Wishing My Dad a Happy 81st Birthday

Wishing My Dad a Happy 81^st  Birthday

It is so hard to believe my father turned 81 today. He is such a vibrant man who has defied his age in so many ways. And attempting to write a brief synopsis of his life and contributions is a bigger challenge that I had considered.

My dad was born in Posey County, Indiana in 1932, at home, on a farm approximately 7 miles outside Mount Vernon. When I was a kid we knew that we had to drive on the gravel road to get to the farm. My dad has mixed feelings about his childhood on the farm but to us, his progeny, it was magical.

It is amazing to think from today’s perspective that it was such a short time ago that people lived and thrived in environments that did not include indoor plumbing and refrigeration. My father’s mother died when he was four years old, shortly after giving birth, again at home. My grandfather was busy farming and teaching school in the local schoolhouse (when he wasn’t fired for being Republican).

My dad was always a reader and a dreamer and wanted to leave the farm and teach. So he left Posey County and went to Indiana State University teachers college. After graduation he ended up in Logansport, Indiana where he met my mom, gifted her with a turnip (a vegetable she doesn’t eat – but it impressed her mom) and married her a mere 6 months later after a whirlwind 6 week courtship (because of the turnip). My mom was looked at with suspicion when first introduced to my dad’s family of origin. She was a city girl, had a job, wore make-up, smoked, drank alcohol, and was Catholic. Apparently my dad was a renegade for wanting to marry her. Nearly 58 years later they are still together, happy and living fulfilled lives.

After teaching for nearly 40 years in the Logansport Community School system as an elementary educator, he retired. For much of his career he taught 4^th grade at Washington School, which was situated in one of the more disadvantaged neighborhoods in our community. But he loved his students, tried to represent a positive influence among students that often came from single parent families, and tried to encourage his students to reach for the stars (or at least graduate) Many did. He concluded his tenure as an elementary teacher at Fairview Elementary teaching 1^st graders – with the goal of starting these young people with a solid foundation, which would give them a chance to succeed in the world.

Not content to rest in retirement, my dad volunteered as a principal for the local parochial schools, which needed an interim administrator. He donated the salary he would have earned to his church. He also volunteered his time as a board member and ultimately president of the local historical society. To this day he and my mom volunteer their time at the Cass County Museum and promote the amazing heritage of his adopted home.  

He leveraged his longtime love of history to write a weekly newspaper column in the Pharos Tribune called “History Buff” that profiled people who had visited, influenced, originated from or ended up in Cass County Indiana. His column was so popular that it led to a radio program on WSAL, the local radio station.  His engaging conversational style and apparent love of his topics resulted in his being invited as a speaker to various organizations.

Whenever I visit my hometown of Logansport, I hear such amazing feedback about the impact his column and radio show have made in the local community.

I am so amazed at the vitality and energy of my dad. He has spent his adult life giving back to his community, raising his children to be independent, celebrating his life, loving his wife and family, and living each day to the fullest. He still looks at the wonder of his life and celebrates his blessings in being able to travel the world, live a life of fulfillment and make his community a better place.

  I am so proud of my dad and the impact he has had on the community in which he lives, the people he has touched, and the gifts he has given his children with his joy of life. He has embraced the changes of the 20^th and 21^st Century, spread his wings to fly higher in retirement than many even imagine in the whole of their lives. He has lived his dreams. He has come such a long way from the farm in Posey County of the early 20^th Century to become a beloved, integral part of his community. He has given so much without the expectation of anything in return. He loves Logansport and Cass County. He has seen and embraced the wonders and miracles of the last 81 years; he has been blessed with marriage to his best friend of the last 58 years; he is grateful for his blessings and accepts life on life’s terms. I love him and admire him and am grateful that I still have him in my life, at age 53.

Proud to be of Irish Heritage

Proud to be of Irish Heritage

As we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today I am reminded of my good fortune to be of Irish heritage.  My mother’s father was Irish. My maternal grandparents lived on the corner across the street from the rectory of St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Logansport, Indiana.  I grew up on the same street, the opposite corner of the block directly across from the convent where the Sisters of Saint Francis lived.

In our town of 18,000 there were 3 Catholic churches – the Italian church, the German church and the Irish church.  We attended the Irish church and the Irish parochial school. The school was directly across the street from our house. Early rebellion was impossible!

Our elementary school sports teams were called “the Shamrocks”. Is there such a thing as a fighting shamrock? We were proud. Green was the school color. Additionally, I grew up just a few hours south of Notre Dame University. I’ve been told I attended Fighting Irish football games in vitro. No wonder I identified with the Irish from my earliest memories.

It also helped that I was blessed with a pale Irish complexion kissed by freckles, a gift of blarney, a love of rainbows, and an appreciation for Celtic history, lore, and Aran  hand knit sweaters.

But it wasn’t until I visited the Emerald Isle myself, with my mom and dad, that I truly appreciated the beauty of Ireland and my appreciation for my Irish heritage.  I looked like a local in Dublin. Tourists stopped me and asked for directions as I wandered the streets with my shopping bags filled with gorgeous woolens and lovely silver jewelry in Celtic designs. And there is nothing more satisfying that enjoying an Irish coffee in front of a fireplace or a pint of Harp at the local pub with a local musician performing traditional Irish songs.

Then there is the landscape.  One cannot imagine the depth of the colors of the countryside, the variety of greens, the lushness, the wildness of the cliffs, the mystery of the earliest inhabitants.  

The Irish are an interesting people, a resilient people, a nation of survivors. They’ve been invaded, oppressed, conquered and starved. The Irish also have created the most famous crystal in the world and gave birth to some of the most lauded authors and literature in the English language.

I believe I have that creativity and resilience in my blood and that is what I celebrate this St. Patrick’s Day.

Book Review: The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club By Duncan Whitehead

Book Review: The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club

By Duncan Whitehead

This was a pleasantly quick read, something appropriate to take to the beach or on an airplane. I really wanted to like the book.  It started off well and then devolved into a series of unbelievable coincidences that eliminated any semblance of believability.

The story felt contrived and over plotted. Even in the most melodramatic soap opera one would not find so many connivances. 

At the center of the narrative the widowed members of the Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club meet daily in the local park to walk their canines, enjoy an early cocktail disguised in red plastic cups, gossip about their neighbors and mourn the expected loss of founding member, Thelma Elliott, who is dying of cancer and leaving behind an attractive, soon to be eligible widower, who is slated to become prey before poor Thelma breathes her last.

Peripheral stories involve an unemployed Englishman with off-shore bank accounts who cares for his baby while his wife works as a nurse, a dumb as a box of rocks woman who works at the makeup counter at Macy’s and dreams of becoming a model and constantly enters contests, an elderly man who never uses the poopa scoopa to clean up after his pooch and the matriarch of the dog walking club with a secret room that not even her deceased husband or maid could enter.

The entire story could only work as a screwball comedy from Hollywood’s heyday.  For me it just didn’t work as a murder mystery, a sociological study of people or any other genre.  It was ok.  But I wouldn’t encourage anybody to rush out and buy it. 

‘Tis the Ides of March, which calls to mind HBO’s “ROME” on DVD~

‘Tis the Ides of March, which calls to mind HBO’s “ROME” on DVD~

On this the 2057^th anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar, I feel compelled to write about the magnificence of the HBO series “Rome” which debuted in 2006 and provided exquisite entertainment for 3 years.

The complete series can be purchased on Amazon.com. During its tenure on the network, Rome was must see TV in our house. This series brought to life ancient Rome in all of its glory, filth, violence, sex, depredation, political intrigue, familial dysfunction, plotting, slavery, brutality, grandeur, and assassinations.

The series follows the rise of Julius Caesar from the period when he returns following an 8-year absence wile he conquered Gaul through the triumph of Augustus following his success against Marc Antony and Cleopatra as he conquered Egypt.

This Rome shows the viewer not just the patrician class and the wealth and debauchery of the elite. We also see the plebes, the underclass, the solder, the citizen and slaves. The series is visually stunning and transports the viewer into the past better than any series I’ve seen.  Sumptuous is the word that best describes the experience.

The acting is superb with Ciaran Hinds portraying the calculating Julius Caesar; James Purefoy as Marc Antony; and the incomparable Polly Walker as Atia, the scheming and villainous niece of Caesar and mother of Octavian and Octavia.

This series is not for the faint of heart or those offended by a bit of nudity sex, violence and the invoking pagan gods and goddesses. But for anyone with a love of only slightly fractured history replete with top quality attention to detail and lush cinematography, I highly recommend a few weekends sequestered with these DVDs.

 http://www.amazon.com/Rome-Complete-Series-Kevin-McKidd/dp/B0028RXXE8