Classic Remembered

Woodstock

Woodstock was a music festival held 50 years ago between August 15–18, 1969, which attracted an audience of more than 400,000. Billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music. It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm 43 miles southwest of Woodstock, New York. Over the sometimes rainy weekend, 32 acts performed outdoors. It is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history and provided an exclamation mark to the 60's - a decade of turmoil, the vietnam war, assassinations of major leaders, protests, civil rights legislation-marches-riots, drugs and change on so many fronts that the world would never be the same again ...!!!!

First Step on the Moon

50 years ago on 20 July humans stepped on the moon. In retrospect it was a much more significant achievement than we even imagined then. After the Apollo missions no human has stepped on another celestial body since then.

Trees

Twenty seven years ago a lady I worked with brought me a couple of acorns that had sprouted roots in her gutter. I planted them without much expectations, and didn't realize they would grow as fast and big as they did.

The acorns quickly became mighty oak trees hanging over the house. They also became a nuisance dropping leaves and acorns all winter long in the gutters and basement steps and a potential hazard with limbs breaking in storms. So we cut them down. 

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It took us three days to deliver 4 pickup loads and 4 trailer loads of firewood to a friend and to pile up a mountain of limbs and leaves in the sinkhole. The whole experience has been bittersweet watching them grow for 27 years and enjoying their shade. They had worn treefaces and halloween decorations. They had housed birds and squirrels. They had played games of tag and hide and seek. Now they are stumps to hold lawn ornaments. There are no leaves or falling limbs or shade. And such is 27 years of our lifes (us and the trees).

Blackberry Winter

In days gone by we would identify a cold spell in the middle of May (like we are having now) as "Blackberry Winter". However, with all the fields that used to have blackberry vines and scrub cedar being planted in grains (corn, wheat and soybeans), it is hard to find any blackberries. So I guess "Blackberry Winter" will go the way of tobacco barns and undeveloped acreage and become a thing of the past. I suppose its demise was inevitable anyhow with global warming.

5 Years Old

My little buddy turned 5 years old today. He is into zombies and such. He is fearless.

 

A couple of weeks ago he went to Gatlinburg and jumped off a 60 foot tower.

How Fast Does Hair Grow?

I told my barber that my hair seem to be growing faster than it use to. He said that this was my imagination that everybody's hair grows at the same rate of a half inch a month from the day they are born until they die. He was so authoritative about it that I thought I would just fact check him. Here is what I found on the internet at this link "https://www.today.com/style/how-make-your-hair-grow-faster-t131559". 

It’s hard to say exactly how fast your hair grows — everyone is different! — but on average, hair grows about half an inch over the course of a month. That being said, it’s not unusual for hair to grow as little as a centimeter or as much as an inch in a month.

A number of factors can influence hair growth, some of which you can control and others you can’t. “The speed at which hair grows is determined by genetics but there are other factors that can affect the growth rate. Age, diet, stress, hormonal fluctuations, scalp health, hair care practices, medications and other health conditions can potentially influence hair growth,” said master hair colorist, Stephanie Brown.In general, men’s hair grows faster than women’s, but pregnancy can actually speed up the hair-growth process. Even the time of year can affect how fast or slow hair grows.“Hair tends to grow a little faster in summer and slower in winter,” said Dr. Alan Parks, board-certified dermatologist and founder of DermWarehouse. “An underactive thyroid can also slow down hair growth.”

Needless to say my barber has been "outed" bigtime.

Pi Day

Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is celebrated around the world on March 14 or 3.14 and officially kicks off at 1:59 pm (when combined the date and time results in 3.14159, the approximate numerical value of pi).
Pi Day has been observed in many ways, including eating pie and throwing pies due to a pun based on the words "pi" and "pie" being homophones and the coincidental circular nature of a pie.

It is also coincidental that Albert Einstein shares his birthday with Pi Day. He was born on March 14, 1879. It is fitting that one of the greatest mathematical minds shares a day with one of the most significant mathematical functions.

Happy Birthday Albert and Happy Pi day.

Daylight Saving Time

Nuff said!

Coming Seasons

This time of the year the seed catalogs really start to pile up. You might of done a few things during the cold, dark months to prepare for the coming seasons, but you realize preparation time is running out and action time is coming soon. You need to order seed, get equipment ready, and in days gone bye you would need to burn the tobacco bed if you haven't already. That was one of the first things you had to do for the tobacco growing season, but growing tobacco is a topic for another day.

Valentine Day

I'm not sure what this holiday is really all about (martyred saints?, Roman Lupercalia fertility festival?, Chaucer's tales?...);except today, it has become commercialized into another multi-billion dollar event. I keep it simple by sending a card.

Evolution

      

12 Feb 1809

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin. He published "Origin of the Species" on 24 Nov 1859. After nearly 160 years of debate, research and validation it is hard to believe that there are those who still try to deny the most basic tenets of evolution. Even if you don't understand basic biology or ardently believe in some religious text, it is hard not to see the results of "artificial selection" (example below) in plants and animals. From there it should be easier to accept the concept of "natural selection" and evolution.

Many of the doubters want to "cherry pick" biblical quotes and propose them as literal proof that the earth is a certain age or that humans are superior to other species. While I don't hold much with the literal interpretations of any religious text, I do think some contain very poetic points of wisdom. Here is one of my favorites: Ecclesiates 3:19-21 NIV

"19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath ; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

This point is even more eloquently and more cosmologically made by Carl Sagan stating we come from "starstuff" and will return to "starstuff". 

A final note on Charles Darwin's birthday is that it is shared by another notable bearded man - Abraham Lincoln.

12 Feb 1809

Beatles Come to America

Fifty five years ago on February 9, 1964, the British Invasion began with the Beatles playing live on the Ed Sullivan Show in front of an estimated 73 million Americans. To many of us "baby boomers", coming of age in the '60's, it is kind of like President Kennedy's assassination or the first Lunar Landing in that we can remember where we were and what we were doing. I was at Lowry AFB in an old WWII, 2 story, coal-fired barracks awaiting training. It was a cold winter night with a bunch of new airman huddled around a small black and white tv. The music changed then, as did I.

Fifty Four Years Ago

Fifty four years ago on 6 February while I was on temporary duty at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, I was hurriedly tagged as part detail to go unload a C-130 that had just taxied up. By the time we got to the aircraft, ambulances started screaming in and we were assigned to help carry litters of bloody bodies to the ambulances. Afterwards, we were told to grab our gear and boarded a C-130 (I don't think it was the same one we unloaded). Somewhere in the process we were told that the bodies were from Camp Holloway, Pleiku, Vietnam and that we were in route to Danang Vietnam. It was late that night or early the next day (didn't really know what time it was except dark) when we landed and were dumped out on the taxiway. 
The next day we would launch our first airstrikes against North Vietnam as part of Operation Flaming Dart.

F-100s at Danang AB Feb 1965

That was a long time ago in a place far away. Only the vague memories and the lost innocence of youth persist. This is the same posting as eight and nine years ago, but you can't forget.

Chinese New Year

The lunisolar Chinese calendar determines the date of Lunar New Year. The Chinese Calendar defines the lunar month with  the winter solstice as the 11th month, which means that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. On the Gregorian Calendar, the Lunar New Year begins at the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February. 

2019 is the Year  of the Pig - the twelfth zodiac animal sign. There is much more astrology and meaning to the Year of the Pig than I know or understand, but it is a very important time to a substantial portion of the world's population. 

All I can say is Happy Chinese New Year of the Pig!

Groundhog Day

According to Wikipedia: "The Groundhog Day celebrations of the 1880s were carried out by the Punxsutawney Elks Lodge. The lodge members were the "genesis" of the Groundhog Club formed later, which continued the Groundhog Day tradition. But the lodge started out being interested in the groundhog as a game animal for food. It had started to serve groundhog at the lodge, and had been organizing a hunting party on a day each year in late summer." Later the groundhog became weatherman Punxsutawney Phil.

Groundhog Stew

I ate groundhog once. I was not impressed. Nor, am I impressed with the groundhog weatherman. By most statistics he is wrong more than he is right (much like all weathermen); and, regardless of his forecast we will still have 6 more weeks on the winter season on the calendar and more than likely more bad weather than that.

So the only good thing I can say about groundhog day is that we have made it halfway through the winter calendar season.

50 years ago my wife marked our first date on her calendar. She has kept the calendar and our memories for the last 50 years. Her long term memory is much better than mine, so she can give all the details of that last week of January 50 years ago. A great trip down memory lane. No wonder it has lasted.

55 Years Ago

On 3 Jan 1964 I entered the Air Force. The next 4 years were an unforgettable experience. At that time we didn't have much choice but to serve in the military. If you were classified 1A for the draft you either went ahead and joined or waited for your name to be called. You couldn't get a very good job until you had served and then you had better gotten an honorable discharge. (Unless some phony doctor said you had bone spurs that exempted you.)
I still say it was a great socialization process. It took 18-19 year males with raging hormones and placed them in a controlled environment with discipline and meaningful responsibilities. Many learned lifetime trades and some of us matured enough to go to college on the GI bill. We all learned more about life and gave back something to our country.

There is more I would like to say about mandatory service to your country but nobody would want to listen, instead most revel in some type of false patriotism - "thank you for your service".