Preacher…Politician….Performer…Professor!
I love for someone to reach out to me and smile and exhibit kindness and consideration and concern!
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Have you ever interacted with someone who captivated your attention from the moment that you met them? This person simply engaged your mind and emotions and you thought that… what is it about them that is so interesting and intriguing?
I remember assistant pastor Beyler in the early days of our attendance at First Presbyterian Church in Carbondale. She customarily read a body of scripture at the beginning of Sunday service. I do not recall anyone that brought more life and meaning to scripture, simply by reading it to the congregation, than pastor Beyler. As I listened to her read…I felt that what she was reading had either happened recently or that I was part of the drama of the passage!
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I was visiting with a friend of mine recently and we were discussing the fact that many people are in the wrong profession. A leader of others must seek to care for the people that they are charged with leading.
‘Leadership is not being in charge, it is about taking care of people in your charge.’ Simon Sinek
Politicians reach their constituents by touching something inside of them that resonates with their bedrock beliefs. Whether you are a fan of our current president or not…he dramatically connected with enough voters, in the last election, to win the electoral college.
I remember JFK! This man had a charisma that excited and energized the country! When he proclaimed, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country’…thousands joined the peace corps…or entered government…or were inspired to become the best that they could be!
I remember president Reagan…I voted for him twice! I was inspired by his vision of America!
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My mother loved FDR! President Roosevelt told out country in the midst of the Great Depression that, ‘The only thing that we had to fear…was fear itself!’
I recall Pastor West inspiring me to think more about and write about the homeless and the indigent and the immigrant and she gave me a love and appreciation for the Gay community…that I had formulated in my mind…but had not verbalized!
Pastor John Somers taught me the true meaning of humility. John was a pastor of a long-standing career and some significant notoriety in the Southern Illinois region. Yet he was the most humble minister that I have ever known!
Pastor Archer took a great interest in me when I was a young man. He mentored me and taught me what it was to be a gentleman. I have endeavored to follow his example up until and including this day.
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English professor Carol Burns inspired me to attain an academic degree. She was my professor for English Composition 101…and she counseled me that I could attain any academic success that I sought! We read George Orwell’s ‘1984’…in 1984!
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Chancellor Jo Ann Argersinger inspired me and thousands of other Southern Illinois Carbondale community members! She loved the University with a vitality that was palpable! She believed that all members of the University were equally important to the success of the institution! Her brief time as chancellor was a breath of fresh air for our school!
There is a spark of inspiration or charisma…or anointing…that is present in the most successful leaders of our churches or our government or our dramatic performers or our teachers!
It is incumbent upon us to recognize the same flame of inspiration that touched the early christians is still accessible today…to those who seek it!
Do we want God’s will for our brief journey in this life….or do we want to stick…rigidly to the script or our mission statement and our rigid formulaic dogma that we have been involved in for 50 years?
Do we desire a political leader who is compassionate toward all of God’s creation and is grounded in logic and science and truth…or do we want to let our bias and our prejudice and our misogyny and our xenophobia…rule our actions and our, at one time, soft and pliable heats?
The $1000,000 question is….are you a member of a church that you are comfortable with their basic tenants and teachings? Are you convinced that your minister cares about you and empathizes with your needs and concerns and is there for you when you need spiritual counseling?
Is the political rhetoric that you hear on a daily basis…consistent with the concrete reality that you observe with your eyes and hear with your ears?
We were at the Orthopedic Institute this morning and Mary Jane had the most delightful Physician’s Assistant examine her regarding progress resulting from a medical procedure. This young woman, Misha, had a natural affinity and charisma for patients and her interaction with my wife was some of the nicest that I have witnessed. We both left her office upbeat and encouraged!
Let us strive to be the person that those who we meet and interact with and those lives that we touch…are uplifted and enhanced and made better by our brief presence!
Let’s Stop The Precipitous Slide…By Returning To What Works?
‘Nursing program earns IBHE approval’
‘Carbondale, Ill. – The Illinois Board of Higher Education today (Aug. 6) approved the creation of a nursing program for Southern Illinois University Carbondale.’
‘Pre-nursing students can enroll in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program this fall, taking core classes before the full nursing curriculum starts in fall 2020.’ SIU News
The work that Interim Chancellor John Dunn, and others, have done to facilitate the creation of this nursing program in partnership with Southern Illinois Healthcare is an outstanding addition to Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale and the entire Southern Illinois region!
Former Chancellor Carlo Montemagno proposed a police academy as a component of his academic restructuring program. It was protested by some students and he said, in 2018, that he would leave it to the faculty to determine if there was a police academy or not?
Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale needs programs that are in demand for todays students! No matter your love for the purity of academic pursuits and the joy of learning and expanding your mind and scope in today’s world…you still have to earn a living!
In the early 1990’s SIUC had many two year associate degree programs that were infinitely popular! The University was at it’s zenith in enrollment with almost 25,000 students on the Carbondale campus. The Chancellor, at that time, stated that we wanted to be more like the University of Illinois and perhaps surpass them. Subsequently we gave our associate degree programs to the junior colleges…and that was the beginning of our enrollment decline!
As I was walking my beloved campus today…I saw many eager students who are actively engaging in their higher education. I reflected on the thousands of students that it has been my honor to know over the past 41 years! So many of these scholars found their destiny and careers and callings…at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale.
A University for first generations students!
A University of multiple generations of one family!
A University for peoples from over 70 nations!
A University that welcomed African American students…long before the civil rights movement!
A University that was accessible for the disabled….long before it was required by the American Disability Act of the 1990’s!
A University for the working middle class!
A University that has a theatre program that is on par with Broadway!
As I was walling through Morris Library I saw my friend, Wendi, who is a professor in the theatre department. She was showing her students good books regrinding costume designing. Wendi is a wonderful example of the dedication of the SIUC faculty!
I hail from the civil service ranks. My career at Southern was 32 years and 2 months and 3 weeks…and I have returned almost every day to her…for the past 9 years!
Civil service staff are the engine that keeps the great ship of SIUC running! Without them…there would be no University!
I watched the young people that were in Wendi’s class…and I was heartened and took renewed hope…we are going to be alright!
‘I Remember Mama’
My dear mother passed away in October of 2013. She and I experienced many difficult times together and we had a bond that was unbreakable.
Mom was born in Mt. Vernon, Illinois and she had five siblings from the Askew side of the family and five half brothers and sisters from the Quinn side of the family. She spoke of the Quinn’s often being hungry and having to search for persimmons to eat…to stave off starvation. The Quinn siblings were; Beulah, Guelda, Dutch…who went missing in World War II, and Donald…who had a heart attack from shoveling snow. I can not recall the fifth Quinn’s name? The Askew’s were; Vema and Gene and Wanda and Neva June…my mother, and Rosebud…who died in infancy.
Mom went to work in the shoe factory at the age of 16. She told me that she was so tired of being poor and thus did not finish the last two years of high school. Later, after she and my dad moved to Chicago, became a switchboard operator at the Hilton Hotel and on one occasion she put a call through from Nicky Hilton!
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Mom and dad married after he returned from the pacific theatre of World War II. She believed that he had a girlfriend in the islands due to his sending her photos of native women with bare breasts.
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I was born in St. Mary’s Hospital in Chicago and we lived in the city for the first two years of my life. We then moved to Sauk Village on the south side and enjoyed a, “Leave It To Beaver,’ type lifestyle for a few years. Mom had friends, Ivy our neighbor from across the street, and Helen from next door…and she loved to do the Twist…as sung by Chubby Checker!
If I have any altruism…or love and concern for others who are less fortunate than me…it came from my mom! Mom regularly searched for someone to help! If you were hungry and she had a five dollar bill…you soon would have $2.50!
Mom was an active listener. If you needed a confidant…she would spend all of the time required to hear your concerns and problems and then would console you, from her heart, and tell you, ‘It is going to be alright Kiddo!’
Our short-lived happy and care free lifestyle in Sauk Village was upended when my dad found another love. In an effort to attempt to repair their marriage we moved to Eldorado, Illinois where my grandmother Askew lived as well as my aunts, Vema and Guelda and Wanda..
After moving into a ghost house on Illinois Avenue, that was directly across from the Eldorado High School, I discovered what rats looked like, and how large they can become, and I understood what it was like to be cold!
The Eldorado move did not solve the relationship dilemma and dad left…only to return one last time and give me four silver dollars…and bid me farewell.
Mom was devastated and I determined that I was going to stick by her…and she in turn stuck by me! She slowly recovered and began to take photography classes through an adult education program and we decided that we were not going to be defeated!
Mom and I stood in Commodity lines, which was a program for the poor whereupon semi-trucks would open their doors and throw government cheese and potted meat and powdered milk to the poor masses…of which we were part!
Mom re-married a stable and hard working electrician, Earl Fitzsimmons, who provided a nice lifestyle for us. We could enjoy hamburger again rather than split pea soup.
For the last 40 + years of her life Mom was a dedicated christian. She loved Jesus and she loved to help anyone in need… of a hand outstretched!
Mom made me eggnog almost every morning for many years. I hated it…and it made me wretch! However, I would never say that to her…I loved her too much to hurt her feelings! I would throw the eggnog out the back door of our little house in Eldorado..when she left the kitchen…and once in a while…I would drink it if she did not leave the room!
After Earl died in 2001…Mom came to live with us. She was already well into Alzheimers Disease…and it progressively got worse. When my step-father passed I was thinking at his wake…that we were going to have to find a nursing home for mom…when Mary Jane said that she wanted for us to take her in. I was overcome by her expression of love for her mother-in-law!
I remembered the many hours that mom and Mary Jane would talk, over the years,…and mom would listen intently…and she loved her daughter!
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Labor Day Fairytale II
The conclusion of the Labor Day Fairytale!
So, there the Bump family was…at the hospital with Jane Bump’s twisted ankle! She was pleading for pain pills, and this was before oxycodone and she swore that she truly believed that she was dieing! The doctor arrive and subsequently x-rayed the injured area only to discover that it was but a light sprang. He bandaged it and prescribed St. Joseph Baby Aspirin.
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Now, Jim was taken to St. Mary’s hospital in Chicago and examined for the severe blow to his chest by the errant Jai alai ball that hit his at 87 miles per hour directly bin the center of his chest. He was found to be fine from his Jai alai injury but suffering from his 40 years of smoking and counseled to quit immediately!
George had decided that it was time to introduce Billy B. into the mafia lifestyle and he had…
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Peace Be With You
We have a custom in our church of passing the peace. This consists of the congregation shaking hands with their neighbor and saying, ‘peace be with you.’ I have not really thought about what we are saying to each other and wishing for each other until today.
A wonderful lady in the church wished me peace and then said, ‘you do not understand how great that wish is until you do not have it.’ I responded that I not only agreed with her but that I had experienced what it was like to not have peace.
On numerous occasion in my life I have felt the lack of peace. Peace is not a rubber stamp for christians. It is a daily seeking of God’s plan for your life and a giving of our worries to his care.
I have been in work situations that gave me great anxiety. Having much responsibility and no authority is a killer of peace.
I have witnessed illness stalk my family and I have spent many sleepless nights worrying about the outcome.
When my sons are unhappy…I am unhappy…and I rack my brain trying to come up with a solution to their dilemmas!
Perhaps you are in a marriage where you are not appreciated and your best…is never good enough?
It could be that your best efforts at making a living for your family…falls short of your bills and commitments and the needs of those that your are responsible for?
Is your supervisor treating you like chattel? Are you expected to conduct yourself like a wholly owned subsidiary of the boss?
Do you seek to be heard…do you have an opinion that that varies from the politically correct one?
Would you like to be acknowledged for who your, really, are? Would you like to be recognized for your place in society…whether it is Gay or Straight…Black or Hispanic or a member of the multitude of cultures that make up the melting pot of the United States of America?
Would you like to hold your head high in the congregation of the human family and say that, I am transgender and I am proud of who I am…and this is me!’
Would you like to say that I have a mental illness and I am alright and I am whole…and I am part of your community….all I desire is acceptance!
When God talks to you and reveals truths for your life and peace to your soul…would you like to share that with others without judgment and dogma entering the conversation?
Peace is like the firefly that we attempted to capture in jars when we were children. It is fragile and dainty and a bit like fairy dust. It exists for a moment in time…and then must be sought anew!
A Labor Day Fairytale!
A Labor Day from the past!
Billy B. loved Sauk Village. The street that he lived on was full of friends. There was Danny and Pauly on one end of the avenue and Susie and Steve, with his marionettes, on the other end of the placid tree lined road. The front porch of his house was as long as his house and covered with a roof and the floor was concrete. He and his friends could play on the porch when it was raining and feel secure and safe and dry. The house in Sauk Village had a concrete drive way and part of it was covered to protect the car. In the back yard there was a patio with a Weber charcoal grill and Billy’s dad grilled steaks and hamburgers and bratwurst on it…as well as corn on the cob and baked potatoes.
Ivy, his mom’s friend, came over daily to visit. She was very…
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Is The Matrix….Real?
‘Are we living in a computer simulation?’
‘The question seems absurd. Yet there are plenty of smart people who are convinced that this is not only possible but perhaps likely.’
‘In an influential paper that laid out the theory, the Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom showed that at least one of their possibilities is true: 1) All human like civilizations in the universe go extinct before they develop the technological capacity to create simulated realities; 2) if all civilizations do reach this phase of technological maturity, none of them will bother to run simulations; 3) advanced civilizations wold have the ability to create many, many simulations, and that means there are many ore simulated worlds than non-simulated ones.’ Vox
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I was the Ari Melber news show last Friday and he asked two of his panelist what they thought the probability of this hypothesis was…and they answered on a scale of 1 – 10…5! Ari responded that 5 seems high to him!
I think that anyone who has lived much of life…would find this hypothesis incredible! If no other reason than the mountain top joys and the deepest valley sorrows that they have experienced during their walk back to Jerusalem.
When Reverend Archer pronounced Mary Jane…man and wife and I held my new wife’s hand on March 28, 1978…that was no computer program!
When I fed my first son Aaron his first bottle and marveled at his perfection and admired his little blue knit hat…that was no computer program!
When our second born son, Jonathon, jumped out of his crib. laughing an uproarious laugh, and scampered across the floor…that was no elaborate computer program!
When Christ said…follow me…that was no simulation!
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Now as far as understanding God’s mysterious creation and the infinite majesty of it…we have not even started!
Here is a question…how do we ignore the poor and the needy and the hungry among us and somehow blame the immigrant who’s is walking untold miles, with their little children and their babies in tow, to flee persecution and danger and death?
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I watched two movies on Netflix last night that covered the former Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton. Mr. Reich is a brilliant man and a teacher and a scholar and an advocate for the poor. He illustrated in his documentaries that the majority of the riches in the United States is held by 400 people. No, you did not misread….400 people! The middle class is being increasingly squeezed out of existence and the poor…wonder where their next meal is coming from. Wages for the middle class have been flat since the 1970’s and in fact have decreased in purchasing power. Reich pointed out that when he first came to Washington D.C. in the late 1960’s that the city of our Government, ‘was a bit seedy.’
Robert Reich soon discovered that lobbyist were beginning to work, behind the scenes, to limit and form legislation to the companies likening that they worked for. This has gravitated to the fact that companies often wright the legislation that they want passed by the congress…and they dutifully pass it!
Reich contends that there is no reason that anyone who is working full time in the United States should not be able to achieve a middle class life style.
Why do we continue to blame the poorest among us for our social and economic maladies?
Since the 1970’s money has flowed upwards and wages for the working middle class has become flat and lost purchasing power.
‘CEOs made 287 times more money last year than their workers did.’
‘Unsurprisingly, the gap is obscene. The average chief executive of S&P earned 287 times more than their median employee last year, …’
‘American CEOs earned a staggering $14.5 million in 2018, on average, compared to $39,888 that rank and file worker made. And CEOs got $500,000 bump compared to the previous year, while the average US worker barely got more than $1,000.’ Vox
Reich pointed out that governments control how free markets operate. It is a myth that free market economies operate irrespective of their governments!
When we arrive in the next life that the creator has planned for us…we will be shocked and amazed at the truth of the real after life as opposed to our earthly preconceived notions! I believe that it will seem so logical and yet so hidden from our earthly and human understanding.
‘Roger look beautiful. He looked really beautiful. I don’t know how to describe it, but he looked peaceful, and he looked young.’
‘The one thing people might be surprised about- Roger said that he didn’t know if he could believe in God. He had his doubts. But toward the end, something really interesting happened. That week before Roger passed away. I would see him talk about having visited this other place. I thought he was hallucinating. I thought they were giving him too much medication. But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note: ‘This is all an elaborate hoax.’ I asked him, ‘Whats a hoax?’ And he was talking about this world, this place. He said it was all an illusion. I thought he was confused. He wasn’t visiting heaven, not the way we think of heaven. He described it a a vastness that you can’t even imagine. It was a place where the past, present, and future were happening all at once.’ Chaz Ebert
Smile…It Is Almost September!
My favorite four months of the year are knocking at my door! I love autumn! The cooler temperatures and the falling leaves pumpkin spice coffee and the holiday season are my medicine for the year.
I will let you in on a little secret that you will not hear many people admit to….I like shorter days! Oh yes…you heard correctly….I enjoy long nights and shorter days. It could be something to do with the fact that I worked nearly 20 of my 32 + years at the University on evenings and night shifts.
The calm and measured grandeur of the earth at rest and preparing for its winters nap is an elixir to me and a balm for a weary soul. There is an order and a system and a methodical purpose to life with the kids in school and Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale in full fall swing. Life’s balance is on display when the sun filled fun of summer gives way to the quiet and studied academia of fall…with both eyes looking ahead towards Thanksgiving and Christmas.
No matter our age, a happy life is a mixture of work and play.
Oh, but, there are the ever present changes the come to our serene lives. Some by design while others must be reacted to…and they seem to be the predominate culprits!
Often we perform the same maneuvers to facilitate hurdling a roadblock that is in our path and, sadly, receive the same negative results.
Perhaps we desire to loose weight and refuse to make any changes toward that goal?
It could be that we work for a thoughtless bully. We continue to explain to the bully why they are the bully…and they continue to go right on down the bullying path.
Maybe we are facing a mountain and would rather burrow though it than climb it?
It has been said that the only thing that is certain about life…is change.
We can be members of a church and seeking Gods will for our future and refuse to change our way of doing things. We may say that I have been a member of this church for 50 years and we have always done it this way! We may point to our mother and father before us and exclaim that we are worshipping just like mom and dad did and that it worked just fine for them. As our numbers diminish and the society around us cries out for someone to care about them…perhaps we should change our way of doing certain things?
The earth changes each season. A tree loses all of its leaves in the fall. The green grass in my yard withers and dies and I no longer need my mowing service. The short sleeves that I enjoy wearing all summer yield to a sweater and then a jacket and then a coat…as the temperatures diminish from 100 degrees to 1 degree! Change is not only real… it is dynamic! It is the catalyst that propels we humans forward!
‘Two Coats’
‘Two coats were before me, an old and a new
I could have either, so what must I do
One coat was ugly and terribly torn
The other a new one, and never been worn’
‘I’ll tell you the best thing I ever did do
I laid off the old coat and put on the new’
‘The old coat was earthly and not fit to wear
I thought of it often and shed many a tear
Then there was a clean one presented to view
I laid off the old coat and put on the new’
‘The first man was early and made on the ground
We all bore his image, the whole world around
The next was my Savior from Heaven so fair
He gave me this new coat you now see me wear’
‘Now this coat it fits me and keeps me so warm
Its good in the winter, its good in the storm
My Savior has dressed me in garments so rare
He fills me with glory, his image I’ll bear’
Patty Loveless
Can We Get Out Of Gods Way?
I remember watching religious themed television on Sunday mornings while other families were getting ready for church. Now this was not cable television but rather three networks and two of them were fuzzy. One of the programs was entitled, A Lamp Unto My Feet, that was produced by CBS Television. The programs had morality lessons based on christianity and I thought that they were great! During my young years, before 11 years of age, we did not attend church…but I was captivated by Bible stories! I would see these wonderfully bound books in the waiting room at Ferrel Hospital in Eldorado, Illinois that had beautiful illustrations and a narrative that was made to order for my Biblical curiosity!
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Many years later, grown with kids of my own, I sent a card in from one of the, same, Bible story books…still found in doctor’s offices…and said that I was interested in learning how I could purchase a set of them for Aaron and Johnathon. Little did I understand that a Bible Story book salesman was going to come to my home to high pressure sell me my beloved books!
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We had just returned from a Gatlinburg, Tennessee vacation when what did I hear but a knock on my door. When the old German man entered he told me that he believed that it was God’s will for me to purchase a set of books! I, after listening to his sales pitch for 30 minutes, told him that I would think about it and would call him and let him know. He responded that he feared that Satan would enter my heart if I did not buy the books now and that he thought that he should speak with my wife. I assured him that my wife would throw him out if he spoke to her in such a manner as he had to me…and he gathered his books and left.
I later purchased the books and have them to this day! I also noted to the salesman that apparently Satan had not entered my heart!
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One of the most exciting experiences that I witnessed during my early years as a christian was the influx of about 40, primarily Jewish Hippies, to our little non-denominational church located on the Royalton blacktop road in Elkville, Illinois. The group was comprised of some from wealthy homes and others from the middle class… and one who was an orphan and who had been homeless and slept on the streets of Chicago.
The hippie commune, which I visited and stayed over night and showered in the corn field, was at the other end of the blacktop.
We were a small church of under 100 parishioners. When the hippies came…they not only found a welcoming and loving congregation and pastor but they discovered a family that they had been hungering for!
This church event was so unusual and unprecedented that people came from miles around to see what was going on in the little…poor church in the village of Elkville! The young people that came became christians and subsequently…’Jews for Jesus.’
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Religious leaders in the Southern Illinois area marveled and rejoiced in the manifest witness of Gods outreach and dynamic magnetic drawing of his children to him…while others scoffed and criticized and turned their head and walked sadly away!
The Chicago orphan is my lifelong friend Jeff. He and his wife live in London. Jeff is the CEO of Genistar and works tirelessly to help others. He has enriched the lives of countless people that come from difficult situations and life events! I see their photos and read their testimonies regarding the difference that Jeff has made in their lives and I remember the little hippie boy…my friend….almost 50 years ago….
I spent my career at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale. During my over 32 years of service I interacted with thousands of students. Many of these students come from broken homes or are latch-key children…or are battling mental and emotional challenges. There is one overriding theme that is an umbrella over so many of these young people…they are lonely!
Pastor Archer was able to think outside the box when the 40 hippies came to his church. I witnessed tears stream down his face as he demonstrated to them the love of a father figure. The congregants of our little church were salt of the earth Southern Illinoisans. They loved the lonely hippies…they did not think of the hair or the clothes…they saw their hearts!
My first hand witness of God bringing his sheep to someone who would care for them and love them…was a seminal event in my christian experience! I understood that to follow Jesus…was to first get out of the way of what he was wanting to do with his children…and to be his representative to every hurting and lonely human being!
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Mystery At The Fair
The Fair continues to provide surprises!
Carl and Billy B. walked out of Merlin’s tent wondering what type of tiny projector had been hooked up to the crystal ball where they had just watched the strangest, seemingly unrelated, events projected on? The proper decision seemed to be to find Sam Malone’s Taffy stand and proceed to enjoy the best taffy east of the Mississippi river!
When they presented themselves in front of Sam he was singing his famous taffy making song: ‘Mama likes taffy and daddy likes taffy…and so does Dick and Jane…even Spot the dog like taffy! So good….get it now….get it now!’
Sam would take massive rolls of fresh and soft taffy off of the roller with his his massive arms and hands and begin to throw the sweet confection high into the air and let it land on a large wooden table…whereupon he would turn it over and cast it into the air…
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The Happy Traveler 