Gone to the Beach!

I'm taking some days off to go to the beach; first time in 4 years! Not sure I’ll actually be able to walk around on the sand; as a matter of fact, I can’t. But, just seeing it again after so long a time will probably be kind of emotional.

I grew up less than a mile from Brighton Beach; a mile from Coney Island; both in Brooklyn. And  just a half hour to the east by bicycle put me in Riis Park, Queens. The next stop east from those places would be Spain. I never did swim it. As Burt Lancaster said in the film “Atlantic City”, “The Atlantic Ocean? You should have seen it in the old days. Yeh, the ocean was really something back then.”

It’s like that in memory; we enlarge things. And sometimes we get disappointed when confronted with the reality of what something has become. Burt Lancaster was right in certain respects. Back in the old days the ocean was a huge barrier. No transatlantic flights; telephone service was expensive and difficult; and ocean travel was infinitely slower than today. So the ocean is smaller than it used to be in that respect.

But it still holds all of its majesty. It still has that fury when the wind kicks it up, or when the tide pulls upon it to excess. Ships still go down to the bottom; taking their crews with them; somethings never change. I've lived near it; worked upon it; swam in it; and fished in it my whole life; but it has never ceased to astound me. It’s still both bigger and stronger than I am. They say it's where life began.

Well, enough for now, I'll see you when I get back! Enjoy my vacation…

April - History's Busiest Month

April is one of the most active times of the year historically. There is reason for this. In the past, before airplanes and other modern conveniences became available, April marked the end of winter and the roads became passable. New conflicts arose and old ones resumed. Just look at our own American history; which is fairly recent in the grand scheme of things; and you will see the pattern.

The Revolutionary War began in April, with the landing of the Kings troops in Boston and the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Our Civil War may have technically begun in January, but it wasn’t prosecuted in full until the Battle of Bull Run in the spring. The war also ended in April, just in time for General Lee’s troops to return home and try to coax a harvest out of their war ravaged land.

The picture above is “April”, or “Avril” from “Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry”, which is translated as The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry.” I ran across this beautiful collection of French Gothic Art while looking up some information for this post. The complete work consists of 12 panels, each one representing a month of the year. This panel shows a couple exchanging rings.

Now, I could continue on with what would be a very boring piece about the importance of the weather in history; which is what makes April so significant in regards to the amount of historical events contained in any single month. Or, I can tell you about these new paintings I just “discovered.” I’ll take the latter option.

Apparently, at the dawn of the 15^th Century; about 1400 A.D.; there was a Frenchman who had some money and wanted to chronicle the months of the year in paintings which also represented his lifestyle. To that end he commissioned the Limbourg Brothers to create a 12 panel set. The work was begun in 1412 but by 1416 the two brothers; as well as the Duke of Berry; were all dead. The paintings then passed on to his relatives, where it languished for several decades.

In 1845 an heir of the Dukes decided to have the work completed. He chose Jean Colombe to finish the set. Though his paintings are in many ways distinguishable from the original ones completed by the Limbourg Brothers, the spirit of the project remains wholly intact. Upon first viewing it would appear that these paintings were the result of one unbroken effort on the part of the Limbourgs, rather than a project which was completed years later by another artist.

You can see all of the paintings; as well as read about them here;

http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Tres-Riches-Heures-du-Duc-de-Berry.pdf

This is one of the best things about blogging. I am always learning things. When I look up one thing I bump into another. It’s endless; underscoring just how much there is to learn in the short time which we are given to learn anything at all. Now, that’s a sobering thought…

As far as my post about April; there was one part in which I was going to explain how the name represents an “opening”, or “blooming” of a new season. Also, in many Asian countries April 15 is celebrated as the New Year, which coincides with the spring planting. There were lots of other boring things I was going to relate; like the Titanic going down, etc.  But they all paled in comparison to these wonderful paintings which I had never seen before.

"The Big Roads" by Earl Swift

When I was in the Navy one of the things I missed most about being home in America was driving around in cars. Especially freeways. At the time I didn't have a drivers license, but there were always cars available. You could rent one through a friend, or just ride around as a passenger, eating junk food and enjoying the scenery as it flew past.

Over time I became interested in the old signs I saw on the side of the road. They said "Eisehower Interstate Highway", or something like that. The conventional theory is that General Eisenhower, during World War Two, was so impressed with the German highways that he saw great value in building such a system here in America. From a military standpoint this makes sense. Historically it is only part of the story which Mr. Swift lays out in this sprawling history of the Interstates which we take for granted.

The desire for good roads in America goes back to the earliest days of the first settlers. Footpaths and trails were the common means of travel for the Native Americans, but the settlers built carts and needed a way to transport their goods from settlement to settlement. These muddy trails were usable for about half of the year. The winters were the worst times, often leaving the settlers stranded in their own villages until the spring thaw, and even then they still had to contend with the mud.

Nothing much had changed by the late 1800's. There were a few National Roads, most notably the Baltimore National Pike, which was really the beginning of modern day Route 40, but the country was still a hodgepodge of muddy, uneven roads by the late 19th century. And then along came the bicycle.

After the Civil War large tricycles made their appearance. They were clumsy and somewhat dangerous, being about 6 foot off the ground. Then came the two wheelers, with the same large front wheel, and a miniscule rear one. Even getting up on one of these machines was an accomplishment, riding one on cobblestone streets was truly an ordeal. Clearly, smooth and even roadways were called for. This is when our desire for modern roads first sprang up.

The author expertly traces the roots of our modern highway system to Carl Fisher, a bicycle maker in Indiana. Beginning as a sixth grade dropout, he entered into the bicycle business, popularizing the new, sportier models that we have come to know as today's bicycles. With this venture came the need for new roads.

After the First World War, with the automobile becoming a more modern means of transportation, people like A.V.Williams in Maryland, began buying up all the World War One tanks and mounting plow blades on them. Heavy equipment was born.

In the years between the two wars many ideas were floated for a national roadway, but not much progress was made. Thomas MacDonald was one of the earliest pioneers in this effort. He envisioned a system of roads not too far removed from what we have today.

All of these efforts were not unopposed. The newer and bigger roads would mean the death of many smaller towns, along with the Mom and Pop businesses which dotted the countryside. Lewis Mumford was one of these opponents. His arguments against the roads were both social and economic. And, largely, his predictions have come to pass.

One of the best examples of the struggle for modern roads and how they should be built, or not, concerns the section of Route 70 which runs to downtown Baltimore and then comes to an abrupt end. Thousands of people were forced from their homes for a section of this road which was never built. The city and state became the owners of the properties, which they held for 20 years without building the road. When they tried to sell these properties years later, the values had gone up, and the original, displaced, owners filed suit for the return of those properties. They won.

This is a very thoroughly researched book on the history of Americ'a Interstate highway system. It will change the way in which you perceive the history of these roads as you drive them.