Why Don't We Have These Anymore?

I confessed yesterday to attending Railroad Days in Galesburg. Today I want to share another thing I saw at Railroads days and lament the fact they are no longer a part of our automobile culture. There was a car show on Main Street on Sunday that covered a couple of blocks and spilled over on a couple of side streets for about a block. I would estimate there were about 100 cars and trucks being shown by their proud owners. I am not usually a car show guy. There aren't too many cars that really grab my attention. If I had an era I enjoyed perhaps the muscle cars of the late 60's and early 70's when I was a teen. There will be pictures today but not of entire cars. They will be pictures of one vital part of a great car. It was not something that appeared on any of the muscle cars I so enjoy. It is a part of bygone days, the cars of my grandparents. It generally served no purpose it was just an added bit of art work. The only car that comes to mind now that is in widespread production is Mercedes Benz.

These small pieces of art are referred to as hood ornaments or mascots. They were often made of brass, zinc or bronze and given a chrome plated finish. They have essentially disappeared from modern automobiles. The most notable examples on current cars are the Mercedes star surrounded by a circle and the leaping jaguar on Jaguar cars. The ones pictured above are just a few of the many available through the years. The one on the red Ford is the only one that has a real function. It is a Boyce Motormeter. It was a radiator cap that incorporated a thermometer that was visible to the driver and a sensor that measure the heat of water vapor. Many early engines did not have water pumps but a circulation system based on the "thermo-syphon principle like that used in the Ford Model T. 

What happened to hood ornaments? Let's blame litigation and concerns for safety. During an automobile accident the hood ornament could and has flown off and injured bystanders. I say if it is your time to go what better way than impaled by an artistic hood ornament. 

Wouldn't you rather be impaled by a hood ornament than be run over by a truck and sent to your eternal resting place by a set of truck nuts? So add that to the things that indicate to me we have arrived at the end of our civilization. We have replaced a beautiful piece of art work on the front of our cars with a bit of vulgar humor on the back of a vehicle. 

Ok, I Went

I stated the other day that I work pretty hard at not attending Railroad Days in Galesburg. Today for a couple of reasons which will be the subject of this blog entry I went.

Today was the BBQ Rib competition at Railroad Days. One of our friends was cooking in the competition and we wanted to go taste his ribs. Phil and Johanna are the fine young couple running Henn House BBQ. I think I've know Phil for a long time. He was on the Little League team I coached and is the same age as our youngest son. Phil's grandparents and now his aunt and uncle our neighbors to my mom and brother. When you have folks close like that you want to be supportive when you can. Phil and Johanna both have other jobs but are trying to make a catering business with their BBQ. You get clients by getting a good reputation. One way to get that is to enter and win local competition. We had heard his BBQ was good and wanted to sample some and judge for ourselves.

Here is Phil checking on the ribs in the cooker. Things are done now and he is just trying to maintain them while he waits for the time to plate and present them to the judges.

Johanna, Phil and Pat (Phil's dad) are getting their presentation plate of ribs ready. Everything is judged. Presentation, taste, sauce, who knew it was such a picky thing. It was our first attendance at a BBQ competition.

The fella in the blue shirt to the right is a judge. He is watching to see how the ribs are presented and to insure proper sanitation procedures are followed.

The preparation and hard work paid off as Henn House BBQ got first place from the judges and was also the people's choice winner based on fan tasting. We sampled from four of the competition participants and Henn House BBQ was clearly a cut above the rest.

The second reason we went was Frank F. Sidney's Western Bandit Volunteers bluegrass band was playing in Park Plaza. It was a short one block walk from the rib competition. Frank never disappoints. Great music and a fun group of young people. Who would think the 20 something crowd would love bluegrass music.

It was warm but still a great day to sit outside and listen to this group. Lacey, the young lady standing in front playing the washboard has a wonderful voice. All the members of the group are very accomplished musicians.

So I went to Railroad Days and I liked it. If they have things like this next year who knows maybe I'll become a regular at the event.

Traveling in Style

It is Railroad Days this weekend in Galesburg. I will admit it is one of the times I work hard at not going to town. I'm not a fan of the festival and in general try to avoid crowds. It does however provide an opportunity almost every year to see a private rail car go through town. It got me wondering how expensive this endeavor is. So we will explore this for a bit.

The American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners, Inc is the group many of these individuals belong to and it provides some information as to what it can cost. It is one of those cases where you can say, if you have to ask you can't afford it. Personal rail cars are referred to as Private Varnish. In the late 1800's private rail cars were made of wood and required continual exterior maintenance. The coating of high gloss varnish made the cars stand out and the public knew from the shine on the cars that they were private cars. It spawned the use of the term Private Varnish.

There are two ways to become a private rail car owner. First you can buy a car that is Amtrak approved. It will be ready for use immediately. The second way is to buy a car that needs to be refurbished. If you purchase an Amtrak approved car it must be reinspected and brought up to current standards. The cost of an approved car begins at about $200,000 and goes up from there. In some cases way up. There are some private cars in the $1,000,000+ category. If you want to have a car refurbished and it is best to have a certified shop do the work. It is reasonable to expect the work to take one to five years depending on the extent of the work. The cost to refurbish if you do the work yourself is between $150,000 and $500,000. When your car is done you have to have somewhere to store it. Those costs run a minimum of $500 per month. You still haven't connected your car to a train. Amtrak has an annual Activation charge of $250 per car. There is a $1,000 minimum for any trip and a charge of $2.10 per mile. A trip from Washington DC to Chicago would run about $1,600 not including crew costs or the $500 to $1,800 that are charged to move the car to the station to be attached to the Amtrak train. So the good news is that you don't have to buy a private car. They are available for rent and can generally be had for about $4,000 per day.

So when you see one of those cars go by just take a minute and think about how expensive that trip is for them. You are not looking at how the other half live. You are looking at someone who is in the upper one tenth of one percent of the population. So maybe the guys with their private jets get where they are going faster. The guy in the private rail car gets there with way more style. If they want to spend their money that way what is it to me? Nothing really, I just enjoy a brief view of the outside of their expensive ride. That is good enough for me.

Shane

The world and WalMart need more Shanes.

Ora, N.V. and the 116W

There are folks and days of your youth that stay with you forever. Ora Olson and his father N. V. Olson farmed about 3 miles north of us. When summer rolled around they, like other farmers in the area, would be looking for some young lads to bale hay for them. The first time I baled hay for Ora and N. V. it was a summer day much like today. The sun was shining, the humidity was high and the temperature was in the upper 80's or lower 90's. I was in my early teens somewhere in the area of 13 or 14 and no stranger to baling hay. This would however be a horse of a different color. The baler Ora used was a John Deere 116W. They were built between 1946 and 1956 so by the time I was riding the rack behind this beast it had been baling hay for many years. In case you are wondering the W at the end of the number indicates that this was a wire baler. The designation for twine was T. Working a rack behind a twine baler was a familiar task. In my youthful mind this would not be a big jump. How bad could wire be? First a bit of history. Prior to the 116W baling hay required two more fellas. One on each side of the baler to feed the wires. The 116W turned this hand task mechanical. On a good day a well packed twine bale will weigh in at about 60 pounds. This god forsaken John Deere couldn't make a 60 pound bale. The average bale coming out of this beast was somewhere between 75 and 90 pounds. Some farmers hire a crew. Ora and N. V. usually just hired two kids. Ora would run the baler. N. V. would drive the racks around and the two kids would man the rack. When all the racks were full we would head to the barn with N.V. He would man the elevator and unload the bales on it and send them up to the mow for us to stack. A the time N.V. was well in his 70's but he was the best unloader I ever worked with. Full rack, half rack, last 5 bales, it didn't matter. A bale was going to drop off the end of the elevator every 15 seconds all day long. If you went under the drop area to get one you knew exactly how long you had to get the bale and move before you got hit by one falling. When they are dropping from 15 or 20 feet up and weigh 75 pounds you learn to appreciate guys like N. V. All went well until about 5:00 p.m. We were working up in the mow and the hay had gotten up high enough we couldn't get any air flow. The temperature in the barn was well over 100 and my teenage body just quit. I just didn't have anything left in the tank. The bales kept coming and Ora and my brother carried the load. The next day I was outside and my grandfather came over to me for a little motivational chat. He told me in no uncertain terms that he had heard I couldn't hack the job I was supposed to do the day before. It was made clear to me that if I wanted to be treated and paid like a man I had to work like one. If I couldn't do that then I should find some other kind of work to do more suited to my abilities. His little talk had the desired effect and I never gave out again. I spent many days working behind that John Deere 116W. If you want a clear idea of what it could do I offer the following. I was 16 and Ora wanted to bale some straw. He thought it might be a bit wet but would go. The first bale came out of the baler and he came back to ask me how it was. I told him I didn't think it was fit to bale yet because I couldn't lift the bale off the rack. It weighed nearly 300 pounds. He said let's loosen the tension and try one more. The next one that came out still weighed 300 pounds but the wires were so loose when you went to pick it up the stretched up to your chin.

Ora, N.V. and Grandpa taught me to always give your best. Do your job from start to finish and never quit. In the early spring of 1974 in his 84th year N. V. was out plowing with Ora on the farm northwest of Wataga. He managed to put the tractor out of gear before he slumped dead over the steering wheel. I suppose if you are a farmer there is no better way to go. Ora was in the nursing home with my grandfather. He had a habit of whistling as he worked. No specific song just a sing song quiet whistle that was constantly with him. He had dementia and when everything else was gone, when he didn't know anyone or remember much of anything that whistle was all that remained. He passed away in 1996. The barn we filled with hay is gone and I'm sure the 116W has gone off to the scrap yard of history. It, Ora and N.V will be with me until the day I die.

The distinct feature of the 116W was that the bales came out the side. The chute curved around to get them back to the men on the rack. Ora kept his in great shape and we rarely had a rest period caused by any mechanical malfunction.

Superstar

There are a number of things that make Tybee Island a great place to live. I'm not much of a town person. Given the choice most of the time I would prefer to be out here in BFE with fewer folks around and the quiet rarely interrupted by a passing car, pickup truck or tractor. Tybee Island is the exception. One of the biggest reasons got a bit of national press coverage the other day. Tybee Island's north beach was named a "superstar" due to its excellent water quality. The beach was tested for water quality 51 times last year and NEVER violated strict public health guidelines for bacteria levels. It was one of 35 beaches nationwide singled out by the National Resources Defense Council for meeting water quality standards at least 98% of the time over the past 5 years. The study looked at 3,500 beaches nationwide. Being among the top 35 is a testament to the hard work and care for the beaches shown by the community. If you pay attention on the island you notice bumper stickers that say "Leave only your footprints". It is an admonition to locals and visitors that the beach needs to be left as it was found. The only thing that should indicate we were there are our footprints in the sand. When you visit you are generally impressed with the cleanliness of the beach.

There are some other things that make north beach special. Tybee Island is rather famous for its lack of parking. On busy weekends the parking lots are full. The streets are crowded with bikes and walkers headed to the beach. North beach has, for Tybee Island, a large expanse of parking. The next gem is the North Beach Grill. You can enjoy a day at the beach and when you want a break from the sun and sand you can head to the North Beach Grill for an adult beverage and a great meal. The food is very good and reasonably priced. The last thing that makes North Beach special is the view back toward the island.

You really can't ask for a better view from a beach than this one. Being able to turn around and see the Tybee Island Lighthouse is a special treat. What more could you want? Clean water, a great place to have a meal and a beer and a lighthouse.

Pictures

There will be very little writing from me in this entry. I do want to note a couple of things. First, thanks to everyone who has taken time out of their busy days to have a look at my silliness and ranting. Yesterday marked the 10,000th page view on this blog. It is humbling.

The other thing is that I am so thankful for digital photography. The drive from Tybee Island to our solitude in the woods is almost exactly 1,000 miles. When you add in stops for meals and gas along with the seemingly unavoidable traffic delays in Atlanta and Nashville the drive is 16 or 17 hours. It was a long time to keep three preteen girls entertained. Giving them my camera provided them with some break from the boredom of 70's music and my ranting about the idiots I encountered who somehow conned other states into granting them driving privileges. Here is what kids do with a camera in a car.

BITCH- Please

Watching the news is becoming an increasingly painful exercise. When I think the news could not be presented in a more ignorant and simplistic manner they find a way. Last night the weather was big news. There have been severe storms is several areas of the country. If you want to be taken seriously why would you begin your coverage with a statement similar to this one. I must paraphrase since I did not record the exact statement. "Mother Nature is upset and taking her vengeance out on the American Heartland." Really? Major network news show begins their weather coverage by making statements about "Mother Nature". I'm waiting for the response from a conservative outlet like Fox News. Something like, liberal media declares war on women by blaming bad weather on Mother Nature. Maybe they would go another direction and declare that the pagan liberals have attributed an act of God to a mythic figure. You know, the bad weather has to be punishment for the election of our Kenyan Muslim Socialist UnAmerican Black President. Maybe the culprit is gay marriage or Benghazi or abortion or taxes or the minimum wage hike. Hate to leave out the lack of prayer in our public schools. Clearly it couldn't have anything to do with climate change because that is a liberal media hoax to get more tax money. Now that the  "liberal media" has  put Mother Nature and her vengeance into the equation perhaps the answer to our weather problems is a sacrifice of some sort. What do you sacrifice for a weather event. Thunderstorm- Goat? Tornado- Lamb? Hurricane- Virgin? Hope we don't have a hurricane. Where the hell would you find a virgin these days? Maybe we could hit up the Duggar family. They have 19 kids and trying for more. Would they really miss one? Maybe we should talk to  Mother Nature's parents. Who are they? Perhaps Mother Earth and Father Time? After all these years why can't they get their hormonal bitch of a daughter under control? God didn't have that problem with Jesus.

Maybe the real point of the news now is to distract us by saying really ignorant things. Talking about what celebrities are getting married. Who LaBron James is going to play basketball for next year. Who's to blame for the problems in the Middle East rather than a discussion about what can and should be done, if anything. Let's not try to fix the problems at the IRS. Better to find someone to blame and score some political points on a manufactured scandal. Liberal groups were examined as well but all that gets any time is the tea party groups. Maybe the IRS isn't the problem maybe it's the law that created groups that are funneling millions of dollars into the political campaigns and showing why money isn't really speech. The problem with those issues is they can't be covered by the news in 45 seconds. The problem with 45 seconds is that it is 30 seconds longer than the average news viewer's attention span.

So, watch the news. Listen, really listen, to the stupid shit they are saying night after night. You will understand until we fundamentally change how we are doing things we are doomed.

Duels

Once again today we are heading to Colonial Cemetery in Savannah. Our visit today is the Duellist's Grave. On January 16, 1815 Lieutenant James Wilde was shot through the heart by Captain Roswell P. Johnson during a dueling exchange. It is not the only dueling death to take place in or near Savannah. The dueling grounds lay immediately to the south of the Colonial Cemetery just outside the fence. The tour guides in Savannah relate that duels took place just outside the cemetery fence. The loser was pitched over the fence to be buried by his followers. What I find interesting in the Wilde-Johnson duel is that Lt. Wilde was killed in the 4th exchange of gunfire between the two men. You would think that maybe after being shot at and missed 3 times their passion for the fight would have lessened. Perhaps having been involved in earlier battles with the Seminole Indians they had grown accustomed to being shot at. Lt. Wilde's tombstone reads as follows:

"This humble stone records the filial piety fraternal affection and manly virtues of James Wilde, Esquire late District Paymaster in the army of the U.S. He fell in a Duel on the 16th of January, 1815 by the hand of a man who, a short time ago, would have been friendless but for him; and expired instantly in his 22d year; dying, as he had lived: with unshaken courage & unblemished reputation. By his untimely death the prop of a Mother's age is broken: The hope and consolation of Sisters is destroyed, the pride of Brothers humbled in the dust and a whole Family, happy until then, overwhelmed with affliction."

America has a rich history in dueling. Here are a few of our more famous. Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Lachlan McIntosh. Both men were wounded. Gwinnett died three days later from his wounds. Gwinnett was killed near Savannah on May 19, 1777. He has a street in Savannah named in his honor.

Our most famous American duel was U. S. Vice President Aaron Burr and former U. S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton on July 11, 1804. Hamilton was killed.

On August 12, 1817 Thomas Hart Benton and Charles Lucas. They were attorneys on opposing sides in a court battle. Lucas had challenged Benton's right to vote and Benton had referred to Lucas as a "puppy". Lucas was shot in the throat and Benton was shot in the leg. Benton released Lucas from his obligation. On September 27, 1817 Benton and Lucas had a rematch. Benton challenged Lucas after Lucas claimed the first fight at 30 feet was unfair because Benton was a better shot. The men stood 9 feet apart and Benton killed Lucas. Benton was not harmed.

Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson on May 30, 1806. Dickinson was killed and Jackson was wounded. Jackson was our only president who had killed another man in a duel.

On February 24, 1838 William Jordan Graves a congressman from Kentucky killed Maine representative Jonathan Cilley in a pistol duel. Congress then passed a law making it illegal to issue or accept a duel challenge in Washington, D.C. It seems like an unfortunate choice by Congress.

The one that could have altered American history never happened due to the intervention of the duellist's seconds. September 22, 1842 Abraham Lincoln accepted the challenge to a duel by state auditor James Shields. Lincoln had published an inflammatory letter in a Springfield newspaper that poked fun at Shields. Mr. Shields took offense and demanded satisfaction. The men met on Sunflower Island near Alton, Illinois to participate in a duel. Had it not been for the seconds perhaps there is no Lincoln presidency. Stephen King wrote a book entitled 11-22-63 which posed the question of what might have happened if Kennedy had not been killed. It is a fascinating question to look back and wonder what America might look like today if Lincoln had followed through on Sunflower Island. If he had won would it have ended his political career? If he had lost who might have been president? Would the Civil War have happened?

So when you look back it is little wonder we have a gun problem in America today. We have a long and storied history of settling our disputes with guns. It is a part of who we are. It is what we apparently were destined to be. I often feel like a lonely voice in the wilderness calling for some sensible gun legislation and action to deal with our many mentally ill. When I look back at our history I am more convinced that we will never be able to adequately address either of these issues. I can only hope that we return to a more civilized version where both men stand on the dueling ground, each armed with weapons and settle their disagreement  face to face.

Steam Power

Today we return to Colonial Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia to visit another famous resident of the city. William Scarbrough was born in 1776 and died in 1838. William Scarbrough was the driving force behind the Savannah Steam Ship Company. The SS Savannah was built by Fickett and Crocker in New York in 1818 as a hybrid sailing ship. New London sea captain Moses Rogers convinced the shipping firm of Scarborough & Isaacs to purchase the ship and convert it to steam power and sail it across the Atlantic. Moses Rogers oversaw the installation of the ships steam engine. The ship was launched on August 22, 1818 and took her maiden voyage on March 28, 1819. This is a model of the ship as it originally appeared.

William Scarbrough had a home in Savannah designed by the famous architect William Jay. The home hosted President James Monroe who visited Savannah at the invitation of William Scarbrough to cruise on the Savannah before her transatlantic voyage. On May 11, 1819 President Monroe arrived in Savannah to take an excursion on the ship. The Savannah departed at 8 a.m. under steam headed for the Tybee Lighthouse. They arrived at 10:30 a.m. and departed again at 11:00 a.m. The President dined onboard and was enthusiastic about the ship making the world's first transatlantic crossing under steam power. The Savannah was scheduled to leave on May 20, 1819 and an newspaper ad appeared attempting to secure passengers and freight. The departure was delayed after one of the crew returned to the ship in a highly inebriated state, fell off the gangplank and drowned. The delay gave everyone time to reconsider but no passengers or freight came forward so the voyage was purely experimental. They set sail on May 24, 1819 under steam. Later in the day the paddlewheels were stowed for the first time and the ship proceeded under sail. On June 19th off the coast of Ireland the Savannah encountered the HMS Kite. The crew of the Kite saw the smoke and assumed the Savannah was on fire. They followed the ship for several hours but were unable to catch up so they fired several warning shots and Captain Rogers brought the Savannah to a stop. The Kite caught up and its commander requested and was granted permission to inspect the ship. The Savannah landed at Liverpool on June 20th and took on fuel and supplies. They remained at Liverpool for 25 days before departing for St. Petersburg, Russia. They reached Elsinore, Denmark on August 9th and were quarantined for 5 days. On August 14th the ship sailed to Stockholm, Sweden becoming the first steamship to enter the Baltic Sea. The Savannah arrived in Stockholm on August 22nd and departed on September 5th bound for Kronstadt, Russia. They arrived in St. Petersburg on September 13th and departed for the return trip to America on September 29th. She arrived back in Savannah on November 30th for a total of 6 months and 8 days since her departure. In January 1820 a fire swept through the business district in Savannah doing severe damage and Scarborough and Isaacs losses caused them to have to sell the ship. The steam engine was removed and sold. The ship was used as a sailing packet operating between New York and Savannah until running aground at Long Island on November 5, 1821 and breaking up. The Savannah had proved a steamship could cross the ocean but the public was not prepared to trust it and the large space taken up by the engine and fuel made the ship uneconomic. It would be 20 years before steamships began making regular crossing of the Atlantic and 30 years before another American owned steamship would do so. That is not the end of the story of William Scarbrough.

Earlier mention was made of the Scarbrough house. This is a picture of it as it appears today. In addition to the loss of the SS Savannah due to the fire of 1820 the financial losses suffer by William Scarbrough forced him to sell his house. The home eventually became property of the Diocese of Savannah to be used by the Sisters of Saint Joesph as a boys orphanage. It was used as such from 1870 to 1876. In 1878 the house was purchased by the city of Savannah and became the first public school in Savannah and one of the first in the south or the education of African American children. The school was closed in 1962 and the house fell into disrepair. In 1972 the Historic Savannah Foundation began a million dollar plus restortation. In 1995 the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum acquired the house and restoration was completed in 1997. The Museum is open to the public and contains many ship models including the one pictured earlier in this post. It is an excellent example of Greek Revival architecture and is located at 41 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.

William Scarbrough, another man with a vision who still has an impact on Savannah today.

Dolphin Adventure

Today's post is a bit late because we had a birthday party at our house today. Vannessa is turning 12 in a few days and John's misery will hit new heights in a year or so. Here is a picture of the birthday girl taken on our way from Georgia to Illinois.

I will be sure to drag this one out when she has a date.

Before we left Tybee Island we went on a boat ride with Captain Mike's Dolphin Adventures. We thought the girls would enjoy the boat ride and the chance to see some dolphins in the wild.

The company is owned by Captain Mike. Our boat was ably run by Captain Allen.

I took about 100 pictures of dolphins. These are the best of the 15 or so that turned out. Dolphins come to the surface briefly for a breath of air. You never know where they are going to come up or how quickly they will go back underwater. So you spend a lot of time snapping picture of water. Sometime you get just a slight glimpse of fin.

When you look at this group you know that the cost was worth every penny.

Today's bonus shot is a picture of the Tybee Island Lighthouse from out in the Atlantic Ocean. The large bird in the picture was just a fortunate accident. I didn't see it until I was reviewing the pictures at home.

If you ever go to Tybee Island spend the money and go on a dolphin tours.

Sally- This One's for You

What happened to civility? Manners? Being polite? Was their a time when America was a kinder, more gentle place? The more consideration the question of civility is given the more difficult it is to answer. The causes for our descent into rudeness are many and varied.

Old homes versus new houses. Drive through an old neighborhood and look at the houses. We lived on Monroe Street in Galesburg many years ago. The house was built in 1915 along with most of the other houses on the street. What do those houses have in common? Big front porches. In the evening families were out on the front porch interacting with their neighbors. Keeping a watchful eye on what was going on in the area. In new neighborhoods front porches are almost nonexistent. There isn't any way to go out there and sit. Wouldn't matter if there was because there wouldn't be anyone going out there to sit. New homes have a great big deck in the back of the house. The owners ideal seems to be to surround it with a privacy fence. It seems to say: "I've put up with you people all day and now I want to be home and left alone." We don't have neighbors now, we have people who live next door. We come home and isolate ourselves in front of our televisions. We watch "reality" television.

Television is the second problem. Reality television has nothing to do with reality any longer. Everything is scripted. It is make believe. Listen to how they speak to each other. How rude and at times cruel their language is. Far too many people, not just young people, cannot separate the fantasy these shows put forward from the reality of how people should treat each other. Dr. Phil, Oprah, Jerry Springer, Judge Judy, The Talk, The View and a hundred other shows seem at times to feature people behaving badly and mistreating each other. While the hosts say the behavior is not acceptable no counterpoint is given. All that is seen is poor conduct. People tend to mimic the behavior they see. Repeat the language they hear. People seem to think that being on television makes them special even when the end result is them being made to look rude and stupid. The desire for celebrity seems to mean everything to them.

The third issue is our political discourse. It seems to me that the vast majority of folks reside in the middle ground between conservative and liberal. Richard Nixon called them the "silent majority". They listen while the extremes on both ends yell at each other. They call each other names. They refuse to listen to each other. They seem to think if they tell a lie long enough and loud enough it will become the truth. Watch the Sunday shows like Meet the Press. When you have one person from each side they simply talk over or past each other. Neither one can finish a sentence without being interrupted. They don't debate a point. They show up with what they want to talk about and don't deviate from their scripted remarks. When your position on gun control does not go beyond "From my cold dead hands" there is no way to make any meaningful progress. The goal of those elected does not seem to be any more than being reelected. If I do the "right" thing it might be unpopular and I will lose my seat. Better to just block things and talk about the one minor flaw that wouldn't allow me to vote for an issue. Our leaders are not modeling appropriate conduct and we seem more than willing to follow their bad example.

Fourth is the internet. We have a way to be unknown and say anything we want to anyone. My screen name can be rude_ass@billybob.com. No one knows who I am and I get to write anything I want. There is plenty of political stuff on Facebook and you get to see people make comments like this one from a real feed today. "If the puke wanted to fight 'vietnam right', why didn't the coward puke just GO, and fight then. No...the bitch took FIVE deferrments because he is a yellow dog with not a hair on his coward ass." So we say things like that on an internet site and eventually it makes us feel empowered. It bleeds over into our everyday life and conversation.

The final issue is income inequality. We have seen millions of jobs go overseas. We have watched as CEO's and corporations make millions of dollars in salary and profit and pay little or no taxes. There are 10 applicants for each job. Jobs that are increasingly lower paying with fewer benefits. We are the beggars waiting on scraps from the buffet table of the wealthy. So we fight each other for the scraps. It leads to rudeness and discontent. Too many are going to college to emerge with excessive student loan debt only to realize the job they were hoping for is out of their reach. They are now working a checkout lane at WalMart, or waiting tables at a restaurant. No wonder they are rude. They left high school with the dream of getting an education and a good job. They leave school in debt and working a job that doesn't require their level of education.

So those are the things I think have contributed to the putting us where we are today. How do we fix this? We have to find some way to begin on the most basic level. We can't be a kinder nation until we are a kinder state, county, city, village, neighborhood, block and family. Get involved and make a difference. One person at a time.

Customer Service

What has happened to customer service? I don't think I'm the most important person in the world. When I shop, I don't think I'm the most important customer in the store. When I dine at a restaurant I don't feel like I should be treated like the only person there or the most important one. Recently I recounted my experience at McDonald's in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It shouldn't take 20 minutes to order and receive your food. When I hand the clerk my money they should be able to hand me back my change in some sort of way that shows they have a concept on making change. It shouldn't be all wadded up and handed to me with a dismissive look telling me to get to the side and wait for my crappy food. When I was a young man you could walk into McDonald's, order your food and by the time you had your change handed back to you by someone who could count it back, your food was on the counter ready to go. By the way, HOT and ready to go. How can you fix it to order and it still arrives on the counter lukewarm? Does anyone remember when the cheese on a McDonald's sandwich actually melted? I think it did when I was younger. Seems like now you couldn't melt it in a nuclear reactor. Would it hurt the clerk to welcome you to the store and thank you for your order? What set this off?

Tuesday I called A C McCartney Equipment because my Kubota BX 2350 needed spring service and the mower blades sharpened. My L class 3940HST needed an oil change and all the filters replaced. I wanted an appointment to bring them up and drop them off so I could pick them up at the end of the day. They said Thursday would be fine. Bring them first thing in the morning. So Thursday I load the small tractor on the trailer and haul it to Wataga with the big tractor. Drop them off, make sure to talk to the service manager so he knows they are on the lot and what I want done. No problem, we will call you when they are done. No call Thursday afternoon but sometimes things take longer than expected. Friday noon still no call. I call them and the service manager says they aren't done. As a matter of fact we haven't started on them yet. His service tech was backed up farther than he thought. He said he would check on when they could be done and call me back. A few minutes later he calls to say they can't be worked on until Monday. When I called it was to find out when they could do the work so I could use them until the day they could work on them. Now I lose 4 days work because my tractors aren't available. I used to work in management. When you scheduled something you made sure before you scheduled that you had staff available to do the work. All that the service manager had to do was ask the service tech what his work load was. It isn't rocket science. It is simple, basic customer service. If you tell someone you are going to do something on Thursday then do it or call and explain and apologize. He did neither.

This was just part of a series of poor service. I had an eye doctor appointment on Tuesday at 9:15 am. I sat in the waiting room until almost 10:00 am before getting called back to see the nurse, do some eye tests and have my eyes dilated. It takes another 15 minutes for that to work and then wait to see the doctor. So my 9:15 appointment for about 2 minutes of the doctor's time took an hour and 45 minutes. I understand things happen and you have emergencies. He didn't that day. All I'm asking is for some respect for my time.

WalMart is a customer service nightmare all its own. They have reduced staff so much in order to maximize their already obscene profits that you can feel yourself grow old in line. We were standing in line in Georgia a while back and they guy behind us stated: "I think I could walk out the door with this, get arrested, serve time in jail and get out before I get through this line." Sadly it was almost true.

So, if you want to be rich and famous. Have customers flocking to your business. Try this, treat them with respect. Welcome them when they come in. Thank them when they leave, even if they didn't make a purchase. Know what your business does and when it can do it. Be able to make change without a calculator or a cash register. Be polite. Provide service. Smile. Enjoy what you do. Make the customer feel special. Very few businesses know how to do that now.

He's a DICK

I put Dick in capital letters because he is a HUGE DICK. The Dick I am referring to is former Vice President Dick Cheney. I've made it clear that I'm not and never have been a supporter of the Iraq war. This is meant in no way to be disrespectful to the troops who ably and bravely served and sacrificed during and after the war. They did what they were ordered to do by their commander in chief. In recent days as the insurgent group ISIS makes headway in Iraq, DICK has been all over any media outlet that will give him time talking about how President Obama has screwed up the victory DICK and W won. In an Wall Street Journal editorial Tuesday DICK stated: "Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many."

We should keep in mind that DICK is never wrong about anything. Well at least it appears he doesn't remember being wrong. Let's go back to 2002 and DICK's speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." DICK went on to state that overthrowing Saddam would liberate the freedom loving people of the Middle East to pursue peace. "When the gravest of threats are eliminated, the freedom-loving peoples of the region will have the chance to promote the values that can bring lasting peace." Well DICK, they had their opportunity. It appears that peace doesn't interest them. They appear to have no desire for American "democracy". The war they are fighting now isn't over territory it is over ideas. It is about religious beliefs. While religious fundamentalist in the United States, at least up to now, have not resorted to rebellion, you can see their unwillingness to cooperate when you talk about issues like abortion and gun control. There is no reason to believe that after almost 1,000 years of strife between two branches of Islam they are suddenly going to get along because America said so.

The paragraph from DICK's editorial I find most offensive is this one. "When Mr. Obama and his team came into office in 2009, al Qaeda in Iraq had been largely defeated, thanks primarily to the heroic efforts of U.S. armed forces during the surge. Mr. Obama had only to negotiate an agreement to leave behind some residual American forces, training and intelligence capabilities to help secure the peace. Instead, he abandoned Iraq and we are watching American defeat snatched from the jaws of victory." Really DICK? Perhaps you have forgotten that President Bush signed a treaty with Iraq before Mr. Obama took office agreeing to the withdrawal of ALL American troops by the end of 2011. Is there some reason the administration DICK was a part of did not negotiate for residual troops and a training force? Iraq had a democratically elected government that we agreed to respect and negotiate with at the time. A government that did not want us there any longer. We agreed to a treaty and left.

So, DICK here's what we have for our efforts based on your lie about weapons of mass destruction. According to a 2013 estimate the war in Iraq has cost us 1.7 trillion dollars. We expect to pay at least 490 billion dollars in veteran benefits. Since the money to fight the war was borrowed the eventual cost is estimated to grow to over 6 trillion dollars. The cost in lives of American service men and women is more horrid than the dollar cost. The problem DICK is you and the administration you participated in. So DICK just SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GO AWAY. I don't want you to die, I want you to live long enough to feel guilty about what you have done. I doubt that will happen. So just STFU.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

Traveling back to Illinois from Georgia last week I saw hundreds of signs. Exit here for this. Exit there for that. Home cooking at ???? Lying bastards. One sign really got my attention. It was in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The sign marked the exit for the International Towing and Recovery Museum. Two thoughts came to mind at about the same time. First, there's a museum for that? Second, why in the hell is it in Chattanooga?

The first question is the tougher one for me to answer. I don't think I would ever see the need for a museum for towing or recovery. The are museums for lots of stuff I never considered important enough to require a museum. Beer bottles and cans for instance. I love my beer but don't see any point in going to look at a bunch of old bottles and cans. I didn't see any reason for this one until I started to think about how dependent we Americans are on our cars. When they break down or get stuck or damaged in an accident we need some way to get them moving again. Enter the ever present tow truck. Someone had to invent something to do the job and someone did.

The answer to the second question is answered by learning who the inventor was. I had never heard of Ernest Holmes, Sr. He was a mechanic in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1916. He got a call from his old business school professor John Wiley. It seems Mr. Wiley and his son were out driving their Model T when it veered off the road and flipped upside down in a creek bed. He called Ernest Holmes to recover the car. It took Mr. Holmes 8 hours and 6 men to get the car out. Mr. Holmes thought there had to be a better way. He modified a 1913 Cadillac (you must admire his sense of style) by adding a crane and pulley system. It didn't work. He added a pair of outriggers to stabilize and brace the vehicle while he lifted and pulled the damaged vehicle. The invention created an industry. Mechanics could go out and "capture" damaged vehicles, bring them back to their shop for repair and not have to worry about competitors. It was a clear advantage over shops that waited for customers to stop by. Mr. Holmes started making tow trucks full time and selling them to repair shops. Here is one of his early creations.

 This is a modified 1913 Locomobile altered by Ernest Holmes, Sr. into a tow truck.

This is another early tow truck.

I will now dine on the crow I have so richly earned. Even the lowly tow truck has a great American story. Someone who saw a problem and created a solution. It is fitting a proper we honor him and his invention.