Farewell spring. Say what?; BP no stop leak

It is beyond me why people are not more interested in social history. Of course, history in general is not popular among all sectors of the population and I guess I understand why.

History was taught in school for eons with students having to memorize dates and what is seemingly obscure legislation such as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.

Normal folks, those who don’t spend their childhood with their noses jammed into the World Almanac, probably give little thought to social history. Those who do, look at it in its more specialized form these days such as “African-American studies,” “rural studies,” “women’s studies” and so forth. As for me, I would just like to know how Memorial Day got saddled in society as the traditional beginning of summer? After all, summer doesn’t officially begin until another 20 some-odd days. I guess the same would go for Labor Day marking the end of summer.

In a good many places in, especially the southern part of North America, the weather normally feels like it is summer on Memorial Day than spring. So that answers my question, right? No. It doesn’t.

But I suppose I tend to favor hanging on to spring as long as I can. That is because I’m a “spring person.” People have their favorite seasons, deer hunters in these parts, for instance, tend to favor fall, during which the beginning and much of deer season takes place.

There is a lot to like about spring, in my book. My part of world is covered in majestic tones of green. Flowers and trees bloom. The temperature is mild. You tend to turn lazy, or in my case, lazier. A young man’s fancy turns to love, or what might pass for it.

I tend to think the best times of my life were in the spring, certain springs which seemed like they flew by way too fast and all of a sudden you were in the real wold with summer facing you down. But I’ve had hot fun in the summertime. Great falls and even enjoyable winters. The winter I spent on a ship overseas in the western and southern Pacific, the coolest temperatures I saw were a only a few days in the 40-degree (F) range, in New Zealand — during the early morning hours and where it was actually summer, — and once off the coast of Okinawa. Coincidentally, it was pretty cold that winter back home in southeast Texas in winter 1977-78, from where I hailed.

It seems only in recent years, after 9/11, that Memorial Day made a comeback in its intended form. That is, certainly, to pay homage to our war dead. There have been way too many since that bleak, though clear blue, day in 2001.

BP fails to stop “the damn leak”

BP has admitted their attempt has failed to pump mud and concrete, then later a bunch of, literally, junk, into their runaway oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

The oil company intends to try a type of cap on it next that would channel it to the surface where it can be captured and put onto a vessel.

Many people are getting pretty fed up with the continued failed attempts to “stop the damn leak.” It seems as if BP and the government are doing all that can be done until a relief well is drilled, which probably won’t be finished until August. Whether the former is true, I have no earthly idea. I certainly have no means of going out into the Gulf and swim down 5,000 feet to plug the leak. So there is no need to get mad at me for it.

But I understand the frustration. It’s one hell of a mess out there and if it can’t be contained anytime soon, we should make sure the chances of something like this happening again are made very slim.