I'm so glad you could stop by. This is my personal blog of daily life and my journey through life. You will find a strong emphasis on family and friends as well as finding my ancestors through genealogy. Unlike my other blogs this blog is more of a catch-all so any topic is fair game.
One of our local radio stations has a cute little jingle they play before announcing their tamed down version of the daily Darwin awards.
History is made by stupid people
So if you want to get in the history books
Do something stupid before you die!
Now if this jingle were true, I should be in a lot of history books! Apparently the trend towards doing stupid things started quite young in life despite being intellectually gifted. From experience, a high IQ does not mean you will not do stupid things. With that in mind I would like to take my noble place in the history books. So I am going to share a few stupid things I've done since being born. Believe me from the looks on my family's faces sometimes to their total speechlessness, I know I am still the queen of doing stupid things! There is seriously nothing better than getting that "I can't believe you did that" look for one of my kids but getting it from my husband is just priceless! I'm sure there will be more stupid things I do in the future so if the authors of the history books are reading, please add me to your biographies.
- flying - Yes I did attempt this off our back porch with a towel for a cape attached with a safety pin. The outcome was not as expected but did not deter me from trying again and again.
- horseback riding - Bicycles do not make good substitutes for horses and after going ass over johnny cake trying to use a rope for reins to steer the handlebars, you would have thought I would have learned my lesson. Nope, I did it again with a wooden wagon aka wagon train attached to the bike only to repeat the outcome but with the wagon landing on my head.
- Brussels sprouts - Sorry to inform those new mothers who do not know, Brussels sprouts are not good fodder for homemade baby food. The baby will turn into a giant green volcano! The spill-out will be everywhere for days. Thank goodness we had more than one kid as the first got a heavy dose of stupid things that I'm sure he kept on file to warn his unsuspecting sibs.
City of Las Vegas First Hospital Historical Plaque
May 12, 2011
On May 15, 1905 Las Vegas was established although the area was inhabited well before that. The first 'hospital' was an 8-foot by 10-foot tent at Stewart Avenue and Third Street erected for the railroad workers in 1904. The first doctor (chief surgeon) was Dr. Royce (Roy) Martin, Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad. A second tent was errected at Eighth Street and Ogden Avenue. The first doctor at that tent hospital was Dr. Halle Hewertson, the surgeon for the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. The doctors worked together providing medical care for the railroad workers.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
Old Farm Relic
May 12, 2010
Each year we buy a cow (beef on the hoof) then a friend of ours raises it until it is ready to go to the abattoir. Most years we split the meat with three other couples but this year we decided to keep half ourselves. Last Wednesday we took a road trip to pick up our
bulk meat purchase. It was a nice, sunny but chilly, windy spring day just perfect for a jaunt in the country. Scattered throughout the countryside are old farm relics now used as lawn accents standing as a reminder of quieter and gentler times.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2010
[from my email files] A lot of familiar sayings have their roots in days gone by. Here's the explanation for four common sayings and how they came about.
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Prisoners were taken to the gallows (after a fair trial of course) to be hung.
The horse drawn dray, carting the prisoner was accompanied by an armed guard,
Who would stop the dray outside the pub and ask the prisoner if he would like ''ONE LAST DRINK''.
If he said YES it was referred to as "ONE FOR THE ROAD"
If he declined, that prisoner was "ON THE WAGON"
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They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery. If you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor". But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot they "Didn't have a pot to Piss in" & were the lowest of the low.
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Garden Gnome
©2006-2010
Church on the HillJanuary 22, 2010©2006-2010
St. Joseph's ChurchJanuary 22, 2010I find old churches and historical buildings interesting for both their history and architecture which means I have no problem going a bit out of my way to get a picture. These are the buildings that peak your curiosity begging you to discover more about them. It is always interesting to get the picture then do a bit of research on the building later and so it was with this gorgeous church.
St. Joseph's Church is located at 416 North Chicago Street in Joliet, Illinois to the north end of Joliet City Center. The church was established in 1891 to serve the growing community of Slovenian immigrants who had settled in the town at the end of the 19th century. The present church was erected in 1905. Indiana limestone and it's distinctive duel steeples render the architecture quite impressive. The next time we are in the area I will make a point to see the inside of St. Joseph's as well.
Garden Gnome©2006-2010
Historic Sign at Lexington, Michigan
July 30, 2009
A lot of the places we visit have historical points of interest and Lexington, Michigan is no different. Historical points of interest are often marked with special plaques. Each time we stop I try to get pictures of these plaques simply for the wonderful information they convey. Pictured is the historical sign for the Old Town Hall located in Lexington, Michigan and the efforts the Masonic Temple made to restore this historical landmark.
Garden Gnome©2006-2009
Relic of the Past
July 2, 2009
We've been on the road a bit more over the last few days so I have had a lot more photo opportunities. I've been know to pull over on the side of the road just to get a good picture even if it means turning around to do so. True it takes me (us) longer to get where we are going but we arrive in a much more relaxed mood. Taking the time to truly enjoy your road trips in this manner is well worth the little extra time taken to stop.
It never ceases to amaze me what a beautiful and diverse area we live in. Not only can we enjoy the splendor of the Great Lakes waterway, a nice jaunt through rural Ontario will get us to some of the nicest cities you can ever visit. Rural Ontario is just a delight to travel through! Scattered throughout the landscape are relics of days long gone. I love taking pictures of these relics if only to preserve a bit of Ontario history.
Pictured is a long abandoned cement silo I discovered last Thursday. I think is is a gorgeous relic that hopefully will be preserved for quite some time however, like many old relics that likely won't happen. At some future time the owners of the property will likely tire of it or need to plant that land so it will be leveled. Even in rural Ontario there are signs of vandalism that marrs old relics as well as natural features like hugh boulders. For unexplained reasons some individuals seem to think they have the right to mark up these features using paint. Someone obviously left their mark on the silo. While I could have Photoshopped it out, I didn't. I think it
symbolizes the underlying conflict between youth and elderly rather nicely.
Garden Gnome©2006-2009
July 21, 2008
Garden Gnome
©2006-2008
July 21, 2008
Garden Gnome
©2006-2008
July 21, 2008
The Michigan State Ferry service was established in St. Ignace in 1923 to transport vehicles from St. Ignace to the Lower Peninsula. Cost for the hour long trip was $2.50. In the first year of operation the ferry transported 10,351 vehicles! In 1956 with five ferries were running almost a million vehicles were transported with as many as 9,000 vehicles being transported on summer weekends. The wait times were as high as twelve hours. In 1957 the Mackinac Bridge replaced the ferry service.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2008
I just love historical signs especially when they relate to my family history. My French Canadian ancestors came from France and settled in the St. Lawrence Valley (Québec City 1608, Montréal 1642). These founding French ancestors, my great greats, appear in the Fichier Origine database. Many of them were fur traders or involved in the fur trade in other capacities. Father (Père) Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit named the mission after St. Ignatius Loyola founder of the Jesuits. A military fortress was built shortly after becoming a military strong point however, in 1701 the garrison moved to Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit under the control of the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. Why should this be of interest to me?
Père Marquette appears in my database but not as an ancestor. I know some of my ancestors were in St. Ignace and some of their descendants still live in the area. Cadillac was in St. Ignace then came to establish Fort Pontchartain in 1701. My sixth great grandfather was the first white man in the area of the fort. He was an interpreter for Cadillac and was a highly respected individual in the fort. Cadillac granted him land in the fort yet he chose to live in the Miamis village beside the fort with his wife and children. He was buried under the original location of Ste. Anne's Church in Detroit which speaks to his importance in the fort. Ste. Anne's Church was moved to it's current location to accommodate the Ambassador Bridge spanning the Detroit River connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2008
Miller Brewing Company
July 20, 2008
Our next stop for sight seeing was the
Miller Brewing Company that first began brewing beer in 1855 where we took in the tour. Now I have to say with being very much into genealogy and family history, I love old architecture. I also love spending time in museums, cemeteries and other archival repositories. The tour itself was nice even though we didn't get to see much in action but in fairness it was getting late on a Saturday so the lines were likely shut down for the weekend. Oh we saw the mixing tanks and fermenting tanks, where the beer was bottled or canned and where it was stored but other than a couple of fork lifts, nothing was moving. There was that nice aroma of fermenting beer about the premises. After the tour they took us to a lovely indoor room where we enjoyed free samples. These rooms are not licensed to the general public which is a pit because the are absolutely gorgeous! They are used mainly for the tour groups but can be rented for special occasions like weddings.
The Miller Brewing Company is located in Miller Valley in Milwaukee at 4000 West Street. Tours start at 4251 West Street and conclude at the historic Miller Inn. Tours last an hour but figure a good hour and a half if not more if sampling. You must be 21 years of age or older to sample but children are welcomed. Even if the factory is not operational this really is a must stop at tour. The architecture of the buildings is very impressive. There is the original cobble stone in one portion of the road that goes through the factory. The Miller house near the Miller Inn is simply a replicate facade, unfortunately. It would have been nice to be able to go through the Miller house just to see what it was like back then. I was a bit disappointed in that aside of the 10 minute introductory video there was little more on the actual history. Still it was a very enjoyable tour.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2008
