Friday the 13th

History
According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a "Friday the 13th" superstition before the 19th century. The earliest known documented reference in English occurs in an 1869 biography of Gioachino Rossini:

[Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; and if it be true that, like so many other Italians, he regarded Friday as an unlucky day, and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday, the 13th of November, he died.
However, some folklore is passed on through oral traditions. In addition, "determining the origins of superstitions is an inexact science, at best. In fact, it's mostly guesswork." Consequently, several theories have been proposed about the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition.

One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.

In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.
Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales, and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s. It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christian scripture and tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday.
On the other hand, another theory by author Charles Panati, one of the leading authorities on the subject of "Origins" maintains that the superstition can be traced back to ancient myth:

The actual origin of the superstition, though, appears also to be a tale in Norse mythology. Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil - a gathering of thirteen - and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as "Witches' Sabbath."[11]
Another theory about the origin of the superstition traces the event to the arrest of the legendary Knights Templar. According to one expert:

The Knights Templar were a monastic military order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 C.E., whose mission was to protect Christian pilgrims during the Crusades. Over the next two centuries, the Knights Templar became extraordinarily powerful and wealthy. Threatened by that power and eager to acquire their wealth, King Philip secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France on Friday, October 13, 1307 - Friday the 13th.
The connection between the superstition and the Knights Templar was popularized in the 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. However, some experts think that it is relatively recent and is a modern-day invention. For example, the superstition is rarely found before the 20th century, when it became extremely common. One author, noting that references are all but nonexistent before 1907 but frequently seen thereafter, has argued that its popularity derives from the publication that year of Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth,[12] in which an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th.

A further theory goes back to a combination of Paganism, Christianity, and the Battle of Hastings. For many, the number 13 was considered a lucky number (such as 13 lunar cycles each year), but with the efforts of Christianity attempting to degrade all things Pagan, they promoted 13 as an unlucky number, with Friday thus also being considered a bad day of the week. However, on Friday the 13th of October 1066, the decision was made by King Harold II to go to battle on Saturday the 14th of October, rather than allow his troops a day of rest (despite his army having made a long and arduous march from a battle near York just 3 weeks earlier).

This decision in going to battle before the English troops were rested (the English lost and King Harold was killed), further established Friday the 13th as an unlucky day.[citation needed]

In some other countries, instead of Friday, Tuesday the 13th is considered bad luck.[citation needed] For example, the Fall of Constantinople, when the city fell to the Ottomans (a fact which marked the end of the Byzantine Empire), happened Tuesday, May 29, 1453, and is why Greeks consider Tuesday to be an unlucky day.[citation needed]

Source: Wikipedia

Oldies

Marylee, Steve and me.


Four generations. Granny, Grandpa Ritchie, Mom and me.


Lake Arrowhead (CA) I think Steve was about 5 and I was 7. This is one of my favorite pictures.


I think this was taken on the Sunday Laurie was blessed.

New (Old) Photos

Last summer I thoought I had scanned every photo I had but somehow these escaped and I only recently found them.

Before Mom & Dad could get married they had to go to court for a marriage license.






Here's Mom exiting and she doesn't look very happy.


It looks like Dad tried to throw Mom in the trash (fortunately he didn't suceed).



Dad with me when I was 3 months old. Look at Dad's hair - what a do!


Looks like a picnic to me. I think I know where this was taken. Probably at the palisades near the Santa Monica Pier. Notice the watch chain (fob?)

First Day Of School

This picture is from last year but everything is the same this year (except you can't see my new fake knee).
So the first day was fun. I have 2 routes to 2 different schools. All of the kids on my first route are regular students except one. He has a walker and must be lifted onto the bus by his mother and straped into a special harness. When my bus assignment was made the school district specified that I have a bus with a lift. As it turns out the lift is not needed as I can open the rear emergency door and put the walker in there while mom straps the child in. The problem occurs when the capacity for the bus is rated at 19 but I have 20 students plus an aide. As far as I know this is illegal and if I get stopped by the police I could get a ticket.
My 2nd route is a little more of a challenge but not much. All of the students are autistic (some moreso than others). Today was half day for the kindergartners (we were not told) so I made 3 stops for students that weren't riding today, got a little lost on my 4th stop and stops 5 & 6 we figurerd were kindergartners (because we knew their birthdates) so we by passed them and went to the school with only one student. By the time we got to the school I got a radio call asking when I would pick up stops 5 & 6 (turns out they are in 1st grade and needed to be picked up). I explained the situation and was then told that their mothers would drive them but I will bring them home.
When I returned to the terminal I discussed the capacity issue and will either get a larger bus or that stop will be eliminated from my route.
To further confuse the situation I have route 614 but I drive bus 621 (usually the route numbers coincide with the bus number) so identification on the radio and with parents becomes a little confusing.

Oh well, it's only the first day and it's bound to get more confusing as time goes on.

Mission Pix

For many years I have had 35mm slides that I took on my mission. I haven't looked at them for about 45 years (nobody has a slide projector now - some don't even know what one is). Then last week The guy I work with at the Family History Center said that he had just bought a new attachment to his computer that will scan slides, film strips and negatives into digital and save then as a jpg file in your computer. I explained about my mission slides and he volunteered to let me use his contraption (he hadn't even taken it out of the box yet). So Friday I installed the software, plugged the thing in and set to work to scan 134 slides. Because these were 46-48 yrs old the quality had degraded somewhat but I was able to scan all of them and relive a part of my life.
So here are just a few of them.

Me after my first snow storm (do you like the hat?)


We had been snow boound for several days and decided to take a picture of how we wished it was. Notice the cast on my left hand - I had a broken thumb.


This was the Mission Home. It was a beautiful old home with a formal dining room, huge kitchen and hot and cold running water and indoor toilets.


The Branch Pres in Hastings had bought this horse for his children but he let me and my companion ride it a few times.


Dear sweet Sister Evans. We lived in her tiny home in Hastings. She cooked our meals and did our laundry and occassionaly let us drive her 1948 Plymouth.


This was our chapel in what is now Thunder Bay, Ont. At that time is was known as Ft. William. The church had bought a house and converted into use as a church.


It was interesting to compare our dress (hats and long overcoats) to what the missionaries wear now (we weren't permitted to take our jackets off).

I love Spruce trees and about 10 or 12 years ago Mike & Jen lived here in the area and Jen worked at a nursery so I asked if she could get us a Spruce tree. She did and it was just a baby of about 3 ft. I planted it and now it is about 30 ft tall. It is a beautiful tree and I really like having it in our yard but it is being crowded out by a Maple and an Oak. So it is going to be moved. The tree will soon reside in another yard here in the complex. I hope the new owners take good care of it (I don't know if it is a he or she). I know they will because the yard it will be in is the home of the pres. of the association and he is very reliable when it comes to the well being of our tree.

So farewell good ole spruce.

Mom's immigration plus Knee Knews

First Mom
On September 20, 1922 James and Helen (Nellie)Ritchie and their children Louis and Isabella boarded the S.S. Victorian for the voyage to North America. They arrived at Montreal, Quebec on 8 October, 1922. A voyage of 18 days !! Mom said that grandma and Louie were sea sick from the moment they got on the ship. After clearing Canadian customs they took a train from Montreal to Windsor, Ontario. Windsor is a twin city to Detroit, Michigan. They crossed the border and entered the U.S. on 10 October, 1922. From Detroit they took another train to Los Angeles where they established their home in Venice, California. For pictures of the ship go to http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=vict3

Now the Knee
Things are progressing nicely, the scar is healing and doesn't look so gross. I still don't have any feeling in the knee because all of the nerves were cut but I was told that they would grow back. My flexibility is improving daily. I walk without a cane, can climb and decend the stairs normally (with assistance from the hand rail). My leg is now straight in that I can flatten it to 0 degrees and can bend the knee to 120 degrees. I'm still a little unstable (on my legs not my mind) but that also improves. The regeneration of the nerves causes some pain but I guess that's to be expected. All in all everything is coming along nicely.

There is a video each of my children need to see. Go to http://mapastubz.blogspot.com/