An Arkies Musings

We are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with my son and his wife.  We will be leaving this afternoon and heading for Conroe, Texas.  The purpose of Thanksgiving is eating until we are stuffed... and giving thanks.  I appreciate the reminder to give thanks for our blessings, but realize that we should be giving thanks 365 days of the year.  In the U.S. there has been an annual Thanksgiving observed since 1863.   In that year, with the county involved in a horrific Civil War, President Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring a day of Thanksgiving.   One of the traditions of Thanksgiving is talking about the things we are thankful for.   There are many things, but I am truly thankful for my family.    The Greek word translated thanksgiving is eucharista.   The English spelling is Eucharist.   My dictionary gives the following definitions.    1.   The sacrament of Holy Communion; the sacrifice o...

T is for transportation. There are many different kinds of transportation, so we are going to look at a number of them. STEAMBOATS There were two main types of transportation that allowed this country to expand at such a fast pace in the 1800's. The first was steamboats. The first commercial steamboat transportation was Between Albany, New York, and New York City in 1807. Before long there were steamboats on just about every navigable river in the U.S. BIG AND LITTLE The need to transport goods to and from places that were not on a waterway brought about the steam locomotive. The first railroad to transport goods in the U.S. was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The first steam powered vehicle in the U.S. was the Tom Thumb locomotive that operated on the Baltimore and Ohio tracks starting in 1830. 1940 BUICK LIMITED The automobile changed the way Americans traveled, and just about put an end to train travel as a way of getting around. Americans are now very m...

This morning I made a quick trip to the store to buy fixins for breakfast burritos. When I got back home and started to set the grocery sacks on the kitchen table I noticed that it was very wet. I looked up and saw that the water was coming from the ceiling. The water pipes for the upstairs run between the upstairs floor joists. What a way to start the day. After such a unsettling start to the day, we decided to take a drive. We drove up the Talimena Drive to Queen Wilhelmina State Park  on Rich Mountain.  As we drove up the mountain we saw that the trees were iced over at the higher elevations.  The ice made the scenery even more beautiful than usual. We turned off of Talimena Drive onto Polk County Road 100, a rough dirt road that goes down the back side of Rich Mountain and connects with Highway 8.  Polk County Road 100 is a seldom traveled road through uninhabited land. As we were slowly making our way down the road , my wife ...

S is for Signs. Whenever I have my camera with me I like to take pictures of unusual signs. This one taken in San Pedro Belize has to be one of my all time favorites. No we didn't eat there. It seems like the maintenance men at King's Casino in Louisiana would have noticed that some maintenance was needed. It's a sin. Just because there is a restaurant and a motel on the same premises doesn't mean that they should share the sign. We were hungry, but not that hungry. Lake Leatherwood, near Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is formed by one of the largest hand-cut native limestone dams in the country. The dam and several structures at the park were built in the early 1940s by the WPA. This sign on the lake appears to have been built in the 40's but I'm not quite sure why it was needed. Here is a music video made from my pictures of signs. One of my favorite songs from the 70's is "Signs" by "The Five Man Electrical Band"....

This evening we visited the Oklahoma National Memorial in Oklahoma City. The memorial honors the 168 victims of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah building.  It was a very moving experience. 

Recently while I was looking around an antique store, I came across this postcard.  I don't collect postcards, but there was something about this one that interested me.  The first thing was the subject matter.  The scene, Dam on the Ouachita River in Hot Springs, Arkansas, no longer exists because of the Blakely Mountain Dam that was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in the early 50's to create Lake Ouachita.  I'm not sure of the date of the postcard, but it has to be before 1952 because it could be mailed for one cent.  Although the subject matter and age were interesting, what really grabbed my attention was the correspondence on the back. It says, "Well I am still alive yet of course you know it is pretty hard to kill me.  How are crops out there.  I tell you if you come down in Arkansas and look at the land I bet you get back on the first train.  My I never seen such land.  I wouldn't stay down in Arkan...

R is for Resolutions.  My favorite cartoon when I was a kid was Peanuts. I remember one comic strip in particular. It is January 1st, and Charlie Brown tells anyone who will listen, “The best way to keep New Year’s Resolutions is in a sealed envelope in a bottom desk drawer. Charlie Brown knew what every person who has ever made a resolution knows. Making and keeping resolutions is a troublesome business, usually filled with failure and shame. How have your past resolutions worked out for you? I don't even want to talk about mine. If you have often made and broken resolutions, you may feel that you might as well seal them in a bottom desk drawer and forget them. That is the experience I have had. If you ask the average person about the resolutions they made, they will tell you that they are going to cut down on their eating, they are going to exercise more, stop doing unhealthy things, and start doing healthy things, etc. While these things are good, they all focus...