History from a Tourist Perspective

Photo credit:  Larry D. Fenwick

Several of my blogs have been the result of an impulsive response to a highway sign directing my husband and me to some historical site off the beaten path.  Sometimes those side trips occurred as we were traveling to a planned historical destination, and along the way we discovered something else worth seeing.  Brent Glass, Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, has written a book to assist Americans in learning about their country by traveling to important places, and many of the destinations described in his book include nearby or related sites worth including in the visit.  Titled 50 Great American Places, it represents what Glass considers Essential Historic Sites Across the U.S.  

We met Brent Glass at the recent Cather Conference in Red Cloud, Nebraska, where he was one of the speakers.  Naturally, I was eager to read his book!

First, I was pleased by how many of the sites he recommends are places we have visited.  Perhaps that should not have been a surprise, since we both enjoy learning about history and plan many of our trips for that purpose.

Second, I was tempted to add more of his recommendations to our bucket list of future trips, as well as being affirmed in my hopes to visit places already on our list.

Several of my blogs have emphasized the lessons history has to teach, as well as pointing out that history has a way of repeating itself--not always directly but certainly in ways that share common issues.  Consider, for an example, the struggles of Isaac Werner and other farmers and working class people in the late 1800s during which time another group of Americans were living in what came to be known as the "Gilded Age."  In Chapter 38, Glass shares a quote from Will Rogers speaking in 1931:  "The only problem that confronts this country today is...to see that every man that wants to is able to work...and also to arrange some way of getting more equal distribution of the wealth in the country."

While considering the similarities of the economic issues of those two historic periods, reflect on some of the things we are hearing in the news of today.  The ability of Will Rogers to use humor to address serious social issues remains as relevant today as it was during his lifetime, and the state of Oklahoma has recognized his ongoing contribution to the nation's dialogue by naming Route 66 "Will Rogers Highway."

Route 66 opened as a federal road in 1927, and Glass points out the significance of multistate roads in giving Americans greater independence and mobility.  However, Route 66 also became the pathway to California taken by the Dust Bowl farmers migrating west.  During the Steinbeck Retreat about which I have written in recent blogs, we spent a great deal of time discussing The Grapes of Wrath, from which Glass quotes:  "...the people are in flight, and they come into 66 from the tributary side roads, from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads."

Yet, many of us think of Route 66 as the theme of Nat King Cole's rendition of the popular lyrics urging a generation to 'get your kicks on Route 66' or we think of the TV show in which the Corvette was as important as the characters.  Route 66 was decommissioned as a highway in 1985, but Clinton, OK has a museum that preserves memories of the road's glory days.

At the end of the chapter, Glass suggests the following places to include in your visit in addition to The Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch, and the Museum in Claremore (www.willrogers.com):  Trail of Tears National Historic Trail (www.nps.gov/trte), Gilcrease Museum (www.gilcrease.utulsa.edu), Woody Guthrie Center (www.woodyguthriecenter.org), Rogers County Historical Society (www.rchs1.org), and Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program (www.nps.gov/rt66).

This blog shares only one of Brent Glass's recommendations, but there are 49 more in his book!

  

(Remember, you can enlarge the images by clicking on them.)

The Books in Our Lives

Jefferson:  "I cannot live without books."

When I did the series on favorite children's books and ask readers of the blog to share the favorites from their childhoods, I was inundated with so many replies that it took several blogs to share all of your favorites.  Last week, I invited readers to share their favorite adult book titles, and only a few of you replied.  Since I know that so many of you were eager readers as children, and because educators believe forming the habit of reading in childhood will develop active adult readers, I expected to be inundated with adult book titles.  I'm disappointed, but I did receive some great replies!  

One of my foreign followers  loves reading history, so he began by admitting that he doesn't read much fiction.  However, he does like John le Carre (1931-    ) spy novels and named The Night Manager as his favorite.  He also enjoys Westerns, naming Ernest Haycox  (1899-1950) and, especially, Jack Schaefer (1907-1991) as favorites.  He warned against trying to take the easy way out by seeing movies based their books--pale imitations, in his opinion!

Edward Bellamy

I have another friend who enjoys mysteries and travel books, neither of which appeal to me.  She has shared some wonderful suggestions outside those genres that I have loved.   Our friendship really took root when we discovered we both had read The House by Otowi Bridge by Peggy Pond Church (1903-1987).

Two people responded to my call for favorite adult books by telling me we share a favorite.  LS chose To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1926-2016), which I think every aspiring lawyer should read.

SGR agrees with me about East of Eden being our favorite among John Steinbeck's novels.  She is a voracious reader and declined naming a specific favorite among all the books she loves.  However, she did share a favorite from  among books recently read, and her recommendation came with three reviews and an interview of the author as attachments.  Yes, she has tempted me to read A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (1964-    ).

Life is too short to read all of the books I'd like to read, so I enjoy recommendations from friends who are readers.  Recently, JD recommended The Sympathizer, which I mentioned in last week's blog.  I would never have read it without his recommendation, and I'm so glad that I did.  In turn, I recommended All the Light We Cannot See, and he tells me he enjoyed it.

I do believe what we read shapes who we are, and for that reason I find no pleasure reading books that are no more than a way to pass the time.  Researching my manuscript about Isaac Werner, I felt that I came to know him from the books he chose to read.  He also led me to books being read during the populist movement, so that I came to understand what inspired and shaped working class people of that time.  Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1850-1898) was so popular that Bellamy Clubs, whose members sought to implement some of his futuristic ideas, were formed around the world.  Mark Twain (1835-1910) is still popular today.  Other books that he owned are no longer read, but I appreciated the immersion into that era that reading those books gave me.

Thanks to those of you who shared "the books in your lives!"

What and How We Read

Steinbeck Home and Restaurant

Recently a friend we met on the John Steinbeck Retreat forwarded news that Steinbeck's childhood home, which had been operated as a lunch-time restaurant by volunteers (with a professional chef and helper in the kitchen) was closing because of inadequate funds to sustain its operation.   The day our group ate there, all of the tables were filled; however, that included 24 of us.  My husband and I ate there when we visited Steinbeck Country several years ago.  It is a wonderful part of the Steinbeck experience, and it would be a shame for it to close.

Mural across from Steinbeck Center

I suppose I am not a typical reader.  I have mentioned my Millennium Reading List, which I compiled at the turn of the century, consulting the lists of great books several publications printed at that time, supplemented with titles from other sources.  My intention to select 100 Great Books quickly expanded beyond the 1900s and grew to more that twice the intended number, and it continues to grow faster than I can keep up, encompassing both fiction and nonfiction.  My attitude is that life is too short to read everything, so why waste time reading junk!

Not all my favorite authors are dead.  I have a shelf of David McCullough histories, and I am a fan of Barbara Kingsolver.  I do read Best Sellers, but usually months after they were on the Best Seller lists, and only if reviewers (professional and friends) that I respect have recommended them.  It sometimes seems that each book I read leads me to more--by the same author, on the same subject, or to learn more about the history of the period described in the book.

Steinbeck Center

Those of you who regularly follow this blog know that I love Willa Cather, and now you know that John Steinbeck is one of my favorites.  I am a great believer in the importance of a literate citizenry necessary to support a great country.  I have shared a favorite quote from Einstein:  "If you want intelligent children, read them fairy tales.  If you want more intelligent children, read them more fairy tales."  Several of my past blogs have dealt with encouraging the habit of reading in our children.  Most adults who are regular readers of books learned that habit as children.

I fear that reading is a habit on the decline.  Even in her home state of Nebraska, the great Willa Cather is no longer on the required reading list of public high schools.  Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" is still read in many schools, but it is often relegated to younger readers who may not fully appreciate it.  Too few readers get past Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath," a great book but not the only one worth reading.  Despite the huge popularity of "Downton Abbey" on PBS, few readers explore the great English novels written in the 1800s, of which my favorite, "Pride and Prejudice," is only one.

Enjoying access to archived material

But I will continue to be a cheerleader for reading, and sharing time with others who love to read is a special treat for me.  The photographs in this week's blog were taken when our retreat group visited Salinas, California, Steinbeck's childhood home.  We toured the Steinbeck Center and enjoyed a special opportunity to view items from the museum archives not usually seen by visitors.  We had lunch in Steinbeck's childhood home, and we ended our day with a visit to the graves of Steinbeck and other family members.

My favorite Steinbeck book is "East of Eden," a challenging book that I first read about fifteen years ago.  I will close by sharing a conversation from that novel between Samuel Hamilton, who visited his younger friend Adam, to help select a name for the twin boys whose mother had deserted them soon after they were born. In his grief at having been abandoned by his wife, Adam neglected his sons, imposing fears about their mother's evil having been inherited by the boys.  Samuel tells him:  "I don't very much believe in blood.  I think when a man finds good or bad in his children he is seeing only what he planted in them after they cleared the womb."  Adam:  "You can't make a race horse of a pig."  Samuel:  "No, but you can make a very fast pig."    

Graves of Samuel & other family members

Just as Samuel believed in bringing out the best that was possible in Adam's sons, I admit that I believe that reading quality literature and learning from reading history can bring out the best in all of us.  I would love it if you took the time to share the titles of your favorite books with me.  The long-time readers of this blog will remember what a popular series of blogs resulted from your sharing of favorite childhood books, so sharing titles of favorite books you have read as adults should be fun too. 

It was Isaac Werner's love for books, and his amazing personal library, that drew me to him, after all!

(Remember, you can click on images to enlarge.)

The Impact of Friendships

Bronze bust of Ed Ricketts at site of death

Researching Isaac B. Werner and his community gave me the opportunity to reflect on the importance of friendships.  He was a prairie bachelor, far from his siblings and the Werner cousins, uncles, and aunts that had surrounded him as he was growing up.  Isaac's story involves his relationships within the prairie community, his place as a bachelor in an environment in which most men his age were married with children.  Part of the prairie story is the constant movement of new settlers arriving and others giving up on their homesteads, and while friendships were interrupted and new ones were made, those relationships were essential to survival.

During our recent John Steinbeck Retreat, one of the segments I most enjoyed was learning about the friendship between Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed "Doc" Ricketts.  Prior to the Retreat, I had not read Cannery Row or The Log from the Sea of Cortez, and I was unaware of the influential relationship between Steinbeck and Ricketts.  Fortunately for me, one of the members of our group, Russ Eagle, has been a devoted fan of those books and the friendship between those two men, and his enthusiasm was contagious!

Display at Steinbeck Museum

Learning how many of the characters in Cannery Row are based on real people that Steinbeck knew when he lived there as a struggling writer, I was especially intrigued by the character "Doc."

In 2000, I created my Millennium Reading List of great books, together with a personal review form that I complete after finishing each book.  The reading list has grown (and I may never manage to read every book on the ever-expanding list), but I have maintained my commitment to do a review after finishing each book I read.  When I reviewed Cannery Row I described "Doc" in the Character section of the review as follows:  "...the owner and operator of Western Biological Laboratory, regarded as the local philosopher, respecter of music, literature, and art, and scientist whose speciality is marine life but whose experiments included rats, cats, and rattlesnakes."  In the Literary Techniques section of my review form, I wrote:  "The plot is draped loosely over two parties for Doc--one well-intentioned but catastrophic when he returns late and his 'guests' have destroyed his place, and the other a birthday party on the wrong day that began with sincere intentions and erupted into the only kind of successful party they could enjoy."  At that time I assumed the characters were creatures of Steinbeck's imagination.

Ed Ricketts Lab

View from back of lab, holding tanks

By the time I read The Log from the Sea of Cortez, I was aware that "Doc" was a real person and Steinbeck's great friend.  Frankly, I wasn't excited about reading The Log but it was one of the books to be discussed during the retreat, so I began.  The opening page was titled "About Ed Ricketts" and by the bottom of the page Ed's car had been struck by the Del Monte Express, and although he was conscious the severity of his injuries did not bode well for survival.  After his funeral Steinbeck turned to writing as his way to deal with the loss of his friend.  "...there is another reason to put Ed Ricketts down on paper.  He will not die.  He haunts the people who knew him.  He is always present even in the moments when we feel his loss the most.  ...Maybe if I write down everything I can remember about him, that will lay the ghost.  It is worth trying anyway."

Clay Jenkinson overlooking Ricketts holding tanks

I don't think Steinbeck's plan worked.  I believe he carried Ed Ricketts with him for the rest of his life.  Perhaps that is what all of us who are fortunate to have a great friendship in our lives must do.  Certainly Steinbeck made many of us feel like we had known Ed Ricketts...or wish we had known him.

Having introduced readers to Ed Ricketts, with whom the expedition on the Sea of Cortez was planned and experienced, the actual Log is introduced.  Steinbeck explained:  "The design of a book is the pattern of a reality controlled and shaped by the mind of the writer.  This is completely understood about poetry or fiction, but it is too seldom realized about books of fact.  And yet the impulse which drives a man to poetry will send another man into the tide pools and force him to try to report what he finds there."  What follows is not only the literal description of their adventure, beginning with all of the planning before chartering the Western Flyer with its tolerant skipper Anthony Berry, and hiring the crew, but also the literary wanderings typical of Steinbeck that I so enjoy.

Acquarium

Also included in the Log is a discussion of "teleological thinking" which inserts its way into the book on Easter Sunday, when the crew did little collecting of specimens, instead half dozing and "...thinking of old things" and later discussing "manners of thinking and methods of thinking" involving what Steinbeck identified as teleological and non-teleological thinking.  This sort of discussion was typical of Steinbeck and Ricketts, who enjoyed exploring ideas and reason.  In fact, Ricketts had written his philosophy on this subject for which he had never found a publisher.  Much of this section in The Log from the Sea of Cortez came from Ricketts' writings, a sort of posthumous gift from Steinbeck to his friend.

Docent

During the Retreat we had a wonderful tour of the former Western Biological Laboratory, guided by an outstanding docent and concluded with a talk from author Susan Shillinglaw.  Although the laboratory had a brief life serving other uses, it was fairly well preserved during that time so that today it feels like Doc might soon return from one of his tidal pool forages and offer his guests a drink.

Susan Shillinglaw

After hard service and severe neglect, the Western Flyer is being restored, with plans for use as a sea-going classroom.  The magnificent Monterey Bay Aquarium is only a few steps down the street from Doc's lab. The legacy of Ed Ricketts lives on.

(Remember, you may enlarge images by clicking on them.)

Climbing Fremont Peak

View of Fremont Peak

In early 1846, John Charles Fremont arrived in the Sacramento Valley and set about stirring up American patriotism among settlers there.  When he camped near the highest summit of a mountain range bordering the valley, now called the Gabilan Range, at what is now known as Fremont Peak, he nearly provoked a battle with Mexican General Jose Castro, who had thousands of troups in the Monterey region.  Had the conflict occurred, Fremont's troops would likely have been annihilated.  It was judgments such as this near mistake that have left Fremont with a mixed reputation among historians, some saying his impetuous actions over-shadowed his military accomplishments, which other historians judge more highly.

Steinbeck Retreat Climbers

The same mixed assessment of 23 climbers who scrambled to the topmost point of Fremont Peak might be made as to whether their assault on the jagged peak was brave or foolish.  The oldest climber was 80 years young, and she, like all the rest of us, would not have missed the experience.

We did not climb the peak to start a war but rather to experience the emotions John Steinbeck shared in his account of Travels with Charley.  We were led not by Fremont but rather by historian, author, and host of The Thomas Jefferson Hour, Clay Jenkinson.  We had come together for a week to discuss John Steinbeck and his books, and to visit sites relevant to the man and his work.  It was our last day of hiking to places Steinbeck had visited and written about, and it was an especially awesome site.

Preserving the view

When Steinbeck wrote Travels with Charley, In Search of America, he was no longer young.  He had not visited his beloved California in several years, and living on the East Coast he sensed that he could no longer feel the pulse of the nation.  He decided to set out with his beloved standard poodle Charley 'in search of America.'  He had a camper custom-made atop a pickup, and he headed north to Maine and traveled across the upper states before reaching Monterey.

His return to the California coast of his youth was a disappointment, for the places he remembered were not the same, nor were the old friends who were still there.  "In my memory it stood as it once did and its outward appearance confused and angered me."  He realized that Thomas Wolfe had been right.  Steinbeck wrote:  "You can't go home again because home has ceased to exist except in the mothballs of memory."  However, he allowed himself one last sentimental thing.  He drove to Fremont's Peak, now Fremont Peak State Park,  and with his dog Charley, "...climbed the last spiky rocks to the top."

Reading from Travels with Charley

On March 8, 2017, 23 Steinbeck enthusiasts found foot and hand holds in the craggy rocks and helping hands to grasp as they summitted this rocky peak.  At the top, they listened as Steinbeck scholar Russ Eagle read the passage in which Steinbeck reclaimed his affection for this place from his youth.  "Here on these high rocks my memory myth repaired itself.  Charley, having explored the area, sat at my feet, his fringed ears blowing like laundry on a line." Charley had not been a part of Steinbeck's life in that region when he was a young man, so Steinbeck described for his canine companion his memories of the place,  relating what his heart saw rather than the changes which had so disturbed him.

When Steinbeck finished sharing his memories with the dog, he wrote, "I printed it once more on my eyes, south, west, and north, and then we hurried away from the permanent and changeless past where my mother is always shooting a wildcat and my father is always burning his name with his love."

My husband & I atop Fremont Peak

It was to hear Russ Eagle read those words in this place that all of us had risked personal safety to make the climb.  The sky was clear and the breeze was slight--the most perfect day of the trip, and we savored the experience a while longer before reversing our path.  It was a great day.

Isaac B. Werner was only a toddler when Fremont nearly started a war, but John C. Fremont became the 5th Territorial Governor of Arizona in 1878, the same year Isaac came to stake his claims in Kansas.  Although Fremont was born 3 decades before Isaac, he outlived Isaac by 5 years.  Both men are now a part of my experiences with history, but especially, my afternoon on Fremont Peak gave me a feeling of Steinbeck the man, beyond Steinbeck the writer.

Our Steinbeck Retreat was wonderful, and I will continue to share some of our experiences in future blogs.