Tough Old Bird

Posted on 31/01/2010 by Grumpa Joe

Grampa Jim’s daily ritual to Fish Corners often left him coming home after dark.  He socialized with anyone who came in and sat down with him.  He sat at a favorite table, and everyone in the area knew him.  It was almost as though he was the township Godfather.

Most of the time, he got a home, but one summer night Gramps had to walk.  His house was a long quarter mile away along a desolate road.  There are only two houses between the tavern, and the farm; both of them are immediately behind Fish Corners.  After that, the woods grew out to the road.  The side opposite the woods is farm field void of any buildings.

Gramps walked with traffic in the dark.  On this night a car came up behind him, and hit him. It dragged him for three hundred feet before the driver stopped. Fortunately, the driver sought help. An ambulance took him to the closest hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan; a hundred and fifty miles away.

I was eight years old, and I remember mom getting a call at our home in Chicago. It was the hospital; her father was critical, and not expected to survive.

Mom talked it over with dad, and left for Ann Arbor, by train, the next day.  She stayed as long as she could and came home after a week.  She expected to receive a call that he passed away.  Mom was very upset, and cried allot.

A week later I came home from school, and who was sitting there, but my seventy-two year old grandfather.  He had a lot of abrasions on his arms, legs, and head. Otherwise, he looked good.

Gramps told us that the doctors were planning to experiment on him, and he had to get out of there.  He kept repeating over, and over that they were planning to kill him.

He survived for many more years, but did have a skin problem after that. We often saw him applying hot wet cloths soaked in boric acid solution to his arms and legs.  He always blamed his itching skin on that accident.

Filed under: Biography, Characters I knew, family, Grampa Jim, grief, health care, Memories, Motivation, Warm and Fuzzy | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Blue Monday

Posted on 19/01/2010 by Grumpa Joe

Talk about blue monday, I’ve had it. Not only monday but the entire last two weeks. I’d call it more like cabin fever. Not for long though. The days are getting longer and sunnier. My disposition will change from grumpy to cheerful. My posts will begin to flow once more.
I’ve been busy backing up the content of my BLOG. It’s a painful process, and one that will make me change the way I write my posts. I’ll try writing in MS Word first, then pasting into WordPress; starting next time.
Six days, and counting, before the Avalon heads south.

Filed under: Funk, Motivation, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | 4 Comments »

Moved to Tears

Posted on 06/01/2010 by Grumpa Joe

     Maybe it is because of global warming, but Peggy and I are suffering from cabin fever. The outside temperature when we wake up is usually under ten degrees. The last few mornings it has been under five degrees. We got comfortable with the last fifteen winters which were so warm. I even considered abandoning my vision of moving  South to a more  temperate climate. Old bones and joints do not accomodate very well to low temperatures. Daytime temps rise to the twenties, but the bottom line is that we spend a lot of our time indoors. Even though, our home is large enough for us to retreat to our favorite place to avoid each other, we still grate each other’s nerves at times. Cabin fever, that is what it is.

     This week, we ventured out into the cold to see a movie. We had heard several reviews on a film called “Blind Side” with Sandra Bullock, and a bunch of lesser known actors. The story didn’t have to be very good for me to trek through a raging blizzard to see a “hottie” actress in a movie. She is beautiful. I digress.

     The story behind this film is almost hard to believe. Yet, the film is based on a true story. I won’t try to review the film for you here, I’ll leave that to those who review movies. What I want to tell you, is that this movie evoked an emotion within that brought me to tears several times.  For the life of me, I cannot decide what did it, but it did. The characters were compelling, real people. The simple plot could not have been imagined by any author. The story is based on real facts.  

     I believe in angels, and this story is about angels that descend on a life that is the innocent result of the Nanny State.  The main character the angels descend upon is a black boy whose mother is a slave of the system. She wants the best for her kid, but doesn’t know how to make it happen. She is totally unable to make anything good happen for herself much less her many children. She asks a friend to help her oldest boy “Big Mike,” get into a church school.  The friend uses his talent to sell the coach of a highly respected private christian school to take the kid on. The coach does, and the story begins.  

     The angels are many. First, the mom’s friend,  the coach, then a teacher who recognizes the boy’s talents, and finally, a family with a strong mother who comes to his rescue. Sandra Bullock plays the mother. She is a hard charging designer with two kids of her own, and a husband that goes along with almost anything she wants.  The family becomes the angel-team that rescues “Big Mike” from the Nanny State, and nurtures him out of  ghetto slavery.

     This film is an honest to gosh real story based on real characters. Blind Side is Academy Award material. Sandra Bullock deserves Best Actress award. Actor Quinton Aaron, who plays Big Mike, should get Best Actor. Why? Because they made the characters believable, and real.

Blind Side deserves five stars. . . * * * * *

Pay the money, and go see it. You’ll be moved to tears just as I was. I also recommend  your kids see the  film too.

Filed under: family, Government, Motivation, Movie Review, religion, Society, Sports, Uncategorized, Warm and Fuzzy | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

New Year Prayer

Posted on 31/12/2009 by Grumpa Joe

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

. . . Rhinehold Niebuhr

Happy New Year!

Filed under: Characters I knew, Conservative, family, liberals, Motivation, religion, Society | Tagged: , , , , | 4 Comments »

Tea Party Terror

Posted on 02/11/2009 by Grumpa Joe

The Part of YesBack in April, I attended my first Tea Party. It was a rather subdued group of conservatives, liberals, young and old. We all sang, pledged our allegiance to the flag, and listened to some eloquent young people speak about liberty, taxes,  and the government take over of capitalism. There were no arrests, there was no shouting or shoving, just peace loving folks who were all mad as hell about the events taking place to change the fabric of our great country. Nevertheless, we were branded as “Tea-Baggers, Nazi’s, Astro-Turf, mobsters, and much more. The Liberal Left had to destroy the Tea Parties just as they tried to destroy Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber and any other threat to their revolutionary takeover sold under the slogan of “Change We Can Believe In.”

When I wrote my post in April, I warned of a looming terror attack on the horizon. The Tea Baggers were coming. They were coming brandished with a weapon of mass destruction; the vote.  The time has arrived. It will be interesting to hear the new adjectives  the liberals will use to negate the effect of the elections on their agenda.

Filed under: Cartoons, Conservative, economy, Election, Government, health care, liberals, Motivation, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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