90 years worth of hands, trousers, piggy banks!

I found a wheat penny at work yesterday. I jumped out of my overalls at the sight of it looking up at me. I leaned in close to make sure I read the date correctly.

1919

"Yes!" I screamed...I yelped. People came running from all directions.
"What is it?" They asked with concerned faces...
"Only my new favorite good omen!" I screamed in delight.

In God We Trust, it reads.

In this Penny I trust. I'm superstitious. I also love the movie "Somewhere In Time" with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve. Wonderfully romantic movie. It's haunting, unusual, sad, funny, sweet, strange, timeless ... pun intended.

I love staring into old photographs at antique stores, to try and escape into them. I can sit and do this for hours I tell you. So needless to say, I didn't let go of this penny the whole rest of the day and I showed everyone that came up to me. I don't know if they were responding to the penny and it's magnificence or if it was my enthusiasm they were playing off of. But either way, it made my day completely!
How many penny candies did this penny buy, way back when? How many dresses, combs, loaves of bread??


All I can really know for sure is ... This penny is officially no longer in circulation! As of yesterday! :0)

Check out this clip of Christopher Reeve playing Richard Collier, a playwright trying to time-travel into the past in order to reunite with his long lost love. Rent the whole movie to discover "Somewhere In Time", how one small penny played a role in keeping a man and a woman connected, yet so very much apart.

Watching Over Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln had a watch, a watch he did have he...

I'm just singin' a little ditty, to celebrate the discovery of a secret inscription within the inner shell of Lincoln's personal pocket watch!

The century-old legend was confirmed mid March, thanks to a handy watchmaker at the National Museum of American History who pried the watch face open. No pressure there!

The watch's original maker, Jonathan Dillon indeed had left an inscription. But Dillon himself, when asked by reporters in 1906, couldn't even correctly recall the words he had etched in the watch. He had told newspapers "The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a president who at least will try" could be found within the watch, and that not even Lincoln knew about the engraving.

What had he actually written? Let's just say, Dillon's gears weren't in very good working order when it came to his memory. Oooooo. Because the watch actually reads:

Jonathan Dillon April 13 - 1861
Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels on the above date
Thank God we have a government.

Fascinating!! This is so thrilling to learn. I picture Lincoln with this timepiece by his side as the country is inflamed in war. The stench of innocent men's lives in the air. And the tears of the wives and children on the home front creating rivulets of sorrow in his mind as he makes meticulous strides to at once bind under centralist rule, our divided country and also please the industrialist heads of the union by suppressing Southern prosperity, all dignity intact. Rough job. Not to mention the fine wire he walked between treating the slave issue with heroic sensitivity while in the political arena, and telling racist jokes behind cabinet doors to friends...hm....shame on the Lincoln not written about in the 210,00 books written about him. Really sick, dude! and Hooray to American Academia, and to all the books written by professors that induce the institutions we know as universities with the same substance known as 'safe for the average american', year after year.

Anyway, it's way past time for bed. I don't even know if this post makes any sense. Oh, and one more thing...for Dillon. Don't thank God for the government when God doesn't take sides, and government does. Also...the rebels may have 'fired the first shots', but the North had long before that been firing bullets of condemnation at any state putting them at risk of not acquiring all the agricultural 'gold' they could get their hands on. That was already marked by that state...Keep yer grubby hands to yerself. but in the end, you won. who knows how we'd be fairing now in America if we let our respective states do the talking...
but then again...where does the Native American fit into all of this. UGHHHH, what a mess.

And those poor boys of war. Regardless of the 'side' they took. Their LIFE was took.
And a sickness will permeate the blood stained dirt of this country until each and every soldier spirit is set free to rest in Peace, not angst or harm or confusion.
I don't care how long ago it was. The casualties from the Civil War exceed those lives lost in all other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.

Lest I misconstrue the immediacy of being close to a decade into a war, present time, here and now. Blood spilled on territory abroad...pray for the soldiers and the mission to find a stopping place.

Shaker Pacifist Hymns and the War

"Dark is the cloud that rests over the nation,
Wild is the war cry that pierces the air.
God's heavy judgments spread wide desolation,
Strong hearts are bound in the depths of despair."

Would you believe this Civil War hymn came to a young girl in a dream? It is true. That girl was Shaker society member Cecilia Devere of New Lebanon, New York who lived from 1836 to 1912. One of the Shaker sisters that roomed with her scribbled this song down after being awoken by Devere singing the song aloud three different times.

This took place in 1862. There would be three more years of war.

Since the Shakers were pacifists they did not participate in battle, but their concern for all parties was apparent and enduring. They hoped to bring peace to the horrific turmoil through prayer and song. Devere's hymn is called "A Prayer for the Captive." I have posted only the first stanza of the song because I cannot, as of yet, find the full hymn. But it's chilling to consider this young pacifist creating a song of such clarity in her sleep, and with a poetic grace and poignancy.

Legend has it that on the day President Lincoln was buried, "A Prayer for the Captive" was sung in every Shaker community with no previous arrangement or understanding. Oooooooo...spooky.


**The painting shown at the top of this post is by 18th century artist Frederic Edwin Church, called "Our Banner in the Sky". Circa 1863. Do you see the banner?

I admire Church's style too much to even explain. Take a look at more of his paintings here. Just type his name into the search bar...and view the wonders he created! Even select some for purchase!

Also, check out my brother-in-law's painting that reminds me of Church's work. Amazing Daniel!