Wistful

I sure wish someone would go over to old books and read something. It's enormously tiresome to re-type them. I can't be the only person interested, can I? Not in the whole wide Internet?

Here's what's currently there:

We Thought We Heard the Angels Sing, a first hand account of being adrift in the Pacific Ocean for 21 days. Of interest to WWII buffs, Eddie Rickenbacker buffs, sailors, survivalists, Christians and anyone who loves a good adventure.

". . . 14 hours SSW Oahu. May have overshot island. Hour's fuel."



"As the coppery sun shot into the sky on our sixth day adrift we all began to realize the gravity of our situation. It had been almost 120 hours since our Flying Fortress had disappeared beneath the waves.

During that time each of us had had three minnows, one morsel of raw fish, and a fragment of sea swallow in the way of solid food. We also had moistened our mouths with three segments of orange. If you ever have to try it you find there is mighty little nourishment in such a diet. We had drunk no water since we left the plane."


The Gallogly Family/The West Family, actually a letter or series of letters containing genealogical information on (you guessed it) the Galloglys and the Wests of Ohio, from arrival in the New World in the early 1800s to the 1920s. Of interest to genealogists and anyone who's curious about ordinary lives in 19th century Ohio.

"When Dorothy West and her sister Mary McAfee with their children came to America, they were twelve weeks at sea. Little Mary Ann West died on shipboard and was buried at sea, having contracted measles after sailing."

When's the last time you heard of someone dying from the measles? Yet at one time it was very, very common.

"Mother walked at one time to spend the afternoon with a friend. On the way an ugly looking bull separated himself from the band and challenged her right to pass. Mother was carrying an umbrella. She opened it quickly and, putting it before her, charged the bull. With a bellow he turned and fled."


I'm currently working on Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, prohibition propaganda. I'm not sure when it was first published; my copy has a sticker in it indicating that it was book number 698 of the Library Association of the M. E. Church organized March 7, 1874. Can't tell whether 1874 has anything to do with the publish or purchase date, or if it's merely the date that the church was established. Ten Nights was entered into the Library of Congress in 1860. I've finished chapter 3 and have 7 more to go. blech.

But it's terrific propaganda. We are fortunate that Michael Moore is not so talented as the Ten Nights author, Mr. T. S. Arthur.