Fruitful ghouls harken the start of harvest
BUG GUTS & BEAUTY
There is a photo meme that is making the rounds of Facebook and other social media. It shows a device capable of holding five sticks of chalk in its wire claws. A wooden bar equalized the sticks and the teacher or student was able to put parallel lines on the chalkboard for a class to use for music or writing purposes.
Those who remember chalkboards being used for class can well remember the purpose.
Ms. Desmond had the music class for Zippel fifth-graders. When the liner was pulled across the board we knew it was time for music. The staff was drawn on the board and soon familiar letters and shapes filled the lines and the fun began. How Ms. Desmond kept so calm when the warblers warbled around the note and never hit the right one may never be known. Certainly the enthusiasm made itself felt throughout the second floor and down to the principal’s office. Thanks Ms. D for a terrific memory, speeding in the boat to Skye.
As UMPI and NMMC begin their sessions for the fall paranormal tendrils knock around this election year. TW Morrison brought Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Eleanor Roosevelt, and other characters to life. Having served with MacArthur’s unit as a private under his own father sargeant’s boards the wit, wisdom and sadness of the Second World War to life to emphasize the lessons all should have learned from the “Greatest Generation”.
With the buffoonery, stupidity, and vapors of a dysfunctional gut giving us a political season worse than potato rot, lessons learned and maxims written come to mind. The tractors are revving, trucks are greased, scales turned on, and harvester crews are poised to pull the gold from the hills. If the weather holds by the time this column hits the page, seed, chips, and table varieties will be adding their flavors to the memories of the moment. TW’s Theatre of History, Ms. D’s musical accompaniment, and thousand of miles of chalk lines mark the passing of history onto the staff of songs gone by. Have a safe digging season.
There is plenty of stupidity going around. Savor what is hard won from the dirt and enjoy the last of the summer sun.
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist living in The County who graduated from UMPI and earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina. He began his journalism career at WAGM television later working in many different areas of the US. After 20 years of television he changed careers and taught in China and Korea.
