New York to Paris by Automobile 1908

I was not aware of the automobile race from New York west to Paris in 1908 until I recently enjoyed the audiobook version of America 1908. The automobile was in its infancy, and teams from France, Germany, Italy and the United States competed in the race, which the upstart Americans won in a 1907 Thomas Flyer. This image depicts the Americans stopping to assist the German team in Siberia.

The Red Foxes

Sarah's soccer team has red jerseys again this year, and they have named their team the Red Foxes, which made Sherry and I think of Redd Foxx from Sanford and Son. I had never seen a photograph of him as a young man until I saw the above picture on the official Redd Foxx website. His biography on the website says he was born John Sanford, explaining the name of the television series.

Tartar Sauce

I saw a History Channel program about Ghengis Khan the other day. He conquered the Tartars, which set me to wonder how Tartar Sauce got its name and what it might have to do with the Tartars. According to this source, it means "rough" in French, and Tartars were rough, nasty and violent types. Also, they ate shredded beef, sometimes raw, which is where Steak Tartare gets its name. Tartars took their name from Tartarus, the Greek version of hell.

Constitution Day

Today is Constitution Day, on which Americans celebrate our founding document, the United States Constitution. I am something of a Constitution geek, having had the good fortune of being in undergraduate school in 1987 during the Constitution's bicentennial. I had a series of wonderful Constitutional Law classes taught by Dr. John Scheb, who graciously agreed to be my faculty advisor during my senior year. My undergraduate political science classes led me into law school and a career that I love. As a lawyer, for the most part, my interest in Constitutional Law is academic, though I did get a case dismissed once on the basis of sovereign immunity as an Assistant General Counsel in the Central Legal Office of the Department of Chidren's Services.

In celebration of Constitution Day, I will share two tales about Benjamin Franklin, who attended the Constitutional Convention in his home town of Philadelphia despite suffering gout so painful it rendered him unable to walk to the Convention. Instead, he was carried on a litter by prisoners.

At the end of the Constitutional Convention while speaking to fellow delegates, Franklin pointed out the President's chair, which has a sun on the back. He commented that artists struggle with distinguishing a rising sun from a setting sun, and that he had wondered throughout the Convention whether the sun on the President's chair was a rising or setting sun. As they watched other delegates signing the Constitution, Franklin said, "But now at length I have the happiness to know it is a rising and not a setting sun."

As he exited the building now known as Independence Hall, where the convention was held, a woman on the street asked him, "Well Doctor, what have we got -- a Republic or a Monarchy?" To which Franklin replied, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

And so we shall.

Cherokees March On Knoxville

This is The Cherokees are Coming, an illustration showing a rider warning townspeople that Cherokee warriors advancing on Knoxville from the west in September 1793, after they had slain the people at Cavet's Station.

Clerks Conference

I spent the week at the Tennessee Court Clerks Conference at Montgomery Bell State Park in Burns, Tennessee, which is about an hour west of Nashville. On the drive I passed acres of fields of lost corn crop that had been burned by the sun this summer. Usually I see deer, and sometimes turkey, at the state park, but all I saw this time were Canada geese on Acorn Lake from my room.

I've been a part of the conference for two years now, and I have had the pleasure to have attended several events at the Inn and Conference Center at Montgomery Bell. The rooms at the inn are comfortable, and the conference center is very nice. Some of the rooms have wi-fi, but the one I stayed in this time did not. I saw several people on laptops in the lobby, but I didn't bring mine upstairs to try to get online. The staff there is very accommodating, and the food at the restaurant, which overlooks the lake, is really good and has been voted by locals as one of their favorite restaurants.

I have camped at the campground in the park several times when we lived in Nashville, and it is a really nice place to camp. There is a great canoe access point on the nearby Harpeth River where there is a great bend in the river. You can put your canoe in, ride downstream through the bend, and take your boat back out just a short walk from where you put in. There used to be a canoe rental business there called Pizza Shack, and they would rent you a canoe and sell you a pizza to take back to your campsite for supper after you were done on the river.

If you like history, there is plenty of it nearby. Montgomery Bell, the Iron Master of the Harpeth, bought a foundry from James Robertson, one of the founders of Nashville and friend of John Sevier during his days in the Watagua settlement in the mountains of East Tennessee near what is now Elizabethton, Tennessee. From the river you can see where Bell had a hole blasted through the river at the aforementioned bend as part of his iron works. There is a trail in the park, the Ore Pit Trail, where you can walk through the area where Bell's men dug for iron ore in the early 1800's. The first Cumberland Presbyterian Church is also on the park property and is still used for services.

1912 Mercer Sportabout

It was worth a cool $625,000.00 according to Hemmings Motor News.

Grandpa Isenhour's 1939 Packard

I recently posted here about my Grandpa Isenhour's 1939 Packard. Mom asked my Uncle Mack if he had a photograph of the Packard, and he kindly sent her this one with Grandpa posing next to it. According to Uncle Mack, the only cars Grandpa ever owned were a Model A Ford, the Packard, a 1950 Ford and a 1952 Chevy.

I remember the Ford, which used to sit inoperable at the back of the driveway at their house in Hickory, North Carolina. My sisters, our cousins and I used to play in and on the old Ford. There was always a sack of feed corn in the back seat because Grandpa used the car to store feed for his chickens.

Battle of the Plains of Abraham

On September 13, 1759, the British fought the French on the Plains of Abraham for control of Quebec. The British forces defeated the French during this battle in what Americans call the French and Indian War. Europeans call the conflict the Seven Years War.

Ten Years Ago

Image

Today, of course, is the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, that occurred on September 11, 2001. After ten years, I feel like I should have some perspective on the event, but I still find it as horrifying and confusing as I did when it happened. To fly hijacked jets filled with innocent people into office buildings filled with innocent people is as absurd as it is evil, and yet it was done.



There was much senseless death on September 11, 2001. People in the airplanes, in the office buildings and on the streets died, as did firefighters, police officers and emergency workers on the scene doing their duty and trying to save lives. Many members of the military have lost their lives as well, fighting during the last decade to make the dangerous world a safer place for the rest of us. This is a day to remember them.

Redcoats In Vonore

There is an 18th Century Trade Faire at Fort Loudon in Vonore, Tennessee, this weekend. We attended a couple of years ago, and it was very interesting. It was our first visit to Fort Loudon, a replica of the English fort that was established during the French and Indian War.

1939 Packard

This is 1939 Packard Touring Sedan, from Car Lust. I seem to remember that my Grandpa Isenhour owned a Packard at some point in his life and that he was quite proud of it.

UPDATE (From Mom):

Yes Daddy owned a 1939 Packard. I will check with Mack to see if he has a picture of the Packard in its last days. Daddy sold it, and we all wanted it back so he bought it back and kept it for a while longer. He finally entered it in the Demolition Derby in Hickory, [North Carolina,] and it won. We have a picture of it with the win streamer on it somewhere. I have a pic also of Daddy, Mack, Me and Joan standing beside it. I have my lip stuck out because he had just fussed at us for something. It was quite a snazzy car in its day. Love. Mom

U.S.S. Shenandoah

On September 3, 1925, the airship U.S.S. Shenandoah crashed, killing fourteen members of her crew. According to Wikipedia,



While passing through an area of thunderstorms and turbulence over Ohio early in the morning of September 3, during its 57th flight, the airship was caught in a violent updraft that carried it beyond the pressure limits of its helium gas bags. It was torn apart in the turbulence and crashed in several pieces near Caldwell, Ohio. Fourteen of Shenandoah's crew—including her commanding officer, Commander Zachary Lansdowne—were killed.

Diana Spencer

Diana, Princess of Wales died on my birthday, August 31, in 1997 in an automobile accident. She was born into the British Spencer family. My Grandmother Ogle was born Willie J. Spencer in Lois, Moore County, Tennessee, and she always claimed to be related to the British Spencers, though she had nothing to document it. My middle name is Spencer, after Grandmother, and I passed it on to Sarah, so I could invoke it the way Mom used to with me, "Sarah Spencer Ogle!

I visited Kensington Palace with Mom in 1993, but my British cousin did not emerge from her apartment to greet her Tennessee kinfolk, if that we were. I think it is more likely that I might find out if and how I am related to Thomas Sharp "Bigfoot" Spencer of Tennessee.

Crockett Tavern, Morristown, Tennessee

Yesterday I attended a meeting of the Eastern Division of the Tennessee Court Clerks Conference in Morristown, Tennessee, which is little over an hour's drive from Maryville. I arrived a bit early for the meeting, so I took a short drive to visit Crockett Tavern, which was operated by David Crockett's parents. The building that is shown in the picture is a replica of the tavern where Crockett spent part of his youth, but according to the Crockett Tavern Museum website, it was built on the site of the original. It is pretty cool to think that yesterday I walked ground that Crockett once walked.

1943 Parking Lot

This photograph was taken in 1943 in Chicago. I found it on the Hemmings Motor News blog, where they invite readers to try to name the make and model of the vehicles in the parking lot of the U.S. Army Consolidation Station. One of the comments points out how drab the automobiles are in comparison to the brightly colored trucks.

Earthquake Damage Closes Washington Monument

The above photo from the National Park Service shows a crack at the top of the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC, that was caused by this week's earthquake in Virginia. The below photo shows the Washington Monument as it existed during the War Between the States, its construction being halted by the exigencies of war. My Aunt Joan felt the earthquake, and told Mom that it was a frightening experience. Here in Maryville, Sherry felt her chair rocking back and forth at the hospital. I was here in town, too, and didn't feel a thing.

The Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel, named for Pope Sixtus IV, who consecrated it on August 15, 1483, is most famous for the painting, The Creation of Adam, that Michaelangelo painted on its ceiling.

The Macabre Feast of Saint Lawrence

According to the Smithsonian website, Saint Lawrence is the patron saint of grill cooks. I wish I had invoked him during the 3 1/2 years I spent working for McDonald's as a teenager, but I would not like to share his fate.

Audiobook Review -- When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan

On the road trip to and from Florida I enjoyed the audiobook version of When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan by Peggy Noonan, who wrote speeches for him during his White House years. Noonan recounts her own transition from a cynical White House staffer rolling her eyes behind the back of "the old man" to someone profoundly grateful to have known one of the great figures of the late twentieth century. Like many Reagan biographers, she depicts Reagan as a kindly, yet powerful and decisive man with a conviction that Communism is an evil force in the world and should be treated accordingly. Toward the end of the story she recalls a sad final meeting with the President as he suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and could not recall who she was when she brought her young son to meet him in California.

I was in college during the Reagan years, and it is interesting now to read in more detail about what was going on in the world during that time. I was studying Russian then and was interested in the changes that were coming about in what was then the Soviet Union under Mikail Gorbachev. I especially enjoyed Noonan's account of Reagan's negotiations and interaction with Gorbachev which set in motion events that would ultimately bring an end to the Soviet Union.