Douglas, happy Memorial Day to ya. I trust all is well with you? Glad you stayed upstream and in Texas. Lord knows, we need every oil man we can find these days. Can't seem to spare a single man.
In keeping with the memorial day spirit and Civil War analogies, perhaps you will allow that the current situation in the patch is more similar to Jubal Early's 1864 raid on Washington. Early had outfoxed the Yankees and Grant in the summer of that year while Grant was fighting his bloody way towards Richmond. With a force of 15,000 men he crossed the Potomac and stood at the very gates of Washington; where he was in the position to reverse the disaster the Confederacy was soon to face. He dawdled before the lightly manned defenses until Grant was able to hastily dispatch the 6th Corps back to the city and reinforce it. The delay proved fatal and Early was forced to withdraw. This led some famous Yankee (who's name I do not recall) to declare with pithy and ironic brevity; "Early was late." ;o}
So too the Captains of the oil industry. Perhaps these gentlemen should post that saying on the doors to their plush corporate offices, but somehow, I think they will view my humble suggestion as "Chickensh_t". Sigh.
I think I'll buy some more drillers soon, as these "Jubal Early's" of the Patch are late again. They will now, no doubt, have to pay double and triple what they could have paid just a few miserable months ago, to get the rigs and crews they need. IF they can get them.
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Way OT.
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Ever been to the battlefield at Gettysburg? My parents took me there when I was a child in the fifties, but of course, the stakes involved didn't quite register in my little infants brain. After I saw the Ken Burns PBS series on the Civil War, I knew I would have to go again as a grown man. So one fine winters day, I took off by myself to satisfy that urge.
I drove down from the North, and by chance came on the field where Buford first engaged the Confederates at the railroad cut on Day 1. Stood at the spot where Reynolds ( 1st Corps) was killed and then moved around up Seminary Ridge, and looked across that long deadly field that Pickett's Virginians crossed during that incredible charge.
It being winter, I had the field all to myself. Douglas, let me tell you, that place has a presence I've never felt anywhere before in my life. Maybe it's the monuments, the silence, The vast sweep of the field, the ghosts, I don't know. As I swung around to the right, I passed through the Devil's Den, (a place familiar to all Texans) and was stunned to think that men even tried to fight amongst those rocks. But then I began the long slow climb up "The Little Round Top". Douglas, chills went down my spine as I walked up that hill and pondered how in the world the Alabama troops could keep charging up that hill in the stifling July heat. It was certain death. By the time I got to the top and looked down the slope that was charged, every single hair on my body was tingling with awe. I walked on the same ground Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain did in commanding the 2nd Maine. I was overcome by exhaustion and emotion and had to rest on some rocks that overlooked the whole battlefield and instanty realized why Little Round Top was such a crucial battle in the nations history. Had those Alabama boys taken that hill, we might still be two countries, North and South. It must have been a desperate DESPERATE fight up there on that hill. Every man must have understood how vital the position was.
Then came the Wheat Field, The Peach Orchard, and finally Cemetery Ridge. To read the monuments to the state regiments was almost overwhelming at this point. New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersy, Massachusetts, the Irish Brigade...
They were all there, men from the states I grew up in. Then to look out over that long field and know that men from Virginia and North Carolina, marched straight into the guns awaiting them... Well, I only need to say that my Mother was from German stock who took up farming in the Shennandoah Valley and my Father was a Mick immigrant from Massachusetts, to inform you just how mixed my emotions were. A sense of terrible almost numinous awe crept over me when contemplating Pickett's charge. In my minds eye, I could almost see it, how frightful and bloody it must have been. How immensely tragic it was that Texans had to kill New Yorkers, Virginians to kill Pennsylvanians... I suppose everyone has a day or an experience that brings home how truly precious this America of ours is and at what a high and terrible price it has been purchased. That day, it happened to me. The Gettysburg Address became palpable, and not just some words to be tediously memorized by a schoolboy. Since that day, I have endeavored to imbue my children with the same feelings, spirit, and knowledge.
I hope I have not burdened you or the thread with this over wrought rendition of one little trip, by one little American, but still, it is memorial day, and such things, I hope, may be indulged. So, to every American who has served this country, at any time, in any capacity, in any war, I send out today my deepest gratitude and highest tributes.
In the end, simply, thank you.
Well it's off to the Battery in downtown Charleston with me now. Time for celebration, but at least one sober glance at Ft. Sumter.
Bull |
