An Ounce - For Your Consideration

 What would you want to find in a new job? The perfect job? 

Great benefits? 

Flexible hours? 

Doing something that matters? 

A chance for growth and advancement? 

A positive and supportive corporate environment? 

The ability to work from home – or the office – or where ever you choose? 

Bonuses - Perks – A company car? 

Well, here’s a job announcement you might absolutely love. Allow me to read it to you: 

Wanted. Young, Skinny, Wiry Fellows, not over 18. Must be expert riders, and willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages - $25 per week. 

 On April 12, 1861, the first shots of the civil war were fired as confederate forces opened up on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. 

It was a battle without casualties. At least, at the moment that the Union Surrendered to Confederate General Beauregard, no one had died. 

As the Stars and Stripes were lowered, a one-hundred-gun salute was given by the northern forces. That’s when it happened. A canon on the union side experienced an accidental discharge, and Private Danial Hough was killed – by accidental friendly fire. 

 Have you ever heard a determined person say, “I’m gonna’ do it, or die trying”. 

I have. And I might have even said it a time or to. Gratefully, death didn’t actually need to be a part of the equation. 

There was a man by the name of Frank Hayes who might have uttered this same phrase a few times. Frank was a jockey. He rode in Steeple Chase. 

Frank was well known around the track. He started as a stable hand, and until finally got his shot as a jockey. Most folks found Frank an affable guy with an easy smile. He was quick with a joke, and easy to be around. 

This is the story of his first winning race. 

 When I was about 7 or 8 years old my family used to have some fun traditions. One of which occurred with regularity on Thursday evenings. 

Mom would make homemade French fries from fresh cut potatoes. And, there were hamburgers with all the fixings, and if we were lucky maybe even some root beer. 

As I remember it - The whole family, Dad, mom, my sisters and brother, would watch Star Trek (The original Series), o a black and white TV, while enjoying dinner from paper plates. Dad was a bit of  Sci-Fi fan, and I suppose his liking for that genera rubbed off on me too. 

Star Trek made real, a future with space travel, powerful handheld electronics, transporters, phasers, communicators, talking computers, and unbelievable space aliens. 

 He was kind of an unusual guy. From his youth, folks noticed he was not the typical inner-city Jersey Boy. He was spontaneous and quirky, but at the same time thoughtful and kind. 

Two days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, on Dec 9, 1941, he joined the marine corps. His country meant something to him – it deserved to be defended. He would have signed up sooner, but he had to convince his mom to sign the papers allowing him to enlist at age 17. 

The war years passed, and during battles in the pacific, he had seen much more than ever really wanted to. 

And now, as the transport shipped was pulled up to the pier - he was really home – the war was over – he survived. And now he had something he had not allowed himself to count on having - he had a future. 

 This is a rather strange tale from history, and the military industrial complex. A story that illustrates that when there is a will, there is a way, and sometimes that creates some rather odd results. 

The story begins in 1959 when, then Vice President Nixon, and Soviet Premier Nikita – pound the shoe on the table while saying “we will crush you” – Khrushchev, met in Moscow, about two years after the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile had been successfully tested by the United States. The venue – The American National Exhibition in Moscow’s Sokolniki Park. 

The pair, both with strong convictions and personalities, began to discuss the virtues of communism and capitalism. It was clear the two were not like-minded, and the conversation was quickly heating up. 

Before the quickly escalating exchange came to a head, the President of Pepsi International, Donald Kendall, offered both a nice cool drink of Pepsi – and a Soviet National Love affair began. 

 During the opening days of British involvement in World War 2 there was a great threat in the seas. This threat was embodied by the German battleship – the Bismarck. The enormous and powerful 41,700-ton Nazi battle wagon was lurking around the shipping lanes and had the potential to easily cut off shipping to the English isles, starving it of needed supplies. 

In May 1941 the British Navy launch a ‘must win’ operation to locate and sink this largest ever battleship ever built. 

The Royal Navy finally found the Bismarck. Over a matter of weeks playing hide and seek through the clouds, the Brits bombarded the Bismarck from the sea and air. The British took every opportunity presented to hit the gigantic war machine, But so shielded was the great juggernaut that bombs and shells seemed to bounce off the sides like rocks. However, they kept at it, and the Bismarck was finally sunk. 

 The World’s Olympic Games. An amazing showcase of athletic ability and sportsmanship. People can train for years to perform and compete for a few moments. Every event showcases the best of the best for all over the world. But, sometimes, things just don’t go ... well … as well as expected. 

For example, in 1904, in St. Louis. The Olympic Games were paired with the world’s fair. And for the first time in modern history, the games took place in the western hemisphere. 

It was August in St. Louis. It was hot. It was humid. The runners had a rather challenging 24.85-mile course (yes, it’s supposed to be 26.2). It was hilly, largely unpaved, and dusty. And then, the race started

Back in the days before sanitary conditions and anesthesia were a thing, priorities in preforming surgery were valued a bit differently than they are today. One of the greatest priorities to improve patent survival was speed. 

The longer a patient was on the table, the more blood they would lose, the more pain they would feel, the more likely there were to have some kind of infection, or die of shock. In other words – the quicker it happened - the better the chance the patient might live. 

Surgery was an absolutely frightening prospect. And there were in fact a few issues with getting the patent to cooperate when their life was at stake. 

 Here is a twisted tale of how pirates raiding a ship in the Caribbean in Sea caused hundreds of years of ongoing disorder in world trade. 

In the 1793 a man named Joseph Dombey was crossing the Atlantic with a rather small set of objects. These were carefully packed and protected within a sturdy 3-inch by 3-inch copper cylinder, with a little copper carrying handle on top. This man, and his little copper case, were intended to be presented to none other than Thomas Jefferson, a founding father, the then Secretary of State, and future President, of the United States of America. 

Unfortunately, during the crossing of the Atlantic, a fierce storm blew the ship, sailing under a French flag, well off course and deep into the  Caribbean. 

The ship, it’s cargo, and its French emissary to the United States with his little copper canister fell into some trouble, and were boarded by English Privateers – also known as pirates.