Don't Fence Me In

      More Letters From Paradise
         Don't Fence Me In

I passed a wall the other day and saw that it was built of lava rock. Nothing unusual about this, as lava rock is found all over the Hawaiian Islands, having been created by volcanoes. But this wall set me to thinking about walls and fences. I came to two conclusions. First, walls and fences are used to define territory. I think this is best expressed by the poet Robert Frost,in his poem "Mending Wall." In it he writes that "Stone fences make good neighbors."

The second reason for walls and fences is to keep people and animals either in or out. The first settlers in America built log walls in order to keep Indians out.

At a later date settlers would fell trees and then using steel wedges, split the logs into rails. Do you remember that Lincoln was a rail splitter? These rails would be crossed over near each end, and placed in a zig zag fashion across a field, thus creating a fence.

I remember years ago seeing stump fences marking out fields in Northern Michigan. The settlers would dig around the stumps of trees and then use oxen or horses to pull the stumps out of the ground, in order to create a fence when placed side by side with other stumps.

Next I began to think about fences, and tried to list them all. I began with the common woven wire fence which comes in a roll and is stapled to wood posts stuck in the ground or fastened to narrow steel posts. A good fence was said to be one that was "horse high, and sheep tight."

There are many other types of woven wire fence, one is called "chicken wire." You can guess what it is used for. And there are many others.

But perhaps the simplest fence is a single wire strand attached to a post and charged with electric current. This often works well as long as the battery remains charged. One time it didn't work so well, was when a big pig of mine simply walked to the fence, and with her nose pushed the insulator up, and walked out to freedom. That pig could really run!

Another single strand of fence was invented by a man name Joseph Gladden. It was called barbed wire, because sharp barbs were clamped on the wire at intervals. Sold in rolls and two strands would make a fence. This led to the wars between the cattlemen and the farmers. A popular song of the 1940's sung by the cowboy singer Gene Autry, was "Don't Fence Me In," in which he laments the fencing of the wide open plains.        There were many different kinds of barbs used and they make an interesting collection. I once had such a collection stapled to a barn siding board.

With the coming of World War I, barbed wire was put other uses. The war on the Western front became strung with miles of barbed wire to keep the enemy away. Wire cutters became standard equipment in the British Army. But before leaving the topic of WWI. should mention that the iron fences around wealthy British homes were cut off, and sent off to be melted,and used in the war effort.

Today the barbs on wire have been replaced with even more cruel razor blades. These are use by our military and on top of prison walls.    

Enough about fences. What about walls? The first one which come to mind is found in Homer's epic poem the "Iliad," which tells about the ancient war between the Trojans and the Greeks." I don't remember how high the walls of Troy were, but they frustrated the Greeks so much that they had to use the ruse of the wooden horse in order to gain entry.

Another wall is of course the "Great Wall of China," which was built to keep out nomadic peoples, and is about 13,171 miles long. I read somewhere that it is the only man-made structure which can be seen on Earth from the Moon. Inside Beijing today there are walls which enclosed the "Forbidden City" of the emperor.

Another famous wall was built by the Romans starting in the year 122 A.D. It is called "Hadrian's Wall," named for the Roman emperor at that time. It makes the northern-most part of the Roman Empire. It runs across Northern England 73 miles from Solway Firth on the East, to the Irish Sea on the West.It was built to keep out the warlike people known as Picts. Highly fortified and guarded  by Roman legions. We know which legions built the wall, as they left their name on it. Such a long way from sunny Italy.

Other walls which came to mind are adobe brick used in the Southwest and Mexico. In Mexico broken glass bottles are often seen imbedded in the cement on the top of walls. Remember the Alamo? Texans do. Adobe again. As a kid living there I am ashamed to admit that I kicked off a piece as a souvenir.

I remember seeing stone walls built by the Aztec people where they placed small stones in the cement joints between the stone blocks. Most unusual. And in Kentucky I saw a wall of stacked slate built by slaves.

There are a whole host of materials for walls. Concrete,glass,plastic, and of course brick. Roman bricks tell you when the brick was made, and in what year. Thomas Jefferson had a brick wall built in a serpentine shape which would give the wall more support than a straight wall.

Two other walls we are all familiar with are the Berlin Wall that separated Communist East Germany from West Germany, and the wall built by the U.S. to prevent Mexican people from coming here to live.

If you are reading this, I feel it is long enough. But I leave you with one other type of wall. It is a wall built by the Masai tribe of Kenya, Africa. It is built of thorn bushes to keep their cattle safe from lions.

     Aloha
     Grant

Can You Hear the Birds Singing?

      More Letters From Paradise
    Can You Hear the Birds Singing?

No, of course you can't because you are using your earbuds. Can you see the tree above you that is filled with yellow flowers, and they  carpet the sidewalk? No, because you are only looking at your phone or tablet. Do you hear the tapping of heels on the sidewalk, or the emergency vehicle racing on a rescue mission? No, you are still in the "zone" with your earbuds. Do you see the woman pushing the baby, and guy on the bike riding towards you? No, you are still looking at your phone or tablet. Do you see that the ocean surf has risen, and or that that the grass on Diamond Head is brown, little and dry? No, you are still looking on your phone or tablet.

Do you know that the traffic light has turned green, and that is why the car behind you is honking his horn? You were sending a text on your phone.

Do you sometimes wonder why you missed the floor you were supposed to exit? Do you suppose that it had something to do with your phone?

I will bet you never hear the singing lessons coming from an apartment above. Too bad, she has a lovely voice. Earbuds again.

Not to beat this theme to death, but I would point out that there is a wonderful world out there, just waiting for you to pull off your earbuds and drop your phones.

      Aloha
      Grant

Louis Armstrong

      More Letters From Paradise
         Louis Armstrong

Unless you are a big jazz buff, or listen to National Public Radio, you may not know the following story. I heard Garrison Keillor tell the story this morning. It is so good that I want to pass it along to you.

 Today is President Obama's birthday. Born here in Honolulu, in spite of what Donald Trump says. He shares this date with the late great Louis Armstrong.

Louis was born a poor kid in New Orleans. He used to sing for pennies, and he kept them in his mouth so that the big kids couldn't get them. He came to be called "Satchel Mouth." Later it became simply "Satchmo." He worked for a Jewish couple who were coal dealers. They bought him a tin trumpet. Because they had been so kind to him, he wore a star of David around his neck for the rest of his life.

      Aloha
      Grant
p.s. Read about the discovery of a diary on my  blog. morelettersfromparadise.blogspot.com