Camping, Hiking and RV’ing

  I think homemade instruments are akin to camping. I knew a kid who made a ‘banjo’ out of a cigar box and what we called back then as ‘cat gut’ strings (not steel).  In Jamaica I saw 50 gallon steel drums beaten by a ball peen hammer until the maker came up with a scale. Hitting it at the different areas could produce a very good scale and they could play them too.

Many Flutes have been made sitting around a camp fire.  Whistles and flutes are among the top home made instruments.

Since my childhood, camping was part of my life. We went with Uncle Irvin and Aunt Bert to the Pisgah Forest of North Carolina for many years. Oh the stories I remember, at night around a camp fire. I guess it is those things that cause the fire to grow about being back to nature.

Funny back then we NEVER had a tent. the adults slept in the cars/trucks and the younger folk slept on picnic tables or the ground. I do not remember it ever raining to spoil our trip

My mama was good about starting a song on the right key, and we sand with her many nights.

As I grew older and Sherry and i started traveling, I have learned that music is a big part of Camping (RV’ing) life.

 

One park a guy had a key board and entertained everyone whether they wanted it or not. There were complaints. HE did not realize anyone would be offended.

The oddest instrument I have seen in a park was a Bass horn.  In a park near Sarasota, every day for an hour or so a guy would huff and puff his big base horn. It is really hard to make out a song played on a bass.

The absolute most entertaining home made instrument was in the adjoining campsite once in the Shenandoah's.

The old man made the ‘Hammered Dulcimer’. I had heard of the instrument, but had never seen one. I had always pictured it as the steel drum in Jamaica. But it was altogether different. It is a stringed instrument played with small hammers, the strings are hit rather than plucked as a guitar. Our neighbor could make some good music. the Kids gather around as they always do to music, and he had them singing.

All stringed instruments are  familiar at camp sites.

Thanks for coming this way.

Nite Shipslog

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<V>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

1914 was the year to look like an Airplane

The 1914 Morgan above looks like it has jets.

 

1914 was the year of the plane car, evidently

Stuff

We have too much ‘stuff’, do you? When we go to our RV park in Lenoir just before the park there is a house that has grown ‘stuff’ since we first started going. He had an old school bus in his yard, he filled it. Then he started filling his Attached carport. He eventually filled it up. covering some of the stuff with plastic and tarps. Then he had one of the free standing carports installed for his car. The last couple times were have been by, he now has the carport FULL to the top, and he parks in the driveway.

An organized Hoarder!

I guess, he would be listed as a hoarder. I have actually been in one hoarder’s house in Florida, the man was selling firewood. I had to go inside talk, I was amazed the TV was nearly covered with ‘stuff’ and he had once spot on a sort of couch to sit and watch. He must sleep there too.

In my life time I can remember when a mamma and daddy passed, the family divided up ‘Mama and Daddy's stuff’, now we don’t have room for more ‘stuff’.

Shucks even our car stores ‘stuff’. Back behind the back seat.

  

Anyway, I was thinking this week, not only our houses but our wallets and purses are FULL of stuff. Ladies get larger and larger Bags/Purses.  I think Sherry’s weighs 5-8 pounds now.

 

MY WALLET?  It is so full I cannot find something when I need it. I must have 24 cards or memberships plus Driver’s License and I.D. I don’t have room for ‘ALL MY MONEY’ (SMILE).

REWARDS CARDS everyone is touting ‘em. I have eighteen million various rewards points and have no idea how to use them. Some I didn’t even know I had.

I have heard that one day we won’t need cash, just the card. Shucks, I won’t be able to find the right one.

I don’t see an end to ‘STUFF’ any time soon.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

I once declared, when I have a garage, I will never fill it with ‘STUFF’ and park outside. I enjoy driving into one when it is snowing or raining and lower the door and get out in a dry GARAGE.

Now we don’t have a garage and I miss it when it is raining.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<V>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

My next on file is 1913

Leon Bollee, French I think.

1913 Chenard Walcker

My job

Since I have a habit of staying up until one or two in the morning, long after my sweetie has gone to bed to read, I have assigned myself the nite job of cleaning the sink so my lady will not get up to any dirty dishes in the sink. She always beats me up since like now it is 1:10 AM and I should be in bed.

While I washed the dishes tonight I took note that all I think of lately to talk or BLOG about is memories. Since it has been pretty hot I thought again of the 4th -6th Grades I spent in Albemarle, NC. My best friend and life long buddy was Von Dale, I met him there.  He knew about Rock Creek Park Swimming pool. We could swim all day for 15¢. On the way walking, we passed the ice plant. The workers were always nice to us boys, we could get up under the dock and where the Big 200 pound blocks slid downward to the Ice trucks; there was a crack and it shaved the bottom of the block.

I got that picture on the right (VonDale) from an old girl friend of his.

It was like getting a free snow cone with out the flavor. It was cool underneath and we would lie there and make mini-snowballs and eat them. You didn’t have to wait for a block to slide to get the shavings since there was usually a small mountain about 6” to a ft. high.  But it was always fun catching it fresh shaven. What a treat on a hot day.

Just after the ice plant was the Rail Road tracks that we took as a short cut to Rock Creek park. The the fun was to see who could walk the farthest on a track with out getting over balanced and falling off. When we got bored with that we tried running on the track and the last thing was to jump or hop from one rail to the other, Von Dale was best at that because he was a little taller.

Sometimes I swam in my underwear, but most times I swam in Long Creek nekkid, most of the boys did. So I did not have a bathing suit. I told Von Dale that. “Don’t worry, Joe will have a pair of trunks that will fit you. The rich kids leave them all the time.” he assured me.

Sure enough, Joe had a pair and gave them to me. What fun to swim in the clear blue water.  WE were like ducks; there when it opened and there when it closed. 

Saturdays at Rock Creek park.

Nite Shipslog

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<V>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I am going to try to go thru the years with autos  Since the big deal today is electric,  this shows it is not a new idea.

This is a 1910 Electric Truck, a Walker

Our Craziest Trip

Sherry and I match in our love to travel. Before we decided to travel full time we loved to go on weekends, holidays and vacations. Once we decided to flip a coin at every intersection, Heads=Right, Tails=Left. After traveling 45 minutes we were back home, so we gave up that idea, and drove to the mountains.

Sherry does not like to fly and I love it. Our dream trips were different, She wanted to go to Israel, I  to Alaska. It happened that some of her friends from the church were going to Israel, I was busy with a house (or something) so she partnered with Alice (My friend Buck’s wife) and they FLEW to Israel and loved it.

One year the airlines were bumping heads on fares and they got down to $275 round trip to Frankfort. Buck usually dug my footers and I asked if he and Alice would like to go. So we got our passports and international driver’s license and went. We rented a car and started driving. Let’s go to Paris.

Germany is a beautiful country. The roads in the farm fields are paved. I got lost once, I was on a farm road, I could see the Autobahn but could not get on it. The Autobahn was like our interstate system with no speed limit. WOW that is a trip.

I mentioned the language thing a couple days ago, signs are also a little tough. Not quite as easy for my map reader to get me ‘there’. Thru Luxemburg and  Belgium Producing passports, trying to understand, a couple places they just shook their heads and waved us on.

     

In Paris we drove around and one of the stupidest things we ever did was NOT go to the Eiffel Tower.

This is the closest that we got. I loved the country side in Europe. It is gorgeous. It was hard for us to realize the devastation of WWII to the land, but it is back and gorgeous. On a French Audubon, Sherry once asked if I knew how fast I was going, I said NO without looking off the road, she said slow down we are going 105 mph. I could not slow down or I would have gotten run over.

Most of the hotels/motels were reasonable. But when we got to Zurich, Switzerland. The only hotel available was the Senator, $275 a night. OUCH. But the drive thru the country was great, then back into the Rhineland, the beautiful Black Forest, more gorgeous views and country side.

Inside the Castle grounds.

This is a ceramic wood burning furnace for the castle. All the openings (no windows) were covered with deer skins in the winter.

We toured a Castle in Heidelberg, Then on back to Frankfort  for the flight back to Charlotte, a whirlwind week, not knowing where we were headed, all we knew was we were going to Germany.

Nite Shipslog

PS: We had depended on our movie camera for pictures and it failed us.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<V>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The 1959 Firebird, this one never made production either.

This is the last of my non-production cars. There were hundreds of others, but that is all I had.

The Pocket Knife

There is not a day I do not use my pocket knife. Today I was working on a John Deere mower, BTW this has been an albatross for about 5 years.  It is Mark’s mower but taking up space here. Finally it is running and mowing. So I am doing the trim, pretty stuff. The paint on a JD is very thick, like a plastic coat. The paint has turned loose in spots and I used my knife to trim it out, and touch up the paint.

As I looked at the knife, I thought, what a history in this small utility tool.

I’ve made whistles, some folk have made art.

I am from an era when EVERY boy in school, from  early childhood had a knife in his pocket. Hundreds of boys, and no one that  I know of was ever cut in anger.  Plenty of  self inflicted small cuts, but none to your peers.

      

It trimmed and cleaned my fingernails. It opened boxes and sharpened my pencils. It was used to cut sticks for roasting wieners. It cut sticks for my homemade kites. I passed hours just throwing it at boards to try to hit a target and stick it in the wood. Counting the swirls per step. Fun for a kid. I cut my name in trees.

I was a doctor, operating and removing the stubborn splinters boys get. It was handy to cut the perfect sling-shot prongs spotted in a dogwood tree.

(Just plain whittling!)

Daddy taught me to use it to skin a rabbit at six years old, and I furnished supper a couple times from my rabbit boxes before we moved to the city. In town I used it to remove nails and glass from my bicycle tires before patching the tube.

Plug a watermelon, clean a fish, cut tent stakes and poles. The pocket knife was ALWAYS there. I liked what Gary said when Debbie asked him did he have his knife?

“Got my pants on don’t I?”  That was a fact for more years than I can count. Now you cannot enter a court house or board a plane with a pocket knife. A testimony to our world today. Kids today will never know the responsibility of using a knife, of keeping it sharp and clean. They will never know the thrill of seeing it shave some hair from your arm to prove it is sharp.

Nite Shipslog

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<V>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This did not make production.

1959 Cadillac Cyclone. I must admit, this dream car is not a dream to me. BUT I WOULD DRIVE IT!

I Pledge allegiance

I am torn in my thoughts of the flag of the confederacy.I RESPECT the Confederate Flag because I have family who fought under that Ensign. And to a point, it does represents States rights.

Then on the other hand It was the worst war the USA has ever been involved in.  It was the worst kind of war, politicians pitting Americans against Americans. Pitting family against family, for their own agenda. Please remember this is my heart felt opinion.

I hear Southerners quip,’The South is going to rise again.’ SURE, and that person doesn’t realize the number of deaths that occurred the last time we ROSE! They CAN NOT realize if you add all the deaths of Americans from all the wars up to Afghanistan (That includes WWI,WWII, Korea and Vietnam)  you would reach the approximate number killed in the NOT SO CIVIL WAR.

Stubborn politicians who should have been able to work out the situation (Both North and South) pushed us into a war.

What was it about? States rights, Slavery, or Ignorance? It was about all of them. I have friends who say ‘The war was not about Slavery it was State’s rights.’  I have to tell you, it is a nice thought and there is SOME truth in it, but all in all IN MY HUMBLE OPINION it was mostly about slavery.

     

Strange thing most likely over 98% of the men who died defending the South had NEVER and would NEVER own a slave. My family history is farmers and share croppers. Hard working Georgia Folk, but they still went to war because of LEADER STUPIDITY.

NOTHING ASSOCIATED WITH THE NOT SO CIVIL WAR WAS WORTH A  MILLION AMERICAN LIVES, half killed the other wounded.

On the Appalachian Trail there are 2 graves. Sheltons  (Uncle and Nephew) from the NC mountains who chose to join the Union  and fight. They were secretly  coming home to their families to celebrate Christmas when their NEIGHBORS ambushed and killed them. That was a sad moment on our joyful hike thru the Appalachian Mountains.

I have only pledged allegiance to one flag, The
Stars and Stripes, MY FLAG, the AMERICAN FLAG. I and millions of other like me have pledged our lives to defend it and the country it represents. I have only one FLAG The American Flag.

Like it or not the flag is divisive.  And I despise that. We have enough problems in this country without using the Rebel Flag as a rallying point. As a Southerner, I say it is time to put it in a museum.

Everyone who can, SHOULD visit Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and read the history of the battle, I cried, standing on the ground where 51,000 soldiers died (We lost 58,000 in Viet Nam in all the years of fighting), try to imagine 51,000 men dying in a few days in ONE BATTLE. AMERICANS KILLING AMERICANS.

That is my opinion. Thank God and the USA I have a right to it and Freedom to express it. If you differ, I still love and respect you, I can agree to disagree without a fight.

Thanks for reading my drivel.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

In the ‘Dukes of Hazzard’, the Rebel Flag was used to entertain and SHOW southern comedy.

In the KKK way it is one of hate and division.   

                    

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<V>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

1958 Ford X-2000

, Never made production…

Simple pleasures

Elizabeth has a blogs at ‘Simple Pleasures’, She does a lot of boating, emphasizing the simple things (that are not always simple to me, (smile), but fun to read.) They travel around and put their boat in and have fun. The other day I recognized a shot from the Dora Canal. One of the prettiest miles on the water.

We lived on Lake Dora, right at the mouth of the canal. When we had visitors, they had to see the canal.

Then MA (What’s new at my house) got me thinking of  time without A/C. And the simple pleasures of Summer.

WE lived mostly in the Piedmont section of North Carolina. That is close enough for a picnic lunch and a drive to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Simple family fun, hoping to see a bear or deer. Usually we saw both.

I did swim in a real city pool a few times, but most of the times it was in a creek. Sometimes not knee deep, but in the summer who cares.

For a couple times our home was close to the Catawba River.  Simple fun, a cane pole, a pint jar of pinto beans, an onion from a farmers garden and my dog Ace. Fishing and swimming. Simple fun.

Swings are simple pleasures whether in the woods on a vine, over a creek on a single rope or on the front porch.

Did your mama ever spray you with the garden hose? I thought of that yesterday when Sherece had Stella out on the drive under shower from a garden hose.

Then a thunder storm on a hot day, enough to put water running in the gutter or ditch. Wading barefoot and smelling the earth after a shower. What a pleasure.

Growing up we did not have Air conditioning of course, and I liked to sleep on the porch.

There is a story in Sherry’s family. Her mama Susie was visiting son Vernon & family in Detroit. She slept in Rick’s room. As usual, it was hot and they were sweating.  Susie said Rick (about 6 yrs old) looked over at her and said, “Nice and warm tonight, isn’t it?”

(Rick is in Saudi Arabia at present, nice and warm there too!)

Now for old folk, a simple pleasure in the summer is, AIR CONDITIONING.

Nite Shipslog

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<V>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This Chrysler Diablo never made it to Production either, I sure like it.