Billy B wondered just what was going on. He and Neva J were moving to Eldorado. Eldorado was where Grandma A lived and where they went for holidays. His best friends Steve and Susie who were siblings would not be joining him. Danny and Pauly who were also siblings would not be joining him. Ivy would not be there smoking her L&M cigarettes. George and Helen also would not be in Little Eldorado. They were going to move in with Aunt Wanda and Uncle Bill and his cousins Billy Gene and Brenda. He was to begin first grade shortly after their arrival.

The House was a large Victorian house. Every room spoke to him. He did not know if anyone else heard the speaking as it was hard to distinguish if it was audible…but he heard it and it was scary. Billy B’s bedroom was a utility room with a cot and the walls were so close that he simply opened the door jumped into bed and exited the room by climbing off the bed into the gothic living room. The House was ice cold in the morning. There were 7 fireplaces throughout the structure and all of their fires had gone out. He heard a terrible noise emanating from the basement and Neva J told him that his dad was shaking down the clinkers…

Somehow Billy B remembered the House from his past…but how could that be as he was 5 years old. Yet he distinctly felt that he had come home. He recalled playing on the large wrap-around porch and swinging from the massive columns that were along the edge. It seemed to Billy B that he had sat on the porch on many evenings and smoked his pipe and watched the football games at Eldorado High School that was across Illinois Avenue. Billy B. remembered driving a Model T and enjoying motoring the streets of Eldorado. He had been a coal miner.

A well was in the backyard. It had apparently been sealed for many years. Billy B remembered something strange happening at the well.

It was just a few seconds but it seemed like an hour…as Billy B was thrown down the well…with his pipe firmly gripped between his teeth…

‘I am so excited about Halloween coming up in under two weeks, Jane exclaimed!

‘This year I am going as the Lost In Space Robot,’ laughed Chet.

‘That is what you were last year and the year before, said Billy B as he winked.

‘Yes, but it will be different this year as Major Don passed away the other day. He was one of my favorite members of the cast, Chet looked sadly.

‘Oh I think you must be mistaken as I just saw episode 6 and Major Don was in good form and very much alive…it is 1965 and the show just began a few weeks ago,’ Jane said.

‘Morlock is my costume…from the Time Machine…those futuristic humans that Rod Taylor discovers and who he saves Yvette Mimieux… from,’ said Billy B.

‘JFK is who I will be Halloween night…no LBJ for me,’ said Daryl.

A dense fog settled down on Illinois Avenue. It had been warm when they began the night but now it was ice cold. The street lamps show a yellow hue through the ‘pea soup.’

‘I do not know about the rest of you but I am ready to get back home…I have been shivering for the last 30 minutes,’ Neva J said.

I would head home but I do not recognize where we are. I have some type of play phone that is made to look very futuristic,’ said Chet.

‘What is that ear-piercing alarm coming from your new toy…It has a screen like a TV…look and see,’ Neva J called out.

‘On the screen is something called an Amber Alert…and that Jane is missing,’ Chet answered…

My Buddy Brent reminded me it is a great day to walk in the woods. I am attempting to capture the leaves before they are on the ground. With the pleasant fall breeze, they are falling fast today.

Six days till 66. I was so proud to have reached the ripe senior status 65 that I thought it would never end. Now I have a kinship with a famous route…

Uncle Gene was a television repairman. This was a worthy occupation when I was a youngster in Eldorado. I was fascinated watching him test the vacuum tubes in the back of the set and determining which needed to be replaced in order to restore the TV to its Snowy and vertical or horizontal lines rolling through the dim image on the picture tube. When everything was in harmony you had your fingers crossed and the foil was on the rabbit ears correctly you could relish the three channels that you had available for your viewing pleasure.

MJ said why don’t we use our Christmas gift money this year to purchase a new TV for the Great Room. Now, no one seems to say Great Room any longer but I have held on to the description of our living room that the realtor gave it over 22 years ago when we purchased the house. So the large wooden entertainment center that we bought many years ago is going to be sidelined to what we still call Parker’s Room. Parker was our wonderful Black Lab. She lived a cared-for life with a lot of love. But, back to the entertainment center which is another title that you do not hear any longer. It has lived through two or three tvs. It has been my nemesis in getting one of the truly large TVs as a 43-inch was absolutely the largest we could fit in its oaken confine. I remember when a 20-inch counsel TV was considered humongous. The drawers and shelving of the entertainment center held many past treasures. The entire Series of Seinfeld. The entire series of The Sopranos. The entire series of the Larry Sanders Show. Several containers of 35m film have not been developed.

We were so happy to have an entertainment center that it will take up residence…without a TV and we will give Aaron our electric fireplace to provide space for the new arrival in Parker’s Room. The new TV is 65 inches. You may think why did you not get an 85-inch model? All I can answer is that we make changes slowly…perhaps we will get an 85-inch when we get older…

‘It is simply a lovely day,’ He said.

‘I would go so far as to say that is one of those days that you dream about or that you see photos of in Town and Garden magazine,’ She said.

‘Somehow I hate the thought of leaving…this is all I have ever known…I call it home,’ Chet said.

‘It cost a fortune to purchase a home in the Bubble…but I am glad we did. Everything outside The Bubble is chaos but we are seldom exposed to the madness in The Bubble,’ He said.

‘I still think that we should have placed our name on the list. It is horribly hot outside the house…this has never happened since we have lived in The Bubble. Could it be that the Plauge has entered The Bubble,’ She asked?

‘Did you water the plants dear, She asked? You know they can not live without water,’ She said.

‘I gave them an extra dose but the water boiled away in a matter of seconds,’ He answered.

The ship was loading and a line a mile long was waiting to get onboard. Once you entered the ship it was a cool 60 degrees but the outside temperature was 120.

‘On the way to work yesterday I passed 3 mass shootings, Chet said. ‘People have lost all perspective of who they are and what we one time were,’ Chet continued.

‘Well, we forgot what it was to be human somewhere between the Stock Market and nationalism. Tribalism was accepted as the Christian way and those who were not like us…were not Christian,’ He said.

‘Money is the cause…the love of money is the root of all evil…Grandma A said. As long as me and mine are fine…get yours the best way that you can,’ Billy B said.

‘I just heard on the radio that the ship blew up shortly after launch! It is already being speculated that it was carrying much more weight than it was designed for,’ Chet said.

‘I have been reading in my Bible lately…the passages about Hell seem similar to what we are experiencing on Earth,’ Billy B. said.

‘Everyone wants to go to Heaven…that is what the people who put their name on the list hoped for. They look at the lovely image of Earth II in the sky and are certain that their problems will be solved if they can get there,’ Chet said.

Little did the occupants of Earth know that the Hell that they had read about for generations…was their home…

A lesson that I learned as a child is that if I was dependent on something having the Wow Factor happening to me each day to generate my happiness…I was going to be unhappy a lot. Being one with your surroundings and your life is important. The excitement of life is in the little things. Fall excites me. Autumn has a distinct smell. The cool breeze has a voice that says get up and get going or you may miss the beauty.

As MJ and I have taken membership in the senior citizen clan I appreciate every day that our medical maladies are better or at least not getting worse. Today she was told that she did not need to come back to one of her physicians…and she was relieved and so was I. Life is a precious gift and when you set your sail to enjoy its many facets…you will find happiness each day.

Tight Rope is the balancing act of enjoying life. It is easy to fall off if you take your eye off of the Rope. We came into this world with the wonder and amazement and joy of new life. The smiles of our mothers and fathers and the joy of a good poop and a clean diaper warmed our hearts. The first Christmas captivated our imaginations. Santa Claus was indeed coming to our home and he was entering by way of the chimney. Mom and Dad were into us. Man were they in to us… We knew that we must be better than sliced bread.

It smelled fresh and new and wholesome at Grandma Askews. She had the coldest of milk in her large porcelain coffee cups. Grandma A had chickens in her backyard. You had to be mindful to not step in chicken shit. But, it was all good…in fact it was amazing! Aunt Guelda lived with Grandma A. She had an ancient peddle organ in her room that she played for me. It had an etheral sound… Aunt Guelda sang while she played… The sound was angelic.

Christmas was at Grandma A’s. All of the family was there. Grandma A was the Matriarch and the Oracle of our family. At times life seemed complicated until you were at Grandma A’s. Life was simple there. Grandma A did not have a television. She read her Bible daily and prayed throughout the day. She loved Nugget who she later named Narky. Every time Narky saw me he bore his teeth and snarled. His life was wrapped up in Grandma A. We had turkey and dressing and sweet potatoes for Christmas. There was pumpkin pie and fudge and divinity for dessert. We told tales and swapped stories and looked to the new year…

I was born a week before Halloween. I wonder if that is where my love for classic Horror and Science Fiction originated from? Neva J remarked on a few occasions that she saw a suspicious shadow or felt an invisible presence in our home. I usually enjoyed the Frankenstein and Dracula movies at the Orpheum Theatre. There were Monster Magazines in my halcyon days as well as Monster Models. I had Frankenstein and Dracula as well as the Wolfman and the Mummy. Neva J threw them in the burning barrel after I moved out of the familial home at 17. I enjoyed Tricker Treating due to having the best receptacle to accept my ill-gotten gains in…a plastic Jack-O-Lantern.

I DEALT WITH A TRUE GHOST STORY when I was employed at Southern Illinois University. Anthony had several Malaysian students on the custodial crew that cleaned what was in its inception a dormitory for women but in recent years had been converted to the office of the President of the University and his Vice Presidents. The crew supervisor asked me to come to Anthony as his Malaysian students were afraid to work in it. I discovered that a young lady had been checking the floors to ensure that all of the doors were locked and the lights off when she saw a woman with a white blouse and her long hair done up in a bun on the back of her head and she was wearing a black dress that went to her feet. The suspect apparition was behind a pane of glass that separated office areas and when the student saw her she sat motionless. When the Malaysian student hurried to get her boss to see the lady in the strange garb she was no longer there. This story went far and wide on Campus and resulted in the Vice president requesting a full report regarding the Ghost Of Anthony Hall. Later Jack the crew boss took me into the attic of the building and showed me a photo of Anthony when it was a Women’s Dormitory and there were many women assembled with their hair in a bun and white blouses and long black dresses.

Anthony’s Ghost was so widely discussed that the Malaysian Community refused to work in the building again.

Neva J loved the study of Edgar Cayce who was called The Sleeping Prophet. She believed in a spiritual realm that was just beyond our senses…usually.

We moved into a haunted house in Eldorado in the early 60s.
The feeling was spine-tingling and the Lemp Mansion that we visited almost two years ago in St. Louis reminded me of my first home in Eldorado. We not only had dinner in the Lemp Mansion, we also took a tour of the old Lemp factory where the Lemp family made their beer and they were the premier beer makers in St. Louis. Our tour guide swore that he had heard voices who spoke to him when he was alone in the factory. He also said that he had a human head submerged in formaldehyde that was set on his desk. Aaron and I bought a few rosaries from him. One of the Lemp family committed suicide in the mansion and the blood stains are still on the carpet.

As I lay in the bed in the cavernous bedroom and adjoining sitting room at Lemp I considered why I had chosen to make such a scary visit…while the little television droned on with peculiar programming…

I watched two British/Israeli citizens speak on the BBC at an open forum in Central London early this morning. They had grown up on a Kibbutz together that is near Gaza. They spoke of the unimaginable grief that they shared as one of their mothers had been taken hostage by Hamas and the other’s friend’s autistic daughter had been taken as well. The woman’s father had worked for peace all of his life. He took pride in having many Arab friends. Their calm and serious manner represented the solution to solving a crisis that Israel had not seen since the Holocaust.

Secretary Of State Anthony Blinken spoke of being Jewish. He talked of members of his family escaping the Holocaust. He told the audience in the Joint Press Conference that he and Prime Minister Netanyahu were conducting; that the photos that he had witnessed were beyond words and overwhelming.

MJ and I sit in peace and harmony and a seeming security that will ensure our years of retirement. This is what the residents of the Kibbutz thought as well. The thing about Terror is that it happens when you least expect it. Hamas had no consideration for the babies the young the old and the infirm. The government had taken its eye off the security of the nation. Israel is noted for having the best security in the world.

Terror changes everything. The veneer of safety that we enjoy is torn away and we discover that there are barbarians. Barbarians do their crimes against humanity and genocide by perverting their holy writings. I had a supervisor at Southern Illinois University tell me that God had commanded his armies in the Old Testament to kill every one of whom they were fighting and to bash the babies’ heads against the wall. Have we forgotten that what binds us together is that the people who were butchered the babies who were riddled with bullets and those who were decapitated…were human…

When Israel and the United States are compared by population…they have experienced 10 9/11s.

Religion has proven to be not effective against tribalism and feverish zealotry. The marginalization and dehumanization of a group of people is the story of religious persecution. A political candidate is saying that immigrants are deleting the blood of our country…Hitler said the same…

Jeff invited me to a Jewish dinner put on by the Temple in Benton, Illinois when we were both teenagers. I felt at home. Jeff as well as several of my friends were Jewish. I have always believed that I am in part Jewish on my mother’s side of the family. One of the finest leaders that SIUC had was Sam Goldman. He is a mensch!

I saw a newscast where my friend of many years ago, Glenn, and a church group touring the Holy Land were having difficulty getting a flight out of Israel. I remember what a kind and considerate person Glenn is as well as his departed wife Pam. MJ and I as well as Jeff and Margo stayed with Glenn and Pam many years ago for a night or two.

The heinous carnage that Hamas has wrought upon the people of Israel is beyond description. Israel is revered by all three major religions. There is no precept of any of these faiths that validates crimes against humanity…genocide…

Israel has captivated my imagination for all of my life. It is not only the homeland of the Jewish people…it is the home of my faith. I still want to visit Israel. The Jewish people fascinate me. Their dedication to their faith is unparalleled.

The Wailing Wall is a remnant of the Old Temple. People from all over the world go to the Wall to pray and place a paper with their prayer in the cracks of the ancient structure. My prayer is for the Dove Of Peace…

‘My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;’

Forty-five years ago today I was working for my friend Brent. He was teaching me how to install carpets. Brent was one of the best bosses that I ever had. I asked Brent if I could take a few minutes to walk down to the pay phone in Carterville and place a call to my minister’s wife Mickey. I had left her number at Building Services at SIUC in the event that I was called to be hired in the department. When Mickey answered the phone her voice was full of joy. She announced that Building Services called to offer me a job with the University and that she had assured them that I accepted and would soon call them back. Mickey was my friend.

October 10th is the day that changed our lives MJ says. Indeed our lives changed in many ways for the better as a result of my affiliation with Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale. It was a chilly afternoon when I reported to work. At first, the night supervisor could not find my name on the new hires until I assisted him in pointing out Bradley Brooks.

I was a poor boy from a poor family. Everything about the university was big and bold and international and different than what I had become accustomed to in my 20 years of life. I soon developed an appreciation for people from over 70 countries. I set about proving that whatever I was given to do I would produce an excellent product. I sought to be friends with all whom I encountered. I immersed myself in what it meant to be a part of SIUC…

Through the years I learned to be a voice for the voiceless. I discovered the beauty of diversity. I understood fully that we are all God’s children. I learned what love was…

October 9th is here and I am reminded that tomorrow is a big day in my family. October 10th, 1978 was the day that I was hired at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale and the rest is history. Forty-five years ago I was a newly married young man who needed a job. SIU changed my life! Two weeks later MJ and I purchased a new LTD two-door automobile. I soon saw that the University was the place to make my career.

I endeavor to savor each day of autumn. I enjoy the changing of the leaves’ colors and their falling to the ground. There is a group of wild turkeys that I see almost every day. I fashion myself as a bit of an expert in the woods as I have been spending part of most days there. My plant-identifying AP on my iPhone has enabled me to know my surroundings. There is a rhythm to life in the woods. As I observe nature I realize how artificial we of the human family have constructed our lives. The woods exist as a lovely manifestation of God and it worries not if the oak is larger than the elm or how much money the sassafras have. The woods do not strive…the woods…is…

Fall taught me that we did not ask to come to our lovely Earth and have a unique and singular purpose for being here. Stress, fear, and heartbreak are our particular inventions when climbing the social, religious, or political ladder.

Good things come to those who wait has been said on occasion. Nothing could be more true in autumn. The falling leaves and the grey skies of winter and the brown leaves on the ground seem to say that all is lost and the end has happened…until spring…