JWG

I just finished reading a very interesting book: Lost City of the Incas by Hiram Bingham. It was written in 1948 and is about his expedition in 1911 to Peru (and several more over the next few years) where his discovered lots of things about the Incas including the city Machu Picchu. He was a professor of South American History at Yale. He was accompanied by several colleagues and worked with a bunch of local people traversing many ruins. The Incas had o writing so there is jo written record of anything.

I've been to Machu Picchu twice. What an incredible place! The Incas were incredible architects and builders. The buildings are made of huge carved stones that fit together very tightly and used no cement.

Interestingly in 1954 I was visiting a friend in northwestern Connecticut and spent a few days as a caddy at a local golf course and my client was Hiram Bingham! I knew nothing about him at the time but later learned that he had been Connecticut Lt Governor and then Senator a few years after his explorations.

Lots of info and pictures about my trips.  https://jwg.livejournal.com/tag/machupicchu/

Dancing

16 evenings of English Country Dancing in JP
7 evenings of English Country Dancing in Harvard Square
3 evenings of Contra Dancing at the Scout House in Concord
14 evenings Contra Dancing at BIDA in Cambridge
4 evenings of Contra Dancing in JP
1 evening of Contra Dancing at Brooklyn Contra
3 day weekend at the Dance Flurry in Saratoga Springs, NY
3 day weekend Beantown Stomp in Cambridge
3 day weekend Dance Camp at Monte Toyon in Aptos, CA
3 day weekend at NEFFA
3 day weekend LCFD Dance Camp at Pinewoods in Plymouth, MA
3 day weekend LCFD Dance Camp at Ashoken in Olivebridge, NY

        that is dancing on 63 days

Sleeping

Our unit in Brooksby Village Peabody, MA
Our house in Gloucester
San Juan Airport hotel and Guana Island in the British Virgin Islands
Park 55 Hotel in San Francisco
Monte Toyon in Aptos
New Yorker Hotel in NYC
Pinewoods Camp
Hotel in Lisbon and Viking Hemming (ship) on the Douro River in Portugal
Ashokan Camp in Olivebridge, NY
Hotels in Marseilles, Avignon, and Nice on Road Scholar trip in France

On Christmas day instead of listening to classical music radio we play some of our own CDs and LPs.

CDs

Bach - Brandenburg Concertos 4, 5, and 6
Schubert — String Quartettes
Tallis — The Lamentations of Jeremiah
Britten —  A Ceremony of Carols and other pieces
Bare Necessities — Nightcap  (English Country Dance music)
Beethoven — string quartet: Rasumovsky
Voice of the Turtle: Full Circle  (music of the Spanish Jews of Jerusalem)
KGB: Contra-intelligence  (contra dance music)
Stravinsky — The Rite of Spring (orchestral and pianola version)

LPs

Mozart — Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra
Christmas in Anglia  (early English music)
Nonesuch and other Folk Tunes
Miles Davis: Four & More
The Quadrivium: Long Time Ago (medieval, renaissance, and early American)

I was member of Quadrivium as were all the musicians in Voice of the Turtle)

I have danced with Bare Necessities and KGB as the band

We need to be thankful for those who served - particularly in the two World Wars. The world would be quite different if it wasn't for our victories.

On Veterans Day I am always glad that I am not a veteran. I was able to get draft deferments while being an MIT and Columbia student and then when I got a job as a computer programmer in what was deemed as a "critical industry". The Vietnam war was raging at the time.

The closest I got to being a veteran was in Army ROTC in my freshman year at MIT (It was required for freshmen and sophomores at MIT because it was a "Land Grant school"). I got excused in my sophomore year because of eyesight. I'd heard that you could get excused if you had flat feet - so I went to the MIT infirmary at the beginning of my sophomore year and they said I don't have flat feet, but my eyesight would qualify.

In my ROTC uniform. In ROTC we learned a lot of military history and various practical things like how to polish brass buttons and how to march. I did get to fire an M1 rifle at the MIT rifle range.

<img src="http://www.gintell.org/pics/ArmyBoy.jpg" width=600>

The other night we watched a documentary about Freedom Summer or Mississippi Burning - the horrible events in 1964 in Mississippi dealing with rights and voter registration of black people. As part of that Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney - activists - were murdered.

Horrendous story and a slight personal connection for me. In 1958 I was a counsellor at Camp Tacoma Pines in Maine (no longer exists) and one of the campers in my cabin was Andy Goodman.

I am 3rd from the left in the bottom row and Andy was 4th from the left.

<img src="http://www.gintell.org/pics/TacomaPines1958.jpg" / width=700>

The picture above has the Rev. Ira Blalock on the left, Martin Luther King in the center, and the Rev. Gordon Gibson on the right. It was taken in the spring of 1965 after Blalock and Gibson had been released from the Selma jail for protesting.  

Just before this I was going to a UU church in Wellesley where Ira Blalock was the Minister. One of my roommates had been a member of the Appalachian Mountain Trail Crew, and another AMTC member was the organist at this church. A bunch of us went regularly, enjoyed the service run by Ira where he always talked about current events and situations, and then usually had a meal at our house afterwards. (This is my only experience of going to a religious institution on a regular basis). A year later I was marrying Meg Hickey, who I'd met as part of this weekly event, and we needed a minister. Ira had moved away and he recommended Gordon Gibson and it was he who married us.

Evening Dances:
  10 times at JP Contra
  18 times at JP English
  19 times at BIDA
  3 times at Harvard Square English

  3 day weekend at Dance Flurry in Saratoga Springs
 3 day weekend at Queer dance Camp in Aptos, CA
 3 day weekend at NEFFA in Marlboro
 3 day weekend at LCFD dance camp at Pinewoods

That was 62 days — lower than the past — mostly because the JP contra is sporadic — used to be twice a month

Sleeping:

Our unit at Brooksby Village in Peabody, MA
Our house in Gloucester
Saratoga Springs for Dance Flurry
San Juan Airport hotel;
Guana Island in the British Virgin Islands
San Francisco
Aptos for Queer Dance Camp
Pinewoods at Plymouth, MA for LCFD dance camp
Seattle and Astoria, OR for motss con.

Our usual tradition is to play records and CDs instead of listening to classical music on WCRB or WQXR because they play too much Christmas music.  Here is what we played (a broad spectrum of types):

Menotti: the Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore - Boston Cecilia  (Robert was in the group)
Dufay: Moments from the Masses: Motets, Chansons
Christmas in the New World - The Western Wind
Bob Dylan - 1961
Nonesuch and other tunes - Pete Seeger
Beethoven Piano Concert and Sonata 27
Sweet Mischief - Impropriety Vol V (English Country Dance)
In the Window - Ethan Hazzard-Watkins (Contra Dance)
Mozart - Piano Concerts 20 & 23 - Collegium Musicum
Beatles - Rubber Soul
Bartok - The Miraculous Mandarine
The Sword of the Dove -  Voice of the Turtle (friends - Quadrivium Colleagues -no longer exists)
Speaking in Toungues - Talking Heads
The Lost Spindle - Live Oak  (friends - Quadrivium Colleagues -no longer exists)
Schubert - Der Tod und der Madchen + ..
Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain

Last night I went to a Dalton School Alumni Reception in Boston. Dalton is a progressive private school in NYC that I went to for 1st through 8th grades. At that time the high school was girls only - it is now co-ed. It was and still is a great school. It has expanded - 3 new floors added to the main building. I also taught 7th and 8th grade science for one year while I was in grad school at Columbia.  

There about 30 former students there - all after my time.The new headmaster was the host and I had a pretty long conversation with him.

Here is a writeup I prepared a while ago.

Dalton School was (and still is) a progressive school. In 5th grade through 8th grade they followed “The Dalton Plan” with subject teachers: each teacher gave an assignment sheet for the month’s work. The assignment components were assigned “unit” values -usually 1 or 2 for each. You got a Unit Card and as you completed assignments you got the teacher to mark off the units. There were houses with a house advisor and a few people from each class were in each house. At the beginning of the year there was house selection where you could choose the teacher you wanted as your house leader and if accepted that was it. The school day started with a house meeting for a few minutes. After the House Meeting there were several hours of “Lab time” where you went for informal meetings with teachers and worked with other students on projects. At the end of the month you went to each teacher to sign off their section of the Unit Card. When you got all assignments you were considered “off the assignments” and you ran back to your house to post your card on the wall – hoping to be first, and certainly not last.

I remember many of the teachers. My math teacher was Kitty O’Connell – the other math teacher was Miss Newby – I stuck with Miss O’Connell for all four years. History was Mrs DalNegro for 5th grade: Greek, and 7th grade: South America; Ethel Mukerji: Indian and some Europe for 6th grade, and American for 8th grade. Her husband was Dhan Gopal Mukerji who In 1928, he won the American Library Association’s Newbery Medal for his children’s book Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon. The book’s protagonist is the eponymous Gay Neck, who, along with its companion Hira, serves as a messenger pigeon during World War I. Through the pigeon’s trials and adventures, Mukerji obliquely speaks to the ties between man and animal, the futility of war and its lasting impact.

For English it was Mary Alexander for 5th and 6th grade, and Hortense Tyroler for 7th and 8th. Interesting ly Miss Tyroler and my mother were classmates at Barnard College.

Science was Miss Laylor for 5th grade (and maybe 6th) and Hugo Robus for 7th and 8th grade. Science included lab work and the class room was suitably equipped. Many years later in my part-time job teaching 7th and 8th grade science it was in that very room.
Gwen Davies was the art teacher and she was quite dramatic in explaining how to use the whole piece for paper for the art work. Shop was Thornie (Harold Thorne) and Brownie.

Geography was John Seeger (Pete’s brother). I remember making paper mache maps of the places that we were studying. He encouraged doing research outside of school. I remember going to countries’ consulates to get information. John ran a summer camp – Camp Killooleet and I went there as a camper for 5 years in 1947-1951, and later for 3 years -1959-1961 -as a counsellor.

The Gym teacher was John McCook. The tenth floor gym was small so sometimes we went by school bus to a gym on 54th street (Dalton was on 89th street between Park and Lexington). In spring and fall often went to Randalls Island for football and baseball. He organized us into “heavies” and “lights” so the skills were better matched – I was a light. John McCook ran a summer camp: Tacoma Pines in Litchfield, Maine. I went there as from 1952-1958 starting as a camper and evolving into a counsellor.

In about 7th grade a new music teacher – chorus leader arrived: Harold Aks. I still remember singing

 It's me, it's me, O Lord,
 Standin' in the need of prayer;
 It's me, it's me, O Lord,
 Standin' in the need of prayer.

Have you ever?:

1. Made bread from scratch? Yes — these days with a bread  machine, but I'vedone it without many years ago.

2. Cooked fresh squash? Saute'd, or oven roasted — Scorn, zucchini, etc.

3. Made homemade soup? One in a while. lots of vegetables.

4. Fried chicken? Usually roast or grill chicken — thighs  most of the time.

5. Made spaghetti sauce from scratch? Frequently — canned tomatoes and tomato paste among other things. 

6. Made homemade rolls or cinnamon rolls? Don't really remember, probably did..

7. Baked a cake from scratch?  Yes — though  not  very recently. 

8. Made icing from scratch? Don't use icing.

9. Cooked a pot roast with all the veggies? Yes — brisket.

10. Made chili from scratch? Don't really like chili. — so no.

11. Made a meatloaf? Often make turkey meatloaf — but I've done beef too.

12. Made potato salad? Probably not.

12. Made potato salad? No.

14. Made any pies from scratch? I like to make fruit tarts.  Graham cracker and butter crust, peaches, or berries. with fruit sauce p[oured over before baking.  My standard for pot-lucks.

15. Made sausage from scratch? No.

16. Made fudge? Maybe a long time ago.

17. Made cookies from scratch? chocolate chip. Also graham crscker, condensed milk, chocolate chip, and nuts brownies.

18. Cooked a pot of dried beans?  I don't think so.