From Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (Regarding the Russian Revolution):

From Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (Regarding the Russian Revolution):
".....If you charged someone with the task of creating a new world, of starting a new era, he would ask you first to clear the ground. He would wait for the old centuries to finish before undertaking to build the new ones, he'd want to begin a new paragraph, a new page.

"But here, they don't bother with anything like that. This new thing, this marvel of history, this revelation, is exploded right into the very thick of daily life without the slightest consideration for its course. It doesn't start at the beginning, it starts in the middle, without any schedule, on the first weekday that comes along, while the traffic in the street is at its height....."
They cut down the trees, they burned them, they even pulled up a few stumps. The roots, they were simply buried too deep...They are coming back to the surface now, springing forth new life, in the spectacular green of early spring....Strider

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Lodi, California

I happen to be living in the Bay Area right now when I come across some old correspondence from a distant cousin in Texas. He referred to the daughter of some Ridinger who moved from Nebraska to Lodi, California. With help from the Familyologist, I checked the California death records and found Emma Ochsner, born 10 April, 1905, died 8 Nov 2000. She is the daughter of Jacob Ridinger, who immigrated in 1910 (Ellis Island). Could it be Jacob was Johann the mayor's brother, my dad's uncle? I am finding many references to Germans who settled in the Lodi/Stockton area through the AHSGR. Seems a number of the Rohrbach and Worms families ended up there.

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