Gleaning Facebook: Christmas 2010

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I'm dreaming of a Whitish Christmas...

Ruth Baird Shaw

Terry...there is enough snow out here in West Rome to build a snowman????

Chris Rouse Davidson
We built a snowman here in West Rome. He's a little brownish, but we're happy to have him nonetheless.

Amy Leanne Cochran
we got quiet a bit of snow here in Lyerly 

1st time Ive ever had a White Christmas and I spent it playing in the snow with my favorite children 

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas 

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Our family, virtually together for Christmas Eve 2010 -- via Skype

Lillian Shaw
Haha. I managed to look the cutest in this photo.

Christie Hufstedler Boyd
Merry Christmas to the Shaws in Rome and Virtually to Lillian in New York! 

Gary Harrell
that is awesome!

Joan Shaw Turrentine
We will miss you, Sweet Lil! Sure looking forward to seeing you, Brannon! You four still look "right" together!

Nora Matthews
how come Lillian couldn't make it but Brannon could? anyways have a Merry Christmas love you all

Terrell Shaw
Obviously Brannon loves us more. We've changed the will.
<Grin> Merry Christmas Nora!!!
(Actually, Brannon could get off work, and Lillian couldn't -- they will share their inheritance of our debts equally.)

Nora Matthews
lol Merry Christmas to you too uncle Terry! Tell everyone we love them and Merry Christmas as well.

Ruthie Langston Terry
Isn't technology wonderful? Hope you are all actually happy, rather than virtually so this Christmas.

Ruth Baird Shaw
Ruthie...Terry sounded actually happy when i talked to him a few minutes ago! Lillian may be only virtually happy, having to work (new job) on Christmas day.

Terrell Shaw
Happier than any man has a right to be, Ms Ruthie! Same to you and yours!
And Nora, you are very much loved by this household (virtual and actual!) Give the retired coot and his sweet wife a hug for us and even ol' Derrick!

Ruth Baird Shaw
Terry and Sheila...Great picture!!!!! Who snapped the pic...

Terrell Shaw
I just held the camera out and snapped it myself. I wish Lil were available during the day so we could bring the computer over and "Skype" from your house.

Ruth Baird Shaw
Merry Christmas Nora!
Merry Christmas David Matheny and your family. I know it is sad with you recent loss but happy for your wonderful Dad. Dr. Matheny fought the good fight and now has his crown...

Terrell Shaw
Yes, Merry Christmas, David! I know this is a Christmas when your folks are much on your mind. One of my friends described it as a bittersweet Christmas as we remember our missing mutual friend, Cleve Burton - great memories but a real empty spot too.

Ruth Baird Shaw
Yes. I think about Cleve so often.

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Having a low-key, but great Christmas.

Still, as I stood, a "shepherd" last night in our Nativity Scene, quietly considering Christmas, my mind wandered to warm memories, not so directly associated with this tender scene as with my own bittersweet emotions. I thought especially of all those missing from us this year.

Terrell Shaw We have enjoyed visiting Wint Barton each of the last several Christmases. He regaled us with stories and showered us in chocolate and other goodies supplied by Suzanne. And Cleve is gone. And Charles Reichel. I thought of David Metheney's dad. And then of course the mind skips to all the others... My Daddy. How he loved family and how he love this church. The Cravens, Paul and Mary, who built the first stable at Trinity and befriended my family in the sixties. Miss Annie Beth Terrell just up Avenue A and her oat/chocolate goodies and generosity to the youth of our church. Jim Formby, such an bulwark of our church for so many years, and another friend of my Dad. Bobby Storey heating bricks in the church oven for us to stand on those really cold Christmases. Christmas has always been such a family time. The boistrous Shaw boys. The delicious smells and tastes. The downlight gloriously gaudy decorations my Mama Shaw put up. The warmth of my Mama Baird and Aunt Mary. The girdle (a story in itself.) Then to hunting the perfect, wonderfully fragrant, redcedar for our Christmas tree with my Daddy and sisters and later with Sheila, and then year after year on the Burton farm with my daughters and the Burtons. Enough... Happy Christmas to all my family and all wonderful friends, and former students, and Facebook cohorts!!

George Dean Charles Riechel was a great man indeed, and I am richer from his and your way of living. Merry Christmas!
Jann Heaton Skeen Merry Christmas to the Shaw family!
Jane Cox Slickman Merry Christmas Terrell - the glory of it all is that those we miss in body will never leave us in memory or spirit - how rich that makes us!

Nancy Nichols Elder And, Terrell, don't forget our Paula!
Terrell Shaw Yes, Paula! She is another that loved Christmastime. She always brought treats to the school at Christmas for Allie and Mallory's teachers and staff members.
Ruthie Langston Terry Terrell, I think that's what puts the "blue" in Christmas. I missed my Mother, and Daddy and sister so much, even tho I have six little grands to occupy my mind, I still think of those Christmas' past!

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Later Snow Pictures

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Just finished our annual viewing of the classic "It's a Wonderful Life". It's a wonderful movie. Capra did some great directing - great camera angles for example. Of course the schmaltz gets a little ridiculous, especially in the "Mary the Old Maid Librarian" scene. "You're not gonna like it George... she's an old maid.... she's just about to close up the LIBRARY!!!!!"

Tony Pope
Always dissing the librarians!

Terrell Shaw
I wondered if Tony Pope might see this. Now let's wait for Avis's take on it.

Tony Pope
Ha.... I think I might have broken that image somewhat! Ha...

Terrell Shaw
So big change: crabby old batchelor librarian. <grin>

Ruthie Langston Terry
Lighten up on the librarian's Terrell. I know a few who are definitely "HOT" !!! lol
Uh, Tony, don't get any crazy ideas! LOL

Terrell Shaw
Now, Ruthie, I've waxed eloquent about my love of you librarians in the past... I was giving Capra a hard time about his portrayal of Mary as a librarian in IAWL!

Ruthie Langston Terry
Weeeell, it is Christmas, guess I'll let you live Terrell, since you post such interesting data! all is forgiven.....

Gleaning Facebook: Christmas Snow, 2010

 

Gleaning Facebook: Two Years of Chemo

 My great niece Lily finishes two years of chemotherapy for cancer today. See the tee shirt? Here she presents a check for $100,000 for cancer research. She has raised a total of $300,000 of her million-dollar goal. In celebration of this great and hopeful day, and in honor of this great kid (and my birthday buddy, her sister) I am making a donation toward the next hundred thousand. Won't you join me?

From Carol Shaw Johnston's Facebook: Lily and Sophie giving Dr.Gitlin the two checks to establish the Lily's Garden research endowment at the children's hospital.

Gleaning Facebook: Sophie

From a post on my sister Carol's Facebook page:

Sophie is my Central Time Zone Birthdayu Buddy. Her birthday is March 21 and mine is March 22 BUT I was born just 20 minutes after midnight, which would have been March 21 in the Central Time zone where Sophie was born, so... 

 

Gleaning Facebook: Squirrelly Gym Set

Here's a project for our yard! 

Comments

Judy Harris
To funny! Love it!

Duane Parsons
Thanks Terrell. Only 2 weeks? It would have taken this ol dog longer.

Weyland Billingsley
Gotta send it out to my friends and family in Texas.

Bob Doster
Can't keep a tree rat from his nuts.

Lynne Crothers Williams
Can't wait to show this to my Dad when he comes on Wednesday. He's done less elaborate versions for Savannah squirrels, but I have a feeling more complex ones will be just a matter of time once he sees this...and he's a retired engineer so it could get very interesting.

We hold these truths...

During the early pre-TV years of our marriage, Sheila and I enjoyed daily our little stereo and merged-collection-of-LPs in that little log cabin on Lake Creek in Chubbtown Community. One album we listened to regularly was Portrait by the Fifth Dimention. So whenever I taught about the Declaration I'd pack that record to school and play this song for my students as they followed the words in our text. Now I have it on iTunes and my students follow these magnificent, poetic words of Thomas Jefferson projected on the "Smartboard".

Gleaning Facebook: Taking a Spill

Treacherous out there folks. 

Sheila calls to say she is creeping home from Kennesaw over icy roads. I think the chivalrous thing to do is to move my car away from the porch so she can park closer to get in. I walk out, move my car, and -- while I'm at it it -- bring an armload of stuff in from the car. As I start up my back steps arms full of empty coffee thermoses, back pack, a big flashlight I used in a lesson today, etc. my legs fly out from under me. I hit the steps and the stone landing with elbow and wrist and buttock as the thermos tries to push my nose through my brain...

... I lie for a bit at the foot of the steps slightly dazed and trying to figure out if more than my pride is seriously damaged. I am pondering simultaneous heartfelt wishes:

"Oh how I hope someone was watching 'cause if I don't get help I'm gonna die!!"

and

"Oh how I hope no-one was watching me make such an absolute fool out of myself!!"

Various and sundry muscles, bones, and tissues are announcing their protests in an irksome and noisy cacaphony to my muddled brain as warm liquid gushes from my nose. I'm gonna look pretty and move slowly at school tomorrow.

Just call me Grace.

I finally rouse myself and --- very carefully -- climb the steps and enter the house leaving a trail of red befitting a murder scene. I doubt Sheila will be willing to enter when she gets home.

Comments

Dana Jordan Alexander
OOP"S that is really gonna hurt tomorrow ...sorry ...

Marlee Tierce
Oh dear, Terrell. So sorry.

Linda Floyd Blackwell
OH no! I hope you aren't too sore tomorrow.

Amy Prince-Stivers
Dislike! 

Christie Hufstedler Boyd
Sorry that happened to you! I went to the store to get some milk for Freddy and nearly busted my bottom on the steps. For some unknown reason, I was able to regain my footing.

Beth Shaw
Yikes! I almost fell walking up Mt Alto road to our street - the police had turned their headlights on so I could see and a bunch of ppl who had parked their cars at the bottom of the hill were watching to see if I made it. That would have been embarrassing. I wouldn't even let myself stop to catch my breath till I got to my driveway because I didn't want to look like I couldn't do it. How sad (and prideful) is THAT!
You might should go get checked out and make sure you don't have anything broken and/or strained or any internal bleeding

Elizabeth McGinnis Johnson
Grace, I hope you are going to be ok. I slid down my steps today and I am aching ALL OVER. It's rough out there!!!!

Terrell Shaw
Well, all things work together for good! If I hadn't fallen Amy may never have stopped by my fb. How is motherhood and teaching girl?
Thanks all. I'm fine. Nothing broken, just lots of sore places and aches and pains. Those of you who have reached my advanced age know that we elders have more aches than we have places to ache, fall or no fall. 

Mary Nisbet Asbury
So sorry you fell! I am hearing accident and near accident stories from all over Rome. James fell in front of our house tonight while taking out something for me.

Margaret Oren
Ooooh! Terrell, don't do that again.

Ruth Baird Shaw
Please....do not talk about being old!!! Remember I am your mother so a little older!!!!

Elizabeth McGinnis Johnson
Believe me, no matter what your age, falling down on ice HURTS!

Terrell Shaw
Oh, I believe you, Liz!

Christie Hufstedler Boyd
Mrs. Ruth! You stay in that house! Promise now...

Jann Heaton Skeen
bless your heart! Glad school is out tomorrow though. Katelyn (Shuler) said "OH NO is he okay"??

Terrell Shaw
Just got the call... no school tomorrow! Hmmmm... Christmas activities get jammed into a short day on Friday.
Tell Katelyn her YOUNG teacher (son of a very YOUNG mother) is doing fine.

Mandy Wallace
Hope you heal up at HOME tomorrow! No school means Aiden has another day to read AR books! He is not going to enjoy his day off!

Kathy Wilson
Hope your all right.It hurts hitting the ground nowadays.

Nancy Johal Singh
Mr.Shaw hope you are not hurt....get some rest tomorrow...

Kristi Roberts Sanders
First of all..... you and those empty coffee mugs!!!!!! How many had u collected at school? LOL. Take it easy tomorrow and BE CAREFUL! 

Nancy Waters Carr
scary, glad you didn't break anything

Amy Leanne Cochran
U have time to get better now..no school for yall tomorrow 

Anita Stewart
Sounds like the Three Stooges in one swift move. Glad you were not hurt.

Naomi Liles Crouse
OUCH! Careful!! Hope you didn't sustain a serious injury!

Deborah Lake Dawson
Sorry to hear that. I am just getting over a fall down my driveway and that was without any ice. Falling has never been fun but falling at 50 is a whole different story. Hope you did not get hurt bad.

George Barton
If you have a black eye, just tell everyone that Sheila did it.

Lillian Shaw
Ouch! Glad you're okay for the most part!

Terrell Shaw
Thanks all. I'm sore but OK.
Great idea George. (Un?) Fortunately, no black eye.

Now Mandy, allow Aiden ... a little... fun.
At least I wasn't kissing that thermos while falling from atop a racing steed, Kathy.
And it WAS a big ol' thermos, not a mug, that rearranged MY mug, Kristi!
Careful, you Shoe-Stooge, may be time for a couple of flagpole stories! Yes, the scene woulda made Moe, Larry, & Curly proud.
Lillian, you intended no comma after "okay", right?

Betty Smith Franklin
Now, a walker with a basket. Merry Christmas! I remember the Rome Christmas parade as a sleet day.

Bill Supon
With all my problems with falling recently, I have gone out as little as possible! Apparently, I was smart for once!

Ann Gore
Be careful, Terrell!!!

True Treasure

Thinking of Christmas shopping brought this bit of light verse to mind. I wrote it 15 years or so ago, at Christmas, for my daughters and wife:

Exchanging Gifts

What gifts will you bring your Papa?
Pure gold, however they're made
Wrapped in sunshine smiles;
Tied with love that won't fade.

What gift will you bring your lover?
Its rich, whatever you've spent,
You've paid thrice in sweat and tears
and my promises, broken or bent.

What gifts can I bring my daughters?
What present is worthy my wife?
Tawdry trinkets diamonds would seem
On these precious true-treasures of life.

Corny but sincere sentiments, still, from this ol' fool, as he prepares for a Lillian-less Yuletide.

(Some other poetry of mine can be accessed via the Wayback Machine.)

Finishing sentences on a more populated Limb

I wanted to finish my sentences.

One of the foibles of yours truly and several of my relatives, is that we tend to interrupt each other a lot. I do it. And many of my family members do it. There must be a mutant gene.  It's very irritating. It is a habit of mine that I detest as much as I dislike it in others.

When I established this weblog five years ago, America was firmly in the care of folks with whom I had basic disagreement. In addition, I felt very much alone in the greater Shaw family, in regard to my political beliefs. When I expressed my beliefs to family members their responses, I am ashamed to admit, were sometimes cut off with some pretty raw anger. And vice versa. It was very frustrating when some family members broke in to express disbelief in the sincerity of my statements, proclaiming me "brain-washed" or an unthinking partisan.

I wanted a forum to fully express my opinions - to finish my sentences - in a non-confrontational way.

So I established "Alone on a Limb".

I discovered, of course, that I was not quite so alone as I thought.  I found a couple of like-minded cousins. I already knew my children and my wife were largely in agreement with me. And I even found areas of agreement with a sibling or two occasionally. With a small but growing readership, I received affirmation from many friends and some former strangers, now friends.

In 2006 and 2008 America at large grew closer to me philosophically. And polls show that, even with the disappointing results of the midterms, most Americans are closer to my political positions than to those of Mitch McConnell (whose priority is definitely not America's), John Boehner, Sarah Palin, etc.

We have elected a thoughtful, articulate, reasonable President. We have created a million jobs - not enough but an improvement. The economy is growing, slowly. We have passed health care reform - conservative reform, but reform none-the-less. We have reeled in Wall Street a little. We have re-established our national reputation in the world.

So The Limb is better populated than I realized and it is strong enough to hold many more. I don't feel so alone out here any more.

I have finished lots of sentences.

Just Singing A Song Won’t Change The World

Greetings from Ohio. I posted this on DaytonOS today. I'm contemplating making a big organizing effort here in Kettering for the next 5 or 6 months and see what happens. I keep thinking I will make it to Rome. Carmon is 100 this February and so I know I will be down your way then.

I love this clip of Neil Young talking with David Letterman. Neil jokes that he is working on a new song, “Just Singing A Song Won’t Change The World.” He banters with Paul Schafer and finally says, “You can keep trying, though.”

It’s a good question: what can change the world? Americans, generally speaking, believe the answer is democracy.

I keep writing posts saying in different ways that “Democracy is the Answer.” Name a problem -- more democracy is the answer.

• Raising America’s standard of living -- more democracy is the answer.


• Transforming our system of public education -- more democracy is the answer.


• World peace -- more democracy is the answer.

No, just singing a song about democracy is not the answer, but it might be a good start.
In response to a recent post, Stan Hirtle replied and said the “Waiting for Superman” movie delivers this message: “America’s standard of living arguably depends on having a higher skilled, higher educated work force than in the past, and therefore we can be less tolerant of the education results of the past.”

The movie doesn’t suggest that for our failing economy more democracy is the answer, it says a more highly trained work force is the answer. Diane Ravitz calls the movie “propaganda.”

The idea that the focus of our system of public education should be to maintain and improve the American standard of living is an idea so often expressed, we don’t recognize it as propaganda.
Here are two recent statements by President Obama:

• “Make no mistake: Our future is on the line. The nation that out-educates us today is going to out-compete us tomorrow. To continue to cede our leadership in education is to cede our position in the world.“


• “When countries that out-educate us today, they will out-compete us tomorrow. Giving our kids the best education possible is an economic imperative. That’s why, from the start of my administration, we’ve been fighting to offer every child in this country a world-class education”

Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, says: “Nothing — nothing is more important in the long-run to American prosperity than boosting the skills and attainment of the nation's students.”

But, if American test scores were at the top of the chart, and our students were outscoring students of other nations in science and math, our current unemployment figures would be substantially unchanged.

Alfie Kohn notes:

“ For nations, there’s little correlation between average test scores and economic vigor. The late Gerald Bracey, for example, found 38 countries whose economies had been rated on the Current Competitiveness Index calculated by the World Economic Forum and whose students’ test scores had also been assessed. There was virtually no correlation between countries’ scores on the two lists. ... Consider Japan’s outstanding test scores in the 1980s and its dismal economic performance in the 1990s.”

Low test scores didn’t cause our current economic crisis, and high test scores will not solve our economic problems. Blaming public education for our poor economy is effective propaganda -- a way for the ruling oligarchy to manage public opinion -- but, raising test scores will not improve the economy. It is illogical that, if our system of public education could succeed in dramatically accomplishing Duncan’s goal of “boosting the skills and attainment of the nation's students,” sufficient good jobs would somehow materialize.

Citizens in the old Soviet Union demonstrated greater academic accomplishment than citizens in the United States. But academic accomplishment in the old Soviet Union did not translate into prosperity.

The Soviet Union had a system problem, and, it is the system that matters most -- not the individuals in the system. It was impossible that the Soviet system could produce wide-spread prosperity, because it was never the purpose of the system. The point of Soviet Union system was not to produce prosperity, but to give more power and privilege to those already privileged.

America also has a system problem. Our central problem is not that school children can’t understand the quadratic formula or can’t comprehend photosynthesis. The problem is our system of democracy is failing. In practical terms, we have an oligarchic system, not a democratic system. To solve our economic malaise we need to vitalize our system of democracy. More democracy is the answer.

The idea that More Democracy Is the Answer is a fundamental idea with great power. But where are the documentary movies that make that case? Where are the talk radio programs that are working day and night to stir people up so they begin to express passion for this fundamental idea?

The need to vitalize our democracy seems so obvious to me that I keep predicting that eventually it will be obvious to many others as well. My prediction, that I keep returning to, is, The Ascending Issue In Our Democracy Is Democracy Itself

Maybe it is just wishful thinking, but, I believe the grassroots is awakening. Stable, prosperous communities such as Kettering, where I live, whose public education is deemed “Excellent,” have the greatest capacity for creating an authentic democratic grassroots movement. Such a movement will be a nonpartisan effort to build community. The core of this movement, initially, I believe, will be the conviction that local control of public education must be returned to local communities.

A grassroots' movement requires that people begin to act on their convictions. Note to self: Changing the world means getting off one’s duff and actually doing something. Neil's right -- just singing a song won’t change the world, even if the song is about democracy

Gleaning Facebook: From the sixties...

 Richard ware posted this old picture on his Facebook page today. Wow! Some serious time travel here.

L-R: Michael Burton, Carol Shaw Johnston, Terrell Shaw

Terrell Shaw
Where was this taken Richard. I don't remember seeing it before. I imagine Mike, Carol and I could raise a sizable payoff to persuade you to destroy it! <grin>

Richard T. Ware
This photo was the only one taken with a regular camera (possibly my old Ansco), and the only one with a date, Jan. 1968. All the others were taken with a Polaroid, and you can tell it too. Look at the other picture with Mike & Carolyn and somebody in the background with some sort of military shirt on. These walls were paneling also, like this picture. Did Mike's old trailer have paneling. Possibly it was taken at our house in Celanese? This was a couple of years before I met Teresa. And, what is Carol so happy about?

Michael J. Burton
we did indeed have paneling in the old trailer, but not sure if this is it.

Ruthie Langston Terry

Love the old photo! It looks like a scene from an old sit-com!