Cowboys 'n' Indians

With the terrible threat of TadyAtes being removed from our lives, there only remained one real threat. That being, “If you don’t behave, I’ll lock you in the coal bin.” In the winter the smell of burning coal filled the air. Small children didn’t really understand what was in the coal bin. There was never any light in them and what little light did shine in showed shiny sparkly things. Whether these were eyes or teeth no one wanted to find out.

One thing greatly coveted by my Grandpa was a pocketknife and a real “cap gun”. The knife of course wasn’t to be had because “you’ll cut yourself” and the gun cots $1.29 and was way to expensive. On Wednesday night at 7 pm the “Lone Ranger” came on and Grandpa listened to the thundering hoof beats of the great horse “Silver” and the cry “The Lone Ranger Rides Again!” For a while each Wed. night they were transported back in time to where good prevailed and the evil was either shot or severely punished.

During the day they played “Cowboys and Indians”. One rich kid had 4 sets of double holsters and chrome plated cap guns. He’d let you use one but that meant that he could say whom really “got shot” or not. You could waylay him between the barns and shoot him at point blank range. He could tell you that your bullet hit an obstruction and therefore you didn’t “get him”. Meanwhile he could shoot at you from a block away and never miss! Grandpa learned one of the basic principles of life being, “Them whats got = gets”. Once can imagine the great thrill when for Grandpa’s birthday his favorite Aunt bought him a bow and arrow set.

Due to the war in progress it didn’t have metal points on the arrows but some form of plastic. This bow was shot from morning to night until he got pretty efficient with it. This led to two things in his life. They were probably not real good, but in retrospect one was pretty neat. First, was the Cowboys and Indians ordeal. Being the only kid with a bow and arrow he automatically became the Indian. He learned that in the game of “guns”, it was the one who quietly waited in cover that usually “got” the other guy who sneaked around looking for you.

So it happened one day that he hid between one of the barns behind some wild plants and waited. After a while he saw the rich kid complete with cowboy boots and clothes. He had two guns fastened low for a fast draw and peeked out from behind some junk and got ready to make a run across an empty back lot. After looking around for the “enemy” he made his run. Grandpa drew back his bow, swung with him, got a good lead on him and shot. Even today he can look back and see the beautiful arch that arrow made. The arrow went clear across the lot and hit the rich kid right in the top of head neatly removing his cowboy Roy Roger’s hat. For once there was no argument about his being shot. That also was the last time we played Cowboy and Indians. From then on it was America’s army against the Japanese and Germans as the war raged on.

The second ordeal was due to squirrels. This particular one was sitting on top of the neighbor’s house and sassing Grandpa. It was pretty iffy whether the small bow and arrow would bring down a squirrel, but here was the big chance. Carefully drawing back the bow he took a fine aim. The arrow went right under its mark and over the ridge of the house. This proved 2 things. He didn’t hold it high enough and an arrow only makes a small hose in a neighbor’s front window. That of course can easily be fixed with several layers of scotch tape. Why would a guy get so bent out of shape for such a small hole! He avoided going on that street for about three months. No sense in stirring up unnecessary trouble!

Online Writing Manifesto

I think that communicating online is a necessity for the day and age that we live in. So many things are done over the Internet. Not having the knowledge to use it puts you in a "Dark Age". People communicate their ideas, feelings, and personal information over the Internet. It is important to communicate online because we can get our beliefs across to other people. This is seen artistically in how people compose music and post it up on the Internet for everyone to use. However, some take other peoples work and transform it into their own. There is a right and wrong way to do this.

I think it is okay to take other artist's music and use bits and pieces to form something of your own. I think the quote in Changing Copyright sums it up pretty well by saying, "However, if the new work is judged to significantly fragment, transform, rearrange, or recompose the appropriated material, and particularly does not use the entire work appropriated from, then it should be seen as a valid fair use."

Artists shouldn't get upset when others take their music and recreate it. As long as they are getting credit where it is due. Personally, I have heard songs that artists of today have taken from songs of previous artists and "remixed" them. So they shouldn't complain. An artist like Weird Al Yankovich does that for a living. His songs are like another artist's but still different and he asks for permission to do it. The quote, "THERE IS NO DEMONSTRABLE NEGATIVE effect on the market value of the original works from which we appropriate or the cultural status or incomes of the artists who made the original works." from Negativland's Tenets of Free Appropriationputs this into perspective.

Another argument that those against fair use have is the fact that those who do create their own works should not get paid for it. I believe that they should. Obviously, these people need to make money too so that they can live normal lives. Weird Al makes money off what he does and why shouldn't he? If the human population is enjoying that person's creativity and are willing to pay for it, they the artist should receive those benefits. It's not like they are hurting the original artist, because they are normally quite wealthy and won't suffer too much. That's why I don't have a problem with downloading free music. I don't plan on stopping anytime soon either.

Basically, those that use others for their own creativity should not be punished for it. I think that this type of thinking can also be applied to people who create blogs and wikis. Personally, I could read someone else's blog and come up with ideas of my own and create a very similar blog, but still different because it has my opinion. The entire idea of Wikipedia is adding your information to the text. It is great when people leave comments on blogs because it gives the writer something to think about. It can also give them more ideas. So I think this Fair Use idea can be greatly useful in anything.

TadyAtes

One thing about this school that soon became apparent was that you could look about and see what teachers gave which grades. Grandpa was more interested in what was going on outside than inside his classroom. The teachers informed his parents that he could get straight A’s if he wanted to. This caused much agitation at home. Threatening to sell him to “TadyAtes” didn’t seem to get the desired result either. TadyAtes was an old peddler who came up the street about once a week and bought and sold “stuff”. An old horse pulled his rickety old wagon. TadyAtes struck terror in the hearts of small children.

It was rumored that he had a market for small boys that didn’t work up to par in school. Every kid was terrified of TadyAtes. That is all except for Grandpa.
Grandpa was fascinated by his horse. He’d sneak down the street to where TadyAtes lived and would look in the “half door” of the barn. By pulling grass and feeding it to the horse Grandpa soon had a friend. All the while nervously watching out for the terrible friend who would undoubtedly grab him and keep him locked up. Kind of like the story of Hansel and Gretel. One day while feeding the horse, he was became rooted to the ground in terror. A voice said, “You like my house?” right behind him. Upon turning around the boy saw an old man, not an ogre. They got to talking and soon formed a friendship based on the horse. The terrible threat of being sold to TadyAtes held little threat from that day on.

One of the big events of the month was when Grandpa’s mother gave him a penny. Other kids usually got a penny from their mothers too. Down to the corner grocery store all the children went. There they saw about 4 feet of glass enclosed penny candy. The patient grocer would watch as the merits of each kind of candy was discussed at length and the final choice made. What bliss!

Meanwhile, back at school, things were not getting any better for Grandpa. He was going into the 3rd Grade and for three years now he had never seen a different 3rd Grade teacher. She looked a lot like what he imagined in his mind, the witch of Endor. Yet the school board kept hiring her back. Finally the day came when he realized she would be his teacher. Looking back at it some 70 plus years later, he still doesn’t understand it. She turned out to be the most wonderful teacher he ever had. She never raised her voice. The kids loved her and would do anything for her. The downside of the semester is that she proved to the ecstatic parents of my Grandpa, that “he could get straight A’s if he wanted to”.

During this time the war in Europe was raging. Every night dad and mom would read the newspaper to gather and talk about Hitler and the Germans. Then it was the Japanese. Kids gathered old rubber boats and tires for the war. Grease was in demand as well. When you brought any of this stuff to the nearest collection agency they gave you a full color picture of one of our fighter planes, tanks or PT boats.

The schools conducted huge paper drives and worked towards the goal of making enough money to buy a jeep. Finally, the great day arrived. Uncle Sam sent two soldiers to Grandpa’s school driving the jeep that the school supposedly bought. Everyone was caught up in a patriotic fever. Although Grandpa noticed that if that was the jeep they bought, it sure didn’t look very new.

About this time TadyAtes’ old horse tried to jump over something and broke its leg. A police officer arrived and talked to TadyAtes. He then pulled out his pistol and shot the horse in the forehead. Grandpa was greatly impressed by 3 things:
1). How quickly it put the horse out of its misery
2). What a small round hole it made
3). This would be a neat thing to own someday.
Old TadyAtes sat down against the barn and a tear rolled down his face. He sure didn’t look like anything that could be used by parents to straighten out wayward children.

First Day of School

He was born to an average couple in the midst of a city. Two sisters were due to give birth at the same time. The first had a beautiful baby girl with brown eyes and dark natural curly hair. The second, wanting nothing more than a repeat performance of her sister, instead had a boy. Oh well, she made the best of what she had and dressed him in little dresses and later on when he had longer hair, did it up in pipe curls. Pictures of those days show what looks like a cute little blonde girl with curls in her hair.

He grew up during the Great Depression, although he never realized what work it took for his father to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Three years later another child was born, a boy. He grew up as the average child did. By the time my Grandpa was five he showed a marked interest in birds, fish, and turtles (turtles could be purchased at the 5 & 10, for 15 cents). He also liked the bows and arrows owned by his uncle. Not being one who liked to be told what to do, he got into quite a few scrapes with the neighborhood kids. Especially one, a girl large for her age, who tried to tell everyone that they had to do things her way and was big enough to impose her will on most of the kids. This led to Grandpa’s first brush with authority. The authority was the kinder, quieter teacher, and the principle.

First day of school found Grandpa with his little lunch pail and a rolled up 2’x 3’ rug tucked under one arm to lie on during the afternoon nap. Upon reaching school and almost entering this strange place, he was suddenly confronted by the large girl who stood in the doorway with her arms and legs spread out. She told him he could not enter. This was the last straw! Being one of the earlier advocates of affirmative action, he put down his head and charged, neatly removing the girl from the doorway. Without looking back he joined the other kids he knew inside and put his dinner pail and rug where they did.

At this point he met his teacher, although she didn’t look at all friendly. Her face was red and had sort of a mean look to it. “What did you do?” she said. He stood there sort of perplexed. What was the problem with her he wondered? He’d never seen her before and already things didn’t seem to be going real good. He was informed that the large girl was temporarily unconscious. He also owed the principal a visit. This being the first time he had heard the word principal, thus not having the faintest idea what a principal was, he just stood there. The teacher grabbed him by the arm and in short order he knew 3 things: 1. What a principal was, 2. Where his office was, 3. Who he was and what his name was.
He sat behind his desk and wrote for a bit. The teacher left and shortly the principal turned his attention to the child in front of him. He asked him what he had done and why. He seemed like a real nice man and they were soon chatting about the situation. The principal explained that what had been done was not good and such actions should be refrained from in the future. After Grandpa promised he would refrain and the principal gave some encouraging words he was back to his first day of school.

He had learned from the principal a few things:
First, that girls are different than boys, and even if they are of the large variety, you should think twice before resorting to violence.
Second, that this principal was a dandy fellow who understood boys and girls and in years to come would turn out to be a fine friend to my Grandpa!