Hishtory

When I was in elementary school we were told the stories of the great American folk heroes that helped explore, settle, and exploit the American frontier. Some of you are old enough to remember the guys I’m talking about- Walt Disney made them famous back in the 1950’s. They actually showed us the cartoons in the classroom. There was Paul Bunyan with his Blue Ox, Babe, who conquered the north woods by chopping down and clearing out millions of acres of pine trees from Maine to Minnesota. And the steel driving man, John Henry, who could drive a rock drill with a sledgehammer faster than a steam powered machine, cutting tunnels through the Appalachian Mountains for the expanding railroads across the country. And Pecos Bill who was raised by coyotes on the high plains of Texas, used a rattlesnake as a lasso, once roped a tornado and rode it into submission, and scared all of the war paint of them Injuns, which made the painted desert. Yeah, kind of gave all of us in elementary school back then a warped s