Dateline: Destin, FL

Cloudy, 60 degrees, wind from the Southeast at 5 knots.

Every time we come down here at this time of year, I ask the same question:
"Since I hate cold weather with a passion, why do I continue to live in the Midwest?"

I love Midwestern Summers.
With normal rainfall, everything is lush and green.
Hot days don't trouble me, and days that are really unbearably hot are few.
Nights are wonderful.
It also helps that I love thunderstorms.

Winters are a different story-
Cold weather is uncomfortable for me, even with the proper clothing.
Below 20 degrees fahrenheit, with any wind at all, I am just miserable.

So we come South during December, January, and February, and temperatures are running 20 degrees higher than they are at home.
Again the question-
Why the heck do I still live in the Midwest?

Of course, the answer is that life is more than just weather.
Job, family, friends, and other complications need consideration.
But for me, more and more, weather is a bigger factor.

At some point, and I think it'll be soon, weather will become a top priority, and we'll be making the trip North during Spring through Fall!

Christmas Thoughts

First, I hope Christ's Birthday is a happy one for you all.
At Casa Greybeard, there is wrapping paper all over the floor. Bellies are full. I hope you can say the same.

Hopes always run high at Christmas. It's one of those important days we all hope will be perfect, and we're disappointed when it's not. Too many focus on Christmas's commercial aspects.
As I've gotten older, I've learned to put more emphasis on family and fellowship. My Mother is here with us, and at 81, with all the health complications that have come in her last few years of life, we are blessed that she is as healthy and mobile as she is. Just having her here today has made this Christmas a good memory.

For those of us that have been fortunate enough to serve our country, this day comes with certain baggage. We know all too well that we have Men and Women putting their lives on the line so the rest of us can celebrate this holiday in safety and without fear of religious persecution. Please, if you are comfortable doing so, say a little prayer for our troops..... overseas and otherwise.... they are all potentially at risk.

My holiday wish for you is health, happiness, and at least enough money to satisfy your needs.
I'm lookin' forward to seeing and visiting with many of you in the near future!

The 2007 Fishing Fiasco!

I was gonna post this after the first of the year, then realized that there was no reason to delay the posting, and it might actually be helpful to some of you.

As most of you know, last year Tools and the gracious Mrs. Tools hosted our fishing fiasco. John T., TwoDogs and I flew to Galveston and spent three wonderful days there NOT catching fish.
It didn't matter...... we had time for wonderful fellowship, and visited several great eateries for some mighty tasty seafood that someone else caught!

We had hoped to have a "Second Annual" this year.
PT and others had expressed some dismay last year that we made the event "stag", so this year we were leaning toward a co-ed event.... to see if gals can do a better job of putting fish in the boat than the guys did last year. (That's not too tough!)

But there is sand in the butter-
Mr. and Mrs. Tools are selling their home.
They are moving North, to a home on a lake.
Their house may sell quickly, so for long term planning, we need another venue.

I'm suggesting Destin, Florida, starting April 29th.
Take a look around this website to get a feel for the place.
Sara Jean and I own a unit on the ocean side of the complex.
The units have a great view of the ocean to the South, and a somewhat limited view of the pool to the North. The units are 1300 square feet, have 2 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths, a full kitchen, and a wet bar. They sleep six with comfort, more if you bring a comfortable air mattress.

Destin is a great town. Lots of restaurants..... the seafood they serve was probably caught yesterday. Sara Jean tells me to say there is "Mega shopping" available.....
Silver Sands outlet mall is a 10 minute drive, and is one of the biggest outlet malls in the world.
For golfers, there are several beautiful courses within a 15 minute drive.
There are two wonderful aviation museums-
The Air Force Armament museum and Pensacola Naval Air museum, both within fairly easy driving distance.
Florida Caverns, a surprisingly beautiful cave, is also an easy drive if you'd like to walk a couple hours through a cave that has much to offer.

And the beach! Walk out the door and across the street- taking all of 3 minutes, and you can cover your feet in the whitest sand on earth..... it's made from quartz, so bring your sunglasses. It also "barks" at you when you walk on it if conditions are dry enough!
In April, the water will probably still be a little nippy, but days will be warm, nights will be light jacket weather, and visiting will be easy.

Sara Jean and I will be in our unit starting the day after Christmas, through New Year's Eve. We'll block off our unit for a week, and the unit next door for at least three days. (I can block off additional units and extend the length of stay if necessary.)

So, there ya have it for planning. Take a look at your calendars and block off a few days starting April 29th. TwoDogs and TC have already indicated they are "all systems GO!"
If you are sure you can make it, let me know right away so I can reserve condos. Even if you cannot commit right away, keep your options as open as possible, and we'll find a way to make room!
(And those of you from other CGHS classes are welcome too! You can help fill in some blanks in faulty memories! Dan, could you make sure others know?)

Let me know folks, via personal email, or comment here.
Small group/Large group..... this could be a ball!

UPDATE:
I've already had a couple comments via email.
I realized that since Sara Jean and I will be there the entire week, we could do the fishing fiasco on 3, 4, and 5 May just as easily, and that would be a little farther away from Spring Break, and a little farther toward days that will be truly warm for the beach.
Again, I posted this post so we'd have plenty of time to hash things out. I hate to throw up too many options, because planning around too many choices can be a mess. I'll keep the updates coming as more VK's respond.

Class '65

Mike George
I'm a little late with this but you remember Mike George. He was in our class until he moved to Franklin after the 7th grade ( once a classmate always a classmate ). He graduated Franklin '65 . He passed away Dec.5th. The way the paper read it was a heart problem. He was 59.

I wonder how many kids passed through the class of '65 ?

Walkin' In A Circle

Another of those memory triggers..... Christmas time.
We'd bundle up for the cold and head downtown.
Block's, (were they the store with the clock on the street, GH?), L.S. Ayres, and, was it Wasson's? I think I have that memory right.
These downtown stores would have animated Christmas displays in their windows on "the Circle".
The stores competed with one another to see who could gather the most "AHHHHHHHS".
As a kid, I can remember being absolutely knocked out by how clever they were.

Several years back, we returned to walk around the Circle.
Although there were no displays in the windows, there were special Christmas activities goin' on.
Ice skating, I think, and carolers?
A huge "Poinsettia" Christmas tree at one of the opulent hotels.

It makes me happy to think kids today will have happy memories of downtown Indy when they are older.

I hope they're as happy as mine are.

The Winter of '62?

A couple quick thoughts, and then a little mild comic relief for you:

St. Louis just took a pounding, weather-wise.
Some areas got more than a foot of snow, after an ice storm took down trees and power lines.
Thousands are still without power and sleeping in "warm shelters" like school gymnasiums several days after passage of the storm.
My home is 60 miles Southeast of St. Louis, and we didn't see a snowflake.
Odd.

Anytime we have a snowstorm that temporarily brings things to a standstill, I remember the storm of '62, during Sectionals. The storm this weekend came without the wind we experienced all those years ago, so there wasn't the attendant drifting. But the ice made this storm treacherous. Flying into St. Louis tonight, we crossed the snow line about 20 miles Southeast of St. Louis. The full moon reflecting off the snow made it almost like flying in daylight.
I could see the "moon shadow" of the helicopter! (Wanta sing Cat Stevens, anyone?)

It's deer hunting season here, and the deer are moving like crazy from just before sundown to just after dawn. I've narrowly missed three deer in the past week on my way in to work. I commented to TC at one of our minis that I don't remember ever seeing a deer in White River Township when we were growing up. I know there is a population of them there now, but are there large numbers of them? They are truly a nuisance, like rats, in our area.

Now.... something I hope will at least bring a smile to your faces.
I posted this article at Pitchpull 18 months ago.
The Players:
Willie is Bill F., (class of '63.)
Bob is someone that blogs here at Vandy's Kids.
Tom is Tom D., (class of '66.)
Kenny is Ken H., (class of '66.)
The scene is Hatfield's Standard Service.

I hope you'll enjoy!


"The Pit"

Kids do strange things.
Sometimes kids do strange things just because they are strange.
When I was still trying to control pimples on my face, I went through a phase where I thought being an auto mechanic might just be the greatest job on earth! I loved cars, so what better way to be around automobiles and learn what makes them tick than take a job at the local garage/filling station?
The garage where I worked was old. It had been in existence so long, a layer of grease and dirt at least half an inch thick had built up on the concrete floor in the shop! This facility was built before the advent of hydraulic lifts. To facilitate oil changes, lubrication work, and other under car services, there was a "grease pit" dug in the floor just wide enough that a car could straddle it. It was about four feet in depth, and a ladder at one end allowed you to climb down for access to the underside of the car.
When we had a lot of rain, this pit would fill with about 4 inches of water.

I grew up in a pretty rural area........not a lot of things for teenagers to do. This garage became a meeting place for my friends. One night, after a really rainy stretch, I was standing with four of my friends, Willie, Bob, Kenny, and Tom, looking down into the standing water in the pit. Willie had hands in pockets, jingling his change. He drew his hand out, counted the change, and said "Greybeard, I'll give you 59 cents if you jump into the pit!"
I was wearing clothing my boss called a uniform.......oil stained, holed with battery acid and then patched. No skin off my nose! Into the pit I jumped!
As I climbed the stairs, Willie forked over the 59 cents with a grin.
I had change too, and pulled it out of my pocket.......37 cents. Adding my change to Willie's I turned to Bob and said, "Is it worth 96 cents to jump?" Bob wasn't in a ratty old uniform, so it surprised me when he took the plunge! He climbed the steps and I forked over the coins.
Bob shook his pocket, pulled out his change. He then turned to Tom and said, "Will ya do it for $1.26?" SPLASH! Tom was $1.26 richer. Tom to Ken......another 40 cents in the kitty. Now the only one without wet trousers is Willie, the instigator. But Ken added 80 whole cents (!) to the pot, and Willie couldn't resist!
Up to this point, it somehow seemed to make sense.
Willie counts the cash, removes his original investment, turns to me and says, "I'll give you $1.87 to do it again!" I'm already soaked, so what the heck? In I go!
I took out my 47 cents, counted the rest and said, "Bob......there's $1.40 in it for ya to jump!" Then Tom, then Kenny.......
At the end of this wonderful exercise, we were all grinning, soaked to the waist, and pleased with how silly we were. We all had the same riches we started with. And we all had a story to relate about what it was like to be an adolescent male in rural America in the mid 1960's.

Classmates

I hope you can read this article and this post works out, my first time with the article.

Mystery
John T. found this article in the Nov.15th Daily Journal. He was asking me if I knew who this was. I looked in the books and could only find the last name in the 1990 class. Like I told Graybeard, we had about 140 in our class but think about 440 have claimed to have been in the great class of ' 65. Anybody have any idea who this is ?

Twins for Grandma Janet

Thought you might like to see Grandma Janet and Grandpa Jim with their newest family additions. Twins!!! Born 10/30. Both sweet, gaining weight and perfect in every way. What a wonderful gift for the holidays!


 

Close Encounters

It was 1978, and I was Chief Dogcatcher.
My boss asked, "Would you like to be Civil Defense Director?"
The old CD Director had retired before writing the Emergency Operations plan the County desperately needed.
I took the job and got started making contacts and writing the plan.

The job came with a fairly nice office on the second floor of a privately owned office building.
A Real Estate Broker occupied the office across from mine.
My first morning on the job, the Broker came in and introduced himself-
"Hi, I'm Ben! Are you a coffee drinker?"
When I answered in the affirmative, he said, "Well, there's no need for you to brew your own, 'cause I always have a fresh pot brewing in my office. Just contribute now and then to the coffee fund, and you can have a bottomless cup!"
I grabbed my cup and he led me to the pot.
Ben introduced me to his attractive secretary, who also carried the name, "Mrs. Ben".
Her name was Shirley.

Next morning I unlocked my office door, turned on the lights, and grabbed my cup for the first cup of the day.
Ben was nowhere to be found, but Shirley was holding down the fort.

"So Shirley, where are you from?"
-"Indiana".

"Oh? What part?"
-"Central".

"Oh? What town?"
-"Just outside Indianapolis".

"Oh? Where outside Indianapolis?"
-"South of Indy".

"Oh?!! Where did you go to High School?"
-"Center Grove."

"What was your Maiden name!?"
-"S******"

I laughed out loud.......
"You had an older sister Sheila, and a younger brother Jeff.
Sheila was a cheerleader.
Jeff graduated in the class before me. I knew him pretty well!"

We were 250 miles from home.
Small world.
Great coffee!

CGHS Class of 1966

Greybeard, Greybeard, Greybeard!
Man, I sure get tired of reading the crap that this "Greybeard" guy posts!
C'mon....... where are the really interesting writers?

A couple days ago I got an email from someone that will remain unnamed, asking permission to link to "Vandy's Kids".
Of course, I approved.
A little investigation reveals that he graduated in the CGHS class of '66, and he's an old "Valley Kid" too!
Hooray!
Let's see, that would be VK(2), wouldn't it?

Further probing led to an interesting Yahoo Forum our underclassmen have started. You can find it here.
Late last night, while I was at work, I poked around and found photos of their latest class reunion, and saw several faces I remember....... I was even able to attach a name to a few of those faces!
When you have time, go browse there and see what they're doin'. Like us, they are considering ways to say "thanks for our blessings". One of their ideas is to fund a scholarship. Wonderful!

To those of you from the class of '66, or any other class of "Vandy's Kids", we say "WELCOME!", and please, if you are so motivated, leave a comment so we know you stopped by.
We're all family, and we are proud of what you are doing!

The Valley

The subject of the Valley comes up a lot here at VK, and now also at our reunions.
I'm not sure how most would define the term...... that's a topic for the comments..... what does "The Valley" mean to you?
Technically, to me it meant the neighborhood on Old Smith Valley road, from the E.U.B. Church, down the hill to Paddock road, then South, half a mile or so toward Olive Branch road.

I think I may have been the youngest "Indianapolis News" carrier in history.
I have no way of knowing if that's true.... no way to check. I just know the regional manager said I was the youngest ever when he gave me the paper route.

But at the age of ten I decided having a little jingle in my pockets would be a wonderful thing! I can't even remember the kids name, but he was 2 years my senior and lived in the Hiatt addition, just over the fence and four houses North from our house. He delivered papers in The Valley and he was moving. He needed someone to take his place.

I proposed becoming a small-businessperson to my parents. They were concerned for a thousand reasons. Having their 10 year old son take on that responsibility was scary. They knew I would be married to the route, delivering the Indy News on weekday evenings, and the Indy Star early on Sunday mornings. They knew they would bear the responsibility of watching over my shoulder to insure it was done properly.

I was so young, they even worried about my ability to make change when I did my weekly collections.
I knew they were leaning in the right direction when we practiced making change.
I knew the route was probably mine when I showed I could do it successfully.

I've had many milestones in my life.
I delivered The Indianapolis News in Smith Valley for almost 5 years, and I think that route taught me many important things that have served me well all these years.

Suttons, Perrys, Dotys...... I delivered the news to many with those names.
Many that didn't carry those names lost the name when they married. When I took the route, I delivered 21 Daily and 13 Sunday newspapers. When I handed the route over to John A. (who lived next door to the E.U.B. Church), I was delivering 54 daily and 32 Sunday papers.

I rode my bike past Doty's (then Hatfield's) Standard Service Station, The Beehive, the Smith Valley Community Center, the aforementioned E.U.B. Church, Effie Robinson's Variety Store, and Don Sutton's Grocery. During the Winter, the pot-bellied stove at Effie's was a welcome place to warm up while munching on a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Summertime would find me outside, sitting on the bread box at Sutton's grocery, after grabbing an ice-cold Pepsi and a bag of peanuts inside.

When there wasn't a pick-up basketball game going on at Steve W.'s, the old bridge over the creek near Steve W. and Jane Ann C.'s house would beckon for 30 minutes or so. I always seemed to have a sidekick alongside to go down and skip rocks on the creek, or gingerly ride our bikes upstream when the creek was frozen over.

The route was a life lesson.
Many of those homes were occupied by old people. More than once I went to collect for my papers, only to find there was no one to collect from. People get old and they die, ya know..... even those you have learned to love.
Old people get lonely, and if they have no one to talk to but a very young paper boy, well, he'll do...... it's better than bein' alone. Part of my pay came from devoting the necessary time to someone that had not spoken to another human being all day.
All people are different.
Some are "not quite right".
Some folks will go to great extremes to avoid paying a young businessman the few cents they owe him.
Some women will pay their bill wearing very little clothing, just to see what reaction results.

But customers all wanted to read the news, and they wanted their newspaper delivered in one piece, dry, and on time.

The route taught me about budgeting and saving for the future,
and I did always have a "jingle" in my walk!
Such fond memories.
I wouldn't trade 'em for the world!

Roasting OJ

If these photos don't make sense to you, well, I guess ya had to be there.

Roasting OJ became a golden moment in time to be remembered with fondness and belly laughs for a long time 

More Photos

  

9:03

Did you enjoy Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone"?

If so, I'd like you to devote five minutes of your time to an audio drama my son wrote, produced, directed, recorded, (complete with adding sound effects), and played in.

He's graduating with a Degree in Communications/Radio-TV in December, and this was a class project. Those of you that come and read my personal blog may have already heard it. It's told from the perspective of a tape recorder in the office of a group of telemarketers.
My son calls it 9:03.

Additional pictures

 

 

 

 

Playing with photos