Guy's Books and Thoughts

Supposedly we are all separated by six degrees. But I sometimes
wonder if we may be more closely related than we realize?

The reason why I make this point is an experience of mine. One of my
former co-workers told me that she had no relatives out here. We had
worked in the same place for about two years. One day I mentioned a
certain uncle from a certain part of Hawaii. She said she had a
relative by the same name from that same part.

Later I wrote to my uncle�s son, that is my cousin. He wrote back
that he had a cousin and that cousin had a daughter. I showed the
message to my former co-worker. It turns out my former co-worker was
that daughter.

I am not sure what that makes us. I thought the term was second
cousin. But someone said it was first cousins once removed. So I
guess we are sort of related. Her mother and myself share the same
first cousin from different ends of his family.

And what makes this a smaller world is that my cousins remember this
co-worker. And one of my aunts was a friend of this former co-worker�s
grandmother. But I didn�t know any of this till I asked my cousin.
And that is what started the whole ball of wax rolling. Sometimes we
don�t realize what a small world it is.

Guy

I talked to someone who spent the first part of his life in Germany.
He told me that he lived 10 years ago in a house that did not have
running HOT water. Yes, the house, which was over 100 years old, did
have running water, but not running hot water. He said that at the
kitchen was a cold water tap plus another tap which had cold water
which went into a container which heated the water by electricity. For
the bath cold water had to be run through a furnace to be heated. I
found such a situation unbelievable. But I talked to some people at
church. This one lady from Germany remembers heating the bath water
in the morning in order to take a bath later in the afternoon. She
told me something to the effect of �You don�t know how spoiled you
are.�

I also talked to someone in his 70�s. He remembers neighbors, who not
only did not have running HOT water. They didn�t have running water.
His neighbors had to go to a pump outside the house to get the water.
Fortunately for this person, his father was a clever person and rigged
up a system using water pressure to get both running cold and hot
water. This person said that it was after World War II that we have
had all these modern conveniences.

I also met a senior couple who did not seem surprised by people living
in such circumstances. The husband said that he would go to his
grandfather�s place which had a well with a bucket. Not a pump, but
a bucket. This seems like something like LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRARIE.
The husband also said that when they were dating in San Francisco, he
would escort her home and then walk for an hour back to his home,
which was seven miles. That surprised me. How about the bus? Or what
about a car? He did not seem to think it was a big deal to walk for
about an hour.

Maybe the earlier generation was made of sterner stuff. Of course I
don�t think those times were necessarily the good old days.

In a way the past 140 years is not too far removed from us. The WALL
STREET JOURNAL (May 2005) did an article about CHILDREN of American
Civil War veterans who were still living. I was surprised when a
retired professor told me his grandfather fought in the Civil War. I
think I was even more surprised to find that there were children of
these veterans who were still alive. I showed the WSJ article to a
neighbor who belonged to a Civil War group. He told me that he had
met one of those people. I believe the last widow of a Union soldier
died in 2003 and the last Confederate widow died in 2005.

Books and written records can be good resources. But I think someone
who can connect you to the past, by their stories can bring history
alive.

Guy

I do not believe that history can only be found in dry academic
textbooks or boring class lectures. History is a record of peoples�
lives.

Some of the records are precise and accurate, others not so accurate.
It is my conviction that one can learn history by talking to people
and keeping one�s eyes and ears open.

There is a saying that we are all connected by six degrees of
separation. I don�t know what the ratio would be if you included the
people from the past.

In my life I have run across some of the most interesting people. And
talking to these people has given me a window into history. During
the course of a conversation, someone referred me to a certain lady
who grew up in Nazi Germany. One day I called up that lady to ask
about that period of time. Her father was a German lawyer who was a
member of the Reichstag and her mother was a Polish Jew, who taught
Economics at the University of Berlin. When Hitler came to power,
both parents lost their jobs. They survived by moving to the country
and maintaining a low profile. She later served as
Lucius Clay�s translator for three years. She also translated for
former President Herbert Hoover when he visited Germany.

My friend �Grandma� (short for �adopted Grandma from church) is an
interesting character. She went to Hong Kong to work for the
church. That is where she met someone who later became a well known
scholar on China. One day Grandma told me that she wanted to
reestablish contact with a former co-worker. That co-worker had
written a book entitled SONG OF SURVIVAL, about her experiences as a
P.O.W in Indonesia during World War II. I remember hearing a talk
by someone about how some women had created a �vocal� orchestra during
their captivity. I called the person, who gave the talk, and asked
him how I could contact the author. He laughed and said she was in
the phone book. I passed the information to Grandma. Grandma and
I were both able to visit with the author and talk a bit about the
book and get her autograph. The author has continued to promote
the �Song of Survival� work. A copy of the music can be found at
Stanford University. And various choirs have done performances from
that work.

I find it interesting when a person�s story ties in with what I read
or another person�s story. Grandma told me of the time she took a
picture of a black Mercedes parked outside the U.S. embassy, in
China. She was so mad that she got out of her car and took a picture
of the car. The car moved from its parking place, briefly blocked her
path, and then went back to its parking space. She told me that they
were secret police. I was somewhat skeptical at the time, until I
read the book DAUGHTER OF CHINA by Larry Engelmann. In that book the
main character of the book is taken away by the secret police in a
black Mercedes.

You never know what interesting people you might run across In the
bookstore I have met two naval veterans of World War II; one was a
Pearl Harbor survivor and the other was the graduate of the Colorado
Language School, which specialized in teaching Japanese at the
time. At church I met, the previously mentioned Grandma, and a
former female marine, who worked as a mechanic on Corsairs.

In conclusion, I would encourage you to be aware of the people around
you. Who knows ? Maybe you will get an interesting glimpse into
history that the textbooks or Television programs do not provide.