For an American parent, it is difficult to buy any item for their child, no matter how young, without running into (meeting) a clear dichotomy (split into two): boy or girl?

In many stores with children’s items, there are separate boys’ sections and girls’ sections for nearly everything, from clothing to shoes to toys. And in the boys’ sections, you’ll find a predominance of (having more of) the color blue and in the girls’ sections, a preference for the color pink.

But it hasn’t always been this way. The photo you see in this post is of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he was two and a half years old. Yes, that is a boy.

It seems strange for us now to see a boy with his hair long and styled (fixed) in this way, wearing a dress, and with a big frilly (with a lot of decoration) hat with feathers. But in 1884 when this photo was taken, it was the norm (usual thing to do).

Historian Jo Paoletti says that before the World Wars, children were dressed in white dresses like these with white diapers (cloth or other material wrapped around a baby’s or young child’s bottom for going to the bathroom) for convenience. It was easier to change children’s diapers when they were wearing a dress, and the color white allowed for bleaching (the use of a chemical to make fabric white if it gets dirty or stained).

Both the wearing of the white dresses and the long hair were typical (normal) until age six or seven, when children had their first haircut. Believe it or not, this outfit (set of clothing and accessories) was considered gender-neutral (not indicating whether a person is male or female).

And the color pink for girls and blue for boys didn’t become the trend until just before World War I. Before that time, many people actually considered pink the masculine (related to men and strength) color and blue the feminine (related to women and delicacy) one. Some of the major department stores (large stores with many departments including clothing, shoes, make-up, and housewares (things used in the kitchen or home)) even published guidelines during this period for dressing children, suggesting blue for girls and pink for boys.

Eventually, in the 1940s, clothing manufacturers began making more pink clothing for girls and blue for boys, reflecting (following) what they believed were customer preferences. Who knows how color conventions (what is considered normal and socially accepted) will be in 100 years?

Are pink and blue the colors associated with boys and girls where you live? What associations are attached to these and other colors?

~ Lucy

Photo Credit:  Franklin Roosevelt-1884 from Wikipedia

If you’re in Los Angeles and need to repair your shoes, head over to (go to) Echo Park, to Lopez Shoe Repair. You won’t be disappointed.

To find Lopez Shoe Repair, first look for Señor Fish, a Mexican restaurant and bar. When you find it, Rafael Lopez’s shoe repair shop – a 1992 Chevrolet Astro van – should be parked not too far away.

Rafael is one of that group of people I introduced last time – people you don’t usually notice but that help make a city like Los Angeles strong.

Steve Lopez (no relation to Rafael) writes that Lopez and his wife owned a small shoe factory in Mexico. But when they came to Los Angeles more than thirty years ago, starting a shoe factory here was too expensive, so they began repairing shoes. They worked on sidewalks and street corners and wandered (moving around without a specific idea of where to) from place to place until they discovered Echo Park.

The Lopezes raised four children on money from repairing shoes. Two of them are in college. Rosario, who is working on her master’s degree, says that her parents “wanted us to do better than them and they wanted us to go to college.” Like many children, she says “she didn’t understand her parents’ sacrifice (not having something so you can get something that’s more important) when she was younger, but she greatly appreciates it now.”

Lopez and his wife separated several years ago. She has her own shoe repair van and parks it in another part of Los Angeles, near MacArthur Park.

Lopez tried sharing a small apartment, but that didn’t work out. So he bought another van – a 20-year-old GMC Safari – and lives in it. He sleeps on a mattress (soft part of a bed that you lie on) in the back of the van and watches a television set he has attached to the van’s ceiling. He uses the restroom at a McDonald’s. And a restaurant owner in the neighborhood lets him park his van in their parking lot every night.

He’s applied for a subsidized (part of the cost is paid by someone else) apartment, but it may take months, even years, before one becomes available.

Steve Lopez writes that Rafael Lopez could complain about a lot of things. He’s 71. He still has to work to survive. He often works 10 hours a day. His health isn’t as good as it used to be. He’s living in a van. But he refuses to complain.

He says that “Los Angeles is a great and beautiful place.” And, because of the work he does, he’s made a lot of friends. Some of them drop by from time to time to spend time with him.

“I’m surviving,” he says. “Work is good for your health.”

You can meet Rafael in this short video produced by Steve Lopez.

~ Warren Ediger – ESL coach/tutor and creator of the Successful English web site.

Adapted from a Los Angeles Times article by Steve Lopez.
Photo: screenshot from YouTube video.

What’s the most interesting thing about Los Angeles?

Steve Lopez’s answer may surprise you (he’s the Los Angeles Times writer I wrote about in The Musician and The Writer). It surprised me. And it made me stop and think.

Here’s what he wrote a few months ago:

Nothing about Los Angeles is more interesting than how people make it here. For sheer industriousness (working hard and not quitting), creativity (using their imagination) and hard work, it’s the people at the margins, rather than in the mansions (large houses of rich people), who make up the lifeblood of the city.

“Making it” means for someone to succeed at living, to earn enough money for themselves and their families, especially when it’s difficult. “People at the margins” refers to the people around us that we often don’t notice or pay attention to, people we often forget about. Finally, “lifeblood” is something that is important and necessary to make something else strong. For example, we often say that communication, or talking to each other, is the lifeblood of a marriage.

Here’s another way to say what Lopez wrote: The most interesting thing about Los Angeles is how the people you don’t usually notice make a living. These hard-working people, not the rich or famous, are what makes the city strong.

Lopez wrote this about Los Angeles, but it’s probably true about many other towns and cities. It may be true about the town or city you live in.

I have met some of those people. And when I think about them, I agree with Lopez.

Richard Fulton is one of them. He started 5th Street Dick’s, a small coffee shop and place for people to listen to jazz. 5th Street Dick’s is what we’d call a hole-in-the-wall business – it’s very small and easy to miss if you don’t know it’s there.

Fulton – that’s him in the photo – had been a homeless person, truly a person at the margins. He not only started 5th Street Dick’s, but helped the area around his coffee shop become a center (a place people come to) for African American music and art, even though the 1992 Los Angeles riots started near there just a short time after he opened his coffee shop. On weekends (Saturday and Sunday) many jazz musicians used to come to 5th Street Dick’s after they finished their regular gigs (music-playing jobs) to relax and play jazz together.

I think Lopez may be right. People like Richard Fulton are more than just interesting. They really do become the lifeblood of our towns and cities.

Who are some of these people where you live? Who are the people you might not notice, but who use their imagination and hard work to make a living and become an important part of your city’s or town’s life? Tell us about them in the comments.

~ Warren Ediger – ESL coach/tutor and creator of the Successful English web site.

Photo of Richard Fulton from kcet.org.

When I say “New Orleans,” you might immediately think about 2005’s Hurricane Katrina which killed over 1,200 people and did more than $100 million in damage.

But on the eve of (just before) October 31st, Halloween (see posts by Jeff, Warren, and me), I want to focus attention on one of New Orleans’ most famous and creepy (causing fear; scary) attractions: its cemeteries (areas where dead people are buried or placed).

When you approach (get near) one of New Orleans’ traditional cemeteries, you’ll immediately see the above-ground tombs (structures where the bodies of the dead are placed) (see photo). Many of these structures are large, elaborate (fancy, with many parts), and old.

What gave rise to (was the reason for) these impressive-looking above-ground tombs?

New Orleans is built partially on a swamp (a low area where water naturally collects). Because of the high water table (the level below the ground where water naturally appears), it has traditionally been necessary to build stone tombs and mausoleums (large buildings where more than one tomb can be placed) above ground. If you tried to bury the dead in the traditional way, you’d find that holes dug in the ground fill with water. When the area floods (is temporarily covered in water), coffins (large boxes in which dead bodies are placed) can actually become unearthed (removed from the surrounding dirt) and float (move to the top of the water) to the surface!

While New Orleans is not the only city in the U.S. with a high water table, it is unique in its number of above-ground tombs, with 90% of the dead placed in these structures in some traditional cemeteries. Over the years (during a period of many years), some of the tombs have become quite elaborate, with sculptures (figures of people, animals, and things made of stone or other hard material) and decorations, making the cemeteries look like small villages (towns). In fact, one nickname for the cemeteries is “Cities of the Dead.”

Unfortunately, some of these tombs and mausoleums have fallen apart from the ravages of (damage caused by) weather and neglect (not being cared for). Some of the structures are very old and family members no longer have or want to spend the money to maintain them. Very little city money is allotted (put aside; budgeted) for cemetery maintenance. Volunteer (not paid) organizations like Save Our Cemeteries are trying to keep the structures from crumbling (falling apart into many pieces).

I had the pleasure of visiting New Orleans many years ago, before Hurricane Katrina, and was able to see one of these fascinating cemeteries. I hope that with the help of volunteers, this unique feature of New Orleans can be preserved (kept in good condition) for future generations of residents (people who live there) and visitors. You can see more photos of these cemeteries on the Save Our Cemeteries website, including its blog.

~ Lucy

Photo from Wikipedia