Ranger & Camping Trivia & Colloquialisms

 He thinks cause I'm a Yank I'm gullible to believe whatever media shows j/k. Seriously, what other location in a small town out west would be as secure as an ice house?

RRCmdrBennett wrote:I asked my wife where she heard of ice houses used as jails. She told me she learned it in history class.

At some public school no doubt...  

  I'm sorry Claymore. I promise I'll consider thinking about trying to be good.

And Dan, that tidbit of information was definitely enlightening.

I figure public school may get it right if it doesn't benefit their Leftist political agenda. I can't figure how teaching ice houses were teenporary jails helps promote liberal ideology.

"SHAVE-TAIL" an Army term referring to a 2nd Lieutenant.

(I actually have a first-hand story attached to this one.)

My Grandfather was a veteran of World War I. One evening, I said to him, "Grandpa, why do they call Lieutenants Shave-Tails?".

Grandpa stopped, and rolled his mouth a bit, and said, "I don't know. The only animals that we shaved the tails on were ....mules.".

I did some research. Pack Animals had to be "broken-in". Apparently, mules could have strong wills, so newly broken mules could be strong-willed, inexperienced, and unreliable. The Army adopted a universal custom of shaving the tail of a newly broken mule. As the hair on the tail grew out, the Army would trim the hair in a conical shape, called a "Bell".

When a Pack Mule had learned to pull a wagon, the hair on his tail was trimmed into a second "Bell", and when he could be saddle ridden, the hair was trimmed into a third "Bell". This way, if a mule went to a new handler, his level of training could be readily assessed.

And so the best trained mule was a "3 Bell Mule", and the barely trained mule was a "Shave Tail".

And so a Second Lieutenant was considered to be not only a Mule, but a Poorly Trained One, to boot!