Shamrockin' the shirt

 Every time I wear my Celtic FC shirt, I start singing Rod the Mod's You're in My Heart (The Final Acclaim). Moreover, the line You're Celtic, United, but baby I've decided / You're the best team I've ever seen goes on repeat for a couple hours before I have to start ignoring the voices in my head and attempt to do some work. 

Oddly enough, it hasn't happened when I wear my Boston Irish shirt. Although, I do tend to wear that solely on St. Paddy's Day, I am wearing the Celtic shirt today because it was surprisingly cold when I woke up this morning. 

I'm 142 episodes into a podcast called Into The Fray, and there was an interview on episode 141 with a couple of Florida authors (Mark Muncy and Kari Schultz). They've been on the show a few times already, and this episode (from 2018) was promoting their book Freaky Florida. They do a lot of research all over the state and not only write about weird things happening, Kari draws some stuff as well as photographs being added to help bring everything together. 

One of the things they talked about, which I've heard before in another podcast, is how some of the cities got their names. As Florida had been a highly Native American part of the country, most names here are Native American related (Tallahassee, Lake Okeechobee [aka "Lake O" since no one wants to pronounce it or spell it], Calusa /   Caloosahatchee River, Seminole, Apalachee, etc). 

The one thing that I've heard before is how Kissimmee got its name. According to this podcast (I'm going to try to get as much of the context in this quote as I can, as I am re-listening to the episode), a contact the writers have in the Seminole Tribe says, "A lot of people assume the name 'Kissimmee', was named for some Indian word that was forgotten. It was known as the Kissimmee River originally." 

The contact that the writers have, also stated that he [contact] plus other tribes and their members did some more research over the terms that people are using, especially since the city is one of those words "people assumed it was a name that has been forgotten". 

What the people found out, was part of a darker past. "Apparently after the Second Seminole War, they were trying to relocate everybody to the Reservations passed the Mississippi. When they were moving people out, a lot of tribes didn't want to go. They were going to be forced to live next to other tribes they were at war with. It was easier to try to hide and stay in the state... deep in the swamps and stuff. As the land was expanding, settlers were moving in. The settlers were given carte blanche to do whatever they wanted to, to the tribes. Kill the men, do whatever to the women and children. One Indian maid saw / heard what had happened in a nearby town, where they had raped all the women and killed all the men. The Indian / Seminole language at this point had no word for 'rape' so when they [settlers] came to drive the Indians off their land, this woman tried to offer herself up to them. Having no word for rape, she was trying to use the English word 'kiss me'... 'kissimmee'". 

The statements the podcast host makes after hearing this, is it sounds like the woman was trying to "distract" the settlers, "or appease them", and the question the hosts asks, is if there's another part of the story - "do we know the the story exactly what happened during that time". The authors stated that they don't know because "this is an oral history that has been passed down over time", and their contact is actually further trying to research this information. The only thing they know is from what stories people already saying about this.

As I have heard the exact reference before, which might even have been aired on another episode of this podcast, I thought it was interesting how, being originally from Massachusetts, there are other stories behind how the rest of the country got its' language and terms. Considering it's a yearly rite of passage for Massachusetts school children to go visit Plymouth Plantation during their studies, as well as the legal age children (21+ year olds) to visit a couple adult theme parks (casinos) in Connecticut, you really don't know what the rest of the world had for tribes until you visit the state or do more research. 

There's an interesting mini-series that aired a few years ago, called Saints & Strangers and it's about the arrival of the English to Massachusetts and how there was a tense battle between the tribes that were already there and the English coming to make a new home. It's one of those "Thanksgiving" movies that show a little more history and slight perspective on how we all got here. 

Loads of stuff to think about today. Pretty heavy things too. It's light and dark mind expansion and if we can learn something every day, I think we can be in a better place. Pass on to others what you learn and they can probably tell you something they might know about the same subject. Read. Listen. Talk to people. 

Behave and take care of yourself.

Cheers;