Tika & Typewriters & Jail

When I returned from a trip to Port Angeles and Port Townsend, I was showing Tika my pictures and telling her all about the trip and what we did. Her eyes really popped open when she saw this photo....... all she's ever seen is my fingers on the computer keyboard. "Was that thing for real?" she asked.

Grandson and his friend and I were touring the Jefferson County (Washington) Historical Society's Museum. In the basement is the old jail, of course a big hit with the 16 year olds. Leg irons INSIDE the awful jail cells? "No way would I wanna be here!" quipped the Red Shirt one.

And that was the point of taking them. These days, you cannot expect your teens to appreciate history unless you take them to it. Feeling those heavy iron chains, feeling the gloomy cold bare cells, was "living" the history to these two. Now when they hear on the news about prisoners whining about their civil rights, they'll remember the jails where those inside had no rights!

They both enjoyed "plunking" on that ancient Remington; they had never seen one like that. I asked them, "Did you know typewriters were invented in the 1860s and Remington was one of the major brands? And typewriters were mostly displaced by computer keyboards (at least in the western world) by 1990?"

Tika and I love history and I was excited to share some with my grandson and his friend.

"Big deal," sniffed Tika. "I have no thumbs; I cannot type."

Tika Wants To Meet Nola!

Tika is super excited today! We just found out about another dachshund who has a blog! Her name is Nola and she lives in Florida. This is her picture from her blog, http://dachshundnola.blogspot.com.

Her blog homepages invites us to "Come to the dark side, I have cookies."  Tika is ready to go!!

Will be fun someday to watch them comparing notes....................

Tika & Flipster

I came home yesterday from Hayden Public Library (Hayden, Idaho) with all sorts of new ideas! I shared these with Tika as we took our evening walk. I was most excited about Flipster.

Flipster is a free digital magazine service provided courtesy of your library. The Flipster app manages your magazines downloaded from the Flipster website for anytime viewing on your iPad or iPad mini. (Android is coming, they promise!) These eMagazines are available from any computer, laptop or mobile device as long as you're connected to the Internet. (Realize: no app yet for anything but iPad.) 

Imagine having access to more than 40 magazine titles without having to subscribe! The magazines are exactly like what you see on the newstand only digital..... they even include the ads!

The only "kicker" is that your library must offer this service and you must have a library card and then sign up through your library for this service. Sounds like a good deal to me and I intend to check it out.

"No vegetarian magazine for me," sniffs Tika. 

Tika Learns About Limners

Tika well knows my interest in American history, especially of the colonial era. I was telling her about a new word I learned: limner. I spotted this word in reference books about early Virginia and I wanted to know more. 

Wise Tika said, "Go to Wikipedia!" So I did. "A limner is an illumiator of manuscripts, or more generally, a painter of ornamental decoration. In old-time Scotland, there was an official position of Her Majesty's Painter and Limner. In early 19th-centurey America, a limner artist was one who had little if any formal training and would travel from place to place to solicit commissions. Among colonial America's rising mercantile class, a limner-portrait was considered a status symbol." 

Here is an example of an early American limner-portrait. In this painting, you can guess that the lady is a widow (wearing black) and holding a pendant-cameo-painting of her late husband. 

(Thanks to Commons.Wikimedia for this pix.)

I read somewhere else that these painters would paint all the background and figures and dress of the people while in his studio and then just meet the people to paint in the faces. That makes sense. Can you see that little boy sitting still for long enough to paint his portrait?

Tika and I would bet that you have seen pictures or portraits similar to this......... perhaps you have one such painting of your ancestor? (Lucky you, if so!) And now we know what a limner was.

Tika & Golf

Tika and I had a great discussion the other day. I was paging through How I Play Golf, by Tiger Woods, 2001, and his list of 14 things to know and remember caught my eye as being applicable to genealogy too.

1.  Tiger says, "First things first.... get off to a proper start." In genealogy that would be start with yourself and your parents to have a "proper" start to a correct family tree.

2.  Tiger says, "The short game.... know how to putt."  In genealogy that would be know what to do first.... identify the problem or question you wish to solve.

3.  Tiger says, "Rolling the rock...know how to get it down pat." In genealogy that would be to know the basic, entry-level websites and learn how to fully use them. 

4.  Tiger says, "Turning 3 into 2..... know how to escape from the sand."  In genealogy that would be know how to recognize when you're off on the wrong track, tracing a wanna-be ancestor.

5.  Tiger says, "Making the hard easy... know how to swing."  In genealogy that would be always working from the known to the unknown. 

At this point, Tika said enough was enough and she was ready for a walk. So we shall continue this discussion eventually......................