More North Coast Wonders.

Trillium Ovatum, or Western Wake Robin

Clarisa nominated the Trillium for a north coast wonder, so here's what I know about them. First there is a Wake Robin and then there is a Trillium that grows on the North Coast.

The Wake Robin is a member of the Trillium family and can be recognised by the fact that the flower blooms above the three leaves of the main plant. It appears to leap up at you. The blossom blooms a virginal white color, then as the blossom ages it turns a bright scarlet maroon color, like the virgin was made to blush.

I took two photo's with my cell-phone of the wake Robins under the Redwoods in lower Redway for this post, but the photo didn't do them justice, but you can tell the older blossoms from their deep red color. As they age, three little leaves grow under the blossom.



Never, ever pick a Wake Robin. As you can easily see, if you pick the wake robin leaves and all the plant will not have any source of nutrients, and it will either die, or be seriously set back and may not bloom again for a few years. If you absolutely must pick one, pick only the flower. But, it is much too beautiful to destroy.

This is a bed of Redwood Sorrel being invaded by the cursed English Ivy. I took the photo in lower Redway where someone long ago decided that it would look nice to have some English Ivy growing. Now it will probably choke out the beautiful sorrel plant.

Redwood sorrel is called Oxalis oregena by the newcomers, I kinda get a kick out of that... calling Redwood Sorrel Oxalis Oregena, Like Oregon has Redwood trees!

Redwood sorrel grows in great mats beneath the redwood trees in the deep shade. it is most beautiful in April and may.















If you pick a stem of sorrel and taste it, it tastes like rhubarb. I've been told that sorrel is toxic, but I'm not dead, and I've chewed a lot of it. They say the leaves of rhubarb are also toxic. maybe they have the same poison in them, ya' think?












And this is the rare and beautiful trillium. I've only found them at higher elevations on the north side of a hill in timber. Usually near a spring. I really don't know their habitat I only know where I've found them. See how the flower grows right out of the three leaves? And they are larger than the Wake Robin. Again don't pick them!

Just a few favorite things.

From Wikipedia, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (from left to right, top to bottom): Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Temple of Artemis at Epheseus, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Mausoleum of Maussollos, Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria as depicted by 16th-century Dutch artist Marten Heemskerk.

These were the first "Seven Wonders of the World". There has been much argument and proclamation of what the new wonders should be and why. There are engineering wonders, natural wonders, beautiful wonders, and so on. Most of these things are in far away places that most people can only dream about visiting.




I got to thinking about; what would we (Us local folks.) choose as our wonders? I guess that a Redwood Tree would have to be a given, because it was actually was listed as a wonder of the world at one time.





The rest of "My Wonders" would probably be a little strange to most folks, in fact, some folks won't even recognise what I'm talking about. I wouldn't call these my private wonders, because I'm always willing to share.





The Quince would be way up their on my wonders of the world. The Quince is from Mesopotamia, also Persia, the area of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys.





It was thought that the quince might be the forbidden fruit in the Garden Of Eden. But, if Adam bit into it, he would have been immediately sorry, for they are very astringent, they are difficult to spit out, the best way is to scoop it out of your mouth with a finger, and rinse with water.





The smell of the quince is very seductive, it has a delicious odor that only a quince can have. Once it is cooked with sugar, the juice becomes quite edible. My mother makes the most delicious quince jelly. There are many recipes to make quince edible. Some go back to the beginning of time. A Roman cookbook of Apicius gives recipes for stewing quince with honey. One or two Quince trees were always found in the Old-timers orchards.


Another of my passions is the smell of what we sometimes wrongly called Tar Weed, and sometimes rightly called Vinegar Weed. It grows in the Grassland around the edge of Manzanita brush, It gets on your shoes and socks and gives of a very pungent vinegar like smell, only it smells good to me like a sweet vinegar scented perfume. I often stop and pick some and crush it in my hand just to smell it. Any time that you hike around the dry hills of Southern Humboldt or Northern Mendocino you're going to come home with your socks smelling like that.


Another similar plant that I like is the Pennyroyal Mint. The picture looks kinda like it but it grows much tighter together. It's probably all spread out and open like that to show it's anatomy, but it doesn't look right. The picture is about actual size. It grows around the edges of vernal ponds and blooms very profusely in the fall of the year. It also has a pungent odor, but it smells more pepperminty. I could always tell were my uncles went hunting when they came home by what they smelled like. If it was a long hunt, they would smell like everything, including B.O.



Same as Vinegar Weed I like to crush it in my hand just to sniff it. Strangely I never tasted it, as is often my habit. I found out later in life that it was called "Indian Abortion Weed". It will cause a woman to loose her baby if she eats or drinks it as a tea. It is also apparently harmful to the liver. I wonder why I didn't taste it? Lucky I guess.

I have a lot more North Coast wonders that I will add on the bottom of this blog, until everyone gets bored. Nominate your own favorite sight, smell, or thing if you like, but it has to have something to do with the North Coast!

Snow!

We had little tiny itsy-bitsy little snow flakes in Benbow this morning, followed by little tiny rain drops.

I checked my weather forcast over there on the left and it say's the same thing.

"Today: A slight chance of snow showers before 11am, then a slight chance of rain showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 41. Calm wind becoming west between 5 and 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%".

Willie Nelson will be in Garberville.

note: I had the date wrong earlier....


People production is bringing Willie Nelson to Garberville on Sunday August 31st. I'll put a link at the bottom. First play some music. Turn you volume way up high and your bass way down low, and click on the following blue links...

Down in the bottom left corner of the video that is playing after you click on the link, there is a little box inside a box about a half-inch square. Click that box and the video will go full screen. To get back out just click the "X" on the bottom right, or click escape.

Have fun!


Play a little Reggae Willie.

Willie and Bobbie Dylan

And, one for my old cousin Jim who never met a county girl he didn't fall in love with. Willie Nelson and Shania Twain, Blue eyes crying in the rain

And, one for me Willie and Norah Jones

One for everybody Ray Charles and Willie Nelson

David Frizzell, wino

It's really nice to have some good non-violent music in Garberville for a change. If you want to go to the concert click here for more info. People Production

Off people production's website:
Show Date: Sunday August 31st
City, State: Garberville, California
Venue: Benbow Lake State Park
Advance Tickets : $75.00
At The Door : TBA
Doors Open at: TBA
Music Begins at : TBA
Tickets on Sale: On Sale Now Online
Ticket Outlets: See Ticket Outlets
Age: ALL AGES
Website: Willie Nelson
Contact: People Productions at 923-4599
Note: »venue subject to change«

Firebrands or Loudmouths?

A firebrand is an ember that is picked up in the windstorm that has been caused by a wildfire. Sometimes the firebrand gets cast far ahead of the fire, and starts a new wildfire that can give the old fire new direction. People can be like that, and that is why they become known as firebrands, they cast their ideas before them and change the direction of people’s thoughts. I like to analyze the things that firebrands say, and check them for the positive contents. As you know a firebrand can also be destructive.

How we process what other people say determines who we are. I have a difficult time separating the good from the evil person, so I look for the good in everyone. There is and old saying that;
“There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves all of us, to find fault in the rest of us”.

So I’ve selected a few well known people that I found to be interesting, and pointed out a few of their good deeds. If you have your personal hero’s, add them to the list. Try to avoid pointing out any negative things, and only point out the good. If you find that difficult to do, it say’s something about you. Which may not be bad, but it should be thought provoking on your part.

The print in italics has been shamelessly swiped from the Internet.


Rush Limbaugh:
I’ll bet you thought that I would have a hard time finding something good about Ol’ Rush didn’t you? These are just a few of his good deeds.
Leukemia and lymphoma telethon
Limbaugh holds an annual fundraising telethon called the "EIB Cure-a-Thon" for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In 2006 the EIB Cure-a-Thon conducted its 16th annual telethon, raising $1.7 million; totaling over $15 million since the first cure-a-thon. According to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society annual reports, Limbaugh personally contributed between $100,000 and $499,999 from 2000 - 2005, and Limbaugh claims to have contributed around $250,000 in 2003, 2004 and 2005. NewsMax reported Limbaugh donated $250,000 in 2006. Limbaugh donated $320,000 during the 2007 Cure-a-Thon which reportedly raised $3 million.

Rush 24/7 Adopt-A-Soldier Program
Limbaugh's website maintains a page where U.S. troops can register for a free 24/7 membership through memberships purchased by donors who buy a subscription (at a reduced price) as a gift.

Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation
Limbaugh conducts an annual drive to help the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation collect contributions to provide scholarships for children of Marines and law enforcement officers/agents who have died in the line of duty.

Charity golf tournaments
Rush attends charity golf tournaments from time to time for various causes.



Shawn Hannity:
Freedom Concerts
Hannity has hosted country music-themed Freedom Concerts since 2003, billed to help benefit the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, a charity created by Oliver North to provide college scholarships to children with a parent severely disabled or killed in military action. Appearing artists have included Sara Evans, Martina McBride, Lee Greenwood, LeAnn Rimes, Montgomery Gentry, Darryl Worley, Charlie Daniels, Larry the Cable Guy, and Michael W. Smith.
The Freedom Concerts were held annually in the Northern Star Arena at the Six Flags Great Adventure Amusement Park in Jackson, New Jersey through 2006. In 2007, the annual concert was expanded to a summer series held at locations across the United States, culminating with the September 11 event at Great Adventure marking the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.[34]
Speakers at the Sept 11, 2007 concert included Oliver North, Newt Gingrich, Republican Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani and several conservative talk show hosts from WABC Radio.

Hannidate
Hannity's internet dating service, called "Hannidate," matches conservative or Republican-leaning singles, straight and gay. Begun in 2005, it is described as a "place where people of like conservative minds can come together to meet."

Alan Colmes;
Alan Colmes has what I like to refer to as “Character”. Although some would disagree with him, he knows who he is.
While Colmes describes himself as a liberal and his Fox News biography describes him as "a hard-hitting liberal," he has sometimes been referred to disparagingly as a "Democrat In Name Only" or a "Fox News liberal". Al Franken printed Colmes' name in smaller font than the other text in his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. However, Colmes has also drawn praise from progressive political bloggers for his questioning of conservative guests.
Bob Garfield, interviewing Colmes for On the Media, asked him if he were "the human straw man" and a "foil" rather than an equal of Hannity. Colmes replied that if the conservative members of the audience saw him that way, that was "their problem," and said "It's more fun for me to be in a situation like this [where much of the audience disagrees with him] than to preach to the choir."



Ann Coulter:
She looks good as an accessory to a white Corvette!

Al Franken:
Although it was difficult to find anything that Al Franken stood for, because if you look at his career he has stood for very little, most everything that he say’s or does is based on being critical of things that other people stand for, I think that it is important for him to be included as a firebrand for his impact on making people think. But, there was this positive tidbit. “Franken favors transitioning to a universal health care system, with the proviso that every child in America should receive health care coverage immediately. He believes that private pensions and Social Security should be protected. He wants to cut tax breaks for oil companies, increase money available for college students and cut interest rates on student loans”


Jim Hightower;
The "Doug Jones Average," a concept created by Jim Hightower, is the proposal that in order to check the true health of the American economy, it is less useful to look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average than it is to check up on how Doug Jones (i.e., the American working class and below) down the street is doing. If Doug Jones is on welfare, cannot feed his family, and is three weeks behind on his bills the Doug Jones average is "down." If Doug just got a raise, can pay his bills, and Doug and his family are looking into owning a nice but not too expensive house, the Doug Jones average is "up."


Bill O’Riley;
After the September 11 terrorist attacks, O'Reilly devoted substantial time on his television show and wrote pieces on the subject of how the United Way of America and American Red Cross failed to deliver millions of dollars in donated money, raised by the organizations in the name of the disaster, to the families of those killed in the attacks. O'Reilly claimed that the organizations misrepresented their intentions for the money being raised by not distributing all of the 9/11 relief fund to the victims. Congressional hearings were called on the matter and an investigation by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer took place. Bernadette Healey, the president of the Red Cross, resigned shortly thereafter. In sworn testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee in November 2001, Congressman J.D. Hayworth asserted that media pressure, most notably from O'Reilly, helped cause the Red Cross to increase payments to affected people and helped cause other charities to participate in an oversight database established by Spitzer.

The King of Butterflies

Darn, I wanted to talk about butterflies over on Kym's Blog Well, maybe it’s too late. So I’ll do it here. It must be springtime, everybody is blogging about birds, bee's, flowers, and butterflies.

When I was a kid, my sister and I and the other kids around Laytonville would go down into the field across from the house and collect Monarch Butterfly larva. (In late July to early August) Then we would pick some of the milkweed that they ate and we kept it in the refrigerator to feed them. After they got plump enough they would attach themselves to the lid of the shoebox that we kept them in. After they all wriggled out of their skins and became chrysalises we would hang the lid above a newspaper and wait for them to hatch. The newspaper is because the first thing that they do after they hatch, is get rid of the runny excrement that they have been holding.

Monarchs eat milkweed, which is highly toxic to other critters. That works to their advantage, because it makes the butterfly toxic, and no bird will even try to eat them. Birds know instinctively that the butterfly can't be eaten.


We called them Monarch Butterflies, so do the newcomers, and even the newest newcomers call them that. Finally, something that we can agree on!

We would know when they were about to hatch, because the beautiful lime green chrysalises with a little row of gold spots that look like miniature buttons would turn black and orange, and the shell would turn transparent so you could see the mature butterfly inside.


They are head down in their chrysalises, and when the side splits open they rotate out and hang from the shell, head up. They swing gently back and forth while their wings fill, expand and harden, then they drop loose and gently fly away just like they knew what they were doing. That always amazed me that they already knew how to fly, without being taught. They are one of nature’s true “naturals”.


Of course I taught my daughter how to raise butterflies, and she taught her kids. So we have seven generations of Monarch Butterfly farmers in the family. I don’t know if it is legal to do that anymore. Does anybody know???

Please click on this MOST interesting web site and all the other links that they have provided. It's writen for kids so even I can understand it. Monarch Butterflies

Yard work.

This is absolutely not my front yard! It's just pictures that were randomly stolen off the Internet to show you what my yard will look like this afternoon when I finish working on it.


What is it about springtime, and the warm weather, that makes a persons wife instinctively know that it is time for the poor husband to work in the yard?

We have a late season here because we live on the north side of a hill, so I get to make a late start. Nothing will grow here until late April. I planted some Sweet Peas in the flower boxes on the deck back in November and they are only about a foot tall so far. So it is just a big waste of time to plant too early. The one flowers that do great here are Impatiens. It is a great choice because it comes in a variety of colors.

Wow! I’m starting to become inspired… I’d better go do it… But first I’ll need a good breakfast. Then I need to clean out the truck, so I’ll have a place for the yard waste. Then I’ll have to go pick up my wife, who likes to walk the dog, but doesn’t like to walk back. Then my wife wants some stuff moved in the garage because it is too close to her car. I have to go check on an Ice cream maker that I worked on to make sure it worked okay. Then I’ll need to worry about lunch. Then maybe I should change the oil in my truck because it is past due. I changed the oil in the car already, but I can’t figure out how to make that little “change oil” light go away. Something about turn the key on without starting the motor then stomp on the throttle twice within five seconds but that won’t work, so I have to read the manual again. Then I’ll have to watch the game on television for awhile because all that work will require a little break. Then, before I know it, it will be dark, and too late to work in the yard. I hate when that happens!

SPAM!!!

Okay… It’s not funny any more!

I used to think that it was hilarious when my wife, who is pretty much a prude, used to get spammed with solicitations to buy pornography and various “enhancement opportunities”. I would, with great glee, tell her to stay away from the porn sites and she wouldn’t be bothered with all that “smut stuff. I found that it was even more hilarious that her ninety-three your old wheelchair bound mother would get some of the same kind of spam. I secretly thought that I must have been pretty clever to have stayed away from the kind of sites that you might pick-up that kind of electronic venereal disease.

I always thought that I was a pretty broad minded guy, and probably wouldn’t be that bothered with porn showing up on my computer. I thought that I could just say; “Hey, It just showed up, it’s not my fault”, kinda’ like when the biker “Ladies” flash the crowd. It’s a real cheap thrill, and as long as I didn’t in anyway solicit it, I could enjoy it in complete lamb like innocence.

For years I had never received an unwanted e-mail. So, now lightning has stuck me. I now get about thirty to forty spam messages a day. To make matters even worse, I have my e-mail set up so I have to down-load it at home, and at work, before it takes it off the server. So, I get to go through all the spam in both places. At home I have installed a spam filter that removes much of the spam. Unfortunately, it also removed a few messages from people that I wanted to hear from. Now I have to, not only check the incoming box, I also have to check the spam box. That is a loss of ground.

Someone told me that if you ever use your credit card on the internet that the company that you do business with on the net sells your e-dress to the spammers. If I knew that was true, I would submit their company name to the spammers to get even.

I have gotten offers of every kind of fake watch and jewelry that you can imagine. The sad thing is, I might be interested in the REAL stuff. But, I guess that wouldn’t occur to the kind of slime-ball that would send out spam.

I remember in high school that I was in love many times with girls that would not look my way, and the girls that would chase me… for some reason I thought that they weren’t classy enough for me. Ahh… the pain of unrequited love!

Now, I’m being offered love on the internet that I assume is as phony as that Rolex Oyster that they are trying to sell me for ten dollars. And, besides, how would I be able to zip-up my pants if all those adds are true?

So, I guess my question is; how do I get rid of the spam and still keep my e-dress. And how can I get even with the worthless bastards that have spammed me?

I’ve always said “That a grudge worth having is worth holding”.

Hottest day of the year so far!

If you click on the weather over there on the left, then scroll down to the "three Day history", you will see that it was 88deg. today, and the dew point was 38deg. And the retaliative humidity was 17%. And it had been like that for at least one hour.

It was down to 35deg last night, that gives the temperature a spread of 53deg. It is unusual to have more than a 50deg temperature spread from night to day. The humidity was only 17% which is extremely rare.

Do you think that we should tell Al Gore???

Bear Onions, or more appropriatly, Indian Soap Root.

As often happens I was inspired by one of Kym’s photo’s on “The Redheaded Blackbelt” blog. I stole the photo off her blog, so she will have every right to sue me. But as any good lawyer will tell you, the main reason to sue would be to reasonably collect on your lawsuit. Which would imply that there would be something to gain. So Kym will always have to face the fact that some looser is going to steal her great photography. So, I hope that she takes my theft as a compliment and not be too offended.

(click on photo to enlarge)

If you look closely, under the limb, on the ground, there is a sword leafed plant that looks like what I have always called a "Bear Onion". The older newcomers call it an "Indian Soap Root". The newest newcomers call it an chlorogalum pomeridianum.

It was used by the Indians to bathe with. If you dig up the plant, it has about a baseball sized root, that if you peal the outside layers off will provide a white somewhat slimy surface. The roots soap is said to cure poison oak. I don't get poison oak so I don't know, also I've never known an Indian to get poison oak, so I don't know where the legend came from. I've always thought that if you live outdoors on the north coast, you are either immune to poison oak or you died, so it must be genetic to not get it.

The root is distinctive in that it looks kind of like an Iris, only the leaves have a wavy look to them. I stole this photo off the net also but didn't know who to give credit to.

The other, and possibly main use that the Indians had for this root was fishing. They would pound the onion into pulp that they would wash into a stream, the juice would stupefy the fish and the Indians would wait at the riffle to catch the stupid fish. Then they would cook and eat them.

What we would do as kids, is pick the leaves and tear them into small segments and make chains as long as we could. The juice in the leaves forms a spider-web like material that will hold the segments together. Kids can be entertained for hours playing with them. Okay, maybe the root made us stupid too!

Fly, fly away fish!

During the trip that we took, while the ship was at sea, I would spend my time at the rail watching for the flying fish. I would watch for maybe an hour and not see one. Then sometimes thirty or forty would launch themselves all at once. Usually only one or two would fly, but I became fascinated with how well they could fly.

They would be spooked into flying by the passing of the ship, and they would launch themselves into the air at a high rate of speed and at a low angle to the water, then they would glide for twenty or thirty feet then dive back in, or they would dip the lower tip of their tails in, and paddle like crazy, and fly some more. It was not uncommon to see them fly over one-hundred yards.

The flying fish is a very popular food in the Caribbean, it is cooked many ways. The national dish of Barbados is Cuo Cuo and flying fish. Cuo Cuo is corn meal and hominy. The favorite way to eat flying fish, is to bread and fry it, and eat it with lime juice. The roe is a delicacy.







In researching the flying fish I came across this painting by Herbert James Draper called, "The Flying Fish". "the sinister element is latent, but the mermaid's power is suggested by the spontaneous and eager way in which she snatches at the flying fish."


The Mermaid was greatly feared by the ancient sailor, she was seductive, erotic, and in most cases irresistible to the sailor. When caught under her spell, it was almost certain death. She was a very powerful both physically and spiritually. There are many tales connecting sailors, flying fish, and mermaids.

While watching for flying fish at the rail, and staring into the glare of the water, I strained my eyes to the point that I was blinded and couldn't hold them open. My wife asked me why I was so foolish. I thought about it a long while and the only conclusion was that I was under the evil spell of a mermaid. Darn evil mermaids.

Captain John Alexander Lockhart, Shipmaster.

This is a painting of the clipper ship Cutty Sark.

We are in Samana Dominican Republich, my 3great Grandfather, John Alexander Lockhart, stopped here on his way to California on his sailing ship The Hungarian.

I just wanted to do one post from the islands. So this is it.

On the way down here I saw many flying fish (maybe 75 or so) There is sargasso strips all over.

The winds were 30 knots, the seas were 7.5 to 12 feet, The ship ride was smooth only a few got sick.

The ocean is blue, blue, the air is warm, warm, The food is good, good.

We went ashore today and did a tour. It is a very poor country, when the kids tell you they are hungry, they play the part well, they look hungry.

A post from at sea wouldn't be complete with out an old sailors poem, so here it is.....

Sea Fever by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,

And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume,and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

Janis and I say "HI TO EVERYONE", and yes we are having fun!

Ernie and Janis take a "spring break"

We will be gone from Saturday morning, until Tuesday the 15th. So I should be "on line" through Friday. Just in case you wanted to say "Bon Voyage" (That's French for "Don't sink")

Radio Shack is happy with Janis, and thinks that she has followed the company plan, and met their goals well enough to deserve a cruise. She had her choice of companions and she chose me!

I doubt that there will be many shipboard communications from me, but who knows, they might have one of those satellite communication things on board. Like Sir Arthur C. Clarke invented. If that's the case, and the ship has run completely out of rum, I might take the time to give you a traveling update.

Oh yeah, we are going to those Bahama places, and something about a couple of Virgins???

If you click on the following link you will be able to see the ship we are on. If you click on the box in the upper right marked "Web cams" you will see where the ship is right now, it updates every 30 minutes. We will be aboard "The Norwegian Dawn". They have assured me that the ship is big enough to fit all the way across the Bermuda Triangle, so that shouldn't be a problem. The ship is 971 feet long. The ship is much larger than the "Titanic" Plus there should be no iceburgs in the Carribean. The world largest cruise ship is 1,111.5 feet long. Its called "MS Freedom of the Seas"

I'll still be here until Saturday, but I will leave this post up until I get back.... maybe... again communications and rum.

Norwegian Dawn
Maiden Voyage: Dec 14, 2002
--
Tonnage (GRT): 92,250
Length: 971'
Beam: 107'
Passengers: 2,224
Ships Registry: Bahamas
Passenger Decks: 11
Number of Crew: 1,200
Officer Nationality: International
Crew Nationality: International

We are on deck eleven, "amidship". That's a new word that I learned. By the time we get home I should know all of the "sailor words". Did you know that the "sailor word" for ship is "SHE"??? That makes me nervous!!!

The Origins of the Name "Easter".

Up front, before all is said, I value the most Holiest of Christian holidays, and believe in the Christian’s right to celebrate Easter. I honor their reasons for celebrating Easter. I’m a strong believer in tradition, as you may well know.

Now, I thought that I would give you some history on the origins of “Easter”. For millennia, before Christ was born, people celebrated the seasons, and followed the seasonal changes. The summer and winter solstice were celebrated, and also the fall and spring equinox were celebrated. The celebrations pre-date recorded history, so no one really knows how far back the seasons were honored as such.

The Catholic Church, joined the pagan and Christian holidays together, with the hopes of converting the pagan and non-believer into Christian. So, the pagans lost some of their most honored holidays to the Church, and the reason for the seasonal festival was muddied beyond recognition. I have even been told that as a non-believer, that I shouldn’t be celebrating Easter. With all due respect, it was our holiday before the “Newcomer Christians” showed up.

So, “Happy Eostre, or Eastre, if you prefer.

I copied the following from religioustolrance.org :

Origins of the name "Easter":
The name "Easter" originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. The Venerable Bede, (672-735 AD.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos." 1 Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre." Similar Goddesses were known by other names in ancient cultures around the Mediterranean, and were celebrated in the springtime. Some were:
Aphrodite from ancient Cyprus
Ashtoreth from ancient Israel
Astarté from ancient Greece
Demeter from Mycenae
Hathor from ancient Egypt
Ishtar from Assyria
Kali, from India
Ostara a Norse Goddess of fertility.
An alternative explanation has been suggested. The name given by the Frankish church to Jesus' resurrection festival included the Latin word "alba" which means "white." (This was a reference to the white robes that were worn during the festival.) "Alba" also has a second meaning: "sunrise." When the name of the festival was translated into German, the "sunrise" meaning was selected in error. This became "ostern" in German. Ostern has been proposed as the origin of the word "Easter". 2
There are two popular beliefs about the origin of the English word "Sunday."
It is derived from the name of the Scandinavian sun Goddess Sunna (a.k.a. Sunne, Frau Sonne). 5,6
It is derived from "Sol," the Roman God of the Sun." Their phrase "Dies Solis" means "day of the Sun." The Christian saint Jerome (d. 420) commented "If it is called the day of the sun by the pagans, we willingly accept this name, for on this day the Light of the world arose, on this day the Sun of Justice shone forth."

P.S. Bunny's don't lay eggs, but then, that's another story!

HAPPY EASTER!

Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C.Clarke 1917-2008




I apologize to those who are looking for light hearted and frivolous local history stories, but a man just passed away that I greatly admired; Arthur C. Clarke. There are a few people in my life that I have taken great inspiration from. Arthur C. Clarke is one of them.

We all have our hero’s. Kristabel and Keri admire Abba, Ekovox admired all the old country and western singers, and a few good blues musicians. He must have picked up a love of that Eko guitar from someone he greatly admired. Kym loves life, nature, and photography, throw in a few well written poems and stories, and that describes her pretty well. We all have our hero’s, and mine were the great thinkers of the world.



Nicolas Copernicus

Nicolas Copernicus was the founder of modern astronomy. He was the first modern thinker to postulate that the Earth rotated on an axis once daily, and rotated around the sun once yearly. He arrived at these theories without the use of a telescope. He inspired such people as Christopher Columbus. Columbus convinced Queen Isabella of Spain to finance him to find a quicker route to the spices that were on the other side of the world. Columbus wanted to find a new trade route, by going around the world, rather than around the horn of Africa. Much later, by one hundred years, Copernicus inspired Galileo Galilei, and Giordano Bruno. The Catholic church and the rest of the people of the day thought that the world was flat, or if it wasn't, the sun and stars most certainly revolved around us.

Galileo Galilei



Galileo built his own telescope and discovered four moons circling Jupiter, strengthening his theory of the modern solar system. Giordano Bruno, went even further, he speculated that many planets revolved around our sun, and other stars were suns, with planets revolving around them, and that the sky was almost unlimited with stars, suns, planets, and moons. He also speculated that it was almost certain that there was other life in the universe. Galileo wrote a book outlining his theory of the universe. He outlined his telescopic observations, and was eager to prove to the Catholic church that what he saw through his telescope was provable fact.

The Catholics were not amused by these scientific minds tweaking the nose of the church. Through the use of the Spanish Inquisition, Bruno was burned at the stake and Galileo spent the rest of his life in jail.


Albert Einstein




Albert Einstein was an amazing person in that he could visualize in his mind how the universe had to be put together to work. He knew that mass, energy, speed, and time, were all related and effected each other. Imagine how smart he had to be to be able to visualise that without any clues. It's easy to bake a cake once you know how, but the first person to do that must have been very smart. Einstein could visualise escape velocities, to escape the pull of gravity and put a object in orbit.

Issac Asimov

It has been said that Issac Asimov invented the word robot. The word was actually a Czech word for artificial man or slave. Asimov gave it it's modern meaning that we all recognize; a mechanical-man that follows our instructions. Asimov was a brilliant man that was one of the most prolific Science Fiction writers of all time. I've read every book that he ever wrote many years ago, and it is time to start over. If you don't know who Asimov was, but want to read one of his books, read "I Robot" it was the book that put the word "Robot" into the English Language. Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clark were contemporaries. They were the most prolific science, and science fiction, writers of all time.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci was not only the man that painted the Mona Lisa, he was the man that visualized the water pump, clocks, cranes, winches, the parachute, and the helicopter. He was a man that could understand how things worked, and knew how to make them. He was an inspiration to many inventors.












H.G. Wells.
H.G.Wells first wrote about putting a man on the moon by the use of a mythical material called "Cavorite". Cavorite removed the effects of gravity, and it was easy to move a spherical vessel to the moon. The book that he wrote "The First Men in the Moon" was pretty far-fetched in 1901, but less than seventy years later men were walking on the moon.



Now, what do all of these people have to do with Arthur C. Clarke and me? These people were all my hero's, and they also inspired Arthur C. Clarke to be one of the most inventive minds of all time. It was Clark that was the first to calculate that there was a specific distance from Earth that a satellite would stay in a geostationary orbit. Geostationary means that the satellite stays in the same exact spot over the equator, and never moves off that spot. It rotates at the same speed as the earth turns. You know it as the place that you point your satellite T.V. dishes. It is the ring around the earth that all of the geostationary satellites stay. It is called "THE CLARK BELT". The Clarke belt is exactly 22,236 miles above sea level on the equator.


Clarke’s three laws:
1-When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2-The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3-Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. (I'll bet that you always wondered who said that!)

Now is the time for all good bloggers to come to the aid of their country!

Now is the time for all good bloggers to come to the aid of their country!

Wow! I don’t know where to start…How about “I told you so!”

Back in the early eighties, when Reagan was our president, Japan had a struggling electronics industry. The Japanese government decided that they had to subsidize that industry, or it would fail. So they gave their electronics industry money to sell electronics in the United States. They sold electronics in the U.S. below what it cost them to manufacture each piece. But it brought a steady flow of dollars into Japan and helped shore up their economy, and brought them the wealth that they needed to invest in other industrial products, like cars.

Meanwhile, big American and Japanese investors made a fortune on the cheap labor that Japan was able to provide at the time. The American electronics worker lost his job. The American workers cried “Foul”. They were losing their jobs to the Japanese worker. They felt it was unfair of Japan to subsidize a product that the American worker could build better and cheaper. At the same time, the Japanese banned American agriculture products because the U.S. government subsidized them.

The answer to the American worker was; “Tough, we live in a world economy now”. (Translated, we found a way to get cheaper labor to build a product to fleece the American economy).
The explanation was that; “America has the world’s strongest economy”. They reasoned that the displaced workers would find another job in the manufacturing industry. After all, there were plenty of jobs, and the American economy was strong.

At the end of the Regan administration, the Japanese paid Reagan Two Million Dollars to go to Japan to make a speech…. If that wasn’t a message to other American politicians, about where their money comes from, I don’t know what was.

The adopted mantra; “It’s a World Economy, Stupid” was the beginning of the end of American Manufacturing jobs. The politicians soon started explaining to people that; “ We live in an information economy now”. Translated that means; “You’re going to have to be smart, and have a good education to become a corporate C.E.O.”. While they were slowly killing American jobs, they still depended on the American buyer to buy and pay for cheap offshore products. Soon the only product that you could buy was, and is, offshore products.

The latest knife through the Heart of America is the going to be the demise of the aircraft manufacturing industry. It seems that the American investor has found a better deal in France. We now buy the Presidential Helicopter and the military refueling aircraft from France.
That should drain the last American dollar out of the country. Either that or we will send it to the sand countries for oil. I would tell you about how wealthy some of the Sheikhs are, but you couldn’t believe it. The only people that benefit from spending all of our money over seas are the big stock market investors. The loss of every manufacturing job has been personal to me, because my whole family has been in manufacturing (Lumber) for more than a century. It was fortunately one of the last industries to go. But it is still hard to take.

America is finally broke, and broken. Banks are collapsing, The stock market is crashing. Soon you will seeing CEO’s moving to Switzerland. There's more.

Now for the good news!

Now when we say we need jobs, someone will listen.
The blogs are the last bastion of truth and honesty. The CEO’s, and the very wealthy own our politicians and our news services. When reading the blogs, you know that you could be told a lie, and you check it out. Why is it that nobody checks our politicians and newscasters. America has literally been sold a pack of lies, and bad politicians. This time when we rebuild America, lets form a system were our representatives represent us and not big money.

The blogs are the best way to tell the truth.

P.S... And just to deepen my suspicion that we are in trouble, the link that I had explaining the collapsing stock market has just disappeared. But don't worry, it's probably just me worrying!

Back when it was catch and keep.

This photo was taken as a post card in the late forties to early fifties according to the description of the other photographs it was with.

The description says "Steelhead caught in the Eel river by Deck Nicholson and parties of the Eel River Cafe."

I wonder what the limit was back then.

I do remember seeing many catches like that when I was a kid. The people from the city would come up here and make a big show of their catches. They would bring them to town and lay them on the sidewalks in front of the sporting goods stores and take turns having their picture taken with them.

It sounds like the salmon fishing in the ocean next year will be non-existent until they figure out what happened that caused the Sacramento River salmon runs to have dwindled drastically.

Cristina, takes on the Richardson's grove issue on KMUD

Cristina Bauss is going to do Eric Kirks show at KMUD in his absence. The show will be at 7:00pm Thursday March 20th. “All Things Recocidered”. (Reconsidered)

She is going to discuss all the pertianent (pertinent)(you sharp spellers missed that one!) facts around the re-alignment of the 101 highway through the Richardson’s Grove State Park
.
She has some special requests: Know what you are talking about!

Ann Coulter

"We need someboby to put rat poisining in Justice Steven's Creme Brulee" Ann Coulter Conservative Commentator

My cousin Jim the Mountain Man his lived in the hills too long, he doesn't know who Ann Coulter is. This is for you Jim. Ann is your kind of girl. This is a photo of Ann getting ready to hunt bear.

She hates liberals, and takes great joy at poking fun at them. The liberals foam at the mouth in anger, and the conservatives flock to buy her books so they can quote her accurately.

She has God on her side, which is kinda' spooky when you think about it. She is a Grateful Dead fan who hates drugs. I don't know what she drinks, but I understand that she makes a great accessory for a white Corvette.

Every man secretly thinks than they could tame her if they just had the chance, especially liberals who fantasize about a Having a tame Ann Coulter.

Click on this blue line to see Annie claim that Hillary is more conservative than John McCain. Yep, Jim, I'll bet you could tame her right down. You might need to cage her a while first, but I know how you like strong willed women. She would be a good match for you. She has claws just like that pet bobcat that you had. You remember, the one that liked to jump and spit and scare the hell out of people. She likes doing that to liberals.

She has been called the female Rush Limbaugh. But Rush is not nearly as cute. Conservatives don't take her seriously, but liberals hang on her every word. I've watched her a long time and she hasn't changed my mind at all. I don't think that she has changed anybodys mind, but it's fun to watch her try.

Johnson's Welfare Society.

Back before the 1964 flood, before the assassination of Kennedy, before Lyndon Johnson passed all the new welfare rules, there was a work oriented society that lived in Garberville. I know that is hard for you to believe, but we were here, doing just fine.

Previous to Lyndon Johnson you had to have lived at least a year in Humboldt County to get on welfare. Then came Lyndon Johnson. Johnson’s idea was that it was discrimination to say that you had to be a resident before you could collect welfare. His thoughts were that the residency requirement would prevent a person from moving to an area that had more jobs. Because, if a job didn’t pan-out, you weren’t eligible for welfare, and you wouldn’t be able to get back on welfare until you were able to establish residency. It was a great Idea, but it didn’t account for how creative some people can get to cheat on the welfare system.

In the late sixties and early seventies hundreds of people moved up here to Humboldt County because we paid one of the highest welfare rates in the country. The people that moved up here were young and they were raised in a sharing society. They shared “free love” they shared their drugs, they passed their joint, and they all lived together in communes. Not all were that way of course, some were honest people that worked together to make ends meet, and get ahead in life, and get out on their own. Johnsons new welfare system worked well to get them back into mainstream society.

They would establish one responsible member as head of the commune, he would own all of the property. The rest would get on welfare and give him all of the money, and they would pool their resources for food and clothing. They could all live quite nicely on their welfare income.

The above statements are true and provable, the following is rumor, but it is too juicy to let pass. Some of the the people that would apply for welfare would share kids, and they would apply for welfare with all of “their kids” with them. They would also apply for welfare in more than one county. Although I don’t know if they were actually able to do that, I know for a fact they would have done that if they could have. They had no sense of guilt for being leaches on society. It was shocking for a lot of us to see. Their lack of regard for other people was hard to take. They would throw their trash on the street. When someone would point out that there was a garbage can down the street, they would look at you like you were crazy. Often they point out that someone would pick it up. They really didn’t seem to get it.

Fortunately the local people were able to run the worst of the low-life heavy drug users off, and we were left with a strange new society of people that seemed to want to work, buy land, and live in the fresh, clean, new place that they had found. Land was cheap and plentiful. Some of the people that moved here had "Family Money" or were smart enough to get a good job in the woods, or one of the local businesses. The communes slowly dissapeared as people paired off and started their own families. They seemed to have gained a sense of pride in themselves.

But, they still loved their music and their Wacky Weed, and they were unwilling to let anyone tell them that it was not okay. The local people began to accept these strange new people, that seemed to have their own sense of pride and honor. But, it was definately two different societies. Johnson's Welfare society slowly found their stride and they are now full members of the ruling class of our town.

Who would have ever guessed?

An apology to the readers

Several times I have replied to comments made, only to go back later and find that my replies aren’t there. For what ever reason that they didn’t post, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to ignore you. I was probably me not being careful. But from now on, I’m paying close attention to detail.

So I will, again, reply to those questions that I thought I answered, but apparently didn’t.

Robin, I don’t know who Suzy Blah Blah is, but she apparently knows Janis and me, or she is doing a very good fake, which is possible. She is definitely from around here, because she knows too many of the local secrets. I love it when she writes. I hope she isn’t offended, but I think she has outstanding dead-pan humor that she delivers without missing a beat. Her twisted sentence structure always fits, and her typo’s are always readable. It’s a real art, if you don’t believe me, try it. Janis always knows when Suzy writes, because it is the only time that I break-out laughing out loud.

Also Robin, I saw Gary Chapman two years ago at a high school class reunion in Laytonville at The Harwood Park Hall, I still call it the skating rink. Penny and Gary Comer catered a multiple class reunion. My mother graduated from Laytonville High School in 1941, so she was invited. I sent my money in and crashed the party. I’m glad that I did. Amazingly, I knew almost everyone there. It was really great for me, because I ran into people that had lost tract of years ago, and was able to re-establish some old friendships. Gary has been living in Ukiah since graduation, he is married and he works for the concrete company down there. He graduated in 61-62(?)

Jim, thanks for the kind words, we’ve come a long way since the days when we would secretly pounce on, and beat the crap out of each other. You’re right, I was just born knowing all that motor stuff. It’s women that I could never understand. I developed several plans to understand Janis, but just when I think that I have her figured out, she changes. So, I content myself with understanding motors. You’re right, they don’t all have to be cheerleaders.

Jim, do you have any pictures of the Forty-horse-power go cart we made? I want to do a post about that.

Ignore this and go down to the next post.

Chocolate, peanut-butter, oatmeal cookies. Some with cherries on top!

More on who influenced us.

I talked once before about always having a secret place, a hiding place, or as I refered to it before, a Sanctum-sanctorum.

When I was nine or ten years old my Laytonville buddy at the time was a kid named Gary Chapman. His dad, Orville, owned a logging truck, and my Dad owned a garage on the highway on the family ranch. I got acquainted with Gary because his dad and mine were building logging trucks together, out of just about anything that you could fit together.

Dad had a wrecking lot behind the garage. In the wrecking lot there were a lot of old cars that would still run a little bit. Gary and I would siphon gas out of the cars that didn't run, move batteries, and oil. We would eventually get a car running. The deal with my dad is if we could get a car running without asking him how to do it, we could drive it around the orchard and the back end of the wrecking lot. The deal with my mom was we BOTH had to be in the car anytime that it was running. We got pretty good at driving around and going through the gears. We did a lot of bragging about how good that we could drive.

Gary’s dad Orville, who was straight from Arkansas said: Ya’ hain’t a driver ’til ya cun back up with yur mirra’s”. So, we would go back to the wrecking lot, get in the car, and take turns backing around our road as fast as we could using nothing but “mirra's”. We had a few dramatic crashes which caused a whole new set of rules. We were no longer allowed near the orchard because grandma didn’t want us to back into any of her trees. Our wrecking lot road was pretty tight so we ran into a lot of things. That got to be a lot of fun, so we played demolition derby for a while. Of course that was the last straw for my mom. She told dad in no uncertain terms that she thought that kids driving cars was a crazy idea. You could tell that dad was proud of us, but mom laid down the law. So he told us that he would let us drive anyway we wanted to, but if we run into anything, or if mom even thought that we ran into anything, that it was all over, and we would have no more car privileges. We got real careful after that. But “careful” soon got boring.

One of the cars in the back of the lot had dirty windows, and you couldn’t see into it very well. We decided that that would make a good fort, so we sprinkled water on the windows and tossed some of the dust we just got through making on the window glass. We had a lot of dust from driving around in the dirt. It turned out just right. It was bright enough to see inside, but too dirty for anyone to see us. We soon figured out that we had to put the dirt on the inside because the other kids would find our fort, wipe the window clean and stick their tongues out at us.

We took a hack saw and cut the back of the front seat out and laid it between the back seat and the front seat so you could sit in the back seat and stretch your legs out like a recliner. We brought our funny-book collection and a carton of cigarettes that we “found”. We had a bunch of soda-pop, and a little wine that we found in a part-empty jug. We had a can to use for a bathroom in case we were “under siege” for a long time. We would sit in there all stretched out reading our funny-books and smoking cigarettes. The other kids would bang on the car, or throw a rock at it and we would laugh our butts off at them, because we had a “fool-proof fort”, with Inside frosted windows, locking doors and everything else we needed already inside.

One day there was a BANG, BANG, BANG, on the top of the car. We hollered “HA, HA, HA, go away stupid”. And mom said, “you kids get out here right now!” CRAP, BUSTED. We bailed out, smoke billowed out like in that Cheech and Chong movie, “Up In Smoke”. She said, “the fort is okay, but if I come by here and smell one more cigarette I’m going to tell your dad. Of course we made a deal with mom, because dad was the last friend that we had that would put up with us.
I kinda’ guessed that mom must have slipped and told Gramma Ruby, because the next day Gramma took me aside and gave me a long and detailed lecture on “the evils of smoking”. The standard talk; It stinks, it’s dirty, it’s a fire hazard, girls wont want to kiss you, you won’t be able to breath, you will have to put up with endless lectures about smoking.” OKAY, OKAY, OKAY, I give, I’ll never smoke again!

That was the last cigarette.

When did you learn to drive and back-up with your mirrors?
When did you learn how to smoke? When did you learn how to quit?

A big influence in my life

My cousin "Jim The Mountain Man" encouraged me to do a post about people that have influenced us all the most. I have always wondered what made some people think so differently from me. I often suspected that it was the way they were raised, or the people that influenced them in their younger years.
The biggest influence in anyone’s life is usually a persons parents. That was also true in my case. I was raised with a coddling, over protective mother that would have surely smothered me to death, if it hadn’t been for my “man’s man, devil may care Dad”, who did not smoother me, but gave my adventurous soul wings.
My earliest recollections of being out with my dad was when we would go fishing. He would fish and I would play on the shore and stack rocks, bang things and generally do things that you shouldn’t do while fishing. I remember that he would let me eat the fish eggs that he used for bait, and every now and then I would get a sip of his whiskey that he sipped to stay warm. It was great sport for me because I knew that I was getting away with things that my Mother would never allow.
Working in the garden with my mother, I would watch the birds swoop down and eat the worms that were exposed by the spading. Being the curious, adventurous, free spirit that I was. I picked up and ate a few worms. That was until my mother caught me. You would have thought that I had eaten dirt or something, I had already tried that and it didn’t taste good at all. I had trouble understanding why I got in so much trouble for tasting a few worms. Who knows, it could have been a new gourmet delight. I’m sure that my dad wouldn’t have had any problem at all with me tasting a few worms, he would probably asked me how I liked them.
That’s when I first started noticing that people were different.

Bloody Bones, the kid eating monster!

This is a reprint from the Redwood Times, for the Out of town readers. It wont soak long. I just needed to lighten up a bit, and remember how much fun it was to be a kid!

In looking for a photo to use with the following story, I was amazed to find out that Ogres, and kid eating monsters, go back to the beginning of time.
“Fee, fie, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman”, used to scare the hell out of me, because even as a little kid I knew I was part English. I used to worry if Mr. Giant could smell PART-English.

Nowadays, it’s not politically correct to tell your kids spooky stories. Hmmm…. I wonder if that’s why I’m all screwed up. But, on the other hand there are still some pretty screwed up kids today…. Maybe their folks are sneaking them spooky stories.

Bloody Bones The Kid Eating Monster.
Back when I was a kid being raised on the family ranch in Laytonville, we quite often had family dinners in the summertime. The family get-togethers were our form of entertainment. After dinner the older folks would sit around and chat about all the latest happenings, who was doing what, and what tomorrow might bring. When the kids would start getting noisy, and start arguing about things, and being disruptive of polite conversation, we all were invariably sent outside, to do things where nobody had to put up with our noise. The older kids were always given strict instructions to keep an eye on the little kids, and not to let them out of their sight.

Usually it was pitch black outside, a black sky like only a kid that was raised in the country has ever seen. But, after a few minutes our young eyes were able to see well enough in the starlight to head out and do things. Sometimes there would be a full-moon, and it would be almost bright enough to play baseball, but not quite. We used to like to play baseball in the orchard when enough of us got together.

We had a favorite spot in the orchard that a fire, years-ago, had made a clear spot out in about the center of the apple trees. It was a nice grassy spot that always smelled sweet, like hot dry grass intermingled with the smell of the dropped apples and pears that were fermenting under the trees. There was a watering trough for the animals in the opening, and it had cool, clean, fresh spring water running to it, and out the other side, and it would water the grass.


There was a quince tree right above the opening, and I would pick up a quince on the way to our “Story Telling Spot”. I liked the smell of a quince, sweet and fresh. I always though that if a girl wanted to attract me all she would have to do was dab quince juice behind her ears and I would have followed her anywhere. The quince has a velvet-like surface that if you rub it on your shirt, it will come right off. I would rub on the quince until it smelled good, then sniff it, but I knew better than to try to eat it. A quince is very astringent. If you take a bite out of it, it will pucker your mouth so bad that you can’t even spit it out. Really! My mother, knowing how much I liked quince, would make me quince jelly every now and then. If you have never eaten quince jelly, GOOD, I’ll eat it for you. I didn’t know what mom did to the quince, but she could make it as sweet as it smelled. That always impressed me.

All Us kids sit down in the grass, out in the middle, where the starlight was the brightest, we would form a little circle, and start to take turns telling stories. The Milky Way is straight up, over our heads that time of year, and we would look at it with wonder and laugh over the story about the little Greek God that was sent to milk the cow, and on the way back home he tripped and spilled it all over the sky, and it is still there, splashed all across the heavens. If you don’t believe me, next summer go look.


As the night drew-on, the older kids would start telling scary stories, about monsters and horrible murders. One story that I knew would always be coming was “Bloody Bones the Monster“. Nobody knew what Bloody Bones was, or what he looked like, but everybody knew that he liked to hunt and eat little kids, and he was sneaky. Sometimes when Bloody Bones would get a kid, there would never, ever be a trace of the kid ever, ever, again.

My cousin Corky was the master spooky-story teller. The story changed to fit the situation, but it would start with; “Bloody Bones, ten miles away, and getting closer. Bloody bones reared up high on his hind legs and sniffed the air long and deep, he was hungry and he needed to find a kid to eat. Bloody Bones would sniff the ground, and track around a little bit and he started moving toward the kids that he so desperately needed to eat." Chills would zing up and down my spine, and I would remind myself that this is just a story, but I did remember that a kid across the valley had disappeared, and I wondered to myself if maybe Bloody Bones was real.


I always thought that I was a smart little kid, and if Bloody Bones was real, I could certainly outsmart him. I always placed myself with my back to the wind, on the far side of the circle, because I knew that if Bloody Bones was following a track I would be facing him, and the other kids would be between me and Bloody Bones, and he would eat them first. I would laugh a nervous little laugh, knowing that Bloody Bones wasn't real, but I'd heard the story before and I knew the other little kids were going to be scared out of their skins. I had to go to the bathroom, but I would have had to go down the same path that Bloody Bones would be comming up, so I just held onto it.

By the time Bloody Bones had moved up to five miles away, the story was getting real dramatic, and he was feeling his starving need to kill and eat a little kid, or that he was so hungry he just might eat the kid alive! My eyes were riveted on the trail leading up to the story telling spot, I would glance from side to side. I saw shadows moving under the apple trees and I knew that the shadows were deer that had come down off of the hill to eat the fallen fruit. Then a deer snorted, and the other little kids squealed in fright. I was delighted at their fear, because I knew it was only a deer. I rubbed my Quince and smelled the sweet smell, and I laughed at their fear, but I wished that I had gone to the bathroom.

Bloody Bones was three miles away, and I was rubbing and sniffing my quince and I had rubbed most of the skin off, but it sure smelled good! Bloody Bones had disguised himself as a deer to sneak up on the little kids. I knew stories of the Indians that had done that to sneak up on their game. That quince sure smelled good!

Bloody Bones was getting closer, and smarter, and I started to doubt all my plans for staying safe. Just as I got through reassuring myself that I had it all figured out, a deep, deep, rolling, gutteral growl, like I'd never heard before, came out from behind the apple tree right behind me. It was Bloody Bones, right behind me!

I told you that I was a smart little kid, and it came to me in the blink of an eye that Bloody Bones would not eat the WET little kid. So, I took the precautionary measures to reestablish my invulnerability. As we all sat there frozen waiting for Bloody Bones to choose which of us to eat, my uncle, that had heard the Bloody Bones story before when he was a kid, stepped out from behind the tree laughing that he had scared us all so bad.

Later, back at the house my mother asked me why my pants were all wet. Not wanting to lie to her, I mentioned the spring that ran through the orchard. She said; "For a kid that thinks he's so smart, you sure sit in that spring a lot. This is the third time this summer that you have come home with wet pants. And, why do you smell like Quince?"