The good old days

Link: http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000102645

It is approaching noon and I still have not put on the T.V! The lake is at its quietest as we await the Labor Day seekers of that final holiday exuberance of the year. I wonder if it is just me or if the atmosphere encompasses others. But the cats and I seem to be sharing a pleasant, if a bit scary, excitement to meet the next season. I really love that term "audacity of hope." It brings rich feelings; poignancy that to hope is audacious and the anxiety because it is.

I look to history for instruction and reassurance.

Common to most families who have been in this country for a while, every generation or so sends some members of our family to California, never to return.

Recently my brother and I have been tracing two on our father's side who went to northern California to find gold. Their letters, all beautifully written, describe as only the contemporaneous personal can, how life was lived then and there. I also continue to read many of the newspapers and histories of the area and time.

Themes in significant parts of the written word include the roots to the "loony left coast." The newspapers are replete with remonstrances for charity from the more settled citizens to provide for the huge numbers of immigrants pouring off the Oregon and California trails, many near death from the long journey across the plains; and as well for the bouillabaisse of races and ethnics who came by boat.

My brother has researched in more detail one of the county social services that provided for the the brother of our gr_gr_grandfather. Included in this paper describing an archeological dig is a vignette that is affirming. 
http://www.scahome.org/publications/proceedings/Proceedings.22Philben.pdf

The facility is described in a public health report of the time: Dr. J. M. Briceland, of Shasta, says:  "Shasta County Hospital is located three-quarters of a mile west of the Town of Shasta, on elevated ground, affording excellent drainage. ... The hospital is for the comfort and medical aid of indigent sick, without distinction of race, color, sex, or religion."

Granted we are reading the productions of folks who could read and write. The fact of emphasis of responsibility to provide equally for the different, the unfortunate and the disconnected certainly suggests that the Utopian virtues of generosity and compassion were not automatic for all, but they were by many who could speak. They speak today reminding us of heritage.