Pick a number

As if peace in Syria and a nuke-free Iran are not enough on your plate there is the problem of not remembering what you’ve read.

Have you gone to the library and found a book by one of your favorite authors only to realize after you take it home and read twenty pages that you have read this book before? Well, my wife recently gave me a solution for that. It is so simple in its conception and execution that I may nominate her to be on the team struggling with the Syria and Iran issues. She has selected a page in every book she reads and when she finishes she circles the page number and returns the book. The page is always the same. When browsing the library weeks or months later she finds a book she will enjoy she checks the page number and if it circled she knows she has read it and moves on. I am now doing this and have chosen a page number which means something special in my life so it is easy to remember. If you pick up a book in the library and find two page numbers circled, it is a pretty good conclusion that Joyce and Archie have read the book.

Complete blog here.

Comment via e-mail to: arch@archibald99.com

Passing of a friend

Drove to a funeral yesterday (January 27, 2014) for John L. Trombino who died January 15. It was a little more than 200 miles round trip from Hilton Head to Mt. Pleasant, SC, but there are friends who are worthy of the journey. John was one of them.

The Catholic service was held in the Rodenberg Chapel at Franke at Seaside, where I lived from February 2008 until my re-marriage in March 2013. John’s family from near and far was present. At the joyful reception in the active lifestyle dining room after the service, John's wife, Toni, and I shared a light moment with this anecdote: When I began playing nickel and dime poker with John, and some of the other men at Franke, John had a good day and took some of my money. He asked me at the end of game how I enjoyed the afternoon. I said I would like to have my money back. John’s reply was, “You can have it when I die.”

John was laid to rest in the Columbarium at Franke. It was both a sad occasion but also a happy moment to see many friends and former neighbors. All of us have gotten a bit older and our shapes and sizes have made appropriate adjustments. But, thankfully, life goes on and we look to each new day for the joys and surprises it may bring.

 

Click here for the full blog.

E-mail comments to: arch@archibald99.com

  

The years ending in 4

A New York Times contributing op-ed writer, Mark Bittman, kicked in the year 2014 with "A Guide to Years Ending in 4." Bittman took a look back and summarized events that mostly were or went wrong, for example: Ike's foreign policy found the domino theory and the first American advisers went to Vietnam; Nelson Mandela went to prison for life in '64 (in '94 he was elected President of South Africa); in '74 Nixon resigned in disgrace and oil hit $10 a barrel (it is now about $98). You get the idea; the complete essay is available at the link above. All in all, however, this reader suspects Bittman's piece is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. The 4 years were not all that bad.
I got married in '54 and the marriage lasted 56 years; our first daughter (4th child) was born in '64;
in '74 I quit smoking; in '84 I was re-elected to S.C. House of Representatives; in '94 I went to China for six months with the lady I married in'54. So the years ending in 4 hold memorable thoughts for me. Other years, well, there are some I would like to do over, and I would let Bittman have fun with those. For the rest of us:

Happy New Year and may this ending-in-4-year be one of the best in your life.

Complete blog here.

Comments to arch@archibald99.com

2014 Outlook

Enough people are predicting good things for America in 2014 it is hard to not get caught up in the joy of optimistic expectations. It is also a good place to be: feeling good about yourself, those you love and those you don't even know from "shore to shining shore." It is too much to believe that all bad things will be righted, that hunger and disease will disappear from our beautiful country, and all will be right with our world. Nevertheless, I put myself among the optimists for 2014 and will do my small part to work for the best in our lives and the life of our country. It won't take a lot of effort on my part (or yours.) A simple random act of kindness from time to time, a little donation here and there to a worthy cause or a needy person. Uttering a kind word or better yet 'I love you' to the ones closest to you who feel good about themselves (and you) when they hear it from you.
It is my wish for all that 2014 will be one of the best years of our lives and we will all look back in 2015 and know it was. God Bless all of us and the USA!

Click for complete blog. 

Comment to: arch@archibald99.com

Widow and widower take a second chance on life.

A South African Remembers Mr. Mandela

A gentleman I met ten years ago in Cape Town, South Africa, sent along a copy of his remarks made at his Rotary Club in Cape Town and I consider them most worthy for sharing:

Hello All

It's nearly the end of the year and Denise and I wish you all a very blessed and also merry Christmas.

The last few days have certainly allowed us all to focus, one way or another, on the meaning of life, on the value which needs to be given to real values, on humility, generosity and also to focus on our society and our social conscience. This event, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela's death, has given us the opportunity to rethink the issues of showing empathy to our fellow beings, caring for those who need it, of showing us all the responsibilities to be faced – our responsibilities. And it has highlighted the job that needs still to be done most urgently to improve and uplift our South African society. May this occasion, sad as death is, also have a positive effect in creating a new vision in the minds of those who run this country and coerce them and in turn all of us to live and lead in a substantive and effective manner.

Thank you Mr Mandela for  once again reminding us about caring.

May you rest in peace, but your principles blossom.

Regards

Steven Boers

Cape Town Rotary Club 

/Architects Boers Associates 

(Complete blog here.)

Nelson Mandela

In January 2003, my late wife and I went to South Africa on the recommendation of our oldest son whose work had taken him there on several occasions. We flew from Atlanta to Johannesburg, checked into a hotel, went to a mall, bought a book of country maps, rented a car and drove all around beautiful SA for the next two months. One of the stops along our journey was a visit to

Robben Island Prison

Robben Island where Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned for more than 20 years.

Mandela's cell.

We walked in the stone quarry where he labored. We could only imagine what life must have been for him there and, like former President Bill Clinton, we remain amazed that Mandela came out of 27 years imprisonment with love and a desire for reconciliation of all South Africans in his heart.He said he lived on hate for the first eleven years and then slowly his mind changed his heart.
Mr. Mandela died last week at age 95. South Africa mourns him and will be a lesser place in his absence. The good he accomplished in his one term in the presidency has been squandered in recent years but his memory lives on and with effort South Africa can be again a leader on the continent and a land of fulfillment for all races and creeds.

May his soul rest in peace. 

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!

Let's Move On

Some people just can’t or won’t let go. Fifty years ago a lone gunman, a misfit, shot and killed the President of the United States in Dallas, Texas. For most of November 2013 the news media has given coverage to the eternally suspicious conspiracy speculators among us that Lee Harvey Oswald was not acting alone when he killed President John F. Kennedy. That horrific act still sells papers and promotes television. It’s called titillating the masses. It is good and healthy for a nation to remember, but it is long past the time when we ought to have moved on. Thanksgiving will be next week and something else will lead on the front pages and evening news teasers.  Read and watch.

The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum

Nothing invokes deep feelings like a visit to a museum honoring the fighting men and women who made up The Mighty Eighth Air Force during World War II. My wife, Joyce, and I visited the museum in Pooler, GA., at Exit 102 off I-95, a few miles north of Savannah. The Mighty Eighth was activated January 28, 1942, at Hunter Field in Savannah, and it would become the greatest air armada in history. It is estimated that more than 350,000 Americans served in the 8th AF during the war in Europe. Five thousand planes were processed through Hunter Field, including the City of Savannah, (on display in the museum) which flew 44 missions against the Germans.
I have been in the museum twice before. They constantly add memorabilia and research capabilities for the benefit of the public. Over "nine thousand books significant to the history of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, as well as original manuscripts, photographs, oral history interviews and personal accounts, artifacts and works of art" can be found here. Planes, clothing and equipment are also on view. The Memorial Gardens and Chapel of the Fallen Eagles, modeled on an English chapel, are a setting to reflect on the sacrifice of so many young American men.
The museum "tells the compelling story of ordinary people whose lives were transformed by extraordinary commitment, sacrifice and patriotism."
We took a few pictures, but it takes a visit to the museum to really appreciate this piece of American history and the courageous young men in their flying machines.

A hiding place in the attic of a French home for downed American air crew.

Celebrating victory in Europe, May 1945.

The City of Savannah, the 5,000 plane to join the 8th Air Force in England.

 

 

 

 

 

Did I mention the museum is staffed by volunteers and you can drop a contribution into a box to help keep the place going? You can also schedule a business, social or cultural event in the lobby - including a wedding reception if that is your wish. You may also support the museum and keep these great memories alive by visiting the web site and making a donation. It will make you feel good.

Inappropriate comments in advertising

Dear Ms. Washo

I preferred the "turkey cover" over the tattooed man. That said, I write about another subject: the inappropriateness of Frank Dunne, Jr.'s column in CH2, a magazine designed to acquaint readers with the many services and providers in the Hilton Head area.

Mr. Dunne labeled the national Common Core education standards "a stupid idea" simply because President Obama is a supporter.  He then called Common Core "a bunch of B.S." and said we know this because it is a "federal program." He later refers to the U.S., Department of Education as the "Department of Non-Education," and says its employees are "clowns."

Mr. Dunne is disrespectful to the President of the United States, dismissive of Common Core simply because it is a federal program and insulting to the many fine people who work for his, yours and my government. (Fair disclosure: I am a retired federal security director.)

It is immaterial that a column in support of Common Core was in space opposite Mr. Dunne's disrespectful and obnoxious comments.

I don't object to Mr. Dunne having such views, and some of his comments might be appropriate in a political column on the op-ed page of a newspaper, or some other place pandering to the extreme rightists in our beloved country, but they have no business in a magazine with the obvious goal of CH2.

Obviously, I cannot pick and chose what items flesh out this 120 page advertising medium but I can ignore it in the future and encourage others to do so.

World Champions - Boston Red Sox

I was still so excited this morning I put peanut butter and strawberry jam on my English muffin. The cause of my joy - the 6-1 victory in the 6th game of the 2013 World Series which made the 2013 Boston Red Sox champions of the baseball world. From last to first in one year. What a feat!

And David Ortiz is the man who led the Red Sox all year with his hitting, his enthusiasm and his belief in his teammates. Ortiz was voted the Most Valuable Player of the 2013 World Series.

I am going to add four numerals (2013) to add to my favorite Red Sox banner.

(Complete blog here.)

(Send comments: arch@archibald99.com.)

A couple of friends

A couple of friends dropped by Wednesday en-route from Florida to North Carolina. What makes this couple

so special is they are my two oldest friends in terms of years known. Don and Edna Sherrow were in Washington with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations when I arrived there in the spring of 1953. Don was in the USAF and serving as the Administrative Support in the Counter-Intelligence Division. Edna was a secretary in the Sabotage & Espionage Branch, which I joined as Administrative Support. Later Don and I each went to the OSI Special Agents training school and served several years conducting personnel, criminal and counter-intelligence investigations. I left the Air Force for civilian life and Don transferred into the Army where he was commissioned. He later worked as a Postal Inspector. Interestingly, their daughter and one of my sons, met and worked together in later years.
It was the first meeting of my wife, Joyce, and the Sherrows and they took to each other immediately. We don't see each other all that often, just the occasional service reunions and when passing through each other's living area, but the friendly ties and bonds formed years ago when we were all young and starry-eyed continue to this day.

I ate the whole thing

Having a wife whose birthday is the day after yours makes celebrating easy. Joyce and I went to Biltmore Estate in Asheville

for a three-day getaway (Oct.1-3). She had not been there before and seeing it was atop her bucket list. I visited about 40 years ago and my lasting memory was the Kiosk behind the mansion which offered delicious ice cream. It is long gone but new restaurants and an ice cream parlor were introduced sometime in the 80's. The ice cream is made from milk taken from the dairy herd on the premises and is some of the best I have ever eaten. This delicious sundae (creamery vanilla ice cream topped with strawberries, whipped cream and a cherry) was my choice and Joyce enjoyed a Root Beer float.

The mansion was built by George Vanderbilt, grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt, beginning in the 1890's. Today, the magnificently tended gardens are a tribute to his love of the out-of-doors, and the imagination of Frederick Olmsted, the journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer, who is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture. We learned of George's great generosity also to the Asheville community and people. The Episcopal Church in Biltmore Village outside the Estate grounds is an example of his many contributions.

(Send comments to: arch@archibald99.com)

(Complete blog here.)