Michigan historical commission marks this farmhouse

Farmhouse at former city outskirts of Grand Rapids-(click image for full-size view)

Farms operated for 100 years by the same family (3 or 4 generations, in most cases) are marked with plaques, usually not much bigger than a sheet of letter-size paper on a post within sight of the road edge. But this one gives a more detailed recounting of the significance of the location and its residents. In other parts of the world with far longer records of occupation, probably 150 years would not be of special interest or meaning, by comparison.

Immigrant countries like USA, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, and so on view the connections to the land and history differently to the societies where relationships to the past, to ancestors, and the land worked by those people is long-standing or perhaps taken for granted; not worthy of plaques or other official recognition by the local government. A major theme among immigrants is economic advantage; bettering your economic (and possibly social) status in the new country in exchange for giving up claims, meanings, and connections to the old country. As a result of this strong urge to succeed in material terms, many immigrants move from place to place to seize better work opportunities, rather than to commit to the community and social relations of just one locale. So the number of farms with many generations holding ownership is rare enough to acknowledge the fact with "Centennial Farm" plaques (100 years of ownership and active agricultural production) or this one telling the story of an early resident on this rural land that now has been surrounded by the expanding city boundaries and house-building of WWII and afterward to accommodate the Baby Boom generation.

Update: current owner removed this marker in 2020

Comparing pop vs. commercial culture: holiday lawn decorations during December

commercial versus popular culture (click image for full size view)

Maybe in in 20 or 25 houses put Christmas scenes, accent lights, or ornaments in front of the building for public display that goes beyond hanging a wreath on the front door. Most of the scenes or figures have to be plugged in for operating the lights (occasionally soundtrack, too) and, for inflatables like these, for running the fan or blower to hold the internal pressure steady. There figures from popular (TV the first two, film for the right-hand figure) are from left to right: Frosty the Snowman (c.1969), The Grinch who Stole Christmas (c. 1966), and Chewbacca of Star Wars (c. 1977). At the front door a green bulb has replaced the normal white illumination, since green and its opposite no the color wheel, red, are prominent colors for the dark nights of Christmas season (evergreens betoken life, even in the dead of winter; red for the berries of some wintertime plants). The red painted planks standing next to the door give one of the seasonal greetings.

A few things come to mind when thinking about the overlapping meanings of commercial culture (significance is mostly instrumental, occupying public space and imaginations thanks to mass creation and distribution) and popular culture (things connected to stories in the society or linked to themes of the language/culture). Popular culture has exited long before industrialization and mass production or consumption. Things like folk songs, folk stories, folk costumes and characters of the stories circulate widely among people and form a shared currency or pool of imagery and words. On the other hand, commercial culture only took the place of, or overshadowed and dominated, things made by hand --one's own or another person specializing in making the thing-- with the rise of factories and mass production and selling.

Another difference is that commercial culture extends beyond what the average person recognizes by brand name or product appearances. This culture includes the people, places, and lore concerning the making of the particular product. By contrast the pop culture, too, extends to places that have no connection or correspondence to commercial operations and experiences. As an example, there are customs that are widely know and practiced (like Christmas stockings hung near a fireplace for the convenience of Santa Claus (or St. Nicolas). To the degree that uniformly sold stockings are widely used, there is a commercial culture layer. And to the degree that home-made, making do, or craft-fair, individually distinct stockings are used in a family's Christmas customs, then it is popular culture that is being referenced and expressed.

Symbolism? Old glory in tatters 2018 December 13

Shredded USA flag hanging together by a thread (click image for full-size view)

As a visual representation of the abuses to USA democracy during the campaign, election, and first 23 months of DJ Trump's occupation of the White House, this flag seems to sum up the situation. The red and white are meant to symbolize the initial 13 colonies that joined together to declare independence from the United Kingdom, while the blue field carries one star to symbolize each of the present-day 50 states. Translating the scene into words, it could be read as "distraction and distress are tearing apart the union; what is more this economic and social fabric of the society is only hanging on by a thread."

A recent news story tells about the 44 former US senators who signed an open letter that appeared in the Washington Post in early December 2018 to urge the current national leaders to stand up to the abuses and illegal acts of the disgraceful occupant of the White House. See https://www.npr.org/2018/12/13/676346772/former-sen-william-cohen-among-those-who-urge-current-leaders-to-defend-democrac

Thanks to technology of mass communication and social media, as well as mass participation in public discourse and decision-making, it is increasingly possible, practical, and expected that citizens can scrutinize the words and deeds of elected officials and civil servants, and to hold them accountable for their words and deeds. Perhaps that oversight and pressure will lead to better governance in the future, but for now the fragmentation and chatter of so many people seems to result in the opposite to oversight and accountability; rather, we see divisiveness and distractedness.

see also https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/flag-desecration-laws

Killing the deer, paying the meat processors, claiming the trophies

early December local weekly newspaper: hunters' page

The weekly newspaper is a mix of advertising, sports coverage, public service information and government announcements, legal notices, and feature stories. For many years around the time of the annual firearm deer hunting season there has been a picture section with brief identification of the hunter(s) and the number of antler points on the slain animal.

Partly this public display of wild animals killed by licensed hunters is made possible by digital cameras, Internet transmission of images, and desktop editing the layout of the newspaper. In this electronic way, then, very recent events can be placed into the pages of the small print-run newspapers that are delivered to businesses and households each week.

But more than the technology of rapid reporting and citizen journalism, a more interesting question is why do readers and the newspaper editors put the stories and relatively large images in print for the two weeks starting November 15 in the state of Michigan? Not every household that receives a paper includes a current or former hunter of their own, and not every reader is familiar with the protagonists in the photos, but maybe they will have heard the family name of at least one of them. That same can be said of the editors: maybe one or two hunters will be known in some way by one or two staff at the newspaper. This social acquaintance or personal relationship does not explain the reason why the page reserved for local stories and surrounded by advertisers is devoted to the hunting season results. But as a two week event involving humans against (or in cooperation with) nature, there is an element of drama and ancient struggle implied, even if the technology and creature comforts have advanced a lot from earlier days.

In summary perhaps it is a combination of timely event (the hunting season), visual interest (pictures attract readers and require less effort than text-alone), some personal connection, and the ancient drama suggested in the frozen image that culminates the hunter's training, preparation, and execution of the chase. All these things together help the local paper to keep readers coming back for more, much to the satisfaction of the local businesses whose advertising keeps them in the eye of the community of readers.

Sharing food, conversation, and the company of others

2018 community dinner on Thanksgiving day in Clinton Co., Michigan

The community feast started here in 2010 with the idea of a hot meal and traditional menu (turkey, pies, etc) for one and all, whether a big family, or someone living alone. Some cities feed hundreds of diners and volunteers, but for a rural county seat with 55,000 residents across the entire county, the number of meals is 120 to 200.

The concept of "all together" instead of "can't afford the full production of a traditional Thanksgiving feast" was one obstacle that the steering committee persistently worked on. In their news releases and advertising, word of mouth, and the interactions with donors and diners and volunteers the message was stubbornly expressed: this is not a free lunch for poor people, but rather a shared space for all to mingle and embrace the abundance connected with the feeling of thanksgiving.

There were so many operational details to manage in order to prepare the people, the foods, the venue, and the volunteers and diners. Then all leftovers were expertly packed into sets of 4-person meals to be frozen at the local food pantry and given out in the following weeks. Beyond these descriptive details and the history of the undertaking, though, perhaps most interesting of all is the "why" question. There is the nutritional and social satisfaction of the event for all parties engaged, but there are probably deeper reasons to take on the work of staging the public occasion that come from this moment in history here and in so many other urban centers around the state and the union.

Until ten years ago the trends of increasingly isolated, privatized lives were separating people from each other more and more until people, even ones in the same household or family, were living parallel lives and only intersecting briefly at times of crisis or comfort. Around this same time in the early 2000s the power of the Internet reached a point that mobile devices as possessions, personal accessories, status symbols, and functional communication and recording machines made it possible and practical to fulfill the Internet Religious Principle that "information wants to be free" (not owned, controlled, produced by credentialed experts or specialists). Sadly, the related Principle that Google promotes in its company, "Do No Evil," has been less widely embraced. One of the results of making it easy to find information, easy to add your own information, and easy to create fraud is that the price of expertise sometimes dissolves with the touch of a search button. People self-diagnose health complications, sometimes with success and many other times with failure.

There is a belief that information carefully won and organized can be made flat; that hierarchies can be dispensed with; that with enough bandwidth and processor power the entire known haystack can be searched to find the proverbial needle. While that is magical when it works and the electrical supply is uninterrupted, there is a side-effect of eliminating the structures, sequences, priorities, and principles that ruled expertise pre-Internet. By obliterating distinctions and treating all information and the data it rests upon as equal in value, a false sense of confidence (hubris, perhaps) is spreading, and a feeling that nothing matters; everything is the same importance. A society without boundaries may be liberating, but it also is uprooting. Even facts can be dispensed with since every standpoint is relativistic. Anything that is good and lasting in value can freely float to the surface; but so can wretchedness.

So as the already self-reliant, independent, self-referential lives have spread, this Internet capacity for removing boundaries and hierarchies has amplified the unrooted feelings among increasingly contingent, economically unstable livelihoods of so many people in rural and urban USA. In reaction to this observation or vaguely anxious feeling a few organizers and many donors have responded year by year, offering a chance to begin relationships with others in the community known by face but not by voice or name.

Night-life and small town movie theaters - viewing the outside world

before the Internet, rich audio-visual experiences were formed here

The theater building on main street in Lowell, Michigan 49331 appears on the Wiki-Shoot-Me (photographing your hometown) project. The interactive map can be searched by postal code or place name to view red dots that lack a photo and invite an upload. The green dots indicate the buildings, parks, monuments and so on that already have a photo to represent them. An example of the dots from city center in Grand Rapids, MI 49503 is online at tinyurl.com/wikishootme49503

A certain number of the buildings identified for photo uploads to document the cultural landscape consist of former movie theaters, where people would spend their money before home entertainment of televisions became affordable and the programming attracted buyers of the appliances in the 1960s. Even with a small black and white TV, later color, many people in the 1970s and less so the 1980s still found it worth congregating in front of the big screen for bigger than life adventures, love stories, and historical or fantasy worlds brought to life. Later the proliferation of video cassettes (1980s) and DVDs (1990s), as well as premium programs delivered by cable providers to the privacy of one's home would greatly diminish the movie going habits that reigned supreme from 1920 to 1980.

These days some of the old theaters live on as live stages or have been repurposed for retail sales. Other buildings are vacant or have been razed. But still within living memory of people in their 40s and older, there is the sight of dusk on a summer evening as the marquee lights shine with the title of the feature film, along with its mmpa age-rating (G for general audiences including children, PG-13 for parental guidance or kids 13 and older, R for restricted to age 18 and above, X and XX and XXX for "adult" entertainment). As a subset of those mass entertainment heydays of movie theaters, there was also a time when outdoor screens of drive-in theaters attracted many drivers and their passengers during the warmer weather, perhaps from the 1940s until the middle of the 1970s. Collectively it is hard to gauge the influence of and the importance on viewing culture and the worldviews cultivated in young minds by these big scenes on the silvery screens.

Curating your local history - why does the past call us?

local history museum & marker (state historical commission), 48879

This brick house covered in brick-red paint served the health needs of the people in St. Johns, Michigan with three successive medical practices: Drs. Paine, Gillam, and then Scott. Click the photo for full-size view and legible bronze marker text.

This photo prompts the question of what kind of people recognize value, curiosity, or merit in knowing the past and communicating it to others; or more generally of all the currently living residents, what place does the (local) past occupy in their minds, their self-image, and the plans they make in reference to those earlier generations of residents in the area? For a point of comparison there are parts of the world where relatively little changed in status and possessions and aspirations or imagination from one generation to the next. So the separation of past and present and future was not very clear or necessary. And even when the pace of changes goes faster and one generation's experiences and life chances differ to their parents and grandparents, as well contrasting the generations that follow, then the significance of the past-present relationship might not necessarily be emphasized much. After all, in a land with long history and identities adopted from one's family line rather than of one's single-handed, self-making, then the past serves as a kind of unearned, accumulated cultural capital; something that is background like sunlight or air, available to all and abundant in supply with little need to articulate, package, or label. It just "is."

But in an immigrant country it is your achievements that stand for who you are; not your surname, your original property base, or "your people." So in this county seat in mid-Michigan that dates its establishment to 1856, there were settlers from many places to the east and sometimes across the ocean. Neighbors probably did not know your family history or ethnic achievements, so only the fruits of your working and your appearances could identify you in the eyes of peers and even for your own self-image. When there are relatively few generations, and there are relatively many technological changes and world events that punctuate the 150 timeline, then curating a story about the past takes on meaning to some segments of the population, especially for the mainly retired people volunteering at the museum and the ones bringing donations of artifacts, documents, images, and oral histories. In one's elder years, reflecting on the world and one's lifetime is a natural preoccupation; wondering if one has made a positive difference in others' lives and the local landscape. And so, while it is only a fraction of the overall residents in the area who take interest in participating, visiting the museum, or hunting for clues and answers to the past, for these people at least, the local past is vivid and rich with connections to the present and one's own self.

After death - remembering somebody dearly departed

pin boards with lifetime trajectory at memorial service a week after death

Whether the person is closely related or distantly known, it is hard to articulate the fullness of a life in a few pictures, stories shared with the bereaved family members, and the fellowship of food and drinks with the others after the ceremony is complete.

In the past 10 years the businesses that guide and provide for customers who want to celebrate the life and to mark the death of a loved one publicly, rather than to do so themselves or in a way not open to people outside of the immediate family have begun to offer multi-media life stories to summarize some of the places, people, achievements, and stages of life for the person who has died. It could be a movie or (kiosk, autoplay) slideshow, with or without music. But the effect is not too much different to these boards of family snapshots and a few formal photographs grouped by era or theme. No matter if the visitors see the moments of the person's life in prints or digitally, at the ceremony or online at the funeral company's website, the lingering feeling of "but this is only a shadow of a much fuller and meaning-filled existence."

Those dressed up for the ceremony and following along the scripture readings, sermon of remembrance, and musical interludes may experience moments with private thoughts and reflections of their own. And while the combined experience of the life arc in photos and the publicly recounted words do invoke some of the character and presence of the newly deceased friend or relative, for others who want to know the person's life more than this, long after the ceremony has concluded, the ability to construct a whole personhood and whole living environment of social interchange is very limited. In other words, in the same way that the 1st person experience of living and life and intending the purposes that give one's own life meaning is so very rich, so, too, is the researcher's grasp of that life so very impoverished and even one-dimensional; flat and lacking in aspirations, worries, risks, or expectations.

In the end, what genealogists have to work with is a fraction of the traces left behind by the person; a collection dates for Birth, Marriage(s), and Death. Things like good deeds done or kind words spoken or written seldom leave a ripple or a witness afterwards. Maybe there are details of addresses occupied, along with work performed and avocations. If there are journals or diaries or family stories that can be collected, then a bit more of the texture, flavor, and nuance can be conveyed, too. But even when given the richest documentary resources for a person, the portrait that unfolds across life's stages is far different to the live person in 360 degree active living and learning. Is this absence and simplification something to dismay (so impoverished and incomplete as it is) or something to be glad of (the impracticalities of knowing and holding onto the whole person)? Whether we dismay or sigh in relief, the facts remain of mortal existence and the limited meaning one occupies in the minds of those left behind. The difference between now and a generation ago is that mountains of digital images, text, and other artifacts can sometimes be mined in the effort to paint a portrait of the person across her or his lifespan. But no matter how much there is to mine, the result will necessarily be partial and incomplete.