Where do we find another president like him?

"Remember that every government service, every offer of government-financed security, is paid for in the loss of personal freedom. ... In the days to come, whenever a voice is raised telling you to let the government do it, analyze very carefully to see whether the suggested service is worth the personal freedom which you must forgo in return for such service."
-Ronald Reagan

Happy 9th of November to my Wife!

yeah, I know, I used this picture last year.

Ammendment II

" A well organized militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the freedom of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Translation: Since the government will have guns, the citizens will have them too. We are thus protected from the government's guns. See Concord.

This should be a T-shirt, too.

carboy circa prohibition

When we lived in St. Louis, there was an elderly lady living across the street with her somewhat elderly (special needs) son. They were rather nice enough, keeping well to themselves most of the time. Well, the time came for them to move; the stairs were a pain as were the bills and the upkeep of the house; so they were to move to Washington state to live with her daughter. I saw that they were packing by themselves and offered to help. They pretty much just wanted things thrown out as they were not moving much, so they said I could keep whatever I wanted. They were very nice. She had been a school teacher and apparently a member of the book of the month club for many years. I helped them clear out their junk and managed to salvage about a hundred books including The United States a History copyright 1891 and this carboy dated 1926. Mrs. McInnes told me how when they moved in there had been quite a lot of fruit trees in the yard and thought they had something to do with wine making during prohibition. In the basement there was a "secret" room with concrete walls hidden behind some paneling/secret door. That is where I found the carboy. It had sat for decades and contained all manner of dead insects, dust, and I think even plant matter. I of course cleaned it out, sanitized it, and used it. In fact I just bottled my citrus wine out of it last night.

An interesting couple of finds. To me, anyway.

Grammy II

Went to see her again last night. She took a little water from her sponge, which she hadn't done all day.

I told her that if I thought she'd drink it, I'd sneak her in a shot of Jack Daniel's. For medicinal purposes.

She always had a bottle in the kitchen pantry. She'd pour a little bit into one of her sherry glasses and sip it when she had digestive troubles. I never saw her drink otherwise.

When she was 16, prohibition was on. Her 19 year old friend took her to a speakeasy. I remember her telling me about that and laughing in that way that you can almost see someone reliving the whole event in their head. She never told me that she was 16, I guess because I was a kid, but my mom told me that part last night.

Regarding the wedding day pic : They met about 6 months before he went off to the war in Europe. He wanted to get married before he left, but she refused. She told him to come back and then they would talk about it again.
One day, 5 years later, she was looking down from her balcony apartment on Delmar (a street in St. Louis) to where the trollys let out just down the road and saw a lone soldier get off the car. He looked around, getting his bearings, and then headed straight toward her building. She recognized him by the particular way he held his right hand when he walked.
He did what he had to. He converted from methodist to catholic and she married him.

I sure am glad that all worked out!

Grammy

Wedding day, 1946. My maternal grandparents. "Grammy and Papa" She was born in 1910, and he in 1914 (if I remember correctly).

He was a big fan of Pavarotti and would sit in his recliner and sing along sometimes after dinner. While I was on gradeschool spring break with my dad in the mid-80s he died of heart failure.

She always spoke plainly about dying. Maybe after he was gone, she realized her children were grown and the rest of life was just waiting around- I don't really know because we were all sort of wierded out by the way she would talk and never really talked with her about it.

Misty and I went to see her with my mom a couple of nights ago. She hardly looks like herself. She was always small, but now she's not eating and has become tiny- and the effect is magnified by the fact that she lies in the fetal position. It's hard for me to see her that way. I remember her best working in the kitchen after I got out of school. She was always making something for someone and she was great at it. The alzheimer's disease took most of her away a long time ago, and it just isn't stopping.

I've missed her for a long time.

Beware the coming of the childhood photo albums!

Myself, aged 3 or 4, I'm guessing.

According to the album, in Pompeii.