Moments in History IV

In 1967, challenging the all-male tradition of the Boston Marathon, Kathrine Switzer, at the time a headstrong 20-year-old junior at Syracuse University, entered the race. Two miles in, a race official tried to physically remove her from the competition.

Arnold Schwarzenegger on his first time in New York, 1968  

New York City sidewalks filled with trash during the 1968 strike of sanitation workers.

US President Richard Nixon jumps down from the trunk of a limousine which carried him and Pakistani President Yahya Khan (left, background) in a motorcade to Government House after Nixon's arrival in Lahore on August 1, 1969  

Children play a game on the Xerox Alto, one of the first personal computers with a graphic user interface, 1973. Its monitor was switchable between portrait and landscape mode. 

Statue of Liberty as seen from Jersey City, 1963

President Carter with engineers and solar panels newly installed on the White House, 1979.
President Reagan had them removed in 1986, to be reinstalled by President Obama in 2010   

Barack Obama posing with a group of friends that called themselves the Choom Gang, Hawaii, c. 1979. 
Choom was slang for smoking marijuana. 

Robin Williams joins the stunning women of the Denver Broncos Pony Express as pro football's
first male cheerleader and prances before 70,000 cheering fans in Denver's Mile High Stadium. 

Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan posing with clay soldiers 
at the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, 1984   

John Travolta takes Princess Diana for a dance in the White House, 1985

Moments in History III

Log motor home by Wade, 1922  .  A precursor to the airstream??

Interior of log motor home. 

Neighbors of Japanese origin were already unwanted in some neighborhoods in 1923

Three friends take a joyride on their new vehicle, Ohio, c. 1924 (above)
Native American switchboard operator c. 1925.  

Workers lay bricks to pave 28th Street in Manhattan, 1930   

Drive-In restaurant on West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles,1932

A life guard and a doctor attempt to save a swimmers life on Coney Island Beach, 1940. The woman in the center chose the worst moment for a smile. 

Cony Island, NY 1940

Victor Mature, Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth (both 30 at the time) meet at a movie premier in London. October 1956 

Victor Mature, Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth (both 30 at the time) meet at a movie premier in London. October 1956 

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev eating a hot dog in Des Moines, Iowa, on which he commented it's excellent. We make good sausages but yours are better, 1959  

Couple and friend being abused in a restaurant for the latter being black, USA, 1963  

Minoru Yamasaki (right) posing with a model of the World Trade Center he designed, 1964.  Bet he never dreamed his idea would go down in flames.  Sorry for the bad pun and sarcasm.  

Portrait of hockey goalie Terry Sawchuk before face masks became standard in 1966.  Looks like they took a saw to his face. 

Moments in History II

Alice Huyler Ramsey (November 11, 1886 - September 10, 1983), the first woman to drive across the United States from coast to coast, 1909. Only 152 miles out of the total 3600-mile trip were made on paved road.  Very Top:  Motorcycle chariots c. 1920's

North American native Chilocco Indian Agricultural School basketball team in 1909. (Originally, the swastika was a sign of good fortune.)

A horse-drawn fire engine of Engine No. 39 leaving Fire Headquarters at 157 East 67th Street for the last time after being replaced with a motorized fire engine, New York City, February 19, 1912. 

Lawn mowers of the White House grounds, 1918.  We've gone full circle on this one, folks.  The sheep were eventually replaced by gas powered lawn mowers.  Now the sheep will come back as they are a "green" alternative and environmentally friends.  Just where to put the feces?????  I have some very specific ideas. 

Moments of History

Why everybody is so determined to get rid of our history by taking down confederate statues, flags, and such is beyond me.  Whether it's pretty or ugly, history is history.  Shoving our more embarrassing moments under the rug and pretending they didn't happen is censorship.  Taking down confederate remnants is like thinking that the Holocaust did not exist.  We have so much to learn by ugly reminders that S**T did HAPPEN.  It was horrible.  The remnants left today are our battle scars. What did we learn?

Slave Auction Place c. 1870

Burnt District Coffee House in Chicago after the Fire, 1871. Chicago entrepreneurs quickly reacted to establish or reestablish businesses in the fire district.

Telephone wires in New York, 1887  

Hanging of a stagecoach robber in Texas, c. 1890-1900

Wood-plank prison in Wyoming, 1893

Above Chinatown Squad of the San Francisco Police Department posing with sledge hammers and axes in front of August Pistolesiâ's grocery store at 752 Washington Street, 1895. They specialized in raiding opium dens and gambling rooms and their method was simple.    Below: Opium den in San Francisco, 1900  

Coming from Nothing

I'll never forget when we were in the market for our first house back in the early 1990's.  I'll never forget the condescending attitude by our broker, banker,  and the housing tract developer when we modestly scraped together a few thousand bucks for a down payment. 

What???? Is that ALL???????  Cash poor Americans.  Won't your parents front you a few thousand more? 

That was what we heard over and over again.

Sorry, but neither one of us came from money.  We both worked full-time jobs and I was also a student with a kid in diapers.  We were trying to better ourselves.  No government handouts.  No whining to charity.  No parental subsidies.  I remember when applying to financial loans for my college education how I had to answer over and over again that I had been living on my own for quite some time and my parents were not contributing ONE DIME for my education.  It was all on me.  Again, I was asked over and over how much my parents were contributing.  Nobody believed me at first when I said I was receiving zero financial support from my parents.  They raised their eyebrows, tilted their heads, and asked over and over again if I understood the question.  I got sick of saying of saying I was receiving NOTHING and my parents could not claim me as a dependent on their taxes.  yup.  I'm an anomaly. 

What they didn't see was my sheer determination and the stellar credit I had established at a young age.  Sure, I had not no fancy titles, schools, or whatever to promote my cause.  The perfect credit score total assets weren't much, but what we had was ROCK SOLID. 

This is not a pity party for myself.  It's a reminder for those who are going to school on a quasi-subsidy from their parents or the government how lucky they are.   Any assistance they are receiving is a god send.  The rest of us plebes were too rich (and too white and/or dumb) to receive grants and are just enough above the poverty level where we didn't not qualify for anything.  Giving away scholarships to young moms three steps away from poverty just wasn't sexy.  I was not the athlete nor the scholar.  I was just trying to better my life and that of my young family.  There would be no feel good news story and film at 11:00 nor the associated press and publicly investing in me.  Ignored.  Completely on my own. 

Because of my credit the bank took a chance on us.  Now, years later, because of my continued relationship with the bank I moved my work accounts to the bank that took the chance on me.  The bank now has more than 5 million in cash I parked with them.  I'll never forgot the chance they took on me.  I repaid the kindness investing excess cash with them.

Explosives and Shots

.....I had a weird dream last night.  It was eerily realistic.  I was at a popular bar and restaurant.  This place has a lot of patio seating outside where patrons can take in people watching and whatever else.  It also has two levels inside with typical pub games on the upper level. 

In my dream I was seated toward the back on the inside on the first level and was looking out across the restaurant toward the front door where I could see diners on the patio.  All of a sudden I heard an explosion with a flash of light.  The shrapnel and blood shattered through the front door and windows of the restaurant.  We all ducked under our tables and I could hear screaming coming from patrons on the upper level as they heard the explosion but could not see what was happening.  They were panicked.  

There was anther explosion and water started dripping from the ceiling.  We all knew we were trapped inside and the ceiling was about to collapse on us.  We could not get out and knew that we were going to die.

That is why, my dear friends, I wake up exhausted.  Sweet dreams?????  I so wish. 

"revealing" party

...i need something light to bitch about today.  It's been rather demanding and draining for Quiet Rage lately.  Sigh.  I need a vacation.  A real vacation. Anyway.......

I've noticed a trend with expectant parents as of late.  The concept of a baby shower, where your female friends gather to give gifts to the first-time mom the necessities of a nursery, have been converted into co-ed borderline beer bash BBQ's complete with pink or blue colored fireworks, military fly-overs with colored emissions, and other over the top demonstrations that announce the sex of the baby -- complete with a parade down main street.

These parties usually include sonograms blown up into poster size wall coverings of the fetus's private parts to display the obvious.  Wow.  Poor kid isn't even born and adults are photographing its genitals for the entire world to obsess over.  I can wait until after the birth to find out and all I need is a verbal "it's a boy".  And no, I don't care to see videos of the birth no matter how life changing the magical event of the process was for you.  Trust me. 

The generation that is now becoming parents are obsessing over the assigning and labeling the sex of their unborn children.  This is the same generation that prides itself on LGBTQ (keep inserting letters as I can't keep track).  Someday, when the kid gets old enough to see pictures and videos of the "revealing" party, I predict *resentment* when the kid "comes out" as identifying with the opposite of the assigned sex with all the expected gender roles that were assigned by well-meaning parents. 

The irony is not lost on me......and i can't make this stuff up, people.