The Dinner
Future Shock!
‘Hurry Jose, it is almost time for our guests,’ said Juanita!
‘I am ready accept for putting on my shoes,’ replied Jose.
‘Jose, when you are finished putting on your shoes please check on the beef tartar and the asparagus, asked Juanita?
‘Raul and Esmerelda, please set the table and open the front and back doors to the great hall so that we will have a good flow of cool air for our dinner, said Jose.’
Juanita thought of how much she liked Pam and Clark. They were both such sweet and kind people! Pam was always helping with school functions and Clark coached the little league baseball team that both Raul and Esmerelda were on. Suddenly there was a knock on the door of the parlor and when Juanita opened it and there was her order of fresh Maine lobster that she had overnighted, at some significant expense, in…
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Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale…The Door Of Opportunity!
As Jonathon and I were walking campus this morning I was reflecting on the value that SIUC brings to the Southern Illinois region. Having been employed there for over thirty-two years and retired for nearly nine, I have witnessed countless lives that have been enhanced by the outreach of our school.
I was talking with my friend the other evening and we were reflecting on the former location of the Old Main building prior to it’s burning in 1969.
You see in the above photo Altgeld Hall to the left, Shryock Auditorium in the middle, and the Allyn Building on the right.
It is still not known what caused the devastating fire.
This happened close to the conclusion of the tenure of President Delyte Morris. Dr. Morris came to the University in 1948 and was President for 22 years. When he arrived Southern Illinois University Normal was a small Teacher’s College and when he retired it was a Carnegie II University with a Medical School in Springfield and a Law School on the Carbondale Campus as well as a campus in Edwardsville.
SIUC is situated in the most lovely geographical location in the state. Students attend from around the world to enjoy the peaceful serene settings that are so conducive to reflection and study and thought.
President Morris understood that he was building an oasis of learning in the heart of the desert of Little Egypt! One of his founding precepts was innovation and entrepreneurship! SIUC is the economic engine of Southern Illinois and much of the success of the entire region can be directly attributed to our University!
Having been a direct recipient of the opportunity that SIUC affords I can attest that being associated with the University has been a significant blessing for both myself and my family! When I began on October 10, 1978 I was newly married and driving a 1962 Ford Fairlane automobile. Our grocery budget was $25 per week and I had a holes in my shoes. No one had ever suggested to me that I should take college courses and I was pleased to have a high school education. Soon after beginning my career I enrolled for a class or two per semester, along with my good friend, Steve, and we commenced what many thought we were incapable of!
I really did not know how to react when in 1984 Dr. Carol Burns asked to speak with me after class and whereupon she told me that I had the academic ability to succeed in any field that I chose! I was…what I am not often…speechless!
I was honored to be a member of the Building Services staff…and I have never know a more professional and hard working group of men and women in my life! Building Services is integral in the recruitment and retention of our most precious University citizens…our students! I have known countless students who would have withdrawn from SIUC if it had not been for the caring and mentoring of their civil service colleagues on the custodial crews that they worked on.
When I began my career…I knew few people that did not look like me and come from similar customs. On my first evening work-shift I began to interact with people from around the globe!
My first supervisor was a kind African American gentleman who smoked the most aromatic cigars! He told someone who had been giving me a difficult time that, ‘You understand that Jay is my son…he just won’t call me daddy?’
I have had the opportunity to visit Europe on several occasions and have met the most beautiful and loving people from many different cultures and faiths. The tapestry of our world is much larger than Southern Illinois…and Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale…revealed that truth to me!
Note: The photos of Old Main burning are from ‘A Southern Illinois University Pictorial History,’ by Betty Mitchell
A Harley Davidson Adventure!
Billy Bump is at it again!
Did I mention that Billy Bump’s dad had a Harley Davidson motorcycle? It was the jumbo model from the early 1960’s! The beast, as Billy called it, was able to comfortably carry dad and mom and Billy, in the middle of them.
Now Billy’s father was not just into his Harley…he had the leather jacket and motorcycle hat and he carried a concealed hand gun, that he did not have a permit for, and he did not seek trouble…but he was on a hair trigger ready for it should it find him!
Billy’s dad enjoyed jazz music. He would listen for hours to Billie Holiday sing…while he had a far-away look in his eyes. Billy’s father had fought in World War II in the Pacific Theatre. He had seen action on Okinawa and refused to speak about what he had witnessed. He had left a wavy haired boy…and had returned…
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Marriage and Politics and Contentment and Happiness…is a Matter of Compromise!
It has been said that opposites attract!
Photo by Johan Bos on Pexels.com
‘In olden times, sacrifices were made at the altar, a practice which is still very much practiced.’ Helen Rowland
‘The most important four words for a successful marriage: I’ll do the dishes.’ Anonymous
‘By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.’ Socrates
‘I love being married. It’ so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.’ Rita Rudner
‘Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry meant with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.’ Albert Einstein
‘All men make mistakes, but married men find out about them sooner.’ Red Skelton
‘The secret of a happy marriage remains a secret.’ Henny Youngman
‘The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing-and then marry him.’ Cher
‘Love is a temporary insanity curable by marriage.’ Ambrose Bierce
‘Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.’ Marilyn Monroe
‘Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl.’ Stephen Leacock
‘Marriage is an attempt to solve problems together which you didn’t even have when you were on your own.’ Eddie Cantor
And, so, many marriages fail due to unrealistic expectations. A successful partnership is predicted on two equal partners.
The dysfunction in government today is a direct result of having intransigent ideologies that the elected representative and senators and president believe that they must win at all cost…or everyone be dammed!
Our political system was founded on the principle that there are three equal branches of government. Our founding fathers did to want to live under another monarchy…they had fled the one that they had in England!
Also, congress and the senate are specifically designed to ensure that compromise of the political parties is paramount to the success of the legislative process. We live in a nation that has tremendous resources but does not have the will to martial those resources to help the poor and the middle class…but rather is focused on the rich and powerful and those that line the pockets of or political leaders!
The sad state of affairs we are currently experiencing is our elected representatives and senators and president, cater to their base and care little about the rest of the country!
Compromise is the seeking of the middle. People of good will and logic can almost always find a middle ground that both parties can agree on. The truth be know…the United States is not comprised of far left or far right citizens…but rather moderate of middle of the road or people who understand the art of compromise!
Media caters to the most graphic story! Television seeks the headline that will grab the eyeballs of the most viewers! There are entire cable news networks that are dedicated to a political point of view and who basically exclude all other points of view.
Marriage is based on the stellar concept that the successful decision is the decision that is best for both parties. Our political system is predicted on the same concept!
The Little People
We enjoyed a wonderful sermon delivered by Rev. Deborah Troester regarding Naaman of the old testament.
‘Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aka. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.’
‘Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, ‘If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’
‘Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. ‘By all means, go,’ the king of Aram replied. ‘I will send a letter to the king of Israel.’ So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter he took to the king of Israel read: ‘With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you that you may cure him of his leprosy.’
‘As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, ‘Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow bring send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!’
‘When Elisha the man of God heard that the king had torn his robes, he sent him this message; ‘Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.’ So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, Go wash yourself seven times in the river Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.’
‘But Naaman went away angry and said, ‘I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all of the water of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?’ So he turned and went out in a rage.’
‘Naaman’ servants went to him and said, ‘My father, if the prophet told you to do some great thing would you not have done it? How much more, then when he tells your, ‘Wash and be cleansed!’ So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.’ II Kings 5: 1-14 NIV
Rev. Troester pointed out to us that the young servant girl from Israel had no doubt that Naaman would be healed if he would see the prophet. All to often our earthly possessions blind us from the love of God and the ultimate power he has to heal us!
We are taught process and procedure and decorum and logic and we can rationalize God’s complete power over his creation! The little people of the Earth have no where to look but to God and his love for his creation. With no worldly resources and, often, no roof over their head…they understand that God is their only supporter!
Naaman was accustomed to issuing a command and it being obeyed immediately! In the empirical world he had all of the gold and silver and shekels and power that any man would ever desire. People were afraid of him and they trembled at a glare from his eyes! People hung on every word of Naaman and he was accustomed to obeisance and genuflecting!
Naaman seemed to have it all…including leprosy!
So it is today…we have houses and lands and money laid up in our modern storehouses…and we pity the poor schmuck on the street without a home or a visible means of support and we warm ourselves by the fire of our ego and ponder how blessed we are and how cursed are they who have nothing.
Photo by namo deet on Pexels.com
I highly recommend the new Hulu movie, ‘Culture Shock,’ or an insightful look into the immigrant experience as portrayed thought a fictional movie.
Recently a father and his young daughter drowned attempting to cross the Rio Grande to gain access to the United States. The photo of their lifeless bodies…is heart wrenching!
How can we say that we are the greatest country on the face of the Earth…and separate children from their parents and lock them in cages?
What is the American Dream…when we decide who shall receive that Dream…through prejudice and xenophobic and biased eyes? If children do not have significance to us…unless they are the skin color that is acceptable to our leadership…then what are our standards?
The little people and the immigrant and the poor of the land…did not cause financial hardship for the middle class…the greedy corporate world did that with the top five percent controlling the majority of the wealth in the United States while the rest of us live on the crumbs that fall from the master’s table!
I am a logical person who is not given to histrionics or fits of emotion…rather euphoric or depressed. I believe in living life according to a christianity that simply gets up each morning and endeavors to live the life of, ‘loving each other as I have loved you,’ as Christ taught his disciples. Yet I have witnessed two people being healed by God in my life and it was verified by medical science.
The reality is that power and wealth and privilege are an illusion for this short earthly walk back to Jerusalem! Let us all reconnect with our child like faith…the faith of the little people!
By the way…we are all the little people!
Note: Photos of Naaman are courtesy of Google.
Enthusiasm Makes The Difference!
A, rare, non-fiction story for thejazzmanblog.home.blog
We visited Bath, Maine at the end of May, and we met some enthusiastic Mainers!
We first stopped in at a lovely little store that had a plethora of items created in Maine. They had the most comfortable bar stools that I have ever sat on…and there was no bar…or beer! They also had an assortment of long narrow paintings of ocean scenes from Maine that were both intriguing and which fit nicely above a doorway.
But, what made this store in Bath so special was the wonderful woman who waited on us! Her excitement and energy and total buy-in to the items that she was showing us and her demonstrated love for Maine…was compelling! If you entered the store with no particular desire to purchase something, this resident of Maine would have you wanting to participate in the Maine experience before you left her establishment.
While we in the…
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Campground Meeting!
thejazzmanblog.home.blog
Billy Bump had been drawn to faith since he was a nine year old attending Bible School at the Christian Church. He had walked the four blocks, and around the corner to the little brick church each day of the week long program. Other than a cursory contact with church, Billy had never thought much about the multitude of enjoyable facets of a life of attending church!
On the last day of the Bible School they were studying Moses and Jesus and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration found in the New Testament. Billy had been a bit of an introvert for a few years, especially after his mom and dad divorced, but he suddenly felt like answering the teacher’s question regrading what had happened on the Mount?
As Billy began to speak he felt a presence helping him to talk regarding the Bible story. When he had completed his…
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Summer Interlude
The 4th of July has arrived and I am thinking of the many 4th’s that have preceded it. For several years we enjoyed the 4th of July festivities with my brother-in-law and his family. They live on a lake and one of our 4th of July traditions was to ride with them, in their pontoon boat, across the lake and enjoy the unique experience of being on the water…without a care in the world!
We have attended when our kids were still in school and we were concerned about all of the issues that surround teenagers and their development. We have been there when there were many guests and the hustle and bustle of the holiday and the energy of youth was inspiring! We were there when our great niece was a baby…and we marked the occasion with Waterford Crystal Christmas ornaments! Tomorrow we shall attend her housewarming and we are excited and honored and aware of how fast time passes by!
We can not help but notice that not only are we getting older…but we are old in the eyes of millennials!
I retired eight and one half years ago…while Mary Jane retired two months later. I recall enjoying Christmas dinner with my buddy, Ron, and reflecting on our up-coming January trip to Jamaica. I was newly retired and excited about the world before me as a free man! I so enjoyed my time with Ron that I was extremely enthused about our potential to travel together for our retirement years! I could not believe my and Mary Jane’s good fortune!
Ron and I discussed the meaning of life and the joys of old age and retirement and the pleasure of a good glass of red!
Life passes so quickly and it is vital that we savor every drop of the miracle that God has given us!
Roman Candles
Happy 4th of July!
It was another 4th of July at the Bump home. Each Independence Day was somewhat similar to the one that preceded it! Illinois had laws prohibiting the purchase of the ‘good’ fireworks! In their place were the black buttons, that upon being lit by a match…extended out to form a semblance of a black snake, and they were therefore called snakes. Or there were the, lame and safe, Sparklers that had colored and harmless light expelled from them after they were lit, and you held them with your hand.
You could not buy firecrackers in El Dorado. They were Billy and Carl’s favorite 4th pastime! When you lit the wick and subsequently threw them…they made a magnificent loud bang! If you lit the entire pack…it was exciting and loud and Billy had been told that the person taking the risk to light the pack…could loose a finger or more!
There…
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The Lady and The Tramp…and Billy Bump!
Another Billy Bump adventure!
‘Billy, would you like to go to the theatre and see the new Disney Movie, ‘Lady and The Tramp,’ said Jane? It was October 24, 1961 and Billy Bump was four years old and John F. Kennedy was the new President of the United States of America!
Billy heard his mom and dad excitedly speaking about JFK…and he thought the this might be the new President? They believed that he was a breath of fresh of air and the now the country was going to move ahead. JFK had extolled the nation to, ‘ask not what your country can do for you…but ask what you can do for your country!’
Lady had its’ world premiere, in 1955, in Chicago…but it was still playing when Billy Bump and Danny and Paulie and Steve and Susie and their mom, Ivy, attended on October 24th…Billy’s 4th Birthday!
Billy could not believe all of…
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The Happy Traveler 