September 29: Errands

Occasionally, Rich reacts to something or says something that indicates that he's in some sort of parallel universe. Often this is because he didn't quite hear what was said to him and made up the missing bits and then accepted that version as the truth. However, when he's tired or not feeling well, this happens a lot. I specifically recall a time driving through Eastern Oregon when we had a long conversation about my taking over the driving after we'd stopped for lunch, yet when I got into the driver's seat it was a total surprise to him.

Rich turned on the swag lamp, and said "darn! where's that bulb you took out of the other lamp?" I spent some time looking for that, and was having no success. Meanwhile, though, I was distressed about the lamp, since we had just changed the bulb a couple of weeks ago. Had it somehow suddenly broken? And the crystal swag lamp is one of the reasons I just got the nice crystal table lamp. (Which the cats knocked off the night before: fortunately they only broke "half" of the 3-way bulb.) I fussed. He finally got another bulb, and put it in, and it didn't work either. He tinkered with the hand switch. Nothing. He asked me to turn the light on at the wall, so I did, and he said, "Not that one, the inside one." Oh. OK. He'd turned on the outside light (the wall switches are backwards. Contrarily, we have lived here over 22 years.) The swag lamp works beautifully, in fact.

Another symptom is being irritable. He asked me the other day if he was irritable, and I thought not, but since then I've remembered things, like how furious he gets if the mail is missing or if a bill is wrong, and how his driving is more aggressive again. He'd started to mellow, but I'd not gotten used to it. Roni reports that she told R.J. " is neither a weapon nor an educational tool to teach courtesy." I quoted this to Rich, as I'm seeing a lot of this, lately.

The man's got to start feeling better!

Yesterday and today I ran a lot of errands. Well, and I went to see For Love of the Game which pretty well turned this into a baseball week for sure. What a perfect movie. Yeah, yeah, I know about Costner's ego, but this movie would have worked no matter which way it ended.

Also, I stopped for my Sunday New York Times and for some groceries. The biggest errand was to the library. I had a bag of books to donate to the booksale, and a couple of magazines for their in-library sale, and some small toys for the children's librarian (actually, they don't call her that. Her title is something else, which only adds to my suspicion that she doesn't actually have the degree) for her treasure chest. Then I took Sam's last, lost book in and paid for the damages... Sam's younger housemates had found and torn the book. I knew if they billed Sam's house, we wouldn't be taking any more books out, and it's important that the library get to be a familiar place.

As I was leaving, I saw a VW with a Wyoming license plate frame and a "Go 'Zags" bumper sticker, and turned right around and went in to say hi to the owner, a friend from church, about the kids' age. He was boning up for a Civil Service exam, so I wished him luck.

Then today I went to lunch with my friend, and he really surprised me. Some weeks ago I had read a Tom Holt book (which I was actually not supposed to be able to buy in this country!) and loaned it to him to read before I sent it on to Bernadette. Imagine my surprise to find out he had mentioned this to his friend, Tom Holt, who sent that book and another, personally autographed to B. When I wrote to thank him, he said that our mutual friend, whom he refers to in one dedication as "my imaginary friend", is his best work. Here I thought I had imagined him up, but there you are.

I also stopped at the Post Office to mail some stuff to Vince, and took my court report in to be checked.

Then we had the next-to-last Gold Rush lecture. The speaker was Martin Ridge of the Huntington Library. He used to teach at CalTech, too, but has retired. His topic was "Disorder, Crime and Punishment in the California Gold Rush." It was interesting, and I was only distracted by his corrugated forehead once.
He started off saying that his impression of the topic was that the miners were lawless, and there was chaos at the mines. So he did some studying of the topic and this was the essence of his research.
In 1848, while California belonged to the U.S., it was still an occupied province. The local alcaldes were still in place. Colonel Richard Mason was the military governor at the time. He executed three deserters. Even before the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, he had abolished Mexican laws and mineral rights. The Federal policy toward mineral claims was mostly acquiescence.
Especially in the first years of the gold rush, you could think of miners as fishermen. As long as there was an abundance of gold to be found, they weren't troublesome. Weapons were rare in 1848. San Francisco was almost crimefree (everyone was gone mining.) As newcomers came in, the vigilance committees started up. The California Constitution replaced alcaldes with Justices of the Peace.
Most of the laws were about property rights. Theft of over 100 dollars was grand larceny and a capital crime. Petit larceny was 50 lashes. Property rights were sacred. For instance, one's place in line at the Post Office was regarded as one's property and if you had to go answer a call of nature, your place was kept.
Once more, the Easterners didn't approve of mining society. The main sins were "greed, gambling, and the lack of class consciousness." J.P.Borthwick tutted: "a man was judged not by who he was but what he had." Ingalls was shocked that there was gambling in Sacramento on a SUNDAY.
Sacramento had squatter's riots in 1850, when the people who had bought land in the new city were ejected by the tent folk who lived on it. Both Bancroft and Israel Lord (great name for a writer for a Baptist newspaper, yes?) sided with the squatters.
Disorder rose as predatory elements invaded the mines. There was also xenophobia. A pregnant Mexican woman who shot an Aussie rapist was hanged for murder. Thus began the second more violent phase of the gold rush.
Xenophobia and racism also produced disorder in the East. In the East it was Irish and Catholics, and in the West it was French, Chinese, Chileans, and Mexicans. The Foreign Miner's tax was enacted, but when they started to go home, the merchants objected, and the tax was appealed.
The Natives suffered most. At Murderer's Bar some Oregonians tried to rape some Indian women. Three Indians died, and the Indians retaliated by killing five Oregonians. Then two men were rabble rousing and a massacre ensued.
Southerners didn't associate with blacks even though California was a free state.
The French were as victimized as the Mexicans and Chileans. The Chinese were the most reviled. Deer Creek was the most anti-Chinese. However, they could stay if they bought worn-out diggings from whites.
Arkansans were even below Chinese, considered "white trash." (I kept my mouth shut. It wasn't easy.)
The miners had guns but didn't use them. ("An armed society is a polite society"--Heinlein.)
The miners misused the term "lynch law." That is "doing justice by unauthorized individuals in opposition to the law." In the mines, however, there were no courts. The miners knew who took the law into their own hands, and followed legal practices. The "American argonaut carried more in his head than in his hands:" ideas of God, right and wrong, etc. Common law says if you have unexplained possession of an item, you better be able to prove why you have it. You're assumed guilty.
Eastern critics were appalled by summary hangings. They said the miners should build prisons. This would have meant leaving the mines, though.
Israel Lord liked the miner's courts. He said lawyers would not let people tell the truth.

The firm social fabric began to unravel after 1855. In 1852 there was the first highwayman and in 1856 the first stage robbery. Establishing courts didn't stop crime. Before that time, the miners were drunk, racist and brawling but had a clear understanding of the law in theft, murder and rape. They were much more lawful than has been assumed.

I've been keeping up with my UHaul Page. (Have I done the pages for Roni's wedding or Bernadette's graduation? Of course not, but I'm keeping up with the U-Hauls!)

My pasta plaint of the other day brought help in the form of this page. Thanks, H!