My name is Letson ELTHRON Easterling,Jr. I am a 61 year old male and I live in Jackson, Mississippi. My father is a retired USN officer whose assignments moved our family all over the 48 conterminous(not contiguous) states. I've lived in Key West, Florida; Newport,Rhode Island & The Providence Plantations; Little Creek, Virginia; Paulsboro, New Jersey; Carmel Valley, California; Waukegan Illinois; Brunswick, Georgia; Jacksonville, Florida; and Jacksonville Beach, Florida. I also lived in Columbia, South Carolina, for four months when I completed Basic Training for my seven year hitch in the USANG's 113th Military Police Company in Brandon, Mississippi. I was actually a Cook and a Policeman. By my unit's standard's, my height was 5'9'. By the US Army it was 5'8&3/4". At that time, Military Police had to be at least 5'9" tall. The US Army sent me to Cook School (94B20) and I both cooked and policed when I served back home. I was never arrested by my company for bad cooking and I was awarded "The Purple Veal Cutlet" as a result of wounds sustained during military cooking.
My father became a professional Boy Scout District Executive after he left the Navy. My two brothers and I then began a wonderful journey in which we spent an average of nearly three weekends per month camping out and doing a variety of Boy Scout activities during school days. All three of us became Eagle Scouts. I learned survival skills like how to live off of fruit of the land by hunting, fishiing & gathering food. Two memorable weeks are those at Philmont Ranch in the rugged Sangre de Christo mountains, of New Mexico's Santa Fe/Taos region, during a two week hiking/camping trip of slightly over 50 miles. In Florida, I earned my Mile Swim award in the annual Suwanee River Raft Race that Dad started in 1963 and which is still held today. I actually had to swim about five or six miles in the Suwanee because Dad factored in the current of the river.
Some of the jobs that I had before and during college are Boy Scout Camp Counselor, Sickle Cell Anemia Research Laboratory Assistant (Blood&MouseMan), brickmason's assistant (Dangerous-one mason was killed on our job site), map maker (Cartologist) for the State Highway Department one summer and Surveyor's Rodman/Chainman the next, as I awaited the day that I was to report to Basic Training.
I attended Ole Miss from 1967 to 1971 in Oxford, Mississippi. I was an English major with a minor in History. That was when my classmate, a red-headed kid from Drew, Mississippi, was begining to carve his legend as "Archie Who" which would lead to the legends of his sons Peyton and Eli. Archie Manning is "College football". If there has ever been a sport's role model better than Elisha Archibald Manning, III, well-I do not know just who it would, or could, be. Seeing those exploits in person have left me with a strong belief that College Football is just about the greatest sport in the world. I have devoted much more time than I should have studying the history of college football. Barabas, Stagg, Farout, Cornell's 5th down v. Dartmouth (Cornell had the guts and the honor to forfiet the game and make themselves snap their 18 game winning streak), Meeeechigan, Ole Miss, Bama, Tech, Vandy, good ol'laid back Tulane, Washington, Kinnick, Berwanger, 38-0, 32-33,10-8, KF-79, Rockne, Bryant, Vaught,Spurrier, Walker, Jackson etcetera. I've seen a bunch of Heisman winners play, scores of great games and more than a few legends. After earning my BA, I spent '72/'73 at the Ole Miss Law School.
For its relatively small population of just under three million souls, Mississippi, like Ireland,` produces an inordinate number of:
1)Writers--William Faulkner, John Grisham, Eudora Welty, Shelby Foote, Thomas Harris ("The Silence of the Lamb's"), Willie Morris, "Tennessee" Williams, Cid Ricketts Sumner("Quality", which became the movie Pinky; Tammy Tell Me True and other "Tammy" novels which were made into a series of movies in the 1960's), Beth Henley, Jim Henson et al,
2)Musicians & Actors--Elvis, B.B. King,Faith Hill, Jimmy Rodgers, W.C. Handy, Lance Bass, Bo Diddley, Tammy Wynette, Charlie Pride, Leontyne Price, Jerry Lee Lewis, Robert Johnson, Morgan Freeman, Dana Andrews, Ray Walston, Sela Ward, James Earl Jones and Tom Lester, just to name a few
3)Athletes--Archie Manning, Eli Manning, Deuce McAllister, Brett Favre, Hugh Green, Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, "Cool Papa" Bell, David Delucci, Roy Oswalt, Dizzy Dean, Ralph Boston, Gloster & Willie Richardson and scads more, including Archie's son Peyton(even though he played for Tennessee, his Mississippi roots are deeeeeeeep.
Even though I was smack dab in the middle of Nobel Laureate William Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County and it's seat of Jefferson, I had little interest in his works. Oh, I visited his home, Rowan Oak, a time or three but I felt that he was really just a local talent and was too difficult to read with enjoyment. I chose The Beatles and Dylan over Elvis and B.B. I cheered Archie but pulled against Favre (rival school thing). Later in life, I realized the folly of my ways and read all of Faulkner's magnificant novels and short stories. He wrote Hollywood scripts too. Be forewarned: "Count No-Count", as Oxonians called him, will send even the most learned readers to the dictionary lots and lots of times. Music from the aforementioned Mississippi artists began to sound better and better.Favre became one of my beloved Green Bay Packers.
I became keen on literature actually before I was born. My mother, an avid Edgar Allen Poe fan, read aloud to me while I was still in the womb. She continued the practice of reading to me until I started first grade and then she allowed the teachers to do the job. I received a World Book Encyclopedia on Christmas of my eleventh year. I read every article from "A 1" to "zymase" several times. I still love to read Encyclopediae, dictionaries, thesauri, foreign language grammar primers, atlases and almanacs. Etymology, or word origins, is an interest of mine. I love puns, Limericks,palindromes and newly created or invented words that are not in the dictionary but should be, like "spork" (spoon and fork in one utensil) and bling-bling for examples.
In the 9th grade I discovered "The Guiness Book of World Records" and proceeded to annoy anyone within earshot with trivia, trivia and more trivia. I enjoyed the game "Trivial Pursuit" in its first couple of "genus" editions and, no brag-just fact, frequently played solo against 4-person teams for whom I was required to provide answers to "even the odds". A Manx friend of mine, Chief Inspector H. of The Royal Hong Kong Police Force, who was no slouch on the European and Asian related answers, teamed up with me during one of his 5-month paid vacations (occurring every two and a half years)and after we went undefeated for nearly three months, we were banned from playing as team mates by the rest of the players. Just a day before Inspector H.'s departure, they relented and let us team up again for one last game. Ironically, they actually beat us for the first and only time.
I worked a while in the financial industry immediately after college until I took the job from which I've now retired, a 25 year career in job development and training with The Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development. Retirement jobs have been a pollster with the National Opinion Research Center of The University of Chicago, security officer for a very, very large church, retail sales clerk at my local drug store, night auditor for some Marriott and Hilton properties and currently an Employment Representative with the City of Jackson and the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.
Over the years, I've picked up some knowledge about a good many things from a good many people, places and things. Some of my interests and areas of knowledge are:
HISTORY: WESTERN CIVILIZATION, BRITISH, ENGLISH, IRISH, AMERICAN, US CIVIL WAR, MISSISSIPPI, OXFORD (MS), OLE MISS(UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI), JACKSON(MS), LAUREL(MS)....
LITERATURE: WILLIAM FAULKNER NOVELS,SHORT STORIES, ROWAN OAK (FAULKNER'S OXFORD, MS RESIDENCE), YOKNAPATAWPHA COUNTY (LAFAYETTE COUNTY, MS.), JEFFERSON (OXFORD, MS}, JOHN STEINBECK, OSCAR WILDE, TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, LIMERICKS, PUNS....
MUSIC: FOLK, CELTIC, IRISH, SCOTTISH, ENGLISH, AMERICAN, BOB DYLAN, JOHNNY CASH, THE KINGSTON TRIO, THE BEATLES, JOHN PRINE, PINK FLOYD, 60s-70s ROCK....
SPORTS: FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL HISTORY, NCAA FOOTBALL HISTORY, PRO FOOTBALL HISTORY, OLE MISS FOOTBALL & OTHER SPORTS, ARCHIE MANNING, SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE, MISSISSIPPI NCAA SPORTS, MISSISSIPPI HIGH SCHOOL...
MOTION PICTURES: CLASSIC MOVIES, JOHN FORD/JOHN WAYNE MOVIES, JOHN FORD MOVIES....
LAW: BASIC PRINCIPLES OF LAW, CONTRACTS....
EDUCATION AND TRAINING: JOB TRAINING, GED TRAINING, JUNIOR/COMMUNITY COLLEGES, CONTRACT MANAGEMENT, PROGRAM MONITORING TECHNIQUES....
I'll correct spelling and grammar errors later....