Good Morning All!
Well, that was some kind of U.S. Open Tennis Match Final last night! How about the phenomenal level of play from the two finalists, Nadal & Medvedev (sp?)? My wife, Judy, is a HUGE Rafa Nadal fan, so needless to say, you can tell who we were rooting for last night. But to tell you the truth, either one of them deserved to win it. It was one of the most thrilling tennis matches I’ve ever seen! It went down to the wire in five sets and almost five hours of play…WOW!!! It doesn’t get any better than that!
Prayers are lifted up for Judy’s hip replacement surgery this coming Wednesday and for our friend & husband, father and firefighter extraordinaire, Ben, who is having cancer surgery this Wednesday to be followed by back surgery in a couple of weeks. Please pray for lots of wisdom and discernment from the health care professionals involved and that both Judy and Ben heal quickly & completely.
Happy Birthday wishes go to our friend Jonathan, who turns 41 today; to our friend and wife, mother and college professor/career counselor extraordinaire, Sharon and to our friend Kim, retired newspaper editor extraordinaire of The Journal Of Business, who both celebrate their birthdays tomorrow (Sept. 10th)! Here’s to all of you!
Also, Happy Birthday to comedian Adam Sandler, who is 53 today; to actor Hugh Grant, who turns 59 today; to actress Angela Cartwright of TV’s “Lost In Space” fame, who is 67 today; to actor/singer Tom Wopat of TV’s “Dukes Of Hazard” fame, who turns 68 today; and football star Joe Theismann, who is 70 today! Here’s to all of you!
Our friend Sheryl from Salt Lake City, who has been visiting us this past week, printed out a family history “fan” from the “Family Search” web site yesterday. It starts with my Dad at the center of the fan and then it shows all of the Newbold family tree “fanning out” from my Dad. Pretty cool, huh? Check out “Family Search” on your Google search engine…you’ll be glad you did!
Here’s the final excerpt for Dale Atkinson’s sweetly written remembrance of my Dad, Don Newbold…
“The last time they visited us in Twin Falls, we told Don that we felt we needed more life insurance for David and asked his advice as to where we could get coverage due to David’s high blood pressure problem. He advised us that there was a company that did write coverage for high risk people, but the premium would be pretty high. I believe the name of the company was Manhattan Life Insurance. We did get a policy with that company and when David died of a heart attack a few years later, I was so thankful for Don’s advice.
When Chris told me Don had broken a leg after they had cut down a Christmas tree, I was not greatly concerned as I felt that was something that would heal. Unfortunately, as time went by, I was hearing news of problems with the healing process. They did visit us once during this period and it was then that we realized he had major problems, as he had a cast on his leg. Despite the cast, when we went out for the evening where there was dancing, Don insisted he could dance and so he did.
He was taken much too early, but anyone who knew him, knew he was a man of integrity and kindness; a great husband and father, and a true friend to those who had the privilege to know him.”
(Thanks to Dale for this lovely remembrance of my Dad. Our family will cherish it greatly in the years to come.)
Here’s the silly question for the day:
Q: How does a pair of pants feel when they are ironed?
A: Depressed.
Here’s the thought for the day:
It’s always good to get some historical perspective on things…My mom gave me the following story the supports this theory. It’s called “The Green Thing”:
“Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment. The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, “We didn’t have this “green thing” back in my earlier days.” The young clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.” The older lady said that she was right…our generation didn’t have the “green thing” in its day. The older lady went on to explain: “Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day. Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.
But too bad we didn’t do the “green thing” back then. We walked up stairs because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the “green thing” in our day. Back then we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days.
Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house—not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to turn on treadmills that operate on electricity. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family’s $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the “green thing.”…
“….But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the “green thing” back then?
As radio great Paul Harvey used to say…”and that’s the rest of the story.”
Here’s to a great Monday and lots of love always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)