Saturday, December 13, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The Fight
The Fight: as told by Coxie Minich
"It was Halloween evening in 1920 and Bob and Joe and their cousin, Charlie Daugherty, were in New Bethlehem at a bar. The place was full and there was a lot of tension between the town fellows and the farm boys. Charlie was wearing a clown hat because it was Halloween and Vince Radecker from Fairmount got pushy and knocked the hat off of Charlie's head. Well that was the beginning of the fight.
The Bartender told them to take it outside so the whole crowd went out and went up the street to the ball park to settle the fight. Well charlie and Radecker squared off and were about to fight when Bob saw Radecker slip on a set of knuckles. He said, 'Don't fight him Charlie. He has a set of knuckles on.' Well Charlie backed off and Radecker swung around to Bob. He said, 'Do you think you want do try me?' Bob didn't say a thing . He just stood there for a second and then swung a right uppercut. Well he hit Radecker on the jaw and knocked him out cold! They had to carry him off the field.
There was only one problem, Bob broke all the bones in the third joint in his right hand.
That should have been the end of it, but the next week Bob and Joe were back in town in the same bar. And Radecker was there. Bob's hand was in a cast and and Radecker started to mouth off saying he wanted to rerun the fight but Bob said he couldn't fight then but would as soon as his fist healed. Well Joe, who was wearing a new suit said. 'I'll settle it right now.' They went out in the back lot of the bar where Joe and Radecker got into a boxing and wrestling fight. When it was over Joe had ruined his new suit, but he had made Radecker give up and say uncle.
I guess that is one reason they called Bob and Joe the mean Reinsel boys."
"It was Halloween evening in 1920 and Bob and Joe and their cousin, Charlie Daugherty, were in New Bethlehem at a bar. The place was full and there was a lot of tension between the town fellows and the farm boys. Charlie was wearing a clown hat because it was Halloween and Vince Radecker from Fairmount got pushy and knocked the hat off of Charlie's head. Well that was the beginning of the fight.
The Bartender told them to take it outside so the whole crowd went out and went up the street to the ball park to settle the fight. Well charlie and Radecker squared off and were about to fight when Bob saw Radecker slip on a set of knuckles. He said, 'Don't fight him Charlie. He has a set of knuckles on.' Well Charlie backed off and Radecker swung around to Bob. He said, 'Do you think you want do try me?' Bob didn't say a thing . He just stood there for a second and then swung a right uppercut. Well he hit Radecker on the jaw and knocked him out cold! They had to carry him off the field.
There was only one problem, Bob broke all the bones in the third joint in his right hand.
That should have been the end of it, but the next week Bob and Joe were back in town in the same bar. And Radecker was there. Bob's hand was in a cast and and Radecker started to mouth off saying he wanted to rerun the fight but Bob said he couldn't fight then but would as soon as his fist healed. Well Joe, who was wearing a new suit said. 'I'll settle it right now.' They went out in the back lot of the bar where Joe and Radecker got into a boxing and wrestling fight. When it was over Joe had ruined his new suit, but he had made Radecker give up and say uncle.
I guess that is one reason they called Bob and Joe the mean Reinsel boys."
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Me and Charlie and the Amishman
Me and Charlie and the Amishman As told by Grandpa Bauer
"One day me and Charlie and the Amishman was working in the forest along the dirt road cleaning the culverts and ditches. Well we came up to this one culvert and we seen that a groundhog had run into the pipe. Charlie said, 'Lets see if we can catch him.' So we decide that we would have the Amishman stand on the lower end of the culvert with a bag and we would pour some gasoline in the other and light it. We thought for sure that the groundhog would run into the bag and we would have him.
Well I poured some gasoline on the one end and the Amish man stood on the other with the bag and Charlie threw a match into the end with the gasoline. Well you should have seen it! There was a big explosion and the whole culvert lifted about 6" in the air. The dust flew everywhere and sure enough the groundhog came out the other end. His hair was on fire and he was traveling so fast that he ran between the Amishman's legs and knocked him over and kept on going down through the woods. It's a wonder that he didn't set the leaves on fire. All we could do was laugh.
Well just a little bit later the boss come along and said, 'What all that dust and smoke about? What are you fellas doing? We knowd that we would would catch it if we said what we did. But Charlie spoke up. Him been a fast talker and said, 'There was a nest of bees in the culvert and we burned them out'. Well that satisfied the boss and we didn't get in trouble that time.
If someone had got hurt or we'd set the woods on fire we really would have catched it for sure."
"One day me and Charlie and the Amishman was working in the forest along the dirt road cleaning the culverts and ditches. Well we came up to this one culvert and we seen that a groundhog had run into the pipe. Charlie said, 'Lets see if we can catch him.' So we decide that we would have the Amishman stand on the lower end of the culvert with a bag and we would pour some gasoline in the other and light it. We thought for sure that the groundhog would run into the bag and we would have him.
Well I poured some gasoline on the one end and the Amish man stood on the other with the bag and Charlie threw a match into the end with the gasoline. Well you should have seen it! There was a big explosion and the whole culvert lifted about 6" in the air. The dust flew everywhere and sure enough the groundhog came out the other end. His hair was on fire and he was traveling so fast that he ran between the Amishman's legs and knocked him over and kept on going down through the woods. It's a wonder that he didn't set the leaves on fire. All we could do was laugh.
Well just a little bit later the boss come along and said, 'What all that dust and smoke about? What are you fellas doing? We knowd that we would would catch it if we said what we did. But Charlie spoke up. Him been a fast talker and said, 'There was a nest of bees in the culvert and we burned them out'. Well that satisfied the boss and we didn't get in trouble that time.
If someone had got hurt or we'd set the woods on fire we really would have catched it for sure."
Thursday, October 25, 2007
The rain
The rain, it falls upon the just, and the grass and the trees and the flowers. Two inches of rain in the last day. Soft rain, gentle rain, soaking rain.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
New 10 Commandments
1 Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you. .
2 Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect. In all things, strive to cause no harm.
3 Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.
4 Live life with a sense of joy and wonder.
5 Always seek to be learning something new, test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to them.
6 Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; respect the right of others to disagree with you.
7 Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reasoning and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others, question everything.
8 Do not discriminate or oppress on the basis of sex or race.
9 Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.
10 Value the future on a timescale longer than your own.
2 Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect. In all things, strive to cause no harm.
3 Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.
4 Live life with a sense of joy and wonder.
5 Always seek to be learning something new, test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to them.
6 Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; respect the right of others to disagree with you.
7 Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reasoning and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others, question everything.
8 Do not discriminate or oppress on the basis of sex or race.
9 Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.
10 Value the future on a timescale longer than your own.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Fog
It was extremely foggy when I went for my walk this morning and that made me think about other fog experiences. Three times stand out.
In 1976, when we were on our way back from Nova Scotia, driving down I 81 past Scranton and all the way to Harrisburg, the fog was so thick that you could hardly see 50 feet in front of the car. It took hours and hours at 15 to 20 miles per hour to get from the northern Pennsylvania line to Harrisburg. Most of the time I followed a semi, staying back far enough to just see his brake lights.
In April of 1957, I had been out visiting my future spouse and had started the 25 miles home at about 1:00 am. It took me until 5:00 am to travel the 25 miles because the fog was that thick. My brother-in-law was coming up the road in front of his house from the other direction. And I stopped to see what he was doing in this fog. He said that he was coming home from the Hospital. My sister had had a daughter about 1:00 and he was just getting back to do the milking.
In September of 1954 I was doing the milking on the farm. One morning I got up at 5:00 am to go down to the barn. When I looked out, all I could see was a little spot of light in the fog, from the light on the pole down by the road. I went down to the milk house and got the milkers ready and then went over to the barn. Usually the cows would come up out of the pasture field when they heard me moving about in the barn, but this morning they didn't come. I stared down through the field to fined them but the fog was so thick and it was so dark that I was walking blind. I really couldn't see one step in front of me. I could tell by the slope of the land that I was not near the creek at the bottom of the field. When the land flattened out I knew I had about 75 feet to the stream but I still couldn't see any cows, so I took about 10 more steps and fell headlong over a big brown swiss cow. I was there in the middle of the herd and couldn't see them. The cows had all been laying down and they didn't move until I fell. That cause enough commotion that they got up and I could hear them but still could only see the one I fell over because I was standing right beside it. Once they got up, they walked up to the barn and I walked along with them.
In 1976, when we were on our way back from Nova Scotia, driving down I 81 past Scranton and all the way to Harrisburg, the fog was so thick that you could hardly see 50 feet in front of the car. It took hours and hours at 15 to 20 miles per hour to get from the northern Pennsylvania line to Harrisburg. Most of the time I followed a semi, staying back far enough to just see his brake lights.
In April of 1957, I had been out visiting my future spouse and had started the 25 miles home at about 1:00 am. It took me until 5:00 am to travel the 25 miles because the fog was that thick. My brother-in-law was coming up the road in front of his house from the other direction. And I stopped to see what he was doing in this fog. He said that he was coming home from the Hospital. My sister had had a daughter about 1:00 and he was just getting back to do the milking.
In September of 1954 I was doing the milking on the farm. One morning I got up at 5:00 am to go down to the barn. When I looked out, all I could see was a little spot of light in the fog, from the light on the pole down by the road. I went down to the milk house and got the milkers ready and then went over to the barn. Usually the cows would come up out of the pasture field when they heard me moving about in the barn, but this morning they didn't come. I stared down through the field to fined them but the fog was so thick and it was so dark that I was walking blind. I really couldn't see one step in front of me. I could tell by the slope of the land that I was not near the creek at the bottom of the field. When the land flattened out I knew I had about 75 feet to the stream but I still couldn't see any cows, so I took about 10 more steps and fell headlong over a big brown swiss cow. I was there in the middle of the herd and couldn't see them. The cows had all been laying down and they didn't move until I fell. That cause enough commotion that they got up and I could hear them but still could only see the one I fell over because I was standing right beside it. Once they got up, they walked up to the barn and I walked along with them.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Drought
Mom and I went for a walk last night and found that the stream behind our house is dry for the first time in the 32 years since we have lived in this house. Oh, there are a few puddles but no water is flowing and the rocks in the stream bed are dry. It will take 15 to 18 inches of rain to get us back to a normal situation.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Defensive driving
Mom and I are taking our 3rd defensive driving class this week. If we take the class every 3 years we get a discount on our insurance and since we are not doing a lot of other things it is a good thing to do. And, we do learn or relearn a few things about driving. Like the 3 second rule. What you may ask is the 3 second rule? Vell, I'll tell you. It is how far you should stay behind the vehicle in front of you on the highway. Oh. But how do you know? Well, you pick a marker that the vehicle is passing and see if it takes you 3 seconds to get there.
Also, when you are stopped behind another car in traffic, how far back should you be? You should be far enough back to see its tires on the road. That allows you room to pull around the car if it is stalled and maybe enough room not to get smashed into it if someone hit you from behind.
Also, when you are stopped behind another car in traffic, how far back should you be? You should be far enough back to see its tires on the road. That allows you room to pull around the car if it is stalled and maybe enough room not to get smashed into it if someone hit you from behind.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Learning to Drive
When I was 14 I was working on the farm and drove the tractor all of the time. Sometimes on Sunday afternoon I would take the tractor over to my friends house about a mile and a half away and we would just sit around and shoot the breeze.
But there was another way that I got around. My sister Peggy was living at home and working in the Sylvania plant at Brookville. She bought a 1942 Ford Coupe to use to get to work. It had a high speed differential which meant that it didn't have much power but once you got moving it would run like a sacred rabbit. Since we lived on the back road and I knew every road in the township I would ask her to borrow it when I wanted to go to a 4-H club meeting at Shanondale or to visit another friend somewhere in our part of the world. Several tmes I took the back roads to Summerville on Sunday afternoon, or to Limestone to go swiming.
I took my drivers test the day after I was 16 and the cop said it seemed like I had been driving for a while. I said yes I learned to drive on the farm.
But there was another way that I got around. My sister Peggy was living at home and working in the Sylvania plant at Brookville. She bought a 1942 Ford Coupe to use to get to work. It had a high speed differential which meant that it didn't have much power but once you got moving it would run like a sacred rabbit. Since we lived on the back road and I knew every road in the township I would ask her to borrow it when I wanted to go to a 4-H club meeting at Shanondale or to visit another friend somewhere in our part of the world. Several tmes I took the back roads to Summerville on Sunday afternoon, or to Limestone to go swiming.
I took my drivers test the day after I was 16 and the cop said it seemed like I had been driving for a while. I said yes I learned to drive on the farm.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Road work
Until 1952 the road past our house was dirt (mostly clay) and in the winter and spring of the year it got deep ruts whenever it was wet and the ground was not frozen. Sometimes it got so bad that we had to park the car up at the T (about 2/10s of a mile away from the house. For a month or more in the spring the only vehicles that got through were the mailman in his Model A Ford and the Milk truck that picked up the milk. Whenever the road dried enough we would hook the drag to the tractor and fill in the ruts so we could get the car in to the house.
In the wintertime the road often drifted shut with snow and sometimes the Township did not plow us out for a week or more. In 1944 we were snowed in for 5 weeks before they brought in bulldozers to open up the road. Dad had to park the car at the main highway, about a mile away,and walk out to get to work and he had to carry in groceries. My oldest sister had to walk through the snow to get to the bus to go to high school.
Things began to change in the summer of 1952. Dad convinced the Township Supervisors that the road needed to made passable in the winter for the school bus, mail, and milk truck, so they agreed to haul in sandstone to build a base for the road. That summer, in June my friend Roy and I were still 14, but old enough to get work permits, and the Township hired us to work on the road breaking the big rock into little rocks that the roller could crush in to the dirt. We worked about 4 weeks busting rocks on a little over a mile of road from Pumptown to the T. We got $1.00 per hour and worked about 8 hours a day. I was in pretty good shape when we finished. Of course we still had hay making and grain harvesting and chores to do but we were happy to have some money of our own.
With a solid stone base on the road the Township made an effort to keep the road open all winter and that made things a lot better.
In the wintertime the road often drifted shut with snow and sometimes the Township did not plow us out for a week or more. In 1944 we were snowed in for 5 weeks before they brought in bulldozers to open up the road. Dad had to park the car at the main highway, about a mile away,and walk out to get to work and he had to carry in groceries. My oldest sister had to walk through the snow to get to the bus to go to high school.
Things began to change in the summer of 1952. Dad convinced the Township Supervisors that the road needed to made passable in the winter for the school bus, mail, and milk truck, so they agreed to haul in sandstone to build a base for the road. That summer, in June my friend Roy and I were still 14, but old enough to get work permits, and the Township hired us to work on the road breaking the big rock into little rocks that the roller could crush in to the dirt. We worked about 4 weeks busting rocks on a little over a mile of road from Pumptown to the T. We got $1.00 per hour and worked about 8 hours a day. I was in pretty good shape when we finished. Of course we still had hay making and grain harvesting and chores to do but we were happy to have some money of our own.
With a solid stone base on the road the Township made an effort to keep the road open all winter and that made things a lot better.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Contractors In Iraq
According to an article in Harpers magazine over 1,000 private contractors(mercenaries) have been killed in Iraq and over 13,000 have been wounded. This increases the american deaths by 25% and wounded by about 1/3.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Emerson on Thinking
Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson-
-Ralph Waldo Emerson-
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Quote of the day
"The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory."
Paul Fix
Paul Fix
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Age 13
When I was 13 years old my dad worked 8 hour shifts on the gas wells: midnight to 8 am, 8 to 4 and 4 to midnight. My brother was away at college so I had a lot of responsibility on the farm. Every Third week I got up at 5:00 am and milked 25 cows, then fed the calves, chickens, and pigs and then washed the milkers. I washed up and ate breakfast at 7:00 and then set the milk cans out for the milk truck and got on the bus at7:20.
The next week when dad had the 8 to 4 shift he did the milking morning and evening and I did the feeding and washed the milkers. When dad worked 4 to midnight, I came home from school at 4:20 and changed clothes and started milking at 5:00 pm. We ate supper at 6:00 pm and I was usually in bed by 8:30.
The next week when dad had the 8 to 4 shift he did the milking morning and evening and I did the feeding and washed the milkers. When dad worked 4 to midnight, I came home from school at 4:20 and changed clothes and started milking at 5:00 pm. We ate supper at 6:00 pm and I was usually in bed by 8:30.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Bonus Years
This morning I’ve been ruminating on life in general. I think that I am now in my bonus years. That is, considering how long my parents lived, every year I get now is a bonus. I plan to enjoy and live fully what ever time I have. To be able to enjoy my children and my grandchildren is the greatest pleasure. Every day there is a new surprise, something to look for, something to be thankful for.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Sunday Morning
It is very quiet here this morning. Very few people outside when I went for my 6:00 am walk. Kind of cool at 62 degrees. It felt like a Cape Cod morning, just right for summer. I've had my second cup of coffee and scanned the paper. Not much there that I cared to focus on. I made a few updates to my Shelfari page. I'll work on my reviews as time goes by. No hurry with that
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