Earth Day, Mom's Birth Day, Premeier's and a Story.

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(NEW) www.FrontPorchColumbus Dot Com

June 23, 2009 will be the Public Enemies Premier at the Mann Village Theatre, Westwood. Built in 1930, and opened in 1931 the Mann's Village Theatre is a favorite of movie studios, which frequently select the theatre to premiere their top films. In the year 2000, the Village Theatre celebrated its 70th Anniversary.

And yes - theatre is spelled correctly.
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Well today is Earth Day and unlike what I was told by my parents it was invented in 1970 by Gaylord Nelson the U.S. Senator from Wisconsin. (I was told it was Eddie Albert as it is his birthday . . . . long story - it is also my moms birthday).

In defense of the Eddie Albert story (the Green Acres dude) he was a very intense social and environmental activist for his last 30 years. An interesting thing about Mr. Albert as that he was married to María Marguerita Guadalupe Teresa Estela Bolado Castilla y O'Donnell untll she died of a brain tumor.

I pity that poor woman when she was in school and had to learn how to spell her name.

Another interesting thing was that just before WWII Albert toured Mexico as a clown and high-wire artist with the Escalante Brothers Circus, but secretly he was working as an undercover spy for the U.S. Army intelligence, photographing German U-boats in Mexican harbors.

Albert was a genuine war hero and was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa in November, 1943. He was the pilot of a U.S. Coast Guard landing craft and he rescued 47 Marines who were stranded offshore while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire.

Things you never knew about Oliver Wendell Douglas.
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Then there is my mom. She was once stolen by gypsies! Her family lived way up north on a subsistence farm and one time a band of gypsies were coming down the road. Her parents told her to bring in all the pots and other things as they might be stolen.

She did as told but that night she snuck out the window and went to see what the gypsies were up too. (OK she was not really stolen). As luck would have it she was caught and spent some time around a large camp fire listening to the exotic stories before she went home and snuck back into the house.

This story has nothings to do with anything but since it's my moms birthday (81?) I was looking for some of her old writings and found this. It's not earth shatering but a fun read . . .

In Holway, the area we lived in was almost entirely Old Order Amish. Of the thirty or so pupils attending Lincoln School there were only eight who weren't Amish. The called us the "English".

I was entranced with the Amish people. I loved everything about them, their strange but so becoming clothes, their clean, fat farms, their clip-clop footed horses and secretive black buggies, the way they talked, and most of all their unfailing courtesy.

Once in a fast and wild game during noon hour a smaller boy slammed into me and knocked me down. Instantly the game stopped. Instantly the boy was leaning over me anxiously saying, "Im so sorry! Is thee hurt?" and an older boy was helping me to me feet and telling him, "Learn to look where thee's going, William." and a girl was exclaiming over my slightly scraped elbow and leading me by the hand to the teacher, Miss Bergmann, for cleaning and a bandage. The fall hadn't shaken me, but the concern did. At Washington School the whole pack would have tromped right over me.

There were two things that made Lincoln School special for me. One was that for the first time in my life I had friends. They wee Amish, and we weren't allowed to visit in each other's homes, but form the time we met on the way to school until we parted on the way home, we were friends. The other special thing was that for the first time I had a classmate, non-Amish, who was accustomed to getting straight "A"s without a struggle.

Since we both wanted , and expected, to stay Top Dog, Eugene and I both threw ourselves into a brain-battle and became learnaholics. At the end of the year Miss Bergman insisted, with report cards to prove it, that we finished in an exact tie. I've never believed that. I've always wondered if she was kind enough to not want either if us ti lose or wise enough to not want either of us to win.

Miss Bergman is a shadowy figure in my memory. She may have been a much better teacher then I realized at the time. She had to prepare eight of us for High School, while not offending the Amish parents who wanted their children to learn nothing of "the world" beyond reading, writing and arithmetic. It's significant of the problem that no other books except textbooks were ever allowed in Lincoln School.
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After typing that (and getting some carpel tunnel) I now realize why I have this soft spot for the Amish. On October 2 2006 when that gunman killed 5 girls in that Amish school, I was devastated, I truely was, more then my brain was prepared for. Back in the late 80's I was driving around and saw a scene that has burned an image in my minds eye that I can still make out every detail. I wanted to take photos but I knew it would be frowned upon by them, even though I was quite far away.

It was a barn raising and all the man were raising a side of the barn, the woman were on the front porch and children were playing in the front yard. I can see every detail.

Then there is the part of the story about "learnaholics" which my brother was as I believe he was a "A" student. Well, the apple fell pretty far from the tree and rolled down the hill when it came to me. I doubt I ever did any home work and I know I never practiced cello even though I was 1st chair all the way through school and even in my brief time in the Wisconsin Youth Symphony I don't think I ever practiced.

Of course now I "study" but it is more like I "obsess" over a topic.

Have a great Wednesday.

Rod