Tag: History

Full Circle?

Sidmouth seaside!

As I sit here in my little room, I can’t help but think of the first flat that I ever rented in the United Kingdom, it was fractionally bigger than this one, and I lived there for a year or so. This room is only very temporary while I await my turn in front of the camera tomorrow.

It’s been a long time!

I almost feel like I’ve come full circle. This feeling is somewhat intensified by the similarity in the two rooms, my cold-water flat in 1982 and this small single room with it’s own shower and toilet. The other similarity is that I am alone here. Just as I was back in 1982.

Of course the two biggest differences are my age (a lot of difference there) and my reason for being here.

In 1982, I was running away. I had lost the “love of my life” and in my misery sought to get as far away  as possible from the place where I’d lost her. I needed  thinking time, unfortunately, my brain translated that into “drinking time.” England was a good choice for that reason alone.

This time, in my little room, I am not running from anything. I am, in fact, running to something. I have not been in front of the camera in more years than I care to admit. Not that I am ashamed of not acting for so long, but because it has been a long time and that equals older! I am, hopefully a little wiser now than that almost 26 year-old chap who got off the wrong side of the “freedom bird,” as the military contract flights back then were called.

I was not going to write much on this “busman’s holiday” but the realisation that I’d just passed (damned quickly) the 600 follower mark on my poor somewhat abandoned blog and that I was just a gnat’s whisker from having 70,000 views.

Wow.

I have been busier than ever over the last two(?) months and  last week has been fraught with tension and the knowledge that, however inadvertently, my life has changed yet again.

I will explain to those of you who’ve followed me so faithfully what has happened.

I started working for a newspaper. I write for the Las Vegas Guardian Express and I am the Deputy Managing Editor as well as the Senior Entertainment Editor, but I also write news stories in between.

Last week I wrote a “draft” article for publication when we got our second source verification of the great Nelson Mandela actually dying last week. Unfortunately, while it was still in draft form, which will explain the misspelling of Zuma in the second or third paragraph, the article was published.

It turned out that we were right and he had, in all essence died last week, on the day that we’d  said. We thought we might have gotten it right after our site was attacked by a South African source repeatedly using a “DDOS” which is massively expensive. This was after my article got over half a million views in just under five hours.

We (and I) have gotten hate mail and been trolled. I’ve had people on my social network sites bandy my name about as an idiot. I’ve even had people get onto to my paper and demand that I be fired. As time went on, more people began to remark in a less hostile fashion. I’m sure the comments will continue, but I rarely read them. I’m writing for a newspaper and I don’t respond. I only respond to comments on my personal blog.

And I only respond to comments that are not “trollish” in nature.

But aside from the paper I write for, I am still writing my blog and although not as often as I should, I haven’t forgotten you guys and gals who’ve stuck by me, before and after my heart attack. I want to thank you all for doing so and you’ll never know just how much you mean to me!

So today, I’m closing with a big “thumbs up” for you, my faithful followers! May the blogging never end!

Cheers,

Michael Smith Thumbs up!

United Kingdom

5 July 2013

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Kronks – The Native American Cannibals of Texas

Unknown

I am reading Mike Cox‘s brilliant recounting of the Texas Rangers in his Wearing the Cinco Peso 1821  -1900 The Texas Rangers and I found, early on in the book,  a mention of the Karankawa Indian tribe. This tribe, was said to be a cannibal tribe of Indians that were greatly feared by everyone.

They lived along the Texas coastal region next to the Gulf of Mexico. Cox relates in his book how Stephen Fuller Austin (ex-Missourian and “father” of Texas) encountered a “branch” of Coco Indians who were part of the larger Karankawa tribe.

Where it was considered common knowledge that the tribe engaged in the act of cannibalism, it was not a part of their dietary requirement. It was more a case of eating their fallen foes to gain their strength and abilities, a cultural rather than sustenance reason shared with other races in the world.

Author Robert A Ricklis points this out in his (out of print) book on the Karankawa tribe written in 1991. Although if you read Austin‘s description of the Coco’s he encountered they certainly don’t sound like they exist on human flesh, they look too healthy!

From The Texas Rangers by Michael Cox: “These Indians were well-formed and apparently very active and athletic men.”  The women were also something to be admired, “They wore painted animal hides that hung just below their knees, but, above the waist they were naked…Their breasts…marked or tattooed in circles of black beginning at the nipple and enlarging as the breast swelled. All the women were handsome and one of them quite pretty.” (Stephen Fuller Austin – July 1821)

Detailed picture of Karankawa Indians from Unversity of Autin
Detailed picture of Karankawa Indians from Unversity of Autin

The Karankawa, or Kronks as the white settlers called them, were not a popular tribe. The other tribes and the Spaniards feared them. They generally protected their territory fiercely and the added practise of eating the carcasses of their fallen enemies gave them an overall terrifying reputation.

They also, according to Austin, were clever and cunning in their dealings with outsiders. It was the war-like tendency of the Kronks combined with the cannibal rituals that made them especially feared by the white newcomers to the Texas territory. Before the battle with the Mexican government for their freedom, the settlers first declared war on the various tribes already entrenched in Texas. The Kronks were the first to be vanquished from the face of the countryside.

Oddly, this race of Indians were not the only people who did not find cannibalism distasteful. On a Ranger scouting trip after  three Indians had been dispatched with extreme prejudice; a member of the company named Dave Lawrence then proceeded to “step up and cut off the thigh of one of the slain Indians.” When Ranger Cicero Rufus Perry asked Lawrence what he intended to do with it, he replied, “Why, I am going to take it along to eat. If you don’t get some game before noon tomorrow we’ll need it.” (From Mike Cox’s The Texas Rangers)

It could be argued that Lawrence was just “buying” into the general feeling at the time that Native Americans were too hostile to be human and were viewed by many as more like animals, but, I don’t think so.

Being of Native American descent myself, I’m aware that the Indians encountered by the white settlers as they made their way across the country were considered savages by the mutual consent of the “civilised” men who did not understand their mostly nomadic and war-like way of life. When it came to the way the tribes fought and killed their enemy (often killing women and children indiscriminately) the white man could not and would not accept that this was acceptable.

Artist's rendition of The Trail of Tears. Painting by Max Stanley.
Artist’s rendition of The Trail of Tears.
Painting by Max Stanley.

War between the two factions was inevitable as was the Indian’s eventual defeat. Despite the country being enormous, the settlers numbers were too big to be turned back and having superior firepower and numbers, the tribes were continually being forced onto smaller and smaller bits of land.

As I have at least one direct relative that was found by the “trail of tears” (a baby abandoned, no doubt by the parents who most likely died on that forced march) by a Cavalry Patrol and was adopted by one Pvt Sallee (a French immigrant) I know that Native Americans all have long and fascinating stories of their life before and during the invasion of North America.

Having read a large amount of literature about my (distant) relatives, I was surprised to learn of a “cannibal” tribe. The tales from Texas Rangers and settlers who lived in the country at that time, give a wonderful look at the tribes that they encountered, fought and vanquished. Unfortunately, the tales are a bit one-sided as the victor often gets to dictate the “truth” of events.

In this case, the Karankawa or “Kronks” were not cannibals as such, as I stated above, they practised a cannibal ritual that has been around since, presumably, mankind first started walking the earth.

I’m reading three books on the Texas Rangers to get background for a book I am writing. I will periodically stop to write about the more interesting things I discover. Things like the cannibal Kronks.

Image of the Texas Ranger, the lariat, the pistol, cartridges and the cinco peso.
Image of the Texas Ranger, the lariat, the pistol, cartridges and the cinco peso.
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RIP Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady has Gone

1925 - 2013 RIP
1925 – 2013 RIP

It was with surprise and a touch of sadness when I learned that Margaret Thatcher died today. She was 87 and a legend.

But even legends die.

This formidable women who changed the face of politics, Britain, and, in no small way, the world. Daughter of a grocery shop owner and as a child grew up in a household that was active in politics and the church.

She started in politics at an early age, running for local office in Dartford where she was the youngest and first female candidate in an all male race. It was during this time that she married Denis Thatcher.

But this is not a biographical recounting of this powerful woman, It is a look at how she embodied the theme of “girl power” long before it became an in vogue subject to talk about. She wasn’t a Spice Girl, but she was the perfect model of a strong female role model.

A role model that the world watched as she held office as Prime Minister longer than anyone before or since.

Whether you agreed with her political stance or even the party she represented, you can still admire her strength and her will, which is still being felt in the country today.

So I’m placing my metaphorical hat over my heart and bowing my head in remembrance.

So long Ms Thatcher (born: 13 October 1925 – died: 8 April 2013) – the Iron Lady is gone, but will never be forgotten.

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My First “Real” Thanksgiving in Years

I have not celebrated Thanksgiving for years. Mainly because  I live in England and despite my American heritage, since I don’t live state side, I tend to forget about “turkey day.”

When I was growing up Thanksgiving meant great food and a double celebration. We would go and eat ourselves silly at one grandparents house and then go to the other grandparent‘s house and eat some more.

Each year our family got together with various aunts and uncles and cousins and ate, argued, laughed and lounged for a few hours. But I can honestly say, apart from when I was really young and impressionable, I was never really “thankful” for anything.

This year, though, is different. I have a lot to be thankful for. Even though I’m not living state side, I think I might just drag out some fake meat product and try my hand at making sweet potato pie.

I feel like I’ve been given a huge second chance. Not many people get one of those and I don’t want to waste mine. I just need to figure out how to make the most of it.

I won’t lie, it’s going to take me a while to figure this out. I am still in shock after receiving the news from my surgeon about just how close I really came to meeting the “Big Guy.” And that the resultant surgery that left a tear in my aortic arch is going to put me into a “disabled” category whether I like it or not.

Once I’m done reeling from this information, and the implications of a sudden high surge of blood pressure possibly killing me now or later, I’ll figure out why I was spared.

As you can no doubt tell from my above meanderings, I am still a little freaked out by the whole “tear in my aorta” thing and how my life has changed in the blink of an eye. I have gone from a guy who ran to answer alarm bells and struggled with lads fighting each other or attempting to assault a fellow member of staff to a guy who can barely walk to the Tesco Metro and back.

It is all a little overwhelming and despite all the wonderful folks who’ve been so supportive since this has happened I am still having a bit of a hard time adjusting. It will be worse when I actually start my “return to work” schedule in December. It will be incredibly difficult to watch my friends and colleagues come in and collect their work keys, keys that I can’t use and will probably never get to use again.

The idea of being re-rolled into a job that pays less (a lot less) has also got me freaked out. I won’t, to the best of my knowledge anyway, be eligible for medical retirement. It is notoriously hard to get and you are not allowed to work anywhere else if they decide you are eligible.

But.

Apart from all the “freaking out” and worry about my future employment and my possible financial heartache, I am thankful. Because if I wasn’t here, I would not be able to do or feel all the things that I am currently feeling.

Hell, I’m so thankful  that I might just opt for sacrificing a real bird for Thanksgiving instead of  munching on a meat substitute.

So I’ll close by wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving aka Turkey Day. Enjoy it and appreciate it, because you just never know what’s around that next corner. Be thankful that you don’t.

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Glimpses of Childhood: Tornado Drills, A-Bomb Drills and Bat Guano

Being born in the latter days of the 50’s. I was the very essence of a 60’s child. I was too young to ‘tune out and turn on’ and I missed the ‘free love’ thing altogether.

Still growing up in the 60’s was an interesting journey to say the least. It was the era of the Cold War and the images of atomic bombs and the devastation that they entailed were scary. The ‘child friendly’ film above was still being shown in schools and was intended to help us youngsters know how to react when the bad guys dropped the big one on us.

Oddly enough, if you were in school and a tornado hit, the drill was almost exactly the same as in the film. As this 2010 news clip shows, the drill has not changed much from the one that we practised when I was in grade school:

In the 1960’s the bad guy was Russia and the threat of them dropping a bomb on us was a daily threat. We were urged to have a ‘fallout’ shelter. If you were a frugal family, you used your tornado shelter (aka storm cellar) as both a place to hide when the twisters came to flatten your home and the place to hide from the after effects of the nuclear explosions.

A bit fancy, this one could have been for the Rockefeller family.

If my family ran and hid from either the bomb or a twister, our shelter was a bit more ‘down-to-earth’ and we shared our ‘safe space’ with the canned preserves and spiders and other creepy crawlies that loved the dark dank shelter.

“Just pass some canned tomatoes while we’re waiting, will you?”

Of course growing up in the rural south as a child we never really bought into the whole ‘Ivan-the-Terrible‘ Russian is going to drop a big, bad bomb on our heads. We did, though, believe whole-heartedly in the chances of being blown away by a tornado.

The schools did show us many films on the dangers of the atomic bomb. I remember vividly the film that they used to show prior to the Duck and Cover film. This was a very short film and it had been made at one of the Nevada test sites. It showed cinderblock buildings being turned to dust and cars being thrown about like Tonka toys.

It was terrifying to a 7-year-old. But it was still just a movie. We only had to look out our school windows to see the damage that the last  tornado did to Old Man Jones’s barn. I’m sure he would have come in and told us about it but, unfortunately for him, Old Man Jones went the same way as his barn.

The visceral reality of the tornadoes damage which could be witnessed personally far outweighed the terror of the ‘filmed’ atomic destruction.

As I write this I am reminded of a school I attended in Springdale, Arkansas. It was in the 60’s and it was huge. The school boasted three floors (one of which was under ground level) and if you were on the top floor you had to go down a circular slide as part of the schools fire drill.

Now a historical building and it’s been re-designated as a High School.

I was in the school when I was in the fourth grade. The time I spent there was marked by two events. One was the day I went to school in the morning and it was drizzling rain. By noon the rain turned to sleet and then snow. By two o’clock in the afternoon the snow was so deep that the basement windows were covered and school let out early. That marked the beginning of one of the worst snow/ice storms in Arkansas history.

The second event was the initial trial run of the fire escape. On the back of the school was a tower that housed a circular slide. It had sat unused throughout the summer months and it was decided to give the tower a ‘trial run’ when school started up. Unknown to the school authority’s, a family of bats had made the tower their new home.

The first person who went down the slide was a teacher (presumably showing how safe it was) whose backside was immediately covered in bat guano. The fire escape was closed for a long time while the school got rid of the bats. Not to mention the guano.

So growing up in the 1960’s was pretty cool, if not a bit scary. You just needed to know what to do when the A-bomb hit or when a tornado was barreling down on your town. Oh and the necessity of avoiding bat guano.

Okay, who forgot the toilet paper.
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