History // Current

Kids Reenact The First Thanksgiving With Smallpox Blankets And Whiskey (VIDEO)

How did the Pilgrims celebrate the first Thanksgiving? While it may appear that these... more

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Why Vampire movies always break all the Vampire rules.

Robert Pattison and Kristen Stewart return to the big screen in Twilight: New Moon... more

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History of Sweet Water Junction Band

Sweet Water Junction Band is proud of it’s history. In fact there is so much history to this family band that it can’t be written in one letter. This page will go back to the very start of this band's musical journey.
It all started with David McDowell’s father Porter McDowell. On February 29, 1916 Porter was born in the small community of Patesville Kentucky. Porter was raised with three brothers and two sisters and got his education working in the family coal mine. During the Great Depression at the age of fifteen Porter left home and joined the CCC in Seattle, Washington. This was one of President Roosevelt's New Deal plans to help people help themselves during the harshest of economic times. After Seattle Porter set out for the Midwest, he worked his way through Chicago, Illinois and in 1936 ended up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. There he called for his family to move up from Kentucky to this “prosperous” industrial city, which they did.
Porter had started playing home grown bluegrass music with his family when he was a child in Kentucky. Those were the days of the front porch gatherings which produced some very awesome talent that still influences our music today. Keep in mind there was no television in those days and only the well off could afford a radio, so a community would gather at a neighbor’s house and entertain one another. After arriving in Fort Wayne Porter decided to work with a band to make some extra money and that was the start of a legend.
By 1949 Porter was working with bands that opened doors and future possibilities for his son, David, as he started his career in music. Porter performed many times on the historical live Chicago radio station WLS, for the National Barn Dance. Porter was also a regular every Saturday morning on Fort Wayne, Indiana’s WOWO live country music program. He played with some of the legendary greats from those days like Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Little Jimmy Dickens, Carl Smith, Porter Waggoner, Roy Acuff, and Ferlin Husky to name a few. Porter helped develop the historical Buck Lake Ranch in Angola Indiana, and was also a Co- Writer of a song that Tex Ritter had charted in 1951. Today Porter’s name is in the Old Country Music Hall of Fame as one of the early pioneers of country music.
When you would listen to some of the stories that Porter had to share you could hear history in the making. He used to say “We traveled with a five piece band in a 1941 Packard Hearse with my old stand up bass fiddle stuffed in the back”. My, how times have changed.
Porter McDowell is the Grandfather of the Sweet Water Junction Band. If you take time to really listen to this excellent family’s music, you will hear the product of those seeds that he planted so many years ago. History is still in the process of being made...
the beginning of a family tradition that is still alive today.

Porter's son David McDowell, born June 11.1952, was surrounded by the musical influence of his father as he grew up. In his early twenties, he met the well established Nashville songwriter, Billy Nix. Billy had a group called Billy Nix and the Ideals. Dave became an Ideal playing bass for Billy until mid 1979. This opened up many opportunities to learn the business as he worked in concert, club, and studio environments. It was during the mid 70's when David met and married his present wife, SherryJo. In late 1979 Dave started his own country / southern rock band called “Sweet Water Junction”. This band proved to be a popular, high energy country band in that tri-state area. David played lead guitar, sang bass and shared lead vocals ... for the complete story go to www.sweetwaterjunctionband.com/history.htmlSweet Water Junction Band is proud of it’s history. In fact there is so much history... more

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Data indicates a deadly severe weather peak during Thanksgiving Week

According to data since 1980 from the NCDC, there is usually a sharp peak in severe... more

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20 Must-Visit Art Museums You’ve Never Heard Of

These museums have certainly earned their reputation and patronage for their... more

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The Decade, in 7 Minutes

Newsweek has boiled down the the first decade of this millennium into a seven minute... more

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Mysteries of the Gods - Full Documentary

Based of the book Chariots of the Gods. This is a full length 1976 documentary... more

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Funny picture of the day - This is Sparta

Funny picture of the day- This is Sparta

susuru
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What Does a Goatee Say About You?

From Brad Pitt to Chuck Todd to Larry the Cable Guy, all types of men are wearing... more

atomiclegion
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Ancient Aliens: History Channel's 2009 Documentary: The Pyramids

A highlight of the pyramids from the Ancient Aliens documentary...... more

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Two Sunken Japanese Submarines Found Off Hawaii

The NY Times reports that two World War II Japanese submarines, including one meant to... more

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Land of Earthquakes

I am one who is very open to learning of both the past and current condition of the land we know as America.She has possessed a beauty and strength, and educational level that not many countries can attest to ever possessing, however, I see challenging times for the beauty and strength we know as America.
A short while ago, I held a postion which involved me driving people from one place to another and it came to an end.A short while afterwards , I gained a job with a moving company.While working to drive peope to their desired destinations, l crossed pathes with young and older people who possessed the ambition and intellect to go off to college to attain degrees to play a role in ushering America along history's bright roads of promise.Unfortunately, for what ever reasons, today they traveled America's crowded boulevards indulging passionately in prostitution and drugs.It would be easy to occupy comfort from behind the steering wheel and cast judgments on them, but there they were , stains on America's garment.In some cases, I was compelled to converse with some of them and was informed that a few of them were in college at one time, or held strong positions in America's job market or within their homes and communities but something occured.As many Americans, they too were faced with the grave pressure of an earthquaking crumbling economy, and one thing led to another, and it wasn't long afterwards that they were regular attendants in the local motels.Jobless, many of them resorted to drug use, prostitution and other degrees of crimes as a means of coping with the economic earthquakes that has shook many of American families.I have witnessed fathers walk down busy main streets carrying their children in their arms while the mothers walked closely by,clenched within the mothers' arms, a bag of fastfood, McDonalds,I'm assuming the children's favorite.There is no question that they all lack the basics of nutrition needed on a day to day basis.However, McDonalds is both convenient in distance and affordable.How sad.I watched them turn and journey across the parking lot towards their motel room.
In regards to the second job involving moving families and businessses to their desired locations, I witnessed families moving from three and four bedroom homes and into apartments while moving the remainder of their belongings into storages.I saw families in aprtment moving things out so that a memeber of the family who had moved out could move back in.I witnessed business men and women moving their filing cabnets, tables, and other business tools into storages or into smaller businesses offices.It is not only our economy under challenges, but all that we associate our economics with, our education, our homes, our investments, our favorite pass times, our future, our families.It appears to be a dark day in the future for us, to the degree that it is frightening.Just last night it was mentioned in the news of the posibility of financial cut backs being implemented within the NBA.I can recall reading an article in the Montgomery Adviser insinuating that there is a possibility that we are going to see the days of old, the days when our citizens sood in soup lines .Many would argue that such statements hold no truth, but I beg to differ.When we look at history and what many refer to as prophecy, here we are, in the middle of what has occured and what is to occure.I am not one seated around a table clothed from the headaches and hard times of every day life at the bottom of the pyramid of society, but I'm out here......... in the field.With all that is taken plasce today, it viattly important that we use such avenues such as Current chatting as a means of enlighting one another, encouraging one another, not bashing and fueding, there is a great deal of that going on now.There is a time for everything I agree, even war, but now is not the time for Americans to be warring with one another.Peace.Saffold.I am one who is very open to learning of both the past and current condition of the... more

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Historical pick up lines

Funnay. http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1794126

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Socratic Dialogue: Our Need for Introspection

When a man came to converse with Socrates, he usually thought that he had a fair... more

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Badass of The Day; Dojo of the Four Winds

"In the absence of the warrior-protector, the only way that a government can protect a... more

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Vanished Persian army said found in desert

50,000 soldiers believed buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C The remains of... more

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The History of Senate Stonewallers

As Joe Lieberman threatens—again—to filibuster health care, Benjamin Sarlin and... more

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What is History?

The Results of a creative assignment for my History Class. Covers a lot of stuff.... more

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Palestinians breach West Bank wall - The Irish Times - Mon, Nov 09, 2009

Activists made a hole in Israel's West Bank wall for the second time in less than a... more

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12 days ago
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The 11/9 Anniversary

Today, November 9, is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Today is the real 9/11. This is not meant as a quibble about dates. Future historians will remember 9 November 1989 as far more significant than that terrifying day in September eight years ago. Countless long-forgotten events have been marked in headlines as the day we shall all remember. But nobody can doubt that the world changed on that wonderful night in Berlin.

When the Berlin Wall fell, communism died. Events have moved on fast since then. A new clash of civilisations – or in many ways an old one – began to surface. Now it is hard for anyone under about 40 to remember communism. To recap: it was that once idealistic, inspirational creed promising equality, freedom from exploitation and the creation of a new perfect humankind. The problem was that people had an annoying refusal to be perfected.

Almost always communism was imposed at the point of a gun and created labour camps and bread queues. The Stalins, Mao Zedongs and Pol Pots turned communism into the bloodiest social experiment of all time. History will mark 9 November 1989 as the day it was seen off as a miserable failure.

Again, we should try to look back. Less than a generation ago a third of our continent was under military occupation by a foreign superpower. The Soviet Union had around 750,000 troops stationed in central Europe. Hundreds of nuclear missiles were aimed at western cities, while the Nato countries had hundreds targeted at Budapest, Warsaw and so on. As easyJet and Ryanair take us on weekend breaks to Berlin or Bucharest, we should recall how unwelcoming and lugubrious these places were 20 years ago. Their people, imprisoned behind an iron curtain of electrified fences and minefields, were crying out to be free.

Then there was the wall in our heads, on both sides of the divide. For most of the four decades before 1989, communism was a real threat to our way of life. Two generations were brought up to fear the Soviet monolith. There were nuclear scares (the Cuban missile crisis) and the cold war fuelled proxy wars on other continents, such as Angola and the Soviet conflict in Afghanistan. Culturally, we were fed on spy thrillers and movies with the reds as the enemy.

All that changed in 1989. The collapse of communism inspired liberation elsewhere, most dramatically in South Africa, where apartheid could have survived longer. Nelson Mandela was released three months after the fall.

A downside to this story is that 9 November led directly to 11 September. The end of the cold war opened a door for Osama bin Laden. But Islamic fundamentalism is not a threat to western-style democracy as communism was. Obviously there will be converts, and all demographic graphs show that the number of Muslims will increase. But it is unlikely that Islam will appeal to the sort of western minds who were once attracted by socialist thinkers in the European intellectual tradition.

Terrorism is not a cause; it is a weapon, as Trotsky observed. Modern terrorist groups are a threat to many lives and will continue to be so. But to our way of life? Only if we choose to make it so. Outside the mind of an al-Qaida fanatic, it is fanciful to imagine that any day in London, Paris, Rome or Budapest imams will be in charge of governments sanctioning sharia law. In 1989, communist party apparatchiks ran a dozen now free European states, quite apart from the communist revolutions exported to the third world.

Last, but not least, 9 November was gloriously happy. Anything seemed possible that night. 11 September was a day that sparked panic and fear. I know which is a better 9/11 to remember.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/08/september-11-berlin-wall-communismToday, November 9, is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.... more

pjacobs51
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tagged w/ History

Kids Reenact The First Thanksgiving With Smallpox Blankets And Whiskey (VIDEO)

Why Vampire movies always break all the Vampire rules.

History of Sweet Water Junction Band

Data indicates a deadly severe weather peak during Thanksgiving Week

20 Must-Visit Art Museums You’ve Never Heard Of

The Decade, in 7 Minutes

Mysteries of the Gods - Full Documentary

Funny picture of the day - This is Sparta

What Does a Goatee Say About You?

Ancient Aliens: History Channel's 2009 Documentary: The Pyramids

Two Sunken Japanese Submarines Found Off Hawaii

Land of Earthquakes

Historical pick up lines

Socratic Dialogue: Our Need for Introspection

Badass of The Day; Dojo of the Four Winds

Vanished Persian army said found in desert

The History of Senate Stonewallers

What is History?

Palestinians breach West Bank wall - The Irish Times - Mon, Nov 09, 2009

The 11/9 Anniversary

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