By: Stan Jordan
It is about the middle of July, 1945, and B Company is billeting a little mountain town called Berneck, Germany. The war has been over for a couple of months and we don’t stand very many formations. We a do a lot of exercise and work on the tanks and then play ball.
There is a brewery in town and one of the fellows somehow got a key to the place. He probably bought the owner off with a few packs of cigarettes.
The captain agreed to a five gallon water can of beer each morning. This was black beer and what we call bock and is about 12%, but no body ever over done the drinking that I remember.
The division sent down an order and about one third of the company is being sent back to the states for 30 days and then to the Pacific and Tokyo. The powers that be are going to have flame throwing tanks and invade Japan and burn it to the ground, like Sherman’s march from Atlanta to the sea.
We were loaded on the box cars and sent east to France to “repel depel” called Lucky Strike.
Those places were all named after cigarettes.
I will always remember my stay there. It was a big park like area with a lot of big shade trees. This was a big make shift mess hall operated by the French and they served corned beef hash twice a day, and I hate that stuff! Still do.
What was lucky, was every morning about 10 o’clock the Salvation Army would come with a trailer and jeep and serve coffee and these big glazed doughnuts. You got cream and sugar in your coffee whether you wanted it or not. You took your canteen up of coffee and doughnut and went and sat in the shade and had your lunch. By that time, the line would be down to a hundred foot long, so you got in line again.
All my life, I have donated to the Salvation Army for that reason. They were good, friendly Americans.
There was a very good softball team in that camp that played every evening. The pitcher was Gabby Street and was a good pitcher. I never will forget those guys.
We were there about 10 days and the order came for us to go over the Seine River and catch a liberty ship called the Martin Luther. We were to head to the States. This was about half way from the coast of Paris on the Seine River.
See ya!
The North American River Otter
By: Stan Jordan
Just a few days ago, Mike Culler saw three otters playing in his pond. Now I know they are not native to the area, but never the less, some are here.
Now Mike’s place is just a stone throw away from the Maumee and I am sure that is where the otters came from, the Maumee River.
According to WWW Defenders, the river otter is native mainly to the Chesepeake Bay area, but I don’t know how old that report is. They eat mostly fish, frogs, crayfish and small mammals.
The river otter is a large, brown weasel–like mammal. He is found in a lot of the states. The male is quite a bit larger than the female. The otter is a playful creature. Sometimes they will build a mudslide and play on it like a child would or they will lay on their back and crack the shells open with a couple of rocks, all of this action is on their stomachs.
See ya!
• A guy walks into a crowded bar, waiving a pistol around and yelled, “I have a 45 calibre Colt model 1911 with a seven round magazine plus one in the chamber, and I want to know who’s been sleeping with my wife?!” A voice from the back of the room called out, “ You need more ammo!” • One day a blonde went to the doctor with both sides of her face burned. The doctor asked, “What happened?” The blonde said, “Well, I was ironing my husbands shirt and the phone rang, I picked it up and my face got burned.” The doctor replied, “What about the other side?” The blonde answered, “They called back.” • A blonde and brunette are living together. The brunette came home one day from work and the blonde had a rope around her waist. The brunette asked why she had a rope around her waist. The blonde answered that she was trying to commit suicide. The brunette said, “You are suppose to put the rope around your neck.” The blonde replied, “I tried that, but I couldn’t breathe.” • Cletus is passing by Billy Bob’s hay barn one day when through a gap in the door he sees Billy Bob doing a slow and sensual striptease in front of an old green John Deere. Buttocks clenched, he performs a slow pirouette and gently slides off, first the strap of his overalls, followed by the left. He then hunches his shoulders forward, and in a classic striptease move, lets his overalls fall down to his hips revealing a torn and frayed plaid shirt. Grabbing both sides of his shirt, he rips it apart to reveal his stained t-shirt underneath, With his final flourish, he tears the t-shirt from his body and hurls his baseball cap onto a pile of hay. Having seen enough, Cletus rushed in and says, “What the heck are you doing Billy Bob?!” “Jeez, Cletus, ya scared the bejeezers out of me,” says an obviously embarrassed Billy Bob, “but me and the ole lady been having trouble lately in the bedroom and the therapist suggested I do something sexy to a tractor.”
Sam Rivers Indian Agency Chapter 48
By: Stan Jordan
We planted our garden on Tuesday and then we loaded the wagons for the trip to the Calamus River Village. We all went to the village: Callie, the twins, Yellow Tulip, all the boys and I. All the work at the agency is done, just waiting for the garden to grow. It was a fine day to travel. Lots of warm sunshine. One of the boys rode in the second wagon. That was Ned and he talked the whole distance. They didn’t expect us, so we ate supper by ourselves. We still have some of last year’s vegetables, so we had deer meat vegetable soup. Then we talked around the fire until way late. The two gardeners and farmer set off by themselves and has made plans to plow up the garden area tomorrow morning. The natives, mostly anyhow, use and understand the English calendar and our time system. Some of the old timers still use the method of the moon. This is the middle of April 1858. I haven’t written for a few days. We planted all the garden and the corn and timothy for the horses. As usual, when the planting was done the native squaws fixed a fancy meal for everyone. All these five years, they have gotten some big pots and pans and culinary utensils. These belong to the whole tribe. They had two pots of stew and some potatoes also.
But they popped some corn in one big container, over the fire and shook it often and then when it was hot, they poured in hot honey and a little salt and we ate that as long as it lasted. Then we all had to go down to the stream and wash the honey from our fingers. But that corn was very good. I told the folks that we would rest tomorrow and leave the Loup River Village the next day. Well today, Hunter, Farmer and Slim took three of the natives down by the river and showed them how to fire a 45-70 rifle so these boys could hunt the deer, bear and buffalo for their winter meat. We might not always be able to do the chore. Later this afternoon, General Kearney, the mess sergeant and Lieutenant Morgan, from the post engineers, along with sixteen soldiers in their wagon arrived. It seemed that nearly everyone knew each other, except maybe some the soldiers. Well, General Kearney brought along enough blankets for one each for all the natives at the Loup River Village. He told me that was all he had and he probably won’t get anymore. Again, he mentioned about the situation between the north and the south. He is very worried that it will explode into armed conflict. He said, any and all supplies have been curtailed. We will help the natives all we can this trip because we might not come back this way. Then we arrived at the Loup River Village. Lieutenant Morgan of the post engineers, looked the situation over and said we will build them a bridge.
So, General Kearney, Lieutenant Morgan and the tribe’s chief and shaman and I looked the area over for the best place to build a bridge over the Loup River. There are a lot of trees along the river up and down both sides. The lieutenant started the soldiers to cutting and trimming the logs right away. They used both teams to drag the huge logs to the area. The big ones will be used for the beams. Lieutenant Morgan said, “This is a big job. We will have to make that a two span bridge pillar in the middle of the river. I hope the weather stays nice for us. We will put in some long days so we can get done and go back to the fort.” Well, all the gardening is done and the crops are looking good. Broken Lance, the chief, and Pale Moon, the shaman, have all the natives help where they can. Usually they help lift the beams – some of them are a big load. Just tell the natives what to do and they will do it.
See ya!
The Maumee River Scenic Tours
By: Stan Jordan
I had an interesting talk with Louis Beregszazi the other day and he is starting a new business.
This is about the way it went – Louis said with all the wild game we have in this area and all the scenic river we have here, he is going to make it easy for folks to take a canoe or kayak ride on the river and enjoy all the scenes.
Louis has 7 licensed canoes and 4 kayaks at his place and more in reserve. He is licensed and insured.
He lives at 6778 Rd 192 with a dock and a park area down by the river and car parking area up on the road.
The way it works is, you drive out to Louis’ place and park your car, he has a van and trailer and he will bring you and the canoe or kayak back to the park area marina. He will take you right down to the water’s edge and help you get started. That is a beautiful 5 1/2 mile trip on State Scenic River. You will end up at Louis’ place and dock your canoe there, then you walk up the stairs to your waiting automobile.
Louis has had all the legal work done. The army engineer, the E.P.A. people and the DNR and he met all of their rules. The state has determined that the Maumee is a scenic river. The watershed for this river drains the water from thousands of square miles. There is just so much to see on a cruise. If I was twenty years younger, I would be his first ride. There is just so much to see.
His business is called Maumee Rentals. If you are interested or would like more information you can contact him at 419-506-1049 or email maumeerentals@gmail.com
Me & the Ohio Sports
By: Stan Jordan
I don’t understand all of the sports, but I do back most regularly what happens in sports in Ohio.
I’m behind the Buckeyes from the ground up and all the other colleges here in Ohio. I also watch the Reds and the Indians. I remember back in the 1950’s going to Cincinnati to the Old Crosby Field and a trip or so to the Cleveland Stadium which was always breezy.
The Red’s have fallen on hard times, so to speak, with their pitching. Their offense is pretty good, their infield players are pretty good and I think their outfield is class “A”. Their outfielders can run and catch and have a good arm, to me they are better than most. Really all they need is a better pitcher and a good bull pen.
The Cleveland Indians are playing good ball at the present time they are leading their division and are 20 games above 500.
They, just yesterday, swept the Yankees! They haven’t done that since 1989.
If they can play all of September as they played in August, they should have a good chance of being in the World Series.
They are off to a good start. They have a win streak going of eleven wins in a row.
