At times I tend to take for granted all the hours of research, collecting, and cataloging (otherwise known as Blood, Sweat and Tears) that went into anything that I happen to be looking up in a library or on the internet. In this generation, the information is "Just There." You want to know something, just type it into your search engine and you have a list of 10,000 or more sites in which to turn to find the information you are looking for. It seems so easy and at times appears magical. Lest we not forget that many, many people and hundreds of years of research went into finding the information that now is available at the click of a mouse. These dedicated people, diliently searching for clues as to our cultural identities, or our historical metamorphoses, made it possible for me to type in a few words to find more than enough information on a subject to more than answer any questions I may have. Those geographers like Carl Ortwin Sauer and Thomas Carter along with many others did the foot work while others did the cataloging in Libraries, and still others, input information onto websites. All I have to do is look, and all the information is there for me to find. Lest we never forget that this was someone's passion, someone's life work, someone who was dedicated to gathering information for us to use and absorb and hopefully appreciate.

I received this in an e-mail several weeks ago and thought it tied in nicely with the article on Consumption. Americans and some Europeans seem to spend alot of money on food, mainly junk food. Mexicans eat healthy but look at all the Coke in the background. Look at the folks in Chad. Can't even imagine! Perhaps we need a lot more awareness of how we are spending our money (and what we are putting into our bodies)!
http://www.everybodygoto.com/2007/10/12/what-people-eat-around-the-world/

Webb's article hits close to my heart as I have always been interested in Geology, landscapes and the earth. As my interests grew to include the cultural aspects of the land and how people adapted to their environment: what they did to survive, how they survived and the big question, Why there?, thus peaked my interest in Geography. Webb states it best with, "To me land is the matrix out of which the culture grows." It is the framework, "firm under your feet." I studied history in high school and ashamed to say, barely passed with a"D." Yet once I began traveling, and actually saw the land on which the battles were fought, or saw the documents that changed the nation, then it became real for me and then did I begin my quest for more information and history. Webb points out that each man had to fend for themselves and experience what would work best for him, without knowing the outcome. The land on which they decided to settle was some of the most difficult as far as weather, terrain and aridity, yet they perservered and their determination changed the way we look at the whole frontier. No longer is it a desolate place of little or no population, a territory crossed only in passing by the early trappers, hunters and pioneers attempting to work their way west or to someplace else, but man's resourcefulness led him to settle in this area and learn to work the land and its surroundings into a place of permanance, a home.

Popper, Lang and Popper's (P,L and P)article on the census was interesting, although I am not too fond of the way Geographers have a tendency to criticize other's works, in how the census was taken during the 19th century. Recently I have been interviewed by the census takers in my area and when I read that they originally asked as many as 13,000 questions, was a bit relieved. If you have ever been one of the questionees of a census, they come over to your home 4 times, once a month for 4 months. Then, they interview you by phone once a month for the remaining year. At times it seems a bit offensive and the questions somewhat inappropriate, but according to P, L and P's article, they even asked questions "ranging from garbage disposal to polygamy." (I hope to find some of this information useful in my research on Colorado City, AZ).
As much as I was annoyed , the job of a census taker in those days had to be somewhat boring, tedious and at times dangerous. They had to traverse an immense portion of land, most likely on horseback or wagon, and had to endure who knows what kind of weather or hardships along the way, all in the government's quest for information regarding density of places and regions.

Of all the geographers' works we have read, I tend to favor these of Pierce Lewis. His concept of going out there and "looking" at what is around you and the article "Learning from Looking..." really captured my interest. Geography can be taught from books and articles but in order to really appreciate the total landscape and people/places, one must venture out of his comfort zone and experience the entire area. It is clear why he has been rated as one of the top geographers in Jeffrey Smith's writing.

In his article, "Learning from Looking," Lewis mentions that what we do to a certain place has a lot to do with what we think of that particular place. Many people think of Nevada as a pit; in fact, much of our nuclear waste has been deposited in Nevada through the years. I used to think the same way; it was boring and nothing but sand and desolation in every direction. However, once I began studying geology, I began seeing Nevada through different eyes. It has its own beauty and the deeper I dug, the more beauty I found.

Lewis' review on Bellefonte, PA was a carefully written history of a small town that had its birth in better, more promising times and is now faced with a slow and painful illness. He states that, "Small towns may be sick, but they ar far from dead." I tend to agree with Lewis in that I have always preferred to live in a small town. Growing up in the suburbs of St. Louis, MO, I rarely ventured into the city, yet preferred to head to the river and the woods on horseback to enjoy nature. Since my graduation from High School, I have never lived in a town with more than 30,000 population. In the article, a poll was conducted which showed that most people preferred to live in small towns over big cities; the community relations in a small town were more favorable in contrast to the cost of living in a big city being the incidence of high crime. Yet, in his article Lewis tends to see that the overall mood or common feeling among those inhabitants of Bellefonte as one of "lost hope" in their community. This is the part that is sad to me; the hopelessnes and despair that these people feel towards their home, the place where they live. This place that once offered so much promise and hope, has turned into somewhat of a dying ghost town on the verge of extinction.

Which brings up another point for me. I am almost finished reading Route 66: Iconography...
I can't help but feel a great sense of loss due to the fact that Route 66 was right outside my door while I was growing up. Many weekends were spent on the road with my dad, traveling to various places along the original highway that I have been reading about. I have fond memories of stopping at "mom and pop" cafes along the road, putting quarters into the private jukebox on our table and singing along to tunes which included, you guessed it, "Get your kicks on Route 66." These quaint one of a kind restaurants have sadly been replaced by the "clone" restaurants like Cracker Barrel, Chiles, Applebys, and McDonalds. It's a rare occasion to find the traditional roadside cafes that used to dominate the Route 66 landscape. This past summer my daughter and I took a road trip to the Grand Canyon and decided to venture out of the way a bit and traverse the last remnant of Rte. 66 east of Flagstaff. I don't know what I expected, but the first place at which we stopped was a store which carried all kinds of memorabilia from Rte. 66. Not antiques, but reproductions of things one might have seen along the way (such as those which were a comfort for me as a child). It definitely wasn't the same for me and left me with a bit of anxiety and depression and the feeling that I couldn't get off that stretch of highway fast enough; perhaps like the remaining inhabitants of Bellefonte, PA.

Although one can't change the inevitable; change itself is inevitable. We can only appreciate all that is around us right now, treasure it and learn that it is not going to be forever. But it holds forever a place in our hearts and memories, that is something we can never lose nor can anyone take from us.

Check out this site for a video on bio-fuel
http://www.ge.com/company/advertising/index.html?media_id=austria_400x300_10bit&c_id=aolaustria1a

It was interesting to read Wallach's articles, although a bit outdated. I did some further research and found that sheep ranching isn't even mentioned as a industry anymore. I wonder if emminent domain took over and it went back to the "highest and best use of the land." According to Wallach, "recreation and wildlife production" that would generate more income. The writing on Taft and its boming oil industry along with the Green River are both nicely written, short yet concise, articles on regions. In accordance with Hart's article on the Art of Geography, I feel that these were presented as an overview of the areas including a bit of History, Economy, Geology and in an art form. Geography seems to tie all these elements together. I especially liked this sentence, poetically structured, which paints a picture for me of what the town in Green River, Wyoming looks like as of this writing: "Many old square-logged cabins of that day still stand, weathered handsomely, misleadingly peaceful." (Wallach) If you have ever travelled through that area, the high plains, you will totally understand the region. It is nothing like peaceful in the dead of winter. My car broke down in Fort Bridger one year in November when the wind was howling at 95 mph and the wind chill was -20F. Had to hitchhike with my then 2 year old child to a gas station (fortunately there was one close). Yet to study and understand these regions, one must fully appreciate all that is involved with them from the moment of their discoveries, and that is where Geographers step in and use their art.