Good Morning All!
Good luck to my grandson, Joshua (Josh), and his baseball team the “Rockets”, as they start their fall baseball season today with a doubleheader against the “Cobras” at the Dwight Merkel Baseball Center next to Joe Albi Stadium today starting at 12:30 p.m.. GO JOSH! There’s a great picture of Josh swinging the bat with a great big smile on his face! He is one photogenic guy!
A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes to my beloved daughter, Amy, who celebrated her 33rd birthday this past Thursday, Sept. 5th. We celebrated her birthday at Italia Trattoria (sp?) in Browne’s Addition this past week with all of her siblings and their spouses. A good time was had by all! You can’t imagine how much joy Amy has brought into our lives. Lots of great adventures with her over the years. She and her husband, Joel, have embarked on a business venture called “The Barre Code” and have done a great job with its opening and operation in north Spokane. You can find out more about it by visiting their website at www.thebarrecodespokane.com or by googling The Barre Code Spokane. Also Happy Birthday wishes go to our friend and psychological counselor extraordinaire, Ramona, in Chesapeake/Norfolk, Virginia, who celebrates her birthday today and to our friend Matt, college basketball player extraordinaire for the Gonzaga University Bullldogs, who turns 42 tomorrow. He led the Zags to their first “Elite 8” appearance in the NCAA Basketball Tournament some years ago. Here’s to all of you!
Also, here’s to actor Corbin Bernsen of “L.A. Law” & “General Hospital” fame, who is 65 today; to actress Susan Blakely of “Rich Man, Poor Man” & “The Towering Inferno” fame, who turns 71 today; and to actor Tom Everett Scott of “That Thing You Do” fame, who is 49 today!
Our friend, Sheryl, who is visiting from Utah brought me a treasure trove of information about my paternal grandfather, Ammon Morris Newbold. We’re going to spend some time on the Family Search web site tomorrow to delve into more resources about my the Newbold family history. Sheryl is my Dad’s step-sister. Her mother, Viola, married my grandfather Ammon, after he returned to Utah after divorcing my grandmother Ida. Sheryl is a wiz with family history searches, so I’m looking forward to learning from here while she’s here with us. It’s always great to have her visit! My mom, Chris, and Sheryl and I took a trip yesterday afternoon out to the Spokane Memorial Gardens on the Cheney-Spokane Road to visit my daughter Jennifer’s grave site (she died of anencephaly (sp?)—lack of development of the anterior neural tube) at birth and then went on to visit my Dad’s interment site at the Washington State Veterans Memorial Cemetery. What a magnificent place to honor our veterans who are buried there! As you approach this beautiful setting just outside of Medical Lake, Washington you can see the large American flag that flies over the cemetery. It really is something to see! If you haven’t ever paid that place a visit, be sure and do so…you’ll be glad you did!
My mom, Chris, received a wonderful letter from her long-time friend, Dale, the other day. Dale was the Maid of Honor at my folks’ wedding in Raymond, Washington on September 10, 1950 at the First Baptist Church there. She is now 93 years old. She included a wonderful piece about her recollections of my father & mother, Don & Chris Newbold. Here are some excerpts:
“I had worked, during World War II, at Hanford and Richland, Washington, on what became known as the Manhattan project. My parents had moved from Minnesota to Raymond, Washington in late 1944. About one year later, I had saved some money and I decided I would enroll at the University of Washington. I attended a year and ran out of money so I went to live in Raymond, Washington also, and found a secretarial job at the Al Feller Insurance Agency. Two women, in Raymond, decided to open a women’s apparel store across the street from the Feller Insurance business. The city fathers decided to have a fall celebration of sorts. This new women’s clothing shop planned to have a style show featuring their clothing at the fall affair and I was asked to be one of the models. They said they were asking Christine Testerman (my mom) also, and said they were sure I knew her. They said she worked at one of the car dealerships as a bookkeeper. I actually had never met her but I was fortunate to make her acquaintance at that time. We discovered we lived a couple of blocks from one another. We had a lot in common, and soon became good friends. I remember when she said she had met this nice man, Don Newbold, an ex-Marine, who would soon be graduating from college. She was sure I must know him, as my parents had lived in the Willapa area where Don had been raised by his mother, but surprisingly neither my parents nor I knew the Newbolds. At this point Don was finishing his college at Washington State and selling life insurance in his free time to help pay his college tuition.
Once a week Bruce Albert, an insurance agent from Aberdeen, Washington (a town about 40 miles from Raymond) would come to Raymond and he and Al Feller would contact various residents in the Raymond and nearby South Bend area, in hopes of selling them life insurance policies. When they heard about Don Newbold, they were excited, as Equitable Life Insurance Company was always looking for promising young men as agents. They met him and were very impressed and suggested that Don apply as an agent for Equitable. I remember Don was hesitant at first as he felt an allegiance to the small company he was associated with at that time. Don and Christine seemed really meant for each other and they started dating and before long they became engaged. A few months later they were married at the Baptist Church, where Chris and her mother were members. I was her maid of honor…”
Our friend Sheryl shared an article that appeared in a Salt Lake City area newspaper a while back (it’s entitled “What a bad call: Your child probably won’t go pro, so stop fighting”) that I thought you might find an interesting read. Here are some excerpts:
“The line between childhood and adulthood can be blurry, only made definitive on the 18th birthday only for the legal needs of our justice system. Mature judgment does not suddenly materialize as the clock strikes midnight. Still, the impulses of some “adults” continue to shock.
One evident example of this phenomenon was put on prominent public display last week when parents attending a youth baseball game stormed the field in a fit of rage against a bad call—made by a 13 year old umpire. One was left seriously injured and one man was wanted by police after a brawl broke out behind home plate. Seven year old players in oversized mitts ran to the outfield, afraid of their parents, while onlookers filmed the whole scene. These parents—with their bruises—are not acutely aware: Viral internet fame is fun, until you’re the subject of it…
…While parents my be swept up in visions of their child making it in the big leagues, keeping things in perspective is key. After all, the NCAA reports that only about 9% of college players go on to play professional baseball, and just 1.2% of basketball players will star in the NBA—and that’s after beating the slim odds of even making it to the collegiate level.
Perhaps parent should take a cue from a sign posted at the entrance to a local city sporting event:
“Reminders from your child,” the sign reads: I’m just a kid. It’s just a game. My coach is a volunteer. The officials are human. No college scholarships will be handed out today.”
Levity aside, the youth baseball spectacle captures a disturbing trend: A digression of basic civility has created a place where even youth baseball games are a flashpoint for fighting…
…As the country looks to 2020 and beyond, no matter what candidate assumes the White House, Americans should recognize they have power within their own democracy and amongst each other to demand something different—to elevate and affirm higher standards of conduct from both our leaders and each other.
Adulthood may be arbitrary, but what is not is the choice to strive for more civility, more maturity and more generosity in our interactions.”
Speaking of good leaders, I came across the 1969 Topps Football Card for Pat Richter, an NFL player with Washington Redskins who went on to become the University of Wisconsin Athletic Director in 1989 and was responsible for hiring of Barry Alvarez as the football coach who took Wisconsin to a number of Rose Bowls and for hiring Dick Bennett and Bo Ryan as the Badger basketball coaches who took their teams to the NCAA Final Four. He also put the Wisconsin athletic department in the black after it had been losing money for some time and was responsible for the building of Kohl Center and a major renovation of the Camp Randall Football Stadium. He was born in 1941 and played offensive end for the Wisconsin Badgers. He caught a Rose Bowl record of 11 catches for 162 yards in the 1963 Rose Bowl against #1 ranked USC. He is the only nine time sports letterman in University of Wisconsin history in baseball, football & basketball. He has been inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame, the Wisconsin Sports Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame and the All-Century College Football team. What a career! Here’s to Pat Richter and the Wisconsin Badgers!
Here is the fact for the day:
Each year the average person walks the distance between New York and Miami.
Here’s the silly question for the day:
Q: What did the beach say to the tide when it came in?
A: Long time, no sea.
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“Oh how good it is on this journey we share, to rejoice with the happy and weep with those who mourn.
For the weak find strength, the afflicted find grace, when we offer the blessing of belonging.
Oh, how good it is to embrace His command
to prefer one another, forgive as He forgives.
When we live as one, we all share in the love
of the Son with the Father and the Spirit.”
—Keith & Kristyn Getty, R. Holmes & Stuart Townsend, “Oh, How Good It Is” (2012)
“Every Christian would agree that a man’s spiritual health is exactly proportional to his love for God.”
—C.S. Lewis, “The Four Loves”, as quoted in “C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom” (2018)
Here’s to a great Saturday and lots of love & good wishes! GO COUGS….GO CUBS…GO HUSKIES…GO EWU EAGLES…GO VANDALS!!!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)