Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Similiarities and oddities

We got to eat at church tonight. Even with a lot of my friends missing, it was still a lot of fun to break bread with my friends again. Now I am watching a replay of the Jimmy Fallon show in which Van Morrison sang "Sweet Thing." Jimmy's dad worked for IBM in New York. My dad worked for IBM and used to travel to New York. We have so much in common.

Van Morrison is an Irish-American. I have some Irish ancestry. We have so much in common. Earlier, Justin Timberlake was on the show. He is originally from Memphis. That is in Tennessee. My dad is from Clarksville. That is in Tennessee. We have so much in common.

Jimmy's first guest was Robert DeNiro. He is a man. I am a man. We have so much in common.

It is perhaps important to see what we have in common. On the other hand, it is probably important to retain some sense of individuality. Even though I am the third person with my name, I am still the only Thomas Elliott Baynham, III. That is pretty good, for me.

Silly stuff.

Today, they showed "Oliver" on television. Cindy and Kate and I were watching a bit of the beginning. I was waiting for Oliver Reed to appear as Bill Sykes. He was my favorite. Cindy did not like me liking Bill Sykes. He is the "heavy" in the movie. The bad guy in the black hat (although I don't remember him wearing a black hat during the movie [although he could and that would be quite in character]). I remember watching the movie in the theater when I was a child. I enjoyed it. London was quite a character in the movie. From the down and dirty and nasty sections to the royal crescents to the workhouses.

In the United States we didn't have workhouses; we had Georgia. As a place to dump the working class people and as a buffer between the Carolinas and Spanish Florida. This provided a tremendous place to stage a war known commonly as "The War for Jenkins' Ear." This is probably my favorite part of Georgia History from way back in Third Grade at Dunwoody Elementary. Jenkins was a ship's captain who found his way into Spanish territory. The Spanish took him prisoner and tried to teach him a lesson by cutting his ear off his head. Instead, Jenkins took his severed ear, placed it in a jar of alcahol, and transported it to London, where he exhibited the ear to the members of Parliament. Parliament took this artifact as an excellent excuse to declare war on Spain.

Now this was something which was not unusual in English history. It didn't take much for England and Spain to go at it. For instance, Henry VIII became King of England and inherited his brother's wife, Katherine, who was Spanish. Later, when Henry decided he wanted to choose his own wife, which was a trait of Henry's, the Spanish took umbrage, which led to quite a few battles over the next few years. Later, Henry's daughter, Bess, employed some sailors to captain ships and steal gold and other treasure from the Spanish possessions in the New World. In exchange, the Spanish sent their brand new boats to the British Isles, where they left their boats on the rough rocks along the northern shores of Scotland.

Later, after Parliament decided to take revenge for the loss of Jenkins' ear, the Spanish decided to attack his majesty's possessions on the southern coast of Georgia. They dropped their soldiers on the beach at St. Simons only to lose their soldiers in the salt marshes of St. Simons Island when the King's Scotsmen surprised them amongst the tall grass.

The Spanish weren't far from Gnat's Landing, one of my favorite places on St. Simons Island. Kate and I ate lunch there after playing golf one April. It was fun.

After the battle, the Spanish quit trying to take over Georgia. Apparently, the gnats, marsh gas and sandspurs didn't provide a sufficient reason for coming back. They also refrained from cutting the ears off the British sea captains for sport. Ultimately, they sold their possessions in Florida to the U.S. and Georgia was no longer a buffer colony, unless you want to count our being a buffer to the snowbirds who settled in Florida during the twentieth century.

The War for Jenkins Ear is only a bit above when Georgia had three governors at the same time, in my opinion, for interesting moments in Georgia history. Although I do like when the Creeks in Muscogee County tried to put off their transmission to Oklahoma by playing lacrosse for the white citizens of Columbus. It didn't work for them then and probably wouldn't work now.

I think I would like to list my favorite moments in Georgia history:

1) The War for Jenkins Ear

2) Georgia has three governors at one time

3) Nancy Hart holds off the British until her rescue

4) Muscogee Creeks play lacrosse to unsuccessfully placate the white citizens of Columbus

5) I think I am going to have to think about the rest of the list for awhile. I believe it is time to go to bed.

By the way, remind me to show how little it took to get England and France to go to war for one hundred years.

No comments: