The Class Reunion

THE CLASS REUNION

Every ten years, as summertime nears,
An announcement arrives in the mail,
A reunion is planned; it'll be really grand;
Make plans to attend without fail.

I'll never forget the first time we met;
We tried so hard to impress.
We drove fancy cars, smoked big cigars,
And wore our most elegant dress.

It was quite an affair; the whole class was there.
It was held at a fancy hotel.
We wined, and we dined, and we acted refined,
And everyone thought it was swell.

The men all conversed about who had been first
To achieve great fortune and fame.
Meanwhile, their spouses described their fine houses
And how beautiful their children became.

The homecoming queen, who once had been lean,
Now weighed in at one-ninety-six.
The jocks who were there had all lost their hair,
And the cheerleaders could no longer do kicks.

No one had heard about the class nerd
Who'd guided a spacecraft to the moon;
Or poor little Jane, who's always been plain;
She married a shipping tycoon.

The boy we'd decreed 'most apt to succeed'
Was serving ten years in the pen,
While the one voted 'least' now was a priest;
Just shows you can be wrong now and then.

They awarded a prize to one of the guys
Who seemed to have aged the least.
Another was given to the grad who had driven
The farthest to attend the feast.

They took a class picture, a curious mixture
Of beehives, crew cuts and wide ties.
Tall, short, or skinny, the style was the mini;
You never saw so many thighs.

At our next get-together, no one cared whether
They impressed their classmates or not.
The mood was informal, a whole lot more normal;
By this time we'd all gone to pot.

It was held out-of-doors, at the lake shores;
We ate hamburgers, coleslaw, and beans.
Then most of us lay around in the shade,
In our comfortable T-shirts and jeans.

By the fiftieth year, it was abundantly clear,
We were definitely over the hill.
Those who weren't dead had to crawl out of bed,
And be home in time for their pill.

And now I can't wait; they've set the date;
Our 55th is coming, I'm told.
It should be a ball, they've rented a hall
At the Shady Rest Home for the old.

Repairs have been made on my hearing aid;
My pacemaker's been turned up on high.
My wheelchair is oiled, and my teeth have been boiled;
And I've bought a new wig and glass eye.

I'm feeling quite hearty, and I'm ready to party
I'm gonna dance 'til dawn's early light.
It'll be lots of fun; But I just hope that there's one
Other person who can make it that night.

Author Unknown

International Space Station and Penny Postcards

Greetings..........

I am such a space nut so whenever I have a chance to see the International Space Station
fly by, I'm checking the heavens for it. If you are interested in the sighting times and dates
go to this website: www.nasa.gov On the left side of the page, look for "satellite sighting
information", click on it and follow the directions.

Here are a few dates and times:

Friday, July 10th 9:44 PM Going from W to NE
Friday, July 10th 11:23 PM Going from N to NE

Sat., July 11th 10:12 PM Going from NNW to NE
Sat., July 11th 11:48 PM Going from N to NE

Sun., July 12th 1.21 AM Going from NW to NW
Sun., July 12th 10:37 PM Going from N to NE

Penny Postcards
What did your town look like, according to Penny Postcards?
Check out your old stomping grounds, during the times of the penny postcard. The price was raised to 2 cents on January 1,1952. Click on the state and then on the county name to see old penny postcards from that area . . . pretty neat.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~usgenweb/special/ppcs/ppcs.html

Have a great weekend and we'll chat next week.

Highlights of recent Motorcoach Trip

Hello,
It's been awhile since my last blog. Yes it's me..........I'm finally home from my travels. I had a great bus trip to Shipshewana, Indiana. We left on Monday, June 8th and returned Thursday night around 8 PM.We ran into a lot of traffic around Chicago that delayed our arrival by an hour. The weather was in the high 70's the first night we arrived and then cooled down to the high 60's Tuesday and Wednesday. It actually was perfect weather for walking around a flea market. We'd get to the market at 8 AM and stay until 2 PM both days. Lots of walking. Found lots of interesting things to buy - naturally I bought some sterling silver bracelets and slides. You know me, I can't resist jewelry.

At the hotel we were staying at in Shipshewana, they had one of the 16 quilt blocks that make up their Quilt Garden Tour.The garden tour is the only one of its kind in the country. It's a 90 mile loop through 7 communities. There are 16 gardens, 16 hand painted murals depicting unique quilt designs. Volunteers treat freshly tilled soil like an empty quilt frame. The Visitors and Convention Bureau furnishes the plants and publicity and area businesses, civic and service groups provide the garden sites. 80% of the gardens' plants must be annuals so the quilt patterns and color combinations can be changed every year. There are about 80,000 annuals in the quilt gardens or about 1600 flats provided by a local grower. The average size of the quilt garden is 800 square feet. The largest garden is 2500 square feet. It takes 2,000 hours to plant all of the gardens and 100 volunteers to plant and tend the gardens from Memorial Day to the first frost. You can pick up a free audio driving tour CD, map and Amish Country Travel Guide to enhance the tour. The CD talks about the area's history with narratives, personal stories and fun facts. I think quilts are such a visual part of our heritage. What a neat idea.
Check out their website to see photos of the quilt gardens....www.QuiltGardensTour.com

Have a great weekend and don't forget to check back next week for more news.

Life Passing Us By

Hello,

I was sorting through some papers the other evening and throwing away unimportant documents and things you accumulate over the years - you know, stacks of papers. I found this interesting piece stuck in between some magazine articles I was saving and thought I had to share it. Makes you stop and think!


LIFE PASSING US BY

Today we have higher buildings and wider highways,
But shorter temperaments and narrower points of view.

We spend more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses, but smaller families.
We have more compromises, but less time.
We have more knowledge, but less judgment.
We have more medicines, but less health.

We reached the Moon and came back,
But we find it troublesome to cross our own street and meet our neighbors.

We have conquered the outer space, but not our inner space.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk much, we love only a little, and we hate too much.
We have higher income, but less morals.

These are times with more liberty, but less joy.
With much more food, but less nutrition.
These are days in which two salaries come home, but divorces increase.
These are times of finer houses, but more broken homes.

That’s why I propose that as from today:
Use your crystal goblets. Do not save your best perfume,
use it every time you feel you want it.

Take out from your vocabulary phrases like “One of these days” and “someday”.
Let’s write that letter we thought of writing “One of these days”.

You do not keep anything for a special occasion,
Because every day that you live is a special occasion.
Search for knowledge, read more,
Sit on your front porch and admire the view without paying attention to the needs.
Pass more time with your family, eat your favorite food, visit the place you love.

Life is a chain of moments of enjoyment, it isn’t only survival.
Let’s tell our families and friends, how much we love them.

Never pass up a chance at adding laughter and joy to your life.
Every day, hour, and minute are special, and you never know if it will be your last.

If you’re too busy to take some minutes to tell someone you love them, and you tell
yourself that you will “one of these days”, just remember that “one of these days” can be very far away, and you may not be there to see it.

Job Opoening

A new feature on the Good Neighbor Show called "Radio Want Ads" airs every first Wednesday of the month. The concept is to have employers advertise job openings at their companies for FREE.

Today I have a job opening from a private party in the Appleton area looking for someone interested in working outdoors.

The job requires someone that is self-motivated and pay great attention to detail.
The job is an outdoor lawn, landscape and grounds maintenance position. Duties include
lawn mowing, watering, weeding, raking, cleaning light fixtures, indoor dog kennels and tool shed maintenance. Also cleaning and maintaining patios, outdoor furniture, grills, boat dock and more. Starting pay is $12.00 per hour. Call Joanne at 920-422-1924 on Thurday ONLY
between 8AM and 2:30PM.

What My Mother Taught Me

WHAT MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME

My mother taught me to appreciate a job well done. "If you're going to kill each other, do it
outside. I just finished cleaning."
My mother taught me religion. "You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
My mother taught me about time travel. "If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into
the middle of next week!"
My mother taught me logic. "Because I said so, that's why."
My mother taught me more logic. "If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not
going to the store with me."
My mother taught me foresight. "Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an
accident."
My mother taught me irony. "Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."
My mother taught me about the science of osmosis. "Shut your mouth and eat your supper."
My mother taught me about contortionism. "Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"
My mother taught me about patience. "You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."
My mother taught me about weather. "This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."
My mother taught me about hypocrisy. "If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't
exaggerate!"
My mother taught me the circle of love. "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."
My mother taught me about envy. "There are millions of less fortunate children in this world
who don't have wonderful parents like you do."
My mother taught me about anticipation. "Just wait until we get home."
My mother taught me about receiving. "You are going to get it when you get home!"
My mother taught me meidcal science. "If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to
freeze that way."
My mother taught me ESP. "Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"
My mother taught me humor. "When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to
me."
My mother taught me how to become an adult. "If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never
grow up."
My mother taught me genetics. "You're just like your father."
My mother taught me about my roots. "Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born
in a barn?"
My mother taught me wisdom. "When you get to be my age, you'll understand."
And my favorite: my mother taught me about justice. "One day you'll have kids, and I hope they
turn out just like you!"

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Mom's Value

Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers!

When you stop to think about all the multi-tasking a mother does day in and day out, she is worth over half a million dollars a year. On a daily basis, mom conducts the work of 17 different occupations. Let's break it down using salary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Raise children (Child care worker) $13,000
Plan vacation and play (Recreation worker) $15,500
Cook meals (Executive chef) $40,000
Serve meals (Food service worker) $20,000
Plan meals (Dietitians/nutritionists) $41,600
Keep house (Property manager) $22,600
Clean house (Housekeeper) $9,000
Care for pets (Animal caretaker) $17,500
Dispense medication (Registered nurse) $35,000
Attend functions (Management analyst) $41,000
Manage family finances (Computer system analyst) $44,000
Manage investments (Financial manager) $39,000
Carpool (Bus driver) $32,400
Homework & discipline (School principal) $58,600
Resolve family issues (Psychologist) $29,000
Keep family schedule (General office clerk) $19,000
Maintain family harmony (Social worker) $30,000
Total: $508,700

Be appreciative of all your mom does for you.