SCV Camp 1524 Prattville Dragoons Holiday Season Canned Food Drive

The Prattville Dragoons recently concluded their canned food drive for the Thanksgiving and Christmas 2019 holiday season.  This is the third annual canned food drive the camp has conducted benefitting the Autauga Interfaith Care Center in Prattville.  This year, the camp set another record, collecting 876 pounds of canned and dry food items.  Additionally, members gave cash which the camp treasury matched so a check for $210 was also presented to Mrs. Denise Brown who runs the AICC and is also on the Prattville City Council.  The check was presented and the cache of food was delivered on Tuesday November 19th by camp Commander Stuart Waldo and 2nd Lt Karl Wade.  Mrs. Brown was delighted and very appreciative of the donations and helpers in the food bank helped unload the stack of canned foods from the bed of the truck in which the delivery was made that afternoon.  Camp Adjutant Wayne Sutherland again served to store the food in his garage as donations were made at camp meetings over the past couple months.  This is a great initiative by the Dragoons to support our community as part of the benevolent outreach mission by the SCV camp. 

SCV Camp 1524 Prattville Dragoons Meeting for November 2019

The Dragoons held their monthly camp meeting for November at Milestone's Cafe, a new venue for the camp meetings and it was a great success.  The cafe afforded a separate room for the camp compatriots to gather together to have supper and to then conduct the meeting.  Despite a couple of men who were absent because of illnesses and despite the rainy cold weather, there was still 28 people in attendance including Tim Hobbs from the Tallassee Camp and our newest member Darrell Haywood.  Colby Carlock was also reinstated after catching up on his dues.  With Chaplain Dismukes out, Bill Branch led everyone in the Invocation to get things started followed by Color Sgt John Dennis who led everyone in the pledges and salutes to the flags.  Commander Waldo recited the SCV Charge and then provided information about the upcoming holiday events and additional announcements including that the camp is now on Instagram, the canned food drive will culminate with the delivery on November 19th to the Autauga Interfaith Care Center and, the annual billboard ad campaign was set to commence Thanksgiving week.  2nd Lt Karl Wade also petitioned everyone to consider signing up for a shift to cover the camp's Salvation Army kettle bell ringing days. 

Lloyd Caperton was the guest speaker for this meeting.  The Caperton family is descended from the French Huguenots with Hugo Capet a direct ancestor.  The name originated from makers of capes.  His family moved to Scotland in the 16th or 17th centuries and were among the Jacobites seeking Scottish independence from England.  After the Battle of Culloden, Capertons came to America and have lived in Alabama for over 200 years.  Lloyd claims Scottish and Cherokee ancestors.  The Capertons also hailed from the western part of Virginia (which became West Virginia) and Allen Taylor Caperton (for whom Lloyd was middle named), was a Confederate Congressman.  Lloyd showed off a 150 year old quilt and a 250 year old pocket watch which were handed down to him from previous generations.

Lloyd runs Caperton's Old South general store which was built in 1853 by his (great) grandfather William Stewart Caperton.  It was featured in the book "Wonderful Wetumpka".  Wetumpka means rumbling waters and Weogufka where Lloyd resides means milky waters.  Weogufka was settled in 1836 by Cherokees seeking to avoid the Trail of Tears displacement and the Creek Indians recently purchased land below Weogufka to reestablish the tribe from Oklahoma.  His general store is the only business remaining in Weogufka and the Confederate Battle Flag flies proudly over the building.

Lloyd was formerly a member of the League of the South, joining in 1997 and was part of the group which lobbied the state legislature to require state buildings to fly the Alabama state flag which was patterned after the flag used by Rucker's Brigade and the St. Andrews cross of the Confederate Battle flag. Lloyd was part of the contingent who defended the Lee monument in Mobile from Antifa and witnessed the wanton depravity and perversions of those anarchists.  When the League of the South was contorted from Southern Nationalists to White Nationalist, labeled such by the media, which attracted skinheads to the group, Lloyd left to start the Southern Cultural Centers across Alabama.  The group opposes the one world socialist order championed by progressives and Antifa.  Lloyd warned of coming conflict with the rise of these extremists determined to destroy our Constitutional Republic. 

Lloyd has donated land and helped establish hiking trails thru Flag Mountain and handed out brochures for this parkland which has an historic fire tower constructed by the CCC in the 1930s and three log cabins.  It is a state forest owned and operated by the Alabama Forestry Commission situated east of Clanton in a rural area without any cellphone service.  He also recently restored his grandfather's historic home. 

Commander's Column for November 2019 - Perpetually Offending the Hyper-Sensitive

The attacks on Confederate monuments were chiefly centered around a supposed offense that snowflake historical revisionists perceived.  Today’s culture nearly worldwide is catering to these loud minority voices who take offense and exception at seemingly any and every thing and utilize social media platforms to beat the drums of alleged outrage.  Halloween presents an occasion ripe for potential fragile affront.  “Kmart Australia pulled a children’s bride costume from its shelves after a Melbourne mom launched a petition calling the costume “beyond inappropriate.”  The $6 costume, which included a white wedding gown and headband with veil for children between the ages of 4 and 6, was stripped from sale just two days after Shannon B launched the petition on Change.org.  “Kmart Australia regrets the decision to (offer) the bride costume.  It was not intended to cause offense and we sincerely apologize. We have made the decision to withdraw this product,” a Kmart spokesperson told 7 News.  The petition, which had just 124 signatures, had labeled the costume “offensive” and asked supporters to remind Kmart it had a “social responsibility” to uphold. “Each year, 12 million children (girls as young as 6 years old — the same size as this ‘costume’) are sold or married off by their family without their consent. That’s one million child marriages per month!” Shannon wrote.” (https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/kmart-removed-kids-bride-costume-backlash)  124 imbecilic signatures.  The articles’ comments thankfully reflected some semblance of reason including a few which maintained that little girls have forever enjoyed dreaming of being a beautiful bride or princess and dressing the part but, catering or even allowing such sexual stereotyping of course also runs counter to the warped progressive agenda. 
“Bed Bath & Beyond has reportedly pulled black jack-o'-lanterns from its website after a law office in the Nyack area received complaints from locals, who allegedly said the decorative pumpkins evoked blackface.   Ahead of Halloween, the black pumpkins were recently displayed on the steps of Feerick, Nugent, MacCartney Law Offices on South Broadway – and taken down less than 48 hours later due to complaints, News 12 reports.  “We understand that someone complained about them and so once we got word of that we immediately took them down," Mary Marzolla, a partner at the firm, told the outlet. “We represent people of all colors and faiths, and we would never do anything to exclude anyone from any community.”  According to the New York Post, the complaints about the pumpkins alluded to the decor as “another form of blackface.”  The black jack-o'-lanterns showed an "extreme lack of sensitivity,” NAACP Westchester regional director Wilbur Aldridge said.   A spokesperson for Bed Bath & Beyond told Fox News that while it was unintentional, the company apologizes for any offense caused. “ (https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/bed-bath-beyond-blackface-comparison-report)
“A McDonald’s in Massachusetts was forced to apologize this week after several customers took offense to the “insensitive” Halloween decorations displayed below a cash register.  Erik Pocock was ordering food at the McDonald’s in North Andover when he noticed a number of festive decorations below the counter.  “It looked like a typical Halloween decoration. It said ‘Happy Halloween.’ It had some spiderwebs and some spiders and, a haunted tree and I was like: ‘Oh, that’s cute. Then, you look closer and that’s not cute. That’s not right.’” he told WCVB.  Pocock was referencing a decal which appeared to show a person hanging from a tree. He said it looked “more like a lynching.  Something so insensitive like this, they need to take it down,” Pocock said. “They should have thought twice about putting it up.”  The restaurant's owner and operator Chuck Lietz issued a statement to local stations apologizing for the image.  “We deeply regret that these decorations were on display, and as soon as we identified the inappropriate content, we immediately removed the decorations display. Creating an environment that is welcoming and inclusive to all our guests and employees is critically important to us, and we apologize for any unintended offense they may have had on our community.” he said. (https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/massachusetts-mcdonalds-apologizes-after-displaying-insensitive-halloween-decoration)  I believe it seriously is a snowflake competition to find things which they can claim to be offensive and then get their 15 seconds of fame being interviewed by the local TV station or even just to enhance their Twitter or Facebook presence with like-minded nit-witted likes.   I suppose the headless horseman would be offensive as the victim of said lynching.  Future legislation may require every house to only display jack-o-lanterns made from pumpkins or squash of their appropriate skin color.  Seriously. 
When the Autauga County Fair organizers approached us to ask if we had a banner to hang on the fence alongside the road approaching the fairgrounds, I obviously saw that as a great opportunity to again get our camp and SCV message out to the public to appreciate and support their Southern heritage.  And predictably, a Facebook snowflake took offense calling us, brace yourselves, “racists” and apparently failing to note the black Confederate veteran front and center in the banner background photo.  They say any advertising is good advertising and based on the numerous replies to that post where many in the local community defended the banner and the message, I believe we again made a great splash with that banner.   We have long made the effort in the SCV to attempt to change minds thru community exposure and education but, I believe changing the minds of many in today’s culture and environment is futile.  We are at the point where we must use community exposure to gain general public support to continue to spread our message of the honor and respect due Confederate veterans and to remind our neighbors of our ancestor’s fight for Southern Independence and quest to preserve our nation’s Constitutional republic especially in today’s environment.   We will offend some folks.  The public school system has failed us and has used propaganda as an educational foundation of historical ignorance.   We must have the fortitude in the face of this misplaced political correctness and hyper-sensitivity to carry forth the Charge.  Look for our electronic billboard ads at Main and Memorial and Hwy 14 and I-65 in Prattville this holiday season, another opportunity to offend and awaken. 

Chaplain's Column for November 2019 - Veteran's Day

“Father, please turn your gaze to those men and women who in their military service have sacrificed time, comfort, strength, ambition, health and prosperity for the peace and safety of family and friends and others they’ve never even known. Please reward them a hundredfold for all their sacrifice and service. Bless them far beyond all their expectations. Reward them richly for all they have given.” (https://www.guideposts.org/how-we-help/military-outreach/5-prayers-for-veterans)

Remember all those that are on our prayer list.

Upcoming Events for Confederate Compatriots

Tallassee Battle for the Armory – Friday-Sunday, November 8-10^th including Schhol Day, battle reenactment, living history, ball, andmonument dedication

Prattville Dragoons Camp Meeting – Thursday, November 14^th 6pm dinner at Milestones, camp meeting at 6:45pm

Prattville Christmas Parade – Friday December 6^th, 7pm starting at the Autauga County Courthouse downtown

Christmas in the South – Children of the Confederacy, Saturday December 7^th, 10am at Confederate Memorial Park

Salvation Army Kettle Bell Ringing – Saturday December 7^th and 14^th 9am-7pm at Winn Dixie in Prattville  

Prattville Dragoons Christmas Social – Friday December 13^th 6pm at Buena Vista, CR 4 Prattville

Vida Christmas Parade – Saturday December 21^st  12:30-4pm at Vida Community Center