Many guests come to the Homestead Museum seeking connections to the past. The historic houses and the artifacts provide guests with these connections. Guests have related to the 1920's GE refrigerator or the California cooler shelves next to the cold storage units. Some remember the old fuse boxes on display during the Behind The Scenes tours. Others have memories of making adobe bricks for their homes in Mexico.

As a volunteer for the last twelve years I have made my own connections and observations.

1. Sheet Music

About four years ago I posted a blog entry on the Homestead Museum's website about the importance of "paying attention" to everything around us, a concept drilled into us by parents, teachers, et al. The idea for the article came to me when I noticed sheet music in the Music Practice Room in LCN during a tour.

https://homesteadmuseum.wordpress.com/2016/08/19/striking-a-chord-carrie-jacobs-bonds-i-love-you-truly/

2. Don Julian Road

Many times I drove by the Museum wondering if Don Julian Road in the City of Industry was named for the 1950's doo wop singer of that name. Maybe Don Julian and the Meadowlarks were local talent. I was wrong.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/don-julian-mn0000798887/biography

3. Davidson Bricks

While leading a Behind The Scenes tour, I noticed a pile of red bricks in the basement of the Workman House. Those bricks were rescued from a property owned by Walter Temple and stored for later use. The bricks were made by Davidson Brickyard located in what is now Monterey Park. I had driven by the brickyard many times since I was a youngster.

https://calbricks.netfirms.com/brick.davidsonmpbm.html

4. Pyrennes Castle 

The "Castle" in the city of Alhambra was built by Walter Temple's business associate, Silvestre Dupuy. Before it attained notoriety as the sight of a murder by Phil Spector, the Castle was briefly owned by my wife's godmother, the "anonymous woman" mentioned in the KCET article.

https://www.kcet.org/history-society/phil-spectors-pyrenees-castle-the-fairytale-castle-that-became-home-to-a-nightmare

https://homesteadmuseum.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/no-place-like-home-the-dupuy-mansion-alhambra-1920s/#more-26767

5. Orange Orchards

In the west room of the Workman House, there are several photos of Los Angeles and environs in the 1870's. One photo is of an orange grove, depicting the growing agricultural presence of Los Angeles and Southen California. One guest on my tour remarked to his daughter that her grandpa picked oranges. I told her that my grandfather had also picked citrus fruit and was listed as such in the 1930 Census in Corona, CA.

We all have many connections to people, places, and events here in Southern California, in other states, and in other countries.

Greeting everyone, I hope you all doing fine.

Paul Spitzzeri, Museum Director, has extensive experience in collecting artifacts used to enhance our understanding of the Museum's interpretive period, 1830 through 1930. He has told us that artifacts are able to tell us a story about people place, or things. For example, a photograph of Los Angeles in the early 20th century may reveal clues about how people dressed, entertained themselves, grieved over a lost loved one, or transported themselves. A photograph might provide clues on how buildings were constructed, the type of work performed by men, women, or minorities. In this way we learn more about the time, place, and people of Los Angeles.

I was thinking along these lines when I examined a decorative item my wife purchased over thirty-five years ago. The item is a wooden mallard duck decoy that hunters use to attract migrating ducks. Examining the decoy, I noticed it was signed by its maker, Leo Koppy. Thinking I might have a valuable object (a la Antiques Roadshow), I Googled "Leo Koppy" and discovered similar decoys of his listed for about $40. Beautifully painted decoys go for a great deal more.

Duck Decoys - Leo Koppy

However, there was another Google hit listing an article published in the Los Angeles Times with the following headline: Huntington Beach: Man Found Guilty of 2nd Degree Murder

It's a story of a love triangle that goes very bad. Although fate dealt Leo Koppy a fatal blow, it provides me with an interesting story of what we can glean from an apparently mundane artifact.

HUNTINGTON BEACH : Man Found Guilty of 2nd-Degree Murder A Huntington Beach man is guilty of second-degree murder for beating a neighbor to death with a baseball bat, an...

Stay safe. I hope we can meet again in the summer.

Three years ago, the Book Club read and discussed The Great Influenza by John B. Barry. The book was written in 2004 and the paperback version, including an Afterward on the H1N1 (Swine) Flu, was published in 2009.

In the Afterward, the author noted that he was a consultant with both the Bush and Obama administrations. In 2009 Barry stated that the nation was not ready for a moderate pandemic, much less a severe one. He also added: "In 1918 humans gave that year's H1N1 virus to swine. We believe novel H1N1went the other way, that it had been circulating in swine and crossed the species barrier in 2009, sparking the first human pandemic in forty-one years."

In his analysis of the potential impact of a pandemic, Barry was concerned that our nation's social behavior has greatly changed since 1918. We eat a much greater percentage of our meals outside the home and consume more perishable food. In addition American business has adopted "just-in-time" delivery of inventory, which means that problems with a large supplier could disrupt or shut down the supply system. He also predicted that the "most mild pandemic will likely overwhelm the health care system. Seasonal influenza often shuts down emergency rooms."

The author advocated a vaccine to protect us. There are problems with this solution. All influenza vaccines are manufactured by growing viruses in eggs, so it can take at least five months to make 60-80 million doses. Not only is this insufficient for the U. S., but less than one-third of the quantity is produced here.

What do we do if there is no vaccine? The author recommends hand washing, cough etiquette, and proper use of masks. If the pandemic is severe, he recommends telecommuting (more reliable today than in 2009), closing schools, and canceling sporting events (in 1919 the Stanley Cup finals were cancelled).

Barry closes with the following: 

   "So the final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that those who occupy positions of authority must lessen the panic that can alienate all within a society. Society cannot function if it is every man for himself. By definition, civilization cannot survive that.

   Those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best.

   A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart."

Until we meet again...Stay happy.

At this time I would normally send out the first of three notices about our upcoming book club meeting. The coronavirus has changed our schedule. The Homestead Museum's website shows the revised dates for the next theme starting in July. However, that schedule was published before Los Angeles County's latest version of safer at home order. I will keep you apprised of any changes to the schedule of book club meetings. 

Meanwhile, I hope everyone is doing great as we wait for a vaccine to rid us of this virus, which reminded me of a recently read book Why Did The Chicken Cross The World? The Epic Saga of the Bird That Powers Civilization by Andrew Lawler.

Lawler states "The domestic fowl is the world's most ubiquitous bird and most common barnyard animal. More than 20 billion chickens live on our planet at any given moment..." The chicken is the only animal we eat before it's born (i.e., eggs) and after it's killed (e.g., McNuggets).

As important as chickens are for food, they also are critical for medicinal purposes. The meat of chickens contains cysteine, which is an amino acid related to the active ingredient in a drug that treats bronchitis. Other chicken parts contain hyaluronan, which helps reduce inflammation. Pharmaceutical companies use various chicken parts to extract compounds that treat rheumatoid arthritis and sagging skin (a la Botox). 

Every day GlaxoSmith-Kline in Dresden, Germany, receives a shipment of about 180,000 eggs from nearby farms, whose locations remain secret. The eggs will be used to produce the vaccines that will inoculate us from the flu (if we are lucky). The author notes that "the chicken today provides us with our main source of the world's vaccine supply for a disease that continues to cycle between birds and humans." He adds further "since each dose requires an average of three eggs, however, the process remains complicated and expensive. One egg infected with a pathogen can render useless an entire batch of vaccine." You wonder how we could produce enough doses of vaccine for our entire country with a population of about 328 million people.

In 2012 the FDA approved an eggless vaccine that grows the virus in mammalian cells. Other approaches to flu vaccines are in the works, but the bottom line is that we do not have the capacity to produce flu vaccines for everyone; therefore, countries prioritize the distribution of the vaccine, such as to the elderly and healthcare workers.

Finally the chicken has invaded our language. We are cocky or we chicken out; we're henpecked or walk on eggshells. We hatch a plot; we get our hackles up; we rule the roost. We brood; we crow; we have hen parties. We count our chickens before they're hatched.

Stay happy.

The current crisis has placed heightened focus on sanitation. Since we are a history book club, today's feature is the history of sanitation in the home. The article linked below mentions hallway sinks where people entering the house could wash themselves.

How Infectious Disease Defined the American Bathroom

How Infectious Disease Defined the American Bathroom Elizabeth Yuko Cholera and tuberculosis outbreaks transformed the design and technology of the home bathroom. Will Covid-19 ins...

The Vanderbilt Mansion (not to be confused with the Breakers in Rhode Island, the Biltmore in North Carolina, nor their Manhattan mansion) in Hyde Park, NY, has a powder/coat room just inside the front door as shown in the diagram linked below. 

http://www.brownstoner.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/vanderbilt-mansion-ny-hyde-park-mckim-mead-white-floorplans.jpg