My Home Town

My home town, South Pekin, population maybe 1050, or so. Right in the heart of Illinois. Although I was not born here, I still call it my home town because I grew up here.
I was born in a farm house, a few miles from a wide spot in the road called Gladden Missouri.
My father was a Saw miller, and my mother was a house wife, and mother to,(eventually) seven children, me being the oldest, and the only boy. That's all she ever was, and that's all she ever wanted to be. She was very happy in this role. It was her divine calling, and she did it very well.
At the end of WW-2, My father bought a sawmill outside of the small town of Maeystown, in southern Illinois. The sawmill burned to the ground in 1948, and we moved here. I was in the second grade.
It was a great little town to grow up in, and still is I think. There has been some change, but not a great deal. The population is about the same as it was in 1948, although two new additions have been built at both ends of the town. There are a lot of new houses in my part of town, since a tornado came through here in 2003. There have been eight tornadoes through here in the last 15yrs. In 1938, a tornado wiped out the whole town.
The big news in town right now is, we are getting a new water tower. That's a pretty big deal for us small town folk. We would like to have a new Library Building too, but I guess we don't have enough money for both, they have been here since the 1938 tornado. The Library building is a cement block building, that also houses the Police Station.
In the very beginning the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad built a huge Round House, and switching yards here, and the town just grew up around it. These were the days of the great Steam Locomotives,
and in those days everybody that lived here worked for the railroad. Almost all the houses were made from old box cars, one of which I lived in until I was 17, and joined the Navy. It wasn't much, but my Mom kept it clean,(with a little help from my sisters). There was a lot of love in that little home, and most of the time we didn't know how poor we really were. I could write a whole blog just about growing up in that house, which I may do later.
Eventually, three of my sisters married railroad men, one a Conductor, an Engineer, and a Yard Master. Only the Conductor still lives today.
In the summer we played baseball almost everyday. We would choose up sides, and sometimes we didn't have enough players to man up both sides of the field, so if you were right handed, you would be out if you hit the ball to right field, and vice versa. We would play for hours, and on the way home, hot and sweaty, we would stop at the Gas Station, that is if we had at least 11 cents, we could get a handful of peanuts for a penny, and a 12oz bottle of Hires Root Beer for a dime. We would drop the peanuts into the Root Beer, and eat the peanuts as we drank the root beer.
There were no video games, no cell phones. When we finally got a telephone, we were on a 4 party line. Only two families on the block had a television, so I had to go down the street to my best friends house to watch it, and that was only on Friday & Saturday night.

Those were the best of times, as I remember it. Of course they weren't all good. I remember the Summer of 1952, I was terribly afraid that I would come down with Polio. Of course I never did, and I am thankful even today for that. We had 4 or 5 cases here in town between 1949 and 1952.

There are still a few friend here in town that I grew up with, including my loving wife.

Wisdom

 
 Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; 
 beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
 “To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the children of man.
 O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn sense.
 Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right,
 for my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
 All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
 They are all straight to him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge.
 Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold,
 for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.

                                                                                                    Proverbs 8:1-11

As Old As You Feel

On July 11 of this year, I had my 70th birthday, and one thing I noticed is that there are very few if any other seventy year olds blogging here on Blogger, or anywhere else for that matter. Therefore I might be considered by some, to be a little peculiar. Some of my friends who are my age, may be saying,(Behind my back of course) "Larry should get off that computer and get a life", but as far as I'm concerned, I do have a life. I enjoy my computer, and I love the friends I have made here.
I really didn't think I would live this long considering the fact that my parents died very young with heart related problems. My father at 59, my mother at 47. Angioplasty saved my life, which did not exist a generation ago, and the word cholesterol was unheard of.
My daughter-in-law called me on my birthday, and asked if I felt any older, I said, "Not any older than I did yesterday I suppose, but I think there is the psycological effect of moving from your sixties to your seventies, as there always is when you move from one decade to the next".
My wife,(Bless her heart), who is two years younger than me, still gets embarrassed when I park in a space marked as senior citizens only, probably because she walks two miles everyday, but it doesn't bother me at all. She doesn't seem to mind though when we take our discount at the Chinese Buffet.
I've always been against putting my picture, or anyone from my family on this blog, but I thought maybe some of you might want to know what we look like,(Or maybe not). Anyway here we are, just two ordinary folks.

A Creative Trinity

A Creative Trinity

Creation

Someone once told me that the most comforting premise of the Christian world view was, for her, the assurance of a beginning. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..." These very first words of Scripture boldly proclaim that we are not lost and wandering in a cosmic circle of time and chance, isolated from any meaning beyond fame, wealth, or consumption. There is one who stood at the foundation of the world, who with wisdom, majesty, and purpose, caused life and history to begin.

(JILL CARATTINI)

http://ls.egen.net/MessageView.aspx?sid=168026495&cid=167772560&textonly=0

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Assisted Suicide

Washington state has first death under new suicide law

A 66-year-old woman from Sequim is the first person to die under the state's new assisted-suicide law.

                 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009251386_websuicide22m.html

The Loss Of Common Courtesy

This is a photo of a sign taped to the counter top, just to the left of the cash register, at the Pharmacy where I get all my prescriptions filled. 

The fact that they need this sign here makes me wonder about some people and there cell phones. I think that they wake up in the morning, put the headset on like a piece of clothing, and start talking through breakfast, and on through the day. There is another group that just loves to hear their new ring tone, and they will answer it, no matter where they are. In the restroom, in a restaurant, or during a transaction at the Pharmacy, the grocery store, or any other business.

There is another group who are always texting,(mostly younger folks), while walking down the street, waiting in the doctor's office, or sitting in a restaurant eating. Last week, I even saw a young man texting with his right thumb, while standing at a urinal in a public men's room.

I know there is more to this HIPPA or HIPAA rule than just the rudeness of using your cell phone while picking up your drugs, but the fact that they can't stop talking, or texting, for the five minutes it takes to make the transaction, is the reason they have to post the sign. 

Maybe some people should just have a cell phone implanted in their brain. Who knows, that just may be the next status symbol.

Here is a link that may shed some light on this HIPPA, (HIPAA) rule.

http://www.hipaacompliance101.com/hipaa-rules.htm

Where Has All The Farmland Gone

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful corn field, right in the middle of Illinois, with a road running right beside it, and everyday automobiles, and trucks would drive right past it, but nobody paid any attention to this beautiful corn field, except the farmer who planted it every year, and once the corn came up, even he was not seen until Autumn harvest. Year after year this cycle would continue, planting, harvest, planting, harvest.
Then one Spring the farmer didn't come to plow the field, so it just sat there, and pretty soon weeds began to come up in the field, and still passersby paid no attention, but sometime in late Spring, on a bright sunny Monday morning, all eyes were on the field, for right in the middle there were bulldozers, earth movers, and dump trucks. Right away they began to dig a huge oval shaped hole in the middle of the field. Then they began to lay out streets all around the hole, and run large drainage pipes from the streets into it. They then built large expensive homes all around the hole. Then the rains came, and the hole filled up with water, and became a lake. At the entrance they put up a real fancy sign that says, "Lake Meadows Estates"
Now, as I pass by, I always look at the "Lake", sometimes it's low, sometimes it's high, depending on the weather. Now the ducks and geese have taken to hanging out at the lake, and some stay all Winter. I often see the geese walking around on the ice, and I'm thinking, "Why doesn't somebody go down there and break the ice for those geese", but then I think, "You stupid geese, you should be in southern Mississippi, or The Yucatan with the rest of your buddies that went south", but there they are, them and the ducks. Then yesterday as I passed by I saw two ducks swimming together, and I could swear they were talking, one said, "It's a beautiful day isn't it", the other one said, "Yes it is, but aren't you a little afraid"? "Of what"? "Of people, look at all these houses around here". "Oh they can't come down here". "Why not"? "You see those signs that go all the way around the lake"? "Yeah", "Those signs say, Keep Out" "KEEP OUT, then how come we're in here"? "Cause we can't read". "Oh".