I came from Memphis Tennessee and the area that is now known as Orange mound and later was known as the Charjean neighborhood and I have always referred to it as the Airways neighborhood because of the junior high that brought my generation together. There was another force that brought a lot of us together for a cause of good and Christianity, so in this story I will refer to it as the Charjean neighborhood because it was a small neighborhood church that brought a lot of us together and saved us from a life that might have destroyed us. I'm sure even in the Charjean area there were other small churches that a lot of us clung to for spiritual nourishment, but Charjean was the one that I remember the fondest. I know that the elders of the church were not pleased with the influx of kids that were not financially supportive of the church as much as they would have been if our parents had been members of the church as well, but there was a group of us kids that became members of Charjean Baptist Church in spite of some of the elders and there were those elders of the church however that opened their arms to us and were like second, third or fourth parents to us. For all of those elders of the church that did welcome us I could never thank you enough for what you gave us. It seems that little church has passed into history but not from my memory. It gave us sanctuary in times of need and it also gave us friendship of the best people I ever knew. We grew up in a neighborhood that was made up of working-class people that were not always the kindest our best people you would want to hang around with, but when it came right down to it they were good people and without the guiding light of God that these small neighborhood churches like Charjean Baptist Church gave us, I ask you where would we be and who would we be and if we would even be? God gave me a mandate to love everyone, even though I try I just as many of you fail to follow in the footsteps of our Savior way too often, I still pray for the strength and wisdom that it takes to love everyone. I ask God to bless all of those who went or attended or were members of Charjean Baptist Church and all of the little neighborhood churches in the Charjean neighborhood with health, wealth, wisdom and love for everyone. I would like to remind you without God there would be no wisdom. I would like to remind you without God there would be no wealth. I would like to remind you without God there would be no love. But I would like to especially remind you without God there would be no you or me. Thank you Lord for the tiny little Charjean Baptist Church. Thank you Lord.
As a side note I googled Charjean Baptist Church looking for a picture of our church to post I did not find one I liked, but one picture stuck out above all the others it was a picture of Ramona Haney. I don't think any more needs to be said, When you look for a picture to restore your faith it will be given to you.

You know as well as I do women have been held back by society.Women are just now getting to do things that have always been the exclusive domain of men, but for either gender to make statements like women are as strong as men, or that men are the stronger of the two is genders is wrong. You could argue all day on individual cases either way, but the truth is that we would be nothing with out each other. The genders are different and have a role in all aspects of life and work, no matter how much you may hate it the role of women is changing in to days society. Both men and women have there limitations and with the proper cooperation of both we will have a better way of life. It is not a competition for either men or women and it's not right for either side to belittle each other. It is also not an opening for feminist to emasculate men or chauvinists to take advantage of women or their cause. We all need to find our proper place in life.

A proud ME

How many times have you been told throughout your life that there is no ME in We. I’m here to tell you that is wrong, because I am the ME in WE and you are too. A team is made up of ME’s sometimes a lot of ME’s and sometimes only a few. To keep the team moving forward it may seem that the ME’s become one, but each ME has a special talent that make each ME the right fit for the team. Each ME has a responsibility to every other ME to pull their weight and keep the team moving forward as if it were one. So I’m Here to Tell you I’m one of the ME’s in WE! No matter where you belong do your best because there is a We that is counting on your ME.

Proud Great Grand Dad

I look out into the world today and I see a much different world for my great granddaughter than what I grew up in. The world is a more complex place than I knew as a child safety is a major concern for everyone today.

It seems that so many things have gone wrong with our society. I have always been one who looks at the glass as being half full and not half empty. She might find a world that is cold and distant compared to my world when I was a child. I don't think that is truly what she may necessarily find. When you look hard enough you find the warmth and friendliness of family and friends you can still find it today. The Christian Church is still as strong as it ever was and good people are as abundant as they were when I was a child; you just have to seek them out. People seem to be so much more withdrawn from the community the church schools and their surroundings. Even though there still is so much more magic in the world today with computers, movies, music and entertainment. There are toys that not only speak but have conversations with you. It has always been wonderful world for a child to engage in imaginary play with all of the toys and computers it seems that that imagination is so vivid that it almost comes to life today. We're almost at a threshold for virtual reality to give us our imagination firsthand. I used to think that I was born too late to enjoy the things that I enjoy such as old radio programs and music, but I have changed my mind without the technology that I have at my fingertips today all of it might have been lost to me when I can enjoy it the most. A small little child being born always gives parents, grandparents and great grandparents a new perspective on what we are leaving future generations.

It also gives us a reason to pause and look back at our own childhood. To take a look at the magic and ministry of growing up in the future. To look at all the mistakes we made in our past and hope that that small baby is smarter than we were and doesn't go through those mistakes. Even if that were so I always tell people my age and older the reason that a small child can learn a computer, tablet or smart phone faster than we can is because they have no fear and they enjoy learning from mistakes just as much as they enjoy learning from their accomplishments that they did right. I know not to get frustrated with the mistake or something that I've done wrong because I've learned how not to do whatever it is I'm trying to do, but that is awful easy to say rather than to put in practice. So I know just as my grandparents or great-grandparents said when I was born I am concerned about the world that my namesake will grow up in. It is no longer a world that I recognize or influence; it is up to my children and my grandchildren to produce a better way of life for my great grandchild. I pray that she has a smart mind that will guide her through the many and wonderful adventures that I know she will have. I pray that she has the health to give her a long happy and healthy life. I also pray that she would have the joy of knowing someone special in her life to give her the joy and love that I have received from my gift from God my wife Ursula. I pray that she also comes to know God is I have come to know Him, for God to comfort and heal her in the good and the bad times of her life as he has done for me. I also pray that she knows a group of people as complex and as diverse as the friends that I grew up with and went to school with to travel along with her on her many adventures. God bless everyone, God bless our country and God bless you my little Layne.

Charjeam Elementary

I saw a picture of the high school that I attended in the early 1970's and that started me thinking about the schools that I went to. Memphis was, at one time, very concerned about the education of it's children. That has changed, from what I see today Memphis is a city that abandoned education and gave up it's school system to the county. Yes, the city that I grew up in showed that they cared and put a lot in to the schools they built. I cannot understand why this city and state did the things they did. The state of Tennessee changed the system that worked for years by turning the Jr High Schools into Middle Schools to save money at the expense of our children's education. When you take away Music programs like Band and Choir

from our schools you take away a child's ability to learn how to use math in practical applications and how to work with others as a team. Sports in schools is not just a monetary expense, it is a learning experience for every student, not just the members of the team on the field, but also the members of the team in the bleachers. The experience that our kids have been deprived of, like art and music,will give them less of an education then we had.

Airways Jr High School

The elementary school I went to was not as elegant as those that were built in the days before the Second World War and had a 1950's Tennessee State institutional style look. Charjean Elementary School was beautiful to all the students that went there, even if the style wasn't as elegant as some of her counterparts in a city that had abandoned them and the students that needed it and the teachers that would work to keep our kids educated there. I see more and more of the schools that our tax dollars built closed to the detriment of a once great city. Airways Jr High School was one of those schools closed and allowed to be taken over by an academy, whatever in the wide world of education that is. Airways also had a industrial beauty about her that was born of the late 1960's. Don't let her straight boxy look fool you, this school was built to be a state of the art educational facility of it's day and is still in the best condition it can possibly be. It is a shame that the city just doesn't seem to care about our school or the children of its citizens anymore. I went to Airways and love to tell anyone that will listen how great it is.

Memphis Tech High School

Memphis Technical High School was the first high school built in Memphis, Tennessee and it has that grand old southern style that lets you know that education is important to this city, or at least it was in those days. When you walk her halls you can feel the ghosts of her past. Her famous students were actors, musicians and educators. I would have said politicians but they are the ones that have made a mockery of the Memphis School System.

Both the state and city should be ashamed of the destruction of an education system that could have been the envy of the world. With the money that the state collects from the lottery for education why is this happening. You and I both know how good it can be and should be. If you were a corporation looking for a city or a state to locate in would you pick a state that has an education system in such a mess? It's not to late to fix this disaster, I see a few of the states politicians who are trying, but we need to get them all on board. Tennessee should be the number one state in education in the world. We have built the infrastructure for a great system, we just need to utilize it properly. Teachers and educators must be the leaders, not politicians, to get politics out of the class room. Parents must be involved to keep their children's interest in the forefront of the educational system. In the age of the information highway known as the Internet, we must innovate the classroom to get students involved and energized in their futures.

The schools that I attended endowed me with a love of purpose and people that I have nurtured for my 60 years. It made me wish that I had absorbed more from the teachers and the institution that was freely given to me.

An Angel of Sound

Those of you that read my silly little stories about my silly little life, in my silly little house, in my silly little town, when I was a silly little kid, know that I grew up in Memphis Tennessee. Memphis was a musical heritage to the world and those that lived in Memphis had strong opinions about the music of the day which, for me, was Rock 'n Roll. Now how do you categorize rock 'n roll when there were so many genres of music being listed as rock 'n roll. Even in the 60s there was flower power, folk rock, hard rock, pop, rhythm and blues, soul, Motown and even bubblegum categorized as rock 'n roll.

One thing that I do know is there was a king of rock 'n roll and the crown princes of rock 'n roll. They were Elvis Presley, the King of rock 'n roll, and the Beatles, the crown princes of rock 'n roll. Even to this day, people argue about who is better, Elvis or the Beatles. The music that came from both of them freed a musical generation to be innovative and to search for the best music they could possibly present to their fans. We have lost so many of the rock 'n roll music stars over the years and, unfortunately, we have just lost another, Sir George Martin, whom a lot of people considered to be the fifth Beatle. I personally think he was much more than the fifth Beatle, he was the one that freed the creative minds of the Beatles. He introduced them to musical instruments that they had never heard of and the wizardry of postproduction that they had never considered or realized was available before. He was as much an artist in his own right as John, Paul, George and Ringo were.

He gave them the sounds that they were searching for and helped them achieve perfection in each and every song they put out.

You cannot help but hear the difference between the Beatles and their counterparts that did not have the influence of George Martin when you hear the trumpets or a string quartet backing up a rock 'n roll band like the Beatles. George Martin went on to produce many other artists with great success. In my mind’s eye, he will always be remembered as the man who perfected the art of producing and arranging studio rock 'n roll. I don't intend to argue the point about produced music and unplugged music here because personally I love them both. I also love the music that George Martin produced and he not only created some of the best sounds in rock 'n roll music but he influenced generations to come on how to create wonderful music and great sound.

He was, himself, a musical genius with all of the poking and prodding and tweaking and whatever else he did that made a huge difference in the sound of music and musicians past and present. He will be missed greatly by all music lovers everywhere. Being a techno-geek myself, I love being able to make things happen with the technological advances we have today.

I can only imagine how he came up with the sounds that he came up with, in a more primitive time, that blew us all away when we heard what he had added to the music we call rock 'n roll. He is one of the greatest and most influential people in the music industry of the last seventy years.

God bless you, George Martin, and I am sure the music in heaven has a much better sound today. John and George welcome you home with open arms.

Tools for Learning Part 2

I guess I could probably talk about being mentally prepared to learn for an extremely long time, but we did cover attitude and how important it is for learning in my last blog. It's the old adage of “you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink”. So I'm going to bypass any more of my thoughts on the subject of having a good attitude for learning versus the attitude we grow into having as adults.

Now in the next part of my blog on learning I'm going to talk about physical tools for learning and how things have changed from when I was in school. When the teacher gave me a subject such as navigation and its importance to modern civilization I had four places that I could go to for research, our textbooks  first, which were very lacking in any information other than the obvious. I think maybe we should take a closer look or ask questions about what information can be gained from a textbook that only has the basic information about navigation and its importance to modern civilization. If it does give us the basic information, it would probably give us the names of either the inventors or names of people that helped research and develop what people needed to make successful navigation possible. These names are important so we come to the second physical tool that we're going to need to help us learn even though it will be two physical tools. I combined these two into one and they are pen and paper and their necessity in learning is to copy down anything that would help us research the subject which we are investigating. The reason for pen and paper rather than typing it into the computer is so that it can be spontaneous and easy to edit on the fly. The textbook would probably also give us dates in which important events, observations or inventions for navigation came about. Copying these things down from our first learning tool and, rather than calling it a textbook, let's call it our subjects basic information because many times the information won’t be coming from a textbook at any given time.

Research is the major tool that we will need to use in our exercise of learning. Back in the day it wasn't quite as easy as it is today to do research. The school library, even as good as a lot of our schools back then were,  those libraries were limited on information on some given subjects. They would have some of the best encyclopedias and reference materials available at that time. Encyclopedias and other research materials are just as limited as our textbooks were so it meant a trip to our larger community libraries. Our community libraries sometimes could be a long distance from where we lived and, if our family was unable to transport us to the library, that meant taking long bus rides and doing such things as riding the bus for a long day at the library doing research meant that it would probably have to be done on a weekend or not on a school day, so that we could give the proper time and effort in finding more information about our subject. As you can see this prospect was not the greatest environment for expanding our knowledge of our subject matter.  In those days this would have been what we would've needed to do to go beyond our normal memorizing of names and dates and trying to learn in depth about our subject we were given.

A person living in the 21st century however generally has at his fingertips one of the greatest devices ever conceived for doing research and it is the Internet. It can be accessed from a multitude of devices, from smart phones and tablets to laptop computers or larger desktop computers. If someone did not have access to a computer at home, most school libraries and community and city libraries have computers that can be accessed by anyone for a limited amount of time but in that limited amount of time a person can find more information faster and more in depth than we could in the early to middle 20th century.

Gather up all of the information we have collected either from books, newspaper articles, periodicals, blogs and any pertinent documents available. Read these research materials and find out the questions of who, what, where, when and why.

Make sure that we have researched each person that was involved with our subject even if it means researching each name independently of the subject, which can give us a more in depth look into why each one of these people got involved with our subject.

Take a look at each event that happened as our subject comes to its conclusion. It also may be of help to look at the dates in time that these events happened to see what impact or why our subject was affected by a particular date in time. This can also make us understand why the date might be of particular interest to our subject matter. Anything that can be added to the knowledge of our subject is fair game.

Be careful though not to get overly indulgent in obscure facts if you are on a time line that you have to meet, because doing research can sometimes become addictive and take more time than you have, so alot yourself the proper amount of time for research and then reading of your research materials so as not to get off track or get behind with the conclusion of your paper or work toward your subject.

In our next installment we will talk about writing a paper with our findings, conclusions and thoughts. This does not mean that writing a paper is important. Doing all the research and reading about the subject would probably be sufficient for just learning, but I have found writing a paper gives me an edge on remembering all that I have learned, which is, of course, what we are after, retaining knowledge, which is learning.

The first 60 years
You know a lot of us have seen a lot of things in our lifetime and I for one have enjoyed every single thing that I have seen or done or been a part of in this great big wonderful world of ours. When I came into this world in 1956 it was a simpler time for most folks who were just trying to make a living and have a family. I remember it as if it were yesterday, getting up eating some little something for breakfast and blasting through the front door to find my bicycle and see who was out there waiting for a great big adventure in the neighborhood that we called home. I don't think any of us were rich by any means but we all had our bicycles and various toys and especially our imaginations to power today's great adventure or even sometimes just relaxing in the woods behind our homes and eat a few green apples and talk about all the great accomplishments that we were going to be a part of in the future.
You and I both know that we probably weren’t responsible for any great achievement ourselves, but I do know however we made an impact on this world and I personally think that we made a good impact on it. Who knows one of our future ancestors may find a cure for cancer or have the knowledge to stop global warming. The possibilities are endless just because we were here and a part of this wonderful world.

I have seen communication and information that most people would've never had access to become available at our fingertips 24 hours a day. I have seen knowledge become commonplace on something called the Internet, I wonder if we had mentioned something like that to any of our friends about something this mind-boggling in 1961, they would have thought what planet had we fallen to earth from. Yes it would have been considered ludicrous to even think of such a thing let alone computers being so commonplace that every household would has at least two of them nowadays. Instead of having only one television per household there's almost one in every room and they're even connected to this wonderful thing called the Internet.
If you don't know how to fix something or need a recipe for tonight's dinner you don't have to go grab a book and start reading on how to repair it or how to prepare it, all you have to do is go to your computing device and entergoogle it on You Tube and there will be a video pop-up of someone enthusiastically telling you how to repair it or how to prepare it. If you can't remember what actor played in your favorite movie no problem just go to the Internet movie database and find out every single thing about that movie that could possibly be known to mortal man and in just a split second. You don't even have to be using your computer to find out this information you can do that on what we now call a smart phone. Believe me they look absolutely nothing like a telephone. The telephone in my day had a base a receiver and cord attached from the base to the receiver and even the base attached to the wall with a cord which was attached to a chord that ran to the telephone lines that ran all the way back to the main telephone station in our town and the smart phones which are better known as cell phones have absolutely no wires and you can still talk to someone in China and not be connected by a cord at all. I guess these things are all done by satellites and cell towers.

The satellites are in orbit around our earth and the cell towers are basically just antenna towers were the cellular telephone companies have their antenna arrays so that we can bounce our cellular telephone signals from one tower to the next until it gets close enough for your aunt Martha to be able to hear your voice on the other end of her cell phone.
I even have something called a Roku box or stick that allows me to get over 3000 television stations and, at 60 years old, I find that completely overwhelming when, originally, our first television could only pick up two television stations and, I think, by 1960 we had the huge number of four television stations which included WKNO TV in Memphis Tennessee that signed own as Tennessee's first public television station outlet on June 25, 1956 from their studios at Memphis State University. Wow, that was the year I was born. So this June WKNO TV in Memphis Tennessee will be 60 years old this year, television has come a long way since then. I can remember the television sets having snow and ghosting pictures and really terrible reception, but not today, we have what they're calling either UHD or 4K television with dynamic picture range and all kinds of devices and they look so good you feel like you can almost walk right into the television screens.

I even remember that there were still passenger planes being flown out of Memphis's airport to far-off destinations that were using piston driven engines. I can remember as a kid going to the airport and sitting in the graveled area that was made for people to watch the planes coming in and landing and taking off and going to far-off destinations when the first of the jet engine aircraft for the airlines took to the air in 1959 and became popular in the airline industry of the 60's.
You see we grew up in an age where it was always changing from one day to the next you never knew what to expect. I even thought that the Jetsons' type automobiles would be flying around from house to house, from city to city, state to state and country to country by the time I turned 60 years old, but that hasn't happened yet. We are still driving around in these old piston driven engine automobiles wondering why aircraft have jet engines and we still are polluting the air with fossil fuel driving automobiles. I have to say though there is hope we're going back to the electric automobile. Yes, that's right, Thomas Alva Edison had an electric automobile back in the days of the model T and they just weren't popular and I have to tell you that they are not that popular today either, but with all the things that are going on with pollution and global warming we may have to learn to love the electric automobile. I just can't help it, until I can drive as far as I want to without having to stop for hours in between to let it charge back up I don't think I'll ever have one. You know I just thought of it, that my great-grandfather probably spouted almost the same words “until these tin Lizzie's can eat hay and make fertilizer don't think I'll have one”.
Don't want to make it seem like the world has gotten to be the Utopia that we thought it would be. Yes there are horrible things that happened today like mass shootings in schools and all kinds of other stupid stuff going on. I have to tell you that I have had a wonderful life my wife and I have traveled to exotic locations that I never thought I would ever get to see and that gives me one more thing to be so thankful about I really truly have met my soulmate. I want to tell you I never thought not one iota that love was more than just a state of mind or that anyone could be so perfect for another human being that they could call anyone their soulmate, but after 34 years of marriage I have to tell you and I mean it, I have found out what love truly is because I have found my soulmate in life. I would not want to do anything without her, go anywhere without her and, yes, I realize with such great love eventually will come great pain when we are no longer together. So you ask is it worth it or why would you go through that knowing what the outcome will be. All that I can tell you is that all that I am for all that I ever will be is because of the love and the patient's and the understanding of the woman that I am married to. Yes, it is worth it and I would go through it 1000 times more knowing that at the end either she or I will have great pain at the loss of our soulmate.

I just wanted to give you my impression of what a little tiny taste of what the 60 years have meant to me. Before I close I want to say something about my family life, my mother and father and my brother, none of them were perfect and some people might say that it was a dysfunctional family and that it was not an ideal environment to grow up in and I'm here to tell you, if you haven't walked a mile in my shoes and gone through the love and joy with all of the heartache and despair that I went through, the bullying and teasing, the taunting and having a loving mother wipe away your tears and a father who worked his fingers to the bone so that we could have more of the wonderful things that life had to offer than my mother and father had, then you don't have the right to think that. I always looked up to my older brother and for many years I thought he was perfect and, yes, nowadays we don't see anywhere near eye to eye on religion or politics or any of that kind of stuff as we did when we were kids, but he was then and is now one of my greatest heroes in life. So you see none of the bad things that happened to us as kids mattered, it was the love and the patience that my family had with an OCD and dyslexic child that made the difference from having a mediocre childhood to the absolutely fantastic loving childhood I had. I guess that's what I really wanted to say is that the first 60 years of my life have been wonderful thanks to the love of my family and the grace of God in my life “And A Little Help From My Friends”.

Happy Birthday to us!

Attitude is the most important tool in learning!

The first tool is "attitude" and it is the most important tool you can develop. Let me give you my favorite example, give a child a tablet or a computer and they light up with excitement, however give the same device to someone over 50 and you might get a completely different reaction. Why is this? Most people will give an answer like this "the child grew up with all this stuff”. That's just not true, a child has not grown up yet so it has only the experiences of right now. On the other hand, we the older generation"50" and above have grown up with technology expanding faster than most of us wanted it to. The major difference between the child and the adult is the lack of fear and looking at everything as if it is game and we, the older generation, look at an increasing lack of time and a fear of failure or a lack of joy of learning anything anymore. We tend to hate change.

Changing our attitude may be the hardest tool to develop, because we have trained our minds to hate change and fear learning for many diverse reasons as we have grown older.  I have tried to keep my mind open and enjoyed learning for all of the professions I have been employed at. Change has come at an ever increasing pace over the years that I have been at my professions. Technology in many jobs or industries has incorporated computers, to our horror, most of us were having to learn skills that we thought were not available to us. That’s just not true. It has grown just like we have and was available for us to learn before we had to.  Because of our fear or just plain laziness, we were reluctant to embrace the changes and learn these skills to be ready for them in our jobs and our life.  

I was surprised when people my age got angry when confronted with smart phones, tablets, laptops and computers with more categories of devises to come in our future. Why is this and how can we ever hope to overcome this block of learning something that will enhance and improve our way of life. It is something that we must overcome. So many things, especially government forms such as unemployment registration and Social Security registration that we will have to fill out in the future are going to be only available on the Internet,

which means we will have to be able to use some type of device or computer to navigate these forms.  So you see it is extremely important that we give up our mental blocks of devices that we are afraid of learning how to operate. I have come to look at learning new ways of using and understanding my computers in the same way I look at going to Walt Disney World. When I walked through those gates I become 12 years old again and I wanted to see and do and learn everything that these parks had to offer. In the same aspect, when I turn on my computer I turn 12 years old again and I want to learn and find out about everything that they can do for me and make my life much easier and happier. Don't get me wrong, not everything that Walt Disney World has to offer is something that I'm crazy about, but most things are. Keeping that in mind, not everything that my computers can do is that interesting to me, just as it won't be to you, but having a basic understanding of everything that your computer can do is essential.

I have used the example of computers to show you that it is possible to change your attitude and have a more childlike enthusiasm about learning and this particular tool, “attitude”, is something that must be acquired within you.

No one can find out what excites you the most about learning. Sometimes it may be learning how to cope with some type of adversity that you or a loved one has acquired with age. You might also be excited about a new grandchild being born in the state further away than you can travel and learning how to receive pictures on e-mails or how to Skype (which is a videophone conference type system) so that you can see and speak with your children and new grandchild. But no matter what it is that you need to learn you will be much more successful with the proper attitude.

I know that I have introduced you to the most horrible thing about life and that is change. It is inevitable that we change our attitude about learning to a more childlike state. For us to enjoy learning we must look at it as if it were a game or something enjoyable for us. If we have to, make it into a game that we will enjoy and indulge in every single day.

This is going to be a multi-part story of an adult student’s (I have found that I have never stopped being a student and I am learning, each and every day, something new and wonderful) retrospective looking back at learning and the possibilities and problems thereof. I am writing these little stories in the hope that it may help someone see from the mistakes and observations that I have made, from a better vantage point in time. Thank you for reading my stories. 

I don't really remember now who the teacher was that told me that no one could teach you how to learn. Boy, do I have an argument for them now. You see, I believe that you can teach someone the mechanics of learning (I will endeavor to explain in the second part of my story for my blog on learning what I mean about the mechanics of learning) and I agree with them that learning is up to the individual. There is always a spark within someone that excites them about learning. For me, back in the day before computers, before we could look things up on the Internet and find a wealth of information instantly at our fingertips, I was more excited about the physical tactile touch of learning. I will endeavor to explain to you  what I mean about the physical tactile touch of learning. What I mean is, if I could read a how-to book and then I could do it, in other words if I could read it and shape it and mold it with my hands, it was easier for me to understand and grasp the nuances of anything.

I once had a class that was taught by a teacher at Tech High School in Memphis, Tennessee in algebra that was taught by an elderly professor from some college or university. I don't remember which school it was anymore and I don’t know if I ever really knew.

It seems that every time I asked him a question that seemed to me to be a simple and an appropriate question, there was always an insult at the end of his answer directed at me when he answered. Being a very cocky 17-year-old I had my fill of his sly and insulting remarks toward me because I found them degrading, unnecessary and a waste of my time just as I guess he felt that my questions were a waste of his time. For me to understand what the equations that we were working with, when the properties of the equation had no physical meaning, in other words, X was only being shown as X and it had no numerical meaning, then why were we going through this exercise? I would hear something about a baboon's brain at the end of his explanation that was directed toward me. So I answered him back “it's better to get knowledge from the person riding a mule northbound, rather than the mule’s southbound end”.  So he sent me to the Principal’s office where I saw one of the assistant principal’s. I explained to him what was going on and I must not have been the only student that had this complaint because he explained to me that neither one of us would be happy with me being in his class.

I later found out there were as many as 10 students over the last two years that went to study hall for the same reasons rather than taking his class. He was the only teacher that I ever lost respect for. Belittling or berating someone is bullying and should not be tolerated from either a teacher or student. I would never have learned anything in his class. I was robbed of the knowledge either by my stubbornness or by his bullying of me. I'm sure though that his technique may have worked for some people, but he should have been ashamed of himself. I know that I now am ashamed that I said anything back to him; I just should have walked out of his class and never returned and made formal complaints even though in those days nothing would have been done. Students’ complaints in those days seemed to fall on deaf ears. I would have loved to have the knowledge that I lost by not having an algebra class and using the time for a study hall. Because of his bullying, I was deprived of the education that I deserved.

Sad

I guess I have never lost the feeling of being a misfit, you see I never truly saw things in a way that others did. I have never understood someone that sits down beside you and voices their opinion, expecting you to be extremely happy and agree with them and when you force your opinion, you're either an idiot or should not have even opened your mouth, because your opinion is ludicrous. I have never found that the world is made up of just one opinion or thought and that no one single opinion is right or wrong.

If the world of science had been so backward in their thinking to only taken one approach to every equation that they wanted to solve what a pitiful world it would be. Even though the pages of a book are in black and white what you read is just not that simple as in everything its way more complex than just a yes or no.

So why do we think that people should be so boring as to only have a single collective opinion. Solving the world's problems is way more complex than just blaming one country for everything that has gone wrong in this world. So why do we point the finger of blame toward others when we ourselves create our own problems? Why can't we figure out a way to solve our problems? It all sounds so easy when politicians running for office talk about how they're going to change everything and it never happens no matter who gets elected? I have found over my 60 years that no one person can be the solution, we all have a stake in our own lives and yes we are opinionated selfish and especially stubborn about all our beliefs. I'm not saying that that is a bad thing it is good to hold yourself to a higher standard than you do anyone else, but having a closed mind to better ideas is foolish and it also is foolish to fall for every schemer that comes along.

I don't have the answers, I know how I feel about everything, but I personally wouldn't want you to have the same exact ideas about everything that I do it would be an extremely boring world for all of us to agree on everything.

I was 6 foot tall and had sideburns in the sixth grade I felt like Frankenstein's monster amongst all the other kids. I just didn't seem to fit in as well as the rest of my classmates seem to. Today I also feel like Frankenstein's monster at times living amongst people that look at you with hate and fire burning in their eyes at you when you disagree with some viewpoint of the heirs. I could never understand how people grow to hate someone that's different than they are. You see I have always felt different than the majority of people I know. One of the main reasons that I am glad that I'm not just like everyone else is because I don't think I have within me the ability to hate, because I have had my feelings hurt so many times in my life because people have looked upon me with hate and contempt because of all things that make me different than they are.

 What a sad world we have grown up in even with all of its diversity and all of its many people, that we have grown to hate one another because we don't read the same book or we don't look exactly the same. It seems to grow sadder  every year as more and more people are being killed because they are different and even some of them are being killed because they care and want to make a difference in this world. I will never understand man's hatred of man.

We have fought wars to stop monsters from slaughtering people because they're different and we have proclaimed that this will never happen again in our lifetime, but you hear that so much of that horror is still with us today. How do we stop it, I don't have any clue, because it seems that when we put away one monster another one takes its place and we hear the same stories on the news almost weekly about one group of people attacking another group of people basically because they're different.

In the 60s we prayed for peace and love and understanding, where are those kids that prayed for that peace and love and understanding today? It seems that the world was not changed by my generation for the better or even for that matter not for the worse either, it just seems to stay its course. The generations before us fought the war to end all wars and it did not, there have been wars upon wars since that horrible war. So what is the answer how do we end hunger hate and war? I wish I knew.  How do we stop terrorism and even on a smaller scale how do we stop people from committing murders and killing someone for really no reason? I wish I knew.

I can remember my grandfather telling me on his 95th birthday that he doesn't watch the news anymore because it saddens him too much and that was in the 70s and I now know how he feels. I have all but given up watching the news myself and I am only turning 60 in February. I had hoped that the next generation would not see war and the armies of the world would unite for good causes and never again take up the bombs and the guns of destruction, but my dream was only a dream.

A wise man once said all you need is love, and I still believe that love is all you need and peace will break out as a consequence. But I don't think man by himself is capable of that kind of love without the help of God so if you believe as I do and as we did in the 60s that prayers are answered. I call upon all of you to pray for love so that peace will infect itself amongst all of God's people. I don't care what you think of me because it doesn't matter, think about all of those people hurting for the rest of their lives because they have lost loved ones to wars to terrorism and to just plain murder and feel some of their pain and pray with that kind of empathy in your heart and God will answer our prayers. 

Disney with High Expectations

The things that The Disney Parks do for us to make our visit enjoyable, sometimes lead us to expect too much, too fast.

We tend to expect a much higher standard from Disney and their cast members than we do anywhere else we ever go. It also leads us to expect every ride that the Imaginears come up with to be completely mind blowing and most of them are with rare exceptions.

We all know changes are inevitable and I do love the new parades and fireworks that Disney puts in place of the older ones.  I must, however, say that I miss all of the parades that I have seen over the years and, believe me, there have been many. My wife and I have been to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, more than 60 times, Disneyland in Anaheim, California four times and Disneyland Paris twice.  We still dream of going to all of the other Disney Parks as well.  There are some things that Disney aficionados, better known as Disney nerds, just can’t tolerate. We don’t mind change but just try and take away our Haunted Mansion or our Pirates of the Caribbean and I’m afraid that the Disney nerds will make the Pirates, who sail the Caribbean in days of yore, look like girl scouts. 

The changes that the Walt Disney Company has made in the last few years have been taxing on our nerves but there have been a few good changes. Not all of them have been to my liking for one reason or another, but there have been Disney changes.  Take, for instance, the closing of the Snow White’s Scary Adventure ride to make the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Ride, I hated the fact that they closed the original ride, but I don’t think that the new ride is bad at all, it’s just different and I do like it, I just wish we had both.  Adding an animatronic Captain Jack (aka Johnny Depp) to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride made much more of a connection to a newer generation of Disney fans. I understand that and I like it very much that they do now feature Captain Jack in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  The Hatbox Ghost was something that I had heard the rumors about ever since the opening of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and I had never seen any evidence until recently when his introduction to the ride made a phenomenally good addition. They not only added the Hatbox Ghost but they also enhanced the queue where we wait in line with magnificent curiosities for us to play with while we wait to get on the ride. Who doesn’t like all of the updating that they have done to the Haunted Mansion? I, for one, love it and the Haunted Mansion is my absolute favorite ride at the Disney Parks. 

Motion at Epcot Center was a magnificent dark ride that had touches from almost every Imaginear that had ever worked on designing the park rides.  Motion was, for some reason, eventually replaced by Test Track. I was never a fan of Test Track because, to me, it had ruined a perfectly good ride.  With the more recent updates to Test Track, I am a little more pleased with its latest transformation than I was originally, even though I personally think they should have gone a little bit further and made it look much more like Tron and even rename the ride. My personal taste for both Imagination, which still exists with changes since the original, and Horizons which no longer exists, were my favorite Epcot rides at that time. I am extremely disappointed at how they were changed. Imagination originally had an animatronic Dream Finder and Figment which were much more interesting than the flat boards painted with pictures that I still saw on my last visit. I hope they are using their imagination to redo this ride. Replacing the lovely Bonnie Appetite at the Kitchen Kabaret in The Land Pavilion was a great loss.  She was replaced along with some of the audio animatronics with Food Rocks which was basically cardboard cutouts that were very disappointing. When they added Soarin’ in its place, I must admit I was overjoyed.

I have come to the point now that I realize that Disney has a vision in mind, even if I’m not happy with that vision, it eventually turns out to be pretty good.  I think some things change in stages and they can figure out when they missed the boat and make even more changes to make the park better for us.  I hate to see the entire park become roller coasters and if I look at it from a distance of the age that I am now I see all of the favorite things that I loved to do at Disneyland and Walt Disney World being replaced or having the editions of roller coasters takeover and people my age and the age of my young grandchildren are unable to ride those rides.  I seem to remember a very wise man once saying that the Parks were meant to be enjoyed by children of all ages. ^th birthday; that’s right it began on a Sunday July 17, 1955

and Walt Disney did say that Disneyland would be in a constant state of change, even the flowers and trees would get better as time went on.  I have heard people ask the question would Walt be pleased with what his Parks have become, and I must say that he, being a perfectionist, and the inspiration for his Imaginears would be extremely pleased with what he sees but he would say why didn’t or why couldn’t we have done it this way.  Walt Disney was a visionary so I don’t think he would be shocked at the increase of technology or the magnificent special effects that have revolutionized how good his Parks have become.  He would have never wanted his Imaginears to stop moving forward and progressing and taking entertainment to new heights and levels of technology.

He also would have been the type of man that would have said step back from the computers, shut the laptops, turn off the cell phones and just walks through the tunnels at Disneyland and relive the past as well as the future.  Keep in mind that they always make the Parks beautiful with flowers and trees and topiaries for us to stop and enjoy a drink or lunch and enjoy the gardens. They put so much hard work into the Parks for us to enjoy. 

So far I am not displeased with what I see, especially Cars Land in Disney’s California. It looks magnificent and I can’t wait to experience it in person. I guess I should learn to have more patience but also remember that wise Man also saying that Disneyland is your land and I guess I just took it to two deep into my heart. Disneyland now celebrates its 60

I also hear many people saying bad things about amusement park food and I agree with them, but I do not believe that I have ever had a meal that was not edible at Disneyland in Anaheim, Walt Disney World in Florida or Disneyland Paris. As a matter of fact, I have been extremely pleased with every meal I’ve ever had in the Parks at Disneyland, Walt Disney World are Disneyland Paris.  One of the best meals I ever had was at a restaurant in the Magic Kingdom that I have heard so many people say such terrible things about.  It was at Tony’s in Town Square and it was as good a meal as I had ever had.  My wife and I have traveled extensively and we haven’t eaten at some of the top restaurants in the world and I am telling you that the food at Disney’s Parks are comparable in quality and taste. As far as the service is concerned, I honestly think that sometimes people are overwhelmed with the quality of the service at the Disney Parks restaurants.

Most restaurants anywhere in the world would be overwhelmed with the amount of people that can be served in a day at Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris. We forget how many people are being served at any given restaurant at any given day at the Parks.  No, I am not saying that we should forgive bad service are the lack thereof when it happens, but you must take into consideration that no one trained by Disney or its licensees would ever on purpose try to make you experience at their Parks anything but first class and we are all just human beings trying to do our best to juggle as many things as we possibly can to make everyone feel satisfied. 

I for one would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you that work at the Parks and read these posts and try to make my stay there the best it can be. For me, the Disney Parks are not only the happiest places on earth, they are the greatest places on earth. They are my eternal laughing place.                                                

Mr. Holmes by Mr. House

                                       Mr. Holmes by Mr. House

Even as a small child I gravitated to watching mystery movies or who done its. My favorites, of course, were the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I always liked the fact that Sherlock Holmes was capable of putting facts together to make conclusions that would lead to the solving of the crime. He did this with what I don’t call a superior intellect but by using his intelligence to understand why things happened and what details are left behind at a crime scene to show what had transpired. Sherlock Holmes always seemed a bit of an oddball when it came to emotions and interacting with people and he seemed to be uncomfortable in those situations, as I know most of us feel uncomfortable around strangers. I always wanted to have the analytical mind of Sherlock Holmes, but my mind worked more like a mechanic or artist, I could see things through my hands and do things through my hands in almost the same manner that Sherlock Holmes did them through thought and logic by thinking them out and then acting on them.

I, on the other hand, could take something apart till I found the piece that was either worn out or broken and change them out and make that object work again.

To me, it was almost as if I was the Sherlock Holmes that solved the crime, when I fixed the brakes on my parents car I was solving the crime of inadequate braking power. I know that seemed a little far-fetched, but honestly I did compare it to solving situations that were quite normal. My love of Sherlock Holmes as young man started by watching the Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in Sherlock Holmes movies and Ronald Howard in the television show from the 1950’s and all of the movies that portrayed Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson's adventures. The latest adaptation of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson for the BBC, known as Sherlock, has me completely enthralled and enjoying the adventures that are portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, two of the best actors to portray the crime-fighting duo, and all Sherlock Holmes.

I have come to believe though that the stories are not as much about the mysteries as it is about the companionship of two men how they become lifelong friends and their companionship. Some people say that this type of friendship isn't quite possible and I totally disagree. So many of the movies out there are not truly about the story the characters are in but it is the characters themselves that are the story. The detective Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. John Watson are definitely the story that people continually go back for. Yes, I am saying is not the Hound of the Baskerville and it's not the the Woman in Green, or even the Speckled Band that people go back to watch or read, it is the continuing story of two friends having the adventures of a lifetime that people go back to read and watch.

I absolutely am and always have been a fan of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, whether it is the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or the movies of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, or the TV show from the 50’s or the more modern BBC's Sherlock. I cannot get enough of Sherlock Holmes. It doesn't seem to matter to me who inhabits 221B Baker Street as long as they are portraying Sherlock Holmes in the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle style.

The wife and I went to see a new adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, this time starring Ian McKellen as the retired and elderly Sherlock Holmes who instead of having Watson by his side to keep Sherlock on track, this time it is a young boy who has Sherlock put through his paces. I was somewhat skeptical of Ian McKellen playing Sherlock Holmes, because I have been somewhat of an estranged fan of his for years and, yes, I do mean that I am a fan of his but I have never been able to understand from one moment to the next what he Ian McKellen was up to. His acting style keeps me guessing at what his next move will be and I did not and understand whether that would be adaptable to Sherlock Holmes, however, I did not know exactly what the storyline would be for the movie called Mr. Holmes. After seeing it, I do indeed get exactly why Ian McKellen was absolutely the best choice for this particular Sherlock Holmes. I want to tell you that if you are a Sherlock Holmes geek like I am, the rest of this story needs to be a spoiler alert until you have watched the new movie called Mr. Holmes. Yes, this is a spoiler alert!

You see, in this particular adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, he is in his last years and he is losing his memory just as we all do in our final days. I never understood Sherlock Holmes retiring to a bee farm in Essex until watching this movie. It was casually mentioned in the stories and the movies but it never made sense to me. This new perspective that Mr. Holmes gives to me of Sherlock is quite interesting.

You see, there absolutely was, in earlier days, a belief that the Royal jelly that bees made for their queen had some type of medical curative powers and I believe that Sherlock had decided to retire to a bee farm so that he could use the Royal jelly to keep his cognitive powers and mental capacities in check. I'm not going to give away the entire story away, but I will tell you this story is not about anything other than the relationship between Sherlock and the mother and son that take care of him.

Unfortunately, this movie is in a limited release or at least it was in the Smoky Mountain area and only one theater in Knoxville was showing Mr. Holmes so you may even have to wait to see Mr. Holmes on Blu-ray and DVD, but whatever you do, if you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes of any kind, in my opinion this is a must-see. I know that it will not get any critical acclaim and it will not win Oscars but it is one of the best Sherlock Holmes movies I have ever seen. I believe it has given a fresh perspective on how things ended for our favorite British sleuth.

It's not a Southern Thing !

It's a Southern Thing
I have kept my silence long enough, because of the atrocity that has been pulled on us for years. I am sick of the horrible Southern accents that Hollywood has imposed upon us. One of the worst offenders from the very beginning has been Col. Sanders.

Yes I'm talking about Col. Harland David Sanders the original creator of Kentucky fried chicken. He wasn't even a Southerner. He was born in Indiana. But I have to say his southern accent was much better than this re-creation that Kentucky fried chicken has thrust upon us. It makes me furious about all the horrible southern accents that have been thrust upon the South and were disposed to think that it's nice and funny. If it wasn't for the fact that the Beverly hillbillies were just so funny, all of the southern accents except for Donna Douglas's just wanted to make you throw up. This latest assault on the Southern accent is just too much to take. If you are going to pay homage to a southern colonel at least get one with a true southern accent. I don't know how you feel about it but I am so angry when I hear that commercial with this new so-called southern colonel that I see you read every single time. There are so many people out there that have true southern accents, but yet they get this bozo who sounds like he's from Ohio.

Don't get me wrong , a Ohio accent would be fantastic for someone that needed to have an Ohio accent. I need to hear a southern accent instead of what ever kind of accident it is that he is trying to portray. Too long northerners have made fun of our accent and told us that we sounds stupid because of it and they don't even know the difference between a common southern accent and a high southern accent. It just makes me want to ask them do you think the people from the Jersey shore sound like they're geniuses

It's A Southern Thing

Wow, can you imagine such starlets as Katharine Hepburn wearing pants out in public gatherings. I can just hear the conservative South expressing their opinion about women wearing pants, let alone shorts and, oh my goodness, short shorts. What would the world come to when women of the 1930’s started wearing short shorts.

Even though the fashion manufacturers of the day were making short shorts for the ladies to wear they didn't really take off, but they did hang around, because I do remember all the cute girls back in our day wearing those wonderful short shorts. Oh, what lucky guys we were. Do you remember short shorts and when they got popular and why they got popular. Well, I have a little story to tell you. Like I said, shorts for women have been around at least since the 1930’s and they started getting pretty popular in the 1940’s. This is the story of why they got popular and why I call it a southern thing.

You see, it all started back when the Second World War broke out in Europe, and things got even worse when the Japanese ventured into the war, because our sources of silk became stretched to say the least. Any stockpiles of silk or nylon were going toward the war effort for such things as parachutes. So, what was a young lady of the late 30’s and 40’s to do. No stockings, oh my goodness. This must have been a blow to all the girl watchers out there as well. Never fear though, these young ladies came up with some great ideas.

Meanwhile, in the conservative South, women were working in the fields and on the farms and in the factories. White women worked in the fields and on the farms because their men were now in Europe and Asia fighting in the Second World War did their best not to get an all over tan. As a matter fact, they tried to cover up from head to toe because no genteel Southern lady wanted anyone to know that they were a common woman and worked in the fields. That's why you still saw women in the fields wearing either pants or long skirts and they were adorned with floppy hats to keep their face from getting tanned. So, when the supply of nylon stockings ran out in the South, what were the conservative women of the South to do. I'll tell you what they did, they started wearing short shorts and allowing their legs to be tanned so that they would look as if they were wearing stockings. Why some were even so bold that they painted a line down their leg with dark mascara to make it look like they were wearing seamed stockings, because that's how stockings were made in those days. The adoption of short shorts became popular in the South during leisure activities, oh my, what was Aunt Betty Lou to think of her girls. The South was turned on its ear to think that just a few years ago everyone was up in arms because women started wearing pants instead of skirts Nowadays, it's almost impossible to find women wearing skirts, sorry as the days of girl watching has gotten a little less leggy, if you are a leg man.

Things had progressed a little bit by the time we had gotten to the 1960’s where the go-go dancers in cages were all wearing short shorts, and doing all of those 60’s dances.

Girl watchers were in hog heaven. All of the trendy and mod young ladies were adorned with some of the shortest shorts ever seen up to that time. I know because I lived in that era and you can't tell me those shorts were not short. Starlets like Ann-Margret and Raquel Welch made short shorts part of every girls fashion wardrobe from the late 60’s, through the 70’s when they were known as hot pants and on into the 1980’s.

Young ladies of the South had improvised since day one when they found out that they could wear shorts, because one of the most popular pieces of apparel for Southerners were denim jeans, better known as blue jeans. These fashion conscious southern lasses had been cutting off their blue jeans and wearing them as shorts and allowing them to fray around the legs for a few years before a television show known as The Dukes of Hazard came about and actress Catherine Bach made showing her legs in short cut off blue jeans fraying around the legs popular for an entire nation. And believe me, at my age in those days I had no complaints about it all.

Yes, ever since those Southern girls allowed themselves to be comfortable and decided that shorts were okay to wear and flying those shorts in the face of all the detractors at the time, so to speak, made it possible for short shorts to become popular and the trend seems to pop up about every 10 years or so for the pleasure of all the girl watchers out there, like myself.

You see, I don't believe without the adoption of the southern women wearing shorts in the South, the short shorts would have never been so popular. That's my story of why I call it a southern thing, and I'm sticking to it.