PrunePicker: September 2011

Friday, September 30, 2011

Imelda and Jerry Entract

These are the names of the couple from England who were my seat neighbors at the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Festival. They are from the city of Leighton Buzzard, England. The city is 40 miles from London.

Today is my last day at the show. The Entracts are staying through Sunday. We said goodbye and wished each other safe and pleasant journeys.

Girls dancing.

Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Celebration. Day three.

More great music. The sun however drove me to look for shade. I took a nap in my air conditioned car. They have golf carts and busses running to and from the parking and RV areas. It is almost always a big friendly visit to ride the bus or carts. The drivers are all volunteer and are very happy and friendly.

Traffic and attendance is growing.

Band busses.

Other scenes of the third day.

Today is the fourth day of the festval and is my last day. I will miss Days 5 and 6. I am driving to Ruston on Saturday.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Sitting next to me at the bluegrass festival---

were this very nice couple.

I think that this is an incredible happening. Here I am all excited about my trip to England with Nancy next June. This couple are bluegrass fans here at the festival from England! They are the only people at the festival from England. There are thousands of fans here. The seating arrangement is all first come, first served and haphazard. We did not see each other until the festival started. Unless we move we will be sitting next to each other during the days of the show. What are the odds that we would be sitting next to each other? I think that this is weird. They know bluegrass better than me and love it. They are nice seat neighbors.

Going back to Old Kentucky.

Movie clips are not too good. But do give an idea of the festival.

Chicken Reel.

My movie clips are not too good. Gives some idea of the festival.

Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Celebration. Day two.

The music is really good. I hate to leave to go eat. 50 bands in six days! Here are some scenes around the festival.

Some bands look like a plain old bluegrass band. But they are all good. I do not think that you are on the stage unless you are top notch instrumentalist.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Buffalo for dinner!

This stand had buffalo brats. I had one for dinner. It was good.

The Nightingale of Kentucky. Stacy Isaac.

Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Celebration. Day one.

This bluegrass festival is held on the grounds of Bill Monroe's boyhood home. This is Bill's 100th birthday celebration. And the 10th annual Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Celebration. Day one was just great music!

What a menu! You will be able to order a delicious meal here.

Fiddle anyone?

Cynthiana, Kentucky

Cynthiana is the county seat of Harrison County, Kentucky where some of my great grandfathers roamed. The founder of the city had two daughters, Cynthia and Ana. He combined the names and named the city Cynthiana.

I will have spent two weeks in Kentucky by the time I get home next weekend. I am glad I did. My ancestors spent 200 years here. I have a much better understanding of what their lives were like now.

The city wants you to know that it was raided by Morgan in the Civil War.

Pretty black barns with symbols painted on them are popular in this area. I think the symbols are Amish good luck icons, but I am not sure.

There are many nicotine processing plants in this area. See the tobacco leaves curing in this barn?

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Last grave this trip.

I started with Abraham Lincoln's. This is Bill Monroe's grave in Rosine, Kentucky.

This is really Secretariat country!

A castle in bluegrass country?

Turns out that this castle is a bed and breakfast.

Some scenes around bluegrass country.

The bluegrass is sure green and pretty. These pictures do not do justice to the beauty of this place.

Monday, September 26, 2011

I was so embarrassed!

Our tour went into this nice shed. It even had an observation room.

The shed was big and had a special material on the floor.

I asked what the shed was for. I was told that this is where the magic happens. A less poetic person would say that it was a breeding shed. You can see how embarrassed I was.

Kentucky horse farm tour.

I went on an interesting tour of some horse farms in the Lexington area. The man on the right is Shawn our tour guide.

We saw horses.

This guy did not know about me.

Shawn is showing us the tattoo on the inside of this horse's upper lip.

My niche in the Blogosphere.

My blog is about me, my family, my interests, my opinions, and my daily activities. My name is Chuck Monson. I am a native born Californian. I worked in the oil exploration and production business and am now retired and living in Ruston, Louisiana. I am a 91 year old widower. I blog because I really enjoy it. Posting gives me a schedule and is a wonderful make work project. I like pictures, both the taking and looking at them. I really like old historic pictures. I enjoy a good photograph. I like putting pictures and text together in a way that is hopefully interesting to others and that will be interesting to me in the future. I like to be silly now and then. It is also putting my memories down on paper. My blog serves as a diary. I have used it for a reference quite a few times.

I do mix it up. Some of my blogs are “what I had for breakfast”, some are just pictures, some are items of genealogical nature, and there are items from my family history. I have a history of the Munson/Monsons in America. The study of this history has led me to the discovery of much American history that had previously been unknown by me.

I have had a lifelong interest in history, archeology, philosophy, religion, politics, architecture, technical subjects, music, food, and sports. I spend time every day reading blogs and posting to my blog. I do not pontificate on religion or politics because I do not consider myself wise enough to try to persuade others to my beliefs. My beliefs are quite nebulous anyway.

I was started on blogging by my late son, Christopher David Monson. Chris wrote the blog "snaggletoothie of the Loyal Opposition" There is a link to his blog above. I look at Chris's blog often. I have read most of his posts.

My adult years.

I married Jackie Lois Ireton in 1944 in San Luis Obispo, California. I met her on a blind date when I was taking amphibious training at Moro Bay. We have been blessed with four children, nine grand children, and nine great grandchildren. They are an exceptional group. I love them and I am proud of them.

I was an army combat engineer (infantry with shovels) during World War II. I served in the Pacific. I was wounded on Peleliu Island helping the marines on Bloody Nose Ridge. I was shot in both legs just above the knees. The wound locations indicate that I was not running away.

I received a BSME in 1950 from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. Jackie received a PHT. (pushing husband through.) I retired from oilfield work in 1985. Jackie and I moved into a fifth wheel trailer and enjoyed the RV lifestyle until Jackie's health failed. We traveled across the continent 3 1/2 times. We spent a summer as volunteers at Acadia National Park. For 17 years we helped build an Escapee RV park in Chimacum, Washington. Jackie passed away in 2007. We had been married 63 years. We were married on June 3, 1944. I still live in our fifth wheel trailer. It is parked in the yard of my daughter Kerry's home in Ruston, Louisiana. It is by far the nicest RV park that I have ever lived in.

My teen age years.

I was born in 1925 in Pomona, California. Pomona is on the east edge of Los Angeles County. It is halfway between Los Angeles and San Bernardino and halfway between the mountains and the beach. I thought that it was great to be an hour from snow covered mountains and an hour from the ocean surf.

In my days of growing up, Pomona was completely surrounded by orchards and truck farms. Oranges, lemons, grapefruit, peaches, apricots, olives, persimmons, and walnuts. Watermelons and strawberries. During the depression I had many meals from the orchards.

They say that you cannot go back home. That is true of the Pomona Valley of my youth. Because it is no longer there. Most of it is now covered with asphalt and stucco buildings.

My ancestors.

I am getting more and more into genealogy. I have a trove of information on the Munsons/Monsons. My father is buried in California. His father by adoption (He was an uncle.) is buried in Kansas. His natural father is buried in Kentucky. So I have two grandfathers. I have a grandfather and four great grandfathers buried in Kentucky, one great buried in New Jersey, and three greats buried in Connecticut. I have two greats buried in Rattlesden, Suffolk, England. I have been led to believe that my ancestors before that came from Denmark and Normandy.

Captain Thomas Munson was the first Munson to move to America. He was baptized in Rattlesden, England in 1612. The baptismal font is still in use. He served in the militia in the Pequot Indian Wars in 1637. He served in the militia all his life and reached the status of Captain. His signature is on the founding document for New Haven, Connecticut.

In 2011 I visited New Haven and took pictures of his gravestone. In May 2012 my oldest daughter Nancy Ann escorted me to England and France. We visited Rattlesden and I took some pictures of the Captain's baptismal font.

Why is the old prune picker living in Ruston, Louisiana?

In 2006 my wife Jackie was in poor health. Jackie had kidney failure and was on dialysis. She had heart problems for some time with A-fib. She had fallen and broken her hip. She had broken ribs and vertebra just moving around normally. My family thought that I needed help caring for Jackie. My daughter Kerry and her husband John offered to park our trailer in their backyard in Ruston and help. Jackie and I accepted their kind offer. My daughter Nancy accompanied Jackie in an airplane flight from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to Ruston. My son Mike took time off to help me pull our trailer for five long days to our new home. We were and are grateful. We enjoyed our new home very much.

Unfortunately and sadly, Jackie passed away in six months. I had sold our truck and was permanently parked. I was ready to give up full time RVing anyway. It is very pleasant in Ruston and I am close to family. So that is why I have been living in Ruston, Louisiana since October 2006.