An ordinary pistol becomes a commemorative

Whether you realize it or not, this is a commemorative pistol. It is an old one which I obtained in two primary pieces a year apart from each other and put together to create a Model 1911 in .45 caliber. The slide is a Colt, which came with a Colt barrel and other internal parts. It dates to the 1960s and I obtained it in 2013. The frame is an Auto Ordnance. It came with who knows what for internal parts. It also dates to the 1960s and I obtained it in 2014. I swapped out the parts from the frame for some I prefer and think are of better quality. The beauty of the Model 1911 is that most parts are interchangeable, even those from one manufacturer to another.

The grips are the giveaway. I had Hogue rubber grips on it for shooting, but with the photographically documented appearance of a mountain lion at the "old homestead" back in February, I decided to buy this set of Altamont grips sporting the head of such a critter. The new grips most likely will not be as good for shooting, but they give it a great appearance. Since my son now is the primary resident of the "estate," the used handgun with its new grips will be his -- along with the old Hogue grips for trigger time. This matter serves a second purpose, as well. It provides an excellent opportunity to pass along another of my firearms to my son.

Two videos are here to usher in the creation of the commemorative pistol. While they do not offer something for everyone, they do present an opportunity to gain an appreciation and an understanding of differing musical styles.

One is old music. "Somewhere" is a song from the 1957 Broadway show West Side Story that was made into a film in 1961. The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and (from Wikipedia) "takes a phrase from the slow movement of Beethoven's 'Emperor' Piano Concerto, which forms the start of the melody and also a longer phrase from the main theme of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake." (Hmmmm .... sounds fine to me.) This performance comes from Broadway diva Cynthia Erivo, accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra.

One is new music. Babymetal is a Japanese band created in 2010 with Yui Mizuno, Moa Kikuchi and Suzuka Nakamoto. The young ladies were between ages 10 and 11 at the time, and two of the original girls continue to perform to this day. The band was formed with the concept of fashioning a fusion of the heavy metal and Japanese idol genres. Kami Band provides the backing music for Babymetal. This is a compilation of the band's performances of "Catch Me if You Can."

Life is good ....

What you are seeing in the photograph (if your eyes are open) is a Smith & Wesson Military & Police pre-Model 10 in .38 Special caliber wearing Altamont grips with two sets of Hogue grips and the original S&W grips alongside it. My opinion, based on internal and external wear of the revolver, is that it has been carried a lot in a holster by a right-handed shooter and fired very little. This means it probably spent much of its life prior to Fram as a weapon carried by civilian or military police or by private security personnel.

Included here are three videos, the first is Hickok45 talking about and firing a S&W Model 10 .38 Special. Hickok45 is Greg Kinman, a retired middle-school English teacher and former law enforcement auxiliary officer, who resides in Tennessee. The second features Katelyn "Katie" Francis, a 16-year-old young lady from Missouri who participates in three-gun (handgun/rifle/shotgun) shooting competitions around the country. It is my opinion she can outshoot me and anybody I know. Also included -- ironically -- is John Lennon performing his Instant Karma. It is here because I like Lennon and adore the song. Besides, the lyrics are appropriate for our times. The more I listen to Lennon's music and watch videos featuring him, the more I appreciate what a gifted person and talented music man he was. He was instantly likeable and innately funny (from my point of view) and, evidently, he found a means to secure perpetual happiness.

Yeh, I remember what was going on 76 years ago today .... ok, not remember per se, but know from story and study about World War II. Military units from 12 or 13 countries (so much for the absoluteness of history) took part in the invasion of Europe with landings at Normandy in France. I have relatives who were a bit late for that party, not arriving in France until September. They survived the war, but one was killed in an unsolved murder in Holland after it was over. Actually, war never is over. It only changes in alliances and in enemies and in locations .... qué será, será ....

Barrel lengths & grips & uffff ....

Sometime in late 2016 it occurred to me that I never have fired, much less owned, a revolver with a five-inch barrel. The remedy? Buy one and shoot it, of course, preferably one which would not cost me an arm and a leg because curiosity would be my only reason for obtaining it.

Here you see the results of that realization and curiosity. I will not tell you what I paid for it, but I will mention that I purchased it on January 3, 2017, more-or-less locally. I also will mention that according to the third edition of the "Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson," by Jim Supica and Richard Nahas it was made in 1947, give or take a year in either direction. Without going into detail, I will say S&W firearms often are very difficult to date.

I cannot hit with it nearly as well as I am able with a traditional Colt Model 1911 semi-automatic pistol in .45 caliber and its five-inch barrel, for instance, but that is no surprise because ever since I bought my first handgun I have significantly favored semis over revolvers and shot them almost exclusively.

Presumably, simply looking at the original grips should be reason enough to understand why I will not use them. They are "tiny." I cannot understand how law enforcement people put up with such unremarkable, barely useable grips on an otherwise outstanding revolver .... booooooo .... hisssssss ....

The black Hogue grips are a set I have had for some time. They are ideal in every possible way other than visual appearance. They are rubber, fit my hand perfectly and I use similar sets on most of my handguns for actual shooting. The other set of Hogues is wood, much more attractive and also fit my hand perfectly. However, wood is not "squeezeable," so I could not shoot as well with them if I could get them on the handgun. Somewhere between the revolver and the grips there is a design problem and this one-piece set does not fit the firearm.

All is well with the grips now actually on the S&W. They are attractive; they fit my hand perfectly; they fit the firearm perfectly .... what more could a resident of Neverland ask? I cannot hit as well with them as I can with the rubber Hogues, but since this "baby" never will be a regular "carry gun" for me, so what?

As for shooting a revolver with a five-inch barrel -- which was the root of my curiosity and the source of this experiment -- my opinion is that there is no significant difference in terms of my accuracy with it than there is hitting home with revolvers with a four-inch or a six-inch barrel. The only actual difference for me, perhaps, and perhaps for most people, is in the matter of concealability, and that is a moot point for a "semi guy."

Once upon a time never comes again

Describe this scene to yourself in your own words ....

(Editor's Note: Stephen Crane, who had never been in the military, much less participated in a battle, wrote "The Red Badge of Courage" in 1894. It soon became recognized as a classic novel about the American Civil War, noted for its realism and naturalism. It is a story about a young private in the Union Army, Henry Fleming -- "the youth," who flees the field during his first skirmish. Overcome with shame for running, he wishes for a wound, a "red badge of courage," to counteract his cowardice. He later carries a flag into battle and, by the end of the tale, has found redemption. What happens between the two events is available to anyone who chooses to pick up the novel and to read it. I wish you a meaningful Actual Memorial Day ....)

The closing lines

of "The Red Badge of Courage"

by Stephen Crane

For a time this pursuing recollection of the tattered man took all elation from the youth's veins. He saw his vivid error, and he was afraid that it would stand before him all his life. He took no share in the chatter of his comrades, nor did he look at them or know them, save when he felt sudden suspicion that they were seeing his thoughts and scrutinizing each detail of the scene with the tattered soldier.

 

Yet gradually he mustered force to put the sin at a distance. And at last his eyes seemed to open to some new ways. He found that he could look back upon the brass and bombast of his earlier gospels and see them truly. He was gleeful when he discovered that he now despised them.

 

With this conviction came a store of assurance. He felt a quiet manhood, nonassertive but of sturdy and strong blood. He knew that he would no more quail before his guides wherever they should point. He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man.

So it came to pass that as he trudged from the place of blood and wrath his soul changed. He came from hot plowshares to prospects of clover tranquilly, and it was as if hot plowshares were not. Scars faded as flowers.

It rained. The procession of weary soldiers became a bedraggled train, despondent and muttering, marching with churning effort in a trough of liquid brown mud under a low, wretched sky. Yet the youth smiled, for he saw that the world was a world for him, though many discovered it to be made of oaths and walking sticks. He had rid himself of the red sickness of battle. The sultry nightmare was in the past. He had been an animal blistered and sweating in the heat and pain of war. He turned now with a lover's thirst to images of tranquil skies, fresh meadows, cool brooks -- an existence of soft and eternal peace.

Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the hosts of leaden rain clouds.

Waiting for an old-fashioned Memorial Day

Fort Snelling -- known in its original incarnation as Fort Saint Anthony -- has been a major fixture and landmark atop the bluffs near the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers since the 1820s. Soldiers of the 5^th Infantry Regiment commanded by Colonel Josiah Snelling constructed the fort between 1820 and 1824. Upon the completion in 1825, the Army renamed it Fort Snelling in honor of its commander and architect. The historic segment, shown in the lower photograph, is operated by the Minnesota Historical Society. My first visit there was part of a class trip when I was twelve years old, and I can vividly remember being in the "round tower." Generations of military personnel have passed through Fort Snelling during its 200 years in existence, and many are buried in the national cemetery, a portion of which is shown in the upper photograph.

Sort of a genetics & environment mix -- I guess

I grew up in a small town in a house next to an American Legion hall. Memorial Day and Veterans Day were special times there, with church services and ceremonies conducted by the Legion. After arriving in the United States in the 1850s, my ancestors participated in "every war" including and since the Civil War. One, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army 2nd Calvary, was killed by Sioux during the Plains Indian Wars. His younger brother moved on and became an Arizona Ranger. In those respects, it seems like I was predestined to take the oath of enlistment at some point in time.

Memorial Day began informally. Decorating soldiers' graves with flowers is a tradition as old as time immemorial, and by 1865 some southern states had precedents for Memorial Day. A formal "Decoration Day" was held May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery. By the close of the 19th Century, traditions were merging and Decoration Day / Memorial Day was becoming the day to honor all Americans who died while in the U.S. military service.

Memorial Day was observed on May 30 until 1968 when members of Congress in their infinite zeal to curry favor passed a three-day holiday act which moved the day to the third Monday of May and designated it a federal holiday beginning in 1971. Nothing like faux patriotism and a pledge for a chicken in every pot to muster votes .... in my opinion.

The day gradually has evolved into an occasion to remember any and all family members who came before us. This, I recall from my childhood, driving to various cemeteries to place flowers on graves.

I will do a few things today -- Monday, May 25 -- since most everyone else is .... but, being sort of an old-fashioned traditionalist, I will wait until May 30 to pay homage to those who came before me and to put things in more of a military perspective .... see you then ....

In the meanwhile, here are three songs for you. Listen to one or to two or to all, but I hope you will listen to them in the context of Memorial Day and -- especially -- listen closely to the lyrics ....

Yiruma / River Flows in You ....

John Lennon  / Imagine ....

Queen  / Under Pressure (written by David Bowie) ....

Hey Hey My My

I like to think and sometimes say my life style has to be among those least affected by the coronavirus pandemic. I have no worry or fear about myself and am able to view much of life in a sort of a detached fashion as an "objective" observer. My only concern is the safety and well-being of family members and friends, which is always present with or without a pandemic. Among the things I often do is pick up a canoe and a paddle and look for open water. Here are two photographs from such a recent venture. They were taken at Lewis and Clark Lake on the Missouri River in South Dakota. Actually, the far-side of the lake is Nebraska. My canoe, incidentally, is larger than most. It is an 18-footer meant for two people and lots/lots/lots of gear for extended journeys -- and, it has been on a few.

May you stay forever young

The bluffs along the Missouri River have been described as "fossil rich." All manner of "wildlife" from the Mesozoic and Cenozic eras, including not only raptors and tyrannosaurs, but prehistoric turtles and megafauna mammals have been found in states along or near the Missouri River.

Numerous specimens of Tyrannosaurus Rex  and Triceratops have been discovered in the region. The Ceratopsian, or horned-frilled dinosaur, which possessed one of the largest heads of any creature in the history of life on earth, has been found. South Dakota land also has yielded scattered remains of the armored dinosaur Edmontonia, the duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus, the Ornithopod dinosaur Osmakasaurus and the head-butting Pachycephalosaurus.

Well, you get my drift ….

Beyond that, shifting to much/much/much more recent times, it may seem incredulous to think of encountering explorers and fur traders coming along the Missouri River toward you or to wonder if Native Americans mounted on painted ponies are watching your every movement from the shoreline, but it is not at all difficult to imagine people from centuries past camped just around the next bend.

All right .... enough words about dinosaurs and fur traders. This started out to be a few paragraphs about one approach to spend some time in the midst of Nature during the coronavirus pandemic or, anytime, for that matter. Just to make certain I did not fall asleep at night and awaken in the morning with guys in buckskins standing around staring at me, I ended my evenings with a bit of contemporary music blowing in the wind along the river. Here are some pieces of it ....

Hmmmm .... I wonder if Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark could hear the echoing refrains .... or John Colter, the first known person of European descent to enter the region which later became Yellowstone National Park and to see the Teton Mountain Range ....

 Yep, I wonder .... for an incurable romantic it is nice to hope some part of them still lingers within the river ....