Thought For The Day From Papa ‘a

Good Morning All & Happy Monday!

Here’s to our upcoming Fourth of July holiday, as we celebrate the gift of freedom & liberty, purchased through the sacrifices of those who have gone before and those who serve in our armed forces at the present time.  Happy Birthday America!  May our country remain a bright light in the world, even with its imperfections.  It remains the best hope for the world!

Speaking of celebrations, here’s to Jake & Sarah on their upcoming wedding anniversary on July 12th!  I’ll be in Iceland that day, but I’ll tip one in your honor!  Here’s to a great couple and Ezra & Izaak (Ike), their two precious sons!

A great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes to Sarah’s father and motorcycle helmet designer/painter & motorcycle restorer extraordinaire, Jim, who turns 58 years young tomorrow (July 2nd).  Here’s to you, Jim!  Will be tipping one in your honor tomorrow!

Happy Birthday to actress Olivia de Havilliand of “Gone With The Wind” movie fame, who is 103 today; to actor Jamie Farr of “M.A.S.H.” T.V. fame, who turns 85 today; to rock singer Deborah Harry (Blondie), who is 74 today; to actor-comedian Dan Aykroyd of “Dragnet”, “Ghostbusters” & “The Blues Brothers” movie fame & “Saturday Night Live” T.V. fame, who turns 67 today; to one of my all-time favorite track & field athletes, Carl Lewis, who is 58 today; to one of my favorite actors, Andre Braugher of “Glory” movie fame, who turns 57 today; and to actress Liv Tyler of “Lord Of The Rings” movie fame, who is 42 today…Here’s to all of you!

And here’s to the folks at the Alzheimer’s Association!  The annual Spokane “Walk To End Alzheimer’s” will be October 5th in Riverfront Park.  There is a event on July 24th from 4 to 7 p.m. at Steel Barrel Brew Pub at 154 S. Madison St. to get more info about this year’s Walk and to sign up your team for the Walk.  Appetizers and one beverage will be provided to all who come out to this event!  Please RSVP to Leslie Woodfill at lwoodfill@alz.org and/or sign up your team at www.alz.org (you can form a team for the 2019 Walk in your area by going to this web site address).  It’s a great way to support the fight against this awful disease.  Our team, “Charlie263” in honor of my Dad, Don Newbold and our friend Jane Franks (both of whom died of Alzheimer’s Disease)  Together, we can make a huge difference and end Alzheimer’s Disease in our lifetime!

I enjoyed my stay at The Tana House once again!  I love that place!  I had the pleasure of hiking up to Moose Lake this past weekend.  It’s located on a Forest Service Road not far from the intersection of the Camas Rd. in Glacier National Park & the North Fork Rd..  Coming from the Camas Rd., you take a left hand turn at the intersection of Camas Rd. & the North Fork Rd. and then take the first road you come to on your right.  It’s a Forest Service Road that takes you 17 miles to Moose Lake.  I forgot to read the fine print on my map and found that the road to Moose Lake & Moose Peak trailhead is only open from July 1st through September.  Well, it being June 29th, I just missed the opening of the road all the way to Moose Lake.  Not to be deterred, I left my car at the barricade and hiked approximately six miles up the road to the lake and I was not disappointed.  Some great views all along the way and terrific displays of wildflowers (i.e. Indian Paintbrush, Wild Strawberries, Asters, Daisies, etc.)…a colorful array of flowers, for sure.  Lots of evidence of bear activity (i.e. bear poop!) all along the road up to the lake…hence a lot of “Hey Bear, Coming Through” shout outs from yours truly.  The only other person on the trail that day was a fellow from Florida that took his recumbent bicycle up to the lake.  I met his coming down as I was going up.  He said the views at the lake were magnificent and that it was a bit windy up there!  We’ll that report was enough for me to “keep on truckin'” to the lake and hopefully up to Moose Peak.  I made it to the lake and “Boy, Howdy” was it a sight to behold!  A beautiful alpine lake tucked into the North Fork area of Glacier, with Moose Peak in the background.  I was standing on the lovely shoreline of the lake taking in its beauty and crystal clear water, when I spotted a bald eagle soaring overhead.  Wow!…that was something to see!  The bald eagle high in the air taking advantage of wind currents with blue sky & magnificent puffs of clouds in the background.  It was definitely worth the price of admission.  Not to mention seeing two superb specimens of white-tail deer grazing in a meadow area across the lake.  If you want to go somewhere in Glacier in the summer where you won’t run into many people, this would be the spot.  Not to mention bringing a kayak along…a great kayaking lake, for sure!  I had just enough energy left to go about 1 to 1 1/2 miles on the Moose Peak trail and I noticed lots and lots (I mean lots and lots) of huckleberries that will be ready for picking in about 2-3 weeks.  Needless to say, I would expect that this area is on the bears’ list of favorite dining locations, so I would anticipate a lot of “Hey Bear, Coming Through” will be necessary if anyone hikes that trail later this summer.  Be sure to bring something to stash some huckleberries in when you’re up this way!  It was a spectacular day at Moose Lake & Moose Peak!  Be sure you drive to the lake between July 1st through September so that you’ll have the energy to make the hike up to Moose Peak.  It looks like you will be rewarded with panoramic views of Glacier Park and points west looking at Whitefish Lake, Olney and other places of interest.  I’m looking forward to making it to the top of Moose Peak on my next visit to this slice of heaven.

One last thing about my recollections of my recent World War II adventure with my friend Harold Voltz…

We took a tour bus around Salzburg, Austria, as we had limited time to see as much as we could see.  Lots of locations that figured into the “Sound Of Music” movie with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer from 1965…

Well tour buses are a great way to get around to see everything you want to see, but you have to remember that you are on their time schedule, not yours.  I wanted to get one last picture of the house on the lake that was featured in “Doe-Ray-Me” song segment in the movie.  Everything was going great as I snapped away, until I heard a voice by the bus saying “you’d better get in now because the driver is going to drive away without you”…I recognized the voice as that of our tour guide, Charlie Koves.  Unbeknownst to me, he had quite a time convincing the bus driver to wait for me and not drive off.  Good that he did, because I would still be in Salzburg!  (Although, that’s not a bad fate for anyone, given the beautiful surroundings of the Bavarian Alps!).  I would just have to have found my way back to Munich in order to catch my flight home to Spokane the next day!

The tour bus had a great audio system on board that had great narration of the sights we saw in and around Salzburg.  Salzburg is the kind of place that you would want to spend at least 2-3 days exploring….doing it in six hours or so is not the best way to do it, but I’m sure glad Charlie arranged to have us come to this beautiful part of the world.  No wonder Mozart made some beautiful music here!

Did anyone watch the Democratic Presidential Candidates Debates this past week?  I must admit, I’m kind of a history/politics junkie and wanted to find out more about the potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, so I tuned in.  My take away from both nights was that some of the candidates had some constructive, practical approaches to solving many of the pressing problems of our time.  If we could just have a candidate from one of the major parties who took the best ideas from all of the political & economic viewpoints being expounded and rolled them into one platform that made sense for America, I could enthusiastically support that candidate.  Unfortunately, I’m not seeing that as of yet.  Perhaps someone like an Abraham Lincoln or Theodore Roosevelt with the common sense of a Harry Truman and the self-deprecating humor & inspiring speechmaking of a Ronald Reagan will emerge.  Prayers are lifted up to Heaven that such will be the case in 2020!

I recently came across the 1969 Topps Football Card for Bob Griese, former Miami Dolphins quarterback great, the last NFL quarterback to lead an unbeaten team to the Super Bowl and then to win the Super Bowl for a perfect season…now, that’s some feat, don’t you think?  He was born in 1945 in Evansville, Indiana, where attended Rex Mundi High School (his dad died when he was just 10 years old) and then went on to play college football at Purdue where he was an All-American.  He was also an accomplished baseball & basketball player.  He was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in 1967 (he was the fourth overall pick that year) and played his entire NFL career with Miami from 1967 to 1980.  He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990.  He later worked as a television commentator, calling NFL game for NBC Sports and college football for ESPN & ABC Sports.  He is one of three quarterbacks from Purdue to win the Super Bowl (along with Len Dawson of the Kansas City Chiefs & Drew Brees with the New Orleans Saints).  Griese established his reputation as the “Thinking Man’s Quarterback,” as he brilliantly called his own plays throughout his career.  Dolphin owner Joe Robbie called him “the cornerstone of the franchise,” around whom the Miami Dolphins were built.  The Miami Dolphins had the highest winning percentage in all professional sports in the 1970s, and Bob Griese was its starting quarterback throughout the decade.  I’ll never forget the Rose Bowl game that Bob Griese broadcast that featured the WSU Cougars against the Michigan Wolverines.  Griese’s son, Brian, was the quarterback for the Wolverines and won the game over the Cougars.  That was a hard game to watch, but one of the great Rose Bowl games of all time, in my humble opinion (spoken like a true Coug fan).  Bob Griese lost his first wife to cancer in early 1988 when she (Judi) died after an inspirational six year battle with breast cancer.

Here is the silly question for the day:

Q:  What did one cow say to the other cow?

A:  Mooove over.

Here are some thoughts for the day:

“I come from a coal-mining, working-class background.  My father was a coal miner.”

—Tom Jones, Welsh singer of “It’s Not Unusual” & “Delilah” fame

“Silences have a climax, when you have got to speak.”

—Elizabeth Bowen, Irish novelist

“I’d like to add his initial to my mongram,

Tell me…Where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?

There’s a somebody I’m longin’ to see

I hope that he…turns out to be…

Someone to watch over me

I’m a little lamb who’s lost in the wood

I know I could…always be good…

To one who’ll watch over me

Although he may not be the man some girls think of handsome

To my heart, he carries the key

Won’t you tell him please

To put on some speed…

Follow my lead…

Oh, how I need…

Someone to watch over me…”

—George & Ira Gershwin, “Someone To Watch Over Me”

“The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret.  And surely, from this point of view, the promise of glory, in the sense described, becomes highly relevant to our deep desire.  For glory meant good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgement, and welcome into the heart of things.  The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.”

—C.S. Lewis, “The Weight Of Glory”

Here’s to a great Monday and lots of love always!

Press on,

Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)