Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press

"Annie Beeton, Red Ash Wood, Virginia" [Extended Family Series]

“Annie Beeton, Red Ash Wood, Virginia” © Stu Jenks 2021, 54 inches tall.

Price: $150, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall.

 

Annie Beeton is my great-great-grandmother. She was married to John Allen Beeton, who fought in the Civil War. Johnny worked at Virginia Military Institute and at Washington and Lee College in Lexington, Virginia. I do not know his job. Both are buried in Lexington.

It's a beautiful cemetery and John gave Annie a lovely grave marker after she died. She died young in 1883 at the age of 45. Johnny died in 1902 at the age of 73. Annie's name is on the other side of this monument. I did photograph her side of the stone but the light wasn't that good that day. But she's there. Her name was the first to be placed on this stone.

Here's the thing that bothers the heck out of me.

Almost nothing is known about Annie. We know that she bore a son William in 1858 and a daughter Ella in 1863. We know that her father Richard was 30 and her mother Jane was 17 when she was born in 1838. We know she lived most of her life in Lexington. We know she died there. But that's about it.

It upsets me that most American women in the 19th century were basically property. They were expected to bear children, raise them and make a home for her family and herself, but little is written about women of that time. Men write a lot about other men, but rarely do they write about their wives, nor do the newspapers nor does the society at large pay them much attention. What we can figure out about Annie is through what was written about her husband, Johnny. And a lot of guessing.

John Henry Beeton made munitions in Richmond, Virginia during the Civil War. Was quite good at it, it appears. He also transferred out of Stonewall Jackson's Brigade as soon as he could at the beginning of the War. Stonewall was greatly disliked by many as a professor at the Virginia Military Institute. Johnny worked at VMI before the War. He was 30 when the War began. He got a relatively safe job in Richmond making guns and ammo after leaving Stonewall's command. He must have gotten back to Lexington during the War at some point because my great-grandmother Ella was born in May of 1863. After the War, Johnny came home but didn't return to work at VMI. He worked at Washington and Lee College for the rest of his career.

We can guess that he loved Annie very much, given the large ornate grave marker he had made for her and himself. He never remarried after her death. A lot of men of that time did. Their two kids were grown when she died. Again, I'm going by the extravagance and the size of the grave stone. Most stones in this cemetery are not this grand. Johnny spent some money on this. I can imagine how much he loved her, but I don't know for sure. I can guess her kids loved her too. I have no idea how she died. We have photos of Johnny in his Confederate uniform but no photos of Annie.

Makes me sad I don't know more about her, or that any of us know her better.

My wife jokingly says, "Men are the reason for all the world's problems." She making a joke but a dark joke. It's pretty much true.

The world is far from perfect, but I'm so happy that most women are no longer anonymous in the world. They are known and seen and heard. At least a little bit. We are slowly getting to place of gender and sexual equality.

Big hug Annie, from your great-great-grandson Stu. Your daughter Ella met and married Francis Jenks in Lexington in the 1880's and they had my grandfather Edgar as one of their five children, whose wife Lillie had my dad Stuart, whose wife Mary had me.

Again, I wish I knew more about you, Annie, but given your beautiful grave marker, I'm guessing that Johnny loved you very much. And your children did too. I choose to believe that.

So Annie, here's a pretty but imperfect red ash walk stick, made especially for you. I love you from afar, from across time. It's how I'm built.

#extendedfamilyseries, #stujenks, #redashwood

“John Henry Beeton, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“John Henry Beeton, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2021, 56 inches tall.

Price: $175, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall.

 

In a lovely cemetery in downtown Lexington, Virginia, six of my ancestors peacefully rest: four 2nd great-grandparents and two 3rd great-grandparents. It's only recently that I've discovered this, thanks to the hard work of my friend Brad.

John Henry Beeton, my great-great-grandfather, worked at the Virginia Military Academy in Lexington when the Civil War began. He was married to Anna Marie by then, and they already had a 3-year-old son William. (Their second child, Ella, was born in 1863. My great-grandmother.) He apparently was quickly drafted into Stonewall Jackson's brigade after Fort Sumter. Stonewall Jackson was not a beloved professor at the VMI. He was deeply disliked by many. According to records, John soon transferred to another branch of the Confederate Army, making guns and ammo in Richmond. Appears John Beeton didn't like Stonewall Jackson much either. John worked for the rest of the War at that munitions factory. He was good at his job, rising to become foreman. After the War, he returned to Lexington to work at Washington and Lee College. He did not return to work at VMI. I bet he had enough of the military. Sadly, Anna died young in 1883 at the age of 45. He never remarried.

The Confederate States Of America cast iron plaque at the base of his grave was placed there by who knows who. I don't approve of these kind of monuments. Like many, I hate the Civil War, slavery and the inter-generation racism of the South, but when I visited his grave for the first time, I found his medallion broken in two, lying on the ground. That made me sad. I thought of just taking the marker completely away from his grave, but instead I had a blacksmith in Greensboro repair it. I recently returned it to John and Anna's graves and put back his marker.

John was a veteran. He did serve, even though it was for traitors against the Union. And I bet John didn't approve of the War either. Most didn't. In The South, you really didn't have much choice if you fought in the Civil War or not. You had to go. Luckily, he was far from most of the fighting and was able to return to his wife and his two children after the War.

Rest in peace, John.

And Anna Marie Beeton? I'm making you a stick as well. Thank you both for loving one another and producing my great grandmother Ella, who gave birth to Edgar, who married Lillie, who gave birth to Stuart, who married Mary, who gave birth to me.

Sadly, little is known of Anna Beeton. Back then, women were hardly considered people in America, but that's a discussion for another time.

Over and out for now, from Stu, son of Mary, daughter of Elton, daughter of Emma, daughter of Matilda, daughter of Elisabetha.

#stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries, #johnhenrybeeton

“Camille Claudel, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“Camille Claudel, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2021, 66 inches tall.

 

Price: $195, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall. Love y'all, Stu.

 

Camille was a French sculptor, an associate and sometime lover of Rodin, a marvelous artist in her own right, largely forgotten because how poorly she was treated by her family and others. To read about her tragic life, click of this Wikipedia link.

To my surprise, some of her work, a bronze bust of Rodin, resides at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. In the last decade, Camille is finally getting the recognition that her and her work have so deserved.

You, Madam Claudel, get a complex wall sculpture from me, made specifically in your honor.

#stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries, #camilleclaudel

“Gandalf The White/Ian McKellen, Tulip Poplar, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

"Gandalf The White/Ian McKellen, Tulip Poplar, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021, 61 inches tall.

Price: $125, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall.

 

Ian McKellen was the perfect choice to play Gandalf in the Lord Of The Ring movies. I love this character in literature. I love this actor in films.

This stick isn't as elaborate as his wizard staff but it'll do. It's a fine strong walking stick.

You, Ian and Gandalf, are family to me, folk who don't even know who I am, but that's more than OK. You are still kin.

#extendedfamilyseries, #stujenks, #gandalf

 

“Eleanor Roosevelt, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © Stu Jenks 2021 (Extended Family Series]

“Eleanor Roosevelt, Saguaro Rib, Arizona” © 2021 Stu Jenks, 67 inches tall.

Price: $125, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall.

 

My mother Mary revered Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor was First Lady when Mom was a teenager, living across the Potomac from D.C., in Alexandria, Virginia"

"She was not an attractive woman," my Mom would say,"but she was an great inspiration to many girls and women like me." Mom wasn't lying.

Thank you Mrs. Roosevelt for all you did for us, and thanks Mom, for telling me about her and FDR, when I was a kid.

Photos of Eleanor's sculpture and other work at the FDR Memorial in Washington, DC, were taken by me in 2021. 

"The Hole In The Sky Group, Rhododendron Wood, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series}

“The Hole In The Sky Group, Rhododendron Wood, North Carolina” © 2021, 58 inches tall.

Price: $175, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall. Love y'all, Stu.

 

A.A members are anonymous to the world, but the A.A. groups are not. Their physical and Zoom meeting addresses are on the internet for all to see and for all to find. Here is the link to the Google Doc of all the Zoom meetings of Hole In The Sky. The physical HITS location will open soon in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.

So in A.A. and other 12 Step groups, there are Traditions, bylaws really, on how A.A. groups and members are to behave, in order to not hurt the Fellowship and make 12 groups as welcoming as possible. The 11th Tradition of Alcoholic Anonymous reads as such:

"Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; We need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films." (Cocaine Anonymous includes the word 'television' in the grouping of medias)

You may have noticed one huge omission. The Internet.

So in 2021, people are now more public, in big and small ways, regarding their 12 Step recovery on the internet and other places too. I wish it wasn't so sometimes, but the genie is way out of the bottle now. Yes, I worry that some may be turned off to 12 Step fellowships if they don't like someone in the press who mentions they are in AA, but these days, I don't think that matters that much. Hell, people find all kinds of small reasons to be pissed off at people they don't even know. And sometimes, if done respectful, a small violation of the 11th Tradition can actually help save lives, like Marc Maron's extremely obtuse mentionings of "The Secret Society" and "Doing the thing" on his WTF podcast. People really have gone to meetings after hearing Marc talk about the Program. He has the emails to provide it.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm saying all this, maybe just to justify prior posts of this website regarding 12 Step programs and my experiences in A.A. and C.A.. But I do know this. I hope to make the Fellowships as welcoming to the newcomer as possible. We are here and we're free, and we'll help you all as best we can. Your recovery is your recovery, but we who have been around for a while have seen things that work and that don't work.

Work? Doing the 12 Steps, preferably with a sponsor you like and trust; going to meetings often, IRL and/or on Zoom; being a service to others, both in and outside of the Program; and finding and practicing your own specific spirituality, be it cosmic muffin or a higher power.

Don't work too well? Resisting help from others, saying "I've got this"; hanging out with other using and drinking buddies; carrying grudges; continue to be dishonest with people you love and who love you; projecting too much into the future and not staying in the moment; and more.

People make up the Program (damn it), and people can screw things up in the Program with their judgment, their pettiness, their control issues, their impatience and their unresolved issues. It happens.

But at the daily Hole In The Sky's 6:45 a.m. PDT (9:45 a.m. EDT) meeting, you'll find compassionate, kind, smart, caring, spiritual people who give a damn. Yes, there are one or two pains in the asses (You guys have no idea who you are), but having only one or two is a minor miracle. A good 1/4 of all A.A. members are know-it-alls. To have only two pieces-of-work in a meeting of over a 100 people is wondrous.

So check out HITS. They have Zoom meetings throughout the day and this new club house in Woodlands Hills, Los Angeles, will be opening soon.

They are lovely people truly. I'm there a few mornings a week, just to feel the love. And to be of some small service, as I can.

Love you guys.

Stu.

 

#holeinthesky, #extendedfamilyseries, #stujenks

“Ulysses S. Grant, Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“Ulysses S. Grant, Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021, 51 inches tall.

Price: $125, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall. Love y'all, Stu.

 

U.S. Grant. Great General, not so great of a President.

You may notice that there is no Robert E. Lee stick on the StuBlog but there is a U.S. Grant stick. Even though I was born in the South, and have, in the past, been moved by the bravery and struggles of combatants on both sides of the American Civil War, I strongly recognized that The South represented slave owners and slavery and The North did not. And General Lee, for all his gentile behaviors, was still a traitor to the Union. Yes, yes, "I can not fight against my country," he stated at the beginning of the War, talking about the State of Virginia as his 'country', but Lee did betray the United States of America. And, in his writings, he stated that blacks were not intelligent to be full citizens.

Sadly, I was taught as a child that Grant was a drunk and a butcher. What I know or think I know is that Grant did drink but probably was not an alcoholic. He didn't enjoy killing Southerns but he did what was need to be done to end the war. Also, it is little known that Grant saved Raleigh, North Carolina from being burned to the ground by his own troops, after Lincoln was assassinated. He ever pointed his own cannons at those troops to keep them from coming into town.

Grant also could have recommended that all Confederate officers be tried and shot for treason at Appomattox Courthouse. That would be within his rights to do so, but he did not do that. He showed mercy instead. He let everyone, officers and regular soldiers alike, simply go home.

In the 1990's, I was a fan of Robert E. Lee, but not anymore. I know more now.

In 2021, I'm now a fan of U.S. Grant, because I learned a thing or two.

As a President, he had a corrupt cabinet and administration, which wasn't entirely his faults. But as a General, he showed compassion and wisdom at the end of the Civil War. What he did or rather didn't do at Appomattox was a very big deal.

I'm a fan now of U.S. Grant.

Sir, you get one of my sticks.

 

#usgrant, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

"Sharon & Lorenzo H., Magnolia Wood, North Carolina" (c) 2021 Stu Jenks [Extended Family Series]

“Sharon & Lorenzo H., Magnolia Wood, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021, 54 inches tall.

Price: NFS. In the collection of S & L H.

 

So who in the devil are Sharon and Lorenzo. Well, I'm not saying. Heck, that's not even their real names. I know them from a certain 12 Step meeting I attend regularly and I love them both a lot.

"Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding use to place principles before personalities." as it says in the 12th Tradition. It was hip to be a member of a 12 Step fellowship back in the 1980's and 90's, at least in Tucson, Arizona and parts of California. Not anymore. There is a stigma now. That's to be expected I suppose, but I think I need to be mindful that not everyone is going to applaud that I'm a member of A.A. or C.A. Many people have been hurt by addiction and some people have be hurt by people saying they are working a program of recovery. It's sad but true.

Anywho, here's some more 12 Step ramblings from me.

 

There are many slogans and sayings in 12 Step groups, some I hate, many I like.

“One day at a time.”

I love that phrase. It’s not an original thought from the AA founders but it’s perhaps one of the most powerful and longest lasting.

“JDFD. JDFU. Just don’t fucking drink. Just don’t fucking use.”

Love it. This may be specific to Tucson 12 step but I’m not sure. We are cussing sons of guns in the Sonoran Desert.

“Think, think, think.”

Not a fav at all. I understand this is about thinking before you drink, but I’m a feelings guy. How I'm feeling is a more important question to ask that what I thinking, and isn’t obsessing and the obsession a good half of the problem? I’m not against knowledge, science and wisdom, but too much thinking and not enough feeling has gotten me and a lot of other people in trouble.

And then there are the musings from a guy I'll call Indiana Rob. Been listening to his words for decades.

“I know I have another relapse in me, but I don’t know if I have another recovery in me.”

So true and so sad. Many who leave recovery don’t make it back. Frankly, they die years before their time and hurt a lot of people along the way.

“In the past, I used God as a spiritual Valium.”

I hear you brother. I did that too. Classic Rob chestnut.

“You can’t make an alcoholic drink but you sure can make ‘em thirsty.” Testify, brother. You got that right.

This is just a couple of Indiana Rob's great shares from the past.

And then there was Nathan.

Nathan has been dead for decades but he was valuable member of AA in Tucson, Arizona. He died way too young from cancer but he was sober when he passed. Even these many years later, Nathan is still quoted, particularly this one statement:

“If beating ourselves up worked, we would all be well now.”

Rest in peace, Nathan. You mean a lot to many.

#stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries, #12stepstuff

 

“Treebeard, Black Walnut, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021 [Extended Family Series]

“Treebeard, Black Walnut, North Carolina” © 2021 Stu Jenks, 54 inches tall, $195.

 

Price: $195, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall. Love y'all, Stu.

 

It's a sad dog who won't wag its own tail, but I have to tell ya, I really like this stick. The richness and depth of the black walnut is so nice. Very hard to see in a photograph or two, but it's there.

And oh yeah, Treebeard was an ent, a tree giant, in the Lord Of The Rings films and novels. As Gandalf said in The Two Towers, Treebeard is "the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun upon this Middle-Earth."

I love that old man. He is family too.

#treebeard, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries

“Eowyn/Miranda Otto, Dogwood, North Carolina” © 2021 Stu Jenks [Extended Family Series]

“Eowyn/Miranda Otto, Dogwood, North Carolina” © 2021, $175

Price: $175, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall. Love y'all, Stu.

 

Eowyn is a character from Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings. She is a noblewoman of the Rohan, played marvelously by Miranda Otto in Peter Jackson's films. I admire this character a lot and Ms. Otto as well, for the depth of her portrayal.

I recently re-watched The Two Towers again. It still holds up.

#eowyn, #mirandaotto, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries