Do They Even Dream...

It's a sign of approaching fall. The squirrels at my house are eating pine cones and their seeds. Maybe they will eat pine cones all year long but for some reason I notice the remains of their activity on the ground more this time of year. 

My granddaughter, Parker likes to see squirrels. When she was younger, in an effort to get her to alert to the natural world when a squirrel would appear everyone tried to show her the creature by shouting "squirrel, squirrel." Now big enough to spot them herself she thinks the name of the critter is squirrel squirrel. Whenever I see a squirrel I say to myself "there's old squirrel squirrel." You probably think, "that guy does not have much to say to himself." You might be right.   

I wonder if, in the course of pursuing squirrel business, the squirrel checks the pine cones periodically  to see if they are ripe. Kind of like when I check to see if the mail or the newspaper has arrived. Sometimes I know damn well it has not but I look anyway. 

Apparently squirrels will eat the green or the dry brown cones. I know some of ya'll are doing good research on the latest Covid cure this morning but I found out that squirrels eat probably three quarters of the pine seeds produced by the forest each year and that's a good thing because I don't want that many pines growing up in my yard. I also found that the green cones are easier to shuck, they eat the seed and the cone and that with a little prep work the squirrels will prepare the cones for winter storage so they keep better but I have not seen evidence of that around here.

The evidence of squirrel feeding in my photo is at the base of a large oak tree. The pine tree is fifty feet away. The squirrels apparently pick the cones from the pine, transport them to the oak and sit there to eat them. Which tree is best? When I was a child there were pear trees in my mom's yard that she made the best pear pies from and also pears growing in our neighbors yard. They got ripe about this time each year and sometimes while playing in my backyard a pear would come crashing through the foliage of a large, tall oak to the ground. I was at first amazed that a pear came off the oak but I realized that the squirrel responsible was sitting up there hidden in the tree. As tasty those pear pies were I imagined him to be sad after the work of carrying the huge pear high in the branches that he dropped it.     

I did some of this wondering aloud about all what a squirrel thinks and how he approaches his business to my wife. She said I was attributing human behavioral characteristics to an animal. As a rhetorical question she asked, "Do squirrels dream of electric sheep?"     

 

The Lufkin Brass at the Texas State Forest Festival...

 The Lufkin Brass played the Texas State Forest Festival this year. It's not really our first gig as we have played at First Lutheran Church and St. Patrick's Catholic Church but it is the first one exposing ourselves to the general public. The music went well, reviews and compliments have been positive and the future looks bright for a quintet playing polkas, popular tunes and music appropriate to special occasions. 

You can tell we are a real band because we have that angry young men against a brick wall for one of our publicity photos.   

Ken is on trumpet, flugelhorn and cornet. 

Dwain is on cornet. 

Ross plays alto horn but is a versatile musician and can step in on French horn or baritone. 

John covers the baritone parts but is also a multi instrumentalist who has played trumpet, mellophone and is a capable woodwind player.   

Carl is on tuba. 

I think with the development of the downtown area and the coming designation of a state cultural district will bring about more opportunity for brass music.  

Our current practice schedule is focused on adding a few dixie land and ragtime tunes to the polka heavy repertoire. You can plan on the Lufkin Brass to be ready to roll out the barrel.  

Please check out our Facebook page The Lufkin Brass

 

Asleep at the Wheel at the Pines Theater...

I have forgotten how many times I've seen the famous western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. That's a good thing because the reason for that is that I have seen them so many times. Last night I added one more date to that list when the played the Historic Pines Theater in downtown Lufkin. It's the band's 50th year of operation.  

Of course in 50 years of operation many members have come and gone, most of them on to bigger and better things but the constant driving force and only original remaining is leader, vocalist and guitar picker Ray Benson. Ray is a national treasure. It's kind of like you took Louis Jordan, Cab Calloway, the Andrews Sisters and ran their music through a Bob Wills/western swing filter and this is what came out the other side. I think they have 10 Grammy nominations.  

As I think back on all the times I've seen them, and I think those times have all been in the East Texas area, I recall once at an outdoor Willie Nelson thing somewhere around Nacogdoches in the late 1970s. It had rained, everybody's car got stuck and The Wheel came out on stage with no electricity and played with an acoustic, a string bass and a sax. That's how to fulfill a performance contract. 

I can think of five or six shows that stand out in my mind over the years but there may be more.   

Always top quality musicians. I did not get all the band member names but you can bet their resumes are top of the line and you will be seeing these guys with other top outfits in years to come.  

In Texas you always need a fiddle, a steel guitar and don't forget that sax! 

I looked it up. Ray is 70 years old. Asleep at the Wheel is 50. He's been at his awhile now. 

Nice Telecaster guitar on stage with a Bob Wills logo on the back. They never used it but Bob is still the King. 

There are many good bands scheduled for stops in Lufkin at the Pines and at Temple Theater. I suggest you get a schedule. 

 

Cathy Has a Hip Replacement...

After a period of hobbling around that was frequently exacerbated by a night at work on her feet, lots of stairs or long walks Cathy had a hip replacement on Sept 21st. Doctor Guse was the surgeon, Woodland Heights was the hospital. It was an anterior approach type surgery. I'm the boss of her physical therapy. The photo is the old hip cartilage. The worn area is circled.   

The new implant. She's going to need that airport hurry through the metal detector card. 

This photo shows the alignment. Looks like they evened her up pretty good. 

She was home from the hospital less than 24 hours after the surgery ended. Getting around well with the help of a walker now but one of the benefits of the anterior approach is that recovery to the least assistive device is quick. 

Thanks for everyone's prayers and well wishes!  

 

This Might Be The Only Catfish Report For September...

A lot happened this weekend and more stuff will happen this coming week. Life is tough on blog writers getting it all down but one thing that's important is recording the catfish count for any fishing trips so we get that yearly total correct. 

We ambled out to the lake, leaving mid morning which has become our usual lazy departure time. Most people think the best fishing times are early and late. I have news for you. Fishing are biting somewhere on the lake at all times. Fisherman just have to be in the same spot as a hungry school. 

The morning started out hot and still. Some people were fooling around making selfies while others, for whom life is not a joke were trying to find fish.  

We began catching a few in our usual deep spots on punch bait fished on the bottom 29 feet deep and the action might have picked up as the wind shifted out of the north. A little wind never hurts the fishing and it certainly cooled down the fishermen. 

With cooling temps we have had luck shallow slip corking during the fall but it seems like the past several years the deep spots have been our best from late summer till late winter. 

September 1st a new regulation went into effect that all catfish under 12 inches are keepers. We did not keep any under 12. 

Brother in law Matt holds up a good one. 

Final count was 33 catfish. Of course we could have harvested more but this turned out to be just right. We arrived home to find our old neighbor, Bob, whose step son lives next door to us using his personal tractor to fill holes in our short, dead end county road. We gave a mess of fillets to Bob and his wife Robbie for being such good neighbors and then had enough left to feed us and the Zamora family. 

Sometimes my grandson Ezra comes to me and says "catch catfish" and sometimes he says "eat catfish." He was happy to "eat catfish."

 

Using Books I have Read, Family Photos and Ancestry Research for a Few Ideas...

I was looking through old family photos. This one comes from a folder on my computer titled "unknown." I have never been one to make photos at the cemetery but I have done it for my family if that's what they wanted. Seems it was pretty common for my Wiley side to do this and there a number of graveside photos.  

I don't know these people in the photo. I don't know whose grave they stand by. It's undated but I guess before World War I due to the style of the clothes and the man's hat. It could be later because sometimes rural people and this is probably Arkansas or Tennessee, are a decade behind the styles. Also of note is the man's right hand. It's bandaged. 

I know for a fact that my mom had two siblings pass away before she was born. It was common in those days. My wife lost family members to the Influenza Epidemic of those years. One of my mother's siblings that I found the death certificate for was Martha J. Wiley born April 14,1921 and died March 23, 1923. Cause of death, best I can make out from the Doc's handwriting is typhus with a complicating factor of measles.    

Seems I have noticed some that make a controversy these days when the cause of death is listed as covid with complications. From my examination of this record they have been doing things this way for quite a while. 

 A book I recently read, 1942 The Year That Tried Men's Souls by Forrest Gump author Winston Groom. It's a very readable war history but the one part that I have returned to think about is that after Pearl Harbor when patriotic Americans flocked to enlist in the military many were not healthy enough to be of use by the armed forces. Groom does not examine this but I can imagine that with the the country suffering through the Depression and the Dust Bowl of those years public health might not have been at it's best. A couple of years down the line say in 1943 when my dad was drafted things might have been a bit better as New Deal relief programs contributed to healthier citizens. 

It's a fact that when an event like WW2 comes along you need healthy people. You also need smart people and when we have politicized distractions affecting our schools like there has been during the pandemic some students are going to fall through the cracks.  

What if we have a big critical event in the next few years?  Public health seems to be suffering and education is not in good shape either. If you put things together like I have here look for a lot of cemetery photos.      

 

Las Cafeteras at the Heritage Festival...

The City of Lufkin did a great job booking the band to play the Heritage Festival and Market Days. Las Cafeteras, from East Los Angeles rocked the stage set up on First Street between the old Lufkin National Bank and Angelina Hotel with some great music that they describe as "Their Afro-Mexican beats rhythms and rhymes deliver inspiring stories that document a community seeking love and justice in the concrete jungles of L.A." That philosophy and music resonates here in Lufkin also.       

Traditional instruments combine with the modern to form a danceable mix of beats, old folk songs with an updated bilingual version of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" thrown in for good measure.  

Powerful voices and great musicianship.

Hector, the man in the white jacket was an energetic front man. the band's web site lists one of his hobbies as playing anti imperialistic soccer where the score is always 2-2. Check the bios of the musicians on the internet. I think there is a little more to these people than say the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd who list what they know as fishing and playing guitar.   

All were great singers and dancers.

For their final number they invited my friend Casey Williams and his congas up to jam. Casey of Avenue Speak was set up at the festival with a drum circle. He was a natural fit for the music of the group. 

If you get a chance check out Casey and his Drum Talk drum circles. It's a program to provide education on the benefits of hand drumming. There's a bit of how to live better that gets discussed also and who does not need that?

 I have attended one of Casey's Drum Talks, we have done some street jamming and played a Drum and Tuba Christmas program. I guess I can add to my resume that I have played with a guy that's played with Las Cafeteras. 

I think the name Las Cafeteras translates roughly to "The Coffee Makers." There was no coffee served but this music will certainly wake you up in many different ways. 

Thanks again City of Lufkin for bring this great show. 

 

 

The Church of Shark Handling...

 It was sci writer L. Ron Hubbard who claimed the best way to make a bunch of money is to found your own religion. Hubbard, who passed away in 1986 went on to do just that, amid much controversy, founding the Church of Scientology. On a family beach trip to Surfside, Tx I had the brilliant idea to do the same but avoiding conflicts by pursuing salvation through shark handling. After all Shark Week is an incredibly popular TV show and that kids song, probably from some other show, "baby shark shark shark" is stuck in my head so the more I think about it the more it makes sense.  

For proper shark handling you gotta get a shark. As sharks come in all sizes it helps to have a small one. Easier to handle it and as your faith grows you will be able to handle bigger ones.  

Raise them right and they will stay on the path. I didn't make that up. I heard it somewhere but I bet it will hold true with this one. He's started young. 

Of course some will be afraid and may deny the shark three or more times before some kind of good fish we can eat is caught. Due to the fact that sharks are apex predators of the food chain they tend to absorb lots of toxins like mercury in their flesh and while safe for the faithful to handle probably should not be consumed in excess by by small children and women of childbearing years as many of our church members fit that demographic.    

The laying of hands on the shark is a calming experience for the shark and the handler.

Bow before the mighty shark. Hail thee! 

The faithful bring their children from far and wide for the handling of the shark. 

Oh shark, I bow and look thee in the eye, thy teeth snap and slash but I shall not be afraid at all! 

You need high priests of the shark to be your spirit guides. 

Another high priest of the shark leads the little children to the water. 

Matt, the most high of the shark handlers gathers his congregation from up and down the beach. 

Oh hammer of my heart, I rejoice in you. 

Some do a little dance when they handle. Depends on how frisky the shark. 

And then there are those of little faith who can only catch hard head catfish. Luckily there are many rooms in my Father's house.   

All sharks CPRed, caught, photographed and released. 

Big Boy is Watching...

So I go in the nearby video rental place. It's a chore to find a suitable rental, lots of new releases and direct to video and nothing old or classic with many movies that were the last big hits seeming a little dated. Big Boy that works there, close to my age, lots of tats, squats on a a narrow stool eyes slitted, watching who comes through the door. He's prides himself on knowing every one's name and he has been trying to remember mine. He gets it right this time. He's probably pretty smart, a shining star among his peers, he's just missed on some opportunities that's all. 

Big Boy has been watching and he has pegged me as no ordinary dude. He says: "I looked up all those movies you been renting." I nervously laugh. "Oh yeah." I mean, wouldn't you start getting a little nervous? I think, maybe I should learn his name. He continues, "I figure you are some kind of professor, like at a college or something."

 Lucky my wife is with me, I start to feel a little hit on and nervously laugh again. I'm giggling like a school girl, hope he's not liking guys that do that. I said he's probably pretty smart, getting it close, if not right most of the time. And since he knows all my stuff, name address, phone and who knows what else I promised to do if they would just let me rent movies in a one horse town he can probably stumble on my house just down the road. My only defense is to try to scare him. I rent "Milk."