I'm going to stray from the normal here and write about people still living. I usually don't write to much about people still living, but will make an exception here because of special circumstances. This month at the Alger Sullivan Historical Society meeting on August 21, Howard Green who was raised in Bluff Springs will be the guest speaker.
Howard and I along with Bill Cox spent our early years exploring the Escambia river where we had a few memorable adventures. Bill is a few years younger than Howard and I and that being the case we may have misused him a little, like checking out how much weight a log across a creek or slough might hold.
We were careful not to misuse him to much, thinking we might have a future need for him. The following is directly from Howard about a coon hunting trip he and Bill went on, just days before Howard left for the USMC, seems Bill may have misused Howard on this occasion.
On the hunting trip on Labor Day weekend in 1977 they treed a baby coon and Bill wanted it for a pet, he somehow talked Howard into climbing the tree, the tree broke and Howard ended up in the mud, to top it off on the way out of the woods Howard stepped on a Moccasin making it mad and it tried to bite him several times, he was lucky to be wearing thick rubber boots that the snake couldn't bit through. One he won't let me forget is the time we were squirrel hunting and I killed a half grown squirrel and he waded out in waist deep water to get the squirrel.
The weather was a refreshing thirty degrees or so and when he got back to the car with the squirrel I ask him to sit on my chest waders so he wouldn't get my car seat wet, for some reason that didn't go over well with him. I tried to explain to him he could use the chest waders the next time and now he would fully appreciate them.
I try to show people both sides of a situation so they will appreciate things more, just like the time I went with Bill up in Alabama to setup his camper at a hunting club. After getting there and two or three hours of hard work sitting the camper up I told Bill if he would hook the camper up and move it I would now show him the easy way to do it, in only four or five minutes or so.
He ask why I didn't show him the easy way to start with and I told him, if I had, he wouldn't have wanted to do it the hard way, therefore he wouldn't appreciate doing the easy way near as much. Howard graduated from Century High School in 1971, after graduating from Auburn, Howard joined the United States Marine Corps and served this great country for many years as a Marine Corps officer.
After his military service Howard worked in several countries, and has always said he could talk all day about each one. Some of the countries I remember him working in are Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, Mongolia, Norway and Haiti but there are several more he has worked in or vacationed in.
I have no doubt he has a better understanding of how this world works than most of us due to his travels. His adventures in these foreign countries will be the main topic of his speech. I remember him saying he was chased by Silverback Gorillas and elephants while in Africa and hunting with a pygmies. One thing he remembers, when working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during the 1992 election President Bush (41) lost to President Clinton, people from several different countries ask him if the transition of power in the United States would be peaceful, because the transfer of power in the country they were from usually wasn't peaceful.
If possible come out and visit with Mr. Green and Alger Sullivan Historical Society on Tuesday August 21 at 6 PM, I'm sure it will be a very interesting experience to hear about all the places he has been. The meeting is at the Leach House Museum at 4th and Jefferson streets in Century.
