First question: When...Where...and what time are the chat meetings?

Due to the season which is fast approaching my postings are going to be whenever I can get to them, so I'm going to try to do whatever I can to get current stories caught up and then tread lightly for a bit. Working in retail is horrible this time of year. I hope to visit with you soon. I'm on AIM as Beandelphiki and Yahoo as enderwiggin30

Have a good day.

AIM Express

The names Ben gave are names you'll want to add to your buddy list once you get an account. Here are a whole list of names from folks in Hatrack River:

My AIM thing : Scarlet Malory

Maria

May just have to bring him back if there's a good chance of a high stakes (or any stakes) game of poker at the local tavern.

Scarlet... add CaryBass to your IM list and send me a message next time you see me on a Tuesday.

Maybe we should all (as many of us can) intend to be on next Tuesday (12/18/01), eh?

I about cried when I noticed all my "old cronies" returning.

I'm a little amused , if people referr to you and Ben as old cronies, what in tarnashins' would they consider Scarlet??? (Maria <---not an older cronie by any means....tee hee hee.) Besides , I know someone here who's been around even longer than myself....does that make them an oldest cronie? :>

It was rather quiet in those days and we had plenty of time to read and study, so we were already familiar with Scarlet's deeds in the Seamstress Shop.

Hmmmmm...you almost make it sound like something dirty.

Great to see things picking up.

Karl, you are truely forgiven, (not that any forgiving was required in the first place.) All was taken with a smile.

I do feel badly about the whole Seamstress shop thing. I would try to come back to town and thought I could just start right back into the shop. Poor Charity, who had made the place her own, must have thought me to be such a bully. I didn't realize any grief I might have caused her until coming back this time and rereading the old posts. I'm sorry Charity for appearing to just want to walk in and take over where I had left off. The shop was clearly your's.

Except for Ben "writin' with a walker" Whaley y'all are young'uns to the boards. Better throw M in there, but I won't add a nickname for fear of a virtual beating. I remember when the first cafe was opened (unfortunately). I'm sorry to say it took longer for my writing to mature than it did Ben's, but it still took both of us quite awhile.

Hopefully I'll be back to posting after the first of the year.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I'm here!!! (Don't lose hope, Maria!)

Now listen people...I wished EVERYONE a Happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas, and I'm about to wish you all another happy holiday thing (hint:it has to do with midnight tonight...lol) This time , I would like to hear people wish me back a nice little tiding...OK ???

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL !!!

May more of us meet in real life and may some of us meet again soon. Most of all may we all keep writing here if for no other reason than to entertain one another for the next 365 days.

I raise my glass of raspberry ginger ale to my friends (and those who are not yet my friends) and sing praise for 2002.

I also send a special New Years smooch to my favorite moderator, and long distance sweetie, Ben. (OK I couldn't resist, sue me).

Scott, Cary, West (yes, West) and myself were present and we spoke of many things good, bad and just plain silly. At any rate a good time was had by at least one of us and we look forward to seeing some of y'all next week(although I may be late in coming. . . my current TV passion comes on at the same time as Town Meeting).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I hope you had a great Christmas, Solstice, Hanukah, etc...

quote:

---

“Muy bien, Luis!” the women said in unison as they clapped. The little boy created an exaggerated bow and then broke out in giggles.

---

I broke out in more than giggles, in fact I scared a life or two out of one of my cats. First of all, I must say kudos to both Marie-Claire and Emmy Mason for being tri-lingual. I feel better putting my orphans in their hands (assuming they take over at the school house upon their return).

PS Nevermind. For some reason I misread their simultaneous exclamation as being a mix of French and Spanish... Backflash to Freshman Japanese class. The teacher finally told me I should drop the class when I responded to her "Kanbanwa" with "Bon matin/Bonjour" for the upteenth time. Not to mention the tex-mex sprinkling of the occasional spanish during class discussions.

-C

Just a note to remind you that Emmy's knack is languages. She can speak any of them, one she's heard it. Luis speaks Spanish (I think that was mentioned in one of Cary's early posts), so that Emmy speaks to him in his native lingo. Just wanted to let you know that the Spanish was intentional.

Not to worry, Marie-Claire doesn't speak a word of Spanish, and still hasn't got a clue as to what they're saying.

Actually, I'm wondering where Luis is from. Maybe I missed that somewhere...

Also, the last post by Fowler at the Holiday Happenings was hilarious. Short and sweet... me, I have long forgotten how to write short posts.

There were three Hatian sub-classes during the 1830's. Creole were the whites, full-blood French, who were born and raised on the island. Most Creole were good-humored, but then again, they were the first whites to be ruled by blacks, and considering the time period...

The mulattoes were the most revered (in their own minds anyway). Primarily a mixing of Creole with black or other mulatto, a large minority of mulattoes can trace their lineage back to Spanish or Italian fathers, due to the fact that Haiti harbored pirates for many years before Toussaint Louvelour led the revolution against France.

The blacks, while considered sub-standard by the Creole and mulattoes, were none-the-less the ruling class by the 1830's. I believe Christophe, one of Toussaint Louvelour's generals, was the governor at the beginning of the 1830's. By then, Toussaint had been betrayed and was living his last years in imprisonment.

And that's where Haiti stood in the 1830's. Mainly this is just a long way of saying that Mama Iris and the Haitian coachman are not Creole, as they are not white.

-C

CREOLE (American Heritage Dictionary):
1. A person of European descent born in the West Indies or Spanish America. 2a. A person descended from or culturally related to the original French settlers of the southern United States, especially Louisiana. b. The French dialect spoken by these people. 3. A person descended from or culturally related to the Spanish and Portuguese settlers of the Gulf States. 4. often creole A person of mixed Black and European ancestry who speaks a creolized language, especially one based on French or Spanish. 5. A Black slave born in the Americas as opposed to one brought from Africa. 6. creole A creolized language. 7. Haitian Creole.

Additionally, if we are nitpicking, then Louvelour's last speech in true Haitian Creole (aka Patwa or Kreyol) would be something like: "Ava avek le repa a fe a etwama aimay seu, avek la nuvell konklushon de ami, e me en bwat vot roo swa tojoo clay voo e le solay du reglajay a vot do" rather than Napoleon's French. But since French is easier to translate than Kreyol, nobody's gonna nitpick about it.

Next, in our time line (which is what we base it on because OSC is silent on the subject of Haiti) Toussaint L’Ouverture kicked the French and the Creoles off the island in 1806, so they were gone by the 1830s. (see Columbia Encyclopedia)

Incedentally, Fort Lauderdale (my home town) has one of the largest concentration of Haitians in America (maybe the largest, but Haitians aren't well known for answering the census). I've heard them referred to, whether correctly or incorrectly, as "Creole" on a number of occasions in the media as well as in person.

I like Anne Rice's novels as well, but for the historical perspective of the Caribbean--James Michener's epic is more accurate.

In conclusion, Chris, although your point, that the term Creole, when used in Haiti, primarily refered to whites of French descent, is true before the year 1806...after that the definitation expanded considerably--and therefore Guillaume's use of the term inside of his brain, while technically accurate, should have included a lower case "c" for connotative purposes.

Alas, the primary reason for this post is not to correct you, Chris... it's just that I don't like it being pointed out that I'm wrong in front of everybody...even if it's true--you probably don't either. Please leave such corrections to private discourse from now on and not for everyone's viewing pleasure.

Ou genyen mwen adrès d'Email, wi?

Cary

Sylvia, professional curiosity, why did you choose a Haitian character? Few people that I've talked to know much history about Haiti (and beleive me, I'm still learning myself). What made you do research on it in the first place, and what motivated you not only to write for a Haitian, but an old black Haitian?

-C

As far as the Hatian angle goes, I've been interested in folklore for a long time, and Hatian folklore in particular. Again, not sure where it started, but the idea of Voudoun, of having a God physically present, is spiritualistly appealing to me. Also, the idea of a home-grown religion, so to speak. I'm not religious, myself, but not from an non-belief. More due to lack of proof and a distate for "organized" religion.