about the last name

This ancient surname is of Scottish origin and is the patronymic (son of) form of Finlay, and is the Anglicization of the Gaelic 'MacFhionnlaigh', and generally translated as fair hero, from the elements 'fionn', fair and 'laoch', a warrior or hero, which has been reinforced by the Old Norse personal name 'Finnleike' with the second element 'lieikr', play or sport, thus Finn's sport. In the Isles of Lewis the fairies are known as Muinntir Fhionlaidh (Finlay's people). In the Gaelic manuscripts of 1467 the name occurs as Finlaeic, in the Duan Sebanach, the old poetical chronicle of the Kings of Dalriada (circa 1070), as Fionnlaoich. The following examples illustrate the name development after 1296 (see below), Michael Fynloson (1478), Ade Findlaisone (1528), Robert Fyndlasoun (1585). Amongst the recordings in Scotland is the christening of Alexander Finlayson on May 28th 1749 at St. Nicholas's, Aberdeen. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Brice Fynlawsone, which was dated 1296, Netbolge, Stirlingshire, during the reign of King Robert 1 of Scotland, 'Bruce', 1306-1329. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

letter home for Mother's Day

Somewhere In England
6 May, 1944

Dearest Mother and PaPa,

Please tell Evelyn how much I appreciated the shoe shine rag she sent me.  It arrived today.  I haven't tried it out yet, but am anxious to do so as soon as my shoes get dirty again.  We had captain's inspection this morning, so I already had shined my shoes before Evelyn's gift arrived.  It'll come in handy next time tho'.

She sent me a good picture of the Salerno Beachhead - The best view I've seen so far.  For censorship reasons, I should not place any marks on such a picture and send through the mail, as the requested 0 but I shall return the clipping and ask her to keep it until I get back - then I can explain everything to her.  I will say, tho', that the place looks very familiar.  For all I know, one of these LST's may have been ours, but, hardly think so.

I shall also enclose a "Superman" comic trip, which one of our officers had (his wife sent it to him).  He gave it to me so I shall forward it to you.  Now you see just how popular these ships have become.

Tell Evelyn I'm also enclosing a "Pat on the back".  She'll know what it's for.

I got a big laugh out of the little story you told about Carl Burch's child and Mr. Meyers.   It would have been a wee bit funnier had it been Mr. Cantey instead - don't you think? Anyway, it's one of the best to come out of Cheraw in a long time.  Do you remember the time Mr. Cantey paid a personal call on Mr. Walter Knight?  I don't know what ol' man Cantey was visiting him for, unless it was to get Mr. Knight to attend church services or subscribe to the Southern Christian  Advocate or something.  But Mr. Cantey knocked at the door - Knight appeared and Cantey beamingly remarked, "You don't know who I am, do you?  Mr. Knight gave him a cold look and said, "No, and I don't give a - - - -!

The other day one of our sailors came to me while I was standing on deck watch and asked for permission to go on liberty in place of him to go ask Mr. McRae  to send me my little book (a little notebook in which I keep a list of men in the liberty section) - so I could figure out whether he could go or not.

A minute later he returned and with "The Upper Room"!  McRae had followed him as far as the hatch (door) leading out from the officer's quarters.  He was watching the boy hand it to me.  He (the boy) said "Mr McRae told me to give you this."  Then McRae died laughing.  That reminded me of the type joke Murdoch would pull.I'm glad you received Mr. Vernon's letter.  Am very anxious  to read what he wrote you.  Did Mrs. Sullivan enclose a note to you in it?  She said she was going to do so.  How about telling me what you wrote him?  He reminded me a lot of Mr. Lytton, only he was a lot more frisky than Mr. Lytton.  They looked a lot alike.  

Recently I received the following V-Mails:  Florence's April 19, Jennie Llew's April 19, Jennie Llew's April 17, Evelyn's April 17, Mother's April 16, Rutha's April 16, Jennie Llew's April 10... also the following Air Mails.  Mother's  April 22, -

Mother, what made you say I had better be careful over here "where air raids are more severe than any I've ever experienced"?  What makes you think they are worse over here than last Summer where I was?  Don't let yourself be deceived.  I don't believe i could ever get in much tighter situations than several of those I was in.  It reminded me of movie "serials" - to be continued!  Will Pat and Murd escape the Nazi bombs? - watch for next week's chapter play!

All joking aside, don't worry about me.  I'll be as careful as I can.

Rutha seemed to be carried away with the good results of my pencil V-Mails.  I'll have to use pencil more often.  Tell her I was surprised to hear that they photographed so well.  I just used a plain pencil, and believe it or not, it was rather dim too.  That's why I was worried until I hard from you all.

How about buying Beverly Anne something nice for her birthday - a present from me.  Also I want Mother to take out 5 or 10 dollars of my money and get her something for Mother's Day.  Be sure and do both of these.

Oh, yes, I forgot to continue with the Air Mails I've received - one from Edith (April 11).  Did Beverly's little burned arm heal all right?  Also Mother's April 7, Mother's April 18.  I knew that Palm Sunday letter would make her blue.  Sundays are beginning to seem more like Sundays used to seem to me.  It always was the bluest day in the week to me.  After first boarding the ship, I could never tell when Sundays came - every day seemed the same.  Now the gloom and loneliness of Sundays in re-appearing.  I'm glad tho'.  I like to sense the Sunday atmosphere.  After all, it's the Sabbath Day - and we shouldn't forget to keep it HOLY.  (Don't be misled - I'm writing this on Saturday).

Tell Rutha thanks for her letter of Aprill 11, which I received the other day (here Air Mail letter).

Thanks, Mother, for the manuscript paper, but as Rutha said, it won't do me much good.  I can't copy  P-turkey in music.  Tell Evelyn and Westbrook to thank Mr. Williamson for sending me that song.  Didn't mean for them to send me that song - all I wanted was the words to it.  But thanks anyway.  I wonder if Evelyn noticed anything strikingly interesting in the words.  Murdoch used to work at the place mentioned in it.  That's where I expected to find Murdoch that time, but he had moved - then I left there, if you remember.

I also received Evelyn's  April 9 Air Mail.  (I think I've already acknowledged receipt of it).

And I received Mother's Air Mail of April 11, that's the one in which she told about Mr. Meyers.  I'm going to try and buckle down and write more often.

This letter is not the usual literary style - but who cares>?  All I hope is that it makes sense.  I'm no good away from the typewriter. 

Bless your flesh, bones and your sweet heart Mother, and a happy joyous Mother's Day for you!  I'll be thinking of my "FiFi", and lots of love to you "Pop".  Write me all the "dope".

Ainsworth

Note: The names Vernon and Lytton mentioned in this letter has to do with a family he got to know during his visits to England.  He stayed with this British family on several occasions and wrote to them often.

This is the clipping mentioned in the letter that was in Pat's scrapbook.

in the navy

Tuesday

Dear Florence,

Heard from the Navy!  The package (big envelope) was addressed to Ensign Patillo Ainsworth Finlayson.  It really knocked me down.

Am to transport to Columbia for another physical exam, will be given instructions there.  Another application was enclosed, a certificate (signed by Secretary Knot from the President of the U.S.) granting me the commission as ensign, etc.  I go to Princeton Univ. Oct 5 instead of Cornell.

Am going to Columbia tomorrow or Thursday.  Must be there Friday or Saturday.  Can you?  I want to see Carolina Tennessee game while there.

Love, Ainsworth

Note: Florence was Ainsworth's older sister.

Double Click to Enlarge

Into the Ed Woods

I went into see Into The Woods with my family.  It's a tedious and convoluted hot mess of a movie.  The tormenting hour and a half movie seemed to have lasted three and a half hours. The songs, the madness, and meaningless stupidity would never seem to mercifully end.

If you want to see fairy tales woven together seamlessly and successfully, go watch SHREK again. Disney hoped to mash-up Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and The Bean Stalk, and Little Red Riding Hood into fun family entertainment. Somewhere along the way, Walt Disney Productions got lost in the woods on this one. Into The Woods might be great as a stage play, but it's painfully bad on film.
 
Into The Woods is Disney's own Plan 9 From Outer Space. Plan 9 is actually better than Into The Woods, because Plan 9's lunacy is actually entertaining.  Disney might've had grand plans, but this one should've never been hatched.  Perhaps Disney has lost their magic touch

movie review

friendly ghosts and rambling thought

Gina ran across this photo today.  It's of her brother Terry Hale and her cousin John Swinford behind the house her father Walter Hale built in the early sixties.  The date on the photo indicates the same month and year that Gina was born. This image shows the house on 401 College Street brick-less. The back deck had yet to be added.

This old house has just turned fifty, and has good bones. It's needed a lot of work and we've been giving it a good bit of needed TLC these past four months. We've been working on the house, trying to get it ready to rent early next year.  I can finally see an end in sight, still repairs to be made, but it won't be long.  The house is completely empty of all it's contents.

John Swinford (in the wheelbarrow) passed away this year on July 29th, on Gina's birthday. John's 60th birthday would've been this December 27th.  It's his first Christmas celebrating the birth of his Lord Jesus at the same table. Terry Hale (pushing the wheelbarrow) gained Heaven on August 28th 2002, at the age of 52. Gina was great with child (Kelsey) when her brother died, and so our twelve year old daughter never got to meet her sweet Uncle Terry.  She would've loved Terry, but then again, I don't know of anyone who could not love that fellow.  Both John and Terry were kind men with gentle spirits.

So this house in this photo is now.  It is strange walking down the hallway and hearing my footsteps and voice echo.  Betty Hale left us a year ago today. She is still missed.  All the contents, her possessions, all traces of her tastes and hobbies are now absent.  Since her passing, the house is merely a shell without her presence.  Today, a year to the day after, the emptiness of this place, the hollowness of the moment makes the realization of her death absolute.

Many days while working here, I've thought of her, imagined her here, her voice, laughter clear in my memory.  She poured out her love to everyone and if she had a fault, is was loving to a fault.  She loved each member of her family enormously and uniquely, and loved her friends as family too.  If that's her fault, it's easy to forgive.
I'm not going anywhere in particular with this post. I am roaming through thought as I have roamed through the house. Home is no longer here, just bones, a house, a place for a different family to come and make it a home again.

I look back only to remember and appreciate the good people who were once in our lives, people who have been a blessing just to know them.  This year it's been an ordeal with loss of loved ones, awkward transitions, hard choices and misunderstandings and the unknown. So much of 2013 was nothing but follow through and trusting God to establish a plan.

Gina and I had a long talk over diner last night at Shoney's.  We talked about where we both were inside, on this day, at this moment.  The house is empty, this weekend a benchmark that we can't completely define. Amid all uncertainty, we know we love each other and have each other through today and what lays ahead. We both know in our hearts that it's time to let what is gone go, and pursue the future without regrets or sadness. What can't be mended, only He can fix. We are building on what is left, and trusting God for the rest.

Please pardon the digressions and ramblings of this post.  2013 has been an unusual ride.

overcoming and becoming

Dad was featured in a full spread in The News and Courier of Charleston, SC - Sunday, June 6, 1937.  The article was about five young people who rose above their physical handicaps and attending the University of South Carolina. Entitled 'Courage of Youth in Face of Life-Long Adversity is Dramatic Lesson to the More Fortunate'.  Here's an Westbrook excerpt of the article written by Nell Flinn Gilland.

"Henry Westbrook Finlayson, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Burruss Finlayson, of Cheraw, suffered a severe attack of infantile paralysis when he was ten months old, but gets about cheerfully on crutches. This is Henry's third year at the university.  Music is his hobby.  At high school he conducted the orchestra during his junior and senior years and had his own summer orchestra. He began as a drummer and became leader and soloist. He wrote both words and music for his high school Alma-mater.  Still more remarkable is the fact that Henry played first base  on a Sunday school league nine. On base he used only one crutch: at bat he used both, and one  year led the batting average for the league.  Henry is well known over the Carolinas and Georgia as the leader of a popular dance band known as Henry Westbrook's Orchestra, for which he is soloist. The orchestra recently played at the opening of the new beach resort, Bamboo Gardens, at St. Simons Island, Ga. Several of his own compositions are played by the orchestra. Both Mrs. Finlayson and one of Henry's sisters have been voice teachers and his home atmosphere was musical.  All seven children, he says, enjoy singing. The Henry Westbrook Orchestra played for some of June week dances at Carolina and hopes to have a beach engagement for the summer." 

find me only

it's of no concern

a visitation
of this present state of absence

obligation to no one

no one anymore
breathless, mindless, still
silently pondering nothing
no one anymore

find me only

in words only
see me clearly
close only

in fleshed pages
still, near, herein
and between lines

the best cup

About twenty years ago I was asked to sing at a wedding of a friend in Wisconsin.  After Gina and I arrived in town and checked into our hotel on the lake, we walked downtown to discover the city of Sheboygan. I had never been that far up north and was taken by how beautiful that the town was. It was Fall and I remember it being very cold.  We spent the day looking into shop windows, taking in the gorgeousness of the town and nature of that area.

Like I said, it was cold.  Anytime we stopped to warm up a little, we would order a coffee. Everywhere we went, we were served delicious coffee. Every time I asked what brand of coffee I was drinking, they'd replied it was from a company from right there in Sheboygan called Torké. I asked a waiter at one point where I could I buy a can of it.  He told me that I could get it at any area grocery store.  So we bought and brought five cans back home with us from that trip.

Once we had our Sheboygan friends come down to Bowling Green, KY for a visit and they obliged us by bringing us a case of Torké in which we gladly repaid them. We also ordered a case after we moved back down to Gadsden,AL from Bowling Green. Each cup of that coffee for me was a delightful treat.  I don't know why I didn't keep ordering Torké, it had become my all time favorite.

Tonight I discovered Torké online and placed an order. It's been at least fifteen years since my last cup.  It's the BEST coffee that I have ever experienced in my life.  Nothing has ever come close to it.  Gina wanted me to find a way to enjoy the holiday season, and I knew just what to do.  The days are getting colder and I can't wait to find that shipment on my doorstep. 

Last week I underwent a procedure in my poor mouth that prevented me from being able to drink any hot drinks for a while. By the time I'm healed up enough, I should be getting my Torké shipment.

When the City fails, the citizens stand up

Etowah County's veterans gathered on the steps of the Federal Building
after the cancellation of the Veteran's Day Parade due to "lack of interest".

The City of Gadsden failed her veterans this year, but the citizens didn't. Today was a fitting tribute to the men and women who have selflessly served our country. There are those in government who loathe the military, apathetic, or just plain obtuse.

Each of us owes a debt of gratitude to our nation's veterans. They not only deserve it, they need to hear it. Many did not receive the appropriate welcome and treatment when they returned home from war.

There was no parade this year, but it did my heart good to see our citizens gather to pay honor where honor is due.

Post by Rex Stanfield.

i've already had enough

Last week I got in the car and turned on the radio.  It's early November and some radio station was already playing Christmas music.  I only got through half a stanza of 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' and said to myself, "That's it, no more Christmas music for the rest of the year!"  Stores were stocking up on Christmas items before Halloween.  That's it, I've already had enough.