A Very Very Very Fine House

It has been said that a young man from the country can go to the city and learn all it's ways but a young city man can never learn all the things a farmer knows.

I suppose the same could be said about Native American culture before it was badly damaged.

The Cheyenne used three pole tepee, that is, the beginning framework erected with three and the

rest were added. The Crow used a four pole. This appears to be a three pole but I'm not an expert.

The reader can see the rope that is looped around the top of the poles and tied to a stake in the center on the tepee. It also had a liner on the inside to stand against thirty below winter nights. Most had a half ceiling to hold the smoke and heat from buffalo chips a little longer before it escaped through the top. Many had one buffalo tail left on a hide directly in the back to help the woman orient the door. Flaps could be turned to draw smoke away in the wind or could be closed.

This is just a sprinkling of things that would have gone unnoticed to the stranger. Different tribes could identify each other from long distances by the shape of their head dresses, and other features known only to them and a few white trappers.

School Days

I was reading a page on "Organizing For America"
It said in part that more funds and energy must be applied to preschool
This is the time in a child's life when much learning takes place.
So the Government will be taking our children out of our homes earlier.
Those who read my blog know what this is about.

Half Bath

Can't imagine getting out of bed on a cold Montana night and making a run for this place.

Well, actually I have some memories from 1955 Tennessee.

When the system fails, discarded corn cobs newspapers and old magazines will once again return to more useful purposes.

Fourteen Hands

Native Americans have been witnessed riding a horse full speed shooting smooth bore guns then charging the gun with powder and spitting lead balls down the gun barrel to fire again and again. If they got a gun the first thing they would do was to cut the barrel off and knock off the sights to make it lighter.

If they got pants from the trading post, they cut the legs off them, threw away the pant and made leggings from the legs. More comfortable.

Before guns they adapted their weapons for horses. The clubs were made with much longer handles to reach his opponent. He didn't need a long bow. The bow was very short. He could ride along side the buffalo and shoot it in the side. No More Buffalo Jumps (cliffs to run them off)

A Pale Horse

I once asked my junior high class what Indian ponies ate when the Montana snows were knee deep and winter lasted months.

Some said corn. One said horse feed.

Maybe they thought a store was just down river.

Horses were a sign of wealth, the more horses, the higher the owner's status. Actually the braves stripped large sheets of bark off cottonwood trees to feed their animals. Still the mortality rate was somewhere around 20%

March - Moon When The Ponies Shed

Horses that escaped from the Spanish in Central America and Mexico drifted northward. They reached Northern Texas around 1600, the Northern Plains by the early to mid 1700's and Canada around 1770.

Native Americans quickly moved from working dogs pulling travois to horses. The native American glory days of the 1800's were because of the European horse and the European firearm.

Horse soldiers complained that Indian ponies weren't necessarily faster but ran much further leaving exhausted, overloaded Army horses in the dust.

Stuart's Horse Artillery

"the 9th Virginia, the regiment which also received the oldest son of General Robert E. Lee,---
late stroke oar at Harvard, a gentleman said to be too big for a man and not big enough for a horse, called Rooney."
John Pelham commanded Stuart's Artillery. According to Thomasson he always got close to the enemy with canister. He commanded nineteen guns at Sharpsburg; fifty at Fredricksburg.
He was the only lower officer ever mentioned in General Lees official reports. He refered to him as the "Gallant Pelham."
"Jeb Stuart, riding with one of Fitz Lee's regiments as a volunteer sabre, bowed on his horse's neck and wept, when they told him of Pelham's death."
"Von Borcke was detailed to escort John Pelnam home to Alabama: the body went in an open casket, and at every stop the people thronged to see him, lying dead with the pleasant, smooth face of a boy."
There is a town in Alabama named - - - - - -

One of my favorite books: "Jeb Stuart" by John Thomasson

A'bloom

It is said that man began life in a beautiful garden.

He dreams of its return.

A Girl's Best Friend

Diamond T; company started around 1905 building automobiles; later became known for its trucks; became a subsidiary of White Motor Co.; around 1967 merged with Reo Motor Co. and became a country band.

Sorry, didn't mean to loose you - Country Music Band Diamond Reo = = = = Oh, how bout REO Speed Wagon!

Spring In Mississippi

Things are bursting out down here; taken today near the Noxubee River. Noxubee is Choctaw for Stinking Water.

C.S. Lewis on Tyranny

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under Robber Barrons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The Robber Barron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

C. S. Lewis

Lessons Learned

The American Citizenry is learning a lesson they should have been taught in Junior High.
That is: When Statists, be they up and coming Stalinist or Nazi set out subdue the country, rules, laws, constitutions, and custom are jettisoned. Simultaneously they hold their opponents (the people) to their own stringent rules and decorum.

Who Has The Right of Way

Columbus, Mississippi keeps lazy watch
at the confluence of the Luxapalilia and
Tombigbee Rivers.
April brings Confederate Memorial Day
and guests touring antebellum homes
surrounded by dogwood and azalea.

Federal soldiers burned many beautiful places between Memphis and Birmingham including The University of Alabama sixty five miles east. General N.B. Forrest kept Columbus from a similar fate.
(this is my granddaughter May chasing April)

A Happy Place

Everyone has a happy place even if it's a memory or a dream.

No Doubt

This pool has one ruler

The Way

The way is called straight.

U.S. 51

Mississippi

Few travel it

Save Me The Neck Clark

Back in the 1600's the Scots were some kind of serious about making England a Calvinist Government rather than Anglican. Thousands of them signed a covenant proclaiming their desire. Some cut themselves and signed with their own blood. Some wore red cloth or scarves about their necks to identify with the Presbyterian church. These were the first "Rednecks" according to some yarn spinners. Others say it was coal miners striking in West Virginia wearing the crimson rag. Sounds like the miners are left in the dark on first dibs.

All this time I thought the first one was my ole buddy Roy Gene.
He's definitely blue collar.

Write Your Own Books

The news reported that forty states followed the lead of Texas on the purchase of school books.
Common sense would tell me that since Texas buys so many books, it would be reasonable to assume if your state added a million to that number it would be cheaper.

If citizens are going to complain about their kids being led to the slaughter by Progressive teaching, the only solution is for each state to draw up its own book requirements and pay a little more. You can't have it both ways.

It's really simple. I buy books written decades ago. History books actually include real history.

Cover To Shining Cover

I've been hearing a lot about the Texas Chain Saw Textbook uproar.
Accusations flying, ideals crashing, others taking off
Someone directed me to the official drafts and changes for new Lone Star textbooks.
Who knows, I don't trust half of what I see on the web (caught myself in a lie once)
It's always best to go to the source if possible. This thing looked official to me. I believe it was because a leader from some group representing separation of church and state appeared on the news tonight stating that there are no Christian roots to our founding.
My take on it was, he didn't much like the Constitution and Natural Law being included.
When the left wing-nuts come out wringing their hands you know there is fire below the smoke.
Surely this guy can read - - - - unless he has two left eyes - - - I never thought of that - - - - - -
You know, we all haven't evolved equally. Apparently Progressives wallowed in less stagnant pools of slime than the rest of us.------------I'll bet his ancestors were flounders.

School Days

I was wondering where my old high school history book wound up. I spent a lot of time in that hard bound to get a "C" if I was lucky.
You see, I wrote funny captions above almost every picture in that book. I won't go into detail, but if your work is good, all the kids around you begin to laugh. That draws attention you don't want.
Sometimes I go to the computer and Youtube Junior Walker David Letterman. Those happy times blow in on squealing saxophone notes.

How could a young man dislike history and hate literature so much and one day love them so?

What Can I Say

I was making excuses to Lori for my poor shooting. How bout this one.

Jake Blues pleading with his old fiancee not to shoot him for not showing up at their wedding.

"I ran out of gas. I got a flat tire. I didn't have change for cab fare. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts. IT WASN"T MY FAULT, I SWEAR - - - -

Then he puts that handsome look on her. Ha

Consider the Ant

I've been preparing for when the system fails. Pretty good shootin huh?

180 shots, eleven holes from twenty yards.

So, jus so yu know

Don't mess wid me

I be done tole yu

I'm Bad

Nasty

Trigger happy

Tough

Skuze me jus a minute - - - - Bob, bring me two aspirin and that bottle of liniment.

Coke anyone

It seems that during the reign of King James I there was a lot of yapping between the Crown and Parliament as to which power would be ultimate law.
Enter Chief Justice Coke, head of the Common Lawyers. (wonder if he is related to cousin Neal)
Chief says, "Yo James, and you Par Fives, I've got a great idea!"
Let's have a third power in this circus making three rings.
I say, let the Judges decide what is law.
This quickly raised the ire of both sides.
Parliament burned his car and the King took his Ipod.
He was banned from Starbucks.

This snort of Coke wasn't wasted. Some good ole boys were watching from afar colonies in America. They whipped out their turkey quills and wrote up The Articles of Confederation but got a "D" on their paper. On the next try they came up with a new and improved document stating that power would be divided between Legislative, Executive, and not least of all Judicial.
It actually worked pretty well for one hundred and fifty years

Suite

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Home Is Where The Flag Is

Please come to Boston for the springtime.

I'm stayin' here with some friends and they've got lotsa room.

March In Mississippi

Aaaahhh March in Mississippi
Comes in like a lion
Goes out like a cheap flashlight


Kalends
Nones
Ides

Chuck Darwin

I heard a story today and decided to look it up.
In 1904, during the World's Fair, pygmies were kept in a cage with primates for exhibition. This was at the Bronx Zoo.
Australians who had not long been released in the wilds of their new home were hunting Aborigines for sport. Not to be cruel but that does give a different perspective to "Who Let the
Dawgs Out."
We all know that the nation is split over evolution and creationism. Is it just me or does belief in evolution often result in horror.
Hitler it is reported to have kept a copy of Darwin's book "The Origin of Species." close by.
I repeat from an earlier posting, this wasn't the full name of the book.

It was "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle For Life."

Now doesn't that sound more like Uncle Adolph and today's eugenics.
Come to think of it, being call scum could be a compliment from the right/wrong person.

Tarzan

Today I got to thinking about watching those old Tarzan movies from the 30's staring that Olympic swimmer Johnny Wiseacre.
I could never figure out how he could swing out over the jungle and just in the right place there was another vine to grab hold to. We kids could always find one vine but often slammed against the tree trunk or the darn thing would pull away from the tree top just as we were feet first in the air.
Another thing that bugged me, why did that dummy go around kissing on that stupid monkey when Jane was hanging around in her teddy?

Business Meetings

I really don't like business meetings. The only thing that took the sting out of last week was staying at the Gaylord Hotel at Opreyland, Nashville. It must be my advanced years, because I was continuously lost among the waterfalls, fountains, jungles, and tourists, not to mention trying to find my room with a four digit number.

Cotton pickers should stay out of big towns.

This Car is a Stud

I remember as a child riding with my uncle Nile in one of these not so attractive cars. This is a 1951 Studebaker. Note the suicide doors.

My understanding is that these fifty-ish models were designed to imitate the WWII fighter planes. The nose comes to a point where an imaginary propeller would be.

Years later the 57, 58, 59, and 60 American automobiles had rear fins like the new rockets being built. (John Kennedy's space program)

My Uncle Warren owned an early 50's pickup. It is obvious that the people have spoken with their pocket books leaving Studebaker in the dust.