Barbara Anne Waite

The Colour Box

Barb Waite — Sat, 24 Jul 2021 18:15:22 +0000

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My colorful life in Antigua- How sad I feel when I think of all that blind people miss in observing a world filled WITHOUT color. I have a favorite color, blue. In Antigua blue surrounded me- the sky was an ever changing shade of blue, afternoon blue skies mixed with reds and orange and pink in glorious displays of sunset colors. But blue I discovered was also a favorite color to paint houses. In many neighborhoods in my current country colors are regulated- even down to the shade of white. Oh, the bright turquoise wooden houses often with colorful shutters of another tone. Looking down on an Antigua village as our plane descended, I enjoyed observing the vibrant display of roof colors as well. Of course, the blues of the Caribbean Sea changed hourly as the clouds passed over or the sea churned with a storm. In California I had grown up with a year round display of flowers, but I discovered in Antigua greens in the crotons that changed even within the same plant. I seem to remember that James Michener’s book The Caribbean began with a description of crotons. Each flower in my garden was a feast for the eyes. Then there were birds and shells that demonstrated the master of artists – God.
The island’s fish were another clear example of God’s creative hand in adding a riot of colors. When snorkeling the florescent colors of coral and sea fans became another feast for the eye gate.
People were also wonderfully diverse and colorful. Skin shades were as colorful and as varied as the plants and flowers. When we would periodically return to the USA “white” people seemed to look almost ill they could be so pale.
There were other ways my life in Antigua was colorful, through sounds. Though sometimes confused by expressions and accents people used I enjoyed hearing people banter. Once I recorded a conversation I overheard because I was fascinated by it, though I could not understand the local dialect. An Antiguan friend then explained I had a recorded a “curse fight.” OOPS. And the children walking down the street at Christmas with their iron band, creating music from anything metal gave me a thrill. Of course, the “pans” (percussion instruments made from 55 gal. steel drums) remain a favorite – whenever I hear one now it brings tears to my eyes. I can vividly remember the first time I heard a steel band playing a distance away. I wondered how an entire orchestra could be on a beach. I adored the sound of tree frogs at night – unless one of those tiny creatures decided to interrupt my slumber by parking on my windowsill. For a number of our years in Antigua we lived in the country and the sound of cattle and donkeys was a welcome change from freeway or traffic noise.
Our first week in Antigua I vividly remember a woman walking past with a tray balanced on her head selling bananas. She did not just walk past she called out in a distinctive and rather delightful voice, “Ripe fig- Ripe Fig”- I soon learned bananas were referred to as figs, and avocados were called pears.
But perhaps my favorite colorful vocal memory is the dear petite and elderly woman who walked the streets selling the local newspaper literally singing, “The Workers Voice is calling you, hello- hello- it calling you – The Workers Voice, The Workers Voice.” I once asked her if I could record her singing and selling. She agreed if I would first buy her an ice cream- which I gladly did.
We lived in a village house during our nearly forty years spent on the island of Antigua; attending a small local church pastored by a West Indian Pastor. Most of my friends and acquaintances were folks from the islands, Dominica, St. Vincent, Montserrat, Dominican Republic, as well as Antigua. What a rich colorful time those years were for my family, and that influenced me to write of the colorful beginnings of Antigua’s schools. Many of my favorite memories of sights and sounds crept into “The Colour Box.”

The Colour Box

Barb Waite — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 15:10:14 +0000

Thanks to all who have purchased The Colour Box and special thanks for those who reviewed.
Here are a couple recent reviews:

Into the history of Antigua in the slave days step the Hart sisters. How does one own another human being? The Colour Box is indeed colourful. Barbara Anne Waite paints pictures with her words. Having been in Antigua for many years before, I know the places she mentions. I smell the ducana. I see the paintbox of colours in the foliage and the people. So many beautiful shades! And the story is precious and keenly sensitive dealing with the issue of race. We see the grief of Anne and Elizabeth as their father inherited as a free black a plantation and owning slaves that he did not ask for. The answer? Love and education and faith. So many scenes are sweet- Barry Hart, their father, dancing with Annie when they learn that the Declaration of Independence in the US declares all men equal. Will it come to Antigua and how? How will plantation life end? Barbara Waite has delved into the history of those days and basic facts- a Sunday school to educate and teach, as education is the key to ending the injustice. I love this book. One can see, sense, smell, experience the Caribbean and the rich history of the beautiful people that live there

Just finished reading “The Colour Box” and was completely charmed. This historical novel is based on the lives of two free bi-racial sisters on the island of Antigua in the 1700 and 1800’s. They were educated and extraordinary, using their talent and knowledge to teach many plantation slaves to read and write. There is a beautiful love story in this book for both the sisters who married later in life and whose husbands joined in and encouraged their activities. Teaching and reaching out to the less fortunate continued throughout their lives. A beautiful timely and captivating read that is both entertaining and educational.
Available on Amazon :https://www.amazon.com/Colour-Box-Barbara-Anne-Waite/dp/0983945233

The Colour Box- New Novel will be on Amazon March 15

Barb Waite — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 01:48:29 +0000

I am pleased to announce the new historical novel based on the lives of two sisters who lived on Antigua in 1800s will soon be available. Watch for it on : BarbaraWaiteBooks.com

I remember as a child enjoying those work sheets in school where dots with numbers or letters were connected to reveal a picture of a flower, a tree etc. As a child I enjoyed discovering what picture the dots would reveal.

While in New Jersey a year ago we visited a museum that connected some of the links of Elsie’s Gilman family history for me, and I felt rather like a dot to dot picture was disclosed.

When the Revolutionary War ended, the United States spent nearly a decade without a regular navy. With the war against Great Britain won, the reasoning went, why would it need a navy? The simple answer is: pirates.

After breaking with England, 1783, the American War for Independence officially ended. Thus, American merchant ships no longer were protected by the Royal Navy. The fledgling U.S. government couldn’t raise a Navy but believed it could stave off attacks from Barbary pirates — north African privateers from Algiers, Morocco, Tunis, and Tripoli by paying the tributes demanded by pirates.

While the Moroccan pirates cooperated, the Algerian leader declared war on the United States, capturing a merchant ship in 1784.

Without a protecting force American trade to the Mediterranean would always be insecure. Desperate to utilize the Mediterranean trade route and protect American ships, the 1794 Congress, at George Washington’s urging, authorized a fleet of six U.S. Navy ships.

In the current novel I am writing I slipped in an imaginary connection between the Hart sisters of Antigua and my Grandmother Elsie’s grandmother, Malvina Amanda Gilman born in 1810 in Alexandria, Va.

Her father, Ephraim Gilman, was born in Gilmantown, N.H. in 1778. Twenty -seven year old Ephraim married 18 year old Anne Crawford in 1805, the same year Elizabeth Hart married Charles Thwaites in Antigua.

Ephaim was a merchant that owned ships which sailed to foreign parts. I assume he sailed to the Caribbean because my tattered family history papers say he brought back cotton and molasses, both grown in Antigua. Ephaim became prosperous merchant. In the war of 1812 the British burned his warehouse and schooner of flour.

The Gilman family came to America on the good ship Diligent in 1638 due to religious persecution in England. The census ledger of 1810 records that Ephraim imported Moroccan shoes. When I read about the beginning of our US Navy in the maritime museum in Philadelphia, I realized how the dots connected.

By 1801, the pirates of Tripoli had launched a full-on campaign against the U.S. that would later be referred to as the First Barbary War. The1805 victory for the U.S. Navy would mark the first win.

The Second Barbary War launched in 1812 —was the same year that the United States began warring once more with Great Britain. With its resources spread thin, the U.S. government tabled any efforts to confront Algiers or its pirates.

It wasn’t until 1814, ending the United States’ last skirmish with England, that the Navy was able to set its sights on Algiers — and an end to Barbary piracy once and for all. Congress officially declared war on Algiers March 3, 1815, after growing the U.S. Navy for three years. Ephraim died in Washington, D.C. in 1853. Thus the creation of the US Navy allowed him quite a few years to secure his fortunes as a shipping merchant.

It was fun to slip a Gilman relative into the story of the Harts sisters in Antigua.

My new website for the book is found at www.BarbaraWaiteBooks.com

HOOKED ON RESEARCH

Barb Waite — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 04:55:06 +0000

I remember a few years back there was a children’s program called “Hooked on Phonics.” I suppose I could write my own program called “Hooked on Research.” I have often thought that if my life had followed a different path that I could have thrived as a research librarian. I love books. I love old books with gorgeous covers. I own some books that I have never read, but would not part with because I am fascinated by their vintage covers. Some I have read over and over, and they are tattered friends that flood me with memories of visits to second-hand bookshops in downtown San Diego with Elsie. We rode the bus and wandered thru old buildings filled with books. I was nine when she bought me Louisa May Alcott’s “Eight Cousins” and the poetry collection “Silver Pennies.”

Two treasured books Elsie gave me in 1956.

I think she would be thrilled to know I have discovered a passion for historical research. She might be surprised that my first two books dealt with her story, and perhaps excited I am writing a historical novel about the country we called home for 38 years.

Research about life in Antigua (during the years 1740-1834) comes from numerous sources. I sit at my computer near an old undated map of Antigua. It lists towns, churches, and forts. If I look with a magnifying glass, I can see that Sir William Codrington had six windmills on his estate.

When our children were young, my husband used to take them on adventures that included the sugar mills that were still standing in the early 1980’s. They documented on 3 x 5 notecards the name of the mill, date if they could find it, and the type of stone used. Those windmills have withstood over 200 years of hurricanes. Fun to think our children started my research nearly 40 years ago as they trudged thru thorn bushes and fought off yellowjackets that built nests in those reminders of sugar mill and slavery years.

Barb & Curt exploring the ruins at Betty’s Hope Plantation

Long before I ever dreamed of writing a book based on historical Antigua I was fascinated by the courthouse built hundreds of years ago and which remains a museum today. Nelson’s Dockyard, the site of the British Naval buildings constructed nearly 250 years ago, serves as a witness to the days Britain fought with the French for the possession of the Caribbean islands. I began collecting books about the Naval Dockyard in the 1970’s.

Carin, Joshua, Dan and Christopher at Fort George – above English Harbour- 1984

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1984- Carin, Joshua, Dan and Christopher at Fort George overlooking English Harbour

These days I find myself reading thru Antiguan wills dating from the 1780’s, newspaper snippets from the same time period and even diaries of American women who lived on plantations in places like Georgia or South Carolina. Research and imagination link together in my mind to bring history to life.Antigua courthouse 1823

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Elsie’s Gilman Connection

Barb Waite — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 15:29:58 +0000

30 July

I have always enjoyed looking at profiles of faces. When my siblings and I divided my mother’s estate some years ago, my first choice of furniture or keepsakes was a relief profile of Ephraim Gilman. I seem to remember that my mother never had it hanging in my childhood home. She stored it in a closet, but the story behind the face fascinated me as a child. My grandmother Elsie frequently reminded me that this was the face of her great-grandfather. It was carved from a piece of wood by Ephraim’s younger brother, Zadok, and given to Ephraim on his wedding day, June 20, 1805. Ephraim married Anne Crawford (age 18) in Alexandria, Virginia. They had seven children that lived and six that died in infancy. Their second daughter, Malvina Amanda Gilman, born in 1810, was Elsie’s Grandmother.

Ephraim Gilman carved by brother Zadok

Thursday was Ephraim’s birthday; He was born July 12, 1778, 240 years ago. His family came to America on the good ship Diligent in 1638 due to religious persecution in England. Ephraim’s grandfather Johnathan Gilman was a captain in the War of Independence and was killed in action at age 63 in 1776.
Ephraim became a prosperous merchant in Alexandria. One of the ledgers records that he imported Moroccan shoes. It also stated he sailed his ships to foreign places to bring back molasses.

Moroccan shoes of 1800

Moroccan shoes

I spent 38 years smelling molasses in Antigua, a by-product of the production of Antiguan Rum. Someday I want to read his ledgers from 1808-1820 preserved on microfilm in the Alexandria Library. I imagine all sorts of adventures hidden in those ledgers. During the war of 1812, the British burned Ephraim’s warehouse and a schooner of flour.

These paintings of the Gilmans were the work of a young artist, Cephas Thompson. Cephas eventually became well known. He captures Anne’s young beauty and a handsome Ephraim. I do not own the paintings. But, the profile carved and gifted from one brother to another is mine.

Anne Crawford Gilman – painted by Cephas Thompson about 1808

Elsie’s great-grandfather Ephraim Gilman

I am grateful for an invitation to speak to the daughters of the American Revolution in Valley Center on February 14th at 10 a.m. in the Valley Center Library. I enjoy sharing history. I have relatives from at least three branches that fought in the Revolutionary War. My son Joshua has researched at least 14 relatives that came to America before 1640.

My goal now is to include an imaginary link in my next book between the Hart sisters of Antigua and Ephraim Gilman’s wife, Anne Crawford. They lived during the same time-period. Elizabeth Hart was married the same year Ephraim and Anne Crawford were married.

A Valentine Memory of Arizona Statehood

Barb Waite — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 20:28:23 +0000

Feb.14th 2018- Arizona celebrates its 106th birthday today. Happy Valentines Day. I shared in the book a Valentine remembrance Elsie loved to tell about. She received a special Valentine while teaching in Arizona that was chocolate covered soap. Her laughter when telling this story filled the room with her effervescent joy. She had a chuckle that was like none other I have ever heard. It seemed to come from her toes and traveled all the way to her heart, and out her mouth filling the room with mirth.

The Girdner Family 1913

Eva Girdner Stone

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I had the privilege to meet Eva in 1989, she was charming. In the book, I share about Eva Girdner’s memory of the first Arizona statehood celebration that occurred in Oak Creek Canyon. She shared that there were about 25 families living along the beautiful lower Oak Creek. When word arrived that statehood had been granted the Arizona territory the news was passed to all the families along the creek to meet for a picnic. The children celebrated with foot and burro races. Eva’s mother made her a unique red, white and blue dress for the occasion. I wonder which child had the privilege to ride his burro shouting the news of statehood and announcing the celebratory picnic. Somehow it seems that an e-mail or telephone call would never be as exciting as watching a child arriving breathless with the news that the territory was now the State of Arizona! I think “Elsie” would be a great movie. Much of what she wrote creates a vivid picture in my mind.
I keep thinking how Elsie would be delighted knowing that her story received 332 reviews on Amazon and has sold over 1,200 copies just in the Tuzigoot and Montezuma’s Castle National Parks.
Special thanks to all who have added a review or clicked the like button on Elsie’s Amazon page. I think those reviews really encourage others to buy the book. I am grateful and thrilled to have recently shared her story with The Daughters of The American Revolution here in San Diego.

The Joy of Having Relatives who Preserved History

Barb Waite — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 01:09:43 +0000

Elsie was certainly too genteel to be labeled a hoarder. She was a keeper of bits of history. I am thankful for the bits of history I inherited from her. Her cedar chest contained a treasure secured years ago, a Civil War Brain teaser game. Perhaps there is a better name for it, but that was the label my daughter Carin came up with. It consists of 24 heavy-duty card stock cards that have great illustrations drawn with pen and ink. There was a sheet included with the answers. I wonder if it was possibly given to my great-grandfather when he was injured as a child during the Civil War? That is a fascinating story found in the second Elsie book, “Elsie’s Mountain.” Alonzo became injured when Union soldiers mistakenly fired cannons at what they assumed was an abandoned farmhouse located about where the Pentagon stands today. The farmhouse actually was Alonzo’s family home. After Alonzo Hayes was wounded they took him to the Union surgeon to sew up his wound. Elsie said her father limped all his life, as a result of that injury. I can imagine a soldier telling the young Alonzo to be brave and he’d give him a game. See if you can guess what some of the answers are, I will include answers after the pictures.Some answers were unreadable.

1. Independence
2. Condescending
7. Seesaw
8. Saxsony
9. Dominoes
10.Duchess
11. Easy
12. Pennies
14. Prickley Pear
16. Elbowed
17. barbeque
18. An ingrate
19. Defaced
22. Candy
20. Tenants
24. thinking
25. infancy

Dead Men Tell Tales

Barb Waite — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 20:37:24 +0000

Nearly 50 years have passed since I first discovered I was attracted to old cemeteries. Driving down a dirt road on our way to a retreat in N. C., I spied gravestones nestled among the pines and oaks and we stopped to investigate. I loved the overwhelming sense of connecting with the past – with hidden history. Not just bodies rested beneath the earth, but the stories connected with those lives.
Years later, I read aloud several of Eugenia Price’s historical books as we experienced long road trips with our four children. Her books led to a quest to visit the graveyard on St Simon’s Island, Georgia. We took a memorable drive to see that fascinating graveyard and charming old church which she described.
I became hooked on old cemeteries. On the island of Antigua, we uncovered hidden grave stones at the site of Bridgetown and created rubbings from some of the large flat memorials that laid buried under dirt and debris. Our footsteps have since walked among many aging headstones in a number of states, and in several countries.
This Christmas we spent a delightful time in Malaysia with our daughter and her family. I keep trying to single out a favorite day from our trip. Perhaps the memory that shines best is the quiet Sunday afternoon spent in Georgetown, wandering among some of the 500 graves in the Old Protestant Cemetery, established in 1786. These people no longer have a voice, but history oozes from the earth and hangs dripping from the trees and vines that surround the large, ornate tombstones. We strolled around reading names and dates, soaked in the serenity – contemplating our own mortality. The tombstones there in Penang represented governors, lawyers, merchants, army personnel. Most people in the 1800’s in Malaysia failed to achieve age fifty. Many died as children or only survived to their twenties.

Old Protestant Cemetery -Penang

Carin, beside Thomas Leonowens tomb

Like Hansel and Gretel following a trail

When only age nine, I delighted in the movie “The King and I.” I did not realize then that real people had been the basis for that story. There in Georgetown we stood by the grave of Anna’s husband, Thomas Leonowens. He died at age thirty-one. Anna, born in India in 1831, was a mere twenty-eight when he died. Needing employment, she traveled to Singapore with her two children and established herself as an educator for the children of British officers. Three years later, she accepted an offer to teach the thirty-nine wives and eighty-two children of the King of Siam. Hollywood portrayed her story (based on her journals), with a good deal of historical license. I stood there in Malaysia, by Leonowens tomb, wondering about the life of this hotel-keeper who died in 1859, thankful his gutsy wife recorded her memories from Siam. I mused what Hollywood might do to Elsie’s story were it (pipe dream) to be made into a movie!
On our return from Asia, jet-lag and the flu forced me to wrap in a blanket, with tea and a marvelous new book , “The Mark of the King” by Jocelyn Green. This exciting historical fiction based on an 18th century French colony in Louisiana assisted my recovery. Thanks, Jocelyn for the delightful diversion from Kleenex and cough syrup. Her research uncovered a story I found fascinating; her writing wrapped me in another era.

Available on Amazon- New Book by Jocelyn Green- ” The Mark of the King”

Now I am back at work researching and writing historical fiction about Antigua in the late 1700’s. Thanks, Carin, for the moments we squeezed in to consult on this work-in-progress. Thanks for warm memories and delightful days spent with you in Malaysia.

On January 22, to celebrate Elsie’s 129th birthday, her story “Elsie’s Mountain” will be free, that day only, on Amazon as an e-book. So, if you have not yet read the sequel to Elsie’s Arizona story, here is a one day opportunity to grab it for free. I am thrilled that after four years her Arizona story is still selling and has 329 Amazon reviews. Thanks, friends.

Mysterious Letter From Sailor -1864

Barb Waite — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 01:24:09 +0000

Mysterious Sailor Frederick Tietz

Among Elsie’s treasured papers was a letter from a US Navy man named Fred, written in 1864 to Elsie’s Aunt Annie. From age eighteen Annie Malvina Gilman worked in Washington D. C. When she was 20 years old she wrote to a sailor, unknown to her personally, fighting in the Civil War. Her widowed mother told her she must write using a fictitious name. So she wrote as Miss Malvin. Aunt Annie’s father had been a Congregational Pastor. He died when Annie was fourteen years old. I wish I knew what she wrote to this sailor. His return letter displayed perfect penmanship, illustrated with a rose and a self-portrait. Here is a transcript of his delightful letter:
“Many a good and strong heart is beating underneath a coarse coat; therefore throw not these lines aside on account of their uncouth appearance, but read before you judge. Eau de Cologne or eau de mille fleurs is not begotten here surrounded by swamps.
It is a perilous enterprise to sail in unknown waters and many a good navigator died in the attempt of exploring new islands, but who does not venture, he can never win. Therefore I send this my fragile craft over to you, in the hope to find a harbor in your heart where I may safely repose myself and put myself into fine sailing trim, to cruise over the wild sea of life, which heaves before me, but which I am not afraid to navigate.
A Sea in which I have been sailing indeed a good while already, and weathering many a tempest, without any damage to my vessel whatever. But here goes for our better acquaintance. First, and foremost, fair lady (Mary I dare not say, and Miss Malvin sounds too business like.) I suppose I have to give you an account of myself; so here is the life of Frederick Tietz, Yeoman at present, on board of the U.S. Schooner Dan Smith, South Atlantic Squadron.
I am, (do not shocked) a Dutchman, a Prussian, born and brought up in Berlin, the capital. Whom always burnt underneath his feet, until at last he went to the grief of his mother and to the joy perhaps of a good many people, who did not like to see their windowpanes broke, or to see a boy walking over their heads in the imminent danger ( as they thought ) of falling to the pavement every minute. He will have climbing enough now said those good people and perhaps they were right, I had enough although not too much of it. That was in 1857 when I was 16 years old. I then first sailed from Prussia, afterwards from Denmark and at last, but not least for it is now three years since I entered the first American ship. But to do myself justice, I did not do so, because I could not get along well in the places I left, but I did it for love of change only.
My plans for the future now are, that I want to pass examination at New York in order to trod – in due time – my own deck, and then to come and obtain you, fair lass, if agreeable, for life, if not to drown all recollections of Miss Malvin and take another.
Now Miss, my account of myself is finished, and may you at least think me worth of an answer, I forgot to tell you that I am only 5 feet and 3 inches high for external appearance I give you my portrait, took before the glass which although it will I daresay, bear not the slightest resemblance to the maker, will do as well as a description, for I never flatter, and woe to him, that comes under my pencil. He can never have a favorable, much less flattering opinion of himself afterwards. In the hope, but I have not been tiresome to you, and in the expectation of an answer I conclude and say farewell, fair lady, and may I address you more cordial next time.
I like gracious manners
But hate etiquette
So if thou shouldest answer
Pray call me,
Your Fred”
I love research. I discovered there was a Frederick Tietz, born in 1841, that joined the U.S. Navy. In Feb., 1864, the Union Navy had its ships near St. Simons Island in a blockade attempt to prevent the Confederates from trading with other countries. The Dan Smith was a wooden schooner that held 33 men and was 87’ long, with two thirty-two pound guns. Two weeks after Fred wrote, his schooner captured the Confederate schooner Sophia. In Dec., 1864, Frederick was appointed Acting Masters Mate and became discharged in May, 1865. So interesting to discover via the internet more about this man than Elsie ever knew. Annie Malvina never married, perhaps she never answered Frederick’s plea.
I love hearing from readers, even if e-mails can’t include lovely penmanship, illustrated with wonderful self-portraits.
Wonderful, mysterious, Fred. I wonder who he finally persuaded to marry him? Research shows there was eventually a Frederick Tietz, Jr.

Fred’s Letter to Aunt Annie ( AKA- Miss Malvin)

CALIFORNIA FIRE FIGHTING- THEN AND NOW

Barb Waite — Sat, 25 Jun 2016 22:26:23 +0000

As I write this “tidbit” today there are six active forest fires burning in California. When I first met my husband, in 1963, he was employed by The US Forest Service, fighting forest fires. Now some 53 years later after seven fire seasons as a volunteer at Boucher Hill and High Point lookouts on Palomar, he is employed once again by the US Forest Service as a fire lookout at Los Pinos tower in Descanso.

1963- Curt Waite, Helitack Crew US Forest Service -Palomar Mountain

Curt Waite – Fire tower lookout _ Palomar Mountain

The advances in fighting forest fires since Elsie’s days on Palomar in 1904 and 1918 are rather interesting.
In 1911 the government authorized the US Forest Service to provide Fire Protection. In 1919 the State of California provided for salaries for four forest Rangers. By 1920 they had expanded to include salaries for ten rangers.
It was common for the men of the mountain to assist in fighting wild fires. My great grandfather assisted as well as Jack. Elsie rode her burro to warn others of the fire.
In Elsie’s Mountain she wrote about a fire burning:
Aug 29 – 1918:
Mrs. Bailey phoned after supper about fire in woods, started by lightning. Jack helped fight it all evening. Fire- fighting implements are stored at our ranch. Once I took the news on our burro to Silvercrest regarding a blazing fire on the lower part of the mountain. I rode bareback. Papa had gone with the team to save my mountain. I prayed and dug in my heels and galloped to tell the people.
January, 1919:
Jan.10- Jack worked on the telephone line again and Modesto worked on the road while Pete took another load of apples down. The forest fire is not as bad as yesterday and day before. I made nine loaves of bread and a pan of rolls, also made ice cream frozen with snow.
That January fire burned 1,840 acres on Pauma Ranch. I researched that thinking it really was strange to have forest fires in January, yet found it documented elsewhere.
While preparing for this today, I came across an article that would surely be labeled in this day as “politically incorrect.” I suppose it was acceptable in early 1900’s to call a spade a spade.
A U.S. Forest Service pamphlet written in May, 1916, for Fire Suppression for California spoke of the need to evaluate men before hiring to fight a forest fire. It divided men into 4 classes.
“A fair-sized crew contains men who can and will do three or four times as much work as others. Too little attention has been given to careful grading of possible firefighters and the formulating of the proper methods of dealing with each class. The men of any community may be divided into classes, each possessing the qualifications listed below:
Class A: Men worthy of complete confidence; exerting a well-recognized anti-fire influence, possessing superior physical ability and power of endurance.
Class B: Trustworthy men equal to those of Class A, except that they do not possess the qualifications of successful Crew Bosses.
Class C: Trustworthy but ordinary men.
Class D: Shirkers; disorganizers; men without proper shoes; men who are from inexperience or inclination disinclined to respect authority and orders; men suspected of incendiary tendencies or of nursing a fire; men not trustworthy for any other reason.
Class D men should never be hired when it can be avoided. There are circumstances which make it necessary to hire about every known type of Class D men. It is sometimes good policy to make no secret of the fact that a man’s work has caused him to be regarded as undesirable on a control line. More often it is good policy to talk it over in a frank, friendly way with the Class D man himself. No more effective instrument will ever be devised for control of men and affairs than the frank, friendly discussion of a delicate subject.”
I have always considered my guy to be a class A kind of man.
“Elsie’s Mountain,” as an e-book, will be offered FREE on Amazon Kindle from Thursday, June 30 – Saturday, July 2. I hope offering it free for three days generates reviews and increases sales after it returns to a $ 5.99 price.