ThrowBack Thursday - A Blue Christmas

Jager and some friends were reminiscing yesterday about some Cadillacs they had known in what are now known as "the good old days".

Jager said he had taken his test for his first driver's license in his grandfather's great huge Caddy.

It was a time when the license was typed up and given to the new driver instantly.

Jager, armed with his new license, asked his grandfather if he could borrow the car for a little while.

The response was a firm "NO".

Well that and all this news coverage of the Corona virus took me back to one Christmas when I was a youngster.

I had wakened one morning with a severe bellyache and found when I stood that I couldn't straighten up.

Dad said I was faking it to get out of going to school but Mom insisted that they take me to see the local doctor.

He did some tests and found that my white blood cell count was sky high and that I probably was suffering from appendicitus.

There was no hospital in our small North Dakota town but there was one in another town about 30 miles away.

Now Doc Flath was a single man all his life and he indulged himself with Cadillac automobiles.

So he loaded me into the back seat, mom rode in front in the passenger seat and we drove to Powers Lake.

That was my first ride in a Cadillac and, except for the pain in my gut, I loved it.

When we arrived at the hospital I was surrounded by nurses who had needles in both of my arms simultaneously.

I was in surgery within minutes and my severely ruptured appendix was removed.

I spent a week or so in the hospital as I recall and then was sent home for bed rest.

My bedroom was on the second floor of our house and there I was confined.

I had some kind of drain tube protruding from my body and the doctor would come to our home frequently, pull a section out and snip it off.

It sounds ghastly but I don't remember a lot of pain associated with it.

I was still recovering when Christmas arrived that year and someone carried me downstairs to lie on the couch for the ritual opening of presents.

I look about as bleak in this picture as my grandfather to my immediate right.

My uncle Zenas, who had come from San Francisco, is on the far left next to Mom, and Dad is on the far right next to the Christmas tree.

I'm not sure what my gift(s) were but it may very well have been a magic set.

I was into magic at that time and my first time out of the house after my ordeal was at the annual show put on for the kids of the town by a visiting magician.

By the next summer I was all healed up and, wearing a cape and top hat made by Mom and "with nothing up my sleeves", putting on my own magic shows.

And I was smiling!

Ah, the recuperative powers of youth.

JP

Forgive me.

This is one of my favorite John Prine songs.

UH . . .

CELEBRATING QUIETLY

It's a big day for SWMBO and I.

Yes, it's our 49th wedding anniversary.

Our good friend, Timmer, sent us an email noting the exact number of days and, later, I found the picture above on the web.

Here's the proof.

It seems like a long time ago, seen through a haze in the far off distance of yesteryear.

Well, no, it wasn't quite that long ago.

I have no photograph of the first day of our married life together.

The earliest is this photo, taken a short time later outside our home in Indianapolis.

Yeah, I know what you're thinkin': "Wow, what a natty dresser."

Or not.

We've had a life probably a lot like any others' with some ups and some downs.

But we've always tried to have fun.

This is the goofy couple at a Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve celebration when we lived in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1987.

Like everyone else, through the years we have aged.

Surely I jest.

But we have traded our darker hair color for the silver of advanced years.

I've told Judy, "Just one more year.  Then you can do whatever you want."

But in the meantime . .

Love yuh, darlin'.

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

THIS IS WHAT A LEADER LOOKS LIKE

HELP IS ON THE WAY

LEAN ON ME

The man who wrote the song "Lean on Me", Bill Withers, died of heart complications recently.

It was ironic because the song has been taken up as a hymn to the selflessness of health care workers and first responders in this era of the Covid-19 virus.

I heard the following version awhile back and offer it up again today to remember Withers and salute those on the front lines of this battle.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

I know, I know, the news isn't getting any better.

That's why, for these few brief moments, we all need to take a break and remember that even in the direst of days there are people out there finding humor in it.

I don't create this stuff, you know, I'm only a conduit for it.

And once again, I thank those of you who send me the material for a few seconds of laughter.

As some wise man once said, "The light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming train."

And with that . . here we go.

And this next one, sent to me yesterday by Doctor Jim, is my personal favorite of the week.

And for this F***ed Up Friday, those are the jokes, folks.

Now if you've got good weather take a walk or go out in your garden and putter around this weekend.

If not, just binge-watch old Bogart movies or Gene Kelly musicals or maybe, just one more time, settle in on the couch and try another viewing of Gone With the Wind, or Star Wars, or Star Trek, or anything starring Bill Murray.

Whatever but try to put your cares away for a couple of days.

And always . . . always . . . remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

ThrowBack Thursday (sorta)

GENTLE BUT BUSY APRIL

April is finally here.

It's my lucky month, the fourth of the year.

I was born on 4-24-1940.

Judy and I have another wedding anniversary on April 7th.

Cynthia Nixon, the actress and political activist and daughter of my old Mexico days friend Walter, marks another year on the 9th.

The BRD has another birthday on April 11th.

My son, Troy, celebrates another trip around the sun on the 15th.

A former colleague, Ramblin' Ron does the same thing on the 16th.

A fellow blogger and former colleague, Tom and his lovely Lana, have another anniversary on the 19th.

I share my natal day with Shirley MacLaine and Barbara Streisand, among others.

By the time my big day (and this year it is a big one) comes around, can you imagine I'll be goggle-eyed?

Oh and, of course, today is April Fools' Day.

Enjoy it and stay well.

ADMONITION: LAUGH

I guess we can't ignore the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Cross-Town Lori has offered a solution: make fun of it.

QUARANTINE

2020 style setter.

So how's it going at your house?

The wife and the kids still there?

This self quarantining stuff is for the birds after awhile.

It's gotten to be so bad around here that I'm thinking of actually taking a walk around the neighborhood.

(Wooh. Better sit down and rest a bit before that idea takes hold.)

I've been pretty much holed up for a week now.

But tomorrow's the big day: I get to go sit in my car in the parking lot at the grocery store while someone loads groceries into my trunk.

SWMBO hasn't been out of the house since she had lunch with her daughter more than two weeks ago.

And I think it's starting to wear on her.

But never fear.  

As long as we still have our sense of humor we shall survive.

Take care of yourselves, friends and neighbors.

MORE SIGNS OF SPRING

Beau Jack sent me this picture the other day after I posted photos of flowering trees.

The white beauty is right outside of their home in Prescott.

Temperatures are climbing again as the Weather Gods predicted.

The bird bath was frozen over this morning but our high today is supposed to be 55 by this afternoon and 71 by Tuesday.

The forecast is for a week of 70's after that.

As Sinatra and many others have sung, "Spring is Here".

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

In a time like this it may seem ignoble for me to continue with this weekly foray into an attempt at humor.

So if anyone is offended I apologize in advance but I also say if we lose our sense of humor then what have we become.

So that's what I've got, my Gentle Readers.

Now take a walk, enjoy nature, stream a funny movie, listen to a podcast, bake some brownies (I did yesterday), get to know your family a little better, read a great book, catch up on your sleep and try to have a good weekend.

Take care of yourselves and those you love and above all, always remember to keep laughing.

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

ThrowBack Thursday

Nearly eight decades ago, I was born in a lying-in home in a small town in northwestern North Dakota.

That was a private home where a midwife would help pregnant women deliver their babies.

I believe there was a doctor, too, but no hospital.

Me and my big brother Wayne

I spent 28 of the next 29 years living in North Dakota.

I remember a carefree youth where youngsters could wander the town by themselves or with friends without fear. 

Romey, Roger, Jim, Jerry, Me, and Boop

We would come home for lunch and at sunset for supper (what is called dinner now).

The same "rules" applied when the family went north 100 miles to fishing vacations at Lake Carlyle in Saskatchewan.

That's probably where I learned to swim.

Me and Jim

We also roved through the woods, "discovering" trails and visited the small store for Cadbury's chocolate bars.

And back home in Stanley we never seemed to mind the long winters filled with blizzards.

We'd go out for snowball fights and ice-skating when temperatures were 20 below zero.

Mom and I

It's a long way to the age we live in now but it brought to mind an old song about the state.

Give a listen.

In spite of the "we nailed it" comment at the end, I remember singing it with self-mockery of our Scandinavian accents: "Y'ought-ta go ta Nor'-Dakota".

Yah, well, let's have a cuppa coffee and some lefse.

It's a great day in the neighborhood.