The Class of ' 64

In 1954, I came to what had been a sleepy little village until the government decided to build an Atomic plant near by. This created a boom in Real Estate.

My father was the minister of the Waverly Church of Christ. In 1954, there was ground, but no building. There wasn't much of a congregation either. The congregation met in the parsonage, a three bedroom house with a full sized basement. The bedrooms became class rooms, and downstairs was where people congregated. My job was to make sure there were enough folding chairs.

My new school was East Elementary. It is gone now, they tore it down on my birthdate in 1965. The town had grown so rapidly that the old school buildings were not large enough to house all of the new children. In fact, before this was built, students had to go to half days. Of course, that was done away with when the new East Elementary school was built.

The last town I had come from was New Vienna, Ohio, it was hardly the bustling community Waverly had. One summer, I heard the screams and hollering of children at play. I asked Mom if she heard it too, it escaped her attention, but not mine. (More later)

We missed seeing Corban....

We missed seeing Corban.  I suppose we will have to wait until next time.  Corban makes  five.  It is two boys, and three girls.  Drew is so much like his father.  He is just mischievous.  Last Thanksgiving, he wanted to play checkers. But rather than play on the red squares, he wanted to play on the black.  I don't see how this made any difference, but he beat me squarely.  I call him a con artist.  I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't grow up and go into Advertising.  All of his kids are special, I just hope he has no more.

My Grandfather Parsons had seven kids; Mom, Nell, June, Sina, Bobby, Henry, Howard, and Kenneth.  My Grandfather had no more than a third grade education, but he was a tool and die man, he could make anything.  He was a welder, and a well driller.  He taught all his sons the trade.  Kenneth did not care for the rough life of a well driller, and so he became a school teacher.  He did rather well, at least, he kept a roof over his head.  In fact, Grandpa had water, electricity, and conveniences when others did not.  He raised chickens, and had gardens, and all of that.  Money was hard to come by, but even in those lean years, he had a car.

So perhaps Dan will be like his great Greadpa.  He has taken after his Grandpa, what is it with the Justice clan and pleaching?

Kenneth even for a time tried to Preach, but it never took.  I believe the bottle had more influence over him than the Bible.  I do think that is what killed him.   He died at a horrible young age.

Grandpa had a bottle of Old GrandDad by his bed, but he just took one shot a nght before he went to sleep.  I never saw the man drunk.

Now Uncle Bobby, I had seen him drunk on many ocassions.  But, now he too is dead.

Howard is a self appointed know it all, who knows nothing.  He is smart, but stupid at the same time.  When I asked about one of his boys, if he was sending him to school, he replied that he was going to let him work in the mines.  I told him they would try to kill him, which they did try, he was injured, and was never whole after the accident in the mines. 

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Going back to Indiana

It is a cloudy morning....

Carol is on edge about her stress test, it has been delayed.  There are many things which have her stresed out;the loan did not come through on the house, we use our credit too much.  We have good credit rating, and we do pay our bills, but they want someone who doesn't really need the loan anyway.  I was never happy with the idea of paying off a mortabe until I die.  At 64, a thirty year mortage could be a death sentence.  To whose belenefit was this loan supposed to be for anyway?  It sounds to me as if it were for the banks.  And now, they say our rating is not high enough.  Boy, talk about the pot calling the kettle black, did we not just bail out these bastards to the tune of billions?  And, now, I who need aloan can't get one?  So there are two concerns which has Crol upset.  Well, the one is already taken care of, the Bank said no.

Been back to Valpo

This is the closest place to going home for either of us.  You could play the old record,"Sentinel Journey Home" and you would not be far off the mark.  Carol graduated from Valparaiso University, and I spent most of my teen years in Kouts, and that is not  far from Valpo.  I also spent a lot of time dating girls at the University.  I also lived Four years in Valpo, finishing up college.  I graduated from Purdue at Hammond.

So, we spent five days there, thinking of ways to return.

The Aspins in Colorado are probably dead because of a beetle which attacked them this last Fall.  I'm hoping to be moving back to Indiana come friday.  Carol is not too optimistic, and I am not going to set my hopes  too high.  I will act as if we are going.  But it all depends on how Carol is feeling.  I went into the Family Room, and Carol sais;"Maybe we should not go."  As I have said, it is up to her.  I'll do whatever she wants.

What I really want is to have a good friend.  It has been some time since i have had such a male friend. Lynn has his son, and his Godson to pal around with, but both are kid, and will soon find other interests; girls perhaps.  I do not think they will be interested in playing computer games in there 20's.  But, this will suffice for a time, and I am really envenious that he even has that.

I do not begruge him on it though.

Good Morning,

I got up early again this morning.  The kidney's man, they order me up, and I have to  go.  I came out to see what I could pick up on Shortwave Amateur Radio Band, and in the day time, not much, at night, much better.  I've been thinking about putting up a wore antenna to get better reception.  But where to place the holes.  Yeah, that's the problem with putting up antennas and such, eventually, you have to drill a hole somewhere.   I could follow the line of least resistance, and place the wire in the basement, and just stay in the basement.  I will bite the bullet and get a heater.  So I will have a warm place to sit in the winter.

I need a better radio.  Well, my HT is all right, but it will not get out very far.  I understand that Associate radio has a mobile radio on sale.  I already have a poer supply.  Well, as Scarlett said to Rhett;"Ill think of this another day."

I'm hungry.  I think i will get something to eat....

I worry about the future....

We have a Depression.  I know, they call it a Recession, but it is worse than the 1929 Depression.  How did this occur?  Well, first, government encouraged our employment base to move off shore.  Hell, they even gave them tax breaks for moving their factories out of the country.  

This action alone, created a crimp in the social net; social sceurity, got a real kick.  Right now, Republicans are licking their chops at the prospect of no more SSI.

Then, Clinton, the Bastard, brought in NAFTA, which acted to further erode American industry.  This was a dagger in the heart of Unions, and in working stiffs everywhere.  This brought on rapacious Capitalism.  Capitalism is: Anti-family, Anti-Social networks, and anti-Community.  

Mike Malloy uoted a survey which states that people who live in Social Democracies are happiest.  Money alone is not  the key to all happiness, even though there is wealth in these Democratic Socialist  countries; Switzerland being an example of wealth and security.

The question is, have we been able to stop Bush's eight years of mis-management?   Will Obama be quick enough to get us on the right track?  And, where can I go?  Malloy said people are thinking Canada, but that is only because they are closer.  I don't know.  I would love to escape. 

I'm tired, oing to bed.......

Perchance I will write some in the morning.

T-Minus 26 hours and so many minutes....

That is how long Carol has before surgery tomorrow.  She can now only drink clear liquids.  Last night the condemned prisoner had a steak, mushrooms, salad with her favorite salad dressing. Diet 7 Up,a sweet potato, with butter and sugar.  She ate well.

We like the Longhorn restaurant, and she ordered over the phone.  We someohow got cut off, so I had to wait to get the order.  I started to pay, and the girl behind the bar smiled, and said,"It's on the house."  I thanked her, and fled.  It as a good meal.  I had to put my steak into the microwave, it was just a tad underdone for me.  Carol likes red meat, I like mine well cooked.

But now, all she can have is clear liquids.

If we go through with this, she will next have to take that "Go lightly" stuff, and I am going to be required to empty her shit.  I gag at the prospect.  They tell me , this is the worst part of a colonosopy, and to her colon surgery.  She has several hernias caused by the last surgery, and this is what is prompting her not to call a halt to this affair.

Anyway, we meet with the guy who puts you to sleep. he wants her to have more tests to be sure her heart can stand the time she will be under.  This is going to take some time.  I have a book.

It was after mid-night,

We had a prowler in our back yard.  He had a flashlight, and was searching for something.  I do not think he found it, but he looked for over a half hour.  We called the cops.  Of course, the cop found him, but did not realize he was the intruder.  The guy left anyway.  e need to put up security fences up, and more lighting.

Random Thoughts......

May 16, 2009-

After a stormy night and afternoon, things are a bit cool, and calm now.  for a time there, I did not know what as going on.

The best electrical storm I can recall happened in New Vienna, Ohio.  We had just moved to new Vienna, a farming community.  We lived on the very edge of town.  I have no idea if it was East or West.  All I recall is that there was a lane which separated us from the country.  Across this  lane, the town ended.  There was a old farm house, and there were children living there, and they had a farm with goats,  horses, and cows.  I remember my Uncles, they were well drillers, drilled a well for them.  How they knew where to drill is beyond me.  I have a friend who bought property ,built a house and tried to drill for water, and got nothing.  he said he had five of the prettiest  holes he had ever seen, but no water.  That is a problem; too far out for city services, and  not able to get  water by other means.

Now getting back to the storm.  It was in the Spring, or Fall, I can't recall, but it was raining, and  lightning and I had this premonition that my Grandparents were there.  They had not called to say they were coming, but I just felt they were.  I told my parents, and they sort of ignored me.  Then I looked out a window, and with a flash of lightning,I saw my Grandpa, my Grandma, and my Uncle Kenneth, who could have been more than thirteen or fourteen at the time.  Grandma had Kenneth , her seventh son, when she was 45.  This was the last trip where Kenneth tagged along with his parents.  When they saw that I was right, they went out on the porch and called them into the house.

Some time later, the lights went out, and we were in the dark.  We got candles, and flashlights, and we kids had a good ole time exploring the old victorian parsonage in the dark.

I remember Grandpa sitting in the kitchen explaining to Dad why he bought an automatic shift.  He had a Liincoln Towncar.  He said that the machine knew  better when to shift gears than any human.  He then went on to praise Eisenhower on begining to build interstate highways.  In 1953, this project had just begun.  I was  8 at the time, and  it made little sense to me then.

Parsonages, something which most ministers don't have now.  I always thought that living in a parsonage was sort of akin to living in someone elses house.  It was not yours.  You could never decided to tear down a wall, or do major surgery on a parsonage.  you were living in quarters provided you by the Church.  I think the Church paid for everything, utilities included.  It came as part of  the salary.

This parsonage in New Vienna was an old Victorian house.  I do believe that it had once belonged to a member of the congregation, who had died and left the house and land to the Church.

The house had a wide porch.  It was painted blue as I recall.  There were four big steps leading up to the front door, which was all glass.  Even the door knob was made of glass.  A skeleton key was all that separated you from the outside world, but then in those days, that was enough.  When you entered the house through the front door, you were  in a short  hallway.  There was a place for coats, and a small table.  I do not know  the reason for the table. .  Straight ahead was a formal dining area, and to the left of the dining area was a large kitchen.  There was a room on one side of the kitchen which served as a laundry room, and mud room.  Of course, there was an entrance also to the outside too.

Lets go back to the short hall way, to the right was a living room.  The stairs were on the left, and they rose up to the second story where we lived.  I do believe there were four bedrooms.  There was also a bathroom upstairs.  It was  to the right of my bedroom.  The thing which intrigued me most of all was the big four footed tub.

One of the things which I loved was the den, the place where the TV was , and we relaxed on Friday nights.  Friday nights were good nights.

Downstairs, we had a coal burning furnace.  My job was to fill the stoker, and to remove the ashes.  I hated that job.  Although i did not know it at the time, this furnace was very dangerous.

We had a large yard, and a push mower.  It  was supposed to be my job to mow the lawn.  I think Dad promised me a quarter.  I never did mow it.  I tried, but push mowers are not meant to be used on huge lots.  Oh, we also have an apple tree, and some cherry trees on the property.  My other jobs was to pick up the apples which dropped to the ground, and Mom would make us apple pies. 

We had storms come through which knocked out U-verse

Things are back to normal now, but for a while I was a tad worried.  Carol is having second thoughts about surgery.  If she is unomfortable, she should delay the thing.  Nothing wrong with that.  Besides, she has another stone, and if that decides to drop, well, we are talking major pain.

My life is sort of on hld too til this is settled.  I don't care as long as she is well now.  She resons, and it is logical, that she might as well have the surgery while she is at least able to do it.  Yeah,right!

People I have Known

She has been silent.  i hve no idea why, perhaps she is too busy.  Perhaps?

I know I am going to be busier than a one handed paper hanger the next few weeks. Carol goes into urgery on Tuesday, next week.  I have done this before.  I will have to try to be available for all of the things she will need, and pray that the surgery is successful.  The last few times, things did not go so well.  This was a long list of things which went wrong.  I pray noting untoward happens.

I have found that in times when I need to collect my thoughts, I am too pulled up into the matter at hand to be able to do that.  Sort of like the joke; it is difficult to think about draining the swamp when you are up to your neck in alligators.  The worst part of this, is that I will be by my lonesome.  During her last hospital stay, I was not consulted or told what was going on.  I realized she was not well, but I had no idea how serious the situation was.  I just hope things go better this time. 

Shawnee Mission Hospital is not noted for their food.  I might complain about many things with Providence Hospital, but their food is not one of them. Providence has good food.  Whereas S. M.

does not.  I think back to my Mom and what she did for me when I was in the hospital.  It was just she, and me.  She was the brave soldier who came every day.  I don't know if she ate or not.  I was just a kid, I did not think of her troubles.  I stayed weeks on end.  And, it was  no vacation for either of us.  Today, the idea is to get in and to get out as quickly as possible.  I am only wondering how long she will have to spend in recouping.

Tom, my Brother-in-Law, goes under the knife today.  Probably already is.  I can imagine what Sis is going through.  I have put off surgery.  I hve a hernia, which should be repaired, but I keep putting it off.  It really does not bother me.

Well, I will have to get breakfast.  I am not going to cook.  I don't know what I will get, but I will try to get something good.  speaking of food, last night, we ate at Memi's restaurant.  I know what I am going to have tonight.  I might share with Carol.  The food was good, but man was it expensive.

Well, Carol is scheduled for surgery on next Tuesday...

After her last surgery, which this is supposed to fix, I just have my fingers crossed.  She has extreme faith in this guy, so I think her judgement is good.

My Brother- in-Law goes in for surgery tomorrow to repair a hernia.  Two in fact.  They make it out to be no big deal, so I am hoping there as well.

The only thing certain in life is death.  How are your going to meet the Grim Reaper, who knows?  I had a report, that one of my Classmates from High School just passed.  He was only 62.  Marsh was a cool guy.  He was hip to all the ways I wasn't.  In fact, one of the reasons I wanted to go to this Reunion was to meet up with him again.  Now, it won't happen.  One of the things I have missed out on is leading the nomadic life.  When I attended Valley High School, the kids that went there, had been together since Kindergarten.  I came there in my Junior year, and after graduating, I moved on.  Such is the life of a Preacher's Kid.

The closest I ever came to feeling the closeness of community was when I lived in Kouts.  Sis talks about it now too.  She was very popular her two years at Kouts.  I'll not forget this one guy who was ga ga over my Sis.   They sort of dated, he took her to dances, and the Proms, and the like.  One night, he came over to where we were living, and he told Sis,"I can hypnotize you."  he took a candle, and a plate, and moved the candle all over the plate, and had Sis rub her finger over where soot had collected from the candle.  She had a big smle on her face, because he couldn't do it, then he showed her face in a mirror, and she was horrified.  She never spoke to him again.  I believe she broke his heard.  It was told to me that he never left the farm that Summer.

After watching the HBO Alzheimer's program....

Lynn, since your Mom is in just the begining stages of this disease, I do think you should watch this series.  Did they ever do the MRI test.  This determines if the brain has shrunk.  I do not know if the pictures tell a good enough story of how much memory has been eaten up by the plaque, and other substances in the brain.  Of course, there are tests; memory tests, story tests, and drawing tests, which determine how much of the real world has passed them by.  I do not know if you have had a chance to see this, HBO has opened their channels to everyone so they can view this series.

Then, there is the question ; if my Mom had it, what are my chances of getting it as well?  Heredity does play a role, but so does about anything else in this game of chance; Diabetes,high cholesterol , the loss of kidney function, all have a role in this dreaded disease.  According to the film makers , this is the second most dreaded disease one fears of having it is right behind cancer.  Barb, you lost your Mom to this disease as well.

I don't know if any of you besides me and Harv  have decided to retire.  Harv is lucky in that he has a wife who still works.  Of course, he is the care giver to the children he adopted.  That is not exactly retiring.

Elle, I said that we had cloudy skies, well, now they have brightened some, and of course, there is still the threat of rain.  I do think we can do withut the rain, we should save it for the middle of July. 

I'm really down after watching this HBO Special....

I'm really down seeing that I have diabetes, and all of the other complications caused by my Polio.  I just don't care if I die by a heart attack, I just don't want to waste away as my mother did.  If anyone has lived through that, you would not wish it on your worst enemy.

I'm letting a few of my friends read my blog.  I hope I get some feed back. 

I hope you get this.....

Yesterday proved to be an all right day, although Carol still says that going over to Jane and Larry's house wears her out.  It appears as if we are going to get rain, it is overcaste.  We must have a new mailman meaning that our old mailman could be on vacation.  I'm not certain.  We will see how well he sorted  the mail.  Sometimes, we get mail from the next block because the house numbers are the  same, but the street number is different.  Mrs. Brittenstein often gets our mail, and we hers, and sometimes we just swap mail back and forth.  She is a wisened old woman who knows everyone, and every thing on the block.  You need people like that.

You might not know this, but I love radio.  C.Crane keeps tempting me with its catalogues.  I hve a /C.Crane radio which does AM, FM, and will do TV up until June 12th, when everything on the TVwill go digital.  Well, CC has now come up with two meter on their new CC Radio, and this almost makes up for the fact that it is going to lose the TV  Bands.  I need to  get my old CCRadio fixed, it no longer displays where you are at on its dials, so I just might be forced to buy the one, and forgo fixing the other.  I am pretty good at tuning in by feel. 

Well, I will try to keep you up to date, thrugh this blog.  Love ya.

May 6, 20009

It is breakfast time, the kitties are telling me so, so I ll have to go feed them, but i shall return.  I'm back.

In the past, I have written small poems.  I won't bother recounting them, my longest was about a guy named Paul Carl,a guy with two first names.  Oh what he heck;

Paul Carl had a disease which made him cough and sneeze.   The doctors said it was all in his head and sent him home to bed.

Despite what was said, the disease spread from his head down to about his knees.  " Such a disease, we've never seen cried one doc after another.  All agreed except one who decreed,"This is not what it seems.  Of this I am convinced he is dense hence the cure is  through Psychiatry.  We'll make him think he is a lover, and then, he will recover." 

I wrote one to Roy.       " When Roy was three, he knew exaclty what he wanted to be, a cartendar beyond compare.  Oh, the stanzas got worse.

Love pangs can bring out the poet in me.  I must admit, I am a hack, but what the heck.

Who would of tought that just thirty years ago that the "good ole days would be over.  At Providence Hospital,where I once worked, there was a crew of about thirty people.  I worked as the Groundskeeper.  A thankless job until I got a new boss.  Larry Shindler was a farmer at heart, and he eleveated the Yard Man to a higher position than it ever had been.

Oh, we were underpaid.  We were held down, as were all the departments of the hospital.  When

I started, it 

was the Nurses who protested for more money.  I am sure they were woefully underpaid.  Everyone was told,"Don't tell what you make."  When I discovered that I made more than the printer, and told him so, he blew his top.  But down in maintenance, as it was then called, no one spoke of what they made.  That would come later...

This war was resolved rather nicely by Administrators.  They piecemealed out the departments; Nursing was owned by such and such company, and housekeeping, the same, and they cut maintenance, now called Plant Operations, was only attached to the hospital .  This freed Administration.  I don't know if they cut any administrators.  I doubt it.  But now, and this is some time later, all the pesky business of wage and all went by, by.  Of course, this did not help the worker any more than the last system.  My lawn mowing job was hired out.  Now they did not have to hear of my complaints.  But, I left before all of this  occurred.  There are still a few people who still work for the new regeime, and they seem to take pride that they had lasted so long.

Well, thank God, those days are over.....

I read Roger Moore's Biography

There are people who you have to admire simply because they were able to do things.  For instance, Roger Moore is an actor, but also an artist.  A fairly good one too.  I admire artists.  They can create the illusion of reality on a flat surface.  Sometimes, they can do it in three dimensions, such as in sclupture.  Moore is 81, I admire those who can live past the Biblical three score plus ten.  I would hope to do that.  So many of my friends have not.  I'm only 64, and i d o not feel as if I have passed my prime, if I had a prime.

I liked what Moore said about writing his biography.  He simply laid word upon word until he was done.