NBC-10-Philadelphia-kimwolterman

Fall colors at Calvary Cemetery

Since it was such a beautiful day I headed up to Calvary Cemetery to do a little digging - figuratively speaking. Since I have been continuing my research on the building we own at 7722 Big Bend I have become a little obsessed with John J. Murdoch. Mr. Murdoch was a very successful auctioneer in partnership with Charles K. Dickson from around 1854 until Dickson died in 1871. They owned a LOT of property in the city of St. Louis as partners, and Murdock owned quite a bit of land west of the city in the area which was to later become Shrewsbury. He farmed the property and I can place him there from around 1857 through 1879. When he died in 1880 he was back in the city. Later census records and directories do not show any of his family members living in the county, so I believe the property was disposed of before 1880.

When Dickson died there apparently were more liabilities than assets in Murdock & Dickson, and as the sole remaining partner all the debt fell to Murdock. He began to sell off the property in the city to pay down the debt. Then Dickson's family filed lawsuits against him, and I can see that at least until 1903 the suits were still active. One document indicated that Murdock was insolvent when he died, having assigned all of his individual estate for the benefit of his creditors. That may mean that Murdock Farm fell victim to the liquidation.

But back to why I made the trip to Calvary. Articles and books about Shrewsbury state that the city was formed on land that was once Murdock Farm, owned by John Murdock who was a general in the civil war. I have been trying to figure out where they came up with him being a general. He was not even in the Civil War as far as I have been able to find out. First of all, he was born in 1814 so that would have made him 47 when the war began. Second, generals in the Civil War were pretty well documented and I find no record of him at all. Third, I can place him in St. Louis through census records and city directories during the time period of the war. Heck, he got married here in 1855. Fourth, his obituary makes no mention of him being a general.

So I thought perhaps his tombstone might have a marker indicating his service. He and 7 of his family members are buried on the same plot as 9 members of the Charles K. Dickson family, which I think is interesting in light of the lawsuit. Imagine my surprise when I got to the plot and found this tombstone.

Dickson-Murdock family plot

Dickson tombstone

You can see all the open space on the plot, but the only headstone is for Dickson. And even they only list 5 of the people who are buried on this plot. So strange... And even if the Murdocks were destitute at the time of John's death, you would think that somewhere along the line a family member would have erected headstones, wouldn't you?

So I will not have a tombstone to help me answer the veteran question. At any rate the man in the office at Calvary said it was up to the family whether the stone stated anything about military service. It is possible it would not have been listed anyway. I will continue to look for clues, but unless I have the wrong John J. Murdock I think someone made up a good story for how Shrewsbury got its start.

Because my schedule is flexible, I try to vote when it is less likely that those who punch a clock will need to be at the polls. I attended my weekly small group training class at 9:00, fervently wishing that my recreation center was my polling place so that I could vote after class was finished. After all, I had already scored a parking spot and had a picture ID with me. But alas, that is not where I can vote, so I dodged the political volunteers feverishly thrusting their papers filled with lies...er, I mean information...into the hands of the "undecided" and went inside to get buff with Becky. A man was coming out the door carrying his daughter and she exclaimed, "I voted for mommy!" So cute! Too bad mommy really wasn't on the ballot.

I arrived at my polling place a little after 10:00, parking on the side street behind the school and entering through the playground. It was brilliant because all the paper pushers were on the street in front of the school, so I didn't have to lip off that I had certainly made up my mind by now and their papers weren't going to sway me. I didn't see a line coming out of the building, which I took as a good sign. Upon entering the gym, I found about 40 or so people waiting in front of me. Not too bad... A quick glance told me that this was not a well organized polling center. The way the line was positioned, you not only could read each vote of the person using the end electronic booth, the line blocked the box where those who used the paper ballot had to come to drop off their completed ballots. Shaking my head, I booted up my iPad and settled in to read a bit while I waited. Finally a Little Man volunteer started pushing those behind me in line out the gym door away from those trying to vote, and then he reorganized those of us closer to the beginning of the line to suit his fancy. It was then that he told me I was not allowed to use my iPad. He said there were signs posted outside that you are not allowed to use cell phones in the voting area. I told him that I did not have a phone on me. He said well there are no rules for these kind of devices, but I don't want you to use it in here. "Even to read a book?", I inquired. "I want you to turn if off." After he left, the men around me shook their heads. "Give a person a little power..", one said. (Or give a little person power, I thought to myself.) What is ironic is that Little Man later pulled out his cell phone and was using it in the gym. Really?

I decided to go with the paper ballot as they had 4 stations for doing that versus 3 for electronic voting, and the electronic line was twice as long. Once I got over to the paper ballot area, they offered the option of sitting at the table to fill the ballot out, and there were four seats at the table. I took a seat there because one opened up before a traditional stand did. I will say that there was little privacy to be had. I held my ballot up at an angle to protect my vote. I still want to know why we have regressed to filling in ovals with a pen as opposed to punching the cards. Did the hanging chad fiasco in Florida ruin that for everyone? Some people completed theirs so quickly that I was wondering how they filled their ovals in so rapidly. And what is the margin for error there?

At any rate, when I was done as luck would have it Little Man was collecting the paper ballots. He placed mine in the box, made sure the number counter recorded it, and told me I was done. He did not, however, give me a sticker. IPad bad, I guess. By the time I left, the line was out the door so I was grateful I came when I did. But I still want my sticker!

Southwest Airlines

With the continuous reports about the severity of Hurricane Sandy, AKA Frankenstorm, I was getting a little nervous about our Monday noon flight. Surprisingly my husband was pretty lackadaisical about it. He wanted to just wait and see what happened. But Andy and I were pretty convinced that if we did not get a flight out on Sunday, we probably would not be leaving before Wednesday at the earliest. When I checked with the Southwest Airlines website, they were strongly suggesting that if you had a flight out of the East coast on Monday or later you try to schedule an earlier flight.  And they were offering to change flights for free. That was the clincher for me - the airlines don't give you anything for free any more. We were scheduled to fly out of Reagan National Airport, but a quick review showed that the only two flights to St. Louis on Sunday were already full. Same with the Dulles International Airport. It appeared the flights out of Baltimore were still available, so at that point we called Southwest to make sure that they would allow us to change to a flight from a different city. Surprisingly we were able to get through to an agent. The only direct flight that still had two open seats was the one leaving Baltimore at 6:50 a.m. The agent said that flight was still pretty open. Since beggars could not afford to be choosers, we booked that flight.

Andy woke us up at 4:00 in the morning (3:00 St. Louis time) and drove us to Baltimore. At that time of day it only took 45 minutes. We arrived with plenty of time to check our bags and grab some oatmeal for breakfast. Keeping a close eye on where the families and all their children sat on the plane, we settled in seats located in the middle of the plane. Apparently many others ended up taking the storm seriously, as it was 100% full. We left Baltimore a little late because the plane had too much fuel on it (and how does that happen?) and they had to unload some. But we arrived in St. Louis just a bit behind schedule, and at any rate that was no big deal for us.

Andy and Megan ended up losing power in their apartment on Monday, and the airports did indeed close that day. I doubt that we would have gotten out of the DC area until late in the week. So while I am sad that we did not get to spend the last full day with Megan and Andy, I am vastly relieved that we heeded the suggestions and got out on Sunday. I am pretty sure that the kids are glad as well. There is a reason for the adage that fish and guests smell after three days.

Inn BoonsBoro

Last Christmas Jim won the husband of the year award for presenting me with a gift certificate for a night at Inn BoonsBoro, located in Boonsboro, MD. For the uninitiated this inn is owned by Nora Roberts, who is my favorite author. I have read every single one of her books, and own most of them. I also have consumed all the books in the In Death series, which she writes under the pen name of J.D. Robb. Nora's latest trilogy is centered around the renovation of a 1790's inn located in Boonsboro (which happens to be near Nora's home town), as well as other business located along main street. I believe I mentioned in passing to Jim that Nora had restored an old inn and turned it into a Bed and Breakfast. He latched onto it from there and contacted them for a certificate.

We decided to go and visit Andy and Megan for a long weekend, and tie in a night at the inn for my birthday. When I called for the reservation I requested the Eve and Roarke room. Each of the eight rooms are named after fictional literary couples, but the one I chose is the only one representing a couple from Nora's books. Actually Eve and Roarke are the main characters in the J.D. Robb books. Plus that room is on the back side of the inn, which is always a consideration for a light sleeper like me. The inn sits right on Main Street, so there is a lot of traffic passing by.

We flew into Washington Reagan on Thursday afternoon, and the kids picked us up. From the airport we went out for dinner before heading to their apartment. The next morning they left for work and we took off in Andy's car. We stopped at Harpers Ferry on our way to BoonsBoro. What a wonderful place! It is a national park, and great pains have been taken to preserve the town's predominantly early 19th century buildings. We spent several hours here and easily could have stayed longer.

St. Peter's Catholic Church

Harpers Ferry

Inn BoonsBoro

From Harpers Ferry it was a short 20 minute drive to Boonsboro, where we were cordially welcomed to the inn and shown around the building. Guests have the run of the house, so to speak, and can help themselves to drinks in the dining area, cookies (that were to die for), and Jameson from the decanter in the Library. They also offer a wine and cheese gathering at 6:00. After unloading our suitcases we walked around photographing the inn and the town. Several of the area businesses appear in Nora's books, so it was fun to get to see how close my imagination matched the real thing. We also went to Turn the Page Bookstore, which is owned by Nora's husband and is home to her book signings. She is having a signing there next weekend for the release of the third book in the Inn BoonsBoro trilogy, but by the time I got around to making reservations the inn was full for that weekend. I was able to pre-order the book however, and it will be signed and mailed to me. So that is something I guess.

Dan's Restaurant & Tap House

We met two of the other couples staying at the inn while we enjoyed the wine and cheese reception. Following that we had dinner next door at Dan's Restaurant and Tap House, which is owned by Nora's son and daughter-in-law. As guests of the inn we were able to get reservations instead of having to wait the hour and a half that is normal on the weekends. The restaurant is quite historic as well, but we were floored when we opened up the menu to find that it was back lit like an iPad for easy reading in the dim light. What a sight for aging eyes! Very cool... The bartender poured a wonderful gin and tonic, and we very much enjoyed our meals. After a pleasant stroll down Main Street, we began to look through the day's photos while indulging in a Jameson before the fire in the library at the inn. What a wonderful ending to a great day!

The next morning breakfast included cereal, fresh fruit, French toast, bacon and sausages, homemade rolls and a made-to-order omelet if you desired. Everything was quite tasty! Then we packed up the car and headed off to Antietam National Battlefield, location of the bloodiest day in Civil War history where over 23,000 lost their lives.

Soldiers at Antietam

Cannons at Antietam

We spent several hours driving through the national park and stopping to hike to the various points of interest. It is amazing to see all the history on the East coast since we do not have this type of history that is preserved in the Midwest.

We got back to Andy and Megan's around 5:00, which left us with enough light to drive around and see the bridge project that Andy is working on in DC. I took some photos as I know his Grandpa will be very interested to see the new construction. Then we went out to celebrate my birthday at a restaurant before heading back to their apartment to enjoy the chocolate birthday cake Megan had made for me.

It was our plan to fly home on Monday so that could spend all of Sunday with the kids, but we were all keeping a cautious eye on the weather. Frankenstorm and an alert from Southwest Airlines caused us to change our plans. More on that in the next post.

The Missouri Botanical Garden fountain

Jim and I took a nice long walk at the Missouri Botanical Garden this morning, cameras in hand. This is my favorite time of year as the trees explode in shades of yellow, red and orange. Surprisingly the garden was not too crowded, even when we left for home around noon. Everyone must have been over at the zoo or something. Too bad for them, as we had the garden mostly to ourselves.

I love that the garden has their main fountain dyed red in support of the St. Louis Cardinals. The fountain definitely rivaled the trees in terms of bright red! We were entertained by a bird having a quick bath in one of the fountains. I imagined him laughing at the other birds as they took a drink from the same place he had been bathing!

Bird bath

Splish splash I was takin' a bath

Japanese Garden

- Don't judge a winner from the score

- You may be down but you are not out

- It takes a team

and the number one takeaway...

- The Cardinals never give up, and neither do their fans!

Bird house

In July of 2010 we installed a pretty birdhouse in the back yard. We had an extra post left from the back porch when it was removed in preparation for the addition back in 2007. We held on to it since it was in such good shape, and decided it would make the perfect stand for a birdhouse. We ordered this particular house because we had admired the ones in Gramercy Park in New York City, and it was based on that design. The birds adopted it right away and it has been a full house ever since. Until now. The other day Jim was walking out to his car and noticed that the house was missing - as in totally gone! The weird thing is that the nests are still sitting on top of the post. So we think that in the storm the other night a branch must have landed on the house and knocked it off.

I didn't notice it was missing until he told me about it today. So I went out to investigate and found the pieces to the house all busted up in the shrubs below. It is really disappointing as it was expensive, and yet as I picked up the pieces I could tell they were made from thin wood. It seems even bird house builders use cheaper materials to save costs.

Bird nest

Bird house blown to smithereens

I can just hear the little birds saying, "Really? This had to happen just as it is getting cold here?" Looks like Jim and I will be out shopping for a new home. One that will be going to the birds.