Sam Rivers, Indian Agent Chapter 53
By: Stan Jordan
We are back to the agency now. A lot of the garden vegetables are ready, because this is the last week of July in 1859.
Rooster, the runner, takes over the cooking chores when he is here. He spent all morning out in the garden getting some fresh vegetables for our big cookout later this afternoon. We had fresh vegetable soup with buffalo meat and fried deer meat. We had biscuits and honey with mulberries and honey for dessert.
There were the four soldiers, Callie and I plus the twins and Yellow Tulip. We sat around the fire and talked. The ladies put the twins to bed and we talked for a couple of hours after that.
We rested all day as there isn’t much to do right now. Slim has been bringing in the wood preparing for winter, but he even took today off, and sat in the shade with us.
We played ball with the twins and even went fishing down by the bridge in Rattle Snake Creek.
The wheat is ready to be cut now and Gen Kearney, Billy Metzger and about 10 soldiers arrived this afternoon to cut and thrash the wheat.
They had brought a number of harvesting cradles and some flails and tarps to catch the wheat. The soldiers made a swath across the wheat field with the cradles and left the straw lay on the ground. Then they gathered up the straw and made a large pile under the shade tree. They had a beater, something like a carpet beater. They beat the straw and that removes the chaff from the berry. That all falls down on to the tarp and then we separate the wheat from the chaff. Then it is dried in the sun for a little while and then they start making wheat flour.
They take a flat stone and lay some wheat kernels on the stone and then take another stone and grind it in to a powder like substance. All this flour is put into clean dry buffalo entrails. They will stay dry until needed. It took all day to make the flour, put it away and store it.
They used grease from bear, deer, buffalo, and small animals. As well as maple syrup, honey, parts of roots and tree bark in their cooking.
Rooster is their cook because the Mess Sgt. didn’t come along on this trip. He stayed at the fort. We have deer ribs off the spit, fried deer meat on the griddle, boiled potatoes, quartered and hot deer poured all over them.
After supper Rooster showed off his cooking skills. He sliced some new potatoes as thin as possible and dropped them into a bucket of hot grease for a little bit and then fished them out and passed them around on a neat platter after he salted them a little. Everyone liked them, but there was only two or three for each because it had a long time to make them. Rooster called them potato chips. They were a big hit.
The other day, Rooster gathered in a lot of corn and spent a couple of hours getting the corn clean by husking and getting the silk off.
He then took some bear grease and mixed in some honey and stirred it all up and put it on our sweet corn and then sprinkled a little salt on top. The Rooster and his cooking has become quite a hit here.
Gen. Kearney sits in the shade in Callie’s rocking chair a lot. He talks about the slavery situation and the condition our country is getting into.
He appears to have aged a lot lately. This last trip should help him and I hope it does, but he does seem to have put all the world’s troubles on his shoulders.
The general rode Roosters’ horse back to the fort to find out all the news bulletins concerning the current action of the impending war and will soon be back.
See ya!
Shades of the Old West
By: Stan Jordan
If you were driving by our corner last Friday afternoon you would have seen some action like they used to have in the Old West.
Sheriff Jason Landers had in tow Mr. Yelood and Mr. Yelo, two of Anwterp’s businessmen.
Now, I didn’t see any pistols or handcuffs or the likes, but their melee went on for some time with lots of hand waving and gestures.
Now, the reason I am upset about this is, it took place right at the front door of the West Bend News.
Sheriff Landers is a very busy man and he had allocated so many minutes with me in an interview and he was being detained by these two hoodlums, maybe even a shaky rap sheet.
Well, finally Sheriff Landers disposed of those two ne’er-do-wells and he entered our office and I finally had my interview, which will be printed in a couple of weeks. It will take some time for me to settle down.
Those names on request.
See ya!
The Perils of the stool
By: Stan Jordan
The one and only room in the house with so many parts of history, happiness, the power of thinking, planning, satisfaction, no other room in the house is as necessary or needed or used as much or discussed as much or as sometimes cause trouble, large and small…the bathroom.
The flushing type stool has been around for quite a while. It was invented in 1870 by an Englishman named Tom Crapper and basically it is still pretty much as he invented it.
As the cities got more and more running water the toilet became more of the household.
The stool has been the center of attention in many occasions, some good and some bad and sometimes very bad. Such as when a child will throw toys or objects down the stool and plug it up, and the plumber has to be called, that is expensive but the stool is out of use till the plumber is finished.
You are a modern family of four and own a sort of modern house but only one bathroom. The seniority usage system has been in use for years and it works as good as any. Dad, mom, older sister and then the young son, mornings are the busiest.
This is a flat rule: PUT THE SEAT BACK DOWN. Some homes have a rule on keeping the lid down all the time, because the dog carries toys and drops them down the stool.
Sickness, such as the flu, will make any good seniority system go awry.
Some teenage girls seem to need more time at the vanity with their makeup and even more time if there is a chair or stool to sit on. And sometimes, if she has her own cell phone, she might be in there for hours.
There has been an argument for years on the correct way to put the toilet paper on the roll. The federal boys have never polled on this but etiquette and Ann Landers say it feeds out over the top and then down. If you have a couple of sheets on the roll, the cat will have a ball unrolling the complete roll.
I have heard discussions on the busiest room in the house, the bathroom or the kitchen. Now that does have some merit, but emergency will put the bathroom first.
Sometimes a person can sit and think the situation over and make plans. It is a good place to just plan ahead.
Both men and women, when no one else is around, will look into the mirror and make all kinds of faces, gyrations, squints and just plain childish actions, that they wouldn’t be caught dead doing them elsewhere.
As I have been doing a scientific study on the correct way to hang your toilet paper holder, it’s official, the National Toilet Paper Institute says it should roll over the top and then down.
The results of the poll was: 18 to 2 1/2
Another gripe I got from a mother: When the paper runs out, whoever went and got the new roll, put it in the fixture, don’t sit it on the back of the stool.
No napping on the stool.
Turn out the light when you leave.
Leave the door open, when you leave.
No texting while on the stool.
No paper towels down the stool.
My aim is to keep the bathroom clean, your aim will help.
No selfies.
See ya!
Pride and Esprit De Corps
By: Stan Jordan
It is a feeling of pride, fellowship and common loyalty showed by the members of a particular group, and in my way of thinking, if you are a veteran of any branch of our armed forces it covers you like a blanket.
You can’t see it or hear it, but it is there.
The loyalty to our country, our flag and our National Anthem just comes natural to a veteran.
When you join the army, you are read the General Orders at once. It tells you how to act and obey in the service and you will have no excuse of not knowing right from wrong.
The service tells you how to act at the singing of the National Anthem, they will tell you how to salute and the meaning of the stars and stripes and the folding of the flag and other forms of courteous action at a different time and place. Your knowledge and respect at these occasions just come natural.
But to use one of these occasions to further your thinking or desire such as using a time of the singing of the National Anthem at an NFL game for you to protest something is all wrong.
You might be right to have some sort of reason for your protest, but not at the singing of the National Anthem. Stand and act in the usual accepted way!
I put three years in the army like everyone else back in WWII of 1942 till 1945. All the recruiting posters said to keep America Free and we did and we are.
But somewhere along the line their idea of “my civil rights” has gotten out of line.
Now, that’s my way of thinking and I know lots of people won’t agree with me but that is their civil right.
But we revolt and protest your feelings during a somber affair, while observing the National Anthem being played or sung, to me that is wrong. That is a time you should think about how good a life you have.
Back in 1777 the Green Mountain Boys at the Concord Bridge fired the “shot heard around the world”. That war lasted for years, but we had our freedom. Now we lost a lot of boys then and many, many more in a number of wars since.
But they fixed it and now you have the phrase “my civil rights” and the right to protest. But in my way of thinking, you are wrong. To start a protest for any reason should not be done at the playing or singing of the National Anthem, Retreat or Taps or any other somber or sacred affair.
See ya!
This Stork Stuff is baloney
By: Stan Jordan
In lots of households, the stork delivers the baby. Now I’ve also heard the baby can come by United Parcel, Sears and other various transports. But here at the West Bend News we want honest and sincere reporting on all items, so I looked in my bird book from National Geographic about storks and this it what I found.
The only stork native to America is the Wood Stork and he is only native to Florida. Now over in Europe and south to Africa they have the Black Stork and a species call the White Stork. Basically the stork is a big bird with long legs and a long bill, usually shy. It usually feeds on small fish and insects and they spend lots of their time wading in the water for food.
This stork stuff is some debris left from Greek Mythology and poor reasoning at that. The flat out truth is storks don’t bring babies, you will have to be truthful to your children or find some other avenue of escape.
Storks bringing the new baby has been used for thousands of years, but it just ain’t true.
See ya!
Stay with me on this – the answer is at the end. It may blow you away.
One evening a grandson was talking to his grandfather about current events. The grandson asked his grandfather what he thought about the shootings at schools, the computer age and just things in general.
The grandfather replied, “Well, let me think a minute. I was born before: television, penicillin, polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, Frisbees and the pill. There were no credit cards, laser beams or ball-point pens. Man had not invented pantyhose, air conditioners, dishwashers, clothes dryers; the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and space travel was only in Flash Gordon books.
Your grandmother and I got married first… and then lived together, Every family had a father and a mother. Until I was 25, I called every woman older than me, ‘mam’ and after I turned 25, I called policemen and every man with a title ‘sir’. We were before gay rights, computer-dating, dual careers, daycare centers and group therapy.
Our lives were governed by the Bible, good judgment and common sense. We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.
Serving your country was a privilege. We thought fast food was eating half a biscuit while running to catch the school bus. Having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with your cousins. Draft dodgers were those closed front doors as the evening breeze started. Time-share meant time the family spent together in the evenings and weekends, not purchasing condominiums.
We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CDs, electric typewriters, yogurt or guys wearing earrings. We listened to Big Bands, Jack Benny and the president’s speeches on our radios. And I don’t ever remember any kid blowing his brains out listening to Tommy Dorsey.
If you saw anything with ‘Made in Japan’ on it, it was junk, the term ‘making out’ referred to how you did on your school exam, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s and instant coffee were unheard of. We had 5 & 10 cent stores where you could actually buy things for 5 and 10 cents. Ice-cream cones, phone calls, rides on a streetcar and a Pepsi were all a nickel. And if you didn’t want to splurge, you could spend your nickel on enough stamps to mail one letter and two postcards. You could buy a new Ford Coupe for $600, but who could afford one? Too bad, because gas was 11 cents a gallon.
In my day ‘grass’ was mowed, ‘coke’ was a cold drink, ‘pot’ was something your mother cooked in and ‘rock music’ was your grandmother’s lullaby. ‘Aids’ were helpers in the principal’s office, ‘chip’ meant a piece of wood, ‘hardware’ was found in the hardware store and ‘software’ wasn’t even a word.
And we were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby, No wonder people call us ‘old and confused’ and say there is a generation gap, or from the archives.”
How old do you think I am? I bet you have this old man in mind…you are in for a shock! Read on to see…pretty scary if you think about it and pretty sad at the same time.
This man would be only 70 years old. Gives you something to think about.
Pass this on to the old ones, the young ones wouldn’t believe it.
FROM WHERE I SIT
By: Stan Jordan
Yes I know I am not a sports writer, but I am an Ohio State football fan and I think the Bucks need some help when they are playing against a team of any strength. They have a lot of trouble in the Red Zone. Too many times they have to settle for a field goal, when they should have had a touch down.
They don’t seem to have a fullback who can take it over the last five yards for a touchdown against a stronger team.
Thirty or forty years ago they did have such a back. His name was Pete Johnson and I think he came from Lima. Whenever we needed a few yards, Pete would come in and make the first and ten. His nickname was the Designated Scorer. Whenever they got down to the goal line, Pete came in and butted his way across the goal line, generally with two or three opponents on his back. He would get that extra yardage.
The Miami Dolphins had to have a fullback to do that job, his name was Six Yard Sitco. He came from Fort Wayne and went to Notre Dame and then the pros. Pete Johnson went to the pros for years.
In my way of thinking, the Buckeyes, in order to play against Nebraska, Penn State, Clemson, Alabama and the like, they need a good full back in the Red Zone. They have some good backs alright, but we need a Pete Johnson.
See ya!
