5 Crowns is a fun card game for 2 or more players. It’s similar to Rummy, with some notable exceptions: there are 5 suits, no aces or deuces–but there are jokers, additional rotating wild cards and 11 rounds!
The object of the game is to be the player with the lowest score at the end of the 11th round. After shuffling both decks together (each deck has 58 cards each), the game begins by dealing 3 cards to each player. Each round, the number of cards dealt increases by one. In the second round deal 4 cards, in the third round deal 5 cards and so on until the last round when each player is dealt 13 cards. Similarly, the rotating wild cards are based on the number of cards dealt that round. So, when 3 cards are dealt, the 3s are wild, when 4 cards are dealt, the 4s are wild and so on until the last round when the Kings go wild.
Place the remaining cards in the center of the table to make the draw pile and flip over the top card to start the discard pile. Start your turn by drawing a card from the draw pile OR picking up the top card from the discard pile. You can only take the top card. Keep all of your books and/or runs in your hand until you are able to go out. Complete your turn by discarding one card.
Going Out: Start your turn as normal, then lay down your entire hand in books and/or runs on the table in front of you before discarding your last card. You can only use the number of cards you were dealt to make your books and/or runs. You must have one card left to discard. Your discard can be a playable card.
Books
A book consists of three or more cards of the same value regardless of suit. For example:
Any card in a book can be replaced by a wild card. For example, if 8s are wild, a book could be:
You can have as many wild cards in a book as you wish and they can be adjacent to each other.
Runs
A run consists of a sequence of three or more consecutive cards of the same suit. For example:
Any card in a run can be replaced by a wild card. For example, if 7s are wild, a run could be:
You can have as many wild cards in a run as you wish and they can be adjacent to each other.
Once a player has gone out, all other players have one more turn. Start your last turn as normal, but lay down any books and/or runs you can before discarding. All unused cards will count toward your score. You are not allowed to play on another player’s books and/or runs. The cards used in books and/or runs are not scored. Players add up only their unused cards. The scorekeeper records and tallies the scores. Card Values: Each number card is worth its face value, Jacks are 11 points, Queens are 12, Kings are 13, Jokers are 50 and the current wild cards are 20 points. Play continues until the 11th round when each player is dealt 13 cards and the Kings go wild.
“The answer to the threat of man-eating sharks, the scavengers which infest all tropical waters of the world, was announced here today…” (quote from draft OSS/ERE Press Release on the development of a shark repellent; April 13, 1943)
It was the height of World War II and reports of shark attacks consumed the media. At least twenty US Naval officers had been attacked by sharks since the start of the war, raising alarm amongst sailors and airmen who increasingly found themselves conducting dangerous missions over shark-infested waters. To boost morale, the Joint Chiefs of Staff requested the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, CIA’s predecessor) to lead the hunt to find a shark repellent.
Julia McWilliams (better known by her married name, Julia Child) joined the newly-created OSS in 1942 in search of adventure. This was years before she became the culinary icon of French cuisine that she is known for today. In fact, at this time, Julia was self-admittedly a disaster in the kitchen. Perhaps all the more fitting that she soon found herself helping to develop a recipe that even a shark would refuse to eat.
Searching for Shark Repellent:
The search for a shark repellent began in July 1942, just a month after the OSS was formed. The Emergency Rescue Equipment (ERE) coordinating committee was created to keep the Armed Services and various government agencies from duplicating efforts when developing equipment to help rescue military members from dangerous situations.
Housed within the OSS until late 1943, the ERE Special Projects division was headed by Captain Harold J. Coolidge, a scientist from the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, and Dr. Henry Field, Curator of the Field Museum of Natural History. Both men were avid explorers, having led expeditions into arctic, desert, and tropical regions. Coolidge had previously organized and accompanied the well-known Kelly-Roosevelt expedition to Indo-China and had a strong working-knowledge about the necessary equipment for survival in the arctic, while Field had led several anthropological expeditions into the deserts of the Middle East.
Coolidge and Field sent a memo to OSS Director General “Wild Bill” Donovan and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, proposing a plan for “unifying and coordinating the work of different agencies in the field of rescue.” Thus the ERE was born, and one of its several projects was the development of shark repellent.
Julia Child worked for Coolidge for a year in 1943 as an Executive Assistant.
“I must say we had lots of fun,” Julia told fellow OSS Officer, Betty McIntosh, during an interview for Betty’s book on OSS women, Sisterhood of Spies. “We designed rescue kits and other agent paraphernalia. I understand the shark repellent we developed is being used today for downed space equipment—strapped around it so the sharks won’t attack when it lands in the ocean.”
Shark Repellent Found:
After trying over 100 different substances—including common poisons—the researchers found several promising possibilities: extracts from decayed shark meat, organic acids, and several copper salts, including copper sulphate and copper acetate. After a year of field tests, the most effective repellent was copper acetate.
According to several memos from mid-to-late 1943, bait tests showed copper acetate to be over 60% effective in deterring shark bites. Other field tests showed even more promising results. Unfortunately, the copper acetate was deemed completely ineffective in deterring attacks from the other carnivorous fish of concern to the Armed Forces: barracudas and piranhas.
To create the repellent, copper acetate was mixed with black dye, which was then formed into a little disk-shaped “cake” that smelled like a dead shark when released into the water. These cakes could be stored in small 3-inch boxes with metal screens that allowed the repellent to be spread either manually or automatically when submerged in water. The box could be attached to a life jacket or belt, or strapped to a person’s leg or arm, and was said to keep sharks away for 6 to 7 hours.
Skepticism, Shark Chaser, and Shark-toons:
Despite the promising results of initial field tests, the Navy remained skeptical. In December 1943, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics Edward Howell sent a memo to the Navy Research Department stating that although “slight repellence was shown in bait tests” with small sharks, it was the Bureau’s opinion “that it is illogical to expect that such effect as was shown in normal feeding behavior would give any promise of affecting the voracious behavior of the few species known to have attacked man.” Even Coolidge himself noted in personal correspondence to one of the lead investigators/ scientists on the project, Douglas Burden, in May 1943 that “…none of us expected that the chemical would really function when the animals were stirred up in a mob behavior pattern.”
Nevertheless, the existence of the repellent was soon picked up by the media, and word spread among the various branches of the Armed Forces. Requests for the repellent came pouring in from the Army and Coast Guard. Even if the repellent wasn’t guaranteed to drive sharks away, it would at least provide possible deterrence against bites and have a huge effect on seamen and pilot morale.
The Navy did end up issuing the shark repellent based on the original OSS recipe—also known as “Shark Chaser”—until the 1970s, and it was rumored, as Julia told Betty, that the repellent was even used to protect NASA space equipment when it landed in the ocean. This part of the story, however, is difficult to confirm with documentary evidence.
NASA Version
The Navy didn’t stop with shark repellent. Shark attacks, although extremely frightening, were relatively rare occurrences. To help dispel the myths surrounding shark attacks, the Naval Aviation Training Division in March 1944 issued a training guide based on the ERE research into sharks. Called, “Shark Sense,” the guide was filled with facts about sharks, advice on how to handle yourself when stranded in shark infested waters, and of course, cartoons.
* The entire collection of records related to the OSS and ERE shark repellent program, as well as Julia Child’s OSS service, are available at the US National Archives and Records Administration.
Do you have Corvettes at Carlisle on your bucket list? Corvettes at Carlisle will be held August 25-27 at the Carlisle PA Fairgrounds, and it’s the largest all-Corvette themed event in the world!
Fairgrounds Layout
The Carlisle PA Fairgrounds have multiple entry gates at all points of the fence line. If you are showing a car, Gate 3 is THE gate to enter. If you’re a spectator, Gates 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 all provide access. The 82-acre facility has 8,100 spaces, many of which will include special guests, displays, vendors, and Corvettes, lots and lots of Corvettes.
Special Displays (in no particular order)
• 2023 Corvette Z06 Display • 50 Years of the 1972 Corvette • Callaway Sledgehammer and 35 Years of Callaway Corvettes • 2022 Chip’s Choice – Pratt & Miller/Factory Corvette Race Cars • The NCRS Gallery • TV & Movie Themed Corvettes • Solid Axle Corvette National Convention • The Fun Field (where the show cars park) • The Swap Meet and Midway (where you can find Corvette parts, collectibles, merchandise and more)
The fairgrounds will be packed and will offer a huge automotive flea market with a wide variety of vendors, an all-Corvette car corral, and more.
Rev up the action at the Corvette Show with autocross. Experienced drivers can test their driving skills while beginners can learn more about the sport. They can even compete to become the King of the X.
Corvettes at Carlisle also offers great shopping opportunities. Buy a car and everything to go with it from the variety of vendors filling the fairgrounds. The car corral offers notary services including temporary tags so you can shop, compare and make the deal directly with the owner.
This event is great for the whole family and features a kids’ section with crafts, contests, and a play area, and the Women’s Oasis Tent with massages, makeovers, shopping, and more. Don’t miss the Corvette Parade on Saturday night through Downtown Carlisle, which culminates into a giant street party with great music, food, and more than 400 Corvettes.
No, not Congress. Although Congress IS filled with snakes, I am referring to Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland in Allenwood, PA. We pass Reptiland every time we visit home and the parking lot is always FULL! I wondered what was the attraction with snakes, but I discovered Reptiland is much, much more than just snakes!
In many zoos around the country, reptiles are relegated to a single building in the back corner. True, many visitors take the time to see the snakes, gators, and lizards housed here, but it’s often an afterthought to the main attractions like the big cats, elephants, and other popular animals. However, at Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, reptiles are the star attraction.
Begun in 1964, Reptiland has grown to over 75 species and 2,000 total animals. In Peelings’ own words, they are “his passion.” Reptiland is one of only 8 zoos in PA that are accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
There are five main areas to Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland. Walking around the park clockwise, the first area you’ll come to is a small number of outdoor enclosures featuring several varieties of turtles and tortoises. The most popular enclosure houses three Galápagos tortoises. These are some of the largest tortoises in the world and are quite fascinating to see in person.
Next to the Galápagos tortoises is the Program Center. Here, shows are held five times a day and feature a zookeeper taking about the animals at the park, along with a few special friends. It’s a 30 minute show geared more for kids, but very informative–with the added bonus of getting to touch a small crocodile at the end!
The second area of the park surprised me the most– the Butterfly Garden. While it does seem a bit out of place, given the reptile theme, you can walk in this greenhouse and see butterflies all around you. They even hatch their own butterflies in the garden, giving visitors a great chance to see what they look like in different stages of their lives. (The Butterfly Garden is closed during the colder months of the year, so plan your trip accordingly.)
Next, the tour goes into the Reptile and Amphibian Gallery. In many ways, this is a typical reptile house you’d find at any other zoo. A variety of animals are contained within the building, including frogs, snakes, and even small crocodiles.
The snakes were interesting for their variety. In addition to having some of the most well-known snakes like the black mamba or the anaconda, the area also included snakes you might see while hiking in Pennsylvania, such as the timber rattlesnake and the copperhead.
Also inside the Reptile and Amphibian Gallery are the zoo’s alligators. The two alligators are housed in a nice enclosure that features a large viewing area, ensuring you’ll get a great view no matter how crowded Reptiland is. There are programs here that tell you a bit more about the alligators. While there is no set feeding schedule, you might be able to see the alligators fed if you are lucky.
The fourth area of the park, the Island Giants exhibit, is home to the Aldabra tortoises and Komodo dragons. These animals are unique in that they both are very large but confined to a very small natural habitat. The Aldabra tortoises are one of the world’s largest tortoise species and are primarily found on one island in the Indian Ocean. Komodo dragons are relatively uncommon in zoos, and there is only one other zoo in Pennsylvania that has them (the Pittsburgh Zoo).
The last section of Reptiland is the most curious. Here, animatronic dinosaurs move and roar as you walk along the paths of the Dinosaurs Come to Life exhibit. The goal here is to teach people about the reptiles that used to walk the earth, and it is well done with realistic dinosaurs but again, this display is only open during the warmer months, so plan accordingly.
A few days ago, we began to rewatch the series The Blacklist and I was once again reminded of the similarities of things happening now and movies/series of years past. The Blacklist premiered in 2013 and details the collaboration between the FBI and a known criminal to bring even worse criminals—those not even on the FBI’s radar – to justice.
The first season lays a lot of groundwork for the future, but 2 episodes are particularly notable. One is about a beloved woman receiving accolades for rescuing trafficked young girls and guys. Truth will out as they say and she turns out to be an immense trafficker herself. She hides in plain sight and mocks those around her for rewarding her.
The second episode that stood out was called The Kingmaker. It details how a man, called the kingmaker, ruined another man’s life. The man was running for political office in some overseas country. He was picked up at the airport, drugged and placed in a room with a known male prostitute who was, of course, dead on the floor. The set-up man had to abandon all efforts to become elected and focus on his defense. But it didn’t stop overseas. The Kingmaker came to America to fulfill an obligation made years ago. A young congress person yearned for a higher office and was being groomed by the Kingmaker (for a price, of course) for perhaps being president one day. In a series of manipulated events, which involve a senior member of congress murdered by an “intruder”, the younger man is suddenly thrust into the spotlight he seeks.
The scary part about both of these is how “out there” they might have seemed in 2013, they are entirely plausible today…almost prescient.
Which brings me to season 2, and the warrior gene. This episode is about a research scientist who thinks he has discovered a warrior gene which can be used to identify probable mass murderers. He uses his position in hospitals to determine at-risk patients and tests them to determine their usefulness. Once he determined they “have” the gene, he then manipulates them into committing mass murders—thereby “proving” his theory.
The people in the episode are manipulated using devious methods—not chemically induced—not any sort of triggered responses. It’s totally and subtly done with “anonymous” online chicanery. For example, one woman who works in a customer service job (iirc) gets fired…not because she is bad at her job—all her coworkers like her. No, it’s anonymous Yelp type messages left on her company’s website that prompted her dismissal. Then anonymous tips to child protective services that whenever she was at her boyfriend’s house with his children, the children were screaming and crying. (This lead to the boyfriend dumping her.) So, she lost a job she loved and a boyfriend she loved and then, without an income, the bank was going to foreclose on her home. This one doctor manipulated her situation so much with this anonymous crap that she snapped. She went into the bank and opened fire.
The episode also discusses the government’s “black budget”—money at the disposal of governmental agencies that is not revealed or accountable. We fund the very research to facilitate our demise.
LIFE Magazine called the story of Snowman, “The greatest “˜nags-to-riches’ story since Black Beauty.” But what makes Snowman’s story even more extraordinary is that it is true. It is one of the rare true stories of horses that has been able to captivate the imagination of millions of people. Only a few are able to successfully travel the road from “rags to riches.” It takes exceptional capability and luck. But the one who beats the odds “ the longest of long shots – the “unlikely” champion “ becomes a symbol of hope.
Harry and Snowman
Snowman was a plow horse in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. In 1920, most of the 25 million horses and mules in America were used for farm work. By 1945, tractor power overtook horse power on American farms. By the 1950s, farm equipment manufacturers stopped building horse-drawn equipment, leaving horse farmers no choice but to eventually replace their equipment.
Snowman
It was a cold snowy day in February 1956 when Snowman headed for the slaughterhouse at only eight years of age. On that same day, luck came into play when the 28-year old Harry de Leyer headed off from his riding stable in Long Island, New York, to the same horse auction in New Holland, Pennsylvania, looking for inexpensive lesson horses.
Arriving late, the auction had ended, and the only horses left were the ones that nobody wanted. Already loaded on a trailer en route to the “meat dealer,” De Leyer spotted the dirty, gray horse that he would later name Snowman and called out to bring the horse back down. On instinct alone, he bought him for $80.
Snowman was a lesson horse for a short time when Harry sold him to a neighbor for double the money. But, an unhappy Snowman kept coming home to Harry “ jumping the neighbor’s five-foot fences” time and time again. As luck would have it again for Snowman, the neighbor was only too happy to let Harry take him back, and Harry, now recognizing Snowman’s extraordinary talent, set Snowman on his path to become one of the most beloved show jumpers of all time.
Just two years later in 1958, Snowman was named the United States Equestrian Federation Horse of the Year (formerly called AHSA Horse of the Year), Professional Horseman’s Association champion and the champion of Madison Square Garden’s Diamond Jubilee. The following year, Snowman achieved the unimaginable returning to Madison Square Garden to be the first horse to win the Open Jumper Championship two years in a row.
The pair became media favorites ““ even appearing on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” where Johnny climbed on Snowman’s back. Snowman retired from the show ring in 1962 and in 1974, passed away at home with Harry sitting close by his side. Snowman was inducted into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame in 1992.
If humans were an animal of prey, we would rather run than discuss the matter as well…however, there have been some Horse Heroes recorded lately…here are a few stories.
COW MANIA:
I read about a lady from England who went out to see what was bothering a wailing calf.
She realized her mistake after she had already gone into the pen when the Momma cow rushed to the calf’s aid thinking the woman was the issue…
The cow sat on the woman. Not good. The woman realized her predicament and thought she was a goner. But, suddenly, her horse who shared the pasture, came over and started kicking the beejueezus out of the cow. The cow moved and the lady crawled to safety. I’m guessing the horse had had experience with kicking this particular cow… since they shared a pasture. However, this horse came to the rescue of her owner! A remarkable story.
COYOTE STAND OFF:
I just read about this older rancher who went out to feed in the morning and came face to face with a pack of nasty looking coyotes. Well, his trusty three horses who were also in the field, came to his rescue. They circled the wagons and defended their owner against the coyotes. The rancher reported seeinga few direct hits from his mares to the largest coyote. Once safe, the rancher exclaimed that he was absolutely sure that these three mares saved his life. Nice, ladies! Here he is pictured with his horsey heroes!
Another story which doesn’t really fit my model here, but is a good story nonetheless. In this article, a father swears that his horse helped his autistic child. He says that the child uttered his first constructed conversation when riding the horse. And, he feels that the horse was extra special gentle with the little boy.
Much more gentle than with anyone else. I’m sure this is true because I have a pretty rank lead mare at my ranch and she will test any grown-up I put on her back but will be an angel with a kid. Go figure.
I once interviewed Rocky from the famed Cowboy College. He said that he got lost in the Arizona mountains during really bad weather. He swears that he was so overwhelmed with exhaustion and cold, he passed out while riding. The next thing he knew, he was being brought into the ranch house. His mare had gingerly carried him the extra miles back home. He feels he owes his life to this horse.
CLOSE TO HOME STORIES
I know that my horses are your normal horses…really no heroes among them. They will, however, step up and settle a score for me or make things right, if you know what I mean. I have accidentally been bitten by my lead mare but once she realized her offense, she looked aghast and just stood there bracing herself for what she felt was a fair retaliation blow. I didn’t. I just started to sob gently and she nuzzled me. Good enough. She made it right. (Horse bites HURT.)
My most literal score settling incident happened when I positioned myself badly and received a grazing kick from a colt. His Mama, the same horse who accidentally bit me, ran after him and kicked his hiney across the field and up onto the hill. Atta girl!
And, as I’m sure you have all seen, when you are out in the field with the herd and one particular horse is being a butt-head, the rest of the group will snap at some point and say, ENOUGH! Usually the offending horse will run off and hide behind a tree until he can sneak back unnoticed.
Indirectly, horses have saved my life in an emotional way. During my divorce many years ago, I was not healthy minded. Yet, through all of the drama, I still had to take care of my animals. I dragged my pitiful self out to the barn to help them with their lives. Hmmmm, I seemed to forget myself when I was out there. They got me out of my funk and inspired me to find some money and save the ranch for us. They got me back into the game.
Another indirect save was just last year when I lost Fanny. I stumbled upon her body in the barn. I had never seen a lifeless pet before and I was quite startled and shocked. I started crying. After a few minutes of this, I noticed that the whole barn was quiet and watching me. Now, I had no horses IN the barn. But, they had all come up TO the barn. Every one of them was peering inside through a window or an open board, trying to figure out why Mom was so upset. They weren’t demanding treats or hay or anything from me. They were being honorable. I remember looking up at all the faces and realizing how lucky I was.
Fanny
That is why, for me, the human — the predator on the evolution scale — I find it fascinating when the prey animal (the horse) helps us.
This story describes a very brief interval which, TBH, I have a hard time recalling. I was hot, sweaty and dirty after hauling sawdust and decided to stop and get a cold beer at the local hangout in Haymarket, VA. In my ragged cut-off overalls, with a tube top underneath, and slip-on Duck boots, I slid onto a stool next to a friend, who had a young friend of his sitting next to him. Hmmmm…..well, one beer became two and…….at some point, the Cougar came to life and I began eying the young, 20-something WV boy named Billy (I was easily twice his age). Well, THIS looked interesting!!!!
One thing led to another, we hit it off and got together a few times for drinking, dancing and bedroom games. The final time I was with Billy was highly illuminating, to say the least. It was a cool night, with light rain – almost a mist – and he came to my house with a bottle of Rum and a 2 liter bottle of Coke. We chatted while we fixed some drinks and moved to the living room, seating outselves on the couch.
From the gitgo, something just seemed off. He sat down in the corner at one end, leaning away from me on the arm of the couch – like he was turned away from me intentionally. We discussed this and that until the conversation turned to dog training. Early on, he informed me that he knew more than I about the subject because he had raised Rottweilers. He insisted that he understood, with his dogs, that once the food was given to them, they were well within their rights to bite even him if he tried to remove it. Uh, no………..that was the beginning of an evening of Billy arguing with EVERYTHING I said!!!!
Fairly early on, I recognized that this was not going to be a long-term relationship and I determined to get what I could out of the evening (some entertaining escapades in the bedroom) and mark it off as the end of that experiment. So I suggested we take a romantic stroll outside, in the rain.
I also decided he needed to meet my wolf-shepherd cross – the one to whom I could give a raw steak bone and easily remove it from her mouth 2 minutes later, with nary a growl. Spirit understood quite clearly that I was the Alpha – not her – she answered to me. The arguing continued…..seriously, it was beyond tiresome!
I finally decided enough chit-chat – let’s do the deed and get this nightmare over with – I was still determined to at least get a good POA out of the deal. We moved into the house and into my bedroom to my California King size waterbed. Ever had sex on a waterbed? Most people don’t have them full enough – mine was filled to the brim and was like a firm regular mattress with minimal sloshing and waves. It had a book-case headboard with a mirror in the center – an added accoutrement that did, indeed, enhance the experience, I must say!
GoTee on my waterbed
Billy stayed on the side by the door and began disrobing, as I walked to my side and did the same. Naked, I turned towards him and saw him getting into bed still wearing his t-shirt. Nope! That was NOT going to work!!!! So I scooted over next to him and helped him take off his t-shirt, then lay full up against him and began…..um….playing. Touching, kissing…..you know the drill! Expecting a reaction…….nada – none – he might have been dead for all the movement I got out of him!!! Hmmmm…..WTH is going on here????
So I laid on top of him and began moving down his body……..kissing…….caressing…… licking…….still….no reaction whatsoever. Well, dang – did he go to sleep or what??!!?? So….I nipped him on his belly……HOLY CRAP!!! He jumped 2 feet as if I had plugged him in!!! “DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!!! I don’t EVER want to feel your teeth on me again!!!!” OK, now I’m really confused!!!!
What in the hell did he want???? I laid back down on my side of the bed, trying to figure out whether this was even worth it!!!! He said to me, “What the hell are you doing?” and I replied, “Trying to figure out what the hell you want!!!!” “I want you to finish what you started!!!!!” Yeah, ok, that is NOT going to work with ME!!!! Me being me, I proceeded to berate him for his attitude, explaining explicitly that I was NOT his slave and he had to actively participate on an equal basis. Oh, my! That was way too much for poor Billy! He jumped out of bed, grabbed his clothes and spouted, “I’m getting out of here!!! You’re too manly for me!!!!”
Well, of course, I erupted in raucous laughter, rolling out of bed onto the floor! He forgot his undies, literally ran out of the bedroom, grabbed his bottle of rum, leaving his jacket, and hit the door, never pausing stride! He flew up the driveway, spitting gravel every step of the way!!!!
Gee, did I have fun recounting THAT at the local hang out, where poor Billy never showed his face again!!!!! Ok, everyone – come on – let’s hear about some of YOUR romantic encounters!!!! Show and tell time – fair is fair, after all!!!!
The real Tom Sawyer has been revealed, with new research detailing his life as a hard-drinking and heroic firefighter who once saved 90 people from a steamship fire.
Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain
Known to generations as one of the most beloved characters in American literature, an extensive feature in Smithsonian Magazine details the life of the man who inspired the fictional child and title character of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”
Twain and Sawyer first met in San Francisco in 1863, quickly becoming firm friends who seemingly drank in every saloon the city had to offer, according to the article.
Firefighter Tom Sawyer
On a rainy afternoon in June 1863, Mark Twain was nursing a bad hangover inside Ed Stahle’s fashionable Montgomery Street steam rooms, halfway through a two-month visit to San Francisco that would ultimately stretch to three years. At the baths he played penny ante with Stahle, the proprietor, and Tom Sawyer, the recently appointed customs inspector, volunteer fireman, special policeman and bona fide local hero.
Montgomery Street in the 1860’s
In contrast to the lanky Twain, Sawyer, three years older, was stocky and round-faced. Just returned from firefighting duties, he was covered in soot. Twain slumped as he played poker, studying his cards, hefting a bottle of dark beer and chain-smoking cigars, to which he had become addicted during his stint as a pilot for steamboats on the Mississippi River from 1859 until the Civil War disrupted river traffic in April 1861. It was his career on the Mississippi, of course, that led Samuel Clemens to his pen name, “mark twain” being the minimum river depth of two fathoms, or roughly 12 feet, that a steamboat needed under its keel.
Mid-1800’s Steamboat
After Twain’s first usage of the “character” in a book three years later, Sawyer is said to have told a reporter at the time, “He (Twain) walks up to me and puts both hands on my shoulders. ‘Tom,’ he says, ‘I’m going to write a book about a boy and the kind I have in mind was just about the toughest boy in the world. Tom, he was just such a boy as you must have been.'”
Smithsonian magazine details how Sawyer was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. where he was a torch boy for Columbia Hook and Ladder Company Number 14. In San Francisco, he worked for Broderick 1, the city’s first volunteer fire company.
1850’s Hook & Ladder Company
Sawyer had proved his heroism February 16, 1853, while serving as the fire engineer aboard the steamer Independence. Heading to San Francisco via San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua and Acapulco, with 359 passengers aboard, the ship struck a reef off Baja, shuddered like a leaf and caught against jagged rocks.
Sawyer raced below deck and dropped into two feet of water. Through a huge rent, the sea was filling up overheated boilers below the waterline, cooling them rapidly. Chief Engineer Jason Collins and his men were fighting to keep steam up to reach shore. After the coal bunkers flooded, the men began tossing slats from stateroom berths into the furnaces. Sawyer heard Collins cry, “The blowers are useless!”
From Smithsonian Magazine
Loss of the blowers drove the flames out the furnace doors and ignited woodwork in the fire room and around the smokestack. Steam and flames blasted up from the hatch and ventilators. “The scene was perfectly horrible,” Sampson recalled later. “Men, women and children, screeching, crying and drowning.”
Collins and James L. Freeborn, the purser, jumped overboard, lost consciousness and sank. Sawyer, a powerful swimmer, dove into the water, caught both men by their hair and pulled them to the surface. As they clung to his back, he swam for the shore a hundred yards away, a feat of amazing strength and stamina.
Depositing Collins and Freeborn on the beach, Sawyer swam back to the burning steamer. He made a number of round trips, swimming to shore with a passenger or two on his back each time. Finally, a lifeboat was lowered, and women, children and many men, including the ship’s surgeon, who would be needed on land, packed in and were rowed to shore. Two broken lifeboats were repaired and launched. Sawyer returned to the flaming vessel in a long boat, rowing hard despite burned forearms to reach more passengers. He got a group into life preservers, then towed them ashore and went back for more. An hour later, the ship was a perfect sheet of flame.
The Smithsonian article quotes a 1898 newspaper article in which Sawyer told a reporter about the influence he had had on Twain’s most famous novel. “You want to know how I came to figure in his books, do you?” Sawyer asked in the interview, cited by the article. “Well, as I said, we both was fond of telling stories and spinning yarns.”
“Sam (Clemens, Twain’s real name), he was mighty fond of children’s doings and whenever he’d see any little fellers a-fighting on the street, he’d always stop and watch ’em and then he’d come up to the Blue Wing [saloon] and describe the whole doings and then I’d try and beat his yarn by telling him of the antics I used to play when I was a kid and say, ‘I don’t believe there ever was such another little devil ever lived as I was.’
“Sam, he would listen to these pranks of mine with great interest and he’d occasionally take ’em down in his notebook. One day he says to me: ‘I am going to put you between the covers of a book some of these days, Tom.’
‘Go ahead, Sam,’ I said, ‘but don’t disgrace my name.'”
“But [Twain’s] coming out here some day,” Sawyer added, “and I am saving up for him. When he does come there’ll be some fun, for if he gives a lecture I intend coming right in on the platform and have a few old time sallies with him.”
The nonfictional character died in the autumn of 1906, three and a half years before Twain. “Tom Sawyer, Whose Name Inspired Twain, Dies at Great Age,” the newspaper headline announced. The obituary said, “A man whose name is to be found in every worthy library in America died in this city on Friday….So highly did the author appreciate Sawyer that he gave the man’s name to his famous boy character. In that way the man who died Friday is godfather, so to speak, of one of the most enjoyable books ever written.”
Let’s talk about being inspired. Young Jim Bishop in 1959, at the ripe old age of 15, paid four hundred and fifty dollars for a two and a half acre parcel of land enclosed on three sides by the majestic San Isabel National Forest in southern Colorado. It was money saved from mowing lawns, throwing newspapers, and working with his father Willard in the family ornamental iron works. Jim had dropped out of high school that year over an argument from his English teacher who yelled at him “You’ll never amount to anything Jim Bishop!” Ever since he was a boy, Jim was powerfully drawn up towards the mountains visible to the west from Pueblo, and having found a small 2-1/2 acre parcel one weekend on a bicycle journey with some friends, convinced his parents to buy it for him with his money.
So Willard and ma Polly signed for the land deal which Jim wasn’t even old enough to do himself, and the family now had a heavily forested two and a half acres at 9000 feet. Jim and his dad spent the next ten summers camping out on the land and doing the groundwork for a family cabin on the site. Setting the stage for what was to come, Jim soon learned that he really enjoyed swinging an axe and wielding a shovel or pick in building their clearing with a drive up to it, which is now the court-yard between the family cabin and the castle itself with it’s driveway.
It was in 1967 that Jim and Phoebe got married, a union they still enjoy to this day, and in 1969 at the age of twenty-five, Jim decided it was time to start building a cabin in the mountains they so loved. Since rocks were plentiful, everywhere, and free, he chose to start building a one room stone cottage…
NOTE: Stock photo – The Bishop cabin had windows on all sides and big double doors in front. When they left the door open, the hummers would sometimes fly in – the hummers got so familiar with them that when they wanted to leave and the door was closed, the would hover in front of the door until they opened it for them. They also had chairs that were tree stumps, with the seat hollowed out.
Snow doesn’t melt completely at 9000 feet usually until the middle of May, sometimes even into June, so the summer building season is a short one. Jim started building his cabin, and after a while Jim and Willard started trading off two week stints, one at the shop running the business and one up the mountain working on the family cabin. This lasted until the late spring of 1971, when the problem of getting running water into the cabin arose. Willard suggesting putting in a large metal tank that he had salvaged from a welding job to be a gravity fed cistern. Jim thought it’d be functional, and construction began on the water tank. It is a 40 foot metal cylinder which Willard surrounded with stonework.
Jim continued to build his cottage, and the walls grew. Throughout the summer, family friends, a couple local ranchers, and even some family members commented that it looked like they were building a castle! “Hey Jim! That looks like a turret or something!” “What are you building, a castle?!”
Jim heard that enough times that by the time late spring 1972 rolled around, his imagination had been stirred something fierce, and Mr. Jim Bishop started telling friends and family that he was in fact going to be building a castle! When Willard first heard this, he stated as a matter of fact that castles tended to be pretty huge and that he wasn’t going to have anything to do with it! “That’s just too much work!” Jim kept right on building, and the construction that began as a one room stone cottage with an Eiffel Tower shaped fireplace gave birth to this country’s, and maybe even the world’s, largest one man project – The Bishop Castle.
It Just Keeps On Growing! As the castle grew, so did word of the guy up in the mountains who was pursuing the American Dream – to be King of your own Castle! People came to visit more and more often, and Jim would often be asked if he wanted help building his castle. For the first eight years, the answer was always Sure! And in those eight years, not a single person ever kept their word and showed up to help. In a fit of cynical frustration, Jim vowed that “By God, I’ve gotten this far by myself. If you’re going to do something right, do it yourself!” So like the castle itself, the idea of the castle being a one man project was born in the process of the doing and was not an original intention or a childhood dream like many people think. And he kept building. And building. And the Bishop Castle grew…
Other Discoveries Along the Way
Many of the features of the Bishop Castle were discovered intuitively or stumbled upon as the building unfolded. In the process of the castle building, Jim discovered that he also really enjoyed building his body too. He even set up an old army wall tent in the clearing, where he would workout with weights for a couple of hours in the evenings after having built with stone and mortar all day! As he became increasingly involved in the weight lifting regime physically, he also discovered that realm of mind where his principles in building could also be applied to his life – balance in everything! This became an ideal he strove for in this proving of himself, through his stonework, his body, and in his mind. It was through this approach that Jim soon realized that he would find himself completely visualizing what he could build next and how it would all fit together on such a large scale.
There are no plans, blueprints or drawings other than the one Jim did to illustrate his book “Castle Building from my point of view”. The more Jim experienced how certain features lined up or fell into place is when he started suspecting that maybe something “more” was going on, that maybe it was the Creator of All Things working through him in this magnificent endeavor that seemed to have a spirit of it’s own. Jim started describing the Bishop Castle as “Built by One Man with the Help of God.” There’s really no other way to explain it!. And it kept growing…
Feats of Strength
In order to pursue the totality of what he could visualize, Jim employed anything and everything that was available to him. He had apprenticed and then mastered with his father in the family’s Bishop Ornamental Iron shop welding and scroll bending and learning how things fit together for most of his life. Jim did everything – hauling rock from the state highway ditches, felling timber and then milling it into lumber, building railroad ties into forms for his arches, (he’s used the same form over and over), building scaffolding as he went. He hand dug holes up to 12 feet deep for the foundations, mixed all his own mortar, carried it, usually up, to wherever he was working, created and rigged complex systems of pulleys and come-alongs to hoist such things as tree trunks for the floor supports, and, stone by stone, his dreams were being made manifest. Jim handles each and every stone in the castle on average of SIX TIMES before it rests in it’s final configuration in this massive re-organizing of the scattered granite in the Rocky Mountains into the form of the Bishop Castle.
Structural Ornaments
The beginning of the square tower on the south side of the main keep saw the first massive use of ironwork in the construction. Up until then Jim had incorporated his ironwork as window frames, stairs, and the purely ornamental. Now his use of iron and steel became structural, with a core frame for the tower starting from it’s foundations. The rock work formed around this base and created such strength that Jim had no fear contemplating the heights that the tower might one day climb to. Wooden forms soon gave way to ornamental iron forms in the arches of the second floor, some of the most incredible examples of precision geometry found in the castle. And the most magnificent feature of all, the inner roof support trusses and the main central arch which are so detailed, yet so massively functional that they boggle the mind. Everywhere one looks something will boggle the mind, such as the fact that the hand railing going up the S.W. corner, named Roy’s Tower, with all of it’s bizarre twists and turns, was hammered cold into it’s highly custom shape!
Perhaps the water cistern is contained inside of this tower.
The Dream Defined
Over the years as the castle grew, more and more people heard about this phenomenon up in the mountains and began showing up in increasing numbers. Friends told Jim that he should be making some money off what was becoming an attraction! Jim felt differently though – he hated it when he was a kid and couldn’t go to the zoo or the ballpark because admission for the whole family was too high for a bunch of working class folks. Since the original idea for a castle came from people visiting the property, Jim figured that if people were welcomed onto the property FOR FREE then he could put out a donation box and people could put in there what they felt comfortable putting in there. The honor system would be the financier! This increased Jim’s feeling of the castle truly being a place of American Freedom. He felt like he worked hard enough down in Pueblo to support the family that he would build as much as the visitors provided for. This has frustrated him at times over the years, wanting to build larger items such as an elevator and not having the funds to do so, but he feels so strongly about the dream being kept intact that he’s even written into legal documents that the Bishop Castle will always remain free as long as it stands. This belief in America being a Free Country made up of Free Persons has fueled his passions in building the castle to represent the American Dream in an undeniably tangible and awe inspiring form!
Enter The Dragon
In the mid 1980’s, a friend of Jim’s was driving a truck full of discarded stainless steel warming plates from the Pueblo County Hospital to the landfill. He decided that Jim could probably put this motherload of expensive stainless steel to better use than the dump could, so dropped it off at the Bishop Ornamental Iron Shop instead. Jim spent the winter building a chimney out of the steel, riveting thousands of hammered “scales” that he had cut out of the plates together around a steel frame. The dragon was completed in the spring and Jim hauled it up the mountain to tackle the daunting task of raising and installing this incredible sculpture to where it rests today, perched off of the front of the Grand Ballroom eighty feet in the air! Later came the addition of a burner from a hot air balloon (that was donated!) which Jim put in the back of the dragons throat, making it a true Fire Breathing Dragon!
Unimaginable Heights Reached
Jim is often told that he must not be afraid of heights! The way he figures it, he began at the bedrock base of the earth and has been gradually building up, so gradual that as the height grew, he was as comfortable with it as with being on the ground. Jim’s experience with the castle has been so intimate, (he’s held EVERY SINGLE STONE IN THERE ON AN AVERAGE OF SIX TIMES), that he’s grown stone by stone as well and doesn’t mind the heights at all. In 1994 Jim reached a point with the square Andreatta tower, named after the family that donated the old school bells that hang in it, where he felt satisfied that it was high enough. That didn’t last long, as in 1995 he built and installed a thirty foot tall steel steeple on top of the masonry, taking the total height to roughly 160 feet! That’s about the size of a 16 story building! Jim has remained satisfied with the overall height of his castle to the present, though he’s recently been threatening to build one of the corner outer wall towers to 250 feet because a local zoning official told him he couldn’t build over 25 and he just added a zero.
Ballroom inside Castle
As It Stands
Today’s visitors to the Bishop Castle will find an impressively monumental statue in stone and iron that cries loud testament to the beauty and glory of not only having a dream, but sticking with your dream no matter what. Most importantly, that if you do believe in yourself and strive to maintain that belief, anything can happen! Three full stories of interior rooms complete with a Grand Ballroom, soaring towers and bridges with vistas of a hundred miles, and a Fire-Breathing Dragon make the Bishop Castle quite the unforgettable experience! Visitors are always welcome FREE of charge, and the castle itself is always OPEN. Please respect this trust and honor while visiting!
Sew Colorful 