THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS

Every once in a while, my schedule gets a little crowded. At the time that I'm scheduling things it doesn't seem like a big deal. Then the appointed week arrives and I have to wonder what in heaven's name I was thinking of.

This week begins a month of insanity, all almost totally within my control. Let's start at the end - it's always a good way to tell how the story turns out. So, Saturday, November 8th, our daughter Liz is getting married to Josh Shambaugh. It goes to show you that not everything in this story is insane. In fact, it's one of the sanest outcomes I can think of. They're both getting a great spouse.

Now, starting tomorrow, in my role with the Civic Betterment Party in Glen Ellyn, we finish interviewing candidates for the Village Board of Trustees. It's expected to go well into the night trying to narrow it down to six or seven candidates for three seats.

Tuesday, I'm off to Macomb, IL - the home of Western Illinois University - for a budget hearing for the Illinois State Board of Education. After spending Tuesday night in Macomb, I'm off to Springfield for a visit to the agency to discuss a work-study program that we'll run the following week.

Since I'm already that far South, I'll continue on towards beautiful East Tennessee and my Alma Mater, Maryville College. Wednesday will hopefully be spend in visiting a few friends in Western Kentucky, while Thursday evening will be spent at dinner with three art students from Maryville, who are the current recipients of the Clark Family Prize. Additionally, I'll be able to spend a little time with the head of the Art Department, Mark Hall and his wife Autumn. They are delightful people who have become great friends.

Friday and Saturday are booked with an event I swore I'd never go to - a college reunion. I got snookered into being involved with some of the preparations for this, not realizing that it would actually entail being there!

Counting the drive home (that's right - the drive) that's six days! And it's only the beginning. When I return to Illinois, I'm off again to Springfield for a State Board meeting and another Budget Hearing. There's two more hearings in October in Belleville and Charleston, and Civic Betterment continues preparations for a Town Meeting in November.

The good news is that much of the insanity ends in January when terms expire for both Civicc Betterment and ISBE. I'm not sure what I'll do with free time, but I'm sure looking forward to it.

OBSOLETE? I THINK NOT!

I came across this picture a few weeks ago while visiting the VQ-1 Squadron website. This sporty little plane is an A-3 Skywarrior (more specifically it's an EA-3B) and I flew a lot of missions in this baby.

For the record, this isn't a picture of a plane just like one I flew, but the actual one - PR-07. It wasn't my favorite one, but it was in the top 3 or 4. The planes were supplied and flown by the guys from VQ-1, but the brains of the operation were the two linguists supplied by the Naval Communications Station - Philippines (Detatchment Bravo). I sat in the cockpit along with the pilot and navigator - and I loved it! I logged 2008 hours, and probably 1500 of them were in A-3's. Our unit provided tacical support to the Air Force and Navy units in Vietnam.

The vast majority of my flights I shared with my roommate, D J Johnson, or our good friend, Hal "Hurricane" Gamble, two of the funniest guys I've ever known. The pilots were a great group of guys that managed to get us back on the ground every morning with a minimum of wild stories to tell and all of our body parts still attached. We also had an Evaluator/Analyst in the back end. A few of them could actually find their butts with both hands if you turned the lights out....but only a few.

Learning Vietnamese was an interesting job - it took almost two years in a variety of different schools - language school at the Defense Lanugauge Institute East Coast, Voice Intercept Officer school in west Texas, Survival school in California, more training in the Phillippines, water survival school in Okinawa and probably another one or two that I've missed. Then 30 days on the USS Chicago (CG11), a truly unique experience - not necessarily a good one! That was followed by three days on the USS America waiting for a flight back to the Philippines and finally a trip to Vietnam to put my skills to work.

Fifteen months of making the World safe for Democracy, and then a return to the World. It was good to be home again.

TRAVELS ABROAD - THE IGNOBILITY

During a recent trip, Susan and I were taken by the certainty by which some cities and villages try to keep us in our place.

Walking from our hotel to the 750 year old Cathedral in Salisbury, England we chanced across this sign. Now, I fully acknowledge that youth is rapidly passing me by. I really didn't need the city fathers of Salisbury to point out the failings of my generation in signage.

Salisbury is the closest city of any size to Stonehenge and is quite near Avebury, which is supposed to be Stonehenge without the fences. This piece of information was courtesy of a riding companion on the train. Of course, we believe that he claimed to have invented gravity, so his claims about Avebury were taken with a grain of salt. The trip to Stonehenge was left undone because of the weather. Maybe next time.

The cathedral in Salisbury is remarkable in size and acoustics. The picture at the right was taken from very nearly the middle of the cathedral, which may give you a sense of scale. It truly dominates the landscape of the entire city, and attracts huge crowds of people. We happen to be there on a Saturday, which is Market day for the city.

Huge numbers of vendors selling everything from produce to books to clothing were out in force. Unfortunately for us, so was the rain. But, we braved the weather, bought some berries that were delicious, and capped off the afternoon with a semi-traditional English Tea at a local estanblishment. The tea was very hot, but the service was not. Since it wasn't tourist season, we have to believe that's the level of service that the locals get yearround!

WHAT IS AN ARTIST?

In my line of work I meet and talk to artists every day. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to most art. If I go to an art fair, and you're the world's greatest painter, I might not see your work, because I'm looking for printmakers.

I don't care if you are a screen printer, an etcher, lithographer or a relief printer. Mixed media - as long as part of it is a print technique - is great!

But the other day I was thinking about the many other areas in life that we encounter artists. Performing artists abound in the theater and concert halls. Art is everywhere in our lives, and thank God for it. On a recent trip to Lithuania, we were entertained by the opera performers doing Aida in Vilnius. We visited studios and galleries in Vilnius and Kaunas, but I have to admit that my favorite artist is pictured above - my wife's couisin by marrriage - Solis.

The last time Solis drew a picture was probably in grade school, and the last time he sang was likely in the shower, but when it comes to making beer, the man is a virtuoso! In the small town of Vabalinka off of the paved roads, Solis and his wife Alma and their two daughters farm a plot of ground on what was formerly a collective farm. It's not large by corporate farms standards, but it's large enough to support them and hopefully make a profit.

Alma's cousin Sigita was my wife Susan's pen pal during the '50's and '60's. They met for the first time about four years ago. Neither family has a lot of money, but they are rich in many ways....love of family, pride of country and lots of hard work have shaped them into some of the richest people I know

GENEALOGY

Shortly after Susan and I were married, my grandmother shared a short list of names with us that was the beginnings of our efforts at developing a family tree. On that scrap of paper was the name of William Wesley Caldwell, her father.

William, pictured at the right was born in 1847 and served in the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. If you do the math, he enlisted at age 14! I assumed that he was, of course, a war hero. After doing some research at the National Archives in Washington, DC, I am still convinced that he was, but I'm having a hard time putting a positive spin on the fact that he was a corporal - three times!

I took leave of my senses about 5 years ago, and ran for the State Legislature in Illinois. The voters were smarter than I thought, and they elected the right person - it wasn't me. But, in the heady days after I sent out press releases to the various newspapers in Chicago and the suburbs, I was called to the East Coast on business. The very first reporter that called me following up on my candidacy, managed to track me down in a cemetery in Hartford, CT. We had followed the family tree to several of the founders of that city now buried in the center of town. The reporter was fascinated with the prospects of a great human interest story. While we were talking my wife found the grave of Stephen Hosmer who died in 1693 at the age of 48. Unfortunately, when she (the reporter) wrote her story, none of that was included.

After my father passed away in 2002, we found 40-50 letters written between 1837 and 1869 between a group of abolishonists in S.E Ohio. We still haven't figured out if they're related to us, but I am sure that if my mother saved the letters, they had to be from one of her relatives. When one works in genealogy, however, one takes the good with the bad.

Sometimes family histories are not quite what they're supposed to be. My maternal grandmother was quite proud of the family lineage. Even when I was quite young she was teaching us about our famous relatives - three of them to be exact.

The first, which all of us even at that age rejected out of hand, was Henry VIII of England. The genealogy study shows that we aren't related, at least through legitimate heirs. Sad, I could get used to being 795th in the line of succession!

The second one, which we all accepted was Millard Filmore, 13th President of the United States. I didn't know then why I accepted the premise, but I suspect that my logic was along the lines of, " of course we're related to him because who'd make it up? If you were going to make something up, wouldn't you choose someone more important like Pierce or Buchanan?" It turns out that Fillmore was a first cousin of my great, great ...grandfather.

Finally, she pronounced that we were related to the first Surgeon General. Our response was a resounding, "Who cares?" It turns out that she was more right than wrong. Timothy Hosmer was a doctor who was with Washington throughout the Revolutionary War. His older brother Titus was a signer of the Articles of Confederation and a justice of the peace. Their grandfather, Stephen, was one of the founders of Hartford, CT.

The coincidences of history are amazing to me. For example, Timothy Hosmer was the doctor who, following the hanging of Major Andre (of Benedict Arnold fame), pronounced the prisoner dead. Two privates in the American army cut him down. One of them was a Samuel Faulkner. About a hundred years later or so, in October of 1870, a Hosmer clan member married a Faulkner, and produced a few years later one Robert Percy Faulkner, my grandfather and the founder of Graphic Chemical & Ink Company

AIKO'S ART MATERIALS

I have borrowed the following from the website of Aiko's Art Materials of Chicago. It was announced recently that Aiko's will be ceasing operations in the very near future. Although Aiko's is technically a competitor, we have both referred customers to each other for years. It is with true sadness that we bid farewell to this remarkable company, and wish their staff the best in the future.

Mrs. Aiko Nakane (1908-2004), the founder of Aiko’s Art Materials, was instrumental in bringing handmade Japanese paper and it’s aesthetic to the United States. Born in Seattle in 1908, Mrs. Nakane attended high school in Japan and was exposed to such traditional crafts as shodo (calligraphy) and ikebana (flower arranging.) She recalled the daily household use of Japanese paper whether to simply wrap a gift or to present an item of food at a meal. She liked to tell of the time her mother tightly rolled a piece of paper to tie her daughter’s hair back when a ribbon or hair band could not be found.

In the early 1950’s, back in the United States as a student at the Art Institute of Chicago, Mrs. Nakane would give Japanese art supplies and papers as omiyage (gifts) to fellow students and friends in the art community upon returning from trips to Japan. Her friends loved the items and clamored for more – thus the beginning of her store, Aiko’s Art Materials.

Since the mid-1950’s Aiko’s Art Materials has provided both supplies and services to its customers. What began as a small concern for a select few in the Midwest has gradually evolved into a global business with orders routinely shipped out to distant destinations in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. Yet, in spite of this expansion, Aiko’s still provides that personal, distinctive style that has been a hallmark of the store since its inception.

Specializing in washi (handmade Japanese paper), Aiko’s carries hundreds of Japanese papers, plain and decorated, which make up over ninety-five percent of the inventory. An infinite variety of colors, textures and designs is displayed – enough to tempt every imagination with endless possibilities. The shop serves artists, bookbinders, painters and crafters and those in book and art restoration and conservation.

Brushes are another important aspect of Aiko’s Art Materials. Over one hundred different types of brushes can be found in the shop. They are made up of materials ranging from badger and horsehair to sheep and weasel hair. All shapes and sizes specially formulated for use, be it calligraphy, brush painting, stencil dyeing or painting can be found at Aiko’s. The majority of the brushes are handmade and produced in Japan.

IMPACT 5

For good or bad, another show is in the can. Impact 5 in Tallinn, Estonia was a pretty good show, even if it was short (One day - just six hours), there were over 200 people attending from Europe, the Americas and Asia. Vendors were sparse (which, by the way, I love). Graphic Chemical and Caligo were there for those looking for inks, T.N. Lawrence representing the retail stores, John Purcell Papers out of the U.K. and a Finnish press manufacturer.

The city of Tallinn is remarkable. The old town area (seen at the left) was beautiful and the food was really great. We tried one Estonian and one Russian restaurant. One was great, and one was a restaurant. The people were outgoing and very friendly. It was, however, cold, cold, cold.

The balance of our trip was split between Western Europe, calling on distributors, and Lithuania, drumming up new business. There is a real need for quality printmaking supplies in some of these areas, and we're looking to fill the void - possibly even opening a store somewhere in Eastern Europe to help get materials to them more efficiently.

I did learn a valuable lesson while in Lithuania. I have often wondered how money donated to my church is used. After visiting a number of churches in the Baltics, I know the answer...they use my donations to heat the church! I have never been so uncomfortable in my life as during a memorial service for a relative of my wife's. Even the priest didn't take his coat off, and he beat a hasty retreat as soon as the graveside services were completed. One of the younger people pointed out that the newer churches were heated so that the younger generation would consider attending.

We visited with some who were restoring several churches in Vilnius the capital of the country, and were amazed that there was so much activity with very little in the way of private donations. These were some truly talented craftsmen that were spending years in restoring what was destroyed during the Soviet occupation.