[AT] OT don't take any Buffalo Nickels

Sun Jun 23 11:02:20 PDT 2019

Mt Ramble…I came from a home where two languages  were spoken. Dutch and English.  Our parents spoke Dutch when they didn’t want us kids to know what they were talking about. So…  by necessity we learned the language enough to understand what was being said. But… we didn’t let on that we had learned. Jokes were often spoken in Dutch as that seemed an easier way to express themselves.  Dutch words were used to describe something that came easier than English.  When I was very young the Churches offered two services in the morning. A Dutch service and an English service. The minister needed to be bi-lingual. It was not uncommon for meal prayers to be spoken in Dutch and Dutch bibles were seen often.  So it was not uncommon to hear a conversation that mixed Dutch and English together.  Unfortunately after moving away from home after I was 18 I lost most of my ability to understand Dutch when it is spoken. I never really learned to speak it other than some broken sentences.  It was funny however, when we toured Europe while in Holland and Germany and even Austria it was amazing how soon some of the word recognition came back almost being able to understand whole sentences and meanings of the sentences.  This was even after being away from the Dutch language for over 40 years.  It was especially helpful when I got lost in the medieval town of Innsbruck, Austria. We were on a bus tour and the bus had just dropped us off at a hotel and I had run out of VHS tape  (tells you how long ago It was).

So took off down the street to find a place where I could buy some more tapes. The streets are narrow with many really old multi story buildings on each side. I had a mission and I was going to complete it in the shortest possible time. So I walked and walked deeper into the city trying to find some kind of store that sold the tapes. I finally found one that had Japanese branded tapes that were common then.  So I brought them to the counter to pay. Reached in my bill fold and all I had were German Marks.  Well the clerk who spoke broken English was able to make the conversion with her broken English and my slight understanding of her German/Austrian language. I was also trying to make the conversion from Austrian Marks to German Marks to American dollars so I knew if I was paying a reasonable amount for these Japanese tapes.  It turned out it came out to be about $7 a tape so it wasn’t a crazy price.  So after completing our Japanese/German/Austrian/ American transaction I went back out on the street to return back to the hotel.

I then suddenly realized I had no idea where I was relative to the Hotel and for the life of me could not remember the name of the Hotel. And this was when I was much younger and could remember things and didn’t have senior moments. I got a little panicky. Here I was in Austria, didn’t speak Austrian, and didn’t know how to get back to my hotel which I couldn’t remember the name of.  That be truly lost. So went back into the shop I had jut purchased the tapes because she and I had been able to hold a conversation together even though I had a very limited understanding of the local language but she had a better understanding of English. She asked me to describe the exterior of the Hotel. I couldn’t.  I then remembered there was a very modern building directly across the street that stood out because it was so different. I was able to describe that building with some specificity and she immediately knew what hotel I was staying at . It turned out the new building was the New Post Office. So then she put directions on a piece of paper with street names to get me back to the hotel. I gave her another  $5 tip which she didn’t want but I left it anyway.  I made it back to the Hotel and took a good look at what it looked like and memorized the name. It was kind of embarrassing.  Modern architecture really stands out against several hundred year old other buildings.  And no they were not made of cinderblock or cement blocks or concrete blocks. They were either real bricks and mortar or rocks and mortar.  And yes they did slow down the wind.  But I wasn’t there for the Winter Olympics either to find out. 

PS: I now have a habit of stopping before I go into any hotel I stay at, making sure I remember the name of it and what it looks like.  My little Austrian experience left an indelible mark. My wife loses her sense of direction very easily. I usually don’t but when at the Classic Green Reunion in Grand island just a week ago I was off by 90 degrees for a while and that is very confusing.  But… I was able to observe over 580 Green Antique tractors (obligatory tractor reference) and implements at the show. Very good display from 1918 Waterloo Boy to two cylinder stuff, to 12 row combines.

Dean VP

Snohomish, WA 98290

From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> On Behalf Of Indiana Robinson
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2019 12:53 AM
To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: Re: [AT] OT don't take any Buffalo Nickels

I find this discussion a little surprising... I was taught in about the 6th grade (in a small rural school in the 1950's) that what we all call buffalo are really scientifically true bison and that early explorers were just guessing as to what they were. It was much like them thinking at first that this was the far side of the world and them calling everybody "Indians". The name just stuck and so did buffalo.

Even back when I was in school it was understood that most people would probably always continue to call them buffalo in casual conservation and I still do. By the time I learned that they were really bison I had already learned the words dog, cat, cow etc. and bison was a strange sounding name to me. 

Languages are funny things... Always evolving but not always in a good way. I have a few pet peeves from more recent years about how people butcher things. I watch a lot of DIY stuff and keep saying (mostly to the TV screen) "No, that is not ship-lap. Every old 8" board is not ship-lap!" or "No that is not a "cinder block! It is either a cement block or a concrete block... It is only a cinder block if it was produced using cinders for the aggregate and very few of those are being produced these days."

Rambling farther off track (not a cinder track).  :-)

When Diana and I got married in June 1963 we rented a small house at the edge of town for a year and a half that was on a full basement all made of actual cinder block. When that first winter came along I got a real shock. The cinders were quite coarse and the block walls were not even close to being air tight. When the winter winds began to howl you could not heat the basement. If you lit a candle (I really did) and held it next to the west wall on a high wind day it would blow the candle out.

Speaking of languages, we have become friends with a Greek family who have a local gyro based restaurant (pronounced ˈyērō). Really nice family. We were eating there a day or two ago and a lady and I believe her daughter sat a the booth behind me and were chatting. I wasn't sure what language they were speaking but it wasn't English. When things slowed down our friends came out to visit with them and I realized that that they had been chatting in Greek. It was a happy visit for the 4 of them and I had to chuckle a few times as they talked listening to them as all 4 of them flip-flopped from Greek to English over and over again. It was maybe about 60% Greek and 40% English. Our friends are quite good at English so it was funny hearing the sudden  shift from rapid fire Greek to a perfectly enunciated full sentence or more in English then instantly back to Greek. I can only assume that some thoughts just might be easier to express in English and some easier in Greek. We have some Chinese friends but they always speak all Chinese or all English. We also have Hispanic friends and family and they also speak mostly all one or the other. I have always wished I could learn other languages but while I have learned many thing in my time, other languages are just not a big part of my skill set. I do speak American English, British English, Australian English and a little New  Zealand English...  :-)  I do also speak a little dog, cat and horse.

.

Dang! I'm getting burned out on daily raining... Crops are all over the place in quality and some fields are still not planted and still standing water. One problem with a really wet spring here is that if the ground stays too wet too long the corn will not put down many deep roots then if it suddenly turns very dry it doesn't have a root system deep enough to get good moisture. If that happens the guys that use irrigation here may benefit from its use.

It's been "interesting" with these everyday rains going past the local Whitecastle joint in a down pour of rain and seeing their sprinkler system running. It must be under "corporate control".

.

.

On Sun, Jun 23, 2019 at 12:59 AM James Peck <jamesgpeck at hotmail.com <mailto:jamesgpeck at hotmail.com> > wrote:

I am a fan of the Lonesome Dove series, both the books and the miniseries, and even have been to one of the filming sites. One main character is Buffalo Hump. Maybe we can get author Larry McMurtry to rename him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Hump

The book 'War Of a Thousand Deserts" gives the Comanches credit for discombobulating Mexico enough for the US to win the 1846 war.

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300158373/war-thousand-deserts

[James Peck] I was on a work related trip to a location along the old Erie Railroad right of way in western New York about 10 years ago and heard a man rant about the shortcomings of English speakers. He was upset that Beau Fleur had become Buffalo. This source says that is fake info.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100616152325AAZECYp

[Dean VP Snohomish, WA 98290] I'm sure "Buffalo Bill might disagree with this. 😊

[szabelski at wildblue.net <mailto:szabelski at wildblue.net>   The correct terminology is “BISON”.  Bison are members of the bovine group “BUFFALO”.  Bison are native to North and South America. Buffalo are native to Africa and Asia ( i.e.: Water Buffalo, etc).

[James Peck] I was in a place where the TV was playing "Highway Through Hell" a few days ago. They were towing and removing vehicles and big loads on the Alaskan Highway. When they drove by a herd of what my first instinct would be to call "Buffalo", the Canadian accented truckers called them "Bison".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison

The show had some WW2 shots of tracked tractors pulling pan scrapers in the building of the highway.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_Thru_Hell

[Ralph]  <snip>The bison herd are being fed a hay bale or two fairly regularly as the grass can't keep up with them. <snip>

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Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com <mailto:robinson46176 at gmail.com> 

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