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YA-YA2001

Just Me
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Hello. I appreciate all who enjoy visiting my page and looking at my submissions. You are welcome to favorite, share (unless otherwise noted) comment, or otherwise engage on my page. That being said, I do have one humble request.


Please do not "Watch" me.


I no longer allow watchers. It's nothing personal, I appreciate your interest in my art. Really, I do. But due to some unpleasant stuff that happened a few years back I decided to eliminate all watchers of my page.


Thank you for understanding!

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Lately I've been thinking about the Titanic.  Like, a lot.  Not the fictionalized movie, but the real thing, which is not something I ordinarily do at all, believe me.  Though I've had a keen interest on the subject since childhood (I first learned of it from my mother, who told me about the 'unsinkable' ship that sank, in spite of those who claimed that "Even God Himself could not sink this ship", and how- at the time- the wreck had never been found in spite of many attempts to. Yes, I'm that old.), I've never been obsessed with it like some people are, never bothered to look beyond just the basic details that most everyone knows.  At least not until now. 

Growing up I saw several TV documentaries about Titanic, including at least one that told how they planned to raise her if they ever found her (by using some very large balloons or some such nonsense, LOL!).  And then came the discovery of the wreckage in 1985, and the realization that she was in no condition to ever come back to the surface. 

Let's start with the popular 1997 movie, and get that out of the way.  I did not go to see it in theaters, as I really wasn't interested at the time.  I do have a DVD copy that was bought a few years ago, second hand.  I honestly do like the movie for the most part, as much of it is very accurate, although I'm a bit disgusted with the inclusion of FICTIONAL characters and the turning of it into a stupid love story.  To me, it seems insensitive to those who actually were a part of that horrible nightmare.  They actually left out quite a few historically accurate scenes in favor of more screen time for 'Jack' and 'Rose'.  Facepalm. 

But anyway, to the point.  Are some things just meant to happen?   Are certain events- like the Titanic disaster- written into the fabric of time, and are therefore unalterable?  Fate, if you will? There are many, many things that can be mentioned as examples, but for now I'm sticking to the subject of the Titanic, specifically. 

It could almost be considered a comedy of errors, except that there was no comedy involved at all.  Nothing even slightly funny about the tragic loss of over 1500 lives that night, in mid-April of 1912.  It's been said that even if one tiny detail had changed...like had she been just a few minutes earlier or later in her voyage, that she most likely would have missed the iceberg completely.  Or perhaps if the night sky had been illuminated by the moon (it was a very dark, moonless night), or the sea a little less calm (waves at night lapping against icebergs or other objects help mariners see things that otherwise would appear nearly invisible), that the iceberg would have been spotted in time to steer around it.  But as everyone knows, it was not to be. 

As the RMS Titanic left her dock in Southampton, she nearly collided with a smaller ship, the SS New York, that was moored nearby.  The pull from Titanic's great propellers was so strong that it caused the ropes holding the New York to snap, and the ship to wander into Titanic's path.  At literally the last second, a tugboat managed to pull the smaller ship away.  It was close- one eyewitness stated that there was only two or three feet between the two ships. Some passengers felt that this was a bad omen. Was this incident a forewarning of what was to come?  And if Titanic had hit the smaller ship, would that have delayed her course and possibly saved all those lives?  Quite likely. 

What compelled Captain Edward Smith, a well-seasoned, highly respected and experienced White Star Line captain nearing retirement (in fact, the maiden voyage of Titanic was to be his last crowning achievement before retirement), to barge ahead at nearly top speed through an ice field even after receiving several warnings from other ships that had gone through the same waters hours before?  Was he so sure of himself and of the ship that he was oblivious to the danger?  Or was he merely following orders from his boss, J. Bruce Ismay?  Even if he was just trying to please Ismay, Captain Smith should have recognized the risk. 

What if Titanic had collided head-on with the iceberg, instead of scraping against it?  A head-on collision, some claim, would have severely damaged the bow, and probably killed those on and inside that part of the ship, but it might have spared the ship from sinking.  Might.  Or it might have caused her to sink even faster, no one knows for certain. 

Had the iceberg punctured fewer than five of the sixteen water-tight compartments, most likely she would have been able to have handled it and stay afloat.  Additionally, had one of the bulkheads not been already damaged and weakened by a fire that had been smoldering for several days in one of the coal bunkers, that bulkhead most likely would have held the sea back until either help arrived or they could sail on to safety.

Then there's the huge controversy surrounding the mystery ship that was close enough to her that night, after she began sinking, to have likely been of at least some help.  That ship was later identified to be the SS Californian, estimated to be about ten miles away (or less, according to some sources) from Titanic's position.  Trying to get the attention of the Californian, the crew of the Titanic were ordered to first attempt Morse lamp, then wireless calls, and finally to send up rockets (firecrackers used as distress signals), one every five minutes or so.  Indeed, Captain Stanley Lord of the Californian was awakened from sleep by a member of his crew, and did in fact see the distress rockets; but after watching them for a while and puzzling over and commenting on it all, thought nothing more of them and went back to sleep!  To make matters worse, the wireless operator on the Californian was off duty for the night- otherwise he would have received Titanic's frantic distress calls.  Neither Captain Lord nor anyone else aboard apparently thought to bother him or turn on the wireless set.

To be fair, the Californian was a small vessel and had stopped for the night due to being surrounded by ice and may not have been able to reach Titanic any sooner than the rescue ship Carpathia (as some claim), yet that doesn't excuse her captain from doing nothing.  Also to be fair, there is speculation about whether it really was the Californian that was so close, or another ship.  The possibilities include the Mount Temple, and the Samson, whose crew was believed to be engaged in an illegal seal hunting operation, and therefore wanting to remain discreet.  But the fact remains that the captain and crew of the Californian saw the distress signals and the strange appearance of the Titanic in the distance as she was sinking, and failed to act.  Why? 

And the lifeboats. We all know that there weren't nearly enough of them for everyone aboard, but even with what there was, most were not filled to capacity.  Some were only half full as they rowed away from the scene.  And those that still had room- with the exception of two- never returned to the scene to pick up anyone from the frigid water.  The excuse given was that had they done so, they would have been swarmed with people climbing on board, and perhaps putting everyone already on the boats in danger.  There is no doubt truth in that theory, but it still seems rather heartless to just ignore hundreds of dying people when you had the room to save at least a few of them. 

Next comes the premonitions.  Several people claimed to have "a bad feeling" about the maiden voyage before it even started.  Survivor Eva Hart's mother was so certain that something dreadful was going to happen, that she tried in vain to persuade her husband from boarding.  And the feelings persisted to the point where she was convinced not only that something terrible was going to happen, but also that it would happen at night.  This kept her awake and up all night long, and she would only sleep in the daytime.  

A letter written onboard the Titanic from Chief Officer Wilde, addressed to his sister, stated: "I still don't like this ship.  I have a queer feeling about it."  The letter was sent out when Titanic got to Queenstown.  Chief Officer Wilde perished in the disaster. 

A British businessman named J. Connon Middleton had planned to travel to attend a business meeting in New York, and had booked himself on the Titanic three weeks in advance of the maiden voyage.  But soon thereafter, he was plagued with a nightmare wherein he saw the Titanic (he seemed to be floating above the scene) lying on her side, with people thrashing and dying all around in the water.  He did his best to ignore the dream, but it continued to haunt him.  Then, just four days before the trip, a telegraph came to him that stated that the meeting was being postponed.  He cancelled his trip, and lived to tell the tale. 

A very similar scenario happened with newspaper editor and journalist William T. Stead, who was also traveling to New York to attend a peace congress at Carnegie Hall.  Stead also had a terrifying dream in which he found himself struggling and crying for help in the water, with a huge ocean liner disappearing beneath him.  Even more interesting, twenty-six years before Titanic, in 1886, Stead had written an article with the title, How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Mid-Atlantic, by a Survivor.  It was a fictional account of what he believed would occur eventually, and although the ship in his story struck another ship rather than an iceberg, the irony cannot be overlooked.  Not only was Stead correct, but he lived (and died) his own story, just like in the dream he'd had.  

These are just a few of many more premonitions from people who boarded, or who had planned to board, the Titanic.  To continue to tell of them would just take too long, and many would be redundant.  (If ya wanna know more, Google is your friend!)  But finally, there is one that stands out in particular, as especially uncanny. 

In 1898, a short story written by author Morgan Robertson is first published.  It wasn't a big hit at the time, but it was an interesting little morality story.  One of the main scenes in the book is that of a terrible shipwreck.  Even though this was written 14 years before the Titanic set sail, there are eerie similarities between the fictional ship and the real one.  Among them were:

-Both ships were said to be virtually unsinkable and were fitted with watertight compartments

-Both had three propellers ('Triple Screw')

-Both were hailed as the largest in the world at the time

-Both had too few lifeboats

-While not exactly the same size, weight, or speed, both ships were close to being the same

-Both strike an iceberg (although not on the maiden voyage of the fictional ship) in the same general vicinity of the Atlantic

-Both sink shortly thereafter, killing most onboard due to lack of lifeboats

These facts are startling enough, but not even half as much as the name of the ship in Robertson's story: Titan.  The title of the book?  'Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan'. 

Now tell me, was it somehow just meant to be?



Sources:
 www.premierexhibitions.com/exh…
 www.titanic-titanic.com/titani…
 www.hogueprophecy.com/2012/04/…
 hauntedohiobooks.com/news/ship…
 mathisencorollary.blogspot.com…
 www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/…             
 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_…
 www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/…
 everythingispointless.com/2007…
 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futility…
 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Calif…
And many various books and DVD documentaries...
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I just returned from visiting the biggest, bestest fair in the state: the Washington State Fair (formerly called the Puyallup Fair).  Until moving to the other side of the state, this had always been "my" fair.  I've been attending there since before I can even remember, up until nine years ago when I had to move away.  I did visit two years ago, and even though there were signs then that all was not right with one of my favorite attractions, nothing then could prepare me for the shock and sadness I felt this year. 

Since the 1920s, the very rare PTC #43 carousel has been a staple of the midway.  Built in 1917 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company (PTC), it is the last remaining portable carousel built by the company that is still in operation.  It is also one of the last wagon-mounted carousels remaining intact from any manufacturer.  In 1983, Bob Bollinger, the late co-founder and co-owner of Funtastic Shows (the carnival that serves the fair) generously donated the vintage machine to the Fair with the stipulation that it be cared for and maintained for future generations to enjoy.  He could have sold off the individual horses and other parts for thousands of dollars- but instead decided to keep it as a whole intact unit. 

The Fair had, for decades, been good stewards of the ride.  They had the horses restored and repainted in 1983, had a climate-controlled building constructed to house it in year 'round, brought in a quiet new motor to replace the old and worn out one in the '90s, replaced the worn deck with an attractive new hardwood one, got the rare little band organ repaired and working again.  They took pride in the carousel, and it showed. 

Then, when I saw it again two years ago, things were changing.  Many of the horses had been repainted in thick, unattractive and unprofessional "park paint".  There was no attention to carving detail and no real care in the application of the new paint.  That was bad enough, but it gets much, much worse.

This year, just two years later, I'm shocked and horrified to see that the horses are literally falling apart.  Carousel figures are made of many pieces of wood, laminated and held together with a combination of glue (originally animal-hide glue) and wooden dowels.  The bodies are hollow, constructed like a box.  While the hollow body construction helps a lot with avoiding cracks and splits in the wood, care must still be taken with the figures or they still will have problems. 

Most of the horses, as well as one of the two chariots (benches) were suffering with seam and joint separation, especially on the heads and necks of the horses.  One horse was so bad that I actually pried up a pie-wedge sized chunk of loose wood from its neck!  I replaced it and immediately notified the operator.  I told her I was concerned that someone might pull out the piece and as a "joke", keep it or throw it away, making repairs to the horse very difficult.  She thanked me and said she'd tell her supervisor.  When I came back to the carousel about two hours later, the staff had removed the loose piece (which is a good thing) and roped off the horse so no one would ride it.  The operator again thanked me and said that the horse would be worked on the next day. 

All well and good, but what about the rest of them?  The whole herd is in need of a MAJOR overhaul before they fall completely apart.  What happened to cause this?  Only one thing that I can think of: they are no longer bothering with the climate control part of the building.  Extreme heat and cold, along with humidity have been allowed to set in and wreak havoc on the wood.  The expanding and contracting of the wood due to extreme changes in temperature causes the century-old glue to fail, in turn causing joint and seam separation.  In one word: Neglect. 

This deterioration didn't need to happen.  If only they had invested a little more care, the ride would most likely still be in good shape.  Now they will need to spend a minimum of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a proper restoration if they hope to be able to save this carousel.  The Washington State Fair has failed Mr. Bollinger.  It has failed the public.  And most of all, it has failed a very rare, treasure of a gift carousel.  I can only hope they will turn this around and make it right before it is too late to save this historic piece of Americana. 
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Lately there have been some items in the news regarding carousel art, and not in a positive light.  The most recent concerns a horse with a Confederate flag carved on its side on a carousel made and installed in the late 1990s at a zoo in Saginaw, Michigan.  This is one of two Civil War themed horses.  Public protest had been the reason given to have the horse in question removed from the carousel until further notice.  What will ultimately happen to the piece is pending at the time of this writing. (www.minbcnews.com/news/story.a…)

A few months ago another carousel, this time an historic one over a century old, was under scrutiny for a painting on one of the rounding boards- the upper panels that surround the top part of a carousel.  The painting shows a cartoonish, unflattering rendition of two black children frightened by a large rooster. Virtually unnoticed for all these many decades until now, the painting came under scrutiny when a woman posted a blog about it, putting it into the limelight.  Several people have since protested, demanding that the painting be taken down or painted over.  For now anyway, it will remain on the carousel as there would be a process to get it removed because the carousel is a registered historic landmark.  www.rochesterhomepage.net/stor…

Carousel imagery has been under fire before.  In the mid-1990s, the big, beautiful four-row Parker carousel (currently in storage) at the Jantzen Beach Center Mall in Portland Oregon underwent a full restoration.  The horses were taken off, stripped of their paint and refurbished, restored and repainted.  But one pony held a surprise.  What had at first appeared to be crosses carved into the trappings turned out to be Swastikas, which someone years ago had carved off the arms and painted to look like crosses instead.  Since the carousel and its horses
were created well before Nazi Germany came to power, the Swastikas clearly were not celebrating Hitler.  The symbol had previously been used in Native American artwork and at that time had no negative connections, and as such it was decided to restore the symbols on the horse to their original condition.  However, public outcry demanded that the horse be forever removed from the carousel.  Photos of this horse are hard to come by now, but one can be found here, if you scroll down toward the bottom of the page:  columbiariverimages.com/Region… I do not know where this horse is at this time, or who has possession of it. 

I find this trend disturbing.  Now let me be clear, in no way, shape or form do I condone racist thinking.  I strongly believe that regardless of a person's skin color or national heritage, we are all human and all equal.  I take people as individuals, not as one race or another.  There are good and bad in all races.  Therefore I condemn racist symbols and statements in every facet of life.

That being said, I do not like how carousels are beginning to feel the heat when in most of these cases, the artwork in question was not ever created to offend.  The exception here might be the painting of the children, as clearly the style they were drawn in was meant to belittle black people; although when it was made most likely no black person was close enough to it to ever see it, due to the sad fact of segregation that kept most of them out of public places where a carousel like that one would be operating.  While I understand and sympathize with those who find offense, I do not believe in re-writing history.  Removing or destroying these items breaks up the historical significance of the carousel as a whole.  Plus, it does nothing about the issue of racism. 

How far do we take this?  Many antique carousels have nude or semi-nude female figures adorning horses and other animals, or on the chariot sides and/or band organ facades (carousels were not originally made for kids!!!).  Do we strip these off to protect the sensitive eyes of the children who ride?  Nobody seemed concerned for the last hundred years, so why do anything now?

I know of one certain carousel, an antique, that has a few horses with decorative carvings on them that easily could cause offense in today's overly PC society.  If nobody has complained already about a couple of horses in particular, I'd be surprised.  I can easily imagine the symbols on these two horses causing a public backlash if attention was given them, either causing the removal of the horses in question or else keeping them on the carousel and making people angry.  Even I am uncomfortable with these particular horses, but don't want them removed nor altered.  Why?  Because they are historic, and I'm pretty sure the carver who made them did not mean to offend.  The symbols may have had another meaning at the time these horses were made, or at least they didn't have the negativity surrounding them that they do today.  When I visit this carousel, I could choose not to ride either of those two horses, or I could ride them.  It makes no real difference.  When the ride is over, they stay on the carousel- they aren't following me home. 

I will not say where this carousel is to protect it.  The other carousels that have received scathing criticism lately only did so because someone pointed them out.  Had nobody said anything, most likely there would still be no controversy.  I want to protect this other carousel by NOT calling attention to it.  Someone else may, and I can do nothing to stop them if they do, but I do not want to be the cause of its (or its "offensive" horses) demise.  Far too many antique carousels have been destroyed or forever split up for various reasons.  The relatively few originals that still remain are treasures.  They ought to be protected, not "altered" into oblivion.  Rather than removing or changing what we now find offensive, we should instead learn from it.  If it was actually meant to offend, we can condemn the intent, shed light on it, and vow never to do that sort of thing again.  If it was not intended for offense, we can appreciate the original design and feel sadness over innocence lost. 
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Just within the past couple of weeks as of this writing, something about me is different; something about me has changed. It is something that I've always dreamed of, but never thought I could possibly achieve. 

I am now the owner of a genuine, vintage, hand-carved carousel horse.

I didn't think it would ever be possible for me to have one, due to their usual high prices.  Even if I had saved up the thousands of dollars most sell for, I couldn't very well justify spending that much money on such a thing.  Unless of course it was a good financial investment to do so.  But there was another reason too, that had nothing to do with money. 

I have, for many years, had mixed feelings about the buying and selling of old, carved wooden carousel figures.  On one hand, I dreamed of having my own, as previously mentioned.  And I am glad that there are people who are dedicated to restoring and preserving individual carousel animals that otherwise might have been discarded.  But there is a dark side to all that too.

The height of carousel art collecting was the entire decade of the 1990s.  Prices for individual antique horses and other animals ("menagerie") rose to sky-high levels, and wealthy collectors were traveling the country (mostly in the US) to attend auctions and try to outbid others on the much-coveted "art".  Antique dealers were bombarded with requests from people who wanted to buy carousel figures for their own collections, to a point where demand exceeded supply.  As a result, many of these antique dealers and auctioneers continually hounded owners and operators of historic classic carousels until several gave in to their pleading.  During the 1980s (when most of the frenzy for carousel collecting began) and the 1990s, many antique working carousels were disbanded and their animals parted out, for no other reason but greed.  There were at one time more than two thousand hand-carved carousels operating in America.   Today, fewer than 150 survive!  How many would there still be had it not been for collectors begging to have their own horse?  Or lion?  Or giraffe?  We'll probably never know. 

Back to my own horse.  I don't have quite the guilt I might have, due to two things:  My horse was VERY low-priced (no spending thousands of hard-earned dollars to buy her!) and the fact that she's a Mexican horse, not American or European. 

Mexican carousel figures do not have anywhere near the value of most other ones.  The usual reasons given are due to the sheer abundance of them (they still carve them today in Mexico) and that they are not as old as most American figures (carousel carving in America started in the 1800s, reaching its peak- the "Golden Age"- at about 1905 until the start of World War 1.  In Mexico, they started copying small portable American carousels beginning in the 1930s).

 Also Mexican carousels and their figures are generally very small, what we in the US would call "kiddie-sized".  My little horse is no exception- she's only about three feet in length and weighs less than 30 pounds.  The average American wooden carousel horse weighs around 100 pounds!  But the carving detail on my pony is wonderful, even for a Mexican figure.  She doesn't have a lot of flashy trappings, and no jewels or glass eyes or anything like that.  In fact, she's so plain that I suspect that she was probably an inner-row horse.  But she has a very pretty, deeply turned and tucked head with an opinionated, feisty expression.  Her mane and tail are also very well sculpted (not true of many other Mexican horses!) and whoever carved her was a real artist. 

There are a lot of fakes coming from Mexico as well: carved wooden "carousel" horses that were never actually on a carousel.  Most of these were made in fairly recent years and some have even been artificially "aged" by painting them, stripping off the paint, beating them with chains and burying them in the ground for months to make them look old and worn.  My pony doesn't show any signs of being a fake.  On her underside is a bare patch (no paint) where she had worn a belly plate- a metal plate and bracket that secures the horse onto the pole on a carousel.  The wood under where the belly plate had been is genuinely old and darkened, and well-worn.  She had been a hard-working horse for many decades, I'm sure.  It's fun to think of her giving happy rides to children in Mexico many years before I was even born, most likely. 

My horse might not have an elite pedigree, but to me she is beautiful.  Even so, I would much rather she were still on an operating carousel.  There's just something not quite right about a single, lonely carousel animal, or even a group of them in someone's private collection.  They belong in the public realm, on an operating carousel or at least in a museum, where generations of families who have ridden them can re-visit them again and again.  Taking them away and hoarding them for your own personal enjoyment just seems selfish and wrong.  I grew up riding many different antique, wooden carousels, and on most of them I had a favorite horse.  That one special horse that just stood out amongst all the others (for me, it was usually the armored ones).  I just can't imagine having someone take away the entire carousel or even just the horses, replacing them with fiberglass junk that doesn't even resemble the originals.  The history has been disrupted and destroyed when that occurs. 

Wooden carousels and their individual figures from Mexico might not be very valuable at this time, but at the rate that they're being replaced with fiberglass (especially ugly cartoonish animals) they may well be in the not-too-distant future.  After all, it wasn't all that long ago when hand-carved classic wooden carousels in America and elsewhere were being discarded and destroyed by their owners when they became too much trouble to maintain, and especially when mass-produced horses made of aluminum, and later fiberglass, began to be an option. 

My carousel pony, while I'm very happy to have her, is a poignant reminder of what once was, and what could have been. 
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