We were tough. We were mean. We were, well, full of ourselves, and we were only in the seventh grade. After all, we were the biggest kids in the seventh grade and were even bigger than our eighth-grade buddies. Good old Wallace Junior High School, no one who went there can forget it

. An old dismal building that housed the grade school on the first two floors, and four hundred hormone raging animals on the third floor. Anyway, it was a glorious September day, a Thursday, about 2:45 P.M.It was the afternoon before the first flag football game of the year against Mullan. Did I mention we were full of ourselves? My buddy, whose name I will not mention to protect the guilty, but his initials are SK.,and I decided that we did not have to attend the last practice before the game. Why?, you ask, well I can't exactly remember, but it had something to do with the fact that we were first-stringers, the two biggest guys on the team, and we were, well, special. At least we thought we were special

. So instead of going to practice, we snuck past the park, cast a wary eye behind, and went home. The next afternoon we boarded the team bus and headed to Mullan. When we got to the field, Mr. M, our coach told the first string to go to one section, the second string to another section, and, well, you guessed it, SK and I were told to go off by ourselves, and throw the football around. We were no longer first string. We were not second-sting. We were not even thrid string, we were the Zombie squad, a disgraced squad of two.

 So off we went by ourselves to warm-up. Our egos bruised, no longer the legends in our own minds, we started to pass the football to each other. On the first pass from SK to me, I caught the ball on the side of my middle finger on my right hand, and the bone shattered like a matchstick.I never did tell SK he broke my finger, but on the slim chance he is somewhere out there reading my blog, I am telling him now." SK, you shattered my finger". About that time, the coach decided to insert us in the game.

 Nauseated, finger throbbing, I went in. I swear the kid I was facing on the other side of the ball must have known my finger was broken because he seemed to hit it on every play. I went to the sideline and told Coach I thought my finger was broken. He roughly felt it, and said"you're not hurt. Get back in there." After the game, my mother took me up to the old Wallace Hospital where Dr. Ned said"you shattered it" A hard lesson, a bitter pill. I never again missed a practice. The football gods had punished me enough.

Here are my all-time favorite things to wonder about at night..

 

Here are my all-time favorite things to wonder about at night..

Recycled Toilet Paper--Hm, now, just how does that work? 

Or forms that say "THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK". Now, when they print that, that makes the space not blank, making the statement untrue.

 How about on Christmas lights where is says " for indoor or outdoor use only" It there any other kind of use?


How about on a prescription bottle where it says to take "ONE, pill two times a day." Now , how do you take the same pill more than once

 So, you see, there are many mysteries in life, and they keep me awake at night wondering about them. 

When Baseball Was King--The Gem of Burke

Be still, be very still and listen to the cool summer breeze as it darts around the thick cluster of trees that sit on the green hillsides. Be still, for the breezes are trying to direct your attention to the swaying branches that are beckoning you to listen, listen, and be still, be very still.

There it is, faint and far away, but it is getting clearer and louder in the still silence of the forest. Yes, you can begin to make it out a little better now. It sounds like the chatter of some men. Yes, that is it. It is chatter, and as the sound gets louder and clearer, the dense forest of trees part aside, and there it is in its full beauty, The Gem of Burke, a perfectly cut, flawless, diamond. The men chattering are on the diamond, and there are multitudes of men, women, and children sitting in wooden bleachers yelling, clapping, shouting, and grumbling as a lone man stands in the batter's box. And then, the unmistakable sound of wood hitting ball. The fans in the stands are on their feet and in unison, as if it is a well-rehearsed choir, sing out a mighty cheer as the ball arks, and then sails higher and higher, orbiting into space, and over the outreaching hands of the men in the field. It plummets down on the hillside and the batter races around the diamond at full speed until he reaches safely home.

The game is over, and the fans begin to leave.it has been a splendid summer, and baseball was reigning supreme in Burke. The fans and players thought that it would never end.

Go up to Burke past the power station, and follow the path down to the old park. There is not much left now, but if you are still, very still, and will let them, the trees are just waiting to tell you a story of long ago when baseball was king, and when the Gem of Burke was the queen.

Gaither Vocal Band, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Gatlin Brothers - Jesus Love...

When The Corner Was More Than a Corner

It was more than a bar, more than a magazine stand, and more than a place to buy a  Cherry Coke that did not come out of a can or a bottle but was made with cherry syrup and Coca-Cola mix. It was also a place that was more or less forbidden for me to go up there when I was young because of the drinking that was going on there


 The Corner was one of those places in the 1950's and 1960s that allowed beer only drinking because Idaho had a strange law back then that allowed a 20-year-old to drink beer, but you had to be 21 to drink the hard stuff. I use to chuckle when I envisioned a young person who at the stroke of midnight jumped in maturity from 20 years old to 21years old and could now be man or woman enough to handle straight shots.


As I got older the Wallace Corner became the place that would fuel my dreams of big cities were there was " real" life, as I thought of it back then. So, on Sunday afternoons I would trudge up the street and purchase a news paper from Los Angels, Cleveland, NY, San Francisco, or Seattle. I would take my future road map home and read every word from those major papers and dream of getting on a bus and heading for one of those cities. It was years later that I finally realized that life in Wallace and life in North Idaho WAS the real life that I wanted.


Yes, the Wallace Corner was a very large part of Growing up Wallace.

Always Faithful

 Things change, people change, cities change, but God is always faithful 

Chips Ahoy

 Of course, you want to impress your spouses' new boss, and when you know that he is bringing his wife and kids over from Spokane to neet you and your kids, the pressure is on. My parents were not in the least formal dining or party type people, so it was mutually decided that we would all meet at Pottsville, and have a good old-fashioned hot dog roast and picnic.

It was the late summer between my 3rd and 4th-grade years of school, and a day at good old Potsvville sounded splendid, and if anyone knew he to do a great picnic, it was my mother. The potato salad that made you want to jump into the bowel and devour it all, baked beans, chocolate cake, fruit, and not but not least, potato chips.was gourmet dining outdoors.

The fire for roasting was ready, the sticks sharpened with a perfect point for holding the hot dog over the fire, and all of the salads, sides, and deserts stood ready to go.

As we finished roasting and began placing our hot dogs on buns, lading them with relish, mustard, or whatever your choice, my mother was standing over the table with a frantic look on her face. It was then she softly choked out, "where are the utensils?" It seems like in the check-off list something had been left behind. We had salad, cake, and other things like beans, but we did not have spoons, forks, or even a butter knife. 

While most of us stood looking like we had to figure out how to solve world peace, my dad's new boss's wife picked up a large chip and began dipping. Soon, like an ancient people learning a new survival skill, we all grabbed new chips and got small helpings. Of course, that did create a problem with the cake, but other than that we all got our fill, and everyone agreed it was a great time and an unforgettable first meeting.

By the way, my dad turned out to be one of his boss's favorite employees for the next 10 plus years.

Half Up The Ladder

 Thought for today:

Are you a full-time Christian or a part-time Christian? Jesus wants us to be all in.

He Has Risen

 

Paid in full

 Three of the most important words ever spoken were heard from Jesus Christ as he neared death on the cross. And with the mighty declaration, He wrapped up the end of sin problem that separated man from God.       "IT IS FINISHED", an accounting term meaning paid in full. My sins, your sins, the sins of the whole world, all-time, were paid for, to be remembered no more. All that we have to do is accept it by faith, and let Christ come into our lives. He paid it all, the most beautiful words. 

Am I driveling or am I sniveling?

 Hello again from the lost land of Wallace. The snow is falling, the temperature is plummeting, and I am debating about which direction this blog is going to go .We have traveled together from The Bronx to Burke, from Wallace to college in Kirkland, from hotel to hotel, and from family tragedy to celebrations of life. We have laughed together, and we have wept together and I have always enjoyed sharing my life and also sharing my home town memories.

Two months ago I hit a writer's block, and I could not even construct a complete sentence. I am slowly coming out of that, and in the meantime my life has changed in various ways. I just want you to know that I am still here, and I am going to continue to write. I will be back writing in about a week. In the meantime I leave you with this thought.

Ist John 4:10-NIV

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.