I Do Care

One of my favorite teachers when I was growing up was Mr. Gary Rotan.  He was my sixth grade teacher.  In those days, sixth grade was still considered elementary and I spent my sixth grade year at Southeast Elementary.  Mr. Rotan was the first male teacher I ever had.  I am sure we gave him all the challenges he ever wanted.  Mr. Rotan was fresh out of college when he took the job at Southeast.  So naturally, we kids thought he was pretty cool.

And as sixth graders do, we developed some bad habits.  It became a sort of ritual to say "I don't care" whenever someone in the class was reprimanded by Mr. Rotan.  I'm not sure how this got started.  But I do know that Mr. Rotan didn't appreciate the sentiment.  He set out to fix this problem.

I'm sure he tried all kinds of talking to us but we "didn't care."  So Mr. Rotan established a new rule for his classroom.  Anyone who says "I don't care" would have to write the sentence "I do care" 100 times.  And when this punishment didn't seem to stop the apathetic phrase he carried the punishment a step further.  Each time this was said the number of sentence would be increased by 100.  So the second person would have to write it 200, the third person would have to write it 300, and so on.

This seemd to work better but we were up to the point where the next time it was said, the person would have to write "I do care" 500 times.

Now as you might guess, there is a reason I remember this scenario.  It was at this point that I was instructed by Mr. Rotan that I had not scored a very good grade on a math paper.  To my defense, it was stated in front of the whole class!  But my response was, "I don't care."  Immediately, the whole class chanted "Uhhmmm!"  Mr. Rotan then reminded me that I would now have to write "I do care" 500 times and that it would be due to him the next morning... to which I responded, "I don't care."

Now you may think that Mr. Rotan would let that one go. But nooooo.  He told me that I now have another 600 sentences to write.  I think he even smirked a little.  But I learned my lesson.  I spent that evening writing  "I do care" one thousand one hundred times.  And I am proud to say that I did not have to write those sentences again.

Later, I was fortunate to get to work with Mr. Rotan..  We were on several boards together while I was superintendent of Rotan and he the superintendent of Hermleigh.  And he really was one of my favorite teachers of all time.

The Morning Ritual

Now this is waking up to God's nature! View video in YouTube videos. http://youtu.be/ADgRSBVsVFw

A New Season, A New Beginning

It's been a while since I wrote in this blog.  But I have been rather busy.  We are beginning the next chapter of our lives together.  This chapter will have lots of changes for us.  The first change is location.  

We are now officially Sweetwaterites again. This is our new home.  (Hopefully this will be our last.) 

Here is the front of the house. 

Our new address is 4 Lakewood St. 

And this is the back of the house.

Now to the inside of the house.  This is looking inside from the front door.  And then looking toward the front door.

Here is the Den or Family Room.

The Breakfast Nook is open from the Den and the kitchen.

These are actually the front two rooms of the house.  These are the Formal Living Room and the Dining Room.  We are saving these for the Tolles furniture.

 The first bedroom with bathroom is the Guest Bedroom or as Chelsea likes to call it: "My Room."

At the end of the hall is the second bedroom and bath.  This will be the Tolle's bedroom.

 Across from Guest Bedroom is the Master Bedroom and Bath.  This is where we will set up shop.

 And finally, we have a backyard. At this time, there is still a little water in the Santa Fe Lake.  We have about one hundred ducks and coots and about 600 Sandhill Cranes.

So we are about 95% moved in.  The Tolles will hopefully be ready to move in during January.  So come see us anytime.  And if you know someone who wants to buy a house in Rotan, just let us know!

Veteran's Day

In honor of Veteran's Day, here are some things about Dad.

This is one letter sent to Grandmother while Dad was stationed here in the U.S.

 

This is his Division.  The 3rd Armored

Daddy took part in the Normandy invasion.  He landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day +1.  (June 7, 1944)

I remember him telling the story of jumping into the water from the landing craft and having to carry his weapon above his head to keep it dry.  As they trudged toward the beach, he said he would stumble over obstacles in the water.  It was not until he got closer to the shore that he realized the obstacles were dead soldiers from the first wave.

Once on shore, his unit waited for the trucks to be brought in.  Dad was a truck driver in a Quartermaster Unit.  He hauled chain linked portable landing strips for our aircraft to begin landing in France.

His unit continued to supply the troops as the Americans moved on toward Germany.  

He received five Bronze Stars for the five major battles in which he was involved.

Of course the most famous of these were the Normandy Invasion and the Ardennes.  This one is more commonly known as Battle of the Bulge.  

Daddy told of one time that his convoy was attacked by an enemy plane.  The whole line was strafed by the plane.  As trained to do, he drove his truck off the road and the men jumped out to head for cover.  He recalled one of his buddies was killed in this attack.  He rarely talked about his service.  I think he saw lots of things that he would rather forget.

Ribbons he was awarded:

 The good marksman medal was achieved during training in the U.S.


This one is the Victory Citation given to all who served in Europe for winning the war.

This is a Unit Citation given to the men of his Quartermaster Trucking Co. for fulfilling duties during dangerous conditions including driving at night with no lights to avoid detection and driving while under attack and through mined roads.

Here is a telegram sent before Christmas to Mom from France.  They had met and had become friends before the war when Dad came to West Texas to work for Kid Moss.

So thanks to all the Veterans.

In France.

In Germany, after the war.

Memories of Abbie

The trouble with pets is that there always comes a day that you have to let them go.  That happened to us this past weekend.  We had gone to Breckenridge to visit the Grandparents.  Chelsea met us there.  Saturday afternoon Abbie threw up and you could tell she didn't feel good at all.  We were coming on home Saturday evening and she just got more lethargic   By the time we got to Rotan she was having trouble walking.  She could never get comfortable.  We called the vet who said it sounded like she had possibly eaten a toxic toad that is in this area.  (I think she developed the same condition that our other Boston had as they behaved the same way.)  We stayed up all night with her.  She died about 5:30 Sunday morning.

But this is not a sad blog.  She was a good dog.  We remember her fondly for things like:

CHECK THE MAIL: she would run to the front door, jump up and down.  As I went out to really check the mail, she would dart to the end of the sidewalk and begin sniffing around the yard.  She never, not once, ran out into the street. (Except for that time she chased the cat.)

LOAD UP: she would run to the back door, jump up and down.  She knew this meant she was going for a ride.  She would ride to the DQ, or to get gas, or go out of town.

WANT A DINGO: she would go to the cabinet we kept the treats.  She would wait there until we got a dingo out of the package and would sit perfectly still, even with us holding the treat up in the air, until we reached down to give it to her.  She got one when we ate.

She loved to wiggle down beside you on the sofa or in the recliner.  This is where she spent most of her time with us.  And she had the best balance.  She could sit up with her front paws  up for minutes on end.  She could walk on her back legs.  She loved to play tug-of-war (Check out the video on "dog-sitting").  

 The first picture.  This is why we got her!

And no we don't another one.  At least not yet.  Although I wouldn't bet we don't break down again some time in the future.

Sunrise at Butman Methodist Camp

Sweet Water Emmaus Women's Walk #43 is going on this weekend. Susan is working the walk. I volunteered to take the group pictures of the ladies. So I got to Camp Butman before sunrise this morning. I thought a few of the pics I took were pretty.

Rangers Let Us Down

Anyone want to buy these two tickets?