Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“During war God smiles on the side with the most artillery.”

General George S. Patton

On this date many years ago at about 2:30p a man-child was born in a “mill house” on the Mills Mill village near Greenville, South Carolina. The mother was assisted in birth by a mid-wife. Early on the child had a problem digesting anything and it was determined that he had a blockage in his stomach. At the age of six weeks he underwent surgery for pyloric stenosis, the blockage was removed and from then on his health bloomed. The child’s mother and father worked in the nearby cotton mill to make ends meet. When the child was five his father took a job as a welder in the Bethlehem Steel yard in Baltimore building Liberty (cargo) ships during WWII. After the war the family moved back to Greenville with an addition to the family in a sister born in Baltimore. The boy went through a normal, but poor, childhood but he did not know he was poor and never recalled being unhappy. Later on there was another addition to the family in a brother. The boy matured and graduated from high school and almost immediately joined the US Air Force and was trained and assigned duty as an air traffic controller. After duty in San Antonio, Texas, Valdosta, Georgia, Greenville, Mississippi, North Pole, Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska and Tacoma, Washington he was discharged and soon went to work as an Air Traffic Controller for the FAA in Asheville, NC. He transferred to Greenville, SC and then to Pensacola, Fl where he ended his career as an Air Traffic Controller. He took several jobs, all unsatisfactory until his brother (an architect) persuaded him to look into a mechanical engineering branch called “piping design”. After going to two different schools he ended up as a piping designer with a very large engineering firm in Greenville, SC. A business downturn resulted in him being laid off and then he became a contract worker. This meant that he took jobs in different parts of the country doing piping design. He finally became skilled in 3D piping design and road jobs became easier and a lot more lucrative. During all of this he had three unsuccessful marriages but had issue of three beautiful daughters. There came a time after he had lost his mother, father and sister in a span of 14 months in spite of giving his sister two bone marrow transplants, he decided that he no longer needed a full time job and began to work part time which is where he is today. He is a two time cancer survivor, prostate and bladder. That’s right folks, I am telling y'all about your truly. Yes, today is my birthday.

Robin Williams has died of an apparent suicide. This man was a genius at many things. He made me laugh and the world will be a worse place without him.

A few years ago I took some time to focus in the history of the Maya. The oldest identifiable Mayan settlement is on the Pacific coast of Mexico and it has been dated to about 1,200BC. From there the progression seems to be eastward and northeastward to the Gulf and the Caribbean. There have been several well know discoveries of ruins of large cities like Chichen Itza, Tulum, Peten, Uxmal, etc. The Gods that they worshiped were the same regardless of the location and their constructions techniques were almost identical. This means that they had a system of communication so ideas could have been exchanged. They would build a pyramid using the same architectural methods...then when the time came to build another, they would just use the old pyramid as a base and expand on it. Keep in mind that they did this without the wheel, a compass, knowledge of basic machines or draft animals. The largest pyramid in land area (not height) is in Mexico north of Mexico City...not Egypt. It was built by the Olmec who were the ancestors of the fierce Aztec. Recently archeologists uncovered a “secondary” building, meaning it was under another building like they did with the pyramids. In the building a yards long frieze, or a wall sculpturing done in relief made of plaster was uncovered. This frieze has been untouched and unknown for centuries. The hieroglyphics were in sharp relief and easily read. The archeologists found that the history of the surrounding city was not what had been previously thought. The wall carvings identified two kings that were previously unknown along with descriptions of attacks on other villages and receiving attacks from other kingdoms. This discovery was found in present day Honduras. Like I said the earliest known Mayan ruin is in Mexico on the west coast...Honduras is about 1,500 miles east on the Caribbean...I think they traveled and met each other also...How? One other question...Where did the earliest Maya and their ancestors come from? No one knows the answer to this one not to mention how they built those great cities without any outside help...or did they have help? It is interesting things to ponder.

Archeologists in England have proven with DNA that they have found the corpse of King Richard III. He was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field during the War of the Roses in 1480 and buried in the cemetery at Grey Friars Church near Leicester. That church was razed centuries ago. That's right y'all, in those days when England went into battle they were lead by their king most of the time. This was true of nearly all of the European countries. About 100 years after the death of Richard III William Shakespeare wrote a dark play about him.

Just a few days ago archeologists announced that they believed they have discovered the grave of Alfred the Great. The unmarked grave was near the location of a long gone church near Winchester, Wessex which was Alfred's capitol. This man's history goes back to the 800's. He was called “The Great” because he was able to stop the invasion and suppression by the Vikings, the Danes in particular. He settled this issue by giving control of northern and eastern England to the Danes and the south and western part to the Anglo-Saxons. Many years ago I wrote a biography of Alfred. There is a fable that in his early years he was a Roman soldier...who knows for sure. I am thrilled at the thought of gazing at the remains of this man. I felt the same way when I saw the mummy of Ramses II. This Egyptian pharaoh was supposedly the pharaoh that dealt with Moses and the Hebrews as portrayed in Genesis. Isn't history exciting? Speaking of the Vikings, the city of Dublin, Ireland was founded by the Vikings as an outpost.

Down in Goose Creek, South Carolina a passer-by in a Wal-Mart parking lot saw a toddler locked in a car with the windows cracked in 92 degree heat. The person contacted the personnel in Wal-Mart and returned to the car and was able to open the door and took the child to his car which had the air-conditioner running. A Goose Creek cop arrived about the same time as the mother of the child who said that she had just ran inside to pick up a prescription and was gone only 10 minutes. The cop took a look at the security camera tapes and discovered the woman had been gone 23 minutes. The cop also took a look at the woman’s purse and did not find any newly purchased prescription drugs but what he did find was a freshly used crack pipe. The woman was immediately arrested and the child was released into the custody of the child’s grandparents. The child was only 17 months old. How stupid and uncaring can a parent be?

Someone recently sent me this and I thought it was a good analogy for how to live out our lives. It was about the Bald Eagle.

This animal is one of the longest lived birds on the planet. It has been verified to live 70 years and is the symbol for this great nation. When they reach the age of about 40 they have a decision to make. Their beaks are dull and not hooked properly...their talons also are dull and not angled properly. Not only that their flight wings can get water logged and bunched together making it harder to fly. To resolve this the eagle usually flies to a high rocky peak where they can see in every direction for his/her protection. They then hammer their beaks on the rocks until part of it breaks off and then they await the growth of the new sharp and properly angled beak. They then pluck out their old and dull talons and await the growth of sharper and properly angled ones. After this is accomplished they began plucking out many of their flight feathers and await the growth of newer and stronger ones. After all of this is accomplished they are ready to live their lives on their own. The analogy here is to shed the past and prepare yourself, no matter how painful, for whatever is coming in the future. Eagles are also known for flying above heavy rains...we can too. I hope all of you understand what I trying to tell you...your lives are in the future not living in the past with dull beaks, dull talons and unnecessary feathers....and in a monotonous rain.

                      This Date in History August 12

1990 On this date fossil hunter Susan Hendrickson discovered three large fossilized bones jutting out of a hillside in the Black Hills near Faith, South Dakota. Further exploration showed that it was the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found. As you might suspect, as soon as the news got out about the discovery, the vultures came out of the woodwork wanting a piece of the action. Hendrickson had paid the Cheyenne tribe who owned the land $5,000 for right to dig on the property but the Cheyenne had sold that particular piece of property to avoid paying the taxes on it. Then the US Bureau of Land Management got involved. Finally the skeleton was sold at auction to the Chicago Field Museum for $8.25 Million which is where it stands today. The assemblers of the skeleton did not have to do much interpretation because the skeleton was 92% complete.

1676 On this date the so-called King Phillip’s War ended. Fifty years of peace with the Wampanoag in New England was beginning to deteriorate primarily because of the greed of the settlers. They wanted more and more of the Wampanoag’s lands and they asked for King Phillip’s warriors to surrender their firearms. King Phillip even agreed to this. The final straw was that the settlers executed three of King Phillip’s men because they had caught them stealing. This was against the treaty they had with King Phillip whereby if any Indian or settler committed a crime the perpetrator would be returned to the Indians if he was an Indian or back to the Pilgrims if it was a Pilgrim for punishment. After the Pilgrims executed the three warriors, King Phillip sent a group of his men to what is now Swansea, Massachusetts and they massacred everybody there. They did not stop there, the destroyed several other villages and the Pilgrims set out and destroyed several of the Wampanoag villages, but they destroyed a Narragansett village by mistake and then the Pilgrims had them down on their ass too. Several other tribes joined with King Phillip and the Pilgrims had a full fledged war on their hands. They were able to suppress the Narragansett and sent an assassin to find King Phillip. The assassin (a paid Wampanoag) found King Phillip at his secret headquarters near New Hope, Rhode Island and killed him. The Pilgrims did the honorable thing when they drew and quartered King Phillip’s body and displayed his head atop one of their flagpoles.

1953 About a year after the United States test fired a hydrogen bomb, the Russians tested a “Layer Cake” bomb. This weapon was constructed of alternate layers of Uranium and Deuterium and was 30 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. The American hydrogen bomb was more powerful that the “layer cake” bomb but the Russian bomb was much smaller and could be delivered by much more available aircraft and rockets. The arms race was under way.

1862 On this date the Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan captured a US arsenal near Gallatin, Tennessee. Morgan had been tasked with cutting the supply lines of US General Don Carlos Buell who was threatening Chattanooga, Tennessee. Morgan was not done yet. He made three more raids on the supply lines of General Buell by filling a railroad car with hay, setting it afire and rolling it into a tunnel where the flames set the bracing on fire and the tunnel collapsed putting severe crimp into Buell’s supply line. After this Morgan went to the western theater to fight with CSA General Kirby Smith. The CSA was blessed with superb cavalry officers in John Hunt Morgan, John Mosby, J. E. B. Stuart, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Wade Hampton III, etc..

1933 One of the foremost bank robbers in America Harvey “Old Harve” Bailey had been jailed for bank robbery but on this date he escaped. In an incredible stroke of bad luck, Harvey went to the Shannon Ranch near Paradise, Texas to hide out and wait for things to cool off. When he walked in he saw an old friend named “Machine Gun” Kelly. Harvey specialized in bank robbery, Kelley specialized in kidnapping wealthy people for the ransom and Kelly was holding a very rich man for ransom. Harvey had not been there but a very short time when the FBI and local law enforcement swept down and arrested everyone, including “Old Harve”. Even though Harve had no part of the kidnapping, he was charged with it anyway. While in jail for the kidnapping in Dallas, Texas, Harve escaped once again and made his way to Oklahoma before being captured once again. Harve served 30 years in Leavenworth for a kidnapping he had no part of. He was paroled in 1965 and spent the remainder of his 14 years on this earth in relative obscurity.

Born today:

1774 English writer Robert Southey. He said “If you are pungent, be brief. Words are like sunbeams; the more intense they are the deeper they burn.” I like it.

1881 US film producer/director Cecil B. DeMille. When his investors began complaining about cost overruns while shooting The Ten Commandments he said “What do you want me to do, stop shooting and call it “The Five Commandments”? Cecil made some epic movies.

1929 US country music star Buck Owens. He said “I am what I am, I do what I do and I ain’t going to do anything different. I don’t care who likes it or who don’t.” Buck was from Bakersfield, California. If I am not mistaken his parents moved from Sherman, Texas to Mesa, Arizona during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression era. Buck began playing on the radio there and as the saying goes, the rest is history. Buck went to that great sound stage in the sky in 2006.

Died today:

1885 US writer Helen Hunt Jackson. She wrote:

“Oh, write of me, not 'Died in bitter pains; but immigrated to another star!'” What a beautiful thought.

1958 US senator (KY) Augustus Stanley. He said “I will stand by Governor Fields if he his right. If he is wrong, I will stand by him because he is a Democrat.” I think we all are fed up with partisan politics. We need patriots.

            Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow