Saturday, April 19, 2025
HUMOR - THE DAY ERNIE BROKE MR. REBER'S GUN CASE
Mr. Reber was the manager for several departments, including sporting goods. I worked in furniture, housewares, the pet department, and lawn and garden.
Reb hired Ernie.
Ernie was a disaster. A very nice guy, disaster followed Ernie wherever he went.
The sporting goods department sold, among other things in those days, guns (nobody thought ANYTHING about it), and bowling balls.
Hmmmm.
One day as I was cruising from one or my departments to another, I heard a loud crash from sporting goods. Thinking someone might be hurt, I headed there.
What I saw stopped me dead in my tracks... well, for a second, but I couldn't wait to be the first to break (pun intended) the news to Reb. So, I ran for a house phone and had Reb paged to call the phone I was at.
The phone rang, I answered. He said, relatively calmly, since we paged each other all the time for various issues, "This is Reb, what's up?"
"Hey, Reb," I replied, in my smoothest, most professional manner, "Remember that glass gun case you used to have?"
"Sure, of course.... WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN USED TO HAVE????"
"Well, Ernie just dropped a bowling ball through it..."
Didn't know a guy that old could cross a store that fast... and with bad feet, too...
It all happened so fast, Ernie was still looking at the bowling ball lying amid the guns with a nearly perfect hole in the top and the middle glass shelf.
One of life's little moments not to be forgotten... not for Ernie, not for Reb, not for me... snicker, snicker.
True story, by the way.
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WHAT MAKES SHAKLEE PRODUCTS DIFFERENT?
Labels: bowling balls, donovan baldwin, Florida, sporting goods, St. Petersburg, University of West Florida, Woolco
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
TRUE STORY - U. S. ARMY SECOND LIEUTENANT (2LT) WITH A MAP AND A COMPASS
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The academy was located in the Georgia woods (and swamps) at a site called TAC-X which had been used for training during the Vietnam era. This was an isolated site about 20 miles from main garrison (i.e. civilization) and was surrounded by a dedicated training area... which other units could only use after prior coordination.
There was an access road, a mile or to long, among the thick pines from the main road to TAC-X.
One morning as I was driving in on the access road, I was surprised to see a jeep with two soldiers emerge from the woods... where no jeep was supposed to be.
The driver waved me down. He was a SP4 (Specialist 4th Class kind of like a corporal), and his red faced passenger was a 2LT.
I approached the jeep from the driver's side, saluting the LT. I had to move a bit in front of the vehicle as he was looking straight ahead and did not turn his head at my approach. The blazing red LT stiffly returned my salute without making eye contact.
The SP4 was very polite and apologetic, and asked, "Excuse me, Sergeant, but can you tell me where we are and how to get back to our unit?"
"Where are you supposed to be?"
He said, "I can show you on the map..." which happened to be in the LT's hand. Slowly, respectfully, he reached over and took the map from the LT's grip.
The bright red LT didn't make a move and continued to stare straight ahead.
The SP4 showed me where on the map they were SUPPOSED to be... several miles away, about half way between our training area and main garrison.
I gave him directions on how to get back to the main road and find the area they were supposed to be in.
He thanked me politely, handed the map back to the LT (who took it with as little movement as possible), gave me an almost despairing look, and drove off.
As they left, I gave the LT a proper salute... which he didn't see or return, since he was still facing forward, not having moved or said a word... and still bright red.
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SPONSORED BY REVITOL SKINCARE PRODUCTS
Labels: army, compass, donovan baldwin, map, second lieutenant
Friday, April 11, 2025
POEM - A PLACE I HAVEN'T BEEN YET
BY DONOVAN
I looked up at stars, I looked cross the sea,
Yearning for the distant and strange.
I just couldn't feel "at home" at home,
But dreamed of the wide open range.
At last I left and crossed the sea,
Tho' I never got to the stars.
I rode the range on eighteen wheels,
Haunted diners and dives and bars.
I'm just not cut from a normal bolt,
Nor sewn in the common style.
I'm happiest when I'm far from home,
And just come back for a while.
It's not the people, the places, or things,
That cause me to move along.
I cannot explain how the stars and the sea,
Sing to me with a Siren's song.
I've got to go tho' I just got here,
I will miss you as soon as I go.
I'm happiest when I'm outward bound,
In a way others never will know.
Most need the hearth and home and heart,
In a place all bounded and set.
I just need a map and a road that leads,
To a place I haven't been yet.
Copyright 7/14/2012 by Donovan Baldwin
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Labels: donovan baldwin, poem, poetry, wanderlust
Wednesday, April 09, 2025
QUOTE - WHAT ARE THESE BOOKS?
"What are those books?
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| My copy of The Art Of Thinking, purchased 1963. |
The something evocative for you may be poetry, history, philosophy, the sciences, or moral sciences, i.e. the progress of mankind. Some people who go to sleep over a volume will be interested by a review which they think more condensed or better within their reach. Read reviews if they help you to think, that is to say, if they leave in your mind images that will go on living when you have forgotten where they came from; read a Shakespeare calendar at the rate of four lines a day... read algebra, read the lives of great inventors or of great businessmen, read 'that' kind of books which you and nobody else know to be thought-productive for you."
The Art of Thinking (1928)
Abbe Ernest Dimnet
Labels: Art of Thinking, books, donovan baldwin, ernest dimnet
Friday, April 04, 2025
ARTICLE - AUNT LULA'S JUNK GIFTS
BY DONOVAN BALDWIN
I have an old beat-up Zane Grey novel, Wild Horse Mesa. When I was a young boy, my widowed great aunt Lula (my father's mother's sister) sent me a gift on my birthday and at Christmas, addressed in the manner of the time, to "Master Donnie Baldwin".
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| My Great Aunt Lula With My Dad At Stone Mountain |
It was always stupid stuff, and the book WAS falling apart.
I asked my mom why Aunt Lula just sent me junk.
Labels: donovan baldwin, gifts, Zane Grey
Thursday, April 03, 2025
COMMENT - STUFF - APOLOGIES TO GEORGE CARLIN
I am retired now, but, for years, I was responsible for stuff, in charge of stuff, and had to stay on top of stuff.
There's a lot of 'stuff' in life, isn't there?
While doing all that stuff with stuff has purpose, I wonder if sometimes we don't lose sight of some important stuff in our lives because we are 'staying on top of stuff'. Up there, on top, that is, it can become hard to see some of the seemingly less important stuff, such as fun, laughter, playing with kids, showing somebody you love them.
Yeah. Maybe sometimes all that 'stuff' we think we're on top of is really in our way...blocking our view.
So, look around at all the stuff you think you have to deal with and concentrate on the stuff that really matters.
SPONSORED BY REVITOL SKINCARE PRODUCTS
Labels: comment, donovan baldwin
Wednesday, April 02, 2025
POEM - A TIME TO DIE
BY DONOVAN BALDWIN
"The notary was present, and he said that he'd never read in any book of chivalry that a knight errant had died in his bed so calmly, and in such a Christian way as don Quixote, who, amidst pity and tears of those surrounding him, gave up the ghost; that is, he died."
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| Don Quixote On His Deeathbed |
"The notary was present, and he said that he'd never read in any book of chivalry that a knight errant had died in his bed so calmly, and in such a Christian way as don Quixote, who, amidst pity and tears of those surrounding him, gave up the ghost; that is, he died."
- 'Don Quixote' by Miguel de Cervantes
A Time To Die
Call when morning's blossom
Lingers still before my eyes,
Or when I've touched my neighbor;
At that time let me die.
Show me roses in a garden, or
Fields stretched beneath the snow,
Catch me dreaming, maybe singing,
I'll be prepared to go.
Don't come when hate surrounds me, or
Simply take me as I sleep.
At the moment of my leaving,
Give me one fine thing to keep.
Copyright: Donovan Baldwin
A Time To Die
Call when morning's blossom
Lingers still before my eyes,
Or when I've touched my neighbor;
At that time let me die.
Show me roses in a garden, or
Fields stretched beneath the snow,
Catch me dreaming, maybe singing,
I'll be prepared to go.
Don't come when hate surrounds me, or
Simply take me as I sleep.
At the moment of my leaving,
Give me one fine thing to keep.
Copyright: Donovan Baldwin
SPONSORED BY REVITOL SKINCARE PRODUCTS
Labels: death, Don Quixote, donovan baldwin, Miguel de Cervantes, poem, poem about death, poetry
