Saturday, September 09, 2006
THE WATERMELON CASE Maybe someone on the Eastern Shore of Virginia can tell me how “The Watermelon Case” came out in the Fall of 1980. Certainly anyone who lived in Northumberland or Accomac County during that time, must remember when the Rev.. Alvin G. Reid, brought charges against Phillip R. Custis, owner of one of the largest farms whom he accused of having “unlawfully destroyed some of Reid's watermelons by running a pickup truck over them.” Reid and Custis each operated produce sales stands along Highway U.S. 13. Reid said that Custis had asked him to move his stand and when he refused to do so, Custis destroyed his watermelons. I know about this case because I used to keep notebooks about strange little quirky twists in the news which I might someday wish to write about it in these pages. The last notation I have was a short newspaper clipping dated August 8, 1980 from Eastville, Virginia telling all persons interested that the pending “Watermelon Case” would not be heard by Judge Wescott Northham who had declared himself disqualified. One of three other judges of the General District Federal Court. I have often wonder why the Judge thought the case to be of sufficient notoriety to make excuse himself from hearing it. I found that the judge was in a partnership with State Senator William E. Fears, a Democrat who had to beat off a challenge from Custis, a Republican nominee for Fear's seat in the Senate the previous year. During that campaign Custis had accused Fears of “cronyism” in getting Northam appointed to the General Court bench over a sitting judge. That made sense but I wondered at the time where they would find a judge who wasn't in some way with the long long vines watermelon cases so commonly put out when growing. I never heard anything more of the celebrated “Watermelon Case” of the Eastville vicinity. To me, it seemed to have the basic element the feuds in Scotland or among the Appalachian Mountain descendants of quarreling Scot Highlanders. Did it come to trial? Did it amount to anything ,or like the Reverend Reid's truck-tire treated melons simple die on the vine? Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 9-9-06 [c378wds]
Friday, September 08, 2006
ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE At the moment, our newspaper people are writing in abundance concerning the very thing which so many of the general public find to be difficult to discuss: Blame. We seek something or someone on which we might point to as being the cause of frequent mishaps, sub-normal conditions, or even outright disasters. Bar none, someone is at the bottom of every wrong choice we make. We are responsible for that scheme which worked well, or, at least to be benefit of many - those of us who praise it. It may seem to be difficult for us to blame individuals for such conditions and events but it is being done daily and it appears with a strong degree of certainty and justification. Want to know who caused the Katrina Hurricane disaster(s)? Make sure of of your personal political party affiliation, then have at the long list of possible names: Mayor Nagin, President George W. Bush, The Democratic Governor of Louisiana whatever her name was, the head of FEMA, the Army Corp of Engineer, the Senate, the House, any ward-heeler in the in New Orleans Ninth Ward, any owner of property in the French Village area of the city; black people in general, and government employees at all levels – ward, parish, state, national plus a few international rulers who have not expressed their sorrow for your misfortune in the form of special gifts. Print out your list of the thing which have gone wrong and you can easily match up certain names who might seem to be, at least, part of the cause for such a thing being allowed to have happened. Establish any such landfall and you can enlarge on your intrusive concept to no end as you please. Truth must, however, must be treated always as an incidental consideration. Recently Republicans many areas have objected to the showing a movie concerning the 9/11 tragedy. We are approaching the anniversary date of that horrible event as we will be doing each year from now, but many Republicans have objected to the showing of the film because it, in a sense, blames the G.O.P. for laxity Home Defense preparations. Now, this very morning, I find a major newspaper voice raised claiming that the fault for 9/11 rests with former President William Jefferson Clinton who was far more interested and immediately concerned with his rather sordid affair with Monica Lewinsky to be expected to be even aware of any terrorist plans for an attack on the United States. This bit of gander sauce is thought by some to be sadly out of place, but it will be the rule, I think, for political actions leading up to our next Presidential Election in 2008. Prepare yourself. Get a copy of the best, most-banned “Street Language Dictionary/Thesaurus” you can ferret out. Hang on to it. It'll come in handy, one of these days. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 9-7-06 [c497wds]
Thursday, September 07, 2006
DRAWING LINES Ever since the trouble we had in Kuwait some years back, we have talked about “drawing lines in the sand”. The idea comes in handy every time we are involved in affairs of a desert area. It usually means that the time has come to call a halt to whatever unpleasant actions might be in progress. There is one desert area where “lines” were drawn long, long ago and we don't, to this day, know why they were drawn, by whom, how, or if their being where they are means anything in our civilization now in its 2lst century of development. The display was unknown until the 1930's when aircraft were survey ing the area seeking new sources of water. Many travelers on the earth's surface must have wondered about the straight path they used as roads and at the regular crossing of the roads leading to no place in particular. Air surveys revealed an inventory of seventy such figures which they came to call “Biomorphs” including spider, a giant humming bird, a monkey with a spiral tail and a pelican a thousand feet long! Specialists have counted about nine hundred other designs called “Geomorphs”. These are mainly geometric drawings of simple lines, cycles, fixtures, shapes and complex systems of lines. There are straight lines in abundance. The longest of these lines measures nine miles! We have used the term “drawing”. In truth the process used in Peru might be call “with-drawing”. The area is covered with scattered, reddish colored rocks. If you wished to form a dark line, form the rocks in such a place as needed. If you want a wider line, more rocks, please! To make a wide road or what appears to be landing strip or runway to flyers. That's how the Inca did it in Peru – Bolivia, too. No hurry. Take your time. People who keep count of such things tell me pre-Peruvians did their share of such drawings at about 200 B.C. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 9-6-06 [c355wds] 356
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
MAKE YOUR OWN LEATHER All you need is the hide from a favorite animal. Right? You have to clean them, cut the one you select to a pattern you just happened to have handy, then sew it up in some way – possibly using long strips of raw hide trimmed from the edge of the larger pieces. If the American frontiersmen and women could have made good leather with their short stock of tools and supplies, we can. They did have a good stock of wild animals of many kinds available for the taking. They didn't use the fancy word “tanning” in those days. They worked to make the skins firm, pliable, decay free, with even texture and coloring, ready for the making of dresses, skirts, aprons, cloaks, shoes, headgear, tepee furnishings - even sturdy, durable tents. Start with fresh hides. Old ones will not do. Soak the hides in clean water for three days or more. Keep them completely submerged even if you have to hold them down with rocks. Change the water daily. After that, the hairs will “slip”and come off in chunks. If some hairs fail to slip off, sift wood ashes on those areas; roll the hides up with the fur inside and wait a day or more to see if the wood ashes made enough lye to loosen up the stubborn hairs. When they have, rinse the cleaned hides in clean, cold water. See! Only a week or so have passed and you are ready for the next step called “Fleshing”. Debark a six-foot log to make a “Fleshing Beam”. Bury the log end up and slanted in the ground so that the angle facing you is about even with your waist line. Rinse the hides once more and wring each one out before you placed it athwart the fleshing beam -all debarked and made as smooth as you can get it. Then your job is to remove anything adhering to the hide surface by pounding, pressing, scapeing and doing whatever you can to remove any uneven or thick places in the hide. You are to even out the thickness of the piece of make each one as uniform as possible. When you have completed rinse it out in cold water and wring it out. Now, place it on a large frame and stretch it tight. You still must do a “Brain Tanning” procedure and and an action called “Breaking the Hide”. You make up a pasty mix of the brains of the animal you killed adding live scraps and cow's brains as needed. Rub mixture into the framed hide to get even color The other task is to stretch the pelt on a frame or between two trees and beat it gently with a tool that looks like a canoe oar. In so doing you break down part of the cell structure of the hide and make it soft and supple. Stretch the finished hide over hot coals fed with wet corn chips, corn cobs, or beech wood chips. It is all well-tented so the smoke becomes part of the hide. When the hide is exactly the shade of brown you wanted it to be...put the fire out...fold the leather neatly and put it on a shelf to rest a while. Go thou, and do the same. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 9-6-06[c567wds]
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
HARPER'S FERRY RE-DO Just recently, a pair of experienced world travelers on their way to spend some time in Peru, Bolivia and other nation's down south, visited with us for a day or so. Our guests, Brian and Helga Thomson are the parents the husband of one of our granddaughters - Annette and Julian Thomson, of D.C. The last time Vivian and I visited Harper's Ferry was in fall of 1978 – the last week in Augusta when the leaves were just taking on whole mountain sides of Fall colors. We have talked of going back and we were pleased that our guests seemed to have enjoyed their visit to the old Civil War town. Restoration work had made good progress at the time we were there and one could get the true feeling of historical sites. The restoration reminds one a bit that which recreated Colonial Williamsburg but smaller and less elaborate. Like Williamsburg, Harper's Ferry has plenty of walking to be done, and Harper's Ferry challenges you to some real climbing, too. You will want to climb the steps; to the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Peter. The interior of the church is especially interesting. It is ornate and of a soft, cream color inside and rugged outside appearance, with parapets, a mountain hulk across the way and the rushing river waters down below. You get a Rhine-landish from it. You'll want to visit the ruins of the Old Episcopal church, too, the ruins not so much from Civil War mis-use as from floods which have hit the town - a bad one in 1936 and again in 1972. That one crested at 29.7 feet above normal. The '36 one was about twelve feet and you an see the water marks on the downtown buildings. We saw a film strip on the floods and I assume it is still being shown today. The old Engine House where John Brown holed up for a shoot- out with troops is, of course, and featured spot. There is a diorama in the Visitor's Center and displays set up by the National Park Service which has done the restoration work. We had lunch at The “Iron Horse” Restaurant – up the hill a bit overlooking the rivers and bridges into Maryland. A day spent at Harper's Ferry enjoyable and historically informative. Thomas Jefferson walked the same spots you can. He had a special liking for that which is now called “Jefferson's Hill”. Even then, the town could be crowded with visitors then as it often is today. Promise yourself to be one of them. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 9-5-06 [c442wds]
Monday, September 04, 2006
GATEPOSTS These was time, years ago, when we always had a fence around our house. It was not a defensive thing in the usual sense – a barricade of sorts behind which we might crouch to fire off our muskets against invading tribes of savages or door-to-door salespersons. I lived in a small town in Southwestern Virginia where milk cows - a part of many households – were allowed to roam freely - anywhere they wished to go. Any yard with a neat lawn and flower beds and well-shaped green, leafy bushes was an invitation to any moo-moo looking for a gastronomic adventure. You have two gates – front and back – and you kept both of them locked securely in some fashion - a piece of heavy wire looped over the first two or three palings from the heavy gatepost, or some of us had a heavy plank fitted so the ends dropped into wooden brackets and each gated post and secured the gate itself from opening inwardly. If anyone, by stupi-chance happened to put that plank-style stock-stopper on the outside of the gate, they soon learned hat cows in quest of food can be smarter than one might think them to be. But, I'm not sittin' here to about cows or gate ...just about gate posts – and how to read them. Reading gate post, an art which went out of fashion when prosperity returned following that era in our national history called 'The Great Depression.” Just moments ago, I heard President George W. Bush say on a TV news snippet that our current rate of “joblessness” - a 21st Century term meaning “unemployed” - was about 4.3% ,or in the those tenths somewhere. Hallelujah! In that Depression Time unemployment ranged up to twenty-five per cent and more in some areas! As a direct result, we had a great army of “hobo” persons mostly men but some women, too – who roamed our roads and railroads, in particular, in search of any kind of work they might do to earn a bare living. Ours was a railroad town, so we had more than our natural share of such down-on-their-luck visitors. It is difficult today to separate such people from less admirable predecessors known also, as “h oboes” but in a derogatory way which classed them as: “tramps”, “bums”, “track trotters” - often with criminal backgrounds, - both real and imaginary. They avoided work rather than searched for it. I haven't forgotten the gate post bit. The traveling persons developed a language of their own which you could read on your gate post or mail box if you realized it was there. Hobos, in their travels, found all types of people - some good and some, well, let's say “not so good”. To save the next hobo in line man in their line some trouble and time, some of them, a few ,perhaps, not all by any means, marked their evaluation of the resident of that particular house. The Hobo Code was had a small stock of diagrams and it varied in different sections of the country. I learned that simple plus mark that it was a good, place for simply handout; Small circles with a line under them meant you could sleep in the barn if you asked; Cross hatch of three or four lines -”bad dog, bull or man. Watch!” Two lines with waves between them. Bad water. Plain cross – religious folks; an arrow to left or right with nickname - a buddy saying he was a-going that-a-way; a vertical line with a squiggle on it – not unlike the medical caduceus said “will help if you are sick.” And, there were others, some which I never deciphered. I am proud to say our gate post held plus marks, a cross and one snake-on-a-stick-thing. I remember it as being a tribute to my mother's good nature, concern and respect for others less fortunate than we were at the time. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 9-4-06 [c676 wds]
Sunday, September 03, 2006
HALF-EMPTY OR HALF-FULL? We might wonder how a city such as New Orleans, La. can loose more-or-less-half of its population and survive. It will vary a great deal, of course, but it could be one of the better things to happen to some such centers of population. Large numbers of people do not make a city. They will vary a great deal,too and it could be that events which seemed to have been catastrophic could have been one of the better things to happen in some such centers of population. London, England serves as an example of such changes. Both the Great Fire of London's historical past and the Great Blitz bombings of World War II in our won era, took away from London huge areas of old, dilapidated warehouses and slum districts - some within sight of St. Paul's Dome and The City's finest buildings. As horrible as the methods of removal were – fire in two forms, really, I suppose - a new and better city grew from the ashes and debris. The city was forced to improved - or “led” to do so, we might wish to say. New Orleans has such needs. It is time to put political considerations aside in the pressing need for community improvements of basics types. We must be more concerned about those things which tells other what a city is rather than what it might be made to appear to be. New Orleans lost a lot of real estate which was not that might be termed as being “Less than first class”. Restoration is not in the plan; replaced in the broadest sense of the term must be. The current method of attempting to lure previous residents back to the city are, for the most part, blandishments which promise the realization of dreams rather than providing facts and figures. Truly worthy workers will avoid such bait as they are currently being shown. They will come back when assured that changes have been made; not just promised - once again. New Orleans was not a “mirage”. It was, truly enjoyed because it seemed to be different from other places in the United States. It must make make itself well once again, prove to be alluring, a bit feisty and compelling its manner of accepting strange guests from everywhere. The true New Orleans which is slowly beginning to live again has an element mystery in its very evolvement from half-a-dozen cultures. You can see it in the styles, the architecture, their foods and drinks, in their conversational ease, and most of all, I think, you can hear their subtle subject-set charm dancing in their music: zydeco, Cajun, Spanish, Mex, English, fandango, flamenco, African, shanty, French, country, cowboy, plans, frontier, riverboat songs, Injun, civil war songs... and techno-mod a-plenty on the way! Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 9-3-06 [c485wds]
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