In Life There Are No Coincidences

My husband was out walking the dogs on the road up the hill just west of town this morning. He saw a rectangular piece of paper on the ground and stopped to pick it up. It was an bank check with the account owner's address printed in the upper left hand corner. The last line read, Holly, Colorado 81047. Holly, Colorado where a tornado hit the day before yesterday. Holly, Colorado which is almost 200 miles away from us.

Update

I'm going to start my weekend a little early and just give you an update on the obscene phone caller we had two weeks ago. There was a small blurb in the weekly newspaper saying that although the police do have a phone number they are still looking for the person who had made the calls. It sounds like they are waiting for phone records and other information from the phone company involved.

I also heard that one lady who got one of the phone calls is no longer answering her phone (she has caller ID) if she does not know the person calling. Earlier in the week she got a phone call from out of town and did not pick up. Whoever it was called back two more time upsetting her greatly. I am sure it was some kind of automatic sales call that is set up to call at least three time if no one answers the first time but she was sure it was another obscene phone caller.

Terror, the gift that keeps on giving. Ba5+ard! I do hope they nail this guy.

Anyway, you all have a great weekend.

March Come In Like A Lion

and goes out like a lamb.
-Weather proverb

Not this year. Last night there was severe weather across Northern Texas, Western Oklahoma, Eastern Colorado, Western Nebraska, and, my part of the world, Western Kansas. There were high winds, heavy rains, thunder, lightening , hail, and tornadoes.

We knew we were in the middle of a big storm when the television program we were watching was interrupted by a special weather report. Wind from the south was rattling the windows of the house. Hugh dark clouds were building up in the same direction. The sky was a dark gray color. The branches were swaying and dancing on the two gigantic Hackberry trees growing in my next door neighbor's yard. Light rain was falling. Then the word we dread hearing- tornado.

No, two tornadoes. Both 15 miles south of town and just crossing the county line. One is heading toward a town about 15 miles to the east of us ("Smallville") and the other heading for us. The weatherman told us that anyone in Smallville should head for shelter right now since that tornado was about a half-a-mile wide and moving quickly.

We stay in front of the TV and watch radar images of the storm as it and the tornadoes move northward across the county. The radar was a kaleidoscope of color: Green showing rain, orange showing heavier rain with lightening and thunder, red showing severe weather, pink/purple showing extreme weather. There is a small circle of pink/purple near a hook-shape signifying a possible tornado inching closer to our town. Another hook was moving toward Smallville. Our hook could miss us but the other one looked as if it would go right through the center of Smallville. The fact that this tornado was half-a-mile wide made it very likely that it would.

Ten minutes later the weatherman is again strongly suggesting that people in Smallville seek shelter NOW! Our tornado is closer to us and the weatherman suggest that people near our town seek shelter. We can see out our font door and decide not to head to the basement because, although it is windy and raining, it doesn't look that bad. We want to keep track of this storm and do not want to miss any of the information they are broadcasting about it. At the same time I am thinking about just were in the basement we will hide if the tornado gets any closer. The thought of leaving the house does not cross my mind since there is nowhere else to go.

Another ten minutes and the radar shows the tornado south of Smallville now, almost on top of it. Our tornado looks like it is going to cross the highway a few miles to the east of us. Outside the wind has picked up and the rain intensified. Then I hear the plink, plink sound of hail bouncing off the roof of the house. I get up to look out the front door and as I touch the handle of the storm door I am plunged into darkness as all the lights in the house and town go out. Then I hear the sound of someone whacking tennis balls against the side of the house as larger hailstones start falling out of the sky. My husband goes and gets two flashlights and brings one of them to me. We and Duke, who is fascinated by what is going on outside, stand in the doorway and watch and listen to the storm. We no longer know were the tornado is or if it is still heading east of town but we still do not head to the basement.

Another couple of minutes and the hail has moved off. My husband goes outside and brings back a golf ball size hailstone. There is so much hail on the ground it looks like a quick snowstorm moved though. Our neighbors come out of their houses and we go outside to talk to them. Our neighbor across the street works at a restaurant in Smallville and her husband tells us he talked to her on her cell phone before the electricity went out and that she said they were just heading to the basement. He is worried about her but cannot call because his phone, like most phone now a days, does not work if the electricity is off. My husband keeps an old telephone and we have hooked it up so I ask if he wants to use our phone. He tries calling but get either a busy signal, no answer, or a "all lines are down" message. We find out later that the cell tower is down and that the phone lines between out town and Smallville are also down. All we can do is wait until our neighbor comes home from work.

This morning the electricity was back on. When I looked out the front window I saw my neighbor's car parked outside her house. Later I found out that "our" tornado ran out of steam and that the other tornado tracked just east of Smallville. Some farm houses were destroyed but no humans were injured. Some people lost their cattle when the animals were picked up by the winds and/or tossed into trees. Poor animals. My husband is just leaving the house to go help one farmer he knows who's house was hit by the tornado. The house is still standing but the roof was torn off. He is going to help move the furniture and other things out of the house before the rains that are expected later today start.

The News reports say there were five dozen tornadoes spotted by the time these storms were over. Two people were reported killed in Oklahoma and another two in a tornado, reported to be 600 feet wide, that went through the town of Holly, Colorado. One of the people killed in Holly was sucked out of her trailer home and thrown into a tree. When I first heard this report I thought, "Why didn't she go to somewhere safe?"

Later I heard that the time between the tornado warning siren going off and the tornado hitting Holly was about nine minutes. Tornadoes are hard to see in the dark and maybe she did not even hear the siren. Nine minutes- by the time you realize that a tornado is actually heading your way it is to late. Thinking about this poor women did get me thinking about my husband and myself. We were just as vulnerable as she was once the electricity went off. We should have gone to the basement as soon as that happen since tornadoes can change direction in a heartbeat. In fact, we should have been down their the second the television program we were watching was interrupted. We have another TV down there. I don't know what we were thinking.

A City After My Own Heart

You Are Austin

A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. You're totally weird and very proud of it. Artistic and freaky, you still seem to fit in... in your own strange way. Famous Austin residents: Lance Armstrong, Sandra Bullock, Andy Roddick

What American City Are You?

Guest Blogger Today

(I got this request to be a guest blogger after I wrote the story about my husband's hunting activities.)

Hi,
I'm Mr. La P. and I'm writing a guest blog for you today, so here's a Kansas short story.

Several years ago our Brittany, Kate, was barking at the bird feeder for some reason. She doesn't bark much, so I went out to investigate. Kate was barking while focusing on the bottom of the rod holding up the bird feeder. I looked carefully and noticed a small feather laying on top of the grass and moving with the wind. She was quite insistent with her barking and wouldn't go near it. I thought this to be strange since Kate is a well trained bird dog. I tried to calm her down but she wouldn't stop and just refused to go near it. This was very uncharacteristic of her. I went over to show her it was just a feather. I bent down and grabbed the feather. As soon as I did I heard the unmistakable sound of a rattlesnake. It took me just a second to spot it --- a foot or so from my hand --- nicely coiled up and ready for action.

Now I had a choice to make. Slowly withdraw my hand or quickly pull back. Make the wrong decision and I'm likely snake bit. Delay my decision and I could be snake bit. I very slowly pulled my hand back and backed away. I got Kate and put her in the house and dispatched the snake with a .410 (small shotgun). I noticed a lump in the snake's midsection and cut it open to find a sparrow. This snake was using our bird feeder as a bird buffet with very little effort involved. That's the only snake I've killed as I believe that just about all species have a place, however that place may not be our yard.
.
Here's the interesting thing as far as I'm concerned. There were two lessons for me here:
1. The apparent problem is not always the actual problem.
2. Humans are not always the smartest species on this earth.

George Bush's Scandals Of....(Pick A Year)

(Reference here)



I can say without a doubt that George Bush will go down in history as one of the top five worst presidents in American history. The crap that this administration has pulled is mind boggling. If you take their assumption that they (and only they) know what is best for this country, add it to their "the end justifies the means" view of the world, you end up with a bunch of mean spirited, arrogant people who think they can get away with anything because they (and only they) understand the big picture.

We are seeing this "the end justifies the means" mindset played out every time another scandal is exposed. Bush's quickness to play the executive privilege card in an effort to stonewall any investigation into probable misconduct by members of the White House Staff and/or Presidential appointees tells me that this guy don't want any of his decisions questioned by anyone.

(Just pretend that we all believe he is really thinking this stuff up by himself.)

How many times has the White House played the executive privilege card?

1. During the Congressional investigation into alleged abuses by the Boston FBI.

2. During the Congressional confirmation hearings of his Supreme Court nominee Harriet E. Miers.

3. During the Congressional investigation into government response after Hurricane Katrina.

4. They were planning on using it, if needed, in the Justice Department's investigation into the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

5. And now in the Congressional investigations into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys for alleged political reasons by U.S Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Executive privilege, which Nolo (publishers of do-it-yourself legal help books) defines as: The privilege that allows the president and other high officials of the executive branch to keep certain communications private if disclosing those communications would disrupt the functions or decision making processes of the executive branch. That means the president can withhold certain information even if served with a subpoena by Congress. This privilege is not absolute and cannot be invoked just because the president says the information being requested is privileged. Richard Nixon tried using this same argument when asked to turn over the Watergate tapes. The Supreme Court decided that executive privilege has its limits and ordered the tapes released:

"Neither the doctrine of separation of powers, nor the need for confidentiality of high-level communications, without more, can sustain an absolute, unqualified Presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances. The President's need for complete candor and objectivity from advisers calls for great deference from the courts. However, when the privilege depends solely on the broad, undifferentiated claim of public interest in the confidentiality of such conversations, a confrontation with other values arises."
—Chief Justice Warren Burger

Chairperson of the House Judiciary subcommittee investigating the dismissal of the attorneys, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), has said executive privilege is not "a get out of jail free card." Bush of course thinks otherwise.
(What this all means here.)

His Gang of Five are: deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove, former White House Counsel Harriet Miers (Miers again?), Miers' deputy William Kelley, White House political strategist Scott Jennings, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former chief of staff Kyle Sampson. All more than happy to follow any White House marching orders.

I don't know which is worse, this Administration's self-righteous arrogance or the fact that it has taken this long for the Congress and the citizens of this country to finally call the president and his people on it.

Sidebar: Writing this has got me thinking about something my mother once asked, "Why do so many powerful Republicans have that unformed look of the Phillsbury Doughboy?"

Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, John McCain, Alberto Gonzales, Pillsbury Doughboy.

HaloScan Problems

I had a problem with HaloScan on my last post. The comments script was not there. I finally deleted the post, re-entered it, and re-published. That seems to have fixed the problem.

Shotgun

...shoot him 'fore he run, now
- Jr. Walker & The All Stars



In reply to my post about the obscene phone call, drD over at Big n Juicy expressed surprise at the fact that I own a shotgun. I am not surprised that he would be surprised by this because I am surprised myself by the fact that I do own a shotgun. And if I had not met my husband I probably would not have one at all.

My husband has been hunting (birds not mammals) and fishing almost his entire life just like his father and his grandfather before him. The photo above was taken in the 1930's and shows my husband's grandfather on the right along with his great-uncles after a successful bird hunt. His grandfather's brother is on the left and his grandfather's brother-in-law is in the middle. When my husband and I first started going out he decided that he would teach me how to shoot so that I could go hunting with him. The second part of that plan never happened.

I did enjoy shooting and turned out to be what is know as an instinctive shooter. But I have never pointed my shotgun at any living creature and have no plans to do so ever. That does not mean I would not shoot an animal to protect myself or others. It just means I have no desire to hunt.

drD also asked what the proportion of gun owners to non gun owners is here in the States. If I answered that question based on what I know about the people here where I live right now I would answer everyone. Hunting is popular here and most farmers also have rifles to kill any "varmints" they find or consider a threat to their livestock and/or crops. If I answered based on the people I know in Denver I would answer almost nobody.

According to a study done by the National Institute of Justice in 1994, although there are enough guns in the United States for every adult to have one, only 25% of American citizens own guns. Seventy-five percent of the ones who do own guns have two or more. Most of these guns are use for hunting and target shooting.

According to the NRA (National Rife Association), "Numerous surveys over the last 40+ years have found that almost half of all households have at least one gun owner." I myself don't trust this statement because it is worded so strangely. Are they talking just about civilians or are they also including law enforcement and military personnel? They follow the number of gun owners sentence with this, "Some surveys since the late 1990s have indicated a smaller incidence of gun ownership, probably because of some respondents` concerns about "gun control," residually due, perhaps, to the anti-gun policies of the Clinton Administration." Huh? They believe the surveys that agree with what they want to be the truth but not with the ones that say something different? The NRA needs to have a greater number of gun owners in this country in order to give their organization more political clout in Washington.

Which statistic is correct? Well, I'd believe the National Institute of Justice before I'd believe what the NRA tells me.

First Full Day Of Spring

Today we are celebrating three things:

1. Spring (vernal equinox) which brings with it news stories about egg balancing.

2. The birth of Benito Juarez.

3. Here in the States, National Agriculture Day.

I'm Gone But I'll Be Back Soon

Just got home from a long weekend in Denver. That no-damage fall on the ice did do some damage so I got a massage yesterday to help get my body back to normal. It hurt so good but also wiped me out. I need sleep, a hot bath, ibuprofen, and sleep right now. See you in a few- or maybe less.

Who's Calling?

Last week I found out that I have been living in a small town too long.

On Friday my husband left on a trip to Phoenix, AZ for a French Britteny field trial. That left me home alone with the dogs for the weekend. Early Saturday morning the phone rang. I got out of bed to answered it. A man's voice said, "This is Ted Hewitt, may I speak to your husband?"

I have answered these kinds of phone calls from the old men in town many times. They call to get my husband's help with their computers, appliances, and electric tools. A lot of the time when they call they ask for "my husband" instead of asking for him by name. They also don't seen to notice the time when they call and in my sleepy state I did not think it was strange that one of them would be calling at 2:30 in the morning. I replied, "He's not here."

A shot of adrenaline exploded in my brain as I realized I had just told someone I did not know that my husband wasn't home. I quickly said, "I'm mean, he can't come to the phone right now." Which was just as stupid. The voice asked, "He can't come to the phone?" and followed up with an obscene remark. Then he hung up.

At this point I freaked out. That call sounded like it came from a cell phone. What if he was somewhere outside the house? I was paralyzed by fear. My first thought was to go to the basement and get my shotgun out of the gun safe but at the same time I was afraid to walk downstairs. What if he was already in the house? What if he was in the basement? My need to do something to protect myself overrode my fear that he may be in the house. I walked downstairs and opened the gun safe and took out my shotgun and a few shells. Just the action of walking to the basement calmed me down. I walked back upstairs and into my bedroom and leaned the shotgun against the wall beside the bed. Still freaked out, I got back into bed, picked up a book, and started reading.

An hour later I was still reading when the dogs decided they needed to go outside. I was hesitant about letting them out but at the same time felt I was being a little foolish so I went and unlocked the front door and pulled it open. The shrill ring of the phone made me jump as another bolt of fear shot through me. He is out there! But the dogs weren't barking so I knew no one was around and I walked over to the phone. I could see the words "private caller" in the window of the handset. I knew it was him again and I stood there counting the rings...three...four...five...six- the phone kicked over to record- then silence.

Funny thing, even though I knew it was him I no longer felt any fear. There is some kind of synergy between two people whenever they talk on a phone. A obscene caller feeds on that synergy. If I did not answer the phone he could not get what he needed, my fear. My not answering the phone gave me back some semblance of control. Control lessened my fear. I let the dogs back in and went back to bed. By this time I was emotionally exhausted and no longer able to fight the weariness that was overtaking my body. I slept fitfully until daybreak.

All day Saturday I brooded about what had happened and worried he would call again that night. I kept my anxiety under control during the day but once night fell I no longer felt safe. Before I went to bed I carefully checked all the doors and windows to make sure they were locked. I had the dogs with me and that helped. I knew if they heard anything that wasn't normal night noises they would bark furiously. I had the shotgun right next to the bed but after I got into bed I worried that I would not be able to get to it quickly enough if something happened. I leaned over and picked it up and laid it next to me on the bed. I felt a little silly doing this but when I put my hand out and brushed my fingertips across the barrel I instantly felt calmer and more secure. I slept well and woke up the next morning feeling refreshed.

Now, I know that some people reading this may think I was behaving like a hysterical women and overreacting. You are probably men. You do not understand how dangerous the world really is for women. I'll bet you have never had an obscene phone call wake you up in the middle of the night. I'll bet you have never felt unsafe in your own home. I'll bet you don't hesitate to step into an elevator with a man you do not know. I'll bet you aren't filled with anxiety when walking to or from your car at night in a seemingly deserted parking lot or garage. I'll also bet you haven't experienced that same feeling of anxiety while walking home from the bus after dark.

Women are surrounded by the reminders of just how unsafe life is for us everyday. The newspapers are full of stories about violence against women; rapes, assaults, and murders. There are stories about rape used as a weapon in war torn nations . In some societies rape is being used as an instrument of punishment. If you don't watch the news you can see this brutality toward women being played out in the plots of many television shows almost every night.

Maybe I was being hysterical. Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe I have a reason to do both.

Thanks For The Memories, Ms Hutton

I just learned that Betty Hutton died last Sunday. I wrote a post about her on the first of the month and thought I would link to it today. As you can tell by watching the clip on that post the world's human energy level has dropped about 10% with her death.

Two posts from a couple of other blogs that are nice memorials to her:

Happy Birthday Betty Hutton (written on her birthday- Feb. 26th)
and
She made us see "Spots! Spots!"

Smooth Ice Is Paradise...

for those who dance with expertise.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

I have had a variety of jobs in my life, everything from babysitting to counting teddy bears and carved wooden Rabbi and Golda Meir dolls to waiting tables to aircraft dispatching. Last Wednesday I helped transfer 12,000 quail eggs out of the boxes they were shipped in and into trays for placement into two large bird-egg incubators. I was helping out a friend who could not find enough teenagers willing to to the job themselves this time of year. But this post isn't about that job it is about what happened to me on the way into the incubator building.

I slipped on some ice. One second I was standing upright and the next I was flat on my back. It happened fast and it happened in slow motion. I felt my feet slide out from under me and my body raise up in the air horizontally to the ground. I instinctively threw my arms upward. It felt like I hung there for a moment and then came crashing back to the earth. As I came down I pulled my head toward my chest and threw my arms straight out and slightly down to keep myself from landing full on my back. It only helped a little since my right hip hit the ice an instant before my forearms and hands. Then pain that felt like someone had hit me in the backside as hard as they could with a board slammed into the right side of my pelvis and the tissue and muscle covering it. Next, a miracle. I felt the rest of my back and pelvis hit the ice a split second after my right side did. I lay there feeling the wet, dirty, water that topped the ice start soaking into my clothes. I was in pain but my first thought was to get away from that cold and wet so I started to get up, not worrying about what I may have hurt.

Both of the women with me saw me fall and asked me if I was all right but I was focused on getting off the wet ice and did not answer them. When I got up I walked into the incubator building and leaned face first against the wall. By this time I was really feeling the pain and also feeling woozy and nauseous. I knew I was woozy because I gotten up too fast and I was sure I was feeling nauseous because the fall was a shock to my system. Again the women asked my if I was all right and I replied, "Give my a minute," then turned around and leaned forward with my hands on my knees. The nausea passed and I stood up telling them that I was alright and not seriously hurt. In fact, I was OK enough to stand and transfer eggs for the next two and a half hours.

My hip was sore and when I walked I kind of hobbled a bit but as long as I stood in one place I was fine. What I found most interesting about the whole thing was how my body reacted to the fall. When I hit the ice the shock of it vibrated throughout the rest of my body the same way the vibration of a bat striking some other solid object vibrates through your arms. The adrenaline rush of it was intense. I now think that is why I felt sick.

I remember when I was a teenager playing a game of touch football with a bunch of other kids in the side playground at Emerson Elementary School in Denver. We were playing in an area that was not big enough for what we were doing. This black-topped play area was off the brick porched-in side entrance to the school building. The porch had been screened in with chain link fencing. Once, I started running toward the porch and was so focused on the kid with the football that I lost track of just were I was and was on top of the fence before I knew it. That sixth sense we all have must have kicked in because at the last moment I turned my head and had a close-up view of the fence chain links. I knew I was going to crash into it and I knew it was going to hurt. I relaxed. I just let my body go limp. I hit the fence, I felt it give, and then I was flat on my back on the asphalt.

There had been quite a bit of noise, the sound of a bunch of kid playing, right before I hit the fence but as I lay there with my eyes closed all I heard was silence. Someone asked in a hesitant voice, "Colleen, are you all right?"
I opened my eyes and got up off the ground. I poked the tip of my tongue out of my mouth and tasted blood where I had somehow cut my lip. The rest of me felt fine. One kid told me later that when I hit the fence it was like watching a cartoon. I should have been hurt but instead I hit the fence, slammed to the ground, and then got up undamaged. I also did not have that deep full-body reverberation of shock.

I guess the fact I did not walk away undamaged this time means I'm getting old.

Emma Sightings

I took the dogs up to the cemetery for a run the other night. We have just started going back up there regularly after bypassing it most of the winter. The snow has pretty much disappeared with a few small mounds left in some shaded areas and wet and muddy spots on some of the roadways. I was walking along the back side of the cemetery near a big plowed field when something unusual happened. The dogs were running back and forth searching for anything that might be interesting to them. I noticed that a small funeral arrangement had been blown about 20 feet into the field and now lay on top of the dirt. Kate also noticed it and trotted over to where it lay. When she got there she nosed out that it wasn't anything worth while and ran back to the cemetery crossing a little bit in front of me.

A movement just beyond her caught my eye and I glanced up the road and saw a half-grown Britteny puppy run between one of the tombstones and a large juniper bush. I waited for the dog to reappear on the other side of the bush but it did not. I was a little surprised to see a Britteny up there and looked around to find its owner. I didn't see anyone else nor did I see a car parked anywhere near by. I thought that maybe the dog I had seen had been Duke but when he ran by me a few minutes later I knew that it was not. Duke is full grown and has the long legs and darker color markings of a full grown Britteny. The dog I had seen was definitely a puppy with the chubbier body, shorter legs, and faded coloring of a puppy. That's when I realized the dog I had seen must have been Emma.

I did not understand why she was appearing as a puppy but after I thought about it I wondered if it was because she had been up here with me before. This could be true because there have been times that I have seen what I assumed was Duke running in one part of the cemetery and then when I looked again he would be gone. I would ask my husband where he was and he would point him out in a different part of the grounds. I was always surprised by how quickly Duke could get from one section of the cemetery to another. Maybe all those times I thought I was seeing Duke I was actually seeing Emma. Maybe this time she wanted to be sure I knew it was her.

Where's Your Sense Of Humor?

I shall continue yelling tripe as long as tripe is being served.
-David Niven as Larry MacKay in the movie Please Don't Eat The Daisies

Borat is out on DVD so I rented a copy and watched it last week. Well, I watched about 45 minutes of it before I got bored and fast forwarded to the end. I could not believe how disappointing this movie was for me after reading and hearing all the hype surrounding it.

First, it has been described as satire but it is more closely aligned with Candid Camera, Punk'd, and America's Funniest Home Videos than it is with Dr. Strangelove (1964), The Great Dictator (1940) or This Is Spinal Tap (1984). Second, making ignorant people look ignorant does not take great comedic genius. I don't find practical jokes to be funny and this movie is one gigantic practical joke.

Merriam-Webster defined a practical joke as, a prank intended to trick or embarrass someone or cause physical discomfort. I think practical jokes are cruel and mean spirited. They also have a strong whiff of sadism emanating from them. How people can get enjoyment from the humiliation of their fellow man I have never understood. People who pull practical jokes always ask (when their victim gets upset), "Where's your sense of humor?"

Well, mine is reserved for things with a little wit. Making people look stupid is not witty. I always get the feeling that people who laugh at practical jokes do so out of both relief and fear. Relief that they were not the victim and fear that if they don't pretend that what they just saw was funny they could be the next person humiliated.

But even with all that I have written above I guess I will have to break down and admit that this film is funny....NOT!

Growing Up In The 1960's Week- 1969

Country Joe and the Fish, I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag

Gimme an F!
F!
Gimme an I!
I!
Gimme an S!
S!
Gimme an H!
H!
What's that spell ?
FISH!
What's that spell ?
FISH!
What's that spell ?
FISH!

Yeah, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on generals, let's move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta go out and get those reds —
The only good commie is the one who's dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Huh!

Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,
Why man, this is war ah-go-go.
There's plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,
Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.

And it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Growing Up In The 1960's Week- 1968

Laura Nyro, Save The Country


(Nyro wrote this song less that two months after Martin Luther King was murdered and a few day after Robert F Kennedy's assassination.)

Come on, people, come on, children
Come on down to the Glory River
Gonna wash you up and wash you down
Gonna lay the devil down
Gonna lay that devil down

Come on, people, come on, children
There's a King at the Glory River
And the precious King, he loved the people to sing
Babes in the blinkin' sun
Sang, "We Shall Overcome".

I got fury in my soul,
Fury's gonna take me to the glory goal
In my mind I can't study war no more
Save the people!
Save the children!
Save the country now!

Come on, people, come on, children
Come on down to the Glory River
Gonna wash you up and wash you down
Gonna lay the devil down
Gonna lay that devil down

Come on people! Sons and mothers!
Keep the dream of the two young brothers.
Gonna take that dream and ride that dove.
We could build the dream with love, I know,
We could build the dream with love, I know,
We could build a dream with love, children,

We could build the dream with love, oh people,
We could build the dream with love, I know,
We could build the dream with love

I got fury in my soul,
Fury's gonna take me to the glory goal
In my mind I can't study war no more
Save the people!
Save the children!
Save the country now!

Growing Up In The 1960's Week- 1968

James Brown, Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud)


(In this performance the lyrics he sings do not exactly match the lyrics written below.)

With your bad self
Say it loud
I'm black and I'm proud
Say it loud
I'm black and I'm proud
Say it loud
I'm black and I'm proud

Some say it's malice
Some say it's a lotta nerve
I say we won't quit moving
Til we get what we deserve
We've been 'buked and we've been scourned
Talked about, baby
As just as sure as you're born
But just as sure as it take
Two eyes to make a pair, huh
Brother, we can't quit until we get our share

Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud
Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud, one more time
Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud, huh

I've worked on jobs with my feet and my hands
But all the work I did was for the other man
And now we demands a chance
To do things for ourselves
we tired of beating our heads against the wall
And working for someone else

Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud
Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud
Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud
Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud, oowee

Ooowee, ou're killing me
Alright uh, you're out of sight
Alright, so tough, you're tough enough
Ooowee uh, you're killing me, oow

Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud
Say it louder,
I'm black and I'm proud

Now we demand a chance to do things for ourselves
We tired of beating our heads against the wall
And working for someone else
A look a'here,
One thing more I got to say right here
Now, we're people like the birds and the bees
We rather die on our feet,
Than keep living on our knees

Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud, hu
Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud, hu
Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud, Lord'a Lord'a Lord'a
Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud, ooooh

Uh, alright now, good Lord
You know we can do the boog-a-loo
Now we can say we do the Funky Broadway!
Now we can do, hu
Sometimes we dance, we sing and we talk
You know I do like to do the camel walk
Alright now, hu alright,
Alright now, ha

Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud
Say it louder,
I'm black and I'm proud, let me hear ya
Say it louder,
I'm black and I'm proud
Say it louder,
I'm black and I'm proud

Growing Up In The 1960's Week- 1967

Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit


(Sound starts after the introduction. The man you are not hearing is Noel Harrison, son of actor Rex Harrison. He had a hit TV show at the time, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.)

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all

Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call

And call Alice, when she was just small

When the men on the chessboard get up
And tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low

Go ask Alice, I think she'll know

When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead
And the white knight is talking backwards
And the red queen's off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head
Feed your head

Growing Up In The 1960's Week- 1965

Curtis Mayfield, People Get Ready

People get ready
There's a train a comin'
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels hummin'
You don't need no ticket
You just thank the lord

So, people get ready
There's a train to Jordan
Picking up passengers from coast to coast
Faith is the key, open the doors and board them
There's hope for all among those loved the most

There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner
Whom would hurt all mankind just to save his own
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner
For there is no hiding place against the kingdom's throne

People get ready
There's a train a comin'
You don't need no baggage
Just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels hummin'
You don't need no ticket
Just thank the lord.

Growing Up In The 1960's Week- 1964

Martha and the Vandellas, Dancing In The Street

Callin' out around the world
Are you ready for a brand new beat?
Summer's here and the time is right
For dancin' in the streets
They're dancin' in Chicago
Down in New Orleans
Up in New York City

All we need is music, sweet music
There'll be music everywhere
There'll be swingin', swayin' and records playin'
And dancin' in the streets

Oh, it doesn't matter what you wear
Just as long as you are there
So come on, every guy grab a girl
Everywhere around the world
There'll be dancin'
They're dancin' in the street

This is an invitation
Across the nation
A chance for the folks to meet
There'll be laughin' and singin' and music swingin'
And dancin' in the streets

Philadelphia, P.A. (Philadelphia, P.A.)
Baltimore and DC now (Baltimore and DC now)
Yeah don't forget the Motor City (can't forget the Motor City)

All we need is music, sweet music
There'll be music everywhere
There'll be swingin', swayin' and records playin'
And dancin' in the street, yeah

Oh, it doesn't matter what you wear
Just as long as you are there
So come on, every guy grasp a girl
Everywhere around the world
There'll be dancin'
They're dancin' in the streets

Philadelphia, P.A. (Philadelphia, P.A.)
Baltimore and DC now (Baltimore and DC now)
Yeah don't forget the Motor City (can't forget the Motor City)
All the way down in L.A. California
Not to mention Halifax Nova Scotia
Manchester
Alexandria, Virginia, Virginia

Growing Up In The 1960's Week- 1963

The Beach Boys, Surfin' USA.

If everybody had an ocean
Across the U.S.A.
Then everybody'd be surfin'
Like Californi-a
You'd seem 'em wearing their baggies
Huarachi sandals too
A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
Surfin' U.S.A.

You'd catch 'em surfin' at Del Mar
(Inside outside U.S.A.)
Ventura County line
(Inside outside U.S.A.)
Santa Cruz and Trestles
(Inside outside U.S.A.)
Australia's Narrabeen
(Inside outside U.S.A.)
All over Manhattan
(Inside outside U.S.A.)
And down Doheny Way
(Inside outside)
Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.

We'll all be planning out a route
We're gonna take real soon
We're waxing down our surfboards
We can't wait for June
We'll all be gone for the summer
We're on safari to stay
Tell the teacher we're surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.

Haggerties and Swamies
(Inside outside U.S.A)
Pacific Palisades
(Inside outside U.S.A)
San Onofre and Sunset
(Inside outside U.S.A)
Redondo Beach L.A.
(Inside outside U.S.A.)
All over La Jolla
(Inside outside U.S.A.)
At Waimea Bay
(Inside outside)

Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.

Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.

Yeah, Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.

Technology, Bah Humbug!

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines.
-Lloyd Bridges' character in the movie Airplane (1980)

And it looks like yesterday I picked the wrong day to write a post with tons of links in it. I don't know if the problem was with Blogger, my Internet provider, or my computer but I could not get to any website without some sort of difficulty. The biggest one was having the computer seemingly reach the site, the address would be in the address window, while the monitor showed nothing but a white screen. Sometimes when this happens, and it has before, if I click on the address bar again the site will pop-up. At one point I lost it and just kept clicking in frustration about a million times. That was not helpful. At other times I had no problem reaching a site. False hope is wearying.

So today no real post, just this explanation why.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

(Oh, and my husband performed some sort of computer magic this morning and things are going better. The problem must have been in our computer.)

No, No, No, It Couldn't Be True

-lyric from Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief by Paul Francis Webster and Hoagy Carmichael

Last month I watched L.A. Confidential at my sister's house (not my first viewing of the film) and was reminded just how wonderful the soundtrack is in this movie. Great songs from the late Forties and early Fifties pepper this movie. Every thing from Johnny Mercer's Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive, to Chet Baker's smooth Look For The Silver Lining (if you watch TCM you hear this one all the time), and The Lady Is A Tramp by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. One song was a light, jazzy, number called Hit The Road To Dreamland. I had never heard the song before seeing this movie and still did not recognize the voice of the singer (You can hear a snippet of the song here. Just scroll down to Listen To Samples.) but hearing her again sent me out to buy the soundtrack CD.

After I bought the CD I took it to my car, opened it, popped it into my CD player, and listened to it as I drove back to my sister's house. Somewhere around Holly St. and Evans Dreamland started playing and when the singer reached the first lyric with the words "hit the road to dreamland" in it I recognized the voice and thought, "No way!" I listened to it some more and then I could clearly tell who's voice it was; it was Betty Hutton.

Betty Hutton, a singer and actor, was big in the Forties and early Fifties. She was in Preston Sturges' classic The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) and starred in Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth(1952). She started her career as a big band singer. The reason I did not recognize her voice at first was because her style of singing on Dreamland was completely different than anything I had heard before. Betty Hutton was a singer in the tradition of Ethel Merman; loud, energetic, and brassy. Most of her hit songs were what were known as specialty numbers with titles like Murder He Says, His Rocking Horse Ran Away, Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry and, the song below, Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief, from the movie The Stork Club (1945).



Now, what is interesting about this performance, besides the fact that she is singing about a woman, is the way she delivers parts of the song with absolutely no inflection and with no expression on her face. She is doing this either as a joke or as a sly reference to another popular singer of the day, Virginia O'Brien.

O'Brien's shtik* was to sing her songs with a dead-pan face. This started when she entered a talent contest at age was seventeen. She was so frightened she sang her song with no expression on her face and without moving. The audience thought it was part of her act and laughed hysterically. Thus a star was born.

My feeling is that Hutton singing parts of the song the way she did was an inside joke about show business. She knew how Hollywood would, no matter how talented the person may be, pigeon hole a person as a certain type of performer and not let him or her do anything else. At the time this was filmed she herself wanted to show that she could do something besides sing specialty numbers. Dreamland shows that she could.

(I tried to find a clip of Virginia O'Brien and could only come up with the trailer from the movie The Harvey Girls. If you go here and click on "watch a trailer," then scroll down and click on "The Harvey Girls- (original trailer)" you will see and hear her sing part of a song called The Wild, Wild West.)

*Shtik: Piece, routine: a special bit of acting