Horton Deakins's Blog, page 23

Big Cedar Lodge, Table Rock Lake, in the Ozarks near Branson

 

View of Table Rock Lake from Falls Lodge, Big Cedar

 

This year, we spent our Thanksgiving day at Big Cedar Lodge in the Ozarks (or, as the French say, Aux Arcs). It was our first visit there.  It's not the cheapest place to stay on the lake, but it is really something to see, and the food is great.

I will be posting a few of the photos from our trip.  Many of my shots focused on the numerous waterfalls and spring-fed streams on the grounds.

 

Falls Lodge

 

Streams and waterfalls

 

Waterfall

 

Falls Lodge, where we stayed

 

Spring crossing

 

The Declaration of Independence — part II

Here's another smidge, a skosh (chotto sukoshi), a portion, a helping, a passage of the Declaration:

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not  be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are  more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to  which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same  Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to  throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

John Wayne & True Grit — nowhere near the Winding Stair Mts.

Aspen trees don't grow too well in most of Oklahoma, and you certainly won't see them in the Winding Stair Mountains of the Southeast part of the state, the story setting for "True Grit."  No, you won't find rocky, snow-covered peaks there, either.

But you will find a quiet, picturesque lake that my parents and I frequented when I was young, as well as the Talimena Drive which meanders along the mountaintops and is a favorite destination for many wishing to see the fall colors.

Here are a few shots of Cedar Lake from 1968 in the Ouchita National Forest. This place is where some of the best memories of my youth were created.

 

Calm Day at Cedar Lake

 

Cedar Lake 1968

 

Cedar Lake

 

My mother and I walking the nature trail

 

Lunch at camp--Cedar Lake

Dad gave $225 for that camping trailer.  The tent part was heavy, oiled canvas — much like the army tents of World War II vintage.  Since this campsite was in a national park area, we had to pay a small fee.  Our jon boat was mounted atop our 1968 Bel Aire Chevrolet for the trip, and Dad and I carried the 135-lb. craft down the hill from our camp to the water.  The boat was powered by an Apache 6 hp two-cycle motor which took us across the lake to our fishing spots, but from there we used a small electric motor with a car battery.  One day, Dad and I tied the boat up with a long painter and tried to sink it in order to test the built-in floatation.  We wore our PFDs and practiced righting the boat and staying with it as it floated just under the surface of the water.

They're not dead — yet.

But we are killing them.  Who?  The question is not who, but what.  I'm talking about our country's founding documents.  Those who do nothing to preserve them are party to their demise.

Why should we care?  Aren't they just obsolete documents written by dead white men?  The answer to that lies not in listening to the popular ignorance that is espoused seemingly everywhere, but in knowing what the documents say and why they were written.  The why is the most difficult part, so let's start with the what.  I'll post parts of the Declaration of Independence from time to time, in small chunks, and I'll make it less painful by interspersing photos between posts of text.

Keep in mind that the War of Independence (AKA, Revolutionary War) had been going on for about a year when this document was created.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

we could have LEGENDS about the FALL …

Fall 2005

… but it's not a legend, it's real!

Fall 2005

I'd like to dedicate these fall pics to my friend, Danny "Bopper" Rowton, with whom I played in a jazz-rock band back in 1976-1977.  He died this year from complications related to diabetes.  He remained the only real friend I had in that band, for which I left college and relocated to Garden Grove California, and he became also, ultimately, my sister's nephew.  He touched so many lives in the succeeding years, and he was quite the musician, both playing and teaching others.  Play that funky music, Bopper.  I'll never forget you, but I wish I had stayed in closer touch.

 

Fall 2005

 Hafer Park.

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

Chinese Pistache.

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

Bradford Pear.

 

Falling, yes I am falling …

It was a soulful day — even if of rubber.  Here are more pics of fall, 2005.

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

 

The fall of a great city

Fall 2005

OK, not completely great, just mostly great.  It's where I live.  It was a great fall for colors, no doubt — much better than this year.  We were on our way to northeast Oklahoma this past weekend to see if we could scope out some fall color, and the electrical system on the 2009 Murano we just bought two weeks ago from Carmax bit the dust about eighty miles from home.  Looks like the charging system is bad, but the Carmax shop couldn't get us in for ten days and sent us to the Nissan dealer. Thank God for my AAA membership.

I may have posted some of these photos before, but I like 'em, and I get to pick.

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

 

Fall 2005

Thoughts on Veterans' Day

D. R. Deakins, circa 1875

My Dear brother Absolom,

What do I think of the idea of a Veterans' Day?  I suppose it is fitting and proper that, in the current day, one should honor all veterans with a holiday, but in our day we would not have made the distinction.  Everyone was involved, in one way or another, in the war, and everyone was inconvenienced, to put it mildly, by it.

I recall the winter of 1864 when we camped with the 27th Pennsylvania Infantry regiment just outside of Nashville.  All we had to eat was bacon and hardtack, but, strangely, we did not feel particularly inconvenienced by that fact.  We had fared far worse in the previous years.  We ate up the bacon for breakfast, and then, after softening our hardtack in water for a few minutes, we fried it up in what was left of the bacon grease and saved it for the march.  Sometimes, we rolled the hardtack into snake-like ropes before we fried it.  Some of the boys took their hardtack snakes, or some which they had fashioned from cornmeal, and wrapped them around their bayonets so as to make a spit for roasting over the fire.

A mighty cold winter that was, and a powerful lonely Christmas.  I would have prefered to have been with Sherman in Savanna, but here we were, preparing to do our worst to Hood's army of Rebels, and we had to make do with what few comforts were to be had.  Occasionally, there was a delivery of coffee, and we would boil it nice and strong to keep us warm through the cold dawns.  One man had found a barrel of molasses and had filled his whole canteen with the stuff, and he shared some of it with our platoon.

I never thought I could bring myself to terms with the idea of skewering a Johnny Reb with a bayonet, but by that point I was pretty well numb to the process.  Please do not tell Ma that, Absolom, as it would surely upset her, and I am sure it was unnecessary for me to even have to aasked you that.  I still cannot hear well with my right ear, and this from standing too close to a twelve-pounder when it went off back at Chickamauga.  It is just as well Ma not know about that, either, brother, as it would only cause her to worry.  She is only fifty-nine, but I fear this war has aged her considerably, and her frailty is obvious for all to see.  It is difficult to grasp how she has coped  this past twenty-six years since our father passed.

Brothers Finis and Tom are still not speaking to me, but that is to be expected.  There could not have been such carnage without some hurt feelings, so we move on, but it is most regretful.  I have settled in Whitwell, in the Sequatchie, and I hope to build a house here and establish my living as a farmer.  Lucius and Byron have already gotten big enough to help with the chores, and little William is trying his darndest.  None of them can remember their mother, and perhaps that is best.  Lawie, Horace, and Hellen are handfuls, and it is evident now that Sarah is with child again.  We are hoping for another boy.

At least, dear Absolom, we can say at last that the Union has been presereved, but at what cost?  The last count I read was that more than 600,000 of our boys fell in the conflagration, but it is hard to believe that such a large number could be true.  Many were no more than boys, to be sure.  Our drummer boy claimed to be sixteen, and he was felled in the raid on Nashville, but I know for a fact that he had just turned fifteen and had been with the war for two years already.  God help us to never experience such a thing again, as I am certain we cannot endure it.

My regards to your family, and if you have contact with any of our brothers, please tell them that I think of them often and they are all in my prayers, as are you.  Please try to come for a visit whenever you can.

Your brother,

David

My bad — Japanese

Gee, you'd think I'd get tons of people correcting my Japanese, but not one of you baka gaijin sent me an email to tell me how wrong I was.

OK, here's what I've found out so far.  The kanji on the right is a 10-stroke symbol that means (among other things) entrance, or pass-through.  The actual kanji for "Yamato" is not there, but it appears to be an old name for Japan.

Sooooooooo … the kanji part of the sign just says it's the Ginza entrance.

Tokyo and Ginza

Yamato Ginza

 Actually, the sign says, "Ginza Yamato."  I'm having trouble finding anything that connects the famous Ginza district with "Yamato," and I don't feel like digging out my kanji jibiki (Japanese dictionary) to find out which of any number of homonym forms of "yamato" this sign refers to, but it could refer to a province, the dominant Japanese ethnic group, a WWII battleship, or any of several other things.  In any case, I'm sure that this street must be lined with dozens of "snack" bars.

Somewhere in the western Tokyo metro area.

I think I took these photos during a visit with a friend who lived on the outskirts of Tokyo. Notice I've got McDonald's in my crosshairs–there was no McDonald's where I lived, and everyone, myself included, developed a craving for the place.  Funny, since back in the states I would rarely patronize the place.  Also note that power and telephone lines are seldom buried in Japan.

You are here

This was a subway station map.

Streets wide enuff fer ya?

I think most of our back alleys are wider than this.

Bird's-eye view

I have no idea how I got up this high, but it appears I'm on at least the third floor.

Another view from on high

 

More Ginza, perhaps?

This was the same trip, but I don't know if it's part of the Ginza area or not.  The brick-paved street is a bit unusual, though.