When I did a word search in my files in preparation for my last post where I mentioned Sputnik, one of the words I used in the search was “satellite.” One of the files that turned up is what I’m posting today. It’s something I read and saved years ago and frankly had completely forgotten about. When I reread it, I thought to myself that it would be a nice piece to post on the blog sometime in the future. Well, the following morning I heard on the radio that the program Leave It to Beaver was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. They had a little sound clip from “the Beav’” and from his older brother “Wally.” Wally’s voice sounded the same, only more mature!

My mind went back to some of the really good, family-friendly shows from my childhood, shows that had valued right and didn’t glorify wrong. Not only were the images black and white, but most of the issues were also. Looking back on those programs now as an adult, I realize too that those old shows were laced with “little white lies” and situation ethics. But there were generally always uncomfortable or even unpleasant consequences for the wrong doing and good triumphed in the end. I must admit that I am not a big TV watcher and haven’t been for years now. I simply hate to be assailed with profanity, innuendo, violence, immorality, calling wrong right and right wrong, and on and on I could go with the litany of what TV has become.

Today I’m posting the words to a song about the “good, ol’ days” of black and white TV.

(If you’re under the age of 50, you probably won’t fully understand or appreciate this poem about a period of time when, even though it took five minutes for the TV warm up, there would be something actually worth watching…)

Black and White
by Steve Vaus

You could hardly see for all the snow,
Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go,
Pull a chair up to the TV set,
“Good night David, Good night Chet!”
Depending on the channel you tuned
You got Rob and Laura, or Ward and June.
It felt so good, it felt so right.
Life looked better in black and white.

I Love Lucy, the Real McCoys,
Dennis the Menace, the Cleaver boys,
Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train,
Superman and Lois Lane,
Father Knows Best,
Rin Tin Tin and Lassie too,
Donna Reed on Thursday night.
Life looked better in black and white.

I wanna go back to black and white.
Everything always turned out right.
Simple people, simple lives,
Good guys always won the fights.
Now nothing’s the way it seems
In living color or on the screen.
I wanna go back to black and white.

In God they trusted, in bed they slept.
A promise made was a promise kept.
They never cussed or broke a vow.
They’d never make the network now.
But if I could I’d rather be
In a TV town in ‘63
It felt so good, it felt so right.
Life looked better in black and white.

I’d trade all the channels on the satellite
If I could just turn back the clock tonight
To when everybody knew wrong from right.
Life was better in black and white.

***
Here are pictures of a dozen shows to evoke good memories for some…

The Little Rascals (a.k.a. Our Gang)

Sky King (and his niece Penny)

Howdy Doody (and Buffalo Bob)

Rin Tin Tin

The Lone Ranger (and his faithful companion Tonto)

I Love Lucy (our favorite episode - in the candy factory)

Captain Kangaroo

Leave It to Beaver (the Cleaver family)

Lassie

Father Knows Best

The Andy Griffith Show

The Beverly Hillbillies

quotation…

“Make every decision based on doctrine. Doctrine is not peripheral - it is foundational.” - Dr. Drew Conley

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Rob

Have you ever noticed that nostalgia isn’t what is used to be?

With all the handyman type stuff I’ve been doing (see the end of this blog post) and with Father’s Day coming up, I decided to post some interesting facts about the one of the essentials in any handyman’s arsenal - WD-40. I don’t remember where I got what I’m posting, and therefore I don’t know who the “I” is in the personal references in it. The list on snopes.com has some not on the list I received and some of mine aren’t on theirs.

WD-40

The product began from a search for a rust preventative solvent and degreaser to protect missile parts. WD-40 was created in 1953 by three technicians at the San Diego Rocket Chemical Company. It’s name comes from the project that was to find a “water displacement” compound. They were successful with the fortieth formulation, thus WD-40.

The Corvair Company bought it in bulk to protect their Atlas missile parts. The workers were so pleased with the product, they began smuggling (also known as “shrinkage” or “stealing”) it out to use at home. The executives decided there might be a consumer market for it and put it in aerosol cans. The rest, as they say, is history.

It is a carefully guarded recipe known only to four people. Only one of them is the “brew master.” There are about 2.5 million gallons of the stuff manufactured each year. It gets it’s distinctive smell from a fragrance that is added to the brew. Ken East says there is nothing in WD-40 that would hurt you.

Here are some of the uses:

Protects silver from tarnishing

Cleans and lubricates guitar strings

Gets oil spots off concrete driveways

Gives floors that ‘just-waxed’ sheen without making it slippery

Keeps flies off cows

Restores and cleans chalkboards

Removes lipstick stains

Loosens stubborn zippers

Untangles jewelry chains

Removes stains from stainless steel sinks

Removes dirt and grime from the barbecue grill

Keeps ceramic/terra cotta garden pots from oxidizing

Removes tomato stains from clothing (not sure I’d do this since it contains oil)

Keeps glass shower doors free of water spots

Camouflages scratches in ceramic and marble floors

Keeps scissors working smoothly

Lubricates noisy door hinges on vehicles and doors in homes

Gives a children’s play gym slide a shine for a super fast slide

Lubricates gear shift and mower deck lever for ease of handling on riding mowers

Rids rocking chairs and swings of squeaky noises

Lubricates tracks in sticking home windows and makes them easier to open

Spraying an umbrella stem makes it easier to open and close

Restores and cleans padded leather dashboards in vehicles, as well as vinyl bumpers

Restores and cleans roof racks on vehicles

Lubricates and stops squeaks in electric fans

Lubricates wheel sprockets on tricycles, wagons and bicycles for easy handling

Lubricates fan belts on washers and dryers and keeps them running smoothly

Keeps rust from forming on saws and saw blades, and other tools

Removes splattered grease on stove

Keeps bathroom mirror from fogging

Lubricates prosthetic limbs

Keeps pigeons off the balcony (they hate the smell)

Removes all traces of duct tape

I have even heard of folks spraying it on their arms, hands, knees, etc., to relieve arthritis pain.

One fellow claims spraying it on fishing lures attracts fish.

WD-40 has been designated the “official multipurpose problem-solver of NASCAR,” a ringing endorsement if there ever was one. I told my NASCAR loving sons about this and they said they couldn’t imagine how WD-40 can solve the Jeff Gordon problem.

In 2003, in celebration of their 50th year, the company conducted a contest to learn the favorite uses of its customers and fan club members, (Yes, there is a WD-40 Fan Club).

They compiled the information to identify the favorite use in each of the 50 states. Naturally I was curious about Georgia and Alabama and found the favorite use in both states was that it “penetrates stuck bolts, lug nuts, and hose ends.” Florida’s favorite use was “cleans and removes lovebugs from grills and bumpers.”

California’s favorite use was penetrating the bolts on the Golden Gate Bridge. The favorite use in the State of New York… WD-40 protects the Statue of Liberty from the elements!

No wonder they have had over 50 successful years!

I (Rob) have not personally tried many of these, so I’m hoping some of you readers may give the rest of us your insights in some comments.

***
This past Saturday I embarked on a fun little project - building a flower box. I’ll start off by giving a little history. When we moved into this subdivision 3 years ago this month, we were impressed by the fact that there were flower boxes atop some of the cement drain covers, including a pretty little box right in front of our house. In the past few months, that box has simply fallen apart. I decided to build a new one this past weekend. I bought the wood at “Home Despot” (my name for this great store), and I had them cut it for me to my dimensions since their saws are so much better and faster than mine. Below are several pictures of various stages of the project.

the cement drain cover after I removed the old box…

the finished box with five drain holes cut in the middle…

the box refilled with the dirt I’d removed from the old box and sifted…

Becka and I decided to drive around the neighborhood to see what others had planted in their boxes. We were surprised and a bit disappointed to find only 3 other such boxes in the entire subdivision! I guess as new members of the neighborhood, we saw things a little idealistically. Two of the boxes we found on our drive had either nothing or almost nothing planted in them! One had some nice petunias. We decided to plant in our box a perennial lantana called “Miss Huff” which will eventually fill much of the center of the box. I planted also a trailing petunia and around the edges of the box I’ve planted seeds of Johnny Jump-Ups, some historic pansies from Seed Savers Exchange, and towards the back some zinnias. Below is a picture of the two plants I bought. After the other stuff comes up and gets established, I’ll try to remember to post an updated picture.

I found a nice picture online of what the lantana will look like when it’s mature. I’m putting that picture below….

quotation…

At the cathedral in Lubeck, Germany there is an inscription that reads, “Thus speaketh Christ our Lord to us - You call Me master and obey Me not; you call Me light and see Me not; you call Me the way and walk in Me not; you call Me life and live Me not; you call Me wise and follow Me not; you call Me fair and love Me not; you call Me rich and ask Me not; you call Me eternal and seek Me not. If I condemn thee, blame Me not.” - Author unknown

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Rob

You really need only two tools - WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn’t move and it should, use WD-40. If it moves and shouldn’t, use duct tape.

Those of you in the U.S. have to remember that we’re changing to daylight savings time this weekend. I don’t know why, but it takes me about a week to adjust completely each time we make this change, but especially in the spring when I’m already tired and then have to lose a precious hour of sleep!

When I got to thinking about “changing times” I thought of something I sent to the ivman group back in 2000 and have received every year since then, purporting that it was for whatever year that was 100 years earlier, most recently several times in 2007 for the year 1907. You’ll see from the info about the original source that it was indeed written about life in the year 1900.

It is quite interesting to see how people lived at that time. They would be totally shocked at what our lives are like now and would probably understand little of what we take for granted!

100 Years Ago … It May Be Hard to Believe (from a book called “When My Grandmother Was a Child” by Leigh W. Rutledge, which begins, “In the summer of 1900, when my grandmother was a child….”

1. The average life expectancy in the United States was forty-seven.

2. Only 4 percent of the homes in the United States had a bathtub.

3. Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

4. A three minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.

5. There were only 8,000 cars in the US and only 144 miles of paved roads.

6. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

7. Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the twenty-first most populous state in the Union.

8. The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower, which at that time was only 11 years old.

9. The average wage in the U.S. was twenty-two cents an hour. The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year. A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2500 per year, a veterinarian between $1500 and $4000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5000 per year.

10. More than 95 percent of all births in the United States took place at home.

11. Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as “substandard.”

12. Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee cost fifteen cents a pound.

13. Most women washed their hair only once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

14. Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason, either as travelers or immigrants.

15. The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were

• Pneumonia and influenza
• Tuberculosis
• Diarrhea
• Heart disease
• Stroke.

16. The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet.

17. Drive-by shootings — in which teenage boys galloped down the street on horses and started randomly shooting at houses, carriages, or anything else that caught their fancy — were an ongoing problem in Denver and other cities in the West.

18. The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was thirty. The remote desert community was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their families.

19. Plutonium, insulin, and antibiotics hadn’t been discovered yet. Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned drinks, and iced tea hadn’t been invented.

20. There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

21. One in ten U.S. adults couldn’t read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

22. Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and the bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health. Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine (hence the name).

23. Punch card data processing had recently been developed, and early predecessors of the modern computer were used for the first time by the government to help compile the 1900 census.

24. Eighteen percent of households in the United States had at least one full-time servant or domestic.

25. There were about 230 reported murders in the U.S. annually.

***
This is Rob again… I wonder how quaint people will think we were when they read about our lives in a hundred years?

quotation…

“Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t.” — Richard Bach

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Rob Loach in Greenville SC

The bathtub was invented in 1850. The telephone was invented in 1875. This might not seem like much, but if you had lived back then, you could have sat in the bathtub for 25 years without being bothered by the phone!

I remember as a child learning about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington during the month of February since their birthdays are Feb. 12th and Feb. 22nd, respectively. I don’t know who decided that we should have “Presidents’ Day” instead. Since this is known as Presidents’ Day weekend, I thought I’d pass on several interesting things that are supposed to be true from presidential history.

Lincoln And Kennedy

I submit two presidents, two centuries, two assassins, and some mighty strange coincidences.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both were shot in the head.

Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy.

Kennedy’s secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Both were succeeded by Southerners.

Both successors were named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.

Both names are made of fifteen letters.

Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were both assassinated before their trials.

A week before Lincoln was shot, he visited Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

***
Presidential Potholes - some things that former presidents would probably have rather had forgotten about them.

Andrew Jackson fought many duels and had two bullets lodged in his body.

Thomas Jefferson kept caged grizzly bears at the White House.

Ida Saxton McKinley, the President’s wife suffered from seizures and could pass out in the middle of conversation without falling from her chair. When this happened the President simply threw a handkerchief over her face until she came to and carried on the conversation.

Grover Cleveland answered his own phone at the White House.

President W. H. Taft weighed over 300 pounds. Once he got stuck in the White House bathtub and had to be helped out. A special bathtub, big enough for four average men had to be built for him.

Franklin Roosevelt was superstitious and refused to sit at a table of 13 people.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was so good at sports that little Quentin once said, “I’ll bet Mother was a boy when she was little.”

The Fillmores brought the first kitchen stove into the White House, but the cook could not figure out how it worked. The President visited the patent office, read the drawings, saw the model, learned how to work it, and then went back to the White House to teach what he had learned to the cook.

By the age of 15, Harry Truman had read every book in the public library in Independence, MO, but he never attended college.

At the dinner table Jimmy Carter’s daughter sometimes recited the blessing with the help of her toy toaster which popped up Bible verses.

Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes hand painted her own china. Some of it was quite unappetizing, representing animals fighting and birds eating rotten vegetables.

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Rob Loach

President Clinton voiced support for school uniforms to cut down on violence. It sure has done wonders for the United States Postal Service!