"Help..."

I need your help once again...

You have proven to be reliable...

HERE is the last time I asked for your assistance...

(this interesting... I wasn't aware 

I had used the BeaTle theme in that post...)

Anyway...

I've posted a great deal about my friend, Larry... aka Scooter... aka Lars, aka Lurch... aka MaGeever...

I wrote about him HERE, HERE, HERE,...

... and then, of course... HERE...

Scooter

In a bit less than two weeks, I will be Westward-Bound with my Friend, Larry... to scatter his ashes at a site selected by him... and it was a request of his that I do this...

How can I possibly say, "No" to this...

I've never scattered ashes before...

... but I feel I need some kind of reading... 

I need something to say... something to read...

Is there an established protocol for 
the scattering of someones ashes?

Can any of you help me out??

Direct me towards a possible solution???

I intend to blog this trip out West with Larry...

and at this point in time...

It will be called...

"Scattering Scooter..."

I will keep you posted and up to date on what transpires...

Thank you ahead of time for your assistance...

~Woodrow Call~

errr...

~shoes~

"Jenny, Jenny..."

... who can I turn to???

AMC (American Movie Channel) has tortured entertained its viewers with a 'Forrest Gump' marathon this past week...

'Jenny, I've got your number...'

Surely, you've seen this movie... 

I think it's better on the big screen... 

Forrest falls in love with a young girl, Jenny, early in the movie... and she weaves her way in and out of his Life over the duration of her Life...  she likes Forrest... she seems to rely on Forrest when  her Life becomes difficult... she is always off on the next great adventure... yet, Forrest honestly does seem to love Jenny...

'Jenny'

He is always waiting for her to return... to come home to him... it seems that everytime that she returns, Forrest hopes that it is for good... he asks her to marry him at least once... but he always wants her to stay... and she always wants one more adventure.

I wonder if, when she crawls in bed with Forrest that one time, that she is hoping to get pregnant by Forrest... that she wants to have his baby?  If so, she is a real mess, because she only seems to want to tell Forrest that the baby is  his when it seems she is terminally ill... and can't be cured.  Do you think that she would have told Forrest about 'Little Forrest' had she not become ill?

She returns one more time to Greenbow, Alabama... and this time, she asks Forrest to marry her... of course, Forrest does... because that is what he has always wanted.

It's not known, really... for how long he has Jenny...  she dies... so, seemingly, she is back in his Life for a short time... and is gone.

Anyway...

I digress...

Here is my question for you...

Have you ever had a 'Jenny' in your Life?  

Someone you loved that maybe didn't love you in return?  Or maybe you loved more than he or she loved you??  

Someone, that when he/she went away... and then would come back, you were happy and hoped that person would now stay for good???

Well????

Have you?????

How did you handle it??????

~forrest~

"Bass..."

No...

Not the fish...

Nor the shoes...

... but the guitar...

Bass guitar...

I was hooked on the bass guitar the first time I ever saw 'The BeaTles'...

... and Paul McCartney...

However, the fact of the matter is that more often than not, bass players tend to be the butt of many jokes...  bass players are the 'Rodney Dangerfields' of the music world...

For example... consider this cartoon...

It appears that the bass player does rise above the drummer...

... or this cartoon...

HAR!!!!

This image tends to suggest that the drummer is ahead of the bassist in the pecking order... the drummer does indeed get the woman... but the guitarist ends up with two... and the lead singer is swamped with women...  while the poor lowly bassist...

Well... you can see for yourself...

of course, this reminds me of a joke...

Just sayin'...

It does seem that McCartney has been the exception to the rule... he has been as popular, if not more popular, than other members of The BeaTles...  after all, wasn't he referrred to as 'the cute one?'

There have even been stories where groupies have accidentally had sex with bass players...

I wonder how badly scarred she was? After hearing of this, I wonder how badly scarred HE was??  I wonder if he used his fingers???

Of course, some bassists like 5-string... or 6-string basses... Hell, I've even seen 8-string basses... but I'm 'old school'... really don't need more than 4...

Evidently, Mothers don't think much of bass players either...

Maybe Willie Nelson should have included bass players in the list of things that Mommas shouldn't let their kids grow up to be...  he suggested that Mommas not let their babies grow up to be cowboys...

Of course, that's what I wanna be... 

A bass-playing cowboy...

~shoes~

"The Caile Cemetery Angel..."

Annie Laura

Wife of W.W. Johnson

October 10, 1865 

December 20, 1919

Not too far from where I live, there is an old cemetery that has been there as long as I can remember... and this beautiful angel stands guard over a grave.

Regardless of the weather, she was always standing there... she became a landmark that I would look for...

The other day, I stopped to see her... and take these images of her...

  

The statuary looks older than the headstone on which she is mounted.  I wonder what the story is?  Did the original headstone break or have some flaw in it??  The headstone says she is the wife of W. W. Johnson... yet he isn't buried there...

What great loves did Annie Laura experience in her life time? What great heartbreaks?? What happiness... what sadness???

It doesn't matter now, I guess...

She has a wonderful guardian.

~shoes~

"Lonesome Dove..."

Are any of you familiar with this mini-series? ... and the book??

It's a story about a relationship between two men... Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call... who had worked together... lived together... served as Texas Rangers together...  they shared a lifetime of experiences... and for one last adventure, they set out for Montana with a herd of cattle.

Before reaching Montana, Gus is wounded while fighting Indians... and eventually dies from his wounds.  The entire story is a somewhat fictionalized account of a cattle drive that was headed by Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving.  In particular, Loving (Gus) was attacked by Indians, and died several weeks later of blood poisoning with Goodnight (Call) at his side. Goodnight honored Loving's dying request to be taken back to Texas for burial.

Read HERE about Charles Goodnight 

and HERE about Oliver Loving.

In 'Lonesome Dove,' after the death of Gus, Call continues the drive to Montana with the cattle and to establish a ranch.  Afterwards, Call returns for Gus' body... and begins the journey back to San Antonio to fulfill Gus' burial wishes.

Scooter would come to visit me in my office... and we would spend time screwing off discussing the hot topics of the day.  He had noticed my photos of Monument Valley that I have framed and on my walls.  He always wanted to go... and I told him that if he ever got well enough, that I would take him.

In the meantime, Scooter, had heart surgery... things didn't go well... and he was sent home, under hospice care, to die.  In planning for Larry's demise, decisions were made... and one was for him to be cremated.

I wound up getting a text message from one of Larry's sisters... stating that he had a request...   He wanted to know if I would take his ashes to Monument Valley and scatter them among some buttes...  I feel so honored by this request...

So... some time this May... after classes are over, Scooter and I WILL make that trip westward together...

Much like the trip of Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae...

He's my friend...

It's the least I can do...

~shoes~

"Windsor Ruins..."

(my photo)

South of Vicksburg, MS are two cities that are rich in antebellum (before the war) architecture,  Port Gibson and Natchez.  One can find  magnificent homes here... from back once upon a time when cotton was king. The topic of this post is "Windsor"... or more specifically, "Windsor Ruins"... the remains of a magnificent home that was built between these two cities.

"Windsor" was built by Smith Coffee Daniell II, a wealthy landowner. Construction began in 1859 and was completed in 1861.  Windsor was the largest antebellum home in Mississippi and sat on a 2,600-acre plantation in Claiborne County. The house cost about $175,000 ($3.5 Million in today's dollars) to build.  It was grand... it was opulent.  Mark Twain is said to have visited here many times... 

And as so many stories like this go, Smith Daniell only lived in the house for several weeks before he died at the age of 34.  So it goes, huh?

The image above is a drawing completed by  Henry Otis Dwight, a Union officer with the 20th Ohio Infantry, as to what the house looked like. This is the only depiction of the house created by someone who actually saw the home.  During the Civil War, the house was occupied by Confederate military, and then later, by General U.S. Grant and members of his military detachment.  The house was also used by Union forces as a hospital... and is cited as being one of the reasons that Grant didn't burn the house to the ground.

This is another artist's rendition of 'Windsor'...  there is a slight variation from the above drawing, in that this one shows steps on the two sides that the viewer can see... the prior drawing shows steps only at the front of the house.  It may be that the above drawing was a suggestion for what the house could look like, as opposed to what was actually built.  

Front Steps At Windsor

These front steps have since been removed from the ruin, and donated to Alcorn State University, in Lorman, MS...

Current Installation

of  steps at

Alcorn State University

The wealth of the family was devastated during the war... it is estimated that Grant's forces burned over 31,000 bales of cotton that belonged to the family.  Since the American South supplied England with over 75% of the cotton they needed, the destruction of the cotton grown and processed by the South put a great crimp in the Confederate economy as well as that of England.

Stories have it that a Union soldier was killed on the steps shown above... other stories say that wounded Union soldiers died while being cared for at this site... and are buried on the grounds.

These stories are possibly why the apparition of a Union soldier is often sighted around the ruins.  I wish I had read more about the history of the site... I would have been interested in looking to see if I could have found the 'soldier'... there are also stories of music wafting from the ruins... I do have to admit to having heard music while at the site, but I didn't think it to be from years past... from happier times...

(my photo) 

I also learned after the fact that the family cemetery is close by... covered by brush and such... I  would have looked for it and found it...

Anyway... on the night of February 17, 1890, the house caught fire and burned to the ground.  There are several explanations out there about the cause of the fire... but all include a discarded cigar that found its way either into a trash heap... or next to a curtain that caught fire... and even a pile of sawdust...

All that remains are these 23 columns...

(my photo)

Get out and learn the history of your area... there is so much to learn... so much to see...

~shoes~

"Bone Pickers..."

Dem Bones...

One of the indigenous Indian tribes of Mississippi would be the Choctaw Indians...  they worshiped the Sun as a supreme being... and when a member of the tribe died, his face was painted with a unique design and dressed in his/her best clothing...  so that the Sun would recognize him/her... and the body was laid atop a scaffold... where it would sit for as few as three months or maybe as long as a year.

)

Among the Choctaws was an esteemed position within the tribe called a "bone picker"...  and after the body had been exposed to the elements for the time allowed, they would come in and pick the remaining flesh off of the bones...

I've been helping Scooter's Mom and Sister with the "bone picking"... we have been at his apartment going through stuff... and what to do with it... what goes home with them... what is donated to libraries and such... and what goes into the trash...

So, this is what happens to us... 

So it goes...

~shoes~