UPDATE:::COMMON SENSE CLUB:::BROS. JOE D. VISITS HARPERS FERRY ON WAY TO Washington D.C.

As you may recall from the past meeting of The Common Sense Club; Bros. Joe D. was dispatched to Washington D.C. on a fact finding  mission. On this 25th day of April we received an update from Joe. “Fellow members, to date the train ride has been expeditious and  smooth . My plan is to spend a day here in Harpers Ferry and soak up some history.”

 

“ As you know Harpers Ferry is located in a gap of the Blue Ridge Mountains and at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. I would not want to be traveling on these rivers.”

     “Today we may be having “Tea Parties”well on the night of October 16th, 1859, John Brown and an armed ban of 21 men set out for Harpers Ferry from the Kennedy farmhouse in nearby Maryland. Their goal was to seize the United States Armory and Arsenal and start setting free slaves.

“Thirty-Six hours after the attack began, Brown and four of his associates were captured. Ten insurgents lay dead and seven had escaped. As a side note the first person killed in this uprising  was an employee of the railroad, a freed slave.

     Brown and his men were tried for murder and treason. On December 2nd  1859 Brown was executed in Charles Town Virginia.His six compatriots were hanged over the next four months.

     Pictured below is a typical street in Harpers Ferry and a walk way over the river.The walk way then connects with the Appalachian trail 

     Pictured below is the building where Brown and his men made a stand before being captured by federal troops under the command of Robert E. Lee

     Every one might have been happier if they had just stopped at the local tavern for a spot of Ale.

     Well, tonight at my own expense I will be staying at the Bavarian Inn in Shepherdstown W.  Virginia overlooking the Potomac River.

Will be having dinner at  Betty’s Restaurant in Shepherdstown with a very attractive woman I met on the train.

Time to turn in now. I will be sending more dispatches to Scribe Joe Todd of The Common Sense Club as time allows.

Technorati Tags: Quality Time,Common Sense Club,Harpers Ferry,Shepherds Town,John Brown,B&O Railroad,Potomac River,Shenandoah River,Execution,Hanging,Tea Parties

REGULAR WEDNESDAY MEETING OF THE COMMON SENSE CLUB THIS 22ND DAY OF APRIL 2009

     First we would like to introduce our newest member. Bros. An Gree recently arrived from France.

  This session of the Common Sense Club closed with the following remarks by Bro. Charlie L.

     “Men and brothers, I want you to consider that opportunity is a mighty hard hoss to halter. You may lead him to the water tank but he won’t always drink.

     Some of you men are waiting, day by day, for something to turn up. You might as well sit down on a stump in the middle of a pasture field with a pail between your knees and wait for a cow to back up and be milked. It just don’t happen. Even when the cow is tied to a post and can not get away, she will often kick the pail over about the time you have it full of milk.

     Some say that opportunity knocks once, at least on every man’s door, and they are waiting to hear the knock. Well it did that when you were born. You were ushered into a free country with the whole land before you and needs of all kinds on every hand and that is all the knock needed on your door.

     We have to many alibis and excuses and pity ourselves and envy the fellow who seems prosperous, but the fact remains that most of our successful men have been handicapped. But will power , determination and energy overcame all hindrances.

     A card on my table says, “ I felt sorry that I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet.” Edison was deaf, Milton the poet was blind and Lincoln was poor, but have we ever heard of them wasting any time with vain regrets? Brothers do not regret the past but learn from it.

     The best we can do is to do well the first thing our hands find to do and no doubt there will be another job ready as soon as the first one is finished.

     The man who is seeking employment and praying that he may not find it is seldom disappointed. He that loveth ease and sloth shall be a poor man, although opportunity may have banged on his door repeatedly.

     We should so act, “That each tomorrow find us farther on our way.”

Let it be resolved: We send Bro. Joe D. on a fact finding mission to our Nations Capital.

 

 REPORTED BY THE SCRIBE: JOE TODD 4/21/09

Technorati Tags: Opportunity,Free Country,Alibis,Sloth,Will power,Determination,Edison,Milton,Lincoln,Employment,Praying,Nations Capital

HIKE AROUND JORDAN POND ACADIA NATIONAL PARK LATE FALL 2008

Steep slopes rise above the rocky shore, including Cadillac Mountain, which at 1,530 feet is the highest point on the east coast of the United States.

 

Meadows,lakes, streams, wetlands, and forests

JORDAN POND: The trail around Jordan Pond  is a 3.3 mile/5.3 km loop.

You will find landlocked salmon, and lake trout in the lake. That is Bubble Mt. in the background

PICTURES ON THE TRAIL:

 

MY WIFE AND I ON THE TRAIL:

The pond has a maximum water depth of 150 feet and canoes and kayaks are permitted. Carriage Roads are adjacent to the restaurant and pond area.

MORE OF THE TRAIL:

BEAVER DAM AT FAR END OF POND.

TRAIL COULD GET PRETTY WET SO THE N.P.S. HELPED OUT WITH SOME BOARD WALK

END OF HIKE GETTING READY TO

REST

IN THE BACKGROUND The famous Jordan Pond House, the only full service restaurant located within Acadia National Park.

Jordan Pond House continues the tradition of afternoon tea featuring there famous popovers and strawberry jam.

TIME TO GO BACK TO CAMPSITE:

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY

JOE TODD AND LINDA.

Technorati Tags: Acadia National Park,Jordan Pond,Hike,Camping,Jordan Pond House,Meadows,Lakes,Streams,Quality time outdoors

QUIET, QUALITY TIME AT LAKE HOPE AND THE SCHOOL HOUSE

     Sometimes I just like to get away by myself and listen to the “Quiet of Nature”. I have found it difficult to get rid of all man made sound, those airplanes just keep flying.  One of my favorite areas is the Lake Hope area of Vinton County.

 LAKE HOPE

If you want quiet early spring or late fall before hunting season is the best.

Decided to have a little lunch and “hang out” at the HOPE SCHOOL HOSE .

 

Put a blanket on the ground by those trees and spent a couple hours.. Man made noise= two cars and two planes. NOT BAD

I often go by myself. Linda likes to keep moving while I like to stop listen and do a little meditating. I will often contemplate :::

THE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

A little time like this makes for some quiet quality time for me

Thanks  Joe Todd

 

REGULAR MEETING OF THE COMMONSENSE CLUB THIS APRIL 15 2009

Thomas Paine Born
January 29, 1737
Thetford, Norfolk, Great Britain Died
June 8, 1809 (aged 72)
New York, NY, Wikipedia
Enlightenment, Liberalism, Radicalism, Republicanism Main interests
Religion, Ethics, Politics

     At the regular meeting of the Commonsense Club some closing remarks were made by Bro. Jim H.  as follows:

     “My fellow members of this here club, I wish to assure you that these are troublous times. We are living in the midst of sin and sorrow and mostly the sorrow is the result of the sin. However, I want to say that honesty ain’t such a rare virtue as some folks suppose, but you better keep your eye skinned for dishonesty. It slips up on you unawares. “All is not gold that glitters,” said the poet, or somebody. And when you are offered goods below cost, or “just as good for less,”  keep your hand on your purse tight. And when you read an ad that offers to tell you how to get rich, if you send in seventy five cents—hold on to your money for the man that knows that little secret ain’t goin’ to sell it for no six bits.

     And when the polytician says, “Come vote with us and we will do you good,” he may mean to do you, for sure.

     So I’m a tellin ye now, keep your eyes wide open and your purse tight shut. For while most folks is square,and our neighbors are as good as we are, and some of em better, yet the swindler and the grafter and the gambler is abroad on the land a seekin whom he may devour, and a wise looking-out for your own self  is worth a ton of complaining afterwards, when you realize your loss.

     And don’t you notice that the places to spend money is more numerous than the places to earn it. It seems so distasteful to some to earn money that they devise some plan to get money  and that is why I am saying to you all, beware.

     Let us cogitate more on the earning and saving of our slender incomes and forget some of the spending and waste.

     You all is dumb enough to know that when you make a dollar and spend two dollars you is worse than broke. Business  teach spending, and amusements teach waste. This club instructs you to earn—yes earn an honest livin’ and live an honest life.  

Submitted by the scribe: Joe Todd

Technorati Tags: Big box stores,grafters,politicians,scams,money,spending,honesty,virtue

FOUNDING OF THE COMMONSENSE CLUB AS REPORTED BY THE SCRIBE::JOE TODD

OUR HERO Thomas Paine 

CHARTER MEMBERS::

Professor  Dick K. far left and Bro. Joe D. far right

Bro. Jim H. , Scribe Joe Todd in middle and Bro. Charlie L.

     The Commonsense Club is a group, supposedly, of men mature in years and experience. Some of them are retired from their calling and some are very actively engaged, but all have a vital interest in the community affairs.

     We are not permitted to divulge the proceedings of the meetings of the club, but we may report the sentiments expressed in the address that is always provided for the final item on the program.

     The personnel of the membership ranges all the way from Bro. Joe D. who is a sort of genius, with meager education but a wealth of gumption, sound sense and philosophy, to the pedantic book worm and theorist Professor Dick K.

     Believing these terse talks to the club to be sensible, as a usual thing, and practiced, it is our purpose, from time to time, to present them to the readers of this blog. So we make our bow by setting forth the voluntary remarks of Bro. Joe D.  at the close of the first meeting of the club when its organization was completed:

     “ Brothers of the Commonsense Club—We are now a constituted club. I congratulate you on being charter members.  There are clubs a plenty in these days, but none to many of the right sort.

     Each member is an American, regardless of race or color, a resident of this community, with a live interest in its affairs.  We are all of the common people which comprises the majority.  So we launch this club believing that it will fill a long felt need and we confidently expect to reap a rich fruitage from its activities.  And while our meetings shall be helpful and educational and inspiring, we mean to make them interesting, entertaining and enthusiastic.  Let us be good members, which means good neighbors, good citizens and respectable high class men.  Let this club be the mountain peak, in our thoughts and aspirations, from which to increase our faith and courage that we need to carry on.”

ADJOURNED..

REPORTED BY THE SCRIBE: JOE TODD 4/14/2009