Stan Hitchcock-View From The Front Porch-May 17, 2013

End of a week of stress, challenges, decisions and blessings...so, let's forget the stress, challenges and decisions...and just think about the blessings. Yeah, that feels a lot better, now. Got me a big ol' glass of Sweet Tea, the Southern drink of choice, Denise just brought out a tray of snacks and Old Buck The Collie, dog treats, and I'm trying to be real careful not to confuse the two, and end up howling at the moon tonight.

Been raining, on and off, all day...same for tonight and tomorrow. So, there goes my cutting plans...with grass that grows so fast, it springs right back up behind the tractor, I figure if I stopped and sat there a minute, it might cover me and the tractor plumb up, giving new meaning to, "It's a jungle out there!"

'Course, a little rainy weather is really nothing, compared to the historic weather that has occured in the three State region of Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee. Why, in 1811-12 there were Earthquakes so strong, in the New Madrid, area of the bootheel of Missouri, that 'caused a tidal wave on the Mississippi river, made the water run backwards, scooped out a place for a new lake, now known as Reelfoot Lake, and toppled chimneys as far away as Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. In our area of Tennessee, all historic brick or stone homes, of that time period, have metal rod supports running the length of them and fastened on the outside by those metal stars that you see in the Eaves and Peaks of the houses. That is the result of the Earthquakes, that cracked the rock and brick walls, and would have destroyed them, except for the new support rods that they quickly put in to hold the walls together. Flat boats coming down the Ohio River into the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois, taking cargo to New Orleans, suddenly found themselves facing a wall of water, coming against the current, and tossing them away like a tin can. Cabins, in the New Madrid area, were engulfed by liquefied sand and soil that simply sucked them down and away, never to be seen again.
Far to the North, in the prairie around Eden, Illinois, my Great, Great, Great Grandmother, was in her cabin, kneading bread in her wooden bread bowl, all of a sudden the whole place began to shake, and the bread bowl was jittering across the table, to fall to the floor. Years later, she said that she believed that it was the End Of Time, and went out the door expecting to see Jesus coming in the clouds. Yep, that is weather of a different kind. There is no telling how many lost their lives, in that series of Earthquakes, for there was no communication, other than word of mouth, in those frontier pioneer years.

Yessir, you can say, “Into each life some rain must fall.” But, you’ll never hear anyone say, “Into each life some earthquakes must come, and make the Mississippi river run back’ards.” It’s all a game of perspective…yeah, you may be going through what you believe is a catastrophe of great proportions, but it may just be a change of direction, with some rain and thunder, and not an earth shatter’er that breaks your prize bread bowl, and makes you think that Jesus has come! Buck up my friends, we are all in this thing together, and we will make it.

The picture below is of the Historic Cragfont Mansion, just a few miles from where I sit on the front porch of the old farm house. Notice the metal stars, that fit on the end of the rods, that run the length of the old house. Sure proof of the powerful Earthquake, of 1811-12.

stan