Friday

                     Musings and History

Quote of the day:

On Facebook my daughter posted a selfie of her and a friend at a grand opening of a restaurant in Pensacola.

My granddaughter, a college junior not living at home wrote:

“Why didn't you invite me, Mama?”

My daughter wrote: “You call yo Mama mo often you get mo invitations.”

                                    My eldest daughter

Down in the tiny town of Pelion, South Carolina the Little League team is coached by Brian Holderness. Brian has been to Afghanistan once already because he is a member of the South Carolina Marine Reserves. He found out that his unit was being deployed. He broke the news to his team and it was not taken lightly. The kids decided that they needed to honor Brian and his commitment. They held yard sales and car washes trying to raise enough money to get custom made jerseys. They raised $650 and ordered jerseys that were the color of desert camouflage with the words “Defending Freedom” across the back above the numbers. They also got Marine style haircuts. Brian knew nothing about all of this and when his team showed up wearing the jerseys and looking like Marines, he was touched.

A while back the former sheriff of Lee County, South Carolina E.J. Melvin has received his court date. Melvin and six of his deputies were arrested for selling powder and crack cocaine out of the evidence room. What was this jackass thinking? Sooner or later the people that were arrested with the dope would have a day in court and the DA would want the evidence for the trial. Melvin and his deputies are looking at a possible 20 years in a South Carolina prison. Can you imagine their life there knowing there are criminals in there that they sent up?

I have been sending out some vignettes about the Comanche. I amusing two books as reference. One book is titled “Empire of the Summer Moon” and focuses on the branch of the Comanche that gave us Quanah Parker, one of the most fierce Indian warriors in recorded history and the another book titled “Comanche Empire” which is a college text book from SMU and San Diego State that covers all of the branches of the entire Comanche nation.

              This Date in History July 8

1960 Two months earlier an American CIA espionage aircraft called a U-2 is shot down over central Russia. This US aircraft was capable of flying at altitudes about 80,000 feet and the CIA believed that the Russians had no defense against such a high flying plane. In fact, the CIA had been flying these missions since 1956 with no ill effects but apparently the Russians had perfected a missile that could reach that altitude. On this date the pilot of that aircraft who survived a bailout, Francis Gary Powers, went on trial in Russia for espionage. There was little defense for Powers because he indeed was caught in the act of espionage. He was sentenced to 10 years but only served two. He was traded for Soviet spy Rudolph Abel. After returning to the US he was given a cold shoulder by the intelligence community because he failed to arm the bomb in the aircraft that would have blown it to smithereens and it would have been unlikely that the Russians could have identified it as American. But as it was, large pieces of the aircraft crashed to earth and were reassembled and identified. Also, Powers had a cyanide capsule in his flight suit and was supposed to have committed suicide but he didn’t. In typical government fashion they wait until Powers died years later before acknowledging his contribution to US intelligence. He had flown over Russia several times before being shot down. His family was given several medals and ribbons that Powers was due, too little, too late.

1928 On this date Rose Booher, her son Fred and two transient workers are found shot to death on the Booher ranch in Manville, Ontario, Canada. The RCMP (Mounties) cannot find a clue as to the identity of the murderer. They do find that the victims were shot with a rifle of the caliber of one that was stolen a month or two earlier from an adjoining ranch. They brought in Rose’s oldest son named Vernon for questioning but got nowhere. So they resort to witchcraft. They employ a renowned French psychic named Max Langsner from Vienna, Austria. Max claimed he could “read” the mind of criminals. Well, Max showed up and had a chat with Vernon that apparently went no where. Then Max suddenly went to the Mounties and told them where the murder weapon is hidden. The Mounties went to the spot designated and found the rifle that turned out to be the stolen rifle. When confronted with this Vernon confessed. He said that he despised his mother and wanted to leave no witnesses so he killed them all. He said the only one he regretted was killing his younger brother Fred. Vernon went to meet his maker wearing a hemp necktie.

1918 On this date future author Ernest Hemingway is severely wounded trying to rescue a soldier on the battlefield and bring him to his ambulance. Hemingway volunteered to be a Red Cross ambulance driver for the Allies in the WWI. After a recovery time Hemingway was sent home. After the war he married a rich woman named Hadley Richardson and moved to Paris. While there he met F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound and they fed on each other artistically. Hemingway was encouraged by the others and delivered to us The Sun Also Rises which was both a critical and financial success. It was from his experiences while when wounded during WWI that he gave another of his blockbuster novels in A Farewell to Arms. Both of these books were made into movies. I remember watching A Farewell to Arms starring Jennifer Jones and Gary Cooper a long time ago. It was a love story but I liked it anyway. As y'all may or may not know, Ernest Hemingway blew is own brains out on his ranch in Ketchum, Idaho. I don’t get it. Here you have admired and successful writers in Ernest Hemingway and Hunter “Gonzo” Thompson and they both blew their brains out. What’s up with that?

1898 Earlier Jefferson Smith is born in Georgia a natural “con” man. He loved to run scams on people and his first one was in Creedmoor, Colorado. He somehow got possession of a 14’ statue of a man and secretly buried it. A few months later he “discovered” the corpse of a pre-historic giant and started charging a fee to see this wonder. He was soon found out and was run out of town. His next scam was when he wrapped some bars of soap in blue tissue and proclaimed that some of the wrappings had a $100 bill underneath. The very first bar of soap he sold the buyer opened it up and sure enough he found a $100 bill. Of course the buyer was a plant, it was a scam. From then on he was known as “Soapy” Smith. He made his way to the Yukon during the gold rush and was a major settler of the town of Skagway. Skagway was perfect for Soapy with very little law enforcement and men with pockets full of gold. Soapy became a very wealthy man in Skagway but he could never get a handle on his greed and a vigilante committee was formed to see what they could do about Soapy and his scams and swindles. Soapy found out about the meeting and tried to break in and persuade them that he was no threat to the community. The doorman named Frank Reid told Soapy to take a hike but he tried to force his way in anyway. On this date Frank Reid and Soapy Smith exchanged pistol fire. Soapy was killed instantly but it took 12 days for Frank to expire. Soapy is buried in Skagway and his legend made his grave site a tourist attraction.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.