War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans

The "battle between the transcendent" and the "memory of death and destruction" is eloquently shared through the life of Urbain Martien, the author's grandfather, in War and Turpentine, a book called a "future classic" by the Guardian.

Thirty years after inheriting his grandfather's papers Stefan Hertmans finally read the memoirs. Urbain's early life in poverty drove him into the Ghent steel mills as a teenager. Then came the sudden epiphany that he, like his father who restored church murals, must be an artist. Urbain joins the Flemish Military Academy and is called up to service and into the horror of The Great War.

"How far I have strayed from what I once hoped to become."

Germany wanted a quick route to Paris, and neutral Belgium was in the way. When Belgium resisted, the German army invaded, murdering whole villages. The Rape of Belgium left 6,000 civilians dead, 1.5 million refugees, and 120,000 civilians used as forced labor. The military lost 100,000 or more dead.

Hertmans' retelling of his grandfather's story is in three sections: the author's personal memories and his grandfather's early life; the brutal war years; the post-war years as Urbain cobbles together a life. The war section, for me, was most powerful with its vivid descriptions of death and suffering, the piles of human waste in the trenches, Urbain's honorable bravery and multiple injuries, the absurd carnage of human lives.

                       "We're all cannon fodder together."

And yet there are moments when Urbain sees nature's beauty, the artist's eye still seeking out the inspiration of color and form and association.

After the war Urbain cobbles together a life: love, loss, and loneliness; the frailty of the body; and the accomplishment of one great original painting.

"What mattered most to him was something he could not share with others. So he painted trees, clouds, peacocks, the Ostend beach, a poultry yard, still lifes on half-cleared tables--an immense, silent, devoted labour of grief, to put the world's weeping to rest in the most everyday things. He never painted a single war scene."

The novel is an international best seller.

I received a free ebook through Penguin First to Read in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

War and Turpentine
Stefan Hertmans

Mini Reviews: Sagas of the Handicapped, the Chinese, and the Apache

Annie's Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg was my Book Club selection for June. It was the Great Michigan Read selection in 2013-14. After his mother's funeral Luxenberg discovered a secret aunt and set on a quest to discover Annie and why she was kept secret.

The immigrant experience, the Holocaust, the Depression, and Detroit's Eloise Asylum are revealed in his search. Luxenberg discovers more than one family secret.

My book club enjoyed the book and identified with the concept of family secrets, but several found the book at time repetitive and lacking in focus.

Shanghi Girls by Lisa See

I borrowed this book from the library after seeing it was the 2016 Everyone's Reading pick for the Detroit Public Libraries.

Pearl was born in 1916, the fourth year of the Republic of China, in Shanghai. Women's lives had changed for the better; foot-binding was forbidden, arranged marriages were replaced by free love and marriages for love. Pearl attended the Methodist Mission, posed with her younger sister May as a Beautiful Girl immortalized on calendars and advertising, and stayed out late clubbing. When her father gambled away everything the price was selling his daughters in marriage to two brothers, one a fourteen-year-old with brain damage, the other a 'paper son' adopted to inherit the business. The girls are to travel to the US with their husband's family but 'miss the boat'.

With the Japanese invasion the girls and their mother flee their home town. They meet with tragedy that alters Pearl's life forever. Finally managing to arrive in the US to go to their husbands they are delayed for months living in prison-like isolation until proving they are legit. Life in America turns out to be hard, jobs scarce and the Chinese forced to live in ghettos.

Shanghi Girls tells the saga of Chinese immigrants in America from the 1920s into the Communist regime and McCarthy era. Told in the first person by Pearl the novel lacks emotional depth and deep characterization, although the experiences she undergoes are harrowing. The book's appeal is learning about the broader history of the Chinese in the 20th c. and for those who are not familiar with how America treated these refugees the story will be a real eye-opener. See's research included taking oral histories, some of which appear nearly verbatim in the novel.

The follow-up novel Dreams of Joy takes Peal and her daughter to Communist China. Readers will learn about life under Mao, with the characters secondary to the greater picture.

The Apache Wars by Paul Andrew Hutton was my Blogging for Books choice. It was a subject I knew almost nothing about.

At nearly 500 pages this book offers a complete and detailed history of the relationship between the Native Americans of Apacheria and Americans whose expansion encroached into their traditional homelands. This is not a book for the fainthearted, and I rued not making a list to keep track of the ever-changing major players. The publisher description calls it a "sprawling, monumental work" about the "two decades of the last war for the West through the eyes of the men and women who lived it." Because the book is encyclopedic it can be overwhelming.

I moved by the stories and quite disgusted (once again) by the horrible choices American government has made concerning those we fear--or those just plain in the way of 'progress,' which mostly means making money. It was very interesting to learn details of the Apache culture.

When I was a kid in the 50s watching the TV and movie westerns there were several cliches, one being 'white man speak with forked tongue.' Well, that is about it in a nutshell. Treaties and promises were broken with impunity, and the Apache who sought peace were treated badly and barely trusted. And there were leaders who tired of war and just wanted peace with the White Eyes. Not giving them a fair deal lost their trust Even when President Grant endeavored to change how the Apache were treated by sending Dutch Reformed agents did not improve how the Apache fared.

Hutton's knowledge is incredible and his treatment of this war fair and unbiased.

Bee-autiful Blocks and Books

I have been working on quilting my Austen Family Album and embroidering the MODA Quilt-A-Long Bee-autiful blocks. These are such cute patterns and great fun.

A lovely lady in my weekly quilt group is downsizing and brought in ALL of her fabric and books to share. There were close to 30 out on Tuesday, but we all brought home armfuls.

When I saw that black repro print fabric I pounced on it as I have used every last inch of what I bought when it came out!

 I wrote several writing family history posts, and plan to do more, based on the huge interest in Tonawanda, NY history on the Growing Up In the Town of Tonawanda Facebook page. The post about the Sheridan Park Volunteer Firemen brought me photos of my grandfather's memorials
at the fire station.

But his name was ALGER, not Alfred! They called him Al.

I had a real shock when these flowers were delivered to my door. I was sure they came to the wrong house. The company who installed our new furnace and A.C. sent me flowers in thanks! That is class.

I have been drowning in books-- and helping our son pack and move into his first house. I have ebooks books from NetGalley, Edelweiss, and First to Read.

I won a book from First to Read! And I won the Siracusa audiobook by Delia Ephron through First Look Book Club!

Ohio U Press sent me Suzi Parron's Barn Quilts and Following the Barn Quilt Trail to review.

And from Blogging for Books I chose The Gap of Time, a retelling of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.

Dad's Memories of the Sheridan Park Volunteer Firemen of Tonawanda NY

Alger Gochenour

Emma Becker Gochenour

My dad Gene Gochenour wrote a memoir of his life from 1935 until 1963 when he lived in Tonawanda, NY.

My grandfather Alger Gochenour, father Gene Gochenour, Uncle Dave Ramer, (and perhaps other family) were part of the Sheridan Park Volunteer Fire Company during the 1950s.

My Aunt Alice wrote me saying, she remembered the firemen would practice first aid on her, wrapping her arm or legs in bandages. And even I remember going to the field days and parades the firemen held.

Al Gochenour, Fire Chief at his Military Rd house

Sheridan Park Volunteer Fire Co. Dist. 4
Town of Tonawanda NY

Here is an excerpt from Dad's memoirs called Volunteer Fireman Stories: 

"I belonged to the Sheridan Park Volunteer Fire Company during the fifties.

"One day as I was working at the station a huge explosion happened less than a half mile away. A plant called The Lucidol Corporation blew up. They made epoxy resin there and the dust in the plant exploded.

"I was at the scene in a few minutes and saw a fireman I knew. He worked at the plant and he was spraying the fire with a small hose. I went up to help him but just then the first fire truck arrived and I went with them to hook up the truck to a fire hydrant. The fire hydrant was on the far side of another building, and when we got there there was another explosion. It blew out all the windows in the building we were standing by. The fireman I almost joined was hurt during the second explosion and went to the hospital. Had I been with him, I would have gone to the hospital too! The first explosion killed thirteen people. It blew off the end of a nearby house, and the wall of a steel warehouse a quarter of a mile away was cracked in several places.

*

"One day the fire siren went off and I drove to the fire station to find where it was. Both fire trucks had left by the time I got there, but there was bulletin board at the fire hall with a message telling late arriving firemen where the fire was. A 50,000 gallon gas tank was on fire at the Richfield Refining terminal on River Road.

"When I got there I saw an above ground storage tank burning. The flames reached high into the sky. The fire was so hot that even with our rubber coats and boots and steel helmets, we could not get close.

"The only way we could put out a gas fire was to spray a fire retardant foam on it. While we were hooking up the foam making device we saw a burning truck come driving out of the burning garage. It must have been parked in low gear, then the starter shorted, causing it to drive itself out of the garage. Once the foam device was set up, we could work our way close to the fire and put it out.

*

"On another occasion we were called to a steel mill where a huge cupola full of molten iron had spilled into a subterranean room. We took turns spraying water on it to cool it. As we sprayed the water, it turned to steam so we had to take turns handling the hose. Many hours later it was decided there was no more threat, and we left. It took many days for it to completely cool, and I don’t know what they did with all that iron on the floor!

*

"One of the calls we had was to go to the housing project [Sheridan Park war time housing, or The Projects] where a house had blown up. When we got there, we saw that one end of a duplex house was not burning, but the wall had been blown off. The story was that the lady who lived there had put gasoline in her washing machine thinking it would take the grease out of her husbands work clothes. We will never know if it worked, but luckily she was at the other end of the house when it blew and did not get hurt.

*

"A gasoline tanker caught fire right under the Grand Island bridge. The flame was coming out of the last compartment of the tanker. Had the fire spread, it could have been a disaster. But one smart and brave fireman climbed up the ladder on the tanker and closed the cover of the compartment, extinguishing the fire. The truck was only a few blocks from the terminal where it had just been loaded. How the cover got left off and the fire started we did not know.

*

"There were many field fires during the spring and fall. Most of them were caused by railroad steam engines or people burning leaves or trash. We had a small fire truck that was used at field fires. It had a large water tank and it carried many brooms. The truck would be driven to the field, then the driver would drive along the fire line, upwind of the flames, and another fireman would spray the flames using the water hose on the truck. The rest of the firemen followed, stamping out the remaining flames using the brooms. That was a hot, smoky job on a hot day!"

*****

The September 23, 1953 Lucidol explosion is well known in Tonawanda history. Eleven people were killed and 17 injured. The plant was situated at 1740 Military Road at Sheridan Park Drive.

Read the 1953 Tonawanda Evening News headline article here.

The explosion knocked out telephone service and the Sheridan Park Fire Department siren!

I found an account of the incident written by a local pastor here. He wrote,

"...a distant explosion broke my peace. It was followed by a resounding impact against the outside wall. My window shook with the force of the impact. I jumped to my feet and ran to the window. Off in the distance, in the direction of our church property, a high mushroom-like cloud was forming in the air. I moved quickly out the door, pulling on my jacket as I raced down the stairs. I jumped into our car and headed in the direction of the cloud. The cloud hovered in the air against a clear blue Fall sky. As I drove down Sheridan Drive toward Elmwood Avenue, the cloud was spreading out over the Military Road area. I turned onto Elmwood and stopped at Homewood Avenue leaving the car at our property site. I hurried down Homewood.
...
""What happened?" I asked Mare Krauss. "There was a terrfic explosion at the Lucidol plant. It shook everythg in our house. We lost some windows." Marie Krauss told me. Elva Graf added: "There are bodies all over the place." I ran toward Military Road, which was at the end of Homewood. Military Road ran north and south. It was dotted with industrial plants built to access the cheap electric power of Niagara Falls.
A crowd had already gathered outside the chain fence of Lucidol, one of the many chemical plants which dotted the Military Road. The police began moving people back to the other side of Military Road away from the fence. Fire engines were on the grounds of the plant inside, some were still arriving. The sirens of ambulances from the Kenmore and Buffalo hospitals could be heard coming in all directions. The police continued cordoning off the area around the plant and moved the crowd to the other side of Military Road. 

 "One glance showed the extent of the destruction. Crumpled steel, and loose boards and brick were strewn across the ground. One building had been blown apart - the site of the explosion. The Lucidol plant had been a low level plant, probably no higher than two or three stories. Smoke and low level fie were still coming out of several buildings. One could see bodies lying in disarray across the plant property. It was difficult to tell how many people had died in the explosion." 

An article about the explosive material that caused the blast is found here.

Dad 

The Quilts of Cumberland County

Organized by the LeTort Quilters, The Cumberland County Quilt Documentation project documented over 900 quilts dating before 1970. The documentation database is housed at the Cumberland County Historical Society. 170 of the quilts documented appear in The Quilts of Cumberland County.

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania included 500 square miles west of the Susquehanna River. As the area became more populated Cumberland was divided, creating the counties of Bedford, Blair, Centre, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Mifflin, and Perry.

The project revealed some interesting facts. Many of the heirloom quilts originated outside of the county, indicative of the migration of peoples through the area. Many of the quilts were in the hands of collectors who had culled their collection nationally. Consequently, the provenance of the quilts was often lost, or was incorrect.

The book includes a history of Cumberland County with maps showing its changing boundaries and the story of a typical Cumberland County quilt and its travels. The photo gallery of quilts documented is divided into design types:

• Whole Cloth and Simple Designs
• Strips, Squares, and Triangles
• Stars
• Diamonds, Hexagons, and Curves
• Appliqué
• Mixed and Variety
• Embroidered Quilts and Sunbonnets
• Signature Quilts and Special Events
• Crazy Quilts

Collecting and caring for antique quilts is covered.

This is a beautifully presented book, nicely designed to showcase the 485 color photos of the quilts. I love how the full photo of the quilt is overlaid on a close up photo as background. The closeups allow readers to see the fabrics used in the quilt. Documenting ephemera is shared when available.

I am very impressed with this book overall for the background information, the gorgeous presentation, and the variety and beauty of the quilts. 

I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Quilts of Cumberland County
Schiffer Publications
$34.99 hard cover
ISBN: 9780764351099

*****

On a Personal Note:

My grandfather Lynne O. Ramer was born in Mifflin County; his grandfather moved there after the death of his first wife. He married Barbara Rachel Reed. Their daughter Esther Mae was Lynne's mother; his aunt Carrie Viola Ramer Bobb raised Lynne after the death of his mother and grandmother. Carrie was a quiltmaker. Read about Aunt Carrie and her quilts  here and here 

The Kuhn Family of Tonawanda NY

The Depression caused my grandfather Alger Gochenour (1904, Woodstock VA to 1955, Tonawanda NY) to lose his job as an insurance salesman. His customers could not pay their premiums. My father Eugene Gochenour told me that his dad felt bad and paid for some customers for a while. In 1935 the bank foreclosed on Al's Tonawanda city bungalow. The family moved into an apartment in an 1830s farmhouse at 1865 Military Road near Ensminger Rd in Tonawanda.

Across the street was a working farm occupied by John Kuhn and family. The families became close friends and neighbors, so much so that my Aunt Alice Gochenour Ennis was named the executor of the estate when the last Kuhn family member passed in 2004.

The Kuhn homestead on Military Rd, Tonawanda NY 

The Kuhn farm

John Kuhn bringing in the hay

John Kuhn with son Richard. My Gochernour family home in the background.

The Kuhn barn

John Kuhn in his tractor

John and Richard Kuhn

John's German grandfather Henry Kuhn, born November 24, 1824 in Wissembourg, Alsace, France, immigrated to America in 1852. Several months after arriving he married Salomea Schear, another German from Alsace Lorraine. They had ten children before Henry's death in 1898 at age 73.

Henry's son Henry was born November 10, 1853. In 1878 he married Katharina Pierson, whose family were also original area settlers. They had twelve children before Henry's death in 1938 at age 83.

Henry and Katharina had son John Henry, born September 13, 1882. John married Julia Ensminger whose family was one of the earliest settlers. They had one son Richard and one daughter Lucille before Julia died in 1927. John Henry raised his children with the aid of Julia's unmarried sister Alma Ensminger. John died March 9, 1972.

Julia Ensminger

Wedding of John Kuhn and Julia Ensminger

Julia Ensminger Kuhn

John, Alma, and Lucille were familiar family friends when I was growing up.

In 1964 I took this photo with my Brownie camera: Alma Ensminger, John Kuhn,

my grandmother Emma Becker Gochenour, my mother Joyce Ramer Gochenour, and Lucille Kuhn.

John Kuhn holding Alice Gochenour, Alma Ensminger, Alger Gochenour with neighbor girl (Audry Morrow), Lucille Kuhn. About 1937.

Dad said the Kuhn house he remembered from the 1930s and the house I knew in the 1960s was unchanged in most ways. John did install a gas stove in place of the wood-burning one, and also indoor plumbing for a bathroom. But the furnishings, wallpaper, and rugs all dated to the turn of the century. There was an oak library table with plants; cushioned wicker furniture; a chiming clock; floral wallpaper and floral rugs; an upright piano I used to tinkle around on; a front parlor used for funerals that I was forbidden to enter.

The biggest change Dad saw was the selling off of the farmland. Dad grew up driving the tractor for John. And also stealing corn, then roasting it and inviting the Kuhns over to enjoy their own corn! In the early 1950s the Kuhn farmland was turned into postwar housing. In the late 1960s John sold the barn, first to a Rubinstein who wanted to have a theater there. Neighbors objected so the barn was dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere. And after her father's death,  Lucille raised money by selling land around the old farmhouse.

Richard Kuhn was born in 1916. My aunt has a photo of his father showing him the family farm and you can see the pride in John's eyes. All this will be yours, he seems to be saying, this farm which your forefathers built. But after Richard's WWII service he settled in California. John must have been heartbroken. Richard died in 1970 in San Diego, CA.

John Kuhn with son Richard

John's daughter Lucille never married. She was expected to take care of her father's home. When I knew Alma and Lucille they dressed in 1930s fashions. Alma (1900-1995) had long hair under a net, thick flesh colored stockings and sturdy tied shoes, and wore flowered dresses that were below the knee. Much like how my great-grandmother Greenwood dressed. After her father's death Lucille wore slacks.

Alma Ensminger in the 1970s

Lucille Kuhn in the 1970s

Lucille Kuhn was like a big sister to my Aunt Alice

Lucille Kuhn with her brother Richard

Lucille Kuhn in the 1940s

Lucille Kuhn in the 1970s

The Kuhn, Pierson, Shear, and Ensminger families were part of a migration of Germans seeking a better life. Beginning in 1830 German families left Alsace-Lorraine to settle in New York's Mohawk Valley. The 1825 completion of the Erie Canal, ending in Tonawanda, brought settlers westward. In 1836 the township of Tonawanda was established, named for a local Native American tribe. The Military Road settlers built St Peter's German Evangelical church in 1849. The church now houses the historical society.

Hmong Story Cloths: History, Culture, and Art

The Hmong people have struggled to preserve their ethnic identity for centuries, pressured to leave China for Laos in the mid-1800s. During the Vietnam War the Hmong people of Laos assisted the American Troops. America left Laos and in 1975 the royal government fell to the Communists, who persecuted the Hmong. Perhaps 100,000 Hmong died in the conflict and the Communist persecution. The Hmong fled to Thailand where they lived in refugee camps.

In the refugee camps the Hmong women created Story Cloths, appliqué and embroidered art depicting their old way of life, the Communist persecution, and their escape to the refugee camps.

America accepted Hmong immigrants in the late 1970s, with about 150,000 settling in the US; about 5,000 settled in Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania. It was a time of economic distress and many Americans resented the special treatment the Hmong received from the government. The extent of the Hmong people's support to America during Vietnam was not well known.

Since we lived in Philly in the 1970s and 1980s I was familiar with the Hmong and their reverse appliqué and Story Cloths. I requested Hmong Story Cloths by Linda A. Gerdner to learn more about the Hmong and their amazing appliquéd historical documents.

Gerdner has worked with the Hmong and traveled to Laos and has an extensive collection of Story Cloths, cultural artifacts, and photographs.

Gerdner first offers a background to the Hmong people, their history, and how they created their Story Cloths. Beautiful photography of the whole cloths and significant details accompany the text. Chapters address specific Story Cloth themes, including The Hmong People's Journey, Traditional Life in Laos, the Hmong New Year, Hmong Folktales, and Neighboring Ethnic People. The detail in the cloths can be overwhelming but Gerdner's analysis explains the message and significance of the motifs.

In an interview with the Hmong Times, Gerdner gave her purpose for writing this book:

• As a tribute to a special cohort of Laotian Hmong who created a new form of textile art as a means of sharing their cultural heritage
• As a legacy for subsequent generations of Hmong Americans who wish to learn about their historical and cultural heritage
• To promote cultural awareness and understanding for those who do not have a Hmong heritage
• To pay tribute to the extraordinary needlework skills that were used to create this new art form

The book can be enjoyed on many levels: as a social and cultural study, a history, and as a study of a particular art and craft.

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

Hmong Story Cloths
Linda A. Gerdner, PhD
Schiffer Publications
$34.99 hard cover
266 color and B&W photos
ISBN:9780764348594