"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
-- C.S. Lewis
Norm's Daily Ramblins
A FATHER'S DAY I'LL NEVER FORGET
Father's Day is June 18, this Sunday. I wanted to have something nice so I began looking around on the web. I pulled up scores and scores of websites while trying to find something meaningful to link and share. 99% of the websites were selling something or marketing some deal for dads. But I found one site that was Scriptural based and want to share it any Dads who might be interested. Click the link at the end of this article for a trip to a fine site -- one that links you to other meaningful sites. Some of the other sites are not what I would like to pass on because of their desire to get your money, but I can't do anything about that -- so ignore those.
What an awesome, thrilling responsibility many of us have been given. Good goin’ Dad. Hang in there and do the best you can. The role of being a Father is over very quickly.
Remember, no matter what the weather might be on Father's Day, "It’s going to be a beautiful day!" The tone, and enjoyment of the weekend has nothing to do with the weather -- it’s basically distills to attitude. Happiness and beauty are a choice. One has to want to find it and see it. The coin is in the air. What do you call? Trust it’s just right wherever you are -- because that means your "chooser" is in good operating condition.
There is so much beauty in God’s world! Take time to look around -- no matter what’s happening. Believe me, I speak from personal experience.
While searching for something to say I came across this article I wrote a couple of years ago. My sweetheart of 48 years, Nancy Ann Henning Plunkett had to leave me and her three boys four years ago this Sunday. That event put a huge hole in life that will never be filled in the same way again. But God is beautiful and his grace has been enough and always on time. In my case, I didn't expect him to use Nancy, in her final months, to bring Mary Osgood and me together in a way that was totally unexpected since Mary is now my wife, life partner and friend.
This switch of events also put into motion a pattern that required my oldest son, Norm Jr., to have to begin assuming a more independent role -- one that Nancy and I feared he would never be able to do alone. The miracle is happening and growing as NJ now stays by himself and needs help in just a few areas. If you only knew what a miracle it is for this to have happened. Nancy is smiling widely and is so proud of her son. And what she so graciously did to approve and encourage the new relationship that developed with Mary will always be treasured by Mary and me -- and did this before she left early for all that she had lived for.... to be with her Lord.
I'll never forget my last Father's Day with her. It was Sunday and 2002. In spite of her excruciating pain and debilitation, Nancy was determined to give me the finest Father's Day honoring I ever had. And did she ever. She was up early and strong -- for the first time in weeks -- had a great breakfast together, had devotions, and talked. The boys assembled in the afternoon for a delicious meal she had cooked and the first one she had attemped in months. Such a great afternoon with gifts of love. Then to cap the day, she asked that I go down and get a sack of Crystal Hamburgers -- her favorite square, small burger.
Nancy went up to bed about seven o'clock and really never got out again for normal activity. The next afternoon she experienced a cerebral hemorrage from all the chemo treatments and later that night she slipped away from this time and space dimension -- quietly, graciouosly and with such dignity. away and ejected her earth suit for a new complete wholeness. Her three year war with ovarian cancer
was no longer an issue for her.
That's a Father's Day I will never forget and never stop appreciating. But now my role had been modified as my marriage with Mary has given me three daughters and seven grandchildren, and I continue loving my three sons more than ever before.
God's grace is always just enough and it's always on time! NP
The Green Hornet Radio Program aired regionally January 1936 – April 1938 out of WXYZ in Detroit and nationally April 1938 – December 1952 over Mutual, Blue Network, and ABC.
With buzzing insect crescendos and a splash of Korziov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee,” eager fans across country were treated to weekly (sometimes biweekly) installments of one of Radio’s best known and distinctive juvenile adventure programs.
“The Green Hornet” was the brainchild of George Trendle and the talented writing and acting crew over at WXYZ radio in Detroit -the same producers of hit programs, “The Lone Ranger” and “Challenge of the Yukon.” “The Green Hornet” is a spin-off of sorts, from the “Lone Ranger” program. Any casual fan of The Long Ranger will easily recognize the cross-over voices -- especially the deep, gruff pipe of Butch Cavendish from the Ranger program. The Green Hornet
character Britt Reid, is the grand-nephew of erstwhile Texas Ranger John Reid (aka the Lone Ranger himself). Set in the “modern-day” era that it was broadcast, Reid is the publisher and chief of the family business, a newspaper called The Daily Sentinal. Instead of a horse, this masked crime-stopper travels via “Black Beauty” his sleek ultra-modern automobile, equipped with an array of the latest gadgets for capturing criminals and quick getaways. In his battles the Green Hornet never uses guns (bullets at least), instead relying on his brawn and high-tech weapons that fire “knock-out gas” and smokescreens. “Chauffeuring” Reid is his faithful companion Kato, who alone knows Reid’s true identity as the Green Hornet. A renaissance man of sorts, Kato is the keen-minded master of martial arts, chemistry, cookery, race-car driving, house-keeping and weapons development. Some sources say that the Kato character was portrayed as Japanese until the outbreak of WWII and Pearl Harbor, while others claim he was described as a Filipino (of Japanese descent) at least two years previous.
As an added irony, in the public eye the Green Hornet poses as a gangster, in order to better infiltrate and destroy various crime syndicates “from within.” Therefore in addition to battling crooks, the Hornet must keep one step ahead of the police. Often times after he has apprehended his villains, an “anonymous tip” leads law officers to the sight of yet another nefarious Green Hornet crime scene where “his accomplices” lie waiting for capture with the Hornet himself only just escaped.
Other minor characters in the program include: Ace reporter Ed Lowry, Reid's secretary and remote love-interest Miss Lenore Case, and lastly Mike Axford, yet another of old time radio’s stereotyped Irish dunces, in this incarnation, a body guard which Britt Reid’s father has appointed to keep an eye on his “wayward son.” Later in the series run Axford becomes a bungling reporter bent on capturing that top criminal “the Green Haaaarnet!”
The role of Britt Reid/Green Hornet was initially played by Al Hodge until he enlisted in the army in 1943. Later Hodge became well known as the “sci-fi adventure” character, “Captain Video” from the early days of television. Other actors to play the Green Hornet were Donovan Faust, Jack McCarthy, and Bob Hall. Tokutaro Hayashi, “Raymond Toyo,” played the role of Kato, with Leonore Allman and Jim Irwin reading the roles of secretary Lenore Casey and bungling Mike Axford. Until 1944 all the program scripts were written by Fran Striker. Amazingly Striker was such a prolific writer he was capable of simultaneously furnishing both “the Green Hornet” and “the Lone Ranger” programs with all their scripts!
The Green Hornet radio program lasted in various forms until December 1952 and also inspired a couple “Green Hornet” short film serials in the 1940s. In 1966 the creators of the Batman TV-series, decided to produce a Green Hornet program as well. They cast Van Williams to play the masked Hornet and an unknown Bruce Lee as Kato. The program aired on ABC, but didn't fare well in its day and was cancelled after just one season. However, with Bruce Lee’s meteoric rise as the icon of martial arts, the program has since enjoyed a strong cult following. Other vestiges of the original Green Hornet’s legacy include skits on the “Fat Albert” cartoons of the seventies, and the spoofed butler character “Kato” in Peter Sellars’ “Pink Panther” movies. There's also a “Green Hornet” comic book series, published since 1989, which carries on the storyline’s tradition to this day.
For today's Sounds From the Past we bring you a choice of four riveting half hour episodes of Radio's Green Hornet. So enjoy. You know you can start the RealAudio download and then go to any other activity you want to do with your computer. It will continue playing just like an "old time radio."
I'm absolutely convinced that nothing -- nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable -- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING -- can get between us and God's love!
Why? Because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us in his loving, cross proven, blood based, forgiveness. (I elaborated on that last sentence to make it clear for me. NP)
Romans 8:38-39 The Message Bible, Nav Press. Colorado Springs, CO.
Prefer to soar with those crazed and driven morning-eagles (or roosters), or would you rather hoot-it-up with them flighty night-owls?
Well, in either case, “science” is now on the brink of figuring all us “birds” out!
The answer (in part) may lie in your genetic makeup. Dr. Simon Archer and other researchers at the University of Surrey claim to have identified just such a genetic link. In a study, published in a recent edition of Sleep, a journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, our team of dauntless researchers have found a link between extreme preferences in sleep pattern and variations in a specific gene called “Period 3.”
Their findings are based upon tests carried-out on 500 willing volunteers, visitors to London’s Science Museum. (With a “wreckless and naive” enthusiasm that would send even the most stalwart of conspiracy theorists scurrying for his underground bunker) these science museum enthusiasts gladly allowed researchers to take cheek cell-samples from their mouths.
The genetic material obtained from each sample was then analyzed for (among other things) the structure of their “Period 3” genes. The volunteers were then asked to fill out questionnaires designed to determine whether, or not, they were more “morning or evening people.”
A comparison of the DNA tests and the questionnaires revealed that people with a distinct preference for morning activity had a long Period 3 gene structure; while the real night-owls in the crowd had short Period 3 genes.
Despite their findings, Archer and the other researchers were careful to point out that the Period 3 gene is by no means the sole factor controlling ones sleep patterns. In an interview with BBC reporters he couched and padded it quite nicely, by saying… (insert a perfect British accent here)
“Your day or night preference is obviously a complex behavioral trait. It’s a combination of genes that interact together to form your body clock. Of course, there is (also) an influence from your lifestyle. It’s not all to do with genetics. You can choose to follow a particular life pattern. You can override your genes.”
(As we all know too well, getting pretty bleary-eyed in the process!)
Our good doctor suggested that all this (well-funded) research could have its “practical advantages.” Say for instance, if one were so kind as to “donate” their own DNA for “investigation,” they too could find out definitively whether-or-not all the late nights and slow mornings they’ve had for the past 15-years could mean they were “genetic night-owls” …and adjust their work schedule and lifestyle accordingly.
Ahh the wonders of science!
But I think I’ll hold off “donating my DNA” until they discover the “Period 3.1” (late morning, long afternoon nap, reading in bed by midnight, three-day weekend, eight-week annual leave) gene. As soon as they come up with that little beauty, I’ll be out of my bomb shelter, and down at the local genome engineering clinic, faster than you can say “G.M. Corn” and “Trilateral Commission!”
After all, every nut (and “night-owl”) has his price. – Chris Plunkett
DON'T WORRY MOM AND DAD. EVERYTHING IS FINE -- REALLY!
We posted this “parent’s-worst-nightmare” letter from a boy-scout named “Johnny” over a year ago. Unfortunately we don’t know who wrote the original piece, but our congratulations to them just the same. Jared Ponchot brought it to our attention. I think it’s hilarious, and I'm quite sure you will think so too! Summer camps are not far away but maybe you'll forget all this by then.
Dear Mom and Dad,
Our scoutmaster told us to write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and are worried. We are OK. Only one of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Chad when it happened. Oh yeah, please call Chad's mother and tell her he’s OK. He can't write because of the cast.
I got to ride in one of the search and rescue jeeps. It was sure neat. We never would have found him in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning. Scoutmaster Walt got mad at Chad for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. Chad said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn't hear him. Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas can blows up? The wet wood still didn't burn, but one of the tents did. Also, some of our clothes. John is going to look weird until his hair grows back.
We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Walt gets the car fixed. It wasn't his fault about the wreck. The brakes worked OK when we left. Scoutmaster Walt said that a car that old you have to expect something to break down; that's probably why he can't get insurance. We all think it's a neat car. He doesn't care if we get it dirty, and if it's hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the fenders! It gets pretty hot with 10 people in a car. He used to let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrolman stopped and talked to us. Scoutmaster Walt is a neat guy. Don't worry, he’s a good driver. In fact, he is teaching Terry how to drive on the mountain roads where there isn't any traffic. All we ever see up there are logging trucks.
This morning us guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake. Scoutmaster Walt wouldn't let me go with them cause I still can't swim, and Chad was afraid he would sink because of his cast, so he let us take the canoe across the lake. It was great. You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood. Scoutmaster Walt isn't crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn't even get mad about us having no life jackets.
He’s gotta spend a lot of time working on the car so we’re trying not to cause him any trouble. Guess what? We’ve all passed our first aid merit badges. When Dave dove in the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works.
Wade and I threw up, but Scoutmaster Walt said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken. He said they got sick that way with the food they ate in prison. I'm so glad he got out and became our scoutmaster. He said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was doing his time. I have to go now. We’re going to town to mail our letters and buy bullets. Don't worry about anything. We are so fine!
Love, Johnny
P.S. How long has it been since I had a tetanus shot?
We have to run this article again just to remind those who have already read it to be aware of the heroes we are losing at an exponentially increasing rate. And those who have not seen the article before.... I want you to take the time to link into an incredible story of a Veteran's Hospital physician in San Antonio, Texas, Capt. Steven Ellison, who is keenly aware of the many men and women of WW2 who are leaving us at an ever increasing and exponential rate.
Some say the men and women who grew up during the depression and served in WW2 are anywhere from 75 to 90 years of age and leaving this time and space dimension at the rate of nearly 1,500 a day... that's over 10,000 a week
We need to realize what is happening. I remember when there were still Civil War Veterans and Spanish American War Veterans. All the WW1's are gone and this generation is the next. I want to thank my niece, Christine Shaw, who lives in Flagstaff, AZ for sending this simple, sincere, and moving website.
Click the first link below to read and listen to a moving story and photographs that this Doctor has put together. Then click the second link that will allow you to listen to some excellent radio excerpts from WW2.
Below is an excellent story by Ronnie Thomas, a reporter for the Decatur Daily, Decatur Alabama. It's about "one of those special people" we are losing. The story was written for last fall's Veteran's Day.
Wallace Willingham was 65 years old before he began to say much about his experiences in World War II. And then it was only at the prodding of his children. As youngsters, they tore apart their father's book about the Army's 87th Infantry Division, hoping to learn at least something of what their dad endured, after he balked at their questions.
"Were you ever shot at?" they would ask.
"Sometimes," he'd say.
So that his grandchildren and great-grandchildren also would know what he did in the war, he gathered a cache of old material, including maps, newspaper clippings, letters and photographs from storage to show them. The framed documents now occupy a place of honor on a den wall of his Betty Street Southwest home. As American soldiers battle insurgents in Iraq, the retired minister prays for them, and he honors them. He bonds with them, too, and he believes they are as much of a "greatest generation" as he was.
And he realizes that some toss "hero" about loosely. "A hero is one who does what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences," he said. "Our men and women in Iraq are heroes."
The Army drafted Willingham, now 78, out of Jacksonville High School in 1944 as an 11th-grader. He said he could have gotten a deferment because of farming, but he was ready to go.
"Anyway, who could have imagined a Depression-era Alabama farm boy getting a ride on the Queen Mary?" he said.
The luxury ship that the Allies transformed to a troop carrier docked in Scotland. In January 1945, Willingham crossed the English Channel to Le Havre, France. His unit pushed into Belgium, where fierce fighting continued in the aftermath of the major German offensive at Bastogne, known as the Battle of the Bulge.
While holding a position on a hillside in Saint-Hubert, west of Bastogne, Willingham watched famed Gen. George S. Patton Jr. riding in a jeep, reviewing the troops. Later, as Willingham's unit prepared to join the attack on the Siegfried Line — Adolph Hitler's fortification along the French and German border — Patton came for a speech to the commanders of several divisions of his 3rd Army, to "tell them what we were going to be facing." Willingham said Patton noted, "We're going to Berlin and raise the American flag, but there will be some dog tags brought back."
Willingham recounted a somewhat humorous incident that occurred near the Mosel River when he and fellow scout John Sherrer of Queens, N.Y., and four others went on patrol to nab a German soldier to interrogate about troop movements.
"It was dark, and we came upon an older fellow dressed in a uniform," he said. "We returned to camp with a local firefighter. A newspaper account ran the headline, '87th captures fire department.' But our officers told us not to fret, that he was as good as an SS trooper in giving us what we needed. We took him back, thanked him and released him."
On another patrol, Willingham and another soldier walked down a road when an 88 mm shell dropped between them. "We would have been gone for sure, but luckily, it was a dud," he said. "All I could think of at the moment was that mother had me on a prayer list at church. And I pressed the little Gideon Bible that I carried in my jacket pocket closer."
Nicknamed "Tuffy" by the men in his platoon, the scrappy Willingham crossed the Rhine River near Rheims, Germany, on March 25, 1945, his 19th birthday.
"As we fought to hold our ground, and it became more desperate for the Germans the tougher the war became," he said, "we faced five counterattacks, at times the enemy coming at us with fixed bayonets that involved some hand-to-hand combat."
Willingham's outfit drove south of Berlin and pushed to the Czechoslovakian border, where they met Russian soldiers. The war in Europe ended in May 1945, and after a 30-day leave, Willingham prepared to be a part of the force that would invade Japan. But atomic bombs dropped on two Japanese cities in early August forced surrender the next month.
Only after he felt that his mission was complete did Willingham seek help for frostbite, which he suffered in one of his legs fighting during the bitter winter. He spent the last months of 1945 in a hospital at Camp Atterberry, Ind., near Indianapolis, where the Army discharged him.
Among his medals is the Bronze Star, which he received "for meritorious achievement in ground combat against an armed enemy."
Returning home, Willingham sought to continue service to others and became a Church of God of Prophecy minister in 1949. A year later, while preaching at a revival in Decatur, he met his future wife, the former Bennie Lumpkin. They have been married 53 years. Mr. Willingham, and all the other men and women like him..... THANKS from a grateful American living free in 2006.
BLUE NECKS ARE NORTHERNERS WHO ARE JUST LIKE -- BUT OPPOSITE -- THE TRADIONAL AND WELL-KNOW SOUTHERN RED NECKS WHO ARE FOUND AS FAR NORTH AS SOUTHERN ILLINOIS, INDIANA, AND OHIO.
I'm sure this has had good travel on the network but I never saw it until my Blue Neck Polack brother-in-law, Harlan Kreklow (a frequent contributor to Ramblin's.) sent it to me.
These Blue Neck descriptions are also redescribing what a Red Neck is. Being a Yankee but living in the South for over 40 years have (I know it's has) made me a Purple Neck hybrid. ENJOY and have a laugh or two.
YOU MIGHT BE A BLUE NECK IF:
Instead of referring to two or more people as "y'all," you call them "you guys," ("youse guys" in Milwaukee) even if both of them are women.
You think barbecue is a verb meaning "to cook outside."
You think Heinz Ketchup is really SPICY.
You would never stop to buy something somebody was cooking on the side of the road. (e.g., boiled peanuts).
You don't have any problems pronouncing "Worcestershire sauce" correctly.
For breakfast, you would prefer potatoes-au-gratin to grits.
You don't know what a moon pie is and never had an RC Cola.
Close friend, Harvey Warner, sent this unbelievable, moving experience that is appropriate to show on Memorial Day. Thank you GSS Distributing and T. Cleege whomever and wherever you are. Be sure to turn you speakers on for "Homeward Bound" from "The Road Home" sung by the choirs of Bringham Young University.
These are not the photos you are shown by the "drive-by" media that is so intent on discrediting the President and his administration, they just don't want to show photos like this.
If you don't have to catch your breath a time or two or shed a tear.... you apparently are not able to feel much.
We're always honored by visitors. We do our best to provide new information on this "Ramblin" page ... and leave some of the stuff we think is extra good a little longer than the others. Please visit again.
We'd enjoy hearing from you. Drop us a note. We'd enjoy knowing you're visitin.' To do so, click the "Drop Us A Note" link right below.
We extend to you an old Southern salutation you don't hear much any more down here.... "Ya'll come back now, ya'hear?"
Norman Plunkett
God is good -- ALWAYS!
And especially as He floods you with all the grace you need no matter what the situation. As you trust Him, God's grace is always just enough and always on time.
