Days of Yore: Navigation

For millennia, humans have suffered from, or reveled in, wanderlust, that tantalizing pull from the cosmos to travel and see the world. Back in the day (long before my time), it was mainly on foot, sometimes riding horses, camels, chariots, boats and other animals and vehicles. Over the years, people have used a variety of ways to keep track of where they were and how they planned to get where they were going.

Image by Pavel Timofeev on Adobe Stock

The Bible tells of wise men who came from the east to visit the infant Jesus following a star. For centuries before that (and since), people studied the stars, and they used stars and constellations to keep track of where they were. The star the wise men followed led them to Bethlehem. I don't know how they found it with such precision based on the star, but they were the experts. I do know they studied prior to leaving, and asked around during the journey, as the experts on prophecies advised them on the general vicinity, and King Herod tried to get them to rat on Jesus.

As the years went on, explorers set out on ships, camels, horses, wagons and other means to learn more about the planet and find what was out there beyond the horizon. As they learned more, they made maps. Astronomers mapped out the stars as well. Leif Ericson and other Vikings landed in present-day Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. Columbus tried to find the Indies and landed in the Caribbean (and did some horrible things in the process). Magellan set out from Spain and made it to the what is now the Philippines, where he was killed. His crew was among the first to make it all the way around the globe. Cortez and Pizarro landed in the Americas and caused mayhem and destruction among some of the great peoples there, who themselves had made great strides in astronomy, timekeeping, and other fields. Lewis and Clark made it across the North American continent with the help of Sacajawea and others. Explorers drew up maps and kept journals, and even though those journals often reveal unspeakable things that they did to the people who already lived there, they also included observations on the landscape, the vegetation, the animals, and a lot more. They also often followed the stars. Eventually, the Wright Brothers would invent a plane, and later others got rockets into space, bringing a whole new view of the earth we live on, from above. Neil Armstrong and his crew would land on the moon. More recently, unmanned rovers have landed on Mars and shown us some of the sights there.

In their explorations and travels, people used a variety of kinds of equipment:

• Compass. This was generally based on the magnetic pull of the earth's poles, and the needle pointed toward the north. It helped people to keep track of which direction they were going, or needed to go. The down side was if there was a strong magnet nearby, it could throw the compass off.
• Sextant. This was a device that was used on ships to determine the angle between the earth and the stars or other celestial bodies, which helped to determine latitude and longitude. That's a sextant on the right side of the picture at the top of this post.
• Telescope. This was a long tube with a magnification lens that allowed people to see things at a distance. They were sometimes on stands, but could also be held in the hand (depending on the size...some of the more powerful ones were too massive to hold). They were used both to examine stars, planets and other things in the sky, and to see things that were more earthbound, such as a ship looking for land. Some modern telescopes also include cameras.
• Map. Over the years, these were on papyrus, parchment, stone, paper, and other materials, most recently electronically. They have been used for millennia in various ways.
• Globe. This is a spherical model of the earth, generally with countries, oceans, landmarks and other things marked, sometimes with mountains and such in relief. Though they vary in size, they are often around the size of a basketball. I have a smaller one.
• Atlas. This is a book full of maps. Our atlas when I was little was huge, and sometimes heavy. Named for the Greek titan doomed to hold up the sky and think about what he had done, atlases were a place we could look when researching a place, often arranged by country, state, or whatever the specific focus of that atlas was. [Side note: It seems the Greek gods were big on giving the epically torturous eternal time-outs...Prometheus very uncomfortably tied to a rock (understatement), Atlas with the world literally on his shoulders, Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill only to have it roll back down and have to push it back up, Tantalus being tantalized by the fruit in the tree that he could never quite reach...I mean, they often deserved their punishments, but still...]

Image by Freepik

Growing up, especially when we were in unfamiliar areas, we had to carry a map. They folded up, but once you opened them, they were much larger. Sometimes folding them back up was a challenge! A car trip sometimes looked like the above picture. Best to pull off the road if you needed to consult the map. Of course, the person in the passenger seat could look at the map (partially folded so as not to take up the whole cabin of the car) and tell the driver where to turn next. Sometimes it helped to draw the route in pencil. When asking for directions, people sometimes drew more crude maps on a piece of paper. Alternatively, some people just described how to get there, and hopefully you remember what they told you!

Eventually, GPS came along and (on the whole) simplified things, eliminating the need to pull out a massive map and then struggle to refold it. Of course, GPS (Global Positioning System) can be temperamental at times, and has been known to tell me to turn right onto a stairway (and then not be happy when I opted not to follow its advice that it thought was so sage). It has improved over the years, though. For a while we used GPS units, which were a bit larger than your average cell phone and were relatively expensive. Now I have apps on my phone, and I also have GPS in my car.

Many planes have maps either in their app or on any screens available in the seat backs or ceilings (which are becoming less common). That way you can tell where you are as you fly over. Of course, if it's on the app or website, that generally only works when you aren't ascending or descending and have to have your phone in airplane mode. Friends and family can also sometimes follow your progress on a map on the airline's website if they know the flight number and airline. Air traffic controllers help pilots take off and land safely, and pilots can communicate with each other.

Navigation has changed a lot over the years, and advances in modes of transportation have sped up the process considerably. A journey that once took months or years by boat now takes a few hours by plane. Shorter trips that took hours or days on foot or horseback can take minutes or hours by car. As with so much else, a lot of the navigation part of the journey can now be done on a phone or as an electronic feature in vehicles.

Sosa Trek

In 2013, I had the honor of being involved in Canvas Trek, a campaign to introduce Edmonds Community College to the new Learning Management System (LMS) called Canvas. They were phasing out Blackboard, the old LMS. We modeled our campaign after Star Trek. We fought and defeated the evil Blackborg to bring the new Canvas to save the day!

Following are designs I made of our intrepid leader Steve Sosa as various Star Trek folks. We ended up not using them in the campaign, though I was pretty proud of how they turned out. Had we used them, I would have made more. (For example, I would have been interested in seeing him as a Ferengi.) The top one is one I made at the end of my internship to thank Steve for his inspirational leadership.

Sosa Trek
Steven Sauke
Illustration and NASA art of the Carina Nebula

Klingon Steve
Qapla!

Steve was assimilated. Resistance was futile.

Capitán Kork
"I am the Captain of the Enterprise
And a right good Captain too!
You're exceedingly polite, and I think it only right
To return the compliment!
We're exceedingly polite, and he thinks it only right
To return the compliment!"

Vulcan Ambassador Steve
Live long and prosper!

Steve Sosa
in his office
This was the original illustration, which
I tweaked for all subsequent versions

How Have Things Changed on Broadway?

For today's installment in the "Days of Yore" series, I'm excited that my friend Michael Kape has graciously agreed to share from his extensive experience onstage, behind the scenes, and as a Broadway critic, to recall ways Broadway has changed over the years. He also founded an amazing group (I may be slightly biased) called Broadway Remembered that he has allowed me to join him in adminning, along with three other fantastic admins. 

So without further ado, here's Michael:

-----

How Have Things Changed on Broadway?

Nearly 70 Years of Watching

 

Michael Kape

It begins by settling into a cramped seat—taking your time or rushing because you showed up after the show started. And not much has changed—with the seats, that is—in over 100 years. But what about the shows we’re seeing on the stage? Ah, there, at least, we’ve made some progress.

It is nearly impossible to encapsulate everything we’ve seen change over the past several decades. My own time in the theatre extends back only 70 years or so. I can only offer my observations and opinions (and I definitely do have some opinions). So, let me begin by offering a bit of heresy. The 1950s and 1960s were NOT really the so-called Golden Age. Those were good years, of course. But things have changed and improved. It can even be argued shows are better now than they’ve ever been, and they continue to improve. Yes, this is coming from someone who is considered an old fuddy-duddy. We’ll come back to this.

Oddly enough, this all came into focus by viewing a 35-year-old musical recently, one I had always thought was a pinnacle of great direction and design (not great music and definitely not great lyrics). Yeah, we all know the show—Phantom of the Opera.

After 35 years, it’s become old. What was once innovative and thrilling now feels tired and stodgy. I’m not talking about the performers (all great); I’m talking about the staging, the design, the overall feel. What once was exciting seems old hat. Maybe if I hadn’t been exposed to it multiple times when it debuted, I might still be thrilled by a slowly falling chandelier (like really, that can’t be considered a crash, can it?). Oh. Look. That. Chandelier. Is. Creeping. Down. To. The. Stage. In. Slow. Motion. (Cue the quasi-rock music.)

Once upon a time, like 70 years ago, we had a Main Stem bustling with excitement. A constant barrage of new plays and musicals, many of which became classics. But let’s give this golden age some context. Amusement options were fewer. Most of the country derived its entertainment from movies or television—with theatre even then a distant third (though there were more tours treading the boards from Savannah to Seattle). For every My Fair Lady, Broadway offered up a panoply of overnight flops. On the other hand, any show running at least 500 performances was considered a hit; now it hasn’t even begun to repay its investors.

My first real exposure to Broadway happened when I was only three. My late mother, ever the Broadway Baby, bought me Rodgers and Hammerstein for Children, a boxed set of 45s with music from Oklahoma to Pipe Dream (Flower Drum Song and The Sound of Music were still to be written). It was an easy way to introduce musical theatre to budding audiences. We could sing along to Happy Talk or The Gentleman Is a Dope (such a naughty word for us tots!) under the complete cooperation of theatre nerd parents (even my father got into the act by giving me his copy of the printed version of Damon Runyon’s Guys and Dolls—not the musical but the book upon which it’s based). So, I come by my theatre fixation honestly; I was raised that way. My first time on stage (but definitely not my last) was in the title role of The Gingerbread Boy at age six. Every cast album played on the new stereo as soon as it was released. I had the truncated version of Most Happy Fella memorized by age seven. The collection in our home also included South Pacific, Kiss Me Kate (on 45s), West Side Story (I was already a Sondheim fan), The Music Man (which my late sister Anita and I did in 1965), and many more. Of course, I devoured the liner notes for each recording (does anyone else miss those brilliantly written liner notes?) And being a devilish developing theatre nerd, I somehow “appropriated” my mother’s copy of The Complete Words of Gilbert and Sullivan (and I still have it, too).

 

But I digress. (I’m often accused of talking in parentheses to which I plead guilty.)

How have things changed on Broadway over seven decades? Simple. There’s a lot less being done (with far fewer theatres) but what is done is much better. This isn’t to say we didn’t have some great works 70 years ago. We did. The Lerner and Loewe catalog. The Rodgers and Hammerstein library (except for maybe Pipe Dream and Me and Juliet—what were they thinking?). Candide (yes, I know it was a flop but has there ever been a finer overture?). 

Then the so-called Golden Age gave way to something better. Concept. Shows like Cabaret. The whole Sondheim collection. Lloyd-Webber and Rice (when they worked together; we won’t discuss Cats). The mega-musicals. Better librettos. Much better design (have you ever looked at how cheap those Golden Age musicals looked?) and lighting (the current Phantom lighting looks so cheap and meh compared to what’s available now).

We expect (and get) more from Broadway now. Yet as the saying goes, you can’t hum the scenery. Yes, the set, lighting, and sound have all taken giant leaps in the past 70 years or so, but are the stories being told any better? That all depends on how they’re being told. Case in point (for me) is Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. I know, I know, the great American tragedy. But it’s always felt like a product of its time. (Sorry, that’s just how I felt about it.) Could we really identify with Willy Loman 70 years later? I know I couldn’t—until I saw the new production on Broadway recently. The play had been reimagined, reconsidered, refocused. Now, at long last, it felt relevant again. And that’s what great theatre is supposed to do—challenge what we thought we knew and take us in an entirely different direction. On the other hand, I know many theatre companies across the country (and a few in New York City) work on slavishly recreating original productions. We can see The King and I still faithfully reproduced in any number of places (I’m not referring to the last production) as if it was a museum piece. No thought. No imagination. Even the sets are from 1951!

After all this, I’m sure some of you are wondering what could ever qualify me to write about nearly 70 years of going to Broadway? Not a helluva lot, actually (gotta be honest here). But having been given this platform to speak, I’m taking advantage of it. But in that time, I’ve been an actor, director, designer, producer, stagehand, playwright, and (much to my eternal shame) a critic (seven years on the Dark Side). And one other credit on that list—one of the brave souls administering Broadway Remembered, an aptly named group all things considered. We remember and we celebrate. And we educate because there’s still a lot of people to learn. Consider the following overheard very recently on 45^th Street and Shubert Alley: “The Booth Theatre—is that where Lincoln was shot?”

Yeah, we have a lot of educating left to do and plenty to remember.

Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! is the English spelling of the Hebrew for "Praise the Lord!" My grandpa liked to observe that there were two words that were the same in every language: Hallelujah and Coca-Cola.

Hallelujah!
Steven Sauke
Illustration

Christ's Resurrection is one of the greatest miracles in history. We commemorate it every year on Easter. I made this a few years ago. The black circle in the middle is the empty tomb, with the gray rock around it, and sunlight triumphantly shining out from it. That was a glorious day! 

Hallelujah! Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

He Has Risen!

Happy Easter!

I made this illustration a few years ago to celebrate Easter. It was a follow-up to my Good Friday illustration, making a few changes to the Friday piece.

He Has Risen
Steven Sauke
Illustration

I was particularly honoured in 2018 when this was displayed in a 14th Century church in England to commemorate Easter. That is perhaps the most impressive place my artwork has been on display.

Kyrie Eleison

Kyrie Eleison is Latin for "Lord, have mercy!" It is often used in church liturgy going back centuries, and as I see more and more horrifying events in the news, that's often my prayer for our nation and our world. I made this graphic a few years ago for Good Friday, which is one time it is commonly used.

Kyrie Eleison
Steven Sauke
Illustration

The black across the top represents the dark sky, as it got dark during the day when Christ was crucified. The brown stripe is for the cross. The red is for Christ's blood.

Today is Black Saturday, the day between Jesus' death and resurrection. Growing up in the Philippines, this was one of the saddest days of the year, when many believed Jesus was literally dead every Black Saturday, and many didn't dare do anything or take any risks, should anything happen and Jesus might not be there to help. 

Our church in the Philippines had a retreat one year during Holy Week, and they returned on Black Saturday. A group was traveling in the countryside in the church's Toyota Tamaraw when both tires on one side of the vehicle blew and it rolled. Tamaraws did not have seatbelts at the time (I assume they do now, but don't know that for sure), and it was a very frightening experience. Most people were only scraped and bruised, though there were some broken bones. But Cynthia Mollo (pronounced "mole-yo"), a wonderful woman in our church, who had a massive heart, was injured much more severely. She was pregnant at the time. Everyone was rushed to the hospital. We were not with them, but my parents rushed to that hospital to be with them, and I stayed with friends. (My brother Tim was out of town.) We got regular updates as Cynthia and her unborn baby fought for their lives. I will never forget our friend getting off the phone after one of those updates and saying, "Well, Cynthia is with the Lord." (I'm tearing up thinking about it over 30 years later.) I sobbed.

Cynthia's husband Dindo was in a different car returning from the retreat, and later recalled they were singing as they travelled in their car, not knowing what was happening in the other vehicle: 

"I've got a mansion just over the hilltop
In that bright land where we'll never grow old
And someday yonder we will never more wander
But walk on streets that are purest gold"

They sang that at her funeral as well. It was a major comfort for everyone, knowing where Cynthia and her baby were, completely free from pain. After the service, we attended the burial, and her tombstone said "SEE YOU IN HEAVEN."

Since the accident happened on Black Saturday, Cynthia's mother was upset that they had gone on a trip on that day of all days. How could they do it on the day when Jesus was dead? I'm not sure what caused her to realize Jesus was there and protecting everyone else, but she did eventually come to understand that. It was a miracle that nobody else was hurt worse than they were. But losing Cynthia and her unborn baby was a huge blow to all of us.

King of the Jews

The inscription on Jesus' cross read, "JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS" in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. It was one of the darkest days, both literally and figuratively, in history, as Christ gave His life to save us.

King of the Jews
Steven Sauke
Illustration

I made this a few years ago to commemorate Good Friday. I put the text of the inscription in Latin, Greek and English for the purposes of this graphic. Jesus was crucified between two thieves on Golgotha, the Place of the Skull. The sky turned dark in the afternoon.

When we lived in the Philippines, it was normal for people to be crucified on Good Friday every year, through a misunderstanding of the point of Christ's sacrifice. Most of the time, they nailed a sign to the cross that read "INRI" — an acronym for Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum, Latin for "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews."

Thankfully, His death was not the end of the story. I made some adjustments to this illustration for Easter. That version is coming soon!

Holy Week in the Philippines

 c. AD 30, Jerusalem

• On Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem triumphantly, sitting astride a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9: "Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." People laid down palm branches and coats in His path. The Pharisees tried to silence them, but failed, and Jesus defended them. He then wept over the sad state of affairs in Jerusalem.
• On Wednesday, Judas Iscariot made a deal with the chief priests to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
• On Thursday, Jesus and His disciples held their Passover feast in an upper room, which Christians still remember today when they take communion. Judas left the feast to betray Jesus. They then left and proceeded to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus went aside to pray. Judas arrived with a crowd, and Peter resorted to violence, which Jesus healed and told him to put his sword away. The disciples fled as Jesus was arrested and taken to trial. During the trial, Peter denied 3 times that he knew Jesus, and when the cock crowed, he realized what he had done and wept. Maundy Thursday was an eventful and very emotional day and night.
• On Friday, having been beaten horribly and made to wear a thorny crown, Jesus was forced to carry a cross down the Via Dolorosa (Way of Suffering) in Jerusalem. When it became too much, the Roman authorities made Simon, a man from Cyrene, Libya, carry it for Him. When they reached the top of Golgotha, or Skull Hill, they crucified Jesus with two thieves. The sky grew dark as many viewers mocked Jesus. One of the thieves joined in the mocking, but the other one got after him for it. Jesus told the latter thief that he would see him in paradise. Jesus entrusted His mother Mary to the care of His disciple John. He wondered aloud why God had abandoned Him. After being given a drink, He declared things finished, and entrusted His spirit to God. As the Sabbath was approaching, the Jews quickly brought His dead body down from the cross and buried it in a tomb that belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. Burial spices would have to wait until after the Sabbath.
• On Saturday, Jesus' devastated followers observed Shabbat and grieved the loss of the man who had changed their lives.
• Early Sunday morning, several women brought burial spices to the grave, and wondered who would move the heavy stone away. Imagine their surprise when they arrived to discover that the stone was already rolled away! The tomb was empty, except for grave wrappings! The women were afraid, bewildered and confused. They ran to get Peter and John, who returned to the tomb and found the empty tomb and grave clothes. Peter and John returned home, but Mary Magdalene hung around. She looked in the tomb again and was shocked to discover two angels sitting there! They wondered why she was crying, and she told them someone had taken Jesus' body away. She then turned around and saw someone else that she didn't recognize, who also asked why she was crying. She asked this person if he knew where the body was. When the stranger said, "Mary," she recognized Him as Jesus! He told her to go tell the disciples, which she did. That evening, the disciples (except for Thomas and the now-late Judas) were having dinner, and Jesus appeared to them. Thomas didn't believe them when they told him. Jesus appeared to Thomas a week later. (Note: Most of this is from John's account of the Resurrection in John 20. Other Gospel writers also mention that the angel(s) asked the women why they were looking for the living among the dead.)

Magellan's Cross in Cebu, Philippines
Photo by Allan Jay Quesada
CC BY-SA 4.0 license

AD 1521, Cebu and Mactan Islands, Philippines

• In his "ongoing mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before"* while circumnavigating the globe, Portuguese/Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan landed on an island in the middle of an archipelago in the Pacific. The island would eventually become known as Cebu. He brought the Roman Catholic faith to the islands, and spent some time there. He presented Santo Niño, the Holy Child, a statue of the child Jesus, to the local king Rajah Humabon and his wife Queen Humamay.
• In an attempt to help the people of Cebu, he travelled to the nearby island of Mactan, where he and his men were attacked by the tribe led by the local chieftain Lapu Lapu. In the ensuing Battle of Mactan, Magellan's journey ended at the end of a spear. His crew would return to Spain, among the first to circumnavigate the globe. Lapu Lapu is still regarded as a Philippine hero, for defeating foreign colonists.
• Though the people of Mactan did not convert, many in Cebu did. However, they did not entirely abandon their earlier animistic beliefs. Animists believe that everything, including inanimate objects, has a soul. There are good and evil spirits. Evil spirits must be scared away with talismans and by other means. Combine that with the Christian concepts of angels and demons, and you get some interesting, if unusual, customs.

Growing up in the Philippines in the 1980s, I saw what Philippine Catholics did and assumed that was typical of all Catholics. I would not learn until later that some of their customs are unique to the Philippines. While I don't think this is a comprehensive list of their customs, what follows is my recollections from childhood. Please note, by explaining this, I mean no disrespect to the Catholic Church or anyone else. While it saddens me that people feel the need to do all this, and it misses the point of Christ's sacrifice, it takes a lot of devotion.

Palm Sunday

Philippine Catholic devotees make a pilgrimage to the local church. Traffic is completely blocked by a sea of people all heading to get their palm branches blessed by the local priest. Some carry Catholic statues and other objects. Once their palm branches have been blessed, they return home and post them on their door. For a few days, there is a green branch on the door. As it dies, it turns brown, but remains on the door until next Palm Sunday. This is supposed to protect the house by warding off evil spirits throughout the year. It was common to see palm branches on people's doors.

Good Friday

This is a very disturbing day. In the hottest part of the year, just north of the equator, penitent flagellants beat themselves with whips, often laced with shards of glass or other sharp objects. They parade down the streets in a reenactment of Christ's walk down the Via Dolorosa. It is part theatre, but part real. The blood is real. The pain is real. The heatstroke is real. While we did not participate, I did nearly faint from the heat once, just watching. Many believe they must do this to be forgiven of their sins, and some do it for other reasons. People dressed as Roman soldiers are everywhere. A person dressed as Jesus (usually a man, but not always) carries a cross down the street, sometimes accompanied by people playing the thieves. When they get to the site of the crucifixion, the people carrying crosses are nailed to them (sometimes literally, sometimes in such a way that it just looks like it from a distance, sometimes just tied, sometimes both tied and nailed). They hang on the crosses just long enough to reenact the crucifixion, and then they are taken down and rushed to the hospital.

The Catholic Church officially frowns on this tradition, but has done little to stop it, as far as I am aware.

Crucifixion in San Fernando City,
Pampanga province, Philippines
April 19, 2019
Reuters/Eloisa Lopez

Black Saturday

Many people believe Jesus is literally dead every year on Black Saturday. They generally try not to take risks, as Jesus may not be available to help out. This coming Saturday, my post will go into more detail on a specific Black Saturday that I remember well, when something happened that caused a mother to be upset that her daughter chose to travel that day.

Easter

Everything is back to normal. Our Protestant church held sunrise services every Easter, where we would meet earlier than normal outside and worship as the sun came up. When I was young, I questioned whether Catholics believed in the Resurrection, as I did not see much out of the ordinary on that day. But on further reflection, if they are willing to do things, and trust that God is there to help them, they clearly do believe that Christ rose from the dead.

As I have grown older, I have learned that the Philippine brand of Roman Catholicism, some of which is even frowned on by the Philippine Catholic Church, is not typical. Some call it Folk Catholicism. I have come to respect many of my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ, and I have learned a lot about their faith. In this world that is so sharply divided, I think we need to come together and learn from each other. We need to hold fast to our beliefs, but we also need to listen to others, and we can agree to disagree on many of the details. So much pain and death could have been avoided in the Middle Ages if Catholics and Protestants (or Christians and Muslims) had just listened to each other! They might have realized they agreed on more than they knew.

* The quote referring to Magellan is from Star Trek, not anything to do with Magellan...but it seemed appropriate here.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Philippines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Ni%C3%B1o_de_Ceb%C3%BA

Days of Yore: It's About Time, Part 3: Time Travel!

"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important how we lived. After all, Number One, we're only mortal."
   - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

"Speak for yourself, sir. I plan to live forever."
   - Commander William T. Riker
Star Trek: Generations

Just when you think I'm done talking about time, the time comes to keep talking about it. Though the above quote is not technically from a doctor, it is from fictional time travelers who have deep thoughts, so it counts.

This entry will be a bit different from previous posts on time, as it is not about specific kinds of timekeeping devices, per se. It is about concepts related to time, way back in the days before time travel was invented (which includes today, since as far as I'm aware, time travel hasn't been invented yet, except in the sense that we're traveling through time at a normal pace, always forward).

Image by Freepik

Time Zones

As world travelers when I was young, we went back and forth over the ocean several times. US to Hong Kong. Hong Kong to Philippines. Philippines to the US and back and forth a couple times. Manila to Taipei to Seoul to Bangkok and back. Seattle to London (and train to Paris) and back. At that time, our clocks were not connected to the satellite, and we had to change the time on our watches manually when we got to our destination in a different time zone. If we brought other clocks, we had to change those manually as well. Computers were generally too large to bring on a plane, so we didn't have to change the time on those. While as yet, I've never been to places that are a half hour off from the next time zone over (such as Newfoundland and parts of Australia—though both are on my bucket list!), that could complicate things even more!

A few years ago, I had to turn off my cell phone once I got on a plane. These days, I can leave it on, but have to put it in airplane mode until the nice voice on the intercom says we can take it off airplane mode....and then put it back on airplane mode when we start descent. Once I get to my destination in another time zone, presto change-o, the time has magically updated without me having to do a thing! Satellites are pretty awesome. I'm still holding out for the invention of a teleporter, though! Think of all the money that could save in travel expenses!

Wait a minute...if crossing the International Date Line isn't time travel, I don't know what is! Sometimes when traveling from Manila to Seattle, we have arrived in Seattle before the Manila time that we left. Similarly, going the other way, we lose nearly a day. It makes for a very long day or a very short day.

Daylight Savings

"I've just sucked one year of your life away. I might one day go as high as five, but I really don't know what that would do to you, so let's just start with what we have. What did this do to you? Tell me. And remember, this is for posterity, so be honest. How do you feel?"

- Count Rugen, The Princess Bride

In 1936, President Manuel Quezon instituted a new concept in the Philippines called daylight savings. It only made it to 1937. President Ramon Magsaysay tried again in 1954. Those were, naturally, before I was born. After I was born, but before we lived there, President Ferdinand Marcos tried it in 1978 (source). I don't remember any of that, for obvious reasons. What I do remember is when President Corazon Aquino, the nation's first female president (the Philippines is way ahead of us on that!), observed it in the US and thought it would be a great idea to institute it in the Philippines in 1990. It did not go over at all, as most people didn't understand the concept. Schools moved their start times forward an hour because it was "too early for our children to get up." Whenever anyone wanted to schedule something, people had to know if it was DST (Daylight Savings Time) or RT (Real Time), not understanding that DST has nothing to do with make believe. After some time of national confusion, it was abolished. It has never been used since then, though I see on Wikipedia that it has been proposed a few times.

Here in the US, we have gotten used to setting our clocks forward in the spring and back in the fall ("spring forward" and "fall back"). Similarly to traveling between time zones, our cell phones and some clocks make the change automatically these days, but we still have to change some clocks, such as the stove and microwave clock, and any wall clocks that aren't connected to a satellite. Computer clocks change automatically, as does our atomic clock. As for the clock in my car, while it's possible to change it, I usually just mentally subtract an hour during Standard Time when I'm looking at it. Once we spring forward again, it is once again correct. I love that day, despite losing an hour of sleep!

A few years ago, Washington State, along with a few other states, decided to get rid of Daylight Savings, and our governor signed a bill to approve it. Unfortunately, that requires federal approval, and that has gotten bogged down in red tape, so we still have to move our clocks forward and back. Maybe someday the madness will end?

Hmm...maybe we do time travel twice a year, come to think of it! Also, taking into account time zones, it makes computing the time in another time zone that may or may not observe DST more complicated. These days I just google what time it is in another place...but back in the day, we had to remember and calculate the hours...and consider what time of year it was and whether one or both places in question (here and there) observe DST.

Speaking of the clock in my car (a couple paragraphs up...what can I say...ADHD...), I asked on Monday if that clock takes us Back to the Future. Sadly, the answer is NO! Possibly because, while an amazing car, Luke is not a DeLorean. I've never driven a DeLorean (oh wait a minute...scratch that...my TARDIS takes the form of a DeLorean), but maybe more of them do? Unless...during the Standard Time months, I do have to subtract an hour, so maybe it's like going back to the future? 

Speaking of a DeLorean...

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!"

- Dr. Emmett Brown, 1985, shortly before the epic voyage to 2015
Back to the Future

 

Days of Yore: It's About Time, Part 2

"This is it! This is the answer! It says here that a bolt of lightning is going to strike the clock tower at precisely 10:04 PM next Saturday Night! If we could somehow... harness this lightning; channel it into the Flux Capacitor, it just might work. Next Saturday night, we're sending you back to the future!"

- Dr. Emmett Brown in 1955, Back to the Future

Great Scott! It's great to see you again! I'm so glad you came back for SECONDS on my posts about the days of future past! I feel it's important to start blog posts about timekeeping with a quote from a time-travelling Doctor. What we are about to experience is not a comprehensive list of past ways of keeping time (for example, I won't go into the water clock), but it should nevertheless be instructive. Anyway, that's the hope.

Had Marty McFly come to Redmond, WA instead
of Hill Valley, CA on October 21, 2015, he might
have been surprised how similarly I was dressed.

Come along with me as we hop in my DeLorean (that's the form my TARDIS is taking right now, thanks to the chameleon circuit and the flux capacitor that I installed) to remember how people used to tell time. We're going way farther back than Marty McFly went, all the way back to somewhere around 1500 BC. I'm sure you've figured out by now that I wasn't born yet at the time.

Sundial

There were sundials as far back as 1500 BC in Egypt. They have varied in appearance over the years, but in general they have had some sort of vertical pin or post in the middle, called a gnomon. As the earth rotates, the sun casts a shadow on a different part of the sundial, telling the time. This worked pretty well, but could present issues on rainy days and at night. The Greeks and Romans made improvements on them.

Sundial
(this one is more recent than 1500 BC)
Photo by Jagdish Bhatt on Unsplash

Hourglass

Now we're moving forward to around 1300 AD, when people started using the hourglass. It couldn't tell the time, per se, but it was a great way of using the sands of time to mark how much time remained in a given task. Half of it was filled with sand, and you could turn it over and let the sand flow through to the other half. When the other half was full, the hour (or minute, or whatever time it represented) was up.

Photo by SUNBEAM PHOTOGRAPHY on Unsplash

Belltowers

Save the clock tower! Save the clock tower! Mayor Wilson is sponsoring an initiative to replace that clock. 30 years ago, lightning struck that clock tower, and the clock hasn't run since. We at the Hill Valley Preservation Society think it should be preserved exactly the way it is, as part of our history and heritage.

- Clocktower Lady in 1985, Back to the Future

In 1283, a tower in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England gained a new feature. The kids of the day called it a turret clock, and it was driven by weight. Over the years, they were generally used by churches to tell the time, though they also were used elsewhere, such as the real Big Ben in London and the fictional bell tower at City Hall that was built in 1885 in Hill Valley, California. It was struck by lightning in 1955, and as of 2015, still wasn't fixed. (For all the other major changes that Hill Valley underwent between 1985 and 2015, you'd think they could have used some of that money to fix the clock tower?)

Cuckoo Clock

Now we're jumping forward in time to sometime in the 17th Century in Germany's Black Forest. That's where the earliest descriptions of the cuckoo clock happened. It's generally mounted on a wall, and often very fancy. A mechanical cuckoo bird jumps out at determined intervals and sings the song of its people. Thus the reason a cuckoo bird is so named—because of its distinct call. These clocks have a pendulum that sways back and forth.

Photo by Martin Kleppe on Unsplash

Grandfather Clock

My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopped short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering (tick, tock, tick, tock),
His life seconds numbering, (tick, tock, tick, tock),
It stopped short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

So begins the sad tale of my grandfather's clock. He wasn't my grandfather, but it would appear he may have been Henry Clay Work's grandfather, whom he remembered in 1876. His grandfather loved watching the clock as he grew up. It struck 24 when he entered the house with his lovely bride. The clock was more faithful than any people; it just needed to be wound regularly. Eventually, it tolled the sad hour of his death and "stopped, short, never to go again, when the old man died."

As indicated in the song, grandfather clocks are tall and definitely don't fit on a shelf. Like a cuckoo clock, they have a pendulum, though it's much larger than the one on your average cuckoo clock. The pendulum of a grandfather clock is typically in a compartment with a glass front that you can open.

Stopwatch

Like an hourglass, a stopwatch measures time rather than telling it. You can time how long something takes to do. They are generally digital.

Cell Phone

As I'm sure you realized, I generally tell the time on my cell phone these days. I have an alarm clock on it. I can time things with a stopwatch on my phone if I so desire. I can check the time any time I want, provided I have my cell phone with me. We do have wall clocks, and there's a small alarm clock in my bathroom. I don't use the alarm for that one, but it is convenient as my phone isn't always as accessible in there. I can also tell the time on my computer.

For that matter, if you have Twitter, I recommend following @big_ben_clock, which tolls the hour every hour, which is super convenient, as long as you don't mind that it tolls London time.

BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG

— Big Ben (@big_ben_clock) April 3, 2023

Sources

• https://jackmasonbrand.com/blogs/news/how-did-people-tell-time-before-clocks (Disclaimer: While this article is interesting, I do not recommend visiting this website unless you want to be on their mailing list. I had to unsubscribe after receiving an unsolicited e-mail from them following my visit.)
• https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/renaissance-a2cc3971-344e-49db-801f-3a73619829e2
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo_clock
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_clock
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Grandfather%27s_Clock