David Crockett Went To Texas

Today in US History, and perhaps I should add, Texas history, is the day in 1835 that David Crockett gave his famous "...you may all go to Hell, and I am going to Texas" farewell speech.  By the way, before I go further I would like to add, for Mr. Crockett, that he hated being called "Davy."  I have read this in more than one biography, so in respect to Mr. Crockett I will not call him "Davy" in this post.

My research into David Crockett's life and character has shown me that Crockett truly embodied all the stereotypical characteristics, even those of Hollywood, that you and I today have come to expect of all "frontiersmen."  He really did occasionally wear a coonskin cap, although he seemed to prefer to wear more traditional crowned hats at least as often, if not more.  He actually did hunt for food when he was very young.  Actually, most frontier children, especially boys, learned to hunt at  a young age, because their fathers were away from the house either fighting, farming, or running businesses.  Crockett actually wore clothes with fringes on the sleeves and legs, but the fringes were not decorations.  Actually, they represented high technology for that day.  The Indians with whom these frontiersmen had contact wore fringes for an actual purpose - the fringes acted as collection points for water, allowing the water, from rain or from crossing creeks and rivers, to drain off their clothing more quickly.  And Crockett was not "educated."  His education came from his life experiences and from his own self-education.

Although David Crockett was indeed a frontiersman, he was making inroads into politics by his early twenties.  He was an early county commissioner in North Carolina, and held various local public offices for the next few years.  He was constantly working as well, which left little time for formal education.  Crockett did not let his lack of education hold him back.  Instead, he rather shrewdly capitalized on his "country backwardness" by using his life-experiences and colorful anecdotes to represent his constituents and lull his opponents.

One of the most important aspects of being a frontiersman, one which I did not list above, was "being your own man."  Frontiersmen were fiercely independent, both in their actions and in their thinking.  David Crockett was no exception.  He believed in educating himself, both in general knowledge, and about local and national political issues.  Once educated, Crockett believed, a person should decide how he or she stood on an issue, then STAND.  Stand, no matter what other people said.  David Crockett said, "Be sure you are right, then go ahead." 

It was Crockett's fierce independence and his desire to be his own man that eventually led to his ouster from Congress.  In 1835 Crockett stood against President Andrew Jackson on his treatment of the Indians.  That was political suicide, and all of Crockett's colleagues told him so.  As one of his biographers put it, "Crockett was elected as a 'Jacksonian' but quickly became an 'Anti - Jacksonian' and lost the election of 1835."  No one in his right political mind would defy Jackson, but Crockett further nailed shut his coffin by stating on the House floor that "President Jackson is a worse tyrant than...Napoleon."  And so it was that in January, 1836 David Crockett uttered probably his most famous quote, "...all of you may go to Hell, and I am going to Texas."

Shortly afterward David Crockett set out for Texas.  On the way he and his three companions joined with a company of men from Louisiana who were headed to a crumbling, difficult to defend fort/mission called "The Alamo."  It may be that Crockett knew he was riding into Destiny.  He gave away his Mason apron, something a practicing Mason would never do.  Something about the Texas Revolution appealed to him, yet something else told him that he was heading into his last fight.

David Crockett is one of my favorite men of US History, and one of my favorite quotes of his is "You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas."  The defenders of the Alamo were doomed, and Crockett and the men with him did not change the final outcome.  But the few survivors of that famous battle all agreed that David Crockett lifted the spirit of those doomed men, both with his singing and with his encouraging words.  As Death closed on those men during the final minutes before the last assault, David Crockett's motto, "Be sure you're right, then go ahead" must have gone through their minds.  They, along with Crockett, went ahead into the final hopeless fight, and into perhaps the most famous battle of modern times.  Who knows, perhaps Crockett's presence, his wit, his personality helped the men fulfill all that would be required of them in their finest hour.

You may all go to Hell, I am going to Texas


God Bless America

Sweetie, It Sure Is Quiet Now

The house is finally quiet again.  Yes, my wife is speaking to me, and yes, the television is on, but the house is STILL quiet.  Child A has spent his obligatory twenty minutes with us, and is now back in his room, but that is not the "source" of the quiet.  The source of the quiet, of course, is the fact that  both grandchildren are now back with their parents.  And the house, though full of conversation and television noise, is oh so quiet.  That is one of the parts of "grandparentism"that has amazed me since my lovely bride and I were gifted with our first grandchild, and continues to strike me even after our second grandchild came into our world.  How quiet the house is after "the children" go home.  I know the grandchildren will visit again, relatively soon, but how quiet it is after they go home!

My precious Baby Baby is now three years old and will be four in just a few months.  She seems so grown up!  She talks so well, problems solves well, helps with little chores, and most of all LOVES for Poppee (me!) to play with her.  Yes, I am her playmate.  And I love it just as much as she.  I have gone through countless Peppa Pig adventures with her.  Today's Peppa adventure included me starring as "Monster Poppee" who endlessly trapped "Princess Peppa," only to foiled in his evil plans by "Prince George" who in "real life" is Peppa's younger brother.  Next we spend hours playing "True and Bartleby"  I don't know the actual name of the cartoon, I think it may be "The Adventures of True" but that is just a guess on my part.  True is a young lady who goes on many adventures, and shares those adventures her friend and CAT, Bartleby.  When we are "in character" as True and Bartleby, True addresses Bartleby, who then answers, "Yes, True."  If Poppe does not get that answer right, play is stopped immediately until "Bartleby" answers correctly..."Yes, True."  We go to the Wishing Tree to get three wishes that help solve the particular problem in a certain adventure.  Then we hurry to the "scene" of whatever the problem might be by riding on "Cumulo," a friendly cumulus cloud who is always ready at True's beck and call.  If one were to visit our home while Baby Baby was there, that person would be treated to the delightful scene of "True" leading around her friend (and cat) Bartleby by the hand, telling Bartleby some important bit of information, then hearing True say, " No Bartleby!  You have to say 'yes, True.'"

While all this is going on, Baby Derek, our latest addition, is playing in the floor or bouncing and making noise in his "jumper."  Baby Derek is one of the two sweetest babies I have ever seen.  The other was his uncle, Child A.  Baby Derek is all smalls, and so loving.  And he is already a "Honey's baby."  That means that he much prefers Honey to Poppee, just as Baby Baby does.  For cuddling or comforting purposes, both children prefer Honey to Poppee.  The good news is that when Honey is not available, and the choice is between Poppee and being totally ignored, they happily choose Poppee.  But Baby Derek a strange little quirk.  He has a very bad temper!  If his bottle is a few seconds late, he turns red, bulges out the vessels on his cute little head, and suddenly looks like a pint-size, red-tinted miniature Hulk!  A wet diaper turns our sweet little man into Hulk 2, as does placing him on his blanket on the floor for "tummy time" if he thinks he is not ready.  But he is such a joy!  He and his sister have greatly decorated our lives, my Lovely Bride and I.

And that is what makes the house so quiet when they leave, our little Baby Baby and Baby Derek.  They decorate our lives, as I am sure that all grandchildren do for all grandparents.  Our children are not "dethroned" by the arrival of grandchildren, but instead our lives, blessed by children, are doubly blessed when grandchildren appear in our lives.  The laughter, the occasional tears, and yes, even the hours spent as True's friend, Bartleby, all decorate our lives, literally brightening our happy home.  So when it is finally time for the children to go home, even though I know they will be back soon, it seems so quiet.  My lovely bride comments in a somewhat saddened voice, "Sweetie, it sure is quiet now."  She is right. Even with the TV on and conversation going on, the house seems so very quiet.  And so it is, but only for a short while.  The babies will be here again soon, and once again, the quiet will be chased out of the house for at time.

In just the wink of an eye, 2018 is in the past, and the New Year is upon us!  I am excited about the new year and what it holds in store.  At the same time, I am so amazed that what was supposed to be "just a few days off" for me turned into several months off.  We welcomed our second grandchild into the world during 2018, and that took some time away from writing and other things, but it was a pleasure to spend so much time with my precious grandchildren.  If time cannot be recovered, then this was certainly one of the best ways I could have used this time.  Some of the time I did lose without the hope of recovery and with the knowledge that I would have rather done almost ANYTHING else was the time I spent "filling in" for employees who seemed to be unceasingly ill, who needed off at the spur of the moment, and for one who took off whenever the time off was desired, until that employee was fired.  In 2019 I will not make THAT mistake again.

Christmas 2018 proved to be one of the "merriest" Christmases ever for my immediate family.  None of us stressed this year as far as trying to find the "right" gifts or spending a lot of money just to spend money.  Even without all that, this Christmas was a blast!  Our little grandkids (and their parents) along with our son were all gathered with us this year, and I have to say that was the biggest and best gift of all, far outshining all of the things that were gifted.  My lovely bride and Child B (my daughter) tickled our tummies with some great cooking and some great cookies as well.  We all had such a great time.

Now, on this first day of 2019, I begin the new year with several goals to meet, but only one "resolution" and that is to LIVE each moment in the present.  Yes, goals hark toward the future, but if one has no goals, and no plans on how to reach those goals, than that person is not moving forward, not growing.  The alternative is no longer acceptable for me.  I have some goals, and I have the plans to meet those goals, but whether I do or not, I am going to enjoy my life and my loved ones.  For all of my readers, I have you in my thoughts and prayers as the new year breaks upon us.

I am not going to discuss most of my goals on this blog, but one of my goals I want to talk about, and will accomplish, is to finish a book by the end of this year.  I have, for the past two years or so, been in touch with a very accomplished and successful writing team, each of them successful in their own right as well.  I have gained a lot of knowledge from these two special people, and I intend to soak in even more from them this year.  I will not reveal their names, but they have numerous books to their credit, and have even featured some of my experiences in a couple of their books and magazine articles.  Some of their credits include several installments of the Indiana Jones series, and it has been an honor and a privilege that they have shared their time and their experience with me.

It is great to have the blog rolling again, and I hope to have some interesting posts, some educational posts, and some emotional posts, that will be engaging and thought-provoking.  I will also post some articles that will just be entertaining.  One difference in the blog for the coming year, and for the remaining time that I blog, is that I will make very few, if any, political posts this year.  There are plenty of political blogs and political websites out there, as well as on television, so I will not add my little political knowledge and feeble opinions to that particular hue and cry. There are so many other things to blog about, as far as my interests, and hopefully yours too,  are concerned. Thanks again for sticking with me, and Happy New Year!!!