Without a doubt, I owe a great debt of thanks to Sistersville Hospital and and the ambulance staff who got me to Wheeling Hospital in record time. An even greater thank you is due the Doctors, Nurses and Staff that made my stay there as comfortable and secure as it was. Without a doubt, Wheeling Hospital is the best I have ever experienced. My roommate said he had stayed in hotels that were not as nice and I had to agree. The food was good and hard as it is to believe, they give you a menu and you call in your order for your meals, Great!!!
I want also to give a great big thank you to Michelle, one of the Staff at Wheeling. She was interested in my storys and encouraged me to post them on the web I hope she and her children will enjoy!!!
I also want to thank Mike and Tabby for the ride to sisterville, without them I dont know what I would have done.
Thank you all so much----Old Man With No Name---
These storys are dedicated to the late Chief Listens to Wipporwill and his wife Singing Wind Woman.
In the beginning, before the two legged, (Humans) the world was a beautiful place. The weather was always warm and the animals were at peace with one and another. It was like this for a long time. But as time passed the animals forgot to thank the creator for the good life they lived. They became proud and thought it was their right to live this way. They did not suppose it could ever be any different.
The creator saw the way the creatures had become, and was displeased with them. I must teach them a lesson he thought, and so he sent snow.
It began to snow! Now the animals had never seen snow. They tasted it and it was wet and cold. It snowed and snowed and began to cover the ground and soon it got deeper and deeper. Soon the smaller animals were having trouble getting around, and still the snow came down and it was cold.
Now they did not know what to do, and so they decided to hold a council in the forest where the snow was not as deep, under the trees. They talked and talked and decided that one of them needed to go to the creator and ask for forgiveness and for fire so they might keep warm. They asked Eagle if he would go, as he flew the highest and closest to the creator. But Eagle was afraid, because he sometimes robbed Fish Hawk of his fish and he thought the Great Spirit would be displeased with him. One by one all of the animals found a reason why they could not go, no one knew what to do. One of them looked up and saw Crow sitting on a branch overhead. He had been sitting there listening and saying nothing. How about you Crow they asked.
Now in those days Crow was the most beautiful of birds. His feathers were every color of the rainbow, and when he sang his song was the most beautiful of all the birds. Please Crow they all cried, there is no one else.
Now Crow did not want to do this, but he agreed to go to the lodge of the Creator and ask for fire to warm the animals.
And so Crow began to fly to the lodge of the creator. For 3 days and 3 nights he flew and finally he arrived at the lodge of the Great Spirit. He landed on the ground outside of the lodge and began to sing. When the creator heard the wonderful song, he said who is singing outside my lodge? Looking out he saw Crow. What are you doing here he asked, and why have you come all this way? The Animals are cold and sorry crow replied. They have asked me to come here to ask you to forgive them and to give them fire to keep them warm.
You were very brave to fly all this way the Creator told Crow, I will give them fire. Taking a stick up from the ground, he placed it in Crows mouth. Fly over by the sun and it will catch fire, he told Crow. But, you must fly all the way back without stopping or the fire will go out. And so Crow flew over by the sun and the stick began to burn. When the stick was burning, Crow started to fly home. He flew for 3 days and 3 nights, all the way back without stopping. As he flew the smoke was blowing in his face and he began to cough and cough. The smoke began to turn his beautiful feathers black. At the end of the third night he landed once more on the earth. The animals were glad and soon had a great fire burning. They began to dance around the fire and soon were having a great time. Looking up one of them saw Crow sitting on a branch overhead. Sing us a song they cried. Now Crow was tired from his long flight, but he decided to sing anyway for them. When he tried to sing, all that would come out was Caw, caw, caw, his beautiful voice was ruined from the smoke. Not only that, his wonderful feathers were all black from the smoke blowing on them. Now Crow began to be very sad as he had tried to do good and looked what had happened to him.
The Creator saw how sad Crow was. He said to him, Crow, I have given you 3 gifts as payment for what you have done. When the 2 legged come, they will never put you in a cage for you beautiful voice as you can no longer sing. They will not kill you for you wonderful feathers as they are black from the smoke of the burning stick, and they will not kill you for your meat as it will always taste of smoke from the fire you brought back to the earth.
If you look at the feathers of a crow in the sunlight, you can see every color in the rainbow. This is the proof of this story.
I was running a music show I had named the Sounds of The Jersey Pines, in Waretown New Jersey. One night early on, 3 Men dressed as Native Americans came in. I found time to speak with them, and one of them introduced himself as chief Listens To Whippoorwill, of the Lenape tribe. As I have Lenape ancestors on both sides of the famly, I was quite interested. The show was new and I had been wanting someone to give a blessing for the show. I asked Listens to Whippoorwill if he would and he agreed. After the blessing he told us a Lenape story and a joke. I along with everyone was very pleased and it must have worked, as the show became very successful over the years and still presents music all these years later. This was the first of many time Listens to Whippoorwill would say the blessing over the music and the first of many storys he would tell.
Listens to Whippoorwill became a fast friend of mine. He called me brother, and I called him the same. When he learned of my Lenape ancestors, he loaned me books and began to teach me about my Lenape heritage. As time passed I began to feel more and more like a Lenape and wanted to be a part of the tribe. I asked Listens to whippoorwill about adoption into the tribe. He replied that all I needed was a returning to the tribe ceremony. I was thrilled and a date was set for my returning to the tribe. It was not to be. Two times we set a date and each time something major prevented me from making it. I was depressed over it, and began calling myself, Has No Name. As time passed and I grew older, I started calling myself Old Man Has No Name. While talking to Singing Wind Woman on the phone one day, I began to complain about not having a name. I told her I was calling myself Old Man Has No Name. She corrected me and said. You are Old man with No Name, She changed one word and gave me a name. I am Old Man With No Name.
Listens to Whippoorwill and Singing Wind Woman were inspirational to us all and he is greatly missed.