Saturday, March 30, 2013

Annual Palm Sunday rooster ride; Tyson, John; Devil in box; Croatian Slivovitz


For many years
this rooster of ours has been let out on Palm Sunday
to illustrate as a visual for the Sunday School children
how Peter would deny Jesus three times
before the rooster crowed.

The 1st Congregational UCC church is where Dee,
the superintendent, is headed in these photos,
to once again lead the children of her charge
in a choice bit of theology........



The rooster in question belongs to us and lives 364 days
out of the year at the Odd Fellows hall, Unit 311.


That's a lot of time between crow opps, but rules are rules
and the occupants of the Odd Fellows are honor bound to
maintain reasonable and considerate silence.


The well-behaved rooster sees that it is dawn outside
through the window next to the elevator
but......he holds his tongue.


Even when finally outside, this performing rooster
born of the boards, the work of a tinsmith, and a close resident neighbor
of the Waukesha Civic Theater, bides his time.


Finally as Dee makes her way to the nearby church
on foot per her custom
- the steeple stands under the gold arrow in this picture -
I think I hear our once-a-year Palm Sunday rooster
softly clearing his throat.



John Tyson and Wis Guthrie at Carroll College
Many years - we say again - before Dee came to Wisconsin
from Maryland I had a friend, now deceased,
named John Tyson, who was an art professor
at Carroll College. It was not university then.

John and I were fans of Jose Feliciano.
We liked, really grooved on his singing of Little Red Rooster.
I bought that now ecclesiastic rooster bird featured above
in memory of John and that song.
John has been written up in the raccoon previously.




PLAY http://grooveshark.com/#!/search?q=jose+feliciano+%2B+little+red+rooster
(select '10 - 23' cut)


KD stands sentinel next to a 1970s John Tyson pot



Tyson's bone-site at Pairie Home Cemetery.  I visit it.
......
Devil in a box



People who know the olde sewer raccoon
know he has a split nature, has been
capable of doing both some interesting things
and some serious bad things, too.

But now to ward off those latter occurrences
he keeps a Mexican devilish figure in papier mache,
and a pentagram, actually a Xmas ornament,
in a locked glass cage out in plain sight
at the Odd Fellows
to serve as a reminder to just engage
the better things
on this latter lap of life.

It goes with Easter, too.

.................
Easter or Passover pick-me-up
Slivovitz


Just in time for the Easter we celebrate
but it is also kosher, we note
a fresh jug of Croatian plum brandy
sits undisturbed here at the Odd Fellows.

In 2006 after our recuperation from
the many pitfalls of open-heart surgery
like forgetting how to walk 
and how to use silverware, etc.
we revisited unimpaired The Three Brothers
restaurant in Bayview.

Branco, on seeing us enter
after our long absence, said
Meester Dick, you cum bek!"
An embrace followed.
He then poured us two cordials
of a powerful liquor from
his homeland:  SLIVOVITZ!

He too had survived a health bout.
It was bracing, fist-pounding!
50 % alcohol via double distillation.
I'd not had it before.

We pretty much have this bottle
For Emergency Use Only
or extremely special toasts.

HAPPY EASTER