JFK in Dallas, TX. Ruth Paine House Museum, Irving, TX. Old Skylines. St. Petersburg Flood. Gettysburg Address. Non-Poo.

 

For "Travel Tuesday":  Let's visit Dallas, TX, as it was in 1963, and before:

Events mark 50 years since JFK assassination

This tabletop model at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza shows the positions of the president’s car as three shots were fired from the building, then known as the Texas School Book Depository.

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"As the 50^th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination approaches, dozens of events are planned to honor his life and legacy in Dallas and surrounding cities.

The museum preserves the space where a sniper’s nest and rifle were found after JFK’s assassination.

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, on the same floor from which the fatal shots were fired on Nov. 22, 1963, has had a steady stream of visitors leading up to the grim anniversary. Permanent exhibits highlight Kennedy’s leadership, the assassination and conspiracy theories that still surround this event a half-century later. The museum also regularly hosts “living history” lectures by people connected to the president or the events surrounding his death—the next one on Dec. 6-7 features Kari-Mette Pigmans, who was a Pan Am flight attendant aboard the White House press plane in the early 1960s and met Kennedy several times. Visit www.jfk.org for details.

The museum and the Nasher Sculpture Center also will host special concerts to commemorate JFK’s death. “One Red Rose,” composed by Stephen Mackey for the event and performed by the Brentano String Quartet, will be presented along with other works Nov. 23-24. Tickets are required—visit the sculpture center website for the Saturday evening concert or the museum website for a Sunday afternoon performance.

In Fort Worth, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art hosts “Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy” through Jan. 12. The exhibit features the works procured for the president’s suite for his overnight stay in Fort Worth before his fateful visit to Dallas in 1963. The original installation included paintings by Thomas Eakins, Lyonel Feininger, Marsden Hartley and Franz Kline, as well as sculptures by Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso—all chosen by a small group of Fort Worth art collectors to appeal to the tastes of President Kennedy and the First Lady.

For other performances, exhibits, book signings and other events related to JFK, the Sixth Floor Museum offers this list on its website. VisitDallas.com features additional events here."

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Irving home where Oswald stayed before JFK assassination to open as museum

"It may seem like the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy has been dissected in every manner imaginable. But the assassination’s pending 50^th anniversary on November 22 continues to reveal new perspectives of the event. Case in point: Wednesday’s opening of the Ruth Paine House Museum, the suburban Irving home where Lee Harvey Oswald stayed the night before he shot Kennedy.

Ruth Paine, a suburban housewife, lived in the home at the time and had allowed Oswald’s wife,  Marina, to live there with her two young daughters. The City of Irving purchased the home in 2009, restored it to its 1963 appearance, and added multimedia exhibits about the time period.

Tours of the Ruth Paine House begin at the Irving Central Library, and then travel by van to the Paine house. Tickets cost $12 and must be reserved in advance.

Read more about the Ruth Paine House project in this story by Jamie Stengle for The Associated Press.

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Dallas in Days Gone by:

Post Office - 1930s

1932

1938

Elm & St. Paul, Main Street 1947

Oak Lawn streetcar service in 1948.

1951

1958

1960's

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100 years ago:

Johnson & Rogers, 1912, "Dallas, Texas skyline, August 1912," courtesy Library of Congress (PAN US GEOG - Texas no. 74).

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On This Day:

Thousands perish in St. Petersburg flood, Nov 19, 1824:

"On this day in 1824, a flood on the Neva River in Russia claims an estimated 10,000 lives.

Winter came early to Russia in 1824. The very cold weather caused blocks of ice to form on the Neva River, near the city of St. Petersburg. Enough ice developed that the river's flow was nearly stopped for several weeks. Water backed up behind the ice, but did not freeze. As a result, when the weather briefly warmed, the ice jam broke apart and the water overwhelmed the city's dam.

The flood of icy cold water was the worst in the city's history. Hundreds of carriages and horses were swept away suddenly. Four hundred soldiers stationed in barracks climbed to the roofs to escape the flood, but were all killed. The water's freezing temperatures made staying alive in it for any length of time impossible. At the Kronshtadt port, hundreds of sailors were killed. The surge of water was so powerful that several ships were thrown into the city's marketplace.

Much of the city's rich cultural history was lost in the flood. Valuable and irreplaceable books and art were damaged beyond repair. Even Czar Alexander I's royal palace suffered extensive damage, as water rose above the first floor of most of the city's buildings. Although exact numbers are impossible to determine, it is generally believed that as many as 10,000 people were killed."

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Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address, Nov 19, 1863:

"On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg,Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War.

Lincoln, who began his address with the now well-known phrase "Four score and seven years ago," reminded the assembled crowd of the Founding Fathers' vision, which established a nation that was "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Reception of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was initially mixed, divided strictly along partisan lines. Nevertheless, the "little speech," as he later called it, is thought by many today to be the most eloquent articulation of the democratic vision ever written.

Today, the words of the Gettysburg Address are carved into a wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C."

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Yesterday:

Tired of all the chemicals that they put in shampoos, which dry out my hair even though I use conditioner, last Saturday, I tried something new, to me anyway.  It's a "non-poo".  No, not that 'poo', it's non-shampoo.  In a measuring cup, I put 4oz of warm water, and added baking soda to the 5oz mark, and washed my hair with it. Then I rinsed my hair with very diluted Apple Cider Vinegar, and rinsed that off.  No, the smell doesn't linger!  My hair isn't brittle and dried out anymore, and feels really shiny and clean.  Anyone else tried that?

Yesterday, Ray and I stapled up the rest of the screen on the porch.  But we still have to do the two end triangles at the top where the porch roof meets the house, but they will be more complicated.

So, I can't let the cats out there on their "Catio" (Cat Patio) just yet.  Peekers is an active little kitten and he would climb up and be gone.  The weather would be just great for them to hang out there, as it was still a doors-and-windows-open day.