DRIFTWOOD (circa 1985) a meerschaum pipe for David Welty who is a gold and platinum smith making fabulous jewelry in Hawaii now. While he was still living in Minnesota he cast all my precious metal pipe parts, and took all the photos. I asked him what he wanted in payment and he said a pipe he could smoke every day.
In the branch there is a hole and when you look inside you'll see a little bird's nest built of gold wire with two tiny jade colored eggs in it.
AN INTERVIEW WITH MOTHER BICKERDYKE
ARTY> Well, It's my pleasure to welcome Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke, legendary Civil War volunteer nurse who followed General Sherman's army as it fought it's way through the South. Knowing you as I do, I'm not going to ask what you'd do different. I know better. How are you? May I call you Mother?
MOTHER> Are you a veteran?
ARTY> Since about 4,980 years ago.
MOTHER> Then you can call me Mom, honey. Thanks for having me. It's nice to see you again. What's it been? 150 years or so?
ARTY> About that. Say, you were quite a character during the Civil War. Is it really true that General Sherman said that you outranked him?
MOM> Well first of all, I want to answer the question you didn't ask. I've had a long time to think about this and I think that whole fight could have been avoided. Look at how things developed later, like how Charles Lindburg flew the Atlantic to win a big prize. If we had raised a prize for the first machine that could pick a thousand acres of cotton as well as slaves and cheaper, then the slave owners would be granting manumissions so fast, and so happily, that we would not have the race hatred we have now.
ARTY> Interesting. there were slaves for a long time in places that don't grow cotton. Why link slavery to cotton picking?
MOM> Because there wasn't much point in growing a lot of cotton because it used to take so long to take the seeds out by hand but when Eli Whitney invented a mechanized deseeder called a cotton gin all of a sudden it was worth keeping a lot of slaves around all year so they could pick a harvest of cotton. A machine that harvested cotton would have made slavery obsolete. It was on the way out anyway. England and France were so proud of themselves for outlawing slavery while at the same time they were conquering entire nations of slaves that they kept safely at a distance. It's called empire building. I tell you what Arty, we don't want to follow their example.
ARTY> Ah, yes. We don't want to go there. But to return to your exploits. Is it true that you would actually bully William Tecumseh "War is hell" Sherman into giving you what you wanted?
MOM> Well, Bill was difficult but he would not throw me out and I realized he was relying on me to do what needed to be done. He knew I wasn't doing it for myself. It was all for my boys. And I had to fight for everything I did get. Many's the time I'd walk into his tent and tell him "Now see here Bill, Don't be a fool!" and I'd get the railroad car I needed or the horse team to pull an ambulance.
ARTY> I understand his aides didn't exactly like you very much.
MOM> Oh, those poor dears. They thought they should be able to put their wives or mistresses in a rail car and go sleep with them every night like there was no war going on. Bill put them off the trains but still gave me what I wanted. They were jealous. Plus he allowed me to walk all over them. His aides complained to him about me and I still remember him saying "I'm sorry gentlemen but she outranks me!" I liked old Bill. He did terrible things because he had to but he had a soft side to. I know he missed his family. I think I got along with him because I treated him like his mother did.
ARTY> I want to thank Mother Bickerdyke for joining us at 20/20 hindsite. You were a real leader in what is now a health care industry. Something I've wondered. I assume Mother is not your given name. How did you come to be called "Mother"?
MOM> Well, I know Bill's aides did not call me that. My boys called me that. I held so many of them as they trembled out their last breaths. They often thought I was their mother holding them. The name stuck.
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