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This Day in 1933

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Dot

Well, really yesterday.  Internet problems kept me from posting in a timely manner, but October 20 was my birthday.

Celebrations were subdued, but lasted two days. When your birthday falls in the middle of a work week, there are calls, cards, and voice mail messages from kids and grands and lots of FaceBook greetings from ‘friends’ far and wide. Staff members at work brought cake today, since they were at an out-of-town meeting yesterday.  I got the song twice.

Some observations about my life so far:

It doesn’t bother me for people to know my age as long as they don’t categorize me because of it.

I’m not planning to grow old gracefully. When the time comes, my children will have to knock me in the head and pry my car keys out of my fist.

Since becoming a senior citizen I have: retired and gone back to work, relocated to another state, bought a house, become a Certified Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church, adopted a son, had two books published, appeared in 12 plays at Center on the Square.

I had two long marriages. One ended by divorce and one by death. Neither ending was less painful than the other.

Two things I wish I had done (and now it’s too late): Become a social worker, learn to play the piano well.

If I had my life to live over, I definitely would.

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Gloria Stuart

Gloria Stuart

Posted on October 9, 2010September 20, 2017 by Dot

About two weeks ago, on September 26, 2010, Gloria Stuart died.  She was 100 years old.  To those of you who are thinking ‘Who?’ – she played Old Rose in the 1997 film Titanic.  Now, if you have not seen this film, one might wonder where you have been.  After its debut it enjoyed an unusually long theater run and now is shown at least once a month, sometimes back to back, on TNT. Word has it now that James Cameron is converting Titanic to 3-D for release in April 2012, the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.

Today I was talking to a couple of friends who boasted that they had not seen Titanic, indeed had made a conscious and concerted effort to not see it, since they already knew how it ended.  So, to those and any others in that category, I will say that the story of the ship’s first and last voyage was played through the eyes of Old Rose, a 101 year old survivor of the tragedy.  A mega flashback told of the ill-fated romance between Young Rose (Kate Winslet) and a young man of lower station (Leonardo DiCaprio).

When Gloria came out of semi-retirement to play Old Rose, she was 87 years old, but looked so good she had to endure hours in the make-up chair in order to appear as 101, as the script called for.  For her work in Titanic, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, the only nomination of her life, making her the oldest nominee ever. She lost to Kim Basinger (for L.A. Confidential), but was honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 2000.

Gloria Stuart began her career in movies in the 1930’s starring in many of the lightweight dramedies that the studios were making as fast as they could.  Her most noted early credits include Claude Rains’ love interest in the original version of The Invisible Man and the obligatory beautiful young girl in the Shirley Temple movie Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Randolph Scott played the hero.

During her long career, Gloria Stuart appeared on stage, in film and on television. In 2001, at the age of 91, she was featured in episodes of Murder She Wrote and Touched by an Angel, with a recurring roll in the soap opera General Hospital.  Her last film credit was in 2004 in Land of Plenty, where she played ‘an old lady.’

Acting was but a part of the excitement that enriched Gloria Stuart’s time on earth. Go to Wikepedia or ontheredcarpet.com or simply Google her name to read about the artists’ books she wrote and published that can be found in museums and private collections. Or her trip to France when Europe was on the brink of World War II.

Rest in Peace, Gloria Stuart. Yours was a long and beautiful life.

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A Childhood Memory of Sorts

Posted on September 26, 2010 by Dot

Yesterday at the UMY (United Methodist Youth) yard sale, I spotted a piece of wood carved in the shape of a pistol. On the butt of the gun was fastened a clothes pin, the type with a spring, so that when one squeezed the ‘trigger’ one also applied pressure on the  wooden pin attached to the handle.  I knew what sort of toy this was, so I bought it to take home to show my youngest son.  I wondered if he knew what it was, but when he saw it, he said, “Oh a rubber band gun.”

When I was a child most boys had one of these (girls didn’t) – larger, probably made from a 2×4 piece of wood. We called them ‘rubber guns’ because the projectiles they fired were made from sliced inner tubes and when they struck their mark they left a whelp as thick as your finger. Both my brothers had this particular weapon, as I remember, and though Mother admonished them to not point it at people … well … how do you think I know about the wound it left?

Having been the victim, I wanted to be the victimizer. So one day I found one of the unattended guns and attempted to load it. I had seen my brothers hook the piece of rubber on the barrel, pulling it out the length of the wood until it was held in place tightly with the clothes pin.  I tried this, but because the strip of inner tube needed to stretch about twice as far as it was ever meant to, it wasn’t as easy as it looked. The rubber slipped off the end of the gun and slapped me on the side of my face. When Mother noticed the red mark, this caused some questions and brought the pronouncement that I could have put my eye out.

I suppose this is the basis of my lack of interest, avoidance really, of any sort of weaponry. I don’t want to put meaning to the words, “This will hurt me more than it does you.”

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Riverfest, Clarksville, Tennessee

Posted on September 19, 2010September 20, 2010 by Dot

Across the USA, virtually every city sitting on a river enjoys some sort of River Celebration.  The first I remember attending was the HemisFair, in San Antonio, Texas in 1968.  They had cleaned and spiffed up the banks of the river that runs through town, built a huge tower (Tower of the Americas) and put up hundreds of exhibits, because this was after all, not a State Exposition, but rather an international one.  I don’t know if this was the beginning of the River celebrations, but it does seem that after that, cities with rivers running through began to take advantage of that natural attraction.  Nashville, Chattanooga, Little Rock, and several others have, during the past 20 years or so, begun to hold their own version of Riverfest.

And so it was that last weekend I took myself to Riverfest in Clarksville, Tennessee, to hear my grandson Stephen’s band play in one of the venues.  Clarksville sits just north of Nashville on the Cumberland River.  It’s a sprawling college town, home of Austin Peay University.  My granddaughter, Stephen’s sister, lives in Clarksville and other family members and friends met there to have a weekend together and visit Riverfest. And so, we gathered with in the Saturday night crowd to hear the “Technikillers.” (Actually, the Technikillers are well known and appreciated around middle Tennessee, staying busy most weekends.)

This band plays what is called ‘experimental’ music. I have to admit that often I didn’t understand what they were doing, but I could fully appreciate the talent it took to do it.  Stephen and his partner, Rusty, have been playing together for over ten years. This was evident when I watched them as they ‘experimented’ in key/rhythm/mode. Suddenly, they make eye contact and move together to the next. While sometimes their music sounded all over the place to me, I could see/hear that they were together. That is really amazing when fingers, guitar picks and drumsticks are moving quite rapidly.

Sometimes it’s a challenge to appreciate what we don’t understand. It’s much easier to toss it out as unworthy of our time. Whatever. That’s my grandson up there and I’m proud of him.  

It was a great weekend.

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To Find A Home

Posted on September 5, 2010September 5, 2010 by Dot

This week, my editor/publisher/son, Steve May, owner of Alderson Press, has my latest novel, To Find A Home. To those friends and relatives who have been hearing me say “it’s finished,” I confess all those declarations were pre-mature.  Writing a novel is much like birthing a baby, but can take a lot longer.

I started this story almost two years ago, to keep my sanity while waiting for the arrival of my first novel, The Last to Know, which was published in January 2009. I wrote the final chapter of this current effort while on spring break.  I let the manuscript cool for a couple of weeks before I read through it again. I tweaked some of the scenes, but I also could see it needed another chapter to clarify and smooth the story line.  I shared these latest pages with my critique group, Central Arkansas Writers, who helped me flesh out this part of the story.

In late June I gave the ‘finished’ manuscript to my daughter, Linda, for proofing. She returned it a week or so later with pink tabs marking each page with a typo that needed correcting. A valuable service!

After those corrections were made, I edited the entire manuscript word by word, usually reading aloud to gauge the flow of the writing and pick up redundancies. A couple of times I used Microsoft’s word-search feature to find over-used words. Several times I found a better way to say what I was trying to convey or thought of something to add to the story. For instance, when Becca is about to be disciplined for misbehaving, her dad demands an apology.  I decided she would give one of those non-apologies teenagers are good at, “I’m sorry you made me so mad that I …”

After I finished the word-by-word edit, I wrote the acknowledgement and ‘about the author’ pages. And then, read through chapters again, skipping around through the book. (Some self-editors read the text backwards.) Very few corrections this time, so I sent it off electronically.

The next step for me (besides waiting) is to write the text for the back cover and choose art/photography for the front cover.  When I receive a galley from the printer, I will read and edit again, hopefully “with fresh eyes.”  

Maybe by Christmas the baby will be here.

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Dot Hatfield

Dot Hatfield

Dot Hatfield is a member of the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame and a Certified Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church. She is the author of 7 books.

Dot’s Books

  • Worth the Candle
  • Did Anyone Read My Story?
  • An Ordinary Day
  • R.I.P. Emma Lou Briggs
  • To Find a Home
  • The Last To Know
  • Every Day a New Day

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