Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/12/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 06:40 PM 12/10/04 -0500, Buzz Hausner wrote: >Some of us...well, some of you....Marc are the rock upon which the >stereotypes are built! ;<) Allow me to go further: I do have a broken-down car in my back yard. (It is a 1967 Sunbeam Alpine, a British sports car, which needs to be moved into the garage and which will be so moved once we sell off more of the furniture stored there.) My guns are all at the office, in a closet. I only own an Argentine Mauser, rechambered to .30-'06 and fitted with a really great Ukrainian scope. My wife, however, came equipped with everything from a pellet gun to a 12-gauge shotgun. She swears that she can outshoot me (I always scored as a marksman or sharpshooter during my military service on both pistols and rifles) and I've never challenged her on this, as she is a VERY serious person and might blow me away if I outdid her on the range. (And, no, neither of us hunt though we both enjoy a bit of venison, elk, or moose from time to time from her son-in-law or from my own son.)) I do know my age, I am not married to anyone to whom I am related, even most distantly. But, then, I do like scrapple and eat opossum and squirrel and raccoon on occasion. I have had groundhog but it is far too fatty for my taste. I also eat escargot and oysters on the shell and eel, on those rare occasions when I can get it. And I do speak Mountain. I was, around five or six years back, in the General District Court for Franklin County, Virginia, when a witness irritated the Judge, who could not understand his talk. I did understand it: his dialect was close to that of many of my relatives. I stood up and offered to interpret. To my knowledge, I am the only certified "Hillbilly" translator in the legal history of the US. I am certainly not the Poster Boy for the American Stereotype, though: Jim Brick or Eric Welch fit that role far more succinctly than I could ever do. Consider: a) I have been awarded, from Yale University, no less, a Master's Degree in Classical Languages. b) I served as an officer in the US Army, the Virginia National Guard, and the Army Reserve and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. c) I have two books in print, both of them really well written and, in one case, full of multilingual citations. e) I was graduated not only from elementary school, but also from Junior High, High School, College, Graduate School, and Law School. None of this allows me to move too far from my Mountain roots, of course: my father's family is best exemplified by the Ward Bond character in that epic 1947 Cecil B DeMille vehicle, THE UNCONQUERED, while my mother's family included ancestors who founded the first European settlements in what is now West Virginia (I know, I know: we have been apologizing ever since, but no one has yet accepted this!) (One of my fourth-great-grandfathers was "chased arouund a tree three times and then killed and scalped" by Native American Agrarian Reformers; his son, who witnessed this, served as a Scout during the Revolutionary War and went on to volunteer for duty in the War of 1812, where the military told off this dottard as a sentinel.) Many in my DNA strain have one foot shorter than the other, a genetic trait inspired by their need to walk around the hillocks of the Appalachians. Me? A stereotype? Goodness, no! I am just one of those who has a great pride in his family, though: most are good-hearted folks living their lives as they wish and content with the lot that God has given them, while a few of our minor products are idiots and a few are certified morons, about the norm for any extended clan. Sadly, the death of my mother and the ill-health of my aunt means that the family is exploding apart. Fortunately, one cousin of mine is most involved in holding the family in a common bond. No one is doing the same on my father's side and I am close to being out of touch with all of the descendants of Garfield Small, though I, as the senior grandchild, possess his papers. (For that matter, I am the only holder of a signature of William Small, that laggard who first brought this name to these shores in 1828, almost the last of my folks to move over to this land where the streets are paved with, well, paving blocks.) Marc msmall@infionline.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!