2008-12-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

It seems we finally have a President who is trying to do what was promised in the campaign. He is actually taking time to think issues through, listen to advise, search through qualified, competent people and make wise (we hope) choices for lead government posts. This country better prepare itself - we are going to have some intelligent leadershop - something sorely missing the past 8 years. Get ready to have to think America.

So what does he get from the TV talking heads - they were falling all over themselves to try to link him to Governor Greed. No link there but I guess they have to try to drum up something to sell advertising. When will we ever learn to call that kind of stuff anything but news. News = 'Just the facts, Mam, just the facts." Where is Sgt. Friday when he's needed.

2008-12-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

You know what frosts my cake? Well, I'll tell ya. I'm being the jolly fat guy (type casting) in a play tomorrow evening. Dress rehearsal, someone has brought a boy about 2 years old who was having a great time shouting to Santa. Santa was enjoying waving, etc. to a small believer, the only beliver in the house. The rehearsal is almost over and the head elf yells at the kid to be quiet. That frosts my cake! Worked out OK, the jolly guy gave the kid a candy cane so all was well. That elf is on the naughty list however.

Supposed to have about 200 kids for the show tomorrow evening. I volunteered to play the jolly guy, stand and wave, do a few Ho Ho's, etc. I got 6 or 7 entrances and exits, a dozen speaking lines - way more than a simple minded fat guy needs. Hope they are ready to follow where Santa leads!

Growing up 1 - elementry school

2008-12-14T19:27:00.000-08:00

As a kid in Sloans Valley, Kentucky there was not a lot to do. Sloans Valley is wonderfully small. Living there in the 50's and 60's we knew everyone and everyone knew us. I think it is pretty much the same now. We knew the old guy who lived in a neighbor's old chicken coup would not bother us as kids but we shouldn't bother him either. No franchises, no traffic lights, no restaurants (well-Hardin's store would make up and sell you a sandwich) - the classic small country town. A store that sold everything, a post office, a church and some houses scattered about, some up in the hollows. As a kid, if we got in trouble the party line phone would ring and Aunt Ruby would know before I walked home. That's what the little peach tree was for - growing switches. I had to cut my own and it best not break. In that case I would have to cut another and the switching would start all over. I remember my first lesson from the local kids upon moving there - it is OK to walk in the woods. If you hear a gun shot and the dirt in front of you flies up don't worry, just stop, turn around and go back the way you came. You just got too close to a 'business'.

We lived on ~25 acres that was half of the 50 acres my Great Grandfather Clay Vest settled. It was where my Great Aunt Ruby, born 1895, grew up. A few feet from our house (started as a small trailer, house built later) was a pile of big rocks that were the foundation of the house she lived in - long since burned. Roads then were still gravel except for US 27 which ran through town. Before I-75 it was a main North/South highway.

We moved there in 1957 0r 1958, can't remember which for sure. Before that we lived in Cincinnati so my first couple of years of schooling occurred in a large brick building with radiator heat and a concrete playground. It was on Vine Street not far from the University of Cincinnati campus. I guess it was by far a better school than what lay in my future but I sure have fond memories of what came later.

Once in Sloans Valley, I went to Sloans Valley Elementary. I remember it was about a mile walk to Harding Cassada's store to catch the school bus. Sometimes, after getting a little older, we would walk to school, probably 2 miles with the shortcut through Aunt Cloda's property or the Hancocks property. After the new US 27 was built, with what was said to be the worlds' highest highway fill at the time, the shortcuts didn't work, had to climb the fill or walk around. Walking around doubled the distance.

The school was a large, 6 room white clapboard, tin roof building with a 'concrete basement' that housed the lunch room. When I started school there in the third grade, probably 1958, only three rooms were in use. Three rooms, three teachers, eight grades. By the time I left for High School in Burnside, seven miles North, there was only one room, one teacher, eight grades. I still remember some of the teachers and kids.

Water was pumped from a cistern by the big kids and a bucket kept in each room on a stand. Every kid brought in a water cup first day of school and took it home the last day of school. Funny - I don't remember ever taking it home to wash and certainly it wasn't washed in school. Don't know how we lived through that. Air conditioning was by raising the large windows and hoping a breeze would blow through. Sometimes fall and spring class would be outside under a tree. Heating was by pot bellied stove. Fuel was block coal with wood kindling for starting. Teachers or kids would bring in paper, often old Sears catalogs, to start the fires. I believe it was 6th & 7th grades I came in early on cold mornings to start the fire. That meant walking to school as I had to have the fire going before the buses got there. Aunt Ruby was OK with it because I got a free lunch for doing it - $0.20 or $0.25/day. I remember well how one morning the stove wouldn't start and 'blew=back' when I had my face by the vent blowing air in to try to get it going. I had no eye lashes or brows for some time after that. The coal came in large blocks, guess it was cheaper that way. Coal had to be in small chunks to fit the stoves. The bigger boys were tasked with breaking coal and chopping kindling. An axe stayed near the coal pile. You use the flat back to bust coal and the blade to chop kindling. See - some lessons from school stay for life.

The building was probably on 3 or 4 acres. A creek ran through it and that was a popular playground. As a younger kid I remember taking spoons and toy cars to school. At recess we would carve out roads in the creek banks and play cars. I have Aunt Ruby's silver set and several spoons are missing - bet I know why! I remember the road into the school had a concrete bridge over the creek. I can remember watching the buses come over the bridge with part of the tires hanging off - it was not a wide bridge! Jumping the creek was a fun game - start at a narrow spot and go progressively wider until the last person dry was the winner. That was more of a spring/fall game! We had a baseball diamond (no bases) and a dirt basketball court (it was Kentucky after all). Dodgeball was a favorite when we had a ball to play with. Toilets were outside, boys and girls separated a respectable distance. Bathroom breaks were much quicker in the winter I recall.

In classes, the older kids helped the younger kids. You had to do your own work then help them understand theirs. The teacher would assign book work for each grade the spend some time doing talking lessons, working her way through the grades and classes. Looking at it now, I imagine it was pretty tough on the teachers that had one room for eight grades. I think by the time it got there there were only a couple dozen kids in the whole school. I doubt there were ever over 50 during the years I attended.

I think it was 7th grade a fellow named John started school. He was 8th grade I think. His Dad was a coal miner. John was about 4 years older than me and bigger than me - I was always the biggest kid in the school until then. One of the games the boys played was to run together and bang shoulders trying to knock each other down. Last one standing was winner. I remember it was almost always John and I as the last two standing while he was there. I think he usually won. He was pretty tough. He was older because he had to work sometimes in the mines & couldn't come to school. Don't know what happened to John, hope his life has gone well.

Other than coal mining, logging was the big business then. I guess several families ran saw mills in the log woods. The teachers would always receive a new paddle carefully carved from an old saw mill belt. It would usually have holes drilled in it to make blisters - at least for the older boys. I think the girls and younger kids got a flat paddle & lighter stroke. The bigger, older boys did not - I know from experience. I remember one time someone threw a piece of cheese on my tray as I passed by on my way out of the lunch room. I had not eaten my peas (imagine that) and the cheese sent them sailing. I think that cost me 5 licks. Another time I was involved in a potato fight outside that claimed a window pane - all involved got a proper whuppin that time. I was usually pretty good - didn't get to sample the paddle as much as some of the older boys.

The lunch room was wonderful. There are several things I still remember lo these many years later. I remember we had beans at least three days a week, every week. One day would be brown (pinto) beans, the second day would be white beans. Sometimes those interchanged and the days beans were served varied. The third day would be mixed beans. I always liked mixed bean day because that told me the next day would not be beans! We had commodity food - the cheese was great and the peanut butter better. The main thing I remember is the chocolate-oatmeal cookies. To this day I still eat those if I can find them, even though I shouldn't. Looking back, I think the lunch ladies worked hard to make us happy with the little they had for variety.

One of the other treats we had was the Bible Lady. That is what everyone called her. I have no idea who she was of where she came from. She would show up a few times a year. She had a easel with felt figures that would stick to it. When she came she would go class to class or just set up outside and we would all go out to hear her stories. We all loved it - not because of the stories - because we got to skip class. We really didn't need any extra bible -thumping. We had one church, Sloans Valley Missionary Baptist, and if the doors were open we were there. I believe Aunt Ruby's father donated the land for the building years before and she believed I need all the teachin' I could get I guess. Last time I was in Sloans Valley the old church building had been enlarged and bricked. The outhouses were even gone - real inside toilets now!

I think at that school I got to see what teaching was really like. I don't think it was just a job - they must have enjoyed the challenge to do that. There were better schools int he county, we just had the poorest. I sometimes say as a kid were were so poor I couldn't afford to pay attention! That was pretty true although I had it much better than most of the other kids. We weren't so poor when we first moved there, that came a little later. The last years were tough. I can remember in high school having many meals of meatloaf that had more bred than meat in the mix.

Aunt Ruby made sure I studied every evening and going to the bookmobile was one of the treats we looked forward to as a family. I had the benefit of having gone to a larger school the first couple of years and attended Hughes Middle School in Cincinnati for part of the 8th grade. I guess those things gave me an advantage over the kids who never say another school until they started high school at Burnside.

Now that's another story!

Why

2008-12-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

A few (yep - few) folks have told me I should do a blog to share my ideas & thoughts. A friend started one today, I checked it out, found it interesting, started clicking the mouse and here I am. Setting this up was way to easy!

At 58, I feel fortunate to still be around and kicking. Life has not always been easy or fun but always is enjoyable. Even in the tough times enjoyable. I have some physical challenges, imagine some posts will be about that. God and genetics blessed me with fair intelligence, the downstream curse of that being some things just irk me, and I imagine some posts will be about that. I hope some will be about fun stuff. We have to smell the roses, even if we can't always come to a stop.

I have no intent to post daily - this is a mood blog. This may be the only post ever made! If you read, I hope you find some interest and pleasure.

Tidbits

Growing up 1 - elementry school

Why