Pyrate,

I enjoyed this story.  Kinda puts things in perspective early in the
day before all the accumulation of trivia takes on exaggerated
importance.

-jc


On Saturday, December 21, 2002, at 11:58 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Recently an old friend of mine passed away in Scotland; he was an
> American
> from Iowa that had married a Scot and was the super in the 70's for the
> construction of the Findhorn meditation Hall ; a huge multi purpose
> theater
> made of stone built by a rag tag collection of Dharna bum stone masons
> and
> carpenters from all over the globe who were given room and board and a
> place
> to play (so to speak) to hone their craft;
>  make their  beer; and chase apple cheeked lassies through sand dunes
> of  the
> heather and the highland sea.  .
> He was an unusual super and teacher in that he was patient; unjudging
> and
> inclusive of your friendship through your craft.(or lack of) depending
> on
> your willingness to learn. .. .
>
> The day of his passing we unearthed skeletal remains on an
> archeological dig
> about a half mile inland from the Pensacola beach .; at first a large
> thigh
> bone came into view; then the ribs and lastly the skull with a
> doubloon in
> the mouth of as yet an undetermined age
> The archeologist and medical examiner were called for and as they
> jumped into
> the  pit I took my tea break in the white sand under the breezy  Palms
> and
> watched the  Pink morning sky dance with little wiffs of purple and
> gold over
>  a shimmering Gulf of white caps..
>
> Poor Thomas; my 21 yr old shovel and mud man "; doesn't care for the
> dead;
> "Mr. Mike " he sez..... "dem spirits don't want you to be mess-ing
> with em"
> His gold tooth flashes  the morning sun from his handsome cal- mex
> good looks
> .
> He has shiny black Indian hair he wears in plait with decorated whale
> bone .
> "Dey gits you and keeps you" he sez with fierce dark eyes and a
> winning smile
> of a Romeo that he is .
>
> Poor Thomas is not alone in this assumption; walking home one night on
> 110 th
>  street from working on the Audubon tomb in NYC  I ran into my street
> corner
> Psychic...Mdme Sophie
>  "where have you been she demanded ;"They are all around you "
> with that she whisked me into the parlor chair and I got the ghost
> buster
> special  with the smudge sticks; and shoulder rubs for incantations to
> the
> arch angel Raphel , plus the take home incense.
> All for free..
> ..Free? I ask " Yes free except for the incense; its special from
> Mexico
> [that will be (cha-ching) $25 bucks  please."...
> How she knew I was working graves Ill never know
> Sophie  then gave me the lecture about working with the dead; how they
> latch
> on ; cause colds and fatigue and a general malaise in disposition; and
> could
> I please  come back each week ....
> ..Now theres the rub.
>
> "Mumbo-jumbo " I kid  poor Thomas ; "if they latch on to you just go
> to the
> massage parlor an let them latch on to you" now give me  a 3-1 mix with
> hydraulic lime  for our foundation work "
>  the  human remains were found at the 8ft level;
> there was some broken pottery with it
>  the Spanish were here from the late 1500s to early 1800
> Missing from this area is the whereabouts of the Navvaro expedition
> which
> predated De Soto and disappeared without a trace into the interior
> with 300
> men an horses in full armor. sometime around 1530
>  De Soto 15 years later found one survivor living as a savage but half
> mad
> with incredible stories of torture and feasting of aligators and
> talking
> heads  taken from the living...he was dismissed as incompetent and so
> De Soto
> too ventured after Navarro and the lost citys of gold only to share
> the same
> fate..
> (De Soto it was chronicled was buried in the Mississippi; only 9 of
> 286 made
> it back 4 years later to where is now Galvestown.)
>  perhaps this coffee colored corpse will give some clue......
> .. However as the skull is held aloft from the pit and examined in the
> morning light  my thoughts are with  a dying friend and how some day
> we will
> all look like that.;
> I am romantic enough yet  seasoned  enough in this life  to say   that
> all to
> this life  is not for naught in the end.
> My thoughts this morning are likened to this  unknown Spanish
> adventurer we
> have unearthed.. The soul is likened to a Galleon with riches taken
> from this
> life on to the next for better or worse in the  the celestial passage;
> to
> home ......sail on my carpenter brother  May we meet again .
> Pyrate
>
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
>

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>