The cast of The Return of Soapweed Scotty - 1917 includes: Robyn Adair as Soapweed Scotty Virginia Kirtley as Alice West Leo Pierson as Sheriff Jim West

The Latin name for the soaptree yucca is yucca elata. The soaptree is also known as the palmella and the soapweed. The perennial plant can be found in southwestern North America.

This poem is in remembrance of the fallen airmen of World War II. Every other place of death has a mark, be it "scrub oak" or "soapweed," but the ocean has none. Killed airmen are swallowed within the ocean, beneath the "evening star" that was painted on their planes (US planes at least). This is what the author means by "cracking flak" (antiaircraft guns), and where the title comes from. - jmnypop

You can wash laundry with yucca.

There are a lot of different types of yucca. I have soapweed yuccas, (yucca glauca). As I understand all yuccas have natural saponins (soap qualities), but you may want to check which yucca you have, and what parts of the plant to use. I use the roots, but I've heard of being able to use the leaves and stem too.

The root is stringy and fibrous. If you just throw the root in your washing machine, your going to have a mess.

I kind of beat the root up a bit, to break it open, then I put it in a cheese cloth type bag. I use a WonderWash, a hand cranked barrel washer. I throw the bag in and agitate with my clothes.

I use yucca to wash my body and hair too, I stick some of the broken up root right in a used water bottle, leaving some head space to shake it up.

You're not going to see the lather and suds that most people are use to with commercial laundry soap. I think the trick there is adding glycerin.

Good luck!

i can see you right now

Leo Pierson has: Performed in "Out-Generaled" in 1911. Performed in "The Profligate" in 1911. Performed in "The Voyager: A Tale of Old Canada" in 1911. Performed in "The Bootlegger" in 1911. Played Jasper Leigh in "Young Love" in 1915. Played Hooper in "Across the Desert" in 1915. Performed in "The Heart of Paro" in 1915. Played Captain Alva in "The Vengeance of Rannah" in 1915. Performed in "Polishing Up Polly" in 1915. Played Bob in "Two Brothers and a Girl" in 1915. Performed in "The Girl and the Reporter" in 1915. Played Elbert Carey in "A Jungle Revenge" in 1915. Played Owen Trent in "Her Career" in 1915. Performed in "The Blood Seedling" in 1915. Performed in "The Private Banker" in 1916. Played Jack Brinsmade in "The Crisis" in 1916. Played Charles Desmond in "The Grinning Skull" in 1916. Played Jack Rose in "At Piney Ridge" in 1916. Performed in "Out of the Shadows" in 1916. Performed in "Converging Paths" in 1916. Performed in "Only a Rose" in 1916. Performed in "Into the Northland" in 1916. Played J. Lowell Quackenboss in "The Comeback" in 1917. Played Allan Harrington in "A Wife on Trial" in 1917. Played Johnny Roberts in "The Birth of Patriotism" in 1917. Performed in "A Soldier of the Legion" in 1917. Performed in "Avarice" in 1917. Performed in "The Framed Miniature" in 1917. Played Jossef Natarre in "Treason" in 1917. Performed in "The Font of Courage" in 1917. Performed in "The Heart of Jules Carson" in 1917. Played Sheriff Jim West in "The Return of Soapweed Scotty" in 1917. Performed in "The Cove of Missing Men" in 1918. Played Richard Reed in "High Tide" in 1918. Played Dick in "Desert Law" in 1918. Played Karl Hartsell in "The Spreading Evil" in 1918. Played Ralph Long in "The Girl of My Dreams" in 1918. Played Billy Hamilton in "Wagon Tracks" in 1919. Played John Chamberlain in "The Solitary Sin" in 1919.