The Loggans Lamb Jam

Someone is gumming up the works and it has something to do with Eulalia Loggans Lamb, the second wife of Robert Lamb, whose wife Ellen Pollock possibly deserted him and ran way with a certain direct ancestor of ours who was very wicked in his younger days, our great-grandfather Carlton Calkins, whom we remember only dimly as that dotty old codger who was most of the time stored away in a nursing home and brought to the house only for special occasions. He was sort of senile but Grandpa Calkins seemed to have him well under control most of the time except when he was kicked out of one nursing home for being too rowdy. He had to be moved to a different nursing home that would take him. Ella Pollock already had five Lamb children so she did not need to ruin her life in that way but it is a sad story in the annals of history that we cannot erase or entirely ignore. No one ever said anything about that to me. I only learned of these facts through research.  Grandpa Calkins' mother, Ella Marsella Collins, died in 1915, after which the Grandpa Calkins and his two brothers were placed in an orphanage in Pasadena. It appears that while they were living in an orphanage in Pasadena, our great-grandfather was living in Fresno in some other family arrangement of which we were not aware until now. Oh, I didn't know that but there are clues in the 1920 census. He had remarried quite soon after in 1915 a second wife, Mrs. Ella Lamb, nee Pollock, (d. 1971) who had apparently deserted her husband, Robert Le Roy Lamb (d. 1943), having taken at least some of the Lamb children with her. Robert's second wife was Eulalia Loggans, a Mississippi-born woman who died at Fairbanks, Louisiana, in 1965.

And then again there is the Ruth Lamb living with her grandmother, Ella Pollock, in Idaho in 1920. I don't know what the connection is there.

And why would we want to be hearing from the nasty wicked Lamb children ever again in this lifetime given the icky nature of our family connection? Eulalia might have been the Lamb children's stepmother but she was not related to us in any way, nor were we even aware of these self-absorbed, spoiled rotten Lamb children who never were important to us anyway, not being even aware of their existence, nor are we yet impressed with their snarky attitudes. I have no reason to imagine that I owe any allegiance whatsoever to this horrible Lamb-Loggans conglomerate.

If you want to take a speck out of your own eye I suggest that you first remove this monstrous Lamb-Loggans out of your own eye and then you will see your own Mississippi wretchedness. You don't really have anything on us do you? It was all just your delusion.

Whiny Carol

Yes, what would a whiny Hollywood, Florida, starling like Carol know about theology anyway? A couple of years or so after I left, I heard that Carol was fired after recommending her own promotion. A B-movie couch potato is just not going to understand who I am obviously. She wanted to be in charge of everything but virtually running the distribution department was just not enough preparation for running the whole show obviously, with all of its art and editorial functions. Carol went on to a long career at the telephone company which seems more fitting to Carol's talents. What would Carol know about the rules of editorial anyway? Obviously, a career built on breaking the editorial rules is not going to get that far up the publishing ladder. It is not just about distributing words. You have to know which words to distribute. And what sane person would want that headache anyway? Life is short.

Makes You Wonder

So my great-grandparents frequently visited the San Gabriel Mission, possibly to stroll around the beautiful gardens, but there is no explanation given in the diaries. There is also no explanation of why Daniel Boone was not present at New Orleans to shoot the British in the eyeballs under Andrew Jackson's command in the War of 1812. Daniel Boone's sons were there but Daniel Boone, at 80 years old, was himself too old by that time for military duty. Also not offered is an explanation of how we could possibly imagine a connection to Debbie Boone's Gabriel Ferrer when we had never seen the diaries in the first place? Yes, it does make you wonder who did that. And it also makes you wonder why I would have cared anyway even if I had read the diaries. There are many questions there that I cannot answer.

Which Reminds Me

Years and years ago when I was working as secretary to the distribution department of Editorial Vida under Carol Long I remember that one day I was in Harold Mintle's office to restock his desk drawer. He was not anywhere in the building that day so in order to do that I pulled out the drawer and in the process briefly sat down in Harold Mintle's desk chair. It was just at that precise moment that Carol Long opened the door, stuck in her head and sharply reprimanded me for trying to occupy a position for which I was not qualified or hired. I never seem to hear the end of that. I keep Carol Long yapping and snapping at me every time I turn around, as if she ever knew what she was talking about. As if just sitting in a chair meant anything really. I imagine there is a lot more to understanding the Mintles' sick mentality than just sitting in a chair. I was never in Ecuador so I have no idea.

Yes, It Does Make You Wonder

In reading great-grandmother's diaries, it is puzzling to learn that throughout the 1940s they spent quite a bit of time visiting at the San Gabriel Mission. Quite often it is reported that "Pop" has gone to the San Gabriel Mission and she occasionally goes there with him but often times not. It does make you wonder why they would spend that much time visiting what is probably an interesting historical destination and museum and lovely gardens to walk around maybe 4-5 miles from their house in Pasadena for those who are into that kind of thing but in terms of church not really a place for Pentecostal-Protestants like us to be frequenting every Sunday morning. I myself once walked around the grounds of San Juan Capistrano Mission and saw what is there for tourists to see but I have not returned there, having already satisfied any curiosity I might have had on that subject. Aficionados of California history know well that before California became a state there was a series of Catholic missions built up and down the West Coast even as far north as San Francisco and these are at present frequently visited by tourists and history buffs. The San Gabriel Mission is now staffed by the Claretians, I see from their website, but in early centuries it was often the Franciscans who were involved in Christianizing the native populations before the area was flooded with white people who brought their Protestant churches with them. Ok, whatever. It does make you wonder why some people imagine that we were ever a Catholic family. Wasn't everyone's family Catholic back in the Middle Ages? But why would we want to regress to a former state of ignorance when we have learned better now? You cannot stop the progress of history like you cannot stop the ocean from eroding the beach at Oceanside. Things will always change. It is more about how you change rather than whether there will be change. Change is inevitable.

Which Reminds Me

And all I did was make some comment about my mother's erratic driving and Paul Trittin (pronounced "True Teen") made some rude remark about my being a horrible person, as if mother were not continually pumping the gas pedal up and down which makes the ride sort of lurchy. Ok, whatever. Anyway, it is not like Paul should be allowed on the road at all given his terrible track record.

If Only

Now if there were only some easy way to conclude the Trittin's involvement in this matter. Was it not Mrs. Trittin who invited us, meaning myself and Sue and a few others, maybe Pam or Susie or someone, over to her house early one morning for a special breakfast of cinnamon rolls or something like that while watching on television the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer? Yes, we all had a nice time watching the beautiful wedding on TV not unlike millions of other American TV viewers. I don't remember anything specific, the carriage ride, the very long train, the flower girls, etc. No, I do not recall very much about that. Fortunately it was only a few blocks from where I lived at the time in Cooper City so it didn't take too much of my time to get there and back home. Interestingly, the Trittins had moved here after living several years in Belgium in Europe working with the correspondence course people there.

Of course, everyone knows by now that after leaving here the Trittins went to Kansas City where they blew their huge Burger King inheritance out the window with their high falutin expensive lifestyle and then he turned gay and obviously lost his papers and moved to Chicago while she returned home to her parents' house, their two or three daughters now grown and married. Sort of a sad end to that story. We did not see it coming but then again there are those who say that there were clues. Some people say they figured it out sooner than the rest of us. Most of us only heard about these clues after the fact. Paul was always unbelievably rude to me personally but that was perhaps not related.

Anyway, does he not realize what a huge embarrassment he is to the Assemblies of God after being there and pretending to represent us and then completely turning his back on everything that we believe in? That Paul was unbelievably disdainful and insulting to me personally that time when we were standing there on the corner waiting for my mom to drive around means not very much in retrospect as Paul's opinion was obviously not worth anything anyway. It is not like Paul would ever be able to get his papers back even if crawling on hands and knees and begging because he obviously went too far, and anyway Paul was only a lousy artist anyway. It is not like his skills are needed. Skilled artists are a dime a dozen nowadays so artists who cannot live by the rules will find that replacing them is not so difficult as they might imagine.