Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. #T

Very early in the life of String Too Short to Tie I posted this tribute to Walt Kelly as a part of the series "Philosophers I Admire.".  Today is the 99th anniversary of his birth.  So, slightly reworked, I present this again in his honor.

It was during my sophomore year of college that I was introduced to Walt Kelly by Pogo. Kelly quickly became one of my heroes. Why? 1) Kelly is the greatest artist that ever drew a comical strip; 2) He had the keenest and most incisive insight into the way the world works and; 3) if you didn't "get it" at once, it would creep up on you and slam you into the swampwater.

Pogo, of course, was the philosopher of the Okeefenokee, but without his foils, Albert, Churchy and Howland, his ruminations and observations could never have been delivered to a needy world.
These regulars were assisted by a huge cast of characters drawn from Kelly's fertile mind as the need arose. Even the bugs made significant contributions to our edification.

Probably the most famous Walt Kelly quote, as delivered by Pogo, is "We have met the enemy, and he is us." But there are quote-worthy snippets in most every presentation as the critters go about lampooning human behavior and lancing the sores on our society.

A ferocious feline tells Mouse, "It ain't that your majority is outnumbered, Mouse. You're just out-surrounded." or, Pogo again,

"Some is more equal than others, as is well known." or one of my personal favorites,

Pogo: "But how about if the one guy is right an' the 10,000 is wrong."

Though it is not the Christmas season, in honor of Mr. Kelly let us all join the Perloo Society in a verse of "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie" (to be sung to the tune of, well you know.)

Deck us all with Boston Charlie,

Walla Walla, Wash..an' Kalamazoo!

Nora's freezin' on the trolley,

Swaller dollar cauliflower

Alleygaroo!

Don't we know archaic barrel,

Lullaby Lilla Boy,

Louisville Lou.

Trolly Molly don't love Harold,

Boola boola Pensacoola

Hullabaloo!

Mr. Kelly quoted his father as having said, "Language is the worst means of communincation known to man. Pictures and good luck will get you anywhere."

WALT KELLY  August 25, 1913 – October 18, 1973 RIP

Ghost Signs

A couple of weeks ago I posted this picture in conjunction with my report on an outing which included a visit to Peru.  I had spotted this sign and had to stop to snap the picture.  I keep my eye peeled for these as they are becoming quite rare with the passing of time, the razing of buildings, and the painting over that comes with "updating."  Jim whose blog is "Down the Road"  commented on the photo and referred to this as a "ghost sign," a term I did not know.
 

 

This sign is in downtown Tipton, right at the intersection  of the two principal streets.  But you'd have to know where to look if you hoped to find it.  I took a photo of this wall probably twenty-five years ago.  The colors were much more vivid then, as I recall.  A few more years and it may no longer be legible.

Five years ago we were in Cripple Creek where I shot these signs.  This Pittsburgh Saloon-Baxter's Cigar sign is my favorite.

It is evident that I did not take sufficient efforts to get a good picture of the Owl sign.  I should have found someone who would have admitted me to a second floor opposite where I might actually have seen the sign. I mean the rest of it.

Quite obviously, cigars were a big deal in Cripple Creek back in the day!  The five-cent variety must have been quite popular.  Or the most affordable.

Which reminds me of Indiana's own one-time governor and later vice-president, Thomas Marshall, who said, "What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar."  Apparently none of these would have passed muster with Mr. Marshall.*

As recently as my own earlier adulthood, one could buy Swisher Sweets for a nickel.  I worked with a guy who used them.  I think they should not have passed muster with anyone, but there was a clientele.

 

*The comment was not original with Mr. Marshall, nor did he claim it to be.  It appeared in print as early as 1875.  Marshall may have picked it up from reading Kin Hubbard, of whom he was a fan, according to Jeffrey Graf, Indiana University Library.

A Leading Industry in Perfect

5000 people, five banks

Sunday Post on Tuesday

Sylvia and Chuck's church is just one mile down their Secondary Road.  So Sunday morning we went down that road and met a number of very friendly and interesting people.  One elderly lady (meaning someone of my age) revealed that she had a sister who lived in Marion.  I told her we had a daughter and a grandson in Marion.  Turns out her sister attends the same church the grandson and his wife attend.

Interesting conversation with the Pastor as we sipped coffee before the service.  Though he had never met him, he knew who my father was.  Pastor Mark's first charge was in Pennville, Indiana, a village where I had applied for a teaching job over fifty years ago, which is to say we shared some geography, for he had lived in Eaton, I in Muncie.  Well, at different times; Mark is a generation younger than I.

The Sunday School lesson revolved around the death of King Saul, a topic I had dealt with briefly on the blog this past winter.  Fascinating discussion.

Pastor Mark's sermon was titled "Heaven: A Gated Community."  He read John's description of heaven as recorded in the Revelation.  He pointed out that we are given very little about heaven by way of description.  He posed the question, Why are we given such sketchy information?  His answer was this, which I found interesting.  We are told so little lest we make an idol of heaven and worship it instead of focusing our worship on God.

Conclusion: Wherever God is is Heaven.  We are not concerned about the architecture of Heaven when we are in the presence of God!

Following the service, we had our farewell luncheon with our hosts at the local Chinese eatery.  Very tasty comestibles, followed by an easy and uneventful drive home.

Pallies' Palaver

 From three different points of the compass three bloggers drove certain distances to join the fourth member of this quartet in his beautiful corner of the world.
Our Blogfest began with a really great picnic in the park along with the members of Sylvia's ham radio club.  From the park we adjourned to the home of Chuck and Sylvia for much talk and a great good time!

David (vanilla), with BBBH, came from Perfect to the south, Joan (Sharkey) came from the shores of the Great Lake, and Lin with her husband, Joe, came from Weirdville in the west.  Chuck and his wife, Sylvia, hosted the event.

The four of us have been reading one another's blogs for about three years, but none of us had met in person.  Lin was the sparkplug who got the ball rolling, Chuck and Sylvia jumped right in with the invitation to their digs, and vanilla and Shark were just as excited as they about the prospects of meeting.  So it was.

And this begs the question, were these people anything like you had imagined from reading them?  In a word, yes.  Our visit together made it clear to me that these are real people who in no way misrepresent themselves via their blogging efforts.  They are every bit as interesting, and more so, as they are on the pages of the internet.

The fact that the spouses helped make this happen is a testimony to their devotion to their mates, and to their patience with the bloggy pastime they have chosen.

The disappointments were few but here they are.  Lin and Joe did not bring Em or Colin with them, nor did they bring Hobbes and Grace.  Om was unable to attend with Sharkey; and the hours flew by all too swiftly!

Notwithstanding that Chuck and Sylvia  had fenced their beautiful and abundantly productive garden, ostensibly to keep the deer away, the fence nevertheless did not keep my dear out.  She hopped the fence and immediately started raiding from the bounty!

It was a weekend long to be remembered and cherished.  Thanks to you all who made this a special time, and especially thanks to Chuck and Sylvia for their hospitality.

Camping, 21st Century Style

Probably if you are old enough to remember when "camping" meant getting away from it all you are in the same age range I'm in.  Over the years we traded our fire-building skills for gas grills.  We exchanged our tents and sleeping bags for RVs and the campgrounds installed electrical outlets.  Thus we take our microwaves and our television sets and our satellite dishes.

Much more recently, we have taken to taking our telephones because we take them everywhere.  Some of us remember when one of the principal joys of camping was to be disconnected from the workaday world we normally occupy.  Now we even take that with us.

I am amused at the old folk with whom we camp, for the first thing they do upon arrival at the campground is to open the phone to see how many, if any, bars they have.  Oh, the agony of  "no service!"  At Mississinewa where we most recently camped, the Verizon customers are all in a panic because they can't call Susie or Ned.  On more than one occasion I have loaned my AT&T phone to someone so they can call home.   To what depths have we fallen?  We don't even know the meaning of getting away, finding some solitude, or communing with nature.

And now we want our wifi connection so that we may continue to be connected to the interwebs.  Yes, I am one of those.  And in at least two of our state parks (there may be others) wifi access is available now.

Camping?  Why the heck don't we just stay home and save the lugging of all our possessions with us everywhere we go?  Well, it is the camaraderie with all those pacing around, pulling their hair because they can't make a phone call.

Got any bars?  (Did you ever watch a seventy-four year old man climb on top of his RV in hopes of getting that elusive or non-existent signal?)

CCF Meets at Mississinewa

 When I wrote that we were going to be disconnected from the world for a time, I did not realize that since our last visit the entire park at Mississinewa Recreation Area has been wired for wifi and thus I was able to make a couple of posts while we were there.

 

 It will not surprise you that we found plenty of time to partake of good food.  Early and often, as it is sometimes said of voting.

 I showed you yesterday a bit of our visit to the circus museum.  While we were in downtown Peru I saw this old ad on the side of a building.  I "collect" these, and they are becoming quite scarce as buildings are razed or walls are painted over.  You may be able to tell that this was originally a Mail Pouch ad which was painted over to advertise Jacob Opp's Saloon.

 

Along the Mississinewa River east of Peru there is a steep escarpment going down to the stream.  This area is called "Seven Pillars" for the river has carved pillars into the base of the cliff.  We did not go down to the bottom to look at it, but there is this break in the surface where one can look down to the river and see one of the pillars.  It is there just to the left of the greenery, not so impressive in the picture, but in 3-D it is quite interesting.  (That pillar is a long way down from where I was standing.)



This was how we spent Monday evening.  It rained all night, but cleared by five in the morning and the rest of the entire outing was beautiful.

BBBH refused to allow a little rain to dampen her enthusiasm for fireside fun.

Faded Glory

Many circuses had their own trains.

The elephant barn is now a museum.

There remain two elephants on the grounds.

The boys check out the ride.

The circus parade.

We drove five or six miles from the park to the site of the Circus Museum.  I am not now nor have I ever been a big fan of the circus.  But I was happy to go along with the youngsters for the ride.  Clearly much effort went into the collecting of artifacts and building the displays in this museum, but it is also clear that the popularity of the attraction has waned and little attention seems to be given to the facility.  We found three people and two elephants on the grounds.  There was an elderly gentleman in the office who was more than willing to take our admission fee.  He told us to drive on down, look around, stay away from the animals, and ask him anything when we finished our tour.  We followed the first three directions and skipped the fourth.  There were two men working around old junk, perhaps engaged in attempting to restore a wagon.  The interior of the facility was all ours.

In addition to posters, costumes, chariots and so much more, a large section was a circus model builders paradise.  A complete circus with parade, trains, bigtop and performers was underway in HO scale.  It was the most interesting feature of the place.