Mexico Monday redux, Week 22
Digging in the dirt
In yesterday’s post Huell visited the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve. I recently came across these images shot by my mom during the spring of 1982. She was visiting the area with her anthropology class to observe the work of archeology students. I admit I feel respect for archeologists because I would never have the patience to stick with such […]
Mexico Monday Redux, Week 21
Axochiapan and Mexico City — In last week’s post I mentioned the small town of Axochiapan, and as promised I have some images my dad shot there when we visited in 1970. Axochiapan is about 2.5 hours south of Mexico City on today’s roads; but I’m not sure how long the trip actually took us in our VW camper, nicknamed […]
Sunday buggy ride
Last week I returned to the Angels Camp Museum for the first time since my first visit in 2018. This is one of those places that, although fairly small, has so many historic items to look at that it’s impossible to take everything in during a single visit. The only real downside of this charming museum, for me, is the […]
Mexico Monday Redux, Week 20
During our summer trips to Mexico, we did a lot of traveling along small roads; many areas of the country back then had no major modern highways. Of course, that’s still true in parts of the country today. But back in 1970 it seemed that even the toll roads were narrow and had no median barriers. The “big” roads between […]
Observing Juneteenth
Today, I wanted to find a way to observe the newest US federal holiday — but somehow shouting “Happy Juneteenth!” just doesn’t feel appropriate. Instead, I took the long overdue action of educating myself about the history of this historic day. I have to admit I was a little confused about its origin and meaning. I assumed it commemorated the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation — but a bit of research online showed me how wrong I was! Certainly part of the blame for this gap in my knowledge lies with my high school history curriculum, which completely passed over this “minor” detail in covering the American Civil War and Reconstruction. But of course, I’ve been out of high school a very long time. So, for anyone else who hasn’t been paying attention until this year, here’s what I now understand: The Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves held in the confederate states, took effect on January 1, 1863. But it wasn’t until Congress passed the 13th Amendment in April 1864 that emancipation was made national policy. This amendment was signed by Lincoln in February 1865 and ratified in December of that same year. Not surprisingly, even after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect it wasn’t immediately implemented throughout the American South. Union soldiers spread the news of the new law as they moved deeper into Confederate territory. It wasn’t until two years after it took effect, in mid June 1865, […]
Mexico Monday Redux, Week 19
This week, I’m focusing on our visits to Guadalajara during 1968 through 1970. I’ve shown you one or two of these pictures before, when I wrote about the “lemon factory“, and I’m sure we visited this church more than once. I can’t for the life of me remember what part of the city this was in, but I have clear […]
Mexico Monday Redux, Week 18
It’s been quite awhile since I blogged Mexico Monday, but now I’m finally able to start scanning the final batch of slides. I’ve been wanting to re-scan these for such a long time! I’m also trying to present them in chronological order as best I can; in doing so I may repeat some images that I’ve previously published. Hopefully it […]
Cottage of stone
There are just so many details to examine all over the grounds of the Empire Mine State Historic Park that I’m sure I didn’t see them all during my trip in April. I still have a keen desire to go back and spend more time exploring — and revisiting bits that I missed or that I didn’t capture properly with […]