In My Dad's Words

In July, my father, Joseph Wayne Thrower, passed onto his eternal reward after a several-year battle with cancer.  Dad and I didn't always see eye-to-eye, and as a matter of fact it is safe to say that we were somewhat estranged, but we still did communicate from time to time.  However, Dad did have a lot of things that were admirable about him, including a distinguished Army record he held while he served in the Vietnam conflict between 1966-1972.  He and my mother actually met on the island of Okinawa back at that time, as both of them were Army personnel then.  That is something I have always been proud of both my parents for too.

In going through his things, the lady who is handling Dad's estate came across a sort of "journal" he kept just a short time before he died, and although there is not a lot in it, he did chronicle some things about his military service that I feel should be shared.  Dad had for many years been an advocate for veterans like himself, and he worked with the POW/MIA organization as well as being involved in the American Legion.  His veteran status was an important part of who he was, and he made a point of making sure vets were treated with the respect they deserved.  In this account, he talks in detail about his early days in the military when he enlisted and went through his "boot camp" experience, as well as his experiences to a degree on Okinawa and later in Germany as both working with the missile program as well as being an MP.  Some of the language may be a little coarse in this, so be warned - he is bearing his soul, so he is "keeping it real" in a matter of speaking.  Anyway, without further commentary, I will now share his insights here.

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It was May of 1966, one week before graduation from high school.  All of us were talking about the draft and going to Vietnam, and most of us were scared shitless at the thought of going off to war.  Most of the guys I went to school with had never been any further than the next state north or south of us. I was worried about getting drafted, my grades were not the best, and I had never really applied myself other than chasing after the girls.  My friend P.T. and I started talking about going into the Army on the "buddy plan," which my father tried to talk me out of until he was blue in the face. My father had served in the Navy during WWII and knew what war could and would do to you.  We graduated in June and P.T. and I went and talked with the Army recruiter who painted such a wonderful picture of all the wonderful opportunities the U.S. Army had to offer; so, we enlisted with a 60-day delayed entry plan to go active in August on the "buddy plan" so we could stay together.  I was working then for a roofing company putting on tin roofs and it was hard work with long hours.  I went home and told my father I had enlisted, and I thought he was going to cry.  He got mad to begin with and told me that I was going to end up in Vietnam and could be killed.   I felt invincible then and told him I would get drafted if I didn't join, and at least this way I would get training that I could use later in life (which is what I thought then).  It seemed like the next 2 months were gone in a flash.  

In August, we went to the recruiter's office and reported in and took us to the bus station along with about 20 other guys.  We boarded the bus, and there were people on there from all walks of life - some farm boys, fishermen, college guys - all of them looked very young to be taking this journey into the service.  However, we all talked about it and seemed eager to get the physical exams and whatever else we had to do over with.  A few of the guys were talking about ways to avoid going in, most of whom had a draft notice.  One of the guys started talking about some of his hometown friends who had been killed in Vietnam, and everybody got quiet for a while.  We arrived at the exam station which was located at the Naval base in Jacksonville, FL. I never saw so many guys in one place at one time.  We exited the bus and a loud mean-looking Marine sergeant was screaming orders at us telling us to get into a formation; there were guys with long hair, beards, weird clothes, and all of them were staring at this short-haired, mean Marine sergeant in a pressed uniform.  I believe everyone was scared as hell as to what to expect next.  We were marched into this large medical building and were told to take a basket and take all of our clothes off except our socks and undershorts.  Now, here we were - it seemed like there must have been thousands of guys in their underwear and socks lined up in front of offices.  The first office I entered was where they were taking blood and temperatures.  When they finished with me, I came out of there with a bleeding arm and a piece of paper.  At the next stop the psychiatrist asked a few stupid questions, stamped my piece of paper, and told me to go to the next office.  After a full morning of these exams, we were given a bag lunch and a can of Coke and told to go sit under the trees across the street and eat.  After lunch, everybody was talking about how they hoped they would be sent home soon.  Thinking to myself, "oh no!", the stern Marine sergeant who greeted us so pleasantly earlier comes back, and this time he is carrying a list.  He then called about eight people out and told them they had failed their physical exam and were to proceed to a bus for their return home.  Then he read off a list of the draftees and told them which branch of the military they had been assigned.  Then our turn came, the enlistees.  We were told to go to specific areas that had signs for each military branch.  I made my way to the one marked "Army" along with my friend P.T.  In a little while an older Army sergeant came to us and told us to get in formation and follow him.  We were taken to a barracks used by transit troops containing bunks with mattresses but no bedding.  He proceeded to read off a list of names and told us where we would be reporting for basic training.  Then, he marched all of us over to a large open building, and there an officer gave us each a sheet of paper and were were told to raise our right hand, facing the flag in front, and recite the words on the sheet.  At the end we all said in unison "I do," and the sergeant announced "you are now a member of the United States Armed Forces." We left there and went to the mess hall where we were fed supper, the best food I remember having since I had left home.  We then returned back to the barracks and by now it was around 7:30 PM.  The sergeant told us that buses would be arriving at different times to take us to the bases we had been assigned to undertake basic training.  At approximately 9:30 PM, a list containing my and PT's names was read off and we were to board the arriving bus.  Upon boarding, I noticed that the destination plate on the bus read Fort Benning, GA.  We arrived at Fort Benning around 2:30AM, and we disembarked the bus while being screamed at by a little skinny asshole Corporal.  They herded us into a large room and briefed us, telling us that we now belonged to the Army and everything we did from then on would be done the Army way. Someone asked where the restroom was and had to do 50 pushups for saying "bathroom" instead of latrine. We went to another room where we were asked to disrobe all of our clothes except our underwear.  Then we were issued a cardboard box to place all of our clothes into, and told to write our address where to send them.  We then proceeded down a line and received three pairs of socks and underwear, then our uniforms, boots, jacket, hats, and dress uniforms, as well as a duffel bag to store them.  The next stop in the process was the barber shop, where the long hair of some of the guys was gone and everyone got a very short haircut.  We then were marched back to the barracks where we were assigned beds as well as what platoon we would be part of.  During all of this going on, the last time I saw my buddy P.T. was when we were in the room sending our clothes home.  I looked around for P.T. and could not find him anywhere (so much for our "buddy plan!").  The next morning at 5:30 we were in formation for roll call, after which we were directed to the mess hall for breakfast.  After breakfast we went back to our barracks, and made our beds, swept the barracks, and cleaned the latrine. After 6 weeks that seemed like an eternity, we were at the final week of basic training, and I was given orders to report to Fort Bliss, TX for advanced individual training as a Nike Hercules missile crewman. Graduation Day from basic training was celebrated with my dad, mother, and girlfriend coming up to see me and I got to visit with them for an hour or so before leaving for Fort Bliss.  It was sad for me to have to say goodbye to the ones I love and then travel halfway across the United States, but I belonged to the Army now.  I arrived at Fort Bliss with one guy from my hometown that I went to school with.  

Fort Bliss is the sandiest place I have ever seen; not a lot of grass, but just sand.  Shortly after I arrived, I got to witness my first sandstorm, and was actually caught in the middle of it.  The next morning I woke up and could hardly stand on my feet - I had severe pain in my feet, and went on sick call.  The doctor who examined me told me that my arches had fallen, and after I asked what I could do about it, he said nothing except just stopping and resting when the pain got severe.  I told the doctor he could send me home but he just laughed at me.  The following weekend, we got our first passes, and everyone was planning on going across the Rio Grande to Juarez in Mexico.  I didn't know what to expect! In Juarez, it seemed like everything was on the market - whores, bars, and about everything else..  Back then, it cost about two cents to go into Mexico, and three to come back to the US.  As it was getting close to time to graduate from the basic missile crewman school, I was given a 30-day leave before my first assignment.  Graduation day came finally, and although it was too far for my folks to attend, I still felt a sense of satisfaction.  I then found out I was assigned to Okinawa, an island off the coast of Japan, and found no reason to complain because it meant that I had avoided the action in Vietnam thus far.  I got to go home for Christmas 1966, when I also got engaged, as well as getting to see some old friends and spend time with my family. 

The day came to leave for Okinawa, which ended up being an 18-hour flight.  I had never been on a plane before, and it was an experience for a first trip.  I arrived on Okinawa, and met this guy who had just arrived from Vietnam.  He was a nice guy, and asked me to go downtown with him for a few beers and the check out the local women.  I told him I didn't have much money, but he told me he had $2600 as he had just gotten paid and that I didn't have to worry about paying for anything.  I drank something called Slo-Gin and it blew me away.  The guy, Roger, found him a girl (whore) and wanted me to hang onto his money so she wouldn't steal it from him.  He gave me $2400 in cash, and said he would be back in an hour or so.  I waited about 3 hours for him, and started to look for him at the whorehouses, but it was getting close to bedcheck for me and I had to get back to base.  I managed to get the sergeant to cover for Roger, and the next morning they called my name and said I had been assigned to a missile site and would be picked up by someone from my new company in an hour or so.  I still had Roger's $2400, and really wanted to make sure he got it. The "Deuce and a Half" truck from the site arrived and I asked the driver if he wouldn't mind waiting for a little while so I could see if Roger could be located.  The driver allowed me about 30 minutes and said he had to get back to the site.  I got into the truck and as we were pulling out of the lot I spotted Roger.  I asked the driver to stop, jumped out, and hollered at Roger, and hearing and recognizing me he came running.  I said, "Man, I have something of yours here," and gave him his $2400 back.  He told me he thought he would never see me again and had just lost that money.  I said, "Brother, I don't want nothing that doesn't belong to me."  Roger then thanked me and we said we'd get together again, but I never saw him after that. 

The missile site I was assigned to was in a remote location on the south end of the the island up in the hills close to where Japanese soldiers at the end of WWII had committed hara-kiri by decapitating themselves.  Okinawa was one of the most beautiful places I had ever served, as the water was beautiful, the women lovely, and all the bars you could ever want.  I was assigned as a Firing Control Panel Operator.  We would conduct tests every morning raising the missiles.  After that, we painted everything around.  It also seemed that every time I looked around I was pulling guard duty there, and always at night.  We always had a dog with its handler on duty with me, and after checking the fences, the dog handler would always end up at the guard shack to warm up and engage in a card game. 

I began to get somewhat tired of pulling guard duty and decided I wanted a change.  Therefore, I re-enlisted for MP duty and was re-assigned to the Armed Forces Police.  Armed Forces Police was excellent duty.  The Armed Forces police virtually ran the island, writing tickets on all highways, and also did patrol duty in the towns.  I worked with a Marine most of the time and we had got a few of the local thieves arrested, and they took out a bounty on us, so we were pulled off the streets and assigned duty at the big stockade as inside guards.  This was one bad place and was the place where murderers and hardcore criminals were sent before being sentenced to Fort Leavenworth.  We had no shortage of crazies from Vietnam there. 

I met a Woman's Army WAC while there and we got married.  I left Okinawa after 18 months and was re-assigned to the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland.  My wife could not come home for another 6 months, but after she came home she was assigned to Edgewood Arsenal as well. My wife got pregnant in 1968 and was discharged from the Army.  I got orders to be stationed in Germany in 1969.  In July 1969 I was assigned to the Big Stockade outside Mannheim.  I thought I had seen some bad dudes in Okinawa, but this place had the baddest of the baddest, and tons of people were incarcerated there for illegal drug possession.  I stayed in Germany until November 1969 when my son was born, and this was my first child and I tried to get a leave to go home.  However, I was advised that the only way I could get out of there was to re-enlist for Vietnam.  I stayed up all night that night and drank while doing some serious talking with friends.  The next morning, one friend and me went to see the First Sergeant to tell him we wanted to re-enlist for Vietnam (my destiny had finally caught up to me).

         - non-dated handwritten manuscript authored by my father, Joseph Wayne Thrower (1948-2020)

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My note:  I am thinking that Dad wanted to add more to this, but perhaps his illness had progressed to the degree that he never got around to it.  It is really unfortunate too, as I believe that a complete account of his experiences would have given some valuable insight.  However, at least this gives some aspect of his legacy, and hope those of you reading it have enjoyed these memoirs of a Vietnam-era veteran and his experiences.  

End-of-Year Reflections

 2020 has been probably one of the weirdest years most of us have experienced in a long time.  And, unlike individual circumstances, the events of this year impacted everyone's life in some way or another.  But, there are many specific things that happened in my own life that I wanted to share in this year-end reflection, and some of what I am about to say is going to come as a shock to some of you who know me and are reading this, but what has happened has happened and life must move forward.  Without further adieu, let me now just "dive in" and share things with you.

The first item is perhaps the biggest, and it is one I was hesitant to share publicly, as only a select few people at this point know about it.  Divorce is always a tragic thing, and no one wants one yet they happen.  In June of this year, Barbara and I decided to separate.  It is not something I wanted to happen honestly, but circumstances forced it, and at this point I have come to accept it as a reality and am looking at it as a new start for myself.  I won't go into the reasons behind the separation, but be assured that despite Barbara and I going our separate ways, we are still close and will always be friends - that is how we started out when we first met each other, and that won't change.  However, the marriage is over, and our relationship as husband and wife is now a closed chapter. With that said, I will leave it there.

The second major thing happened in July, and that was the passing of my dad, Wayne Thrower (1948-2020).  Dad had been sick for some time with terminal cancer, and he had been steadily going downhill after losing his wife Claudia in 2017.  Dad and I have not been overly close for about 14 years - we talked on occasion and kept each other up on how we were doing, but Dad and I were not really as close as we could have been (another long story that most people don't need to worry about).  However, I did love my father, and it was tragic that he did pass away at only 72.  He had much to be proud of too, as he was a Vietnam veteran and he also accomplished a few other things in his life that I found out about after his passing, and it is really quite impressive.  The lady who is handling his estate, Susan Hickox, has been doing a marvelous job, and she made sure that I got all of his mementos and such, and I definitely appreciate that.  I am quite confident that Dad also made his peace with a lot of things when he passed on, so I believe I will see him again one day.  He will be missed by many, and although not a perfect man, he did have a lot of good attributes that are worth preserving and remembering.  Rest Eternal, Dad, until the hereafter occurs for us all. 

Now, how have I held up during all this COVID mess?  Like many of you, I have had to make adjustments - wearing masks in stores, attending Mass a great percentage of the year virtually, and also not being able to go back to work as an independent contractor.  However, there has been good aspects of this situation too - for one, the stimulus money as well as the extra unemployment benefits really have been a boost to me economically, especially with having to reconfigure finances in the wake of a separation from my spouse and all.  God has been good to me this year, and has amply provided needs for us in many ways.  I was also able to settle a lot of my debts, and that really feels good!  There is some uncertainty with the coming year, but as God has taken care of us thus far, it is probably a good idea to trust him to continue to do so.  The election results, which I talked about earlier, also have created a lot of buzz, and we have to pray and hope for the best out of that too, as there are many high stakes up in this election cycle.  However, it has made some people on both sides of the political spectrum somewhat more belligerent, and at times I have had to take a step back from social media to sort of get away from them.  In the bigger picture though, this too will all work out to some degree, so we cannot get bogged down and obsessed with who is going to be President or other issues.  Genuine concern is fine, and we all have that to some degree, but we cannot let that dominate our lives, just like we shouldn't let the COVID mess do so.  Hopefully those are words of wisdom for someone who reads this. 

There were many other things that happened this year too.  In June, I had my 4th-degree Exemplification for the Knights of Columbus, and although a couple of things about the Knights now concern me (I hate the new uniforms for instance - makes our Knights look like a NATO peacekeeping force!) I am still privileged to be a full Knight now and it is still a great thing to achieve.  Also, I finally was able to get a Maryland license, and I got that in September.  Now, with Barbara leaving the picture, it is up to me to invest in a car, which is an objective of 2021.  The other big thing of the year is that I wrapped up my first semester of my Ph.D. program a couple of weeks ago, and did so with flying colors.  Although I really wanted to do this at Catholic University of America, after not "making the cut" there I looked into other schools, and after much prayer and also getting a little guidance from our parish priest, I decided to pursue the Ph.D. in History program at Liberty University, which is completely online and I will have conquered by 2023.  So far, I have liked my doctoral program, and as I write this I am on a 2-month break until my new term starts in mid-January.  The reason this is exciting is due to the fact that it is my terminal degree - after this, almost 45 years of formal education off and on will be done.  In the midst of those big events though also have come some new decisions and opportunities as well, and some things to look forward to in 2021. 

One major piece of news to that regard is the fact that in a couple of months I will be officially a homeowner.  Mom has agreed to go in with me to buy this place, and in doing so it means a new dimension to my life as well.  For one thing, it means roots, as once I buy this place I will not be moving again - at 51 years old now, it is getting a lot more challenging to undertake big moves, and that last one that brought us here in 2017 almost did me in.  After Barbara moves and all the papers can be drawn up to buy the place, we plan on initiating the process in February.  Owning my own home will obviously come with some new responsibilities, but I think I can handle them.  Additionally, I mentioned the purchase of a car - now that I can actually drive one with the proper credentials, I will be looking into a new vehicle at around the same time we start signing papers for the house, and by then I should have the income to make it happen.  It is one of many challenges to come up next year, but it is a good challenge and it's now all a matter of timing.  For the first time in many years, I actually have a new sense of purpose I haven't had in a while and that really is empowering.  I have also come to a decision as far as my religious convictions go too, as the COVID situation has sort of forced me into it.  I am not very happy with the regular Roman Catholic diocesan structure, although it in no way means I am going to go SSPX or sedevacantist though.  However, I have had more of a conviction recently to attend a more traditional Latin Mass (pre-Vatican II) and after the first of the year I will make that happen.  The main conduit of this I am looking into now is about 15 miles away in Charlestown, WV, and is the Priory Chapel of the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem, a traditionalist apostolate in communion with the Holy See but more solidly orthodox than many run-of-the-mill parishes in the area.  In doing so, I am also planning on continuing to be a catechist for the 6th-graders at St. Joseph's, but my new commitments will lead me to something a little more orthodox in faith and less liable to exposure of some "Creaster Catholics" like Joe Biden who identify as Catholic yet disobey everything the Church teaches.  If I am going to be Catholic, I want to be a true Catholic who is faithful to 2000 years of Church teaching and not one of these people who can justify out-of-order "marriages" and killing babies in the womb.  Self-professed Catholics who support such garbage are not true Catholics, and I question now parishes who allow such people in leadership positions.  I know that may sound a little harsh and judgmental, but if the events of 2020 have taught me anything, it is that true Catholics are challenged to commitment, and that means to all of the Magisterium and not just those parts that "sound good" or that can be reinterpreted by a sitting Pope or a bunch of hireling bishops who don't take their obligations seriously.  I think it was Dante Allegheri who said that the path to hell is paved with the skulls of bishops, and the way some of these bishops have been acting, I think Dante was speaking prophetically.  Any rate, this more serious commitment to an orthodox Catholic faith is part of a bigger self-improvement program I plan on initiating during the new year, and I ask for people's prayers as I embark on that, as it means some adjustments for me.  

As for the outlook of 2021, I can best describe my own perception as being both uncertain yet optimistic.  A lot of what is to come requires a "wait and see" posture until we get there, but I am also optimistic in that as God has carried me this far, he will continue to take care of me, and that gives both hope and reassurance.  I pray and hope the best for all of you reading this, and hope everyone has a safe and blessed holiday season ahead, and also a blessed 2021.  Thank you. 

Summer Nights - Memories and Music

 I have just recently wrote about my 38th anniversary of my music collection, and at age 51 now I have been trying to think more about the whys and hows concerning that.  Due to some other things that have been taking place in my life in recent months, I am in the midst of what is essentially a fresh start for myself, and I have been trying to return to some of the better aspects of things I experienced when I was much younger.  At least from the time I was about 10 years old, the type of music I like and have listened to has forged a significant part of my identity, but there are times that feels a little suppressed and I need to share it more, finding a way to articulate it in such a way as to be inspirational and also to give people more encouragement, especially in the times we live in now when terrorists called by names such as Antifa and BLM are seeking to destroy those things many hold as cherished memories, and you have greedy mega-corporatist billionaires obscuring many good things because it is not turning a fast buck for them.  That needs to stop, and it really stops with us honestly - we need to make more of a stand.  At a later time, I want to address this whole mess as a separate subject on my SPT blog, as the radicalism of these evil demonically-driven hordes called Antifa and BLM need to be met and matched by equally zealous militancy on our part (Ted Shoebat wrote a whole book about this I would highly recommend, and will reference that when I tackle the subject).  Being nice and polite is not a language these evil jerks understand, but they do understand it when you show them you are not going to take the crap they dish out.  Anyway, I digress, and want to get back to the subject at hand. There are several vignettes that make up this saga, and I want to talk at length about several of them here.  Let us now begin.

I am going to wax Sophia Petrillo from The Golden Girls here now - picture it; Kirby, WV, the summer of 1981.  An eleven-year-old boy is sitting in his bedroom one night while his single mother, bored and wanting to listen on the radio to something in the nearby room, surfs the AM dial.  Suddenly, a sound comes on the air - it is a good sound that gets that young boy's attention, as he is drawn to it.  He tells his mother in the other room to keep the radio on the dial, and then a short bit later a jovial man who is hosting that radio show comes on the air and announces that this was a record by Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra from around 1937 entitled "Moonlight on the Ganges."  The boy asks himself, what is this music I am hearing, and why is it so good?  The mother, supportive as ever, tells the boy that the station is WBT on the 1110 AM dial, and from that point the boy makes it almost a religious duty to tune into that show every Sunday night from 10PM to 1AM.  That young boy was me, and the show was a Sunday night music variety show hosted by the late Henry Boggan on a very well-known legacy station out of Charlotte, NC.  From that day on, Yours Truly became a huge fan of vintage big band music.  Now, let me tell you what a typical Sunday night was like for me then, especially in the summers when I was out of school.

"Hello Henry" Boggan (1935-2006) from WBT-AM back in the day

Mom had another radio in the kitchen of our mobile home, which was situated on the northwest side of town.  The kitchen had two windows - one faced our front yard then, while the other was adjacent to the local landlady's corn patch that was just across a ditch outside our window.  On a Sunday night, I would sit in between those windows at our kitchen table, with only the small light over the kitchen stove on, while I sipped sugar-laden lukewarm instant coffee or (when more money was available) a can of Pepsi Free and munched on something such as sour cream and onion chips or Dorito's (or in leaner times, saltine crackers with butter), reading a book and listening to some of the best music ever put to record, interspersed with Henry's jovial banter.  Sometimes, I would sit and sketch on paper many drawings - I would try to re-create the orchestra in rudimentary drawings with pencil on notebook paper in many cases, and came up with some goofy characters.  Mom would already have gone to bed by then, and I was allowed to stay up until the show played out that evening.  It was a great thing to look forward to on Sunday nights, and when you were growing up poor in a small West Virginia town with little else to do, it was a nice diversion to have.  Common sense would dictate that records of this music did exist, and at times I would even see advertisements for multi-record box sets in old Reader's Digest magazines people had given us - I became quickly familiar with names such as Guy Lombardo, Glenn Miller, the Dorseys, Fred Waring, Bing Crosby, and others.  And, I always wondered how I could get those records.  Then, as I recounted many times before, a month before my 12th birthday Mom bought my first one for a quarter at the local junk store called locally the "Rio Mall" in the nearby town of Rio, WV, and that started a large collection that now encompasses over 3000 recordings some 38 years later.  But, the story didn't end there - after starting to collect records, it meant that I had more access to my music and could then hear it on more than just Sunday nights.   This is the next part of the story

As I graduated from elementary to middle school, I was buying up records monthly from the "Rio Mall," and eventually I discovered that I could also order those Reader's Digest sets myself, and ended up with six of them in a short span of time.  Although the Reader's Digest records eventually caused me some financial issues - I ordered them without having money to pay for them, which was stupid - I got a lot of enjoyment from listening to them.  The routine at this point was still listening to Henry's show on Sunday nights, but on the weekends I could also listen to new records I got, and I would do a marathon listening session with those big Reader's Digest sets I got - they had between 8-10 records each.  The routine then was to sit in my room, reading and listening to the records, and I would also munch on potato chips or those really good Duncan Hines mint chocolate chip soft cookies (they don't make those anymore, but they were good!), or on occasion I would take supper (we got chicken nuggets and fish squares in bulk from Cox's Store then, and I would enjoy a few of those while doing my listening).  During the summers, I would often have friends that visited - my next-door neighbor Teresa and a couple of other neighborhood kids - and often would listen to those records while sitting in my room playing cards or Yahtzee with these friends, which was fun.  I would have the records on, and often had a plate of fried chicken legs Mom cooked up sitting nearby while playing cards or dice with my neighbor friends while our parents would visit out in the living room or kitchen.  Those were fun memories too.  Many a weekend was spent like that, and it was a good way to socialize too when in a small mountain town without a lot of money or anything else to do.  Looking back at that and reflecting on those times, I miss much about that, and over the years I have lost a lot of that sort of carefreeness.  But, there were moments in subsequent years that still kept me going though.

When I got into high school, we moved back closer to where I grew up, and at the time we took care of a nonagenarian lady and lived in with her a few miles southeast of Terra Alta, WV, out on Salt Lick Road.  Those were good days too, although by that time I was more involved with church activities after becoming a convert to Christ and being baptized on January 9, 1986.  But, I still liked my music.  However, listening to it took on a new dimension, as often I would lay up during the night listening to records or cassette tapes while thinking and doing whatever else I was doing.  I had a world globe I had gotten some time earlier with a lamp in it, and I had the globe set up in a metal cabinet that served as my wardrobe and also my housing for my record collection, which I had culled and reduced.  My music interests at this time took on some new directions as well, as I got into more gospel and sacred music as well as discovering stuff like Igor Stravinsky.  During my days then, especially in the summers, I would divide my time between gathering things in the woods - fiddleheads and wild garlic, and when season allowed, ramps and sassafras roots - and then would practice and refine my cooking skills.  I perfected a sort of stew I made - a spicy reduction containing beef, onions, carrots, and some other stuff - and I also experimented with things such as homemade bagels and pizzas.  The soundtracks of that time were Mario Lanza, Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps, and my newly-discovered vintage recordings of Bix Beiderbecke.  Interspersed with my life then was also my church activities and playing in the school marching band, which also took up a lot of my time and provided me a social life.  As I began the shift from listening to more gospel records, I began to get in my collection some Black Gospel recordings such as Clay Evans's classic From the Ship, as well as vintage LP's of groups like the Roberta Martin Singers.  I was always a big fan of Clara Ward, but it would be several years before she became part of my collection.  Any rate, that was my high school years. 

In college, after spending a couple of years at BBI in Graceville, FL, I heeded some bad counsel from my pastor then and decided to transfer to LIFE Bible College in California, which didn't work out well at all.  However, all was not bad there either.  For the short time I was out there, I roomed in the dorm with two guys, one a nondescript rancher-type from Idaho named Brian, and the other a "surfer-dude" type who somewhat resembled Jason Priestly from southern California named Chris Edwards, and he was the typical Southern Cali-type guy of the time - he ended every sentence with the word "Dude" and talked like he wrote the script to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.  However, he was a good guy too, and I found out he had some diverse musical interests, and he introduced me to something I still like to this day.  In the late 1980's, what used to be known as real jazz was becoming increasingly more rare, as this was the era of the advent of the atrocity known as "smooth jazz," which is not real jazz at all.  However in the late 1980's, there were still some good authentic jazzmen still recording, and one of them that Chris introduced me to was a bassist named John Patitucci.  Let me just preface this by saying up-front that I honestly hate the electric bass guitar, and barely tolerate it even in big bands today, but I can say there are a couple of nice exceptions to that, and John Patitucci is one of those.  I really got into listening to Patitucci's recordings, as they are actually very well-done and consistent with the classic jazz tradition, although they would be considered jazz fusion like Freddy Hubbard and Chick Corea.  I recently was able to find some of those early Patitucci recordings on CD, and have added those to my collection.  While the primary purpose of going to California in the first place was due to bad counsel from certain people I trusted, two good things did come of it - first, I finally got to interact in person with the Armenian-American community, which I had been wanting to do, and secondly, it was meeting some good folks like Chris Edwards who expanded my musical horizons.  And, although California is a place now I would not want to visit - walking through piles of crap and cardboard condos in LA or San Francisco is not exactly my idea of a vacation these days - back then things were a little different, and I saw California as symbolizing two things for me - closer identity with the Foursquare Gospel denomination I was part of then, and closer in-person interaction with my beloved Assyrian and Armenian communities.  Thanks to the internet, I now have most of that anyway, and I have long since grown beyond the Foursquare denomination as I am now a very contented traditionalist Catholic.  The musical bonus of being exposed to a great artist like John Patitucci though was priceless, and I still value that today.

Marriage and the responsibilities of work and other things have sort of suppressed many of these simpler things I used to enjoy in recent years, but as mentioned some circumstances now have allowed me a fresh start, and as I think about these things I am starting to embrace a fresh start as I embrace the good of those times and am re-introducing myself to that.  I now have the music collection of my dreams, and over the years Henry has passed on and WBT as moved on, so I don't get the privilege of listening to that show anymore. Also, in 1988, Henry gave up his Sunday night program and what replaced it was even better - a real big band legend named Chuck Cecil (1922-2019) and his popular big band program he had broadcast from 1956 until 2014, "The Swingin' Years," replaced it, and for many years I listened to Chuck until well into the 1990's on WBT, but also on other stations, the local AM station in Brunswick, GA, at the time (WMOG-AM then) also broadcast Chuck's program and it was my dad that brought it to my attention.  Chuck was the big band enthusiast's dream broadcaster - he was pretty much exclusively big band, and his show had more variety than Henry's did, and it was in many aspects a better show, although Henry's personality was missed.  Chuck unfortunately passed away a year ago at the age of 97, but he left a great legacy.  And, he also has a devoted following (including myself) on Facebook and other social media venues, with his Facebook page being operated by his daughter, who has done a tremendous job keeping his legacy alive.  

The late broadcasting legend Chuck Cecil, host of "The Swingin' Years" show from 1956 to 2014. 

I felt the need to share some of these insights today, as I have been  reflecting on a lot of things lately, and it also serves as a segue way to my end-of-year missive I will be posting next month, as there is a lot to talk about at that time that I want to share then, as I have many items of breaking news from this past year - COVID-19 and other factors have impacted me in many interesting ways, and I will be sharing that later.  Hope everyone has a good week ahead, and will see you next time! 

38 Anniversary of My Music Collection

 38 years - hard to believe I have been collecting vintage big band recordings and classic jazz records for that long!  This has been quite a year of ups and downs due to the COVID-19 issue, unrest and riots, an upcoming Presidential election, as well as a few personal transitions I will be discussing at greater length in a future visit here.  Today though is September 30, and it is the eve of my anniversary of collecting records for all these many years.  As October 1st dawns in about 12 more hours from the time I am writing this, I have a lot of things to update regarding my collection.

First, let's get the stats out of the way.  As of tomorrow, my collection will have a grand total of 1352 CD recordings, 1116 LP records, and 121 DVDs of various vintage big band movies, concerts, documentaries, "Soundies," and the like.  Add to this around 400 or so 78 RPM records and a handful of 45's, the collection has grown quite dramatically.  I wasn't anticipating this much growth this year, but to be honest I wanted to go ahead since I had the ability to do so and finish up my records I wanted to get, including a very nice gem I will talk about more momentarily.  

As mentioned, this collection year was about vinyl LPs for the most part, sort of carrying over from the previous year.  I was able, for instance, to get a large number of the Reader's Digest boxed LP sets I had been wanting, and I have pretty much all of those.  I also focused as well on some individual LPs of stuff I once had in the original collection that was lost in storage back in 1993.  I am at the point now where pretty much all the vinyl collections I was after are now in my collection, and the numbers show as I gained over 200 of them this year alone.  However, one of those sets stands out, and I want to take some time discussing it.

When I was in my 8th grade year at around 15 years of age, the Franklin Mint Record society released a monumental set that I literally drooled over then and I have been after for years since.  That set was The Greatest Jazz Recordings of All Time, and it was a 100-record set consisting of individual discs of red vinyl, and the collection was one of the most comprehensive of its time.  Franklin Mint used to issue a lot of very historic music on record - the other set I was after then, The Greatest Recordings of the Big Band Era, I acquired in 2006, and it was an equally valuable prize to land when I got it.  The jazz set though has proven to be even better than I originally thought it was, as it features (with a couple of exceptions) practically every notable jazz recording made between the years of 1906 and 1985.  The set I was able to get I found on EBay, and the gentleman selling it - an elderly man from Virginia - was an amazing seller.  He was iffy about shipping it, so he and his wife drove here and delivered the set personally, which for me was totally amazing - and, he was also a really nice fellow to meet, him and his wife both.  The set cost me just under $400, and it came with a lot of bonuses too - one was a nice little wooden cabinet that originally was part of the complete collection, and that was something new for me.  Also, the index of the recordings was impressive as well - although the spines of the individual boxes the records are in (4 records to each box, 25 in total) have the major artists featured in that particular volume, there is a lot more in them too - I was blown away when I got to really see what I had landed in my collection, and it was worth the 34 years waiting to get it.  That was the collection that put my vinyl numbers over the 1100 mark too, and it was well worth the investment.  

The Franklin Mint Jazz set in its cabinet, sitting in my office now with my CD recorder on top of it.

The massive index of the Franklin Mint set included in Album 25, the last volume

The Franklin Mint jazz set may or may not be my last LP acquisition, as at this point I have no collectible prospects now that I have gotten pretty much everything I was looking for.  But, it is definitely one of the pinnacles of the LP collection for sure. 

As for CDs, it was a good year for those as well.  Among my CD acquisitions were complete collections of Stan Kenton's early Capital recordings (in a boxed Mosaic set), as well as some of his classic Capital LP's from the late 1940's and early to mid-1950's.  Additionally, I also have a complete set now of Nat "King" Cole's early trio recordings starting from 1938 or so.  I also broke down and got a Frank Sinatra collection on CD - not a spectacular one, but it has many of his best sides on it.  I also focused as well this year on things such as Christmas recordings of big bands, an entire collection of legendary society bandleader Griff Williams' vintage LPs on CD, a good Ozzie Nelson 2-disc collection, and also a few more recent things - I have added some modern experimental big bands, such as the Vienna Art Orchestra and Toshiko Akiyoshi, to the collection as well.  And, some other unique Stan Kenton collections - his experimental mellophonium sound of the early 1960's, a live road show with June Christy and the Four Freshmen, and a DVD of his last live concert in 1978.   Speaking of DVDs, it has been a good year for those as well - a Spike Jones documentary, the 1981 Benny Goodman Tivoli concert in Copenhagen, and a few vintage big band movies among other things. Overall, not a bad collection year.  

I also did a little something different this year with my collection as well, as I got a personal token for it.  As I have mentioned in many past discourses about this, my first record was bought on October 1, 1982, and Mom had gotten it for me from the local "Rio Mall" in Rio, WV, for a quarter.  It was nothing that really was relevant to my current collection, as it was a Harry Belafonte LP, but I wanted to do something special and get it for posterity.  I purchased an album frame for it, and in the frame I included a picture of the "Rio Mall" and some historical detail.  When all of the dust settles from some rearranging of the house in a few months, I intend to mount that on the wall in the room where my music collection is.  I was going to wait until Year 40 in a couple of years to do that, but then figured that I needed to strike while the proverbial iron was hot, so I did.  I think it was a good decision honestly, and it is going to look nice on the wall along with some other decorations I will be adding at a later date.

The framed 1955 Belafonte RCA-Victor LP, representative of the first record I ever got in my collection

Any rate, "it was a very good year," to quote a later Sinatra classic recording, for my collection.  So, what does the new year bring as far as collection prospects are concerned?  I now want to briefly discuss that. 

At this point in my music library, I really don't have a whole lot on the "bucket list" to get as far as existing availability is concerned, save a couple of very important jazz collections I have an eye on.  The first is an import set called The Ultimate Jazz Archive, and it consists of 168 CD's of practically everything significant in jazz recorded between 1895 and the mid 1980's - it is roughly equivalent to the Franklin Mint LP set, but different chronologically.  A second 100-disc set that is hard to find because not all of them have been reissued is called Jazz in the Charts, and it is also a Japanese import that features a chronological sequence of 100 discs covering the 1890's through the early 1950's.  I want to eventually get both of those, and the first one will be easier as it is readily available on Amazon and EBay at a fairly decent price brand-new.  I am also after still the 24-disc Duke Ellington Centennial set that RCA released back in the early 2000's.  So far, not much success there, as I want to get those brand-new and most are actually used that are available.  I don't anticipate the Ellington set being part of my collection for some time, so that is tabled.  The other two sets though I will actively look for, as it is important to acquire those.  There is also a third 500-CD collection which will prove seriously challenging to get, and it is practically a whole library in itself.  That one we may think about later, but it is not urgent to get at this point.

The Ultimate Jazz Archive set - 168 CDs total

The Jazz in the Charts collection - 100 CDs total

The massive World's Greatest Jazz Collection - 500 discs total

These massive sets are reminiscent of the old Franklin Mint collections that used to be marketed in earlier decades, but they contain much more material than a 30-minute LP record can hold.  If these sets were LPs, they would probably dwarf the Franklin Mint sets easily.  Two of these collections are readily available, and the third may be in due time.  But, they are also expensive and will not happen overnight either. 

The focus of my collection will be shifting in the coming year from acquisition to maintenance and utilization, as I will be attempting to incorporate my hobby into other projects I work on.  Given I am working on a Ph.D. in History right now, these could play a crucial role in class projects or even future historical documentary research, as it provides a cultural backdrop to many historical events and periods.  It is time that I make this collection work for me, and I want to find creative ways to make that happen. 

At 38 years, my music collection has exceeded my wildest expectations from where it started, and I am quite excited about it.  By the time I reach Year 40 in a couple of years, it remains to be seen where we will be at then, but in the short term I don't foresee a lot of dramatic growth from this point in the collection.  Also, I need to catalog it better as well - at present, I document every record and CD in a large binder as an inventory tool, but I want to really do a database of the collection that is more efficient.  I started the hand-written inventory back in 2006, and it has an ordered numbering system and alpha arrangement for each item in the collection.  In upgrading the inventory, over the next couple of years I want to do a two-step process:

1. The first step is to take all the inventory listings and put them on individual index cards, meaning that I can rectify any duplicate catalog numbers and also make them into a better organized order.

2.  Once the card system is set up, the next step is entering them into an Excel spreadsheet and saving them.  An electronic spreadsheet is much easier to enter new acquisitions, and it is also less cumbersome and I don't have to mess with my own scratchy handwriting.  

As the catalog system is rebooted in the next few years, and as I find a better display home for the collection in due time, I am hoping that my collection will be something that will provide both enjoyment and education for years to come.  And, as we go toward Year 39 now, I will be back to share any interesting insights when I make my annual reflection.  Thanks again, and will see you soon. 

Long Absence - Time to Catch Up Some

 It has been a couple of months since last writing anything, and to be honest there is good reason for that - a lot of personal transitions are going on in my life right now, some of which I am not at liberty to chat about at this time but will at a later date.  But, I needed to write in order to assure those who care to read this that I am still alive and well.  That being said, let's talk about some things.

We all can agree that the year 2020 has been probably one of the most bizarre years we have had in a long time.  We have all been affected to some degree - the social distancing measures, the masks, etc.   And, that is just the COVID-19 stuff!  There have also been riots all over the place, instigated by Marxist terrorist organizations such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter, and to top that off it is an election year.  All of these things have impacted us in a lot of ways, and we have been coerced essentially into embracing a new definition of "normal."   However, the good thing about the human race is that God imbued us with a resiliency to adapt and "make do" with the circumstances, and like everyone else I have done that with a significant degree of success.   I do miss some things though - like attending Mass in a regular church, eating Mongolian BBQ at the local Chinese buffet, and actually being able to breathe without a mask over my nose when I go into a supermarket or other public arena.  However, this too shall pass within time - something tells me the Presidential elections may be a key to determining the end of the situation but that is just me.

In addition to experiencing a lot of these things as part of the greater society, I have also been faced with some personal transitions of my own, including the death of my father last month and another big life-changing circumstance that I cannot divulge a lot about at this time.  Additionally, with the acquisition soon of my Maryland driving license and starting my PhD. program in a couple of weeks, it has been a busy summer season for me.  But, again, I am at this point at the threshold of a new chapter in my own life, and it is a chapter that is starting off a bit hectic but will begin to fall into place once the initial dust settles from the transitioning. 

I mentioned my PhD program, and I wanted to talk about that for a bit.  Back in February, I had a huge disappointment when Catholic University of America, where I was hoping to pursue this, turned me down for admission due to the fact I didn't have enough prerequisite coursework for the program, which personally I thought was a bunch of BS but it is what it is.  So, that left me in a bit of limbo as to how to continue to get this terminal degree, and I finally - after a LOT of inner debate! - settled on Liberty University.  Liberty as you know is a large Evangelical Protestant university founded in the early 1970's in Lynchburg, VA, by Baptist evangelist Jerry Falwell.  While a solid bastion of conservative values, I was honestly a bit apprehensive about the whole thing as I am now Catholic and I really wanted Catholic coursework for my doctorate program.  So, I changed my educational goals slightly, and was accepted a couple of months back into Liberty for the PhD in History program, which I think will be compatible both with my career aspirations and my Catholic convictions.  I am now at peace about doing this, and my start date is on August 24th - hard to believe in less than two weeks from when I am writing this I will be embarking on my doctorate, a long time in coming!  I was also blessed with full financial aid to enroll in the program, and I can also graduate from it in 3 years with my doctorate, which is fantastic.  I am a little apprehensive, but the excitement of getting this accomplished far outweighs any apprehensions I have.  It was a bit of a detour I didn't expect, but it will get me to the same destination regardless.

The next part of all this is a bit of inner reassessment with my Catholic faith.  I will remain a Catholic until I die, I know that, and that is not even the issue.  The main thing about that is deciding now, given circumstances, how to remain Catholic in a regular parish where many fellow parishioners often espouse certain spiritual and theological views that are at odds with traditional Catholic doctrine. I will deal with the specifics of that on my other page, as that is an ecclesiastical/theological issue, but I wanted to explore the personal dimension for myself here.  I have always been somewhat more conservative and staunchly a traditionalist as far as my faith is concerned, but often I have had to settle for less than what I really desired.  In recent weeks, I have been doing some inner reflection on that, and have decided that at some point this year I will begin attending a more traditional Latin Mass downtown here at the nearby parish of St. Mary's.  The Ordinary Form of the Mass (or Novus Ordo) is the primary Mass that is celebrated at most Catholic parishes, including at St. Joseph's where we attend now.  This Mass is the product of some post-Vatican II revisions in the Catholic Mass that were instituted beginning around 1969 or so, and it is considered the "regular" Mass of most Catholics.  I am not totally against the Ordinary Form at all, as in the past I have attended some very reverent Ordinary Form Masses, and if done properly, it can be a spiritually fulfilling Mass.  But, the problem for me is some of the "tweaks" that some clergy and lay leaders like to incorporate into the Mass - guitars, and the use of secular songs such as "My Sweet Lord" and "Little Darling" as Communion hymns - that is really taking innovation too far.  Also, the attitudes of some laity in these parishes at times scare me - I mentioned the encounter a couple of months back with a local member and leader in our Knights of Columbus council who was actually defending Saul Alinsky, a notorious Marxist, and also more or less saying his feelings matter more than Church teaching, and yet this guy has parish leadership - I have nicknamed this individual Count Dooku, as like that fictional character from the Star Wars story he is a Sith posing as a Jedi (or to put it in Scriptural terms, a wolf in sheep's clothing).  I have heard other things too, and also have seen it displayed among sixth-graders I have taught who have no idea how to find a verse in the Bible, and lack sufficient knowledge of even basic Catholic devotions such as the Our Father and the Hail Mary.  For a faithful Catholic convert like myself, it puts me in a weird position in that I know the Catholic Faith is of God, but many manifestations of it I am seeing are woefully short and even outright defiant of Magisterial authority.  You even see it now in bishops and hierarchy in the Church also, which is even more alarming.  These observations have led me to pursue a more traditional expression of my faith, and that is why I am now in a position to start attending the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Tridentine Mass), which is celebrated only a couple of miles from my house.  I think attending that will probably help me to grow in my faith more, as well as reestablishing faith in my Church for being what Christ called her to be.  As mentioned, a couple of other life changes have also been pivotal in making this decision, and at some point in the near future I will share that as well. 

I am also going to now talk about what is coming in the next couple of months or so, as I do want to get back into my writing and such.  I have explored the Star Wars idea, as I have recently re-watched all the movies, and I have some insights to share.  Due to the COVID-19 issue, I have not been able to be the food critic I normally am in my culinary blog, but hopefully that will change too.  Likewise, I do have some projects in the works for my theological page, and cannot wait to implement those either.  And, I wanted to also do a brief thing on my father who just recently passed away - Dad and I were not that close over the past few years, but he was my father and I did love him, although we had differences.  Dad also had many good attributes as well, and I feel like he needs to be memorialized for those.  I am at present waiting on his estate to be settled, as his executor, a very nice lady named Susan Hickox, is sending me some of his personal effects and I wanted to use those to talk a little more about him.  So, we will wait on those as well.  

I will be back soon to share more, as the proverbial dust settles and I have more focus to talk more, and when I do I will have some interesting stuff to share.  So, stay tuned, and also protect yourselves by observing the proper safety measures as we slog on through this COVID-19 mess.  

Some Reflections

This conversation I am initiating has no real plan - I just wanted to reflect on a few things that I haven't been able to do for a while.  Due to the fact I have limited space to work and a lot of distractions in the house, I haven't been able to write as much although I probably should have.  This sort of makes up for that in regard to the fact that I need to keep things going and active, and this is the way to do it.  Let us begin some small retrospections until my creative juices kick in (along with a cup of Southern Pecan flavored coffee with Italian sweet cream - a good way to start the day, by the way!).

With the whole COVID-19 situation, it has been an interesting couple of months - having to wear masks everywhere you go, the whole social distancing stuff, and the fact that only a couple of weeks ago we were able to attend Mass at our parish church again.  Fortunately, no one in our house caught COVID (at least that we know about!) and for the most part it has been a challenging but somewhat good series of events.  I know, for instance, that there are some who had issues with Trump's generous stimulus plan, and if you do, that is your problem.   Personally, it has been a real blessing for our household, in that we have not only been able to keep up our regular expenses, but we have even managed to get a few things in the house we have been needing for some time - our finches have a new cage, the bunny's new cage is on the way as I write this, and we got our storage shed outside.  The $1200 that our good President gave us each has been a big boost to our personal economy.  In addition, due to being unable to work in my industry, I have a good unemployment package supplemented generously by the stimulus plan passed by our leaders, and that has really helped us out.  A lot of our old debt was eliminated as a result, and we were able to get some stuff done around the house that was long overdue.  Therefore, in many aspects, the current pandemic situation has been a blessing to us, and thanks be to God for that.  Unfortunately, the recent string of riots in response to George Floyd's death at the hands of a bad cop has caused a national stink, and that has me somewhat concerned, so I wanted to very briefly address that as it's an issue I will be dealing with later on in lieu of the overarching picture.

George Floyd's death frankly should not have happened.  Yes, the guy was a lowlife and a criminal, but he did nothing deserving of death - a lengthy prison sentence would have been sufficive enough for him.  And, the cop who did the killing, Derek Chauvin, is as big of a lowlife as Floyd was, and his conviction for possible first-degree murder is a just conviction. We all agree that Chauvin was a dirtbag cop, and that Floyd was unjustly murdered, and I don't think anyone would dispute that.  But, here is where the issue got a bit touchy - Floyd's murder at the hands of a dirtbag cop caused a more violent reaction when a group of thugs, radicals, and anarchists - we call them Black Lives Matter and Antifa - started a series of riots beginning in Minneapolis, where the incident took place, and then spreading to cities around the country.  Antifa, frankly, is a terrorist organization, and its partner in crime, BLM, is equally suspect in that - the President rightly called Antifa a domestic terrorist group, and he made a good call on that.  As of late, they have taken to vandalizing statues and monuments (even Gandhi and MLK have suffered desecration at the hands of these terrorists), and in an ultimate act of insanity, they recently cordoned off a section of Seattle and declared their own "nation" called the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone (or CHAZ for short), and are seeking to colonize other cities with CHAZ outposts.  I won't get into all the details of this now, but to summarize these are terrorists - many of whom are Marxists - who are causing a lot of chaos in our nation, and I am in favor of brute force to bring them down.  In my personal opinion, if they want an independent "nation," let them have it - I say good riddance to that riff-raff.  Like I said, those are my basic thoughts on the issue, although I have more to elaborate on at another time.  For now, that gives at least an idea of my feelings on the subject.

Moving onto lighter subject matter, I wanted to reflect on a few things I have come across in the past couple of months, in that they are some personal revelation concerning my path forward.  Being 50 years old now is still a bit to grasp - I now have AARP membership, for crying out loud!  And, although I say "lighter" in comparison to the COVID-19 issue and the whole Antifa/CHAZ thing, it is actually quite serious.  We are in the process of stepping out onto a new threshold in our lives, as Barb and I have come to some important decisions together.   One of those is finally getting my mother out of our house.  For those that know me, I didn't have one of the best childhoods, and the story of that is best left for another day as well, but my mother was not the model parent and she has never been all that supportive of me either.  Yet, six years ago she managed to end up living with us (against my better judgment honestly), and lately she has been causing some major problems.   I will not go into the detail of that, but essentially those things led to her move out of our home.  It is time Barbara and I claimed our lives back and my mother was a suppressive force in us doing that, so she needed to go.  Thankfully, she is a veteran, so the VA has her covered for most of her needs, meaning she will be fine and probably in better condition.  Also, the move may benefit her as well - she needs a level of independence for herself she can't have here, and for all of us it is the best solution.  I only pray it goes smoothly, as she didn't receive the news well when we gave it to her, but there are no regrets.  At some point, I will share some insights in regard to that, as I know others have similar issues with "problem parents," and it is something I feel I could hopefully be an encouragement to others in sharing my story at the appropriate time.  For those reading this, I ask for your prayers, and if you are reading this in the future when all the details have played out, thank you for your prayers and support and encouragement.

Many factors have compelled me to reassess my life recently - the issues with my mother, our accident back in 2016 which almost took our lives, and many other things - and it has compelled me as well to start reflecting on many things.  At a half-century of life now, I am at a new place - although many memories of my younger days seem fresh, it is shocking to think how long ago most of it really was.  It seems like only yesterday, for instance, that Barb and I got married (in reality it has been 28 years!), and it also seems like yesterday that I was still a struggling college student working on my Bachelor's (which I earned in 1996, 24 years ago).  I also just passed my 31st anniversary of graduating high school, and have been doing administrative office work for the better of 22 years.  More of a shock is how many people I knew who are now gone onto their eternal reward - at age 50, I only have one grandparent left, that being my 95-year-old grandfather.  As overall healthy as he is, he may make it to 100 - time will tell.  Then, as I was reflecting on my journal entries that led to these blogs, I have been doing a consistent journal now for just under 24 years.  Then, there is my music collection - on October 1st, I will have been collecting vintage big band records for 38 years!  It has also been 20 years now since I became Catholic, and 34 since becoming a Christian as a whole - 34 years on February 9th that has passed since I was baptized.  Many things that I used to think were a milestone for only being a couple of years have now landmarked at over 20 - where has the time gone??   Stuff like that is what I have been thinking of as of late. 

In moving back to this area only 3 years ago, we have also been able to explore some old places over the past couple of years, and the change is evident.  Kirby, WV, where I spent a large part of my childhood, is now a ghost town practically, as the old Grassy Lick School where I went to elementary school is now closed and in its location a local community center has opened, maintained by local volunteers.  Our old trailer from those years, which was a 5-minute walk from the school, is no longer there, and Cox's Store has closed down.  We have made many trips over to Hampshire County in the past couple of years, and many things there have indeed changed, but much has remained the same - the backroads still look pretty much like they did 40 years ago, and some landmarks such as the Rio Mall (where I began my record collection back in 1982) are still there as well.  The Rio Mall outlasted many of the people we used to know there years back.  Also, a major benefit of moving back here - although we live in Hagerstown, MD, a good hour and a half from Hampshire County - is enjoying old culinary favorites - longhorn cheese and stick pepperoni from the general stores, Utz Chips, Frozen Run birch beer, and Fox's Pizza.  It is also good to travel on those roads - in particular US 50 - that we had been on for many years, and I missed a lot of those old towns such as Mount Storm, Scherr, Aurora, Red House, Gorman, and the various communities in my home counties of Preston and Tucker such as Thomas, Davis, Silver Lake, Rowlesburg, Terra Alta, Kingwood, etc., as well as the place of my birth, Parsons, and my hometown of Hendricks.  I actually have a lot of personal history in the four hours between Morgantown, WV, and Baltimore, and I live right in the middle of everything here.  And, not all the bad from our 27 years of Florida exile is lost either - within a couple of hours of us are Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.  In those places are the specialty shops I identify with on a lot of my cuisine - there are Indian stores, Italian delis, Middle Eastern groceries, and Ethiopian markets within a 70-mile distance, and Philly even has Georgian cuisine readily available.  And the Amish markets - we are within a short distance of Lancaster here, so visiting "Amish Country" is relatively easy to do now, not to mention large Amish markets here in Hagerstown and elsewhere in the region.  We live as well within a reasonable distance of four states 0 Virginia is only 25 miles south of us, my native West Virginia is only a few miles away, and if you go an equally short few miles out of town, you are in Pennsylvania - a couple of more hours out, you have Delaware and the beach, and also those succulent Chesapeake Bay oysters!  Despite some challenges, life is good here, and I have no regrets moving back except for maybe the job commute - the job market in Hagerstown is not the best, and many of my work projects have actually been in Frederick, some 25 miles away.  But, that too can change thankfully.  This gives you an idea of how life is now, and how in many ways it is a revisitation of my past - I fondly remember the good aspects of my past, but also it has been somewhat difficult to face some painful things as well, but also vital.  We are beginning though to establish roots, and that leads to some other aspects of my discussion now.

Last year, the leasing office in our park we live in extended to us an opportunity to purchase this home we live in now, and enthusiastically we began pursuing it.  We are in the process of completing the paperwork now, and will submit it once Mother is moved out and we can more actively plan.  Home ownership has eluded us for many years - along with other things that have eluded us - and this is something we cannot pass up.  It is a nice place too, and we have much potential for really developing it into the home we desire, especially with the dead-weight of Mother out of the picture.  Home ownership also means permanent roots now, as we are here to stay - those big moves, including the monumental one that got us here, are becoming too much of a challenge for us, and I don't think we could make another large move like that honestly.  In addition to home ownership, we are also sending out other roots now too - I am a commissioned Maryland Notary Public now, as well as recently being made a 4th-Degree Knight of Columbus, and we also are an active part of our parish church, St. Joseph in Hagerstown, where we are involved in a variety of capacities.  Additionally, I have a Master's degree now, and am starting a doctorate in less than two months, which I want to now devote some discussion to.

It was approximately 22 years between the time I got my Bachelor's (1996) and the time I earned my Master's (2018), and honestly, I am coming to the terminal degree, my Ph.D., almost too late.  The road to getting my Ph.D. was a somewhat bumpy one, in that originally the plan was to attend Catholic University of America.  Unfortunately, I didn't get in, and it was a huge and disappointing blow to me when I got the rejection letter in February.  However, upon careful research and counsel from my parish priest and others, I decided to give Liberty University a try, and I was accepted into their Ph.D. in History program a couple of months back.  Liberty was not my first choice to wrap up almost 50 years of formal education, but it ended up being the best option.  And, the process went amazingly smooth - I was accepted quite quickly, and I got full financial aid to start, and on August 24th I begin my first term.   A Ph.D. in History will more or less give me a broad diversity in my training which consists of an undergraduate specialty in Church Ministries, a graduate specialization in Catechetics, and now a doctoral emphasis in the field of History.  I still could use some more specific Catholic training in some areas I know, but all in good time - I have a breaking decision I will talk about at a later date in regard to that.   Any rate, it is still somewhat surreal to grasp that I am officially beginning doctoral work after all these years, and it promises to be a busy time the next 3 years or so.  But, we can do it, and I have an anticipation about getting started.

That pretty much reflects on what has been happening in my life as of late, and hopefully I didn't lose you reading this as I rambled about mentally in my thoughts while writing this.  I will be attempting to catch up on some projects as I have research to do for some important insights I want to share in the coming months, so bear with me.  Thanks again for visiting, and we will be back to chat again soon.

PSA on the Coronavirus Crisis - Just a Few Thoughts

In the past couple of weeks, most of us have seen a very abrupt and fundamental shift in our normal routines due to a recent outbreak of a strain of influenza called the Coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19.  For many, a situation of this magnitude is a new thing, and it has resulted in some very bizarre reactions - notably, hoarding toilet paper from practically every supermarket in business right now.  So, how are we to respond?  I can't say personally, as at this point most of us are still trying to figure out the answer to that.  All I am going to do here is just offer a few observations, and you are welcome to take or leave them as you will.

First, I want to make something very clear - it is in no way "racist" to refer to this virus as a Chinese virus, as that is where it comes from.  Our friends on the political Left are making a huge stink about calling it a Chinese virus, and to be honest, their reasoning is ridiculous.  The virus started in China, it spread from China, and every indication is that certain factors endemic to the region of China it came from (Wuhan) is why it made such an impact, but more on that later as there are a couple of cultural issues I want to tackle.  Some people, rightly seeing how ridiculous it is to accuse people of racism for stating the obvious, are having some fun with the whole thing, and I have to admit I am enjoying it too - this is displayed primarily in some of the slang names for the epidemic, such as "KungFlu", "WuFlu," "Flu-Ahh-Choo," and other creative and humorous descriptions some have come up with.  I cannot fault anyone for that, as we have to make something good out of the situation, and often the realm of jocularity is a good way to do it.  Plus, it ruffles the feathers of the Left, who set this double-standard of demonizing White people, or even making fun of whole regions of the country, yet they get upset when someone states the obvious fact.  Political correctness can be defined, honestly, as the lack of common sense as expressed in language, and it is a bigger pandemic than Coronavirus will ever be.  That being said, let's move on.

The response to this issue is something I have mixed feelings on.  First, it is imperative that preventative measures be taken, which is something no one of any good mind would dispute.  However, there are two areas I would like more clarification on, and they are important.  First, is there a chance of overreaction?  The risk of that needs to be always kept in mind, and it is easy for mass hysteria to overwhelm rational thinking.  I believe the best way to take preventative action is quite simple - use common sense.  Things such as washing one's hands, not sneezing or coughing on people (cover your mouth and nose, in other words), and the proper "social distancing" are all good measures.  However, with "social distancing," we need to be careful there too - none of us are islands unto ourselves, and a minimal amount of human interaction is necessary for our own wellbeing too, so hopefully people won't go overboard with it.  Secondly, what of government involvement?  Many rightly have observed that the current lockdown measures taken by many local and state governments are a bit draconian, and the question we need to ask is one I heard conservative commentator Ben Shapiro note on his "Daily Wire" broadcast on Friday - the governments need to have a solid plan in place, and any measures that are taken in necessary context cannot be codified into permanent legislation.  In other words, the government is not to be relied on to be our go-to place for all answers, as it can open the door to socialism, or worse - a crisis is an ideal incubator for totalitarianism to cultivate, so let's be mindful of that as well.  Although government has a vital role to play, let's not give them more than they need as far as authority is concerned, or we will pay the price for it later (ask Germans after 1933 when Hitler came to power, or Russians in 1918 after Lenin).  The responsibility to address the crisis begins first with us as individuals, and the government has the role of making it possible for us to take the appropriate action.  Once the crisis is over, then the government's job is finished as far as those measures are concerned and it can then go back to doing what it needs to do.  As long as we keep this in mind, I think we will be fine.

Also, for those who are bewailing this situation, let me assure you it is nothing compared to worse things that have happened.  In 1985, for instance, when I was only a freshman in high school, my home state of West Virginia was hit with one of the most catastrophic floods that it had experienced in its history, and the level of damage from that flood was so severe that it altered people's lives for almost 3 years after it happened.  Towns were leveled to nothing, lives and homes were lost, and the economic toll was around (if I recall it) $40 billion.  At that time, I lived in one of those towns impacted heavily by the flooding, and I remember having to use water delivered in six-packs of aluminum cans donated by the Anheuser-Busch Corporation.  My whole freshman year of high school was spent in a partitioned fire hall in the county seat, and many people went for weeks without running water or other amenities we take for granted.  I also recall the roads - the swollen rivers devoured chunks of major highways, forcing people to detour miles just to get to work or school.  The demand for toilet paper and Wonder Bread now pales in comparison to that, but many people now don't know those types of disasters.  But, the good news is that many of those little mountain towns rebounded, rebuilt, and today they are vibrant communities.  I wonder if many will fare as well in a situation like this which is much less severe?

Let's now talk about cultural practices that made coronavirus possible.  It is of no consequence that some of the culinary and other habits of people in Wuhan had some part to play in the rise of this pandemic, and one culinary practice that has garnered some attention recently is a delicacy enjoyed by people in that region called bat soup.  To make this stuff, a live, screaming bat is deep-fried alive in a vat of boiling sesame oil, and then is scooped up and plopped into a bowl of soup stock.  While the fraculated bat is morbidly grinning at you in the bowl of broth, it is consumed whole - fur, everything! - as a meal, and the whole thing is just, well, disgusting.  People who have pointed these practices out have been labeled as "racists" naturally, despite proof that the species of bat being used in this "gourmet delicacy" has been tested and confirmed to carry a strain of coronavirus.  The problem here is not that people who do find this repugnant are "racist," but rather that there are factors that necessitated the Chinese people in a particular location to eat bats in the first place.  Bat soup, along with other weird stuff (dog meat, roasted elephant trunk, birds-nest soup, etc.) has been a delicacy in China for thousands of years, but that is the thing - it was a delicacy.  It is not traditionally normal for most people of that region to eat bats as an everyday cuisine like we do fried chicken or pot roast here, and only with an intense social engineering program which can be attributed to Mao Tse-Tung (a vicious tyrant and murderer), some 70 years ago, did it prove necessary to eat what was once considered a delicacy as an essential survival food - bats and anything else for that matter that creeps and crawls.   While maybe indulging in a weird delicacy on occasion may not hurt you, a steady diet of such things heightens the risks dramatically, and hence the incubation of potential pandemics like coronavirus.  It is also not something stereotypical of Chinese cuisine either - I don't think that the vast majority of Chinese people eat weird stuff, and therefore it is not necessary to avoid Chinese buffets here in the US (many of which are actually owned and operated by Koreans and Vietnamese anyway) - the likelihood of bat soup being on a menu here is negligible.  As a matter of fact, I personally like Chinese cuisine and have a particular affinity for the Mongolian grills many Chinese eateries feature.  So, it is OK to eat Chinese food, and that plate of sweet-and-sour chicken with fried rice will NOT give you coronavirus.  That being said, another point to be made as well as this - no one is blaming the Chinese people for this (at least, not anyone with any brains), but it is the blame of the Chinese government for its handling of the situation - the Chinese people are victims of their own repressive Marxist/socialist government, and the Chinese leadership has a lot to answer for.  The way the Communist Party leadership in China has handled this has been sloppy at best, and deliberately calculated at best, yet Bernie Sanders and other idiots who want socialism in the US still sing the praises of these monsters.  If anything, the coronavirus is a wakeup call to us to take China more seriously for the threat it is, thanks in part to self-serving tyrannical leadership there.  Another lie of the Left in relation to this is the following - by calling the coronavirus "Chinese," it will encourage "hate crimes" against Asian-Americans.  Honestly, there is not a shred of evidence that this is even happening, and it is one of the stupidest arguments I have heard yet.  This time in our nation's history is not one where "political correctness" and idiotic virtue-signaling are warranted, and it needs to stop.   The Left needs to be red-pilled to reality, in other words, and stop trying to push agendas by taking advantage of a national issue.

A final thing I wanted to mention is this - we will get through this one way or another.  Although for a season our normal flow of life may be interrupted, it would be wise for us to use that to our advantage and constructively.  This is not the time for mass hysteria or craziness, and only with level heads can we ride this crisis out and it will make better people and a better nation of us all.  Realizing that should bring us all hope.   Thank you for allowing me to share, and will see you soon - stay safe, and also take the proper precautions to protect yourself and your family.

Addressing Some Issues

I have to be honest with you as I write this - the modern political scene sickens me, and more so I am sickened by the lack of decent manners.   This came to light recently when a good friend of mine who is a minister in a Pentecostal denomination was viciously attacked for her posting on some things on social media, and the assailant was her own daughter.  I know the daughter of this friend well too - when she was but a little tyke, my wife babysat her back in the day, and at that time she was an adorable little thing.  As she grew into early adulthood though - notably in the past ten or so years - this kid moved to a major city on the West Coast and really became radicalized in her thinking.  As of now, this young girl - who was raised in church by her pastor parents - now has turned her back on the faith of her family, and has embraced both occultism and socialist politics (she is a very open "Bernie Bro," as a matter of fact).  As a result of this radicalization on her part, she has become increasingly combative and hostile toward her mother and literally anyone who disagrees with her, and to be quite honest, she has become a hateful, obnoxious, and vitriolic little brat.  Noting what I have witnessed on this the past few days, I wanted to comment some on these attitudes on the part of young people now, including a new insult that is flung indiscriminately at older folks consisting of the words "OK, Boomer!"  Some of the targets of that insult are not technically "Baby-Boomers," but are rather like myself Gen-Xers, but those of us who grew up as teens in the 1980's are now the "old geezers" I guess.   That is still something to get used to, being I have myself just turned 50 this past November.   Summarily at this point, this is not going to be one of my usually light-hearted posts about retrospection and reflection (more of those are coming though, which is the good news!) but rather this is a bit of a social rant today.  So, let me begin.

In the exchange between my friend and her oppositional (to use the psychological term for it, although I am by no means a psychological professional but my friend is) offspring, I noted several things about the discussion that just beg to be addressed in an appropriate way.  So, I want to take those one at a time and deal with them.

Like many spoiled brats under the age of 30, this kid was going off on her mother about how "respect has to be earned," but on this she failed to understand something that many of her generation are also guilty of ignoring.  Parental respect is not earned, but rather it is commanded of a child.  Kids like her need to understand that without their parents, they would not exist, and in that regard the parent has already earned the respect.  Even if you have conflict or issues with your parents (and some of us do even as adults), you still owe them a certain level of respect regardless.  Parenthood is not a merit-based position - it is a result of natural law.  If a male creature and his female mate join in some sort of conjugal union, biology dictates that offspring will more than likely result - it is the natural order of things.  Now, it is a fact that some biological parents really suck at their duties, and that often leads to abuse and neglect of their responsibilities to their offspring.  In that case, the biological parent should relinquish responsibility to someone who can fill the role, and also in this case biology may not necessarily define parenthood.  However, in the case of my friend and her daughter, this is not the situation - my friend doesn't claim to be a perfect parent, but at the same time I know for a fact she was a good parent to her children, including this obstinate daughter.  In examining this, I note what author John Horvat says in his text Return to Order (Hanover, PA:  York Press, 2013) when he writes on page 181 about the human family and the importance of preserving continuity.  He writes:

"Family members became trustees who shared not only a common blood of heredity, but a common spiritual and material inheritance that each generation must hold as a sacred trust to be safeguarded and increased."

We also note that a missing dimension in the American family today is the absence of faith.  As the late Russian Orthodox theologian, Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in his seminal text on the theology of the Eucharist entitled For the Life of the World (Crestwood, NY:  St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 2004) defines it, the rising tide of secularism that fuels such disconnection between the younger generation and their elders is "the negation of man as a worshipping being" (p. 118).  When society divorces God from the picture, and secularism becomes the rule of the day, it only follows based on Thomistic principle that natural law is also defied and ignored because to acknowledge God as the author of Nature (as both St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure defines it) would be to deny one's base selfishness (called in so many terms by Horvat as frenetic intemperance) and thus would have to acknowledge that there is something (or someone) beyond the self who keeps order and balance.  In his seminal text Revolution and Counter-Revolution, the late Brazilian Catholic thinker Plinio Correa de Oliviera notes that this mindset we see displayed in my friend's daughter - the "Revolution," as he terms it - is like a parasitic fig that grows in the Amazon jungle (noted by de Oliviera as the species Urostigma oleara, known as the strangler fig) that wraps itself around an unsuspecting tree, eventually growing and overtaking it until it kills it (Plinio Correa de Oliviera, Revolution and Counter-Revolution.  Spring Grove, PA:  American TFP, 1993. p. 78).  Like this parasitic fig, the forces of the "Revolution," embodied in much of what we see with many Democratic Presidential candidates running in 2020, are choking out many defining principles of Western civilization by either re-defining them or destroying them totally.   At the root of this is a selfishness that is secular in nature and definitely not atheistic, and I will now explain why.

Atheism is defined as not worshipping any deity of any sort, and if one is a true atheist, that means nothing is worthy of worship or of the voluntary subservience of the worshipper.  Although Schemann defines secularism as the "negation of man as a worshipping being," it must be understood this way - it is the negation of man as worshipping the true source of his being.  I have argued for years and will continue to do so, that actual atheism cannot exist, and I will tell you why.  It is hard-wired into the human soul to look at something as a focus of devotion, and the problem is not necessarily an absence of devotion in many cases, but rather a misplaced devotion.  To put it this way, everyone has to worship something, as it is a necessity.  That being said, many self-described atheists are not, in reality, true atheists, because often they satisfy that need for worship by worshipping themselves (which is actually a self-directed form of humanism if anything).  God's original plan, by creating man in his image, was for us to see him as the ultimate focus of our worship and devotion, and indeed that is how it should be.  But, human nature is corrupt, thanks in part to the Fall, and thus man now seeks other things because God is not considered to be real or necessary to many of these people.   In today's society, often the political ideology of a person becomes a god to them, and hence the rise of flawed ideologies like socialism.  Also, the propensity for man to sin by fulfilling what appeals to his base passions (called concupiscence in theological terms) makes God an enemy, since to serve God means to establish boundaries and self-control.   The problem here though is that often new boundaries (and bad ones) are established by devotion to an ideology which causes problems for others who don't conform, and thus in today's secularist, socialist-leaning mindset, it has resulted in the cult of political correctness.  While there are no boundaries in regard to how one self-defines (the fact that now we have "preferred pronouns" for people who are creating new gender identities with every selfish whim exists), there are boundaries that are set up against people who believe in traditional boundaries (very tolerant of them, isn't it?) and the result of that is the rise of domestic and violent terrorists such as Antifa and others who now even want to shut down free speech in the name of "progress" and "inclusivity."   So, for those who want to be "free" of traditional moral constraints, the answer is to institute radically different constraints against those who don't comply to the groupthink they propose.  And, we see that in my friend's daughter, whom I will now discuss.

My friend's rather immature and volatile daughter identifies herself as a "witch" (meaning involvement in occultism) and a "democratic socialist" (meaning she is a cleaned-up Marxist in her political ideology).  As such, she also now thinks that a contrary opinion to her own constitutes "hate" and should not be tolerated.  This is an example of a boundary the girl has set up for herself.  Ironically, while such a person preaches that "love is love" in regard to moral perversity, the same person is often very combative, hateful, and nasty towards those who don't see things the way they think everyone should.  And, it gets worse - these same people are now on a crusade to make people stop eating meat, practicing their religious convictions, and even owning and managing their own homes and businesses due to an eschatological dimension to their ideology which one of their "leading thinkers," Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (real intellectual giant there - NOT!) has invented by saying that if cows don't stop farting the earth will blow up in 12 years (that number has changed - I believe she is saying 10 now).  This was carried on even further by the new superstar of the Left, a rather obnoxious Swedish brat by the name of Greta Thunberg, who actually was spreading this malarkey and then in a fit of rage said "how dare you!" at the UN to older folks who just want to live their lives in peace because apparently the rest of us are "destroying her future."  Really??  It gets even more bizarre because Ms. Thunberg has now decided to boycott school in protest of people like you and me supposedly "destroying the earth" - yes, in protest make yourself dumber by not allowing yourself to get a decent education (or, in their vernacular, "OK, Doomer!").  My friend's daughter actually accused her of much of the same thing, by basically saying that by her mother's support of President Trump she doesn't "give a damn" about her daughter's future, and that apparently constitutes "abuse."  Again, OK Doomer.  It is time to give a little reality check to these spoiled brats, and I want to mention a few facts.

First, for all their "care" about the environment and their lamenting over the earth blowing up in a matter of a few years because cows fart too much, many of these spoiled and entitled brats live in cities on the West Coast that speak of contradiction.  Cities such as Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are literally littered with the needles of drug addicts and the fecal deposits of innumerable homeless derelicts on the streets, yet they are trying to say that eating a New York strip or using a plastic straw to drink a Big Gulp (which billionaire Mike Bloomberg banned in NYC) is somehow "destroying the planet."   Here's an idea if they are so concerned - take a bag and some rubber gloves, and start cleaning the crap and needles off the streets of the cities you all live in, you morons.  Being a good steward of the environment is important, I will grant you - God gave us this earth and we need to take care of it, and no one disputes this.  But, instead of moaning and groaning about cow farts polluting the ozone, why don't you just pick up after yourself, plant some trees, and just better the area you live in?   Oddly, for all this "Green New Deal" claptrap of AOC's, I have yet to see the return of those Adopt-a-Highway programs that used to be out there years ago - those really had an impact, and it was Democrats through over-regulation and high taxes that ended these good programs, the same Democrats who often holler about cow farts and plastic straws ironically.   If I were my friend, I would tell the daughter to get off her butt, grab a large Glad Bag, and start cleaning up the piles of human feces and discarded drug paraphernalia in the major West Coast city she lives in where this stuff is prevalent.  She might be a happier person too if she puts her money where her mouth is instead of acting like a spoiled brat.  Of course, the ultimate goal of the Leftist is not to better their environment or do anything productive - their self-worship demands that they control others and force them into servitude, and thus nothing productive is accomplished.  This is true of every Left-leaning politician in our government.  Once people wake up to that fact, I think perspectives would change drastically.

The second thing this kid is harassing her mother about is that she somehow is "deprived," yet I know how this kid grew up as my wife used to babysit her.  She had a beautiful home - it looked like a dollhouse actually - and was granted a lot of advantages others her age didn't have.  I definitely didn't have those advantages when I was her age, and although I have more justification to bemoan them I also learned that sometimes adversity brings out a person's resourcefulness and creativity, while the frenetic intemperance of getting everything handed to you often makes one lazy, disrespectful, and ungrateful.  The parents of this particular child worked hard to provide a good life for her and her siblings, and I think her mother even had to resort to selling tropical fish or something to get her some cheerleading uniform or something like that.   Yet, now the ungrateful little brat treats her mother disrespectfully, and it is a scandal.  However, in all fairness the daughter is not the only one this day and age - there are way too many kids like that, especially those under 30, and it is becoming a problem.  So, when a socialist loser like Bernie Sanders comes along and tries to woo them, they fall for it.  Bernie extolls dictatorships like Castro's in Cuba and even Stalin's, and it is easy for him to do because he is what is called a "limousine liberal," meaning he thinks socialist policies should be forced on everyone except himself.  Many of these kids act the same way, and it is interesting how rich White kids are all of a sudden spouting Bernie's and Ocasio-Cortez's rhetoric when their lives have been extremely comfortable.   Many of these spoiled brats need to visit Miami or Tampa and talk to some of the Cuban-American immigrants that live there - they are the ones who could give them the real story of what living under Castro was like, and why they live here.   It is also time for Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago is made required reading in schools - after reading that and seeing what so many have suffered under socialism, I think some people would change their tune quickly.  Of course, many of the brats in question don't know how to read anymore anyway - they are too busy with all the gadgetry that they possess to pay attention and exercise their God-given brains, and thus the problem.  Phil Robertson, of Duck Dynasty fame, spelled out some of this in his book The Theft of America's Soul (Nashville:  Nelson Books, 2019) when he writes on page 97 of that book the following:

"This same incivility spills into our streets too.  Protest after protest makes the news, and I watch as men and women of all colors and creeds take to the streets.  During the writing of this book, a group of neo-Nazis took to the streets of Charlottesville for the express purpose of raising a racist ruckus.  Their sin opened the door to a group of counterprotesters, folks from the surrounding area who wanted the neo-Nazis run out of town on a rail (as all neo-Nazis should be).  Some of those counterprotesters also turned to violence and incivility.  The result?  A young woman - a peaceful protester by all accounts - was mowed down in the streets by one of those neo-Nazi types in an act of pure evil.  This is the result of incivility: death.

(p. 98) If we only noticed a lack of virtue in our politics, protests, and on the internet, that'd be enough.  But hasn't virtue all but left American culture?  Haven't so many in America become lazy, slothful, overweight people addicted to entertainment?  Hasn't our society been plagued by addiction, by drunkenness and pill-popping?  Aren't we a nation of overconsumers, people in debt up to our eyeballs? Haven't we lost sight of justice and the rule of law?  In short, haven't we lost sight of virtue?  And haven't a bunch of folks who'd identify as Christians been guilty of this same loss of virtue?  

God was declared dead, and in came the enemy with a new lie - virtue died with the God you killed."

Phil essentially defined what John Horvat calls in his writing frenetic intemperance, and over 40 years ago another noted celebrity, late bandleader Lawrence Welk, noted a similar thing in his book This I Believe (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice-Hall, 1979).  I am a collector of vintage big band records, as everyone that knows me can attest, and therefore I have always loved Lawrence Welk's music (I used to watch his TV program religiously years ago when we could get it on PBS).  However, what many people didn't know about Welk was that he was a devoutly Catholic Christian who also had a very conservative and common-sense worldview that he annunciated in a series of books he wrote a few years before his retirement from the music industry in 1982.  On pages 172-173 of This I Believe, he has some good wisdom for this generation to follow, and they would do well to pay attention.  He writes:

"I'm not pointing the finger at anyone.  I'm just stating the case as I see it today.  We simply must take steps to reduce our government to a size where it can operate with more competence.  And we must return to the people the right to participate more fully in the decisions which affect them on a daily, personal level.

But it's the plight of our young people that concerns me the most.  Our youngsters are so fine, so full of promise.  And yet somehow, they have become one of the most neglected segments of our society.

My recommendations for helping our younger generation are all based on the experiences of my own life.  When I suggest that "work" may be a better choice for some youngsters than years of formal schooling, it's because that has been so effective in my own life. 

When I say that removing the restrictions that keep our young people from working will open up their lives for them, it's because I've seen it happen time and again in our orchestra or other enterprises.

I don't want to make our youngsters work and I want to make that very, very clear.  I just want to give them the opportunity."

What Mr. Welk is saying here is this - give the younger generation some purpose and direction, and encourage them to productively channel that so that it shapes their characters and makes them better participants in our society.  He's right too - many kids are so coddled, spoiled, and entitled that they have no incentive to do anything better, and with all that wasted time on their hands, they end up getting involved in things they shouldn't.  And, it has created a nasty monster that I don't think Mr. Welk could have seen coming, but Phil Robertson definitely has witnessed, as have many of us.  Putting this on a more philosophical level, we now turn to noted Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper, who in his book Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992) notes on page 47 that the true enrichment of man comes not in the technical exploitation of nature's wealth, but rather a purely theoretical cognition of reality.  Pieper further asserts that man's existence becomes more fulfilled as he further explores and understands reality.   True knowledge, then, as Pieper would conclude, leads to true freedom.  Much of what goes on today in the name of "knowledge" is a redefinition of reality based on the feelings of the individual rather than upon objective truth, and thus now it has become commonplace to "feel" one's gender, or to "relativize" one's perception of truth (thus making it subjective) rather than understanding natural law or objective truth as has been understood and observed throughout much of human history.  So, if as Welk proposes, a person is compelled to work to develop oneself, that is seen by the postmodernist-minded Millenial now as being "icky" or "oppressive," because now truth is the subjective whim of the individual rather than universally understood and observed fact.  This then makes biology and other observable phenomena subject to language rather than science, and thus it creates the confusion (in this instance anyway) of an infinite number of fictional "genders" which are real because the possessor of said "gender" feels that way.  It is ludicrous at best, but also dangerous when implemented on a societal scale as some are attempting to do.  Fact is still fact however, and despite how the facts of a matter may "hurt someone's feelings" who doesn't like it, the objective and observable fact still exists.  That is a true fact many of these whiny Millenials need to understand.

I could go into more details of what the actual issues were specifically between my friend and her daughter were, but time doesn't allow.   I will say this however - if you are going to grouse and gripe about "exploitation of indigenous land," then perhaps you need to pack up your stuff and move, because you may be now occupying a piece of ground that once belonged to some Cherokee, Seminole, or Tlingit tribesman somewhere.  That is what is called "virtue-signaling," when a person with no stake in the conversation all of a sudden starts yelling "racism" or something else moronic at people who disagree with them.  Take this whole thing about slave reparations as an example.   The majority of Americans are of some immigrant heritage, and many these days have ancestors who moved here after the Civil War.  So, does that mean an Italian-American pizzeria owner in New York "owes" reparations to the Black community?   No, it doesn't.  Also, what if some Blacks have slaveholders as ancestors (and it does happen!)?  Do they pay reparations to themselves?   Just some things to think about regarding the absurdity of some of this garbage floating around.  In truth, the majority of White people in the US (even in the South) have little or no connection to actual slaveholders in the antebellum South, so the issue of reparations is not even applicable to the overwhelming majority of Americans honestly.  If it were, I could claim reparations based on a variety of things myself just due to the complexity of my own heritage - I have Indian ancestry (Mvskoke Creek specifically) so maybe I should tell some Leftists in southern Alabama hollering about reparations that they need to pay me for occupying my ancestor's homes there.  Or, perhaps I should submit a complaint to the government of France for chasing my Huguenot ancestors out of their homes, or to Spain for their treatment of my Converso forebears - see where this can go?   Fortunately, I have little desire to pursue any of that, because frankly I have more important things to do with my time.   Too bad some of the younger crowd doesn't feel the same way, as America would be a more productive country if they did. 

I have ranted enough for today, but no doubt I will be revisiting this issue soon.  If you are one of those Leftist Millenial "Bernie Bros" reading this, I have this to say - suck it up if it offends you.  Maybe you should listen to what is being said instead of being "triggered," and perhaps you might learn something in the process.  Thank you for allowing me to share, and will have more pearls of wisdom to share later.