Somewhere back in time the words of a song were forever implanted in this writer’s brain. The origin had long been forgotten. Perhaps Lancaster Central High School Choir. Maybe it was a vinyl recording played over and over until the words were eternally brain-inscribed.
Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians recorded it on a 78 rpm exactly one score days short of a full year prior to this writer’s birth. Grandma Wolf had a console player and many 78s that were joyfully played repeatedly. Also ingrained in memory from her platters was “Santa Got Stuck in the Chimney.”
Research proved “Dem Bones” was a spiritual song inspired by Ezekiel 37:1-14 well before any Pennsylvanian sing-songed. And remember, Pennsy’s brought us Punxsutawney Phil. Duh.
Holy scripture ended with, “And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.”
A resurrection of deer from bones could not be fathomed when a box 6x12x24” became filled to overflowing with dem dry bones.
Approximately a year ago three deer perished in a collision w,ith a Norfolk Southern engine. Two of the deceased cast aside during the impact landed in Angelkeep territory. The News-Banner’s Mark Miller was contacted at the time with the question as to appropriateness of the disaster being covered in an Angelkeep Journals’ column. Was it too gruesome for print, newspapers being a bit more discriminatory today than a century prior? As a result, it became front page News-Banner coverage. At the same time Norfolk Southern was struggling to contain an Ohio derailment that threatened an entire town.
So. . . Angelkeep labored at cleaning up the bones entangled in the grass after having been stripped by buzzards and flies and bleached by the sun. Dem bones, dem bones, dem thigh bones could destroy a lawn mower blade. The tune could not be erased during the harvesting of all of the bones scattered due to the buzzards pulling the carcasses to and from for days on end. Weeks!
Scrimshaw.
The idea became as mentally attached as Dem Bones’ tune and lyrics. Free scrimshaw lessons were found on U-Tube. Loss of life from 12 months past could become memorial pieces with images of Angelkeep roses, dragonflies, birds, a large mouth bass, a bygone snowflake, or even a pin oak leaf. Perhaps a Deam Oak leaf would be more historical.
Thigh bones could be cut, halved, and turned into pendants as a forever memory of all of the deer that found Angelkeep over the decades past. Key rings? Earrings? Dem bones dem boggle dem potentialities.
The two deer ricocheted eastward to Angelkeep’s land proved to be male and female, one of each. That fact was not known at the time. It became apparent only when pulling the sculls from the tall dried grass that had grown around and through them over the past year.
One, a doe, had a smooth forehead. Fortunately these two deer were hit from the rear, still an instant death, but no damage done to the sculls. The second deer landing on Angelkeep’s side of the railroad tracks had the start of inch-long tines on the brow just atop the two eye sockets.
Brow tines appeared first on young bucks. The full antlers came later, after the yearling had time to grow, thus saving it from the risk of the harvesting of hunters for a season or two.
It proved a huge surprise to realize how small some of the bones of a deer look without the muscle and hide attached. For instance the blade of the shoulder barely covered the palm of a hand. This would make a fine scrimshaw amulet. Tiny bones at the joint near a deer’s hoof, discovered through research to be identified as “phalanges of lateral digit” were so small and light they could have been guessed to be molars. But deer’s teeth are unlike human molars.
Scrimshawed with miniature black roses and adding jewelry wire would make a unique set of earrings. Sh-h-h-h-h, don’t tell Gwen. This will be a huge surprise. Mother’s day is just around the corner.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem scrimshawed bones, may they rest in “peace-s.”
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
