Goodbye to my Batman

Generations of young boys have played and mimicked their heroes. When we were young boys we portrayed ourselves as Batman and Robin as we played throughout our neighborhood, keeping Gotham's villains from taking over. I'm sure those in our neighborhood remember Keith Shaw and me riding our bikes with our Batman T-shirts and towels tied to our neck as we played Batman and Robin.

Our Batman and Robin were different than the comic books and the Batman movies that have appeared in recent years because our generation’s television programs were more innocent than what is being portrayed on television and movie screens today. I, for one, am thankful that the Batman than I remember was happier,friendlier and, yes, campier than anything done today.

I have heard younger people say that the acting was terrible and that it was too silly, boy, do I disagree. Some of the greatest actors of the 40s, 50's and 60's appeared on the 1960's Batman television show. Some of these actors were for the first time introduced to a completely new generation of children which spawned the rebirth of their careers at a time that Hollywood and television had turned its back on older actors and actresses. Many of the older critically acclaimed actors were doing their best to get cameos in the new Batman movie or even on the Batman TV series in hopes that it would spark a new beginning for their careers.

 I do understand that Batman the TV show of the 60's could not be made the same way for television today as it was back then. As I see it, the actors that portray Batman today, I can't help but feel that there's something missing, something that's just not there. I think back to the days that I couldn't wait a whole week to see my Batman and then the network got it, they understood what it meant to my generation of young boys and they actually put a television show on two nights a week. I was born in 1956 that makes me 61 years old and I do not remember ever seeing a show scheduled for two nights a week other than the 1960's Batman. The thing that is missing today is the innocence of youth that was still intact in the 1960's.

There is always someone that is the number one actor in a TV show or movie which, by the way, my Batman had movies and a television show. That actor usually is well-known and respected in the industry. The actor that played my Batman was known and respected but not so much to the public at that time, so when these two actors came to play the dynamic duo they had no idea that they would be remembered so fondly some fifty-something years later. I have gone to autograph shows to get as many of the autographs and meet the people that were on my Batman. I have collected at least seven or eight autographs from these actors. I even told the person that played my Batman about how my best friend at the time Keith Shaw and I went with my parents to the drive-in movies to see the new Batman movie. The drive-in movie theater was giving out a black and white 8 x 10 glossy picture to each car that came to the movie on this particular day but it was only one picture per car so of course, my parents gave it to my friend. I told him how I cried because I didn't have a picture of Batman, but now not only do I have a picture and autograph, I have one of my fondest memories of meeting Adam West, my hero, and my Batman.

It was such an honor to meet Adam West and many of the cast of that original 1960's TV show Batman. Unlike the 1960's we now can own every single episode of that original Batman TV show without commercials. Adam West embodied what was good about the Batman he played. He has done many voiceovers for cartoons over the years and done parodies of that original TV show where he played Batman, but he has always kept a campy dignity surrounding the persona of the Batman he portrayed that the young boys of my generation loved so dearly. Adam West had a place in all of our young hearts and all of our minds and even our dreams and hopes for the future. Adam West is one of those actors that will never be totally missed because his body of work lives on through the magic of reruns, videotape, DVD's and Blu-ray's, but there is a much greater magic within those young boys of my generation and that's the undying gratitude and love of the fun and adventure that he gave us that still lives on through us today and forever.

Even though the bat signal has gone dark we wish you Godspeed and Bat thrusters on full, Adam West to your next adventure. 

September 19, 1928-June 9, 2017

I have grown up in some very strange times that confuse me about what freedom is all about. I was born in the mid-50s and I'm still kicking as they say, but I must tell you not as high as I used to. 

I remember when if a girl got pregnant out of wedlock she was ostracized by the community and abandoned by her family. Now it's not only preferred by the masses that she keeps it, but they try and legislate her right to choose.  I have never thought killing an unborn Child should be used as a form of birth control so I'm not confused about why people feel so strongly about abortion, but what I am confused about is the changes in what is considered right and wrong in this case. I am also highly confused about why someone's right to choose to keep a baby or not keeping a baby is considered so horrible. I would understand it if they gave a better alternative then Abortion to the poor girl who is going through so much emotion and heartache. I have never heard of a group of the right to life organizations building orphanages or making adoption organizations for this specific purpose. I see people so profoundly entrenched in a faith that would condone the murdering of doctors that perform abortions and not give alternative choices to those that seek abortions because they think it is their only recourse to an unwanted pregnancy. When you give someone a choice you have to give them a better choice than they are looking at. You have to give them a choice that gives them dignity in that choice and you have to make it readily available to them without any consequences otherwise you don't give that person a choice.

I also don't understand the phrase that guns don't kill people. Yes, I agree that a gun on a shelf never touched will hurt no one. The thing that I don't understand is how you can’t see that if there was never a gun on the shelf we wouldn't be having this conversation. I do however believe in the privilege for everyone to own a firearm if they are law-abiding and mentally competent to do so. The other thing I don't understand is all of those people who rightly owned guns and have no malice in their hearts for anyone want absolutely everyone in the world to own a gun. I know people that I am glad that they own a gun most of them are police officers and law enforcement personnel. I also have appreciated and love the right and privilege to hunt however I have never been a sports Hunter, when I go hunting it is for food and not the thrill of killing. As a matter of fact, I pray and give thanks to God for the animal that I harvest and also feel some anguish for killing one of God's creatures. Yes, you can call me a bleeding heart because I do have one and I intend to defend my family because they are my heart. We have seen too many mentally ill people obtain guns legally I feel that this must stop. My right to owning a weapon does not trump any one's right to safety however I personally feel that my right to own a firearm is not the problem I feel that our laws are not being enforced properly and if you are on a terrorist watch list you should never be able to legally purchase a gun in the United States. If you are not mentally stable enough to own a firearm you should not be able to legally purchase a firearm in the United States. The excuse that criminals can find a gun illegally is not only absurd it is inhumane to use such an excuse to justify anyone killing someone in a country that is free minded people can come together and create the proper solutions without taking away anyone's freedom.

I also believe in the right of choice of just about anything and everything. Yes, I do believe you have the choice to be stupid, but I believe the only stupid choice is to close your mind down and not consider everyone and what they have to say. I don't think that our government is perfect and I definitely don't think the candidates running for president are our best choices. I do however think that they represent what our country has come to in these days of no compromise and no compassion. It's okay to be hateful to one another in a political campaign and its okay to call your neighbor stupid or ignorant or uneducated because he likes the opposite candidate to your choice. I see a country and a great division and the choices that we may have made this rip in the fabric of America, not to leave out those of you who say I don't vote so it's not my fault, it's more your fault that it is those that vote. A wise man once said that no one from a foreign land could set foot on this nation and destroy the ideas and the democracy that we have created, he said that it would have to come from within the United States itself, if we were to lose this great country that we have made and fought for these many years. The divisions in our country have always been this wide and we have been able to build bridges of compromise across the divisions of political ideology, religion, and philosophy to keep this country running straight and narrow toward a positive future. Every time someone has put obstacles in our way we have been able to remove those obstacles because we work together and compromised and made this country a better place for every single human being occupying our land. I see just as I did in the 60s people of color feeling as if they are being targeted by the very government that we instituted to protect them and no one should ever have that feeling. I am a white male and definitely over 21 and 

I have felt discriminated against my entire life because I did not come from an affluent family, no my family didn't have money and they didn't have power so everyone thought they could roll right over the top of me without any opposition. Those of you that know me know that's not the case. I tried to stand up for what is right and that doesn't mean that I think that everything is in black and white everything has a colorful story to its core and I try to see the entire picture before I make my decisions.

I met a gentleman just the other day that explained to me that he learned better with his hands than he ever did with his eyes, in other words, he had trouble reading.  I guess I'm getting ahead of my story here, so let me start from the beginning.

I knew from a very early age I saw the world differently than others. I could take things apart and put them back together much easier than I could read a book. I remember sitting down on the couch with my mother going over my spelling words[G1] .  I would misspell them knowing that I had all of the letters in the word but did not put them in their proper order or I would try and spell the word before or after that particular word. Things just didn't look the same to me as they did to my mother. I learned that if I concentrated with all my might and everything that was within me on each letter and each word in its own turn I could see them as others saw them. If I lost concentration or didn't try hard enough things would look almost backward to me. I would try to read the assigned books that we had for each class each year.  It would take me so long to read one book out of the 5 to 10 that we were supposed to read that I started using Cliff notes and I could barely keep up.  I guess my teachers probably thought I was not very smart.[G2] [G3] 

It wasn't until I got into junior high and high school that I figured out that people read a book with two minds, one that spoke the words and the other mind was like a movie that went on in your head showing you the picture of what was going on according to what you were reading. I had to concentrate so hard on being able to read each word in each sentence that I was losing the ability to comprehend it as just a fictional book and to enjoy it. It took me much longer than high school to figure out how to do that. Yes, I could read comic books because of the pictures, and the fact that the words were not in huge paragraphs, they were just what the character was saying or doing in that particular frame and that made it much easier for me to understand. It wasn't until I started reading Disney news magazines that I could glimpse that movie within my mind of what I was reading and I could concentrate as much on one side of the equation as I could the other. It was still extremely hard and time consuming for me. I made a major breakthrough when I started reading J.K. Rowling’s series about Harry Potter. I had watched the movies so I had the foresight of the movies to help me with the picture going on in my mind of what I was reading.  It was like an epiphany for me to actually see in my mind’s eye for the very first time complete scenes and complete stories of what I was reading on the page.  It was wonderful to finally understand how someone could enjoy reading a book because I never could until then.

The gentleman that I had met was telling me the story of myself. He said that he had dyslexia and I believe with all my heart, even though it's never been diagnosed, that that is what I have. He explained to me that he learned so much more quickly by touch than he ever did by reading anything and that was my story. He explained to me how this dyslexia would come and go according to how much concentration he put into it at the time, keeping his mind and his eyesight straight. It's exactly how I have to do things. I jokingly shook his hand and said: [G4] “hello long-lost brother”.  He laughed too because he knew what I meant. I told him of the story about an actor who had written a screenplay about a wrestler and he wanted to do a read through with his friends. He called on me to read a particular part and I told him that I was embarrassed about it but that reading was hard for me. He looked at me and he said “you have dyslexia, don't you” and I kind of took a step back and realized that for the first time I admitted it in public. He said, [G5] “that's okay, I will give you a few minutes to read over your lines and help you with them”. This made me determined to find a way to beat my affliction and enjoy reading.

I now understand that there are so many actors, writers and others that enjoy the written word that has dyslexia. I have never had anyone help me with my affliction[G6] . Teachers nor doctors really understand it when I was in school. I have gone it alone and tried to understand and find out how to read and enjoy reading without having to concentrate so hard. Even though it is easier now than it ever has been, it is still extremely hard work for me to read.  I have now read and finished a few books from cover to cover.  I never could do that before.  I love the Harry Potter series and love to read them. I read and now write blogs, as well as other literature and I can actually say I read and enjoy it.[G7] 

I can remember people telling me that they had just bought a huge novel a few weeks ago and they had read it from cover to cover and at that time I'm thinking, you're a liar, how can you read a book like that in just weeks. It takes me months, if not years to get through a book that thick. Now I can get through a standard novel within about 60 days, maybe sometimes a little longer, but in a reasonable length of time so that I don't forget what happened at the beginning of the book by the time I get to the end of the book. To me, that is a miracle and, yes, I do mean a miracle. I love to write, I love to read and, by doing so, it has opened up an entire world to me that used to be closed. I always read the short synopsis of books but there were always those books out there that I'd always wanted to read, like books about my hero Walt Disney or A.A. Milne’s The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and I just couldn't. It wasn't that I didn't try because I did but just calling out words is not reading. It was difficult to concentrate so hard to keep everything in its proper alignment so that you could read a couple of words or a sentence and then have to concentrate again to read the next line but you didn't have the strength of mind to carry on.

Just to give you an inkling of how hard it was, have you ever tried to make an object move with your mind and you’re concentrating so hard to get it to move, [G8] you get a headache. That is what I went through, that is why school was so hard for me.  I don't know if it's age or if it was the trying over and over again that helped me defeat my problem. Don't get me wrong, I have not completely defeated it because if I do not concentrate on what I'm reading I will transpose letters, words and even sentences, so you see, I still have to work at it. It's so much easier today than when I was a child in school. It's as if someone turned the light on in the room and I can see the written page.

So you see the man (at the beginning of my story) that learned with his hands better than from a book, he and I have something in common, we both have dyslexia. This is a story that teachers and doctors alike should be aware of because, as a kid, you don’t know you have this problem, and you are not able to explain it to anyone.  Many children have probably gone undiagnosed just because they could not tell anyone what was wrong.

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Hey Hey They are the Monkees

  I really don't know how critics get their credentials. I was just listening to NPR where a critic and writer of the history of rock 'n roll was reviewing the Monkees 50th. His review was basically listing facts about how the Monkees got the best writers in the industry to write for them and I took away from it that his conclusion was that's why they had such a great sound. I could not believe my ears! He even said that he had no frame of reference toward the Monkees when they originally came out, because he was into the underground sound at that time that had just gotten started. His review showed that he had no frame of reference for the Monkees television show at all.

I have made the statement that we were from the Ed Sullivan generation because we would listen to music that was so different like the acts that Ed Sullivan had on his show, from Beverly Sills to Janis Joplin, from Perry Como to Mick Jagger, not to mention the Beatles, who the TV executives of the time wanted the Monkees to emulate. The television show the Monkees auditioned as many young men as they possibly could and they came up with four young men that seemed to have nothing in common or you might say that they were all from different backgrounds. That, in most cases, might spell disaster for the chemistry with actors on a sitcom. The TV show the Monkees however was not a sitcom, it was not a musical variety show, it was something the likes of American television had never seen before. You might say the television show the Monkees was a gumbo of a mixture of British and American pop culture in a soup base that had some of the best songwriters in the world simmering into an extremely good pop rock band.

  I myself loved the Monkees, their hijinks and off-the-wall acting wasn't meant to be the great American drama and it wasn't. It was entertaining to the kids of that day. The music that was presented by the Monkees to sing was fantastic. It was from the best songwriters around, of that there is no doubt. I however want to make this perfectly clear to everyone, if you would have put this same music in front of a mediocre group of young men who had no talent and didn't care, it would have been horrible. I do not think that you could have any better chemistry for a band as you did with Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, Davy Jones and Mickey Dolenz. I don't care what was going on behind the scenes, I don't care if they didn't like each other, I don't care about the lawsuits, that's not what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is the simple fact that this group of young men came together and became a part of rock 'n roll history. Say what you want to, they were a good part of rock 'n roll history.

  The music that they put out had at least seven number one hits as far as I can remember. You can say what you want to about them having great songwriters which they did, but my contention is if they had not been a good band, they would not have been able to secure one number one hit let alone seven. All of this in just three or four years during and after their TV show. I, for one, believe that there was magic in the chemistry they produced on TV and stage.

Just to give you a for instance, there is a video circulating on YouTube from just a couple of years ago that shows Paul McCartney and his band, walking down the halls to the stage of one of their concerts, singing “Here we come,  walking down the street, we get the funniest looks from everyone we meet, Hey Hey we’re the Monkees…..”. I ask you, what greater tribute to the Monkees could there be than  Paul McCartney knowing one of their songs and singing it with his band for the fun of it.

I would also like to say that the songs they sang are caught in our minds forever. How many of you out there remember all the words to at least one of the Monkees’ songs. I personally know the words to at least three of their songs.

  It just makes me mad when someone thinks they have the right to review a group and still say that they have no point of reference of that group's heyday. This person listened to their music in retrospect today to review it in the context of what they know now. You can never have that appreciation for a piece of art if you never heard it when it came out. I'm telling you right now I love the Monkees television show. I had all of their albums and I also listened to the underground sound of the 60’s. I am part of the Ed Sullivan generation, I listened to almost every kind of music there was from the time I was a child till today and I'm 60 years old and I have never been able to understand how a reviewer can review a concert or review an album and come up with a totally different opinion of that music than those that appreciate it. I also believe that if you look at the modern abstract art and you don't get it you're not the person that should review it.

  He also kind of skipped over reviewing the movie Head that the Monkees put out after their TV show had ended, by saying that there are those that will defend it. I will not defend it, other than to say that looking at it today I see what they were striving for but the Monkees were never a psychedelic band, they're acting in the Monkees show was never part of the drug culture,  it was pop rock culture. I put the blame own it not being a hit, which it wasn't, on the directors and producers, especially the director who had absolutely no clue. Am I saying that I dislike Head, yes I probably am, but it is a part of rock 'n roll history and I'm sure there are people out there that did enjoy it, but I was thoroughly disappointed with that attempt.

  The Monkees shortly thereafter disappeared except for the occasional reunion concerts and the passing of Davy Jones seemed to have put an end to the concerts till here recently. Both Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz have gotten together again for at least one last Monkees romp and I am happy about it.

For all those we’ve lost in 2016

When we lose an actor we don’t just lose that person, we also lose all of the characters they would have given us.  When we lose a musician or singer we lose the beautiful sounds that were yet to come.  When we lose a songwriter we lose those wonderful lyrics that will never be.  When we lose a writer we lose the stories that will never be told.  When we lose those historic icons of history we lose the possibilities that they might have achieved.  When we lose an athlete we lose the victories that might have been.  When we lose a soldier we lose a hero.  When we lose those we love we lose the possibility of telling them one last time how much we love them. 

                For all those we’ve lost in 2016 we will never lose the feeling of how much we will miss you

The Call of the Mountain

The Call of the Mountain

I walk the trails that lead through these mountains and I feel our ancestors that walked these trails before me. I hear the echoes of the birds in flight calling their mates from the other side of the mountains from days gone by. I can hear echoes in time of bears feasting upon the fruits that the mountain gives to its woodland creatures.

I hear the voice of the Cherokee who were the first to speak to the mountain and called this place home. I feel the winds that have blown through these mountains and carried the voices of the early settlers through its valleys to the tips of its chimney tops.

This land we call the Appalachians is a gift from God for His creations. It is up to us to talk to the mountain and keep it company for it has been there for us in good and bad times, keeping us fed, and blessed with its abundance of riches. We have quenched our thirst in the streams that come from the winter snows on its caps and, with the power of her fast-moving streams coming from its highest points,

We powered our mills to grind the grain that makes our bread that we farmed in the valleys around our beautiful mountains. Our ancestors settled within the borders of these mountains we call the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. We have not only worked this land to feed our families, we have also bled from our hearts into the very dirt and rocks that make up these mountains.

We have borne our children and buried our parents within its soil. It is not just a tourist attraction for those that live in distant places, this is where we call home. The history and the ministry that lay before us in these mountains is our destiny and we would have it no other way, for we are mountain strong.

Good by Debby

God is calling a generation of people home. I see so many of those that I admired and watched on a flickering screen in the dark movie theater or on my television set in my own home. He is also calling home those that I have never seen before. I feel the loss of every single man woman and child that has been called to our father side whether I knew them are not.

It is only human nature to hurt so much more when you feel that you knew them. Family members or people that you grew up with seem to hurt the most. I have always had a special bond in my heart for those that made the movies that gave me my escape from the harsh realities of daily life, almost as if they were part of my family.

Losing Carrie Fisher was a heartfelt blow to me. Now losing her mother Debbie Reynolds has torn a chunk from my heart, because I actually spoke with her and touched her hand. She was so giving a person and I hope I don't bore you but I would like to share a little of the story of our meeting.

It wasn't a one-on-one meeting where we were having coffee and cake or anything like that. It wasn't ultra-personal at all. Debbie Reynolds had come to pigeon Forge to announce that she was opening a movie memorabilia Museum and did a show at a theater in Pigeon Forge. After the show she stayed around and talked about the fact that she had purchased amazing amounts of movie memorabilia when the studios were closing their back lots and liquidating all of their assets. She also signed autographs and spoke to each one of us that had stayed personally. If you've never seen the news clips of what Debbie Reynolds purchasing her collection at those auctions when the big studios were closing down their back lots and liquidating their assets, let me just tell you two things that are so rare that she had it boggles my mind. She had Carmen Miranda tutti-frutti hat and she also had the one-of-a-kind ruby slippers that were made with the toes curled up like elf style ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz.

Not only did she have rare Hollywood treasures, she was also a rare Hollywood treasure. You see Debbie Reynolds was not only a part of the royalty of Hollywood she also was an admirer. She could step back and look at the movies and appreciate everything about them like I can or you can. She even tried to get the heads of the studios to open up the studios to the public and charge admission so that the back lots and the studios could remain intact for future generations. But as progress always has, it never looks at what the past can do for us. Progress in this country is always been a bulldozer that destroys everything in its path.

Because of Debbie Reynolds many Hollywood props and even clothing that the stars wore was saved from being destroyed the museum in pigeon Forge never happened, because that's when our economy collapsed. Unfortunately Ms. Reynolds had to sell her massive collection. I only wish that she could have seen her dream come true of allowing the public to enjoy the history of movie making as much as she did.

We have come to the final scene of the movie and the life that was Debbie Reynolds and like the character she played in the unsinkable Molly Brown she has left us with a treasure of movies that will keep her alive for generations to come.

God bless the Reynolds and Fisher families and comfort them I know their pain is great, because the two people they lost were great themselves.

Goodbye Carrie Fisher

Today there was a massive disturbance in the force, as if a billion or more hearts were broken all at the same time. Princess Leia a.k.a. Carrie Fisher left the bonds of this world to become an angel in God's heaven. Those of us geeks that loved the performances of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in the three best Star Wars movies had our hearts broken with the passing of the actress that will always be a legend in our hearts and minds. She did not have a varied acting career, but she was an entertainer all of her life, because she came from entertainment royalty. She was the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher who were 1940s and 50s Hollywood royalty.

I don't think there's a person that went to see the first Star Wars movie that did not fall in love with the feisty girl dressed in white with a funny hairdo, at least any of the boys that went to see it. Star Wars will be missing a huge part of its being from now on. Her last line in Star Wars, The Force Awakens, was a passing of the baton to a new generation of actors, as she said, "may the force be with you". I can't help but think and pray for her and her family and paraphrasing the line she spoke may God be with her and her family.

I own several replicas from Star Wars, from a light saber, to R2-D2 and a millennium falcon, because Star Wars was the movie that changed cinematography for a whole generation of moviegoers. The acting and the storylines in the original Star Wars trilogy was the catapult for the technological leap in moviemaking and yet that was not the thing that put it in the depths of our hearts as moviegoers, it was three young previously unknown actors that won of our hearts and not the least of them was Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia.

I regret out of all the people I have met that I never got to meet her, I did however meet her mother at a show she put on in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and I hope neither one of them would mind if I say that I actually could see both of them on the stage that night, because I saw so much of her daughter in Debbie Reynolds on that stage. After returning home from seeing Debbie Reynolds I was curious so I put on Star Wars A New Hope and I especially watched Carrie Fisher's performance and I was right, I saw a lot of Debbie Reynolds in Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia .

These people that we hold so dear that we call actors, I wonder if they know how much they mean to us, they come into our lives to give us hope and an escape from reality for a couple of hours in a darkened movie theater. I wish I had had the chance to tell Carrie Fisher thank you for all you do. I don't think most actors really understand how much they do for us and yes, I do know that they are only human beings that have their frailties and are trying to make it from one day to the next. There is always that inspiration, that glimmer of hope and the expectation of excitement that these people we call actors give us and we love them for it.

It's not as if a member of my family has died or someone that was really close to me has passed away. Even with saying that it still feels extremely sad to lose someone that has brightened my existence with the things that they had said and done and written. It's hard to imagine a world without these wonderful people that have given of their time to entertain us and give us a smile.

I have always prayed for everyone to be blessed by God and for those that need comfort or need His help, but I pray that God would bless this lady who has given us each a blessing with the work she has left and for God to comfort her family today and the days that come because no matter how much I or my fellow geeks will miss her I'm sure her family is hurting so much more. God receive this angel into your flock and comfort her mother and family who need you the most.

Keiths Memories In Time: "Summer Holiday" Voice from the Past

Keiths Memories In Time: "Summer Holiday" Voice from the Past: I made the most amazing discovery last night that I could not believe. I did not recognize this person that I have watched for more than th...

"Summer Holiday" Voice from the Past

I made the most amazing discovery last night that I could not believe. I did not recognize this person that I have watched for more than three years on Sherlock from the BBC. The actress was Una Stubbs

and the discovery brought back memories of a movie that I saw when I was only a teenager and fell in love with it was called Summer Holiday: starring Sir Cliff Richards and The Shadows as well as Una Stubbs. I know most of you are scratching your head going what is he talking about well let me explain Una Stubbs plays the character of Mrs. Hudson on the BBC's Sherlock and she also played Sandy in Summer Holiday.

I know you are still wondering why this would really matter well let me give you just a brief history, in the United States in the late 50s early 60s we had a young gentleman known as Elvis Presley who dominated the music scene and in the United Kingdom they also had a young man who dominated the music scene and his name was Sir Cliff Richards he was what we would call the Elvis Presley of Great Britain. The only time that I ever really saw anything of Sir Cliff Richards was from the movie summer holiday in 1963.

It was about three young men trying to show the British transportation system that they could make money with a double-decker bus touring the European countryside. On their summer holiday they took a double-decker bus to show British transport that it would be possible.  While on their holiday they ran into a trio of girl singers that desperately needed a different mode of transportation than what they had the gentleman offered to take them for a ride.

It is a British style beach party you know the ones with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. Yet however it was very British and the dark bobbed haired girl was known as Sandy in the movie, she was Una Stubbs

that was the star of the trio of girls as she is a brighter personality than the others just as Mrs. Hudson in the BBC's Sherlock is a bright personality.

The reason I found out who she was from my past was I was searching through the BBC's who do you think you are on YouTube and found that she was one of those that they had picked for their version, which by the way is the original version, the American version is not the original it is a copy of the British version of who do you think you are. They had stars like Robin Gibbs from the Bee Gees, Martin Freeman from the BBC's Sherlock, Graham Norton talk show host from the BBC, Stephen Fry from the BBC's Dr. who and Sherlock Holmes game of shadows and last but not least Julie Walters Mrs. Weasley from Harry Potter.

These are shows that we have never seen and it tends to aggravate me immensely that we never see them. I was so happy when I saw a few years ago that we were getting BBC America I thought wow we will now get to see some British programming, but there is very little British programming on the BBC America it is mostly American programs such as Star Trek the next generation. It was a complete letdown for me that I seldom watch it anymore.

Una Stubbs was one of those dancer actresses that got her start because she was multitalented I was so ashamed that I did not recognize her, but I knew that her voice was so familiar. Who do you think you are had a small clip of her dancing on one of either hers are Sir Cliff Richards British TV special together and I recognized her immediately and it came to me like a bolt of lightning that voice, her voice was that of Mrs. Hudson's voice and was the same as Sandy on summer holiday I knew it immediately my wife double checked on the Internet movie database.

I was astonished I could not believe that I had not recognized her on my own. She has not changed really like all of us she has gotten older but she still has that bright bubbly personality she puts in her acting.

I have always admired the British actors and actresses for their down-to-earth approach to acting and also when they are not in character. It's a different world for actors in Britain than it is in the US. I hope someday I might have some of my favorite British actors and actresses autographs. Any time we go to Great Britain I scour the markets to find those that have autographs and pictures of the British actors and actresses, because we never seem to have any of them at our autograph shows other than the most famous.

Just another of my memories in time that I love to think about.

The season of holidays is now upon us and families prepare for feasts and reunions that go along with these holiday seasons. I'm so deeply afraid that the young people today don't follow those traditions as our parents did and we tried to do. As I have gotten older it is harder to make the trips to see my family, but somehow I endeavor to try at least once a year to make contact with those still living in my family.
I came from a large and loving family from both sides of my parents and if you've ever seen me in the last few years you'll understand when I say that they were some of the greatest cooks I have ever known.I can't help myself I love the style of the southern cooking ladies that made up the chefs of my family.
I know I have told you all the stories of trying to make the buttermilk biscuits or the turkey and dressing with giblet gravy. that brought me to tears when I finally discovered how to make them taste as my family had made them taste when I was just a child. The flavors the smells and yes even the arguments that seem to happen every year are some of my fondest memories of my mother and father's family and of my mother and father.
You can say what you will about them but my family was not wealthy and they may not have been prim and proper all the time, after all they came from a long lineage of indentured servants and farmers that travel to this country as early as the 1620s. What my family did have was a strong and abundant love for family. Family always came first in our house when I was a child and the love shown to me was extremely great and fulfilling to one so young.
I feel the sadness come over me every year in October because that's when I lost my mother and a lot of my family, but that sadness did not come this year. The tears that I cry each October did however come but as I remarked to a very dear friend who lost their mother just a day ago. This time when the tears came they came with overwhelming joy knowing how much my mother loved me knowing how much my family love me no matter how much of a pain I seem to be to them. I have learned that these silly little things that sparked the memories that made me sad were not put in my life to make me sad they were put in my life to remember who I am and where I came from. They were put in my life help me remember my mother and my family.
This holiday season I am hoping that you have family surrounding you with love and I hope that your family remembers that our time with them is growing short. I, as you, am the patriarch of my family, that you tell your children and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren how much you love them and that when you're gone and they remember you because of some silly little thing, that the memory that comes flooding to their mind is not there to make them sad it's put their to remind them that you walk with them side by side and you are still with them in their heart. These memories that they will carry with them the rest of their lives are not sad memories but happy memories of the magic of the love that you and they made for each other

Keiths Memories In Time: Rockin

Keiths Memories In Time: 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 y...

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.