The Message Forum is an ongoing dialogue among classmates. The goal is to encourage friendly interaction, including interaction among classmates who really didn't know each other. Experience on the site has revealed that certain topics tend to cause friction and hard feelings, especially politics and religion. 

Although politics and religion are not completely off-limits, classmates are asked to be positive in their posts and not to be too repetitive or allow a dialog to degenerate into an argument. 

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Wayne Gary

I was just watching an old "To Tell The Truth" and was reminded of this 1973 recording from Canada praising Americans.

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

Jim,

Thank you for the condolences and the compliment too.  When I was a little girl (about 4 or 5 years old) I really resembled my father.  It was striking.  Anyway, people would remark about it to him and my mother.  "Isn't she cute, she looks just like her father!"  To this I would burst into tears.  I thought I would grow a beard, among other things. My father took this hard at first, until I explained it to him, but that was years later.  What goes through a kids mind....   I have the looks of both my parents and share parts of their personalities as well.  Through me and my son they live on and carry on.

I will miss my mother greatly.  I will not miss what she went through these last few years.  Her mind was slipping, her strength waning, and she lost all of her precious possesions as well.   It will happen to all of us eventually.  I do remember her spirit when she was younger, more vital and in charge of her life.  Those memories I cherish.  Live life to the fullest, continue to learn new things, explore and enjoy what you have left.

Bob Davidson

Jim -- I did make that one up.  Being a total brat, I also antagonized the people from Indiana by pretending that their nickname was "Hosers" instead of "Hoosiers."  My time in suburban Chicago made me realize that I need to live here in Texas.

My son had the same experience going to school in Iowa.  (His great-grandfather lived his entire long life in Iowa except for what he called his five years of exile in Lincoln, Nebraska.)

Jim Bedwell

Bob D,

Yes, I worked with a guy from Iowa when I was still in DFW. He said he knew Iowa wasn't for him when one day waiting for a school bus it was very windy (plains - duh) and about 20 below (ambient temperature - no wind chill included).

Loved "Hoosiers", especially the classic town meeting scene where ace hoopster Jimmy had something to say. And that scene begins almost exactly 1 hour after the start of that movie so you can tune in easily and see that great drama as I have many times! Odd that the Indiana Pacers have never won an NBA championship.......

Finally, in my dad's corporate moves around the country, they lived in Barrington, Illinois (where Baby Face Nelson met his end) for 2 years, about 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago (as you assuredly know). I had known that it was hot in the summer there but I hadn't known it was so routinely humid too! I guess due to the lake proximity? Dunno, but with the winters AND summers there? Plus the prairie wind. No thank you, and then there's the Dem-led governance...........

Jim Bedwell

Bob D,

I had known you had lived on Meadowbrook/Meadowcreek in Northwood Hills (too lazy currently to look up the exact name), and that was one street south of mine there (Briar Cove Dr.), but had forgotten that until you mentioned that on this forum. Also that was the same street as Jimmy & Hil Davidson. Even with that relatively common last name, I find that somewhat coincidental that you lived on the same street. I always wondered if they had any Jewish blood with that curly hair they had, and since Davidson can be a Jewish person's surname sometimes - when you grow up initially preparing to attend Hillcrest High School, you notice stuff like that. The nickname at Dealey Elementary was Hebrew High School, and for Franklin Jr. High next door - Little Israel.

So you're a brat (I have occasionally noticed a wicked streak to your sense of humor) and I'm a rascal. COOL!

Jim Bedwell

Jussie Smollett, racially challenged jerk, just got his conviction reinstated and he's headed back to prison (I hope it's not just jail). Sometimes there is justice even in this awful world.

And I haven't paid much attention at all to the uproar concerning this Republican from Georgia, George Santos, but if he deserves it, then good. But at this point with the little I know, I can't say that. He is the 6th US House member ever expelled and the FIRST Republican. And as I just heard, they need to look at the other side of the aisle to see if others deserve expulsion, like Menendez, which I also have paid almost no attention to (it's all so nauseating). WE'RE DECADES LATE IN IMPOSING NATIONAL TERM LIMITS.

Buncha news. Sandra Day O'Connor just died at 93.

Lowell Tuttle

Santos is a New Yorker.

Queens.

Jim Bedwell

Sandra,

OK, I'll take your word for getting aspects from both parents. As we know, sometimes people turn out really looking like one parent. Others get mixtures like you, and then others don't look like either parent. I read an Ann Landers column years ago where a lady wrote in and said, that she truly had never cheated on her husband, but that when her first child was born, the boy looked exactly like her husband's best friend! Can't remember Ann's response.

And then there's Joe King Carrasco, Texas Music Hall of Fame inductee, former resident of home town Dumas, Texas, nee Joseph Teutsch in January, 1955, blonde German-American, likely physiologically, biochemically hyperactive. A unique character, for sure. He was David Mercer's friend when I knew Joe 1973-77. I was over at his older brother's place in Austin once in the 70's. His brother was a lawyer, I think, and was also blonde with blue eyes (can't remember though if Joe's unattractive eyes are blue) PLUS this brother was very handsome, a true heartthrob. There was also a picture of their parents there. You could see how Joe got the more unattractive features, made worse when combined, of each of the two faces!! Oh, well....................hahahhaha!!!!!

Lowell Tuttle

Now this is fairly amusing.

Raphael Cruz, our Junior US Senator, has filed a bill banning any policy which allows a person who works for the federal government, or who is a federal govt contractor, to use a preferred name different from their legal name.

Come on "Ted."   

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

Lowell,

Speaking of lawsuits...did you see this one?  Texas 2023 Election Challenge - at stake, Property Tax Cuts and Retired Teacher pay raise. 

Lawsuits based on false claims about voting equipment could delay millions of dollars in cost of living increases for retired teachers expected to arrive in January. The lawsuits also threaten to hold up state property tax cuts for homeowners — arguably Republicans’ signature policy achievement this year.

Voters widely approved both policies this fall. Now Texas lawmakers are scrambling to address the challenges in hopes of preventing further delays.

The election contests challenging the results of the November constitutional amendment election were filed in Travis County district courts days after the November election by right-wing activists. They are based on false claims that Texas’ voting equipment is not certified and that voting machines are connected to the internet. Abbott has not certified the results of the election and won’t be able to until the lawsuits are resolved in the courts — which experts say could take weeks or months.

More at the link.....

Looks like we might not see those property tax cuts that would have been kinda nice....it could take months to get resolved.  Merry Christmas!!!

Can't blame the Democrats for this one.  Lawsuit was from multiple far right wing nuts...MAGA. 

Bob Davidson

Jim,

It was Meadowcreek Drive.

Jimmy and Hil (and Ricky Baldelli) were some of the first people I met when we moved to Texas at the end of the 1964-65 school year.  My brother and I were riding our bicycles around the neighborhood and came on a group of guys playing basketball in a driveway.  We stopped and watched until they let us play -- Hil wanted someone taller to guard Baldelli who was shooting over the others.  My brother and their brother Jeff became good friends and I hung around with them that summer.  Their mom, Ms Dottie, was always really nice to me, while their dad Harry was a big loud bully -- to the extent I felt sorry for the boys.  I have no idea if they were Jewish -- Harry loved to tell us boys how little he paid for things, like his Cadillac and their house, but Scots Davidsons are probably at least as big at bargain hunting as Jewish Davidsons.. I was a little jealous of the way the neighborhood girls all said they thought Jimmy with his curly hair was so cute.  Of course, no one said that about Hil's hair.

I met the Winnettes the same way, except they were playing semi-touch football in their yard.

When my dad was in high school, Davidson's Department Store was a big deal in Des Moines.  He was in the same grade as the heiress, Maxine Davidson -- who was driven to school in a limo during the Depression by a driver in a hat.  They were high society in Des Moines (like Dutch Reagan, the local radio celebrity before he went to Hollywood) and our family was from poor Scots a generaltion off the farm (Grandpa Davidson was the first man in his family to graduate from high school -- he had to plow at night in high school, and eventually became quite successful financially and socially in Des Moines terms).  I thiink my brattiness is inherited:  Dad told everyone at school that he and Maxine the Jewish rich girl were cousins and her father cheated his side of the family out of the their share of the family fortune. 

Mom and Dad went all through school together and started dating in 10th grade -- before he was expelled from school, lied about his age and served in the army in the War.  Mom is the one who told me that story -- she was embarrassed because everyone thought her boyfriend was Jewish and he never denied it since he thought it was funny.  Mom's maiden name is Ettinger and the other Ettingers in Iowa are Jewish, but not rich, and Mom was always telling people she wasn't part of that family.  Mom was very socially insecure -- her grandparents were a Norwiegan immigrant, her mysterious background salesman husband (family lore is that he met her in West Texas when he was on the run from somewhere in the East -- he wouldn't say anything about his background -- Grandma said she thought her dad was French), a financially ruined Southern aristocrat (also Zelda Fitzgerald's first cousin), and the second generation German immigrant farmer whose father was a Union soldier in the Civil War she somehow married and loved to death for over sixty years.  I knew both great-grandmas well -- their husbands died before my time.  Grandma Ett's father was a Confederate officer and her grandfather a famous at the time Confederate Colonel -- she got mad if we said "Civil War:" -- it was, at best, "the Yankee Invasion."  Mom's dad was the manager of a factory that went broke in the Depression and he supported his wife, daughter, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew as a house painter.  He'd put his three sisters through college without going himself and they married a doctor, a bank president, and a successful investor.  None had children and Mom was doted on by all of her aunts and humilliated to be poor when they were rich.

I sometimes wonder if Maxine Davidson's kids tell the story about the white trash goy in high school who told everyone thier grandfather stole the family fortune from his side of the family.

Jim Bedwell

Bob D,

Thanks for that trip down memory lanes. Speaking of brattiness, I've already told the 55-year-old teaching leader (head elder - elsewhere he would be labeled the lead pastor) at 1 of my 2 churches here, that I am going to steal his 80-year-old (shapely) mother away from her 2nd husband!!! hahahahahaha!!!!!

Jim Bedwell

One of my very favorites from these guys. Their 1st cousin was the late actor James Best (his mother was an Everly).

Here's a great rendition later by Emmylou:

Jim Bedwell

Not many people know that Joe Biden's middle name Robinette was originally spelled Robbin'-net. At least he's got GREAT initials (BEST EVER)!!!!!

Jim Bedwell

Bob D,

I have to say, I just reread your post & your dad sounds like MY kind of guy. I bet he, Rick Baldelli and I could have had some fun together!! And he could have been a moderating influence on the other 2, I'm thinking - no Perry & Dick there, thanks to him undoubtedly!

I was the first in my immediate nuclear family with a college degree - my LAZY, only-child, doctor's-daughter mother (married to the handsome farmer's kid with no prospects in the middle of the Depression) did have a year at OU though. Then since I was a year late, my brother got his degree at Tech a year later.

Speaking of Jewish, according to 23andme I'm 0.2% Ashkenazi Jewish, so that would be 1/512, which means that my great great grandfather William Proffitt was ONLY 1/32 Jewish?!?!?! Went into the Confederacy as a captain and came out a colonel. Was in this local activity or that area effort in peacetime, etc., often in leadership roles. With that HUGE schnozz and ears (really butt ugly) in those 19th century photos, my dad looked at his pics and all the stuff he was involved in civically and said, "He had to be a Jew". His daughter also had the huge nose and maybe ears. I think my mother looked Jewish. Anyway the new Speaker of the House is also descended from William Proffitt's (name has possible Biblical as well as financial/money connotations) great great grandfather (& therefore likely half-Jewish in my mind) Sylvester Proffitt from Scotland (I bet on the way in Scotland from somewhere else in eastern Europe during his personal diaspora - Sylvester Perskowitz?). I need to write a letter to the new Speaker, asking if he's also 0.2% Ashkenazi.

Finally, my great great grandfather Bedwell said he was an orphan from England. But I found out his mother's name was also Bedwell, she was a preacher's kid, she had 4 kids, and never married - first one born in 1807 was my ancestor. Today of course NO BIGGIE, but back in 1807? You just didn't do that in those days! Unless you were a royal, a noble, or an otherwise very wealthy person, and even then you could be ostracized. How's that for closet skeletons/dirt?!?!?!

So I sent my DNA in to ancestryDNA and found my Y-chromosome comes from the McCoy/McKay/McKie/McKee family, all the same Scottish family with at least a dozen more (some ostensibly unrelated to the major ones) spelling variations.

Don't know where my 0.2% subSaharan African/Congolese/Angolese ancestry came from - maybe immigrant Sylvester Proffit's father was Jewish and his mother black centuries ago? But we all have illegitimacies (and incest) in our ancestries. We (most of us anyway) just don't know what they are. And I thank God for that wascally wascal, Mr. McCoy/McKay; God always brings good out of evil - you should see all the wonderful and righteous Christians in my extended Bedwell family (most raised Baptist, not Methodist like I), although so many have moved on now.

Jim Bedwell

Bob D,

By the way, Jesse Watters also has 0.1% subSaharan/Congolese/Angolese ancestry - MY BRO!!! So I have twice as much black (and Ashkenazi) blood as Jesse has black, but at least he ties Liawatha with her 0.1% SOUTH American Indian blood, as you know! YEE HAW!!! And I think poor Jesse's mother still votes Dem, but at least he's a Cowboys fan; oh, wait, no, he's a RABID Eagles fan - nobody's perfect. I do like that whenever he mentions Maxine Waters, he usually adds "no relaton" EVEN THO HE MAY BE. I bet Maxine would love to hear from me about my interest in her DNA - hahahahaha!!!! Can't ya just see it:

"Dear Ms. Waters,

FNC's Jesse Watters claims....................thanks in advance (and to Jesse) for your contributed DNA in this effort. With warmest regards, blah blah blah........"

Plus maybe we could link her DNA to a former huge slaveholder? That could perhaps explain her innate hypocrisy? And it could only have come from white (supremacist) folks!! I don't know; I'm just getting so confused here..........that wouldn't be anybody else's hope or aim for me, right?

Jim Bedwell

Lowell,

Hillary is a New Yorker.

Westchester County.

Oh, wait...............hahahaha!!

Mosquitoes & snakes are just passing through. Remember the L.M. Boyd column in newspaper days? I learned there that no species of snake EVER cares for its young. Also there that the only food that doesn't spoil is honey. You know me, always just trying to help..........

David Cordell

I'm not sure I understand the issue about names. But Cruz's middle name is Edward, and Ted is not an unusual nickname for Edward (Ted Kennedy). 

If I recall correctly, James Earl Carter, and William Jefferson Clinton used their nicknames on ballots when they ran for President in every state where it was allowed.

If I recall correctly, Barack Obama called himself Barry until he was 18 or so.

Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III.

Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

David,

My sister's name is Hermina Johanna.  Everyone called her Joan in high school, but Mieke at home.  Danny's brother Joe is really named Albert.  Danny's name is Danial (yes, with an A instead of an E).  My father's name is Marinus, but on his badge at TI it was Mack.

I got a jury summons in the mail on Saturday.  Not just any summons, a Grand Jury summons.  If I get on this will be my second time doing this.  Report in January.  I am qualified to be excused due to age, 70 is the cutoff,  but decided to go ahead with it.  Wait till they find out my political leanings!  LOL!

Lowell Tuttle

Sandra, the age of jury duty has been an issue on my Nextdoor feed.   Apparently they raised it to 75 here.   A lot of people are mad.   But, being social media, a lot of people are mad that the people who are mad.

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

Lowell,

Didn't you know?  75 is the new 65! 

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

Hollis!

Happy birthday!  Hope you get out and celebrate with friends and loved ones today! 

Ron Knight

CONGRATS to all my Longhorn friends. This Sooner will back my adopted Horns for a run for the National Championship. I will be singing "Texas Fight" throughout the playoffs!!! Go Horns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Happy Birthday to Hollis.

Kurt Fischer

Bob:

Speaking of Des Moines (my birthplace, but we moved when I was two).

There was another "luxury" department store in Des Moines - Younkers.  My grandmother used to shop there and was always considered well dressed in a fashionable way.  Looking at its history, the Des Moines store was considered the headquarters store for much of the company's history.  It finally closed in 2005 after 100 years at the same location.

Ron Knight

Sandra you are probably wasting your time to go. You will probably be struck during voir dire. I was the last time I was called on.

Good luck