Friday

 Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I decided not to pursue a career in music because have you ever heard anyone say “There goes that banjo picker in his Ferrari.”

                                                     Steve Martin

Trivia question of the day:

Why was Alexander Hamilton not eligible to be President? Answer at the end of the blog.

I saw a post on Facebook about a dog that had uncovered a recently born cottontail and guided his master to it. The master looked the rabbit over and then took it back to where it was discovered, covered it with leaves and left hoping that the mother would retrieve it. I had a similar experience a long time ago. I had been married only a short time and my bride and I were living in an apartment in large antebellum house near Balfour, North Carolina. The house was on a large property surrounded by a lot of scrub oaks and weeds. Our closest neighbor was about 100 yards away down in the “holler”. Occasionally we would here a beagle trailing something down in that area. One day we went walking down a wagon trail through the underbrush and a rabbit ran across the trail in front of us followed closely by a beagle puppy. I recognized its voice as the one we had been hearing. The neighbor saw us walking and came over to say howdy. I asked him about the beagle pup and he said her name was Petey and he was going to have to give her away because he had all he could handle as is. I jumped at that and took Petey home that day. As Petey grew her voice deepened somewhat but she as still a soprano. One day she came walking up the drive way with a baby rabbit in her mouth and laid it on our front porch. My wife was not please because the rabbit was squealing the whole time and she took it back to the thickest brush and turned it loose and that is the last we saw of it. I was not optimistic because the squealing would have attracted predators. Shortly after that we moved to Greenville, SC and brought Petey and Sam (my wife's chihuahua) with us. Both Petey and Sam were essentially house dogs but if Petey saw me put on my hunting jacket she would start jumping up and down on the front paws in anticipation. I did not really want to kill rabbits I just enjoyed watch Petey work. She would get in the car put her rear paws on the seat and her front paws on the window sill and would watch the passing scenery with much interest. When we got to the field and she would run around frantically urinating several times before getting down to business and industriously sniffing the ground in a zig-zag pattern for that familiar scent. She made no sound until she struck a hot scent then she would whimper and occasionally bay a short burst. When she finally got the rabbit on the run she would begin a serenade of baying from a low note to a high note...it was music y'all. On one occasion I was ahead of her and jumped a rabbit. I had a particular yell meant for that situation and Petey came running but there was a small pond between me and her. Rather than run around the pond she jumped in, swam across and picked up the trail and off she went along with her familiar melody. One time I was ready to go and I yelled the command for her to come and she didn't show up. I figured she was out of hearing range. I took off my jacket, laid it on the ground and left. I came back two hours later and there she was curled up on my jacket. When she got in the car she laid down on the seat rather than look out the windows, she was tired. Not only that there were a few spots on her ears that were bleeding from brier scratches. That's right, she had no problem with burrowing into a brier patch after her prey...she was relentless. She was very good company around the house too and a friend to my wife, kids and me. Petey died of kidney failure in her later years. I had forgotten what a great blessing she was to all of those who knew her...now I remember.

                       This Date in History   March 27

1775 On this date a young redhead from Virginia is elected to the 2nd United States Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson was soon recognized as an efficient composer of letters especially with his first submission called “A Summary View of the Rights of British America.” He also stunned the others with “Draft Notes on the Virginia Constitution”. Jefferson had a large part in drafting the Virginia Constitution and as a result he was tasked at drafting the instrument that the United States would use to separate from England. He was 33 years old. He came up with a document he titled “A Declaration by the Representative Congress Assembled”. This document has been recognized as the most important in the history of democracy. Jefferson presented his draft to Congress on Jun, 28, 1776 and a very few changes were made to the text and the title was changed to The Declaration of Independence and adopted on July 4, 1776. I still wonder at the bravery and courage of these men by adopting and signing this monumental declaration knowing it would bring even more pressure from the mightiest army and navy on the planet. Not only that: There was a good percentage of the American population that wanted to stay under the wing of King George III and many ended up joining the British Army. In fact, most of the combat units for the British in the Carolinas were all Loyalists led by British commanders. That is why the encounters between the Loyalists and the Patriots were so savage and bitter. Anyway, Jefferson held several positions in the Government of Virginia and the United States and ended up being elected as our third president and served two terms 1801-1809. It was Jefferson that was president for the Louisiana Purchase and for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He eventually retired to his homestead in Virginia known as Monticello. He dabbled in the formation and running of his beloved University of Virginia. He died on July 4, 1826; exactly 50 years after his draft of the Declaration of Independence became adopted. He was 86 years old. Jefferson is a giant among the framers of this great nation. We were very, very lucky to have had men of his caliber. Was he here at this place in this time frame by accident? I think not.

1964 Late in the afternoon the Pacific plate slipped against the North American plate at a point about 8 miles northeast of Anchorage, Alaska. The end result was the largest earthquake ever measured in North America of 8.5 on the Richter scale. The quake lasted about 3 minutes and witnesses said that ground waved like a wheat field. There were gigantic chasms that opened and closed not leaving a trace that anything had happened. Tsunamis were felt down the United States west coast, Hawaii and Japan. There was one report by a deck hand aboard a cargo ship tied to a pier in Homer, Alaska that he watched every drop of water in the harbor disappear over the horizon and left the boat sitting on the bottom. Then over the horizon he saw a gigantic wave coming toward him like a freight train. There is nothing he can do but hang on and when the wave strikes him and the boat are flung inland several hundred yards. He survived but the boat was trashed. There was another case of a man near Homer who was holding on to something substantial and saw his 50 foot house trailer, wife and dog enclosed washed out to sea and never saw hide or hair of either one again. I was stationed near Anchorage at Elmendorf Air Force Base as a control tower operator. I left in 1961 but I saw pictures of my old control tower. It was a pile of scrap metal and glass. The two controllers in the tower during the quake were killed. As bad as it was, this quake could not hold a candle to Christmas Eve quake/tsunami in the Indian Ocean a few years ago. There was no way all the deaths could be tallied in this one but it is acknowledged to be over 350,000, too horrible to contemplate.

Answer to the trivia question.

Alexander Hamilton could not be President because he was not born on American soil, he was born in the Bahamas on St. Kitts.

                           Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow