Mayhem in suburbia

[jewpinthethird]

If I had a statue like that and it were stolen, I'd probably cry until I dehydrated and died.

[Specforces]

Well it looks like we're murderers too. Varia, lighten up, we put the statue back. The pumpkin was tragically KIA however.

[talisman]

omg jewpin's a racist!

but seriously those statues had some kind of weird function in the South, and used to always be black. Then mlk came along and shit and they had to make them look like jockeys.

[emccky]

what you should have done was put the pumpkin on the head of the huge statue, so it was like a pumpkin man.

[aperson]

Originally Posted by Varia

Yeah guys, vandalism is cool. So is stealing.

Man these guys are so cool, doing all this vandalizing and stealing.

...

Shut the fuck up.

[MalReynolds]

And in swings Aperson with something completley relevent and biting, chilling the casual reader to the core.

On topic, I thought those pictures were pretty funny. Especially the "You're Next" scribbled on the back of the pumpkin. Sounds like a fun night.

Mal

[Specforces]

Ehh, just a little bit of mischief to cool the ol' overworked mind.

[Tasuke]

Brilliant!

[Specforces]

Thank you Tasuke.

[jewpinthethird]

Lawn Jockey (Jocko)

Originally Posted by www.phillyburbs.com/undergroundrailroad/signals.shtml

The story goes that at the time of Washington's crossing of the Delaware, a 12 year old African American Joque Graves was at camp, a groomsman for Washington. He wanted to make the crossing with the army; however, Washington, aware of the danger, ordered him to stay on the Pennsylvania shore, and shine a light, so upon return the company would know where to come to retrieve their horses. After the surprise attack on the Trenton barracks, Washington returned to find Joque had frozen to death, guarding the horses, the lantern still ablaze and frozen in his hand.Moved by the boys devotion, Washington commissioned a statue, 'The Faithful Groomsman', to stand in honor of Graves at the General's estate at Mount Vernon.

It is ironic that this statue, commissioned and made popular by slave owning Washington, would eventually become a beacon for freedom for runaway slaves.

With spies and bounty hunters everywhere, even safe houses were not always safe. It became necessary to be able to convey, in a low-key fashion, what condition any Underground Railroad stop was in at any given time. The answer was the 'lawn jockey', painted to wear a red cap.

If a safe house was 'safe', and prepared to accept visitors, a lantern or an American flag would be placed in the forward reaching hand. If the house was under scrutiny or compromised, the lantern or flag would be removed, signaling the travelers to move to another house down the line. Further south, along the Mississippi, green and red ribbons tied to the statues arm - whether clandestinely or with the owner's knowledge - attested to the status of the owners of the house: red ribbons alerting danger, green ribbon announcing safety.

[areanem]

damn he was right. Hrmm i wonder why they started painting the lawn jockeys white then?? what? us black folks arnt cool enough to be decoration on your lawns??!?! HUH??!? lol j/k but it would be nice to know why. Oh and funny adventure. thnx for the pics. and vandalism is the ish

[evilbutterfly]

What ever happened to you being in the military and like, helping people in New Orleans? o__O

[talisman]

ha! the same article also writes "Today considered a sign of poor lawn decoration at best, and overt racism at worst" which is what I was thinking of.

[Specforces]

I'm still in the Military and I still helped people in New Orleans. That was on vacation. I am allowed to have fun.