YES, I AM STILL HERE looking out my window on Main Street, and I am thinking about an error in the obituary for Bro. David Blase in this newspaper.
The obituary says “David and Anna worked as a team to provide for their family and to serve God’s larger family in the churches he pastored.”
My correction is that “David and Anna worked as a team …. to serve the whole community.”
I am being facetious in order to make a point.
Our community lost Bro. David to the virus, last week. We are sad at the loss of a friend but we rejoice that he is in the company of the Almighty … and, hopefully, Johnny Cash.
Bro. David brought a calm joy into every room he entered. His affection for people crossed the racial, economic and religious boundaries we sometimes put up. In my own Catholic family, he officiated at our mother’s graveside service. When my father was in his lengthy hospital stay before his death, Bro. David called me (the eldest son) practically every day to get an update. He propped us up, like he did for all..
He lived his whole life in service to others and to his Lord, and in doing so he prepared for the day he would pass through the Heavenly Gates. He showed us the way we should care about our neighbor.
Peace to Anna and the family, and to everyone who loved him so much, and thanks to the Almighty for putting such people among us.
=—-= — =
ANIMAL CRACKERS. It is no secret that we are moving the ‘News-Leader’ office three blocks ‘up’ Main Street to the old ‘Nashville News’ building (418 N. Main) soon.
Out of respect for the above-mentioned Bro. Blase I hesitate to use the words that are actually whirling loudly in my mind about making the move. It will be hard, no doubt. I will continue to whine.
Lots of things to move in addition to desks and computers. One of the things that must go is my front window palm tree. It was given to us by our daughter when the ‘Leader’ staff opened the office in 2003. Daughter Julie had seen the metal palm tree at a landscape nursery in Little Rock, and she thought it would look good in our Nashville office.
She was right. The tree is about seven feet tall. A rope of yellow lights winds around the trunk of the tree going up to four green ‘fronds’ which have green lights.
When we left work each day the last person out of the building had to turn on the tree. It looked splendid sitting there in the front window. Folks driving up and down Main Street could enjoy it with us when it was lit at night. After a few years the lights started going out. Finally, they all quit. But we kept the tree.
Now, here’s why this is an ANIMAL CRACKERS item. When we had the open house for the office, our business neighbor, the late JJ White, brought us a life-size German Shepherd doll. “You need a dog,” she told us and we didn’t argue. We put the dog under the tree.
Joining the dog under the tree after a few years was a turtle. We have no idea where it came from. And hanging from one of the fronds is a monkey doll. At one time the monkey could sense nearby movement. When someone came in the front door the monkey laughed loudly. It was so obnoxious that we turned the on-off switch to off.
Monkey still hangs there. The dog and turtle are still under the tree, and we don’t want to move any of it to the new office.
So, if you want the non-working lighted palm tree, or the dog or the monkey or the turtle ….. come get ‘em.
I have one request. If you get the tree lights fixed, I’d like to see the tree again.
You’re welcome, but I bet you’ll also turn the monkey’s on-off switch to off real soon.
=—-= — =
THINGS I LEARNED from opening an email: During WWII, aircraft were armed with belts of bullets which the pilots would shoot during dogfights and on strafing runs. The belts were folded into the wing compartments that fed their machine guns. The belts measured 27 feet and contained hundreds of rounds of bullets. Often the pilots would return from a mission in which they used all of their bullets. The pilot would say: “I gave them the whole nine yards.”
=—-= — =
WORD GAMES. The twins: Atisket and Atasket. One of them is green, the other yellow. Their last name is Basket.
=—-= — =
THE GOOD EARTH. I am very fearful for several of my landscape plants. Robert and Susan Nannemann out at Sunshine Acres say don’t be too quick to assume a plant was killed by the cold.
They suggest patience, and to use your fingernail to scratch the bark of the plant. See if it is still green and pliable. Don’t dig ‘em up or cut ‘em down, yet. It’s okay to cut away dead foliage. We are practically straddling Zones 7 & 8 for plants, and much of our landscaping is unhappy when temps dive down to below zero. In our winter storm, we had the two coldest nights on weather record here — minus 14 and minus 13 on consecutive nights.
Some of my beloved plants are turning brown and brittle.
=—-= — =
HE SAID: “If you live to be 100 you’ve got it made. Very few people die past that age.” George Burns, entertainer
=—-= — =
SHE SAID: “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” Zora Neale Hurston, African-American filmmaker and author
=—-= — =
SWEET DREAMS, Baby
