Good
morning,
Quote
if the day:
“Be
master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the
big worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you
out...it is the grains of sand in your shoes.”
Robert
Service
A
few years ago I was dating this lady whose uncle was the owner of a
gigantic “u-pick-em” farm between Marietta and Pumpkintown, SC.
These villages are right on the edge of the Blue Ridge. This lady
was a reader of my blog and knew I was a historian. One day she told
me she has something to show me. On the way from Easley, SC (where
she lived) to the farm (about 25 miles) she told me this story.
There is a fairly large stream running through the farm that
eventually becomes the Saluda River. There is also a small feeder
creek that you can jump across. Between them is a bluff about 8 feet
tall. Her uncle was also a historian and on this bluff he found
pottery shards and the deeper he dug the more shards he found and
not all of them were the same indicating different potters and/or
different points in time. He eventually contacted an archaeologist
at Wofford University and he made it an archaeological dig site.
They kept digging until they uncovered a fire pit that was Carbon 14
dated to be about 8,000 years old. It was an eerie feeling to look
down that hole and see a clearly defined rock lined depression with
the rocks charred on the inside. They also discovered post holes that
outlined a stockade. But the most important find as far as I am
concerned was an atlatl. This is a device used to cast a large arrow
or spear with extra force. This means that this site was probably
active during the Stone Age. When I walked onto this site it took my
breath away to realize what had happened here...who had been here
before me...how long ago...and this close to home...it was a feeling
of reverence, y'all.
This
Date in History August 17
1943
Earlier British General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery and his 8th
army had landed in Syracuse, Sicily with the objective of driving up
the east coast and capturing Messina which is the closest point to
Italy (about 4 miles across the Straights of Messina) and cut off the
retreat of the German army based in Sicily. The blowhard Montgomery
was not comfortable not having his left flank protected, asked for
and got US General Omar Bradley and his division to slug his way up
the mountainous center of the island to protect Montgomery’s flank
at a terrible cost to the Americans. This left the majority of US
General George Patton’s 3rd
Army without a job. The 3rd
Army had landed in the Gulf of Gela about 200 miles west of Syracuse.
Patton and Montgomery hated each other and Patton chose to take this
opportunity to outrun Montgomery to Messina. This meant that the 3rd
Army would have to travel 2/3rd
of the island perimeter while Montgomery just had one side. On this
date, The US 3rd
Army arrived at Messina about six hours before Montgomery and had an
American band welcome Montgomery and his 8th
Army into Messina. By the way, they did not cut off the retreat of
the Germans they made good their withdrawal in good shape. Patton
was a gifted combat commander but his arrogance got in the way at
times. He believed he was related to great military leaders of
history through reincarnation. He was relieved of command at one time
by Eisenhower and cooled his heels in London during the Normandy
invasion on D-Day. But Eisenhower could not ignore Patton’s skill
especially with armored divisions. Patton was given command of the
7th
Army within weeks of D-Day and he was instrumental in turning back
the German surprise attack known as The Battle of the Bulge in the
winter of 1944. After the war he was overseeing the recovery of some
of the German cities and was killed in a car crash near Mannheim,
Germany and his body was taken to Luxembourg and buried with the
thousands of American soldiers killed during the Battle of the Bulge.
He was 60 years old. Sometimes I wonder if some people are put on
this earth for a specific purpose and when that is accomplished their
life ends, Patton for one, and “Bear” Bryant for another.
1877
On this date William Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, killed
his first man at the age of 17. He had shot an Arizona blacksmith
who died the next day from the wound. A few years later he was asked
how many men he had killed and he said that he had killed one man for
every year of his life, he was 21 years old. Most historians
believed the correct number was nine that he had killed single handed
but there may have been nine more that were killed in a gunfights
with several men involved. What did Billy is he was arrested and put
into the Fort Sumner, New Mexico jail awaiting trial. Billy escaped
and killed two deputies and then remains in the area because his
girlfriend lived there. As we all know he was killed by Sheriff Pat
Garrett.
1998
On this date for the first time in American history, a sitting
president testified before a grand jury. That’s right it was Bill
Clinton. He was under investigation by special prosecutor Kenneth
Starr who was investigating Bill and Hillary’s involvement in
suspect real estate deals, sexual harassment, and cronyism meaning
firing people to make room for their friends and finally Starr
discovered the illegitimate sexual relations with a white house
intern named Monica Lewinsky. Clinton denied the relationship which
forced Starr to charge Clinton with perjury and obstruction of
justice. After testifying Clinton addressed the nation over TV and
apologized for misleading his wife and the nation in his relationship
with Lewinsky but swore that he had never told or encouraged anyone
to lie for him and as far as the illegal real estate deals, he said
there had never been anything proven against he and Hillary. The
Democrats wanted censure but the Republicans wanted Clinton’s head
on a platter meaning impeachment. Somehow or another, our crack
House and Senate decided that the Clinton’s were indeed scumbags,
but what they had done was not worthy of impeachment. What is this
world coming to?
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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