Stumpage Reports



Friday, October 31, 2003 :::
 
Hair Dye Job Goes Awry

I found out Wednesday they wanted people to dress at work for Halloween. I thought, what the hell, I'll get some of that spray-on colored hair dye, get some gel and spike my hair, and wear my Elvis Costello shirt with some ripped jeans and be a second-rate punk rocker. The dye job went fine, then when I went to apply the gel, the dye ran all down my face. All of this at about 6:30 AM. Luckily I had a Revolutionary War shirt and tricorn hat from an event I went to a few years back. I washed my hair, threw those on and went to work, and everyone seems to love it.

The Real Stuff

There was a dignitary in at work today, and they pulled a few of the treasures out for him to look at.

The things they pulled out, which I actually got to see and pick up (they are all in frames or in mylar) were:

John Adams, "Thoughts on Government, 1776.

1715 Revisal of Laws in Force.

Isaac Avery's Message to His Father, 1863.

Letter From George Washington to the Governor and Council, 1790.

I usually don't like linking to stuff on the homepage of where I work, but I think I'll be okay. You can view info on the above documents and thumbnails at the above links. To view the documents page-by-page and zoom in and everything you have to download a viewer.

I had seen these things locked in a cage up in the stacks, and felt happy and excited to be able to take a look at them. John Adams had really good handwriting.


::: posted by tom at 12:59 PM





Wednesday, October 29, 2003 :::
 
What The Hell Do You Do All Day?

People ask me: what do you do at your new job? What exactly does a Technical Processing Assistant IV do that deserves more pay than someone who has worked five years in the trenches of telephone reference?

In a nutshell, 900+ people a month email and snail mail the archives asking for photocopies of documents, usually for genealogical research. Here's how I tried to help those people on Tuesday:

8:30 AM Show up at work. My immediate supervisor and I put our heads together and make a plan for the day. He also points me to a couple things I could not find last Friday when he was not there.

8:45 to 9:45 AM. Pulling microfilm and making copies from it. This day it was mostly Death Certificates. Also a couple of Revolutionary War Payment Vouchers.

9:45 to 11:00 AM I prepared the above items (plus some stuff I copied on Friday) for mailing. This involves all kinds of bureaucratic rubber stamps, writing down citations, keeping stats, printing and stuffing envelopes.

11:00 to 11:30 AM I pull original Will and Estate Records in preparation for photocopying them. I can pretty much do that in my sleep now. Somewhere in here the lady from the railroad company where I moonlight comes in, and I'm able to schmooze with her for a few minutes.

11:30 AM to 12:30 PM I have to help cover the search room desk because someone is on vacation. This is fun for one hour a week. In that time I have to pull a bunch of Black Mountain College records. That is a bit of an adventure because they are on the third floor of the stacks, which I'm not that familiar with, and they are in two different places. I also pull a couple boxes of Wilkes County Estate Records for a guy, and some family bible records for a lady from Tennessee. The remainder of the hour was spent figuring out and helping a little Duke student with the index to original N.C. Supreme Court Records.

12:30 to 1:30 PM I cover the front security / registration desk while that guy goes to lunch. Usually I do that from 12 to 1 but above vacation screwed that up. I try not to swoon from hunger. Somewhere in here a guy from my old job shows up, he gives me some shit and we do some catching up.

1:30 to 2:30 PM A well-deserved lunch.

2:30 to 3:15 PM Photocopy the Will and Estate records I had pulled that morning.

3:15 to 4:00 PM I pull and photocopy some odds and ends of stuff including War of 1812 Pay Vouchers, Secretary of State Land Grant Records, and a few more Estate Records that appeared in my inbox.

4:00 to 4:30 PM Prepare the above stuff for mailing.

4:30 to 5:30 PM I once again cover the security / registration desk because thats when that guy goes home. Then I get to go home.

Tomorrow will be more of the same, but less desk time, and I have a bunch of Civil War Troop Rosters and Pension Records to pull.

Thats it. I love my new job. Its going to get even better tomorrow when a new employee starts. Her main job will be backing up the security / registration desk guy, so I won't have to as much anymore. I know her from class and we like to laugh so that will be nice too.


::: posted by tom at 10:56 AM





Tuesday, October 28, 2003 :::
 
Quote of the Day:

In the decades since Friedan's book [The Feminie Mystique] became a best seller, women have won the right to do as much as men do. They just haven't won the right to do as little as men do.

--- Anna Quindlen, "Still Needing the F Word," Newsweek, October 20, 2003. Page 74.


::: posted by tom at 6:10 PM





Monday, October 27, 2003 :::
 
Is There Nothing They Won't Try and Spin?

Usually, I try and stay away from politics in this blog. It is depressing, and documenting the lies of the Bush administration would leave me no time for sleep or work. Besides, there are other folks who do it better than I ever could.

However, there are some Lies That Cry Out to Chavez For Exposure, and this is one of them: commenting on today's wave of suicide bombings in Iraq, the President said "The more success we have on the ground, the more these killers will react."

If you follow that logic, the more bombings, deaths of Iraqi civilians, and deaths of American servicemen there are, then that means the United States is having greater success in post-major-combat-Iraq.

I am I the only one to whom that does not make sense?


Bat Guano Newspaper Story of the Day

GUANO DON"T BURN !!

In the Depot recently consumed by fire at Weldon there were 200 bags Guano. While Tobacco Boxes, Bbls. Fish, Lime, Plows, and several large Iron Boilers were ruined, 38 bags of the Guano were unscorched and 186 bags filled from the remaining bags that were partially burned. The pile was so strong of ammonia that it caused all of the laborers' noses to bleed.

--- Raleigh Register, April 8, 1954.




::: posted by tom at 11:19 AM





Friday, October 24, 2003 :::
 
Freak Show Ad of the Day

THE BEAR WOMAN. --- This remarkable freak of nature is at present on exhibition in this City, and attracts a number of --- we had like to have said admirers; but that would be going a little too far, --- visitors. She is, indeed, a wonderful curiosity, --- a link between the human being and the brute creation, and presents a subject of deep thought to the student of the marvelous. She will remain in Raleigh to-day, only, and will bear seeing.

--- The Raleigh Register, February 18, 1856.


::: posted by tom at 1:05 PM





Thursday, October 23, 2003 :::
 
Crime Does Too Pay

A friend of mine who collects 1940's and 1950's crime comics loaned me a copy of Crime Comics: Illustrated History and I've been reading it. These comics are wonderful, and I've managed to accumulate a small handful of them, including this one. The comics I'm reading about had great titles like Crimes By Women, Teen-Age Dope Slaves, and Murder Incorporated.

All those cover images are in the gallery section of the Crime Boss web site, have fun with them.

My favorite titles of some of the stories in these comics are:

Jean Torson - Satan's Daughter

I Broke Out of Oklahoma and Kansas State Pens, Whats Different About This Dump?

Murder, Morphine, and Me

I Was an Unwitting Accomplice to a Numbers Racket Combine (thats my favorite!)

Kill Some Time Here:

Dog Nose Heaven, the name says it all.

Stupid Questions Answered, I'm not too impressed with this site, but it has possibilities. An alternate title could be "Ten Minutes in Telephone Reference."

The Complete Acme Catalog, ever wonder where Wiley Coyote and Marvin Martian got all that shit? I like the Acme Ultimatum Dispatcher.










::: posted by tom at 2:18 PM





Wednesday, October 22, 2003 :::
 
That'll Take the Fun Out of It....

I've been going on the last couple days how fun it is to photocopy these old wills and estate papers at work. Today I found out how to take the fun out of it: photocopy an estate file that is over 200 pages.

This guy had a big-ass plantation and apparently it took a couple years to divide everything up and they had to keep the thing functioning in the meantime. This file must have had every receipt, everything sold, etc during those two years. Which brings me to...

...But This Makes It Worth It

In spite of what you may read here, I think I'm a pretty decent writer. When I was writing something for school, or a book review, I sweat over it a lot more than these blog entries. I really admire writers and historians that can take some dead-looking documents and really unpack them and bring them to life. One of the best examples of this is A Midwife's Tale.

I found some stuff in that estate file that just screamed for somebody with some time and talent to unlock. And there are thousands of things like this filed away in archives. Of course, one of the things they were selling as this estate was broken up were human beings. I found little pieces of yellowing paper with notations like: William, sold to Frederick Roper, $410. Jim, sold to Oliver O'Neal, $210. Little Mary, sold to Ezekiel Midgett, $120. I kept thinking, everyone of these scraps of paper represented a family being torn apart. What was the story? What was the scene like when they said their goodbyes (if they had the chance)?

I got chills, to me, things like this are about as close as you can get to the real thing. It really helps bring home exactly what slavery was.

P.S. Reconstructing slave families and how they were split up is harder than hell. The book From Calabar to Carter's Grove does as decent a job as anyone can.

Tom's (Overheard) Spiritual Nugget of the Day:

"If you run into three or more assholes in one day, you better take a look at yourself."


::: posted by tom at 1:02 PM





Tuesday, October 21, 2003 :::
 
The Haircut

Every Monday is a day off for me with the new job, so I spent the day running around and doing errands: washing sheets and towels for an upcoming influx of guests, working on the railroad, dealing with insurance company, and getting a haircut.

Folks who know me know I don't pay a whole lot of attention to my hair, I keep it clean and most of the time it just sits there until it gets so thick and shaggy I can't stand it, then I get it cut. I usually go to Supercuts or somewhere like that. Today when I was at the laundromat, I noticed an old-timey barber shop next door, it even had a barber pole. The shop was complete with scarred linoleum, old issues of Popular Mechanics and Field & Stream, pictures of WWII planes on the wall, and a machine that sold glass bottles of coke.

I gave the guy my usual spiel when I get my haircut: "Halfway over the ears, trim this much off the back, thin it on the top and sides blah blah." He looked at me, and in a wonderful southern accent said, "I'll just take about half that off and you'll feel a lot better."

Thats exactly what he did. As I was leaving I asked him "How would I look with a flattop? He shook his head, "Naw, it wouldn't stand up, but come back in a month and we'll take even more off."

Freak Show Story of the Day

AN EXTRAORDINARY FREAK OF NATURE! -- WHERE IS BARNUM?

A man by the name of George W. Houston, living a short distance from this place (Sparta,) has a cow which has brought forth a most uncommon calf. The calf is now two weeks old; living and likely to live. It has two distinctly formed mouths, four distinctly formed nostrils, two tongues, and four eyes, and will, I think, have four horns. In all other respects, it is formed as usual, and is a playful and very pretty calf. Some three or four hundred persons have been to look at it, and all consider it a very great curiosity. Such a man as Barnum, could, I have no doubt, make a fortune by exhibiting this calf as a show. Mr. Houston, to whom it belongs, has no turn that way, and would sell it if he could get a fair price. He talks of exhibiting it at Caroline County Court, which takes place on the 2d Monday in June next.

A.S. BROADDUS. Sparta, Caroline, Va., May 3d, 1853.

The North Carolina Whig (Charlotte), June 8, 1853.





::: posted by tom at 12:35 PM





Monday, October 20, 2003 :::
 
Latest Cool Thing at Work

Last Friday at work, a researcher found a record of a criminal action against a slave owner in North Carolina. The slave owner was in trouble because he had beaten his slave for three hours straight. It was unusual, but not as unusual as you might think, for a slave owner to be hauled into court for mistreating his slaves.

What made this one interesting, was that the slave was the grandfather of John Coltrane.

Freak Show Advertisement of the Day

Great Attraction! THE CELEBRATED CAROLINA TWINS will be exhibited at Raleigh during the Agricultural Fair.

These Children have been pronounced by Physicians the most interesting specimen of Humanity ever seen or recorded, and one which must command Universal Attention. They were born in Columbus county, North Carolina, and are healthy, active, and for their age, unusually intelligent.

They are joined together at the back by the union of the two spines in one, making the connection much more intimate than that of the Siamese Twins.

Many Physicians have examined them, and all agree in their being the greatest curiosity ever seen or heard of, -- some of their organs being in common, while other are perfectly distinct. It is often the case that one child is playful and active while the other is fast asleep.

Most visitors have expressed surprise to find them so "PERT" and "CUNNING," with such intelligent, happy faces, where they had not expected to see such interesting children.

Call at once if you would not miss the opportunity of seeing the greatest wonder of the Age, as you may "ne'er look upon their like again!"

Doors open from 9 o'clock A.M. till 12. M. for Ladies only; and from 2 P.M. till 4, for Gentlemen alone.

Admission 50 cts.
BROWER & SHELTON

--- Raleigh Register, October 7, 1853.








::: posted by tom at 11:06 AM





Friday, October 17, 2003 :::
 
Onion-Worthy Writing

Hopefully, my five or six regular readers already read this blog. Be sure and read this particular post, it is worthy of The Onion.

I enjoy NPR, but still felt like a closet philistine every time Mee - shell Norris' name grated on my nerves. Its nice to know I'm not alone.



::: posted by tom at 9:45 PM





Thursday, October 16, 2003 :::
 
A Whole Lotta Nuthin'

Nothing going on, nothing new, nothing creative. New job is wonderful. I'm the shiny, happy, idealistic, new guy. I'm sure my spirit and soul will soon be shattered by the monolithic, uncaring, ceaseless engine of state bureaucracy.

But for now its great, I'm still at the point where I think all my coworkers are wonderful until proven otherwise. Although I have some suspicions about a few of them.

I've been busy as hell every night this week, but damn it, I can't write about that shit here.

I mentioned this the other day, but it happened again today. I was photocopying old wills for people, and pulled one out from 1764. Its so nice they trust me with a key to the stacks (not everyone has one of those), I get to go pull stuff like this off the shelf, handle it, put it on a photocopier, and go put it back. I'm still new enough where I get a kick out of holding a piece of paper and realizing it was created in North Carolina while King George III ruled North America. And damn, I even get paid to do it.



::: posted by tom at 11:23 PM





Wednesday, October 15, 2003 :::
 
I Had a Job in the Great North Woods

Today was the first day on the new job and it was great. I'm sure I'll be whining about it in a couple of weeks though.

I actually have my own desk and my own PC, its in a little cage off in a dark corner of the stacks, it does not have a phone which makes me happy. Plus I have my own set of North Carolina Troops 1861 - 1865: A Roster . Next week I can dump the tie, and in a month or so I'll be doing even less public service as they get more people on board. I'm not going to be doing much now so less is even better.

Today, and many days to come, I was a glorified copy clerk. My immediate supervisor gets emails from all over the country with people asking for info. He researches them and tags what needs to be photocopied. I run around and pull the records, copy them, and do some paperwork. Lots of genealogists wanting copies of wills, estate records, marriage bonds, etc. If I'm gonna photocopy shit all day, I'd just as soon have it be marriage bond from 1765.

Its a good boot-camp, training kind of job. I can learn a lot about what kind of records they have and where they are.

Its after 10 PM and this is the first time I've sat down since 8 AM. The Cubs don't seem to be doing too well.



::: posted by tom at 9:54 AM





Tuesday, October 14, 2003 :::
 
Runaway Slave Ad of the Day:

$25 Reward. Runaway from the subscriber on Tuesday last, the 25th June, my boy RICHMOND, about thirty years of age, well proportioned, weighing about one hundred and seventy pounds and about five feet nine or ten inches high. Said boy is not jet black, but is dark and has more of the mulatto look. He is quick spoken, has a small head, and scars on each side of his neck, caused by the swelling of the glans. He has bad teeth, and one of his eye-teeth is gone.

I will give the above reward to any person who will take up said boy and deliver him to me, or for confining him in any Jail, so that I may get him in possession again.

The subscriber lives in Wake County, ten miles south-east of Raleigh. He may be written to at Raleigh. Edward A. Smith.

--- Raleigh Register, June 29, 1850.


Reading:

The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy. Done. It was wonderful, sorry when I finished.

Gettysbury: Memory, Market and an American Shrine by Jim Weeks. Done. It was interesting, makes me wanna look at historic sites in a new way, even after months of learning about similiar shit in school. Of course it makes me want to go back to Gettysburg, but so does waking up in the morning and breathing.

Rally Cry: the Lost Regiment Vol. 1 by William Forstchen. In progress. My guilty pleasure Civil War soldiers trapped on an alien planet book. Its not great, but pretty good fun, I'll probably read some more of the series.

Current Favorite Bob Dylan Lines:

Well, the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount
But nothing really matters much, it's doom alone that counts
And the one-eyed undertaker, he blows a futile horn
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

--- Shelter From the Storm, 1975.




::: posted by tom at 12:07 AM





Sunday, October 12, 2003 :::
 
My Last Full Day at Work

Saturday was my last full day at work. Usually Saturday is a 7 hour day, but I worked through lunch so I could leave earlier today. Weekend's are usually really slow and we don't do much work, but last Saturday was probably my all-time record for doing nothing at work. There was nothing for me to do, all my stuff is done. The phone did not ring once, one researcher came in, my co-worker got his stuff and he sat there and looked at it all day.

9:00 - 9:30 AM Log on computer, do some web surfing to catch up on the news, check out other blogs, Yahoo! News, Charlotte Observer and Metafilter.

9:30 AM Co-worker shows up.

9:30 - 9:45 AM Fill out exit interview form (closest thing to real work all day)

9:45 to 10:05 AM Co-worker demonstrates
Homestarrunner.

10:05 to 11:00 AM I play at Homestarrunner. If I listened to my friends, I would have discovered that site weeks ago thanks to Ann.

11:00 to 11:15 AM Outside for a cigarette and across the street to Bruegger's Bagels for two salt bagels smeared with cream cheese and chives (they better serve those in heaven).

11:15 to 11:45 AM Eat, check out the blogs and the news.

11:45 to 12:10 ? ?

12:10 to 1:00 PM Talk to a friend on the phone, he's at work too.

1:00 to 2:00 PM I cover the desk while my co-worker is at lunch, absolutely no work gets done.

2:00 to 4:00 PM I read book reviews in The Journal of Southern History, Civil War History, and The American Historical Review. That's one thing I'll miss about this job, having time to catch up with stuff like that.

Somewhere around this time, my co-worker says "If we didn't need your key to lock up, I'd tell you to go home." I answer, "Even I have a little shame, if I'm getting paid for this, I ought to at least be physically here."

4:00 to 4:45 PM Talk to same friend on phone again, we both surf Ebay and point shit out to each other.

4:45 to 5:00 PM Close up and get the hell out of there.

::: posted by tom at 9:30 PM





Saturday, October 11, 2003 :::
 
A Worthy Cause

I'm sitting here at work reading book reviews in The Journal of Southern History. I ran across a mention of an organization called The Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching.

Call me naive, but it still blows my mind that something as terrible as lynching had to have a group organized to fight against it as recently as the 1930's. This page lists the group's goals for 1936.



::: posted by tom at 1:28 PM





Friday, October 10, 2003 :::
 
Finally...

I was all excited, my last two days off before a three day stretch at old job and then right into new job. First thing I had scheduled was the cable on Thursday morning. My modem ended up coughing up blood right after he left, then I had to wait until freakin 6:15 on Friday for someone to show up with a new one. That's 6:15 PM, after the laundry, bank, railroad company, haircut place, everywhere I needed to go on my last day off for eight days was closed. Ah well, I'll get that shit done somehow.

The important thing is I'm back online at home after a four month hiatus. So now you'll see well thought out, coherent posts from me. Right. The good news, I am happily surrounded by my book collection, so I can again offer you...

Quote of the Day:

I never used to realize it, I guess. I try and play it along and just not make trouble for people. Probably I never would have had any trouble if I hadn't run into Brett when they shipped me to England. I suppose she only wanted what she couldn't have. The Catholic Church had an awfully good way of handling all that. Good advice, anyway. Not to think about it. Oh, it was swell advice. Try and take it sometime. Try and take it.

--- Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, 1926

Some Websites:

Art or Crap? Take the quiz and see how your bullshit detector is doing.

The Museum of Coathangers Self explanatory.






::: posted by tom at 10:36 PM





Tuesday, October 07, 2003 :::
 
Whatever...

For lack of anything else to write about, I ran across this Yahoo news story on Quentin Tarantino. I still enjoy the heck out of Reservoir Dogs and got a kick out of Pulp Fiction but don't think it holds up as well as his first film.

Here is a quote from the above-mentioned news story that I thing sums up Tarantino pretty well, and American popular culture in general:

"Yes, Tarantino has been influential," says Brett Ingram, lecturer in media production at Wake Forest University. "So has Jerry Springer. So has Ronald McDonald. So has George W. Bush. And this all says way more about the decline of our culture than it does about the individual we label as 'influential.' I think Tarantino is a masterful writer and film director. I just don't think he has anything important to say."

Runaway Slave Ad of the Day

RUN away from the subscriber in Chesterfield, the Wednesday before Easter last, a bright mulatto wench named Jude, about 30 years old is very remarkable, has lost one eye, but which I have forgot, has long black hair, a large scar on one of her elbows, and several other scars on her face, and has been subject to running away ever since she was ten years old. I have great reason to think she will pass for a free woman, and endeavour to make into South Carolina. She is very knowing about house business, can spin, weave, sew, and iron, well. She had on when she went away her winter clothing, also a blue and white striped Virginia cloth gown, a Virginia cloth coperas and white striped coat, besides others too tedious to mention. Whoever conveys the said slave to me shall be well rewarded for their trouble.

--- October 20, 1768, The Virginia Gazette


::: posted by tom at 4:18 PM





Monday, October 06, 2003 :::
 
Pat Conroy is a Damn Genius

One of my current favorite fiction writers is Pat Conroy. I have read two of his books and recently started on a third, The Lords of Discipline. I try to ration his books because there are so few of them and he isn't very prolific.

I normally prefer the stripped-down prose style of Hemingway, but when its done well, I love some metaphor-laden, thick, rich romantic prose. Conroy, along with Hawthorne and Melville is someone who can do that really well. He can load on the metaphors and cram in the all-five-senses-lighting-up descriptions of the South Carolina lowcountry and human emotions until the paragraphs creak and groan like the Pequod straining under the weight of leviathan being prepared for flensing.

Although its not a great example of what I just got done raving about, here is my current favorite line from The Lords of Discipline:

"The adversary who is truly formidable is the one who works within the fortress walls, singing pleasant songs while licking honey off knives."

New Job, Redux:

More money = Cable Modem at Home



::: posted by tom at 1:26 PM





Sunday, October 05, 2003 :::
 
I Got A Crappy Kinda Crappy Goddamn Nice Job

I'm happy to say I got a job with the big boys downtown. I got the phone call about five minutes after Ann walked in the door after driving in from Charlotte. The news about the job made what was looking to be a good weekend even better.

The nice thing about the job, besides full-time pay and benefits, is that my main job duties do not include waiting on the public. That, coupled with making a little more money that when I left Charlotte, were two of my main job goals after getting my master's degree. Now if I can just get a job where I don't wait on the public at all...



::: posted by tom at 2:38 PM





Wednesday, October 01, 2003 :::
 
Maybe Some Good Band Names Here

When this old newspaper projects ends, I won't have anything to blog about anymore. Here's some headlines I found interesting. Interesting enough to make me want to read the stories, which is I guess what headlines are supposed to do. I didn't have time to read them though. They are all from the Concord Weekly Gazette, 1855 - 1857.

Shocking Occurence at Mormon Baptism

Sad and Lamentable Death of a Snake

Sewing People's Mouths Up

Yankee Factory Girls

Queer Freaks of Lightning

Post Office Espionage

A Depraved Mother

Usefullness of Toads

Yeast For a Putrid Sore Throat

Random Kettering University Student Blog of the Day:

Almost Defeated


::: posted by tom at 12:46 PM









I'd taken the cure and had just gotten through...

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