December 2011


Other Stuff & Things LOOKING FOR GOOD IN THE PAST by Jim Sheets jims1127@hotmail.com C


hristmas night 1776 and the weather out- side was frightful.


George Washington was ral- lying his troops for a crossing of the Delaware River to at- tack the Hessian garrison on the other side in Trenton, New Jersey. The famous painting by Emanuel Leutze of Wash- ington standing in a boat as he crosses an icy river with is men is from that night.


The


weather that had started out as a freezing rain had turned into sleet and ice.


The Hessians were a group of German soldiers for hire that were brought to America to help the British put down this little Revolution that was going on at the time. Wash- ington and his men were able to make the crossing and sur- prise the sleepy Hessians and soundly defeat them with only a couple of casualties for the Americans. Sure there were a few British there, but the main battle was fought with Hes- sian soldiers who were prob-


ably sleeping off a Christmas celebration and had no idea of what was about to happen to them at the hand of the Americans.


The numbers on the Battle of Trenton would make you think was


that a it minor


victory for the Americans and didn’t


Battle directly


involve the Brit- ish anyway.


It


is my opinion that the


of Trenton


was one of the most impor- tant victories in the history of the United States. To under- stand my argument, let’s look at the circumstances that led up to the battle. In the sum- mer of 1776, Washington and his men were run out of New York by the British when they lost the Battle of Long Island. Congress had given orders to Washington to hold New York because it would be


lost.


easy for the British to operate there should they take control, which they did. The Conti- nental Congress soon fled Philadelphia because


they


thought they were next. Morale for this Revolu- tion was at an all


time


low. Soldiers began to des-


ert the Ameri- can Army as the cause seemed Thomas Paine


gave us “These are the times that try a man’s soul,” in his work; The American Crisis. Did I mention that the enlist- ment of many of the soldiers who did not desert expired on December 31st of that year? Washington had his hands full with keeping his decimated army together while loosing support from the Continental Congress. Washington’s plan and subsequent victory at Trenton was brilliant. He knew that the only way to get his men to


re-enlist and Congress not to give up on him was to boost morale with a victory. Shortly after Trenton, the Americans won the Battle of Princeton and for a time seemed to right the ship and have things going their way. Without the vic- tory at Trenton, Washington’s army very well could have gone by the waste-side and our Revolution with it. This also convinced the French that the American Revolution was worth supporting which was a huge factor in the American victory over England.


Pg 8


The Lamaze class included a tour of the pediatric wing of the hospital. When a new baby was brought into the nursery, all the women tried to guess its weight, but there was the only man who would venture a number. "Looks like 9 pounds," he offered confidently.


JOKE # 4


"This must not be your first," one woman beside him said.


"Oh, yes," he said. "It's my first." "Then how would you know the weight of a baby?" she asked. He shrugged. "I'm a fisherman."


Weird Facts & Trivia - 3 REMEMBER:


Respect our past for it has shaped our future.


Jim has a history degree from Sacramento State University. He is a real estate agent and lives in Sonoma County.


People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them.


James Baldwin


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Hanukkah is celebrated every year between the end of November and the end of December. It begins on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, which varies from year to year on the Western calendar. The eight day celebration


commemorates the


rededication of the Jerusalem temple, and the miracle of the sacred lamp that burned for eight days on a single day’s oil.


Kwanzaa is a seven day celebration of African culture begun by Dr. Maulana Karenga, a professor at California State University. Celebrated from December 26th to January 1st, Kwanzaa (which means “first fruits of the harvest”) is meant to honor African heritage and present day life in America. The holiday ends with a large feast on the final evening called Karamu.


More than one million lights decorate the landmark Fort Myers winter estates of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford during the holiday season.


If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl Buck


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