STRANGE VINTAGE EASTER IMAGES by CHERYL PIERSON

Because I am in love with vintage art and always have been, I had started to look through some vintage Easter greeting cards to blog about—thinking there would be some really cute images to share. There were. But as I went through the selections, I was struck by some of the more ridiculous creations instead of being caught up by the “sweetness” of some of them.

Here, let me show you what I’m talking about. Now, maybe it's just me, but I don't think so. Some of these are just kind of creepy.

Bunnies dancing a jig decked out in colored eggs. Okay, how did they get into those eggs in the first place?


BE HONEST! Did any of you see this in your mind's eye instead?



And...who's bright idea was this? Man, that egg looks heavy. And what is he going to do with it when he gets where he's going with it?


UMMM...call me crazy, but is this the fairy Pied Piper of Hamlin leading the chicks to their doom or what?


Okay, my mother instincts are yelling, screaming, "GET OFF THAT EGG!" (I have to confess, this reminds me of something my son would have tried.) Notice the body of water that they're racing toward? This can only end badly. Why can't this kid just play with these "normal" children below?



A balancing act if I ever saw one. Crazy rabbit, trying to ride a goat with his hands full. I want to look away, but I just can't!


DON'T GET ON THE CHICKEN DIRIGIBLE! What are you guys thinking?


No need for words on this one. Wonder what he plans to kill on this fine Easter day?

I never really noticed how oddly the artists' minds worked in that time for these images. I am almost afraid to go look at the Christmas ones. Or the Valentine ones. These were strange enough, but...do I see a story in there? Maybe one of the dancing bunnies had a terrible childhood that made him want to join Bunny Vaudeville!

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter! Let's see... what did I do with my normal lamb picture...

‘Remember Goliad!’

Presidio la Bahía today. In 1836,
the Texians who died there called it Fort Defiance.

By Kathleen Rice Adams

Though the most infamous by far, the Alamo wasn’t the only massacre during the Texas Revolution.

On March 19 and 20, 1836, two weeks after the Alamo fell, Col. James Fannin and a garrison of about 300 Texians engaged a Mexican force more than three times as large on the banks of Coleto Creek outside Goliad, Texas. Without food or water and running low on ammunition, unwilling to flee and leave the roughly one-third of of their comrades who were wounded or dead, Fannin and his troops surrendered.

Led to believe they were prisoners of war and would be allowed to return to their homes within a couple of weeks, the Texians were marched back to Goliad, where they were imprisoned in their former fortress, Presidio Nuestra Señora de Loreto de la Bahía, which they had christened Fort Defiance. Unbeknownst to the Texians, on December 30 of the previous year, the Mexican congress had decreed any armed insurgents who were captured were to be executed as pirates.

Diagram of Fort Defiance by Joseph M. Chadwick,
March 1836. Tents mark the location where various
companies camped. Chadwick was among those
executed. The U.S. federal government reprinted
the map in 1856 with the locations of Fannin’s
and Chadwick’s executions marked.

On Palm Sunday, March 27, acting on orders from Mexican President Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Col. José Nicolás de la Portilla separated into three columns the 303 Texians who were well enough to walk. Sandwiched between two rows of Mexican soldiers, the men were marched out of Fort Defiance along three roads. There, they were shot point-blank. Any who survived the fusillade were clubbed or stabbed to death. Twenty-eight feigned death and escaped.

Inside the fort, the 67 who were wounded too badly to march, including Fannin, were executed by firing squad.

Fannin, 32, was the last to die, after watching the executions of the men who served under him. As the commandant of the garrison, he was allowed a last request. He asked three things: that his possessions be given to his family; that he be shot in the heart, not the head; and that he be given a Christian burial.

The soldiers took his possessions, shot him in the face, and burned his body along with the bodies of the other 341 executed prisoners.

The Goliad massacre further galvanized the Texians. Three weeks later, on April 21 — shouting the battle cry “Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!” — the ragtag Texian army, under the command of Gen. Sam Houston, captured Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. Disorganized, demoralized, and leaderless, the Mexican army retreated.

Presidio la Bahía chapel, date unknown.
Fannin was executed in the courtyard.

Urged to execute Santa Anna as revenge for the depredations at the Alamo and Goliad, Houston decided to let el presidente live. On May 14, Santa Anna ceded Texas to the Texians in the Treaties of Velasco.

Though Goliad was one of the seminal events of the Texas Revolution, more than 100 years would pass before the State of Texas erected a monument to the men who died. In 1936, as part of the Texas Centennial celebration, the state earmarked funds for a memorial. The monument was built over the mass grave of Fannin and his men, and dedicated in 1938. The pink granite marker, inscribed with the names of the executed Texians and their comrades who died during the Battle of Coleto, bears the sculpted image of the Goddess of Liberty lifting a fallen soldier in chains.

Though “Remember the Alamo!” is famous around the world, those with the blood of Texas in their veins still recite, with reverence, the whole battle cry: “Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!”

This Monument marks the common grave where the charred remains
of the 342 Texians massacred at Goliad are buried

First Kiss...oooh la la! ~Tanya Hanson

  Claiming His Heart

A full-length, western historical inspirational romance

First Kiss:

(Charmlee and Tulsa are forced into a marriage neither of them wants. Now. But of course, it won’t be long before they do- wink wink.)    

     Merciful goodness, her whole life was about to change. Likely for worse, not better. Tull leaned down to her, and the handful of female wedding guests cooed as if expecting him to steal a kiss. Charmlee held her breath.

     But he whispered, harsh, “You better not change your mind on me.” Then his lips nuzzled her ear as the crowd expected.

     Charmlee gasped.

     A devout man, Judge Fields opened with Scripture and led the civil rite prayerfully. But at the “I do”, a darkness both deep and green began to settle on Charmlee and her knees buckled. Tull’s left arm grabbed her back and she nestled against him in support and mumbled the words.

     “…with this ring,” the judge continued. Determined, Charmlee held out her hand. With a pang, she watched Tull place Daddy’s own signet ring on her finger, turning the initial into her palm. Clever. It looked as real as any wedding band.

     Then came words she’d never imagined this day would bring.

     “I now pronounce you man and wife.”

     And Tull bent his face down to hers. The scent of him and the sudden gentleness of his hands landed on her like starlight.  With a flight of their own, her hands rose to his neck, and she used his strength to support the overwhelming feelings. His nearness stunned her, and the warm sweetness of his mouth had her own lips ready to drink in more.

     For a moment that went on forever, their mouths joined in a sweet, wordless song. Her toes tingled, and the crowd chuckled.  Then the deep green darkness began to settle again. Charmlee’s knees weakened, from both the death of her dreams and the all-too-real mess another handsome man was bringing into her life.

     For a flash, Tull’s arms tightened around her.

     “You all right?” he whispered.

     Lest he think she was swooning for him, she pulled away. “Certainly. The dress doesn’t fit loose enough.”

     “It fits you just fine.” He chuckled deep in her ear.

Blurb:

Caught between a noose and a cave-in, Tulsa Sanderson must do anything possible to prove his brother’s innocence...even if it means marrying a gold miner’s daughter he just met. He needs every nugget and flake he can pull from her worn-out claim, but he sure doesn’t need a wife. Save his brother from the hangman and he’ll be back on the Texas cattle trails.

Charlotte Amalie lost her heart, her virtue, and her money to the last mysterious outsider in the valley. Faith? That’s wavered, too, after too many family tragedies. But she has no choice but to wed the handsome Tull. He bears terrible family secrets that need to be kept behind closed doors. Although she’s eager to leave the valley to find a new life for herself and medical treatments for her wounded brother, her unwanted marriage douses her plans. Yet stirs up hope and love for Tull.

Can the two of them find a future--and faith--together even with their haunted pasts? 

Amazon Buy link:

http://tinyurl.com/n4mxbgo

Website: www.tanyahanson.com

Blogs:  www.petticoatsandpistols.com

           Sweetheartsofthewest.blogspot.com

Twitter: @TanyaHanson                     (I’m pretty much a Twitter virgin LOL)

The Lost Art of Writing Letters

Back in the days (a long, long time ago it seems) before computers, cell phones, i-pads, and text messaging, people wrote letters. Lots of letters. They were elegant and sincere and the wording was often flowery. Letters expressed matters of the heart simply, but with style. Letters created a permanent form of communication that could be bundled up, tied with a bow and kept forever in a treasured place. The receivers often took them out and reread them to re-live the connection they had with the sender.

 

In the West, it took weeks or months sometime to receive a letter and the waiting increased their value I think. When the letter finally got into the hands of the intended person, they read it until they often wore the paper thin while they waited patiently for the next one.

 

Letters strengthened a bond between two people and said exactly what was in their hearts. Letters spoke of love and commitment, loneliness and desire, and of thoughts and dreams that they dared not speak in person. Society was so constricted with rules that it was only through putting thoughts on paper that they could express what was truly in their heart without fear of censure. John Donne wrote: “More than kisses, letters mingle souls.”

 

Romance writer Mary Schramski perhaps takes it a step further: “There was a time when the world was gentle, and love letters floated down into waiting hands of the recipients like snowflakes.” Truly she knows what it's like, for she still is quite the letter-writer.

 

The story I wrote for the “Give Me a Texan” anthology a few years ago is called The Love Letter. In the story, Payton McCord and his best friend, both died-in-the-wool cowboys, love playing practical jokes on each other. But, their antics kinda get out of hand after Payton almost cost his friend his marriage. To get even, the man who’d once saved Payton’s life writes a love letter to a much maligned woman who raises sheep and signs Payton’s initials to it.

 

This is the letter Payton’s friend wrote: “I yearn to see the beauty of your face, hear the tone of your voice, and inhale your fragrance that wafts in the wind like a million wildflowers in bloom.  Please meet me in Amarillo by morning in the lobby of the hotel.  Then, you shall know the love I speak.  Look for the crescent birthmark on my right hand and the adoration in my eyes.”

 

That love letter set off a chain of events that no one could predict. Amanda Lemmons, the shepherdess and recipient of the love letter, suspects someone means to humiliate her in front of the whole town. Involved in a war with the cattlemen, she knows what lengths the ranchers will go in order to drive her off her land. Determined to outsmart them, she devises a plan to turn the tables on the Lothario letter-writer. Just let those cattle barons think they have the upper hand! What happens is humorous and entertaining and shows how a simple letter can change the hands of fate.

 

What do letters mean to you and do you have any you saved? I have one my husband wrote to me that I wouldn’t take any amount of money for. He died in 2007. And being a man of few words, he voiced what was in his heart. It’s beautiful.

 

Email counts if you don’t have any sent via the post office. Maybe you printed off a special email and put it in a safe place. Or maybe you received a nice card with special sentiments written inside. I have a whole bunch of these from family members, some who have since passed on. They’re very precious to me.

The REAL Texas Rangers

Ever since the masked man in the white hat rode across the silver screen upholding the law and saving damsels in distress, I’ve been a fan of the Texas Rangers. From a few carefully chosen men protecting the Texas frontier to the elite of modern law enforcement, the history of the Texas Rangers is as colorful as the land and people they protect.

Hollywood has been enamored with this badge-wearing hero since 1910, when the first movie featuring a Ranger was released. But who are the real Texas Rangers?

In 1823 the Empresario of Mexico, Stephen F. Austin, created two companies of men to act as “rangers for the common defense.” These men had to be strong leaders and fighters, and needed some specialized skills:

   >marksmanship with rifle and pistol;

   >horsemanship;

   >mastery of the outdoor life; and

   >knowledge of the foe.

They also had to have their own horse and weapons, since the government provided only powder, lead and a few provisions. After that, they had to fend for themselves.

The Texas Rangers have been formed and disbanded many times in their history. In 1835, the provisional Texas government authorized recruiting 25 Rangers. That number grew to 3 companies of 56 men each, who all mustered out in 1846 and joined the Army as scouts and guerilla fighters, and became sensations in the eastern newspapers. That’s where the legend of the Texas Rangers began.

1874 brought the creation of six companies of 75 “young men, in good physical condition, without families, who owned good horses.” The state was to furnish arms and ammunition at cost, the amount to be deducted from the first pay of each soldier. Because the state only provided .45 caliber ammunition, the Rangers began using what is arguably the best-known weapon of the West:  The New Model Army Metallic Cartridge Revolving Pistol, aka

THE PEACEMAKER

A FEW MILESTONES FOR THE TEXAS RANGERS:

1877  Salt War in El Paso

1877  Outlaw John Wesley Hardin shot in Pensacola, Florida

1878  Notorious outlaw Sam Bass captured near Round Rock, Texas

1880  Company “C” sent to the Panhandle to explore, making expanded

                  settlement possible

1883  Free Range War - sent to stop fence cutting and enforce peace

1900  Galveston Hurricane - maintain the peace and uphold the law

1901  Law enforcement around the oil boom

1915  Pancho Villa & the border raids

1920s Enforced Prohibition laws

In 1939, Captain Frank Hamer and 49 retired Texas Rangers offered their services to the King of England to defend their shores against Nazi invasion. That sent rumors flying through Hitler’s Reich that the Texas Rangers planned to infiltrate Nazi Germany. The rumors were based on tales of U.S. Army Ranger commandos, but by then the Texas Rangers were so famous that the Gestapo and Ministry of Propaganda assumed they would be facing the Texas Rangers.

By the way, Texas Rangers Frank Hamer and Manny Gilbert were the law enforcement officers responsible for stopping Bonnie & Clyde.

The Texas Rangers didn’t become a permanent force until 1987. Today, the Rangers are made up of 116 officers, organized in Six Companies – the same six companies that were first put together in 1874.

Today’s Texas Rangers are considered to be one of the most effective investigative law enforcement agencies in the world.

And Hollywood still loves them. To date, Texas Rangers have appeared as characters in more than 220 films.

If you have never visited the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco, Texas, put it on your must-see list. It is a fascinating glimpse of the men and women who make up this amazing law enforcement agency. http://www.texasranger.org/

Visit www.tracygarrett.com for information about me, my books and my stories in PRP's exciting anthologies WISHING FOR A COWBOY: Her Christmas Wish; & HEARTS AND SPURS: Coming Home!

DEJA VU? OR SOMETHING ELSE?

Most of you know by now that I have never been to the USA. I wonder how many of you have been to the UK? What were your impressions of it? No, rephrase that, what were your impressions of the area that you did visit? Did you go to London? That seems to be a magnet for many tourists, although, I can’t really see why, all hustle and bustle, crowds and noise, I hate it! I’m a country girl, as I know many of you are also, and much happier in a field full of animals than a street full of people.

 HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT FROM THE LONDON EYE.

Many of you seem to write (or read) books with Scottish themes or heroes. I’m interested, can those of you who do write these stories please tell me, are these imaginary places to you, or have you actually been there?

I love to see the full regalia of a hunky Scottish piper, and the sound of the pipes stirs something deep inside. I do have Scottish ancestry, and my family lived back there for a couple of years, when I was about 5-6 years old. After I married, we often went on holiday to Scotland. I consider it my ‘spiritual home’. There is a certain ‘feeling’ about it that I can’t really describe, but which I guess, many of you must have felt about places which are dear to your hearts too. I’d really love  to hear about your special places.

I believe that memories from way back are stored in our DNA, and perhaps those memories are awakened once more when we go somewhere, or do something which one of our ancestors also did. My love of the outdoors, and especially horses and pigs, can be traced  to the Scottish (and Irish) ancestors. In Ireland, my GG Grandmother lived in a small cottage at the side of a lough and kept pigs. (I can’t resist those little pink squealers!) One part of the Scottish family had a small farm, and one GGG Grandfather worked with heavy horses. 

GREAT GREAT GRANDPARENTS ALEXANDER FROM SCOTLAND.

The heavy horses came down the line, with my G Grandfather eventually killed at Liverpool docks where he worked as a carter, when a heavy load fell on him. Then his son, (my dear Grandad) worked in the same occupation until he retired. My first job was working at a pony stud, and I started riding at the age of three, and had two ponies of my own for a while. (Still riding, off and on).

When my husband, Chris, our daughter Sara, and I, went on our holidays to Scotland, we all loved it, then on one trip, we went to a distant place we had never been to before. We arrived late on a stormy night, and set up our tent on a small rocky beach side site with very Spartan facilities. It was dark, so we couldn’t really see the place, and it was cold and windy so we just put up the tent fast and disappeared inside and into our sleeping bags even faster!

The next morning your truly was first up, and opened the tent, to be greeted by a beautiful double rainbow. The place was wild and empty, with very few houses around. It looked as if it had remained almost completely untouched for many years. As I went out to look around the area the haunting beauty of the place struck me, and strolling on the empty, white sandy beach, I was suddenly overcome with the most enormous emotions. I began to cry, and had to sit down, my legs just wouldn’t hold me. My mind and heart were telling me I had come home at last! I knew that place was my real home! 

Does that sound totally stupid to you?

We went back there a couple of times, until Chris could no longer drive due to ill health (I never did learn to drive unfortunately). Each time I was filled again with that powerful sense of belonging. I have been researching my Family Tree for a while now and got back to the late 1700’s in Scotland, but so far, no-one I have found ever lived in that particular place. Maybe it comes from even further back, maybe my ancestors were really Vikings, and that was where they landed first!! LOL! Is there a rational explanation? Or is it really in my DNA?

Are any of you doing something now that could only have come down from a family member from the past. Neither of my parents were at all ‘horsey’, and I never saw Grandad’s heavy horses, so where did my love of horses come from? Also, I am a real ‘foodie’, love cooking, reading cookbooks, watching cookery programmes, have a kitchen full of cooking ‘gadgets’, even took a Cordon Bleu course on leaving school, yet no-one in the family had ever had anything to do with cooking.  Mum has always done as little as she could get away with! Where on earth did that come from? More research needed I think.

This is a subject which has always really interested me, although I haven’t used any of it in a story yet. Maybe one day eh? Should we call it Déjà vu? Or is it something more than that?

If any of you want information on any aspects of UK, (especially Scotland) please give me a shout, and I will do my very best to help.

THE TWO DOCTOR BATES by Doris McCraw

Before 1900, Denver had two women doctors with the same name: Dr. Mary Bates. Although there is still so much to learn about these two women, their stories so far are still the stuff of legends. The stories can and will lead to so much more.

Putting their stories into context, Colorado became a state in 1876. The early days of Colorado were filled with people seeking gold and other minerals to be found in the high mountains. If they weren’t searching for gold, remember the 1859 “Pikes Peak or Bust” slogan, they were providing services and goods for the searchers. There also was an influx of people who found the Colorado climate beneficial for their health. This combination lead many women to brave the new territory to practice their medical skills.

MINE IN LEADVILLE IN 1908
The first Dr. Bates to arrive was Mary Helen Barker Bates (b.1845-d.1934). She was the daughter of Dr. Ezra Barker who had a practice in New York. This Mary graduated from the Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia. Before she moved to Colorado she practiced in Salt Lake City, Utah, where some of her patients were the family of Mormon leader Brigham Young. (The family site said she was “Brigham Young's Family Physician”. There she met and married George Bates in 1876. Two years later in 1878, at the age of 33, she and George moved to the mining town of Leadville, Colorado where George was an attorney and Mary practiced medicine.

Leadville, for those who don’t know, sits at 10,152 feet above sea level in the Colorado Rockies. During the 1870's- 80's it was a booming town. It was here the Guggenheims, Horace Tabor and others made their fortunes in silver. Even Doc Holliday spent time there.

From the Hayden survey of the Colorado Territory in July of 1869. Two miles south of Georgetown on the Denver road.
While there, one source says Dr. Bates founded the Ladies Relief Hospital. In 1881 she and George moved to Denver for his health. When Colorado started licensing physicians in 1881, Mary was one of the first women licensed by the State. (Her license #271). She took special interest in Woman’s Suffrage, children and education. She introduced the Colorado Law for the Examination and Care of Public School Children which went into effect in 1910.

"Denver in 1898"
Our second Mary, Mary Elizabeth Bates (b.1851 d.1954) arrived in Denver in 1891. Prior to arriving in Colorado she was the first woman intern (1882-1883) at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois after a grueling exam in which she beat out a number of male candidates. She studied in Vienna from 1883-1884. Upon her return she was a professor of anatomy at the Woman’s Medical College in Chicago from 1884-1889. After moving to Colorado she also was involved in the Woman’s Suffrage movement and was part of the group that affected the passage of the 1893 referendum which gave Colorado women the right to vote. This Dr. Mary Bates also was a champion of the strict adherence to the liquor and gambling laws of the state. Her other passion was animal rights and prior to her death in 1954 she created the Mary Elizabeth Bates Foundation for animal care.