Writing During September 2017

It is surprising for me to realize it has been over a week since I went to library writing group and I have not yet posted what I wrote  for the group on my blog.  In fact,  September is almost over and I have only written one blog post this month.  The easiest way for me to explain my absence is to share a couple of links to some of my work that has shown up online this month.  I have been very busy with a volunteer project involving researching and writing biographies about WWI nurses from the county in Indiana where I was born.  I also had the good fortune for the Kansas Historical Society to use one of my articles on their site.  So the following three links explain what I have been up to.  

To view the articles referred to above click HERE,  HERE and HERE.  

What follows is my paper for library writing group last week.  I will add the pictures that I shared with them at the end.  

Library Writing Group September 2017

Topic:  Vacations - one you took or one you would like to take. 

The Oregon Trail

When I was in the fourth grade I was always in trouble.  I seemed to be grounded more often than not.  Grounding had levels.  Stay in the yard was level one.  Stay in the house was level two.  And stay in your room was level three.  With level three the offender still joined the family for meals and attended school.   During that fourth grade year I was at level three many times.  During the times I was at level three my teacher felt sorry for me and sent me home with arm loads of books to read.  This was the year I became an avid reader and learned the life lesson that a good book can get you through a lot.   My favorite stories were of the pioneers in their wagon trains traveling across the country.

At age 20,  I graduated from LPN school.  Upon graduating I assumed I would go on for my RN.  I even started a few times to go back to school but life seemed to always get in the way.  Soon I was three months away from being 50 and I realized that I either must get my RN or quit talking about it.  A colleague and friend suggested I set a goal of a vacation as a reward for when I obtained my RN to encourage me to continue my studies when it became difficult to continue.   I knew right away that I wanted to travel the Oregon Trail as my goal for the end of RN school.   

Working full-time it took me seven years till I finally sat for and passed my boards and became an RN in May of 2015.  The end of June my daughter,  my son-in-law and myself set out to drive the path the pioneers traveled to Oregon in the mid 1800s.   We drove as close as we could to where they would have traveled.  Our first stop was Independence Missouri and the place where they got off the steam boat and walked into Independence to obtain their wagons and supplies.   All along the trail there are interpretive centers,  museums and forts to visit.  We made many stops at these sites.  In Casper Wyoming we went on a ride on a reproduction of a wagon of the type that was used by the pioneers.  The ride was extremely bumpy and we spent that night camping out.  The rest of the nights were spent in motels.  My daughter and I prefer Hampton Inn.   When we reached Independence Rock, which was the half way point for the pioneers,  we had only just traversed the plains, while the mountains and the deserts lie ahead.   It took us about ten days to get to Oregon since we stopped at so many sites along the way.  The mountains were large and the desert was hot.    But finally we arrived at the “End of the Trail Interpretive Center”  in Oregon City on the outskirts of Portland.  We drove  home in four days. 

I cherish the memories of this trip.  I have many digital photos and videos from the time we were traveling.  The understanding I now have of what the pioneers accomplished is much clearer than I ever could have obtained from a book or a movie.  The sheer distance covered is amazing. I learned that they put their supplies in the wagons and walked along side it the entire way!  Not at all like Hollywood portrays the people smiling while sitting on the front seat of a covered wagon.   We stopped at one park and saw wagon ruts.  I expected to see ruts that were a couple inches fossilized into the ground.  I stood in the ruts.  They were cut into solid stone and came up to my waist. 

Another place that my daughter and I have always wanted to go is the Grand Canyon.  Since they were running a special we just purchased our tickets for a rail vacation via Amtrak to take the spring of 2018. Next year I will have another special vacation story to share. 

Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter

and the

Goblet of Fire

by

J.K. Rowling

This summer I have been enjoying the Harry Potter series.  It was quite a while between book three and book four because I waited my turn to check out the book at the Ohio State Library's digital book service and there was a quite a waiting list.  But it finally was my turn and I grabbed it.  I have wanted to read the books for some time but since my kids were grown by the time they became popular it was not a priority.  This past Mother's Day my grandson was telling me how much he enjoyed the books and I decided to read them.  I have to say that they are a great escape.  I highly recommend them to de-stress.  I had wondered about the books because I had heard parents express concern over the content of the books not being good for kids to read.  But from what I am reading I think the content is excellent.  The values expressed in the book are exemplary.  Harry is honest,  loyal and has a great concern for others.  He is on the side of good rather than evil.  As a result of my opinion I searched for others who might feel this way about the Harry Potter books and I found the following video.  Please take time to enjoy it.  And click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to more information.  

Answering The Call: A Commenorative Tribute to Nursing In WWI

Answering The Call

from

The U.S. Government

The U.S. Military

The Department Of Defense

The U.S. Army

and 

The Surgeon General

As I explained in my post prior to this one,  I am working on a project connected to the nurses who served in WWI.  That post can be read HERE.  As a result for the next year or so I will read some back ground books from time to time.  One of those books is this non fiction about about the Army Nurses in WWI.  This book provides a clear explanation of the various types of medical facilities used in the war.  For example the base hospital was farther from the battle field from the camp hospital which was farther from the front lines than the mobile units.  This has been helpful to me as I look for where the nurses I am researching were, to recognize the various facilities.  Overall the book explains in a clear manner much of the information I need to know for the project I am working on.  It is also an interesting book.  So as we approach the centennial of the end of WWI on Armistice Day 2018,  this is a good book to add to one's reading list.  Please click on the links above for more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

A Service Of Love In War Time by Rufus Matthew Jones

A Service Of Love In Wartime

by

Rufus Matthew Jones

The non fiction book,  A Service Of Love In Wartime,  can be downloaded from either Google Books or Open Library at no cost.   For example you can find the book HERE.  It is the story of the work of conscientious objectors in WWI.  They were organized by the Quaker Church and accomplished a monumental amount of work during and after WWI.  The book starts out  a little slow with some of the political problems they ran into trying to establish with the government an alternative to the draft for CO's.  By a quarter of the way into the book things start to really pick up.  There are descriptions of the treatment CO's received in training camps prior to the alternative service getting set up and the struggles to work with in the system to remedy the situation.  The officers in our armed services were sensitive to the issues but the drill sergeants were not in the loop.  There were some pretty gruesome examples of how they tried to break the CO's convictions and convince them to fight.  Eventually the alternative service was established and the Quakers, Mennonite, and Dunker draftees were off to Europe but in a different role.  Still working within the shell fire,  instead of firing back they were evacuating civilians and providing medical care and other services to the war displaced populations.  The organization that was formed by the Quakers to meet this need in WWI later received the Nobel Peace Prize.  I have never seen a movie or a mini series about this work in WWI and I have to wonder why.  This book is a story to be told and a movie or mini series would be a wonderful venue to educate the public about this little known corner of WWI.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to move information and enjoy the video that follows.  And then read on below the video to see how I came to read this book. It is very different than most books I would select.

Any one who has read my blog much knows that I have an interest in history and that historical novels are my genre.  They may also know that I have a family history hobby and spend a lot of time researching my ancestors.  What they may not know is that I am Diest.  I respect people's religious affiliations but am not involved in a religious social group.   So the book in this blog is not one that would normally jump off the shelf at me.  But I have gotten involved in a project as a volunteer that caused me to read this particular book.  I will also be reading more non fiction books about WWI in the next year.  This is because, due to my genealogy contacts,  I was asked to volunteer and join in a project that the county I was born in is planning for Armistice Day 2018.  This will be the 100 year anniversary of the ending of WWI.  It is unfortunate that our WWI Vets have not been as celebrated as some of our other veterans of war.  The committee I am working with is trying to find out what they can about the WWI veterans from the county.  This task is made more difficult due to a fire the NARA center in St Louis had that housed the records for WWI personal.  While I hate when our service men and women are put in harms way,  I do feel strongly that when they are they should be thanked and be remembered for their service.  Since I have some experience in finding out about "dead people"  with my genealogy hobby,  I was asked to pitch in.  I have been given the task of finding out about the Red Cross Nurses from the county I was born in.  Once in Europe the Quaker group was joined with both the British Quakers and both theBritish and the  American Red Cross.  And one of our county's gals is on the list in the back of this book A Service Of Love In War Time.  Therefore,  along with a lot of other WWI and Red Cross Information,  I read this book.  I enjoyed the book very much and recommend it to others.  And as I indicated I wish there was a movie about the information in it.  But back to the WWI Centennial Project,  there is a national push to have functions and memorials around the country for Armistice Day 2018.  There is a web page to post memorials that can be found HERE along with the adjacent site that is full of information for those that want to get involved with WWI commemorative programming.  The web page that the county I am involved working with can be found HERE.  So far I have been chasing down four different Red Cross Nurses and I have not yet determined where my Quaker lady served at in Europe.  I am sure more names will surface as the research continues.  I do not know if they will chose to use the information I am finding but I am having a ball finding it.  Please follow the two links  in this paragraph for more information and enjoy the video that follows.  I hope others will get involved in a WWI 2018 Armistice Day project at the county, state, or national level.  

The Winds Of War by Herman Wouk

The Winds Of War

by

Herman Wouk

On my way home from work this night, I finished listening to the novel The Winds Of War by Herman Wouk.   It is a very long book but I am looking forward to the sequel.  The Winds Of War is the story of a navy man and his family on the eve of World War II.  I have read and listened to a great many WWII books and this has to be my second favorite, second only to Ken Follett's treatment of the second world war in his century trilogy.  Wouk treats the subject more conservatively than Follett but it is still a classic and an excellent book.  I am not sure how I managed not to read this book till now.  It was published in the 1970's and there was a mini series that was very popular that I didn't see either.  I am looking forward to seeing it soon.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  If you have not read the book or watched the mini series do not delay any longer.  This book will definitely make my top ten list for 2017.  I highly recommend it. 

Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink

Mindless Eating

by

Brian Wansink

It was necessary to put this best seller on hold on the digital service at the library and wait a few weeks in order to check it out on my kindle app.  Reading it did not take long and the language was not difficult.  It addresses our eating habits and how we eat by habit instead of conscious choice.  But rather than making a point to pay attention to what we eat, which was what I expected the message to be,  the author goes on to give tips on changing our habits  so that we eat less while not paying attention rather than more.  His premise is to cut our caloric intake by a slight amount that we don't notice thereby causing a weight loss instead of gain over the course of our year.   Since I have had a struggle with weight my entire life there is a lot of review for me in this book.   But it was a review presented in an enjoyable manner and there was new information for me.  I recommend this book for those with a desire to get their eating habits under control.  I intend to read his other book in the future.   The ideas suggested can be incorporated to use along with other diet programs.   Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the link to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

Saturday Night Genealogy Challenge: Database Statistics

This weeks challenge and the links to those that participated can be found HERE.http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your.html  The challenge is worded as follows:

Tell us which GMP you use, and how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database(s) today in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook status or Google+ stream comment.

I use Reunion Genealogy Software.   I was not able to find one page that had all the items together.  Under reports,  then statistics,  I found the number of people which was followed by a list of them.  Under side bar I found the places and the sources listed with the totals at the top.  And under reports,  then multimedia usage,  I found a list of multimedia and indications of how many times they were viewed with the amount of files on the top.  

Going through and adding my sources to the right fields is something I need to do.  I do have more sources than indicated in other areas such as the photo description field or in the notes area.