Campout Season Finale

A few of the crowd.

This placard (not bad photography; worn placard) tells us that a National Youth Administration Camp was established at Mounds State Park in 1940. Further, we read that the young men at the camp earned $30 per month, of which $20 went to their keep (board and room). They received $10 for their own personal use.

Mounds is an arborists delight. It is heavily forested and a beautiful spot on this great, green earth.

The dog and I were both a bit fixated on gnarly trees, as we saw some very interesting formations.

An interesting discovery was wifi access in the park. Mounds State Park is on the outskirts of the City of Anderson which provides free wifi to its inhabitants. I was surprised that reception extended this far into the fringe area. But fun!

More Junior High

Recess, as had always been so during my schooling, was the best time of the day. In addition to a basketball hoop on a gravel lot, there were soccer games on the same gravel lot. But the best part was the horseshoe pits off to the south side of the playground. I was able to hone some skills here, and thought I was pretty good at pitchin' 'em. Of course, with no instruction, I learned the wrong technique, a habit I've never been able to break, so I still do it "wrong."

Fortunately for me, there was an outside exit next to my seat in the back of the room, an egress I utilized on occasion when the day got just too grueling. This was most likely to transpire on a Friday afternoon shortly after lunch. I mistakenly believed, could not disabuse myself of the notion in spite of outcomes to the contrary, that Miss Stetson would not recall on Monday morning that I was absent for a good chunk of the day on Friday. I paid a dear price on Monday for my Friday afternoon freedom. Oh, well. Live and learn. Or live, anyway.

Mr. Ogden was the caretaker of the buildings and grounds; and as well, he supervised kids at play on the playground. That is, he interfered whenever fun was about to break out. Or, he would catch me shooting baskets with my glasses on and send me inside, cancelling the rest of my recess. Well, shoot blind, you nitwit.

And we haven't even gotten to chapel services and prayer meetings.

LV 18 = Football, You Bet!

Here we are in Loonville, Friday evening deep into high school football season! The air is crisp, but not bitingly cold. Nylon jackets will be the order of the night, as we gather at the football field for the kick-off between the Loonville Shawnees and the Podunk Hellions. Arch-arch rivals, districts separated only by county road 600 North, if you are coming from Podunk, or 1600 South if leaving Loonville. Same road either way.

Sometime since then, the mists of memory befogging the details, both communities recognized the political incorrectness of the one moniker and the social inappropriateness of the other. The teams have been redubbed "Hawks" and "Argonauts" respectively. These changes were just wrong on several levels, imho. Loonville is situated full within the stomping grounds of the Shawnees of old. What better way to honor them than by keeping their name alive? Yes, I know the history is not pretty. And as for Podunk calling themselves Hellions, I taught school there for six years, and that is not wrong.

Friday nights are no more intense in Texas than they are in Indiana when two hard-nosed teams harboring grudges and enmity meet on the field of honor. The Shawnees are coached by Jim Laird who for a man of his tender years (he's in his mid-forties) has the highest percentage wins over losses of any coach in the state. Virgil Grimes who coaches Podunk has more wins, but he is but a couple years from casting his bait into a lake in the Ozarks on a daily basis. The rivalry in football, back to the earliest date that both schools fielded football teams, stands at Shawnees 12, Hellions 11, deadlocks 4. Loonville must defend its honor and maintain the edge. Podunk, on the other hand, is riding a 32 game win streak and has only five more to go to set a state record.

There is no need relating the play-by-play, and how Corcoran, with but eight seconds, fourth and seventeen...

So anyway, Podunk is now riding 33, and there is no joy in Loonville.

© 2010 David W. Lacy

Dad

This is downtown Winfield, Kansas about a century ago. One hundred years ago today, my Father, Delbert W. Lacy was born in Winfield. I doubt he would have recalled this scene, though, because he was actually born on a farm in rural Winfield, Cowley County and moreover, his family moved from Kansas just before Dad's fourth birthday.

Dad was called home by his Heavenly Father just a bit over eleven years ago. I miss him intensely to this day.

Delbert W. Lacy 1910 - 1999 RIP

You may read Dad's story "In His Own Words" here.

"Loonville " continues tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, JoAnn

Lower left: With her mother, many years ago

Next: With her BBBH (Big, not Beautiful)

Columbine and dahlia, now you see

Their beauty can't compare with thee.

Snow White lives here with Grumpy.

She's known and loved the Little Guy in b & w

longer than she's known me.

Today is the anniversary of the birth of my Beloved Beautiful Better Half. Were you to see her and talk with her today you would not guess within ten years. And that may be flattery, but it is fact. She is often mistaken for a much younger woman.* Attitude, I say, and the effort it takes to take care of herself. She told me fair and square before we wed that she was "high maintenance."



Seventeen-year old bride.
(Sharing of this picture under protest.)

Forty years later.

Her children.

Happy Birthday JoAnn

The Birthday Girl Today

I Love You

* Just a month ago, she had an appointment with a new (to her) doctor. She was in the exam room. Door opens, doctor with clipboard looks in, steps out and closes door. Couple of beats. Door reopens, doctor enters, "Are you Grace?" Yes. "I thought I was in the wrong room. It says here you are seventy-something." Right.

Loonville continues on Thursday.

Monday Music

It is I

OH THE INVISIBLE MAN!
HE'S THE GOODEST MAN YOU NEVER SAW!
HE IS HERE EVERY DAY
HE DOES HIS CHORES. IN EVERY WAY
HE'S AS GOOD AS ARY ONE YOU KNOW
AND YET SEE HIM? I' TROW,
SEE HIM, YOU NEVER CAN.
AIN'T HE A' AWFUL GOOD INVISIBLE MAN?
INVISIBLE, INVISIBLE, INVISIBLE MAN.

I'VE SERVED MY BEST IN EVERY WAY
GAVE MY KIDS MY LIFE EVERY DAY
TO THEM I'VE BEEN AWFULLY GOOD
YET TO DATE I'VE NEVER UNDERSTOOD
WHY? EVEN TO THEM I CAN'T BE SEEN
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH ME 'N
THE THINGS I KNOW? SEE ME?
THEY NEVER CAN.
I'M THE INVISIBLE, INVISIBLE MAN.

I DEVOTED MY LIFE TO A CAREER
THE YOUNGSTERS I ATTEMPTED TO STEER
INTO THE PATHWAYS THEY SHOULD GO
BUT NOW THERE'S SCARCE A ONE I KNOW
WHO SEES ME WHEN I PASS HIM ON THE STREET
I SHUFFLE ALONG ON TIRED FEET
AND WISH A SMILE WOULD SHINE MY WAY,
BUT NO, NOT HAPPENIN' TODAY.
IT'S WHO I AM: THE INVISIBLE, INVISIBLE MAN.


WHOA! YOU SHUFFLIN' OL' INVISIBLE MAN
INVISIBLE, INVISIBLE, INVISIBLE MAN!
DID I HEAR SOMEONE CALL?
NO, NO, NO NOT AT ALL
IT'S MERELY WIND AHOWLIN'
OR ENTS OR ELVES OR SQUIDGICUMBAWLIN'
AS EVER, AS EVER INVISIBLE MAN
CAN'T BE SEEN BY ANYONE IN THE LAN'.
THAT LONELY OL' BONEY OL' INVISIBLE MAN

--

WITH INSINCERE APOLOGIES TO J.W.RILEY AND TO H.G. WELLS

I suspect that all people have times in which feelings such as these creep into their lives. It is part of the human condition to feel alone, lonely or ignored on occasion.

Yet I know that this too shall pass. In truth I have a huge, loving family and many, many friends. They all have lives, too. And it is a busy world in which we live. There are often near-overwhelming responsibilities. A kind and loving word could lift a friend of yours; just let them know they haven't been forgotten.

And above it all, we are held in the loving hand of our Heavenly Father, who will never leave us, nor yet forsake us. Hebrews 13:5, John 14:18

© 2010 David W. Lacy

New Kitchen Range

So here's how it went down. The oven quit working. We could call a service man. Let's see. $100 for the service call, probably a like amount for parts and labor. Thus we have spent about half the cost of a new stove, and we still have a twelve-year old appliance. Let's go shopping.
BBBH has long dreamed of a stainless steel kitchen. Stoves in this category are not four or five hundred bucks. But she found a really nice one, two ovens and all that sort of thing. Wants it. But wait! One cannot have a stainless stove without matching the other three appliances to it; and now you see where this is going.

The refrigerator is quite comparable to the one she is replacing, but it is in stainless steel.

The dishwasher and the microwave, too, had to be replaced. We now have a garage full of kitchen appliances that still work, but have no job.

Go figure.

It will be interesting to see how long I can hold off the "need" for totally unnecessary new countertops.