Archive for the '52 Stories' Category
52 Stories #28—Treasured Memories
So many of us experience the same milestone events in our lives—our wedding day, the births of our children. What are some of my memories of these days?
My husband and I got married during the Christmas holidays while we were between college semesters at the University of Wyoming. We had our rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding in a crowded restaurant at the local airport, not the place I would have chosen. Our simple wedding took place at my home church on the following snowy evening. The church's Christmas trees still stood on either side of the altar, and we made our vows beneath an archway decorated with pine boughs. My husband chose the processional and recessional, the two versions of "Joy" by Bach and Beethoven. A college friend provided vocal music, "The Wedding Song". Our attendants wore dark green, and my husband wore a yellow jacket. His brother served as best man and my best friend served as maid of honor. My brother was an usher. I remember that he wanted to get the most out of his tuxedo rental, so he wore it again the next day when he went out cross-country skiing. We had our wedding reception at the local Holiday Inn where the best man and I had both worked a couple of summers. A reception at a hotel instead of the church allowed us to serve alcoholic punch, something my dad insisted upon after having to walk me down the aisle. After the reception, we stayed overnight at the same Holiday Inn. My new husband roused me way too early the next morning so as to make sure we arrived at the airport in time for our flight for a Hawaiian honeymoon. It was a good thing he did, because we got seats when the flight was overbooked!
Our oldest son was born five years later. The baby was due on March 22, but I wanted him to arrive a day earlier on the first day of spring. He complied and came into the world on a beautiful morning. Not only that, but he arrived with the wished-for full head of hair. I had been afraid he would be bald like I was when I was born. His sex was a surprise to us in those days before they offered ultrasounds. I can remember not wanting to look away from his tiny face, memorizing every feature of this new person in my life.
Our younger son came along five years after that. A young man in a hurry, he was ten days early. Again, we did not know ahead of time what sex he was. When he was born, we knew he was ours when the nurse blurted out, "Gee, what big feet this baby has!" This was after we had passed the time in Labor and Delivery watching an Olympic hockey game. Later we learned this was a big mistake. Our child had one goal in life, and that was to play hockey. Beginning just a few years later, we were hockey parents until he completed high school.
Joyful memories, all. Beethoven's "Joy" as our wedding recessional set the tone for a happy life together.
Posted in 52 Stories | No Comments »
52 Stories #27—Leaving Home
At age eighteen, I left home, more or less, to attend college in a town a couple of hours away from where my family lived in Casper, Wyoming. The University of Wyoming is located in Laramie, and my arrival there was a homecoming of sorts for I was born in Laramie. My parents dropped me off one beautiful late summer day, and for the first time I was on my own. After that, I would return to my parents' home only for vacations. I was eager to begin my new life.
My high school buddy, Karen, and I received a room assignment in the women's dormitory, White Hall. At twelve stories, it was the tallest building in the state. We had a corner room on the sixth floor and promptly set about personalizing it. We had already purchased coordinated bedspreads in a very 70's-looking orange and avocado green. The room had three dark brown brick walls, and we painted the fourth wall gold. We felt privileged to have a sink in our room, but we had to travel down the hall for the toilets and showers.
Late in the afternoon of our arrival, after setting up our room, Karen and I explored the campus that would be our home for the next four years. We located the library and our Arts and Sciences College where she planned to study chemistry and I, psychology. We ran into a couple of guys from our high school graduating class who were also finding their way about the place. The cafeteria would not open for another day, so we spent a little of our precious funds to get a meal at a restaurant across the street from the dormitory complex. Back in White Hall for the evening, we met our neighbors and began to get acquainted.
Being suddenly cut off from any meaningful communication with my family felt very strange at first. Although we had a telephone on the wall in our room, I had no money for long-distance calls home. My parents never called me. I could write and receive letters, but composing them took time that a busy college student does not have. Only my mother wrote to me regularly. The built-in delays of back-and-forth letter writing made any meaningful conversation impossible. I felt alienated from my family, and we never regained the closeness we once had.
Yet soon enough, it did not matter so much. I had always liked school, and I enjoyed my studies. On Saturdays, I joined new friends to attend football games in War Memorial Stadium where we cheered on the Cowboys. On a couple of weekends when the team was away, someone with a car took Karen and me into the mountains surrounding Laramie for picnics.
In those early days, another welcoming place was Laramie's Lutheran Campus Center. I had the opportunity to stay there one night while I was still in high school, so the place was familiar to me. I began attending services on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings. The church was a constant in my life when so much else had changed. I met new people there, too, and attended the social events they hosted.
After a few weeks in Laramie I became accustomed to new routines and life on my own. I enjoyed my independence and the freedom it offered. The separation from my family began to feel okay. From then on, I concentrated on building my adult life. I had succeeded in leaving home.
52 Stories #26–Siblings
My parents had four children. I am the oldest, and I have two brothers and a sister. With a nine-year spread in our ages, I can remember clearly the births of my two youngest siblings, but I do not recall the day my first brother was born.
He arrived just 20 months after my own birth. To me, he has always been there. I am told we moved from a second-floor apartment to the main floor of a rental house to make room for him. Perhaps we shared a bedroom, but I do not remember this either. I recall the house as a noisy place with another family living in the basement. Understandably, my parents were eager to get us into a place solely occupied by the four of us. We did that about 6 months later when I was 2 ½. We rented a two-bedroom place known as The Dream House because it had once been a prize in a contest. For as long as we lived in that house, my brother and I shared a small bedroom. At first, he had a crib and I had a trundle bed. Later, we got bunk beds from the local Ethan Allen store.
We passed the crib along to our new baby brother when I was in kindergarten. From the beginning, the poor boy had more than his share of health problems. The day he came home from the hospital he was coated in a white salve to calm his eczema. That first year, he returned to the hospital a couple of times because severe allergies caused him to catch pneumonia easily. Life changed for all of us because of the elevated level of care he needed from the beginning and still needs today. We were glad to have my maternal grandmother there to help out for a while.
By the time I was nine, we lived in another state. A year later, a baby sister joined us. I stayed home from school that day to watch my brothers when my dad took my mom to the hospital for the birth. The process took longer than he anticipated. He came home at lunch time to make sure I had sent one brother to school and lunch ready. He also attempted to do a load of laundry, washing my brother's red hoodie with our white underwear. Bad idea–everything turned pink. When the telephone range with the message that my sister was born, my dad returned to the hospital while I minded one brother and awaited the arrival of the other from school. Dad spent the afternoon viewing my new sister in the hospital nursery and visiting my mom. That evening he returned to make burned scrambled eggs for us for supper. That was the last straw. He gave up on housewifery and called in my grandmother. She arrived the next day. Finally, I could go back to school and he could escape to his office. My mom and sister came home from the hospital a few days later. The boys and I had only a brief glimpse of the baby before they put her in for a nap in the bassinet.
Her arrival completed our family. In many ways, we siblings became two groups of two. My oldest brother and I do not remember a time without each other, but we can recall our family life together from the earliest days. To our young minds, it seemed a long time before the other two children arrived on the scene. Everything changed when they did. No longer were we a family with two big and independent children. We became a family that needed to accommodate babies again.
The day each the siblings arrived marked a successive turning point in my family life. I acquired new companions and shouldered new responsibilities each time. Overall, I remember it being a hard adjustment, and I was not always as gracious as I should have been. Sibling rivalry was alive and well at my house.
52 Stories in 52 Weeks #25—Babyhood
September 4th, 2017 | Author: Teri
Obviously I do not recall the day I was born, but later my mom did tell me a bit about my infancy.
My parents lived in the college town of Laramie, Wyoming at the time I was born. I came into the world at the old Ivinson Memorial Hospital one spring night. I was my mom and dad's first child.
I arrived a couple of weeks prematurely. Consequently, I was tiny and weighed less than the usual 5-pound threshold for life outside an incubator. Still, I had a lusty cry. The doctor decided I could skip the incubator and go home when my mother's prescribed recovery time in the hospital ended.
The first time my mother looked at me, she thought I resembled my Finnish relatives. I had a bald head, and perhaps she suspected I would be blonde like them. She was right.
My dad was finishing up school as a business student at the University of Wyoming that year. He was graduated a month after I was born. He must have loved studying for his final exams with a wailing infant in the house. I had the privilege of attending his graduation ceremony, but I wasted it by crying the entire time. My mother had to take me out of the auditorium, so she missed it, too.
After the graduation, my dad needed to attend a three-month orientation in Casper, Wyoming for his new job as a petroleum landman. In the fall, he would be assigned to a permanent location in a field office. Not wanting to live in temporary digs in Casper, my mom took me to stay with her parents in Rapid City, South Dakota for the summer. There, my grandparents and aunt doted on me, the first grandchild.
In early July, my dad drove over from Casper for a visit. While he was there, I was baptized at the Trinity Lutheran church on the Fourth of July. My mother's younger sister and my dad's older brother served as my godparents.
When autumn arrived, Dad collected us, and we three moved north to Bismarck, North Dakota to begin his job. It fell to my mom to find us a place to live.
She thought the perfect location was an upstairs apartment for rent across the street from my dad's office and the grocery store. Only problem was that the landlady wanted no children around. Mom went to talk to her and claimed that I was a very nice baby. She promised to keep me quiet.
The landlady relented. Mom, Dad, and I moved in. We stayed in that apartment until our family outgrew it when my brother was born a little over a year later. My mom said the landlady eventually grew to like me and was sorry to see us leave.
52 Stories #24–Family Sayings
August 28th, 2017 | Author: Teri
The men in our families often give us advice or correct our behavior. Sometimes we hear the same phrases over and over as we grow up.
I can recall a few from my childhood, all originating with or handed down by my father:
My great-grandfather, Samuel Harvey Reed (1845-1928) told his children "You inherited a good name, now keep it that way."
My dad, a Navy veteran, often reminded us to keep our home and belongings in Ship Shape.
My dad admonished us when he did not approve of our behavior. Many times he told us to "straighten up and fly right" when he caught us in wrongdoing or to "look alive" when we seemed lazy or slow-moving with an assigned task.
When we faced major life decisions, my dad advised us to "think very carefully about what you do" although he rarely ventured an opinion about what we should decide. Making an exception when we embarked on careers, he suggested that we should work in private industry instead of government so as to make more money.
I had no direct advice from my either of my grandfathers. Owen Herbert Reed (1896-1935) died in a motor vehicle accident long before I was born, and even my dad barely remembered him. Bjarne K. Bentsen (1906-1986) lived in another state, and I did not know him very well. When I did see him, we talked mostly of current events.
Perhaps my own children and grandchildren have heard me repeat some of the sayings from my childhood. They say we raise our children the same way we were brought up. In my family, that meant finding one's own way with little unsolicited advice from the previous generation.
52 Stories #23—My Dad's Early Days
What was my dad like in his younger days? Occasionally he told us stories from his childhood. We listened, wide-eyed. We could not imagine a life like his.
Dad and his brothers had silly nicknames for each other. Owen was "Bill", Harold was "Skeets", and Dad was "Doodle-bug". The three of them planned to move to Alaska to work when they were grown, excluding their brothers Robert and Donald. The three signed The Reed Agreement to this effect.
Dad hardly remembered his father. Owen Herbert Reed died in a vehicle crash near Brighton, Colorado just before Independence Day, 1935 when Dad was seven years old. My grandfather was driving a truck, hauling a load of fruit from Denver back to Wyoming when he went off the road. The load shifted and killed him. Dad and his brothers were at the movie theater in Wheatland that afternoon, looking forward to their father's expected return that evening. A neighbor went to the theater to fetch them when their mother received the grim news.
After their father's death and the loss of his income, the family lost its place to live. Dad's uncle Morton Reed traded some farmland near Wheatland for a small house in Loveland, Colorado and moved the family there. They qualified for widow and orphan benefits in Colorado because the accident had occurred there. Shortly after their arrival, they had a family portrait made with Harold, Owen, Robert, and Earl (my dad) in the back row and their mom, Grace, and Donald in the front.
Dad and his brothers used to say, "We hated Colorado when we had to move there in 1936, and we still hate it." Still, Harold remained there for the rest of his life, and Robert returned to Colorado after his military service. Hazel also returned to Colorado when her daughter was grown. My dad relocated to Colorado several years ago to live closer to me.
Dad and his brothers suffered some frightening injuries when they were young. They sneaked into a broom-making factory one day where they initially had fun poking stalks into the cutting machine. Then Dad pushed one too far and cut off the end of his middle finger. His older brother Owen scooped up the detached digit with his handkerchief, handed it to my dad, and told him to take it home to their mother. She immediately took Dad to the country doctor who sewed it back on. Dad carries a bad scar from this accident, but the finger regained full functionality.
Harold suffered a more severe injury while tree climbing. He accidentally grabbed an electrical wire and suffered a severe shock. For a long time afterwards, he had difficulty opening his hands. The same country doctor who had treated Dad instructed Harold to exercise by squeezing a small rubber ball. Harold eventually recovered full use of his hands.
Dad loved sports. At school he went out for football, basketball and track. He played wide receiver on the high school football team and went on to play college football at the school in Greeley, CO. He lost several teeth when he once went head-first into a goal post. Dad's brother Robert was the high school basketball coach, and my tall father was the center on the team. During his high school years, Dad went to the stadium one spring day to watch track practice. The coach needed someone to pace the boy who ran the mile for the track team, and he called my dad out of the stands. He beat the other boy in their race, and from then on, my dad was the miler for Loveland High School. He set a school record.
The Loveland economy relied on sugar beet farming. With no men around during WWII, local high school students filled in during the harvest. In 1943, the school closed for two weeks, and Dad helped to bring in the crop.
During those years, Dad had a little white dog. Runt had belonged to neighbors who could not take him along when they moved. The Reeds took him in.
Dad enjoyed reading from the time he was young. In Loveland, he began his lifelong patronage of the public library. He read mostly non-fiction like military history.
Dad graduated from high school when he was seventeen years old. He promptly enlisted in the Navy and went to San Diego for boot camp in 1945. After transport through Pearl Harbor to Okinawa, he was assigned to the USS Seer, a mine sweeper in the South China Sea. He spent Christmas, 1945 in Shanghai, China. Upon demobilization, he hitchhiked back to Colorado. With him he brought some Chinese pottery, a kimono, a Japanese military rifle, and his pea coat embroidered with a Chinese dragon. He also had a few photos of his time in the service. Although he served in the Navy, he did not acquire any tattoos when so many of his shipmates did. "I wasn't interested," was all he would say about that.
Dad has now outlived all his siblings. He will be 90 years old this week. He no longer remembers much of his younger days. I wish he had told more stories about his youth. Living through the Depression and the early death of his father made life hard for a young boy. I can see why he did not speak about it much.
52 Stories #22-Spending Time With My Dad
July 31st, 2017 | Author: Teri
My Dad worked as a petroleum landman and traveled a lot. He often spent weekdays on the road in another state, and one time he had a 3-month temporary assignment half way across the country. Nevertheless, on his weekends or rare weeks at home, he took time for me. What did we do?
He read to us. Dad liked to read, and he served as the parent who read bedtime stories to my brother and me. As we grew older, he took us to the library every weekend. During those visits, he made sure we had plenty of time to browse for just-the-right books.
He drove us to church on Sundays. My mom did not like to go, and she could not drive, so Dad took us every week. He would serve as an usher during the church service, go home briefly while we attended Sunday School class, and then return to pick us up.
Dad took care of our lawn, and I helped him with the weeding. We spent many summer evenings working in the yard, chatting away about anything and everything as we pulled undesirable plants from the grass and flower beds.
I learned cleaning skills from my dad. As a Navy veteran, he took pride in keeping things Ship Shape, and he took responsibility for the basement and the garage. He enlisted my brother and me to help. These chores did not seem so bad when Dad turned them into a group activity.
When my brother and I were tweens, Dad introduced us to local history. On summer weekends, he took us to various sites around Wyoming where we could experience the history of our state.
As I grew a little older, Dad and I discovered a mutual interest in family history. We began to compile information, contacting relatives to learn more. He and I worked together on the family tree for many years until he could no longer do so.
My dad enjoys music. He regularly listened to the radio in the car. He bought a record player when I was small, and he built a small collection of albums for it. Now that he lives in an assisted living complex, I like to visit him during a music activity. He and I sing together or watch a performing group.
Like all kids, I have always thought my dad is the best dad in the world. I realize now that it must not have come easily for him. His own father died in an accident when Dad was seven years old. Never again did Dad have a father in his household. He had no man at home to teach him and guide him. He had no role model for becoming a father himself. Despite that, he did a great job with us.
52 Stories in 52 Weeks #21—Dad and Me
July 24th, 2017 | Author: Teri
As the firstborn in my family, I am Daddy's Girl. Over the years I have worked hard to earn his approval, and he generously supports me in whatever I do. He is so approachable that I never hesitate to ask for his help or confide in him. He has an endearing gentleness that I recognized at an early age. Whenever I stubbed a toe or skinned a knee, I wanted him to treat it.
He and I are alike in some of our physical traits and temperament. I inherited my long legs from him. He put his to good use in sports, but I am not that coordinated. My height simply enables me to reach things in high places.
I also inherited The Temper from him and his paternal grandmother before him. Neither of us has much patience, nor did she. One time she cut down all the trees in her yard out of exasperation with the noisy birds living there. Now that is a short temper, and Dad and I both have it, too.
Dad and I have many interests in common, and we get along well. Over the years we have had long conversations about genealogy, history, finance, and politics. Dad worked as a petroleum landman for a major oil company, and I followed him into that profession. We both liked contracts and land title work.
Dad fostered my life-long interest in reading. He was the parent who read to us when we were young. When I had behavior problems in the second grade, he cured me by introducing me to the public library. He explained that if I just kept a novel in my desk, I could take it out to read instead of disturbing my classmates. It worked.
Dad and I differ in one big way. He has always loved team sports. At school he participated in every season—football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and track in the spring. He set a school record for running the mile, and he played college football. As an adult, he joined bowling and volleyball leagues. I have no such talent, nor do I have much interest in sports. I have rarely joined him to watch a ball game on TV. I prefer outdoor recreation like camping, hiking or bicycling, but Dad did not join me in those activities.
Through the years, my Dad has set a good example for me in all that he did. He nurtured my early interests, took me to church, and taught me valuable life skills. I often wonder how he became such a good dad when he lost his own at the young age of seven. Perhaps he just had a talent for it, and I am the lucky recipient.
52 Stories #20–Strong Women
July 3rd, 2017 | Author: Teri
Challenges and hardship can shape people. Have I seen examples of this in my own family? Of course. These women, my ancestors, lived through and overcame obstacles that I cannot imagine facing, yet they survived.
Olive Dunbar Riddle (1823-1902), my great-great grandmother. She was born on Cape Cod and spent her early years there surrounded by a large extended family. Her Hall and Dunvar forebears had lived in that state for 200 years, so it surely felt like home. Her father worked as a saltmaker. Olive likely envisioned that she would make her life in the area where she grew up, but life had other plans for her. The salt trade dried up before she was 10, and the parents decided to relocate to the country's interior. They sold everything and moved to Ohio, taking young Olive with them. Shortly thereafter, Olive's father, Benjamin E. Dunbar, died. Olive lived with her widowed mother until she married John D. Riddle when she was nineteen years old. After their marriage, Olive sold land she had inherited and the couple moved to Mendon, Michigan. There they bought a farm and had a family of nine children. Olive likely worked had as a farm wife, but things did not turn out happily for her. Her husband lost an eye, and they lost a grandchild in a fire. Several of her children moved far away to homesteads in Nebraska. As the years went by, the sight in John's remaining eye failed, and they relied heavily on the help of their eldest son, Isaac Newton Riddle. By 1896, John greatly feared blindness and poverty. He took his own life, leaving 73-year-old Olive a widow with a farm to run. Olive spent her remaining years on the farm with her son, scratching out a living. She passed away six years later after a hard life of trekking twice through the country to build a new home, raising a large family, and surviving tragedy. Her family remembered her as a kind and sweet woman, so she must have borne it all with grace.
Anna Petronellia Sherman (1865-1961), my great-grandmother. Petronellia never knew her mother. The family story tells us that this German woman died shortly after the birth of her child. Petronellia spent her early years as a virtual orphan in her paternal grandmother's Illinois home. Her father Thomas was often away on blacksmithing jobs. When Petronellia was six, a step-mother named Mary came into her life for a few years. Perhaps Petronellia was fond of her step-mother; she adopted Mary's Methodist faith. Yet by the time Petronellia reached the age of fifteen, Mary was gone, and her father was marrying again. This time, Petronellia definitely did not like her new step-mother, Alice. Petronellia left the stormy household as soon as she was able and promptly married a much older man. Samuel Harvey Reed already had two surviving daughters, 13-year-old Anna and 11-year-old Clara. Eighteen-year-old Petronellia became a step-mother herself. She and Samuel moved to southern Missouri to begin a new life away from Samuel's disapproving family, and she had seven children of her own. By all accounts, it was not easy to get along with Petronellia. She and Samuel divorced in 1904, and Petronellia later said she had married him because she liked his big, white house in Ashmore, Illinois. She had not known it actually belonged to his father, Caleb. After her divorce she married a former Confederate officer, John Coffey. That did not last long. After their divorce, Petronellia resumed used of the Reed surname and kept it the rest of her life. By World War I, one of her sons, Robert Morton Reed, worked on the railroad in southeastern Wyoming, so she took up a homestead there as a way to make a living on her own. She was in her fifties, and the first year she managed to grow only a bucket of potatoes. She disliked the dry, windblown prairie, so she sold out when she proved up the homestead. Her crustiness had seen her through. She returned to the gentle landscape of southern Missouri. Finding strength in her Methodist religion, she remained there and lived to be ninety-five years old. She is buried in the churchyard of her beloved Methodist church in Huggins, Missouri.
Laura Riddle (1853-1933), my great-grandmother. Laura could write her name but not much else. She was not much of a student. Born on a Michigan farm to Olive and John Riddle, she became a farmer herself. By 1880, she was a single mother of three sons, two of them disabled. Without much opportunity in Michigan, she moved to Nebraska near McCook to homestead alongside her older sister, Theodocia. A few years later, Laura's eldest son left home, and Theodocia's family moved on to Hyannis, Nebraska. Laura herself elected to settle on a new homestead near Palisade with her two younger sons, Louis and Joe. Eventually, she had another child, a daughter this time (my grandmother, Grace). Life on the homestead was hard, and Laura finally had to send Grace to live with Theodocia. When the chance for a larger homestead arose a few years later, Laura and the boys took it and moved on to Haigler, Nebraska. Throughout forty-five years of homesteading, Laura managed to care for her two sons and keep a farm. When she was in her 70's, she finally gave up her homestead and retired to Palisade with the boys. Described as a strong and robust woman, she lived to be eighty years old. The money from the homestead sale provided her a living for the rest of her life with a little left over for her four children. Despite a life of terrible hardship, Laura had never given up.
Sofie Sivertsdatter (1878-1966), my great-grandmother. Sofie was born at Valfjord in the county of Nordland, Norway. It must have been a sad household. At least five older siblings had died. Living in a home with elderly parents taught Sofie to be a hard worker. From an early age she contributed by caring for livestock for a relative. Eventually, she made her way to the town of Stokmarknes to work. There she met and married Ole Jorgen Bentsen. Life with him was not any easier. Almost immediately, he left for America, leaving her behind until their first child was born. The next year, traveling alone with a newborn, she made her way across the ocean to meet Ole in Minnesota. They scrimped and saved for two years until they had enough to settle on free land in Montana. Twice they homesteaded there, first on a 160-acre tract and then later on a 320-acre tract. After two more children had joined the young family, Sofie spent one winter virtually alone on the homestead while her husband lay in town ill with typhoid fever. Sofie nearly ran out of supplies and would have starved to death had not a passerby butchered a calf for her. Happily, Ole recovered and returned to her. Eventually, Sofie had another two children while she and Ole continued to manage their homestead and acquire more land. They were proud that they never borrowed against it, not even during the Great Depression. In 1952, they decided to retire to the town of Plentywood, Montana, and they sold their land to their son, Otto. Sofie developed a degenerative illness, but she carried on keeping house for Ole and attending events at the local Lutheran church. Despite her illness, she made fattigmand every year at Christmas time. By 1966, she became too weak to continue, and she passed away at the age of eighty-seven. She is buried in a prairie cemetery at Redstone, Montana, not far from her farm.
Strong women, all of them. I cannot imagine surviving some of the difficulties these ancestors faced. They survived pioneering, brutal farm labor, family tragedy, disabled children, and debilitating illness. If not for them, I would not be here. From their legacy I learned that complaining does no good. Find a way to keep going.
52 Stories in 52 Weeks no. 19—Remembering Grandma
June 26th, 2017 | Author: Teri
I remember both of my grandmothers so well—the Homesteader and the Flapper. They could not have been less alike, but I thought they both were great. Neither lived in the same town as me, so I looked forward to their visits. They usually stayed at our house at the same time for a couple of weeks in the summer and a couple of weeks at Christmas time.
The Homesteader
My Dad's mom, Grace Riddle (1896-1976), was born on her mother's Nebraska homestead. When she was about four, her mother could no longer care for her, and Grandma Grace went to live with an aunt. This woman had already raised her own family, and Grandma probably provided a good deal of help around the ranch her aunt and cousins ran. When the aunt died, she left Grandma a portion of her estate equal to that of her own children.
Grandma Grace seemed quite elderly to me even when I was a small child. Having grown up on a homestead at the turn of the last century, she was very old-fashioned. She wore housedresses and hose supported with ring garters. She never wore makeup. She had no television or telephone at home and did not understand how they worked. Nor could she comprehend why anyone would need them. She had no checking account and paid for everything with cash. Grandma liked to read, and she read every word of the newspaper every day.
Whenever Grandma Grace came to visit, we always eagerly asked whether she needed help unpacking her suitcase. We knew it was filled with trinkets for us. She delighted in collecting small items to give us each time she visited.
She liked to play with me. We made mudpies together, and we shared tea parties. When I was small, we took naps together on hot afternoons. She fell asleep easily while I continually asked whether she was still awake.
Her favorite household chore was washing dishes. That was my job at home, so she liked to help me. We had great conversations as we cleaned up the kitchen. She was interested in everything I did—school, choir, piano lessons.
Grandma Grace had six children, and she knew how to talk to kids. She shared little about herself, instead asking questions to draw us out in confiding in her. I was fortunate to have her for a Grandma.
The Flapper
You would never have known that my Mom's mom, Martha Mattila (1906-1977) was the child of immigrants from Finland. Although she had spoken only Finnish until she started school, she spoke perfect English by the time I knew her. She had gone to college and taught elementary school.
Grandma Martha was a city girl from Minnesota. She had come of age in the roaring 1920's. Grandma Martha loved shopping, dressing up, getting her hair done, and makeup. As a girl, I was fascinated with her morning routine of choosing a stylish outfit and "fixing her face".
Grandma Martha enjoyed gossip. As soon as she arrived at our house, she would settle in, light a cigarette, and proceed to tell us the news of our extended family. She knew the dirt on everyone and did not hesitate to share it. Memories of these conversations really helped me reconstruct my family tree when I became interested in genealogy.
Grandma Martha encouraged me in things a girl should know. She exhorted me to continue with my piano lessons when I became discouraged. She helped me with embroidery projects. She taught me to play card games. She bought me thoughtful gifts that I remember after all these years—a leather-bound Bible, a bonnet-style hairdryer.
She liked jewelry and wore a lot of costume pieces. When she tired of something, she gave it to me. I still have some of her necklaces and bracelets. I wore one to my youngest son's wedding in memory of her.
Their Legacy
I remember both of my grandmothers as being very supportive of me. I knew them equally well even though they lived in other states. I loved when they came to visit, and I always begged them to stay longer.
Both expressed the wish to live long enough to attend my wedding. They both made it! One of my favorite wedding photographs is of my groom and me standing with my grandmothers.
Each of them contributed in her own way to the person I am today. From Grandma Grace, I have a love of reading and a frugal nature. From Grandma Martha I learned life skills. From both these women, I hope I learned to be a good grandmother.


In Gujarat : Modi Vs RSS, Rahul Gandhi Vs Old Guard
By Seema Mustafa
|6 Dec 2017 4:43 PM GMT
NEW DELHI: Gujarat has become a battle not just between the BJP and the Congress but has dimensions that have turned Gujarati's into political hounds of the Bihar and Uttar Pradesh kind, speaking incessantly of politics.
Everyone has an opinion here but the consensus is that the BJP will lose seats. Not many see it losing the government, but all including die hard BJP supporters who have never voted for any party, admit that this time the party tally will be reduced. The figures vary but the conventional wisdom places these at at least 15-25 less for the BJP that will bring it into the 95-105 seats vicinity.
And of course, political pundits sit back with a "we know all" expression and launch into the impact of these Assembly results on 2019. Again the consensus here is that win or lose, if the BJP tally drops by even 10-15 seats it will bolster Opposition forces in the coming state elections in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls.
But in the midst of this debate that will be settled conclusively on December 9 and 14, there are two other battles that are being fought, with ferocious intensity that will have an impact on the future of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress to-be President Rahul Gandhi. Both are fighting for supremacy and control over and above the RSS, and the Congress old guard respectively.
The RSS has kept a distance from the Gujarat polls so far, with the result that its front organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have not been mobilised to help the BJP in these elections. This is possibly one reason for the lower crowds at the Prime Minister's rallies in the state. And also the reason why communal rumours are getting nipped in the bud with the BJP cyber trolls being effectively countered by the Congress on the social media.
In Gujarat the RSS---that is far more active in states like Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh now under two Chief Ministers who are not close to PM Modi and BJP President Amit Shah---has had to play second fiddle to PM Modi who is clear that he will not take instructions for his home state. Shah, who did seek the help of the RSS in the UP polls, is keeping away this time determined to prove that no other forces are required by them to win the elections.
In this power play, the RSS has developed stakes in a BJP defeat in Gujarat although its cadres are not working for either but just maintaining a distance. In the districts local RSS men came up to sing the praises of PM Modi, but as one of the voters, and not as campaigners. Clearly the RSS cadres are highly supportive of the Prime Minister, if not of the BJP, but as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad local leader in Ahmedabad Sunil Saini told The Citizen, "we are not campaigning, and will not until we receive instructions from the top (RSS) to do so." Sources said that after the first phase of polling on December 9, Shah and Modi will have to take a decision about the RSS cadres. "For if this round does not favour the BJP they will need the VHP and others," is the assessment.
But this dependency then will impact on the other elections, and will strengthen the RSS writ on the Modi government. There have been reports of tensions between the two after he became the Prime Minister with a mandate that extended far beyond the RSS reach. Ever since there has been a tug of war between the two, with both biting into the rope and letting it go only once in a while for tactical reasons. The RSS has clearly decided to play the final game as it were in Gujarat, and the hope clearly is that a reduction in the number of seats for the BJP will take some of the gloss off Modi, and transfer the sheen to Nagpur.
Rahul Gandhi is having a rougher time, as he has still to get the mandate that elevated Modi to the top rung of the hierarchical ladder. The people's overwhelming response placed PM Modi on a virtual pedestal, with the RSS having to follow him for a long while instead of the other way around. In Rahul Gandhi's case, the old guard in the Congress has been his worst enemy really for a long while, with many senior leaders planting stories against him in the past, and giving teeth to the BJP anti-RG propaganda of being naive and stupid.
Rahul Gandhi has been aware of this but unable to cut into the animosity in any meaningful way until his visit to the United States. Here he had his father's aide Sam Pitroda as his 'manager', to put it a little crudely, with the result that he did not have to contend with the old guard media managers in Delhi and had his cyber 'team', Pitroda and others handle the publicity directly. Gujarat is now the first testing ground for the Congress leader, who is also now actually on his way to taking over as the party president, win or lose. This is different from the UP polls, where presidentship had been linked with victory, and hence the slump in seats ensured by a non-active Congress organisation successfully stopped Rahul Gandhi's elevation.
It is no secret that while the old guard is being kept on board for inputs, Rahul Gandhi has brought in his own team into Gujarat, placing zonal managers who have been providing invaluable information to determine strategy. It is no secret in Gujarat that the younger leaders Jignesh Mevani, Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor are being dealt with directly by Rahul Gandhi who has intervened personally in their favour when the 'old guard' of the party made mistakes, that were seen as deliberate.
For instance a Patidar leader opposed by Hardik Patel was given a Congress ticket that led to protests by his supporters. It was only after Rahul Gandhi intervened that the ticket was cancelled, and Hardik Patel's nominees accommodated. Jignesh Mevani was given a ticket at the instance of Rahul Gandhi from Vadgam, but despite this the local Congress is in a state of non-cooperation. Similar reports have been received from other constituencies with Congress workers revolting, and even throwing stones, as in Maninagar constituency where the candidate---albeit rather weak---is a Rahul Gandhi choice.
The old guard of the Congress has worked fairly closely at times with the local BJP. Shankersinh Vaghela, for long a Congress leader "fortunately" according to a state Congress leader, left the party this election to form his own outfit that is barely being heard of now. However, it is no secret that Vaghela had been fairly close to the BJP and seen as one of the obstacles in the way of a Congress revival in the state. He had sufficient 'benefactors' in Delhi to keep him in position as the chief leader with the party barely moving in the state since 2002.
Rahul Gandhi's entry into Gujarat---unlike UP---has been with his own 'team', his own group of advisors, and a strategy that does not necessarily take the 'old guard' into confidence. In fact, quite the opposite as the sources said. Interestingly, it is common knowledge amongst Ahmedabad's informed sections that he is facing problems from the 'old guard' ---there are names but not being mentioned here as these remain unconfirmed---that would prefer the status quo, with Sonia Gandhi remaining Congress President. Also they are reluctant to hand over the reins of control to Rahul Gandhi as he will change all the equations within the party.
In fact it is the Congress organisation that is coming in the way of what could be victory for the party in Gujarat. That most people in the state still do not see a Congress government in power---except for the pollsters---is largely because of the ineffective and fractious organisation on the ground that has been checkmated in some constituencies by Rahul Gandhi's team but clearly not across the state. For example in Mehsana, a Patidar stronghold, the Congress has fielded a candidate from the caste but has left him to his own resources insofar as organisational support is concerned. Local Patidars admitted this, but many did say that they would be voting for him regardless.
A better performance in Gujarat will not just strengthen the Congress, but Rahul Gandhi and the new team he plans to bring in with him as the party president.
Seema Mustafa
Seema Mustafa is the Editor-in-Chief of The Citizen


Brad Paisley plots 'Beat This Winter' tour
After a successful summer outing, Brad Paisley has revealed plans to return to the road in early 2014 in support of his latest album, Wheelhouse. The cleverly titled "Beat This Winter" tour will make two stops in New England, with shows scheduled for Connecticut and New Hampshire. He'll be joined by special gusts Chris Young and Danielle Bradbery.
Paisley will first visit Uncasville, Connecticut for a performance at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday, February 14. Tickets for the Valentine's Day show will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster for $65 and $85. The following night, Paisley will travel north to New Hampshire for a show at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester. Tickets for the show, which range in price from $37.75 to $97.75, will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster.
Wheelhouse, Paisley's ninth studio effort and follow-up to 2011's This Is Country Music, debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 after its release in April. Recorded in Tennessee at his home studio, the West Virginia-native solely produced the album for the first time and also wrote or co-wrote each of its sings. Wheelhouse features singles "Southern Comfort Zone", "Beat This Summer" and "I Can't Change the World" (see him perform the song on NBC's "America's Got Talent" below). Paisley also collaborated with several guests artists on the album, including Dierks Bentley, Roger Miller, Hunter Hayes, Mat Kearney, Charlie Daniels, Eric Idle of Monty Python and LL Cool J (on the controversial track "Accidental Racist").
Published On: December 13, 2013
Brad Paisley reveals plans for summer tour
Brad Paisley extends tour into summer months
New Releases: July 12, 2011
BMS Photo by Rory Flynn Brad Paisley


17 October 2012|In Asia, Money, World News|6 Minutes
The Olympus Scandel
In what goes on record as one of the biggest business scandals in Japanese history, three former executives of 'Olympus', one of Japan's largest electronics firms, have pleaded guilty to charges over an alleged accounting scandal that saw the cover-up of corrected financial statements worth in the region of £1billion.
The news of the charges brought to Olympus's ex-chairman Tsoyushi Kikukawa, former executive vice-president Hisashi Mori, and the company's former auditor Hideo Yamada was confirmed on the morning of Tuesday 25th September. It was confirmed that all three had pleaded guilty to the charges made against them, which were related to alleged activity to inflate the net worth of the company with forged financial statements that date back up to 5 years ago and up until March 2011.
When interviewed after the hearing, Kikukawa was quick to accept the blame for the major accounting scam, and could only apologise for smearing the reputation of his company and all affiliated with Olympus electronics: – "The full responsibility lies with me and I feel deeply sorry for letting down our business partners, shareholders and the wider public".
An investigative panel that analysed the Olympus situation eventually identified Kikukawa, Mori and Yamada as key suspects in the cover-up, which, in part, was identified as a fraudulent system that looked to delay reckoning on a wide number of risky investments themselves and the company had made during the 'bubble economy' of the late 1980's and the early 1990's, where stock and real estate prices soared, until the 'bubble' collapsed a couple of years later which saw all prices plummet to an all-time low in 2003. Last December, the company submitted 5 years-worth of corrected or forged financial statements that, when uncovered and analysed by the investigative panel, showed a gap in their balance sheet close to $1.1billion (£677million) The cover-up proved to be their downfall, and in February the three former executives were arrested over suspected violation of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.
The investigation began after former British Olympus CEO Michael Woodford exposed the company's scam. Woodford was sacked back in 2011 after it was discovered he had been negotiating deals to cover up company losses.
Woodford had originally campaigned to get his job back, but has since pulled out of any attempts to reclaim his position after declaring that he thought 'cosy relations' between the management at Olympus and Japanese Shareholders the firm were affiliated with were starting to put strain on him and his family whilst trying to keep him off the company's hands. However, the action taken against his former colleagues, with the information he provided to a Japanese district court, will no doubt allow Woodford to crack a wry smile over getting some form of retaliation for how he has felt cast aside by his former technological empire.
It is also interesting to note that Olympus is not the only company that has been involved in suspicious dealings in Japan in recent times. Back in early August, electronics firm 'Oki Electrics' were found guilty of generating overstated accounts in their Madrid-based firm 'Systems Iberica'. As a result of this, they announced that they would miss the financial deadline for the Tokyo Stock exchange later that month, and that their errors could cost them up to £65million (8billion Yen). The company has since been put on watch by the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with the threat that the company could see themselves delisted should further suspicious activity be found. Similarly, Olympus could expect the same treatment should further discrepancies be found in the future.
With Olympus and its affiliates still under investigation by law enforcement agencies across the rest of Japan, and also in the United States and Britain, other business associated with them will begin to wonder if the panel's verdict may open their eyes to the possibility that the actions of Kikukawa, Mori and Yamada may have collateral damage that could affect their own figures. I'm sure, however, their current competitors, and in particular Mr Woodford, will welcome the setback that Olympus has had. For Olympus themselves though, not only their can their figures suffer from this, but their worldwide reputation can expect to take a hammering over what is one of the largest corporate cover-ups in modern business. The recent scams uncovered at both Olympus and Oki Electronics may make other businesses reluctant to engage too much with financial activity in Japan in recent weeks, and other worldwide companies might cast more scrutiny over one of the world's largest creators of modern-day technology.
Ironically, I bet they'll now be regret selling their own top-quality cameras to the journalists who were waiting with bated breath to expose the faces of the accused outside the courtroom.
BY: Robert Pritchard
Information sourced from the following links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19190483
http://news.sky.com/story/989179/olympus-execs-plead-guilty-to-accounting-scam


On This Day November 25th.
November 25: On this day in 1900, Bill Carson was born in Bracebridge, Ontario. Carson was in his first NHL season with the Toronto St. Pats when they became the Maple Leafs in 1926-27. In the following season, Carson scored the first goal in the Maple Leafs' first complete NHL season on opening night, November 15, 1927. During the 1927-28 season, he became the first Maple Leaf to score 20 goals in one season. In early 1929, he was traded to the Boston Bruins. Two months later, he scored the Cup-winning goal for Boston as they defeated the New York Rangers in the first ever all-American Stanley Cup final. As a St. Pat/Maple Leaf, Bill Carson had a decent total of 43 goals and 18 assists in 96 games. He retired from hockey to become a dentist. Bill Carson died on May 29, 1967.
November 25: On this day in 1972, Denis Dupere had one of his biggest games as a Leaf. He scored twice and added two assists, rookie Rick Kehoe scored his first career NHL hat trick and added two assists and Darryl Sittler picked up five assists as Toronto clobbered the visiting Oakland Seals 11-0. Denis Dupere played his first NHL game with the Leafs in February, 1971 and stayed through 1974 when he was claimed by Washington in the Expansion Draft. As a Leaf he had 29 goals and 44 assists in 192 games.
November 25: On this day in 1998, the Leafs defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-1. The game was odd in that Vancouver head coach, Mike Keenan pulled his goalie, Garth Snow with 18 minutes left in the 3rd period and Vancouver on the power play. He pulled the goalie again at the mid point of the 3rd and Leaf defenseman Dmitry Yushkevich scored into an empty net.


Snapchat for Android now lets you send 60-second 'multi-snap' videos
Scott Scrivens
3:28am PDT Oct 24, 2017
For anyone who still uses Snapchat, recording and sharing video clips is probably a large part of the experience. Before now, it's only been possible to record videos of up to 10 seconds in length, as this kind of ties in with Snapchat's whole brevity thing. As the app struggles for relevance and searches for new ways to engage with its users, it's decided to allow longer videos.
iOS got 'multi-snaps' a few months ago, but according to a couple of readers, it's now possible to record videos up to 60 seconds on Android, too. To do this, you simply have to keep your finger on the record button past the 10-second mark and it will continue to record. A little pane pops into view to show you that you've already got 10 seconds of video, and this will happen for each subsequent 10-second snap until you have up to 6 of them.
Once you've finished recording, you can delete any of the individual 10-second video parts, which could make for some unintentional comedy if it cuts in weird ways. You can also make the usual edits to your video, such as adding filters and text and so on. Then you can share your video in the typical ways, either by sending to one or more friends or adding to your story.
Right now, there are also Halloween themed paint brush strokes that let you draw with a stream of pumpkins, ghosts, and more, which is a nice spooky touch. It's unclear whether these changes were made server-side or came with the latest update a few days ago. You can check you're up to date on the Play Store or you can sideload the latest version from APKMirror.
Next on the agenda for Snap... how are you going to flog all those Spectacles?
Developer: Snap Inc
Phil and Ashraf
app updates
[Deal Alert] 256GB A1-rated SanDisk Ultra microSD is just $123.99 ($26 off) on Amazon
Google Photos awakens your nostalgia with "Then & Now" smart photo collages


Tofino, Canada Is the Dreamy Honeymoon Destination You've Never Heard Of
It's ideal for active outdoorsy couples and foodies
Kathryn Romeyn
Kathryn Romeyn has a degree in print journalism from Northeastern University. She is a seasoned travel writer with over 10 years of experience.
Published on 01/06/19
Courtesy of Pacific Sands
No offense to Canada, but generally speaking it doesn't exactly give off vibes of being the sexiest honeymoon destination around the globe. But actually it's home to quite a few seductive spots, including one standout island town of which most Americans have never even heard. That place, which many visitors (including this writer) feel inclined to keep a secret, is Tofino, on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia. World-class surfing, whales, magical forest hikes, black bears, exceptional fishing, friendly folks, sandy beaches, and hyperlocal cuisine—it seems too good to be true. Except it's not.
Adventure loving newlyweds will appreciate the adventure required simply to get to the tiny island of just one taxi. You could take a boat from Vancouver and then wind your way up the island for a few hours by car, hop a small plane from Vancouver's airport, or jump in a tinier seaplane (Harbour Air operates from May to October) that drops you directly at Tofino's harbor. All options come with plenty of jaw-dropping scenery, be warned. One of the many beautiful things about Tofino is its accessibility when it comes to cost—the US Dollar does especially well there, essentially giving Americans a third off the price of everything.
Surfers and beach addicts should book themselves into the best-located resort there is: Pacific Sands, which sprawls across Cox Bay, giving ample space for guests to enjoy the spectacularly wide forest-trimmed beach—somehow both sunrise and sunset are incredible here, so make a point of enjoying both with some local beer from Tofino Brewing Co. (like every other culinary business around they embrace local natural resources so much there's even a kelp-infused stout) or vino from B.C.'s Okanagan winemaking region. This is the place to surf, left-handers and right-handers break across the expansive bay with tons of space for beginners to get into the fun, too, with lessons from Surf Sister Surf School, which conveniently has an outpost within Pacific Sands.
Adrian Dorst
Accommodations are self-catering, which adds to the fun of going on a fishing trip (book with Tofino 1st Class Fishing for a stunning early morning in the mirror like sound or picturesque open ocean), say—you can bring back your coho salmon, halibut, rockfish and crabs to grill on barbecues or prepare in your kitchen. Romantic options include the Beach Houses, which have soaring ceilings, fireplaces and jacuzzi tubs with impeccable views of the Pacific Ocean. Signature Suites, too, have hot tubs on their balconies to savor those idyllic vistas. While summer season is, of course, the most popular—who doesn't love a hot beach day?—the winter in Tofino is also full of fun when stargazing is swapped with storm watching, a favorite pastime that involves cozying up by a fire with cocktails (Tofino also has its own craft distillery!) as massive storms roll in from the Pacific.
Those wishing to splurge on ultimate luxury can try out the Relais & Chateaux Wickaninnish Inn, a boutiquey 75-room, art-filled bolthole on a rocky promontory on the Pacific. If anything it's worth a trip to The Pointe Restaurant, a fine-dining spot with panoramic views that is the perfect place to toast to your new chapter over refined seafood. Like any good vacation, don't expect to lose weight while in Tofino, even if you are staying active with daily surfing, hikes (Schooner Cove Trail is a fun one through the rainforest to the ocean, while Bomber Trail goes through marshland to an old WWII plane crash near Pacific Rim National Park) or kayaking in the inlet. That's because it's a foodie's paradise.
Courtesy of The Wickaninnish Inn
The crown jewel of Tofino's culinary scene is indisputably Wolf in the Fog, a nationally recognized restaurant by chef Nick Nutting, whose wife, Hailey Pasemko, is the bar manager coming up with innovative cocktails featuring B.C. spirits and foraged infusions that will push the boundaries of your palette. Casual yet completely gourmet, it's a dining experience you'll want to repeat several times during the trip, since there are too many flavorsome dishes—all use locally caught fish, other proteins reared nearby, and Vancouver Island produce and veggies, along with foraged ingredients like kelp and mushrooms—to devour in one sitting.
Tacofino, a B.C. institution since it opened in a sticker-emblazoned food truck in Tofino and spread to the cities, is another must-go, especially if just-caught-lingcod fish tacos in a wooded parking lot are an appealing idea. Steps away is the perfect dessert stop, Chocolate Tofino. Grab scoops of fresh gelato in creative flavor combos and a few handmade chocolate surfboards for later. Sea Monster Noodle Bar, right in town, is a can't-miss for anyone who loves Asian-styled soups or has an affinity for steam buns. Work off those calories by window-shopping your way through Tofino's galleries and boutiques, or stop for another drink or bite at sister local goods–embracing restaurants Shed and Shelter. Picnics on the beach or in the rainforest are also a good idea, and supplies can be collected at the appropriately named shop Picnic—think inventive charcuterie and cheeses, plus accoutrements—across the street from the local bakery, brewery and distillery.
See more: Why You Should Honeymoon in Canada—and 5 Trips to Consider
Other attractions: bear and whale-watching tours, First Nations tours on the water in a dugout canoe, and a trip to hot springs on a tiny island off the coast—you can boat there, hike to the springs, soak, and then take a seaplane back for the most scenic multi-mode adventure. Of course, save time for a few dips in the jacuzzi after long walks on the beach. It's upon embracing the laid-back pace of beautiful Tofino that the magic really becomes evident.
The Top 50 Honeymoon Destinations
Where to Honeymoon in Spain
The 21 Best Places to Elope Around the World
The 10 Best Honeymoon Resorts in the U.S. and Canada
Why Western Australia May Be Your Dream Honeymoon Destination
15 Romantic Things to Do in Lexington, Kentucky
5 Epic Honeymoons for Nature Lovers
The 9 Best Honeymoon Resorts in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico
The Ultimate New Zealand Honeymoon Guide
The 11 Most Romantic Honeymoon Hotels in Northern California
6 Awesome Things to Do on a Punta Mita Honeymoon
The Ultimate Maldives Honeymoon Guide
What Is a Revenge Honeymoon—Plus, 8 Trips to Consider Booking Now and Taking Later
15 Honeymoon Suites Worth Checking Into for the Pools and Jacuzzis Alone
9 Honeymoon Destinations That LGBTQIA+ Travelers Will Love
15 Romantic Things for Couples to Do in Virginia Beach


Tags: campaign, D&D, experiment, life, players, practice
Thanks for buying this game! You'll do this many years from now! (by Larry Elmore)
How long does it take to play Dungeons & Dragons?
Several m0nths ago, James Malizewski observed that the Mentzer Companion Set effectively codified the much-needed "endgame" for Dungeons & Dragons. I respect James, but it's not much of an endgame if it never arrives.
I'm going to say that Level 12 effectively qualifies as hitting the endgame. Under the Moldvay/Marsh/Cook version of the Basic Game, most classes need about 600,000 points to reach Level 12.
How long does it take to get there? For a game that's been in play, in one form or another, for about 35 years, there seems to be very little hard data, though Maldoor made an early attempt.
I'll take a guess based on a semi-official pronouncement. The Holmes Basic Rulebook states that it should take about six to eight adventures to level up. I don't have my copy with me; I'm going from memory. Holmes, unfortunately, doesn't explain whether this means six to eight sessions of play, or six to eight completed dungeon-adventures. (In any event the most helpful measurement would be points acquired per hour of play.) But let's assume Holmes is talking about sessions of play. In that case it would take the player 72 to 96 sessions to reach Level 12–somewhere around three to four years if you're playing twice a month.
Frankly I think Holmes's math wasn't intended to apply beyond the first few levels, which after all were his main focus in the Basic Rulebook. As an example, a Magic-User needs 40,000 points to go from Level 6 to Level 7. To do so in eight sessions would require earning an average of 5,000 points per session (maybe 20-30 thousand for the party as whole). That's not impossible, but it's a very steep pace to maintain given the adversaries you'd have to fight. I don't have any hard data to suggest another rate of advancement, but presumably it gets a lot slower around high-level play.
But even at lower levels, Holmes's estimate of 6-8 adventures to level seems way off for our group of players. Eric's Principalities of Glantri game has been playing for about 20 sessions, and nearly all of the participants are still Level 1 (this is in large part due to turnover, both of characters and players). Tavis's White Sandbox game has had about 15 sessions with a more stable (but larger) cast, and maybe 50% of the regulars have gained one level. Also, we're playing with what amounts to double-XP-for-treasure rules, and Tavis is using the 100 XP per hit die of the enemy, so our advancement is considerably quicker than it would be if we were playing by the B/X rules. And we're also playing using published modules (B2 and Caverns of Thracia).
To me this suggests that Holmes's estimate is too generous by a factor of 2 or 3 (or it could be that the "adventures" he's using as his unit of advancement are maybe 2-3 sessions in length). So that would mean hitting Level 12 would take anywhere from 144 to 288 sessions. Playing twice a month, that's anywhere from 6 to 12 years.
So in order to reach the endgame of a D&D campaign, we're talking about a time commitment of at least 3 to maybe up to 12 years. For a casual social activity, competing for attention with one's professional and familial obligations, as well as whatever other interests one might have, it approaches absurdity.
Now, I'm assuming (1) that we're playing from the low-levels to my arbitrarily imposed cap of Level 12, and (2) we're advancing at a rate more-or-less as the rules intended. Either assumption might be wrong.
But to the extent that you're measuring your game against some idealized mode of play where folks go from Level 1 dopes to Level 12 super heroes, that is a long haul. Maintaining your own interest, to say nothing of your players', is going to be a serious challenge.
19 Responses to "are we there yet?"
1 JDJarvis
Wow 15 or 20 sessions and still having 50% or more of the PCs at 1st level is abysmally slow for low level play. Holmes mentions a rate of 6 to 12 adventures to gain a level, with this holding up into higher levels with 10-20% of adventures proving to be relatively profitless.
I played almost weekly campaign and we got 4 to 6 sessions a level going on hiatus with the party ranging from 10th to 14th level. It seemed pretty quick for me, possibly a little to quick for mostly weekly play but I was mixing adventure sources like a mad man and not being too picky with the way one version of the game provided exp compared to another.
My longest running campaign was topping out in the mid teens and it ran every two weeks for 7-8 years using the AD&D rules. We did spend about half that time at or near name level.
I participated in an on and off game that lasted until we were playing in the 20's with armies marching back and forth against each other across the nations of the D&D known world . I don't recall leveling up during the last year or so of that campaign as it had stopped being about that by that point in play. The longest running players certainly logged over 200 sessions in that campaign which had been in the end game for so long it was called "The Wars" by the regulars.
Hey JD, thanks VERY much for those data points (and for the correction on Holmes's figures – I'll make the necessary corrections later tonight).
For point of reference, Tavis's White Sandbox game started out at Level 3, so that may account for our leveling time leaning toward the highest end of Holmes's figures. It's a very big group, usually 8-10 players, and the average lifespan of a character is fairly brief – I'd bet our highest-level guys have played in about 8-10 sessions. One player has leveled up TWICE, but that's because he basically got very lucky in the sessions he attended, picking up the pieces from a couple of 90% completed delves. I dream that my character can steal as much credit and hog as much glory as "John Fighter."
One thing to keep in mind is that if you're playing in ~100 sessions, and your character has a 5% chance of dying in any given session, then your odds against surviving for 100 sessions are 168:1. I guess that's not too bad with resurrection magic. But if, say, it takes you 30 sessions to crawl from Level 1 to (say) Level 5 – that is, a level high enough that someone might care enough to cast Raise Dead on you – then your odds against survival are 4:1 against.
3 cr0m
This is an area I'm keenly interested in, but unfortunately don't have much data to contribute–yet.
I've got a couple of PCs who survived 5 sessions in the Caves of Chaos and earned just under 4,000xp–not enough to level since they're both Elves. In my Moldvay-ish Lost Mine, there's a Dwarf who has survived 6 sessions and earned about 300xp. Although I suspect that if they return for another session, they're going to double that amount, because they've thoroughly mapped nearly the whole dungeon, and have unluckily managed to avoid the two large caches of treasure that remain (out of three).
Tonight I'm running the first completely BtB Moldvay dungeon I've made. There's probably about 12,000gp on the first level alone, and about 1500xp worth of monsters. This one should be a much better test of BtB advancement.
4 Eric Minton
"How long does it take to play Dungeons & Dragons? … I respect James, but it's not much of an endgame if it never arrives."
The implication here is that you're not really playing the game if you don't reach the endgame.
"The Holmes Basic Rulebook states that it should take about six to eight adventures to level up. … But let's assume Holmes is talking about sessions of play. In that case it would take the player 72 to 96 sessions to reach Level 12–somewhere around three to four years if you're playing twice a month."
I doubt long-term play was intended to occur so sparingly. You and I are working on an urban timescale that doesn't match what I know of early play, which apparently involved multiple sessions each week.
For a related anecdote, several years ago I discussed the "One World by Night" cross-campaign Vampire live action group with one of its members. Apparently the group was experiencing problems because different chapters of the organization were playing at drastically different rates. Whereas many East Coast groups met once or twice per month and gave out XP accordingly, some of the small-town Midwestern chapters met two to three times per week. Long-running PCs in the latter groups had something like ten times as much XP as those in the former, providing an overwhelming statistical advantage when they crossed over to other games in the franchise.
Working from your estimate, a group that plays three times a week will hit level 12 in six to eight months.
"Eric's Principalities of Glantri game has been playing for about 20 sessions, and nearly all of the participants are still Level 1 (this is in large part due to turnover, both of characters and players)."
And there's a whole lot of turnover! I don't think the Glantri game can be used as an effective benchmark on that basis.
In addition, I expect that early players accomplished a lot more per session than we do in the Glantri game. Our sessions are quite short, and we also have a more frivolous attitude toward play than I expect from a tradition that started among wargamers, especially if the examples of play in the early rulebooks are to be taken at face value. Where we putter around cracking jokes and making unrealistic plans, old school players appeared to push hard to get through as many encounters as possible in the time available to them.
I believe you're wrong on both points. The latter is an objective matter; the former is subjective, as noted below.
To the question of how to maintain your interest, I'll turn that question back on you.
What interests you about Dungeons & Dragons?
Eric, my post could be summarized in the following for questions:
(1) Do you think that advancing from level 1 to the (allegedly) rules-defined endgame in Dungeons & Dragons takes a long time?
(2) If so, how many sessions, over how many hours of play, and over what span of real-time?
(3) What are the the social opportunity costs of doing something for that many hours?
and, in light of my previous blog post:
(4) How does the play of Old-Timey Dungeons & Dragons satisfy or exceed those opportunity costs?
My own answers are (1) yes, (2) apparently ~100 sessions, ~400 hours of play, and (for our group) many many years; (3) ~400 hours is 10 standard work weeks, or about 14 whole weekends (assuming I'm conscious for about 30 hours per weekend); (4) for me it can't, and thus I personally feel playing from Level 1 to Level 12 would be immensely dissatisfying.
Obviously YMMV.
Oh, and what interests me about D&D is a board-gamey element, and a caper element. Neither could sustain my interest for 400 hours, and that's not a black mark against D&D specifically: very few things can do so.
7 Greengoat
On a slightly side note, somewhat related to "ideal" session length. I recall that my D&D time from my formative years (junior high – highschool) was absolutely chock full of dithered play time. I recall a scheduled all-nighter with five of my friends and we literally spent more time thinking of a name for our party than actually adventuring. I never started having serious play time (like I read about in the DMG) until college when time became more limited.
The slower advancement that we are experiencing in the current two red/white campaigns is somewhat of a shock to realize. Like some type of catholic guilt, I used to think I was doing something wrong or not playing seriously enough in those golden years.
I hear you GG. Back in the day my players excoriated me for being such a stingy, hard-ass DM. Turns out I was playing in the spirit of the game (Moldvay, anyhow).
A very good point emerges from James' post and the back-and-forth with Eric. If these early editions of the game are built with 3 games a week schedules, longer sessions and more goal-oriented players, then we ought to seriously consider modifying advancement to match up with the way we play now, in order to experience the endgame, the midgame, or hell: how about second level?
I hear clerics actually get a spell there. :)
9 tavisallison
Some historical data on rates of advancement as of 1975, using the pre-Supplement I 100 XP per HD rules I also use in the White Sandbox, comes from the [Europa fanzine]. Sandy Eisen notes that "after 2 terms – 4 months – of weekly excursions, the highest members of our party are 5th level" (this seems to be a campaign run at Cambridge University in the UK).
Gygax writes that "There is a campaign I know of where I am informed by a player that after eight month of constant adventuring there is an 8th level Magic-User as the highest level in the game, and that is tough but good" – the lack of definition of what "constant" adventuring means makes this less useful for analysis, but it's invaluable as an endorsement of what "doing it right" would look like.
10 cr0m
The data is tantalizingly incomplete, isn't it? Four months of weekly excursions are 16 sessions… but how many players per session? And as you said, what does "constant adventuring" mean? My guess is that Gary wouldn't consider anything less than his own standards for adventuring to be "constant", so that might mean multiple games per week. Or it might mean daily games (a frightening thought).
There are so many moving parts to advancement: the treasure tables, the dungeon stocking tables, how many "specials" the DM puts on the map, etc. And then there's the wildly different rewards for monsters between OD&D and B/X.
Still, all this analysis of the advancement rules might miss the point: even if we're doing it BtB, it might still not be "right". Based on my limited experience with B/X D&D, I strongly suspect that the only way to get to higher levels is for the DM to create dungeons and place treasures according to his own system, and not the one outlined in Moldvay.
11 Alexander
I don't think its the DM's job to control the rate of advancement. It's the DM's job to ensure that there are enough interesting monsters with treasure at appropriate levels.
Rather than enforce any particular rate of advancement, what I have done is populate a large sandbox with a lot of monsters, and then followed a strict treasure placement algorithm: For each 1xp of monsters in the campaign, there is exactly 4xp value of treasure. The treasure is generally a spread of coin, gems, jewelry, and "trade goods" weighing on average 1cn per 1xp. It usually is hidden in vaults or treasure rooms, protected by traps, etc. In any micro-region there may be monsters without treasure or treasure without monsters but the overall ratio is fixed.
With this in place, the rate of advancement lies in the party's hands. Skilled, exploratory play, with fewer NPCs, can yield more treasure in a shorter period of time and consequently faster advancement. Unskilled play, or more cautious play, with more NPCs taking a share, slows advancement down.
Using this model, we've run 1 session per week for 26 sessions, each session lasting 5-6 hours. There are 5 PCs with anywhere from 4 to 16 NPC hirelings. Turnover among PCs has been 80% (i.e. 4 out of 5 characters died and were replaced with new ones) but virtually all turnover was between levels 1-3. Since level 3 there has not been any permanent PC death, as they have Raised their fallen.
As of the end of session 26, we have: 1 7th level Thief; 1 7th level Cleric; 1 6th level Fighter; 1 6th level Magic-User; and 1 5th level Elf. This represents leveling at a rate of 1 level per 4.33 sessions.
12 James Nostack
So around 143 hours of play for about 40,000 points per player?
I don't really see much difference. Can you elaborate?
James, perhaps the difference only becomes apparent if you consider the difference between a directed story campaign and a sandbox campaign. In a directed story campaign, the campaign is "going somewhere". When you evaluate a directed story campaign, you're evaluating it for whether it had good pacing, plot, and climax. Leveling is necessary to the directed story, as the protagonists advance in power to confront the antagonist, but leveling must also be constrained, so the protagonists don't over-advance in power too soon, lest they become bigger than the story allows. So the DM of a directed story campaign literally must control the rate of advancement. A story-driven campaign may have a volume of treasure and monsters that is entirely out of whack with the speed of leveling that "should" happen. Dragonlance is a great example of this. But this is the very definition of how the game ought not be played, at least insofar as one is attempting to play "old school".
In contrast, in a sandbox campaign, the campaign just is. The answer to "How long does it take to get there?" is "As long as it takes the players to accumulate XXX,XXXXgp." And how long that will be will entirely depend on what the players do, and how they do it.
Or, to put it another way, consider a 500-wide hex map, with each hex being 6 miles. At the far end of the map is a temple of elemental evil. How long will it take the party to get to the temple of elemental evil?
In a story-driven campaign, the answer the DM will give you is something like "8-10 sessions, assuming that they find the location from the Sword-Wraith after they are betrayed by the Ogre Mage in session 4".
In a sandbox campaign, the answer will be something like "They can move 24 miles per day, or 4 hexes, in good terrain, but how much of their gameplay they'll be devoting to travelling towards the temple, I couldn't tell you. And they might have wandering monsters. Or go the wrong direction. But if they get a magic carpet, it could be faster. I don't know. Depends on them, I guess."
For comparison, here are the numbers from the Moldvay generated dungeon I'm currently running:
23 rooms, ~65HD of monsters*, 1,175xp, 11,036gp.
* approximate because some monsters have 1/2 HD, some have 1-1HD, etc.
My average party is 5 PCs and 4 retainers, which comes out to about 1,744xp for each PC.
Using Alexander's system that would be 650xp from monsters and 2,600gp, assuming 10xp per HD as in Moldvay. That's a grand total of 3,250xp, which comes out to 464xp for each PC.
Which leads me to think I'm misunderstanding Alexander's system or he's not playing Moldvay Basic. :)
It'll be interesting to see how many sessions it takes my group(s) to clear it. My guess is about 12 three-hour sessions.
Alexander, I think we may have different ideas about what "story-driven" means, but I think I understand what you're getting at.
We are using Moldvay/Cook. I haven't altered the xp award from monsters, but I have altered the treasure distribution in that rather than use the random roll Treasure Types tables, I hand-place treasure at an overall fixed ratio. Note that in some cases this means the amount of treasure I award is actually less than the amount that a random roll in Moldvay/Cook would be, while sometimes its more.
All I'm really saying, I guess, is that in a sandbox campaign the rate of advancement is entirely dependent on (a) how much treasure you put in the setting, (b) how challenging you make it to get the treasure, and (c) how skilled the players are in meeting the challenge. The answer to "how long it takes to get to the endgame" is simply a result of your inputs to (a),(b), and (c). The particular ratio I chose for (a) and (b), with players of whatever skill my group has, seems to lead to the results I described, roughly 7 months of regular play to get to leve 5-7, or about 1 level per month or 1 level per 4 sessions.
17 tavisallison
Over at EN World, Raven Crowking has [a thread about leveling assumptions] in qhich he quotes Gygax from the Strategic Review issue 2.2: "It is reasonable to calculate that if a fair player takes part in 50 to 75 games in the course of a year he should acquire sufficient experience points to make him about 9th to 11th level, assuming that he manages to survive all that play."
@Tavis, that thread is a good read. Personally, I would be very satisfied if PCs were leveling every 4-8 sessions. I suspect that advancement, like a lot of other parts of the game, was subject to DM fiat. Even in (or especially in?) Gary's own games.
@Alexander, your sandbox sounds very cool. Formulaic treasure distribution is pretty appealing to me. Even with only 5PCs and 4 henchmen (ie the minimum), they'd need to earn 3,500xp per session to wind up with 500xp per PC (ie 25% of 2nd level). That'd be difficult to pull off with the treasure tables in B/X. If you've got a wiki or anything for your game, I'd love to check it out.
sandbox lifecycle « The Mule Abides Pingback on May 4th, 2010 at 2:14 am
« fates worse than death
Why a West Marches Campaign Needs a Town (Moving Into the Dungeon, Pt. 1) »


'The Nevers': On HBO's ambitious fantasy series, women's supernatural gifts just keep on giving
The visuals dazzle and the action scenes thrill on a show that's part 'X-Men' and part 'Doctor Who.'
SHARE 'The Nevers': On HBO's ambitious fantasy series, women's supernatural gifts just keep on giving
Penance Adair (Ann Skelly, left) and best friend Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) have powers beyond those of ordinary humans on "The Nevers."
We're a few episodes into HBO's steampunk sci-fi fantasy series "The Nevers" when a main character says, "I still don't understand what's going on," and my immediate reaction was:
You and me both, sister.
'The Nevers'
A series airing from 8 to 9 p.m. Sundays on HBO and streaming on HBO Max.
But even when the multiple plot strands curl this way and that, and if it's a bit difficult to keep track of all the players without a scorecard, "The Nevers" is a dazzling visual feast with gorgeous sets and first-rate CGI, sly humor, ambitious and sometimes deeply moving set pieces and wonderful performances from the ensemble cast. This whirling dervish of a series from Joss Whedon is part "X-Men" and part "Doctor Who," with elements of previous Whedon projects such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as well. (The series parted ways with Whedon after he was accused of workplace misconduct on past shows.) It's a Victorian London horror story; a police procedural where some cops are as crooked as the bad guys they're pursuing; a celebration of a deep and abiding friendship between two strong and misunderstood women who are heroes even though the world might not be ready for that, and even a sexy screwball comedy romp. (There are moments when "The Nevers" seems determined to challenge early "Game of Thrones" for Most Nude Extras in a Single Scene.)
We kick off in 1896 London, which is still roiling from an event three years previous that rendered hundreds of residents, mostly women and girls, with unusual gifts and/or curses, depending on one's point of view. Each of "The Touched," as they are labeled, had a unique reaction. One girl was transformed into a 10-foot giant. Another can turn anything into glass, while another can levitate objects, and another can shatter anything she touches.
Our co-heroes are Amalia True (Laura Donnelly), who has the ability to see flashes of events from the near future, giving her a decided advantage when the fighting breaks out, and she's a hell of a fighter; and Amalia's trusty sidekick and best friend Penance Adair (Ann Skelly), who is able to invent really cool steampunk tasers and other weapons. She's like Q from James Bond in a corset.
Many of the touched live in a group home started by socialite Lavinia Bidlow (Olivia Williams) and they try to keep a low profile, but public sentiment has turned against them because one of their ranks, a wild-eyed woman named Maladie (Amy Manson), is a serial killer. (Way to ruin things for the group, Maladie!)
Meanwhile, there's a sometimes distracting but greatly amusing subplot involving the narcissistic society do-nothing Hugo Swann (James Norton), who runs a brothel for the upper class. There's also a crooked cop (Ben Chaplin) investigating the serial killings, a Dr. Frankenstein-type scientist (Denis O'Hare) obsessed with the Touched, and a morose government official (Pip Torrens) determined to bring down the Touched before they bring down London. "The Nevers" alternates between adult soap-opera exposition scenes where plans are hatched and loyalties are betrayed, and stunning action sequences such as a frantic chase through the streets of London and a mass slaying at an opera.
The production design and the costumes are gorgeous. The violence is steeped in CGI but feels authentic. The performances are universally excellent, with Laura Donnelly leading the way with a fierce yet vulnerable turn as Amalia, a classic conflicted and troubled anti-superhero who is determined to do the right thing even if it means getting shot or stabbed in the process.


Regional Navies Must Take Responsibility for Pacific Security
120727-N-VD564-015 PACIFIC OCEAN (July 27, 2012) Ships and submarines participating in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise 2012 sail in formation in the waters around the Hawaiian islands. Twenty-two nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise from June 29 to Aug. 3, in and around the Hawaiian Islands. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2012 is the 23rd exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Keith Devinney/RELEASED)
If tensions continue to rise between the United States and China, smaller Pacific navies may need to organize outside RimPac to ensure regional security.
During Rim of the Pacific (RimPac) 2018, Chilean Navy Commodore Pablo Niemann was the maritime component commander. With him were the frigate CNS Almirante Lynch, a Chilean Marine Corps platoon, and a group of officers and ratings who were part of the command-and-control organization of the exercise. This was not a new occurrence for Chile—it has been participating in RimPac since 1996—but it was significant because of the responsibilities given to Commodore Niemann.
Chile and other Pacific navies attend other exercises such as UNITAS, Kakadu, Malabar, and Teamwork South, but RimPac is unique in its complexity, number of participating countries, and nearly 40-year history, making it the region's most important naval community exercise. It also is unique in providing an opportunity for participating navies to train and operate as a multinational naval force to promote a stable Pacific region with safe and open sea lanes.
But what if that goal were in danger because of the competition between two important players located on opposite sides of this very large ocean? For RimPac 2018, the U.S. Navy disinvited the Chinese Navy because of events in the South China Sea.
A stable, secure, and open Pacific Ocean requires a collective effort, one in which all navies that operate there must participate. Regional economies need this to happen, or their exports and imports will not reach their destinations. Countries such as Chile, Peru, and Colombia export commodities to China and other Asian states. What would happen if the Malacca Strait or other relevant choke points were to close because of increased tension between the two great powers?
Does RimPac continue to be special if not all players are included? It might be beneficial for training purposes and for regional navies to gain experience being part of a large naval exercise, but it would not continue to deliver on its unique purpose.
CHINA CONSIDERATIONS
China is becoming active in all parts of the world. It is investing in the economies of many countries and making its weight felt when it perceives actions to be against Chinese national interests. For countries with high levels of exports to Chinese markets, this includes reminding them who is paying the bills. How China will perceive participation in RimPac must be taken into account. Regional nations may have strong bonds with the United States, but in many cases, China pays, and money talks.
If China is not participating in RimPac, it might not be happy to find its trading partners exercising as part of a multinational naval force led by the U.S. Navy. And smaller countries dependent on Chinese exports might not want to risk finding out China's opinion. This is a reality for countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Canada, Peru, and Colombia.
So what other options could help ensure a stable, secure, and open Pacific Ocean?
The first option is to do nothing and assume that regional navies and coast guards will take care of their areas of responsibility independently. This avoids the stress of having to pick sides between the United States and China, but reaching the objective would be complicated unless small and medium-size navies make strong investments in developing additional capabilities. For example, if the Singapore Navy were to take sole responsibility for the Malacca Strait, one of world's more important choke points, it would need a significant increase in vessels and manpower, and that would require both money and time. Singapore has been investing in its navy, with new hardware and plans for more capable submarines and joint multimission ships, but that might not be enough.
Continuing with the Malacca Strait, logic then says the Singapore Navy should operate with the navies of Malaysia and Indonesia. Having three navies share the burden of keeping the strait open would be easier and cheaper, but it would require common operating standards and training. The good news is that the training already is taking place—the navies of Singapore and Indonesia held their 25th Exercise Eagle Indopura in July 2019—and there is a Malacca Strait patrol composed of those three countries plus Thailand.
The Malacca and Singapore Straits Patrol (MSSP) includes coordinated but not joint patrols of maritime, naval, and air surveillance assets and intelligence information exchange. It has been in place for 15 years and gets more sophisticated each year, but it does not aim to produce an MSSP naval force. Each navy operates with its own areas of responsibility, with the efforts focused on coordination of assets to produce safe and secure Malacca and Singapore Straits.
The MSSP has reached sufficient maturity that, as long as the contributing countries stay committed to the effort and threat conditions are low, the straits will continue to be secure and safe. But because the MSSP is based on coordination and not jointness, anything more complex goes beyond its designed capabilities.
So what if things get complicated and multinational forces of the size that RimPac would provide are not available or the region chooses not to involve the United States or China because of tensions between them? The solution might require transitioning the MSSP from a coordinated to a joint operation using Exercise Eagle Indopura as a foundation. The exercise already includes two of the countries involved, and it would not be that complicated to add Thailand and Malaysia.
Another solution might be to include countries such as India, which already has indicated interest in the MSSP, or Australia, which has significant naval assets and experience operating in multinational naval forces and organizes its own very popular Kakadu exercise. Other western Pacific countries such as South Korea and New Zealand that depend on global trade and would suffer if a strait were closed or unsafe also might want to participate. Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Chile all trade with the Indo-Pacific region and would like to keep the Malacca and Singapore Straits open and secure. Canada and Chile have the qualifications, experience, and equipment needed to work with other RimPac partners.
So perhaps the best option would be solutions that target specific problems or critical maritime passages and assets, carried out by the parties that have a vital interest in the success of the efforts. RimPac could be an example of how to develop the logistics, training, and coordination to produce a multinational naval force.
The MSSP model of coordinated and potentially joint operations should be implemented not only in the Malacca and Singapore Straits, but also in other parts of the Pacific. For example, a new South Pacific Alliance could patrol the sea space that separates Australia and New Zealand from Chile and Antarctica. Having countries responsible for sea spaces brings the obligations of ownership, which leads to the following proposal.
TERRITORIALIZATION OF THE SEA
The current maritime operating model is based on the idea that the oceans are free and open space that anyone can use. In recent years, however, areas near coastlines—countries' exclusive economic zones—have become national assets. This evolution has not affected the flow of trade, and to some extent it could be said that having countries "own" maritime territories has increased security and safety in the sea spaces that belong to them.
Increasing the size of exclusive economic zones could be a way to increase the safety and security of the seas, as could making groups of countries responsible for sea areas or specific maritime assets. The global commons do not have an owner, and without ownership it is difficult to assign responsibility and obligations for safety and security.
Who should be responsible for the stability, safety, and security of the Pacific is a difficult question. Under Pax Americana, the region assumed it was the United States' obligation to deliver and, if needed, get us organized. But when U.S. leadership is being contested by another western Pacific power, smaller countries need to get organized, because we cannot assume this ocean will continue to be a peaceable one. The time has come for all Pacific Rim countries to take responsibility and get organized, as was done with the antipiracy operations off Somalia. The Pacific sea space is vital for most regional nations, and we should act accordingly.
Richard Kouyoumdjian Inglis
MR. KOUYOUMDJIAN INGLIS, a life member of the U.S. Naval Institute and former Chilean Navy officer, is vice chairman of AthenaLab, a Chilean think tank dedicated to national security, defense, and international relations, and a board member of the Chilean Maritime League. He holds a degree in weapons engineering and a master's from the War Studies Department of King's College London.
Copyright U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings magazine. Reprinted with permission.
Record Drug Seizure Caps Off Difficult Year for Chile
Global Britain becomes a reality
Chilean Navy and Royal Navy: Past, Present and Future
Tweets by AthenaLabOrg
© 2020 AthenaLab | Teléfono: (56 2) 2 25947457 - Av. El Golf 40, Piso 12, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile - contacto@athenalab.org