Sun Dogs and more...

We've had a pretty good dose of winter already.  About a week ago, I saw something that goes with cold, clear days, the brightest set of sun dogs I've ever seen.  That morning as I drove east towards the Bismarck side of the river I had to avert my eyes because I thought I'd just gotten a glimpse of the sun.  Wrong.  After looking, I realized what flashed in front of me was the sun dog on the left side of the sun  and its mate on the right with the sun in the middle.  There didn't appear to be much difference in their brightness.  I wished I'd have had a camera, but not to worry, the sight was all over the television news.
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The neighbor lady called Mary all excited to tell her the news.  She'd won a new Dodge car at the Dickinson Trinity school carnival.  I'm going to win my Mustang convertible this Friday night at St. Mary High's carnival.  Stay tuned.
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A friend send me a little ditty.  This year's month of August contains a phenomenon that occurs only every 823 years: five Fridays, five Saturdays, and five Sundays.  Sure enough, flip the pages on your calendar and count 'em.
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Another friend sends Ole and Lena jokes - Ole bought Lena a piano for her birthday.  A few weeks later, Lars asked how she was doing with it.  "Oh," said Ole, "I talked her into switching to a clarinet."  "How come," Lars wanted to know.  "Vell, because with a clarinet she can't sing."
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One more -

Ole was arrested one night while walking bare naked down

the streets of his little town. The policeman,

who was a good friend of Ole's said,'Ole...What in the world are you doing?

Where are your clothes? You're naked.'

 

'Yah, I know,' said Ole. 'You see, I vas over to dat 'playboy' Sven's

for his birthday party. Dere vas about ten of us. Der vas boys and girls.'

 

'Is that right?', his policeman friend asked.

 

'Yah, Yah, anyvay, dat Swen, he says, 'Everybody get into the bedroom! 

'So vee all go into the bedroom....where den he yells, 'Everybody git naked!'

'Vel, vee all got undressed. Den he yells, 'Everybody go to town!'

 

I guess I'm the first one here!

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I'm waiting on shipments of books again, one from the Bismarck Tribune and another from the Western Writers.  I won't have a lot of free time after they arrive, but that's good.  I've accumulated quite a stack of free books sent to me for review.  A few of them I will keep.

Oops, I forgot to ...

My life can't be to much different from anyone else's. First, the high, then the low, then a high again, etc. Last week I finished a newspaper column I'd been working hard at (the high), and when I sent it off to the editors, I wiped writing out of my mind (the low). Consequently, I forgot to post something on this blog. I should have something to complain about, eh. A friend in town with whom I agree completely when he said, “I don't know how people can say they've got nothing to do.” He and I run into each other at OLLI classes, Conversations at BSC, the state archives, volunteering at the heritage center, or even at breakfast.

OLLI classes start soon. Besides a few one session meetings, I've signed up for two topics that look interesting – North Dakota Political Traditions and Celebrate North Dakota. Two fine instructors head them both up and make their sessions worthwhile. Winter is already growing wearisome, and it will be good to mix with like-minded people again. Mary's going to miss classes this year, she's going on a trip with Farmers Union.

I don't see how I'll ever run out of ideas for newspaper articles. The one I submitted today was called “Laying Rails.” When the railroads came to this territory, then state, the country really opened up to settlement. Archival newspapers tell interesting stories. The one I remember vividly from 1885 stated, “several prairie schooners passed through town yesterday bound for the west.” There are many stories of the west that took place right back at home. There've been gunfights, fistfights, “soiled doves” , illegal liquor, political squabbles, fires, the whole darn shebang.

The picture of motor vehicles taking over from horsepower is so clear. In the June 10, 1915 edition of the Sheldon paper, the editor wrote, “Since the hitching posts were removed from the streets and the same covered with gravel, the appearance has been greatly enhanced and the two blocks of main street made a whole lot more sanitary. Since the removal of the posts a number of owners of automobiles are now parking the cars on the side of the street next to the stores and one or two of the merchants have asked The Progress to utter a protest in regard to letting their cars stand there. It hinders the farmers, especially the ladies, from driving up in front of these stores and leaving their produce, and besides, the autoes could be left just as well on the opposite side of the street.” They had parking problems, too.

I couldn't help telling a horse story, the one about Tipperary. He was a horse that the French buyers wouldn't take in WWI because he showed signs of being an outlaw. His owners made a bucking horse out of him and was ridden very few times. The sad part of the story was when he finally retired and was put out to pasture, he got caught in a blizzard, died, and was found the next spring with his bones picked clean by coyotes.

It took two weeks to tell the story of the fire at Fort Ransom, first the Metis caught and several died, and, second, how the fire affected the fort.

So that's what I'm doing with my time, reading and writing.

Lost in my Thoughts

Here it is Wednesday, early in the afternoon, and I just remembered I never wrote.  I spent the morning in the archive library reading in the 1885 Sheldon Enterprise and thoughts of that stayed with me.  I think I made some kind of resolution that I'd pay more attention to this blog and look what already happened.

The old time newspaper editors really laid it out, baring everyone's soul.  One article told of a lady who was examined by the commissioners(?) on insanity and pronounced of unsound mind.  It went on to say she would be taken to the Jamestown Asylum the next day.  "Her brother, it will be remembered was sent to the Insane Asylum at Yankton...and is now at Jamestown.  At last accounts he was but little, if any, better than when first sent."  We never read anything of the kind in today's news.

To make your mouth water, this bit appeared, "Fried prairie chicken for breakfast is now on the bill of fare."

Insults came easy.  Here "Dr. J. D. Henning returned from his trip East last Saturday.  The doctor doesn't seem to have lost an ounce of avoirdupois since his departure."  I had to think about that a bit, then remembered avoirdupois means weight.

A writer in the Sept 8 issue rode the train with the sheriff to take the lady to Jamestown.  To get there, they rode the train to Fargo, then boarded another train to reach Jamestown.  While there, they saw another man staying there.  They saw him "paring potatoes in the kitchen.  He says he is a Methodist exhorter, and preached us a sermon in his wild way, and also sent his regards to everyone in Sheldon."

A long article told of the hanging of Louis Riel in Canada and got pretty graphic.  "The hangman appeared from the gloom of the corridor.  He was masked and present a repulsive spectacle, as his black eyes could be seen through small apertures in the mask gleaming through...The drop was nine feet, and the victim fell with terrible force, so that his neck was broken instantly.  For an instant the body remained still, but suddenly the nerves twitched and the knees were drawn up to the adboman.  This was repeated three times.  The coffin was nailed up and buried in a temporary grave near the gallows."  The writer even described the rope used, "It was a short hempen cord five-eighths of an inch in diameter."  Morbid!

All of these were the ways of the news back then.  Almost every issue stated graphic details.
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 Ole leaves Duluth to get a job as a chauffer driving a huge limosine in New York City. The Pope arrives at the airport and Ole picks him up. The Pope wants to do the driving. Ole says that's against company rules, but eventually gives in. The Pope is a terrible driver, he goes up on the sidewalk, he doesn't stop to pay the parking lot toll, it isn't three minutes before a policeman pulls him over. The policeman sees right away that he has a problem on how to hand out the ticket, so he calls his supervisor down at the station & says "I need help in how to give a ticket to someone here who's really important." "Is it the Mayor?" "No, more important than the Mayor?" "Is it the Senator?" "No, more important than the Senator." "Well, then who is it?" Policeman says "I'm not sure. I don't recognize him, but he's got the Pope driving for him." 

2014

It seems like it was just yesterday that the millenial doomsday was upon us.  People were running around making preparations for the unknown catastrophe that might happen because computers wouldn't reset correctly or the Mayan calendar was coming to an end.  Nothing much out of the ordinary happened except that we got another year older.  Now, here it is fourteen years later and things still work.

My new year's resolution this year: I swear I won't swear anymore when I look out the window and see another inch of snow that I have to clear off.  Well, the hell I won't.  Dammit.  It snows every day!  It did again last night and it's only the 1st of January.

I subscribe for a free weekly download of a short story from The Library of America.  The column is called Story of the Week.  The last story, first published in 1936 - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - is popular again because a movie based on the story is playing now in theaters.  I'd never read it, but I took the time now... all of five minutes.  It's very short.  Written by James Thurber the story opens with Walter Mitty standing at the controls of a ship breaking through the ice where his crew lauds his bravery and expertise.  His daydream breaks when he hears his wife say, "Not so fast!  You're driving too fast!"  He is basically a hen-pecked man at her service.

When he drops his wife off at the beautician, his mind takes him to an operating room where he performs surgical miracles.  And so the story goes.  It was well worth the time to read it.  Why I'd never looked it up before, I don't know.  I've heard of Walter Mitty all my life.

We volunteers at the archaelogical won't go back until Feb.  There's too much going on in there, what with the new addition nearing completion, the shifting and moving going on, etc.  But the final product is going to be something!  It's a 53 million dollar expansion and remodel, folks.  That ain't hay.  One of the employees said it will be the Smithsonian of the north.  Can't wait.

I know that the quality of this blog has been suffering of late.  I've been putting a lot of energy into the newspaper column, which, by the way, has been well received.  For another resolution, I promise to put more into the blog (but then I already broke the first one).  If a new year's wish counts towards a resolution, then I wish for a clear mind and nimble typing fingers for the rest of my days.  Happy New Year!!!