Basic attitude: what’s actually happening here?

A wedding is a transaction between a community and a couple. The couple is legitimized, and promised aid, and the couple, in turn, swear a most excellent oath that they truly do love, and will love one another, and help one another to grow in the best possible way.

Much wedding advice emphasizes an egotistic point of view: “it’s my / our special day.” But, really a wedding is a community building event. You’re telling a story to your community about itself and your role within it. So, focus on your mate and your wedding guests: with such potent and wonderful raw ingredients as a wedding is made of, you cannot fail.

After all, as Cole Porter said: it’s “nice work if you can get it.” So relax, and savor. You will never again have the people you love most in the world collected together for this reason.

As with any creative act, be in awe of your ingredients, and put them together simply, with good timing. You are working with potent stuff!

During the wedding, I found my thoughts often returning to Joseph Campbell, the mythologist, and his ideas about the function of ceremonies to guide individuals through the stages of life. A wedding marks one of the major transitions in life, from childhood, to maturity, and so it’s a “once in a lifetime” moment. Life stretches from this moment, towards death. Either biologically or culturally the couple will be a creative force in the world. All this inevitably pushes the mind towards meaningful thoughts of life and death, which is the source of the great power of weddings.

Objectively, you’re just normal folks doing something fairly routine. But on another level, you are enacting an archetypical ceremony which has been honed and refined over thousands of years. The potential is there for you to experience a peak of subjective experience which will subtly work to transition you to a new life phase.

Grooms’ broken “cultural script”

I read many books, my favorite of which was A Practical Wedding, and did a lot of research online. It was so hard to find any good, meaningful content for men who are getting married! Grooms are supposed to be man-children who allow their “crazy fiancee” to make all the decisions. The only important event to grooms is supposedly the bachelor party, in which he will say a debaucherous farewell to his “freedom.”

I found these ideas and attitudes deeply unhelpful. I feel bad for all grooms. With such cultural baggage, it takes an unusually thoughtful and secure groom to avoid being tripped up.

Perhaps I am a creation of my times. Some of the better articles I read referenced shifting cultural habits: nowadays, more weddings are paid for by both the bride and groom. I paid for half of the wedding, why shouldn’t I make sure I’m paying for something that is meaningful and fun for me as well as my future wife?

Imagine, instead of a wedding, you were planning a huge, no-expenses party for the most important people in your life. What is more, you get to introduce different groups of people (your college friends, your wife’s friends, your old roommates in the city, your family, your wife’s family) to one another. It’s a reunion of all your loved ones and a celebration of your lives up to that point. You enjoy parties, right? Would you want to be totally disconnected, marginalized, and kicked out of the planning of the biggest party ever? Of course not! Don’t you care about who will be invited, where it will be, what you will be doing? The music that will played at the dance party? The food that you will eat? The alcohol that you will drink?

I suggest chucking the cultural script in the garbage bin and taking an active role in planning the wedding. You, your wife, your family, and all involved will enjoy the day much more if you’re a fundamental part of it.

Because of my active role in the planning of our wedding, I picked up knowledge I thought other couples currently planning weddings might find useful. Below are some tips, from a male perspective, on planning an affordable, meaningful, and wonderful wedding.

Practicalities

The importance of focusing—and punting on the other things

Too many people try to “do it all” … a wedding planner friend told me stories of $1000 bags of rose petals and such … pick just a few “special things” and focus your efforts on those. Punt or make the minimum necessary effort on the others. You only need a few truly memorable things to make your wedding a great success.

We focused on:

• choosing a most excellent venue: it was at a summer camp, and once they arrived, no one had to drive anywhere
• performances of music and theater: a live band, the Talent Show
• the photo boards (this was Kevin’s big project)

We punted on:

• the food (we gave slight guidance and then delegated to the chef completely)
• the music (outside of the live band, we had a Spotify playlist)
• the place cards (we just bought a set of cardboard numbers for $15 and printed an Excel spreadsheet of seat assignments)

If things go wrong

You’re not doing it all yourself. People bring their best selves to a wedding—if anything goes wrong, you will have help. I remember when we wanted to go to “The Boogie Barn” for our late night dance party, we hadn’t figured out how to carry over the keg from the dining hall. In actuality, there was a team of 5 burly guys who carried it wherever we went. When loading or unloading things, we had more helpers than we knew what to do with.

With so many people around, you’ll be hard-pressed for anything to truly fall through the cracks. And if it does, not many people will notice or care. If, in the end, you are married, and had food and drinks and dancing, then everything pretty much went as it should.

Remember that people want to feel a part of the wedding, so accept their offers to help. This leads me to…

Roles for community members

This is why the traditional wedding has roles for the community: the wedding party, the Best Man’s speech, the Maid of Honor’s speech …

Embrace this: assign roles to your community members. This makes the event feel organic and creates a feeling of participation, ownership and pride in your group. You most definitely want this. If you have more community members than you have roles, create more roles: for example, the girls in our friend group have the tradition of crafting decorations for the reception.

On the Friday before the wedding we created a “Talent Show” … but in a big way. We asked our friends and families to perform for each other and 7 groups agreed … there was a Trapeze Act, an Improv Comedy show, my parents, aunts and uncles sang traditional church music, one friend wrote the most amazing “Gangsta Rap” with biographical lyrics … I created a playful “program” … Another friend mixed the drinks for us. Another friend carried the train of Meg’s wedding dress. We asked our best old friend to be the officiant and she wrote an incredible speech for us.

Choosing a venue (more space and time is better)

Each hour is precious. Your goal is to enable more “quality time” and reduce time spent figuring out banal logistics. The guests will not self-organize very much just out of shyness, uncertainty, inertia, and other things to do.

When we have traveled for weddings I’ve generally been dismayed by how much time was consumed by meaningless shuffling around and confusion. In New York City, for example, people stayed in different areas of the city: 10-20 blocks looks small on a map but, in the morning when you consider: “Where to get coffee?” 20 blocks is barrier that blocks coordinated activity. Also, the huge city has a pull of its own, away from the focus of your wedding.

We preferred a rural location for our wedding: we rented a summer camp. Once the guests arrived on Friday night, they could park their cars, and not drive again until Sunday afternoon. Most everyone slept, and all meals were served onsite. We were extremely happy with this decision. It was a fundamental choice which made everything easier, cheaper, and created space and time to allow wedding energy to be focused.

Of course the summer camp idea isn’t for everyone. But, I think some of the ideas could be adapted to any wedding: creating some geographic location to focus on, perhaps by getting the cooperation of a restaurant to be the “community bar” for the weekend.

Consider the problem of what to do the night before the wedding: often the wedding party will do their “rehearsal dinner” and leave everyone else in dark. If simple plans were laid just: “Billy’s Pizzeria is the official restaurant for the wedding and everyone should meet up there on Friday night,” then the wedding party can join the other party as soon as they are done with their rehearsal, and you’ve created a fantastic night. The anticipation of the two groups joining will create a good emotional arc.

Good news—spending more can make the feeling worse

“After all, what really matters on your wedding day, what you’ll remember ‘til you’re old and gray, is not so much how it looked as how it felt.” –“A Practical Wedding” Meg Keene

Meg and I both loved this quote and it summed up my experience of attending weddings. The audience is supremely intelligent and cannot be fooled by mere expense and opulence. In fact, this can be off-putting as a sign of “something to prove” and, the distastefulness of waste. Our favorite wedding of all time was done quite inexpensively, but with great attention, inventiveness, and love. In general, what I’m trying to say is that relationship between price and quality in weddings is very slim.

The logistical spreadsheet

Another tip from “A Practical Wedding,” was to create a “Day-Of” spreadsheet. To quote Meg Keene:

When you are finally down to the wire, wedding planning has nothing to do with style, and everything to do with hauling … This document will be the one you hand over to your helpers, what makes the day flow smoothly, and the one that allows you to fully let go, and absorb the experience of getting married, knowing there is a good plan, in competent hands.

I carried this with me the whole weekend, and it kept us sane. The process of creating the spreadsheet helped us to imagine and fully think through everything. Additionally, I could hand over this spreadsheet to any reasonably competent friend and trust that they could muddle through: in this way they would know our intentions (what is this box of random crap for?) and who else would be involved.

You can see our full Google Spreadsheet here.

“Who are all these people?”: Photoboards

There’s a good chance that most of the people you invite will have no idea who anybody else is. The time flies by, and attendees will be lucky to gain a basic understanding of your family. The traditional structure recognizes this and features your families and the wedding party, on purpose: so that the audience will take note of them and realize they are important in your life. But if you grasp the “educational” nature of a wedding, you can come up with other means of explaining just who everyone is.

My way of doing this was to create a series of photoboards. I organized them thematically: “Our Folks”, “Childhood”, “College / Travels”, “We Left our Hearts in San Francisco”, and “Meg & Kevin.”

After a number of false starts, I figured out the cheapest way: I bought five “foam core” boards and covered them in fabric. I sorted and selected the the pictures digitally (a huge undertaking, looking through thousands of photos …). I was able to print these out on a color printer at our local print shop (I think it cost something like $0.49 per page). Then, I cut them out of the 8.5x11” sheets using the paper cutter at the print shop. Finally I pinned the photos to the foam core using thumbtacks.

The photo boards were a great success! Late on the first evening, we saw some of our friends in the dark dining hall (the lights were off), using their phones as flashlights to look through the photos, and chuckling and sighing. Pictures are inherently fascinating to people. Even babies and toddlers understand pictures.

These pictures helped the wedding attendees understand who they all were, in relation to themselves. It helped to contextualize our lives, our families, our past, and the great value and meaning of this event for us.

Digital vs traditional invitations – and timing of digital invitations

Weddings are an occasion when tradition takes over, and stipulates certain behaviors. So, they evolve more slowly than normal life. This is especially evident when you consider how the invitations and communications happen.

Nowadays, most people organize themselves digitally. We send text messages or emails or Facebook messages to choose a time & place, and then we send reminders immediately beforehand. You don’t need to bring any physical documents with you in order to locate where you’re supposed to be, because you can always just look it up on your phone, or send a text message to confirm.

Weddings break this, because people send paper invitations, and often skip electronic communications. I think this is a risky way to follow tradition - in our case, we nearly missed a friend’s ceremony because we foolishly left the paper invitation at home and misunderstood the proximity of the wedding location. This caused us to drive recklessly down the highway, miss our exit, miraculous pull a U-turn through the highway median, and arrive just as the bridesmaids were lining up to walk down the aisle.

When Meg and I were married, we created a beautiful “Save the Date” email, months in advance. For the family members who did not have email access, we printed out our email and mailed it to them. After the “Save the Date,” we sent several more emails to remind folks about setting up accommodations, activities to do while in the Bay Area, and keeping the line of communication open for any questions people had leading up to the wedding. The only piece of physical mail we sent to everyone, was the physical invitation bundle w/RSVP cards. We found this mixture of digital communications and the physical RSVP cards provided great way to double-check our lists.

Most importantly, 2 days before the wedding, I sent one final email to everyone that contained the address of our wedding venue, so that as people were traveling, they would have all the information they needed at hand on their phones.

Videography: the uncharted territory of wedding photography

Professional wedding photographers are very good at one thing: lining everyone up and taking traditional wedding pictures. An amateur photographer might not have the crowd control abilities to carve out the space for pictures. And, those slightly staged pictures are invaluable. They are some of the best, highest quality pictures taken of folks in the prime of their lives. Just look at your grandparents’ wedding pictures, if you are lucky enough to have them. They’re treasures.

But, a few things: Our friend Ian, who is a great photographer, took ~600 pictures. Since Ian knows, and is known by, our group of friends, he was able to evoke very authentic, characteristic expressions and situations. In many ways, I much prefer Ian’s photos (which were free) to the $2500 professional photos.

Another thing is, we punted on the idea of a videographer. Professional photographers don’t tend to take video, I think it’s either a different skill, hard to sell, or people don’t realize they want this.

However, if a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video must be worth a million. You want a video of your wedding ceremony, and of the special events during the reception. When I look at our wedding photos, I smile and they’re cute. When I watch the video of our ceremony, and of the special events during the reception. When I look at our wedding photos, I smile and they’re cute. When I watch the video of our ceremony, I am transported back to that moment. It is invaluable.

So, I think that wedding photographers should offer videography. In the absence of this, ask one of your mindful friends to take a video with their iPhone. Even a shaky video is infinitely better than none at all. If you’re at a wedding, look around, and if no one else is recording the ceremony, pull out your iPhone and grab a recording of it. The bride and groom will be so thankful to you later.

As I battled my way through this book’s 944 pages, I gleefully contemplated the negative review I would compose. It can be maddening. And yet, since I have finished it, I find it coming frequently to mind. It has made its mark on me.

So, in the end, I give this book 4 stars, but subtract an additional one for its crazy length: 3 stars. Reader beware! There are treasures within, but also a great deal of drudgery and pain.

It has an “unreliable author problem.” As others have lamented, it should have been a memoir. The author Gregory David Roberts, is very similar to the protagonist of the book. He too is a criminal, born in Australia, jailed in New Zealand, who fled to India for 10 years to hide from the law.

In the end I realized that writing this was a form of psychotherapy for him, and we are along for the ride. Obsessed with his past, he drags us through it. If it had been a memoir, the extra constraint to be truthful, would have helped. Instead, he has allowed himself to romanticize an adventure story of his life, although painful regret inevitably catches up to show the lie.

The first half was best. I enjoyed his arrival in India and, especially, his description of the slum, the “zhopadpatti,” where he moved to save money and be able to live in India indefinitely without a visa. He describes the Indians with great zest and life. For example, I had never heard of the “Indian head bob”–but based on his description I found this adorable video. Learning more about India, via any means, is one of the pleasures of this book. Gruesome descriptions of violence and crime are another, if this is enjoyable for you. But why not just watch “The Godfather?”

But, the negatives of the book rear up and I found myself constantly questioning why, oh why, was I reading it?

For example, conversation so transparent it reminds of the movie The Room:

She died last week, Lin. My mother died last week.’ He turned to me, and the whites of his eyes were blazing with the tears he wouldn’t let them shed. ‘She died last week. And now, I’m getting married.’ ‘I’m sorry to hear about your mother, Johnny. But I’m sure she’d want you to get married. I think you’ll make a good father. In fact, I know you’ll make a good father. I’m sure of it.’

— Shantaram: A Novel (pp. 523-524).

Bad foreshadowing:

The one and only time that I saw the whole of the truth in his eyes—on a snow-covered mountain called Sorrow’s Reward— it was already too late, and I never saw it again.

— Shantaram: A Novel (p. 550).

Wise pronouncements which, become harder and harder to take seriously, given the source:

When all the guilt and shame for the bad we’ve done have run their course, it’s the good we did that can save us. But then, when salvation speaks, the secrets we kept, and the motives we concealed, creep from their shadows. They cling to us, those dark motives for our good deeds. Redemption’s climb is steepest if the good we did is soiled with secret shame.

— Shantaram: A Novel (p. 563).

However, some of his experiments are very successful. Some of my favorites were:

• A powerful description of slum justice administered to a drunk who beat his wife.

• The best description I have ever read of what its like to be high on Heroin.

• Likewise, wonderful advice on how to win a knife fight:

His second mistake was that he held the knife as if it was a sword and he was in a fencing match. A man uses an underhand grip when he expects his knife, like a gun, to do the fighting for him. But a knife isn’t a gun, of course, and in a knife fight it isn’t the weapon that does the fighting: it’s the man. The knife is just there to help him finish it. The winning grip is a dagger hold, with the blade downward, and the fist that holds it still free to punch. That grip gives a man maximum power in the downward thrust and an extra weapon in his closed fist.

— Shantaram: A Novel (p. 563).

There’s no denying this book is alive, vibrant, you can “taste the sweat on its skin,” so to speak. But the struggle to psychologically deal with the author is exhausting and the content is crazy long with very mixed quality. It needs more than an editor, it also needs a psychotherapist. Or, another few rounds on the wheel of karma.

Link to review on Goodreads, Amazon, and NextRead. Highlighted quotes and vocabulary words.

THE EMPEROR OF MALADIES

This “biography” of cancer is relevant to everyone and, due to its superb writing (considering the difficulty of the subject), it’s amazingly accessible. The book flows so well: it’s paced like a thriller, you hardly notice how much you’re learning. It’s like in the Matrix where Neo states: “I know Kung Fu,” except in this case “I know cancer.” Not as cool but tragically, more useful.

This was my favorite book of 2014 and the one I most recommend others read.

full review

TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC

TALES OF THE SOUTH PACFIC by James Michener is a rare book which communicates what it felt like to be involved in WWII. The budding genius author Michener had the privileged viewpoint of being “embedded” with the Navy during the war. He then lightly fictionalizes, organizes, and distills his experiences into 19 highly varied short stories which communicate something about what it felt like, and what it meant.

full review

WWII in the Pacific and the Pacific in general was a theme for me this year. I loved Michener’s HAWAII, but this is a 1100 page epic and, it’s rather a deep dive. But if you want a deeper understanding of Hawaii it’s a great start. I read two WWII Submarine narratives by Edward Beach, a legendary Navy officer: SUBMARINE! and RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP … and we watched the movie version of Run Silent, Run Deep.

A STILLNESS AT APPOMATTOX

You come to have huge respect for Bruce Catton for his ability to convey poetical feeling and overarching meaning via rock solid factual underpinning. He writes how, at the peak of the war:

“the nation itself had been heated to an unimaginable pitch … and now it had been put on the anvil, and the hammer was remorselessly coming down, beating a glowing metal into a different shape.”

The description of the horrifically gone wrong Battle of the Crater helped me understand just how tired, hungry, and ill, the soldiers were, and additionally, likely poorly educated with little ability to communicate using writing or maps.

Also, if only the Union Army had Google Maps! So many things went wrong because, entire armies were lead in the wrong direction and, bumbled into one another in random ways.

full review

THE PORTABLE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Every time I think I know everything about Franklin, I learn something new. For example, did you know about his love for swimming, that he was a leader in swimming education, and that he invented kiteboarding? He chased a whirlwind on his horse until a tree fell nearby “alerting him of the danger.” He invented Daylight Savings Time? He exchanged letters with David Hume? It just goes on and on.

full review

THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES

The work of Jung & Campbell is the point where the modern, secular western world is wrestling with the questions of life, death, and existence. The western world is just like me: traditional religions are not providing meaningful answers any more. But, that doesn’t we should give up wondering: we need to keep struggling. That’s what Jung and Campbell are doing and they are pointing the way for others to follow: people like me.

full review

FOUNDERS AT WORK: STORIES OF STARTUPS’ EARLY DAYS

The best business work I read all year. You have to read between the lines to realize that the author Jessica Livingston married the Y Combinator founder (and prolific essay writer) Paul Graham during the course of this book.

Perhaps this explains the amazing access Ms. Livingston had to some amazing startup founders. I really appreciate the interview style of writing as, it allows the unique personality of each interviewee to come through. For example, the interview with Steve Wozniak made me tear up. Other big names include Craig Newark of Craigslist, Charles Geschke of Adobe, David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals and creator of Ruby on Rails, and on and on: http://www.foundersatwork.com/interviews.html

full review

READY PLAYER ONE

To finish with a purely fun entry: Ready, Player One is a great cyberpunk thriller – similar to Snow Crash, but more poppy, easier to read, and a more classic plot. A huge amount of effort got put into all of the 80s references and the excellent plot. The book is a joy to read.

full review

All books of 2014

Stats

In 2013 I read 20 books.

For 2014, I was very ambitious and challenged myself to read 50 books during the year. Sadly I fell down fairly hard on my challenge and only read 25 books during the year. However, if you go by pages read the picture looks a little better ‘cause I read about 1.5 times as many pages in 2014.

• Goodreads list of all books read in 2014
• Amazon Reviews
• Goodread Stats

Method

For about three years I’ve had a timer app on my iphone that I use for reading, meditation, and pomodoro technique while working.

So, I use this app to force myself to read at least 20 minutes each morning with my coffee. I log this time on Beeminder to make it somewhat “official.”

This year I experimented with reading for 45 minutes each day, but I found after 20 minutes I started getting anxious about work and getting going with my day. Since I know I waste at least an hour each day reading low quality Reddit & Hacker News posts, I find this anxiety illogical. The time I spend reading is some of the highest quality time I have each day. So this year I will try once again to cut down on low quality internet reading and up my daily book reading time to 45m. In the past I blocked these sites from our home internet, but since I could easily bypass it by using the iPhone’s LTE connection, I found the block to be just annoying. I do wish that I could use a service like RescueTime on the iPhone because, I could set it up to only allow 30m of “distracting” internet browsing per day. There’s hope that the iOS 8 will eventually allow RescueTime to work on iPhone though.

I did about 50% of the reading on Kindle this year. I read a surprising amount of real paper books this year, however. Often the specific (sometimes obscure) books I wanted weren’t available for Kindle. I don’t mind because I’ve been having fun changing how I read. Earlier in the year I saw some neat blog posts about note taking while reading so, I’ve been using a pen as my bookmark and, challenging myself to make at least 3 marks on each page. This slows down my reading but it definitely increases my engagement with the text. This year I will probably upgrade my Kindle to the new Kindle Voyage and I think this will allow me to do more note taking while reading on the Kindle. I also think the Voyage will allow me to read more PDFs and content not bought from Amazon.

Another way of increasing my engagement with the text is to write more reviews of what I read.
This year I reviewed 13 out of 25 books (52%). Whereas last year I only reviewed 3/20 (15%).

Another thought I had is that, the most “hackable” moment of reading is really, choosing the next book to read. I have a problem where I tend to be overly ambitious. I choose dense, long, difficult books and this slows me down a lot. I have this concept of “reading momentum” where, you have to switch off between quick, fun, pleasure reads which boost your momentum, and long, difficult, meaty reads, which slow you down. (However, if you just read quick easy books, there’s the danger you’ll start to lose respect for reading in general. Because there are many pulpy, low quality books out there that aren’t really worth reading.)

Anyways, to try and choose better books to read, I’ve created a “reading list” spreadsheet and I’m trying to develop a “formula” based on the Amazon rating and number of reviews, and my own interest in the book, as well as shifting between different subject areas over time. 2015 should prove whether this idea can help me to pick better books to read.

I am fascinated by WWII and, have read probably a hundred books by historians, memoirs by soldiers and sailors, and so forth. Those are wonderful books but, they are nonfiction and fairly dry. They tell you a lot about what happened and why, but not much about how it felt.

For example, take WAR IN THE BOATS by William Ruhe. This is a WWII Pacific submarine memoir and an exact contemporary of TOTSP. The difference is, Ruhe is not a novelist. He tells you as best he can, what it was like but, one must be a mature reader to project context, feelings, and meaning onto the (indisputably incredible) story he tells. That is to say, Ruhe gives you the skeleton but it’s quite dry to read.

As I get older I often prefer more facts and less embellishment but, that’s because I am better able to fill in the details myself, and also the embellishment is often poorly done and ends up reducing your trust in the author and detracting from the story.

Michener is talented enough that, he embellishes terrifically and, is becoming one of my special authors:

I first read Michener’s HAWAII during a trip to that isle. Intrigued, I dug into Michener’s origins and discovered TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC, published in 1947. It won the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted by Rogers & Hammerstein for the musical SOUTH PACIFIC.

After this amazing beginning Michener went on to become one of the 20th century’s most prolific authors, writing huge historical epics (HAWAII was the first).

I found TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC to be more literary than HAWAII. Whereas Hawaii was a “historical epic genre novel”, his ambition in this book is more intimate and personal, and more true, like literature is true, with difficult to express real human situations, and great breadth.

Michener, an orphan raised by a Quaker, made very good use of his fortune, to the point where in wikipedia I read: “Michener became a major philanthropist, donating more than US$100 million to educational and writing institutions.”

I haven’t read his other epics yet although I think THE SOURCE may be next on my list.

Link to review on Goodreads and Amazon.

The book’s greatness grew on me. At first I chuckled at what I saw as a clumsy demonization of a 19th century missionary. But … then it began reminding me of Steinbeck’s EAST OF EDEN, where the telling of a story via “cartoon characters” was simply a requirement for constructing an epic. Both novels are ripping good cartoons, but when taken as a whole, far more than that. You feel bamboozled by master showmen, but also inspired and educated. Michener is not the poet that Steinbeck is, but he is an intellectual with many ideas: about the nature of islands, religion, racism, time and what survives, and WWII.

At times the way that events and characters would be bound together across hundreds of years (and pages) struck me and the effort put into the book showed.

If you can draw a moral from these pages, it is a pragmatic one. The characters who survive and thrive are the ones who are awake and adapt. The morally or intellectually lazy and brittle ones suffer and are forgotten, because time presses on and something new is always coming. In the end, I think Michener’s sympathy lies with life itself. You see the cartoonization going on but, at different points in the book he argues for, ultimately conflicting positions so clearly, that you are hard pressed to pin him down as a Christian, Buddhist, Atheist, or a Republican or a Democrat or … you see what I mean. He transcends easy labels.

This book is a great way to get a feel for “the meaning” of history, and the end result is, that I feel inspired to read more, and be more.

Thanks, James Michener! I think TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC may be my next book.

Link to review on Goodreads and Amazon.

The opening historical section left me deeply moved by the suffering and and nobility of the patients, and somewhat shocked by the daring of the doctors throughout the years, but also just amazed at the tenacity they’ve brought to the job, trying approach after approach and making slow, but, significant progress.

Then, in the second section, it’s exciting and satisfying to experience the discovery of genetic cancer therapies starting in the mid-70s. I now have a working knowledge of oncogenes, oncoviruses, and the history and method of cancer’s surgical, chemological, and genetic therapies. The medical writing is amazingly clear.

The book left me cautiously optimistic about the development of more and more nontoxic, genetic cancer therapies in the coming years. It has been a long, long, incredibly painful slog, but we are making progress.

Link to review on Goodreads and Amazon.

My new favorite: Dialogue Between Franklin and the Gout.

Every time I think I know everything about him, I learn something new. For example, did you know that Benjamin Franklin loved swimming, that he was a leader in swimming education, and that he invented kiteboarding? He chased a whirlwind on his horse until a tree fell nearby “alerting him of the danger.” He invented Daylight Savings Time? He exchanged letters with David Hume? It just goes on and on.

A huge blast of life radiates from these writings, 300 years after their composition.

Link to review on Goodreads and Amazon.

See this full list of all the interviews.

Link to review on Goodreads and Amazon.

And, it is cinematic, this could easily be the next “Hunger Games,” a big movie phenomenon. Imagine if they used the Oculus Rift or, the movie comes out in 2 years and this is just at the time that immersive VR goggles are hitting the market – it could take the world by storm! Invest now! by reading the book.

Link to review on Goodreads and Amazon.

Jung says basically that we have pre-programmed ideas in the mind that are as real as your arm or leg. He calls them archetypes: mother, the stranger, the trickster.

Just think about it—every mammal (at the least) must have an idea in its mind of “mother.” It’s like the hardware of the mind. When the mind “boots up” into consciousness, it has both hardware and software. The software elements of the mind are those that are changeable after birth, the “nurture” part of psychology. The hardware elements are those that are built in from birth: not just head, arms, and legs, but also certain fundamental ideas: mother, the stranger, the trickster. Jung’s name “collective unconscious” is somewhat misleading, I find. Instead I would name it: “shared foundations of mind.”

I find this fascinating: nature vs. nurture sounds banal, self-evident, and is something I’ve known since I was a teenager. But the idea that there are ideas in your mind that are genetically inherited: this is very interesting.

And so Joseph Campbell was a follower of Jung in that, he recognized that mythology is an expression of genetically embedded stories in our shared mind. He found the same story, what he calls the monomyth, told over and over again in myth. He called this story “the hero’s journey.” The story of the birth, growth, challenge, triumph, success, and death of heroes, the “dying god” is everywhere in our culture: Jesus, every children’s movie, and so on. I had never thought these thoughts before and I found, once exposed to them, they were self-evident, very meaningful, helpful, and comforting.

THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES is a very challenging book. It is one you could read over and over again. Campbell’s erudition is overwhelming. The subject is deep to the point of being scary, in the way that a really good spiritual book makes you wonder about making profound changes to your self and your life. It might force you to grow to the point where it would take a lot of energy and be painful.

Personally, why do I find Campbell so meaningful?

I have always struggled with religious questions. I have always been very curious and wondering, and always had existential pain: what is it all about? Where do we come from and, what’s the point of it all?

I was exposed to Christianity from a very young age, I read heavily and, good authors like C.S. Lewis. I had an intense conversion experience when I was about 15 and, this grew till I was 20. I really dug into Christianity but, as time went by I found that, it was making life harder for me. Fervently trying to fit the world into Christianity caused an immense strain and, in some ways it negatively affected my relationships with others. I found that Christianity was not providing acceptable answers to my questions.

The work of Jung & Campbell is the point where the modern, secular western world is wrestling with the questions of life, death, and existence. The western world is just like me: traditional religions are not providing meaningful answers any more. But, that doesn’t we should give up wondering: we need to keep struggling. That’s what Jung and Campbell are doing and they are pointing the way for others to follow: people like me.

References: * interview with Joseph Campbell.

Link to review on Goodreads and Amazon.

In his book, he passes the poetical feeling along to us. It includes amazing scenes: recounting the difficulties of integrating recently freed slaves into the army, and the songs they would sing around the campfires at night, about how deep inside General Grant was still “the young officer who longed to get away from camp and parade ground and live quietly as a teacher of mathematics,” and about how, at the peak of the war “the nation itself had been heated to an unimaginable pitch … and now it had been put on the anvil, and the hammer was remorselessly coming down, beating a glowing metal into a different shape.”

However, the beauty of his language is offset by the horror that he describes. I suppose I had been saving myself for greater maturity before I approached the US Civil War. Now I feel I was right, the casualty counts seem inflated by an order of magnitude over what I have ever read about before: according to Catton, at its peak, the Civil War was resulting in 2,000 Union deaths per day … that’s averaging out the single day battle counts, during which losing 7,000 soldiers was routine.

Worse than the numbers of casualties alone, is the sickening feeling of confusion and senselessness. For example, when he describes the Battle of the Crater. During the long siege of Petersburg, a group of soldiers, who were professional coal miners, sold their commanding officer on the idea of digging a tunnel 500’ under the enemy lines, then exploding a massive charge, and charging on the lines at the same instant. In this way they could break the siege. The problem is the officers didn’t really take the scheme seriously. The miners succeeded totally in exploding the enemy’s lines, however, the army was not prepared to exploit the breech, and took a very long time to charge, eventually going down into the crater created by the explosion, then becoming trapped there, and easily killed by the reformed Confederate lines.

It’s an almost inexplicable story, and sheds light more, for me, on just how tired, hungry, and ill, these men were, and additionally, likely poorly educated with little ability to communicate using writing or maps.

Additionally, I believe there is insight into the reasons behind the bitterness of “civil wars” as a genre. Catton points out the high casualty and long length of the war stemmed from the confusion, mixed loyalties and general overall stew going on in the country’s leadership at the time: some generals were appointed for strictly political reasons, and not war leadership competence. Washington DC, located within a day’s travel of much of the fighting, would attempt to control the situation, resulting in muddled instructions. After 3 years, Lincoln appointed Grant as ‘Lieutenant General’ (overall commander of the army entire) in a move of power consolidation, and even then it remained difficult to limit the micromanaging.

All in all this book is not difficult to read, it’s exhaustively researched, detailed and easy to follow, with numerous fascinating asides into relevant areas. As a stretch goal, it’s highly literary, and hits a mature note when summing up: it occasionally presents the war as glorious and “sacred,” but then it quickly turns bitter, showing at least the glamor, if not the sacredness, to have been an illusion, and then immediately cataloguing the awful consequences of the violence …

Although it’s not difficult to read, it is a difficult read, in that it leaves you with a heaviness and sadness and a wish that the Civil War might somehow have been avoided, but still remarking on how much the character of the country was, in a sense, created, by that trauma.

Link to review on Goodreads and Amazon.

My stage presence was lacking. I wasn’t confident, and it showed. I hunched over the guitar and stared at my hands. I didn’t smile, or ever look at the audience.

Suddenly, Big Ray pointed his huge, meaty finger at me and shouted: “Kevin! PLAY THAT THING!” Unsatisfied, he grabbed a spare guitar, and waded in to save me.

Ray’s guitar playing was not technically very good. He played very simply, perhaps one note in rhythm, bending the string.

But his was totally different, and BETTER, than my playing. He stood tall, he radiated confidence, he got louder, he got quieter, he looked at the audience, he smiled, he walked around and interacted with the drummer, with the bassist.

… I was by far my own worst critic. Not everyone in the audience is musical; many can’t tell when you play wrong notes. If you are smiling, and moving with the rhythm of the song, and sounds are coming from your guitar, all seems well.

It’s insulting if people come to see you play, and you don’t attempt to give a convincing performance by smiling and having good stage presence.

As with many other things in life, fake it till you make it.

Here’s a recording of us LIVE at Michigan Tech in the fall of 2003:

The Beginning

The genesis of the Breakers Blues Band was the Michigan Tech Jazz program, lead by talented and wonderful Mike Irish.

I played the trumpet in these bands all through college. But honestly, I hated the trumpet. The musician must match the instrument. The trumpet was everything I was not: brassy, loud, and over-confident.

The guitar, on the other hand, was fundamental, a rhythm instrument, it hung out in the background, keeping time and sounding groovy. Much more my speed. And I had been secretly playing the guitar (and the keyboard) since back in high school. I taught myself, from ”The Complete Easy Beatles” with simplified chord diagrams.

My trumpet hatred must have been obvious, because in the fall of 2003, there was an opening in the MTU Jazz band for a guitarist, and Mike Irish gave the spot to me. Thus my escape from the trumpet was accomplished.

Soon afterwards, there were a series of ‘jam sessions’ at the Motherlode cafe in downtown Houghton, which I shyly attended, although I rarely played.

One night a strange and interesting guy showed up:

It was a typical scene—the cafe full of stereotypical engineering students: shy, pale, slight, quiet, introverted, no one talking. Suddenly a tall, large, bearded, joyous man, leapt onto the stage with his saxophone, and passionately played, many notes, up and down the scale, moving his body with the rhythm, totally dominating the stage.

It was kind of shocking! Such a lack of reserve! Such confidence! Did we like it? Not sure. Did we notice? Definitely.

This was “Big Ray” Haywood, and shortly afterwards, he joined the MTU jazz band.

The charts we were playing were good practice, and very beautiful. But they were played straight from the charts, and solos were generally short, and somewhat rehearsed.

So, the opportunity was definitely there for smaller groups to form. But we were lacking id, or primal desire. If you had asked me if I wanted to form a band and go around gigging at bars, the idea wouldn’t have appealed to me. But I didn’t know what I was missing. ;)

However, Ray had a passion for the blues! He had already been in a band (the Crossroads Blues Band with his brother and others) back at home in Detroit, and here, he saw opportunity: music-making, and money-making potential.

The Perks of Fame

My junior year of college, I spent in Switzerland, learning French. It was so amazing, it reset all my expectations. When I came back, I felt really down. I didn’t want to be at Michigan Tech. For almost two years, I limped along, not enjoying much, frustrated, apathetic.

The root problem was my poor attitude. However, time cured me eventually: I just got tired of feeling down all the time, and I decided to live again, in the here and now, where I was.

The Breakers Blues Band was an important part of this new period of self-growth: I “came out of my shell.” We were successful. We had groupies. Our shows were always full: we regularly drew crowds of more than 100 people.

Also, I had a responsibility to pull my weight. This included having a good stage presence by appearing to enjoy myself. At first it was an act. But slowly, it became real.

I switched to the keyboard: piano blues can be so simple. I got a lot better. I learned how to solo: start off softly, build tension with a repetitive note or a riff, and then build a vocabulary of little tricks that sound cool. Our whole group got tighter: we were aggressively gigging: 2 shows a week for more than a year. It was a whole epoch of my life.

We even had away shows, in Marquette and Copper Harbor. We would throw afterparties and invite our fans to party with us. And, at one of these shows, I met my first real girlfriend: Mandy Edwards.

I spent many nights at home alone, saving money, drinking “Full Sail Amber Ale,” eating pasta, and watching films from Ebert’s Great Movies list. ;)

My dear friend Dan Simon came to visit me and he hated, hated, hated Mountain View. He paraphrased the poem Slough by John Betjeman:

“Come friendly bombs and fall on Mountain View! It isn’t fit for humans now, … Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans, Tinned minds, tinned breath.”

So, in my weekly meetings with my manager Stephanie Schoch, I started speaking about how I would like to move to San Francisco. Moving to San Francisco was a constant tension amongst the young folks at Ariba and on the Peninsula. The glittering city was the allure, but the cost was having to commute more than an hour every morning and evening.

Stephanie encouraged me, so I started taking the Caltrain up to SF on weekends and at night to go to apartment open houses. At first I fell into a common trap: renting a studio in the TenderKnob. When I told Stephanie about this, she said: “You’re not living in some bullshit studio in the Tenderloin! You’re living in the Mission!”

So I decided that I wanted to move in with a group of housemates in a shared apartment in the Mission. I went to a few open houses, but they were so competitive, and I hated feeling judged or having to “sell myself” to potential roommates.

So, I came up with a new plan. I found a “Roommate Meetup” group where people seeking roommates could meet, in a bar, and try to connect. The people who were seeking a place to live, wore red nametags, and those who were seeking people to move in with them, wore blue nametags.

The first few times I went, I wore the red nametag, indicating that I didn’t have an apartment and I was looking for someplace to live. But, since we were drinking in a bar, there was a blurry line between socializing, and actually looking for someone to move in with. It wasn’t very efficient and it was still very competitive.

So I had a brainstorm: I could wear a blue tag, and “pretend” that I already had an apartment, but I would actually be looking for people to join me, in looking for an empty apartment, to “found” together.

This was the winning approach. At the next meetup, wearing the blue nametag, I started meeting people. It was a little embarrassing to admit that I didn’t actually have a place, but I stood out, and I met other ambitious people.

One of these people was Ian Gunn. He had a job with Google directly out of college and he was living in corporate housing in Mountain View. At first I didn’t like him, he seemed young, and pushy. We talked for a few minutes and then moved on.

However, at the end of the night, just as I was contemplating the long, uncomfortable ride home on Caltrain, he approached me again, saying that he had a car and he would give me a ride back to Mountain View. I somewhat half-heartedly agreed.

But during the 45 minute car ride south, we started talking, and I realized that I really liked Ian Gunn. He was smart, and funny, and a good guy. We decided that we would be partners and look for an apartment together.

This was the beginning of an even more epic stage, which would be so boring to encyclopedically relate, but suffice it to say that we needed a 3rd roommate to join, who we found eventually: Alex Mayer. Using his skills with the ladies, Ian met a real estate agent, Tatianna, who eventually gave us the keys to a quasi-shitty apartment with a great location: 3656A 20th Street.

Alex Mayer was gone in Thailand when we needed to sign the lease, so we called hotels in Thailand and faxed the documents to him there. On the night we needed him to actually sign the lease, he was gone on a 50 mile bike ride, and Ian and I found ourselves driving aimlessly around Palo Alto, because he had agreed to meet us at a certain place on the side of the road, at a certain time, to sign the lease. It was hilarious and very memorable.

But finally we were in! We got a place and we all moved in together on September 28th, 2006. It was one of the best decisions I had made in my life, thus far, because going forward, so many good things flowed from this.

To my dismay, the charts were all completely blank. I carried out the usual debugging steps … turned up the NewRelic agent logging verbosity … but I couldn’t find anything wrong. Then I discovered that NewRelic has a development mode —which logs requests made locally. I turned this on and took a look at these charts. They were also completely blank! So I realized that the problem was not that my application wasn’t properly reporting information to the NewRelic servers, the problem was that the application wasn’t even logging it correctly.

I opened up RubyMine’s trusty ‘External Libraries’ menu and started placing breakpoints in the newrelic_rpm gem, hoping to find the source of the problem. Hours later I eventually discovered the problem:

NewRelic overrides the ActionController#process_action method to initialize its performance monitoring code. This trick is somewhat well known and other codebases may well fiddle with this method as well. In my case, the (Rails 2 era) user session / state (pre-Devise) code uses alias_method_chain on this method, renaming it to process_action_with_current_user_assignment and process_action_without_current_user_assignment. Renaming the method in this way was blocking NewRelic from working correctly.

Once I knew that this was the problem, I was able to come up with a MonkeyPatch to get NewRelic to allow other pieces of code to use alias_method_chain on the process_action method as well.

Place the following code into your /config/initializers directory:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66

module NewRelic
  module Agent
    module Instrumentation
      module Rails3
        module ActionController

          def self.newrelic_write_attr(attr_name, value) # :nodoc:
            write_inheritable_attribute(attr_name, value)
          end

          def self.newrelic_read_attr(attr_name) # :nodoc:
            read_inheritable_attribute(attr_name)
          end

          # determine the path that is used in the metric name for
          # the called controller action
          def newrelic_metric_path(action_name_override = nil)
            action_part = action_name_override || action_name
            if action_name_override || self.class.action_methods.include?(action_part)
              "#{self.class.controller_path}/#{action_part}"
            else
              "#{self.class.controller_path}/(other)"
            end
          end

          def process_action_with_newrelic_trace(*args)
            # skip instrumentation if we are in an ignored action
            if _is_filtered?('do_not_trace')
              NewRelic::Agent.disable_all_tracing do
                return process_action_without_newrelic_trace(*args)
              end
            end
            perform_action_with_newrelic_trace(:category => :controller, :name => self.action_name, :path => newrelic_metric_path, :params => request.filtered_parameters, :class_name => self.class.name) do
              process_action_without_newrelic_trace(*args)
            end
          end

        end
      end
    end
  end
end

DependencyDetection.defer do
  @name = :rails3_controller

  depends_on do
    defined?(::Rails) && ::Rails::VERSION::MAJOR.to_i == 3
  end

  depends_on do
    defined?(ActionController) && defined?(ActionController::Base)
  end

  executes do
    NewRelic::Agent.logger.debug 'Installing Rails 3 Controller instrumentation'
  end

  executes do
    class ActionController::Base
      include NewRelic::Agent::Instrumentation::ControllerInstrumentation
      include NewRelic::Agent::Instrumentation::Rails3::ActionController
      alias_method_chain :process_action, :newrelic_trace
    end
  end
end

Credit to: https://gist.github.com/959784

In this case I’m moving a fairly large blog from a custom deployment platform on EngineYard, to Heroku. Heroku enforces a 30-second request timeout—so the webserver can’t be used for heavy, long-running tasks like generating a large CSV file.

The solution is to move the generation of the CSV file into a background task, and store the generated CSV file on Amazon S3. Since in my case the data that I am compiling into the CSV file is private, I also show how to configure Paperclip to make the generated CSV file only downloadable to authenticated users.

Here’s a brief (30 second) video showing the UI you can build by following these steps:

Heroku Necessities: generate CSV files in the background with “delayed_job” and store them on S3 with “paperclip” … from Kevin Trowbridge on Vimeo.

The Model: ExportedDataCsv.rb

In my case I have a few large sets of data that are stored in the database, that need to be exportable from the system for reporting and administrative tasks. Think … the ‘Users’ table (full list of users with email addresses, names, and so on) … or the ‘Stories’ table (for a blog, all of the ‘stories’ that have ever been written for the site). So this is stateful. We’re going to turn the Users table into a CSV file and save it on Amazon S3. We’ll be storing specific information about the file:

• What’s its exact name?
• When was it generated?
• Is it actively generating right now, or is it available for download?

We’re using Paperclip to handle the mechanics of saving the file to S3, but we’ll need to setup a model in order to configure paperclip, as well as to store that stateful information.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41

class ExportedDataCsv < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_attached_file :csv_file, {:s3_protocol => 'https', :s3_permissions => "authenticated_read"}

  acts_as_singleton

  def generating?
    job_id.present?
  end

  def csv_file_exists?
    !self.csv_file_file_name.blank?
  end

  def trigger_csv_generation
    job = Delayed::Job.enqueue GenerateCsvJob.new({:csv_instance => self})
    update_attribute(:job_id, job.id)
  end

  def write_csv
    file = Tempfile.new([self.filename, '.csv'])
    begin
      file.write self.data_string
      self.csv_file = file
      self.save
    ensure
      file.close
      file.unlink # deletes the temp file
    end
  end

  protected

  # Kevin says: override me in subclasses ...
  def filename
    'exported_data_csv_'
  end

  def data_string
    ''
  end
end

Now that you’ve seen it, let’s discuss this model in more detail:

The first line 'has_attached_file' is the familiar way of configuring paperclip.

• acts_as_singleton—I’m only storing a single version of each ExportedDataCSV file … so I am using the acts_as_singleton gem … the model associated with the exported CSV file will be a singleton.

• generating? & csv_file_exists? are two methods I can use in my view to determine the immediate state of the CSV file.

• trigger_csv_generation this method gets called by the application server’s controller method to queue up the write_csv_file background job.

• write_csv_file this is the actual method that turns a CSV string into a TempFile which is then handed off to Paperclip.

Then there are two methods to be overridden in subclasses … oh yes, did I fail to mention? Since we are generating several distinct types of CSV files, each with its own name and data, I am using what’s called Rails ‘single table inheritance’ to create a set of subclasses to model this.

CreateExportedDataCsv db migration

Here’s the migration to create the ExportedDataCSV table in the database.

• The presence of the type string makes the Single Table Inheritance work.
• has_attached_file is the paperclip migration helper.
• job_id is used to track the delayed_job and make the model’s generating? method work.
• timestamps will keep track of when it was last updated.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

class CreateExportedDataCsv < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def up
    create_table :exported_data_csvs do |t|
      t.timestamps
      t.has_attached_file :csv_file
      t.string :type
      t.integer :job_id
    end
  end

  def down
    drop_table :exported_data_csvs
  end
end

Subclassed Models

With the previous two files written, it’s trivial to create a CSV file:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

class UsersCsv < ExportedDataCsv

  protected

  def filename
    'users_'
  end

  def data_string
    User.all.to_comma
  end
end

The information to be put into the CSV file is simply a string. Please see https://github.com/crafterm/comma for more information on working with CSV files in Ruby.

GenerateCsvJob: The Delayed Job

We use the now-standard delayed_job gem to handle the passing off of the long running task (the write_csv method in the root model).

Here’s my ‘job’ file:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

class GenerateCsvJob < Struct.new(:options)
  def perform
    csv_instance = options[:csv_instance]
    begin
      csv_instance.write_csv
    ensure
      csv_instance.update_attribute(:job_id, nil)
    end
  end
end

Credit – this stackoverflow post was very helpful to me: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5582017/polling-with-delayed-job

The Controller

The controller is pretty simple … there are two methods.

1. generate_csv – queue up a new delayed job to generate the CSV file and immediately redirect_to :back
2. index – point the client to the S3 ‘expiring url’ path (the URL only lasts 5 minutes) to download the CSV file, if it exists.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

def index
  respond_to do |format|
    format.csv do
      if Rails.env[/production|demo/]
        redirect_to UsersCsv.instance.csv_file.expiring_url(5.minutes)
      else
        send_file UsersCsv.instance.csv_file.path
      end
    end
  end
end

def generate_csv
  UsersCsv.instance.trigger_csv_generation
  flash[:notice] = "We're generating your CSV file. Refresh the page in a minute or so to download it."
  redirect_to :back
end

routes.rb

In the routes file we just need to add a custom route to allow the client to access the generate_csv action that we created in the controller:

1
2
3
4
5

  resources :users do
    collection do
      post :generate_csv
    end
  end

The last tricky bit … the view

The last tricky piece is the view. In the view we determine whether a CSV has been generated yet … if not, we allow the user to trigger the generation of a CSV file … if so we show the link to it, but also allow the user to refresh the file as it may be far out of date.

Since we’re building a framework that will allow us to have many different CSV files … we first create an abstracted partial that will accept various input variables and that we can use all over our site:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

<% if csv_object.generating? %>
  Generating CSV ...
<% else %>
  <% unless csv_object.csv_file_exists? %>
    No CSV exists.
  <% else # CSV exists %>
    <% shortened_filename = csv_object.csv_file_file_name.slice(/(^.*)_/, 1) + '.csv' %>
    <%= link_to shortened_filename, download_path %>
    Last updated:
    <% csv_object.updated_at.to_s(:viewable) %>
  <%= link_to "#{csv_object.csv_file_exists? ? 'Update' : 'Generate'} CSV.", trigger_generation_path, :method => :post %>
  <% end %>
<% end %>

Here’s an example of how to call the partial:

1
2
3
4
5
6

<li>
  <%= link_to 'Users', admin_users_path %>
  <br/>
  Download all:
  <%= render :partial => '/common/csv_generation_ui', :locals => {:csv_object => UsersCsv.instance, :trigger_generation_path => generate_csv_admin_users_path, :download_path => users_stories_path(:format => :csv)} %>
</li>

Summary

There are lots of moving parts in this scheme but once you get your head around it all, it’s a pretty straightforward pattern and a variant of this could be used in other situations as well. Enjoy and good luck!

The use of opendiff is fairly simple … just type opendiff file1 file2 at the OSX command line, and a graphical diff window pops open.

But when we are working with version control tools, and we want to view which changes we have made to a file … a diff is generated by the version control software itself … so there aren’t two files to easily diff …

However, you can integrate opendiff into mercurial, so that when you type hg diff, you see a diff pop up in opendiff.

I got this information from the mercurial wiki

I got this working with the following procedure:

1. cd ~/Desktop
2. svn co http://soft.vub.ac.be/svn-gen/bdefrain/fmscripts/
3. cd fmscripts
4. sudo make install
5. mate ~/.hgrc
6. Paste the configuration lines from that mercurial wiki referenced above into the .hgrc file, save, and exit.

Now you can type:

hg opendiff file

And see the results in opendiff:

But I’ve got several projects that still need Ruby 1.8.6 to run. So I discovered a tool called Ruby version manager (RVM) that allows me to install many versions of ruby and switch between them (the tool works by storing different versions of ruby and gems in specific directories, and juggling the environment’s paths).

Rvm works well and greatly simplifies the pain of working with projects written in Rails 3 and Rails 2 on the same machine.

Installing Ruby 1.9

Rails 3 can use either Ruby 1.8.7 or 1.9. It’s probably time to start switching to Ruby 1.9, correct? But there is a problem: I have (and you probably do too) bunches of projects that I do not want to (or maybe can’t) migrate to the new version of Ruby, or at least certainly not today. And so how to install and manage two versions of Ruby?

RVM is a command line tool which allows you to easily install, manage and work with multiple ruby environments from interpreters to sets of gems.

I suggest you follow the installation instructions.

Once you have installed Rvm, use it to painlessly install Ruby 1.9:

Note: I initially tried to install Ruby 1.9.2, but I ran into some wicked bugs when I tried to boot Rails. These issues are documented here in this Ruby language bug report. There, folks recommended upgrading to the ruby-head version. So I did that, and it resolved the issues that I had.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

macbook:~$ rvm install ruby-head
Installing Ruby from source to: /Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-head
Updating ruby from http://svn.ruby-lang.org/repos/ruby/trunk
Configuring ruby-head, this may take a while depending on your cpu(s)...
Compiling ruby-head, this may take a while, depending on your cpu(s)...
Installing ruby-head
Installation of ruby-head is complete.
Updating rubygems for /Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/gems/ruby-head@global
Updating rubygems for /Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/gems/ruby-head
Installing gems for ruby-head.
Installing rdoc to /Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/gems/ruby-head@global
Installing rdoc to /Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/gems/ruby-head
Installing rake to /Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/gems/ruby-head@global
Installing rake to /Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/gems/ruby-head
Installation of gems for ruby-head is complete.

Rvm works on a per-user-basis by playing with the shell paths. It places ruby into a hidden .rvm directory in your home directory and adds and removes directories from the path to set you up with different versions of ruby.

So—aspiring to develop with Rails 3 and Ruby 1.9 by default in the future, I set rvm to load Ruby 1.9 by default when I open a shell (by issuing another rvm command):

1

macbook:~$ rvm --default ruby-head

Close and reopen your shell so as to reload your ‘default’ ruby version, and then check to see that it is indeed the 1.9 version:

1
2
3

macbook:~$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.3dev (2010-05-18 trunk 27869) [x86_64-darwin10.3.0]
Installing Rails 3

Now we’ve got Ruby 1.9 installed, so let’s install Rails. Rails comes as a bunch of gems, so installing it is a matter of updating your rubygem program and then installing those gems.

How does Rvm work with gems? Well, it installs them into ruby-version-specific directories in its hidden .rvm directories. Even rubygems is versioned. Here you can see how when I check the path of the Ruby executables when I have the ruby-head version selected with Rvm, it’s off in a strange special Rvm controlled place:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

macbook:~$ which ruby
/Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-head/bin/ruby
macbook:~$ which gem
/Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-head/bin/gem
macbook:~$ env | grep ruby
GEM_HOME=/Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/gems/ruby-head
MY_RUBY_HOME=/Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/rubies/ruby-head
RUBY_VERSION=ruby-head

So basically this means that once you are using Rvm you’ll probably want to use it to install Ruby gems as well. In the case of installing Rails, we want to install rails into the RVM environment that goes with rails 1.9. Rvm has documentation around this.

The basic principle is to not use sudo to install gems. Since Rvm works by isolating code in your ~/.rvm (user level) directory, it’s a waste (and will probably screw things up) to use sudo gem install to install the gems in a system level directory.

The second principle is to run rubygems through rvm. Rvm will invoke the version of rubygems that is associated with that version of Ruby, and install the gems in the proper path.

So in the following sequence of commands I update rubygems to the most current version, check to see which version that is, and then install the new rails:

Note how for some reason you have to install a bunch of prerequisite gems before installing the Rails 3 gem. I’m not sure why this is but these instructions come from DHH so – there must be a good reason!

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

macbook:~$ rvm ruby-head gem update --system
Updating RubyGems
Nothing to update

macbook:~$ rvm ruby-head gem -v
1.3.7

macbook:~$ rvm ruby-head gem install tzinfo builder memcache-client rack rack-test rack-mount erubis mail text-format thor bundler i18n
macbook:~$ rvm ruby-head gem install rails --prerelease
ruby-head: ruby 1.9.3dev (2010-05-18 trunk 27869) [x86_64-darwin10.3.0]
installing rails ...
rails  installed, output logged to:
/Users/kmtrowbr/.rvm/log/ruby-head/gem.install.log

Switching between Rubies

So there you have it folks. If you need to use Ruby 1.8.6 to work on that old Rails 2.3 project, just tell rvm to use that as the version of ruby for that console session:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

macbook:~$ rvm system
macbook:~$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.7 (2009-06-08 patchlevel 173) [universal-darwin10.0]
Once you've finished, you can switch back to Ruby 1.9:

macbook:~$ rvm default
macbook:~$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.3dev (2010-05-18 trunk 27869) [x86_64-darwin10.3.0]

I know that most Rails developers are going to run into this situation as they straddle Rails 2 and 3 moving forward, and if there is a better way of switching back and forth between Ruby 1.8.6 and 1.9, I have yet to hear of it!

What’s your take on this?

It took a little digging to figure out how to do it. I think that people who enjoy backpacking tend to own cars, and people who take public transportation don’t tend to be outdoorsy. But we are in San Francisco after all! There are surely other people like me, so I figure it’s worth documenting for anyone else who is googling for backpacking trips.

From San Francisco to Point Reyes using Public Transportation

There are three steps.

1. First take ‘Golden Gate Transit’ bus #70 north to San Rafael.

2. Then take the West Marin Stagecoach North Route #68 to Olema.

3. Then walk the final ¾ of a mile to the Bear Valley Visitor Center.

You’ve arrived! Get your backpacking permit, and head into the park.

Here are the specific times for one possible itinerary:

1. From Market & 7th in downtown SF, take the ‘Golden Gate Transportation Service’ bus #70 north to San Rafael. You leave Market & 7th at 6:35am (pshew!) and arrive in San Rafael at 7:31am. The reason we have to leave so early is that there are only four West Marin Stagecoach busses per day, and you need to get to San Rafael soon enough to take one of them.

The full schedule for GGT bus 70.

1. From San Rafael Transit center, take the West Marin Stagecoach west to Olema.

You can see the West Marin Stagecoach page here and download the PDF version of the schedule here.

2b (optional). Eat a hearty lunch in Olema to get strength for the upcoming hiking! ;)

1. Walk about a mile to the Point Reyes Bear Valley Visitor Center. See a google map of the walk here.

In Point Reyes

It’s not exactly relevant to the thesis of this article, but I can’t resist gushing about how beautiful the park was—it definitely exceeded my expectations.

The first night I walked about 8 miles in to Wildcat camp … located in a field above a remote beach. Up above the camp there’s a bluff with a bench that has simply stunning views along the coast in both directions.

There was a lot of wildlife in the park—I kept stumbling across deer—like this handsome buck with showy, velveted antlers:

Also, the campsites are quite nice. It’s not rough backpacking really—the camps all have nice pit toilets which are not at all smelly, potable water, and charcoal grills. I didn’t take advantage of the grills this time, but next time I will certainly pack in a frozen steak for the first evening’s dinner.

Returning

It’s basically the opposite. Again there are only 4 West Marin Stagecoaches per day so you have to schedule around them.

I chose to exit the park around noon. I ate lunch (again) in Olema (there’s a nice restaurant there right at the intersection of Highway 1 and Francis Drake Blvd). The bus came by at 1:45. I was back in San Rafael at 3pm. Then I took Golden Gate Transit #101 back into the city, arriving around 4pm.

Other links

Note that to backpack in Point Reyes you need a permit and a reservation. See the Point Reyes website for more information.

What is the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail?

First things first. Skyline-to-the-Sea is a 30 mile hike from Castle Rock State Park (which is up on the topmost ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains) down to the Pacific Ocean, passing through Big Basin State Park on the way. Big Basin is a pretty fantastic spot, the first California State Park, and with a great history based around the preservation of the awesome old redwood trees that are there …

It’s the ‘crown-jewel’ of hikes in the Bay Area (as I have heard it called) … and so I had to do it, since I have been having a backpacking renaissance lately.

How to do it with Public Transportation

Well—first of all, it makes good sense to do it that way, because it’s a through hike, that is, not a loop, so in order to do it with a car, you would either need two cars, or someone to pick you up when you’ve finished.

At the Pacific Ocean end, you can get the Santa Cruz bus system to pick you up at Waddell Creek and take you to Santa Cruz.

However, you can’t get to Castle Rock State Park with a bus. My solution was to get to Saratoga with buses and then take a taxi the rest of the way … the taxi cost $30.

The following two sections detail the steps.

Outward Bound

Returning

Here’s a google transit page showing the route from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. (Google doesn’t seem to know about route 40 (step 1 in the table above)—which goes along the coast.)

Return public transportation from Wadell Beach to San Francisco.

Permits & Reservations

You need permits to stay in the Skyline-to-the-Sea backcountry campgrounds. In my experience they weren’t hard to get … we did it on the fourth of July weekend and had no problem getting the reservations.

This seems to be the official page with the information (the Skyline-to-the-Sea has a sort of scattered internet presence, I find):

The PDF file they list there is especially useful with the telephone number to call to make the reservations, information on fees, and a table of mileages between camps.

831-338-8861 is the number of the Big Basin State Park HQ, and they are also the office which takes care of reservations for Skyline-to-the-Sea.

My experience was basically this:

I called the number and reserved one night in the Waterman Gap Trail Camp, and one night in the Twin Redwoods Trail Camp. I mailed them a check for $5 to secure the reservation (a reservation fee). They mailed me a little blue postcard which acted as proof that I had paid. When we started the hike, at Castle Rock State Park, I showed the postcard to the ranger there, and paid her another $20 which was the actual campground fee. A little confusing, but hey, it works.

You can buy some awesome maps of the area for $13 from the Sempervirens Fund … I would suggest getting these. You can order them online, or we also saw them in the information center at Big Basin State Park.

Our Experience

We left San Francisco at 8:15am on July 4th using Caltrain. The bus dropped us off at the ‘West Valley College’—this is about 1.7 miles from the Saratoga downtown … so we were worried for a little while that there was no such thing as a Saratoga downtown … however, there is, it just took a little walking to get there—here’s the route we took:

We got there around 11am and ate a really nice lunch in an Italian Restaurant ‘Ristorante Da Mario’ … to fortify ourselves for the trek ahead we had to drink at least two good Birra Moretti!

Then we called the taxi (San Jose Yellow Cab: 650-321-1234) … the driver showed up and took us up to Castle Rock State Park—a beautiful drive. It cost about $35 dollars including tip.

At Castle Rock State Park we showed the ranger lady the reservation card we had (see above) and paid her $20 cash to pay for the campsites. (It costs the same no matter how many nights you camp, pretty cool, huh?)

The first afternoon we had about 10 miles to hike. The first portion of the trail goes through Chaparral … it’s fairly exposed to the sun and also fairly rocky, with steep drop-offs. So we were fairly hot and the hiking required attention.

About 1/3 of the way to Waterman Gap (only about 2 miles from the Castle Rock Parking Lot) is the Castle Rock Trail Camp … if you arrive very late, you could stay here—they have water available, a pit toilet, and—what’s awesome for a devoted fire worshiper like myself—they actually allow campfires and even sell firewood there in the camp. (Self service, but only during the ‘winter’ / ‘not fire season’.)

The trail was a little confusing from that point on. We took a wrong turn and ended up going to ‘Frog Flat Campground’—and had to backtrack. That added about 4/5th of a mile to our hike. I had quite stupidly forgotten to bring the maps that I had ordered online (see above)! It was just about the worst thing to forget as … without a map, you feel like you are a bit blind, and you can easily get confused.

Meg was pretty tired that night when we finally arrived at Waterman Gap. To all boyfriends who want to take their girlfriend hiking—don’t be ambitious guys, be sure to start small. ;)

The next day we kept hiking from Waterman Gap down to the Big Basin State Park HQ—another 10 mile hike. The trail was a little easier, with more relatively flat and spongy trail through pine forests and less rocky and exposed trail along chaparral. In a few places the trail did emerge and we had more beautiful views towards the ocean:

Unfortunately, by the time we got to Big Basin HQ, we were exhausted. Meg especially did not have the right shoes for the expedition and her feet were very painful. It’s one thing to be ambitious for yourself, but I made the mistake of expecting Meg to make the same sacrifices as myself.

We stayed in one of the ‘hike in’ campsites at Big Basin HQ … they have nice facilities and allow you to have campfires. Unfortunately the campsite is two miles from the Big Basin HQ! We were very discouraged at this news (2 more miles of walking!!)—and Meg and I plopped down on a bench in front of the HQ and started sniffling and looking miserable. Graciously, the rangers took pity on us and offered us a ride to our campsite in their truck! We were touched, and felt much better. Thank you to the Big Basin HQ ranger staff. ;)

The next day I couldn’t bring myself to put Meg through more pain so we discussed together and decided to try to hitchhike to Santa Cruz. We obtained some cardboard and sharpies from the camp store and made this awesome sign:

After about two hours of sticking our thumbs out, one of the employees drove us down to Boulder Creek:

From Boulder Creek we were able to head down to Santa Cruz using buses. We checked into a hotel (with an awesome hot tub!) and cleaned ourselves up. Then we went for a walk on the boardwalk and watched the moon rise—and we were happy.

So everything ended up fine. And it’s fun to have an adventure!

Perhaps there is a historian / genealogist gene, because I also have a great interest in history. I anticipated my grandfather’s death and always wanted to somehow capture his knowledge - unfortunately I was too shy and inexperienced to ever formally interview him and record our conversations (a mistake I greatly regret!).

Luckily, two local schoolgirls outdid me! These two were researching the history of Brutus, Michigan for a school project. On March 12th, 2002, they interviewed grandpa and recorded their conversation. (Their names are Kayla Williams and Donna Steward, along with their teacher, Sally Smith). While I was at home this Christmas 2008 my mother (Janet Trowbridge) showed me the tape which she had kept. I transferred it to the computer and - thought I’d put it up here on the blog, the better to share the information with my family (interested in Elmer Wurst), and others who are interested in the history of Northern Michigan.

Listen to the interview (57min)

It’s a bit hard to make out everything at speed, so (for my own curiosity and your benefit!) I created a transcript. You’ll understand much more if you read along with the interview.

Interview regarding history of Brutus, MI and specifically its train depot.

• Date: March 12th, 2002
• Location: dining room of EW’s house…
• Present:
  • Students: Kayla Williams and Donna Steward
  • SS: Sally Smith, teacher at Alanson Middle School
  • EW: Elmer Wurst
  • JT: Janet Trowbridge, Elmer Wurst’s daughter

Audible in background:

• EW’s finch.
• Scanner (EW loved to listen to the local authorities’ radio discussions.)

My mother emailed me these details about the interview

Hey Kev,

The 2 girls names were Kayla Williams (my cousin, Bruce Johansen’s step-daughter) & Donna Stewart. Their teacher was Sally Smith. They had to give an oral report in front of their class and I’m not sure what they did at the Waterfront Museum in Petoskey. They probably had to do something. It was a pretty big assignment for the whole class & I’m sure took the whole marking period to put it together. I’ll try to find out how to get in tough with Mrs. Smith & get back with you with more details.

His bird was a finch and yes it did chirp constantly. One can actually hear the ambiance of his house, can’t you? Also, I think the scanner went off a couple times. Brings back lots of memories.

I’ll try to find the picture of the girls with their train station soon & send it to you.

Love, Mama

The Transcript

— 0:00 START TRANSCRIPT —

Students: This is Kayla Williams and Donna Steward. We are interviewing Mr. Elmer Wurst, who grew up in Michigan, Brutus Michigan. Today is March 12th, 2002.

EW: Ok

SS: You wanna start with your questions, ladies?

Student: Um, I was wondering - like - do you know any important facts that happened in Brutus?

EW: (Pauses) … well (laughs) … I wasn’t there when the Purple Inn burnt, but I was there for a while when it was goin’.

Student: Do you know, like, if there was any bombings or anything?

EW: Well, uh, that one time there was a, they built a catholic church in there, and the first day they were supposed to have a service in it, lightning hit it and burned it down.

— 1:00m —

(Exclamations)

SS: Oh my god!

EW: (laughter) And they never rebuilt it, never tried anything again - that was the end of it!

SS: And this was the catholic church?

EW: Yeah.

Student: Do you know anything about the Mennonites that came to Brutus?

EW: yeah, first they came up in here, in this country right up here, around Ayr, and then they went over to the Mennonite settlement over there, east of brutus.

— 2:00m —

SS: You mentioned that you knew about the Purple Inn when it was running. Were any of the relatives … sorry, you two ladies, if I’m interjecting once in a while… were the original families still operating it when you knew about it?

EW: Yeah, Mrs. Perfore (?) was there. See he was the sherriff, and ugh, he got shot back in 1922 and died. And then she ran the Inn there, the rest of the time that I was there, in ‘34, and then she moved in to Petoskey from there. And she was … well, she was in that … buliding right in there by the tennis courts - you go up on top of the hill, way up on top of the hill … well, the tennis courts ain’t there any more!!

SS: Well that’s ok. You mean, her house?

EW: No, she started one in there.

SS: Oh, she did!

EW: Yeah, uh huh.

SS: Oh, my goodness.

— 3:00m —

EW: Yeah, this is … (indicating map) … that’s the inn there … that’s the depot.

SS: Oh, my goodness, look at that folks … oh, how wonderful!

SS: Did she have, were there children? Did the Purples have children? There was Nelly, and then, Will?

…

Ok, you know more than …

EW: Uh - what the heck was? Mitchley was their father, and he lived with them, and he lived to be over a hundred years old. I never knew him, uh, but I knew of him.

— 4:00m —

Students: Do you know how, do you know how Mrs. Purple died?

Ew: No … no, uhh, she died … just about the time the (‘cut off in Petoskey there’) … (‘moved the tennis courts over by the bridge’ - guess) … she died just about then … my wife was working at her place.

SS: How many meals did they serve, when your wife was working there … was there, like three meals?

EW: I don’t think they had boarders there.

SS: They did not have borders?

EW: I don’t think so … they could have had, but I don’t know of any of them.

SS: So it was primarily run as a restaurant then?

— 5:00m —

EW: yeah, but it was a little bit exclusive

SS: Ohh, see that’s what I thought … so it was exclusive?

EW: Yeah, the Burt Lake resorters would come in there a lot.

SS: Very interesting … the Burt Lake resorters … then, when Mrs. Purple served as the hostess, I guess you would say, for the inn - see, we’re going to do costumes at the museum …

EW: (laughs)

SS: And I was trying to think of … of course it would still be turn of the century … and I was wondering if she dressed up, or if she wore an apron, of if there were any colors to her and her wait staff?

EW: Gosh, I couldn’t tell you. (laughs)

SS: Ok, I just wondered …

EW: No, I couldn’t … they all dressed up though …

SS: They all dressed up.

EW: Yeah, they all dressed up. Uh … but they were all well dressed, and served like … were serving rich people.

— 6:00m —

SS: What were some of their favorite meals, or specialities, I should say?

EW: I couldn’t tell you that! (laughs)

SS: We got one recipie from Jan Smith at Stanford’s for a ‘Purple Inn’ … was is Huckleberry?

Students: Yeah, Huckleberry cake.

EW: Yeah, that could be.

SS: I just didn’t know if there were any others specials, people would go to the Purple Inn, for you know, like they go to Bob’s Place for … roast …

Students: There’s umm .. she made Chicken dinners for a dollar a plate.

EW: Ya, yeah, she made Chicken dinners, and fish … and she used to sell a lot of Indian baskets too … the Indians sold her a lot of baskets.

SS: That’d be quill baskets too, or just the … ?

EW: Yeah, quill and reed baskets.

SS: Oh good, quill and the reed baskets … oh, that’s great. And the Inn was purple?

— 7:00m —

EW: No! It was brown!

(general laughter)

SS: It was brown! Ohhh, ok, that’s what I wondered.

Students: Oh, on the internet it said it was painted purple.

SS: It did say that it was purple.

Janet Trowbridge (daughter of EW): Oh my goodness! Well, that’s just their name, right?

SS: Oh, well, there we go, we’re clarifying.

EW: Yeah, that was their name, ya.

SS: So, do you know if there were any … when you say that it was the wealthy people from Burt Lake that came … were there any other famous people you know of that may of attended, the Purple Inn?

EW: (sighs) Gosh - I don’t know, probably, there must have been, because there was some real, big names out there, in the Burt Lake.

SS: Ok, so maybe in the Burt lake community … (to students) Go ahead … I’ve kind of taken over, and I didn’t mean to…

— 8:00m —

Students: This may be out of our way or anything, but do you know any of the major imports or exports that they had? Or did they not have them back then?

EW: Well, they made broom handles … uh, they had a regular handle mill there. And they done a lot of lumbering … potatoes … they had a pickle factory there, they made pickles. And they sent a lot of potatoes to Ohio … uh, Israel Eby was one of the Mennonites, and he bought a truck to start hauling … down south, and he got kicked out of the church for, (laughs) driving a truck!

SS: Oh for driving a truck, that’s interesting, (to students) did you hear that?

— 9:00m —

SS: How interesting! And he’d go all the way to Ohio? With his potatoes. And this was a Mr. Eby? Is this Silas?

EW: Israel.

SS: (to students) Is there a Silas? Cyrus, maybe? Cyrus.

EW: Yeah, there’s a Cyrus Eby. Cyrus Eby is … two miles north, and half a mile east, of there … the old Eby farm over there.

SS: Ok. So Israel (to students) just like the country. Israel Eby. And he got kicked out of the church for doing that. See, those are fun stories. (laughs) Not for Mr. Eby, but…

EW: They didn’t believe in anything modern, at all. They was, at that time, they was … nothing modern. They couldn’t drive a car, they coulnd’t have a tractor … anything. … Amos Gregory - almost got kicked out - they changed, just about the time he made himself a homemade tractor …

— 10:00m —

SS: (gasps)

EW: (laughs) They didn’t like that at all!

SS: Are you girls clear on what the Mennonites believe?

Students: Pretty much, I think.

SS: Because I think Mr. Wurst would know a lot about that too.

EW: They … they moved from up in this neighborhood, and, uh, went over there, and … well, we used to pick up cream over there - my dad worked for a cream station in Petoskey - and we used to pick up cream all through there, and well, that was in ‘27, and we used to pick up a lot of cream over there. And, all the way down … well that would probably be another product that was sold as cream.

SS: Cream?

EW: Or butter.

— 11:00m —

SS: Ahh, there’s a picture at the Alanson depot with the cream buckets out front.

EW: Yeah.

Students: Umm, do you know the Brutus’s true colors? Like … when I was first … umm? The depot?

EW: (laughs) Well, same as in Alanson, it was the color green.

SS: It was sort of an Army green?

EW: Yeah.

SS: And it did have red trim, by any chance?

EW: I don’t think so.

SS: It was just all green?

EW: It was a darker green trim then the [main body color].

SS: So it was different shades of green?

EW: Um hmm.

Students: What about the roof?

EW: That was wood shingles.

SS: Oh, wood shingles? So it would have been cedar?

EW: Yeah

SS: Cedar shingles, which would have been a brown color?

EW: Yeah, everything was cedar shingles them days.

SS: That’s right (to students), and I will have to explain it to you.

— 12:00m —

SS: That they’re wood instead of today … today we have asphalt, right, asphalt, and another new fabric out for shingles … I want to say, fiberglass …

EW: Yeah, fiberglass, and then (unintelligible) … they might of had some … I don’t know, they might of had, they didn’t have tar on the roofs at all. But … I, yes, the Smiths had a shingle mill - so they made shingles right there.

SS: So they made cedar shingles … they just cut cedar shingles at Smith’s mill (to students) are you aware of Smith’s mill?

EW: Schmidt, Schmidth

SS: S C H M I D T ?

EW: Yeah

SS: (to students) You might ask a question about Hinkley’s?

EW: Oh, that was the handle mill. I think … I’m not sure about it, but I think that that, uh … (indicating on map) yeah, it must … I think that this was probably Hinkley’s house there, that’s … uh …

— 13:00m —

SS: Right here?

EW: Yeah.

SS: Ok … (to students) Do you have this picture here? … And then the depot?

EW: Yeah, the depot was down to the end down here … the depot was right, to the … right there.

SS: Oh, I see, and this was Purple Inn?

EW: Yeah.

— 14:00m —

SS: Oh my.

EW: And this was Wagley’s store … this was … Wagley was, well, they were probably some of the first people in Northern Michigan. They had a sawmill, and they had a boat in Cross Village. And … uh, in fact, he used the boat to go to Beaver Island, when they kicked the Mormans off … or, not the Mormans, but King Strang off of the island …

[JT: notes that the full name of the store owner was ‘Lynn Wagley’]

SS: King Strang, oh my goodness! (to students) I’m sorry … [I’m] talking too much, go ahead?

(general laughter)

Students: Umm, did the Hinkley brothers own the Butter bowl? (?)

EW: Yeah, in Alanson … I don’t think they had a Butter bowl mill in Brutus … maybe they did? I wouldn’t say for sure.

— 15:00m —

Students: We’re going to have to check over our internet stuff.

SS: We have found some problems with things on the internet … with the wrong location, we had to have it verified by the museum - who was not happy with … of course, incorrect information … it wasn’t done by the museum, but somebody else. See that’s why these interviews are so priceless.

EW: Uh … all that was there when I remember, was just a big sawdust pile (?) … a sawdust pile as big as this house. That was all I ever seen of …

— 16:00m —

SS: Did sawdust piles that tall sometimes catch fire?

EW: Yeah, I imagine that them was hauled away for bedding and stuff like that, because it dissapeared, and I never seen any more of it.

SS: That was the end of it.

SS: (to students) You were asking about the Butter bowl, the Butter bowl mill? Good!

Students: Do you know any other businesses that were up there?

EW: (sighs) No, they had a sawmill there … that cut lumber. ‘Cause where my grandfather’s built their new house, why they hauled logs down there to the sawmill … one tree built the whole house!

SS: Oh my! One, did you hear that, one tree!

Students: That was ours.

SS: That was yours?!

Students: No, that … our house was like that too.

SS: Built by one tree, with one tree? Isn’t that fascinating?

— 17:00m —

EW: They sold two logs off from, besides that, to the sawmill … uh, they couldn’t even get them in the door to the sawmill - so, they drilled a hole in ‘em, put a stick of dynamite in to ‘em, and blowed ‘em all to pieces!

JT: Oh my goodness!

(gasps)

EW: And then, the other log … well, they made the hole bigger, so they’d get the log in!

SS: Oh my gosh!

(laughs)

EW: But it was a tree that was in a difficult place to get to, and if they cut it, it was going to go down into Maple river … awful steep bank … now, how my grandfather got it out, I don’t know, but it went … two 16-foot logs, and then it branched, and they cut four sixteen foot logs out of the branches! So it must have been a monster of a tree.

— 18:00m —

EW: And the whole Mennonite settlement over there was … great big pine trees. I don’t know … (to daughter Janet) Are there still stumps over there? … Hard to know, you’d have to go down by Gregory’s?

JT: Down by Gregory’s? Like south from the Dam site?

EW: Yeah. That’d be the first tract (unintelligible).

JT: Well, I don’t know … (laughs) I don’t know! … if I remember seeing any stumps, I’m not really sure… You mean all those open fields were trees? Were woods?

EW: Yeah, oh yeah. I don’t know how they ever planted anything in where those pine stumps were.

JT: Oh my gosh!

— 19:00m —

EW: Yeah, them were great big monster stumps like that, and … of course, pine doesn’t rot very fast, and they was hard to get out! (laughs)

SS: (to students) Other questions?

Students: I, like, have a question, but I’m, kinda like, not too sure about it?

SS: What’s it have to do with?

Students: I have no clue!

EW: (laughs)

SS: Okay …

EW: What is it?

JT: Spit it out!

(laughter)

Students: Um … do you like, in Brutus, do you know how people acted towards each other? Like …

— 20:00m —

SS: The personality of the community, what people were like.

EW: It was all … they all seemed friendly, yeah, it was all friendly … Uh, when I was up there in ‘34, I stayed with my grandfolks for two years … and, uh - everybody went to the store pretty near every night, and sat there, and talked … and (laughs) … they had a … it was real friendly.

SS: Sociable?

SS: The Brutus school only went to the fourth grade?

EW: At that time, yeah.

SS: I see.

— 21:00m —

Students: Umm, didn’t one of the Brills used to, like, own one of the halfway houses or something like that (unintelligible)?

EW: Yeah, yeah … uh, it was, let’s see, (to daughter Janet) What’s that road past (unintelligible)’s up there?

JT: Maple River Road

EW: Yeah, Maple River Road … after you cross the river where the gold course is now.

JT: Where the … what’s that called, the new one?

EW: Yeah, the new golf course.

JT: It’s past the three cornered stone church, turn right off the highway, and you go down over the river, and that … I don’t know what that new golf course is …

Students: Isn’t it like hidden river or something?

JT: Yeah.

SS: Hidden Valley? No?

(laughter, more names)

EW: But you see the stagecoach road used to come from Harbor,

— 22:00m —

… and it’d go through there and it went through the school forest over here, in back of Alanson, by the cemetery, and then it went up, and went across by Schmidt’s, and turned north, and there’s still a piece of road that … after you cross Brutus road, that’s called ‘stagecoach road’ and, it crossed down through Brill’s, and it crossed the river … and they a stop, a layover there …

EW: And my grandparents ran it for a year or so up there, the stagecoach stop, on the way to Cheboygan. And, that’s probably, that’s probably the last time it run, was when they …

— 23:00m —

SS: They operated it. And were they Wursts also?

EW: No, they was Burgesses.

SS: Burgesses, B U R … B U R G E S

EW: S S

SS: Oh, Burgess! Ok, sure - isn’t there a Burgess road?

EW: Out by … Sturgeon Bay …

SS: Yeah! I’ve seen a Burgess … isn’t that funny, I can see the sign …

EW: No, not Sturgeon Bay, Bay Shore.

SS: Bay Shore, Ok.

Students: Do you know of any forms of entertainment that was on the train?

EW: That was on the train? (laughs) Nope … there was a lot of trains, though! When I was up … it could be as high as … one every hour.

(gasps)

EW: Goin’ one way or the other.

— 24:00m —

SS: And were they all passenger trains, or?

EW: No - well, there were passenger trains, and then they’d have freight trains too. See, they hauled all the Iron Ore and stuff on the train, after the lakes started freezing. Well they was all pulled by train … there was 40 cars to a train.

SS: Right … (to students) you have that down? (Unintelligible) (to EW) So sorry … And you said Iron Ore, coming from Mackinaw?

EW: No, coming from up across the Straights.

SS: So, I’m trying to figure out the route … so if it went through Brutus?

EW: Eh, it came all the way across the lake, from up in the straights … there was a boat that hauled the …

SS: Wawanum (?) … (to students) that’s what you need to know … and I’ve got the book at school … the Wawanum then would load the Iron ore on to a train …

— 25:00m —

EW: Well, no they’d go clear from … (to JT) where is that from, Kevin? (Your humble transcriptionist, KT, son of JT, grandson of EW - I went to college in Houghton, MI, in the Keweenaw Penninsula.)

JT: Where Kevin is? The Keweenaw peninsula? So they’d come down Lake Superior …

SS: The train would?

JT: The boat.

EW: Well, no - up in the wintertime…

JT: Oh, the train…

SS: The train would come all the way from Lake Superior?

EW: Yup.

SS: With Iron Ore … (to students) are you writing this down, ladies? (laughter) This is really good! This is the first we’ve come across … (to students) did you read this anywhere?

Students: Yup.

SS: Okay … they’ve been doing a super job, by the way! I just thought … maybe that got away from me. (to students) All the way from the Keweenaw peninulsa, they would haul Iron ore!

Students: How do you spell that?

SS: IRON, and then ‘Ore’

Students: No…

JT: Keweenaw?

(general laughter, EW especially)

SS: K, double E, W A N A U, isn’t it? No?

JT: There’s a W E in it.

SS: There’s a W? You all would no more than I would …

JT: (unintelligible)

— 26:00m —

SS: (to students) N A W

Students: Do you know what this is for?

SS: We keep seeing this on roofs! With the ladder … and the little steps?

EW: Well, that was probably … uh … whether they had stops there or not?

SS: Was this a sign?

EW: That’s a sign, yeah.

SS: Okay, and so they would have to change that sign?

EW: Mmm hmm … they had …

SS: And that would tell you?

EW: Gonna stop, or go, or whether they had passengers or not. At that time, you could take the can or cream down anyplace to the railroad tracks, and they’d stop and pick it up.

SS: Oh, a can of cream.

EW: Yeah!

(laughter)

SS: (to students) Go for you, reading that. See, we’ve been all looking at those (unintelligible) steps and we thought that maybe was to change the sign, but sometimes the steps would be there, and there’d be no sign, so we were sort of confused.

EW: And sometimes they had the, uh … (to JT) you get it?

— 27:00m —

JT: Yeah, Keweenaw … K E W … okay … two Es … N A W … spelled, K E W E E N A W.

(girlish laugh from students)

SS: Oh, it’s Whee! Key - wee - naw!

EW: Yeah, Kee - Whee …

SS: Okay … so the trains would come through with the Iron Ore … and you were asking, you know … what other products passed through? It would be mostly the Iron Ore during the winter months.

EW: Yeah … and they hauled cream outta there.

SS: And the cream.

EW: Yeah.

SS: Another one that’s fascinating…

EW: Yeah, they hauled a lot of cream … what was that … cedar … cedar valley?

— 28:00m TAPE FLIPS —

SS: The … umm, (to students) do you wanna ask about … I don’t wanna ask … do you have any more questions? What about … the passenger? Go ahead.

Students: It’s not really a question, but it’s something Mr. Woodrove told us … he, and a couple kids from our kids interviewed him for Oden … he thought that the steps on our roof was for mail? Do you know if that was also a possibility for it, like … do you know if?

EW: They’d keep right on going without stopping!

SS: Yes.

EW: Yeah … they had a hanger there that they hung a mailbag on. And they’d just stick out an arm (creak of chair, presumably miming motion) and snatch her right in!

(general laughter)

SS: Just had to remember to let go!

Students: So they just like, stuck it out, while the train was moving?

EW: Yeah!

Students: Whoo!

EW: Yeah, yup. They used to do that alot, actually …

SS: That wouldn’t be on that same sign … that would be on a separate hook?

— 29:00m —

EW: Yeah, yeah, that would be a hook.

SS: A separate hook that would come out. (to students) Do you want to ask about the passenger pigeons?

Students: Do you know if the passenger pigeons were up there or not? Around in there?

EW: No, I lived a little far north for the passenger pigeons … uhh, passenger pigeons was more in by, uh … oh, you know where Petoskey Sands is …

SS: Sure.

EW: Yeah … in there … in that country was where the passenger pigeons was.

SS: Okay, sort of on that state road, or by the Petoskey park, state park.

EW: Yeah, yeah. They killed thousands of those … just barrels of tham.

SS: We read … one train called 450 thousand … that was not unusual for it to be like that (unintelligible).

EW: Right - they didn’t even stop to cut their heads off! They bit their heads off!

Student: Ewwww!!!

— 30:00m —

(laughter)

JT: That’s not a nice thing to record!

EW: Yeah - they’d capture them things, and they’d bite their heads off, and throw ‘em in the barrel.

Student: Woo!! That’s something I didn’t need to know!

SS: We’re gonna tell the girls from … we have a Kegomic depot … by the tannery … wouldn’t that be from around the same area, or no?

EW: Yeah … that’d be the same …

SS: Interesting fact for them! Oh my goodness!

Students: Oh the internet site … did they, um, punch out their eyes also? Like, punch out their eyes.

SS: Oh!

EW: I don’t know about that …

SS: Was that on the internet?

Students: Yeah - well, actually it came out of that passenger pigeon book.

SS: Oh really … that’s might be … that was the one from the historical society.

EW: It’s entirely possible!

Students: It’s nasty!

SS: Ohh … yes!

— 31:00m —

EW: Well, they was … they was a lot of passenger pigeons … they said the sky was black! They couldn’t see hardly.

Students: For hours.

SS: Yes, one report says they had to light their lanterns … because at one point, one day, the sky got so dark.

Students: Ok, so they just like … like … bit their heads off, like … did they even think?

SS: How did they grab them, you mean? They were that approachable?

EW: Yeah, they would take them out of the net.

SS: Ohh … now where were these nets … you mean, they had these big nets?

EW: Yeah, that they shot … they’d wait till they landed, and then they’d shoot these nets out over them, and catch them, and then they’d get in there, and grab them just as fast as they could.

SS: So were the nets shot out, like a gun?

EW: Well, it was … I don’t really know how they … I think it was …

SS: I wonder how they did it? I thought they shot them out of the sky, but no.

EW: No.

— 32:00m —

SS: Oh my …

EW: It was netting.

SS: (to students) Ok, I’m sorry ladies … go ahead.

Students: (amongst selves) They didn’t go through our depot … oh yeah.

SS: Train lines, is that what you were going to ask?

Student: No, she was thinking about the double train.

Student: Umm … how many railroad lines were there going through our depot?

Student (amongst selves): Three.

Student (amongst selves): Just makin’ sure.

EW: I think there was only one there in (Brutus?). Uhh … there was a spur off of the side of it … I think one of them pictures has got a uh …

Student: One of the pictures has it, and it looks like there’s three of them.

EW: Yeah … see, there’s a train off in back of the depot … and the tracks actually went in front of the depot.

SS: Did uh … we have had a lot of talk about … in our research about the dummy train. Did the dummy train come to Brutus, that you know of? We have the answers to that, we think.

— 33:00m —

EW: Yeah, I think it went all the way to Mackinac … but not all the time.

SS: So when it went to Mackinac would it automatically make a stop in Brutus? Not necessarily.

EW: Well, if there was somebody on it that wanted to get off, yeah.

SS: So they could have just swung it around, and backed it up?

EW: Uh … I don’t think them things even turned around … I think they’d … go to Harbor Springs, and then back up to the Tannery, and then go off towards Brutus … I know they went to Conway, and uh … the first railroad went as far as Conway, pulled by horses.

SS: And were those wood rails?

EW: Yeah.

SS: Okay …

Students: (overwhelmed sound)

— 34:00m —

SS: They’re getting organized over here … actually they’re very organized, I’m real pleased.

Students: This may be out of proportion but, um, do you have any idea of how many people would work at the depot? Like, an estimate?

EW: I don’t think there was very many worked at the depot in Brutus, maybe two.

SS: Two? Telegraph operator?

EW: Yeah, and the depot agent.

SS: I’m sorry, what was that?

EW: Agent … they called him the depot agent. Yeah. He uh, took care of the mail, and stuff like that … stuff that went in and out of the train.

SS: Oh! (to students) See, there you go, that answered what his job was.

— 35:00m —

Student: What?

SS: That he would … oversee the mail, and what went in and out of the trains.

EW: Uh huh, they would load it on wagons … and, um, I remember when … after what, William Lagley (?) died, why the Evanses … took care of it, and there wasn’t even an agent there then, I don’t believe, in the depot, but they had … a four-wheeled wagon that they hauled back and forth and took care of the mail, and that stuff. And uh …

Student: (looking at notebook) Oh, I think we know that one … (to EW) Um, how did communication take place, like, between cities.

— 36:00m —

EW: They had telephone, uh, there’s still a Brutus telephone, still owned (laughs) by the separate community … uh, but they was telephones all over, I can remember telephone poles …

SS: Crank?

EW: Yeah, we had a crank telephone here, for a long while … and, uh … in fact this one (refering to telephone in EW’s house), uh, was put in privately, and uh, run to the bottom, well - pretty-near-to Conway … and then they sold it to Bell telephone company, for a dollar (laughs) … and this is the only Petoskey phone …

SS: Oh my gosh!

EW: At that time, it was the only phone around here …

Student 1: Do you know why our depot was placed where it is?

Student 2: We believe it was because of lumber, but …

— 37:00m —

EW: Yeah, well, it was lumber, and that’s where a little town was … and, well, wherever the service went, was where they … they was, they was good on service! The depots, the trains was excellent, gave excellent service! And they run strictly on time, they was right on the minute … you could depend on ‘em, you could set your clocks by ‘em.

Student: Do you, um, know how much a train ticket cost back then?

EW: We used to go from Petoskey to Brutus, or Alanson, for twenty-five cents. I think Alanson was fifteen.

[Gasps, folks are amazed by concept of inflation, EW laughs.]

— 38:00m —

Student: So back then, people, like didn’t get, like pay much, like, my mom said that about like, when my grandma was a kid, a loaf of bread cost three pennies.

EW: (thinks) We’d pay a dime for it, I don’t know … I don’t suppose I can remember it any cheaper than that, but we used to pay that for it.

Student: Like, do you know how much people made per hour?

EW: (sighs, reflects) Well, in 1929, before the depression hit, my dad was gettin’ a dollar, err, five dollars a day. And, before that was, that year was over, he was gettin’ three. (laughs) So, before, after, before that winter was over he was going and ridin’ to Cross Village in an open truck and shoveling show for three dollars an hour, err, day!

— 39:00m —

SS: Three dollars a day, shoveling snow!?

EW: Yeah … and, uh, it was a long cold trip, riding in an open truck! That was … ‘30, ‘31. They, uh … a dollar a day, they worked a long time doing it and got a dollar a day.

Student: When did you move to Brutus, or did you not move to Brutus?

EW: I was born in Brutus!

Student: Oh, you were born in Brutus?

EW: I was born in Brutus on Red School Road, right by the …

Students: (cute laugh/gasp) That’s where I live! Do you know Bruce Johansen?

EW: Sure!

Student: He’s your uncle, or, you were his uncle?

EW: Yeah, ya, ya.

Student: He’s my stepdad.

— 40:00m —

EW: Okay! (realizes he is related to this child) We know each other then.

SS: See, there you go!

EW: Yeah, they was some of the first people … that’s the house that was built from that one tree. [See discussion near 16:00.] And uh …

Student: That house is an historical landmark!

EW: It’s over a hundred years old! Um, they had a log house behind that one that they built first, and I don’t know whether mine was, where I was born was a log house or not … but my aunt was born there too, when they first came.

— 41:00m —

EW: She was born there in, 1884, and I was born there in, 1915 … so, that house was (coughing) for a long time!

SS: And were you a second generation, uh, Brutus community member, or … ?

EW: Yeah, uh, third …

SS: Third!

EW: Yeah, my dad was born there, and I was born there.

SS: So they came quite early?

EW: Oh yeah, they came in ‘83.

SS: 1883?

EW: Yeah, they bought that farm …

SS: In 1883.

EW: Yeah.

SS: Which is only ten years after the first train went to Petoskey.

EW: Yeah, ya - and on the Burgess side of the family, they came in, uh, let’s see - 1844.

SS: Oh my god.

— 42:00m —

EW: They came to, uh, southern Michigan … (to JT) what the heck was that? (Unintelligible) Woodstone, Woodland? (laughs) I couldn’t tell you where it is right now. But, uh, then they came north in ‘76 - that was Kilpatricks at that time - he came north in 1876 - and, lived over winter, with an indian family in Cross Village, in a house that had no floor in it, a dirt floor. And he went out to the, uh, the lake - Wycamp lake - and built a log house over winter, and then they moved out there in the spring. And he was the first supervisor of Bliss township.

SS: Oh, there you go - of Bliss?

EW: Yeah.

— 43:00m —

Student: Um, this has been on my mind for a while. Earlier, didn’t you say that, um, the Mennonites, like, didn’t like the idea of people driving trucks, so they kicked them of the church or whatever?

EW: Umm hmm.

Student: Was it still like that when you were there?

EW: Most of ‘em, most of ‘em was driving horses yet. Uh, but it was just about that time, they changed, from a - (to JT) whatever they call ‘em - Mennonites out in …

JT: Old order?

EW: Yeah, the old order into the, newer order. Then, when they started tractors they was glad to have (unintelligible) tractors! (laughs) Right now … but they, uh, they still wear their old …

JT: Well, the old order people left.

EW: Well, they didn’t really leave, but they just - died off.

JT: (laughs) Because Menno always talked about …

— 44:00m —

EW: Well Menno was a younger …

JT: Yeah.

EW: He was a younger generation.

JT: Yeah, he was the young generation, and he started going to that different church, up on the hill.

EW: Yeah, well they went up there on the hill all the time. That was the first church.

JT: The old order was up there?

EW: Oh yeah!

JT: But then … ?

EW: But, uh, his dad was the old order, and Harvey Brubaker was the new order.

SS: (to students) Write ‘Harvey Brubaker, old order’ (laughs) ‘cause some of those names were mentioned in a book - (to EW) well, you’re in the book! You’re in the book!

EW: Yeah (laughs) - and, uh, oh gosh, they was Ebys, Brubakers, Burkharts, Gregorys, uh Martin … uh … gosh, they was … uh, there was quite a bunch of them there!

— 45:00m —

JT: The Snyders?

EW: Snyders! Snyders was there. His folks … uh, see my grandparents come over here in ‘83, and there was ten families come over at the same time as them.

SS: And from where?

EW: From Germany.

SS: So that was a strong German …

EW: Oh yeah, that was a German, well pretty-near all the Mennonites was German too.

JT: Swiss-german.

EW: Yeah.

SS: That’s what I am!

(laughers)

EW: Well, the Wursts was right in there close - Wurtzberg (?) is … right there.

SS: Ooh! Okay.

— 46:00m —

EW: In fact, where Jason, er Kevin was, there, why it’s just up the valley, there, it goes right in to that.

JT: Yeah, he’d gone up into the German part of Switzerland (unintelligible) - he took Jason up there, and they went camping up in the mountains.

(laughs)

EW: Uh, they was, Wurst, and Clinks, and Kuglers, Shriers, uh, Kueblers …

SS: Oh Kueblers, now is that the same Kiebler that’s in Petoskey?

EW: Yeah.

SS: K U E B L E R

EW: Yeah, yeah.

SS: I just wonder, ‘cause that’s the Kubler station, and they were over there, they ended up settling in Kegomic, actually.

EW: Well, that was just Ed.

SS: Okay.

EW: That was one of the boys.

SS: Oh, but the original ones …

EW: He was the same age as my father was.

— 47:00m —

EW: Yeah, and, uh, SYDOS.

SS: And how do you spell SYDO? S E Y?

JT: S Y.

EW: S E Y.

JT: No, S Y.

EW: Yeah, S Y.

[Not sure about the spelling of that name.]

EW: And uh …

JT: Buckhorns?

EW: Yeah, well, the Buckhorns came later - they came in, uh, ‘bout ‘92.

SS: 1892?

EW: 1892. This is, uh, this is the Ayr school … some pictures that the (unintelligible) brought down. (to the schoolgirls) These are the kids that went to school, that school.

SS: Ohh, so like, the enrollment. Oh - (to students) see what that is? And there’s the dates.

— 48:00m —

Students: (murmuring)

SS: Umm, unfortunately, the girls do have to get going pretty soon - I’ve got mothers coming - but this has been so much - and so enjoyable! But I wanted to ask something, I’m very confused on something - maybe they (the schoolgirls) aren’t, but I am! (laughs) And that is the difference between Ayr, and Brutus? Are they?

EW: Just the distance.

SS: But they’re two different communities?

EW: Not really …

(JT protests)

EW: They’re different communities, yeah, uh, but the Mennonites settled in Ayr first …

SS: Oh, I see.

EW: And then they built that church on top of the hill there.

SS: Okay.

EW: And they afterwards they moved out, and went over on the east side, and, uh, settled over there.

SS: Which would be Brutus?

EW: Yeah.

SS: Okay.

— 49:00m —

JT: That’s the Dam Site Inn, that’s where those people were.

EW: Yeah.

SS: That’s where most of Brutus … ?

EW: Uh huh.

JT: No, the Mennonites …

EW: The Mennonites settled.

JT: Are over there east of, the Dam Site Inn.

SS: Okay (to students) - do you know where the Dam Site is? Okay. So east of that … so this book on Ayr Community School, where you’re listed as one of the sources, is something they could look at as Brutus? Or …

EW: Yeah, well, Maple River.

SS: Maple River, ‘cause it says Maple River township, but then it has a Brutus telephone, and then there’s a map, and there’s Brutus, and then there’s Ayr … and so I was trying to establish for them, like the Brutus depot was specifically right in the heart of Brutus, and not what you would say was Ayr community.

EW: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

JT: When did the post office up here … when was it built, and when did it, uh, die?

— 50:00m —

EW: I don’t know - it was nothing but a pile of logs when I first come up here, in ‘37, and I can’t ever remember - we was here - we collected cream in ‘27 - and I don’t remember the post office being there then, so, uh, the post office must have moved out, just before that.

SS: And that post office would have been for Ayr.

EW: Yeah.

SS: Not Brutus?

EW: Right.

SS: Okay. And then, there’s Ayr community school - would students from Brutus go to Ayr community school? Or did they have their own school, Brutus school?

EW: They had their own school, in Brutus.

SS: In Brutus, ok.

— 51:00m —

EW: And Ayr had, see Ayr, Ayr school was built in 19 … no 18, uh, ‘bout 1884 or five, I think … a woman lived where the Ayr cemetary is now, on that piece of property, and she started teaching kids there. Before that, they had to go to the, uh, Pleasantview school, that was in, Tower and North Conway road.

SS: Okay.

EW: And uh, then when Ayr started up, why there was a lot of them, started going to Ayr school. Uh, and they, I think it was only one year that they stayed in her house, that she had school in her house, and then they moved to, uh, the Ayr school started, Ayr school, and uh, that was in … that was a home, and then they built this other school in 1906. So that school’s been there since 1906.

SS: (to students) Well we talked a lot of (unintelligible).

Students: (murmur)

SS: This has been just wonderful - I think, the girls have gotten - you can see several pages of information! (laughs) And you were so generous to let us come, I wish we could stay longer! Although we don’t want to wear out our welcome either.

— 52:00m —

EW: Well, there’s some stuff about that … (unintelligible) uh, that you can take with you …

SS: Oooh!

EW: I don’t care, you can take … some more of that kind of stuff … that’s more about (unintelligible) … you can take some of the pictures, you can take all the pictures with you if you want …

SS: … these are nice.

Student: Are these ballteen? [no idea what they’re talking about]

EW: Yeah, those are ballteen, and uh …

SS: Isn’t that fun?

SS: Well, thank you!

Student: Thank you so much!

EW: That’s ok. And this is, this is a map from Maple River so you can orientate yourself.

SS: So all of it was Maple River, is that right?

EW: Yeah.

SS: All of it, so that’s why they … Maple River … clinic, so I thought … (unintelligible) the Maple River township!

EW: There, that’s just about …

SS: Is where that … clinic is?

— 53:00m —

EW: Oh, well that’s a good boundary, that’s easy for me to …

JT: Oh, the south boundary you mean?

EW: Yeah. And this road …

JT: This corner down here is a four-township intersection.

SS: Oohh!!

JT: We’re in Pleasantview.

SS: We’re in Pleasantview right now.

JT: We’re in Pleasantview, south is Little Traverse, and east is Littlefield, and west is Maple River.

SS: Oh boy, well …

— 53:35 TAPE RUNS OUT —

I corresponded with Sally Smith to make sure she had no objections with putting this interview online

Kevin Trowbridge 06/08/09:

Hi Mrs. Smith!

How are you these days? I was in your class once upon a time (well, a long time ago now, I graduated in 1998!) and remember you well …

A few weeks ago my mother gave me a tape of an interview you organized with my grandpa Wurst back in 2002, about the history of Brutus. I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed listening to it, and in fact I have transcribed it and placed it online, on my blog, so that I could share it with my cousins.

The blog post is at: http://www.kevinmtrowbridge.com/an-interview-with-elmer-g-wurst-brutus-michigan-from-1930-on

(And you can let me know having your conversation online bothers you at all, and I could take it down if necessary. But the blog format is useful for sharing it with my family and there is much to be gained from making things like this public.

Grandpa passed away in 2004 and—well, we really loved him and miss him—so anything that reminds us of him, is extremely valuable to us.

I also enjoy the history of Northern Michigan a lot and I think it was an inspired project that you did, to help the youth to interview the local older people, and to document those interviews. Training young people in the way of historians, to effectively interview their older relatives, is a very worthy project.

Thanks again, really, thanks a lot. That tape was like pure gold for me. And I learned a lot, it’s funny how sometimes it takes a stranger to ask the simplest questions … that your own relatives never think to ask.

Cheers, Kevin Trowbridge proud ‘Alanson Viking,’ class of (nineteen) ‘98 ;)

Sally Smith 07/09/09:

Dear Kevin,

It was so good to hear from you! Of course, I remember you. I certainly enjoyed having you as a student.

I am so glad to hear that you and your family are still enjoying that tape of your grandfather’s interview. It was an honor for the students and me to have had the opportunity to interview him. He was an outstanding community leader and a man of great character. I do not have a problem with you sharing that tape with your family on your blog. I haven’t had a chance to visit the blog, but I will.

I thoroughly enjoy hearing from former students. After all, I chose teaching as my career and hope to encourage lifelong learning within them all. I so appreciated your complimentary remarks regarding that project that we did. Your comments meant a lot. Thank you. I am also pleased to hear that you enjoy Michigan history. I enjoy history as well. We learn so much from the culture of the past.

Let’s keep in touch. Thanks again for your kind remarks. It is wonderful to hear from you!

Cheers to you, too, and happy summer.

Mrs. Smith