Signs

Along one of the Interstates that I traveled within the last week there was a large sign that said, "Fasten Seat Belts -- Next Million Miles." I have been in favor of people wearing seat belts long before seat belts were anything more than an add on that people could put on cars themselves. I had a 1949 Plymouth that I added seat belts to with parts from a auto supply and a drill that I borrowed from my brother to put holes through the floorboards. That was in 1962. My next car had brackets for the belts but you had to get the parts from a auto supply and install them yourself. There are many signs that fit with exactly what I believe.

Today I saw a sign that I really hoped was wrong. We were again on an Interstate, but this time we were moving at perhaps 5.2 miles per hour. Maybe we going 5.3 MPH I forgot to check for sure. Along the side of the road there was sign that said, "Speed Reduction Ahead." Oh how I hoped that the sign was wrong. If the speed was reduced any more it would have to be to a dead stop. I wanted to get to the campground before dark. Fortunately in about 15 minutes more the traffic broke free and we did get to a camp near Birmingham, AL.

As to the third and last sign I saw I really have to wonder what the person that created the sign was thinking. It was a sign on the column of a bridge that said, "Trust Jesus." It can be said the the spirit of the sign is good. There are a lot of people that believe in Jesus and try to live by the precepts that he set forth. Most of these people also try to convert others to those same beliefs. But it seems to me that there is nothing in the Christian creed that says it right to go out and deface the property of others, even if those others happen to be the state highway department. A Christian has the responsibility to act as the teaching of Jesus Christ are laid out in the Bible. As far as that goes I do not think that any person has any right to deface any property unless they own it themselves.

Every once in a while in our travels we go through a cemetery for some reason. In November 30, 1864 the battle of Nashville was fought between the North and the South near the town of Franklin. On December 1 the 900 residents of the town awoke to find almost 2500 dead soldiers in the farmers fields. The Union bodies were buried by their comrades without consideration of their identities. Most of the Union bodies were removed by to a Union cemetery or claimed by their families. On the other side the Confederate bodies were buried with great care by burial details that collected details like name, rank, and regiment and company. Each grave was marked with wooden markers. These grave were prove to be temporary. In the spring of 1866 the markers were fading, some of the markers had been taken for firewood. The identities of the soldiers were in danger of being lost. A local farmer gave land for the interment of nearly 1500 soldiers of the Confederate army. He and four helpers disinterred the bodies from temporary graves and moved them to this permanent place. Each body was placed in an area that was designated for the mans home state. The work of moving the bodies was "done in order to have removed from fields exposed to the plow-share, the remains of all those who were buried," In 1890 funds were raised to replace the wooden markers with stone. Each and every stone is a sign that represents a tragedy that we call the Civil War.


THE McGAVOCK CONFEDERATE CEMETERY IN FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE

It was not really our intent to visit cemeteries this year. But they are interesting at times and they have a lot of history "buried" there. Yes pun intended. When we were in Charleston, IL we went to the Last Farm Of Abraham Lincoln's father and mother. It was a very interesting place to visit with reenactors, gardens, and some animals. On the way back to Charleston and Mattoon we stopped at the cemetery where Abraham's father Thomas was buried. We looked around the old gravestones and also we drove through a newer section. One of the stones was decorated in a manner that I have never seen before. It did not seem to be engraved or painted. I would be inclined to say that it was decorated with a laser in some manner. There is no indentation of any of the letters or roughness in any of the design. Within fifteen foot of this stone was another done the same way. I was very impressed with the work.


GRAVESTONE IN CHARLESTON CEMETERY

We took a couple trips up in Smoky Mountain National Park. It is a beautiful place. There were a lot of families that lived in the mountains there. In driving around the two areas we visited I was never able to figure out what the "actually" did to make a living. Every place that we visited was called a farm. I have made many jokes about farming in the hills with a crow bar and a shotgun. The crowbar is used to lift the rocks and the shotgun is used to plant the corn under th rock. That no longer is a joke. I do not know where there was a piece of ground that a kernel of corn could be planted. If there was a semi-flat spot there was a house or barn on it. And even then there were boulders the size of a VW poking out of the ground. Yet these people had fully functional farms, stores, home industries, a dozen or so tub grist mills, schools, many churches and all the other things that make up a community. I was never able to figure out where they could have had a single corn field. On one farm there was a double corn crib with a drive through section in the middle. Each of the cribs could not have held more corn than my father would have put in one wagon load of corn. It was indicated that one of this farmers neighbors quipped that he likely never grew enough corn to fill the cribs. Even if he could have grown that much corn I am not sure how he would have gotten through the passage way because of the large rock in the middle.


A DOUBLE CORN CRIB ON A SMOKY MOUNTAIN FARM

I would have liked to spend some more time in the area but instead I spent the day driving to Birmingham, Alabama today and will go on to Vicksburg, Mississippi tomorrow.

Till later this is Uncle Duck