Blog’s last stand.

We broke the freezing point today, got on the high side of maybe even 35 F, melting some of the accumulated snow. More will melt tomorrow. Mud season is almost here, and I’m glad I have access to paved roads.

My brother Jay — very likely the only one reading Been There, Seen That with any consistency — sent the following lines about playing “Alamo.” (See yesterday’s blog.) He is nine years older than I am, so he had a significant head start in playing with toy soldiers.

Male readers may be interested to compare our experiences with their own; female readers might not be so inclined. On the other hand, our Aunt Sue had a fine collection of metal toy soldiers she played with in the late 1930s. They were still at my grandmother’s house before she died in 1971.

Jay writes: “Most typically, if I recall, the Disneykins and Tinykins, hearing rumor of barbarian invasion, fortified one or the other of the bedsteads of the twin beds, after which they spent a good while fighting against overwhelming odds to the last man (or whatever). The scenario doubtless owed a good bit the Alamo, as you point out.

"Other influences that come to mind are the film “Pork Chop Hill” in which Gregory Peck and his men faced attacks by massed Chinese infantry (it's a Korean War movie) and also “Zulu,” of course, which deals with the defense of Rourke's Drift. My mental image of the attackers owed something to the illustrations of the Aztec warriors in the Classics Illustrated comic book version of Bernal Diaz's “Conquest of Mexico.”

"I also recall reading a story by Harry Harrison in Analog about that time that may have had some influence. I can't remember the title, but the story involved a group of space colonists, two or three thousand in number, who are attacked by fanatical if primitive aliens many times more numerous.

"The attackers [in our play] may have sometimes been referred to as Zulus, but my recollection is that when this game first developed (about 1965) we called them Zougondis, a group of warlike savages invented for purpose of being the enemy. The name doubtless owes something to Zulu, and possibly also to Zouave.

"In any case, they didn't have many cultural attributes. They were very numerous and apparently spent all their time and energy in battle and slaughter. They were not concerned about their own casualties. Generally they didn't have firearms or cannon, but they did use catapults and bows and arrows. Sometimes they were assisted by another group of savages called Arkentondis, distinguishable from them only by name. There may have been other groups of attackers as well, but they have left no residue of memory."

C'est la guerre.