We have a new family member!

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

“Obama’s health care plan will be written by a committee whose head, John Conyers, says he doesn’t understand it. It’ll be passed by Congress that has not read it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a Treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and financed by a country that’s nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong?” -Rush Limbaugh

Growing up in the 80′s without a TV was a foreign idea to most if not all of my friends. The idea of doing something other than watching TV for entertainment had them inquisitive though cautiously cynical that there was fun to be had at our house. After all, what were you supposed to do Saturday morning after sleeping over if not eat “chocolate frosted sugar bombs” and veg-out to Saturday morning cartoons?

My parents, who refused us the mind numbing pleasure of the glowbox, did allow other forms of entertainment. I recall the summer they pitted my brother against me in a cutthroat reading contest to see who could read the most stacks of books their own height in one summer. I not being nearly as competitive as my brother lost at one and a half stacks to his two and a half. This however was not the only, or most cherished, form of entertainment we were allowed. Sure we could go play with the neighborhood kids or ride our bikes but for me the best part of the day was at night when Dad would come into our room and put on a cassette tape (yeah it least it wasn’t 8 track… or a 45) of an OTR (Old Time Radio) program. To this day I still love those programs and STILL listen to them when I can find them. We had comedy with the likes of Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Amos and Andy, Lum and Abner, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve, and lots more. I still think about the great lines and gags of those shows, like Fibber McGee’s hall closet, or the Jack Benny show when Rochester added too many “P”s to the birthday cake and had to take one off. One of my favorite lines “Duffy’s Tavern, where the elite meet to eat. Archie the manager speakin’. Duffy ain’t here” became my favorite because my grandfather would answer his home phone with “Duffy’s Tavern Duffy ain’t here”. This was among his many other sayings such as his famous good bye “Tell em Red said” or when asking where my grandmother was “She’s gone to Califriscosanfranforney” Those I haven’t tracked down to any OTR comedies yet.

My brother always did love those comedies more than I did but I loved them none the less. My favorites, however were the mysteries, adventures and westerns like The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet, Gunsmoke, Dragnet, X Minus One, and Have Gun Will Travel. To this day I know trivia about these shows that will never win me any fame or recognition. Heck I liked them so much that I named my first black car the “Black Beauty” and for about the first month when I got into it I would say “Though supposedly abandoned, this building served as the hiding place for the sleek, super-powered “Black Beauty”, streamlined car of The Green Hornet. Britt Reid pressed a button. The great car roared into life. A section of the wall in front raised automatically, then closed as the gleaming “Black Beauty” sped into the darkness!” Mind you I was in my early 20′s when I was saying this and it still made me feel like a million bucks.

You might ask, what brought on all this back to the forefront of the razor sharp double edged sword that is my mind? It’s simply this, I quote segments these shows that I know as part of my childhood and no one get its. My friends and co-workers think I’m crazy when I randomly spout off things like “he hunts the biggest of all game … public enemies that even the G-Men cannot reach”. Then again they sometimes say things like “Alec Baldwin was awful in that” after I for some unknown reason say “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?” “The Shadow knows”.

Only once, outside of my intimidate family, have I ever had anyone understand what I was talking about. When I was working in Washington D.C. an older gentleman assumed he was going to teach me a lesson when he said “Have Gun Will Travel” and I smiled politely and said something back like “Hey Boy, how about a game of chess”. He not picking up on the reference to the protagonist’s side kick said “do you know where that came from?” I said “I sure do it was a show” (granted I later found out it was a TV show first then a radio production). I guess all us young whipper snappers are the same because he decided to push the issue and “test my smarts”. He said “Who was the main character then?” No you have to understand I think we only had one or two cassettes of Have Gun Will Travel but I still loved to listen to it over and over. The best parts of the show involved Paladin outsmarting the “other guy” and thus becoming the hero you knew he was at the beginning of the show. Naturally I loved listening to this show, and just as naturally, I responded to the seasoned citizen testing my knowledge with the correct name of Paladin. I don’t think he was prepared not to teach me a lesson because he didn’t say much after that maybe however that was because I asked him who the main character was in the Green Hornet (Britt Reid). Regardless of the end of that conversation, I remember it every time someone misses one of my references to an OTR program. It’s sad in a way, because television has so overshadowed our society and infiltrated every crevasse of our lives that this may become a lost piece of history and art.

Tonight when talking to my fiancé, she asked “Are you serious?” to which I responded “I ain’t Roebuck”. To which she responded “huh?”. It’s not her fault. She obviously wasn’t thinking, as I often do, of the Amos and Andy show in which Andy Brown ask George “Kingfish” Stevens the same question and receives the same answer. I don’t try to incorporate all these skits and sayings into my life, but I catch my self saying things like “you is rafused” and thinking how much greater life would be with a barber like Shorty, a friend like Lightening and a Lawyer like Gabby Gibson. Growing up with these characters voices making me laugh and anticipate, and just plain imagine is hard to edit out of your life as you grow older. Quite frankly I hope I never do and I plan on passing on this same tradition to my children so they too can ride along with Lum and Abner’s mishap filled journey taking a prize winning Rode Island Red to Washington or ride with John Reid (AKA The Lone Ranger, AKA Kemo Sabe) on Silver and Tonto on Feather (or Scout) as they hunt Butch Cavendish or just plain snicker at Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s On First?” sketch. There’s nothing today that compares to OTR. I hope a wealthy producer out there some day realizes the talent and imagination we’ve lost and brings it back to life.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of a friend.  Perhaps the word friend in this case is deceptive.  Why deceptive?  simple!  It is because I have, and hope to always be invited into the midst of this family as a family member.  Though it may seem a simple gesture, the seating at the wedding was organized so that family members sat together.  I and my Fiancee’ were of the lucky few, privileged by being seated with family.  I know that the appearance to some maybe my sentimentality has gotten the better of me but this is far from the case.  I don’t deserve the respect they give me and I certainly don’t deserve the matriarch of the event making sure that everyone at the table knew that I was family to them… yet she did.  As well, every member of the family made it know that I was among the family.

You may ask why I’m writing this and think it is in vanity of my status within this family.  This is hardly the case, rather it is to encourage anyone who reads this to welcome those close to you into your family rather than keeping them at a distance of friends.  Friends can come and go, and forgiveness, forgetfulness, tears, joy, and love may not be readily available to friends as they are to family.  So I say to you, and as a reminder to myself, choose to have family over friends.  Welcome them as family rather than friends.  Make it know that you are family to those you care about, and friendship is not a weighty enough endeavor for your relationship.  I am truly blessed to have a place in this family, and hope I can only offer them a place in my family  when they need it most if they so choose.  They are always welcome in my home and in my life.

It must be a gift or a skill or even a sixth sense… but somehow my dog can find the softest most “floating on a cloud” like spot in any room in under a minute.  I had just made the bed and i turned around to pick up the old sheets by the time I turned back around (maybe 30 seocnds) he was already on the bed in his “perfect” spot and would only move his eyes to look around lest he get uncomfortable…

This is my friend’s little boy!… and his wife off to the side making “eating” noises lol.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ56M_WKNwI