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Living a happy second life!
Living a happy second life!
The first 45 I ever bought was “Shop Around”, by the Miracles. “Who’s Lovin’ You” was on the reverse side. Since my father’s turntable was designed for 33 1/3’s, I had to buy the yellow plug that snapped into the middle of a forty-five to make it fit the
Something tragic happened to the old black neighborhoods where I grew up in the 60’s. In those days, most of the businesses up and down 31st and 35th Streets, from King Dr. (South Park) to Michigan were owned by our neighbors. There was a drycleaner and a hardware store, both owned by the parents of kids I went to school with. The Griffins owned the funeral home on 33rd Street.
On warm summer mornings, we’d sit on the stomp in front of our house and watch the watermelon man go by on his horsedrawn wagon,
My 27 year-old daughter and I had a ball laughing at how my generation had to use manual typewriters for our high school and college term papers. I thrilled her with stories of hundreds of balled up papers tossed on the floor near the trashcan. These papers boasted mistakes, lumpy whited-out corrections, and strikeovers warranting me to have to start all over again. I described all-night typing sessions, pumped up on “No Doze”, while I slaved over a paper that was due the next morning.
Do you bake the best cakes or pies in your family? Can you design everything from muu-muus to wedding dresses? Do you write great poems or tell great stories? Can you add up figures in your head faster than anyone else? “Then do the math!” That”s the talent God has given you. How you choose to make it work is up to you.
On this Black History day, new book, “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” by Jeanne Theoharis, a Brooklyn College professor shows Rosa Parks as much Malcolm X as she was Martin Luther King Jr.
The book, reviewed by New York Times writer, Charles M. Blow is on my list of books to read this month.
In the book, Rosa Parks states in her own words, “I had felt for a long time, that if I was ever told to get up so a white person could sit, I would refuse to do so.”
The roommate from hell who almost made you dropout of college your freshman year didn’t change. She just grew into a mean woman and now she’s your boss. Unfortunately she brings the same messiness to her team or a department,.
Those messes are a result of her inability or unwillingness to dialog professionally in order to communicate her vision. She may also have some issues with compromise. If you don’t manage the situation in a way that makes her value your contribution, before long, she will use antagonism and negativity to manage you.
I am on my way to the gym this morning! Not that it has anything to do with a New Year’s Resolution. As my body gets older and the joints get tighter, I need to move it around in order to keep things working. Also, as a retiree, I need to get up and get moving. It is so easy to sit in my comforttable chair and watch the news, or read, or surf the net.
This morning, I’m reposting an article about 74 year old Ernestine Sheperd. This amazing woman didn’t even begin working out until she was 56. Now, she is winning body building championships, modeling, and teaching fitness. The bible teaches, “We can do all things through Christ”. I hope this inspires you, too.
The first time I heard “The Party”, by Paul Laurence Dunbar, was in 1990 at my former high school’s Hall of Fame Induction. The poem was recited by Ms. Eunita Rushing, an alumna of the school, whom I had not known as such an orator. Though we honored Bernard Shaw, Reuben Cannon, Mr. T., and Lou Rawls that night, the true hit was Mr. Dunbar himself through Ms. Rushing.
New Years Eve night I had the good fortune to find a rebroadcast of the February, 2011 White House Honors Motown. President Obama, cool as ever, and First Lady Michelle, looking gorgeous in all black, sat down with the Vice President, and the rest of the dignitaries to get their groove on.
Mr. Jamie Foxx, currently of D’Jango, “the D is silent”, fame served as host, and he performed the first musical tribute to the “tempting” Temptations, assisted by Seal, John Legend, and Nick Jonas.
Today I worked out on the treadmill for the third time this week since I decided to resume the exercise I abandoned in November. I also joined a weight loss organization (for the last time) this fall and as of last week, I’ve lost a total of 16 pounds. Thanksgiving and Christmas are tough times to count calories and consequently I managed to lose nothing, but, on the other hand, I only regained one and a half pounds.