The Blaisdell Blog

Last Friday night the Valley Symphony Orchestra treated my husband and I and another couple to a night of grand music.   First, we heard Scherzo Capriccioso, Op. 66 by Dvořák and a Trumpet Concerto by Arutunian featuring soloist Jared Broussard. Both were excellent and exciting.   The second half of the performance was the music of both Indiana Jones and, to my delight, the score from one of my favorite westerns, The Big Country . The Big Country is a sprawling western filled with stars from Hollywood’s golden era.   There is Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston (more on him later), Burl Ives, Chuck Conners, and just when you are about to overdose on testosterone, you are saved by the presence of Jean Simmons and Carroll Baker.   I am not the only person who loves this movie.   President Eisenhower watched it at least eight times in five days and pronounced it the best film ever made.   The movie was directed by William Wyler and while he is certainly a...

There are five Presidents who never produced biological children:   George Washington, James Madison, James K. Polk, James Buchanan (our only bachelor President) and Andrew Jackson.   Warren G. Harding had no children in wedlock but did father a daughter prior to becoming President.    There are also several Presidential blood lines that have been ended.   Those are Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, Chester A. Arthur and William McKinley.   Other lines, like those of John Adams, both Roosevelts and John Tyler seem to go on forever and that leads me to a fascinating story. On August 30, 2018 a ninety-three-year-old man, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., walked into the White House.   Lyon’s grandfather was President John Tyler, 10 th President of the United States.   Lyon is the grandson of a man who was President 180 years ago!   John Tyler was Vice President under William Henry Harrison in the 1840 election. ...

In 1893, a Frenchman, Francois LaBorde, who had located in the Rio Grande Valley near Fort Ringgold, had successfully made his fortune and wanted a house commensurate with the consummation of the American dream.   He had his expansive house designed in Paris and built a small city block from the busy wharfs and piers of the Rio Grande River.   The house, grand in every Victorian sense, was completed in 1899.               The Europeans and Americans who came to the Rio Grande Valley all followed a similar pattern.   They worked hard and married well.   LaBorde was no exception.   He was also typical in that he tried to make sure his children enjoyed a slightly easier path to the American dream than he did via a good education.     His beloved daughter, Blanche, was sent to a Catholic girls’ school in San Antonio.   Despite the dedication of the nuns to, “…the great guiding principle...