A Firm Position

At the end of the day for all intents and purposes. the fact of the matter is when all is said and done. in other words. let me be frank: to tell the truth: to be truthful, words do not always have meaning.

Job history

When I was young we were poor. I didn't realize it then because everyone around us was poor as well.
As a result I began working at whatever job I could find at an early age. This is a list of the jobs I have had in
roughly cronalogical  order,
Lawn mower
Farm hand
Window washer
assistant bricklayer and hod carrier
movie usher (at 35 cents an hour)
western Union delivery boy
Steelworker
Encyclopedia salesman ( brief & unsuccessful)
Life insurance salesman (brief & unsuccessful)
assistant carpenter
Certified Public Accountant
assistant controller
Chief Financial Officer
Consultant
Senior Vice President
Partner Sales Agency
All this in just 60 years. 

Lovella

My mother's mother was Lou . She was a very warm simple woman. Very religious. Overnight at her house and you were required to kneel and say the rosary before bed.   I don't think it did me any harm. She was a farmer and seldom did I see her or my grandfather Bill away from the farm. They had a car until their later years, but everything the needed was within a few miles. They were surrounded by family and fiends. Church important in her life, was a mile down the road in the small village.
My most vivid memory of my grandmother was one of the few times she came to the city. She took my younger brother and I to the movies. It was during World War 11 and the movie was "The Fighting Sullivan's". It told the story of four brothers who shipped out on the same Navy vessel to fight against Japan.
Their ship was sunk by enemy fire and the brothers gave up their spot in the lifeboat to others. the climax saw the brothers on the fantail, praying, as the ship slipped into the deep. My grandmother took a rosary from her purse and began to pray silently ,tears running down her cheeks. She still had sons in harms way .
I never forgot the day.  We never went to another movie together and I believe it was the last time I saw her in town. She died in her early sixties and left my grandfather alone for the next 25 years,
She had the most wonderful kitchen producing the worlds best apple pie and fresh bread.

Multitasking

Multitasking- doing several things badly at the same time

Lotus June2014

Nettie

Nettie was my father's mother. She was the backbone of the family and held them together through the roughest time in American history. She and Tom married in twenties and had children in time to face the great depression and World War II. Nettie was a force to be recognized and generally ruled with a strong hand. She had little time for idleness or stupid people. She taught me many things. How to play Canasta ; how to hook a rug; how to hang wall paper and how to make a good tasting meal when you had very little to work with. Because of her experience in the depression she was extremely careful with money. Long after my grandfather died, when she was well over 80, she drove the oldest car in town . It was a prewar Dodge. I think, and the antique box shape made it very easy to spot. She wore her hair in bun and I only saw her once with it down. I was amazed when I realized that her hair extended well below her waist. Those days when times were hard, people did things that we now consider cruel. But as was common practice for people with poor teeth, Nettie had each child as they reached maturity have their teeth pulled and fitted for dentures. There were no more dental bills. Nettie had a good heart and would give anyone in need what she could. She was a major element in my education.

  

 

 

My brother and his wife celebrated

50 years of marriage. An amazing accomplishment in today's world.