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Author Topic: 152 years ago ...  (Read 3699 times)

Lamar

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152 years ago ...
« on: July 03, 2015, 04:28:25 PM »
“It's all now you see. Yesterday won't be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago. For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose than all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago; or to anyone who ever sailed a skiff under a quilt sail, the moment in 1492 when somebody thought This is it: the absolute edge of no return, to turn back now and make home or sail irrevocably on and either find land or plunge over the world's roaring rim.”
― William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust

PIA

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Re: 152 years ago ...
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2015, 07:10:07 PM »
Bill did kinda 'run on' with his writing.  Some other folks in Mississippi have the same affliction, but not intentionally.  Personally, I enjoyed two encounters with Faulkner's past.  One was getting a tour of some property north of Oxford, MS, where the current  land owner allowed me to relic hunt.  He pointed out the site where Bill's ancestor  built the family's first home in that area.  Second was teaming up with an old (me at 64 years old calling someone else OLD!) Oxford resident and relic hunter back in the 1980's.  He was a somewhat respected member of the community and a darn good friend until the day he died. He related to me that one night he was coming back from a bar north of Oxford and saw a guy staggering down the side of Mississippi Highway 7 just north of town.  Picked him up and poured him home. Yep, t'was Faulkner who got poured. Ain't nobody perfect.
Best regards,
Gary

Lazouave

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Re: 152 years ago ...
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2015, 07:16:15 PM »
Faulkner did understand us Southern boys!
I think we have all had that "what if" moment as it relates to War of Northern Aggression!

emike123

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Re: 152 years ago ...
« Reply #3 on: July 03, 2015, 08:06:31 PM »
Thanks Lamar.  Those words passed through my head as I very recently (3 times this Spring) drove and walked back and forth across the ground those men covered on that fateful afternoon.  Tom Brokaw said something along the lines that every Southerner at Gettysburg thinks "What if?" and every Northerner visiting there thinks "Thank God."  Although I had more relatives, including the only ones who died while in service around Charleston, in the South, I had them on both sides and so am just overwhelmed with the profoundly moving experience of being there.  The old fields look good, better than they did in my youth, although catching sight of a McDonalds from near the charge area is disgusting.

I also often think of another quote attributed to "Bill."  “To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi.”  Of late I have learned that he may never have said or written this, but I will always think of it as another of his gifts to us.  Vicksburg too shares a bond with this holiday weekend that I think about quite often as well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/with-civil-wars-rancor-faded-reasons-to-celebrate.html?_r=0
« Last Edit: July 03, 2015, 09:30:05 PM by emike123 »

ETEX

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Re: 152 years ago ...
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2015, 09:30:58 AM »
Great post Lamar and following comments by the others.