This week's menu features word salad...
Goodness, gracious...it’s August already. How can that be possible?
As often happens with this weekly word salad, I started with some lettuce and switched to cucumbers... OK. That’s pretty silly. Blame it on the wonderfully excessive heat and humidity we’ve experienced this week in the Land Between the Rivers.
Anyway, I had considered a column about change. We’re seeing some straightforward change on the calendar this very day. Yesterday, it was July. Today, it is August. Time for the Dog Days...which I am pretty sure we have already experienced a few times this summer.
By the by...did you know there’s a connection involving dead Romans, the name of the month of the July, the name of the month of August and the phrase “Dog Days”?
The month of July is named in honor of Julius Caesar, who uttered the famous words: “Et tu, Brute?” Well, that’s what fellow dead guy and kind of famous writer William Shakespeare said that Julius Caesar said when Mr. Caesar was coming to the end of a very bad day.
The month of August is named in honor of Augustus, who also was a Caesar. Julius Caesar actually was Augustus Caesar’s great-uncle...as in his mother’s mother’s brother.
The phrase “Dog Days” also has some sort of connection to the Romans. But you probably knew all of that stuff already. Right?
As often happens...we have digressed...with one thing leading to another...
A few thoughts about change did come to mind last Saturday while the chore boy (that would be me) was emptying an antique oak buffet with a beveled mirror in our dining room. The buffet is headed for a new home...after many years...and many memories...
The oak buffet, which (did I mention this?) has a beveled mirror, became part of our Journey Through Life many, many years ago. At the time, The Other Half and yours truly were just getting started on our Journey. We had not lived in our home sweet home for very long. If I remember correctly, our “furniture” may have consisted of some milk crates, a folding table and accompanying folding chairs.
Yours truly found the antique oak buffet with a beveled mirror at a farm auction. I do not remember where the auction was held. I managed to have a low bid of something like ten or fifteen dollars, which was a small fortune for us at the time...and the oak buffet with a beveled mirror was my treasure to take home. With the help of some kind folks at the auction, we stuffed the treasure into the trunk of our 1976 Ford Granada and I managed to get it home in one piece.
I can’t be sure, but I think that our oak buffet with a beveled mirror might have belonged to either Thomas Jefferson or Ulysses S. Grant at some point, which probably makes it worth millions of dollars.
Our oak buffet with a beveled mirror quietly sat in our dining room through a lifetime of holiday celebrations...a fire...a pandemic...just being there...
Because life happens, our oak buffet with a beveled mirror is going to find a new home. I can only hope it will find a new home for some more special memories...
Now, hopefully, we can get to the whole point of this week’s gem...instead of change, we’ll ponder...one more time...your writer’s recent visit to get up close and personal with the Mississippi River at Grand Tower...
That visit inspired me to see if I could learn a little bit more about the story of the Mississippi River. With some help from the fine folks at Stinson Memorial Library in Anna, my search led me to a book titled “Old Man River: The Mississippi River in North American History” by author Paul Schneider. As of Monday evening, I was up to page 127 of the 334 pages in the book.
When I reached page 31, the author shared an observation about finding an arrowhead on the bank of a creek in Missouri. The creek’s water, the author shared, eventually winds up in the Mississippi River. We have some of those creeks, too.
“Arrowheads present themselves to some people and not to others,” Mr. Schneider wrote. He was lucky to find his arrowhead near a creek. And I hope I don’t get myself in trouble by sharing those 10 words that he wrote.
When it comes to arrowheads, I am one of the “others.” I have never, ever, ever found such a treasure. I had much better luck finding an oak buffet with a beveled mirror at a farm auction.
I have found fossils which I consider to be treasures, including one discovered on the banks of the Mississippi River. I just have not been fortunate to find an arrowhead. One time long ago, a Fellow Traveler on the Journey Through Life walked me through the landscape of a harvested farm field in Southern Illinois. He assured me I would find an arrowhead. Nope.
On a visit to North Carolina many years ago, I watched as our daughter found a very nice arrowhead while we were on a walkabout. I think I spotted an oak buffet with a beveled mirror off in the distance...
Dead Romans. An oak buffet with a beveled mirror. Old Man River. Arrowheads. Like I said at the beginning. Word salad. Maybe I should add some tomatoes and ranch dressing... Stay cool, folks...