Why is it that I found myself again today wanting to give Paden Cash some editorial advice for his work in progress to which I've given the working title of "Oklahoma After the Organic Acts"? There are damn few good accounts of land surveying that really capture the feel and smell of it all and that needs to be put right by someone.
Any decent land surveyor will have gotten his or her hands dirty, so to speak, excavating history and investigating the odd arrangements that consenting adults have made for the disposition of real property. The whole business needn't be sanitized if none of the parties are in positions to sue for defamation.
Part of any proper account of land surveying is a description of the land, its history, and an accounting of the personalities who have walked upon it as if they were the owners. That should not be overlooked in any description of surveying work and would be a nearly unique contribution to American literature.
I couldn't agree more. I have read many survey texts in the past fives years or so as I studied intensely for my exams, and I don't recall reading one from the personal experience- telling the human side of things. It would be great to have such a book. Particularly since there is a good chance surveying will probably never return to the large survey parties of the past and most new stories will only include one person.
N10,000, E7,000, Z100.00
PLS - IL, MO, AR, KS, MN, KY
Although this book is not as colloquial as Uncle Paden's accounts, it still tells the story from a non-technical perspective. I highly recommend Chaining Oregon.
I appreciate the input Kent. That is an inspiring thought. I have penned several articles about Col. Theodore Barrett, one of several surveyors that spent a good deal of time laying out our wunnerful (?!) PLSS system.
As to whether or not I am qualified or talented enough to take on such an endeavor...who knows? Could posterity possibly be ready to hear an account of the early days and where in the world they found pizza?
maybeee...;-)
ps - it would take a large canvas, a broad pallet and several different types of brushes...but it would be worth the effort, I think. If nothing else, I'd get a kick out of hearing my critics' cries of heresy...
lemme ruminate on it..could turn into something!
> lemme ruminate on it..could turn into something!
😉
> ps - it would take a large canvas, a broad pallet and several different types of brushes...but it would be worth the effort, I think. If nothing else, I'd get a kick out of hearing my critics' cries of heresy...
If you're familiar with John McPhee's work, the grand, interleaved narrative that connects something large and abstract with the concrete and personal, I think what you're after is the Okie picaresque version of that. There is the sweep of history, beginning at some remote epoch in geologic time when by chance great piles of carbon-based lifeforms saw fit to die in sufficient quantities to insure that millions of years later various of their human descendants would be bathing in banknotes from oil and gas royalties and driving Pierce Arrows through pastures.
"lemme ruminate on it..could turn into something!"
Speaking from the knowledge base of cattle, rumination eventually turns into either BS or CS.