Month: August 2019

by Dr. Pelham Mead

I am at the end of my novel/ movie script called, “Aero Long-Shapeshifter.” The story starts in the 1600’s in Salem, Mass. during the witch trials. Aero Long is caught up with the hysteria and thrown in jail along with other suspected witches. He escapes by changing into a fox and running away.

Fast forward to the 1770’s, Aero reappears in the for Edward Bancroft, Scientist and medical doctor in London, England. Edward was born in the American colonies but ran away at age 16 to Barbadoes where he posed as a physician for the plantation slaves. Aero is a rare form of Japanese shapeshifter who is a eight tailed fox who can assume the body of a human. Edward Bancroft is really Aero Long in disguise.

After two years in Barbadoes, Edward returns to London, England to write his memoirs. Benjamin Franklin who was also in London, England at the time, has the opportunity to read Dr. Bancroft’s descriptions of diseases in Barbados and the plants and animals. Later on in 1775, Dr. Franklin invites Dr. Bancroft aka Aero Long to join him in France to help with the negotiations between the American Colonies and the French. Congress gave Franklin the power to borrow money from the French and the Spanish to buy cannons, guns, and uniforms for the Colonial army. Dr. Franklin succeeds in borrowing three million dollars from France and ships the goods he bought back to the Caribbean to avoid British ships capturing the cargo. From the Caribbean the canons, guns, and uniforms are shipped via another boat to the Carolinas and unloaded. Dr. Bancroft was both a spy for the British and a spy for the Americans. It was all about money for Dr. Bancroft who gambled with the stock market and often lost money. Dr. Franklin paid Bancroft for his services in writing documents and translating French to English. Dr. Franklin never suspected the Bancroft was leaking all of the colonial secrets to the English in a little glass jar left in a hollow tree in the French gardens.

When war with the Colonies and Britain finally breaks out all the British spies and diplomats are forced to leave Paris, France and return to England, except Dr. Bancroft. Once when Bancroft needed to leave a message in the glass bottle in the French gardens, he turned into a fox and ran along the river Seine all the way to the French gardens and put the note in the jar and returned to his apartment.

In desperation, Aero tried to take over Dr. Franklin’s body and mind but Franklin’s mind was too strong for Aero to convert. Finally, the Treaty with France was signed in Paris and despite Dr. Bancroft’s efforts the colonies went to war against England backed by France and Spain financially. Few people realize that Dr. Bancroft was a double spy that was born in America, but considered himself a citizen of the British Empire.

by Dr. Pelham Mead

When an idea comes to mind I usually write down the idea or title and later on I begin to research the topic. If it is the Templar Knights I concentrated on the facts surrounding the Templar Knights from a specific view such as a Templar Squire, who sees everything from the inside of the organization. When I read of three Nuns being murdered in Burundi, Africa in 2014, I thought about how the Vatican Holy See or the CIA might approach the solving of the murders. I read a story about a Nun what was hired by the CIA after she retired and that seemed like a catch to expand on the African murders. I began to research Burundi and found out it had many civil wars between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes over many years. I researched the monastery where the Nuns were murdered and began to formulate possible suspects and this is how I wrote my movie script, ” Sister Angelina, CIA Agent.”

The story of the Texas Rangers Cavalry division in the Civil War brought out the courage of the horse mounted soldiers that carried two shotguns and four pistols when charging the Union soldiers. The 9th division began with 1,000 in 1861 and by April 1865 there were only 250 remaining Texas Rangers. 150 Rangers decided not to surrender and slipped through the picket lines at night and headed back to Texas on their own. They broke up into small groups in order to travel through North Carolina and South Carolina and eventually across Tennessee. The actual facts of their flight makes a great story which I recorded.

At the same time I researched the Texas Rangers I fell across the exodus of the Southerners after the Civil War to Mexico and Brazil. The flight to Mexico did not work well after the Emperor was killed, however the trips to Brazil to grow cotton and search for gold were most successful. To this day Southerners still survive in river plantations from 1867 in Brazil. I knew if I could tie in the flight of the Texas Rangers back to Texas after the Civil War to the carpetbaggers and Union punishment of the southerners after the war, I would have an Epic story. So began my movie script, “Run Rebels Run.”

I always enjoyed the Flash Gordon series on TV in the early 1950’s with Ming the Imperial and the Hawkmen. How unique to have men who had wings and could fly? Years later I came up with the idea of a nuclear holocaust in which the rich and political flee the Earth to find new homes in outer space, leaving behind millions of humans to become mutants. One group beat the odds by modifying the DNA of humans to allow for a smaller body size and the wings of a hawk able to allow the humans to fly. Advance technology would then allow these scientists to float an entire city into the sky away from the radiated Earth and it’s dead and mutants. So began the beginning of the warrior birdmen who lived three miles above Earth. Since many of the Comic books had already copyrighted the Hawkmen and other birdmen terms, I had to invent new terms for the winged men, which I did. The Camarilla Warriors of the Sky movie script came about as a result. I told the story from the view of an old Hawkman, and Grandfather as he tells the stories of the past to his grandchildren.

Sister Angelina, CIA Nun in Burundi, Africa.

by Dr. Pelham Mead III.

My father Chief Petty Officer Ken Mead was stationed on the USS Antietam aircraft carrier from August 1944 until August 31, 1945 where he departed for the Island of Okinawa with three other sailors. In my novel, ” Autumn Winds Over Okinawa 1945.” Published 2012 by Xlibris. While on Okinawa the 10th Army refuses to give the sailors any food. My father had to play poker with the officers to win food for the sailors. True story. Two major typhoons hit the island while they were waiting for a ship to take them back to Hawaii. Over 100 ships were sank each time and over a thousand civilians and soldiers died. Japanese snipers were still alive an active on the island and refused to surrender. They were told to die for the Emperor and that is what they did long after their officers were dead. The Americans had to send out patrols each day to hunt down the Japanese soldiers hiding in limestone caves all over the island. In addition all four men caught different jungle diseases, skin infections, bone diseases, malaria, and so on.

It wasn’t until Oct. 14, 1945 that the Battleship Iowa stopped off at Okinawa to rescue the three sailors. The ship was so full of marines and sailors that some had to strap themselves to the stairs on the deck. Read about this case of survival. Purchase the book on Amazon.com.

by Dr. Pelham Mead

My newest movie script tells the real story about my position as a Dean of Students at Kakiat Junior High school in Spring Valley, New York during the 1980’a. I was taking the sixth level administrative level certification program at SUNY New Paltz in 1984 and I needed a year as an administrative intern to complete the 23 credit course. I volunteered to take the empty Dean of Students position at Kakiat JHS. The Dean of Students was in charge of discipline and was one of the most hated jobs by students.

It is true that I had four windshields broken by angry students over a period of six years and that I did in fact have to take my 250cc Yamaha Enduro motorcycle to work in freezing temperatures and snow.

I change the climate of the discipline office by digitizing the process. Previously orange discipline folders were used for infractions by students, but the secretary in the office was to lazy to properly file the folders, so they ended up stacked on cabinets and tables. It was impossible to find any previous records of a student because of this. I used an Apple computer with the software program that set up a database. As each student came into my office I typed in the student’s name, infraction and disposition and notes. When I wanted past information about a student, I only had to search their name in the database to print out their file. This method was so successful that eventually the district stopped using the orange file folders.

The funny things about being a Dean of Students were subtle such as trying to find something like a pen in a desk full of water pistols, knives, pea shooters, sling shots and other things taken from students. Throwing the water pistols and knives in the dumpster is a true story about how I made the mistake of throwing the water pistols and knives out, only to find out students were diving into the dumpster to get the knives and water pistols.

Community service was a method of discipline in which students picked up papers on the fields or raked leaves instead of serving time in the in-school suspension room doing nothing all day. The down side to the practice was I had to be out with the students watching everything they did and freezing to death in the process in the Winter. I drank a lot of coffee in those days.

The excused student give when caught in the act could fill a book. I listed some of the outrageous excuses I heard over six years. I taught a full five period teaching load in Phys. Ed. and three extra periods in the Dean’s office for six years. Eventually, I moved on to Columbia University for a Doctoral Degree in Educational administration rather than a 6th level certificate. I had only two credits left in the 6th level program when I transferred to Columbia.

Humor is found in different ways as a Dean of Students. The faculty loved me because I brought discipline and order to the system. I also did away with the in-school suspension room and replaced it with Community service. That meant those teachers on that duty were free to do their own thing.

When I look back on my six years as a Dean, I realize that the Community service program had far reaching effects. The custodians never had to rake or pick up papers outdoors. The Assistant Principal got lazier as I did most of his job. Students stopped cutting class to avoid community service. Student, “he said, she said arguments,” were settled by mediation using student mediators which were trained by a professional mediator. Good discipline can have a good effect on the climate of a school and that is a good thing.

by Dr. Pelham Mead

In my research on the southerners the fled America to live in Mexico and Brazil after the Civil War, I discovered that to this day Americans still live in Brazil and still identify with the Confederate Southerners and their traditions and culture.

Frank McMullen was one of many Texan leaders that led 150 settlers to Brazil. Some went in search for Gold and others to homestead new fertile soil in the river valleys in Brazil. The Emperor Dom of Brazil invited the Americans to settle in Brazil and show the locals how to grow cotton. No one had tried to grow cotton in Brazil before. The confederate settlers also Brought steel ploughs with them to til the fields. Brazilians previously used wooden ploughs. Some Americans brought technology in the working of metals and the making of Gin and other alcohol drinks from stills. Many southerners did not live long enough to see the successes of the many American farms. Since slavery was banned in Brazil, settlers had to plough their own fields and harvest their own crops. Families were big in those days with 8 and 9 children who could help with the chores from an early age.

Part of the settlers were Texas Rangers who served in the Civil War and returned to find their farms burned to the ground and carpet baggers buying up land for pennies an acre. Brazil seemed like paradise at the time.

Frank McMullen never lived to see his dream come true. Soon after he established his farm he died of Tuberculosis which had developed over the years. The sons and daughters of the McMullens still live in Brazil to this day. Those that went in search of Gold found nothing despite the stories of a lost gold mountain deep in the interior.

Some southerners settled on other rivers along the southern coast of Brazil and some even tried northern Brazil where the Amazon emptied into the Ocean. Unfortunately, flooding and disease wiped out the northern settlements and the only surviving colonies are along the southern coast of Brazil along the inland rivers.