Slavery and Civil RIghts; Frederick Douglas and Maya Angelou

I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.”

“Out of the huts of history's shame
Dr Maya Angelou

 Where Slavery is there Liberty cannot be; and where Liberty is there Slavery cannot be.
        Chas. Sumner—

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle.”
― Frederick Douglass

“I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”
― Frederick Douglass

“To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.”
― Frederick Douglass

No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.
Frederick Douglass 

Our Hyrum House

Charlie visited our old Hyrum house, 587 East 100 South Hyrum, Utah.  It is currently vacant and for sale.  He got some very interesting pictures, so here is a tour of our home.  We lived in this home from 1963-1967, left for two years, and then returned for 1968 until 1984, after I had graduated from graduate school.  Mom moved to the condo when Charlie and Dianna were still at home, but I had already moved out.

This is the view from the front.  We put in a sprinkler system, a circular driveway, and made the existing driveway larger.  There is siding on the home now, but otherwise it looks much the same.  The cement porch was laid by the builders.  We had bigger shrubberies out front.  We had a basket by the garage, which is to the left.

This shows the original driveway, the crumbly part, and shows the addition.  It shows the neighbor's property, but the big tree is still there.  The garage and house are just to the right of this photo.  You can see that we extended and widened the driveway.  We helped dad put in the forms, lay the gravel, and then the cement truck came and poured the cement.  There was also a chain link fence we put in, mixing the cement by hand for the posts, between the properties, but that is no longer there.

Going through the front door is the living room.  When we purchased it had wood floor.  My dad took this out and put in carpet, and for a long time he kept the wood.  I do not think this is the original wood.  Up the stairs (no pictures) there are three bedrooms.  The bath is the first door to the right, next to the master suite which has its own door to the bathroom.  The two smaller bedrooms are to the left.  There is a landing at the top of the stairs, with doors to all the bedrooms and the bathroom.  The bathroom at that time had a tub only, no shower.  The doors in this picture are the coat closet and the broom closet.  There is also a linen closet upstairs.  We did not have a fan on the light.  The bannister looks to be the original.

This is looking down the stairs from the upstairs to the living room.

The kitchen is on the main level as well.  Of course the counters and linoleum are different, but I think the cabinets may be the same.  The configuration is the same, with the dining room being to the left.  There was also a door to the garage off the dining room.

This picture shows both the kitchen and the living room and you can see how the wall works between the two room.

Going down from the living room is he family room.  My dad and mom put a lot of work into this room.  They put in a gas fireplace, with a fake log.  We did not have a wood insert.  The put in a deep red carpet and had a darker paneling which went to the ceiling.  Ny dad bricked a planter box.  When we originally moved in there was a post in the middle of the room.  The planter box replaced the post and it had a steal decorative bar going to the ceiling to help provide support.  There is no support beam now. 

Originally this was one big room.  My dad put in a hall to seperate the room from the bathroom/laundry room.  He also put in a sewing room, office space.  The sewing room is behind the wall to the right and it has built in cabinets.  If you look from the outside you can see that a window looks into the sewing room, and the other window into the family room.  There is also a window to the back on the wall behind the photographer.  The mantel above the fireplace is an addition of my father's.  He did not get the three supports quite right and the mantel rests on the two outside supports, while there is a space between the middle support and the mantel.

This is part of the basement.  This area is behind the furnace, and dad built a fruit cellar here.  We would fill the shelves with canned fruits and beans from the garden.  It would also be the overflow from kitchen storage such as cans and cereal boxes.  Dad had a couple big wooden boxes he had made and in those we stored sleeping bags.  There was also a big bin with flour and us boys use to have to go down and fill the bin for the kitchen using the sifter.  The are below is also close to the furnace, on the other side, and below the stairs between the family room and the living room.  When I was growing up, this was my place to go when I was sad.  You could watch the fire to the furnace, and have a pity party for a while.

These two pictures are of what was the boy's room when we lived there.  Me and my two brothers shared the room with a twin bed and a bunk bed.  We worked hard on the lodge pole pine walls.  Each board had to be handed to meet my father's strict standards.  We also put in the ceiling over the furnace ducts.  My dad also made built in drawers, desk and closets for us.  The shelves above the desk are the ones my father put in.  The windows became a safety entry which we used if we locked ourselves out of the house.  They can no longer be used in that manner as you will see from the outside.

This is the big area that you come to as you go down the stairs.  My dad built all these cabinets.  However he built a fold up ping-pong table here first, that would fold up and then roll into the wall where about half of the cabinets were.  My dad sold the ping pong table.  We had the hardest time getting it out of the basement because it was built in the basement.   He then added the additional cabinets where the ping-pong table would store.  The other thing that is missing from the basement is my dad's office.  It was to the left as you came down the stairs, opposite the furnace and storage area.  It was all lined with shelves, and my dad collected lots of books, mostly LDS Church related books.

This is inside the garage.  I don't remember my dad improving the garage alot.  It was a single car garage, and we would store stuff along each wall.  We didn't park vehicles in it very much but the garage was used as a work area for wood projects or car mechanics.  My dad had a lot of tools.

The outside is the saddest part of all.  Yes they have a big yard, but the garden is pretty much gone.  They only tree still growing is the old plum trees that were there when we moved in, and they are still in very bad shape.  Gone are the raspberries, strawberries, and other fruit trees, as well as most of the garden space.  He had bill a culvert from the front to the garden in the back.  The back yard had a big lillac bush, and chain link fences on both sides.  It did not have a back porch off the kitchen, and there was no exit from the kitchen to the back.  You had to go through the garage.  Instead we had hauled very nice rock for a rock and bush garden.  The rock came from Porcupine.  We also made a flat rock side walk which went from the back patio to the back door going into the garage.  The rock garden was inside this sidewalk.  We put the cover up over the patio behind the family room.  However in that day, there were cement stairs which came up to ground level rather than the sunken porch. 

These two pictures tell on my younger sister.  That is her writing on the wall.  I think this is from the fruit storage area in the basement.  Mike was an old boyfriend my brother Charlie did not like.  I am pretty sure Charlie chased him off.  (This was after my dad had left and moved to Salt Lake.)

Industrial Accident Del Monte

I worked at Del Monte while I was putting myself through school, and on a Mission.  It is one of those jobs an able bodied American won't do unless he wants some money, and I needed money.  I had several different jobs there.  I first worked at the Del Monte in Franklin, graveyard shift, on a belt picked the bad stuff out of the beans, sticks, bad beans, rock etc.  I worked along side my mom and brother, Weldon.
I moved up to Del Monte Smithfield.  My first job there was a cleaning job, with a steam and water powered house.  I would spray this water under the stairs where the ladies were standing.  I would go from one end of the processing plant to the other.  At this time we were processing peas.  I moved up to a husker during the corn season.  Finally I moved up to a machine that pushed the cans into line to be filled with whatever.
While working there (Probably 1976,) there was a guy on a mini-bulldozer, loading carrots to be processed.  They were delivered to Del Monte in a refrigerated car. 

He would take the bulldozer into the car and scoop up a load of carrots, he would then take them to the processing bin.  At the time the were filling #10 cans of peas and carrots--like for school lunches. His bulldozer looked something like the one in the picture, but it didn't have a cage around it.  I was told what happened.  The operator leaned out while the shovel was coming down.  It caught him and squished him.  He stopped breathing. The foreman tried to revive him but was not successful.  The tractor sat silent for a day while there was an investigation.  Before it was operated again a cage when been constructed around the driver.

Poetry I like: Ad Infinitum

Two versions of a poem.  The second version was quoted in Puppet Masters
By JonathanSwift, from "On Poetry, A Rhapsody".

  So, naturalists observe, a flea
  Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;
  And these have smaller still to bite 'em;
  And so proceed ad infinitum.
  Thus every poet, in his kind,
  Is bit by him that comes behind.

---

The more familiar form comes from AugustusDeMorgan, in "A Budget of Paradoxes":

  Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
  And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
  And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;
  While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.

My Poetry: 12/7/1941

12/7/1941

I wrote this poem as I wrote my father's Navy history.

12/7/1941

The world changed that day,

And young men felt the need to respond.

"We'll give ours back, we'll make it right,

We'll stand up, We choose to fight."

From the gridiron field, to the battle field,

From the school play to the battleship,

From the farm, from the literary club,

From the service group, From the study of books.

      They came to the boot camps to learn how to kill,

      And were taught to live in a world--

      Of bombs,

          Of bullets,

              Of torpedoes,

                  Of Knives,

      Of shells,

          Of oceans,

              Of bayonets,

                  Of strife.

They learned radar, and signaling, gunnery and knots,

Radio, mechanics, how to survive gas attack,

To jump from the deck of a ship,

God forbid they ever have to jump from the deck of a ship.

      And they drilled, and drilled, and drilled, drilled, drilled.

          They learned how to drill.

And they hoped when the time came,

When they passed through fire, that they might survive,

And return to the farms, the clubs and the fields,

And love their mothers and their children and their wives.

Dad Catching Himself on Fire

This story is one with regards to our days in Othello, of which I have no recollection, but was told to me by my older sister.  We figured I was probably two when this took place.
During potato harvest all was business, and work work work.  Dad was motivated to get the harvest done as quickly as possible, and so wanted to keep everyone working without breaks as much as possible.  Grandpa Wardle was helping with harvest , and I imagine there were others, including paid laborers.
Dad did not want to stop harvesting even for refueling.  So when it was time to refuel one of the trucks, he was adding fuel while the truck was still running.  However in the process, the gas ignited, and set Dad on fire.  Grandpa was close at hand, and quickly rolled him on the ground.  He was burnt all over and had the go to the hospital.  Sara said he burned his face, hands and legs.  Her

Both pictures post Othello

comment was, "He was burnt everyplace that was not covered by his garments."
As I mentioned, I do not remember this incident.  I assume they got the spuds in.  If Grandpa hadn't been close at hand, and hadn't put the fire out quickly, things would have been much worse.  My sister, and mother and father as well, considered it a miracle he wasn't more seriously hurt, and credit this miracle to his garments.  I never knew my Dad to have burn scars.

"The Wooden Spoon" Discipline in Our House

Discipline was sometimes a problem around our home.  I am thinking mostly of the Hyrum days.  It was almost clock work that my father would arrive home at 5:30, and then head to his office downstairs, with dinner at 6:00.  If my mother got particularly upset with us she would threaten us with a meeting with my father.  Those were dreaded, and would result in a scolding, or a spanking.  My father used the hand on the butt method.
There were days when my mother couldn't wait, then should would threaten to use, or actually use the wooden spoon.  "Don't make me get the wooden spoon out," etc.  I remember once she used the wooden spoon on my older brother and broke it against his butt.  I thought it must have been very painful but he said it didn't hurt.  I am not sure if wasn't just trying to be brave.

Your Heart Will Burn: Campfire Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE199Q-80Zw
I love this song, and those who played it as well as those who danced.  thank you.