{"id":109610,"date":"2019-10-29T11:19:57","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T15:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=109610"},"modified":"2019-10-29T11:19:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T15:19:57","slug":"column-a-confederate-yankee-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=109610","title":{"rendered":"COLUMN: A Confederate Yankee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Bill Mayers<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The osprey chick fledged some four weeks ago, and now the\nparents have abandoned the nest. The pole stands with wind-blown bits and\npieces of the nest blowing, drifting away. In the near distance, the fall\ncolors have peaked. The few leaves left aloft have faded to a dull yellow. The\nbare trees look like skeletons of their recent greens, leaning in the face of\nautumn winds. The drastic changes in the woods are stark and depressing. The\nturkeys and the deer have quickly realized it’s time to hide; only their\nfootprints giving proof of their existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just days ago, shorts and tees were the wardrobe of choice,\nand now the sweaters and winter pants are everywhere. A few die-hard\nmotorcyclists brave the chill, knowing it’ll be time to garage them and shove\nthe helmets onto the shelf in the hall closet in a couple more weeks. Wasn’t it\nonly yesterday we were greeting the spring flowers? The dandelions? The robins?\nWhy is it, as we grow older, time seems to go by faster?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond a certain age, we become more acutely aware of our\nmortality. People I’ve known for years \u2013 decades, even \u2013 are no longer here and,\nat times, that becomes depressing. We realize that our time grows ever-shorter.\nSo much of what we want to do, and should do, we’ll never do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our little Civil War group had our annual fall get-together\nyesterday. Nineteen of us, which is just over half the membership, enjoyed a\ndish-to-pass lunch. One of the ladies found out my fave pie is also a fave of\nseveral others in the group, including herself. Lemon meringue. So she brought\ntwo, plus a key lime pie. It went quickly, and then she sent a quarter of one\nof the lemon meringue pies home with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was much discussion of the hobby, and we’ve welcomed\nnew members. Several interested folks have yet to choose to join us, but it\nlooks promising. One of our issues is the (reproduction) unit flags. They are\nhand-painted silk and showing some wear. They are large enough that they need\n12-foot poles. Now, having a conservator repair the damage would NOT be cheap:\nWe’re talking silk, after all. But one of our group has experience with sewing\nsilk, and has agreed to look into doing the fixing. Betcha it will turn out\nfabulous! These look exactly like the unit’s original flags, and we do not\nleave them unattended!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are rather insistent on period authenticity because we\nfeel that to do less would dishonor those who were part of the original unit. We\nre-enactors are just that: actors. We’re telling a story; a very real and very\nimportant one. Ya do something like that, especially before school children and\nthe general public, ya want to do it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recall having spent time in California, one of the most\ndiverse and beautiful spots in the union. Seeing all the pics of the fires\nravaging much of that state, I’m saddened. I’m sure there are areas that are\nspared, but the long-term future of the state is in doubt. Climate change is\nreal and a major contributor to this fire situation, and it may well take\ndrastic and expensive remedial action to confront. One has to wonder what\ncompels so many in government to deny and resist? It is going to get much, much\nworse, and disasters do not discriminate based on political or economic factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People need to get their heads out of their rectums and work\ntogether to confront the issues, or we’ll suffer the consequences separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: William Mayers of Sullivan is a\nretired senior U.S. Army Corpsman. A certified healthcare professional since\n1964, he holds two professional licenses, including that of Registered\nProfessional Nurse licensed in New York, Alaska, Virginia and Louisiana. He is\nthe father of three and avid analyst of current events.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The osprey chick fledged some four weeks ago, and now the parents have abandoned the nest. The pole stands with wind-blown bits and pieces of the nest blowing, drifting away. In the near distance, the fall colors have peaked. The few leaves left aloft have faded to a dull yellow. The bare trees look like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23677,23808,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/bill-mayers.jpg?fit=226%2C313&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-svU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}