country poetry & more

St. George, Utah is a very unique city surrounded by mountains, hills and cliffs of all colors. Local rocks are used generously on houses, walls and landscaping for a most pleasant effect. A spring somewhere in the red cliffs flows down into town, forming a beautiful pond surrounded by cattails, reminding me of the fresh water pond that suddenly developed on our farm at Carey. This fast-flowing supply of water irrigates lawns and gardens all over the valley. No wonder the Mormons decided to settle here, raising cotton and tobacco and whatever garden produce they needed. Every few blocks along the main thoroughfares stands a large, modern church building with a sign: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as well as an older building called a tabernacle. According to the phone book, there are also other denominations, but none was seen on our jaunts about town.

Our reason for being in this neck of the woods was the Huntsman World Senior Games, an annual event that draws thousands of older folks from around the globe. This year 54 countries were represented in a multitude of sports. Some of the ladies on our basketball team were also entered in tennis and other games. Latvia brought two gaggles of gals and showed us some new moves on the court that were quite interesting.

Only two teams were entered in the 70-year-old division, including everyone between 70 and 80. Albuquerque’s Canyon Nets and the Silver Slammers from River Ridge, Louisiana played each other three times, plus some practice games with two younger teams, which were all great fun. They had two women taller than me, and I’m considerably taller than the other players on our team, so we got clobbered repeatedly, but with wonderful sportsmanship. What a fun way to make new friends! I hope we will see them again in Santa Fe’s tourney next month.

To top off my exciting three days of travel and play, I got to spend time with two of my three “adopted sons” from teenage years, Clifford and PeeWee Kell. When their younger brother, Mike, was just a baby, I started keeping them occasionally, and they soon grew to be just like family. PeeWee is employed with the St. George water works, soon to retire; Cliff and wife Bonnie live in Las Vegas, as does Mike, who was not able to come to the games. They will always be a special chapter in my book of fond memories.

For pictures of this event, go to: www.dancingrabbits.com/tootie/page1.htm

Today I keep singing the Kris Kristopherson song, “Why Me, Lord. . .What have I ever done to deserve even one of the pleasures I’ve known?”

Cora Gail Trent
cgtrent@att.net
www.cgtrent.com

Eloy Rodriguez at the University of California and Richard Wrangham at Harvard University have added a new word to the vocabulary of science. The reason for this new word is that they have discovered that animals use plants in medicinal ways to treat illness, and the word they have coined to describe and name this new discipline of science is zoopharmacognosy.

What has been discovered is that some animals systematically use plants to solve specific medical problems. It has been noticed, for example, that chimpanzees in Tanzania would swallow whole the rolled-up leaf of a plant called Aspilia. The leaves are large and covered with bristly hairs and have a very bitter taste. It was difficult to believe that the plant was being eaten as food, so scientists studied its chemical makeup to see if they could find a clue as to why the chimps eat it as we might take a pill. The results of the study showed that the plant eaten in this way gives the animal a large dose of thiarubrine-A. This drug has been studied at Purdue University where it has been shown to kill a variety of worms, fungi, and viruses. In larger amounts, it even attacks and kills the kind of cancer cells found in solid cancers of the colon and lung. Studies done on Japanese chimps have shown that, when they get diarrhea, they eat a plant called Veronia by splitting open the stems and sucking a bitter tasting juice from the pith. This juice has been shown to kill parasites, and it cured the diarrhea in some 20 hours.

During mating season in Brazil, the spider monkeys have been observed to start eating a fruit called monkey ear. Studies have shown that this fruit contains progesterone which promotes female fertility. Studies of female elephants in eastern Africa have shown that, right before giving birth, they eat a plant which is known to induce labor in human beings. Kodiak brown bears have been observed to take a plant known as Ligusticum porteri, chew up the root until it became a paste, and then rub it on their faces and all over their bodies. This plant contains coumarins—a chemical that repels fleas, ticks, and fungi. Field reports show that, after using the plant, the bears are calmer and less antagonistic.

There are several lessons to be learned from zoopharmacognosy. One is that we need to be careful as to what plants we allow to become extinct because many of them may offer cures to the medical problems of mankind. Another is that animals have been provided with knowledge that enables them to heal themselves through natural agents. How they get that knowledge can be a subject of debate, but since animals born in captivity know how to use the medicines, it seems to be instinctive—not learned. We would suggest that, in the design of the genetic code, an intelligence has provided a cure for what ails our animal friends. This design demands a designer.

Source: National Wildlife, December/January, 1994, pages 46-49.

—John Clayton, Dandy Designs, September/October, 1994

Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com

I was almost 6 years old when we moved from Whitesboro back to Flomot. As we piled into the back of Kuykendall's grocery truck with a load of apples, Walter (age 11) said, "Maybe we'll stop along the way and get an ice cream comb."
For fear of seeming foolish, I suppose, I seldom asked questions, but kept wondering what in the world is an ice cream comb? The only ice cream I knew anything about was made at home from snow, cream, sugar and vanilla. Later I watched someone use an ice cream freezer with a contnainer in the middle surrounded by ice and salt, turned by hand forever until it changed from milk, eggs, and sugar into a delicious icy treat. But I don't remember when I finally tasted an ice cream comb. Probably on a Saturday when we went to Quitaque in the old school bus that served as our family conveyance during the years Daddy drove the kids to school.
I do remember the first soft ice cream delight I encountered at Matador, maybe in the early 50s. Seems like the name was Tasty Freeze or some such. Just pull the handle and watch it pile up in the cone. No struggle with a scoop into the hard frozen substance that tested muscles and patience.
Then, about four years ago, I was taken back to childhood while visiting in Fredericksburg, VA. Son-in-law Ed took us to an old fashioned ice cream stand that not only had unbelievable choices in flavor, but the real waffle cone of my youth. I had forgotten how different and tasty they were. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I seldom buy ice cream because I can't resist "eating it all gone", but I do scoop up a bowl of snow now and then, add sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and maybe chocolate syrup for a refreshing taste of the Good Old Days.

Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
cgtrent@att.net