Turkeys away!

                It’s getting to be that time of year, you know what it is…the Holiday Season! Now arguably it has been in swing for a while. Generally it starts around the beginning of October when the push for Halloween kicks into gear. I’m not going to bemoan how early it starts, it’s become a fact.

                What’s weird though is that growing up, Halloween was traditionally a night for kids. When we were small Mom would actually make our costumes. We’d get to buy a mask to go with it, but other than that it something that she would do at home. And, of course it was cool. The only regret I had on those was one year she made me a great costume as a dalmatian which got mistaken as a cow. But what the heck, the candy flowed in no matter what.

                Next in line is our upcoming holiday, Thanksgiving!

                Thanksgiving and holiday traditions have certainly changed over the years. As a kid the kick off of the season was waiting for “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!”  Sometime around Thanksgiving one of the tv stations in Chicago always aired, “Miracle on 34^th Street.”  

                With the advent of first VCR’s, followed by DVD’s and now streaming it’s possible to watch any of these shows any time you want. It’s convenient, but the anticipation was a big part of the excitement.

                Moving into the ‘70’s there were two new Thanksgiving specials brewing. In Phoenix it became a tradition for KDKB to play Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant.”  A while ago they started playing it throughout the day rather than once at a particular time.

A movie that, at least in Phoenix moved into the holiday tradition was Errol Flynn in “Robin Hood.”  If I remember correctly Thanksgiving Day had somehow become an Errol Flynn movie day, “Captain Blood, The Master of Ballantree, The Sea Hawk.” I had a friend that had one of the original suitcase size VCR’s and he recorded them, commercials and all. They may still be hanging out in a closet somewhere around here. A project for later on.

                Then there is my favorite, WKRP’s Thanksgiving turkey drop. If anyone is having Thanksgiving day with us I make sure they get to partake of this particular holiday classic. If you haven’t seen it I’m sure it’s out there on the web somewhere. It should be required viewing.

                To finish off our Thanksgiving traditions I’m going to get this up, get a fresh cup of coffee and go light the fire for my wife and dog. Our Thanksgiving tradition is to relax and be thankful for our family, health and friends.

                Happy Thanksgiving.

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

 I’ve had a change in my work schedule, for the first time in my adult working life I have weekends off! It’s a change in a lot of ways. Most noticeably I now have time off with my wife without having  to schedule it and that has been an amazing reward for both of us.

 With Sunday’s off I’ve returned to an old habit, buying and reading the Sunday Newspaper. That is why I say  I read the news today, Oh Boy. No, the English Army hasn’t won the war. We’ll see how many pick up on that!

Sadly progress has caught up with the newspaper industry, I’m possibly one of the last people to discover that. Our local paper is now owned by Gannett. Many of the stories in the paper now are merely reprints from USA Today. It’s like broadcast news, soundbites and tidbits of useless information that doesn’t tell the story. Journalism has taken a dive. Gone are the days of Edward R. Murrow, Mike Royko, Jimmy Breslin. Another time, place and blog.

 Some of the columnists have hung on, which is almost regrettable. Instead of developing new talent over the years we have predictable writers with predictable opinions. But, I digress.

There is a section of the paper that I read completely every Sunday. Some may find this morbid, but hang in there, an explanation is here.

Everyone’s life is interesting and should be acknowledged. It’s sad in a way, that as a whole we don’t truly appreciate a person’s life until it is over. The obituary is where we find out so many facts about people, details, loves, losses careers, hobbies, pets, favorite things to do. Things that we often wish we had known when they were with us.

I’ve found that small town papers are much better to read in all aspects. When we are out of town I always try to pick up the local paper. The obituaries in them are in depth, by the time I’ve finished reading them I feel like I knew the person, or wish I had met them.

 Here’s an experiment, write your own obituary and see how incredible your life is. Share it with a friend or loved one, don’t be shy!

Sometimes You Don't Need to Say a Word.

Summer Thougths

In the words of Bob Seeger, “In the sweet summertime, summertime.” And that’s what it is, sweet summertime.

Some are under the impression that summer in Arizona is a season to be dreaded, but I beg to differ. It’s merely a matter of adjusting some, getting in the proper frame of mind. Because the truth is summer in the desert is unique and wonderful.

Start out by listening to some great tunes, it’ll get you headed in the right direction.

                Saturday in the Park                      Chicago  

                Hot fun in the Summertime         Sly

                Wipeout                                           The Surfari’s

Break out the Aloha shirts and huarache sandals, suntan lotion and wide brimmed hats, it helps you get in the mood, look very cool, and be comfortable.

Phoenix in the summer is hot, no argument there. But, the majority of us go from our air conditioned house, to our air conditioned car to reach our air conditioned destination. It ain’t that bad. Most of us have a pool to jump in as well.

Traffic is incredibly light, stores, movie theaters, restaurants, all business’s are so much easier to deal with. The population drops incredibly in the summer. Snow birds have flown and half of Phoenix goes to San Diego.

Summer mornings are beautiful. Quiet and cool. Sit on the patio, have some coffee, jump in the pool, all before 6:00am, it’s a wonderful start to the day. If you have a friend that has a boat on Lake Powell you can hit the water, then the jet ski’s before most people are awake!

BBQing becomes the mode of cooking, why heat up the kitchen? Grilled corn on the cob, grilled chicken, burgers, dogs and finally fresh fruit. Time to enjoy friends and family, the BBQ is a well-documented stress reducer. Really it is, look it up.

Summer storms, the monsoon’s are unique to us as well. Now I’ve got to admit a mile high and 30 mile long dust storm is not a pleasure to endure, but it sure is cool to look at. And, it’s easier to sweep away the dust than shovel snow! A few years ago it was decided to call them Haboob’s instead of dust storms. I still like dust storm, for what it’s worth.

It’s also time to catch up on great old movies, Jaws, Close Encounters, Captain Ron, Stand by Me, ET. For some reason they were just made for this time of year.

Close out the day with another dip in the pool. Get the noodles out, float around, watch the stars, look for shooting stars and listen to the cicada’s.

“Sun is shining. Weather is sweet. Make you wanna move your dancing feet.”- Bob Marley

Happy Summer

A Penny

I collect pennies and some other old coins. Now I’m not a numismatist by any stretch of the imagination. I just collect old stuff that interests me. Today I made a find, a 1941 wheat penny That’s pretty much what I limit my collecting to, wheat pennies and coins from the war years. For me it’s a real slice of history. What kind of past do they have, where have they been, who has used them, it takes me back.

My dad was in the Army Air Corp during the Second World War. Most of my friends fathers had served during those years, a lot of us grew up hearing war stories and Army stories. One of the great adventures for us as kids was going to the Army/Navy surplus stores. There was one just across the border in Hammond Indiana, and there were a couple of great ones right in Downtown Chicago.

Trips to Downtown were an adventure. We’d walk or ride our bike to the IC (Illinois Central) station in Homewood and take the train to the end of the line, which at that time was the Prudential Building, once the tallest building (at 41 stories) in Chicago.

An adventure downtown always included a few necessary stops for us. Going to the Sun Times Building to see my dad at work, heading to Marina Towers to watch the DJ’s at WCFL, hitting a couple of record stores, lunch at an old deli in the Loop, right under the el train as it thundered over us,  deafening and shaking us as we feasted on sumptuous Rueben sandwiches, cole slaw and fry’s. And of courses the goal of the trip, hitting the surplus stores.

They were like toy stores for us. Being in Boy Scouts we needed all kinds of cool camping supplies as well as emergency equipment, living up to the Boy Scout Motto of “always be prepared.” Which, by the way still serves me well today, thank you Baden Powell!

Shelves and racks of jackets, tents, all types of bags, pistol belts, mess kits, compasses, c rations, zippo lighters, gloves, hats, helmets, shovels, bayonets, scabbards, cartridge belts, patches and pins, it was a 12 year old’s treasure trove! And all very useful for those excursions into the wild.

What made it even better was it was affordable on a budget, money derived from cutting lawns, raking leaves, shoveling snow, working at the hobby shop. Try to buy that stuff today and it costs a small fortune, collectible and vintage being the words to watch for.

Every once in a while I take my jar of old pennies and dump them on the desk, sort through them, wonder about them. Write about them a little bit.

Happy New Year

Christmas Eve, 1968, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders became the first men in history to orbit the moon. They saw the first “earth rise” from space and they read the  Biblical story of creation from Genesis, closing with Borman saying, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you—all of you on the good Earth."

Next year, July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, with the uttering the legendary, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." President Kennedy’s goal of landing men on the moon and bringing them home safely by the end of the decade had been achieved. I saw this live at Boy Scout Summer Camp, Camp Betz, on a portable black and white TV that our Scoutmaster had somehow ingeniously rigged up.

As a kid in those years I was fascinated with the space program, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Gathering around the color, yes color television to watch launches and splashdowns was an event to look forward to.

The bedroom that I shared with my brother had the moon maps and missions on the walls. I bought model kits of the different rockets, painstakingly and diligently painting and gluing them together. I must admit though, I wasn’t great at any type of model kits, except one.

 One year for either my birthday or Christmas someone gave me a model of the USS Constitution, complete with rigging. I’m not sure how it happened, but slowly and surely over quite a period of time I painted and completed it, and it was a work of art. Oddly in our move from Chicago to Phoenix it was one of the only things that got broken. Weird, isn’t it.

Being a fan of the space program also got me into flying model rockets, Estes model rockets. I’m pretty sure this had my parents a bit nervous, probably pretty much an equivalent to, “you’ll shoot your eye out kid.”

Estes rockets came in kits of different levels. You had to order the kit and specify what type of engine you wanted and of course there was the cool, electronically controlled launch pad. Those things would take off, well, like a rocket! A drawback was they went so high and fast it was pretty hard to actually follow them. A charge in the engine would blast the nosecone off and deploy the parachute, most of the time. Some rockets drifted gently back to earth, some nosedived and some, well I don’t know where they went, Dark side of the Moon?

I was reading the other day that China landed a rover on the far side of the moon. NASA shut down the Space Shuttle program in 2011. Currently Russia now has the only space program capable of manned space flight.

My grandmother and I were watching a space flight on television sometime back in the ‘60’s. I remember asking her what she thought about it, she looked over at me and said, “When I was a little girl we didn’t even have airplanes and I’m watching men on the moon.”

I’d like to see some men on the moon again.