The Music of Madonna and Child

I have always had a fondness for Madonna and Child images. This antique greeting postcard with an embossed image shows mother Mary, a rather mature infant Jesus and a couple of ministering angels. A heavenly host of infant voices adds a choral dimension. On closer look it seems the child is singing, perhaps symbolizing the music of the spheres or the Word of God. The entire group is perched on a cloud. This could represent the scene is a fulfillment of God's will -- "on earth as it is in heaven."

This card was post dated December 22, 1908. It was sent to a "Mrs. M T Arnold" in Mount Clemens, Michigan, from "Eletha."

Misspelled postcards

A couple of images today from Alaska's past to show the majesty of nature and the frailty of humanity. The images above have beautiful scenes adorned with misspelled words. The titles of these two photo postcards should read, "Alaska" not "Alsaska" and "Nanook" not "Nonook." It proves, if nothing else, that people occasionally misspell words. We all know that and tend to look the other way. We know by the context what was meant.

On the other hand, a local candidate is suing the state of Alaska because he believes that every voter should also be perfect spellers. In the Alaskan U.S. senate race, Joe Miller is trailing Lisa Murkowski by a large margin. Miller disputes more than 2,000 write-in ballots. He has questioned ballots that read, "Murkowski, Lisa" and "Murkowsky" and "Merkowski." He has also rejected a ballot in which the first letter of Lisa's name was written in cursive. The down side of all this on Miller's part is that by interpreting the law so strictly he risks disenfranchising voters, especially people who don't always cross every "t" and dot every "i" -- like so many Alaskan voters for whom English is their second language or for whom like me never won a spelling bee.

My Hometown, Wayne, Michigan, circa 1940's

This is a photo postcard view of Wayne, Michigan, my childhood hometown. The view looks northwest along Michigan Avenue, U.S. 12. The scene is not so different than the main streets in many small towns of the era between Detroit, Michigan and Chicago, Illinois, before the advent of the interstate highway system and urban renewal.

This glossy photo postcard was sent to me by a high school buddy, Rick B. who still lives in the area. I think the time on the clock at the top of the building is close to the time of day this picture was taken. The shadows are right for 10:46 AM. The photo was most likely taken in the 40's, owing to the cars on the street.

During my boyhood, Wayne was a small town with a thriving downtown. You could park on any street and walk to several stores to shop and take care of business. Today, these buildings still exist. They escaped the bulldozers that razed most of the buildings in Wayne's Michigan Avenue corridor in the 70's -- sacrificed for the sake of urban renewal. The actual renewal took decades to achieve and for many years left the core of Wayne a ghost town. The tightly packed storefronts were eventually replaced with isolated structures surrounded by parking lots. The city is still replacing buildings that were once there.

Fortunately other areas of Wayne were not mowed down and to this day retain some of the look and feel they had during the World War II era. What I liked about these buildings were the second stories that often housed an apartment that a store owner lived in or rented out. This feature ensured that people occupied the downtown area at all hours of the day and night instead of a place deserted at the close of the business day.