Good morning—gonna be back in the 80’s today….sunny and bright.

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Yesterday I looked at some common objects in my effort to point out how much our lives have roots in our, often superstitious, past–or rather the past of our kind–humans that went before and learned or thought they knew things that played upon their minds so seriously that hundreds even thousands of years later it colors our present.

Take for instance the phrase:  He/she gave me the EVIL EYE.  This was a special power that one might have to destroy or bewitch by using the specifically endowed orb.  In Irish legend one of the protagonists is destroyed (Baylor) by casting a sling-stone at his Evil Eye.  And you just thought it was a silly saying but at one time it was a true belief and fear.

Today’s FAIRS comes down from ancient times when they were political and ceremonial functions in pre-Christian times and then moved on to markets and the like from medieval times on.   In Ireland Puck Fair in Killorglin County Kerry holds a fair from the 10th – 12th of August which is thought to stretch back to its pagan origins where a white male beribboned goat is hoisted onto a platform and gapes bemused for 3 days at the revelers below and to add to the good spirits pubs stay open the full three days without closing.  Now that’s a fun fair.

You see them on computer games, at carnivals, haunted houses and the like but did you realize how long they’ve been around or their significance. LABYRINTHS can be found carved on rocks on the road to Tintagel (legendary birth site of Arthur), one is set in mosaic tile in Ely Cathedral and in Greece their origins go back 4,000 years.  For years in what is now Great Britain the designs were cut into the grass as part of May Day’s spring fertility rites often with Maypoles set within them.   In the middle ages they were associated with the veil between the worlds (A Midsummer’s Night Dream).  And you thought only Harry Potter could find magic in it’s confines.

How many times have you WISHED ON A FALLING STAR when you were a child, or admit it long after you reached adulthood?   In an ever changing word early people were comforted by the permanency of the stars and as such they became symbols of unchanging values.  To the ancient Chinese the “stars and planets (were) examples of their earthly representatives.”  The Ojibwa believed that the wind changed to follow a falling star.   The star was connected to the human soul in many cultures around the globe.  It was even seen as a soul coming from heaven to animate a nearly born child (parts of Britain).  But when you make that wish do it quickly as the charm only works for a very limited time.

The Holy Grail and King Arthur have a convoluted history.  While cauldrons are ancient symbols in the Celtic (which Arthur was most definitely whether you believe he was Welsh, Irish or Cornish) with Dagda (Irish god) serving heroic warriors, but never cowards, from it for example.  And multiple cauldrons have been found in bogs and other watery places of Celtic ritual sacrifice across Europe.   We somehow got from this to the Grail–the cup or dish on the table used by Jesus at the last supper.  Most of my study on the subject found this as well as the widespread broadcast of the legend to be an addition of French writers in the 13th century.  Some even feel that the original vessel may well have been a human skull used for a drinking cup as early Celts were believed to take the heads a vanquished enemies.   Now there’s an image I’d rather not think of.

Ever get a CHARM BRACELET for a gift, or collect items for one you have?  Charms have been round since ancient times and have included phrases, inscriptions on paper (etc) and have been used to obtain every desire from chastity to fertility and all desires in between.  Early ones were written on items and worn around the neck and have been found back to ancient Rome and possibly beyond.  The Christians carried on this tradition with rosaries and holy relics.  But they were also favored by witches and warlocks.  So what are you wishing for or protecting by all those little items on your wrist?

“If a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going somewhere.” ― Groucho Marx

Source:

Bluestone, PhD, Sarvananda:  HOW TO READ SIGNS AND OMENS IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Coghlan, Ronan:  THE ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ARTHURIAN LEGENDS

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen:  THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT

Lake, Matt:  WEIRD ENGLAND

Morgan, Giles:  THE HOLY GRAIL

Radford, E. and M.A.:  THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPERSTITIONS

Ross, Anne:  DRUIDS PREACHERS OF IMMORTALITY

Editor:  Ruckenstein, Lelia & O’Malley, James:  EVERYTHING IRISH

Another lovely weekend over….just laid around on Sunday–unusual for me but couldn’t find anybody who wanted to play.

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It’s the week before Easter and I remembered a conversation with a friend who belongs to a religion that feels that it is not appropriate to celebrate these observances as they are in essence pagan ceremonies converted to modern observances.  She was surprised at my knowledge of same.  One reason for this is that my own childhood church had similar beliefs, though they were much less strict about having a secular enjoyment of same, but mostly because I am a person constantly seeking origins.

For instance did you know that apples are a constant theme in early religions–they have long been associated with all types of religion and even magic.  Besides the Bible’s account of the apple in Eden (though in truth it was a fruit not an apple—that’s kind of been added later), we find them in gardens of multi goddesses: Scandinavian, Teutonic and Norse goddesses.  The Iroquois believed that it was the tee of life and they have been used in Druid ceremonies and other pagan rites.  In fact Avalon, the legendary isle of King Arthur fame was also called the Isle of Apples.

The cat was believed to be holy by the ancient Egyptians and to kill one was sacrilege.  It was revered by Greek followers of Diana as well as Scandinavians (Goddess Frey–love and fertility).  Later they became associated with Christian’s adherence of witches and in fact some believe that the destruction of cats by zealots helped contribute to the Black Death’s body count as it was carried by fleas that resided on rats which multiplied rapidly in the absence of one of their major enmies.  To this day a black cat crossing your path is considered an evil omen.

Blood is necessary for life and as such Jewish and many other ancient peoples made that connection early on and there were numbers religious and other life regulations including animal sacrifice and regulations for women during their menstrual cycle.  The blood connection continues in communion with the worshiper drinking the “blood of Christ” as part of the ceremony.

This vision of the blood connection also has become deeply ingrained in public legend.  Vampires have long been a part of human lore Thailand, Tibet, of course Romania and Russian to name a few have long standing legends of the being what survives on taking the life giving red stuff rom human prey to survive.  The Victorians of London believed that there was a vampire that lurked among the tombstones of Highgate cemetery along with satanic rituals.  Today you can hardly click through the Cable channels and not find the fiends (Lost Boys) or romance (Twilight) of the genre.

A Norse legend calls mistletoe a puny, inoffensive thing–that was not required to swear to Figga since “no harm could be feared from it”–which proved a fatal error for Baldur when Loki used it to slay him. The plant was held as sacred and wonder-working for Celtic Druids and Norsemen as well.  In ancient Britian it was used to cure all diseases and it is still banned in many Christian Churches in the British Isle because of pagan association.  Of course we all know it’s current use at Christmas (purely English and English traditional) for an excuse to kiss each others and strangers.

St. Patrick banished them from Ireland and they were the form the devil took to get Adam and Eve banished from the Garden (Bible and current usage to describe Satan or the devil).  In England the Adder (only poisonous snake found in G.B.) was feared in ancient times not because of it’s venom but because it was considered to be an ill omen.  They continue to be part of our lore and a creature that brings fear to many modern human beings.

Vampires can’t be seen in them (probably originated by Brom Stoker and not used by Rice) and they have been used in spells and legends for time long gone by–but the modern mirror with its wonderful clarity is a thing of recent development.  Mirrors have long felt to reveal a person’s spiritual double, the soul (and thus the legend that is sited to this day of 7 years of bad luck for breaking one.).  But most of all who can forget the evil queen’s chant of “Mirror, Mirror on the wall.”

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All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.    Dalai Lama

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SOURCES:

Guerbr, H.A.:  MYTHS OF THE NORSEMEN FROM THE EDDAS AND SAGAS

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen:   THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WITCHES & WITCHCRAFT

Lake, Matt:  WEIRD ENGLAND

Morgan, Giles: THE HOLY GRAIN

Melton, J. Gordon:  THE VAMPIRE BOOK

Radford, E & M.A.P:  THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPERSITIONS

Ross, Anne:  DRUIDS PREACHERS OF IMMORTALITY

Feel Free to quote my site if you’d like.  First quote IT IS FRIDAY—WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO LOOK LIKE YOU’RE WORKING TILL YOU CAN LEAVE AND ENJOY YOURSELF.

1967/OCTOBER VOL 1, #8 The Seed Chicago HIPPIE News letter  $100.00     https://www.etsy.com/listing/227719149/1967october-vol-1-8-the-seed-chicago?ref=shop_home_active_1

So today we finish the 60’s

1969 brought us  the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) the beginning of negotiations to curb nuclear capabilities of US and USSR.

So years of not loving the bomb and living with a power that could destroy the world as we knew it brought initial talks which as far as I can see did little to this day of controlling anything.  Then like now we live with a bunch of politicians, who can’t keep their mistresses, finances and obligations straight, who can at any given moment end our world and life with a casual order….how easy this will be would probably scare us all–it did in the 60’s and I see no real changes–if you do let me know what they are.

In June 1969 Judy Garland died of an overdose at age 47.  In July Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Cronkite watched the feed with the rest of us and proclaimed:  “Man on the moon..oh boy!”  when Neil Armstrong (and later on Buzz Aldrin) put a foot down on this exotic surface.  Then we topped it off in August in a small, place in New York that would ever live on in our memories.  Woodstock was the town and three days of Peace, Music and Love at Max Yasgur’s farm was the goal–over 400,000 came (only 200,000 were expected and only 186,000 actually paid).   It was declared free on the first night and the rest is history with 50 mile long traffic jams to hear Janis Joplin, The Who, Canned Heat, the Grateful Dead, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, and Country Joe & The Fish and Jimi Hendrix to name a few.  The final cost $2.4.  Two other notable items that year were in October when the first E-mail message was sent from a computer at UCLA to another at Stanford.  And finally in November Sesame Street debuts cookies anyone?

I mean talk about living in amazing time…the walk on the moon–I was working in ER between my Junior and Senior year and they brought a TV in and kept it in our meds room.  We watched it and were totally amazed.  After so many bad things happening around us this was something positive and promising it gave us something to be proud of our country for and a hope for the future.  I was in Michigan then I can’t imagine what it was like in Florida.

Woodstock–no I didn’t attend, to be honest it was more of an east coast the NY corridor thing…most of us didn’t know about it till it started making news for its traffic jams and going free and all.  Remember there hadn’t even been an email sent till later on this year—if you didn’t have friends in the area or some source to the news there you—like most of us in the less than leading area in the age—hadn’t a clue.  I saw the news which we all watched avidly and was in the theatre in 1970 to see it all on the big screen.  It must have been an experience—but I always hated camping even in the best weather so maybe watching it was better than hanging in the mud.  I think that this was the height of our whole love generation, in the mud and distance from the big cities they survived without war, or law enforcement and had only peace and love—it would not last but it was a great thing while it did.  Again it gave us reason to hope and pride in ourselves as part of this generation crying out for peace and love.

And all I can say is the world wouldn’t be nearly as good a place without the Cookie Monster and Big Bird and all the rest.

February saw a wave of campus uprising and violence all over the country most notable the extended strike at U.C. Berkeley as well as takeovers and sit-ins at Univ of Massachusetts, Howard University and Penn State.    In June there was a riot at the Stonewall Tavern in New York when a group of gay mourners (at Judy Garland’s funeral) had issues with the police,, which would become the launching point for the Gay Liberation movement.  And finally in November Native Americans occupy Alcatraz accomplishing little at the time but marking another group go on to fight for their rights.

So you see what we were dealing with–on the one hand we pushed for peace and love on another our young men were being killed by a War Machine and with a President (Nixon) who after seeing 500,000 demonstrators marching for peace said:  , “Now, I understand that there has been, and continues to be, opposition to the war in Vietnam on the campuses and also in the nation. As far as this kind of activity is concerned, we expect it; however under no circumstances will I be affected whatever by it.”   We wanted peace, we wanted a stop to the killing, we got ignored by the powers that be, we got  more war and more deaths….we would be come disillusioned, then angry…some of the group even got violent.

November 15, 1969, Moratorium March on Washington  was the day of a massive Moratorium march in Washington, D.C., which attracted over 500,000 demonstrators against the war, including many performers and activists.

I was at this one, some friends decided last minute to attend and we piled into a car and drove all night to DC.  We stayed at some friends of friend (I could write a book just about my experiences on this one) and marched Friday night carrying a candle and moving slowly through DC–first time I had ever been there.  There were people everywhere and the majority of the demonstrators were peaceful and dedicated.  We spent some time in some of the churches that opened their doors to us letting us warm up and giving us food and drink.   We also did the big march on Sat.  We drove home on Sunday. Thank god sleep wasn’t a big thing with me then.

BUT our peak had been reached and crazies like Manson,  Events like Altamont and more were quickly cracking our faith–But I can say that we did try and we were part of one of the most exciting year we had seen in a long, long time and which hasn’t been bettered since.

“Peace is the only battle worth waging” – Albert Camus

Sources:

http://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/timeline/timeline_text.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moratorium_to_End_the_War_in_Vietnam

In answer to most recent question:  It takes me about 2 hrs a day (on days I publish my blogs which is from 3-5 times a week) to write, go thru correspondence and publish.

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and so we return to the 60’s

Meanwhile back in the states in April protesters (400,000) marched to the U.N.  building where Martin Luther and Dr. Spock spoke.  And in October Norman Mailer joined a march to the Pentagon.  November saw another casualty of the conflict when Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara resigned due to conflict with the president over his Vietnam policies.  (he had testified earlier in the year that the U.S. bombing raids were not achieving their objectives).  1968 was ushered in with a late January Tet Offensive launched by the Vietcong for which American forces were unprepared.   Later in the same year Walter Cronkite (CBS news anchor and America’s “most trusted man”) told viewers his opinions on the war including it was a stalemate and asking the country to negotiate and end to the conflict.  In March hundreds of unarmed civilians including women and children were massacred in My Lai (we would not hear of this until 1969.  (by the way the Lt in charge (Calley) was tried and convicted for life in 1971–and was paroled after only serving  3 1/2 years)  By December 1967  there were 385,300 U.S Troops in ‘Nam with 33,000 in Thailand and 60,000 offshore.

1967 found me in nursing school but becoming more and more appalled by the state of things.  Protests were becoming common news.  Everyone knew someone who was drafted or someone who was avoiding same.  The protest was that the poor whites and minorities were being placed as cannon fodder as they could not afford to be in college which was one of the deferments for the draft.  We watched the death tolls mount but to most it was just another part of TV—they were numbers not actual human beings.  But then there were those of us that were beginning to realize that the guy setting next to us in English Lit if he flunked out could be dead in ‘Nam within the next year or less.  It started to hit home with a gut wrenching reality.

In August of 1967 Thurgood Marshall became the first African American to become a Supreme Court justice.  In June 1968 Bobby Kennedy was assassinated while campaigning for president. For four days in August in Chicago the Democratic party; who’s setting president Lyndon Johnson had announced that he would to run for re-election and whose most promising candidate had been murdered; faced chaos within the Convention Center, while Democratic ruled Chicago let their cops beat demonstrators  and charged several activity leaders of inciting riots.   In November that same year our first African American woman congressperson, Shirley Chisholm was elected.  Richard Nixon on a “law an order” platform won the presidential election in November by just 7/10 of a percent over Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

Talk about chaotic.  Humphrey was perceived, by most of us out there as weak and unappealing, and Johnson had been brought down not by protests or violence but many feel by Cronkite’s opinions on the war—now that’s scary.  If we perceived Humphrey poorly we saw Nixion even worse as petty (You won’t have Nixon to kick around any more), dishonest (tricky dick–we had no idea how really dishonest he was till later) and those were his better points.   Many saw the Democrats as getting us into this mess in the first place and after the loss of Kennedy were rudderless and without a party to depend on.

1967 brought us the First Super Bowl with Green Bay playing Kansas City (hint the Packers won).  This was also the year that the Rolling Stone Magazine premiered in November.  In September of 1968 the Miss America Contest in Atlantic City was the sight of a Feminist demonstration (the first but not the last)  claiming that the values it represents were outdated.  Also in Atlantic City on the same day the first Black Miss American Pageant was held as the Miss America contestants were exclusively white.  Pepsi, one of their major sponsors withdrew from sponsorship of Miss America after this.

1967 was the Summer of Love heralding the “hippie movement” in and around San Francisco.   We all heard of the thousands that trooped to Haight-Ashbury and sang the song—“Summer time will be a love-in there” (Momma’s and the Poppa’s).  We were sure that we were different and that we were going to make a difference.  1968 I went to San Francisco but my long suffering mom who took 4 teen girls all the way to the golden state, then down California 1 and back to Michigan by way of Route 66, drew the line with Haight Ashbuy and so I missed that part of the era.  It was a heady era, we were sure that we were superior to those generations that went before.  We were sure that we were going to end the war and future wars as well.  We dressed in bright clothes and bell bottoms,  jeans that before had been what the working stiff, blue collar laborer wore became a uniform for those who thought themselves above conformity and denim would never be the same again.

1968 found Abbie Hoffman throwing fake currency from the gallery at the New York Stock exchange in protest and the SSFU Students striking at San Francisco University which resulted in the nation’s first ethnic studies program.

If we thought we were in trouble before we knew it now.  Nixon was president.  Thousands were dying in Viet Nam with a never ending line of replacements being supplied by the draft.  Kids were being abused in the streets for protesting in the streets of one of our largest cities while the press presented the gory proof and a major political party went on with business as usual only a few hundred feet away.   We were disgusted, frightened and very angry and many of our fellow students were to show that they could be every bit as violent as those they protested against.

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The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast …
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

 

Bob Dylan

Another damp, foggy start to the day, but we’ll be in the 80s by afternoon.

Next 1/2 season brings you a Scottish Duel in Paris

and here we go back to the 60’s

By the end of 1964 the war was heating up with North Vietnam invading Laos and incidents with naval vessels (which on further inspection appears to have been fabricated) which convinced the Congress to pass a resolution which allowed undeclared war being waged against North Vietnam including the stationing of 2 carriers off shore.   By early 1965 Rolling Thunder (limited bombing of North Vietnam to deter support for Viet Cong) began a three year, eight month campaign which involved 305,380 raids and 634,000 tons of bombs, along with the death of 818 of our pilots and 182,000 North Vietnam citizens.   At the end of 1966  Dr.  Martin Luther King announced his opposition to the war.

1965 was the year I graduated from High School and the year in March of the First Anti-Vietnam War Teach-In involving anti-war faculty and the yet to be in-famous SDS. I’m sure I heard the news, I’m not sure when exactly it made an impression on me.  I was all wrapped in in finishing High School and had obtained my acceptance to college.  In 1965 I started college but funding became a problem so I dropped out (to a chorus of you’ll never go back) and took the world’s most boring job (thank god for computers) filing driver’s license applications and related documents.  I saved the money and was back at college by the start of school in 1966 vowing I would never file anything ever again.

1964 saw the defeat of Goldwater by Johnson (60% popular vote) who had became president when Kennedy was assassinated.  By ’65 we had Medicare,   the Voting Rights Act,  but as you’ve seen we also had an escalation of the war, interestingly enough it was Goldwater that ran as a hawk about the war while Johnson gave us the impression that he would back down the involvement.  By late 1966  we also had our first African American governor (Edward Brook, Republican Mass.) in 85 years.

I was starting to look at politics, but my view was more contained with voting rights and the mistreatment, that was currently on the airways, to the Black Americans, especially in the South–at this time we weren’t so interested in how this was occurring, though less obviously, in our own back yard  (at that time I lived in Michigan).  I went to a private church school and we had less politics and more religion, that would change some (in part thanks to yours truly) but never to the point that the public colleges became involved.

1965  Gave us a not kind examination of the Auto Industry by Ralph Nader in his book Unsafe At Any Speed.  Entertainment wise there was the Cold-War satire movie The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, as well as a TV show that lasted 3 years and hasn’t left us yet Star Trek, a series that has gone where no other before and we don’t have a since yet.

But one of the most defining personalities of the 60’s was born, or should I say “redefined” in 1965 when Michael Fallen coined the word “hippie” to define “beatniks” who went to Haight-Ashbury; in a series of articles that he wrote in the San Francisco Examiner.  The word, and all that it would eventually go on to stand for,  wasn’t really part of the general public knowledge at that time.  I personally don’t remember when I first heard it but I do remember the later years when it became to be used by the general “straight” public as a definition for any long haired, unconventional, bell bottom wearing soul that they came across.  To those of us who embraced the anti-war position and marched and protested it usually also meant those that were hip, cool, but a bit farther out than those of us who continued in school etc.   We liked hippies and might even refer to ourselves like that when we were trying to be groovy,  but most of us felt they were a whole lot “farther out”  than the average college student.

With the summer of ’64 we went from Freedom to atrocity  when 3 young activist trying to increase voter registration in Mississippi were murdered.  It was also that summer that brought us the Civil Rights Act and a Nobel Peace Prize for Martin Luther King.  In 1965 Malcom X was assassinated in NYC and Watts Race Riots cost LA 34 lives.  By 1966 Stokely Carmichael becomes head of the SNCC invoking “Black Power”, NOW (National Organization for Women) was founded, as was the militant Black Panther Party by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton.

Now if all that doesn’t convince you that we were in for some unsettled years I don’t know what will.   A country on edge with cold war and spending untold resource in a small country for reasons that many of us never quite understood.  To prevent Communism from spreading, for economic gain or because Kennedy was a Catholic and so was the ruling class in Vietnam when this all started (that was an actual theory I am not making this stuff up), choose a reason they all had their supporters and they all proved pointless in the end.  Add an entire minority sick of oppression and a second minority that also felt put upon (may I remind you that black men were granted the vote before black and white women were) and you have the ingredients for a prime explosion or two.

 “The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.”
― John Lennon 

Sources:

http://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/timeline/timeline_text.html

Dark and dreary out there and a lot cooler than it has been.

only 10 more days till OUTANDER RETURNS.  This is from the next series of episodes—Claire is in Jamie’s kilt (notice) and hence Jamie’s in pants–I miss his knees.

Continuing on with my 60’s—memories of an old Flower Child:

Yesterday we discussed the Beatles and how when they started out they were simpler as were we all.

The Beatles came into US reality for most of us in February 1964.  By this time the Viet Nam involvement was well on  its way–The Viet Cong had came out in late 1960 and by the end of the next year we were anticipating more presence in Nam and by ’62 a couple of million dollars at least had been sunk into aid for the country.  Kennedy was assassinated in ’63 and Johnson became president pushing for a more aggressive stand in the conflict.

We got the news in those days on TV (Walter Cronkite comes to mind naturally) or the radio which had basically music and news having declined from the entertainment focus it was before the visual introductions of television., There was one phone in the home–some of the richer people had extensions but I don’t remember anyone I knew having more than one.  This was further complicated by the fact that the phone was pretty much stationary—wherever it was is where you were anchored to when you talked.   There was no internet, Facebook–in fact my dears there were no computers anywhere within the average person’s sphere.

In 61 the cold war had heated up with the Soviets putting the first man in space following in a matter of day with our unsuccessful invasion of Cuba’s Bay of Pig’s in April and the president (Kennedy) was recommending we build bomb shelters.  Less than a month later the USSR tested a hydrogen bomb (biggest explosion in history).  It got no better in ’62 when the Soviet’s missiles were discovered in Cuba and Kennedy backed down the Russians in October.

It was a frightening time, after the rather placid 50’s we were now in the midst of a fight between the two biggest kids on the block.  I remember I was in high school during the Missile Crisis and how we talked of little else and all were expecting war at best, unannounced, devastation with sneak missile attacks at the worst.  We lived with thoughts of gloom and doom—and our nightmares were of survival of life in a world devastated with nuclear damage and fall out.  The relief when it was over and the Soviets backed down was like finding out that your tests came back negative from a lump they were pretty sure was serious.   As a teenager who felt particularly helpless with the whole situation I was even more distressed.

Technology was beginning on the upswing with the first laser  introduced in 1960 and in that same year the first Birth control PILL was made available (only to married women).  The times were changing and Bob Dylan made his first appearance in April 1961, the same year the FCC called TV a “Vast Wasteland.”  In 1962 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was published and in June of that year the first major conference of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) was held.   By 1963 an artificial heart had been implanted and in 1964 the Surgeon General found smoking HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH. 

It was a time of rapid change and great insecurity, we were threatened by the Russians and our own (or a conspiracy of same, which ever you chose to believe) killed the president.  People built bomb shelters in their yards and basement and I can remember my dad saying (though he never built a shelter) that we would not be able to help anybody who survived the blast as they would be radioactive and would kill us with their contamination if we allowed them access to our shelter–the thought gave me nightmares for a long time–of us turning away friends or loved ones to keep ourselves alive.

But the early 60’s were already foreshadowing the turmoil to come.  In 1960 there were Sit-in Protests in North Carolina against white’s only lunch counter segregation and in the same year and state the African American SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) was created to involve the black college students more in the civil rights movement.  By ’61 an interracial group of protesters traveled south to test Kennedy’s devotion to civil right.  That same year found parties around the world protesting against nuclear weapons.    In 1962 Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring (conservation) was published and James Meredith (African American), protected by Federal marshals, registered at Ole Miss after rioting which killed two students and injured 160.   Another book  The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan (Women’s rights) made more waves in 1963 and that was also the year another  advocate Gloria Steinem wrote an article of harassment and injustices while she was undercover as a Playboy Bunny.  And in August of the same year Martin Luther King joined the March on Washington and gave his I HAD A DREAM speech.

It was a time when blacks and women (among others) were re-examining their position in society and deciding they were not where they should be.  Given all this changes in image, place and turmoil, added to the cold war and the technology you can well guess at how I might have been a bit excited at the possibilities, confused by the changes and fearful of the violence and ever threatening of nuclear destruction.  The world was posed on the brink of something and a whole lot of us weren’t sure what but we were rapidly deciding that if a decision must be made then we as participants had a right to our views being included in the process.

 White with Gold Trim Creamer Teapot Shaped Server   $30.00  https://www.etsy.com/listing/226844267/white-with-gold-trim-creamer-teapot?ref=shop_home_active_1

 We stand today on the edge of a new frontier — the frontier of the 1960s, a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats. The new frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises — it is a set of challenges. John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) Thirty-fifth President of the USA

Sources:

http://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/timeline/timeline_text.html

Looks like the liquid sunshine isn’t going to dry up any time soon.

ORIGINAL: AN ACT OF EVIL 4/20/1995 TERROR IN THE HEARTLAND   $10.40

  http://www.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-AN-ACT-OF-EVIL-4-20-1995-TERROR-IN-THE-HEARTLAND-/261822263966?

Why don’t real guys ever talk like this?????

$9.00    http://www.ebay.com/itm/WINNIE-THE-POO-WINTER-DECORATE-CANDY-DISH-/261822270605?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I was flipping through a catalog the other day and saw

THE BEATLES 42 WOODEN MAGNET SHAPES, which included various portraits of the lads from three different periods of their fame, as well as group portraits, logos and other art work.

And I thought back to the old days of the 60’s when I saw the Fab Four live in Chicago and the walls of my bedroom and closet (which we (my sis and I) shared with my long suffering brother) were covered with pictures from every magazine I could afford to buy.

My father always blamed it on my mum who while at the grocery store saw the 45 (that’s a record with one song on each side for those too young to remember) of I Want to Hold Your Hand and bought it for me.  I wasn’t actually a fan yet, but did like the record and by the time I saw them (the whole family gathered around that primitive thing we called a TV) on Ed Sullivan I was a sold on the “mop top” foursome.

These were not the later foursome who would go on to remake Rock ‘n Roll as we know it today, but a group of young men who introduced weird new fashions and had boys growing long hair and schools writing rules in protest.  It was the beginning of a legend, the start of that little rock that rolls down a hill side and no one realizes that it will eventually be an avalanche.

.

Sure these cheeky, working class boys from the industrial city of Liverpool (it put it on the map–there’s not a lot of reasons other then the Beatles that would bring the average tourist to Liverpool) who came here, a bit shell-shocked at first at the thousands who showed up to scream at even a hint of their appearing, but they were just a new fad and the adults in power shook their heads and said “this too will pass.”

Their music was new but to begin with nothing so outstanding as to think they would go down in history for their words and songs.  I know I had become bored with the songs that were out at the time and found their songs even then a breath of fresh air from the mundane.  That fresh breeze would eventually become a strong wind that would blow with us into near “Revolution”.

We didn’t know it then but we were a generation,  that like the lads whose music we became so attached to, that was posed to take the world into an era of self realization and personal freedom and awareness that only lasted for a short while, but like a bright comet once seen would never be forgotten even by those that did not embrace it.

They were never the raw edged group that say the English Stones, or the American Door for instance were, but they were much grittier than their publicity people at the time would allow us to know and much more groovier than their first cutie image led us to believe.  That would come later and the “boys” who graced the stage with Ed Sullivan (and appeared in Hard Days Night) were safe for the teens they entertained—but the times they were a changing and all of us–the boys from Liverpool and their rabid fans—would change with them, never to be quite the same again.

I think this week I’ll review the 60’s and give you a look of the world, at least according to me back then.   Cause I did get to see the best groups, marched for peace in DC and even drove Route 66 from LA to Chicago.…I have other references if you’d like them……

JOE CAMEL TYVEK WIND BREAKER JACKET 1990’S ORIGINAL    $36.00

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/JOE-CAMEL-TYVEK-WIND-BREAKER-JACKET-1990-039-S-ORIGINAL-/261822279824?

A PRINCE CHARMING IN A KILT

Happy Friday and welcome Spring–I’m hoping you all have the beautiful weather we have here soon.

I thought today we’d finish my Fantasy Week with a look (through my eyes) at the modern, adult woman’s Fantasy World.

I recently saw INTO THE WOODS—with Depp doing his usual insanity as the BIG BAD WOLF…But I was most impressed with the part where Cinderella finds her prince hitting on someone else and when she confronts him he tells her he is Prince Charming–with the emphasis on the charm–not on fidelity.  You got it dear–we have all known men like that–if you haven’t my dear then I don’t know if you’re lucky or just not living in reality.  Men like that are more common than dirt and we struggle through life to find someone who will honestly commit or send stuff on Facebook about how great it is to be able to be alone…yeah right.

Our current fantasy selections enforce this.  There are Vampires.  In Feehan’s Dark series you have a group Carpathian men (few children are born to the ethnic group and most  are male) who live hundreds of year–they are a vampire type race, who sleep in the earth to heal, drinks blood–but don’t kill their suppliers, are very powerful and loose their emotions over the hundreds of years they exist.  Many turn to true vampires, who can feel emotions when they drink their victims blood till they die….the rest fight this abomination and hope to find their life mate with whom they bond forever (whom returns their emotions and senses) and the death of one often resulting in the death of the grieving other.   She also has engineered super warriors and their genetic mates, again being made for each other and never straying.  A dream that all of us might aspire to.

Others that includes Vampires and permanent mates includes Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood (what I describe as Vampires on steroids) and a kind of  Vampire one (Kenyon’s Dark Hunters) which involves a thousand year old god who looks to be 20 something and the lost souls he presides over, and the women who gain their souls back.  In this day and age there seems to be a fair share of tales of powerful, often ruthless men who must commit to us and to whom we are committed with more than a promise or a license.  Not only are the women in these stories secure in their relationships but they also are totally protected by these supernatural beings.

and of course there’s the sex–a lot of us don’t get it or don’t get it really hot or very often or good, the possibilities are endless:   says Laurell K. Hamilton, bestselling author of the “Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter” series. “It’s fang, penetration, ecstasy,” she says. “Our readers know that vampire sex is somehow going to be the very best sex a woman has ever had.”

For those of us not into supernatural beings (however there is time travel) to love, there ain’t no way you’re gonna find a man like this with the TV Cable hit Outlander a series of books by Diana Gabaldon, that’s been around for 20 some years but which just recently hit the small screen.   While the hero Jamie isn’t locked with his bride Claire by any supernatural laws he is however truly in love with her and very much a one woman man–almost as good and as truly fictional in the current world as vampires.

And of course there’s the Romance Movie–they do so many more and for the most part better than most TV show (Unless you watch the Hallmark Channel around the Holidays—don’t get me started on LifeTime movies, unless you like weirdness, murder and betrayal) My favorite in his batch is Notting Hill with Hugh Grant being constantly betrayed by Julia Roberts…a reversal on how many of us see men in our relationships.

Psychologists tell us  that this romanticized love can be bad for us and make for poor health and relationship decisions (British psychologist Susan Quilliam) and give us unrealistic expectations for our relationships.  In fact Ms. Quilliam is on several of these net sites bemoaning this issue.

For the most part I see the point but disagree in that I feel that the few women she sees as patients doesn’t represent the rest of  out there.  Those of us that need romance and  from time to time haven’t been able to find it.  We know the characters aren’t real and that we wouldn’t know what to do with a vampire if he wandered or flew in bat form into our bed rooms but don’t really want to fantasize about the average man out there (one of these days I’ll tell you about my online dating service adventures).  We aren’t fixated, (I’d worry if your fantasy was an over age, overweight street cleaner) but as long as we’re dreaming we might as well do so with the exotic and different.

So it’s your choice ladies—YEAH I THOUGHT SO…..SO DREAM ON THIS WEEKEND AND I’LL SEE YOU ON MONDAY

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/belisa-vranich/why-we-love-vampires-the_b_655674.html

http://www.newsweek.com/why-ladies-love-vampires-81619

http://www.livescience.com/14985-romance-novels-bad-women-health-psyche-psychologist.html

I do my blog free-form, but I do pay for the privilege…I always figure the security is better when you put some cash into it.

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.

Walt Disney

12″traditional and white FLORAL DESIGN CERAMIC VASE $12.50

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-034-traditional-and-white-FLORAL-DESIGN-CERAMIC-VASE-/261818107005?

LORD I’d beg him to stay any day.

TODAY WE’RE GONNA LOOK AT A FLORIDA FANTASY:

NO NOT THAT ONE

This one:

though they both do have pirates….

This one has an island:

Gasparilla Island off the coast of Charlotte County

on this island the pirate is said to have founded High Town and his grand palmetto palace.

The island today bear grand homes of the rich and maybe only slightly less famous who have replaced the pirates–and that may be more appropriate than they might want us to think as early quests included Dupont, Astor and J.P. Morgan to name a few.    There shops at The Railroad Plaza and between Fifth and First Streets.  There’s the Gasparilla Inn, many marinas with lots of place to charter or rent a boat  Oh and by the way the current village is called Boca Grande.

and a Pass:

Little Gasparilla Pass

and a sound:

Gasparilla Sound the last two all in the vicinity of the island

A favorite wife:

Useppa Island.  It’s off the coast of Lee County  (note that it was originally Joseffa –but like a lot of things in Florida became something else as the natives adjusted it.)

This island is on a shell mound and only allows club member to enter the island.  No cars are allowed and members get around by golf cart and the like.

a harem of numerous wives:

Captiva Island where he kept his numerous wives (captured Spanish women) captive to his desires.

Captiva continues to be a fun place with lots of beach partying and nonstop sightseeing.  It’s been described as “an exclamation mark in an expression of delight.”

There’s even a festival:

http://www.gasparillapiratefest.com/

GASPARILLA PIRATE FEST

in Tampa Bay  (on Treasure Island) every January

This island is named for bounty that is suppose to be buried somewhere there.

Only 3.5 miles long, this small island if full of fun things to do as well.

But alas there is little is any support to there ever being a pirate by this name and some speculation is that in fact these islands were named for Spanish missionaries– there was a mission in Charlotte Harbor in 1567 with four priests over the years being named Gaspar.  In fact several Spanish wells have been found on Little Gasparilla which has led to speculation that a mission might have been located there and that the person who gave the area multiple place names was a friar or priest.

But with these fun island we can all still live happily ever after.

You will always remember this as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow.
– Pirates of the Caribbean

 IVORY, ORNATE, UNI-SEX ADULT ENGLISH ORNAMENTAL GOLF PAPER WEIGHT   $16.20

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IVORY-Ornament-UNI-SEX-ADULT-ENGLISH-ORNAMENTAL-GOLF-PAPER-WEIGHT-/261818130910?

“I’ve got a jar of dirt! I’ve got a jar of dirt, and guess what’s inside it?” “Why is the rum always gone?” – Captain Jack Sparrow

Sources:

Bloodworth & Morris:  PLACES IN THE SUN

Walton, Chelle Koster:  FLORIDA ISLAND HOPPING:  THE WEST COAST

OK SMOLDER TIME

KEEPING in the spirit of this week I’m doing Legends and Fantasy and for my collectibles we’re doing Alice in Wonderland.

“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland duly came out from Macmillan in 1865 under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, which was arrived at by a complicated process that involved turning the names Charles Lutwidge into Latin as Carolus Ludovicus and inverting them.

“In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

 

Bunin’s film was five years in the making and featured an actress that interacted with a troupe of 7″ puppets made to look life size.

“You used to be much more…”muchier.” You’ve lost your muchness.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Bill the Lizard puppet from Alice in Wonderland  Estimated $2,000 – $3,000.

Neither Bunin’s or Disney’s films made a profit but Bunin had to contend with a law suit by Disney and critics who called his production “solemn and lifeless.”

“I don’t think…” then you shouldn’t talk, said the Hatter.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

In 1989, Bunin sold his poppets at a NYC auction.

“If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

BUNIN’S KING OF HEARTS FROM THE MOVIE

Bunin was a pioneer in stop motion work having developed his own method of wire armatures and different kinds of skins for the puppets. He first gained attention with his WWII propaganda Paramount short BURY THE AXIS and at MGM with the prologue to ZIEGFIELD FOLLIES

“We’re all mad here.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

CHESHIRE CAT FROM MOVIE went for $11,000 at 2014 auction

Oh and by the way Disney could not block Bunin’s production, but neither movie were around long due to their low attendance.

“You would have to be half mad to dream me up.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

ITEM OF THE WEEK:

EARLY 17th-CENTURY BRUSSELS TAPESTRY est. $12,000-$15,000

“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

“The Mad Hatter: “Would you like some wine?”
Alice: “Yes…”
The Mad Hatter: “We haven’t any and you’re too young.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

SOURCES

http://www.yourprops.com/King-Of-Hearts-Stop-Motion-original-movie-prop-Alice-In-Wonderland-1949-YP41716.html

 http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/alice-wonderland-story-first-told#sthash.OFvZzgyL.dpuf

ANTIQUE ROADSHOW INSIDER News August 2014