CLASSY

I read an article published in a "highly respected" community newspaper about a finding by a "highly respected" university researcher listing the best way to improve academic success to a particular group of students.  The Classy researcher wrote, "If states and higher education institutions want to maintain higher levels of retention and a diverse student body, they should do much more than simply provide scholarship funding."  One of the recommendations was for universities to take a more "holistic" approach to providing additional funding, not just free tuition, to ensure that students can focus on academic issues rather than working to make a living.  

Is "holistic" a new word for entitlement, handout or taking from one group, giving to another group and calling it fair?  How I wish I knew about this kind of "holistic" approach when I was working during the day and attending evening classes at Hunter College.  It took me five years from 83' to 88' to earn my undergraduate degree.  My job at an insurance agency did not pay much but enough that I was not qualified for financial aid so I funded my own education and did not demand the school to provide a "holistic" treatment.  I guess you could say that I provided my own boots, pulled myself up by my own boot-straps and I am proud of that.

There seems to be a lot of Classy talk about the fairness and what should be done to help the working poor.  It sure reminds me another vision of an ideal world where the poor people no longer subject to the rich and everyone in society will be free, happy, well fed and treated with dignity.  Beware of the man who promises the sky will always be blue!

That burro threatened and held us captive until we gave him a carrot.  It was the only road out of town so we had no choice but paid the ransom.

WINDING ROADS IN OATMAN, ARIZONA

On our returning trip from Santa Monica, we travelled eastbound on Route 66 from Golden Shores, California to get to Oatman, Arizona.  (At the beginning of the trip, we drove half of Route 66 and part highway westward and saved interesting attractions for the eastbound trip knowing the drive home would be long after almost a week on the road.) Along the way, we saw mining remnants of "once upon the time" prosperous times from the Arizona Gold Rush. The road to Oatman from Kingman is very narrow with several sharp hairpin curves.  No vehicles over forty feet in length are allowed on this road.  (I still have nightmare from our drive up Pikes Peak, Colorado, in the T-bird, seeing an RV coming toward us around the narrow curve!)  The elevation is only at 2,710 feet (830 m) but from these photos you could see that the long and twisty roads through the Black Mountains of Mohave County is a bit scary.  I don't know how many times I had to get out of the car, waited patiently while my husband took thousands of pictures of his precious Mustang because the scenery was so "magnificent" at every turn around the curves. 

Unlike Colorado, I did not see any "Falling Rock" sign as the road twists back and forth down the Black Mountains.  Oatman is definitely the most desolate yet thrilling stretches of the old Mother Road.

The old road on a breathtaking 2,100 foot change in elevation, steep switchbacks and 15-mph hairpin turns around the angular Black Mountains was a very short eight miles but at that time it felt like eternity, especially when looking down at "is that really the road" stretch between a large boulder and a steep cliff.

Since we are on the subject of cliff, I am sort-of paying attention to the discussion of the "fiscal cliff".  I don't have a total understanding on this subject matter.  Besides, it is too much of double-talk and "fuzzy math" depending on who is doing the talking or what "side" the person is on.  I did learn a new word "sequestration" from reading about the fiscal cliff.  Sequestration, according to an online article, "is a budget cut across the board on spending reductions for the entire federal government" includes cutting defense budget which some argues would put national security into jeopardy.  It sure sounds like driving on that narrow twisted road looking at a large boulder and a steep cliff of the Black Mountains!

WELCOME TO OATMAN, ARIZONA

Looking over the images from our Route 66 adventure in July 2010 when we drove 4,437 miles of the Mother Road from Joplin, Missouri thru Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona (a side trip to Hoover Dam and Las Vegas in Nevada) and finally reached pier Santa Monica, California, makes me want to start packing to get "on the road again"!

This morning, it was in the low 40s when I left the house for an appointment with a career and employment counselor.  After the meeting, I walked over to the library and then to class to get ready for the presentation.  My classmate almost did not recognize me when we walked into the building together because I had the fleece hood and scarf wrapped around my face trying to keep warm.  It is supposed to get colder this evening and we might even get a few flurries.  The temperature was 116 when we were in Oatman, Arizona.  Perhaps looking at these photos will help keep me warm and less depressed!   

Oatman, Arizona is an old rough and tumble mining camp from 1915 to 1941.  It is hard to believe that back in its glory days, the town had two banks, seven hotels, twenty saloons and over 40,000 residents.  Since 1960s, the town became a Living Ghost Town with wild burros roaming and begging for food from tourists.  We noticed that most of the burros just stood in front of the shop and wait for visitors to feed them.  We did not see any re-enactment of "Wildwest" gunfights.  The current population is less than 100 people, mostly owners of shops that catering to tourists.

Back in 1939, this Oatman Hotel was a grand palace that was good enough for Clark Gable (Rhett Butler) and Carole Lombard (not Scarlett O'Hara) to make it a honeymoon stop after their wedding in Kingman.  Of all the hotels from those hay days, this is the only place still in operation.  There are about 40 gift, antique, souvenirs and native American craft shops, restaurants, saloons, and old time photo shops, lining both sides of the streets.  Of all the towns on Route 66, I must say that Oatman is most interesting.  We will be sure to stop by again on our next road trip and stay a day or two instead of just passing thru.