Christmas LDL

By Jerry Gaudet

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

This month's "LDL" (Let's do lunch) will be held on

Tuesday, December 13, 2016, 11:30 AM

at "Jimmies" Restaurant in Mint Hill.

We'd like to see you.  Help us spread the word! Invite other classmates to come! Even better, bring someone with you! Just be sure YOU, come!

Lazarus Returns

"Lazarus"

"Lazarus," the beautifully restored 1952 Pontiac, brought back to life by Don and Letty Nance's talented boys. returned to it's former home (and later) resting place....for a brief victory lap.

Originally purchased by Don from its original owner, a resident of Graham, it was literally not much more than a pile of junk.  I don't remember now if Don told me he bought it for about 40 dollars, or if the man gave him 40 dollars to take it away.

Whatever,  I hope the poor man wasn't at the parade.....because he sure as heck will want it back!

Proudly riding the now classic work of restoration were 5 grandboys of CHS 54;s own Dr. Don Nance! a one time star lineman of the famous CHS54 Wildcat Football Dynasty.

According to tradition, the car's namesake....the Biblical Lazarus... never smiled during the thirty years after his resurrection, worried by the sight of unredeemed souls he had seen during his four-day stay in Hades. 

The only exception was, when he saw someone stealing a pot, he smilingly said: "the clay steals the clay." 

Well......spending 4 days in Hell.....might very well affect one's sense of humor.

-Ed

Phaseolus Vulgaris.

Since retiring and celebrating (if that's the right word for it) my 80th birthday last August)  I have become an official "crotchity old man"....who doesn't suffer fools kindly...other than myself....and has no time whatsoever for opinions that differ from my own.

So don't give me any of that "logicical" or "educated consensus" ....clap trap. I know what I know!  Or as Popeye says, "I yam what I yam!"

I read where the first day of winter begins this year on December 21st  at exactly 5:44 am.

Balderdash!

I'm not going to get up and celebrate it.....In fact, I'm going to ignore it!

If I've learned anything these many years I've been exchanging gasses with the Universe, it's this:

"OFFICIAL" is for losers.

As all us good Southerners know, Winter officially begins when the temperature first drops below freezing..and the wind begins to blow...... and that God given gene deep inside us awakes from sleeping off summer frolic and stuff....and begins to shout.........."PINTO BEANS!   PINTO BEANS!"

That's the beginning of winter.

-Ed

(Phaseolus Vulgaris is the "Official name" for Pinto Beans. However, does not advise its readers to ever use that term at your local diner.)

Keeps on Ticking

Like the TIMEX watch, our "Storyteller Extroadinaire".....Ellouise Schotteler...keeps on keeping on.....with her fabulous Storytelling .....IN SPITE ...of a recently broken shoulder!

OUCH!

"The surgery went well on the 15th and recovery has been easier than I expected which has been a good surprise.

So, now I am returning to the past to get myself back to normal.
Working on a new story about WWI nurses in France - a different group who were right on the edge of the battlefield - again lost in the shadows of history. I have applied for the 2017 Capital Fringe and I hope the new story will be accepted.

Ellouise     Don     Letty

She went on to write........

Almost ten years ago Donald and Letty and Jim and I bumped into each other at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN.

Since then we have had a meet up every year. - a great connection.

This yearI walked into the filling tent the first day and bumped into Donald and Lettie.A great way to start the week-end. Next day we took time to have a hamburger together at the local Wendys - a place to sit down and talk.

Ellouise

Our thanks for this internet discovery.....to Robert Clark!




By Jay Van Paemel

Ctrl+Alt+Del

Walking helps me think.

I walked into my living room this morning and thought......."What am I doing here?  Why did I come into this room?  Am I looking for something?  If so, what?"

And then, it dawned on me: it's just nature doing its thing.

 It's "defragging" my brain!  My brain is busy at the moment.
..... it's deleting all those useless old files, many of which have been there for over 60 years.......like half learned algebra and geometry fragments...old girlfriends phone numbers....all kinds of files .. DATS, DLLSs.
DOCS, DOTS, ETC....images of old girlfriends.....old girls I wish had been girl friends....friends of girls...etc..

I'm trying to be positive about it......perhaps it's making room for many future great memories.....and deleting forever those old memory files like the first day I walked into Central High and saw all those beautiful girls I had never met....and.....then there were the Proms.....and the Spring trips to Myrtle Beach...and the bathing suits.....all of those old mental images were being deleted..........all those beautiful girls...

Good Grief....Those files are being deleted!


"STOP!......STOP!"  I shouted.      "this is horrible!!........oh...the humanity!.........Pitch the math and history and geography stuff.....but for Heaven's sake....don't touch those other files!"

I hollered so loud ........so loudly in fact....that I woke myself up.

It was all a dream.....a nightmare.

 Those memories are still there....

Whew!

-Ed

Words of Wisdom

Diana (Carpenter) White passed these internet "gems" on to me.........enjoy!

1. My goal for 2016 was to lose 10 pounds. Only 15 to go.

2. Ate salad for dinner. Mostly croutons & tomatoes. Really just one big round crouton covered with tomato sauce. And cheese. FINE, it was a pizza. I ate a pizza.

3. How to  prepare Tofu:

    a.  Throw it in the trash

    b.  Grill some meat

4. I just did a week's worth of cardio after walking into a spider web.

5. I don't mean to brag, but I finished my 14-day diet food in 3 hoursand 20 minutes.

6. A recent study has found women who carry a little extra weight live longer than men who mention it.

7. Kids today don't know how easy they have it. When I was young, I had to walk 9 feet through shag carpet to change the

TV channel.

8. Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

9. Remember back when we were kids and every time it was below zero outside they closed school? Me neither.

10. I may not be that funny or athletic or good looking or smart or talented. I forgot where I was going with this.

11. I love being over 70. I learn something new every day and forget 5 others.

12. A thief broke into my house last night.

He started searching for money so I woke up and searched with him.

13. I think I'll just put an "Out of Order" sticker on my forehead and call it a day.

14. November 6, 2016 was the end of Daylight Savings Time. Hope you didn'tforget to set your bathroom scale back 10 pounds on Saturday night.

15. Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.

Pass this along toyour fellow seniors.

Roy Riegles and CHS 54

This New Year's Day, as you relax with family and friends and watch this year's Rose Bowl ...amaze your friends and relatives with your knowledge of  Rose Bowl History.

What?

"I don't know nothing 'bout dat.......you say.

"Ah....but you will," I  say.  "After you  read this. You will even realize that you have a connection!

OK, mister smart guy, convince me:

Mr. Smart Guy:  "You've heard of Roy Riegles, right?....the football player who ran the wrong way for an almost touchdown for the other team. That happened in the 1929 Rose Bowl."

Yeah, everybody knows that.  But, What in Heaven's name is my "connection" to that?

Mr. Smart Guy:  "It's elementary.  If someone on the Georgia Tech Team had not fumbled.....and in the confusion...Riegles had not picked that ball up and run the wrong way....You would never have heard of "Wrong Way Riegles."

You have a point.  But what the Heck has that got to do with this website.......which is supposed to be about Charlotte Central High School and the class of 1954?

Mr. Smart Guy:  Well, fortunately, the answer is found in an obscure footnote to history which names the unsung hero of one of football's best known events.

OK, OK....already. What was his name?

Mr. Smart Guy   They called him "Stumpy."  Stumpy Thomason.

His son, Johnny was in your class of 1954.


-Ed

Take That....!

The 1916 Cumberland vs. Georgia Tech football game was the most lopsided in the history of college football, with Georgia Tech winning 222–0.

 The game was played on October 7, 1916, between the On January 1, 1929, the Golden Bears faced the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, USA. Midway through the second quarter, Riegels, who played center on both offensive and defensive lines and who was then playing in a role similar to that of the modern defensive nose guard or nose tackle, picked up a fumble by Tech's Jack "Stumpy" Thomason. Just 30 yards away from the Yellow Jackets' end zone, Riegels was somehow turned around and ran 69 yards in the wrong direction. The following describes what transpired from Riegels perspective:^[7]
I was running towat Grant Field (now a part of Bobby Dodd Stadium) inAtlanta, Georgia.

Though the Cumberland College football program was discontinued before the 1916 season, due to a scheduling mix up, Cumberland was added to the Georgia Tech schedule. Coach Joe Heisman reminded Cumberland College of the $3,000 forfeit fee if the game did not go on. To avoid the forfeit fee, the Cumberland College student manager quickly gathered 13 students, who were mostly fraternity brothers, to face the Georgia Tech football team.

The game is often considered payback for the Georgia Tech baseball team's humiliating 22-0 loss to Cumberland the previous year. Both teams were coached by Heisman, and he was upset with Cumberland's use of professional players to win the baseball game. However, in facing such an unprepared opponent on the football field, Georgia Tech's team easily got the revenge it was seeking.

The Bear Shadow

By Obie Oakley

 Here is a 60 second commercial filmed in and around Highlands.  The "Bear Shadow" is a phenomenon that occurs each fall that's fun to go out to watch develop.

    The river and fall colors do a great job of showing off the beauty of our little town.

https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=mSn42Aw7qGk

Hedwig Kiesler

Like you, I have the greatest grand kids on earth!

The two youngest are in high school, so naturally. they're no longer as interested in their old grandaddy's tall tales as they once were. Even though my "tall tales" were (almost) always the Gospel truth!

Recognizing that today's youngsters are never very far away from their cell phones.  I decided that my topic for this Thanksgiving's story for the kids would be about the inventor of the cell phone.

Well, to be technically correct, there was no ONE inventer.....but many people contributed....however, if it weren't for one person....around 1942 or so.....our present cell phones would not exist!

Now those of us....long in tooth...and soon to graduate from this green earth...all  know who this inventor was. But to  the young people of today, the name  Hedwig Keisler... means nothing. 

But, of course, back then, the term "cell phone" meant nothing to us!

It didn't mean anything to Hedwig either, because the technology was meant for something else:

To allow our torpedoes NOT to be "misdirected" by the existing Nazi technology!  

This was all happening during the early 1940's of course.

It would have worked perfectly and I would love to write that this "frequency shifting" technology contributed mightily to our eventual victory in WW2.

But, it didn't.

Our government simply filed the technology somewhere in Washington and forgot about it.

Meanwhile our torpedoes keep missing Nazi ships.

Hedwig went on to other things and was very successful and famous for awhile. But as old age....and society's.....fickleness took its toll....Hedwig ended up broke.
Even going hungry....and resorting to stealing (shoplifting)....for food.

Hedwig's invention was finally resurrected and used by the US Navy in the 1960's....but no royalties were ever paid because Hedwig GAVE it to the government during WW2.

 Several years after Kiesler's death...the same formula which made the invaluable tool that is in you pocket or purse right now...the cell phone......was made possible.

Thanks to that hungry bum who died penniless on the streets of Florida.

We all knew that  famous inventor ... 

as the once "Most Beautiful Woman in the World".....by her stage name..

Hedy Lamarr


-Ed

Hedwig Kiesler  AKA Hedy Lamar

Thanksgiving 2009

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thanksgiving 2009

This is an "oldie, but goodie".......but no need to change it. My thoughts and wishes are the same!

My very best wishes to you all for a very happy Thanksgiving.

                                                                                       Norman Rockwell

One of the many things I'm thankful for is being born in this country and in the city of  Charlotte, NC in 1936.  (Give or take a few years)

Perhaps there were better times and places to be put on this earth, but I can't imagine where and when they were.

There are many other items on my "thankful" list, but I always begin with that one.

Personally, I get out that mental list often....not just on Thanksgiving.

Try it.  It's one heck of a tranquilizer!

(Not a sermon, just a thought.       Naw...........it's a sermon.  -Ed)

Thanksgiving Memories

  By Obie Oakley


      Here it is, less than a week away from Thanksgiving.  It has always been my favorite holiday.  I think it goes back to when we were at Midwood and we would draw pictures of turkeys, dress up like pilgrims and collect food for those less fortunate. If you remember, we would put them in a bushel basket and at a special program in the auditorium, a couple of guys would take these crepe paper decorated baskets down to the stage where they were later taken to some needy family.

 We would also sing We Gather Together to Ask the Lord's 



Blessing.  It was a time of sharing and it always gave me a good feeling, not so much as "look at me, see what I did" but one doing something for someone else not so blessed.  Interestingly, I never thought of my family as being "blue collar or middle class". 

 BTW, the Presbyterian Church in all their infinite wisdom removed that hymn from its/our hymnal. 

-OO

Remember?

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...

..................

GALOSHES

OILCLOTH ON THE KITCHEN TABLE

FLYPAPER

Duck Tails

V-MAIL

PENNY LOAFERS

JACK ARMSTRONG

INDIAN GIVING

PENNY CANDY

ADENOIDS

INNER SANCTUM AND THE SHADOW

HICKEYS

NECKING

STUDEBAKERS

RUBBERBAND GUNS

MODEL AIRPLANES

CREPE PAPER

OVALS AND PUSHPULLS

ISH KABBIBLE

GOING STEADY

CELLOPHANE

PLAYING MARBLES

SLAVE BRACELETS

TRADING COMPLIMENTS

DOUBLE JOINTED

INKWELLS

SCOOTERS

KNICKERS

REDROVER

Thank you, Internet.

-Ed

T

Parks Reinhardt's Wife Passes

By Jerry Gaudet

Sympathies to Parks Reinhardt as we learn of the passing of his wife, Carolyn.

Carolyn Reinhardt, my loving wife of 51 years, passed from life on this earth on Thursday November 3, 2016. She died peacefully at Hospice with me by her side. We will all miss here deeply. I am at peace knowing that she is now in Heaven in the arms of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to thank all of you who have been a friend to Carolyn over the years. I also want to thank all of you that have been so kind and loving to us during her illness. Thank you for your prayers, your cards, your calls, your emails, your concern, your gifts and all the food that you provided.

For all of you that are interested, you are invited to a “Celebration of Carolyn’s life” service at the First Baptist Church of Winter Park, 1021 N. New York Ave. Winter Park, Florida 32789 on Saturday November 12, 2016 at 10 a.m.

With love,

Parks

We have this contact information for Parks:

Parks Reinhardt

4350 Lower Park Rd., Unit 101

Orlando, FL 32814

T

Email plr.reinhardt@gmail.com

Knights of the Highway

1950 Mack Truck

I don't think anyone has called them that in about 50 years, but when we were growing up in the 40's and 50's the reason those long  driving trips to Grandmas were considered reasonably "safe"...was because of them.

Our parents knew that if they had a breakdown on the highway....one of those heroic "knights" would soon be pulling up to rescue them.

There were no rules or regulations specifying such behavior.....that's just what they did.

We call them simply  "Truck Drivers" now......because......well.....that's about all  they do.

In all fairness, I guess the days of the "knights" are over....because, with cell phones, more dependable cars, better tires, etc....they're not needed in the way they once were. 
But more than that, a spokesman for the National Trucking Association says that,

"Back in the day, it was common courtesy to pull over and help a stranded motorist. Nowadays, there are a whole list of reasons why this is a bad idea. For one, if your truck is sitting on the shoulder of the highway and gets hit by a passing vehicle, you could very well be the one held accountable, your company could become the target of a lawsuit, and you could possibly lose your job. It's dangerous to passing traffic and it's risky to the truck driver to be parked on the shoulder of a highway.

On top of that, we've all heard of criminal schemes where someone will pose as a stranded motorist as a setup to rob or kill people as they stop to help. "