Book Review: A Black Cowboy's Ride Across America

It's not every day that a good book about both geography and history comes along, but Lisa Winkler's non-fiction epic, A Black Cowboy's Ride Across America, guides the reader from New Jersey to California.  Each chapter portrays the real-life adventure of an African-American teacher, Miles Dean, who rides horseback across the United States beginning September 22, 2007.  The mini-biography of Dean spans not only the country, but the centuries of African-American history in various places along the way.

There is not enough room in history books to tell the stories of all the remarkable people who walked this earth.  So textbooks leave out folks who do not specifically advance the historical narrative the editors wish to portray.  For example, American children all read about George Washington, the first President of the United States, and they should.  Do they also know about Blanche K. Bruce, the first African-American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate in 1874?  Readers travel with Miles and pick up gems of history where they happened along the journey.

Blanche K. Bruce Mississippi Senator, 1874-1880

In this book the reader experiences the difficulties of the actual horseback ride across motorized America.  In spite of extensive planning Miles encounters problems he can't anticipate like horse anxiety,  along with the exuberance of meeting welcoming strangers in every place.  Readers learn along with Miles about various famous African-Americans, who were firsts in fields that don't make the history books, such as horse jockeys or cowboys.  Rather than being a chronological history, this is a geographical history.  Every locale has its heroes and heroines, and they fit into various historical time frames.  The focus of this book is on African-American heroes from each stop along the way, so there might be a Civil War hero, and a country singer in the same location.

In truth children learn history, just as they learn their first language, from those closest to them. They learn about their own ethnicity from their parents and grandparents, and blend it in with their growing life experiences.  The stories of the folks in their home towns become part of their own history.  Then they learn how those stories fit into the broader scope of history.  Somewhere along the way, they begin to pick up an internal timeline.  In this book the reader becomes like a child growing up in each site where Miles stops, and learns a bit about each place, whetting their appetite to follow-up and research more about specific people or events later.

Winkler's mini-biography easily meets the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts, since students will be required to read greater percentages of non-fiction texts.  This is a book that will interest students, particularly ones who like horses and cowboys.  Teachers are often looking for books that will appeal to disenfranchised students.  This book is the perfect hook for African-American males, statistically having the largest percentage of students in this category.  Miles, the rider, is the first hero, attempting this difficult trip at age 57, and overcoming obstacle after obstacle, persevering until he completes his goal.  Then meeting all the unsung African-American heroes along Mile's historic epic gives these students a sense of belonging and contributing to the history of the United States that is so essential for creating future citizens of this nation.

Miles Dean, age 57 riding across America

As an educational consultant, I think this book has implications that reach far beyond the written word, and the standards we teach.  It touches the heart, and motivates young people to emulate heroes.  It goes beyond exposing the faults of the country to forgiveness and allows students to see how people of different ethnicities contributed to the success of Miles' journey.  We don't forget our history or cover it up, but maturely go beyond its faults and take advantage of new opportunities.  We stand on the backs of heroes who paved the way for our success, and move forward in appreciation of their sacrifices to create a better world.

I featured Lisa Walker's blog, Cycling Grandma, on my personal blog, Marsha Lee Streaming Thoughts in the post, Christmas Sweater, earlier in December.  You will enjoy visiting her blog as well.  A Black Cowboy's Ride will make an excellent gift for your child's teacher, a student in your life, a history buff, or yourself. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have.

Hawaiian History: Whalers Village Museum, Maui

What do you do for a week in Maui when you've been there before?  Several times.  Even in Hawaii I can't resist a museum.  Last year we went to the Sugar Museum.  Whalers Village Museum wasn't listed on the top 10 things to do in Maui in our KBC planning calendar, but we really enjoyed this compact, top-notch museum.

Upstairs in Whaler's Village

Fishing is a… discipline in the equality of men – for all men are equal before fish. –Herbert Hoover

This next picture impressed me because of the diversity of the workers in the middle 1800s, included native Hawaiians, Negroes, Europeans, sons of wealthy Americans, and native Americans.  Whalers lived together for 3-5 years for a total income of about $50.  The conditions would appall the poorest of the poor by today's standards.  Whaling ships stored so little water that sailors usually washed their few clothes in urine.

The oldest whalers were in their late 20s.

They spent most of their time carving  scrimshaw and waiting for whales to appear.

Scrimshaw

Incredibly ornate carvings in ivory or teeth helped sailors whittle away the long evening hours.

Jaws lost his dentures.

I'm sure the sailors saw their fair share of these happy snappers.  The day after we left Maui one shark attacked a swimmer at one of the beaches we visited in southern Maui.

These guys look like they are having a whale of a good time.

Whaling, I learned, provided the world with most of its heating oil before fossil fuels were discovered in the 1800s.  The cost of heating and lighting oil in the 1800s cost 3-5 years out of around 100,000 lives of these young men.  I read a report once that stated that the beginning use of fossil fuels improved the economic conditions worldwide.  Reading about the conditions under which these young men labored helps understand why whale oil was so cost-prohibitive, even without factoring the cost of depleting the population of whales.

Whaler's Museum is upstairs under the clock tower.

If you get to Maui, take a few minutes away from shopping to sneak up to the Whalers Village Museum.  Then go downstairs and fix yourself a yogurt sundae sold by the pound.  (That's not the amount of pounds it puts on you!!!  WHEW!!)

I hope you enjoyed your brief museum tour.  

Book Review: Fires of Jubilee

When siblings fight, there is always the "He started it!" accusation that is supposed to vindicate the scuffle to Mom and Dad.   Oates contends that the Southern white desperate fear and hostility of Aftican-Americans may have started with Nat Turner's slave rebellion.   Until that time, slave owners convinced themselves that the slaves didn't mind being slaves.  This rebellion set the record straight.

In this 1975 page-turner, Fires of Jubilee, Stephen Oates did more than recount the story of Nat Turner and the gruesome slave rebellion that spawned terror in the hearts of Southern whites in 1831.  After much research, and interviewing African-American residents of the area, he analyzed the situation. Learn why there was nobody powerful enough to calm the revenge storm that raged against negroes after that pivotal rebellion.

Oates set the context with his words, "...Needing to blame somebody for Nat Turner besides themselves, Southern whites ...linked the revolt to a sinister Northern abolitionist plot to destroy their cherished way of life" p. 129.  Even the governor of Virginia believed that abolitionists urged "our negroes and mulattoes, slaves and free to the indiscriminate massacre of all white people" p. 130.  That simple statement helped explain to me why the South blamed the North for starting the Civil War, and why that same war is remembered in the South as the War of Northern Aggression.

History buffs may have already read this book first published in 1975, but I recommend Stephen B. Oates', The Fires of Jubilee:  Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion to all U.S. history teachers who teach the Civil War.   You will learn so much about this one crucial event that contributed to the Civil War.

Monday: Valleycationers: Driving to Paso Robles Inn

You find many Central Valley residents vacationing just over the Coastal Mountains in Paso Robles as well as in the beach towns just west of there.  As you drive past the many new vineyards that surround the town into Paso Robles, you have just exited one of the most soporific road trips through the hills past Kettleman City.  Unless I'm driving, I sleep through these hills - both coming and going.

Wake up! We're going to Paso!  Actually this is leaving Paso, so don't be confused by where the mountains are.  I just wanted you to see how boring it is.

El Paso del Robles, passage of the Oaks, is an old western town dividing the two worlds, the desert heat of the Kettleman City hills and the Tulare Lake Basin, and the Central Coast of San Luis Obispo County beginning to the north with Cayucos, Cambria, Hearst Castle, and south to Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Avila Beach, Arroyo Grande, ending with Nipomo before you move into Santa Barbara County.  

Paso Robles Inn, built in 1891.

Once you get to the Paso Robles Inn, built in 1891 and rebuilt in 1942 after a devastating fire, you can begin to see the 19th century charm of Paso Robles.  Once known for its 124 degree hot springs, you might want to try this hotel which still has hot spring spas in about 1/3 of the rooms. I took this picture on April 1st, an unusually cloudy day in Paso.

The original building, thought to be indestructible, and "absolutely fireproof, had to be rebuilt after it burnt down in 1940.  The builders kept the mission style, especially evident in the front patio.



The front of the Inn looks western and old.   You can see the mission-style covered front porch.  This is handy in the hot sun.  It's pleasant even in the winter. 

Behind the inn is a charming outdoor seating area overlooking the hotel grounds.  The restaurant serves plenty of delicious food, but to me the real benefit is the setting.

Beneath the beautiful fountain, they grew some of their vegetables.  I doubt that they used very many of them because the garden looked too perfect.  Maybe they had some others hidden away somewhere.

I am always fascinated by flowing water and fish and bridges.  It's the perfect place for a wedding, and someone was celebrating the day we visited.

The grounds are perfectly manicured.  

Don't they look famous with their sunglasses?

Our friends arrived, then lunch came with sweet potato fries (no wonder I'm dieting now).  We wandered around the historic area across from the Inn, and all too quickly it was time to go back home again.  With a full tummy, Vince's bride slept her way through the boring trip home.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz  glub, glu  zzzzzzzzzzz

Another successful Valleycation.  :)

Some historic places you might want to visit in Paso Robles are listed on the City of Paso Robles website.  You might also enjoy the tours offered by some of the Paso Wineries.

History: Civil Rights Heroine, Eva Paterson

Eva Paterson was only a teenager when she debated Spiro Agnew on national television in 1970.  When she became an attorney she fought for Civil Rights for many underserved groups of people.  Though she grew up in a violent home, she became a champion for those whose rights were challenged at home or in society.  In the late 1970s she successfully sued the Oakland Police Department  for not coming to the aide of battered women.

Eva Patterson will be speaking in a panel at the CCSS Conference in Burlingame on March 9, 2013

"Prior to taking the helm of the Equal Justice Society in 2003, Paterson worked at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for twenty-six years, thirteen of them as Executive Director. Paterson led the organization’s work providing free legal services to low-income individuals, litigating class action civil rights cases, and advocating for social justice. At the Lawyers’ Committee, she was part of a broad coalition that filed the groundbreaking anti-discrimination suit against race and gender discrimination by the San Francisco Fire Department. That lawsuit successfully desegregated the department, winning new opportunities for women and minority firefighters."  http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/about/evapaterson/ 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=samc1_8sDoA]

Martin Luther King Junior had a dream.  Some people living in the United States are inhibited from following their dreams because of their immigrant status as children.  "The 'The DREAM Act is a bipartisan legislation ‒ pioneered by Sen. Orin Hatch [R-UT] andSen. Richard Durbin [D-IL] ‒ that can solve this hemorrhaging injustice in our society. Under the rigorous provisions of the DREAM Act, qualifying undocumented youth would be eligible for a 6 year long conditional path to citizenship that requires completion of a college degree or two years of military service." http://dreamact.info/  

Two of these students shared their stories during the panel discussion at the 2013 California Council for the Social Studies Conference.   As a student Civil Rights advocate, Paterson, came to the spotlight during a panel discussion addressing then President Spiro Agnew, and, coming full circle at the 2013 CCSS Conference, Eva participated on a panel discussion with students who shared the their own struggle for civil rights nearly 50 years later. 

California Council for the Social Studies attracts the best speakers for Civic Education, History, Economics and Geography, the four core subjects of history-social studies.  We look forward to our 2014 Conference, "CCSS Wants You - Dig in for the Challenge"
This conference celebrates the 100 year anniversary of the start of World War I expanding the theme to include  the use of propaganda used during all war efforts.  We received 121 proposals, and additionally look forward to many special speakers and  scholars.  In addition there will be support for implementation of the Common Core Standards and use of technology in the classroom.

It is going to be an exciting conference!  Make your plans to attend now!  We look forward to seeing you there!  :)

Social Studies: Economics: Seattle, Washington: Pikes Peak Market

Framers marketks are everywhere contributing to local economics everywhere.  Visalia has one on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings.  Pismo Beach had one on Wednesday night. Traveling to conferences often allows attendees the opportunity to explore new places.  National Council for the Social Studies moves their conference each year to a different part of the country allowing social studies teachers to learn geography as well as history, civics, economics and all the social studies.  Last November we traveled to my first husband's home area of Seattle, Washington.  In Seattle my friends and I ate in some top Diners and Dives restaurants, rode to the top of the Space Needle, got lost in downtown several times, and best of all, went to the Pike Place Market, a giant Farmer's Market, open every day.

Outside the market you needed an umbrella, which I had left at the top of the Space Needle the night before, but inside, the weather was perfect.  I hadn't carried my Canon in the rain, so these pictures all came from my iPhone.

Since we had just eaten lunch, the flowers attracted us at first.  Bouquets ranged from $5 - $15.  This one was $10, I think.  We wondered how they sustained themselves, but would have bought at least one bouquet if we weren't going on the plane hours later.

Honey Crisp apple grown in Washington

Free samples abounded, and these Honey Crisp apples were sweet and crunchy, just the way I like apples.  All the varieties of apples came from Washington, but other fruits and vegetables came from all over.  One item we asked about came from Delano, just south of us in Kern County, California.

Although fruits and vegetables provided the most color, while fish throwing attracted the biggest followers.  I tried to capture the fish in motion, but clicking at exactly the right time challenged me.

We saw lots of fish eyes, oozy clams, live oysters, and tasted smoked salmon jerky at $39 + a pound.

Razor clams oozing out of their shells brushed with sand.

Mary advocates for purchasing sustainable fish, and organic vegetables.

After the fish festival, Mary wanted to experience the shoe museum which meant a pay a quarter, peek through a lit window for about a minute, and have your picture taken outside the painted window display.

Robert Wadlow's size 37AA shoe

Come one. Come all. Step right up, and put your quarters in. These shoes will astound you.

You can buy anything you might need at this outdoor market, and people come from around the world to do so.  How does this compare to markets in your city or town?  Did you like it?

Common Core Topic for Developing An Argument: Is Pressing Like Protected Free Speech?

I don't usually write about news or controversial articles on my blog, but I can't resist this one.  I read an online article "Is Liking Something On Facebook An Act Of Free Speech?" on WebProNews.

"Last year, a Virginia judge ruled that a Facebook “like” is not protected by the First Amendment. The story goes like this: Deputy Sheriff Daniel Ray Carter of Hampton, Virginia “liked” the page of “Jim Adams for Hampton Sheriff.” Carter’s boss, Sheriff B.J. Roberts, saw this, and then when Roberts won the election against Adams, Carter was fired. Carter claimed it was the Facebook “like” that led to his termination. He sued, but the judge determined that a “like” is not protected free speech."  "Is Liking Something On Facebook An Act Of Free Speech?"

I like news articles, that's the essence of the article in the first paragraph. As I read the article, I got heated up inside because I press like a lot, but I am VERY careful on Facebook even though I no longer work for someone.  What do you think about this?

A year or two ago a friend of mine posted something on FB that caused people to talk about her loyalty to the organization that employed her.  She insisted that she was protected, and she could say whatever she wanted and not be fired for it.  Is that true?  Was she protected?

Another friend of mine posted a cartoon picture that I found offensive, and I jumped all over him about it.  My concern wasn't just that I was offended by the innuendo of the drawing, but he was a teacher, and I would hate to see him have problems in his school because it was posted.  He claimed he didn't post it.  Probably what happened was that he pressed LIKE and it automatically posted on his wall.  WHATEVER - there it was!  My thought about both friends was why kick yourself in the foot over something on FB?  Be careful what you post and what you LIKE!!!!  Nonetheless, would I have gone to battle for either of these friends?   ABSOLUtELY, I would!!!!

Now the question goes back to liking.  It seems like a small thing to press a like button, but is it?  Most importantly,do you think should you be constitutionally protected when you press like?  What does pressing like mean to you?

TC History Gal's Book Review: The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

Attention English teachers!!!  The Worst Hard Time:  The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan reads almost like fiction. History and science teachers join forces by using this book as primary source background information to introduce or expand the topics including the Dust Bowl and the environment.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled to Arizona and California to escape the worst natural disaster in modern times.  This book focuses on those who stayed, and lived in wooden shacks with no insulation to keep out the dust.

You will experience the emotional debates raging in the hearts of the hanger ons when their lives blew away.

"In those cedar posts and collapsed homes is the story of this place:  how the greatest grassland in the world was turned inside out, how the crust blew away, raged up in the sky and showered down a suffocating blackness off and on for most of a decade." p. 2

This book includes shocking facts beside the tragic stories of the nesters who had obeyed their government, farmed the land, and reaped a bowl of dust.

"...Black Sunday, April 14, 1935, ... the storm carried twice as much dirt as was dug out of the earth to create the Panama Canal.  ... More than 300,000 tons of Great Plains topsoil was airborne that day. ... Jeanne Clark could not stop coughing.  ... The doctor diagnosed Jeanne with dust pneumonia, ... she might not live long....  Jeanne's mother... had come here for the air, and now her little girl was dying of it." p.8

The "great plowup" of millions of acres lasted only thirty years, but the consequences lasted a decade at its worst, and continues today with a cautionary tale for the future.

"The land came through the 1930s deeply scarred and forever changed, but in places it healed. ... After more than sixty-five years, some of the land is still sterile, and drifting. ... The (nearly 220 million) trees from Franklin Roosevelt's big arbor dream have mostly disappeared.  ... When the regular rain returned in the 1940s and wheat prices shot up, farmers ripped out the shelter belt trees to plant grain." pgs 309-310

What is frightening after reading this book is the realization that it could happen again, and this time there would be no remedy.

"The government props up the heartland, ensuring that the most politically connected farms will remain profitable. ...  To keep agribusiness going a vast infrastructure of pumps and pipes reaches deep into the Ogallala Aquifer, the nation's biggest source of underground freshwater, drawing the water down eight times faster than nature can refill it. ... It provides about 30 percent of the irrigation water in the United States."  p. 310

This book is guaranteed to make you more aware of the extreme dangers of continuing in the direction we are going as a nation with regards to what and how we grow.

In Central California, where I live, the subject is especially poignant for two reasons:

1. Many residents of the Central Valley have relatives still living in the Dust Bowl states.
2. Central California depends on aquifers and agribusiness to exist.

I recommend this book for use in Common Core classrooms grades 5 and up.  It covers science as well as social studies topics as it combines environmental issues with historical facts.

Thanks for taking the time to read this review.  Your comments are like a warm, gentle breeze across a soft-flowing grassland prairie that still smells of a light summer rain.  :)  Marsha :)

The Voice of Freedom: Publisher Clementina Rind

I meant to publish this for the 4th of July, but forgot and published something else.  Sorry!  She was such a great patriot.  I WAS Clementina Rind for a week at a Teachers’ Institute Colonial Williamsburg.  She became my heroine.

Marsha Lee in front of Clementina Rind’s home in Colonial Williamsburg, April 20, 2010.
 As the the editor of the Virginia Gazette, on Thursday, March 17, 1774 she printed the following article: 

“On the Present Neutrality of Great Britain”

Those who endeavor to stimulate the military by their writings, to take an active part in the present broils of Europe, either do not perceive the pernicious consequences of such a measure, or do it with a factious view, in hopes of getting them out, and other persons in thereby.  Nothing can be more clear and manifest, than it is in the interest of this nation to preserve the peace as long as possible in order to give time for lessening our immense public debt, and removing those heavy taxes which the late war laid upon the shoulders of the people.  Were the ministry to take an active part in the present quarrels, and engage the kingdom in the expense of a fresh war, before any of the burdensome taxes had been taken off, which were imposed upon us for the support of the last, it would be absolutely impossible for them to find out resources for maintaining it, without distressing the people beyond their patience, or power of bearing.  Besides, these writers have not shewn, nor can shew, any just cause why the crown of Great Britain should take any part in the quarrels of Europe, or enter into a war with any power therein.  By whom hath Great Britain been injured, or by what prince in Europe hath she been hurt?  Is the division of Poland amongst the confederate princes, of any detriment to this nation?  Of by what means have we been  sufferers by the war between the Turks and Russians?  Let us no longer play the Quixote, by meddling with matters, and entering into quarrels wherein neither our honor nor our interest are at all concerned.  Long experience must surely have shewn us the folly of such proceedings.  All the debt of the nation, and all the heavy taxes we now labour under are owing to our entering into other people’s quarrels, and fighting their battles.  Will not our great sufferings teach us a little wisdom?  Let us learn at least to mind our own concerns, and  pursue our own interests.  Peace is now not only necessary for our interests, but for our very existence, as a nation.  Let us imitate the prudence of the Dutch, who, but their situation have more reason to meddle with, and interest themselves in continental quarrels, than the English nation. yet avoid taking any part whatever therein.  They know, and pursue their own interests, and it is high time we did so too.  It is therefore to be hoped that our ministry will regard less of what factious persons may write or say, and take every prudent step and measure for continuing to su the blessings of peace.

Clementina Rind, Virginia’s first female printer who also printed, Thomas Jefferson’s A Summary View of the Rights of British America.   “George Washington was among the first to purchase a copy, writing in his diary that it cost him three shillings and ninepence. The pamphlet was reprinted in Philadelphia and London, and its importance has been described as “second only to the Declaration of Independence.”  http://www.vahistorical.org/publications/historycorner_rind.htm

For other articles about Clementina Rind:

Biography:  Clementina Rind  by Barbara Wells Sarudy
Sordid Friday:  Tales of Clementina Rind by Marsha Ingrao (me)  :)