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Michael McLeod

Dave: I made some fixes to update that story and reposted it. 

Honestly I felt like a kid meeting Chief Billie and getting to write about him. Of all the people, hundreds I guess,  that I got to write about, from movie stars to mobsters, I'd choose him as my favorite. It was an honor to write about an authentic seminole indian medicine man. Honestly I'd call it a sacred honor. He was a sweet soul but an angry one. I felt like a little kid in his presence.  There were times that he scared me - his anger, hell, righteous anger, was palpable but futile. I was touched by how that professor described him -- the one I quoted at the very end of the story who compared him to Don Quixote, the tragic dreamer.

But mosty when I think about him I think about his anger. He kept it in but then again as I think I said there was at least one moment when I was alone with him somewhere in the woods and I almost dropped a sacred antique carved ceremonial staff of some sort and a positively primal look of anger came into his eyes and I swear in that moment I saw centuries of pissed off native americans looking at me. sure i was wrapped up in the story and my imagination was at full bore but yes the thought of getting scalped right then and there by the generations of pissed off warriors he represented - i'm exagerrating a little but not much. the fear was irrational but visceral. i really did, at some level, experience - well lets just say vividly imagined - getting killed by billy and the spirits of pissed off seminoles right then and there. i was that immersed and that keyed up by the story i was immersed in. Let me sum up the feeling: I felt their anger just as surely as if they were invisible and silent but absolutely present around me, glaring, angry, a silent crowd from ages past staring angrily at the white man in their midst. I should have included it in my story but I figured people would think me crazy.

looking back now i wish i had put that in the story. but i was too embarrased. i didnt soil myself when it happened but i sure as shit shivered. Logic, of course, tells me that i was deeply involved in the story and that helped fire my imagination to get a little bit too fired up. signed, wimpy paleface journalist

Mark Schweickart

Mike -- Terrific writing. Thanks for sharing. 

Michael McLeod

food for thought from garrison keilor

and thanks mark. and dave, I'm semi retired but still tooling around a bit

dave, the story didn't dissappear. i just took it down and made a fix and put it back up again.

You know, I vowed when I was young that I would choose a vocation that I loved. And when I grew up I kept my promise. It wasn't easy but I loved it.

anyway, keillor, see link below. il miglior fabro, as they say. i's a customary compliment from one writer to another. it means "the better crafsman."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-7RRTWJaqI

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

Hello, friends.  I am pretty sure that it is just my "superb tech skills" at work but I am unable to see any photos on the page "60th Reunion". There is only the title on a blank page. Has anyone else had this problem?  Janie, any suggestions that do not include going to computer classes. :-) Thanks!

David Mitchell

Mine are there, but mostly sideways.

Michael McLeod

did anybody else have parents who came to the foot of the stairs and yelled "don't make me come up there!" if you got out of bed and scurried around after lights out?

James Hamilton, M. D.

David Mitchell

Jim,

My photo insertion button seems to be working.

testing 1, 2, 3 

James Hamilton, M. D.

David Mitchell

Jim,

If you look to the bottom right - very bottom - clear out of the margins where it is purple , there is a "Class Creator".

Click on that and it takes you to a page with an Owl and a blackboard.

In the upper right is a list of actions to click on - click on the far right item "Contact".

That takes you to another page and click on Email. then tell them your problem and they will answer with instructions to fix you issue.

I hope this works - it's been over a year since I had to try it.

David Mitchell

Dolly will be missed.

I like these two shots better.

David Mitchell

Need some help.

I am trying to recall who's house I went to for a class party in the last week of 1969 - not New year's Eve, but about the 27th through the 29th.  

I think the house was close to where Weber and Tibet split, just east of High Street in Clintonville. I thought it was Julie Carpenter's home, but when I asked her a few years back she said it was not her house.

Any clues?

Anybody?

John Jackson

Dave, I couldn't agree more about Dolly. 

From today's The Atlantic newsletter:

Dolly Parton transcended.

It almost didn’t matter what: class, gender, region, musical genre, partisanship. She transcended boundaries in all of them. During an era when politicians act like pop stars, pop stars are expected to engage in politics, and politics divide fiercely, Parton was perhaps the only person in the United States who commanded nearly universal affection. Her death today, at 80, leaves an absence that no contemporary cultural figure could dream of filling.

Parton’s origin story was, in the most literal sense, a rags-to-riches tale. She was born in a one-room cabin in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee, one of 12 children of an illiterate sharecropper father. She memorialized her impoverished childhood in “Coat of Many Colors,” which tells of how her mother sewed her a jacket from rags. 

Janie Albright (Blank)

Dave, a prize to anyone who can correctly name those pictured. I'm not sure. 
 

My photo button is working. Colleen's newest grandchild, Gus.

To those who can't post or have wonky issues, I'd try rebooting or clearing your cache. It's usually an equipment issue when only some experience a problem. 
 

Fred Clem

Dolly singing "Rocky Top" in Neyland Stadium during the Tenn vs Ga game in November 2023.

"Rocky Top" in Knoxville is as big as "Hang on Sloopy" in Ohio Stadium.

She is being escorted by Peyton Manning.

I saw Dolly 5 times in person: 4 concerts in Columbus and one at the Grand Ole Opry.

A truly amazing entertainer, business executive and philanthropist.

Photo from today's edition of the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

John Jackson

So many Dolly gems - a bluegrass rendition of Stairway to Heaven.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Henry David Thoreau had his Walden's Pond and I have mine.It is just across the street and hidden by trees.

Jim

P.S Janie et al - Janet figured out how to get back to adding pictures

Jim

Joseph D. McCarthy

It's so relaxing to be on "Vacation" or whatever you call being away from home.  That's what I thought until I received text and Emails from the indivual who waters our plants and checks to be sure the house is allright.

Dan sent me pictures of three notices posted on our front door from the City's Water Department notifying us of trouble with our water usage.  Seems we have gone through over 20,000 gallons of water since we've been gone and they want it corrected stat.

Called the company we've used for years. They determined that two of our toilets malfunctioned and allowed a constant flushing.  Quickly turned off the water suppling the toilets until we arrive back home and can select new toilet replacements.  Could have been worse, as we worried about all day, but no damage beyond a lot of wasted water.

Have a happy day.

David Mitchell

Janie,

If you were referring to my "Youth in Govt." group photo, I don't know the girls or the guy in the middle but the rest are L to R:

 Mike Radcliffe, Mayor Sensenbrenner, Bill Reed, Larry Wood, and Dan Cody

(not sure if that's what you were asking)

David Mitchell

Scary Question: 

Am I getting older?

Or is it ust that my Doctors are gettng younger?

Michael McLeod

In all seriousness you're right, Mark, and I don't want to come off like a supercilious prick, correcting other people's grammar.  My apologies to Dave and to everybpdy else and trust me I'd be embarrassed for sure if I 'fessed up to all the mistakes I made over the years, most of which got caught by various sharp-eyed newspaper copy desks in Ohio and then in Florida, who saved me from embarrassment.

As my mother would have said, I've got no room to talk.

Mark Schweickart

Mike -- If you are going to be a stickler about other posts' grammar, you might want to correct your own habit of not capitalizing the first words of your sentences. Just saying... (from one English nerd to another).

David Mitchell

I think I may have posted this before so bear with me.

I was still living in Denver and we were back in Columbus on a visit. My parents neighborhood (Overbrook, Yaronia, and Wynding Drive) was throwing a sort of block party. As I stood in line for some food a woman in a pink pants suit came face to face with me, looked me in the face and said, "Hi Dave. Remember me?"

I drew a blank - then it hit me with a shock. She said "I'm Jane (forget last name).

It was sister Frederick ! ! !

She had left the convent and married the Sheiser twins dad. 

Michael McLeod

excellent advice from a recent column in the ny times. wish I'd asked for help more than I did as I was coming up. I especially like the wisdom of the last sentence:

Being a successful self-starter doesn’t mean pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. It’s raising your hand and asking a teacher to explain, once again, a concept you still don’t understand. It’s calling up a former boss for advice. It’s announcing to your team that you’re stuck on an important problem and need their collective brain to solve it. It’s not just stoically making the best of a bad situation — it’s proactively making your situation more supportive. Don’t assume you’re being a burden when you reach out asking for help. Research shows we consistently underestimate how happy it makes others to lend a hand.

Michael McLeod

worth watching. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhz96MPVqKE