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Disco Demolition in Chicago: This Date in History

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“The Surprise Ending” gets its hooks into you and for good or ill, they usually reach deep. For me there’s always a bit of O.Henry’s “The Gift of The Magi’ lurking in my thoughts. This is not necessarily a good thing for a historian. Students often succumb to the temptation to misdirect then spring an alternative conclusion on their reader in papers that they write early in their matriculation as well. It is an ambitious plot device and quite difficult but with no real value in a research project. Literarily speaking though it can be the kind of twist that captures an audience. I’ve been caught many-a-time in prose and cinema.

While at 15 years old I was completely conned by the wrap-up of the Newman/Redford film “The Sting” and the master director John Sayles’ “Lone Star” starring (of course) Chris Cooper rolls in a close third, it was “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” with Edward James Olmos that stunned me with the concluding plot twist that takes my all-time first place in surprise endings.

It was native-born Tar Heel O.Henry that sunk the plot twist hooks into me when I was a preteen though and he’s fascinated and terrified me ever since. He’s an outlaw author who led a wandering and ne’er-do-well life. He grew up in the Piedmont, fled to Central America, worked in Asheville (while living in Weaverville), and spent a good deal of time in New York City. He loved bars and hung out with cows too. I’ll just stop there.

“The time has come," the Walrus said,
‘To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings.’”
~Lewis Carrol

OnThisDay (June 5) in 1910 William Sydney Porter, O.Henry, died in NYC. Born in Greensboro, he lived in Texas, Honduras, and spent 3 years in the Ohio Penitentiary (embezzlement). He moved to New York City to be close to publishers and there he produced over 300 short stories. The “Surprise Ending” was his forte. We’ve all read his Christmas Classic, “The Gift of the Magi.” In 1907 he married a childhood friend, Sarah Lindsey Coleman, of #Weaverville, and, not in the best of health, moved there. Finding Weaverville too quiet (and a staunch teetotaler town) he opened an office in #Asheville where he might work and sneak off to bars and speakeasies. Truth is that he was a voracious drinker.

Ultimately, missing NYC he moved back - much to his detriment. He died there on this day (6/5/10) of cirrhosis of the liver. Coleman brought his body back to Buncombe and he is buried in Asheville’s Riverside Cemetery not far from Thomas Wolfe, another Tar Heel writer who died too soon. In his novel “Of Cabbages and Kings,” he coined the term, “Banana Republic.” Read more here:
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Asheville's Riverside Cemetery, without "O Henry" spelled out in pennies.

And near-by, another of North Carolina's sons taken too early.
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Asheville's Riverside Cemetery, without "O Henry" spelled out in pennies.

And near-by, another of North Carolina's sons taken too early.
1749134587396.jpeg


Love that cemetery as I do with most -- this one is special though.

 
Love that cemetery as I do with most -- this one is special though.

I love visiting old cemeteries anywhere, but especially in North and South Carolina. Question for you. I have been baffled by how many tombstones from the late 18th Century to the early 19th Century have Lauburu Crosses in them. I have absolutely no idea why. If you ever find out, please post the explanation. The two most common explanation I've heard just aren't that compelling to me. #1: The Lauburu Cross is not exclusively a symbol of the Basque people, but was also a symbol of the Scot-Irish settlers that came down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania to Piedmont and Western NC and then further south. #2: As part of the settlement of the French and Indian War, Basques who had settled in the prime fishing territories of the Canadian maritime provinces were sent South along with other folks who were ancestors of the Cajan folks in Louisiana. And at least three of the ships heading south stopped on the NC coast and were full of Basque being resettled. Because the ship repairs were so extensive and would take so long and there was land to be had in Piedmont/Western NC, this Basques decided to take what Fortuna/Tyche had offered them and headed into the lightly settled parts of NC.
Link: Lauburu/Fylfot/Solar/Pinwheel Crosses
 
I love visiting old cemeteries anywhere, but especially in North and South Carolina. Question for you. I have been baffled by how many tombstones from the late 18th Century to the early 19th Century have Lauburu Crosses in them. I have absolutely no idea why. If you ever find out, please post the explanation. The two most common explanation I've heard just aren't that compelling to me. #1: The Lauburu Cross is not exclusively a symbol of the Basque people, but was also a symbol of the Scot-Irish settlers that came down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania to Piedmont and Western NC and then further south. #2: As part of the settlement of the French and Indian War, Basques who had settled in the prime fishing territories of the Canadian maritime provinces were sent South along with other folks who were ancestors of the Cajan folks in Louisiana. And at least three of the ships heading south stopped on the NC coast and were full of Basque being resettled. Because the ship repairs were so extensive and would take so long and there was land to be had in Piedmont/Western NC, this Basques decided to take what Fortuna/Tyche had offered them and headed into the lightly settled parts of NC.
Link: Lauburu/Fylfot/Solar/Pinwheel Crosses

Hmmm. 1) I've spent a lot of time in graveyards and some of those crosses I've never seen...the more starburst ones seem familiar though. The locales that I note on that Flicker account are Thomasville, Mooresville, Lexington, Bessemer City, Liberty, Kimesville, are kind of widely dispersed it seems to me for a small late 18th century migration but maybe I'm being obtuse on it. Need to think on this some more...
 
81 years ago, June 7, 1944, my father-in-law came ashore on Omaha Beach with the 2nd Infantry Division, the Indian Head Division. He is the second one in line. He said he just briefly glanced up and remembered seeing a photographer. He had no idea it would be an AP photo until his mother showed him the paper. His mother saw the photo in her local paper and immediately knew it was her son. He had previously served in North Africa. He lasted until St. Lo, where he was wounded badly enough to still be hospitalized on V-E Day. He was still working on being fit enough to return to duty on V-J Day. He lived another 44 years.
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81 years ago, June 7, 1944, my father-in-law came ashore on Omaha Beach with the 2nd Infantry Division, the Indian Head Division. He is the second one in line. He said he just briefly glanced up and remembered seeing a photographer. He had no idea it would be an AP photo until his mother showed him the paper. His mother saw the photo in her local paper and immediately knew it was her son. He had previously served in North Africa. He lasted until St. Lo, where he was wounded badly enough to still be hospitalized on V-E Day. He was still working on being fit enough to return to duty on V-J Day. He lived another 44 years.
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I ALWAYS love when you share this photo and comment on its history. Thanks!
 
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I grew up pretty fascinated with Daniel Boone. Bonlee, my little town in #DeepChatham, actually sits along a path where Highway 421 (now Old 421) was referred to as Boone Trail. I vaguely remember when Garrett Tillman’s gas station, directly across the road from my father’s Bonlee Hardware, was known as Boone Trail Station.

In nearby Siler City, Liberty, and Staley there were markers for Boone Trail. There is an image of one here. There is also one in Chapel Hill. (Across from the Post Office on Franklin) Of course I loved the TV show with Fess Parker as Dan’l and Ed Ames as Mingo. I ‘played’ Frontiersman constantly and that set me to my own exploring of the woods around Bonlee and down toward Sandy Branch where my Deddy kept his cows and where Grandpa and Grandma lived on the Home Place, among the state’s Century Farms. (https://www.ncagr.gov/public-affairs/public-affairs-2024-century-farm-directory/download?attachment)

Tramping those forests and fields, sometimes with Deddy as we checked fences or hunted down/counted cows, or camping with the Bonlee boys was pretty constant from around 6 thru 16 and still comes back to me often whether I’m walking parks or trails or just traversing from A to B. When creep-striding through the terrain, to take stock of the trees and their multiple twists and turns (Fibonacci Sequence anyone?) to step over and snap no twigs or limbs, and to note straight-on and peripheral movement from bird to bear is the setting made automatic in my system in those wander-filled boy years.

#OTD (June 7) in 1769, working out of North Carolina for Richard Henderson’s Transylvania Co., it is recorded that Daniel Boone first spied Kentucky. Boone, born in Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1734, spent his youth hunting and exploring Western North Carolina and Appalachia. He blazed the #WildernessRoad thru #CumberlandGap. In making these forays across the mountains Boone was among a few who were defying the orders of The British Crown banning westward migration. By the way, lest one put a humanitarian spin on that prohibition know that the King cared nothing of protecting the land from deprivation but rather feared being left out of that process. Indeed, Boone’s explorations ultimately served the purposes of iniquitous land-grabbers and caused endless harm and injustice to the Cherokee and other indigenous people. https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/june-07
 
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#OTD in 1929.

"The authorities couldn't tell for certain who shot Gastonia, N.C. police chief Orville Aderholt on June 7, 1929, so they arrested nearly everyone at the scene. Seventy-one people were detained, all of them organizers for or members of the National Textile Workers Union, whose camp Aderholt was visiting when he was killed. The trial received national attention. Members of the media, like many locals, were divided as to whether the strike at the Loray Mill, which had begun earlier that spring, represented an honest effort by workers to improve their conditions or a dangerous plot by Northern Communists to infiltrate the South."

More here: The Gastonia Strike
 
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I grew up pretty fascinated with Daniel Boone. Bonlee, my little town in #DeepChatham, actually sits along a path where Highway 421 (now Old 421) was referred to as Boone Trail. I vaguely remember when Garrett Tillman’s gas station, directly across the road from my father’s Bonlee Hardware, was known as Boone Trail Station.

In nearby Siler City, Liberty, and Staley there were markers for Boone Trail. There is an image of one here. There is also one in Chapel Hill. (Across from the Post Office on Franklin) Of course I loved the TV show with Fess Parker as Dan’l and Ed Ames as Mingo. I ‘played’ Frontiersman constantly and that set me to my own exploring of the woods around Bonlee and down toward Sandy Branch where my Deddy kept his cows and where Grandpa and Grandma lived on the Home Place, among the state’s Century Farms. (https://www.ncagr.gov/public-affairs/public-affairs-2024-century-farm-directory/download?attachment)

Tramping those forests and fields, sometimes with Deddy as we checked fences or hunted down/counted cows, or camping with the Bonlee boys was pretty constant from around 6 thru 16 and still comes back to me often whether I’m walking parks or trails or just traversing from A to B. When creep-striding through the terrain, to take stock of the trees and their multiple twists and turns (Fibonacci Sequence anyone?) to step over and snap no twigs or limbs, and to note straight-on and peripheral movement from bird to bear is the setting made automatic in my system in those wander-filled boy years.

#OTD (June 7) in 1769, working out of North Carolina for Richard Henderson’s Transylvania Co., it is recorded that Daniel Boone first spied Kentucky. Boone, born in Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1734, spent his youth hunting and exploring Western North Carolina and Appalachia. He blazed the #WildernessRoad thru #CumberlandGap. In making these forays across the mountains Boone was among a few who were defying the orders of The British Crown banning westward migration. By the way, lest one put a humanitarian spin on that prohibition know that the King cared nothing of protecting the land from deprivation but rather feared being left out of that process. Indeed, Boone’s explorations ultimately served the purposes of iniquitous land-grabbers and caused endless harm and injustice to the Cherokee and other indigenous people. https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/june-07
Boone's Cave at Boone's Cave Park. North of Salisbury, directly on the Yadkin River.
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You gotta love "a dangerous plot by Northern Communists to infiltrate the South."
 
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Helen Keller was in Western NC this week in 1945. Herself deaf and blind from the age of 19 months she became an author and lecturer known worldwide. Here in 2025 prominent Magaman Dr. Oz says people “should prove that you matter” BEFORE you qualify for healthcare provisions and accommodations like Medicaid. His party’s DOGE has cut education programs for people with disabilities. In the trump/Oz MAGA World we’ll have no Helen Kellers. This week in 1945 Keller was in Asheville to tour military hospitals and convalescent centers offering encouragement and praise to soldiers injured in the fight against Fascism.

By the way, Helen Keller was a strong advocate of women’s suffrage, the rights of workers, and peace. She was a socialist and a founding member of the ACLU. Her birthplace in Tuscumbia, Alabama is a National Historic Landmark. Keller also worked closely with the American Foundation for the Blind, an organization that was instrumental in the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Johnson.

Helen Keller’s remarkableness was made known very prominently to my generation by the riveting story told in 1962 in the feature film, “The Miracle Worker.” I don’t know how or exactly when I viewed that movie but it is probably one of the top ten (five?) most memorable ones of my life. The film’s portrayal of Keller’s teacher Anne Sullivan (Anne Bancroft) as Mark Twain had described her, a “Miracle Worker” and young Keller (Patty Duke) as a strong-willed near-feral child and their fight to learn seems seared into my memory and I daresay, for the good.

Helen Keller’s story is a true American one. Her fight against the darkness and the silence is one we ought to, one we need to, ponder then engage with at present. Her compassion and advocacy for the troubled and put-upon and stressed and oppressed is what should drive us forward in the constant bombarding of ill-will and greed that confronts us today. Be a Helen Keller, not a Dr. Oz.

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My grandmother told me about meeting Helen Keller when my grandmother was a young woman. I was awed by this. Seemed like a real touching history moment. What I didn't know at the time was that when this conversation with my grandmother occurred, Helen Keller was not only still alive, but would be alive for another five years. Helen Keller actually outlived my grandmother. While I doubt I could have actually met Helen Keller, it would have been possible. Also, my grandmother really made sure I understood what an important and inspirational person Helen Keller actually was.
 
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