Song

Echos of Joe and Brian, back from the war, enjoying life and dancing to this song on the south side of Pontiac.

Log Truck Lure

Many near misses, but with the initiation of a little ground work, I detected patterns to set the snare, close to the liar.

Moe and Hangman

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell is a novel about growing up in England. Jason, the main character, is an adolescent. One of the "non-characters" in the book is an entity called Hangman who exists inside Jason. The other characters see Hangman only in its manifestation as Jason's speech impediment, but Jason knows him on a much more intimate level. Stuttering, for Jason is the steering wheel of his life.
Moe is a person I knew in Texas. His accent is so much a part of his persona that I added Jersey to his name in an attempt to add the necessary texture to his dialogue. Once Moe and I talked about stuttering since in was a big part of both of our lives.
He related this story. When he was young, this was probably during the 30's, his dad sent him daily to the corner store to buy cigarettes. One day, the store owner wanted Moe to come out and say the exact name of the brand. The Hangman wasn't about to allow this to happen. The store owner wasn't going to have it any other way. So... young Moe ran out the door and grabbed a brick from the gutter and spun it through the plate glass window. No brand cigarettes. Jersey Moe's counsel, "People with the same problem shouldn't hang around together." I can see how group therapy might present special difficulties for the speech pathologist.

Hyperbole

Eggs again. While boiling my Extra large eggs, I glance over at the shelf to the Extra virgin olive oil and wonder. Why do things have to be promoted to an extra slice of reality, larger than ordinary? The eggs aren't Extra large, and is it possible to be Extra virgin? Well, to be sure, I am baffled. Gresham's Law, pops into my head (bad currency drive out good) and that makes me wonder if the same analysis could be applied to language. Does poor language drive out better language?
My cast iron cooking pot on the stove came without exaggerated claims. None of the literature said it was Extra heavy cast iron, or Extra ugly in appearance. It all came together for me with an expression a friend of mine used constantly. "It don't make no never mind." I have picked up that expression and use it constantly for it fits so many situations.

Sunrise Celebration

Are you a bit baffled because you don't actually see the sun? Well, let me detail this further. It is a sunrise in the thumb, Michigan's thumb. Unlike FDR's Sunrise At Campabello, this refers to a relatively obscure trailer park. You don't see any mobile homes, as were not in the mobile home park, instead we are in the city park.

Sometimes, it is good to declare a festival of heat and light because we are warm and can see through the prevailing darkness. Such was the occasion with this sunrise, conscious that we are in charge of celebrations. The Captain below is dancing to his own tune.

Novel Idea

Another great book from Dee's List is Molly Fox's Birthday by the Irish writer, Deirdre Madden. The book wasn't in the Roscommon library, but they borrowed it from a library in Esacanaba, a town in the Upper Peninsula. It was paperback, but had a nice texture. I like to hold a book for awhile before I read it, and this one had a nice feel to it even though it wasn't hard cover. The novel takes place all in one day. The narrator, a playwright, is staying in Molly's house and with the use of flashbacks, and a few visitors, she reminisces about herself and her relationships with a few of her very good friends. She tells the reader at one point, " I am aware that what I am saying here doesn't tally with what I said to Molly when she asked about this, but that's easily explained: I was lying." The story rings true even though it is fiction.

I took the book back in two days (one of my quirks, is that I hate to borrow things) and found that I was missing the book the same day I returned it. What to do? Sunday, the next day, the library was closed, but the Wi-Fi was still live through the walls of the building. I pulled out my handy Kindle and proceeded to download this book from the "cloud", while I was sitting in my car. What a rush, it took less than sixty seconds. So, I sat there, like Little Jack Horner, very pleased with myself and a novel idea.

Zones of Time

While at Pioneer Village, I had a very nice conversation with Louis that flashed out schema buried in my mind for over fifty years. He told me that one of the reasons he moved from Florida to Alabama was that he wanted, "People to think that I talked fast." Wow! I thought to myself, I wanted to move to Alabama from Michigan to learn to talk slower. We had exact opposite goals with parallel strategies to achieve them.

Louis didn't mention snow in Florida as a reason for moving, but it sure was a motivator for me. Winter snows often blocked the roads and families would be snowbound for weeks until a bulldozer or grader would open a path. One of the beauties of an elementary education is that you can learn about geography and climate while you practice day dreaming.

I mentioned to Louis that I saw a sergeant standing out in the road dressed in Union blue, and it surprised me a bit. "Oh", he said, "We have reenactments here all of the time. The only problem is that we can't find enough volunteers to play the Yankees."

Road Post

On October 8th, in Pioneer Village, located in Troy Alabama, a little known tourist uncovered a link with Hank's dad. Louis, curator of the General Store, then confirmed the speculation.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown

Pat said to me some years back that we are spirits learning to become human. The idea for me was revolutionary, game changer. We are not prisoners in these forms that provide locomotion, but are inside these shells to learn to control the levers to become human. On the job training!

When Martin Luther King died some years back and some folks took to the street burning houses and rioting, it was clear that they did not know the man. His non-violent spirit, from whatever vantage point it had at the time, was disappointed with the violent spirit manifested here.

On the human side, it seems to me that grief works to purge the Spirit of the heavy pots and pans of daily living acquired by merely being human. Good grief might set us on the path of, "...Not so much seek to be consoled, as to console: To be understood, as to understand: To be loved, as to love." Francis of Assisi