By: Stan Jordan
The Flat Rock Creek Festival is scheduled for September 15th, 16th, and 17th at the Paulding County fairgrounds. Over the years that is a well attended celebration, as anything you can think of is there.
Dan Bowers of Advanced Chassis here in Antwerp is having a Horsepower Halloween Weekend! That is scheduled for October 27th and 28th at the Paulding County fairgrounds. There will be all kinds of contests for three and four wheelers of all kinds and all shapes and sizes. Some of those rigs have a couple of thousand horsepower and maybe ten foot tall.
Now this will be on a Friday and Saturday and Sunday could be a rain date.
See ya there!
Ben Franklin and the Tea Party
By: Stan Jordan
On one of my trips to Boston to see Ben, he told me a lot of goings on there in Bean Town.
When the English passed The Stamp Act and put a new tax on all the tea that came into Boston Harbor, the people would not stand for it. Some folks dressed as Indians, boarded the ship and threw the container of tea overboard.
Well, Ben said he and another fellow got a row boat and picked up a lot of those waterproof packages of tea. They took many of the packages of tea down to Madam Orr’s house. The first floor there is a pretty fancy emporium operated by John Daniels. The second floor is Madam Orr’s domain.
Legend has it that Nathan Hale came in one evening and said, “Give me Liberty, because if the Red Coats catch me, it will be death.” Well, Liberty was the name of a pretty, blue eyed, blonde who worked upstairs and Nathan got his wish.
I guess John Daniels had some equipment where he made a drink and weakened it with tea. A lot of the fellows just stayed downstairs and drank tea.
I understand that a couple of generations later, the Daniel’s moved their whole operation to Tennessee and went into a profitable business and they called him Jack, which is a nickname for John.
Well, Nathan Hale was a courageous American and he was a spy in the British Army for the Americans. He was caught as some of his relatives were British sympathisers and turned him in. This was in 1776 and he was executed. He was buried with honors in Connecticut. He was considered the hero of Connecticut. A real American hero.
See Ya!
More Phrases this Generation Might Not Have Heard
The Kettle calling the skillet black
It ain’t the heat, it’s the humidity
This is handier than a pocket in a shirt
That’s a doozie
Wasted energy: Telling a hair raising story to a baldheaded man
He was so dumb he flunked recess
I’m worn to a frazzle
I bumped my crazy bone
She was a school marm
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth
You just wait till your dad gets home
Put your finger to your head, give the abbreviation for mountain
I heard you mention your departed wife. Did she pass away? No, just departed
A penny saved is a penny earned
Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage
You don’t get chocolate milk from a black cow
An apple a day keeps the doctor away, an onion keeps everyone away
Just as sure as death and taxes
He had a long drop on a short rope
Just cool it
I will give you something to cry about
He just don’t have any gumption
Welcome Back Otters
By: Stan Jordan
Just the other day, here at West Bend News we received our Wild Ohio magazine. In it is a story by Tony Bresnen about a success story on river otters here in Ohio.
Before European settlers made their way into Ohio, otters were quite plentiful throughout the Buckeye state river and wet lands. But the unregulated hunting and trapping reduced the otter numbers statewide. The otters were gone from the Ohio waters by the 1900’s.
In 1986 the DNR received more that 100 otter from Arkansas. They were released in a half dozen places in Ohio where there was a good food supply. The river otter has not only survived, but thrived in Ohio water ways.
The story said if you see otter in your area to call a certain number and report when and where you saw an otter. Well, I told them that Mike Culler had seen three otter in his pond. Mike lives on the river road west, just a quarter mile from the Indiana state line.
Yes we have some otters here in the state scenic Maumee River.
See ya!
Some Memories are Forever
By: Stan Jordan
We rode in trucks from camp Lucky Strike over to the Seine River. This was the last of July or the first of August in 1945.
There was a liberty ship anchored there called the Martin Luther. There was about 118 of us G.I.’s heading home for 30 days and then to the invasion of Japan.
We had all of our earthly belongings in a barracks bag, but we had turned in our side arms and rifles.
We lined up at the stairway and some second lieutenant read off our last name and we would answer with our first name and middle initial, like; Jordan, Stanley W.
This ship was not equipped for troops, no bunks, no chairs and no tables, just a ride back to the states. We slept on the floor and ate our meals standing up, but we were headed home.
We went out the Seine River in the English Channel and Atlantic Ocean. As we were going west near the bottom of the English continent it was in the first evening and the captain came over the loud speaker and said, “Off the starboard is the last land you will see for 13 days. This is called Lands End, England.” He said we would be traveling about 13 knots an hour.
The chow on the ship was good and you could have all you wanted. We ate standing up and also played a little bingo on the same tall tables.
We saw a few whales and other big fish, the weather was nice. We would stand by the rails for hours.
We plodded along about 13 miles per hour, day and night but the weather was fine.
One evening the captain came over the loud speaker and said, “Look over the port bow and the land you see will be Sandy Hook, New Jersey. We will drop anchor here and go into port in the morning.”
We went right by the Statue of Liberty just off to our left and we turned up into the port area.
We stood by the rails and looked down into the little tug that was pushing our ship into the dock number 9. One of the deck hands shouted up to us that we would soon be going home. We agreed, “Yes we’re going home for 30 days leave. and then get ready for the invasion of Tokyo. He said, “Oh no, the war will soon be over.” Now that was August 11th or 12th, 1945. He said, “We have a new secret weapon.” I said, “I’ve heard of that for three years and I have never saw one yet.” He said, “We dropped a new type of bomb and a city just disappeared, they are going to surrender.”
We had been at sea for 13 days and we had not heard of any of this. So we left the ship and reported to Camp Kilmer, NJ. The POE we left months ago.
See ya!
SAM RIVERS, INDIAN AGENT CHAPTER 49
By: Stan Jordan
We are still at the Loup River Tribe Village. All of the gardening is done and all of the seeds are up. Lieutenant Morgan and the engineer boys from Fort Kearney have put in some long days building that two span bridge over the Loup River, right here in the village. They have a mud sled, a dump scraper pulled by a team, some saws shovel from the fort. The timbers are long and heavy, but the natives also help. This bridge will last for a long time – for two or three generations anyhow.
We are into August now. The general went back to the fort along with Rooster, the runner, a long time ago. We are eating some of the vegetables out of the tribe’s garden. The mess sergeant went back to the fort some time ago with the general.
Rooster rode in today, that is quite a trip to make all in one day. I can tell all is not good in our nation from General Kearny’s writing. He says that in the Kansas territory, to the south of us, the feelings are very high. They even kill each other over the slave question. That whole area is like an armed camp. This is the fall of 1858. Rooster said that the general is all worked up because the War of 1812 wasn’t long ago.
The battle with Santa Anna was just a few years ago. He said that the southern folks want to keep slaves and the leaders in Washington D.C. say that is illegal and war is inevitable.
Rooster said for the engineers to finish the bridge as soon as possible and to return to the fort. We might not get back here for a while. Try to explain to their chief and shaman that we might not be able to help like we have been…
I haven’t written for a long time. The boys finished the bridge at the Loup River Village, and then helped them get in their meat for the winter. The tribe had already gathered in all the garden produce.
The soldiers all returned to the fort except Slim, Hunter and Farmer. We stopped at the Calumus River Village and helped them with their garden and getting their meat for the winter.
We talked a lot with Chief Limping Buffalo and the shaman, Pony That Walks. Over the five years these people have learned a lot about the white man and we want them to continue to be friends with the whites. Those two leaders realize that the whites might have a battle among themselves. Something like a war between the tribes.
We returned to the agency and took in the vegetables and got in our meat supplies for winter.
We have now settled down for the cold weather as it is almost Thanksgiving in 1858.
Rooster, the runner from the fort, came in today. We are glad to see him and hear the news. But he doesn’t bring in good news just rumblings between troubles of the states.
See ya!
