as if in a dream, and
found all the comforts of an advanced civilization with us. The hardships are
no more."
When Jeanne
Elizabeth Weir, founder of The Nevada Historical
Society, came to Nevada in 1908....
Jeanne Elizabeth
Weir
Founder of The Nevada Historical
Society
...she sought out Helen Stewart, and promptly named her
the president of the Southern Nevada branch. Helen would become a frequent
speaker as one of the foremost authorities on the history of Southern
Nevada.
In 1911 the
federal government decided to establish a Native American reservation in or
around Las Vegas.
It was Helen
Stewart who provided the site for today's Las Vegas
Paiute Indian Colony on North Main Street.
In 1915, she
became the first woman elected to the Clark County School
Board.
In 1916, she
became the first Nevada woman to sit on a jury.
In 1922 she
donated land for the Las Vegas Grammar School which was built in 1923. It was
the first public school attended by Native American students
from the southern Paiute Indian Colony....the building was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
Helen
Stewart would also become an expert at making Indian baskets, so much so,
that in 1925, Nevada Governor
James Scrugham...
Nevada Governor James
Scrugham
(1923-1927)
....asked her to display them at the
1926 State Exposition in
Reno.
Sadly that was not to
be...
On March 6,
1926, just three weeks shy of her 72nd birthday, Helen Stewart left us.
Her funeral was one of the largest the
city had ever seen.
Mourners from all over the state paid
homage to the lady who conquered tragedy, making her name a legend in Nevada
history.
She was interred in a special vault
hammered out of caliche on her "Four Acres" and in the 1970s the burial plot was
purchased by Bunker Brothers Mortuary, which owned the adjacent
land.
The remains of
Archie and Helen Stewart, as well as sons Hiram and Will, are now in
Bunker's Eden Vale Mausoleum...a short distance form
the old Stewart home, at 1216 Las Vegas Blvd. North in Las
Vegas.
If any woman ever tackled the world
herself, that woman was Helen J.
Stewart.
Epilogue....
The above statue is located in the
historic Old Las Vegas Mormon
Fort, at 500 W. Washington Ave. in Las
Vegas.
Dick
Arendt
________________________________
(Part Two of Three)
Helen J. Stewart
The First Lady of Las Vegas
(2)
In Part Two of our story about this fascinating Las Vegas pioneer, we'll meet Helen J. Stewart, learn of her background, her marriage and children, and how she and her husband, Archie, would eventually settle in this desert town of Las Vegas...on her journey to become...
The First Lady of Las Vegas
She was born Helen Jane Wiser, on April 16, 1854 in Springfield, Illinois; and at the age of nine, migrated "west" with her parents and four siblings, originally settling in Sacramento, California.....stopping for a short time in the Carson Valley of northwestern Nevada.
The Carson Valley was originally a strip of meadow along the banks of the river where the "49ers" followed the California branch of their travels to the gold fields.
When the Comstock Lode was discovered in 1858, the uncovering of massive amounts of silver (the reason Nevada would come to be known as "The Silver State") ......
Virginia City, NV Comstock Lode Miners
.jpeg)
Comstock Lode Historical Marker, Virginia City, NV
...settlers like Helen's parents began to migrate in order to extend the natural meadows of the valley to provide hay, meat, and butter to the miners in Virginia City and neighboring towns. To this very day, the Carson Valley is one of Nevada's finest agricultural areas.
Helen's parents became quite successful, and she attended public schools AND Woodland College in Yolo County.
At age 18, she married 38 year old Archibald Stewart, and the newlyweds were off to Lincoln County where Archie had been running a freight business since 1868.
Archie had become quite successful, and also owned a ranch near Pioche, California, where he raised cattle and grew vegetables.
He had wisely combined his ranching and freighting operations; so when the inevitable "boom and bust" cycles rolled through the Pioche mines, he was able to prosper by hauling his goods as far north as Eureka and as far south as Eldorado Canyon.
Within four years of their marriage, by 1876, the Stewarts, now with sons William James, and Hiram Richard, had moved to Pioche, much to the delight of Helen Stewart....who yearned for a "social life".
But...Archie was a "mover and shaker" and in 1879 Archie purchased another local ranch...
...and he also made a loan which changed the course of Nevada history !
A man named Octavius Decatur Gass (Gass Avenue) had developed a marginally successful ranching and farming operation around the "Mormon Fort" which had been abandoned in 1855 near what is today the intersection of Las Vegas Blvd. North and Washington Ave.
Octavius Decatur Gass
(see the previous article published in our "Entertainment Bargains for Sun City Anthem Residents" Information Page....by scrolling down the various posts to "The Mormon Fort....Birthplace of Las Vegas Nevada")
The Mojave Desert was unpredictable; some years producing phenomenal crops, in other years, nothing.
Gass, who was really more interested in mining than ranching, had been sliding into debt and in August, 1879, he persuaded Archie Stewart to loan him $5,000 in gold at 2.5 % interest PER MONTH payable in one year.
Gass had been trying to sell the place since 1868, and may have had no intention of paying back the debt.
He had become quite angry at the State of Nevada for taking his "part of the world" away from Arizona Territory and making it a part of Nevada !
As a result, Gass lost the prestige of being an Arizona Territorial legislator (Arizona was not admitted as a state until 1912), and to add insult to injury, had received a HUGE TAX BILL from Nevada's Lincoln County.
Gass may have simply decided he would sign Archie Stewart's promissory note....take the money...and run !
...which is how, in 1880...Archie Stewart acquired the 960 acre Gass ranch, and set about doing what Gass never could...
Make It Profitable !
And...when Archie informed his wife, Helen, that he intended to MOVE there...to Las Vegas...
...Helen was horrified !
She had loved California's social life and now was going to live in a desolated desert town !
In addition, she was pregnant, and frightened at the prospect of having the child "without another woman in attendance", and was quite concerned about the lack of educational opportunities for her sons.....remember, Helen was an educated woman.
Archie soothed her...promising it was only a TEMPORARY move.
The Stewart's trip in 1882 took nearly a week, and as expected, there was plenty to do when they arrived.
Helen gave birth to her second daughter, Evaline La Vega, who derived her middle name from her place of birth...Las Vegas.
Evaline LaVega Stewart
Helen Stewart's fears seemed to lessen as she acclimated herself to her new home, mostly because of the nonstop flow of travelers.
Often, the Stewarts would awake to find dozens of travelers camped on their property.
(In Helen Stewart's biography, published in the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly", it was noted...."When the arriving group contained women, Helen Stewart was especially happy, as she hungered for feminine companionship")
This new home, with its cool creek and huge shady cottonwood trees, was a "resort" for heat weary miners from Eldorado Canyon.
In a good year, the ranch's vineyards could produce as much as 600 gallons of serviceable wine....and the Stewarts sold it...CHEAP !
A writer in 1883 reported many of the prospectors in Eldorado Canyon had "all quit work for some time and are rusticating up at the Vegas Ranch, having a jolly time drinking wine. Whenever any of them get drunk, they are placed in the works of the roots of a tree and made to sit there until sobered".
In Part One of this series, we noted that due to an argument, Archie Stewart as murdered in 1884, and Helen's life would take many turns, one of which was the fact that ARCHIE DID NOT LEAVE A WILL.
In 1885 the probate was finalized, and Helen Stewart ended up owning only ONE-HALF of the ranch.
The other half was divided equally among the five children: Will, Hiram, Tiza, Evaline, and the baby, Archie.
As administrator of her children's affairs, she sought and was granted permission, to sell the ranch, arguing that if the children were forced to grow up there, they would be deprived of a proper education.
Prospective buyers were few, and after two years, Helen was still unable to sell the property...thank goodness !
In 1889 land speculation fever struck the Las Vegas Valley region as word began to circulate that plans were in the works....
...for a railroad !
And that too would impact on how this widow with five children would eventually become the "rock" on which our town, Las Vegas, would be built and flourish over the next 125 years.
In our concluding Part Three, we'll discuss how fate, determination (and luck), would change the life of Helen Stewart...
...and how a man named James Ross Megamgle entered her life to solve a never ending desire she had for education...
... a thirst that was never allowed to develop...until she met him.
This...and meeting another "Stewart" would change her life and allow her to bloom in the Las Vegas community a the "First Lady of Las Vegas".
Dick Arendt
_________________________________
(Part One of Three)
Helen J. Stewart
The First Lady of Las Vegas
(1)
Hot, sore and covered in dust, Archie Stewart pulled the freight wagon into the shade of the cottonwood trees on that blistering July day in 1884.
Archie Stewart
He had been away from the Las Vegas Ranch for several days, delivering produce and livestock to hungry miners in Eldorado Canyon. A couple of his hired men approached and began to unhitch the tired team.
Stewart jumped down, slapping the dust off his pants legs, wiping his face and neck with his bandana, walking to the house.
His wife, Helen, was inside, still trying to decide how to tell her husband about the unsettling incident that had occurred a few days earlier.
A ranch hand, Schyler Henry, had abruptly announced he was quitting.
He went to Helen Stewart demanding his wages. She refused, explaining that she did not know how much he was owed, and that he would have to wait until Archie Stewart returned.
Henry threatened and insulted Helen Stewart, but she held firm. Henry then left the ranch without his wages.
It is unknown exactly what Schyler Henry said to Helen Stewart.
She never repeated it, except to remark that the ranch hand owned a "black-hearted slanderer's tongue."
But it was sufficiently insulting that Archie Stewart, after a short rest and a meal at home, saddled a horse, put his rifle in its scabbard and rode off for the Kiel Ranch, near the present location of Carey Avenue and Losee Road in North Las Vegas, where he believed Schyler Henry had headed.
Kiel Ranch
The spread was operated by Conrad Kiel and his son, Edwin,and had a well-deserved reputation as a haven and hangout for various badmen, outlaws and scoundrels, men like....
...Hank Parrish and Jack Longstreet.
Longstreet was a character who, for the most part, was a loner; but years before he arrived in Nevada, at the age of 14, was part of a group of cattle rustlers who were caught....and paid the ultimate "western" price.
Because of his young age, he was spared the "rope" but was taught a lesson by having one of his ears conveniently removed.
.jpeg)
Andrew Jackson "Jack" Longstreet
He arrived in Nevada in 1882 with his long barreled Colt .44...with several notches in it...
Long Barreled Colt .44
....and always seemed to be one step ahead of the law, raising cattle with "questionable" ownership.
These were the "neighbors" that Archie, Helen, and the children were forced to deal with when they arrived in Nevada.
But back to Archie Stewart and saving his wife's reputation.....
On July 13, 1884, when Archie Stewart arrived at the ranch, he tied his horse to a tree behind a growth of grapevines, and walked slowly to the back of the house.
All the doors and windows of the house were open, and Archie Stewart was spotted.
He evidently fired the first shot, and missed.
A short firefight ensued, and when it was over, Stewart was dead with wounds to the chest and head.
Schyler Henry received two flesh wounds.
At first, the killing was credited solely to Hank Parrish, who promptly disappeared.
Conrad Kiel and Schyler Henry were hauled before a grand jury in Pioche.
The Jury declined to indict.
The case remains unsolved to this day.
As for Parrish, he was later tried and hanged in Ely for the last in a long line of murders.
At his hanging, his last request was to make a speech to the 50 in attendance. His last words were:
"I've been accused of killing 8-20 men, but I only killed 3 of them...and they deserved killing".
Hank Parrish...his gallows
As for the Kiels, in 1900, Edwin and his brother, William....
Edwin and William Kiel
...were found shot to death at the Kiel ranch...with a shot gun !
That crime also has never been solved; however, rumor persists that it was Hiram Stewart, Archie's son, who committed the act as revenge for his father's demise.
Helen believed for the rest of her life that the Kiels, Henry, and Parrish, all had a part in her husband's death, and that the whole drama between her and Henry had been a ruse concocted to lure her husband to the ranch and kill him.
Helen Stewart believed that the conspiracy was hatched by Parrish.
Why would she think that ?
A year before he was killed, somebody stole two of Archie Stewart's horses.
He followed and recovered the horses, but the thief escaped.
Stewart also found some stolen cattle belonging to an acquaintance in Pahranagat Valley.
Parrish, the supposed thief, sent word to Stewart that he would kill him.
No sooner had the smoke cleared from the shootout than Conrad Kiel dispatched a rider with a rude note for Helen Stewart.
"Mrs Sturd, send a team and take Mr. Sturd away. He is dead. C. Kiel."
(note that he spelled Stewart... "Sturd"... to further show his disdain)
Helen Stewart went to the ranch herself and helped to load her husband's body.
Archibald Stewart was buried the next day, the first of seven people who would be interred in a four-acre family plot.
She was now, on her own. She had four minor children, another on the way, a crop of peaches that needed to be picked, and travelers arriving each day in need of food, water, and the rest.
She would shortly face major legal problems because Archie had failed to leave a will.
Helen Stewart had always despised the isolated ranch life, and had only agreed to move to the Las Vegas Ranch when her husband promised her it would be only a temporary stop.
Helen Stewart's Ranch....1905
Instead, she would spend the next 20 years running the place, improving it, constructing what would become the nucleus of a great Western city.
In Part Two, we'll learn more about Helen J, Stewart; her beginnings, her marriage, and how she would come to Las Vegas to begin that life.
Dick Arendt
_______________________________
The History of
Halloween
The word Halloween is a shortening
of All Hallows' Evening also known as Hallowe'en or All Hallows' Eve.
Of course, we are all familiar with
the traditional activities that include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume
parties, visiting haunted houses" and carving jack-o-lanterns.
Irish and Scottish immigrants
carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century.
Other western countries embraced the
holiday in the late twentieth century including Ireland, the United States,
Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom as well as of Australia and New
Zealand.
Halloween has its origins in the
ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced
"sah-win").
The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season
in Gaelic culture.
Samhain
Samhain was a time used by the
ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter.
The ancient
Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the
living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and
cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops.
The festival would
frequently involve bonfires. It is believed that the fires attracted insects to
the area which attracted bats to the area. These are additional attributes of
the history of Halloween.
Masks and costumes were
worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits
or appease
them.
The "trick" part of "trick or treat"
is a threat to play a trick on the homeowner or his property
if no treat is given.
The history of Halloween has
evolved.
The activity is popular in the United
States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and due to increased American
cultural influence in recent years, imported through exposure to US television
and other media, trick-or-treating has started to occur among children in many
parts of Europe, and in the Saudi Aramco camps of Dhahran, Akaria compounds and
Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia.
The most
significant growth and resistance is in the United Kingdom, where the police
have threatened to prosecute parents who allow their children to carry out the
"trick" element.
In continental Europe, where the
commerce-driven importation of Halloween is seen with more skepticism, numerous
destructive or illegal "tricks" and police warnings have further raised
suspicion about this game and Halloween in general.
In Ohio, Iowa, and Massachusetts, the night designated for Trick-or-treating
is often referred to as Beggars Night.
Part of
the history of Halloween is Halloween costumes.
The practice of dressing up in costumes
and begging door to door for treats on holidays goes back to
the Middle Ages.
Trick-or-treating resembles the late
medieval practice of "souling," when poor folk would
go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving
food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2).
Souling
It originated in Ireland and Britain,
although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as
Italy.
Shakespeare
mentions the practice in his comedy "The Two Gentlemen
of Verona" (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering, whining], like a beggar at
Hallowmas."
Yet there is no evidence that
souling was ever practiced in America, and trick-or-treating may have developed
in America independent of any Irish or British antecedent.
There is little primary Halloween
history documentation of masking or costuming on Halloween in Ireland, the UK,
or America before 1900.
The earliest known
reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English speaking North
America occurs in 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston,
Ontario, near the border of upstate New York, reported that it was normal for
the smaller children to go street "guising" on Halloween between 6 and 7 p.m.,
visiting shops and neighbors to be rewarded with nuts and candies for their
rhymes and songs.
Another isolated reference appears,
place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.
The thousands of Halloween postcards
produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show
children but do not depict trick-or-treating.
Ruth Edna
Kelley, in her 1919 history of the holiday,
The Book of Hallowe'en, makes no mention of such a
custom in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America."
Ruth Edna Kelley
It does not seem to have become a
widespread practice until the 1930s, with the earliest known uses in print of
the term "trick or treat" appearing in 1934, and the first use in a national publication occurring
in 1939.
Thus, although a quarter million
Scots-Irish immigrated to America between 1717 and 1770, the Irish Potato Famine
brought almost a million immigrants in 1845-1849, and British and Irish
immigration to America peaked in the 1880s...
... ritualized begging on Halloween was
virtually unknown in America until generations later.
Trick-or-treating
spread from the western United States eastward, stalled by sugar rationing that
began in April 1942 during World War II and did not end until June
1947.
Early national attention to trick-or-treating was given in October 1947 issues of the children's magazines Jack and Jill and Children's Activities, and by Halloween
episodes of the network radio programs The Baby Snooks Show
in 1946 and The Jack Benny
Show and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
in 1948.
The custom had become firmly
established in popular culture by 1952, when Walt
Disney portrayed it in the cartoon "Trick or Treat", Ozzie and Harriet were
besieged by trick-or-treaters on an episode of their television show, and UNICEF
first conducted a national campaign for children to raise funds for the charity
while trick-or-treating.
Now that you know all about
Halloween...get out there and ask your neighbor for some candy...or else !
________________________________
A True Las Vegas Amenity
Did you know we have an orchard in Las Vegas where
you can pick your own apples, vegetables, fruits, and
now..until the end of October...
Coming from the Chicago area, it was a
tradition to begin the fall season with a hop in the car to a favorite place in
the northern suburbs....Bell's Apple Orchard.
Sadly, over time it became unprofitable
and like all good things....it succumbed to the ravages of the
economy...
...and...GREED prevailed !
A great tradition closed...God's own
work and creations were replaced...
...by homes and
condominiums.
Watching those fruit-filled glorious
apple trees being destroyed......realizing that the ability to pick your own
fruit was now a mere memory....had to be one of the saddest experiences of
"progress"...
...that had brought so much joy to so
many families as they so often "made a day of it" while
they carefully filled a bushel basket and climbed any tree that caught their
fancy....to get that PERFECT apple...
...and then one day....it was suddenly
GONE!
I thought those days and the memories
attached to them were only in my aging brain....
...until I saw an article in the Las
Vegas Review Journal a week ago.
An orchard ? An orchard here in Las
Vegas ?
Yes indeed...we have an orchard in Las
Vegas that has a history of almost 90 years !
And it's called.....Gilcrease Orchards !
And before "progress" takes root here
as it did where I came from....
...IT'S A MUST....that
you experience it !
Gilcrease Orchards goes back to the
1920s when a young family, Elda
and Leonard Gilcrease, along with their two sons, John Theodore and William Orr
Gilcrease, migrated to Las Vegas
from California.
Leonard
Gilgrease
Elda and Leonard had met each other at
the University of Nevada in Reno where both earned bachelor's
degrees....Leonard, in mechanical engineering; and Elda, in
music.
Leonard had been raised on a farm in Lemoore, California...and despite his educational expertise, yearned for
a life back on a farm.
When Elda received an inheritance, they
purchased 900 acres of land in the Las Vegas valley that included natural artisan springs, known as the
Lower Tule Springs, with the intention to raise crops and
livestock.
...and off the family went to build a
new life...until....in 1929...
...and the Great Depression that
shortly followed.
It was "too much" for Leonard, and he
left his wife and two sons, returning to California.
But....Elda was not to be
deprived....after all, it was her inheritance that purchased the land, and
following their divorce in 1930, Elda and the two boys had to
survive....
...and survive they did, enduring
hardship with dedication and
perseverance...to build a business
that still survives today....90 years later...the only remaining farm in the Las Vegas
valley.
Today, the Gilcrease Orchard is a
non-profit organization.
It was son, "Ted" who founded it in
1996 to teach the importance of agriculture....in a town where it has all but
disappeared.
He ran it for years until he passed
away in 2003.
Today, brother, Bill, now in his late
90s, is still there to share a helping hand.
Bill
Gilcrease
The orchard produces not only apples
and pumpkins, but also pears, peaches, plums, apricots, potatoes, sweet
potatoes, zucchini, and tomatoes.
You have to try their "signature" apple
cider...it's so good, they even made a video !
They also have tours available for
school kids.
But you better get there soon...because
they close on November 1st for the
season.
You can visit Gilcrease Orchard any
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday from 7:00am to 2:00pm from now until the end of
October.
And...it's not that far either...only
about 33 miles from the Anthem Center.
From Sun City Anthem:
Take "Volunteer
Road" to "I-15" NORTH.
Stay on "I-15" to Exit 42A,
merging into US 95 toward Reno.
Stay on US 95 to Exit 91 toward State Route
215.
Keep LEFT and watch for sign "Buffalo Drive/Clark County 215 E" and
continue for about one mile, turning RIGHT at "Elkhorn Road" for about .5 of a
mile, and turn LEFT on to "Tenaya Way" for about .8 of a mile.
Turn RIGHT onto
"Whispering Sands Drive" for entrance into orchard.
For those with GPS
devices:
Gilcrease
Orchard
7810 N, Tenaya
Way
Las Vegas, NV
89131
(702)
409-0655
Here's their website for additional
information:
Still
curious?
Watch these short
videos:
Most
importantly....
GET OUT OF SUN CITY
ANTHEM and experience something NEW !
It keeps you YOUNG !
Dick
Arendt
____________________________
It was 50 Years
Ago
The World Realized the
Impact
of
The
Pogroms
The Pogroms...What were
they, and how did their history translate into one of the most successful
Broadway plays?
On September 22, 1964,
50 years ago, the world became fully aware of these acts when a Broadway play
opened at the Imperial Theatre in Manhattan.
It would run for three years at the Imperial
Theatre, transferring to the Majestic Theatre in 1967, and moving to the
Broadway Theatre in 1970...
...running for a total of 3,242 performances, the 16th longest running play in
Broadway history.
The play became a film in 1971, and has since
become a classic.
Based on a book written in 1894 by author, Solomon
Naumovich Rabinovich, under the pen name of Sholem
Aleichem.....
Sholem
Aleichem
....the book was originally entitled
"Tevye the Dairyman"
Aleichem's works were known for the
naturalness of his characters speech and the accuracy of his descriptions of
"shtetl" life.....which describes the
traditional way of life of Eastern European Jews, portrayed as pious communities
following Orthodox Judaism, socially stable and unchanging, despite outside
influence or attacks.
...and he received critical acclaim for
his work, once being compared to the European version of America's Mark Twain.
When Mark Twain became aware of
Aleichem being referred to the "Jewish Mark Twain",
Twain replied...
"Please tell him
I am the American Sholem Aleichem"
Just what were the
pogroms?
For those of you unfamiliar with the
word "pogrom", a pogrom is a violent riot aimed at massacre or persecution of an
ethnic or religious group....and came to describe the 19th and early 20th
century attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire...
...mostly within an area called the
"Pale of Settlement" which is located in present day,
Ukraine and Belarus.
Tsarist Russia was known for deep
anti-Semitism, and in 1821 the
Odessa pogroms began what was to be a continuing persecution of the Jewish
population.
They peaked between 1881-1884 when in
excess of 200 anti-Jewish events occurred in the Russian
Empire.
Alecheim's "Tevye
the Dairyman" would bring out these atrocities and how they affected
Jewish orthodox lifestyles...
....atrocities and persecution that
would continue well beyond his published work in 1894, culminating with the 1917
Russian revolution, and spreading into Europe, particularly in Poland as the
German Nazi regime would murder and encamp Jews during the Second World
War.
Though based on Alecheim's book, it
receive little worldwide notice until it would be immortalized on Broadway in
1964....in a musical play with music by Jerry
Bock...
Jerry
Bock
...lyrics by
Sheldon Harnick...
Sheldon
Harnick
...and enhanced by a book written by
Joseph Stein...
Joseph
Stein
... set in
Imperial Russia in 1905.
Stein would also write the 1971 screen play as
well.
Its
plot?
How and why could a man brought up in a
"shtetl" cope with so
many changes in his world?
It was easily answered in one
word....
TRADITION
While clinging to centuries
of cherished religious beliefs, he would be forced to watch the "traditions" of his entire life disappear before his
eyes...
...traditions that would affect him,
his wife, his daughters, and those who lived alongside him in his
community.
His wife,
Golda....
His daughter,
Tzeitel...
His daughter,
Hodel...
His daughter,
Chava...
Did Ya Know ?
Midway between Las Vegas and Laughlin
located on US 95 and State Route 164 is a town named "Searchlight"...
...which happens to be the hometown of
Senator Harry Reid.
Many of us have passed by this town on
the way to the lights of Laughlin...
but...
Did ya
know...
...How the town
of "Searchlight" got its name?
According to the 2010 census the
population of Searchlight is 539...it was 576 in 2000
!
Looking for a place to see some
beautiful scenery?
Stop by Searchlight (for a few minutes)
and check out the beautiful Cottonwood Cove on Lake
Mohave...
...a breathtaking clear
lake in the middle of the desert....where a sunset is an
"experience"...
It's a quaint town that is picturesque
and serene with no hustle and bustle in the
streets...
...because there aren't many streets
!
..and if you're "into" big horn sheep,
coyotes, desert tortoises, roadrunners, deer, wild burros, and jack rabbits
surrounded by the beauty of desert flowers through the scenic trails and
mountain passes...
...this place deserves a visit
!
Though there are conflicting stories
about how "Searchlight" got its name, Senator Reid
has written extensively about his hometown and believes the city received its
name when a man named George Frederick Colton was
looking for gold in the area in 1897.
Colton said it would probably take a
searchlight to find gold ore there
!
Other stories as to the name
include one where Colton was lighting a "Searchlight" brand
match when he discovered gold, but Senator Reid dismisses that due to
that brand of matches not being available until 1898.
Another story says Colton thought the
area would be a good location to find gold, and because his
mine was located on a hill, it required a searchlight to
find.
Yet another tale has the town being
named after a man named Lloyd Searchlight...but no historical record of this man
exists....other than that of the "Lloyd-Searchlight Mining
Co."
No matter what the belief, it appears
that Searchlight was first discovered by George Frederick
Colton when on May 6, 1897, while searching to
find the legendary "Lost Dutchman" gold mine, he discovered gold in his Duplex Mine....naming his company "The Searchlight Mining
Company".
George Frederick
Colton
Today, this marker stands at the site
of Colton's Duplex Mine.
Shortly after gold was discovered, a
"boom era" commenced and at one time, the population of Searchlight was larger
than that of Las Vegas.
Between 1907 and 1910 the gold mines
produced $ 7 million of gold and other precious minerals, and the town's
population grew to 1,500.
But...
When the "boom" ended, so did much of
the population of Searchlight; however, the building of Hoover Dam would
revitalize the town and allow it to survive to this
day.
The last Searchlight gold mine closed
in 1953.
Some interesting people made Searchlight their home other than Senator Reid over the
years...
...most notably Edith Head, of Hollywood designer
fame; William Nellis, a heroic aviator in
World War II for whom Nellis Air Force Base is named; and silent firm stars,
Clara Bow ("The It Girl); and her husband, cowboy
star Rex Bell, who would subsequently serve as
Nevada's Lt. Governor from 1954 to his death while in office in
1962.
The music world would also remember
Searchlight when composer Scott Joplin wrote "The Searchlight Rag".
The old Colton home still stands today;
but believe it or not...the Colton family has no record of George Frederick
Colton's passing.
Searchlight...a small town down the road with a long and
enduring history...located in the state which we now call
"home".
Dick
Arendt
.
____________________________
We at Anthem Opinions ask all of you to proudly
display your flag this day...
...to honor the bravest who ever lived and died on
this date...
June 6,
1944
D-Day
To those 24,000
men from...
Canada
Great
Britain
and
The United
States
...who landed on the shores of
Normandy, we salute these nations for the victory that would become the turning
point of the European front during World War II...
Utah
Beach
4th Infantry
Division
197
Casualties
Omaha
Beach
1st and 29th Infantry
Division
741st Tank
Battalion
2,000
Casualties
Gold
Beach
British
Troops
1,000
Casualties
Juno
Beach
9th Canadian Infantry
Brigade
961
Casualties
Sword
Beach
British King's
Shropshire Light Infantry
1,000
Casualties
May we never forget the
cost of freedom...and the ultimate price these brave souls paid to preserve it
for future generations !
They
were...
The Greatest
Generation
________________________________
The
First
Dedications to those Americans who lost their lives in service to their country can be traced back as early as June 3, 1861 when a Confederate Civil War soldier's grave was "decorated" in Warrenville, Virginia.
On July 4,
1864, a ceremony was held in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to honor the 51,112
men who died in that tragic Civil War battle.
But...were either of those dedications
the first Memorial Day?
Actually, the first widely publicized observance of what has become Memorial Day took place on May 1,
1865...in the southern city of Charleston, South
Carolina...
...for Union
soldiers....by a black formerly enslaved
community...as part of their original African
heritage.
African Americans have fought and died for America
from its earliest days, from frontier skirmishes to the French and Indian Wars
to the death of Crispus Attucks at the Boston
Massacre, immortalized as “the first to die for American freedom”.
Crispus
Attucks
And...
...though most official histories of Memorial
Day credit its founding by a white former Union Army major general, John A. Logan...
... who on May 5, 1868, as Commander and Chief of the Grand Army of
the Republic, called for a "Decoration
Day"....
General John A.
Logan
...actual events indicate that not to be the case.
Those recently freed
slaves...with a tribute to the fallen dead and to the gift of
freedom...may indeed be the first Americans to honor those who fought and
died in the Civil War.
The city of Charleston was, like many places in the
South, physically devastated by the conflict between the Union and the
Confederacy, which began in its harbor with the attack upon Fort Sumter in 1861,
but Charleston was more than just the place where the war of brother against
brother began...
... it was also the entry point for a
quarter of all enslaved Africans in the colonial period, accounting for more
than any other port.
As
the international slave trade faced its inevitable abolition, traders delivered
more than 90,000 humans into enslavement through the
port between 1803 and the (official) end of the American
slave trade in 1808.
Charleston was a center for the trading of enslaved
people across the Deep South and the exit point for the valuable crops of rice,
indigo, and Sea Island cotton produced completely by enslaved labor – crops
which made millions for the South’s wealthiest and most concentrated planter
elite.
The enslaved Africans who formed the majority of the
local population were some of the most un-assimilated blacks in North America at
that time.
They
were the Gullah people, descendants of
those sold into slavery from the rice-growing regions of West Africa and the
Kongo-Angola region of Central Africa.
The
plantations of the low country and the seedy streets of antebellum Charleston
were horrific places for the Gullah people:
...malaria, yellow fever, cholera, malnutrition, physical violence, sexual
exploitation, and the constant threat of separation
from the family abounded in the lives of the enslaved.
Tropical
diseases forced plantations into isolation and the Gullah
developed their own language, a unique religion blending African and
Christian elements, preserving names, stories, traditions and customs from
across the African continent.
One of the most important rituals that they preserved and passed
on was the honoring of the ancestral dead and giving
proper due to those transitioning out of this world.
When
the Civil War came, the response of the Gullah people was to use their knowledge
to further the cause of freedom.
They
were a uniquely cultured and empowered people who perhaps most enthusiastically
embraced both resistance to the planter regime while yearning for the American
dream.
On May 1, 1865, they performed an act of gratitude to the
country that had first enslaved and finally freed them, firmly based both in
their African and American heritage that became part of what
we now celebrate as Memorial
Day.
As
the Civil War ended, behind the Italianate grandstand at
Charleston’s Washington Race course – which, in the pre-war years had
been the playground of the rice and cotton planter elite...
...there was a mass grave holding over 200 Union soldiers.
That track of land served as an outdoor prison during the last
year of the war resulting in many prisoners dying of disease and exposure.
At
the war’s end, after the city was surrendered to African
American troops and largely abandoned by whites...
... the Gullah people were ready to begin facing a new reality of
emancipation...
... but
first they chose to pay homage to those who had died.
In the West African tradition from which Charleston’s Gullah
people came, honorable warriors deserved sacred
burial, and the dead were seen as part of a cycle of souls entering and leaving
the world.
To
disrespect those dead was to ensure a negative energy in the future, so 28 Gullah men dug up the 200 men in that mass grave behind
the grandstand and gave them proper burial – horrific work under the best of
circumstances.
On May
1st, “in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers”, 3,000 black children bearing roses led
women bearing wreaths and men, marching together in a circle to honor the
newly-buried war dead.
Black
troops were present at the commemoration...
...including
some of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (who were later memorialized
in the movie "Glory").
That
the Gullah people performed a march and parade in a circle was no accident
!
Movement
in a circle... The Ring Shout... was the most sacred rite brought by
the enslaved to North America.
In
a mixture of African and American custom, the Gullah
put to rest the Union soldiers, who in part, lost their lives to ensure
the freedom of those who later marched for them.
The Ring Shout...The First Memorial
Day
May 1, 1865
Black
people and white marched together, and the site was dedicated as a memorial
burial ground.
As the children sang “The Star Spangled
Banner”, the men and women wept and prayed as they expressed gratitude
that the long nightmare of slavery was over.
Three years later...
...just days before Major General John A. Logan declared that May 30, 1868 should be declared a "Decoration Day" to commemorate the war dead...
...many of the people who participated in the 1865 ceremony returned to decorate the graves of those that they had interred.
America takes time each year to celebrate the sacrifices of our war dead on the last Monday of May.
This year, we should take a moment to honor those who, despite facing hardships of their own, chose to commemorate the lives that had been lost partly in the service of securing their freedom from enslavement.
A wise man once said...
Three years later...
...just days before Major General John A. Logan declared that May 30, 1868 should be declared a "Decoration Day" to commemorate the war dead...
...many of the people who participated in the 1865 ceremony returned to decorate the graves of those that they had interred.
America takes time each year to celebrate the sacrifices of our war dead on the last Monday of May.
This year, we should take a moment to honor those who, despite facing hardships of their own, chose to commemorate the lives that had been lost partly in the service of securing their freedom from enslavement.
A wise man once said...
"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion --
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government
of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth."
Let's never forget....that includes all men.
Dick Arendt
________________________________Nevada
Did
Ya Know ?
(part
4)
Millions of tourists around the world and
travelers between Nevada and Arizona cross this massive structure each
year...the gateway to what some have referred to as another modern wonder of the
world.
But...
Did ya
know....
...How Hoover Dam
got its name?
As the Southwest began its
development, a resource necessary for expansion became the land's most precious
natural commodity....water.
...and the Colorado River was the
answer our pioneer forefathers eventually believed would solve the
problem.
But...what we know today as Hoover
Dam was not the original solution to the problem.
In the 1890s a man named William Beatty conceived an idea to divert water from The
Colorado River in the southern territory of Arizona near the Mexican border by
building the "Alamo
Canal".
Arizona did not join the union as a
state until 1912.
Beatty's idea was to have the water dip
into Mexico before it would be brought up through a desolate area of Arizona he
named "The Imperial
Valley".
Though the Alamo Canal greatly assisted
populating the area, the location of the Canal proved expensive to
maintain...
...and in 1905 a catastrophic breach in
the project resulting from The California Development Company's desire to
increase irrigation...
Alamo
Canal...1905
...caused the Colorado River to
overflow for two years, filling the dry "Salton Basin", accidentally creating
the "Salton Sea" in
California.
Salton Sea Flood...1905
The Salton Sea is located on the San Andreas Fault in the Imperial and Coachella valleys and a result, became the largest sea in California.
From 1906 to 1907 the Southern Pacific
Railroad spent over $ 3 million to stabilize the waterway; and though it
succeeded in that respect, it proved unsatisfactory largely due to landowner
disputes on the Mexican side of the border.
So...other irrigation methods had to be
explored !
As the technology of hydroelectric
power increased over the years, a number of ideas were discussed to solve the
water necessities of the Southwest including sites in lower Colorado, but after
research indicated those sites inadequate....The Bureau of Reclamation
eventually found the "ideal"
location...
Realizing that a railroad was a
necessity in building such a project, they investigated the Black
Canyon...
The Black
Canyon
(the future site of the
dam)
...and found that a railway
could be built between a sleepy little town in Nevada located near the top of
the proposed dam site, and the dam itself.
The name of that sleepy little town
?
"Las
Vegas"
...and that massive endeavor would be
referred to as "The Boulder Canyon
Project".
The answer was not as easy as it first
appeared.
As a result of concerns of years of
litigation between a number of states, a Colorado attorney brought up an
interstate compromise.
The representatives of seven states
(California, Arizona, Utah, New Mexicao, Colorado, Wyoming...and Nevada) would
meet with then Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, which initially produced
no result...
but... as a result of that
meeting....the Supreme Court in "Wyoming vs Colorado"
would undermine a number of various state claims.
The
result....
...an idea that would be known as
"The Colorado River Compact" being signed on November
22, 1922.
Still...the project would remain in limbo, but two
events would cause a change in sentiment in favor of building a
dam...
...a destructive 1927 Mississippi flood; and in
1928, the failure of the St. Francis Dam in Los Angeles that killed up to 600
people...
...causing Congress to authorize a review of dam
plans by a number of noted engineers.
Finally, as a result of that study, on December 21,
1928, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill authorizing construction of the
dam in addition to completely replacing the original Beatty Canal project built
in the 1890s...on the US side of the border.
The bill also permitted the "Colorado River Compact" to go into effect when at least six
of the original states approved it.
That occurred on March 6, 1928 with Utah's
ratification (Arizona finally approved it un 1944).
Originally the city of Las Vegas lobbied to be the
headquarters of the dam construction...even closing many of its "speakeasies"
when the decision maker, Secretary of the Interior, Ray L.
Wilbur, visited the town; but instead, in early 1930, Wilbur announced
that a new city would be constructed instead...and be named "Boulder City" in Nevada.
Ray L.
Wilbur
Secretary of the
Interior
Las Vegas did get the rail line joining the dam, and construction began in 1930.
When Secretary Wilbur spoke at
the beginning of the building the railway on September 17, 1930, he named the dam "Hoover Dam",
citing a tradition of naming dams after presidents, justifying his choice on the
grounds that then Secretary of Commerce and current President, Herbert Hoover, was "the great engineer
whose vision and persistence...has done so much to make the dam
possible".
President Herbert
Hoover
But...the country being in the midst of The Great
Depression and holding subsequent President Herbert Hoover responsible for
creating it...
...on September 30,
1935, President Franklin Roosevelt, the first
president to visit Las Vegas, in 102 degree heat and 20,000 people in
attendance, dedicated the dam...referring to it as "Boulder
Dam", which it was referred to until 1947.
President Franklin
Roosevelt
(dedication of "Boulder"
Dam)
It was a deliberate attempt to undermine former
President Hoover and keep his name associated with the Depression, rather than
attach it to the monumental project that had commenced during his
administration.
True to Hoover's modest and reserved nature, he
never complained...but those who knew the former president believed it had hurt
him deeply.
Controversy arose over the years as to which name
would be used, and for years "Boulder Dam" and "Hoover Dam" names were used
interchangeably by most Americans.
Memories of the Great Depression faded, and
President Hoover went on to enjoy a rebirth of popularity as a result of his
good works during and after World War II, and on April 30, 1947 President Harry
Truman...
..despite the objections of
Herbert Hoover....
Presidents Truman and
Hoover
...signed the official congressional resolution forever referring to our historical "wonder"...
Hoover
Dam
Dick Arendt
_______________________________
Did Ya Know ?
(part
3)
On the northwestern side of Las Vegas, there is a
section of town referred to as "Summerlin".
Did Ya
Know....
...how that section
of Las Vegas got its name?
It was in 1950 that a wealthy
entrepreneur named Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. decided
to purchase 25,000 acres of land in southern Nevada near Las
Vegas.
He planned to move his "Hughes Aircraft Company" from Los Angeles to Las Vegas...and create a planned community for the company's employees.
That never
happened.
The stories of the reclusive aviation billionaire are unending, and eventually he would come to enjoy the Las Vegas area, taking up residence in the penthouse suite at the Desert Inn Hotel on Thanksgiving Day in 1966.
While there, the 8th floor of the
Desert Inn would become the "brain center" of his
growing empire...
...but the owners of the hotel believed
he was a distraction to those who came to enjoy the "fun" of "Sin City" and
eventually they asked him to leave.
Howard Hughes, not being the type of
individual anyone said "no" to, then decided in his "Howard Hughes manner" to
solve the problem by simply buying the hotel !
His passion for Las Vegas would
continue as the next few years passed; purchasing the Castaways, the New Frontier,
Landmark, and Sands
hotels.
One the best "Howard" stories took place while residing at the Desert
Inn. It seems that the lights from a small casino next to the hotel kept him up
at night....
...his answer to the problem...simply
purchasing The Silver Slipper and repositioning the
hotel's trademark neon silver slipper sign !
Over the years, the indelible mark
Howard Hughes would leave on Las Vegas would change the image of our town
forever.
He envisioned Las Vegas becoming more
glamorous, writing this memo as aid:
"I think of Las
Vegas in terms of a well-dressed man in a dinner jacket and a beautifully furred
female getting out of an expensive car".
How do you change an image?
You do it through the media; and as a
result, Mr. Hughes would purchase several local television stations (including
KLAS-TV), our present Channel 8.
And as the saying
goes...
"The rest is
history"
After Hughes died in 1976, the Summa Corporation was organized to oversee the vast Hughes empire and land holdings...including a large parcel of land in the western part of Las Vegas....the parcel originally purchased in the mid-50s.
In 1988 the Summa Corporation exchanged
some 5,000 acres of land adjoining the beautiful Red Rock Canyon National
Conservation area....
...for 3,000 acres of land to be used
as a buffer zone to protect the beauty of Red Rock Canyon from future
development.
Construction began in 1990 on 900 acres
for set aside for residential use.
Another 1000 acres was set aside as a
nature preserve, which includes environmentally sensitive lands with 150 miles
of trails.
That 900 acre area would become known
as the "beginning" of ...
"Summerlin"
...and was named in honor of Howard
Hughes' grandmother...
Jean Amelia
Summerlin
Felix Turner
Hughes
&
Jean Amelia Summerlin
Hughes
"Summerlin"
was his grandmother's maiden name.
Jean Amelia
Summerlin was the daughter of Thomas Summerlin and Bathsheba
Robards.
She married Felix
Turner Hughes, President of the Keokuk & Western Railroad, on August
1, 1865 in Memphis, Missouri. They settled in Keokuk, Iowa in 1879, where Felix
Hughes was an attorney.
He was later elected a judge and mayor
of Keokuk.
The children attended First Ward School
and were educated in the arts, history and science.
Her children were Greta Hughes (an opera singer who went by the stage name "Jean Greta", Howard Robard Hughes Sr. (inventor and father of Howard Hughes Jr.) (1869-1924), Rupert Raleigh Hughes (screen writer and novelist) (1872-1956), and Reginald Hughes (who died at the age of 5).
Her children were Greta Hughes (an opera singer who went by the stage name "Jean Greta", Howard Robard Hughes Sr. (inventor and father of Howard Hughes Jr.) (1869-1924), Rupert Raleigh Hughes (screen writer and novelist) (1872-1956), and Reginald Hughes (who died at the age of 5).
Three other children died in infancy:
Felix Jr. (1874), Jean (1880), Baby (1880).
Jean Summerlin Hughes had a phobia of germs.
Jean Summerlin Hughes had a phobia of germs.
When her son Robard offered to build
her a house in Grand Avenue in Keokuk, Iowa, she asked the house be built
without closets.
She felt diseases grew in the darkness
within them.
This phobia was
inherited by her grandson Howard Hughes Jr.
She died on 4 November 1928 at age 86 in Los Angeles, California.
She died on 4 November 1928 at age 86 in Los Angeles, California.
Today, the area of "Summerlin" (which lies partially in the city of Las Vegas
and partially in an unincorporated area of Clark County), has a population of
100,000 people living in more than 100 villages with various romantic names.
It is among the most desirable areas of
Las Vegas to live, and it's residents include several film and music stars,
having more than 150 miles completed of the Summerlin Trail
System, nine golf courses, more than a dozen places of worship, medical
and cultural facilities, business parks, 26 public and private schools, and the
recently completed Summerlin Shopping District.
...and only 19 of
the 31 planned communities have been completed.
The area is accessed by the Summerlin Parkway and there is also a fine medical center
named Summerlin Hospital in the area, both named after Jean Amelia Summerlin Hughes, who would never
know the extent of the tribute given to her.
As an interesting sidelight....the late film actor
Jason Robards...
Jason
Robards
...was a direct descendant of Jean Summerlin Hughes' mother Bathsheba
Robards.
Summerin...a tribute to
a grandmother...by one of the most amazing individuals in American
history...
..The "reclusive"....but
brilliant...
Howard
Hughes
Dick Arendt
__________________________________
Did Ya Know ?
(Part
Two)
As we
continue our march through Nevada history, today we'll look at anther aspect of
its past....the mining !
Did ya
know...
...how
the small town of "Beatty" got its
name?
Beatty is a small town in Nye County, located approximately 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas, very close to Death Valley.
...and its
past tells the story of a time past, better known as The Old
West.
Historians
generally consider the year 1890 as the
close of the American frontier. By then, most of the western United States had
been settled, ranches and farms developed, communities established, and roads
and railroads constructed.
The
mining boom towns, based on the lure of the overnight riches from newly
developed lodes, were but a memory.
Although Nevada was granted statehood in 1864, it remained largely unsettled and unmapped.
In 1890 most of south central Nevada remained very much a
frontier, and it continued to be so for at least another twenty
years.
The great mining booms at Tonopah (1900), Goldfield (1902), and Rhyolite/Beatty (1904) now represent the last major thoughts of the American frontier.
The town of Beatty began as a small "suburb" of the
glamorous Rhyolite, a town that faded as
quickly as it originally rose, and histroians now refer to Rhyolite as "Death
Valley's Ghost City of Golden
Dreams".
Although Rhyolite
experienced growth from 1904 to about 1907, the boom faded almost as quickly as
it had appeared.
The ore deposits,
apparently lacking size and depth, simply could not long support a boom
town.
Of all the towns spawned
from the Rhyolite boom—Bullfrog, Gold Center, Carrarra, Leadfield, Lee, Rose's Well, Amargosa, Transvaal,
Springdale, Pioneer, and many more—Beatty is the only one to survive.
Springdale, Pioneer, and many more—Beatty is the only one to survive.
The discovery of large
deposits of silver in 1859 resulted in the migration of 60,000 people into the
Nevada Territory; and as a result of the rapid rise in population, Nevada
achieved statehood in 1864.
By 1880, the majority of these discoveries had followed a
boom-and-bust pattern, and most of the mining camps ..and
towns...vanished.
The result:
The state of Nevada fell on hard
times.
When Its population shrank to 40,000; there was concern that
Nevada might not survive as a state and might have to revert to territorial
status.
A man named Jim Butler would then discover a fabulous deposit of silver in Tonopah in 1900 that reversed the economic decline.
A man named Jim Butler would then discover a fabulous deposit of silver in Tonopah in 1900 that reversed the economic decline.
Two years later, Frank
"Shorty" Harris and Ernest
"Ed" Cross would discover gold
while prospecting in the hills west of Oasis Valley in southern Nye County.
Their discovery led
immediately to the founding of the towns of Rhyolite and Beatty.
Today, of all the towns
spawned by the Rhyolite boom, the community of Beatty, Nevada, is the only one
that survived.
The others have vanished,
leaving only a few roads, rough building foundations, an occasional stone facade
of a bank or hotel, and scattered solitary mine
dumps.
The town of Beatty is named after an
early Oasis Valley resident...
Montillus (Montillion) Murray "Old Man"
Beatty
Beatty, a former Amargosa borax worker, was a native of Iowa and served with the Union during the Civil War.
He was discharged because of
disability and came West after its
conclusion.
By 1890 "Old Man" Beatty had
settled in Oasis Valley.
In the spring of 1896, Beatty
moved into a previously occupied ranch just north of the present town site and
remained in the area until his death in December,
1908.
He was Beatty's first
postmaster when the post office opened on January 19, 1905, though he could neither read nor write...except for his name
!
Beatty, who said he had crossed Death Vally every month of the year, was married to a full-blodded Paiute woman from the Death Valley area and the couple had several children.
Eugene Lander, a prospector from San Bernadino, is however, usually credited with being the first settler in the Beatty area.
Lander was known to be a hard working and industrious man...but...never lucky !
At least twice he was fairly close to the "big Bonanza", but he never managed to strike it rich.
Beatty, who said he had crossed Death Vally every month of the year, was married to a full-blodded Paiute woman from the Death Valley area and the couple had several children.
Eugene Lander, a prospector from San Bernadino, is however, usually credited with being the first settler in the Beatty area.
Lander was known to be a hard working and industrious man...but...never lucky !
At least twice he was fairly close to the "big Bonanza", but he never managed to strike it rich.
At the age of 73, "Old Man" Beatty died of a fall from a wagon while hauling wood from Bare Mountain.
Dick Arendt
_________________________________
Did Ya Know
?
(Part One)
Many of us are "replants" from other parts of the
country and have little, if any knowledge of the state we now call
home.
The Las Vegas Review Journal recently published a
quiz about our adopted state that we felt you, as a Nevadan, might find
interesting.
Rather than merely telling you the results, we
thought we would expand on the facts brought out by that
article.
...and...
Over the next few weeks we'll make you a bit more
aware of what being a Nevadan is...and the contributions of those whose efforts
have brought us to the present day.
Today we'll cover two facts about Nevada and how
we have evolved over the decades.
Did Ya
Know....
...how Mt.
Charleston got its name?
According to Clark County Museum System Administrator,
Mark Hall-Patton, Mt. Charleston was named by The US Army Corps of Engineers group surveying the area in 1869, and is named for a member's hometown, Charleston, South Carolina.
Ever watch Pawn Stars?
Mark Hall-Patton is the "history expert" often called into the shop to verify the worth of historical memorabilia.
How about this one?
Did Ya Know...
Did Ya Know...
...who Fremont Street
is named for?
What we now refer to as the main street
"downtown", Fremont Street is named for John C.
Fremont (1813-1890)...
John C. Fremont
"The Pathfinder"
...an army officer, politician, and
explorer, who typically ignored the orders of his superiors in Washington, DC,
and literally traveled where he wanted to go, or where his father-in-law,
Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, known to be an "expansionist", told him
to go !
He was not supposed to be traipsing
around an unknown land called "Nevada".
His first expedition took him through
what was then known as the "South Pass", a path across the Continental Divide
though what is now known as Wyoming, hiring a man named Kit
Carson to lead his 25 man expedition.
Kit Carson
Fremont's subsequent
expeditions...utilizing the services of Kit
Carson...would take him to The Great Salt Lake, down the Snake to
the Columbia River into Oregon.
His travels would take him into California,
eventually proving a route in which "the 49ers" would use on their way to the
California Gold Rush.
Kit Carson & John C. Fremont
He would fight in the Mexican-American War,
and was briefly named the Military Governor of
California.
When that state was admitted to the union in 1850, he was elected the first Senator from California; however he as defeated for reelection
as a result of his anti-slavery stance.
For that belief, he would become the first man
nominated by the newly formed Republican Party in 1856, losing to James
Buchanan, placing 2nd in a three way race.
John C. Fremont & William L.
Dayton
1856
The First Republican Presidential
Ticket
Four years later, a man named Abraham Lincoln
would be nominated...and the rest is history as to the Republican
Party.
He would fight in the Civil War and was an early
(1861) staunch supporter of another general who had a reputation as a "drunkard"
and "drifter" member of the Old Army....
Ulysees S. Grant
In the future, we'll have a detailed story of the
history of this man's contributions to our state...and
country.
See you next time....with..."Did Ya Know"
Dick Arendt
__________________________Understanding
The Chinese New
Year
2015
The Year of the
Goat
We all know that it comes once a year and
that there is normally an animal zodiac symbol that represents each
year.
...but...other than that, just what does it
entail and what is the significance of this celebration?
How better to do that than look at its
history !
The Chinese calendar is "lunisolar", meaning its a calendar whose dates indicate both the moon phase and the time of the solar year...
The Chinese calendar is "lunisolar", meaning its a calendar whose dates indicate both the moon phase and the time of the solar year...
...and the Chinese New Year (also referred to as the Lunar New Year) normally falls between January 21st and February 20th each year of
the Gregorian calendar.
In 2015, it begins on February 19th.
In China, it
is also known as the "Spring Festival", the literal translation of the modern
Chinese name.
Chinese New Year celebrations traditionally run from Chinese New Year's
Eve, the last day of the last month of the Chinese calendar, to the "Lantern Festival" on the 15th day of the first month, making the festival the longest in the Chinese
calendar.
Traditionally, the festival is considered a major holiday and
a time to honor deities as well as ancestors...
...and is
celebrated in countries and
territories with significant Chinese populations, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Philippines, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere.
Often, the evening preceding Chinese New Year's Day is an
occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner.
It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse
the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for good
incoming luck.
Windows and doors will be decorated with red color paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity."
Although the Chinese calendar
traditionally does not use continuously numbered
years, outside China its years are often numbered from the reign of the 3rd millennium BC Yellow Emperor.
But at least three different years
numbered 1 are now used by
various scholars.
As a result....
AD 2015 is either the "Chinese
Year" 4713, 4712, or 4652.
New Year's Day itself was traditionally named " Yuandan"
which in English meant "the First
Sunrise" until in 1913
the Republic of China adopted the Gregorian calendar
and the Chinese New Year thereafter was referred to as
the "Spring
Festival".
Now, "Yuandan" refers to the first day of
one year
according to solar calendar and it is the same day
with
western New Year's Day in spite of the time
difference.
In the Chinese calendar, winter solstice must occur in the 11th month, which
means that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new
moon after the winter solstice.
Each New Year is welcomed with a different animal zodiac symbol...and
they include:
And...like the zodiac we are accustomed
to...these
symbols also have
characteristics associated with them !
2015 is the "Year of the
Goat"
...but...if you look at the above zodiac...you
won't see a "Goat".
Why?
Because the "Goat" is also referred to as a
"Sheep" or "Ram"
!
Want to know what is characteristic
of...
"The Year of The
Goat"
?
The goat (sheep or ram), is among the animals that
people like the most ! It is gentle and calm.
Since ancient times, people have learned to use
its fleece to make writing brushes and skin to keep warm.
The white cute creature often reminds people of BEAUTIFUL things.
Lucky Numbers: 1, 3, 6, 7, 8,
and 10
Lucky Colors: yellow, green
and red
Lucky Flowers: Carnation, Primrose, & Alice
Flower
Lucky Directions: East, Southeast, and
South
Unlucky Numbers: 4 and 9
Unlucky Colors: black and
white
Unlucky Directions: West and
North
To all our friends in and outside the Chinese
Community....
We wish you a wonderful ...
"Happy New
Year"
Dick Arendt
____________________________Ash Wednesday...The Beginning of Lent
February 18,
2015 is the beginning of "Lent"...
...a season known by Christians, as a period of religious observance that begins a 40 day period culminating on April 5, 2015, a day that defines the Christian faith....
Easter
...the day Christians around the world
believe the Son of God arose from a worldly death to bring about a New
Testament...
...a belief in a rebirth of the
principles set forth in an Old Testament...
...by a simple man, merely 33 years of
age, born in a stable; who, alongside 12 devoted followers, roamed areas
of the middle east, preaching PEACE....
...looking at man not in the light of
"an eye for an eye", but instead, "loving those who call you
enemy".
During "Lent" many of the faithful
commit to fasting or giving up some types of luxuries as a form of
penitence.
In many parts of the
world, the day before this "Lenten" season begins, a grand festival is held
known as Mardi Gras, and this celebration ends on the
Tuesday before Lent begins.
It even has a
name...."Fat Tuesday".
But on the next day, "Ash Wednesday", the celebrations stop and a 40 day period
of penance begins for Christians.
And like Easter, "Ash Wednesday" is
kind of a moving target from year to year, with its date
decided by the JULIAN CALENDAR...usually between February 4th and March
10th.
Why 40
days?
According to the Christian gospels of
Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus Christ spent 40 days in
the desert before he began his public ministry at the age of 30.
It is ironic that most Western
Christian denominations such as the Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, and Western
Right Orthodox churches, have maintained a 40 day
period...
....yet the Roman Catholic Church, as
a result of the Second Vatican Council convened by Pope John XXIII from
1962-1965, the "Lenten" season was redefined to last only 38 days, from
Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday (but excluding
Sundays).
Holy Thursday is the day before Good
Friday, the day Christ was crucified.
Those holy scriptures bring out the
continual temptations of Satan during that period where it is believed he was
offered great riches and worldly favor if he would bow to the desires of
evil.
Despite personal agony...he resisted
evil, and emerged from the desert to fulfill the destiny Christians believe his
heavenly father commissioned him to do, while on earth in the form of an
ordinary man...
...an ordinary man who would have
emotions, experience scorn and belittlement by those of his own people and
faith, and eventually be beaten and executed in a manner similar to common
thieves.
In the 20th century, certain "Lenten"
customs, practices, and traditions derived from Roman Catholicism prior to the
Reformation which began in 1517 when Martin Luther published his "36 Theses" on
the door of a Wittenberg, Germany church, also became part of the Protestant,
Evangelicals, and Baptist traditions...
...most notably of which....was using
ASHES.
What is the
significance of ASHES ?
On Ash Wednesday a priest
places a "cross of ashes" on a worshipper's forehead
as a reminder of human mortality and also to prepare that individual for Holy
Week and the Easter celebration.
These ashes are from burned and bless Palms from the previous Palm Sunday a year ago.
Where does
the word "LENT" come from ?
In the late Middle Ages, as church
sermons became more common in the vernacular, rather than traditional Latin, the
English word "lent" was
adopted.
It initially meant "spring" and is derived from the Germanic word for "long" because...
...in
the spring, the days lengthen !
Was it
actually 40 days?
No one knows for certain, but there are
many who believe "40" has many biblical
references....and that is why the number "40" is
used.
For
example...
...Moses spent 40 days on Mt. Sinai.
...Elijah spent 40 days walking to Mt. Horeb.
...God sent 40 days and nights of rain to
Noah.
...The Hebrews spent 40 years wandering in the desert for "the promised
land".
...the 40 days Jonah gave in his prophecy to the city of Nineveh
in which to repent or be destroyed.
and in
Christian belief...
...the
40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days, being tempted by Satan.
...it is traditional
belief that Jesus lay in his tomb for 40 hours before
his resurrection.
As time passed, the traditional 40 days of Lent were marked by fasting...from both foods
and from festivities; and three traditional practices
which became common
over the centuries during that 40 day
period.....
...prayer to God (signifying justice toward
God)
...fasting (signifying justice toward
self)
...almsgiving (signifying justice toward your
neighbor)
So...Lent is a 40 day season of grief...ending in a great celebration
of....
EASTER
And...to conclude this
article, there are a number of aspects of Lent you may see, but may not be
familiar...
Some
Churches still veil all of their statues during this season of penance,
though this practice is losing popularity, and when used is often only during
the last two weeks of the Lenten season.
Catholic priests wear purple vestments during lent to
signify a period of penance.
Fasting and abstinence haves
radically changed over the years.
From the Middle Ages where
eggs and dairy products were generally forbidden, to today's world where the
Roman Catholic church, requires members to "eat less than is
customary for the day, with NO MEAT, eating only one full meal and two small
meals" on both Ash Wednesday and Good Friday ONLY",
the Lenten season continually has evolved in its definitions of "fasting" and
"abstinence".
The fourth Lenten Sunday is called "Mothering Sunday" and in the United Kingdom is also called
"Mother's Day".
The fifth Lenten Sunday is known as "Passion Sunday" and is more commonly referred to as "Palm Sunday" the beginning of "Holy
Week"...
... where the Wednesday of Holy Week is known by some as "Spy Wednesday", commemorating the day Judas conspired to
betray and sell him to the Romans.
...where Thursday of Holy Week is known as "Holy
Thursday", commemorated by Christians as the day of Christ's Last Supper
with his disciples.
...where Friday of Holy Week is known as "Good
Friday" when Jesus Christ was crucified and
buried.
...where Saturday of Holy Week is known as "Holy
Saturday" when Christ laid in a donated tomb while his devoted Mary
Magdelene, mourned him day and night.
...until
Sunday...Easter...when Christianity took on a
new meaning for the entire western world, as the belief of his rising from the
dead fulfilled the prophecies of the scriptures that man would again be given
yet another opportunity to repent for his sins....and be rewarded by doing
so....in Christ's words...
"in a
kingdom not of this world".
And now you know all about
"Ash Wednesday" and "Lent"
!
Dick
Arendt
____________________________
Goodbye "Mr. Cub"
That Flag in Left Field
will Forever Grace Wrigley Field in Your Memory
One of the dearest moments of my childhood came to mind on Friday, January 23rd, when I learned of the death of the greatest baseball player I ever had the chance to meet.....Hall of Famer....Ernie Banks.
He was age 83 at the time of his
death....a week before his 84th birthday.
Growing up approximately 6 blocks from
Wrigley Field in Chicago made me a Cub fan for life.....and nothing....NOTHING....even waiting 106 years for
a Cub World Series, can compare to the sadness in my heart at losing a
man whose integrity and love of the game was an inspiration to whoever had the
privilege of meeting this GOOD and DECENT MAN.
It all started back in 1955....60 years
ago...at the age of 8 when I turned on WGN-TV to watch my first professional
baseball game (in black and white with rabbit ears on our 10 inch screen)
listening to a show called "The Lead Off Man" with
Vince Lloyd, while in the background a man named Pat Pieper could be heard
saying:
"Attention...Attention please...have your pencils and scorecards
ready, and I'll give you today's line-up for today's ballgame".
I later found out the Pat Pieper has originally been a popcorn vendor for the Cubs at "West Side Park" since 1904, and when the team moved to Weeghman Park in 1916 (eventually renamed Wrigley Field in 1927) he was named the first "field" announcer, originally running up and down the left and right field lines to announce the line-ups using a 14 pound megaphone....until the Cubs would eventually buy a public address system in 1932 !
To the day he died in 1974, he swore Babe Ruth called the center field home run "shot" during the 1932 World Series as he sat in the Cubs dugout with the Cub players during the game !
One by one, each name was
called...until the name Ernie Banks was announced as
the starting shortstop....and for some reason....the crowd of about 800....yes, 800, not 8,000, began to cheer
wildly.
...and then the game would start with
Hall of Fame Broadcaster, Jack Brickhouse, in the TV
booth...
...talking about this "kid" who hit home runs with the strangest batting stance
anyone had ever seen....using "wrist
action".
This had to be explored by an eight year old kid in person...who would begin each summer day in the Mt. Carmel parking lot at daybreak to join the other kids in a softball game that began somewhere around 9:30am, broke for lunch (that mom made), and return for another 4-5 hours before the dinner bell sounded and dad got home, only to return afterwards until it got too dark to play any longer !
The only exception to that summer
schedule....an occasional treat....going to a real
game in person....when the Cubs were home....
...and spending the 60 cents for a grandstand seat....with the money we earned
from our Kool-Aid stands in front of our houses ! (75 cents for a bleacher seat
was beyond our affordability).
And...our parents let us go by
ourselves too....there was never a concern as to safety
!
You see, those were the days when
baseball at Wrigley Field was only played in
the DAYTIME....there were
no lights in Wrigley Field until 1988 because the
owner's son, after purchasing them, donated them to the war effort before they
were scheduled to be installed in 1942....
...and it was a
joy....a wonderful joy....to watch baseball in the warm summer sun during each
and every home game.
Wrigley Field was (and is) in a
residential neighborhood where people actually live in apartment buildings
within 50-100 feet of the park...
...and living less than a mile from the
ballpark allowed us kids from Our Lady of Mt. Carmel grade school to WALK there....because we simply wanted
to save the 25 cents bus fare, and buy TWO HOT DOGS
at 10 cents each at the Waveland Bowl on Clark Street on the way to the
park.
The games might have actually started
at 1:20pm...but a kid on a mission, had to get there for batting practice at
about 10:00am for two reasons...
...first, to make sure you got your 60
cents worth...
...but more importantly, to get to that
special location across from the fire station on Waveland Avenue....where the players parked their cars
!
And that is where I met Ernie Banks for the first time !
While so many of the players would
hurry into the park to get ready for the game....
...not Ernie...no
siree....
Ernie would NEVER
refuse an autograph and ALWAYS showed his appreciation for the fans and
his love of the game he knew he was blessed to be able to play professionally
!
No matter what you had with you...a
scorecard, a piece of notebook paper...even an old Popsicle wrapper.....Ernie
would always sign it. He just LOVED KIDS.
But it wouldn't stop BEFORE the
game...
If you were a real "penniless fan" like I was....
...when the game ended, you had to beat
the other kids in the park in gathering up and turning in 15 of the rented seat
cushions in order to receive free admission to a future
game....
...and then
get back to the players parking lot to "attack" them
for more autographs AFTER the game as well !
Ernie Banks
grew up in Dallas, Texas; was a star football, basketball, and track and field
athlete, in addition to, baseball, and got to the "bigs" in a way so many black players did in the early
50s...
...by way of the Negro Leagues...riding
the buses to and from games....
...until another Negro League sports
legend, Cool Papa Bell...
...would be responsible for signing him to a professional contract with the Kansas City Monarchs.
Bell would
also eventually be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974 as one of the
greatest players in Negro League history.
The immortal Hall of Famer, Satchel Paige....
...once said of "Cool Papa" as to his blazing speed...
“One time he hit a line
drive right past my ear. I turned around and saw the ball hit him sliding into
second.”
Ernie
would serve his nation in the Army, and after being honorably discharged,
returned to the Monarchs for one season, when a man named P.K. Wrigley came calling in 1953 with an offer to play
for the Chicago Cubs....where he would remain "a Cub" for
the next 19 years until he retired in
1971.
It was in
that 19 year span from my young age of 8, through high school, college, and
eventually into the working world, that I would learn to love and appreciate
this man for his abilities ON and OFF the
field.
He was the
most beloved player to ever play for the Chicago Cubs....for so many reasons
!
Of course
in addition to his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in
1977...his first year of eligibility.... there were his 512 home runs which places him #22 on the all-time home run
list (he was #8 when he retired...well before the era
of performance enhancing drugs); the only player to receive 2 consecutive back-to-back MVP awards in 1958 and 1959; was
named to 11 All-Star teams; won a
golden glove award in 1960 for his play at shortstop before moving to
first base in 1962; and appeared in 1,259
games....
...culminating with every Cub fan having May 12, 1970 etched in their memory
!
All
this....playing for a team that rarely finished above the .500 mark, and NEVER in a World Series during the 19
years.
Did that
ever change the attitude of Ernie
Banks?
Never.....that's why he will always be
affectionately known as ...
After
receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in
2013.....Ernie's humility
continued...
But my
"Ernie" story doesn't end with his playing days.
The
best...and most memorable of them all....was in 1972.
He was
retired and I had been in my third year in the insurance business working for
Aetna Life in downtown Chicago.
Next door
to the Aetna office was a doctor's office, Dr. Alex Conway, who did insurance
physicals for a living....and between both of the offices...was the men's
room.
I "had to
go" and at the same time, Ernie was completing an insurance exam taking a
"specimen"....standing IMMEDIATELY TO MY LEFT at the urinal
!
For you
guys out there, have you ever had that uncomfortable feeling that you recognize
the guy "going" next to you....and don't want to make
it obvious that you're looking at him...for various reasons
?
Well...I couldn't resist ! I looked at him and asked if he was Ernie Banks and sure as can be...he was, and as our eyes locked.... he looked at me and said.....
"I'd shake your hand but it's busy right
now!"
We talked for a few moments...asking me my name and what I did
and where I worked...he seemed to really CARE about a FAN....no matter what
their age.
That was
Ernie
Banks...
....but
that IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY
!
Ernie went
back to complete his exam, and I went back to my office....smiling....in
awe...realizing no one would ever believe
me !
15 minutes
later, our receptionist called me to come to the front counter of the
office....that I had a visitor who wished to see
me.
I dashed
away from my desk to the front of the office and low and behold....it was ERNIE BANKS
!
He had
told the receptionist that he was in the neighborhood, and wanted to say HI TO HIS PAL, DICK ARENDT
!
What I
will never forget about that day was that office of over 100 people....all
running up to the counter....with the phones ringing and ringing...and no one
answering them !
Everyone wanted to meet Ernie Banks
!
He came
back to my office, and gave me a
wink...
....we
talked for a few moments, and as he left, I looked at him, and told him that was
the greatest act of kindness any one could have ever shown a kid....no matter
how old the "kid" was at the
time....
...that
from the moment I first witnessed the great game of baseball, he was not only a
hero to an 8 year old kid....but to a 25 year old one as well
!
The office
staff never looked at me in the same manner after that....after all....ERNIE BANKS CAME TO SAY HI TO...ME
!
Ernie Banks was voted the most beloved Cub player in
Chicago Cubs history...and for good reason....not just for his play, but for his
annual words of wisdom...
"The Cubs are due in
sixty-two."
"The
Cubs are gonna shine in sixty-nine."
"The
only way to prove that you're a good sport is to
lose."
"The
riches of the game are in the thrills, not the
money."
But the
most memorable of all....
"Let's Play
Two"
...and the
song every Cub fan has learned to love while thinking of old number "14" in his Cubby
blue...
Thank you
Ernie....thank you for allowing me to relive moments of my life that YOU were a part
of....
...those
innocent moments I will always
cherish.
You may be
in Baseball's Hall of Fame....
...but
you'll forever be in mine for reasons well beyond the diamond
!
Dick
Arendt
Anthem
Opinions
_____________________________
Saying Goodbye to Those We Lost in 2014
(July through
December)
July
Louis
Zamperini
July 2nd...Age
97
(Olympic distance runner who, during
World War II, survived 47 days on a raft in the Pacific after his bomber
crashed, then endured two years in Japanese prison camps.....subject of the book
and recently released movie "Unbroken")
Alice
Coachman-Davis
July 14th...Age
90
(the first black woman to win an
Olympic Gold medal...in 1948)
Elaine
Stritch
July 17th...Age
89
(Actress....Broadway & Movies
"Cacoon")
James
Garner
July 19th...Age
86
(Actor...Brett Maverick in "Maverick"
and Jim Rockford in "Rockford Files" Television Shows in addition to numerous
films)
August
James
Brady
August 4th...Age
73
(Press Secretary to President Ronald
Reagan who was shot during Reagan assassination attempt in 1981...was
responsible for The Brady Bill)
Ed
Nelson
August 9th...Age
85
(American Character Actor...best know
for roles in "Peyton Place" and "Murder She Wrote")
Robin
Williams
August 11th...Age
63
(Actor / Comedian.....Mork in "Mork
& Mindy" and numerous films, nominated for the Best Actor Oscar in "The
Fisher King","Good Morning Viet Nam", and "Dead Poets Society"...won Oscar for
Best Actor in "Good Will Hunting")
Lauren
Bacall
August 12th...Age
89
(Actress....married to Humphrey
Bogart and co-starred with Bogart in "To Have and Have Not", "Dark Passage", and
"Key Largo")
Don
Pardo
August 18th...Age
96
(Voice of "Saturday Night Life" and
numerous Television Shows)
Richard
Attenborough
August 24th...Age
81
(Actor / Director.....starred in
"Jurassic Park")
September
Joan
Rivers
September 4th...Age
81
(Comedienne)
Richard
Kiel
September 10th...Age
74
(Actor..."Jaws" in two James Bond
films)
Bob
Crewe
September 11th...Age
82
(American Songwriter writing numerous
hits for various artists....including "Big Girls Don"t Cry" and "Ragdoll" with
Bob Gaudio for the Four Seasons)
Polly
Bergen
September 20th...Age
84
(Actress...starred in films "Cape
Fear" and "Kisses for My President....and TV's "Desperate
Housewives")
October
Paul
Revere
October 4th...Age
76
(Band leader of Rock Group "Paul
Revere & the Raiders")
Jan
Hooks
October 9th...Age
57
(Comedienne....Star of Great '90s
Saturday Night Live" cast)
Oscar de la
Renta
October 20th...Age
82
(worldly gentleman designer who
shaped the wardrobe of socialites, first ladies, and Hollywood stars for more
than four decades)
Ben
Bradlee
October 21st...Age
93
(Editor of The Washington
Post...played by Jason Robards in the Watergate movie, "All the President's Men"
in 1976)
Marcia
Strassman
October 24th...Age
66
(Actress...Julie Kotter in TV's
"Welcome Back Kotter" and starred in film, "Honey I Shrunk the
Kids")
November
Acker
Bilk
November 2nd...Age
85
(Musician...whose clarinet will long
be remembered for his hit "Strangers on the Shore"...originally titled "Jennie"
for his young daughter)
Tom
Magliozzi
November 3rd...Age
77
(the car guy in TV's "Car
Talk")
Richard
Schaal
November 4th...Age
86
(Actor....roles in "Phyllis" and
"Mary Tyler Moore" TV show)
Carol
Ann Susi
November 11th...Age
62
(Actress....voice of Howard
Wolowitz's mother on TV's "Big Bang Theory")
Alvin
Dark
November 13th...Age
92
(Major League Baseball Player who, in
1969, was voted by the San Francisco Giants, as their greatest shortstop of all
time)
Jane
Byrne
November 14th...Age
81
(Former Mayor of Chicago...elected
following the "Great Snow Storm of 1979")
Jimmy
Ruffin
November 14th...Age
81
(American Motown Singer...best known
for hit "What Becomes of the Broken Heart)
Mike
Nichols
November 20th...Age
82
(Grammy and Oscar Winner for
Direction...most notable works include films "The Graduate", "Working Girl", and
"Primary Colors" and Broadway's "Spamalot"...was the former comic partner of
Elaine May....married for the past 26 years to News Anchor, Diane
Sawyer)
December
Mary
Ann Mobley
December 9th...Age
75
(Actress...Miss America
1959....married to Gary Collins who passed away in 2012....one of the "Elvis"
girls in the firm"Girl Happy")
Ernie
Terrell
December 16th...Age
75)
(Former WBA Heavyweight Boxing
Champion losing his title to Muhammed Ali in 1967)
Joe
Cocker
December 22nd...Age
70
(British Rock Star....most famous for
his hit, "You Are So Beautiful")
Dick
Dale
December 26th...Age
88
(Lawrence Welk Show...singer and
saxophonist)
Luise
Rainer
December 30th...Age
104
(American Actress...first woman to
win back to back Academy Awards for Best Actress...."The Great Ziegfeld" in 1936
& "The Good Earth" in 1937)
____________________________
(January through
June)
January
Phil Everly
January 3rd---Age
74
(Singer...The Everly
Brothers)
Alicia
Rhett
January 3rd...Age
93
(Actress...India Wilkes in "Gone with
the Wind")
Jerry
Coleman
January 5th...Age
89
(New York Yankee baseball
player...and inducted into the Baseball Broadcasters Hall of Fame after 40 years
covering games for the San Diego Padres)
Ariel
Sharon
January 11th....Age
85
(Israeli general and prime minister
who was admired and hated for his battlefield exploits and ambitions to reshape the Middle East)
Russell
Johnson
January 16th...Age
89
(Actor...The Professor on Gilligan's
Island)
Dave
Madden
January 16th...Age
80
(Actor...Reuben Kincaid on "The
Partridge Family")
Hiroo
Onoda
January 16th...Age
91
(The Last Japanese Soldier to
Surrender in World War II)
Pete
Seeger
January 27th...Age
94
(American Folk Singer &
Songwriter)
February
Maximillian
Schell
February 1st...Age
84
(Actor... Oscar winner "Judgment at
Nuremberg")
Philip Seymour
Hoffman
February 2nd...Age
46
(Actor...Oscar winner
"Capote")
Ralph
Kiner
February 6th....Age
91
(Major League Baseball Hall of Famer
, the first National League player to hit 50+ home runs in two
seasons....spending most of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates....eventually
becoming the New York Mets broadcaster for over 50
years)
Shirley Temple
Black
February 10th...Age
85
(Actress & US
Ambassador...America's Sweetheart)
Sid
Caesar
February 12th...Age
91
(Television Pioneer....."Your Show of
Shows")
February 15th...Age
89
(Actress.....Ralph the Plumber on
"Green Acres")
Jim
Fregosi
February 16th...Age
71
(Major League Baseball player who
also managed four teams, winning more than 1,000
games)
February 20th...Age
74
(News Anchor...NBC Nightly
News)
Harold
Ramis
February 24th...Age
69
(Actor/Director....starred in
"Ghostbusters")
Jim
Lange
February 25th...Age
80
(Host of "The Dating
Game")
March
Sheila
MacRae
March 6th...Age
93
(Actress...2nd Alice Kramden on "The
Honeymooners")
March 15th...Age
78
(Stand Up
Comedian)
March 21st...Age
65
(Character Actor in Numerous
Productions)
April
Mary
Anderson
April 6th...Age
96
(Actress....Marybell Merriweather in
"Gone With the Wind")
April 6th...Age
93
(Icon Actor...."Andy Hardy"
Movies)
April 20th...Age
76
(Heavyweight boxer, who spent 22
years in prison for a murder conviction...portrayed by actor, Denzel Washington
in the 1999 film, "The Hurricane")
April 23rd...Age
102
(The Oldest Surviving Major League
Baseball player...dying 2 days prior to his 103rd
birthday)
April 29th...Age
87
(Actor....Cop Eddie Valiant in "Who
Framed Roger Rabbit")
May
Efrem
Zimbalist Jr.
May 2nd...Age
95
(Actor...Inspector Lewis Erskine on
"The FBI" Television Series)
May 8th...Age
79
(Actress...Many TV Shows.."The
Fugitive", "Twilight Zone", "Bonanza", "Dr. Kildare)
May 11th...Age
79
(Watergate conspirator-turned
minister who claimed in later years to have heard President Richard Nixon order
the infamous Watergate break-in)
May 18th...Age
83
(American Singer for
Decades)
May 19th...Age
88
(Three time Formula One Champion who
famously pushed his car to the finish line to claim his first season
title)
May 28th...Age
86
(Poet....First Clinton
Inauguration)
June
Anne B.
Davis
June 1st...Age
88
(Schultzy on "The Bob Cummings Show"
and Alice on "The Brady Bunch")
June 4th...Age
83
(Loveable Manager of several Major
League Baseball teams...most notable for charging the pitcher's mound at the age
of 73 and tackling pitcher, Pedro Martinez, in 2003)
June 9th...Age
57
(Major League Baseball 1990 Cy Young
Winner...Los Angeles Dodgers)
June 11th...Age
91
(Actress...."A Raisin in the Sun"...
married to actor Ozzie Davis for over 50 years)
June 13th...Age
82
(Pittsburgh Steelers Head
Coach...winner of 4 Super Bowls)
June 15th...Age
82
(National Radio DJ..."America's Top
40")
June 16th...Age
54
(San Diego Padres Baseball Hall of
Famer...one of the greatest hitters in baseball
history)
June 19th...Age
75
(Songwriter....co-wrote "Will You
Love Me Tomorrow" and "Up on the Roof" with former wife, Carole
King...subsequently wrote Monkees hit, "Pleasant Valley
Sunday")
June 22nd...Age
86
(straight man of famous duo
"Allen & Rossi")
Eli
Wallach
June 24th...Age
98
(Character Actor..."The Magnificent
Seven " and "The Good The Bad & The Ugly")
Howard
Baker
June 26th...Age
88
(Former Republican Senator from
Tennessee who made headlines during The Watergate
Hearings)
June 28th...Age
67
(Actor...."Designing Women" TV
show)
June 30th...Age
89
(Actor...Lt. Carpenter on "McHale's
Navy" TV show)
Hannukah
The Fesitval of
Lights
A Celebration
for both Jews & Christians
Beginning at sun down on Tuesday, December 16th, those of Jewish faith begin the eight day
celebration of Hannukah.
As many of us who live in our community
know, we have a diverse cultural mix that includes a number of religions...and
tonight...those of the Jewish faith will begin their annual
celebration.
...and I...am luckier than most who
live here !
Why ? Because I get the best of both
worlds !
Being a Roman Catholic who is married
to a lovely lady of the Jewish faith, I get 8 days of lights....and
then...follow that up with 12 days of Christmas !
...and being of the Christian
faith, having been educated in Catholic grammar and high schools, I was
fortunate to learn much of the Hebrew
traditions...because.....
...well...according to what I was taught
all those years ago....
Christianity would never have existed
had it not been for Judaism.
Surprisingly, so many people believe
the two religions are separate and distinct, when in fact....both actually
celebrate a number of holidays common to both.
...one of which is Hannukah !
Why do I say that?
...because Hannukah
is mentioned in the books of Maccabees in the
Old Testament....the "first half" of the Bible.....to us Christians
!
And so...since both Jews and Christians
celebrate it...I believe all of us should know about it
!
To find out what Hanukkah
commemorates, we have to look back at a specific time in history...a 400-year period between the closing of the Hebrew Scriptures and
the writing of the New Testament.
Biblical scholars sometimes call
this a “silent period,” and since the events of
Hanukkah took place during this time, we must turn to extra-biblical sources to
learn about them.
What we know about the history of
Hanukkah can be gleaned primarily from I & II Maccabbees, two non-canonical books, and also
from the Talmud, a collection
of the oral lore of Jewish sages and rabbis.
During that 400 year period, there was no king in Israel.
During that 400 year period, there was no king in Israel.
The Jewish people had returned from
exile in Babylon under the leadership of Nehemiah, but they were ruled over by a
succession of foreign empires.
Israel was ruled by the Persian
empire, which was conquered by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C.
When Alexander died in 323 B.C., his
empire was carved up by his four top generals.
Israel lay in between the kingdoms
of Egypt (ruled by the Ptolemic dynasty) and Syria (ruled by the Seleucid
dynasty), and was ruled by both at different times.
The Greek, or Hellenistic, culture
of Alexander was continued by both of these
empires.
In 198 B.C., Israel was under the rule of the Syrian empire.
In 198 B.C., Israel was under the rule of the Syrian empire.
These Syrio-Greeks had forced their
own Hellenistic culture upon the Jewish
people.
In 175 B.C. Antiochus IV
ascended the throne of this empire, and took upon himself the name "Antiochus
Epiphanes", meaning “the visible god.”
Antiochus truly believed that he was
a god.
His contemporaries may not have
shared this view, since he is often referred to in writings of the day as “the madman.”
Antiochus forbad
the Jewish people to keep the Sabbath, to read or study the Torah, or to
circumcise their sons.
He commanded that the temple in
Jerusalem should become a temple dedicated to worshipping the Greek god Zeus,
and even erected a statue of Zeus at the Temple – a statue bearing a resemblance
to Antiochus himself!
The final insult to the Jewish people came when Antiochus entered into the Temple and slaughtered a pig on the altar, then splattered its blood....a complete desecration of the Temple !
I Maccabees tells us that living near to Jerusalem was a priest named Mattathias who, full of righteous anger at the abomination that had taken place, killed the priest who had slaughtered the pig.
Mattathias then pulled down the altar
before fleeing to the surrounding hills of Judea, along with his
sons.
As he fled, Mattathias cried out,
“Whoever is zealous for the Law and maintains the Covenant, follow me!”
With his sons, Mattathias formed a band
of guerilla fighters who made frequent sorties against the Syrio-Greek enemy.
When the priest died, leadership passed to his son Judah, who soon began being called Yudah haMakkabi, or “Judah the Hammer,” because it was said that he was the hammer of God, sent to smash the enemies of Israel.
When the priest died, leadership passed to his son Judah, who soon began being called Yudah haMakkabi, or “Judah the Hammer,” because it was said that he was the hammer of God, sent to smash the enemies of Israel.
Judah’s followers were referred to as
Maccabbeans.
The Maccabeans grew in numbers, and after 3 years of fighting, miraculously defeated the far superior Syrio-Greek army.
After routing their enemies, the Maccabbeans marched into Jerusalem to rescue, restore, and
rededicate the Temple.
The Talmud records that the rededication took place on the 25th day of "Kislev" in the Hebrew calendar, exactly 3 years to the day after it had been defiled by Antiochus.
Hanukkah means, “dedication” in Hebrew, so the
holiday is known as the "Feast of Dedication" to
commemorate the miracle of the rescue, restoration, and rededication of the
Temple by the Maccabbeans.
It’s a celebration of the faith that Judah
Maccabee and his followers had that God would keep His promises to preserve the
Jewish people, a faith that was amply repaid in the defeat of their
Syrio-Greek oppressors.
However, today when most Jews think of Hanukkah, they do not think of the miracle of the Maccabees defeating a much larger, better equipped army.
However, today when most Jews think of Hanukkah, they do not think of the miracle of the Maccabees defeating a much larger, better equipped army.
They associate a very different miracle with the holiday, one which
is mentioned only briefly in the Talmud.
According to the Talmud, once the Syrio-Greeks had been driven
away, Judah Maccabee ordered that the Temple be
cleansed and rededicated.
As they cleaned out the rubble, built a new altar, and crafted new
holy vessels for the Temple, a terrible discovery was
made.
There was only a single container of
consecrated ritual olive oil, which was required in
order to keep the menorah (the seven-branched
candelabra) in the Temple burning through the
night.
This lamp was known as the "Ner
Tamid", or the "Eternal
Light", and God had commanded it should never burn
out.
To allow that to happen would be like another
desecration.
The problem was that it would take eight days
for more oil to be pressed, prepared, and consecrated.
With a sense of helplessness, the Maccabees and the priests offered
their prayers and pleas for forgiveness up to God as they lit the oil they had.
Miraculously, this
one container of oil, enough only to last one night, burned for all eight days!
Jewish sages hence instituted an eight-day holiday commemorating
this miracle, customarily celebrated by lighting candles for eight
days.
This is the miracle that most Jews think of as they celebrate Hanukkah, and the reason that it is referred to as the "Festival of Lights".
This is the miracle that most Jews think of as they celebrate Hanukkah, and the reason that it is referred to as the "Festival of Lights".
...hence.... significance of the Jewish
tradition of lighting candles in the menorah for eight nights
!
A candle is added each night, symbolizing each of the eight nights
the oil burned in the temple.
As each candle is added to the menorah, the blessings increase; and
by the final night, the room is completely filled with light, a symbol of the
glory and presence of God.
And so...as this eight days of celebration
commences this Tuesday evening....
...Anthem Opinions wishes all of our Jewish and Christian readers...a joyous celebration of this event for one reason....
We are all part of the
brotherhood of man !
Dick Arendt
________________________________
Do you know the facts
about..................
The Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier
Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to
God
How many steps does the guard take during his walk
across the tomb of the Unknowns and why?
21 steps
It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute which is the highest honor
given any military or foreign dignitary.
How long does the guard hesitate after his/her about
face to begin his return walk and why?
21 seconds
...for the same reason ...the 21 gun salute...the highest honor
given any military or foreign dignitary.
The guards gloves are wet.
Why?
His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the
rifle.
Does the guard carry his/her rifle on the same
shoulder all the time and, if not, why not?
The guard carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb.
After his march across the path, he executes an about face and
moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.
How often are the guards
changed?
Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day,
365 days a year.
What are the physical traits of the guard
limited to?
For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be
between 5' 10' and 6' 2' tall and his waist size cannot exceed
30.
And...women are also
included in this honor.
What are the requirements for the guard's
uniforms?
The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to
keep the heat and cold from their feet.
There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of
the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a
halt.
There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform.
Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length
mirror.
Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniform ready for guard duty.
What other commitments must a guard make to protect the
tomb?
They must commit to the following
conditions...
...2 years of life to guard the tomb
...live in a barracks under the tomb
...cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for
the rest of their lives
....cannot swear in public for the rest of their
lives
...cannot disgrace the uniform or the tomb in any
way
The first six
months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone nor watch TV.
All off duty
time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National
Cemetery . A guard must memorize who they are and where they are
interred.
After two years, the guard is given a
wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the
tomb. There are only 400 presently worn.
The guard must obey these rules for the rest of
their lives or give up the wreath pin.
How
dedicated are these individuals to guard the tomb?
In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington, DC, our
US Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm.
On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the
dangers from the hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment.
They respectfully declined the offer, "No way,
Sir!"
Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical
storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the
highest honor that can be afforded to a service person.
The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930.
Most
importantly...
The Tomb
and its guards are the symbol of dedication to all who live in this great nation.
Dick
Arendt
_______________________________
(Part Three of
Three)
Helen J.
Stewart
The First Lady of Las
Vegas
(3)
Her husband having been murdered, she suddenly
became a widow with four children and pregnant with a fifth. Her husband died
without a will, and she felt it necessary to sell the ranch in Las Vegas in
order to provide for her children.
But...there were no buyers for two
years.
Suddenly, land speculation fever struck the Las
Vegas valley in 1889, and rather than sell....she
decided to buy !
She enticed her father and brother-in-law to buy
land along the Muddy River, by giving them a loan of 100
cattle.
Still...Helen Stewart
had one problem that needed solving....her dedication to educating her
children.
Then...one day, the dilemma was
solved.
An elderly man, James
Ross Megamgle, who had been in Lincoln County for over 20 years, arrived
in her life.
A graduate of Oxford, Megamgle was a teacher by profession, but was also a
writer, poet, orator, and could play a "passable" fiddle.
Helen's passion for education had been solved
!
They became dear friends; he became her soft
hearted mentor; and Megamgle agreed to tutor the
Stewart children...
..becoming the first teacher
in the Las Vegas School District for Lincoln County. (Las Vegas was part
of Lincoln County until 1909 when it became part of the newly established Clark
County.)
Helen's daughters were amenable to learning but
sons, Will and Hiram, had by then become "seasoned ranchers" and saw "book
learning" as a waste of time.
James Ross Megamgle
would take up permanent residence at the Stewart ranch and regularly taught
the Stewart children and others until contracting influenza in 1894, when he sadly died. He had become so close to the
Stewart family that he was buried alongside Archie Stewart, Helen's murdered
husband.
So convinced that education was imperative for her
children, she subsequently sent her daughters and youngest son, Archibald, off
to boarding school in California.
Two years later, another man would enter Helen's
life. In 1886 a man named Frank
Roger Stewart (no relation to Archie) arrived from Sandy Valley, where he
and a partner had operated a store and post office.
Frank Roger
Stewart
He needed work....Helen hired him, and he became a valuable ranch hand...
...often entertaining travelers with his wit as
they passed through the area (supposedly spending a great deal of time in the
wine cellar with them).
Helen and Frank eventually married in 1903.
Because of the Stewart ranch location, over time
it became a message center for the region with travelers routinely leaving
messages for those behind them.
As a result.....in June,
1893, Helen Stewart was named postmaster of the "Los Vegas"
(not misspelled) post office. Authorities insisted
on the incorrect spelling to avoid confusing it with the territorial post office
in Las Vegas, New Mexico.
As the years passed, talk of a railroad through
the valley fueled further speculation in Las Vegas land.. but railroad magnates
became concerned about the inflated land prices.
As a result, early negotiations between local
landowners....including Helen Stewart....and the
Oregon Short Line Railroad began in 1901..
...but due to the fear of inflated prices...they
failed to exercise the option to build...and lost it
!
That decision would be a costly one
!
In 1902 Montana Senator William A. Clark made a trip to Las Vegas
with an idea that he believed would change the small dusty town of Las
Vegas...into a city.
Montana US Senator William A. Clark
Clark, the man for whom our Clark County is named, had a rather "checkered" past.
Years ago, US Senators were not elected...they
were appointed by state legislators...
...and when it was revealed in 1899 that Clark had bribed members of the Montana
legislature to obtain the senatorial position, the US Senate refused to seat
him.
In responding to criticism of his Montana bribery,
his comment was...
"I never bought
a man who wasn't for sale".
A later Senate campaign would be successful, and
he served as Montana's US Senator for ONE TERM from 1901 to
1907.
It was during that senatorial term that he met
Helen Stewart in 1902...essentially making her "an offer she couldn't
refuse" !
Clark came to Las Vegas with the idea of building
a railroad that would connect Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, a frequently
traveled route...and Las Vegas was a half-way point for the train
route.
All he needed was a reliable source of
water.
And...Helen Stewart was
the answer !
Helen wanted to sell her ranch, and the Las Vegas Creek ran through the ranch
!
Stewart Ranch...Las Vegas Creek
And in 1902, Helen Stewart, signed a contract that essentially became ...
...the de facto birth certificate
for the City of Las Vegas !
The contract, between the Stewart Ranch and the San Pedro, Los
Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad....
...for the sum of $55,000....
...sold most of the Stewart ranch and
the water rights.
Helen
Stewart and her children would keep only the
land where the family cemetery was located and a small part of the Las Vegas
Creek.
So..in 1902...The Stewarts were out of the ranching
business....
...but...knowing of the railroad's
plans for her ranch....Helen thought wisely....and...
..snatched up another 924 acres of land
where she lived adjacent to the "Four Acres" cemetery for the rest of her
life.
in 1905 the
railroad auctioned off 1,200 lots, creating the downtown core of Las Vegas,
which of course, included "Stewart
Street"
Senator William A. Clark in Las
Vegas...1905
Helen Stewart would write:
"Following the
trail of the trapper and of the trail blazer, and the pioneer, came the iron
horse, that great annihilator of time and distance, bringing all the modern
ideas of advanced civilization in our midst, and we awoke as if in a dream, and
found all the comforts of an advanced civilization with us. The hardships are
no more."
When Jeanne
Elizabeth Weir, founder of The Nevada Historical
Society, came to Nevada in 1908....
Jeanne Elizabeth
Weir
Founder of The Nevada Historical
Society
...she sought out Helen Stewart, and promptly named her the president of the Southern Nevada branch. Helen would become a frequent speaker as one of the foremost authorities on the history of Southern Nevada.
In 1911 the
federal government decided to establish a Native American reservation in or
around Las Vegas.
It was Helen
Stewart who provided the site for today's Las Vegas
Paiute Indian Colony on North Main Street.
In 1915, she
became the first woman elected to the Clark County School
Board.
In 1916, she
became the first Nevada woman to sit on a jury.
In 1922 she
donated land for the Las Vegas Grammar School which was built in 1923. It was
the first public school attended by Native American students
from the southern Paiute Indian Colony....the building was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
Helen
Stewart would also become an expert at making Indian baskets, so much so,
that in 1925, Nevada Governor
James Scrugham...
Nevada Governor James
Scrugham
(1923-1927)
....asked her to display them at the 1926 State Exposition in Reno.
Sadly that was not to
be...
On March 6,
1926, just three weeks shy of her 72nd birthday, Helen Stewart left us.
Her funeral was one of the largest the
city had ever seen.
Mourners from all over the state paid
homage to the lady who conquered tragedy, making her name a legend in Nevada
history.
She was interred in a special vault
hammered out of caliche on her "Four Acres" and in the 1970s the burial plot was
purchased by Bunker Brothers Mortuary, which owned the adjacent
land.
The remains of
Archie and Helen Stewart, as well as sons Hiram and Will, are now in
Bunker's Eden Vale Mausoleum...a short distance form
the old Stewart home, at 1216 Las Vegas Blvd. North in Las
Vegas.
If any woman ever tackled the world herself, that woman was Helen J. Stewart.
Epilogue....
The above statue is located in the
historic Old Las Vegas Mormon
Fort, at 500 W. Washington Ave. in Las
Vegas.
Dick
Arendt
________________________________
(Part Two of Three)
Helen J. Stewart
The First Lady of Las Vegas
(2)
In Part Two of our story about this fascinating Las Vegas pioneer, we'll meet Helen J. Stewart, learn of her background, her marriage and children, and how she and her husband, Archie, would eventually settle in this desert town of Las Vegas...on her journey to become...
The First Lady of Las Vegas
She was born Helen Jane Wiser, on April 16, 1854 in Springfield, Illinois; and at the age of nine, migrated "west" with her parents and four siblings, originally settling in Sacramento, California.....stopping for a short time in the Carson Valley of northwestern Nevada.
The Carson Valley was originally a strip of meadow along the banks of the river where the "49ers" followed the California branch of their travels to the gold fields.
When the Comstock Lode was discovered in 1858, the uncovering of massive amounts of silver (the reason Nevada would come to be known as "The Silver State") ......
Virginia City, NV Comstock Lode Miners
Comstock Lode Historical Marker, Virginia City, NV
...settlers like Helen's parents began to migrate in order to extend the natural meadows of the valley to provide hay, meat, and butter to the miners in Virginia City and neighboring towns. To this very day, the Carson Valley is one of Nevada's finest agricultural areas.
Helen's parents became quite successful, and she attended public schools AND Woodland College in Yolo County.
At age 18, she married 38 year old Archibald Stewart, and the newlyweds were off to Lincoln County where Archie had been running a freight business since 1868.
Archie had become quite successful, and also owned a ranch near Pioche, California, where he raised cattle and grew vegetables.
He had wisely combined his ranching and freighting operations; so when the inevitable "boom and bust" cycles rolled through the Pioche mines, he was able to prosper by hauling his goods as far north as Eureka and as far south as Eldorado Canyon.
Within four years of their marriage, by 1876, the Stewarts, now with sons William James, and Hiram Richard, had moved to Pioche, much to the delight of Helen Stewart....who yearned for a "social life".
But...Archie was a "mover and shaker" and in 1879 Archie purchased another local ranch...
...and he also made a loan which changed the course of Nevada history !
A man named Octavius Decatur Gass (Gass Avenue) had developed a marginally successful ranching and farming operation around the "Mormon Fort" which had been abandoned in 1855 near what is today the intersection of Las Vegas Blvd. North and Washington Ave.
Octavius Decatur Gass
(see the previous article published in our "Entertainment Bargains for Sun City Anthem Residents" Information Page....by scrolling down the various posts to "The Mormon Fort....Birthplace of Las Vegas Nevada")
The Mojave Desert was unpredictable; some years producing phenomenal crops, in other years, nothing.
Gass, who was really more interested in mining than ranching, had been sliding into debt and in August, 1879, he persuaded Archie Stewart to loan him $5,000 in gold at 2.5 % interest PER MONTH payable in one year.
Gass had been trying to sell the place since 1868, and may have had no intention of paying back the debt.
He had become quite angry at the State of Nevada for taking his "part of the world" away from Arizona Territory and making it a part of Nevada !
As a result, Gass lost the prestige of being an Arizona Territorial legislator (Arizona was not admitted as a state until 1912), and to add insult to injury, had received a HUGE TAX BILL from Nevada's Lincoln County.
Gass may have simply decided he would sign Archie Stewart's promissory note....take the money...and run !
...which is how, in 1880...Archie Stewart acquired the 960 acre Gass ranch, and set about doing what Gass never could...
Make It Profitable !
And...when Archie informed his wife, Helen, that he intended to MOVE there...to Las Vegas...
...Helen was horrified !
She had loved California's social life and now was going to live in a desolated desert town !
In addition, she was pregnant, and frightened at the prospect of having the child "without another woman in attendance", and was quite concerned about the lack of educational opportunities for her sons.....remember, Helen was an educated woman.
Archie soothed her...promising it was only a TEMPORARY move.
The Stewart's trip in 1882 took nearly a week, and as expected, there was plenty to do when they arrived.
Helen gave birth to her second daughter, Evaline La Vega, who derived her middle name from her place of birth...Las Vegas.
Evaline LaVega Stewart
Helen Stewart's fears seemed to lessen as she acclimated herself to her new home, mostly because of the nonstop flow of travelers.
Often, the Stewarts would awake to find dozens of travelers camped on their property.
(In Helen Stewart's biography, published in the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly", it was noted...."When the arriving group contained women, Helen Stewart was especially happy, as she hungered for feminine companionship")
This new home, with its cool creek and huge shady cottonwood trees, was a "resort" for heat weary miners from Eldorado Canyon.
In a good year, the ranch's vineyards could produce as much as 600 gallons of serviceable wine....and the Stewarts sold it...CHEAP !
A writer in 1883 reported many of the prospectors in Eldorado Canyon had "all quit work for some time and are rusticating up at the Vegas Ranch, having a jolly time drinking wine. Whenever any of them get drunk, they are placed in the works of the roots of a tree and made to sit there until sobered".
In Part One of this series, we noted that due to an argument, Archie Stewart as murdered in 1884, and Helen's life would take many turns, one of which was the fact that ARCHIE DID NOT LEAVE A WILL.
In 1885 the probate was finalized, and Helen Stewart ended up owning only ONE-HALF of the ranch.
The other half was divided equally among the five children: Will, Hiram, Tiza, Evaline, and the baby, Archie.
As administrator of her children's affairs, she sought and was granted permission, to sell the ranch, arguing that if the children were forced to grow up there, they would be deprived of a proper education.
Prospective buyers were few, and after two years, Helen was still unable to sell the property...thank goodness !
In 1889 land speculation fever struck the Las Vegas Valley region as word began to circulate that plans were in the works....
...for a railroad !
And that too would impact on how this widow with five children would eventually become the "rock" on which our town, Las Vegas, would be built and flourish over the next 125 years.
In our concluding Part Three, we'll discuss how fate, determination (and luck), would change the life of Helen Stewart...
...and how a man named James Ross Megamgle entered her life to solve a never ending desire she had for education...
... a thirst that was never allowed to develop...until she met him.
This...and meeting another "Stewart" would change her life and allow her to bloom in the Las Vegas community a the "First Lady of Las Vegas".
Dick Arendt
_________________________________
(Part One of Three)
Helen J. Stewart
The First Lady of Las Vegas
(1)
Hot, sore and covered in dust, Archie Stewart pulled the freight wagon into the shade of the cottonwood trees on that blistering July day in 1884.
Archie Stewart
He had been away from the Las Vegas Ranch for several days, delivering produce and livestock to hungry miners in Eldorado Canyon. A couple of his hired men approached and began to unhitch the tired team.
Stewart jumped down, slapping the dust off his pants legs, wiping his face and neck with his bandana, walking to the house.
His wife, Helen, was inside, still trying to decide how to tell her husband about the unsettling incident that had occurred a few days earlier.
A ranch hand, Schyler Henry, had abruptly announced he was quitting.
He went to Helen Stewart demanding his wages. She refused, explaining that she did not know how much he was owed, and that he would have to wait until Archie Stewart returned.
Henry threatened and insulted Helen Stewart, but she held firm. Henry then left the ranch without his wages.
It is unknown exactly what Schyler Henry said to Helen Stewart.
She never repeated it, except to remark that the ranch hand owned a "black-hearted slanderer's tongue."
But it was sufficiently insulting that Archie Stewart, after a short rest and a meal at home, saddled a horse, put his rifle in its scabbard and rode off for the Kiel Ranch, near the present location of Carey Avenue and Losee Road in North Las Vegas, where he believed Schyler Henry had headed.
Kiel Ranch
The spread was operated by Conrad Kiel and his son, Edwin,and had a well-deserved reputation as a haven and hangout for various badmen, outlaws and scoundrels, men like....
...Hank Parrish and Jack Longstreet.
Longstreet was a character who, for the most part, was a loner; but years before he arrived in Nevada, at the age of 14, was part of a group of cattle rustlers who were caught....and paid the ultimate "western" price.
Because of his young age, he was spared the "rope" but was taught a lesson by having one of his ears conveniently removed.
Andrew Jackson "Jack" Longstreet
He arrived in Nevada in 1882 with his long barreled Colt .44...with several notches in it...
Long Barreled Colt .44
....and always seemed to be one step ahead of the law, raising cattle with "questionable" ownership.
These were the "neighbors" that Archie, Helen, and the children were forced to deal with when they arrived in Nevada.
But back to Archie Stewart and saving his wife's reputation.....
On July 13, 1884, when Archie Stewart arrived at the ranch, he tied his horse to a tree behind a growth of grapevines, and walked slowly to the back of the house.
All the doors and windows of the house were open, and Archie Stewart was spotted.
He evidently fired the first shot, and missed.
A short firefight ensued, and when it was over, Stewart was dead with wounds to the chest and head.
Schyler Henry received two flesh wounds.
At first, the killing was credited solely to Hank Parrish, who promptly disappeared.
Conrad Kiel and Schyler Henry were hauled before a grand jury in Pioche.
The Jury declined to indict.
The case remains unsolved to this day.
As for Parrish, he was later tried and hanged in Ely for the last in a long line of murders.
At his hanging, his last request was to make a speech to the 50 in attendance. His last words were:
At his hanging, his last request was to make a speech to the 50 in attendance. His last words were:
"I've been accused of killing 8-20 men, but I only killed 3 of them...and they deserved killing".
Hank Parrish...his gallows
As for the Kiels, in 1900, Edwin and his brother, William....
Edwin and William Kiel
...were found shot to death at the Kiel ranch...with a shot gun !
That crime also has never been solved; however, rumor persists that it was Hiram Stewart, Archie's son, who committed the act as revenge for his father's demise.
Helen believed for the rest of her life that the Kiels, Henry, and Parrish, all had a part in her husband's death, and that the whole drama between her and Henry had been a ruse concocted to lure her husband to the ranch and kill him.
Helen Stewart believed that the conspiracy was hatched by Parrish.
Why would she think that ?
Why would she think that ?
A year before he was killed, somebody stole two of Archie Stewart's horses.
He followed and recovered the horses, but the thief escaped.
Stewart also found some stolen cattle belonging to an acquaintance in Pahranagat Valley.
Parrish, the supposed thief, sent word to Stewart that he would kill him.
No sooner had the smoke cleared from the shootout than Conrad Kiel dispatched a rider with a rude note for Helen Stewart.
"Mrs Sturd, send a team and take Mr. Sturd away. He is dead. C. Kiel."
(note that he spelled Stewart... "Sturd"... to further show his disdain)
Helen Stewart went to the ranch herself and helped to load her husband's body.
Archibald Stewart was buried the next day, the first of seven people who would be interred in a four-acre family plot.
She was now, on her own. She had four minor children, another on the way, a crop of peaches that needed to be picked, and travelers arriving each day in need of food, water, and the rest.
She would shortly face major legal problems because Archie had failed to leave a will.
She would shortly face major legal problems because Archie had failed to leave a will.
Helen Stewart had always despised the isolated ranch life, and had only agreed to move to the Las Vegas Ranch when her husband promised her it would be only a temporary stop.
Helen Stewart's Ranch....1905
Instead, she would spend the next 20 years running the place, improving it, constructing what would become the nucleus of a great Western city.
In Part Two, we'll learn more about Helen J, Stewart; her beginnings, her marriage, and how she would come to Las Vegas to begin that life.
Dick Arendt
_______________________________
The History of
Halloween
The word Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows' Evening also known as Hallowe'en or All Hallows' Eve.
Of course, we are all familiar with
the traditional activities that include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume
parties, visiting haunted houses" and carving jack-o-lanterns.
Irish and Scottish immigrants
carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century.
Other western countries embraced the
holiday in the late twentieth century including Ireland, the United States,
Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom as well as of Australia and New
Zealand.
Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced "sah-win").
Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced "sah-win").
The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season
in Gaelic culture.
Samhain
Samhain was a time used by the
ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter.
The ancient
Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the
living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and
cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops.
The festival would frequently involve bonfires. It is believed that the fires attracted insects to the area which attracted bats to the area. These are additional attributes of the history of Halloween.
Masks and costumes were worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease them.
The festival would frequently involve bonfires. It is believed that the fires attracted insects to the area which attracted bats to the area. These are additional attributes of the history of Halloween.
Masks and costumes were worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease them.
The "trick" part of "trick or treat"
is a threat to play a trick on the homeowner or his property
if no treat is given.
The history of Halloween has
evolved.
The activity is popular in the United
States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and due to increased American
cultural influence in recent years, imported through exposure to US television
and other media, trick-or-treating has started to occur among children in many
parts of Europe, and in the Saudi Aramco camps of Dhahran, Akaria compounds and
Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia.
The most
significant growth and resistance is in the United Kingdom, where the police
have threatened to prosecute parents who allow their children to carry out the
"trick" element.
In continental Europe, where the
commerce-driven importation of Halloween is seen with more skepticism, numerous
destructive or illegal "tricks" and police warnings have further raised
suspicion about this game and Halloween in general.
In Ohio, Iowa, and Massachusetts, the night designated for Trick-or-treating is often referred to as Beggars Night.
Part of the history of Halloween is Halloween costumes.
In Ohio, Iowa, and Massachusetts, the night designated for Trick-or-treating is often referred to as Beggars Night.
Part of the history of Halloween is Halloween costumes.
The practice of dressing up in costumes
and begging door to door for treats on holidays goes back to
the Middle Ages.
Trick-or-treating resembles the late
medieval practice of "souling," when poor folk would
go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving
food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2).
Souling
It originated in Ireland and Britain,
although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as
Italy.
Shakespeare
mentions the practice in his comedy "The Two Gentlemen
of Verona" (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering, whining], like a beggar at
Hallowmas."
Yet there is no evidence that
souling was ever practiced in America, and trick-or-treating may have developed
in America independent of any Irish or British antecedent.
There is little primary Halloween
history documentation of masking or costuming on Halloween in Ireland, the UK,
or America before 1900.
The earliest known
reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English speaking North
America occurs in 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston,
Ontario, near the border of upstate New York, reported that it was normal for
the smaller children to go street "guising" on Halloween between 6 and 7 p.m.,
visiting shops and neighbors to be rewarded with nuts and candies for their
rhymes and songs.
Another isolated reference appears,
place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.
The thousands of Halloween postcards
produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show
children but do not depict trick-or-treating.
Ruth Edna
Kelley, in her 1919 history of the holiday,
The Book of Hallowe'en, makes no mention of such a
custom in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America."
Ruth Edna Kelley
It does not seem to have become a
widespread practice until the 1930s, with the earliest known uses in print of
the term "trick or treat" appearing in 1934, and the first use in a national publication occurring
in 1939.
Thus, although a quarter million
Scots-Irish immigrated to America between 1717 and 1770, the Irish Potato Famine
brought almost a million immigrants in 1845-1849, and British and Irish
immigration to America peaked in the 1880s...
... ritualized begging on Halloween was
virtually unknown in America until generations later.
Trick-or-treating spread from the western United States eastward, stalled by sugar rationing that began in April 1942 during World War II and did not end until June 1947.
Early national attention to trick-or-treating was given in October 1947 issues of the children's magazines Jack and Jill and Children's Activities, and by Halloween episodes of the network radio programs The Baby Snooks Show in 1946 and The Jack Benny Show and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1948.
The custom had become firmly
established in popular culture by 1952, when Walt
Disney portrayed it in the cartoon "Trick or Treat", Ozzie and Harriet were
besieged by trick-or-treaters on an episode of their television show, and UNICEF
first conducted a national campaign for children to raise funds for the charity
while trick-or-treating.
Now that you know all about
Halloween...get out there and ask your neighbor for some candy...or else !
________________________________
A True Las Vegas Amenity
Did you know we have an orchard in Las Vegas where you can pick your own apples, vegetables, fruits, and now..until the end of October...
Coming from the Chicago area, it was a
tradition to begin the fall season with a hop in the car to a favorite place in
the northern suburbs....Bell's Apple Orchard.
Sadly, over time it became unprofitable
and like all good things....it succumbed to the ravages of the
economy...
...and...GREED prevailed !
A great tradition closed...God's own
work and creations were replaced...
...by homes and condominiums.
...by homes and condominiums.
Watching those fruit-filled glorious
apple trees being destroyed......realizing that the ability to pick your own
fruit was now a mere memory....had to be one of the saddest experiences of
"progress"...
...that had brought so much joy to so
many families as they so often "made a day of it" while
they carefully filled a bushel basket and climbed any tree that caught their
fancy....to get that PERFECT apple...
...and then one day....it was suddenly
GONE!
I thought those days and the memories
attached to them were only in my aging brain....
...until I saw an article in the Las
Vegas Review Journal a week ago.
An orchard ? An orchard here in Las
Vegas ?
Yes indeed...we have an orchard in Las
Vegas that has a history of almost 90 years !
And it's called.....Gilcrease Orchards !
And before "progress" takes root here
as it did where I came from....
...IT'S A MUST....that
you experience it !
Gilcrease Orchards goes back to the
1920s when a young family, Elda
and Leonard Gilcrease, along with their two sons, John Theodore and William Orr
Gilcrease, migrated to Las Vegas
from California.
Leonard
Gilgrease
Elda and Leonard had met each other at the University of Nevada in Reno where both earned bachelor's degrees....Leonard, in mechanical engineering; and Elda, in music.
Leonard had been raised on a farm in Lemoore, California...and despite his educational expertise, yearned for
a life back on a farm.
When Elda received an inheritance, they
purchased 900 acres of land in the Las Vegas valley that included natural artisan springs, known as the
Lower Tule Springs, with the intention to raise crops and
livestock.
...and off the family went to build a new life...until....in 1929...
...and the Great Depression that shortly followed.
It was "too much" for Leonard, and he
left his wife and two sons, returning to California.
But....Elda was not to be
deprived....after all, it was her inheritance that purchased the land, and
following their divorce in 1930, Elda and the two boys had to
survive....
...and survive they did, enduring
hardship with dedication and
perseverance...to build a business
that still survives today....90 years later...the only remaining farm in the Las Vegas
valley.
Today, the Gilcrease Orchard is a
non-profit organization.
It was son, "Ted" who founded it in 1996 to teach the importance of agriculture....in a town where it has all but disappeared.
He ran it for years until he passed
away in 2003.
Today, brother, Bill, now in his late
90s, is still there to share a helping hand.
Bill
Gilcrease
The orchard produces not only apples and pumpkins, but also pears, peaches, plums, apricots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, zucchini, and tomatoes.
You have to try their "signature" apple
cider...it's so good, they even made a video !
They also have tours available for school kids.
But you better get there soon...because
they close on November 1st for the
season.
You can visit Gilcrease Orchard any
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday from 7:00am to 2:00pm from now until the end of
October.
And...it's not that far either...only
about 33 miles from the Anthem Center.
From Sun City Anthem:
Take "Volunteer
Road" to "I-15" NORTH.
Stay on "I-15" to Exit 42A,
merging into US 95 toward Reno.
Stay on US 95 to Exit 91 toward State Route
215.
Keep LEFT and watch for sign "Buffalo Drive/Clark County 215 E" and
continue for about one mile, turning RIGHT at "Elkhorn Road" for about .5 of a
mile, and turn LEFT on to "Tenaya Way" for about .8 of a mile.
Turn RIGHT onto
"Whispering Sands Drive" for entrance into orchard.
For those with GPS
devices:
Gilcrease
Orchard
7810 N, Tenaya
Way
Las Vegas, NV
89131
(702)
409-0655
Here's their website for additional information:
Still
curious?
Watch these short videos:
Most
importantly....
GET OUT OF SUN CITY
ANTHEM and experience something NEW !
It keeps you YOUNG !
Dick
Arendt
____________________________
It was 50 Years
Ago
The Pogroms...What were they, and how did their history translate into one of the most successful Broadway plays?
Aleichem's works were known for the naturalness of his characters speech and the accuracy of his descriptions of "shtetl" life.....which describes the traditional way of life of Eastern European Jews, portrayed as pious communities following Orthodox Judaism, socially stable and unchanging, despite outside influence or attacks.
Though based on Alecheim's book, it
receive little worldwide notice until it would be immortalized on Broadway in
1964....in a musical play with music by Jerry
Bock...
Jerry
Bock
...lyrics by Sheldon Harnick...
Sheldon
Harnick
...and enhanced by a book written by Joseph Stein...
Joseph
Stein
... set in Imperial Russia in 1905.
Stein would also write the 1971 screen play as
well.
Its
plot?
His daughter, Tzeitel...
His daughter, Hodel...
His daughter, Chava...
And realizing that persecution meant having to leave Anatevka...the only home he'd ever known....
It was a marvelous story...a story of life as it once
was...
...a story kept alive that can best be described
as:
"Traditions, Traditions"
Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as
a...
Dick Arendt
It was a marvelous story...a story of life as it once was...
Dick Arendt
_______________________________
Clarion Hotel Closed
Holds Massive Liquidation Sale
Everything
must go!
That's the sentiment from
the owners of the Clarion Hotel and Casino.
The latest hotel to say bye-bye to the Las Vegas strip is having
a huge liquidation sale.
The establishment on
Convention Center Drive closed its doors to business in early
September, but it opened a few days ago for what will amount to
a big month-long garage sale.
Just name it, and any shopper can find just what they're looking for.
Just name it, and any shopper can find just what they're looking for.
There are beds, irons, clocks, chairs, TVs and even towels.
The most unique items for sale include a set of doors and door handles that were actually purchased by Debbie Reynolds during the liquidation of the Dunes back in March of 1993.
The most unique items for sale include a set of doors and door handles that were actually purchased by Debbie Reynolds during the liquidation of the Dunes back in March of 1993.
She liked it because they
not only stood for the Dunes, but for Debbie.
Those doors were quickly
sold for $1,100.
The Clarion was never as big, or as legendary, as its neighbors on the strip...but its past was nevertheless, a part of Las Vegas history.
The Clarion was never as big, or as legendary, as its neighbors on the strip...but its past was nevertheless, a part of Las Vegas history.
The hotel opened in 1970
as a Royal
Inn...
...and was transformed to the Paddlewheel back in 1983...as the Paddlewheel it was more kid-friendly.
However, the arcades didn't last long because Hollywood legend, Debbie Reynolds transformed the property to the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Hotel 21 years ago in 1993.
.jpeg)
The resort was her dream come true, a tribute to the golden era of Hollywood.
There were even slot
machines that featured the legend.
Many of us will long
remember the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Hollywood
Museum that was on the property.....the wonderful costumes purchased and
stored by Ms. Reynolds in the early 70s when MGM Studies decided to clean out
their storage
facilities.
Singin' In the Rain
But by 1997, the hotel's financial difficulties forced it into bankruptcy, with Debbie Reynolds auctioning much of her treasured collection in 2011.
It then became The Greek Isles; however, bankruptcy closed that
hotel in
2009.
..before becoming The
Clarion.
And now that The Clarion has closed its doors...
....yet another cherished memory of "old
Vegas" has sadly disappeared.
________________________________
Labor Day...How Did It Begin ?
Observed on the first Monday in
September, Labor Day pays tribute to the
contributions of the strength, prosperity, and well-being achievements of
American workers.
Labor Day also symbolizes the end of summer for many Americans, and is celebrated with parties, parades and athletic events.
But...it was precipitated by working conditions that are now foreign to the American worker, one of American labor history’s most dismal chapters.
In the late 1800s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the United States...
Labor Day also symbolizes the end of summer for many Americans, and is celebrated with parties, parades and athletic events.
But...it was precipitated by working conditions that are now foreign to the American worker, one of American labor history’s most dismal chapters.
In the late 1800s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the United States...
... the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks in order to achieve a
basic standard of living.
Despite restrictions in some states, children as young as 5 or 6 toiled in mills, factories, and
mines across the country, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts’
wages.
People of all ages, particularly the very poor and recent
immigrants, often faced extremely unsafe working conditions, with insufficient
access to fresh air, sanitary facilities, and
breaks.
They began organizing strikes and rallies to protest poor
conditions and compel employers to renegotiate hours and pay.
Labor Day was promoted by the Central Labor
Union and the Knights of Labor, who organized the first parade in New York City.
On September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers took unpaid time off to march from City Hall to Union Square in New York City, holding the first Labor Day parade in U.S. history.
Many of these events turned violent during this period, including the infamous Haymarket Riot of 1886, in which several Chicago policemen and workers were killed.
On September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers took unpaid time off to march from City Hall to Union Square in New York City, holding the first Labor Day parade in U.S. history.
Many of these events turned violent during this period, including the infamous Haymarket Riot of 1886, in which several Chicago policemen and workers were killed.
Harmarket Riot in Chicago
After the Haymarket Massacre, which occurred just west of downtown Chicago on May 4, 1886, U.S. President Grover Cleveland feared that commemorating Labor Day on May 1 could become an opportunity to commemorate the affair.
Haymarket Square Statue in Chicago
Thus, in 1887, it was established as an
official holiday in September to support the Labor Day that
the Knights favored.
Oregon was the first state to make it a holiday on February 21, 1887.
On May 11, 1894, employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago went on strike to protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives.
Oregon was the first state to make it a holiday on February 21, 1887.
On May 11, 1894, employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago went on strike to protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives.
On June 26, the American Railroad Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, called for a boycott of all Pullman railway cars, crippling railroad traffic nationwide.
Eugene V. Debs
To break the strike, the federal
government dispatched troops to Chicago, unleashing a wave of riots that
resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen workers.
In the wake of this massive unrest
and in an attempt to repair ties with American workers, Congress passed an act
making Labor Day a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the
territories.
Following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S.
Marshals during the Pullman Strike......
...the United States Congress unanimously voted to
approve rush legislation that made Labor Day a national holiday; President Grover Cleveland signed it into law a mere six days after the end of the
strike.
The idea of a “workingmen’s holiday,” celebrated on the first Monday in September, caught on in other industrial centers across the country, and many states passed legislation recognizing it.
Congress would not legalize the holiday until 12 years later, when a huge moment in American labor history brought workers’ rights squarely into the public’s view.
Many credit Peter J. McGuire, co-founder of the American Federation of Labor...... while others have suggested that Matthew Maguire, a secretary of the Central Labor Union...
Peter J. McGuire and Matthew Maguire
... first
proposed the holiday.
So....as you
fire-up that barbeque grill....
...remember those who sacrificed their lives allowing you to enjoy that burger !
Dick Arendt
______________________________
______________________________
A Spoonful of Sugar
As Sweet Today as it
was 50 Years Ago
If you never saw the 2013 film "Saving Mr. Banks", you missed a story about the making of one of the most wonderful films in cinema history..."Mary Poppins"... a movie released exactly 50 years ago today, on August 27, 1964.
Why is it that some films never seem to
"get old" and last a lifetime?
In this case....it was
simply....
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
.....make a wholesome movie that
appeals to all age groups, tell a story which "makes you feel good", add some
Walt Disney "fantasy", cast actors whose past performances define the roles, and
include a musical score that everyone will join in to sing along, and
wham....it's a timeless classic.
"Saving Mr. Banks" told the story of
Walt Disney's attempt at convincing a lady named Pamela (P.L.) Travers to sell him the film rights to the children
stories she authored that included a character named Mary
Poppins.
During the Second World War, while
working for the British Ministry of Information, she traveled to New York where
Roy Disney first contacted her about selling the "Mary Poppins" character to the
Disney studio.
P.L. Travers was a pen name, originally born Helen Lyndon Gott, on August
23, 1899.
P.L.
Travers
Originally an unsuccessful poet, she
wrote her first children's story about a lady named "Mary Poppins" in
1934....and over her lifetime, continued to write a total of
eight "Mary Poppins" books, the last being "Mary Poppins and the House
Next Door" in 1988.
Travers, fiercely protective of the
"Mary Poppins" character she created, refused all of Disney's offers until
1961....when Walt Disney himself took the matter in hand and convinced her to
allow the world to enjoy the wonders of the character by way of
film.
The movie actually is based on the
original story written in 1934 while including segments of the 1935 sequel,
"Mary Poppins Comes Back".
...and Travers constantly bickered with
Disney about what the final product should exclude.....namely, animation... and
especially...music !
As a matter of fact, her dislike for
the music was so great....to the day she died in 1993, she refused to allow any
further adaptations of the Mary Poppins novels.
She and Disney argued so often she WAS
NOT EVEN INVITED to the premiere of the movie in 1964. She had to ask to
attend, which Disney eventually allowed.
Did "Saving Mr. Banks" dramatize
certain aspects of history?
It sure did. If you saw the movie
there was a scene where Travers was in tears while at the movie premiere...
portrayed as weeping in appreciation of Mr. Disney's
movie.
Nope...just the opposite
!
Oh...she was indeed weepy, but those
were tears of frustration and betrayal, not
gratitude.
Why...because the character of Mary
Poppins was not exactly a "jolly
holiday"...
....in fact, Mary was not very nice
!
The original title character was no
pushover. In the original novel, Travers writes...
"Mary Poppins
never wasted time in being nice."
Three paragraphs down on the same page,
these words appear:
"Trouble trouble,
and it will trouble you !, retorted Mary Poppins crossly in her usual
voice."
Throughout the book, she is described
as "stern", "ferocious",
and other not so flattering adjectives...none of which have anything to do with
light-hearted connotations.
As a matter of fact, she is often
characterized by "nose in the air"
disapproval.
Of course once Disney had Traver's name
on the dotted line, all of that changed....and I might add....thank
goodness...the Disney touch prevailed....and continues to prevail today after 50
years.
And no matter what Travers
wrote....
In my mind it will always
be.....
"A Jolly Holiday
with Mary"
When she was in her 90s, she was approached about making "Mary Poppins" a stage musical....
...and so fervent was her dislike of
the Disney movie that she demanded that Richard and Robert Sherman, brothers who
wrote the original music score for the film....NOT BE ALLOWED to write any
additional songs.
Did both the movies
"work"?
Yes indeed, "Saving
Mr. Banks" got Emma Thompson nominated for a Golden Globe nomination for
Best Actress despite not being the first choice for the role (Meryl Streep was
the first choice and unavailable), and ironically, despite P.L. Travers disdain
for music in her stories, the firm was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original
Score.
The 1964 Disney production of "Mary Poppins" was monumental.
It was nominated for 13 Academy Awards, winning 5,
one of which was the Best Actress Award going to Julie
Andrews.
The film took the honors at the Oscars
for the Best Song with the memorable
"Chim Chim
Cher-ee"
So...now you know the story of the
making of "Mary Poppins"....written by a
woman...
....with the personality of
vinegar...
...enhanced by Walt
Disney....
with
" A Spoonful of
Sugar"
Dick
Arendt
__________________________________
They Had It All...
Bogie
and
Lauren
Bacall
1924-2014
September 14, 2014 would have been Betty Jean Perske's 90th birthday.
Let's face it...if you were looking for a "cool broad"...she was the one....and a guy named Humphrey Bogart knew it !
They met on the set of "To Have and
Have Not" and it was all over for this tough guy !
There he was....this "macho dude" telling this kid not to bother him....and then it happened...
...and she knew what she wanted....
HIM
How many of you "senior stud muffins" out there could have resisted that "10" ?
Try as you may....ain't no way....
... when a woman 25 years younger looks at you and does
this.....
...and so the legend of Bogart and Bacall began when this
20 year old beauty married that 45 year old guy....
...two "cool"
people....who were even "cooler"..
together
!
Would a 25 year difference in age matter?
Obviously not...they remained married for 12 years until
Bogie's death in 1957.
Born of Jewish parentage, young Betty Jean would dream of
becoming a dancer, only to become enthralled with acting when she attended the
Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York after graduating from high
school.
After her parents divorced when she was just five years
old, she changed her name....taking her mother's maiden name of
"Bacall".
To "pay the bills" she began a modeling career when one
day, the wife of famed director, Howard Hawks,
noticed her picture on the cover of "Harper's
Bazaar".
Off she went to Hollywood for a screen test...and before
she would "whistle", she was cast in the role of
Marie Browning...in the movie "To Have and Have Not"
opposite bad guy....Humphrey Bogart.
Bogart was "the man", having had success in such movies as "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca", and this film was just intended to be "another movie"....until he met Lauren Bacall.
...and the greatest Hollywood love story in history would
change his life forever.
They would go on to make three other films
together...
"The Big Sleep", "Dark Passage", and "Key
Largo"...each one dramatizing the independent....alluring woman she was
!
From "The Big Sleep"...how
to rate a man !
During their marriage, their careers soared with Lauren starring opposite Kirk Douglas in "Young Man with a Horn" (1950), while husband Bogie would make the memorable "Treasure of Sierra Madre" (1948), and win an Oscar for Best Actor in "The African Queen" (1951).
In 1953, she starred opposite Betty Grable and Marilyn
Monroe in the comedy, "How to Marry a
Millionaire".
When Bogie died in 1957, Lauren
didn't.....
She would go on to marry (and divorce) actor Jason Robards while continuing her acting career...both on
the silver screen and on Broadway.
On Broadway she appeared in the comedy "Goodbye Charlie" (1959-60), in "Cactus
Flower" (1965-68), and "Applause" (1970-72)
for which she earned a Tony
Award.
In 1996 she appeared as the meddling mother to Barbra
Streisand in "The Mirror Has Two Faces" in which she
received her ONLY Academy Award nomination.
In 1996, "The Mirror
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG9OoVeaaWc Faces," a role for which
she received her only d nomination as supporting
actress.
In September 2006, she was awarded the first Katharine Hepburn Medal, which recognizes "women whose
lives, work and contributions embody the intelligence, drive and independence of
the four-time-Oscar-winning actress".
She and Bogart were forever
memorialized in 1981 by the song "Key Largo" by Bertie Higgins....a song which looked at the
Bacall / Bogart marriage as the perfect role for happiness in any
relationship.
So...as we say good bye to this
"cool broad" who could
capture the heart of even the
roughest and toughest guy...let's do it by looking back at
the....
"Best of
Lauren Bacall"
.jpeg)
Dick
Arendt
___________________________________
You Ain't Never Had a Friend Like Me
.jpeg)
Robin
Williams
1951-2014
The funniest man to ever live....was
evidently one of the saddest, when it was reported that Robin Williams left
us.
Sadly the initial reports are that he
took his own life.
How sad it is that a man could bring
the world such happiness, yet have so little for
himself?
Robin Williams....his very name puts a
smile on any face when one remembers his contributions to the entertainment
world.
He entered our television lives on
"Happy Days" through the genius of Garry Marshall,
and within a short time...a spin off series called " Mork
and Mindy" became a part of American life from 1978 to
1982.
Each week he would call "Orson" and give him a weekly report of his life on
earth.
"Na Nu..Na
Nu"
...receiving a Golden Globe Award in 1978 as Best Actor in a Comedy Series.
Robin would leave television and embark
on one of the most successful film careers...ranging from comedy to serious
acting.
Hollywood would continue to bring him
accolade after accolade.
He received a second Golden Globe award
for Best Actor in 1987 for his portrayal of a DJ on Armed Forces Radio in "Good Morning VietNam".
.jpeg)
These words have since become
legendary....
In 1991 he again won the Golden Globe
Best Actor for his role in "The Fisher
King".
Two years later, he won his 4th Golden Globe for Best Actor in the hilarious, "Mrs. Doubtfire".
In 1992 his voice portrayal of the genie in Disney's "Aladdin" won the Globe for Special Achievement.
"You Ain't Never
Had a Friend Like Me"
Finally....in 1997, the Oscar that had
alluded him for years was finally his....winning the Best Supporting Actor in
the film, "Good Will
Hunting".
In 2005, The Golden Globes awarded him
the esteemed "Cecil B. DeMille Award" for "outstanding contributions to the world of
entertainment.
There were a number of other films that
were memorable in his career that never won an award, but in my opinion were
just as deserving....
Popeye,
Dead Poet's Society, Jakob the
Liar, The Birdcage, NIght
at the Museum, Awakenings, Patch Adams
Robin Williams as Jakob the Liar
If you never saw "Patch Adams" you missed a TRUE warm story of a man who redefined medicine by giving joy to those he cared for day in and day out.
But...despite these many successes,
Robin Williams somehow must have felt that he could no longer make contributions
to his life's work.
How wrong he
was !
He was the greatest....but perhaps this
clip from the movie "Jack" best describes the pain
and his life as he recognized that his end was near.
For those of you who have never seen
"Jack", it is the heartwarming story of a young boy named Jack Powell, who is
afflicted with a disease called Werner
Syndrome....where the body ages at four times the
rate of the normal aging process.
It's "Jack" at his high school graduation...saying good bye.
Good Bye Robin....Thanks for a lifetime
of memories.
" Na
Nu...Na Nu"
Dick
Arendt
We All
Thought It Was About a Little Girl
and
a
"Wizard"
Who
knew?
Just a few months
ago at the 2014 Oscars, they celebrated the 75th
anniversary of the release of the "Wizard of
Oz" by having Pink sing "Somewhere Over the
Rainbow", with highlights from the film in the background.
Let's look back to
the memorable evening of March 2, 2014...at the 86th annual Academy
Awards....
Pink
But what few people
realized, while listening to that incredible performer singing that
unforgettable song, is that the music is deeply embedded in
the Jewish experience.
It is no accident, for example, that the greatest Christmas songs
of all time were written by Jews.
For example, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was written by Johnny Marks....
Johnny Marks...and...Rudolph
and "White Christmas" was penned by a Jewish liturgical singer's
(cantor) son, Irving
Berlin.
Irving Berlin
But perhaps the most
poignant song...
.... emerging out of the mass exodus from
Europe...
...was...
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
The lyrics were
written by Yip Harburg.
He was the youngest
of four children born to Russian Jewish immigrants.
His real name was
Isidore Hochberg and he grew up in a Yiddish speaking, Orthodox Jewish home in
New York.
The music was
written by Harold Arlen, a cantor's son. His real
name was Hyman Arluck and his parents were from Lithuania.
Together, Harburg
and Arlen wrote "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", which was voted the 20th century's number one song by the Recording Industry
Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.
In writing it, the
two men reached deep into their immigrant Jewish consciousness - framed by the pogroms of the past and the Holocaust about to
happen - and wrote an unforgettable melody set to near prophetic words.
Read the lyrics in
their Jewish context and suddenly the words are no longer about wizards and Oz,
but about...
...Jewish survival...
"Somewhere over the rainbow Way up high, There's a land that I
heard of Once in a lullaby. Somewhere over the rainbow Skies are blue, And the
dreams that you dare to dream Really do come true. Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far Behind me. Where troubles melt like lemon
drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Somewhere over
the rainbow Bluebirds fly. Birds fly over the rainbow. Why then, oh why can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly Beyond the rainbow Why, oh why can't
I?"
The Jews of Europe could not fly. They could not escape
beyond the rainbow.
It was as if Harburg had foresight when he talked about
wanting to fly like a bluebird away from the "chimney tops".
In the post-Auschwitz era, chimney tops have taken on a
whole different meaning than the one they had at the beginning of
1939.
Pink's mom is Judith Kugel.
She's Jewish of Lithuanian background.
As Pink was mesmerizing the audience with the
Harburg/Arlen song from the stage at the Academy Awards, most people are unaware
that the original thoughts of the authors had little to do with a magical
kingdom called "Oz", but Europe's lost Jews and their immigration to
America.
How ironic it was that for two thousand years the land
that the Jews heard of "once in a lullaby" was not
America, but Israel.
The remarkable thing would be that less than ten years
after "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was first
published....
.... the exile was over...
...and the State of Israel was
born.
Perhaps the...
"dreams that you dare to dream
really do come true".
President Harry Truman...and...Prime MInister David Ben-Gurion
Now listen to the song
again...
.jpeg)
Only this time....think of...
Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen
Dick Arendt
____________________________________
"Maverick Was His Name"
James Garner
(April 7, 1928--July 19,
2014)
Who was the "coolest" cowboy in the west
?
.jpeg "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIDgZSdLwAKP0q7OF78oEQXdHGneEQ_vOrtNbzhqxKIdqOC-XR8FoPC6jJG84_7RRKbjJk_VAoCNzcHbluHrN3NlTUIM88f2wWU50yWQgPJHXHJwHD7IOllj22TNWPilJRiqVOD1iJPXvX/s1600/James+Garner+as+Bret+Maverick+(1).jpeg")
James Garner as Bret
Maverick
Way
back when, from 1957 through 1962, before VCRs or DVR's were invented, this
comical and sarcastic cowboy would travel the west by way of our black and white
television sets each Sunday night....and often beat "The Ed Sullivan Show" in
the ratings.
A lovable anti-hero was the best way to
describe this new type of cowpoke; who, unlike John Wayne, couldn't shoot very
well, and often ran from a fight by using his charm to settle an
argument.
As
far as I know, he never had a job other than being a professional card player,
but somehow, no woman was ever able to resist that striking smirk, the wavy
black mane, and of course that handsome face attached to it
!
And
the country learned to expect the unexpected when Bret Maverick would show up in
town for a poker game.
Who
didn't watch "Maverick"?
If you're under 60, you may not have, but who didn't love James Garner?
If you're under 60, you may not have, but who didn't love James Garner?
James Garner was 86 years old when he passed
away from natural causes.
James Scott Bumgarner was the youngest
of three children born and bred in Norman,
Oklahoma. Following the tragic death of his partly Cherokee mother when he was
just five years old, he and his brothers were sent to live with relatives until
his father remarried in 1934.
What all three boys had in common with their
step-mother was her cruelty toward them; so much so that at one time, young Jim
was humiliated by being forced to wear a dress in
public.
Violence toward the three boys was so common
that at one point, Jim had to defend himself while she attempted to kill him !
That ended the marriage.
Jim's father subsequently relocated to Los Angeles, but the three boys remained in Norman, Oklahoma with Jim going through a number of jobs he disliked until at the age of 16, near the end of World War II, he joined the merchant marine.
That too didn't work out well, as his
chronic sea sickness got him discharged a year later.
At age 17, he joined his father in Los Angeles and attended Hollywood High School, being voted the most popular student in his class.
Unfortunately, he was a terrible student,
and never finished high school with his class. Instead his gym teacher got him
a job modeling Jantzen swimsuits at $25 per hour, but that too didn't make Jim a
happy camper.
He went
back to Norman and his old high school where he played football, basketball,
golf, and track for his Norman High team.
And...again, as in Los Angeles, Jim quit
school and then decided to join the National Guard.
This time,
Jim was sent to Korea, where he was assigned to a combat unit and during his 14
month tour, was wounded twice; the first time in both his face and hand from
shrapnel from a mortar round; the second, from friendly fire.....being hit in the
buttocks !
He
received two purple hearts for the injuries he
sustained.
He did
complete his high school GED while in the Army.
Once he
was discharged, Jim again moved back to Los Angeles where a friend talked him
into accepting his first acting job....a non-speaking role in a Broadway play,
during which he became fascinated with the show's star....Henry
Fonda.
And from
that point, he caught the bug...the acting bug, that would remain a part of
his entire life.
He did a
few commercials, then a few minor television roles; and in 1956, following his
marriage to the love of his life, Lois Clarke, to whom he was married for 58
years and had two daughters...
... he changed his last name to "Garner" as a result of the studio accidentally making a mistake from "Bumgarner".
And
so...James Garner, the real actor, would be born.
A year later in 1957, his career would soar with the role of Bret Maverick, alongside Jack Kelly, who played his brother, Bart.
Bret and Bart
Maverick
(Jim
Garner and Jack Kelly)
Jim played
the role for 4 seasons, until he decided to leave the
show.
When Charlton Heston turned down the lead role in a film called
"Darby's Rangers", Jim got his first starring
role.
That would be followed up with numerous hits with some of the most beautiful leading ladies in Hollywood, some of which included Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine in "The Children's Hour"...
... Kim Novak in
"Boys Night Out" (1962)...
Doris Day in
"Move Over Darling" and "My
Favorite Wife" (1963)...
and "The Americanization of Emily" with Julie Andrews (1964).
In 1963 he also made the iconic film "The Great Escape" with superstar, Steve McQueen.
In the 1970s, the creator of "Maverick", Roy Huggins, thought of an idea to remake "Maverick"....only this time, as a sarcastic private detective....named Jim Rockford !
...and on
September 13, 1974, Huggins and Steven Cannell,
recreated "Maverick" as...
The Rockford
Files
(Each show opened with a message of something relatively new in the world of electronics at the time...
The Answering Machine !
Jim Rockford, after serving 5 years in prison for a wrongful conviction, was pardoned...only to become a private detective that could barely make a living, while living in a mobile home that also was his office.
One only
had to see Jim Rockford drive his classic Pontiac Firebird Espirit, and every
cool guy had to have one....including me !
And the
best part of the show had to have been the supporting
cast....
Angel....his trusted confidant
(Stuart
Margolin)
And
His
dad....Rocky
(Noah
Berry)
The show
ran for 6 seasons until January 10, 1980, and in 2002 was named #39 on the list
of the "TV Guides Greatest 50 TV Shows of All Time".....and runs continuously in
syndication to this day.
As the
years passed, he continued his career in a number of movie roles, one of which
was, "Murphy's Romance" with Sally Field in 1985, in which he was nominated for an
Oscar as "Best Actor in a Leading Role".
...the
story of an aging man helping and falling in love with a younger
woman.
In 2000,
he starred alongside Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones,
and Donald
Sutherland in "Space Cowboys", the story of 4 aging retired astronauts who
had a "second shot" at glory.
And in
2004, he made what was perhaps his most poignant film, "The
Notebook", as an aging nursing home patient reading a love story to a
fellow patient, Gena Rowlands, from a notebook....a story of how the two
originally met in the 40s.
In 2005 he was awarded a "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Screen Actors Guild.
Remember
the beginning of the "James Garner"story...the part about his being a poor
student ?
He may
have never received an "A" back in Norman, Oklahoma, but he did get an honorary
Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1995, as a
long-time supporter of that institution.
James
Garner, a "cool" guy, who was loved by many on and off the screen, will be
missed for the memories he gave us over the past 50 years of television and
silver screen entertainment.
Thanks
"Rockfish"
Dick
Arendt
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