Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Nostalgia

Lincoln’s 1860 Election

This being the 211th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, I thought it would be interesting to post about how he was elected president in 1860.

In the US Map of the Electoral Votes in 1860 (below) the four candidates for President were:

  • Abraham Lincoln – Republican
  • John C. Breckinridge – Democratic
  • John Bell – Constitutional Union
  • Stephen A. Douglas – Democratic

Lincoln won the election with a total of 180 electoral votes and a popular vote of 1,866,452. Breckinridge was second with 72 EC and 847,953 popular, Bell was third with 39 EC and 592,906 popular. Last but not least (look at the popular vote) was Steven Douglas with 12 EV and 1,382,713 popular. It’s interesting that Douglas and Breckinridge were both Democrats but even if their Electoral votes were to be combined they still would not have defeated Lincoln. Their combined poplar votes, however were over 364 thousand greater than Lincoln’s.

Note how the demographics and population shift have switched this old map around over the last 160 years. If only Kalifornistan were a red state today with their current 55 Electoral Votes.

1860ec.png

Map Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ElectoralCollege1860.svg. Click on the image to enlarge.

1860 Election

The United States presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout most of the 1850s on questions of states’ rights and slavery in the territories. In 1860, this issue finally came to a head, fracturing the formerly dominant Democratic Party into Southern and Northern factions and bringing Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party to power without the support of a single Southern state.

Hardly more than a month following Lincoln’s victory came declarations of secession by South Carolina and other states, which were rejected as illegal by the then-current President, James Buchanan and President-elect Abraham Lincoln.

12 Feb 2020 by Nostalgia Politics

The Wickenburg Quilt Show

Hot Rod Quilt

The Damsel and I took time out from our busy retirement lifestyle today to attend the Quilt Show being put on at the Community Center Downtown. I posted the photo I took of one of the unusual quilts featuring “Hot Rodding USA.” Click on the image to enlarge.

There were hundreds of quilts on display, each one being a unique artwork unto itself. There were themes of Christmas, Halloween, Cowgirls, Boots, Aprons, Winter Scenes, Animals (Dogs, Cats, Horses, Livestock), Rodeo, University of Arizona and a myriad of more conventional quilting styles.

The people attending and running the show were mostly in the “senior” category, although I did see a couple of under 12 kids at one point. Despite being a weekday afternoon, there were a lot of people attending. We had to park out in back of the community center and walk a bit to get inside.

Inside the community center, there were vendors catering to quilt hobby aficionados as well as vendors selling finished quilts. Some, but not all of the quilts in the display area had Price Tags on them. Like you might expect of original folk art, some of them were a bit pricey now, but might continue to increase in value as time goes on.

We enjoyed our little outing today, and expect to attend more local events in the near future. There’s always something going on of interest in our little western town.

24 Jan 2020 by Arizona Classics Nostalgia Notions Retirement

Classic 1950’s Chevrolet Sedan

Classic 1950 Chevrolet Sedan

Last Thursday was our nominal weekly shopping day, so we found ourselves out of the house and going to both downtown and uptown to visit a few places to gather provisions for the week. We also stopped into one of the local “touristy” emporiums to get a couple of belated gifts for the Damsel. The story at the link describes the latter.

On the way toward the downtown end of things we passed this very clean Chevy sedan driving in the opposite direction. Damsel (as she often does when seeing a classic) grabbed her camera and snapped this photo of the early 50’s Chevy as it rolled by us on Wickenburg Way.

We probably have seen this nice car many times in the past. There are a lot of classics that not only are brought out for our regular car shows, but are used by their owners as a means of transportation in addition to being a classic show car. I can personally think of several of these that are regularly seen around town and not always recorded by a camera shot.

Just a note about the computer environment here, we are posting this with the new system in place, enjoying the much quicker response times as we edit our work. We still have some more “cleanup” to accomplish, but there’s no hurry as we’re on RST – Retirement Standard Time.

12 Jan 2020 by Arizona Classics Nostalgia Photography

Fourteenth Blogiversary

fourteen.jpgThe Cap’n Bob & the Damsel blog is actually a little older than fourteen years; we had it on an earlier platform (BBLOG, I think) for a few months prior to converting to our self-hosted WordPress platform. The first post on the new blog was on September 22, 2005 regarding Feinstein’s NO vote on John Roberts’ confirmation to Chief Justice.

Since that first WordPress entry, we have blogged about politics from time to time, but not so much anymore. We’ve become mostly a diary of our travels and activities with the occasional politiblog thrown in for good measure. We still like to point out the idiocy of the climate changers and Democrats in general, not that it does any good (it keeps getting worse) but it gives us a chance to vent our disgust with the political system in the US and elsewhere.

So, here we are, fourteen plus years down the road, enjoying retirement (coming up on ten years now) in our little desert cottage and occasionally writing about “things,” Perhaps we may still be here fourteen years hence, doing just about the same thing, The Good Lord willing.

22 Sep 2019 by Blogosphere Nostalgia Notions

Reunion – Ham Radio Style

Eating Meeting

Over the holiday weekend, we had house guests in the form of a couple that I have known since 1960 or so. I met Dick and Taffy on 2 meters AM in California when I was still in high school. We became good friends in those days. We also had a lot of mutual ham radio friends on the air and in person back then.

We got back in touch with them after a lot of years via email a couple of months ago when they found me and invited me to a reunion out in California of a bunch of other hams we knew. We weren’t able to go for a variety of reasons, but kept in touch hoping for a meet and greet opportunity. It so happened that Dick and Taffy were in Arizona to attend a grandson’s graduation from technical school in the Phoenix area on Saturday. We had previously offered to host them here at our place for an extended visit after the grandson’s grad event. They arrived here on Sunday afternoon.

The third party in the reunion was Jim, one of those mutual friends back then, who has recently relocated to the Prescott, AZ, area. Since we planned a Labor Day grilled steaks dinner, we invited Jim and his wife, Shirley, to attend which they graciously accepted. We all had a great visit, dinner and more visit before the confab broke up just before dark. Jim and Shirley headed back north, Dick and Taffy stayed one more night here and the latter departed this morning, returning to California.

We really enjoyed all the story swapping, getting caught up on other friend’s activities and learning about ancestry and genealogy tactics (we may soon use some of those). By the way, everyone present on Labor Day would be considered right-wing lunatics by the anti-constitutional left. Of course, normal people would consider us Patriotic Americans. It was a good and enjoyable reunion and encounter and we hope to be able to have a redux soon.

03 Sep 2019 by Arizona Food & Dining Nostalgia Notions Technobabble

Family Memorial Day

Pike’s Peak

Our travel today took us from Limon, CO to Pueblo South KOA near Colorado City. As we passed Colorado Springs, Damsel took this photo of the famous Pike’s Peak (named for Brigadeer General Zebulon Pike). General Pike was ordered to explore and discover the headwaters of the Arkansas River, which brought him and his regiment to Colorado. The rest of it is a long story – click the link to learn more about Pike.

Our main stop along the route was Mountain View Cemetery in Pueblo, where several of my relatives are buried. These include (on my Dad’s side), my Grandmother and Grandfather, an Uncle and Aunt, another Uncle who died in infancy, my Great Grandparents and several other same surname as me relatives who I did not know, but we honor them anyhow. Damsel and I placed eleven wreaths and a couple of American Flags in their honor today.

Family Plot in Pueblo

After the cemetery, we drove some 20 miles down I-25 to the campground where we are currently parked and will be until Saturday. As of this stop, we have met our visitation objectives by virtue of today’s decorations and those of last Saturday in Montrose. The rest of the trip is relaxing and sightseeing all the way back to Arizona.

22 Aug 2019 by Ancestors Nostalgia Retirement Wanderlust

Armed Forces Day 2019

The Nation takes the time today to honor those members of The Armed Forces. The Airmen, Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Guardsmen sacrifice daily to protect our nation. We proudly honor them today.

Here is a throwback pertaining to the armed forces of WW2 which had a personal impact on our family as I was growing up in those times. This is the USS Brooklyn, CL-40 with Palisades Park in the background, as she cruises along the Hudson River near New York City. My Dad, Jack, was an Electricians Mate, First Class, on this vessel.

brooklyn.jpg

The Brooklyn departed from Norfolk for the Mediterranean on 24 October 1942. My 20 month old brother, Billy, and Mom, Kate, were in Norfolk, Virginia to give the Brooklyn and Dad a send-off. Mom and Billy then took the train back to California, where I was born about 9 months, or so, afterward.

Dad did not meet me until I was over a year old, since he and the Brooklyn were engaging the Axis in the Mediterranean. Rommel was there, Montgomery was there, Patton was there and the USS Brooklyn’s 5 and 6 inch guns were there helping the Allies to victory.

May God guide and bless our Armed Forces.

18 May 2019 by Everyday Heroes Military Nostalgia

Categories

Archives