2009 Summer Magazine Life

Donauschwaben in den USA

VISITING AUTHOR/EDITOR ARTICLE

SEPTEMBER 2009

Do You Really Know Your Theology?

Submitted By Sgt. James S. Thornton

Who was the 3rd man in history to walk on water?

The 1st one was Jesus Christ!

The 2nd was the apostle, Peter!

Then, there was this guy, Jose...

VISITING AUTHOR/EDITOR ARTICLE

JULY 2009

8TH GRADE EDUCATION?

Submitted by Sharlene Thornton

This puts a whole new spin on 'only' having an 8th grade education.

More proof that Dad was underestimated and under-appreciated

What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895...
Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education?

Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?
This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas , USA .

It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS - 1895

Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications..
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,''play,' and 'run.'
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time,1 hour r 15 minutes)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft.. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3.. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per meter?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour)
[Do we even know what this is??]
1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, sub vocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals & nbsp;
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, f ain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10.. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)
1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete.
Gives the saying 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?!

Also shows you how poor our education system has become and, NO, I don't have the answers!

VISITING AUTHOR/EDITOR ARTICLE

JULY 2009

Fascinating Images

Submitted By Sgt. James S. Thornton

	WEIRD WALKING COW...... Warning: Do not view while drinking!
CAN YOU SEE 10 FACES IN THE TREE ?
	*THERE'S A FACE IN HERE.* *CAN YOU SEE IT?*
*CAN YOU SEE THE BABY?*
	CAN YOU SEE THE KISSING COUPLE?
CAN YOU SEE THE THREE WOMEN?
	Can you tell the difference between a horse and a frog? Watch closely...

VISITING AUTHOR/EDITOR ARTICLE

JULY 2009

Fair Oaks Chickens

Forwarded By John Michels

Fair Oaks, Sacramento County

San Juan Capistrano has its swallows. Rome has its starlings. Fair Oaks has chickens.

In Fair Oaks, the chickens truly are free range .

Few places so prize and protect their feral fowl as this quiet outpost amid the bustling suburbia of eastern Sacramento County.

The town's wild poultry - reputedly dating back three decades to the original free-range rooster and three hens - now number more than 200, according to one unofficial census.

Chickens have the run of Plaza Park, the grassy downtown square. They squawk, beg for scraps and roost on playground equipment or century-old storefronts.

They jaywalk with abandon, halting rush-hour traffic. Cocks and pullets alike strut into nearby neighborhoods, rooting among knobby oaks to cluck and cock-a-doodle-doo.

This being America, locals hold a festival each fall to celebrate the chicken. It's one of the few times humans vastly outnumber the barnyard birds on the streets of Fair Oaks.

"We adore them," said Sandy Lidstone, a longtime resident. "They're an integral part of the village."

One dearly departed hen is remembered for nesting on the laps of customers lounging outside the Stockman bar. Another had the habit of laying an egg nearly every day in a planter box. A loyal patron would retrieve it and crack it into his beer, bartender Judy Jackson said.

Jackson bubbled with civic pride over a short article in People magazine about the Fair Oaks flock: "Our chickens are known nationally."

Not everybody feels such fondness. Some residents complain about predawn wake-up calls by roosters, chicken droppings on storefront sidewalks and tales of mean birds pestering toddlers at the playground. To them, the pecking order is out of whack.

"They're pretty rogue," said Christa Oberth, a lifelong Fair Oaks resident. "It's not particularly quaint and charming when they start crowing at 3 in the morning."

While attending a friend's wedding reception at Slocum House, the town's most celebrated eatery, Oberth watched with both mirth and dismay as a big rooster jumped onto a table, sending champagne glasses flying.

"Oh my God, they're everyplace," said Steve Abbott, a retired high school English teacher. "Some people think it's cute, that the chickens add to the semi-rural appeal. I think it's disgusting."

Over the years, Abbott repeatedly lobbied Sacramento County health and animal control officials to stem the poultry proliferation, mostly to no avail.

At times, he took matters into his own hands, capturing a few marauding birds with a fishing net. He once threatened to go to court over a boisterous banty rooster harbored by a neighbor.

Ultimately, his patience spent, Abbott sold his home of 40 years and moved one town over. He cites Fair Oaks' chicken proliferation as his No. 3 reason for the move (behind wanting a one-story house and fewer lawn-care responsibilities).

As folks tell it, the first birds arrived with Hugh Gorman, an artist who moved to Fair Oaks in 1977 with his four chickens.

At first, Gorman recalls, he fielded pleas to keep his flock cooped up. But ultimately, Gorman relented to his free-spirit sensibilities and released the foursome.

Each year, a new flotilla of fuzzy yellow chicks could be seen scurrying after their mothers. Other chickens joined the mix, Gorman said, among them post-Easter escapees from a local feed store and barnyard rejects dumped at the town limits.

Now, the chickens are a functional part of the Fair Oaks ethos and ecosystem, Gorman said. They eat bugs and provide entertainment, distracting residents from their worries about recession and slumping 401(k)s.

Even the community tragedy of the rare hen that falls victim to an errant motorist, he said, is a circle-of-life moment.

"They're self-replacing speed bumps," Gorman said. "You run them over and they grow new ones."

This article appeared on page B - 14 of the San Francisco Chronicle