Rosalie Myrtle - Running Bear Love Little White Dove

On a warm late summer day in September (the 18th), 1921, she was born Myrtle Mary Washington Wood to Bailus Earl Wood and Pearl Wooten Wood. Catholic? Hardly. Her parents were Hard-shell Baptists of Dutch decent lost in the back woods of the Appalachian Chain.

In the time honored tradition of the mountain people of their era - their word was their bond. They labored in the fields under an alternately scorching sun and a bone chilling cold from sun rise to sun set six (6) days a week. The seventh day (actually the first by the calendar) was spent in the House of The Lord.

Leaving the fields on work days with just enough day light remaining to get the teams of mules rubbed down, fed, watered, and stabled for the night. Then there were eggs to gather, hogs to feed, cows to milk, and water to draw from the well before dinner - after which relaxation was found in sitting on the front porch and listening to the unique sounds of the night as the nocturnal life of the mountains scurried about in song and mating call.

There were no cars to zoom up and down a noisy highway... no chain saws interrupting the call of the whip-o-rill during the day... no pumped in sound displacing the symphony of crickets, katydids or frogs in the evening... no magic boxes with snowy black and white moving pictures competing with the big dipper and or the beauty of the fire fly against the black of the night sky... no street lights to disturb one's sleep when the body needed to be manufacturing and releasing melatonin.

Rosalie Myrtle was but one of eight siblings - three boys and five girls at a time when the larger the family the better it fared. Why? There were simply more bodies to accomplish more work.

Mechanism had not yet over taken the American Farm and the living, if good, was hard and if filled with love and trust, they were earned. Time had to be made to cut one's own heating and cooking wood. Henry David Thoreau had, after all, rightly observed that by cutting his own wood, a man was warmed by it twice. While the first warming experience may have been anything but comforting, the second time around - setting in front of the fire place - perhaps popping corn - sure was appreciated.

A young girl's mind races in the winter night when she should be sleeping, but darkness comes so early this time of year and the flicker of the dying flames in the fire place is pure magic. The flames create a wee bit of light that dances across the floor, hops around the walls, and runs about the ceiling. They cast shadows of one thing creating the appearance of another entirely different. It only exists in the ever active mind of the young and the innocent.

Christmas is on the horizon! What will Santa bring? She hopes for a stick or maybe even two of hoar hound candy, and maybe... an apple or an orange... and a banana sure would be nice. And, maybe Santa could even a leave few pecans or walnuts this year.

Though apples, pears, peaches, plums, persimmons, grapes, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, huckleberries, water melons, walnuts, pecans, and mush melons are abundant in the summer and early fall, there is not much fruit around here in the winter she muses.

And snow! Yes, it will be Christmas, and we should have snow. Snow really lights up the night! It saves kerosene, too, she thinks as if trying to convince God while watching the last flickers of the fire and is sure it casts a shadow of Rudolph flying across the north wall.

But Rosalie Myrtle can't remain a little girl in flour sack dresses forever. Soon enough she is a beautiful and vivacious young lady in love with a good looking well tanned young Cherokee Indian - a farm boy across the mountain who had been encountered a time or two while on errands for her father.

The Wood's had no problem with the Indian boy who turned out to be better to them than their own children, but his family had picked out a young Cherokee Maiden to be his wife. Against the wishes of his family, Rosalie Myrtle married the young Indian just before he went off to World War II drafted as a white man. It was really easy to pass in those days and he wanted to give their children every advantage a Tennessee Mountain Man could in the world of the forked tongue so he never corrected the record.

She was the only one of the Woods girls to stay married to the same man until he died of coronary artery disease while in the prime of his life young life just like his father had before him. Her brothers enjoyed a more stable family life than did their other sisters.

Rosalie Myrtle, having lived most of her adult life at Rosalie, Alabama, who served honorably as the matron of two different families, went to meet her Lord and be reunited with her young Indian lover on December 12th, 2000 at the age of 79. That was appropriate as her beloved Cherokee had gone to his happy hunting grounds at Christmas some thirty-three years earlier.

That millennium Christmas must have been some celebration around the old tepee! Two young lovers wrapped in each others embrace with no shortage of flickering flames... no sickness and no shortage of candy, fruit or nuts... And, I would even bet that on Christmas Day the old Cherokee who went to war to defend his nation as a white man had his dearly loved Fleetwood Coffee with chickory and one of her home baked white coconut cakes - his favorite.

When I remember them together, I think of the old Mercury Record Label song, Running Bear.

Guide to terrorism and world markets

What worse could have happened to the US economy then the 9th September 2001? Some perverted religious fanatics demolished the embodiment of the world trade. Terrorism is a threat to all the nations of the world. The human loss due to these activities cannot be condemned with words. The ruthlessness of the terror traders has an impact on each and every segment of life. The extent of these activities is extending by the day and the generally silent Europe too is feeling the cramps.

The world markets face the wrath of the terrorist activities in their faces. There is an overall loss to the business in many ways. The people suddenly fear traveling through air. The airline companies themselves are more apprehensive about continuing with their normal work. Apart from the loss in passengers, the security too has to be made very tight and the loss has to be born by the companies.

As a matter of fact, all sectors are put to a stand still due to these terror strikes. The direct effect of these is seen in the sudden drop in the markets. The stock prices do drop down and the trading comes to a stand still, however the business seldom stops and the markets show their cushioning effect by regaining the vigor. But at times the loss of even trading day can be fatal to a country’s economy.

Such attacks also incur a direct burden on the defense budget. It goes without saying that the governments do take desperate measures to minimize the losses and cover the country against the future threats. The new areas of defense research open up and thus fresh jobs are created. This brighter side of the attacks is over-shadowed by the loss of lives and panic that is created with in the country. The government, under such circumstances, looses the track of their priorities and the developmental works are sidelined. This causes damage to civic society.

The worst hit by terrorist activities is the third world countries. The terrorists make these vulnerable counties their bases and from here carry out the destructive activities. Their influence in such countries shows and threatens the developed world of their power and dominance. Thus such countries make an appropriate guinea pig. If a terrorists strike a big country or a city, the whole world knows about it. The tragedy with these countries is that their miseries are not broadcasted because of their non connectivity with the rest of the world. They are thus the breeding grounds of terrorism and worst hit areas by this destructive activity.

A joint effort by all the countries of the world, taking along the third world countries, is required to curb the growing tentacles of terrorism. Many big nations have joined hands against terrorism after major attacks in the world. They also need to include the most vulnerable victims of terrorism, the developing countries. Support to them, both economic and military, should be provided to them by the capable nations. Bodies like UN must pass resolutions and work upon them to uproot the cannibalistic practice of terrorism. Unless we don’t join our hands it would be very difficult to face these destructive forces and our economies will be victims of their activities.