THE BEST OF OLIVE
THE SEVENTY SIXTH POST
Mike
Dear Friends of Olive, Things are a still in a state of flux with us.
I think about our old dear friend quite a lot, especially when we are near Woy Woy where she used to live. There is such a big hole in our lives.
So, it’s been hard to work up the energy to do what I really should do, which is to go through all the video tapes of her which I’ve never shown you.
I do have many, many hours but the sorting the editing and posting have been unface-able .
So, in the meantime, I’m going to comb through the video collection already posted and draw your attention to my favorites.
The first of Olive dancing is a clip from her movie, All about Olive.
She was about 104 at this time. We’d made it back to Broken Hill where she was born in 1899.
I had in hand a list of her great stories which I was somehow going to bring to life in their original locations.
Now, Olive loved going dancing, foxtrot, waltzes, it was all food for her dancing feet .
Now, here was the challenge, how to evoke that era in Broken hill?
We had the very hall where the Saturday dances were held. But then, what?
I felt she was too wobbly on her old ‘pins’ to get up, and so I had a special rolling chair made by a local handyman.
The chair was high enough for Ollie to lock arms with the handsome young man we found for her partner.
But while the idea was good, it was not a huge success, too easy, and Ollie sensed that.
Trooper that she was, she decided to do what had to be done. Here’s the result
………………..
………………
Now Ollie claimed that she couldn’t sing anymore. And yet when Christine Sainsbury wandered into her room on Thursdays with a guitar, the result was often magical
………………
…………….
For some reason, if I count the viewers, I see that you’ve especially loved the clip when Ollie talks about using an old iron.
This clip too was shot in Broken Hill when we did All About Olive, but it never made it into the film.
The clip ends with Ollie doing a bit of play acting.
She’s greeting the local kid we’d chosen to play Barnie, her son, who would have been about 8 at the time.
The real Barnie was still alive, then 86 years old
Olive falls right into the play acting with the shy boy who doesn’t quite understand what’s going on.
………………….
…………………
When I first proposed the film to the ABC, our national broadcaster, I made a radical suggestion, I’d get Olive to improvise, creating revealing moments through play acting that would illuminate her character and life.
For some reason the TV people were horrified and said, “Unless you drop that crazy idea, we won’t fund the film.”
“It’s only an experiment,” I protested, “and if it doesn’t work, it’ll end up on the cutting room floor.”
But there was no overcoming their anxiety. I had to swear I’d do no improvisations.
I broke that silly promise in the course of the shoot. I don’t like being bossed around like that.
After all, it did not mean I was going over budget and it was no skin of anyone’s nose except mine.
As it happened, few improvs ended up in the film. But later, we did quite a few. Ollie loved play acting.
The one I like best happened at Cissie Godfrey’s place.
Cissie had just turned 101, and in the scene we played, she was resolved to run off to London with Francis Sutton.
Both she and Francis had been there independently in the thirties and, reminiscing about wonderful Hampstead Heath where they’d so enjoyed walking, had decided to go back
Cissie really did want to run away with Francis, I’m convinced of that even if it was impossible, and so was hot for the improv.
As for Francis, he was wary of the game. At 95, liasons can be dangerous
…………………………
……………………
Olive, was I think, a bit jealous of this love affair and fell right into the part of Cissie’s bossy older sister.
There was no script. Improvs work when they cut close to the bone
…………….
…………………
Olive liked rude stories though I was never allowed to put them in the blog. A certain amount of toilet humor was just fine, though.
Our genteel Mrs Riley had no qualms about telling of the girl friend who peed on some fish.
This was after the girls had rented a rowing boat on the Hawkesbury river, put a hole in it, fled the scene, and hitched a lift in a horse and card.
………………………….
………………………
Apropos of crudity, Katya and I set out to walk to Francis Sutton’s place two weekends ago, going along our lovely coast.
That’s the same Francis who was to off to London with Cissie.
On the way, we stopped to talk to a fellow fixing up a shack by the sea.
He was renovating alone, he said, because he couldn’t find any tradesmen to help. I sympathized .
Then, this bloke came out with an expression that Ollie would’ve loved, and in fact I’m sure she knew it.
The fella said, “Yeah, you just try and get a carpenter around ‘ere. mate, they’re as rare as rocking horse poo.”
Rare as rocking horse poo! What a beauty, Ollie!
Playfulness was very much part of our blog life together, Ollie and I.
For instance, I thought she should sing in a nice hat and, with her half hearted permission, I went looking for one. Something suitable for a lady of refinement.
I found this rather nice green felt hat in St Vinnie’s, an op-shop sort of place, and only $5.
“Oh, la de Da!” said olive
Ollie insisted on paying for it as usual. (It was very hard to give her presents)
Later, when the hat got global recognition, I went back to the op-shop to see if they knew who ‘d owned it before. You can find out almost anything if you try hard enough, you know.
I thought the previous owner might like to know what’d happened to her green hat and perhaps she could come and visit Ollie.
Sadly, I couldn’t find out. Anyway, here’s Ollie in the green hat.
Didn’t they write great songs in those days?
…………….
……………….
By her 108th birthday, Ollie was becoming world famous. Here’s a clip from ABC news about her party.
I wish more Australians had found out about her blog while she was alive.
……………….
………………….
It will be for her story telling that we’ll best remember Ollie, I suspect.
How did she do it? Well, her great memory which allowed her to bring in long past dialog, was a big help.
Also, she wove herself in and out of the stories in funny ways, often bringing out her own naughtiness.
Lastly, the stories often told you a lot about the times, the long ago times, when she was a girl
Here, Olive starts talking about a young man who got her sister pregnant and who, facing a father’s wrath, had to do ‘the right thing.’
This story moves onto how she hid an illegitimate child, Billy, from the adoption agency.
Her audience here is some Broken Hill teenagers who’d been recruited to play Ollie’s brothers and sisters in recreations for the movie.
This is another clip which never made it into the final film.
…………….
……………
Ollie’s message to us all is simple. Stay interested, stay engaged.
I just loved the fact that she took an interest in the huge wind farm supposed to be built near her beloved Broken Hill by the German Australian company, Epuron
Imagine that! You’re 108, you can hardly see, even getting to the toilet is a battle.
On many days you eat nothing and yet, despite all that, you care about renewable energy.
Tell me that’s not a lesson for us all!
………………
……………….
So, pack up your troubles folks. They don’t amount to a bag of beans!
……………….
……………………..
More of Ollie’s best moments to come, I promise, and new stuff too when I get around to it.
By the way, for her fans in the US, could you perhaps give your local PBS station and suggest they run Ollie’s film, All About Olive.
It lasts just under an hour and was a hit on Aussie TV.
If they want to know why, tell them to google her name and note the 2 million plus citations which come up.
Get them reading her posts and falling for her charm. A drop of Riley proves strangely addictive many say.
Or they can drop me a note . rubbo@aapt.net.au
With her millions of US fans, it could be a good move for PBS
Did I mention that I gave her a co direction credit since she more or less took over at various points?
Olive Riley, world’s movie oldest director. In the clip below there’s some scenes from the movie..
…………..
…………………
Dear Friends of Olive, Things are a still in a state of flux with us.
I think about our old dear friend quite a lot, especially when we are near Woy Woy where she used to live. There is such a big hole in our lives.
So, it’s been hard to work up the energy to do what I really should do, which is to go through all the video tapes of her which I’ve never shown you.
I do have many, many hours but the sorting the editing and posting have been unface-able .
So, in the meantime, I’m going to comb through the video collection already posted and draw your attention to my favorites.
The first of Olive dancing is a clip from her movie, All about Olive.
She was about 104 at this time. We’d made it back to Broken Hill where she was born in 1899.
I had in hand a list of her great stories which I was somehow going to bring to life in their original locations.
Now, Olive loved going dancing, foxtrot, waltzes, it was all food for her dancing feet .
Now, here was the challenge, how to evoke that era in Broken hill?
We had the very hall where the Saturday dances were held. But then, what?
I felt she was too wobbly on her old ‘pins’ to get up, and so I had a special rolling chair made by a local handyman.
The chair was high enough for Ollie to lock arms with the handsome young man we found for her partner.
But while the idea was good, it was not a huge success, too easy, and Ollie sensed that.
Trooper that she was, she decided to do what had to be done. Here’s the result
………………..
………………
Now Ollie claimed that she couldn’t sing anymore. And yet when Christine Sainsbury wandered into her room on Thursdays with a guitar, the result was often magical
………………
…………….
For some reason, if I count the viewers, I see that you’ve especially loved the clip when Ollie talks about using an old iron.
This clip too was shot in Broken Hill when we did All About Olive, but it never made it into the film.
The clip ends with Ollie doing a bit of play acting.
She’s greeting the local kid we’d chosen to play Barnie, her son, who would have been about 8 at the time.
The real Barnie was still alive, then 86 years old
Olive falls right into the play acting with the shy boy who doesn’t quite understand what’s going on.
………………….
…………………
When I first proposed the film to the ABC, our national broadcaster, I made a radical suggestion, I’d get Olive to improvise, creating revealing moments through play acting that would illuminate her character and life.
For some reason the TV people were horrified and said, “Unless you drop that crazy idea, we won’t fund the film.”
“It’s only an experiment,” I protested, “and if it doesn’t work, it’ll end up on the cutting room floor.”
But there was no overcoming their anxiety. I had to swear I’d do no improvisations.
I broke that silly promise in the course of the shoot. I don’t like being bossed around like that.
After all, it did not mean I was going over budget and it was no skin of anyone’s nose except mine.
As it happened, few improvs ended up in the film. But later, we did quite a few. Ollie loved play acting.
The one I like best happened at Cissie Godfrey’s place.
Cissie had just turned 101, and in the scene we played, she was resolved to run off to London with Francis Sutton.
Both she and Francis had been there independently in the thirties and, reminiscing about wonderful Hampstead Heath where they’d so enjoyed walking, had decided to go back
Cissie really did want to run away with Francis, I’m convinced of that even if it was impossible, and so was hot for the improv.
As for Francis, he was wary of the game. At 95, liasons can be dangerous
…………………………
……………………
Olive, was I think, a bit jealous of this love affair and fell right into the part of Cissie’s bossy older sister.
There was no script. Improvs work when they cut close to the bone
…………….
…………………
Olive liked rude stories though I was never allowed to put them in the blog. A certain amount of toilet humor was just fine, though.
Our genteel Mrs Riley had no qualms about telling of the girl friend who peed on some fish.
This was after the girls had rented a rowing boat on the Hawkesbury river, put a hole in it, fled the scene, and hitched a lift in a horse and card.
………………………….
………………………
Apropos of crudity, Katya and I set out to walk to Francis Sutton’s place two weekends ago, going along our lovely coast.
That’s the same Francis who was to off to London with Cissie.
On the way, we stopped to talk to a fellow fixing up a shack by the sea.
He was renovating alone, he said, because he couldn’t find any tradesmen to help. I sympathized .
Then, this bloke came out with an expression that Ollie would’ve loved, and in fact I’m sure she knew it.
The fella said, “Yeah, you just try and get a carpenter around ‘ere. mate, they’re as rare as rocking horse poo.”
Rare as rocking horse poo! What a beauty, Ollie!
Playfulness was very much part of our blog life together, Ollie and I.
For instance, I thought she should sing in a nice hat and, with her half hearted permission, I went looking for one. Something suitable for a lady of refinement.
I found this rather nice green felt hat in St Vinnie’s, an op-shop sort of place, and only $5.
“Oh, la de Da!” said olive
Ollie insisted on paying for it as usual. (It was very hard to give her presents)
Later, when the hat got global recognition, I went back to the op-shop to see if they knew who ‘d owned it before. You can find out almost anything if you try hard enough, you know.
I thought the previous owner might like to know what’d happened to her green hat and perhaps she could come and visit Ollie.
Sadly, I couldn’t find out. Anyway, here’s Ollie in the green hat.
Didn’t they write great songs in those days?
…………….
……………….
By her 108th birthday, Ollie was becoming world famous. Here’s a clip from ABC news about her party.
I wish more Australians had found out about her blog while she was alive.
……………….
………………….
It will be for her story telling that we’ll best remember Ollie, I suspect.
How did she do it? Well, her great memory which allowed her to bring in long past dialog, was a big help.
Also, she wove herself in and out of the stories in funny ways, often bringing out her own naughtiness.
Lastly, the stories often told you a lot about the times, the long ago times, when she was a girl
Here, Olive starts talking about a young man who got her sister pregnant and who, facing a father’s wrath, had to do ‘the right thing.’
This story moves onto how she hid an illegitimate child, Billy, from the adoption agency.
Her audience here is some Broken Hill teenagers who’d been recruited to play Ollie’s brothers and sisters in recreations for the movie.
This is another clip which never made it into the final film.
…………….
……………
Ollie’s message to us all is simple. Stay interested, stay engaged.
I just loved the fact that she took an interest in the huge wind farm supposed to be built near her beloved Broken Hill by the German Australian company, Epuron
Imagine that! You’re 108, you can hardly see, even getting to the toilet is a battle.
On many days you eat nothing and yet, despite all that, you care about renewable energy.
Tell me that’s not a lesson for us all!
………………
……………….
So, pack up your troubles folks. They don’t amount to a bag of beans!
……………….
……………………..
More of Ollie’s best moments to come, I promise, and new stuff too when I get around to it.
By the way, for her fans in the US, could you perhaps give your local PBS station and suggest they run Ollie’s film, All About Olive.
It lasts just under an hour and was a hit on Aussie TV.
If they want to know why, tell them to google her name and note the 2 million plus citations which come up.
Get them reading her posts and falling for her charm. A drop of Riley proves strangely addictive many say.
Or they can drop me a note . rubbo@aapt.net.au
With her millions of US fans, it could be a good move for PBS
Did I mention that I gave her a co direction credit since she more or less took over at various points?
Olive Riley, world’s movie oldest director. In the clip below there’s some scenes from the movie..
…………..
…………………
…………………..
……………….
…………………
……………….
SHE SHARED THE CROWN
THE SEVENTY FIFTH POST
Mike
Dear Friends of Olive, I have to tell that we’ve discovered that there was another very old woman who deserves to share the crown of oldest blogger with Olive.
Here she is, an American who passed away at the age of 109 in January, 2008.
She’s further proof that the very old amongst us can do amazing things.
…………………….
……………..
She was once the first woman in America to have her own radio show
…………………..
……………….
Before I tell who she is, let me say how I found her.
I’d gone to Google to see how many citations came up when I typed in Olive Riley.
9 months ago there were about a million references to Olive Riley . Now, it’s up to 2 million 600 thousand Riley citations.
I was stunned. I think we can say that never before has a very old person had such attention.
Of course the citations may not all be about our Ollie, but I plunged 50 pages deep in google, and it was still ‘all about Olive.’ many about her death.
What about photos?
I went to Google images. There they were, the many photos taken of Ollie over the life of her blog, page after page.
………………..
……………….
…………..
……………………
…………………….
…………………..
On page 10, I came across a picture, not of 0live, but of a smiling man captioned, ‘On the passing of Olive Riley’
. The gist of the story was that, according to the smiling man, Olive was “A great lady, Yes, but not the oldest blogger.”
Here’s the naysayer, Marc Middleton, by name, CEO of a site called Growing Bolder and friend of a certain Ruth Hamilton
…………………
. ……………………
Yes, Ruth Hamilton was the person Marc claimed had been, at 109, the oldest blogger.
It seems that Ruth blogged mostly with the help of Journalist, Bill Shafer of WESH Tv. who covered her 108th. birthday and became her helper.
Here’s Bill the foreground, Marc behind in some Florida studio by the looks of it.
…………………..
……………………
It sounds a bit like the story of myself and olive.
…………………
………………..
Ruth at her 109th birthday with the candles to prove it !
With Bill’s help, Ruth blogged exclusively on video according to Growing bolder No text just videos that she was so eager to post.
Like Olive, she was unable to type but thought it was nice to pretend.
Like Olive, her blogging was done with help.
In fact, Ruth did not have a separate blog of her own, but a page on Growing Bolder
……………….
…………………
…………………
……………..
Whatever way it worked till her death in January 2007, Ruth was amazing. Here’s a little of what I found out about her life.
Ruth was born in Alta, Iowa on April 12th. 1898, 18 months before Ollie.
She went to teacher’s college and her first job was in a country schoolhouse. While work might have been remote, her marriage really put her in the swim.
She hitched up with the pitcher (Was she an early cheerleader?) of the Cleveland Indians, World Series champions of 1920.
She married Carter Hamilton pride of the team.
Soon, Carter retired from baseball to become a country doctor. Maybe he was a pediatrician like my favorite American doctor of today, Ron Paul.
As the thirties and the depression hit, Ruth became the first woman to have her own radio show, broadcasting out of Albany, New York, and fiercely pro Roosevelt, I gather.
In the late thirties, she traveled to pre-war Europe, saw Adolf Hitler close up at a rally, and brought back to her radio show the news that he was very scary man who wore patent leather shoes.
On the same trip, in Copenhagen she met the son of Paul Gauguin the painter.
This thrilled her, and set all her reporter skills in motion. She had to get an interview and she did!
That the son, Jean Gauguin, hated his father and claimed to have never seen one of his paintings, added to the journalistic coup for Ruth.
Here’s the bad Paul Gauguin, once a successful stockbroker. He abandoned his Danish wife and kids and escaped to Tahiti.
Looks a bit guilty, doesn’t he? As well he might!
………………..
………………….
Ruth was also a painter as well as broadcaster and roaming journalist. Below, two works of hers.
It looks like she had a slightly primitive touch with the brush, somewhat reminiscent of Gauguin himself.
…………………
………………..
………………….
Ruth next moved to Hollywood where she taught diction to aspiring actors, starlets, preparing them for screen tests.
Her hubby, Carter Hamilton, died in 1949. Ruth then traveled extensively till she aimed for politics back home in the sixties.
In 1964, she was the first woman to be elected to the New Hampshire legislature.,
Once in office, she put an end to orphanages, and cleaned up New Hampshire, the litter, that is, not the politics.
Anyway, that’s enough for you to go on with about Ruth. Look at her clips and see what a wonderful find is this very old Ruth Hamilton.
We’re happy that we can use Olive’s great outreach to celebrate yet another amazing very very old person, another oldie who shows again that…………
you should live to the hilt till the very end!!!
Listen to Ruth’s passion about the world, about hating war, for instance.
She has a powerful thought in one of her tapes; ‘If it was not for senseless wars, men and women who could have changed the world for the better, might have lived.’
Listen to to her tolerance.
On another tape she clearly is angry with Dr. Spock who she felt went to far in permissiveness, but there is no hate for the man.
There’s none of the fury which seems so prevalent today in America, aimed at people you disagree with, hate stirred by Rush Limbaugh and his ilk.
Ruth was of course at a different level to Ollie, and yet they would’ve loved each other, I’m sure,
.
Ruth was feisty like Ollie. Ruth had a wicked sense of humor like Ollie, and Ruth hated pretense and snobbishness as did Olive.
By the way, as Eric points out, even if we do find out that Ruth and Olive were blogging at the same time, Olive was still the oldest blogger from Jan. 2008, when Ruth died, till July 2008.
So, we didn’t mislead you after all!
At such great ages as these, titles are often held for a very short time, even days sometimes.
Now, before you look at Ruth’s clips which I’ve lifted from the Growing Bolder site …. (thanks)
growingbolder.com/media/media-view.php?objId=959
You must know that below you’ll meet yet another interesting lady.
Her name is Morgan… She lives in upstate New York and she’s ….. well, she’s 96 years younger than Olive.
Why Morgan has been invited to the blog, I hope will become clear.
Here’s a Ruth story first. Now, you tell me why has this clip had only 24 visits?
……………….
………………
More marvelous videos from Ruth are to be found at .
………………..
growingbolder.com/media/media-view.php?objId=959
…………………………………
Now, let me tell you Morgan’s story. She’s 14, she tells me.
Last week, some short punchy comments began to appear on Ollie’s blog . They were full of “wow’s” and “amazing. ”
Some young person could not believe, for example, that Ollie had had all her teeth out in one go (Neither could I, for that matter)
This same young person, this Morgan, got stuck on Ollie’s pie passion, having no idea what an Aussie meat pie was
When I replied that our unique junk food, the sacred Aussie pie, was made with mince, that just added to the confusion.
For, whereas mince for us means chopped meat, for her it meant diced fruit filling.
…………….
…………….
Anyway, I was intrigued that this young person, this Morgan, had decided to read every one of Ollie’s posts, from the very beginning.
I wrote back and said; “Hey, Morgan , it’s great you’re reading it all
Now, If you send me your comments and if I like them, I’ll make a post out of what you say, perhaps more than one.
Check with your parents, though,” I said, not wanting to arouse suspicions. Her parents were cool, I mean, keen.
As I await Morgan’s jottings, I’ve a theory as to why she got hooked.
It was her Mum who found the blog, she says, mentioned in the NY Times, apparently and passed it on to her daughter.
But why did Morgan read it from the beginning?
Well, it turns out they live in Amish country.
The farm next to their place is Amish and has no electricity going to the house, for instance.
The Amish people use nothing modern. They live like Olive did as a girl.
……………….
………………
Morgan’s folks have to drive very carefully at night, she says, because the Amish buggies have no lights, and it’s easy to run into them.
Ah ha!, I thought, Moran has neighbors who actually live in Olive’s past! No wonder she’s so curious.
I’ve yet to have this theory confirmed . But I can’t wait to find out more from the girl from Amish country.
Her dog, by the way is an Amish beagle. Here’s Morgan and dog,
………………..
…………………
Over to you, Morgan!
Dear Friends of Olive, I have to tell that we’ve discovered that there was another very old woman who deserves to share the crown of oldest blogger with Olive.
Here she is, an American who passed away at the age of 109 in January, 2008.
She’s further proof that the very old amongst us can do amazing things.
…………………….
……………..
She was once the first woman in America to have her own radio show
…………………..
……………….
Before I tell who she is, let me say how I found her.
I’d gone to Google to see how many citations came up when I typed in Olive Riley.
9 months ago there were about a million references to Olive Riley . Now, it’s up to 2 million 600 thousand Riley citations.
I was stunned. I think we can say that never before has a very old person had such attention.
Of course the citations may not all be about our Ollie, but I plunged 50 pages deep in google, and it was still ‘all about Olive.’ many about her death.
What about photos?
I went to Google images. There they were, the many photos taken of Ollie over the life of her blog, page after page.
………………..
……………….
…………..
……………………
…………………….
…………………..
On page 10, I came across a picture, not of 0live, but of a smiling man captioned, ‘On the passing of Olive Riley’
. The gist of the story was that, according to the smiling man, Olive was “A great lady, Yes, but not the oldest blogger.”
Here’s the naysayer, Marc Middleton, by name, CEO of a site called Growing Bolder and friend of a certain Ruth Hamilton
…………………
. ……………………
Yes, Ruth Hamilton was the person Marc claimed had been, at 109, the oldest blogger.
It seems that Ruth blogged mostly with the help of Journalist, Bill Shafer of WESH Tv. who covered her 108th. birthday and became her helper.
Here’s Bill the foreground, Marc behind in some Florida studio by the looks of it.
…………………..
……………………
It sounds a bit like the story of myself and olive.
…………………
………………..
Ruth at her 109th birthday with the candles to prove it !
With Bill’s help, Ruth blogged exclusively on video according to Growing bolder No text just videos that she was so eager to post.
Like Olive, she was unable to type but thought it was nice to pretend.
Like Olive, her blogging was done with help.
In fact, Ruth did not have a separate blog of her own, but a page on Growing Bolder
……………….
…………………
…………………
……………..
Whatever way it worked till her death in January 2007, Ruth was amazing. Here’s a little of what I found out about her life.
Ruth was born in Alta, Iowa on April 12th. 1898, 18 months before Ollie.
She went to teacher’s college and her first job was in a country schoolhouse. While work might have been remote, her marriage really put her in the swim.
She hitched up with the pitcher (Was she an early cheerleader?) of the Cleveland Indians, World Series champions of 1920.
She married Carter Hamilton pride of the team.
Soon, Carter retired from baseball to become a country doctor. Maybe he was a pediatrician like my favorite American doctor of today, Ron Paul.
As the thirties and the depression hit, Ruth became the first woman to have her own radio show, broadcasting out of Albany, New York, and fiercely pro Roosevelt, I gather.
In the late thirties, she traveled to pre-war Europe, saw Adolf Hitler close up at a rally, and brought back to her radio show the news that he was very scary man who wore patent leather shoes.
On the same trip, in Copenhagen she met the son of Paul Gauguin the painter.
This thrilled her, and set all her reporter skills in motion. She had to get an interview and she did!
That the son, Jean Gauguin, hated his father and claimed to have never seen one of his paintings, added to the journalistic coup for Ruth.
Here’s the bad Paul Gauguin, once a successful stockbroker. He abandoned his Danish wife and kids and escaped to Tahiti.
Looks a bit guilty, doesn’t he? As well he might!
………………..
………………….
Ruth was also a painter as well as broadcaster and roaming journalist. Below, two works of hers.
It looks like she had a slightly primitive touch with the brush, somewhat reminiscent of Gauguin himself.
…………………
………………..
………………….
Ruth next moved to Hollywood where she taught diction to aspiring actors, starlets, preparing them for screen tests.
Her hubby, Carter Hamilton, died in 1949. Ruth then traveled extensively till she aimed for politics back home in the sixties.
In 1964, she was the first woman to be elected to the New Hampshire legislature.,
Once in office, she put an end to orphanages, and cleaned up New Hampshire, the litter, that is, not the politics.
Anyway, that’s enough for you to go on with about Ruth. Look at her clips and see what a wonderful find is this very old Ruth Hamilton.
We’re happy that we can use Olive’s great outreach to celebrate yet another amazing very very old person, another oldie who shows again that…………
you should live to the hilt till the very end!!!
Listen to Ruth’s passion about the world, about hating war, for instance.
She has a powerful thought in one of her tapes; ‘If it was not for senseless wars, men and women who could have changed the world for the better, might have lived.’
Listen to to her tolerance.
On another tape she clearly is angry with Dr. Spock who she felt went to far in permissiveness, but there is no hate for the man.
There’s none of the fury which seems so prevalent today in America, aimed at people you disagree with, hate stirred by Rush Limbaugh and his ilk.
Ruth was of course at a different level to Ollie, and yet they would’ve loved each other, I’m sure,
.
Ruth was feisty like Ollie. Ruth had a wicked sense of humor like Ollie, and Ruth hated pretense and snobbishness as did Olive.
By the way, as Eric points out, even if we do find out that Ruth and Olive were blogging at the same time, Olive was still the oldest blogger from Jan. 2008, when Ruth died, till July 2008.
So, we didn’t mislead you after all!
At such great ages as these, titles are often held for a very short time, even days sometimes.
Now, before you look at Ruth’s clips which I’ve lifted from the Growing Bolder site …. (thanks)
growingbolder.com/media/media-view.php?objId=959
You must know that below you’ll meet yet another interesting lady.
Her name is Morgan… She lives in upstate New York and she’s ….. well, she’s 96 years younger than Olive.
Why Morgan has been invited to the blog, I hope will become clear.
Here’s a Ruth story first. Now, you tell me why has this clip had only 24 visits?
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More marvelous videos from Ruth are to be found at .
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growingbolder.com/media/media-view.php?objId=959
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Now, let me tell you Morgan’s story. She’s 14, she tells me.
Last week, some short punchy comments began to appear on Ollie’s blog . They were full of “wow’s” and “amazing. ”
Some young person could not believe, for example, that Ollie had had all her teeth out in one go (Neither could I, for that matter)
This same young person, this Morgan, got stuck on Ollie’s pie passion, having no idea what an Aussie meat pie was
When I replied that our unique junk food, the sacred Aussie pie, was made with mince, that just added to the confusion.
For, whereas mince for us means chopped meat, for her it meant diced fruit filling.
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Anyway, I was intrigued that this young person, this Morgan, had decided to read every one of Ollie’s posts, from the very beginning.
I wrote back and said; “Hey, Morgan , it’s great you’re reading it all
Now, If you send me your comments and if I like them, I’ll make a post out of what you say, perhaps more than one.
Check with your parents, though,” I said, not wanting to arouse suspicions. Her parents were cool, I mean, keen.
As I await Morgan’s jottings, I’ve a theory as to why she got hooked.
It was her Mum who found the blog, she says, mentioned in the NY Times, apparently and passed it on to her daughter.
But why did Morgan read it from the beginning?
Well, it turns out they live in Amish country.
The farm next to their place is Amish and has no electricity going to the house, for instance.
The Amish people use nothing modern. They live like Olive did as a girl.
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Morgan’s folks have to drive very carefully at night, she says, because the Amish buggies have no lights, and it’s easy to run into them.
Ah ha!, I thought, Moran has neighbors who actually live in Olive’s past! No wonder she’s so curious.
I’ve yet to have this theory confirmed . But I can’t wait to find out more from the girl from Amish country.
Her dog, by the way is an Amish beagle. Here’s Morgan and dog,
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Over to you, Morgan!
GOOD ON YOU, MARIA AMELIA
THE SEVENTY FOURTH POST
Mike
I am still trying to decide what to do with Ollie’s blog.
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The words, In memory of Olive, have crept into the picture area. (see above)
Those words might move down into a more prominent place.
If they did, the blog would be given over to the best of any interviews you might want to send to us.
Many of you have said you’ve been inspired to talk to your own old folks as a result of reading Olive.
Well, if we get interesting interviews, plus photos, I’ll try posting them. That could be a new direction for the memorial blog. Ollie’d like that, I know.
Here, for example, is par to fan email from M. in Serbia which got me thinking along these lines.
She writes..
“My friend’s grandmother is 94 years old, and I was listening to her
very carefully, since I read your posts.
She told me a few things about WWI and WWII. They were really bad times in this part of world.
Two of her older brothers, and her father were killed in WWI, and her oldest son in
WWII.
Her husband were captured by Germans, but he made it through.
She also was first woman in her family who went to school. Her older
sisters didn’t go to school but they learned reading.
My grandparents are not alive any more, and now I am sorry because I
didn’t asked them more about those times.”
Eric will have to be involved of course if we go that way since Olive having a blog, was his idea originally.
In the meantime, he’s just sent me a clip about Maria Amelia Lopez , the Spanish elder blogger.
Before Ollie began blogging with my help, Maria Amelia, helped by her grandson, Daniel,was the world’s oldest blogger.
Ollie took the title away from Maria Amelia for just over a year, from Feb . 2007 to early July 2008.
Now Maria has the crown again, and is revelling in it, as one can see from the clip below.
Maria’s more engaged in the concept and execution than was Olive, which is not surprising since Ollie was 12 years older, much less mobile, and unable to see much at all.
Ollie bought very special things to her blog, humor, often self deprecating, and access for readers to very touching moments in her life.
Everything about Olive was somehow uplifting and inspiring, and now Maria Amelia keeps the message going.
“Don’t be afraid, live life to the hilt and to the very end.” they are telling us.
“Live generously too, celebrating others’ achievements whenever you can.”
Most of the time, we all do our best.
Ollie did her best and Maria Amelia, with her keen interest in all who write to her, is doing the same. Wonderful women, both.
In a late post in this blog, you’ll find Ollie sending greetings to Maria Amelia, even attempting some Spanish.
Here’s Maria Amelia, thanks to Reuters.
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And here’s Ollie in one of her moments that I find the most touching.
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I am still trying to decide what to do with Ollie’s blog.
…………………..
…………………….
The words, In memory of Olive, have crept into the picture area. (see above)
Those words might move down into a more prominent place.
If they did, the blog would be given over to the best of any interviews you might want to send to us.
Many of you have said you’ve been inspired to talk to your own old folks as a result of reading Olive.
Well, if we get interesting interviews, plus photos, I’ll try posting them. That could be a new direction for the memorial blog. Ollie’d like that, I know.
Here, for example, is par to fan email from M. in Serbia which got me thinking along these lines.
She writes..
“My friend’s grandmother is 94 years old, and I was listening to her
very carefully, since I read your posts.
She told me a few things about WWI and WWII. They were really bad times in this part of world.
Two of her older brothers, and her father were killed in WWI, and her oldest son in
WWII.
Her husband were captured by Germans, but he made it through.
She also was first woman in her family who went to school. Her older
sisters didn’t go to school but they learned reading.
My grandparents are not alive any more, and now I am sorry because I
didn’t asked them more about those times.”
Eric will have to be involved of course if we go that way since Olive having a blog, was his idea originally.
In the meantime, he’s just sent me a clip about Maria Amelia Lopez , the Spanish elder blogger.
Before Ollie began blogging with my help, Maria Amelia, helped by her grandson, Daniel,was the world’s oldest blogger.
Ollie took the title away from Maria Amelia for just over a year, from Feb . 2007 to early July 2008.
Now Maria has the crown again, and is revelling in it, as one can see from the clip below.
Maria’s more engaged in the concept and execution than was Olive, which is not surprising since Ollie was 12 years older, much less mobile, and unable to see much at all.
Ollie bought very special things to her blog, humor, often self deprecating, and access for readers to very touching moments in her life.
Everything about Olive was somehow uplifting and inspiring, and now Maria Amelia keeps the message going.
“Don’t be afraid, live life to the hilt and to the very end.” they are telling us.
“Live generously too, celebrating others’ achievements whenever you can.”
Most of the time, we all do our best.
Ollie did her best and Maria Amelia, with her keen interest in all who write to her, is doing the same. Wonderful women, both.
In a late post in this blog, you’ll find Ollie sending greetings to Maria Amelia, even attempting some Spanish.
Here’s Maria Amelia, thanks to Reuters.
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And here’s Ollie in one of her moments that I find the most touching.
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