My plans for this trip began several weeks ago when Loretta W, a cousin, invited me to visit. She told me she was researching the family tree, and would like me to join her so we could work together. I never need an excuse to travel, but her mention of genealogy activated my research addiction and I readily accepted her invitation.
My trip will start Monday, September 19, 2005 at 6:30 am. A neighbor will drive me to the Greyhound bus station on Interstate 10 to catch the bus for the three hour drive to Houston, Texas. I’ll spend the rest of the day and evening with my son. Tuesday morning he will drive me to Hobby airport for the Southwest 11:30 am flight to Phoenix, Arizona arriving there at 1:30 pm. A shuttle van will take me to Prescott, Arizona where Loretta will meet me 3:30 pm and drive us to her house in Paulden, Arizona.
I’ll be exchanging Texas humidity and night temperatures of 80; and day temperatures of 97 for 40 to 50 degree days and nights. My plan to travel light is easier said than done, but I’m determined to ‘under’ pack rather than ‘over’ pack. I want to eliminate as much baggage as possible so I don’t have to stand and wait in long lines at security check in.
I’ll write of my adventures and the progress Loretta and I make in our research of family history, so do come back and read about my travels. Thanks to all my readers for your interest in my stories.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Relocating Survivors
I’ve been following the TV coverage of moving the hurricane survivors out of the Astrodome, entertainment centers and church facilities here in Southeast Texas. Some have been offered temporary housing with families. Many have accepted rent free apartments for three months while they look for work, but many of the survivors were put on planes and taken to states like Utah, Illinois, Ohio and California and only told their destinations after their flights were in the air. . The “Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune” will undoubtedly be compounded by Culture Shock some of these people will experience.
I sympathize with those who have lost everything and find themselves in bewildering circumstances. Even after reaching safety and receiving basic needs of food and water, they find themselves in limbo. Although agencies like the Red Cross and Salvation Army along with hundreds of volunteers give financial help and comfort, they face confusion and dismay about where and how to rebuild their lives.
My family never experienced such a catastrophe, but there was an incident that lets us relate to some extent the trials and tribulations of those who have lost all their possessions. When Mom and Dad moved from Palo Alto, California to Los Angeles, all their household possessions were sent by moving van to the house they had rented in Los Angeles. Grandma and Grandpa A lived with the folks and everything they owned was on the van too.
I accompanied Mom and Dad and grandparents as we drove to Los Angeles a day before the van was to arrive at the Los Angeles address. After spending the night with relatives, we went to the house early the next morning and waited for the van to arrive at 9 or 10 a.m. When the van had not arrived by late afternoon, we assumed a misunderstanding about the arrival date was to blame. We voiced annoyance at the delay, but knowing the amount of work ahead of us we took the delay in stride and spent another night with relatives.
As the next morning and early afternoon passed without the van’s arrival, the folks made phone calls to find out why. Being told the van was on its way, it became a matter of exhibiting patience while we speculated on the reasons for such a delay. Toward dusk, we saw a large van from the moving company come down the street and being driven as if the driver was looking for a house number. We all heaved a big sigh of relief as Dad went to show the driver which house to go to. Relief was quickly dispelled when we discovered the van was not the one we were waiting for.
The following day we learned that ‘our’ van had caught fire and was totally destroyed midway to Los Angeles. Years of accumulations, photos, clothing, objects of value, furniture, books, tools, mirrors, family records and things of sentimental value belonging to both grandparents and Mom and Dad was lost. It was impossible to enumerate every thing on the van.
Eventually most of the items were replaced. But the loss of photos has been keenly felt thru the years. As I research our family trees, I often recall a snapshot or an old Kodak picture and wish I could add it to our genealogy records. Names and dates were usually written on the back of the photos; what a treasure it would be to have those pictures now!
I’ve been following the TV coverage of moving the hurricane survivors out of the Astrodome, entertainment centers and church facilities here in Southeast Texas. Some have been offered temporary housing with families. Many have accepted rent free apartments for three months while they look for work, but many of the survivors were put on planes and taken to states like Utah, Illinois, Ohio and California and only told their destinations after their flights were in the air. . The “Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune” will undoubtedly be compounded by Culture Shock some of these people will experience.
I sympathize with those who have lost everything and find themselves in bewildering circumstances. Even after reaching safety and receiving basic needs of food and water, they find themselves in limbo. Although agencies like the Red Cross and Salvation Army along with hundreds of volunteers give financial help and comfort, they face confusion and dismay about where and how to rebuild their lives.
My family never experienced such a catastrophe, but there was an incident that lets us relate to some extent the trials and tribulations of those who have lost all their possessions. When Mom and Dad moved from Palo Alto, California to Los Angeles, all their household possessions were sent by moving van to the house they had rented in Los Angeles. Grandma and Grandpa A lived with the folks and everything they owned was on the van too.
I accompanied Mom and Dad and grandparents as we drove to Los Angeles a day before the van was to arrive at the Los Angeles address. After spending the night with relatives, we went to the house early the next morning and waited for the van to arrive at 9 or 10 a.m. When the van had not arrived by late afternoon, we assumed a misunderstanding about the arrival date was to blame. We voiced annoyance at the delay, but knowing the amount of work ahead of us we took the delay in stride and spent another night with relatives.
As the next morning and early afternoon passed without the van’s arrival, the folks made phone calls to find out why. Being told the van was on its way, it became a matter of exhibiting patience while we speculated on the reasons for such a delay. Toward dusk, we saw a large van from the moving company come down the street and being driven as if the driver was looking for a house number. We all heaved a big sigh of relief as Dad went to show the driver which house to go to. Relief was quickly dispelled when we discovered the van was not the one we were waiting for.
The following day we learned that ‘our’ van had caught fire and was totally destroyed midway to Los Angeles. Years of accumulations, photos, clothing, objects of value, furniture, books, tools, mirrors, family records and things of sentimental value belonging to both grandparents and Mom and Dad was lost. It was impossible to enumerate every thing on the van.
Eventually most of the items were replaced. But the loss of photos has been keenly felt thru the years. As I research our family trees, I often recall a snapshot or an old Kodak picture and wish I could add it to our genealogy records. Names and dates were usually written on the back of the photos; what a treasure it would be to have those pictures now!
Friday, September 02, 2005
Email Reply
Hi G
I'm like you I'm bewildered and angry at the seeming lack of organization in getting aid to the survivors of Katrina! The situation is worsening by the hour. I'm perplexed about why the busses going to the Superdome didn't carry crates of water to those people before they picked up a load of passengers for the Astrodome in Houston. At least they would have made the most of the gasoline used for round trips.
I just watched the President on TV. He's taking a tour of the area, but I don't think he really had a clue about the extent of the disaster. Why some of the administration were not more visible is a mystery to me. I'm thinking back to when Churchill went to the bombing sites as the bombs were falling just to show that elected officials were there to support those in such misery. Officials who have been in front of the camera in the last several days have been in suits and ties, the women beautifully coifed and looking like magazine pics. If they were dressed in casual clothing with hair a bit mussed, standing near a pile of ruble left from the hurricane, I'd at least have the impression they are hard at work solving problems. They know how to dress for photo ops in soup kitchens when they want publicity.
When you think of the immediate aid given within a short few hours to other countries- quakes in Turkey, tsunamis in Asia, floods in Bangladesh, not to mention the aid given in Iraq, you'd think we could do the same here. Electrical workers from Texas Ohio, Arkansas were in route to the area before the hurricane hit land, as were telephone workers, Red Cross trucks and Salvation Army.
Why did it take 4 days for the Senate to meet? Every person in the country with a TV could tell how big the catastrophe was even before the levees broke. Men here in this comunity got together with their boats the morning the hurricane landed to so they could join the rescue effort. If civilians can do it why can't the military do it? they have better resources at their disposal.
As you can tell I'm angry and I'll admit to confusion. I hope we haven't deluded ourselves that we are the greatest country on earth and our famous 'know how' is only a myth... I do believe once things get moving the rescue will go fast but in the meantime just wrapping dead people in sheets and leaving them on the side walk while people are dying of insulin shock, thirst and lack of medicines is beyond acceptable!!!
I realize in a few hours or maybe another day, my impressions and questions about the slow progress in rescue will change, but this is the way I'm reacting now. You will probably have different perspective too. If possible I hope you keep a diary of sorts of these days so people years from now can read how we coped with the loss of a city. I don't believe New Orleans will ever be a city again, at least as we have known it. We may salvage a portion, but if we do, it will be years before it can be inhabited again.
Thanks for sending your email, it gives me a chance to spout off and you know misery loves company! In other words, GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE !!!!!! love ....
I'm like you I'm bewildered and angry at the seeming lack of organization in getting aid to the survivors of Katrina! The situation is worsening by the hour. I'm perplexed about why the busses going to the Superdome didn't carry crates of water to those people before they picked up a load of passengers for the Astrodome in Houston. At least they would have made the most of the gasoline used for round trips.
I just watched the President on TV. He's taking a tour of the area, but I don't think he really had a clue about the extent of the disaster. Why some of the administration were not more visible is a mystery to me. I'm thinking back to when Churchill went to the bombing sites as the bombs were falling just to show that elected officials were there to support those in such misery. Officials who have been in front of the camera in the last several days have been in suits and ties, the women beautifully coifed and looking like magazine pics. If they were dressed in casual clothing with hair a bit mussed, standing near a pile of ruble left from the hurricane, I'd at least have the impression they are hard at work solving problems. They know how to dress for photo ops in soup kitchens when they want publicity.
When you think of the immediate aid given within a short few hours to other countries- quakes in Turkey, tsunamis in Asia, floods in Bangladesh, not to mention the aid given in Iraq, you'd think we could do the same here. Electrical workers from Texas Ohio, Arkansas were in route to the area before the hurricane hit land, as were telephone workers, Red Cross trucks and Salvation Army.
Why did it take 4 days for the Senate to meet? Every person in the country with a TV could tell how big the catastrophe was even before the levees broke. Men here in this comunity got together with their boats the morning the hurricane landed to so they could join the rescue effort. If civilians can do it why can't the military do it? they have better resources at their disposal.
As you can tell I'm angry and I'll admit to confusion. I hope we haven't deluded ourselves that we are the greatest country on earth and our famous 'know how' is only a myth... I do believe once things get moving the rescue will go fast but in the meantime just wrapping dead people in sheets and leaving them on the side walk while people are dying of insulin shock, thirst and lack of medicines is beyond acceptable!!!
I realize in a few hours or maybe another day, my impressions and questions about the slow progress in rescue will change, but this is the way I'm reacting now. You will probably have different perspective too. If possible I hope you keep a diary of sorts of these days so people years from now can read how we coped with the loss of a city. I don't believe New Orleans will ever be a city again, at least as we have known it. We may salvage a portion, but if we do, it will be years before it can be inhabited again.
Thanks for sending your email, it gives me a chance to spout off and you know misery loves company! In other words, GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE !!!!!! love ....
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Katrina
The devastation that Katrina, the hurricane, has wrought in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama is so mind boggling it’s difficult to comprehend. Each passing hour brings additional news of destruction, death, flooding and looting. Since I live on the upper Gulf coast, there was a big sigh of relief knowing we wouldn’t have to contend with a direct hit, but the worry was short lived as the hurricane gathered strength and headed for New Orleans.
I listened intently to both radio and TV for the latest tracking predictions as Katrina changed from a category 2 to a 3, then a 4, and finally to a category 5 hurricane. During the midnight hours of Sunday, August 28th, I listened to an all night call in radio program about how New Orleans would cope when the hurricane hit. It was unthinkable that we could lose an American city, but the possibility was mentioned and I began to wonder if such a thing could happen.
Before daylight, TV crews were filming the onslaught of wind, rain and storm surge. At dawn we began to get an inkling of the devastation, but it seemed that New Orleans had survived the wrath of the hurricane. As daylight allowed greater evaluation of the damage, the horrifying devastation became apparent.
Mississippi and Alabama suffered terrible loss of life and whole communities were obliterated. Television cameras panned across the areas showing piles of rubble where houses and commercial buildings once stood. When reports that levees in New Orleans were breached and water from Lake Pontchartrain had poured into the city filling it with water to roof tops, the unthinkable had happened.
The scope of the catastrophe is so overwhelming I haven’t been able to absorb the impact yet. I’m hypnotized by television photos of people waiting for rescue on roof tops and scenes of autos in hotel lobbies. There are reports of hundreds of bodies floating in the water. Helicopters hover in place as coast guardsmen rappel below to rescue survivors.
The country is barely beginning to realize the extent of the greatest natural disaster we have ever experienced. In the next few days reality will seep into our consciousness that we have lost an American city as we once knew it. A collective effort toward solving long term needs of its inhabitants and plans to save and rebuild as much of the old New Orleans will emerge.
.
The devastation that Katrina, the hurricane, has wrought in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama is so mind boggling it’s difficult to comprehend. Each passing hour brings additional news of destruction, death, flooding and looting. Since I live on the upper Gulf coast, there was a big sigh of relief knowing we wouldn’t have to contend with a direct hit, but the worry was short lived as the hurricane gathered strength and headed for New Orleans.
I listened intently to both radio and TV for the latest tracking predictions as Katrina changed from a category 2 to a 3, then a 4, and finally to a category 5 hurricane. During the midnight hours of Sunday, August 28th, I listened to an all night call in radio program about how New Orleans would cope when the hurricane hit. It was unthinkable that we could lose an American city, but the possibility was mentioned and I began to wonder if such a thing could happen.
Before daylight, TV crews were filming the onslaught of wind, rain and storm surge. At dawn we began to get an inkling of the devastation, but it seemed that New Orleans had survived the wrath of the hurricane. As daylight allowed greater evaluation of the damage, the horrifying devastation became apparent.
Mississippi and Alabama suffered terrible loss of life and whole communities were obliterated. Television cameras panned across the areas showing piles of rubble where houses and commercial buildings once stood. When reports that levees in New Orleans were breached and water from Lake Pontchartrain had poured into the city filling it with water to roof tops, the unthinkable had happened.
The scope of the catastrophe is so overwhelming I haven’t been able to absorb the impact yet. I’m hypnotized by television photos of people waiting for rescue on roof tops and scenes of autos in hotel lobbies. There are reports of hundreds of bodies floating in the water. Helicopters hover in place as coast guardsmen rappel below to rescue survivors.
The country is barely beginning to realize the extent of the greatest natural disaster we have ever experienced. In the next few days reality will seep into our consciousness that we have lost an American city as we once knew it. A collective effort toward solving long term needs of its inhabitants and plans to save and rebuild as much of the old New Orleans will emerge.
.
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