The Rustic Poetry of Louisa Walker
The Great Smoky Mountain Association has a great deal of information on the Walker Sisters, and they kindly allowed us to reprint a poem from Louisa Walker (spelling is hers):
There’s an old weather bettion house
That stands near a wood
With an orchard near by it
For almost one hundred years it has stoodIt was my home in infency
It sheltered me in youth
When I tell you I love it
I tell you the truthFor years it has sheltered
By day and night
From the summer’s sun heat
And the cold winter blightBut now the park commisioner
Comes all dressed up so gay
Saying this old house of yours
We must now take awayThey coax they wheedle
They fret they bark
Saying we have to have this place
For a National ParkFor us poor mountain people
They don’t have a care
But must a home for
The wolf the lion and the bearBut many of us have a tltle
That is sure and will hold
To the City of Peace
Where the streets are pure goldThere no lion in its fury
Those pathes ever trod
It is the home of the soul
In the presence of GodWhen we reach the portles
of glory so fair
The Wolf cannot enter
Neither the lion or bearAnd no park Commissioner
Will ever dar
To desturbe or molest
Or take our home from us there-By Louisa Walker, with permission of Great Smoky Mountains Association
“Song of the Wilderness” by Dorothy Parker
A witty poem from the American poet Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967).
Song of the Wilderness
We’ll go out to the open spaces,
Break the web of the morning mist,
Feel the wind on our upflung faces.
[This, of course, is if you insist.]
We’ll go out in the golden season,
Brave-eyed, gaze at the sun o’verhead.
[Can’t you listen, my love, to reason?
Don’t you know that my nose gets red?]
Where the water falls, always louder,
Deep we’ll dive, in the chuckling foam.
[I’ll go big without rouge and powder!
Why on earth don’t you leave me home?]We’ll go out where the winds are playing,
Roam the ways of the brilliant West.
[I never designed for straying;
In a taxi I’m at my best.]
Minds blown clean of the thoughts that rankle,
Far we’ll stray where the grasses swirl.
[I’ll be certain to turn my ankle;
Can’t you dig up another girl?]
We’ll go out where the light comes falling –
Bars of amber and rose and green.
[Go, my love, if the West is calling!
Leave me home with a magazine!]
Classic Covers: Dogs Hate School!
If there’s anything we’ve learned from studying hundreds of magazine covers for the Post and The Country Gentleman, a sister publication, it is that dogs hate school! If you’re bummed about returning to school, you’re not the only one.
Robert C Kauffmann
September 10, 1938[/caption]
This Robert C. Kauffmann painting is one of our favorite dog covers — and we have decades and decades of dog covers. How long that sweet mutt is going to stare at the door, nobody knows, but best friends are loyal.
These pups have been at it longer; they’re at least sitting down and waiting. If they’re teaching something useful like fishing or stick-throwing in there, these loyal friends might understand, but what’s taking so long? This is one of 30 covers Alan Foster painted between 1923 and 1933 for the Post.
Humorous every-day scenes like the one above were popular in the 1920s. The cover of was one of 10 Saturday Evening Post covers Rockwell did in 1922, along with two Country Gentleman covers and other ad work and art assignments. We’ve often wondered when the man slept.
“Dear Editor: I know this may be a stretch, but I have a special request. I am looking for an issue of your magazine from September 2, 1944. It is special to me because I am the Boy Scout in the painting by Stevan Dohanos. His son was a pal of mine and, in the 6th grade, I was asked to pose in my scout uniform. I think I got paid $10! Plus I spent the night at his house and had a great time. I can still remember the shoot.” This email from a couple of years ago was signed George. We’re glad George enjoyed the shoot, because the dogs are clearly not enjoying having their pals carted away in that big yellow thing.
If there’s one thing dogs hate more than school, it’s homework — or at least math homework. If nothing else, Rover can provide moral support. The artist, Henry Hintermeister, certainly wasn’t a household name, but he did at least 16 Country Gentleman covers, all terrific ones, of kids.
If there’s one thing about school dogs love, it’s when Billy gets off that bus! We should all have a welcoming committee like this one. Love the pastels in this painting. And dig that 1930 school bus in the background.
Conformity: The Ladies’ Model
If there was pressure to conform — as Fromm, Gropius, and Rickover claimed— where did it come from? What did it sound like? Who was responsible?
It’s difficult to point out how society shapes people and their beliefs. The pressure to conform is subtle and, often, unintentional —for men, at least. Women, on the other hand, have a great deal of social instruction thrown at them. Moreover, they are usually handed a large pile of expectations in their teen years. The expectations are often reinforced by the media who were heavy users of clichés and stereotype.
Today, the pressure is less obvious, but in the 1950s, the traditional image of women as nurturers and little else was endlessly repeated in new stories, advertising, and popular entertainment. Here, for example, is Peg Bracken in 1958 telling readers “My Husband Ought To Fire Me!” for not being a cost-effective source of domestic help.
If you are at all attuned to the times, you know that a housewife isn’t a housewife any more. She is a versatile expert, a skilled professional business manager, practical nurse, house cleaner, child psychologist, home decorator, chauffeur, laundress, cook, hostess — all this, besides being a gay, well-groomed companion. And she is therefore worth, at prevailing wage rates, about $20,000 a year — or, anyway, a lot more than her husband.
A lot of recent literature has tried to establish this point. Some of it is written by men, and I can’t decide whether they are chivalrous or just cowed. But that quiet tittering you hear in the back row comes from the women, who know different. Housewife, homemaker, it’s still spinach. Women are honest about the important things. This is one of their many lovable qualities.
Well, it is fun to be chucked under the chin, but reaction sets in the minute we housewives — and I think I’ll just continue to use that dirty old world — the minute we housewives really look ourselves in the eye. Practically any housewife who tots up — as I have just totted up — what she’d be worth in today’s labor market is apt to find herself in a nervous condition bordering on the shakes. From my own computations one salient fact emerges loud and clear; all my household skills together wouldn’t earn enough to maintain one small-sized guppy.
In a word, nobody would have me except a husband. What is more, I’d call this a fairly general state of affairs.
Yes, she is being humorous. But humor sits atop reality, and the reality of this article is that the American woman of the 1950s lived with assumptions about her self worth, much of it concerning her ability to cook, clean, raise children, and be pretty happy about the whole deal.
The blunt fact is most housewives are pretty good at a couple of things, fair to middling at a couple of others, and as for the rest, they do them when and if they have to, and lousily. A man never knows which one or two housewifely talents he’s getting when he marries either. No matter what good fudge she made in her bachelor-girl apartment, he can’t be sure! That is one of the things that makes marriage so exciting.
Let’s face it; we housewives are jugglers who, trying to keep a dozen nice big fresh eggs in the air, spend most of our time skidding in the shells. Once in a blue moon, for the fast wink of an eye, all the eggs stay up.
There’s an important item Peg Bracken left out of this article. One of the eggs she juggled was her career as advertising copywriter and free-lance humorist for The Saturday Evening Post. Her article doesn’t mention the pressurs of rewriting, editing, billing, or selling her work. Of the fact that she quietly supported her role as a traditional American woman with a non-traditional job.
There were millions of women like her who tried living within an old-fashioned model of womanhood while taking on un-ladylike work and “mannish” responsibilities. In time, the charade grew tiresome for many women, and they gave up supporting a social role that didn’t support them.
A “women’s liberation movement” arose in the 1960s, offering ideas and demands, some radical and some unarguably sensible. There was resistance, of course, but there were fierce defenders of women’s rights, such as Brigid Brophy who argued “Women Are Prisoners Of Their Sex” in 1963.
So brilliantly has society contrived to terrorize women with [the] threat that certain behavior is unnatural and unwomanly, that it has left them no time to consider – or even sheerly observe — what womenly nature really is. For centuries arrant superstitions were accepted as natural law. The physiological fact that only women can secrete milk for feeding babies was extended to the pure myth that it was women’s business to cook for and wait on the entire family. The kitchen became woman’s “natural” place because, for the first few months of her baby’s life, the nursery really was. To this day a woman may fear she is unfeminine if she can discover in herself no aptitude or liking for cooking.
If a woman who is irked by confinement to the kitchen merely looks around to see what other women are doing and finds they are accepting their kitchens, she may well conclude that she is abnormal and had better enlist her psychoanalyst’s help toward “living with” her kitchen. What she ought to ask is whether it is rational for women to be kept to the kitchen.
I must add a final note about Peg Bracken, who had never believed that women should like the status quo. In 1960, she published “The I Hate To Cook Book,” a humorous guide to preparing fast, easy meals and saving time for something more rewarding. Her preface announced, “Some women, it is said, like to cook. This book is not for them.” This exclusion still left a sizeable number of women: three million readers, in fact.
The book changed her life by making her a celebrity. It produced another, unexpected change when she showed the manuscript to her husband for his opinion. “It stinks,” he said. She decided then that she ought to fire her husband. They were soon divorced.
Read “My Husband Ought to Fire Me!” by Peg Bracken.
The Price of an Organized Society: Conformity in the 1960s
Of all the people who wrote about conformity in the ‘60s, few are more unexpected than Walter Gropius. Gropius was (and still is) considered an intellectual heavyweight, not the sort of contributor usually found in the Post. Yet here he was — one of the pioneers of modern architecture — writing about the aesthetics and the human spirit in “The Curse of Conformity.”
Gropius was mainly concerned with conformity in architecture, but he recognized that buildings reflected society. And the conformity he saw in America’s buildings, and America’s cities, did not bode well for the people living in them.
Our biggest man-made objects—our cities—have steadily grown more chaotic and ugly, despite brilliant individual contributions to planning and design.
In our smaller towns people try hard to preserve a certain regional character and community spirit — a losing struggle against the conformity imposed by mass production… Man is in danger of losing his entity.
Our subservience to our own brain child, the machine, tends to stifle individual diversity and independence of thought and action—two factors which used to be strong components of the American image. We know, after all, that diversity in unity, not conformity, constitutes the fabric of democracy. Unless we can reconcile diversity with unity, we may end up as robots.
Another warning against conformity appeared in 1963 from an author no less surprising than Gropius: Hyman G. Rickover, a four-star admiral in US Navy. Rickover was one of those exceptional career officers who thrived in the regimented world of the military yet maintained a strong independent spirit. He had risen through the ranks to eventually be given the task of brining the Navy into the nuclear age. He had a reputation for being intelligent and dedicated, as well as outspoken, imperious, and intolerant of error.
In “The Decline of the Individual,” he saw conformity eroding the principals of freedom and equality in America. There was, he believed, a considerable threat —
“to individual freedom posed by huge power complexes which dominate our lives but over which we are not able to exercise control. Among these are both public and private organizations…
“In nearly all our large organizations, administration stands apart and above production. The men who do the real work of the organization are placed below the administrators who rule them. Administrators may or may not have competence in the organization’s special field of work; often they do. Unhappily they often do not.
“Nevertheless the individual who must work in a large organization, whether private or public, meets conditions of inequality not found elsewhere in our democratic society. Nor is this inequality necessarily a result of unequal human qualities; it comes because one party has behind him the power of the organization and uses it to prevail over the other. This reminds one uncomfortably of the special rights and privileges which once were enjoyed by men for no other reason than membership in a higher estate—as when society was divided into the nobility, the clergy and the third estate.
We have allowed the freedom of the individual to shrink while permitting the freedom of the organization to expand to a point where it over-shadows human liberties… Many people have been concerned over the danger of our becoming a state dominated by pressure groups.
These powerful organizations, enterprises, and lobbying groups affected many people but answered to very few.
What we must do, I submit, is find ways to curb the illegitimate powers of large organizations, both public and private. Government bureaucracies should be made more responsive to the wishes of the voters; this means bringing them under closer control of our elective bodies. Nongovernmental organizations—labor unions, professional associations, special-interest groups, even business corporations—ought to be held more strictly to the specific mandate of their charters, as well as to “public policy.”
Unless checked, these organizations would impose standards for citizens, which would shape their lives and their thoughts. It would stifle the creative thinking we needed to solve America’s problems.
All new ideas begin in a non-conforming mind that questions some tenet of the “conventional wisdom.” All improvements originate in a critical mind that mistrusts the “image” projected by some powerful organism. The innovator of ideas and the social critic are essential to a free society; they are what make the society free.
Conformity would also turn compliant and rebellious Americans against each other.
Increasingly, Americans seek comfort and security through belonging to a particular segment of society. People… pattern their personal behavior on group standards. What is particularly disturbing is the resentment that tends to be generated in these closed groups against anyone who thinks independently and who must therefore at times differ from approved “group thought.”
It is a sad comment on the decline of individualism in America that the critic has no friend at court. He is tagged “controversial,” the worst that can happen to anyone in a conformist society. The “controversial’ tag makes him by definition a “flawed” personality, not group-adjusted, one-sided, ill-informed, frustrated and motivated by ill will. Epithets may therefore be thrown at him with impunity; he may be misquoted and misrepresented, and what he says may be contemptuously dismissed as requiring no refutation whatever.
Rickover’s concern seems to have been substantiated in a Post editorial two years later, “Our Threatened Way of Life.”
If a recent poll by Lou Harris is to be believed, a phenomenal number of citizens seem to think that virtually any kind of unusual behavior is a dire peril to the American Way of Life. The question was: “We would like to know whether you think each of these different types of people is more helpful or more harmful to American life, or don’t they help or harm things much one way or the other?”
The number of activities that seem to be considered “harmful” is quite appalling. “People who don’t believe in God,” for example, are condemned as “harmful” by 72 percent, a figure even higher than the one for prostitutes (70 percent). Fully 50 percent condemn “working career women with young children” as harmful, and no less than 36 percent apply the same condemnation to “women who wear bikini bathing suits.” [was 1965 really that far back in history?] As for the younger generation, they catch it both ways — 45 percent rating it harmful to be “more interested in athletics than studies,” while 10 percent consider it harmful for students to “read books all the time.”
It is possible that the American Way of Life consists entirely of neat little people leading neat little lives in neat little houses, but we somehow doubt it. Thomas Jefferson was something less than a steady churchgoer, Henry David Thoreau served time in prison, Mark Twain was a bankrupt, and General Ulysses S. Grant was an alcoholic — to name just a few of the unorthodox men who have helped make our way of life what it is. And it is, among other things, a strong and resilient way of life, capable of absorbing and surviving our oddities, aberrations and misdemeanors.
How to Spot a False Collectible
Collecting is a national pastime in America. From postcards to Pez dispensers, it is a hobby that’s fun, enjoyable, and family-friendly. However, the hobby has a dark underside—phonies. The fake collectibles industry is huge—some estimate it generates billions of dollars worldwide each year—and countless people are unwittingly shelling out significant money for stuff that is nearly worthless. Below are some tips that could help collectors avoid fraudulent merchandise.
General tips
1. Use caution when a seller requests privacy. Sometimes, this is for perfectly legitimate reasons. “Sellers will often request privacy when selling higher end stuff,” says Bill Kranz, an appraiser at Antique Helper auction house (antiquehelper.com), “because people are going to want to keep very valuable things safe.” However, when someone is trying to sell counterfeit merchandise, they will often request privacy because they don’t want experts around pointing out their phony product. Whenever dealing with a private seller, Kranz advises that you ask for some form of documentation that you can verify with a secondary source.
2. Ask for a guarantee. In many cases, a seller is unaware that they have a fake or misrepresented item. If you buy it and later find out that it isn’t what you thought, you should be able to return it. Even the most reputable dealers can make a mistake. Dan Ripley, owner of Antique Helper, has a standing policy that if his company mistakenly sells a misrepresented item, they will take it back at any time. “A fake is a fake,” he explains. “They don’t expire.”
3. Cliches can sometimes be, well, cliche. But many are repeated for good reason. “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” is golden for collectors. In other words, things that are supposedly valuable should reflect it in the price. There are exceptions—television programs such as American Pickers and Antiques Roadshow highlight items worth much more than the owner thought. But according to Andrea Hastings, also an appraiser with Antique Helper, this is rare. “That doesn’t happen often,” she says. “It’s like hitting the lottery. A person that finds an item like that usually has some idea that it is valuable.” A good rule of thumb is that if someone is knowledgeable about an item, they know better than to grossly undervalue it. If someone found an item in the basement and doesn’t know much about it, it is best for everyone involved if they get an expert opinion. Of course, there are always bargains, but be wary of seemingly outrageously good deals.
4. As with much of life, knowledge is invaluable, and one key reason that people buy false collectibles is a lack of it, according to Hastings. “The best way to know (if something is fake) is to have experience with the real thing,” she explains. “In many cases (where people are scammed), they pick up an item they don’t know about and think ‘Hmmm. This seems like a good deal.'”
The root of this problem is looking at collecting in the wrong way. There are two reasons for collecting: enjoyment and investment. Some make a living via the latter. However, this requires expertise that can only be gained by experience. In many cases it is learned the hard way. “Part of the learning curve is making mistakes,” explains Hastings. “It has happened to everyone on some level.” She and her colleagues recommend that it is best to start by collecting for enjoyment, for multiple reasons. First, value is subjective. There is always worth in something as long as you enjoy it, even if everyone else thinks it’s a bad deal. Second, someone thinking of enjoyment views money spent as permanent, while someone thinking of investment views money spent as temporary. The lure of future returns might induce bad decisions. Another cliche sums up the third and most important reason– “You must learn to walk before you can run.” Collecting for enjoyment teaches you the basics, which you should know before you invest.
Autographs
1. In many cases, supposedly authentic autographs are simply copies of an original. One good way to detect if a signature is a copy is to inspect it with a magnifying glass or run your finger over it (with permission). If it is flat, it may be copied. If it is raised, then it has probably been added mechanically. Pens usually make a detectable imprint. Also, printers leave telltale signs. “A print machine just sees signatures as a function,” explains Kranz. “They do what they are programmed and don’t distinguish between image and signature.” Many modern printers use a dot matrix system, so if the signature is comprised of tiny dots detectable by magnifying glass, it is fake. (Bonus tip: the dot matrix was not around before the 70s, so anything older than that should not have microdots.)
2. Unfortunately, another mechanical signature forger, the “autopen” machine, also makes a detectable imprint. However, they also produce telltale signs. Autopen signatures start and end with a dot detectable by magnifying glass because the machine goes straight up and down when writing and stops and starts abruptly (think sewing machine). People, however, generally use pens at an angle and their writing motion extends beyond where the pen actually touches the page, so the autograph will taper off at the ends. Autopen machines can also vibrate, so be wary of shaky looking signatures. Conversely, perfectly straight lines are not generally created freehand and are also a warning. One final red flag is that if the ink is evenly distributed, the autograph might be mechanical. People naturally put more or less pressure on various parts of their signature.
3. Consider how realistic the autograph is. Autographs from older figures won’t appear on modern things. For example, Teddy Roosevelt would not have signed anything about the 50 states because Hawaii and Alaska did not gain statehood until after his death. Also, celebrities won’t likely sign things unrelated to them. Albert Einstein would probably not have signed a Boston Celtics jersey, and Larry Bird likely would not sign a book on nuclear physics. As with any collectible, don’t be afraid to ask for authentication. It also never hurts to point out things that don’t make sense and ask “Why?”
Antiques
1. Antiques were not originally designed to become antiques; they were made to be used. Therefore, true antiques show signs of wear. A good place to look is where people would come in contact with the item. Handles should show discoloration, smoothness, or other signs of being held; chairs should show signs of being sat in, and so on. Also, genuine antiques will exhibit normal wear and tear, such as chipped paint or minor cracks in the finish.
2. Unfortunately, counterfeiters are aware that antiques should look aged and make things look old. There are several ways to do this, according to Kranz. “There could be chemical discoloration or fading, or marks could be made by hand,” he explains. “In some cases, someone will just bury an ‘antique’ in the backyard for six months.” There are, however, detectable differences with these methods. A good rule of thumb is that “aging should make sense,” says Kranz. If it just doesn’t look natural, be wary. Uniformity is the biggest sign of artificial aging, because things break down a little here and a little there over time, not equally all over. Metal discoloration should vary, and dirt and dust should have accumulated more in certain places. Look at the area of an antique that would have been more exposed. The top of a table or legs of a chair, for example, should look more worn than other parts. Signs of aging should also look worn. For example, wood chipped 50 years ago will look more faded than wood chipped last week. Lastly, if there are two of the same antique, look at both. If they are genuine, they will exhibit differences. Identical or similar signs of aging on both indicates counterfeits.
3. Look at how the antique is made. Older items typically have more attention to detail, so pay attention to the intricacy of the paint, carpentry, etc. Also, keep in mind history. Anything made before the assembly line (pre-1920s) should not show signs of mass production. There should be small imperfections and quirks on an item if it was handmade. Also, Phillips screws, power tools, and circular saws did not become widespread until the 1930s, so they should not be evident in older items. Finally, look at what is holding it together. If the nails, screws, or staples look shiny and new and the rest looks old, it is probably fake.
Frozen Strawberry Pie
This refreshing dessert packs 36 mg of vitamin C per serving.
Frozen Strawberry Pie
Makes 8 servings
- 2 cups strawberries, pureed
- 1 (8-ounce) package sugar-free vanilla pudding mix
- 2 cups low-fat plain yogurt
- 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
- 2 cups granola
Combine strawberries and pudding mix in 1-quart microwaveable container. Microwave on High until mixture thickens and boils, 5-6 minutes. Stir in yogurt.
In 9-inch pie dish, microwave butter on High until melted. Crush granola very fine, using food processor or blender. Stir into melted butter and press crumbs over bottom and sides of pie plate. Microwave on High until lightly toasted, 1-2 minutes. Pour strawberry mixture into pie shell and freeze until firm, about 4 hours. Let pie sit at room temperature about 30 minutes before serving. Garnish each serving with fresh strawberries.
Conventional oven: Preheat oven to 350 F. Cook strawberries and pudding mix in medium saucepan over low heat. Bring to boil 1 minute to thicken; stir constantly. Melt margarine in small saucepan and add granola crumbs. Press into pie plate and bake for 5 to 10 minutes. Continue as directed in microwave recipe.
Per serving:
Calories: 226
Fat: 7.8 g
Cholesterol: 3 mg
Sodium: 294 mg
Carbohydrate: 33.2 g
Protein: 5.5 g
Limerick Laughs
The Saturday Evening Post will award $100 to the author of the winning limerick for this picture.
Limericks must contain five lines. Entries will not be returned. Enter as many times as you wish.
The Sep/Oct 2010 Limerick Laughs winner will be announced in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue. Entries must be postmarked by October 6, 2010.
Send entries on a postcard to:
Limerick Laughs
The Saturday Evening Post
1100 Waterway Blvd.
Indianapolis, IN 46202
We extend our congratulations and $100 to Mary Ann Pendleton, Waxhaw, North Carolina, for the May/Jun 2010 winning entry.
One day after golf he came home,
Found his wife putting balls all alone.
With her putter lined up,
The ball rolled in the cup,
And all he could do then was groan.
Honorable mentions go to:
As Lou stood there perplexed and in awe,
His cigar fell as he dropped his jaw.
Since Mabel’s putt was on line
He moaned, “It’s better than mine,”
And he wasn’t sure he liked what he saw.
—Jan Streilein from Aiken, South Carolina
She said at home she’d be quite content,
So off to play golf with his pals he went.
When he left his spouse
To “putter around the house,”
This is not what he thought she meant!
—Jane Grau from Charlottesville, Virginia
How Five Sisters Kept the Old Ways Alive
“Time Stood Still in the Smokies” is one of the most memorable articles I’ve come across in the pages of The Saturday Evening Post. It tells of four middle-aged sisters (one passed away about a year before the article) who lived contentedly in a Smoky Mountain log home built by their grandfather when Abe Lincoln was still practicing law. The Walker sisters lived as their forebears did, churning butter, spinning their own cloth, cutting wood for fuel and even stretching and drying sheepskin.
I was delightfully reminded of the article when I heard from a park ranger named Samantha. She had recently hiked to the sister’s cabin, which is now within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In her e-mail, Samantha wrote that the sisters “were introduced to the world in (I believe) 1949 through an article in your magazine. I would love to have a copy of the article…”
Actually the year was 1946, Samantha, and you are not the first to request this article. It tends to stick in people’s minds (like mine) years after they’ve read it. I had forgotten some of the humorous anecdotes and how delightful these sisters were, even if a bit prim.
Most American households in that year felt blessed not only with electricity and indoor plumbing, but vacuum cleaners, washing machines and modern kitchen appliances. Food came from supermarkets and clothing and household items from department stores. So why would you want to live as if it were the early nineteenth century?
It was not, author John Maloney wrote, “through the slightest trace of eccentricity or any dislike of progress, but simply because, as women without menfolk around, they have continued doing things in the ways and with the implements they know best how to use—which is to say, their father’s and grandfather’s methods and tools.”
The four unmarried sisters (but Polly died in 1945) continued the way of life they and their siblings (eleven in all) had always known. They had no interest in moving or changing.
“Why, they reason, should anyone want to worry about changes and improvements when the ground is so fertile, one of their two cows is always fresh, their spring flows freely, and heavy forests around them provide all the fuel they need? A sympathetic visitor can find no answer.”
We are shown photos of the sisters, ranging in age from fifty-six to seventy-five, at the spinning wheel, stretching and drying sheepskin and just enjoying an autumn respite on their front porch.
They raised fewer sheep than their folks did, but kept six or eight each year. “Any one of them can catch a buck or ewe,” Maloney writes, “hogtie it and hoist it, bleating and kicking, to the rack where they do the shearing.”
And they didn’t just card wool for their own needs.
“Martha showed me winter dresses she had made from their own wool while Margaret hummed away, spinning thread that would go into warm stockings for themselves or socks for nephews still overseas. ‘Guess it ain’t every soldier in Germany that can say his old-maid aunts raised his socks off’n a rocky mountainside for him,’ Hetty observed as she looked on. ‘I hear them Europe winters can be powerful cold, and we don’t aim for any of our folks to have cold feet, no matter where they are.’”
There’s a charming story about the sheep and the author and photographer, David Robbins. The photographer asked if they could catch one and shear it for a photo.
“Margaret got feed, called, ‘Here, sheepie, sheepie, sheepie!’ and got them almost within noosing range. Then they saw (the photographer) and bolted back up the mountain. No amount of calling would tempt them down again, nor would they follow a trail of grain we laid for them. ‘They won’t come down again as long as there’s anybody around with pants on,’ Margaret said, and we found she was right. ‘Sorry, no sheep pictures.’”
About the only thing they didn’t do was plow, and that was only because of their mule.
“In his old age that mule has got so bullheaded he won’t let us girls work him,” Margaret explained. “When we want land plowed or logs dragged down from the mountain for firewood, one of our relatives has to come and work him for us. A Tennessee mule has got to be handled special, and none of us can cuss.”
I hope you find this article as memorable as Samantha and I did. It’s a good example of the type of article people still remember years after they read them.
Read the first two pages of “Time Stood Still in the Smokies” by John Maloney.
Drug Alerts
New research suggests that two popular pills—acid-reducers for chronic heartburn and calcium supplements to protect bones—may carry unexpected risks.
Two recent warnings serve as important reminders for us (and our doctors) to always carefully weigh the risks as well as the benefits of taking medicines and dietary supplements.
Calcium Supplements for Bones
Controversial research linking calcium supplements to an increased risk of heart attack published in a leading British medical journal is raising eyebrows around the world.
“A paper published in the July 2010 issue of the prestigious British Medical Journal found from 11 randomized studies (around 12 000 participants) that healthy women treated with calcium supplements (without vitamin D) had about a 30% increase in the incidence of heart attacks compared with those treated with placebo,” explains heart rhythm expert Dr. Douglas Zipes. “Studies on dietary calcium intake do not show such an increase so the risk appears to be due to the calcium supplements alone. Calcium supplements reduce the risk of bone fractures by only about 10%, so the benefits of taking them may not outweigh the risks for most individuals.”
Researchers say that even a small increase might translate into large numbers of women at risk because of the widespread use of calcium supplements. Others note that the findings are not based on studies designed to prove cause and effect.
PPIs Reduce Stomach Acid
In May, the FDA reported that high doses or long-term use of popular proton pump inhibitor (PPI) medicines for chronic heartburn may increase the risk of hip, wrist, and spine fractures.
PPIs effectively reduce stomach acid to treat heartburn, gastroesophageal reflux, and ulcers—conditions that, left untreated, can have serious consequences.
As a precautionary step, however, revised labels on prescription and over-the-counter PPIs will reflect the increased risk of broken bones, say federal health experts.
Prescription PPIs are Nexium, Dexilant, Prilosec, Zegerid, Prevacid, Protonix, Aciphex, and Vimovo.
Over-the-counter PPIs are Prilosec OTC (omeprazole), Zegerid OTC (omeprazole), and Prevacid 24HR (lansoprazole).
“Because these products are used by a great number of people, it’s important for the public to be aware of this possible increased risk,” said Joyce Korvick, MD, deputy director for safety in the FDA’s Division of Gastroenterology Products, in an FDA press release.
Advice for Consumers
“Before discontinuing any medicine and supplement, individuals should first check with their provider about specific risks and benefits,” advises Dr. Zipes.
Future research will better clarify the risks associated with calcium supplements and PPIs.
In the meantime, read and follow all product labels and talk to your health care professional about any concerns you have about using dietary supplements and drugs.
Click here for more from Dr. Zipes and his new book. The Black Widows | Saturday Evening Post
Paying the Doctor’s Bill
The United States may not have the best health care system in the world, but it is the most expensive. Currently, health care spending is 17 percent of our Gross Domestic Product and predicted to be 20 percent by 2018. Since 1960, this spending has skyrocketed, reflecting a major socioeconomic change in the way the U.S. delivers health care. Historically, though, doctors and hospitals were expected to serve the needs of others, even if they didn’t get paid. It was considered morally and ethically wrong to profit from medical service or inventions, a far cry from today’s lucrative marketplace for investors and investor-owned corporations. The following articles from the Post archives put this transition into perspective.
You can read the full original articles by downloading the below PDF files.
“Peeps Into Professional Ledgers: Dollar Secrets of Doctors and Dentists”
by Forrest Crissey, August 29, 1914.
If the business side of professional life were placed on an efficiency basis the scientific side of medical practices would receive an uplift that would be felt from one end of the country to the other: and it would not be evidenced in higher fees, either. One result would be that the honest, conscientious debtor to the doctor would not have to pay for the delinquencies of the dead beat. And that is about what he has been doing under the old system for many years—especially in family practice.
Does the physician deserve his undoubted reputation for business inefficiency?
“The High Cost of Sickness”
November 6, 1926.
Dr. C. C. Burlingame, in addressing a recent convention, made a timely plea for the wider application of business methods to hospital operation and for the enforcement of those economies without which the high cost of sickness will never be reduced.
No other country hand raised hospital construction to the high level it has attained in America. Our institutional buildings are characterized by beauty, cheerfulness, convenience, healthfulness and an extraordinary suitability in gross and in detail, for the purpose for which they were erected.
“This Cross is Blue”
By J.C. Furnas, October 2, 1943
Blue Cross subscribers now number 11,000,000 in the United States and Canada. At least 5,000,000 more Americans have hospitalization cash benefits included in health-and-accident group policies. Probably a good seventh of the American people are far more secure against hospital emergencies than was possible when this sort of thing started fourteen years ago.
This June, Sen. Robert F. Wagner introduced in Congress a trial-balloon bill sketching an American Beveridge Plan, with compulsory Federal hospitalization insurance on an employee-boss-participation basis as a conspicuous feature. So early a definite threat of Government competition nastily jolted Blue Cross organizations. Having pioneered both general hospitalization group insurance and the boss-pay-part feature, they feel their present efforts to spread the idea into lower income brackets should be given a chance before Uncle Sam hogs the field.
“Do You Really Want Socialized Medicine?”
By Steven M. Spencer, May 28, 1949
For the eighth time in ten years the American people are being urged to let the Government pay their doctors for them, with money collected from the American people. The system is called compulsory health insurance, and the theory is that everbody who doesn’t have enough medical care today will surely have it tomorrow because the Government will see to it that he does.
Both sides agree that no one who needs medical care should be denied it because he is unable to pay. The opponents of compulsory insurance maintain that it is in the American tradition that those who are able to care for themselves and their families should not lean on government for help. [Proponents] maintain it is too hard to determine who is able to care for himself and who isn’t, and that the easiest and fairest way to make medical care freely available to everyone on the basis of compulsory wage deduction.
“Medicare: Headache or Cure-All?”
By Steven M. Spencer, May 20, 1967
As Medicare now approaches the end of its first year of operation, it is obvious that the program is too broad and complex to permit a final assessment. But it is also clear that it is not quite the glorious success its sponsors promised nor the miserable failure its opponents forecast.
Robert Frost Poetry Contest
The winners of the prestigious Robert Frost International Poetry Contest have been announced and are available to read in the Sep/Oct issue of The Saturday Evening Post.
Each year The Saturday Evening Post will be presenting to its readers (in the magazine and online) the winning entries in the Robert Frost International Poetry Contest. America’s favorite poet, Frost (1874-1963) won four Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry. This competition for budding poets was created in his honor.
Now in its 16th year, the Robert Frost International Poetry Contest was founded by the Heritage House Foundation. It is now administered by the Studios of Key West.
Considered by many to be the heart of Key West’s bustling cultural scene, The Studios of Key West is a nonprofit arts community established in 2006 and housed in the historic Armory building in Old Town, Key West.
TSKW offers exhibitions, concerts, lectures, workshops, residencies, and partnership projects, and supports the advancement of established and emerging creative people in the Florida Keys.
TSKW visitors can tour the second floor artist studios, see exhibitions in the sculpture garden and main hall, and sign up for weekly classes or lectures.
Visitors are encouraged to visit www.tskw.org to find the most up-to date information and concert, exhibition, and course offerings.
As promised from the Sep/Oct issue, here is a sampling of honorable mentions from the Robert Frost International Poetry Contest.
POETRY Honorable Mentions
Without Bees
by Douglas CragoSo many reasons to kill,
explained in our holy writings,
taught by the generations.To defend ourselves and our higher purpose,
to get whatever it is we want and don’t have,
to get even, to extract justice, to level the score,
for dominion, for glory, for the hunt, for the blood sport,
for our sense of importance, for our standing in the world.On what day, do you think, will the last seed of creation fall,
will the last wild things vanish into the shadow of time,
pushed out of their habitats
into cramped, remote, uninhabitable lands,
life gradually squeezed out of them
by melting ice and prolonged droughts and mega-storms,
held at gunpoint by exploding human development,
their world poisoned with the by-products
of our cities and our farms and our endless need
to rush from one place to another.The seas empty. The skies without flight.
The prairies and mountains and deserts
silent day and night.
Just us. Doing us-stuff.
Waiting for the rains to bring breath
to the fields without bees.
Lining Up Ducks
by Kate Marshall Flaherty
For KristinYou always say, “Let’s line up our ducks!”—
meaning to set up a picnic,
a frolicking spot for the kids,
or a stop-for-tea place.I imagine a flat of cut-out duckies at the Fall Fair—
teenagers peering through sights
to pick them off in a row—
yellow ducks tilt, pinging one two three!
and laugh at the sister-lingo of it,
knowing just what you meant:
lining up our ducks.
But this afternoon under lazy low-slung clouds,
I listen to the crackle of gravel under kayaks
dragged into the still lake.
I hear the cricket chorus,
the breezy oak-leaf and odd
dropping acorn pop,
and I imagine your laugh
as I peer over my notebook.I see a Mallard leading her eight fluffy ducklings
in a perfect evenly-spaced straight line
across the tranquil water.I marvel at the mother,
heading the parade so proudly,
never looking back
to check on the chicks
in their bridesmaids regiment,
and your silly expression
for ordering, getting straight,
symmetry.Mother duck quacks
her uproarious laugh: wa waa waaa!
and glides on;I am struck—
I’ve just glimpsed
one of nature’s intricate plumb lines.
HAIKU Honorable Mentions
by David Caruso
tree climbing
the smallest child
the highest up
“The Happiness Machine” by Ray Bradbury
To celebrate Ray Bradbury’s 90th birthday we are reprinting “The Happiness Machine,” a story that was printed in his 1957 novel Dandelion Wine. This tale of discovery follows a determined man’s quest to produce happiness. He ends up finding sorrow until he realizes what real happiness is.
Classic Covers: The Art of Speeding
So you’re feeling sorry for yourself because you got a speeding ticket. Well, maybe it will help to know that speeding is nothing new. Okay, maybe it won’t help, but you’ll have a great time looking at these old Post and Country Gentleman covers.
Speeding Oldsters by Wm. Meade Prince
“Henry! I TOLD you we were going too fast!” Who knew there were motorcycle cops in 1925? Well, there’s one in this rear-view mirror. The Country Gentleman magazine was a sister publication to The Saturday Evening Post. On this cover, Henry is clearly having the time of his life, tooling along at thirty miles per hour. Fun’s over, buddy.
Elderly Couple in Automobile by Robert Robinson
What is with the oldsters these days? At least the men. We’ve shown you some delightful old codgers by artist Robert Robinson in the past, and this one has a lead foot. And he’s scaring the wits out of the Mrs. She has a restraining hand on his arm, but seems too scared to say anything. But just wait and see if the old fool gets his supper tonight.
Exhilaration by Norman Rockwell
Who’s enjoying the speeding now? Rockwell turns the tables and shows a young lady who is thrilled at the wild rumble seat ride. The dog, too, seems to enjoy the wind in his ears. The poor guy, however, is just trying to hang on to his hat. If you slow down enough to read the cover notes, you’ll see that the Post boasted some pretty impressive writers, too.
Excuse My Dust by Norman Rockwell
This family is pretty impressed that their Ford is outrunning the fancy-schmancy, more expensive car. The models were the Campion family from New Rochelle, where Norman Rockwell lived. Rockwell often used friends and neighbors for his paintings. Dave Campion ran a news store. We would have loved to see the customer’s faces when they purchased their copy of the Post with Mr. Campion speeding by on the cover! We’ll see him again.
World’s Fair or Bust by John E. Sheridan
Love this colorful cover. Apparently there was something going on in New York in 1939, and the men in the yellow car are in a hurry to get there – “World’s Fair or Bust”. The lady in the other car evidently didn’t “bust,” we’re happy to report, and is returning from the fair. Let’s hope the speeding guys don’t get bust–ed. Okay, that’s a reach, but I couldn’t help but notice that the long arm of the law awaits (below).
Welcome to Elmville by Norman Rockwell
Meet the long arm of the law. Look familiar? The squinty eyes threw me off, but it’s our old buddy Dave Campion, taking time off from his newsstand once again to pose for Rockwell (see Excuse My Dust above). The idea for the painting came from a real-life incident. Rockwell was traveling through Amenia, New York “back in the days when towns paid their taxes with speeders’ fines, and the Amenia cop really nailed me—right along the welcome sign!” So as you bemoan your speeding ticket, dear reader, remember that you are in good company.
Did We Mortgage Our Identity? The 1960s Worries About Conformity
By the 1950s, it was clear the 20th century wasn’t going to be the era of peace and prosperity Americans had predicted in 1900. It had brought them a world war, a major depression, and another world war, and now an interminable cold war. Americans were getting tired of the constant belt-tightening and war preparedness; they wanted to enjoy the society they’d built. But many were disappointed with the society they found. There was a general sense that things could, and should, be better.
Even if Americans didn’t feel a troubling malaise, the media certainly made a case for it. Journalists continually wrote of problems in American society, such as racism, alienation, and materialism. They also referred to the problem of “conformity.”
There was no single definition of the term. Popular magazines and television talked of conformity as the desire to fit in: Americans, like their milk, were becoming homogenized. They were abandoning their individual differences to fit in and get ahead. A popular song of 1962, “Little Boxes,” talked of people, their lives, and their “ticky tacky” houses all looking the same. But conformity was more than just the desire to accommodate the mainstream of America.
Between 1959 and 1963, three authors, each highly regarded for his insight and judgment, weighed in on the subject.
Erich Fromm, the renowned psychologist and philosopher, wrote “Our Way Of Life Is Making Us Miserable” in 1964. The need to conform, he said, didn’t arise in Americans but in their organizations, which rewarded people…
who cooperate smoothly in large groups, who want to consume more and more, and whose tastes are standardized and can be easily influenced and anticipated. It needs men who feel free and independent, yet who arc willing to be commanded, to do what is expected to fit into the social machine without friction; men who can be guided without force, led without leaders, prompted without an aim except the aim to be on the move, to function, to go ahead.
Our society is becoming one of giant enterprises directed by a bureaucracy in which man becomes a small, well-oiled cog in the machinery. The oiling is done with higher wages, fringe benefits, well-ventilated factories and piped music, and by psychologists and “human-relations” experts; yet all this oiling does not alter the fact that man has become powerless, that he does not wholeheartedly participate in his work and that he is bored with it.
[We should give Fromm credit for recognizing his profession might be enabling the system by helping citizens endure an unfriendly system.]
The ‘organization man’ may be well fed, well amused and well oiled, yet he lacks a sense of identity because none of his feelings or his thoughts originates within himself; none is authentic. He has no convictions, either in politics, religion, philosophy or in love. He is attracted by the “latest model” in thought, art and style, and lives under the illusion that the thoughts and feelings which he has acquired by listening to the media of mass communication are his own.
He has a nostalgic longing for a life of individualism, initiative and justice, a longing that he satisfies by [watching cowboy movies.] But these values have disappeared from real life in the world of giant corporations, giant state and military bureaucracies and giant labor unions.
He, the individual, feels so small before these giants that he sees only one way to escape the sense of utter insignificance: He identifies himself with the giants and idolizes them as the true representatives of his own human powers, those of which he has dispossessed himself.
Such ideas aren’t particularly surprising, coming from a humanist and psychologist. But much of what he says was echoed by other Post contributors in the early 1960s, including a social critic from an unexpected quarter.
Decoding Your Medical Bills
Feel confused and overwhelmed by indecipherable medical bills from multiple health care providers and facilities? Help is on the way.
As uninsured ranks grow and insured employees cope with complex health plans with varying copays and coverage options, people struggle with understanding their bills and detecting potential errors. But help is available from a growing cottage industry of health advocates and firms specializing in reviewing medical bills; discovering mistakes; and negotiating with health care providers, insurers, and collection agencies, reports Barb Berggoetz in her Sep/Oct 2010 Saturday Evening Post article “Decoding Your Medical Bills.”
Here’s how to contact the medical billing companies mentioned in her article and take control of your health care costs:
1. Medical Billing Advocates of America
PO Box 1705
Salem, Virginia 24153
billadvocates.com
540-387-5870
4840 Willow Ridge Court
Zionsville, Indiana 46077
medreviewsolutions.com
317-873-4872
3. Chapman Consulting and Hospital Bill Review
14604 Mansfield Dam Ct Unit #1
Austin, Texas 78734
hospitalbillreview.com
800-906-8085