Daily history

Good morning,







Quote of the day:


“Joan Collins has had so many men that she is known as The British Open.”


                       Joan Rivers






A few years ago I was standing around in my favorite watering hole on Pensacola Beach with some of my friends. There was Mayor Bob, Iron Mike, Gary the Fish (fisherman), Larry the drill (works on offshore drilling rigs), Pete the pilot (Delta pilot), Cajun Tom and a few others. A young lady came in and sat down at the bar by herself and said nothing to anyone. She seemed pretty morose. All of us guys gave her a good look (as men will do) and went back to our conversation. Someone came over and put some money in the jukebox and punched in a few songs among the first to play was “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge. When Percy started the second stanza, the young lady suddenly stood up, flung out her arms and joined with Percy in about the same volume. She completed the song with Percy using well defined arm and facial expressions. After the song was over she sat back down and went back to nursing her Budweiser. My crowd gave polite applause and a few whistles and went back to our conversations. It was bizarre.






Another time a man that no one knew came in and joined out little conversation group. He looked familiar but I just could not place him. Eventually we found out that he was the drummer for the rock group “Ozark Mountain Daredevils”. He told us a story of back when he was just a kid and he was out with his grandmother picking blackberries somewhere in Arkansas. They had not paid much attention to the weather but suddenly they heard a clap of thunder close by. They eventually looked up and saw a tornado close aboard. They knew they could not get home before the twister arrived so they jumped down in a ditch and lay down to wait it out. With the pressure reduction popping their ear drums, they started getting stung all over their bodies. They had jumped on top of a yellow jackets nest. They could not get up so they just lay there as quietly as possible and take the stings. They survived but his grandmother had to go to the hospital. A lot of vinegar baths brought him through, however. We laughed out asses off.






Down near Columbia, SC a motorist saw a young child still in diapers walking down the side of a well travelled road and called the cops. The cops came and picked up the three year old child who had a load in his diaper. The cops were able to find the kid’s home and went inside to find a two year old kid wandering around, also carrying a load, and the parents asleep. They woke up the parents and arrested them. Out in the yard there was a pen that looked like a dog pen except it had a bunch of toys inside. The parents explained that they would put the kids in that pen to play when the weather permitted so they would not have to look after them. The kids are in the care of DSS and the parents are in the joint and rightfully so.






This date in history March 7







1777 On this date Abigail Adams received three letters from her husband John and he received two letters from her. These exchanges of letters showed time and time again how dedicated they were to each other. John was complaining how much he disliked being in Baltimore taking care of Government business because The United States Congress had to leave Philadelphia because of the British army’s presence there. He complained that the residents in Baltimore were not as sophisticated as those in Philadelphia because Baltimore was full of those boring Quakers. Abigail was in Braintree, Massachusetts taking care of the farm and told John how adverse the weather was for the last few weeks. Ya’ll keep in mind that his was 140 years before women were allowed to vote. Albeit I have been accused of being a male chauvinist more than once, if it had not been for the support of the “women taking care of the farm” for our ancestors more than likely things would have turned out much differently.






1862 Earlier CSA General Sterling Price had to withdraw from Missouri and was being chased by US General Samuel Curtis. General Price and his army of 8,000 met up with CSA General Ben McCullough and another small army led by CSA General Earl Van Dorn and they combined into an army of 14,000 and turned to face General Curtis and his army of 10,000. General Earl Van Dorn was selected to be the battlefield commander. On this date the two armies met at Pea Ridge, Arkansas near the Elkhorn Tavern. Van Dorn sent Ben McCullough and his troops on a flanking maneuver early on but McCullough was killed and his troops were soon in disarray. After seeing this, US General Curtis launched a counter-attack and after prolonged bitter fighting the Confederates withdrew. This battle was a serious loss for the Confederates because they never again were a viable power in the state of Arkansas. By the way, CSA General Earl Van Dorn was literally caught in the saddle by a jealous husband and killed ending a brilliant military career.






1981 On this date 23 year old Karen Barnes is found dead in her San Francisco apartment with her skull crushed and stabbed 27 times in the face and neck. Earlier Karen had allowed Susan and James Carson to live in her apartment. Susan and James were children of privileged parent but decided to live a life on the dark side. Karen, James and Susan went for weeks walking around naked and all were arrested for indecent exposure and a variety of drug charges more than once. As you might suspect, James and Susan were no where to be found after the police found Karen. They had moved to small town in Arizona and into a mobile home with a man name Gary Ferguson. One night Gary said something that Susan considered an insult and James whips out a pistol and caps Gary. In 1983 James and Susan end up out on the highway hitchhiking and were picked up by John Hillyer. Poor old John said something that Susan thought was offensive and James came to the rescue with his trusty sidearm and dispatches John with three shots to the head. The police finally catch up with these two jackasses and they are tried for the murder of Karen Barnes, Gary Ferguson and John Hillyer. Their defense was that all three of them were witches and the Bible and the Koran allows the killing of witches. Although a novel defense, the jury didn’t by it and sent them to prison for life without parole. It is too bad that they were tried in California. If it had been Texas or South Carolina they would have met their maker fried to golden brown, or maybe meet their mentor in a place a lot warmer.






1885 On this date the state of Kansas restricts cattle from Texas entering the state from March to December meaning that there would only be two months that the cattle would be allowed. The dairy farmers had been complaining that Texas cattle had been bringing tick fever and hoof and mouth disease into Kansas infecting their herds. The lowest time in the year for these diseases is January and February. The trouble was that the railhead cow towns like Abilene, Hays, Newton among others relied on the Texas cowboys for a great deal of their income from their cattle drives up from San Antonio, Texas by the Chisholm Trail. But Kansas had to make a decision. It was either cattle or agriculture and the powers that be knew it would be agriculture so they had to start weaning those cow towns from Texas money. It was a moot point a few years later when the railroads reached the center of Texas and Kansas became famous not for wild shootouts and Wild Bill Hickok but for horizon to horizon fields of grain.






Born today:






1934 TV personality Willard Scott. He said “Bryant Gumbel’s ego has applied for statehood. If it allowed it will be the fifth largest.” I agree totally. Bye the way, Bryant and his brother were born in Lake Charles, Louisiana.






1965 US opera star Denyce Graves. She said “Real poverty is the loss of imagination.” In that case I will never be poverty stricken.






Died today:






332BC Greek philosopher Aristotle. He said “Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.” Aristotle was the personal tutor to Alexander the Great.






1971 English writer Florence Smith. She said “If I had been the Virgin Mary, I would have said no”. I would venture to say this broad is a feminist.






1981 English writer Bosley Crowder. When speaking of Loretta Young he said “Whatever it was this actress never had, she still hasn’t got it.” I did not like her either.






1999 English filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. He said “I keep seeing lousy films and I say to myself, “I don’t know anything about making movies but I can do better than that.”






Quotable quotes:






A French military commander reported to King Charles the Bald that 20 to 30 Viking ships were headed up the Seine River from the English Channel. Charles responds with “We do not have to worry about a few Viking ships”. The commander said “Sire, when the leader of this group of Vikings is named Ragnar the Skull Splitter, we should at least be concerned.”






“It is not the length of life, but the depth of it.”


                    Ralph Waldo Emerson






Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow