Covid Era Librarianship: Reflections on Change during the Shutdown (March 2020-September 2020)

“On Being a Librarian During the ‘rona”

The real estate offices were deserted, the hotels had more waiters than guests; empty stores and vacant houses became numerous on all sides. Day after day and year after year the bright sun shone upon quiet streets and store-keepers staring out of the door at an almost unbroken vacancy. Many a man in San Diego during those long years that followed sat and looked at nothing long enough to have made a fine lawyer, doctor, engineer, or a fine literary scholar if he had only substituted a book for the empty door-way.

We closed the library to the public the day I got tested for Covid-19. Back then, it took two weeks to get results. When I returned from my two-week quarantine with a negative result, home delivery of books to local customers was already in full swing. As methods were tweaked and streamlined, we fell into a regular rhythm. There was a core group of five of us left in our modern, white, cool to the touch library building, after furloughs of part-time staff had happened and most of the librarians had begun working remotely. We handled the entire process. Some of us pulled the holds requested each day, checked them in to generate a slip of paper with the customer’s name for each item, cleaned the materials, and then grouped them alphabetically. The next morning, the books got checked out and bagged. We labeled the bags, and when the opportunity presented itself, I traced the cover art of the children’s picture books peeking through the translucent, white bags with a blue permanent marker. We numbered the bags based on routes generated by this fabulous app for the most efficient delivery around the city. 

Then, two of our staff, on occasion, three, went out to make anywhere from twenty-five to fifty-five deliveries each, often with multiple bags or boxes for a single household, while a couple of us, and on occasion, three, pulled items from as many as nineteen double-sided pages for the next day’s deliveries. When there were more items to be cleaned than we could handle at the end of the day, anyone in-house joined us for an impromptu, socially-distanced work party. Our administrative secretary could regularly be seen flitting around, phone in hand taking care of special requests from older patrons without computers or fixing delivery issues.

So it went, day-in, day-out, with our usual work tasks falling to the wayside. Though, since we stopped placing orders for new materials early on and had no in-house patrons, some things were not as pressing for completion. Between taking each other’s temperatures and writing “Enjoy!” on previously California-banned plastic bags, our old lives fell away and were replaced with history in the making. Within our part of the story, conversations were had and connections were made that bonded us through a shared experience that was wholly unique. I don’t know of any other library that offered this service. We became our own household. The occasional “visitor” from our work-from-home crew would come in from time-to-time, sometimes to record a children’s story time for social media. We were chastised for being too loud while they filmed; the stereotypically quiet library setting had transformed into a place where belly laughs were a regular occurrence. Later, when the Zoom STEAM camp meetings started, it always brought a smile to my face as I passed by a young staff member, hearing her animated interactions with the kids in their virtual setting. 

 Over time, I began to notice patterns in the reading, listening, and viewing choices of those we delivered to. Of course, in the pre-pandemic days, we could also see what people checked out, unless they used the self-checkout machines. But then, that was the world where personal interactions filled in the spaces between the stacks of materials headed out the door. It was always enjoyable to wonder with a customer whether a new book or movie would live up to the hype or to discuss favorite authors or the best books on a topic. This quarantine work showed us a kaleidoscope of where our thinking can go when a confinement starts and how each turn can change the delicate path as it meandered longer and longer throughout this year of our lives. Many a book was rescued from the oblivion of the discard cart because it got checked out when patrons remembered an old favorite or wanted that book they always meant to read from the past. With each pardon, I secretly rejoiced. Within a few weeks of quarantine, I saw more start-up business and creative how-to books going out. Later, the stream turned to more financial independence books. And later still, more art books. Audiobooks that had gathered dust on the tops of their cases found a new popularity as patrons varied their reading media. We were happy to dust them off to be sent out, using pandemic-approved disinfecting wipes as our cleaning product of choice.

I loved when adults and children went on a run with a topic. Horses, space, and backyard chicken-raising books were just a few of the themes that our city’s residents took to becoming experts in during their seclusion. Reflecting the tragedy of George Floyd’s death and a renewed emphasis on BLM, books on racism, African-American history, BIPOC picture books, and those written by black authors went out in large numbers. As with the trend found on many social media posts, our customers also checked out their share of baking books. Jewelry making, foreign language guides, and books on various aspects of religious history and thought were also popular. The classics were highly sought after, both in books and in movies. Many old and new authors found their entire oeuvres conscientiously devoured by readers at home for the duration. This immersion would often, to my delight, include the author’s biographies and film adaptations, creating a multi-media, expansive knowledge base on an author’s work. With such an outpouring of materials, I chuckled when what first seemed odd in a bumpy book cover became more and more common, and it finally dawned on me, “Yes, we live in a coastal city...and there will be sand inside the Mylar covers of books whose days have been previously spent uninhibited at the beach.” 

 

The largest number of books going out were consistently our children’s books; some households would request dozens of books for their kids. We often went off on a search for just the right empty box to transport these requests, where the parents would have likely brought in their wagon or some other transport on wheels in the days when they could still visit the library in person. At various times, we also sent free books and craft kits put together by our Children’s staff. One customer told me that her kids behaved as if they had won the lottery when their books arrived with activity bags. How can that not be gratifying to create such excitement in little ones? 

 Pulling books from series collections, my co-worker and I quickly felt the intense frustration of not being able to find that one specific children’s title whose series name was on the spine of every book rather than the individual book title. So each physical book of a sometimes very large series collection had to be pulled off the shelf to find the exact title that had been requested. Focused on processing new collection items and catalog errors, we did not regularly see the reality of the in-between experiences before checkout. After much discussion, we developed a new labeling scheme for one such perpetrator, knowing that it would in the future also ease the frustration of our usual holds-pulling staff and customers looking for a specific book within that series! 

Wandering the quiet, dim library to fill holds requests led me past display cases cheering the new decade and encouraging new starts for the first chapter of 2020. It felt amusing, in a melancholic “what might have been” kind of way. I sometimes felt lonely and stuck in an episode of “The Twilight Zone” when I would walk by my furloughed co-worker’s desk, her March calendar page still on display. As time passed, this new reality felt normal. Now as our reality changes again with curbside pick-up and the return of dearly missed co-workers, this moment in time will solidify itself into memory along with the minutiae of my marker covered hands, treasured mint brownies, and home delivery patrons’ thank you notes posted in the check-in room.

I already loved working at this city's library during my short tenure, but the fact that we were able to continue to provide service to a large number of our customers made me proud to be a librarian and grateful to be a part of this team. To be able to offer some personal contact for those in our elderly community and fun, on-going literacy for the kids in the midst of this bizarre and surreal period in our history has been especially rewarding. I hope these positive memories will remain with the children throughout their lives. They will in mine. Just as we grew up hearing stories about life during the Great Depression from parents or grandparents, I love to imagine these kids sharing the experience of having books delivered to their house while Covid-19 raged throughout the world with their children and grandchildren. 

With our new normal, I move forward with more knowledge of the best-selling fiction authors and their books, where I had previously focused on non-fiction, as well as a broader understanding of my new library’s inner workings. Someday, I look forward to putting faces to the names I’ve gotten to know over the past months. And talking about their new favorite books. 

The opening quote is from The City and County of San Diego by Theodore S. Van Dyke, 1888.

Nineteenth Century San Diego County Tattoos v. Early American Tattoo History

In Ira Dye’s article, “The Tattoos of Early American Seafarers, 1796-1818,” he laments the lack of additional documentation on tattoos. The California registers from 1892-1898 provide the exact large data group that Dye was looking for, when including the registers from all of the counties in the state, since tattoos were recorded, as well as occupation and age. He might have been pleased to see that his analysis of SPC-A and POW records holds up late into the 19th century. Both initials and anchors continue to hold their positions as the first and second most popular tattoos among tattooed San Diego County registered voters. And most of the tattoos were in black ink. Dye points out, it is difficult to know if men in non-marine occupations with tattoos are representative of a general population that were also tattooed or were likely former sailors, etc. There were men in San Diego in non-marine occupations with tattoos, e.g. the New York laborer with the most tattoos of the tattooed registered voters with five: a bracelet and a cross on his right hand, and an anchor, cross, and heart on his left. Of course, he could have previously been a sailor, as laborer is a general occupation. The majority of the tattooed voters were indeed listed as sailors, longshoremen, wharfingers, and sea captains.
Examples of tattooed men and their tattoos in the early voter registers: an English gardener with bracelets on both wrists and an English farmer with “designs tattooed on both forearms. A Swedish wharfinger carries his work home with him as illustrated by an anchor tattooed on each hand. And a fifty year old Finnish longshoreman, Augusto Anderson, with “A.A.A.S. 1842” in India ink on his right hand and a star on his left. A Finnish stenographer with “B.W.L.” in India ink on his left arm and a Norwegian sea captain living in Coronado, with an anchor on his right hand. A Russian painter with an anchor on his right hand and a bent finger. Patriotic tattoos continued to be popular. Too far removed from our country’s founding years to be related, immigration takes over as a means of explaining a naturalized citizen with an English flag tattoo and a Scotsman, James McInnes (a laborer) with thistles on his left wrist. Tattoos demonstrated new allegiances as well, as with the ruddy-complected Irish rancher (Lawrence Garrigan) with “American Sailor” tattooed on his arm and someone else with a U.S. coat of arms. Did Frank Woodruff, a 44 year old merchant from Ohio, living in Oceanside, benefit from the invention of the electric tattoo gun for his tattoo of a ballet girl on his left arm? The arms, including wrists, arms, and forearms, then hands continued to be the most common places for tattoos. However, the clerks may not have been asking the men registering to vote if the had tattoos elsewhere on their bodies.

Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 133, No. 4, December 1989, p. 532-549

Hoodlums in 1939

The Army and Navy Academy, originally located in Pacific Beach, moved to Carlsbad in 1937. Today, it continues to be a part of our community, with a most excellent and picturesque location on the northwest end of town. This 1939 article tells the story of some hooliganism that occurred on the campus by local teens. The way the situation is handled by the staff and community, via the Carlsbad Journal, demonstrates the sensibility of their time and place. FYI, in 1939, there was no Carlsbad High School. Carlsbad teens attended Oceanside-Carlsbad High School in Oceanside, now Oceanside High School.

The Journal is in receipt of a letter from Major John Davis, president of the San Diego Army and Navy academy, reporting that Mrs. Virginia Atkinson, their dramatics coach and their dramatics team, were continuously annoyed at the theatre last week by hoodlums.

The dramatics team was rehearsing for the State tournament held this week in Pasadena where the Carlsbad entry from the Military academy won second place and in which, there were eleven entries.

During the evening while rehearsals were in progress these hoodlums would pound on the theatre doors and throw rocks and other missiles at the building for no other apparent purpose than to annoy and disturb those who were at their work.

When Mrs. Atkinson went to the door and invited the boys inside they responded with language and epithets that are imprintable.

Some of the hoodlums were recognized and at least some of them are high school students at Oceanside, and one of them a senior.

President Davis in his letter to The Journal said that it is not the desire of the academy to make unnecessary trouble for the boys or their parents, that the school not only desires to avoid such steps, but wants still more to become a home institution, a part of the community life in Carlsbad, and he asks what can be done to avoid experiences of this kind in the future.

The splendid thing for these boys to do, if they read this report, would be to go to Maj. Davis or Mrs. Atkinson and apologize and promise not to repeat their acts of rowdyism.

Putting it mildly, it is unfortunate that a community like Carlsbad should have young men as residents whose idea of fun is to indulge in acts of vandalism, and worse still, should consider it smart to use vile language in the presence of a lady. Mrs. Atkinson will be able to forgive and forget, but the boys themselves, and high school students at that, will eventually suffer severe and unpleasant consequences for engaging in their idea of sport.

There is just one way that these boys will ever amount to anything. It won't help them any to be arrested and punished by law, but if they persist in such rowdyism that is what will happen to them. If they want to feel good again their only course is to report to the Academy that they are sorry.

That would be the first step toward becoming young gentlemen.

The Coronado Fishing and Hunting Grounds

The ocean fishing off Coronado in plain sight of the hotel is unparalleled. During the season of Spanish mackerel, rock cod, barracuda, and yellow tail, a two hours' catch of a couple hundred pounds is an every-day affair. Spanish mackerel weighing from eight to nine pounds is a fair average.

Those who have had the most experience in all parts of the United States say that the California quail is the most difficult bird to kill, and get in your bag, that flies. The famous shot, the late Ira Payne, after failing to bag a single quail with nine consecutive shots, said that they are the most elusive and delusive birds he had ever tackled.

A reservation of 1,900 acres within one and one-half miles of the hotel has been stocked with thousands of jack-rabbits, and the management has cleared a field of one and one-half miles long, over which guests of the hotel on horseback follow a pack of thirty greyhounds.

These rabbit chases are now among the most popular sports in Coronado, and occur twice a week, and oftener, if a dozen riders desire to indulge in a chase.

There is no expense to guests to join any of these chases, except for mounts, it only being necessary for them to leave their names at the office one day in advance.

(From a travel brochure, circa 1900)

Viewpoints of time & place

"Just as travel underlines that obvious but ever-surprising fact that, from wherever you view the world, it looks different, so does history offer intellectually something of the same insight. Our surroundings have been the home to countless generations of people estranged from us by time, for whom the assumptions and realities of life were, in a myriad of ways, fundamentally different. That realisation [sic] should be revelatory, inspiring and admonishing in equal measure."

From the March 13, 2013 issue of Country Life magazine

"A Plea for Palomar", by J.H.Y., 1901

A poem written about Palomar Mountain, which had earlier been known as Smith's Mountain

Fell my oak and fell my pine-tree; send my cedar to the mill;
Strip the tangled pine from off me; roll my boulders down the hill;
Grade my summit; till my valley; tear away my woodland pride;
Parcel me in city lots, and run a railway up my side;
Rule my streets with dull precision, block by block, in order time,
Here a church and there a depot, where the tiger lilies grew;
Mar God's handiwork about me; let my beauty be a myth;
Then, defaced and desecrated, call me after Mr. Smith.

But while yet the stately cedar sentinels the sylvan lawn;
While at times from yonder thicket peeps the nimble-footed fawn;
While the glory of the morning breaks on precipice and peak,
And the winter sees my waters leaping down to Panama Creek;
While the valley smiles beneath one, stretching westward to the main,
Mile on mile of rolling pasture, green alfalfa, golden grain;
While I look on Catalina, far beyond the ocean shore,
And the gleam of sunny waters on the lake of Elsinore;
While I dominate the lowland, hill and valley, near and far,
In my majesty and beauty, let my name be Palomar.

Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke speaks on open space, circa early 20th c.

So far the tourist has not discovered it [Africa], and I would like to see it in its undisturbed glory before railways and air routes have arrived, before luxury hotels and nightclubs have grown up like poisonous fungi - before it’s been tarnished and made ugly for civilisation [sic] which is unable to let things well enough alone.

From Bror Blixen: The African letters, edited by Gustav Kleen, 1988

March

As in the Roman year, so in the English ecclesiastical calendar used until 1752 this was the first month, and the legal year commenced on the 25th of March. Scotland changed the first month to January in 1599. This month was called Martius by the Romans, from the god Mars, and it received the name ‘Hlyd Monath’, i.e. ‘loud’ or ‘stormy month’ from the Anglo-Saxons.

From The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden, a naturalist who created this journal for the year 1906. She never allowed anyone to see it during her lifetime. She was born in 1871. After attending art school, she worked as an illustrator. She met her husband, Ernest Smith, a sculptor, while she was living in London. She died tragically, in 1920, drowning in the Thames while gathering buds from chestnut trees.

Early 20th c. San Diego County News Tidbits, Part II

Oct. 1905 – Home Co. telephone line tall post and four wires are on its way through town.

Feb. 21, 1906 – [A wish for a newborn girl] May she grow up to be a good woman and live to see her great-grandchildren.

June 1906 – San Luis Rey river still flows a good stream to the ocean.

March 1909 – Auto Club erecting sign posts on coast road marking every turn and danger point along the way as well as distances, directions, etc.

Dec. 1909 - Mr. Gainer…has embraced the Hindu religion and has traveled twice to India to learn more of its philosophy.

April 1910 – Halley’s comet could be seen all through April and will pass between us and the sun on May 19, 1910, and after that it will be seen in the evening sky. It will come again in 75 years.

May 1911 – C.S. Libby purchased old Christian Church on First and Hill St. in Oceanside. Will make it into a neat modern residence.

June 1911 – Mr. Baird moves to Long Beach, has a position with a motion picture concern. An expert photographer.

June 10, 1911 – W.R. Clark and family drove a team of horses down from Greenfield Monterey Co. in three weeks. Automobiles were counted on the trip – came to 640 cars.

July 1911 – W.S. Kelly has learned to run his new auto fairly well but says his family are shy of riding with him yet.

Oct. 1911 – A law passed in county requiring all travelers to have lights on their vehicles.

Sept. 1912 – Charles Kelly sold 52 horses to a purchaser from Imperial Co., Carroll Borden rode ahead leading two horses and Earl Frazee and Forrest Borden came along behind and kept them going. Many were wild but we took them down the 101 Highway to San Diego and camped in Mission Valley the first night. Only a few cars on the road then.

Jan. 1914 – Six airship passes in ten days in January. Pretty soon we won’t get out of bed to see one.

Dec. 1914 – Water is here in Carlsbad. We have seen it with our own eyes.

Jan. 1, 1915 – San Diego Exposition gets under way. Everything that would make noise was used after midnight.

June 1915 – Flying machines are so common these days that we merely take a peep to see which way they are going and then forget them.

June 1915 – Sam Thompson, of Orange, has five acres west of Highland, which will be planted in Avocado trees. This fruit is little known in this country, only a few trees having been grown in this vicinity but it is a staple product in Mexico and other Southern countries.

Feb. 1916 – High school pupils finding trains always late since the floods have taken to walking three to five miles to Oceanside.

Oct. 1917 – WWI housewives are asked to have meatless and wheatless days.

Oct. 1918 – Save fruit-pits, nut shells, etc. to make gas masks for our government.

April 1919 – Passenger plane is making daily trips between San Diego and Los Angeles. The fare is $25.00.

Sept. 1919 – The Carlsbad grammar school is growing larger again. Enrollment, now 18.

Sept. 1919 – President Wilson passed through on the rear platform of a train. In San Diego they rigged up loud speakers and they claimed that more people heard him than any man in the world.

Oct. 1921 – Mr. And Mrs. Abraham Lincoln Kentner from South Bend, Indiana visiting E.G. Kentner at the Twin Inns.

After his wife, Minnie Kelly Borden, died in 1919, Mr. Borden started looking for an assistant. In 1920, he said, “I am still in need of a helper on this paper. Someone who would rather do good than get rich.” In 1921, “Not yet having found an assistant who would be my successor, I am facing the apparent necessity of dropping the work for want of physical and financial ability to keep it going.” The last paper was dated January 1923. After printing the paper for 38 years, he was forced to stop because his health gave out and he died a year later.

19th c. San Diego County News Tidbits, Part I

The following selection of excerpts from Excerpts from the Plain Truth, compiled by Forrest V. Borden. The Plain Truth, which later became Spirit of Love was a newspaper created by Webster W. Borden. Self-labeled as a temperance paper, it was printed from 1884 to 1922 in various locations in north county. Mr. Borden was from Missouri and married daughter of another pioneer family, Minnie Kelly. She helped run the paper. In addition to putting out a local paper, WWB taught school in the early years. Note: I have left some misspellings and most of the grammar is as in original excerpts, etc. The brackets contain my additions to help with clarity.

1884 or 1888 - Rancho Encinitas sold for $66,000, 4,438 acres for the Olivenhain Colony

June 5, 1884 - Our paper, San Diego Union article as follows: The Post Office Department should extend route 46, 388 from Barham to Apex (Escondido) a distance of six miles and establish a permanent route from Oceanside via San Luis Rey to Capistrano - distance of 37 miles. The mail from Barham to Apex, 6 miles [currently] goes 100 miles via San Diego.

In June 12, 1884 - WWB says much safer investment to teach school at $60 per month than attempt to run a 6x9 circular.

July 24, 1884 - The blacksmith of Barham, E.D. Boxley has left us in search of better pay. In less than two hours after his departure there was a call at the shop for $8.00 worth of work.

August 23, 1884 - Republican primary election to have been held at this place last Tuesday, was rather a slim affair, there being no inspector at the polls, and only one voter. But, no doubt, the general election will show a stronger interest.

March 23, 1886 – The first experiment with electric lights in San Diego. Everybody was pleased.

March 23, 1886 – John Kelly finds dead man near Hoffman’s Chicken Ranch east of wind mill. I think they dug a hole and buried him there.

Sept. 16, 1887 – The new hotel at Coronado is 420x430 feet, covers nearly 4 acres, floor space 7 acres.

Nov. 1, 1889 – Story of the terrible locomotive, Stephenson predicted that his locomotive would draw a train of wagons at the rate of twelve miles an hour. There were men in England who declared that no passengers could travel at such a rate of speed and “keep their heads” was predicted in 1835.

April 1, 1891 – Charlie Chase of San Diego has lately placed a latest improved phonograph in the front of his drug store and we doubt not [that] many dimes have gone into the slot of the machine, which has the wonderful power of recording and repeating human speech.

1891 – The word kid is fast becoming an accepted word. The other day a parrot called out, “Hello! Hello, kid!” The dictionaries will perhaps be the next to adopt the slang term.

June 16, 1891 – Mr. Judson and Mr. Rainbow are looking for a good location for a public road from Smith Mountain [now Palomar Mountain] to Valley Center, will connect with the Pala road and give mountaineers an outlet to Valley Center, Escondido, and San Diego.

Oct. 10, 1891 – Merle [in the area of what is now Leucadia] – it is the beginning of a little seaside village about 30 miles north of San Diego on the line of Southern California railroad, between Oceanside and Encinitas. Public buildings are few and far between. There being a town hall, a school house, and a building once occupied by a store, but now answering for the Post Office.

Nov. 24, 1891 – Merle, Ca – The school at this place has its new clock. Now for the book-shelf and library next.

1891 – Merle, Ca. – The postal telegraph line is already completed past this place, and it adds to the business like appearance of things to see two rows of poles so near together.

The Bigger Picture: The value of genealogy

In the February 17, 2013 issue, Parade magazine contained a quiz, which was adapted from Bruce Feiler's book, The Secrets of Happy Families: Improve Your Mornings, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smarter, Go Out and Play, and Much More. The question asked:

When a team of psychologists measured children's resilience, they found that the kids who________ were best able to handle stress.

The choices were: A. Ate the same breakfast every day, B. Knew the most about their family's history, C. Played team sports, or D. Attended regular church services. The answer was B, with this explanation:

The more children know about their family's history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives and the higher their self-esteem. The reason: These children have a strong sense of 'intergenerational self' - they understand that they belong to something bigger than themselves, and that families naturally experience both highs and lows

This was exactly the revelation that I had after doing genealogy for a number of years: that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves (I even put it just that way; I was so original!) and that creates a sense of continuity, but also a responsibility to our ancestors for their sacrifices and hard work and to our descendants, knowing that our decisions determine the foundation of their lives. I am thrilled to see an acknowledgement of the value that it adds to our children's well-being. In addition to the psychological effects, most of the people I've met who have done research for many years said that it helped them to love history (of those who didn't before) because they could see their family's place within the context of historical events, as well as increasing the respect that the elders in our families feel knowing that their contributions and stories are appreciated. If you don't know your family history, start now and if your children are old enough, have them research with you. The skills they learn will help them in school and beyond.

A Philosophy of Breakfast from Laurel's Kitchen

Some of my favorite cookbooks are from the 1970s, with their woodcuts and natural eating. Only in these can you find "fresh" milk as a requested ingredient for a recipe. Laurel's Kitchen is one of my favorite cookbooks from this era. Flipping through it the other night, I began to read their chapter on breakfast. I found it worthy of being shared, as a reminder to slow down and enjoy our mornings, and each other. The authors go on after the quote to discuss specific food choices, cooking methods, and recipes for breakfasts. I felt more relaxed just reading and imagining mornings like this... Breakfast

Food is the fuel for your day's activity, so it makes no sense at all to eat your biggest meal at night when it's all behind you. Breakfast should include protein and carbohydrate - at least one third of your day's requirement of each - and a stretch of brisk exercise as well. The word 'diet' used to mean not just food, but exercise, too; for the Victorians, in fact, it seems to have implied a good stint of deep knee bends in front of an open window each morning. For a great many of us, admittedly, the sight of anything beyond juice, toast, and coffee is more than we can handle when we first wake up; so when the children refuse to eat more than a bowl of sugared cold cereal, it seems hypocritical to argue with them. The key to enjoying an ample breakfast is to be up and around for at least an hour before you eat. (A light supper the night before helps.) There are hidden dividends to this practice. The early morning hours are the loveliest of the entire day. The air is fresher then, and once you've broken free of the pillow, your mind is likely to be at its clearest too. This is traditionally the time of day which is thought most auspicious for meditation. If you don't meditate, the silence of early morning is still a perfect background for studying, writing letters, taking a walk, or doing those deep knee bends. The earlier you get up, the more leisurely your morning can be; that's all-important, because the pace you set in the morning is the pace you'll maintain all day. Keep your family's breakfast time as slow and tranquil as can be. It might take some hanky-panky with alarm clocks, but try to get everyone together at the table long enough to get a good look at one another. If eyelids are heavy, offer some incentive: a fresh camellia, or a bowl of bright purple plums....Just being together in a peaceful, warm atmosphere will make all the difference in how they get through their day. Food eaten in this relaxed and leisurely manner will be digested much more easily than when one eye is on the plate and the other on the kitchen clock....

The Danger of Sharing Everything, a Warning from the Past...

I have NEVER come across anything that sums up the dangers of having everything posted or reported on via the Internet, whether through social media or the constant stream of "news" than the following paragraph. Shall we heed this warning and pull in the reins or continue to create an avalanche, suffocate, and lose some of the subtle beauty of humanity? Ironically, this revelation was published in 1940 by a small town newspaper editor, Henry Beetle Hough, in his book, Country Editor. Though he is talking from the standpoint of a newspaper reporter about a small town paper, I believe we all have those inklings of discomfort when every little thing, good and bad, but especially the special things that as he points out, should go on, unchronicled in a public setting...so that they remain precious.

There is a great deal that one cannot print in any newspaper, even in a country paper. Not the big things, not the things one might be accused of suppressing for gain or through fear, but the little, unceasing, significant things. Life itself is inexpressibly precious with its naturalness, its free play of impulses, ideas, plans, dreams, and there is a line beyond which an honest reporter cannot go. For life to read these things about itself would be to spoil them, to make them feel given away and cheap. For this reason a great deal that is most precious must go on, day by day, unchronicled; but here in the country one is aware of it and is rewarded for living and for seeing.

Chapter 7: "Shadows of the Old Order"

We are all aware that "things" were "different" in the past. Some of these things we know, e.g. people used horses for transportation before there were cars. Sometimes things surprise us. In reading Country Editor by Henry Beetle Hough, I was surprised by the following passage about the independent thinking and action when it came to providing a rural area, in this case, Martha's Vineyard, with telephone service and electricity, and the nature of transportation to and from the island. The book was published in 1940 and covers the first twenty years that Hough and his wife served as editors of the Edgartown Gazette. Unless, it's a harmful or dangerous, I like becoming aware of different ways of being and living from other times and/or other places. It's humbling and serves to shake one a bit out of complacency.

There were many survivals of the old order in the community as we found it. Dr. Tarry was still practicing. He was tall and thin, penetrating and sardonic. He went about with a tall silk hat, cutaway coat and striped trousers....Some years earlier Dr. Tarry had built himself a telephone line and founded a telephone company. The science and business of communication was not far along, and the Bell company did not care about extending its poles on the country roads in more thinly populated districts. But in these places Dr. Tarry's patients lived, and he wanted to reach them. Being of an energetic and determined nature, he went ahead and was soon operating successfully....Dr. Tarry had sold out his telephone company to the Bell System before we took the Gazette...The electric light company, too, had been started by local enterprise...The principal figure was a former steamboat captain and islander of the old school. The founding of these enterprises was simply a continuation of an old tradition, and there was something about it which seemed to characterize the whole community. One was aware of a strong individualism, a spirit of initiative and of self reliance. In the old days the steamboats linking the island with the mainland had been built and operated by local companies....the captain had as much say about operating his steamboat as anyone else. If he wanted to leave his route and give a tow to some becalmed schooner, or salvage the cargo of a distressed craft, he did so, and the passengers had so much extra sail and so much added experience of life, in return for their delayed passage...In the modern age the steamboats had become the property of a single company, and control of the company had been sold to a railroad system on the mainland. This was the modern trend....Centralization was sucking it out of small paces such as our island. The moving impulse was no longer to be the ideas and initiative of an individual in town, but something coming, like an electric current over a wire, from a city in the distance.

A 19th Century View of Alpine, California

John R. Campbell, who ran a boarding house/hotel for a time in Alpine, California, provides a glimpse of that fair township and his hotel in this 19th century letter to a prospective boarder: "December 30, 1896. Dear Sir, ...The altitude where we are situated is, 1800 feet. The air is dryer than nearer the coast and more bracing. Our summers are pretty warm. Our winters are delightful. No snow and but little frost. Good water. Near post office. Stages daily, to & from Lakeside. Except Sunday. Our rates are $7.00 & $8.00 by the week and $30.00 & $35.00 by the month. We have made a reduction of one dollar a week for the winter as you will see by the enclosed card. Yours respectfully, J.R. Campbell"

Dr. Lena Creswell and San Diego Women Doctors, 1908

In the book, History of San Diego, 1542-1908 by William Ellsworth Smythe, there is a list of doctors who were practicing in San Diego at the time of publication. Among them were nine female doctors and two female osteopaths: Maria B. Averill, Charlotte J. Baker, Alice H. Crandall, Alexis De Borra, Lelia Latta, Eva M. Lewis, Mary E. Hoffman, Anna M.L. Potts, Minnie E. J. Verity, Lena Creswell, and Anna B. Woodhull. This list contained far more female doctors than I would have expected to see for that time! One of the osteopaths, Lena Creswell, was successful enough to warrant a biographical paragraph in City of San Diego and San Diego County: The Birthplace of California, Volume 2, written by Clarence A. McGrew and published in 1922. “Dr. Lena Creswell has been prominently identified with the profession of osteopathy in Southern California for the past twenty years. Outside of her profession she has many unusual interests, particularly those of an active outdoor woman. Dr. Creswell was born near Clarinda, Iowa, on a farm, graduated from high school at Villisca, Iowa, attended the State Western Normal College at Shenandoah, and after graduating taught for two years. She then entered the School of Osteopathy at Kirksville, Missouri, graduating, and for two years practiced at Circleville, Ohio. Dr. Creswell came to Southern California with her parents. San Diego decided her in favor of this community, where now for twenty years she has performed her work as a skilled osteopath. Her parents also live here, and her brother, William Creswell, is San Diego sales representative of the Studebaker car. Dr. Creswell has made some splendid real estate investments and is now building a new bungalow at Illinois and Lincoln. She also has a beach home at Ocean Beach, near the Del Monte Cliffs. She goes to the beach to rest and enjoy her particular hobbies, flowers and the stars. She has always been a great lover of nature, is an enthusiastic golf player, swims and takes part in all other wholesome sports. Dr. Creswell is a charter member of the Business Woman's Club and a member of the Y. W. C. A., the Christian Church and the Amphion Club."

Towns in the County, 1888: San Diego History Pt. III

Below are descriptions of some of the cities in San Diego County from T.S. Van Dyke's The City and County of San Diego (1888). Keep in mind that most of them were barely towns and that San Diego County was much larger then. Imperial County and most of Riverside County came from San Diego County.

"A few miles farther up the shore is La Jolla Park."

"Just around the opening of Soledad Valley upon the sea lies the handsome seaside town of Del Mar, with some 300 inhabitants."

"Carlsbad, a new watering-place with a mineral spring whose waters are attracting much attention. A few miles north of Carlsbad is Oceanside, a fast growing seaside town of over a 1,000 people."

Northeast of Temecula, 25 miles from the coast, is the Laguna Rancho, which contains 5,000 acres and surrounds the county's largest lake.
"By this lake is the thriving town of Elsinore with nearly a 1,000 people, with Wildomar near by well on the road to overtake it."

What to do During a Lull; or San Diego History, Pt. II

"The real estate offices were deserted; the hotels had more waiters than guests; empty stores and vacant houses became numerous on all sides." This is Mr. Van Dykes' observation after the 1873 financial crash, but it sounds eerily similar to our country's recent experiences.

National City's population dropped to a couple dozen people and San Diego's, to 2,500.

Mr. Van Dyke eloquently follows the above sentence with the following observations: "Day after day and year after year the bright sun shone upon quiet streets and store-keepers staring out of the door at an almost unbroken vacancy. Many a man in San Diego during those long years that followed sat and looked at nothing long enough to have made a fine lawyer, doctor, engineer, or a fine literary scholar if he had only substituted a book for the empty door-way."

From The City and County of San Diego by T.S. Van Dyke, 1888

San Diego History, Pt. I

In 1845, "the city lands, to the extent of 47,000 acres, were surveyed and mapped and granted to [the local government] by the Government of Mexico. This grant afterwards confirmed and patented by the United States, and hence the magnificent proportions of the present city limits." From the book, The City and County of San Diego by T.S. Van Dyke, 1888.

17th Century Misbehavior....

Here are some excerpts from Ye Kingdome of Accawmacke or the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century by Jennings Cropper Wise, which remind us once again that our ancestors were not wiser, kinder, or more Godly than us...but it doesn't hurt for us to continue our attempts at perfecting our human condition: "...the Rev. Mr. Treakle...[was accused of] improper relations with Lady Scarborough and combining with her to poison [her husband]..." (p. 101-102) "Upon the 2nd day of August, 1641, Goody Curtis was trying to milk her cow in the cowpen of the Widow Taylor, but the cow was not used to that pen and became restive. Goody lost her temper and cross words passed between her and Mrs. Taylor, who was looking on and no doubt making silly suggestions as women are wont at times to do. There upon the good ladies fell to calling each other bad names, ending in Mrs. Taylor smacking Mrs. Curtis's face, for which breach of the peace, the Court 'Ordered that the Widow Taylor shoall pay unto John Curtis or anie other for his use, one potte of milk per daye, at the cowpen of the Widdowe [sic] Taylor until the last of September next, and pay all charges expended in this suite." (p. 44-45)