I loved my old reprobate of a grandfather... Arthur S. Vaughan was father to 15 children and after they all had grown, found me as a new addition to his home. I have many stories to tell about my "Grandpa Vaughan." I'll get to them later.
Meanwhile, I will do something that emulates his adult life activity. Cutting and pasting newspaper and magazine items that meet my interest. Grandpa cut and pasted to the wall of his "den;" I will cut and paste to big pink notebooks.
Why pink? Because, after I am gone, as my junk is being thrown out, the junkman may pause when he sees a pink notebook and look inside and find out a lot about me. And I'll live again.
The New Bedford, Massachusetts Standard Times newspaper had a rotogravure section on Sundays. One Wednesday, a photographer showed up and took pictures of the interesting items on Grandpa's wall. Some pictures were of the Siamese Twins, Jumbo the Elephant, Emmet Kelly (circus clown and drinking buddy of Grandpa), Tom Thumb, etc... you get the idea. The pictures he took showed up in the next week's rotogravure... the year was 1948.
I've been trying to get a copy of that rotogravure section from the Standard Times; but, with no results. However, those covered walls are impressed on my eyeballs.. I can see those images in my brain database. I appreciate my grandfather feeding my curiosity and making my life much more interesting than it could have been.
Now is the time for emulation, at least in a small way; I don't want to post to walls; instead, I will paste into those pink notebooks.
(Yes, I know, you saw that back in the 1960's I had done the same thing with regular scrap books, so this is not a new activity for me. I love those old scrap books. I look at them a lot and relive the '60's, a time of excitement for me and my beloved wife, Elaine. In the '60's, we moved to Baltimore and it was here that my beautiful girls and handsome boy were born. What a wonderful time that was!)
Here goes: (random "stuff" .. started when I turned 85 on February 1, 2019)
Roman poet Horace (65 BC - 8 BC) said: "Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans, it's lovely to be silly at the right moment." Later, I will tell about the British cryptographic manuals and how they got to be read, even though they were dull as hell. Also, I will tell about how I jazzed up the project management manuals at the Social Security Administration... i.e., the infamous "Macintosh Versions."
In the 1960's, I founded Niemand Associates. This was an organization created to get my co-workers to use a reading file and become better employees. For years, NA was run out of a Randallstown Post Office box; later its address was: P.O. Box 779, Finksburg, MD, 21048. One of my aliases at the time was: H.M. Niemand. (of course, H.M. stands for Herman Melville!) and those who know German know what my last name stood for.
SuZee has lived with us for about ten years now. She is a Siamese cat (not a twin).. and quite food looking. But, she is a "fraidy cat." She was found alone in a barn. Her mother had been killed by a "varmint." The finder brought her home as a little kitten be share a food bowl with two husky dogs. Even as a kitten, she was feisty and the two dogs had to watch out. (She was not a "fraidy cat" until later.) We adopted her and took her to our home... fleas... fleas... Elaine had to give her 85 baths to get rid of them. Also, here coloring did not look like Siamese coloring while she was a kitten and we thought that she was a mongrel. But, after a few months, this kitten blossomed into a beautifully colored Siamese cat.
My favorite painter is Alphonse Mucha.. If I ever try to learn to paint, I would like to do beautiful ladies like he did. Some of the ladies in his pictures look like the Elaines in my life.
ENOUGH!
