Saturday, March 31, 2007

WHIZZY'S NEW GRANDDAUGHTER






Here are the pictures of my newest Grand Baby, Harper Christine Rains, ain't she beautiful! The other grand children are not bad either!! God is Good!


That is Alexa (my beautiful wife). Marci is my daughter, Hayden is her son and Ansley is the little girl. Her husband is Jason. They live in Raleigh, NC and I am heading there today! (3/30/07) Blessings, Whiz



BLUEBONNETS IN TEXAS - HAPPY SPRING






It's Spring!!! Bluebonnets are in bloom. These are in my backyard..... Happy Spring everyone! LOVE, GLORIA

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

A SALUTE TO A FRIEND by Jerry Ball

A salute to Dexter Florence on what would have been his 60th birthday

My Friends,

About two months ago, I shared with you some of my angst of aging upon reaching my 60th birthday. I told you that I took off work that day just to be alone with my thoughts and ended up at the National Museum of the Pacific War. Seeing the exhibits there reminded me of many men of that era who never lived to be old. Then I started reflecting on our own generation and, particularly, of some who served with me in Vietnam.

Today, I have been thinking of Dex Florence and John Matthews from my Vietnam days. Today, March 27, 2007, would have been Dex’s 60th birthday.

Dexter Bush Florence flew Loach helicopters in Vietnam. Small in stature, he was as big as anybody when he strapped into his bird. There are men alive today who would not be had Dex not done his duty and then some. A college classmate of Dex, John was a member of the ultrasecret MACSOG group whose special operations activities carried them to many parts of Southeast Asia. (John was nicknamed “Bart” because some of the guys thought he resembled a Bartlett pear.) One October Sunday in 1972, Dex, Bart and I were in Saigon eating French onion soup, quaffing brews, and generally giving each other a ration of grief about each of our unit’s contribution to the war effort. (Not unlike the gibes tossed back and forth in the locker rooms of Pat Conroy’s book, My Losing Season, which I highly recommend to military brats, especially those who played basketball.) Before that week was out, Dex was dead – the victim of a command detonated explosive that took down his helicopter and left him to sear from the flames until death mercifully released him from the pain three days later. The official report reports it this way: “On 26 October 1972 1LT Dexter Bush Florence, pilot, and SSG Keven Zane Goodno, observer, were on a scout mission in an OH-6A Loach. While hovering at tree-top level, a command-detonated mine blew the OH-6 out of the air. SSG Goodno was killed instantly, while 1LT Florence was seriously injured. He was evacuated to Japan where he died on 29 October of injuries received.”

Should you ever pass by the little town of Arkadelphia, Arkansas and see the small airfield there named Florence Field, give a nod to a great American whose hometown gave the honor of naming their aerial link to the world after their native son.

Before the year of 1972 was out, Bart was on a classified mission that went bad. Badly wounded, he was medevaced out of country. Eventually, he ended up back home at the veterans hospital in Little Rock, not far from his home. He earned a Purple Heart and a medical discharge. I visited him in 1973 or 1974, but now I don’t know where he is. Or if.

Of the three of us at that meal in Saigon, only I came back undamaged from the war. A sobering thought.

So in these closing moments of March 27, 2007, I wanted to note Dex’s 60th birthday. Thanks for letting me share this salute with you. God bless the friends of my youth – those who are gone and those who live on.

Jerry

(Jerry Ball '65
jcrsdj@aol.com)

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

GRANDKIDS SAY THE DARNEST THINGS

Grand Kids say the darndest things


My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday. He asked me how old I was, and I told him, "62." He was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, "Did you start at 1?"
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After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. At last she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice, "Who was THAT?"
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A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like: "We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods." The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this in. At last she said, "I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!"
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My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, "Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?" I mentally polished my halo while I asked, "No, how are we alike?" "You're both old," he replied.
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A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's word processor. She told him she was writing a story. "What's it about?" he asked. "I don't know," she replied. "I can't read."
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I didn't know if my granddaughter had learned her colors yet, so I decided to test her. I would point out something and ask what color it was. She would tell me, and always she was correct. But it was fun for me, so I continued. At last she headed for the door, saying sagely, "Grandma, I think you should try to figure out some of these yourself!"
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When my grandson Billy and I entered our vacation cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside to keep from attracting pesky insects. Still, a few fireflies followed us in. Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, "It's no use, Grandpa. The mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights."
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When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, "I'm not sure." "Look in your underwear, Grandma," he advised. "Mine says I'm four to six."
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A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, "Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today." The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool. "That's interesting," she said, "How do you make babies?" "It's simple," replied the girl. "You just change 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'"
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Children's Logic: "Give me a sentence about a public servant," said a teacher. The small boy wrote: "The fireman came down the ladder pregnant." The teacher took the lad aside to correct him. "Don't you know what pregnant means?" she asked. Sure," said the young boy confidently. "It means carrying a child."
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A nursery school teacher was delivering a station wagon full of kids home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing the dog's duties. They use him to keep crowds back, "said one youngster. "No, said another, "he's just for good luck." A third child brought the argument to a close. "They use the dogs", she said firmly, "to find the fire hydrant."
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Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

Friday, March 16, 2007

WHICH GENERATION ARE YOU?

WHICH GENERATION ARE YOU?

"Hey Mom," one of my kids asked the other day,
"What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,"
I informed him. "Allthe food was slow."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"

"It was a place called 'at home,'" I explained.

"Grandma cooked everyday and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER
owned their own house, wore Levi's, set foot on a golf course,traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way,there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called "pizza pie. "When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that,too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend: My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December)and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to "sprinkle" clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.
Dad removing klinkers every night from our coal burning furnace.
Calling for a friend, with your voice, at their door rather than using the bell.
Mail delivery twice daily, morning and afternoon.
Jumping rope with neighborhood kids after SUPPER.
Automatic diswasher?.....I don't think so....!

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about-
Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with table side juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
16. Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19. Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Washing machines with wringers; and washtubs for rinsing

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life. Feel free to make comments below in the Post Comments Section.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?








These pictures were submitted by Janet Watkins Jendron '65. We know who the cheerleaders are: Carol Hines, Janet Watkins and Becky Mahr. But who are the people lined up on the stage after the play "My Sister Elieen"? Please post your answers below..... (I'll give you a hint - one is my ex-husband).

Jackie and Jeff 2007




Have attached a couple of pictures from Estes Park where Jeff and I started my 60th birthday celebration month last weekend. Cold as hell, but we didn't care. Picture of us is in Rocky Mtn. National Park (my favorite place on earth), another of the park on a much calmer Sunday, and the Rockies on the day we arrived during big wind storm! Yowee!See you next month! We are really looking forward to seeing you!xoxoJackie

Gloria in Hawaii - February 2007






These are just a few of the pictures I took in Hawaii. Joyce Molick Adkins '66 met me and my girlfriend Marianne in Honolulu on Saturday and took us along the east coast and showed us some of the neat sites including "Eternity Beach" here. Joyce has lived in Hawaii for 5 years now and is getting ready to move back to the mainland soon. Marianne and I are celebrating our 60th birthdays.

1964 Basketball Team Photo - Candid