Greetings y'all. I hope everybody is in good health and practicing social distancing. You can get basic protective measures from the coronavirus at this link and more information about this pandemic on the CDC website. Because many events are still being cancelled due to this virus, there is no calendar section this month.
With everybody stuck at home these days, I have found that Webcams have become extremely important. It took a month for mine to arrive from Amazon. Anyway, here are my picks for the most affordable webcams (that are still in stock online). Logitech HD Webcam C310 from Dell($49.99), 1080p/30fps HD webcam from Amazon(20.99 +s&h), and 720p Webcam HD Desktop Camera from Amazon(25.99). There are many more, and if you want advice on this, just send me and email or call.
We have a special guest in this issue. Our very own Jimmy Weldon has joined us via video to share a bit of U.S. history with us. We will be adding a video from his "Jimmy's Lectures" collection on youtube for the next several months. I hope you enjoy them.
Stay Safe
~Charles P. Scott
FEATURED ARTICLE
Gary Sinise Flies 1000 Children to Disney World ~ by Understanding Compassion Website
Forrest Gump star Gary Sinise, who played the role of Lieutenant Dan, helped more than one thousand children of fallen US soldiers go to Disney World.
The children and their surviving parents, 1,750 people in all, were able to have an enjoyable holiday experience thanks to Gary’s compassion and kindness. The children and their families are known as “Gold Star Families" as they are allowed to display a gold star after losing a parent in the Iraq war.
CHRONICLE OF THE OLD WEST
Wyatt Earp, Boxing Referee ~ by Dakota Livesay
We're all aware of Wyatt Earp's skill as a gambler and lawman. What most people don't know is that Wyatt was also involved in boxing. He even refereed a heavyweight boxing championship.
Wyatt Earp had left behind his days in Tombstone. He was now living as a gentleman in San Francisco. Because of his interest in boxing and his celebrity...
Picture just about any western film. The scene is a classic old-time saloon. The usual assortment of cowboys are clustered at various tables playing poker, while a surly looking bartender wipes glasses behind the bar. A piano is sure to be present too, played by a man wearing a white shirt with garters on the sleeves. Down the stairs sweeps a typical "soiled dove," a lady with a painted face, hair swept up into a bun, wearing an...
What Happened to Hoss?
~ by Allison Cacich
It’s impossible to mention the classic television western Bonanza without name-dropping Hoss Cartwright.
The middle son of ranch owner Ben Cartwright was seen as a gentle giant, and though his size was imposing (he weighed over 300 pounds), both Hoss and the actor who played him, Dan Blocker, had hearts of gold. Many fans believe that the character’s absence during the show’s final season led...
Incredible Historic Photos
~ by Jennifer Nied
The legends of the Old West are as vast and wild as the territory itself. Pioneers began venturing farther west in the 1800s in search of land, riches and a new life. While some were successful, life in the Western frontier was far from easy. The area earned a reputation for bandits, debauchery and gunfights.
Here are a few of the people and places that made the West wild.
"We have marched a long way to meet the enemy and I do not intend to return without meeting them. I had rather die than retreat." Thus did old frontiersman Zadock Woods cast the deciding vote sending his companions to slaughter.
The situation was this: The Mexican Army invaded Texas and captured San Antonio on September 11, 1842. Couriers raced across the settlements drumming up volunteers to drive off the invaders. Zadock and his sons, Norman and Henry Gonzalvo (Gon), answered the call. Snatching up rifles and cornbread, the three rode for San...
Cowboy Cuisine
~ by Sherry Monahan
t’s true that cowboys mainly ate beans, biscuits and beef along the trail, but after months of the same old grub, they longed for the end of the trail and a decent meal. Kansas cow towns are the best known because of the Chisholm Trail, but Colorado, Missouri, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Texas and Nebraska had stockyard cities as well.
Those towns saw cowboys and thousands of cattle explode into town come late summer from the 1860s to the 1900s. When these trail-worn men reached the end-of-trail towns, a mighty celebration took place.
Westerns, Anti-Westerns, and Neo-Westerns
~ by Jan Mackell Collins
For more than fifty years, one third of all films released in the United States were westerns. They could be made cheaply, and a certain proportion of the male population could be predictably counted on to see them.
The heyday of the Western genre was from about 1880 to 1960. The Western film goes through phases of popularity and has been particularly popular in the 1930s and the 1950s and 1960s. There has been a recent resurgence of the popularity of Western novels with the TV series Longmire.
Sacagawea, the Woman Who Saved the West This is the story of a brave Indian woman who helped win the west.
POETRY CORNER
Grandmother's Trunk ~ by Red Steagull
They came in a wagon from St. Jo, Missouri
Grandmother was seven years old
I remember she said she walked most of the way
Through the rain, and the mud and the cold.
She saw the Comanche, they came into camp
Not the savage she'd seen in her dreams
They were ragged and pitiful, hungry and cold
Begging for salt pork and beans.
They staked out a claim at the cross timbers breaks
Where the big herds went north to the rail.
One day a cowpuncher gave her a calf
Too young to survive on the trail.
