Mall shooting in Arizona. Well, it didn’t take long to get back to normal. We’re open, we’re open, USA, USA!
Category Archives: Lifestyle
Highland County Amish Barn Raising
As far back as the early 1960s, I heard about Amish barn raisings. Where an entire community of church members would come together to build or repair a member’s barn. The women would spend the morning preparing a large meal for the men and the men would divide into teams with each assigned a task to get done before sunset.
While I’ve seen many of the results it wasn’t until recently that I actually was able to witness the real deal. I was even invited to lunch but unfortunately, wasn’t able to match my schedule up with that.
Gee Our Old LaSalle Ran Great…
People love to talk about how great things used to be and in many ways, I’m no different. Several conversations recently have me thinking about those good old days. So, I decided to make a list of what we used to pay for things. Feel free to add to it.
Prices in the 1950s:
California, Busted, and Headed East
When I left Ohio for California in 1964 the old slogan was California or Bust! Since the 1840s California had been considered the land of golden opportunity and that’s pretty close to what I found there. I found immediate employment and access to affordable education. I also found this and more at a price that was within my economic means.
I haven’t been in the Golden State since 1970 but I’ve kept tabs on what the years have brought. Mostly time has brought more people, more traffic, and the cost of living that is becoming increasingly less affordable for working class people. In 1968 a nice two-bedroom starter home could be had for around $40,000. Ten years later that same home was selling for over $100,000. A quick Google of current prices indicates it would take a half a million, or more. The same home in Greenfield, OH can be had for around $80,000.
We Don’t Dance, Don’t Ask Us, Merci Beaucoup
Hearing Greenfield people talk about how much they enjoyed the Midsummer’s Night on Midway events back in the early 2000s got me thinking negative things. People are always talking about there not being anything to do in a small town and then when something does happen, most don’t show up.
This was true in 1970 and truer today. I’d guess it is due to there being more recreational options and greater pressure on people’s free time. I don’t know about other towns but I suspect it isn’t much different.
Continue reading We Don’t Dance, Don’t Ask Us, Merci Beaucoup
We All Don’t Bury Our Dead the Same
Early in my teaching career, I attended a conference for history teachers. One of the workshops I attended concerned local burial practices and using a communities cemetery as a source of historical information. If, for example, you notice a large increase in burials around a certain date, it may indicate a medical epidemic. Burial practices, obviously, are often dictated by an area’s geology.
If you’ve ever been to New Orleans or Southern Louisiana you probably noticed that people aren’t buried underground. This isn’t dictated by any religious or ethnic custom. Instead, it all has to do with the water table. If you dig but a foot or more in New Orleans you hit the water table and caskets just won’t stay buried when the rainy season arrives. Therefore, long ago it was decided that bodies had to be buried in above-ground vaults. Continue reading We All Don’t Bury Our Dead the Same
Every Litter Bit Hurts So Try Giving A Shit
It’s warming up and getting closer to Earth Day. Like every spring there’s a winter’s worth of trash in our yards, streets, and highway ditches, much of it comes from drive-thru restaurants and beverage barns.
No need to do the research or to manufacturer some story, because I personally witnessed it. Several years ago my wife and I volunteered to pick up litter on Foraker Street between SR 138 and the 7th Street Bridge. From just one side of that very short street, we filled our pick up truck with trash that was, as stated, carry out wrappers from fast food, and tossed beverage containers, especially beer cans. Not a single resident offered to help and within a couple of months, it was as littered as ever.
Continue reading Every Litter Bit Hurts So Try Giving A Shit
Mississippi; what’s wrong with it?
If your state is possibly the poorest, least educated, most conservative state in the nation; well, that’s what’s wrong with it. It also doesn’t help if your state’s flag still includes a version of the Confederate flag. Having too many of the people portrayed in the attached video also doesn’t speak well.
I’ve been to Mississippi many times and things are slowly changing. The state and local governments have done some amazing things in creating a blues and music based tourist economy. But despite the steps forward there are too many people who would take it back to the pre civil rights era. Mississippi’s overwhelming support of Donald Trump is a strong statement to this.
Couple of years ago I heard a black Mississippi judge speak of the new Mississippi. The fact that he was black and a judge speaks to things new. Unfortunately there’s too much old in Mississippi.
Eric’s Tit Got Caught
Apparently Eric Trump got his tit caught in the Twitter wringer last weekend when he claimed the Wisconsin presidential recount called for by Jill Stein cost the lives of 5,000 children.
One might ask how did Jill Stein kill 5,000 children by ordering a recount? Well, according to young Eric, if the $3.5 million the recount cost had been spent on malaria relief that many kids lives could have been saved.
Medicare’s Future
Lots of us are receiving healthcare from Medicare and while Trump promised to protect it there appears to be continued pressure in the GOP congress to attack it. Here’s a piece that appeared in today’s New York Times Opinion section. Well worth a read.
The debate that the country may soon be having over Medicare is shaping up as one of the stranger political debates in a long time.
Medicare is an extremely popular program, and it mostly functions well. Its main problem — a large and long-term funding shortfall — has even become less serious lately, thanks to a slowdown in the rise of health care costs.
In the campaign, Donald Trump said he would protect Medicare. Yet many Congressional Republicans have long wanted to change the program and privatize all or part of it. One of those Congressional Republicans is Tom Price of Georgia, whom Trump has chosen to run the Department of Health and Human Services, where he will have sway over Medicare.
I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing some changes to Medicare — especially moving it toward paying for the quality of medical care and away from paying for the quantity of care, as the Obama administration has instigated. But the notion that a radical overhaul of Medicare should be one of the country’s top priorities seems bizarre. Democrats, wounded as they are right now, would no doubt be happy to have this political debate.
Our colleagues at Room for Debate preview that discussion with an overview of the substantive questions likely to come up.
The full Opinion report from The Times follows, including Janet Napolitano on young immigrants and Jeff Biggers on reason for climate hope.David Leonhardt
Op-Ed Columnist
Smoke
TOBACCO: 870 billion is the number of cigarettes manufactured 
by Philip Morris annually. The company has invested $3 billion into tobacco vaporizers, already available in some overseas markets, and plans to have the product in 20 markets this year. BTW, PM has announced it may be planning on exiting the cigarette business.
I Want My Taco Truck!
So, this Hispanic Trump surrogate comes on TV and warns America that if we don’t stop Mexican immigration we’ll have a taco truck on every corner. My first reaction was that I’m just a few hundred yards from the corner of SR 138 and WMRd and I can’t wait for our neighborhood taco truck.
This kind of nativist nonsense has occurred every time a large immigrant group has arrived at our shores. There’s always dire warnings about how America is going to be destroyed or weakened by their arrival and we good Americans need to “cut them off at the pass.”
While none of those warnings would have been welcomed it is true that none of them were ever realized. Each group, some quicker than others, found their place in America and added to the richness of our gene pool.
This current warning, however, is different. Never have we been threatened with something that would be welcomed. Again, Janet and I can’t wait for our taco truck. And maybe we could get some Syrian refugees running a falafel wagon out this way. We’re getting tired of all these fresh Amish grown organic vegetables and homemade noodles.
Notes on Ageing, Volume 132
One of the regular characters of the Bob and Tom radio program was based on the legendary sports caster, Harry Carey. Don’t know what the real Harry Carey was 
like but the B&T version was a gruff sounding lecherous old character that you may not want to baby sit your children or herd your sheep.
In one episode Carey was visited by beautiful young movie star and he was trying to get her to change his adult diaper. She asked if he were incontinent and he replied, “No, just l don’t like getting up.”
I thought of this a couple of days ago when putting on my very first adult diaper. I knew it would happen some day but I’m pretty happy it’s only temporary and not age related.
Pokemon A Go Go!
You can’t tune in the world these days without coming across people talking about the game Pokemon Go. I am not a gamer but I do enjoy technology and have some desire to understand how things work.
My knowledge of the game is knowing that players download a free app to their smartphones and then go for a walk. As they stroll around their town creatures suddenly appear in front of a church, a school, a theater, your neighbor’s garage, etc. You somehow try to capture the creäture and if successful win points.
While the app/game is free you can somehow opt to purchase clues, hints, extra creatures, or whatever. This is how Nintendo, the games owner, added $7.5 billion to its corporate value in just a couple of weeks after the games release.
My son and grandson are my main sources of information about “PokeStops” (places where creatures are located) in Greenfield. Apparently there are several that appear in various parts of the cemetery so if you see a covey of kids walking around staring at their smartphones, or their navels, that’s what they might be doing.
The Gilded Presidency
I was watching the evening news and saw this photo of Donald Trump, his wife, and his son Barron sitting on a huge stuffed lion. Seriously, there is not a single thing about this picture that suggest Trump could relate to anyone American working-class person.
Making it even worse is naming the son Barron and learning that Barron has his own floor of the three-floor penthouse in the Trump Tower.
I have to wonder if the Trumps could make themselves spend a night in the White House? They might see it as a Green Acres or Trailer Park Boys kind of thing!
