November 14, 2004

• PEOPLE WHO KNOCK ME OUT
  (See sidebar for others

  Mary Draper Ingles
  1732-1815
  There being no depiction of this woman anywhere on the web that I could find, I’ve posted the map of her famous journey. If you think we’re having a stressful time of it in 2004, consider her story:

  She was born in 1732 in Philadelphia but moved to Draper’s Meadow in Virginia where in 1750 she married William Ingles. They were the first white couple married west of the Allegheny Mountains. Five years later, in a November snow during the French and Indian War, two farmers heard a faint voice calling. It was Mary, virtually naked, white-haired, teeth gone, and only 23 years old. She had just walked 800 miles (including backtracking) in 42 days to reach home.
  What happened in the preceding five months was that Shawnee Indians attacked the settlement where Mary and William lived, capturing Mary and her two sons, George and Tommy. Her husband was in the field without weapons and could only look for them after they were gone. Because of her courageous and calm demeanor on the trail, she and her children were allowed to live. Over the month of the journey, Mary tied knots in a string to count the days and marked that they followed rivers. At the Indian village Mary made blankets and shirts for the Indians and French trappers in exchange for keeping blankets for her sons who eventually were sold away from her. She was moved again another 150 miles further away from home and became the first white woman to enter Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. From here she finally escaped with a German/Dutch woman who had also been captured. With two blankets and a single tomohawk they walked into the woods. Twice, half-mad from hunger, the older Dutch woman tried to kill and eat Mary. When Mary reached home finally, she had to send help back for her.
  Mary Ingles lived another 60 years, during which time she bore four more children and was able to ransom her son Tommy back after 15 years with the Indians, George having died in captivity. She and William continued to contribute to their community. William was a Colonel in the Revolution. They narrowly escaped another massacre. Their son Thomas followed the frontier westward and his own family was attacked by Indians in 1781 with the loss of 2 of his children and his wife. Mary continued to live in the windowless log home shown in the photo until her death because she felt safer there. Her story has been the subject of the books, “Follow the River” and Shawnee Captive, as well as a made-for-television movie, “The Long Way Home.”
  We say life was simpler then, and I wonder….
  

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  Deep Thought: “Sometimes I think the world has gone completely mad. And then I think, “Aw, who cares?” And then I think, “Hey, what’s for supper?”
  Today I am grateful for: Having any computer at all, even it’s an old slow Mac
  Guess the Movie: “You remember how it really was? You and me and booze – a threesome. You and I were a couple of drunks on the sea of booze, and the boat sank. I got hold of something that kept me from going under, and I’m not going to let go of it. Not for you. Not for anyone. If you want to grab on, grab on. But there’s just room for you and me – no threesome.” Answer: Days of Wine and Roses, 1962. Winner: thenarrator.
  White House Orders Purge of CIA ‘Liberals,’ Sources Say
  Agency officials believed to be disloyal to Bush are reportedly the targets
  by Knut Royce
  WASHINGTON – The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter J. Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources.” Rest of article here.
  And so it begins. Still wondering why we’re not hearing any more about the kidnapped relatives of Allawi.
  End of Day – 8:36 pm
  + = Elected to stay quiet, warm, cozy and home today instead of heading out to socialize.
  - = Got struck bleak for the early part of the day but I climbed out.

  • 1:09 pm
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