Wednesday, January 29, 2014

I hear the song of a far-off swan.

Image from Google Images


I hear the song of a far-off swan. A swan trying to find a reason to live.

Recently, I have been greatly saddened by the apparent loss of a local blogsite “SoHum Parlance”. It seems Eric Kirk, the blogs author, has been discouraged with the irresponsible comments that litter the bogs nowadays. I’m sure that he has other pressing reasons for not wanting to post to the extent that he once did. I have felt some of those pressures myself. I also feel that having a blog was one of the most learning and enjoyable experiences of my life. I miss the Good Ol’ Days of the blogs heyday before they were hijacked by spam, irresponsible comments and mediums like facebook, twitter, and so forth. I promise that I will never quit entirely, but the posting will definitely be further separated and maybe more pertinent.

Blogs are not as popular as they were a few years ago. They seem to have become the dwelling spot of the immature verbal stink bomb throwers that claim that they will defend to the death their right to anonyminity. (I know, anonyminity is not a word, but it should be.) They like to throw up phrases like “Thomas Jefferson wrote anonymously”.

Yes, Thomas Jefferson wrote anonymously, but most people would agree that his writing were far more relevant and pertinent to the subject of the times than those who break into a post about a traumatic event, shout “first” then run off giggling. Who needs that?

The sad thing about the rampant immaturity rife in the blogs lately is that it discourages any real thought. Most people realize that any great effort that they give to making a well thought-out and reasoned comment will only be snowed under by immature and sometimes evil crap. There is a longstanding tradition amongst mature intelligent people to never argue with a fool, so that precludes most conversation on the average blogsite anymore. Sad.

They say that cavemen had a larger brain than modern humans and that they used most of their brain for survival. The weak died off.  Today’s society protects and defends the weak, as it should be. It is the natural instinct of all creatures to defend their offspring. Pre 1960’s children were raised to be “seen and not heard”. It was well understood that they were under the direction of their parents. The Flower Children of the 60s promoted the idea that children should be raised as free-spirits and not be stifled with rules. We now have the children of those children among us. They were not taught rules, or ethics. Sadly, most weren’t even taught to know how to think. The new rule seems to be, “If it’s fun, or feels good, do it”.

We now struggle to make progress amongst self-centered-immature-unruly brats, most of them that have now come of age, and are adamant that the world owes them a living. From birth they have been given, without question, everything that they have ever whimpered for. They never had to build, argue or reason for the things that they wanted. They have never had to follow any rules given to them by their parents. It is no great surprise that some people can’t reason or follow rules. They don’t even try to understand why there might be a rule. Their thoughtless immaturity dictates that they do as they please, as they have been taught to do from birth.

At this juncture I should point out that there are still good parents out there that are trying desperately to raise their children with values. They are the first to tell you how difficult it is to raise children in a valueless society. Some move to far-away places thinking that somehow they can find a place to raise their children with ethics, character. and values. It’s a desperate search at best. However, for the most part, they succeed. We all see well mannered bright young children with bright futures… And, parents hoping that somehow their children aren’t led astray, and become the zombies that we now see littering the streets. It happens…

With all of the explanations of the ills of society left behind, I will share some of my thoughts about current events, and how they seem to be affected by lack of reasoning. Not that I’m right, by any stretch of the imagination, but I am open to conversation. Just try to justify your thoughts.

The recent drought has brought the non-thinkers out of the woodwork. There is the opinion that “there is a drought, so we should not use water”. If we don’t use water in the South Fork of the Eel it simply goes into the ocean If you think it all the way through, using water will add to the local ground water. Actually we should be storing water right now to use later when the water really is gone. Anytime we flush a toilet, the water eventually finds it’s way back to the river. We all need to fill water tanks and water supplies right now. Use water quick! Don’t let it get away! Utilize Tasha McKee’s plan, fill water tanks in the winter to use in the summer. Non-use of summer water, and using stored water gives the fish a better chance of survival, by providing water when flows would be their lowest.

Possibly the perception that we should not use water comes from those who were wise enough to build reservoirs. Yes, those that are feeding from precious water reserves should limit their use. Save water for later use. Like Eureka, they get their water from Ruth Lake. Or Healdsburg, or San Francisco, they all feed off reserves and should conserve all that they can.

Use South Fork water this winter, it’s good for us.

And, just to prove that Mother Nature agrees with me she just sent us a nice little rain. Just in time to water the Daffodils.

Life is great if you live it!
Ernie

39 comments:

Johnathan Wilson said...

The good parents are quickly being outnumbered by the bad, it is plain to see. Well maybe not quickly, its apparently been happening long before my time.

As for the water shortage, I put in my first applications for Cal Fire this season, so itl be good for me in the near future. However, im still a flatland farmer for the time being and we desperatley need the rain.

On another note, Ernie do you know of a book about the history of Garberville and Laytonville and it gets into the Wilson family history? A friend of mine brought it up but couldnt remember the title or author, but it had a name i havent heard before, Hugh Wilson. Any ideas?

Anonymous said...

WSJ, Jan. 27,2014 Vol. CCLXIII NO.21

WSJ.com
Interesting article Ernie under "Review and Outlook" pg A12 titled "How green politics exacerbated the state's water shortage".
It talks about the same thing you say Ern, along the lines of using and saving water.
Also it talks about California's biggest water hog, the 3 inch smelt, which can divert up 1,000,000 acre feet in a wet year. In 2008, federal regulators at the prodding of green groups restricted water exports South to protect the smelt, which have a suicidal tendency to swim into the delta's pumps.
After a deluge late in 2012, 800,000 acre feet of melted snow pack was flushed into the SF Bay. Regulators worried that reservoirs could overflow if the heavy precipitation continued. Yet they didn't want to harm the smelt by pumping more water South.

Personally I think Enrnie should run for Governor of Calif..

Oregon

Unk John said...

Ernie,

I think Eric was kind of in a funk and he will get over it. At least I hope so.

I appreciated your comment about my having met you, and I would like to say in return that I found you to be a delightful person. My only regret is that I didn't properly introduce myself to you. I told you that you probably knew me as Unk John, but I didn't mention that the name on my birth certificate is John Serfozo. That is not a misprint, it is Hungarian.

My wife really liked your store and we will be sure to visit it again on our next trip down. I didn't get a chance to view the DVD that Eric's mother bought from you, so I will demand that she bring it up here to Washington when she comes up this spring. She bought a couple of them and the one I want to see is about US 101 as it was back in the 50's.

The first time my sister and I came through there was in, I believe, 1954 with our parents. I remember going through one grove after another, each one with a different name. The only one I know of that's left is Richardson Grove. Ah, memories.

Anyway, thanks for the kind words, and I hope to see you on my next trip through Garberville. Also, If you ever have occasion to travel through Bellingham or, better yet Everson, contact me.

Unk John said...

Also, Ernie, on your concerns about water, I think you are absolutely right. In parts of Europe, where water has been a concern for many centuries, it is now a matter of code that new homes be built with rain water catchment systems to store water for use in the summer months.

Anonymous said...

Go SeaHawks. :)

Oregon

Ernie Branscomb said...

Johnathan, I checked on the book that we talked about, it's still in the works, but the book with Hugh Wilson I don't know about.

Oregon. If noninated I will not run, if elected I will not serve. Dictator? now that's another story...

Unk, Thanks for the invite, but no plans at the moment.

Oregon, The seahawks got lucky If that last pass would have been one foot higher it would be a whole different story. I know... she would have been my Uncle.

Unk John said...

Ernie-If the ball had been one foot higher, Sherman would simply have jumped one foot higher.

Go Hawks!

Anonymous said...

I rest my case. Go Hawks.

Oregon

duane Z said...

Ernie, I found your site looking for Eel river Jade. It sure is nice to see you are a wise conservationist. Here in southern Cal. People take water for granted. Our resivoirs are dropping pretty low now. No winter storms as I look for in conjunction of a Jade run to Jade cove. I am wanting to spend some time in the future looking for Jade in other areas. I have found some in San Diego. Just for the record I have been actively involved in preserving clean water. duane Z

spyrock said...

my great grandfather and his older brother and sister were the first 3 families to move to spyrock after a severe winter where they lost all their animals in a snowstorm xmas time when everyone went to covelo and couldn't get back for 2 weeks in the 1890's. jarboe's rangers had already rounded up or killed all the indians living along the eel over 20 years before. so the weather caused them to move right where the railroad would be built and they had a market for their cattle and kept buying more and more land. john still had 7000 acres when he died in 1942. unlike river, whose ancestor sutter basically used indians as slaves and that hawaian descendant of frank asbill who writes harsh letters about round valley to the ukiah paper, i don't have any knowledge or stories to tell about my ancestors mistreating indians. in fact, every indian from mendocino or humbolt i have ever met seems to be attracted to me, introduce themselves and begin to tell me their life story. so i am related. and i don't have an agenda. my grandfather was the first person in marin county to irrigate and he ran the stinson beach water company for many years. he was probably the first person to irrigate at spyrock too. they didn't have electricity back in the 50's but they did have shell rock creek to get a gravity fed water tank filled up to get them through the dry spells.
strange to see the newcomer jump on the seahawk bandwagon especially since most of the team is from compton, talk like thugs, practice yoga and are led by swami shermananda. actually, my dad's father was a street car conductor and my dad lived in compton when he was about 5 years old but he spoke english. i also have a relative named crabtree who married my great grandmothers little brother and she wouldn't talk to me either even though penny tried to hook us up.

olmanriver said...

sThe river is back! For now. It will be interesting to see how the drought politics play out. SoCal filled their reservoirs last year out of Norcal water and have plenty while our reservoirs are low. In some states gathering your own rainwater is illegal. Good grief. People who wear suits to work cause so many problems in the world.
For the record, a twig of a cousin on my family tree asked me some years ago at my mother's funeral to look for a connection to John Sutter as there was a marriage into a Suter family somewhere in his tree. I never found any evidence that John Sutter was followed to Merica by any brothers to prove my cousins theory. So I am not related to Sutter, just for the record.
Jonathan, do you know who Hugh Wilson's wife was? I read that he, like Warren Wilson, married a Native woman? Never heard of a book by him though.

Johnathan Wilson said...

Olmanriver, I have never heard of a Hugh Wilson before. Thats a story i must have missed a while back. But I do know there were a few Wilsons that married natives.

Ernie Branscomb said...

My Mother knew Hugh Wilson. I've been coaxing her to tell her story, but the blog world keeps changing and she doesn't like trying to keep up with it. It takes her a while to figure out how to post things anymore, and when she does figure it all out they change things again. She is 91 years old and doesn't have a hell of a lot of patience for whippersnapperland.

Anonymous said...

To Johnathan Wilson,---I knew Hugh Wilson and his wife Vi when I was about 10 years old. Vi was know as a nurse or person to help heal people's ailments, she was an Indian lady. They had one daughter that I knew "Pansy", don't know if there were more children or not.---They lived on the west side of Ten Mile Creek. To get there you would leave what is now the 101 Hiway about 3 miles north of Laytonville, go west 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile to Ten Mile Creek, cross the Creek at what was always called Wilson's crossing, and maybe a mile or so up on the flat was their house. the road from there went on west and by where Gene Curts and his wife lived.(they were the parents of Ida Martindale,) the Mother of Jean Martindale, with whom I played as a child. From there the road went and more to the south and entered the Branscomb road on the west side of Ten Mile where the Feed store is now. Martindales lived just west of the feed store, between the feed store and where the road entered the Branscomb road. You could go from there on the Branscomb Road across the Bridge over Ten Mile and to the east back to Laytonville, about 3/4 0f a mile. Jean and I had walked through from Martindales to The Curt's place to see her Grand Parents, from there we went on over to the Hugh Wilson place to see them too. Vi and Pansy were there and we visited with them and went back to Martindale's. I think the Martindales and the Curt's and Hugh and Vi were related in some way, as it Seems Jean called Vi, "Aunt Vi" I really don't remember ever seeing Hugh that I know OF, but knew of Hugh and Vi and Pansy, they were known by any one living there at the time.-----I think where Hugh and Vi lived was part of the original Wilson Property. I don't know how they ere related to the rest of the Wilsons.---Elsie Branscomb---- Ernie Branscomb's Mother

olmanriver said...

Thank you Mrs. Branscomb! Your memories are worth gold, but us historians aren't known for our tangible wealth so I can't pay out, sad to say. Now that I have her name from you, I found in my notes that Viola, born in 1915, was Fox Burns grand-daughter, and Warren's Wilson's daughter.
I love your description of the lay of the land, I took that very route a few years back so I could follow your wordmap easily.
I also have a picture of the Curts home from the early 1900's that you have helped me place on the map. Thank you. We love it when you offer up your stories! ps.
Did you look for arrowheads as a youth?

Johnathan Wilson said...

Thank you Elsie! That puts it right at the Wilsons homestead along ten mile. Where Peggy and Jimmy Nyhen recently lived.

Ernie Branscomb said...

" From there the road went and more to the south and entered the Branscomb road on the west side of Ten Mile where the Feed store is now."

Not to contradict Mom, she may be right, but I think that she meant the road went more to the notrh.

Ernie Branscomb said...

Or possible "North". (better spelling)

olmanriver said...

Maybe she meant the road turned to the south and came out on Branscomb Road?
For the Wilson family archives, Warren Wilson was the only son of Rufe and Malinda Wilson. Born in the cabin that Rufe built along Mill Creek, which is just west of Bauer Lane, he was killed in an accident in one of the mills.

Johnathan Wilson said...

Warren of Rufus was killed? I think Rufus died pretty young, i cant remember exactly from the last time i visited the Wilson plot in the Laytonville cemetery. But he has an all aluminum headstone, which must cost quite the pretty penny back in the day.

olmanriver said...

Rena Lynn did a series of history articles that were very well researched (beyond Kate Mayo}and I took this from a page of hers that had a picture of Warren and the statement that he died in a mill accident. Let me change my use of "was killed" to "died".

GROVEL ALERT !HISTORIAN CORRECTION! I erred in saying that Hugh married back into the Wilsons... Kate Mayo said he married a Viola Nobles, which led me to track down that he married into the Noble family of the Bell Springs/Eastview. In the Early Days by Diane Hawk states that Hugh was the third husband of Ida Noble. Ida's Native mother came from the Ferndale area.

The was a Hugh Wilson who died at age 2 and is in the Laytonville cemetery.

(this is all until I need to correct myself again- isn't this much more fun me correcting me, than me correcting you Ernie... like in the ol' days of blogging?)

omr said...

ps. I left three grammatical mistakes just so's Gabby Haze would turn over in his grave.

spyrock said...

my great aunt sarah kauble was in cahto/laytonville until her parents died in 1872. then she moved to covelo and soon married milo patton. milo moved to alderpoint to run a ranch there for george white. in mendo remembered vol 2, there is an edith patton who is the grandaughter of johnathan g. wilson, one of the earliest settlers of laytonville/cahto. her father was william wilson and mother suzanne case wilson. william was one of 8 kids. she goes on to say that "when we lived at blue rock, we used to ride about 30 miles to a dance horseback. we went in a group. we'd go down to spyrock down on the river...a man named walker played the violin. of course, in laytonville, they had different music, but in the country, way out there, they had old music. they would take their food and at midnight eat their food. and dance all night until morning."
i guess johnathan is another one of my shirtail cousins. i really love the dancing all night to fiddle music by light of the moon in the shadow of spyrock.

spyrock said...

hi river glad to hear your history. glad to hear you aren't really related to sutter. here is your old post in 2009.
December 31, 2009 at 9:23 PM
oldmanriver said...
Happy New Years to y'all from Indiana where there is no nephrite. However, I have talked to several of my kin who have arrowhead collections, one found a few tomahawks. One had a basement lined with cabinets full of Indian relics.
I also found out that I am related to John Augustus Sutter who exploited most of his California Indians to build his small empire from 1830-50.
He also had trusted Indians and Kanakas (Hawaiians)in positions of responsibility. And Hawaiian "consorts" though his wife was back home in Pennsylvania. There were three Suter brothers who came over from Europe, he changed his name to Sutter, one brother spelled it Suiter and another Suter.. the latter two brothers ending up in southern Indiana. A descendant of a Suiter confirmed the childhood rumor.

but it seems you have helped establish that johnathan and i are related so good job. i'm still trying to find how my great grandmother julia harrison on my dad's side was a first cousin to mark twain and we used to have a letter from him to her that disappeared and her brother jim harrison was a good friend of the real tom sawyer,...so we keep searching for the connections. hope to retire soon. then we will be heading up north

omr said...

Yep, that is what my kin told me back then, he has since recanted when Ancestry gave us a whole different story, and we couldn't find any connection between the Suters and Sutters. Funny how family oral history gets taken for fact, like your maybe/maybe not Native blood.
Good luck with the retirement. Sorry to give you and the blogworld a false impression based on family myths.
Keep on dancin to those fiddlers!

Ernie Branscomb said...

I'm joining Olmanriver in his "Grovel Alert". (I was wrong)

NEWS FLASH!!!
Mom was absolutely right in her directions!
I started off in the wrong direction, which of course puts me in the wrong direction to come back.
She and her lawyer are sitting by their computers to she if I print a retraction or if I get sued.

Sorry Mom!
Ernie

Anonymous said...

Hi Ernie,
----Apology Accepted---
---Love Mom--

Anonymous said...

Johnathan Wilson,
---You may already know this, but just thought I'd tell you there were some Wilsons living at the Laytonville Indian Reservation.
The Indian children went to the same school that all the local children went to,there were two boys Mervin Wilson and David Wilson, that attended school there at the same time I did. They were a couple of grades ahead of me. This was like 1934 or 35. I never knew their Parents names or if the boys were brothers or maybe cousins.

-----Elsie Branscomb-----

oldmanriver said...

Those boys plus Luther and Viola(Lucille) were Fox Burns's grandchildren, through his daughter Victoria Burns Wilson and Warren Wilson.
As of last summer, Mervin was still living, one of the last elders of his tribe.

Anonymous said...

Hi, oldmanriver----Yes I knew Luther and Viola too, they only went to school there a short time that I remember. I think maybe they were in their last year 8th grade when I started in the 1st grade.---Thanks for answering and letting me know. I have wondered from time to time if Fox had a Family. When I knew him he was old and seemingly lived alone.
-----Bye--Elsie--

olmanriver said...

Jonathan, the 1900LV census shows a 34 year old Lee, and 32 year old Hugh as the sons of James and Louisa Wilson.
thanks Elsie! The cause of history marches on on Ernie's Place.

Johnathan Wilson said...

That's another 3 names I haven't heard before.... I'd imagine James would be a brother or son on old Jonathan g Wilson. Makes me feel silly not to know these members of my family tree. Time for me to go take a class in Wilson history.

olmanriver said...

Darn census, for some reason Jonathan showed up as James in the 1900 census, the 1880 census clearly shows Lee and Hugh as children of Jonathan and Louisa. The dates of birth for Jonathan/James match up, as do the boys, sorry to add to the confusion. If you take a class, maybe I am not the best teacher.

spyrock said...

Funny how family oral history gets taken for fact, like your maybe/maybe not Native blood. my great grandmother laura kauble simmerely, who was born in laytonville/cahto in 1865 told my cousins that she was part indian. her grandson ben simmerely's wife ruth who recently died at over 100 years of age told me to please not tell anyone we are indian. up until recent years, about the only california tribe most people knew about were the digger indians. my great grandfather john simmerely was born in marysville, ca in 1865 to samuel and charlotte simmerely who ran the queen city market in marysville since 1849. so i have 2 strains of california native blood in me that are 149 years old.
i think that makes me more than qualified to claim to be a california native. also, i think it makes me different. as far as indian blood goes, that would require a dna test or something like that. whatever, it certainly won't impress the pure bloods in any case. the criteria i seek is ones connection with the ancestors. people like ernie, river, johnathan, ben, oregon, and ernies mom are connected to the ancestors. that's why i came to this blog years ago and that's why i'm still here.

Ernie Branscomb said...

Thanks Spy.
I found a comment in reply to you in my spam filter. I don't know why it ended up there, but here it is:
From Anonymous: "Spyrock- It sounds like I owe you an apology... and I do apologize for not reading or remembering things rightly. I thought the "facts" were mushier than how you wrote them this time and it was my mind that was mushy. I am sure that my comments pissed you off. You were gentle in your remonstrance. Keep on bringing your history here!

I don't mind someone being wrong as long as the error is with-in the realm of good intentions. The history is great!
Ernie

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