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[Spindrift]

 

[Bret4207]

Anyone who reads the exploits of explorers like Shackelton, Scott, Franklin, Ross, etc is reading aobut a different breed of men than the vast majority we see today. Same for Lewis and Clark, etc.

 

[RicinYakima]

Oh, there are still some out there; running into burning buildings and keeping the human predator's at bay.

 

[462]

I regret not being able to volunteer to accompany Lewis and Clark.

 

[Bill]

I have read every day of the Lewis and Clark journals and I agree with most folks that it was the moon shot of the era, plus there was no mission control. It was a very long read, because several people were making daily entries

Bill

 

[Brad]

The thought of going into the abyss and not knowing if you will come back out would frighten most.

We no longer live in an era where people are largely self sufficient and able to solve almost any problem they encounter. Hate to say it but that was a time when men were men and anything less led to the extinction of your bloodline. Hardy souls were the only ones who made it.

Without men like that we would be living in the dark ages.

 

[462]

I read Stephen Ambrose's excellent book "Undaunted Courage" twice, and a condensed version of the diaries. I still find it amazing that there was only one fatality, and that was due to appendicitis shortly after the expedition's start.

Brad,
As my high school drafting teacher was wont to say, "It was when men were men and women were proud of it."
A huge part of American's soul has been lost since 1620, or even as recent as the 1920s. I dare say that if a group of today's average Americans were to step into Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine, and be transported back to a wagon train journeying from St. Louis to the Willamette Valley, that fully 75% of them would die.

 

[RicinYakima]

I read an interesting book about death and dying in the Civil War. Prior to that, 98% of the people died in their own bed, with their multigenerational families around them. Death was normal and accepted. To make your way in the world without a rich family, you had to go out and make your own way. Teenagers left home and were never heard from again, and it was common. It appears that it wasn't until the 1950's and 1960's when the US was promised scientific medicine that death became feared. But we were a people of greater faith in those days also.

 

[Bret4207]

"There's a race of men that won't stay home, a race that won't sit still. So they break the hearts of kith and kin, and wander the world at will." Robert Service. The only poem I ever liked enough to memorize. I think it fits men of that type exactly.