Echoes From the Loafers’ Club Meeting

I’d better get going.

You just got here.

I know, but I just remembered somewhere else I’d rather be.

Driving by the Bruces

I have two wonderful neighbors — both named Bruce — who live across the road from each other. Whenever I pass their driveways, thoughts occur to me, such as: Dead skunks littered the roads. I heard once, probably on “Hollywood Squares,” that about 10 percent of the population enjoys the smell of skunk. I’m not one of those, but I know that the scent of one of these expired stink bombs is a sign of spring at this time of the year.

Fess Parker

I was working far from home and had just arrived at the hotel. Once I was checked in and moved in, I decided to walk to a nearby supermarket to get some fruit for dinner. The store was packed. I quickly discovered why. It was sample day. I was welcomed by a flock of sample givers. I enjoyed ample samples. I still bought some fruit, but my tank had been filled with samples.

A fellow sample sampler wore a coonskin cap. An odd topping for an adult, but he was the King of the Wild Frontier. The new wild frontier, giant grocery stores.

“Davy Crockett?” I wondered aloud.

“Fess Parker,” he replied with a laugh.

Fess Parker was an actor best known for his portrayals of Davy Crockett in the Walt Disney TV series that ran 1955-1956 and as Daniel Boone in another series from 1964 to 1970. He became a winemaker and shuffled off this mortal coil in 2010.

“Daniel Boone was a man. Yes a big man. With an eye like and eagle and as tall as a mountain was he.”

“Born on a mountain top in Tennessee. Greenest state in the land of the free. Raised in the woods so’s he knew every tree. Killed him a bear when he was only three. Davy, Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier.”

I’ve never known anyone named Fess, nor have I ever owned a coonskin cap. Some Native Americans had worn coonskin caps as traditional articles of clothing. European pioneers that settled in Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina in the 18th and 19th centuries wore them as hunting caps. Benjamin Franklin, on a trip to Paris as ambassador to France, wore a coonskin cap as a symbol of patriotism. Fess Parker wore a coonskin cap in his portrayal of both Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, even though Boone disliked coonskin caps and preferred felt headwear.

Anyone who believes the competitive spirit in America is dead has never been in a supermarket when the cashier opens another checkout line.

Wearing a coonskin cap probably helps in securing the front spot.

Singing in a cemetery

My hometown is centrally located, as long as you live near it.

There are a number of centrally located cemeteries in the area.

I visit cemeteries regularly. I visit friends and relatives there. I honor strangers and ancestors that I never knew. I appreciate the veterans. I’ve often done radio shows from cemeteries. They are peaceful places with birds singing. I’ve hiked around graveyards. I’ve birded them. I’ve wondered about all the stories that are buried there. I’ve hoped that the great accumulation of tears and regrets is buried under an avalanche of merry moments and happy days.

Henry David Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

A robin sang a beautiful song in a neighborhood graveyard, “Cheer up, cheerily, cheer up.”

I sang along.

Nature notes

A song sparrow led the morning chorus as it played many of my favorites.

The birds had formed a choral group in which each member attempted to be the featured soloist.

I’m a lifelong listener to birds. I grew up on a farm that mooed, clucked, oinked and barked itself awake each morning. I found the sound of geese barking overhead uplifting.

An eastern phoebe appeared after a long flight from its winter home. A great comeback. I hoped there were enough flying insects to meet its appetite.

Success can be a matter of getting through things. The voices of the birds were my background music as I picked up sticks from the yard. That task is like life. We pick up the pieces wherever they fall and move on.

The day ended much too soon in a beautiful sunset saying “Nice going. You made it. Here’s your reward.”

Meeting adjourned

“Nothing can make our lives, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.” — Leo Tolstoy