Why do we remember?

Why do we remember?

Today our local paper (The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC) reprinted a column from The Washington Post headlined “Helping kids deal with being let down.” This revived memories from my early teen years.  It was around Thanksgiving when my older sister tipped me off that a couple who were friends with our mother was going to buy me a baseball glove for Christmas. All through December, I waited anxiously for the big day. When it arrived it brought no baseball glove. Instead, the couple gave me a damn tie. My sister told me later that the man had gotten drunk on the day he was to buy the glove and forgot all about it.

Why is it, after all these years, this, the Christmas gift I never got, is my only memory of all the Christmases of my youth? 

The author of the column, Meghan Leahy, wrote: “As long as humans have walked the Earth, there has been disappointment and unfairness, and we know that despite our big brains and strong will, life happens in ways we never saw coming….Disappointment is a certainty for every one, including children.” 

A couple of years later, an uncle on my mother’s side of the family bought me a baseball glove. I cared for it through the years, kept it oiled and flexible, and sometime in the 1960's gave it to my wife’s nephew. 

Why do  I remember this? 

They sent me home with the mince pie

As evening shadows were descending on Myrtle Beach, SC, on Saturday (December 12, 2015) my two daughters and a daughter-in-law were wrapping the left over Mince pie in aluminum foil and putting it along with the hard sauce in a paper bag for me to take back to the hotel. They expressed the hope that the pie (only one piece had been eaten during dessert) would also make it to my home in Hilton Head and not be eaten during the night. 

I had requestedd the Mince pie be added to the dessert table for our Big Family Christmas (BFC) get together. Obviously, it was not a big favorite. Carrot cake pastries were in the lead. In earlier days my wife, the children’s mother, and I hosted this event at our house. This early celebration was to accomodate those with small childrn who wanted to be in their own home on Christmas morning. Over the years it also accomodated children who had to travel long distances. This season a son and D-i-L planned to start the drive to their new home in Arizona on December 13. 

My daughter Wynn and her husband Rett have picked up the reins and host the annual get together in Myrtle Beach, a favorite vacation spot for Americans and Canadians who love the more than 30 golf courses available here.  All the children have been able to make it for the last few years. Earlier, some would be overseas on assignment and unable to attend. As the senior present, I gave the thanks and asked the blessing, always remembering the members of our extended families who were elsewhere on the day.

Several years ago we stopped buying gifts for all and went to drawing names and buying a gift for the person whose name we drew. The actual drawing took place right after Thanksgiving and was conducted by my daughter and her youngest son. We would get a message telling us whom we were to buy for. Two years ago we stoppeed that. We are adults and most of us have what we need or want or (excluding the latest Lexus or a trim figure.) We adopted the Chinese Christmas game.

i wound up with a Hillary Nutcracker. Actually I started out with an electronic fly-swatter and swapped it for the Nutcracker.

We had a good BFC, enjoyed the fun with family and a couple who are like family. My great-grandson was on hand with his parents. All day long he was a perfect child, not a cry, whimper or yelp out of him and he is only eleven months old. 

Back to the pie. I put it in the refrigerator at the hotel and brought it home. I am eating on it daily; being good (in case Santa is checking) and limiting myself to one slice a day.

I wish everyone a blessed and Merry Christmas. May we and the World have peace and love on this special day and experience a great New Year full of hope and progress. - Archie

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Christmas message

Christmas is the time of the year when families and friends gather to celebrate the Birth of Christ,

 give thanks for all the blessings of this life and remember those who have been of service to us this past year. 

It is also a time to ask God's blessing on the men and women who serve our country around the world and especially those who will be separated from love ones at this special time.

And to all who see this blog, "Merry Christmas" and may good things happen to you in 2015.

Part of a festival of lights at Hilton Head.

A child exults with joy.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Making Dad proud...Daughter is an author

Many years ago on a pleasant January day in Hanahan, SC, (near Charleston) I came home from work one evening and was confronted by my wife and youngest daughter, our fifth child. Would I adjust the training wheels on the child's bicycle so it could be a real two-wheeler? We bought the bike as a Christmas gift and within a couple of weeks she had mastered riding it so the training wheels were no longer necessary.
"Are you sure, I asked?" Wynn's little face lit up and she assured me she could handle it. I smiled, went to the garage, got a wrench and the training wheels were history. I stood on the walk outside the front of house and enjoyed the moment as my daughter successfully wheeled off toward the house of her best friend.
Last evening this same daughter, now an outgoing, exuberant adult, wife and mother, teacher and businesswoman, sent an e-mail announcing her book, How To Be a Great Teacher: Create the Flow of Joy and Success in Your Classroom, had been published and was available at Amazon.com five days ahead of schedule.
Wynn taught school, kindergarten through fourth grade, for several years and then created her own business, The International Academy of Bee-Sharp Teachers, to help teachers improve their skills and make learning better and most enjoyable for students. She attracted the attention of McGraw Hill education representatives and joined them in similar goals. Now, after several years of traveling all over this wonderful country and interacting with teachers, principals, students and parents she has published a 108 page softcover book that ought to be in the hands of every primary school teacher, principal, and school board member, as well as parents involved in their children's education. If it takes a village to raise a child, then this book will help teachers do the work and parents to know what to expect.
The girl who could ride without training wheels, Wynn Cooper Archibald Godbold, is riding on different streets now but I am still enjoying the moment of her success.

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year greeeting

Having crossed the 82^nd meridian of life I pause to wish a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to those living people who played a significant role in my vibrant, interesting and mostly pleasurable life, to wit: my brother and sisters; neighbors and boyhood friends in places I lived; teachers from first grade through high school and fellow students encountered along the way; folks I worked with prior to going in the service and those I hung with after work; men and women I was privileged to associate with during eight years of Air Force service, including those who trained me and advanced my career; the wonderful people over the next 50 years who I met in my work, college and graduate school, community, church, political and social life; my five children  

who made me and their late mother proud by turning out to be good people in their own lives and mating with a good husband and wives and making us proud grandparents; the many folks we came in contact with around the world, especiallyin China, Australia and South Africa; doctors and nurses who have helped keep me going all these years; the fine women and men who cared for my wife in her advanced and declining years; those neighbors and strangers who became fast friends and sustained me in many wonderful ways during those difficult years; and my new wife

and her family and the recently acquired friends and neighbors who continue to make my life worth living.

Merry Christmas one and all and Happy New Year!

Throw out the Christmas cards

The people who candle your head for a living have the 5^th Version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders –commonly referred to as the DSM – to ponder over during the holiday season. This freshly issued update, several years in the making, is used to as a reference manual to categorize patients and not everyone is happy. Psychiatrists still cannot agree on what is normal. Like the rest of us some shrinks see the glass as half full and the others half empty. In the political science world it would come out as “one man’s terrorism is another man's patriotism.”

You could be swimming along in the canal of life and thinking good thoughts but you may have a problem you didn’t know existed. Do you hang onto received Christmas cards for decades? Do you make three right turns so you don’t have to make a left turn? Do you neglect recording checks in your check register believing that if you don’t write them down your bank balance won’t decrease? Of course, if all three of these interesting habits define you, stop reading now and grab the Yellow Pages.

Talking about your problems with a knowledgeable psychologist or psychiatrist can be beneficial; there is probably something in the DSM 5 to define your problem. Not cure it, but at least name it. Don’t be alarmed if after being on some kind of pill for six months the problem is still around. Some things never go away – you might simply be nuts.

Have a nice Christmas and a Happy New Year! (And throw out the cards on January 3^rd.)

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