This morning I was part of the Veterans' participation in the funeral of my friend, Russ Culp. Let me give you a little timeline of his life:
1919 Born in Pennsylvania
1940 Joined the U.S. Army for a one year enlistment
1941 Stationed at Oahu, Hawaii when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese.
1946 His one year enlistment stretched to 6 years because of WWII.
1947- 1970 Work at the National Institutes of Health (23 years)
1971- 2016 Retirement (45 years!)
His retired life lasted almost twice as long as his working life! I knew Russ at the NARFE organization meetings. (Retired Federal Employees) I also heard him sing many times.. he was in a lot of barbershop quartets.
Russ also was crazy about radio operations. He formed a group at Carroll Lutheran Village and asked me often to join with them. Even though I had a radio operator's license, I never did. I should have; it sounded like a lot of fun, communicating with folks around the world.
I saw Russ just a couple of days ago and he looked good. If I knew he wasn't going to be around much longer, I would have stopped and talked to him. Instead, I just patted him on the back and told him how good he looked.
His wife said that at the age of 97 (!) it was probably his time to leave us.
RIP Russ!
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Words to Live By?
The Funny Times for September 2016 has a cartoon by Joe Heller that I think is a masterpiece. It shows a grumpy looking Donald Trump and a smiling Hillary Clinton, with words from both candidates: First: from Donald:
"It's getting worse
So don't try to convince me that
the future is bright in America
because, when you take a closer look,
there's anger + hate
even if
it's not who we are as a nation
but
you should be scared
crime, terrorists, illegals
we need to do something
believe me
fear
is greater than
hope
because
we can't be optimistic
and you'll never hear me say
America needs bridges not walls"
Now, for Hillary's words, read it from bottom to top.
Dave Maleckar quotes Winnie the Pooh's A. A. Milne, who wrote: "A quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business."
So Here's a Couple of Quotes from the Funny Paper:
Cher: "The only grounds for divorce in California are marriage."
Neil Simon: "The only thing Californians read is the license plate in front of them."
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To end this marvelous blog entry, I will mention three fantastic pieces of information that the Funny Paper listed as coming from Harper's Index:
o There are 30 members left in the Prohibition Party, the third-oldest U.S. political party.
o George Zimmerman got $250,000 when he auctioned off the gun he used to kill Trayvon Martin.
o There are 46,000 people on the waiting list of a London restaurant where patrons are allowed to dine in the nude.
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