Mother's Day

Because this is my first Mother's Day after my own mother's passing it's a bit too tender for me to write much about her other than to say she was a remarkable woman whom I miss terribly. I think I'll be able to write about her some day but for now I'll skip back a couple generations and write about my wonderful great-grandmother, which you can read under the cut.

One of the sites I've linked to in previous postings is PublishAmerica Sucks.com. The owner of the site has posted a lot of good information about how Publish America has treated her and other authors. There are some fun things on the site as well.

My favorite stop is "The Tour" a tongue in cheek travelogue featuring a cast of AW characters. I recently got included in the tour 'cast' as their translator of Poz-eze. Here's an excerpt from one of the daily entries:

Back on the bus, Molly driving us hell-bent for leather to Illinois, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B. B. King, and John Lee Hooker wafting from the sound system, we broke the white-line monotony by getting online. Yep, you guessed it, we had to visit the Poz boards to see what chicanery was afoot. Thankfully, Dawno was standing by at the ready to interpret for us.

"Woof, I recieved my doolar! I am on happy gril! I am on my way my book wlii be ot soon they're is no grater happyness!! My future is shinny. I am an plublished arthur!!!"

"Okay, Dawno," we implored. "WTF? Translate, please."

"This is a female," Dawno pontificated, "who has received her one-dollar advance. She's a happy girl doing the Happy Snoopy dance, believing that her respectably published book will soon be released and serve as a pad from which to launch her successful career as a published author. Oh, yeah, and she has a shining “ or perhaps shiny “ future."

"Bravo!" we cheered Dawno's interpretation skills. "But so, so sad for that poor woman who is about to receive the letdown of her life."

I commend Linda for putting this site together, purchasing the domain name and undoubtedly paying for bandwidth so many people can visit. She would love you to visit.

Mary Elizabeth Corwin

Gramma was born May 28th of 1891. She was raised by foster parents in small towns in Ohio. She put some thoughts about that down in a little spiral notebook along with some clippings about that time.

Her mother died of typhoid fever which Gramma said was epidemic at the time. Her father was young and since he had to travel to find farm work he couldn't care for two very small children.

He put them in an orphanage and paid for their care. When my grandmother was about 2 years old he went for a visit and was appalled at the conditions underwhich they were kept and removed them. Her brother was raised by her father's mother in law and Gramma was raised by Mr and Mrs Doan, friends of her father. She thought of them as her real parents all her life. She was well into her 80's before she met her brother again and he had been searching for her for many years before he finally tracked her down.

She tells of the homes she lived in, one of which was a failed establishment which would be a luxury spa today situated near mineral springs and featuring "healthful baths". This was on the outskirts of Texas, Ohio and because it was remote and transportation in the early 1900's was poor it failed. There were dances held there and she learned to dance at a very young age.

I could go on and on, it's amazing how different life was back then.

Posted by Dawno at May 8, 2005 11:27 AM