Michelle Obama isn't the only one with a back seat career - Work + Money on Shine

Michelle Obama isn't the only one with a back seat career - Work + Money on Shine

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Thanksgiving 08

 

Happy Thanksgiving

There were 102 persons on the Mayflower. The little ship was not much bigger than Marble Collegiate Church. But 102 people got on that little boat and crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

A couple of times I crossed on the old Queen Mary. But there were nights when I would have given anything to get off the thing! It was tossed around by the mighty Atlantic as though it were an eggshell. Can you imagine what would happen to a little ship like the Mayflower?

Then when the Pilgrims got to Massachusetts, it was November. There was nothing but an impenetrable forest, full of wild animals and strange men. And the Pilgrims were short of food.

Before they landed they made a pact. There wasn’t a rich man among them, not a scholar; they were plain, simple, everyday people. But they were great people. They wrote out an agreement known as the Mayflower Compact, distilling in eight sentences the political and philosophical thinking of 300 years. They agreed that they would elect men to rule over them and would respect their rule. Thus began American democracy—government of the people, by the people and for the people. Foreshadowed in that little document were the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. They were rather smart people, the Pilgrims.

And they were tough. They had a stern philosophy of life and morality. You can not build a great nation on soft people. There are many pessimists today who contend that the United States is going to pieces. But I don’t believe it because the same sturdy breed is still among us.

Whenever I begin to get a little discouraged about America I go out into the Midwest or somewhere in New York City or down South or up into New England and I meet some old salty character. He knows the score, he knows what’s going on.
As long as we still have people like that in the United States, people who don’t take themselves too seriously; who don’t go around with a sour look on their faces; who still love this land—the good earth, the sky, the towering mountains, the rolling prairies and the great wonderful shining cities—we’ll survive all the current problems.

Positive things will come because Americans are what they are. We are dreamers, daredevils, adventurers. You and I are descendants of the men and women who built this nation. So on Thanksgiving Day let us count our blessings and keep the faith, for America is a land that was made by strong faithful people.

First Thanksgiving - Thanksgiving History - History.com

First Thanksgiving - Thanksgiving History - History.com

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The Revis General Store

Half a century ago, one thing I really looked forward to was a trip to Revis’ general store; it was a 4 maybe 5 mile walk from our farm to Whittier, NC. We had to walk through Gateway which was one mile from our house, the Gateway had a gas station owned by Harry Shelton who sold used cars, tires, car parts, cold drinks, cigarettes, candy and gas from an old hand pump with a 5 gallon glass top, we could pump up from one to 5 gallons of gas which sold for 12 cents per gallon. Now that sounds cheap compared to $4 dollars per gallon we pay today, but I made 15 cents per hour if and when I could find work. I didn’t have a car so gas wasn’t to be figured into my budget.
But at the Revis store, there were clothes, bolts of cloth, hardware, shoes, hats, and feed; just about anything one would want on a farm. Mr. Revis had a big pot belly wood stove a pickle barrel with a checker board on it and there was always a game going on. Above the checker board a picture of Jesus and the American Flag hang on the wall. Did you notice I called him Mr. a word one never hears anymore? At his store, world problems were solved and elections were bought and sold. There was a separate store room where the finer things in life could be purchased like cigars and moonshine, and maybe some fine bourbon and bottle beer.
In that fine old store, I learned about honor, duty to my country, God, Jesus, respect for my fellow man, whether I had money or not I could walk away from Mr. Revis’ store with anything I wanted, the amount I owed him was written in a book with a pencil and marked off as I made my regular payments. Now credit in those was different than it is today, in that before you would borrow you were damn sure that you could pay it back. Failure to pay a debt could brand a man and in some cases it would cause bones to break and blood to leak out of the body and in extreme cases even death would occur.
There was a phone in the store and he sold comic books too. People were tried, convicted and dealt with for things like child and wife abuse; on the other hand money was raised for hardships like health problems and surgery.
That old general store sorted out wars, it lived through depressions, social programs even segregation, I never saw a black person until I was 21 years old and was drafted into the military. But I had learned in that old store that all men are created equal. I learned that America was the only place in the world where a man could create his own destiny. Also I learned that a man should offer up his life for God and Country.
I wonder what would happen if every convenience store would install a checker board and welcome old timers like me to share stories and knowledge.
By no means am I saying that those were the good old days, that they were, but times were hard, my day began well before dawn and ended with the light of a lantern. Very, very few people were overweight because we worked and we all worked hard, we chopped wood to heat and cook with. We canned and preserved our food. We plowed our fields with horses and planted many acres of land to feed our livestock. We had no electricity, no car, no running water and an outside toilet. That reminds me of a story; Papa ( my grandfather ) got a real letter, that company was coming, so he wrote to Sears and Roebuck and asked them to send him some toilet paper, Sears wrote back to look in the catalog and send the catalog number and they would be glad to send the toilet paper to him. He replied with these words, Mr. Sears if I had a catalog, I would not need any toilet paper.
One thing I remember from that old General Store is the smell, feed, tobacco, fertilizer, leather, sweat and have you ever smelled love.
Every now and then a stranger or a drifter would stop at the Revis store, my, my, what a welcome visit that was because with him came new stories and world news and if he happen to be driving a car that was certain to be the center of attention. One time I walked into Mr. Revis’ store and there was a stranger sitting in the corner behind the stove where the checker board use to sit. This stranger was very exciting and such stories he could tell, to me he knew everything, the old timers would sit fixed in the rocking chairs, buckets, barrels and on the floor just staring at him and listening to his every word for hours on end. He had images, drawing and music, his knowledge was endless. Every week day about 6pm a fellow called Walter Cronkite was with the visitor and every Saturday Marshall Dillion had stories of the old west he was followed by wrestling.
I left home shortly after the visitor came, but last year I was back at the store, the 3rd generation of Revis’ still have that old store and the visitor was still there in the same place, he was more colorful, slimmer and much larger and his voice was strong, Many people was listening and looking at him now, the visitor was so popular that he now had a name tag, SONY. Did you know that SONY stands for Standard Oil of New York.
I stayed a while and my mind went back to those wonderful years, no one noticed that I was a stranger drifting though, the old store had many additions and was quite large. I bought a Pepsi and a bag of peanuts which I poured into the Pepsi,
I was crying as I left. I realized that the old store had like myself, grown up and became successful in the land of milk and honey. A picture of Jesus and The American Flag still hang above the TV. Some things never change.

Happy Thanksgiving and also the 26th is my birthday I will be 68.
I love Thanksgiving day best of all, it is near my birthday and it is also near Christmas day, I really enjoy Christmas day and what it really means but all this commercial stuff about it just destroys the true meaning.
So I put Thanksgiving, Christmas and my birthday in the one big party on Thanksgiving day and then I am done until New Year day which is also special to me.
Around home everybody that can gets together on Thanksgiving day and we pray at meal time. We pray over the meal and give thanks for all our blessings and remember loved ones. We thanks God for being Americans and freedom and things like that, and our troops far away we never forget them.
Boy do we eat, oh mercy do we eat, turkey and ham and all those veggies and pies and cakes. All us old ones and our kids and their kids and their kid's kids, o there is just a big crowd of us and I think about my Mama because that is where we use to gather but Mama has gone to heaven. Depending on the weather things range from a football game to 15 monopoly games going on at the same time because there is a crowd of us.
Then we eat some more.
There is plenty of conversation and all those kids laughing, running, screaming, fighting and oh yea us not forget a cry ever now and then, I just love it. And last year two of the men grown ups had a little too much to drink and a fight broke out. At first there was just some cussing and shirts being pulled off, one was scared and the other one was glad of it. Then I think one of the drunks fell into the other one and the wrestling match was on. I was kinda enjoying it till sides were being drawn and the war between in-laws and outlaws was just about to begin. But I being the eldest made it my job to break it up.
We eat some more.
The girls will play cards and the guys will watch a ballgame on tv and we will divide some food as the gang starts to leave.
I along will eat some more,
look at the pictures I took, reflect on my blessings, store them in the computer then go to bed.
Happy Thanksgivings may God Bless

Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team

Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team

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I enjoy my computer

I enjoy my computer – Too much-
I love being retired, but as it has been all my life there are not enough time in a day, and after spending most of my life working, long ago I learned to plan my work then work my plan. Now retirement is no different. At work I only had one thing to do, work efficiently. At work every hour was planned well in advance.
My schedule is all screwed up now. I go to bed when I get sleepy and after about 5 or 6 hours I am ready to get with it. And my plans are monthly or quarterly.
One thing I really enjoy is visiting my family and friends, and that creates a major problem, it don’t matter which family member I visit first someone gets mad because they weren’t first. Now here is my plan for dealing with that. I rented my house and now I go visit with the intention of staying forever. Ha ha, my kids will never outsmart me.
Life is just as full as it can get.
But, back to the computer issue. It is the finest invention since the printing press. I am addicted to email, chat and web construction, with it I cannot get bored or feel neglected because it gives me its undivided attention with companionship, knowledge and the ability to be constructive, as I age it has become my mentor, one only hears the bad stories about the Internet. I have been on the net over 10 years and I have had some bad experiences but all the wonderful things I have encountered far outweigh the bad. The use of a little common sense will eliminate being abused.
I find the only negative aspect about the net is the quick knowledge and recently I have been looking for on line books and heavy reading however I am a handy man and can find out how to fix that crack in the bath room ceiling on line quicker than I can go to the library to get the book.
I have friends on line all over the world and pictures of kind, loving and peaceful people, along with pictures of their families and homes. I have notes and emails of their dreams, hopes and prayers for peace.
I can find no fault with the Internet maybe because I am not looking for fault; rather I search for the positive. Life is way too fast and now we have fast language like very short sentience’s and terms like pitr, wymp, brb, lol lmao, asl, you know very well what I am referring to.
I do spend to much time on my computer, everyone has a vice, mine is the web, it come in second to nature, now there is where I get lost, I love to travel to new places and camp, walk and listen to life around me, meet and make new friends, eat like a horse and take the time to enjoy the life around me. Yes I love this retirement.
You, yes you reading this, take the time to write me and practice your typing and use of our Queens English as proper as you know how, share a part of your life with me because you are the most important person in the world as far as you are concerned, well at least I think you are. You can read and post a story at my website http://ourbiz.us/you.htm
I would love to meet you online.
May God bless and keep you.
Billy

Chinese Maple Tree

 
The tree sits in my front yard. Come see it in early November.

Back Home

I have been gone for over 2 years it was good to come home here are some pictures of where molly and I live.

Pray Today

Barack Obama and Joe Biden. John McCain and Sarah Palin. The options are clear, and the time to choose has arrived. As has the time to pray like never before.