The old days

WOW! What memories

Our childhood in pictures. 

 




 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 




 

 

 



 



 

MOUNDVILLE, ALABAMA

Some people say all these MISSISSIPPIAN MOUNDS in the US region were influenced by travellers and traders that came and went from the Aztec, Mayan and Olmec civilizations. Those civilizations were rising and growing a few hundred years ahead of the Mississippian cultures. About the only ones still thriving by the time the Europeans arrived near 1500 .. were the Aztecs in Mexico. The Mississippians were gone or fragmented by then as well as the others. The INCA in South America were still thriving.




Presented by Vic Campbell - 12ponder.com AUG 2018

MOUNDVILLE, ALABAMA - a mystery

I’ve wanted to go see these mysterious mounds in MOUNDVILLE, AL for a long time. I’ve seen the mounds at ETOWAH in Georgia and some other mounds in the South, including the one at Fort Walton Beach, FL. I’ve read up on them and wondered how these people came to be. How they decided on the “mound culture” and the civilizations they founded …. And LOST.
Over thousands of years, the native peoples of America adapted and transformed their societies from archaic era hunters to woodland farmers and hunters to urban chiefdoms that controlled vast areas of land and people. But for whatever reason, by about 1450 the strong central mound cities were disbanding and breaking up. Warfare? Loss of a belief system? Drought? Disease? Who knows? Nobody has anything written down to describe the history at the time. 

When the Europeans arrived about 1500 there were remnants of these great cities but a wider and multifaceted set of tribal allegiances had taken their place. The “modern” tribes had begun to coalesce and perhaps from a small population base of survivors, gained a great deal in population by 1800. And then a whole new set of issues were set before them. The European and African infusion. No longer would tribes have to ally with other native tribes to fight their NATIVE enemies. They would now also ally themselves with the Europeans for power and territory. But that did not turn out so well either,




What is with the EYE In the HAND? This is a mystery to the archaeologists. It must have been something special to just this culture on the Black Warrior River. Other places don’t have this. There are zero hints of what it means. I can make up a great story and so could you. But … what?



AND a very special it seems - Stone shield carving with the mysterious HAND and entwined rattlesnakes It has become an official seal for the Park here at Moundville.

We made a short two night trip into Alabama to take all this in. After Moundville, we visited OLD Cahawba the first Capital of Alabama (not counting the pre historical capital centers for the Indians)

ENJOY THE ALBUM HERE


There is a wonderful museum there. It is near Tuscaloosa, the home of The University of Alabama. There are many studies on these mounds and this era of civilization in North America.


A PRINTABLE VERSION

Uncle Vic's Tomato Gravy (and biscuits) RECIPE

OK ... Here goes a try..... I've never measured ...

The goal is about a quart of tomato gravy out of a blender about that size.

TO BLENDER

ADD .......

2 cans of chopped/diced tomatoes

 (somebody told me recently it is great to add in about 2-4oz of tomato JUICE - hey what about v8?)

Roy Allen recently canned some tomatoes and I want to try those. They are delicious out of the jar. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wSxWPdDNQjtL6jJp6

add about one or two TBSP of black pepper 

(depends on taste . I've liked it both ways even spilled a gob in once and still great)

add about 1 tbsp of garlic salt.  

(add a little more garlic if you want - garlic is great. dried garlic is fine)

add about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of chopped dried onions (this adds a little texture plus the taste - they soak up the moisture pretty quick)

Blend about 5-10 seconds. More gets it to a creamy state.  You can  work out your own preference. I like mine just a bit chunky but not much.

HAVE a LARGE DEEP "fry" pan ready. Heated to very low, enough to melt butter.

Add 1/2 stick butter and get the butter melted.

NOW - add about 2 heaping TBSP FLOUR or 3 ...

 up to 4 depending if you have more or less butter.

............ stir this in to make your ROUX.  It should not brown.  Just buttery paste is the goal. Thick enough to ooze with a little consistency. Not stiff .. not watery..............  when this is ready... next step.

Pour the mixture from the blender into the pan (big pan remember).

MIX it well with a spatula - to get the Roux and the Tomato mix all mixed in well.

Now bring the heat on up to medium and watch it. Stir as you watch. Just a little now and then. Move it to keep the roux and all other ingredients mixing.

Probably in 3 or 4 minutes of slow cook low heat it will be steaming. and it is READY.

Now standby to add to your biscuits and savor the tomato gravy !

It all tastes great whether you used more onions or less or more butter and flour or less.

But you might find a happy wonder point and lock that in memory.

...............  Happy eating !

New photo by Vic Campbell

Earline Smith Crews variant from Barnett's Crossing, Alabama, on the Little Escambia River.

Vic, I start with a heaping tbs. of bacon grease, a tbs. of flour, a dash of salt, a shake of black pepper. Stir it all into an iron skillet on medium heat until the roux gets peanut butter brown. Add in a can of chopped tomatoes and some water if it is too thick. Cook on med/low for a few minutes..........biscuits, cornbread or rice. Lawdhammercy!

CREDITS:  MY MOM - Myrtle Gertrude Carswell Campbell
Mom was NEVER known as a great cook.  But she managed to lock in a few fantastic recipes that always worked if everything else failed.   Collard Greens, Flat Cornbread, Eggs aLa-Goldenrod, and TOMATO Gravy !    Those memories are preserved in the recipes we carry forward. My sister recently had a breakfast for we siblings and it was classic .... Just like mom made -- .  The recipes we WANT to remember !   Thank you, MOM ! 

Capt. Marvin "Jack" Smith - USN - A leader

Karen and I visited a cousin in Montgomery and then spent a couple days enjoying Alabama.  In Prattville, we had breakfast with my old (95 year old) Navy Commanding Officer, Capt. Marvin “Jack” Smith.  He joined us with his daughter, Karen (in photo below), who married a Spaniard and lives and teaches in Spain while raising her family there. I encouraged her to tell her students about the great Spanish influence on our Gulf Coast - like DeLuna and Galvez. Karen helped me recall the Family Moto for Galvez that says "I ALONE" in Spanish. Well, after all she teaches English for the Spanish students at her school. "YO SOLO" she said. Few realize that what Galvez did at Pensacola had a direct affect on the American victory at Yorktown ! She and her husband are both educators and love where they live in Spain. Close to France - the sea and the Mountains.

It is always a pleasure to catch up with Capt. Smith.  His daughter’s family was home on vacation for the summer. Jack and Martha enjoy the grand-kids. Martha is facing health issues that keep them close to home and family is always a grand comfort.  Jack met Martha when based in Montgomery in the late 1960’s after a tour in Vietnam - in-country with an RVN Vietnamese propaganda unit.

As he tells it in the video interviews, He volunteered for hazardous duty with an eye to ending his pain over the loss of his wife, Joan Merriam Smith to an air crash.  He was actually very near to retirement at that time. He is a WW2 veteran after all.  The Smith’s had a plan to start up a lucrative “time-share” corporate aircraft business.  All was roses. Joan had just completed an Around The World solo flight on the path of Amelia Earhart.  She was famous. Financial backing was a done deal.

Then --- tragedy.  While flying over the Sierra Range in California, Joan and a writer who was doing a book on Joan Merriam Smith the Aviatrix - both died when the plane lost a wing in turbulent air.

The granddaughter of the writer who died in the crash, Trixie Ann Schubert , is Tiffany Brown. Tiffany was doing research on her grandmother and Joan Merriam Smith with hopes to complete her grandmother’s book and tell the rest of the story. In her 2017 research, she discovered the videos I made of Jack.  Contact was made. Jack had a lot to add to the story. He and Tiffany are in touch - meeting goals to find information needed. (THE BOOK IS NOW IN PRINT "Fate on a Folded Wing")

One book that exists on the topic is “Racing to Greet the Sun: Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith Duel to Become the First Woman to Fly Solo Around the World" . Her  rescued book will focus more on the Joan side of the story (by her grandma). Tiffany transcribed some of her grandmother’s tape recordings into a book -  Before and Behind the Iron Curtain available as an E-Book. The recordings had a purpose and Tiffany rescued them.

Life began again for Jack.  At first with a dismal outlook.  Then Vietnam. Then Washington DC, and Montgomery and he met Martha. She gave him hope and purpose. They were virtually newlyweds when he took command of USS O’Callahan, which is where I met him in late 1971.  As a very green Ensign. At that point I think they had one very young child. They also have a son.

Jack had already taken the ship into combat supporting troops ashore and his next task was to get the ship refitted with upgrades for the next deployment, and the next C.O.  

He was a commander at that point with over 20 years service. He began his Navy career in WW2, enlisted and worked the entire war without combat - working with a team to develop drone bombers.

Having command of a ship and engaging the ship in combat filled a gap inside him that existed from WW2. My own combat deployment followed in 1972 with Capt. Bill Dunham as Commanding Officer. Jack had a few more years with the Navy and consulting with shipbuilding in Pascagoula, MS. His children were raised mostly in MIssissippi. His daughter Karen, is a graduate of Ol' Miss. She and her Spanish husband teach near Barcelona, Spain.
Jack and Martha retired to Prattville, AL.

My Karen and Jack's Karen with Jack at IHOP in Prattville

Karen and I remembered Martha as the genteel Southern Lady, a young mom, whom we met at the Smith’s home in San Diego.  Karen especially appreciated the “sound of home” since Martha spoke the same language of the South as she. It tugs the heart to see Martha struggle now with frailties.  The children and grand-kids are always up for a visit - even from Spain - and bring comfort to a Southern Mom.

Besides savoring visits from family, Jack is an active volunteer builder for Habitat for Humanity. He does this several days a week. One or two days a week he plays golf. He is deeply involved with his church. He and a group of men have been meeting for a prayer breakfast in Prattville for over 30 years now. He actually missed the breakfast this time to share breakfast with Karen and I and his daughter, Karen. We did have a blessing. And we had a short prayer to commission a few copies of our ship's crest on a coin.
(see below)

 All that -- And he cares for Martha.  For someone who ran into so much tragedy in life, he is an example of pushing through.

I and my shipmates who served with him recall him with the greatest admiration.  We can only hope his shadow that we served in, has given us the resolve to be better.  That is what leaders do.

Karen and I enjoyed the breakfast and then motored on over to see Moundville, AL where civilizations came and went in the centuries before Europeans found this paradise.

The complete series 1-9

Here are Jack and Martha a few years ago when Karen and I stopped in for a visit. It was 2011, I think. It was the first time I has seen Capt. Jack since early 1972.

How often can you photo-bomb your C.O?

OK.  I won’t do it again.

The coin .... with the ship's logo and crest of cross and shamrock for Fr. O'Callahan, is used in passing along a prayer for a veteran or anyone who needs a bit of hope.  The "Irish Blessing" is bestowed on the person who says the prayer.  It all connects with a tradition of remembering the USS Franklin and Fr. O'Callahan, since they are tied to the heritage of the USS O'Callahan. (see also - A Ship and It's Seal)

A PRINTABLE FORMAT - LINK

Loyce Deen Tribute

WW2 - SOME STATS

These numbers are tremendous. We can be proud of our nation.  It should be noted that the Allies in this conflict were sorely tested - far more than the USA.  It is a blank part of our history to understand the total effort from so many nations.  If we count casualties.... Russia is by far and beyond the most affected.  Obviously great losses and efforts by Britain and France and Canada and ANZAKS and more.  But this chart is an indication of the powerhouse of industry our nation contributed to halt the AXIS.  We can be very proud of our country.

Seems Impossible

 Carefully study this artwork. Then, read what we did. 

Not only is the picture awesome, but so are the statistics!

 During the 3-1/2 years of World War II that started with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 and ended with the surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945, "We the People of the U.S.A." produced the following:

            22 aircraft carriers

              8 battleships

            48 cruisers

          349 destroyers

          420 destroyer escorts

          203 submarines

            34 million tons of merchant ships

   100,000 fighter aircraft

     98,000 bombers

     24,000 transport aircraft

     58,000 training aircraft

     93,000 tanks

   257,000 artillery pieces

   105,000 mortars

3,000,000 machine guns and

2,500,000 military trucks

 We put 16.1 million men in uniform in the various armed services, invaded Africa, invaded Sicily and Italy, won the battle for the Atlantic, planned and executed D-Day, marched across the Pacific and Europe, developed the atomic bomb and, ultimately, conquered Japan and Germany.