Thursday, June 25, 2009

Poetry Corner: Broke Down Fence

by Pat Darnell


Broke down fence
I feel like
a busted slat
I dangle like that

A broke down fence
I feel like
a fallin' down picket
where my posts failed

I slope
at my gate
where once
I stood straight


I feel like
a broke down fence

my hinge don't rotate,
supports -- dry rot ate
invisible in these trees
posts are nests
for carpenter bees

yes, broke down old fence
you get no argument
from me, at best,
coulda' used augments

Shor' enuff
could use a rest
layin' down
with Nature's best

rest my self
'neath giant cactus
Broke down fence
I do attest

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Survivor: TEXAS, from Chris and Josie


Everything in Texas is Bigger
Retrieved from email by Pat Darnell

Friends:
Soon will air on CBS "Survivor Texas Style." Read the Press Release message, to understand the complexity of this type of Survivor Style. I just hope and pray someone will return at least alive.
::Steve Pommer, also: [Alamo City Pundit]

FWD: FWD Email Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 11:24:08 AM
Subject: Survivor Texas

We need to show more sympathy for these people, the contestants and directors:

* They will travel miles in the heat.

* They will risk their lives crossing a border.
* They don't get paid enough wages.
* They will do jobs and stunts that others won't do or are afraid to do.
* They will live in adverse conditions among a people who speak different languages.

* They rarely will see their families, as they face adversity all day ~ every day.

Texas Developers say "Let's bring Survivor back Home!" Due to the popularity of "Survivor" reality shows, Texans plan to sponsor one extra-large season titled, "Survivor, Texas XXL." Thirty-two Castaways, and thirty-two stunt doubles will be chosen for the event.


Part One Survivor Texas starts just South of the Texas-Mexico border in Chihuahua, Mexico. Their first challenge? You guessed it: they must find a way to get into the United States and reach their first destination -- Odessa.

Once those who survive are regrouped there, they form two clans and travel to Corpus Christi,
Del Rio, El Paso, Childress, Midland, Grapevine, Lubbock and Amarillo.

From there they will go on to Abilene and Fort Worth, all over Texas... but the challenge is in riding on the backs of Hell's Angels' Hogs and Pan Heads, through choking dust of the Texas Panhandle.

Contestant's health will likely fail in the first leg, as will many of the carburetors of the antique Harleys.

Yes there is always a catch. For instance those survivors that get voted into exile
by their fellow players will be cached off to Gitmo. Of course they will be held there indefinitely, or conscripted into working for Haliburton. And awaiting the exiled contestant is the handsome stranger... identity to be disclosed, maybe.

Survivor Leaders who have won initial individual challenges will enjoy Texas Hill Country winery and
hospitality, while they coerce, seduce, bribe and stab other players in the back, forming brittle alliances.

This will be the
first ever "Traveling Survivor TEXAS Road Trip, and Wine tasting Hoedown;" like a show within the show.

That leaves us to the end of Part One:

Par TWO -- The finale: Surviving Contestants will drive in groups of their own choosing, to Huntsville, Waco, College Station, then Austin. In Austin the trials and tribulations will take on a more serious
swerve.... For instance some of the action is listed;
  • Huntsville: Prison Lock Down Mock Prisoner Riot Immunity Idol Rumble Break Out Chainsaw Massacre
  • Waco: Branch Davidian bonfire and Bobbitt missdewiener roast... ending in tattoo\bonding party-drug inspired woodsie
  • College Station: Test brain power of contestants as they are locked in Presidential Library of George H W Bush, and must find a solution to Swine Flu...
  • Austin: Will be a major elimination trial for the players -- as they must dodge live sniper fire from a Floridian dishonorably discharged ex-Marine, plumber's son, who abuses amphetamines, and has a Glioblastoma brain tumor, perched in the University of Texas Clock Tower with a Remington 700 6mm bolt-action hunting rifle fitted with a 4x Leupold Scope.
After this exciting cull of the tribes, Survivors tour San Antonio during Festival, travel east to Houston where everyone says: "Eh?" -- then blast off to NASA.

Here's the catch -- Each alliance\tribe will be driving 2009 pink Volvos all over TExas with bumper stickers that read:
  • "I'm Gay,"
  • "I love the Dixie Chicks,"
  • "Eat more Wild Hog, Fatboy,"
  • "Boycott Beef,"
  • "Tomorrow I'll be sober: but you will still be a Pussy Texan,"
  • "I Voted for Obama,"
  • "George Strait Sucks,"
  • "Hillary in 2012" and
  • "I'm here to confiscate your guns.."
  • "I [Heart] Hugo"
  • "Press Two for Espana: 'Alto Immigracion Ilegal Ahora!'”
The first one to make it back to Dallas Texas Stadium, alive, is considered the Survivor -- and wins a chance to be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader... now isn't that sounding Fun?!

God Bless Texas: God Bless Yawl All, and Me ya'll, too...

Saturday, June 6, 2009

What's in a Hynds?




How I became so Pragmatic
by Pat Darnell

I heard rumors all my young life. My Grandfather whom we called "Old Pop," Lloyd Orion Hynds, was in the final stages of life, giving up the ghost, to cancer. That was in 1979, and to my recollection Old Pop was always a bit rotund, and dogmatic. He had many professions, and many mannerisms that puzzled his family and friends. He was an enigma to his own children, but he let some of his grandchildren into his methods and moods. It was natural for me to go to be with Old Mom when Old Pop died. I had been chosen the day after my birth, I suppose, by my Mom since she named me Patrick Hynds Darnell.

As grandson, when I had stood next to Old Pop, I felt a change in atmosphere. He always wore clean, pressed, smooth white, lapel shirts, with a soft tank-top tee-shirt under. He tucked those into his clean black pants, held in place with black belt. He had a large nose that held up his trifocals, and a bald head. I learned later he just didn't like hair, so he shaved his head. Otherwise he would have had a full white bonnet of hair like his "Hynds" relatives I would meet in his wake.

As I stood by his coffin to view my Old Pop, I turned to Auntie Fran Hynds and said, "Wow, when Old Pop gives up the ghost, he really gives up the ghost." Fran got it, and gave me the twinkly smile she should have patented when she was alive.

He had lost so much weight, I was a bit stunned to see him so thin lying here, in state. But I knew the condition of his body was now an empty vessel. Old Pop had put his affairs together much earlier.

You see, Old Pop had become a fisher of men at age fifty. He preached a rural route on Sunday mornings, at three Methodist churches. Old Mom held fellowship in her own Hynds Circle, a women's Methodist group that today is still going strong. And now in 1979 he had prepared to pass on to his next stage of life. That is when I learned more about much, while being around my cousins and second cousins, at Old Pop's funeral.

Old Pop and Old Mom had lasted through rural farming existence, urban living, very hard financial times, and now Old Pop had returned to his roots.

Old Pop and my grandmother, "Old Mom," lived in lots of places. Hyndsver was their home. Hyndsver, a Burroughs of Martin, Tennessee, is the location of the original Hynds family farm. It also remains the site of oldest family cemetery, although still farmed by owners, they are no longer named Hynds. But there remain plenty of Hynds around town.

Hafford Hynds sat next to me in the kitchen, talking with me at the funeral home. He was my second cousin, only he was thirty years my senior as it turns out. He had panache like Old Pop did. However I could never pinpoint the family trait that kept popping up in my new found Hynds relatives.

So later I had a chance to sit with Old Mom. I talked about how much I enjoyed meeting all my Hynds "distant" relatives, like Hafford. Old Mom is so quiet and deliberate that I always know that what she says to me will be a humdinger of a thing. A thing to not forget: a remembrance. She didn't let me down this time:

"Those Hynds boys, they are so clever," said Old Mom. It was my affirmation. My mom handed me her maiden name, so that I am Patrick Hynds Darnell. Since a name is supernaturally important to me growing up, ... I had to know the Hynds trait as it pertained to my own preamble and someday eulogy of life. Says Old Mom, so say we all: "We of the Hynds and affiliated clans have a clever gene."

________________________References
Please See: Also
(Carol, Mary : Weakley County Coordinator. © 2001-2009 by MaryCarol Weakley County [SOURCE]: This is truly a Tennessee Volunteer web site, many kind Weakley County Cousins have volunteered materials and time over the years to make it what it is today. You will find LOTS of old photos.)[HERE]