More old pictures

My brother continues to send me old family photos.

We think this one was taken on Asheboro Street (now Martin Luther King Boulevard) sometime in the 1940's. My parents rented a house on that street during that time; that's my mother on the far left and her best friend Edna Humble on the far right.

Here's my brother Lee in full cowboy regalia --one of his favorite toys in those days.

Little girls learn fast

Little Kammie stayed overnight Friday night with my husband and me while her Mom and Dad helped a friend celebrate his 30th birthday.

As usual, she spent most of her time following me around and rarely letting me get out of her sight, and not having much to do with her "Paw Paw" at all.

Bedtime was a bit of a struggle trying to get her to sleep in an unfamiliar setting -- a playpen set up in my office, carefully positioned so she couldn't reach my computer or papers on the desk, etc. She whined and fussed, but mean old "Grammy" just rubbed her back and talked to her in a soothing voice and refused to pick her up and let her get out.

That's when she decided to try her feminine wiles on her grandpa, sweetly calling out, "Paw-Paw, Paw-Paw" to the guy she'd ignored all evening, trying to get him to rescue her. She finally gave up and dozed off when he came in and gave her a kiss but wouldn't pick her up either. We got a good laugh at her tactics -- little girls learn fast, don't they!

I'm glad NC got around to changing this one!

Here's the latest picture and email from my brother Lee who's obviously having fun going through a box of family things.

He wrote:

"Was thumbing through this old book: "Civil Government of North Carolina and the United States" copyright 1907, but obviously still using it when mama was in school. Did some "googling" to catch up on history. U.S. amendment gave women right to vote in 1920, but NC didn't ratify it until 1971."

In case you can't decipher the text, the part of the law that caught his eye on the left-hand page reads --

DISQUALIFICATIONS FOR VOTING AND HOLDING OFFICE

280. As to Age and Sex -- The privilege of voting is confined to those who are deemed able to defend it. A woman cannot vote in North Carolina. She may, however, impress her views, sentiments, and interests upon those who make the laws and elect the officers. She may train children to love God and country; she may fix in their hearts the proper principles of truth, justice, and humanity; she may teach them to know and maintain their rights and liberties, and those who prevent justice to those who cannot help themselves...

Oldies but goodies

My brother got a new computer and scanner recently and has been scanning in some old family photos.

Here are the two of us sometime in the early 1950's. Heavens, what boney knees!
Here's one of my early birthdays. I'll be celebrating another one with a whole lot more candles tomorrow.
This one taken when we lived at our grandmother's farm in Pleasant Garden shows that we really did get a real snowfall back in olden days.

My brother says I should use this one for my official picture for any future political campaigns.

My dad at age 21 with his 1940 Ford. (Guess we know now where my bony knees came from.

Cooking brunswick stew at Bethlehem Methodist Church, their traditional fall fundraiser. That's my grandmother standing against the pole in the center.

When one door closes...

Call me Pollyanna if you will, but I have found that old saying -- "When one door closes, another one opens" -- to be very true in my life. Whenever something happened to me that I considered "bad" at the time, something else came along that was even better than my original plan or goal.

That has held true for me this week. I had said I was going to take some time off after I departed my city council seat in early December, enjoy the holidays and get my house straightened out after 16 years of semi-neglect. I did that -- got all the closets cleaned out, shampooed carpets and waxed floors, and threw out a TON of papers, reports, etc. to the point I can actually find my desk tops and bookcases again. Mission accomplished, but I was already starting to get a bit bored and thinking, "What next?"

That question was answered with a phone call response last night to an inquiry I made last week after reading the news article in last week's News & Record. Thanks to the Town Council's action at their special meeting Monday evening, I was appointed as Pleasant Garden's Interim Town Clerk. Today was my first day on the job, and I believe my sixteen years' experience on the Greensboro City Council will serve me well in supporting this Town Council's efforts to set and achieve their goals.

Needless to say, I'm going to be VERY busy for at least the next six weeks or so, so my blogging is probably going to be even less frequent than it has lately. But it is for good reason and I am looking forward to this newest challenge/opportunity.

Air quality update

Here's a brief report on the most recent meeting of the Triad Early Action Compact held on December 3, 2007. Sorry I'm so late getting this posted.

There were no surprises in the final summer air quality readings, and according to the calculations based on those readings, the Triad will be certified as in compliance with the 8-hour ozone standard. The NC Division of Air Quality expected to certify the data before the end of 2007. Once the EPA issues its official determination (March 12 , 2008?), the Triad will shift into a "maintenance" period UNTIL the new EPA standards (which are expected to be more stringent) are adopted. Local governments' use of "green" initiatives and energy performance contracts are expected to deliver additional energy-saving (and pollution-reducing) benefits. We members of the steering committee agreed to maintain our quarterly meeting schedule in order to monitor our situation, and I agreed to remain on the committee as a "civilian" participant.

Since it is highly unlikely that that Early Action Compacts will be allowed in the next round, there is quite a bit of uncertainty about how the next attainment process will be carried out. Comments submitted to the EPA about the new standard ran the gamut from those wanting even stricter limits to those who thought the current ones are sufficient. Once a final number is set, whomever is displeased can (and probably will) litigate, delaying the implementation until the courts decide. It will be increasingly difficult to meet the standard, not because our air quality is getting worse, but because the standards are getting more stringent.

Lorelei Elkins reported that 1,010 people made pledges during the Triad Commute Challenge to try an alternative mode of transportation to their single-occupancy vehicle at least once. Assuming that each person fulfilled that pledge one time, the Triad's VMT (vehicle miles traveled) was reduced by a minimum of 23,000 miles. Follow-up surveys indicate that many people have continued using those other transportation options.

Monitor readings in Davidson County and the Hickory area for PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) have unfortunately remained above '15,' keeping those areas designated as "non-attainment" for that pollutant. Guilford County unfortunately continues to wear that same label since we were lumped in with Davidson although our monitor at Mendenhall Middle School has always remained below '15'. An additional monitor is being added in Guilford County at the Sandy Ridge Road fire station in High Point. An analysis of the composition of the offending particles indicates that the problem is coming from a stationery source -- NOT transportation which only accounts for 8%. It is hoped that PM2.5 compliance will be achieved by 2010.

The next meeting will be held on March 17 by which time EPA should have declared the Triad in attainment for the 8-hour ozone standard and issued its new standards.