#selective service

[todaysdocument]

In August 1918, Congress amended the Selective Service Act to expand the age range of men eligible for the draft. This cartoon of September 11, 1918, reminded men of the registration deadline. 

Record Group 46: Records of the U.S. Senate Series: Berryman Political Cartoon Collection

Image description: The Statue of Liberty holds a banner reading “ALL MEN 18 TO 46, UNLESS ALREADY REGISTERED, MUST ENROLL FOR THE SELECTIVE SERVICE DRAFT TOMORROW” and points to the sunrise, which has “Sept. 12” in it. 

#archivesgov #September 11 #1918 #1910s #the draft #conscription #political cartoon #selective service #World War I #WWI

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Young men, dressed in underwear, shoes, and socks, wait for Selective Service physical examinations at the U.S. Army's main recruiting station, July 18, 1950. Each one holds his paperwork and a vial of blood. They were among the first group drafted after the outbreak of the Korean War.

Photo: U.S. Army/PhotoQuest/Getty Images

#New York #NYC #vintage New York #1950s #draft #draftees #Korean War #Selective Service #physicals #physical exams #July 18

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"72 TAKEN BY POLICE SENT TO WAR JOBS," Toronto Star. September 30, 1943. Page 7. --- Hundreds Said To Be Reporting to Avoid Dragnet --- Seventy-two men rounded up in Wednesday night's police roundup of draft dodgers and selective service evaders were placed in war work today. While no accurate figures are available. officials believe hundreds have rushed to recruiting offices or to selective service for jobs to avoid the dragnet. J. W. Temple, manager of the Toronto office of selective service, said a report is being prepared to show the number picked up by police and placed in employment.

Hundreds have voluntarily reported changes of address to the authorities since the raids on pool-rooms, beverage rooms, restaurants and street corners were started.

#toronto #draft dodgers #work or fight #selective service #national selective service act #refusal to serve #conscription in canada #national resources mobilization act #canada during world war 2 #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #police raids #vice squad

[thicc-astronaut]

Adhd nearly caused me to commit a federal crime (Nearly violated the Selective Service Act because I just kept putting off signing up)

#adhd #usa #us army #selective service

[mereinkling]

Following C.S. Lewis’ Military Example

Like his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, and many of the British men of their generation, C.S. Lewis served in the grim battlefields of the First World War. (However, since Lewis was actually Irish, he could not be drafted, and instead volunteered to serve.) In recent years a number of books have appeared related to the military service of the Inklings. In A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War, the…

View On WordPress

#Air Force #Army #Britain #C.S. Lewis #Death #Diversity #Doomsday Clock #Draft #J.R.R. Tolkien #Medicine #Military #Selective Service #WWI

[diggingforitalianroots]

Angelo LanFranchi, the H1N1 flu pandemic, and the granite mines

In my last post on this blog, I posed a theory that my ancestor, Angelo LanFranchi, immigrated to the U.S. in an effort to avoid the draft in the then-Kingdom of Italy. Since I can't (and won't) request the original documents from the State Archives of Parma, which has a series titled "Leva Militare," meaning "military draft," with a 209 pages of records from the Parma Draft office (1883-1915) due to COVID-19, there is something that I am apt to write during these times: a story about my ancestors and the H1N1 flu pandemic, incorrectly named the "Spanish flu," which lasted from 1918 to 1920. I would like to focus mainly on Angelo LanFranchi in hopes of answering why he moved, in 1918, from Barre to Avonmore, something which some of my cousins wouldn't answer because they weren't sure of the answer themselves, something which is no fault of their own.

Originally published on Apr. 16, 2020, on the WordPress version of this blog, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic (in the U.S.), as the first deaths occurred in the U.S. in February and a national emergency was not declared until March.

As I noted on my last post, Angelo was born in Casola, Parma, in northern Italy, on September 6, 1896, and he came first to Avonmore in 1914 from Italy, where his sisters Barbara and Angelina were living. But, I didn't tell the other part of the story. Angelo then moved to Barre, Vermont, where he worked as a stone mason, also known as a stone cutter, from at least 1915-1918. [1] He was living at 408 North Main Street with his sister, Marietta "Marie", and his brother-in-law (and Marietta's husband), Giuseppe Berte. Like Angelo, Giuseppe also worked as a stone mason, working for the Kelly Brothers, [2] while his brother, Dino, also lived in the city, working for the Chioldi Brothers, on 308 North Main Street. [3] I'll focus on Dino, Giuseppe, and the others in another post, here is a photograph of where Giuseppe, Marie, and Angelo lived in Barre, a location which is still standing to this day:

While living there, Giuseppe and Marie, who had married sometime before September 1912, would have three children: Lina (b. 1915), Ketri (b. 1913)  and Ancilla (b. 1918) as shown in this 1919 photograph below. Lina is on the left side of the picture, Ancilla is in the middle, and Ketri is in the right side of the picture.

In later years, Giuseppe would be a bearer for his sister Ermalinda Berte, at her funeral, as would his brother Dino. He would be living in Barre, Vermont with his wife and two children, saying he needed he needed to stay there for "family support" rather than fight in Europe. [4] He noted, as an interesting aside to my last post, that he previously fought in the Italian military. Although Giuseppe, Marie, and their family, stayed put in Barre for a few more years, why did Angelo leave? The family story that he left because of dust in the stone mines, which is still a possibility, as a reason he came to Western Pennsylvania. After all, in 2000, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded that " tiny crystalline rock particles found in granite dust can cause lung cancer," while OSHA has stated that workers who "inhale very small crystalline silica particles are at risk for silicosis – an incurable, progressively disabling and sometimes fatal lung disease." This is likely what Angelo was worried about, although they didn't have a term for that then.

As for the H1N1 flu pandemic, we know it first cropped up in Vermont in late September 1918, hard hitting the state capital of Montpelier and the city of Barre over the next few months. [5] The crisis peaked from October 15-30, with medical authorities lifting the statewide ban on public gatherings on November 8. This severe pandemic quickly spread across the country, with 50,000 Vermonters sickened by the virus and over 2,100 dying from its complications. One group were affected,  group apart from any other: granite workers, whose lungs were already weakened by silicosis, and industries were shut down, [6] with towns cancelling gatherings and meetings, travel in and out of Vermont banned on October 4. [7] As the pandemic, then called the "grippe," leveled out by late 1919, it had torn through the population "like a grassfire." It often struck without warning, whether running its course over three weeks for some and killing others in three days or less! Many years later, a granite monument was constructed in Barre's Hope Cemetery to commemorate those that died from the influenza. Ultimately, the flu would affect over 25 percent of the U.S. population, with the average life expectancy in the United States dropped by 12 years as noted by the National Archives.

Due to the fact that infection from the influenza was only reported "after the pandemic began," reliable data is unavailable currently, meaning that the brevity of the pandemic has to be determined using other information instead. We do know, however, that this pandemic was unique because it killed "many healthy 20- to 40-year-olds," while those who usually due of the flu are under five or over age 75, with those born in the years around 1889 most vulnerable. Like the current crisis, those who died directly or indirectly from the disease were under-reported, but for a different reason: to support pro-war propaganda during the U.S. war with Germany (World War I) under the Sedition Act of 1918, which prohibited any "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language"about the U.S. armed forces, U.S. government, flag, or anything else deemed "un-patriotic." While the origin of the H1N1 pandemic continues to be hotly debated, there is no question that the virus was a virulent one, from which most patients recovering after having a 3-5 day fever, although those affected were often worn down by the flu which attacked the lungs, caused terrible pains, delirium, high fever, and nausea, with people often dying from pneumonia. This unique virus hit New England hard, killing thousands, including 9,500 in the state of New York alone. While it is hard to know if Avonmore was like the communities across the U.S. that escaped the H1N1 virus, such as Fletcher, Vermont, the state of Pennsylvania was hard hit, especially Philadelphia. [8] Pittsburgh, only 33 and 1/2 miles from Avonmore, as the crow flies, originally dismissed mild cases of the disease, first reported by local papers on October 1, with hundreds of cases of influenza within a couple days, trying to take strains off hospitals by asking for people to care for the sick at home. There were over 4,400 cases by October 16, jumping to over 7,500 only a few days later. As the article on the Influenza Encyclopedia, put together by the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine and University of Michigan Library, gives some further notes about the state of the population:

By late-October, Pittsburgh residents were starting to get anxious over when the closure orders and gathering ban might be lifted. Saloon owners and wholesale liquor distributors were particularly eager to have state Health Commissioner Royer rescind his orders...Although Babcock failed in his attempt to have the bans lifted immediately, Royer offered hope they would be lifted in Allegheny County shortly so long as the infection rate continued to decline...Taking Batt’s report into consideration, on November 1 Royer announced that Pittsburgh might be allowed to reopen its places of amusement as early as November 4. Residents, and especially affected business owners, sighed in collective relief. Overnight, Pittsburgh’s great expectations were dashed when Royer abruptly announced that Pittsburgh would not be allowed to reopen until November 9...An industrial powerhouse with a large population, Royer dared not try to isolate the Steel City, especially during wartime. Instead, he issued a statement condemning the city’s actions as an invitation to lawlessness and disorder...Ultimately, Royer held true to his promise to lift the state-ordered bans on November 9...Other than these restrictions, Pittsburgh was once again free to return to life as usual [by late November]...Pittsburgh continued to experience cases of influenza and pneumonia throughout the rest of the winter...Overall, Pittsburgh experienced the worst epidemic of any major city in the United States. The average death rate for Eastern cities was 555 per 100,000. By contrast, Pittsburgh’s excess death rate was a whopping 807 per 100,000 people. The Steel City’s ordeal with influenza was even deadlier than that of Philadelphia (748) or Boston (710), two communities where influenza ran rampant in the fall of 1918. Despite advance warning and preparation, organized local leadership, and efficient allocation of resources, Pittsburgh fared horribly during the crisis...It is also possible that Pittsburgh’s high death rate was in part due to the city’s notoriously poor air quality during the time...Combined with the delay in closing schools, Pittsburgh’s pollution may have contributed to the severity of its bout with influenza in 1918.

That brings us to the question about my ancestor, Angelo. I need not read an epidemiologic study or survey of the of the influenza to ask if this crisis affected him. The below draft card, dated June 5, 1918, lists his address as "Waterman Box 54 PA," birthplace as Parma, employer is J & C.C & J Co. in Waterman, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He also lists his nearest relative as is mother, Adelaide in Casola, Parma, Italy, and is noted as not currently a US citizen. [9]

This record means that Angelo did not flee Barre to move to Avonmore, immediately, at least, with Waterman about 24 miles away from the town. While the CDC's timeline for the H1N1 influenza notes that in March, "outbreaks of flu-like illness are first detected in the United States," spreading sporadically across the U.S., Asia, and Europe over the six months to follow. It also notes that a second wave hit the U.S. between September and November, which was "highly fatal, and responsible for most of the deaths attributed to the pandemic." In the spring and winter of 1919, there was a third wave of influenza which kills may others, subsiding in the summer. For Pennsylvania, it first began to take root in the state in September 1918, and as the PA Department of Health noted,

Unlike seasonal flu, which mostly threatens the health of the very young and elderly, the Spanish Flu caused serious illness and death in otherwise young, healthy people...The Spanish Flu pandemic affected almost every part of American society. With one-quarter of the US infected, it was impossible to escape from the illness. As the disease spread, schools and businesses emptied. Telephone, mail, and garbage collection services stopped as workers became ill and could not do their jobs.

Furthermore, from October 1918 onward, the flu roared through Western Pennsylvania, sickening tens of thousands in Allegheny and Westmoreland County, with 2,000 dying in Westmoreland County alone. [10] Since Avonmore sits on the edge of Westmoreland County, Angelo was lucky he didn't die from the flu, part of one of the many families in the state which were affected by the pandemic, with the context of how your ancestors survived the pandemic likely described in newspaper accounts.

While there are, sadly, no original records of noting how Angelo, his immediate or extended family, dealt with the pandemic and their thoughts at the time, there is no doubt that it affected him and those nearby in ways that he probably couldn't imagine. In order to understand, fully, why Angelo ended up in Avonmore, its important to first look back at what was happening in Barre, involving the Bertes, Chioldis, and many other interconnected families, which will be focus of either the next or an upcoming post on this blog.

© 2020-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Barre, Vermont, City Directory, 1917, p. 92; Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Barre, Vermont, City Directory, 1916, p. 92; Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Barre, Vermont, City Directory, 1915, p. 94; Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Barre, Vermont, City Directory, 1918, p. 107; Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Barre, Vermont, City Directory, 1914, p. 93. The 1914 city directory does not list him, but could either because he arrived early in 1914 and the city directory is issued early that year, or because he wasn't living in Barre until 1915. In all of these records, he is listed as "Lanfranchi, Angelo." His January 13, 1915 Declaration of Intention to becoming a U.S. citizen rightly describes some of his particulars (five foot 7, blue eyes, brown hair, 160 pounds, born in Parma, Italy) and the ship he came on are correct, but it incorrectly states he was living at 405 North Main Street in Barre, when he actually only lived at 408 Main Street during his time in the city.

[2] Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Barre, Vermont, City Directory, 1916, p. 41, 230-231

[3] Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Barre, Vermont, City Directory, 1915, p. 36.

[4] Registration State: Vermont; Registration County: Washington; Roll: 1984100 Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.

[5] Feeney, Vincent. “Spanish Flu Hit Vermont Hard in 1918.” Burlington Free Press. September 18, 2015. https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/2015/09/18/spanish-flu-vermont-1918/32561715/; Bushnell, Mark. "Then Again: In an age before antibiotics, a killer epidemic struck Vermont." Vermont Digger. March 8, 2020. https://vtdigger.org/2020/03/08/then-again-in-an-age-before-antibiotics-a-killer-epidemic-struck-vermont/; “History of 1918 Flu Pandemic.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, March 21, 2018. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoration/1918-pandemic-history.htm; "Pandemic flu preparedness." Vermont Department of Health. State Government of Vermont, January 22, 2020. https://www.healthvermont.gov/immunizations-infectious-disease/influenza/pandemic-preparedness.

[6] Frederick, Keith. “Workforce Continuity During a Pandemic: Is Your Business Ready?” Disaster Recovery Journal, February 6, 2020. https://drj.com/journal/workforce-continuity-during-a-pandemic-is-your-business-ready/. As the Disaster Recovery Journal notes, "during a pandemic, absenteeism rates can climb to as high as 20-50 percent due to employee illness, caring for sick family members, fear of contagion, or lack of medical, public, or transportation resources." Although this is referring to what could happen in the present, back in 1918, the absenteeism rates were likely higher.

[7] Feeney, Vincent. “Spanish Flu Hit Vermont Hard in 1918.” Burlington Free Press. September 18, 2015. https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/2015/09/18/spanish-flu-vermont-1918/32561715/; Viglienzoni, Cat. "Terrible times: Remembering the 1918 flu pandemic's impact on Vermont." WCAX3. March 27, 2020. https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Terrible-times-Remembering-the-1918-flu-pandemics-impact-on-Vermont-569164611.html; Picard, Ken. "Recalling the Flu Pandemic of 1918." Seven Days Vermont. February 28, 2018. https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/recalling-the-flu-pandemic-of-1918/Content?oid=13143570; Thibault, Amanda. "This Place in History: 1918 Flu Pandemic." mychamplainvalley.com. November 15, 2018. https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/this-place-in-history-1918-flu-pandemic/; Brundage, John F., and G. Dennis Shanks. “What Really Happened during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic? The Importance of Bacterial Secondary Infections.” The Journal of Infectious Diseases 196, no. 11 (December 1, 2007). https://doi.org/10.1086/522355. The Feeney post is an excerpt from his book "Burlington: A History of Vermont's Queen City."

[8] Gray, Richard. "The places that escaped the Spanish flu." BBC News. October 24, 2018. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181023-the-places-that-escaped-the-spanish-flu; Almond, Douglas. “Is the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Over? Long‐Term Effects of In Utero Influenza Exposure in the Post‐1940 U.S. Population.” Journal of Political Economy 114, no. 14 (August 2006). https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/507154.

[9] Pennsylvania; Registration County: Indiana; Roll: 1893240; Draft Board: 2; Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005; United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.

[10] One local historian, Thomas Soltis, even wrote a 23-page bound book titled "The 1918 Influenza Pandemic," published by the Westmoreland Historical Society. There is also a slightly cheaper digital copy.

#angelo lanfranchi #louis franci #lanfranchi #franci #lanfranchis #francis #draft #selective service #parma #italy #h1n1 #covid pandemic #pandemic #avonmore #barre #casola #giuseppe berte #marietta lanfranchi #photographs #granite mines #children #wordpress #granite dust #sickness #vermonter #life expectancy #national archives #tw death #tw sickness #waterman pa

[goodguynickachievement]

The fact that the United States hasn’t trashed their mandatory Selective Service demonstrates their huge greed for war.

Males shouldn’t be automatically assigned to a war they don’t agree with. They shouldn’t be resigned to the fate of a politician who will suffer no consequences of death, injury, and/or trauma.

#usa #america #selective service #army #military

[chrismastronardioccupyfashion]

@Midnight tv <-Tv Show<-Styled Blogger<-Youtube.com/forecastmazyfilms<-@Chelsea,Manhattan<[email protected]

#covid19 #quarentine #virus #28 days later #shinra #shire #umbrella corpoartion #bowery residents committee #school of visual arts #selective service #2039135244 #6462754582 #3472551704 #mandella affect #mandella affect is me i am occupy wallstreet

[kp777]

#james murray #selective service #jan 6 insurrection

[penginlord]

Concept: the Mystery Flesh Pit existing in the SCP universe, yet it doesn't fall under SCP jurisdiction because it was originally sold to the National Parks Service, and despite the Mystery Flesh Pit since being shut down due to the incidents, the National Parks Service refuses to hand over jurisdiction to SCP because it's their mess to deal with and contain.

They allow SCP scientists to visit and share information, of course.

#SCP #scp foundation #mystery flesh pit #like #there are a select few government agencies that SCP fucks with #the department of interior #national parks service #IRS #department of energy #i Just like the idea that SCP is lowkey afraid of the National Parks Service

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Four American Indians, dressed in traditional clothing, appear before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, October 20, 1941. They argued that the Selective Service Act violated their liberty and a treaty between the Indians of the Six Nations. Judge Thomas W. Swan reserved decision. From left to right are: Clinton Rickard, Tuscarora chief; Jess Lyons, Onondaga chief; Harry Patterson, Tuscarora brave and Ivan Burnham, Mohawk brave. The other nations are the Oneida, the Cayuga, and the Seneca.

Photo: MC for the Associated Press

#vintage New York #1940s #Six Nations #Native Americans #indigenous Americans #American Indians #Tuscarora #Onondaga #Mohawk #Oneida #Cayuga #Seneca #October 20 #Oct. 20 #20 Oct. #20 October #Selective Service Act

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

”Knives, Soft Beds Now in Life of Paroled Man - Free, After Fifteen Years, Lifer Tells Of His Experiences In B.C. Penitentiary,” Vancouver News-Herald. December 31, 1942. Page 3. --- Prisoner 2146 has not had a visitor at the B. C. Penitentiary for the past five years.

Inmates allowed one visit a month by immediate relatives. They must sit in a screened cell. Between them and their visitor, also in a screened cubicle, sits a guard who warns against what may or may not be said. ---

The last time Prisoner 2146 had a visitor, it was his sister. She had her two small children with her. The children wanted to know what all the bars were for and why their uncle was kept locked up behind them.

“That got me. I couldn't stand the sight of those youngsters looking at me through the bars. I told my sister not to come back any more."

Prisoner 2146 was a "lifer" in the B. C. Penitentiary - reprieved from the death sentence to life imprisonment. Next month will mark the fifteenth anniversary of his entrance behind prison walls.

But he won't be there to mark it off on the calendar.

---

Prisoner 2146 is free. He is with his sister and his niece and nephew and brother-in-law. He has been paroled.

---

"Prisoner 2146" is not his correct designation. His name, too, remains a secret. He has paid his penalty for murder, he has a chance to start all over again and make good. He intends "making good."

Wednesday afternoon I chat-ted with him for an hour or more.

---

He was paroled, with another life-term prisoner, on the day before Christmas. The first thing he did was rush to buy Christmas presents clothes, shoes, a hat, ties and shirts for himself and lots of toys for the children who had not seen him for so many years.

---

The other life-termer was sentenced with him, 15 years ago, for the murder of a fellow-rod-rider on a freight train.

What would you do what would you want to do first, if you had been right out of the world, behind prison bars and high walls, for 15 years?

Well, Prisoner 2146 wanted to sleep in in the mornings, most of all.

----

But he can't do it. He awakens at 6 every morning and he hasn't been able to sleep very well since his release.

"It's the soft bed," he told me. "You know, you roll over and sink down in that mattress and you think you're falling and you wake up with a start. And you hear unfamiliar sounds and you find you're not in a little cell - and you can't go to sleep again."

He's still quite amazed by his freedom. He was scarcely 19 when he was sentenced to death, was reprieved to the half-life of a penitentiary for 15 of the longest years any human being could experience.

He has served six months in solitary confinement, on bread and water for days at a time, in a tiny cell below ground level.

In 15 years he has seen more than 2100 prisoners come and go - he gave me the exact number instantly - has seen many of them die, many go insane. It was more than "stir crazy" they really went off their heads.

"One afternoon a prisoner walking by my cell (he named him) looked in at me and said: "The doc says I've only got five hours to live,' and that night he died. It was heart trouble. So-and-so, (he named another prisoner) went crazy and was taken to Essondale. But he wasn't crazy. He was just putting on an act. He came back after awhile."

Did you every try cutting meat and eating all your food with only a fork and spoon?

Prisoner 2146 has been doing that for 15 years and he's having an awful time trying to get used to knives, plates, saucers, cups, glasses, serviettes and other gadgets of an ordinary household table.

No penitentiary prisoner is allowed a knife - it could be a lethal weapon or a means of escape. He presents a metal tray at a long counter in the kitchen. It is filled with food, he is given, a metal mug, his spoon and fork, and he returns to his cell to eat behind locked doors. In the morning, after breakfast, he re-turns that tray to the kitchen to be cleansed.

He goes to his cell at 4:30 every afternoon, is allowed out for breakfast at 7:30 a.m.

Prisoner 2146 has never driven a car or truck he doesn't know how. He has seen. only one talking picture during his 15 years in prison. That was an educational film. Since his release he has been attending a lot of movies.

He is somewhat terrified of city traffic, and street cars, he admits, have him goggle-eyed.

"You dodge in front of one street car," he tells me. "and there's another one tearing at you from the other direction."

He has tried riding on the street cars, but he's a bit nervous about them. To begin with, when he gets out of the centre of the city he is lost. It is the only part of town he has learned to know.

He knows he is safe on a Number 1 car, because it just goes around in a circle. But several times he has taken a street car to go somewhere in the city, has become utterly confused and has had to return downtown to "get my bearings again."

The war and labor regulations have caused him some confusion, too.

His first thought on being released was to join the army. He wanted to go overseas.

But yesterday he took his "medical" and the doctor put him in "C" category but told him he probably wouldn't last long in that. What's the trouble? If you had lived for 15 years on concrete floors would you be surprised if the doctor told you you had flat feet! And the army doesn't want flat feet!

So he thought he would return to logging, which he knew in his youth. He found it had changed a lot since then, but he went to the Selective Service office to arrange it all.

He grinned inwardly when the clerk asked: "Previous occupation?"

Finally it was arranged that he would get a job and when you read this he'll probably be on his way up the coast to a big logging camp.

He has a lot of lost time to make up. He's looking forward to the clean life out-of-doors after 15 years of close prison walls.

He will probably be British Columbia's most enthusiastic logger.

#british columbia penitentiary #vancouver #released from prison #lifer #life inside #prisoner autobiograpy #newspaper interview #sentenced to the penitentiary #prison conditions #ex-convict #canada during world war 2 #going straight #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #selective service

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

Did you see the part where Meg was annoyed that only dogs can be qualified to be service medical dogs? lol guess she's mad a bird can't be a service cardic arrest animal. Once again pulled up the "people think only DOGS can be trained to do this!!! How dare they!!!" *grumbling about mammalian bias* argument. I'm sorry Meg but your fucking bird or a rabbit cannot be a service animal for the blind or anything that dogs have be bred to do

me when they won’t let my service crocodile into Walmart:

#Dogs are favored because they have been domesticated for thousands of years and selectively bred for extremely specific behaviors #they also have heightened hearing and smell that can allow them to detect certain medical emergencies early #and because a dog can be predictably trained to not attack someone #yes you can train a Komodo dragon to perform a lot of what is asked of dogs #but as a wild animal guess what #they are more likely to attack someone because they are more likely to perceive normal human behavior as a threat #and even domesticated non-mammals just generally aren’t built for a lot of what a service animal needs #what would a service pigeon do for you exactly #and even if it could do something to help you it’s still a pigeon and if you take it outside there is a very present chance #of a hawk plucking it off your shoulder as dinner #generally don’t need to worry about a golden retriever being carried away by eagles #not to mention dogs being able to be potty trained which. Many animals cannot reliably be #even rodents and other small mammals can’t generally since they don’t have voluntary bladder control

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

See, I won't be able to access the website until the end of the time, cos I'm gonna go pet cheetahs and bear cubs at an animal preserve, but I know for a FACT that the website will crash at least once from everyone going buck-wild about it, lololol

okay well. what a fucking flex

#'cant go on the site cause i gotta pet cheetahs' UM??? WITHOUT ME??? #kidding kidding. i am insanely jealous though #the closest ive gotten to petting a cheetah is petting a taxidermy leopard #you are one of the chosen few who nature selected to Not access it immediately #it will not do anything but ty for your service #rambles from the bog

[vixvaporub]

I forgot that crunchyroll has a manga section and was like why did I forget they had manga available until I looked at the selection of manga it has and im like ah I remember why now

#ngl its pretty limited the selection and kinda dookie #but i was able to read scums wish decor because of the app #thinking of trying to read stuff on it to see if there is anything worth reading #cant you read shounen jump manga for a cheap price #might do that #is there any other service like shounen jump?

[certifiedlibraryposts]

wait i’m confused by your post about freegal - you called it a music streaming service but also a way to avoid music streaming services ?

Oop- What I meant was it could be a decent way to start building your own locally-saved music library that's accessible without having to go through something like Spotify, since you can download some songs every week from Freegal.

It does also let you stream ad-free without having to pay for it every month, so in that sense it could also just be a decent stand-in for other music streaming services too.

#still the biggest downside imo is the more limited selection so its not a perfect replacement. but i still think its an awesome resource #i dont use the streaming service aspect of it too often mostly i just use it once a week to download some stuff off my wishlist #i hope im making sense. im sick and getting those braincells fired up is proving a challenge-