A gentleman properly opens the car door for a lady, and you will NOT believe the true story of this photo I found near top when googling for an image of chivalry.
Yep, that's my own mother, Ruth Anne Meyer, then, and this photo (that came from the Indianapolis newspaper -- and the clipping still exists in a family photo album), was announcing my mother's having won BEST DRIVER IN INDIANA in a Ford Motor Company contest -- and I have contended it was the NAZI connection that actually got her the win, Henry Ford and Joe Kennedy being the top people in the USA urging FDR to join with Hitler, rather than against him.
The US Government put both Mom's brothers on the NO FIGHTING IN EUROPE LIST -- with many others, thought to be NAZI sympathizers. They fought valiantly in the South Pacific.
My mother always won EVERYTHING, very heavily competing in 4-H Clubs. Like Robin-the-Writer in Puerto Vallarta Writers Group quoted his father last week, "If it's worth doing -- it's worth doing RIGHT!" That is the type family I come from too and I will ALWAYS stand for that value.
This photo is so perfectly my mother -- the hair part and style, the padded shoulders and still trim youthfulness of her amply-breasted body. And look how she deftly is bowed to compensate for her six-foot height.
>>> OK, LET'S GET GOING:
Perhaps the BEST time I have spent in recent years, was the time I spent the last several days "grading" entries to the annual Anthology of our writers group, and while I quickly shifted to amusement rather than irritation at all the careless errors so many made, I also came to have a far greater respect for each and every person who had made any effort. In short, I came to respect the CASUAL writers -- not just those trying to be professional. I trust this will reduce the "snottiness" factor in my personality.
The one thing I found most disconcerting was that about half the writers used "lady" or "gentleman" where woman or man is called for. I was first disabused of this by Aldine Gearhart, my 11th grade English teacher in West Chester, Pennsylvania -- and absolutely every teacher of English after that.
Now, I rather like some of the anachronistic trappings of chivalry -- I LOVE opening doors for women, the aged, or infirm. My mother taught us much of this by NEVER opening a door for herself in public. She'd wait for us kids to do that, and we learned quickly to anticipate the doors she would pass through -- she was not known for her patience or her "even temper".
But here's the problem: if SOME women are "ladies" (just means a woman who puts on airs), and get respected, then the remaining women are not due respect -- and who can judge which are actually which???
Think of Margaret Thatcher or Nancy Reagan. Some call them ladies -- despite all their known crimes (or the sexual indiscretions of Mrs. Reagan -- Hello Frank Sinatra!!!).
Now, my wealthy Kenan relatives are TOTALLY into feudalism and chivalry -- and at least at the ancestral home of the Kenans, Liberty Hall in Kenansville, NC, they STILL perpetrate the lie that Marie D. DeLamar PROVED was a lie, when they hired her to update the family history, and that was published in 1999.
"Christian Feudalism" would be a better title for this.
You see, when the first edition of the book THE KENAN FAMILY was published in 1967, included was the bloodline of one of three Kenan brothers who emigrated to North Carolina in 1730, having married Elizabeth Johnston, who was the daughter of Gabriel Johnston, the Royal Governor of North Carolina. I was not descended from that line, but the wealthy and powerful Kenan were -- but actually they were NOT.
From this marriage -- proven to never have happened, although that Thomas Kenan DID marry a woman with that name -- the Kenans got the most amazing bloodline, traced all the way back through the Stuart monarchs of Scotland, a Chief Justice of Great Britain, TWO Magna Carta Sureties (father and son, surnamed de Clare), many Dukes of Normandy, Charlemagne, and his predecessors, mostly monarchs named Pepin.
And one of those (Pepin the Short), was credited with inventing the feudal system. What was that, exactly??? Well, you can look it up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_Empire.
When Christianity overtook the Roman Empire, its biggest enemy, democracy, HAD TO GO. That is why the system developed, and with mixed results. While it was a HUGE loss of rights for Roman Citizens, it was huge PROGRESS for the previously uncivilized, like the German Huns (and I suppose the Scots as well -- beyond Hadrian's Wall).
That's enough about that. You can do any further research on your own. But I want to tell more of my family story -- both the lies and the truth.
You see, the earliest progenitor I could find was a monarch who ruled in Northern Italy right after the fall of the empire, and at the SAME TIME, the Sinatra family ruled in southern Italy and Sicily. Most people know that "Sinatra" actually means "Senator", and that family was a banding together of Roman Senators by marriage connections -- hoping to one day resurrect Democracy, you might say.
And today, the Kenan and Sinatra Families control Bank of America, founded in San Francisco as The Bank of Italy -- ha-HA!!!
But my favorite of the Sinatras that I know as actual friends, Danny, is banned for life from having an account at BoA, for reasons I will not here elaborate -- but I assure you they are colorful. Which reminds me that Danny's wife, Phoebe Dollar, the reigning queen of "goth" movies, is now working again after a four year break when their daughter was born. Phoebe's Dad, whose name I forget so I call him "Confederate Dollar" because he was fired from the Raleigh Police Department years ago -- for refusing to break the law as an officer, loved to tell how he had then tried to join the Ku Klux Klan, but even THEY rejected him -- they having some actual STANDARDS -- LOL!!!
I used to just LOVE smoking pot with Confederate Dollar on the edge of the Cape Fear River with our backs to the Wilmington Police surveillance cameras.
Danny and Phoebe Sinatra with their "Little Dividend"
I think the "pod of Sinatras" living in Wilmington are the town's actual most colorful characters -- although Danny's Mom, Patricia, who manages Sinatra Family Enterprises -- and drives a school bus as well -- would probably prefer I not write all of this, but she lives in California. It was SHE who admitted they had pressured the Gambinos to stuff ballot boxes in Chicago to steal the election for Jack Kennedy).
>>> BUT YOU KNOW, I ALWAYS LIKE TO HAVE A KICKER. HERE IT IS:
About ten years ago, my sister-in-law's mother, Ann Godley, traced HER family tree -- and it turns out she can PROVE she is descended from Royal Governor Gabriel Johnston of North Carolina -- so even though the rich Kenans do NOT have that royal line -- my sister-in-law and my nephews and niece all DO!!!
Connor Michael Kenan in Thailand a year ago -- taming a Republican!!!
And my niece and nephews also share my "Cherokee Injun Smidge" (1/16, I think) -- so NO TELLIN' what's in store for them as time goes by . . .
Scott
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