558 Stolen Honor; Wounds that Never Heal

I'd been trying to think positive about the election. So if John Forbes Kerry becomes President, would it be so awful? He's so totally lacking in character, charisma, love of country and has horribly dishonored his fellow Vietnam veterans, but can he lead?

Then this afternoon, I watched Stolen Honor, wounds that never heal. It's the one that the Kerry camp successfully raged about and got off the TV schedules last week. But it is available in full on the internet. Hold on to your lunch; it's pretty awful.

It is scene after scene of interviews with men who served 4, 5, 6 or 7 years in POW cells, who were brutally tortured, who were forced to listen to Jane Fonda tapes telling them they were scum and criminals, who had John Kerry's testimony read to them. There is scene after scene of Kerry's testimony in that clipped, private European prep school accent.

What hurt more than torture was wondering why their government had abandoned them or why the American people were listening to the lies of a man who had served a fraction of the time they had.

One former POW said, "If Kerry did what he said he did, he is a war criminal, and he hasn't found anyone who did the things he testified to. Why didn't the Americans stop it. "Good men who came back were spat upon because of what Kerry was doing," said one wife, "plus he was killing any chance of our husbands (the POWs) getting home. He lengthened the war."

This film is so awful (i.e. painful to watch), I am stunned that Kerry was ever elected to the Senate, that his rapacious ambition hasn't brought him down, or that some veteran hasn't arranged to meet him in a dark alley. If Kerry becomes President how will he ever look a wounded soldier in the eye or hand a folded flag to a mother, knowing the deaths and dishonor he brought over 30 years ago.

Now I can't even think positive thoughts. Watch it. Be prepared. This won't go away, whether he wins or loses. Too many people know now what kind of a man he really is.

557 Letter to Suburban News Publications (SNP) Columbus, OH

My husband left the SNP Upper Arlington News on the counter with the note, "Can you believe this?"

Although clearly labeled an editorial, it was really a diatribe against President George W. Bush, and much of that just inaccurate and awful reporting of misinformation. "Mean spirited and divisive?" Have you seen the 50+ hate Bush books that are in the book stores? Have you seen F-9-11? Have you heard the anti-Bush 527 ads?

So I read through the editorial to see what glowing endorsement of Kerry you had. "Kerry is thoughtful and practical." That's it? We're at war with Muslim fundamentalist fanatics and terrorists, and Kerry, who voted to go to war after seeing the information on WMD, Kerry who warned the nation many times in the late 90s about the dangers of Iraq and Hussein, is "thoughtful and practical?"

Today's Wall Street Journal has an editorial by Jack Welch, former Chair and CEO of GE, on qualities to look for in a President. He only lists six. He endorses no one. Bush is dead on for all six. Kerry doesn't come close on any of them. But the final one, is "Is he pro-business?" A free world's best hope is a thriving economy. Bush pulled us back from a recession that started in mid-2000 (I have my stock accounts to prove it). Kerry has done nothing but lie about the economy, and because he is so rich, he didn't even have parents who passed along tales of the Depression when unemployment was over 25% like I did. So he tries to tell us that 5.4 % unemployment is the worst in 75 years. But what is your excuse at SNP? No library? No internet for research? Letting bumper stickers and yard signs form your opinion and editorial?

You are like many of the Kerry supporters I've met, talked to or read. There actually were some decent, experienced, thoughtful candidates among the Democrats--the far left, anti-war wing drove them out, and Kerry became a Howard Dean stand in. You just hate Bush. That is the basis of your support. And you will support and vote for an empty, wooden, zero-charisma, no moral core, hyper-liberal Senator with a lack luster record, who sentenced thousands of Vietnam veterans to embarrassment and misery with his testimony of lies 30 years ago. You're supporting a man who can only say "I have a plan," but has never figured out what it is, because his only plan is to become President.

Senator Foghorn Leghorn

Although George Bush mangles the English language, Senator Kerry uses so much warm yeasty gas that he often doubles the script his people write for him. The Scotsman gives this example:

"During one speech, Mr Kerry’s script writers had crafted the concise pledge: "I will work with Republicans and Democrats on this healthcare plan, and we will pass it."

In the candidate’s hands it became: "I will work with Republicans and Democrats across the aisle, openly, not with an ideological, driven, fixed, rigid concept, but much like Franklin Roosevelt said, I don’t care whether a good idea is a Republican idea or a Democrat idea. I just care whether or not it’s gonna’ work for Americans and help make our country stronger.

"And we will pass this bill. I’ll tell you a little bit about it in a minute, and I’ll tell you why we’ll pass it, because it’s different from anything we’ve ever done before, despite what the Republicans want to try to tell you."

I think this is why people think he "won" the debates. Twice as many words to say half as much.

556 It’s not Moose Creek, Idaho, but. . .

It isn’t Moose Creek, Idaho, 95 miles south of Missoula, Montana, but it was darn purty around here yesterday. We had a wonderful walk around the condo property. Beautiful October sky, warm 70s, brilliant yellow color still on the maples, little critters peeking at us from the creek. The bushes along the water are still a rich green with bright red berries inviting the birds for dinner. The crunchy leaves from the cottonwood, ash and sycamore underfoot gave a little better footing in the steeper areas than we have in the summer. We could hear the traffic zipping past the golf course, but barely.

The doe and fawn we saw daily a few weeks ago have apparently moved further east into the ravines and woods to find more camouflage. If you need to choose between the mountains near by or your adult children near by, this is a good place to be. (Actually, I’ve never considered Idaho, but saw the ad in the paper this morning and thought it almost as lovely as central Ohio in October.)

555 The Women's Wage Myth

George W. Bush has freed millions of women in Afghanistan and Iraq, although feminist groups have been pretty silent about that. And John Kerry continues to promote the myth of the gender wage gap--I think he said $.76 to $1.00, but they haven't been silent about that. Actually he's wrong. There are many reasons women earn less. I stopped working from 1968 - 1978, then worked only part time until 1986. And I was in a low-paid, female dominated profession. Any profession with a large number of women has depressed wages. And even with all the laws and law suits, we still have women putting home and family before careers.

“. . . most studies of pay discrimination don’t weigh in such factors as experience and the desire of many married women with children to work shorter hours, and even seek less demanding jobs, so they can spend more time at home with their families. Studies that do account for those factors have concluded that across the board, the pay of unmarried men and unmarried women doing the same work are just about equal.” Independent Women’s Forum

I recall during the 1990s (I'll look for the citation), Pam Bradigan and Carol Mularski at Ohio State University Libraries wrote an article published, I believe, in the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association that showed that male librarians really don't make more than female librarians--they publish more and relocate more often and are more likely to accept the more challenging jobs. That translates into better pay. If anything, the higher pay that male librarians are willing to go after pulls up the median. The women indirectly benefit from having more men in the field.

554 Filipina blogs her favorite recipes

While using the "next blog" feature today I came across a well-written and beautifully illustrated recipe page called Kusina ni Manang. Today's feature is about canning a tomato pasta sauce.

Manang writes: "This is a foodblog of a Filipina stay-at-home Mom married to an American, now living in a rural area. Posts include kitchen tips, health & nutrition issues, cooking & baking recipes, and occasionally canning recipes.

For those looking for authentic Filipino dishes, sorry but not all Filipino dishes featured here are authentically Pinoy. I had to modify some of them according to the availability of the ingredients. Some were accidentally "discovered" through experimentation."

She says there are a number of Filipina expats blogging recipe pages. I don't do much cooking, but most of these look interesting.

553 Big brother--literally

A young Chinese cashier/clerk bagged my groceries at Meijer's last Tuesday morning using the new turn style equipment that eliminated baggers (and probably gave the cashiers backaches from stooping).

"Are you studying engineering?" I asked.

"Why yes, how did you know," he smiled with slightly accented, perfect English.

"Your focus and the way you straighten up your work area--I'm married to an architect. Are you an OSU student?"

"Actually, I graduated in engineering and don't have a job," he replied.

I almost said something about the economy and that he had a job with good benefits, but, remembering he was probably Chinese, I said, "How many resumes have you sent out?"

"Oh, just a few."

"You need to send about a hundred to get a good job," I advised.

His jaw dropped. "Oh, I'm too lazy to do that. I'll probably go to graduate school."

Yup. There is an older brother paying his way, I thought. And if he gets a good job, he'll have to help his younger siblings. It is the Chinese way, and every Chinese student who ever worked for me had that sort of deal, whether the brother was a doctor in the USA or technician in China.

Big brother. So that's where that expression comes from.

This morning I asked my cashier/clerk Raiz (probably Indian or Pakistani) what had become of the "happy bagger," when the turn styles were installed. He was a middle aged, retarded man who was always laughing and smiling and reminding the customers loudly to smile. "Oh, he was fired," he said. "Did he find another job?" I asked, thinking that his talkativeness and his handicap might have made it difficult. "Yes, he did. It took two months but he found a new job and likes it very much."

So a man that couldn't even go to regular public school can find a job and be happy, but an OSU graduate in engineering can't. Interesting.

552 Harassment of Conservative Bloggers

Apparently, conservative blogs are being harassed too, with spam and e-mail problems. Jason, at Counter Column (Iraq Now) blog writes:

"Someone wants to shut down the conservative meme factory at just the right time -- eliminating the possibility that the blogosphere will uncover another Rathergate scandal or give legs to a story that would hurt Kerry's campaign which would otherwise go unnoticed.

Funny how all the scumbag dirty tricks this year are breaking the same way.

Dumbwits.

If they really wanted to help Kerry, they'd spirit Teresa Heinz off to an "undisclosed location" and try to shut down the UK Guardian."

551 Reporting from the trenches of the campaign

Elliot Fladen took his Mom to a Bush rally in Canton, Ohio, at the Palace Theater, then stayed outside and confronted the Kerry goons who stole his Bush Cheney sign. He thinks they were bussed in from other areas because of the accents he heard. It is a long and interesting first hand account, from someone who thought the Bush speeches not interesting enough to attend because the action was all outside. He concludes:

“The arguments went on and on. Many have not been put in this post, but I can't remember them at this time. The crowd grew larger and more calm as they heard my answers, but then new angry people would come in, demand answers to the same or similiar questions, and then start fighting with those that had heard my answers as they wanted more. In the end I don't know how many, if any minds I changed today. But I do know that one kid told my mother he learned more from listening to me in one day than he had by reading the BBC, the NYTimes, and other publications in the past year. Another high school teacher told my mom that she was going to make my blog required reading for her class so they could be better informed. So maybe I made a small difference after all.”

550 Lawrence O’Donnell screaming at John O’Neill

I don’t watch the Joe Scarborough show on MS-NBC, but I think the video of Lawrence O’Donnell screaming at a Swiftboat vet, John O’Neill is instructive. Captain’s Quarters comments on the behavior of Democrats trying to intimidate Republicans is indicative of the hate level.

“However, O'Donnell didn't just pull this strategy out of a hat. Democrats around the country have begun using intimidation and sheer rage to silence Republicans. Our local Bush/Cheney headquarters in St. Paul wound up being invaded by union thugs with bullhorns who tried scaring off families with small children from getting tickets to a Bush appearance earlier this month. They pushed their way into the offices, taking over the intercom system and refusing to leave, shouting and using the bullhorn to keep people from doing their jobs.

Nor was that an isolated incident. GOP offices around the country have had equipment stolen, people assaulted, and windows shot out. Bush hatred has deranged a significant segment of the Left in this country, to the point where their fascist leanings have come to the fore. Al Gore accused bloggers of being "digital brownshirts", but these people have become the real thing. They're using physical violence to intimidate their political opponents and deliberately ensuring that Republicans cannot speak in public to explain their positions. God help us if the Lawrence O'Donnells wind up in power again.”

According to his bio, Mr. O'Donnell was in government from 1993 through 1995, as the Democratic Chief of Staff of the United States Senate Committee on Finance. The Committee has jurisdiction over legislation involving taxation, international trade, health care, Social Security, Welfare, and other income security programs. In 1992, Mr. O'Donnell was Chief of Staff of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. But usually he is a writer, when he's not screaming at people on TV panels, particularly for the left leaning "West Wing."

549 Lies about Stem Cell Research

Only 27% of the U.S. electorate lives in television markets airing presidential campaign spots. Living in Ohio, I think I’ve seen them all. But one of the strangest, is Michael J. Fox, pleading for stem cell research, and saying he’ll support John Kerry because Bush’s policy on stem cell research is wrong.

This summer, the Democratic Party made embryonic stem cell research a central component of its election-year agenda.

“President Bush has rejected the calls from Nancy Reagan, Christopher Reeve and Americans across the land for assistance with embryonic stem cell research. We will reverse his wrongheaded policy. Stem cell therapy offers hope to more than 100 million Americans who have serious illnesses—from Alzheimer’s to heart disease to juvenile diabetes to Parkinson’s. We will pursue this research under the strictest ethical guidelines, but we will not walk away from the chance to save lives and reduce human suffering.”

Kerry and Edwards claim in their campaigning that the Bush administration has “banned” stem cell research, which is just a lie.

“John Kerry And John Edwards Support Lifting The Ban On Stem Cell Research” http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/health_care/stemcell.html

There are no restrictions at all on stem cell research, whether adult or embryonic, in the United States, making this country the most liberal in this bio-ethical mine field. Remarks by President Bush.

Researchers can do whatever they wish using private funding. Using public funds, they can use a fixed group of embryonic stem cells lines, where the embryos had been destroyed before the current policy went into effect. There are 22 embryonic stem cell lines available for federal funding and nearly 500 shipments drawn from these lines have already been made to researchers. The NIH provided about $25 million for embryonic stem cell research last year and spent another $180 million on ethically non-controversial adult stem cell work.

This definitely means the Democrats have found a new meaning for the word “ban.” It now means anything the government does not fully fund or anything where caution before proceding into murky waters might be advisable. It also means, pandering to the sick and disabled, because they and their families can vote.

(Except Terri Schiavo, of course, her the liberals would prefer to be starved to death.)

548 Revisiting the Robie House

For days my very patient, focused, meticulous husband has been in his studio playing "paper dolls," or "paper house" as the case may be. When we were in Chicago we visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House (see my blog about the trip here). Last week he started putting together a paper model--I think it has 138 pieces, many very tiny, requiring intricate folds and careful cutting with the x-acto knife. He has spent untold hours on a project that would have had me in a puddle of frustrated tears in 15 minutes. Don't ever buy this for a child!


Robie House Cut and Assemble

"From the Publisher: Now model builders as well as lovers of fine architecture can construct an accurate three-dimensional model of the Robie House, and thereby discover for themselves the harmonious interrelationships of parts and numerous other design details that make this home a world-famous architectural masterpiece. Printed in full color on sturdy card stock, the two-foot long model comes complete with step-by-step instructions and exploded diagrams. A series of multi-level horizontal planes includes balconies, platforms, a porch and entrance court, while easy-to-follow directions clearly explain how to cut, fold and glue walls, doorways, windows, roof and other features."

The Amazon site lets you click through a few pages and enlarge. This is not a project for sissies!

547 Why are drugs cheaper in Canada?

“. . . if you want Canadian pharmaceutical prices in the US, the steps you must follow are clear. You must cut your standard of living by 20-30%. You must reform your ludicrous product liability laws. And you must squeeze pharmaceutical industry profits through price controls and dominant purchaser policies, thus causing lower levels of pharmaceutical investment and innovation, getting cheaper prices for medicines already discovered at the cost of prolonged pain and suffering for victims of diseases we cannot yet cure or control. And you must restrict patient access to the latest and best medicines in order to keep costs low.” Read the entire paper from AIMS here.

546 The Scots-Irish--are they the secret GOP weapon?

Before I began looking into genealogy about 10-15 years ago, I had no idea who the American Scots-Irish were. Didn't know that my father's family had arrived here in the 1730s, or that he was descended from a cultural group that was the foundation of American-style democracy. James Webb has written a lot about the Scots-Irish, and has a new book, "Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish shaped America," (Broadway, 2004). I had read up on their contribution to our wars, our presidency and our customs in "Albion's Seed," a 1989 book that catalogs the contributions of four waves of British Isles immigration.

In today's Wall Street Journal Webb writes that the Democrats have ignored the Scots-Irish as a cultural group, and if they hadn't, Al Gore would have won Tennessee and the Presidency without a single hanging Florida chad. The Scots-Irish are fiercely independent, strongly pro-family and anti-government interference says Webb, and there are about 30,000,000 of them. Having only been a Republican for two years, I can point out that not all Scots-Irish escaped the Democrats, but then, I didn't know my own history either.

545 Poverty in the media

“According to the latest statistics on poverty in the United States, released in 1996 by the U.S. Census Bureau, 14.3 million children in America are living in abject poverty.” PNEWS, February 11, 1998

“Despite a glowing economy and record low unemployment, poverty is rising in the suburbs.” USAToday, April 28, 1999

''The good news is getting better, and the bad news is getting worse,'' says Andrew Cuomo, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which compiled the report. ''Smaller, medium-size cities are not participating in the new economy.'' USAToday June 11, 1999

“Unemployment is low, construction booming, housing prices soaring. But lines form every Thursday evening at the Sts. Joachim and Ann Care Service food pantry in St. Charles, where about 130 low-income residents pick up bags of groceries.” USAToday, October 18, 2004

Well, I suppose it’s nice to know that all this poverty isn’t President Bush’s fault since the media had plenty of poverty stories in the 1990s. A woman featured in today’s article is 45, divorced, has a college degree and is working for $5.15 an hour. The woman featured in a 1999 article on poverty was making over $10.50 an hour, was divorced and planning to go to college. It looks like the common denominator in poverty for women and children is single mothers, not geography or education or ethnicity. That is certainly confirmed by all the statistics the government has collected over the past 30 years.

544 Stolen Honor--stolen free speech

Remember when John Kerry wanted to stop the publication and distribution of "Unfit for Command?" This after about 50 anti-Bush books hit the market. Now he's at it again. Apparently "Stolen Honor; Wounds that Never Heal" will be shown by Sinclair Broadcast Group on 62 stations and the Kerry people are not satisfied with time to rebut, they want it pulled.

What? Biased media? With about 90% of journalists, entertainers and TV reporters claiming to be Democrats, what in the world are they whining about? Fox News starts to climb the charts and you'd think the world was coming to an end. After what CBS tried to do with Dan Rather's phony Bush documents? They haven't even had their wrists slapped--they've only been buried under an avalanche of bad press and tons of e-mail.

One day I looked at the campaign coverage on one page of the USAToday. The column inch and photo size were about equal, but oh, the verbs! In the Bush column were "taking aim," "charge," "takeover," "attack," "misrepresent," and "alleges." In the Kerry column were "said," "plans," "builds on" and some other innocuous verbs.

And then the Kerry campaign has Michael Moore and F-9-11 appearing in theaters as a documentary rather than fiction, and being shown by professional organizations purporting to support freedom of speech, the American Library Association (which said nothing about Kerry trying to shut up a publisher).

And by the way, have you been able to find Dr. Laura anywhere on your radio frequency? All she said was gay couples shouldn't adopt infants and that got her removed from anything except the most remote, inconvenient time.

Update: Sundance is running a film on George Bush's faith. It's owned by that well-known arbiter of American morality and faith, Robert Redford. Sundance is doing a two week anti-Bush blitz. The CBC (Canada) is running a very anti-Bush "documentary" while whining about Sinclair Broadcast Group. All timed for the election.

543 How Academics make Policy

Mary Grabar, a college professor, vividly describes her graduate school experience. Having entered school as a moderate in the early 1990s who supported Bill Clinton, she learned that the aging, tenured 60s liberals are anything but liberal. What she found was scoffing at the very idea of meaning, of truth, or indeed of value in the study the great works of the past. What she found was the family portrayed as an institution of evil, child pornography not only tolerated but sanctioned, and feminists mocking fetuses. So when the twin towers came down, she’d already seen academe imploding.

"As with Zell Miller, my conversion was solidified by 9/11. That event made very clear the danger of the ideas promoted by theorists like Noam Chomsky, Richard Rorty, Edward Said, and Peter Singer. That is the one thing the students taking over campuses in the 1960s realized: the arguments made in the halls of the academy, contrary to the conventional wisdom about the isolation of the ivory towers, have very real impact. The graduates become journalists, teachers, parents, and government workers. The political ideologies do not begin with the peasants, the workers, the average citizens. They start with the slick talkers, the ones who deliver their messages in measured tones, with thousands of footnotes. They then become policy.
Like the protestors and journalists referred to by Miller who enjoy their right to attack others with words, the academics enjoy the privilege of disparaging their own government because some have the courage to defend them.

Senator Miller [at the Republican Convention] was right to call attention to this evil within our own borders and among our own citizens. We need the straight-talking principled man from Appalachia to tell us this. We have had too much obfuscation from those who are undeserving of their doctorates and J.D.'s."

542 Reverting to adolescent behavior

Derek, a seminary student with a blog, writes about camping with 3 friends: “We packed up my car, got down there while there was still daylight and put up the tent and got the fire started. It's funny how four grown men can instantly revert to being 14 years old again when in total isolation, with no women around and a fire going.”

I think the opposite must happen with women. They revert to 14 when there is a man around. A few weeks ago at our local pub where we go on Friday night, there was a loud, hilarious table next to us, five women and one man. He had a wan smile, and was nodding politely, as they screeched and roared and told jokes on themselves, all with the hand movements of a drunken choir director, and bouncing the topic like a basketball. The young man got up to go to the rest room, or maybe out to get some fresh air. The noise level dropped immediately. I heard the women in hushed tones start talking about what they really cared about. Gone was the “I’m-out-here-having-a-good-time” façade, and it was down to the nitty-gritty of career stress, teen-age children, and negligent husbands. When the guy came back, so did the game faces and the merriment.

Interesting. I could give other examples, and you could come up with ones to disprove it. But I’ve seen this behavior in committee meetings too, causing some men to wish they’d lower that glass ceiling smack on the heads of their female colleagues.

541 Librarians, right and left, blogging

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE BLOGGING DRY SPELL. I just can't take my eyes off the polls and the political blogs right now. The fact is that nothing in American libraries is of any importance at all, when compared with keeping the White House away from John Kerry. Conservator

“. . . entering an Amtrak bathroom is like hermetically sealing yourself in a Tupperware lady's demo container full of boiled eggs she forgot in the trunk of her car: the waftey scent is stale, sweet and rotten. Even though I attempt to hold my breath throughout my bathroom visit, I had to breathe at some point so I was forced back to my seat.”
Vox Lauri

Helped patron make color copies of Cambodian money. It had to be double sided and look exactly like the real thing. Probably going to be doing time in a Cambodian prison for making fake 1000 Riel notes worth a quarter. Right Wing Librarian

Somewhere between the odds that I will have a child prodigy (250:1), and being audited by the IRS (100:1), is the chance that I might meet a fellow Republican librarian. Knowing this, lightning strikes and meteor showers seemed too scary to investigate.
223 to 1, according to the latest Library Journal, (10/04) is the ratio of librarians that have contributed to John Kerry’s campaign as opposed to Dubya. Tomeboy

Got into another debate over at LISNews today. It can feel very pointless if you think about the fact that the election on Nov. 2 doesn't really decide anything. It will decide who is President but no minds will be changed, ALA will still be ALA and our profession will still be on 'the left bank of the mainstream'. Shush

Like many people, most of my visits to the DMV have involved getting angry. (Except in Missoula. God bless those blissed out Mountain Folk for the effect they had on my nerves.) Many visits have involved the customer service representative subtly trying to pin the blame on me for something that I couldn't have known, or was their fault. It's hard to tell whose fault infamously bad service is: ours or theirs. We go in there grumpy and expecting bad service, so we get it. People come to the library with the same expectation sometimes. NextGen Librarian

On my favorite book: The truth, like many another slice of reality, is more complex: I have many favorites; among them the book I am reading now and the last one I finished; then there are all those wonderful books whose titles I can manage to remember and connect with their actual contents after the last page has been turned. A good answer to the question would be ‘all of them,’ but people, being people, always want to know The One. Perhaps this is because we live in a monotheistic society—even our atheists disbelieve in a single god, and because we are also competitive: everything has to come down to a final entity, a Grand Prize Winner. Library Dust

I'm at that age when a woman's fancy turns to thoughts of hormone replacement therapy.
Lipstick Librarian

540 Two Classes One Reunion

At the end of the month we're driving to Indiana to attend a reunion of my husband's high school fraternity. I think the last time they got together was about 10 or 12 years ago, although we've seen a few individuals over the years. They all attended Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis. In 1997 I wrote about our 40th class reunions, and how two classes that had been so different 40 years before, had become very similar.

Our Differences

Our schools couldn't have been more different. His school--Arsenal Technical High School--has a beautiful 76 acre campus in the middle of Indianapolis. Founded in 1912 at the site of a Civil War arsenal, its architecture spans a century and a half, from the old officers' barracks and guard house to the concretely ugly contemporary. Its neighboring residential area, once the glory of Indianapolis, was already shabby in the 1950s, but is now experiencing a renaissance. Tech's course offerings from technical to college prep were breathtaking, ranging from stagecraft to orchestral instruments to Greek. The school had 8,000 students when my mother-in-law attended in the 1930s, but was around 5,000 when my husband graduated in 1957. His school was larger than my home town. He says, and his classmates confirm, that they were so well behaved that you could hear a pin drop when the entire student body met for assembly.

Mt. Morris High School where I attended had only 52 graduates in 1957, was even smaller when my father attended in the 1920s, and our school, as a high school, no longer exists. The building is now a junior high school and the senior high students are bussed to Oregon, Illinois, to attend classes with our former nemesis and biggest rival. Its low profile, 1950s style architecture neighbors a retirement center to the east, a cemetery to the west and a cornfield to the south. The only foreign language offered at MMHS was Latin (for which I'm thankful--it's an excellent foundation), and we had no art classes, unless you count "industrial arts." Tech's lunch room staff was larger than our entire faculty! And we were never as quiet and well behaved as those city kids.

Our similarities

Our reunions had more similarities than our schools. Hard working local committees make these class reunions work. If there are no local people committed to the project, it just doesn't happen. The Tech Committee has quite a challenge finding addresses for over 700 people, many of whom have changed names, addresses and careers several times. The MMHS class had a much better rate of attendance with 37 classmates attending compared to 85 from the Tech class of 1957. His class has lost 34 members in death (1997)--that the committee has confirmed. My class has lost four.

Both groups assembled a large table of memorabilia for the reunion--annuals, a confirmation class photograph, snapshots, athletic sweaters, personal items. Tech's publications were a little more slick--they had an award winning school newspaper published by their journalism classes which even after 40 years looks quite professional. The MMHS class, however, had a signature quilt made in 1954 with all our names, our teachers' names and the current slang expressions embroidered on cloth blocks sewn together. That was a far sighted 14 year old who organized that project!

Both classes gathered for a reunion photograph. Bob's group was rather dignified and well-behaved, squinting in the bright sunlight on their beloved campus the day following their evening reunion. My class had a few stand-up comics who played off each other and kept everyone laughing. They must have driven our teachers crazy 40 years ago. The smiles in our MMHS picture taken at dusk in the White Pines State Park, the site of many school-related picnics, certainly weren't forced.

The Classmates

Each class had couples who met in school, dated and then married. The difference is that in Bob's class if you ask, "How did you meet," she might say, "We sat next to each other in zoology." My classmates Sylvia and Nancy and Mary Jane can say they met their husbands in grade school. Our classmates' marriages produced many children and now they are showing pictures of grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. One Tech couple at the reunion needed to hire a babysitter for the grandchild they are raising. One MMHS classmate showed a family picture that was almost half the size of our class.

Tech and MMHS classes both had a girl who was equally a friend to boys and girls, probably not an easy honor then when the preferred status was "going steady." I chatted with Bob's classmate for awhile and knew immediately why everyone in the class loved her. "I wish we'd known each other in high school," I told her (even though she had dated my husband).

On Growing Older

Sad stories were told in both groups. I think I met more guys downsized out of jobs in their 50s at Tech's reunion, although I didn't ask the same questions of my own classmates. Like me, many of the women began their careers after child-rearing and listened with envy to tales of buy-outs and early retirements. At our 25th and 30th reunions, divorce was the major personal loss. At the 40th it was the loss of parents, with at least three of my classmates losing a parent within the past six months. One Tech man told me his father died 13 years ago and he misses him more each day.

Surgeries, cancer, heart medication and portable oxygen kept our groups from getting too frisky. Two Tech men told me about hip replacements and were thrilled to be walking with no pain. One construction worker who had traveled from Florida to be at the Tech reunion proudly showed us his first pair of athletic shoes because after surgery he no longer wears a built up shoe. A Mt. Morris classmate had postponed knee surgery to be there and traveled in pain from California.

When we stopped by the Alumni Dance at the Moose Lodge in Mt. Morris after my reunion, we left after 5 minutes because of the smoke and noise. Nor did we go to the Indiana Roof Ballroom for the Tech Alumni dance. We love to dance, but unlike 40 years ago, these two alumni like our sleep more when facing a long drive home.

One thing was clear at these reunions: success touches us in a variety of ways. All our classmates were successful. Some had achieved the traditional definition--money, power, status or recognition. All the people I met or with whom I renewed acquaintance had overcome adversity, or followed a dream, or achieved a goal, or had provided needed friendship and compassion, or had been a faithful caregiver. The two classes that were so different in 1957 had become one by 1997.

539 Cooking to Hook Up--Another Quiz

Here’s the page that describes how Brain Syndicate worked with the authors of the book, Cooking to Hook Up. I took the quiz and came out a hybrid Academic/Career Girl. Thanks to Paula for the tip.

She is a hybrid of: Academic Girl Career Girl Click on the pictures below to read more: Take the 'What Kind of Girl Is She?' quiz at CookingToHookup.com

"Ann Michaels and Drew Campbell, the authors of Cooking to Hook Up were married in 1997. Despite a shared fondness for vodka martinis and cutthroat Scrabble, they soon realized they were better writing partners than life partners. Their no-kids-no-foul marriage dissolved in 2003 and the fact that they didn't argue over a single CD should tell you something."