Lore for Lore (today's entry: Calamity Jane)

Good morning Gatherdom.  Actually 3:29am doesn't exactly portray a new dawn, so once I finish this article, I am taking my cooling glass of ice spring water and returning to bed.  Are we Americans not crazy; we buy spring water to the tune of millions of dollars a year and then we take ice cubes made in the freezer and dilute the purchased water.  Maybe I just need to run a line from my refrigerator to the Dasani processing facilities so my ice may be as pure.  Whoa Nelly!  This is not the article or my early morning idea.

The idea I propose is that a couple of times a week I will publish a little snipet from Americana lore, either fact or fiction, and invite international gatherers to offer up an article or two of their local, national lore.  Of course all may still comment.  If I get any takers; perhaps I will create my first group and call it "Lore for Lore".  We'll see.  This morning, let me offer up a truly original wild woman of honest flesh and blood:  "Calamity Jane".

Known as a frontierswoman and love companion to Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane Burk was born Martha Jane Cannary in Princeton, Mo., in May of 1852.  (May happens to be my month also, thus why Calamity gets to go first).  As a young girl living in Montana, she developed excellent markswoman skills.  She went to the Black Hills of South Dakota, serving as a scout on a geological expedition in 1875.  Several opposing traditions account for her famous nickname.  One explanation springing from her documented kindnesses to the less fortunate.  While another attributes her nickname to the harsh warning, usually accompanied by gunfire, she would give men who offended her.

She died at Terry, SD., on August 01, 1903 and was buried before the Lord at Deadwood, SD, next to Wild Bill Hickock.  As a lad, in 1972, I got to visit the site.

Okay, that's the idea.  If any of my fellow Gatherers from the international community would like to offer up one of their own historical lores and let me know, I will be happy to read and comment on the article.  (An easy way to signify this would be to use the TAG 'Lore for Lore').  God Bless.  Now I am back off to slumberland for another couple of hours.

- Robert B.