Hey Rich...

[mauibeachbum]

You have some good recollection of your grandparents.
My dads parents were very old and only talked about the weather.
Mr moms father died when I was two, but do remember him with a curved stem pipe in his mouth. "In those days", it was common after prepared for the funeral, that the body laid in waiting in a coffin at their home. He laid in grandma's living room. Grandma never talked much about anything but canning and sewing. (and squealing when someone would open an umbrella in the house)
Much of our history, I found out from Great Aunt Florence.

My uncle and his brother hauled "shine" in from Missouri too.

[mauibeachbum]

It's no secret, I'm the Old Sage of the group. I stir things up to sift them around in discussion, or just in minds, until they softly float to a new position where they are all comfortable.... just me.
Also me......... now that is what Dr Phil get's paid for and it would take him a lot to figure me out

I am 66, tomorrow 67. I have spent my life as a guardian, a father, and now a funny grandfather, I don't pass up moment to catch the eye of one of our 10 grandkids and say "I Love You"! It is amazing through persistence, have I now not only gotten to the place where they smile, but also pass it back to me. Our game now is "I said it first".
My little four year old understands when I point to my eyes, then clasp my heart and then to her. Now she answers with: pointing to her eyes then her heart, then with her fingers, two! She's going to be a keeper! I love Cori,
as I do all of our grandchildren.
Me? I love nature, I love animals, I love preserving them through pictures, stories and writings. I love people through their honesty..... and don't deal with a "greater-than-though-art" very well. I don't tolerate a low self esteem very well, as the task given to me was "give to the world the best that you have and the best will come back to you". So what you don't have any money and a pack of cigarettes that costs $5.00, wake up, not my problem. Maybe a bit harsh, but also somewhat a believer in "tough-love".

Later in life Jeanne and I found each other. Both worn with experiences and promises, we were just looking for a real person to be able to depend on, to wake up and smile to, to say 'has anyone told you that I love you, yet today?, well I do". We related these actions and goals to the movie with Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn, "on Golden Pond" and that became our end, "On Golden Pond".
After two years of dating and then living together, we agreed to marry, again with Golden Pond in our minds.
We married on January 17, 2005, just us there on the beach on Maui but our commitment was the same.
It was just two months later that Jeanne suffered a stroke.
Some days are better, some not so good but we are reminded "on Golden Pond" that we are doing all this stuff together.


Well, let’s see, after a long and tiring day, I stopped short, not even spell checking. J
What is it that get’s me up in the morning and keeps me going?

Yes, travel and documenting those experiences. I can agree with you, first Hawaii, but oh so love Disney places too. My visits to Hawaii now are 15 and Disney perhaps 9 or 10. Both are fantasy worlds for a kid from Nebraska. I have traveled throughout the Caribbean. I was married on the beach on Jamaica. (another story that I won’t enter here J )

My love for history, not who the Romans fought for power in 49 thousand bc, but things I can touch and feel. I do treasure hunts to old farmsteads here to feel and capture other’s feelings of a time gone by.
I love to write about them and to share them.

I love animals or really, any of God’s creatures. Over the years, I have had 19 dogs, mostly while growing up on the farm near my little village that I have grown up in. It is important for me to see them run free. Today I fed suet treats to the woodpeckers, corn on the cob to the squirrels, bread crumbs to the many varieties of song birds, Niger seeds to the yellow finches all who sit in the trees above, serenading me with song, morning to night. I have had up to 14 furry cat’s who found refuge and a meal outside of my home (glad that is over). We had until the past two years, had two old kitties, Maggie and Susie who left us after about 16-18 years each.

I love to help others. Not much description is needed. If I see a 102 year old neighbor walking to the Post Office to get her mail, I’ll stop to ask her if she is okay or needs a ride. I pick up the blanket that has blown from a neighbor’s clothesline.

I take the time to listen to a person’s story that I have heard so many times before, just because it is important to them that they find someone who will listen to them. My time is not so important that I can’t spend a moment just listening…. I might learn something.


Travel doesn’t need to be a 9 hour long plane ride, nor a boring 5 hour road trip. Some of my most memorable “vacations” have been when just taking a couple of hours to step outside of the box a bit to treasure hunt for intangible ‘stuff’ that knowingly or not knowingly have left behind for other’s to experience or enjoy too. An example would be for me to walk down the railroad tracks to an abandoned old stone house built 150 years ago and while standing outside in the yard, I can look at the attic windows, hearing the fiddles play and laughter by the dancing folks who are visiting. Those are what I call treasures. I can make some of the same connections with Hawaiian culture but not as real. Clairvoyant or something like that? Naw, just a connection with the past. I could go on and on about that subject.

My hobbies?
I have often said “I would rather be dancing”. Yes, at times I would rather dance than eat. That too was yesteryear. We find ourselves sliding around the kitchen floor when a good two-step presents itself.
When the Hawaiian music is playing on the network “jukebox”, you will see me doing the hula about our living room.
I have spent a lifetime it seems, involved in armature or volunteer live Theatre. During my high school years, I did 8 or more live play performances. After a time away, I spent 10 years in community theatre experiences, on stage, directing, producing, set and lighting design and construction. I did over 50 shows in those years. While I do not want to devote the time and energy to live theatre any longer, I can really experience a good production. I often share the ending of a tv show with “I could have written that”. This has been a good memory for me.

I love to take pictures! I don’t take as many as I once did but do enjoy it yet. It seems to me that in everything you see, there is a picture. I have a library of thousands and thousands of digital pics.

I received a vocal music scholarship to a college, but 35 years of smoking took care of that opportunity J

I love to fish (for fish) J
My love for animals and other creatures has made me a “catch and release” fisher person.
If there were YouTube on board with me on my fishing voyages, it would be pretty embarrassing to see me blow a little kiss to a fish while saying “thanks for providing me with some fun, but go back now to grow up……you never know, we might see each other again sometime”.

This and That:
In a nutshell, a philosophy passed on to me by a wise old great aunt; “give to the world the best that you have, and the best will come back to you”….. and it will.

If it is worth doing….. do it well or not at all.

A rolling stone gather’s no moss only pertains to someone that doesn’t like salad.

Musical chairs was a game designed for people who lived to wait for the music to stop.

A TV commercial just shared ; “I believe the getting your mind clean , starts with getting you hands dirty”. That about that one a lot.

With every starting gate, there will be an ending one too.

Walk wisely …… watch each step. If you can’t visualize your next step, it might be in sinking sand.

And finally =
Walk lively as is you had somewhere to go.
Speak softly so that you don’t hurt someone else’s ears.
Remember…. God gave you one mouth but two ears for a reason, use that gift.
Love someone with the strength of an ox…. But also with the gentleness of an evening breeze.
When you stretch to look over the horizon, maybe you are looking too far.
If you grow up wanting to be a fireman, it’s best to have a Plan B…. just in case………..
When you cook something, it’s not a race in time. Instead, take time to marry the ingredients.
It’s a lot about life, cook it all a long time and the end results will be like a togetherness….
Ever watched the sunset only to see the sun rise over your shoulder before you realize it?
I have! I think that it has something to do with a commitment to a future .


Just Rich……….. today J