Posts Tagged ‘American Life’

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Down Memory Lane: Two Room Schools

November 18, 2010

Beech Grove School, Cataloochee Valley, North Carolina. October 20, 2010.

When Betsy and I visited Cataloochee Valley with our friends Patti and Neal, we stopped by Beech Grove School.  Beech Grove School is a two room school built in 1901.  It is the only one of three schools in the valley that still remains.

Visiting this school brought back memories for me.  I attended two-room schools for the first eight grade.  Washington School was for grades 1 through 4, and Riley School was for grades 5 through 8.

In both schools had two teachers, each with her own room.  Each room had two classes.  One class worked while the teacher taught the other class, and then the classes switched roles.

As a child I liked that system.  I was always an avid reader, so when I was in the lower grade, I got to read with the class ahead of me.  When in the higher grade, I got to do free reading while the rest of my class studied reading.

The same situation applied to arithmetic.  I got to study arithmetic with the upper class when I was in the lower class and I tutored students in the lower class when I was in the upper class.

Desks in Beech Grove School, Cataloochee Valley, North Carolina. October 20, 2010.

The desks at Washington School were very similar to these in Beech Grove School shown in the picture above.  Riley School has been demolished, and Washington School has been converted into a private residence.  But I do have happy memories of both of those schools.

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Posted in American Life | 12 Comments »

Happy Birthday, Dad

August 29, 2010

The handsome young man in the picture above is my Dad.  Dad is celebrating his 98th birthday today.  The picture was made in 1938 as a Christmas present for my mother.

Dad was born in Texas, but while he was still a young boy the family moved to Arkansas.  They took the train to Arkansas, which Dad still remembers.  They then rode to their new home in the Ozarks in a covered wagon.  So he has experienced life from the covered wagon to space travel.  Dad met Mom when he was in the CCC working at a state park near her hometown in southern Indiana.

What I remember most about Dad is that he could do just about everything.  He built our house in Indiana mostly by himself.  In 1963 he was one of four people that his company took with them in a move from Indiana to Tennessee.  When he got close to retirement age he felt he wouldn’t have anything to do, so he taught himself to repair small appliances.  He once got a call on Thanksgiving Day from June Carter Cash asking him to fix a stove that had quit working and was threatening to ruin the Cash family’s Thanksgiving.  Dad made a house call and saved the day.  Mom made him give up his repair business when he turned 80, but even today people will stop him to tell him how much they appreciate the work he did for them.

Dad learned to use a computer when he was 90 and used it every day until he became legally blind about a year ago.  Until that time he was still fixing the roof of his house and doing other chores that we tried to tell him he shouldn’t be doing.  He just went ahead and did things anyway.

He has had to slow down since losing most of his eyesight.  Mom is also legally blind, and although my sister Janet and I would like them to live with Janet — she’s asked them to — they want to remain in their own home.  We have to admire their independence even though we do worry about them.  We check on them by phone every day and one of us goes every week to help them out.  Young adults at their church also help them out.  I guess they are doing about as good as can be expected under the circumstances.

Mom and Dad have been married for 71 years, and although it’s not her birthday I’m including this picture of Mom since the two of them are rarely if ever seen apart.  This picture was taken in February, 1940, about three months before Mom and Dad got married.

Last night Dad said that today was ‘just another day’.  I don’t agree — I think it’s a very special day.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

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Posted in Family | 27 Comments »

Down Memory Lane: The Smokies in the Spring

August 26, 2010

My Beautiful Bride is a mountain girl at heart and is one reason she moved to Tennessee from Texas back in 2000.  (I’m glad she did!).  In May, 2001, we visited the Great Smoky Mountains for the first time.  Betsy had been there many times before, but I had only driven through it once.

We spent a weekend exploring Cades Cove, Little River Road and Newfound Gap.  We also added a waterfall — Meigs Falls — to the collection we had just started.  We were even able to experience some good mountain music at the lodge at which we stayed.

We’ve been back to the Smokies many times since then — it’s much more convenient to get there now that we live in the Glade.  But this first trip in May, 2001, was — and still is — very special.

To see these pictures and others, click HERE.

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Posted in Travels | 15 Comments »

Why We Need to Sweep the Deck

August 23, 2010

Our friendly helper. August 19, 2010.

Betsy has become a very enthusiastic birder over the last few years.  It all started with a Bluebird family in the box in our back yard, but she now has several feeders on and over our deck.  Most of the feeders are located so that she can see them from her chair in our Great Room.

There are now a dozen or so variety of birds that visit our feeders on a regular basis.  And although Betsy has gotten very good at recognizing the birds by sight or by their call, the birds are not very good about cleaning up after themselves.  I hate to say it, but those birds are some of the messiest eaters I’ve ever seen (and that includes two kids!).

Betsy does a pretty good job of sweeping the deck, but one rainy day last week she got distracted doing other things and didn’t sweep as often as she usually does.  So this ‘friend’ decided to climb up on the deck and help with the clean-up effort.  Fortunately it went away without gracing the deck with its ‘fragrance’.

We really do need to keep the deck swept!

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Posted in Glade | 20 Comments »

My New Toy

July 22, 2010

Betsy got a laptop (MacBook) for her birthday last year, and really likes it.    We got a Mi-Fi (Verizon wireless station) at the same time, so Betsy can use her laptop just about any place we can get a wireless signal.  She especially likes using her laptop while I’m driving — she’s been able to do a good job of keeping up with emails and blogs while we’ve traveled.

I’ve had an iPod Touch which has wireless capabilities for a little over a year, but since it’s about the size of a cellphone, my fat fingers have had trouble using the keyboard and navigating the web.  I couldn’t keep up with Betsy and her laptop no matter how hard I tried.

About a month ago I got a new toy — an iPad.  It’s got a good size — about 9.5 inches x 7.5 inches.  It is very light-weight and easy to carry around it is also wireless, so I can use it anyplace Betsy can use her laptop.  I’ll admit it’s nice to be able to take it out on the deck and go through my emails and surf the web.

The interface is a touch screen and is very easy to use.  I can have multiple windows open in the browser and can easily switch between them.  The keyboard in the landscape mode is fairly large and is a standard QWERTY layout.  I haven’t had any problems with it.  About the only problem I’ve had is getting Betsy to drive so I can use it while we’re on the road.

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One thing the iPad can’t do is add more hours to the day.  I’m going to Hendersonville this morning to see my parents and won’t be back until early evening.  So I’ll be behind on my visiting and commenting for a couple of days.  Don’t give up on me — I’ll catch up as soon as I can.

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Posted in Technology | 18 Comments »

Fireworks at the Glade

July 6, 2010

The start of the fireworks display. Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. July 4, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

Fairfield Glade is an interesting community.  Most of the full-time residents are retired, but it is also a time-share resort with plenty of visitors in the summer.  The Fourth of July is a big celebration for both groups.  People here on vacation like to find things other than golf and the visiting grandchildren of residents need to be entertained.

For a relatively small community the Glade puts on a pretty good fireworks display.  I couldn’t resist the temptation to join residents and visitors at the Druid Hills club house to see the show.  All of these pictures were taken Sunday night.  I learned some things about my camera while taking these, so hopefully I’ll do better next year.

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Posted in American Life | 18 Comments »

Happy Fourth of July

July 3, 2010

The Liberty Bell, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. December 2, 2000.

” …  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. …”

Two hundred and thirty-four years ago, the United States began with a declaration and an ideal.  We need to remember both and work to bring the ideal closer to reality.

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July.

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Posted in American Life | 14 Comments »

My World: Rural Tennessee

June 29, 2010

Northern Cumberland County, Tennessee. June 27, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

We live on the Cumberland Plateau, which is the world’s longest hardwood-forested plateau.  The plateau is primarily rural — Crossville (our post office address) is one of the largest towns on the plateau with nearly 12,000 people.

It’s fairly easy to get away from ‘civilization’ here on the plateau.  Sunday Betsy and I went on a ride away from Crossville and soon found ourselves in the middle of nowhere.  But it was beautiful afternoon with lots of fluffy white clouds in a beautiful blue sky.  We stopped along a farm road to enjoy this view across a field.  The two horses under the tree just completed the picture of ‘our’ Tennessee home.

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Posted in My World | 22 Comments »

A Flag Day Tirade

June 14, 2010

The flag in our yard waiting for a breeze. June 13, 2010.

Warning:  If you don’t want to read a tirade from an Old Fogey, skip the post below.

One of my never-ending projects is converting our vinyl records to digital format.  I put many of the resulting files onto my iPod, but I also burn CDs so we can enjoy classical music on our stereo system and so that we can listen to music in the car.

On our trip to the beach in May we took along CDs made from an album of vinyl records put out by Reader’s Digest around the time of our Bicentennial.  One of the tracks was Kate Smith’s “God Bless America”.  After listening to it, Betsy and I got to talking about that and other patriotic songs we remember from our childhood.  We sang these songs in schools and other places and usually didn’t even need to have the printed words since we knew them (or at least parts of them) by heart.  Now I wonder if our grandchildren have even heard them.

If they haven’t I think they are missing out on something.  Now don’t get me wrong — I know that the U. S. is not heaven on earth.  But I do think that this is a pretty special country.  My father grew up as a tenant farmer’s son who went to town with his father in a horse-drawn wagon.  I ended up programming and running computers half-way around the globe.  Our civil discourse is decidedly uncivil at times, but I think most Americans are decent, hard-working people who care about their families and their neighbors.  When there is a disaster in any part of the world Americans are usually there helping in person or by donating money.

So on this Flag Day the flag will be flying at our house (perhaps there will even be a breeze).  As it says another song, “If this is flag-waving — flag-waving — can you think of a better flag to wave?”

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Posted in American Life | 18 Comments »

Observations While on the Road

May 13, 2010

On our way to the beach Betsy and I spent the night in Simpsonville, South Carolina.  We were hungry after a day of visiting waterfalls and went to Ryan’s Steakhouse for dinner.

While we were eating I noticed a man talking to the young cashier.  They talked for a while and then the cashier came over to a table near us and told the family sitting there that their dinner was being paid for.  She took their receipt and went back to the front.  I saw the man who had been talking to her give his credit card to a man who turned to out to be the manager.  The manager processed his credit card, gave some cash to the young lady, who then brought it over to the family.

This happened at least four times.  Finally the cashier brought the man around and introduced him to each of the tables as the man who had paid for their dinner.  Of course, everyone thanked him profusely.  No name was mentioned, but it did not appear that the people whose dinner he paid for knew who he was.  He told each table that he was happy to be able to do it and he wanted them to remember this when they had the chance to help someone out.  Of course, they all said they would.

We have no idea who the man was.  We got the impression that he was known to at least some of the people in the restaurant, but not all.  Regardless of who he was, he brought a great deal of happiness to some strangers and gave Betsy and me something to think about.

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Posted in American Life | 14 Comments »

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