Assignment Blog #6 Nativity " the Secret Life Of A Crime Scene Cleaner " Sarah Krasnostein

     For this last reading assignment that was given to our class, I chose to write about, The Secret Life Of A Scene Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein. I chose to write about this because I am sure there are other people than me that think about who actually cleans up crime scenes and things of that nature. She is also a Transgender who had been married twice. The first ended because she was a man that was gay and the second, her husband dies after fifteen years.
       This story is about a woman named Sandra, who is now satisfied with her life as a transgender person, living in Australia. She handles the cleaning of crime scenes, deaths, floods, fires, neglected homes, and for the sick. Different government agencies as well as private citizens hire her to do whatever clean-ups that a professional person is needed. Because of her occupation, she is now in need of a lung transplant.
       Growing up, she had been adopted and they were very abusive towards her. She was put to do household chores at an early age, starved, and beaten. She had to steal food to eat and was beaten when found out. She was thrown out when she turned seventeen and moved in with a church going family. They let her stay for six months and found her a job.
       She became the first female funeral director when she was in her thirties. She enjoyed making the people look good in their death. That is when she realized that there was a need for trauma cleaning and met her husband. She had quit her job when she got married; however, became bored with not doing anything except for traveling.
        They had opened up a hardware store together until it went out of business. She began doing odd jobs that not only bore her, she was not making any money. That is when she decided to get into trauma cleaning.
         Sandra has been doing this for twenty one years and is satisfied with the way her life has turned out. She has clients and treats each one with the respect and dignity that everyone deserves. She does not criticize anyone for the way they live. Hoarders are treated with the same dignity as family members of the deceased.
         In my opinion, because of the abuse she has endured as a child and teen, the treatment she received when her wife found out she was a man who liked men, and her step children annulling her marriage after her husband died, made her the compassionate woman she is today. As a Human Service major, I believe that everyone is a product of their upbringing. Sandra had taken her misfortunes and turned it into a positive outcome instead of a negative one. She found her way of helping people who need it.
         I like this story because Sandra was able to be true to her feelings regardless of the repercussions. She does not apologize for the way she was born. She had the strength to become a woman and be truthful about it. Her second marriage, she married a man who did not reject her because she was a Transgender. It was unfortunate that his children did not accept their father's choice. So many people live their life by what other people feel are right and wrong. They are miserable for it; however, they do not have that inner strength to live their life the way they want to. This is a story of perseverance. Anyone who needs inspiration should read this story.  

Blog Assignment 5- Planning an Interview

       This assignment that has been given to the class gives me an opportunity to interview someone that I respect and I am fascinated with. I am very fortunate to have Mr. Taylor Nance as part of my extended family. He is a retired corporate attorney, who has led an interesting life. He is a prime example of how being an intelligent, kind, and sincere person can be at the right places at the right times. If he was not the person he was, the opportunities that have come his way, would never have been able to come through.
        I will be asking Taylor how a young man who grew up in a small town in Texas, during the depression years, ended up being a top lawyer at West Point Stevenson in Manhattan. I want to know how he was able to finish law school in Texas, joined the Navy, then went to Columbia University, and after that, went to NYU in order to get a law degree in New York.
      He moved into his building on sixty-sixth street before it turned into the high priced co-op it is today. He had made great investment choices and today, he is able to live comfortably.
     His story is an expiring one and he proves that with hard work, determination, and ethics, anyone can grow up with just enough money to live and retire at a comfortable age without worrying about finances.

Angela's Ashes blog 4

                                                      Angela's Ashes; My opinion

          Frank McCourt, the author of Angela's Ashes, is a Pulitzer prize winner. After reading only an excerpt of this story, I was so engaged with it, I decided that I will purchase his book. He captured my interest because he wrote  his story to the point. I chose to write about this excerpt because I felt I owed him an apology and if anyone wants to read about him and wonders if they should, I am here to give my opinion.  I usually do not find reading about people's lives is interesting; however, this is a book that could be turned into a movie. I have read a few books that made me wonder who the author knew to get the book published. Even though I did not read the beginning or end of the book, I was able to follow what was going on. He explains everything in a realistic way. His writing style shows that he is a great story teller who does not have to use words and phrases that make the reader come up with their own conclusions.
        Frank is about seven years old during World War Two, living in Southern Ireland. His family was very poor, living off the "dole"; which we call welfare. They were outcasts because not only did they move back to Ireland from Brooklyn, his father is from the North and insists on holding on to the accent and dressed in a certain way that made him an outsider. Angela, his mom is the one who goes to the church to get what they need. She is able to do what she needs to do for her family even though she hates it and is put through changes. She is a great mother because she thinks about her children first. She had five children and three of them died. His brother Malachy is about five. The excerpt takes place from right before Christmas, until after Easter. At seven, he was able to see how his father was just there and  it was his mom who got things done.
          Angela is very miserable living in their small home by the school, so they move to another. This one, which is  spacious has a name for them. He says, "The houses are called two up, two down, two rooms on  top, two on the bottom." They are excited by the roominess of it. He claims, "We can walk from room to room and up and down the stairs. You feel very rich when you can go up and down the stairs all day as much as you please." For Frank, he feels that things are not as bad as they were since they were moving from a small, claustrophobic place to this house at the end of the block with not only four rooms, but with stairs. The only downfall to moving is that now they are further from school. Which is alright with him.
           Angela goes to the church for furniture and were sent to a secondhand shop for a table,  two chairs, and two beds. They had to bring home the furniture by  themselves, They did not have any modes of transportation or a way to get the stuff delivered to them, it is left up to their own devices to get the furniture to their new home. As heartbreaking as it was for Angela to use her deceased twins' stroller, which they called s "pram", that is how they were able to transport everything from one end of Limerick to the other in a day. She is very grateful for the furniture, except she express her worries of using a bed that someone who had the "consumption" died in. I was able to feel her pain of losing her twins and then using their carriage to move to another home because there was no other way. She was concerned that the beds would have any contagious diseases that could inflict her family. The man from the second hand store, spoke to her with no compassion and reminded her she was getting the furniture through charity. he actually said, "I am sorry, but beggars can't be choosers." There was not a thing he was sorry about. Angela was being a concerned mother who already lost three children. He could have spoken to her respectfully,  especially in front of her children; however, it seemed he was disrespectful because he could, and the bigger the audience the better.
              After setting everything up in the house and the four of them drinking tea, enjoying the new house; they find out that they live next to the lavatory the whole block of eleven families share and no one is assigned to clean. Their awful discovery happens when a man who threw his bodily waste bucket in the lavatory, Angela inquires about what he is doing. She was astonished to find out that not only eleven families will be throwing their waste under her window, no one cleans it. After everything she went through to move in, she wants out right away. Frank shows how as strong as a woman his mother was, she felt beaten. She realized that this is it for them. Her husband was not the man she thought he was. He claims they will keep the lavatory clean until she brings him back to reality, when she  inquires where they would get coal or turf to boil water.
             The one thing his father attempted to contribute to the home, he ruined. Being a Catholic family, his father salvaged a picture of the Pope. Leo the thirteenth from the garbage in America.. His claim was,"this Pope was the working man's friend." He wanted it up where everyone could see it. Especially people from the church. Appearance, regardless of how it really was, meant everything to him. Being a proud man, he would not go to a neighbor he did not know, no less, to borrow a hammer.He decided to put the picture up himself with a jam jar and broke it. Cutting his hand, he got blood on the picture. As he wrapped his hand with a dish towel, he tells Angela to wipe the blood off the pope. Because she was wearing wool, the blood smeared rather than soak up. He blamed Angela for the ruined picture. After the stressful and exhausting day she just had,she let him know she did not care about the picture and that he was useless.
           Dad was born in the North of Ireland and feels that speaking or dressing like a Limerick man, which is where they live at this point, is beneath him. He is unable to find work because once the foreman hears his accent, they pass him up for someone who has a Limerick accent. Even with his wife's pleading, he refuses to change for the sake of his family's well being. In front of his children he expresses his disdain for being in Limerick and how his sons have this accent.
            Every weekday, he gets up early,shave, attaches studs and a collar to his shirt, wears a tie and a cap whenever he goes anywhere; especially when he goes to the Labour Exchange to sign for the dole. He feels he has to be prepared in the event there is a job for him regardless of what it may be. Frank says about his father, "He will never leave the house without collar and tie. A man without collar and tie is a man with no respect for himself." Appearances  is everything to him,regardless of what other people feel about him and his peculiar ways. He  does not carry any packages either. He told Frank and Malachy that when they get older, they should always wear a tie, collar, and never let anyone see them carry anything. They must have dignity. He sends his wife to the church to get the extras they need because the dole is not enough.
        When dad does get some work at a farm, he would never ask for any of the fruits or vegetables. Then he goes to the pub and drinks his pay away. He feels that it is alright to do that since he worked for it. He would sing loudly through the streets about the North. After Christmas, when she had her son Michael, two gentlemen were sent from the church to make sure they are truly in need of their services. After looking around how they were living, they were disgusted by the lavatory and how they were forced to live upstairs while the downstairs flooded out. They asked him if he worked and why couldn't he work, which put him in a foul mood. Angela asked them for boots to give the boys, in front of him, and he was embarrassed even more. She was told she had to wait on line like everyone else, even though she just had a baby and was not feeling well. The whole visit put him off so when Malachy wanted to show where the Angel left Michael on the step, dad told him not now. He told her to not beg because he could fix their shoes. He sent Frank to the neighbor's to borrow the hammer and got a tire. He put a piece of the tire on the bottom of the shoes and made the shoes look worst. There was a flapping to it that caused him to make noise when he walked. He and his brother did not want to go to school because the shoes made them trip and as the extra tire flap in the front and back. They actually thought it was better not to have shoes at all. The Master of the school put the teasing to an end. They finally got their boots a few weeks before Easter.
         For Christmas, they got a voucher to go to the butcher for a Christmas dinner. The butcher lets her know that a docket from the church will only  her, black pudding and tripe or she can choose either sheep or pig's head and decide quickly because the pig's head is going rapidly. He adds how he suspects that in America, there would have been steak and a variety of poultry for them. Now they are back in Ireland and getting a docket from the church, this is what you get; like it or leave it. It would make no difference to him. With all her frustration, she lets him know what he is doing is not right for Christmas. He takes the pig head down, where Malachy suddenly  claims," the pig looks like a dead dog," The tension broke and everyone laughed. Having a change of heart,  the butcher gave her sausages in order to eat it for Christmas morning.
         As I read the story, I have to remind myself that he is only seven and his brother, even younger. He is a good kid because he is able to see his mother's heartbreak and he never complains about having to do anything that is asked of him. Because her back was hurting, he had to carry the head home and the newspaper kept breaking away until the pig's head was in the open. Kids he knew made fun of him, but he let it go. The anger towards his father is clear at this point. His mother is not feeling well, he is exhausted, and his brother is too small to help him carry this heavy pig. He wants this walk to end as quickly as possible and realizes that regardless if his dad was there, there would not be anything different about this situation because he would never carry a pig's head. Infact, when they get home to his father comfortable, smoking, and listening to the radio, his father tells his mother what a disgrace it was that Frank was made to carry the pig. He is obliviant to his role in all of this.
            Christmas day still had problems. The young boys were sent to  Road to look for coal and turf. Since everyone would be home for the holiday, they were able to find coal and turf and as they were filling their borrowed bag ran into someone named Pa Keating who was distraught that they did not have enough coal to cook their dinner. They get real coal from a pub and have to drag the bag all the way home. Again, they are made fun of because they are so dirty from the coal. Finally, after a nap, they had Christmas Dinner.
            Before Christmas, there was a leak in the kitchen and all the furniture was brought upstairs. Dad called upstairs Italy and downstairs Ireland. That seemed to lighten the mood. They are told an Angel brings their brother Michael. Frank used to wait for the Angel because his mother told him that the Angel does not forget the baby, he comes back to make sure the baby is happy. The innocence that children have is special. Dad asked him why does he sit at the staircase in the night." The question made no sense to Frank because he was the one who told him about the Angel in the first place. I told him one night that I was waiting for the angel, and he said, Och, now Francis, you're a bit of a dreamer."
            In the Spring, they finally get to back downstairs. Once again, they have use of the whole house. After Easter, dad finally got a job in Limerick. Its a cement factory three miles out of town. Everyday, he has to walk six  miles a day. Angela shows feelings for him. She feels bad that he has to walk so far. She is happy she can start paying everyone she owes back and she will no longer have to go to the church for charity. His dad calls it begging and shameful. Once again, on payday, his first Friday getting paid for a weeks work, he ends up at the bar. All day, the boys were excited to get their penny and Angela waited and waited for her husband to come home. As other husbands came home to eat and then go to the pub, the women went to the cinema. When she saw everyone coming home from an evening out, she knew that once again, she would be let down.
           They know he wasted his money and go to bed. They are able to hear their mother cry and that breaks them. Though Frank wants that penny, he does not go downstairs for it. Malachy claims he does not want it and so does Frank. Angela sends him downstairs to sleep it off because she is disgusted with him. They have to go back on the dole because he overslept and missed his job.
            As Frank told his story, he did not blame his parents for anything. He did not have an easy childhood, yet he made the best of what he had. He shows the reader what it was like living in Ireland at that time. How they were ridiculed by everyone because of their situation. They left Ireland, and came back. They lived in Belfast, Dublin, then Limerick after Brooklyn. His father could not make it any of these places. He has a way of writing that the reader could picture two little boys carrying coal on Christmas, or trying to walk with tire rubber on the bottom of shoes and taking them off before school. The disappointment Angela has in her husband. the way his dad tries to keep an air of superiority even though he is on the dole while the other men are working. Going to the library is the one way he shows his sons the importance of knowing what is going on in the world.
           I can see why this book was a bestseller. Frank's writing is informative and to the point. There were no guessing of what he was thinking about when he wrote this book. It is self explanatory which is a nice way of reading any story. He tells you in his book the facts about what it was like to grow up in Ireland in the 1940's. It is easy to imagine what it was like to be him.He is not looking for pity even though it was hard for me not to feel bad for the children and his mother. It was easy to feel some frustration with his father. That is what a good book does to me, I am able to get involved with the characters. The story flows in a chronological order. I cannot wait to read this book.


 
         

I am not sure what I am doing wrong with blogging. I thought I would actually enjoy doing this, but I am not. I had spent a total of three hours trying to write up a Blog that my first write-up of Angela's ashes never published and when I am just about finished with the second piece, it disappeared. This is frustrating me and I just feel the need to sound off! To have this as part of the grade has put a great a deal of frustration and anxiety. Does anyone else feel this way?  

MY TAKE ON "ANGELA'S ASHES

ANGELA'S ASHES

Describing Photos

Describing Electrical Factory Photograph 1945.

ROBIN FEUER

ENG274

ASSIGNMENT 3

October 31, 2014

This is a black and white photograph taken in 1945 at the Eagle Electric Company that was located in Long Island City. A large where house floor on a sunny summer day where the windows are open for fresh air and ventilation. Since the ceilings are very high, the lighting is not very good so there are drop lights at each work station in order for the workers to be able to see what they are doing better.

Add caption

Everyone is aware that their picture is being taken in the middle of their work day. Most of the workers had stopped what they were doing in order to look towards the camera person. The two women in the front, at the table behind the belt seemed to be too busy with what they were doing to stop for a few minutes.

All of the tables have large boxes that have been prepared already for each station for when their part of the assembly is done, the electrical parts that are being packaged are to be placed in them and ready for the next stage of the process. The work area is kept clean and organized so that everything runs smoothly and the risk of a fire hazard is kept to a minimum.

The women are wearing dresses with short sleeves or three quarters and the two men that are there, have white, short sleeve, button down shirts and dark pants. Regardless of the station they are in, they are wearing gloves as to not get ink on their hands or smear the lettering on the boxes. Most of the women are wearing aprons so they do not ruin their cloths.

Front and center from where the camera person is standing, there are two women of different ages and a man sitting on stools at the first work station. The young woman, in her early twenties and smiling brightly, as though she is happy to be there, is wearing a white dress and a headband to keep her hair out of her face. The woman next to her, who is a few years older, is just as happy and wearing a black dress with three quarter sleeves and an apron over her clothing. One of the two men in the room is sitting next to her. To their left are flat cardboard that they have been assembling into boxes. When they are done, they place the small boxes underneath the table by their feet where there are large cardboard boxes.

In front of them is a woman standing at a station where there is a large running belt that is about three feet high. She places the finished, electrical part, box in a large shipping box to be sent out.

There are two women standing behind the woman at the belt. They have stopped their work to stand together at their station. Behind where they are standing, there are boxes that have been assembled, labeled, and sealed ready to be shipped to their designated places. They are stacked neatly, and lined up in a way that divides the room in half with the temporary half wall. 

The station that is behind the large running belt, two women are working intensely to get the printing blocks set up. They are too busy to look up from what they are working on to pose for the picture. They are wearing darker color dresses and half aprons and with their gloves on. Their hair is pinned back so they could work without interference of hair falling to their face as they are bending over.

At the last station in that section, underneath the large window fan, the women are standing to pose for the picture. The second half of the room, most of the women stop what they were doing to get a little closer for the few minutes it takes the photographer to snap pictures. They are standing around as the second of the two men in the room is walking towards the front of the room. It seems as though he was caught off guard and he also stopped for the picture. The first station in the back of the room, the woman standing there is working on what she was doing instead of looking at the camera.

There is a white line in the middle of the floor to divide the room. This assembly room has been set up to use with precision. There is no waste. The war is just about over and women are working in place of the men that have either signed up to fight, or were drafted. This gave women the opportunity to go out and earn money for themselves rather than rely on their men. They had to help out. Women felt so much pride in what they were doing to help out with what they were doing.

Throughout World War Two, there are photographs of women working in the labor force. It showed society that women could do the same types of jobs that men could. When looking at these old photographs, anyone could see the pride and dedication on the faces of the women. There were not many men around to do the jobs. This assembly Electrical Plant is one example of many. There were two men in this picture in a room full of women in their twenties and thirties.

I love this picture because of the pride and dedication I saw in the women’s faces. There is no mistaking that though women did not join the service as fighters, the ones who were not nurses or entertainers stayed behind to make materials that were very much needed.