PrunePicker

Friday, August 19, 2011

Murder in the change room.

When I went into the change room at the Tech swimming pool on Friday morning there were dead bodies every three steps.

A person of interest in this case is Mickey Fitzgerald of Ruston Exterminating.

I went to a great music program at the Lincoln Parish Library this morning. The musicians were Paul Woodard, Nancy Shlosman, Larry Hendricks and Andy Pace.

This is band leader Paul Woodard. His fiddle playing was great and so was his between tunes patter.

That is Nancy behind Paul. She loves to play the bass, and is good.

Here is Larry Hendricks playing the left side guitar. I knew Larry before he became famous. He was my driver to a fiddle fest in Oklahoma this summer.

This is Andy Pace on the right side guitar. He sang several songs. He is a fine singer.

The group was very good and put on an enjoyable program.

There were many distinguished guests in the audience. Here are two of them going to their seats.

Paul said that he had discovered the difference between a violin and a fiddle. A violin has strings and a fiddle has strangs.

Munsons named Samuel.

A couple of hundred years ago there were a lot of Samuel Munsons. My first American great grandfathers were Thomas, Samuel, Samuel, Solomon, Samuel, and Samuel. Four out of the first six were named Samuel. In the last half of the 18th century at one time, in Wallingford, Connecticut there were four cousins named Samuel Munson. Four brothers each had a son they named Samuel. These cousins had two second cousins in New Haven that were named Samuel Munson. These cities are about ten miles apart. There were six Samuel Munsons in close proximity! You could not turn around with out seeing a Samuel Munson. Samuel was a very popular name with New England puritans.

I googled it. Samuel is still a very popular name. In 2010 Samuel is 24 out of the top 1000 names.

8/18/11 248.6 50.8 147 68 69 69 4140 104 79 0.1

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Tiny mountain flowers.

Have you ever been up in the mountains and found little tiny flowers growing close to the ground? They are as beautiful as any flower but are little. Corrie Wright, my Wyoming grand daughter has. She has put a hundred or so pictures of them on her FaceBook. Here are two of them. You can see how small they are by looking at the hand holding them. They are really pretty.

Deer season pretty soon.

At the Liars Club the talk is starting to be on shooting. Bullet caliber, gun powder load (some like 300 and some like 325), crossbows, etc. I assume that the deer season is approaching. It reminds me of Jackie and deer.

Renew Passport.

I turned in my application to renew my passport yesterday. The lady at the post office took a new picture. The only difference that I can see between her picture, and the 1973 picture on my old passport, is that her picture is in color and that I have different glasses.

8/17/11 247.4 49.9 133 66 64 96 5800 101 79 0

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Snake Report Number 3.

Well, John Adams, or Daddy Boone got his snake right in the head this morning. Are there only two? We hope so.

Carolina Chocolate Drops.

My son, Chris, introduced me to the Carolina Chocolate Drops on his blog snaggletoothie of the Loyal Opposition. The Drops are a Southern Jug Band. Also the lady plays the best kazoo that I have ever heard. She also can really flat foot dance.

I was watching a recording of the Marty Stuart Show this afternoon and his guest was the Carolina Chocolate Drops. It was like a visit from Chris. Chris passed away on January 28 of this year. But his blog is still on the internet. The blog that is on features the Drops and the kazoo.

National Guard Deployment Ceremony.

160 National Guard soldiers are flying from Monroe to Afghanistan this afternoon. They are from this area. They held a Deployment Ceremony this morning in a church in West Monroe. The Ruston VFW Post set up 50 flags in front of the church.

Bobby Jindal was the main speaker. I think that he did a great job.

It was a well done ceremony and I am glad that I attended. It was quite a family affair. Lots of children.

The picture below is of Paul Foreman, a fellow member of the Ruston VFW. He was far away and my flash did not do him justice. But that is Paul

Move SE to Rattlesden, Suffolk.

In 1545 Richard Munson was born in Rattlesden. My Munson line had just spent a couple of hundred years in South Carlson. Richard and his son John were born and died in Rattlesden, Richard and John are the two English great grandfathers that I know where their graves are. John's son Thomas was born in Rattlesden in 1612. Thomas moved to American and shows up on the Militia list in the Pequot Indian War in 1637.

Next May I hope to visit Rattlesden and take pictures of the graves of Richard and John. My daughter Nancy Ann and I are scheduled to arrive in London next May 15. Pretty exciting.

Nearby are the cities of Ipswich and Colchester. I think Colchester was location of the first Roman fortifications in England,

8/16/11 246.4 49.9 136 69 66 96.6 2880 101 75 0

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.