Duke’s Mom died Friday. Although she had cancer and we knew she didn’t have a lot of time left it was still a shock. She was a wonderful and very special woman. She made a difference in all of our lives. Duke and I flew to Iowa yesterday. The funeral is Friday. We think we will be back in Reno next week
Month: January 2008
The Real All Americans by Sally Jenkins
I recently read The Real All Americans by Sally Jenkins. The book tells the story of the beginnings of American football and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School during the late 1890’s and early 1900’s. There are multiple different themes in this book. The interweaving of these different themes makes The Real All Americans a fascinating and illuminating book.
The football history part of the story educated me on a subject about which I knew almost nothing. The name Pop Warner is a familiar one but I didn’t know about his life and what he contributed to the game of football. I also didn’t know that Pop Warner once coached at my alma matter, Iowa State University. I didn’t realize how brutal a sport football was in the early years. Did you know that "1904 was among the dirtiest and most violent college football seasons ever played. There were twenty-one fatalities and more than two hundred serious injuries across the nation." and "in the 1905 season there were another eighteen deaths and 149 serious injuries reported."
Understandably after these two years there was a big push to abolish football. Major rule changes were implemented. As a result of the rule changes the forward pass was developed. In 1907 the Carlisle Indian football team was the first team to "throw the ball deeply and regularly downfield".
The story of the Carlisle Indian School and of what was happening to American Indians as they were integrated into American society is also fascinating. I didn’t know that the government created boarding schools to educate Indian children. It is always disturbing for me to read about how we treated the Indians. The Real All Americans is especially interesting because it gives a balanced view of this period in American history and how through football the Indians were able to fight back. The Indian culture educated the white culture as much as vice versa. The story begins and ends with the 1912 game between the Army West Point football team and The Carlisle Indian School team coached by Pop Warner.
In addition to Pop Warner the familiar names who played football during this period include Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley. Theodore Roosevelt was big fan of the game. The Real All Americans is also the story of Lt Col. Richard Henry Pratt who founded the Carlisle Indian School.
The back dust cover flap of The Real All Americans sums up the book well. " The Real All Americans is about the end of a culture and the birth of a game that has thrilled Americans for generations. It is an inspiring reminder of the extraordinary things that can be achieved when we set aside our differences and embrace a common purpose."
Even if my teams didn’t win the play off games last weekend it seems appropriate to recommend The Real All Americans as the Superbowl approaches. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can highly recommend it.
My Dad’s House is For Sale in Escondido, California
If you know someone who is looking for a beautiful house in the San Diego area with a marvelous garden and a stupendous view then please tell them to look at my Dad’s house.
You can click here to look at the listing and the virtual tour.
As I have mentioned before my father is selling his house just north of San Diego and is moving to Reno. He is on the waiting list at the Classic Residences by Hyatt in Reno.
I’m a delegate! – The Nevada Republican Caucus – Reno
I’m a "just do it" kind of person. As I walked in to the Nevada Republican caucus today I had not even considered being a delegate but when they asked for volunteers I volunteered!
I am a registered Republican and today was the day for Nevada voters in each party to begin the process of choosing our candidates for the Presidential election next November. I have scrupulously avoided the subject of politics in this blog but today will be different. I enjoy new experiences and today was a new experience. I will talk more about the experience and what it was like to caucus than about the candidates and my political beliefs. Nevada has never held caucuses and I have never caucused before. So everything about today was new.
The Republican caucus was at 9am. My precinct was meeting at McQueen High School. When I arrived at 8:45 the parking lot was almost full. There was a long line of people waiting to go in.
After we had waited about 15 minutes someone came along and said we didn’t need to wait in line if we knew our precinct number and if our precinct number was above 5000 you should go to the cafeteria. I’m in precinct 5046 so off I went to the cafeteria.
The cafeteria was packed. There must have been at least 30 precincts meeting in the cafeteria. Each precinct had a piece of paper with the precinct number on it on a cafeteria table or being held up by someone.
It was total chaos. We were packed in, you couldn’t hear yourself think and it was getting hotter by the minute. As I stood near the precinct 5046 table I chatted a bit with a few of the people I know from Sierra Canyon. It sure seemed like the party didn’t expect as many people to turn out as did.
Finally a lady in red sweater stood up on a chair and started our precinct 5046 caucus. Of course the same thing was happening for every other precinct in the room and no one could hear anything. I heard someone say "this is ridiculous. I’m leaving". The lady on the chair shouted that she was the temporary chairperson and we needed to elect a permanent precinct chairperson. I didn’t catch the name of the man who volunteered. It might have been Jim so that’s what I’ll call him. It was too loud to hear much. The lady asked for a show of hands to elect him. Everyone around our table raised their hands.
Jim said that the next things we needed to do was to elect 15 delegates to the county Republican convention for our precinct and then elect alternate delegates. He also said that the delegates would not be committed to vote for who we voted for so they should be people whose politics we agreed with. They asked for volunteers and I decided what the heck I’d put my name in. The woman in the red sweater wrote all the names down on a little piece of paper.
Eventually Jim said they had 15 names and asked for a show of hands to elect the 15 delegates. We then did the same thing to elect the alternates. At this point I was pretty disgusted and appalled at what a disorganized chaotic process this was. I heard several people say that we should go back to primary elections. A lady near me said that contrary to what Jim had said earlier the delegates are committed to vote for the candidate that wins the precinct voting.
Someone suggested we should move outside and Jim announced that we were all going out into the courtyard.
Things got much better from this point on. I would estimate that there were 200 of us there from Precinct 5046. Jim stood on a bench and I could finally hear what he was saying. Each of the delegates and alternates who were elected inside had to fill out a formal county delegate form.
Jim then asked for a volunteer to speak for each candidate. As Jim called out each of the candidate’s name someone volunteered to speak for the candidate. But when he came to Huckabee not one of the 200 or so Republicans there offered to speak for him. It was amazing and interesting. There was someone for Duncan Hunter, someone for Ron Paul, someone for Fred Thompson but not one person for Huckabee.
Each person spoke for their candidate for about a minute. It was obvious that some candidates had better organizations than others and had given their speaker some preparation about what to say. The Romney speaker was compelling and convincing. His final words were "I believe in Mitt." Joanne, a friend from Sierra Canyon spoke passionately for Ron Paul who she called a modern day Thomas Jefferson.
The woman who spoke for Rudy Giuliani seemed to be doing it because no one else volunteered but she was articulate and did a good job. The Duncan Hunter speaker said that he met Duncan Hunter yesterday and he was impressed with him. I thought the best speaker was the gentleman for John McCain. He said he had been a U.S. citizen for 5 years and that he was born and raised in Lebanon. He said that he doesn’t agree with all that McCain stands for but he has studied all the candidates and he is convinced that McCain is the best. He made several good points but the bottom line was that he believes McCain is the only one who can beat Clinton or Obama and that McCain will make the best Commander and Chief.
Jim asked again if anyone wanted to speak for Huckabee. No one volunteered so they handed out yellow paper ballots and asked us to vote for a candidate, fold the papers in half and hand them in. They had to get more ballots because there weren’t enough for our large group. I voted and left.
I have always loved voting. It makes me feel like I am a part of our democracy, like I am making a difference. But this experience was so much better. It made me feel more a part of the political process than I ever have before. It was so much fun. I loved it. I don’t even know when the county convention is or how it works but I will learn and I am very excited about being a part of the process.
If you would like to see all my pictures from the Caucus you can see them on Flickr here.
My travels
My daughter and a friend were talking over the weekend. The friend asked my daughter if I was still snowed in with Aidan in Reno. The answer is no. I should have posted a quick update last week. It makes me smile when some one mentions reading my blog so I need to keep it current.
I have been busy since my last posting. I’ve driven 1300 miles, handed Aidan off to his parents, had dinner with a good friend and helped my Dad move to Reno. On Monday the 7th I watched the Caltrans road conditions web site until they lifted the chain restrictions on Interstate 80. Then Aidan and I loaded up and headed for the Bay Area. The roads were clear and dry but Wow! was there a lot of snow. I would estimate that there was about 10 feet of snow on either side of the road as I went over Donner Pass. When I got to the Bay Area I handed Aidan off to his parents, had dinner with a friend spent the night at another friend’s house and then early Tuesday morning I drove to my Dad’s house in Escondido.
One of my sisters joined me there for the weekend. We got Dad’s house ready to sell and loaded up the truck to move him to Reno. As Dad and I left Escondido early Tuesday morning we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies. Although I guess if we really wanted to look like the Clampetts Dad should have ridden on the recliner in the back. He didn’t. He rode with me in front. It was a beautiful sunny day. The roads were clear although there was a lot of snow between Bishop and Reno.
Now that I’m home and unpacked I’m catching up. Most of the snow from last week here in Reno has melted and although it is cold the sun is shining. It is good to be home.
Marion's Blog 
