DOUBLE DIGIT BIRTHDAYS

HAVE LEFT ME WITH AN EARLY CASE OF MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT (MCI). THEREFORE, WHEN I CREATED MY DOUBLE DIGIT BIRTHDAY ENTRY, WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THIS BLOG, MY ALMOST 66 YEAR-OLD MIND MANAGED TO GET IT ON CRISCO, ETC. SO IF YOU HAVE INTEREST IN DOUBLE DIGITS, CHECK IT OUT OVER THERE.

MAYBE THE NEED TO BE PERFECT FADES WITH INCREASING DOUBLE DIGITS? MAYBE I'M AGING LIKE THIS SILO IN KANSAS LAST OCTOBER WITH A TREE GROWING IN IT'S CENTER.

LOCATION: PANIC SWINE OF 09

http://thepanicswineofo9.blogspot.com/

PANIC SWINE OF 09

IS THE NAME OF A SEPARATE BLOG WHICH CONTAINS MY CONDENSATION OF THE MATERIAL THAT I HAVE STUDIED FOR THE PAST SIX MONTHS ABOUT THE H1N1 SWINE INFLUENZA. THIS WILL LIKELY BE THE LAST THAT I WILL MENTION IT.

MY NEXT BLOG WILL BE ON THE IMMENSE HEALTH IMPACT OF NORMALIZING VITAMIN D LEVELS.

THE STRESS OF THE SWINE FLU

A TIRING LESSON IN MISINFORMATION

Only as the last few days of 2009 draw to a close have I been able to not think about the H1N1 Novel Swine (or whatever other name you want to call it) Flu. It has occupied my every waking hour much of the past four months, as you can tell by the fact that I had to suspend one of my favorite passtimes, my blogging.

Much has been learned in these past four months, mostly about how hard it is to get to the truth and to know who can and can't be trusted to be telling the truth. I will summarize what I have learned about influenza in a subsequent blog and try to tell the truth as I can decipher it.

To me the most important revelation of the H1N1 Flu was for me to learn that probably more than 2/3 - 3/4 of Americans are deficient in Vitamin D. This came to me in the way of literature about the influenza preventative effects of really good levels of Vitamin D3 and I was amazed to

find that there is a wealth of information about the importance of Vitamin D in an increasing number of human illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, arthritis, pain, and mental illnesses.

I will also soon into the new year of 2010 add a blog about Vitamin D and it's many benefits.

Once I am done talking about the Swine Flu and Vitamin D on Crisco, etc, we can continue with the history of my life, a subject that is far less serious and a lot more relaxing.

Happy New Year!

BOY SCOUTING

I tell my patients who are in Boy Scouts that I have great admiration for them doing so in Orange County, because I think it is much harder to be a scout today in sprawling suburbia with all the organized activities to choose from.

In Norman, Oklahoma in the 50s it was easy to go just a mile or two in any direction and be in woods and hills and places that were very conducive to scouting. And mom's didn't work and had time to be den leaders, and dad's didn't have to commute but a few minutes to work and had more time to give to scouting. My dad became involved in scouting when I started as a Cub Scout and remained involved with scouting throughout his professional life, receiving the Silver Beaver award for distinguished service to Boy Scouts. I think one of the reasons he gave his time for so many years was that there was no scouting when he grew up and he really appreciated the values that scouting promoted in young boys.

I can't remember much about Cub scouts except that the uniforms were blue and yellow and we met at our house and made craft things. I seem to remember that there were two Den mother's and so actually we met at two mom’s houses.

When I became a Boy Scout I joined Troop 242 which met in the basement of the First Presbyterian Church on University Blvd. roughly half way between the north entrance to the University of Oklahoma and McFarllin Methodist church (where we went to church) The basement as I remember, had a concrete floor and we had cabinets and storage chests to keep out equipment in.

We often went on overnight camp-outs in the nearby areas, probably on some kind farmer’s property. I recall buying camping equipment at a "real" army surplus store - mess kits, canteens, duffle bags, etc. We learned to make mattresses of leaves under our sleeping bags, start fires with flint and steel, and cook both over and under the coals. Sometimes the food got a little charred and sometimes our fingers got a little singed, but the food always tasted good because we were always starved by the time we finally go it ready. It was in scouts that I went on my first snipe hunt (for those who aren’t familiar: A newcomer is taken deep into the woods late at night and told to make a clucking noise while holding a large sack. The others, who are in on the joke, say that they will sneak away and then walk back towards the newcomer, thereby driving snipes towards the bag holder. The frightened snipes, they say, will be attracted to the clucking noise and easily caught in the bag. The newcomer is then simply left in the dark forest, holding the bag, to eventually realize his gullibility and find his way home or back to camp.)

On Saturday, Feb. 9, 1957 a fire occurred at the Presbyterian church and I remember helping to clean up but I cannot remember if it damaged our scouting stuff or not. Evidently the repairs were made quickly because things were back in shape by the time of my Eagle Court of Honor on April 30^th. That means I received my Eagle rank at 13 years old which pretty much means that I was doing it for someone else – my parents.

In the summer of 1957 I was privileged to go to the Boy Scout Jamboree in Valley Forge. My brother Mark barely made it into scouts in time to go also.

We went by train to Valley Forge, which I remember mostly for the mass of people and the amount of dust which wasn’t so great for my asthma. We toured after the Jamboree and went to New York City, Detroit and some other places. I still have some of the photos taken from the ferry ride in NYC.

Another summer, we went to New Mexico and camped in the mountains. We visited Philmont Scout Ranch and saw the swimming pool and the Phillip’s home. They had built the pool and filled it with mountain water. It was so cold that only one person dove in and they immediately stopped using it for swimming.

Another adventure in scouting was being inducted into the Order of the Arrow, whcih uses American Indian-styled traditions and ceremonies to bestow recognition on scouts selected by their peers as best exemplifying the ideals of Scouting. My most memorable events in the Ordeal were dropping my egg in the fire and having little to eat for breakfast.

After Eagle, I became an explorer scout, but shortly after that we moved to New Mexico to my Dad’s new job.

GRANDMOTHER EDWARD'S HOUSE IN HAMILTON

This blog may only appeal to architectural minds, but it was a good house to spend holidays and vacations in.

I'm not exactly sure when my mother's parents moved from the farm house with no running

water and an outhouse to the much larger house in town (Hamilton). But I know my mother was

born in the farm house and there are photos of her at the farm house when she appears to be 6 or 7 and then photos at the new house where she looks to be 9 or 10.

So sometime between 1923 and 1926 they all moved to town and grandmother's new house. And sometime after that and before I was born the front porch was screened in.

Grandmother Edwards (GE) was very involved with the Methodist church (in background of

photo) and it happened to be right next door across the gravel driveway (gravel strips leading into the double garage which was not attached to the house).

The garage had two heavy wooden sliding doors that moved either way to get out one car or the other - I can only ever remember one car. Also inside the garage were the cane fishing poles and a tool bench and the watering cans to water the flowers as GE had an extensive flower garden which she was quite proud of.

During much of the year you would find fresh cut flowers on the dining room table. And I believe that my mother said GE did all the flowers for their wedding at her house and I'm sure flowers for numerous church functions through the years. From the side door of the garage (my uncle John always said it like "gare age") a side walk lead to the screened-in back porch past the gunny sack swing (filled with leaves) hanging from the biggest tree in the yard. To the left of this sidewalk was GE's flower garden and vegetables at times also (the best tasting tomatoes of my life!) and to the right was a large from yard where the chickens ran around after getting their heads chopped off. It's hard to believe that they let us watch such an event, but life was more real back then and you learned a lot about life as a child in a farm community.

The back porch had a slight slope and surrounded the kitchen on two sides, the one toward the garage and the back side. I suppose the slope allowed any water that rained in to drain but I don't think anyone ever said why it was that way. On the back side of the porch was some equipment for churning milk in my early years and it seems like on the garage side there was a freezer at one time. GE also had a meat locker at a storage facility downtown to hold the beef that was slaughtered and packaged in Emporia. My grandfather and later my uncle John raised registered black Angus cattle and we ate some form of beef or pork three meals a day when at GE's house. We also took a quarter of beef back to Oklahoma from each trip to Kansas, so I had beef at home as well. This probably accounts for my currently not liking beef as well as other things - that and the carcinogenic factors with red meat. I wonder if Kansas beef from my earlier years (when cattle were fed more natural stuff) was such a problem?

From the back porch door a sidewalk led past more flowers (always hydrangeas) outside the

dining room windows and around to the front on the front screened-in porch. On the front porch was a glider, which is an outdoor couch that moves back and forth at level like a swing. The front porch had two doors into the house, the main one to the left led into the dining room and small sitting area by the stairs and the one on the right (which was always locked) led into the living room.

Inside the main front porch door was the stairway immediately on the right and the large dining room table on the left. I can remember as many as 10 people seated at this table on holiday meals. Past the stairway to the right was a small couch and chair and a storage area under the stairs on the right and GE’s china cabinet on the right. On top of the china cabinet was a chiming clock that we could hear through the night if we woke. It chimed on the hour and the half hour as I remember. Just past the china cabinet was a door into GE’s bathroom and straight ahead lead into the large living room where we played cards (hearts, canasta and later bridge) and board games and opened presents at Christmas. GE’s bedroom was adjacent to the living room on the back side of the house. It had glass doors that closed when needed. On the far west side of the living room was another door to the outside which was seldom used and remained locked. The porch outside was the length of the north side of the house but never used in my memory. GE’s bathroom had one of the only two tubs in the house so often some of the children’s baths would be downstairs. I once got into big trouble for going to pee in her bathroom while my cousin, Charlene, was taking a bath. How’s a guy with no sisters supposed to learn anything about girls anatomy? (She was probably 10 and I was 8!) Also got in trouble for figuring out how to turn GE’s piggy bank upside down to remove quarters. I gave my brother, Mark, and my two cousins their fair share of the proceeds, but my younger cousin let the word slip out.

Back to the dining room, past the table led into the kitchen where GE spent a lot of time cooking always breakfast and lunch or dinner. We had typical ranch breakfasts with sunny-side up eggs and bacon or link sausage and toast and home-made jelly (my favorite was pear honey, which for sure had more sugar than pears). When we would fish in the evenings (you could only go if you took a nap), she would fry the fish for breakfast the next morning – good stuff! The kitchen had the stove on the east side, the sink with a hand pump from the well on the south side, cabinets for dishes and the mixer and Foley food mill and meat grinder storage on the north side and the refrigerator and a door to the basement on the west side. Also on the west side was a small broom closet and mounted on the wall, the Daizy can opener. The kitchen table had four chairs and any larger group ate in the dining room. The basement door led down a steep wooden stairway with a rickety pipe railing to a dank and dark smallish basement where I can remember some canned fruits and jellies being stored. It wasn't the kind of place to go hide or play - just a place to peer into.

GEs house was a house of four gables, all being part of the roof structure and each over one of the upstairs three bedrooms except the one over the upstairs bathroom. Having only one bathroom upstairs was a significant improvement over the two-hole outhouse at the farm house. The stairway up to the second from was an L-shaped left turn

with a small landing half-way. It was carpeted in the center of each step with about 6" of wood on each side. At the very top step in the back corner on the right side was a wooden plug in a hole. We were always told that it was a mouse hole and thus we moved quickly by. The south bedroom (pictured in the gable photo) belonged to Grandmother Werts (GEs mother) who was alive until I was 12. The windows of that room looked out toward the driveway and the garage and I remember one particular story about GM Werts, who was a very proper Pennsylvania Dutch woman. When she was in the last weeks of her life, she was confined to her bed and could only be lifted out of bed to the nearby chair. One day just as the farm hands and Uncle John were arriving for lunch, GE looked out the window and said "There comes Morey, we can get him to help lift you out of bed." GM Werts said emphatically, "Not Morey!" as she had no intention of anyone who wasn't family entering her bedroom.

We always stayed in the east room, which to me was the largest but probably was about equal to the south room. Looking at the photos of the house and subtracting the width of the stairs, they appear to be an exact match including windows and gable. Also the photo show the extra detail that GF Edwards had done on the house for his young bride. (Either that or there is the likelihood that she insisted on the details herself, knowing the firmness of the decisions I saw her make in my lifetime.) The east room had a double bed and as I remember a twin bed or a roll-away. The windows all had spring roller pull down shades and lace curtains. What I remember doing the most in the east room was two things: taking naps so we could go fishing and thunder and lightning storms which were more than exciting with windows on three sides.

The south side had the small bathroom with a claw foot tub. I remember it was a pleasant pastel green and had porcelain handles on sink and bathtub. Uncle John had either been born without a gall bladder or had had it removed and he was always a slight yellowish-orange in color and the bathroom always had a slightly strange aroma probably related to his metabolic situation. He also had had polio as a child and wore a several inch lift on one of his shoes. This prevented him from riding horses on the farm.

I cannot remember how, when the Shannons and the Edmondson (each with four people) visited for holidays while GM Werts was still living, we all found places to sleep. But I know it happened.

The final memory I have of GE's house was what I used to do when it was evening and everyone else was gathered in the living room and I needed something from upstairs. I would turn the light on and go upstairs and turn the hall light on and then the east room light. Then when I had what I needed, I would race back down the stairs at break-neck speed as if the boogey man was right behind me.

We had a lot of good times in GE's house - maybe more there than anywhere else.

FATHER'S DAY 2009

On this 100th anniversary of Father's Day, I started thinking about the fathers in my family. When Spencer was born in 2004, there were three generations of fathers alive in our family on the Shannon side. Looking back in our ancestral tree, it may be the only time that this has ever or ever will happen. In my case my great grandfather Nolker lived until I was five, but I don't remember meeting him. My grandfather Shannon died four years before I was born and my grandfather Edwards less than two years after. My great grandfather Nolker (Shannon) actually lived nine years after my grandfather Shannon died (four years before I was born).

There are two reasons that come to mind why the 3 generations of fathers alive at one time did not occur before and won't be repeated. The life span of the past was usually not much past the 50s because heart disease was so prevalent. And now children go to college and on to graduate degrees and start families later which makes the age span of each generation almost 30 years and that makes it impossible to have four generation alive at any time.

So this photo of the four generations and the three generations of dads is pretty radical.