May 2026 - Page 5 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

The proximity of the cemetery

DelSo wrote a blog post called “Tea with My Dad” about a meeting that took place in Dublin, Ireland, at Deansgrange Cemetery, where he’s resided since 1984.

In response to a comment of mine, she asked, As a child, were you comfortable with the proximity of the cemetery? I know there are people who find them frightening, but I think they’re very peaceful – and so interesting.

The cemetery in question for me was Spring Forest Cemetery in Binghamton, NY. Yes, I was comfortable because it was quite open and lovely.

Shortcut

It was where we cut through to get to Ansco’s baseball field. I mean, we COULD have gone down to Elm Street and walked across, but 1) it would have been longer, and 2) what would have been the joy in walking on concrete?

We also used the cemetery paths for sledding. The northernmost part of the facility, as well as the adjacent Mygatt Street, was downhill from Prospect Street, past Cypress Street, before leveling off at Spring Forest Avenue.

As I showed in this post about Binghamton’s First Ward, especially the eastern half, the cemetery was a dominant feature of the neighborhood. I went past it when we walked friend Karen home on Mygatt Street, on my way to my grandma Williams’ house on Maple Street. My piano teacher, Mrs. Hamlin, also lived across from it, on Elm Street.

Only occasionally did we think of it as a place full of dead people. I knew my maternal grandmother’s maternal grandfather, Civil War veteran James Archer, was buried in the northeastern corner, as were his wife Harriet Bell Archer; his children Morgan Archer, Edward Archer (and his wife Elizabeth), and Lillian Archer Yates; his grandson Ernest Yates (and eventually Edward Yates). But except for Ed Yates, I didn’t know any of them. I DID know Ernie’s widow, Charlotte, their kids, and grandkids.

Mother’s Day learning curve

m,y friends’ moms

One of the interesting tensions about having a kid, our kid, was the perception of the two parents. My wife thought she had a pretty good handle on it, whereas I felt I knew nothing.

Okay, that’s a bit hyperbolic. My wife knew there would be some learning curve, but that she’d “get” it. I watched my nieces and babysat a couple of other kids, so I figured that I wouldn’t totally wreck a child – or I hoped not.

The moment I realized we, as a couple, didn’t know something was when we both failed at swaddling. Hospital nurses tried to teach us, but we both sucked as students.

I think my wife was shocked that she couldn’t “get” it. My response was more nuanced; I figured that if I failed at origami, I’d also fail to master swaddling. It’s not that I was HAPPY that my wife and I didn’t catch on to it; that child had powerful lungs. But it did make me less incompetent. Or we were equally incompetent.

But in so many other ways, she was and is a very good mom.

Trudy

Sometimes, I think about my mom. She worked outside of the home, often leaving us in the hands of her superstitious mother. How did she feel about that? Did she wish she could have afforded to stay home like many of my friends’ moms? It is true that I knew some of my friends’ moms more than my friends got to know my mom.

(Interestingly, my dad got to see my classmates, and vice versa, when I was in 3rd to 6th grade because he came to my classroom every semester to sing folk songs.)

I often got the sense that my mom thought she was still “figuring things out.” It could have been a function of growing up with her grandmother, mother, aunt, and at least one uncle, who seemed overly protective, I’ve heard. Since my mom died 15 years ago, I can’t ask her, alas.

Sunday Stealing — Thunking again

Scheherazade and Other Stories by Renaissance

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Once upon a time, in a blogosphere far, far away, there was a popular meme called Thursday Thunks. Alas, the thunking stopped back in 2011.

Thursday Thunks again

1. Is there anyone whose home you enter without knocking? Does anyone (who doesn’t live with you) have permission to enter your home without knocking?

Not currently, but back when he lived in Albany in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a bunch of us would go to Walter’s house to play hearts (a card game). There would be a game going on four or five nights a week, with a rotating crew of players. Everybody knew where the key was, so there were people often coming in and out. I remember specifically May 4, 1988, when Walter wasn’t even there, having been delayed at work. The house was physically constructed so that his wife, in the main bedroom upstairs, didn’t even hear us.

2. Tell us about a school trip you took.

The parents of our friend Carol had a cottage on a lake in northern Pennsylvania, which our whole class was invited to go to several times when we were growing up. It was a lovely time. Carol’s older sister was there, often with a couple of friends, one of whom I had a mad, unrequited crush.

In reach

3. Name three things within arm’s reach right now (but they can’t relate to your phone, computer, or laptop).

A large red Dixie cup, which I use for drinking water. A compact disc player – currently playing Try A Little Tenderness from The Three Dog Night Story, 1965-1975; in the queue, Scheherazade and Other Stories by Renaissance (Song of Scheherazade) and Reload by Tom Jones (Burning Down The House with the Cardigans). And, of course, a slew of books on the shelf in front of me, mostly music books from Record Research, edited by the late Joel Whitburn, such as Across the Charts: The 1960s.

4. Weather permitting, do you dry your clothes outdoors on a clothesline?

The clothes dryer. But when we first bought the house in 2000, we quickly discovered that the existing dryer was totally inadequate. It would dry four items in about two hours. So until we could afford a new machine, we dried clothes, usually on a clothes rack in the spare bedroom, or occasionally outdoors.

5. If every flower in the world only bloomed in one color, what color would you like to see?

Purple. Our daughter’s name is associated with the color.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

#1 Country hits of 1946

Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys

These are the #1 country hits of 1946. Unlike the pop charts, which had 20 songs covering 96 weeks, there is only a handful here. That’s the function of the fact that in 1946, there was only one chart showing the most popular country songs.

In 1944, the chart called Most Played Juke Box Folk Records was established. It wasn’t until 1948 that Billboard tracked best-selling records, and not until 1949 that they followed the disc jockey’s most-played records. So in the 50s, you may see a lot more records, unless juke box, sales, and radio play agree.

That is, until 13 October 1958, when they consolidated all the charts into what became Hot Country Singles/Songs/Airplay.

Guitar Polka – Al Dexter and His Troopers (Columbia), 16 weeks at #1. “Recorded back in 1942, this instrumental… remained on the shelf for several years before its eventual release and 29-week run on Billboard’s country chart in 1946.” He shows up a lot on these lists, yet I had never heard of him before I started looking at these lists. See here.

Western Swing

New Spanish Two Step – Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, with Tommy Duncan, vocals. (Columbia), 16 weeks at #1. Compare with Spanish Two Step (Vocalion, 1935), also by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.

I remember him well from the 1960s, even though he had very few hits after 1950. It must have been from oldies country stations such as WWVA in Wheeling, WV. “Bob Wills was the driving force behind Western Swing, a form of Country & Western that fuses Jazz, Hillbilly, Blues, Big Band Swing, and many more rhythm forms together, creating a truly Unique, Diverse, and Unforgettable sound. Wills’ shrewd mix of horns, fiddles, and steel guitar made for a swinging sound that grabbed the public’s ear during the mid 1930s and 1940s.”

Divorce Me C.O.D. – Merle Travis with his cowboy band (Capitol), 14 weeks at #1

Wine, Women and Song – Al Dexter and His Troopers, 5 weeks at #1

You Will Have To Pay (for Your Yesterday)- Tex Ritter (Capitol), 3 weeks at #1. Yes, John Ritter’s dad and Jason Ritter’s granddad, though Jason never knew Tex

White Cross on Okinawa – Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, with Tommy Duncan, vocal, 1 week at #1

The state of the blog

The `xmlrpc.php` file (?!)

Kelly, the Buffalo-area guy, posted about going to the moon. And then nothing for a couple of weeks. I thought that Ralph Kramden had assaulted him.

As it turned out, his blog was full. Specifically, “I have been unable to access my site on the back end for over a week, because the database was full. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I think it’s that after over 24 years of blogging, I finally filled up the space I’ve been paying for here. (Well, I was on BlogSpot for years and years, but I ported all of that content over here.)” I assumed he was physically all right; he had posted on Facebook.

This, of course, got me to start wondering about the state of the blog at rogerogreen.com. Lessse, what IS the name of my provider? (It really DID take me a minute to remember.)

No threats from viruses – yay! I had an entity fix a hack attack in 2024 and spent $30/year to maintain it.

“This certificate is valid and currently in use; it will automatically renew.”

My storage is at 30%; that’s comforting, given that I have imported not only MY Blogspot blog from 2005 to 2010, but also my Times Union blog from 2008 to 2021, though I didn’t blog there daily.

My CPU is only 4%. But my RAM is at 90%. I had this problem six months ago, and it was fixed. Also, I bought extra RAM. Do I understand what was done? Do you understand the grown-ups in a Charlie Brown cartoon? I’ll have to keep monitoring it and ask for help again.

Bill coming due

Ooo, I switched to this hosting plan in March 2017 based on a recommendation by the late Dustbury. I spent a bit of change back then. It expires in March 2027. Can I renew for another decade? I cannot. The longest available option is 36 months. Of course, the three years will cost 70% of what the ten years have run me.

I suppose it’s the cost of therapy.

One other thing: I have the Jetpack plugin. But it’s not responding as it did before, when it would tell me each morning whether my blog had been posted or had gone down. After “talking” with Jetpack’s bot, I wrote to my provider:

Hello, Support – I am experiencing an issue with Jetpack on my WordPress site, and it seems that XML–RPC access is being blocked. Here are the details: – The xmlrpc.php file returns no response at all. – Jetpack backups require XML–RPC to be enabled. – A “200” error is indicated in Jetpack‘s connection test, suggesting XML-RPC is blocked at the server level. Could you please check your firewall/security settings for any XML-RPC blocks? It would be appreciated if you could whitelist XML-RPC access for my site or adjust the security settings to allow it. Thank you for your assistance.

I barely know what I just wrote, but it was in my provider’s queue. Long answer (involving six emails and a few hours), after disconnecting Blackhole for Bad Bots, Really Simple SSL, and, surprisingly, Jetpack Protect, my Jetpack is finally working, which made me happy.