Washington D.C.: Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality NM

Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument
Saturday, August 10, 2019, Washington, D.C.

On my last trip to Washington D.C. in 2019, I visited the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument.  This National Monument is interesting for two reasons, obviously one is its connection to the National Women’s Party, a group in the United States that fought for women’s suffrage and other issues of women’s equality.  Second, the history and architecture of this building is so interesting!

The home was built between 1799 and 1800, and it was probably designed by Leonard Harbaugh at the beginning of his career.  He also designed many notable buildings in the early days of Washington D.C.  In 1814, the British partially burned the home during the War of 1812; the stories go that there was gunfire at the home directed at British soldiers.  The home was owned and occupied by the Sewall family until 1912.

Vermont Senator Porter Dale purchased the home in 1922, and renovated it.  Meanwhile, the National Women’s Party had purchased a different property nearby, which was seized by eminent domain to build the Federal Triangle complex.  On the hunt for a new headquarters property, organization co-founder Alva Vanderbilt Belmont purchased an option for the Sewall House.  They purchased the property in 1929.  In the 1950s there was a proposal to condemn the building and demolish it to build underground security vaults for the Senate building.  Thankfully, citizen opposition saved the building.

What was going on inside the walls was equally fascinating!

The fight for women’s suffrage in the United States is largely considered to have begun at the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1840.  I have visited that site as well, if you want to read more about it!  It took 80 more years of lobbying and protesting before white women finally universally gained the right to vote in the United States.  Of course, this all happened before the National Women’s Party owned the Belmont-Paul House, but since that time, the party has lobbied for other issues of women’s rights and eliminating sex discrimination, notably, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

The ERA was passed by Congress in 1972, and was ratified by some of the states, but it was not passed by enough states to become an amendment to the Constitution.  Since the deadline passed, a few more states have ratified the amendment, but of course, those are not legally binding.  Some detractors argue that after so many other laws have passed, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, that the amendment is no longer needed.

The tour of the house included some of the artifacts of the party, like writing desks and clothing, as well as exhibits on the attempt to pass the suffrage legislation.  There were also banners that the women carried during their two and a half year picket of the White House.  You read that correctly!  Women involved in the National Women’s Party stood outside the White House from January 10, 1917, to June 1919.  They were there in all sorts of weather, and were arrested, beaten, and went on hunger strikes to protest their treatment in jail.  In response, prison guards forced feeding tubes down their throats, causing injuries that never healed.  The attempt to gain women’s suffrage was not always a peaceful undertaking.   

In 2021, the National Women’s Party ceased operations, and donated its papers and artifacts to the Library of Congress.  The legacy of this movement lives on in the education provided by the National Monument at the Belmont-Paul House.  It was an interesting place to visit! 

 

 

 

Book Review: The Husbands

The Husbands, by Chandler Baker

Nora is a wife, a mother and an attorney.  All at the same time.  Her husband Hayden tries to be helpful, but Nora us finding herself collapsing under the weight of trying to do it all, while coming up for a partnership review this year in her law firm.  Not to mention, she has another baby on the way.

Their home is too cramped, so they are trying to find a new one before baby #2 arrives.  This leads Nora and Hayden to the perfect neighborhood.  The homes are spacious and stunning and even better, the neighbors are amazing.  All the women are professionals, and their husbands all help so much with household life!  Nora is reluctant to admit she’s jealous.  She loves Hayden, and he does try to be a good husband and father, but these other men put him to shame.  Nora covets the idea that her disorganized life could be easier, better, if only Hayden did his share.  She’s carrying around quite a lot of mom guilt for her parenting skills, not to mention the pressure at work.  

Friendships quickly grow, and Nora gains a client when she agrees to look into a wrongful death lawsuit after one of her new friend’s husband dies in a house fire.  Nora soon finds out that things aren’t as they seem.  Maybe the perfect neighborhood is a little too perfect? 

This murder mystery is a new take on the Stepford Wives.  Only this time it is the husbands who are being manipulated into cheerful, compliant automatons who fulfill the wives’ every need.  Nora has to decide whether she wants to buy into this new neighborhood, or if she wants her imperfect husband just the way he is.

The Husbands is very formulaic, and I figured out the premise very early on in the book.  Nora, despite being an attorney, is apparently not the sharpest tool in the shed, because it took her much longer to piece it together.  That said, it was interesting, with several twists and turns that kept me mostly engaged.  There were some surprises at the end, but I found them unbelievable.  So all in all, not great, not terrible. 

2.5 stars.

Retirement Diaries 2024: Garden Time

I can’t believe it is already mid-May!  The sun is out, the temps are getting into the high 60s, and it’s gardening time! 

I have been working out in the yard and garden, clearing up the fallen sticks from the oak trees, clearing away the dead leaves and pulling the lush grass from the beds.  Things are green!  The trees are budding out and the lilacs will be blooming soon.  It’s beautiful! 

I also started my garden with some frost tolerant crops.  Last weekend I planted radishes, beets, turnips and snow peas in the ground.  Nothing has sprouted yet, but I’m sure it is just a matter of days!  I also put up the mini greenhouse in the house, and have a lot starting in it!  Cabbage, bell pepper, cantaloupe, and green and colored bush beans.  I have six tomato plants that were already started, and am starting ten more from seeds (I have never started tomatoes from seeds, so we will see how that goes).  The cabbage sprouts are going crazy, the tomato plants are growing, and I even have one lonely cantaloupe start.  I’m sure its friends will be arriving soon. 

I marked everything on a calendar, with planting dates, and expected date of harvest.  There will be more going in the ground in the next week or two as well!  The big experiment begins! 

I also started volunteering for our town’s library, and the library book sale begins today.  It has been a flurry of activity getting ready, moving all the donated books up from the basement of City Hall, and arranging them all on tables.  It helps to be a big reader, so I can help figure out which genres the books belong in.  Hopefully we get lots of sales for funding library activities! 

I went for a hike at a new-to-me park last week.  Crow Wing State Park is right at the confluence of the Crow Wing and Mississippi Rivers, and is the site of a Native American village, and later a white settlement.  There isn’t much left now, but signs explain where things were, and there is an old cemetery.  It is fun to imagine what a tough life it would have been to live here hundreds of years ago. 

Yellow and Cora both had a vet appointment on Tuesday.  Yellow was getting his kidney bloodwork to check how he’s doing and Cora had a vaccine she needed in case I need to board her later in the spring for a few trips mom and I are going on.  Yellow is doing well!  His kidney values are just slightly outside of the normal range, but much better than they were 6 months ago.  It is such a relief!  He’s responding well to his fluids and he’s happy.  Cora’s vaccine had her feeling under the weather until this morning (she even slept through a couple of meals, which is unlike her!), but she seems to be back to normal today. 

It’s been a busy spring so far, but I’m having lots of fun!  I can’t wait to see the results of my handiwork!

 

Book Review: Mudbound

Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan

This older novel (published in 2008) was chosen for my library book club for May.  And what a novel it is.

Taking place mostly in the period directly following World War II, Laura McAllan is a woman in her thirties married to Henry, with two children.  They met and married in Memphis, Tennessee, and she was just fine living there.  She liked her city life.  But when Henry’s brother in law dies unexpectedly, he decides to move the family to his homeland in the Mississippi Delta, to be closer to his sister.  He buys a rundown farm that has been worked by sharecroppers, ready to make a living from the land.  Laura tries hard to hide her anger and disappointment at this turn of events, and at the fact that her sullen, crude, ungrateful father-in-law is moving in.  In frustration, she names the farm ‘Mudbound,’ and it sticks. 

 

Soon, two men return to the farm from the war; one white and one black.  Henry’s younger brother Jamie was a pilot, and carries the emotional battle scars.  He tries to drown his nightmares in a bottle.  Ronsel Jackson, son of one of the sharecropping families, was a Sergeant in a tank battalion.  For the first time in Europe, Ronsel experienced what it was like to not walk in a world of racism.  Now that he’s back in the Jim Crow south, it is difficult to go back to the prejudice.  The quiet story of family soon takes a dramatic and tragic turn as a result of the friendship of these two men. 

Jordan writes from the perspective of each of the characters in the novel.  A story of family bonds, and the lengths we will go to protect those we love.  A story of prejudice and racism in the deep south, and the way it can rip a family apart.  She builds each character with their strengths and their flaws, forcing the reader to choose sides.  Each character unweaves a small part of the story, revealing more and more until the tragic end.

It is a debut novel that you won’t soon forget.

5 stars.

Book Review: The Red Tent

The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant

The Red Tent is the story of Dinah, the seventh child and only daughter of Leah and Jacob, in the Old Testament book of Genesis.  She is only mentioned twice in the Bible, first describing her rape by Shechem, the son of Hamor, prince of the region.  After she was raped, her brothers Levi and Simeon, snuck into the city and murdered Shechem, Hamor and all of the other men they could find, and took Dinah back to her family.

Diamant builds on this sparse information to create a full, rich life for Dinah, although not one without its share of tragedy.  It begins with her birth to Leah, and her relationship with her four mothers (Jacob’s four wives).  It tells the story of her growing up among her family, and being the only daughter with many brothers.  It describes her time in The Red Tent, where the women go for their monthly cycle, which is considered a time when the women rest and bond with each other.

Dinah learns midwifery from her mother Rachel (her aunt), and the time she spent living with her grandmother Rebecca to learn if she will inherit her seeing ways.  The experiences prepare her well for her life alone.  As in the Bible, Diamant connects Dinah to Shechem, but this time as a romance that is merely misunderstood by her father.  The result, however, is the same, with Levi and Simeon murdering Dinah’s betrothed.  Dinah curses her father and brother and turns her back on her family, never seeing her beloved mothers again.  Dinah is a strong, resilient woman, who achieves much in a world where women are generally relegated to child rearing and other domestic tasks.  

Diamant writes in a rich, evocative style, bringing the women of the story to life.  The men remain in the background, never playing an important role in the life that the women have created for themselves.  Ancient times come to life, and in the parts of the history that are known, Diamant stays true to the Bible’s telling of Dinah and her family.  But she creates a grand story for Dinah, out of the parts that are unknown.

4 stars. 

Salem Weekend: Silver Falls State Park

Sunday, September 1, 2019, Silver Falls State Park, Silverton, Oregon

On my weekend trip to Oregon in 2019, I took the day to go to Silver Falls State Park, and hike the Canyon Trail, also know as the Trail of 10 Falls.  This park is such a gem in the Oregon Parks System!

The park was once the site of Silver Falls City, which was located at the top of South Falls.  The community was largely a logging community, but after the land was cleared of timber, a local entrepreneur sold admissions to the falls area and hosted events where cars were pushed over the falls, and a daredevil even rode over the largest falls in a canoe in 1928.  His name was “Daredevil Al” Faussett, and yes, he survived the 177 foot drop.  That has all been cleaned up now.

In 1926, there was a campaign to give Silver Falls National Park status, but it was not approved, due to all the ugly stumps and mess left from its logging days, not to mention the carcasses of cars that were no doubt left at the base of the falls.  Instead, in 1935, Present Roosevelt named it a Recreational Demonstration Area, and the Civilian Conservation Corps moved in to build facilities, clean up debris, build trails and widen some of the trails behind the waterfalls.  Yes, the trails behind the waterfalls already existed, because the area was formed with basalt over sandstone, and the softer sandstone eroded over time, both to create the canyon, and to erode the narrow pathways behind some of the falls.

When you hike the Canyon Trail, you will pass 10 different waterfalls; you can walk behind some of the waterfalls for a stunning view!  On the 7 mile hike, you pass South Falls, Lower South Falls, Lower North Falls, Double Falls, Drake Falls, Middle North Falls, Winter Falls, Twin Falls, North Falls and Upper North Falls.  Winter Falls is at the end of a half mile spur trail off the main trail and Double Falls is on a 0.1 mile spur trail.  When I was there in early September, it was pretty dry from the summer weather; I would love to go back in the spring when the waterfalls are at their peak flow!

I was there on a Sunday, on Labor Day weekend, and the park was packed.  Next time I would go on a weekday if I could, and I would definitely camp in the campground there. I think that would be so much fun!

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you which waterfall is in which photo, but enjoy!

Book Review: I’m Glad My Mom Died

I’m Glad My Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy

I had never heard of Jennette McCurdy, but apparently she began her child acting career in the early 2000s, and is best known as the star of a Nickelodeon TV show.  Now, I’m of the generation that watched Nick at Nite, back when it aired reruns of Leave It To Beaver, Mr. Ed, and the Donna Reed Show.  I didn’t really watch later on when they were doing their own original programming, nor did I have children who would have watched.  So I (breathes a sigh of relief) stayed blissfully in the dark.

 

Unfortunately, since the dawn of Hollywood time, there have been child stars abused by studio executives, producers, directors and worst of all, their parents.  It seems to come with the territory, the parents who will stop at nothing to make their child a star.  Jennette’s mother was one of those…

Jennette grew up with an intact family, but sadly, her dad was kind of useless, and he never stood up to her mother against the inappropriate things that were going on.  She was also home schooled, so outside her nuclear family, Jennette never really had any adults looking out for her best interest.  So, from the age of six, Jennette was pushed into an acting career, with endless lessons in acting, singing and dancing, and auditions for shows.  When she finally broke through, Jennette became the breadwinner for the family, her parents, two brothers and grandparents. 

Jennette’s mother had clear expectations for her and her career, and her treatment of Jennette was abusive.  Not only the long hours on set…  Her mother taught her at the age of eleven how to calorie restrict, so she could stay thin for the camera.  Imagine a mother teaching her own daughter how to be anorexic? Imagine parents expecting their child to pay for their bills, their mortgage, their vehicles, and their groceries.  And even worse, her mother bathed her until we was almost an adult, claiming that Jennette couldn’t be trusted to wash her hair correctly.  During these shower sessions, her mother subjected her to bizarre bodily exams, telling her she was performing cancer screenings.  Jennette grew up with this being “normal.” 

When Jennette was a young adult, her mother’s breast cancer returned and she passed away.  The narcissistic, selfish, abusive matriarch of the family was finally gone.  Years of therapy has helped Jennette come to terms with the mother that she loved, and the mother who also abused her.  The book is a raw, tragic look at the impacts of the abuse, and Jennette’s lack of ability to live a normal life.  She continues to be controlled by bulimia and other impulsive behaviors.  She tells her story candidly, although she has said how difficult it was to tell her story.

What a heartbreaking story, and how terrible to grow up in a family where the death of your own mother is a relief.

3 stars. 

Note: Quiet on Set is a five part documentary released in 2024 that explores allegations of abuse of other child actors at Nickelodeon.  I have not seen it, but I’ve heard it is very good (and by good I mean disturbing).  Although she doesn’t speak much of Nickelodeon directly, some of Jennette’s comments in this book are widely believed to be about Dan Schneider, the abuser named in the documentary. 

 

Book Review: Watchers

Watchers, by Dean Koontz

I’m sure I read this 30 years ago, but it was chosen as a book club pick for May, so I gave it a fresh read.  The thing of it is, unless I have read a book multiple times, I forget them, so it was like a brand new book! 

Travis, a well-off widower goes out hiking in hills of southern California to get himself out of his head and ease his depression.  While there, he finds a Golden Retriever, who looks lost.  The retriever seems scared, and concerned about the crashing noise in the bushes that is coming closer, so Travis hurries back to his car with the dog and they leave.

Nora is learning to reclaim her life after spending nearly all of it locked up in the home of her reclusive aunt, who instills Nora with a pressing fear of the outside world.  Her fears are proven when a TV repairman comes to the house and begins to stalk her.

A chance meeting between Travis and Nora is cemented by the dog, now named Einstein, and the two of them quickly realize that Einstein is no ordinary dog.  He is a genius.  But how?  When they learn that he has escaped from a research lab, and that another, extremely dangerous creature has escaped as well, they embark on a journey to keep themselves and Einstein safe both from the creature and the government agents who are searching for the dog.  Throw in an assassin hired by the Russians, who has become obsessed with finding them as a side project, and you have quite the thriller!

The book is formulaic and predictable, and the characters are pretty one-dimensional.  This isn’t going to be the book that wins the National Book Award or the Pulitzer.  But it held my interest with its twists and turns, and will appeal to those who like a little romance with their sci-fi thriller.  That said, it really irritated me that they kept feeding that poor dog chocolate!  You would think if the author is going to write a book about a dog, he should at least know that chocolate is poisonous to dogs.   

And no, I’m not going to give away whether the dog lives. 

3 stars. 

Retirement Diaries 2024: Back in Minnesota

After three weeks in Washington and Oregon, I’m back in Minnesota.  I had so much fun, seeing friends, visiting my favorite places, and getting in plenty of beach time. 

The weather is so much better than when I left!  Instead of lows of 7 degrees and snow on the ground, the weather has been mostly sunny and in the 50s and 60s since I got back.  Until today at least; it’s raining now and it is supposed to rain off and on until Monday.  There are worse things in life.

The grass is green from the recent rains, and once the rain stops I’m going to be getting out into the yard to work on pruning and trimming back the dead foliage.  The lilac bushes are starting to leaf out, so there will soon be the sweet smell of lilacs blooming!

Cora and Yellow were of course happy to see me, and have forgiven me for being away.  It is so nice to see how bonded they are; they regularly snuggle and sleep in the same puff, even though they have lots of options.  At the moment, I can hear Yellow snoring in the other room; they really have a good life!

Mom was kind enough to think of me when she went to the library book sale for the next town up the road, and she got me some books on the Civil War.  She’s always so thoughtful!  There is also an upcoming book sale at our town library, so I’ll be helping move books from storage next week to get ready for it.  I’ll be considered the young person with the strong back among the other volunteers I’m sure.  It reminds me of helping mom to purge her books before the move last year.  That was a lot of boxes of books!

On my way home from Washington, I spent a couple of days on the Oregon coast, camping, looking for agates and just enjoying the beach.  I did get rained on a little, but it was pretty good weather for the most part!  After I left the coast, I spent a few days getting home, doing a little bit of sightseeing on the way.  A winery along the Columbia River Gorge, and a few museums in Montana and North Dakota.  After leaving Oregon, it got too cold for camping, so I splurged on a few nights of hotels.

Along the way I had a few lovely chats with people I met on the beach, at the winery, or in the restaurant bars – I like sitting at the bar when I’m dining alone, it just invites more social interaction.

Of course, now that I’m back I’ll be able to write more regularly again.  Not much driving to interfere with my downtime!

I hope everyone is well – and enjoying spring!

Book Review: A Fever in the Heartland

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, by Timothy Egan

Most of us probably associate the Ku Klux Klan with the years immediately after the Civil War.  And indeed, that was when the KKK was originally founded, in Tennessee, to intimidate blacks who had recently gained their freedom at the end of the Civil War.  Chapters popped up all over the south, in an attempt to suppress the black vote and intimidate blacks into not running for political office, and for a few years, it was very successful.  After President Grant came into office in 1870, laws were passed to suppress the Klan and prosecute members for their illegal activities, and Klan membership dropped.

However, in the early 1920s, the KKK experienced a resurgence, and Klan chapters were created all over the country, with a large following in the northern states.  This book is about this second wave of the KKK and one of it’s most influential leaders, D.C. Stephenson.  D.C. Stephenson was a drifter, an abuser, and a deadbeat husband, but somehow his charisma still managed to get him appointed as the Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan and the lead recruiter for seven other states in the Midwest. 

The KKK during this period grew to a membership of between 3 and 8 million members. They gained this following by presenting themselves as a family values fraternal organization, that fought for women’s rights and sought to weed out the undesirables.  Who did they consider undesirable?  Well, in addition to Blacks, there were the Jews, the Catholics, the Communists, and any number of recent immigrant populations, including the Italians, Russians, and Lithuanians, among others.

Timothy Egan focuses this book on Stephenson’s rise to power, the corruption with which he ruled his section of the Klan, and his ultimate downfall.  Stephenson was a raging alcoholic, and as is frequently a problem with heavy drinkers, he just couldn’t control his behavior.  After a number of attempted and completed sexual assaults of women, where he was able to buy their silence, he attacked a young woman whose silence he could not buy.

Madge Oberholtzer was a young woman working for Stephenson, and after he attacked and raped her, she attempted suicide by poison while she was still his captive.  He did nothing to try to help her, and eventually dumped her back off with her family.  She didn’t die quickly though, and over the next few weeks, gave a detailed account of her time with Stephenson, and the assault.  When she died, he was charged with her murder. 

The book details all of this, from the events leading up to the assault, her suicide attempt, her lingering illness, and her eventual death.  D.C. Stephenson’s arrest and trial were widely publicized, and considered the scandal of the time.  Even so, a conviction wasn’t a sure thing.  It’s tough to call yourself a man of family values after all that. 

Egan did a great job of researching and writing his book, holding my interest throughout as he told the story of the rise, and eventual fall of Stephenson and the Klan. 

4 stars.