"No hungry generations tread thee down." (Keats)

.....I have decided it is time for me to return to the Theatre of the Arts class and suffer listening to the most disagreeable attempts at acting that my eyes and ears can endure.  The class is held on Thursdays and that is the day that RH+ goes bowling--and nothing can interfere with an activity which she relishes.  It's not that she bowls by herself; she is on a team composed of our community residents, and the competition between teams in this bowling league is fierce, to say the least.  These bowlers are rather, shall we say, past their prime?  Some are even pretty good at this game  I don't consider bowling to be an athletic activity--like ping-pong does not require athletes; nor does shuffleboard or horseshoes.  Anyway, I do have a need to get out of the house once in a while, and so this "acting" class is another non-athletic activity that a guy my age with physical difficulties can participate in by just sitting down in the class and soaking in the experience.  That is sufficient exercise for me; if I feel like more, I just lie down until the feeling passes.

.....This blog happens to be another nonathletic activity, and I've written 403 of them, so now I am trying to write a sci-fi novel to do something different.  I was curious to know what the oldest American novel was, and who might be the oldest novelist.  Couldn't be much older than I. The oldest novel known in America, by consensus is "The Power of Sympathy" authored by William Hill Brown in 1789.  It depicts the tragic love story between siblings who were unaware they were related.  This epistolary novel belongs to the tradition of affairs carried out by the means of letters.  Unfortunately, Brown died at the age of 28.  The oldest novelist in America was John Sanford, born Julian Lawrence Shapiro. Julian Shapiro was born in Harlem to a first generation American mother and a Russian immigrant father who was a lawyer.  Both were Jewish.  His mother died in 1914 when he was only 10.  It marked his life.  Both he and his wife, Marguerite were members of the Communist Party, and when they refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee they were blacklisted in Hollywood (where they wrote screenplays) for nearly a decade.  Shapiro wrote 26 books, half of them after he was 80.  He died when he was 98 leaving three unfinished books.  I guess I'll have to be the second oldest Jewish American novelist.

.....I was informed today by JR that my sister's granddaughter (my niece) has joined the US Marine Corps and my nephew is about to join the Air Force. With my Navy granddaughter, JR, writes, 33% of the Ross/Auslander next generation will be in the armed forces.  Oddly enough, he says, 44% are in the creative arts fields, although I don't know why that's "odd".