The Man Who Walked Backward: An American Dreamer's Search for Meaning in the Great Depression

Plennie Lawrence Wingo is not a household name, although he went to great lengths endeavoring to achieve fame.

A string of bad luck had hit Plennie, thanks to the Depression. Nearly penniless, he hit on an idea. People were doing all kinds of crazy things to break records in a quest for fame. With fame comes money. It seemed as if everything that could be done had been done. Except...no one had walked around the world backward.

Plennie became obsessed. Every day for six months he practiced walking backward. He bought a map and sunglasses with mirrors to see behind him. He was given a cane. He put on his steel heeled shoes and a suit and tucked a notebook in his pocket, and in 1931 he left Texas, walking backward down Main Street on his way toward Dallas. He had picture postcards of himself to sell for income and hoped to find a commercial sponsor.

The Man Who Walked Backward by Ben Montgomery is Plennie's story, which is entertaining and interesting. He meets with great generosity and falls victim to scammers. He is a dreamer and a go-getter, fated to hit brick walls. He is harassed by cops and jailed in a foreign land. An affable man, he made friends who offered him shelter and meals and sometimes cash.

As readers travel with Plennie, we experience the misery and poverty of the Depression. We learn the story of America's growth through the history of the places he passed through, and how we used up and destroyed our vast riches.

Famous events and people are mentioned: the destruction of the buffalo as part of Native American genocide; the destruction of the prairie; towns that boom and bust; lynching and the Klan; Bonnie and Clyde and Al Capone; the kidnapping of Charles Lindberg's baby; the rise of Hoovervilles and the Dust Bowl; the growth of the beer industry and Prohibition.

And we travel with Plennie to Germany to experience the rise of Hitler, and across Europe to Turkey. It is unsettling how 1931 America is so familiar: ecological disaster, the destruction of the working class, the rise of a man who knew how to work the crowd, "tailoring his speeches to his audiences" and promising to make Germany great again. "People loved him. those who didn't were scared of those who did."

I found the book fascinating.

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

THE MAN WHO WALKED BACKWARD: An American Dreamer's Search for Meaning in the Great Depression
Little, Brown Spark
by Ben Montgomery
On Sale: September 18, 2018
Price: $14.99 / $18.99 (CDN)
ISBN-13: 9780316438049

WWI Sheet Music: Memories of France

My collection of vintage sheet music from a hundred years ago includes many songs written about WWI. Today I am sharing songs set in France--in particular songs about women. It is hard to consider the horrors of war that lurks behind these sentimental songs.

Memories of France by Al Dubin and J. Russet Robinson, 1928 has this dedication: 

"To our pals in the American Legion 

We dedicate this refrain

If it makes but one of you  happy

It was not written in vain."

Listen to it here.

Like a lot of little bubbles
I can blow away my troubles
Dreaming of my romance

With a pretty little daughter
Of a land across the water
I dream that I'm back in France

Someone whispers to me
"I love you, my cherie"
In my memories of France

And we stroll once again
By the old River Seine
In my memories of France

And I see her still placing roses
Where many an old pal reposes
And we laugh and we cry
Then a kiss, then goodbye
In my memories of France

And I see her still placing roses
Where many an old pal reposes
And we laugh and we cry
Then a kiss, then goodbye
In my memories of France

The back cover of the sheet music features this Recitation:

The war has long been forgotten,

And it's best that we should forget,--

It's an old story now, but still, somehow,

There are dreams that linger yet.

It's not the dream of the battle

And it's not the shot and the shell,--

It's the mem'ry of a doughboy in love

And a sweet little Mademoiselle,

You can blot out the mem'ry of bullets

When the years roll by like this,

But you can't erase a beautiful face

And the mem'ry of a kiss.

You ca even forgive the enemy,--

Forgive them as time goes by,

But a long as you live you'll enver forgive

Yourself,--For saying goodboye.

Maybe she was'nt your sweetheart,--

You considered her only a toy,

But when God made her kind, He had in mind

A homesick soldier boy:

She would laugh, she would cry,

Then a kiss, then "goodbye,"

In my memories of France.

***

Somewhere in France is the Lily by Jos. E. Howard and Philander Johnson, 1917, sung by Howard, has a fantastic cover by Starmer. The image of the French 'lily' is central, but the bombs bursting in air and men in trenches remind this is a war song. Listen to Henry Burr sing it here. It has a definite martial sound.

One day as morning shed its glow 
Across the eastern sky 
A boy and girl in accents low in a garden said “Goodbye!” 
She said “Remember as you stray, 
When each must do his share,
The flowers blooming here today 
Are emblems over there!”

[Refrain] 
Somewhere in France is the Lily, 
Close by the English Rose; 
Somewhere in France is a sweetheart, 
Facing the battle’s chance, 
For the flow’r of our youth fights for freedom and truth
Somewhere in France

Each morning in that garden fair, 
Where sweetest perfumes dwell, 
The lassie whispers low a pray’r 
For the flowr’s she loves so well. 
And over there as night draws near,
Amid the shot and flame, 
Unto the flag he holds so dear,
A soldier breathes her name.
[Refrain]

***

Not all the women that soldiers met in France were love interests.

Written as a tribute to the Red Cross nurses, Rose of No Man's Land by Jack Caddigan and James A. Brennan, 1917, features an illustration is of a Red Cross nurse looking into a ray of light. This Patriotic War Edition that was printed on smaller paper to help the war effort. Hear it sung by Henty Burr here along with WWI photos.

I've seen some beautiful flowers
Grow in life's garden fair
I've spent some wonderful hours
Lost in their fragrance rare
But I have found another
Wondrous beyond compare....

There's a rose that grows in no-man's land
And it's wonderful to see
Though its sprayed with tears, it will live for years
In my garden of memory

It's the one red rose the soldier knows
It's the work of the Master's hand
'Neath the War's great curse stands a Red Cross nurse
She's the rose of no-man's land

Out in the heavenly splendor 
Down to the trail of woe
God in his mercy has sent her
Fearing the World below
We call her Rose of Heaven
We've longed to love her so....

There's a rose that grows in no-man's land
And it's wonderful to see
Though its sprayed with tears, it will live for years
In my garden of memory

It's the one red rose the soldier knows
It's the work of the Master's hand
'Neath the War's great curse stands a Red Cross nurse
She's the rose of no-man's land

***

And He'd Say "Oo-La-La Wee-Wee" by Harry Ruby and George Jessell, 1919, has a marvelous cover illustration by Barbelle. This is a comedy song.  Hear it sung by Billy Murray here.

Willie Earl met a sweet young girl one day in France,

Her naughty little glance, put Willie in a trance; 

Willie Earl couldn't understand her talk you see,

He only knew two words in French

That he learned in the trench,

They were "oo-la-la" and "wee-wee."

They would spoon beneath the moon above

It was fun to hear them making love.

Chorus

She'd say "compronay voo, papa?"

and he'd say "oo-la-la! wee-wee"

She'd smile and whisper "mercy bacoo"

He'd answer "I don't mind if I do"

She'd say if you be my papa" then I will be your macherie

She'd pinch his cheek and say "you keskasay:

He'd say "Not now, dear, but later I may;"

Then she'd say "compronay voo, papa?"

and he'd say "oo-la-la! wee-wee."

Willie Earl said, "this little girl is meant for me,

No more I'll cross to the sea,

I'll stay in Gay Paree.

Ev'ry day you would hear him say to his babee,

"Your talk I do not know, but I,

Will manage to get by, with my "oo-la-la" and "wee-wee"

Ev'ry ev'ning Willie would rehearse

Instead of getting better he got worse

She'd say "compronay voo, papa?" 

and he'd say "oo-la-la! wee-wee"

She'd say "come see" and then roll her eyes,

He'd answer, "baby you'd be surprised."

Each ev'ning they would promenade,

upon zeboulevarde you see;

One day at lunch she said "cafe voola" 

He said "my dear, don't forget where you are;" 

Then she'd say "compronay voo, papa?" 

and he'd say "oo-la-la! wee-wee."

***

Oh! Frenchy by Sam Ehrlich and Con Conrad, 1918, illustrated by EE Walton, switches the love story around. A nurse falls in love with a French soldier because of his accent.

Rosie Green was a village queen, 
Who enlisted as a nurse 
She waited for a chance 
And left for France with an Ambulance, 
Rosie Green met a chap named 
Jean, a soldier from Paree, 
When he said, “Parlevous my pet” 
She said, “I will but not just yet,” 
When he’d speak in French to her, 
She’d answer lovingly, “Oh!”

Chorus
Frenchy, Oh Frenchy, Frenchy, 
Although your language is so new to me, 
When you say, “Oui oiu, la la” 
“We” means you and me, la la- 
Oh! Frenchy, Oh Frenchy, Frenchy, 
You’ve won my love with your bravery, 
March on, March on, with any girl you see, 
But when you la la la la la, 
Oh, Frenchy save you la la la’s for me. 
Oh! me

Rosie Green married Soldier Jean when his furlough time arrived, 
She said, “Go pack your grip 
We’ll take a trip on a big steam ship,” 
Rosie Green took her soldier Jean down home somewhere in Maine, 
They say her rural Pa and Ma, 
Refused to do that oo la la, 
But when she’s alone with him you’ll hear the same refrain, 
Oh! (chorus)

 ***

Joan of Arc represented national pride to the French soldiers who carried her image into battle.

Joan of Arc They Are Calling You by Alfred Bryan, Willie Weston, and Jack Wells, illustrated by Barbelle, calls on the Maid of Orleans to harken to her country in her time of need. The lyrics are in English and French. Hear Henry Burr sing it here.

While you are sleeping, 
Your France is weeping,
Wake from your dreams, Maid of France.
Her heart is bleeding;
Are you unheeding?
Come with the flame in your glance;
Through the Gates of Heaven, with your sword in hand,
Come your legions to command.

CHORUS
Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc,
Do your eyes, from the skies, see the foe?
Don't you see the drooping Fleurdelis?
Can't you hear the tears of Normandy?
Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc,
Let your spirit guide us through;
Come lead your France to victory;
Joan of Arc, they are calling you. Joan of you.

Alsace is sighing,
Lorraine is crying,
Their mother, France, looks to you.
Her sons at Verdun;
Bearing the burden,
Pray for your coming anew;
At the Gates of Heaven, do they bar your way?
Souls that passed through yesterday.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent was my book club's September book. We had a great hour-long discussion.

I immensely enjoyed the book. Set in 1829-1830 in Iceland, I felt transported to a distant land where nothing was familiar. Windows held fishskin panes and women gathered moss to boil, the names were unpronounceable and exotic, the landscape gray and harsh. Kent's attention to detail permeated the novel. 

Historical documents offered the skeleton upon which Kent imagined her story of the last execution in Iceland in 1830. After Agnes was convicted of murdering her lover, she spent time jailed in a dark cell. When she is released, she is transported to a distant and inhospitable area to be housed with a family while waiting out her time. Agnes is unwanted and feared, treated like a servant. A priest is sent to help her repent and save her soul. He elicits her story, a heartbreaking tale of neglect, poverty, and abuse. In reaching for love, Agnes is betrayed, but she did not murder her love for revenge. 

We do stereotype people and draw away and judge people. But when we hear their stories we can have compassion and understanding. The family that housed Agnes undergo that transformation and it is marvelous to watch.

Agnes and her mother and other servants in the story are powerless pawns in the hands of their male employers. Their alternative is to be unsheltered and unfed in the cruel ice and snow. For all its otherworldliness in time and space, Agnes's story is all too familiar: A neglected and abandoned child is lured by the prospect of love into an abusive relationship.

When I read Kent's second book The Good People, which I very much enjoyed, I read many reviewers who raved over Burial Rites. Read my review of The Good People here.

from the publisher:

Inspired by a true story, Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites was shortlisted for The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, The Guardian First Book Award and The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards.

In northern Iceland, 1829, Agnes Magnúsdóttir is condemned to death for her part in the brutal murder of her lover.

Agnes is sent to wait out her final months on the farm of district officer Jón Jónsson, his wife and their two daughters. Horrified to have a convicted murderer in their midst, the family avoid contact with Agnes. Only Tóti, the young assistant priest appointed Agnes’s spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to understand her. As the year progresses and the hardships of rural life force the household to work side by side, Agnes’s story begins to emerge and with it the family’s terrible realization that all is not as they had assumed. And as the days to her execution draw closer, the question burns: did she or didn't she?

Based on actual events, Burial Rites is a moving novel about the truths we claim to know and the ways in which we interpret what we’re told. In beautiful, cut-glass prose, Hannah Kent portrays Iceland’s formidable landscape, in which every day is a battle for survival, and asks, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?

See photos of Iceland and learn about the upcoming movie here.

Quilters Showcase 2018

This past Saturday I attended the 6th Annual Quilters Showcase, presented by The Stitching Well of Bay City, MI and held at the Frankenmuth Credit Union Event Center in Birch Run, MI.

200 quilts and 30 vendors kept us busy for over two hours.

Here are some of my favorite quilts from the show.

The Story: Finding Home After the War by Ginny George tells a heartbreaking family story.

In the center of the quilt is a block with this story:

Finding Home After the War
Sisters taking a wrong turn find themselves in the Korean War
The year was June, 1950
Struggling to hide in the villages and people until the times would change until the War ended in 1953
How to find their way back to the South would lead to difficult time
Many obstacles along the way, block by block, until they reached
Water to sail to safer
Ground only to find the bridges to cross
Would family be there?
Would the soldier that helped them be there?

I love color and this house quilt made me smile. Village by Joan Quinn, quilted by Judy Becker has such wonky trees and animal surprises among the houses.

This prize-winning original quilt is so adorable, and those eyes just glow with love. Eyes of Innocence by Carol Cote of Ontario was a real crowd pleaser.

My weekly quilt group loves hexies and I loved this great hexie scrap quilt. Over the Rainbow was made by Regina Smith and quilted by Sandy Kipp.

Ombre Overload by Norm Jacobs and quilted by Jack Bennett really caught my eye with the wonderful use of color.

Pat Sloan's Splendid Sampler show up at many shows, including this example by Sue Nolff, quilted by Karen's Quilting.

The most gorgeous crazy quilting is found on My Crazy Days by Ericka Joerke. Look at these details. It's crazy good!

A 1910 crazy quilt was made by Kathryn Barnes Hodge's grandfather includes pieces of his Civil War uniform.

'Ewe'-Uniquely Baltimore by Barbie Brooks, quilted by Beckie Binder, is made of wool. She embellished a pattern by Petals and Blooms. It is amazing.

Another wool quilt is this wonderful Pomegranate by Brett Johnson. The populatrity of wool quilts was reflected by all the vendors selling wool kits.

 I love Jacobean inspired design, like Delectable Pathways by Linda Britton.

I would like to share so many more quilts but I hope you enjoyed seeing these.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Hitler was collecting countries like stamps. How long before he had the full set? Transcription by Kate Atkinson

I was swept into Transcription, enthralled with Kate Atkinson's atmospheric and witty writing, the recreation of England during the rise of Hitler, and the espionage ring with its vivid characters and uncertain alliances.

The novel opens in 1950 with twenty-eight-year-old Juliet working in post-war London for the BBC.

"There was a better life somewhere, Juliet supposed, if only she could be bothered to find it." Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Julie fingers her necklace of pearls, which she admits she took off a dead woman who was heavier to lift than she looked. We learn that Julie tells lies to strangers. She sees a man she used to know by two names, who tells her "I think you have confused me with someone else." And in a local cafe, a strange man observes her "in a way that was extremely disconcerting." Julie reflects on her time with MI5 during the war ten years previous, when she was a transcriptionist typing recordings of traitorous conversations.

Juliet's life working for MI5 alternates between boredom and mystery. She is never completely filled in on the operations, merely does as she is told. She drifts along with whatever comes, even into a mock engagement with a coworker who shows no physical interest in her. She is given a fake identity as part of a sting operation. She is a natural liar and playactor.

The future of England at stake, with Fascists sympathizers and Communist sympathizers and loyal royalists endeavoring for the prize.

This England, is it worth fighting for? Transcription by Kate Atkinson

The novel ends with unexpected turns of events. 

"It was all such a waste of breath. War and peace. Peace and war. It would go on forever without end." Transcription by Kate Atkinson

I am so happy to have finally read Atkinson. I can't wait to get a hold of her previous books.

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

Transcription
by Kate Atkinson
Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date 25 Sep 2018
ISBN 9780316176637
PRICE $28.00 (USD)

Mini Reviews: Renowned British Women

Imagining Shakespeare's Wife considers how we have used Anne Hathaway as a lens for understanding William Shakespeare.

I read halfway through Imagining Shakespeare's Wife and elected to not finish it. 

The research is amazing and the author covers every imaginable aspect of Anne Hathaway, from the scanty historical records to the many ways she has been portrayed over time. 

This scholarly work will be of interest to serious researchers but is not for the general reader. 

I sincerely thank the publisher for allowing me access to the book.

Imagining Shakespeare's Wife: The Afterlife of Anne Hathaway

by Katherine West Scheil

Cambridge University Press

Pub Date 24 Sep 2018 

ISBN 9781108241724

PRICE $24.99 (USD)

For those who are very interested in everything Royal, and especially Queen Elizabeth, this book focusing on her childhood and younger years will satisfy. How the princess was raised, the people in her early life and their stories, and more than I ever wanted to know is presented. 

It is a bit overwhelming to me, such minute detail! I am more into Queen Victoria than the modern royals, although I have watched The Crown and such. And the book opens with Elizabeth learning of her father's death, just like in The Crown.

It was interesting to learn how Elizabeth was raised and the values she inherited.  

I received a free ebook from Thistle Publishing.

Princess: The Early Life of Queen Elizabeth II

Jane Dismore

Thistle Publishing

Publication July 2018

Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich

When I read the opening pages of Sarah Stonich's novel Laurentian Divide was I quite taken by the people in Hatchet Inlet.

"The topic over at Pavola's was death," the novel begins, not the weekly sort occurring at the Senior Cedars or the tragic kind after two local girls were killed in a "drunken swerve", but the "theoretical"--Rauri Paar has not shown up in town since the spring ice break. The customers at Pavola's are concerned and postulating the various ways Rauri may have kicked the bucket.

We meet Pete and his father Alpo, and sisters Laurie and Sissy who run the cafe, and various locals, most all with Finnish names and demonstrating their independent and stubborn heritage. Pete gratefully thinks, "I've never known a Finn to do things the easy way. Thank God, I'm half Irish. Thanks, Mom."

Sissy runs the cafe and is engaged to the widower Alpo, twenty years her senior. Early onset Alzheimers runs in Sissy's family, so their risk is mutual. Pete lost his wife and children to his alcoholism but is seven months sober. His backstory is heartbreaking, hinting at a shattered childhood that Alpo is unaware of.

Rauri wandered into town decades ago after the war and took up his isolated residence. When the land became a preserve he won a lifetime right to live there. If he leaves for over two months, he loses his protection and land. He had to be on the island. Someone should go check on him. It takes three hours and several portages to reach Rauri's home, not a trip for the fainthearted.

The Laurentian Divide in Minnesota is a continental divide which determines which direction and to what sea water flows. It seems an apt symbol. Love requited or unrequited, careers, sobriety or escape, community or isolation--the decisions the characters make determine if they are swept into the killing frigid Arctic or swim into the warmth of Equatorial waters.

But as Sissy remembers,"Cathy says life isn't something that happens to you--how you choose to react to what happens is life."

I received a free ebook from Bookish First in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The town and characters appeared in Stonich's previous book Vacationland.

The Laurentian Divide
Sarah Stonich
University of Minnesota Press
$22.95
ISBN 9781517905620