My first musical love was folk music, and nobody told its stories better than our own Gordon Lightfoot.
Cover Art: The album was originally titled Sit Down Young Stranger, but when If You Could Read My Mind became a monster hit, they added the little pink sticker until the next pressing when they could rename the album.
As a young pup one of my first forays into the wider world was the bus trip I took to Toronto to see my musical idol, Gordon Lightfoot, live in concert at Massey Hall. And it was fabulous. I’ll always remember Gord’s introduction of one of my favorite songs, “Second Cup of Coffee,” self deprecatingly pointing out his folly in pairing the lyrics of despair with such an upbeat tune. The audience laughed good naturedly, but it was clear we would continue to love the song anyway.
Whether they were songs were about love or heartbreak, ballads about building the railway or laying in wet grass watching a 707 fly home, or maybe a chance to hear Don Quixote rail against injustice at an unsympathetic ocean or agonize as the Yarmouth Castle dies beneath its waves, Lightfoot’s music doesn’t just tell us his stories, he pulls us into them.
It wasn’t only the lyrical words he wove together, it was the sometimes acoustically simple, others orchestrally complex but often breathtakingly beautiful music that swept his lyrics into our minds. And very often our hearts.
Take note of the fingerpicking as Gordon Lightfoot performs his timeless classic, “If You Could Read My Mind.”
Gordon Lightfoot became the soul of the Canadian folk era, but he didn’t just fade away when folk music was relegated to the back pages of the music world. Instead he spread his creativity and passion into whatever genre was appropriate to the work, continuing to craft meticulous lyrics and wrap them in unforgettable melodies.
In the end he forged a musical legacy that became an integral part of the shared culture underpinning the Canadian Identity.
Thank you for sharing your gifts with us, Gordon Lightfoot. Rest well, dear minstrel. You’ve earned it.
I was so sorry to hear about the passing of Nichelle Nichols. She was definitely the coolest woman on #StarTrek (back in the days before you had to add TOS). She was someone you wanted to grow up to be.
Lt. Uhura was a strong role model, far more so than most of the other women portrayed on The Original Series.
Mr Roddenberry had tried to create a strong woman First Officer in his original concept, but that idea was too progressive even for the 1960s, so it was killed by the NBC brass.
I think Uhura was allowed to get away with being a strong woman precisely because she wasn’t one of the series’ three primary characters. She didn’t have to be a potential love interest for the Captain, (like Yeoman Rand) or the First Officer (like Nurse Chapel).
Instead, she was clearly her own woman, professional and competent. Being drop dead gorgeous, Lt. Uhura could even carry off that ridiculously sexist Star Trek uniform. But you didn’t have to see Mirror, Mirror to know nobody would dare put the moves on her without her permission.
Yet there was no doubt Lt. Uhura had a softer side when she cooed over a Tribble, or sang a song to cheer up Lt. Riley. And although she undoubtedly had a romantic life, it was nobody’s business but her own.
Much is made about “the first interracial kiss” in American prime time. Yet something I’ve never heard or read anyone talk about was the fact it was not a romantic kiss, or even voluntary.
Yet it wasn’t an ordinary case of a sexual harassment. Lt Uhura and Captain Kirk were forced to kiss by the kinetic power of a malevolent alien, and both actors played it that way. No doubt it was handled this way to get it past the network censors.
But for an older me, when I watched this episode again in reruns, what got my attention was the demonstration that sexual assault was more about power than sex.
When Nichelle Nichols came into the role of Lt Uhura, you’d never know she was a singer, not an actor. Her acting was flawless.
In the whole series, the only thing that came out of her mouth that didn’t ring true was the line from The City On The Edge of Forever, “Captain, I’m frightened.”
Not because Uhura wouldn’t have been afraid at a time anyone would have been, but because saying it aloud was totally out of character for the always professional Star Fleet officer. But even as a kid I recognized it as classic stereotyping and didn’t blame her for it.
Later as a young adult, working with my friend running the Canadian Trekkies Association and publishing two issues of our Canektion fanzine, I learned Nichelle Nichols didn’t just inspire women through her acting, in her later work she actively helped NASA recruit POC and women.
We celebrate the life of Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek actor, trailblazer, and role model, who symbolized to so many what was possible. She partnered with us to recruit some of the first women and minority astronauts, and inspired generations to reach for the stars. pic.twitter.com/pmQaKDb5zw
Nichelle Nichols was a real inspiration, even for little white girls like me growing up in the 1960s. She showed us women’s work could be whatever we wanted it to be.
Gaede, Robert “Bob” A.O.C.A. After a long and very productive life, Bob Gaede has “slipped the surly bonds of earth” and set up his easel in a better place.
He is now reunited with his beloved wife Audrey (2016) and much missed siblings Olga, Frieda, Laura, Frank, Henry, and Rudy. He leaves behind his much loved children Jennifer Snider, Deb Gaede, and Rod (Eveline) Gaede. Lovingly remembered by his grandchildren James Gaede (Emily), Chris Snider (Tati), Jordan Gaede (fiancée Vallery), Nick Gaede (Tara), and Jackie Snider. Bob was also blessed with five great-grandchildren and one on the way. He had a special place in his heart for his nieces and their families, Elaine (Bert) Meng, Judy (Lee) Bell, and the late Sharon (Jack) Soeder.
Bob’s passion in life was his art. He had many stories of his enjoyable years in Toronto at the Ontario College of Art. His memories of his beloved village of Conestogo were often portrayed in his landscapes and his annual Christmas cards. In later years, Dad developed a liking for cats and he will be missed by his feline friend Jimmy.
Memorial visitation will take place on Wednesday, October 11, 2017 from 7-9 p.m. at the Dreisinger Funeral Home, 62 Arthur St. S., Elmira.
A memorial service will be held on Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 11 a.m. at St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church, 131 Flax Mill Dr., Conestogo. Interment of cremated remains in Winterbourne Cemetery will follow.
Thank you to his family at St. Matthew’s for their visits, prayers and concern. In Bob’s memory, donation to St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church in Conestogo or the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre would be appreciated.
“For I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” —Robert Frost
My Uncle Bobby ~ Robert Gaede ~ was a talented artist.
Back in the day Bob studied at the Ontario College of Art alongside a young Peter Etril Snyder. (Bobby graduated; Mr Snyder didn’t.) Bob was always very supportive of artists in the family, as my brother Lance, sister Liana (also an OCA alumni), and he even liked the West Montrose motif sign I designed for my husband’s political campaign.
Concrete lions molded from Robert Gaede’s original sculpture can be found around Ontario. This pair stands on guard in front of the Huether Hotel’s Lion Brewery in Waterloo, Ontario. I don’t know how accessible these lions are today (amidst the LRT construction); my photographs were taken in 2012.
This morning is Uncle Bobby’s memorial service .
Thursday, October 12, 2017 11:00 a.m. St. Matthew’s Evangelical. Lutheran Church 131 Flax Mill Drive Conestogo, ON
Gaede, Robert “Bob” A.O.C.A. After a long and very productive life, Bob Gaede has “slipped the surly bonds of earth” and set up his easel in a better place.
He is now reunited with his beloved wife Audrey (2016) and much missed siblings Olga, Frieda, Laura, Frank, Henry, and Rudy. He leaves behind his much loved children Jennifer Snider, Deb Gaede, and Rod (Eveline) Gaede. Lovingly remembered by his grandchildren James Gaede (Emily), Chris Snider (Tati), Jordan Gaede (fiancée Vallery), Nick Gaede (Tara), and Jackie Snider. Bob was also blessed with five great-grandchildren and one on the way. He had a special place in his heart for his nieces and their families, Elaine (Bert) Meng, Judy (Lee) Bell, and the late Sharon (Jack) Soeder.
Bob’s passion in life was his art. He had many stories of his enjoyable years in Toronto at the Ontario College of Art. His memories of his beloved village of Conestogo were often portrayed in his landscapes and his annual Christmas cards. In later years, Dad developed a liking for cats and he will be missed by his feline friend Jimmy.
Memorial visitation will take place on Wednesday, October 11, 2017 from 7-9 p.m. at the Dreisinger Funeral Home, 62 Arthur St. S., Elmira.
A memorial service will be held on Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 11 a.m. at St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church, 131 Flax Mill Dr., Conestogo. Interment of cremated remains in Winterbourne Cemetery will follow.
Thank you to his family at St. Matthew’s for their visits, prayers and concern. In Bob’s memory, donation to St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church in Conestogo or the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre would be appreciated.
“For I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” —Robert Frost
My Uncle Bobby ~ Robert Gaede ~ was a talented artist.
Back in the day Bob studied at the Ontario College of Art alongside a young Peter Etril Snyder. (Bobby graduated; Mr Snyder didn’t.) Bob was always very supportive of artists in the family, as my brother Lance, sister Liana (also an OCA alumni), and he even liked the West Montrose motif sign I designed for my husband’s political campaign.
Concrete lions molded from Robert Gaede’s original sculpture can be found around Ontario. This pair stands on guard in front of the Huether Hotel’s Lion Brewery in Waterloo, Ontario. I don’t know how accessible these lions are today (amidst the LRT construction); my photographs were taken in 2012.
This morning is Uncle Bobby’s memorial service .
Thursday, October 12, 2017 11:00 a.m. St. Matthew’s Evangelical. Lutheran Church 131 Flax Mill Drive Conestogo, ON
“We are heartbroken to share the news that Bassel Khartabil was executed by the Syrian government some time after his disappearance in October 2015 in Damascus, Syria.
“Bassel Khartabil, also known as Bassel Safadi, was born in Damascus, Syria on May 22, 1981. He grew up to pursue an education and career in computer engineering. He was the co-founder of the collaborative research company Aiki Lab, and the CTO of the publisher Al-Aous. He served as the first project lead and public affiliate for Creative Commons Syria, and contributed to numerous Internet projects, such as Mozilla Firefox and Wikipedia.
“On March 15, 2012, Bassel Khartabil was arrested in the Mazzeh district of Damascus. For more than three years he was detained by the Syrian government at Adra Prison in Damascus. On October 3, 2015, Bassel was removed from his prison cell, and was sentenced to death by a Military Tribunal. We know now for a fact that Bassel Khartabil was executed by the Syrian government some time in October 2015, and we are demanding to know the exact date he was tried and then executed. No information at all was provided to his family until July 2017. The details of his sentencing and execution, and the whereabouts of his remains, are unknown at this time.
“Bassel Khartabil is survived by his wife, Noura Ghazi Safadi, as well as his mother and father.
“At the request of Bassel’s family, Creative Commons is announcing today that it has established the Bassel Khartabil Memorial Fund to support projects in the spirit of Bassel’s work. Creative Commons is accepting donations, and has seeded the fund with $10,000. Bassel was our friend and colleague, and CC invites the public to celebrate Bassel’s legacy and support the continuation of his powerful work and open values in a global community.
Contributions to the fund will go towards projects, programs, and grants to support individuals advancing collaboration, community building, and leadership development in the open communities of the Arab world. The fund will also support the digital preservation, sharing, and remix of creative works and historical artifacts. All of these projects are deeply intertwined with CC’s core mission and values, and those of other communities to which Bassel contributed.
Here in the “free world,” extraordinary efforts to silence and shut down free software and free culture by large corporations are ongoing. If software freedom was the unquestioned norm I have to wonder: would Bassel even have been arrested?
Today the EFF released these letters Bassel wrote from jail before he disappeared.
EFF is honored to share the letters we received in 2015 from activist Bassel Khartabil, whose death in Syria was confirmed this week. pic.twitter.com/kaeY7Fj4YF
What an extraordinary young man. My heart goes out to his family.
“Around the world, activists and advocates seek the sharing of culture, and open knowledge.
Creative Commons, and the global commons of art, history, and knowledge, are stronger because of Bassel’s contributions, and our community is better because of his work and his friendship. His death is a terrible reminder of what many individuals and families risk in order to make a better society.”
My heart is heavy as I’ve just learned my dear friend Paul just passed away. He didn’t want his friends to worry so he kept his illness dark; it was a shock. As well as long years of friendship, my old friend gave us our lovely ginger cats Murray (pictured) and Nick.
When you look at family trees, very often the names of the daughters is the last we hear of them. If you don’t know who the daughters married, very often the daughters get detached from the family history. Probably no one alive knows the name of the unidentified woman pictured here in a gold frame. Hers is simply one of many photographs that have survived with no record of who she was.
Sarah McGill Russwurm was the daughter of and sister of a famous influential Liberian family, who was herself a world traveller and business woman. Sarah married an older man, John Brown Russwurm, himself a noted historic figure. Together they had a family, and all reports indicate how much he relied on her, but his life was cut short and so historically speaking, Sarah’s history seems to have stopped at about the same time. Biographical listings about her McGill family don’t even mention her. There are two known portraits of John Brown Russwurm, but Governor Russwurm missed being captured in a photograph because Augustus Washington didn’t arrive in Africa with his daguerreotype kit until after his death. But his widow Sarah had gone back to be near her family, so she could very easily be the woman in the double daguerreotype case with her brother. Still, we we will probably never know for sure if it is Sarah, or if she is some other anonymous woman, detached from history. One of the things I find most annoying in genealogical research is how easy it is to misplace women. It can be difficult to determine whether they died or if they married and assumed their husband’s name.
Just as often, women appear as “wife of” or “mother of” in family trees with no indication of the families they came from. We don’t even know the given name of John Brown Russwurm’s mother. Although she was an important part of his life, all we know is that she was a woman of colour, (presumably) a slave on his father’s plantation. And yet her son was a writer, educator, and publisher.
But what is her given name? We know from this obituary that Mrs. Wade tragically lost her 27 year old daughter Jennie in 1923.
***IN LOVING MEMORY***
It becomes my sad and painful duty to write in memory of my dear wife, Mrs. Jennie WHITE, daughter of Mrs. J. T. WADE, who was born June 20th, 1895, and departed this life February 12th, 1923, making her stay on earth 27 years, 7 months, and 22 days. She was married to Dave WHITE on February 14th, 1914; to this union two children were born, Robert Lee and Carnie. She leaves her husband; two children; father; stepmother; three brothers; and seven sisters to mourn her death. Funeral was held 13th February 1923, burial in Poplar Grove Cemetery.
Searching for Mrs. J. T. Wade turned up this University of Kentucky digitized newspaper page from the “Breckenridge News (1876-1955) of Cloverport Kentucky which reveals that Mr J. T. Wade is a Reverend)
Rev, and Mrs. J. T. Wade have gone to Princeton to take charge of the M. B. church. They have been with us four yeas and we regret very much to give them up.
[Wonderful Open Data offering! This is an example of an ideal digitization, which allows people view it online, download the page as a PDF or Jpeg or access the information via OCR text conversion.]
Further newspaper sitings:
Mrs. J. T. Wade and Miss Lydia Greer, both of Rocky Mount. Va., are guests at the home of Mrs. Thomas P. Moore on Tenth avenue. Mrs. Wade is the grandmother of Mrs. Moore.
Margaret (Mann) Ahern
AHERN—Aug. 14, at her residence, 328 Loomis-st., Margaret Ahern (nee Mann), [aged 70] beloved wife of Michael Ahern, and mother of John, Michael, and William, Mrs. Jas. W. Sheridan, and Mrs. J. T. Wade, and the late Mary and Henry Ahern. Native of County Limerick, Ireland. Funeral Tuesday, Aug. 16, at 9:30 a.m. to Holy Family Church, where high mass will be celebrated, thence by cars to Cavalry via C. M. and St. P. R. R.
— Chicago Tribune 15 August 1898
In her mother’s obituary above, we still fail to learns what Mrs. J. T. Wade’s given name was. In a world where women were defined by their husband’s profession and status, the husband’s status is conferred on the wife who bears his name. So while I understand why it happens, it’s terribly annoying when following a family tree.
And the Rev J.T. Wade can be found in the Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America at Archive.Org
1899-1902. Rev. J. T. Wade served New Hope from the fall of
1899 until March 1902. In “Our Life Story” written by Joel and
Grace Wade, Rev. Wade tells of his arrival in New Hope and of
cutting trees to build the first manse. Much of the timber used
in the construction of that first manse were trees on that
original site.
At that point in time, the status of the surrounding churches
were as follows: Olney and Long Creek were grouped with
Steele Creek, Lowell and Belmont shared a minister, and
Bethel and Gastonia had grown to be strong churches and had
a full-time pastor.
New Hope determined to stand alone and called Rev. Wade
as her first full-time minister. The congregation built a manse
and with renewed hope took a forward step.
Rev. Wade was an affable man who was popular with the
young people. He was an excellent Sunday School worker and
in 16 months added 39 members to the church.
In addition to his duties at New Hope, Rev. Wade preached
every Sunday afternoon at McLeans Chapel.
It is noteworthy to mention that his daughter, Emma Lucille,
was the first child born to parents in residence in the first
manse.
While these bits and pieces remain, it would be nice to know where Mrs. J.T.Wade fits in the area of Russwurm genealogy. There are still threads that might be followed in the information presented here, so someday I might find out.
UPDATE: Solved
By way of the comments below, I now know that it was Mrs. J.T. (Ida) Stockard Wade who presented the papers of General John Sumner Russwurm’s to the Tennessee Library and Archives.
Ida Stockard was the grand daughter of Sara Russwurm Miles, and her J.T. Wade was a Rutherford County farmer, not the minister mentioned above .
Thanks so much to Murray T. Miles, Jr for sharing this information. In historical research, there is nothing as good as a primary source. (You can find more detailed genealogical information in his comment below.)
![Remembering Gordon Lightfoot Collage [Text] Gordon Lightfoot November 17, 1938 - May 1, 2023 [Photo] Gordon Lightfoot at Interlochen [Pictured] Album Covers • Lightfoot! (1966) • Two Tones at the Village Corner (1962) • The Way I Feel (1967) • Did She Mention My Name? (1968) • Back Here on Earth (1968) • Sunday Concert (1969) • Sit Down Young Stranger (1970) • Summer Side of Life (1971) • Don Quixote (1972) • Old Dan's Records (1972) • Sundown (1974) • Cold On The Shoulder (1975) • Gord's Gold (compilation 1975) • Summertime Dream (1976) • Endless Wire (1978) • Dream Street Rose (1980) • Shadows (1982) • Salute (1983) • Solo (2020) • All Live (2012) • Harmony (2004) • A Painter Passing Through (1998) • East of Midnight 1986) • Waiting For You (1993)](https://laurelrusswurm.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/gordonlightfoot-banner.jpg)
