Family History, continued

"in the 1902 strike we were living at what they called Sugar Creek. it is now Stadium Terrace now. but when we lived there it was just an old mining camp. Well when the men came out on strike. the company gave us a house notice to vacate at once which we did. my dad rented a three room house over on packs branch. you could throw a cat through the cracks. we all almost froze that winter. and while we were there my Dad had a little extra trouble. he drank at that time so he took his shot gun and started hunting. but in the mean time he went over to the saloon in Mt. Hope. and got drunk of course he still had that old shot gun. so the company had up no Trespassing notices. so my Dad walked in to the Boiler Room there at Sugar Creek. and pointed his gun at one of them mens feet and told him to dance. so about that time one of the guards blowed the whistle and they picked him up and sent him to Huntington Jail for Trespassing on their property so he had to reside in jail over two weeks then the union men got him out. so he was home again. Then he went down on Cabin Creek. to Red Warriors. and got a job in the mines there. he worked a long time there. but something happened at the mines there all the mines came out on strike so. we were notified to vacate our house when one day 27 armed guards with thier Winchesters rifels came in and set evry thing we had out in the road. and it happened it started raining that day and all night. so all of our household goods took all that rain. My Dad went to Dry Branch and rented a place to store our things. un-til he could find another job and another house for us to live in. so the family all scattered out some to one place and and some to another un-til Dad got another place to live. he got a job at McDonald and we moved there. and the family all got back to-gether again. we lived there awhile then. they wanted him to come to Turkey Knob . and be Stable Boss. there at that time they used lots of mine mules so we lived there for a good while then my mother took a notion she wanted to move to the country. so my Dad rented a log house high up on the mountain above Price Hill. and we lived there for about two years. Dad worked in the Price Hill Mines. so Mother took a notion to move down off the mountain. so Dad rented a house at Sherwood WVa so we moved there. my Dad worked in the Sherwood Shaft Mines. which has long been abandoned. we lived in that house for a while. and Mother decided she would like to move up on top of the hill so Dad rented a nice five roomed house on top of the hill. we moved up there. but she decided she wanted a house on the other end of the other row of houses. so it was move again. and it was the last house we had moved into. was where I was married 1908. My sister Minnie also. so we had our own houses then. but don't think for one moment that Mother stopped moving she moved many more times after this. I still hate to think of all them old dirty houses I have had to scrub and clean. back in those days we just had bare floors to scrub with a brush or broom. we never had it quiet as easy as we have it now. Wash on the washboard all day. then iron with irons you heat on the stove. use oil lamps. this was my job to clean those lamp chimneys and fill the lamps up with oil so we would have a good light for night time. real sharp. Oh well as I said we were all very happy together. Cook up a big black pot of beans and a pan of corn bread or biscuits. fry up a big skillit of beef steak. and make some of that good old mommy made gravy. some country butter and milk it was real good to set your feet under the table. Well so much for that."

Schoolboy Civility

As we all know, George Washington was our first president. Upon reading Colonial Manners by our first president ( http://www.history.org/almanack/life/manners/rules2.cfm ) , which was written while he was a teenager, the first thought that came to mind was ‘Who were his role models?’.

In those days ‘well-to-do’ children were often raised by slave nannies or hired governesses. It doesn’t really say in a discovered ‘alleged factual’ biography ( http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/gw/gwbio.html ) how young George was nursed or cared for until primary school, though it appears his childhood was less than middle class according to today’s so-called lower middle class families, given the ‘conveniences’ many of us now take for granted, such as electricity, running water, and in-house bathrooms or indoor plumbing.

It’s popular wisdom in child development that much of a child’s fundamental character or conditioning with regard to how they respond to the outside world is largely programmed by the age of five. Generally, I wouldn’t disagree. So what could be found about young George leaves a mystery as to the biggest influences of his most formative early years until he entered school. As to his schooling, it was rudimentary and non exceptional, having been sent to boarding school once elementary school was finished thirty miles from where he was born. It would also appear certain teachers were positive mentors as well. The only real evidence of this is how George turned out.

What this illustrates in comparison to modern times here is that for all basic purposes George’s elementary school education was not much different in terms of available resources in comparison to today’s poorest schools. What makes today’s poorest schools really ‘poor’ is the attitude, non-dedication, and lack of civility instilled in school administrations and teachers. Many home schooled children have even fewer tools, and exhibit higher grade level functioning and learning than children that attend most of today’s ‘public schools’.

Young George studied by the light of a candle and in daylight with a lower teacher to student ratio than today’s averages in an unregulated ‘churchyard school’. It’s been said that gifted children don’t need gifted programs as much as they need support, because they naturally challenge themselves and don’t require any special curriculum to excel. The balance of a healthy everyday life and access to learning makes for whatever an exceptional child may desire with an overwhelming curiosity and thirst for knowledge, unimpeded by various forms of negativity rampant in so-called ‘adults’ of today. Children today face countless obstacles to their developing self-esteem, without which asserting themselves to feed their otherwise healthy curiosities becomes abruptly stifled.

What young George also had that was a result of his times growing up was the opportunity to observe and listen. In reading his Rules of Civility, the observance and execution of ‘body language’ is frequently addressed, though not called by our modern term. Nuances our bustling world has all but forgotten are critical in the human interactions of young George’s time. Imagine traveling days for a critical meeting; there were no ‘second chances’ in negotiations that first affected George’s life, and later that of a nation.

It’s no wonder George became a respected statesman and first president. He watched, listened, planned, and recorded with thought and precision, and an equal priority on communication styles that create mutual benefit between individuals to countries (as some of the small colonies considered themselves to be at the time). These skills were cultivated steadily throughout life as George grew up, year by year, one baby step at a time. That kind of civility has been copied by high achievers and will for generations to come. The natural rules that create progress for humanity never really change. Young George remains one of our greatest teachers, for those who have the opportunity to discover what those like him created for us all. Practicing unrelenting true civility in numbers makes the world better, one gesture at a time.