Stephen Hopkins

For descendants of this unique personage, here are some handy references...

If you watched the Janney episode, on "Who Do You Think You Are", it was mostly about Stephen Hopkins. I had not heard about his time in Bermuda, and then in Virginia, prior to coming over on the Mayflower. Available on the free Peacock app: https://www.peacocktv.com/watch/playback/vod/GMO_00000000433185_01/fa2d426e-3f10-3189-a691-b2cf9049b370

The Janney episode also mentioned his contribution to our democracy and human rights. Political scientists are starting to put our ancestor into the same category of thinkers as Thomas Hobbes & John Locke.  The best short essay on this aspect is a well-written piece from the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/opinion/thanksgiving-pilgrims-puritans-democracy-.html

There is good detail and info on his find-a-grave site, as well as books for further reading.  Our guy was NOT a Puritan!  As proven by his penchant for rum, and for selling it after-hours!  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/215014000/stephen-hopkins

Lastly, the latest biography is A Stranger Among Saints... https://amzn.to/3ShSuQr

Happy reading!

 

Welcome to the United States of China
- or – What happens when you're not looking...

General Electric Appliances -
Sold back in 2016, to the Haier Group, of China. This was okay by Mitch McConnell and his wife, as the huge Louisville, KY plant was retained.

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel -
Sold in 2015 to the Anbang Insurance Group (now, in 2022, under Government ownership).
The new owners hired Hilton to manage the hotel, while they develop plans to turn the
property in condominiums for rich people.

Motorola Mobile Phones (MOTO) -
Motorola sold off their mobile phone business in 2014, to the Chinese computer giant:
Lenovo.

Volvo -
When Ford couldn't handle their acquisitions, Volvo ended up with the Chinese auto company, Geely Holding Group, back in 2010. Geely is the largest stockholder of Mercedes.

AMC Theaters -
Your favorite purveyor of overpriced popcorn, AMC sold its largest stake to the Chinese company, WANDA Group, back in 2012. This multinational media giant is owned by the
Wang family from northeast China.

Hoover Vacuum Cleaners -
The over-100-year-old icon was sold in 2007 to the TTI Group, of Hong Kong. Hoover joined a lineup of other TTI Group brands which include: Milwaukee Electric, Ryobi, Homelite,

Oreck Vacuums, and Dirt Devil.

Smithfield Farms -
USA's largest pork producer was sold to China in 2019. We raise the hogs, then ship them to China where they are slaughtered and packaged, and shipped back to us, free from FDA
regulations and requirements. Brands are: Morrell, Eckrich, Cudahy, Cook's Hams, etc...

That Beautiful Somewhere

Another good Canadian film, here's the plot, in a nutshell:

"Robert Budreau's noirish thriller That Beautiful Somewhere stars Roy Dupris as Conk Adams, a police detective still nursing psychological scars from his time in the military. When an unidentified body turns up, he must work with an archeologist (Jane McGregor) who suffers from a physical ailment. Soon the pair bond over work and their health problems, and an Aboriginal mystic offers clues to the identity of the body."~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Above and beyond that synopsis, we find a story of wounded people on a quest for healing. The characters are dealing with themes of death and resurrection as they wade through a mystery, and they encounter First Nations' mystical notes that intrude into their thought processes and their viewpoints on life and on death. A fascinating film when you are relaxed and open to deep thinking; not a film for just pure amusement.

Clip, on YouTube: copy and paste

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMajA8mvglc

                                   Roy DuPuis                   
                                     Jane McGregor

Blood Pressure (2012)

Here's a good movie, while you're spending time at home.

It seems slow-moving and soft-spoken, until all of a sudden you realize all the changes in the characters and the plotlines.  Michelle Giroux takes her character's outlines and weaves them into a well-drawn persona.  Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) continues to steal scenes with just her raw talent. Well-directed, you'll like this movie or you won't.  That's it.

http://www.bloodpressurethemovie.com/


         Giroux (above) and Maslany 

                                         

Nothing to Fear

Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America by Adam Cohen


Excellent read. Cohen does a good job of combining time-line history with illuminating character studies of the participants in the greatest program/legislative achivements in our history.


View all my reviews

We lose sight, in today's world, of a President who can *preside*.  Cohen's book shows us how FDR took socialists and corporate fascists into his cabinet, along with a few moderates and political hacks, and had this diverse group hammer out the programs of the New Deal  All factions had a "say' and all factions had input to the legislative output of the Hundred Days accomplishments. One difference that Cohen does not deal with, is that Roosevelt's cabinet wanted the best for the nation, not for party.

The Adorable Alta Jane Boomer

Born Alta J. Chaffee, in Adrian, MI in 1890, Alta was the daughter of Frank A. Chaffee and one of his several wives.  Alta is about 18 years old in this photograph, which we obtained from Delaware, and holds a bouquet of hope and promise.  She married Roy Deville Boomer, also from Lenawee County, and for many years they lived in Adrian and Ann Arbor, where Roy would work as a carpenter for the railroad or in construction, and Alta would take in laundry in order to help make ends meet.

Later, the dreams would catch hold, and they moved to the fertile Yakima valley of Washington to pursue farming.  Enduring a hard life, Alta died in 1938; only 47 years old.  Roy lasted until 1947, at the age of  59; and both are buried in the Old Sunnyside Cemetery, in rural Yakima County, WA.

Teachers @ Verona School, PS 6, Battle Creek, Michigan

Vivian E. Beers, b.1891 in MI
    Lived mostly at 91 Fremont and at 290 Garfield

Irma M. (Kemp) Verble, 1913 - 2001
    Born in Nebraska, I think she started here in 1940.

Florence M. Nagel
    Lived at 187 Hubbard; traveled the Southwest every year.

Cornelia M. Osborn,  1896 - 1988
    Born in Eckford, she lived at 385 East Ave. N.

Margaret B. Randolph, 1892 - 1985
    Husband ran a shoe repair shop @ 214 W. Mich. Ave.

Beatrice J. Gall, b.1926 in Detroit
    A UNM grad (1947); lived at 26 Chestnut for many years.

Anne Johnston
     Lived on Sylvan Drive

Maybelle (Spooner) Matherly, 1904 - 1994
    Lived at 104 Sellers Ave.

Margaret O. Giddings, 1903 - 1983
    Lived at 208 Garrison after many years on Union St.  Her husband,
    W. Eugene Giddings, had a small real estate business.

Glenn Wesley Alday, born June 1927
    Lived at 238 Briar Hill.  Mr. Alday was a Marine at the end of WW2.

Hazel M. McKibbin, 1903 - 1987
    She commuted to Verona from Charlotte for a few years until they got
    a house at 49 Clayton.  She was a Social Worker before teaching.

Beatrice Wenger, 1912 - 1998
     Lived several teaching years up in Nashville

Avis Madge Hassel, 1929 - 1998
     Wife of Carl Hassel (1926- 2011) a counselor at WKKJH.

Corinne Keithley
     Her husband, Earl, was an auto mechanic.
 





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