I mentioned “good friends” in a prior story and was asked “What makes a good friend?” I believe that friendship means different things to different people. For some of us just knowing someone makes them a friend. For others, an on-going relationship is an important criteria. Here’s mine. Good friends are there whenever you …
47
I don’t remember how old I was when I went to my Aunt Dutch and Uncle Elmer’s twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, but I remember that it was held outside in their yard. They got lots of silver dishes, cards, some money, and one Barbie like doll dressed in dollar bills. I remember thinking that twenty-five years …
The Right Hand and the Left Hand
You’ve probably heard stories about right hands and left hands. The saying goes that the right hand doesn’t always know what the left hand is doing. If you have a relationship with anyone you’ve probably experienced such a conundrum. Husbands plan things for wives, wives plan things for husbands, parents plan things for children, …
Three More Reese’s Pieces
Volcanoes We studied volcanoes in fifth grade. Although Michigan is volcano free, it was a part of our study. Mr. Reese didn’t just talk about volcanoes. He had built one to share with his students. Talk about cool. That was the coolest. Mr. Reese’s volcano was an honest to goodness, as real as it gets, …
Mr. Reese
Mr. Reese was my fifth grade teacher. He was the first male teacher that I had and the teacher that every fourth grader hoped that he would get. All of my other teachers had been “women”. I was happy that I was finally getting a “man” teacher. Don’t get me wrong, I liked all …
Fore!
Starter Set I’ve enjoyed playing golf since the beginning of my teaching career. My parents bought me a starter set for my birthday my first year in the classroom. It was a very simple set with four irons, a driver and a putter. On the first day of having my clubs I was “chipping” …
Notepads and Gigabites
When I neared the end of the teaching portion of my career, personal computers were just finding their way into schools. They started in offices and made their way slowly into classrooms. Apple, PET, Texas Instrument, Atari and several other brands made their way onto the hi-tech scene . Life, as we knew it, changed …
Two Trips to Vegas
My dad was a card player. He liked to play all sorts of games. He, like me, had just one rule. “Tell me the rules before we start.” He played euchre, 500, gin, pinochle, double-deck pinochle and tonk, but most of all he liked poker and blackjack. His favorite place to play blackjack was Las …
James A. Marvin
I met Jim Marvin about 30 years ago at a poker game. I was invited to sub with a group that he belonged to. I liked him right away. Eventually, I became a member of the group and while playing several hundred hands of cards we became good friends. The group took turns hosting …
Time
Time is a funny thing. When we’re young time passes very slowly. Our next birthday and Christmas seem like they’ll never come. Summer vacations are about the only “time” of the year that time passes quickly. I was going through some old school documents from my education career and ran across the following story. …