Recycled Reindeer

A generation ago, when our boys were little, our neighbors gave us a bit of outdoor holiday decor.  I am pretty sure they were just tired of dealing with it.  A plywood Santa with sleigh and two reindeer.  It was certainly another generation old already.  It had the look of something you'd buy at the department store.

For about a decade I'd dutifully open second story windows and imperil myself by putting the big guy and his critters out on the porch roof.  Of course to keep me out in the cold even longer I had to put some lights out as well.  

The boys grew up.  I developed some common sense, and the little holiday ensemble were put out at a thrift sale.

I had not thought about this in years, but on a recent post holiday walk I spotted what must be the same set up - busted antlers and all - a few blocks away.

Kitchy decor, now on its third or fourth generation.  The current owners have enough sense to keep all the hooves and runners on nice solid ground.

Maltsters, Roadsters and Slaysters

The evolution of language has always interested me.  It is essentially History, with most of the the specific dates and individuals edited out.  How we describe the world around us says a lot about that world.  And about us.  The world keeps changing.  People change too, but on a variable and , uneven time scale.

Consider the word ending "-ster".  It is related to the common descriptor "-er",  often used to associate individuals - and in time entire families - with an occupation.  Carter, Archer, Farmer, Miller.  You knew what those men did.

Yes, men.  In the fashion of most languages certain words got feminine, neuter or masculine connotations.  English does not do this much in modern times, but as it derives from various Germanic sources it was heavily gender specific in its earlier evolution.

And there were occupations and activities that were traditionally female.  Women used to brew the beer,  hence Brewster.  And do the baking, Baxter with an odd X thrown in somehow.  Women did most of the spinning of thread.  Spinster reflects this tradition but now we start to see a degree of negativity creeping into things.

There are some fascinating near extinct examples....can words actually become extinct so long as someone remembers them?   Chaucer used the word "chidester" for an angry woman.  A few centuries later a similar meaning was attached to "scoldster".  "Slayster" is a particularly harsh word describing a murderess.

In modern times the suffix has become even more derisive, albeit in a semi-humorous fashion.  "Scamster, fraudster, huckster" all have about them the connotation of dishonesty with some element of joking around.  "Jokesters" after a fashion.

Of course words are poorly behaved and can't be neat and tidy.  Hampster has an unrelated Slovokian origin.  Monster is gender neutral and comes pretty much straight up from Latin.  Dumpster is a modern word but with deep roots.  Northern England, where much etymological goofiness originates, had Deemers, or judges.  Dempster was the feminine form of the word and eventually a company named Dempster Brothers in Knoxville, Tennessee patented the word and design, taking advantage of the acoustic similarity of their name to dump.  

Pondering various other candidates I did consider Roadster.  In an automotive sense it is obviously new, circa 1908.  But in the days before cars it was a light carriage drawn by horses.  This gets you to the late 1800's, but at that point it was a call back to a still earlier word that involved ships at anchor.  How?  It seems counter intuitive that a vehicle moving on land and one stationary on water could be the same thing.  Until you recall that in the past "Roads" was a term used for a near shore anchoring place.  Hampton Roads preserves this unusual - in our era - use of the word.

It's Beginning to smell a lot like........

We had our Christmas a bit early this year.  That's fine, since Covid had messed up Thanksgiving we felt as if we had a little holiday togetherness coming to us.  And a gathering on the 23rd just worked out better all around.  Our three young men.  Their three young ladies.  Also three each of grandchildren and dogs.

I can sincerely say that this is a sufficient degree of Presents for me.  But I did get a few odds and ends.  Including some industrial strength scent blocker.

This is a product concocted for deer hunting, it makes it harder for the critters to detect you.  And to be fair, all the non successful hunters in the tribe got some.  But.....is there some other message here as well???

Somebody seems to think so, and anything they can smell over their own horrid dog breath must be impressive.

Merry Christmas all.

Tree Shaped Tombstones - Edson, Wisconsin

I try to combine several minor errands to the same area into one trip, so it had been a while since I drove past the cemetery in Edson Wisconsin and thought it might be worth a look.  Partly because the cemetery, by virtue of age and general feel, looked as if it might be a place to find "Tree Shaped Tombstones".  And partly because Edson was a curious little place.

When does a community become a ghost town?  I'd say not when it is totally abandoned and the structures are all gone.  But perhaps when the ratio of living citizens to departed ones reaches a certain lopsided ratio.

Union Cemetery, Edson.

Stark, early winter conditions make for interesting cemetery photos.

A young person.  Grief etched into stone can be felt for a very long time.

On the way out of the cemetery I noticed a plaque that gave a bit of local history.  It turns out that a gent by the name of Edson Chubb homesteaded here in 1857, founding a community that at one point had homes, a hotel, a school, church, stores and a sawmill.  All for naught, as the rail road routed a few miles to the north.  The cemetery was established by Mr. and Mrs. Chubb as a resting place for their son Joseph who passed away in 1887.

Here's a map of the little crossroads settlement a few years after that....

It shows a wagon shop, cheese factory, and.....what the heck?  A second cemetery over by the German Catholic church!  Sometimes using Google Earth to scout things backfires as this one does not appear.  Given the greater tendency for Germans to go in for fancy tombstones a second trip was called for....

And, yep.  Another one over in the German Catholic burial ground.  Attentive students will note the little cross on top, this seems exclusive to Catholic monuments.

Having gone to the effort of a second visit I spent a bit more time in Edson.  The hotel building has recently been razed.  It still shows on Google Maps.

The white building next door was a store/post office.  It's still there.  As is a substantial farm house on the spot where Edson Chubb homesteaded, but it is clearly much newer than the 1850's.  Of the various manufacturing enterprises no trace remains.  The ghosts outnumber the living by a margin that is hard to know exactly, but probably 30 to 1.  Counting ghosts is hard.  The ones that used to live in the hotel have probably wandered off elsewhere by now.

Darius Bent - Soldier and Settler

Continuing my survey of Western Wisconsin patent medicine men I must give brief recognition to a man who has almost entirely vanished from history despite an extravagant name and significant Pioneer cred.  Darius E. Bent.

He was living in Eau Claire in 1876 when he copyrighted a medicine called "Dr. Mathew's Great Idaho Indian Compound".  The reference to Idaho made me think it was a reference to Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, but that conflict did not start until 1877.  Indian themed medicines were pretty common in this era.  Idaho, well Darius might have just picked a place at random.

Mr. Bent seems to have been very well thought of in the community.  A lengthy biography written shortly before his death tells his story.  

Born in 1820 he came to Eau Claire in 1855 "....when there was scarcely a house in the place and only one between here and Menomonie...".  He tried his hand at farming - didn't go well - then joined the Union army in February of 1862.  He was at the Battle of Shiloh.  Assigned to attending the wounded he injured his back in the process of lifting them.  The injury was permanent.

He made his way laboriously home by steam boat.  Six months in bed.  A year to relearn how to walk.  He worked in a shoe store for a while.  Then a grocery.  His longest employment was with G. Tabor Thompson, an Eau Claire druggist.  Probably his venture into patent medicines was at about this time.  Thompson was in business starting in 1871, having also been discharged from Civil War service due to illness.  Incidentally, we've run across him BEFORE.

Darius Bent had married pre-war.  He had three children, and although he seems to have suffered greatly in life it is said that: "Mr. Bent's sickness and trouble cost him several thousand dollars, and time has helped to whiten his locks, but he is yet cheerful and contented and always ready to do a kind act to help any one unfortunate like himself."

Bent, literally, but unbowed.  Admirable.

A Strange New World

Youth hockey.

I've traveled to far away places; seen cultures much different than my own.  This world is stranger.

Present for the Pit Crew

Here's a fun image from last year's robotics competitions.  The Team 5826 pit crew being so ridiculously prepared and confident that they had a running card game going most of the time.

I thought it would be fun to get them an "official" custom deck of cards.  If you look closely you can see they are playing Uno.  Weirdly it seems to be possible to get custom Uno decks but not possible to have them sent to the US.  Copyright issues I figure.  But for a conventional deck of cards, no such problems exist.

Oh, I'll figure out how to get them an Uno set as well.  Hey, UK friends.....can I have your help on getting a bootleg set across the Atlantic by tournament time?