Daily Archives: July 3, 2020
First The Statues, Now The Bugs . . .
First they came for the statues, then they came for the bugs.
Emory and Henry College in Virginia is rethinking their school mascot, a wasp.
Why you might ask?
Well, it seems that the college authorities are worried that people might ignore the all the logos of the aforementioned insect on everything, but might instead think that the school mascot is actually a WASP.
You know, a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
Our granddaughter Piper is housesitting up at Brandi’s while they’re up in OK visiting Lowell’s parents, so Jan and I are heading up there tomorrow morning about 10:30 to have brunch with her.
Really looking forward to seeing her again.
Another in our Where We Were 2 Years Ago Today series.
July 3, 2018
Mommy and Me . . .
I was up early again (this is getting old) wanting to get back working on my generator problem. After reading the service manual over several times, I had list of questions for the Onan Tech Support guy.
As I mentioned, the original guy I had been talking to up in Elkhart, IN was off all week for the 4th holiday, but I found another support guy in Minnesota who was very helpful.
Except today.
When I called the message said that they were all off Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and to call back on Friday. Bummer!
So I ended up spending the rest of the morning and afternoon doing website stuff, and using the Duck Pack & Track system to catalog and store some of my stuff around the rig.
Later in the afternoon we headed over to my Aunt Virginia’s house to have linner/lupper with her. Since we were running a little early I decided to drive through the next subdivision to check out probably the most famous house in Athens, AL.
Designed by renowned architect Paul Rudolph, it was on the cover of Life magazine and reviewed in House & Gardens magazine.
For obvious reasons, I always called it the ‘Parthenon House’. And I dated the girl who lived here, before I went off to college in1966.
It still looks pretty good, at least what you can see of it.
The trees have grown up around it a lot in 50+ years.
We had a great visit with my Aunt Virginia (I’ve always called her ‘Ninny’ because when I was really little I couldn’t say ‘Virginia’. So it always came out ‘Ninny’.
Honestly, it’s always a little bittersweet coming back here every year to visit. All of my remaining relatives are in their late 80’s to early 90’s, with the youngest being 88 and the oldest being 92.
And it seems there’s always one less each year. Which is why we never miss our yearly visit, even if we make a special trip just to come over here, like we did last year.
After we said our goodbyes, and promised we come back by on Friday, we spent some time just driving around, trying to get my bearings with all the changes.
I spent two summers working for a plumbing, heating and air-conditioning company, and a number of the places I helped build are still here. But a lot are gone, too.
In fact in some cases, things have changed so much that I can’t even tell where they were.
We did drive by the house we lived in here after we moved back from South America, and it still looks pretty good.
Glad to see that.
And this is the duplex where Jan and I lived in 1969 before we moved to Beaufort, SC when I started working for the DOD at the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) at Parris Island.
And that tree wasn’t there at all when we lived there.
With the 4th and all, tomorrow looks to be a stay-a-home day. Kinda looking forward to it.
Wrapping up, earlier this evening our daughter-in-law Linda sent over this photo of me that I’ve never seen before.
She said she found it mixed in with some of our son Chris’ old photos. My mother had written on the back, “Gregory the Solemn One’.
But apparently at other times I was a little more cheerful.
I think both of these were taken in early 1949.
Thought for the Day:
Instead of “Have a nice day’”, I think I’ll start saying, “Have the day you deserve”. You know, just let karma sort it out.
