Saturday, April 19, 2003
FLOOR FIXIN' (Clayhill #2)
We bought an older house that year.1951, I think it must have been.
We realized it need "some fixin' up" and among our initial project was the repair of the floor in a single-storied, add-on appended to the north side of the two-storied frame house. It had been added, we were told, by the sons of the original owner as their father grew old and was bed-bound. It became downstairs bedroom for him in his final days. It was sized so he could lie abed and reach light switches on either side of the room with a cane. It was next to a bathroom, too. Very sensible, we thought.
Subsequent owners of the house did not use the room, but we coveted it as a den, office or library area... to be lined with books, surrounding a desk and typewriter.
When we did a "walk through “ of the house the center of the floor was occupied by a pile of discarded clothing items. It was a collection of once colorful feminine apparel since the previous occupants had been a mother and her two post-teen aged daughters.The mound was part of the cleaning out of a good many years of living. It was only when we removed the memorial pile that we discovered the floor was rotted through by a roof leak which had been patched too late,
We hired the Clayhill brothers, Melvin and Timothy, to repair the floor. They came by to look at what was needed and they were back next morning at seven to begin work. I had seen, and heard, the Clayhill brothers work before and knew what to expect. Their rather unusual M.O. was closely allied with conversation. As soon as the hammers started pounding, or saws whirring., both Melvin and Timothy, started talking to each other. Of necessity, they had to talk louder than most people do and the result was a running conversation punctuated by hammer blows and other construction noises. To this day, I remember what they talked about. That's how I know it was early in 1951 because their main topic of discussion was about a hot news topic.
Melvin started it, I'm sure – with the first hammer blow:. “That feller Truman knows what he's doin'! He done right to fire that fancy-pants General MacArthur!” Timothy disagreed. “Don't know that's true at all! What's he done that ain't right? Name me one thing...just one....!” The hammer continued, and there was a splintering of wood as they ripped up part of the old, rotted floor.
Melvin: “He messed up there in them islands you remember, don't you? Had to go back!” Timothy warmed up to the opening subject and started quote Biblical passages, which was his usual tactic. I left because I had other things to do, but outside I could still hear the carpenter clamor and comment. I don' t think they ever stopped talking, because the next time I was in the house they were still at it... working away, but they had veered away President Harry Truman having sacked General Douglas MacArthur.
Precisely at noon, they announced they were quitting for the day, because they had promised a nearby farmer they would finish up some work they were doing for him. The very next morning at seven, there they were back again. I stayed around to hear the opening salvo with Brother Timothy in charge. They were off, mouths running, with the first hammer and they were reworking a favorite subject: “sin and suffering in the world and why God allows it to happen”. I had to leave. I don't know, but I can imagine what their opposite views might have been.
The Clayhill boys were an odd team. They drove separate pick-up trucks They worked only together. If one became ill; the other one would not work alone.
A.L.M. April 18. 2003 [c1014wds]
Friday, April 18, 2003
SQUID STATS
Certainly, many interesting things have been in the news this month of April 2003. Among them , I think, was the story about a group of New Zealand fishermen, catching a rather impressive squid.
It was a young female of a certain type which grows ever larger than the so-called “Giant Squid”. They usually stay below 2000 meters, and are know to be an extremely active killer at depths of 6,561 feet, This dainty female weighed in at 300 pounds. It was sixteen feet long and it had razor sharp hooks in its tentacles. Its eyes measured about the size of your favorite dinner plate. Squid authorities say that, if this female had been allowed to grow into an adult stage, the result would be far larger than any squids seen. Their existence does not come as a surprise, because their hooks and beaks have been found in the stomachs of sperm whales for many years. Judging from the many cases in which such residue has been found, it is speculated that there must be a considerable population of such super-giant squid in the Antarctic waters.
This squid has different food requirements too, when compared to the hungry Giant which, normally, chooses small prey. The colossal model going under the official name of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni ,and most likely, referred to as a “"hamilton"” or a “messo-ham” squid by men and women who talk about such things, also has a favorite food, faring well eating six-foot-long Patagonian toothfish. The eater's large cutlery equipped appendages - arms and tentacles - slashing hooks on tentacles and arms, probably help make the toothfish, tastier and much more tender on the way down.
It is unusual for this particular type of squid to be caught, but several have been washed up in the surf, often in sections, after suffering accidental death. They have been in common “use” among writers of fiction and fable writers in various languages for many years, usually depicted as a fury-driven creatures capable of trapping and sinking large ships. We still have much to learn about marine life in the lower depths of the sea. As we develop abilities need to do so, we can expect a surprise now and then when something unusual turns up. A fully grown “hamiltoni” squid may well be the next. You tend to it, when it does. I'll just sit back here and watch, thank you.
A.L.M. April 16, 2003 [c628wds]
Thursday, April 17, 2003
PRATT
When I was in grade school; and high school it was not at all uncommon for boys , and some girls, to drop out of school for various reasons. In the mid-twenties, I suppose, it must have been that school officials tightened up a bit on truants and drop outs.
I can remember feeling sorry for those who had to drop out so they could go to work and help their family exist.
Some were just indolent and didn't want to be in school from the start, and, in most cases, we were better off without such trouble makers an misfits.
Some looked and who was born in North Middleborough, Mass. in 1808 viewed it in that manner, and quit school at age fifteen in his eagerness to get started on a business career which he confidently would make him wealthy and admired.
He moved his meager belongings to Boston, first, and then, to Baltimore, where he studied “merchandising”. He did in so by investing in a wheelbarrow which he filled with salable items and worked the streets selling them. Some must have thought him to be a peddler and little more, but he prospered and went on to bigger and better things. During the Civil War he found selling horseshoes to the military to be as worthy occupational sideline and thereafter the “peddler” became a “banker” He dropped out of the peddler scene entirely and became a true businessman with many interests.
Soon we was named to be President of the Wilmington and Baltimore Railway, President of Baltimore Clearing House, and of the Maryland Bankers Association and he gained control of the Maryland Steamboat Company in 1872 and he was also a Director of the Susquehanna Channel for over twenty five years. He invested heavily in fire insurance companies.
Enoch Pratt was a rich man. He had earned the fortune he dreamed about as a high school drop out, but something was amiss – and this, I think echo from his decision to leave school as a youth. He was every bit of the successful businessman he dreamed about becoming, but he realized the people thought of him as a stand-offish loner who's only thought was profit!
In spite of leaving school, he was still a student of living, and he looked about to see what was wrong with his life and why he was so misjudged. He saw an example of what he wanted to be in a contemporary of his - George Peabody. Enoch Pratt re-arranged his life – quite “school“, we might think, and, once more, went totally against logic and became one of the three greatest philanthropists he City of Baltimore has known -...George Peabody, Johns Hopkins and Enoch Pratt.
Enoch Pratt used his wealth to build the Baltimore Free Library, an institution which has prospered and now has twenty-five branches serving millions. He stipulated that the library must “always be free to all” . He opposed slavery. He build a free school and library in his home town of Middleborough, Mass. and donated funds to increase the capacity of the hospital to over one hundred patients.
My reading concerning Enoch Pratt has been rather limited, I agree, but I find it of special interest that, at no point, have I chanced upon a hint of his social life. How he conducted himself? If he married and had children? I wonder how he got along with others, and I hope you will join with me in searching out additional details of his life. We should study this go-getter of a man and his accomplishments.
There is a modern day parallel in progress ,too. We listen rather intently most evenings to a half dozen or so personalities bringing us the day's news. One of them was a high school drop-out.
Now, you can wonder which one it might have been.
A.L.M. April 16, 2003 [c1005wds]
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
SPLEEN
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Your spleen is shaped like a small, curled up fist, tucked under the left side of your diaphragm. It seems to be one of the least discussed organs of the body and most of us don't even know its purpose and we remain unaware of what it does to control our general well-being.
Your spleen is the guardian of your life.
No doubt you have known people who, for one reason or another,r such as severe car crash, have ruptured their spleen and had it removed. Many seem to get along well enough without it, at least for a time, when we read they have died of what is usually seen as something totally unrelated to the lack of a spleen. Even after a splenectormy,life goes on... it appears.
In truth, however, after the loss of the spleen, a person very often has problems with overwhelming bacterial infections of the blood. Old folks may call it "poisoning of the blood”... but, strictly speaking,it is known as “sepsis”.
These facts, alone, should demonstrate to us the functions of this vital organ.
The spleen receives blood from an artery from the aorta. I became very much aware of this a year or so ago when my abdominal aorta was suddenly found to be distended and about ready to ...well - “explode” is the exact word, although “pop” might do just as well. The discovery came about accidentally, too, because the x-rays were taken seeking evidence of polyps in the lower intestinal tract.
The blood from the aorta belong the heart is, then, passed through an intricate meshwork of tiny blood vessels, before it is passed along to the liver. Those tiny blood vessels are surrounded by nests of B lymphocytes, mostly of a type which has a “memory” of what has passed by them before. In the blood itself T-cells monitor the flow for any non-self invaders... anything that does not belong there. When they find any thing that is suspicious, it is sent to a memory-B cell for evaluation in relation to what has passed that way before. Once a B lymphocyte has matched a foreign body with those it has on file, it begins to produce antibodies directed precisely against that invading enemy.
A person without a spleen, or with a damaged spleen, does not have have such protection.
In addition, the blood vessels of the spleen are lined with “macrophages” which swallow and digest “debris” found in the blood. That’s what becomes, in case you’ve wondered, of worn- out, discard red blood cells and platelets. This needs to be pointed out because, is disease such as “mono” - mononucleosis - the macrophages of the spleen become overactive and start to trap and destroy a larger number of white blood cells. In such a case, the spleen may become swollen and subject to rupture.
I, for one, think it is important that we all start looking for both medical and common sense guidelines concerning the proper care and management of the spleen. It is far too important to be relegated to a second-place or also-ran position.
A.L.M. April 14, 2003 [c523wds]
PRAISE.
Can you take it?
Praise. How do you react when someone compliments you for some little act they appreciated?
It may puzzle you to find that many people, cannot handle praise very well. And yet, it has long ago been realized that people get a pretty accurate estimate of who and what we really are from the manner in which we respond to a compliment.
Today, more than ever before, when communications place us in actual contact with so many more people than ever before, it is nice to be appreciated. How do you react when someone says you are doing a fine job at whatever it is you do?
Oh, yes. It does happen.
Every time you do anything for someone else and they say "Thank you!", they are praising your conduct. We are complemented a dozen times a day and let such praise drift by without reaction. You can always acknowledged having heard the praise, by simply "I'm glad I could help out." Or - " Others do it for me!' or. You say something tending to discount the important of it all. There's no reason for you to look away, drag the toe of your shoe in the dust and turn red. Learn to express sincere praise for others when they do their work well, or extend a special kindness to you or to others you know to be needy and worthy.
Praise pales promptly, too, as a rule. "If you don't use it you lose it!" is a fine, old truism which applies to almost any value in living. It's true of praise - coming and going. If it concerns you that you are not getting the praise you think you deserve, you have special - but not exceptionally rare - problem.
Ovid, who thought about such things as this back in the early AD times ,when trying to determine the character a newcomer asked: "And, how does he receive praise?"
People judge our basic personality though such simple tests They do so without thinking about it. hey don't conduct a survey to determine how it could be to their advantage do so. Praise stems from keep within our true being.
And, it quickly becomes a two-way street, as well. And example: Many years ago a former resident of Soviet Russia wrote what I considered to be a fine one. He had revisited his home area during one of those “de-freezing” lulls Stalin tried. He wrote vividly of his reactions on going home. The book was published here under the title:"House Without a Roof” and a great many potential readers did not realize it was a book about Soviet culture. It dealt with Soviet plans to build many structures ...sturdy walls but never completed to the point at which they could support a “roof” on any of them. I liked the book the very much and I wrote to the author in care of the publisher of the book. A few weeks later I had generous "Thank you" letter from the famed writer - Maurice Hindus -in response to my “Thank You.” I treasure that letter in which he enlarged upon much that had been left unsaid in the book.
Praise that which you find to be honest, sincere and good. It is rewarding in so many ways.
A. L. M. April 15. 2003 [c563wds]
Monday, April 14, 2003
BROTHERS
They lived not too far from where I do now.
The house they were born in has long since given way to one of those combination Fuel Centers for Men and Motors. Fast food for slow people, gas for both cars and persons, rest rooms between - all under one roof.
Melvin, the oldest of the two Clayhill brothers, was small-boned, skinny as a kid, and he always seemed to have an inquiring sort of nervous anticipation in his attitude as if he sensed that something important was going to take place at any moment. Timothy, his younger brother, was a chubby kid from the day he was born. He was always taller than Melvin, and from eighteen on he always semed to have a belly on him that was just about ready to fall over his belt but never did. He was friendlier than Melvin, folks said and more like their mother - a Lester girl from down Tuckahoe way in Eastern Virginia.Their dad, Brutus , was Valley stock. His was the only "Brutus" I have ever knew.
Brutus Clayhill had been a carpenter, and good one, and for that reason his boys were automically to be capenters as well. That was the way careers where chosen in those days. Whatever the father did, his sons were were predestined to do the same thing - only better. Melvin and Tim were doubly dubbed because their Granddaddy was said to have been a carpenter of sorts, himself. Some of the work Brutus Clayhill did is still around and people who know such things tell me it shows an extremely competent hand was at work. His sons, however, not exactly carpenters by choice, skipped a generation to be like their granddaddy in that repect.
My own grandfather would have called them "wood butchers”, but that would have been grossly unfair because they did what could be called “rough work”, but they did it well. If anyone needed a new hog pen, a horse stall, feed racks, or an additon to the barn - something useful; and practical - they called the Clayhill brothers.
You always got both of them. They grew apart as they became adults.They each helped build the other a house at least a mile apart; they each married girls from other areas, and lived oddly different lives apart from each other. Yet, they always worked as a team. They worked with each other, or not at all. They came to be commonly understood by farmers in the area, even some folks in nearby towns, who made use of their services.
I realize I have never said a word to you before about the Clayhill Brothers, but not too long ago, someone suggested that they had both been gone long enough now, for me to pass along some of the interesting things those two did,or told about. You will be reading more about the Clayhills - Melvin and Timothy, in the weeks and months, and , I hope, years ahead.
A. L. M. April 14, 2003 [c499wds]
Sunday, April 13, 2003
SINCERITY
If those nation's which objected so strongly to our war with Iraq now wish to become a central power in the restoration of that land, what might we think of their sincereity?
Just a few weeks ago, they were strongly berating our intentions and seemed to feel the people of Irag did not want or need, any help in ridding themselves of an oppressive dictatorship. They predicted all kinds of difficulties and cried : "Hold Off!.. Wait! ....Not Now!....Never". They depicted our actions as being those of a demented, unthinking brute intent on killing as many innocents as as possible.
What stance should we assume? What position might we choose, or what could, or should be our attitude in regard to this burst of "Me, too-ism". It seems that it comes ,too, not as a suggestion but rather as a request, mainly from France, Russia and Germany, and that does not put the entire thing in a good light at all. It is somewhat ironic because they seem to be intent on giving the impression they are speaking on behalf of the United Nations rather on their own, nationalistic preferences.
We had best ask for, and even demand if it need be that way, an honest accounting from the three powers concerning heir endangered financial holdings in the vanquished Saddam Hussien's Iraq. Both France and Russia were heavily involved in complex deals with Saddam and their priamary concern at the present moment is to see to it that any nedw government set up in Iraq will "honor" the deals they made with Saddam's minnions. They want to be sure they can collect that which the toppled ruler owed them. That was, many people think, the primary reason they stayed out of the war, using UN unity as an excuse, They wanted to prevent, as they still do, any sudden drain on their national money bags.
Only such an accounting could level the playing field a bit to show where everyone stood as reconsruction of Iraq began. This knowledge should be available to all. We owe, at least, a word f appreciation to those who did support us in the war effort even though were unable to contribute funds , supplies or troops to the war effort. Their support was more important than we willl ever know, I dare say. History will show we were not "alone" as so many want to make it seem, in knowing it was the right action to take.
Our ultimate answer to them should be "yes" All nations should work together to restore Iraq, just as all nations should be sending aid to famine stricken men, women and children in Efthiopia. It is time for the UN to awaken to the opportunity it faces rather than to become embroiled in petty nationalist tactics. The United Nations has brought about many positve changes in many areas. It has a strong set of reasons why it should continue. We helped helped to start it; we helped to maintain it, and we will help to sustain it in difficult times.
A.L.M. April 12, 2003 [c434wds]
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