In the Beginning

This blog is dedicated to our four children and their spouses, our six grandchildren and our four grand puppies. I feel a little like Charlie Brown's dog Snoopy sitting on his dog house, typewriter in front of him and beginning his book. "It was a dark and stormy night..." and can't think of where to go from there. I would guess the best place to start is in the beginning. If this is to be "The World According to Papa" I better invite you into my world. But first the important preliminaries. As I stated in my first post I have turned 68 as of April 10Th. I have had the good fortune of being married to my best friend Donna for going on 45 years and have four marvelous children, two beautiful young women and two handsome young men. Our children have each selected the most awesome life mates who we love as our own children. We have been blessed with six beautiful grandchildren, two grandson's and four granddaughters. (If you think your grandchildren are special, well just ask me about ours.) Not to be forgotten we also have two American Eskimo grand dogs Sammy and Pi pi, a beagle Sassy and a Chihuahua Pedro. All combined this makes us the wealthiest folks in the world.

I am a retired United Methodist Pastor which was my second career following 33 years in industry. There is much more but we will get into that later as my world unfolds before us.

To begin at the beginning it may surprise you that I was born at a very early age, I wasn't always old you know, sometimes it just seems like it. I am the middle of nine children and the first four of us were born in a little known place called Eagle Rock, Pennsylvania. Our home which was a very small cottage had no running water, no electricity, no telephone and no indoor facilities. Can you imagine, no computer and no television? They weren't even invented yet. Our house was about a stones throw from the banks of the Allegheny River. We didn't live there very long so my memories are very few and probably most I received as shared memories told by my older sister and brothers and Mom and Dad. I do remember that we were taught at a very early age to beware of rattlesnakes those hills were alive with not the sound of music but of the rattle of diamondback rattlesnakes. There was a time on one of those cool March days that Momma stepped out the door and on the way back she saw a large rattlesnake stretched out under the door sill. She had stepped over it on the way out but thankfully it was to cold to do anything. As there was only one door in the house she went to the window and had my brother get her rifle and she shot it. We all learned a lesson in vigilance that day.

My most vivid memory was our walks through the woods up to our grandparents house. I guess even at that age I was destined to step into every puddle of water that came in front of me. We followed this path through the woods and had to cross a small foot bridge over the creek. Well, I had to go through the water, it was just calling me, and there was a large slate moss covered rock. That rock was just perfect for skating on so I did, of course I fell down and got soaked which was OK by me but the bloody nose that came with it sent me crying for home, one of the many bumps to follow in my life. Eagle Rock had a life time of wonderful memories for us as that was where grandma and grandpa lived. I'll share some of those memories with you all later because they are such an important part of my world and who I have become.