A memory popped up

While reading Chapter 5 of Trevor Noah's Born a Crime, I was brought up short by his memory of getting a set of encyclopedias.

"My mom ... bought a set of encyclopedias, too.  It was fifteen years old and way out of date, but I would sit and pore through those.  My books were my prized possessions.  I had a bookshelf where I put them, and I was so proud of it" (p. 67).

A memory popped into my head, and I stopped reading.  I was back in my own childhood.  We lived in barracks that had been converted to apartments for military people returning from World War Two, when there was not enough housing available for them and the boom of babies that ensued.  My dad had been drafted into the Army in late 1944, even though he had two children and another on the way.  Those barracks weren't built as solidly as most houses, and when it rained really hard, water would drip from the ceiling.  Our apartment was on the second floor, so I guess it was a leaky roof because rain was getting in somewhere.  Anyway, when it rained, we'd run to cover our beds or anything we didn't want to get wet.

One year, our mother bought a set of World Book Encyclopedias.  Maybe a traveling salesman had knocked on the door, and she began to make monthly payments on those green and white volumes.  I was like Trevor about those books.  They were special, I learned things from them, and I wanted to know all those things.  After we acquired those special books, when my brothers and sister would run to cover their beds, I invariably ran to protect the encyclopedias.  If I had to sleep on a damp bed, so be it.  But I didn't want those special books to be ruined.  So I ran to the bookshelves.  I kept those books safe, and — after I grew up, married, and moved away — the family still had them.

While looking for an online illustration for this post, I found a fun article about "People of the Book, yes.  But which one?"  Was it Encyclopedia Britannica?  or World Book?  or Compton's?  In pre-internet days, which encyclopedia was in your house?  We were a World Book family.

Word of the Day

en·sue / inˈso͞o, enˈso͞o / verb / ensued is the past participle = happened or occured afterward or as a result.  Example:  "After the war, a boom of babies ensued.  We call them the Baby Boomers."

Memories are made of this ... and this ... and this

Chattanooga telephone directory, September 1944

A woman named Cathy posted this picture in the "You Know You're From Chattanooga If..." group on Facebook, saying, "This piece of history is talking to me!  It’s been through some rough times.  Hopefully I can preserve it."  And she was willing to look up names for those of us who were curious.

I didn't know if our phone number in 1944 was in the name of William E. Setliffe, Jr. or Bonnie Reynolds, since we moved into my maternal grandmother's house with my Aunt Bonnie in 1943.  I memorized my address and phone number as a child:  3208 5th Avenue, and 2-9060.  I thought my paternal grandfather — William E. Setliffe, Sr. — might also be in that book, even though he died during that year.  Cathy reported, "There's two listings for William E. Setliffe Jr."

• W E Setliffe Jr (r) 822 E Main....6-8990
• Mrs. W E Setliffe Jr (r) 3208 5th Av....2-9060

She added, "I don't see your grandfather listed."  I didn't remember off-hand which month my grandfather died (I was only 4, after all).  It was probably earlier in 1944.

My dad's listing at 822 Main Street would be the grocery store he owned at the SW corner of Main Street and Central Avenue, directly across the street from Miss Griffins Foot-Long Hot Dogs.  Her little stand used to be right at the corner in a little triangle until the streets were widened.  Her place is still at that corner, but now it's bigger.  I asked if Gladys Setliffe was listed, but Cathy didn't find my dad's mother listed.  I remember that she lived on Cameron Hill after his father died.  When she remarried and moved to Florida a few years later, I was in the third grade.  That would have been the spring of 1949.

Mom, me, and Dad holding my brother Bill, in the house on 5th Avenue about 1944

Family memories

Then I started thinking about the (r) Cathy had mentioned.  I presume that means "residence," and both listings have that (r) designation.  When I was very young, we lived behind the grocery store.  Then we moved about a block up Main Street (toward the Ridge) before moving in with my Aunt Bonnie after my maternal grandmother died.  Maybe the grocery store had no phone, or maybe my dad had one in the back where we used to live.  After all, who would have had time to answer the phone all day, when he was running the store by himself?  He was also the meatcutter, chopping and weighing and wrapping meat.  Phones were not as ubiquitous in the 1940s as they are now.

Word of the Day

u·biq·ui·tous / yo͞oˈbikwədəs / adjective = present, appearing, or found everywhere.  Ubiquity is generally used to describe something "existing or being everywhere at the same time, constantly encountered, widespread, common."  Ubiquitous can also be used as a synonym for words like worldwide, universal, global, pervasive, all over the place.  Example:  "Phones were not as ubiquitous in the 1940s as they are now."

Blast from the Past

Imagine the smile on my face and the uplift this message on Facebook gave me last week.

"Hey, Bonnie — I feel badly that we've lost touch over the years.  I think the last time I saw you was at a Bible study when you were leading Forrest Avenue United Methodist here in Chattanooga, but I still remember you fondly from Baylor days when you worked in the library.  You were so encouraging to me in so many ways.  In fact, I used to call you my 'guru,' and you'd sign your notes 'bjguru.'  I'm back in Chattanooga now, although over the past decade or so I worked some here and some outside of Philadelphia.  I just happened to think of you the other day and wondered how you were doing, then thought I'd check Facebook and see if I could find you.  Looks as if you're in Missouri now: what led you there?  Hope you and your family are safe and well and that you're happy and enjoying life.  You were always a great influence on me, and I'm grateful."

Keith was in high school when I met him in 1974 at Baylor School in Chattanooga.  I was working in the school library, shelving books much as I do now at the Crown Center for Senior Living.  That's how I paid my way through college for my first degree.  I remember Keith bringing the children's choir from First Christian Church to sing at Forrest Avenue United Methodist, maybe in the late 1980s.  A group of six-year-olds.  More memories.  Keith and I are now Facebook friends.

Jack Spratt

Jack Spratt could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean,
And so, betwixt them both, you see,
They licked the platter clean.

As a child, I learned this version of the fairy tale.  It's what I memorized and still spout to myself anytime I think of fat and thin.  I specifically remember the word "betwixt" in it and "you see," but this morning I had trouble finding that specific wording in any of the versions online.  I also remembered "Spratt" with two Ts, but nearly all that I found had only one.  The version above is from The Little Mother Goose (1912), and the illustration is from the Volland edition of 1915.  Even though it is not the one that was in my childhood book, I like the exaggerated fatness and thinness in the image of Jack and his wife in this illustration.

Word of the Day

be·twixt / bəˈtwikst / preposition / adverb = archaic term for between.  Example:  "And so, betwixt them both, you see, they licked the platter clean."  (Betwixt is archaic, except in the phrase "betwixt and between," which means being in an intermediate position; neither altogether one nor altogether the other.)

Hmm, does this word memory mean I'm archaic?  At 80, I'm ancient, anyway.  Maybe I should be quoting "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" instead of nursery rhymes.  Or maybe I should "rite" the "rime" of the ancient Bonnie.

Phrase of the Day

"Avoid it like the plague."

I saw that someone posted on Facebook:  "We're gonna have to retire the expression 'avoid it like the plague' because it turns out humans do not do that."

Sad, but I know it's true when I look around at all the people who have decided NOT to wear a mask — or wear it hanging off one ear.  Why wouldn't we want to "avoid the plague"?  Because "it's a hoax," or "it's uncomfortable to wear a mask."  Because "I'm young and it won't affect me," or because "I'm not sick, so why should I?"

The Paper Mask Princess ~ by Stefanie Trilling

The Paper Mask Princess ~ by Stefanie Trilling, 2020

Covid, your microscopic images are really pretty and your antibodies are really neat.  You look like a novel coronavirus, but you are a bum.

I've been enjoying the book parodies Stefanie Trilling has been posting on Facebook. She has come up with some very exceptional titles, but I especially love the one above that she posted today.  Gotta love that random roll of toilet paper there, too.  Here's the quote from the original book being parodied, and you can read what I wrote about this children's book a decade ago by clicking on the title.

The Paper Bag Princess ~ by Robert N. Munsch, 1980

"Elizabeth, you are a mess!  You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag.  Come back when you are dressed like a real princess."

"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat.  You look like a real prince, but you are a bum."

They didn't get married after all.

The dragon on this cover isn't Ronald, a prince, but it plays a major role in this story.  Actually click on the middle picture of Princess Elizabeth in my blog post from 2010, you'll see her confronting the dragon, who burns up whole forests with his fiery breath.  Notice how the brave little princess flinches, but she doesn't run away.  The Paper Mask Princess is also unflinching, wearing her mask and green scrubs and gloves to confront that big bad coronavirus.

Holston Annual Conference 2020

Theme of 2020 Annual Conference

I'm a retired clergy member of the United Methodist Church, which is divided into "conferences."  Each conference meets annually.  My membership is in the Holston Conference, which stretches through parts of Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia.  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Holston Annual Conference 2020 has been rescheduled from its prior plans to meet in person at Lake Junaluska this week (June 7-10) to meeting via Livestream on Saturday, June 27th from 1 to 3 p.m.

Today, I "attended" this year's Holston's Pre-Conference Briefing, which in the time of COVID-19 means I watched it online.  Here are some of the things that were covered:

• What a Virtual Annual Conference (VAC) is
• How the VAC will work
• Explanation on not voting
• Update on the memorial service
• Update on the ordination service
• Updates on our mission offerings

Click this link if you want to view today's pre-conference briefing.  Here are dates I want to remember:

• Virtual Pre-Conference Briefing — June 7th at 2:00 pm
  — Sets forth how we'll do things this year.
• Virtual Clergy Session — June 8 at 1:00 pm
  — The list of appointments can be downloaded afterwards.
• Virtual Annual Conference — June 27 from 1:00-3:00 pm
  — I plan to attend from St. Louis via Livestream.

More information is available at AC.Holston.org

Silence Is Violence ~ peaceful vigil tomorrow

Beginning ~ by being thrown out of a car

Sometimes in big Hollywood movies they'll have these crazy chase scenes where somebody jumps or gets thrown from a moving car.  The person hits the ground and rolls for a bit.  Then they come to a stop and pop up and dust themselves off, like it was no big deal.  Whenever I see that I think,  That's rubbish.  Getting thrown out of a moving car hurts way worse than that."

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood ~ by Trevor Noah, 2016, memoir (South Africa)

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act:  his birth.  Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison.  Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away.  Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

This is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist.  It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother — his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting.  Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty.  His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.

Betty Burnett told me about this Trevor Noah memoir, and I got it for my Kindle.  I found this YouTube video (recorded May 29, 2020 by Trevor Noah), which I posted on my Facebook page on June 1st.  It's powerful.  After watching it, I wondered:  "Are we upholding society's contract?  How?  By not looting?  How about by not murdering black men just because you can?"  Here are a couple of quotes I pulled from the 18 minute video:

Trevor Noah says, "There is no contract if law and people in power don't uphold their end of it" (at 11:11 minutes into this 18 minute video).

"If the example law enforcement is setting is that they do not adhere to the laws, then why should the citizens of that society adhere to the laws when, in fact, the law enforcers themselves don't?" (at 11:53-12:03).

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