THE NIGHT OF THE GREAT SALT

 

THE NIGHT OF THE GREAT SALT

Bernard Pyron 

 My short story in Quixote Magazine, Volume 2, Number 7, 1967, The Night of
the Great Salt, was written in 1964 and based upon our actual night salt
firings of this kiln and my larger more conventional kiln in Whitewater,
Wisconsin. "We drove up to Old Main on the hill and viewed the University
as a wrecking machine...Inside the kiln we could see several of Clayton Bailey's critters, some dead with their feet sticking up...His creatures snort
through their ceramic noses and twang like a mountaineer's mouth-bow.....We
opened the kiln and shoved in wet salt. A small explosion shook the
neighborhood and clouds of white chloride gas billowed out....The salt
cloud hung low in the night sky.........,.

.Never forget that the University
is like a mad dentist. It opens the mind and then slams it shut... Never
doubt.....topple the wrecking machine, and tranqualize the mad dentist."

Though I mentioned driving up to Old Main on the Hill, a reference to
Whitewater State College in Wisconsin, I was talking about viewing the
University of Wisconsin at Madison as the Wrecking Machine, and as the Mad
Dentist. At about that time in 1964 I had seen large wrecking machines
tearing down two story houses in a block just west of University Avenue
near South Park Street. The University as a wrecking machine which opens
the mind and then slams it shut was more of a prophecy than an observation
of something n 1964. I spent some years later as a non-tenure track junior
faculty member at Wisconsin......"

 In the short story I mentioned that in the salt kiln we could see some dead critters with their feet sticking up. Here is an example of a dead critter by Clayton Bailey -

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Bernard Pyron More Photos For Night of the Great Salt - In the short story, Night of the Great Salt the University of Wisconsin was seen as a Wrecking Machine and as a Mad Dentist which opens the mind and then slams it shut. Soon Clayton Bailey made a series of ceramic sculptures about the work of Mad Dentists.

Bernard Pyron Clayton Bailey in 1965 in the back of 525 West Washington, Madison, Wisconsin - at the meeting of the Dennis Murphy Gang for a 1965 movie.....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_Bailey...............":Clayton George Bailey born 9 March 1939.

Two of My Salt Glazed Ceramic Pieces from 1964 at Whitewater,

Bernard Pyron Still more from Night of the Great Salt: Small salt kiln ready to fire

Bernard Pyron And more from Night of the Great Salt: My Larger Whitewater kiln firing in 1964