Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Family Reunion 07 Selected Pics
Jim, Judie, and Family.
Jerry, Alice, and growing family.
Bobby, Mary, and small portion of the Colorado contingent.
The Crowley Siblings minus Mary, Fran, and Pat.
Cousins!!!! What a good looking bunch! (all except that Delaney with the back sweater on, what's up with that hair anyway????)
The NE Dugans- and Mary's playmates. 
Queen of the Universe
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Christmas Memories
I still think of that magical time leading up to Christmas, the anticipation, the lights, music and the dreams of the many toys I wanted and hoped to find under the tree. The trolley trips to Market Street to enjoy the Christmas displays in the windows of Gimbles and Lits’ Department stores, and the lights decorating Market Street.
The last year we lived as a family on Emily Street, Dad and I went out late at 10pm Christmas Eve to get a tree and to find the best deal. As there was snow on the ground, he pulled me on a sled. As I remember, we traveled many blocks and stopped at many tree stands before getting a tree for fifty cents, Dad tied it to the sled, put me on top and headed home. The tree needed some work and Dad drilled some holes and moved some branches to make the "front" appear full. As was our custom Mom, Dad and I trimmed the tree that Christmas eve. Boy was I excited. I think Mom and Dad gave me a small glass of wine (probably hot chocolate) to get me in bed.
The Christmas tree was lit by small colored lights on a series wire, that is, if one light failed, the whole string would not light. And they did fail quite often. Mom, Dad and later, me would use a new bulb and replace each bulb on the string until the bad bulb was located. Each year, Dad cut a small piece off the bottom of the tree trunk and drilled a hole for a candle in the side and planed the other side flat so it wouldn’t roll. In three years we had three candle holders, two large and a small one for me. Dad decorated them with some pine cuttings. Every Christmas Eve we burned red candles and saveed the candles for the next Christmas Eve. Most of the houses had a few branches of pine cut from their Christmas trees that were trimmed with the previous years’ red bow that they hung on the front door; few folks had either the means or the desire to purchase a wreath.
Uncle Con and Dad spent many hours in the cellar making toys for me, and Mom had to keep me busy and out of the cellar, I just couldn't contain myself, wanting to know what my Dad and Uncle were doing as I was always with them when they were making something. Well they made me a scale model of an army Jeep about ten inches long, which I could only look at and not play with. On Easter, the following year, my Jeep was displayed in the front window with eggs made up to look like Roosevelt and Truman and McArthur sitting in it and a gallows with eggs looking like Hitler and Tojo hanging from ropes. Politically correct we weren't, ah the good old days.
That Christmas I found a cap gun under the tree, a real cowboy cap gun. Roy Rodgers was my current hero and I spent Christmas day shooting at my playmates and them shooting back with their new guns. Nothing like hiding behind snow piles and having a battle on Christmas Day! Being “shot”, and sliding down a snow pile pretending we were dead. Mom and Dad and my playmates parents were tolerant of us kids as the country was still at war. I think we went to Grandmom’s house for dinner and I got some more toys. I still remember Grandmom’s Rice Pudding and could eat the entire casserole myself if they would have let me.
Usually Dad had his 1938 Chevrolet coupe parked on the street and he only drove it on weekends and when there was no snow. He would drain the water out of the radiator so it wouldn’t freeze. (Anti-freeze cost money and we didn’t have much). I think he removed the six volt Battery on very cold days. On the weekends that Dad did drive Mom and me in the car, Dad heated a kettle of water on our three burner stove and poured the warm water into the radiator and let it run for a while. Mom brought blankets, as the car had no heater and no radio either. Even though the seat was narrow, Dad, Mom and I just fit and kept warm under her blankets and by just being with each other. I can still feel the warmth of those moments and what a wonderful memory for me of my family.
Labels: Family
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
LIVESTRONG
Here is Joe crossing the finish line. That is Jim Crowley not far behind.
Here is the team posing for a photo after the race.
A note from JOE:
Friends,
First I want to take the time to thank all of you for your donations and support as my team and I trained for the Philly 2007 LiveSTRONG Challenge! I am just simply astonished by the amount of people who rose up and donated- Some of you I've never met.
Maybe even more humbling is the number of my donors who actually THANKED me for putting this team together and riding for the cause. I am very honored to be part of the LAF ARMY, and pledge to keep fighting until, as Lance says, "America is smoke free, and cancer is eliminated on the cellular level."
The 2007 Philly Challenge was a very emotional and inspirational cumulative series of events. So much happened: All the speeches at dinner and the post event party, All the sweat on the streets, All the tears of joy on the cheeks, All the smiles as we met new friends, and laughed with old friends and, of course, the sweet memories of the fallen. "The Already Balders" all finished the 40 mile ride, with me coming in last of our group at about 4 hours. It was perhaps the single hardest thing I ever did physically, second only to actually fighting the disease. I am very proud of my team, they really rallied and pushed me to finish, and I'm proud of all of you for your support and confidence in me. "The Already Balders" came away a very energized group of 8 guys, (we are not all bald) and I proudly tell you that we vow to double the team size and quadruple the goal for 2008!
Our team goal was $5,500.00, and thanks to YOU we sailed right past that number and topped out at an astonishing $ 6,480.00!! That is a huge number for a first time team! We want to grow on that energy, and we want you to consider joining us next year, maybe the 10 or 40 mile bike ride, or the 5K run/walk.
Thanks to all your donations, I qualified for the award ceremony dinner with Lance Saturday night. There I was able to meet a young Testicular Cancer patient who has been on various chemo treatments for over a year now, and is fighting with everything he's got. He and I have spoken several times over the past year, and he was actually infused on Saturday morning with an experimental chemo up at Sloan-Kettering, then he and his brother took the train to the dinner. He was so excited when he met with Lance, there was not a dry eye around. He is only 21 years old.
I can tell you that on the ride the hills were tough, which they were, and there should have been AC inside the gym, and I rode a mountain bike instead of a road bike... but none of that compares to this kid's challenge, and riding for him got me through the final stages. Thank you Danny, for giving me strength.
A fun thing happened for our team, we created custom bicycle jerseys for the ride. We had the team logo on the front, and each riders nickname on the back. (The team name and logo has a story behind it, I'll save that for another email). The LAF announced a jersey contest, so we entered my jersey, and out of 280 teams we were finalists, and came in second at the award ceremony! I feel we made a huge impact for a first time team, and I couldn't be happier.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Photo Du Jour
Here is a picture of her from her prom. All those Brains, and Beautiful as well!!! Is Carnagie Mellon ready for Erin???
Labels: Family
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
LIVESTRONG CHALLENGE
Click here to go to his team page.
Please consider a donation to support his team.
He is making progress towards his goal, but needs your help!!!
Some words from Joe's LIVESTRONG page:
It hasn't even been a year for me, but I'm feeling stronger every day- strong enough to ride 40 miles to raise funds to help kill the demon. But I won't be able do it without your support. Your donations will give me the strength to make it to the finish line, and beyond. Together we will kill the demon. It is a team effort!
See this post for Joe during his Chemotherapy treatments.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
What happened to the 3-R's???
If my kids were little and just beginning in elementary school, I would seriously consider home-schooling for a variety of reasons - mostly because now that I’ve seen how quickly it all went, I want more time with them! But I’d have considered it sooner had this been what they were taught.
“…the students had been building an elaborate “Legotown,” but it was accidentally demolished. The teachers decided its destruction was an opportunity to explore “the inequities of private ownership.” According to the teachers, “Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation.”
The children were allegedly incorporating into Legotown “their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys.” These assumptions “mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society — a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive.”
They claimed as their role shaping the children’s “social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity … from a perspective of social justice.”
So they first explored with the children the issue of ownership. Not all of the students shared the teachers’ anathema to private property ownership. “If I buy it, I own it,” one child is quoted saying. The teachers then explored with the students concepts of fairness, equity, power, and other issues over a period of several months.
At the end of that time, Legos returned to the classroom after the children agreed to several guiding principles framed by the teachers, including that “All structures are public structures” and “All structures will be standard sizes.” The teachers quote the children:
“A house is good because it is a community house.”
“We should have equal houses. They should be standard sizes.”
“It’s important to have the same amount of power as other people over your building.”
Betsy Newmark writes:
How Orwellian is that lesson? It sounds like something out of Animal Farm but now it’s being taught to children as what is optimal rather than to be condemned.
These teachers are so ignorant that they don’t realize that the rights to private property are not only the essence of our democratic system as well as the best guarantee for a thriving economy. Who would want to invest and improve anything in an economy if they didn’t have guarantees that they would be able to reap the profits from their invested time and money?
This is pretty scary to me. It is funny though that many of these types of stories are coming from the west coast. Maybe CA, OR, and WA should form their own country and we can provide military protection from the Chinese/Mexican/Canadians for a nominal annual fee.
Labels: Children, Education, Family
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Romper Room
Anyway, after a few hours of sledding, we had a hot chocolate party. Here are our four snowbunnies and a few of their friends after a good warm cup of hot chocolate.
The 'Proper' picture:
Pictured:
On the floor: Connor, Timmy, Nicholas
Sitting on the couch: Maddie, Emily, Mary, Margaret, Gracie, Natalie
The 'Act Normal' picture:
Unfortunately, I took the outside pictures with the 35mm camera. I'll post those when I get the film developed-
Labels: Family
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Are we heading, eyes open, to a materialist Hell on Earth?
This is title of an article by Paul Johnson I recently came across. It is a great article focused on the ongoing deterioration of societal values and moral decay we are experiencing in this great country of our. Here is the opening paragraph:
The world we live in is characterised by unchecked and unpunished, widening and deepening evil, manifesting itself in countless ways but in particular by what I call the Seven Deadly Sins of the 21st century. These are: violence and brutality, not just of a physical kind but expressed towards all the finer feelings of virtue, religion, temperance and gentleness, which are mocked and spat upon; grotesque lusts of the flesh, expressed in the endless cult of the body, not just for sexual reasons but for vanity, with luxury dieting, cosmetic surgery and fortunes spent on clothes locked in perpetual struggle with gluttony, pandered to by ‘celebrity chefs’, organic shops and other hypocritical engines of gobbling; lying, now raised by the media, politicians and intellectuals not only to an art but to a science; cowardice, which makes people, especially our rulers, do what they know is wrong for fear of punishment by powerful lobbies; pandering to the lowest instincts of the coarse and uneducated, for financial and political reasons; the systematic punishment of those who show courage and the love of truth; and, finally, the exaltation of blind materialism by new forms of militant atheism which are dehumanising us all.
Here is his ordered listing of The Seven Deadly Sins of the 21st Century
Violence and Brutality
Lusts of the Flesh
Gluttony
Lying
Cowardice
Punishing the honest and courageous
Materialism
Powerful stuff, but I would perhaps change this listing and the order of importance.
When thinking about the constant attacks on the values of a Family and the struggle to teach and impress upon our children the moral and spiritual foundation on which to build a life with purpose and the wisdom to make good choices.
Here is the listing from my perspective as a Father and Husband. While all of these are real issues and present a constant challenge, the order I present here is based mainly on my own experiences in working with my kids.
Materialism -- This is a problem that seems to be getting worse and worse in our culture. The need for more STUFF. I know of people who actually had TWO Christmas trees this year. The constant buying of things and filling the house with this or that. The CLUTTER. It clutters the soul and the mind. The biggest problem is the targeting of kids with the seeds of desire to get things…..must have this! Must have that! This is a constant battle with children; fighting the culture of materialism and always being ready for the next challenge (fancy toys, cell phones, computer games…..).
Violence and Brutality and I would add Lack of Respect -- How do we turn off the constant influx of violence and especially brutal, rude, and unkind behavior that our kids are exposed to EVERY DAY??? True, it is part of life. We have always had violence and brutality in our cultures. The problem is that in many areas it is now OKAY to behave this way!!!. How did this happen? It is never okay to be brutal, rude, or unkind. We must teach our kids to recognize this type of behavior, however subtle, in others and especially in themselves that they may change it and affect change in others. A real challenge, but something we MUST do if we are to raise loving, caring kids who will nurture love and respect in their own children.
Punishing the honest and courageous -- To many young people and children today, there is something absent in our lives as we struggle and grow in our personal character and professional development. Most don’t talk about this missing piece and many don’t even notice. What I am referring to here is the presence and effect of a role model or some might even say a ‘hero’ as an influential force that fosters a strong desire to grow in character and vision. In generations past, heroes were celebrated and younger folks would strive to adopt and emulate the accomplishments, characteristics, and qualities of their heroes. People like Charles Lindbergh, Helen Keller, FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jane Adams, and Neil Armstrong stood as heroes and role models to their generations. Unfortunately, today’s ‘heroes’ are singled out solely on success and sensationalism rather than the qualities that set them apart from the average person. Those who stand firm on their beliefs are often punished by the media or blackballed by politicians and the general culture of materialism. I am not referring to the Al Gore’s or Rep Kucinich’s. While these men certainly stick to their message, they are also ‘darlings’ and ‘revered’ by their well-established support base. And according to what I’ve read, they don’t really practice what they preach. Lead by example! So where are our modern day heroes for young men and women? Heroes for the average person from which to learn how to live a life based on good morals and sound judgment?
Lying -- This is a no-brainer. Do you want me to trust you? Then don’t lie to me. Pretty straightforward, don’t you think? We’ve already crossed this bridge several times with the two older kids.
Lusts of the Flesh -- I was speaking an Egyptian friend the other day about cultural differences, and one stereotype other cultures have of Americans is being immoral in terms of lust and sexual fidelity. They think the women (and girls) who walk around in short-shorts and with bellys showing don’t own any clothes besides the underwear they have on in public! I will not repeat here what he said of the men (and boys) who lust after these visions of fantasy-come-to-life. My friend had to laugh, but it was sad to us both. What is to blame for this sexualizing of our every waking moment? More importantly, how do we teach our children that the lifestyle glamorizes immoral behavior?
Cowardice -- Don’t be afraid to stand your ground. Don’t be a follower, especially when you know the person you might follow is making a poor choice. This has come up with the older kids as they struggle between ‘gong along with the crowd’ and standing their ground when interacting with school peers. Unfortunately, todays media (news, entertainment, advertising) is all about keeping up with those who have, being ‘cool’ and part of the ‘in’ crowd.
Gluttony -- Not so much a problem here. We are particularly careful about the types of food (no fast food!) and the amount of ‘junk’ our kids are allowed to ingest. I drive by several fast food restaurants after work each day and I am amazed at how BUSY they are.
This qote says:
"Our real journey in life is interior: it is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts."
And I hope thinking this way will help give the wisdom to teach and the confidence to challenge our children so they may lead lives of grace and love.
Any comments, views, or suggestions are certainly welcome here!
Labels: Children, Family, Morals
