Phooey to the Good Old Days!

     Today is the first day of my new e-store.  http://www.cactusjackceramics.com/ What a leap for someone who remembers dial phones and 8 track tape players!  I grew up learning cursive writing and latter, typing.  I remember telling my mother and father that the only thing I wanted for Christmas was a typewriter.  It was a tangible link to Gutenberg and to movable type.  A way for a Jack to climb the bean stalk and enter the world of giants.  It was there to help write essays on Hemingway and Heller, to write articles for the school paper, and to make those little poems seem a bit more real in type.  My illusions were soon to be dispelled when I was required to write a Masters Thesis!  In those days every sheet was typed with a carbon as the only record of the work done.  Misspell one word and you had to retype the entire page, or worse, any revision to a paragraph and the entire treatise had to be redone! An industry sprang up around how to "collate" pages.  No Spell check! No Grammar check!  God help you if you wanted to edit a footnote!!!
      Today, recording, editing, typesetting, addition of photos, and web references can all be done easily on the computer.  What Gutenberg did with movable type, any computer can do.  You don't even have to know how to type.  Voice commands can write out your thoughts on your screen, punctuate, spell, underline and even color the letters and add little smiley faces.  In a flash your words can be sent to hundreds if not thousands of people all over the world.  Even those in countries that do not use the same language can, with a button, translate them into any language or dialect.
      So, to those who sigh and let their minds wander back to those "good old days", I say, in terms of the written word, WE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD!

Happy Birthday

June 6, 2013

     Today we remember my mother's birthday.  I remember her every day, but today is special.  She was a marvelous talented woman, and if you read these posts (and there is no reason for you to do so) you have heard me talk about her in the past.  

     She was born in Mexico, in a colonial town called Guanajuato. Her father was a "horse whisperer" and Mexico was not safe for those who were friendly with land owners.  She grew up in Wyoming and was not a healthy child.  The youngest of five brothers and one sister she was expected to learn the domestic arts and take care of the older family members instead of having a life of her own.  The family moved to Los Angeles and as family do, each member found a way to move forward.  

     Mom graduated from  Roosevelt High School in the L.A. inner city and began a career in fashion design. She lived with her parents and with her Sister and her husband.  They needed money and took in boarders.  One of those was my father, a man trying to raise three teen aged sons abandoned by their mother.  

     Over the objections of her family, she married and had a child.....me.  The early years saw her helping the family by working in a factory assembling thermostat controls, she was good with her hands and took a job with Luis Meyer (Indianapolis Race Cars) as a carburetor adjuster. I still have visions of her being called out of our home to adjust a carburetor for some famous Indy racer.  I would look out into the street and see her with her head deep in the engine with all the men standing around, watching in wonder.  She worked for years as a decorator at Gladding McBean Ceramics.  Most of the "Desert Rose" and "Apple" pattern was drawn by my mom.

     Mom and Dad worked hard and added to their property.  They supported their families both in the United States and in Europe and Mexico.  In 1961 my father died and mom was devastated.  She was encouraged to travel and spent some time in New York with my fathers friends.  One of those friends was soon to become the partner and confidante that she so needed.  I new Frank DeVico longer than I new my father.  I knew Frank as a generous and loving man. He moved to California and became Grampa to my boys.  

     Mom, Frank and my Dad are all gone now, they are all buried side by side in the churchyard cemetery at the San Fernando Mission, not far from a tree that my dad liked from the grave of Walter Brennan the actor.

     Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of this wonderful woman.  We remember her today and will continue to remember her for as many years as we have to do so.  So, if you have read this far, let's stop for a moment to remember her and all our moms and the love they still send us everyday.

Look Out!

Something new has been added to my life. 

      No, we did not have another child!  Vera, retired, and for the first time in over 45 years, I have a new girlfriend.

     Work as all of you know, provides income, a support group, direction for you life, it also takes time.  It is the contract we silently sign to give time for money, etc.  Done out of the necessity clothe, house, and support the needs of a family, it drains away all inertia to improve relationships, open vistas of travel, create masterpieces of art and craft.  

      Vera and I met as she was about to enter college and I was  living the BMOC (Big Man on Campus) role.  We saw each other and as they say we were hit by the thunder bolt.  We both agreed that having our children early and spaced together was best for us because we had so much that we wanted to do. We did travel with our children and we loved having their activities to be a apart of, but we are the type that like to hold hands and share life as a couple.  So, now world, look out!  Here come "Cactus and Dimples".  There are books to share, places to go trouble to get into.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

  What a great day is Valentines Day.  Besides making tons of money for greeting card manufacturers and confectioners, it gives all people a reason to be nice to each other.  Now you wouldn't think you would need an excuse to be nice but the nature of the electronic and cave-like existence we "urbanites" experience makes for seclusion and non expression.
   Expressing affection makes us vulnerable.  What happens when you say, "I like you"?  We give the other person the chance to give us a response (if they give one at all) that is not up to what we wanted or expected. The spine shrivels, the tears form, and we slither away back into our safe little dark caves.
   Well I'm here to tell you that you don't have to worry!  You are NOT going to be rejected, if you don't get the "Hurrah or Fanfare" that you expected, learn to take what you got a enjoy it.  The point is that the declaration of affection will return 10 or 100 fold.  I have clung to an old song all my life that has a phrase that goes like this:
   "If you don't want to love me baby, somebody else will, somebody else will, somebody else
     will, if you don't want do love me baby, somebody else will,

somebody else will LOVE ME BETTER!"  

Love to all, be good to one another

   We live in California.  Having said that, last week we had evening temperatures in the 30s and that folks is cause for panic in the Southwest!  If we had had rain, the local police would have closed the roads, and if it had snowed or gotten ice on the roads we would have called FEMA!  Therefore, the sun and 70 degree weather today is like the beginning of Spring and all things are well with the world.

https://www.facebook.com/briancaselles?fref=ts   My dear friend and life companion of over 45 years is retiring today!  She encouraged me to retire in 2002 but continued to work part time at the local college library.  Today she calls it quits and that means we get to play.  We are hoping to use our RV more often, attend the gym together, interfere in our grand children's lives, and create havoc where ever we go.  I realize that this blog is mainly me talking to me, but should anyone else read this, send us your comments and maybe a few suggestions as to what to do, now that someone has let the dogs out.

A New Year

     A new year begins and another one fades into the past.  Some are excited about the future and some see only the regrets.  2012 was filled with natural disaster, criminal acts of tragic proportions, controversial elections and mind numbing economy.  You know what???? We can expect the same in the next year as well.  Sounds fatalistic.... it is not meant to be negative. It is meant to take a realistic look at life.  God knows we would love to have everything tied up with warm fuzzies and sugar coated kisses.  But I say, nay, nay!  

    Not all the peanuts in the jar taste good.  But that should not be the criteria for avoiding snacks.  Remember the words of Auntie Mame,  "life is a banquet and most suckers don't even get up to the table!"  Did you lose your job?  Did someone die?  Did you lose parts?  If you want someone to hold you and support you, I'm your man.  If you expect everything to go perfectly, you are living in la la land.

    This year brought friends death, personal pain and illness, frustration and malaise.  And I consider this year to be one of the most wonderful years of my life!  Why, because I am surrounded by those who love me, respect what I do and think about, because I have a means to express my inner self, AND the expectation of a new beginning each day!  Why don't we begin the new year with the expectation that life will be nothing more, nothing less than life!  Live through the crap and remember the roses.  You and I are unique. We are special and we only go around once!  Reach out and hand a friend or a stranger the boon of YOU!  

May you and yours have the best of New Years!

Drinking in the Christmas Spirits

    'Tis the day after Christmas and all through the web it seems as though the people are anxious to move on.    To leave behind the tinsel and egg nog and get on to "the next thing".  To that I say Bah Humbug!  Goodness people have we learned nothing from the last election, Newtown, the economy, the Mayans or even Dickens, that we can't keep Christmas in our hearts at least until January!!!!
   Can't you still feel the warmth of family and good food?  Gifts exchanges with love and children stuffed with sweets and eyes wide with expectation.   Can't we try to remember as least for a few days that it is the birth of our Savior that we are celebrating and that it is he that provides all good gifts?
   Think back to your own youth, those mornings filled with good smells and laughter, new toys and the feeling that if you had any more happiness inside you that you would burst!
  Remember yesterday, live today!  Tomorrow will get along by itself.

GOD BLESS US, EVERYONE!