Farewell Post: Only a Hiatus

After this week’s blog posts, I’ll be waiting out the rest of 2012. These upcoming posts may very well be the last on this blog, but it’s much more likely that I’ll be returning in some fashion. Some incarnation of this blog will be continued in January 2013, possibly incorporated into another blog.

The narrow focus of chiefly Cumberland County history has been good for discovering oft-overlooked people, places, events and ideas. But I may broaden the scope. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’ll be something more ambitious. That’s a scary word that carries a connotation of –gulp—responsibility. And there is a trend of my oversold and overstated goals floundering completely. So I’ll be keeping it, whatever it turns out to be, simple and tight.

My first “greatest hit” is The First Pioneer Artist of Glasstown Speaks. I most enjoy watching the Dennis Tawes video, for he is a creative spirit. It didn’t take any prodding from me (nor much post-production editing) for him to weave together a coherent story from his disparate ruminations on art. My second greatest hit, and the post I most enjoyed writing was last week’s on The Tea Burning of 1774. It’s an event with a number of elements I find appealing: early American history, rebellion & social unrest, economics and even a little maritime activity. My third and fourth greatest hits are An Insight Into Glass and A Brief Comment on Glass Art. Glass is so central to South Jersey, especially Cumberland County. Glass, as an industry, commodity and artform, is so interwoven with the history of the area that it deserved three posts. David Iams is also very informative. My fifth greatest hit, and the post that got the most attention and feedback was the Moron post. A little low on the content side, I thought, but that will be fixed very soon. Very soon.

Thanks. After Monday, check back in January for updates.

Moron

The Training School at Vineland, formerly known as the Vineland Training School for Backward and Feeble-minded Children

MORON

mo·ron  [mawr-on, mohr-]

noun

1. Informal . a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment.

2. Psychology . (no longer in technical use; considered offensive) a person of borderline intelligence in a former and discarded classification of mental retardation, having an intelligence quotient of 50 to 69.

Apparently the word moron was coined by psychologist Henry Herbert Goddard of the Vineland Training School for Feeble-Minded Girls and Boys. The word itself is much uglier than one would think as it is rooted in the early 20th Century eugenics movement as well as “biotruths” that are embedded in racial considerations. Goddard’s research concluded that 15,000 school children in New York City were “feeble-minded” and prefered the options of either segregation or sterilization. It is difficult to formally address his research without fully examining his methodology, but on the surface the 15,000 number seems a bit high…though I don’t know how it stands comparatively to total public school students per capita in 1913 New York City. It’s also highly unlikely that class, or socioeconomic status, was recognized as a major factor in determing intellectual capabilities. I’ll come back to this topic later in a blog post titled “Moron part II”, which I think is also the name of the upcoming sequel to the Tom Green masterpiece Freddie Got Fingered.

Welcome

Hello and welcome. I’m starting to become enthusiastic about history. My own mind tends toward the macroscopic upon hearing the word “history”. History is the nation, Western Civilization, feudalism, Punic War galley battles, Mesopotamia, cavemen, whatever lightning-striking-a-volcano alchemy created human life. However, there is a magnitude of history that is essentially in your backyard, and in mine. It is local history, and the relevance of the history that has occured in one’s township or county should not be understated. The history that has occured in one’s township or county is denotative of the historical trends of the nation, in many ways making local history reflective of national history. Just about every township or county in America has its old firehouses, its old courthouses, its old houseshouses. These things are landmarks. Simple objects and buildings that have escaped mundanity by virtue of still standing over the course of multiple generations. They are relics.

I stated before that I am enthusiastic about history but enthusiasm does not translate into expertise. I will be exploring historical sites and other old-looking, pretty-looking things. Along the way I will talk to people, experts in the field of history, those who have the credentials and/or wear bow ties. As I learn new information about these historical sites in my county, shortly thereafter so will you.