SUPER HEROES OR SUPER VILLAINS, CASSY'S PERKY PERKS, STUMPED BY KARI DELL--SHELBY PROMOTER, HOMESPUN ANALYSIS ON CANDIDATES FOR U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATE--KEEPING THEM HONEST . . . THE FIGHT THAT RUINED A TOWN OR THE FIGHT THAT MADE A TOWN, ONLY HISTORY WILL TELL THE REAL STORY! PROJECT EARLY EDGE, GOVERNOR BULLOCK, STUMPING THE STATE PROMOTING EARLY EDUCATION FOR PRE-KINDERGARTEN KIDS, FROM A HUMAN DEVELOPMENT STANDPOINT, WORKING MOTHERS, AND PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS, FORMED BY THE TIME KIDS ARE 5, AS IS THE CASE WITH SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE, SO IT MAKES SENSE--WHETHER STARTING YOUNG AT HOME OR IN FORMAL SCHOOL SETTINGS. MAKE IT GREAT, GREAT FALLS WELDING CLASS, MAKING BUSINESS ON HITCH COVERS, RIVAL HIGH SCHOOL HITCH COVERS, PROFIT SHARING, BUSINESS PLAN, MONEY MAKER, YOUNG MOVERS & SHAKERS! CREATE & INNOVATE! YAHOO, NATIONAL DEFICIT DOWN! CELEBRATE, KEEP IT GOING DOWN! THANKS PREZ., BUSINESS LEADERS, AND WHOMEVER!

The Cow That Got Its Tail Cut Off

Waking up to a delightful morning in beautiful, Shelby, Montana, and I am not being facetious because I am an early riser, like being up and on top of my day, as early as possible . . . after a great night sleep at the Glacier Motel & RV, being woken up by an army of railroad trucks, flashing lights, bull horn--I thought it was the cops, how is that for post traumatic stress syndrome, being arrested twice without merit, after I put my room number and where I was staying in Shelby, in yesterday's blog, actions via, Patriot Act shit, so, as always, I error on the side of safety, having seen absolutely no activity on the tracks the day before, with a railroad truck parked, early, right in front of my door, not wherever this guys or gal was staying, noticing that while everyone else and their dog, was up and working this morning, except the person and truck, pinpointing the room I was staying in out to aerial surveillance or undercover cops across the street . . . so I just put on my clothes, ditching out, before the morning light came up, and hit breakfast at the local Subway, which is way cool, taking an old garage, and turning it into a huge ass, national chain, eating area, with great windows, going from almost the ground to the ceiling, letting in the glorious morning sunshine, fighting the wispy white clouds, eventually overcoming, and meeting the morning challenge, bringing sunlight and happy reading, of the local newspaper, to my morning, with the Shelby Promoter newspaper, just telling it like it is, featuring local events, like the Pizza Hut, customer appreciation day, with a motto, I stole, Super Heroes & Super Villains, that seemed to epitomize the different groups of people involved in the alleged Fight that Ruined a Town, one of the articles I read about the Jack Dempsey, Tommy Gibbons--Mike Gibbons was the more famous fighter, this was his kid brother, fight, here in Shelby, July 4th, 1923 . . . that was an amazing feat in and of itself, the architecturally shocking arena, seating 40,000 people, a miracle in and of itself, packed to the last seat and beyond the day of the fight, Indians in full gear, so fucking cool, and the Shelby, Amtrak Train Station, teaming with people and excitement, even though the promised support from the Northern Train Company, somehow disappeared, leaving all these people to either walk, which many did, drive their own cars, which many didn't have in those days, ride a horse, or come by carriage, with transportation, switching over at about that time.

Stumped

As for the cow that lost its tail, Ms. Dell, I would assume a local rancher, who writes down home stories of the reality of the ranch and farm life here in Shelby, and other places, with 1 out of every 5 Montanans making a living doing one or the other, tells a tale of a tail, going missing.  Dell and her husband got a call from the Toole County Sheriff's Department, calling to inform the couple that one of their cows got loose and an hysterical older woman, just hit the cow, that hit her windshield, slid right up to her face, breaking the glass, then simply rolled over into a ditch and then disappeared into the night, as I recall.  Kari's husband, like all good husbands, left Ms. Dell in bed, and went out after the bovine, or cow, finding it, standing next to a fence hear the farm, a bit agitated, and missing a tail, totally cut off in the incident, but seemingly okay.  A day in the life of a farmer or rancher, and in the life of one pissed of, hurting cow, and an senior citizen, who is likely to stay home, watching American Idol on TV, rather than brave the unlit roads of rural America! LOL!

From and attorney's perspective, I am thinking, oh, shit, liability, liability, liability . . . no small thing to hit a cow, and ranchers and farmers can be held liable for any damage to a vehicle, or personal injury, that occurs from the escape route, out of a fenced area, and a lark onto a road, where an unsuspecting driver might collide with the animal . . . those damned lawyers!  Thank God, there was no one hurt, and funny story, and an understanding older woman, who was not injured, and an insurance company, that probably plans on cows, deer, elk, wolves, mountain lions, and other wildlife in this wild part of the country, in a wild state . . . live hard, die free!  Gotta love it.  

Just a note, on how serious Crete, takes their sheep raising economy, when my daughter, Greta, was in the U.S. Navy Intel, stationed on the Island, just off the country of Greece, she told me that if you hit a local farmer or sheepherder's means of making a living, the driver is responsible for 7 generations of sheep, that might have been the offspring of that particular ewe, or I believe female sheep.  One time in Cache County, Utah, there was a butt load of sheep, that got out onto the highway, and a local radio station, that was owned by a local family, reported the incident, using the technical and scientific name for sheep, by saying the phonetic word, sounding like e . . . wees, the plural of what is pronounced, Us, we didn't know if there was some extra-terrestrials, aliens, that had landed on the road, what the hell is an e . . . weeeee?  Finally, these city chicks figured out what the announcer was reporting as blocking the road!  LOL!

To Me, the Fight That Made Shelby!

Our Dempsey-Gibbons Fight collection of memorabilia is the largest known.  Among the interesting items are a model of the arena and a pair of Tommy Gibbons' gloves, as well as dozens of photos and other artifacts.

With a population thought to be around 500, Shelby hosted the 1923 World Heavyweight prize fight.  A wooden arena to accommodate 40,000 people was built n what is now the west end of town.  The fight went 15 rounds with Jack Dempsey winning by a decision.  The fascinating story unfolds through actual documents and photos.

This quote comes from the Marias Museum brochure I picked up at the Glacier Motel & RV Park, office which serves as a distribution place for tons of free travel and information magazines, brochures, maps, etc., which is great, and is a great idea for small towns, since, generally, motels are frequented by out of townees, but not always, get my mind out of the gutter, or on wishful thinking, LOL.  I first heard, briefly, about the fight and Shelby, by a volunteer from the National Park Service, going to D.C., by Amtrak Train, last May, 2013, and didn't quit get the story, but I was curious enough to come back, to see of what I heard, about this small town, who sponsored a World Champion, Heavy Weight Boxing Championship, that I thought, I must have heard this wrong, here?  Yes, right here in river city!  Out in the middle of now, where, but on the train tracks, therefore, accessible to the whole U.S.A.!  A great asset; however, it sounds like the trains, who promised these local business men, mayor and other brave and ambition souls, wanting to build their town, around an oil and gas boom, that ended a year after the fight, to me, pulled off the publicity stunt of the century, and I just tracked down the book, I skimmed, two weeks ago, when I was here, THE FIGHT THAT WON'T STAY DEAD, by James W. ("Body") Johnson, . . . A colorful and factual story of the championship fight that continues to make sports history!

Last night, at around midnight, after getting out a late afternoon blog, I got on the Internet, easily, to look up the fight, to see what sources, and understanding I could get off the web.  There was a 5 part series of videos, that showed the whole fight . . . absolutely amazing, in size of attendance, whether people paid or not!  If you want to determine the success of the venture, from a business stand point, it was a disaster, the Body Johnson, father and son, promoter team, idea guys, along with the mayor, paid dearly, financially, four banks went bankrupt, the lumber company was never paid for the lumber to build the great facility, the arena, and Shelby was allegedly seen as the laughing stock of the country . . . WHY?

Johnsons, Father & Son Team, the Mayor, Lumber Company & Dempsey, Where Super Heroes . . . Jack Kearns, the Railroad, Villains!  

To me, the very fact they, these small town boys, with tons of vision, love of the township, pulled this thing off, with only 500 people in the town, with little money, dealing with the sharks and barracuda's of the day, the allegedly famous, himself, Jack Kearns, referred to as a con artist, a desperado, and a swindler . . . was lucky to get out of town, before getting hung on a rope!  Kearns had connections with Salt Lake City, and New York, which is where the Johnsons went to broker the deal for the fight, wearing cowboy hats, spurs, and all the regalia of a Montana cowboy, sliding a saddle bag filled with the first of a three part payment, of $100,000, the first installment, and sealing the deal, or so they thought, these country bumpkins, who agreed to pay, Dempsey, who would have fought for free, after a two year hiatus, with manager, Kearns, thinking they could take all this money and split it between manager and fighter, which seemed to end up the case, with Dempsey, going forward with the fight, just because he was dying to get into the ring again, or the shyster, his manager, was going to take two of the payments, then call of the fight, $200,000 richer, without any work, sounds like the American Greed Mentality . . . dog eat, dog, fuck the little guy, that this country was actually, kind of founded on!

If you look at the motives and intent, the local boys were just attempting a publicity stunt, to build the local economy and feature the town of Shelby . . . the mayor was all about promoting his town, so to say; the lumber company, in good faith, thinking it would get repaid, and increase business, gave the lumber for the arena on a line of credit, I would imagine, and Dempsey, just wanted to fight, with a two year lay over, and dry spell . . . thank God, he wanted to fight, after all that trouble, commitment, and energy, the town of Shelby put out for the boxing match.  I can't say the same for the guys on the other side, the super villain side of this whole, fun, outlandish, but awesomely gutsy venture by the local boys, with, I would say, pretty pure motives, probably thinking they would make a dime or two long the way.  Just this morning in the Great Falls Tribune, the term, vulture capitalists came up . . . that about describes Kearns, who didn't put up a dime of his own, just got Dempsey to Shelby, absconded on about $280,000 for a day or weeks work!  Then ditching out of town, before the other local boys hung him from the nearest tree.

By Today's Inflationary Standards, Tickets Were $250 & Kearns Made $1.2 Million

I am not a mathmatition, nor an economist, but I think that given the difference in the worth of a dollar back them, and now, with the original ticket price being $50.00, and the agreed upon pay off to get Kearns to bring his boy, Dempsey to fight, almost backing out after the railroad, reneged on their promise to bring special scheduled trains in for the fight, but at the last minute cancelled, with Molumby and the other local talent, wanting Kearns to wait until the ticket sales came in to make the final payment on the $300,000 incentive package to get the boxers to come to this remote location, which would not have been a problem, had the trains agreed to carry through on their end of the deal with transportation being a real issue . . . and I wonder why there is an army of train workers, not only outside my motel room door, but across the street, when they were not there yesterday, how did they know what I was going to write about today?  Were they in on the deal with Kearns, got bribed to with hold transportation services to the event?  Something seems beyond coincidence . . . I passed the Sherlock Motel today, after leaving Cassy's Perky Perks, where I started this blog hours ago, and I heard one of the gals, just casually tell someone, yeah, the lady is here, or something to that affect.

Yesterday, in my blog, I mentioned that I was going to get to the bottom of the Kearns deal, what he was up to, what he actually did, how much he really got, and for doing what, and why he would fuck the local boys who put so much into the fight, not to mention, having the attention, not only of the boxing world, but of the world press of the time . . . with airplanes, blimps, and reporters from across the country following the fight, Why?  Now Kearns was from New York, and had connections in Salt Lake City, was a big shot, and a public draw in and of himself, and people came to see him as much as his boy, Dempsey, this was a really big deal, back in the day, and would be today, as well.  He probably had connections with the Copper Kings, who ruled the legislature, the courts, and purchased politicians at will, going for the highest price. There may have been this attitude in that day, that the state of Montana was there for the taking, the natural resources that made millionaires and billionaires, fortunes, with businesses and vulture capitalists, raping the land, using the work force, and then up and taking the money and running, leaving the modest, hard working people of Montana being economically exploited, towns ruined, and poverty stricken . . . was this a model that had been in place for a hundred years in Montana?  Darwinian survival of the fittest, the model for modern day capitalists, the pattern for American Greed!

Not Doing This to Make Money, But to Make History

This was a statement made in an interview with New Order, a British band, with purer than most American band, motives . . . when asked if they had made a lot of money, Bernard Sumners, made this statement, that they never made much money, and they didn't make their music to make money, but they did write their music to make history!  My son, kind of had a similar approach to his music, after winning Hard Rock Band of 2008, Magnet Magazine, with my suspicions that their band's nationwide tour, after getting three worldwide music magazine interviews, with music critics telling readers to not even finish reading this article, and go get a copy of God's Revolver, new CD, Little Black Horse Where Are You Going With Your Dead Rider?  Every interview I read at the time was a stellar review of the creative and original music, that dared any music magazine or writer to put them in a category, going from hard rock, to southern rock, to heavy metal, to emo, jazz, to whatever, totally rockin' stuff.  I couldn't believe this was my son's band?  So fucking awesome, and I am addicted!  His new CD, that came out, in 2011, and never was even named, and just up and disappeared, after a record deal with Sony's, Translation Lost, only heightening my suspicions that the music was being pirated, had gone underground, with me, recently tracking down, Underground Revolver, in BC or Canada, a music laundering entity . . .

When I tried to get my son to go big time, he always thought, as Jim Morrison, of the Doors, that would be selling out, with fights in the band, about the natural course the band or bands should take . . . I pictured large music, like his, loud, rowdy, raucous and wild, being blasted in open arenas, rather than in backyards, cottage concerts, and dingy bars.  Fame and money didn't seem to be the motives, or the intent of the band, just simply, just the fucking love of making music!  I understood, my motives and intents in my cases, with clients making the damages amounts, shocking me, but willing to take it for the principles, the re-establishment of constitutional basics, and upholding my oath of being an officer of the court, with a long name recognition before, being poisoned, or getting an alleged terminal brain disease, that was suppose to be my demise, by 2002, with my own higher motives, being anything other than money, the win, the thrill, the game, the exposure, the thought that much more experienced attorneys, were actually paying to read my briefs, e-filed with the courts, making the ailing courts money . . . may the fresh be with you . . . got that line from Subway this morning, great new format, taking off the gloves, taking it to the face of the SEC, the state division of Securities, the Utah Attorney General, the Utah Governor and the Department of Commerce, for not checking and stopping government violation of my client's constitutional rights . . . money was never, never, never the motive! 

Shelby, You Get Bragging Rights--Street Signs Made of Gold

Just because your ancestors and the founding fathers and mothers of this town, with foresight and fortitude, didn't make money, they fucking made history!  And to me, that is far higher, far more noble, and done with pure intent, honestly, making good on their promises, carrying all the burden and risk, but having clean hearts and pure hands . . . allowing the multitudes to participate in this historic event, BE PROUD!  As I sat outside the Shelby Library, with Library, in none other than gold letters, looking at the golden leaves of the town, matching the gold street signs, I thought, this town is sitting on a literal gold mine, set out by your forefathers and mothers . . . take THE FIGHT THAT WON'T STAY DEAD, and bring it back to life, for all of us to enjoy, to reminisce, to feels nostalgic of a bygone era, of fun, a spirit of adventure, of reaching beyond your mortal minds, creating and innovating, bringing about memories of that Spirit of Americana, that era of the golden age of opportunity, better to have tried and failed, than never to have tried at all . . . 

Welcome to Opportunities Inc., Head Start

As the Library closed, only open in the mornings on Thursday, for kids, story time, and I had to leave for two hours, something big city lawyers, and citizens, never have to do, but loving the small town libraries for the feelings of warmth, the cozy atmosphere, the down home staff, who are willing and excited to share stories of the town with you, as well as secrets that have been buried for years, to help unveil the event that can make Shelby all that the really good old boys, say back in the day, bring prosperity to you and your posterity, here in this dusty Montana town.  These types of stories are what makes people great, towns great, the pioneering spirit great, and fun for everyone.  Capitalize on this fun time in the history of your town, teach your children about it, just this morning, assuming every person in the town, especially locals, would know about the Dempsey fight, the Batista or the coffee maker, or in my case, the hot chocolate maker, didn't know a thing about the fight!  What, as Governor Bullock, is stumping around the state, gathering support for early childhood education, trying to follow President Obama's challenge to get the kids young and literally get an early edge, making a market of brainy kids who can compete with China, Japan, Germany and other up and coming countries in this high tech world of ours, we need not forget our past, our roots, and our histories, vying for that vulture capitalism, losing our souls if you will, not that a kindergartner is thinking that, nor the Gov . . . but, ignite those minds, don't just fill the vessels.

That reminds me of why I have such hope for the future, there was an article in the Great Falls Tribune, of a group of high school kids in GFs, who are capitalizing and coming up with a new small business adventure, using their skills, working in a welding class, with the help of teachers and staff, who are starting a business, making hitch covers, that promote local rival high school mascots and names!  I know what a trailer hitch is, but I had to ask the Main Street Convenience store clerk what exactly a hitch cover was, he just agreed with what I thought it was or is.  I am not sure how that works, but the kids are making them, and working out business plans, and getting ready to do profit sharing, with those students who put in the most work on the business model, product, plan, promo, and selling, wow, how cool is that, America!  May the fresh be with you!

Hop on Over & Scratch . . . Time to Go!  Have a Great Americana Day, History in the Making!  Good News, Deficit Spending Down, Give the Prez. Some Long Overdue Credit!