Memory lane

My week-long travels through South Florida reminded me of several trips:Miami area: My family made a couple of trips to the Miami while we lived in Gainesville. During one trip we camped in the Everglades (something I replicated twice with others), and on another trip we traded houses with the family from whom we had bought the Palm View Estates house – who had moved to Hollywood, FL, where I stayed for the conference last week. I don’t remember their house so well, but remember going to the Orange Bowl parade in Miami. I didn’t think so much this past week about Everglades trips.

Once as a family we visited the Fort Myers area, but I only remember going to Sanibel Island. During the mid and late 1990s and while I lived in Sarasota, I visited the Miami area several time: Once a flew there and stayed for 4 ½ days, doing research for my book – leaving Columbus, Ohio, just minutes after turning in grades. I thought about this trip when I was planning this trip, for it’s the only time I had contact with the Fort Lauderdale airport (I flew into there) and stayed on Miami Beach. A few years before I stopped in Jupiter and driven to Tampa before and after five days on Miami Beach for my first American Sociological Association meeting. And before that I had flown into Miami to meet Abby, whose parents were staying on Miami Beach. That ASA experience was memorable for a variety of reasons: One was – I flew into Miami, even though many tourists were having trouble renting cars and then getting carjacked. And, sure enough, one of my New School classmates got carjacked in a rental car. Last week was the first time I’ve flown into Miami since then (although I tried to route our Guatemala flights through Miami – unsuccessfully – note that in the book trip that followed my ASA trip I flew into Fort Lauderdale, not Miami). On the ASA and book trip I got to spend a decent amount of time on South Beach, on the second trip interviewing people around the beach. I also visited various friends and their families, including two I visited this time (Andrea and Daniel) and one I didn’t (Greg and his family subsequently moved to Texas). At some point in there I went to Miami Beach for “family weekend” at the Barbara Brennan school, which was then meeting at a hotel in Miami Beach. Then weeks before I headed to Tallahassee, then to Minnesota, away from Sarasota (and two months before 9/11), I visited Daniel and Andrea again.

A year before this, in late August 2000, on Stephanie and Vincent’s first amazing trip to visit me in Sarasota, on Sunday we drove down to Fort Myers, where her great aunt and family lived (with their Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs and the dog that helped inspire the Frisco acquisition – with all those famous pictures from that trip) – lived in Fort Myers Shores (where she and her extended family lived for some 25 years before Lana and Dick moved up to Tennessee (pictures to be posted eventually) – there are still cousins there – some of them drove up to Ohio for Aunt Catherine’s funeral – but I didn’t look them up – on a Thanksgiving visit by Papa Larry to Tallahassee and Bradenton – he rented a car one day and drove down to Fort Myers Shores to visit with them.) We stopped by the Ford-Edison mansions (before a renovation). Then we happened upon the Shell Factory store/attraction, on Tamiami Trail in North Fort Myers on our way home, which she had visited with her grandmother and father in past trips she made to Fort Myers, when her grandmother was alive. In and around Bradenton and Sarasota – and even around Tampa and St. Pete – I thought of various other visits they had made to see me in Sarasota and in turn me to see them in Bradenton (including that worldwind Memorial Day weekend Saturday in Tampa and St. Pete (eight years ago this coming weekend) and then – critically – the next Sunday – when we drove to Myakka Springs state park with the dog, through Arcadia (where Aunt Lana had once lived), and then Stephanie urged us to keep going to visit Zora Neale Hurston sites – putative, at least – around Lake Okechobee and in Fort Pierce (not all so putative, as it turned out). (Of course, don’t forget our trip to Orlando several years ago, when Mom (and sometimes) me were at the Florida AAUW meeting, Vincent was at an anime convention, and Stephanie and I visited the botanical gardens in Orlando and then Eatonville, where Zora Neale Hurston grew up.

(Of course, just 1 ½ years ago – I think – was my last visit to Bradenton and Sarasota, when I drove down from Tampa – hours before a conference I was attending was to start there – and did my favorite widest arc through both of our old neighborhoods and out on the beaches – Anna Maria Island, Bradenton Beach, Longboat Key, St. Armands Key, and Lido Key – Several times my family came from Gainesville to visit Sarasota, including the Ringling Museum and Asolo Theater, St. Armands Key and Lido Key, and even the antique car museum and New College. On this trip I overlapped with where I went 1 ½ years ago – but I purposely did something things – skipping some things I did last time (before I got my digital camera and before blogging – the beaches, the Presbyterian church, and downtown Sarasota)).

And then there’s another gripping Memorial Day memory. Four years ago today (Tuesday) or tomorrow, Grandma Martha arrived in Bradenton to help us finish packing – and several of the people I visited with in the past 24 hours (Marilyn, Emma, and Caroline) also helped us pack – while Vincent said good-bye to his Manatee School for the Arts friends – including in a party after school Friday) – and then we pulled out Saturday morning. The way I tell the story isn’t literally true – but of course I thought of it as I was driving across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at lunchtime today. At lunchtime on Memorial Day Saturday 2005, I was driving the big rental truck over the bridge – on the way to Louisville) – overlapping the beautiful Tampa Bay and Fort Desoto Beach on a sunny morning – and turned to Stephanie and said: Now, tell me – Why is it again that we’re moving away from here?

(Six months later – the last time Stephanie, Vincent, and Frisco have been to Sarasota/Bradenton – the four of us visited a few days before Christmas – we didn’t really visit my New College friends then – but visited Marilyn. Stephanie was in Orlando a couple of years ago with Angie, for a conference, and Marilyn, Brantley, and Emma drove over to visit – but Marilyn told me she felt pretty sick during that visit. (Marilyn’s mother loves the Kentucky Derby, and they’ve all talked about getting up there, but getting Marilyn and her family up there would be quite an undertaking.) One month before, Stephanie and Grandma Martha met at the Orlando airport, and then they drove to the AAUW in West Palm Beach – which I thought of as I drove past West Palm Beach on the freeway (back in Gainesville days my family and I only went there once and I skipped it for my book trip. After 4 ½ days in Miami, I stopped in downtown Fort Lauderdale to interview Mom’s AAUW friend, the Broward County historian, before heading across Alligator Alley to interview Andrew and Jan’s old diving instructor. Instead of trying to get to Ford-Edison (since I knew it closed early), I detoured and drove through Immokalee (site of agricultural worker organizing) before making it to the Tampa area.)

There’s one very important trip I left off. During spring break 1984 (25 years ago – if I’m counting right), Melanie and I headed to Tallahassee while Cindy and one of her brothers headed to West Palm Beach. Melanie, Cindy, and I were all housemates in the “Red House” in Swarthmore, and Melanie and I were starting to go out. (I’m remembering a somewhat ill-fated foray down to Sarasota with Abby – while we were staying with Todd in Tampa – when the recently resuscitated Fiesta broke down in Bradenton, and we had to wait for it get fixed).) Melanie and I visited Todd in Inverness (I’ve driven through there within the past couple of years), and then we slept in our car in the Holiday Inn parking lot on Lido Key. Then we drove past Avon Park (where I also went on my book tour) and then stopped on the shores of Lake Okechobee (which Melanie remembered from Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God”). There we came across an African-American woman and her grandson who had been fishing on the lake. Somehow the grandson had become trapped in the trunk, and somehow I crawled back through the back seat to rescue him – or something like that. We kept driving along the lake and the canals that empty the northern Everglades into the Atlantic and picked up Cindy at a campgrounds in West Palm Beach. After visiting the Everglades and Naples (which I did not replicate this trip . . . OK – I’ll be frank – Just now I think I’m combining trips. The Okechobee/West Palm Beach trip that included visits to the Everglades, Naples, back to Avon Park, and to St. Augustine was a later trip, after the spring break trip (I think). For spring break 1984, Melanie, Cindy, and I went to Tallahassee, but it was still cold and rainy there. So around Wednesday we got back in the car and continued south. We wound up in Fort Myers on Thursday morning. We drove over to Sanibel Island where we stayed on the beach. This situation became three’s a crowd a little on the beach. Even though it was a little cloudy, we got a little sunburnt and a sea shell – at the world’s third best seashell – cut her foot and was bleeding. We wound up staying in a cheap motel in town – the Korean-owned and run Green Wave Motel (I remembered it partly because of the Green Wave is the mascot of Tulane University in New Orleans – probably an unintentional connection). Sunburnt and all we went to Fort Myers Beach to eat dinner. Probably the next day we headed down to Naples to connect with Andrew and Jane there.

One more trip I remembered: In very early May 2000, having just returned from Ohio and finished (for the most part) my dissertation research, I went for job interviews for one-year jobs at central PA’s Bucknell, where Abby had taught (I bombed), at central Michigan’s Albion (where Andrew taught), and then – at a school I had always wanted to teach at – Sarasota’s experimental, progressive, four-year public liberal arts college, New College. I remember I flew down to Tampa Sunday afternoon, rented a car, and drove on Interstate 75 to University Parkway, and found my motel (in the Day’s Inn which ended up being blocks away from where I lived for the year). Then I hopped back in the rental car and drove the three or four miles to St. Armand Circle, which my family and I had visited several times when I was a child – and had supper there (before heading back to the motel for one of my TV shows). In the morning I met the person who became my sponsor/mentor the next year, Penny (a sociologist) for breakfast, talked with a sociology class about my research, had tea with some students, and had lunch with Sarah, the person whose place I ended up taking for the next year (and who I’m still friends with). I remember walking around the campus (and being ferried around by Sarah). I sat in on Sarah’s class in the building on the bay (where I soon had an office – though I never taught there) and sat in a great class, a social theory class taught by David – in the same building – which I compared favorably with seminars at Swarthmore and the New School – and which helped save me on the college. It was a beautiful early May day – and I wore the same clothes more or less that I wore at the conference last week at Hollywood Beach – and I left with a good feeling (somewhat unjustifiably good in hind sight) about teaching in New College and living in Sarasota (Penny also showed me the house where I ended up living for a year). Amazingly, a week later I was back in NYC agonizing about which of the three offers to take (I ultimately picked New College). Interesting trip with several features I was to replicate this past week (flying out of Tampa, rental car transaction there, driving over the Skyway bridge, walking around New College campus, etc., etc.)

Interesting memories throughout.

-- Perry

Mother's Day weekend

Mother's Day weekend 2009 started out with a walk with Stephanie, Frisco, and me. Frisco is not as tough on small dogs as he is on big dogs, and this little dog is one he had met before, Munchkin. They got along pretty well.

Friso was then off with me for a regular doctor's visit. I felt a little bit bad after Dr. Kaur (below) and her colleague poked and prodded him (two shots, one blood sample, a rectal thermometer reading, and two nose drops!).

The animal theme continued as we stopped - on our way out of town - at the local government animal shelter to renew Frisco's license (now armed with new shot records). The licensing part was easy. But Stephanie insisted on looking at the dogs at the shelter (we had left Frisco home). Sure enough she found some dogs - including a poor, sight-impaired Yorkie who will probally never get adopted. I steered clear of this, figuring emotional attachment and raising the hopes of dogs and shelter staff. We can't afford another dog, and Frisco wouldn't tolerate it.

A couple of weeks later investigators were there too, checking out allegations of fraud and mismanagement against the shelter.

The shelter is south of town and stopped there not just because Frisco was due for annual license renewal (made necessary partly because of a animal control issue we faced a couple of years ago) but also because we were headed south of town anyway. On the way to our destination we somewhat inadvertantly drove around the first of the small towns we checked out on Saturday: Shepherdsville, KY - an almost incongruous combination of a giant flea market, an old-timey Main Street downtown, and a slew of fast food joints and big box retailers just a block away, next to the interstate. Once we crossed to the correct side of the highway, we were soon at our destination. Stephanie has long been a shoe afficianado, and about 10 years ago Stephanie began to discover that one of the reasons why her feet hurt so bad was that she wore lots of bad shoes(not enough arch support). So she began experimenting with more expensive shoes - finding stores in Tallahassee, St. Paul, Sarasota, and now Louisville that carry shoes by Dansko, Birkenstock, and the like. A major on-line shoe retailer - from whom she bought me also not cheap shoes a couple of years ago for my birthday - it turns out - although it's officially headquartered in Nevada - has their warehouse south of Louisville - near Shepherdsvile - and also near the United Parcel Service hub at the airport, south of town. Zappos.com, Stephanie learned earlier this spring, has an outlet store in that warehouse. The warehouse - pictured below from the road - is, as you can see, very big.

Below is Stephanie standing outside the outlet store door.

Once we got into the store, given the size of the warehouse, it was small and a tad disappointing.

Once Michael (below) helped us, we found some Dansko shoes, and we picked up that you really have to go there pretty regularly to find stuff if you're looking for something in particular. Stephanie was (looking for something in particular), which she didn't find. She did get a good-price pair of shoes (Vincent and I usually object is she doesn't spend at least $90), but we could relax that here. She got a pair of Danskos for 1/3 the regular price.

I also looked a little, but may have to come back when my current Zappos shoes wear out even more. From Zappos we drove an exit south, instead of north (towards home), on Interstate 65, to the Bardstown exit Soni and I had missed in January. Bardstown is a town south of Louisville - the cradle of Catholicism in KY (even before Covington) - home of several nearby distilleries and Catholic institutions, including the monastery Penny, Mom, and I visited John at in summer 1987 - when he was staying there (where the Catholic theologian Thomas Merton once lived) - and a town I believe the FL summer Latin tour went through in 1979 - on the way to Lansing, Michigan. I've driven through here twice now in January on the way to and from our church officer retreat at a nunnery. On Mother's Day weekend Sunday, Stephanie and I drove through it - past the restaurant where Soni and I ate in January, past the state park where the "Stephen Foster" musical is performed (Stephen Foster apparently wrote "My Old KY Home" after a visit to Bardstown), past the Chinese buffet where I ate 1 1/2 years ago on the way to the retreat, past the old courthouse square, past the dinner train the runs out of Bardstown, and past several old distilleries (and some kind of exhibit area near one). Some of these distilleries feature huge warehouse-looking - probably vats where the whisky ages - including the last ones we visited (pictured below) - I think for the Heaven Hill liquor company - that are really kind of peculiar looking, almost prision-like.

On the way home we also drove through Mt. Washington, in northern Bullitt County, and then in on Bardstown Road. We stopped at an Indian restaurant we had noticed months ago, that the proprietor of another favorite restaurant of ours had recommended, and spent a while there (it was good but service was slow). During our time there we got a fateful call from Vincent, who told us he had left the dog in the backyard (which he is not supposed to do - thanks to Frisco's separation anxiety, the dog wines which annoys the neighbors if any of them are home - all the more so because he didn't have any idea when we were coming home). As it is, he wanted us to pick him up at his girlfriend's - which we said we couldn't do, since we were still waiting for our food and - as soon as we were done eating - we'd need to rush home to rescue the dog - since it was almost dark and with a barking dog in the dark our neighbors might eventually call the dog shelter people we'd visited earlier in the day. (Vincent got mad and siad he'd stay at his girlfriend's. I eventually picked him up after church - on Mother's Day Sunday - and by then he had finally overstayed his welcome - and that helped produce a you can only see Vincent twice a week rule for Vincent's girlfriend - which is good as far as we're concerned - but marked a big change - since he used to go over there for hours EVERY DAY. A sign of a good "ethnic" restaurant - lots of the customers there were South Asian Indian Americans (but it's hard to pick out since it's in a rather run-down old shopping center).

So we'd already had our big meal for Mother's Day weekend. On Mother's Day Sunday after church Stephanie walked to a plant store in our neighborhood and then I drove to pick her up with a bunch of plants she'd bought. After this, she spent a couple of hours working with them, mainly in our front yard. Frisco helped a little. (Mostly) fun weekend!

-- Perry

You go, girl!

Congratulations to Preakness Stakes winner Rachel Alexandra and rider Calvin Borel and runner-up Mine That Bird and rider Mike Smith. Rachel is the first filly to win the race since 1924, and Borel is the first jockey ever to abandon a Derby winner who was running in the Preakness to ride another horse. Click here to see the exciting race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTJUTJJCmR0

Can't believe that was the smallest in-person audience in 25 years to watch the Preakness - in the struggling Pimlico (Maryland) track. We'll see about the size of the TV audience. Did the Rachel-Mine drama - that continued for the past two weeks and into the last few inches of this race - overcome any of the bad taste in people's mouths about recent horse injuries (Barbaro, Eight Belles)?

Would Mine have won if Borel had chosen him instead of Rachel? Would Borel have been able to maneuver Mine into contention without going wide around the final turn? Will Rachel be able to hold off Mine in the longer (1 1/2 miles) Belmont Stakes? We'll likely find out in three weeks.

-- Perry

Keynote talks

Thursday night’s American Association for Public Opinion Research keynote speakers were both interesting. Nielsen research head honcho Paul Donato saw survey researchers going back to the future and then heading in new direction. Donato described how in-person surveys gave way to phone surveys, which costs and then missed coverage with all-cell phone households gave way to Internet surveys, which now also seem imperiled because of rather extreme duplication (same people on multiple “Internet panels”) – especially with apparent “professional panelists” – and missed coverage – with the “digital divide.” Donato said we may be going back to in-person surveys (he may have mentioned regular mail surveys in here somewhere).

But Donato also highlighted new digital research strategies (which he called "listening,
as opposed to "asking," which is what he said surveys do). Nielsen (the company that historically monitors household TV viewing) has apparently started tracking and “coding” (categorizing and counting) text in Internet chat rooms and on blogs and is assessing volume and content. He also linked viewing of CNBC business reports with consumer spending two weeks later. If a lot of people are watching CNBC, they’re worried about the economy – and that means they’ll spend less two weeks later. Another Another fascinating example Donato gave was what he called “electronic ethnography” – sending subjects cell phones and texting them every hour during the day to ask what they’re doing and asking them to take pictures of what’s in the refrigerators and cupboards every day. (Yet another example was linking social networking Web sites with Geographic Information Systems – so friends could monitor their friends’ whereabouts – like on Yahoo mapping – and researchers were monitoring both: both what friends were saying and doing and where they were at.)

Ken Prewitt, director of the Census Bureau during the Clinton Administration, not so implicitly criticized Donato for focusing on commercial issues and for not talking about areas in which universal coverage is important. For democracy and fair policy-making to work, the United States needs something like the census that covers everyone. Prewitt battled the Republican Congress back in the late 1990s about whether Census 2000 would employ sampling – and lost. (About this, Prewitt quipped: When you look out the window to see if it’s raining – do you insist on looking out all of the windows before deciding to go out with an umbrella?) Right off the top, Prewitt suggested, because of concerns about the census and immigration control, without sampling, the census is likely to miss up to half of Latinos. And when so much of government resources (from Congressional seats to Community Development Block Grant funds) is allocated on the basis of census information, this is fundamentally unfair. Ultimately – since sampling seems unlikely to win out now, too – the government may have to abandon the household as the unit of census enumeration (partly because cell phones and e-mail addresses aren’t intrinsically linked with geographically based households; and partly because household surveys – in-person, phone, or regular mail – are so expensive) and may need to turn more to administrative records (gathered for some other purpose, like Social Security records – which at this point aren’t very accurate except for certain information that is key for the program they’re gathered for) and perhaps for the kind of digital information that Donato called for.

-- Perry

Around the kitchen table

The shot

Getting ready