Author Topic: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings  (Read 2532822 times)

Offline Lynne

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #260 on: October 04, 2006, 03:33:14 pm »
...its smoke carrying with it a prayer of thanks to heaven, thanks for my friends, for the opportunity to spend time with them...

The idea of seperate and unequal lives resonated thru me. It was like the time I had just spent in Boston was the special time, it was where I belonged. How long now, until Alberta, until a chance to reconnect again.

Friend, you truly have a way with words.  I am so proud to know you.

It is roughly 42 weeks until Alberta, which I know because I started my serious training today, complete with an Excel worksheet to track my weekly progress.  Clearly, that is too long to wait.  Maybe we could think about a short weekend winter camp, somewhere in the Smoky Mountains or other middleway spot for the southeasterners?  Something very simple and economical.

-Lynne

P.S.  I love the picture of LBJ and his father; thank you for that.  It makes a poweful statement about society then and acceptable ways of demonstrating affection compared with now.  Simply wonderful.  I know I've never kissed any family member on the lips in my lifetime.
"Laß sein. Laß sein."

Offline Amber

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #261 on: October 04, 2006, 03:55:16 pm »
Wow!  That was really amazing writing : )  I really enjoyed!  Thanks for sharing the picture and the story.
"... and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and daughters, little darlin." ~Proulx

"Life is not a succession of urgents nows; it is a listless trickle of why-should-I's."  Johnny Depp as the Second Earl of Rochester.

Offline Katie77

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #262 on: October 04, 2006, 04:27:30 pm »
I love that picture......


I always feel when i see or have it done to me, a kiss on the lips, no matter who it is between, is so real.....it shows a lovely, true affection, as different from the "obligatory" air kisses that we see so often now.

When I see two people, kiss on the lips, it shows a strong bond, an unashamed, un embarrassing affection.....it is so strong, and looks really beautiful.
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.

It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfection

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #263 on: October 06, 2006, 04:33:25 pm »
Last night I saw our boy Heath in the movie "Lords of Dogtown". My goodness what a versitile actor he is, I almost didn't recognize him at first. Make me look forward to all the years of movies he can make.

I am in Bristol, Virginia this weekend for my alumni event. My friend who made all the arrangements called this morning and told me she would not be making it because her husband was sick. So, she is not here for me to complain about this overpriced SUITE she put me in with a balcony view of a very busy I-81. I'd rather make the most of this than someplaces I have been. These weekends are always interesting, to see who showes up and catch up on the gossip. Hope the sun comes out.
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Andrew

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #264 on: October 06, 2006, 07:43:58 pm »
The distance between men, reluctance to show emotion, or affection, so noteworthy in the post World War II era, was not because that was the way it had always been.

My father was born in rural Kentucky in the early twentieth century.  He had a lot of the notions of that time and environment, one of which was that bringing up children was women's work.  So I didn't talk with him very often as I grew up, though I listened at the dinner table.  To his own father's way of thinking, boys were of no interest or use till they could do a full day's work in the fields.  My father qualified that attitude to an extent--he was proud of being the first person in his family who went to college, and higher education was his chief ambition for my sister, my brother and me.  However, he didn't think there would be much point in talking to me till I got it.  So our relationship mostly began when I was an adult.  A memory of him taking me for a ride on his shoulders once, lasted for my entire childhood.

As my father got older, his feelings for his children developed.  He and my mother retired in the town my older sister had settled in, and he kept expressing the wish that my brother and I would both settle nearby, or at least in the same state.  Neither of us did.  I visited a few times a year.  My father had begun intervening for the good in the lives of some of his neighbors.  There was a boy he befriended and sponsored from the time he seemed to be in danger of drifting into crime until he grew up to became a school principal.  There was a neighbor, a skilled mechanic who was gentlemanly until he drank, for whom my father gave character references in court.  Both were grateful, constantly visiting him and doing kind things in return.  The mechanic, T., often expressed regret that he saw me so seldom on visits to my father .

On my last visit before my father's death at an advanced age, we were sitting together on the back patio.  He reached out and took my hand, and we sat together holding hands for several minutes.  T. came up to us from across the lawn and his face immediately lit up when he saw us together.  The three of us talked for some minutes while my father and I continued to hold hands.  At last the moment passed.

A few months later my sister called to say that my father had died peacefully in his sleep.

Offline Wayne

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #265 on: October 06, 2006, 08:23:29 pm »
Goodness Andrew!  Have to let that one sink in for a while... thanks for the story.

Hey there ol' Shakes!   Hope you're having a good start to the weekend!   Do you get Monday off?  I'm gonna write my dissertation this weekend!    :)
When you put people in charge of the government who are committed to proving that it doesn't work, you can be sure that they will cause it to not work.

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Offline Katie77

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #266 on: October 06, 2006, 08:45:18 pm »
Andrew.....omg...Andrew....finding words after reading what you wrote, is difficult....

My heart feels twice as big as  it did before I read it....my eyes dont know whether to cry....

Your father......wow, what can I say.....just a nice man, doesnt sound good enough....very insightful, very compassionate, a good father.....gee, I dont know if thats enough.

How precious that you have that moment of you holding hands, to remember, I guess that that gesture said it all, said " I did my best"....said "i love you, son"....no doubt you will never forget that......while ever that is in your memory, your father will never be gone.

Thank you for sharing it with us, thank you for leaving me, personally, with the impression of that scene in my mind.......
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.

It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfection

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #267 on: October 07, 2006, 04:30:31 pm »
Thank you for sharing your wonderful story Andrew. It is amazing how we never stop growing and learning, and changing.

My father was an alcoholic, and growing up he was largely unapproachable. He had a ninth grade education and worked hard all his life. When I turned 20, the summer of 1983, he was sober, the whole summer. It was so nice to be able to relax and not have to worry about what he might say or do, not have to make excuses for him. I though "so this is how it could be."

It didn't last, he died in 1985 after his liver and kidneys gave out. A hundred people shook my hand that evening at the funeral home and told me what a wonderful man he was, how he had done so much good for people. It hurt because I knew it was true, and thanked them, it was pointless to protest.

After he died I found he had saved a wooden postcard I sent him a few years earlier, the kind you could hang on the wall that said something like "This block of wood is worthless, kind of like me without you" I had wanted to send him some smart aleck one, but my mother made me send the one I did. He dysfuntional way of keeping the peace. He had written on it my name and the date. It was one of those times after the funeral when you can give in to emotion and I did.

I guess the moral to the story is you should make the effort, it may pay off in ways you will never know.   
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Katie77

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #268 on: October 07, 2006, 05:03:28 pm »
Shakes.....your story brought to mind a similar thing when we went to my Dad's place after he died.....

I found letters I had written him as a child, fathers day cards and photos that I had forgotten had ever been taken.......

I know this is probably common, that people keep these things, I am known as a hoarder of all things "memorabilia"....some things I have in a box, that I just move from house to house, things I have that my kids gave me when they were at school, their baby cards, even my engagement cards and wedding cards.....dont know why I have kept them, but cant seem to bring myself to throw them out.

Hopefully, when I am gone, and the kids find all these "treasures" it will give them a little laugh that their mum was such a "softie", but also remind them, how much all those little things were taken and kept as tokens of love.
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.

It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfection

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #269 on: October 08, 2006, 10:22:48 am »
OMG,

In college,we drank. When we get back together, we drink. If I had one more drop last night I would be a mess today, insted I woke with a bit of fuzzyness, a vague recollection of hollering about Lightning Flat with a straight couple who loved BBM and a real need to tell the rest of my life, the worrisome details to go f'off. Reunion, is a wonderful thing.

Now, where is my chef's hat.....
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."