Gleaning Facebook: One Word Meme

So Facebook challenged me to another silly meme:

 One Word

Well, Ok I respond to another challenge.

USING ONLY ONE WORD! It's not as easy as you might think! And being a smart aleck I have to try to find unusual interpretations. Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers. Be sure to tag the person you received it from!

1. Where is your cell phone? Lost.
2. Your significant other? Beautiful!
3. Your hair? Where?
4. Your mother? There.
5. Your father? There.
6. Your favorite? Yes!
7. Your dream last night? Censored.
8. Your favorite drink? Potion
9. Your dream/goal? Encore!
10. What room you are in? Spare
11. Your hobby? All
12. Your fear? Fading
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Stage
14. Where were you last night? Home
15. Something that you aren't? Timely
16. Muffins? Joan’s
17. Wish list item? Stage
18. Where you grew up? Parsonage
19. Last thing you did? Clicked
20. What are you wearing? Smile
21. Your TV? Addicting
22. Your pets? Peeves
23. Friends? Life
24. Your life? Love
25. Your mood? Quirky
26. Missing someone? Daughters
27. Car? Yes.
28. Something you're not wearing? Frown
29. Your favorite store? Thrift
30. Your favorite color? Rainbow
33. When is the last time you laughed? Peeves
34. Last time you cried? Unsure
35. Who will resend this? People
36. One place that I go to over and over? Bed
37. One person who emails me regularly? FaceBook
38. My favorite place to eat? Beach

Carol Shaw Johnston I did this, too - but I don't remember #36. I probably answered it and have already forgotten it . . .

Kendra L Harris Your answers are always so entertaining! 

Jane Baird Lathem As always Terry, you make everything SO entertaining! I loved your answers!

Bucket List

 Bucket List

Bucket list
Being me, I have expanded this Bucket List. I was tagged by my upstart “old” student Kendra. I notice my sister, Carol, has also tried this meme. 

Copy and paste the instructions and the list into a new note. If you like add a few new items to the list from your personal Bucket List. Place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not, then send it to your friends (including me). 
(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, do the list and tag some people if you like (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.) If you don't see the Tag people in the upper right hand corner you are in the wrong place.)

Things you have done during your lifetime:

(X) Gone on a blind date
(X) Skipped school
() Watched someone die
(X) Watched a baby being born
(X) Been to Canada
(X) Been to Mexico
(X) Been to Florida
( ) Been to Hawaii
(X) Been on a plane
( ) Been on a helicopter
(X) Been lost
(X) Gone to Washington, DC
(X) “Rolled” someone’s lawn
(X) Swam in the ocean
(X) Swam with Stingrays
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
(X) Received a standing ovation
(X) Played cops and robbers
(X) Watched a butterfly form its crysalis
(X) Explored a wild cave
(X) Recently colored with crayons
(X) Sang Karaoke
(X) Paid for a meal with coins only
(X) Eaten sushi
(X) Eaten squid
( ) Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch
(X) Been to the top of the Washington Monument
(X) Been to the top of the Empire State Building
() Been to the top of the World Trade Center
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
(X) Made prank phone calls 
( ) Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
( ) Danced in the rain-naked
( ) Been to Europe
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus
(X) Been kissed under the mistletoe
() Kissed someone under the Bridge of Sighs
(X) Watched the sunrise with someone
(X) Blown bubbles
( ) Watched a Mardi Gras parade in person 
(X) Gone ice-skating
(X) gone ice skating on a natural pond.
(X) Gone to the movies
( ) Been deep sea fishing
( ) Driven across the United States
(X) Visited Jimmy Carter’s Sunday School class in Plains, GA
( ) Been in a hot air balloon
( ) Been sky diving 
(X) Been skinny-dipping
( ) Gone snowmobiling
( ) Lived in more than one country
(X) Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets
(X) Seen a falling star and made a wish
( ) Enjoyed the beauty of Old Faithful Geyser
( ) Seen the Grand Canyon 
(X) Seen the Statue of Liberty
(X) Been to New York City
( ) Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle
( ) Gone out with someone you met online 
( ) Been on a cruise
(X) Run for public office
(X)Traveled by train
(X) Traveled by motorcycle
(X) Been horse back riding 
(X) Written a sonnet
( ) Ridden on a San Francisco cable car
( ) Been to Disneyland OR Disney World
( ) Been in a rain forest
( )Seen whales in the ocean
(X) Been to Niagara Falls
( ) Ridden on an camel
( ) Swam with dolphins
(X) Been to the Olympics
(X) Seen redwood trees
( ) Walked on the Great Wall of China
(X) Walked on a glacier
( ) Saw and heard a glacier calf
( ) Been spinnaker flying
(X) Been water skiing
(X) Been snow skiing
(X) Seen a moose in the wild
(X) Caught fireflies in a jar
( ) Been to Westminster Abbey
( ) Been to the Louvre
( ) Swam in the Mediterranean
( ) Watched the fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas
(X) Been to a Major League Baseball game
(X) Been to a National Football League game
( ) Swam with sharks
(X) Sat through a second consecutive showing of the same picture at the movies.
(X) Snuck into a drive-in theater in the trunk.
( ) Fed a giraffe
(X) Gone camping in a tent
(X) Seen both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
(X) Been on a horse and buggy ride
( ) Been to an NBA game
(X) Been to an NHL game
(X) Used an outhouse (porta-potties don't count.)
(X) Used a chainsaw
(X) Sung the National Anthem as a solo at a baseball game

Lost Rome: Neely School

This postcard was published by the Shropshire Book Store of Rome, probably between 1905 and 1915. It is a view of downtown Rome between the rivers, taken from Myrtle Hill. In the foreground are riverboats on the Etowah river at the base of Myrtle Hill. In the upper right is the clock tower and Neely School. The Second Avenue bridge over the Oostanaula River at the left is a precursor to the current concrete bridge. One of Rome's lost railroad depots is in the foreground just across the Etowah.

Neely School, first known as Tower Hill School, was built in 1883, adjacent to the iconic Rome Clock Tower. It was renamed later Central Grammar School, and then named Neely School for Benjamin Neely, Rome's first superintendent of schools.

Here is a closer view:
Neely School was closed in 1958 and torn down in 1962.

Click on one of the labels below to see similar posts.

Gleaning Facebook: 37 Odd Things About Me

 Why not? 37 Odd Things About Me.

1. Do you like bleu cheese? yes. I like all cheeses. One of the hardest things to wrap my mind around as a chubby old man who needs to reduce his intake of fats, is that cheese is ugly fat, in fact, not delicious and nutritious good-for-a-growing-boy real food.

2. Have you ever smoked? Yes. Most of the other teachers seemed to smoke when I was in the Teacher Corps, and I stupidly took it up. Sheila never smoked and I used my marriage to her as an opportunity to go cold turkey and give it up. I’d probably, otherwise, be mouldering at East View.

3. Do you own a gun? No

4. What flavor Kool Aid was your favorite? Lemonade

6. What do you think of hot dogs? Nothing beats a good hot dog, though I did give ‘em up after Daddy took me to the meat plant on Old Furnace Rd where they were made in those days. (G’Ross!!!)

7. Favorite Christmas movie? It’s a Wonderful Life

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee and OJ

9. Can you do push ups? Used to, who knows now.

10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My lost wedding band (sob)

Playing Maurice in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Rome City Auditorium, c. 2005

11. Favorite hobby? singing, acting, storytelling, rambling the woods, people watching, reading, blogging, political item collecting, photography, ....

12. Do you have A. D. D.? Probably. If 10 year old “Terry” could be transported to 2009, they’d have me on adderol, fer sure.

13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? glasses. I like my new no-line multifocals, except that at night I see lots of distracting reflections of lights -- is it s’posed to be that way?

14. Middle name? Terrell (My first name is Charles after my Daddy and his Granddaddy.)

15.. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: I should get off the computer and to work; I’m worried about my great niece, Lily who is back in the hospital; Is this recession gonna last months or years?

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Coffee, (we brew Dunkin’ Donuts coffee at home, and prefer it or McDonald’s coffee on the road. Why does anyone drink that bitter concoction that Starbucks sells at exorbitant prices?) water, sweet tea (I prefer that diabetes in a tall glass that my mother-in-law hooked me on.)

17. Current worry? Lily

18. Current hate right now? Knee-jerk politics of all varieties

Showing off wild ginger to my fourth-graders 2008

19. Favorite place to be? With Sheila and our daughters, with family and friends, on stage, rambling the woods,

20. How did you bring in the new year? Home with Sheila

21. Where would you like to go? Hawaii, England, Alaska, Kenya, Queens, Macon, canoeing on the Oostanaula, walking at Whitmore's Bluff...

22. Name three people who will complete this: Not a clue!

23. Do you own slippers? Yep, wore ‘em this morning while I fixed coffee and read the papers (RNT and AJC)

24. What color shirt are you wearing? Blue, fine-checked, long-sleeved, Armuchee Elementary emblazoned, button-down collared.

On the HMS Bounty - Heave away!

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I suspect there are things I would enjoy doing on satin sheets, but I don’t remember having the opportunity. Sleeping is what I do when I can no longer hold open my eyes.

26. Can you whistle? Yes, just now it was Dixie. Don’t know why.

27. Where are you now? sitting at an old fashioned enamel top kitchen table which serves as my computer table.

28. Would you be a pirate? Been there, done that: Peter Pan, Rome Little Theater, 9 performances, 1991. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Nessun dorma, or what ever Angela and I are working on that week.

At High Bridge KY with my lover

30. Favorite Girl's Name? The one I’m kissing... Sheila for the last 38 years.

31. Favorite boy's name? Terrell (The accent properly belongs to the first syllable.)

32. What is in your pocket right now? cell phone, car keys, a note with a phone # I have forgotten to call, an AA Duracell battery (I don’t remember why), a Nikon Coolpix camera (just got back from a walk and I always have to have a camera, just in case), the key ring with my school keys, house keys, and playground whistle, a die, a quarter, my checkbook, a handkerchief, a fat billfold (i wish it were fat with $$$, it’s not.

33. Last thing that made you laugh? "This American Life" on NPR podcast I listened to on our walk.

34. What vehicle do you drive? A Toyota Rav 4 and a red GMC truck

35. Worst injury you've ever had? I stepped onto a chair while home alone cleaning in our living room, my weight destroyed the chair, and I fell through our bay window , badly cutting my shoulder on the shattered 100 year old glass.

Home Sweet Home, Christmas, c 2007

36. Do you love where you live? Oh, yes! How many folks can walk nearly six miles as I did ths afternoon, without crossing a street.

37.. How many TVs do you have in your house? Two

Now, if you like copy and answer the questions yourself...GO!

Comments:

Kendra L Harris I ADORE your home! I remember when I heard that you had acquired it and were restoring it... it is beautiful! You are a lucky man! I remember walking through the preserve on Horseleg with you (I suppose it was in middle school?), and thinking how nice it was to be out in nature, noticing things I would NEVER have seen before! I had a picture of a tree that had split itself out of it's trunk and was growing two separate trees from one base... had it for years.. wonder where it is now? Anyway, cool memories! I pass by there all the time and think of that walk that day. Thanks so much for all you taught us. Glad to see you're still teaching now. And one of my more memorable moments in your class is quite funny/ironic... You asked us as part of a 20 questions game, for a bonus, to spell Armuchee correctly... No one got it right.. well, no, that's not right. I think maybe Ronnie Stamey did. Perhaps he had gone there? He did transfer in to Pepperell. Now you teach there! Cool!

Terrell Shaw Thank you, Kendra, for this heart-warming comment. You Kaleidoscope kids are very special to me and it is great to catch up on your doins!! About Armuchee: We say Armu"r"chee stole its extra "r" sound which accounts for the missing "r" sound in "Mahtha" Berry. I am certainly a lucky man. Finding all these "old" students, like sweet little Kendra Harris, on fb reminds me of that.

Jane Baird Lathem Terry, I loved your answers. #25 bordered on being 'more information than I needed'!!!

Amanda Hearn Sims I agree with Jane...LOL Love you Uncle!

Wendy Ramsey I need more time to do this justice - maybe later!

Wendy Ramsey 12:56 AM!!! What are you doing up at 12:56 AM?? Mybe you do need some satin sheets!

Terrell Shaw Pretty ridiculous, I admit. I think I drank too much caffeine late.

Lost Rome: The Nevin Opera House

What a loss to Rome on the very last day of 1919. The Nevin Opera House burned. Built in 1880, it stood where that karaoke joint is now. It featured concerts by the New York Symphony, the Boston Symphony, and tyhe Dresden Symphony. There were plays and operas. The last show was a movie, The Birth of A Nation, in 1916. Then it stood empty till the big fire.

Opera Alley, the only thing left of the landmark, still connects through to West First (and now the Forum civic center). The city has plans to make a bit of a museum out of the alley.

But don't you wish we could still see plays and concerts in that magnificent building!

Sunday Concert -- iPhone Ocarina

I have gadget envy. I'd like to have an iPhone.

Did you ever think you'd hear a telephone concert? David Pogue calls it magic. Comes mighty close! Give a listen.


Here's a quartet:




Now read David Pogue's column about this iPhone app. Half a million folks have viewed this video already!

Sunday Concert -- Foolish Frog

Foolish Frog
by Pete Seeger

I learned this story from Pete, via an old LP. I've been telling it for thirty years or more. I like to think I've made my version mine, but it is definitely based on Pete's. It is a frequently requested part of my repertoire.

Here is a cartoon version with Pete's telling. Whoops! This has been removed for copyright infringement. Here is a wonderfully expressive foreign language (eastern European?) version! This guy may be better than Pete!

Gleaning Facebook: Reconnecting -- Tracy Cordle

Shelly Burkhalter, Tracy Cordle, Lori Cochran on Kaleidoscope Rock in Booze Creek at Pepperell Elementary School, 1982

One of the first former students who friended me on Facebook was Tracy Cordle (Baker). Tracy with Shelly Burkhalter and Lori Cochran were three little girls who were one of my gifted classes at Pepperell Elementary School. I think I taught them for several years. It is an absolute joy to reconnect with so many beloved students. Here is what she wrote on my Facebook page a few days after I joined the social media revolution...

Wow, this was worth joining facebook for. I just want to let you know that when you were up for the teacher of the year this year I told everyone that would listen how deserving you were. Oh well you don't have to get a plaque for the wall to know that you have probably been the teacher of the year for many years. Well last year I inteviewed for a job at Pepperell Primary school and in my interview I again mentioned you and Eloise Childs as the two people who most affected me during my years at Pepperell Elem. so in case you've never heard it Thanks! I went to Floyd College and got my assoc. in human services and on to Berry where I graduated from in 96. I got married in 97 and taught pre-k one year at Rebecca Blaylock. Then I went on to the wonderful world of motherhood with a beautiful baby boy and stayed at home for a few years. I worked part time at Sylvan Learning Center.

Ok I didn't know you were limited by what you could write anyway, I had another baby, a girl, and went to work part time at Calvary Baptist Weelearn while they were there. When Caitlin went to K last year I subbed and renewed my lapsed teaching certificate and this year I am a 36 year old 1st year teacher at Pepperell Primary in Pre-K. Whew!! I have a great husband who is a UPS driver and 2 awesome kids. My son was tested for gifted in K and is an awesome baseball player. My daughter is the spitting image of me both physically and attitude. ( I know I'm in trouble, I think they call it paying for your raising). I am thrilled to know that you are doing well and maybe one of these days we can catch a show you are in. I'd love to hear just one more time.....Twas brillig.......and oh yea the rock in the creek is still at PPS but it sure does look a lot smaller.

Eloise sells ice cream everyday at PPS. Obviously I remember Jaberwocky and the enthusiasm with which you told it. I remember getting out of the classroom a lot, like sitting on the rock in the creek to write poetry especially when for the 1st few years it was just me, lori and shelly. I remember a unit on the blue and the gray. I remember how Marshal Forest was like our own special place and there was a big unveiling of the braille trail and they found some kind of almost extinct flower there we went to see. I remember that we had COMPUTERS, wow what were are those funny things. We would work for weeks on a program to make a dot dance across the screen. Line 20 to line 10. A lot more exciting than just sitting at a desk. I don't remember many worksheets!

Small World

This morning as I duplicated Mr. Shaw's Stars Study Guide to the American Revolution, the little red-headed girl from down the street and her mom passed the copy room and said Hi! Then she asked if I had heard that Granddaddy was sick and in the hospital. No I hadn't. What's his ailment? And the mom uttered that terrible word, "Leukemia." So I started to tell them about how leukemia has staggered our family and as I raised my sleeve to show off my swirly purple armband, they beat me to it. They had the same armbands. I was floored. I, Lily's uncle, was not the first person at Armuchee Elementary School with a Lily's Garden armband!

Small world.

Gleaning Facebook: It's a Small World

Terrell Shaw is amazed at this small world.

This morning as I duplicated Mr. Shaw's Stars Study Guide to the American Revolution, the little red-headed girl from down the street and her mom passed the copy room and said Hi! Then she asked if I had heard that Granddaddy was sick and in the hospital. No I hadn't. What's his ailment? And the mom uttered that terrible word, "Leukemia." So I started to tell them about how leukemia has staggered our family and as I raised my sleeve to show off my swirly purple armband, they beat me to it. They had the same armbands. I was floored. I, Lily's uncle, was not the first person at Armuchee Elementary School with a Lily's Garden armband!

Small world.

Please visit:

www.lilysgarden.org

Carol Shaw Johnston
Where did they get the armband?

Did they say what kind of leukemia the grandfather has?

Terrell Shaw
They didn't say which leukemia. They got the armband from a "teacher at Model" -- Lyn, i suspect.

Stories, Books, CDs, and Fast Scrabble

--In Progress
More later--

I bought three books and two CDs from the tellers. Three of them are inscribed to Mr Shaw's Stars.

What a fun time was Saturday! On Wednesday Sheila picked up last Sunday's Atlanta Constitution and noticed a story we had missed. It told of the Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival in Brundidge, Alabama. The Festival would start in Brundidge on Friday and move to nearby Troy University on Saturday. And it would feature three of our favorite storytellers: nonogenarian Kathryn Tucker Windham, Cuban/Georgian spitball carmen Agra Deedy, and everybody's favorite, Donald Davis. The fourth headliner was a familiar name, but we had not heard his stories: Bill Lepp.

Long story short: we called, reserved tickets for the 10 a.m. Saturday show. The others were sold out, but we hoped to stay get in as stand-bys for the 2 p.m. show. We called my nephew Gil who teaches aeronautics at Auburn and asked to crash at his house Friday night.

All went according to plan. We had a lovely evening in Auburn visiting with Gil and Naomi and their precocious sons. After the boys were asleep Gil dug out the Scrabble tiles and he and I confidently, then frantically, then desperately, arranged and rearranged our tiles and were thoroughly skunked as Sheila and Naomi won round after round of Fast Scrabble. I demand a rematch and soon.

Gil and Mark were headed to a swim meet the next morning. Naomi was busy with school work. But Lewis was not scheduled. We talked him into accompanying the old folks and off we went down I-85 toward Montgomery, then 231 to Troy. Miraculously there were tree contiguous seats left on the third row of the center section. We enjoyed just a few minutes of live bluegrass before Donald Davis was introduced.


My sister, Debi, and her husband Gregg are wonderful writers and the authors of lots of books during the last thirty years. Gregg has written a couple of books with the famous surgeon, Ben Carson. He and Debi together also wrote a biography of Carson for young people. Now they have updated and redone some of that writing to produce a book to accompany the current TNT movie about Carson, Giving Hands, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Debi dropped a copy off for us today. I look forward to reading it.

Regular visitors to the Limb know that my favorite children's book is The Lion's Paw by Robb White. In 1946 White, a Navy commander during the Second World War, created this wonderful adventure set in Florida during the uncertainties of that great war. Two runaway orphaned siblings meet a boy whose father is a naval officer lost in the Pacific and presumed dead. Presumed dead by the navy, the boy's relatives, and everyone else except the boy and his two new companions. They set out to sail their sloop, newly christened The Lion's Paw, to Captiva Island where they will search for a Lion's Paw seashell to complete the collection the boy had begun with his father. He is sure that, if he can find the shell, his father will make it home.

Robb White's sensory images are crisp and delicious. The suspense is riveting. The characters are real and appealing. Here in the late forties we have a heroine who is resourceful, determined, and brave. Penny ranks with Anne Shirley and Jo March as a model for feminists, in my estimation. It is a story of nature, adventure, resourcefulness, bravery, perseverance, loyalty, loss, discovery, and love.

In 1970 my girlfriend (now my wife) suggested I read The Lion's Paw to my students. Her teacher in Tallahassee, Florida, had read it to her class and everyone loved it, she said. I fell in love with it on first reading and have read it to each homeroom I have had in my 29 years of teaching. I also read it to my own daughters.

The Lion's Paw has been out of print for several years. It has been listed as the most sought after OOP children's book for several years according to bookfinder.com. Then last fall, Robb White's widow and step-daughter published a facsimile edition that closely resembles the first edition. I've been looking for it at Barnes and Noble. I looked through B&N in Manhatten and even at the marvelous Books of Wonder store on 18th Street. No Lion's Paw.

So one night about nine I was browsing online and found the A.W.Ink website. Their address was several time zones away so I decided to call. Only moments later Leslie, Robb White’s step-daughter called me. We talked for about thirty minutes. And I ordered ten copies of my favorite children’s book. Leslie inscribed each with a nice message. I presented one to each of my daughters, my current and two recent student teachers, my niece who teaches fourth grade, and our school library. I gave another away to my nephew’s family as a bread and butter gift after our overnight stay on Friday. Sheila and I have kept one for ourselves. That leaves only one more for the dozen or so other to whom I would like to give this wonderful book. I should have ordered more!

Gleaning Facebook: Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival

 We are back from the Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival in Troy Alabama, with stops at Auburn. What fun! Fast scrabble and storytelling!

Brian Sikes
Say, that's where I went to school!

Terrell Shaw
I didn't know that! Troy State? We were in the theater there... theater students pics on the wall. Were you a theater major or an education major?

Beth Novian Hughes
This is interesting, I'm studying Storytime Yoga right now (basically combining the two) are you a storyteller??? not that all teachers aren't!

Terrell Shaw
Hey, Beth! Yes I do a lot of storytelling -- have even been paid to lie on occasion -- but mostly I tell stories in my classroom or at school events. I have a prototype storytelling dvd that I would love to market "one-of-these-days". Donald Davis, Kathryn Windham, Carmen Deedy, and Bill Lepp were awesome at Troy yesterday. Sheila and I along with our great-nephew Lewis enjoyed four hours of stories!

Lily's Bracelet

Lillian models the bracelet.

I am wearing a bracelet today. This is not a usual thing for me. I have never sported much flair. I wore the ring Sheila gave me on August 1, 1971 until she lost it when I entrusted it to her while I endured a kidney stone procedure a year or so ago. I wear silly ties occasionally at school. On silly hat days at our school I am a good sport.

But beginning today I am wearing a plastic wrist band with white and purple swirls and a message: "Weeding out Leukemia http://lilysgarden.org". I am wearing it for a beautiful and brave little seven year-old girl who is my great niece.

Lily

The band will remind me to do my little part (praying, training for the half-marathon fundraiser, spreading the word) in the battle against childhood cancer. If you would like to help, go to her website:


and make a donation. If there is a way to note that your donation is in sponsorship of Terrell and Sheila's efforts in the Country Music Half Marathon, she and I would appreciate that. 100% (97.5% if you use Paypal) of all donations to Lily's Garden will go toward conquering childhood cancer.

If you live around here and would like to wear a bracelet like mine, I have several. I'll be happy to share.

Thanks!