“The fear and anxiety that infect humanity today are the results of this degradation of values, this ignorance of what is of significance and what is not, this want of faith in what the elders and sages have handed down as the wisdom of ages. People prefer what is pleasing to what is beneficial.” - Sri Sathya Sai Baba

This song rips me apart every time I hear it. You know how a lot of people have "that one song".

This is mine.





An observation for all you folks with kids. Take it as you wish.

Talk with them, not to them, or at them.
Don't take your time with them for granted, it'll too soon be gone.
Memories aren't a real replacement.

I wish I had gotten to know my Dad better. The irony in a sense (and I'll be honest, a source of not just a little bit of jealousy) is that he was very much a community leader, active in more things than I could remember or list here. So much so, that on the day he passed, it was the lead article on the radio newscasts all during that day, and reported on the front page of the newspaper the next. The funeral home had to open up overflow rooms for the visitation. I don't mean that in a braggadocio sense at all. As I said, selfishly I wished he hadn't been so generous with his time for others. But I also think he did far, far more good in the overall scheme of things doing it his way.

He was a good man.

I'm not bitter, just sad. Bygones, though. If folks are interested, I have some special stories I'd like to tell about my Dad, and how his passing was a direct reason why I ended up on a train going nowhere six months later, and ended up in Edmonton. Or I might save it.

So, today, I have a few classic pictures from the older generations in my family tree. Some of them are a real hoot! (See update at bottom of blog....)




A pageful of shots of Dad. I think the larger one is best. Check out the lapels on his jacket, though!





This is my Grandma and Grandpa on my Mom's side. Grandma died when I was about seven, so I don't remember her too well, but Grandpa....ah, bless his heart! Now HERE is a man who understands the role of Grandpa! He lived in southern Ontario, we lived in the northern part (about 500 miles away, give or take). Now, my Grandpa was a lot of things, but I think it would be safe to say his life was defined by baseball. We used to tease him that he'd be watching one game on TV, listening to another on the radio, all the while going over the stats from yesterday's games in the paper. He was a bigtime Yankee fan (yeah...Lisa!!), and thought people like Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio and all the others from that period were God's gift to mankind as a reward for something...and it didn't much matter what it was!

We didn't have a television when we were growing up. Mom and Dad said they didn't want it interfering with our studies, but I suspect now (although not at the time) there was a bit of budget-decisioning going on too. After Grandma passed, Grandpa soon got in the habit of coming up for Thanksgiving (ours is in October), just around when the World Series was on. (And Lisa's Mom....he drove a Studebaker, so...yup, I know what they are! For any who are confusabobulated: Check the comments on yeterday's entry). He refused to come up and visit unless we had a TV, so every year, Dad would go to the electronics store and rent a TV for a week. (...and Grandpa would always buy a big bag of Orange and Lemon jellies, and another bag of chocolate kisses...also not normally allowed during the year!)

He would frequently walk into town (about 7 miles each way) to pick up a newspaper, and often me and/or my brothers would go with him. He also loved to take walks out through the woods, rustling through the foot-high carpet of dead leaves, with all the incredible colours of autumn. But the most glorious part still was...he smoked a pipe almost continuously, and had the most awesome smelling tobacco that has ever been produced on the face of this earth. And nope, I can't remember what it was. But let me tell you, every now and then, I get a waft of it in a crowd, or walking down the street and my childhood swarms around me instantly.

Whew! Sorry about that! I have a few more pictures I'm going to try and upload into this. I think you'll fine them a hoot.

(UPDATE: Sorry, but I'm afraid you're going to have to wait till tomorrow. I had scanned a few more, but I've been having mega-problems today with Shaw Cable (ISP), with Blogger, and cripeys knows what else. So I finally, in desperation, did a restore to 1 AM yesterday. It seems to have worked, but the scanned pictures are gone because, of course, I did them today! Does that make any sense?

To top it all off, for the last few days, I've lost my address bar at the top of my home page and all Internet pages, and can't get it back! I've gone into tools and checked, and ...yup...it's ticked. Doesn't that mean I want the damned thing? I'm getting frustrated, so it's time to quit.)

PEACE.

Posted by Evydense on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 6:45 p.m. | Permalink