Christmas the Old Fashion Way

'Twas the night before Christmas & out on the ranch

The pond was froze over & so was the branch.

The snow was piled up belly-deep to a mule.

The kids were all home on vacation from school,

And happier young folks you never did see-

Just all sprawled around a-watchin' TV.

Then suddenly, some time around 8 o'clock,

There came a surprise that gave them a shock!

The power went off, the TV went dead!

When Grandpa came in from out in the shed

With an armload of wood, the house was all dark.

"Just what I expected," they heard him remark.

"Them power line wires must be down from the snow.

Seems sorter like times on the ranch long ago."

"I'll hunt up some candles," said Mom.  "With their light,

And the fireplace, I reckon we'll make out all right."

The teen-agers all seemed enveloped in gloom.

Then Grandpa came back from a trip to his room,

Uncased his old fiddle & started to play

That old Christmas song about bells on a sleigh.

Mom started to sing, & 1st thing they knew

Both Pop & the kids were all singing it, too.

They sang Christmas carols, they sang "Holy Night,"

Their eyes all a-shine in the ruddy firelight.

They played some charades Mom recalled from her youth,

And Pop read a passage from God's Book of Truth.

They stayed up till midnight-and, would you believe,

The youngsters agreed 'twas a fine Christmas Eve.

Grandpa rose early, some time before dawn;

And when the kids wakened, the power was on..

"The power company sure got the line repaired quick,"

Said Grandpa - & no one suspected his trick.

Last night, for the sake of some old-fashioned fun,

He had pulled the main switch - the old Son-of-a-Gun!

-anonymous

Sweet November!

Sweet November is here!  The colors around us here in the Shenandoah Valley are falling all around and the air is getting cooler. The only down side would be the days are getting shorter!  However it is still a blessing to experience this time of year here in the Valley every year!   Hopefully in my travels this month I will be able to catch some of the breath taking cold mornings, the warmth of the colors and the views from the Mountains as I travel throughout the valley!  I will share those moments here one frame at a time on this blog!

Get out and enjoy November and Life this month!  It is truly something to be Thankful about!

Life Has An Expiration Date

A E-mail my father sent me this morning!  A very true story not sure if it is true but even if it is not it is valid!  Enjoy Life!

This is a wonderful piece by Michael Gartner, editor of newspapers large and small
And past president of NBC News. In 1997, he won the Pulitzer Prize for
Editorial writing. It is well worth reading, and a few good chuckles are Guaranteed.



Here goes....
My father never drove a car. Well, that's not quite right. I should say I
Never saw him drive a car.

He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he
Drove was a 1926 Whippet.

"In those days," he told me when he was in his 90s, "to drive a car you
 Had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet, and look
 Every which way, and I decided you could walk through life and enjoy it or
 Drive through life and miss it."

 At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in: "Oh,
 Bull----! She said. "He hit a horse."

 "Well," my father said, "there was that, too."

 So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The neighbors
 All had cars -- the Kollingses next door had a green 1941 Dodge, the
 VanLaninghams across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth, the Hopsons two
 Doors  down a black 1941 Ford -- but we had none.

My father, a newspaperman in Des Moines , would take the streetcar to
Work  and, often as not, walk the 3 miles home. If he took the streetcar home,
My  mother and brother and I would walk the three blocks to the streetcar
Stop,  meet him and walk home together.

My brother, David, was born in 1935, and I was born in 1938, and
Sometimes, at dinner, we'd ask how come all the neighbors had cars but we
Had none. "No one in the family drives," my mother would explain, and that
Was that.

But, sometimes, my father would say, "But as soon as one of you boys
Turns 16, we'll get one." It was as if he wasn't sure which one of us would turn
16 first.

But, sure enough, my brother turned 16 before I did, so in 1951 my
Parents  bought a used 1950 Chevrolet from a friend who ran the parts

Department at  a  Chevy dealership downtown.

It was a four-door, white model, stick shift, fender skirts, loaded with
Everything, and, since my parents didn't drive, it more or less became my
brother's car. Having a car but not being able to drive didn't bother my
Father, but it didn't make sense to my mother.

So in 1952, when she was 43 years old, she asked a friend to teach her to
Drive. She learned in a nearby cemetery, the place where I learned to
Drive  the following year and where, a generation later, I took my two sons to
Practice driving. The cemetery probably was my father's idea. "Who can
Your  mother hurt in the cemetery?" I remember him saying more than once.

For the next 45 years or so, until she was 90, my mother was the driver
In  the family. Neither she nor my father had any sense of direction, but he
Loaded up on maps -- though they seldom left the city limits -- and
Appointed himself navigator.. It seemed to work.

Still, they both continued to walk a lot. My mother was a devout
Catholic,  and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement that

Didn't seem  to  bother either of them through their 75 years of marriage.

(Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire time.)

He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the next 20 years
Or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin's Church. She would
Walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would wait in the back until he
Saw which of the parish's two priests was on duty that morning. If it was
The pastor, my father then would go out and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my
Mother at the end of the service and walking her home.

If it was the assistant pastor, he'd take just a 1-mile walk and then
Head  back to the church. He called the priests "Father Fast" and "Father Slow."

After he retired, my father almost always accompanied my mother whenever
She drove anywhere, even if he had no reason to go along. If she were
Going  to the beauty parlor, he'd sit in the car and read, or go take a stroll
Or,  if it was summer, have her keep the engine running so he could listen to
The  Cubs game on the radio. In the evening, then, when I'd stop by, he'd
explain: "The Cubs lost again. The millionaire on second base made a bad
throw to the millionaire on first base, so the multimillionaire on third
base scored."

If she were going to the grocery store, he would go along to carry the
bags out -- and to make sure she loaded up on ice cream. As I said, he was
always the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she was 88 and still
driving, he said to me, "Do you want to know the secret of a long life?"

"I guess so," I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.

"No left turns," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"No left turns," he repeated. "Several years ago, your mother and I read
an article that said most accidents that old people are in happen when
they  turn left in front of oncoming traffic..

As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth
perception, it said. So your mother and I decided never again to make a
left  turn."

 "What?" I said again.

"No left turns," he said. "Think about it. Three rights are the same as a
 left, and that's a lot safer So we always make three rights."

"You're kidding!" I said, and I turned to my mother for support. "No,"
she  said, "your father is right. We make three rights. It works." But then she
added: "Except when your father loses count."

I was driving at the time, and I almost drove off the road as I started
laughing.

"Loses count?" I asked.

"Yes," my father admitted, "that sometimes happens. But it's not a
 problem. You just make seven rights, and you're okay again."

 I couldn't resist. "Do you ever go for 11?" I asked.

"No," he said " If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it a
 bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so important it can't be put off
 another day or another week."


My mother was never in an accident, but one evening she handed me her car
keys and said she had decided to quit driving.. That was in 1999, when she
was 90.

She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died the next year, at  102.

They both died in the bungalow they had moved into in 1937 and bought a
few years later for $3,000. (Sixty years later, my brother and I paid  $8,000
to have a shower put in the tiny bathroom -- the house had never had one.
My  father would have died then and there if he knew the shower cost nearly
three times what he paid for the house.)

He continued to walk daily -- he had me get him a treadmill when he was
101 because he was afraid he'd fall on the icy sidewalks but wanted to
keep  exercising -- and he was of sound mind and sound body until the

moment he died.

One September afternoon in 2004, he and my son went with me when I had to
give a talk in a neighboring town, and it was clear to all three of us
that he was wearing out, though we had the usual wide-ranging conversation
about politics and newspapers and things in the news.

A few weeks earlier, he had told my son, "You know, Mike, the first
hundred years are a lot easier than the second hundred." At one point in
our  drive that Saturday, he said, "You know, I'm probably not going to live
much  longer."

"You're probably right," I said.

"Why would you say that?" He countered, somewhat irritated.

"Because you're 102 years old," I said..

"Yes," he said, "you're right." He stayed in bed all the next day.

That night, I suggested to my son and daughter that we sit up with him
through the night.

He appreciated it, he said, though at one point, apparently seeing us
look gloomy, he said: "I would like to make an announcement. No one

in this room is dead yet"

An hour or so later, he spoke his last words: "I want you to know," he
said, clearly and lucidly, "that I am in no pain. I am very comfortable. 
And I have had as happy a life as anyone on this earth could ever have."

A short time later, he died. 

 I miss him a lot, and I think about him a lot. I've wondered now and then
 how it was that my family and I were so lucky that he lived so long. 

I can't figure out if it was because he walked through life, or because 
he quit taking left turns. 

Life is too short to wake up with regrets. 

So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the one's who don't. 
Believe everything happens for a reason.If you get a chance, take it & if it
changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just
Promised it would most likely be worth it. 

ENJOY LIFE NOW - IT HAS AN EXPIRATION DATE

When It Is All Said And Done.....

This afternoon while I was cooking dinner and getting some choirs done around the house .  Across the street an auction company was setting up for an action for Saturday morning.  My neighbor passed away a few months ago and his remaining family is holding a auction to clear out his house so they can sell the house at a later date.

This made me do a little thinking!  It is interesting how all our material possessions are just that, material.  When it is all said and done it means nothing.  I watched as people picked over his "treasure", the things he collected over a life time.  From a project 1958 corvette in need of serious love to a coat rack that maybe had some antique value.  Funny how we go to work for money to buy more stuff.  We all do it, here lately I'm as guilty as anyone.  These are the things that make life a little more interesting but in the end they don't matter.

The things that matter most are family and friends!  The people you surround yourself with throughout your journey of life, in the end are the most important.  These people that you have touched and those who have touched you can not be rummaged through at a auction or placed for 50 cents at a yard sale! They are priceless!

On that note my wife awaits my company!


Live life to the fullest!

How To Make A Deer Stand!

How to make a Deer Stand Start with a small to medium size camping trailer. Pull it out to a likely looking area. Jam some poles in the ground. Use a couple of tractors with loaders. Raise it WAY UP (and fasten it!). Drink a beer or two and step back to admire your work. Build a deck (so you'll have a place to sit outside and drink another beer. Build some nice stairs so you don't have to go down a ladder while inebriated. Practice shooting deer with a piece of lumber. Can't live on beer alone. Don't burn down the deck though... Sorry, plans are not available.

Wow you got to love this!  People are inventive!

Back To Mayberry!

In my previous blog I talked about how America has lost Mayberry....  How do we get back?  It starts with each of us and the way we live our lives and interact with one another.

To get back to Mayberry we must first get to know one another.  If you live in most towns or cities now that is not possible to know everyone.  However you can get to know everyone on your street.  Smile, Wave and Talk with your neighbors.  Invite them over to roast marshmallows, take the time out to have positive interaction.

Help someone, stop and help someone broke down on the side of the road, mow a neighbors grass while they are on vacation etc....  The world is hard enough we could all use a little help from time to time.  Be accepting to help and be ready to help when it is your turn!

Slow down, Blackberry's IPhone, and Droids all have made life connected but sometime we need to disconnect.  This is one I struggle with personally I love my toys and connected life.  But sometimes we can all put it down and walk away.  Live life a little more simply and slow down.  In the end this fast passed life will only get us in the grave faster.

Though these are not all of the ways we can get back to Mayberry it should would be a great start!  I encourage everyone to slow down, help someone in need, and get to know your neighbors!  You will find life will be a little bit brighter if you do!  I know a wave makes my day!

Mayberry?

Where has Mayberry gone, or did it ever really exist?  As I look at the world around us and the decline of society I wonder where did the towns like the fictional Mayberry disappear to.  Did they really exist, yes I know that Mayberry (which got its name cam from the Town of Mayberry in Patrick County Virginia) was truly a fictional town for the setting of the Andy Griffith Show; but did those towns exist...  I remember watching the town of Mayberry on reruns as a kid, really the only black and white TV show I ever remember being aired with regularity.  As I watched the town where everyone knew everyone else, people greeting each other on the street and stopping to have a chat on a park bench, and Aunt Bee always baking something for someone else; I wonder was it really like this in the small towns around America?  I'm sure it was within reason, however I'm not sure the town drunk has ever locked himself up but it made for good TV.  The reason I sit here and ponder on this is because how do we get back to Mayberry, how do we stop the downward slide of society and how do we start the trend of looking out for our neighbor, get that small town atmosphere back to life.

I'm not a sociologist by any means, but I am fascinated by society.  I enjoy looking at society over periods of time and the transformation that society has taken for the good and the bad.  In order to get back to Mayberry we have got to realize how we got to the place we are today!

Society after WWII appears in my prospective to have changed drastically.  We went from a society that stepped up for our friends, neighbors and our country in to slow transformation of a society that started keeping up with the Jones.  We stopped being concerned about the welfare of each other and started focusing more and more on ourselves.  The Land of Milk and Honey coming out of WWII our Grandparents (or at least in my case) worked hard to provide for their family.  They started providing for their family the things they never had as a child.  These were the kid's of the "baby boom".  Unfortunately this is where I personally see the downward spiral of society becoming noticeable somewhere in the 1960s.  This my friends is where we lost Mayberry,  ironic to say the least because The Andy Griffith Show and the fictional town of Mayberry first aired on CBS in October of 1960.    The children of the "baby boom" were entering the work force, they were graduating high school some went to college, some started going after the almighty American dollar and many young men went to Vietnam...

Now again I reiterate I am neither a sociologist nor historian, but this is merely my opinion on the matter.  But as the 1960s proceeded, the "Baby Boomers" were swept back in time to the days of their parents with Vietnam.  However the attitudes at home were not that of the 1940s.  The war was apposed by many and the soldiers were not heroes as they were in WWII.  This again added tot he plague of the American society.  Those who stepped up for their Friends, Neighbors and Country were not awarded the same respect as their father's.  This had to have a negative effect on society and stimulate a thought process of why should I do anything for anyone else; I will just look out for me.  I will better myself no matter whom I have to step on to do it.  Climbing of the proverbial corporate latter now has begun full speed ahead; life was now entering the fast lane.

The climbing of the corporate latter further assisted in the diminishing of Mayberry.  Small towns did not hold opportunity, this was the slow lane.  People left home and went to big cities to chase the almighty dollar.  The problem with this is that everyone else was doing the same thing.  Making a dog eat dog world you had to have the upper hand. Life was flying by!

Ok, so here we are Vietnam is over which unquestionably had a negative effect on society.  Now we are keeping up even more than ever with the Jones, this has become a lifestyle.  The "baby boomers" start having children of their own, Gen-X.  This generation only enhances the distance from Mayberry; they have lost sight of those Mayberry values if you will.  It is not totally their fault because they were guided by a more individual focused society than a community focused society.  They become the society in my opinion that nothing was ever good enough for.  They were most likely the kids who got a car once they turned 16, but that was not good enough.  They are the ones in the work place that once every 5 or 6 years have to jump to the next big thing because the last job was not good enough.  Once again a society focused on themselves and not what they can do for others.  Understand this is a pure generalization and not accurate in all cases but I think if we look at society as a whole this is what we see.

Here we are today with the Grandchildren of the baby boom are in school and starting to enter the work place.  Their parents maybe to some degree start seeing the errors of the past but their solutions only move to make a bigger problem.  Because I think the Gen-Xers never thought anything was good enough, now they instill in their children that everything they do is great; to the point that those children, Gen-Y have an unbelievable since of entitlement.  They have a thought process that everyone wins, for example everyone that played little league baseball this year gets a trophy.  Now what is wrong with this you ask?  That is not how the world works, success come to those who work for success.  Though a lot is to be said for determination and motivation but we do not always win.  Sometimes a lost can be better than a win!  It can build your determination and your motivation and realize that everything is not handed to you and you have to work for it!  

Ok, don't think I have gone off in another direction how does this correlates back to Mayberry you ask?  Well society now has become extremely apathetic.  We have a generation of people who believe just showing up is the best they can do... I am sure we have all heard the disgruntled employee make the statement "They should just be glad I came to work today".  If just showing up is our best then how on earth can we help each other or ourselves for that matter?  This apathetic attitude has led to distrust in other, the false since of trust in ourselves and yes a greater deterioration of society. Many people no longer care about the community, they are so in grained with their selves their image and try to keep up that lifestyle.  Many either work non-stop to maintain the lifestyle they hold so precious, while many others just are showing up living for the moment with no ability to envision the future.  To put it bluntly we either don't have time for each other or we just don't care....

This is my brief synopsis of how we lost Mayberry.  Part II will be my thoughts on how we get back to Mayberry...  Comments are welcome!
 

The First Blog

The First Blog, as I have written in the welcome message I have thought about making a blog for a few years now.  It really serve no real purpose other than a tablet to express your thoughts and share your story.  I think we all have a story to tell, day to day life is a story and as you grow old it becomes a film strip in your mind.  A highlight reel of the good times, the bad times and the quirks of life.  I finally mustered up the ambition to share that film strip, though not an open book but merely the parts I choose to share, and the thoughts I choose to share.

As the internet has made the world a smaller place it has eased communication and made it an every day part of society.  I still remember in the mid1990s when I got my first computer connected to the internet, I could see the world from my Dad's office.  I remember going into a chat room for the first time and talking to kids my own age from around the world.  One of who I still stay in contact with today (though not as much as we should), her name is Lama and she is from Beirut Lebanon we first started talking a chat room when we were both 13y/o.  Then started writing back and forth and now with the advancements in the internet regained contact a number of years later still share a e-mail from time to time.  The internet is an incredible thing, it has changed the world.  Most of us now carry the internet in our pocket or on our belt every where we go.

However with every good comes bad, the internet and this ability to communicate has cause much heartache for many people doing exactly what I am doing now sharing opinion, photos and comments.  Employers now look at these things to get a true character judgment of a person.  With facebook, myspace, blogs etc.  people have opened the doors to their life's to both the good aspects and bad aspects of their life.  However it all comes down to ethics, I was teaching a class last night to an audience of diverse ages and I brought up ethics and gave them what I think is the best definition of ethics and that is " To do what is right when no one is looking"  That is not an easy thing to do but we all must strive for it to make the world a little bit better place.  That is why with this blog I do not really intend on discussing controversial matters or making outlandish opinions, those thoughts are for my own (plus plenty of people are out their every day publishing these).  My purpose of this blog is two fold first to find the good and humorous in life and bring it to light; as well as express the thoughts I have about life in general all while telling my story.  It is not a blog to nag nor complain but hopefully up lifting because Life should be uplifting even with all its quirks!

Enjoy!