Image via Wikipedia

Oprah was at it again.  She marveled over Mr. Ralph Lauren so much that he had to say “well, I wouldn’t say that” when she called him the quintessential fashion designer and all of her other adjectives to make this man seem like a god.  We all know Ralph Lauren and if we never get more than a Polo shirt or Cologne we are pleased.  No doubt about his greatness.  And when you look at that land that he owns……but more than that.  He is  family man, married over  40 years and for the most part, does not seek the footlights.  He told Ms. Winfrey about his designing concepts which really impressed me.  He said that he cannot just design a gown but if he looks at a woman, for instance (and this is my  example because I forgot his) who lives in a basement in the Village with a pretty bird in a gilded cage and writes books, he can design something for her personality. God, do I wish he would come over here to see me and design a dress for me for something.  Maybe I’ll hook up with him if I do my first guitar recital!  I personally thought that was genius when he talked about it.

The usually highly impressionable Oprah was so back. I don’t mean that in a bad way, just a way that I have noticed.  I have found that  Aquarius people sometimes are very impressionable and really get enthused;  that’s okay, but it just seems too much to gushing as Ms. Winfrey tends to do.  I don’t know how many compliments I can handle myself and certainly, the fact that Mr.  Lauren says over and over that it’s not so much a gift that he performs for his business and lifestyle, but hard work.

Speaking of hard work, that is one hard working family.  And it is rumored that  his offspring are some of the nicest, most well-mannered people in the world.  Two are  marrying with the year.  I liked Mr. Lauren’s story, I loved the view of his land and of course Oprah had to describe it as feeling spiritual.  Pardon me, but most beautiful views of nature are Spiritual in feeling to me.  You see, that’s the added gush that gets to me. These are not gods that she  is interviewing; these are people with talent, courage, confidence which resulted in wealth and it’s not just those things that makes them happy.  You have to start out happy and confident to make life your own.  That control, that contentment that says the bill collectors aren’t about to take a chunk out of you, as you try to climb over the fence to run.  Oprah should know this because she has followed such a formula for living.

The lights are going out on the  Oprah Winfrey Show and one day all of these good-byes and her last brilliant shows will be one big testament that people appear to love her.  I like her just fine and I love the fact that she will one day be a legend and in our school books listed as the first of many things for Black women and women in general and I must say that I love that.  She did a lot of things to be loved and I am sorry that I once turned down some tickets to her show.  But I did get a chance to guard her opening show in  2009, I believe.  When the cameras were off, during commercials, there was a little girl with some boots on in the front row and wanted Oprah to see them.  Oprah was hilarious the way she talked to the little girl and kept saying yes, I see those boots.….and I really like those boots or something like that and the audience laughed.  It was the way Oprah did her voice and repeated it cleverly and comically that made all of us laugh.  It felt like a family moment, as if Oprah could be a relative, like a distant cousin that could come around and say little sly, witty things and we’d laugh at that trademark ability.  That’s the Oprah I love.  The one that says sloshed instead of drunk, like myself and my late sisters used to do.  The one with the lovely head of hair like some in my own family,  too.  No use in lying…..I’m writing because I will miss her. Peace.

The modern definition of a Florida Cracker is that of a dying breed:  a native born and raised resident who can trace his or her roots back several generations.  Today, the vast majority of the state’s population consists of transplants from other states and countries.  U.S. Senator Bill Nelson is a bonafide Florida Cracker.
 
Remington art via Wikipedia

By far the most “glamorous” of the cracker trilogy is the Florida cowboy.  The state’s cattle industry began to flourish in the late 19th century but ranching was different than it was in the old west.  Cowboys were  referred to as cow hunters because the six months between roundups cattle roamed huge pastures dotted with cypress heads (a polite term meaning swamp) and oak hammocks which were and are akin to riding a horse through a brier patch.

La riata (the rope) or lariat  was useless in this environment so bullwhips and cowdogs were utilized instead.  The crack of the whip is what resulted in the Cracker nickname for the Florida cowboy.  The dog of choice was, and still is, the Leopard Hound–a short-legged spotted animal bred specifically for flushing cows out of inaccessible areas.
 
Remington art via Wikipedia

Hunting scrub cows was not a one day event.  Often weeks would pass before all the animals would be located scattered over miles of pasture before fencing became popular.  Therefore, permanent, albeit crude, shelters were judiciously erected to offer overnight protection from rainstorms and panthers if not from mosquitos and rattlesnakes.

The early scrub cows were small topping out at no more than 600 pounds.  In the early 20th century the import of Brahman bulls made a huge improvement in local ranching.  Purebred Hereford cows, popular in the west, fared poorly in the Florida climate due primarily to their propensity for contracting pinkeye.  The Brahman/Hereford cross produced today’s Braford breed which adapts well and produces calves that grow to 800 pounds at shipping.
                                    
                                     image via wikipedia

Cattle ranching is still a thriving industry in Florida ranking a close third behind tourism and citrus production.  Several large operations ship yearlings to the norther feed lots each fall, notably among them the Deseret Ranch in east central Florida.  The Deseret is spread out over three counties and the main body is 50 miles long and 30 miles wide.  It is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and employs and houses 90 ranch hands and their families and runs about 44,000 head of cattle.

I was fortunate enough to participate in a roundup as an observer some years ago on the Circle S Bar B Ranch–a small 10-600-acre spread near Narcoosee.  Everybody rides on both the spring and fall roundups–the cowboys, tractor operators, mechanics, truck drivers and even the cooks.
                                        
(The author prepared for his first and last roundup.  The guard dog didn’t go along)

When the animals are located they are driven, sometimes on public roadways, to holding pens where the calves are branded and wormed and the cows are chuted and treated as necessary.  Once the calves are mammied-up the cows are introduced to the bulls before being released to fresh pastures and another six months of relative freedom.  Some of the work becomes dicey as those Braford cows were wild and had not seen a human for six months and were mean as snakes.  When fall arrives another roundup occurs and grown up calves will be shipped north.

These days four-wheelers are added to the stable to make the job a bit easier but it’s still a tough job that lasts till well past sundown.   Everyone is dead tired.  No one sits around playing a guitar or harmonica like in the movies.  As for me, I was just plain saddlesore.  

Image via Wikipedia

Michaels father, Joe Jackson was the driving force behind his sons early fame and success. Himself, a a wannabe famous musician, it is likely he was living his dream through his children. Reportedly he made his children practice constantly. Eventually pushing five, including Michael, of the nine children to form “The Jackson 5”.

When they were not in school, they were practicing, when they were not practicing, they were playing music in bars and strip clubs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1993, Michael opened up and spoke about physical and mental abuse that took place at the hands of his father. He spoke of never having what would be considered as a “childhood”.

Could it be that the missing out of a childhood, the ability to act as a child, is at the root of any later problems Michael may have had?

Photo by Alan Light http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan-light/210431823/

Not only did Michael build a park most children could only dream of, Neverland Ranch, but he surrounded himself mostly with children. He even spoke openly to the fact it thought it was normal, and healthy, to share his bed with children. Although he denied there was anything sexual about it, others saw this as a sexual act and Michael was eventually accused of molesting boys. In court he was found innocent in a 2003 court case. An earlier civil case was settled when Michael made a payment to the family of his accuser.

Photo source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NeverlandRides.jpg 

Did Michael really molest young children? Without photographic evidence the world will never truly know. However, if it did happen, it could have easily been the result of a grown man, in a child’s body, trying desperately to to recapture a lost innocence.

Michael Jackson has often said the song that is the most biographical is his song “Childhood”.

Perhaps these lines from the song tell it all:

“…Before you judge me, try hard to love me,

Look within your heart then ask,

Have you seen my childhood?

People say I’m strange that way,

‘Cause I love such elementary things,

It’s been my fate to compensate,

for the childhood I’ve never known…”

(excerpt from Michael Jacksons song, Childhood)

Photosource http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_Jackson2_2006.jpg

Without a doubt the world lost a talented musician on June 25, 2009, Michael lost his childhood years earlier, and certainly a lost childhood is never a good thing.