Thursday OYSTERS

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Quote of the day:

When accepting the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the movie The Last Picture Show he said “It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.”

Ben Johnson

Some of you may not know who Ben Johnson is but all of us John Wayne western fans do.

One of my daughters paid me a compliment that brought a tear to my eye. Earlier I had sent out a quote saying “A pearl is the autobiography of the oyster.” She said that going by that your daughters are your autobiography. Indeed they are and they are all pearls. She said that I should consider the character and success of my girls and if it had not been for me and their mother they would have never turned out that way. She credited me and their mother with introducing them to sports at a very young age and keeping them off the streets and out of trouble. This included volleyball, softball, gymnastics, etc. I played city league softball myself. This is a compliment that I constantly carry with me and will for the rest of my days.

Here is another episode of my outdoor adventures. I decided to go offshore fishing in the Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola. It was a beautiful day so I did not read the weather forecast. That, my friends, was a big mistake. I launched my boat in the small town of Gulf Breeze and was about 4 miles offshore when a blanket of fog rolled in and the visibility fell to about 30 feet. The only navigation devices I had was a compass and a depth finder. I knew that I was south of the beach but I did not know how far. I also knew that there was a barrier island and about 3 miles of open water between me and the ramp where I launched my boat. I headed north until I reached a depth of 6 feet. I did not know if I was east or west of the “pass” that got me back into the bay so I shut off the motor and listened. In addition to the surf, to the west I heard the unmistakable throb of a marine diesel engine heading north so he must be in the Pass. Whatever it was had to be radar equipped. I turned west and held 6 feet until I reached the opening of the Pass, turned north and entered the bay. I knew the ramp was east-northeast of the pass but I was not about to go across with just a compass in that fog with a steady stream of boats passing by that I could not see. I decided to follow the backside of the barrier island to a bridge that crossed from the island to the mainland and follow the bridge to the mainland and the ramp. I held 6 feet and headed east weaving north and south to maintain that depth. I finally reached the rip-rap on the west side of the bridge and turned north. I followed the bridge pilings one after another until I got to the channel where the ships and barges crossed under the bridge. I cut the motor and just listened for anything that sounded like a boat. After a considerable time and not hearing anything. I started across the channel. I got about half way across and all of sudden a fog horn sounded and it was right on top of me to my left. I gunned the motor and literally jumped another 20 or 30 feet. I cut the motor off and just sat there to regain my composure. After a minute or two my boat was rocked by a boat wake. It just was not my time to go, y’all. I finally felt my way back west to the boat ramp where a friend of mine was waiting blowing his car horn to help me find the ramp. I kept going west until the car horn was immediately to my right and I turned. I finally saw my friend and the ramp when I was about 30 feet away. I forgot to mention that I did have a two way radio and that is how I contacted my friend and told him what kind of fix I was in. I read weather forecasts from then on no matter what. By the way, I held six feet all the way so the propeller of my motor would not hit bottom and if the boat sank I would have a fighting chance at not drowning. There is reason for me being here on the planet this long. There has been many times that I could have been killed hunting and fishing. When I talk to others that have experienced nothing in their lives but boring drudgery day in and day out I realize that I certainly would not trade my life for theirs. I have experienced exciting adventures and have exciting memories...they have nothing. Henry David Thoreau wrote “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

           This Date in History January 21

1793 Earlier in 1774 Louis XVI rose to be king of France succeeding his grandfather King Louis XV. Louis the XVI was by no means cut out to be a French monarch at this point in time because France was in serious financial trouble and Louis did not have a clue as to what to do about it. In 1789 as a last ditch effort to resolve the problem, Louis assembled a group of Frenchmen known as “The States-General”. An assembly like this had not happened since 1614. The States-General was an assemblage of representatives of French royalty, the clergy, and the commoners. This gave the French people the opportunity to declare themselves “The National Assembly”. The French revolted in July of 1789 by storming a prison in the center of Paris known as the Bastille, releasing all prisoners and eventually disassembled the building stone by stone by the commoners because it was the very symbol of repression by French royalty. Although Louis outwardly accepted the revolution, he did not heed the advice of his advisers and modify the monarchy so as to save it. In October a mob stormed the Palace of Versailles, the home of Louis and his wife Marie and forced them to a lesser opulent home of Tuiliers. In June of 1791 the opposition to Louis and Marie became so heated that they decided to get the hell out of Dodge and headed for Austria, the homeland of Marie. They were stopped in the French city of Varennes and brought back to Paris and forced to accept the Constitution of 1791 which reduced the monarchy to mere figureheads. In August of 1792 Louis and Marie were arrested and imprisoned. They were tried for treason because the now National Convention had evidence that Marie had been communicating with Austria to declare war on France which would have allowed the monarchy to continue. There was no evidence that Louis had discouraged this arrangement. Both Louis and Marie were convicted of treason and sentenced to death. On this date Louis walked confidently to the guillotine and was beheaded before a gigantic, screaming mob. Nine months later Louis’ wife, Marie Antoinette, was also beheaded and also before a gigantic, screaming mob. Not long after that France became a democracy. Sometimes gigantic, screaming, bloodthirsty mobs are required.

1996 The 555 ton passenger vessel Gurita used as a ferry in the islands of Indonesia departs a port in Sumatra with 400 passengers aboard. After the ship had been at sea for just a few hours it ran into a severe storm. There was no evidence that the ship was excessively overloaded but overloaded it was. The ship began to lurch violently and take on water. This resulted in the passengers fighting over life jackets of which there was not enough to go around. The ship eventually sank putting the passengers afloat. The warm waters around Sumatra are famous for its large number of sharks. There was a lighthouse on a small island about a mile away and everyone headed for it. 47 people made it to the island the rest were consumed by the sharks. The rescuers did not find a single corpse.

Died today:

1985 US chef James Beard. He said “If the time ever came where we had to resort to cannibalism, I might survive if I had enough tarragon.”

          Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow