PURPLE SKY: Ashley Wills, of Palermo, photographed this purple sky.
JUST PASSING THROUGH: Lindy Sklover captured these ducks swimming past the dock.
PICKING UP THE SCRAPS: Val Baker caught these eagles picking at dead fish on the ice last winter.
For the brightest smile, make sure you use safe and effective products.
(NAPSI)—Taking care of your smile with a daily brushing and flossing routine is the best way to keep teeth clean and healthy. But more and more people in search of an ultra-bright smile are turning to the growing number of over-the-counter teeth whitening products—leaving many confused about the most effective methods and if ongoing use can damage teeth.
“Whitening products contain one of two tooth bleaches, which break stains into smaller pieces, making the discoloration less concentrated and your teeth brighter,” said Kyle Dosch, DDS, a licensed dentist and Delta Dental of Washington’s dental director. “There are several methods of bleaching, including in your dentist’s office or by using over-the-counter bleaching products and whitening strips. As with most medicaments, patients should use caution and not overuse whiteners. Excessive overuse of these bleaching agents may damage tooth enamel or gums, so always follow directions and talk to your dentist to brighten your smile safely.”
Teeth Whitening—What You Need To Know
When deciding the best way to get your teeth whitened (also known as bleaching), consider these points, and have a conversation about your whitening goals with your dentist.
Do whiteners work on all teeth? Whiteners may not correct all types of discoloration. Whitening is only effective on natural teeth and does not work on veneers, caps, crowns or fillings, or tooth discoloration caused by medications or an injury.
What are my teeth bleaching options? Whitening options include stain removal toothpastes, in-office bleaching, at-home bleaching, over-the-counter bleaching products, and even LED lights. For the safest and quickest results, most dentists recommend professional whitening performed in-clinic by a licensed dentist or with at-home kits available through your dentist, which use custom bleaching trays molded to fit each person’s mouth. While over-the-counter trays are available, they often fit incorrectly, causing the bleaching agents to spill onto soft tissues or to be ingested.
Is whitening toothpaste safe to use? Whitening toothpastes are more abrasive to help with surface stains, but they can be damaging to enamel over time. It’s important to discuss with your dentist and, if using, be sure to limit use. Similarly, many whitening chewing gums contain abrasives which scrub the surface of teeth to help remove some surface stains. Because of potential abrasion over time, sugar-free whitening chewing gum should be used only in moderation.
Everything from mouthwash to rinses to dental floss are now offered with whitening ingredients, do these really work? Because effective teeth whitening results from the length of time teeth are in contact with active bleaching agents, mouthwashes, rinses and dental floss are a less-effective whitening choice. Similarly, rinsing with hydrogen peroxide is dangerous if ingested, and therefore is not recommended.
Do natural alternatives such as charcoal really whiten teeth? Activated charcoal whitening products are becoming increasingly popular as people aim to reduce their exposure to chemicals in health and beauty products. As a short-term solution to whitening, it can come with serious long-term damage and is not recommended. With its abrasive properties, it may lead to enamel erosion which may cause tooth sensitivity and make your teeth appear more yellow in color because it will expose the dentin of your teeth. The potential enamel deterioration can also lead to increased susceptibility to cavities.
Will I have side effects from teeth whitening? You may experience tooth sensitivity when beginning to use whitening products. In that case, stop using the product and have a conversation with your dentist about a better approach for you and your teeth. Temporary tooth sensitivity and gingival inflammation are the most common adverse effects of teeth whitening.
There are many reasons for teeth discoloration, including what you eat and drink. Coffee, tea and red wine are staining agents that can affect the white enamel portion of your teeth. Tobacco use, which includes tar and nicotine, can also stain teeth. Aging, some medications, and even injury or trauma to a tooth, can all make our teeth more yellow and less white.
Luckily, some surface stains can be removed during a regular cleaning and don’t require additional whitening treatments. To keep your smile bright and healthy, schedule regular visits to your dentist, maintain a daily dental health routine with brushing and flossing, and avoid foods that can stain your teeth.
Learn More
For additional information about teeth whitening, including an overview of in-office versus at home procedures, how white spots on teeth can potentially be treated through whitening procedures, and other bleaching questions, visit www.deltadentalwa.com/blog.
by Debbie WalkerHello again. Last week’s column asked you to keep it or maybe your “rememberer” work’s better than mine and you didn’t forget what I wrote. So we are going to add a bit more to last week’s words.
Okay, onward. When people tell you how wonderful you are to them and how much they appreciate you, just listen. And then say thank you, that’s all you have to say.
Now there is always the chance that someone won’t return your smile. That is no reflection on you in any way. I really doubt that they are saving their face from cracking, I think they just haven’t learned yet how blessed they are.
I can be very evil sometimes. At the pharmacy I go to in Florida there is this red headed young woman who always had a sour look on her face and could be rather curt with customers, including me. Oh, look out! There is my challenge! At first I was rather put out by her because everyone else there is so friendly, I almost complained one day but I decided that wasn’t going to fix anything. Sooo, she became my challenge. No matter how sour she was that day I acted like she was being friendly, and I just kept on being me. I would purposely ask her questions that she would have to answer, and I always was smiling with her. I won that little girl over. It took almost a year but I did it! People really do want to be noticed, to know they aren’t really invisible and sometimes it only takes a smile. They are blessed by you and you by them.
From a Woman’s World magazine in 2011:
“You are a Blessing! It’s easy to wonder whether you’re making a difference in the world. After all, you’re just one person. Every smile you smile, every hug you give, every encouraging word you say and every kindness you show has a greater impact than you can imagine. One person can make a difference. Especially when that person is you.”
How about a little change here. I saw these ketchup uses in my First magazine and decided to share them with you.
Did you ever imagine using ketchup on bug bites? Mosquito bites are itchy. For quick relief apply a bit of ketchup on the spot for three minutes. It will help minimize itch and irritation.
Use ketchup as a make-believe paint for little ones. They can paint with it and if they eat it there will be no harm.
Ketchup can wipe away insect splatters on your vehicles. Cover the affected areas with ketchup and let set for 20 minutes, allowing the vinegar to breakdown the stuck-on gunk. Give the area a good scrub before rinsing well and buff dry.
Reveal a beautiful glow. Simply apply a thin layer of ketchup to your face, leave on for 15 minutes while you relax then rinse off with water. A smooth, glowing complexion for pennies.
I am hoping you will pass on the blessings to others. I am curious what you have for results. Questions or comments, contact me at DebbieWalker@townline.org. Thanks for reading and have a great week!
Sviatoslav Richter
by Peter CatesUkrainian-born pianist Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997) was largely self-taught until, at the age of 23, he began studying with German-born pianist Heinrich Neuhaus at the Moscow Conservatory. Neuhaus saw Richter as the genius he had been waiting his entire life for and later claimed that he basically had nothing to teach him.
Richter’s keyboard artistry was a mix of super human virtuosity, a keen, vibrantly alive musicality and a humongous yet carefully chosen repertoire that ranged from Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven to the major Russians Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Shostakovich and the Englishman Benjamin Britten.
Interestingly he loved Haydn but cared very little for Mozart, only performing the younger composer’s 20th Piano Concerto and two or three others.
I have a CD of Czech radio broadcasts (Monopole MONO005) from the mid-1950s featuring Richter performing the Beethoven 1st and 3rd Piano Concertos, the only ones of the five of which the pianist left recordings. His playing was vigorous, delicate when called for, and keenly responsive to the beauties in every note, bar and chord.
The conductor Bretislav Bakala (1897-1958) conducted the Brno State Philharmonic in both works and did the kind of conducting that captured one’s attention in a manner that was exceptional, giving the impression that he and Richter were on the same wavelength page. The sound was of radio broadcast quality but serviceable enough.
Richter did later stereo recordings of both works, the first in 1961 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra led by Charles Munch, the third, twice – the first time in 1963 with Kurt Sanderling and the Vienna Symphony and a second one with Riccardo Muti and the Philharmonia Orchestra in England during the mid 1970s.
There are also broadcasts of Richter doing both concertos with other conductors and orchestras circulating on cd and accessible on Youtube.
I mention this only because Richter is so extraordinary that anybody with the least interest in great classical pianists just might get captivated by him enough to want to collect or at least hear every single piece he ever recorded live in concert and in the studio.
Richter was not a man to let journalists near him except on rare occasions but, during his last few years, made himself available for a series of interviews that resulted in a three-hour documentary about his life which can be seen on youtube and divided in two parts.
A choice list of other Richter recordings would be the Beethoven Cello Sonatas with Mstislav Rostropovich, the Brahms and Franck Violin Sonatas with David Oistrakh, the Brahms 2nd, Bartok 2nd and Prokofiev 4th Piano Concertos with Lorin Maazel conducting the Orchestra de Paris, Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto with either Kurt Sanderling or Stanislaw Wislocki, the Tchaikovsky 1st with Herbert von Karajan and Schubert Lieder with baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. A special favorite record is the 1969 Beethoven Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano, in which he collaborated with Oistrakh, Rostropovich and with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic.
In 1945, he fell in love with singer Nina Dorliak, whom he had accompanied in recital, and they lived together as husband and wife for the rest of his life but never legalized that relationship.
He and Nina would entertain guests with dinner parties and record listening marathons of one or more complete Wagner operas often extending far into the night.
Finally, much to his annoyance, Richter remembered the name of everybody he ever met even briefly in his adult life, going back decades to elevator operators and cab drivers.
submitted by Sasha FitzpatrickThere are no shortcuts to investment success — you need to establish a long-term strategy and stick with it. This means you’ll want to create an investment mix based on your goals, risk tolerance and time horizon — and then regularly review it to ensure it’s still meeting your needs.
In fact, investing for the long term doesn’t necessarily mean you should lock your investments in forever. Throughout your life, you’ll likely need to make some changes.
Of course, everyone’s situation is different and there’s no prescribed formula of when and how you should adjust your investments. But some possibilities may be worth considering.
For example, a few years before you retire, you may want to reevaluate your risk exposure and consider moving part of your portfolio into a more conservative position. When you were decades away from retiring, you may have felt more comfortable with a more aggressive positioning because you had time to bounce back from any market downturns. But as you near retirement, it may make sense to lower your risk level. And as part of a move toward a more conservative approach, you also may want to evaluate the cash positions in your portfolio. When the market has gone through a decline, as has been the case in 2022, you may not want to tap into your portfolio to meet short-term and emergency needs, so having sufficient cash on hand is important. Keep in mind, though, that having too much cash on the sidelines may affect your ability to reach your long-term goals.
Even if you decide to adopt a more conservative investment position before you retire, though, you may still benefit from some growth-oriented investments in your portfolio to help you keep ahead of — or at least keep pace with — inflation. As you know, inflation has surged in 2022, but even when it’s relatively mild, it can still significantly erode your purchasing power over time.
Changes in your own goals or circumstances may also lead you to modify your investment mix. You might decide to retire earlier or later than you originally planned. You might even change your plans for the type of retirement you want, choosing to work part time for a few years. Your family situation may change — perhaps you have another child for whom you’d like to save and invest for college. Any of these events could lead you to review your portfolio to find new opportunities or to adjust your risk level — or both.
You might wonder if you should also consider changing your investment mix in response to external forces, such as higher interest rates or a rise in inflation, as we’ve seen this year. It’s certainly true that these types of events can affect parts of your portfolio, but it may not be advisable to react by shuffling your investment mix. After all, nobody can really predict how long these forces will keep their momentum — it’s quite possible, for instance, that inflation will have subsided noticeably within a year. But more important, you should make investment moves based on the factors we’ve already discussed: your goals, risk tolerance, time horizon and individual circumstances.
By reviewing your portfolio regularly, possibly with the assistance of a financial professional, you can help ensure your investment mix will always be appropriate for your needs and goals.
This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.
Edward Jones, Member SIPC
Scoop out the inside of a pumpkin, add some drainage holes, and plant some pansies for a festive fall planter. Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com
by Melinda MyersPansies have long been a fall and winter garden favorite. These cheery flowers are sure to brighten landscapes and containers and add a smile to any occasion. Look for fun and new ways to add them to your garden and fall celebrations.
You will find these cool weather favorites at your local garden center. Pansies thrive in the cooler temperatures of fall and during mild winters when your summer annuals fade or succumb to frost. They make great fillers in garden beds and containers or displayed in their own planter.
Cool Wave®, WonderFall and other trailing pansies are perfect for hanging baskets, as trailers in container gardens, or as edging plants in garden beds. You will need half as many of these pansy varieties to cover the same garden space.
Plant a basket of white trailing pansies, add some sunglasses and you have a ghost for Halloween. Scoop out the inside of a pumpkin, add some drainage holes and use it for a planter. Fill it with potting mix and you’ll have a biodegradable pot for the compost pile when finished. Or simply set a container of pansies inside your pumpkin pot.
Be sure to include a few favorite colors, fragrant varieties, and some All-America Selections winners. Ultima Morpho was the 2002 winner that was selected for its distinct blue and yellow flower design. Padparadja is a true orange pansy that is perfect for fall and Majestic Giants pansy, selected in 1966, can still be found for sale. Generations of gardeners have planted this large-flowered, traditional-faced pansy.
Include pansies in your fall meals and gatherings. Only use pansies and other edible flowers that have not been treated with pesticides. Be sure to let your guests know that the pansies are safe to eat, so they can enjoy this unique dining experience. Otherwise, you will find blossoms at the bottom of glasses or left on plates.
Pick a few flowers, remove the reproductive parts, and freeze them in ice cube trays to serve in your favorite beverage. Float a few of the flower ice cubes in your favorite punch.
Add a gourmet touch, some unique flavor, and color to your salads by topping a bed of greens with a few flowers. Continue the theme by decorating cookies or cakes with a few of your favorite pansies. The cheerful flowers will generate happy thoughts and for some, a way to enjoy the last of this season’s garden.
Brighten the start of school and your classroom while showing your favorite teacher a bit of appreciation. A do-it-yourself planter filled with cheery pansies is sure to elevate the mood of both students and teachers alike.
All you need are two yardsticks, a 4-inch x 4-inch wooden planter box, and a potted pansy and saucer that fit inside the planter box. Gather your glue gun and glue sticks, sandpaper, and a hobby knife to create your gift.
Cut the yardsticks into four-inch pieces and sand the cut edges smooth. Glue the yardstick pieces vertically and next to each other onto all four sides of the planter. Set the saucer in the bottom of the planter box and place the potted pansy on top of it.
Purchase plenty of pansies. You are sure to find other creative ways to utilize them this fall or simply use them as colorful fillers for voids in gardens and containers.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including the recently released Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and her website is www.MelindaMyers.com.
by Dan BeaulieuTo be successful in business you have to find ways to be better. You have to get creative and find ways for your customers to prefer working with you rather than with your competition.
Finding new ways to delight your customers can be fun. Actually, being better than your competition is fun, not to mention profitable.
As a business owner you should always be thinking about your customers and yes, also about your competitors.
You need to study your customers to see what they like, what puts smiles on their faces? What keeps them coming back?
And you have to study your competitors to see what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong, and how you can be better.
Often, it’s the little things that can make you outstanding in the true sense of the word.
You can be the roofer who leaves the site spotless once the roof is complete. I was once wowed at the site of a member of the company that did my roof a few years ago, going over the driveway with some kind of magnetic rake to make sure no nails were left behind.
I once visited a restaurant, a very busy restaurant in Milwaukee that delighted people who were waiting for over an hour for a table by passing out hot buttered rolls.
Or how about that family-owned hardware store where the woman in the paint department spent a good 15 minutes with my mother talking about just the right paint to redo a lawn chair? Mom talked about that for years after.
None of these things were hard or expensive but they were valuable enough to make customers for life.
Think about your own business. What can you do to be outstanding? What can you do to be special.
Oh, here is an idea, ask your customers themselves. Go ahead ask them for their opinion?
If you own a restaurant, ask them to fill our a simple questionnaire. If you own a service business, sit down and honestly ask your customer what you could do differently and better?
When you finish that landscaping job and are showing the customer what you’ve done, ask her if there is anything else she would like. Ask her if she has any ideas of services you could offer or things you could do better.
Study your industry, always be learning about your job. You can even learn by watching the right TV shows. Just by sitting in a chair in your den with a notebook you get ideas on how to run a better restaurant, bar, diner – you know all those shows. Get ideas from watching HGTV and the Discovery channel. Always be learning and, yes, don’t be afraid to steal those ideas and use them for your own business
In the end it’s all about how dedicated you are to finding new and innovative ways to grow your business.
Yellow garden spider
by Roland D. HalleeLast week I received an email from a reader who sent along a photo of a large yellow spider she found on her screen door. It was a menacing-looking thing.
It actually is a yellow garden spider, commonly known as the yellow garden spider, black and yellow garden spider, golden garden spider, writing spider, zigzag spider, zipper spider, black and yellow argiope, corn spider, Steeler spider, or McKinley spider.
The species was first described by Hippolyte Lucas in 1833. It is common to the contiguous United States, Hawaii, southern Canada, Mexico, and Central America. It has distinctive yellow and black markings on the abdomen and a mostly white cephalothorax. The body length of males range from 0.20 – 0.35 inches; females range from 0.75–1.10 inches. These spiders may bite if disturbed or harassed, but the venom is harmless to non-allergic humans, roughly equivalent to a bumblebee sting in intensity.
Yellow garden spiders often build webs in areas adjacent to open sunny fields where they stay concealed and protected from the wind. The spider can also be found along the eaves of houses and outbuildings or in any tall vegetation where they can securely stretch a web.
Female spiders tend to be somewhat local, often staying in one place throughout much of their lifetime.
The web of the yellow garden spider is distinctive: a circular shape up to two feet in diameter, with a dense zigzag of silk in the center.
The yellow garden spider can oscillate her web vigorously while she remains firmly attached in the center. This action might prevent predators like wasps and birds from drawing a good bead, and also to fully entangle an insect before it cuts itself loose. In a nightly ritual, the spider consumes the circular interior part of the web and then rebuilds it each morning with fresh new silk. The radial framework and anchoring lines are not usually replaced when the spider rebuilds the web. The spider may be recycling the chemicals used in web building. Additionally, the fine threads that she consumes appear to have tiny particles of what may be minuscule insects and organic matter that may contain nutrition.
The yellow garden spider does not live in very dense location clusters like other orb spiders. The yellow garden spider keeps a clean orderly web in comparison to the cluttered series of webs built and abandoned by groups of golden orb spiders.
This spider is found from Canada to Costa Rica, but less so in the basin and mountain areas of the Rockies.
These spiders are not aggressive. They might bite if grabbed, but other than for defense they do not attack large animals. Their venom often contains a library of toxins with potential as therapeutic medicinal agents.
A bite by the yellow garden spider is comparable to a bee sting with redness and swelling. For a healthy adult, a bite is not considered an issue. Though these spiders are not aggressive, people who are very young, elderly, or who have compromised immune systems should exercise caution, just as they would around a beehive or a hornet nest.
Yellow garden spiders breed twice a year. The males roam in search of a female, building a small web near or actually in the female’s web, then court the females by plucking strands on her web. Often, when the male approaches the female, he has a safety drop line ready, in case she attacks him. After mating, the male dies, and is sometimes then eaten by the female.
The female lays her eggs at night on a sheet of silky material, then covers them with another layer of silk, then a protective brownish silk. She then uses her legs to form the sheet into a ball with an upturned neck.
In the spring, the young spiders exit the sac. They are so tiny that they look like dust gathered inside the silk mesh. Some of the spiderlings remain nearby, but others exude a strand of silk that gets caught by the breeze, carrying the spiderling to a more distant area.
Females of the species are the most commonly seen in gardens. Their webs are usually characterized by a zigzag shaped extra thick line of silk in the middle extending vertically. The spiders spend most of their time in their webs, waiting for prey to become ensnared. When prey becomes caught in the web, the spider may undulate the web back and forth to further trap the insect. When the prey is secure, the spider kills it by injecting its venom and then wraps the prey in a cocoon of silk for later consumption (typically one to four hours later). Prey includes small vertebrates, such as geckos and green anoles, as well as insects.
If you find one of these around your house, it is not as dangerous as it looks.
Easy for me to say, Mr. I-don’t-like-spiders.
Who were the four outfielders on the Red Sox’ 2018 World Series championship team?
by Debbie WalkerI have a question for you today and I hope you will give it some thought over the coming days. My question is: Do you know what a blessing you are?
It’s a pretty big question and a little uncomfortable and embarrassing for most people. I don’t think it is something we spend much time considering, but I am asking you to today.
If anything, I think most of us tend to compare ourselves to someone we admire for the things they do, how they make us feel about ourselves, things along that line. And if we are comparing ourselves to someone else we fall back on our faults rather than our positive attributes.
Take just a minute and think of three positive things about your best friend. OK, how did you do with that assignment?
Now I want you to do another one. Think of three negative things about yourself. How did you do?
Okay, now think of three positive things about yourself. How long did it take you? Was it easier to think of positive things or negative things? Why do you suppose the positive things about yourself were so difficult? And yet you can do the positive things for someone else rather quickly. I’ll tell you a secret – you could have cheated. All you had to do is think of positive things people have told you about yourself.
I feel part of the reason we have a hard time with the positives is because most or all of us have been taught “not to brag” about ourselves. Possibly as a child maybe praise wasn’t quite as quick as a reprimand may have been. And if you do something right you will just about forget it but if you do something incorrect you will relive that moment over and over again.
Okay, so now, again. Do you know what a blessing you are? In what ways might you think of yourself as being a blessing to the rest of the world? Anyone want to share?
When you smiled and said “Good Morning” or “afternoon” to someone you were a blessing to them, You ‘noticed them’ and it made them smile and feel good.
Sometimes we just have eye contact with someone in a store or on a sidewalk and we just smile and continue on, you made that person feel better.
When you are in a store, checking out and you smile at the cashier and say something like “Morning, and how are you today?” I promise you will be one of the few people that will do that. It’s such a simple thing to do and yet so many don’t do it. I promise you won’t use up your smile quota for the day. When our Creator invented us I don’t think he gave us a limit on how many we can give out in a day.
And the darndest thing is people will usually give them right back to you so you never get the chance to run out anyway.
Okay, I have reached the last of my words for this column. So keep this week’s paper, and I will finish up next week.
I’m just curious if you will check in next week. Thanks for reading. Anything to share ? Send it to DebbieWalker@townline.org.
John Tyler
by Peter CatesThe 10th former President John Tyler (1790-1862) did forge important treaties with Great Britain and China and brought about the admission of Texas as a state. But he had a stubborn streak in his independence and refusal to compromise on his own principles, which quickly led to the resignations of every member of his cabinet, except for Secretary of State Daniel Webster.
The easy going William Henry Harrison had reluctantly accepted Tyler as a running mate , the vice-president had thought that he could spend most of his time on his Virginia plantation while showing up a few months a year to preside over the Senate and both gentlemen could stay out of each other’s hair. Fate intervened with Harrison dying of pneumonia one month after taking office.
Congress was so alienated by Tyler’s incorrigible personality that they fought him on just about every piece of domestic legislation, even refusing to allocate funds for much-needed renovations in the White House.
Letitia Tyler
Tyler was married twice. His first wife Letitia Christian Tyler (1790-1842) bore him eight children and, three years before her husband assumed the presidency, had suffered a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair.
Her daughter-in-law Priscilla described her as follows:
“She must have been very beautiful in her youth, for she is beautiful now in her declining years and wretched health. Her skin is as smooth and soft as a baby’s; she has sweet, loving black eyes, and her features are delicately moulded; besides this, her feet and hands are perfect; and she is gentle and graceful in her movements, with a most peculiar air of native refinement about everything she says and does. She is the most entirely unselfish person you can imagine…”
Letitia died on September 10, 1842. Daughter-in-law Priscilla assumed White House hostess duties for most of Tyler’s term and the parties were a smashing success, the guest lists guided by a very generous open door policy that included Tyler’s political enemies.
One such occasion proved to be a personal embarrassment for the hostess when Secretary of State Daniel Webster was in attendance, as described in a letter to her sisters:
“…at the moment the ices were being put on the table, everybody in good humor, and all going ‘merry as a marriage bell,’ what should I do but grow deathly pale, and, for the first time in my life, fall back in a fainting fit! Mr. Webster… picked me up…and Mr. Tyler (Priscilla’s husband Robert), with his usual impetuosity, deluged us both with ice-water, ruining my lovely new dress, and, I am afraid, producing a decided coolness between himself and the Secretary of State….”
A frequent guest, former First Lady Dolley Madison, happily made herself available at Priscilla’s request for consultation on details.
On February 28,1844, President Tyler and approximately 350 guests were upon the propeller-driven steam frigate Princeton for a cruise up the Potomac where a specially mounted gun, the Peacemaker, had been fired for demonstration purposes during these festivities. One final shot had been requested, the weapon exploded and eight men were killed .
Julia Tyler
Among those casualties were Daniel Webster’s replacement as Secretary of State Abel P. Upchurch (after three years of loyalty to Tyler, Webster resigned because of the controversy around the annexation of Texas which then allowed slavery, an issue on which he and President Tyler disagreed. However, both men had a high regard for each other, despite their differences on this issue and others); Secretary of the Navy Thomas W. Gilmer; and Tyler’s good friend David Gardiner, whose 24-year-old daughter Julia was engaged to the president .
The president was below deck with Julia when the explosion occurred, who fainted in his arms when the tragedy occurred.
They were married the following June, the gaiety of White House social occasions was sustained during the remainder of Tyler’s administration and, for Julia, her husband could do no wrong.
She gave her husband seven more children and, when James Knox Polk became the chief executive, the couple retired to Sherwood Forest, a spacious plantation Tyler purchased for his wife that was located on the James River, in Virginia, and equipped with all the creature comforts then existing.
The magnificent parties continued with winter balls, infinite numbers of teas and lavish dinners.
In 1861, Tyler attended a Peace Conference in D.C. in a futile attempt to allay North/South tensions; he then returned to Virginia, sided with the Confederacy, was elected to the Confederate Congress and was ready to serve when he died in January 1862; his death was unnoticed in Washington and he remains the only former president not laid to rest under an American flag.
His widow outlived him by 27 years and died, at age 69, in 1889.
Tyler is also the earliest former president to have a grandchild still living, a 94-year-old gentleman unfortunately suffering from dementia and in an assisted living institution, also in Virginia.