"Them Duke Boys " went through a lot of cars as well.
Not to mention that show giving us the ultimate fashion statement known as “daisy dukes”.
LOL, yeah, I remember that one!
That show could not be produced today. It wouldn’t be “politically correct”.
the same mountainbike: How true. When a civilization erases the parts of their history they come to dislike they are doomed.
That’s a scary thought, sarge. But very, very true.
History is written by the victors. The British version of the Boer War in South Africa seems to be written by Cecil Rhodes himself , the guy who started it all. This war was Britain’s Viet Nam with half a million crack troops having a hard time fighting a hundred thousand farmers.
It was all about gold and diamonds of course. And Cecil Rhodes was to gain the most from it.
Powell, the founder of the Boys Scouts, sent an urgent telegram from beleaguered Mafeking, stating that 10,000 ferocious rebels surrounded the city. In reality, they were 1000 or so farmers, but Powell conveniently added a zero! The British army relieved Mafeking and Powell went on to glory.
So, when you open a history book, find out who put it together and for which school.
I went to school with a chap from Argentina whose parents “immigrated” there in 1946 from Germany. His version of WW II from what his parents or the Buenos Aires school system told him is a true fairy tale.
“When a civilization erases the parts of their history they come to dislike they are doomed”
The only thing being erased is the fallacy that the Confederate cause and its symbols (flag) are honorable.
Then after the “honorable side” of the Civil War were finished, they continued on to more honorable battles at Wounded Knee and Little Bighorn.
History is written by the victors, and then rewritten over and over with changes as time passes. And each side’s version is different. Politicians may be the greatest retellers of history, spinning it their own way with every speech.
Some think he Civil War was about slavery. Some think is was about the right of the southern states to secede from the Union. Others say it was about economics. I’m not sure any version is totally correct… or totally incorrect.
Heck, I probably know more about the tail end of the war in Vietnam than any history professor under 60 years old. And I still learn something new about it every now & again. And every now and then I’ll read some account of some aspect of it that I participated in and recognize for a fact that it’s entire BS, and when I look at the author’s age I realize that he’s only regurgitating what he read in bad history books.
There was certainly more to the Civil War than the issue of slavery. The North wanted to protect its manufacturing economy with high tariffs and the agricultural South wanted low tariffs in order to sell its products overseas.
Also, there were four slave states that remained in the Union. Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware.
Also, the official CSA flag looked nothing like the flag that was on the General Lee car in the Dukes of Hazzard.
Well now that you brought it up, I do believe Lincoln had previously said that slavery was not his issue and that he would go either way to save the Union. I do believe it was more about creating a strong central government. Of course what a mess it would be if states could just leave even though I think the framers did not envision once in you were in forever. Being able to leave seemed to be a legitimate way to maintain liberty from an abusive government. That’s why I think the south and now Texas had a pretty good point and were driven to the point where they felt they had to attempt to secede. But that’s all history. We just can’t allow states to secede or the US would be no more.
We can argue about the native populations and how they were treated forever too. Fact is tribes were in constant battle with other tribes. Some of the folks of the day took advantage and other settlers were slaughtered. I go by the monuments every trip to the cabin. But I think it is fairly settled law that what we consider native Americans, were not the first ones here, so how many hundreds or thousands of years do we go back?
It just causes divisiveness rather than any resolutions. Folks from Norway and Germany were treated pretty badly too by the English, and so on. We need to accept where we are today and get over it.
The only thing I know for sure about American history is that the textbooks most likely taught a very romanticized version of it, and Hollywood romanticized it even further.
Hello, could you please bring this thread back on topic? Thanks.
@B.L.E If you want an Un-romanticized version of US history, read James Michener’s novels. Although fiction as to the characters in those books they are incredibly well researched and more accurately reflect the real US history.
I recommend:
- “Centennial” about Colorado frontier life written in 1976
- “Chesapeake” about that area
- “Texas”. This one really deflates the Texas bravado with a more sober truth.
- "Alaska"
5 “Hawaii” - “Space”
History teachers don’t like these novels because they explode many of the myths they teach.
I’ll have to DRIVE down to the library to take a look.
Speaking of tire wear, I rubbed up against the curb at the drive through. Just scrapped the tire a little so no damage but I’m wondering why they need to put curbs so far proud of the ordering speakers. You try to get close enough to see it and speak into it without yelling and hit the dang curb. I know protecting the things from getting hit but sheesh. The bank is even worse-you can take the whole side of the car off if you aren’t careful.
The curbs are proud of the speakers because people rip them off with their cars as they pass by… A LOT. Heck cement filled poles protect many take-out windows I’ve seen. Must be the box-truck guys wiping the take-out windows off, too.
Do you ever look closely at these poles protecting various things from cars? They usually have 20 to 40 coats of paint on them. Tells me people hit them… a LOT!
Granite curbs are a pet peeve of mine. In many parking lots they’re tilted such that if you brush one you know it but simply go up and down as the tire rides it. But on roads they put them straight up and down, and I’ve torn a sidewall parking against them and again years later when trying to take a corner around two unaligned, totally unlit streets on a cold dark rainy night. Just before the corner the granite juts out, and there’s no way to see it on a dark rainy night. Not being familiar with that spot, I was doomed to tear the sidewall. Why standards require the curbs to be straight up and down is beyond me.
I still remember my astonishment at the curbs when I moved to the right coast from the midwest.
Growing up, granite was something only seen in a rich person’s house. Moved out here and they are making curbs out of it!
Where I grew up they are arcing, rounded extrusions made from concrete. Worst you could do is bend a rim if you hit one doing 50.
Then I move out here and see these stark, right angle, knife like, menacing stone curbs that could cut your tire by looking at them wrong, made from precious granite.
Then I saw one dug up. They’re like 3-4 feet deep too! These guys take their curbs seriously!
I respect and treat them like a thorn bush…look but don’t dare brush up against one if at all possible 
Could be because there’s so much granite up here. NH calls itself “The Granite State” for a reason.
The salt used in the winter eats concrete, and the molded macadam curbs won’t stand up to the snowplows. But damn, I sure wish they would lean he curbs instead of installing them straight up!
Well, the curbs seem to hold up just fine in Wisconsin where they spread salt like it’s a road condiment and the plows run for longer period of the year than here.
Granite is locally available in vast quantities. I suspect that is the primary reason…
I left MA 3 years ago and now live in NH. Live free or die.
As opposed to WI where the motto could be eat cheese or die. I still like- come smell our dairy air!