Below are family stories, a little bit of History and even a Fable by Arnold

My grandmother on my father's side was a Big German, Mosher, she was about 6 feet tall, they were big people. my great grandmother Krise, they were big people.
in George Washington's day, the average man was 5 foot 6 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds. George Washington was 6 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 225. Its the diet that makes the difference,
George Washington's lineage comes down from a line of Royalty on both
sides Scottish and Irish, I have his lineage. They ate a lot of meat thru the centuries, that makes big people, peasants basically were grain eaters,
The high protein content makes the difference.
Example: the American Indian and the Germans are of the same ethnic
origin, also the Eskimos.
The Teutons, Mongolians out of the far east.
The Roman Empire was all the way north
to Denmark and east to Mongolia, The Land of Ghengis Khan empire
afterward.
These big tribes out of the east, Mongolians, the true Germans, men were huge, Teutons , drove the Roman empire back to the Mediterranean area, this was the end of the roman Empire.
These Germans united Germany into one Republic, it was 13 small kingdoms
before that. These Germans were grain eaters and not very big mostly.
The Romans are credited with the beginning of the fine horsemanship the
people of the far east learned from the Roman Soldiers occupation of
their lands,
As Genghis Khan is credited with fine fast horses and skilled riders that made him so powerful, plus the soldier skills, basically from the Romans.
The Arabian horse has a shorter, bigger diameter windpipe and can outrun
other horses without becoming winded, they are totally streamlined for
running.
These big Mongolians from the east were exactly as the American Indian especially the American Indians of the northeastern USA, the men were warriors, hunters and fishers, ate lots of fresh meat, fruits and berries the women gathered.
The cultural traditions of the American Indian are reflected many times
to their origin in the far east. I like history,  I hope I did not bore you with this short summery.

Arnold's Story on genealogy and why 
he is involved with it.

Genealogy and history go hand in hand,
If you know a lot of history, genealogy is much easier.
People of limited learning often say to me, why do you waste time on genealogy,
I quickly reply, because I am a Christian,
I am fulfilling God's expectations.
The Bible is a book of Genealogy, it tells
the lineage of every person in the Bible,
the Bible makes many references for Christians to know who their family is,
and not forget their dead ancestors.
The 4th. of Moses called Numbers,
God thru Moses made it perfectly clear to know who belongs to who,
Declare your Pedigree,
Get your family counted and in order.

Every man shall have a
Coat of Arms of their father's house at their campsite.
The reason so people on the same side did not fight each other, They were identified.

The Last book in the Old Testament Malachi makes reference to a Book of
remembrance.

In the New Testament, Book of Matthew, the first 17 lines is the lineage of Jesus
Christ.
The last page in the new testament states,
DO NOT CHANGE THE BIBLE, IT IS GOD'S WORD.

Arnold
True Story.

This is Arnold's dog Buddy. Not too fierce looking 
especially with that tail wagging, what there is of it. <smile>

And here is Buddy's momma just after she gave
birth to him.  He's in that litter  somewhere.

Isn't this beautiful!  Arnold calls it his
"Outdoor Church."

Model A Ford
Back in the days when the Model A Ford
was a popular car my cousin Dan Selfridge had one.
He had trouble with the rear end, so he tore it all apart and replaced
the ring gear,
the rear end is called the pumpkin/ or pig.
First you raise the rear wheels off the ground, then
You pull the axles, unbolt the pumpkin
and pull it out of the rear end housing,
then Daniel replaced the bad parts, put it all back together, lowered it
to the ground,
jumped in, fired that honey up, put it in low gear and here I come.
WRONG, THERE HE WENT.
Dan had the car in my grandfather's barn
as the weather was bad,
Well everyone knows how barns are built,
the ground level is where the cows and horses are kept,
A barn bridge is built out of hard pan dirt and shale and sometimes a
wall of cut stone on the sides,
a barn bridge allows second story ground access to the hay storage area,
and the opposite end is a big drop off on the back wall opposite the big
sliding door and barn bridge.
Well, like I was a telling you folks, Daniel was a proud and happy man,
opened the sliding doors to drive out of the barn, jumped in that Model
A Ford, cranked it up, boy that engine was purring, that
ole Model A Ford was just pawing the
floor of the barn like a young stallion feeling his oats,
Daniel was excited too, put that Mean Machine in low gear, standing on
the sidelines several friends and relatives
had gathered for this moment and anxiously waiting to go for a ride, by
the way, the brakes were steel rods to expand the brake shoes, Henry
Ford had not invented hydraulic brakes yet,
well anyhow, Daniel put it in low gear,
speeded up the engine, popped the clutch,
and went,
Where did Daniel Go ?
OUT THE BACK WALL OF THE BARN AND THE REAR OF THE CAR WAS HANGING IN MID AIR.
Daniel did a fine job putting the rear end back together,
BUT, with one little oversight,
He put the pumpkin in backwards, you could do that on a Model A Ford and
it would work just fine,
EXCEPT FOR A SMALL PROBLEM,
you had 3 gears for reverse and one forward gear where reverse was, and
low gear was now a reverse gear, also second and high gear,
SO, IF YOU WANTED TO GO FORWARD, YOU HAD TO PUT IT IN REVERSE, AND YOU
WOULD HAVE A TOP SPEED OF ABOUT 10 MPH.
LIKE  I WAS A TELLIN' YOU, THEM BRAKES JUST WEREN'T THE GREATEST.

So now we fix it all over again, put the pumpkin the other way, let the
car down, pull it out of the barn with the horse,
start it up, make sure nothing is behind you, put it in low and go,
Got it right this time.
Now this is how them educated people
get all them saying like,
IF YOU DON'T GET IT RIGHT AT FIRST, TRY AND TRY AGAIN,
SUCCESS THRU ADVERSITY.

PS. Don't be like Daniel, he had to put a new back wall in Grandpa
Burkett's barn.

True Story by
Arnold Burkett
Family Historian
24 April, 2002 

Here's one of those cute ones that Arnold comes up 
with every now and then.  He calls it. . . .  

"Eyeballs"
Got up early at the break of dawn,
looked out the window and on the front lawn,
What did I see,
Twenty four Eyeballs looking at me,
There was a dozen friends on the lawn
come to visit me,
I smiled and watched in sheer delight 
as my friends arose early and
visited in dawns early light,
I watched out my window for quite awhile,
all my friends was wearing a Smile,
They are Loyal friends you see,
For every day they come and visit me.
I give them breakfast and after awhile
they are on their way, but they will be back tomorrow, its another day.
They eat my tulips, shrubbery and flowers too,
there is nothing those deer won't do.
They are God's creatures and I do them no harm,
they are just my friends that
love living with me out here on the farm.

Arnold's fables
11 April, 2002
Break of dawn