Anne, Belle, and Calamity Jane’s great-granddaughters were scouting us out
MIDDLEBURGH — The OMOTM traveled to the Middleburgh Diner on kind of a gray chilly morning, March 25, in search of a good hot cup of coffee and, in my case, a sausage omelette, home fries, and an English muffin. Tuesdays are hard on my diet.
Before I get to talking about Tuesday morning’s conversations, I have to mention an occurrence that happened last week at the Chuck Wagon Diner.
Three nice ladies arrived and seated themselves in an empty booth at the end of the room the OMOTM were in. Who were they? Why were they here? What’s going on? Were any or all of them related to any of the OMOTM?
The reason I didn’t mention this last week was because I felt I needed some answers first. It turns out that each of them is the great-granddaughter of three different very famous women: Anne, Belle, and Calamity.
One of the great-grandmothers was a sharpshooter extraordinaire and toured with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. That was Anne Oakley.
Another great-grandmother was Belle Starr, an outlaw in her own right, who also knew and hid Frank and Jesse James and the Younger gang from the law, at her farm.
The third and last great-grandmother in this trio was Calamity Jane, who was an adventurer roaming the old west. She wore men’s clothing, swore just like the men in the U.S. Army that she was a scout for, and could drink them under the table. She worked with the Pony Express and she met and knew Wild Bill Hickok who himself was a spy and scout and a sharpshooter for the Union Army during the Civil War.
I wasn't able to gather much additional information regarding these three ladies but, if any of their ancestral lineage has survived in them to this day, then the OMOTM should know and take note of the background these women possess, whose great-grandmothers could out-ride, out-shoot, and at least one of them could out-drink us all.
It is my belief we should keep a sharp eye out for any strangers from the distaff side who may be the advance scouts for somebody’s wild west show. Who knows? I say, “Keep those flintlocks ready to repel the invasion of the distaff Army!”
Classic convertible coming soon
No advance distaff scouts were sighted this week at the Middleburgh Diner. One OF who just returned, (a bit early), from a quick get-warm vacation to the sunny south land is now all excited and is now impatiently counting the days to early April when he will drive with another OF to Virginia to pick up a classic convertible sports car and drive it back to the Hilltowns.
I am looking forward to that classic car as well because that particular OF is the man I carpool with. With any luck, he will let me drive it once, very slowly, in the empty parking lot of some shopping center. Remember that? Teaching our kids how to park in those parking lots?
Rising prices
Once again, the conversations turned to the cost of things today and of all the rules we have and the hoops we must jump through in today’s society versus yesterday’s. One OF talked about the cost of the windows he just had installed in his modest home to replace the older ones that had had their time in the sun long enough.
This house is an older ranch-style with a walk-out basement. He asked us to guess the cost. It was more than half the cost of my first home, which also was an older ranch-style house. Just to replace the windows!
I’m not suggesting that someone saw him coming. There were quite a few windows all around the house, which included two sliding glass doors on two levels. We all agreed that today’s modern, high quality windows and doors with a high “R” insulating factor are not the cheapest things you can have installed.
The labor alone to remove all the old windows and doors and install the new requires a large crew and special tools and equipment to say nothing about the cost of new windows themselves. But it does get your attention. Be prepared to take a deep breath or two.
We have mentioned before, you can’t expect to get today’s service and products at yesterday’s prices.
Opening camps
With the coming of warmer weather, the conversation turned to the lowering of our fuel bill for heating our homes, which led to talk about opening up the various camps and summer places.
One OF mentioned the issues he has getting heating oil to his camp. In the beginning, these camps were unheated summertime-only places. We have talked about how they are much more than a July and August place now. Now they need heat.
This OF’s camp is located across a small single-lane bridge not much longer than my car. Sort of a homemade bridge made of wood from back in the day. Oil delivery trucks can’t and won’t cross it. Way too small. The truck would crash down into the small creek under it as soon as the front wheels got on the bridge.
Those OFs who didn’t crash on the way to the Middleburgh Diner were Harold Guest, Walley Guest, Ed Goff, George Washburn, Wm. Lichliter, Frank A. Fuss, Miner Stevens, Pastor Jay Francis, Jim Gardner, Herb Bahrmann, Jack Norray, Jerry Cross, Dick Dexter, Lou Schenck, Warren Willsey, Chuck Batcher, Russ Pokorny, and me.