MY SENIOR DOG and ME GO TO ROSIE'S DOG BEACH IN LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA

There have been some beautiful days here, spring days, with glorious clouds and views over the ocean. I feel I've missed out on another season of whale watching, which can sometimes be done from shore, but that I would like to do from a boat and not just a one hour tourist go-see either but one lead by a scientist from the Cabrillo Aquarium.  I also have not yet been to Catalina Island or any of the Channel Islands.  I've been so inspired by a wonderful documentary called West of West to go there for a few days at least, but have not had the opportunity. 

However, I was able to take my beloved senior dog to the only official dog beach in Southern California, which is called Rosie's Beach, in Long Beach California, not far from the Port of Los Angeles.  I had wanted to take her there three years ago, before Covid closures, and finally we got to go!  In that time, she has significantly aged, though she is not senile, she is old.  It was our first time there and her first time on sand, wet sand, and so close to the briny water.

We had to walk a bit to get to the location, along a nice path though, and with a breeze.  The sun was not too hot so the sand was cool. I'm aware that a dog's paws can be badly damaged by heat, such as on the sidewalk on a summer day. I took along her wheeled carrier to protect her from any damage and any overheat. She loves to sit in the carrier, with her little head up over the unzipped opening up top, and experience moving along because her days of actually walking or running this far are over. Trips like this help keep a dog's mind stimulated as it experiences different smells especially.  Any time I get that carrier out, she heads for the door, signaling that she wants to go.

What a scene it was at Rosie's Dog Beach!

First, the view.  Out on the ocean are oil derrick islands with palm trees which are permanent, and certainly an interesting way to sort of disguise the machinery. Not permanent, but there a long time, were a couple massive cruise ships that must have stopped voyaging a while back.  There were wind surfers in action.  And far down the way, a view of the port where the container ships come in and unload the box cars.  

I wasn't prepared to actually go into the water myself, nor did I think my little 12-pounder would dash into the waves, but we walked where the sand was watery for a bit and she sniffed some sea-weed.  Then I found a spot for us to sit.  I held her in my arms as younger and bigger dogs who were fearless in the surf (they must be Long Beach natives) caught frisbees and sticks, ran in packs, and seemed to be all smiling and happy.  A light brown mini-poodle, male, came around to admire my dog, with a shy grin on his face - I swear.  My dog used to have all variety of male dogs after her, including two incidents where I swear a dog fell in love with her at first sight, so I teased her that, though she is old, she is still beautiful.  I held my dog in my arms and who knows how much she could actually see, since she has one cataract that is fairly opaque and another one that is starting, but I do think she knew she was watching other dogs, a lot of dogs, bigger dogs, because she could at least detect movement and smell them.  I felt her little heart pounding in her chest with excitement. And I saw her smile too, something she used to do all the time, but less often these days. So I was so glad I had made this effort.

When I set her down in the sand, she did a peculiar thing.  She circled me and her carrier over and over again, within a few feet of us.  It seemed to me that she was getting a feel for the sensation of sand underfoot.  We had gone to a beach before where you can take dogs on the grass near the sand but not the sand or in the water, and I know that she likes to scare birds so they'll fly away, but I think this was her first experience of sand.  

Then she paused to see if the sand was diggable like dirt at a dog park, and how so.  She made a small hole in the sand and sniffed it.

Finally, she did find a place on the sand to lay, with her attention towards the ocean.

Finally I put her back into her carrier and we went back up the path, stopping under a shady tree where there was green grass.

I enjoyed watching the owners of the other dogs at the beach there too.  It was clear some of them were regulars.  How lucky they are to be able to go there and walk with their dogs frequently.

When I asked around before going, I heard that sometimes there are dog fights and dog bites and incidents, but we did just fine.  We were there for maybe a half hour.

I do hope we can go back again before the summer heat makes it not practical for us.

C 2022  Magyar-American BlogSpot

TESTING THE 1950 CENSUS AT THE NARA WEBSITE ; FAMILY SEARCH and ANCESTRY GENEALOGY DATABASES WILL CATCH UP

I've been testing the United States 1950 census at the NATIONAL ARCHIVES WEBSITE.  Yesterday I also went to FamilySearch and to Ancestry TM to see what is happening with the 1950 census there.

1950 CENSUS NARA SEARCH LINK

The NARA site activated at one in the morning on April 1st.  During Covid closures the employees of the National Archives were busy working on this census to meet the commitment to release it on that date.  Artificial Intelligence was used to 'read' the handwriting and come up with a searchable text. As is the case with FamilySearch and Ancestry, users are allowed to tweak the database- - for better or worse.  A huge amount of trust in the good will and best efforts of the public are expected.  Both companies as well as the National Archives have put a shout out for volunteers.

I came up with a list of the most important people I wanted to find on the 1950.  The NARA database allows you to search by first/given name, last/surname, both, and to also enter an ED district.  You may also put in a STATE, COUNTY, and/or CITY, which narrows the search a bit more.

Of about 20 names I sought, the most important did come right up.  I guess that's a blessing.

However from that point on I was searching for people who were either not counted or who otherwise will require a longer period of time to find.  You see, I'm moving forward in time, looking for those who descended from a branch of my Hungarian immigrant family who may have married, joined the service during World War II, and settled outside the ethnic enclave that they lived in for a generation or maybe two as part of that expansion to suburbs as well as post-service immigration within the United States.  I have no way of knowing if they will be in the same state and some of the surname just bring up so many people.

Eventually FamilySearch and Ancestry - as well as some other genealogy databases - will catch up in their efforts to index.  What will make it all easier on us is that these databases will allow us to further narrow by allowing us to imput a date of birth.

An example from my own research is a distant relative named Katherine or Catherine or Kay, as she was called. As of 1940, she had been diagnosed with TB and had no say in being put into a TB Hospital.  I have never found her on the 1940 and I don't know if that is because she was not counted, or if she was put in a hospital outside the city and state where she lived until that diagnosis or if perhaps her surname was misspelled. Over the years I've periodically rechecked research.

 I know that she was alive in 1950, and that she died not long after that, of the flu complicated by the TB which had been resolved, but which had caused considerable damage to her lungs.  When her surname did not bring her up on the NARA site, I decided to see how many hits it would bring up If I simply put her first name and the state.... many thousands.

Importantly, I found the family that she lived with at some point when she was well enough to leave the hospital, and she was not there. 

The 1950 Census has some special features that the others do not, and you can check the site to learn about the Native American (Indian) census, how college students away from home were counted, and about the census of Guam and Panama.

C 2022 Magyar-American BlogSpot

OVER THE HILLS OF RUTHENIA by HENRY BAERLEIN circa 1925 : MAGYAR-AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW

This book was published in 1925 in New York at by Boni and Liveright Publishers and that means that it reflects the times as well the author's opinion.  It includes travel to Ezhorod, the Ruthenian Capital, and mentions Rahova, Bodan, Maramos Sziget, and other locations. Ruthenians are called Ruthenes. (Previously in posts I mentioned that there are three tribe or clan groups and the ones in Southern Poland and Northern Slovakia, once Hungary, are of the Lemko group. I also mentioned these people are also called Rusyns and are of an East Slavic group, while Polish people are of the West Slavic group.  The book is now considered a classic and has been reprinted.

At first I thought I was going to be prejudiced against this book when I read early on that the "real" Magyars (verus people who became Hungarian because Hungary was the country where they lived) were "gentleman so lofty that they were not wont to have personal commerce with the aboriginals" meaning the Ruthens. (page 9)  I stuck with it, however, and was glad I did, for truly the way the people were living at some point close to 1925 is so interesting and there were characters - real people the traveler encountered - who were also entertaining and revealing. One of them is a man who has been to America to work in the mines four times but was injured and worries that the Americans won't let him in if he tried again because of that.

One always wonders when people who came to America the gave up their "national costume" (i.e. daily wear clothing) and why. We have images of immigrants coming into New York Harbor - Ellis Island - some in national dress, many not, and we wonder what they left behind.  The people in Ruthenia are depicted wearing their national dress - embroideries - white pants with fringe - boots containing a cushion of straw that remain on the feet for months - and capes that don't seem to be warm enough to keep out the mountain mists or the snow. 

The forests and weather conditions, the lonely homesteads of one room and high plateaus, the issues over grazing grounds, the hospitality of the people, all these things are brought to light in this book. Also what comes forth is that the people seem(ed) to feel satisfied with their lives or their lot in life without many of the material things that are thought to be needed by outsiders. The author admires the Czechoslovakian forest keepers but reports that the people don't like that the Hungarians want a count of cattle so they can be taxed.

The traveler's accommodations are well below what we would expect of a bed and breakfast or a student hostel these days. Travelers are given food, maybe sausage and onions and white wine or a bit of cornbread, generously, but without a lot of fanfare. They find themselves in someone's one room house where the oven takes up much of the space and a shelf on top of it is the warmest place. Travelers sleep on the (dirt) floor or on carpets or on a wood bench and sometimes everyone just lays down where they find themselves in the outdoors to sleep, without any tent or special gear.

Rusyn women are portrayed as having an old custom in which they would not be considered hospitable if they did not gently offer themselves to a traveler, so when more than one man shows up, that creates a dilemma. (Baerlein resists any temptation.)  The wife has two men to keep company with that night already, and now there are three. I did have to wonder about this because I think taking the chance of pregnancy with a stranger would go against strong orthodox Catholic beliefs but he reports it. On the other hand the isolation of these people makes me wonder if perhaps this was understood as a rare opportunity rather than a duty? 

Baerlein mentions people going on pilgrimages where they walk for days, day and night, to reach a church where they say a Mass and then walk back the way they came. Wild boars as well as well as tricky spirits are in the beech and sycamore forests. Fields with maize and sunflowers and sweet peppers and geese that are Jewish geese because they are fed a different diet so their livers will taste good to Jewish people; all of it brings the readers to their senses.

When an itinerant peddler decides to walk with him, we see that the peddler, with his tray of ribbons, combs, buttons and whatnot enthusiastically welcomed.  He tries not to sell everything he has in one spot so others will have a chance, making me wonder why he didn't bring more. There are horses and carriages but also railway stations with phones.

The traveler however does have interactions with people who are not forested Carpathian Rusenes and reports on the attitudes between classes and ethnic groups.  We learn that "Russian Count Bobrikow" ***was once an important player in the scene and that Count Shonborn once owned half of Ruthenia.  Hungary with its educational system wants to turn everyone into Hungarians through education but Ruthen youth can't get down from the mountains to attend and the parents wonder about boarding schools.  Hungarian nobility is seen as in two categories.  Before Esterhazy and Apponyi there were those who bore no patent known as THE ARISTOCRACY OF THE SUN!

So, I wholeheartedly recommend this book!

C 2022 Magyar- American BlogSpot

All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights.

 *** "Russian Count Bobrikow : there is a village in Southern Poland, Podkarpakie province with a name similar to this.

WORLD CHOIR FOR PEACE - UKRAINIAN PRAYER

A UKRAINIAN PRAYER - JOHN RUTTER - WOLD CHOIR FOR PEACE

FOUR HUNGARIAN EASTER EGGS

 

A SPRING HOLIDAY HAUNTED BY WAR AND GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE : LOCAL STUDENTS TAKE AND THROW AWAY FREE FOOD

Not far from where I live there is a school.  I take my dog for walks around the school quite often.  There is a nice patch of grass there and many trees. There is also, on the days that school is in session, free lunch food thrown all over the grass, the sidewalks, under the trees.  It is a shameful waste of the food.  

Around the corner from the school there is a city garbage can.  It is often full of the plastic bags of these school lunches along with dog poop and other dirty and smelly things.  Yet I have not only seen homeless people reaching through the openings to snatch the thrown away food but I have seen SENIOR CITIZENS getting food out of there.

When I first noticed this was happening, I asked myself WHY?  Were the students badly brought up?  What lousy parents they must have! Did they take lunches with no intention of eating the food?  I asked workman, gardners, and employees of the school who all said they KNEW this was happening and that they thought it was terrible too.  But what?  A teacher cannot teach students it is wrong since the students do not have parents who can teach them it is wrong?

"I used to volunteer for a local food bank," I said, "And I can tell you that there were mostly seniors in line every week.  Why not have the kids donate the food to a food bank or take it to one of the rehabs in town?"

Although I have enough to eat, I did pick up some of the food off the sidewalk and take it home. The food is wrapped in cellophane except for fruit like apples, bananas, and oranges. There is often yogurt or frozen desert or fruit juice in a small container.  There are nuts, crackers, and cookies.  There are sticks of turkey.  Small burgers. There is pizza, and various burritos and calzones with that same cheese and tomato sauce type mixture.  Sometimes there are bags of carrots or celery or salad.

If I went into my local chain corner store and bought the like, I would probably pay at least $15 - maybe $20 retail for a typical bag of school food.

Since I could tell that what I picked up had very recently been thrown down and was still cold and sanitary, I decided to give this food a try.  I reasoned that maybe the students just don't like the taste.  Maybe it is too salty or not spiced.  I found nothing obviously wrong with the food.  The only other thing I could imagine might be happening is that the students are bored with the selection.

Still, as I read more and more horror stories coming out of Ukraine.  Not just hundreds of dogs starved and without water left in shelters that died, but also people in basements and subways and hide-aways without enough food and water - starving, I could not find it in my mind to understand or my heart to forgive these students - or their parents.  They have it too good.  They don't know.  They don't care!

Let their parents feed them then!

Now the school is on break and it looks like workmen have gone around the area and cleaned up any evidence of the food throw-away.

I so hope that by the time the school reopens my comments will have been received and someone there will put an end to this waste.

C 2022  Magyar American BlogSpot

POND IN THE MORNING

 image from Graphics Fairy

EMPRESS OF THE EAST by LESLIE PEIRCE : MAGYAR- AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW

 

Leslie Peirce's EMPRESS OF THE EAST has to be the most interesting book I've read in a long time.  On the new book shelf at my local library, I had no idea the book would be about Ruthenia, Hungary under the Ottoman Turks, the Austrian Empire and slavery, until I started reading!  This one was a page-turner for me. It should be of interest to anyone who wants to know more about the history of Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Ruthenia, and Europe.

At about the age of 13, Roxelana was captured in Ukraine - Ruthenia along with thousands of others who were marched a long distance to live out their lives under Ottoman Rule. These slaver-raids took hundreds of thousands of people into Turk territory. As with the images we have of African slaves, they were barefoot, in chains, and lucky to survive the journey.

While not every slave was used in the harem, those slave women who were selected to live in it were there for a purpose and that was not exactly sexual pleasure.  Rather the Turks had a social system that was dependent on slaves not just for labor but for the reproduction of Princes. Once selected she would be bred and this would continue until she had a son. At that point the woman would become a Prince's mother and devote her life to his education.  Some of the women competed to be chosen, to survive, and then competed for their sons to be given important tasks.

Having left marriage for Princes behind, the idea was for every Prince to have as many sons as possible.  Being pragmatic, there was so much death due to illnesses and plagues that this might have been a reproduction strategy.  It was also, however, a means of keeping the ever-expanding empire in control because a Prince who reached the age of adulthood, which was about fifteen years old, could be assigned to rule a particular province of the newly expanded empire. The Turks were expanding their empire violently, but slavery had many ethnicities collaborative in the abduction, sale, transfer, and so on of slaves including Jews, Armenians, and Italians. Slave men were sometimes made to soldier.  Each slave was converted to Islam and enculturated to be a Turk. 

For those who see DNA as a way to determine ethnicity, the book convinced me that there is a great deal of Hungarian and Slavic DNA within those with a certain, shall we say noble, Turkish heritage.  

The book doesn't go into the military aspects but we know that about two thirds of the Hungarian people were massacred and the country was destroyed due to this expansionism.  It is strong in showing just how exceptional this slave girl was, as she rose in the haram not only to be a favorite, but that she actually married her Prince, the very man who was responsible for much of the massacre of the Hungarian people centuries ago.  

Suleyman The Great was often away for months or years at a time with his campaigns into Hungary but he wrote Roxelana, called Hurrem, love poetry and she showed her faithfulness in writing him many impassioned letters.  He married her and he certainly went against tradition by doing so. They became a nuclear family with several children. Suleyman's own mother had also been a slave girl and so he was possibly half Polish! 

I was reminded that ETHNICITY IS ACQUIRED and not just about your DNA. 

Roxelana became a famous person as she used her power as a philanthropist and was behind the building of mosques, schools, hospitals, and as an administrator over the haram, marriages for many of the women who lived there.  She was reported on to all the noble houses of Europe as everyone wanted to know who who was and in power all the time.  She lived with all the riches available to a person on her rank.

Another aspect of this book is that it is about the Moslem Religion and the changing attitudes about women.  Prior to her rise, women had apparently been allowed power and had been allowed to be seen. Then, perhaps as a means of protection both men and women of high, royal rank began to seclude themselves.  Though insiders dealt with Roxelana, and her influence and good works were well known beyond the Ottoman Empire, when she traveled in a train of carriages, the wealth was on show but no one got to see her face. Women of high rank became more and more restricted in their lives and their exposure to the world outside their own homes, something that has, in my opinion, gone into the extreme repression of females in many Moslem societies today.

Those of us alive today with Hungarian genetic heritage are survivors of survivors  and some of us may also carry the DNA of rapists who killed entire families, entire villages of people.

All very thought provoking.

C 2022 Magyar-American BlogSpot

Mentioned in this book  1540 John Zapolya, King of Hungary and Governor of Transylvania.

1542 Queen Isabella, the eldest child of Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Her mother was Bona Sforza of Milan, Italy. Ferdinand, the archduke of Austria in control of Western Hungary who occupied Buda but was expelled by Suleyman.

UNGARISCHER TANTZ - 13th CENTURY HUNGARY DANCE MUSIC

WHAT FLOWERS ARE NATIVE WILD FLOWERS IN HUNGARY? WHAT'S A PIPAC?

DAILY NEWS HUNGARY - THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WILD FLOWERS IN HUNGARY 

Beautiful photos and explanations!   How I wish I could see these in bloom, in person!

FLAX FLOWER and SEED