Blog

As a kid I loved to watch the TV program, “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” with Art Linkletter. This was back when it came on in the afternoon.

One afternoon, I told Mom, “I’m going to be on that show one day!”

“Really,” she said in a factual tone of voice.

“And I plan to say something really stupid, too,” I responded.

“That,” she shot back, “I can believe, Tommy.”

I wonder what she meant by that?

Reno 2011 — A sociology researcher says Tea Party voters are more likely than other voters to fear change and harbor negative attitudes toward immigrants. The study, called “Cultures of the Tea Party,” is being presented in Las Vegas at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting.

Of course the key word, “illegal,” is left out of those supposed “negative attitudes.”  I don’t even have to wonder why, either.   

Sociology Professor Andrew Perrin of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill is the lead author of the study. He says researchers noted voters who felt favorably toward the Tea Party movement also valued deference to authority and libertarianism saying they told  researchers they felt “things are changing too fast.”   

Perrin fails to mention the fact these “changes,” are the side stepping of the U.S. Constitution by creating mandatory national health care, appointing Executive Branch Czars and bailing out privately held companies. And as for “deference to authority,” it’s the Tea Party movement which refuses to compromise — and that is anything but deference.

The findings are based on a telephone poll of registered voters in North Carolina and Tennessee conducted last year. The researchers also conducted interviews at a Tea Party rally in North Carolina.

It’s obvious that anyone can draw any sort of conclusion from a few telephone conversations and attending a single rally somewhere — especially when editing the data to make it fit one’s premise. I jus’ hope Perrin printed his study on toilet paper, so it’s easy to use.

It was Mrs. Valeria Damm who first introduced me to Laura Ingalls-Wilder and “Little House on the Praire.” When I say “me,” I actually mean the entire third grade class she was reading the book too.

Later on, my sister Deirdre received the book and as soon as I saw that she had finished it, I grabbed it up and spent the next couple of days reading it. I liked the book so much that I finally got the entire set and I read most of the series to my son, Kyle.

Now, I know about the stories that claim Wilder’s daughter, Rose, actually penned the series. I don’t care about the rumors or to even speculate on this.

What I do care about are the simple sentences and the small words used in the stories, which endear these books to generation after generation of readers. It’s these two qualities that I decided to emulate as I searched to creat my own personal style of writing.

While stationed at Brooks Air Force Base for technical school, I decided to go buy some postcards to send to family and friends. I also needed to buy some stamps since I forgot to get some at the base post office before they closed.

After finding about a dozen postcards, I headed to the downtown post office, where I stood in line. What makes this story different is the fact that when around folks with “southern accents,” I tend to pick up their “twang.”

As I stepped up to the window and asked for a book of stamps, I couldn’t help but lilt a little Texan. The woman didn’t seem to notice until I took the book of stamps and stuck them in my back pocket.

“You ain’t from ’round here?” she asked.

A little surprised, I answered, “No, I’m not. Why?”

“No one put stamps in their back pocket,” she stated, “‘cuz they’d stick together.”

“Oh, thank you,” I responded as I pulled them from my pants and placed them in my shirt pocket.

As I headed for the door, I overheard her say to one of her co-workers, “Bless his heart.”

I later learned that was a short southern prayer for: “Dear Lord, Please look out for the person as he’s either stupid, lacks common sense or both. Amen”

“And we have splash down!” some news reporter would exclaim as the capsule dropped into the sea and bobbed about, waiting for the signal from the swimmer that it was okay to open the capsules hatch. If it was opened to soon the craft would sink.

About that swimmer: Not once has the Navy sent a man out to greet the awaiting astronauts. It has always been an Air Force Pararescueman.

During the first splash down of a U.S space capsule some reporter said the swimmer was Navy. It’s was an easy mistake to make after seeing the swimmer jump from a Navy Helicopter.

But the Air Force’s top brass was so offended by the slight they ordered the letters, “PJ,” stenciled on the back of the swimmers headgear to identify him. Too bad the top brass never got around to telling the media that “PJ,” stands for Pararescue Jumper.

As for Apollo 9, its crew consisted of Commander Jim McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart. After launching March 3, 1969, they spent ten days in orbit.

There was always that point in the re-entry process of a space capsule where the news reporter would say, “The capsule has entered the radio blackout zone.” It was spoken with some amount of dread in their voice.

These silences are also known as ionization blackouts, or reentry blackouts. These are caused by an envelope of ionized air around the capsule, created by the heat from the friction of the craft against the atmosphere.

It’s true that for about three minutes, the Apollo capsule would be completely out of contact with ground communication. It had to be the longest three minutes in the lives of both those on the ground and those in the capsule.

Imagine the relief — seeing all three parachutes opened, above the capsule.

One of my favorite news reporters was a guy by the name of Jules Bergman. He worked for ABC News and covered NASA’s Apollo space program for as long as I can remember.

What I liked about his reporting of the rocket launches and such were the various ways he would explain what was happening and what would happen in the near future with the rocket, capsule and the astronauts. He used various ways of demonstrating stuff – either by drawings or by models.

I tried to duplicate what I saw on TV.

Bergman made the complexity of every mission easy to understand. That’s because he often took part in the same training and simulations the astronauts did.

He later covered the missions of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s unmanned space probes, notably the Viking  and Voyager programs. He also covered the Space Shuttle program from its first flight through the 1986 Challenger disaster.

Jules Bergman passed away in 1987.

A group of animal activists presented Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval’s office with a petition of 15,000 signatures asking him to delay Nevada’s first ever bear hunt. However NoBearHuntNV.org was met by the Governor’s staff as they claimed he was in Homewood, California for the 15th Annual Lake Tahoe Summit.

The problem with this is the summit wasn’t scheduled to begin until the following day. So either Sandoval’s staff was misinformed or they used the occasion to dodge the organization and the possible media fiasco it could have caused the Governor.

As for the summit, Sandoval and California’s Governor Jerry Brown signed an agreement allowing the state’s to work together creating water clarity for Lake Tahoe down to 94-feet by the year 2076. Unfortunately, I will not be around to check on their progress by that time – then again neither will Governor’s “Sandocrat,” or “Moonbeam.”

Meanwhile, Nevada’s inaugural bear hunt remains on target.

It was a typical rainy day and instead of letting us drive her crazy, Mom put Adam and me to work drawing and coloring. It was one of my favorite things to do aside from playing with all the other kids who live in the neighborhood.

Mom was in the kitchen making dinner and Adam was sitting at our dining room table with me, busy doing the same thing. It’s one of the few times I can recall the two of us not squabbling with one another.

In the corner of our living room was an old black and white television set Dad had borrowed from Pa Sanders. Jus’ recently on it, I had seen a rocket zoom into outer space and a space capsule float to earth, landing in the ocean — and it inspired me.

I think I drew as accurate a series of pictures as any little kid can of the Apollo 9 mission.

Learning how the whites dealt with the native population during the early years of Del Norte County has often caused me to reflect on how I deal with people. In the case of A. French’s murder and the rushing to judgement, I have discovered other problems tend to crop up.

In this case — for a while it was the Klamath Mounted Rangers versus the Coastal Rangers.

The hanging of the three Indians did little to curb the growing tension between white settlers and local Indian tribes. Soon violence erupted during 1854-55 when 30 natives were killed along the banks of Lake Earl during various encounters.

The killings were in part due to the retaliation of the death of the white farmer French. But before the murder of French, a group of defenders were formed to protect settlers from hostile Indians.

Called the Klamath Rangers, they were formed on April 27, 1854 and comprised of 66 men. Henry Kennedy was the company’s first lieutenant and W. J. Terry as their Captain. The Muster Roll of this company is dated “From May 2 to June 5, 1854″, and shows the Klamath Mounted Rangers served that length of time in actual service.

The troop saw a great deal of action when the unit in company with the Union Volunteer’s, (now Arcata,) took the field against the Indians of the Tule Lake Region, in a short but bloody campaign.

Three times Terry wrote to Adjutant General William C. Kibbe, in regard to his command. In the first letter dated June 25, 1854, he expressed his regrets that the arms had not been received in time for the Fourth of July, as they had planned to give that glorious day a grand celebration.

He also complained another militia company had been organized, saying it was unnecessary as one company was sufficient to keep the Indians in subjection. He added that this new company called, “Coast Rangers”, under Captain Thorpe was composed of “beach combers and sailors who had no experience in the mountains.”

Evidently someone else had said the same thing to the general about the Klamath Mounted Rangers. It appears being called a beach comber and/or a sailor was quite the insult back then.

The Coastal Rangers organized themselves on May 13, 1854, under the command of Captain Thorpe. His first course of action was to write to reported to Governor John Bigler on July 12th asking for army revolvers and that his commission be sent by the next boat. Four boxes of percussion rifles and accouterments were shipped to the company November 14, adding to the twenty he had already received September 15th.

The company made good use of the arms as the Indian attacks continued from December 27 to January 29, 1855. The Coast Rangers and Klamath Rangers, together with volunteer citizens, under the command of First Lieutenant Myers engaged in several skirmishes, killing about thirty Indians and resulting in one of their own men being wounded.

Myers gave the Adjutant General a brief report of the activities by letter on March 10th, in which he informed the general that he had requested Mr. P. Bryan to make up a payroll of all the services and expenses incurred. But it seems there was some contention over the nonpayment of the officers, as the Lieutenant explained both he and the Second Lieutenant had paid their fees to the Captain to be sent in to Headquarters, but had been lax in-sending his money in.

The Lieutenant concluded his letter to the general, “…Captain Thorpe has moved away, some time back, and that I have taken command.”

It seems the Captain had better things to do than fight Indians or lead his men. Of course Thorpe wasn’t the only officer to vacate his post.

Of the three letters from Terry to the general, two were addressed from Crescent City. The third, dated October 30, 1855, however is from Yreka and signed simply William J. Terry.

From the manner in which the letter is written its apparent Headquarters was trying to call together all the State Militia in an effort to attend an Encampment  Terry told the general he would like to comply with the solicitation, however Klamath Mounted Rangers were disbanding.

After all, the company had been composed of miners, mechanics and merchants, most  having left their jobs to serve. They would be reluctant to attend the Encampment in Sacramento, preferring to return home to their families and livelihoods.

Meanwhile, residents along the Smith River feared revenge from local Indians for the execution of Black Mow, Jim and Narpa. Their paranoia led to the surveillance of Tolowa Rancheria at Yontucket, where Yurok, Rogue River, Chetco and Tolowa could be found living.

This, along with the discovery of “secret trails,” raised the whites’ suspicions. Word went out that a “possible Indian uprising” was being planned and with that the white’s decided to strike first.

Finally on New Years Day 1855, some Smith River settlers, the Klamath Mounted Rangers and the Coast Rangers, attacked the Rancheria, killing 30 natives. There were no reported injuries or deaths among the whites.

There is no further recorded activities of the Klamath Mounted Rangers other than remarks of the Adjutant General’s Report for April 1861 noted the company had been disbanded. As for the Coast Rangers they disbanded without notifying anyone and have faded into history.

Can you say: From bad to worse?