Shirley DicKard

California History/Charles Rossiter Hoppin/Emily Anna Bacon Hoppin/Historical Research/Yolo, California

What did he whisper in her ear?

February 12, 2024 Shirley DicKardLeave a comment

I knew the story well – retold hundreds of times in my family – that in 1874, my great-grandfather traveled from California back to his hometown in Niles, Michigan, to ask my great-grandmother to marry him and return to his ranch in Yolo, California.

Simple facts. That is, until I started to do research for her Biography to reconstruct what might have actually happened. Writing fiction is fun. You can just make up events, people, and conversations to suit your story, as I did in Heart Wood, a fictionalized inspiration of my Great-grandmother’s life.

But writing an historical Biography is like writing with one hand tied behind your back. There’s so many constraints: everything must be documented and verified, with no conjecture, imagining, or creativity . . . Darn.

But I’m always up for learning new things, and now my brain synapses are tingling with this new challenge.

Here’s my dilemma.

The scene opens in 1874 with Emily Anna Bacon, age 20, now at the end of her first six months of teaching high school in Niles, Michigan. She’s worked hard to get here – especially as a female in the late-1800s when it was more common for a girl to go to finishing school after eighth grade to learn the home arts and attract a husband. But Emily grew up in a household that valued education – her four brothers were all attorneys and her father a district judge. So in 1869, she enrolled in the Michigan Female Seminary in Kalamazoo, 75 miles from home. From the course catalogue, I know that she graduated in 1873 with knowledge of Latin, Botany, Algebra, Essay Writing, Geography, the Bible, Physiology, History, Government, English Literature, Trigonometry, Chemistry, Art History, Astronomy, and more. Whew!

Missing are her grades and any personal letters or journal, so I can’t write how she felt about her education, but I do know by comparing dates, that her father died about her first week of starting school. That must have affected her deeply.

Enter Charles Rossiter Hoppin in 1874, an old family friend recently returned to Niles from the California farm he built during the Gold Rush. What did he say to convince her to marry a 47-year-old Scottish bachelor farmer and leave her teaching job, four years of education, widowed mother, brothers, sisters, and girlfriends – to travel to the unknown of California?

I envision Biographies as like Weavings – comprised of threads, colors, patterns, textures, and holes. The more I research, the more holes I encounter. I’m not an historian, but I’m learning how to work with these gaps in information. Sometimes with enough sleuthing, I can dig up some facts (thanks to the professional Archivists who’ve helped me). Sometimes I look around at what others in similar situations have done (such as examples from other similar women’s diaries). I can also work around the hole by not mentioning it at all. If the reader won’t notice, this is often the easiest.

Still, I do wonder what he whispered in her ear. . .

I am currently working on the Life and Times of Emily Hoppin – Yolo Pioneer and Activist who I first introduced as the inspiration for Eliza in my eco-novel, Heart Wood – Four Women, for the Earth, for the Future.

Website: shirleydickard.com

Contact the author at: heartwoodnovel@gmail.com

Heart Wood can be purchased at your local book store and online at Amazon

California History/Charles Rossiter Hoppin/Emily Anna Bacon Hoppin/Father Junipero Serra/Historical Archives/Historical Research/Land Acknowledgements/Mexican Land Grants/Patwins/Yolo, California

Acknowledging Who Owns the Land?

September 6, 2023September 9, 2023 Shirley DicKard6 Comments

I had an eye-opening moment recently while researching the history of my ancestor’s ranch for the book I’m currently writing. My original search was to find out the price my Great-grandfather Charles Hoppin paid in the 1850s for a quarter of the Rancho Rio de Jesus Maria land grant in Yolo, Northern California.

Curious, I decided to trace the land even further back – and – it’s not what I learned in school! What follows is the short version of what I found. The rest of the story will be included in “The Life and Times of Emily Hoppin,” the biography of my pioneer, activist, Great-grandmother.

If you start with the land, you’ll find that it existed without human inhabitants for unknown eons. It wasn’t until the Ice Age that humans crossed a bridge of land between Siberia and Alaska and continued down the continent. In their book Yolo History, A Land of Changing Patterns, Shipley Waters and Joann Larkey suggest that human activity was present in Yolo County at least by 2,000 B.C. The Wintun (includes Patwins) people arrived in the upper Sacramento Valley about 1,500 years ago. They were the first peoples in the Yolo area. They have never, ever, ceded this land to anyone!

History books have traditionally overlooked this little detail. As a fourth grader studying California history back in the 1950s, I was so enamored by the flashy images of Spanish Conquistadores in the early 1800s and the virtuous Franciscan Father Junipero Serra who built a series of Missions from San Diego to San Francisco, each a day’s ride apart. Their plan was to protect Spain’s holdings in Alta California and to convert the savage heathens.

Here is what students in 1957 were taught in the California Textbook, “California Rancho Days:”

“Indian women helped with the work in the house. The Dona taught them to cook the Spanish food. They spun wool into thread and wove it into cloth. Some were taught to sew. None of the Indians were given money for their work. What would they do with money? Did not the ranchero give them food, clothing, and a place to live?”

It wasn’t until the 1970s that we started hearing the Indian’s version of this Missionization. Their reality was that missions were plantation-like estates with a workforce of enslaved Indians who had been ripped from their land, homelife, language, culture, and health, often beaten and tortured into submission. They are still struggling to recover to this day.

The Spanish government gave away massive tracts of their surrounding land to Spanish soldiers as favors for being stationed in such a remote outpost. By 1846, Spanish mission lands were owned by 800 private rancheros.

When Spain lost the war to Mexico in 1821, the Mexican governor Jose Figueroa determined that mission lands should rightfully return to the Indians rather than colonists. He died a year later (note: research this!) and conveniently, the land was distributed to private Mexican citizens. The era of Land Grant Ranchos began. We see the vestiges in today’s names such as Rancho Cordova and Rancho Murieta, although most names today have dropped the “Rancho” and are now La Brea, Santa Anita, etc. Interestingly, many cities were conveniently founded on top of indigenous sites and still bear the footprint of the rancho land use.

**Rancho Rio de Jesus Maria Land Grant**
(From the Yolo County Archives and Historical Collection)

When my Great-grandfather bought a quarter (8,000 acres) of the Mexican Land Grant called The Rancho Rio de Jesus Maria near Cache Creek in Yolo in the early 1850s, it had been previously owned by a naturalized Mexican citizen, then a European settler.

And yet….

The Wintun nation never conceded this land to anyone. After struggling from near extinction by the Spanish, Mexican, and European settlers, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation is now reclaiming its heritage, culture, language and independence, and has created a Land Acknowledgement reminder that we are on their traditional land today.

Public Land Acknowledgements: I had never heard of these until 2021 when I gave a webinar on Emily Hoppin for the Yolo County Library. Before my presentation, a statement was read acknowledging that we (in Yolo) are on the traditional lands of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.

In 2019, the Yocha Dehe Tribal Council created this formal statement:

We should take a moment to acknowledge the land on which we are gathered. For thousands of years, this land has been the home of Patwin people. Today, there are three federally recognized Patwin tribes: Cachil DeHe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community, Kletsel Dehe Band of Wintun Indians, and Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation. The Patwin people have remained committed to the stewardship of this land over many centuries. It has been cherished and protected, as elders have instructed the young through generations. We are honored and grateful to be here today on their traditional lands.

Land Acknowledgements are being replicated throughout the state. Closer to where I live in the northern Sierra Nevada, the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe created their Land Acknowledgement.

Today, I may have legal ownership of my parcel of land, but these Land Acknowledgements remind me of the real history behind that ownership. In truth, it’s better to consider myself a caretaker rather than owner of the land.

Gardening/Happy Place/Letting Go/Strategies for Stress

Where’s Your Happy Place?

June 29, 2023 Shirley DicKard4 Comments

A well-seasoned Hospice nurse took me aside after the staff meeting where I had shared my grief and despair after one of my first patients died. I was a new volunteer Hospice nurse back in the 1980s and had wanted to contribute something meaningful to the world.

“Sadness and grief is always going to be part of this work,” she told me with dead certainty. “The best way to survive yourself is to have something in your life that balances the heaviness – something that brings you peace or joy. Otherwise, you’ll burn out.”

Back then, I found that dabbling with watercolors took me away to a place where I let go and just enjoyed the flow of colors and forms. That, and playing with my rambunctious dog.

Although I only lasted two years with Hospice, I’ve kept this lesson close to my heart for four decades now. It’s what I call my Happy Place. It has a lot to do with our brain hemispheres.

Our two brain hemispheres serve different purposes and work best when one side doesn’t overwhelm the other. The Left-side of my brain is always trying to figure things out. It likes order, reason, logic, systems, analysis, patterns, and predictability. It’s the source of “brain chatter.” The Right-side likes to get lost in time and space. It loves creativity, color, scents, music, and meditation and lives in the present moment. We need both of course.

For a fascinating example of how both sides of the brain function, I recommend “My Stroke of Insight” by Jill Bolte Taylor. At age 37, this Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain, destroying her ability to talk, read, write, or remember how to function in life. With only the right side fully functioning, she floated in a blissful, peaceful, euphoria. Not a bad place to be! While her medical rehabilitation focused on returning the physical functions of her left side, such as speaking and walking, it also meant inviting back into her life ego-generated thoughts and emotions. She kept wondering why? What’s good about being able to experience impatience, criticism, unkindness? Did she have a choice? That, it turns out, was her “stroke of insight.” It took eight years for her to regain full functioning, but in the process, she learned that we have control moment by moment on how we want to be in the world.

My ongoing challenge is not to get overwhelmed by the craziness of the world. Hard as I try to avoid the discouraging news of politics, erratic weather, human behavior, the recent COVID pandemic, and now, high wildfire danger, it’s always there as a stressful backdrop. So knowing I have a Happy Place where I can let the right side of my brain play, is a godsend.

When I was deep into writing my eco-novel, Heart Wood, my Happy Place was the twilight of early morning, mug of hot coffee, and hours of immersing myself into my characters and creativity. I miss that a lot.

Now I have my homestead garden. It’s really what kept me sane during COVID.

Who’d have thought that sequestering squash seeds into soil, lifting curlicue cucumber tendrils onto the trellis, or culling over-abundant carrots would soothe my spirits – but it happens every time I step into my vegetable garden.

As I walk down the rows each morning, I exchange greetings with my plants. “My how you’ve grown! Looks like you’re almost ready to share those tomatoes. What do you need? – you seem a little yellow.” Mother Earth provides the music – right now the Black headed Grosbeak fledglings are crying out “feed me, feed me!” Red shouldered Hawks call from the pine tops. Bees buzz into flowers. I always leave my garden feeling uplifted and deeply happy.

I asked a few friends about their Happy Places.

Gardens were top of the list! They also mentioned stand-up paddleboarding on a calm lake, reading in a cozy chair, attending live theater, just sitting quietly on their backyard bench, and meditating. Every moment can be that “Happy Place” if we remember to pay attention through the lens of our right hemisphere.

What are your Happy Places (or whatever you call it)? What are you doing when you just lose track of time and are in the flow? Please share by hitting “Leave a Reply.” If I get enough, I’ll share your inspirations in another blog. Thank you!

My eco-novel, Heart Wood, can be purchased at your local book store and online at Amazon

Uncategorized

Welcome

June 13, 2020June 15, 2020 Shirley DicKard

Welcome to my blog, where I gather thoughts on Heart Wood, the environment, eco-fiction, feminism, writing, and more.

Emily Anna Bacon Hoppin/Growth through Stress/Historical Narrative Writing

This Never-Ending Spiral

February 8, 2023 Shirley DicKard2 Comments

I sometimes imagine life as a spiral, circling upwards, always returning to the same spot, only more experienced, hopefully more highly functioning. So here I am again, cycling around to being a learner, after the last years of being a producer. Actually, as a gardener, I like to think of my growing and harvesting stages.

Does this feel familiar? You can probably come up with places you keep cycling back around to. Here’s a few of mine: from crawling toddler to walking to school by myself; from an insecure student nurse to teaching new nurses on the hospital floor; from learning the craft of writing to publishing Heart Wood – my first book (at 74 years!). And now I’m back in the learner’s seat, growing my ability to write a Historical Narrative of my Great-Grandmother Emily Hoppin’s life and times.

Growing requires stress.

I finally came to terms with that when I saw how much stronger my little tomato seedlings were when they were outside being buttressed by a gentle wind that caused them to twist and turn from their base instead of being continually protected in a warm, sunny room.

Bones are like that too.

The matrix that makes bones strong is developed by the tug and pull of muscles on the bone. Whether it’s weight-lifting or easy strolling, bones need to be prodded by pressure to become strong – a point not lost on me as my bone-density reports show I’m in the middle stages of osteopenia.

Our brains thrive on novelty – even in old age, we put down new neural pathways when we struggle to learn new things – which is why it’s good to do something different and something difficult every day.

I thought it would be easy to shift from writing Historical Fiction to Historical Narrative. Turns out, it’s a whole ‘nother world with a whole new set of “how-tos.” So I’m now cycling around to being a learner again and immersing myself in a ten-week online course on writing Advanced Historical Narratives with Marty Levine. Now I’m vacillating between “I just love learning so many new things!” to “Aargh, this is too hard. I’ll never get it. I should just write a simple biography.”

But I think of my little seedlings, my bones, and my brain, and keep spiraling on.

Heart Wood is fictional history inspired in part by the life of my great-grandmother, Emily Hoppin. Many of her life events and writings are incorporated into the novel in the character of Eliza. My initial research on Emily and Charles Hoppin is posted on my website: shirleydickard.com under “Historical Research.”

Heart Wood can be found at your local library, bookstore, and Online.

Historical Research/Veterans Day/War and Peace/Women and Peace/Yolo, California

A World Wide Peace – 1911

November 11, 2022 Shirley DicKard2 Comments

For Veterans Day 2022 – Reflections from the Past

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in World War I, then known as “the Great War.”

Twenty years later in 1938, November 11th was declared “Armistice Day,” dedicated to the cause of world peace. After two more wars (WWII and the Korean War), the US Congress renamed it “Veterans Day” in 1954 to honor all veterans of all wars.

Dedicated to the cause of world peace. Hmmm.

Back in 1911, even before America’s entry into WWI, my pioneer/activist Great-Grandmother Emily Hoppin wrote passionately about the cause of world peace in a 21-page handwritten speech that I recently found doing research at the Yolo County Archives and Record Center in Woodland, California. Written amid the rumblings in Europe leading to World War I, she pleaded for a better way than war.

Working for peace, she said, must be largely woman’s work.

On Veterans Day, November 11, 2022, with the backdrop of Russia waging a bloody war in the Ukraine, and other wars being waged around the globe, we pay tribute to those who served and sacrificed in wars. This seems a good time to share a selection of Great-Grandmother’s thoughts on war and peace written 111 years ago.

Read More “A World Wide Peace – 1911”

California Federation of Women's Clubs/Emily Anna Bacon Hoppin/Heart Wood - Four Women, for the Earth, for the Future/Historical Archives/Historical Fiction/Historical Research/Yolo, California

Why I Love Archivists (2)

October 1, 2022 Shirley DicKard8 Comments

(Re-formatted – Sorry, something went screwy in the layout. I’m such a perfectionist – hopefully this looks better!)

Like a kid in a candy store, I was surrounded by boxes of old documents from the 1850s to 1915, selected for me by the Archivists at the Yolo County Archives at my recent visit to Woodland, California in September. After years of researching my Yolo Pioneer and activist Great-Grandmother using online searches and old family documents, I was eager to locate primary sources, especially personal correspondence. But COVID hit in 2020, and I had to put my research visits on hold for two years.

I’m excited to finally be writing a comprehensive biography of Emily Hoppin, my great-grandmother. Not just as an ancestor, but because she lived in an era where women were coming into new power in their communities. She was part of the struggle for women’s suffrage, and she fought to eliminate the devastating effects of alcohol from the lives of women and children. She was a farmer who ran an 800-acre farm and won the 1915 statewide election for President of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs (CFWC) based on her rural perspective, and she was a WWI peace activist.

Emily Hoppin 1915

But her gift, as Heather Lanctot, Yolo County Archives and Records Center Coordinator noted, is that she left a paper trail. Hundreds of women had joined in her efforts, but Emily left writings and speeches for posterity. Much of what she wrote has wisdom for today and will be part of her biography. Additionally, many Hoppin descendants had the foresight to donate family papers to the archives. Not many people think to do that, according to Mollie Watson, Assistant Director of the Niles History Center in Michigan.

I think about today’s electronic communications and wonder how much of our lives will be lost if not also documented in paper and archived. We may be saving trees and time, but those who follow us will have less access to our history.

As I fill in the details of Emily’s life, the deeper I research, the more content appears – like the multiplying brooms in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice! Yikes! My cousins are now helping with Emily’s early days in Niles, Michigan. Nancy Peters, who lives in Michigan, and Cathy Altuvilla from LA, took my research questions to the archive staff at the Niles History Center to find answers, and while visiting, took photos of Emily’s family house, church, and the nearby St. Joseph River.

**Niles History Center** **Assistant Director Mollie Watson,**
**and** **Cousins Nancy and Cathy**

**St Joseph River in Niles – also a setting in “Heart Wood”**

Closer to home in California, I had the new experience of watching professional archivists at work. Before my appointment at the Yolo County Archives, I had sent two pages of areas I wanted to research, as well as some perplexing questions I had. Archives and Records Center Coordinator, Heather Lanctot, and Rachel Poutasse, Library Assistant, were on it! I arrived to tables and carts filled with ledgers, maps, voter registrations, deeds, wills, probate records, and fragile bound newspapers from the 1850s to 1915. They not only gave me what I asked for, but as professional archivists, they knew what else would be relevant from their vast archive storage – materials I didn’t even know existed. You may enjoy this link to a behind-the-scenes look at the Yolo Archives: https://youtu.be/SEw0cZNhEdA .

**Shirley with Yolo Archive Staff: Heather and Rachel**

After giving me an overview, I was set loose…like a kid in a candy shop!

There’s nothing comparable to the feel, the smell, even the sound of fragile pages rustling in my hands. But holding my great-grandmother’s actual 1911 voter registration (first woman to register in the Cacheville precinct after California women gained suffrage in 1911!), and examining her hand-written will? Those took my breath away.

And then there’s witnessing a gathering storm as I turned the bound pages of the 1915 Mail of Woodland newspaper and viewed the events leading up to World War I and the parallel events leading to Emily Hoppin’s election as president of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs.

I wonder what people in the future will say about the progression of today’s aggressive headlines and where we are heading.

My dream was still to find Emily Hoppin’s personal letters or journals as a way to glimpse her inner world. The next afternoon, across Woodland at the Yolo County Historical Collection at The Gibson House, Iulia Bodeanu, Yolo County Museum Curator, presented me with more Hoppin file boxes.

**Iulia Bodeneau with the Hoppin Files**

I held my breath, for behind the folder of Gold Rush letters from my great-uncle, John Hoppin, was a thick folder of fragile, hand-written pages. Yes, Emily’s handwriting! Not personal letters, but about a dozen of her speeches, written in pencil, words crossed out, edits made, notes on the margins. Some I had never seen before. It was like discovering gold! Of course, Iulia wouldn’t let me have them, so we arranged to have them scanned and sent to me.

**Selection of Emily Hoppin’s Handwritten and typed Speeches**

I asked these ladies what it takes to be a professional archivist and was impressed with their educational background:

Heather Lanctot: BA in Music History with an emphasis in History and Literature, MA in Musicology (both from University of Oregon), MLIS with a specialization in Archives and Records Management (San Jose State)

Rachel Poutasse: MLIS with a specialization in Archival Studies from UCLA

Iulia Bodeanu: Masters in Museum Studies from San Francisco State University. Bachelor of Arts in Art History and English from UC Berkeley

I returned to my mountain home, not only with a digital trunk load of documents, but with great respect for all the professional and volunteer archivists who work as guardians and guides to our past. Thank you!

Heart Wood is fictional history inspired in part by the life of Emily Hoppin. Many of her life events and writings are incorporated into the novel in the character of Eliza. My initial research on Emily and Charles Hoppin is posted on my website: shirleydickard.com under “Historical Research.”

Heart Wood can be found at your local library, bookstore, and online .

California Federation of Women's Clubs/Emily Anna Bacon Hoppin/Heart Wood - Four Women, for the Earth, for the Future/Historical Archives/Historical Fiction/Historical Research/Yolo, California

Why I Love Archivists

October 1, 2022 Shirley DicKard3 Comments

Like a kid in a candy store, I was surrounded by boxes of old documents from the 1850s to 1915, selected for me by the Archivists at the Yolo County Archives at my recent visit to Woodland, California in September. After years of researching my Yolo Pioneer and activist Great-Grandmother using online searches and old family documents, I was eager to locate primary sources, especially personal correspondence. But COVID hit in 2020, and I had to put my research visits on hold for two years.

I’m excited to finally be writing a comprehensive biography of Emily Hoppin, my great-grandmother. Not just as an ancestor, but because she lived in an era where women were coming into new power in their communities. She was part of the struggle for women’s suffrage, and she fought to eliminate the devastating effects of alcohol from the lives of women and children. She was a farmer who ran an 800-acre farm and won the 1915 statewide election for President of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs (CFWC) based on her rural perspective, and she was a WWI peace activist.

Emily Hoppin 1915

But her gift, as Heather Lanctot, Yolo County Archives and Records Center Coordinator noted, is that she left a paper trail. Hundreds of women had joined in her efforts, but Emily left writings and speeches for posterity. Much of what she wrote has wisdom for today and will be part of her biography. Additionally, many Hoppin descendants had the foresight to donate family papers to the archives. Not many people think to do that, according to Mollie Watson, Assistant Director of the Niles History Center in Michigan.

I think about today’s electronic communications and wonder how much of our lives will be lost if not also documented in paper and archived. We may be saving trees and time, but those who follow us will have less access to our history.

As I fill in the details of Emily’s life, the deeper I research, the more content appears – like the multiplying brooms in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice! Yikes! My cousins are now helping with Emily’s early days in Niles, Michigan. Nancy Peters, who lives in Michigan, and Cathy Altuvilla from LA, took my research questions to the archive staff at the Niles History Center to find answers, and while visiting, took photos of Emily’s family house, church, and the nearby St. Joseph River.

Assistant Director Mollie Watson, Cousins Nancy and Cathy

Closer to home in California, I had the new experience of watching professional archivists at work. Before my appointment at the Yolo County Archives, I had sent two pages of areas I wanted to research, as well as some perplexing questions I had. Archives and Records Center Coordinator, Heather Lanctot, and Rachel Poutasse, Library Assistant, were on it! I arrived to tables and carts filled with ledgers, maps, voter registrations, deeds, wills, probate records, and fragile bound newspapers from the 1850s to 1915. They not only gave me what I asked for, but as professional archivists, they knew what else would be relevant from their vast archive storage – materials I didn’t even know existed. You may enjoy this link to a behind-the-scenes look at the Yolo Archives: https://youtu.be/SEw0cZNhEdA .

After giving me an overview, I was set loose…like a kid in a candy shop!

There’s nothing comparable to the feel, the smell, even the sound of fragile pages rustling in my hands. But holding my great-grandmother’s actual 1911 voter registration (first woman to register in the Cacheville precinct after California women gained suffrage in 1911!), and examining her hand-written will? Those took my breath away.

And then there’s witnessing a gathering storm as I turned the bound pages of the 1915 Mail of Woodland newspaper and viewed the events leading up to World War I and the parallel events leading to Emily Hoppin’s election as president of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs.

I wonder what people in the future will say about the progression of today’s aggressive headlines and where we are heading.

My dream was still to find Emily Hoppin’s personal letters or journals as a way to glimpse her inner world. The next afternoon, across Woodland at the Yolo County Historical Collection at The Gibson House, Iulia Bodeanu, Yolo County Museum Curator, presented me with more Hoppin file boxes.

I held my breath, for behind the folder of Gold Rush letters from my great-uncle, John Hoppin, was a thick folder of fragile, hand-written pages. Yes, Emily’s handwriting! Not personal letters, but about a dozen of her speeches, written in pencil, words crossed out, edits made, notes on the margins. Some I had never seen before. It was like discovering gold! Of course, Iulia wouldn’t let me have them, so we arranged to have them scanned and sent to me.

I asked these ladies what it takes to be a professional archivist and was impressed with their educational background:

Heather Lanctot: BA in Music History with an emphasis in History and Literature, MA in Musicology (both from University of Oregon), MLIS with a specialization in Archives and Records Management (San Jose State)

Rachel Poutasse: MLIS with a specialization in Archival Studies from UCLA

Iulia Bodeanu: Masters in Museum Studies from San Francisco State University. Bachelor of Arts in Art History and English from UC Berkeley

I returned to my mountain home, not only with a digital trunk load of documents, but with great respect for all the professional and volunteer archivists who work as guardians and guides to our past. Thank you!

Heart Wood is fictional history inspired in part by the life of Emily Hoppin. Many of her life events and writings are incorporated into the novel in the character of Eliza. My initial research on Emily and Charles Hoppin is posted on my website: shirleydickard.com under “Historical Research.”

Heart Wood can be found at your local library, bookstore, and online .

Heart Wood - An Eco-Novel/Letting Go

Letting Go…Moving Forward

August 25, 2022 Shirley DicKard9 Comments

I took a break from blogging over the last few months for no reason other than it was time for a break. The last time I wrote I was planting seeds in my garden and musing over my next writing project. Five months later, my garden is in overdrive giving me daily baskets of tomatoes, basil, peppers, eggplant, squash, and bouquets of flowers, and I have chosen my next writing project. Life moves on….

Most recently, I’ve been practicing letting go. It seems to be the work of my mid-70s. By nature, I’m a saver – just ask my husband about my shelves of uniquely-shaped boxes, glass jars, seed packets, vases, old jewelry, and family memorabilia. Some things will be easy for my family to toss when I’m gone, but I should pass on other things now while I can do so with care.

*A vase for everything, and everything in it’s vase*

I recently opened my jewelry boxes and invited my teenage granddaughters to select anything they’d like (with a few exceptions). There were a few pieces I had to take a deep breath and let go of but knowing how much I love having my great-grandmother’s amethyst broach, I gave the jewelry my blessing and passed them on.

It took the threat of fire for me to let go of other things. Wildfires are an almost year-round threat here in the Northern California Sierra (and in a scary way, for more and more of the world). We have “Go-Bags” packed by the door with valuable papers, clothing, food, and water. But my drawer of family history artifacts? No room. That’s when I decided to start giving them away for posterity’s safe keeping.

The first to go was my Great-Grandmother Emily Hoppin’s personal scrapbook from 1870s-1915. If you followed my blogs and website, you know how much I loved using it for my novel Heart Wood. Before leaving on vacation this June, I presented her fragile scrapbook to the Yolo County Historical Archives. It was a fair trade because they had digitalized the entire scrapbook for me earlier, so I have it on my computer for continued research of my next book and they have it in their database.

The personal scrapbook of Emily Anna Bacon Hoppin 1854-1915

The second album was the history of my Grandfather Charles Jensen’s Botanical Garden in Carmichael, near Sacramento, CA. After retiring in 1958, he and grandma converted three acres of blackberries into a park-like garden. After their death, the Carmichael Park District bought it in 1976 and created The Jensen Botanical Garden, lovingly tending it as a public park known as “The Jewel of Carmichael.” I recently gave them my family scrapbook of historic news clippings for their records.

My grandfather, Charles Jensen in his garden, 1974

And last, after a recent fall and broken bones in my left foot, I’ve had more than enough time to practice letting go. It’s humbling not to be able to get up and do what needs to be done, but to have to sit back and ask for help. I’m learning to let go of having a tidy house, of zipping up and down flights of stairs, of walking up the hill to my garden. In exchange, I’m learning patience and gratitude for my husband’s endless generosity (and his cooking!)

I’ll write about my next writing project in the near future. In the meantime, Heart Wood can now be purchased in Sierra County at the Sierra County Art’s Council Gallery in Downieville, the Kentucky Mine Historic Park and Museum, and the Sierra Mercantile in Sierra City, as well as ordered from your local bookstore or on Amazon.

Climate Change/Gardening/Gardening in heat and droughts/Growing Tomatoes/Growing Tomatoes

Every Seed Holds a Story

March 29, 2022 Shirley DicKard3 Comments

Inside every seed awaits a story. I’m currently holding two different seeds: one for my vegetable garden, the other for my next book. I know from over 40 years of gardening how my tomato seeds will grow, but my next book? I’ve only the seed of an idea. Who knows if or how it will grow.

First – the garden seed, because this one always makes me happy.

Like a child who begs to be read the same story over and over, I get excited every spring when I pull out my seed boxes and start the planting cycle. I start with a packet of tomato seeds – one tiny disc floats onto my open palm – saved from last year’s tomatoes to start this year’s crop. It’s both the ending and beginning of life. Within this little seed is the story of my 2022 garden.

Growing season has been coming earlier and hotter – one consequence of climate change. This year I decide to push my luck and start two early-ripening tomatoes three weeks earlier than usual – a calculated risk that may pay off. I place the six pots on a warming pad in the sunroom and with great patience and faith, wait for the seeds to begin their magical transformation. About a week later, I notice a little bump of soil pushed up by an emerging seedling. From the bare stem, two leaves unfurl. I turn on the overhead grow lights and watch for the second set of leaves, then call my gardening friends in excitement.

I know how this story continues. As the plants grow, I’ll repot them in ever-larger containers. Eventually they’ll join the other seedlings in my outdoor nursery: pepper, eggplant, squash, cucumber, chard, kale, and a selection of other tomatoes. At this point, I’ll start exchanging extra plants with neighbors – we’re always eager to try something new.

In the Sierra, we traditionally don’t plant until Mother’s Day, but I’m having to change old patterns of gardening because the growing season is getting progressively hotter and unpredictable. Tension and plot twists may be important for good fiction, I can do without it in my garden story! Still, my gardening friend John and I agree that our gardens are our happy places, and with COVID, they’ve become our havens.

Like a book I’ve read many times, I can anticipate what will come of my seeds: celebrating the first tomato (and saving its seeds); sliced tomatoes sprinkled with basil leaves, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil; thick tomato sauce for spaghetti and pizzas; and weekly gatherings of family and neighbors to share the bounty. In late summer I’ll shift into canning tomato sauce, catsup, and whole tomatoes, or dehydrating thin discs of tomatoes to thicken up winter stews. I try to remember to save the seeds of my earliest and most flavorful tomatoes to cultivate those characteristics for future seasons.

Last tomato of 2021 – enjoyed on March 14, 2022 !

When frost threatens, I pick all the viable tomatoes and store them in newspaper on the back porch. Although at least half don’t make it, the ones we enjoy over the winter are a reminder of next year’s story.

Both gardening and writing require a time of quiet renewal and regeneration. I don’t plunge right into my next garden when the summer vegetables are over. Same with writing. There’s a reason winter is dark and fallow – it allows time for contemplation and integration.

I published Heart Wood two years ago. “What’s next?” people ask me. Until recently, I was at a loss for how to answer. Then I discovered a box of love letters from 1968 between my boyfriend in Vietnam and myself in San Francisco. Now we’re married, and fifty-four years later, we’re reading them back to each other. It feels like the seed of something – perhaps memoir, fiction, or simply transcribed as part of our family’s story for posterity.

But recently a friend handed me the seed of an idea for another book. I must admit, I felt a leap of excitement – a good sign that there’s life in this seed. I’ll share more when I see what grows!

Heart Wood can be purchased at your local bookstore and on Amazon (ebook and paperback)

About "Heart Wood"/Children's Health Trends/Climate Change/Dystopic Future/Environmental Activism/Future Health Trends

Can We Raise Healthy Children on an Unhealthy Planet?

March 7, 2022 Shirley DicKard1 Comment

I’ve been thinking about how my medical background influenced the writing of Heart Wood – prompted by a recent invitation to participate on a panel of UC San Francisco Medical Center Alumni Fiction Writers – a Zoom event on March 15, 2022, at 6 pm. (Details are below).

In my eco-novel Heart Wood, I used family women from three centuries to show the steady progression of health concerns over time in the past, present, and future. Like the frog in cold water where the water is heated slowly until the frog boils to death, it’s easy to accommodate to changing health conditions as they slowly creep up on us – until they become alarming problems.

I saved this cartoon from 2012 – little did we know that 10 years later, we’d still be breaking records for the hottest year ever!

One of the benefits of being 76 years old is having the perspective of time. Starting in the 1980s, I worked for 20 years as a traveling school nurse in small rural northern California communities. Although I didn’t have a mule to tote my equipment down canyons and across rivers, my car was always piled high with file boxes and testing equipment. I served five small schools stretched between the Middle and South Yuba Rivers – all previous sites of the Gold Rush era’s practices of washing away hillsides and polluting rivers with heavy metals used to extract gold.

In those 20 years, I observed trends in children’s health. In the 1980s, children’s health problems were mainly allergies to bees and peanuts, vison and hearing problems, head lice, and assorted injuries. Fast forward to the 2000s where we now have an explosion of allergies and intolerances to foods, asthma, diabetes, cancers, attention deficit disorders, autism, anxiety, and suicide. Seeing these dramatic changes over time alarms me.

Imagine Eliza in Heart Wood in the 1800s reading a box of today’s breakfast cereal: “Does NOT contain gluten, GMOs, artificial flavors or colors, preservatives, pesticides, etc.” I’m sure she’d be incredulous that anyone would put those in foods in the first place!

Yet today, we take for granted having a list of what is NOT in our food so we can navigate the food aisle for the best choices, thankful for the growing number of grocery shelves devoted to food intolerances.

Turn up the heat and fast forward to 2075 where Amisha’s food choices consist mainly of colored Pharm.food packets specifically developed for the multitude of intolerances that the corporate-pharmaceutical industry was responsible for creating in the first place.

One of the underlying premises in Heart Wood is that it’s difficult to raise healthy children on an unhealthy planet. It matters to our children’s health that the atmosphere and oceans are infused with plastic nanoparticles, that drinking water is contaminated, that oil spills into the ocean or lakes, that rainforests are cut down, that food ingredients are manipulated. These seemingly small changes accumulate over time into lethal doses. But small positive changes accumulate over time as well. Let’s each now do what we can to care for the earth and our children’s future!

Here’s registration information for the panel discussion I will be on of three UCSF alumni authors of fictional work
https://ucsf.regfox.com/aacs-spotlight-on-fiction-writers

Tuesday, March 15, 2022. ONLINE 6-7 pm Pacific time

A woman alone in Brooklyn during the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic. The connection between a small, oak writing desk and three family women whose lives are joined across centuries and generations. A cadre of peers fighting a coup in a dictator-controlled West Africa. These very different scenarios share a surprising link – all are snapshots of published fictional works written by UCSF alumni.

Join us for a panel discussion with three UCSF alumni authors led by moderator Sarah McClung, head of collection development at the UCSF Library. During this conversation, Shirley DicKard, BS ’68, RN; James Gottesman, MD ’70, resident alum; and Larry Hill, MD ’67, will share an exclusive glimpse into their stories’ fictional worlds and what brought them to life. We will also learn directly from these creative minds about whether their experiences at UCSF played a part in the stories, what their writing process was like, and how they navigated the publishing world.

This program is brought to you by the UCSF Office of Alumni Relations and UCSF Archives as part of the virtual event series in which distinguished UCSF alumni authors discuss their recently published books

REGISTER HERE