Fire Over the Rock: The Great Siege of Gibraltar, 1779–1783 by James Falkner

 Five Stars

Fire Over the Rock: The Great Siege of Gibraltar, 1779–1783 by James Falkner

The British Empire...The sun never sets on the British empire. This monumental story of the happenings that were traded off for political power in an insatiable land grabbing quest to seize every crumb of international commerce had no foreseeable limits.

I loved the book for its insightful visage of the powers at play and the evolutionary consequences that made these happenings world history.

By the way, the sun finally set on the British Empire.

EXCERPTS:

Great Britain was striving to suppress rebellion in North America. By the summer of 1779, British forces had been engaged for four years in what seemed to be the fruitless task of trying to remain in possession of the American colonies. Considerable attention also had to be devoted to securing important territories in the West Indies, and maintaining influence across the Indian Ocean. Without much doubt, had Great Britain not been so deeply engaged in the task of trying to fight a war in North America, Spain would not have tried to regain Gibraltar in such a fashion. This was particularly so as London had indicated, on several occasions, that the Rock was not really worth holding, and some subtle diplomacy by Madrid

The rapidly growing British Empire, still in comparative infancy in the 1770s, depended upon trade on the high seas, and security and ease of navigation through the Mediterranean was a key factor in this strategic endeavor. British trade interests in the spice and sugar islands of the Caribbean, across the Indian sub-continent, and in the Mediterranean, were of greater potential value and importance to Great Britain than holding on to rebellious and very unprofitable colonies in North America. No imperial power relished the loss of territory, Gibraltar is situated in Andalusia, the most southern province of Spain … a little world of itself,’ wrote John Drinkwater, a veteran of the years of the Great Siege.

Review by John M. Grimsrud

View John's author's page on Amazon.

The Real Dirt on America's Frontier Legends by Jim Motavalli

 

Five Stars

The Real Dirt on America's Frontier Legends by Jim Motavalli

In this book frontier heroes and legendary true life personalities I read about in my childhood are scrutinized and investigated. As the book progressed the stories picked up speed and became even more interesting. I loved the behind the scenes look at the outlandish personalities that became legends in their own lifetimes.

A great read!

Excerpts: The settled US was quite small in 1801, when Thomas Jefferson became president. Two of every three Americans lived within fifty miles of the Atlantic, and the Mississippi was the western border. Jefferson himself had never been more than fifty miles west of the Shenandoah Valley, so it’s not surprising he would want to see the West mapped and explored. The hope was for an easy and navigable route to Asian trade routes.

During the Civil War there was three-times-wounded “Jack Williams” (actually Frances Clalin), “Franklin Flint Thompson” (Sarah Edmonds), “Samuel ‘Sammy’ Blalock” (Sarah Pritchard), and even Irish-born “Albert Cashier” (Jennie Hodgers), who continued living as a man after the war. But Williams was the first documented black woman to enlist in the army, and maybe the last until the military was desegregated in 1948.

Martha Canary
(“Calamity Jane”) The Legend Calamity Jane was a muleskinner, stagecoach driver, Pony Express rider “over one of the roughest trails in the Black Hills country,” and an intimate of both Wild Bill Hickok and General George Armstrong Custer. She was a lover of the former, and the latter benefited from her scouting prowess in Arizona circa 1870.

By her own account in the 1897 pamphlet Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane, the Custer trip was eventful. “During that time I had a great many adventures with the Indians, for as a scout I had a great many dangerous missions to perform, and while I was in many close places always succeeded in getting away safely.” Why? Because she “was considered the most reckless and daring rider and one of the best shots in the western country.” Some Indian observers thought she had supernatural powers.

On recovering, Egan exclaimed, “You are a good person to have around in a time of calamity. And I now christen you Calamity Jane, heroine of the plains.”

The earliest Calamity Jane picture, the silent 1915 In the Days of ’75 and ’76, is the first to depict a romance (and a marriage) between Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, but hardly the last. And because she sometimes dressed in men’s clothing, Calamity is also something of a lesbian icon.

Doris Day singing “Secret Love” in the film Calamity Jane is cited for its venting of forbidden feelings in the documentary The Celluloid Closet.

Calamity Jane (likely born Martha Canary) claims in her short autobiography is true, nor are many of the legends that grew up around her. The real Calamity Jane was trouble, a drunk, an illiterate, and a teller of tall tales who caused mayhem wherever she went—and that’s the real origin of her name.

Jane had an uncanny ability (James Beckwourth shared it) to be where western history was being made.

Creators evidently wanted to split the difference between fact and fiction, because Calamity—while not linked romantically with Hickok—is still shown as better acquainted with him than she actually was.

See John M Grimsrud's author's page Amazon

Keg of Beer St. Augustine-Dudley Doolittle

 

Keg of Beer in St. Augustine, Florida: The third short story in the series Doings of Dudley Doolittle.

A fictitious name will be used in most of the stories. It is there to protect the identity of the guilty.

These true stories are over half a century old or more.

We met this outlandish, outrageous one of a kind individual upon arriving in St. Augustine, Florida, December 1972, when we anchored our home built and designed sailboat Dursmirg our first night in town. We invited Dudley and his partner to visit our boat and have a beer. They arrived by dinghy and our friendship began over a sociable tap beer. We kept a 16 gallon keg of beer in our bilge with a tap in the galley next to the water tap that was installed before we launched the boat. It had a CO2 cylinder with regulator to keep it fresh and pressurized. All across the Great Lakes the lake water kept it cool. In Florida we had escaped the frigid latitudes that kept our bilge temperature refrigerator fresh.

The first thing that Dudley said was; “the beer is warm.” Before the evening was over there were 12 dinghies tethered behind our boat to partake in our hospitality. As I have said before people that are free with their drinks have lots of fair weather friends.

I noticed that Dudley who had remarked about the “warm beer” didn’t leave until the last drop of beer came out of the tap.

A brief look at what brought Dudley to the anchored out life: He was born in North Florida in what was then jokingly called St. Augustine, Georgia. Dudley was conscripted into the military during WW ll. After surviving the war Dudley returned to North Florida, got married, had three children, and a happy home life. Tragedy struck. His young wife, age 38, died of cancer and Dudley couldn’t cope. He dropped out, hit the road and wound up in California when the pot smoking free loving anti-Vietnam protesters were experimenting with high times mind altering substances.

Long story short:

Dudley returned to St. Augustine and purchased a 42 foot Nova Scotia sailing schooner for $300 dollars. His bargain boat had a significant problem, it was on the bottom. The number one rule of boating is the water is supposed to be on the outside.

Omitting the details, he resurrected the vessel, cleaned it up, and moved aboard. His partner Linda got a shop manual for the engine and miraculously got it running...a challenge for a seasoned mechanic.

Their new anchored out home turned out to be a bargain with some determined toil that opened up a totally new world of adventuresome if not slapstick semi-calamitous adventures.

Dudley's brother had this to say; “Dudley tries to piss in four corners at the same time, hell, he ought to know that I am the only one that can do that.”

In summation:

Dudley was a real character, and a chip off the old block!

When his mother was ninety years old she went off all her medications, called the family together for a mock funeral that was a party and an all you can eat extravaganza.  She announced to all:  This party is my funeral, when I die you don't have to show up!

Dudley used to say "being crazy kept me from going insane."

It is too much of a story to tell it all here now but this audacious tale with highlights and photos can be enjoyed in the book, Sailing to St. Augustine, available in paper or digital.

My preference is the digital book which is not only cheaper but delivered into your hands instantaneously anywhere in the world to your computer or reading device, and is much easier to read with its adjustable font size plus brightness, contrast, built in dictionary and more. So enjoy this new traveling companion.

Happy trails to you. John M. Grimsrud

John's author's page on Amazon

A Concise History of Florida by James C. Clark - Book Review

Book Review-Five Stars

A Concise History of Florida by James C. Clark

A joy to read!  This well written, excellently edited, and true life American history story covers an amazing phase in the development of a totally unique geographic area.

Peaceful places have no history, something that Florida abounds in.

I loved its depictions that intrigue and clearly bring to life enlightening events in a fascinating informative way.

EXCERPTS:

One sign that the Spanish had come before is seen in the hostile reaction Ponce de León and other explorers received. The Indians had apparently encountered the outsiders before, and the experience was negative.

2,000 BC: First fired-clay pottery comes into use. 500 BC: Mound building takes place along the Crystal River. AD 700: Indian tribes, including the Timucuan, Apalachee, Calusa and Tequesta, are formed.

“Dixie” was heard everywhere. Union troops occupied Pensacola during the war and a regiment of the colorfully dressed New York Zouave soldiers offered a night of entertainment for the community. The show featured soldiers singing songs strong country music roots as evidenced by two of country music’s early stars, Mel Tillis and Slim Whitman. Tillis was born in Dover in 1932, and after a stint in the military, he began writing and then singing songs. In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Tillis the National Medal of Arts. Whitman was born in Tampa, and his yodeling and high falsetto became an early staple of country music beginning in the 1950s. His hits “Indian Love Call” and “Rose Marie” became country and western classics. Whitman toured with Elvis Presley early in Presley’s career. Presley sang in Florida with two country music tours, one headlined by Hank Snow and the other by Andy Griffith. After he became a star, Presley returned to film Follow That Dream in Ocala and Yankeetown. Singer John Anderson from Apopka had a string of country hits.

RAY CHARLES; Ray Charles had a life filled with great success and great tragedy. He was born in Georgia, but his family moved to Greenville, a small town in the Florida Panhandle. His mother was a sharecropper, and his father worked as a railroad repairman. He played around the shacks where blacks lived in Greenville.

His mother sent him to the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine. While he was there, his parents died. He learned to play the piano and performed on a local radio station. He came to hate the school and was expelled when he was fifteen years old.

South Florida has given the music a decidedly Latin flavor best exemplified by Cuban-born Gloria Estefan. Her father was a soldier and bodyguard for Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Her family fled to Miami as a result of the revolution that overthrew Batista. She married Emilio Estefan, the leader of the Miami Sound Machine, in 1978. Gloria Estefan became increasingly popular, and eventually the band’s name was changed to Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. Down in the Florida Keys, Jimmy Buffett created his own sound that made him a legend.