Convention Flashbacks

Boy, here we go...poor New York City.  Well, I don't think the protesters are anything like the ones that took part in the Chicago Convention in 1968.

I was there. I lived through it. Terrified. We lived about 12 miles away from the downtown area in Niles, Illinois.  The level of violence escalated to the point that all hospitals in surrounding cities were put on alert for emergency services.

As we watched TV coverage none of us knew just how bad everything could get.  One of my neighbors was a freelance reporter for a news magazine...he had to go right into the area to do his reporting.  He was standing by a group of people in front of a restraunt..all of a sudden the cops started pushing people back.  There was no place to go...he and about 10 others were pushed right through the plate glass window and really cut up pretty bad.  He said at the same time, there was all kinds of debris raining down on the protesters heads - ashtrays, pens, various metal objects being thrown out of the hotel's window's.

It was a total riot, out of control and Mayor Dailey had lost it. You had Yippes, Hippies, Crazey's,Violent & non-violent all mixed together in the center of their city.  Don't forget shortly after this you had state guardsmen shooting young students at Kent State.  A terrible time.

So no, please hopefully no full blown riot in my city that I love.

Besides, the Republicans have to have their day, it's only fair..

 

Homework Assignment #20 Fave HS Class

Well, we need to get back into our time ship and return to a far, far away year....to hear the tales of schools of yesteryear. Everybody in? Ok..here we go.  

It was the year 1958...the height of pink poodle skirts, saddle shoes with white socks, sighing over Elvis, swooning over Fabian, doing the real Lindie - flips & all, getting on the Alan Freed Show, American Bandstand, watching "submarine races" while parked at Forest Park, drag racing down Crossbay Blvd. and not getting caught! Oh, My! You meant classes, teachers, learning, books! 

Well, yes I did have a serious side... my favorites were drama & chorus. For several years running I played Emily in "Our Town" to the point that the script is still embedded on my forehead today.  I didn't have a terrific voice, it was so-so good for a chorus...but not a stand alone and belt it out type.

One of my best friends, Linda, had the most beautiful voice I had ever heard...bell-like she could sing without music - people just stopped whatever they were doing and listened as if under a spell. I often wonder where she is today? We both married, moved and lost touch..sad.

The music part of it was great, we would meet in the music hall earlier than the class would start so that we could have a jam session.  Even though it was the fifties, it was New York and racially mixed in schools. My school had a really cool mix of kids...so we had black, white, and everything inbetween in our music class.   I found that music ties everyone together and we had some remarkable, enjoyable moments in music during that time.  One of the kids was very gifted on the piano..he would start playing "Heart & Soul" just pounding it out...we would begin to sing in unison...it was fun.  Everytime I hear that song I go back to that classroom.

 

J-Lands Ball......Could of Danced All Night

Wow....J-Land really knows how to PARTY!!   The ballroom was decorated to an incredible level...the flowers alone had to cost thousands.  Very high style.  Tables were set with an extremely elegant touch..linens just perfect...matched only by the glorious china that was used. 

The Band played on....people came & went throughout the night...dancing the night away, outfitted in the most attractive attire.

The poor bartender was kept extremely busy by a select few. (We will not mention names as a precaution)

The highlight of the evening came as we all waited with baited breath for the announcement of the King & Queen of the Ball.   The excitement grew & grew until we almost couldn't stand it....Yeah..it was MZGoochi (Lahoma) and Quitlaffinatmysn  

 

The only fly in the ointment was a rumor that someone had "tied up" Johnny in a hall closet? Alot of the ladies got upset hearing that....was it true? Did anybody see it?

Throughout the night we also heard feedback that John's front yard was being filled with Pink Flamingoes...let it be known that the culprits will be caught!

At 1 PM we were treated to a wonderful fireworks display arranged by a very talented guy....

All in all a magnificient, magical, marvelous moment in time for all of us.

Thanks much and goodnight.

Middle Class Gets Wacked

Well, I never thought that in an election year the incumbent President would wheedle a hurtful bill through Congress...just doesn't make sense to me...oh, wait...there are all the grateful large conglomerates that will "owe" him.

Maybe between the election race, campaign propaganda, terrible war news, beheadings, and hurricanes he figured we the public just wouldn't notice that our rights are being taken away from us.

I don't know about you but when my husband works longer than forty (40) hours the extra overtime pay surely does help.  I think it's fair..he works harder, longer and gets more.  Evidently, Mr. President, you don't think so.  

I have tried to read the new rules, which by the way, are set to be enacted upon on August 23rd!  Isn't that remarkable? I don't think Superman at the speed of light could of beat these jokers out.  The rules are confusing, which is par for the course, that of course plays into the employers hands.

I really don't know how this man can look at himself in the mirror....America's middle class is in too much trouble as it is without additional rights being taken away from us.

The polls are saying that Kerry is down a bit because of the Vietnam boat vets...well, folks come into the year 2004 and we have good ol' George selling us down the river without the damm boat.  I really am more interested in the here and now - not the heretofore.

I am so angry right now...I normally don't get angry - but the very audacity of his administration to push this through as a giant plum to the good ol'boys. 

Besides which, the Vietnam Vets are funded by an old buddy of President Bush...someone who has donated over 4 million dollars  to his campaign.  However, being as truthful as he can Mr. Bush proclaims that he has no knowledge, no involvement at all with the Vietnam Vets.  Maybe I'm reading too much into 4 million dollars.  Anybody written you a check like that lately?

This is literally ruining our heritage.  You could stand up and be proud - this was a place that if you worked hard enough, long enough, struggled enough, you rose ever so slowly but you bettered yourself and your children.  Mr. President, you are taking that away from us...you born with a silver spoon - how dare you!

 

Homework Assignment #20 Favorite Entry-Straight From The Horses Mouth

(This is my original entry, but when I first started I neglected to make paragraphs and as my son pointed out - I could make people blind reading the runon story, so to save your eyesight I'm retyping it hopefully the right way)

Hello, again.  This past year my family underwent a remarkable passage back through time...no we didn't have a time machine....we have a dad who is turning 88 this year.  With his memories took us and horse lovers back to the 1930's and the competition between Seabiscuit & War Admiral.

My dad was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Queens...near Aqueduct Racetrack.  During those years a teenager did what he could to help his family survive, so Dad applied to a stable at the track to clean barns, hot walk..whatever..he really loved horses. 

Turns out he was working for Sonny Fitzsimmons, a really great trainer at that time. One day Dad is told to go meet the horse cars bringing the new stock in to break...he and another guy get four horses off the car...one of them really looks like a wild mustang and is small in comparsion to the others.  Well, Dad gets him to break to the bit and gentle..that horse's name was "Seabiscuit".

He spent almost a year with Seabiscuit, including surviving a really bad trip down to Florida for the winter.   They were locked inside a horse car and it started filling up with water from a bad storm they encountered running through Florida.  My Dad really thought that they were all going to drown.  Dad said when they finally opened the doors and the water drained out, the Florida sun shone through .. he thought he had died and gone to heaven.   It was so beautiful & different from dark, ice cold New York.

This last part would be interesting enough, however, it gets better...times were rough in the 1930's jobs were fought for and what you had yesterday didn't count much towards tommorrow.  In 1935 Dad found himself as low man on the totempole looking at other stables for work.  Well, he applied at a Belmont Stable and was hired on to again break to the bit and gentle more horses.

He was sent down to Maryland working at the Glenn Riddle Farms and given the responsibility ofseveral horses...one of those horses was none other than "War Admiral".

Little did my Dad know what the future would hold for both these horses....that they would both go down in history as two of the world's best.

When Laura Hildenbran's book "Seabiscuit" came out, my sister Barbara thought that there might be "some" interest to someone to interview my Dad and glean some "hands on history" straight from the horses mouth.  So far, Dad's fifteen minutes of fame hasn't stopped.  This past year, he has given several speeches at various libraries...attended by horse lovers...especially the one in Gainesville.  He has been interviewed by radio, TV and various newspapers starting with the St Pete Times and reaching as far as Europe.

Even though he is the age he is...he's loving it.  Since alot of the people that shared his experiences are no longer with us, the memories can sometimes be very bitter-sweet for him to remember.

He was asked how he felt about being the first man to "break" both Seabiscuit and War Admiral...Dad responded.."I was only doing my job"...and the stories he can tell........

Infamous "Safe Place"

Well, I guess I caused this myself.....when I thought the hurricane was coming this way I tried to gather up "important" papers/things and stuffed them away in what I thought were "safe" places.

Anyway, it's almost a week later and I can't find a  damm thing...not my need to pay before they are overdue bills, beloved photos and thank God I didn't have to secure something living in my "safe" spot. They would be gone forever. 

And whatever was I thinking?  If Charlie had hit us headon as it planned to do....there would be no "safe" spot.   My husband is beginning to believe that "blondeness" is a real disease.. he doesn't want to catch it....I haven't made up my own mind on that yet.

Hey! Wait there might just be a benefit in all of this. While I'm looking for all my "safe" stuff I'll discover all my other "safe" places that I've used throughout the years.  You would be amazed at what I've managed to squirrel away and not find.

Although, I don't know how cool it is to open a little box tucked away in some drawer and discover 13 baby teeth....my oldest "baby" is 38!  The phrase "What was I thinking?" is running through my head.

I guess, you had to be there - at the time I thought it was important to put them in a "Safe" spot...you never know about the tooth fairy...might come back and repossess them.

Who's on First & What's on Second?

Normally...husband comes home putters around, has dinner, dessert and takes himself to bed...as he gets up before the sun rises.   Well, the pattern just didn't fit well today...Joe came home but instead of puttering he was muttering....things like - "hey, there's nothing holding us here", "Why don't we just pack up and go?","This place is too damm hot even for me" (He's part sun lizard anyway).

All throughout dinner, saying "wouldn't you like to be closer to the grandchildren?" "I can take the colder weather really I can", telling me to call my sister in Washington State to check on work conditions there...I'm like where is this coming from?

I've moaned & groaned for years over the fact that my two older children are so far away in New York, but never got this type of response from him before. 

It turns out that our youngest, one of the reasons we're down here, has decided to move up to New York!  So, now, Joe is getting to feel a little of the empty nest syndrome that I suffered a while ago - I don't think he likes it too much.

Anyway, I guess we'll just have to look into our different options...we've been here so long it's hard to imagine moving.  But, I've always been a cockeyed optimist anyway, so it might be just the kick start that we need.  

The Hammer Came Down

Well, I'm back at home...it's Saturday...it's so weird, we didn't hardly get even any rain, wind nothing.  But my heart cries for the people in the lower counties that faced such devastation when Charlie ripped through their area.  Well, I was a girl scout until I was 17 years old...so the saying "Be Prepared" stuck with me all these years. 

The people in Charlotte County really thought the storm would hit us here in Tampa Bay so they didn't do as much evacuation as we did up here...more than 1-1/2 million folks got the hell outta Dodge! They started early enough on Thursday to motivate people to leave, I just hope that because it didn't hit that the next time people won't ignore the warnings.

Especially since they predicted 11 hurricanes this season and Charlie was only number 3!  In fact, there is another one following Charlies path that will be over Cuba by this coming Thursday...so we shall see what occurs and say a prayer.

My husband, Joe, insisted that I go to my parents before the storm was to hit as he was worried about all the trees on the property - why do men always want to do the danger bit?  He wouldn't leave - if a tree hit the house hey it hits the house, you have insurance...it's not worth your life. 

Then I go to my Mom & Dad's figuring sanity will prevail...I walk in and find out that my 87 year old Dad went up on a ladder to the roof to remove his TV antenna.  Storms & hurricanes must bring out the testosterone in men no matter what the age!

I'm thankful that the storm did not hit the Tampa Bay area....sorry about where it did hit...but I do believe the devastation would of been greater because of the larger population, taller buildings etc.

We'll be on watch all week ... maybe we'll dodge another bullet.

NOt One but TWO Hurricanes..oh, boy!

Well, I wish I hadn't mentioned hurricanes in my previous journal entries.......you all know Murphy's Laws?  Well, what can go wrong will go wrong?

Our poor state of Florida is so water logged now I'm really worried what these storms will do.  My own house is rather old and the roof is not that good...so I'm just trying to secure things as best that I can.

I was looking forward to doing the family research today at Mom's but we all have to get busy and ready for this storm "Charlie"... I have to laugh...that's my Dad's name.  I don't know how much of an honor it is to have a hurricane named after you...I'll check with him on Saturday about the honor.

We are in a low lying area but still mid-county Pinellas...so it's hard to know if we should leave and I know Joe won't want to.  I guess that's living on the edge in Florida.  So I'm filling up water bottles, pulling out candles, batteries...luckily we have a wind-up crank radio so I don't have to worry about that.

When Joe gets home we'll have to secure the outside, which is going to be a mess...he has so many plants in pots - some are very heavy I don't think they could move...but I don't know how strong the winds will be.   I just remembered the trees..we have so many trees - oh, well I just have to say a prayer that they don't come down. 

Oh, man they are issuing evacuation warnings already...have to go check out the website...can't remember what level we are.  See ya!

Footsteps In The Past

I recently got hooked on family research...only because the computer makes it so much easier to track down our ancestors.  Well, I downloaded so much STUFF that I'm drowning in paperwork.

My Mother had started doing an ancestral chart and got it to go back several generations with the help of the family bible that she inherited from her Mom.

We are lucky, in that, my Mom's side of the family all stayed put pretty much in South Carolina...we've been able to trace them back to 1732 when they landed at Charleston.  I have alot of the censuses that were taken early on, also ship lists of names.

I find it really interesting trying to flesh out and make by-gone people whole. 

One of my sister-in-laws is doing the same for my husbands side of the family.....she has done remarkable research and then proceeded to make copies for all of us.

Anyway I find myself at age 60 dragging my paperwork to my Mom & Dad for HELP.....that's what I'm going to be doing all day.

I guess it's true a parents work is never done...HELP

This could be fun using the IM just to jot down quick moments in time...

Murder

Living in Florida, seeing the coverage of the terrible murders in Orlando makes my heart weep.  I'm still shaking my head asking Why?  A stupid X-box?  Six horribly dead - four with their lives come to a dead stop over a game?

People in the chat rooms are dissecting the people involved and making poisonous statements based on race, I just don't believe that.  I can't understand it, how can someone talk another person into beating someone else to death....rev them up until they go berserker?

I know that under pressure, such as a battle in wartime..the adrenaline levels can cause men to overreact in a kill zone but a stupid X-Box?  Or did four psychopaths just happen to become friends knowing they could count on each other to kill with no remorse?

Watching the news you could see the pain in the face of the lead officer as he spoke to the newsmen...he stated that he had never seen anything as bad as this crime and he hoped that he never would again.

Say a prayer for the families left behind.  Say a prayer for ourselves to give us the strength to deal with these criminals.

 

Homework Assignment #18 Re: Tatoos

Hi....Didn't have the whatever to do this to myself...but Barbie was a willing victim.  She has tatoos on her thighs, ankles, arms, above the belly button, across chest and lower back above buttocks.  Daisey chain flowers and feathers.....she came out kind of Goth.

Rain Drops Keep Falling on my head

Boy, wish this rain would stop.  Open my front door and it is deluge, I have a couple of steps up from the walk into the house...well, the water is at the top of the first level.  Oh, you say it pools by your front door...I wish!  it's 3-4 inches high from my door to the street and my driveway is 50 foot long.

I really think the ground is so saturated that it can't take any more water.  I told my husband Joe he better start looking for a row boat.  When the sun finally does come back we are going to be steaming with humidity.  Makes me miss the 28 inch snowfalls that I use to get in Chicago and New York...almost.

Joe has a way with plants and wants to sell them at the flea market and maybe E-Bay...but this rain is really raining on his parade.  Too much and you can loose everything you've been growing for years.

I know I shouldn't complain..there are people in this world who are dying because of lack of water.  Anyway, just gonna keep my fingers crossed that we don't get hit with a hurricane because there's no where for the run off to go.

Again into the Void

Every four years this country undergoes a tremendous upheaval...one that viewed from outside would seem to rock the very foundations of liberty itself.

The political rhetoric has reached deep into murky, dark depths to recreate the past as they would have it be.  To change a man from a hero to a coward and claim no knowledge of what is being done or by whom.  This is some way to win an election.

Could (13) Thirteen men stand on a stage beaming with pride at their past leader and within days the world is told...not true, none of it...in fact they go a step further and say Kerry actually endangered their lives. 

I. for one, believe the men that stood with Kerry..THEY were on his boat, THEY lived through it, THEY stand with him now. 

Hey, I know what, can we find the "buddies" that Bush hung with and see if he "inhaled" or not?  They could stand and testify for him at the Republican Convention.

Actually, if you think about it, it took Kerry less than seven minutes to jump off the boat and rescue his crewman....ask yourself "What would George do?"  Oh, wait....we know that answer..we saw him in action in sunny Florida, molasses moves faster than he did.

We need a change, we need to be part of the rest of the globe...the world has gotten smaller as we have gotten smarter...a new administration could achieve alot more through diplomacy working with other countries to bring peace back.

I hate these hurtful ads the type of hype that should be banned.  The PR firms that think them up have no right to be proud of their work..it does not serve the American public any good. 

One more thing, I remember being behind the war in Vietnam in the early 60"s but turning against it myself after living in Japan and seeing  the effects of the war on our boys.  There was never any question about our men over there, very proud of them.  But the war was fought for all the wrong reasons and I think history has proven that so I think Kerry coming back and doing antiwar stuff is understandable. 

I believe we must defend our country, but follow the old adage "Walk softly and carry a big stick"....

 

 

Terror Alert

These terror alerts are not all that new...does anyone remember hiding under their wooden student desk at school...waiting for either the "bomb" to fall or the "all clear" to sound?

Well, the classroom has turned into a city caught in the same web as we were when we were children..only the villians have changed.  These past few years have been remarkable as far as history is concerned....the Berlin Wall coming down, Communist regimes ending , wonderful scientific discoveries, Europe uniting in a common cause for once.

Instead of being able to laud the human spirit we once again have to look at evil squarely in it's face.  It's almost as if we have to find someone to blame for it....we are a target..no one is to blame. Doesn't matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican....the terrorists are not going to give up or go away easily.  We really do not need to attack one another...we are a nation of people united in the belief of Freedom...we all bleed the same.

Our biggest enemy is our mindset that we "forget or diminish" whatever happened yesterday...like the saying..:Wait..It'll blow over".   We need to remember, we need to watch out for one another.  Hey, believe me, if I see anyone doing something suspicious I'll be the first one to "drop a dime".

Didn't mean to go on like this but I had read a post on one of the chat boards and the stupid person stated that he was "sick" of hearing about 9/ll.    It got me going.