Lynching Memorial in Montgomery Alabama

Posted on by Thor

Members of the onePULSE Foundation Board flew into Montgomery, Alabama to visit the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, commonly known as the Lynching Memorial. Pam Schwartz and I flew in the same day, but on a separate flight. While the Board explored the museum, I walked over to the memorial to sketch.

Entrance to the memorial costs $5 and there are two metal detectors for security. Video isn’t allowed but still photography is fine, although they don’t want people taking selfies in front of the sensitive  statues of enslaved people. Since we were only in town for a day, I had a change of underwear in my artist stool and I hoped I wouldn’t have to drag it out while going through the metal detectors. My sketch pad should get through fine.

I was surprised when security told me that I would have to leave my art bag behind, although I was told I could take out anything I needed. I said I would need my sketchbook and then I was informed that sketching was not allowed. I would also have to leave my art stool, so I faced the prospect of standing for several hours as I sketched, which can be exhausting. I decided to turn on my heel, get my refund, and leave.

I hiked around the block until I found this view of the memorial from an abandoned empty lot across the street. About half way into this sketch another security guard walked down the steps and across the street from me. I stiffened up, thinking he might try and stop me from sketching from this public spot. The opposite happened. He apologized and said I could could sit inside on one of the granite benches if I wanted to. I thanked him for the offer but I was already deeply committed to this sketch. I also had shade from a tree on the empty lot which was needed. There were few trees inside the memorial property.

This is the nation’s first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved
black people, people terrorized by lynching, African Americans
humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color
burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence. The memorial uses sculpture, art, and design to contextualize racial
terror. The site includes a memorial square with 800 six-foot monuments
to symbolize thousands of racial terror lynching victims in the United
States and the counties and states where this terrorism took place. These rust colored monuments hang from the ceiling. The Equal Justice Initiative is inviting counties across the country to claim their monuments and
install them in their permanent homes in the counties they represent.

The streets of Montgomery, Alabama are strangely deserted. I got the feeling like I was the last man on earth walking the quiet streets. When a car did rush by it seemed out of place. The city wears its history of hate and racism on its sleeve with pride.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings House Tour

Posted on by Thor

 Pam Schwartz and I drove to Cross Creek, Florida to see the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home. Her cracker-style home and farm, where she wrote her Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Yearling and other wonderful works of fiction, has been restored and is preserved as it was when she lived there.

She was born on August 8, 1896, in Washington, DC. In 1933, after the publication of her first book, she and her husband Charles were divorced; living in rural Florida did not appeal to him.

Her biggest success came in 1938 with The Yearling, a story about a Florida boy, his pet
deer, and his relationship with his father, which she originally intended
as a story for young readers. It was selected for the Book-of-the-Month
Club, and it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1939. MGM purchased the rights to the film version, which was released in 1946, and it made her famous. Gregory Peck who starred as the father in the film adaptation is said to have stayed as a guest in Marjorie’s Cross Creek home.

Marjorie loved the local characters who inspired the characters in her books. One cantankerous woman described by the author as an “angry and efficient canary” was enraged by how she felt she was depicted in one of the books. She sued the author for $100,000 in defamation. The case was eventually dismissed by a judge, but the case was overturned in an appellate court and the author was ordered to pay the woman $1 in damages. This was also a victory, but Marjorie must have payed lawyers plenty of money to defend herself. After this case she never again wrote about her Cross Creek neighbors. Hardened Florida neighbors would never again appear in the pages of her books. They just weren’t worth it.

The cracker home is lovingly restored to look exactly as it did when Marjorie lived here. Chickens ran around the grass and a small orchard of orange trees was still in the back yard. She wrote about the struggle of trying to save a crop of these oranges from the freeze. In 2007, the house and farm yard was designated
as a National Historic Landmark, our nation’s highest historic
recognition. Marjorie died on December 14, 1953 in St. Augustine, Florida.

After touring the house, we went to the Yearling Restaurant (Hawthorne, FL) for pulled pork and a chance to sketch a local guitarist in the rustic setting. The musician seemed convinced I would make a mint on the sketch and seemed upset that I wasn’t cutting him in on the yet-to-be-seen profits. Then we hiked in the Ocala National Forest where The Yearling was filmed. Only hints of the foundations remained of the movie set. We also ran across an old cracker cemetery with maybe 10 graves from early settlers. Hiking out we came across two hikers who had on short shorts and were carrying gardening sheers. There were two paths into the forest and they asked us how long a hike it was. Rather than take a path they started cutting their own path into the forest with the sheers. Pam kept looking back convinced they might be murderers. She was ready to take out the one on the right. The trail head is out in the middle of nowhere and oddly the two mystery hikers had no car parked at the entrance. It must be miles to the next town. Maybe they jogged, but they didn’t seem winded.

In skimming news posts, I found out that bodies are always being found in Ocala National Forest. In 2018, a dismembered female torso was found by a hiker in the 387,000-acre forest. Police send out a photo of a beautiful robin tattoo in the hope that someone in the community might identify the remains. Within 24 hours, she was identified as Robin Lee Upson of Belleview, Fl. Christopher Lee Takhvar, 43, of Hawaii, became the number one suspect
after Upson’s mother told detectives that her daughter and Takhvar had
argued.

Takhvar was Upson’s business partner and had traveled from Hawaii to help her with some work.

While at Upson’s residence, the two began to argue. During the argument, he killed Upson and then stole her van. The van was later found in Orlando.

Takhvar claims that he killed Upson in self-defense. He stated that she came at him with a knife so he defended himself with a chainsaw
that he “accidentally turned on” as he was defending himself. He then “accidentally” decapitated the woman and dismembered her body with the chainsaw. He cut off her arms, legs,
and head and buried them in the backyard of Upson’s home. He then
discarded her torso in the Ocala National forest.

Takhvar fled to Texas where
he was arrested on August 15, on an outstanding Marion County warrant
for Grand Theft Auto. 

Mrs Wilkes Dining room in Savannah Georgia

Posted on by Thor

I was traveling through Georgia with Pam Schwartz, John Naughton and a relative of John’s named Ben Wozniak. John had researched Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining room (107 West Jones St. Savannah, GA 31401) and it was the main reason we stopped in the historic city.

A line gathers each morning at 11 o’clock. That line literally wraps around the block. When the doors open, the lunch crowd finds seats at one of the large
tables-for-ten shared by strangers. Tabletops are crowded with platters
of fried chicken and cornbread dressing, sweet potato souffle,
black-eyed peas, okra gumbo, corn muffins and biscuits. We had our choice of some 24 food options all on one table! The menu changes
daily so regulars can have something different every day. There is a unique pleasure of having a meal shared with neighbors and
strangers. Lunch is $23 per person but reservations do not exist. You just need to get in line and hope to get in. The place is closed in January so don’t drive up that way immediately.

This dining experience was the highlight of the trip. You had to pace yourself to be sure you tried everything but had seconds of what you truly loved. It was like having Thanksgiving with strangers. John purchased the Mrs. Wilkes’ Cookbook and Pam took down some of the recipes, so we will be trying some of these traditional southern dishes.

We also explored some of the city’s historic squares in Savannah to walk off the huge meal we had. The final destination of the trip was Charleston, South Carolina where Pam and I visited my sister Shirley Steinmetz. The three of us went to the River Dogs’ baseball stadium where the game was interrupted by a complete solar eclipse. We had the necessary solar glasses to watch the sun as it was eclipsed. When the day turned black everything became completely silent. Then as the sky began to turn light again, the game resumed.

My sister loves genealogy, as do Pam and I, so there was plenty to talk about at my sister’s house. Pam has encouraged me to do research online and I am amazed at the amount of legal documents that are available at the press of a button. I am able to quickly find source documents to verify all the information on my tree. There are still road blocks, but the journey is what is exciting.

The road trip back to Orlando was as much fun as the trip north to Charleston. John Naughton did all the driving. He and Pam discussed recipes in the front seats and I dozed off in the back seat as the miles flew by.

Visiting Great Aunt Erma Gruhn

Posted on by Thor

By Pam Schwartz

Since April of 2016 I have lost most of my grandparents generation of
relatives: my Great Uncle Hugo at 88, Grandma Rose at 93, Grandma Martha
at 97, Great Aunt Lucille at 98, and my Great Aunt Gladys at 100. 

 I moved to Florida in January 2016 and since then every time I have gone
home, I have done my best to see each of them. This Thanksgiving and
Christmas I spent as much time with my 99 year old Great Aunt Erma (my
father’s aunt) as I could, (a bout with food
poisoning and bad weather were unhelpful) which amounted to about 7-8
hours over both trips. 

During this time Aunt Erma and I talked about many things and I recorded
our conversation as an oral history. Aunt Erma is the matriarch of my
family and that last tie I have to my Grandparents’ generation. Since my
Grandpa Vernon (her brother) died when I
was 3 and my Grandma Martha never remembered, or didn’t share, many
stories of her childhood, I have learned so much from her about them and
it means so much to me. 

It’s amazing how much time you can spend talking to your family members
and then when they pass you still have so many questions. I asked my
Aunt Erma what it was like growing up with her parents and my grandpa. I
find it sad that I never got to meet my great
grandparents, but Aunt Erma only ever met one of her grandparents as the others passed before she was born. 

 On the Thanksgiving trip we talked about her childhood, my great
grandparents, my grandpa (her brother), Christmas at their house, what
they ate and did for fun, my great grandfather having had a ticket on
the Titanic that he (luckily) gave up, she talked of
my great-great uncle’s suicide just months after my great grandfather
came from Germany to join him here in the US leaving him alone as a 14
year old boy to find his way, and more. 

She even told me stories about my mother’s mom that I
wasn’t expecting since it was from the other side of the family. She
described her, Rosie, as always being so jolly and full of fun. It made
my heart melt to hear it,
because that was the grandma that I had always known. Always a smile,
and a twinkle in her eye. She explained that my Grandma Martha had a bit
of a tougher upbringing and so was harder in a way, but said that you
could always count on her to lend a hand, and
bring lunch and a cake over for any illness, hardship, or holiday. And
that too, was how I knew my Grandma Martha, though Erma provided more
insight into Martha’s childhood then I ever thought I’d know. 

 It is hard to pick which stories to tell as so many were told in those
seemingly fast running hours. Tom came with me over Christmas and did
this sketch as Aunt Erma and I discussed her marriage, a falling out
with my grandparents over the family farm, and
the 1958 car accident which horrifically took my Grandma Martha’s
brother and his wife, badly injuring their two children and my
grandfather. 

As many interviews as I have recorded with my family, you can never
capture all of the memories. If you have older loved ones, don’t wait.
Spend time with them, ask questions, and record or write down what they
say.

Christmas Day in Iowa

Posted on by Thor

There is no internet reception in this small Iowa town except with a daily brief phone hot spot, so I didn’t write up the Christmas posts until I got back to Orlando. Christmas day the kids presents were boxed up under the tree. There was some attempt at setting order in opening the presents, but the kids had ideas of their own and it became a free-for-all of ripping paper as presents were opened. Allie got a pretty sweet mermaid’s tail from Pam, Jenni, and I. It is made of really warm fleece and is great for cuddling up on a cold night. It is also rather large because Pam demonstrated how it worked for her parents several days before Christmas. I am pretty certain it is far more hip that the bunny suit pajamas modeled in A Christmas Story. Pam and I ended up with some pretty great warm winter socks. They were needed to keep our feet warm at night since no amount of covers are quite warm enough.

This was the first Christmas where the family didn’t go to Grandmother’s house for a big family meal. Grandma Martha Schwartz passed away this year leaving a void in that holiday tradition.  Instead, a large roast was cooking in the oven all day. An extra table was brought out so everyone could find a seat. Luke ate two heaping plates of meat. I have never seen a man eat so much meat in one sitting. For me that was the Christmas miracle of the day. I helped in clearing the tables and then the games resumed for the rest of Christmas day.

Game Night in Iowa

Posted on by Thor

The night before, we had watched a West World marathon for who knows how many hours. This evening was set aside for games, be they board games, card games, what have you. Preston was over for part of the night. He sat on the recliner chair scrolling through his iPhone. Pam sat at the kitchen table, which is mission central for games. Since Preston was up for a game that meant I wouldn’t be needed to fill out a a four player set.  That left me time to complete this sketch.

For the first time, I re-cropped the sketch several time as I was working on it. This is a feature I have been waiting for. In this case I had to make the sketch a bit bigger since Preston sat in the foreground. I didn’t want to crop him off at the knees. The Christmas tree was to my left and can be seen reflected in the sliding glass door in the back of the scene.

I used the perspective tool to chisel in the composition quickly. When I started painting, the lights were off in the kitchen and when they were turned on, I kept painting to lighten up the scene. This was a good way to work guaranteeing that I progressed from dark to light. There is an inviting warmth to the scene as the family gathered around the table to play.

Making Ribbons at the Center

Posted on by Thor

On May 22, 2017 there was a suicide bombing at the The Manchester Arena in the United Kingdom. An Islamic terrorist
detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb as people were leaving the
Manchester Arena following a concert by the American singer Ariana
Grande. The incident was treated as an act of terrorism. 22 innocent concert goers died. 59 were injured.

A year before in Orlando we had suffered an act of terrorism that took 49 lives at the Pulse Nightclub. As an act of solidarity with the City of Manchester, people gathered at The Center (946 N Mills Ave, Orlando, FL 32803). A video crew was on hand to record a video of support and love for the city of Manchester. Members of the Orange County Regional History Center had gone to the event to show their support. They all sat around the conference table waiting for the event to begin.

Someone mentioned that there was a bag of pins and unfolded ribbons that were waiting to be made. Pam Schwartz, the chief curator at the History Center suggested they get the bag out since there were many idle hands. Soon everyone was folding the ribbons and securing them with pins. I tried a few myself and it is a tricky process at first, which quickly becomes routine. Ribbons began to pile up on the table. I am sure the safety pins pricked more that a few fingers.

Soon members of the community were being recorded with their words of support and this impromptu ribbon making session became the backdrop for this video of solidarity. What the world needs now is love sweet love, now more that ever.

Baking Cookies

Posted on by Thor

The kitchen is the hub of so many family activities leading up to Christmas in the Schwartz family home in Iowa. Every morning the home would fill with the smell of bacon along with pancakes, waffles, or eggs. Large roasts would bake for hours in the oven for dinner. I have no doubt that I gained a few pounds this holiday season. I imagine that any extra weight helps to keep warm as temperatures plummet. It did snow while we were there, but it was only a dusting of less than an inch.

The cookie batter was mixed in the electric mixer in the foreground and at this stage there were many cooks in the kitchen. I couldn’t catch them all as they crowded around the mixer and then dispersed. Ron was the most focused remaining consistently in the corner of the kitchen mixing pizza crust by hand in a small yellow bowl. I also caught Destiny. I believe she was placing the balls of batter on cooking sheets as I sketched her.

Pam and her mom were also in the mix, but they moved off before I could catch them in the sketch. Plans were made for the Christmas day dinner well ahead of time. The cookies were a fluffy crunchy peanut concoction with marshmallows inside. They tasted amazing. The Tupperware they were stored in didn’t snap together very well, so we had to eat them before they went stale.  We ate them for days.

Venison Grind

Posted on by Thor

Over the Christmas holidays, Pam Schwartz and I went to her parents’ house in Iowa. Deer hunting season started September 15, 2018 and ends January 27, 2019. A local TV news story was about the problem of deer causing damage to cars and people on the roadways. Iowa in one of the top 5 states where you are most likely to hit a deer. It is estimated deer, elk, moose, and caribou collisions dropped
slightly to 1.33 million in the U.S. between July 1, 2017 and June 30,
2018 — down from 1.34 million in 2017, despite the fact
that there are nearly four million more licensed drivers.

The family has a large shed with an automotive lift and a huge refrigeration unit for storing the season’s meat. We went shopping before Christmas at a local sporting shop. Ron had blown off the sight on one of his trusted hunting rifles and needed to get it fixed. We also shopped for casings and the associated spices needed for preparation of the meat.

Before Christmas, fellow hunters and neighbors came over to the house to grind deer meat in the shed. I decided it might be a sketch opportunity. On the floor was this collection of deer heads on a plastic sheet. I got right to work on the sketch. The actual grinding was happening behind me. I could hear folks chatting as work commenced. This felt like a friendly community activity.

Ron Schwartz explained that one of the skulls had been dug up on a trail, only a small bit of antler had been visible. Ron threw the one tiny antler on the floor as I was sketching saying, “That’s all that’s left of that one.” I was left with the impression that the skull had been blown apart.

One hunter, looking over my shoulder spoke with some reverence about the deer head on the upper right. He pointed out that the antlers on one side were much more developed than the antlers on the other side. He also said, “He was one hell of a fighter.” The eyes were open and wet.

There is a nice collection of deer themed prints in the Schwartz home. One that I particularly like is of a deer wandering out onto a field of cut corn with her fawn after dark as it snows. A single light shining from a far farm window was the only sign that humans might inhabit this gorgeous landscape.

Meat was ground into sausage and smoked. That night, we all tried some and it was delicious.

St. Louis Arch

Posted on by Thor

Chief Curator Pam Schwartz and her team from the Orange County Regional History Center went to St. Louis to collect awards their institution had garnered. While they were in the museum conference, I wandered the city of St. Louis for a day-long sketch crawl. My first stop was to sketch the Gateway Arch.

The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot monument, clad in stainless steel. It is the world’s tallest arch, the tallest
man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, and Missouri’s tallest
accessible building. The arch honors the Louisiana Purchase and Saint Louis in it’s role in the westward expansion of the United States. It is considered by many to be the Gateway to the West. The arch has just undergone a 380 million dollar renovation making it and the park more accessible. As I sketched, the park next to me was fenced off and being re-landscaped.

The Old St. Louis County Courthouse (11 N 4th St, St. Louis, MO 63102) was built as a combination federal and state courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri. It was Missouri’s tallest habitable building from 1864 to 1894, and is now part of the Gateway Arch National Park and operated by the National Park Service for historical exhibits and events.

In 1872 Virginia Minor attempted to vote in a St. Louis election and was arrested. Her trials, including the deliberations before the Missouri Supreme Court, were held in this building. The United States Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett (1875) upheld the male-only voting rules, as the Constitution did not address voting rules, which were set by the states. The Minor v. Happersett ruling was based on an interpretation of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Supreme Court readily accepted that Minor was a citizen of the
United States, but it held that the constitutionally protected
privileges of citizenship did not include the right to vote.