The FFFF 2013

We just finished celebrating our family reunion on Saturday June 8. at Andrea and Travis's house. There were 54 or 55 people there. As usual it was a beautiful day lots of sunshine and warm breezie air.No matter  where you sit you have a beautiful view when you are outside the house. They have a lovely backporch/deck on the back side of the house. The pool is visible from there. The pool apron has umbrella tables and chairs around it and a grill on the back side of the apron. On the side of the house there is an entrance to the lower floor and it also has a cement aapron with another umbrella table. It over looks the lake. It is a beautiful pasdtoral scene.

There were a few people that were not there. Pauila,Brett , Courtney and Al and their kids and a few more.  We missed them but we all had a wonderful time. Jeanine and son Jack came from Denver, Pat, Kristie and Alex came from North Carolina, Keith, Angela, bridget and Conor came from Sarasota, FL.Carrie, Gabe and Beni came from Seattle, WA.

Forty Years of Bliss

During forty years of my adult life, I was lucky enough to have a job that I loved. I frequently said that I never woke up in the morning and regretted the fact that I had to go to school.(work).

I loved the children that I worked with. I will share with you some of the humorous things they did and said. I preserved hundreds of these witticisms. In many cases their remarks reflect the characrteristic of their 'problem'.

We spent a great amount of time trying to fill in the gaps in their knowledge. For example," Who can name the four directions?" The first answer the teacher got was, "Stop, go, walk, and don't walk."Another answered ,"Left, right, up and down".
"Would you believe North, South, East , West?"  Oh, yeah.

Today's Day

There is a subject that is causing a lot of discussion now adays. Some scientists are sure that we are in the midst of Global warming and other people are sure that the drastic weather changes are cyclical. The Polar ice cap is melting, the polar bears are losing their homes because of the melting ice. Our weather patterns have totally changed. We will have two or three days of weather in the fifties and then have one in the eighties. We are all struggling to adapt to this on again, off again weather,but it is something we have to deal with.

I am quite bewildered about the fact that the polititians have stuck their noses in to the discussion. One party is sure it is just cyclical. They are full of statements like,"My grandpa remembers when it snowed in May one year!" "What about the years of drought when we had no rain for months and months?" Other examples of weather aberations are plentiful but somethings happening today have never been arround before.

Just yesterday a wave of solid ice came crashing into shore in the northeast. It distroyed many houses and did millions of dollars worth of damage to that area. I saw films of it and it looked just like a wall of sea water coming in but it was ice. Many other phenominal events have taken place in recent years that are not cyclical.

Scientists are blaming fossil fuels on the changes in the weather. Plastic ,plastic everything is causing  so much damage. We really need to get serious about recycling. The Indians worked hard at saving the earth and we 're going to have to live a little more like they did to save our world. Ciao

The Champions

1On Easter Sunday the University of Louisville Cardinals played the University of Duke Blue Devils. We had dinner early so that we could devote every minute of our time wataching the game.Two excellent coaches and two excellent teams.The teams seemed to be well matched. They would take the lead then we would take it. It was definitely a nail biter.Suddenly I looked down for some reason or other and when I looked back up there were Cardinals scattered on the floor. My first thought was that we had been victims of a shooting but everyone was shouting, "What happened, what happened?"  It took the anouncers a few minitues to see what was happening and telling us what was going on. One of our players had jumped up to block a shot and came down on his leg so hard that he broke the tibia, About six inches of bone had come through the skin on his leg. It was such a dreadful sight that his fellow team mates fell to the floor on their knees in tears Some  team menbers vomited because of the shock. Coach Patino was crying and the team members all gathered in a huddle and cried. One player, Luike Hancock knelt beside his fallen team mate and patted hhis chest as he led them in prayer. The arena was dead silent until the gurney came and  the medics lifted Kevin (Ware)onto it and wheeled him away. The team had continued to huddle in grief with Kevin's words echoing around them..

"I'll be OK just win the game."

They did  just that! They continued to play well enough to win the game against Michigan on Monday night.They have proven themselves to be humble and kind to one another. They are a good example for all the athletes coming up behind them. We have needed good, clean well spoken young men as examples for the youth for sometime.

We can all be proud of them. I hope they will continue to be good examples from now on.Hail to the Champions!!!!Ciao

Is There Life After Basketball?

I love basketball, despite the fact that I have never been able to throw the ball through the hoop! I have tried many, many times but I fail everytime. Either the ball is too heavy, or the rim is too high or the fact that I can only jump one inch off the ground, when standing still. Any one of these things or a combination of all of them prevent me from shooting a basket! I could do better at football than basketball.

However! I love basketball! I took every opportunity to watch the game whenever I could. When we lived in Ohio, we lived within walking distance of Wittenberg Univ. and they had a good team. The school was very small and it was easy to get tickets.  Ohio is more known for its football but we could watch our share of basketball since we were so close to the school.

There are not nearly as many hoops nailed to garage doors in Ohio as there are in Kentucky. Still there were enough that the sound of the basket ball hitting the cement was very recognnizable. (It sounded like my heart beating.)Maybe that's why I love the game.In the fall of the year I listen for the familiar sound as the kids walk back and forth to school, bouncing  the ball. Grade school, Jr. high and high school, YMCAs and other organizations have teams. If a child happens to be taller than his classmates, he's frequently asked, "Do you play basketball.?" We had a very attractive girl in our eighth grade class one year, she was at least five foot ten and she hated to be asked that question. "Do you play basketball?"  She finally came up with the perfect answer,"No!", she would say, "Do you play miniture golf?"

Most colleges have teams and they belong to different leagues. The Big Ten, The Big East, etc. then at the end of the season The NCAA chooses the top teams in the country to play for the championship.There is also another group that chooses teams that are good but not quite as good as the NCAA teams. NIT, national invitational tournament.

March Madness this year is especially interesting for us because the Louisville Cardinals were the No. 1 pick and have worked their way up to the top rung of the ladder. Tonight they will be playing Michigan and which ever one wins will be the Champions. Our fingers are crossed, eyes, also. I'm going to say Ciao right now because I don't want to jinx them. GO CARDS

I Wonder

I consider reading the news paper each day as one of my favorite things to do.  Unfortionately, it is not nearly as inspiring or entertaining as it used to be when our paper was owned by the Bingham family but we have to do with it as is. I hurry through the first few pages of the main news section to get to the Forum or Op-ed part of the paper. I like to view the political cartoons.  I often find them to be very good and even humerous at times but I also find them to be vitriolic and insulting. Then I read the letters to the editor.Some of the letters are worth reading and I often wish that I could converse with the writer. But then others are insulting, poorly written, ignorant and with out merit.

Have you ever noticed how many cartoons, letters to the editor and news articles are about the Catholic Church, or clergy? The new Pope provided a new field of negative writings. Within an hour of the announcement, the cartoons and articles were up and going after him. The news people already knew what his philosophy is and how he will govern the Church. They feel free to put a negative slant on what he says and what he believes. I think we should give him a chance to speak for himself.

I wonder what would happen if we slung as many barbs at some of the other religions as are slung at the Catholic Church and its people. How would it go over. ? What about the Mormons, or the Church of the Latter Day Saints? We can all recall some news person or public figure gettting fired for insulting remarks about the Jews or another person of faith.

People have been fired for saying things about the homosexual community or the African American community but say something about the Catholic Church and its OK to pile on! I wonder..........Ciao

Pondering the Imponderables

Since there is not much to talk abou for me in my future I must dwell on the past. I have many things that are unexplained.: Many things that I must wonder about, and ponder.  My Grandmother was a very wise woman and was very quick to speak her mind. "Speak up!" She would urge us as we sat around the dining room table. She was quick to let her feelings be heard but she was willing to listen to your side. When one of my children was diagnosed as having an alergy to milk, she at first phoo phooed the idea but she did not drop it and move on, she wanted dialogue with all of us to get to the bottom of it. She questioned why one member of the family could be allergic while none of the others were.She had never heard the word "allergy". What did it mean, how did it come aboout? We finally did come to some agreement about the word. We all knew that we suffered stomach discomfort when we ate certain foods. People would say that certain foods disagreed with them. Could these be allergens? We just 'stayed away 'from those foods.

We were aware of environmentally triggered allergies. We lived in Ohio where there was a lot of farm land. Every year when it was time to harvest the grains that had been planted people suffered with "hay fever." Perhaps it was termed an allergy in the medical books but the common term for it was 'hey fever'.Again, why did certain people get hey fever while others breathed the same air and nary a sneeze out of them?

    We  have to wonder if all of the radio waves flowing through the air around us cotain some thing that causes us to react to them. Before electricity was invented did we have these problems? It took quite a few years for electricity to be wide spread, and it took quite a few years for allergies to become more and more prevalent. X-rays that could see through body tissue and bones was discovered.

We can now study the brain, the heart and all other parts of the human body with sophistocated testing implements and machines. Think of the effect those machines must have on us. I've had a multitude of scans and every time I see those big machines that my body is going to be exposed to, I cannot help but wonder in what way I'll be affected.

Years ago Autism was hardly ever heard of but now it is so common. They did a study to see if the encrease in autistic kids was caused by the immunation injections that  the children were receiving and they finally agreed that the shots were not the cause. What is?

Is there still residue left from the Atomic bombs that were dropped over Hiroshima floating around in the air messing with our genes?

I guess I  must continue to ponder! Ciao

How to Make a Person

A few years aago Hillary Clinton wrote a book and entitled it "It takes a Village" I bought the book at a book signing event at Books a Million. There were protesters  across the street from the store carrying signs and posters and shouting disparaging remarks about Hillary.They pretty much showed their lack of upbringing and would have benefitted from the book if they had read it. It is a pretty little book and one that I am proud to have on my book shelves.The book 's purpose is to make us aware of the fact that children don't come with instructors manuals. We are pretty much on our own to care and feed them.

The world that I grew up in was not at all like it is today. For one thing there used to be lots of unmarried people in the families of yester year. I for example had three single aunts and two single uncles. I also had two sets of grandparents. All of whom had a hand in my upbringing! We also lived in neighborhoods that interacted with each other and they accepted the responsibility of setting good examples for us to follow.

As we played and moved about in our small world, we felt secure because we knew that the adults would see to it that we behaved and abided by the rules that were established in our community.

As I mentioned above, I hd three single Aunts. Two of them were Mother' s sisters and one was Dad's sister. Dad was the oldest in his family  and his baby sister did not marry until really late in life. She was only 9 years older than my oldest brother , Joe. She was more like a big sister to all of us.(My two brothers and one sister). She was a lot of fun and took us on her dates and  taught us all of the latest songs, "Ja Da, Ja,Da Jada,Jada Jing Jing,Jing She loved us but we had to toe the mark with her! No foolishness and questions. if she said No, we said OK.Aunt Mary Louise was her name. She was Dad's sister. I always wanted her dimples! She was a "flapper":She could dance the Charleston and taught us songs like ,:"It Ain't Gonna Rain no More, No More".All of her  friends loved us too. One of the guy's that she daterd had a car with a rumble seat. My sister Mart and I got to ride in the rumble seat when we went with Aunt Mary Louise. It was so much fun.The two unmarried uncles were Dad's brothers. They were like a comedy team. They kept us all laughing all of the time.


Mother was the only one of her family of ten , that had children. Two uncles married but did not have children. The Aunts never married.. I only mention two of them because the others died before becoming adults. My Aunt Agnus was a twin to Aunt Angela but Angela died before we came to be. Aunt Catherine was the youngest of the ten children and never married.
Aunt Agnus was a school teacher and she was also my God-Mother. She was a gentle, well educated woman. She and Catherine taught us the manners that we needed to live by. We were told not to cut our bread in two but to tear it into two peices. We had to say please pass me... and thank you. We were to sit with our ankles crossed never cross our legs.We took our glove off if someone offered his hand to be shook. We never interrupted when someone else was speaking.We covered our mouth if we had to yawn. However , we were encouraged not yawn in public because it might indicate that we were bored. (We probaly were) We were taught how to eat in public and how to conduct ourselves at all times. I must admit I broke a cardinal rule one time when my Aunt had me out for Icecream and while she was being friendly with one of her friends I licked the dish the ice cream was in. I found out what a big No,No that was!. As I recall, I have never licked a dish again!
We learned some of the other rules of life from our neighbors. If they saw us misbehaving or doing something we shouldn't be doing they were quick to tell us about.it.You may wonder what was left for Mother and Dad. Plenty!We learned respect, compassion, obeydience and what ever else it took to make us good Catholics, and good Americans.

I didn't even mention the school, we also learned how to be good students and citizens by obeying our teachers and pastors.When we got in trouble at achool we were in trouble at home ,also They all had our best interest at heart.

It did take a village to make a person. We need to get back to that. We need to get back to raising resilent children that will become strong ,honest,responsible people.CIAO

Loopy New Year

We are well into 2013. We have already had some snow on the ground, ice on the overpasses ,salt all over the city, sunshine, buckets of rain, clouds overhead and even some lightning and it is only the 10th! day of January.It was 30 degrees one day last week and it is 69 today and heading for the eighties.Oh,well .

We are celebrating the birth of Carrie's baby.(Gabe's too)The baby weighed seven lbs.five ozs.and as usual with new babies, he is beautiful. He was born on January 5, at home in Seattle,Washington.His name is Benicio Aloysius Avila -Mooney.  Better known as Beni.I am anxious to meet him. He is the twenty -sixth great grand child.  !                                                                                                     
How sweet it is!


 Happy New year to all of you!!      Ciao

That's a lit of Bull

On many a Christmas Eve little children go to sleep to dream of Santa bringing a pony when he comes down the chimmney. They are not always encouraged by their parents to wish for a pony but Christmas surprises or Christmas miracles have happened before! Dispite the fact that the parents say they have no where to keep a pony or even know what to feed them, these seem to be minor objections to the young one. Hope rests eternal in the mind of the young, of course there is a place for a pony to sleep and they have plenty of food around the house. It would be the greatest of Christmas's to wake up and find a pony under the tree! Eventually the child grows up and does come to the realization that a pony is not the best choice and they think up other things that are more in line with what the parent wants.

Now, I'm pretty sure that the couple I am going to tell you about were not wishing for a pony or any other animal on Christmas  Eve but when they opened the door to their deck on Christmas morning What to their wondering eyes did appear but a full grown bull! He was in a fighting mood and had already chased the two ladies next door.

Not far behind was the new owner of  the bull. He had just purchased it on Christmas Eve and it had pulled a big escape over night. He was there to try to get it back on his property but the bull was in no mood to be fussed with.They had to give up that night and for a few more days. They finally put a ramp up to a trailor and placed grain and hay in the trailor and trapped him.

The owner decided all those steaks and ground beef  were not worth the effort and said he was taking the bull right back where it belonged.

Poor bull blew it. He could have stayed with the owner and endeared himself to him and perhaps escaped the grim reaper but as things stand now he's on his way to the grill. No bull!!Ciao