Coopernundrums

Hello, my name is Richard Jay Cooper. Everyone calls me by my middle name, Jay. I am 35 years old and have lived in TN the better part of my life. I am a Computer Tech, Web / Graphic designer, Husband and Father of two. I live In Mt. Juliet Tennessee with my Wife Laura and two boys, Austin and Caelan ages 15 and 12.
I have done all kinds of jobs here, from digging graves, to fast food manager, to convenience store manager, to my present position at a software company Ecommerce Industries. I do phone and network support, as well as web development and graphic design for a software program called TeamDesign. It handles project management and accounting for contract (office) furniture dealers.
I love all art, especially classic painters like Dahli, Vangogh, and Monet. I love to draw, and design using the PC. That’s why I like web design. I listen to almost all Genre of music from classical, to some odd country tunes (yeah I know shoot me dead where I stand now). What I really love to listen to is HARD HEAVY GRINDCORE DEATH METAL BRUTALITY!!! I like watching old 80’s cartoons, and I am a damn MOVIEHOLIC! I can quote lines from almost any flick. Just try me!
I’m a steadfast and very conservative republican, although George bush (both senior and jr, oh hell Barbara and the twins too) can all Blow me. They give republicans a bad name.
I am vehemently, wholly, and diametrically opposed to ALL organized religions. It is my educated opinion that the vast majority of the evil committed in this world is done so under the guise of any number of religions. Neither I nor my children attend organized religious ceremonies. We do not celebrate the religious aspects of holidays, nor do we pray. You have to admit though that christmas is a pretty hedonistic holiday showcasing much of the hippocritical side to religious beliefs. Thats me, this is my blog.

The holiday season is always a double edged sword for me. I am sure I am not alone in what I am about to discuss, but at this time of year I sure feel like I am. No, this is not about my belief system, even though this time of year most definitely brings them to the forefront of my conversations and thoughts.Today I would like to share with anyone reading this how my family celebrates the holidays. Its part of who I am and I thought it would be amusing to describe it to you. I write this for no other reason than that. I am not looking for sympathy as I find this all very ironic, and if you know me you know irony is a bitch and I like her that way.

You must first understand a bit about my childhood to get the proper setup for what is to come. Please bear with me as I lay it all out.

My Mom and dad were married when they were relatively young. My dad was in the military for a long while and my mom was a military wife. I was actually born on base where my son Adam is stationed at this very moment, Fort Campbell Kentucky. (Go screaming Eagles! hoorah!!) My father saw action in Vietnam and I know now for a fact, like most vets, he suffered severe post traumatic stress. I will explain why I say this later. They were, in most outwardly apparent ways, happy. We had moved from the base to a rental home in Indianapolis Indiana to be closer to my father’s family who lived there. My mother has never really strayed far from her roots which are pretty deep here in Tennessee. I have pretty fond memories, albeit grey and vague now, of the rental home. It was very close to a pretty large street intersection and had a nice fenced in back yard with a swing set. It was near a rail yard too, as I recall at night hearing the trains crossing tracks and blowing their loud horns. I also recall hearing the racetrack in the evenings too, so it must have been close to where they hold the Indy 500. Typical mid American fare really. I don’t know the reason we moved form there, aside from the obvious, it was near the street, but we eventually moved to an apartment complex and that’s where I have my earliest memories of attending school. My dad was the main breadwinner and my mom took care of my brother and me. Somewhere, in that seemingly all American nirvana, things started to go haywire. My dad became a pretty violent guy. He was prone to fits of rage and would often hit my brother and me. I had no clue why at the time. I can recall my dad once hit my brother in the head with his fist so hard that he stumbled forward and hit his head on the corner of a wall and had to have stitches. Getting a good spanking from your dad is one thing but a punch in the face at close range means something is wrong.

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 Have you ever researched your own name?  It really is fascinating stuff.  When I was younger I was occasionally reminded by jovial teachers here and there that my last name, Cooper, was in fact also a profession.  It seems that a “Cooper” is a person who makes or repairs barrels.  While this is mostly true, through some good old Internet research I have come to know that my name is actually much richer and means so much more than that definition alone.  I thought I would share some of it with you. Hope you enjoy.

A traditional Oak Barrel

Cooper is the transferred use of the English surname that originated as an occupational name for a cooper, a cask or barrel maker or seller. It is derived from the Middle English couper (a cask). Sometimes a shortened version of that name was used known as Coop.

Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads. Examples of a cooper’s work include but are not limited to casks, barrels, buckets, tubs, butter churns, hogsheads, firkins, tierces, rundlets, puncheons, pipes, tuns, butts, pins, and breakers. The word is derived from Middle Dutch kūpe, “basket, wood, tub” and may ultimately stem from cupa, the Latin word for vat. Everything a cooper produces is referred to collectively as cooperage. “Cask” is a generic term used to describe any piece of cooperage containing a bouge, bilge, or bulge in the middle of the container. A barrel is technically a measure of the size of a cask, so the term “barrel-maker” cannot be used synonymously with “cooper.” The facility in which casks are made is also referred to as a cooperage.

There were actually four divisions in the cooper’s craft. The “dry” or “slack” cooper made containers that would be used to ship dry goods such as cereals, nails, tobacco, fruits and vegetables. The “drytight” cooper made casks designed to keep dry goods in and moisture out. Gunpowder and flour casks are examples of a “drytight” cooper’s work. The “white cooper” made straight staved containers like washtubs, buckets and butter churns, that would hold water and other liquids, but did not allow shipping of the liquids. Usually there was no bending of wood involved in white cooperage. The “wet” or “tight” cooper made casks for long term storage and transportation of liquids that could even be under pressure, as with beer.

Sometimes-in more modern times-the profession of the cooper is specific to wineries, where the cooper would look after the aging barrels in which the wine is stored. Rarely today, coffin-makers are also known as coopers.

Cooperage is an ancient trade. The art of coopering dates back centuries, and the basic trade has remained unchanged. Coopering requires skill, intelligence, and strength. The tools of the trade are often handed down for generations. Many colonial coopers worked on plantations to produce the many hogsheads needed to ship tobacco from Virginia to Great Britain. Other coopers worked in towns like Williamsburg, turning staves and hoops into everything from butter churns to tubs. Large plantations often trained slaves in the trade. Coopers could also be found on military and merchant vessels, since casks were common aboard ships.

So you see, there is much more to it than merely making barrels..cheers!