Cultural English 433 - Carrie Nation; The Beach Boys; Q&A

Complete Transcript

You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 433.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café episode 433. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Go to our website at ESLPod.com. Become a member. Download the Learning Guide. Improve your English faster than ever. You can also like us on Facebook now at facebook.com/eslpod.

On this Café, we’re going to talk about a very famous American from the nineteenth century by the name of Carrie Nation. We’re also going to talk about a famous musical group from the twentieth century, the Beach Boys. And, as always, we’ll answer some of your questions. Let’s get started.

We begin this Café talking about one of the most famous Americans of the nineteenth century, Carrie Nation. You may have never heard of Carrie Nation, but she was one of the most influential women in the United States during the time that she lived, in the middle and late nineteenth century. Carrie Nation was one of the most active people involved in what was called the “temperance movement.”

“Temperance” (temperance) in this case means never drinking alcohol or alcoholic drinks. The word “temperance” has a broader, more general meaning, especially in theology and religion. But here, we’re only referring to the idea that you don’t drink. That’s what “temperance” means here. The temperance movement was a group of people who tried to make the drinking of alcohol illegal in the United States and in other countries. The temperance movement, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, was not just here in the United States; it was in other countries, as well.

Carrie Nation was born Carrie Amelia Moore on November 25th, 1846, in the state of Kentucky, which is in the central eastern part of the United States. In 1867, when she was 21 years old, she married a man by the name of Charles Gloyd. Gloyd had been a physician, or doctor, during the Civil War, which took place a few years before this. After they got married, however, Carrie learned that Gloyd was an alcoholic – a person who drinks too much alcohol and can’t seem to stop drinking it. Gloyd’s drinking caused a lot of problems for their marriage, as it does for many marriages, unhappily.

In September of 1868, just one year later, they had a daughter named Charlien. In March of 1869, Gloyd died because of his alcoholism. Nation’s marriage to Gloyd, and the problems his alcoholism caused their marriage, caused Carrie to get involved in the temperance movement. She had personal experience of the problems that alcoholism can cause in a family. She, of course, was now a widow, with a young daughter to take care of. In 1877, about eight years later, Carrie married again, this time to a man named David Nation, and like most women then and now, she took the name of her husband and became Carrie Nation.

Her husband was a newspaper editor, but also a preacher – a person in charge of a church – who spoke to groups of people about God and religion. The Nations moved to the state of Texas and then to Kansas, in the central part of the U.S. It was in Kansas that Nation started a chapter, or a local group, of a larger organization, the “Women’s Christian Temperance Union.” The word “union” here just means a group or an organization of people. This was an organization of women who were Christians who believed that the drinking and sale of alcohol should be illegal.

The temperance movement began originally in the 1830s, before the Civil War, in many church groups. The churches encouraged people to stop drinking, and bars and stores to stop selling alcohol. People in the temperance movement, however, were not stopping at just asking people to stop drinking. They also wanted the government to make it illegal to drink and sell alcohol. Carrie Nation herself believed that God wanted her to encourage temperance, even if it meant using violence.

This idea that your cause is so important that you must use violence is, of course, not a new one. It’s been used by people trying to change laws or change the way government works for many, many centuries – perhaps throughout all of human history. Carrie Nation believed violence was acceptable in trying to promote, or to make stronger, the temperance movement. In 1894, she and the members of her chapter, or local group, went on a “raid” of a local store that sold alcohol. A “raid” (raid) is when you go in and steal or destroy something. Nation and her members found whiskey, the popular type of alcohol in the local store, and they set it on fire – they burned it.

Nation and others in the temperance movement continued their violence. In 1900, she and what were called “Home Defenders” attacked six bars in Kiowa, Kansas. The term “Home Defenders” means people who defend or protect the home. That’s what Carrie nation thought she was doing, knowing the damage that alcohol had done to her own family. So, she considered herself a defender of the family after attacking six bars in one part of Kansas.

Carrie Nation then move to a larger town – Wichita, Kansas – and began to attack stores and bars that sold alcohol. She began using a hatchet. A “hatchet” (hatchet) is a weapon, or at least it can be a weapon. It’s also a tool. It has a short handle and a sharp blade on the top. It’s basically a small axe. You can use a hatchet to cut a small tree down, but you can also use a hatchet to damage something, or even to kill someone. Carrie Nation wasn’t going around killing anyone, but she was using her hatchet to destroy alcohol that was being sold. She became famous for her hatchet and her violent attacks with it.

In January of 1901, Nation went to another large town in the state of Kansas called Topeka, where she told the bar owners that they had to close their bars. Then she went to the governor, the leader of the state, and told him that he should make the bars follow the state alcohol laws. Well, the governor didn’t listen to Carrie Nation, so on January 31st, Nation went back to the bar owners. The owners were very scared at this point. They thought that she would attack their bars, but she didn’t. She talked to them calmly about the problems that alcohol can cause in marriages. She said that alcohol destroys families.

Then she asked once again that the bars close, but the bars, of course, did not close. So the next week, Nation and her Home Defenders went back to the bars, and this time, they did attack. During 1901, Nation and her group continued to attack bars in Kansas and in the neighboring state, the next-door state, of Oklahoma. Carrie Nation was arrested by the police for doing this. In fact, she was arrested 30 times before she stopped attacking bars.

In 1901, Nation also began a newspaper about the temperance movement called The Smasher’s Mail. “Mail” was a popular name for a newspaper. The word “smasher” comes from the verb “to smash” (smash), which means to destroy something violently. The newspaper, however, didn’t last very long – less than a year. Nation then began going around the country and giving lectures, or speeches, to large groups of people about the temperance movement. She traveled all over the United States, and thus became very famous.

She even went to other countries to talk about the temperance movement. She visited the White House, the home of the president of the United States, and tried to get the president to agree to laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol. “To prohibit” (prohibit) means to not allow something, to forbid something. Nation also published an autobiography, or story about her life, once again publicizing and trying to make more famous the temperance movement and, of course, to convince people to support the temperance movement.

In January of 1911, Carrie Nation collapsed, or suddenly fell down, while she was giving a speech in the state of Arkansas, which is also in the central United States. She died of heart failure a few months later, in June of 1911. Nation never lived to see the highest point of success, however, of the temperance movement. The temperance movement was eventually successful in prohibiting the sale of alcohol in the United States, in all of the states of the Union. In 1919, a constitutional amendment – a change to our national constitution – was approved, and prohibition began. The word “prohibition” comes from the verb “to prohibit” – in this case, it was a prohibition of the sale of alcohol.

Prohibition lasted until 1933. It is no longer the law of the United States. Carrie Nation is an interesting figure, or person, in the history of the U.S. She represents one way of thinking about social change, or more specifically, how to bring about, or cause, social change. The role of violence in her activities is certainly one that people look at and debate about in terms of whether it was a good idea or bad idea.

Let’s turn to our next topic, which is the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys is one of the most famous musical groups of the 1960s and early 70s. They began when three brothers – Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson – got together with one of their cousins, Mike Love, and a friend named Al Jardine and began to write music in 1961. The Wilson brothers of the Beach Boys grew up in Hawthorne, California, which is a suburb of Los Angeles about maybe 15 minutes from where I live.

Their songs and music were often related to the culture here in California, the popular culture, especially as it related to surfing. “Surfing” (surfing) is a sport where you have a long board, and you try to stand on top of the board in the ocean as the water moves you forward. The very first song that the Beach Boys wrote and released, or put on the radio, in 1962 was called “Surfin’.” The song became popular, and eventually the Beach Boys signed a contract, an agreement, with one of the biggest record companies, Capitol Records, to make more music.

The Beach Boys’ songs, as I said, are often about California. They sang about surfing, about a very fast and powerful car that was popular in the 1960s called a “Hot Rod”; they also sang about just having fun and being free. The name “Beach Boys” refers, of course, to the “beach” (beach), which is a place next to water where you can go and sit in the sun and relax and have a good time. That was the major theme of the music of the Beach Boys: having a good time, relaxing, surfing, riding in cars – the sorts of things that would be popular among young people.

The Beach Boys were also influenced by the hippie movement in the 1960s. “Hippies” (hippies) were a group of young people who wanted to do things differently – who wanted to dress differently and act differently from their parents. They talked a lot about peace and love and having a good time. From 1962 to 1966, The Beach Boys had 22 “hits,” or very popular songs. Mike Love and Brian Wilson wrote most of the lyrics, or words to the song, and Brian Wilson wrote most of the music. However, Wilson decided to stop traveling with the band in 1964 so he could stay home and write more songs, more music.

One of the biggest hit songs from this time was called “California Girls.” “California Girls” by the Beach Boys was released in 1965. The song talks about women – “girls” – from different parts of the United States. It’s really a song that talks about the good things about women from different parts of the United States. Part of the song says:

Well East Coast girls are hip
I really dig those styles they wear

“To be hip” (hip) means to be very “cool,” we would say nowadays – to be very modern, to be very fashionable. The singer in the song really “digs those styles they wear.” “To dig” (dig) something was a popular term in the 60s to mean, “I really like it; it’s something I like a lot.” The song continues:

And the Southern girls with the way they talk
They knock me out when I’m down there

He begins talking about girls on the east coast of the U.S., then he talks about those in the southern part and “the way they talk.” As you might know, there are different accents in different parts of the United States. One of the most interesting and distinctive, or recognizable, accents in the U.S. is the Southern accent, where people talk like this. They talk a little slower. I can’t do a very good Southern accent, but that’s at least what people associate with the South. They have a very different way of talking.

That’s why he says, “the Southern girls with the way they talk, they knock me out when I’m down there.” The expression “to knock me out” means they really impress me; they make me like them. “When I’m down there” means when I’m in that area. We often use “down” for the south and “up” for the north when talking about different places or locations. Well, the song continues talking about how wonderful the girls are in the midwestern part of the U.S., in the middle part of the United States, as well as in the northern part of the U.S.

However, the chorus of the song – the part of the song that’s repeated – says, “I wish they all could be California girls.” What this means is that the singer of the song wishes that all of these girls could come to California and he could be with them in California. It doesn’t mean, I don’t think, that he prefers California girls over girls from other parts of the country. He just wishes that these girls could all be where he is.

The Beach Boys continued to have popular songs in the 1970s, but were never as successful as they were in the 60s. Brian Wilson had many problems with drugs, and there were disagreements among the band members in the 1980s. The band didn’t really write very much music at all, although in 1988 they had a song called “Kokomo.” Sadly, one of the members of the band, Dennis Wilson, drowned – or died after being put in the water – accidentally in 1983, and his brother Carl died in 1998 from cancer.

Brian Wilson continued, however, to write music, although he had some medical problems of his own because of his use of drugs in the 1960s. He continued to write songs and to perform music. Even today, people know the songs of the Beach Boys. There are many, too many for us to talk about here, but if you love the Beach Boys’ music, now you know little bit more about who they were and why they were so popular.

Now let’s answer some of the questions you have sent to us.

Our first question comes from Yoshio (Yoshio) in Japan. Yoshio wants to know the meaning of three verbs: “to pump up,” “to balloon,” and “to beef up.” Let’s start with “to pump up.” “To pump (pump) up” can mean a couple of different things if we are talking about someone who is trying to get stronger, trying to have bigger muscles. “To pump up” might refer to them going to the gym and using weights in order to make their muscles bigger. “To pump up” can also be used when you are putting, say, air into a tire on your car or on your bicycle. “To pump up” would be to take a tire that doesn’t have enough air in it and put more air into it so that you can use it.

More generally, “to pump up” means to make a group of people more enthusiastic or energetic about doing something. At an American football game, the cheerleaders – the mostly girls or women who dance in front of the crowd – try to “pump up the crowd.” They try to get the people watching the game more excited. We can also use this same verb “pump” in describing our own state of excitement. “I’m pumped about going to this movie.” That means I’m very excited about doing it.

“To balloon” (balloon) means to grow rapidly in size. We often use that when talking either about someone’s body getting fatter, basically, or when we are spending money on something and suddenly we have to spend a lot more than what we anticipated – more than what we “budgeted,” we would say. We might talk about the cost of the new football stadium “ballooning” over time – getting bigger and bigger. A “balloon,” of course, is an object made of flexible material – usually some sort of plastic, I guess, or rubber –that you blow air into and it gets bigger inside.

“To beef (beef) up” is a phrasal verb that means to do more of some activity or to do it more intensely, often involving getting more people to do a certain activity. If the police said they were going to “beef up” security, they would be talking about adding more police officers and perhaps more equipment in order to protect something. You’re using more resources, more things to help you accomplish the task or activity.

You could also talk about “beefing up” part of your article that you are writing for a class at the university. In that case, “to beef up” would mean to add more facts in order to make it longer because you know the professors often like long papers. They think you put more work into them. So those are, then, three expressions, all of which can be used to talk about increasing something: “to pump up,” “to balloon,” and “to beef up.”

Sutisha (Sutisha), from an unknown country, is confused about how we use “historic” and “historical.” These two words are actually used in different ways by native speakers. A lot of people don’t always use them the way they are defined in the dictionary, which means in part the language is starting to change, and in a few years the dictionaries may say something else because that’s the way people use them. They’re often used to mean the same thing, but technically, according to the dictionaries nowadays, they don’t.

“Historic” is an adjective that describes something that was very important in history. We could talk about a “historic discovery” – a new medicine, for example, that cured people of diseases and illnesses. That discovery could be described as being “historic” because it changed history.

“Historical” is also an adjective, but describes any sort of event that happened in the past, in “history,” whether it was important or not. It doesn’t have to be important to be described as “historical.” You could talk about a building’s “historical background.” That doesn’t mean that the building itself was very important. It may have been. It may not have been. But it only means that it is something from the past.

Well, those are the differences according to the dictionary. As I mentioned earlier, many Americans use these two words interchangeably – that is, one for the other. So, you may hear or read things that seem confusing if you were just looking in the dictionary.

Finally, Ramazan (Ramazan) in Turkey wants to know the meaning of the word “vigilance.” “Vigilance” (vigilance) means watching something very carefully – looking out for possible dangers or threats or difficulties. We use this word “vigilance” when we are trying to guard or protect ourselves against some enemy or something bad that could happen. You could talk about a community’s “vigilance” to stop car thieves. They are looking out – they are protecting themselves, trying to prevent these problems from happening.

The word “vigilance” comes from the adjective “vigilant” (vigilant) which would describe someone who is watching carefully. We could talk about being “vigilant” about crime in your neighborhood – making sure that you are looking out and making sure no one is doing anything wrong. There’s another word that comes also from the same root concept: “vigilante” (vigilante). A “vigilante” is a person who goes out and tries to catch and even punish and kill criminals, but who himself is not a police officer. This would be a normal person going out and acting like a police officer, basically, in trying to find criminals and, perhaps, even hurting them or killing them.

When I was growing up, there was a very famous set of movies with Clint Eastwood in them, called Dirty Harry, and Dirty Harry was a vigilante who went out and took care of the bad guys – punished the criminals that the police couldn’t catch. It is, of course, a very dangerous thing to do, and we would not recommend anyone becoming a vigilante.

If you have a question or comment, you can email us. Our email address is eslpod@eslpod.com.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Come back and listen to us again right here on the English Café.

Glossary

temperance – not drinking alcoholic drinks at all; never drinking alcohol

* An important part of encouraging temperance is educating people about how bad alcohol is for their health and their family relationships.

alcoholic – a person who drinks too much alcohol and cannot stop because their bodies want it very badly

* Many alcoholics cannot control how much they drink and need help from other people to stop drinking.

chapter – a local group of a larger, national organization

* The New York chapter gets volunteers together to serve meals to the homeless each weekend.

Prohibition – a law from 1919 to 1933 that made the making and selling of alcohol illegal in the United States

* Prohibition was not successful because people continued making alcohol in their homes, where it was harder for the police to find them.

raid – a quick attack on an enemy; a sudden or surprise attack on someone

* The soldiers went on a raid of the enemy camp and took their food and weapons.

hatchet – a weapon that has a short handle and a sharp blade that can be held in the hand

* Thomas used his hatchet to cut the larger pieces of wood into smaller ones.

to release – to make a song, film, videogame, or other type of entertainment available for sale

* When will your new album be released?

surfing – a sport where one takes a long board into the water and stands up on it to ride on the waves (the movement of the water)

* Surfing is a popular sport in California and Hawaii.

hippie – a young person in the 1960s and 1970s who wanted to be different from society, believing in peace and love instead of war and violence

* Many hippies wanted to live life with more freedom and fewer rules in society.

hit – a popular song, film, or other type of entertainment

* The new movie is a hit, with over 20 million people going to the theaters to see it last weekend.

lyrics – the words of a song

* Sometimes it is difficult to understand the lyrics of a song when you hear them, so it can be helpful to look them up online.

hip – what is fashionable in music or clothing; what is popular and admired in popular culture by many people at the current time

* Illya works in a fashionable clothing store and always wears hip clothes.

to pump up – to be involved in a bodybuilding or a fitness program to develop a person’s muscles and make them bigger; to fill something with air or gas by pumping

* Let’s exercises every day to pump up before the football season begins.

to balloon – to grow in size rapidly causing a person’s body to swell up like a balloon; to increase greatly and quickly, in a short period of time

* When Georgina went off to college, she felt a lot of stress and she ballooned to 200 pounds within six months.

to beef up – to be on a special diet and involved in a bodybuilding or a fitness program to develop a person’s muscles and make them bigger by doing exercises; to increase

* If you want to start boxing, you’ll need to beef up your arms to gain more power.

historic – influential or important in history

* The signing of this important treaty makes today a historic day.

historical – things or events from the past, regardless of importance

* Many of these old homes have historical value, but few people care whether they are torn down or not.

vigilance – carefully watching, staying alert, and looking out for possible dangers, threats, or difficulties

* Our dog shows a lot of vigilance by barking at people who approach our house.

What Insiders Know

Gidget

If you like the beach and you like movies, you might be interested in Gidget. Gidget is a famous character that first appeared in several “novels” (book-length stories). Gidget became famous when the first film based on the novels was released in 1959 called Giget.

Gidget is a 16-year-old girl whose real name is Frances Lawrence. During summer vacation, instead of “manhunting” (looking for boys and men) like her other teenage friends, Giget becomes interested in surfing. Unfortunately for Gidget, surfing at that time was considered a sport only for boys and men. Despite this, Gidget learns to surf and becomes part of the group of teenagers interested in the sport. This is a “coming-of-age” (becoming an adult) story that is funny and entertaining.

The film Gidget was based on a 1957 novel called Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas written by Frederick Kohner. Kohner was “inspired by” (got the idea from) his own daughter who lived in Malibu, California. She became interested in surfing and learned how, meeting and becoming friends with others who surfed. The book was very successful and Kohner wrote seven “sequels” (other books based on the same characters).

The film Gidget “starring” (acting in the lead role) Sandra Dee was also very successful. Two movie sequels were made starring other actresses as Gidget.

The Gidget films had a big impact on surfing and popular culture because it introduced surfing and its “subculture” (smaller culture group) to Americans in general. Gidget is also considered the “precursor” (a thing that comes before something else of the same kind) to the beach party movies that became very popular in the 1960s.