My Dad at nine.

I watched a documentary on PBS last evening about the influenza epidemic of 1918. That flu peaked in November, and Dad would have turned nine the preceding April. I recall him telling me that he was sent by his parents to take care of an uncle and aunt and their children, who all had the flu. Compared to the expectations we have today of nine-year-olds, it's hard imagine what a grown-up child he must have been.

The first Martin Luther King Day

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day. When he was killed, I had just moved to Panama City, Florida. I had been hired to teach in the local high school. On the day of King's funeral, very few, if any, of the black kids came to school . . . when they returned to school the next day, their reason for missing was "to attend a funeral". We (the faculty) had been advised to totally avoid the subject of Martin Luther King in class (can you imagine?). I found it impossible to do. All my classes had rip-roaring discussion.

Gary told me that his company used to excuse workers for MLK Day . . . but they were really upset if any white guys didn't come to work. Again, amazing.

Du Maurier

I just finished a Daphne Du Maurier book and gee whiz, it was GOOD. I had forgotten. This one was My Cousin Rachel. At some point in the past I read Rebecca and Jamaica Inn. I'm sure Du Maurier is only considered a popular novelist . . . but I'm also sure she was hard to categorize. Mystery? Crime? Romance? Anyway it was well worth it.

Bye, Bye December 2009

I have just managed to take a picture of our tree on the day we're taking it down.

I DID get to go to Raleigh, NC for a week of art lessons back in November. Great time! Four different instructors. I want to try that again in a couple of years. One of the instructors (Karlyn Holman) will be in Louisville this spring for a week (hosted by the Kentucky Watercolor Society) and I'm looking forward to that class in March.

I was ill the second week in December with no explanation (yet) about what caused it. Frieda and I had tentative plans to go to Williamsburg while she was on break from Delta State, but I was sick and her father passed away, so that didn't happen.

My mother always told me that what you do on New Year's Day is what you'll spend your time on the rest of the year . . . so I"m ripping around trying to do a bit of anything and everything I might enjoy. It certainly IS wonderful to leave this decade behind.