Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Wordless Wednesday- Doing the Laundry

My Aunt Vera who was the Women's World Champion Welder during WWII. Photo was by a newspaper to show that not only could she build ships but she could do her laundry too.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Sentimental Sunday- Halloween in the 70's

As a child growing up in the 70's there were not many choices for Halloween costumes like there are today. Most of the costumes were handmade or thrown together creations. My worst ever costume was a sheet with holes in it, or so I thought. That was a miserable night. The sheet kept slipping and I would step on it. I was quite ready to get back home and take it off.
The year after the sheet costume I was determined that I was going to get a store bought costume. I wanted a Broom Hilda costume that I had seen at the TG&Y. To my seven year old self the plastic mask was so awesome and the little caped yellow plastic dress just had to be better than the sheet.
I begged and begged, finally my mother gave in. She thought it was ugly and just plain ridiculous to spend good money on a store bought costume, but she bought it.
Then came the big night and it happened to be one of those Halloween's here in the south where it was still warm and humid. I quickly found out that I had made a huge mistake in  choosing this costume. The elastic strap continually got caught in my hair, or it would break and I had to tie it together making the mask tighter on my head and face. It was hard to breath through and I could feel my face sweating behind the mask. Not to mention the plastic dress. Oh my! It was hotter than an oven. I was roasting inside this piece of plastic.
But under mother's watchful eye, who was just waiting for me to whine or complain so she could say, "See I was right you should listen to your Mother!" I had to pretend all was well and lovely. I was dragged all over in misery. I could hardly care about what candy was given out. I didn't even open the boxes of candy cigarette's which was a favorite of my brother and mine. I just wanted to go home and get out of this costume.
After the night was over, my costume went back into the box and up onto the top shelf of the hall closet. Last time I looked it was still there all these 38 years later. I never wore it again and I never asked for another store bought costume. I often thought my mother saved that costume as a lesson to me. I am sure she knew as mother's do that I was miserable and had totally regretted my decision. But she never said a word about it then. All these years later, I will bring it up and we will laugh about it, that ugly cheap plastic costume.
I saw it recently for sale in a vintage store online. The tag said sold and I had to laugh and wonder who else my age once thought Broom Hilda was the coolest and just had to have the costume for a Halloween memory.
Now, I think I will go watch some old Broom Hilda cartoon's on YouTube.  :)






Saturday, October 26, 2013

Surname Saturday- Petz

Charles Petz was married to my grandfather's grandaunt Aglae Victorine Roth. Charles was born in Bavaria, Germany around 1830 and died in May of 1903 in New Orleans. He arrived in Louisiana in 1846.
Obit as appeared in the New Orleans Item, May 5, 1903



He and Aglae had five children:
George Petz
Charles Joseph Petz
Marie Victorine Petz
Alice Marie Josephine Petz
Henry Joseph Petz

Charles fought in the Civil War he enlisted on December 21t, 1861. He was a 2nd Lt. Co. C. in the 20th Louisiana Infantry.
The tax lists of 1863 and 1864 have him listed as a Retail Dealer in liquor. His taxes due were $16.67.
His occupation listed in the 1870 census was, House Painter. Which was the same as several of his brother in laws at the time.
He was naturalized on October 22, 1874 in New Olreans. 

 The 1860 census shows him married to a woman named Emilie who was born in Russia. The death records show Emilie Schwartz Petz died on January 22, 1865 in New Orleans, La at the age of 32.




Saturday, October 19, 2013

Surname Saturday- Dugas



Abraham Dugas was born around 1616 in France. He came to Acadia in 1640 and was married in 1647 to Marguerite  Doucet. Marguerite was the daughter of Germain Doucet dit LaVerdure and Marie Bourgeis. Abraham and Marguerite had a large family of eight children whom were raised at Port-Royal. Abraham was a gunsmith by trade and he carried special privileges as a representative of the King in the colony. Abraham died around 1700.

His son Claude Dugas married Francoise Bourgeois, daughter of Jacques Bourgeois and Jeanne Trahan. They had twelve children. Claude married a second time to Marguerite Bourg and they had ten children together. Claude died in 1732 at Port-Royal.



Claude and Francoise son Joseph Francois Dugas married Claire Marie Bourg, daughter of Bernard Bourg and Francoise Brun.  Joseph Francois Dugas left Port-Royal during the expulsion and later settled in St. Martinville, La where he died on 26 Jul 1765.

The daughter of Joseph Francois and Claire Dugas, Marguerite married Joseph Orillion dit Champagne. (More about their family can be found here Orillion)









Tuesday, October 15, 2013

An Update and a Rant

Wow! I hit a nerve yesterday! After posting my story about Feedspot this is the email I received today.

Hi Michelle,

Your blog has not been hijacked. I just read your post

Could you please remove this post?

Users follow your blog using your blogs RSS feed which is available to all. Additionally, we also promote blogs in our 'Who to Follow' section to Feedspot users.

Feedspot is just a platform for reading rss feeds. All articles link back to your original blog. So you get extra traffic from Feedspot. There are many other rss reader where your blog is being read by other users using its rss.

If you block your rss feed or make your blog private, users won't be able to read your content from feedspot.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Anuj



Seriously! I was added without my knowledge nor my permission to this RSS feed. I write a blog post to complain about it and now I am being asked to take my post down! I understand what an RSS reader is and how it works. I doubt that Feedly or Digg Reader had to run out and randomly added my blog, nor any other RSS readers. I don't understand why Feedspot would think it is okay to just randomly add people without permission and then get upset when we get upset about it! 
So yes, I call it hijacking when I was not informed until after the fact that my blog was being added to your reader. Perhaps this company would fare better by sending out emails promoting themselves and asking if you would like to be added. All you have to do is Google Feedspot to see the many irate bloggers complaining just as I am.

Remove me from Feedspot or whatever if you don't like what I post. I didn't ask to be there.
 

Monday, October 14, 2013

Modern day Piracy! Hijacked by Feedspot!

Well, It was my turn today to get the standard email from Feedspot;
 Hi,
My name is Anuj. I'm Founder of Feedspot - A Google Reader replacement with built-in Search and Sharing features.

We recently launched Feedspot and got reviewed by TechCrunch.

I'm writing this to let you know that your blog has started getting new followers on Feedspot. You can view your blog and its followers on Feedspot from here. If you need detailed monthly/yearly analytics on how your blog is performing on Feedspot, please let me know.

As your blog is adding value to Feedspot, I'd like to give you one year Feedspot Premium subscription for free.

Best,
Anuj



I have seen many frustrated bloggers with the same issue. They complain to Feedspot and get a generic email back explaining that it is just an RSS feeder and if you block it then you will lose viewers.