one day in thirty
whole adult life to these
strange experiences

If you wish to know about elections I am the person to tell you. I have actually fought more parliamentary elections than any living member of the House of Commons. I have fought fifteen. Think of that! Fifteen elections, each taking at least three weeks, with a week beforehand when you are sickening for it, and at least a week afterwards when you are convalescing and paying the bills. Since I came of age I have lived thirty-five years, and taking an election as dominating one month of your life, I have spent considerably more than a whole year of this short span under these arduous and worrying conditions. In fact I have devoted one day in thirty of my whole adult life to these strange experiences.

From the essay Election Memories by Winston S. Churchill as published in Thoughts and Adventures in 1947 by Odhams Press Ltd. (a reprint of an earlier 1932 edition).

Churchill was 35 and had participated in 15 elections.

He had a few more to go including the one in 1945 where, thought the voters were happy that he, Mr. Churchill, had brought about an end to war, it was his Conservative Party that had brought the war on, or at least hadn’t done much more than try to appease Mr. Hitler.

Voters have long memories.

grand children are our
best gift to the world – life is
worthwhile that leads to them

In one of later books about Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor writes about visiting and old love and classmate who has cancer.

Mr. Keillor writes, “She is busy enjoying this world in the time she has left, lucky to have her granddaughter Annabelle living under her roof, Annabelle who was pulled out of school because it was holding her back, an ambitious reader who at the age of nine is done with children’s books and making her way into Dickens. He believed in the contagion of good humor and kindness even in the midst of sickness and suffering, which I, the English major, felt was sentimentalism, the idea of laughter in the hovels of the poor, but Dickens knew it firsthand and so does Annabelle. Laughter is not a privilege, it’s a basic element of humanity. And she loves his language. Like Dickens, she believes love is stronger than evil. And her grandma adores this child, curly black hair, brilliant smile, lying on the floor with her legs up on the sofa, book in hand. Arlene said to me, “I used to think that intelligence and happiness were somehow contrary, and I look at Annabelle and see that they go together hand in glove. She is my best gift to the world. My life seems worthwhile now that I know it leads to Annabelle.”

I was lucky to spend the last couple of days with 2 of my grand daughters and video talk with two more today and earlier this week with my grandson and his sister, and 2 weekends ago, travel with yet another of my grand daughters.

I am not dying with cancer and I am glad I read this early in my old age.

I DO wonder what makes my life worthwhile sometimes.

Then I read that last line.

My grand children are my best gift to the world.

My life indeed does seem worthwhile that I know it leads to these kids.

And I also know I am lucky as well as happy that to find this out while I have opportunity to enjoy it.

*Boomtown by Garrison Keillor, Blaine, MN, Prairie Home Productions, 2022.

an endless fund of
useless knowledge I understand
… but floyd of rosedale?

Over the years I have accumulated an endless fund of useless knowledge.

I have probably forgot more things now than I remember.

I remember that I know this things.

But I don’t remember or recall quickly what the thing is that I am trying to remember.

Much like Yogi Berra knowing that at home he had a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card. He knew he had it somewhere because he knew but he didn’t want to look for it because he might not find it so knowing it had was more important than knowing he looked for it and didn’t find it.

When I was kid, we would often play the home edition of the game, Jeopardy.

Out of the box, the game came with little clickers which were either soon broken or we took them to play paratroopers at D Day as portrayed with clickers in the movie The Longest Day.

You would use the clicker to answer the question.

I mean, as it was Jeopardy, you would use the clicker to give the question that went with the answer.

Without the clickers, we would just clap our hands and then argue over who clapped first.

Every once in a awhile our Dad would play for a few rounds.

He would hear the answer, “John Nance Gardner” and know that he knew the question but instead of clapping his hands he would say, “JUST WAIT – I KNOW THIS” and then he would think a minute and we would wait, and then he would say, “Who was FDR’s Vice President for his first two terms.”

Then he would clap.

And we would laugh and laugh and say no, no no.

I was always good at Jeopardy myself but my ultimate moment was when I was taking a nap when the TV was and Jeopardy was on and they had a VISUAL Daily Double, which meant there was a picture of the building on the screen

I woke enough to hear the TV but my face was still buried in the sofa when the feller said, “This Art Museum …”

Without waiting to for the clue to finish or looking at the TV, I yelled “What is the Guggenheim.”

Which was correct.

I sat up and my wife looked at me with the look of oh brother.

And I said, “Name another art museum you can identify from seeing the building?“

But I digress.

So there it is.

I read a lot.

I search out odd facts.

I know a lot of useless things.

Oddly enough, back in the day when “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” was a hot show, no one and I mean, NO ONE ever said to me, “Mike if I get on that show, would you be be my ‘phone a a friend?’“

To tell you the truth, I think deep down no one would trust me to not try to be funny and slip them the wrong answer like of course it was Rutherford B. Hayes who was the first President to use a typewriter … even though everyone knows it was Woodrow Wilson.”

It would be too much temptation to go for the laugh and my friends knew it.

So here I sit.

All this accumulated knowledge and nothing to show for it.

I will admit that I do wonder where it all came from somedays.

And some days, I wonder, why do I know that?

Take the other day.

Watching the college football scores and half listening I heard the words, “Floyd of Rosedale goes back to Iowa City” and the other feller on TV says ” whattttt??”

I mean gee whiz.

Who hasn’t heard of Floyd of Rosedale?

On the other hand.

Why do I?

write name so can be
identified – family
be notified

Taylor County (FLA) Sheriff’s Office – Division of Emergency Management

PLEASE READ ‼️

• We are requesting that all residents, guests, and evacuees refrain from returning to the area until officially directed by the Emergency Operations Center. This directive will be communicated via social media, news outlets, radio, and emergency alert systems. Returning prematurely poses significant risks due to expected heavy flooding and other hazards. Many roads will be impassable, and there may be downed power lines, fallen trees, and other dangerous conditions.
• If you or someone you know chose not to evacuate, PLEASE write your, Name, birthday and important information on your arm or leg in A PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and family notified.
• We ask that you kindly provide the following information so Search and Rescue teams can prioritize these locations:
• Is the residence inland or on the coastline?
• Full address of the residence
• Your name
• Name(s) of the resident(s) at this location
• Number of individuals and animals present
• Contact information for both yourself and the resident(s)
• Any additional information, such as a recent photograph of the individual(s), disabilities, special requirements.
  Please email this information to: TCEM@Taylorsheriff.org
  Thank you for your cooperation.

We didn’t evacuate nor did we write any identifying information on our arms with a permanent marker.

We lost power on and off over night and now no internet or TV.

We do have cell phone service which is a big plus over last Monday when everything was gone.

And thanks to our cell phone service, tornado alerts, hurricane alerts and flooding alerts kept our alerts alerting all night long.

Then about 4 a.m., the wind started.

That low road of a passing train that folks describe for a tornado but this didn’t last 10 or 20 minutes but hours.

It just roared and if anything got louder like when one of those jets from the Marine Base fly over head.

We got up about 4 a.m. to set things sideways on the floor of our balcony.

Kind of nutty thing to do at 4 a.m. but who wants a wooden rocking chair to be tossed through the front windows.

The next morning came and it was morning.

Still windy but blue sky and a lot of mess.

One of those days we are glad the night was over and also glad we lived in an apartment and didn’t have to get out there and rake.

Got to find a bright side.