Gkids, Fall and Halloween

We are having a beautiful fall with much color and blue skies.  However, it has been a bit cold.

Planting bulbs

The Mick

Recently I read the biography, "The Last Boy, Mickey Mantle and the end of America's Childhood."  I was surprised and delighted to read that Mantle, my boyhood hero, spent his last days in a home on Lake Oconee.  Sadly, as this hero aged, details of his off the field antics and his alcohol abuse were revealed.  Mantle spent his retirement years promoting casinos, working the baseball card and memorabilia circuit which has now crashed, and dealing with health issues regarding his alcohol abuse.  His marriage was in shambles due to his extramarital exploits and drinking, his 3 sons alcoholics, and his fortune diminished.  He made a living going from one corporate promotion to another, being paid a lucrative salary to hang out in bars or on the golf course.  It was during those years that he met his "girl friend" who brought him to Georgia and introduced him to the developers of Harbor Point Golf Club and community.  Mantle and his girlfriend shared a home there. A street is named for Mantle's son, Billy,  who died as a young adult, and the golf clubhouse has a few photos of Mantle from the annual Mantle tournament.   A small room has a display case of some Mantle memorabilia.  It, sadly, was not much of a tribute to a great player, but somehow befitting the sign of the times.  Boyhood heroes are no longer perfect, and no longer protected from the press.  No, their indiscretions are a feast to the American eye which now appears to be more focused on the flaws of society rather than the achievements.  The "Last Boy", a fitting title for a story that reflects the change of American society.

That  eve, as Barb and I gathered in front of B and P's television to watch the World Series, a picture of Mantle was flashed on the screen. Mantle still holds many World Series records, including most home runs.   It would have been his 80th birthday.  Interesting coincidence.

Penny's New Store

Bogoloo's II opened this spring in a shopping area in the Atlanta area of Brookhaven.  The interior of the store was a "hands on" effort of Ben and Penny as they assembled shelving, lights and racks, as well as building the brick wall behind the check out counter.  Penny's artful eye is in full display at the store.

The stores are all new with apartments rising 3 stories above.

They built the brick wall and put together old doors for the check out counter.

A storage shelf from an auto shop

An old shutter

A metal rolling cart from an auto shop

They built the wall display unit designed for flexibility.

Hang a couple of old doors.

Check out counter

Ben, Penny, Dogs and Oconee Revisted

Our annual visit to Georgia was one of our best, with fine weather, ample time with Ben and Penny, and some real quality experiences on and at the lake.  It is always fun to touch base with neighbors Kenny and Maxine, and this time meet granddaughter Nolie.

Penny, Charlie, and Louie

Neighbor Maxine with gdaughter Nolie

Lake Oconee

A canoe ride up one of the rivers that feed the lake.  Thankfully no gators in this part of GA.

B and P's lake home

Kari's Project

With the summer being so dry and beautiful and with Kari's injury (strained wrist), we have put off completing Kari's  backyard.  Now, as the rain approaches, we are determined to get the grass in by mid October.  We had another 12 yards of soil delivered (now 24 in all) and I brought in another load of crushed rock.  Kari ordered the landscape bricks and she set aside Saturday for a "family project."   It was a warm and muggy day and with Eric, Nathan, Cailyn, Gkids, Barb and Kari, we made considerable progress.  For 10  hours we slogged  it out in the dirt and the sun.   Since there is only a 53 inch clearance to get material to her back yard, everything had to be carted in.  The G kids were great, the "kids", Nathan, Cailyn, Kari, Eric,  even better.  It was a fun and fulfilling day and thankfully the good memories will last much longer than the very sore muscles.

dirt and brick to be carted to the backyard

A back retaining wall goes in first

Goin to take this to my buddy, Eric

Grayson,  now 13 weeks

The first brick

The kids worked hard.  Cailyn appears very strong just 13 weeks after giving birth.

The Skagit

Or would an alternative title be, I want to learn to fish, Barb wants to experience new ways of cooking, so I fish and Barb cooks????

We camped three nights on the banks of the Skagit River in Rockport, WA.  Terry and Nelda had made the arrangements through their daughter Shelly and her husband Scott.  The pinks are running into western Washington rivers, a unique phenomenon of Creation that prescribes the pinks to run every other year.  In the Puyallup there are millions of fish and millions of fisherpeople.  Here on the Skagit, there are some fisherpeople but still millions of fish.  They hit the Skagit this week and we are camped a few steps from the shore.

Scott and Terry at their site

Peaceful and lots of room to fish

It has been a glorious three days of wakening at day break, walking 30 yards to the shore of the river, catching fish which in most cases we release, walking back mid morning for breakfast, fish a bit more, take a long break for lunch, and hit the river again around four and fish till dinner.  Then there is the campfire, hors de oeuvres, gourmet dinner, good wine and stories.

Fun.  The RV made it possible.  Good friends are the link. Terry, Nelda, Scott and Shelly have been a joy.   It has been only four days for us but what a grand experience.  Thank you Terry, Nelda, Scott and Shelly.

Strange Reunion

Nate is really slammed at work and I am pleased that he asked me to help out by picking up some video equipment that he was renting  from a business in Seattle.  As I drove out Denny Way to 15th, I entered a part of Seattle that I had seldom ventured.  I stopped at the given address and the building was vaguely but hauntingly familiar.  Over the next few days I mulled over the vision of that building and came to a conclusion.  As I delivered the equipment back to that address two days later, I inquired to the tech that checked in the equipment as to the history of the building.  The 30ish male sized me up and smiled.  "This was the induction center during the Viet Nam War.  Many of the men your age that come into this building ask that question."  Yes, this is the building that I spent a day in 1969.  I gathered with hundreds to take the intelligence test, followed by several hours of walking from one station to another with only a towel for cover, as they checked every joint and crevice of my body.  Then, fully clothed, there were the presentations of what the process would be for induction.  Finally, the Sargent in charge stated that we could go except for those who may "have an exception".  He stated that if we were not Army eligible we need to go to room such and such.  But he also warned us that a lie goes two ways.  To say that you are not Army ready and you are is a lie.  To say that you are Army eligible and you are not is also a lie.  Both would have repercussions.

I went to the room.  After some waiting I met one on one with an Army doc.  When I presented him with the report from my hematology doctor in Spokane, the doc stamped my paperwork 4F and dismissed me.  A few months later I received an updated status in the mail "1Y - can only be drafted in case of a national emergency."  Thus ended my military "career".   I have often thought of that day and how my life, or loss of it, would have changed if I had not had a bleeding disorder.