By the time you move into the Old Folks Boarding House, you have lost that first tooth you cut and a bunch more. Maybe that’s why several years ago my dentist located a block away from my senior lodging. The better to make and fit dentures. I get a new one this Tuesday. Daughter said her daughter told her she wasn’t the first to throw dentures into the trash. If you cover the false teeth,
Lincoln was a Whig
Bothers me that some who ignore history are repeating dogmatic mistakes of the past. History tells us before Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican President, he had campaigned for other offices as a member of the Whig party. Remembering when our political history needed revisiting. Became apparent in the late 1970s when a University of Texas sophomore challenged my historical knowledge. She and Associate Dean Elam had been conducting workshops encouraging integration of Black students
Got Documents
They found my college grade transcript in my collection of documents. As they suspected, their mother’s university grades were A-level. Dad’s grades were just passing. Last year when I moved into the old folk’s boarding house, my three daughters brought me many pieces of paper, envelopes, folders, cards from my condo, letters from boxes in son’s warehouse. Their baby brother, the last-of-my-litter, had a more manly approach: “get these xxx boxes out of my warehouse.” Not
Applying Intelligence
Applied intelligence—employing a computer program to write a student’s essay—now a concern voiced by teachers. When I began to teach university students—after I sold my interest in a West Texas television station—I taught a course in something I knew pretty well: Broadcast Management. Professor Wes Wallace, who had previously managed a community broadcast station—also Major Wallace who managed the U. S. radio station on Guam during World War II—- taught the course before I did.
Books for Young
Grandparents, hope you can do what my oldest granddaughter and I have arranged. I buy and Kara sends children books to the great-grandchildren when they enter our family. “Tutu Kane”—that’s my Grandfather name in Hawaiian—books arrive at birthdays and Christmas. Helps that Kara is an elementary teacher with children books knowhow. And that she operates a spreadsheet with 30-some lines telling birthdays and addresses. Great-grandchild Jade had started her elementary school second grade. She’s nearby
First Born
I wonder what he’ll think of meI guess he’ll call me the “old man” Only a song, but the “Billy’s Soliloquy” lyrics capture the anticipation, and apprehensions, of the approaching father’s first born. Sung on Broadway’s Carousel— six years before Maxine gave birth to our first of four children. First fathers telephone the relatives, pass out cigars. This one also wrote, printed and mailed BAWL birth announcements. BAWL was a small edition—with mother and daughter’s
Miss Mae James
Expect you remember your first-grade teacher. Back then we still had movable desks, a tabletop that opened for books and supplies, plus an inkwell, top right. Hamlin Texas Grammar School made use of what they had. Some of my classmates skipped days when they helped pick cotton. Because I was born in October, I had to wait until September to start first grade. I was the largest boy in Miss Mae James’ first grade. Age
Jig-Saw-Puzzlers
A jig-saw puzzle waits in the two main halls of our old folks boarding house. You’ve got to make yourself walk past the table. Just look. Then, reluctantly, press on to the dining room. Just described another form of addiction. Could have started at childhood. Or at holiday family gatherings. Back when you welcomed, say, inside diversion from the outside winter weather. The family welcomed the 500, even a thousand inter-locking jig-saw puzzle pieces, cut
Dour Prize
My son repeated a trick he employed as a university freshman in Honolulu—a Christmas tree drawn on butcher paper, hung on the wall. Back then, all trees shipped to Hawaii were sold. Now, he said he would help me win the decoration prize for this apartment renter at my old folks boarding house. Kelson cut butcher paper, drew a Christmas tree, and asked his bride to paint a beautiful ornament. He hung the drawing on
Only a Paper Tree
The Kamehameha fourth-grade school teacher warned us. She had moved from Colorado to Honolulu six years before I taught a year at the University of Hawaii. Your son Kelson said he plans to furnish the Christmas tree for your condo apartment. He had better buy one as soon as the freighter arrives from the Mainland. Sometimes there is no second-tree shipment. Freshman Kelson didn’t buy early. And there was no second freighter. Undaunted, my son bought