THE VILLAGE TIMES

Let’s Keep Fishing – by Frank Howes

   Once upon a time, after Hurricane Hugo in Charleston, I took my kids fishing on the backside of the Isle of Palms. It was one of those very cold days (for Charleston) when the seatrout were active and hungry. At the time, my daughter was eight, and my son was not quite six. My daughter and I were using rods and reels; my son was not fishing, as he was a little too young to handle a rig. I put them both in life jackets in case they fell into the water.

   We were fishing off a dock in Wild Dunes Yacht Harbor – there were no sailboats at the dock because they were all piled up willy-nilly on Goat Island Yacht Harbor. Goat Island Yacht Harbor was a running joke among locals – there is no such thing as Goat Island Yacht Harbor. Goat Island is a low marshy island behind the Isle of Palms. Hurricane Hugo had lifted the sailboats off their moorings and crashed them haphazardly in the marsh.

   My daughter and I had not been fishing long when a school of trout came in and we both began catching fish. In fact, we caught seven or eight trout, the biggest of them was about five pounds. I don’t remember who caught the big one – which probably means my daughter caught it. It was the biggest trout I had seen taken on a rod and reel, so if I was the one who caught him, I would remember.

   At any rate, my son was getting bored, so he was spinning one of those white boat bumpers – the ones you see on floating docks – with his foot. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him lean into the bumper and put his weight on it. Well, you can guess what happened: the bumper spun, and my son tumbled into the water. Instantly, I reached down and grabbed his life jacket by the collar and lifted him out of the water. Then I asked, “Are you guys ready to go home?”

   My son, shivering uncontrollably in the 24° air, immediately said, “Oh no, Dad, let’s keep fishing.” I laughed and said “I think it’s time to go home.” My son has a generous soul, and he didn’t want to keep my daughter and I from catching more fish.

   My son still has a generous soul. He makes a living networking computers and buying and selling used Apple notebooks on the internet. He also works part time at a co-op farm/convention center, but his passion is music. He plays tuba in a brass band, and he plays bass guitar in three different bands. He travels to Mexico periodically with the brass band, and he plays events in the area north of San Francisco with the other bands. He stays busy, and he seems happy. I couldn’t ask for more. I’m proud of him.

Eevee’s Story – by Phyllis Woolley

   Hello peoples! It was a beautiful day in our neighborhood. Mom and I watched a little TV and then Alexa played some music for us. Mom has stayed home with me a lot lately, and I love it! She keeps food in my bowl, water in my fountain and me in her lap! What a life!!  I was so excited last week because mom went to the doctor. I have lots of toys, but my very favorite toys are the ones mom gets from the doctor. They are little bands they put on mom’s wrist and say “Fall Risk”.  As soon as mom comes in the door, I spot it and she sits down so I can help her take it off. I think mom is a little silly. She said she can’t wait for the fall because it’s been so hot. Well, I don’t like it when a fall happens, and what does it matter if it’s hot outside. Mom keeps it pretty cool in our apartment. Maybe that’s why mom hasn’t fallen in a long time. She hasn’t fallen out of bed ever since Uncle Tony put that thing with straps on it on her bed. It’s only on one side of the bed, Mom’s side. I falled off once today cause I was throwing my yellow bracelet in the air. When I tried to catch it, I landed on the floor. I was fine cause I landed on my feet. Hoomans can’t do that, neither can dogs, just cats. I hope you have a wunnerful week. I love my peoples! Toodles 💕💕🐈

My First Kitty – by Margie Lewin

   It was a cold and rainy night when I heard a cat in distress; I was seven years old. My mom and I went out the next morning looking to see if we could help. We found a young cat, scratched and beaten up pretty bad. We took her to the vet, who nurtured her back to health. We had this sweet baby girl for 13 years; she gave us love and laughter. Her name was Fluffy.

Carbon Dioxide: Another Point of View – by Richard Smalto

   Although I did not study chemistry, in high school or in college, when I read the Environmental Protection Agency classified the chemical compound, carbon dioxide a harmful pollutant, I was mystified because of my familiarity with the chemical process known as photosynthesis.

Carbon dioxide, an invisible gas, represents .0415 percent of our atmosphere.  Although it only represents a small percentage of the atmosphere it is the most important chemical compound on earth.   Without it, life on earth would be impossible.  Photosynthesis creates the basis for life on earth. Carbon dioxide creates the basis for photosynthesis. Photosynthesis produces the biomass or organic compounds and the energy that provides the nourishment for all other forms of life.

   Carbon dioxide has always been in the atmosphere. It once was one of the most abundant. About one hundred and fifty million years ago carbon dioxide declined steadily to the lowest known level in the history of life on earth. During recent times, before we began emitting the molecule from fossil fuels, carbon dioxide declined to the lowest level ever seen during the past half billion years. If the decline had continued along the same trajectory before we began to use fossil fuels it would have declined to a level that would not support plant life. The absence of plant life would threaten the survival of every living species on the earth.

   Burning fossil fuels for energy will prevent carbon dioxide from declining to precarious levels for   centuries to come but fossil fuels will eventually become a limited commodity and most likely be replaced by some form of nuclear power. Nuclear power cannot replace fossil fuels as a direct source of carbon dioxide needed in the atmosphere to maintain life on earth however.  To preserve life on earth, in the future, by consuming the vast ecological sink of that compound sequestered in the past, it may be necessary to convert limestone into lime and carbon dioxide.

Old-time Hollywood Westerns – by Pat Simpson

   It doesn’t seem that long ago when – every Saturday – we people of a certain age could join a host of other kids our age and plunk down our dimes at the local movie theater to see a double-feature movie. There were always previews of coming attraction, a cartoon, and chapter xx of a serial story, almost always a Hollywood Western, where old-timey cowboys would shoot-‘em-up, rescue a pretty girl from danger, snatch the stagecoach from outlaws, and end just when the stagecoach was going over a cliff – in what become known as a “cliff-hanger”. The movie screen would then flash with “to be continued”.

   More about this later…

   Let’s start from the beginning…Imagine a time when there were NO movies. But, in 1892 Thomas Edison and his colleague, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, invented a camera or “kinetograph” to take motion pictures and a peephole kinetoscope for individualized viewing of the moving images. The first kinetoscope parlor opened in New York City in 1894 on the 14th of April.

   In 1903, just nine years later, the first Hollywood Western was born. With just 14 scenes, a budget of $150, and a running time of 12 minutes, The Great Train Robbery was one of the first movies to establish the rules of cinematic storytelling, such as editing individual shots and scenes together to advance the story, and crosscuts to present two different events happening simultaneously. The film was a huge success and played continuously for years in the first movie theaters.

   The first “talkie” feature, The Jazz Singer, came out in 1927 and the game changed forever. By then, almost 11,000 silent feature movies had been produced in America, about 900 of them westerns. (Fewer than 3,000 features exist in some complete form today.)

   As the novelty of moving pictures evolved into feature films, westerns remained one of the most popular genres. You can still watch the movies mentioned in this article on YouTube online today. Here are but three classics from the silent era that can still captivate a modern audience.

      The Battle of Elderbush Gulch – 1913

   Only 30 minutes long, this film featured much talent. Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish play sisters living on the frontier. The director was D.W. Griffith, one of the titans of early cinema and the first filmmaker to craft exciting action sequences, such as the scenes where the sisters and their fellow settlers are rescued from an Indian attack by the U.S. Cavalry.

      The Iron Horse – 1924  

   This was John Ford’s first feature-length western hit, a 2½-hour magnum opus about the building of the transcontinental railroad. There were 300 cast and crew, 300 Paiute Indians, 30 Chinese (some Paiutes doubled as Chinese), and 500 people in Golden Spike scene.”

      The Covered Wagon (1923)

   Considered the first big-budget epic western, 1923’s The Covered Wagon tells the story of pioneers traveling from Kansas to Oregon; it used real wagons that had journeyed . west and employed the people who owned them as extras.  Many of them had actually been part of an actual wagon train taking them to a new life years earlier.

   But, as promised, let’s get back to the Hollywood Western movie serial:

      … “to be continued next week”VV