Cochran Family History and News – BlogCochran.com

I think I would have to go with my AP music theory class.  I enjoyed most of my classes (I even have some great memories from a step aerobics class), but this class was unique in subject matter and construction.

The class was held B-4 (so after lunch), so we were full of food and happy when we got to the classroom.  It was a really laidback class because it was held in the choir room, so we got to spread out on the steps and relax.  It was a small group, probably 12-15 students, and we were all interested in music (many of us at least thought of majoring in music in college) so that weeded out distracting elements.  Classes really are a lot more interesting when everyone wants to be there.

I just loved all of the subject matter.  We didn’t only study theory, we also studied the history of music and did our own minor compositions.  I loved hearing and analyzing all of the great  composers.  I also, nerdily enough, loved harmonic chord progression, including the circle of fifths.  For some reason, I really enjoyed the structure of the scale and playing through the circle of fifths on my clarinet.  It was especially fun when you could do natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor as well, complete with arpeggios and thirds.  It was just really satisfying to be able to sit down to any piece of music and be comfortable with the key.

Minor chord progression

Major chord progression

I also  really enjoyed sight-singing and music transcription.  To help with out sight-singing, we learned the solfege syllables (which helped to memorize intervals) with their accompanying hand signals.  We would be given a never-before-seen piece of music, a minute to scan it, and then we would sing and sign.  For transcription, we would get blank staff paper and pencil and two listens of a piece of 4-part music.  As we listened, we would fill in the notes.  Sometimes it was hugely frustrating, but it was incredibly rewarding to be able to translate that sound onto paper to be reproduced.

My favorite part of the whole class was the final project we all did.  For it, we had to study the  history of a particular composer and then do an analysis of one of his/her works.  I chose Carl Maria von Weber because I was working on his Clarinet Concertino as an audition piece.  It was perhaps the first serious research project I’d ever done and I loved making connections between von Weber’s biography and his musical style.  It’s something I still like to use when I teach music in my Humanities classes.

As you can tell from the title, I think Mom is great.  She was great at transforming everyday things into amusements.  One example is those little strawberry baskets.  Mom helped Bethani and I make them into hot air balloon baskets for our ponies (they were just the right size for one adult pony or two baby ponies).  She also helped us scavenge other things for our ponies, like unwanted shoulder pads for pony beds and she helped us make all kinds of little things–like towels, clothes, and blankets—out of scraps and rags.  My barbies and ponies had complete towel sets made from worn out towels.  Another great memory involves our toy kitchen.  Mom saved emptied spice containers for us to play with.

Mom was fantastically innovative with our barbies.  She helped up make beds and closets (with doors!) out of shoe boxes.  She also helped us make hangers out of pipe-cleaners.  She also made a wonderful purple couch out of some scrap wood and some left over bits of fabric from a robe she made Bethani (Bethani and I had matching robes, but mine was pink).

Mom is also great with organizing, using things we have to keep the house neat.  She found this cardboard packing material that was folded, and gave it to Bethani and I to keep our socks organized (I still have mine).  Instead of giving away worn out quilts, Mom found some sheets and flannel and recovered them.  She has always kept our files (recipes, videos, cassettes, cds, etc.) in fantastic order and is constantly updating the family history; she’s been keeping a record of the family (including health records) from when she and Dad got married.

Here are the tidbits that I was able to get from Isaac.  I had to keep prodding him to tell me things.

I like the school in Orem and the school in Tennessee.  I like the best, Emma and Storm,  that’s my very best friends.  They go to school with me in Tennessee. 

I remember that at my school, last week had T-cup test week and that means that all the first graders had a T-cup test and they were testing all day, even when they’re eating.  We just go-ed into their rooms before the test and we gived him some things to be nice.  For four days it was on.  That’s a lot of days.  And the first graders might got tired at the end.

We’re going to the Zoo soon.  In Orem, we went to Pumpkinland.  I bought a pumpkin and went through the corn field maze.  [to me] You came and took a little group. [Which fieldtrip do you think would be more fun?]  I think the zoo will be less fun because there won’t be as much things to do.  It will just be full of animals.  I think he will teach us of animals.

Samuel and Bryson don’t listen to the best things to learn like counting one to a hundred, and counting by twos and by fives.  Bryson is the most lying.  He lies the most.  And Bryson is even naughtier than Samuel and now Samuel is even naughtier.  All the time Samuel doesn’t get treasure box, but just one time Bryson got treasure box so now Samuel turned into the naughtiest kid.

One day I learned about the naughty King.  He just did this thing.  He led them to church.  Like each person one at a time.  We had to do a war to get him out. {I remember him giving me a much better description than this, but his knowledge has soured a little with time}

I learned about how long insects can get to.  I just learned that they can get to as short as my hand to as short as two of my hands.

Where have you seen our Mom’s creativity and ingenuity in our childhoods, around the house, anywhere?

Believe it or not, I was once considered “gifted.”  There is a reason I always put that word in quotes.  Apparently our group was a point of contention for some of the teachers in the school.  One time we must have really annoyed the art teacher because she said that “you kids think you can get away with anything because you are quote-unquote gifted,” complete with air quotes.  I guess our superior intelligence made us inconsiderate of the little people.  Or something.  The social studies teacher had a thing against us too; she once accused a group of us of cheating because we had done particularly well on a certain assignment.  I’m trying to remember the two years clearly, but we were pretty isolated from the rest of the students at the school; in fact, I don’t think I had a single friend at Sharon Elementary who wasn’t in our group.

Overall, it was a really good experience.  There were always activities for us to do in our main class and a lot of units let us work at our own pace.  That meant that if you could blast through reading, you got to advance in math, because you had more time for it.  There were a ton of puzzles—jigsaw and otherwise—throughout the room that we got to use when we finished our work.  Our teacher, Mrs. Friel, would glue the jigsaw puzzles together and hang them around the room.  My favorite was the “Where’s Waldo” puzzle and there were others along those lines, all challenging, but great to work with and good collaborative activities.

Getting into the program was interesting.  I believe we were considered for the program based on standardized test scores.  I was pulled out of class for an afternoon and given a long series of not-tests where I had to describe solutions to problems and tell stories and solve logical problems; there may have even been drawing involved.

In those two years of school, we did a ridiculous amount of projects.  I saved a lot of them, and they fill a three inch binder.  You know those silly personality questionnaires that go around facebook and blogs?  I pretty much have a year’s worth done by ten-year-old me.  One of my favorite entries required me to draw, in little crystal balls, where I saw myself over time.  The results are eerily prophetic:

• 1 year later: at a desk with some books
• 5 years later: at a desk covered with books
• 10 years later: at a desk so full of books that I am no longer visible
• 15 years later: a picture of me crying

Of course, I also had to write a rap about Elisha Otis, and that really doesn’t say anything about my current life.

Here is a sample of my writing at the time, complete with typos.  I thought it was particularly appropriate because it is about my family:

The important thing about Laresa Cochran is she shares.  Sure she’s good at baking and cooking.  It’s true.  She likes chicken and peas and hates lima beans, cabbage, and spinach.  She’ creative and has a lot of stuffed toys, dolls and ceramic.  But, the important thing about Laresa Cochran is she shares.

The important thing about Mom and Dad is that they’re understanding.  Sure they are humorous, kind, generous, and helpful.  They’re good cooks and good bakers.  But the important thing about Mom and Dad is that they’re understanding.

The important thing about Heidi, Zach, and Bethani is that they enjoy music.  Sure they share and are good bakers.  They all like to read and enjoy holidays, but the important thing about Heidi, Zach, and Bethani is that they enjoy music.

The important thing about the Cochran family and Baggs family is that they are generous.  They share and are kind.  They are mostly boys, and not a lot of girls.  But the important thing about the Cochran family and the Baggs family is that they are generous.

The important thing about Rocky, Bullwinkle, Roger, and Tip is they they’re cuddley.  Sure they meow alot, eat alot, are nice, don’t scratch hard, and are playful.  But the important thing about Rocky, Bullwindle, Roger and Tip is that they are cuddley.

Incidentally, the handwriting incident I posted earlier is from these years.

I have a blog post ready to go, but I asked my mom to send some pictures in the mail to go with it and I am waiting for them to come.  I might be a little late than our week for this one.

In the meantime, I’ve written about my elementary school experience in some length on Virtute.org.  In the first one I wrote about riding the bus and my first few years of school and the second one I wrote about the last few years of elementary school.  I dug up a post that I wrote, but never posted on the subject of elementary school friends.

When I was in first or second grade, I loved coming home for lunch. It was 21/2 blocks away and my mother was there. I could fix my own jam sandwich, eat, visit, and play for 20 minutes, then off I would go, running so I wouldn’t be late. Then, the worst thing happened. The school opened a cafeteria. My sister was excited about it; not me. I wanted to go home to the familiar, not embark into the unknown and strange. It must have been about a year before I would venture into the cafeteria, with its lunch tickets, lines, trays and 3 course meals. We never knew ahead of time what would be served.  Some days would find me running home for those few minutes away from school; home for a homemade, folded in half, jam sandwich. Maybe two.

Yesterday I was on my way home to Knoxville from visiting family in Northwest Ohio.  I figured I’d take a detour and try to find the origin of my Cochran ancestors.  The first record I’ve been able to find of any Cochrans puts a James and John Cochran in cabins in what would become Higginsport in 1819, when a Stephan Colvin moved in.

There’s a stream north of the town named Cochran Run.  It’s not much to look at.

James Ziba Cochran, the first recorded Cochran in our family tree, was born in Higginsport in 1824.  His son, James Mason Cochran, was born in the same town in 1854.  Sometime after that they pulled up stakes and moved west.

I stopped at the cemetery in Higginsport to see if I could find any other ancestors.  It was in shoddy repair; gravestones toppled and illegible, many markers destroyed.  I looked at every single stone I could find to see if any of our people were there.  They might be; there are many unmarked graves and many with just a small, square, marble marker with a number on it.  There was no sexton to ask and no parking except at a home business (a trailer with a crude “bait shop” sign) next door.

I’m not holding my camera funny; everything really was slanted.

I asked at the people at the bait shop if they knew anyone named Cochran.  The man there said he used to mow lawns at the cemetery in Felicity, and that there were lots of Cochrans there.  It was a dead end; there were a few kind of similar names, but no Cochrans.

I had hoped to stop in Maysville, Kentucky, just across the river, to find another ancestor.  By the time I got there, it was getting late in the day and I had to head for home.  The cemetery there is much larger and in better repair, so I think I could call ahead and have someone to direct me.