Caryn
With the invention of the aeroplane, came the inevitable problem of what to do in the event of a failure of said aeroplane. In those days, there was no way for aviators to safely abandon their plane, and that could be a serious problem. Franz Reichelt was an Austrian-Hungarian tailor who wanted to find a solution. So, the inventor in him began to design a suit that could work as what we now know to be a parachute.
Franz Reichelt was born was born on October 16, 1878, in Wegstädtl, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (today it is Štetí, Czech Republic). He moved to Paris, France, in 1898, and obtained French nationality in 1909. At that point, he adopted the first name François, which was the French equivalent of the Germanic “Franz.”
Reichelt began to develop a “parachute-suit” from July 1910. The suit was not much bulkier than one normally worn by an aviator, but it had a few key additions, like a few rods, a silk canopy, and a small amount of rubber that allowed it to fold out to become what Reichelt hoped would be a practical and efficient parachute. Now, all that remained was to test, prove, and introduce his invention.
There had been other parachute successes, such as those of Louis-Sébastien Lenormand and Jean-Pierre Blanchard, but they were a fixed canopy and were only suitable at low altitudes. Jumping from an aeroplane would be impossible with an open-canopy parachute, and André-Jacques Garnerin had invented a frameless parachute suitable for use from high altitudes, but by 1910 there was still no parachute suitable for use in jumping from a plane or at low altitude. Reichelt became interested in parachute design after hearing some of the stories of fatal accidents among the early aeronauts and aviators. As Reichelt began his testing, the early tests were successful as he dropped dummies equipped with foldable silk “wings” that allowed them to touch down lightly when dropped from five floors. It was promising, but the process of converting the prototypes into a wearable “suit” proved difficult.
Originally, the conversion used 65 square feet of material and weighed around 150 pounds. That was not really feasible or practical. Nevertheless, he presented his design to the leading aeronautic organization, La Ligue Aérienne at the Aéro-Club de France, hoping that they would test it. They rejected his designs on the grounds that the construction of the canopy was too weak and tried to discourage him from spending further time on 
development. Not willing to give up, Reichelt persevered and conducted experimental drops with dummies from the courtyard of his building at rue Gaillon. None of his tests proved successful, but Reichelt would not quit. He designed a suit he thought would work and since he couldn’t get anyone to test it, he decided to test it himself, thinking that it just needed a little more altitude to open. Reichelt donned the suit, climbed to the first platform of the Eiffel Tower and jumped. Sadly, the parachute again failed to open, and he fell 187 feet to his death. The test was filmed and recorded what amounted to Reichelt’s unplanned suicide. He must have been absolutely stunned when he realized what was coming.
Today, a flight going over the North Pole would not necessarily be an inconceivable event, but for the same thing to happen in 1926, might be a very unusual event. Nevertheless, not impossible, and according to their claims, polar explorer Richard E Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett flew over the North Pole on May 9, 1926, in the Josephine Ford, a triple-engine Fokker monoplane. I suppose the reason that the statement was made “according to their claims” was because the only documentation available in that era would have been their own word. So, assuming the claim is true, this would have been the first time an aircraft flew over the top of the world. It would be literally going where no man has ever gone before.
Byrd and Bennett took off from Spitsbergen, Norway, and reportedly covered the 1,545-mile trip to the pole and back in 15 hours and 30 minutes. The main reason for the questions concerning the validity of the trip lies in the discovery of Byrd’s diary in 1996. While it didn’t clearly state that the two men didn’t make it to the North Pole, the diary seems to suggest that he and Bennett may have turned back 150 miles short of the pole because of an oil leak. While that was not confirmed, if it is true, then Italian adventurer Umberto Nobile, American Lincoln Ellsworth, and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (who was in 1911 the first person to reach the South Pole by land) would receive the credit for their airship flight over the North Pole on May 12, 1926, three days after Byrd and Bennett’s flight.
While his place as the first to fly over the North Pole is somewhat in question, Byrd’s place in polar exploration is firmly set. He established a US base in Antartica in 1929, and late in the same year, accompanied by aviator Bernt Balchen, he made the undisputed first aircraft flight over the South Pole. Some experts felt that Byrd could not have flown the distance to the North Pole and back in 16 hours. They also questioned his recording of a strong tailwind that had aided Josephine Ford back to Spitsbergen. Byrd’s logbook, records and calculations were hurried to a select panel of scientists at the National Geographic Society. After checking and rechecking 
the data, the committee confirmed that Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett had indeed been the first men to fly over the North Pole. Unfortunately, the men didn’t know they had been vindicated. Floyd Bennett had died of pneumonia in 1928, and Byrd died in his sleep of a heart ailment at the age of 68 on March 11, 1957, at his home at 7 Brimmer Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood in Boston.
Before men became president of the United States, they led normal lives, and especially normal childhoods. No one is born a president. Even Princes, while born a prince, do not resemble a prince at birth and even through childhood. Those things are trained. The same would apply to Zachary Taylor, future President of the United States. Taylor grew up in a world that was very different than ours today. Parts of the United States didn’t even belong to the United States yet. The United States and Mexico had a year-long conflict that erupted in a full-blown war on May 13, 1846, but even before the United States formally declared war on Mexico, General Zachary Taylor defeated a superior Mexican force in the Battle of Palo Alto north of the Rio Grande River. That battle took place on May 8, 1846
The conflict really started when the United States annexed the Republic of Texas as a new US state. The drift toward war with Mexico had begun a year earlier when the U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas as a new state. Ten years before, the Mexicans had fought an unsuccessful war with Texans to keep them from breaking away to become an independent nation. Since then, they had refused to recognize the independence of Texas or the Rio Grande River as an international boundary. The United States did not make any attempt to annex Texas until 1844, but it appeared that Texas was growing more interested in the possibility of becoming part of the United States. Texas was formally admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state. In January 1846, fearing the Mexicans would respond to US annexation by asserting control over disputed territory in southwestern Texas, President James K Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to move a force into Texas to defend the Rio Grande border.
Hoping to avoid the battle, Polk had tried to settle the matter diplomatically, but when that failed, Taylor was ordered to take his forces up to the disputed borderline at the Rio Grande. The Mexican General Mariano Arista 
viewed this as a hostile invasion of Mexican territory, and on April 25, 1846, he took his soldiers across the river and attacked. Congress declared war on May 13 and authorized a draft to build up the US Army. The problem Taylor faced, however, that with the skirmishes he was already involved in, he was in no position to await formal declaration of a war that he was already fighting. For him, the war had already started, when the Mexican army attacked him. In the weeks following the initial skirmish along the Rio Grande, Taylor engaged the Mexican army in two battles. On May 8th, near Palo Alto, and on May 9th at Resaca de la Palma, Taylor led his 200 soldiers to victories against much larger Mexican forces. Poor training and inferior armaments undermined the Mexican army’s troop size advantage. One problem the Mexican army faced was that Mexican gunpowder was of such poor quality that artillery barrages often sent cannonballs bouncing lazily across the battlefield, and the American soldiers merely had to step out of the way to avoid them. It was like fighting a battle with spitballs.
After triumphs at Palo Alto and Resaca de Palma, Taylor crossed the Rio Grande, carrying the conflict into Mexican territory. Over the subsequent ten months he achieved victory in four battles and secured control over three northeastern Mexican states. In the following year, the war’s front shifted to other regions, reducing Taylor’s role in it. Other generals in the campaign moved into mor prominent roles, which ultimately concluded with General Winfield Scott’s capture of Mexico City September 1847. While Zachary Taylor’s part in the end of the war was smaller, he emerged from the war a national hero, often referred to as “Old Rough and Ready” and the people assumed that his military victories meant that he would be a good political leader. Of course, dominance in one area of life does not mean proficiency in another. Nevertheless, he was elected president in 
1848. He proved to be an unskilled politician who tended to see complex problems in overly simplistic ways, which doesn’t bode well for a nation’s president. In July 1850, Taylor returned from a public ceremony and complained that he felt ill. Suffering from a recurring attack of cholera, he died several days later. Taylor was president from March 4, 1849 to July 9, 1850. He was succeeded by Vice President, Millard Fillmore, in office from July 9, 1850 to March 4, 1853, with no Vice President.
In 1898, there were no automobiles in Wyoming yet. Then, a 26-year-old man named Elmer Lovejoy, an influential mechanic in Laramie set out to change all that. Lovejoy had been quietly working on his “horseless carriage” and on May 7, 1898, he introduced the first automobile built west of the Mississippi River. Lovejoy took his new “toy” for a leisurely drive through downtown Laramie, going an “unimaginable” 8 miles an hour.
Lovejoy was a mechanical genius. The automobile he designed and built was a steam-propelled carriage that carried four people comfortably. Lovejoy designed balloon tires for his automobile and had them specially made in Chicago. Commercial balloon tires were not routinely used on automobiles until almost thirty years later. While Lovejoy’s car was not the first ever invented, he was the first to realize that cars would need pneumatic tires, not just solid rubber tires.
Elmer Lovejoy was born in Illinois on Feb. 2, 1872. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1883, and the family 
moved to Laramie in search of a drier climate, which was commonly prescribed for tuberculosis victims. He graduated from Laramie High School and went off to college at University of Wyoming. He knew early on that books weren’t really for him, so he dropped out of college after just three short months. He then became an apprentice at the Cook & Callahan planning mill. While he wasn’t good at “book learning,” he picked up things very fast at the mill. Very soon, he was assigned to major construction projects like the Edward and Jane Ivinson mansion, which is now the Laramie Plains Museum. He was also assigned the Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Cathedral project.
Lovejoy became an excellent businessman. It was well known that Elmer Lovejoy could fix anything. That is typical of a great mechanic. A little tinkering, and before you know it, the problem is solved. Lovejoy lived and worked in Laramie until 1953. Lovejoy, who was considered Laramie’s grand old man of mechanics put away his tool chest and, with his wife, Gertrude, whom he had married on August 3, 1930, in Maine. He left Laramie in 
1953, for the warmer climate of Santa Ana, California, in which to spend his golden years. While he was retired, he never really stopped tinkering. Lovejoy died in California in 1960. He was loved by many and even had a popular downtown hangout down the street from his shop. Elmer Lovejoy’s Bar and Grill was named in his honor.
The Great Depression, and the ensuing jobs loss found 10 million men without a job by May of 1935. I think anyone who has studied the Great Depression much, probably has their own opinion of what cause the problems that led up to the stock market crash and the Great Depression that followed. I think everyone also has their own opinion on what things helped improve things, and what things prolonged the situation. Whatever the case may be, President Franklin D Roosevelt decided that some changes had to be made, and some helps had to be put in place. One such change occurred on May 6, 1935, when Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was just one of many Great Depression relief programs that Roosevelt created under the umbrella of the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, which he had signed the month before. The WPA, the Public Works Administration (PWA), and other federal assistance programs were designed to be a way of putting unemployed Americans to work in exchange for temporary financial assistance. Out of the 10 million jobless men in the United States in 1935, 3 million were helped by WPA jobs alone.
While the programs actually put the United States further in debt, I guess we did make a trade for that assistance. Roosevelt believed in the elementary principles of justice and fairness, but he also expressed a great dislike for handing out welfare to otherwise able workers. That said, the WPA program and the others he set up, found the workers building highways, schools, hospitals, airports and playgrounds. They also restored theaters, like the Dock Street Theater in Charleston, South Carolina and built the ski lodge at Oregon’s Mount Hood. In that way, the payments given to them were not free. I do agree with a fair day’s wage for a job done. Still, it would just be best if the government wasn’t paying for it.
The WPA also employed actors, writers, and other creative arts professionals by funding federally sponsored plays, art projects such as murals on public buildings, and literary publications. Roosevelt protected private enterprise from competing with WPA projects by incorporating a provision in the act that imposed wage and price controls on federally funded products and services. Again, while these people actually did a job for their wages, the thing to note is that these were “federally funded” which meant that the government was going further and further into debt. It seems to me that there must have been a better way to get people back to work, but these programs were what was done in the depression prolonging “New Deal” that Roosevelt set up.
In the years leading up to World War II and the huge defense-industry production that came with the war, the economy came roaring back in 1940. This allowed the opponents of the “New Deal” in Congress to gradually pare back WPA appropriations. In 1943, Congress suspended many of the programs under the ERA Act, including the WPA, because people were back to work doing more of the necessary jobs again.
For years, police and bars have tried to figure out the best way to deal with drunken patrons, but I don’t think anyone has ever come up with as good a plan as the bars in Turkey in the 1960s. Of course, the police have little recourse in the case of drunk drivers. They simply have to stop, test, and arrest when the test shows that the driver is over the limit. That is, of course, the worst-case scenario. For a long time, the police and the bars have been trying to cut back on DUIs, and so they have come up with ways to get the drunk patron home safely and without arrest. That leaves the arrests for the most harden drunks, or the stupid ones, who won’t take the offered help. They kind of shoot themselves in the foot, so to speak. Free rides in Taxis, designated drivers, and uber rides are all ways to avoid the dreaded DUI. I’m not sure if these methods have reduced the number of DUTs or not, but they are valiant efforts.
In Turkey, in the 1960s, things were handled a little bit differently. When someone was at the bar, and they had a little too much to drink, the bar owners came up with a very unique plan. They hired men to literally pick up the drunken person and place them in a big basket. Then, the drunk was transported home in said basket. Imagine if you were walking the streets of Turkey, when you didn’t know about this practice. You might be shocked seeing such a scene. Nevertheless, these men, called küfeci, were just doing their job. The bars hire hunched men, who were obviously strong, load up a belligerent drunk, stick them in a basket they carried on their back, and take him to his house. Many of these men were in a…less than happy mood, to say the least.
As for the küfeci, their job was relatively simple. Bars would hire these men, who were often porters during the day, to carry home drunk customers at night. Their name comes from the Turkish word küfe, which means being too drunk to walk. I can’t exactly imagine trying to carry a man on my back…drunk or not, but I would assume that the belligerent drunk would be much more difficult to carry than the sober man, but then you would have no need to carry the sober man either. I’m sure the küfeci had to be strong men, if they were going to be able to do their job. Still, it wouldn’t be that easy, either way, but it would be interesting…very interesting. Don’t you think?
The mouth of the Columbia River is located about 10 miles west of Astoria, Oregon. It is where the Columbia River meets the ocean, forming a wide estuary that stretches for several miles along the coast. The river’s mouth is one of the most hazardous stretches of water to navigate in the world due to the shifting sandbar that makes up the Columbia Bar. The mouth of the Columbia is unusual for a big river because it has no delta. The Columbia River does not have a delta because it changes direction near Portland, Oregon, and heads north instead of westward toward the Pacific Ocean. Additionally, powerful waves and currents in the ocean prevent the sediment from forming a delta. This also makes that area quite treacherous for ships going in and out.
Since 1800 the coastal stretch from Tillamook Bay into Vancouver Island, which includes the mouth of the Columbia River and the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, has claimed over 2,000 vessels and possibly as 
many as 1,000 lives. The interplay of river flow and offshore currents produced a constantly shifting sandbar at the mouth of the Columbia River, posing a significant navigational hazard. In addition, fog and violent North Pacific weather systems, as well as sheer misfortune often led to ships foundering, burning, or being wrecked against the shore. During the California Gold Rush, when sailing ships and steamers transported lumber to California, mariners began referring to the area as the Graveyard of the Pacific. Light houses, lightships, buoys, as well as audible and electronic beacons assisted mariners in locating the Columbia’s entrance, while navigational improvements such as jetties and a dredged channel reduced major disasters after the 1920s. Unfortunately, the sea continues to claim lives annually.
The mouth of the Columbia and the near-shore areas to the north and south are littered with shipwrecks. That area alone has more than 330 known shipwrecks. Some, like the Peter Iredale, which ran aground on the 
Oregon shore south of the river in 1906, are visible to this day. The skeleton of the Peter Iredale still stands like a decrepit old house, except that this one doesn’t seem to be crumbling. It has, of course, but for a shipwreck that is almost 120 years old, it has really deteriorated quite slowly. I suppose that is a tribute to how well ships are built. Nevertheless, even an expertly built ship is not always a match for the Columbia Bar.
My son-in-law, Travis Royce has loved the Pacific Northwest since he lived there as a young boy, and I can certainly understand why. The area is lush and beautiful and being near the coast and the proximity to the water is cool too. Of course, I think it is my daughter, Amy Royce that chose the area for their move, because she fell in love with it on a graduation trip to visit her Aunt Caryl Reed when she lived there. While Travis doesn’t love gardening, he does love yard work, especially mowing with his riding mower, and he “tolerates” Amy’s love of gardening and flowers, as long as he doesn’t have to do the garden maintenance, hahaha!! Travis does love his beautiful backyard, however, complete with its beautiful flowerbeds. He also loves creating, or helping to create, a peaceful place, and did so with their covered patio, fire pit area, and ponds to create the ambience necessary to make their backyard their happy place, and the happy place of many friends. Many nights their backyard will be filled with friends, a glowing fire burning, and Travis, their son Caalab, and often friends, playing their instruments to entertain the group watching.
Travis has a very cool job, in that he works for the tourism industry in the area. One of his duties is to restock 
all the tourism flyers around the area. The coolest part of that is filling the flyers on the ferry boats. In order to do that he has to ride the ferry boats. Now, I don’t know about you, but I love riding the ferry boats, and getting paid to do so, would be very cool. Sometimes, when Travis has to work on the weekend, Amy goes along, and they make a day of it. The actual work part of those trips isn’t terribly long, and then, they just get to enjoy the ride. I suppose those trips could become mundane, but somehow, I can’t see that happening to Travis. I think he has a bit of a wanderlust spirit, and while he wouldn’t necessarily like to travel constantly, he does enjoy a good outing. Still mostly, Travis likes to spend the evenings at home in the back yard.
He and Amy have a favorite getaway spot they like to go to. Ilwaco, Washington, for them, is a lot like Thermopolis, Wyoming is to Bob and me. A small town, with strangely not much to do, except to be out in and enjoy nature. They love to take walks along the beach and out to view the lighthouse. Really, Travis and Amy love living in a tranquil area, and they do their best to create that kind of a place to live their lives. I never 
expected Travis to like living in a country neighborhood, but he really does. Their place is what you might call, a little bit country and a little bit town, but it’s definitely a small town, even if it is near a larger city. They are close enough to Bellingham, Washington to have all the necessary amenities, and far enough away to stay free of the hustle and bustle most of the time. I’m so happy that they are so happy in their home. And I get the privilege of going to visit from time to time. It’s a win-win for all of us. Today is Travis’ birthday. Happy birthday Travis!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
A 1958 plan was developed to launch a Study of Lunar Research Flights, also known as Project A119. The project was a top-secret plan developed by the United States Air Force and involved detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon. The idea was that the project would help in answering some of the mysteries in planetary astronomy and astrogeology (Planetary geology, alternatively known as astrogeology or exogeology, is a planetary science discipline concerned with the geology of celestial bodies such as planets and their moons, asteroids, comets, and meteorites). The figured that if the explosive device were to detonate on the surface, and not in a lunar crater, the flash of explosive light would have been faintly visible to people on Earth with their naked eye. Not necessarily a scientific study, but rather a “stunt” meant as a show of force which would hopefully result in a possible boosting of domestic morale and belief in the capabilities of the United States. It was decided that this was a boost that was needed after the Soviet Union took an early lead in the Space Race. 
The project was never carried out, but was actually cancelled after “Air Force officials decided its risks outweighed its benefits.” A Moon landing, it was decided, would undoubtedly be a more popular achievement in the eyes of the American and international public than setting off a bomb on the Moon. If the stunt was executed, it was worried that it might have led to a potential militarization of space, which was something nobody wanted to see happen. Interestingly, there was an identical project planned by the Soviet Union. It was called Project E-4, and it was also scrapped due to fears of the warhead falling back on Soviet territory, and the potential for an international incident. These were really valid and responsible concerns, and I think it might have caused exactly what they thought it would. The idea of weapons hitting Earth from space, is really very frightening.
No one in the general public really knew about the US project, until it was revealed in 2000 by a former executive at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Leonard Reiffel, who was actually the person who had headed up the project in 1958. The effects of a nuclear explosion in vacuum and low gravity and evaluating the scientific value of the project were predicted by a young Carl Sagan and his team. Once the evaluations were decided, and the decision cancel the project made, the relevant documents were kept secret for nearly 45 years and, despite Reiffel’s revelations, the United States government has never officially acknowledged its involvement in the study. I can understand that. The project seems like a rather strange idea anyway.
May Day…always a fun day in my childhood memories. My mom, Collene Spencer loved May Day. She would gather construction paper, glue, little silk flowers, and color crayons together, so her girls, Cheryl Masterson, Caryn Schulenberg (me), Caryl Reed, Alena Stevens, and Allyn Hadlock could make May baskets to take to the neighbors. We crafted our creations and filled them with candy. Then we would sneak to the neighbors’ houses hang the basket on the door, knock, run, and hide. Their part was to try to find us, so they could thank us for the treats. It was a Spencer ritual, the beginning of “summer” sort of, but definitely stepping into May. This year, Mom, Dad, and our sister, Alena can make May baskets in Heaven together. I can only imagine the treats those Heavenly May Baskets will contain. Or maybe they don’t do that in Heaven. I think they might though, because my mom would love it.
May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on May 
1st. I think that by May 1st, people are so over the snow and cold of Winter, that we are ready for a fun celebration of warmer weather. Sadly, most people don’t do anything for May Day anymore, and I think that is rather sad. I can’t say that I am any better, because I generally don’t do anything about it either. Nevertheless, I do remember, fondly, the days of my childhood and the May baskets our mom helped her girls to make. The best-known modern May Day traditions, observed both in Europe and North America, include dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Unfortunately, fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the tradition of giving of “May baskets,” the small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors’ doorsteps.
In rural regions of Germany, especially the Harz Mountains, Walpurgisnacht celebrations are traditionally held on the night before May Day, including bonfires and the wrapping of a Maibaum (maypole). Young people use this opportunity to party, while the day itself is used by many families to get some fresh air. May Day’s Motto in 
Germany is “Tanz in den Mai” (“Dance into May”). I like that idea, and might do it, if I thought I was a good dancer.
However you celebrate or don’t celebrate May Day, the first day of May is officially May Day, and Summer is upon us. For me that is a happy event, and a day I look forward to each year. I would love to see the May basket tradition come back, because I think our new generations would have a lot of fun with it, and maybe spreading a little love and cheer would soften our increasingly hate-filled world.
