On the Street Where You Lived (Part 1)

I spent some time this weekend searching through the newly-released 1940 Census records for information about my parents' childhood households. I didn't find anything really new about my family, and there's nothing here that they couldn't easily tell me themselves, but I'm a data geek, a history buff, and a former Census Liaison for state government, so this was fun.

Part 1: The Mahaffies of O Street

First, I searched maps of the Georgetown district of Washington, DC, where my father grew up on O Street, between 30th and 31st Streets. I found that that block was part of Enumeration District 1-245 in 1940. A little scrolling through the scanned population schedules for that district led me to an enumeration  sheet that included my grandparent's household.

My grandfather, Charles D. Mahaffie, Sr., was 55 years old on Census Day in 1940. He served as a Commissioner on the Interstate Commerce Commission. My grandmother, Isabel Mahaffie, was 47 and listed as a homemaker, though undoubtedly she continued to work, if not full time, as an artist. My father was about to turn nine years old and is listed as having completed three years of school.

I was interested also to learn about the people of the neighborhood. This is a partial picture, since the folks on the other side of O Street are in a different enumeration district, but a quick review of the people in the area suggests a fascinating mix.

There were a number of salespeople, a few people employed in the dairy business, a photographer, and the assistant chief of the Library of Congress (Maud Brady) who lived in the same house as a secretary at the Library (Cornelia Brady). I think they were Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law.

Up the street lived a young woman named Besley (first name illegible, at least so far) who was listed as a Secretary for the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Around the corner, on 30th Street, lived Paul L. Townsend, with his wife and kids. The census form notes that he was born in Delaware, and Townsend is a big name in Delaware; so I did a search. He turns out to have been the son of US Senator John G. Townsend, Jr., of Delaware.

I work across the street in Dover from a building named after the elder Townsend. Small world.

In Part 2, we visit the household of my Mother in Greenwich, Connecticut.

First Time on an Old Golf Course

18th Hole, Shawnee, a photo by mmahaffie on Flickr.

My friend Andy and I went north to Milford on Sunday for a game of golf on the old Shawnee Country Club course, now known as The Rookery North. It was Andy's birthday gift and I was excited that we had a chance to play what has been, until now, a private course.

Shawnee Country Club dates back to the late fifties; the golf course is fully mature. The club, however, seems to have fallen on hard times and this year the golf course is under new management and is open to the public. That's us.

Course management has been taken over by the folks who run The Rookery, east of Milton. They're calling the "new" course "The Rookery North at Shawnee."

The course is not in great shape, but it's not too bad. The fairways are mostly dead grass; they appear to be resetting things. The tee boxes and greens are fine, though, and the rough, out of bounds areas, and on-course plantings are all quite nice.

I'd play there again.

A Hike to Kingston-Upon-Hull

I joined a guided walk from the St. Jones Center out to Kingston-Upon-Hull yesterday. It was a program of the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve (DNERR) and fit two goals for me related to physical health and mental - walking and taking lots of photos.



Kingston-Upon-Hull is a a decaying 17th-century building that has been a farmhouse, a tavern, a store, and a brothel. It marks the location of some of the earliest settlement in central Delaware and reminds us that waterways, in this case the St. Jones River, were once our highways.

Heart & Soul of Sussex County, Delaware

Folks at the University of Delaware have released a video called the Heart & Soul of Sussex County. It was created by a team that includes my old friend Bill McGowan and looks at what it means to be "Sussex County." I'm proud to say that there are a few images from my photographic wanderings included in this video.



The video is part of an effort to get the people of the county talking about the future of the county. It started back in 2008 with a web site dedicated to collecting words and images about the county from people who live here. I created a flickr group to help collect still photos; it looks like it helped.

A Hike at Blackbird Creek

I took time off yesterday morning for a hike at the Blackbird Creek portion of the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve (DNERR). The hike was led by a pair of coastal programs staffers from DNREC who shared the history of the site, information about the flora and fauna, and restoration plans. The day started out quite damp and foggy. But by the time we finished our walk, the sun was out and it was a very nice day.

On a Clear Day....

ship and new jersey, a photo by mmahaffie on Flickr.

This view shocks me a little bit. It's a freighter exiting the Delaware Bay with New Jersey in the background.

I took this photo from the top of the coastal defense tower at Fort Miles in Cape Henlopen State Park. On a clear day, you can often see New Jersey from Cape Henlopen; and the view is always clearest from on high.

But I think the presence of this ship somehow pulls the Jersey shore closer and all of the sudden the Delaware Bay seems smaller - no less grand, but more understandable.

A Bench Full of Cats

Bench full of cats, a photo by mmahaffie on Flickr.

This is how part of my family spent the afternoon last February 26. That was a saturday and the sun shone down on the bench in our new room. This seems like it might be a good plan for today as well.

Arbitrary Milestone Number 7,800

hall of records, a photo by mmahaffie on Flickr.

I didn't realize it at the time, but the picture of the Hall of Records I took on Wednesday was the 7,800th thing I've posted to flickr.

So. That's done.

Video: At the Compass Rose

On Friday, at lunchtime, I took my video camera out to Legislative Mall to the Compass Rose, which shows the direction and distance to the other capitals where the US Constitution was ratified. I took a few seconds of video in the several directions around the compass and have strung them together into a short film.

Who Was Norman Greenbaum Anyway?

Driving along this evening I found myself listening to the song Spirit in the Sky on the Satellite Radio. It's a song I've always loved and one that I always crank the volume up for.

This is simply a great rock song and fun to listen to. But I've always wondered about it. It came out in 1969 and was a big hit for Norman Greenbaum, an artist who didn't quite disappear but who didn't become a huge star.

When you listen to this song, you think it is a great example of the sort of rock music that came from that era's "Jesus Freaks" movement (Christian Hippies, it was cool enough in its time). But "Norman Greenbaum" isn't really a traditional "Christian" name. So?

So, I finally looked him up and learned that Mr. Greenbaum was (and I think still is) a practicing Jew. According to a 2011 interview quoted in Wikipedia, he was trying to write a simple song with a spiritual theme:

The song itself was simple, when you’re writing a song you keep it simple of course. It wasn’t like a Christian song of praise it was just a simple song. I had to use Christianity because I had to use something. But more important it wasn’t the Jesus part, it was the spirit in the sky.

His explanation reminds me of what I once heard songwriter Eric Bazilian say about his song What if God Was One of Us, which was a hit for Joan Osborne in the 1990s. I remember an interview in which Bazilian explained that he had written the song in one sitting, partly to impress his then-girlfriend (now his wife0 and partly to demonstrate how songs start as simple musical ideas. As far as I know, he plucked the phrase "what if God was one of us?" from the air and built around it.

Whether these are songs of praise, in the religious sense, or simply fine song-writing, makes little difference to me as a listener. When Spirit in the Sky comes on my radio, the only thing that matters to me is how loud I can turn it up.