I was in my sixth year of teaching at Blanchester. I had finally learned how to teach and maintain some kind of semblance of classroom control. I had two really good students, Randy and Brett that made teaching fun. They actually helped me be a better teacher by setting good examples and being strong role models. No one messed with them. My, things do happen.
We had built a profitable school farm of 80 acres with a good line of machinery. I was really into mechanics and ham radio at the time. We lived at Fayetteville where I go to church now and Matthew teaches. I had a new Kenwood TS-520 and could talk to about anyplace in the world I wanted to. The Radio Shack CoCo or color computer and the Model I and III were about to show up and take over that world. My, things do happen.
It's funny how you remember this working outdoors. I've had a lot of peaceful moments in the fields where I can think. I cleaned out a pile of cedar posts I have been meaning to clear 3 years ago. I get such great satisfaction from such little things. My two good men showed up at 2:30 p.m. and I gained new life. I sawed wood like I did 35 years ago. I still have 20 logs to saw up but the pile isn't so big now.
I have been in a wood sawing frenzy since this good weather just keeps coming. Tomorrow might be the end of it but still the forecast isn't that bad. TSC has Carhartt winter coats on sale for 50 bucks for Black Friday morning and Poulan Wild Thing chain saws for $99. I might pick up one of each.
A bug went through the family after First Communion and LuAnn spent the day on the couch. She found out the communion family had it first. Wouldn't you know she asked me how much sick leave she had used this year last night. I guessed 14 hours, she said the answer is 11. She almost doubled that today.
So what are you having for Thanksgiving dinner? Turkey and all the trimmings? That is all that has been on TV and how many hundreds of thousands of meals that have been given away. That didn't happen 35 years ago. We all stood on our own two feet, at least that we knew about.
Now HOPE Emergency feeds 400 people right down the road where we used to live. I can't say the world is a better place 35 years later but it is what it is.
What do you out of the states readers do today? I don't remember being in a foreign country on Thanksgiving to see what it is like somewhere else. Maybe we were a few years ago when we cruised the Danube but I don't remember.
I do give thanks today for what we have and what has been sacrificied, just like I did in 1977.
Ed
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