Dac Crossley's Western Blog

The Eighteen Minutes

I let San Jacinto day slip past me this year. And, I understand, Texas doesn’t honor the date as it once did. Are the banks closed on April 21st? Do grade schools honor the occasion?

For those of you so misfortunate as to miss a Texas education – On April 21st, 1836, General Sam Houston led 930 Texicans headlong into the encampment of El Presidente Santa Anna and 1200 Mexican soldiers. The entire battle lasted eighteen minutes.

The Texians overran the Mexican camp and slaughtered the Mexican troops, taking revenge for the atrocities at the Alamo and at Goliad. As I heard it at my mother’s knee, Mexican soldiers fell on their knees protesting, “Me no Alamo! Me no Goliad!” The Texicans killed them anyway, while officers worked their best to stop the killing.

El Presidente himself donned the uniform of a private soldier and made his way out to the bayou, where he was captured. When he was returned to camp, his own soldiers ratted him out. “El Presidente!”

Why did Sam Houston keep retreating until San Jacinto day? Was his army too poorly prepared? Did he intend to escape with them into Louisiana? His officers thought him afraid. But as he pointed out, he was the only one there who had been in a battle or led troops into a battle. He knew what he was doing.

No one questioned Sam Houston’s courage at San Jacinto. He was in the forefront. Two horses were shot from under him, and he sustained a painful wound in his right ankle.

I refer you to Stephen L. Moore’s excellent 2004 account, “Eighteen Minutes. The Battle of San Jacinto and the Texas Independence Campaign.” Published by the Republic of Texas Press. Of course.

Mom would have eaten it up.

Dac Crossley
4/26/2010

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain.

Earth Day Anniversary

This will be the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, first celebrated on April 22nd, 1970. It was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson, a dedicated environmentalist. Originally planned as a teach-in on college campuses, it grew to be a country-wide celebration of environmental awareness.

And in 1970, we did have a teach-in here at the University of Georgia, with public lectures by faculty and students. Some of us faculty scattered to other campuses. That year I went to Troy State College in Alabama and gave an out-door lecture to a mixed crowd. Pollution was the focus at that time, clean water, consequences of unrestrained population growth. (A member of Governor George Wallace’s staff listened to me, and promised to tell the Governor about it).

Senator Nelson picked a Wednesday on a date in mid-April, a time when he assumed classes would be in session and there would be no competing events. Immediately it was pointed out to him that April 22 was Lenin’s birthday. Was this a communist plot? No kidding, that question was raised. Environmental activism always has its enemies. A member of the Daughters of the American Revolution opined, “Subversive elements plan to make American children live in an environment that is good for them." That’s an actual quote on Wikkipedia.

Has Earth Day outlived its usefulness? The emphasis has shifted to green energy, renewables, recycling. Recycling is now widely accepted. Lead has been removed from gasoline. Energy conservation has become a national policy. Surface waters are cleaner.

There is still a long way to go. Critical shortages are still on the horizon. Many industries face a painful restructuring.

One thing we didn’t anticipate (or, maybe I didn’t…). The massive flow of people across our southern border. What is the solution to that aspect of population growth?

Earth Day lives on. Personally, I feel that I’ve passed the torch. Passed it to good, strong, young hands.

Dac Crossley
4/17/2010

“The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The Victory Garden

It’s High Spring now, here on the Georgia Piedmont. Our season has been compressed by cold weather hanging on in March. The usual paced succession of blooming trees and shrubs has been replaced by simultaneous displays of color. And that’s a big hurrah from me.

I’m green-eyed when I walk through my neighborhood. I ask myself, “Dac, why doesn’t your yard look this beautiful?” And I promise myself to work harder this year, for a better display next spring.

I WILL grow peppers. My garden has diminished to a small plot with a few tomato vines and a bunch of pepper plants. I start pepper plants from seeds, the only way to get the variety of peppers I enjoy. Bell peppers in different colors and sizes, banana types of different flavors, and hot peppers galore. That’s become my victory garden.

Those of us of a certain age will remember the Victory Garden. During the early days of WWII President Roosevelt encouraged families to grow a vegetable plot if they could, to help with food shortages created by the war. (The USDA objected to the idea; they thought farmers would be hurt financially).

We set our clocks an hour ahead (“War Time”) to allow an extra hour of daylight. Some sections of public parks were plowed and gardened. Our parents grew beans, squash, and other vegetables.

Remember the food rationing? Sugar? Fruit juice? Shortages of some dairy products. Oleomargarine appeared in grocery shelves and the dairy industry objected. To appease them, Oleo could only be sold uncolored, a white lard. With it came a package of yellow food dye. You mixed the coloring in by hand. Ah, the good old days.

Victory Garden? Well, we won the war, didn’t we…

Dac
4/11/2010

“Victory has a thousand fathers; defeat is an orphan.” – John F. Kennedy

The Gunfighter

A fellow writer, Alan B., forwarded a little op-ed piece about gunfighters and gunfights in the Old West. The gist of the article was that the west wasn’t nearly so violent as portrayed. Western towns averaged only about 1.5 murders per year. The Gunfight At The O.K. Corral resulted in but three deaths, and that was Tombstone’s most violent year. The quick-draw wasn’t important because those old hand-guns were so inaccurate. And supposed gunfighters themselves weren’t so vicious. Billy the Kid only killed four people in his life. And so on.

Is this really true? asked Alan.

I don’t think so. The truth is probably somewhere between the op-ed’s argument and Hollywood’s view of the West. Western history is chock full of gunfights and local wars. Texas Rangers versus bad guys. Obscure bandits and sheriffs gone bad, as well as those famous gunmen in the stories we’ve all heard. John Wesley Hardin. Sam Bass. One of my ancestors was gunned down in the Longhorn Saloon in San Antonio. A great-uncle was killed in El Paso (ruled a suicide but he didn't have a gun...).

And Billy the Kid? Yes, history records the names of four men he shot down. At that time he already had a reputation as a killer. Those four are the ones who’s names we know; doubtless there were others in the Lincoln County War. Did he kill 21 men by the time he was 21? Doubtful. But he surely murdered more than four.

Please, Mr. Editorialist, leave us our legends. So the Old West wasn’t exactly like we visualize it – It’s still part of Americana, our self-image, our history that makes us what we are. And we treasure it.

Those of us of a certain age can tell you – what poker hand Wild Bill Hickok was holding, when Jack McCall shot him in the back? Do you know, Mr. Editorialist?

Don’t lecture us about the Wild West. We are it.

Dac Crossley
4/5/2010

“Those big shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.” – Mickey Spillane.

The Last Easter Egg

Easter eggs were a family tradition in south Texas, so it’s understandable that I’d expect them in Tennessee, too.

Dot Money and I merged our families Knoxville, Tennessee in 1961. Her sons Greg and Steve were 16 and 13. My daughter Mary was 3.

So, the next Easter, Dot died some eggs with Mary’s help. The teenage boys were too sophisticated for anything so childish as Easter eggs.

Easter morning I hid the eggs and Mary searching for them. The boys watched, amused. But the whole game changed when Mary held up one of those hollow plastic eggs and broke it open. A dollar bill fell out! Greg and Steve joined the hunt with a vengeance.

I am pretty good at hiding eggs. I kept assuring the boys that there were still more plastic eggs out there, someplace.

I’m happy to report that the tradition has been preserved. Greg and Steve each held Easter egg hunts for their own families – plastic eggs with rewards inside.

(It’s true; I married Dorothy Money. My father had advised me to “marry money.” He said that wasn’t exactly what he meant…).

Dac Crossley
4/3/2010

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” – Dolly Parton.