You are there (with apologies to CBs)

You are there (with apologies to CBS)

The radio program,You are There, first broadcast on CBS made a transition to television in 1953, with Walter Cronkite as the regular host.

The series featured various key events in American and world history, portrayed in dramatic recreations. Each episode would begin with the characters setting the scene. Walter Cronkite, called “Mr. Believable” by Howard Cosell, from his anchor desk in New York,  would give a few words on what was about to happen. An announcer would then give the date and the event, followed by a loud and boldly spoken "You are there!"

At the end of the program, after Cronkite summarizes what happened in the preceding event, he reminded viewers, "What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times... all things are as they were then, and you were there.”

Looking back on my week, the events hardly could be considered to “alter and illuminate our times…” nevertheless you can be there.

President’s Day opened the week and the banks and stock markets were closed. This spared everyone from losing money in the market. Then I had a meeting with a tax advisor who answered some questions that arose out of my having to file a 1040 for the first time since my wife died in August 2015 This was very helpful. 

In the middle of the week the weather turned warmer and I walked 2-3 miles each day. One day, I met a neighbor who had given me a plate of home made cookies for Valentine’s Day and I thanked her again for her thoughtfulness. I had called and left a message on her answering machine when I found the cookies outside my door. 

I had my carotid arteries checked and the technician gave me a thumbs up and said, “I wouldn’t worry if I were you.” This I found comforting. Later in the week I had an echocardiogram and it appeared to go well, but the technician gave the usual response, “The doctor will read it and be in touch with your cardiologist.”  

I did see the cardiologist and he said everything looked good, except that my aortic valve was not functioning at maximum level. There is some stenosis and we will need to watch this and take appropriate action down the road. As this worsens, replacing the valve by surgery or transcatheter aortic valve replacement are options. Neither of these sounds like fun. Just as no one says they want a two-week vacation in Biloxi, Mississippi, no one wants heart surgery or other poking around. We will check this again in a year. This was comforting. If it was reaching critical mass stage the re-check might have been in three or six months,

Things were much easier with my podiatrist. He clipped my toenails, checked the pulse in my feet (pronounced it good), gave me some advice about the type of socks to wear and sent me on my way. Young people may ask, “Why don’t you clip your own toenails like I do.” I don’t because I am 84 (chronological age, not indicative of my zest for life and joy in living),  and more often than not clip the skin around the nails and this could lead to infection and foot trouble. We only get two feet in this life and they are more valuable than your wallet and credit cards, two things you take darn good care of. 

I did some yard work, trimming bushes and putting water in a bird bath. Early in the week the water in it froze. I watched a small bird one cold morning pecking away at the ice without success at breaking through and unable to get water. I added a large pan of warm water which cooled quickly in the 45 degree temperature.

There was the inevitable shopping. I made a list before I went and planned to shop at two locations. Things went well at the first store and when I realized I was going to get only two items at the second I changed my mind. Strawberries and blueberries are better buys at the second location but I picked them up where I was. Saving a few pennies was not worth the hassle of driving, parking, shopping and checking out at store number two. While I was still in number one getting some sliced turkey, two men were serving me and a woman was standing by with her ticket in her hand. That is how they keep shoppers in order. “Get your ticket.” I told one of the men to wait on the woman, “She has to catch the train to Topeka.” The woman laughed but the man, who obviously did not understand my humor, moved over to her quickly.

During the week I spent time on the computer, did the wash, completed household chores, and kept faith with some creditors by paying my bills on time. I read a lot (news magazines) and watched TV (a lot of trash to ignore.) 

Oh, I got at least two dozen telephone calls from Republican Presidential candidates and listened to a couple but just hung up on most. Today, February 20, is the Republican Presidential primary and voting is at the community center. I am going to sit this one out and cast a ballot in next week’s Democratic primary. 

This is hardly the stuff of “those events that alter and illuminate our times... all things are as they were then, and you were there.”

But it is my times… and I log them for posterity

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Peanut butter dripped on my shirt

I was still coming down from a non-alcoholic high on Friday morning. The final play of the Thursday Night Football game resulted in a 27-23 win for my beloved Green Bay Packers over the Detroit Lions. It wasn’t difficult to get started for the day, especially after I watched a video of the final play a couple of times and then learned that this Hail Mary pass into the end zone is somethting the Packers practice. Who knew? I would not be surprised to learn all teams practice it.

Buttressed by coffee, toast, the obligatory shower and shave, clean underwear and I was off to the Hilton Head World Affairs Council held in the Presbyteriaan Church to hear a woman who specializes on Middle East affairs, Ellen Laipson. (Click on her name to view her credentials).

Ms. Laipson gave an informative overview of how the Middle East was formed after World War I and how events are playing out in the present. There is so much in the news these days about the Middle East it is helpful to sit back and have an overview presented succintly. Ms. Laipson doesn’t have any “solutions” to the problems posed by the area today and in the immediate future. "If she did,” I told a friend, “she would not be in Hilton Head speaking to more than 300 seniors.” In my opinion there isn’t any one “solution” to the challenges the world faces in the Middle East. But we ( the inhabitants of the planet Earth) go on anyway.

I did a little shopping on the way home. It was past noon when i unloaded the groceries and realized I needed something to eat. I put two slices of cinnamon raisin bread in the toaster and poured a glass of ice tea. When the toast popped I lathered it with peanut butter and carried my snack to my favorite chair where I picked up the current issue of The New York Review of Books to continue reading “Hanging Out With Hitler,” a review of three books by Martin Filler. None of these made me wish I could hang out with that evil man. I belong to the group that wishes I could have been present at Hitler’s birth so I could strangle him as he came out of the womb instead of the mid-wife slapping his arse to make him cry out.

And then I looked down at my blue striped dress shirt and saw a large gob of melted peanut butter still rolling and coming to a stop at the third button from the neck. Heat from the toasted bread was the culprit. It liquidfied the peanut butter. To paraphrase Jimmy Carter I won’t lie to you. I used the index finger of my right hand to scoop the peanut butter off my shirt and popped it in my mouth.

Later in the evenng, I watched  a fine movie written, directed and starring one of my current favorite actors, Kevin Spacey. “Beyond the Sea”, a fantasy telling of the life of Bobby Darin. Spacey used his own voice to sing the songs and had Darin’s moves down pat. It is available on Amazon Prime for free viewing or can be purchased on Amazon. 

After that, I took off the shirt and tossed it the laundry hamper. 

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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.