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Author: Carolyn Murset

I’m a Singer/ Songwriter/ Actress/ Wife/ Grandmother/ Half-Hispanic Tortilla-Making Spanglish-Speaking Guitar Player.

Earth Mom :| 23

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Hello! And welcome! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories podcast episode 23, Earth Mom. I’m your long lost host, Carolyn Murset. 

Today is Blue Can Recycling Day in my little town in southwest Utah.  I look forward to this every other Thursday morning event that  began here just a few years ago, so much that I wonder why I haven’t had my picture taken beside that royal blue  43 inch high polyethylene hinged bin. Wouldn’t it be cool if it were made from recycled materials?

My environmentally conscious, almost tree-hugging inclination began with a fire. In 1969, the Taos New Mexico Plaza Movie Theatre caught fire.

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Remember 2020? : | 22

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Hello, and welcome! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories episode 22,  Remember 2020? I’m your host, Carolyn Murset. It’s been a while since my last visit here, in April. The new isolated lock down quarantine period here and throughout most  of the world had been going on for a little over a month  then, and was already feeling old to most of us.

Here in the southwestern part of the United States, excluding the west coast, Covid-19 cases weren’t as high in number as they were on the east coast, and in California.

Nevertheless, most of us chose to follow the safety guidelines. At my last visit here, I made a plea for help with the local homeless teen population. Thank you for your support. My grandson completed his Eagle Scout Project of gathering supplies for hygiene kits for fifty teenage girls and boys, and donated them to Youth Futures. He was even featured on the local TV news station.

Wouldn’t you know it, that after I’d been coordinating a local face mask group of 19 sewers, then sewing 25 sets of pajamas for the homeless shelter, I caught the virus! I had let me guard down once as I volunteered at a venue that wasn’t as safety conscious as they’d claimed and ended up in bed for several weeks.  I was wearing a face covering and gloves when I caught it, but the others that I had to come into contact with throughout the night were not.  They were either pre symptomatic or asymptomatic.

Oh well, I feel much better now, and am grateful I didn’t need hospitalization. I’m grateful my husband didn’t contract the virus, and I’m grateful for the showing of love from family and friends.

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Homeless Teens in Crisis : | 21

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Hello, and welcome! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories, episode 21, Homeless Teens in Crisis. I am your host, Carolyn Murset.

Who would’ve thought as 2019 drew to a close that in a few short months our world as we knew it then would  be turned upside down and almost unrecognizable. Not unrecognizable due to a natural geological or weather related disaster, but unfamiliar due to public buildings, places of worship, national and city parks, schools, and higher institutions of learning  being closed to the public.

Unfamiliar with new phrases such as Social Distancing, COVID-19, Stay Home, Stay Safe, CDC, PPE, Wash Your Hands, Don’t Touch Your Face being spoken and heard several times a day.  We now know the difference between a surgical mask and an N95 mask. Having a televised news conference every afternoon from our nation’s capitol and our state capitol. Unemployment rates are skyrocketing. Stock market trading, plummeting

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Twelfth Night : | 20

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Happy 2020!  (Instrumental Guitar music credit: Chris Richter)

Today’s the very last day of the year. If you’re familiar with the Christmas song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, according to the original tradition, today would be the seventh day of Christmas. Many, including retailers have taken this 12 day tradition and used it as a countdown before the beloved holiday. Many have used it as a challenge to find 12 people or families to secretly leave gifts for on the doorstep. Every year, including this one, my husband and I have found gifts on our doorstep from givers who identify themselves and from givers who don’t. Thank you all. We appreciate your thoughtfulnes!

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Mary Lee Bland : | 19

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Hello, and welcome! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories episode 19, Mary Lee Bland. I’m your host, Carolyn Murset.

 

Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers arrived into the Salt Lake Valley of the American West, on July 24, 1847, where the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois, and other locations in the eastern United States.

 

Before I continue with Mary Lee’s story, I will first explain: Following the Mexican War which ended in 1848, Utah became an official territory of the United States in 1850, and in 1896 became the 45th state to join the union.

 

Pioneer Day is an official holiday in Utah commemorating the arrival Brigham Young and that first group of Mormon Pioneers. Celebrations include parades, rodeos, fireworks, dressing in pioneer clothing, and re-enacting a trek.  If you’re a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and live outside of Utah, your local congregation probably observes the holiday, too.

 

My dad was raised in northern Utah, and his ancestors crossed the plains shortly after Brigham Young did with that first group of saints.

There is a monument at the mouth of Emigration Canyon named in honor of Brigham Young’s famous statement, “This is the Place”, honoring the Mormon Pioneers as well as the explorers and settlers of the American West. 

One of these explorers, Don Bernardo Miera y Pacheco is my fifth great grandfather from my mom’s Hispanic family, and was the map maker for the Dominguez Escalante Expedition in 1776. This multi talented renaissance man drew the first map of Utah. My next podcast episode will be about him. 

Now, today you’ll learn about Mary Lee Bland my well loved Great, great, great grandma. She told her remarkable story  to an unnamed grand daughter who later transcribed and typed it, thus making it easier to read, copy and share. I first enjoyed reading it when I perused the stacks of family records and histories that I inherited a few decades ago. Listen to this story!

 

1817- I, Mary Lee Bland was born to Sarah Caldwell Lee and John Bland Jr.  in Kentucky

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Silver Curls : | 18

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Hello, and welcome! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories, episode 18, Silver Curls. I’m your host, Carolyn Murset.

Every night for years, Tom, my father in law sat at the head of the dinner table. And every night after eating the last bite, he scraped the plate with a fork. And scraped. And scraped, until his wife Mary, who wore the pants in the family exclaimed, “Thomas! That’s enough!”

Even though one doctor had told him he was diabetic, he managed to eat a quart of vanilla ice cream every night at bedtime. He scraped and scraped that bowl clean, too. It was one of the few little things he did to..  delight her.

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In Memory : | 17

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Memorial Day Chrysanthemums are  now on sale at my local grocery store. It seems like the day after Mother’s Day, retailers stock their shelves with potted plants or, silk and plastic flowers and wreaths suitable for placing on the graves of loved ones. But the original meaning of the holiday, to honor those American men and women who died during combat.has become somewhat lost over the years.

The holiday, was established in 1866 following the Civil War, when General John A. Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic,  called for a holiday commemorating fallen soldiers to be observed every May 30. It was first known as Decoration Day and was set aside to remember both Union and Confederate soldiers alike. Soldiers would decorate the graves of their fallen comrades with flowers, flags and wreaths. Memorial Day became the official title in the 1880’s, but didn’t legally become Memorial Day until 1967, when Lyndon B. Johnson was President of the United States.

 

In 1971,  Memorial Day was moved to the last Monday of May, so that we could have a long weekend. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act since then has also applied to our national observances of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, President’s Day, Labor Day and Columbus Day, but not Veteran’s Day, which will always be observed on November 11th. As a side note, it was originally called Armistice Day and honored the official end of World War 1 in 1918.

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Homebody : |16

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A granddaughter of mine recently celebrated her birthday. My husband and I emailed her an animated Amazon gift card. Our daughter sat her soon to be six year old in front of the computer and told her “Pick out some things you’d like with the gift card that Grandma and Grandpa sent you.”

Forty-three pink and purple items totaling $1800  later, our daughter luckily caught her little one’s excitement before that “Buy Now” button was clicked on, and trimmed the shopping cart down to three sparkly choices within our gift card amount. Phew!

If I have to buy something, I enjoy shopping for it online. I’m a homebody, and would buy groceries online, but my supermarket is only five blocks away from my house, so…….except for the six years I lived in a larger college city, I’ve lived in a small town for most of my life.

Before the advent of  computers and online shopping, I poured over catalog pages of merchandise, picked out my kid’s birthday or Christmas presents,  filled out the paper order form, folded and stuffed it and a check inside the included envelope, attached a postage stamp to the upper right hand corner, and mailed it in.  If I was in a hurry and feeling bold, I’d actually call the 1-800 phone number and place my order with a customer service rep. I’m bashful, and had to drum up a lot of courage to speak to a complete stranger. Calling people on the phone is still hard for me, whether I know the person or not.  What can I say.

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