Thanksgiving Day 2021

 66 degrees with rain in La Feria, TX aat 6:00 pm Thursday.

About 45 people had Thanksgiving dinner together at 1 pm at the Rec Hall here in Kenwood RV Park today.  Am putting on several photos for those of you who are not here this year.

More Later, Lynn

Rain in the Rio Grande Valley today!

 61 degrees here in La Feria, TX at 6:30 pm Thursday.  Got .84" of rain, most of it when we were loading up while leaving Walmart.

Did some shopping for the Rec Hall at Sam's Club and the rain was building huge to the west.

Made it into Walmart, but heavy rain on the roof as we shopped and was pouring as we loaded and drove west on Interstate 2.  Traffic was very slow and all were driving cautiously -- between 40 & 50 mph.

Pulled under the carport enough to be able to unload items from the cab while it was still raining.

With rainy weather out, I spent part of the day taking out the 8-year old water filter unit and replaced it with a new unit.  Had bought the old one at Lowes and when we went there this fall to get replacement filter cartridges found they no longer carry that brand.  The holding bracket holding the filtered-water faucet under the sink had become so rusted that it twisted whenever we used it.  I had Cornish-Cobbled some caulk trying to hold it last year. 

It is so hard reaching up under/behind the sink to tighten the nut holding the faucet that this one is a little loose, but a least it doesn't have the rustable little bolts the other had.  Did have to go to the local Ace Hardware store twice, switching out connecting hoses.

Yesterday I put up a new handrail for the steps going from our entrance platform down to the Texas Room.  This is one handle off a post hole digger I snagged from the junk pile last year.  The other handle was broken where it bolted to the metal.

Harold, this is for you.  When saw it in the newspaper I thought of your telling of one of your grandkids.

Gas prices had been pretty uniform at $3.079 to $3.099 throughout the Valley. This week the fell to just below $3.00 at most places, though we saw one at $3.079 today.  Filled up at Walmart at $2.959 because it wouldn't take me gift card which would have made it $2.929.  Picture at right is kitty-corner from Kenwood.  The new station right beside us is still being built.  A few huge tanks are laying beside it now for the underground storage.

The Park put on a BBQ hotdog and hamburger lunch on Wednesday.

On Tuesday we went to Men of A-Chord practice in Mission, TX, stopped for a bit at Costco in Pharr (and, of course--had their all-beef foot long hotdog for lunch).  After we got back we went to the CVS here in La Feria for our Moderna booster Covid-19 shots, then made it back to the Rec Hall for the celebration of November birthdays.

Patrick Sumner, Judy Chroninger, Larry Ferguson and Janet Engle had November birthdays.

A few photos I took while at the two-hour practice session in the garage at Frank & Pam Frisoni's in Mission, Texas.  We will be returning to the regular practice place at the Methodist Church in McAllen next week.

At left - Jerry Bowman sings Lead with me and Dennis Bush and Pam Frisoni

:(( An 80-year-old couple were having problems remembering things, so they decided to go to their doctor to get checked out to make sure nothing was wrong with them.  When they arrived at the doctor's they explained to the doctor about the problems they were having with their memory. After checking the couple out, the doctor told them that they were physically okay but might want to start writing things down and make notes to help them remember things.  The couple thanked the doctor and left. Later that night while watching TV, the man got up from his chair and his wife asked, "Where are you going?" He replied, "To the kitchen." She asked, "Will you get me a bowl of ice cream?" He replied, "Sure." She then asked him, "Don't you think you should write it down so you can remember it?" He said, "No, I can remember that."  She then said, "Well I would also like some strawberries on top. You had better write that down because I know you'll forget that." He said, "I can remember that, you want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries." She replied, "Well I also would like whipped cream on top. I know you will forget that so you better write it down."  With irritation in his voice, he said, "I don't need to write that down! I can remember that." He then fumes into the kitchen. After about 20 minutes he returned from the kitchen and handed her a plate of bacon and eggs. She stared at the plate for a moment and said angrily: "I TOLD you to write it down! You forgot my toast!"

======================

Later, Lynn

The Ides of November

85  degrees at 4;33 pm here in La Feria, TX on Monday.

I had planted 2 bougainvillea plants last week and we decided to get some more plantings to replace all the park people had destroyed and decided to take out the cactus plant.

Wacking off the leaves.  that cone-shaped one lower right was in the very center.  It weighed about 40 lbs. and was solid, with lines showing developing lots of new leaves.  I have been calling this a cactus---just looked up on the internet to find out what kind, and..........it isn't called a cactus.  There are hundreds of Agave plants, and I guess this is one of the Agaves.  Or, it was.  Gone now.

This was so heavy I chain sawed it into four pieces in order to carry it to the trash arrea.

Agave out and 3 Bougenvelia plants and 2

Hibiscus plants in.

Got one coat of paint on the base/support for the weather station today.

Got plastic tub, which wouldn't keep paint on it to cover the orange color, covered with wood.

Got some paint on the wooden covering.  Will be done in a few days.

Hadn't run the air conditioning much, but had it turned on today.

Came across this picture of my Dad, probably taken in the mid 1970's.  Wondering if there is any similarity to my picture............................

Just to show you my salad today.  Fighting high cholesterol and sardines are suggested to help; so, try to eat a can of sardines a day.  

Don't have to fight Phyllis for them, either.  For some reason, she can't stand them!

Advice from María Sabina, Mexican Healer and Poet

“Heal yourself with the light of the sun and the rays of the Moon. With the sound of the river and the waterfall. With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of birds.

Heal yourself with mint, neem, and eucalyptus. Sweeten with lavender, rosemary, and chamomile. Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a hint of cinnamon. Put Love in tea instead of sugar and drink it looking at the stars.

Heal yourself with the kisses that the wind gives you and the hugs of the rain. Stand strong with your bare feet on the ground and with everything that comes from it.

Be smarter every day by listening to your intuition, looking at the world with your forehead. Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier. Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember..

YOU ARE THE MEDICINE.”

More sometime, Lynn

Leica and the Jews

 The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product - precise, minimalist, and utterly efficient. 

Behind its worldwide acceptance as a creative tool was a family-owned, socially oriented firm that, during the Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace, generosity and modesty. E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany's most famous photographic product, saved its Jews. 

And Ernst Leitz II, the steely-eyed Protestant patriarch who headed the closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe , acted in such a way as to earn the title, "the photography industry's Schindler." 

As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, Ernst Leitz II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking for his help in getting them and their families out of the country. As Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany's Nuremberg laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their professional activities. 

To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as "the Leica Freedom Train," a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas. 

Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members were "assigned" to Leitz sales offices in France, Britain, Hong Kong and the United States, Leitz's activities intensified after the Kristallnacht of November 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish shops were burned across Germany. 

Before long, German "employees" were disembarking from the ocean liner Bremen at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office of Leitz Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the photographic industry. 

Each new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom - a new Leica camera. 

The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of this migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople, marketers and writers for the photographic press. 

Keeping the story quiet The "Leica Freedom Train" was at its height in 1938 and early 1939, delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders. 

By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America, thanks to the Leitzes' efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get away with it? 

Leitz, Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected credit on the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced cameras, range-finders and other optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi government desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz's single biggest market for optical goods was the United States. 

Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good works. A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help Jews and freed only after the payment of a large bribe. 

Leitz's daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after she was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into Switzerland . She eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in the course of questioning. She also fell under suspicion when she attempted to improve the living conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women, who had been assigned to work in the plant  during the 1940s. 

(After the war, Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her humanitarian efforts, among them the Officier d'honneur des Palms Academic from France in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the European Academy in the 1970s.) 

Why has no one told this story until now? According to the late Norman Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no publicity for its heroic efforts.  Only after the last member of the Leitz family was dead did the "Leica Freedom Train" finally come to light. 

It is now the subject of a book, "The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family: The Leica Freedom Train," by Frank Dabba Smith, a California-born Rabbi currently living in England. 

Thank you for reading the above, and if you feel inclined as I did to pass it along to others, please do so. It only takes a few minutes. 

Memories of the righteous should live on.