Songs of Company 252

If you missed the previous post, go see.   This will be short.

Here is the list of titles of  the songs in the Company 252 songbook.  If you would like to have the words of any of the songs, leave me a comment below, and I'll take care of it here.

SONGS OF COMPANY 252

1.    THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER

2.    WE ARE THE BOYS OF "252"

3,     HAPPY DAYS   (are here again)

4.     GLORIOUS   (Glorious, Glorious, one keg o' beer for the four of us)

5.     PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES (in your old kit bag...)

6.     AULD LANG SYNE

7.     SHE'LL BE COMIN' 'ROUND THE MOUNTAIN

8.    SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME

9.    DOWN BY THE OLD MILL STREAM

10.   THE SHOVEL SONG

11.   TAKE A TIP FROM ME

12.    PARLEY-VOUS   (C.C.C. words)

13.    POLLY WOLLY DOODLE

14.    GIRL OF MY DREAMS

15.    I WANT A GIRL JUST LIKE THE GIRL THAT MARRIED DEAR OLD DAD

16.    MOTHER MACHREE

17.    MY WILD IRISH ROSE

18.    THERE'S A LONG, LONG TRAIL (awinding)

19.    OUR CAMP WILL SHINE TONIGHT

20.     SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK

21.     LET ME CALL YOU SWEETHEART

22.    THE MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE  (see words in blog below)

23.    TAPS

Fading light dims the sight, and a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar drawing nigh, fall the night.

Day is done, gone the sun, from the lake, From the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest; God is nigh.

Then good night, peaceful night, till the light of the dawn shineth bright;
God is near, do not fear, Friend good night.     

and goodnight to all of you,  Mtz

The Man on the Flying Trapeze

This is the entry I made last week that the computer  (sometimes known as puter) (or pooter)  would not publish.
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Purple Font today.  Looks black, but it is purple.  Get in close to the screen.  Closer, closer, closer - this is where I have programmed a ugly witch to appear on the screen and scream bloody murder.  Did you see her?  Well come closer....closer....closer....
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Obviously you don't know me well enough.  I don't have the slightest idea how to program a computer to do squat.  Get your nose off the screen.  Let's move on.
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About a couple weeks ago, daughter Laura came to visit.  She likes to fish off the dock and contemplate the Universe.  Daughter Christine wanted to come visit but wanted to go camping at the same time.  In the near future she is meeting Son Roger and his daughter Megan somewhere west of Austin to go camping with his church group.   Alarm going off.  Be right back.  Have to change the water - we get to water on Thursday and Sunday.  This is Thursday.  figure it out.
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We searched for a park that had septic hookups for the motorhome and one could camp in a tent.  Christine wanted to practice b4 her adventure with those church going campers.  Mission Tejas State Park is a great place to camp out.  Nobody is there because they don't have one of those exciting water features or other attraction.  For pure-D campin', this is a good place with big loblolly pines and trails to spare.  The park was built back in the 30s by the C.C.C. - Civilian Conservation Corps.  More on that later.
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We had several nice park rangers to guide our adventures.   One morning the young park ranger gave a talk on the C.C.C.  We attended along with his wife and her parents.  There were plenty of empty seats.    This park had over 200 young men working and sweating and slaving to build the park.  When they got off work, there was no place to go - 20+ miles to the next real town.  The bosses created amusements for them.  The one that got my attention - as you might expect - was singing, group singing.  They would gather under the group shelter in the evening and sing away. Times were different then.
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As a display, our guide showed a Xerox copy of their song book.   23 songs in a book.  I am leading up to giving you the words to some of the songs.  Of course the book had no printed music, just the words.   I ask the guide if I could buy one of these up in the park store.  Nah, just take the one in your hand.  They missed a bet there.  Time to eat.  I'll be back in a different color.
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And so I am.   Green.  Had a delicious hamburger and turned off the water for the hot part of the day.
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Camp members were given a printed book of song words.  They were told to take them home when they leave - an aside here - C.C.C. required you "enlist" for 6 months minimum.  You were paid $35 a month and $30 was sent home to your family.  You kept $5 for you monthly expenses.  Times were different.   You will find this to be a different blog today.      The cover of the book says:
    
                             SONGS
                       of Company 252
    
                         Published By
                    C.C.C. Company 252
                        Camp T.V.A. 16
         LaFollette,                    Tennessee

The inside front cover had a

                                              FOREWORD
     There is probably no other single agency that promotes good fellowship and good morale as effectively as group singing.  Not only when we all get together in the recreation hall for that purpose, but riding to and from work, in the barracks and the many other places where it is appropriate to start a song and have others join in.  It is hoped that the publication of this little book, "Songs Of Co. 252", will help keep the morale of this camp high and afford many hours of pleasure to the members of the Company that like to sing.  After you leave company, we also hope that you will keep this little book as a treasured souvenir of your days spent in Co. 252.
A. M. BANKS       Commanding

On to the songs.   My favorite is # 22  THE MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE.  (read to end - we live in a different time)  (I'm spelling things like they did)

Once I was happy but now I'm forlorne
Like an old coat that is tattered and torn
Left in this wide world to weep and to mourn
Betrayed by a maid in her teens.
Oh, this maid that I loved she was handsome
And I tried all I knew, her to please
But I never could please her one quarter as well
As the Man On The Flying Trapeze.   Ooooh!!

                          CHORUS
He floats through the air with the greatest of ease
the daring young man on the flying Trapeze
His actions are graceful, all girls he does please 
And my love he has stolen away.

He' play with a miss like a cat with a mouse
His eyes would undress ev'ry maid in the house
Perhaps he is better described as a louse
But still people came just the same.
He'd smile from the bar on the people below
And one night he smiled on my love
She blew him a kiss and she hollered "Bravo"
As he hung by his nose up above.  Ooooh!!

                      (Repeat Chorus)

I went and I whimpered, I simpered for weeks
While she spent her time with the circuses freaks
The tears were like hailstones that rolled down my cheeks
Alas and alak and Alaska.
I went to this fellow the blackguard and said
I'll see that you get your deserts
His thumb to his nose he put up with a sneer
He sneered once again and said "Nertz".  Ooooh!!
            (Repeat Chorus)
One night to his tent he invited her in
Filled her with compliments and with gin
That started her off on the road to ruin
she made the supreme sacrifice.
But even tho' I loved her I aid "Take my name
I'll gladly forgive and forget"
She rustled her bustle and then without shame
she said "Maybe later, not yet".  Ooooh!!

                  (Repeat Chorus)
One night I as usual went to her dear home
Found there her father and mother alone
I asked for my love and soon 'twas made known
To my horror that she'd run away.
Without any trousseau she fled in the night
With him with the greatest of ease
From two stories high he had lowered her down 
to the ground on his flying trapeze.   Ooooh !!

                       (Repeat Chorus)
Some months after that I went into a hall -
To my surprise I found there on the wall
A bill in red letters which did my heart gall
The she was appearing with him.
He' taught her gymnastics and dressed her in tights
To help him live at his ease
He'd made her assume a masculine name
And now she goes on the trapeze.  Ooooh!!

                    CHORUS
She floats through the air with the geatest of ease
You'll think her a man on the flying Trapeze
Her actions are graceful, all girls does she please
And that's what's become of my love.

later all
m

experiment

Made another short trip.
Explanation:  I wrote an entry last Saturday.  When I hit "publish"  it wouldn't do it.
This is an experiment to see if it is worth my time or if I have a problem.
Then, I have a cute (I think) entreee


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It did publish this, so I move on to next one - unless the alarm goes off and I have to change the water again.
Or lunch.  I would stop for lunch too.   I would stop for lunch before I stopped for water changing.   Enough of that.

eating out, misc

There are some who might say that kids have it better today over what we had 50 - 60 years ago.  In some aspects, they are right.  It is just angle you choose to use for viewing.  Take the bit about playing video games or messing with computers all day instead of going outside - or, those who are now involved in ORGANIZED sports all the way from 1st grade on up - or, MP3 players or thereabouts - or, well that is enough to start.   
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As a child we played outside - chase, hide, seek, throw, fall down, you pick the verb.  All of that might be fodder for future blugs, but not today.   I love the way "spell check" cannot handle the word "blug."  Blog, on the other hand is perfectly acceptable.  Why izzit?  Bug, Bog, Lug, Log are all fine words for sure.  Why accept BLUG?
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As I type, I have just had a great idea for a blog,  oops,  blug someday.  I write a paragraph with my hands moved one key to the right. Then, give a prize to the first person who figures it out.  mpe jpe snpiy yjsy?
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Eating out:  There are so many places to go now-a-days.   Do you want mexican food?  I bet Corsicana had 5 to 10 easily available.  Chinese?  I know of 4....or maybe 5.  Chicken?  You can peck your way to a fried feast at 8 different joints.  Dairy Queen, sandwich places, chain restaurants like Denney's and Chili's - Last week Corsicana got a Schlotskys.   We have our favorites.  Our Kentucky Fried Chicken place closed and was replaced by a Golden Chicken....not the same fine taste (original please). To me it was absolutely no surprise they folded.  When you went in the local KFC, it was like a circus - the hired help constantly yelling and playing around and being unprepared - happened every time I went in there.
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Reminds me of a Whataburger store in Austin just south of the 290 split.  Those people were clueless to what was going on.  I think the manager had a valid excuse.  They seem to hire mentally retarded help.  Not making fun here.  There were always 2 or 3 mentally challenged people working on each shift.  T'was an interesting place to visit.  You have to admire a leader that will put his success on the skills of mentally challenged folks.  He must be a Saint.
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Back in my h.s. days in Levelland, we had limited places to go.  As with everything, if you never had something, you don't know you missed it.  You might hear about a particular thing and THINK you miss it, but you don't know for sure until you have tasted the pie.  Take color TV for instance. We had black and white TV for years.  We didn't know how great color was.  Then we had color but did we have a remote control?  Now that was fine...remote control.  And color too.  As I remember it, when we lived in Crete, Nebraska, about 20 miles from Lincoln - that would be about 1949 ...  Lincoln had color TV on some programs.   We had a black & white set that was about 5 inches across.  What fun.  Then we moved to Odessa - no TV.
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Remote control:  My father took his 27" B&W TV set - the biggest in town - and installed a motor on the tuner.  We only had 13 channels on the dial and only 2 channels that worked:  11 KCBD  and 13 KDUB   (named after the owner Dub something).  Later Tech channel 5 came in to play.  It wasn't strong enough to reach Levelland from Lubbock.  So we would have to get up and rotate the tuner left or right.  So Hard.
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But with his electric motor on the tuner - it had a cord that ran to his recliner - flip switch and the tuner ran around to the proper channel.  He was innovative.
You might ask, what does this have to do with restaurants above.  Frankly, if  you can find the connection, tell me.   
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that's enough for now.  We will discuss Levelland eating establishments in a later BLUG.  Go spell check, Go.
m

Only Greta

Originally I thought of this post as being a 2 sectional thing - but, something irritated me and I may add a 3rd at the end.  If I settle down, then, no 3rd part.   Politics make me uptight.  Some might say I have always been uptight.  Politics wires me up a bit too much - thus - I try to stay off politics on this page.
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#1   So we made a trip to Louisiana and had a good time with the 5 dogs and our Jamboree motorhome.  It was a good trip - willin' to go again soon.  The plantation was interesting;  the city was interesting; the travel countryside was interesting.  We elected to not go to an Alligator farm.  They were advertised as alligators and petting zoo.  I voted no.  Spouse gave no immediate argument.  I dislike alligators much like I dislike snakes.
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#2  Already I have stretched this to 3 things prior to politics.  Our dogs have different personalities and different levels of intelligence.  At least we think they have different levels.   Liesl, the white, seems to be smarter about lots of things.  We have a mechanical device which puts out food if the handle is pressed down.  Liesl is the only one who has that figured out.  She is afraid of thunder and loud booming noises.  The others could care less.  My theory:  She is smart enough to be afraid of the noises.
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Our little Greta, the snake killer, has a personality which is quiet and reserved until riled.  Barking  huskily at big birds flying overhead - she does this with passion.  Greta gets confused sometimes.  She knows certain things but gets them confused with others.   "PIT" we call out to get the dogs to go to their fenced area late at night - they take care of business and come back in, not worrying too much about stray owls or bobcats.  Each gets a cookie after the PIT.
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However, sometimes Greta gets confused and heads for the wrong door.  Or, she may take off for a particular bed to wait for her cookie.  And, so forth.  3 dogs went to the vet for rabies shots.  We have the new tags for their collars.  My plan:  take collar off, replace rabies tag, reinstall dog collar.  It worked like a jewel for Oscar and Bruno.  When I took off Greta's collar, she was headed outside to water the grass.   She came to the back door when finished.  I reinstalled the collar.  All seemed fine.
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She started a high whine and bouncing around the floor.  The other dogs soon picked up on the behavior.  High whine and barking - followed by more bouncing around the room.  She isn't too big at 10 lbs so that is a lot of bouncing.   I couldn't figure it out.  Then, a revelation.  I opened the way for her - Greta bounced to the front door.  She whined and messed with the door.  More barking and bouncing.
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Revelation:  she was ready to go bye-bye - scram - hit the road - go walking - travel to Louisiana - you name it.  The collar.  When I had messed with her collar as we will when attaching a leash, that triggered the response - Time to go on a trip.  Let's go.   bounce, whine, bark -- By this time she had all 5 worked up.   It took a bit to calm her down.  She still is ready to go though.
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I think I will let the other things wait till later.
Oscar needs to go outside and play ball.
m

     

Marathon #2

One of my favorite read over the years was  TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY - Steinbeck  I admit that I don't read enough.  Try Charley if you haven't.  So, we travel.  Should I name my posts  TRAVELS WITH GRETA, FRITZ, LIESL, OSCAR AND BRUNO,  Left the wife off the book title.  Surely she won't mind.

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Natchitoches is a pretty town.  Downtown has the brick streets and the lore of a town established by the French prior to the Louisiana Purchase.  A beautiful river/lake runs through the center.  It is a really nice place.  A National Park Ranger comes to town daily and gives a 2 hour lecture while walking the streets.  A tour of the old town if you will.  Around 10 a.m. the next morn, this lady led us through the city.  Nice person.  The information was good and the company was fine.  Two ladies were there from France making the tour.  Par-lay-voooo

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I had the question why the National Park Service would have people in Nak-a-tish.   East of town is an old slave - type plantation that was in working order before - well way back when.  It escaped destruction during the civil war and descendants of the original owner lived in it though the 1990s.  The slaves were gone - freed, if you will.  The owner gave it to the National Park Service rather than letting it die on the vine.

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That tour was interesting too.  It was not a mansion filled with gold.  It reminded me of a rather large farm house.  The slave quarters reminded me of where my grandparents and great grandmother use to live.  Shabby, to say the least.  If you get near the joint, go see.  A picture is worth a thousand words.  I have a picture in my mind; now, you go get one.

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Little aside.   One bedroom in the house had two 4 poster beds for the daughters.  There was a closet with a trap door.  The "mammy" who took care of the children lived under the house in an unfinished basement with rock walls and clap boards.  Remember this is before the Civil War. When the girls needed something, she would enter through the trap door.   We were told that a couple months ago, a lady came on the tour who was a grandchild of the "mammy"  The tour guide took her under the house to see where her grandmother lived.  She was quite touched.  Times were different then.  People did not think as we think today.

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Another thing was in the dining room - long table with 10 - 15 chairs.  Hanging from the ceiling was a device.  A slave boy, say about 10 yrs old or so, would come to meals and use a rope to make the device swing back and forth creating a breeze for the eaters - and it helped keep the flies off the food.  As the child got old, they "let" him work in the fields instead of the dining room.  What a joy.

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Downtown Natchitoches has a hardware store.  This store had been in continuous operaation since the late 1700s/early 1800s period.  The owners had plenty of merchandise to sell but had turned the place into a bit of a museum too.  It was a fun store to grapple through.  One of their big things were coolers of Cokes  (soft drinks) for sale.  It was a system where you put the money in a box and got your own coke - just like the good ole days.  The cokes were the small 6 oz type bottle drinks.  Sdaly, they were out of diet drinks.  I would suggest that everyone travel through this town  someday and plan to spend a day or two.

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When we left, we headed north towards Shreveport and reentry into Texas.  Our last night was spent in the Tyler State Park just outside of ....where? ... guess .... T Y L E R.   It is a beautiful State Park.  I love it.  We've been there twice, and both times were impressive for a camper.  The next day was spent in Tyler  touring a downtown Mansion - free admission yet - and the city museum a few blocks away - also free.  The museum was housed in one of the old Carnegie Library buildings.  If you don't know anything about Carnegie  (think Steel), that is something you should learn.

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My next entry - soon - will be another trip - this time to Mission Somthing State Park created by the CCC.

As I think of other things from the Louisiana trip, I'll make more entries.  Y'all be good now.

m

MARATHON POST #1

PRE=NUP BEFORE THIS IS PUBLISHED....I have been trying to write more, and something always gets in the way.  I wrote the following (uh, see below if confused) over a week - plus ago.  My intentions were good.  My efforts failed.   So here it is, as is.  If I don't get this done now, how will I ever catch up?   He asks?  Simple answer:  he won't.  So here is what I have at the moment.  I do have some better and longer stuff coming.
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Date: a couple weeks ago

iT HAS BEEN A WEEK - OOPS - cAP bUTTON IS DOWN - there, now that is better.   We start again.  It has been a week plus since my last posting.  We have been busy in retirement - not out seeing dead people but active in retirement - if you get my drift.  This may take more than one blog space, thus the title #1.  You should read #1 before #2, if there is a #2.  #1 and #2 remind me of a joke from Junior High - probably should just let that humor fade away.  I believe it was General McArthur who said,  "Old  dirty jokes never die, they just fade away  (until the next crop of Junior High age boys)."

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Off subject, but related to first paragraph:  I spent grades 6 through 12 in Levelland, Texas (good name for that town).  One might say I am a product of same.  6th grade was in South Elementary school, a low one story brick with a large un-grassed playground.   The boys would go off and play some sport type game and the girls would congregate on the south sidewalk where they played jacks.  I seem to remember them playing a lot of jacks.  Gave my hand a try at it a few times - when we weren't playing manly games - and I can fer sure say that I was terrible at jacks.  But enough of that.

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Then I entered JHS a 2 building complex near downtown - formerly the JH and HS building, now just the JH bldg.   7th grade was housed in a one story bldg. with an auditorium of sorts.   9th was found in the old 2 or 3 story red brick.  The 8th grade floated between the two.  Once I made it into HS, I only had to take P.E. for one year.  In JH I can only remember one year of PE too.   Picture this if you can.  You are standing in the street facing north.  There is one city block in front of you.  This city block is equivalent to four or more regular city blocks.

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On the far right, a vacant area for athletes to train.  To its left is the one story 7th grade bldg.  Next comes the 3 story 9th grade bldg followed by another big brick known as East Elementary.  Levelland had 3 elementary schools at that time:  East, South, and West (Brenda's Alma mater).  My mom was teaching in East.    To the left of East Elem was an old gym - one with the rounded roof, yellow brick, minimal equipment.  Out back were cement slabs holding basketball goals with no nets.  Before I continue with this stone:  Behind East and the 9th building were yellow dog buses.  This was the bus storage lot.  Behind but offset on the far left was a low wooden building holding the shop.  Most of us took at least one semester of shop - a different stone for later.

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Across from the big empty athletic lot on the right, across the street that is, was a low wooden barracks of a building of lesser construction, wood floors, pillars in the middle holding up the roof...this was the band room.  I spent many a sorry hour in this band room.  Many times it was merely a place of "seek and destroy" rather than a refuge for the creation of beautiful music.  I should put JHS band down as a future stone.

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In the 7th grade, we all took P.E.   The coach would go sit somewhere and we were on our own.  Some stayed inside, some straggled out back, nobody knows for sure where the others went.  We guys would venture out back and play horse.  As with jacks, basketball was not my forte.  I found that I could make free shots if I used what I call the granny stance throw...grasp ball near your knees and lob it forward and high.   I don't think I ever won a game of Horse.  Ever.

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When we tired of Horse, we sat in the shade of the building and told jokes.  Most of these were hinting at dirty jokes - of which I understood only a portion - but I laughed dutifully with the others at the end of the recitative.  Day in, Day out, we told jokes sitting against the back of the gym on the bare earth.  New jokes were few and far between, so we told the same old jokes over and over laughing at the punch line each time.

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The only joke I remember had to do with prisoners sitting alone in their cells.  A new prisoner was slammed into his private compartment.  As the days go by, he hears the other prisoners call out a number:  "#22."   Everyone would laugh heartily; then, silence.  Another prisoner:  "#14."  All would guffaw.  Over time the new prisoner learned that jokes had been told so often that the prisoners numbered them.   Someone would yell out a joke number - all would remember the joke and laugh - it saved time.  The new prisoner, wanting to fit in - if you can imagine that - decided to give it a try even though he didn't know any of the jokes.

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"#5," he yelled out.   Complete silence.   He waited.   "#12," he shouted.  Silence again.  Another prisoner yells,  "#42."  Pandemonium breaks out.   Confused, the new prisoner asks an inmate in the next cell why his numbers met silence.   (NOW THE PUNCHLINE)   

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"Some people can tell em; some people can't."

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Yes, behind the gym on most afternoons, that one joke was told hundreds of times.  Each time we all laughed.  I never took the chance to tell it - I was afraid one of them would turn to me and say, "Some people can tell em; some people can't."  

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Insecurity is a marvelous tool.

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Moving on...

I forget the exact date - 2 weeks ago Sat. seems right.  The Spouse and I loaded the 5 dogs (the kids) into our motorhome and we set off to the east.  Our aim was Nachitoches, LA.  It took most of the day on smaller roads traveling cross Tejas, but we made it around 4 or 5...and only one tank of gas.  We were in Palestine, TX by 11-ish and ate at the King Buffet (oriental food).   Not bad and cheap - over-ate as usual.  If you care to get a map you can plot our travel from Palestine to Rusk and points east.  

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Didja know there is a train that runs from Rusk to Palestine and back pretty much daily?  There is.  I think it is overpriced for a 30 minute one-way trip and the return.  But it is the Texas State Railroad run by the State Parks system.  They even have an RV Park - which we have never tried.   I do believe it would be a fun thing to do after I inherit my next Million.

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Further and farther and further and farther we drove East.  Loblolly pines grew thicker and thicker as we journeyed east.  As a graduate from the land mass in the Panhandle, I never seem to tire of pine trees.   I drove.  We stopped and let the dogs have relief.  I drove.  Somewhere around 3 o4 4 our journey ended in Nachitoches at the Nak-a-tash RV park just off the interstate.  It was a very nice park with a very nice lady running the show.  If you rated parks by stars, this might be a 3 star park, maybe.  It had a nice area for walking the dogs, water, electricity and a sewer connection.  It was fine.
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Nachitoches.  How is it pronounced?   Wellup, no Nach-i- toe - ches like it is spelled.  Not on your life.  Nak-a-tish.    We were in Nakatish not Nachitoches.   Gonna close this one right now.  More to follow.  Maybe today, y'never know. 
m

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