Sunshine filled my soul and the day. It's marvelous to sit in my sewing shop and design and sew dresses. I actually wore a sweater as I went about my work yesterday. It's June but the weather in our small town never gets very hot.
Lucille Bond came in today with her three girls, Willy, Bertie, and Alexa. Lucille once told me that she had thought all three of them were going to be sons. She only had boy names chosen for them. The oldest would be Willard Jr., then Robert, and Alexander. When they were born she shifted their male name to a female, Wilhelmina Elizabeth, Roberta Rae, and Alexandra Alice. Personally, I think that she handled the situation in a very clever fashion.
Lucille told me about an organization in Astoria that she's involved with. It's called The International Order of Good Templars. It began in 1851 as an organization for temperance. I remember the Dragon Lady, Madame LeRouge hated the entire idea. Her customers liked a combination of drinking, and women. Some of those men had been at sea for long periods of time. This gave them a huge appetite for these activities. I have never understood why a man who is completely drunk thought that made them better lovers. Instead it made them clumsy and fumbling.
This is an organization that I will never join. I stay as far away from that part of Astoria as I can. I have no desire to remember my experiences in that town. I'm happy to report that it does seem to be improving. It still has a long way to go.
Astoria has been so wicked that men will walk up behind somebody in the daylight and knock them out. They awaken only to find that they are miles out to sea. Their poor family will not know what happened to them. Sometimes it takes them as long as six years to return. Sometimes they never return. It's a horrifying thing to treat human beings as mere beasts of burden.
Lucille prides herself on being a model citizen. Unfortunately, in her mind, that means that she has the right to judge everyone else. Her feelings of insecurity drive her to judgement of others. She lost her entire family coming to Calkington, and married at a very young age. She had very little opportunity for education. She taught herself to speak English in a more educated manner. I will admit that I admire her discipline, and her many talents. I know full well that she could be sewing beautiful clothes on her own. Somehow it makes her feel better about herself to have someone else perform that assignment. I'm grateful for her business. I just wish that she didn't treat me so poorly.
I'm weary. I hear sleep calling me. Bonne nuit.
Monday, August 5, 2019
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Ardis Journal
One of the few things that excited me about moving to Oregon is that it is almost brand new. There is no history of slavery, or other types of bigotry. Well, even as I write that I am aware that there will always be prejudice in this world. Most of the time those opinions are passed down to us from our parents.
My parents were two of the most loving people that I have ever met. They didn't care what color your skin was, if you needed help, they would help you. I was very frightened because they harbored escaped slaves on many occasions. It frightened me so much that they quit telling me when they were giving assistance. Da built two secret spaces in the barn, and two in the house. The highest number of slaves that they had at one time was a family of ten. There was the ma and da and their eight children. Their owner (I shudder to call anyone the owner of another human being), was going to sell them all to different places. I was very proud of my parents for keeping that family together.
Now our country is divided, and part of the country is fighting the other part. The main reason? Slavery. Many rich folks in the south would not stay rich if they had to do all their own labor. Some plantations have hundreds of slaves. I will never understand how anyone can go to another country and kidnap men, women, and children. Then they chain them in horrific conditions in boats and take them thousands of miles away from everyone and everything that they know! They beat them, starve them, and let them lie in their own waste. Some of these evil men wouldn't treat their own dogs so poorly.
So very ugly. I'm writing it in my journal because if I ever have any children I want them to understand from this parent, slavery is NEVER acceptable. It will NEVER be acceptable to force another human being to do things against their will. It is NEVER acceptable to split up families. It is NEVER acceptable for men to rape women, and then actually keep their own flesh and blood, half white but half African as slaves.
I know about these atrocities because of the many people that my parents sheltered over the years. The family that I spoke about before were not just running away because they were going to be sold. They also ran away because the landowner had caught their fourteen year old daughter and raped her. She was pregnant. I can't imagine giving birth to a child that was the result of such an act of violence. If they believe that these human beings are NOT human, or LESS than human, what does it make them when they force them to have intercourse with them?
Well my writing about this is making me sick at my stomach. I'm going to think of something lovely for a moment. I'm writing this in the back of the ranch house. There is a fairly level field. Blake and Red cleared out most of the trees and brush. They left some lovely maples, aspen, and oak around the perimeters. There is a small creek that is on one portion of the ranch. It freezes in the winter. Blake and Red went skating on it the winter before I arrived. I hope that I can skate on it. I adored skating on our pond when I was a kid.
Blake chose the loveliest land in this entire area to build his ranch. I'm very grateful to Blake. Without Blake I would have died with my entire family in that awful river. Sometimes when I miss them all so very much I kind of wish that I HAD died with them. Then I remember that life is very precious. I do my family a disservice by being unappreciative of my life.
The sun is warm, and I'm feeling sleepy. I'm going to take a little nap here in the soft grass.
My parents were two of the most loving people that I have ever met. They didn't care what color your skin was, if you needed help, they would help you. I was very frightened because they harbored escaped slaves on many occasions. It frightened me so much that they quit telling me when they were giving assistance. Da built two secret spaces in the barn, and two in the house. The highest number of slaves that they had at one time was a family of ten. There was the ma and da and their eight children. Their owner (I shudder to call anyone the owner of another human being), was going to sell them all to different places. I was very proud of my parents for keeping that family together.
Now our country is divided, and part of the country is fighting the other part. The main reason? Slavery. Many rich folks in the south would not stay rich if they had to do all their own labor. Some plantations have hundreds of slaves. I will never understand how anyone can go to another country and kidnap men, women, and children. Then they chain them in horrific conditions in boats and take them thousands of miles away from everyone and everything that they know! They beat them, starve them, and let them lie in their own waste. Some of these evil men wouldn't treat their own dogs so poorly.
So very ugly. I'm writing it in my journal because if I ever have any children I want them to understand from this parent, slavery is NEVER acceptable. It will NEVER be acceptable to force another human being to do things against their will. It is NEVER acceptable to split up families. It is NEVER acceptable for men to rape women, and then actually keep their own flesh and blood, half white but half African as slaves.
I know about these atrocities because of the many people that my parents sheltered over the years. The family that I spoke about before were not just running away because they were going to be sold. They also ran away because the landowner had caught their fourteen year old daughter and raped her. She was pregnant. I can't imagine giving birth to a child that was the result of such an act of violence. If they believe that these human beings are NOT human, or LESS than human, what does it make them when they force them to have intercourse with them?
Well my writing about this is making me sick at my stomach. I'm going to think of something lovely for a moment. I'm writing this in the back of the ranch house. There is a fairly level field. Blake and Red cleared out most of the trees and brush. They left some lovely maples, aspen, and oak around the perimeters. There is a small creek that is on one portion of the ranch. It freezes in the winter. Blake and Red went skating on it the winter before I arrived. I hope that I can skate on it. I adored skating on our pond when I was a kid.
Blake chose the loveliest land in this entire area to build his ranch. I'm very grateful to Blake. Without Blake I would have died with my entire family in that awful river. Sometimes when I miss them all so very much I kind of wish that I HAD died with them. Then I remember that life is very precious. I do my family a disservice by being unappreciative of my life.
The sun is warm, and I'm feeling sleepy. I'm going to take a little nap here in the soft grass.
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