Airways Junior High School Passes In to History

I just learned that my junior high school in Memphis, Tennessee is closing and it will be taken over by a charter school. That means it will never carry the name Airways Junior High School ever again. It gives one pause when things that you loved are disappearing. People, places and things change constantly and we lose those that we love, but I never thought that the places that I loved as I grew up would disappear.

The little house that I grew up in and the streets all around my home were bought by the Memphis Airport Authority and all the homes were demolished. Absolutely nothing of the home that I grew up in exists and I have come to terms with that. The school that we went to in our neighborhood is no longer Airways Junior High School but was changed to Airways Middle School many years ago. I could live with that.  Now it's going to be a charter school and will no longer carry the name Airways. Now that is just inconceivable to me.

The first day that all of us entered our brand new school in 1969 for the first time to start the journey of the next three years of our lives was a challenge, to say the least. It was something different we had never experienced before. We were all the biggest bunch of misfits you had ever seen in your life. We were uncoordinated, uncouth, and a bunch of children without a clue of what awaited us in this new school of ours. Most of our teachers were young and it was their first permanent assignments. I'd be willing to bet that they had no idea what was in store for them either.

I think I was much like all of the students that went to this brand-new school that was built for us. I was bound and determined to be a major part of its history. I just never knew that I would outlast the history of our school. I knew that I didn't have the talent on the baseball field to be a star player, but I was 6 foot tall and 175 pounds in the seventh grade, so I knew that I could be a top football player in junior high school. No one, absolutely no one was ever going to cheat me out of being a starting player on that first football team at Airways. I never worked so hard in my entire life. I did everything that was asked of me by my coaches and their staff and I always tried to give them even more than what they asked for. We butted heads sometimes about some of the stupidest things but I respected and loved these men that I called coaches, Coach Winters, Coach Ramsey and Coach Bacon I would have walked across hot coals for these men and I still would. God bless them and keep them and give them the highest rewards in heaven because they deserved it for making men from little boys.

Every teacher that I had and even those I didn't have seemed to care about us. I truly don't think that they were there just for a paycheck. None of them ever gave me that impression. I even had some teachers that took extra time with me when I needed it. I never had teachers after I left Airways that ever did that. It's not that I think the teachers today don't care as much as they did. It's just that I think they were just as bound and determined to make something of this school just as we were bound and determined to make something of it ourselves. It takes both the students and the faculty with the backing of the parents to make a school work and without these three elements working side-by-side any school is bound to fail. We had the three elements, we had a great group of teachers and an eager student body and parents that were determined to make Airways Junior High School a great school for their children.

I started a Facebook page so that we, the alumni, of Airways Junior High School could reunite and talk amongst each other about the days when we were young and beautiful, back when the teachers were just as eager to learn as they were to teach us the wonders of the world, life, math and sciences. I dedicated the Facebook page to those of us, both students and faculty, that are no longer with us because we love them and miss them.

I found out that it's not the places that make the difference and is not necessarily that the people that you loved are still by your side, it is that the memories and love are embedded in your soul. If I only do one thing in my life, I wish it would be that I impress upon people that it is the memories of some of the most important things in life and that the people that made those memories made us who we are. The history that we made is only as great as the friends that walked beside us through our journey of growth and understanding. It is actually amazing that we all became friends because we were all so different, our loves and our passions were as different as night and day. I honestly think that that made us stronger and bound us together as a group.

Our school had all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of races and we didn't care. We were taught not to care about what we were. We were taught to care about who we were. For that I am thankful.

So when I tell you that I loved the group of kids that I went to school with at Airways Junior High School I mean it. They were not only my friends, I grew up with them as if they were my family. Their parents were my parents and we all respected each other and each other's parents as if they were our own family. We did things for each other. Our parents did things for us and all of the kids in our neighborhood. My parents and my friends parents all worked hard to make money so that our junior high school would have things that we needed that were not going to be supplied by the Board of Education.

They even continued working for Airways Junior High School after we had left so that the kids in our neighborhood would still be able to have the things that they never had when they went to school. That's what made Airways Junior High School in our neighborhood work back in the days when we were growing up in the Charjean, Bethel Grove and Cherokee neighborhoods that united into one group when we all walked through that door for the first time at Airways Junior High School. I always felt like our neighborhoods had become one under the flag of Airways Junior High School.

What has happened to my television?

               What has happened to my television?

I know a lot of you watch reality TV.  So if you are a huge fan and love reality TV, this is not going to be for you. I have never liked reality TV from its inception. If they were after making the world a better place, they would never show reality TV because, in their reality, people are petty, vindictive, sneaky and just dishonest. These people should be ashamed to be a member of the human race when such shows as the housewives of whatever city they're showing tonight display some of the worst behavior in the world. They treat their partner like they are just a commodity. The cast members are overbearing and hateful to everyone around them and especially their spouses. I'm sure that some of you even let your children watch this kind of reality show but what kind of message does this send to these little boys and little girls? Is bad behavior what you want your children to think is normal.

There are shows where they have prospective brides or grooms that are looking to marry someone and there's either a harem of men or women trying to make the bachelor or bachelorette pick them. I have to say that that concept doesn't sound that bad, but when you see what these men and women will do to try and get the attention of the opposite sex, and what they will say and do to each other, it’s disgusting. Not only do they improperly seduce the person that they're trying to woo, but they lie, scheme and cheat to get their way to the top of the list. I guess that's why most marriages in this country end in divorce because, I'm here to tell you, that's not how it's done. The families that they pick to show in reality television are not from reality. The “Kardoofusses” are a disgrace to womanhood. Talk about women using their men to get where they want to be in life.

Don't get me wrong, it's alright to marry and partner with someone in life to get where you as a team want to be, that's fantastic. On the other hand, when your greatest achievement in life is picking a pair of shoes or seeing how much of your rather large backside you can show on television without it being censored, it is absolutely not being a partner in any marriage anywhere I've ever heard of. The way these women talk to their men is atrocious and the men's response to the women is no better. This applies to their so called friends as well. I don't think we should go back to Father Knows Best by any means, but don't you think reality shows should really have a little reality in them. Is this what you want your children to see.

Now there were recently 10 people killed in the crash of two helicopters in a French reality show called Dropped where they would drop the contestants in the middle of the worst surroundings in the world and see what it took for them to get back to civilization. Now I just want to ask you, is that scenario not asking for disaster to happen and do you think that your entertainment should be based on how dangerous it can be made for someone else. Shows such as Survived stupidity, the Amazing Rat Race and any of these other shows put people in various scenarios that could go horribly wrong and eventually will. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said," it's remarkable that production companies can use ultra-advanced technology to produce spectacular entertainment but too often they won't spend the modest amounts of money necessary to make sure their workers are not injured or killed on the job." Injuries and fatalities went down for a while in TV and movie production but recently injuries and fatalities have gone up again and it's been blamed on reality and situation shows such as these.  

I cannot stand to watch shows that pit people against each other to win enormous amounts of money and encourage them to do whatever it takes to win the game, however deceitful, malicious and wrong it may be. That is disgusting television, not reality television. It used to be we taught our children and ourselves and everyone we could teach that it's not whether you win or lose its how you play the game. This was preached to us when we played sports when I was a kid back in the 60’s and then as I got into high school, I could see it changing at the college levels where everything depended on whether you won that game or not. I don't know about you, but I don't want to teach my sons and daughters and grandchildren to do whatever it takes to win. It's not right and it's not ethical. I will give you a for instance.

There is a reality show where people travel throughout the world and they are paired off in two’s. One of the pairs accidentally left some money and some of their property lying around and another pair found it, and I want to make this part perfectly clear. The group that found the money and property knew exactly whose it was and they kept it and did not return it to the pair that had lost it. In any court in the world, if you take something knowing that it belongs to someone else, it is theft. I have never seen an apology or punishment shown or written anywhere from the pair that stole the money and property. I could go on and on about that one but it seemed to me that they should have been brought up on criminal charges whether it was only a TV show or not. They are now and for evermore criminals.

It should never in anyone's lifetime be alright to betray, connive, steel or hurt anyone to win a game, especially one that's being broadcast on television for everyone to see in prime time, including kids. I know you're thinking, well, not everything has to be for children and I do agree with you, but the thing that I want to impress on you is that kids are watching this sort of stuff. Women do not have to act like, well excuse me I hate this word but I can't think of a better word to use (and I have already cleaned it up), harletts, to get their way in this world. Men do not have to treat their women poorly either and they do not have to cheat on their spouses. You don't have to lie and steal to get your way in this world and unfortunately the shows are teaching just that.

I am not a prude, I do know that these things go on and they're done every day, but why must we subject ourselves to this and call it entertainment. Is a life worth the entertainment value that the shows give you, is it worth teaching young girls to act like the women in these shows, is it really good values to put winning first before anything else. If the producers of these shows think that I am too harsh then why did they publicize the fact that this couple that stole the money was not punished nor were the people that lied or cheated? In other reality shows people were also not punished because of evil acts that they were the perpetrators of. If you say well that's what makes it fun then I want to ask you what has happened to your values. I remember when I watched television when someone stole something from someone else they were brought to justice. On today's TV landscape, if you steal something for somebody, you're rewarded and they say you were thinking out-of-the-box. Seems to me you had your fingers in someone else's box where they shouldn't have been. I hear so many times people say let's put God back in our government. I say before we put God back in our government. Let's put God back in our lives and demand that these types of shows cease and desist with immoral and unconscionable acts. Seems to me when someone should be voted off the island, it would be because they had cheated and connived and went behind each other's backs. I know a lot of you will dislike what I have written, but I can't help how I feel and I feel that the shows are tearing down the moral conscience and compass of our country.

If Andy Griffith had done something wrong and little Opie Taylor confronted his dad about it, he was man enough to admit he had done wrong and would make it right. In today's TV, it would have been accepted because the end result justified the means. God help us when our favorite shows on television have no morality at all. What is the world of entertainment coming to.

Love is all you need

I saw a movie a little over a year ago that just blew me away. This movie tells a story of an older generation giving up their country, because the cost of living was too great there and they had no other choice. It also involves the dreams of a young man wanting to start a hotel and his dreams of sharing his world and happiness with those that were in the last quarter of their lives. The collision of cultures was hilariously heartwarming and the love of life in one's Golden years gives one hope that the world has not forsaken the treasures of old age. 

Today I went to see the sequel of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and I have never been a huge fan of badly made sequels and this movie is definitely not a badly made sequel, as a matter of fact, it is probably one of the best I have seen lately. This time the movie is not a clash of cultures, but a clash of generations, one generation trying to leave a legacy of knowledge to the younger generation and the younger generation trying it's best to start a life of its own. Too many times movies are made with nothing but special-effects artists writing the story without any regard for the deeper story of the human experience. I know the stories that I have read may sound like they are about one thing or another but when you pull them down to their basics, they are always about the human condition and our striving for happiness. Almost every story written is about the one thing that we as humans need more than anything else - love. If you want to boil down anything in this world to its basic properties it will contain love. I believe that our Creator put in us the need for love and companionship for a reason. I believe that stories like this hold our interest not because they're about another land or time or witchcraft or fighter pilots or no matter what the story really is all about, its underlying message is that we are human and we love and need to be loved. I am and always have been a romantic.

There are myriad loves in this world to be had and we start with the first one, the love of our mother and as we grow we find love from every corner of our life, from friends and relatives, in the people that we choose to share life with, to the one that we have chosen to be that special one to grow old with. Growing old with grace, dignity and love is what this movie and its sequel were all about. So if you haven't seen The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel you need to and, once you have, you definitely need to see the sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I give it my personal recommendation. Thank you my friends for listening.

Rockin

Okay, I'm bringing this to y’all and y'all can tell me if I'm crazy, and if I'm making this up. I'll start by telling you that every time I do a search for this particular genre of music,

no matter what program, radio station, internet search engine I go to, I get something stupid that doesn't sound anything like what I'm asking for. I grew up in a time that there were at least four or five different genres of music being played on the top 40 stations at any given time.

I had two specific favorite genres of music that I truly loved. The first one was flower power music, of course I could be wrong, it could only be in my brain, but I swear I understood this music came from people like Donovan, Arlo Guthrie, Sonny and Cher and groups like the Lovin’ Spoonful, the Mamas and Papas, the Byrds, and many others. In my mind I can remember it being war protest music, some folk rock and mixed into it some psychedelic music and it came from a specific time in the 60’s. Please don't tell me that I'm crazy. I know this genre of music existed in my time, I'm sure of it.

Then from that flower power music there came a renaissance of folk music in the form of folk rock that not only started in the 60’s but lasted on into the 70’s. I put searches in for these genres of music in Slacker, Pandora, Jango and other streaming music services and it comes back with some of the strangest stuff imaginable that had nothing to do with the 60’s. I think it's because most of these music streaming and music search engines are done by young people that have no clue what any other kind of music besides rap, hip-hop and all of that crap is. So if you search for anything that was done before 2010 you're just basically out of luck. The radio stations of today play a total of 20 different songs and from one day to the next they're playing the same exact things over and over again.

I know if you had a radio station you could play every hit song from 1956 up until 1999 and you would not have to play the same song again till next year. There are so many songs that were in the top 10 that were great pieces of music. Why are we not hearing this on the radio stations today? I personally think payola has taken over the music industry of today. I remembered a time when you could turn the radio on and feel happy with what was being played for a whole day. Now I turn the radio on and I turn it back off or I turn it to NPR or I turn it to a news station.  I can't get over how these kids of today are listening to songs that sound exactly the same as every other song that's recorded today.  No one today has their own sound, all the artists sound exactly the same and the reason is because most of them cannot sing and you can tell who they are by how much echo is being produced so that you can't hear their mistakes.

I did recently though have an extremely pleasant surprise when Lady Gaga actually sang a medley from the Sound of Music and she did an extremely good and almost flawless performance. Lady Gaga (and I certainly hope that wasn't the name that her parents gave her) was overwhelmed with the standing ovation she got and she deserved. I think a lot of what is going on today is that the artists are afraid of the criticisms that would come their way if they miss a note in a live performance and that is wrong, because it is sometimes the flaws that are in our voice and in the things that we do that makes us pleasantly different.

This reminds me of the time when they were making the Canadian version of We Are the World called “Tears Are Not Enough” by Northern Lights and it came time for Neil Young to sing his solo part. After he did so and he was asked to do it over again because he was flat, he simply replied “that's my sound man”. I laughed so hard because I knew that, that was what made Neil Young so special was his particular sound.

I am a music lover and I love to hear someone that can sing, sing, but if you're going to recite poetry like the beatniks did back in the coffee shops in the 50’s, don't dare call it rock 'n roll and don't expect me to honor your achievements in the rock 'n roll Hall of Fame, because it ain't rock. Some of the things that they have to say are poignant and very well written, but for it to be a song in my opinion, you have to sing it not speak it. I'm sure I'm like everyone else.

I like good poetry, but I am also like the Beatles when they were asked about their poetry, Paul McCartney comically replied “I ain’t writ no poetry”, and I'm sure that was because they were songwriters and they sang the words that they had written for their music. I can listen to opera, classical music, gospel music, blues and soul music, not to mention other genres of music. Why is it I can't find my favorite types of music, folk rock and flower power music anywhere anymore, or did the music really die?

All of these young people that have never heard the great lyrics and music of our day have no idea how great music can really be or what they’ve missed by being born too late. The streaming stations need to hire a couple of old hippies to program their music for those of us that still love it, even in our late fifties, sixties and so on. I’m available. Call me.

I have always been a fan of the old black-and-white movies from the 30’s 40’s and 50’s. My favorite actress was Bonita Granville because she was the Nancy Drew of the 1930’s Warner Bros. pictures.

Bonita Granville was probably my first crush because she was so stunning in the outfits that they put her in, in those 1930’s Nancy Drew pictures. I always wished that I could meet her and tell her what a great influence she had an old my life with those wonderful pictures and the character of Nancy Drew who she made her very own. No other actresses come close to portraying Nancy Drew in the manner in which she did. She gave the young female sleuth a brain but yet a comical clumsiness of a young teenage girl. Unfortunately Bonita Granville died in 1988 and I never got to meet her but I did meet the young man that played her sidekick in the Warner Bros. movies.

They called him Ted Nickerson but in the books that the movies were based on he was called Ned Nickerson. The only reason given for this change in names was that Ted sounded friendlier than Ned. The Nancy Drew series from Warner Bros. consisted of only four movies starting with the first one which was the only movie based directly off of one of the original Nancy Drew books, “Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase”. The other three movies were original screenplays based on the character of Nancy Drew. The second in the series was “Nancy Drew Troubleshooter”, then came “Nancy Drew Detective” and “Nancy Drew Reporter”.

My favorite in the series was the very first, it seemed to have a bit of the old-fashioned dark house mystery about it, which I guess is why it was so popular with younger viewers and readers of the Nancy Drew series. Nancy Drew was played by Bonita Granville, Ted Nickerson was played by Frankie Thomas, Carson Drew, Nancy's father was played by John Litel, the Drew housekeeper Effie Schneider was played by Renie Riano, Capt. Tweedy was played by Frank Orth and many other actors and actresses that did such a wonderful job bringing the character of Nancy Drew to life.

Unfortunately at the time that I met Frankie Thomas it was only just a few short years before he passed away.

He did his best to remember a few small stories of what transpired back in the days he was shooting on the set of the Nancy Drew movies. He was an extremely gracious man. I have at least four or five autographs from him. I can't tell you how grateful I am to have met someone from the Nancy Drew series of movies. He also played Tom Corbett Space Cadet in the 1950’s TV sci-fi drama series. I think that most people were there to talk to him about Tom Corbett since he was at the show for the Solar Guard, which is a group of actors and actresses that played astronauts and so were explorers in the early days of TV.

The first show that I went to there were just a few of the Solar Guard there, maybe 4 or 5 people. By the time I had gone to the last show there was only one member of the Solar Guard left. Frankie seemed somewhat happy that someone was asking him a question about something other than the solar guard and I could see he was struggling to try and remember something of the Nancy Drew series. That first year that I saw him he had only one or two photographs from the Nancy Drew series, the next year he had five or six photographs from the Nancy Drew series and I had him autograph a picture with me and him together. Even though it was just a brief encounter I am so very thankful that I had the chance to meet him and speak with him. Frankie Thomas passed away in 2006.

I also met the young lady that was Bonita Granville's maid of honor at her wedding. The young lady that I met had played Mickey Rooney's girlfriend in the series of Andy Hardy movies and also had a major role in “Gone with the Wind”. Ann Rutherford was a wonderful young lady. She told me that she was Bonita Granville's maid of honor at her wedding and that she and Bonita had remained friends from their early days at Warner Bros. until Bonita's death in 1988 and, unfortunately, we also lost Ann Rutherford in 2012.

I also met another actor from the Nancy Drew series, Dickie Jones, who had also played in many Westerns from the early 1930’s all the way up into 1965. He remembered a little more about shooting with Bonita Granville in those early Nancy Drew movies and we talked about them and he was extremely grateful for the opportunity to speak about a movie that he enjoyed doing. Dickie Jones died in 2014.

The Nancy Drew series from Warner Bros. will probably never be noted as a great series, but it was important and it was a good set of movies that a young boy watched for the first time on the WREC Channel 3 in Memphis, Tennessee’s Early Movies that came on around three o'clock every weekday afternoon. That's where I gained the love of these old black-and-white movies that didn't have any special effects, let alone any computer special effects. They relied heavily on story and acting ability of the actor’s interpretations of the characters. There were so many of these B-movie actors and actresses that never won any awards, that never got any accolades and I think that's one of the reasons that you could find them at these autograph shows signing autographs and reliving their glory days in Hollywood.

I have only mentioned the Nancy Drew series, but there were so many more such as Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan and so many more that I truly loved to sit as a child and watch. I was captivated with William Powell and Myrna Loy as they portrayed Nick and Nora Charles in the “Thin Man” series. I laughed at the antics of Tony Curtis in Cary Grant in Operation Petticoat. I loved and still do love good movies.

 I even love one of the so-called worst movies ever made, “The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow”. The movie is, by all means, not a great movie as far as the script is concerned, but what transpires within this movie is a sad piece of movie history and it is why I love this movie so very much.

The storyline is that a group of kids that have a hot rod car club need a clubhouse and one of the girls father's clients is a close friend of the family and she is willing to donate her house at Glen Canyon Hollow better known to the kids as Dragstrip Hollow, but they have to understand that the place is haunted.

The haunting is done by a special effects artist that was discarded by Hollywood when no one was going to see the horror movies that he was making creatures for anymore. The special effects artist was haunting the house in one of his costume creations that you might recognize as the She Creature with the bosoms removed so that it looked more like a male creature. One of my great thrills when I saw this movie for the very first time was that the creature removes the mask to reveal who the special effects artist was and it was Paul Blaisdell who himself was discarded by Hollywood when American International Pictures went to the beach party movies. American International Pictures for the last time did the schlock old dark house style teenage exploitation movie and started making the beach party movies with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon and the gang. Even though I love those beach party movies, you kind of feel sad at the end of this picture, I was watching the end of the magical era in movie history.

I, with the help of my wife, tried to collect autographs from everyone that ever made me feel happy, scared or made me think while watching one of their movies. I have some TV actor’s autographs as well. One of my prized possessions is a collection of autographs from the Mickey Mouse club serial Annette, starring Annette Funicello. Walt Disney, in his wisdom, picked a group of kids to do the Mickey Mouse club and work on the serials that would also accompany the Mickey Mouse Club. The serials were a great part of what made the Mickey Mouse Club successful, especially with the Adventures of Spin and Marty, the Adventures of the Hardy Boys and the Annette serial. It was amazing what they could do on TV in those days. You may like your reality TV shows but I have to tell you I would take Spin and Marty over every single one of them. You may think that the Kardashian women are beautiful, but give me Annette Funicello any day over the lot of them.

You know I have almost 300 channels now and I can flip through channels for hours on end and never find a single thing to watch that I enjoy. In the early days of television we had three, maybe four channels at any given time to choose from and I can remember all of my family fighting to see what we were going to watch that night because all three networks had extremely good programs on at the same time. There was a lot to be said for the old black and white TV, but I don't really miss not having color television. I remember going over to a friend of mine. His name was Ray and he invited us over to see Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color and I took him up on it.

I was blown away with the fact that television was broadcasting in living color, it was fantastic. There was no turning back now, television was going to improve in spite of those that said it would burn your eyes out to sit and watch color television all day.

It's not that I long for black and white TV and I don't agree with those that say it's wrong to colorize black and white movies or TV shows, because so often when you colorize these programs they look so much better. Someone once said that Frankenstein would not be as scary in color. I think they are nuts. If you have ever seen Boris Karloff in the Frankenstein makeup in color you would agree with me. It was horrifying. A lot of people say that it takes the mystery out of the film or movies and I disagree. It's not that the color is missing,

it’s that they were filmed darker with less light. I have always been a proponent of the widescreen TV’s so that we would no longer have to pan and scan to see our favorite widescreen movies because it does hurt the storyline to re-edit what the viewer actually sees of the complete picture, but what I say to those that are against colorization is that there's a lot lost in the actors emotion without color because you cannot see as much of the facial structure and emotion in black and white. I also think that there's a lot lost in the beauty of a young face on the screen when the definition is so bad that you can't see the freckles or the dimples and someone like Shirley Temple's beautiful face. High definition brings out every single flaw in an actor’s face and I know a lot of the actresses are thinking that they will not be as beautiful to us if we can see their flaws. I believe it's the imperfections in our faces and in our being that makes us beautiful. When I see a red headed young lady that has packed the makeup on to hide the freckles.

I want to stop her and tell her that it’s the freckles that make her attractive and beautiful.

I don't really care if you colorize something or not. I don't really care if you pan and scan something or not. What I care about is that we are still making good movies. Someone once said that the job of the movie is to enlighten, to stir the emotions and to create change. I personally think whoever said that is full of themself, because movies are meant to do two things. They are meant to entertain us and make money.

 I was appalled last year when the Butler was snubbed for Oscar nominations. In my opinion it was one of the best movies of 2013. Forest Whitaker had one of the best roles of his life and he did it right. This is not the only movie that I have had an argument with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences about the fact that they seem to care more about artistic value than they do about what people really like.

It's about time that the box office also had a say in the Oscars. No one can win a gold record unless they sell enough recordings of a particular song or album. So why is it that someone wins an Oscar for a movie that no one's ever seen? Yes, I know that it's about actors honoring actors, but aren't we all actors at heart. Actors are selling themselves as someone else on the screen and when the salesman tries to sell you a vacuum cleaner, he is also selling himself and both the actor and the salesman are trying to do their best to earn your money. So why is it that when they learn of that money, it doesn't affect what happens at the Oscars?

Sadly, I have to announce that another one of my heroines from my youth has left us.I have to tell you my heart is breaking tonight. One of the sweetest and happiest voices in music from the early to mid 60's music scene has passed away. Lesley Sue Goldstein was born on May 2, 1946 in Brooklyn, New York. She died today, February 16, 2015 at only 68 years of age.

She was not only a pop-rock music vocalist but she also did TV appearances like the two "Batman" shows she did in 1967 as well as movie appearances.

Her sound was a little more pop than rock. I can remember as a young man hearing "It's my party" for the very first time and falling in love with that happy, sensual female voice coming over the radio. I also remember seeing her on the bus in the movie "Ski Party" singing one of her songs and embedding her sound deep in my heart. Very few people break into the music industry, let alone have gold records. She was a talent that will be remembered for more than just her records. She also had such hits as "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" which was my personal favorite. I don't think I've ever told anyone but I've always kind of thought of that as my theme song.

She was not only a talented young lady but a very beautiful woman as well. She died of lung cancer at the New York University Medical Center in Manhattan. She will always be remembered for the sunshine, lollipops and rainbows she gave us with her lovely voice. God bless you Lesley Gore and may it always be sunshine and lollipops and rainbows for you.

To go boldly where no man has gone before

They called us the baby boomer generation and I have heard some even call us the atomic generation. I have personally always considered myself the space exploration generation. When the first test rockets were being built by Prof. Werner Von Braun I would scramble for any news that I could get my hands on about what was going on with the US space program. When Pres. John F. Kennedy announced that we would go to the moon and back in this decade (the 1960s) I was ecstatic.

I kept up with the Mercury space program almost religiously. I checked out every book that the Charjean Elementary School library had on space travel and space exploration. I could not get enough of the news about our space program on television. This being the time before videotape, I even used a reel to reel tape sound recorder to record every word and every news special that was on every launch or anything that had to do with our space program. I remember John Glenn's flight like it was yesterday. He had a big round mirror on his chest like a blind spot mirror on a car or truck. I never could figure out what that mirror was for at that time, but it was so that he could see all around the Mercury capsule in the confines and restraints that kept him safe in his death-defying flight.

I also kept up with the Gemini and the Apollo space programs with just as much vigor. When we lost the Apollo astronauts to a fire in their space capsule I was horrified; how could that happen? I will never forget that day ever. The Shuttle program almost became a common occurrence to all of us, but I still listened for every bit of news that came from NASA about these flights, even though it didn't seem to be as pressing a news event anymore.

The unfortunate loss of life of seven Challenger astronauts was a blow to our nation and it broke my heart. Unfortunately, it was not the last of the shuttle tragedies. All of these astronauts’ lives were precious to this nation, their loss will never be forgotten, but one among them will be forever in embroidered into the fabric of our nation. It may have been because she was a teacher and it may have been because we felt the loss that her students felt.

It may have also been that the president of the United States and the news media made such a large event about a teacher going to space. It does not really matter; Christa McAuliffe will now and forever be the one that we think about when anyone talks about the loss of our astronauts or space explorers.

My heroes were always the astronauts that explored space, from the Mercury astronauts all the way to the astronauts of today on the International Space Station.

I will keep you and all future astronauts in my prayers that you are safe on your missions of today and those missions of our descendants that will take in the future as we go boldly where no man or woman has gone before.