Election Day Thoughts

Last night I teared up when watching both the Concession speech of John McCain and The Acceptance Speech of Barrack Obama.  I am so grateful to both of them for their commitment to public service.  It is one of those moments that made me proud to be an American. Yes, the patriotism swelled. There was one moment after the the speech that the Obama and Biden families were on the stage. I turned to Carm and said "That is the way it is suppose to be."

Back in the very early 1970's our family and the Bailey family went out to have a burger at Big Boy's on the corner of Shaw and Blackstone in Fresno. I liked palling with Vicky who was my age and Mom had found a confidant in Ethel. It was just a nice meal with two families.  What made the meal memorable was two 20 somethings that came up to us with smiles. A Man and a Woman, they were wearing matching clothes. They introduced themselves as working for a civil rights organization and that they had to tell us that watching our two families, black and white, laughing and eating together was what they wanted for the country. It was puzzling to me as a preteen that it was an event at all, but caused me to reflect about what was going on politically.

Tom-Tom, Shmuggles and Ky-Puppy

Curses to those nicknames we get as kids.  They are always there in the back of our minds. Of course there is always family get-together's to remind us that we were kids once.  Yes, family still calls me Kimmy and I still call my big brother Timmy. But what about the next Gen down that are now old enough to bestowing those names on the newer models.

My boys had the names in the title. I don't know if they haunt the first two, but poor Kythe was burdened with Corporal Ky-Puppy during his service in the US Marine Corps.  What can I say, Mom's are foolish that way.

After the 9-11-2001 attacks, I had not heard from Kythe and wanted to know if he was okay. For all I knew, they had immediately sent him to NYC.  I called his room down at Camp Pendleton and left what I thought was an inconspicuous message "Hey, Ky Puppy. Its your mom, just want to know if you are okay."  Unfortunately he was out on maneuvers and his roommate heard the message first. When he came in from the Field, everyone was calling him Corporal Ky-Puppy and letting him know his Mommy called.

He had a promotion and even though Sergeant Stillwell has a better ring to it, he is still known as Ky-Puppy.

Trick or Treat

Family boos on Halloween. Boos, not booze. But lots of food like always and apparently too much candy this year. So here is the Trick, a new post after 2 plus years and a new device to make it easier to load the blog. I am giving live writer a test run.

And now the treat. A memory of childhood.

Once upon a time in the late sixties, Timmy wanted to be a Hippy for Halloween. Fig Garden Village was our shopping grounds and they happened to have a store that was something of a tame Head Shop. Located next to the Library, it sold posters and buttons to the teens. I was less than 10 years old at the time, so I have no idea if it sold more than that. Matronly Mom decided Timmy needed some buttons to wear on his costume and spent some time reading all the buttons to find ones that weren't too objectionable. She finally decided on a mild anti-war button and one that sounded nice about some girl. So the two buttons I remember were "Peace" and "I Love Mary Jane"

My 26 year old sister thought it was hilarious.