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Pat Shingleton: "Hemingway's Hurricane and Saved by the Bell..."

4 years 9 months 2 weeks ago Wednesday, June 12 2019 Jun 12, 2019 June 12, 2019 9:00 AM June 12, 2019 in Pat Shingleton Column
By: Pat Shingleton:

Into the early days of Hurricane Season 2019,  “Hemingway’s’ Hurricane: The Great Florida Keys Storm of 1935” by Phil Scott, is an interesting read.  It’s called Hemingway’s Hurricane because the famous author lived 80 miles southwest of Key West where he rode out the storm and journaled his experiences from August 30 to September 4, 1935.  Scott’s angle on the book includes the lives of 700 World War I veterans who relocated to Florida in 1935 under the Federal Emergency Relief Organization to assist in public works projects. The storm hit three veteran’s camps causing more than 400 deaths when early evacuations could have saved their lives. "Putting in the Clutch" and shifting gears, I return to the 1500's noting the origination of the peas' porridge hot rhyme and the term, threshold.  With limited access to  food stuffs, a slab of bacon became a sign of wealth and the recognition that a man "could really bring home the bacon."  Sharing the bacon led to the guests "chewing the fat."  Only the well-to-do had plates of pewter while the poor used wooden bowls called trenchers.  The trenchers were rarely washed and bacteria and worms got into the wood causing cases of "trench mouth" for those that used the bowls.  England ran out of places to bury people and would re-use graves.  Some coffins displayed inside scratch marks for those buried alive.  A string was tied on the wrist of a dead person tied to a bell above ground. Someone on the "graveyard shift" would identify a "dead ringer" or someone "saved by the bell." 

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