So over the last several weeks I have spent more time at Ancestry.com, trying to unravel the tangled roots of my various family lines, than either reading or listening to music. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been reading or listening at all, just that my focus has been on searching for dead people. One of the most interesting finds was a great-aunt Alice Matilda Ashton.
So one of my earliest political memories is sneaking down the stairs as a nine-year old to see if John F Kennedy was going to win the 1960 Presidential election.I have followed politics ever since. I could rattle off a litany of my favorite politicians. The majority of them are Democrats i.e Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter, etc, But through the years there were Republican politicians that I respected like Everett Dirksen, Nelson Rockefeller and Edward Brooke, hell although I despised the man at the time I can say the Richard Nixon even did some things that can be admired.
Ok so think back on what you were during in the summer when you were eighteen. Let’s see, ok well some of us may take a little while to answer because we have to think back a little farther!! Hmm, I was eighteen in 1969. Oh, yeah I was probably waiting to see if my draft number was high enough that I wouldn’t have to move to Canada. I was also going into my senior year of high school. So I was probably working with my dad picking up produce from around the county and trucking it to the New York market.
On July 5, 1916,the Van Buren sisters Augusta and Adeline (Gussie and Addie) began day two of their 60-day motorcycle journey from New York City to Los Angeles. The “Society Girls” were descendants of President Martin Van Buren. At the time of their trek both women were in their 20s and active in the national Preparedness Movement. The women wanted to prove that women could ride as well as men and should be allowed to serve as military dispatch riders. As such men would be freed up for other tasks. Additionally, they hoped to remove one of the primary arguments for denying women the right to vote. They dressed in military-style leggings and leather riding britches for the ride. Such dress was taboo for women at the time. From Wikipedia….
On this Date in 1963 Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers was assassinated out side of his Mississippi home. It would take 61 years before Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the murder. Here is some background on Evers from Wikipedia….
So if you have been reading along you are probably thinking this guy doesn’t know much about the German language, Why did He start a webpage? And you know what you’d probably be 100% right. But that’s the point – the purpose of this blog is to chronicle my attempt to learn the German language. Over the years I have noticed that I have a lot more drive and determination to run now than I did back in my youth. If I put the effort into running then that I have over the last 20 years I would have been a hell of a lot better runner!! It’s the same with German.I didn’t put much effort in learning the language back then, but I do want to put a lot in now!! Now there’s the added benefit that learning a new language provides those who may be a little older!! I am not saying the elderly, because I in no way feel elderly, except at the end of the day after babysitting Oliver all day!!
Today was just another day. The day’s summary in German follows. I have highlighted words I had to look up. I will list them at the end of the post.
Heute war ein Arbeitstag am Target. Ich gingen zu Arbeit am 7 uhr und ich hatte bis 12 uhr Arbeit. Ich dachte Ich war Kinderbetreung Zoe um 2.30 Uhr aber Es war um 1.30 Uhr! Also Ich ass zu Mittagessen schnell und habe es dort in der Zeit! Wir sassen mit Zoe bis 5 Uhr, wenn ihr Vater, unser Sohn Peter, nach Hause kam. Sie war sehr gut, wie immer!
A month of so ago, I started learning to speak and read German again. I restarted for two reasons. First to help in my research of my German roots and secondly because dropping my second quarter of German class in college led to my not graduating from the University of Florida on time! So learning the language is to prove to myself that I can do it all be it 46 years later! I have already written about the materials that I have been using in my study of German. For me write now it seems that reading and writing my own sentences and little stories are working best for me. With that in mind I have started this website. What I want to do in this website is to write little stories of my life with hopes that the writing will help me learn to language.As I move along I will try to expand what I write about as my vocabulary increases. Right now I am using a couple of translation apps and a dictionary to help me put together the stories. I also plan to continue to use the other resources i.e. textbooks and other books with stories in my studies.
So here is my first installment in Mein Tag in detscher Sprache……
