Born Fighting

"If defeated everywhere else, I will make my stand for liberty among the Scots-Irish of my native Virginia".---- General George Washington

Cracker, Redneck, Hillbilly. Yea, like several million other Americans of European descent, I've got Scot-Irish ancestors.   In fact, on my mom's side alone I have dozens and dozens of tough, hard-scrabble Scot-Irish ancestors!  Guess the fact I don't have any on my dad's side is my saving grace as like former senator, Jim Webb's book details, the Scots-Irish are/were "born fighting" and have been for generations and generations, not only in the U.S., but in Ireland and before that in Scotland.

Wikipedia has this info on my ancestors: --->  Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) Americans are the descendants of Presbyterian and other Protestant dissenters from the Irish province of Ulster who migrated to North America during the 18th and 19th centuries.^[2] Most of the Scotch-Irish were descended from Scottish and English families who colonized Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century..^[5]

If you have Scots-Irish ancestors I highly recommend James Webb's book, "Born Fighting, How the Scots-Irish Shaped America."  It does a great job of defining who and what the Scot-Irish are/were and how they shaped the course of America.   Here's one description of the book:

"Born Fighting shows that the Scots-Irish were 40 percent of the Revolutionary War army; they included the pioneers Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston; they were the writers Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain; and they have given America numerous great military leaders, including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy, and George S. Patton, as well as most of the soldiers of the Confederacy (only 5 percent of whom owned slaves, and who fought against what they viewed as an invading army). It illustrates how the Scots-Irish redefined American politics, creating the populist movement and giving the country a dozen presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. And it explores how the Scots-Irish culture of isolation, hard luck, stubbornness, and mistrust of the nation’s elite formed and still dominates blue-collar America, the military services, the Bible Belt, and country music. "

You can find it on Amazon (see below) and also view the documentary on the Smithsonian Channel.
http://www.amazon.com/Born-Fighting-Scots-Irish-Shaped-America/dp/0767916891

If you read the book you'll find out the true origin of the word Redneck, as well as why Scots-Irish have willfully volunteered in droves for every war the U.S. has fought and their impact on our country and way of life.

And while I have been a little irreverent about my Scots-Irish ancestors in the blog post, the reality is I'm really proud to be part Scots-Irish and admire my many Ulster ancestors who were some of the toughest people to ever to walk this Earth.

Here are a few photos from our recent trip to Paris, Normandy, Mont St Michel, Provence, Carcassonne, and rural England.   If you click on each photo you can see a larger version.

Italy- Why Did I Wait 56 years to go there and what was I thinking to wait so long?

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to praise Italy.

For reasons I am only partly responsible for, it took me 56 years to get to Italy. I mean for God's sake I went to Finland BEFORE Italy. What's with that? I plead temporary insanity and ignorance. However, now that I have been to Italy, I understand why tourists have been going there for 2,000 years.

If you click on these photos you can see high resolution versions that are pretty cool if I do say so myself!

A Room With A View

This is the view from the apartment we stayed on the Cinque Terra. And while we didn't have a view in Florence, we did have a view worth every penny and effort it took to get to a rather obscure destination on the Mediterrean Sea.

Gone, But Not Forgotten

Today's Sunday Times had some great obituaries. I'm not a big fan of obits, but having lived in Seattle off and on for 25 years, you never know whose name you might find in paper!

The first obit that stood out was for a man who had a Ph.D from an Ivy League college and who was an educator and a scholar. His obit had a great quote from Mark Twain which is, "Never let your schooling interfere with your education." Boy, I think that quote should be in every classroom in the world!

At the end of his obit it denoted , "No flowers, please. Sol would rather you voted or protested. Or put $2 on a long shot." Guess Sol was a fan of the racetrack and civil liberties!

Another good obit was for a Japanese-American who was aeronautical engineer who "died dancing in his beloved cowboy boots!" It must have been a long road for him from his birth in a Japanese internment camp to being an aeronautical engineer who also just happened to be an "amateur Elvis impersonator."

My final favorite obit from today's paper was for a man, who although terminally ill from lung cancer, "proudly cast his final presidential ballot for Barack Obama." I hope his vote was not in vain!

All of the above obits came from the October 26, 2008, Seattle Times obit section. I am pretty sure all the loved ones of the above men have LOTS of happy memories of these extraordinary men.

Jesus Was a Community Organizer-Mother Teresa Was Too!

I avoided watching the Republican convention as 8 years of listening to Republicans lie through their teeth to the American public and the world has been quite enough for me, thank you very much! However, I did see the sound-byte of former NYC mayor Giuliani make incredibly inane remarks belittling Barak Omaba's community service work. What an ass! Where would New York City be without community organizers? Huh, dumbass!??

Let's see, wasn't Jesus Christ was a community worker? So was Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Jane Hull, Cesar Chavez, JFK, Gandhi, Rosa Parks, and gee, I don't know, about a million other really outstanding people who made a BIG difference for millions of people all over the world!

Ya know, if that's the best the Republicans can come up with to belittle their opponent, well, that's pretty pathetic. How come Republicans always make me fear for the future???????????

Like A Rock- for Dave

My husband and I will be celebrating our 32nd anniversary in December.

Whenever I hear this song, I think of you Dave...

Like A Rock, by Bob Seger

I was eighteen

Didn't have a care

Working for peanuts

Not a dime to spare

But I was lean and

Solid everywhere

Like a rock

My hands were steady

My eyes were clear and bright

My walk had purpose

My steps were quick and light

And I held firmly

To what I felt was right

Like a rock

Like a rock, I was strong as I could be

Like a rock, nothin ever got to me

Like a rock, I was something to see

Like a rock

Twenty years now

Where'd they go?

Twenty years

I don't know

Sit and I wonder sometimes

Where they've gone

And sometimes late at night

When I'm bathed in the firelight

The moon comes callin' a ghostly white

And I recall

Like a rock, standin' arrow straight

Like a rock, chargin from the gate

Like a rock, carryin' the weight

Like a rock

Questions I Never Asked

In memory of my dad: 1917-1979

Recently I saw a TV show about the National World War II Memorial that opened in 2004 in Washington, D.C.

This memorial honors the 16 million members of the armed forces who served and the 400,000 of them who died during WWII. Its kinda hard to believe it took 60 years to get a memorial to honor all the people who fought and/or died in WWII.

My dad was one of the 16 million Americans who served in WWII. He was just a month away from being 24 years old the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

My dad never talked about the war. Not WWII or the Korean War, which he was also in. The only time he mentioned the war was one time when I was a kid looking through a photo album with him, I saw a photo of a young man at the beach. I didn't recognize this man so I asked him, "Daddy, who's this?" He said, "That's Joe. He bought it at Pearl Harbor." Then he closed the photo album (even though we were only on about page 4) and walked out of the room.

With that simple act, I learned that it probably wasn't a good idea to ask my dad about the war.

Many years after he died, I completed a form to receive records of his military service from the National Archives. For $25.00 I got a HUGE stack of papers, not surprisingly, as he was in the Navy for about 20 years. I had a great time going through the chronology of my dad's service career, and learning for the first time what battles he was involved in, what medals he earned, and much more. The $25 bucks I paid for these records was worth every cent and much more!

Of course, I am kicking myself for not asking my dad more about WWII when he was alive. However, I didn't, as I wanted to respect his privacy, and because I thought we would have many, many more years to talk about such things. However, I never counted on him dying tragically before I could ask him about so many things, and before I had a chance to tell him he was the most remarkable man I have ever known.

Bush's Last Day-NOT

Well, I just checked the Bush countdown website. Talk about depressing! He still has 675 freaking more days to go! SIGH!!!!!!

Here's a link to the Bush countdown: http://www.georgewgirls.com/

Hope it doesn't depress you too much! Gee, that's almost 2 years from now! UGH! Heck, he can STILL do a lot more damage in that amount of time. Now that's depressing!

Stop Mad Cowboy Disease!!

Unlike my usual blog dither, this is a public service announcement I feel compelled to post. Click on the "Mad Cowboy" to see a close-up of Bush shooting holes in the Constitution, just in case you have been in a coma the last 6 plus years and missed the debachery!

Weather of biblical proportions!

Well, I've lived in Seattle for over 25 years, and I have to say, this winter stands out as one of the worst ever. I mean, it's bad enough it normally rains from mid-September to June (if you are lucky). But this past November it rained 15 inches, which was enough to put even the most hardened Pacific Northwesterner on their knees! Then the wind and snow hit, also of bibical proportions! Ye Gods!

I guess I could sit in my bathroom with all the lights on and my hair dryer blasting in order to get my minimum daily allowance of warmth and light. But then, think of the electric bills!

Gesh, it may just be cheaper to go to Hawaii. Oh!, to have warm sand between my toes, gently swaying palm trees over my shoulder, and a cool ocean breeze in my face!

Gee, only 6 more months till it MIGHT stop raining!

Not all that wander are lost...

Not all that wander are lost....J.R.R. Tolkien

A restless spirit is not necessarily a bad thing!

A Day at the Beach

My oldest daughter took this photo of her dad and little sister last weekend while we were having a day at the beach. Even though Dave is 50 plus years old he still likes to throw rocks in the water and see how many times he can get them to skim across the the surface of the water. He's tried to show all our kids how to do it, but I am not sure how successful he has been. I guess its one of those skills that takes YEARS of practice to get right.

If you look off in the distance, you can see the Olympic Mountains. We can go weeks without seeing them due to overcast clouds. However, if we are lucky, the clouds part and we are treated to a spectacular day like the one that this photo was taken.

If you put your mouse on the photo, you can view a larger version.

Throwing rocks to see how they skim over the water on a gorgeous day like this one is not something we take for granted.

Masters of War Redux

Did I happen to mention that I REALLY hate George Bush and all his cronies? Just when I think he's done f***ing things up, he pulls another really nasty rabbit out of his hat, and then I'm depressed all over again.

I seriously want to know how much the personal wealth of his partners in crime has increased since he took office. I have a pretty good guess that many, many millions of dollars have found their way into their pockets as a result of the war in Iraq. Gee, I guess they missed a couple of pivotal sermons at church over the years, because there's no other way to explain how they can turn a blind eye to the horrific human cost of the war on the citizens of Iraq, and on our dead and maimed soldiers.

A long time ago Bob Dylan wrote a song called, "Masters of War." Sadly, its just as appropriate today as when he wrote in the '60's. Too bad the words of this song can't be dropped as leaflets over the White House.

Masters of War- Bob Dylan

"Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul"

The Book of My Life

Sometimes its hard to put one's thoughts and feelings into words and/or song. However, I think these lyrics by Sting kinda sum up life for those of us Baby Boomers who are getting up there in age.

The Book Of My Life Lyrics - Sting

Let me watch by the fire and remember my days
And it may be a trick of the firelight
But the flickering pages that trouble my sight
Is a book I'm afraid to write

It's the book of my days, it's the book of my life
And it's cut like a fruit on the blade of a knife
And it's all there to see as the section reveals
There's some sorrow in every life

If it reads like a puzzle, a wandering maze
Then I won't understand 'til the end of my days
I'm still forced to remember,
Remember the words of my life

There are promises broken and promises kept
Angry words that were spoken, when I should have wept
There's a chapter of secrets, and words to confess
If I lose everything that I possess
There's a chapter on loss and a ghost who won't die
There's a chapter on love where the ink's never dry
There are sentences served in a prison I built out of lies.

Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no-one can read
In the book of my life

Roots- The Anglo-Saxon version

This is a photo of me that was taken on a recent trip to England. I am standing next to the crypts of my 11th great-grandparents. They are buried in the churchyard of a beautiful church in a lovely little village in Somerset County, England. Their son, my ancestor came to the US in the early 1600's, and left a legacy of descendants that included numerous U.S. governors, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a Secretary of State, to name a few.

During our visit to the west country of England, we had a wonderful time exploring the villages and churches where my various English ancestors lived. We owe a big thanks to several kind villagers and vicars, who took the time to share their love of the history of their communities and places of worship. Meeting them and learning a little about my ancestors' lives made all the difference in the world.

Southwest England- A beautiful place to be from

This is the road into the village in southwest England, where my ancestors lived before immigrating to the US in 1823. While in England this past month, I was able to visit the where 3 separate lines of my English ancestors came from. I have to admit, it's pretty weird to walk the same streets, sit in their church pews, and hear the church bells just as they did generations and generations ago.

Thanks to great document archiving on both sides of the ocean, I have been fortunate enough to find the passenger records, wills,
and land records for many of my ancestors. Now, if only those records revealed something about their personalities and/or nature. Guess that must be left to my imagination!

Back from the Old Country

Looks cold, eh? This is my husband and I on the ferry from Helsinki to Tallin, Estonia. And no, this photo was taken in the dead of winter, it was take in last month (April!)! This photo doesn't even begin to capture the cold wind that blows when you are out on the open sea!

While we were in Finland we rented a car and took trains, so we were able to see a fair amount of the country, especially the west coast area. We discovered that a good chunk of Finland is flat as a pancake. In addition, as it was April, there was still snow on the ground in many places we visited. The good news is that we had a great time getting to know more about my husband's ancestors and meeting LOTS of really nice Finns. We heard rumors that Finns were not very friendly, but we did not find that the case at all. Everyone we met were friendly, helpful, and more than willing to bend over backwards to make sure we enjoyed our brief stay in their country.

Perhaps someday we can go back when it is summertime and see what Finland looks like when flowers are in bloom and the days last 'till midnight!

Husemoller-What kind of the hell kinda name is that, anyway?

This is my cousin, Dieter's mailbox in Germany...

When I was growing up having a last name like Husemoller was a bit like being a "Boy Named Sue." I can't tell you how many times my last name was mispronounced, misspelled, and otherwise mangled. In addition, if you have a creative mind, I am sure you can come up with a variety of variations on the name "Husemoller," all of which can and were used to tease me when I was a kid.

However, once I became an adult I realized that having a unique name is actually pretty cool. Another great thing about my last name is that whenever I ever run-into another Husemoller (which usually requires a bit of effort on my part), I know they're related to me, as every Husemoller in the US (and probably Germany), is somehow related to me, or I them.

So, while a Teutonic name like Husemoller was tough when I was a kid, I have since learned it is character-building, as being able to stand-up to people and be proud of one's ethnic heritage whatever it is, is a good thing.