JayBeacham.com-A Voice as an Instrument

I was an L.D.S. missionary in Austria from Dec. 1969 to Oct. 1971.

My first area was in and around the city of Leoben, Stiermark.

My second work companion there was Randall Beavin from Illinois.

He was an interesting sort of guy who would eat low cost meals like Serbishian Bohnen Suppe (Serbish bean soup) and semmel (breakfast rolls) in order to save money so he could buy film and develop it. Why? He was on a limited monthly income, less than I received, and he wanted to catch memories of the places we saw, the castles, forests, churches, people that he’d most likely never get to see again. (An interesting note, his life’s work was for the U.S. government and took him all through Europe for many years; but at the time he had no idea that would occur.)

He took an untold number of slides of the countryside, cities, towns, dorfs and people. He like many others rode an old 3 speed bicycle.

I left him in Leoben to go to work and live in Vienna.

He vowed that when he left Austria to return to the U.S.A., he’d come back to Vienna and throw his old bike into the Danube.

“Not me.” I informed him. “I’ll sell mine to another missionary.”

I worked in Vienna (Wien) for about 6 months, mostly in the Old City the 1st and 19th Bezirks (districts or wards in the city). While there, I worked with four different missionaries and one in the 17th Bezirk living above a saurkraut factory.  We walked, rode bikes, and used the street cars or buses.

Sometimes the street cars go under ground and go over the Danube or over the canal around the Old City, not the ancient one that Napoleon had filled in but the newer expanded city canal.

One day on the tram, we came out of a tunnel onto a bridge crossing that canal or man made loop of the Danube. You should know that the blue Danube wasn’t blue at all right there but brown or blackish and full of rubbish of all sorts. To see tires or other things in the mud was not uncommon. As I was saying, on this particular day from my window on the street car, the first thing I saw as we started across the water was an old bicycle, upright with its front wheel stuck in the mud the back wheel sticking above the water spinning slightly.

All I could say was, “Randall Beavin strikes again!”

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Sometimes when I give a Lincoln performance, people ask that I recite the Gettysburg address.  I tell them, some can recite it perfectly, that Lincoln wrote it and occasionally looked at his written speech while delivering it.  Why must school children or I recite from memory if A. Lincoln himself did not?

I do give it in the 2009-the 200 year commemoration  show.   You can watch the 2009 Lincoln’s Ghost one man show for free at:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Titandusk/videos

It’s in 5 parts with a short promo video.

Part one has had over 12,688 views on You Tube and sold over 400 copies on dvd format.

The 2010 show can be ordered on dvd shown here:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNCaLsR4qMc

Later in 2010, Lincoln’s Ghost appeared at the annual Ghost Walk in Santa Clara, Utah in the month of October.

A promo for the 2011 show can be seen at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMNKeKh122c

(ordering instructions are at:

 https://www.createspace.com/333052

What happened in 2012?  Well besides appearing in schools and for small groups, Lincoln’s Ghost was a feature at the Washington County(Utah) Fair where people could get their photos taken with old Abe. (See The Photo)

A fun site to check out is:

 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jay-beachamcom/111851175582206

Here’s a funny story a friend related today. He said he bought a copy of the book about the Lincoln Presidency, “Team of Rivals”, for $2.00 at a thrift store. Then the Spielberg movie came out and he found the same book at Barnes and Nobel for $30.00.  He could understand why, as the movie had little in common with the book, but suspected that the book may be looked at by the publisher as being more valuable now that the movie is out. 

Books  from Amazon:

https://lnkd.in/bFWPz9t

“Team of Rivals”. It appears at the far left and to it’s right is a box that  says “Amazon.com Shop and Save”. Click on the “Team of Rivals”box and Uncle Sam’s your Uncle, you’ll be taken to where you can order it for as little as $10.35.

And many more.

Order some today.

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English is my native tongue-language.  And I wouldn’t change that but sometimes I have to wonder how anyone could come up with such spelling and sounds that mean certain things.

Like, why “to”?

“To” can be a preposition describing motion as “going to” somewhere or thing, toward, contact or continuity, or to a point in time.

Or “to” can be used as an adverb as toward or into something.

But why not say “too”? Yes that’s for meaning “also”. But why “two”(2) “o”s?

And how it is said.

“To” sounds just like ”two”, “too”, “tu”, “tew”, “tuh”.

Can anyone explain why we say such odd things?

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I wanted to be a pilot as a young boy.

Here’s a song in German about that.                                                                                                http://www.singsnap.com/karaoke/r/b46e3f9c8

Then when I finally got to ride aboard airplanes, my desire changed considerably.

I penned the following verse about it.

“To Airsickness”

When I was but a little lad,                                                                                                               I used to think I’d be quite glad                                                                                                     To be above the clouds, you see                                                                                                     My parents would be proud of me.

But since I’ve grown a little bit,                                                                                                         I’ve several times been forced to sit                                                                                               Aboard those airplanes, both big and small,                                                                               And pleasure from the flying feat                                                                                                   Was all lost there in my seat.

You think it’s funny, what I say?                                                                                                     I used the bag again today,                                                                                                             And rued the day as little lad                                                                                                           I thought that flying would make me glad.

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The temperatures have been mighty cold for Utah’s Dixie in the southwest corner of the state.   And with freezing and below it is even cold in my old adobe house.  Getting into the low 40’s at night inside the house.  But can’t complain.

My mother died last June in her 96th year.  She’d always say that “the ‘good old days’ weren’t all that good.”  Then she’d go on to explain.  When she was first alive in Springdale, Utah at the mouth of the Zion National Park canyon, before it was a park, her family lived in a slap board house on the west side of the road up the canyon, at the foot of a clay hill.  The clay would get mighty sticky and clomp onto one’s shoes when it was wet.  The bathroom facilities were up that hill to a private place, “the trench”.  If one had diarrhea, then they would be “trenching it” meaning they had to return up and down the trail more often than normal. 

I complain about having to get out of my warm bedding on a night as of late when it’s chilly and go to a cold bathroom to use the toilet.  Can you imagine making your way to the trench in the cold, rain, snow, dark.  Not so fun.

Later her sister Mary decided it was time for an outhouse, so she set about making one.    Then they had a 2 holer but still had to walk to it though once using it, there was protection from the rain and snow though not the dark or cold.  And if it was raining or blowing, the candle wouldn’t go out so easily.  Their mother used that her entire life to 1973, though she did get the convenience of an indoor bathroom and toilet by 1964. The outhouse became the overflow accommodations for extra people. I got to use that outhouse many times but I got to use toilet paper and not a catalog or something else rough.

Mom liked to have a fire in the stove, but was grateful for the cook stove being electric and of having electric heaters to be able to plug in and not having to cut firewood.

When I was young she had a commercial laundry business for the trucking companies.   She washed sheets and pillow cases for the sleepers and did shop rags for the garage using a double tub wringer washer and a clothes line.  An electric washer and dryer was like heaven to her.

Though she never learned how to drive a car and loved walking, she found it nice not to have to walk as in earlier days.  She lived from pioneer times in the more remote parts of Utah’s Dixie to the modern age.

So I guess you can now get an inkling of why she said that the “‘good old days’ weren’t all that good”.

“The ‘good old days’ are now”,  she’d say.

What do you say?

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After months, the problem with logging in and the problems with my site have been corrected though I have no idea how and after much effort, I was able to get a new password so I could log in.

Thank you readers for your patience.

Updates will be more regular again.

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I was talking to three ladies yesterday about what we’d do if we go a lot of money.

The topic changed to weight. I told them about Ben Arnold’s book “Beauty and Age Reversal” .

We exchanged email addresses and I promised to send her a link to his website.

”  Hi, Here is about the health and other books I told you about. Let me know what you think about the website and if you buy something let me  know. Share with you own friends and get paid to do so.

The link to the website is:

http://bit.ly/RealFame

 The weight loss book is called “Beauty and Age Reversal”.

Good luck with the book.

Jay”

 And now you have it too.

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I was over at Guy Weltzel’s place today.

With the County Fair four days last week (I portrayed Abraham Lincoln where people could get their photo taken with Abe) and my not remembering earlier this week, I didn’t pick figs there like he said I could.

I found 15 large, not fully ripe ones still on the tree that I picked and two not ripe that I left.

The birds had taken all the rest and the ground was covered with the remains of a great many figs that had graced the tree earlier.

I wish I had remembered.

What could have preserved some of the figs?

Guy had a plastic owl attacked to the block wall next to the tree.

Those things don’t work, not even the ones with the motion sensor eyes that light up and move or the ones that move on their own.  It doesn’t take long for the birds to realize that these things are fake.

In the past I put aluminum pie pans in trees, cassette tape, metal lids, etc that move in the wind. But the birds soon learn that these things will cause them no harm.

What should he put in his fig tree?  

What I started putting in mine.

  cd discs !!!!

Sometimes when I try to use new  cd discs right out of the pack, they are defective and won’t record or play.  and even though you can buff old discs and get them to work again, often that is not worth while and they can get so scratched that nothing will restore them.

I’ve started hanging bad cds in my fig tree (and other fruit trees-they can even be used on grape vines).  These work so well that no bird dares approach the tree because not only do they turn in the wind when tied to a tree but they shimmer in a wide variety of colors all day long.  The birds never know what to expect and they aren’t sure just what these things are so they stay away.

My last crop of figs at my house was saved with no bird damage just by the hanging of two cds in the top of the tree.

I’ll move them to a different location next crop. Thus keeping the birds confused.  “Maybe these things really are alive,” they might think.

So what’s the tip of the day?

Cds to chase away birds from fruit crops. 

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I did a story of some of my experiences as a radio announcer over 43 years ago at KDXU, 1450, St. George, Utah.

Put it to video. Here it is:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEKcOjrUNb8

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The other day, Darlene, who loves to talk, stopped me and told me about her second husband Elmer Gene Burton. He was a musician from Idaho who now lives in northern Utah.

He’d written a couple of songs for her. One “Dreaming a Dream of about You”.

They divorced but are friendly toward one another.

Gene is a Saxophone player of note, who once had two of his fancy instruments stolen but recovered them.   I had to admit I’d never heard of Gene but I had heard of the bands he played with.

Have you?

Horace Heidt, Harry James, Tommy Dorsey.

Horace Heidt (May 21, 1901–December 1, 1986) was an American pianist, big band leader, and radio and television personality. His band, Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights, toured vaudeville and performed on radio and television through the 1930s and 1940s.

Henry Haag “Harry” James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an actor and musician best known as a trumpeter who led a swing band during the Big Band Swing Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.

Thomas Francis “Tommy” Dorsey, Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956^[1]) was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as “The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing”, due to his smooth-toned trombone playing.^[2] He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey.^[3] After Dorsey broke with his brother in the mid-1930s, he led an extremely popular and highly successful band from the late 1930s into the 1950s.

(Thanks to Wikipedia for the historical info on these three band leaders.)

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