The Wine Commonsewer™

Stumble Back Sunday to Christmas 1966

Good Morning Gentle Readers, 

Coming of age in Southern California when it was still The Land of Milk and Honey™ was something I wouldn't trade for anything. One of the great things about it was that Disneyland was uncrowded and just a mere eight miles from home, which was close enough to ride our 10-speeds. Later we rode mudercycles™ or drove cars. 

General admission was a buck and any kid who mowed lawns, threw a newspaper route, or had a part-time job could afford the gate fees that entitled you to wander around the park gawking at pretty girls until it closed.

That dollar didn't get you on any rides but there were plenty of exhibits along with live music in Tomorrowland, New Orleans Square, and Coke Corner that cost nothing. On occasion we'd pop for a $4.50 ticket book, which included admission ($38.75 in 2022 US Monopoly Money) or bring along a few crumpled, unused tickets from home, which almost never included the coveted 50¢ E-Ticket. We'd also panhandle departing guests near the front gates. Families with young, cranky, worn-out little kids were a good bet to score a ticket book with some decent leftover tickets. That said, Bob Anderson's bedroom held the mother lode. I don't think any of us ever thought to ask why Bob had a dresser drawer stuffed with half-used Diz ticket books that he happily shared with us.

Photo Credit: Unknown

As Ever, 

December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks Refuses to Move

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

 

Most people don't realize that Rosa Parks was already sitting in the colored section in the back of a Montgomery Alabama bus. The front of the bus was jammed up with white passengers and several were standing. James Blake was the bus driver who left his seat and moved the colored section sign to a spot behind where Rosa Parks was sitting, demanding that four black passengers move back so that the white passengers could sit. When she refused, James Blake had her arrested. I wasn't there, but after a long day at work I imagine that she was tired and this was an indignity that she would not let stand.

 

It is of utmost importance to recognize that Jim Crow laws were put in place by government officials. The story is complex, but it was the Solid South and almost no Republicans had been elected to public office since Reconstruction following the civil war. Jim Crow was LAW and the law was enforced by the police and the judicial system, which brings us to another fundamental truth. Legal and illegal are not synonyms for moral and immoral. Malum in se versus Malum prohibitum. That's as true today as it was in 1955. 

 

In hindsight it's not difficult to recognize the immorality of the legal system of the Jim Crow south. It's a little murkier to spot the immorality that permeates so much of our modern legal system. In that regard, don't ever hang your hat on the old adage that goes something like this: But it's the law. That phrase isn't the smug finale to a discussion that many people assume it is.

The bus was restored in 2002 by the Henry Ford Museum with a grant from the Federals. The story is fascinating.

 

Photo Credit: Not Known

 

As Ever,