The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle And Flying Club

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle And Flying Club is an historical fiction novel written by Helen Simonson. I have read one other book by her called The Summer Before the War. This book takes place in the fictional town of Hazelbourne which is on the coast. The book starts at Armistice Day (ending of World War One) and for a year after that. Constance is a main character. She grew up on a farm. Her father died when she was young. Her mother recently passed away from the flu. Now she works as a farm manager. Her brother was the sole inheritor of the farm. Constance needs to make money. She has a degree in accounting but employers are expected to save those jobs for men. With the help of her mother's friend, she gets a job helping an older lady recover from the flu. Together they travel to a hotel in Hazelbourne to take in the sea air and recuperate. Another guest at the hotel asks Constance for help. This guest, Poppy, grew up wealthy and she is something of a maverick. She likes to wear pants and to drive motorcycles. As the year progresses Poppy and Candace become close friends. What struck me about this book is the cultural restrictions placed on certain segments of society at that time. Some filling stations would not sell gas to young women on motorcycles. A German waiter at the hotel is discriminated against because of his heritage. He was put in a concentration camp on the Isle of Mann during the war. Even a year after the war has ended certain people in town treat him very badly. I enjoyed this story much more than I thought I would. There was an abundance of drama and intrigue.

 

 

Above The Line

I read Shirley MacLaine's book called Above The Line, My "Wild Oats" Adventure. The story is partly about a movie she made on the Canary Islands with Jessica Lange. The movie was called My Wild Oats. The other part of the book is some stream of consciousness rambling about the lost island of Atlantis. She is a much better actress than author. 

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day

 

Tell Me Everything

 I love the writing of Elizabeth Strout. She is so talented in writing about ordinary people living in Maine. I found Tell Me Everything at the library. She has a new one that came out this year called The Things We Never Say. This book had characters I knew from other books such as Olive Kitteridge, Lucy Porter, and the Burgess boys. In this book Bob Burgess has a big role. He is semi-retired as a lawyer but he takes the case to defend a young man accused of killing his mother. The man's mother was a lunch lady at the school and was quite unlikable. The entire book is about relationships, both family and friends. We never know how important we are in the lives of others.

 

Revolutionary War

 Today I joined the "Learning Club" which is a group organized by Winona State and held at the Winona History Museum. Today the topic was the revolutionary war. I was ten minutes early. The very enthusiastic speaker (former botany professor) asked me if I was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. I said I wasn't and that my ancestors were immigrants after that (which is true as far as I know). She is a member of DAR and proud of it. She is a distant relative of Thomas Jefferson and proud of that too. She spoke about the resolutions the first European settlers had in this new country which were freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and they were against slavery. She plans to give two more talks in the future.

 

 

Leaving Rollingstone

 I read Kevin Fenton's autobiographical book called Leaving Rollingstone. He was born in 1959 and grew up in Rollingstone which is 11 miles northwest of Winona. He grew up on a farm and was the youngest sibling in his family. His mother was a nurse in Winona. His Dad was a farmer. As a farmer, due to physical disabilities, was not successful as a farmer. Kevin was into rock and roll. His sisters loved to dance and his eldest brother joined the Army. Everybody in town was a Catholic and the only school was a Catholic school. After they lost the farm they moved to Minnesota City. Once his father died and all the other siblings moved out, Kevin and his Mom moved to Winona so she could be closer to work and he could be closer to high school. He floundered as a young adult and made some self-destructive choices. He eventually became an ad man in the big city (Minneapolis). More about this time in his life is implied in his other book, Cyan Magenta Yellow Black. I enjoyed his looking back with nostalgia but also honesty.

 

 

Dakota Project

 Today I attended a seminar at Winona State University in their student center ballroom. I sat with a couple of teachers and one other lady from the community. The teachers were glad to see such a big turnout and that members of the public were in attendance. Six speakers from the Prairie Island area came to speak. One spoke about natural law and inherent rights. He spoke about the 1837 and 1851 treaties. According to the treaties, the town of Winona belongs to the Dakota. After the 1862 uprising, all treaties were abrogated. He also said, and I found this surprising, conservative Supreme Court judge, Neil Gorsuch, has always voted in favor of Native rights. There were about six speakers talking about land rights, land trusts, the environment, social work, art, and community relations. The main message I took away from this three hour session is that Mitakuye Owasin or we are all related.