Perhaps you need to be of a certain age to recognize the name of Hyman G. Rickover. Or perhaps you are not aware that he was born in Russia on this date in the year 1900.

His parents made the decision to leave Russia and settle their family in Chicago in 1906. When I read that, it struck me how just one decision made by an individual or a couple can change the course of history.

Rickover graduated from the US. Naval Academy. He went on to work his way up through the ranks to head the Naval Reactors Branch of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and head of the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Division. He was instrumental in the design and construction of the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine.

He was known as a blunt man who sometimes butted heads with political leaders. Nevertheless, he went down in history as “Father of the Nuclear Navy.” The Soviet Union was unable to match the nuclear power held by the US military during the Cold War, and Admiral Rickover’s contributions and service were very much credited with that standing.

Admiral Rickover served in the United States Navy for 63 years, retiring in 1982.

Imagine how world history might have taken a different turn in the 1950s and beyond if Rickover’s parents had decided to stay in Russia in 1906.

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Some reflections

After thinking about how one decision can change or set the path for the rest of our lives, as it did for Hyman G. Rickover and his parents, I thought about the decision made by my ancestors.

What about the day in the mid-1700s when my Morrison great-great-great-great-grandparents decided to leave Scotland and sail to America?

What about the day they decided to purchase land in the wilderness of North Carolina and set out down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania?

What about the day my father applied for a job at Martin Aircraft in Middle River, Maryland and uproot his young family at the start of World War II?

What about the day he and Mama decided to move back to North Carolina as soon as the war was over?

What about the day Grandpa Morrison decided how to divide his farm among his three sons. His decision about what land to give his youngest son determined where I grew up and once again live today!

If my father had inherited the land Grandpa left to Uncle Gene, my parent’s house would have been destroyed by a tornado in the 1940s.

If my father had inherited that part of the farm instead of Uncle Gene, he would have rebuilt that house after the tornado just as Uncle Gene and Aunt Louise did. In that case, I would now be faced with the imminent construction of an 1,100-house development literally in my back yard. Thanks to Grandpa’s decision, I will live around the corner from that massive development and will, for the time being, still enjoy the beauty, tranquility, and wildlife of the woods behind my house.

Decisions.

And those are just examples from my Morrisons. My life and world view have been molded by the thousands of decisions made by all my ancestors. The same is true for you. Have you ever stopped to think about that?

Sometimes we agonize over a decision, and sometimes we make a choice on a whim. We usually have no idea how our decisions will affect those who come after us. We can make their lives easier or more difficult. We all just do the best we can with the information we have at the time.

Try not to judge your ancestors, and grant yourself forgiveness and grace for the choices you wish you hadn’t made. You did the best you could at the time. Like your ancestors, you did not have a crystal ball to see into the future.

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Hurricane Helene Update

At the request of NC Gov. Josh Stein, FEMA’s Transitional Shelter Assistance program extended coverage of temporary housing in rental units/motels until May 26, 2025, for people who lost their homes in September in western NC due to Hurricane Helene. The coverage had been scheduled to end on January 18. With sub-zero temperatures and windchills in the negative double digits for days, people being turned out of temporary rental housing would have been another disaster for those individuals and families. Temporary housing assistance will not automatically be extended for everyone. Each case is periodically reviewed.

President Trump visited the Asheville area on Friday and talked about water in California, making Canada the 51^st state, and what a good-looking guy Franklin Graham is. When he managed to focus on where he was, he said several times that he would be going out “to the site,” which sounds like the disaster was limited to one location. It actually covers hundreds of square miles of pockets of destruction in a challenging terrain.

Trump also said that NC had been treated “very unfairly” by FEMA, but the mayor of Asheville said she wasn’t sure what he was basing that remark on. Trump said he wants to overhaul FEMA or perhaps get rid of it. He left the impression that FEMA hasn’t done anything to help western NC since Hurricane Helene. He wants money to go through “us” (did he mean him? He said, “through us”) directly to the states and not through FEMA. He also talked about putting a litmus test on states before they could get federal disaster funds.

(I’m sure FEMA is not perfect, but to claim the agency has failed NC just is not true. There is confusion over what FEMA’s role is in a disaster. It will be interesting to see how disasters in the future are addressed if FEMA is overhauled or dismantled. There’s always room for improvement.)

As of Friday, 183 roads in North Carolina are still closed due to Hurricane Helene, including Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line. There is no estimate for when the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina will be fully reopened.

In these remaining 183 cases, it’s not just a matter of resurfacing a road, some cases involve reconstructing entire roadbeds (many on the side of mountains), reconstruction of infrastructure, and reconstruction of bridges. County roads, state highways, and Interstates 26 and 40 have been affected.

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Until my next blog post

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

I hope you are reading a good book. I just finished reading The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

What decision(s) have you and your ancestors made that you realize now had long-range and perhaps unanticipated ramifications?

Remember the people of Ukraine, western North Carolina, and Los Angeles County.

Janet