Thompson Park – Do You Remember the Company-Owned Family Park?

 

Entrance to a Day of Fun

As each generation grows older, it witnesses the disappearance of sights, sounds and activities.  We look back on those times and forgotten places often with remorse, but almost always with fondness. Every generation experiences this.  This month’s story is about one of those places; the company-owned recreation and activities park.

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The Wall of Gaylord – Riding a Unicycle and other Mediocre Accomplishments

My athletic accomplishments would look like this

 

I wrote most of this story more than two years ago but didn’t finish until now.  I held off I guess because I felt I was self defeating. But hey, every single aspect, minute or major, of everything that’s occurred in our lives, goes into the making of who we are as adults.  I promised to make an honest attempt to document all my moments of growing up, so here I go.

My Threads of Life – Maybe we are all Connected

11/22/63

In this story (link) I wrote a funny tale of how for a brief moment I thought I might be blood related to my wife.  It’s a funny joke sometimes shared amongst us ‘Hamiltuckians’ that we’re all related to each other and it’s appropriate that at the time of this release, I am spending time with Kim’s family, celebrating her mom’s birthday.  Perhaps Kim and I are not blood related, but there definitely are a lot of strings connecting our paths.

Music to Our Ears – Joe Could Sleep ANYWHERE!

Joe surrounded by his little girls

My stepfather Joe could sleep anytime and anywhere.  I used to think that was a special skill.  Now that I’m older, I realize that it’s an acquired skill given to father’s as they are beaten down by years of sleepless nights and endless days.

Eaton’s Hamilton Inn – Friend to the Brady Bunch

Sardine Mobile

John Eaton of Hamilton, Ohio and the Hamilton Inn.  I couldn’t find him in Wikipedia.  I also couldn’t find him or his inn in any of the Internet historical sites.  They might be there, but my exhaustive ten minute search turned up a big fat goose egg.  For several decades though, he was a successful businessman in Hamilton, Ohio and for many years a friend to my mom, and therefore friend to our Brady Bunch family.

Muffler Burns & Love Bites

Working under mufflers can be very dangerous

Human sexuality – beautiful, confusing, pleasurable, fun, stressful, rewarding…….even bruising.

The Coolest Snow Day Ever – Hamilton, the City of Ice

A Kid’s Dream Come True

We transferred to California in 2004.  We left a house in Ohio which we sold for $200k and felt pretty good about the sale.  What a shock it was when we arrived here for our house hunting trip!  Holy cow, nothing had prepared us for the price war going on in the Sacramento area.  Keep in mind, this was right smack in the middle of the giant bubble that was building in the housing market.  The bubble was one part of it.  The other part was not apparent yet.  Every house, almost every house we looked at was priced a good two and a half times the equivalent house in Ohio.  What the heck – how many doctors and lawyers could there possibly be here!?

Rainy Days & Mondays in Junior High Chorus

When it’s time to change, you’ve got to rearrange

Back in my junior high school years, there were only two kinds of boys – those who sang in the junior high chorus and those who considered themselves too cool to sing in the junior high chorus.  I wasn’t yet at the ‘I’m too cool’ stage of teenagedom and I’ve always loved singing, so on to the junior high chorus it is!  Besides, taking chorus meant that we didn’t have another class where we had to take a written test. 

Do Deer Bite? Only if you try to Take Away Their English Muffins

Pete’s son Tony, Pete, Steve, Me, Mike

Frugality is founded on all riches having limits – Burke

I’ve written a few times recently about my having to visit our house in Phoenix.  Soon it will become our home away from snow.  Until then, when it’s my turn to visit, I like to eat out of the freezer.  I absolutely cannot stand to throw away food so I take it upon myself to eat the frozen leftovers from previous visits.  I don’t think ‘normal people’, (people who aren’t the finance person in the household), appreciate what a burden it is to always be mentally calculating the future value of waste or unnecessary spending (transportation spending can be the worst).  I’d rather have money to do things, take nice vacations.

The Death of a Rat helps a Cat – Other Pets in my Life

I wonder what the poor cats are doing?

As I sit here beginning the writing of this  tale I am in our Phoenix house.  It was my turn to visit and oversee a project.  This time it was the replacement of kitchen counters.  2016 should prove to be a big year of change for us as we plan to sell our CA house on our own, transport a POD to Ohio and pull a trailer to Phoenix.  We hope by the end of the year we are set up for a snowbird lifestyle in our retirement.