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Just Some News Items
I think Harold Ellis should have been made the official photographer of the NAPA convention, because the snapshots he made were more flattering than those of O. Organ.
Lauren Geringer & Larry & Gloria Martin & son Dan, attended the UAP convention in Des Moines, Iowa & both men showed their skill in photography, but I believe Gehry topped Larry, as his colored indoor shots at Salisbury House were better than their commercial views & his outdoor photos were beauties. Larry’s concentrated more on attendees and make a precious reminder that at last Gloria & I got to meet, after having missed meeting at Denver in 1970.
Norman & Ruby Quillman were not at the San Diego convention because Ruby went to Wales to attend the Gymanfa Ganu in Sansea and the Eisteddfod in Carmarthen, plus visiting relatives in Cardigan and Bargoed near Cardiff in So. Wales. She left in August and was to be gone a month. She reported that there were daily bus tours of the area and she was having a wonderful time.
Blanche Duerr is already planning to attend the Cleveland convention next year. This year she, Vivian, & a granddaughter, Beverly, left August 12 for a visit with Emerson’s relatives in Cleveland, then on to Canada, returning home Sept. 9th. When she wrote she was planning to attend a get-together of the California group at Frank Cushing’s home on Oct. 6th.
Hyman Bradofsky who is special counsel to the Pomona (CA) City Attorney authored a long review on John Marshall, A Life in Law by Leonard Baker, newly published, in SCAN, the supplement to Progress-Bulletin of Pomona, and made the book sound worthwhile & readable even to the layman. Such a review could only be prepared by someone thoroughly versed in law himself. Comment on the review was also sent me by Ed Tevis.
Printers: For sale, a Miller Bench Saw with micrometer gauge. A bargain. Write Russ Paxton, Salem, Va. 24153.
A letter from Marge Cleland to Russell L. Paxton dated Sept. 26th reported that she had just gotten home from a 6-day hospital stay. She had broken her leg in two places when she slipped while cutting grass, pushed the mower aside to keep it from running over her feet & fell over it. She said the doctor said setting a leg was much better than trying to sew back five toes!
It Was a Conditional Objection!
I did not mean to oppose Ralph Babcock’s stand on Laureate entries (at the convention) & those who expressed surprise that I spoke for the opposition were not more so than I when I realized that I had not made it clear that I had only two specific items of objection. Basically I am in complete agreement and in the past there’d have been many blank laureates if publishers had not entered material in their papers. My minor objections were based on the fact that entries made by others could result in the item being in the wrong category or not being accepted by the judges as legitimate, and a third reason could be (and I had this happen several times) when the writer did not want to participate.
Since editors & publishers are overworked as it is I think there are several ways this could be handled: First, all mss. submitted to publications or the the Mss. Bureau should bear a notation giving permission to enter if the editor wishes (and the Mss. Bureau Mgr. could require this) & then an amendment could be prepared to the effect that “all literary contributions are accepted by publishers with the understanding that they may be entered in the Laureate contests at his discretion unless specific restriction is made on copy.”
We’ve Been Away
Martin and I are back after 11,000 miles of travel in the motor home. I did a lot of sightseeing, but not as much as I wanted because my injured foot tired me; you see, the heel wasn’t just fractured, it was almost pulverized, the ankle also was damaged so it’s taking longer to return to normal. We kept a Diary which runs to some 160 pages, but I don’t know if it can be condensed so that we can distribute it, but I may try when we get caught up.
We left home June 17th, traveling by way of Cumberland Gap, Va.-Tenn.-Ky., to Des Moines, Iowa, for the United Amateur Press convention, then thru Kansas and across southeastern Colorado, to Albuquerque, N.M. for sightseeing, then to Painted Desert & Petrified Forest and to the Grand Canyon – turns out we were there at the same time the Vic Moitorets were!
We returned the visit the Larry Redmons made in May, took in the convention at San Diego, visited Blanche Duerr, then camped at Morro Bay to visit Ira and Betty Millar after seeing the Hearst Castle. Eight days in Fresno with friends had us visiting the Yosemite, Sequoia and King’s Canyon, plus the Underground Gardens in Fresno; then up the coast, across the Golden Gate Bridge, up through the redwoods and to Crater Lake. We loved the Oregon coast and would gladly have stayed longer, but I wanted to cross the Willamette Nat’l Forest to Idaho where we visited a United member; then up Idaho highways to Spokane, and down again to the Columbia River gorge east to Portland, and again to coastal camps & across to Seattle where Tony Moitoret played perfect host, & we also called Dr. Clyde F. Noel who was pleased to be remembered.
On into Canada – and here a disappointment as we wanted to visit Lea & Les Palmer on Vancouver Island, but were informed there was no place to park & connect the motor home while we made the trip, & later we learned that tho there was none at Port Angeles, there probably was at Vancouver. But we did see British Columbia & visited Alberta again; & down thru Montana to Yellowstone for three days, & out the Eastern Entrance & across the rugged Big Horn Mtns through Wyoming to South Dakota for another long visit with my Sis & a stay out on the ranch where one day I had the exhilarating realization that I could scream at the top of my voice & no one could hear!
Back to Kansas then, and a stop at the Eisenhower Museum at Abilene where there are on display the magnificent gifts he’d been given by foreign countries; & now our gov’t is auctioning off things given later presidents, and I wonder what jerk thought that up! Those things belong to the people & should be in museums for us to enjoy!
Back to Ohio to visit friends & to bring Grace Phillips home with us for a wonderful month’s stay. What memories for 1974!
More News Notes
Louis C. Wills was awarded the ‘Louis’s’ Award as first winner of what is planned to be an annual recognition by The Fossils. Since it recognizes those attributes which distinguish Mr. Wills’ career, he was the logical winner. He commented, “That was a mighty thoughtful & friendly gesture to a real Old Timer” and adds that his first convention was July, 1901 – 73 years ago – in New York. His honors deservedly accumulate along with his years.
One of the goodies in the mail accumulating while we ran around was a booklet by Frank E. Mercer of Wilder, Idaho; called Verses from the Canyon with a novel arrangement: first a section called “The Canyon” then four seasonal sections, with the title page of each section listing contributors. Thanks to Lea Palmer he had a number of our outstanding poets and he did them justice. As an admirer of the uses of dingbats, I was awed by his ‘tree’ on the four-color cover.
Joseph Curran is plugging away at his job with the Federal government but is anticipating retirement (which is still the future) as he says he’s becoming weary of travel and growing problems of the job.
Did we mention that several years ago he visited Eire & spent an evening with Wm. A. Downes? You may recall my series of Irish amateur journalism in The Fossil some time ago when I located Mr. Downes whom I had visualized as an elderly man, overlooking the fact that he was only a teen-ager during his active years in the 20’s.
Joe mentions that his three girls whom I still think of as pre-schoolers as they were when they visited here, are all grown and two are in college. He hasn’t had much time for printing lately but he’ll be back.
With our motor home as an absorbing plaything, we haven’t done much publishing tho it’s only temporarily put aside, but this will explain why many of our ‘news items’ are hardly new. Like this: Vic Moitoret rated a front page picture in the March 18 issue of the Silver City Daily Press when he signed up as the first registrant for the summer session at Western N.M. University where he completed his master’s degree program this summer.
Rebecca Greenhouse spent the summer at her Vermont hide-away but said it had been hot there with bad rainstorms which saturated the ground and made it bad for crops; however she escaped New York’s heat waves.
Published since April, 1941, for the National Amateur Press Association
Willametta Keffer, Shady Acre, Roanoke, Va. 24014
Assisted by Martin B. Keffer, Proofreader, Printer and Encourager