The History and Legacy of Love Canal

Requesting the book Love Canal: A Toxic History from Colonial Times to the Present by Richard S. Newman was personal. I have lived near two toxic waste sites left by Hooker Chemicals.

I was born in Tonawanda, NY an old industrialized area along the Niagara River. My hometown dump contains radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project. Just down river near the city of Niagara Falls, Hooker Chemicals took advantage of an unfinished canal to dump industrial waste.

The canal had been part of William T. Love's plan to create a Model City. The chemical industrialist envisioned a self-contained city with homes and parks. Clean, hydroelectric power was to come from an artificial falls. A canal from the Niagara River would be built to divert water over another section of the Niagara escarpment. Love mismanaged his money. All he accomplished was to leave a big ditch.

The city of Niagara Falls needed to expand and bought the land. A community of homes and a school was built over the filled-in canal. The young families living in Love Canal believed they were living the American Dream. Their dream turned into a nightmare.

They noticed basement seepage, chemical odors, rocks that burst like fireworks, grass that left chemical burns, and a high rate of miscarriages. Their complaints were unheeded. Housewives turned into activists. It was the first grass roots movement for environmental justice.

It took years for government leadership to act. The activists influenced the passage of environmental laws and in 1980 the creation of the Superfund for hazardous waste remediation. (Which under President Reagen was already being weakened with reduced funding in the battle between what is good for business vs. what is best for the people.) Love Canal has become the poster child for American environmental disasters.

I wrote about organizer and environmental activist Lois Gibbs and Love Canal at: http://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2012/11/my-green-heroes-quilt-lois-gibbs.html

America's toxic past is never 'in the past'. The Environmental Protection Agency states that one-quarter of all Americans live within five miles of a Superfund site, the worst toxic dumps in the nation.

Consider my own history.

My family had moved from Tonawanda in 1963 when I was ten, several years after the first basement seepage was reported in Love Canal. President Carter approved emergency financial aid to Love Canal the year I graduated from university.

When my son was a tot we moved from Philadelphia to a small Michigan town where a chain link fence separates a toxic waste site from a park with a little flowing stream. An elementary school is on the other side.

We moved again. Our church needed to expand. They bought adjacent land then discovered the business had left toxic waste. They took out loans to supplement Federal aid to clean up the site. It took nine years. Half the land was sold for a charter school and senior housing.

We moved again, to a city on a lake  that fed into Lake Michigan, with a picturesque marina, sand dune beaches and a light house near by. The lake had been foully polluted by a tannery and the clean up had been going on for decades. The town was also home to Michigan's worst toxic waste site, left by Hooker Chemicals. Montague, like Niagara, had a massive salt mine. The rise of  a chemical center brought much needed jobs to the area. And a sad legacy. A woman in our church lost a child to a rare cancer. She began collecting stories of other cancer victims. Days after moving in, I met a neighbor while walking our dog. She said three dogs on the street had died of cancer.

My retirement home is a half mile from a 'spill'. Superfund money is limited and spent on the 'worst' sites. The rest are just fenced off.

Newman grew up in the Buffalo area, and like my family, visiting Niagara Falls was a typical family day trip. He worked on this book over a long time, writing Freedom's Prophet about former slave and African Methodist Church founder Richard Allen in the meantime. (A book I would love to read!)

Niagara Falls, taken by my dad on his last trip home

The book covers:

• The first European explorers, who identified it's economical potential
• The rise of the 'chemical century' and industrialization of the area with particular attention to Elon Huntington Hooker, including information based on new archival research
• The rise of citizen environmentalism in the 1970s and 80s
• The partial resettlement of the Love Canal neighborhood in the 1990
• The legacy of Love Canal

I appreciated the book's inclusiveness, especially the 'big picture' of the Niagara Frontier's industrial history. Love Canal is a story of failure and success, of how citizens can alter policy. It raises issues of responsibility and the role of government in monitoring industry. Can we contain the toxins we create for the products we demand? And what becomes of the land that has been poisoned? Montague residents worried that people will forget and build on the Hooker toxic waste site. Well, they did at Love Canal.

I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Love Canal
by Richard S Newman
Oxford University Press
Publication Date May 4, 2016
$29.95 hard cover
ISBN: 9780195374834

The Latest Fashions for Ladies---100 Years Ago

I found a partial catalog from the National Cloak and Suit Company, Seventh Ave,, 24th and 25th Sts., New York City. The covers and many pages were missing. Snooping around the Internet I found photos from the catalog uploaded to Flickr and discovered it was from 1917.

16145 Sheer Voile--$7.50 was a summer dress "sheer and cool". The color was trimmed with Venise pattern lace. Shown in tan. 16146 Embroidered Net--$12.98 "ideal for formal or semi-formal occasions". 16148 Linene--$5.75 was a "practical dress" in a new and smart fashion.

16150 Voile--$8.98 of imported embroidered voile. 16151 Gabardine--$6.98 in popular solid & striped materials shown in tan and Copenhagen blue. 16152 Embroidered Organdie--$7.50 "Do you want a truly beautiful summer dress that expresses daintiness and refined taste in every detail?" White crocheted buttons. Shown in pink.

In the late 1890s The National Cloak and Suit Company was one of the biggest manufacturers of tailor made 'to order' ladies suits and skirts.

9227-- $12.98 Smart Coat of Handsome All-Wool Worsted Poplin came in burgundy "the new, rich dark wine color", navy blue, mustard, and black. 

4301 A skirt of Latest New York Style "3.98 "here is one of the newest skirts of the season--a smart and graceful model" in wool serges with "fashionable burgundy color satin facing for the shirred frills which finish waist-line and pouch pockets."

National coats cost less. 9201 $8.98 coat in all-wool worsted serge "of a quality ordinarily seen only in coats sold at higher prices" came in Copenhagen blue, navy blue, and black.

9202 $18.98 All Wool Worsted Poplin in "real Parisian style" came in mustard or green trimmed with navy blue peau de cygne (highly finished silk); also Copenhagen blue trimmed in mustard color peau de cygne. 

"

"Yes, beauty does indeed reign supreme here. But second in power is Big Value." 23401 $6.98 for spring and summer wear, dress of figured silk and cotton Foulard in rose, Copenhagen blue, or navy. 23402 $9.89 Silk taffeta dress came in medium green, Copenhagen blue, navy blue, or black.

"Not merely small sizes" they are "especially proportioned to fit". 21314 $7.50 fine Voile dress with lace trim. 21315 $10.75 fashionable bretelle style draped bodice has net ruffles and plain net underskirt.21316 $5.49 dress with large collar with dainty embroidered voile. 21317 $3.98 "simplicity of style" dress of embroidered voile.

Sizes 32 to 38 bust. 38301 $6.98  in "serviceable" wool and cotton fabric. 38301 all wool poplin "serviceable" coat is unlined and came in mustard, navy blue, and apple green. 38303 white Chinchilla cloth coat.

 

24328 $18.50 smart belted suit came in navy blue or black. Skirt length was 36 to 43 inches with wide based hem. 24329 $6.98 Linene suit in rose, medium green, or Copenhagen blue  had a sailor collar. 24330 $14.98 Silk and wool poplin suite in medium green, navy blue, or black.

 24301 $14.98 "chic New York Style" suit in Copenhagen blue, navy blue, or tan.

 They also made clothing for children.

And infants clothing.

Hats, shoes, and other things ladies need.

Testimonials regarding their quality.

1916 National Cloak and Suite Company photo 'ladies choosing books'
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-e307-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

1857 Album Quilt

Here are the 1857 Album quilt blocks so far. I was feeling I was pretty boring compared to the great original takes I see on the Facebook 1857 group. But I see that using colors similar to the original quilt will work out just fine! Thanks to Gay Boomers of Sentimental Stitches for offering the patter of her historic quilt!

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Eric Larson

On a beautiful morning with a calm sea, it took eighteen minutes for the Lusitania to sink.

Of all the stories of the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, it is the image of a woman giving birth in the frigid waters that haunts me. And how one surviving passenger, a child, always carried the fear that the woman was his pregnant mother. I am angry to think how nothing was done to protect this family. Instead, information was withheld with secret hopes that American deaths would bring the United States into WWI.

There are certain synopsis of history that we hear over and over again, easily memorized history in one sentence. People who lived the history didn't need more to conjure up stories and memories about it. The one-line history gets passed on through the media or in books or in the classroom to following generations who have no further information. Part of my reading life is finding out the story behind these snippets.


I knew the passenger ship Lusitania was sunk by the Germans, and there were Americans on board, and that people were appalled. I heard that the sinking brought America into WWI. I vaguely thought the ship was American with mostly American passengers. I had heard that Elbert Hubbard was among those who died in the shipwreck.

I chose to read Eric Larson's Dead Wake through Blogging for Books because I enjoyed his Devil in the White City and because I wanted to learn more about the Lusitania.

It was interesting, then tense, then harrowing, then enraging, and finally enlightening. Larson is a masterful story teller.

We get to know the passengers on that fatal voyage--the charming, the famous, the wealthy, the captain and crew. And we also get to know the U-20 commander, his dedication and skill, and how the horror of seeing the disaster he wrought upset him but did not deter him from doing his duty for his country. Meanwhile, President Wilson was a broken man after the loss of his wife, detached and depressed until he meets the vibrant and sympathetic widow who revives his hopes of love and companionship.

Larson exposes several myths of the sinking: the early belief that two torpedoes hit the ship, and that Capt. Turner was at fault.

Why wasn't Cunard warned about the U-20's previous hits and location? Why didn't Britain offer protection to the Lusitania? Why was Captain Turner not warned to take the safer northern route?

Churchill had written a letter to the Board of Trade commenting that it was important to attract "neutral shipping to our shores, in the hopes of especially embroiling the United States with Germany." The British military were decoding every message sent by U-20 and knew where it was.
The Lusitania was in the right place at the right time, a sitting duck. And yet so many things could have prevented the tragedy.

As for the revision of my received history: The Lusitania was a British ship of the Cunard line, like the Titanic. Like the Titanic it was thought to be too big to sink, plus it was so fast it could outrun a sub. 114 American citizens lost their lives, including millionaire playboy Alfred Vanderbuilt who died a hero's death assisting other passengers to safety. The ship was carrying secret military cargo. It was sunk by a German submarine. It took two more years before America entered the war and meantime the Germans stepped back from attacking passenger ships for fear of involving America.

*****

A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.  Elbert Hubbard.

That quotation was in my Sixth grade English textbook. I memorized it and took it to heart. It was all I knew about Elbert Hubbard for a long while.

When my grandfather Lynne O. Ramer passed I was given his library. It included a complete set of Hubbard's Roycroft set Little Journeys into the Homes of the Great. The series was published in 1916 after Hubbard's death. I have carted it around for 40 years. My grandfather collected books in the 1920s, even though he had little money and was working in the kitchen to pay his way through Susquehanna College (now University). Hubbard was one of the most famous men in America when Gramps was growing up. When my grandfather was ten Hubbard set sail on the Lusitania.

There are only two respectable ways to die; One is of old age. the other is by accident. All disease is indecent. Elbert Hubbard

Elbert and his wife Alice retreated to a Boat Deck room and closed the door. He followed his own advice: "We are here now, some day we shall go. And when we go we would like to go gracefully." Their bodies were never identified.

Learn more about the Lusitania at

http://www.rmslusitania

https://wwionline.org/articles/complex-case-rms-lusitania/

Learn more about the book at

http://eriklarsonbooks.com/the-books/dead-wake/

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/98118/dead-wake-by-erik-larson/9780307408877/

http://www.npr.org/books/titles/390474945/dead-wake-the-last-crossing-of-the-lusitania

I received a free book through Blogging for Books in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Sinclair Antiques

We visited a new antique mall in Clawson. Sinclair Antiques is right next to our local bakery/bread/pizza/sub/shop, Julian Brothers.  The building dates to 1947 when it was a Sinclair gas station.

There is a couch and tv in the lobby for spouses or kids who get bored! But who will get bored--there is something for everyone.

 This Erector set has it's original Hudson's label marked $50.

Bring TR home for $400

There is a 1915 bust of Teddy Roosevelt! If I had room I'd bring TR home with me! What a marvelous conversation piece he would be!

There was a lot of vintage clothing, including shoes and fancy Edwardian white shirts, dresses, and skirts.

And several quilts.

this wonderful quilt top was used behind a display 

$95 hand made quilt

$125 kit quilt Little Red Riding Hood

 

 And dolls.

 The owners are lovely people. Coffee and a plate of cookies were provided.

I will be back.

Apple Wars: At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier

Tracy Chevalier is best known for her first historical fiction book The Girl With the Pearl Earring which imagines the subject of Vermeer's painting of the same name. I have read all of her books since.

Her new novel At the Edge of the Orchard includes historical figures Johnny 'Appleseed' Chapman  and William Lobb who collected seeds and seedlings for export to England. But its focus is on the Goodenough family's tumultuous history and battles over what kind of apples to grow.

The story begins in the Black Swamp of Ohio, just outside of Perrysburg, where James and Sadie Goodenough are trying to establish a homestead in mud and amongst mosquitoes. They left Connecticut to find land, traveling west until the good roads ended in the swamp.

James has brought his beloved Golden Pippin apple seeds, a legacy brought by his ancestor from England to Connecticut where his father raised apple trees. The apple's flavor recalls James home, a sweet apple with a sharpness and a finish of pineapple. To keep one's land claim James must have an orchard of 34 trees. He sets the goal higher to fifty.


James prefers the good eating Golden Pippin apples, but his wife Sarah has become dependent on the Apple Jack made from the sour 'spitter' apples. After years living in isolated wilderness, losing her children to the annual fever, and regretting her marriage to James instead of his brother Charlie, Sadie is bitter and angry. Only the Apple Jack offers respite.

A family tragedy drives the Goodenough son Robert to leave home, heading west. He becomes an eternal wanderer, alone and separate, but writing an annual letter home to the siblings he left behind. Robert's journey ends at the Pacific Ocean where he discovers the giant Sequoia trees and William Lobb, an English seed agent. Robert finds work collecting Sequoia seedlings for Lobb.

This Sequoia stump appears in At The Edge of the Orchard.
http://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/trees/giantsequoia/california/

Robert is enigmatic, a living ghost cut off from society and unsure of what 'family' really means. He makes few choices, just goes with where life leads him. Reaching the limits of America he finds himself going back East for the first time, to end up where his family began.

This novel begins with the Goodenoughs, jumps to a series of letters from Robert, to rejoining Robert in the West. The early section is violent and full of action, the characters powerfully drawn. The second part is quiet and internal. Robert is so shut down and uncommunicative that he almost fades from his own story, allowing stronger personalities to shine. There is no resolution to his story, but movement towards a possible new beginning brings hope.

Following the Goodenoughs is a badly used nine-patch quilt, with fabrics holding memories of home. But it is a home life Robert escaped from, at the behest of his mother, a hard life with a family at war. The quilt is torn and repaired, but makes the bedding for the next generation.

And that is perhaps what life is all about, each generation taking the tattered remnants of whatever good they can glean and use it to endeavor to cushion and ease the way for the generation to come.

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Hear an interview with the author at NPR here.

At the Edge of the Orchard
Tracy Chevalier
Penguin
Publication Date March 15, 2016
hard cover $27.00
ISBN 9780525953005