Would you qualify to be a U.S. citizen?

I was over at Eric Kirks blog a while back and he had a post about the fact that only 2.8% of Oklahoma high school students could pass a basic citizenship test. I got curious about what the test was like, so I looked it up. The complete test is listed below. Apparently, you get ten questions selected at random from the test, and you are require to score six questions answered correctly out of those ten.


If you want to take the test fairly, write down ten numbers between 1 and 100, look through the list and find the number that have written down and answer the questions. Again to be a good citizen you must get six of the ten correct.

You show-offs can go ahead and take the whole test if you want to, but you will probably score better that way than if you chose ten out of the 100, because some of the questions are related to each other in a way that makes the answers obvious. I listed all of the answers at the bottom of the post so you can grade yourself. Good luck! If you fail we might have to deport you!


Current USCIS Test Questions
(Answers below)

1. What are the colors of our flag?
2. How many stars are there in our flag?
3. What color are the stars on our flag?
4. What do the stars on the flag mean?
5. How many stripes are there in the flag?
6. What color are the stripes?
7. What do the stripes on the flag mean?
8. How many states are there in the Union?
9. What is the 4th of July?
10. What is the date of Independence Day?
11. Independence from whom?
12. What country did we fight during the Revolutionary War?
13. Who was the first President of the United States?
14. Who is the President of the United States today?
15. Who is the vice-president of the United States today?
16. Who elects the President of the United States?
17. Who becomes President of the United States if the President should die?
18. For how long do we elect the President?
19. What is the Constitution?
20. Can the Constitution be changed?
21. What do we call a change to the Constitution?
22. How many changes or amendments are there to the Constitution?
23. How many branches are there in our government?
24. What are the three branches of our government?
25. What is the legislative branch of our government?
26. Who makes the laws in the United States?
27. What is the Congress?
28. What are the duties of Congress?
29. Who elects the Congress?
30. How many senators are there in Congress?
31. Can you name the two senators from your state?
32. For how long do we elect each senator?
33. How many representatives are there in Congress?
34. For how long do we elect the representatives?
35. What is the executive branch of our government?
36. What is the judiciary branch of our government?
37. What are the duties of the Supreme Court?
38. What is the supreme court law of the United States?
39. What is the Bill of Rights?
40. What is the capital of your state?
41. Who is the current governor of your state?
42. Who becomes President of the United States if the President and the vice-president should die?
43. Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?
44. Can you name thirteen original states?
45. Who said, "Give me liberty or give me death."?
46. Which countries were our enemies during World War II?
47. What are the 49th and 50th states of the Union?
48. How many terms can the President serve?
49. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.?
50. Who is the head of your local government?
51. According to the Constitution, a person must meet certain requirements in order to be eligible to become President. Name one of these requirements.
52. Why are there 100 Senators in the Senate?
53. Who selects the Supreme Court justice?
54. How many Supreme Court justice are there?
55. Why did the Pilgrims come to America?
56. What is the head executive of a state government called?
57. What is the head executive of a city government called?
58. What holiday was celebrated for the first time by the Americans colonists?
59. Who was the main writer of the Declaration of Independence?
60. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
61. What is the basic belief of the Declaration of Independence?
62. What is the national anthem of the United States?
63. Who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner?
64. Where does freedom of speech come from?
65. What is a minimum voting age in the United States?
66. Who signs bills into law?
67. What is the highest court in the United States?
68. Who was the President during the Civil War?
69. What did the Emancipation Declaration do?
70. What special group advises the President?
71. Which President is called the "Father of our country"?
72. What Immigration and Naturalization Service form is used to apply to become a naturalized citizen?
73. Who helped the Pilgrims in America?
74. What is the name of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America?
75. What are the 13 original states of the U.S. called?
76. Name 3 rights of freedom guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
77. Who has the power to declare the war?
78. What kind of government does the United States have?
79. Which President freed the slaves?
80. In what year was the Constitution written?
81. What are the first 10 amendments to the Constitution called?
82. Name one purpose of the United Nations?
83. Where does Congress meet?
84. Whose rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?
85. What is the introduction to the Constitution called?
86. Name one benefit of being citizen of the United States.
87. What is the most important right granted to U.S. citizens?
88. What is the United States Capitol?
89. What is the White House?
90. Where is the White House located?
91. What is the name of the President's official home?
92. Name the right guaranteed by the first amendment.
93. Who is the Commander in Chief of the U.S. military?
94. Which President was the first Commander in Chief of the U.S. military?
95. In what month do we vote for the President?
96. In what month is the new President inaugurated?
97. How many times may a Senator be re-elected?
98. How many times may a Congressman be re-elected?
99. What are the 2 major political parties in the U.S. today?
100. How many states are there in the United States today?





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



1. What are the colors of our flag?
Red, White, and Blue.

2. How many stars are there in our flag?
50

3. What color are the stars on our flag?
White.

4. What do the stars on the flag mean?
One for each state in the Union.

5. How many stripes are there in the flag?
13

6. What color are the stripes?
Red and White.

7. What do the stripes on the flag mean?
They represent the original 13 states.

8. How many states are there in the Union?
50

9. What is the 4th of July?
Independence Day.

10. What is the date of Independence Day?
July 4th

11. Independence from whom?
England

12. What country did we fight during the Revolutionary War?
England

13. Who was the first President of the United States?
George Washington

14. Who is the President of the United States today?
Currently Barack Obama

15. Who is the vice-president of the United States today?
Currently Joseph Biden

16. Who elects the President of the United States?
The electoral college

17. Who becomes President of the United States if the President should die?
Vice - President

18. For how long do we elect the President?
Four years

19. What is the Constitution?
The supreme law of the land

20. Can the Constitution be changed?
Yes

21. What do we call a change to the Constitution?
An Amendment

22. How many changes or amendments are there to the Constitution?
27

23. How many branches are there in our government?
3

24. What are the three branches of our government?
Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary

25. What is the legislative branch of our government?
Congress

26. Who makes the laws in the United States?
Congress

27. What is the Congress?
The Senate and the House of Representatives

28. What are the duties of Congress?
To make laws

29. Who elects the Congress?
The people

30. How many senators are there in Congress?
100

31. Can you name the two senators from your state?
Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein

32. For how long do we elect each senator?
6 years

33. How many representatives are there in Congress?
435

34. For how long do we elect the representatives?
2 years

35. What is the executive branch of our government?
The President, vice president, cabinet, and departments under the cabinet members

36. What is the judiciary branch of our government?
The Supreme Court

37. What are the duties of the Supreme Court?
To interpret laws

38. What is the supreme court law of the United States?
The Constitution

39. What is the Bill of Rights?
The first 10 amendme of the Constitutionnts

40. What is the capital of your state?
Sacramento, California

41. Who is the current governor of your state?
Arnold Schwarzenegger

42. Who becomes President of the United States if the President and the vice-president should die?
Speaker of the House of Representative

43. Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?
William Rehnquist (or whoever is next)

44. Can you name thirteen original states?
Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Rhode Island, and Maryland.

45. Who said, "Give me liberty or give me death."?
Patrick Henry

46. Which countries were our enemies during World War II?
Germany, Italy, and Japan

47. What are the 49th and 50th states of the Union?
Alaska and Hawaii

48. How many terms can the President serve?
two

49. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.?
A civil rights leader

50. Who is the head of your local government?
Humboldt County Board of supervisors.

51. According to the Constitution, a person must meet certain requirements in order to be eligible to become President. Name one of these requirements.
Must be a natural born citizen of the United States; must be at least 35 years old by the time he/she will serve; must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years.


52. Why are there 100 Senators in the Senate?
Two (2) from each state

53. Who selects the Supreme Court justice?
Appointed by the President

54. How many Supreme Court justice are there?
Nine (9)

55. Why did the Pilgrims come to America?
For religious freedom

56. What is the head executive of a state government called?
Governor

57. What is the head executive of a city government called?
Mayor

58. What holiday was celebrated for the first time by the Americans colonists?
Thanksgiving

59. Who was the main writer of the Declaration of Independence?
Thomas Jefferson

60. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
July 4, 1776

61. What is the basic belief of the Declaration of Independence?
That all men are created equal

62. What is the national anthem of the United States?
The Star-Spangled Banner

63. Who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner?
Francis Scott Key

64. Where does freedom of speech come from?
The Bill of Rights

65. What is a minimum voting age in the United States?
Eighteen (18)

66. Who signs bills into law?
The President

67. What is the highest court in the United States?
The Supreme Court

68. Who was the President during the Civil War?
Abraham Lincoln

69. What did the Emancipation Declaration do?
Freed many slaves

70. What special group advises the President?
The Cabinet

71. Which President is called the "Father of our country"?
George Washington

72. What Immigration and Naturalization Service form is used to apply to become a naturalized citizen?
Form N-400, Application to File Petition for Naturalization

73. Who helped the Pilgrims in America?
The American-Indians (Native Americans)

74. What is the name of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America?
The Mayflower

75. What are the 13 original states of the U.S. called?
Colonies

76. Name 3 rights of freedom guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
The right of freedom of speech, press, religion, peaceable assembly, and requesting change of government.
The right to bear arms (the right to have weapons or own a gun, though subject to certain regulations).
The government may not quarter, or house, soldiers in the people's homes during peacetime without the people's consent.
The government may not search or take a person's property without a warrant.
A person may not be tried twice for the same crime and does not have to testify against him/herself.
A person charged with a crime still has some rights, such as the right to a trial and to have a lawyer.
The right to trial by jury in most cases.
Protects people against excessive or unreasonable fines or cruel and unusual punishment.
The people have rights other than those mentioned in the Constitution.
Any power not given to the federal government by the Constitution is a power of either the state or the people.

77. Who has the power to declare the war?
The Congress

78. What kind of government does the United States have?
Democracy

79. Which President freed the slaves?
Abraham Lincoln

80. In what year was the Constitution written?
1787

81. What are the first 10 amendments to the Constitution called?
The Bill of Rights

82. Name one purpose of the United Nations?
For countries to discuss and try to resolve world problems, to provide economic aid to many countries.

83. Where does Congress meet?
In the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

84. Whose rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?
Everyone (citizens and non-citizens) living in U.S.

85. What is the introduction to the Constitution called?
The Preamble

86. Name one benefit of being citizen of the United States.
Obtain federal government jobs, travel with U.S. passport, petition for close relatives to come to the U.S. to live.

87. What is the most important right granted to U.S. citizens?
The right to vote

88. What is the United States Capitol?
The place where Congress meets

89. What is the White House?
The President's official home

90. Where is the White House located?
Washington, D.C. (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.)

91. What is the name of the President's official home?
The White House

92. Name the right guaranteed by the first amendment.
Freedom of: speech, press, religion, peaceable assembly, and requesting change of the government.

93. Who is the Commander in Chief of the U.S. military?
The President

94. Which President was the first Commander in Chief of the U.S. military?
George Washington

95. In what month do we vote for the President?
November

96. In what month is the new President inaugurated?
January

97. How many times may a Senator be re-elected?
There is no limit

98. How many times may a Congressman be re-elected?
There is no limit


99. What are the 2 major political parties in the U.S. today?
Democratic and Republican

100. How many states are there in the United States today?
Fifty (50)


e

Town Characters, Coca-Cola Earl.

I’ve traveled a little, here and there. I spend a lot of time “people watching”. Wherever I go, I always notice the similarities in people, and especially in the town characters.

The last post about The Garberville Theatre reminded me of a town character that we all knew back in the fifties thru the seventies. His name was Earl Berry. He was a regular at the Garberville Theater. I always liked Earl, but if you talked to him for just a few minutes, you would know that he was “different”.

When we were cruel little kids we used to call him “Crazy Earl”. When we grew up a little, and became more P.C. we started calling him Coca-Cola Earl after his penchant for Coca-Cola. He was kinda’ like the guy in the movie “The Rainman”. He was a lot more functional, but he didn’t have that quality that people would accept as “smart”. I have always liked to build things, or invent some new tool, or some useful item, so I was particularly impressed with Earls ability to built many things out of cardboard and masking tape. You would hardly ever see him downtown without the special pouch that he had made for himself to carry a full six-pack of 8oz Coke bottles. He had made his own hat and at one time he even made a vest out of masking tape and cardboard.

As you might have guessed by now, he did many things on a very tight schedule. He would walk to town to get his Coke several times a day. You could set your watch by his regularity. He wouldn’t talk to you unless you engaged him first. I always liked to take a few minutes to just talk to him, and watch him smile. He liked for people to ask him how he made his cardboard stuff. He got so he would start grinning as soon as he saw me, because he knew that I was going to ask him about his precious “stuff”. He always knew exactly how many rolls of tape went into his inventions. He would go into great detail about his hinges, and lids, and latches, or how he made the straps out of pure masking tape. I always thought that if Garberville had a museum, it would be great to have some of Coca-Cola Earl's stuff in it.

Earl was a good looking guy, clean, and neat, and under other circumstances he would have been a great ladies-man. His mother made him stay clean. She made sure that he would shave and wear clean clothes. His hair was always neatly trimmed. That’s how he was when I was young. As his mother’s health failed, he let himself go a bit, and he looked like a vagabond. But, for most of his life he was spiffy and neat.

As I said, the post below about the Garberville Theatre reminded me of him. Anybody that ever attended the Saturday matinee back in the fifties and sixties knows what I mean. The theatre was the central source of entertainment back then. It was a very well run and organized place. The theater had ushers. One in each isle. Just like parking attendants, they would ask how many in your group, then they would seat you row by row as you filed in. During popular movies, or the first day of a movie, the theater was quite often completely filled. No empty seats. Also, the theater had many more seats than it has today.

The back quarter of the theater was the loge (hard o, soft g) section. The seats were red velvet, and no child under twelve was allowed to sit in them unless they were accompanied by and adult. So, the Saturday matinee was filled up front, but the loge section was mostly empty. In the evening seating, the section on the right was the smoking section. Sometimes the smoking section was full and a few smokers would have to sit in the center section. It was obvious why they wanted the smokers to sit at the side. As soon as somebody would light-up, they would exhale a large cloud of smoke into the projection beam. That was back before the cigarette smoke was reduced. Cigarettes were extremely smoky back then. Even while being held in a persons hand, they gave off a stream of smoke. We are sooooo lucky today, that smokers are not allowed inside, for a variety of reasons.

The theater had a nursing room behind the smoking section. It was a glassed in room with speakers inside. Mothers with squeally babies were not tolerated, whatsoever, in the audience. But, they were given every convenience in the nursing room.

As you know, I’m fascinated by tools and gadgets, so the usher’s flashlights were interesting to me. They had a tube out in the front that focused the light into a tight little spot. If you went to the restroom or the snack bar during the movie, they would escort you back to your seat with the light discretely shining on the floor, so you could find your way. If you made any noise, or laughed too loud you would find the light shining on you. You got one warning, the second time the light was shined on you there would be a come-hither finger wiggling in it. Then you were escorted to the lobby where you were required to stay until the movie was over. At least that’s what they tell me… It never happened to me… Unless somebody was there.

The second hand store, down the hill by the union oil company, had a female urinal that Burl Keating told me came out of the Garberville Theatre. He said that back when women wore dresses it was more convenient to use, but women started wearing slacks, and they removed it because it was unusable if it could not be straddled. Of course my curious mind went nuts with wonder over the urinal. How…. Oh, never mind!

Let’s get back to Earl. Anybody that went to the Saturday matinee knew that the isle seat in the third row of the general seating was reserved for Earl. The ushers would tell you not to sit there. If someone unknowingly sat there, Earl would stare incredulously at them until the usher came to ask the person to move. Earl was at every Saturday matinee with his large Coca-Cola and bag of popcorn.

As soon as they got Earl seated the lights would slowly dim and you could hear Woody Woodpecker start his familiar song in the background and it was “Showtime”.

Garberville Theatre

My friend Chris Brannan stopped by my office the other day. He was understandably proud of the new website for the Garberville Theatre. A man by the name of Ed Truthan developed the website. We have many great website designers in our area, but this post happens to be about the Garberville Theatre, so I will give credit where credit is due. I was very impressed with the user friendliness of the site. I wish all web sites were as user friendly. Ed has “air-brushed” the images to the point that you feel like you are entering fantasy-land, which is exactly what you are doing when you enter the Garberville Theatre.


As you know, theaters are struggling with the new competition of DVD's that are so readily available. Some of the theaters in Eureka are closing, as indeed most of the classic old movie-house theaters across the United States are closed, and bulldozed to make room for shopping malls or retail stores. We are indeed lucky to have retained some of the slower pace that the good old days had here in Garberville. One of the great things about our slower pace is the movie theater is still open, it is still a classic theater. You can take a trip down memory lane, if you want to, and still enjoy a first-run modern movie.

When I was a kid I used to go the the Saturday Matinee. First, my cousin Jim Newland and I would walk down the street and bang on the side of the parking meters until enough coin would shake back out the coin-slot to buy our way in. On lucky days we would get enough coin to buy a root beer and some of the sweet little chocolate covered mints. Then, I would get a big bag of popcorn. Just as the lights were dimming, Jim and I would get a seat. The movie always started with a cartoon. “The Roadrunner” was our favorite. I liked to mix my popcorn with the mints. Were else can you find such a delightful flavor?

Who was it that said: “You can never go home again”. Who ever in was doesn't live in Garberville. The theater is still here, They still have a snack bar, and plenty of seats. Enjoy!

Oh! The parking meter coin slot thing was a closely guarded secret! If it had ever gotten out that that's how we went to the Saturday Matinee, every kid in town would have been doing it. I wish that I had a movie of us “being secret” while we were harvesting our “coin trees.”

Brigette Brannan owns and runs the theater and Chris does what he can to keep her happy there. They are doing a great job and preseving a valuable asset for Garberville.
 
The link below will open on the history section of the Website. Hey, this is my blog, and I'll start with the end if I want! I spent about an hour looking at the site, and I haven't finished finding things on it yet. Click below (you will see where) and enjoy the Garberville Theatre. Or, type in your own URL. Most misspellings of theater will work. You can almost smell the hot buttered Popcorn!

http://www.garbervilletheatre.com/history.htm



North Coast Graphics is owned and operated by web designer and graphic artist Ed Truthan from his studio in the Southern Humboldt County hamlet of Garberville, California. As a member of the Garberville Chamber of Commerce we are proud to play an active role in this vibrant community.

For more information contact:
Ed Truthan at (707) 932-1135
or email: ed@northcoastgraphics.com

Should we be greatful to China for carrying us?

The Photos are three Gorges Dam, China.
I justified this rant by putting a little real history into it!

I was over at Eric’s blog recently. I know that the people that live over there are way smarter than me, so I like to go over there to see if I can learn anything. Sometimes I only get a little over my head, and sometimes, like now, I get way over my head, and I feel that the only people that might agree with me are ME. So, I came back to my own blog with my tail between my legs and decided that I wanted to say something about the way that I think, without taking up too much of Eric’s intellectually abundant space. That, and I can edit my mistakes on this Blog, like “a free take back, it never happened” thing. I don’t think that we are “intellectual” over here, but I think that we are pretty smart and wise.

Eric said, and he is probably right about what he said, but if people would have listened to me years ago, we wouldn’t have to be kissing China’s economic rear to survive.

Eric said:
“If any country has the right to complain along your lines it’s China, who may be saving the world from global depression by shouldering the burden for everyone, including us.”

It's important to remember that we are all friends here, and anything that we say has little import, nor will it change the world. So, if I point out where I think that America went wrong, I’m not doing it to disagree with anyone, or try to make them look foolish. I’m just putting my opinion out there for folks to ponder. So, why am I not grateful to China?

First ponderance; Back in the early days of the “silk Road” between China and the Roman empire there was a brisk trade between the two. The Roman women coveted the smooth luxurious filmy cloth. They liked every thing about it. It was sheer, and revealed their bodies without going naked. It felt good against their skin. And most of all, it gave them a strong feeling of self-worth. If they were wearing silk, it cost someone a fortune to buy it. Back in those day, fortunes were defined in gold.

Second ponderance: The Roman rulers figured out that if the Romans kept sending all of their durable gold to China in exchange for something highly expendable, they would soon be out of gold with nothing real to show for it.

Third ponderance: The roman rulers passed a law against buying Chinese silk, thus keeping the gold in Rome. Thereby keeping their economy strong.

Fourth ponderance: Recently America sent most of it’s gold to China. We bought their wonderful goods, and brought them to our shores. We provided well for our families, with the inexpensive Chinese ware, which were much more wonderful than we could afford to have made on our own shores.

Fifth ponderance; Wealthy business people saw the opportunity to bypass American worker unions that demanded fairness and equality for their workers. It occurred to them that the only thing that was stopping them from getting wealthy by sending American jobs offshore was the elected officials that demanded “balance of trade” between counties and imposed tariffs on goods from countries that were pulling ahead of America by exploiting child labor, and disregarding pollution, and the health of their people. So, the wealthy business people bought the media, and financed the political campaigns for politicians that would help them achieve their goals. If you don't like that, buy your own politician. What do you mean, you can't afford that without a job?

Sixth ponderance: Some counties (China in particular) have wiped out their rivers, some that no longer contain fish. They have flooded the antiquities that existed in the valleys by building enormous dams and using almost the entire world supply of steel rebar and ALL of the quality cement that can be manufactured. They have stripped their forests, and done things that NO American would allow to happen on our OWN shores. They have polluted their rivers, their oceans and their air. Their air is so dirty that the only time that they see blue sky is when the wind is strong enough to blow some of our fresh air into their countries.

Seventh ponderance: They say that “if you don’t learn from history you are condemned to repeat it”. One could only wish. The Roman Empire was wise enough to not spend all of it’s gold. It wasn’t out of hate for China, they were simply being prudent. As individuals, when we are out of money, we just simply don’t buy those things that we wish we had. We know that the retailers won’t hate us. They just know that we are out of money. That is… the prudent among us stop spending money when we are out. Others keep spending like drunken sailors, they keep borrowing to float their debt, and hope that tomorrow will be better, sometimes it is. We not only did not learn from history we bypassed it completely. The people in history were wise enough to stop their economic bleeding before they were dead.

Eighth ponderance: The next time you have someone look down their nose at you, and tell you that “We live in a world economy now”, and how they can’t help it that you don’t have a job, because our crooked business people sent all of our gold to China, because they got a cut out of it that made them very, very, wealthy. Would you tell them for me, bullcrap!

Ninth Ponderance: I know this post won’t change anything, I hope that it doesn’t cost me any friends, because my political views are not nearly important as the friends that I have. So, please don’t take me personally. It’s just that I see so many things that I wish that I could change for us, but sadly, I feel that it is futile to try. We all lead lives of quiet desperation.
Tenth ponderance; Do you know that there is no such word as ponderance?

Photography, travel, history.

A Vicarious trip to Taxco. Thanks to Pernel S. Thyseldew. (Nom de Camera)

I’ve always admired great photography. Great photography starts with an artist’s eye and finishes with a technician’s ability. As you know, if you read this blog, I seek reality. (Things that you can hit with a hammer). I like machinery, and things that always work the same way, if treated the same way. I especially like big machines, and I like big scenes in photography. So, you can only imagine how much that I appreciate the photo’s that Pernell S. Thyseldew sent me from Taxco Mexico.



The Panorama of Taxco was “stitched together” out of nine different Photos. In has enough pixels to make a 30 inch photograph, and still remain sharp. (Don’t try this at home folks, Pernel is a trained professional)




I’m more of a technician than an artist, but, just like any critic, I don’t know diddley about photography, but I know what I like. A photographer’s job is to tell a story. These pictures do the job well. The church was built during a time when “Big” was a difficult job. The labor, detail and artistry in the construction of the church is made apparent by the photo.

The construction of the church started in 1751, nearly one-hundred years before the California Gold Rush. You’re probably wondering what that has to do with anything. But, the connection is, that it was built by the wealth gained from mining precious metals. The church was financed by funding from a silver mining tycoon by the name of José de la Borda, who had already made his fortune in mining by 1751. Mexico was already “civilized” by European influence for two-hundred years by then. That is three hundred years before Northern California even became a blip on the civilized map.

One rather humorous fact to me, is the legend of the construction of the church. The legend goes that during the early days of the church’s construction that a thunder storm gathered above the church site. All of the workers fell upon their knees and prayed to God for safety from the wicked lightning. “Suddenly, Santa Prisca shows up in the heights, holding his hands to prevent lightning from harming the people that were there. Then gradually disappeared. A painting in the temple honors this legend.”

The thing that I found so humorous about that legend, is that back in the Eighteenth Century, they prayed to God for protection from the lightning. Today, they probably still pray for protection, but my technicians eye noticed a lightning rod protruding from the top of the cross at the apex of the church. A humorous juxtaposition between faith in God, and a wise application of modern science, “that you could hit with a hammer“.

The Spanish influence in Taxco is almost complete. No building is seen that couldn’t have been built in Eighteenth Century Spain. Scenes like this make my mouth water to travel. I’ve not been to Mexico. I’ve been to a few places in the world, but unfortunately, not Mexico. I’ve never been comfortable with bartering for the things that I need, which I understand is part of Mexican life. Some people enjoy haggling, I don’t. I like to hear a price, and I take it or leave it. I don’t like feeling like “prey” if you get off the beaten path. I guess that is true of Humboldt County also, but I know where the paths are here.

Taxco is off the beaten tourist path, deep in the heart of Mexico, which in many respects makes it more appealing to me. But, the fact that I don’t have a good handle on the Spanish Language would make it very difficult for me to travel there without an interpreter. So, I find it hard to decide to go there. That, and the fact that I can stay interested in things while locked in a bushel basket. I could spend the rest of my like exploring things within a gas tank away from me. And, the more things that I know, the more things that I find to investigate. Life is an interesting condition for the curious!

Some Required links!
Old pictures of Garberville. On Pernel S. Thyseldew website

Places To Visit In My Virtual World. Pernel S. Thyseldew.


e

"The Cave!!!"

ROSS SHERBURN said...
ERNIE,if my bearings are correct??? just down the hill,from where the first photo was taken??
there was a CAVE we used to go into! it went back in the hillside about 50-75 feet,may have been man made?? a spring came out of the cave and a water line was put in there ,"I GUESS" to furnish water to a house farther down the hill!
EVER been to it?? i went over there several times with the Fulwilder kid!!!his mom was Peggy Clifton!!
OREGON???
HA!HA! yeah i've been to the back also! Fulwider showed it to me,of course. i also had nite mares about it for quite a few years!!!

On the right side of the photo about the post about Garberville below, and up a little canyon that is now behind the Scown Trailer Park, is the spot of "The Cave".

..."THE CAVE"...
Ross I remember the cave well. It was the source of many nightmares for the Garberville kids back in the '50's and '60's. It was about fifty feet long. The bottom was filled with water because the front of the cave had caved in several times. You had to have hip boots to get to the back. We dug out the front a few times to drain it enough to go all the way back.

When we were kids, we thought that the cave was natural, and we had made a great discovery. Actually the cave was dug by some old-timers looking for water. Somebody must have used it at one time because there were pipes leading away from it. Somebody bladed dirt over it to seal it off. The must have decided that it was an attractive nuisance because so many kids played in it. Go Figger!!!

As kids, we would go up to the cave and sprinkle red food coloring around it. Then we would mark up the trees and limbs around it. Then we would go find a kid and tell them that we found were the “Monster” lived. One of us would get in the back of the cave. When the “brave” new kid would approach the cave, see the opening and all the broken brush and trees around it. They would slow their approach way down and get real cautious. As the brave ones, that got all the way up to the cave, and proclaim that; “There’s no monster lives here!”, the kid in the back of the cave would make monster sounds. A lot of kids wet their pants getting out of there.

We told so many spook stories about “The Cave” that we had ourselves scared. And, we would always approach the cave cautiously… In case a bear or mountain lion had taken up residence there. You never know…..

We didn't have electronic games when we were kids, but I'm sure that we had more fun!

Old Garberville Explained

I ran across this old photo of Garberville. (below)I recognized it instantly and didn't think much of it, until it occurred to me that most of those buildings have been replaced. About the only thing that is the same is Bear Buttes in the background. The big long building near the center of the photo, on the right side of the road is Speed DeVee's garage. The rear of the building was Erwin Foltz's shop. The building was torn down to make way for what is now Ray's Food Place parking lot.

Just over the roof of Speeds garage, you can see the old Redwood Inn. The Redwood Inn was torn down to build Phase-1 of what is now Ray's.

On the far right of the photo you will see a white cone shape. The cone is actually a stone fireplace on the front of the presbyterian parsonage. Thefire place and the building that it is attached to are still there. They are on Maple Lane, just east of Radio Shack. The building just to the right of the parsonage is the old Wool Growers Association warehouse. That is where my shop is today. There was two buildings built this side of the warehouse, and it would not be visible in this photo today. Those two buildings are Radio Shack and the Gift Shack, our stores on Maple Lane.

Just to the left of the Wool Growers Association warehouse, and bordering Redwood Drive, is is a large concrete building that is the North Valley Bank. It is still there. Across the Redwood Drive and a little further away (long dark roof) is one of the oldest buildings in town. It was built as the Garberville Mercantile Company and it is now where Alsports is located.

The turn-off to Sprowel Creek Road can be seen between the two trees covering Redwood Drive near the center of town. If you look at the far side of town on the left of the photo, all of those houses were removed for the freeway to be built.

Starting on the far left of the photo, you will see a roof with a coupola on the top. That is a Chevron gas station. Wally and Ruth Nichols owned it. The two story building to the right of the gas station was Dinnell's Redwood Burl Factory and gift shop. Wally and Ruth sold the service station and bought the Burl Factory. Both were torn down to expand the Garberville Motel and build the Waterwheel Restaurant. The motel was owned by Ron Olson's folks. Ron Olsen now owns Southern Humboldt Building supply. Both Ruth Nichols and Elsie Olson (Ron's mom) still live here.

In the foreground is the White Motel. Motels were the modern rage back then. As you can see, all of the cabins are neat and tidy. All had kitchens and bathrooms with an attached garage for the smug people that could afford to own a car and travel. The row of cabins that extend to the right of the photo were on both sides of Melville Road. When I was a kid the motel was owned by Don Buxton. I went to school with his daughter Shirley. The Motel had a swimming pool then, and we had a few parties there. It was a nice place. It was torn down before it's time to make room for a Standard service station that last for a few years then was torn down. The lot is still empty. The cabins in the foreground remained for quite some time. KMUD was in them for a while. Anybody remember that?

At the top of the Motel, on redwood Drive is a “Flying A” service station. Just next to that on the far side the Garberville Groceteria was built, and it doesn't look like it was there yet. This photo was taken some time in the forties???

Whew! Questions?
 

The Photo's below are of Speed DeVee and Erwin foltz. I did a story previously and someone asked if I had any photo's. As I often do, I found some that I shamelessly swiped. I got these from the Garberville Fire Department.

Earthquake!

As you know, because I've said it before, I can sense earthquakes before they happen, that's why I put the "most Recent Local Earthquake" link over there on the left side side under "NOAA Weather Benbow heading. That, and there are volcanoes acting up all over the world, plus earthequakes and sunamis. Can we be far behind? Certainly not!

I understand that ferndale had substantial damage and the power is off. The Bayshore Mall closed because of structual damage. The Bear River Casino in Fortuna had a gas leak. Feel free to add any info that you have here.
Please?

The earthquake  was 6.5 and was located 25 miles west of ferndale and about five miles deep.
The power is out in Ferndale, Manilla, Trinidad and parts of Arcata.
There has been at least five minor aftershocks.

I had just waked in the backdoor of Radio Shack in Garberville, as I grabed the door knob I felt it tugging and pulling and moving around. I though that somebody inside was messing with me. After I openned the door and there was nobody there I was a little confused, but the power back up to the phone system was beeping. We have had trouble with it last week and was unable to determine what happened. So I thought, "Ah Haa, I caught it". I went over to the table that it was on and it was moving all around. EARTHQUAKE!

I assumed the same mode that everybody goes into. I stood in the doorway. I concidered going outside, but in was too much fun watching everybody elses reaction. Why is it in California that everybody bails for the door, then as soon as they get outside the yell "EARTHQUAKE" then they grin like fools. Darn! That was fun!

Drug test

If you are completely free of any drug residue in your system the artwork below will be perfectly stable. If you are stoned or on acid in will look like it is spinning. If you are emotionally unstable it may spin even if you are drug free. So, this is a good all-around test. If the patterns are not stable, and solid, don’t leave your house! Especially don’t submit to any drug tests!

I though it was just time for a little fun. Some people will recognize this as “Gods Work” others will look for scientific reasons for the wheels to spin. Myself? I’m just amazed by it and let it go…

Do the wheels move for you?

P.S. The wheels are NOT moving.

Abalone Woman, Transcribed by Ben Schill

Abalone Woman and Eagle
As told to Pliny Earl Goddard by Briceland Charlie July 15, 1908. at Briceland, California.
Transcribed and interpreted by Ben Schill, Phillipsville, CA. Jan 1, 2010 for the Eel River Nation of Sovereign Wailaki



He was lonely
He was looking for a woman

From the East, from Hayfork he came, they say
Eel River, he came down, they say
South Fork, he came down, they say
No woman. Woman he did not see, they say
Mattole, he came down, they say
No woman. Woman he did not see, they say
He went west. West only, to the coast, they say
He came down. Came down the coast, they say
Coast, he came down
Abalone, this woman, he saw, they say
She sat and combed her hair, they say
"I don’t want to marry.” she said
Eagle stood behind her, they say
Abalone didn’t look at him, they say
 She did not listen to him
He went back
West facing, she stood, they say
He went back to duk kun dun on the ridge, they say
Eagle came to duk k’an, he came up
West, he looked back, behind himself, they say
Facing west, he went back, back to the coast, they say
Eagle came down the coast, they say
He came to where she was, facing west she sat, they say
Eagle whipped her with fire, they say
He went back. Back to the ridge he went, they say
Then he looked back, looked west, they say
Eagle saw her sitting there still
He thought: “I go home”, he started home
He came back, Mattole.
He came back di kok creek
He came back to South Fork
He came down to Eel River
Eel River he went back
He went back to Hayfork
Hayfork he came back
There he made flint
He made white kind
He made blue kind
He made red kind
He made black kind
Then he put the flints in a sack
He carried the sack to the Eel River
He camped there, the sack was heavy
He came to the South Fork, he camped there
He carried the sack to the Mattole, he camped there
The sack was heavy
He carried te sack to the coast
There Abalone Woman sat, facing west, she sat, they say
Eagle brought his sack of flints, they say
Abalone Woman said nothing, she sat facing west
Eagle got mad, he went back
He went back to Mattole
He gave out, the sack was heavy
He went up nel ash kuk ridge
He sat down, he was mad, he gave out
He was mad, he tore the sack
Flints he threw north to Dance House Ridge
He picked some up and threw them east to Big White Rock
He took some up and threw them west to White Striped Rock where bears go
That will be its name, he said
He took some up and threw them downhill east sen tel tchun butte will be the name, he said
He threw some away to nah del yah
That will be its name, he said
He took some up and threw it away down hill to sey nah tah.
That will be its name, he said
The flints were all gone, his burden light
No longer will I be a person, he said
Women don’t like me squirrel only, I will eat
I will be Eagle, he said.
He flew around This kind I will be.
Eagle they will be called, He said.


Based on the Goddard notes from the American Philosophical Society, Boas collection, Reel #47, pdf 22, pg. 1 to pg. 11.

A few comments on the story: (From Ben Schill)
The first two lines are mine, to set the mood and explain Eagle’s motive to the reader. To increase the drama, the storyteller does not identify Eagle until later in the narrative.

Remember that these stories are oral and repetition is a dramatic element as well as introducing changes in mood and form which are too subtle to be understood by the recorder (Goddard) or by me. The story teller links his tale to the physical places familiar to the listeners.

The frequent element “they say” is heard in many local Native languages. It gives the story the quality of lore rather than the in-vention of the teller.

When Abalone Woman is whipped by fire, she gets the red marks seen on the abalone shell. There is considerable work on the Abalone Woman group of stories which the interested reader can find. It is sometimes considered a warning against the abuse of women.

At the end, Eagle chooses not to be a “First Person” any more, but rather the eagle familiar to us all. This transformation is a fre-quent theme in local Creation stories. The First People were cre-ated before human beings (Indians) arrived and were transformed with the coming arrival. Loneliness and longing are frequent themes in these stories and the teller might sob with emotion. Eagle names the chert quarries on the ridges around Salmon Creek.

I’m sure that I have made many mistakes but I have stayed pretty close to the text and I feel priviliged to have found these stories from our own locality.
Ben

A few comments on the story from Ernie:
We are very privileged to be reading, for the first time, a true local Indian legend about how and where we got our local flint. The very simple story has a very complicated story line, that bears reading many times over with a very open mind. We are lucky to have someone like Ben that is interested enough in local history to actually learn the Local Indian languages. Many of the old recordings can now be interpreted. Many stories can be revealed due to Bens hard work. There is no definitive book on the local languages, so we should all be grateful to Ben.

Just like many languages, the Indian language has some words that have many different meanings. For instance, the English word “cool” can have many different meanings. If you don’t have a very good understanding of the language, you could miss-interpret “Cool” many ways. So, you can only imagine how hard it is to translate a dead language.

I have had the privilege of hearing some of the old Indian legends from My uncle Ben Branscomb, who was much like Ben Schill. Only just like the Indians, he passed the stories on by word of mouth, so my version of who Whiptalli was (Indian Spirit God) is probably much changed from who my uncle Ben thought he was. So goes legendary tales, but the basic truths always remain. From that I know that Whiptalli was an Indian Deer Spirit. He was mean, he hated water and noise. I get that from every tale that I have ever heard. So, if Whiptalli is ever after you, make a bunch of noise, or swim away from him. I get that from ALL of the stories about Whiptalli. Whiptalli appears in many different legends. Much as Ben Schill’s “Abalone Woman” and “Eagle”.

I am hoping that Ben will chime in here and tell us more about where these places are. I think that he probably has a pretty good idea. At least now I know how flint got here.

My uncle never laughed at the Indian legends. He knew that they all contained a basic truth, or an explanation of knowledge that could be, and should be passed on. If you put enough of the old legends together, you can get a knowledge of how to get through life easier, because they all contain a “lesson”.
Ernie

No news is good news.

First, I'm going to do a clean-up post with all of my “explanations” and a few apologies. My computer at home is not working right. It has become more and more cumbersome to use. I’ve been working-around all of it’s minor glitches, but the latest one is like somebody is holding down the “ctrl” button. Everything that I type goes to a control point. I changed the keyboard and it does the same thing. I’m not used to Windows Vista so I don’t know where to start fixing it… But I will!… I’m using the computer at my office now. It has a Windows program that I understand, XT, and it works so quickly and smoothly that it is refreshing to be using it again. In fact, it works so good that I find myself getting comfortably windy again.

I digress…. I’ve been gone from posting for awhile, because my home computer became unusable. I was home Thursday, because it was New Years Eve. It was also it was my wife and my anniversary. Then Friday was New-Years day. Of course Saturday was a regular day off… and Sunday. It probably sounds like a life of leisure, but as anyone that is married, and is a home-owner, knows that there is always a “Honey-do” list, and mine has become quite plump and well-rounded this fall, almost as long as this run-on sentence. My wife saw a grand opportunity to get some much-needed chores around the house done. Those chores removed me from blogging for awhile, because I was too far away from a working computer. There I go again, enjoying a good smooth-working computer, and getting too windy.

Back in 1843 Henry Ellsworth from the U.S. Patent Office reported to Congress. In his report he states, "The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end." Thus implying that everything had already been invented, and that there was no need to keep the patent office open anymore, because, everything had already been invented. I told my wife the other day that my blog is really slowing down lately, because everything that I’ve wanted to say, or was important, had already been said. I told her that I was considering not making any more posts, because I’ve run out of things important to say. In her great wisdom she said “Since when has that ever stopped you?” I’m still rolling that around in my head. My “credulity” has been taxed. I’m sure that there must be a compliment in her statement somewhere.

Anyway, thanks to some of my blogger friends, I have tons of “new” history. If there is such a thing.

Sam Gitchell, Jade gatherer, made a comment here. I wish he would do more. Then it occurred to me that maybe I should have more things that interests the “Rock hounds” out there. We have some pretty amazing rocks here in the Eel River drainage, for a variety of reasons. I intend to delve into rocks in a post. Sam is from Anderson Valley, which is one of my “Node Points” which I will also post about.

I miss Ol’ Man River. He recently came out of his self-imposed retirement to place a comment here. I understand that he burned himself out researching my family history, and that of the Indian People, but I know that he would not exchange the knowledge that he gained by researching our local history for anything in the world.

Robin dropped by again to “peep” hello. She always has something interesting to say. Oregon made a “punny note” that she stops by once in a Blue Moon… Last Dec. 31st being a Blue Moon. HAHAHA.

Most of all, Ben sent me a copy of some very great research that he has done on interpreting an old Indian legend on how flint came to the north coast. I will be posting it here as soon as I can get it all together.. So stay tuned. It is seminal. (I know that I promised that I would not use big words on this blog, but I wanted to impress Ben with my linguistic ability.)

....And… I have a whole bunch of stuff about the Eel River, and some local town stuff. Janis is right, when has not having anything to ever say stopped me???

Eel River Jade

Jade:
common name for either of two minerals used as gems. The rarer variety of jade is jadeite, a sodium aluminum silicate, NaAl(SiO3)2, usually white or green in color; the green variety is the more valuable. The commoner and less costly variety of jade is nephrite, a calcium magnesium iron silicate of varying composition, white to dark green in color. Jade has been prized by the Chinese and Japanese, as well as by pre-Colombian Mesoamerican peoples, as the most precious of all gems. The Chinese in particular are known for the objets d'art they carve from it, and they traditionally associated it with the five cardinal virtues: charity, modesty, courage, justice, and wisdom; they also attributed healing powers to it. It was much used for implements by ancient peoples.

When I was a kid, every rock that I found was a "Rock". There were pretty rocks and ugly rocks. As I got older and more sophisticated, rocks became either jasper, sandstone, quartz, soapstone or isinglass. They still fell into two classifications for me, pretty rocks and ugly rocks.

Back in the fifties, everybody took on a new interest in mining. Uranium became a big item after they developed nuclear weapons. They also needed uranium to power the nuclear power plants that they were starting to build. A friend of my grandmothers asked her for permission to “prospect” on her property in Laytonville. Of course she said yes. It was pretty exciting for her to think that somebody might find something valuable on her property.

The old prospector was very knowledgeable about rocks. He didn't expect to find Uranium, but he did expect that he would probably find something worth mining on Gramma's property. He found some fairly favorable tungsten ore, but not in the amounts that would have been worth mining.

The one thing that the old prospector did find, was me at his heels. He became the total focus of my insatiable curiosity. I learned quite a bit about the names of rocks from him. He knew about the “Jade” on the Eel River. He told me that it is really not Jade, but “Nephrite”. He said that is was pretty like jade, but not nearly as valuable. For a 9 year old boy, that was hard for me to understand. To me a pretty rock was a pretty rock, I couldn't understand the concept of “valuable”.

I found out from him that the stuff we called “Fools Gold” was really iron-pyrite. Again, I couldn't understand why it was not valuable. We found fools gold all over the ranch. He soon started asking me where certain kinds of rocks were. And, of course I knew where all of the “pretty rocks” were. I was able to lead him right to wherever he wanted to see a certain type of rock. We had a little trouble communicating at first. He had all of the Newcomer names for my pretty rocks. But, we were able to teach each other a lot. One of the things that I found to be really interesting about hin is that he used to be a cop in Texas, and he still packed a 45 cal semi-automatic pistol in a shoulder holster. I had never seen an a semi automatic pistol before.

The reason that I tell you all of this, long story, is just to prove that I was right all along. “A pretty rock, is a pretty rock”. The stuff in the Eel River that we called “Eel River Jade” has slowly changed from worthless to semi-precious.

The main deposits of Eel River Jade is in a place called Mina, just north of Covelo on the North Fork Eel River. A fellow by the name Sam Gitchel, from Philo, California, bought the ranch out there, and has been mining it. Jade is found in several locations on the main Eel, and is of varying colors, from white to dark green. Some is almost black. There are shades of blue and also red. But it is all called “Nephrite”. The stuff that my old prospector friend called “worthless”.

Here are some Photo's from Sam's website:

The art of "Suiseki" is the Japanese art of stone appreciation. They will display the stone in it's most natural form, depicted in an artful way.

Interesting links to Eel River Jade collecting:
http://www.friendsofjade.org/current-article/2007/1/5/helicopter-prospecting-for-jade.html
http://www.suiseki.com/gallery/eelriver2007-1.html
http://www.suiseki.com/collecting/photos2.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_vietnam_big_buddha;_ylt=AkynArY6m33UotFIGV7o0jftiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJpNDl2aGl2BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMTE4L2FzX3ZpZXRuYW1fYmlnX2J1ZGRoYQRwb3MDNARzZWMDeW5fbW9zdF9wb3B1bGFyBHNsawN2aWV0bmFtYWltc3Q-
e

Once in a Blue Moon

This is going to be all-over in the Mainstream Media, but you heard it here first! This month is going to have a Blue Moon. A Blue Moon is the second full moon that happens in a single month. The Lunar Cycle is 29.53 days, or 29 days 12 hours and 44 minutes. If you are an astrophysicist, all kinds of things change that cycle. Like, how fast the Earth revolves around the Sun, the distance the Moon is away from the sun and the Earth etc. But, for you and me, if we went out and set on our lawns, and timed the full Moons, we would find them to be 29.53 days apart.

Whoever made up the universal cycles had a sense of humor. The Moons trip around the Earth does not correspond the length of the days, nor number of days in a month. So it’s all screwed up. We have leap years to keep the days timed to the years, and leap hours and even leap seconds that we use to keep our clocks right. We have Blue Moons to add a Full Moon to the other wise unwieldy Lunar cycle.

Unlike we do with the "time" to keep it corresponding to the movement of the Earth around the Sun, we just let the Moon do whatever it wants to. So, when ever an extra Moon shows up in a month, we just call it a Blue Moon, and go on. It doesn’t change a thing.

However, a blue moon is very rare! We only have one every 2 1/2 years, or one every 41 months. (again, there are tons of scientific variables, that would only bore people like you and me) The really unusual thing about the one coming up this month is that it is happening on the very last day of the year, December 31st. To make the Blue Moon even more rare, there will be a partial eclipse in certain places around the world. How cool is that!

A Blue Moon, on the last day of the year, and a partial eclipse, what could be more rare? One more thing, it is also my wife and my aniversary!  Now, if I take her out to dinner, buy a good bottle of wine, buy her a nice little gift, and just be a super romantic guy. Imagine the possibilities! The Sky is the limit!

More recently found local artifacts

These arrowheads were found on the main Eel River between Spyrock and Alderpoint. They sure had some beautiful chert out there.

Happy Midwintersday!

Happy Midwintersday. This is the day that the spiritual and the physical join in agreement and look forward to new beginnings. The photo below is of a mount in Ireland built by the ancients. It is a physical manifestation of their spiritual beliefs. The whole structure is dedicated to detecting the winter solstice, or the longest night and the darkest day.

I will be writing much more about this subject later. But if you have any thoughts about Midwintersday, or what it means to you, please dive in. I just wanted to start the day with a good thought.

This large mound is called "Newgrange" and it is estimated to be over 3,200 Years old.

At the very lowest point the the sun reaches in the winter sky, a beam of sunlight shines though the opening above the entry and shines on a mark all the way back into the central chamber.

I read somewhere that they used to sacrifice humans at the winter solstice, but the catholic Church stopped it. I guess they figured that human sacrifice was their prerogative.

Some of my ancestors are from Ireland, so I find the Early Irish to be, at least, as fascinating as the Early American Indians. Indeed there are many similarities in the two people. They were both extremely creative. They both used stone tools, and many of their legends and stories were the same. They both had rebirth or renewal celebrations. They based many things on information passed down from generation to generation. Neither of the two people had written language. The French gave Britton their written language in about 650 AD.

At one time my accumulated knowledge and memory would have been considered to be very valuable. An old person back in stone age times was the ancient equivalent to Google today. If you needed to know something, you had to converse with the elders. Elders were the most revered people of all of the culture back then.

The modern Irish estimate The Newgrange Structure to be between 5,000 and 5,200 years old. The mound is not more than 10,000 years old, because all of the British Iles were covered with a glacier before that. As the glacier melted stone age man moved northward. Unlike modern day man, they looked forward to global warming. But that was the period where global warming was slowing down considerably.

One of the things that made me realize that all people are the same is the similarities in the stone writing. The spirals, circles, boxes, and zigzag lines are found in all Neolithic stone carvings. The carvings could easily been done by our local Indians.

Santa 2009

Every year, starting clear back before I joined the Redway fire department, (Joined in 1973) Santa has been hauled around town on the old American LaFrance fire engine. Nobody is sure when the tradition started, but I remember when I was a kid the Old Lafrance and Santa would make the rounds in Redway.

In all of the years that I have been one of Santa's helpers we have never been rained out. We have had rain before and after, and some days we've had light rain, several times we've had freezing cold, or windy weather, but we've never been rained out. Several years we had large beach umbrellas up to stave off the mist, but nope... never been rained out!

The Photo card at the top is By Kim Sallaway. The pretty woman at Santa's side is Yvonne, Kim's helper.

This is how you back up the LaFrance. You set the hand throttle, shift into reverse, then let the clutch out. When the truck starts to move backwards, you step out on the running-board and steer the truck backwards. The truck moves at about one-mile per hour.
Photo of me, Ernie, driving. By Pete Genolio.

There are so many kids at the Orchard Street Apartments that Santa got off the truck to talk to them and ask what they wanted for Christmas. The speaker system on the escort truck was playing loud Christmas music. The kids found it to be very amusing when Santa broke out dancing to Jingle Bell Rock. It broke the ice for the little True-Santa-Believers, and instead of being so painfully shy, they were willing to ask him for what they wanted for Christmas.
Photo by Ernie's cell phone
Photo by Pete Genolio's cell phone.

After all of the candy canes were passed out, we sent Santa Back to the North Pole, and parked the LaFrance. We all went home and put on our best clothes and met back at the Redway Fire Hall for a Christmas dinner and party. We ate, made speeches, past out awards, did Karaoke, and danced until the new day was upon us.

Merry Christmas!
Ernie

Wouldn't it be great?

Anon said:

"You have every right to your find no matter what some tinhorn Fed says. This is Humboldt County after all.



Great story Spyrock. It illustrates the energy side. Rocks hold energy longer than wood or water. When you hold that pestle in a quiet way, there may be energies, old, old energies that come to you as a gift. Think of all the life experience associated with that pestle, and admire the amazing craftsmanship. You are fortunate."

Yes, Spyrock is always interesting. The greatest thing about this blog is the things that I have learned from the people that comment. I won’t go into great detail about the people that do comment, because I would end up leaving someone out, and I encourage everyone to comment here when they have something to say.


I have always been interested in other people’s knowledge. I have long been the person to stir up a conversation, then just sit and listen and enjoy. When I was a kid they used to accuse me of “bringing up sore subjects, and starting disagreements”. To me I used to like to wonder how anybody would just plain personally disagree with each other, I always though that there would only be one “Truth” and that they could find it together.

I’ve come to understand as I’ve gotten more “sage” that some people don’t care about truth, and they base most of their decisions on their beliefs, or faiths. Somehow that always scares me. Most times I will find that their reality is based on their own personal agenda. I try to avoid agendas. Some commenters are seekers of truth, like I think that I like to be. Even when I don’t agree with them, I value their opinions of being those of an honest person. Sometimes I’ve even found enough wisdom in their thoughts that I’ve changed my mind about things.

In the last post, about Indian artifacts, I have had many people come to me on the street and tell me about the artifact that they have found. Usually they found it in a place that they shouldn‘t have been, or on State Property and they don’t want anybody to know about it, because they find a personal connection to their “find”. In all cases, they felt a connection to the small chips of rock that they have found that it causes me to wonder why honest people would even defy the law to keep what they feel is “theirs” by the right of finders-keepers.

I guess that people feel that they can trust me, but they tell me about their find but they never reveal any details that might get their find taken away from them. Wouldn't it be great if we could say that “I have an Indian artifact and here are it’s details.” and not have it taken. I think that we could all learn so much.

Local Indian stone tools

Pestle from Eel River Near Alderpoint. Most likely Wailaki or Lassic, depending on the age of the artifact:

A long-time aquaintence of mine told me the other day that he likes reading this blog, and that he especially likes the stories about the Indian culture, the Indian people and the Indian artifacts. So do I. He went on to tell me that he had found a pestle in the area of Alderpoint while on a kayak trip down the river. He said that he had to stop and relieve himself. Near the bank of the river he saw about four or five inches of the pestle sticking up out of the river silt. He at first thought that it had something to do with the railroad, so he went over to it, and pulled it out of the sand. This pestle is what he found. As you can see from his photo it is one of the most perfectly formed pestles that I've ever seen. It is perfectly round, and the sides are perfectly staight, It has a perfect taper to the hand shaft. The end is broken off with only slight wearing of the sharp edges, which lead me to wonder if it was just left that way, or if it got broken somehow.

This man gave me permission to identify him. Then changed his thoughts to just give his first name. This item is so precious and perfect that I think that I will leave it to him to identify himself, if he wants to. He reads this blog. He also has a collection of about a dozen very crudely worked arrow heads. He didn't send me any photos of them, or I would include them here. It always amazes me what the local Indian people could do with simple stone tools.

Most of the mortar and pestles that I have seen from the local Indians looked like the photos below. This mans find is amazing. The shaft near the bulb end shows the pecking that the Indians used to shape their stones. I have ofter wondered what kind of stone that they used to peck the stone tools. There are two methods that they used. The direct method, by hitting the stone with a sharp tool, and the indirect method, where they used the working tools like a hammer and chisle.
Mortar and pestle from Clear lake:

Stone bowl from "Humboldt County"

Everybody's got heroes.

Archie Brunkel and his truck.

We all have our heroes. Most people have at least one person that they look up to or admire. Somebody that taught them how to do something special, or taught them a special skill. Or somebody that did it better, or different, than anybody else. Somebody that really stands out and stands above the rest in our minds.

Most basketball fans will probably agree that Michael Jordan would be an all time stand out. He was and is many peoples hero. No matter what kind of foolishness that Tiger Woods did to his private life, I think that we would all agree that we have never seen a better golfer. Many people think that Barack Obama is their hero, he came riding out of Chicago on a tall white horse, ready to save us from the evil Bush administration.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that many of us have chosen personal heroes that many others might not agree with, but we stick with them through thick and thin. Some of us choose stock car racers, potato farmers, carpenters, and so forth, but most of us have somebody that stands out in our minds as their own personal heroes.

Most of my personal heroes have been loggers. I haven't helped ship a log to the sawmill since 1964, but I still think of myself as a logger.

Back in the '50s logging was a proud profession, so if you were a highly respected logger, you were the king of the hill. Most of the loggers were flat broke, but trying to break into the big time. Most of them knew many people that had made it big with very meager beginnings. They figured you had to be working hard enough to get your grubstake together if you were ever going to make it. So most of the loggers were trying to parlay their fortune with a good idea, negotiating a good price on a patch of timber, or get more logs to the mill than anybody else, and pull ahead of the debt game.

The people that made it, or showed the best potential were actually admired by the rest. They would say, “Well if old whozzie can make it, I'm surly not far behind”. They would be happy for the person that succeeded, and they would try that much harder to “make it” themselves.

Such a person was one of my, and many other loggers personal heroes. His name was Archie Brunkel. Loggers never got paid by the hour. They got paid by the thousand board feet of lumber that they moved to the mill. The only people that got paid by the hour were the Catskinner, choker setter, and the mechanic. Timber fallers and truck drivers were paid by the thousand. Most timber fallers parlayed their fortune by working hard, fast and long. Truck drivers made their fortune by making as many trips to the mill as they could. If they thought that it was an off-day for “The Gestapo” (CHP) they would haul an overloaded truck load of logs to the mill. Sometimes they would try to sneak a hugely overloaded truck down the highway. Most of the time they would succeed. Sadly, sometimes they lost all their profit in overload fines.

Some of the truckers were good mechanics, so they would build their logging trucks themselves out of what ever kind of salvage truck parts that they could find. If they didn't spend a lot on their trucks they made more profit. Sadly the old homemade trucks moved very slowly, or they broke down.

Now, my personal hero, Archie Brunkel had a plan. This was just after the World War Two, and many things were available military surplus. He was a cracker-jack mechanic and he knew every part that worked good on a truck, and every part that didn't. He knew that Mack Bogie rear-ends were the only rear axle differential that would hold up to high power and steep hills. They were thought of as bullet-proof by the loggers. He had an old truck that he put these rear ends in. He had a tough transmission, and here was his plan to get more logs to the mill. ---He would buy the biggest, most powerful motor that he could find, and put in his truck---. He went shopping for an Army Surplus motor. He found two military tank engines made in Cadillac Michigan. They were the biggest gas engines that I've ever seen. I only vaguely remember them. The one thing that I remember is that they had three 4 barrel carburetors across the top of the engine. He had two of the carburetor linkages disconnected and he ran it on just one carburetor, because he said that it would use too much gas and tear things up too bad.

The big engine was in a vee shape and stuck out both sides of the hood. He had a radiator off of a bulldozer. He always made more trips to the mill than anyone else, but he only fooled himself, because the extra money he made was used up in gasoline expenses. He only got two miles to the gallon.

I don't ever remember that truck going by without everybody on the street stopping and staring. No conversation took place until it was around the bend. There was not a muffler big enough for it, so he ran the exhaust through a big tank in the back. I think that it only made the truck louder. He went up the hills in the same gear that he did the flats.

The last I remenber the truck being used was when I was in high school in Miranda. When the truck went by, the windows shook so bad that we thought that they might break.

I don't know what ever happened to Archie, but he sold his truck to a fellow that ran into another truck with it. One of the engines that Archie bought is still in a shed in Briceland. I asked the owner if I could get a picture of it, and he said; “Sure, it might take a while to dig back to it, but I'll let you know when I do”. That was a while back.

Everybody's got to have their heroes, Archie Brunkel was one of mine.

The world is ending tomorrow!

Or: "I've discovered the ememy, it is us!"


Human body heat equals 182,500 BTUs per year.
Standard heat load calculation tables tell you to allow 500 B.T.U.s per day, per person, in a building occupation heat load. So, if a human gives off 500 B.T.U.s per day, they will give off 182,500 B.T.U.s per year.

6.8 billion people on the earth.
If there are 6.8 billion people in the world, (there are!) that would be 1,241,000 billion B.T.U.’s per year in human occupation load. Or 1.241 Quadrillion B.T.U.s.

Human body heat melts 4.31 billion tons of ice per year.
I takes 144 B.T.U.s to melt a pound of ice. I'll skip through all of the calculations, because if you really cared, you would have already calculated this out. There are enough humans on the eath to melt 4.31billion tons of ice with body heat alone.

That's a lot of Polar Bears.
How many Polar Bears can float on 4.31 billion tons of ice??? That's per YEAR.

Now sadly, that is not the only warming that humans do. Other things that they do to contribute to keeping the globe warm is: Most of them have heated houses, cars that take them hither and yon, heated swimming pools. They uses tons of energy that is wasted as heat. It soon becomes appearent that humans are a real problem on this Earth.

Earth is a big place, and we are such small people.
Fortunately the Earth is a large dynamic, many things also serve to cool the Earth. The Earth radiates heat back out into space. Much like when you stand in front of a heater, you feel the heat radiating toward you, only the heat from Earth radiates into outer space. Gone forever, never to return. There is nothing out there to reflect it back once it leaves our atmosphere. Our Earth would get mighty chilly if it weren't for the Sun shining on us. The sun is the only thing that keeps us warm. All of our energy comes from the sun. Our days are shorter in the winter, and we get colder, because we have less Sun.

Co2
Co2 blocks the Sun from coming to Earth, and it also blocks the heat from radiating back out. It has some effect, but not as much as dust in our atmosphere. Back in 1991, when Mount Pinatubo erupted, the summers got cooler and the winters got warmer. The good news is most of us lived through it.

Here is a little "Climate change graphic that you can play around with. just to see if you can kill the world with Co2.
Climate change model graphic


Global warming conference in Copenhagan.
The Copenhagen Climate Conference will be using 140 private aircraft, and 1,200 limos. There is such a shortage of limos that they are driving them in from other European countries. They will be using so much fuel during the conference that they will equal the Co2 output of Middlesbrough UK. The good news is that the prostitutes are offering free sex to anyone carrying a climate conference pass. It seems to strongly imply that someone is going to get screwed.


Why not just send emails? Oh that’s right, they are too easily intercepted. Al Gore should have worked on that when he invented the Internet. (Joke) It seems like even the best plan has it’s flaws.

This isn't the first time that the world has ended.
In 1798 Thomas Malthus incorrectly predicted that population growth would outrun food supply by the mid 19th century. In 1968, Paul R. Ehrlich reprised this argument in The Population Bomb, predicting famine in the 1970s and 1980s. The dire predictions of Ehrlich and other neo-Malthusians were vigorously challenged by a number of economists, notably Julian Lincoln Simon. Agricultural research already under way, such as the green revolution, led to dramatic improvements in crop yields. Food production has kept pace with population growth, but Malthusians point out the green revolution relies heavily on petroleum-based fertilizers, and that many crops have become so genetically uniform that a crop failure would be very widespread. Food prices in the early 21st century are rising sharply on a global scale, and causing serious malnutrition to spread widely.

Too many people anyway.
I really don't like to complain about things without offering a solution. Throughout history it has been obvious that all of the worlds problems have been caused by the fact that there are just too many people on this small little Earth. So, I'm making a survey to find how many people are willing to get off. I pass....



e

Snow!

I got up this morning, built the fire, made my wife and I a cup of coffee. Made some bacon eggs and pancakes for breakfast. I checked outside to see what the weather was doing. The sun was shining brightly, it was 30 degrees with frost on the ground. I knew that we had a special fire drill at 9:00 AM, so I was pleased to see the Sun. I turned on the news while I was getting ready to go to the drill. I started to go out the door and the air was filled with the lightest, fluffiest, airy snowflakes that I've ever seen. They were coming down in exceptionally slow motion.

On my way the the truck I came upon a spider web strung from my truck to the house. The web had collected a chain of the little fluffy snowflakes. Like mother nature saying “Do not pass”. I hesitated, then moved on. I had a little trouble destroying the beauty of the moment, but like so many of the wonders of nature, I realized that it was a fleeting moment, and would soon pass all on it's own.

We drilled on fire suppressant foam application and I came back home about noon. I fixed the kitchen faucet while my wife worked in “her hobby room” downstairs. About 3:00 PM, it started snowing again. It was a real light airy hail. Not the rattling bouncy kind, but the stuff that makes a hissing noise as it lands. My wife, and old snow skier, calls it “Corn Snow”. We had about ½” of it and it stuck real good. Now it looks like it's going to freeze tonight.

If you are going anywhere be careful, it might be slippery.

Did it snow where you are?

School project

I openned my email last night and found this note there. I really don't know the right answer, so I thought that I'd ask my blogger buddies to respond.

Dear Ernie,
I am 6 and 1/2 years old. My name is (Withheld). My mamma is typing for
 me while I talk.
 I found some arrow heads on the top of Pratt Mountain.
 My Daddy was able to go there because he knows someone who has land
 there.
 Ernie, I am really into arrow heads and I was wondering if you could
 give us information about the Indians that made the arrow heads on the
 top of Pratt Mountain or if you could tell us how to find that
 information.
 I found a "scraper" and 2 spears that they were making but didn't
 finish and I found a little white one that looks like a really sharp
christmas tree.
I want to do a presentation for my class on spears and where they came
 from.
 Please write me back. This is my mammas email.

 Thank You.
(Name withheld)
 (and his mamma)


Dear (Name witheld)



First, I'm sorry that it took so long to get back to you. I have had many things to deal with lately. If you are anything like me, you must be getting very annoyed by now.


Pratt Mountain is at the point that four different tribes joined. But, rather than me guessing, I’m going to post it here on my blog. I have many friends that are students of the local Indian tribes. I’ll ask if anybody knows, or has an opinion.


Thanks for writing
Ernie
 
P.S. If you want to find arrowheads, ridgetops are a good place to look for them. The soils don't collect over them, but washes away, leaving them expossed. Fields where Indians were known to camp is another good spot. Watch the gopher and squirrel mounds. After a rain they will show up because the arrowheads are made out of glassy rock that will sparkle in the sun. Check after a field has been plowed. Then check the field again after a rain. The bottom of drywash creeks are also a good spot to find arrowheads.
 
There are thousands of arrowheads still undiscovered. The Indian People made them in great numbers.
 
The Four tribes that joined at Pratt Mountain were the Nongatl, the Lassic. the Shelter Cove Sinkyone, and the Matole Wailaki. But... I am no expert. I am just a person that is interested in everything about the South Fork of the Eel river and the surrounding areas.

Please help us on this school project.


Found in Humboldt Ca. but not Pratt Mountain.

E