Daily history

Good mornng,



Quote of the day:


“Look at everything as if you were seeing it for either the first or last time.”


                                    Betty Smith


I found out the two events that I told y'all about are connected. One was about a double killing over in Chester, SC that was gang related. Then the other was about a band named Parmalee that finished doing a gig in Rock Hill, SC and retired to their bus to celebrate. Two intruders came aboard the bus, showed a hogleg and demanded money. One of the band had a hogleg of his own and shot and killed one of them and severely wounded the other. The band member was wounded also. Both the wounded intruder and the band member were taken by helicopter to the famous Carolina Medical Center in Charlotte. NC, a short distance away. It was found out that the shooters in Chester and the invaders of the bus were members of the same gang. Soon after their arrival at the hospital, members of the gang gathered in the lobby promising to cap the wounded band member plus any member of the band that came to visit. I apparently does not matter if the band member was defending himself. The hospital called the Charlotte PD and soon the entire hospital grounds were crawing with cops. One of the band members made a phone call and the next morning a team of body guards from Vegas was on site. The tension quickly subsided. What I do not understand is how can kids 16-22 years old gain such and attitude. What kind of future do they have? It is either a long prison term or death. There are no old gang members.


Every Fall the city of Greenville, SC has a festival known as “Fall for Greenville”. They block off a lot of the main street and restaurants and food vendors set up booths along with a lot of live entertainment. This event began last Friday and lasted three days. This past Sunday morning at 3:30am the cops found someone hanging around the vacant booths. They called for him to stop where he was but he broke and ran. They finally ran him down and discovered it was a 16 year old kid that was armed with a pistol. I don't know if the kid knew how close he was to being killed but if he would have pulled the pistol out it is more than likely that he would would have been. 16 years old? Do you know where your children are? No wonder there are gangs and our prisons are filled with our young people...no supervision.


Next weekend on Pensacola Beach, Florida there will be the yearly “De Luna Festival”. This festival is supposedly to celebrate the arrival of the first European in the Pensacola area. It allegedly was the Spainiard explorer Tristan De Luna. It is hell of a party, y'all. Starting at about noon on Saturday, it it non-stop booze and music untii late into the night. Then on Sunday the whole thing starts again. At 7:00p there is free concert by Willie Nelson. The only reasonable way to Pensacola Beach, which on a barrier island in the Gulf, is over a four lane (two on and two off) toll bridge with four incoming toll booths. It will be a zoo about 4:00p.


This date in history October 12


1870    On this date one of the greatest military leaders in history died as a result of a stroke he had a month before. Former CSA General Robert E. Lee died at his home in Lexington, Virginia at the age of 63. Lee was the son of the Revolutionary War hero Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee. As with many of the leaders of the CSA, Robert E. Lee was born on large plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia. The plantation was part of his mother’s estate that was willed to her by her father and name Stratford Hall. She was a member of the famous Custis family of Virginia. Little Robert saw little of his father during the Revolutionary War or after the War for that matter. “Lighthorse Harry” was not a family man and was not well known to Robert. Robert attended West Point and graduated second in his class but in the four years there he received not one demerit. As with many of his classmates, he fought in the Mexican War and in the western theatre. He also served as Superintendent at West Point. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Lee was offered command of the US forces. After anguishing about this offer, he decided that he could not make war against his home and family and offered his services to the Confederacy. He was acting as a consultant in the beginning but eventually he was given command of the newly formed, and later to become immortal, Army of Northern Virginia. Lee and his army achieved phenomenal success through most of the war but in the end he ran out of supplies and manpower and was forced to surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia in the spring of 1865. After the war he was at a loss as to which direction his life would take. He was offered the Presidency of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia and accepted. He was able to raise the population of the College from a few dozen to more than 300. He also improved the curriculum and the condition of the building and grounds. After he died the College was renamed Washington and Lee University. Winston Churchill said of Lee “Never in the history of human conflict has one man been loved by so many.” Indeed.


1492    On this date three tiny Spanish ship under the command of an Italian navigator sailing from Spain arrive in the Bahamas, probably Watling Island. Christopher Columbus came ashore in a small skiff and claims the land for the King and Queen of Spain. Columbus thought he was in Cathay, or the Orient. He thought Cuba was Japan. Columbus was correct in assumption that European travelers could reach the Orient by sailing west, but he severely underestimated the diameter of the Earth. Columbus made three trips to the new world and tried each time to establish a settlement on Hispaniola, or the island that now is the Dominican Republic/Haiti. All settlements failed because of the wrath of the native Carib Indians who annihilated the new villages as fast as they were built. Columbus is given credit for discovering the new world but that is wrong. The Vikings had villages in present day Newfoundland 200 years before Columbus. The difference here is that the settlers that came after Columbus stayed whereas the Vikings did not stay. Some believe that the Vikings explored the North American coastline all the way down to Massachusetts and ever further. They might have, but we may never know for sure. It would benefit all of ya’ll to read the history of the Vikings and the great accomplishments accredited to them, the rape and pillage of Europe included.


2000    On this date the American destroyer USS Cole had stopped for a four hour long refueling stop at a port in Yemen at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. While refueling, a small Zodiac boat comes along side and lights off thunderous explosion that rips a gigantic hole in the Cole killing 17 US sailors and injuring 38. The Cole started taking on water at an unacceptable rate and was kept afloat only by the Herculean efforts of its crew. Even at this, the Cole achieved a small list but survived. Being that the Cole was only suppose to be in port for four hours and then take up the chore of blockading ships heading for Iraq, it is apparent that the saboteurs knew the time of arrival. Everyone thought that this attack was orchestrated by Osama but that was never proven. I knew a “retired” SEAL here in Greenpatch that disappeared the day after the attack and returned in out midst about two weeks later. I asked him where he had been and he said “Yemen”. Then I said “Did you kill anybody?” He said “Well I’ll put it this way, I went from number 158 to number 75 on Osama Ben Laden’s hit list.” I like it.


1786    On this date one of the heroes of the American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson writes a sappy love letter to a married woman. Jefferson had lost his wife earlier and obviously lovesick. He met a woman named Mariah Cosway in Paris while being the United States Council to France. Mariah was an accomplished artist and musician. She was also married. But nonetheless she and Thomas became close friends and maybe more. There is no evidence that the relationship became a sexual one. Mariah’s husband died in 1789 but there is no evidence that Thomas tried to reignite their relationship. Mariah moved to a small town in Italy and opened a religious school for girls. I guess Thomas found another love interest, beside the slave woman Sally Hemmings by which he fathered several children.


Births and deaths:


1866    British Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald is born. He said “Some people call war murder. It is not, it is suicide.”


1807    CSA General Robert E. Lee dies. He said “A mans education is never complete until he dies.” I agree. We all should have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge for life.


1946    US General Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell died. He said “The higher a monkey climbs the more of his behind you can see.” Hey Joe, does that include those girls at the Men’s Club in Charlotte climbing those brass poles?


Quotable quotes:


“A Jewish nymphomaniac is one that will have sex on the same day she has her hair done.”


                                    Joan Rivers


“Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that who cares? He is a mile away and you have his shoes.”

                                    Billy Connolly


       Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow