April 13, 1989
Dear Everyone:
“Melanie” and I have been trading books back and forth. (“Melanie Orland” is one of the people in my office.) A few weeks ago, she loaned me America’s Secret Aristocracy, which is about families that can trace their lineage back to colonial days (and beyond). This is a matter of absolute fascination for “Melanie”. She originates from upstate New York, so she can relate to all those Jays and Livingston and Lowells who only talk to Cabots and Cabots who only talk to God and even, perhaps, the occasional upstart Rockefeller.
The only one I related to was Alexander Hamilton. But I was delighted to read the quote from some dear, old matron who said, “But we’ve ALWAYS kept our money in Mr. Hamilton’s bank.” Not First National, Mr. Hamilton’s bank. Like he was still running it. One of the themes of the book was continuity.
At times I would ask myself why I was reading about all these people that I’d never heard of, but occasionally I would pick up some nice tidbit of information.
For instance, I never know that while the rest of the country was embroiled in the Civil War (also known as “The Unfortunate Incident of the Northern Aggression”), California was simply broiling.
California, during the 1860’s, suffered a drought of tremendous consequences. Nothing compared to our little problem now, where you use the dish water to keep your favorite bushes alive. Then, ALL of the crops died. ALL of the cattle either starved or died of thirst.
And people who had been accustomed to lighting their cigars with $100 bills suddenly found themselves with no means of support. These were the great dons of California; the Ortegas, the Cabrillos and so on. Their descendants still live in California, although their names may now be Brady, Martin or Smith. But most of those immense Spanish Land Grants are gone.
When the drought hit, the bankers came in with this wonderful new idea, the mortgage. And these people, who had no real concept of money to begin with, put their land up as collateral, took the money and spent it just like they always had, and wound up losing all of their land.
Naturally, they blamed the Anglo bankers for it.
But there was this one don who had a nephew named Manuel. Manuel fought long and hard against the bankers who kept offering mortgages and today, although the parcels are in the hands of hundreds of descendants, the land is still “in the family”. According to legend, when he passed away at a ripe old age, Manuel was heard to say to his family, gathered around his death-bed: “Remember, lease it; but never SELL it!”
When I finished America’s Secret Aristocracy and gave it back to “Melanie”, she promptly handed me my new homework assignment: Two books and a video on the Titanic.
I never knew that that whole ship was built on the basis of a letter of agreement between the ship builder and the White Star Line.
Or that many of the people who died had refused to leave the ship after the captain ordered the evacuation because they truly believed that the ship COULDN’T sink, a claim that the White Star Line had never made.
These books are much better, tidbit-wise.
55 first class passengers cancelled their bookings at the “last” minute.
Ballard, of Woods Hole Oceanographic, picked the Titanic because he thought the “romance” of it would attract better funding for his research. Then, he got hooked on it himself.
The White Star agent in Halifax, as soon as he heard of the sinking, contracted with a cable company (not TV, trans-oceanic telephone cables) to retrieve as many of the bodies as they could. They brought back 306: first class passengers in coffins, second and third class wrapped in canvas, crew sort of in a pile. Who says we live in a classless society?
I got even with “Melanie” for America’s Secret Aristocracy by loaning her my copy of Modern Archaeology which is about excavating colonial sites. We’ll see what she thinks of it.
In other news…
“Rowena Chandler” and I went to see Cousins last Sunday (enjoyable, but no great shakes) and then went to Costco where we spent $178.30 of which $33.80 was mine. This may be a record. I don’t recall ever spending that little “saving money” at Costco.
New wave curse inspired by last week’s earthquake: May you be reincarnated as an independent liquor store owner in Morgan Hill.
Morgan Hill, as usual, got the worst of the quake.
Love, as always,
Pete
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