All I wanted for the New Year was a break. Just a brief pause between the calamities …
Author Archives: August-Phoenix-Mercantile
My Pandemic Year III: January 2022
If this title looks familiar, it originally covered the end of 2021. I have revised the last post to reflect that. This is the actual January 2022. COVID-19 January 1 – US cases today are 54,859,966, US deaths are 825,816. Vaccination rate is still at about 62%. Cases in CA are 386% over two weeksContinue reading “My Pandemic Year III: January 2022”
My Pandemic Year II: Year End 2021
When I left my downtown Seattle office on March 11, 2020, it was beyond my imagining that a planned 30-day lockdown would extend into a 3rd calendar year. And yet, here we are.
My Pandemic Year II: November 2021
This week I celebrated Dia de los Muertos, in person, at a couple of events in Seattle. I enjoyed dancing and food at the Waterfront event on October 23, and I had the entire room to myself to view the ofrendas at the Seattle Center on November 2. I learned a lot this year, whichContinue reading “My Pandemic Year II: November 2021”
My Pandemic Year II: April 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, but I think this journal is, at least for now. After a year that was 14 months long, it’s time to move on.
My Pandemic Year II: March 2021
A month of many pages turning, most for the better, though eyes remain on a predicted 4th wave.
My Pandemic Year II: February 2021
It’s Groundhog Day today…it’s been Groundhog Day every day since March 2020…
My Pandemic year II: January 20-31, 2021
A new White House and a New Year begins, and vaccine fails begin as well…
My Pandemic Year II: January 11-19, 2021
The last few days of #45, massive security in DC, and the arrival of #46.
My Pandemic Year II: January 1-10, 2021
January brings unexpected events, most notably an insurrection at our nation’s capitol…
My Pandemic Year: December 2020
COVID-19 deaths average over 2,000 a day, and chatter about a March on DC in January. Christmas happens in spite of itself.
My Pandemic Year: November 2020
Deaths from COVID-19 continue to escalate. Biden wins the election. Trump continues to lose court cases. Crazy continues on numerous leels.
My Pandemic Year: October 2020
COVID-19 cases increases as does #45’s rhetoric. SCOTUS gets a new judge. A COVID-19 variant emerges.
My Pandemic Year: September 2020
We lose Justice Ginsberg, no time is wasted in filling her seat. Global deaths from COVID-19 reach 1 million.
My Pandemic Year: August 2020
A short set of journal entries for a month full of Blursdays.
My Pandemic Year: July 2020
John Lewis dies, Roger Stone is commuted, Portland Riots continue.
My Pandemic Year: June 2020
Protests continue, BLM goes global. The US reaches 2 million COVID-19 cases.
My Pandemic Year: May 2020
COVID dreams, masks and extended lockdowns. Holidays spent at home. Protests downtown. Dumpster fires begin.
My Pandemic Year: April 2020
Johns Hopkins establishes a dashboard. PPE in the news, mask making in the shop.
My Pandemic Year: March 2020
COVID-19 has arrived in Seattle.
My Pandemic Year: February 2020
February 2020 – First Journal Entry
Wilma Hughes: A Graduation Flood
There were 208 students in her graduating class. Wilma kept her tassel, foregoing the 25 cent refund for its return.
Mildred Carpenter: School and Marriage
When I first entered high school, the principal had us write down what we would like to do when we graduated. I said “be a teacher.” Three weeks later I was in charge of the study hall…
Wilma Hughes: The War Ends, and Love Begins
I spent the summer of 1947 at Grandmother Purdy’s house at Ocean Park. What a wonderful summer it was, filled with fun and romance…
Wilma Hughes: The House that Bribes Built
The war was still going on and things were hard to get. Dad bought land on Cascade Way in Longview to build a house on… Building supplies were scarce, but many things were found because Dad being in the grocery business…
Wilma Hughes: A World at War
For me, the War Years were the most exciting time. Sure, sacrifices had to be made on the home front, but people pulled together.
Wilma Hughes: Boys, Scouts and a World on Edge
I joined the Girl Scouts when I was nine years old. My troop leader was a Cowlitz Indian woman named Maude Waunassay Snyder. She was a short, round lady and lived in a river house at the Cowlitz River in West Kelso.
Wilma Hughes: Vacations and the Great Depression
Sometimes on Saturdays we would put on a variety act; she would dance and I would sing, and we would charge the neighborhood kids two cents admission. Carol and I would divide up the money and buy penny candy at the little store up the street.
Mildred Carpenter: Adventures with Nella
I used to wash dishes at Gram’s hotel [the Sportsman’s Hotel] for a nickel, and then spent it for a Hershey candy bar, so Gram got her dishes done pretty cheap.
Mildred Lucille Carpenter Begins
I was born at noon on September 25, 1908, and arrived before the doctor did. I think my mother was angry at me all of her life for that…
Wilma Hughes: Seaside and a Hobo Visit
My next memory was of us living in a tiny house with a dirt floor… with kerosene lamps, and baths in a washtub placed near the wood-fueled cookstove.
Wilma Hughes: Starting life near our hunting lodge
“My earliest childhood memory was when I must have been two or three years of age. It was when my family lived in Colorado.”
Daveno Historica 