The Athenaeum

"Happy Thanksgiving" From The Heartland, AKA Mason's Hot Rods

(originally published here on 11/26/08)

As I mentioned in the comments to a TA post several months ago, my husband is now the proud owner of a restored 1940 Ford pick up truck. The Mason family, specifically dad Jerry, son Allen, and assorted relatives & friends, have been working quite a while now to transform the rusty wreckage of a Georgia farm truck into the sleek black & chrome splendor in the accompanying photo.

It’s the other photos down there at the bottom I want to write about on this Thanksgiving holiday, though. The folks who own Mason’s Hot Rods (Rods, Parts, & Restoration) are South Carolinians from the Spartanburg (pop. 39,407) area. All bets out on the table right now might be for the Mason family/friends’ profile to somehow fit one of Hollywood’s favorite stock characters, the clichéd small town Southerner: narrow-minded (& of course rednecked) men who value their trucks & hunting rifles over their wives & sweethearts, those long-suffering ladies always silent in the kitchen, emerging only to hand their hubbies another cold one. In other words, “some” might think these Southern folks a compendium of the tattered images the U.S. has been fed over time about the inhabitants of the rural South via television, movies, & mainstream media.

“Some” would be every kind of wrong.

Southern Clichés, meet The Masons. “I didn’t vote for no Bush!!” paterfamilias Jerry bellowed across a production trailer to my husband once (we met the Mason clan & friends due to their remarkable expertise as mechanics- they’re much in demand working on car-oriented movies such as the “Fast & Furious” series). Right after the election of Barack Obama another local who is a close friend of the Mason family emailed me to say, “Just think, Maureen, if we lived a little further up the road we could have been part of that landslide!” Spartanburg is about a half hour’s drive south of the North Carolina border. And say, did you know Junior Johnson publicly endorsed Obama for President?

Which brings us to more background info- Jerry Mason is a friend of Junior Johnson. Any NASCAR fans reading this may have already pricked up their ears. You might call Johnson the original “Duke of Hazzard,” that is, before he started on the racing circuit. Two painted portrayals of him engaged in his family’s former trade hang in the parts store/office of Mason’s Hot Rods, located on the periphery of the city of Spartanburg. I’ve stared at those paintings quite a bit- a youthful Junior behind the wheel of his moonshine-running car on a backwoods road, plumes of dust obscuring his wake, Junior & friends loading cases of white lightning into the trunk of another souped-up vehicle. Why was I in Mason’s Hot Rods at all?

We had traveled there for an annual charity car show financed completely by the Mason family, all proceeds of which go directly to aid the local poor & needy families of Spartanburg. A car (last time it was a 60s Mustang) fully restored by the Masons is auctioned off for charity during the show. Several hundred car enthusiasts brought their antique trucks & cars, hot rods, & trailers this year on November 8th for display, as well as to engage in swapping info, visiting, telling stories. The entire Mason family along with their friends worked the show as usual without pay, save for the free annual group dinner at a local Cracker Barrel that evening. Allen Mason’s wife Gina does her human dynamo act during the day of the show- simultaneously selling t-shirts for charity, collecting toys, directing the flow of work & the cooking, riding herd over it all with a wide smile, while Allen, Jerry, & the crew chat up the crowd, park cars, greet friends old & new. The price of admission? An unwrapped new toy for the local Toys for Tots program, cash donations for local charity organizations also accepted. A bountiful home cooked lunch is provided, all coming out of the Mason family & friends’ largesse toward their needy Spartanburg neighbors. Right now there are plenty of those.

The last time I was in Spartanburg I rode with my husband to a local BBQ place for supper. Allen Mason, the owner of Mason’s Hot Rods, was at the wheel. We listened as Allen described in detail the “family histories” of several cars he had bought to restore & sell. He wove the stories he’d teased out from each owner into the fabric of the South Carolina countryside rolling by us- it was each vehicle’s history, the tales of the various people who had owned it that really made for his fascination with these old cars. Allen Mason, native of the rural South- a business owner, a mechanic, a craftsman like his father & friends who are also deeply imbued with a love of oral history via their chosen profession. It seems to go hand in glove with the love of making an old vehicle purr under the hood again, shine, run like new, even race like new. They’d all throw back their heads laughing to hear themselves described this way, I’m pretty sure. After all, they’re just folks.

Folks who make up the warp & woof of our nation.

I couldn’t attend the Mason’s annual charity car show this year due to health issues, but my husband did. From sunup to sundown the Mason family and their friends (including my husband & his good friend from Phoenix AZ) toiled as usual without pay to hold their biggest car rally yet (see photo of Allen Mason & our friend Mike Price grinning in front of two station wagons that are filling up with donated toys).

In these difficult financial times, rural areas & small businesses are being hit hard. I hope Mason’s Hot Rods weathers the economic storm. Allen Mason confided to my husband that he's not sure he can continue having the November charity car show & auction in 2009, as the cost is starting to be too much in this tough economy.

It wouldn’t be fair to end this post without some links to car music, the kind always playing over the loudspeakers at Mason’s Annual Cruise In. Plus, it’s great toe-tapping music. Happy Thanksgiving to all:

Charlie Ryan & The Timberline Riders-Hot Rod Lincoln

Robert Mitchum (yes, that one)- Ballad of Thunder Road

Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble- Tightrope (not a car song, but somehow appropriate)

Willie Nelson- On The Road Again

And of course...

Waylon Jennings- Dukes of Hazzard Theme

-Maureen Lang

Archaeology News- February/March 2012

ALASKA: In a pit house dating to around A.D. 1200, archaeologists uncovered a cast-bronze buckle that appears to be East Asian in origin and older than the house in which it was found. The oldest known cast bronze in Alaska, the artifact may have been part of a horse fitting, perhaps traded in from as far away as Manchuria. It was probably used as a charm or noisemaker by a local Inupiat shaman.  (Courtesy Jeremy Foin, University of California, Davis) TEXAS: The last issue of Archaeology detailed sites at risk (Top Ten Discoveries of 2011"), including those exposed by the drought in Texas. In addition to wrecks and human remains, receding waterlines revealed a mysterious 4-foot aluminum sphere. NASA officials confirmed that it was a fuel-cell tank from the space shuttle Columbia, which was destroyed during reentry in 2003. Along with other remains from the shuttle, it can teach us something about the effects of high-speed atmospheric reentry.  (Courtesy Nacogdoches, Texas, Police Department) GRENADA: People on the tiny island of Carriacou may have feasted on animals imported from South America over 1,000 years ago. Remains of South American animals, including piglike peccaries, armadillos, and guinea pigs—none of which are native to the island today—were excavated from prehistoric middens. The find suggests regular contact between natives and people on other islands and the mainland, but because the bones are scarce, archaeologists think only a select, high-status few got to eat these exotic treats.  (Wikimedia Commons) ENGLAND: Using stable isotope analysis, researchers examined remains of infants from the crypt at Christ Church in Spitalfields, London, to study breastfeeding in the 18th and 19th centuries. They found that prolonged breastfeeding was common in the 19th century among this relatively well-off population, which does not necessarily agree with the idea that more women were entering the workforce at the time as a result of industrialization. The breastfeeding mothers of these infants may have had the means to hire wet nurses—or they may have been homebound due to an economic downturn.  (Wikimedia Commons) SWITZERLAND: High-end Swiss watchmaker Hublot has created a wrist-mounted version of the Antikythera Mechanism, the mysterious 2,000-yearold astronomical machine recovered from a Greek shipwreck in 1901. It contains 495 precision elements in a 3x4-centimeter package. The manufacturers claim that it is the first watch inspired by an archaeological finding. Would a wrist-mounted sundial count?  (Courtesy Hublot)

CHINA: A cracked skull may be the oldest known evidence of interpersonal aggression among modern humans. A CT scan of the skull, which is around 130,000 years old and known as Maba Man, revealed evidence of severe blunt force trauma, possibly from a clubbing. Remodeling of the bone around the injury, however, shows that he survived the blow and possibly was well cared for after his injury—for months or even years.  (Courtesy Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Science) JAPAN: An excavation at a train yard in Dazaifu has revealed the remains of two large, prestigious buildings, as well as expensive eating utensils and pottery. The finds, including tin and copper alloy spoons, Chinese and Korean pots, and Nara tricolored ware (the finest tableware in Japan at the time), date to the 8th and 9th centuries. The assemblage appears to identify the site as a diplomatic facility, mentioned in ancient documents, that housed and fed envoys from China and Korea.  (Courtesy Nobumasa Inoue, Board of Education of Dazaifu, Japan) PAKISTAN: 4,500-year-old Indus city of Harappa is thought to have been relatively peaceful. A new analysis of human remains excavated at the site found that while the overall level of violence in the city was on the low side for a statelevel society, it was not evenly distributed. Some communities endured much higher levels of trauma, inflicted on women in particular, suggesting a potentially brutal social hierarchy.  (Images of Asia) PAPUA NEW GUINEA: The seafaring Lapita, who settled the South Pacific more than 3,000 years ago, were not thought to have lived in Papua New Guinea. Findings from a new dig there have overturned that idea. The remains of several villages, including stone tools, shell ornaments, and thousands of pottery fragments have been discovered. The site is both unusually deep—including pre- and post-Lapita sequences—and perhaps the largest Lapita landscape yet discovered. According to researchers, the site opens a whole new chapter in Pacific history.  (Courtesy Steve Mortin, Monash University) OMAN: It's often thought that modern humans emerged from Africa through the Arabian Peninsula by hugging its shores, which may have protected them from swings in climate. However, 100,000-year-old stone tools found in the Dhofar Mountains suggest that some people traveled over the now arid—though once wet—interior. The find adds another layer of complexity and understanding to the path that modern humans took on their way around the world.  (Courtesy Jeffrey Rose, University of Birmingham)

(courtesy of www.archaeology.org)

-Maureen Lang

Archaeology News- January 2012

Starting in 2012, at the end of each month, I will be posting world archaeology news here at The Athenaeum.  Also plan to participate in digs on the West Coast of CA & will periodically post journal entries from that as well.

-Maureen Lang

 

CALIFORNIA: Over 7,500 years, the skulls of the Chumash people and those of their ancestors gradually shrank. Scientists think that these people, who inhabited coastal California for over 10,000 years, might have suffered a long-term health decline and growth impairment from exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), common pollutants found in oil and coal. The Chumash had extensive and increasing exposure to PAHs through tar, which they used to seal baskets and canoes, applied to the body as medicine, and even chewed like gum.  (Courtesy Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History) NEW YORK:During demolition at what was once Bellevue Hospital Medical College, a 15-pound metal box, sealed on November 14, 1897, was discovered. Among student registries and notebooks found in the time capsule was a vial containing spores of Clostridium perfringens, bacteria that live in the intestine. Bacteriologist Edward Dunham included them so future generations could check if they were still viable. They weren't, but doctors today might be able to observe how bacteria have changed since the introduction of antibiotics in the late 1920s.  (Courtesy New York University Langone Medical Center) LOUISIANA: In the time before bridges made the bayou more accessible, small rafts and cable ferries were the only path into the swamps and between plantations. Now, in a few tarred wooden platforms and some rusted gearwork, a river guide might have located the remains of Vester's Crossing, one of the last cable ferries—a boat pulled back and forth via cable—in the area. The site may become part of a heritage paddle trail.  (Courtesy Web Helbling, Bastrop Daily Enterprise) NORWAY: As glaciers recede, hundreds of artifacts are discovered each year. One of the latest finds was a men's tunic or coat that emerged from a glacier in Breheimen National Park. Dating to the 4th century A.D., the wool garment—made with an advanced technique called diamond twill—is one of very few known from this period in Europe. Without close attention, many of the artifacts that emerge from melting ice will be lost—decomposed or washed away—before they can be studied.  (Vivian Wangen, Museum of Cultural History, UiO) SPACE: One of the next frontiers for archaeology is out of this world. Scientists in England are attempting to contact Prospero, a satellite launched in 1971, to see how its circuits have held up. First, they have had to rummage for the satellite's communications codes and build custom equipment, and now they are attempting to make contact by sending a simple signal. NASA has also begun drafting guidelines to protect three dozen lunar sites, including the Apollo 11 and 17 landing sites. The guidelines could include ground-level boundaries and no-fly zones—for when private spaceships (and even tourists) start arriving.  (NASA/Wikimedia Commons)

AUSTRALIA: Hanged for the murder of three policemen 131 years ago, Ned Kelly—the country's most notorious bushranger and outlaw—is considered both folk hero and killer. He robbed banks, wore homemade armor to his final confrontation with police, and reflected the tension between poor Irish settlers and the wealthy Anglo elite. Following his execution, Kelly was buried in a mass grave. Forensic scientists, ending decades of speculation, have identified his bones by comparing DNA with a descendant's. But his skull, perhaps separated as a souvenir, remains at large.  (Damien Plemming, The Age, Courtesy Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine) TURKEY: On the Gallipoli battlefield of World War I, where Allied armies, including soldiers from Australia and New Zealand called Anzacs, were defeated by Ottoman forces, archaeological surveys have revealed some of the battlefield conditions, which historical sources state were quite dreadful. In particular, it appears the Anzacs were eating canned or stale food, while the Turkish forces had frontline kitchens, suggesting they had access to hot meals. Other artifacts found include water bottles with bullet holes in them, fragments of barbed wire, and expended ammunition.  (Courtesy Antonio Sagona, University of Melbourne) KENYA: From the banks of Lake Turkana archaeologists have excavated what they believe are the oldest "advanced" stone tools yet discovered. At 1.78 million years old, the handaxes are the oldest known examples of Acheulean tools, probably made by Homo erectus, and predate other examples by 300,000 years. Compared with older, cruder stone tools, the handaxes are heavier and have sharp edges for butchering, scraping, and smashing. The find raises interesting questions about which early humans first left Africa and what tool technologies they took with them.  (Courtesy Pierre-Jean Texier, National Center of Scientific Research, France) EGYPT: An analysis of 15 mummy hair samples shows just how important styling was more than 2,000 years ago. To understand how the complex hairdos were achieved and maintained after death, scientists studied coatings on the hair with electron microscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. They found that the ancient Egyptians used a kind of fatty hair gel to keep their hair coiffed in both life and the afterlife. The absence of embalming materials in the hair suggests that it was covered during mummification.  (A. Aufderheide, Courtesy Natalie McCreesh, University of Manchester) EL SALVADOR:Under 17 feet of volcanic ash at the ancient Maya city of Ceren, archaeologists have discovered a raised road called a sacbe. Usually these roads, connecting temples, plazas, or towns, were lined with stone, but this one, which probably led to two ceremonial buildings nearby, was not. In the absence of the stones, the rapid burial by the eruption of the Loma Caldera volcano helped keep it intact for identification.  (Courtesy Payson Sheets, University of Colorado)

www.archaeology.org/1201/world/clostridium_gallipoli_acheulean_tools_nasa_prospero.html

"To My Sweet Sunny South, Take Me Home": Happy Thanksgiving from Spartanburg SC

Take me back to the place where I first saw the light, to my sweet sunny south, take me home. Where the mocking birds sing me to sleep every night. Oh, why was I tempted to roam.

The path to our cottage they say has grown green, and the place is quite lonely around. I know that the smiles and the forms that I’ve seen now lie in the dark mossy ground.

Take me back to the place where the orange trees grow, to my plot in the evergreen shade. Where the flowers from the river's green margin did grow, and spread their sweet scent through the glade.

Take me back to the place where I first saw the light, to my sweet sunny south, take me home. Where the mocking birds sing me to sleep every night. Oh, why was I tempted to roam...

- Blue Grass Traditional

This is an update to my Athenaeum post of a year ago.  If you didn't read/can't recall the original, here's the link:

"Happy Thanksgiving" From The Heartland, AKA Mason's Hot Rods

11/17/09- The Mason family is doing fairly well in weathering the economic downturn & have managed to keep their vehicle restoration/customizing/repaIr business on the outskirts of Spartanburg SC open for another year.  Allen Mason, owner of Mason's Hot Rods, was extremely happy to be able to once again hold the family's yearly antique vehicle & hot rod show benefitting local charities.  Below are photos of Mason's Cruise In- more will be posted as they are sent in from participants.

12/2/09- As promised, some additional pics that have been emailed in.  Click on thumbnail for larger view:

       

   

Car Tunes Play List from Mason's Cruise-In, 11/09:

Bucket T- Ronny and the Daytonas

Rapid Roy (That Stock Car Boy)- Jim Croce

East Bound and Down- Jerry Reed

Maybelline- Chuck Berry

Drive South- John Hiatt

409- The Beach Boys

The Corvette Song- George Jones

Pontiac Blues- Sonny Boy Williamson

Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving spent with family & friends to all!

- Maureen Lang

Music Festivals, Ragtime, & Mr. Joseph Lamb

The month of August is a great time to trek to one of the many homegrown music festivals that take place annually around the U.S. For those not wanting to splurge on the $$$ to fill up the family car, a simple search with "The Google" is bound to turn up something fairly local, & to anyone's tastes. Musicians & music historians alike love to attend & perform @ these festivals. Americana @ its best, IMHO.

My personal tastes in music are extremely eclectic, but I'€™ve got to admit a soft spot for anything termed "popular music" written & performed in the 1st part of the 20th century. If I could have the equivalent of director Terry Zwigoff'€™s (Crumb, Ghost World, Bad Santa, etc.) fabled collection of old 78s, I'd die a happy woman. Zwigoff & cartoonist R. Crumb are true early jazz/ragtime aficionados- they even formed their own jazz band in San Francisco back in the 70s called The Cheap Suit Serenaders.

One music event I always try to get to is the West Coast Ragtime Festival, held yearly in Sacramento CA. All types of performances, from single piano & guitar renditions, to vocalists, to brass bands are featured, with an emphasis on the popular tunes printed as sheet music or piano rolls that would have been heard in parlors, restaurants, dance halls, & emanating from park bandshells around the turn of the last century. This year the WCRF will be in November, with performances by (among many talented others) pianist Butch Thompson of "Prairie Home Companion" fame, & Craig Ventresco/Meredith Axelrod, who are ragtime/early jazz string virtuosos extraordinaire.

There's nothing like a couple of numbers by innovative ragtime composer Joseph Lamb, a friend & protégé of Scott Joplin & one of the "Big Three" of ragtime composers (Joplin, Lamb, & James Scott), to get your day into full swing. Here are two of Lamb'€™s compositions, plus a link to the WCRF site:

West Coast Ragtime Festival 2008

"Bird Brain Rag" by Joseph Lamb- Andy Barrett plays @ '07 WCRF

Ragtime Jam Session; 4 Pianists on 3 Pianos- Lamb's "Bohemia Rag"

*Bonus Performance* Morten Gunnar Larsen plays Lamb's "Alaskan Rag" @ the '08 Blind Boone Ragtime/Early Jazz Festival

- Maureen Lang

Hearst Castle

Summer is upon us, & vacation visits to a few historic sites are always in order. If you’re heading toward my home state of California, after making those requisite trips to Disneyland & Universal Studios, why not treat yourself & the kiddies to a tour around another fascinating magic kingdom a little farther north in San Simeon CA- Hearst Castle, the estate of the late newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst.

The Castle’s grandiose main house, outbuildings, gardens, & pools are a wonderful jumble of architectural styles fashioned to comply with the old boy’s eclectic, at times whimsical, tastes by innovative architect Julia Morgan. Ms. Morgan worked ceaselessly throughout the first part of the 20th century designing this topsy-turvy estate that sits majestically on the rolling coastal slopes of La Cuesta Encantada (The Enchanted Hill).

Hundreds of works of art of every age, from ancient Egyptian, Greek, & Roman, through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, all the way up to Art Deco radios with coy nymphs clinging to their sides, make the various rooms in the main house, guest “cottages,” & the grounds an eye popping look into Hearst’s toy chest of a mind. Illogically, magically, it all fits together.

Hearst Castle is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Various tours are available covering different areas of the Castle, including an evening tour in which docents reenact one of the lavish parties Hearst frequently gave. During these soirees luminaries such as Albert Einstein & Winston Churchill rubbed elbows with Hearst’s mistress Marion Davies & her myriad Hollywood pals, ranging from Lew Ayres to Adolph Zukor.

If you’re anywhere near California’s central coastline during this year’s summer vacation, Hearst Castle is not to be missed. http://www.hearstcastle.com/

-Maureen Lang