Character Sketch of Joseph Thorn, MD for The Haunting at Blackwood Hall

Joseph Thorn was born on December 24, 1839, in Savannah GA, to John and Elizabeth Thorn.  His father was a prominent attorney, and his mother was a society personality, famous for dinners and parties at their home in Savanah.  The house was on Barnard Street, facing Telfair Square, now part of the Historic District of Savannah.

Joseph grew up in Savannah, attended private schools in Savannah for elementary and secondary school, attended the University of Georgia in Athens for pre-med and Harvard medical school for his MD.  He did his internship at Candler Hospital in Savannah.  It was at Harvard that he developed his non-southern accent.

He established his practice in Savannah and, with the influence of his parents, soon had as many patients as needed to provide for more than an adequate income for a surgeon in Savannah at the time.

During the Civil War, he was exposed to the horrors of it as injuries from the field were brought to him for treatment.  It was his witnessing of these horrors that caused him to become a bigoted, conceited and an utterly detestable human being.  It was a justifiably defensive attitude; he would otherwise have withdrawn from society and medicine.

Savannah, although not destroyed by the Union army and General Sherman, suffered a horrific fire that destroyed many homes and buildings, including that of young Dr. Joseph Thorn.  He had only begun his practice at the time, so he was able to recover and rebuild with the help of his parents.  By the year 1875, he had a thriving practice.

He met Gwendolyn Kathcart after hearing of her through rumor and met her initially to offer his medical expertise.  He became infatuated with her and intrigued by her extremely old age and perhaps hoped to uncover the secret to extreme longevity.  He is a control freak.

She was involved in the occult, and he became interested in it as well.  It was far-afield from medicine but the allure “Gwennie,” and her extreme old age, were enough to trap him.  She recognized the value of his presence but treated him with disdain.  She did not disrespect him openly or publicly.  She didn’t want to lose the attention he gave to her.

By the year 1899, she was failing in health from mysterious circumstances.  He concocted a repulsive brew, to which he referred as tea, for her treatment.  It was questionable at best.  By this time, Joseph had taken up residence at Blackwood Hall.  His rooms were adjacent to those of Gwendolyn so he could attend to her needs.  The casual observer would not be able to fathom their relationship. 

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That's What's Great About...

 

Ollie Shinn was new to Newport News Shipbuilding.  He'd been hired by Tenneco, Inc, who owned the shipyard, to direct the operation of the Tenneco centralized computing facility located at the shipyard.  It was one of three in the country.  He was born in Missouri and spent his life in computers and sales, mostly in the Midwest.  He'd not been around ships except what he'd seen in movies.  He was acquainting himself with us and the company on one of the first of his many visits to Newport News. 

I suggested that he come with me to the waterfront to see the guided missile frigate CGN Virginia in drydock, it had been launched recently.  It was a great example of what everyone thinks of as a naval vessel.  It is 500 feet long and has a beam of 65 feet, this allows for a top speed of about 30 knots.  

We went aboard and stood on main deck at the bridge to get a good view of the flared main deck forward as it formed the bow.  One could get a feel for the speed of this ship just by standing there.  It is a work of art.

As we finished our little tour, we came to the gangway.  There, at the exit off the ship, was a rough cardboard sign, "Fuck Tenneco, I'm going back to North Carolina!" scrawled in chalk.  I was apologetic and embarrassed.  I pulled down the sign, folded it and we went back up into the main office building.

There, in the big conference room, we found the VP of Production Control, the General Manager of Operations, and the VP of Human Resources in a meeting.  I barged in and said, "Look what we found." They looked at the sign with interest.

The VP of Production Control said it was a sad commentary on the attitude of some of the workers.  The GM of Operations said we had no way of finding the culprit.  The VP of HR said, "This is what makes America great."  

And you know, he was right.

Character Sketch John Seldon (1819 – 1904)/ Starkeeper/ Carousel, the Musical.

He was born to Elizabeth and James Seldon on Christmas Eve 1819, in a small snow-bound house in the New England coastal village, Mount Desert Island. Even though a doctor couldn’t get there, mother and baby did fine.

Today, the village has become one of America’s most loved treasures. And rightly so. But a 30-minute ferry ride from Bar Harbor brings you to this fishing village gem along the Schoodic Peninsula. The six-mile Loop Road around the peninsula to Schoodic Point bestows breathtaking sea views that have brought artists here for years.  In 1873, the time of our story, there were fewer than 500 people living in the village and it was only accessible by boat.

John Seldon went to the one room schoolhouse in the village.  He went through all the grades and graduated from high school in 1837.  He was recommended to Dartmouth College and graduated from there, pre-med. 

He continued his medical education at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.  It is the graduate medical school of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fourth oldest medical school in the United States, it was founded in 1797 by New England physician Nathan Smith. It is one of the seven Ivy League medical schools.

Upon finishing his internship, he returned to Mount Desert Island and became the village doctor in 1852.  He continued to practice medicine there, caring for the people in the village and surrounding area, until he retired at the age of 71 in 1891.  He remained in the village until his death in February 1904.

During the time of his practice, he assisted in the birth of every child born during his career.  Most of them were village babies and he tended to their needs as they matured to adulthood. 

There were few major medical issues involving the community.  Those that did occur were quickly handled by him and his connections to Geisel. There were few major medical issues involving the community.  Those that did occur were quickly handled by him and his connections to Geisel.

In addition to his medical practice, he was active in the politics of the community.  He never, however, sought or was elected to any office.  The local government was about as transparent as possible since the village was so small.

He married Hermione Smith on June 14, 1892.   They had three children, all of whom went on to careers after graduating from University.  Their children produced six grandchildren, none of them lived in the local area.  The family became scattered in different New England states but always made their way back to Mount Desert Island during the holidays, weatherwise the worst time of the year.

During the Civil War, Maine contributed an inordinately high number of volunteer soldiers to the Union cause.  Dr. Seldon was among the physicians that screened volunteers to determine their fitness to serve. 

The 20^th Maine fought in the battle of Gettysburg suffering many casualties.  It was he who saw to the continuing care of those that returned from the war with injuries that required attention for years. 

He was considered the most popular, best loved man in the town.

The Bell Chior (Haiku)

 

The Raliegh Rollers

Syncopate cacophony

Sounding like music.

Bells, bells, bells, one drum.

From tiny squeakers to bass

Harmoniously.

The creativity of the human being is impressive and wonderful.  As many as five bells to a person, each ringing at just the right time!

One Degree of Separation (Haiku)

 

There is a fine line

Separating what is past

From what is future.

That line, very thin,

Is where we live, the present.

There's no time like it.

Working more than one

At any given instant

Finished we move on

Presents have no time,

Only as long as it takes.

No solar measure.

Motion gives us time.

A reference to movement.

Presents make their own.

Haiku allows much to be said with few words.  An intellectual exercise for the author and the reader.

Problems? (Haiku)

 

Things falling apart?

You simply aren't in sync

With laws of physics

Serendipity rules

And things seem to go your way

When you are in sync

Environment makes all the difference.  Change it and the results can be supportive or destructive.

One Who Wandered into My Life and Stayed Just a While

 

Back from vacation one year, about 1966, I met a newcomer to the Hull Technical Department.  He was a strange sort of character, who will remain anonymous even though he's probably dead, or so old it wouldn't make any difference.  Let's call him Tom.

He didn't stay in the department long before he transferred to another of the technical departments, eventually he wound up in nuclear engineering, dealing with the reactors and associated problems.

He would wander into our work area from time to time just to shoot the breeze.  I'd always ask him, "How's it going?" His reply woulde be, "Fine." then off we'd go into a discussion of some philosophical or technical topic.

That he was in several different departments turned out to be quite normal for him.  He was reported to be a member of Mensa and I certainly think it was more than possible.  The shipyard, for some reason, attracted some very high caliber people.  It may still, but those were special times.

Tom was a strange character.  He had a proclivity for moving around.  He lived in a lot of different cities before coming to Newport News.  In Newport News, he moved lodging often, never staying in one place for more than a couple of months.  He'd lived all over town. 

Then one day he told me he'd bought a somewhat large sailboat.  He didn't sail, but he solved his moving problems.  Now he simply cast off his shorelines and moved the boat to a different marina, something he did about as often as he once moved to a new rooming house.  At some point he quit the area and went to Wahington, DC.

He came to mind a few days ago while I was writing in my journal. I have no clue as to why.