Talked to a wonderful person today...

[Jogeephus]

I spent a few hours talking to one of my neighbors today and got to know him a bit better. We had spoken before on more business terms but he recently lost his wife and he began to reminisce about her and began sharing what his 56 years of marriage was like with her. I have to admit that I glanced at my watch a couple of times at first but then I forgot the pressing work issues as I got enthralled with his story. You see, she was a trapeze artist and was what we call super human today. Some of what he told me was unbelievable until I saw the pictures and the newspaper clippings. She worked with Harry Houdini on occasion and owned her own travelling carnival employing what we now know as the munchkins who later lived on their property for some time. He showed me pictures of her hanging from a trapeze rod by her legs and holding three men in mid air with one hand. Simply unbelievable. What is also unbelievable is the number of one armed pull ups she could do - 382. :shock: (that's almost as many as I can do and she was a girl) ;-) She had the record at one time - at least according to the front page of the newspaper clipping he showed me. They had two darling children. Chimpanzees they bottle raised. Quite an interesting afternoon and well worth the time. BTW - I'm gonna cut the day short tomorrow as we have plans to enjoy some ham and continue our conversation at 12:30 sharp.

 

[I luv herfrds]

That's great that you stopped to talk to him Jo.
Sometimes we forget that when someone loses a spouse they lose a good friend they always talked to and are looking for someone else to talk to.

 

[upfrombottom]

That's great that you stopped to talk to him Jo.
Sometimes we forget that when someone loses a spouse they lose a good friend they always talked to and are looking for someone else to talk to.

I always hate when someone loses a spouse and their children try and keep them from seeing someone else or even talking to someone else. There is absolutely no worse feeling in the world than being lonely, and you can be that way around people you have known all your life, its just different having someone that really cares.

 

[Ryder]

What is also unbelievable is the number of one armed pull ups she could do - 382.

Are you serious? 382 straight with no break?
That is over the top. More than fantastic.
Was her husband a circus man?

 

[farmwriter]

How fun! I too love to hear old stories and rememberances. I'm sure the ham luncheon will be great!

 

[Jogeephus]

What is also unbelievable is the number of one armed pull ups she could do - 382.

Are you serious? 382 straight with no break?
That is over the top. More than fantastic.
Was her husband a circus man?

I thought I misunderstood him when he said it and I asked him again and he said 382 in one sitting. I thought to myself - yeah right. Then he showed me the front page of a newspaper. I couldn't believe it. We thumbed through some photo albums and some of the stuff she could do was unbelievable. The picture of her single handedly holding three men in the air with her legs hooked over the trapeze was incredible. He told me she could sit on the ground and grab the legs of a chair and lift it up with you in it. I'd have like to seen this. Honestly its hard to believe but he has many pictures that he shared and I don't think they had photo shop in the 30"s.

He wasn't a circus man but a taxidermist. I'll ask him how they met today and maybe he will let me take some pictures of his pictures so you can see what I'm talking about with the trapeze thing.

Oh, I got to get a picture of something he made out of a coke bottle too. I can't describe it but it is neat and very doable.

Getting to know him better has been great. The knowledge he has is tremendous. I've always been scared of clowns, carnies and gyspsies but now I see them from a different light. Sure would have liked to have known his wife before she got ill.

 

[alacattleman]

ask him if one of the munchkins became a barber later in life,,, i use too get a hair cut as a kid by one of them. that claimed to be or was supposed to be a munchkin

 

[alisonb]

No Jo, you've got it wrong..........your neighbor talked to a wonderful person today ;-)

 

[Jogeephus]

Thank you Alison. Our lunch went great. I did the cooking and he broke out some fig/grape preserves that were out of this world. I spent several hours with him and he asked me to come back again that it was good to talk to someone. I told him I'd be back and I think this will be a promise easily kept. I just wish he could pour his knowledge into my dim whitted skull.

Alacattlman, I didn't see your post till after the fact but the munchkins' names were Eddie, Christie and Lida Buresh from Czechoslovakia. They were the singers in the Wizard of Oz.

Here is some of his talent. He made this out of a 2 litre coke bottle. The slightest wind will spin the bottle but the bird stays stationary.

This is some more of his talent.

He stuffed these birds 40 years ago.

The robin is 40 years old too but the deer antler figurines are recent work.

This is a picture of him when he was young and owned a zoo in Florida.

Here they are feeding a python they brought in for the zoo. They are feeding it a dozen eggs and some other stuff I forgot.

Here is a picture of his wife holding up three people with one arm.

Here is another picture of his wife. She could hold this pose for an hour or so.

These are some pieces of her equipment for one of her acts. This is a tether rope that was attached to a swivel that went to a mouth piece all shown. Another acrobat would loop their hand through the tether and she would hold the other acrobat with the tether attached into her mouth via the mouth piece and they would swing 120 feet off the ground with no net.(middle thing is a leather mouth piece)

She fell once from 100 feet and broke her back and was laid up for 2 years. She trained again and went back to doing what she did but from that day on she always made her own tether straps. Here is the knife she used to cut the rope. He is redoing the handle.

After she retired from trapeze they went into business making leather goods. Here is some of their handywork. Probably not politcally correct today but the alligator leatherwork he showed me looked really nice.

I may need to correct what I said yesterday. Her record isn't for one arm pull ups but one armed plandge which is where you lift your whole body over your hand with one arm. She did 382 of these.

Quite a nice visit and very interesting.

 

[Angus Cowman]

sounds like a good time

 

[MO_cows]

That stuff is waaaaaaay cool! And you wouldn't have known any of this if you hadn't been kind enough to take a little time to be nice to your neighbor........

 

[bigbull338]

glad yall had a good visit an lunch.i know you enjoyed talking to him.

 

[Suzie Q]

I am so glad that he has found someone who is happy to talk to him.

A nurse working for us said that she used to hang from her mouth as well. Until the day that someone told her a joke that she didn't get.

Half way through her act she suddenly got it and laughed. She fell and never went back to it.

 

[Ryder]

I am impressed with the trapeze lady. Jogeephus thank you for telling us about her.
I wonder if what she could do was all training or if she was just an exceptional person? I would think she had to be born that way. Although there are some people that train their minds to where they can do exceptional things. Some yogis, Qi gong masters, and martial artist can do some exceptional stuff.

 

[peg4x4]

Most people look at an older person and only see the withered husk they have become. You never know the mind in there unless you take the time.
That bottle thing is way neat-o --- Could you get the directions to make one?
See what you would have missed if you would have done like most folk and dismissed him as "Just an old fool"

 

[Jogeephus]

I wonder if what she could do was all training or if she was just an exceptional person?

I think it was both. She left home at 13 and began working toward this end. I mentioned to him that she was super-human and he agreed that's what they called her but she had to practice a bunch as well. Her practice time was a solid 4-8 hours and her heart muscles were so overdeveloped that she could not quit even if she wanted to or it would kill her.

That bottle thing is way neat-o --- Could you get the directions to make one?

Peg, picture just doesn't do it justice. I'm going to try and get him to teach me to make them. He said it isn't hard and explained it to me but as I said earlier I'm dim-whitted and a very poor student. Basically he said he marks the bottle and uses a pair of curved scissors to cut between the marks then you bend the plastic out.

See what you would have missed if you would have done like most folk and dismissed him as "Just an old fool"

Fifteen years ago my wife and I have adopted an elderly lady named Beatrice. She is my adopted aunt, adopted MIL and friend and angel. Many people now think she is our blood relative so we refer to her as Aunt Bea. Our lives are richer for having her in our lives and she has taught me a lot from cooking to welding. (she used to weld victory ships)

I might have to do some match making here. :lol2:

 

[Cabo]

No Jo, you've got it wrong..........your neighbor talked to a wonderful person today ;-)

Alisonb, a good observation, I agree.

Jo, you have some of the most interesting posts. Thanks for sharing. Great read!

 

[Gate Opener]

Those deer antler birds are beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your visit with us. It is all interesting.

 

[GMN]

Did you know any of this while she was alive and living next to you all those years?Everyone has a story to tell, and yep some of them are way too cool.

 

[Beefy]

the lollipop kids?