Memory is a funny thing. If you reminisce with an old friend about shared memories, you’ll find that you both recall the same things, only different. You may find yourself recounting a vivid memory that actually belonged to someone else. Or worse, never happened at all. If someone told you a story when you were young, and told it to you often enough, chances are you’ll remember it not as a story but as an experience.
Ronald Reagan, as President, recited a number of remembered stories that apparently only happened in movies. And they weren’t necessarily his movies. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with that unless you use an acquired memory as an excuse for....., I dunno, starting a war or sending someone to jail. I mean, if you’re going to start a war or send someone to jail, it should be a ‘real’ memory rather than a fictional one.
My dad told lots of stories about when he was young. He told me. He told my brothers. He told my children. He told them innumberable times. And he expanded on them over the years which is where I prob’ly picked up the habit.
I used to tell people that I was practically perfect in every way. That I had only one flaw and it was a very minor flaw. A teeny flaw. So small and insignificant that it was barely noticeable. The smallest of imperfections and I only mentioned it in passing because I didn’t want to mislead anyone. It could only have been a birth defect that caused me have the slightest tendency to exaggerate.
I undoubtedly inherited it from my father and it seems to have caused a tiny blip in the memory bank of my mind. I would have told everyone much sooner but, I forgot. Justin Other Smith
P.S. Ain’t Spring a wunnerful time o’ year?
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
The Right Thing to do........
In the old west, cowboys used to say, “If you can’t do it from the back of a horse, it ain’t worth doing.”
The horse was such a status symbol, a real cowboy would mount up just to cross the street. Things haven’t changed much. In this twenty-first century, modern westerners feel much the same way about our cars. We drive to places where we go walking for exercise.
Try leaving your car parked for a month except for genuine need. You’ll find it’s harder than giving up cigarettes. Everywhere you look, you’ll find antismoking crusaders urging you to quit smoking. But where are the anti-automobile zealots? You might as well give up Mom and apple pie. Not driving is definitely un-American.
It doesn’t matter that the automobile, specifically the internal combustion engine, is probably responsible for more death and long term damage in a year than all of tobaccos sad history.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not advocating smoking instead of driving. I’m not even recommending a return of the horse and buggy. That raises environmental issues of a whole ‘nother spectrum.
What I am suggesting is that in order to achieve a healthier and less expensive lifestyle, we should moderate our use of (gasp) THE AUTOMOBILE.
For example, if you walk to the store, you’ll not only save on fuel, you’ll spend less because you must carry it home. If you ride the bus to work and so inform your insurance carrier, they should reduce your premium. Your car will last longer and need fewer tune-ups and you won’t have to replace your tires as often.
Of course, you already knew that. It’s just that you’ve become so addicted to your automobile that you long ago gave up counting the mind-boggling cost of simply owning an automobile.
If you’re like most Americans, you’ll have to borrow to buy a new car. And whatever the price says, $12 to $17,000 for the lowest priced new cars, it’s going to cost you several thousand dollars more. Medium priced cars go for $20 to $30,000 and even higher additional costs. Tax, license and insurance on so-called luxury cars make them prohibitive for the average wage earner.
Of course, you can buy used and save thirty percent on the initial price of a new car. But you’ll pay a higher loan rate and increased maintenance costs.
All that is without mentioning the elephant in the room. The only predictable thing about fuel is that it’s going to go higher. The less we buy, the higher the price. Gotta maintain that profit line, y’know. ‘Course, that is getting us into high finance which is way beyond my level of sophistication.
I guess we could just park our cars next to the exercise equipment stored in our garages and use them all as coathangers.
If you’re a car owner, don’t ever laugh at the ostrich with his head in the sand because we car owners certainly have our heads stuck somewhere.
The horse was such a status symbol, a real cowboy would mount up just to cross the street. Things haven’t changed much. In this twenty-first century, modern westerners feel much the same way about our cars. We drive to places where we go walking for exercise.
Try leaving your car parked for a month except for genuine need. You’ll find it’s harder than giving up cigarettes. Everywhere you look, you’ll find antismoking crusaders urging you to quit smoking. But where are the anti-automobile zealots? You might as well give up Mom and apple pie. Not driving is definitely un-American.
It doesn’t matter that the automobile, specifically the internal combustion engine, is probably responsible for more death and long term damage in a year than all of tobaccos sad history.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not advocating smoking instead of driving. I’m not even recommending a return of the horse and buggy. That raises environmental issues of a whole ‘nother spectrum.
What I am suggesting is that in order to achieve a healthier and less expensive lifestyle, we should moderate our use of (gasp) THE AUTOMOBILE.
For example, if you walk to the store, you’ll not only save on fuel, you’ll spend less because you must carry it home. If you ride the bus to work and so inform your insurance carrier, they should reduce your premium. Your car will last longer and need fewer tune-ups and you won’t have to replace your tires as often.
Of course, you already knew that. It’s just that you’ve become so addicted to your automobile that you long ago gave up counting the mind-boggling cost of simply owning an automobile.
If you’re like most Americans, you’ll have to borrow to buy a new car. And whatever the price says, $12 to $17,000 for the lowest priced new cars, it’s going to cost you several thousand dollars more. Medium priced cars go for $20 to $30,000 and even higher additional costs. Tax, license and insurance on so-called luxury cars make them prohibitive for the average wage earner.
Of course, you can buy used and save thirty percent on the initial price of a new car. But you’ll pay a higher loan rate and increased maintenance costs.
All that is without mentioning the elephant in the room. The only predictable thing about fuel is that it’s going to go higher. The less we buy, the higher the price. Gotta maintain that profit line, y’know. ‘Course, that is getting us into high finance which is way beyond my level of sophistication.
I guess we could just park our cars next to the exercise equipment stored in our garages and use them all as coathangers.
If you’re a car owner, don’t ever laugh at the ostrich with his head in the sand because we car owners certainly have our heads stuck somewhere.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Just to be American......
I wrote this eight years ago......been buried ever since.......
This year I get to be 62 years old. I don't think that's so old anymore. Except when I talk to young people. I remember when seems to be in a lot of my conversations with young people. I remember events that they've only heard about and that's if they paid attention in their history class.
I remember W.W.II. I remember paper and tin can drives and Victory Gardens. I remember the maps on the front page of the newspapers. I remember ribbons in the windows or on the doors signifying a son or husband in the service and I remember the wreaths when someone was notified that their son or husband had been killed in action. There were no KIA's or MIA's in W.W.II. No euphemisms for death.
There was great sorrow for those who would not return. But there was pride that those lives had been given in a just cause. I remember how proud I was to be American. I knew that being born American was one of the best things that could happen to a person. Just to be American was to be envied all around the world. Just to be American was to be welcomed in every corner of the world. Well, almost every corner of the world. Those corners of the world where people were struggling to be free. To those people, just being American was a dream, to come to America, to live and work in America. To be American. Just to be American.
And no matter how or when we came, we are Americans and in my heart I know, with all our flaws, our inherited prejudices and our fears, this is still a country where all of us, every creed and color, every mongrel one of us can stand together and take pride in being American.
And I am not deaf or blind. I hear the complaints about the invasion of Asians and South Americans and eastern Europeans. How 'they' are living on the largesse of 'our' welfare system, how 'they' are taking 'our' jobs, how 'they' are taking over 'our' communities. And I know that most people are just complaining for the sake of complaining because that is exactly how we all came to be Americans.
But there are other people out there. People who do more than complain. Real people who burn churches and synagogues, people who hate for reasons known only to themselves and not always then. People who attack and often kill other people for no other reason than they are black or white or Jew or Moslem or gay or straight or maybe green or purple.
And these people are Americans too. Despicable Americans certainly. Cowardly and obscene Americans surely. But Americans nonetheless. And they are as necessary to our society as everyone else. For in order to be good, we must have evil to overcome. Overcoming the old-world evils, the tribal hatreds and blood feuds of the countries of our parents origins is what makes America unique. We are all Americans. The bond that makes us strong, the bond that makes us just Americans.
This year I get to be 62 years old. I don't think that's so old anymore. Except when I talk to young people. I remember when seems to be in a lot of my conversations with young people. I remember events that they've only heard about and that's if they paid attention in their history class.
I remember W.W.II. I remember paper and tin can drives and Victory Gardens. I remember the maps on the front page of the newspapers. I remember ribbons in the windows or on the doors signifying a son or husband in the service and I remember the wreaths when someone was notified that their son or husband had been killed in action. There were no KIA's or MIA's in W.W.II. No euphemisms for death.
There was great sorrow for those who would not return. But there was pride that those lives had been given in a just cause. I remember how proud I was to be American. I knew that being born American was one of the best things that could happen to a person. Just to be American was to be envied all around the world. Just to be American was to be welcomed in every corner of the world. Well, almost every corner of the world. Those corners of the world where people were struggling to be free. To those people, just being American was a dream, to come to America, to live and work in America. To be American. Just to be American.
And no matter how or when we came, we are Americans and in my heart I know, with all our flaws, our inherited prejudices and our fears, this is still a country where all of us, every creed and color, every mongrel one of us can stand together and take pride in being American.
And I am not deaf or blind. I hear the complaints about the invasion of Asians and South Americans and eastern Europeans. How 'they' are living on the largesse of 'our' welfare system, how 'they' are taking 'our' jobs, how 'they' are taking over 'our' communities. And I know that most people are just complaining for the sake of complaining because that is exactly how we all came to be Americans.
But there are other people out there. People who do more than complain. Real people who burn churches and synagogues, people who hate for reasons known only to themselves and not always then. People who attack and often kill other people for no other reason than they are black or white or Jew or Moslem or gay or straight or maybe green or purple.
And these people are Americans too. Despicable Americans certainly. Cowardly and obscene Americans surely. But Americans nonetheless. And they are as necessary to our society as everyone else. For in order to be good, we must have evil to overcome. Overcoming the old-world evils, the tribal hatreds and blood feuds of the countries of our parents origins is what makes America unique. We are all Americans. The bond that makes us strong, the bond that makes us just Americans.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
ain't easy being green......
I know that sometimes I’m judgemental....I really don’t mean to be....I like to think that I’m a rational, even-minded person & that I’m capable of making fair assessments of people & events........That said, I admit to being a conservative......I hold, and I don’t remember who said it, “that he who is not liberal in his youth has no heart, but he who is not conservative when he’s older has no brain.”
Obama gave a pretty good speech, (I wouldn’t have expected anything less, ack’shully).....but, he didn’t explain why he & his wife, not to mention his children, spent 20 years investing in & maintaining a relationship with an ignorant racist like the so-called Rev. Wright. I hate to call the demagogue Wright a Reverend.....it’s a false title.....his rant about past injustices was not designed to call attention & start a dialogue.....his rant was angry & mean & meant to divide....and all the people in his congregation heard him & understood what he was saying.....& yes, Barack & Michelle Obama heard him & did not denounce him publicly or privately & therefore, evidently agreed with him. AND THAT REASON ALONE is reason enough for Obama’s candidacy to fail.
And in a way, that’s too bad. Electing a semi-black man like Obama to the Presidency would go a long way toward healing the racial divide in our country. I s’pect when we get enuff persons of ‘mixed race’ that the racial divide will get so confusing that we’ll just give up and recognize that ‘a person’s a person, no matter how small.’ Or as Kipling phrased it about the Irish, ‘the Colonel’s lady and Rosie O’Grady are sisters under the skin.’ There just has to come a time when everybody realizes that there is only one race of humanity.
The human race is all the same species regardless of color. White, black, brown, red, yellow or green, we’re all the same. Oh wait! We don’t have any green people except on March 17 when everyone is a little green.
Obama gave a pretty good speech, (I wouldn’t have expected anything less, ack’shully).....but, he didn’t explain why he & his wife, not to mention his children, spent 20 years investing in & maintaining a relationship with an ignorant racist like the so-called Rev. Wright. I hate to call the demagogue Wright a Reverend.....it’s a false title.....his rant about past injustices was not designed to call attention & start a dialogue.....his rant was angry & mean & meant to divide....and all the people in his congregation heard him & understood what he was saying.....& yes, Barack & Michelle Obama heard him & did not denounce him publicly or privately & therefore, evidently agreed with him. AND THAT REASON ALONE is reason enough for Obama’s candidacy to fail.
And in a way, that’s too bad. Electing a semi-black man like Obama to the Presidency would go a long way toward healing the racial divide in our country. I s’pect when we get enuff persons of ‘mixed race’ that the racial divide will get so confusing that we’ll just give up and recognize that ‘a person’s a person, no matter how small.’ Or as Kipling phrased it about the Irish, ‘the Colonel’s lady and Rosie O’Grady are sisters under the skin.’ There just has to come a time when everybody realizes that there is only one race of humanity.
The human race is all the same species regardless of color. White, black, brown, red, yellow or green, we’re all the same. Oh wait! We don’t have any green people except on March 17 when everyone is a little green.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Skybluepink in the morning.......
It’s a luv’ly day for saying, “It’s a luv’ly day.”
This time change thing.......this daylight savings time..... this idiotic jumping back & forth on the clock......why do we do it? It might have made sense (maybe) at some time in the past but it strikes me as just plain dumb t’day......makes a body wonder just how many dumb things we do just becuz they've always been done.......I recall way back when I wuz just a lowly peon in the USAF, I was required to type a number of reports in duplicate & triplicate & occasionally more, copies going to God knows how many people who were then required to note & file & keep for a specified period of time before disposing.......one report in p’ticklar, I had to make a dozen or more copies....Now, this was a time before copiers were standard equipment in most places, so I had to use carbon paper & hit the keys of the typewriter really hard so that all the copies were legible.......didn’t work real well.....& as I was a somewhat less than competent typist, I did a lot of erasing....(it was also the age before white-out)....It was a struggle....
a losing struggle.....& one day I snapped & quit making that p’ticklar report.....I had no idea what I was gonna say when I got called on the carpet for not doing the report....didn’t matter to me at the moment...I just quit doing it......AND NOTHING HAPPENED!.......nobody noticed...the world didn’t end......& I didn’t have to stand there wondering which side of my face was gonna get slapped by the nameless bureaucracy.....I wondered then what would happen if everyone just stopped making reports that no one ever read.....I bet you’re wondering if there’s a point to all this.......Well, Obama kind'a stumbled & he's been taking heat so his supporters have been trying to hit back.....they don't have much to hit with except Bill.so they've been wondering who contributed how much to Bill Clintons library & what favors he might owe in response & I wuz wondering what average citizen actually gives a damn about Presidential libraries anyway.......
So.....in the Obama/Clinton thing.....who’s rubber & who’s glue?????............Justin Other Smith
This time change thing.......this daylight savings time..... this idiotic jumping back & forth on the clock......why do we do it? It might have made sense (maybe) at some time in the past but it strikes me as just plain dumb t’day......makes a body wonder just how many dumb things we do just becuz they've always been done.......I recall way back when I wuz just a lowly peon in the USAF, I was required to type a number of reports in duplicate & triplicate & occasionally more, copies going to God knows how many people who were then required to note & file & keep for a specified period of time before disposing.......one report in p’ticklar, I had to make a dozen or more copies....Now, this was a time before copiers were standard equipment in most places, so I had to use carbon paper & hit the keys of the typewriter really hard so that all the copies were legible.......didn’t work real well.....& as I was a somewhat less than competent typist, I did a lot of erasing....(it was also the age before white-out)....It was a struggle....
a losing struggle.....& one day I snapped & quit making that p’ticklar report.....I had no idea what I was gonna say when I got called on the carpet for not doing the report....didn’t matter to me at the moment...I just quit doing it......AND NOTHING HAPPENED!.......nobody noticed...the world didn’t end......& I didn’t have to stand there wondering which side of my face was gonna get slapped by the nameless bureaucracy.....I wondered then what would happen if everyone just stopped making reports that no one ever read.....I bet you’re wondering if there’s a point to all this.......Well, Obama kind'a stumbled & he's been taking heat so his supporters have been trying to hit back.....they don't have much to hit with except Bill.so they've been wondering who contributed how much to Bill Clintons library & what favors he might owe in response & I wuz wondering what average citizen actually gives a damn about Presidential libraries anyway.......
So.....in the Obama/Clinton thing.....who’s rubber & who’s glue?????............Justin Other Smith
Sunday, March 16, 2008
A better swimmer.........
I hosed off the porch & gave the Matrix a lick & a promise.........‘Sa brite, sunshiny day with a coolish north wind ‘n my fingers feel like they durn near froze up on me....all a matter of perspective, I guess......I grew up in a land that had a winter, temps getting down around zero once in a while, & I spent a winter in Wyoming back in the time when I was making the transition from a tadpole to a gangly young frog, so I know that t’ain’t really cold here......’course what it is, is that memory tends to blank out the unpleasant & intensify the more peasurable moments of youth.....for most people. Some people are just the opposite ‘n their mem’ries gotta be just awful to live with......I can’t imagine life being so unpleasant that some people look forward to shuffling off this mortal coil.....someone recently asked me if I hadn’t had hard times in my life as tho’ that were reason enuff to look forward to the end. My reply was that the hard times made the good times only that more precious......In the movie, The End, Burt Reynolds plays a man who, diagnosed with a seminal illness, decides to kill himself...
however, after swimming out to sea, he changes his mind and swims back to shore while praying to God to make him a better swimmer.......works for me.
Justin Other Smith
however, after swimming out to sea, he changes his mind and swims back to shore while praying to God to make him a better swimmer.......works for me.
Justin Other Smith
Saturday, March 15, 2008
good ol daze..........
Ah, it was pretty this morning....sunshine & puffy clouds..
...’n more clouds....’n clouds........’n the sun went away, hiding behind a grey sky........the temp, which had looked as tho’ it was headed into the 60’s, stopped, reversed, & settled in the ‘50s.
I remember the ‘50s......a young man I used to know sed to me that he would have liked to been around back then, that it must have been a fun era, all those muscle cars & cheap gas......I told him, “It was fun, but scraping up 50 cents to buy 2 gallons of ‘cheap’ gas was hard t’do.” And those muscle cars got the same kind of mileage that they get today. Big ‘ol motors w/4 barrel carbs & they got 14 mpg.....sumtimes more.....I think the Hummer gets around 12 to 14 mpg but they excuse it by quoting size & power.....I don’t think it weighs more than a 98 Olds & prob’ly ain’t any more powerful......
For that same 50 cents y’could’a bought a hamburger & coke for you & a date.....’course you wouldn’t have been able to leave much of a tip but 10% was considered an adequate tip way back then.......
If I had taken a date to the movies in South Shore back then, it would have cost me about 70 or 80 cents to get in, 10 cents for a large popcorn & 10 cents for a soft drink.....after the movie, we might have gone to the Triangle where a 12 oz bottle of Pepsi cost a dime & french fries were about 20 cents.......maybe cost a buck & a half for a date......more if we’d gone to Portsmouth....
not much money but two bucks was hard to come by..... back in the good ‘ol daze.......Justin Other Smith
...’n more clouds....’n clouds........’n the sun went away, hiding behind a grey sky........the temp, which had looked as tho’ it was headed into the 60’s, stopped, reversed, & settled in the ‘50s.
I remember the ‘50s......a young man I used to know sed to me that he would have liked to been around back then, that it must have been a fun era, all those muscle cars & cheap gas......I told him, “It was fun, but scraping up 50 cents to buy 2 gallons of ‘cheap’ gas was hard t’do.” And those muscle cars got the same kind of mileage that they get today. Big ‘ol motors w/4 barrel carbs & they got 14 mpg.....sumtimes more.....I think the Hummer gets around 12 to 14 mpg but they excuse it by quoting size & power.....I don’t think it weighs more than a 98 Olds & prob’ly ain’t any more powerful......
For that same 50 cents y’could’a bought a hamburger & coke for you & a date.....’course you wouldn’t have been able to leave much of a tip but 10% was considered an adequate tip way back then.......
If I had taken a date to the movies in South Shore back then, it would have cost me about 70 or 80 cents to get in, 10 cents for a large popcorn & 10 cents for a soft drink.....after the movie, we might have gone to the Triangle where a 12 oz bottle of Pepsi cost a dime & french fries were about 20 cents.......maybe cost a buck & a half for a date......more if we’d gone to Portsmouth....
not much money but two bucks was hard to come by..... back in the good ‘ol daze.......Justin Other Smith
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