Another Campout

 

Camping Again (Another True Story)

 

I am sitting in a lawn chair at Bay City’s Recreation Area next to my camping trailer that is mere steps from the beach. It is hot and I am wearing short pants in anticipation of either a swim or a pleasant bicycle ride around the park as I await the women who are just now engaged in the business of clearing the dishes from our breakfast. I decided not to complain about the time that I am forced to wait as they finish their clean-up work. Besides, sitting in the pleasant surroundings of the park is not bad duty as our camp site is surrounded with tall oak trees that provide both the shade and the sense of being in nature’s majesty.

Included in nature’s largess at our campsite is an abundance of bugs. As evidence, I just carefully scraped a bug from my bare leg. It looks to be a caterpillar, not a very large one, nor a very pretty one, nor a very fast one, despite his tiny 20 legs with teeny-tiny feet that are too small to see. But he is definitely a bug who has fallen from the oak tree that is shading my campsite. An interesting feature of this campsite is the number of robins that have landed in an adjacent grassy area where they are searching for and finding bugs. I expect to soon learn whether small, slow, 20-footed caterpillars make suitable breakfasts for robins.

The agenda for this campout is primarily bicycle riding. The recreation area includes a shoreline marsh that extends a few miles to the northwest playing peek-a-boo with the beach, several woodlands, wetlands, and two look-out towers for birders who enjoy watching the large birds feed on the fish that call the estuary their home for the first part of their lives. The marsh occupies some 3000 acres. I am more of a pedal man than a bird-watcher. Despite my many bicycle trips around this park on previous trips, I have nothing interesting to report about big birds eating fish.

I can report that just now rain has enveloped a large area around Bay City, according to the weather bureau who had the audacity to forecast rain during my camping vacation. That will surely make bicycle riding problematic. The veracity of the weather bureau is being shown right now. The sun seems to have disappeared and the air feels heavy as bursts of thunder and lightening are beginning to take center stage. Since I typed the last sentence, a mild rain has commenced forcing me to lower an awning that should provide a measure of protection for me and my computer. I am torn between pedaling and typing. Neither activity seems to offer the promise of success especially since my riding companions are highly unlikely to ride in the rain or read my brilliant prose.

My companions in this campout are my son, his wife, and my wife. I could probably convince my son to ride with me if he has a raincoat in his gear, but there is virtually no chance in convincing the two women since they know better. The rain has commenced in a steady, albeit mild drizzle and a small ant has appeared on my computer screen. I think he doesn’t like what I have written since he is running in circles on this paragraph.

Wait a moment! I suspect the answer about riding in the mild rain has come to me. Just now, a bicyclist has appeared on the road fronting my campsite. He was an older man (not quite as old as me, of course) in a blue tee pedaling a small bike with the seat extended as far upwards as the small frame would allow. The most remarkable thing about the scene is the plume of water arising from the wheels of the bike as the man is pedaling hard, presumably heading for somewhere dry. Frankly, he looks kind of silly as he leans forward on the little bike with a grimace on his face as he seems to be pedaling as hard as he can against the now steady downfall. I found myself wondering why he is pedaling in the rain when most sane men would stay home and stay dry. In one of my saner moments, I decided not to pedal in the rain.

Forty minutes later: The rain is beginning to lessen in its intensity. As I climbed onto my bike it stopped raining. I decided that I could make a trip on my bike to the marsh area where the birding towers stand proudly. I made the trip and climbed both towers.

There were no birds to watch at either tower that overlooks the marsh. I don’t know why. The main beach across the road from the camping area is twenty to forty feet larger and icky looking as the water has retreated over the summer. I don’t recall ever seeing the extensive debris now apparent at the water’s edge on my previous campouts here. Has all of Lake Huron lost that much water?

Upon my return to the camping area after the bicycle ride, I heard a sort of whistling noise. It was a siren warning of a tornado in the area and corresponding storm. Employees at the campground are circling the area in their electric utility trucks warning campers to take cover. We spent the next hour in the bath house along with 30 or 40 other campers watching the rain come down in sheets. When the rain slowed, we walked to our camp site and waded through a pool of water that had collected in front of the door to our camper. We sat down to play a board game and the radio confirmed the presence of a tornado just north of Kawkawlin Thus began the ending of day one of our latest Pure Michigan Camp Out. 

 

History of the Ukulele 

 

You may know that the wife and I have taken on a new hobby - playing the ukulele. It's a hoot. We play at least once a week in the company of twenty or more others who play a uke or banjo uke. The group, known as the Roscommon Ukers, is a diverse group of amateur musicians who range in age from 8 to 90. The group includes a few who don't strum but enjoy accompanying the strummers with their voices as we play and sing a wide range of mostly old standards made popular by the likes of Don Ho, the Beatles, and a host of other well-known entertainers.

Now that I have passed the six-month period of learning how to play the instrument, I decided to look into its history. The following is the result.

 The ukulele is a small, stringed musical instrument that evolved from the historical lute that found a home in many Arab and European nations in the Middle Ages. Unlike the wide variety of shapes and various numbers of strings used by lutes, especially in Arab nations, the modern ukulele (built after 1850) has become standardized with four strings over a body that takes its basic shape like its larger cousins, various guitars or lutes. All these instruments produce musical sounds by strings stretched over hollow wooden bodies with a pear or teardrop shape. Common features for lutes, guitars, and ukuleles were: A neck with frets, Strings that musicians pluck or strum with their fingers or a pick, A soundboard with a sound hole to resonate the string vibrations making the sound louder.

Over time, four ukulele sizes were designed that are in use today. In order of size from small to larger, the sizes are soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone. Ukuleles have four nylon strings tuned to produce the separate notes of G, C, E, and A (except for the Baritone ukulele, which is normally tuned to notes of D, G, B, and E). Often known as Ukes, modern instruments have 16–22 frets depending on their size.

The basic design of modern ukuleles came to America from a Portuguese island after an important intermediate stop in Hawaii. In 1873, the island nation of Hawaii was suffering an economic downturn to their important sugar industry due to a lack of workers. Hawaiian King Kalakaua supported the importation of workers from various nations including those from an island known as Madeira that lay off the coast of Portugal. Islanders from this nation responded to the call as willing workers set sail from their home island in the Atlantic to Hawaii in the Pacific.

Some years before his voyages across the Atlantic, Christopher Columbus, who at the time was a sugar trader, visited Madeira, a small island nation off the coast of Portugal. It is generally accepted that Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, as Cristoforo Colombo. Columbus (or Colombo) was well aware of the profits to be made in the sugar business. He also understood the necessary growing conditions for sugar and the navigational technique known as the Volta do mar. Christopher Columbus lived and studied navigation in Madeira after his marriage to a Portuguese woman.

Sugarcane cultivation and the sugar production industry developed from the 17th century forward. It became a leading factor in many island economies and increased the demand for labor. It was in Madeira that, in the context of sugar production, slaves were first used in plantations, sharing the work with waged settlers. The colonial system of sugar production was  put into practice on the island of Madeira, and then successively applied to other overseas areas where sunshine abounded along with warm temperatures. In Madeira it became evident that a warm climate, winds to work windmills for sugar crushing and easy access to the sea (for transportation of the raw sugar) were important components in what became a huge and highly profitable industry, which helped to fund European expansion. Ukuleles evolved along with the sugar industry in Hawaii. 

One of the most important factors in establishing the ukulele in Hawaiian music and culture was the ardent support and promotion of the instrument by Hawaiian King Kalākaua. A patron of the arts, he incorporated it into performances at royal gatherings and spoke highly of the small and affordable instrument. Developed in the 1880s, the ukulele is based on several small, guitar-like instruments of Portuguese origin, introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants from Madeira. Three immigrants in particular, Madeiran cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto Dias, are generally credited as the first ukulele makers. In late August 1879, the Hawaiian newspaper “reported that Madeira Islanders recently arrived here and have been delighting the people with nightly street concerts.”

Native Hawaiians quickly began using the new instrument. Famous entertainers incorporated the instrument in their programs and achieved success in capturing new audiences. Don Ho was one of the early singers whose song “Tiny Bubbles” was a sensational hit in 1967. In another instance, the staying power of the instrument was shown recently by a new rendition of the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, a native Hawaiian.

In the Hawaiian language the word ukulele roughly translates as 'jumping flea', perhaps because of the movement of the player's fingers. Legend attributes it to the nickname of Englishman Edward

Purvis, one of King Kalākaua's officers, because of his small size, fidgety manner, and playing expertise.

Lumialani Kalākaua; November 16, 1836 – January 20, 1891), was the last king and penultimate monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, reigning from February 12, 1874, until his death in 1891. Succeeding Lunalilo, he was elected to the vacant throne of Hawaiʻi. Kalākaua was known as the Merrie Monarch for his convivial personality – he enjoyed entertaining guests with his singing and ukulele playing. At his coronation and his birthday jubilee, the hula became a celebration of Hawaiian culture.

Use of the newly developed stringed musical instrument caught on in the United States in the first part of the 20^th century. Vaudeville performers especially liked its small size and portability as they moved from town to town celebrating all things Hawaiian.

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*The Madiera Islanders came to Hawaii by ship, The Ravenscrag, a four masted sailing ship that sailed from Madiera. The voyage made steady progress across two oceans as the ship sailed around the Cape of Good Hope leaving the Atlantic Ocean and sailed onward into the Pacific Ocean and thence to Hawaii with its 400 passengers bound for wage work in Hawaii’s fledgling sugar business.