Extra Special Good Mail

As you know, I had a love seat full of extra special, good mail when I got home from the "Spa" and inside the boxes and envelopes were some of the nicest thoughts - and oodles of laughs. I can't say thank you enough. I hope I've not missed anyone - if I have, please feel free to kick me in the rump.


Left-to-right, top-to-bottom: birthday card from Cindy, birthday card from my older brother and his family, A very cute get-well from Betty and Koda, get-well card from Rebecca, get-well card from an anonymous Orange Cone, autographed Tom Baker photograph, the Fourth Doctor Who, from Tori and Kelly.


A beautiful handmade get-well card from Punkn...


A hilarious audio card from LadyStyx... Don't forget to play the video!


A "double rainbow" card from my younger brother (inside it says, "I think I drank too much coffee")...


Life is Good t-shirt from my younger brother; a nifty handmade card, dog lover mug, and a British bird identification book (so now I'll know what those strange birds are in the photos that Tori sends me!) from Tori, Kelly and Kero; Hilarious Squirrel card and a way cool Spongebob nightlight from LadyStyx and Ranger; beautiful handmade card from Deanna, birthday card with super cool "invisible ink" letter from Rita; orange mints and York peppermint "flying saucers" from Parsley...


An eclectic "Those Darn Squirrels" book and some very nice cards from ChicagoLady; An Area 51/Roswell Space Alien and Welcome to Roswell with Orange Cones postcards and four "affirmation" cones (one of them Orange!) from Parsley; a very nice birthday card, comfy Camp Brule cap, an Orange Affirmation Cone (hey look! twins!) and some maps and news stories from upstate Pennsylvania from Alice Kay...


A closer look at those oh-to-cute affirmation cones and awesome Welcome to Roswell postcard!


A very nice Camp Brule T-shirt from Alice Kay and the Scuba Dude...and it fits perfectly too!


The Spongebob nightlight in action! It's so cool! It turns itself on when it gets dark!

I had the best "Spa" homecoming and birthday! Thank you! Thank you! Thank YOU!!!!

4 Miles in the Sunshine

Hi there!

I know I've not posted in a while - I've been "out of commission" for a couple weeks but am feeling much better each day. Today, I managed to walk four miles in the pleasant Indian Summer sunshine and am very pleasantly tired now.

While most of you know, I had several pulmonary embolisms (emboli?) and was (literally) knocked off my feet for the better part of a week - and forced to go to the "Three A-Em Acupuncture Spa" (otherwise known as Mercy Suburban Hospital) and turned into a human pin cushion. I'm still bruised from the various needles used to inject or pull out fluids. The food was okay - but the wee hour awakenings for blood pressure, blood samples, and injections of blood thinners kind of sucked.

Umm.. some of the nurses were kind of cute - but I didn't really care all that much - I just wanted to go home and take a shower pretty much from day one (hour one?)


I was greeted by a substantial pile of extra-special "good mail" when I returned home from the Spa. A long hot shower and couple nights of uninterrupted sleep were total bliss! I've been "faithful" taking my medicine - and have been given the green-light to return to work full time - and told to build up to where I was with my walking.

Today and yesterday the weather was perfect - and found me outdoors walking (oh-so-slowly) but steadily... passed not only by women passing baby strollers loaded with hundreds of pounds of baby, baby supplies and baby toys... but also by turtles, burrowing moles and even little ants.

But I felt marvelous - I took some pictures - but first I have to thank everyone for their get well wishes and for the extra-special good mail which I opened Friday and today - enjoying my birthday more that I have in years.

So what do you think is in those boxes, envelopes and behind the gift wrappings?

I'll tell you next time! :)

When all else fails, dazzle 'em with science

In my previous post, I introduced the McClurken boys and some of you commented that you thought the tallest of these skinny young men was on the far left. So I decided to take a closer look. A much closer look.

I recalled from an now ancient mechanical drawing class I suffered through, something about "vanishing points". To refresh my memory, I asked my good friend Google about it. He told me, "a vanishing point is a point in a perspective drawing to which parallel lines not parallel to the image plane appear to converge." Engineering drawings usually show an item in three flat, 90-degree views (top, side, and front) but there is another type of engineering drawing, called the orthogonal or one point perspective.

Noticing that the old photograph had a "vanishing point off to the far right, it was obvious to me that the left most objects appear bigger than they actually are - that is, as compared with objects to the right... (My apologies to my g-uncle McClurken for calling his lower leg an object).


So, I printed out a copy of the photo and determined just where the vanishing point was located. You see it there, way off to the far right. So what this means, is that the traverse lines at any distance from the vanishing point are of the same length (or in this case, height).


Looking more closely at the photo, we see the orthogonal lines passing through the top of the fence behind the young men as well as beneath them along the curbing of the flower garden (I admit, I "assumed" that the curb was parallel to the fence).


Interesting - the two young men on the left, appear to be of nearly identical height, although the one in the middle has a "longer" face. Going by a rough estimate based on the height of a typical forehead - the man on the left is about 3 inches shorter than the other two - which, as they say, "agrees well with the data" given we think one man was 5'7" and the other two were about 5'10".

So what does all this prove?

Well, absolutely nothing other than demonstrating the author of this post will go to great lengths to attempt to solve a perplexing problem (if he wants to).

Looking at the photo, I'm not even convinced myself.

What helped some was to locate the Selective Service Act of 1917 and learn that all males aged 21 to 30 were required to register for military service. At the request of the War Department, Congress amended the law in August 1918 to expand the age range to include all men 18 to 45.

This means originally, young men born between 1886 and 1896 were required to register (and hence drafted). Knowing this gives me greater confidence that the older and younger brothers where not drafted. It still leaves me with the possibility of four of the seven brothers being in the photo with Howard being left questionable as he was "just barely younger" than draft age.

So - does this mean James, Edwin, and George are in the photo (and not Howard)? I guess it will require further research to be sure - and finding WWI records that I have no known access to...

More Old Photographs

A while back, I wrote about my paternal grandmother's paternal grandfather and his numerous offspring. I am still going through the piles of old family photographs I "inherited," I've been able to identify some of the people that are in them, but sadly, most of them are unlabeled. Here are two that I'd like to share.


Someone once wrote that the poor were cannon-fodder for the rich. My great-great-grandfather Samuel McClurken was a poor Irish immigrant that lived in the "factory district" of Philadelphia called Kensington. Most of his sons served during the various wars the USA has been involved in. In the photograph, you see three of his sons, clowning around a bit in his backyard, sitting without a chair.

I think the three brothers in the photograph are James, Howard, and Edwin, but I'm not 100% sure which of these fellows is whom. I've found WWII draft cards for 4 of the 5 living brothers. It's amazing what you can learn from them.

Thomas (1880-1958) (WWII draft card image not available)

William Spence (1884-1924) (died in train-truck accident) Did not serve during WWI. He was my great-grandfather.


The only brother I've been able to determine to be in the photograph "for sure" is Corporal James (1888-1958) Co. D, 34 Infantry, 7th Division WWI (never married). James was a Chemist and he went on to make ice cream for Abbott's Dairy. He is listed as 5' 10", 140 pounds and light haired. He lived with his brother Raymond for a time.


George Richardson (1892-1976) is shown living with wife Emma and working for the John B. Stetson hat factory. 5' 10 1/2", 190 pounds and blond haired. With him being blond and husky (at least he was by 1940), I don't think George is in the old photograph.


Edwin Winfield (1894-1983) listed as married to Anna and also working for the John B. Stetson hat factory. 5' 7", 166 pounds, and brown haired. I think Edwin is the "short" guy on the far left in the old photograph.


Howard Wilson (1897-1982) 5' 11", 150 pounds, and brown haired. Howard is shown married to Edna and working as a partner with Morgan and Co., in the "Pakard" building. Howard was a CPA. I've not been able to determine where this building actually was/is, nor who the Morgan and Co. owners were. I guess the mailman knew how to find the place and I'll leave it as a rainy day project. I think Howard is in the old photograph. Being the tallest (but not by much) I'm guessing he is the one in the center.

Raymond Wesley (1901-1958) No WWII draft record. I think Raymond was too young to have served with his older brothers in WWI.

So there you have it, an educated guess (at best) that, from left to right, we see Edwin, Howard, and James in the old photograph.


This old photograph illustrates far more than what appears in it. You see two young babies, perhaps less than a year old - one with the hair parted in the middle and one with hair parted elsewhere. These two are twins and are my paternal grandmother's older brother William (center part) and his twin sister Margaret. Sadly, Margaret died at the age of five from childhood illness.

What has been a challenge to me - are the names. My grandmother's parents names were William and Margaret. They had the twins and named them after themselves. Margaret (Jr.) died - but William (Jr.) went on to marry a Margaret. Confused yet? My great-grandfather, in addition to being married to a Margaret, had a sister named Margaret. There are twelve Margarets in three generations in this family tree.

I know I'll never have any children, but if I did, I don't think Margaret would be on my list of possible names. I hope my ancestors can forgive me for that.