Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Diddley Dee Diddley Doo Doodley Doo

What the heck is a Diddley Dee or Diddley Doo?

Dang it, there was that cartoon song out that said "If you do that diddley dee for me I'll do that diddley doo for you".   And then it goes on about if you do it for me, "we will diddley doodley all night long". For the life of me I absolutely don't know what either of these are.  Now I maybe  can  give a guess about what the diddley doodley all night long might mean, but the diddley dee and diddley doo have me stumped.  All I would have to do is add "wee" onto the beginning and I really would have a big wee diddley dee diddley doo doodley doo problem.

This makes me think of another song named "Rockin Robin" with twiddley dee, twiddley diddley dee, and then I become even more confused, because I don't know what a "twiddley diddley dee" is either.  And to complicate it further, I remember the cartoon song Diddley Dee went on to say "we will diddley doodley doo" and I don't know what that is either.

If I said oh fiddley diddley doodley dee, I bet people would think I had lost my wee fiddleys....whatever they are.  It's kind of like not knowing the real meaning of the word Kaddywampus.  If I said that to people they might think I'm talking about a golf caddy, but I think I'm really talking  about being sideways in my own thoughts which to me is Urban Soul Stuff......who knows, who cares and who could really give a crap what it means!!!!

Those cartoons can really throw you for a loop......I also remember hearing the cartoon song that said "Aisy Waisy let's go crazy".  Well it just about has made me crazy wondering what the heck an Aisy Waisy is.

I personally think that diddley dee, diddley doo, doodley doo, twiddley diddley dee, and aisy waisy (and Kaddywampus too) are all a part of a secret language.  Intended for nutty people like me...or for kids....they probably understand exactly what it means.

In my old age, there are several things I just can't figure out....and this cartoon language and Urban Soul stuff are definitely things that have me baffled.  So until Webster makes a dictionary for us old folks, I'll just go on diddley deeing, while I diddley doo, and get a lot out of doodley dooing while I twiddley diddley dee around the house which is kaddywampus because I've been doing the aisy waisy a wee bit too much!!


Old Tyme Greenview
Taken from the History of Menard and Mason Counties 1879 and continued from yesterday's post. 

"Not long after the settlement of Boyer, the Blanes and Meadows, another caravan of immigrants came to the grove. John Jennison, Mr. Hill, William McNabb, his wife, son and daughter were of his company. James McNab, son of William, above named, was surveyor, and taught the first school in the grove. A few years later, he was drowned in trying to swim the Sangamon River with his compass tied on his head. It is said that he had been drinking or he would not have made the attempt. A few months after the arrival of those last named, others came, among them Roland Grant and family. Benjamin Wilcox and Ward Benson. About the same time, a Mr. Pentecost came from Kentucky, bringing his family of four sons and three daughters. He settled near the present residence of Judge Marbold, near Greenview. Cavanis, for whom Cavanis Creek, running near Greenview, was named, came about this time. He also was from Kentucky. The next to find their way to this grove was a company from Deer Creek, Ohio: it was composed of the Alkires and William Engle. No party of weary travelers ever entered a new country that was destined to exert a stronger influence on the future growth and prosperity of community that this little band. Leonard Alkire brought considerable means with him, and invested it largely in "claims," which he afterward entered. He purchased the claims of Meadows, Grant, Wilcox, and the Blanes. This was the beginning of a change among the early settlers of this grove. Hill, who was spoken of above, moved to St. Louis. John Jennison, farmed a year or two in the grove and then removed to Baker's Prairie, three miles southeast of Petersburg. Meadows moved to the lower end of the grove, and bought the claim of Pentecost. McNabb and Wilcox also moved to Baker's Prairie, where they took claims, which they entered as soon as the land came into market. There they reared families, and many of their descendents are still in the vicinity. Not long after the arrival of Alkire and Engle, Matthew Bracken came with a large family; after him came Nicholas Propst; then Wall and William Sweeney, Milt Reed, Thomas and William Caldwell. From this time the tide of immigration constantly grew deeper and wider, pouring in a host of earnest, industrious and enterprising men to develop this most highly favored body of country.

While the settlement was being made, of course other localities were not neglected. It is rather a remarkable fact, however, that no settlers were found on the prairie for several years, but each grove of timber contained a settlement, and was the nucleus of a community. Of the more important of these, we will speak farther in the proper place. It may be of interest to the reader to know that the first marriage on the east side of the river was John Jennison to Patsy McNabb; the second was one Henman to Rosina Blane; and the third, William Engle to Melissa Alkire. The last-named couple were married by Harry Riggin, J.P.

The first death was an infant son of Jacob Boyer named Henderson. The second was James Blane, and the third was Joseph Kinney, who was thrown from a horse. He was brought home but soon died. Some say that he was the second person who died in the grove, and the first adult buried in the burying ground; but Charles Montgomery, in a statement written some years before his death, says that James Blane was the second, and Kinney the third who died. Kinney was buried in Sugar Grove Cemetery, and an elm came up immediately out of his grave, and it is now a large, wide spreading tree; and although its roots and stem have obliterated all signs of a grave, yet it is a verdant monument to the memory of Joseph Kinney.

The first schoolhouse was built in Sugar Grove in 1822, by Meadows, Boyer, Wilcox, McNabb and Grant. It was constructed of split logs, and was about sixteen feet square. This house was furnished on a par with all the schoolhouses in the early settling of the country. Covered with boards held in their places by "weight poles," the floor of "puncheons" made of split logs, the seats the half of a log 10 or 12 feet long, with four pins set in with a large auger for legs, a log left out along one side for a window, beneath which a slab was laid on two large pins in a slanting position to serve as a writing-desk. The text-books were few in number, and the teacher made all the pens of goosequills. The books used were the New Testament for a reader, with occasionally a copy of the old "English Reader," Pike's or Smiley's Arithmetic, but few of the pupils ever advanced farther than the Single or Double Rule of Three (i.e., single or double portion), geography was seldom studied, and English grammar was totally unknown in the schools here for several years. Uncle Minter Graham, who has taught school longer than any other man in Central Illinois, perhaps, tells an amusing anecdote about teaching grammar in an early day here, and he vouches for the truth of the statement, as it came under his own personal knowledge. A certain teacher, whose aspirations were considerably in advance of his acquirements, felt himself called upon to teach English grammar. He accordingly organized a class in that science, and very kindly assisted them in preparing the first lesson, which was the four general divisions of grammar; these he pronounced for them, with a gusto, as follows: Ortho-graph-y, Et-y-mo-lo-gy, Swine-tax and Pro-so-dy. The text-books used when grammar began to be taught in the schools, were Murray's and Kirkham's Grammars. The above books, with Webster's old Speller, or the Elementary, and a "horn-book" - a wooden paddle with the alphabet pasted on it - for the little fellows, were the entire outfit of school-books. The schools at this time were all on the subscription plan, which is fully explained under the head of Education in this volume, and seldom were for a longer term than three months, and that in the middle of the winter. James McNabb, who, as the reader will remember, was drowned in the Sangamon River, was the first teacher in Sugar Grove; he was followed by Daniel McCall, and soon by others. Perhaps, on Templeman was the third teacher in this settlement. The first preaching in Sugar Grove was in the cabin of Roland Grant, by on Henderson, a preacher of the "New-Light" faith, as it was then termed. The New Lights and the followers of Alexander Campbell afterward united, forming what was at first denominated the Church of the Disciples, but afterward changed to the Church of Christ, sometimes called Campbellites. Of this a more extended account will be given under "Religious Denominations."

When the settlement was first begun at Sugar Grove, and for some time after, the nearest physician was in Springfield, then a mere village. Dr. Allen of that city was the first practitioner of the healing art that was called to visit the community at the grove. Not a great while elapsed, however, till Dr. Winn settled near Indian Point, and began the practice of medicine."

Recipe
Most Greenviewanites were familar with Dinger Denton's chili.  He made it and served it at many "men type functions".  I had the occasion to eat it several times, but I wasn't a big fan of the chili.  The large layer of fat on the top always bothered me plus I didn't like the taste much.  I know many people really liked Dinger's chili, so I felt it was appropriate to post his recipe....I'm posting it just as he wrote it down for me many years ago.

Dinger's Chili
2# Hamburger
1/4 pound suet
Melt suet - add meat and spices - cook slow
2 tablespoons chilli powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground oregano
1 heaping teaspoon garlic powder
1 heaping teaspoon red pepper cayenne
Add tomato juice to thickness you like.  Heat red beans separately.  Add each (chilli and beans) in a bowl.

Thought For The Day

People rarely succeed unless
they have fun in what they are doing.
--Dale Carnegie

As we go through life there is always that one person who influenced you the most.  Sometimes it might be a relative or it could have been a friend or maybe someone on television.

That special person to whom I can credit as the most influential person in my life is my Grandma Elvia.  Even when I was a kid, I considered her old, but as I look at her age when I was a kid, she wasn't that old.....she just looked older than people the same age in today's world.

Grandma had a hard life.  In her teens she moved from an uncomfortable stepmother situation in Forest City to live with her uncle in Greenview.  While living in Greenview she met Grandpa and you know the rest of the story.....I'm the grandchild product of that marriage.

Prior to moving to town in the 1970's, Grandma lived on the farm doing the wife's duty of housework, barnyard work, cooking and cleaning and general jack of all trades.  She didn't smile a lot, but once you got her going, she could laugh from the deep of her stomach.  She was well known in the community for her dedication to being a solid member of several women's groups.  These included, but not all inclusive, Farm Bureau Women, Ladies Auxiliary, Church Groups, Quilting Club, etc.  She liked to give talks and show off the many foreign pieces of furniture and other items my life long overseas serviceman uncle sent her from many European ports.  She also had 500 - 600 pairs of salt and pepper shakers in her collection as well as many beautiful pieces of valuable china and glassware.

Growing up she taught me the value of antiques and how to care for them.  She taught me how to dust these "pretties" as she called them.  She taught me about quilts and even gave me her old quilt piece patterns, which I still have. 

I loved going to grammy's house.  Lots of times to stay overnight and just hang out with my grammy.  I'd watch her cook and learned so much as a very young child.  The sugar cookies she kept in an alumumin pan in the freezer were my favorites.  When I got older, and didn't have a mama to help guide me through my youth and teens, grammy was there for me.  I would call her to learn how to make a recipe or just to chat.  And in her last years, I spent an enoumous amount of time talking to her and writing stuff down about her life and her thoughts.
(when she was young)

Grammy wasn't the most beautiful woman in life, but she was beautiful to me.  She influenced me all my life and I'm grateful for that.  She was the best grammy a person could want.  She taught me a lot of things, but most of all she taught me that simple is everything and that less is always more on the value scale.  A good thing to follow through life.




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