245 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8ad400fe621362e97a0f4a4e6be097e7.m4v 738c864323bf5e614d40e365eb26cbc1 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/53e104d4a83cacf9e427dba0850b95b9.pdf 341ba1a9356d87df1089c9ea423abe61 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veteran’s History Project Cold War Mike Davis Length of Interview (20:08:15) Background (00:00:00) Born February 8, 1950 Served in the Air Force and Air International Guard; served during Cold War Highest rank: Lieutenant Colonel Born in El Paso Texas, Father was in Active Duty Air Force Moved numerous times: California, Virginia, England, Ohio, finally settled in California (when his father retired) Used to moving around, a normal way of life Father was a large influence in his decision to join the Air Force ROTC in College (California) four-year program; graduated and commissioned in 1973 (00:01:12) Has two older siblings, sister and brother, neither went into service Played a lot of baseball when he was younger, football September 1968, height of Vietnam War A lot of protests during that time Could always tell when there would be larger protests on campus because of college bumper stickers Fairly small college, in Southern California Active Duty (00:02:44) Drove to Phoenix, Arizona where his first assignment was Very competitive, all had initial training in college Previously in a Flight Instruction Program, had 35 to 40 hours of flying light or propeller-type aircraft �Some had more (50-60 hours) Initially went into T-37 training; twin engine, two seat side-by-side aircraft; January through June (including ground training) Then T-38 for about six months, “White Rocket” Extremely difficult training, competitive 30% of original class was gone due to: self-induced elimination, flying violation boards, etc. Selection Night (graduated in December); very high ranked officers from the unit there (Full Colonel, Colonel, Majors) (00:04:45)  Had missions written on the board (1-55, graded and ranked); number one guy would go first and choose, then down the line  Lucky enough to get a T-38 assignment as an instructor pilot Training (00:05:50) In the ROTC program, had 2 years of voluntary service (marching, protocol, etc.) Last two years, went to ROTC Camp for four weeks to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Tinker Air Force Base  Lived in barracks; more marching, survival training, etc. Had tan uniforms, blue hats and belts, black shoes Required to take sports, played baseball; was injured when playing shortstop,  Next day, when standing in formation, the wound began seeping through the tan pants  Ended up getting demerits for it Had great instructors; full-time ROTC instructors at the camp, their duty As student pilot would have a short cross-country flight, fly from Williams (home base) to another base Then Long Navigation Flights with an instructor (two hops); ended up in March Air Force base then Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas, Nevada Instructor Pilots did four hop flights �1975 or ‘76, Strategic Air Command (flew the bombers and tankers) found some of their pilots were not able to maintain their professions and contacted Davis’s base to borrow planes (00:08:20)  End of Vietnam War, not as much flying being done, still had a lot of planes  Worked for them, went to Dios, Texas for a couple weeks  Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska for two weeks, as well  Got to fly with pilots instead of student pilots International Guard (00:09:30) With the International Guard, flew out of the country Fighter Group in Battle Creek, flying in the “Warthog” or “Thunderbolt II” (A-10)  Deployed over to Aviano, Italy; operation-at-night flight  NATO was attempting to work a solution between the Serbs and other foreign national groups formerly part of Yugoslavia  No combat, at the time; turned into combat in 1999, the group went over  Three groups (would often be split into three groups when deployed in this way); combat operation stopped after the first group went over A-10 his favorite to fly; a very opposing aircraft, easy to fly, wider range of weapons, felt the most secure Wrote a lot of letters to his family, phone calls; on active duty while he was married (00:11:15) Made good friends in the Air Force, meets up with them often  A shared experience between officers Off Duty: would play sports, watched games; used to run, 75 mile clubs; read a lot of history books, spent time with his children Never had any serious mishaps when flying; burner blow out in the “White Rocket,” radio problems, couple of weapons problems with the A-10 2300 hours of flying, very fortunate to have not lost an engine, etc. Two distinctive times of service: 1970’s and International Guard �After retiring from the International Guard, gave a speech  First Oil Embargo, gas went from 25 cents to 75 cents; then in ’79 another Oil Embargo occurred, and another rise in oil when he left in 2000; wasn’t his fault the gas went up whenever he left Had a good retirement party Promotions (00:15:20) Lieutenant Colonel  Went in as a 2nd Lieutenant, then 1st in two years, then Captain in another two; left active duty as a captain  When joining the International Guard, received credit for all his time in service and after a year and a half, promoted to Major, the Lieutenant Colonel (1994)  Had some command positions: Flight commander, operation support fight in Battle Creek 23 years of total service time After Service (00:16:35) Got a job with airlines after active duty; did both International Guard and airline jobs Very busy months A part of the American Airlines, very pro-Air Force Had a very supportive family, very understanding Still a pilot today A large appreciation for his work (00:17:45) Still gets sad during Veterans Day, lost quite a few friends in crashes Appreciates men and women going into the service today SAC front lines during the Cold War; had some friends that flew in many of the conflicts (one friend sank two Cambodian gunships; couple of friends flew in Desert Storm - 1991, etc.) Young men and women today face many more different and difficult problems than when Davis was flying � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Davis, Mike (Interview outline and video), 2006 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Davis, Mike Description An account of the resource Mike Davis joined the Air Force in 1973 after completing the 4-year ROTC program in college. He served in Active Duty as a Pilot Instructor and later went into the Air National Guard during the Cold War. He retired from the Guard in 2000 but still flies for American Airlines today. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Forton, Stacey (Interviewer) Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American United States. Air Force United States. National Guard Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006-06-02 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DavisM Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1282cebb72d25fa64552b1b73cbf368b.mp4 6403ee7e8c78c27cc64dd9b5c2f5ddeb https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5927de4e44d279e1440b67f6a1b198c9.pdf ae65d69d5d218473352eb025c2037942 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Phil Davis Vietnam War Total Time: 08:38 Active Duty (00:40) • • • • Was in I Corps sector, in Northern Vietnam. Was a pilot in the Air Force. Joined the Air Force at the age of specifically because of the draft. Was in Kentucky when his service ended, and he remembers being very happy. Post War (5:30) • • Got a job when he got back to the United States, and tried to get back into education but by the time he would have been able to take advantage of the GI bill he was entrenched into his job. Joined the American Legion 20 years after he returned. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Davis, Phil (Interview outline and video), 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Davis, Phil Description An account of the resource Phil Davis served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. He joined the Air Force because of his low draft number, and he was sent to Vietnam and served in the I Corps sector as a pilot. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Vanloon, Danielle (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Air Force Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-05-26 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DavisP Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1b61b1fc1cfe84acbb5dffe036fa2b85.pdf 6665751455d5ab2218b2c41a21e32c45 PDF Text Text 1 Grand Valley State University Special Collections Kent County Oral History collections, RHC-23 Robert Davis Interviewed on October 1, 1971 Edited and indexed by Don Bryant, 2010 – bryant@wellswooster.com Tape # 25, 26 Biographical Information Robert Leland Davis was born 4 May 1894 in Grand Rapids, the son of George Albert Davis and Alice Barnard. Robert died 21 December 1979 in Grand Rapids. Coming to Grand Rapids in the 1880‟s from New England, George A. Davis was a founder of the Stowe & Davis Furniture Company. He later was president of the Grand Rapids School board for many years. George was born on 3 January 1853 in Windsor County, Vermont. He passed away on 27 March 1935 at the family home on Fountain Street. George was married to Alice Barnard in Springfield, Vermont in September 1882. Alice was born on 3 October 1853 in Springfield and died at the age of 85 in Grand Rapids on 30 March 1939. ___________ Interviewer: O.K. Yeah, you were saying about Fountain Street? Mr. Davis: Well I‟m one of the few people in the city living in the same house I was born in. There at five thirty-five Fountain Street. My father was, I can talk about it now, came west and bought the place about eighteen oh, eighty-five or there abouts. Oh, the next, the nearest neighbor was on the south side, a Mr. Charles W. Pike who has passed and his family has moved out. On the east side was a vacant block and, I‟ve forgotten, I think it was a family by the name Lamoreaux [William T.] that bought the place on the east. The neighbors around there, across the street were the Bundys and other, which were related to the Hollisters and Hollister was, well the mainstay of the Old National Bank, it was called the Old National in those days. The Old Kent is the name they‟ve taken on when they combined the Old National and the, oh I guess it was called the Kent County Savings Bank. And they were then in the corner of, now I wonder if they moved out of the Pantlind Hotel, that place now called the… Interviewer: Known as the Bank? Mr. Davis: Yeah, of course that‟s all new there, I mean when they built the Pantlind Hotel they, they had a corner built on there, just like the oh, Kent County Savings Bank or the Kent had the north, no the southwest corner of Lyon and Monroe. That‟s where WZZM or something like that, are in there now. But that was a, originally a bank. That was the one Old Kent formed they went in with them at that [ ? ] I mean it was the south of the other place now called the Bank, which [drinking started] and see the Pantlind Hotel, as I recall was built, the present Pantlind was about nineteen between twelve or �2 eleven or maybe fourteen or somewhere along in there. And that was quite a place built in those days. It‟s still quite a place, but on the other hand it isn‟t as new as it was, when I remember it then. And, now as I say, my father bought the place on Fountain Street and now I have lived there all the time since. I say that with reservations. I was an engineer in Westinghouse, living in Pittsburg for a number of years, I lived in Massachusetts for a number of years, but I always kept my legal residence in Grand Rapids. I might have lived in an apartment and had all the outward appearances of being a citizen of Pittsburg but when I wanted to vote, I voted here. Ganson Taggart our attorney, family attorney, was city attorney and he said well if you‟re interested you better keep it here and I said what do I have to do and he says just vote every time and I had this absent voters laws so I could vote by remote control you might say, here in Grand Rapids. Of course I was interested in the Grand Rapids activities because my father was on the Board of Education. And also in, had connections with other things around here such as StoweDavis Furniture Company and things like that. Interviewer: Did your father, was he one of the founders of Stowe-Davis? Mr. Davis: I wouldn‟t say he was a founder but he came here and bought into it, bought, when he moved into town in eighteen eighty-five. It was then a concern called Stowe and Height [Haight], I think. H-e-i-g-h-t or something like that and a, Height [Thomas D. Haight], my father bought him out and then a number of years later, I think L. C. Stowe was, see there‟s several Stowes around town here so, sold out but then he had the major stockholding in the company. Then of course when he retired, why that‟s now gone over to well the Hunting family I judge. That is the Steelcase and that crowd. Hunting in those days was one of my father‟s, associates. Interviewer: Which Hunting was that, David or the old man? Mr. Davis: Well, I don‟t know who you call the old man. The old man that I knew, I meant the, I think it was Edgar Hunting. He was well quite a bit older than I was, naturally and David Hunting I think the one you referred to, I‟m not too sure of him. I think a, he was a little bit older than I am. He graduated in the high school a year or two before me. But he was, and then of course was a series of other Huntings coming along… Interviewer: Well, your father served on the board of education. Was he connected at all with Davis Tech? Mr. Davis: Well, you can call it that. A, he was very much interested in promoting, a well [whether] you call it, technical high school. But you see he had an awful time with me. I cordially disliked school and one of the things he seemed to realize was that there wasn‟t enough technical stuff to keep me interested. And this Latin and all that line of stuff, well my mother who was very much, what do you call them, classical person, she made me hang on to that and he saw to it I kept on going to school. But he realized, I guess that it‟d be better to have a sort of technical school. I don‟t know if you call it really technical, not in my line of thought I wouldn‟t call it that but anyway it was �3 something. And I know he stated one time, it should be a type of school so if anybody quits for any one week, he could feel that the week before he had learned something of practical value. In other words if he had to quit at any time and go and get a job, why he‟d picked up something in the previous weeks which would do him some good. Rather than waiting for the Latin and the Greek and the corruption of that kind, that‟s what I called it, to do some good. Oh I can remember back in those days. You took a lot of English, Ancient English, what good did Chaucer do me? What good did all that kind of stuff do me? See, I‟m an engineer. I happen to be one of the few professional, and I don‟t say few but one of the professional, registered engineers in the city. I‟ve been a college prof[essor] and taught engineering and I‟ve got degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Tech and University of Michigan and I‟m an engineer inherently. All the rest of my family are lawyers. I‟m the only black sheep in the family. I‟ve no objection to lawyers but after all, they‟re the kind that stick to the commas and semi-colons. They don‟t concern themselves with, well, should I say the facts of life. They‟re going go with the law. The law. Well, I probably shouldn‟t be quoted on this but, in my mind I think the lawyers need to have a going over somewhere. Here‟s a thing somebody said as a joke but I can well believe it about true. It was said that one of the later states that is new, Arizona, New Mexico came in, or applied to come in or applied to come in and they set up their, oh what do you call it, laws and regulations and things like that. They had in there, whatever it was, a rule that the circumference of a circle should be three times the diameter in that area because that was convenient. Now, anybody who would do that is just so darn dumb and I don‟t know whether they‟re going or coming because there‟s nothing more fundamental in the universe, than that constant of pi. Just as a thing that is rather interesting, it is said that somewhere over in Europe, some monk or somebody like that who was secluded, he worked on a series to work out the value of pi and he carried it on out to seven hundred decimal places. It never comes to an end and never repeats, so trying to say it‟s going to be three times and that‟s all, why you might just as well said the length of the year is going to be something else. You can‟t change it. And pi is more fundamental even than the length of the year. A few million years, the length of the year is going to change. Nothing‟s ever going to change pi. Interviewer: Yeah… Mr. Davis: Now of course, somebody said that that‟s a joke to show that the lawyers stay with the as a, that‟s the law, well that‟s what it‟s going to be. They‟re going to decide cases on that. It couldn‟t be any cases are decided on that, well what are you going to do? It‟s not right but they have it set up that way. Just like they could go and call red green and green, red. That‟s the law. You see, I got my background of, oh I wouldn‟t say antagonistic to lawyers but, it amuses me how they operate. For instance, I had a cousin who was quite a high powered lawyer, he in his days in college, he was a great football player. And he liked to cite how he played and he won this game and won that game and he did this and he did that. Then he got through the law, high school or college and so on and took the law, then he liked to cite how he got to be a prosecuting attorney. And he likes to say how he won this case and he won that case, and he did this and he did that. Well, I said maybe you shouldn‟t have. Oh, but he says, that‟s what I got to do. Now, what do you do? That shows my attitude towards lawyers. They‟re more �4 concerned with the commas and the semi-colons than they are with the spirit of things. Gee, whiz look, you‟re recording all this stuff. Look what you‟re going to do to me, I‟ll be in jail… Interviewer: …Well you were, you were just talking about change and, you know, talking about change, how has the city changed since you know when you were [alive] growing up? Mr. Davis: Well, of course in those days we had practically no well-paved streets, I mean it was, well I might call „em macadam. But they weren‟t like they are now. So after a rain, why the streets had irregularities and a lot of puddles around. And of course we had streetcars then. And, oh I would say they were more convenient than they are now with the present buses. Fact is the streetcars used to run on a schedule in the middle of the day at every six minutes. You‟d go out and stand on the corner and just like that a car would be along for you. Of course, as an engineer I‟m very much interested in the streetcars.. The Lyon Street Hill Line had a special breaking system because it was steep and, oh there was a lot of things that I got interested along that line. And I think it‟s very unfortunate that, well, what should I say, situation is not suitable for fixed transportation like streetcars. That is you can‟t expect people to go out and stand in the street with the auto traffic these days. On the other hand it had been much better if we had equivalent of the street cars, well you might even say trolley-buses. They, they had those in Detroit for a while. They‟ve had „em in a lot of cities but, oh I don‟t know the economics and things don‟t seem to be too good. They can draw up at the curb, but of course they have the same trouble as the streetcars, they had fixed routes and well if something happens, well you‟re stuck on your fixed route, you can‟t go on around the block like on a regular bus can. And, well things like that I think it‟s very unfortunate we don‟t have more viewpoint of that type of transportation. Poor old city of Grand Rapids, well here again, of course it‟s my native town, I feel like I can take it apart if I want to. I think it‟s about the poorest operated engineering town of any place I know of. An illustration of that, as I mentioned this before, I looked up the number of engineers, registered engineers, professionals, in the city and there‟s fewer engineers per unit of population here in Grand Rapids than any other city in the state. In other words we‟re, we‟re just, well, I‟ll almost say a kind of an enlarged Rockford or something like that. We‟re just a bigger town. The companies that really do business here do most of their engineering outside. Bell Telephone Company, the other companies, they‟re all engineers from either Detroit or some other place. Grand Rapids is just a place to live or exist or something like that. And that‟s too bad, too much of a common attitude. We ought to have more people on the city commission say, that have an engineering background. They don‟t. Look we‟re full of insurance guys and oh, people [of] that kind, I was going to say, undertakers and whatnot, the undertaker‟s gone, but that‟s about what it is. What do they know about anything? They don‟t know anything. Interviewer: Was it different when you were growing up, the city commission, the composition of the city commission? �5 Mr. Davis: Well of course in those days we had the city, that‟s the thing I would like to, gee whiz you‟re getting me into awful mess. I would like to feel that we‟re going to have a return to what we used to have, namely aldermen and a mayor. My youngest days, up to the time I was about a senior in high school, I graduated in twelve[1912], we had the aldermen, 12 wards, two aldermen from each ward. Well, you know how things go in cycles. All of a sudden they got excited and they said we‟ve got to have a commission form of government. Some of it good. But look what happened, look what we got. As long as it went along on a good form of commission form of government with proper people in there, I think it wasn‟t too bad. They got a lot of us young fellows in high school to go out and stand on corners and hand out stuff and promote the city commission. Well it apparently got in. Now I‟d work just as hard to put it back out again, because we need more representation of the people. In those days, you had aldermen around, two aldermen for your ward. Of course he had a smaller group to look after, you might call it that. If you wanted something, I mean felt something ought to be changed, you could go down and talk with him and he was, why I don‟t mean to say he could do an awful lot, I mean he might not upset anything, he would at least be more, well I won‟t say more polite, but I mean more cognizant of what you were, willing to be cognizant of what you were doing. Now you go down and talk with the city commissioner, well, that‟s in the hands of the city manager. Now I‟d have thrown that city manager out there so far he‟d never come to surface. They have no business having a manager like that, who‟s little king god in the glass case down there, and he runs the town. I don‟t know which side of the fence you‟re on, I can see you‟re laughing, he acts as if he ran the town. He, the city commission rubber stamps what he wants. Now I got no use for that. I‟d say that maybe we need a city manager, a fellow who would be kind of a high grade book-keeper and well not exactly a lawyer but look at the things with the city man, the city commission tells him what to do, want the city commission to be enough of „em so that if they‟re going to look after you in your ward when you‟re, represent something, or want something, they‟ll say yes, we‟ll think about it, we‟ll do what we can. We‟ll give it consideration. Now they say that‟s in the hands of the city manager. Interviewer: Well who ran the town? If the city manager is running the town today, who ran the town a…? Mr. Davis: Well, it [goes] to the city a, the alder-man and the mayor. Now of course there used to be squabbles, and they said that the aldermen got crooked. Hell, my attitude is, if they got crooked, that‟s just up [to] the citizens to throw „em out. You used to hear about some petty graft of one kind or another, anything from garbage collection to what not, which they‟re squabbling over now. They, who got it, well they‟d be saying so and so‟s working and he was well associated with such and such and I don‟t know what [I‟m talking] you know. Well, I‟d rather have it in the shape of somebody who‟s gonna be interested in what you want, rather than what we got now. Now, being of course an engineer I‟ m all strong for having better engineering. And poor old Grand Rapids don‟t seem to have enough sense to know what to do. Let‟s cite a couple of things. I‟ve been a member of the Engineers‟ Club for a number of years. Oh I don‟t know, about in the late thirties when I came back here, that was because my father was in his last days and he, �6 they said you got to come back, to look after some of the family affairs. So I came back to Grand Rapids, and doing what I could of course, then I, I got mixed up in the Engineers‟ Club and they were then getting ready for the pipe line, they were fussing about it. And, well we said that they ought to have some engineers studying the thing and then, the mayor then went and appealed the Engineers‟ Club and anyway he got a committee started. I happened to be on that committee. And we recommended then to put in at least a sixty-inch pipeline and perhaps bigger. Look what they did they put in a forty-six. We knew it was gonna, was going wrong, but that‟s what you got. Well, I mean the type of, remember that‟s the city commission and, and aldermen. That‟s what they said you got to do. Another illustration of how they, they sort of needled us over it, obviously when they lay out a pipeline you try to lay it out according to engineering principles and grades and things like that. They said to me later on, are you working for Frank McKay? And I said no, what makes you think so? Well you got that running across some of his land. Well I tell „em I can‟t help the geography of the place. If the pipeline ought to go along that place because of the grades, well that‟s where it ought to go. Well that‟s part of Frank McKay‟s land you‟re recommend that he get some sold or you know. They made me so peeved one time that I went and told this bird, I said look if you, I‟ll quit the city entirely and I don‟t care whether it burns down or not. But if you‟re gonna look at things that way. Interviewer: Well, before they had the pipeline, where‟d they get their water? Mr. Davis: Oh, out of the river. And it was a pretty dirty mess. Why perhaps I shouldn‟t say that. Back in about nineteen eleven or twelve, I can remember as a youngster, they built the filtration plant that‟s down there where it is now. And they took water out of the river. Prior to that they‟d taken it right out of the river with no filtration. And I can remember in my youngest days, which is about nineteen hundred when I began to remember things, they used to have to boil all the water. It was all the health authorities recommended, any water used for drinking, you boil. Well, I don‟t know. I guess most of us did, at least that was up to my mother to run the kitchen department. I don‟t know what she did but anyway that was one of the things. Interviewer: Was there any sickness or anything that… Mr. Davis: Oh yeah, typhoid fever was much more prevalent than it is now. I guess we‟re fairly healthy now. But even at that, it‟s not too good a water supply because on the basis of what we figured it, you needed a bigger pipeline. There‟s not enough water in the city despite that, in the summer, despite that report that came in that we could get along for a while because during the summer months, they take water out of the river, to augment what they get over the pipeline. And of course they, they treat it some, but it still, is much harder than Lake Michigan water would be on a normal basis if we had straight Lake Michigan water. Well anyway it just shows that poor old Grand Rapids has got no engineering background. Another thing that griped me [to] no end, as an engineer, I‟m [an] electrical engineer, I believe in running everything electrical that you can. But there‟re some things that you got to be very fundamental about. Water is one of ‟em. You need water whether the juice fails or not. You can‟t run a hundred percent safe on �7 electrical pumps. Pipeline can be, I mean the transmission lines can get knocked down, or they can have sub-stations get knocked out, things like that. When the water works ran by steam, and there‟s a lot of good size cities that still do that and it‟s fundamental, you‟re independent. Maybe you can‟t furnish all the water they want but at least you‟ve got enough so that the power company can‟t close up for half a day while the Russians knock „em out or something like that. And you‟re dependent on the water. Of course they say, well we got storage. Yes, but that storage wouldn‟t last ya very long if we‟re totally dependent on outside power. A corollary end to that is that not too many years ago all the hospitals around here, the bigger ones used to have their own power plant, I can remember Butterworth out here, had its own power plant. Well, that‟s an ideal thing, make juice and then you have light and they run the elevators and it gives all the service you need and then you have heat from the exhaust when you need it and it‟s a very nice thing. Well, that costs a little more, the cost of labor‟s getting so high to hire engineers, I mean operating engineers to run the place is getting to be expensive. So the power company and I guess the board of directors of the hospitals says, well alright we‟ll buy power. And they went over and the power company went on a basis we‟ll furnish you two circuits, if both of „em won‟t get knocked out. Sounds good, but it wasn‟t too long before the power company and the people got together and they says look, we‟ve got to be sure about this. The telephone company, they want to be fundamentally supplied. They got a diesel engine down there to be used for auxiliary. Well, they recommend that the hospital put in a diesel and I think Butterworth has one. It won‟t furnish everything but it won‟t put „em black. Things like that, you got to think about. You might say, well it costs more. Well gee, insurance costs you more, why have insurance? Just get along and say I don‟t need insurance. But you buy insurance because you never know, you might want it. And to pay a little extra for auxiliary power, that‟s like the insurance. I‟m afraid I‟m getting off the track. I‟m just… Interviewer: Well, talking about electrical, what kind of electrical system did they have when you were a kid? Mr. Davis: Around here? Interviewer: Yeah. Mr. Davis: Well a, the water works had an auxiliary, I don‟t mean auxiliary generator, but a little generator and it made power for some of the, for the street light, on a, first place it had quite a plant for making street lights. They were the old arc-light type. The plant, when I first remember it, was down on the river way over on the east bank of the river between Fulton and Wealthy. Down where the market is and about in there. And it furnished juice to run all the arc-lights around. And, well at one interesting corollary on that, somebody had the idea that you ought to light from overhead and so they had some of these high towers. I don‟t know if you ever heard of them, towers about a hundred feet high and they had four arc-lights up on the top of those. And they would, supposed to cover the neighborhood. Well it didn‟t, „cause the trees covered up [?] fundamentally it was probably a good idea. But after a while the towers got kind of questionable and they took „em down and then they distributed the lights around the neighborhood but they still �8 were lacking plenty of light. We‟re gradually improving it, but I can‟t kick too much on that. Poor old Grand Rapids can‟t scrape up enough money to light the place the way it ought to be but I do hate to see „em get totally, and I‟ve no objection to the power company, I‟ve got a lot of good friends down there, I don‟t like to see a thing like a city get totally in the clutches of a company and say look, at such and such a time we‟re gonna raise the rates, well and , go on that kind of a basis. If they had their own power plant down there, even though it‟s standing still, could say alright, we‟ll take over whatever load we need and make it ourselves. Now on that basis, that‟s another thing that gripes me to no end. They went and tore down the smokestack on the waterworks. You probably remember when that stood up there, a big tall smokestack. They tore that down, oh I don‟t know, somewhere in the last two-three years. It was a good smokestack. Probably hadn‟t used it for several years because it had gone over to electric power. But on the other hand it needed some proper touching up. That is you know, pointing, as they call brick work. They should have been pointing up. So somebody says oh well it‟s getting to be a hazard now. It isn‟t safe. It wasn‟t so old, there‟s lots of older smokestacks than that around town. But they didn‟t pay any attention to it. They didn‟t do anything. Interviewer: What did , where did the homes get their electricity? Mr. Davis: Oh, we bought that from the power company. That was quite common in those days. I mean that‟s about all you could get. You didn‟t want to make a power plant in your own home. Although I had that kind of a rig. I lived out on Silver Lake, out here in the summer time and of course then, I‟d gotten away from town, and with Westinghouse, and I had a chance to buy equipment. So I went and bought what they called farm light equipment. Remember those things they used to call farm lights? Farmers used to have those because they wanted light and power, small amounts. So I went and bought farm light equipment, or had it shipped up here, put it in the cottage, and for a number of years out here we lit the cottage on our own power plant. I like that kind of stuff. I got the generator for the place down I my cellar right now. And the engine is still out in the summer, the cottage. I don‟t know what to do with it, I‟ve been thinking I might give it to the library, I mean the museum, a place of that kind. Interviewer: Did you, did your family home have electricity from the time you can remember? Mr. Davis: Oh, no no. Interviewer: What, what did they have? Mr. Davis: Well, they had gas. Gas. And still, I go on the basis if I want fundamental things in there, so the gas piping is still in the house. I think possibly I should cut it off but I, I don‟t want to do that. I like to have it there. Now, of course we use gas for water heating. No question about it, gas is cheaper, for just pure heat. It, you can make, I mean BTUs per dollar are cheaper with gas than with electricity. No question about it. �9 Interviewer: How did those gas lights in the home work? Mr. Davis: Well, you see „em around the streets now. They, they‟re putting „em out here, they‟re mantel lamps. Once of course they had the old fishtail lamps at one time. You go down to this gas light village down here and you can see a lot of „em. Fish tail lights were just jet on the end of a fixture you might say, a fixture arranged to be artistic and things of that kind, glass globes and all kinds of thing on „em. But the gas lights made a mild amount of [?]. They were better than kerosene lamps, let‟s put it that way. We had some kerosene lamps in our house; I can remember early days the kitchen had a kerosene lamp out there. Why, I don‟t know but it had, they never put the gas out there. They had a gas stove for cooking and it also had a, well I guess you‟d call it, coal range. You could cook on that and heat the oven and do that sort of stuff with a coal range in the winter. Interviewer: They burn coal? Mr. Davis: Burn Coal, small [?] of coal. Interviewer: I was talking to a fellow this morning who was involved in the fuel business in Grand Rapids and he was saying that most of the homes at that time were, in fact all the homes heated with coal. What was the air like in the city then? Mr. Davis: The air? Oh you would never know it. It‟s just as good as it is now. Probably better. We, this furor over pollution, I‟m all in favor of reducing pollution but let‟s go at it on the basis of knowing what we‟re talking about. There‟s a lot more smoke and stuff coming out of big places, which they don‟t fuss about, than there was probably was in all the the coal smoking days, I mean coal burning days of the city. Now it‟s not as bad here because they usually burn hard coal. That‟s more or less smokeless. If you lived in Pittsburg a while, you‟d know what it is to burn soft coal domestically. It‟s rather amusing down there, at least when I was first there. The coal is so plentiful it‟s practically in every farmer‟s backyard. And I boarded, that was before I was married, I boarded in a place in the, heard the man of the house say one time, along about this time of the year. Well, we‟d better call up the farmer and have him bring in some coal. Well I thought that was kind of funny and I asked him about it and he said oh yes he had a side hill out here and he brings in coal. I don‟t, it wasn‟t very good coal, I know that and they, you bring it in and dump it [in on] the sidewalk or I mean in the curb and then he‟d hire somebody to shovel it up and put it in the cellar for him. Interviewer: [When] hmm Mr. Davis: And, but it was, oh I mean they got along, but it was rather interesting though. I used to travel quite a bit between Pittsburg and New York City and they‟d come in from New York City on this train at night, I mean the sleeper car and get there in the morning, and as you‟d come into the city from the east, as you came into the town there‟d be a kind of a haze over the whole city; because practically every house was, letting out a little cloud of smoke. Not, I wouldn‟t call it smoke, but a kind of a haze. �10 And you could definitely notice it. Very definitely as you came into town, clear outside in the country, and as you came into the city, an awful smoke. Of course Pittsburg has a horrible problem, or did in those days. They‟ve cleaned up a lot now. The mills made a lot of smoke. Coal mills, I mean a, steel mills, all those things. They used to make an awful mess around there. You got so you, well you‟re just accustomed to it. Well when I got married and went down there and lived there awhile with my wife, well you couldn‟t [just] go out in the evening. You‟d put on a fresh shirt, because the one you‟d been wearing during the day time was sooty. [went up] ? ? ? wife says oh you have to clean tonight. And things like that. I mean it showed up. Interviewer: But Grand Rapids never had that…? Mr. Davis: Never, never that bad, no. It wasn‟t, oh I don‟t know, the biggest problem I had from it, of course that was after I got back here, the Central High School, was really quite a boiler plant down there, used to burn coal. And they were very careless about it and they used to make a lot of smoke. I worked with Boelens who was then smoke inspector, and took pictures of the place and I don‟t know as that had any results, well anyway, not too many years ago they changed over to gas. That‟s good, as far as the neighborhood was concerned because they‟re not so dirty. Used to be that, under the eaves of a house, where the rain didn‟t come down and wash it off, why it‟d always be dark there, I mean dirty. Because the smoke had drifted in and deposited the soot and that was that. Now they don‟t have to paint quite so often, as we used to. On the other hand though, the gas is a big problem. Most people don‟t realize that, on the, for instance we live in a very old house as you can appreciate, not very old, about a hundred years old but anyway it was built before the time of chimney specifications which required a ceramic liner. Now then, if you burn coal, the coal gas was dry. Now you burn gas and the gas comes out with a lot of water vapor if you know how the exhaust of a car is in the winter, a plume of steam. Well, that‟s just the nature of the stuff. If you put that gas, I mean a burner big enough to heat your house, into an old house, with an unlined chimney like I have you can‟t get away with it because it‟ll, the moisture in the course of two or three years will go through the [?] Interviewer: Ok. Mr. Davis: And the, well I can‟t do it in my house because the chimney runs right up through the living room. We got bookcases around it and all that sort of stuff. It‟d take the plaster off the walls and I couldn‟t tolerate it so I‟m still burning coal but I got it all automatic, it‟s got a stoker, as you call it, though it may be a little smudge out of it once in a while, you can oh, at intervals between stoker firings you might call it that, why there‟d be a little haze come out of the stack but there‟s not dirty around there like it used to, I mean it would be if you‟re burning coal raw or with the high school burning coal, I‟d get over to gas if I could and I have a lot of good friends down in the gas company I‟d tell „em, will you fix me up [an] arrangement so I can burn gas without [ruining] my house. And they say, oh no, we can‟t guarantee that. I say you‟ll have to put up a bond if you want to do that. And oh no we wouldn‟t do that. So here I am running along with coal for the fire and I might say it‟s something of a chore because I‟ve gotten to the point �11 where the doctors now tell me I shouldn‟t shovel coal to any great extent, and I have to hire a fellow in the winter to put the coal in the hopper. Well that takes effort. It‟s not the best thing [?] I‟d switch over to gas anytime. It‟d probably cost a little more but then I wouldn‟t have to pay a guy a, oh eight - ten dollars a week to come in and keep the coal hopper full. Particularly when we go out of town, why it‟s something that has to be taken care of, you can‟t just go along and forget it. But even at that I wouldn‟t recommend any-body with a gas heating plant to go along and I hear a, people going oh I just went south and I left it running. As an engineer I wouldn‟t let that thing run without attention at least once or twice a day on any account. Something could fail. Then what would happen? I wouldn‟t take long for in zero weather for the house to freeze. Then it‟d be several hundred dollars of plumbing repair. Interviewer: Um hm. Mr. Davis: For example in my house, too. When we go out of town, even though we have a fellow looking after it I have a light in the window, under the control of an auxiliary thermostat which is set at about fifty degrees. If the temperature ever got down to fifty degrees, that light would light, then the neighbors are supposed to gallop in and find out what‟s wrong. Well, why not? Interviewer: That‟s a good idea. Well, they say most of the air pollution today is caused by the automobile. Do you remember the first car that you ever saw? Mr. Davis: Oh yes. Interviewer: What kind of car was it and who had it? What was the effect on the city when the cars started coming in? Mr. Davis: [?] it was always a novelty to see this damn thing chugging down the street. There was a one cylinder Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles one cylinder running along underneath. You cranked it on the side by putting the crank on auxiliary. You had a chain drive running from the engine shaft to the rear axel, and you‟d get in there and you‟d steer it with a tiller. They used to have the cold, curved dash, Oldsmobile had a curve on the bottom of it, sleigh you might say. Oh they‟d run around. Sure they had, interesting, they gradually got more and more and they got the cars so you didn‟t have to…, there used to be the joke, every now and then they get stuck and somebody‟d go by and yell at „em, “Hire a horse.” Oh but that lasted, the first cars I remember were oh probably nineteen two and three and four, somewhere along in there. Some of „em were steam cars. I had a great respect for steam cars. The old White Steamer, was a steam car. It had a boiler under the seat. The engine in the first ones was right alongside the boiler, it drove with a chain drive. Then the better White Steamers, I mean newer ones came out with the engine under the hood, the boiler was still under the seat. But they were quite a car. They would outrun most anything that you could imagine these days. I know I had a test ride in one one time. A fellow came in the factory, a neighbor of ours had one and went out and drove down the Cascade road. That was about the only passable road out of here. And they used to have a lot of pumps along the dash, if you‟d pump awhile and do �12 different things with „em and the fellow was in there and he was steering with one and he was looking at the road and pumping these things and she was running sixty and he says, “She ain‟t steamin‟ quite like she ought to.” Well, I thought it was just as well she isn‟t steaming [?]the thought of goin‟ much faster over that rough road and him steering one hand and twiddling his pumps and looking at his gage and just sprinting down the highway. Interviewer: What year was that? Mr. Davis: Oh, that was probably in nineteen hundred and three or four. Interviewer: That was a pretty fast car, wasn‟t it? Mr. Davis: Yeah, the White Steamer was a very good steamer. They could run anywhere. Interviewer: Did you ever have any accidents with the boiler blowing up? Mr. Davis: Oh no. I don‟t think so, I never heard of any. The worst thing about the steamers, and is still the reason that prevents them from being common these days is thefact that it takes a few minutes to get on steam. If you leave it sitting in your garage and you want to start the next morning, you‟ve got to allow, oh I don‟t know what it might be, ten, fifteen minutes to raise enough steam to run out of the barn. Interviewer: Um hm. What kind of an effect on the city did those early cars have? Mr. Davis: Oh, there were, there was just a joke, annoyance for the most part. The steam cars, they weren‟t bad, some of „em did exhaust direct into the air but that was steam that came out then. And, oh they‟d go along down the street leaving a fizzling kind of a steam out behind, was kind of a joke. I know one time, even quite more recent than that we drove east down to Massachusetts, the family places. And we used, I think it was an Oakland then, it was a good gas car. Then it had a maximum speed of about 40 miles an hour, and we drove down and came back, and on those good roads in Massachusetts, I came up behind a steamer, a Stanley Steamer, that was different type, but it was a good car, very good. But they couldn‟t maintain their speed; the boiler wasn‟t quite big enough to keep „em running as fast as they‟d like to run. I mean they might try to run. And I‟d come up behind „em then he‟d really open up and run away from me leaving this big cloud of steam out behind. And then he‟d re-use up about all his steam and perhaps my speed a run thirty-five forty miles and hour and oh, two [or] three miles, I‟d catch up with him again. Then he‟d do the same thing again. Just run away from me like nothing. That steam engine, well that boiler with that steam bottled up in there could run way from practically anything that was going on in those days. Some of the world‟s records for steam were made by the Stanley Steamer; I think a hundred and twenty some miles an hour down on the, well the Florida beaches. Interviewer: Daytona? �13 Mr. Davis: Down there somewhere. Well there, they did the high speed work. It‟s too bad the Stanley went out of business. There‟s quite a story on that. If you go to the library you‟d probably get a book down there called the Story of the Stanley Steamer. I think you‟d enjoy reading it. It‟s really worth while. And well I used to enjoy the Stanley Steamer; I‟d like to see that again. I hear oh that Bill Lear is planning one. I hope he gets it going. I‟m kind of afraid he may not because, well for what I know of Bill Lear, he‟s a kind of, oh a, visionist guy. He can imagine doing this, and he can imagine doing that and that was about it. I knew him, I mean I knew of him because that when I was at Westinghouse, he was in competition with us trying to furnish government equipment. And he didn‟t have enough background and enough sense or enough anything so when it come to making competitive bids, he couldn‟t make „em equal to what we did. But on the other hand he would under bid us „cause he‟d just say we‟ll make it for so much. I don‟t know what he did. I don‟t think he ever made anything, get very many contracts. Sometimes I know we would lose a contract but of course when you bid on government stuff you got to turn in all your specifications. Then of course, they‟re common property. He probably then could pick up these specifications I mean the things we had and build around our specs and do it for a lower price, and we did, but you notice he‟s not in business doing too much of that. I mean he didn‟t stay in it. Then he came here to Grand Rapids and, oh then I think he got other people in conjunction with him who kind of gave some ballast to hold him in control although he used his good ideas and they worked that way. I don‟t know. It used to amuse me and when I was here first there were a number of people I knew moved down there at Lear‟s and, yet every practically every year they‟d change. They couldn‟t stand it apparently, to stay with him. I know one time was a joke told about he had a conference in his organization somewhere, at least this was the story I heard, that he said, that we ought to do something this way; it was rather fantastic and the engineers didn‟t think about much of it. And a couple of days later, he went out into a development lab and he asked one of the fellows, “How‟d you come along with what I was outlining the other day” And the fellow apparently wasn‟t too diplomatic, he says, “You didn‟t expect I was gonna do that fool thing, did you?” He got fired right away. But Bill Lear was accust…, might do things which would be fantastic, which an engineer wouldn‟t do, but he ought to be diplomatic enough to say, “Well look, we‟re thinking about it still.” Or stuff like that He wouldn‟t go and tell the boss, look I wouldn‟t try that fool thing. Interviewer: Yeah, what was your family a prominent family in this city? Mr. Davis: Oh, I don‟t know, you might call „em that. That is Stowe-Davis, and my father being on the Board of Education for some thirty-five years. He went on the board when, oh I was about the fourth grade in school, or fifth grade, somewhere along in there. And I couldn‟t do a thing out of line which any youngster would do. He had a pipeline virtually from the teachers right into him. And he knew about it when I got home that night. He knew about it and I was in for trouble then. So it was a heck of a job, about bad as being a minister‟s son, living with a situation like that. „Course he was on there until, oh, well he died in thirty-five and I think technically he was still on the board when he died. He didn‟t do much the last six months. But anyway he was on the board and all �14 that time, when I graduated from High School And then I went on to College and stuff like that, and of course he didn‟t have to do about the college end of things but in the high school he, well, still had his say. The only time he ever did anything for me, you might call it, was, I was no good in languages. It was, my mother said I had to take some German. We had a German down here who really was German, at least she acted so much like it. And when we‟re taking the courses in German she insisted to learn the rules for German grammar in German. Well just imagine that. I didn‟t know anything about German, how was I going to learn the rules? Well I, I got, passed it off as next to nothing then I got flunked in the course. Well apparently that stirred up my mother enough, so she talked to my father and said look, you better do something about this. Well, the next thing I knew, he had it arranged that I would not continue with German course in high school here. But I would get a tutor. A tutor was, well a professional tutor who‟d had, was recognized, they had some around town, for various subjects, by the public schools and I finished the course by tutoring with her. I got my credit for that year of German, unofficially, but it counted. So when I went to the university I got by with it Interviewer: You mentioned the Bundy family lived in your neighborhood. Mr. Davis: Yeah, the Bundys lived right across the street. Bundy was, I can‟t say positively, but Mrs. Bundy was a son of, well Hollister, I‟ve forgotten his first name. He had a son, Clay Hollister, you may hear about. And then of course he had several sons younger than that. I‟m not so sure but one of „em is you about him there is a Bundy down there in Washington doing something. That might be some of the family, I don‟t know, „cause they‟ve all pulled out of here. But I can‟t quite imagine that crowd going over to the Democratic [?] Interviewer: What, what kind of business was Bundy involved in here in Grand Rapids, do you remember? Mr. Davis: I think he was an attorney. Interviewer: Well, the thing I was going to ask you about your family, if they were prominent, did they a, socialize with those families that lived in the Hill District there? Mr. Davis: Oh, I don‟t know, I didn‟t pay much attention to what they was going on. I don‟t think they had too much contact with „em. I know they used to talk about the Hollisters and the Bundys. My mother used to know Mrs. Hollister, and she used to talk about Clay Hollister And he was known, see he went to the bank with his father, was quite an official in the Old Kent Bank, not the Old Kent but the Old National. And well they were well, they know their way around [?] My mother was quite, well both my father and mother were active in Park Church. My father was a deacon down there for a number of years, which added troubles to me, and my mother was very active among the ladies societies. Oh boy you want to live in those days. You went to church on Sunday morning and before you knew it you had to go to church in the Sunday evening. Want it? No. I didn‟t want it. You went to church. �15 Interviewer: What kind of organizations was your mother involved in? Mr. Davis: Well, a lot of missionary work, she also worked with the LLC, that‟s the Ladies Literary Club down there on what is it, Sheldon or something like that? Interviewer: LaGrave I think. Mr. Davis: Yeah, it‟s down there still. And my aunt was also, lived with us part of the time. She was active in the, I wouldn‟t say active, but I mean took part in the thing. And oh things of, they were doing their share in a mild way, around town. I don‟t mean to say they were very prominent, like being wives of senators or something like that, but they did their stuff around town. They were known. Interviewer: What was living up at, what was living in that neighborhood like as a kid? Mr. Davis: It wasn‟t so crowded as it is now, and you could do lots of things. Of course our big lot, that‟s the thing that amuses me, now you can‟t get youngsters to mow grass. My father says look, you mow that grass, and you mowed that grass. You raked it and did all this kind of stuff. There‟s a lot of things that youngsters don‟t do these days. My very youngest days, the family had a horse. They had, before I was born, had a horse that they kept in what we call a barn now. But then they decided it was too much of a job to keep the horse up there and so they kept the horse at a Livery stable downtown. And when you wanted the horse, you‟d phone down - the phones had been established by then - oh, you‟d call up whose livery stable it was, they had changed around at different times. The one fact [?] place called Albee‟s, Albee‟s Livery Stable, and we used to keep the horse down there and they would bring the horse up and a fellow bringing the horse up would hitch his bike on the back of the buggy and would ride the bike back downtown and after I got to be a little older, perhaps, a middle high school age when we got through with the horse that afternoon or evening you‟d drive, I‟d drive the horse downtown. Then it was up to me to my own shift to get back up the hill. Albee‟s Livery Stable was on Crescent, oh I should say it was about where the Regent Theatre used to be. Do you remember the Regent Theatre? Interviewer: Um hum. Mr. Davis: That was in, about in there. Typical horse barn and stable. They had probably thirty [or] forty horses in there. Well taken care of. Interviewer: Did you spend much time downtown when you were a, young? Mr. Davis: Gee whiz. I was busy doing things around the house and oh playing with other kids around there, and things of that kind. Interviewer: Did you do a lot of tinkering when you were a kid? �16 Mr. Davis: Oh yes, I always tried to do that. See, that‟s one thing that gave me a good start on most youngsters that didn‟t have the advantage. My father was Stowe-Davis Furniture Company, of course that was when plants ran on the steam engine, Every Saturday afternoon, cause they ran Saturdays, except right straight through to five o‟clock Saturdays, not only five days a week, I‟d go down to the engine room, hang around the engine room down there and just hanging around with the engineer, I‟d get accustomed to doing things. Starting at first, well probably just sweeping up a little bit, then doing more things. I know one of the first things that amused me was at night, when they‟d quit, you‟d blow the whistle. And I wasn‟t big enough then to reach up by the whistle cord so I‟d take the stool over and stand that on that by the wall when the whistle cords came down and he‟d signal to me and I‟d pull the cord and blow the whistle. You don‟t hear whistles these days. I don‟t know as there‟s hardly one in town. But it used to be quite a thing, At five o‟clock or six o‟clock, the whistles would blow here in Grand Rapids from various power plants. Now they got practically no plants that got a whistle. That was quite an interesting thing and then New Year‟s Eve or New Year‟s Night you might call it, there‟d be quite a, I wouldn‟t say a ceremony, but nearly every plant that had a whistle would blow it at midnight. No, I enjoyed my work at the factory. I don‟t call it work; I just hung around over there. Oh but I did have to do work one time. He got, I don‟t know if you‟ve ever been in a furniture factory much, you know they have planers, with plane oh surface boards, like this, big wide ones long, tops of tables and oh things like that and oh, I probably was fourteen maybe. He says, “You‟d better go to work” and so he says. One of the jobs in the factory that I got was tending the planer. That is the fellow runs the planer, he puts the boards in the front there and runs through the planer then they come out the back side and you had to pick these things up. I mean they, they just come through, they don‟t let „em fall on the floor, that‟s part of the job. And put „em on a hand truck where they can be carried away and do something else with them. And a, so he says, “You‟re gonna work over there this summer.” And the superintendent put me to tend the planer. The amusing part about it was, I mean that showing how things have changed, they had a regular kid who did it. I don‟t know what they did with him when I was, when they gave me a job of doing it, during the summer, but anyway, he was around there. Once or twice they had him, when they had some very heavy tops in there, they had him help me pile these big heavy tops on a truck to get them away. Now when I say truck, I mean one of these trucks, you know, industrial, not a power driven truck. But the thing I think is humorous about it was that he says, “Well we‟ll pay you eight cents an hour.” He says, “I can‟t pay you as much as the regular guy. That wouldn‟t be right for the boss‟s son to have a salary equal to a regular guy. He was getting I think twelve cents an hour. But we‟ll give you eight cents an hour.” So I worked all that summer for eight cents an hour. Interviewer: Was that, was eight, what, the guy that was working for twelve cents an hour, he was working at what, a ten hour day? Mr. Davis: I suppose so. Interviewer: Was that, I mean could you live fairly well on that? �17 Mr. Davis: Well he was just a kid in high school, just I mean in school, like I was He wasn‟t living, I mean his family probably took care of him. I mean wasn‟t, oh the regular rates weren‟t very high, no I should say not. Well, I can remember my father used to talk about some of the higher paid men over there make sixty cents an hour. That was good pay for those days. Sixty cents an hour. We used to say a penny a minute. The kids, the rest of „em got, oh probably after they got along, thirty-five, forty cents an hour. It wasn‟t very much, but they used to live, and be quite happy I would say. Well I got eight cents an hour. Interviewer: Where did the furniture factories get their workers? Mr. Davis: Oh just all around town. Interviewer: Was, as I understand a lot of Dutch … Mr. Davis: Yeah, that‟s right. Oh yeah, most of the factory men were Dutch. Interviewer: Do you know the reason why so many Dutch people migrated to Grand Rapids? Mr. Davis: No, I don‟t know Interviewer: Why they chose this town? Mr. Davis: I often wondered. They just came in here. Well why‟d the Poles come in here? They, came in here too. I don‟t know. They just migrated West and some of „em stopped here. Interviewer: Where did your family come from, Massachusetts, did you say? Mr. Davis: No, Vermont. But even a generation or two before them they came out of Massachusetts and so on. Interviewer: Why did your father come to Grand Rapids? Mr. Davis: Well, I don‟t know exactly. One story I heard was that my mother didn‟t like living in Massachusetts. It was, they were then living down near Boston, it‟s kind of a sea-coast atmosphere. And she said the, at least the story I heard was that she told me the general sea coast attitude and moisture and all that kind of stuff was tough on her throat. She didn‟t like it. And so next, what she told me was she says they decided they‟d go West and, oh one story I heard was that they thought of once about Omaha. But she did have a brother who‟d already got into business in Detroit. There was no automobile business then. That was just business. And he I think encouraged them to come to Grand Ra.., come to Michigan and, oh Michigan was only probably, I mean Grand Rapids was only about seventy thousand or something like that. And they took over, I mean they bought in then. They boarded downtown here, I used to joke about, it was quite a fancy �18 boarding house you might call it that. It‟s where the police station used to be. Do you remember where the police station used to be on the, Ottawa Street down here on the corner of Ottawa and Crescent? Alright, about a house or two up from there, of course the police station wasn‟t there then, was where this boarding was. And they lived there a year or so while he was looking around the town and getting started at Stowe-Davis and stuff of that kind. I used to tell her, yeah, they kept you right close to the police station, didn‟t they? And well she used to get kind of aggravated about that but anyway, it was downtown then, is still, I think it was quite a place. Well, you can see kind of a remnants of it, you know what is it Bostwick Street, the one that goes up from oh, past the front of the Butterworth hospital? You know on Bostwick Street between Crescent and Lyon, there‟re a couple of old brick buildings in there. They used to be more of those downtown. They were boarding houses, I mean you could live in that. Well it was quite a thing. People in Boston lived in, I wouldn‟t say boarding houses, I mean they lived in, houses which were built right along in rows. Not from what you call those row houses these days, but I mean, there‟d be individual units in a series of perhaps four or five houses, usually built of brick, anyway pretty well put together. And you could live in there and you didn‟t have the responsibility of a lot of stuff. It was good living I guess, for those days. I don‟t think I‟d like it now but I mean that‟s what people did. Interviewer: Was there very much crime in the city, when you were growing up? Mr. Davis: Oh, I don‟t know about that. I never had any experience with it. I guess about the way crimes were was on Halloween night us young fellows used to go out and do out stuff of dumping garbage cans over and a few things of that kind but I don‟t suppose you‟d call that crime. No, Grand Rapids I was satisfied? was a model city, if you might call it that. But I suppose there must have been the usual stuff going on. But then it was I would say a safe city. Nowadays you won‟t dare go out on certain streets after dark. Then you could walk or drive anywhere. I wouldn‟t trust… I mean the city isn‟t nearly as good as it used to be in those days. I don‟t know what they‟re gonna do with the city now. It isn‟t safe. Well… INDEX A C Albee’s Livery Stable · 16 Central High School · 10 B D Barnard, Alice · 1 Bell Telephone Company · 5 Boelens, Inspector · 10 Bundy family · 1, 15 Butterworth hospital · 7, 19 Davis Technical (school) · 3 Davis, George A. · 1 E Engineers’ Club · 6 �19 H P Hollister family · 1, 15 Hollister, Clay · 15 Hunting family · 2 Hunting, David · 2 Hunting, Edgar · 2 Pantlind Hotel · 1, 2 Park Congregational Church · 15 Pike, Charles W. · 1 R K Regent Theatre · 16 Kent County Savings Bank · 1 S L Ladies Literary Club · 15 Lake Michigan water · 7 Lamoreaux family · 1 Lear, Bill · 13, 14 Lyon Street Hill Line (streetcar) · 4 Stanley Steamer · 13 Steelcase Company · 2 Stowe family · 2 Stowe, L. C. · 2 Stowe-Davis Furniture Company · 2, 14, 16, 19 T M Taggart, Ganson · 2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 3 McKay, Frank · 6 U O Old Kent Bank · 1, 2, 15 Old National Bank · 1, 15 University of Michigan · 3 W White Steamer · 12 � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/132e520c7707c8a5c9a353930e1007cb.mp3 b53a818c8a514af2a475310f9e427223 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Rapids Oral Histories Subject The topic of the resource Heritage Hill (Grand Rapids, Mich.) Local histories Memoirs Michigan--History Oral histories (document genre) Description An account of the resource Taped and transcribed interviews conducted in the early 1970s primarily of the children and grandchildren of many of the founders of Grand Rapids, Michigan; many of whom were residents of the Heritage Hill neighborhood. Interviews were collected to develop a significant collection of oral resources that would supplement other primary and secondary local history materials. Initially funded as a private project, Grand Valley State College (now University) assumed responsibility for continuing the project until 1977. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Various Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/452">Grand Rapids oral history collection (RHC-23)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf; audio/mp3 Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text; Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-23 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1971 - 1977 Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-23_25-26Davis Title A name given to the resource Davis, Robert Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Davis, Robert Description An account of the resource Robert Davis worked as an engineer for Westinghouse and was a professor of engineering. Mr. Davis had degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Michigan. He was active in the public schools and was a local historian. He died December 21, 1979. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan--History Local histories Memoirs Oral histories (document genre) Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Heritage Hill (Grand Rapids, Mich.) Grand Valley State University Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf audio/mp3 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Grand Rapids oral history collection (RHC-23) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/07d4fc2370a569384c674cbe39edbb5f.mp4 9266827184de4afa760db6a4a50e8689 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7aa4e43ce40b47c1300515262016b1fb.pdf 27f98bc1d3cf17d18e6c81e548c8c233 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans' History Project Roy & Marion Davis World War II 1 hour 52 minutes 40 seconds (00:00:15) Roy's Early Life -Born in Hartford, Michigan -Small town of about 2,500 people -Grew up in Hartford -Marion's family moved to Hartford -Roy and Marion met in school, eventually dated, and got married after the war -Born in 1924 -Father owned the Hartford Greenhouse -House was attached to the greenhouse -Provided flowers for funerals, anniversaries, and school dances -Sold the greenhouse in 1946 after Roy came home from the war -Had a sister -Always had three meals a day during the Great Depression -Father planned on building two more greenhouses -Great Depression made it impossible to finance that project (00:02:35) Start of the War -Didn't pay much attention to the fighting in Europe and Asia before World War II -He was in a drugstore playing pinball and a kid came in and said Pearl Harbor had been bombed -Meant nothing to Roy because he didn't know what, or where, Pearl Harbor was -Remembers riding in the car in 1938 and listening to the radio -News broadcast came on the radio announcing Hitler's conquest of Czechoslovakia -Father predicted that war was coming and Roy would have to fight in it -After Pearl Harbor, gas rationing went into effect -Family had a “B” sticker because his father owned a business -Meant they could get a little extra gas -National speed limit was set at 35mph in an effort to conserve gas -Young men enlisted or got drafted -Graduated in 1942 -Went to the Willow Run manufacturing complex (near Ypsilanti and Belleville, Michigan) -Turned away because he was draft age (00:05:10) Enlisting in the Army Air Corps -Enlisted in the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet -Always interested in flight -Remembers the first time he flew was in a biplane at a fair -Went to Fort Custer, Michigan to take the mental and physical tests (00:06:54) Basic Training -On June 1, 1943 he reported for basic training at Sheppard Field, Texas -Took 12 weeks -Ran five miles every morning around the inside perimeter of base -Had a huge obstacle course -Climbed to the top then rappelled down in a parachute harness -Received gas mask training �-Went into a tent filled with tear gas, stated name and serial number, then put on mask -He did it successfully -Some men washed out -One man couldn't complete the obstacle course and got washed out -Reassigned as a cook in the mess hall (00?:10:47) College Training -Sent to College Training Detachment at Wittenberg University -Received navigation, math, and science courses and taught how to be an officer -Got ten hours of flight time in the Piper J-3 Cub -Flew with an instructor -He wasn't very good at flying that plane -Did that for three months (00?:11:58) Active Pre-Flight Training -Received Active Pre-Flight Training in San Antonio, Texas -Most likely at Lackland Air Force Base -Took courses on navigation, Morse code, engines and airframes -Had to decode 10-15 words per minute in the Morse code class -One man couldn't handle it and quit in the middle of the class (00:13:25) Primary Training Pt. 1 -Sent to Uvalde, Texas for Primary Training -Flew the Fairchild PT-19 -Got an instructor that swore at him whenever he made a mistake -Flew with a different, calmer instructor and did much better -Original instructor admitted that he was being too hard on Roy -His instructor taught him airplane acrobatics -Will never forget the first time he solo flew -Remembers singing at the top of his lungs (00:17:42) Basic Flight Training -Next portion of training was Basic Flight Training -Flew the BT-13 Valiant -Noisy and shaky airplane -Had a tendency to get into spins and wouldn't get out of spins -Cadets were ordered to bail out of the plane rather than try to get out of a spin -He was the first man in his squadron to solo fly the BT-13 -Had a fighter pilot for an instructor that showed him more flying tricks -Remembers solo flying the BT-13 the first time as well -On the last flight with his instructor they switched places -Roy got to critique the instructor for making mistakes (00:21:38) Downtime during Training -Didn't get off base because he was too busy with training -Busy with navigation courses, engine courses, and airframe courses -Remembers getting a half inch of snow and the base was shut down for the day (00:22:52) Multi-engine Advanced Training -Sent to Waco, Texas for further assignment -Some men got assigned for training on the B-25 Mitchell -He was selected for Multi-engine Advanced Training -Trained on the Cessna UC-78 -Did navigation training with another cadet or with an instructor -Flew cross country training missions at night �-On one of those flights the copilot didn't feel well, so Roy had to fly the whole way -Told to bail out or make an emergency landing if one of the engines cut out -Promised himself he would never bail out over the desert (00:26:24) Training Accidents -During Basic Flight Training one cadet was having trouble with touch and go landings -On one take off the cadet crashed and got decapitated -First fatality in his squadron -Two men died in Advanced Training doing touch and go landings -Lost radio contact with the plane and the two men came in for a landing -Hit a plane on the runway and both men died -Before graduating he had a dream about being in a mid-air collision -Had the same dream many years later, but bailed out in that version of the dream (00:30:19) Transition Training -Sent to Reno, Nevada for Transition Training in the C-46 -When he began Transition Training he was officially a pilot with the rank of 2nd lieutenant -Before going to Transition Training he received 30 days of leave -Went back to Hartford and reconnected with his high school sweetheart -They would eventually get married after the war -Only flew a total of 10 hours in the C-46 -Not enough training -The C-46 was the biggest, freight hauling aircraft at the time -Could fly fully loaded with only one engine -Great airplane, but it required sophisticated maintenance (00:32:50) Flying the C-47 -Had only ever been a passenger in the C-47 -He was the youngest pilot in his squadron when he went overseas -The older men took care of him and taught him extra flight skills -Eventually got into flying C-47s in Burma -The C-47 was easier to fly than the C-46 because the C-47 was a smaller plane -C-46 felt like flying a barn, but it was still a great plane if you flew it right (00:34:43) Deployment to China Burma India Theater -Gathered at St. Louis and told to collect their gear -Officially, they didn't know where they were going -Received hints that they were going to the China Burma India Theater (CBI Theater) -Went to Fort Totten, New York -Spent the night there -Went to the PX, bought a jungle knife, and sharpened it while drinking beer -Still has the knife -Next morning had to fall out at daybreak and he had a terrible hangover -Flew on a C-46 mail plane -Stopped in Bermuda to refuel -Stopped in the Azores to refuel -Stayed overnight in Casablanca, Morocco -Ordered to stay out of the native quarters -American servicemen disappeared and were never seen again -Remembers all of the white houses -Stopped in Libya -In Iran it was 100 degrees, so they stayed in the plane �(00:40:17) Arrival in India -Stopped in Karachi, India (now Karachi, Pakistan) -Stayed there for two or three weeks -Bought a pair of Karachi boots -Flew to Sookerating Field in Assam Valley, India -Started flying missions out of that field when he got established -Treated well by the men there, but not officiously -Shortly after arriving he was made officer of the day -Meant he wore his best uniform and carried a .45 caliber pistol -First time he cleaned his pistol it discharged without warning -Learned that it had a hair trigger and had to be handled with care (00:43:30) Flying Missions in India -First mission was a flight over “the Hump” (eastern end of the Himalayas) to Chengdu, China -Delivering fuel and picking up Chinese conscripts to be trained in India for the Chinese Army -Flew over uncharted territory -All of the conscripts got airsick -When they landed at Sookerating Field they delivered the conscripts to a Chinese sergeant -Flew countless missions out of India (00:46:39) Weather Conditions -Primary weather concern for flying over the Himalayas was the powerful west wind -If there wasn't wind, dense fog would roll in making it almost impossible to land -During one mission the fog rolled in and they ran low on gas -At the last minute an airfield told them they could land -Made the landing with only their instruments -Most dangerous weather concern was the severe thunderstorms over the Himalayas -50,000 to 60,000 feet in height -Flew through a storm once and experienced St. Elmo's Fire (00:51:05) Stationed in India -While stationed in India they lived in tents on an old tea plantation -Had Hindu waiters -Aware of the distinct cultural differences, especially concerning food and animals -Always felt bad that the Hindu waiters served the Americans beef stew -Went into the nearby town and got his picture taken -Ran into British soldiers -Stationed in India for three months (00:54:38) Stationed in Burma -Sent to Myitkyina Airfield, Burma -Liberated from Japanese occupation by Merrill's Marauders on May 17, 1944 -Remembers seeing a Japanese Betty (Mitsubishi G4M) bomber on the runway -Found the corpse of a Japanese soldier buried at the airfield -Had a squadron of P-47s that flew bombing runs against the retreating Japanese -Knew that the Japanese were retreating from the area -Arrived after Christmas 1944 -Stayed there until the war ended -Lived in British Army tents -Pretty good tents -Hired natives to build a hut for them -Never got to move into the hut though because the war ended -Continued to fly missions over the Himalayas �-Used water from the Irrawaddy River and purified it with chlorine -On one mission out of Burma he flew a colonel to a party in India -Stayed in the officers' quarters while the colonel went to the party -The next day the colonel was hungover and reeked of alcohol -Severe thunderstorm rolled in, but colonel insisted they take off anyway -Fortunately, they made it through the thunderstorm -Got back to Myitkyina and thick clouds meant planes had to wait to land -Colonel grew impatient and ordered Roy to radio the tower -Given clearance to land because of the colonel's rank -They got to land before everyone else -Bothered Roy that the colonel complained and got his way -Flew half the time during missions -One pilot flew to the destination, and he flew back to Burma -Had a friend that had delivered P-39s to the Soviet Union -Excellent pilot -Flew with him on one mission across the Himalayas -Made it to their destination and then had to take off in a rainstorm -Turned into an ice storm -Had intense turbulence and ice building up on the wings and propellers -Gradually increased their altitude to get out of the storm -Able to fly by moonlight -Got back to base, debriefed, and received two shots of medicinal whiskey -Worst flight he ever experienced (01:08:10) End of the War -Remembers dropping off cargo and picking up cargo on a routine mission -Saw an old friend from training -Didn't know it would be his last missions -Finally felt like he could handle the C-47 -Next day got sick and the flight surgeon grounded him for 30 days -In that time, the atomic bombs were dropped and Japan surrendered -Remembers hearing the news that Japan had surrendered -All of the men fired their guns into the air -Day after that command ordered the men to turn in their weapons -In September 1945 he was ordered to a hospital in Calcutta, India -Had to do sick call every day -Doctor determined that he had a fever and “allergies” -After 30 days he went to the commanding officer and requested a return to duty, or go home -Commander decided to let Roy go home (01?:11:00) Coming Home & End of Service -Went home on a hospital ship -Took 30 days to sail from India to the United States -Indian Ocean to Red Sea, through Suez Canal, across Mediterranean Sea -In the Straits of Gibraltar they ran into a bad storm and got issued lifebelts -Told that if they sank the lifebelts would be useless; they'd die in the water -The next morning he was the only man in the ship's mess hall -Everyone else was seasick -He never got seasick, or airsick -Landed at New York City -Saw the Statue of Liberty �-Greeted by the Salvation Army -Given doughnuts and real milk (as opposed to powdered milk) -Sent to a hospital in Indiana -Given 30 days of leave -Parents sent him to see a doctor in Hartford -Administered a shot of penicillin -Doctor had been a flight surgeon in North Africa with the Army Air Force -Became lifelong friends -Delivered Roy and Marion's children -A day or two later he felt much better -Marion eventually worked for the doctor as a nurse in the office -For years after the war Roy still had bouts of the illness -Most likely contracted malaria while in India or Burma -After the leave reported to Indiana with Marion -Stayed there for a week or two -Sent to Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois to get discharged in early 1946 (01:17:41) Life after the War -Came home and felt lost being a civilian -Expected perfection coming home, and it wasn't -Married to Marion for 68 years -Got married in 1947 -Marion plead to the Air Force not to call up Roy for service during the Korean War -Got his commercial pilot's license -Flew around the Hartford area -Buzzed Marion's family's house while they were still dating -Eligible for the GI Bill, and Marion encouraged him to go to college -Went to college at Western Michigan University -Lived at WMU for his first semester -GI Bill paid for his bachelor's degree and part of his master's degree -Lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan then moved back to Hartford -Write a column for the Tri-City Record -Has done it for 30, or 35 years -Thought he would only do it for a year when he started writing the column -Wanted to be an engineer -Found out he was bad at math, and the engineering job market was saturated -Found out he was good at literature and the arts and enjoyed it -Became an English teacher -Taught drafting for a while, closest he got to engineering -In 1977 he decided his students ought to keep journals -He decided to keep his journals as well -Has completed 125 journals since 1977 -Taught at Pioneer High School, St. Joseph High School, Lake Michigan College, University of Michigan -Got his doctorate at the University of Michigan and at Yale -Teaching literature and preparing English teachers -Moved back to Hartford in 1982 and still lives there (01:28:54) Marion's Nurse Training Pt. 1 -When she was a little girl her cousin was a nurse -Decided she wanted to be a nurse �-Applied for South Bend, Indiana Nurse Program at St. Joseph Hospital -Parents paid for the tuition for the first year -Became a cadet nurse in September 1943 -Meant she was a government employee -Witnessed an autopsy -Within ten days four or five girls dropped out -Issued cadet uniforms and cadet pay -Paid $15 a month -Received six months of preliminary training -Cleaned IV tubes, cleaned bed pans, made beds, cleaned syringes -Pulled general duty on the medical floor -Prepared corpses for transfer to the morgue -After a year put on night duty -Did things the older nurses were afraid to do -Wanted to get into the Navy if she was going to get into the service -Father served in the Navy and didn't have to worry about going overseas (01:35:40) Nurse Schedule -Worked seven and a half days, then got a half day off -In the summers they didn't have classes -In the winter, days started at 7 AM, classes all day, studied, and pulled duty at night -Strict regulations -In her last year of training she had to wait to the end of the year to get leave -During that leave they reconnected and started dating again (01:39:47) Marion's Nurse Training Pt. 2 -In the nursing program for three years -Dealt with a rape case from the city of South Bend -A nursing supervisor couldn't handle it and walked out -Marion remarked that a supervisor shouldn't be in charge if they can't handle that -Got in trouble for that -Came out of the nursing program more mature and more responsible -Allowed to see USO Shows -Had to do switchboard duty for the hospital one night without any training -Fortunately they didn't get many calls that night -Learned not to look down on people, no matter what they were doing -Nurse training allowed her to get a career wherever she and Roy moved (01:47:32) Contact with Roy -Hadn't heard from him for a while when he went overseas -Roy's mother thought that he was missing in action -Marion knew that he wasn't MIA until the Army officially said he was MIA -At one point hadn't heard from Roy for weeks -All of a sudden started getting old letters from Roy -Eventually received word from Roy that he was okay -She sent him a picture when he was in Burma, for morale purposes (01:50:05) Getting Married -Completed nurse program in September 1946 -Decided to wait a year after she got out of nurses training -Wanted nursing experience before starting a family -Saved her money to prepare for starting a family � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DavisR1914V Title A name given to the resource Davis, Roy M. and Marion (Interview outline and video), 2016 Description An account of the resource Roy Davis was born in Hartford, Michigan in 1924. He grew up in Hartford and after graduating from high school in 1942 enlisted in the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet. He reported for duty on June 1, 1943 and began training at Sheppard Field, Texas. From there he went to Wittenberg University for College Training then went to San Antonio, Texas for Active Pre-Flight Training. He received flight training in Uvalde, Texas, and after graduating as a pilot and receiving his commission as a 2nd lieutenant he was assigned to Multi-engine Advanced Training. In Reno, Nevada he trained on the C-46 cargo plane. In late summer 1944 he deployed to the China-Burma-India Theater and was stationed at Sookerating Field in the Assam Valley of India, flying supply missions into China over the Himalayas. Three months later, after Christmas 1944, he was transferred to Myitkyina Airfield, Burma where he continued to fly supply missions until the war ended. He contracted a disease (most likely malaria) and stayed in Burma until he was transferred to Calcutta, India in September 1945 for 30 days in a hospital. In October 1945 he returned to the United States and arrived in November. He received 30 days of leave and was discharged in early 1946. Marion Davis grew up in Hartford, Michigan and in September 1943 enrolled as a cadet nurse at St. Jospeh Hospital in South Bend, Indiana. She received hands-on training on how to be a nurse and planned on joining the Navy after she completed her nursing program if the war was still going on. She completed her nursing program at St. Joseph Hospital in September 1946, and married Roy Davis in 1947. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Davis, Roy M. and Marion Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Air Forces Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-01-04 Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/49170d41af0307e7be77dbc26191e204.m4v 2daed67ee56681b7abd88c75fec3cede https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/11041e2d1bf9e294b7d072a1e046fd35.pdf 03877cccdac16141baa25e9ce12bdd74 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veteran’s History Project Air Force Shaun Davis Length of Interview (00:07:45) Background Born in 1960 Father was a salesmen and mother was a homemaker Has four sisters and one brother Younger brother served in the Army Enlisted into the Air Force at the age of 18  Family had a long history of veterans  Felt it was a good opportunity to move forward and also travel Enjoyed flying, very different being alone (no alone time with a family of eight) It was hard to adapt to the lifestyle, had been very undisciplined Went to San Antonio for basic training, then Wichita for training (00:02:45) Served on Travis Air Force Base, near Sacramento, California Met a lot of people from different cultures; still in contact with a few of them, from all over the country  Tend to drift apart after serving During free-time, would explore California and also party Stayed in touch with his family through phone calls and letters Reserves (00:04:40) Working at a medical center at the time; had a choice to go to Berkley or see his family  Had to make the choice six months before leaving; chose to go home In some ways it was difficult to readjust, still didn’t consider himself as a civilian �Military was an excellent experience; had a lot of jobs and responsibility Had originally planned to be a Hospital Administrator, given the position after a captain left  Very challenging and rewarding Learned that people need to go into the service realizing it is not just a job; found out what it was like to be alone; discipline was helpful � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Davis, Shaun (Interview outline and video), 2009 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Davis, Shaun Description An account of the resource Shaun Davis served in the U.S. Air Force. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Schipper, Isaac (Interviewer) Schipper, Isaac (Interviewer) Schipper, Isaac (Interviewer) Schipper, Isaac (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American United States. Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2009-06-04 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DavisS Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fd7ee07a4371dd0ba6db7f06542cc6c4.mp4 ec1e8bbf639f81f0271ffd6e79f4469a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7511877d5ef0b2e85704d8b4d29cc49c.pdf 9099764bd120bee72b686eae98190571 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Wayne Davis (00:31:45) (0:20) The Early Years • Born in Benton Harbor June 6, 1957 • Had 1 sister and 3 brothers • Dad worked at Superior Steel and later at the Benton Harbor Public Schools from where he retired • Mom also worked and retired from the Benton Harbor Public Schools (1:24) Before Grade School • Went to Alabama during the summers to visit grandparents o One time Davis stayed a full year with his grandparents down in Alabama • Both sets of grandparents lived in Alabama o His dad’s father was named Claude or “Wig” because he was bald  Claude was a farmer and also ran a barber shop out of his home o His mom’s father was named Gus Shackleford  Gus worked at the paper mill (2:19) Alabama • Played with cousins • Segregation was extremely prevalent o Davis and his family still had to sit on the back of the bus o Separate washrooms • Played with cousins o Cowboys and Indians, army, rode bikes, etc. • Saturday mornings, Davis helped his grandpa Claude load up trucks with crops to take to market • Saturday afternoons, Davis sold peanuts his grandpa roasted in his grandpa’s barber shop o The barber shop was located right behind the house o It was more of a side business, opened mainly on Saturday afternoons and Friday nights (4:25) School • Elementary School o Went to McCoy which was 4 blocks from his house o Played the trumpet and also baseball • Junior High o Continued to play trumpet o Favorite class was math and typing  Liked typing because only boy in the class!  The reason he took typing was because during the summer Davis had broken his hip playing football; the typing class replaced Davis’ gym class • Benton Harbor High School �o Played in the band until 10th grade o 11th and 12th grade Davis worked at Jewel as a bagger and a stocker  Enjoyed job because got to meet a lot of people (8:20) School Dances • Attended many school dances • When missed his curfew, his mom would sit behind the door with a broom; when Davis would finally get in, his mom would hit him with the broom and then would have Davis’ father say a few words to Davis o Davis’ father would say, “Just try to make curfew and make Mom happy!” (9:50) Cars • First car = ’66 Chevy Impala • Second car = ’68 Buick Skylark (10:15) Enlisting in the Military • Spent one year at John Wesley College in Michigan but decided it wasn’t for him and that he was going to enlist with a few buddies • When returned home from college in April, told mom he was going to Detroit to visit a girl friend but instead Davis was actually going to Detriot to enlist • Enlisted in the Army • Day after enlisted, Davis was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky (11:25) Training • Felt a lot like football practice • Specialized in supply • Went to Virginia to attend Supply School • After school, sent to Germany for 4 years with the 42nd Medical Company (12:15) Supply School • It was a self-paced school that usually took 12 weeks to complete • Davis finished it in 6 weeks • Food was decent but the food in Germany was even better (13:10) Why Germany • Everyone who enlisted was asked where they would want to travel to • So Davis was sent to Germany on a plane o 10 hour flight on a DC-10 (13:40) Germany • Arrived in Frankfurt where Davis was assigned to the 42nd Medical Company • Davis and the Company were sent to Nuremburg • Stayed in the Merrill Barracks which were nicknamed the “Gangster Hotel” o One of Hitler’s old headquarters  All types of underground tunnels; the tunnels were blocked off so Davis was not able to go through the tunnels o Just down the road was a park called Duzendteich  There were 12 ponds that Hitler used as landing pads for his planes; he would drain the pond, land his planes, and then refill the pond with water. (15:00) Language • Language was not a problem �The younger people spoke both English and German so Davis never had to learn German (15:19) Other Places Davis Visited • Rome, Paris, Greece, and Spain (15:40) Rome and Paris • Rome o Took a tour bus around • Paris o Davis went on his own o Took a 16 hour train ride from Germany to Paris o Met up with his cousin who was playing pro-basketball o Stayed 30 days (Davis was on his 30 day leave) o Followed the team around (17:40) Responsibilities at Base Camp in Germany • At first, took care of dirty laundry, ordering clothes and shoes • Switched to the Motor Pool o Dispatched out ambulances  Kept track of mileage and scheduled maintenance (18:19) Places Visited in Germany • Went to one USO outdoor concert • Saw auto races • Olympic Village • Dachau (19:00) Dachau • Visited Dachau, one of Hitler’s concentration camps • Very interesting and very sad • Davis said he could still smell the burning flesh (20:20) After Germany • Returned home and served in the Reserves for 6 years with the military police o Returned to Germany one summer for training (20:55) Military Police • Stationed in: Denver, Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, and also in Little Rock, Arkansas • Arkansas o Was sent there for 2 months to guard the Cubans [from Mariel Boatlift?] o Scary situation but because members of the police force, they were allowed to carry .45s and guns unlike the National Guard o The military police were flown down to Arkansas and given riot gear to wear o Stayed in barracks right next to where the Cubans were being held  Cuban men, women, and children were living behind barbed wire fences in tents (23:40) Jobs • While in the Reserves, worked for Hugh’s Plastics for 2 years o Loaded trucks • �Also had a part-time job as a caretaker for John Stubbleson (?), who was considered the wealthiest man in St. Joseph (25:19) Marriage • Had a wonderful social life • Married twice • First time for 13 years and then divorced (no children) • Second time for 10 years and then divorced o Has one 9 year old daughter who comes and visits every other weekend (27:10) Other Jobs • Came to Grand Rapids in the early 1980s with his first wife • Became head custodian for Park Congregational Church for 7 years o Davis was there when the huge fire broke out o If Davis hadn’t closed everything up as he always did, the fire would have been MUCH worse o The fire was caused by arson; someone broke into the church • Became custodian in the Grand Rapids Public Schools for 15 years • Later, served on the Chamber of Commerce as a Supervisor of grounds keeping for 4 years • In 2005, got sick and came to the Veteran’s Home (30:35) How Service Affected His Life • Davis said that he got to see parts of the world he otherwise would have probably never seen. • � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Davis, Wayne Keith (Interview outline and video), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Davis, Wayne Keith Description An account of the resource Wayne Keith Davis is a Veteran who served in the United States Army during peacetime from the late 1970s to the late 1980s in Germany and in the United States. Born in 1957, Davis talks about his childhood growing up in Benton Harbor and his summers spent in Alabama visiting his grandparents. In Alabama, Davis remembers facing segregation and also selling peanuts at his grandpa's barber shop. Upon enlisting, Davis went to Supply School in Virginia and then was flown to Germany where he became a member of the 42nd Medical Company. After spending his four year term in Germany, Davis returned to the United States and served in the Reserve for another six years as a member of the military police. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Collins Sr., Charles E. (Interviewer) Collins, Carol (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Army Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-03-14 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DavisW Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/481d784851f7c7925fc930b1d1043364.mp3 34f27dc4f6a627a10586d9cfa2f5e11b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1587e72639c7ac24dd16d0b25be0e6e3.mp3 44e728850d2c14d72058373419d97ec4 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a25118bf856728ccbf69790469557b76.pdf 715149acd88b59a632fed9cf24d527ab PDF Text Text Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 Part 1 Eric Gollannek: This is, this is Eric Gollanneck. Meghann Stevens: And Meghann Stevens. EG: And I’m here today with… Dawn Schumann: Dawn Schumann. EG: At the Douglas, uh, Saugatuck Douglas History Center, the old school house in Douglas Michigan on July 21st, 2018. This oral history is being collected as part of the Stories of Summer Project which is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Program. DS: Oh, I didn’t know that. EG: Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. Um, we’re interested in learning more about your family history in particular experiences of summer in the Saugatuck Douglas area. Focusing on summer. Uh, can you please say your full name and spell it for us. DS: My full name. EG: Yes. DS: Dawn D A W N, Schwartz S C H W A R T Z, Follet F O L L E T T Goshorn G O S H O R N, Schuman S C H U M A N N. EG: There we go. DS: That enough? EG: For the record, wonderful, thank you. So, kind of jumping right in, tell us a little bit about your earliest experiences, memories coming to Saugatuck Douglas area. DS: Well, I'm not sure I remember it too well. [00:01:26] Part 2 Eric Gollannek: This is, this is Eric Gollanneck. Meghann Stevens: And Meghann Stevens. EG: And I’m here today with… Dawn Schumann: Dawn Schumann. 1 �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 2 EG: Uh, at the Saugatuck Douglas History Center in Douglas Michigan on July 21st, 2018. Uh, continuing our oral history from part one, um previously. Um, so you were speaking a little bit about uh, the, the Bible Camp, family camp… DS: Oh. EG: …and… DS: Yeah, uh, Frank Bible, I would, came to the camp with Frank and Muriel Bible and because her daughter, their daughter was my best friend. We were, oh it was probably 1945? 46? And uh, they had great history with the camp. Uh, Louise's grandfather had been head of the far east Presbyterian, and um, had Frank had been born in China. When they had to leave the country because of all of the warring factions, etcetera. They came directly to the church camp. Where Frank Bible’s father basically ran the show and worked with Jane Adams worked with all the others just start setting up the format of the camp. So, he, Frank was a young boy and he was the lifeguard and at the nearby Oxbow, was this very lovely Muriel whose father was a famous artist. And they met around the camp fire and this was very much the way of life in the church camp because the camp fires were really big part of our lives. In the process of being allowed the freedom to run in the woods and to run the whole area. We made our way, at one particular time over as far as the Kalamazoo River, the new entrance to the Kalamazoo. EG: [Laughs] Right. DS: It was put in, begun in 1904, but at that point it was still called the new entrance. MS: [Laughs] EG: Right. DS: The new channel, and we were messing around and playing in um, uh, the area right opposite Singapore. We ran into one time, we ran into um, blue flow shards, a blue flow China. And another time, Indian arrowheads, when we were working in another part, or, not working but playing in another part. We took the back to the church camp because we wanted to, this was exciting stuff. MS: Yeah. EG: Mhm. DS: And um, they were, there were people there that had been in that camp since the teens. Okay? And they had, they were thrilled to see this, they never seen this, this kind of a [inaudible]. So they put it in a little museum that we had, along with, with a lot of other history. The museum is now been destroyed, to make a way for [sighs] MS: Yeah. DS: Housing development, and so life goes on. But, Louise and I in the early 50s went on to wait tables, for three dollars a month. [all laugh] �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 3 DS: And all you could eat, and they did houses. In the dormitory that we were housed in was up at the top of a dune that was almost as high as um, Mount Baldy. EG: Mhm. DS: So you can you can picture running up, and down. MS: Oh gosh. [Laughs] DS: Well… EG: You’d be in good shape. MS: Yeah. DS: Be in very good shape. [All laugh] DS: Well the pavilion was still going strong, and that time and we got taken by the couple of the boys from camp to go over to the pavilion dancing, and I have to tell you that was thrill. EG: I’ll bet. DS: I mean they no longer have the big orchestras and it was probably not as, as elegant as it has been when my grandparents were there. EG: Mhm. DS: In 1911 and 12 and 13, they’d just take the steamer over. EG: Right. DS: Anyway, so that was great fun to be able to actually dance there and see what it was like, and of course cry when it burned down… EG and MS: Yeah. DS: …Just a few years later. One time Louise and I were [coughs] interested in getting a pineapple soda. [All laugh] DS: …So we made our way to the ferry, now the ferry was not the ferry that you know today. EG: The chain ferry? DS: The chain ferry. EG: Right. �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 4 DS: Well but it wasn’t the chain ferry then. EG: Okay. DS: It was a two sided rowboat. EG: Okay. MS: Oh. DS: The chain was down there. EG: Right. DS: But, the, the big huge um, oh gosh what do you call it? Took the people across it was a large flat boat. EG: Like a barge. [00:05:01] MS: Yeah. DS: A barge, that’s the word. A large, flat barge that could take um, horses and carriages and famers wagons and what have you across that was no longer there. It was just two sided rowboat, and let me tell you the problem was that the guy, the ferry man, Tim the ferry man was a tippler… MS: Oh. EG: Okay. DS: …and so we explained to him that we had to be back at camp in 45 minutes. So we had half an hour to go, get our soda’s and then we come back right away, and please be ready to take us back so we were weren’t late. EG: Mhm. DS: We got back, no Tim in sight. We went, we ran as fast as we could do it every bar town and there were a few. EG: Right. DS: And he wasn’t anywhere we could find, he wasn’t in back at the boat, so we had to swim. The river. EG: Wow! DS: And this was in August and it had been a very rainy July, like it is today. So there was a current. EG: Yeah. �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 5 DS: Well we were both very strong swimmers, we had been swimming in Lake Michigan… EG: Mhm. DS: …since we were children and in High School we were both on the swim team and doing, uh, water ballet. So we were pretty strong swimmers. Well, we got aw, out, we made it across with a lot of, I mean it was really tough. But we got across up somewhere around the um, where the museum is now. MS and EG: Mhm. DS: The pump house. EG: Yeah. MS: Yeah. DS: And when we got out, we were covered in, tan sticky, gunk. MS and EG: Oh! DS: I mean in our hair, and every part of oh our, oh, it was awful and it smelled. I mean it smelled really bad. Well, we went running back to camp because we were really late. MS: Yeah. DS: And there's something, you know Perryman goes along to the Oval, well running parallel is something called the um, the ministers walk and so we didn't want to be seen because we were such a mess. And so we ran through the, the path that was through the woods that was the ministers walk. We got to camp, ran up the top of the dune, did our bathing and um, tried hard to get to get off this, sticky, oily, gunky, smelly stuff. EG: Yeah. DS: We did the best we could, we get down there to serve lunch and Papa T took one look at us and smelled us, and said what have you been doing? And we just said, oh, well we had to run to town and we just got back. Okay but you really smell bad. Well I'm sorry we did the best we could. We didn't tell him that we had [laughs] because that was forbidden. EG: Sure. MS: Oh. DS: Because people have thrown doing that. EG: Sure. MS: Oh. DS: So, oh yeah. �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 6 MS: Couldn’t even tell him. DS: So there we were. Anyway, it was a beautiful camp and seeing that I'm amazed me was is that, when you sat in person, certain places in that camp, it was if there was, and I’ll use a term that I learned in Sedona, you felt like there was something in the air, the atmosphere the feel, that uplifted you and you were just [deep breath] And the second part of the camp was a circular area that had been in encampment for the Indians for generations. I mean, probably a thousand years? MS and EG: Mhm. DS: And um, it's about five to six acres, circle, almost a perfect circle. MS: Mhm. DS: No trees growing in there. The grass stays short. It's the most amazing place you've ever seen. So the camp had path that wound through it. Certainly through this meadow. Some, what we called the meadow, and along the paths there would be a written stakes, things from Theroux, and [clears throat] MS and EG: Mhm. DS: Just different writers, of that period that were just thought provoking and you could sit down on benches along the path or you could just keep running. The path ran from Shorewood all the way to the ferry. Most people don't know that, but sitting talking to some of the older folk, and there actually was an agreement between the city and the camp that path would be open to the public. [00:10:11] MS: Oh. DS: As long as the uh, the camp gave the, the road, the camp owned the land that the road was on. \ MS: Yeah. DS: And I saw this when Jim Schimiechen and I were doing the historic survey at the Burnham Library. There was the agreement, and when we were, we were uh, trying to forestall the the purchase of the church camp… EG: Mhm. DS: For a mega million dollar development, um, I went back to get it, to get a copy of this. EG: Mhm. DS: Because that would be germane. MS: Mhm. DS: It was gone. It had been taken from the library. MS and EG: Oh. �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 7 DS: So we couldn't prove it. MS: Yeah. DS: Which is really a shame, but anyway that's, that’s the story. EG: Wow. DS: And um, I’ve gone back to the church camp until of course it was closed and I gave a, a lecture to a whole host of people. This, a Historical Society event and I just stood there where they had a cross and a bunch of benches looking out at the lake and I just stood there and I looked at people and I said what do you feel? Stop and think a minute and feel it, and they could. When, once you stop and you think about it. What you are feeling? You’re feeling really great. It’s good to be there, it’s a happy place. And that’s what the dunes are, just exactly that. So when we couldn’t find a house and the interesting thing, I was very involved with the Frank Lloyd Wright studio in Oak Park Illinois, and in 1975 we decided we wanted to rent something on the Lakeshore, if we could, and we had a sailboat. It was an Islander 29 and it got us all around the lake and we had a wonderful time with the kids. But we all wanted to put our buckets in the sand. [EG laughs] DS: We missed being in Saugatuck. There was something wrong we weren’t in Saugatuck. EG: Yeah. MS: Yeah. EG: Sure. DS: And uh, so… MS: [Whispering] Oh, sorry, sorry DS: So um, [whispering] where was I? Oh. Oh. EG: Coming back to Saugatuck. MS: Yeah. DS: So, I called a friend of ours from Oak Park that I had gone to High School who was realtor up here and I said is there anything that’s available to rent on the lakeshore? She said, oh my god Dawn, get your husband out of work, the kids out of uh, school and get up here right now. I just signed a contract to rent a cottage that has your name over all it and I said why, and she said it was designed by a student and Frank Lloyd Wright’s. EG: Okay. DS: So my husband left work the kids pulled out of school MS: [Laughing] �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 DS: I mean, that was it. EG: What, what time of year was this? DS: This was in, um early June. EG: Okay. DS: I mean they were just finishing. MS and EG: Mhm. DS: So it was possible to do that. EG: Right. MS: Yeah. DS: We came up, we walked in the front door, we got to uh, there's a, trip, typical of the style… EG: Mhm. DS: ….you go through a long narrow, uh, entryway… MS: Yeah. DS: …compressed and then, boom, out into space and we got into the kitchen which was the beginning of that open space. EG: Yeah. DS: We didn't go any further, just turned to her and said, we’ll take it. [All laugh] DS: So we took it for the month of August and, and it turned out that the woman that had, the people immediately next door had built it. Because they wanted to be there year round, and they discovered winners are a little harsh. EG: Mhm. MS: Yeah. DS: And so he loved to gamble and went to Las Vegas instead. [MS and EG laugh] DS: They kept the cottage, but they… MS: Yeah. 8 �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 9 DS: Winters were, are, you know, winters were in Las Vegas. EG: Wow. DS: So, um, we sold the boat and we took a second mortgage from the people next door, who loved us because my dog would go over and keep him company while he watched, [pause] the market. MS: Yeah. EG: Right. [MS and EG laugh] DS: But anyway so we've got the cottage and have been here since 1975. EG: Wow. DS: And watched a lot of things go on. Big, big part of the Historical Society and uh, I was the first Cochair of the Heritage Preservation Committee and we did the historic survey of Saugatuck and Douglas and Jim Schimiechen worked with us. [00:15:18] EG: Mhm. DS: And uh, did his wonderful book. MS: Yeah. DS: And so, I don't know what else do you want me to tell you? EG: Well that, that’s a, that’s a, that’s a tantalizing account. MS: Yeah. DS: Good! [MS laughs] EG: Of summer on the lakeshore. Um, any observations you’ve had having been here, it’s been really your whole life here, summers over your whole life time. DS: Right. EG: The last forty years or so. Um, changes that you’ve seen in the community? Uh? DS: You know, it's been a period of accessing historic of properties that have been change time over and that change over time has not been negative. When I look at, out the window at the, at the um, what was originally Methodist Church, now a library. �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 10 EG: Right. DS: Change over time. EG: Mhm. DS: A different usage. Um, when we first started coming you could a bowling ball down Center Street which is our main street. MS: Mhm. DS: And a couple of gentleman, took, purchased one of the uh, uh buildings and he restored it and all of a sudden people begin looking at Douglas. EG: Mhm. DS: Today, you walk up and down the street and yes there is some intrusive properties into what it would have been a very perfect, typical, um, 18, civil war era town. EG: Yeah. DS: But, on the whole, it's retained his character, and, so much so that you've got people who are moving historic houses in to be around the park. Uh, the old Gerber mansion, Gerber baby food was really begun here with, the Gerber’s a little boy that had digestive problems, a baby this and so she took some peaches from their Orchard, and another things and ground them up. MS: Oh, wow. DS: And thus began Gerber baby food. [EG laughs] DS: But, um, yeah. It’s, there’ve been still changes. Um, but we at the same time there've been changes, people are now turning around and taking a look at our history. And, and wanting to be a part of it. MS: Yeah. DS: Uh, that’s a wonderful, wonderful legacy. MS: Yeah, that really is. DS: Yeah, for example, we just had, we had a 1837 coach stop that had fallen into monumental disrepair and the City of Saugatuck was trying to help keep it up by painting of the outside, keeping the grounds moderately [laughs] mowed down. MS: Yeah. DS: And, um in comes the gentleman from Chicago who is a preservationist is from top to bottom. He has put millions into restoring it, and it’s now open, it’s a bed and breakfast. And that place is as, as really beautiful. Change over time. �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 11 EG: Mhm. DS: But he has kept the entire feel of the interior to what would have been there in the 1850’s. So that's good change over time. EG: Right. Absolutely, yeah. Um, part of our, um, part part of the mission with this project, the Stories of Summer projects is also about uh, the gay community in Saugatuck and Douglas, and kind of looking the history of that, that population. Those residence in, have shaping Saugatuck and Douglas into what they are, if you have any? Reflections on that? DS: I rented, I rented the cottage to the first gay couple to uh, come to the lakeshore. And, they are wonderful people, we're still friends today. Douglas would not be Douglas without the gay community. Absolutely no question. Yes. The rest of us have done our part here and there [All laugh] But nothing, nothing like the gay community. It, it’s interesting because when we in talking to the library who's trying to build a new building. EG: Mhm, yeah. DS: I was in there, my husband and I were in there with several gentleman who were gay and the one point we made was the, what they had designed was the building that really didn't fit in with the historic architecture of the community, and they had invested, heavily in making sure that this town. Although we do not have any ordinance, we couldn’t get that through because we had some realtors who really muddied the water for us when we tried to get it… [00:20:25] EG: Into the preservation ordinance? MS: Yeah, okay. EG: Right, yeah. DS: Preservation ordinance, uh but, it's, it’s been restored in spite of that and I have to say. It is 90% thanks to the gay community. I sat at lunch today and there we were in a restaurant and there were as many gay folks is there were families. Nobody thought a thing of it. EG: Any, any experiences that you’d share good or good or more challenging stories about how thats changed over time? About uh, how, how welcoming, I mean your sense of how welcoming Douglas and, and uh Saugatuck have been to? DS: Certainly better than they were to the Jews. There was sign. EG: I’ve seen the photo of that, yeah. MS: Yeah DS: There was a sign, Jews not welcome. That never happened for the gay community. The way they came in and they became a responsible part of the community such as the two lads restoring um, that first building. �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 12 EG: Yeah. DS: Uh, began an awareness among the rest of us that had lived here. That, hey there were some really nice people… [MS and EG laugh] DS: …who happen to love the same things we love, and they were here because they did, and hey welcome. EG: Yeah. DS: And, and that's my perspective, now others may have a different perspective. MS: Mhm. DS: But clearly, I'm not, I’m not, uh part of a group that would be anti- because I rented my home. EG: Right. MS: Yeah. EG: For sure. DS: To, to gays. MS: Yeah. DS: And I'll tell you, what Carl and Larry did to the gardens, and to the inside the house it’s never looked so good. [MS and EG laugh] DS: So. EG: That’s wonderful, yeah that’s a, that’s a great story. I'm just curious if you have any insights, uh, thinking about this the kind of magic of this place. What do you think it was sort of attracted visitors and particularly, kind of gay visitors and people to settle here. Do you have a sense historically? DS: Well, I think it’s, it was probably that they were treated as people, not gay people. Just treated as people. EG: An inclusive atmosphere. DS: It, I think, to, in my experience it's always been inclusive, there may be incidents that other people had differently but frankly um, I don't think anybody ever worried about it, and so you had a beautiful community, beautiful climate, historic fabric that I think the gays that came particularly respected and um it just was, it just worked. I would say we're probably at this point equal number of gays and straights. My grandson is gay, and it came to me and he said Grandma I have to talk to you and I said �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 13 okay and he said, took my hands, and I said so, what do you want to tell me, he said, Grandma, I’m gay, and I looked at him and I said, Seth I'm straight. [MS and EG laugh] DS: And that kind of the way a community is. MS: Mhm. DS: You are what you are. I am what I am, so what? Your, I like you. You’re a person. Uh, I think certainly the particular people such as Ken Carlson, Jim Schimiechen who were so interested and welcoming and part and really helping to make it a vibrant community, made a big difference. That’s part of what I like talk about coming in and helping us being responsible for the maintaining of this community. Because it's never look better in my life. EG: Well, that’s a great… MS: Yeah. EG: Great, optimistic uh, message there. DS: Good. EG: In your reflection. MS: Yeah. EG: I appreciate that. I want to be respectful of your time. DS: Thank you. EG: Because were probably getting, getting to our point to wrap up. MS: Yep. EG: Uh, thinking, think, taking the long view looking ahead. You can think about, you know, fifty years from now. Right there maybe someone listening to this recording uh, is there any message you would like to share, kind of looking ahead to that that future audience? Listening to this, what you’d like them to know about… [00:25:08] DS: Well they’ll probably… EG: The community now? DS: They’ll probably be some of my family, because I was a Goshorn, Goshorn Lake, Goshorn creek? My daughter is Laurie Goshorn and my Pete, son is Peter Goshorn and they will live here, uh in retirement because they own property. �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 14 EG: Yeah. DS: And uh, I wouldn't want them to remember how hard day they helped work to help make this community what it is because my kids always pitched in and um, I would hope that um, in the future people who would continue to respect the value system and the culture of this town because the culture is what makes it. The biggest problem we have right now is that so many people rent their homes that it’s hard to maintain continuity of people that have that we have had in the past. Because you got people here that have come for the summers their whole lives, and spend the whole summer. EG: Right. MS: Yeah. DS: Because they’ve been teachers or whatever and that's changed. I, I, that's my biggest fear is that that will change things um, but I, what we have is unique. We really have a unique environment both in terms of historic architecture and things of that sort. The climate of openness and welcome. I would hope if it goes beyond the diversity of sexuality and that there are other people would, you know other, other uh, ethnic groups would be welcome. I do see more of that um, but I feel, I, you know I've worked hard for open occupancy in Oak Park. EG: Mhm. MS: Yeah. DS: So, what am I, you know? EG: Yeah. DS: I see a need for many different racial groups to be here as well. Um, we have a value system, we have a culture, we have landscape, we have a history, we’ve got it all. [MS and EG laugh] DS: And a good education system, our schools are very good. MS: Yeah. DS: If I were starving over and raising my kids, I would love to raise them in this town where they can hop on their bikes and be wherever they want be and there's a defined area that’s your… EG: Right. DS: Of the town and um… EG: Yep. DS: You've got everything you need within it. EG: Very good, alright. �Dawn Schumann - Interviewed by Eric Gollannek and Meghann Stevens July 21, 2018 15 DS: Enough? EG: Anything you want, questions that you have? MS: Um, nope not at the moment. EG: yeah, I feel like you had like a self-guided, kind of, it took you through your story. MS: Yeah. [Laughing]. EG: Didn’t have to do too much here. With that we'll wrap things up. Thank you so much for your time and sharing your stories here today and this concludes our interview. [00:28:18] � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-SchumannD-20180721 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schumann, Dawn Schwartz Follett Goshorn Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-07-21 Title A name given to the resource Dawn Schumann (Audio interview and transcript), 2018 Description An account of the resource In this interview, Dawn Schumann reflects on the changes in Saugatuck-Douglas from when her parents and grandparents arrived to the area through her time working with the Historical Society. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Gollannek, Eric (Interviewer) Stevens, Meghann (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Allegan County (Mich.) Outdoor recreation Religious camps Ferries Gay men Sexual minorities Historic preservation Oral history Audio recordings Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Stories of Summer project, Kutsche Office of Local History. Grand Valley State University Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/519904ac6a577a37014fe487a55b21e4.jpg 31c3eb6f726e09934670b2a9120aaf96 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DawsonAdrian Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Dawson, Adrian Description An account of the resource Adrian Dawson, Internal Auditor Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College administrators Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b1376b09d105375fd80dc96a9a941542.pdf d9e0399c2b5170061e85109b0fee96d7 PDF Text Text Day 10 by windoworks In the 3 stages for the pandemic I have passed, shock, panic, acceptance and have segued to resignation (I guess that is Stage 4). So this is my new life. Every morning I read WaPo (Washington Post), I look at FaceBook, read emails and messages from all around the world as I eat my breakfast in bed. Because why do I need to get up? Then I write my blogpost by which time CB and Murphy Brown come back from their first walk of the day. I get a little extra time in bed while CB showers first and then I get up, shower, put on some make up as well as my clothes and jewelry and then we all go out for a drive and then walk somewhere in the fresh air. Then its home for lunch and the rest of the day spent cooking or cleaning or snoozing or FaceTiming family etc. Sometimes we shop online for groceries and other essentials like the 2 Charles Wysocki 1000 pice jigsaw puzzles I just ordered through Amazon. CB reading this will exclaim ‘I told you not to sell all those puzzles at the yard sale!’ I know, but who knew the pandemic was coming? ��This was yesterday’s walk at Millennium Park. As you can tell from looking at what I am wrapped up in, it was freezing cold. Murphy didn’t care. It was an absolute cornucopia of smells for her and she had to be dragged on several times by CB. Also, there were geese and they were honking. Murphy so wants to chase them and CB teases her by honking himself and fooling her. Yesterday an old friend from New Zealand emailed me and said he had just been ordered home by the Prime Minister. She advised all 70+ New Zealanders to go home and stay there, especially if they or a family member have compromised immune systems. It appears that New Zealand, in spite of their very quick measures, have experienced their first 2 community spread cases. Community spread is where there is no traceable contagion and its scary because it can be all downhill from there. NZ has a description of the 4 alert stages and they are at Stage 2 and considering Stage 3 which is almost all locked down. I think San Francisco is at Stage 4 here. We’re at Stage 3. Oh, every day the Monterrey Aquarium hosts a 10-15 minute meditation on Instagram. You look at the waves or fish swimming through your relaxed eyes (tricky, hard not to fall asleep), listen to the soothing music and the narrators voice as you participate. It’s really nice and its something I’m beginning to look forward to every day. They post in in the morning but you can run it any time during the day. So today I might make a cake and perhaps it is my turn to make dinner. Decisions , decisions. Here is todays throw back photo. �This is in July 2016 when CB and I attended the North Sea Jazz Festival. This festival is held every year at the Ahoy venue in Rotterdam. Some years before, CB had taken a group of jazz fans to Europe for a number of jazz festivals and then it was held in The Hague. From its modest beginnings in 1976 it has grown to 15 stages, 1200 musicians and about 25,000 visitors each day of the 3 day festival. We attended all 3 days and heard an astonishing array of music types. In the center of all the stages was a food court that you bought tickets to and then looked for your food choices. On the Friday Opening Night we lined up outside with hundreds of people waiting for the doors to open. We had purchased our tickets online beforehand and so we went through the turnstiles and got a wristband each. The photo above is of the opening band in the main auditorium. There were over 20,000 people crammed in there when the music started. It was a band called Snarky Puppy and they were fantastic. At the opening chords of the first number everyone went berserk and screamed and shouted. I was excited but deeply worried - there was minimal security, that is, almost none. However, the whole experience was amazing and I saw many types of music and quite a few famous musicians over the three days. �It’s a sunny day so time to get up and go out for a drive and a walk. Till tomorrow then - stay well and stay safe. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-03-21_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-10 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-21 Title A name given to the resource Day 10 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/db520f75720a7757776abbd943729074.pdf 9d60152c7dfc1f3b5411fa2625776f80 PDF Text Text Day 100. by windoworks So here we are, 100 days. (Silence while I think about that). Earlier this year - during the pandemic - Britain celebrated the 75th anniversary of VE Day. This is the day that marks the formal acceptance by the Allies of WW2 of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces, on May 8 1945 and this marked the end of WW2 in Europe. This year it was celebrated in a socially distant manner and it featured Dame Vera Lynn. She was a popular singer who entertained the troops through the war and her songs became a hallmark of hope to the public throughout the war. Dame Vera Lynn died yesterday - she was 103 years old. Here are the lyrics to one of her songs which remains relevant today: We'll meet again Don't know where Don't know when But I know we'll meet again some sunny day Keep smiling through Just like you always do 'Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away So will you please say hello To the folks that I know Tell them I won't be long They'll be happy to know That as you saw me go I was singing this song We'll meet again Don't know where Don't know when But I know we'll meet again some sunny day… Today is Juneteenth. Juneteenth (a portmanteau of June and nineteenth; (also known as Freedom Day,Jubilee Day, and Liberation Day) is an unofficial American holiday and an official Texasstate holiday, celebrated annually on the 19th of June in the United Statesto commemorate Union army general Gordon Granger announcing federal orders in the city of Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, proclaiming that all slaves in Texas were now free.Although the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed them almost two and a half years earlier and the American Civil War had largely ended with the defeat of �the Confederate States in April, Texas was the most remote of the slave states, with a low presence of Union troops, so enforcement of the proclamation had been slow and inconsistent. This year, there are moves to have it made a National Holiday and today and tomorrow there are a number of celebrations here in Grand Rapids. In any other year I would attend these celebrations and enjoy them - but not this year. Hopefully next year. Yesterday brought some new things. First, I had applied to become a member of Imperfect Foods, a food delivery site I found online. They wrote back to me and said, sorry we’re full but we’ve put you on the waiting list. Last week they let me know I was off the waiting list and I could begin ordering. Like many other food delivery services, they offer boxes that you can amend. I had opted for fruit and vegetables but I took 2 items out and added some other grocery items. Yesterday morning this big box of groceries arrived. It was a box of surprises and delights. Imperfect Foods are items that are mislabeled or blemished and don’t cost as much as the perfect specimens in the store. They even asked me to reuse the box in a responsible way. The second new thing was that although my neighbor Amy and I had been talking either over the fence or out the front on the sidewalk, yesterday I invited her to sit at the other end of our front porch on our porch swing, and we talked for about 30 minutes - about nothing and everything. It was wonderful. The third thing was fireflies. Fireflies signal the start of summer for me and last night there were lots of them. Also yesterday: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration's attempt to dismantle the program protecting undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, a reprieve for nearly 650,000 recipients known as “dreamers.” We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Roberts wrote. He added: “We address only whether the [Department of Homeland Security] complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action. Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients. That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner.” This marks the second landmark decision in a week by SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States). The first one was : The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a bombshell ruling Monday that effectively makes it illegal for businesses across the nation to fire employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. In the �6-3 decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay or transgender employees from employment discrimination, giving the LGBTQ rights movement another big victory from the nation’s highest court. SCOTUS hears arguments based on the Constitution, the rules and Amendments by which we are all supposed to live. The present Supreme Court has been seen as predominantly right leaning, but these 2 rulings lean away from the right and are based on constitutional law. trump then tweeted that the Supreme Court didn’t seem to like him which brought on some of the funniest responses I have read. And an update on the ‘do masks make difference’ question: A hair stylist in Missouri was diagnosed with covid-19 in late May, and she ended up directly exposing 84 customerswho had sat just inches from her face for up to 30 minutes each. She had symptoms, but wore a face mask; salons were one of the few places where people were required to wear them. Because of that, health officials say,none of her customers was infected. The result appears to be one of the clearest realworld examples of the ability of masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus. This morning I am adding the first of these: ���Two more tomorrow. So, a hundred days of cooking 3 meals a day; of shopping on the internet; of wiping down all things delivered to the house; of talking every day via FaceBook to Zoe and Oliver; of reading and copying every interesting item for later use; of watching the seasons change through the TV room window; of watching every new series available on TV and one hundred days of writing this blogpost every morning. Brandon: the next outing (I think, or the days might be slightly askew) we visited Cromer. This is a coastal town. It is famous for the Cromer crab which tourists devour by the bucketful. I am allergic to crab so my �lunch didn’t include it. Cromer is also noted for its Lifeboat Station, situated at the end of the pier. There has been a lifeboat in operation at Cromer for two centuries. �����From the top: me walking along the pier. Me standing on the beach. The huge lifeboat. The ramp it goes down to the water which is the same ramp the lifeboat has to be winched up again and lastly, the obligatory photo of me sitting on the beach. To all my friends, family and readers: keep smiling through. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-19_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-100 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-19 Title A name given to the resource Day 100 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/799c49fb7fbeddf8596d7685633bd2e1.pdf 71c8f2931410c06fdfa894a666b80fc8 PDF Text Text Day 101 by windoworks This is a morning of conflicting emotions. In spite of everything, trump is going ahead with the first of his new campaign rallies in Tulsa Oklahoma. In Tulsa — where President Trump plans to hold a campaign rally Saturday — cases hit a new high on Friday. The state’s Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal of a lawsuit Friday seeking to block the president from holding the event, which local officials and residents fear could worsen the spread of the coronavirus in the city. Reports online have shown his followers camping out in long lines for 2 days in order to get a good seat inside. They have no intention of wearing a mask, they have brought small children and family members in the older at risk bracket. They are excited and eager for the experience. What none of these people are considering is the capacity of the ICU in their local hospitals. As they don’t believe in the existence of the virus, they aren’t concerned about the consequences. �On Thursday, Gov Whitmer extended the State of Emergency for Michigan to July 16 and possibly longer. What does that tell us? This gives the governor the powers to issue emergency orders to close businesses, suspend evictions and take other steps. She has been significantly silent about putting the rest of the state into Level 5 which has much less restrictions. But it hasn’t been a great week for trump. Facebook and Twitter both pushed back against Trump’s use of inflammatory material yesterday. Facebook removed advertisements by the Trump campaign that prominently featured a red triangle that �the Nazis used to classify Communist political prisoners during World War II. The ad used it in connection with antifa, a loose collective of anti-fascist protesters. And yesterday, the Attorney-General (who is also not having his best week) announced the stepping down of US Attorney Geoffrey Berman and replacing him with Jay Clayton, a business man with NO legal experience noted anywhere I could find. Berman replied No, that’s not legal. And besides, I haven’t finished my investigation yet. I know from overseas friends and family that entire countries are watching events in the US with their mouths hanging open. It is quite something to be the butt of another country’s jokes and also arousing pity. And to have people from very far away say: we are so worried about you. I don’t think that was ever even on my ‘never in my lifetime’ bucket list. At our Enrichment Committee zoom meeting yesterday, one of the women remarked that she had read that the virus would continue into 2022 and that this was our new normal looking ahead. And we all agreed that it comes down to each of us deciding what we are comfortable with. Another woman said she couldn’t imagine dining in a restaurant, she just couldn’t contemplate doing it. Here’s a really cheery note (not); The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the U.S. death toll could rise to as high as 145,000 by July 11. At least 117,000 have already died. Just to put that in perspective, July 11 is 3 weeks away - that’s 9000 deaths a week and more than 12,00 deaths a day. In Kent County our stats for yesterday were: 4,179 cases and 119 deaths. The Kent County graph is starting to gradually angle up again after beginning to plateau. The next two Black Lives Matter discussion points: ��Here is a photo of the sidewalk near our house. All the names of POC killed. ��So now we need an Oliver photo and because I’m feeling angry and sad, here’s three: ����Top: Uncle Asher has come to stay! Middle: She did what? (You hear the best gossip at the daycare painting table). Bottom: who knew swings were a thing, and why haven’t I been in one before - and how about pushing me higher? I saw online that the closing day for the Somerleyton Hall was on our next day at the end of September when we were living in Brandon. The Hall is owned by Hugh Crossley, the 4th Baron Somerleyton. It is a large estate and includes the village of Somerleyton. We drove around a long hedged road to find the entrance. The Hall also has a tea house with excellent food, a yew hedge maze (don’t ask, I hate mazes), an historic greenhouse and much, much more. You can tour the house - just the ground floor - as well as the grounds. �������This wasn’t so much of a house as a business. It costs an enormous amount of money to keep an estate of this size in the black. The days of 30-50 staff members are long gone and the present Baron is more of a business manager for the estate. We were lucky with a beautiful day and there weren’t crowds of tourists. You weren’t allowed to take photos inside the house though. Top: I’ve always wanted a driveway like that. Next: Somerleyton Hall. Next: a gate through to the manicured grounds. Next: I love a big vegetable garden. Next: the formal garden. Next: Craig in front of the Hall. Last: me in the pergola. Equipment for the day: mask, hand sanitizer and 6 foot ruler. Check. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-20_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-101 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-20 Title A name given to the resource Day 101 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/16f682929e63ee07d6012eed8f012554.pdf fd0cd9eb563c050c122cf5dd911682cb PDF Text Text Day 102 by windoworks Yesterday was the first day of summer, the midsummer solstice and the longest day of the year. It was also hot! Today is cooler with a chance of thunderstorms. It is also Fathers Day. Happy, happy Fathers Day to all fathers everywhere. Happy Fathers Day to Craig from Zoe and Oliver. �And Happy Fathers Day from Zar and Alva. Here is Craig in the south of France at Roquefixade - which I will talk about at the end of our present European journey. �And although it isn’t Fathers Day in Australia, here’s Oliver and his Dad, Christian. Meanwhile, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at trump’s rally, the stadium was at least half empty, and I’ve seen the photos that prove it (although I also saw his inauguration photos which showed a small crowd and trump �has denied that ever since). So how did this happen when they ran out of tickets? Well, all you had to do was go online, register for the event and add your phone number. All across the States and in places like South Korea, thousands of younger people did just that! They flim flammed the Flim Flam Man himself! Online its called rolling. Of course he blamed the protesters for keeping his fans out but the Tulsa police said No, there were no protesters outside the stadium (and I’ve seen the photo that proves that). He blamed the media for exaggerating the virus threat - and honestly, what a relief that a lot of his followers did believe the media. And here’s a thought - maybe a lot of his followers are ill or a loved one is ill. The virus doesn’t discriminate. Then there’s this: As coronavirus cases surge in the U.S. South and West, health experts in countries with falling case numbers are watching with a growing sense of alarm and disbelief, with many wondering why virusstricken U.S. states continue to reopen and why the advice of scientists is often ignored. China’s actions over the past week stand in stark contrast to those of the United States. In the wake of a new cluster of more than 150 new cases that emerged in Beijing, authorities sealed off neighborhoods, launched a mass testing campaign and imposed travel restrictions. Meanwhile, President Trump maintains that the United States will not shut down a second time, although a surge in cases has persuaded governors in some states, including Arizona, to back off their opposition to mandatory face coverings in public. Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, recently said that forms of social distancing may have to remain in place into 2022. He presented some of his research to a White House group in the early stages of the U.S. outbreak but said “I think they have cherry-picked models that at each point looked the most rosy, and fundamentally not engaged with the magnitude of the problem.” Isn’t this the old ‘head in the sand’ practice? I am sure that you can tell my political leanings from this blogpost. I would like to say that I have never viewed the Democratic Candidate for President, Joe Biden, as anything other than a capable, empathetic man who , as President, will surround himself with educated, capable, hard working people who will work with the best interests of the citizens and the country. I have heard him criticized as being old and speaking slowly. He is older, thats true. He is, in fact, 7 years older than me and I don’t view that as a problem. He does appear slower in speech too and that is because he is a lifelong stutterer. I would never have guessed that because I have never heard him stutter, but I have seen him pause before continuing to speak. Don’t you remember President Obama pausing to think when speaking? It never seemed a problem to me. �Lately, when I watch Joe Biden speak, it reduces me to tears. It reminds me of a time when we had a President who cared about us, the citizens of the United States. That’s what I long to have again. So I hope that this upcoming election in November will oust the orange idiot from the White House and will install a man that listens to the people. Here’s an uh oh moment: MLB will temporarily close all spring training sites in Florida and Arizona, reports say By late Friday evening, USA Today and the Athletic had reported that Major League Baseball will temporarily close all spring training sites in Florida and Arizona for cleaning and will not allow players or staff members to return without first passing a coronavirustest. On what might have been the bleakest day of an exceedingly bleak spring for MLB, the owners effectively halted negotiations with the players’ union over the economic terms of the 2020 season — and that didn’t even constitute the worst news on a day that also saw the novel coronavirus pandemic assert its ultimate dominion over the entire endeavor. What surprises me is that there is an assumption that we can disregard the virus. Restaurant owners say they’ve received little guidance on how best to manage the situation. To their pleasant surprise, customers returned quickly. But so too did the virus: Several restaurants in Phoenix, Houston, and elsewhere reopened only to have to close again because their employees tested positive for COVID-19. And this: Face mask requirements are taking hold across the country as states throughout the South and West continue to report record highs in new daily coronavirus cases. Officials in some of the biggest cities in Arizona and Florida have ordered people to wear masks in public, and California’s governor has mandated them statewide. On Friday, nine Texas mayors wrote a letter to the states’ residents, urging them to wear masks as the number of hospital patients swells. Speaking of face masks, yesterday, after my failure to obtain some grocery items online, we drove to a local grocery store (where some months ago I had a major anxiety attack). Craig masked up and went in, armed with a list. On his return, he reported a major change: arrows in the aisles and masks on everyone, workers and customers alike. When out walking I am beginning to see people masked or carrying their mask, ready to put it on if needed. This makes me happy. ���These are the last 3 examples of racism for us all to recognize and change. I hope these have made you reflect, as we all strive to be a true anti-racist. Here are 2 photos from far flung places: ��From my friend Auli in Finland. She posted this photo to wish all her friends happy midsummer day. This photo is from our son Zar. It is of Auckland Harbor. ��And one more of Oliver, because Oliver. I accidentally took this photo while we were FaceTiming. Every morning Zoe FaceTimes us, usually as she is feeding Oliver his breakfast. I usually make faces at him and sometimes he laughs at me between bites. In other exciting news he has 5 teeth now with a 6th on the way. I bet his mouth is sore. Our next outing from Brandon was to Sutton Hoo. Sutton Hoo is the burial site of two early medieval cemeteries from the 66th and 7th centuries. One cemetery contained an undisturbed ship-burial. It is supposed that Raewald, the ruler of EastAngles was buried in the ship. The Sutton Hoo cemeteries are actually burial mounds. There is a very good visitors center and display, and you can walk around the grounds yourself. �����From the top: me sitting on an old log which had been intricately carved during medieval times into a seat. You can sit here and look toward the coast. Next: in the visitors center there was an area where you could try on medieval clothing and Craig put a replica of the famous Sutton Hoo helmet on. Next: this is the real Sutton Hoo helmet which along with all the other treasures found in the ship-burial are presently housed in the British Museum. I have seen this helmet in the BM and it is breathtakingly beautiful. Next: what the King’s ship-burial looked like inside under the grave mound. Lastly: there were quite a number of other burial mounds like the one above. Most of these are still undisturbed. Stay safe and be well. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-21_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-102 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-21 Title A name given to the resource Day 102 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/86272fb62253c457114868bfa10cd895.pdf df2c2fd102b8b7dc72fc65e01f33a54b PDF Text Text Day 103 by windoworks Yesterday was a big day. For the first time in 3 and a half months we ate food we hadn’t prepared ourselves. Because it was Fathers Day we picked up sushi from our local Japanese restaurant, Maru. We brought it home and sat on the front porch and devoured it. It was delicious and so far, so good. They seemed very organized and cautious at the restaurant. In other news, Craig took one of his saxophones to a music store to be repaired, some weeks ago. There is a master repairer working there, and on Saturday he called Craig to say it was finished. Craig will pick it up today, 72 hours after it was finished which, even though it was sanitized, gives it extra time to be clear of the virus. The repairer works in shifts with other repairers to minimize virus contagion risks. Some of the things trump said on Saturday night are beginning to circulate on online media. There was nothing that he wouldn’t say. He called the virus the Kung Flu and told his audience (a paltry 6,300 people), that he had commanded (instructed, ordered) officials to slow the virus testing down because that way, the numbers of cases would slow down. As I write this, I am astonished anew that any sane person would think this, never mind say this out loud, and make it an order. A comedian Zoe follows said ‘Oh, so if we slow down pregnancy tests, there should be less babies, right?’ The only answer is to vote him and anyone following his lead OUT OF OFFICE! (Yes I am aware I am shouting). We can’t take another 4 years of this, there will be nothing left of America as we know it. Lets not worry about the polls, lets just get out there and vote them all out. Here’s this: Paul McCartney talked about the origins of his song Blackbird. “Way back in the Sixties, there was a lot of trouble going on over civil rights, particularly in Little Rock. We would notice this on the news back in England, so it's a really important place for us, because to me, this is where civil rights started. We would see what was going on and sympathize with the people going through those troubles, and it made me want to write a song that, if it ever got back to the people going through those troubles, it might just help them a little bit." He explained that when he started writing the song, he had in mind a black woman, but in England, "girls" were referred to as "birds." And, so the song started: "Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly �All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise." "Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these sunken eyes and learn to see All your life You were only waiting for this moment to be free." Until I read this story yesterday, I had no idea what this song referred to. In other news: There is now a growing list of outfits revisiting troubling brands. The country group Lady Antebellum has changed its name to Lady A. NASCAR has banned the use of the Confederate flag. The Mars Company is trying to decide what to do about Uncle Ben. Time to retire him, too. The companies that clung to these brands need to do some honest soul-searching to own up to why they waited so long to let go. Just in time for Juneteenth, Quaker Oats announced that the Aunt Jemima brand will be retired as its parent company PepsiCo works to “make progress toward racial equality.” Like that of the enslaved black people in Texas who remained in bondage years after President Abraham Lincoln had granted their freedom, the emancipation of Aunt Jemima is way behind schedule. In those days Aunt Jemima didn’t look like the lady you see on the box today. She was a slave woman, and a demonstrator was expected to act and talk like a slave woman, using a kind of broken patois. Jemima’s do-rag was replaced by a plaid headband. Eventually the headdress was dropped altogether. A 1989 rebrand made her look like someone who shops at Macy’s: Coifed hair. Pearl earrings. Red lipstick. At various points, the company turned for help to consultants like Caroline Jones, who ran the nation’s top black ad agency, and who told the company: “White people may have long forgotten the slaves of old, but no Black person can.” PepsiCo, which acquired Quaker Oats in 2001, has now realized that demammification is not the same as destigmatization. Now, this next story is long, so bear with me. The writer. Alexandra Petri from WaPo, has written a tongue in cheek adaptation of the Trojan Horse, likening it to the coronavirus. �Firstly from Vice President Pence: “In recent days, the media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a ‘second wave’ of coronavirus infections. Such panic is overblown. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the courage and compassion of the American people, our public health system is far stronger than it was four months ago, and we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy.” In recent days, Cassandra has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a “second wave” of Greek attack that will soon come sweeping over us like the wrath of Poseidon and leave our city in ruins. Such panic is overblown. (Although, technically, “panic” is fear induced by the god Pan, so really this is not even panic at all. But whatever it is, it is overblown.) Thanks to the leadership of King Priam and the courage and compassion of the Trojan people, our walled city is far stronger and even less pregnable than it was nine years ago, and we have won the fight against the Greeks. And if you doubt that, just look at this enormous and beautifully constructed wooden horse they have left for us, which is definitely not hollow and will absolutely not be filled with handpicked soldiers ready to pour out and devastate our city. The point is: The war has been a great success. And I can’t think of anyone better to have led us through it than King Priam. Yes, we have had losses, but ultimately we were victorious. That is what this horse means. We should seize it and be grateful. Now is the time to bring in the horse and commemorate this achievement. We have defeated this visible enemy, which was also sometimes invisible because the gods are tricky. Look, we can test the horse, if you like, but I think testing just makes it more likely you will find out information that makes you unhappy, and that is the last thing we need in our moment of triumph. But sure, have Helen walk around the horse calling out in the voices of the Greeks’ loved ones, just in case! Knock yourself out! I am sure the worst is over. This is a time of celebration, and I think we can all sleep soundly in our beds. And I, for one, will sleep better once we get that horse inside. Congratulations, people of Troy. I remember this famous story in which the wooden horse was hollow and inside was a group of soldiers who climbed out during the night, opened the gates of Troy, and the Greeks sacked Troy. Here’s something pretty to cheer us all up. ��This rose was in terrible shape about 2 years ago, and I thought we might have to dig it out and plant something new. We cut it back hard and even with frost burnt leaves, look at its gorgeousness. By the way, I once attended Garden Club with my mother-in-law (in Australia) and the speaker was talking about dealing with ailing deciduous trees. She recommended hitting the tree with a pice of wood, 2 or 3 times. She explained that this would signal to the tree that it was under attack and it would grow new leaves to protect itself. We have a sick maple tree out the front that I think Craig should smack and see what happens. It might help, and as we called the city arborist 2 years ago and he’s never come by, I think we should do it. Oliver. ��Inside a tunnel at daycare. Yesterday during our FaceTime, Craig started playing ‘Girl From Ipanema’ on the piano and Oliver started rocking back and forth in time to the music. Grandad (Craig) is extremely excited and envisions a wonderful music career ahead of Oliver. Hmmm. Another day we drove from Brandon to Wells-next-the-Sea. No it really is called that and its because there are (or were) many spring wells situated nearby. It has been a seaport since the 14th century. The beach which is huge, is subject to the ever-changing tides, and they use an old war siren to warn beach goers of incoming beach floodings. The siren sounds about 5-10 minutes before the tide takes over the beach and allows everyone to vacate the area safely. ����I have to say that I was nervous the whole time we were out there. You park and then walk along a dyke/track to get out there. I talked to the park ranger while Craig walked way out to the channel. The ranger described just how fast the tide comes in and I was really nervous until Craig came back. The top photo is of the bathing sheds and the other photos are of the vastness of the tidal flats. More adventures tomorrow. So remember: the virus is still with us and being careful is our new way of life going forward. It may not be what we want, but it is what life is now. As always, stay safe and be well. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-22_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-103 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-22 Title A name given to the resource Day 103 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/25380b3c14743c6b65b9398893f829ea.pdf d044f6207efb2c5b4be49c2fd1318431 PDF Text Text Day 1, 793. Oh okay Day 104. by windoworks Our neighbors are having their house painted which a new source of interest for me as TJ (on the other side) finished his south wall repair and repainting a couple of weeks ago. The house is being painted a vibrant shade of blue with terracotta trim. We are going ahead (when I say ‘we’ I mean Craig) with painting our house red on the top half and white on the bottom with grey trim. Craig is starting with the back wall of the house, so we can see what it will look like. The team painting the house next door are spraying the paint on. It’s much quicker and it gives a better coverage than brushes. Craig is thinking about hiring a compressor and sprayer. He’s going to start tomorrow I think. This began on Friday here in downtown Grand Rapids: • Restaurants, bars and coffee shops in downtown Grand Rapids are getting an influx of outdoor seating thanks to a city of Grand Rapids program designed to give businesses a boost during the coronavirus pandemic. • Four outdoor, open-air seating areas — know as “social zones” — are being installed Friday, June 19, by city workers. • The areas will include table and chairs, where residents can eat to-go orders and takeout meals from nearby restaurants. Patrons can drink beer or wine that is purchased and stored in a sealed container. • The idea is to give food service businesses, whose inside capacity has been reduced by half to comply with social distancing guidelines, more space to serve customers. • “They’re an important way for us to ensure that downtown and neighborhood business districts retain their vibrancy, because restaurants and bars are important businesses that bring people into those areas,” said Lou Canfield, who manages the city’s development center. And I offer this in case you are struggling to comply: During its WWDC keynote Monday, Apple announced a new addition to its Watch to help users wash their hands the appropriate amount of time. With the update, the Watch will look out for the signs you’re at a sink, from the way you move your hands, to the sound of water swooshing by. Then the Watch will give you a countdown to make sure you spend the doctor-recommended amount of time cleaning away all those nasty germs. Here is a change I can get behind: In a growing trend, dozens of aging dams are being removed from U.S. rivers every year, and wildlife populations are exploding as a result. In Maine, this has meant the return of millions of migratory fish, plus �bald eagles and other birds who eat them. East Coast rivers have been dammed for hundreds of years and many people have never seen a large river system in its natural state The virus continues to increase as people try to return to normal life. Some don’t believe in it and some have cast caution to the winds and some say that if they get it, they’ll get over it quickly and easily. Hmmm. Around the country, Americans in their 20s and 30s are increasingly testing positive for COVID-19. Public health experts have a couple of theories about this. More people are getting tested for the virus as the capacity to test them has expanded. Why the increase? Some say younger adults believe they are less at risk than their parents or grandparents; they are also more likely to venture back into society as it reopens without practicing social distancing and wearing masks. We are shocked — shocked! — about 20-yearolds not thinking long term. But all you 30-somethings? C’mon, people. Recently I read a twitter post from a comedian who watched her mother dying from COVID-19 in an ICU, on FaceTime. I can’t imagine how dreadful that would be. And the comedian said: it happened so fast. Here in Michigan our governor and her colleagues are getting kudos for the way in which they managed the virus from the beginning - not from trump, but from researchers at Imperial College London and Oxford University. Here’s some of what they found: The researchers found that states that were more successful at keeping people at home were also more successful at reducing the spread of COVID-19. And mobility decreased more in Michigan under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-home orders than in any other Great Lakes states — or most states in the United States, according to the study. In Michigan, as of about March 12 — before restaurants, businesses and schools were closed and prior to Whitmer's stay-at-home orders — each person with COVID-19 was spreading the virus to about 3.5 other people, the study found. By mid-May, after mobility was reduced by Whitmer's measures, the state's reproduction number had fallen to 1, meaning sick individuals were spreading the disease to just one other person on average. The population of Michigan is 9 million. In an unmitigated epidemic, you might expect that 70% to 80% of the population might be infected, that's 7.4 million people infected with COVID-19. We assume around a 1% infection mortality rate — that's over all the infections in the population, some are very mild. So if you multiple 7.4 million by 1%, you get 74,000 deaths. Michigan has experienced 5,990 confirmed and probable deaths through Friday, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Probable deaths are defined as people whose death �certificates say they died of COVID-19 but they were never tested for the virus. The state has had 65,672 cases confirmed and probable cases through Friday since the virus was first detected in early March. The conclusion is that the Stay At Home order worked even though businesses were hugely affected. The conversation seemed to be: its either the virus or the economy, but really its both. And in states where they rushed to open - State and city leaders in the U.S. are responding to a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations by implementing new rules, scaling back on reopening plans and issuing dire warnings about the future of public health and the economy. In lieu of a Florida statewide mask rule, several city mayors in Miami-Dade County are implementing their own mask requirements. Texas authorities temporarily suspended the alcohol permits of 12 bars for violating protocols designed to stem the crisis, as Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said cases and hospitalizations there are increasing at an “unacceptable” rate. And in Utah, the state epidemiologist is warning that the state could be facing a “complete shutdown” if cases continue to rise. Twenty-nine states and U.S. territories showed an increase in their seven-day average of new reported cases on Monday, with nine states reporting record average highs. In the states where cases are spiking the most, hospitalizations are also rising sharply. More than 2,290,000 cases and 118,000 deaths have been officially reported in the United States. The phrase ‘between a rock and a hard place’ comes to mind. In the end, whatever presidents or governors or mayors do (and my governor and mayor are stellar women), it comes down to each of us deciding what we are comfortable with. If you do reengage with the world - remember to respect others - stay apart, wear and mask and wash your hands. First a photo from Zar. This is Cornwall Park in Auckland New Zealand. Auckland City is built on a large number of dormant volcanoes - around 50. When I was growing up I thought the Auckland volcanoes were extinct. Once married to a Big Historian I learned that volcanoes are never extinct, but dormant. Sort of sleeping between eruptions. My sister lives on the lip of a crater and she always says she’ll be gone in the first 7 seconds. Cornwall Park surrounds One Tree Hill (Maungakiekie Pa) which is one of the dormant volcanoes. I will talk about Pas etc in another blog thread but not this pandemic diary. Walking in Cornwall Park is always a joy and here is Zar’s photo of the path through the trees. ��And the daily Oliver photo, this time with his uncle: ��We are coming to the end of our adventures in Brandon and are now in week 4. Late one afternoon we drove to Tichwell Marsh. This is a nature reserve owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It is located on the north coast of Norfolk and its 420 acres include reed beds, salt marshes, a freshwater lagoon and a sandy beach. It also has artifacts dating back to the Late Paleolithic era and the remains of military constructions from both world wars. It is immensely popular with birdwatchers or twitchers as they are known. We felt woefully under equipped as we were there with people who had cameras with huge lens and binoculars. We had our cell phones. ������The first 3 photos are of the marshes, reed beds and lagoon and the next photo is of the concrete bunker remains on the beach. Then a photo of me on the beach and lastly Craig and I. It was a cold day - you can tell by the layers Craig is wearing. A very wild and beautiful place. Keep smiling through. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-23_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-104 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-23 Title A name given to the resource Day 104 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/49356b7096df82d9eacc2259ecafd7ae.pdf 994e293b30535ba588ae5585ceb6f5bf PDF Text Text Day 105 by windoworks There are some mornings when the news is so alarming I can barely read it. Some friends advise not reading it at all. I’m not that person. Fortunately I do not have access to cable tv so I can only get my news online. Have you ever noticed that every email that the Washington Post sends out is headed ‘Breaking News’?After 106 days I tend to ignore the header. So yesterday, that unsung hero of the pandemic, Dr Anthony Fauci, testified before Congress. Here’s some of what he had to say: Fauci told lawmakers he had never seen a single virus that produced such a wide range of symptoms and disease severity in its victims. Some people infected with covid-19 have no symptoms, Fauci said, while others have mild symptoms, and still others require weeks in a hospital on a ventilator or die as a result of the virus. Fauci urged young people who might be tempted to resume their normal lives because they believe it is unlikely they will get seriously ill from the virus to consider the impact they could have on the outbreak across the country. “Even though the overwhelming majority then do well, what you can’t forget is if you get infected and spread the infection, even though you do not get sick, you are part of the process of the dynamics of an outbreak,” Fauci said. “What you might be propagating, perhaps innocently, is you infect someone, who infects someone, who then infects someone who is vulnerable.” Fauci warned “The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surges that we are seeing in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and other states. If the surges aren’t reversed, they will create a much larger pool of people who have the virus and can then spread it to others”. Sadly (and worryingly) there are surges in other places across the world. German authorities said Tuesday they would impose a new regional lockdown in a district of the country’s northwest to contain an outbreak linked to a meat-processing plant, after more than 1,500 workers were infected. Portugal cracked down on mass gatherings. Australia’s Victoria state re-shuttered several schools. An area in the northeast of Spain reintroduced restrictions. Even New Zealand, which has just 10 confirmed, active cases, tightened border measures as an increasing number of citizens abroad began to fly home. In Germany, schools and kindergartens had already shut their doors as the number of cases climbed in recent days. Starting Tuesday, people will only be able to meet with one other person or members of their �own household. Gyms, bars, galleries and museums will be closed. Health officials remained optimistic that localized outbreaks could be contained through testing, contact tracing and quarantines. Officials in the Australian state of Victoria also blamed large gatherings for climbing case numbers. Over the weekend, officials there already lowered the cap on gatherings following four consecutive days of double-digit rises in infections. As during the first phase of reopening, no more than 10 people can meet in public and no more than five can assemble inside homes. On Tuesday, officials also closed two primary schools after a flare-up of more than a dozen coronavirus cases prompted concerns about “significant” community spread. “I know and understand that all Victorians want this to be over,” Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews said at a news conference, “but we simply can’t pretend the virus is gone, that the virus is somehow not in our state." His comments echoed a growing rift that has emerged between nations that are doubling down on trying to contain the virus and countries like the United States, where scientists fear economic recovery is being prioritized over virus containment efforts. The hardest part about all this is the continuing echo from scientists everywhere; we don’t know. The question When will this be over? And. When will life return to normal? Are always answered by: we don’t know, sometimes followed by: we think that ..... As human beings we find it difficult to embrace the unknown. Most of us like normal. It’s comfortable and reassuring. I find reassuring things with my own family but outside of that tight circle, it is all the great unknown. My grandson will be one year old in a month’s time, and we will not be there to celebrate. I hope that we will be able to visit Australia by this time next year and celebrate his next birthday, but I don’t know for certain. To lighten the mood. Remember when I posted the photo of the roller coaster with stuffed animals riding in it because they needed to keep it in running order? Well, this happened: What do famous musicians do when they have with no one to play for? They perform for plants. Obviously! Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu opera opened to a full house on Monday for its first concert since mid-March. All 2,292 seats were filled with leafy green plants for the UceLi Quartet's prelude performance to the 2020-2021 season. The string quartet serenaded the quiet in-house audience with Giacomo Puccini's "Crisantemi" (human fans listened via livestream). The plants have been sent to health care workers at a hospital in Barcelona. Maravilloso! Craig and I watched it and at the end of the piece, they played the sound of rain falling on plants and they made the plants wave in the breeze to simulate applause. Very clever. �And this thought: You should probably just go ahead and permanently convert your closet into a home office. Like it or not, many employers found the benefits of working from home outweigh the drawbacks, mostly because of — what else? — money. According to Global Workplace Analytics, "a typical employer can save about $11,000 a year for every person who works remotely half of the time." And workers can bank between $2,500 and $4,000 over the same split. However, there are potential downsides collaboration with colleagues can suffer, and some feel like they’re disconnected from their company. Yesterday we went walking in another cemetery, this time Oak Hill. I like walking in cemeteries, especially older ones with well established trees. It’s quiet, contemplative and safe and I find myself thinking about death and sorrow but not in a depressing way, which is surprising. Now these 2 photos were taken (awkwardly) out of Craig’s office window, but they’re of a team cutting down the huge tree limb which fell on my neighbor’s garage roof some time ago. (authors note: the passage of time is very confusing in a pandemic). Anyway they have ropes (how did they get that red one up there?) and they have helmets, gloves, harnesses and chainsaws. ���Not great photos but you get the idea. Now Oliver, because his smile makes me feel better. ��All bundled up for the cold weather and a happy family shot. Now our second last outing in Brandon. It was a cold, rainy day and somehow (although it didn’t improve my mood) it made our destination more atmospheric. Not far from Brandon is Lakenheath Fen. This is a 740 acre site of reed beds and grazing marshes. It is a haven for wildlife. ������As well as all types of breeding birds, there were wild ponies grazing. Britain is astonishing with all its well preserved and maintained natural areas. Standing rules: You should wear a mask if you’re going to spend time near anybody who is not part of your household. You should minimize your time in indoor spaces with multiple people. You should move as many activities as possible outdoors. You should wash your hands frequently. And you should stay home, away from even your own family members, if you feel sick. On that happy note, I’ll see you tomorrow. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-24_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-105 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-24 Title A name given to the resource Day 105 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4d59055b4a17be1e4744912f5d562bd9.pdf 0d2b5c32a50084c11a40147b0218aa34 PDF Text Text Day 106 by windoworks Good morning all. The above cartoon seemed applicable as all things virus worsen, not only in the US, but in other countries. As new coronavirus cases in the United States reached their highest single-day level yet on Wednesday, companies and state officials appear to be taking matters into their own hands. While Vice President Pence urged senators to focus on “encouraging signs,” these governors and CEOs are instead responding to mounting indications of a deadly surge across the South and West. Nevada and North Carolina both ordered residents to wear masks in public, as Virginia moves to implement new �workplace safety rules that would force companies to protect workers from infection. Disneyland’s both delayed plans to reopen. The 38,115 new infections reported by state health departments Wednesday underscore the changing geography of the U.S. outbreak. The bulk of the cases were posted in Texas, Florida and California, while Oklahoma also set a new statewide record in infections. Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has recorded more than 2.43 million coronavirus cases and yesterday 124,000 deaths, while the global number of cases has soared past 9 million. As Grand Valley State University moves towards reopening, here are some thoughtful and challenging words from the Honors College: As you welcome this new academic year into your consciousness and begin to think about who you are going to become in this re-imagined space, please consider what it would look like for you to pause and go deeper. What education do you need? How will you show that you care about your community and those around you? How can you open up space for genuine conversation and connection with people whose perspectives are different from your own? What would it mean for you to challenge yourself to listen more and speak a bit less at times? And if you really want to go deeper, how do you cultivate bravery within, so that you can identify your own places of need while also sitting with and calling forth the moments when you have fallen short, where you can do better. What does that look like? Craig has completed painting half the back of the house. As the sun shines hottest on the back of the house in the mornings, he will start on the front of the house this morning and return to the second half of the back in the afternoon. As our neighbor John (who is having his house painted a vibrant blue) said: we need never fly an American flag again. Our houses are red, white and blue. �And if you’re wondering - just the top half of the house will be red. The bottom half will stay white. Remember I told you about social zones being installed downtown? Here are 2 of the 4 zones. Eastown is considering where to install our social zone. �N.Y. N.J. and Conn. order quarantine for travelers from Florida, other states hit hard by coronavirus �The governors of the tri-state area jointly announced the travel advisory, which requires a 14-day quarantine for visitors from states whose infection rates meet certain thresholds indicating “significant community spread,” according to New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D). Nine states currently meeting that threshold, Cuomo said: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas. Perhaps this is something Michigan could consider? And if you’re wondering how small children got on in daycare centers - Throughout the pandemic, many child care centers have stayed open for the children of front-line workers — everyone from doctors to grocery store clerks. YMCA of the USA and New York City's Department of Education have been caring for, collectively, tens of thousands of children since March, and both tell NPR they have no reports of coronavirus clusters or outbreaks. As school districts sweat over reopening plans, and with just over half of parents telling pollsters they're comfortable with in-person school this fall, public health and policy experts say education leaders should be discussing and drawing on these real-world child care experiences. Working in early days, and on very short notice, these two organizations followed safety guidance that closely resembles what's now been officially put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Y says a few staff members and parents at sites around the country did test positive, but there are no records of having more than one case at a site. This, among a population of essential workers. In order to slow the spread of illness, local YMCAs and New York City grouped "pods" of no more than nine children with each adult. Heidi Brasher of the YMCA of the USA says this often meant using spaces such as basketball courts or even boardrooms, taking advantage of buildings that were otherwise closed. "They were very creative in the way they utilized space," Brasher says. They did temperature checks and symptom screenings on each child coming in each day, with staff members wearing masks, gloves and gowns where available. Children with symptoms were urged to stay home. Staff came up with creative ways to reinforce frequent and thorough hand-washing. At the beginning of each 30-minute activity, such as sports or craft time, children get a stamp or marker doodle on their hands, which they have to wash off before moving on to the next activity. Staff were teaching them not just 'rinse your hands,' but 'scrub them.' And instead of having to dread washing their hands, they were able to get excited and laugh and have fun while they were doing that. They also reinforce social distancing by having the kids make "airplane arms" when they're standing in line or moving from place to place. And children get their own materials, such as art supplies, to use from day to day, rather than sharing. �In Australia, my youngest son has gone to Sydney to visit with his sister and his nephew. Yesterday he managed an early morning row on Sydney Harbor with a friend. It was the beginning of a gorgeous day as you can see. ���Thats not the Sydney Harbor Bridge - its the Anzac Bridge connecting downtown with the inner west neighborhoods. You can see the Sydney Tower in the background. This snippet is something we live with every day. Across the government, key security positions are vacant or filled by acting personnel who many believe are too inexperienced or too afraid to enact meaningful changes. “The system now is set up to keep your mouth shut,” said Sam Brannen, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who tracks vacancies in the security agencies that he says make the country more vulnerable to a disaster. And a very worrying phrase has begun to pop up: the next pandemic. The next one? There’ll be another one? We can’t seem to manage this one never mind another one! In sad travel news - The European Union may ban Americans from traveling there when it reopens its borders, as coronavirus cases surge in the United States. European countries are working to agree on two lists of acceptable travelers as they finalize plans to reopen on July 1, and the U.S. isn't on the drafts. Speaking of sad travel news, Craig and I are finding it difficult to get our passports renewed. They expire in December and the passport offices have been closed for weeks. I believe they’re open now but with greatly reduced staff and hours, so it may take us months to get them renewed. Well we can’t go anywhere, anyway. Obligatory Oliver photo: ��Chatting up aa girl at daycare. Our last outing in Brandon. Close by Brandon is Thetford Forest. This is the largest lowland pine forest in Britain. It is 47,000 acres and is a Site of Special Interest (I have no idea what that means). It was created (planted) in 1922. It is a beautiful place to walk. ���It was a lovely, peaceful place. We were supposed to stay in Brandon for a few more days but instead we moved to a hotel in Thetford overnight. Our flint cottage really cured me of tiny house dreams. Then we drove to Cambridge to meet Asher who was arriving from London by train. We’ll visit Cambridge in tomorrow’s blog and then we’ll set off north to Scotland. Remember: returning to “normal” cannot be our goal. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-25_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-106 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-25 Title A name given to the resource Day 106 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7051240c404978054f95c7b9aceb30a6.pdf 185b8da807b6f2c521f61446bcec3209 PDF Text Text Day 107 by windoworks I’m late writing the blog today because this happened. I plucked up my courage, put on my mask, grabbed my hand sanitizer and went to my new hairdresser. This is not the best photo but Craig is on the porch roof painting the front of the second floor red, so I had to take the photo myself. And as Zoe says: I never know where the camera is. This is a better start to the day than earlier when I woke up. Overnight the stats continue to surge. Yesterday the US recorded 34, 191 new cases, Michigan had 353 new cases and Kent County had 52 new cases and our deaths here in Kent increased to 127. The graphs show a new climb. People are declaring it a second wave. I don’t believe we’re out of the first wave yet. Gov Whitmer is watching isolated clusters closely and saying we should be prepared to stay home again if needed. She had hoped to raise the state to Stage 5, a much freer level, by July 4, but I’m not sure that will happen. The number of Americans who have been infected with the novel coronavirus is likely 10 times higher than the number of cases reported, according to the head of the Centers for Disease Control and �Prevention. In a call with reporters Thursday, CDC Director Robert Redfield said, "Our best estimate right now is that for every case that’s reported, there actually are 10 other infections.” Redfield estimated that 92 to 95 percent of the U.S. population is still susceptible to the virus. He also said that young people are driving the recent surge in cases in parts of the South and West. By my calculation, if the US has about 2.4 million confirmed cases, that means according to Redfield we actually have 24 million cases. An overwhelming thought. In Kent County there might be 43,000 cases. These are sobering numbers. When I went to my hairdressers this morning at 7:45am, I was the only client there. Consing, my hairdresser said there had been at least 2 customers who argued about wearing a mask. Their rule is simple: no mask, no haircut. The problem is that people believe that if they get the virus, they’ll get over it fast. They don’t believe the real life accounts until they’re in the hospital - or they’ve infected a family member. So, to educate us all further, I offer this: What does it mean to be asymptomatic? SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – can produce a range of clinical manifestations. Some people who are infected never develop any symptoms at all. These patients are considered true asymptomatic cases. When people do get sick from the coronavirus, it takes on average five days and as many as two weeks of to develop symptoms that can range from very mild to extremely dangerous. The time between initial infection and the first symptoms is called the presymptomatic phase. How many people are asymptomatic? Estimates of the proportion of true asymptomatic cases – those who are infected and never develop symptoms – range from 18 percent to over 80 percent. The reasons for the huge range in estimates are still unclear. A recent mass testing campaign in San Francisco found that 53 percent of infected patients were asymptomatic when first tested and 42 percent stayed asymptomatic over the next 2 weeks. How can asymptomatic people spread the coronavirus? Compared to most other viral infections, SARSCoV-2 produces an unusually high level of viral particles in the upper respiratory tract– specifically the nose and mouth. When those viral particles escape into the environment, that is called viral shedding. Researchers have found that pre-symptomatic people, shed the virus at an extremely high rate similar to the seasonal flu. But people with the flu don't normally shed virus until they have symptoms. When people cough or talk, they spray droplets of saliva and mucus into the air. Since SARS-CoV-2 sheds so heavily in the nose and mouth, these droplets are likely how people without symptoms are spreading the virus. �How much asymptomatic spread is happening? An early modeling estimate suggested that 80 percent of infections could be attributed to spread from undocumented cases. If half of all infected people are without symptoms at any point in time, and those people can transmit SARS-CoV-2 as easily as symptomatic patients, it is safe to assume a huge percentage of spread comes from people without symptoms. What can we do to limit asymptomatic spread? Any time a virus can be spread by people without symptoms, you have to turn to preventative measures. Social distancingand lockdowns work, but have large economic and social repercussions. Universal mask wearing is best tool to limit transmission, and there is evidence to back that idea up. Wearing a mask and practicing social distancing can prevent asymptomatic spread and help reduce the harm from this dangerous virus until we get a vaccine. Monica Ghandi, Professor of Medicine, Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. I know this was a long read but it is the best explanation of contagion and best evidence for wearing a mask. Gone With The Wind has returned to HBO Max — with an update. The 1939 film has a new introduction addressing the film’s problematic depiction of the Antebellum South by film scholar and Turner Classic Movies host Jacqueline Stewart. I remember watching this movie at a theater - it was so long there was an interval in the middle for snacks and toilet stops. In other changes, the Dixie Chicks have renamed themselves The Chicks. And apparently Allendale (where GVSU’s main campus is) has a confederate statue that locals are agonizing over. Jon Stewart spoke with Stephen Colbert about why he believes Joe Biden is “the man of the moment.” Stewart told The Late Show host he wasn’t a Biden supporter until recently, but he’s come to believe that Biden is the leader the country needs right now: “Biden was not my guy. Wasn’t even in the top four or five. I was more of a Sanders, Warren… Not my guy, but having watched him on your show and having spoken to him at other times and seen him in other situations… I’ve recently been thinking about something and that is that, we are a country in terrible anguish right now. We are in pain. American exceptionalism, the kind of blindfold is off, and we’re kind of seeing ourselves as who we really are. ‘American exceptionalism’ is not a title that you wear like you were Miss America in 1937 and you’ll always be Miss America. Like it takes effort and work to maintain. If you treat it like a fait accompli, it will erode and you will lose it. And we are seeing that erosion, and we are fearful and we are angry and we are in pain. When I see Biden, past the shtick, I see a guy who knows what loss is, who knows grief. And I think that, that kind of grief humbles you… and what I think in this moment what this country needs is a leader of humility.” �And here’s a problem solved in a unique way: What do you do with millions of pounds of potatoes with nowhere to go? Give them away, of course! While huge numbers of Americans are struggling to get enough to eat and supermarkets are running out of certain foods, farmers around the country are trashing crops because they have no way to get them to stores. Enter Ryan Cranney of Cranney Farms, who grows russet potatoes. He posted a photo of a big mountain of extra spuds (along with a note that read “Free potatoes”) to his Facebook page, then watched in amazement as people from as far away as Nevada, Kansas and Ohio lined up to fill their truck beds and pack their cars with 'em. �Me eyeing those people without masks. �From Auli in Finland - guaranteed to brighten up your day. �First coat done! Yesterday Zoe, Asher and Oliver went walking on the Fairfax Walking trail at North Head. At this time of the year you sometimes see whales migrating, but not yesterday. ��You can see the city in the background. So on to Cambridge. Cambridge is a university city on the River Cam. It’s about 55 miles north of London. The university was founded in 1209. It is famous for Kings College Chapel, the Cavendish Laboratory and the Cambridge University Library - one of the largest legal deposits in the world. �We were staying in a lovely bed and breakfast, which the 3 of us crammed into and shared our tiny bathroom. But we were just so happy to be together and here are Craig and Asher enjoying dinner. So, be well and stay safe - and respect others. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-26_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-107 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-26 Title A name given to the resource Day 107 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/abb58d872b1d1b3543acee0a59e4ebfb.pdf 97b5b52290d08669ed2939455c832489 PDF Text Text Day 108 or 15 1/2 weeks. by windoworks On Thursday a staff member at Donkey Taqueria, one of several restaurants owned by a friend of mine, tested positive for coronavirus. Paul immediately closed the restaurant temporarily and posted about it on FaceBook. But what impressed me was the line: ‘this is not the first time this has happened and it won’t be the last’. Yes indeed. This morning I watched an ad with President Obama and he said: Don’t be afraid. It struck a deep chord within me and of course, I cried. Craig said: why are you crying? And I had to think about it. I cried for those 8 years when we watched every broadcast Obama made; when he told us just how bad things were and then reassured us that working together, we would get through it. The 8 years of no scandal in the White House; a First Lady who embraced her position and was accessible. During his presidency, I was the chair of Grand Rapids Weed & Seed, a National program designed to work with the police department. We were the seed part and the police were the weed. We had a one day summit planned and I proposed that we ask Michelle Obama to come and talk to our kids. I thought the worst could be that she would say no. Quite quickly we received a response from one of her staff, saying unfortunately she had another event on that day that she couldn’t move. Two weeks later we received another letter asking us what was the date again, because she might be free. We corresponded but unfortunately, she was still not able to attend. It was surprising as we thought the first letter was a gracious brush off. I simply can’t imagine this would happen with Melania. Nationally, 44,702 new infections were reported by state health departments on Friday, surpassing the previous record, 39,327, set a day earlier. So just leaving that alarming development there for your consideration, then there’s this: Vice President Pence said during a White House coronavirus task force news briefing that it is “very encouraging news” that half of the increasing cases in Florida and Texas are among Americans under 35, because younger people tend to have less-serious outcomes. Followed by this: Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease doctor, urged Americans to see their role in taking safety precautions as a “societal responsibility.” He begged them not to let their guards down even if the risk to their own health is considered minimal, because they can still transport it. When you consider any words from the vice president, you have to remember this is a man who cannot eat a meal with any other woman but his wife. That opens up a whole new set of questions, doesn’t it? So �the fact that he publicly believes that its encouraging news that the cases are less serious for under 35 year olds - and doesn’t take the consequences of community transmission into consideration at all, AND he’s the head of the White House virus team, just makes me want to lie down and scream: Jacinda, Angela, anybody? Help us! The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court late on Thursday to overturn the Affordable Care Act, telling the court that “the entire ACA must fall.” The administration’s argument comes as hundreds of thousands of Americans turned to the government program for health care as they’ve lost jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. Former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said that axing the healthcare law as the nation is still reeling from the pandemic would amount to a double whammy for covid-19 survivors. He worried insurers would view covid-19 as a preexisting condition, and without the ACA, would be free to deny survivors coverage. Those survivors, having struggled and won the fight of their lives, would have their peace of mind stolen away at the moment they need it most,” Biden said. “They would live their lives caught in a vise between Donald Trump’s twin legacies: his failure to protect the American people from the coronavirus, and his heartless crusade to take health-care protections away from American families." This brings to mind the analogy of Rome burning while Nero fiddled (as in played the fiddle). So now we’re definitely not welcome anywhere in the European Union and Britain is trying to cope with a heatwave and a decrease in social distancing especially on the beaches. Their cases are continuing to rise as well. And what is it with Australians and toilet paper? Supermarkets in Australia have been forced to reintroduce limits on toilet paper and other goods to stop a fresh wave of customers from bulk buying unnecessarily. The recent panic is believed to have been triggered by a surge in coronavirus cases in the southeastern state of Victoria. Woolworths supermarkets announced Friday the reintroduction of a limit of two packs per customer on toilet paper and paper towels in all stores following “a recent surge in demand.” The Coles supermarket chain also implemented buying restrictions on toilet paper, rice, flour and sugar.Morrison described the behavior of those engaging in panic buying as “ridiculous.” Photos shared on Twitter this week showed empty shelves in grocery aisles in Sydney and Melbourne, as fears of a second wave seemingly spread across the country. Weeks ago Zoe struggled to find enough items like baby wipes and fresh fruit for Oliver. I hope this isn’t the case again. And speaking of Oliver, here he is with Great Aunt Bernie, reading a book. ��Yesterday Craig finished most of the front of the house. He didn’t repaint the porch walls as they were painted not so long ago. Instead he washed them down. Then he put up our new flag - which I hope covers everyone. In the photos you can see me with my new haircut, the flag, the new painted 2nd floor, my new rainbow weave in the tv room window (from my talented niece Elle), and the edge of our neighbor’s new blue painted house. ��And I just had to put this here: �That’s for all my friends of more experienced years. �More Cambridge adventures. �����One of the ‘must do’ things in Cambridge is take a guided punt tour on the River Cam. We slid around the university on the river while our punter and guide told us more information than I could remember. The most exciting moment was at the end when I tried to clamber out of the punt. Craig and I almost fell in the river. An exciting beginning to our first day in Cambridge. So, be brave, be safe, be healthy and carry on. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-27_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-108 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-27 Title A name given to the resource Day 108 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/058ce104880e54b06d8c6903a25ca127.pdf 44c303fb7df3f0a198fd8a255d68db36 PDF Text Text Day 109 by windoworks The virus is the boss. This is not a thing to be decided by governors or mayors or anybody. Well here we are. There are any number of articles describing new details of the virus such as transmission and long term effects - and here’s a sobering one: We thought this was only a respiratory virus. Turns out, it goes after the pancreas. It goes after the heart. It goes after the liver, the brain, the kidney and other organs. We didn’t appreciate that in the beginning,” said Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California. In addition to respiratory distress, patients with COVID-19 can experience blood clotting disorders that can lead to strokes, and extreme inflammation that attacks multiple organ systems. The virus can also cause neurological complications that range from headache, dizziness and loss of taste or smell to seizures and confusion. And recovery can be slow, incomplete and costly, with a huge impact on quality of life. Now I know, it’s Sunday morning and you wanted kittens or babies or cute zoo animals. But this is what we have and this is the new normal. All these things we do right now to keep ourselves safe and healthy are going to have to continue into the foreseeable future and even though the scientists know all those facts (see above), they still don’t know when or if the virus will finish. So we have to make this new life our own. We have to enjoy it and grow within its confines. We have to embrace it. Yesterday my friend Wendy and her husband were driving by and they stopped to check out our new red house front. I just happened to be bringing the dog in off the front porch (she needed a drink of water), and I saw them and invited them up on to our porch to sit at the other end on the swing and chat. Craig came out and we spent a lovely 30 minutes catching up face to face. I couldn’t offer beverages or snacks but none of us cared. It was so nice just to actually see each other and not on zoom. ��The big white and red house and the big blue house, side by side. The blue house will have terracotta trim and our house will be red on top on all sides when finished. Across America, a large number of Police Chiefs have resigned after racial incidents by their police staff have taken place. And Chief Medical Officers have also resigned due to personal harassment, trolling online and protestors turning up at their homes. I’m missing the link with this last item. If I get my CMO to resign, then the virus will disappear, right? In keeping with that thought: �This morning I watched an interview with John Kasich (R), the former Governor of Ohio, with Erin Burnett on CNN. Here’s a snippet of what he said: “In 2016, people wanted to shake up Washington. Quoting Pink Floyd, this is being viewed by many (overseas) as ‘a momentary lapse of reason’. The 2020 election isn’t about a great vision for the future. It’s about a return to normalcy.” �Joe Biden talking about trump. I focus in on the words: it happened to all of us. This is the man I am supporting and voting for in November. And if you’re not sure of his capabilities, I offer this: �Yesterday we went for a drive after lunch. We drove out to Allendale to the GVSU campus - very quiet and then we pulled in to Versluis’s farm stall on the way back to buy some fresh picked strawberries. They �had NONE! For the first time ever, in their farming career, a fungus destroyed their entire strawberry crop! So is it a plague of toads next? Then we swung by Rise Gluten Free/Vegan bakery and picked up our donuts and muffins. I managed to order their last 3 muffins. Yum! Their treats are wonderful. Lastly we drove by one of the 4 social zones downtown. People can buy food and drink and then take it outside and safely sit. ��The City of Grand Rapids has canceled all Fourth of July celebrations including the downtown fireworks display. You can purchase your own fireworks but there is a strict period in which you can set them off (which some people are ignoring). And speaking of ignoring safety rules in hot weather and a pandemic: President Trump is planning a massive fireworks display at Mount Rushmore on July 3, despite a decadelong ban on pyrotechnics at the iconic spot because of concerns about public health, environmental and safety risks He’s hoping aligning himself with those presidential monuments will boost his ratings and make himself feel really important. ��Because Oliver in his new Pom Pom hat, clapping his hands. He also sometimes waves to me, like the Queen does - fingers together, turning his hand back and forth. A full day in Cambridge with Asher. �����At the top: inside the Fitzwilliam Museum. This is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge, founded in 1816 from the will of the 7th Viscount FitzWilliam. it was stuffed full of goodies. Next, in the early evening we lined up and bought tickets to enter the Kings College Chapel and listen to the choir sing Evensong. Henry VIII finished the construction of the chapel in 1544. The choir is all male students and is famous world wide. Photography was not permitted inside the chapel but it was a magical performance and a highlight of Cambridge . Waiting in line to enter the chapel; the Gothic entrance; the view from the top of the tower and Asher and I in the college green. Tomorrow we leave Cambridge and begin our journey to the north. Just do your best - that’s all anyone can do, really. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-28_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-109 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-28 Title A name given to the resource Day 109 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0d263821fabfdf0aed8c3990fa0ad4be.pdf 5e6c9969f9b3decafbd5dbfe4ad87865 PDF Text Text Day 11 by windoworks This morning has been a sobering one. My children are all working from home and in Australia, in New South Wales and Victoria they are closing down all non essential services. Confirmed cases in Michigan reached 787 yesterday and here in Kent County we had 21 confirmed cases and our first death. Experts are saying that the virus attacks all age groups and young people are at risk of serious illness too. On an even more disturbing note, some experts are saying this virus will come in waves. CB and I are realizing that this will be a long haul, maybe even 12 months. One way to look at it is to suppose it will be 12 months and then if it resolves sooner it will be a welcome surprise. I am sure each of us are considering what this means and I don’t need to make you any more anxious by telling you what I’m thinking about. Yesterday I told you about my new routine. I read an article by the astronaut Scott Kelly who spent 340 days in space on the International Space Station. He talks about the absolute necessity for a daily routine which includes sleeping at the normal time. My son AB says working from home means there is a temptation to work long hours - especially as he is a vital member of his company’s COVID-19 management team. During last week , one staff person in 1600 at his office complex tested positive for the virus and when AB went to work the next day without having read the text memo sent during the night, he was stopped by police from entering the building. The company then spent 2 days and a lot of money having the building cleaned to pandemic standards and then decided that it was cheaper to have everyone work from home. We continue to FaceTime with as many family members saw possible and each day when ZB calls we get to watch OB play on the floor for 20-30 minutes while we chat to ZB. It is such a great comfort to us. FaceTime is the closest we can get to anyone. And yes, OB is starting to crawl and pull himself up (!!!) and may be slowly getting his top 2 teeth to match his bottom 2 teeth. Moving the bird feeder was a brilliant idea as we have seen all kinds of birds feeding and some of them we don’t recognize. Murphy Brown yearns to be outside and spends hours at the tv room window watching the birds (not much else is happening on our block). Oh, except yesterday when our block captain organized a scavenger hunt. Each participating house had to put something in their downstairs window and then each family wandered around with their printed sheet looking for the objects. I think great fun was had by all. ��Yesterday’s walk. We went to a trail that goes between several main roads. The sun was wonderful but it was in the teens with the windchill. A woman came walking past in the opposite direction (carefully apart from us) and said: thats my favorite kind of dog. Normally she would have stopped for a pat - but... And yes, CB IS wearing shorts Today’s flashback . It’s so quiet you can hear the birds singing as you walk. ��This is somewhere in France. We were on a tour of the most important Big History sites in Europe after the Big History conference in Amsterdam. Our coach driver believed no one except his directions app and we spent many frustrating hours getting lost and caught in traffic jams. But this day he outdid himself. He decided to take us down to this tiny town to see the coastline but the Main Street was heavily parked and too narrow fo our bus. It was so narrow in fact that he couldn’t open the front door of the bus and some people, including CB were able to get out of the back door. The bus stayed jammed for a long time until the local police arrived and found all the owners of the cars and vans on the right hand side of the road. The owners all came running and a big crowd of locals gathered to watch our predicament. In the photo, CB is out the front showing the driver how much room there might be for maneuvering. When the parked vehicles were cleared and everyone was back on the bus, the driver started the engine and we inched forward slowly to loud cheers and clapping from the spectators. I think it was the most entertainment they’d had for months. We took his app away. Until tomorrow then. Stay safe and well and tell your loved ones just how much you love them and give them a virtual hug. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-03-22_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-11 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-03-22 Title A name given to the resource Day 11 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/dc566fad3e94a54ae49fd1bc889fb2e1.pdf 36e367a15996296aec5373a7c9680e88 PDF Text Text Day 110 by windoworks This morning Craig said: there’s never any good news any more. So first I offer these: ��Yes, we can still laugh, only not quite as much or often, as before. Because here’s what we’re dealing with today. �Most other high-income countries are dealing with modest numbers of new cases — often an inevitable consequence of reopening — and the countries are responding aggressively. Many are following the advice of public health experts, ordering social distancing, mask-wearing and partial lockdowns and doing their best to track people who came in contact with new patients. The United States is not. President Trump and many governors continue to flout scientific advice and send mixed messages about the seriousness of the virus. The federal government has failed to offer the kind of clear and consistent messaging experts say is necessary to mount a successful public health response. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, put it this way: “From the very beginning, this outbreak has really been mismanaged in terms of what the government response should have been.” That quote appeared in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation article headlined: “The lessons Canada can take from the U.S.’s mishandling of Covid-19.” And if that wasn’t concerning enough, here’s what is happening in Texas. Texas Medical Center hospitals stopped updating key metrics showing the stress rising numbers of COVID-19 patients were placing on their facilities for more than three days, rattling policymakers and residents who have relied on the information to gauge the spread of the coronavirus. The institutions — �which together constitute the world’s largest medical complex — reported Thursday that their base intensive care capacity had hit 100 percent for the first time during the pandemic and was on pace to exceed an “unsustainable surge capacity” of intensive care beds by July 6. This must be part of the ‘if I just close my eyes it’ll go away, right?’ plan. Also, embarrassingly, the governor of Texas had to go on live television and ask (almost beg) his constituents to wear a mask. Because, guess what? Wearing a mask keeps you safe and your friends and family safe! Who knew? Oh Gov Abbott - too little, too late. Meanwhile, here in West Michigan: GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Several restaurants and bars in West Michigan are closing back down, this time because of staff members testing positive for Coronavirus. So far, FOX 17 has confirmed that Long Road Distillery in Grand Haven, Bostwick Lake Inn near Rockford, and Donkey Taqueria in Grand Rapids are all shutting their doors temporarily. Each had at least one employee test positive for Coronavirus, but where they were exposed is still under investigation. The cases are not surprising to the Kent County Health Department.”It’s understandable, people want to get together and hang out and they’re going to go where they can and do that. So we just still want people to be taking precautions,” said Brian Hartl, Epidemiologist with the Kent County Health Department. The real concern for the department is the rising number of daily cases. On Tuesday Kent County saw 24 new cases. Wednesday that went up to 37. Thursday it was 52. As I write this, the new cases over the weekend brought our numbers yesterday to 4,450 and our deaths 127-132. The numbers vary according to the source. I keep seeing posts on FaceBook from friends, particularly younger people, showing them standing close to their friends with no masks. It’s worrying. Meanwhile my friend Merrilyn (remember she wrote a book using her bear photos, entitled Bear Hunt) wrote that she’s going into the West Australian State Library tomorrow to hand over her 2 “Bear Hunt” books, one of which they are buying. She’s had quite a remarkable response from local child care centres, primary schools and others and is about to place an order for 50 copies. Congratulations Merrilyn! And Asher sent me this link to an article for businesses but I think some parts are applicable. Leadership in the New Now The coronavirus has shaken the nature of work to its core. While many are still anxiously awaiting a return to normal, what’s “normal” after the pandemic is likely to look very different from what we were used to before it began. Uncertainty will stay with us for many months, so it will be almost impossible to �define what’s “normal.” What we need to think about is not a “new normal” but a new reality—a “new now.” The crisis is shining a bright light on corporate culture. It is revealing whether businesses support their workforce, for example, through the promise of avoiding layoffs and doing what they can to minimize financial hardship, or whether employees feel that protecting the bottom line is priority number one. I believe it is the New Now for all of us. Normal will never be what it was and I don’t think gathering in bars, or on beaches or crowded together at sporting venues will ever bring normal back. Part of our New Now for Craig and I, is a return to online grocery ordering. It is just too upsetting to see whole families or young people in grocery stores without masks. Instead of calmly shopping, we both get angry and anxious and forget half of what we came for. It is challenging to order groceries online - you ask for a pound of tomatoes and you get just one. And extraordinary items are out of stock. Who knew everybody loved chocolate covered gluten free cookies? So to cheer us all up: here are Oliver and Zoe, standing in front of the school Oliver will attend when he’s 5 years old. ��Back in Britain, we began our journey to the north. ������Here we are exploring the ruins of Barnard Castle. The town of Barnard Castle surrounds the ruins, which are on the banks of the river Tees. The only other item of note is that the towns biggest employer is GlaxoSmithKlein, which has a manufacturing facility on the towns edge. Tomorrow we reach Hadrian’s Wall. Remember: wearing a mask shows others that you care about their safety. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-29_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-110 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-29 Title A name given to the resource Day 110 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bfd5eaeb555c69059ef8d4a645b4bf01.pdf 0a9921b62d7423463ac43e22411b743c PDF Text Text Day 111 by windoworks Whenever I feel overwhelmed or sad or angry, or maybe just so dammed tired of it all, I look at photos and videos of Oliver. Oliver was born into the pandemic - he’s never known any other lifeway. For weeks he accepted living in an apartment with just his mother: no daycare, no park outings, no walks in strollers with friends. Now it has opened up a little more in New South Wales, and he is back at daycare and getting cuddles from relatives and other adults. And through it all he continued to grow and change and see Craig and I every day on FaceTime. Last night, looking at me, he laid his head on the side and smiled a faint smile. He knows I will copy him. Craig and I have known Oliver all 11 months of his life. Sometimes he makes sure we are watching him play and sometimes he ignores us - but he always knows we are there - the little people in Mummy’s phone. ��I don't see this as a wave anymore. Waves are outdated. We have peaks and valleys,” says Michael Osterholm (Director; Center for Infectious Disease, U of Minn). And here’s another new development everyone in research is talking about: At least four laboratory experiments suggest that the mutation makes the virus more infectious, although none of that work has been peer-reviewed. Another unpublished study led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory asserts that patients with the G variant actually have more virus in their bodies, making them more likely to spread it to others. The mutation doesn’t appear to make people sicker, but a growing number of scientists worry that it has made the virus more contagious. So after months of assuring us that the virus was stable and not mutating, now you’re telling us you think it is and that mutation is helping it to spread faster and be more contagious? More than half a dozen epidemiologists, virologists, and psychologists contacted by National Geographic agree, and said that struggling governments can win their COVID-19 wars—and perhaps avoid further lockdowns—through more unified planning and messaging, steeped with harm reduction. They say much of America’s inabilities to waylay COVID-19 stem from humans ignoring their essential advantages over the virus: communication, cooperation, and compromise. Tomorrow it will be 16 weeks (4 months) since I began this entirely new way of life. In 8 weeks time (half the time I have spent at home) Grand Valley State University will reopen to students and faculty alike. I am not comfortable with that thought - and today I read an NPR article which confirmed my unease. When asked if he could imagine a college party where everyone is wearing masks, Jacques du Passage, a sophomore at Louisiana State University, laughs. "No. I don't think they would do that," he says. "I think [students] would just have the party and then face the repercussions." That's exactly what Apramay Mishra, student body president at the University of Kansas, is worried about when it comes to reopening campus amid the pandemic. "Right now it's kind of slipped from most people's minds," he says. Students "don't really think it's a big deal." Around the U.S., coronavirus cases are rising among young people. The spread of the virus has been connected to college-related events such as fraternity parties, drinking at off-campus bars and athletic practices. For colleges planning to bring thousands of students together in the fall, student spread is a real worry. And the stakes are high: If there are outbreaks, campuses may once again be forced to shut down, scattering students and disrupting academics and college finances all over again. �Many college students still have developing brains, so it's not that they aren't informed or that they don't understand the risks — its that they’re wired differently. They are highly sensitized to reward, especially in the context of peers. Hanging out with friends is a pretty incredible reward, given that many students have been isolated for months. All of their routines are built around social interaction. It's just a totally new set of social conditions that certainly nobody in that age has ever been subjected to. ���Two different approaches to social distancing. And then there’s this: ��I read a personal post this morning which suggested that, through all his actions since taking office, trump appears to be a perfect Manchurian Candidate under the control of Vladimir Putin. I remember that movie as very scary. There couldn’t be any truth to this, could there? From Zar in New Zealand: another bear, this time Superbear! ��Flashback: We journeyed on to Hadrian’s Wall. This wall was begun in 122CE during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. It ran from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea. This was the northern limit of the Roman Empire. It had a stone base and a stone wall. There were milecastles with two turrets in between. There was a fort about every five miles. It is thought the milecastles were staffed with static garrisons, whereas the forts had fighting garrisons of infantry and cavalry. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been custom posts. ���Here we are at Housteads Roman Fort. This fort on the Wall was built in 124CE and abandoned in 400CE. It must have been a lonely spot especially in midwinter. Most of the sentries were recruited from the local population. The Wall was built to keep out the Picts who were a confederation of Celtic speaking peoples. Picts means painted people in Latin. The Romans didn’t have the manpower to subdue them so they built the Wall to keep them out. Nowadays the Wall is overgrown and sinking into the earth. It was much higher and formidable during Roman times. More Wall adventures tomorrow. Today is the 2nd day of 16 days in a row of 90F (32C) and above. There may be more days but that’s as far as my weather app goes. In the back yard TJ is building a wooden wall and gate, and when its done, Craig will (hopefully) take out the chain metal gates. And so the summer goes - one project after another. Tomorrow the plumber comes to switch out the kitchen faucet and clean out the kitchen and the laundry drains. I shall be safely ensconced upstairs, although the company assured us that all of their plumbers wear masks. I will be glad to get a faucet that pours out water rather than the measly trickle we have at the moment. Remember: keep on smiling through. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-30_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-111 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-06-30 Title A name given to the resource Day 111 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1c6788efe3e394efdfdcba827a7dcedc.pdf 170dc51e9f4a91121ac071560ab97d29 PDF Text Text Day 112. by windoworks This morning is overwhelming. Firstly, I watched Joe Biden give a speech. When he said the words: every store should have a big sticker on the door that says: Safe For Shopping, I cried. As he talked about the steps that should have been taken by the administration, I cried. As he acknowledged the huge sacrifices that Americans have made by staying home and staying safe, while the President did NOTHING to help, I cried. When he acknowledged how frightened and anxious we all are, I cried. Oh how different this would have been if Hillary had won. I look at Jacinda in New Zealand and Angela in Germany and I wonder if those citizens know just how lucky they are. And then I watched a CNN report form a hospital In Houston, Texas where the reporter and the cameraman were allowed into the Coronavirus Wing (the Coronavirus Wing!) through the zippered negative air seal door to see the patients being treated. The journalist was dressed in 3 protective layers, from head to foot. The head doctor has been working for 100 days straight. They had so much protective gear on you couldn’t tell if they were a male or female, but each staff member wore a large laminated photograph of themselves around their neck for the patients to see who they were. The doctor said he is treating people in a completely different way to 2 months ago, never mind 4 months ago. His recovery rate is 98%, which is fantastic, but if the numbers continue to surge, they won’t have the beds to accommodate the patients. The reporter then said: look behind me. There was a long line of cars stretching into the distance, waiting to be tested - and they had begun lining up at 1am. I feel like a front line reporter, just behind the battle lines. There is only one way to get out of this mess and unfortunately, we can’t affect a change until November 3. We need a new leader who actually leads. There is so much disparaging stuff said about Joe Biden, but he is stepping up and offering solutions and reassurances and I am impressed by his ‘steady hand on the wheel’ stance. �There’s a novel concept: actually listening to the experts! As I write this, there is a plumber in our basement trying to find out why there is s growing pool of contaminated water coming up the drain. I’ve heard of this happening to other friends but not us. I am safely upstairs, sitting in bed, writing this blog. There are some days I can’t believe my life. Breaking: Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-diseases expert, gave a dire warning Tuesday in a Senate committee hearing held as coronavirus infections surge in many parts of the United States. �“We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. And so I am very concerned,” Fauci said in response to questioning from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on what the overall U.S. death toll is likely to be. Fauci testified alongside Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield; Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn; and Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, before the Senate’s health committee hearing meant to focus on safely reopening schools and businesses. And this: A top doctor at the CDC said the U.S. has “way too much virus” to control it. “We’re not in the situation of New Zealand or Singapore or Korea where a new case is rapidly identified and all the contacts are traced and people are isolated who are sick and people who are exposed are quarantined and they can keep things under control,” Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Howard Bauchner. "We have way too much virus across the country for that right now, so it’s very discouraging. … This is really the beginning. But while the Democrats in both houses are listening, no one is listening in the White House. They’re too busy planning rallies and that big fireworks display I told you about. Because getting Chump reelected is more important than anything. And this just in from the European Union: It’s official: the EU says Americans are persona non grata. U.S. travelers won't be among those allowed to visit the European Union when the bloc begins opening its external borders on July 1. EU ambassadors endorsed 15 countries that were hit early by the pandemic but have been able to bring the coronavirus under control. The U.S., not so much. That’s fine. Who needs a lovely beach in France or Croatia or GREECE! with the beautiful water and … oh, forget it! We’re totally bummed out. (Update: kitchen faucet fixed. Blockage in basement cleared. Drains being scoured out). And then here’s this: If you read just one story today, make it Watergate legend Carl Bernstein's deep dive for CNN: “In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, [Trump] was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like [Putin] and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials – including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself �posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations. … The sources said there was little evidence that the President became more skillful or competent in his telephone conversations with most heads of state over time. … Putin ‘just outplays’ him, said a high-level administration official -- comparing the Russian leader to a chess grandmaster and Trump to an occasional player of checkers. While Putin ‘destabilizes the West,’ said this source, the President of the United States ‘sits there and thinks he can build himself up enough as a businessman and tough guy that Putin will respect him.’ (At times, the Putin-Trump conversations sounded like ‘two guys in a steam bath,’ a source added.) … In separate interviews, two high-level administration officials familiar with most of the Trump-Putin calls said the President naively elevated Russia – a second-rate totalitarian state with less than 4% of the world's GDP.” To inject some humor: And �It must be time for an Oliver photo. Yesterday Oliver went to visit The Taronga Park Zoo for the very first time! He had a very exciting day. And I think today is a 3 photo day to cheer us all up. ����The view of Sydney Harbor from the Zoo, elephants, and so tired on the way home. I feel better, how about you? More Hadrian’s Wall. Today we visited Vindolanda, a Roman auxiliary fort just south of the Wall. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, a set of wooden leaf-tablets that were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. There is a museum there which displays finds from the site. The site was under Roman control from about 85CE to 370CE. ������From the top: walking into Vindolanda; the archeological site; a communal toilet; lots of shoes in the museum and lastly, an unknown woman’s tomb marker. Two days ago we walked through another part of the grounds at Aquinas College. Whenever I am stressed and I can’t get to the lake, an over abundance of green always helps. Today’s new message for all Americans: VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! (And wear your mask everywhere!) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-07-01_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-112 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-07-01 Title A name given to the resource Day 112 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b43b777fa8bdf37d2617aa00b2454163.pdf 5547f3d9c194d315753ed0f37b31a636 PDF Text Text Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on Stuff Day 113 by windoworks ��This is Gretchen. She’s got our backs. She talks to us every week and tells us exactly what’s going on in Michigan. She surrounds herself with experts who all have the opportunity to speak and be heard. This is what a leader looks like. Yesterday, Gretchen did this: The rest of the article stated that take out cocktails would be allowed. Another restaurant near us closed on Tuesday because a staff member tested positive. You have to wonder (a) how did the staff member become infected and (b) how many times can this happen before a restaurant or bar closes permanently? “We shouldn’t presume that a group of experts somehow knows what’s best,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said during Fauci's appearance before the Senate health committee. �What is wrong with this statement from a prominent Republican Senator? I know there’s something....... The Women’s City Club has organized a Lets Do Picnic Lunch at a nearby park, and I have to tell you, I’m a bit nervous about it. I know we’ll all have masks and disinfectant and we’ll sit far apart but even so, its scary. In part of the video of the reporter in a Houston hospital that I told you about yesterday, the reporter interviewed the owner of 2 bars that had to close. He asked him: how do you think you got the virus? And the bar owner (60-70 year old) said: it might have been the hugs or the kisses or the handshakes, I don’t know. I’ll just let that sink in. Here is one of the lions that guard the entrance to the New York Public Library. We have a house around the corner from us that has a pair of lions guarding their doorway and for months now they have been masked up. In the ‘well at least they told us straightaway’ catgeory: Chinese researchers announced the discovery of a new strain of swine flu among workers at a slaughterhouse and warned it should be monitored in case human-to-human transmission starts. �Is this the point at which I lie on the floor and moan? That pretty much sums it up for Craig and 3 of our neighbors, as well as all their colleagues. Should be easy, right? And this one has that very bad word, but I’m posting it anyway. ��Well this seems sensible: Half of the entire workforce is now working remotely (that’s right, half), and many companies believe it makes economic sense to keep it going — pandemic or not. No more wasted time or money on commuting. Workers can live where they want. Companies save money by not paying for commercial real estate, which is insanely expensive in places like Boston, New York City and Silicon Valley. Virtual offices mean companies can tap into an unlimited labor pool for recruiting. Plus, one expert says the teleworking shift is pushing companies to focus on performance and output as opposed to just clocking hours. Here’s my question: what’s going to happen to all those high rise office buildings that are downtown in every large city? Yesterday we drove past Monroe Plaza (which had the most number of smashed windows after the demonstration) and it was closed to all cars. Instead it had colored umbrellas and tables and chairs and there seemed to be people sitting and eating and relaxing in the gorgeous day. It’s one of the temporary social zones and I really hope they make it a permanent one. And this really sums it up for Craig and I: This next item is good to know but - scary. Medical experts say autopsies are becoming a critical source of information on coronavirus as scientists race to understand it. Autopsies have confirmed that the virus does attack the lungs with the most ferocity. But the pathogen was also found in the kidneys, liver and the brain, where some damage could be permanent in survivors.Dissecting 38 brains,87 lungs and 42 hearts of people who died from Covid19 revealed surprising and alarming results. (You’ll need to look online to find those results) This just in: Los Angeles County has ordered all beaches to close over the Fourth of July weekend after reporting its highest single-day number of new cases on Monday. But L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he does not plan to enforce the order. You have to ask yourself: why wouldn’t he enforce the order? Lazy? Too hard? Virus is a hoax Or, Chump fan? So I FINALLY figured out how to load a video on to this blogpost. Wait for the smile at the end. Craig is very excited. He sees a drum kit in Oliver’s future. �Flashback: our last visit to Hadrian’s Wall. ���We visited Walltown Crags which is considered one of the best places to see Hadrian’ s Wall as it snakes through the countryside along the crags of the Whin Sill. It is one of the most preserved pieces of the Wall. Asher was very excited by all our Wall days. He stood on the top of it at one place and declared loudly ‘Winter is coming!’ - and unless you were a Game of Thrones fan, you would have no idea what he was talking about. The Wall was an amazing experience. I know I use that word a lot, but it was such an experience to look at a long wall that stretched across Britain and did a decent job of keeping the Picts out. As I write this today, I am so grateful for all the traveling Craig and I have been able to do. As my motherin-law says: the photos remind you of experiences you have had. It may be a long time until Craig and I are able to travel again - and as Americans we are not welcome in Europe or, I suspect, Australia and New Zealand at this time. Our photos of previous times are therefore doubly precious. Further north tomorrow. �Remember to vote! November 3 is 123 days away. Vote Blue, from the bottom to the top. Mark it on your calendar. In Michigan you can vote absentee - its ridiculously easy. No excuses - just vote! � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-07-02_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-113 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-07-02 Title A name given to the resource Day 113 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng