A graphic for those unclear as to who we are and where we came from…
Today’s revelations concerning early life on earth–for some reason–remind me of the REM song HOW THE WEST WAS WON AND WHERE IT GOT US..
A somber song for reflection on how, but yet how little, we have come.
The Phoenix lights … I recall listening to Art Bell live that night as the event unfolded.. the entire world knew of it by the next morning, and then the Governor even had a divisive mocking press conference featuring an alien to downplay the event as a non-event.
Enter history.. Enter this:
Some reported a temporary amnesia-like state, when immediately after seeing the lights, they went blank or failed to discuss it with anyone.
Panel moderator filmmaker James Fox, who investigated the case to produce a documentary, said that during interviews with hospice workers, they told how they “watched the lights appear and disappear over a period of time but didn’t say a word about it.”
One woman told him: “We went right back to our tea.”
Jim Mann, director of the Arizona Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) branch, which investigates UFO and alien sightings, told of similar accounts.
A man told Mr Mann he stopped his car to watched the UFOs with several other people and “a craft slowly glided overhead”.
The man said: “Not a word was spoken. After it went on by, everyone got in their car and drove home,” the panel heard.
From YouTube, a good free documentary of the event called The Phoenix Lights incident.
And the Art Bell anniversary of the lights (can’t find the actual live original show anywhere)
His actions also began decades of parents ferociously searching their kids’ candy bowls after trick or treating ended each year.. something that continues until even today…
Every time you see local or state police offering up free X-Ray scans of candy on Halloween, think of O’Bryan…
He killed his own child Timothy, who was aged 8, with cyanide-laced sugar sticks..
O’Bryan was 30 when he did it.. the town of Pasadena Texas was rocked..
One house along the route was dark, but the children still rang the doorbell. There was no answer, so they moved on.
O’Bryan lagged behind and then, moments later, came running to catch up. He was waving five giant Pixy Stix, 22-inch straws filled with flavored sugar.
He told the kids it was their lucky day, because “rich neighbors” were distributing “expensive treats.”
Each of the three children on the walk got one Pixy Stix. Later, O’Bryan gave the fourth to Bates’ other child, a 5-year-old daughter. The final Pixy Stix went to a trick-or-treat visitor who rang the doorbell at the Bates house.
Timothy ate only a bit of the Pixy Stick when he said the taste was bitter.. moments later he was in pain and he was screaming and crying for his Daddy–the same daddy who was killing him..
Police interviewing the Candy Man become suspicious of his story – a story involving a neighbor giving the poison candy.. The man who was actually accused of the candy kill was not even there, and have 200 people take his side. On the other hand, O’Bryan, an optician who worked for Texas State Optical, was about $100,000 in debt, had lost his house, and was on the verge of losing his car.He was also about to lose his job because his bosses had discovered that he was stealing. In the decade before the crime, he had been booted from 21 other positions… And he had just taken out a $60,000 in life insurance on his children.
Money he would get if his kids were deceased..
Reporting from the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS on the ending of this awful story:
Detectives were never able to pin down the source of the cyanide, but several witnesses at O’Bryan’s trial, which started in May 1975, told of his interest in obtaining the poison and how much it would take to kill. His sister-in-law also said that at the boy’s funeral the grieving dad mused about using the insurance money to take a long vacation.
“The only inescapable conclusion is that this man killed his own flesh and blood for money,” Prosecutor Mike Hinton told the court. “Think how easy it would be for him to kill a stranger for money.”
The jury took 46 minutes to find O’Bryan guilty and worthy of the death penalty.
Appeals dragged on for nearly 10 years, and O’Bryan maintained he was innocent to the end.
On March 31, 1984, “The Candy Man” had a last supper of steak, French fries, peas and Boston cream pie before his execution by lethal injection. As the sentence was carried out, demonstrators in Halloween masks stood outside the prison, yelling “Trick or Treat!”
The long term effects of this story are obvious. People got an idea that candy in general was unsafe.. that parents should be ensuring the security of their children.. Halloween, a season that is meant to be scary in a sense anyway, got even scarier. Until this time in the 1970s, Halloween had a quaint and mostly pleasant appeal across the United States. It was tamed highly from the early onset of the holiday during the beginning part of the 20th century. The CANDY MAN ruined the safety net that existed.. kids did not venture out alone anymore.. there were time limits put onto trick or treating by towns, usually a two-hour limit where you have to walk as fast as possible to hit up as many houses as you can while parents safely watch from a close distance. The arrival back home usually consists of candy being emptied onto a big table and each article of sweets being examined by a careful mom or dad.. And then, perhaps, you’ll be able to eat some after the questionable pieces have been properly disposed of..
All of this brewed from the mania and evil of one horrible father, who choose money over his own son’s life and murdered him. Destroying not only a life but also the entire season of the witch for good.
So many years ago.. it seems like an entire age..
The children of 9/11, those who were either too young to remember or just too young to understand, have never known a world prior to the day of infamy. They were not aware of pop culture prior to terrorism.. not inclined to understand a world before World War ..
This generation has grown up online post dial up and post buildings coming down. They watched footage of the terror attacks fifteen years ago but did not watch it on live TV…
Others who did remember what it felt like.. all day.. all night.. all week.. and for the rest of 2001. The swift unkind gusty gale of change took an entire nation and forced it into places it never wanted to go or never thought it would ..
People falling from buildings live for the planet to watch.. the demise of buildings..
And a peaceful field in Pennsylvania scarred and charred by a passenger airplane..
We lived through this 15 years ago. Even though now it does not seem a bit like we did.. the freight train speed passage of time is as surreal as the moment we watched airplanes flying into buildings right after Al Roker talked about weather. From quaint to horror. From normal to a new normal.
And the rest is history.
NBC news including these tidbits of information with its 15 year anniversary 911 coverage:
We knew things were chaotic in the aftermath.. we did not know everything. And that is probably a good thing.. By the 20th and 25th and 50th anniversary of 9/11, we will know even more secrets that have yet to be revealed for security purposes.. We will paint a full picture of the day.
Some more reporting from NBC:
Perhaps the biggest newly uncovered secret is that on the morning of 9/11, when Al Qaeda struck New York and Washington, the Pentagon’s annual “Global Guardian” war game was in full swing. Three dozen real nuclear weapons had been loaded onboard intercontinental bombers in North Dakota, Missouri, and Louisiana.
When Bush left Florida on Air Force One amid fears that terrorists would try take down the presidential plane, he flew right into the middle of the war game.
Air Force One had climbed out of Sarasota airport 51 minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 plowed into the North tower of the World Trade Center and 12 minutes after the Pentagon was struck. The fourth and final hijacked passenger plane, United Flight 93, was still aloft over Pennsylvania.
We knew that war games were occurring the same day of 9/11.. but we only knew ofVigilant Guardian. I wonder what other war games we will find out about on the 20th…?
And it is these war games that have given fodder to those who suspect some sort of conspiracy..
What we did find out since 9/11: The Saudis were more heavily involved than anyone in 2001 admitted. People that day who would have blamed the Saudis would have been called kooks and conspiracy theorists..
Some conspiracies prove true over time.
This post is not meant to scare you away from your reservations today at your restaurant.. or your plans for the park.. or your moment to visit mom in whatever location she rests. Mother’s Day is a fine time meant to conjure love and spirit, connect together child and parent..be loving and beautiful.
That said, as is true with most major holidays, there are often times dark and weird histories connected with the celebrations of present day. And as someone who has been dubbed the ‘great ruiner’ by friends and family, I often enjoy pointing those out to you so you can be either aware of history or smile at how we evolve to forget..
Mother’s Day.. Nothing overly awful.. but some eyebrow raising pieces of history to consider.
First the woman who championed the entire idea of mother’s day to begin with; Anna Jarvis ..
Jarvis was the driving force in the 1850s. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC in 2014:
It all started in the 1850s, when West Virginia women’s organizer Ann Reeves Jarvis—Anna’s mother—held Mother’s Day work clubs to improve sanitary conditions and try to lower infant mortality by fighting disease and curbing milk contamination, according to historian Katharine Antolini of West Virginia Wesleyan College. The groups also tended wounded soldiers from both sides during the U.S. Civil War from 1861 to 1865.
After the war, Jarvis kept working to organize events.
When Woodrow Wilson gave the recognition to Mother’s Day, companies began to highly profit from the commercialization of things. Jarvis boycotted! She was angry.. In 1923 she even crashed a convention to protest.. She died at 84 after a long battle AGAINST MOTHER’S DAY in Philadelphia’s Marshall Square Sanitarium..
The details of Jarvis are fascinating. In 2008, a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story talked about Jarvis becoming mentally unstable as Mother’s Day went the opposite route she wanted.. one piece from the article:
Where the myth of Anna Jarvis ends and the truth begins is hard to determine. Rumors circulate that Miss Jarvis started the day to assuage the guilt of fighting with her mother, something Mrs. Crow-Dadisman debunks.
“People who supposedly lived next door to her said they heard her screaming at her mother,” said Mrs. Crow-Dadisman. “But they were not old enough to remember her.”
Anna Jarvis was born in the two-story wooden house in Webster on May 1, 1864, before her family moved to Grafton. The 10th of the 13 children of Ann Marie and Granville Jarvis, she was one of only four of the Jarvis children who survived, Mrs. Crow-Dadisman said.
Devastated by the high infant mortality rate, Ann Marie Jarvis turned to her brother, Dr. James Reeves. He educated her on how unsanitary conditions — polluted wells, outdoor toilets, dirty diapers — were leading to outbreaks of dysentery, cholera and measles.
Some people say Jarvis went ‘insane’ fighting modern Mother’s Day. But as we learn more about mental illness, it was most likely not that simple. But history does not teach that the woman who was responsible for what we celebrate today died in most likely not the best conditions..
The Jarvis home is now a museum.. It is in West Virginia, and it appears quaint and lovely. Picture perfect..
Darker history? Sure.. Jarvis’ home is also known for potentially paranormal events.. According to some, the first son Alonzo visits the master bedroom.. a ‘woman in black’ frequents the house.. ‘George’ thinks he is a Civil War soldier. One particularly creepy account of the Jarvis home from the museum’s executive director, as reported a few days ago by Huffington POST:
Olive Ricketts, the museum’s executive director who with her husband restored the home, told The Huffington Post that when they first moved in, their two dogs would spend hours staring blankly at the master closet. But it wasn’t until a 2-year-old taking a regular tour ran into the master closet and could be heard talking up a storm that Ricketts learned about the presence of “Alonzo,” Jarvis’ older brother who died as a young child. Ricketts said that paranormal specialists — think ghost busters — have “confirmed the presence” of two or three additional dead children, a man believed to be a dead soldier who was helped by Jarvis’ mother, and Jarvis’ mother herself. The house is being featured by PBS’ paranormal series, Ricketts said.
Jarvis was childless.
She also apparently hated men. Hence not having a child?
All of this seems so depressing. Perhaps I should stop.
Depressing perhaps, but fascinating as well.. History is not always easy to understand or simple to grasp.. concepts of today are fit perfectly well into the pegs we expect.. Mother’s Day? Advertisements to sell you mom’s gifts and …restaurants especially packed. (Do yourself a favor and make dinner at home today for mom.)
But before ending, I wanted to share a piece of history that actually exists in my hometown: The Ashland Pennsylvania Mother’s Memorial. It may not draw thousands or even hundreds of people per year, but it is something to be proud of..
The A.B.A. was formed in the early 20th century in response to the widespread job loss and dispersion of coal miners as mines began to fail. It was a homecoming organization that welcomed former Ashland residents back to their hometown. Men from all parts of Pennsylvania, as well as several other states, participated in these annual celebrations. The A.B.A. was the archetype of a poignant Pennsylvania story: how successive waves of industrialization and economic development create then destroy industries and communities, leaving large groups of people longing for the associations and comforts of family, friends and home. The Mother’s Memorial stands as a symbol of this sentiment.
At an A.B.A. reunion in 1933, it was proposed to honor all Ashland mothers by erecting a monument or memorial. Members felt that such a memorial would represent the very foundation of the organization, because their motto was, “Come on home” and home evoked thoughts of one’s mother. A committee was formed in 1936 to investigate and plan the memorial. Some A.B.A. members, as well as many residents of the town, advocated the establishment of a library instead, but the memorial was decided upon and eventually gained the full support of the organization and the town.
The idea of commissioning a sculpture based on the painting known as “Whistler’s Mother” was a unique one. The A.B.A. responded enthusiastically and raised over $6000.00 for the project. The seven foot high three-dimensional sculpture was designed by Emil Siebern and sculpted by Julius Loester. Both artists were sculptors from New York who specialized in public art – funerary decoration, memorials, park statuary, etc. Although they did not routinely work together, both participated in several projects overseen by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The completed Ashland monument was made of bronze and placed atop an impressive stonework terrace built by the WPA in 1938.
In May of 2015, I posted a photograph of my son Ayden in a store that was closing in my mall. In the article, I mentioned how similar the photo looked to one taken of me, when I was three years old, in Centralia Pennsylvania. I have the photograph of myself. I did not publish it due to copyright issues. It was from a book called SLOW BURN, a 1980s photodocumentary with pictures taken by Renée Jacobs.
For those who don’t know much about Centralia, an underground mine fire started decades ago. A series of bad missteps from officials and twists and turns of neighborly breakdowns occurred, and the town went from 2000 people to … just about zero. The town has also become a tourist attraction, it’s home to the famed graffiti highway, and the movie SILENT HILL was based on it. An upcoming project promises a television series based on the town.
THIRTY YEARS LATER.
I constantly peruse through historical documents, not only of life itself but of my own personal existence. I can be nostalgic when unneeded.. but I also believe a bit of self recollection helps maturity.
In that regard, I reached out to photographer Renée Jacobs. It’s funny. I was pictured in the book on page 13 standing next to a borehole in my back yard, and my parents were both quoted. I actually recall it .. Vaguely at best. But I recall the moment! I remember the exact time it was taken. It was warm.. I recall the smells.. The picture is in black and white, but I have it in my mind in vivid color.. That is probably how most of your lives are too, you can think back and pinpoint a single action during your early toddler or childhood years. Just a brief moment in time, one captured with a feeling. My feeling at the time the picture was taken: Confusion and sadness. Friends were vanishing. Houses were too.. I loved watching demolition teams come in and destroy entire blocks of row homes.. it wasn’t until I grew up more that I realized they were destroying my hometown from top to bottom.
After my contact to Ms. Jacobs, I received something in the mail, and I could not be more ecstatic.
THANK YOU!
Renée Jacobs sent my an autographed print of page 13, featuring the young me with wide eyes and a future to come, along with a note.
The work on Jacobs’ website is stunning and beautiful. It may not be for the WORK atmosphere. A link to her page, http://www.reneejacobs.com/, comes perhaps with a bit of caution..
Jacobs’ work has been exhibited and celebrated around the world. She also received the prestigious International Photography Award for Fine Art Nude. Her 2009 & 2010 photo calendars went to #1 on Amazon. She had work as a photojournalist. Just recently, an announcement came from Duke University:
The Archive of Documentary Arts, a part of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University, is pleased to announce its recent acquisition of irst published in 1986 by University of Pennsylvania Press, chronicles Centralia’s demise from an underground coal mine fire and depicts a singular epic event in Pennsylvania history, representing the confluence of environmental, scientific, bureaucratic, and emotional tragedies
I love this part of her bio: “Her first book, Slow Burn: A Photodocument of Centralia, Pennsylvania was originally published in 1986 and re-issued in 2010 to favorable reviews in The New York Times Review of Books and photo-eye. After a 15 year detour as a civil rights lawyer, Renée returned to photography. ”
A detour in life! One that takes you away from your passion and zeal..your Zest for life and creative spirit.
I am sure she was a fine attorney.
Looking at her photos, I am glad she returned back from the detour.
And Renée, I couldn’t be more appreciate and ecstatic over the personal note and photo.
Thank you.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bia9Yppa0B4?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=250&h=141]
This is a good video.. 100 years of Halloween costumes that women have worn.
Yes, the 1980s were scary because of the style.
But in my opinion, the 1925 edition of Halloween may be the creepiest and more frightening of all.. it was intended to be fun. But as time beats on, the look has become sinister and mentally disturbing..
The Shenandoah PA Herald May 21 1897..
Sort of funny, isn’t it?
A debate about vaccines in athe news. In 1897.
And the beat goes on.
THE PAST IN COLOR!
And seen now.
IN the 21st century..
The past is amazing when you see it as it was..
History is funny like that. It does not seem real until you see it more like it was.. in real ways.. in color. As it was to people then.
Then it seems real.
Very real..