And To Think It Happened In Cleveland

 Since it's the Easter weekend, it seemed appropriate to relay a memory that can be thought of as either a coincidence or a miracle. Oh heck! Who am I kidding? I don't believe in coincidences except for minor situations. For instance, one might be on an airplane and the person seated next to you stated their birthday is the same as yours. That would be a coincidence.

Then, there are situations that arise when there is no explanation possible, It's the stuff out of the twilight zone or from God.

It was either in 1995 or '96 and I was on a business trip that required me to be in Cleveland, Ohio. Whenever I went to that city for an overnight stay, I always found a motel outside the city limits. I mean, why take my life and put it on display for every criminal to see. The area of my business meeting was a war zone. As it was, I decided to retire for the evening in Painesville, 15 miles east of town and drive in on I-90. If you're not too familiar with Cleveland some refer to it as 'The Mistake by the Lake'. As is typical in December in Cleveland it was snowing and closer to being called a blizzard on this particular day. As I approached my exit, I spied a small red car parked on the berm. The flasher lights were on and as my vehicle slowly cruised by, I saw a young lady behind the wheel, so I did the gentlemanly thing. I parked and walked back to be greeted by a young woman who appeared to be in her mid 20's and very frightened. Who wouldn't be? Here she was in a broken-down car in an area inhabited by potential murderers at the most and rapists the least.

Even though I was wearing a fancy topcoat and suit as I slow walked toward her vehicle, I could see her mouthing, "Get away, leave". I turned around and began walking to my car for my appointment at the Horsburgh & Scott gearbox Company when chivalry took over. There was no way I was going to leave the damsel to be preyed on by who knew what. "Go back", I told myself. I very slowly approached her and placed my business car next to her window. I then explained I was on my way to a business meeting. For some strange reason I happened to mention, and to this day I don't know why, the name of the company. As soon as that name came out of my mouth she turned, looked at me quizzically and asked, "Who are you going to see.?" Now why would she ask that, I wondered? Anyway, I told her the person was an engineer, Bill Anders.

She immediately, without saying a word, left her car and entered mine. Now in the front passenger seat she turned, looked at me and with a voice that said, "I'm safe." She then told me her fiancé' was none other than Mr. William Anders!

If you believe this is a coincidence, think again. This is my story and I'm sticking to it.

Good Friday

 It has been scientifically proven the Jesus Christ died at 3 pm in 33 AD on April 3. My advice is to watch the skies for a sign from God.

No Kings

 In 1988 the government of Iran executed 30,000 citizens for protesting their leaders policies. In February of 2026, withing a four-day period, the government of Iran executed upwards of 35,000 of its population for protesting an oppressive regime, their own.

And some say Donald Trump is a ruthless King. 

Iranian regime launches execution spree over growing fears of another uprising

How Did We Go From Phooey To F*ck

 In 1987 I was a high school basketball coach in Illinois. I don't know how kids are today when it comes to manners, but I would say when it comes to civil discourse we've deteriorated.

While coaching in a game a player became totally disgusted with how our team was not playing defense. A referee called a foul on one of his team members and the kid, Derrick, said out loud, "Our defense sucks" and a referee immediately whistled him for a technical foul for using bad language.

Times have changed, haven't they? It seems as though one of our political parties is now using the F word as standard operating procedure. As an example:

A Democrat congresswoman is in hot water after making a profanity laced rant on X about President Trump’s recent appearance to the Supreme Court as Justices have oral arguments on birthright citizenship.

Democrat Rep. Susie Lee of Nevada wrote, “I’ll pray they f*ck him to his face. Sorry, I say f*ck a lot these days.”

Need I go on?

It's Called Predestination

 For some reason, now that I'm an octogenarian, I've been reflecting a great deal on situations and people from my distant past. It's like my life is flashing before me nonstop. For example, last week I thought about Mr. and Mrs. Gorey. They were an elderly couple who lived across the street from our Clinton Street home. I have no idea how or why they crawled into my brain since it was 1951 and I was five years of age. Or, I recalled the time my Grandpa and I were driving around Boone(Iowa) and he asked me if I wanted a candy bar so we stopped into a grocery store and I purchased a Smooth Sailin' for a nickel. It was a popular bar at the time. Why in the name of Mars bars would think of a Smooth Sailin'?

I've also been thinking a great deal about life experiences for which there is not a simple explanation and that they were preordained. Please understand I'm a firm believer that God controls aspects of our lives that have been planned out for us. These are the ones with life shattering results that have long range ramifications; ones that can change our lives for better or worse and if I can't prove this, I can surely give you pause because it's Twilight Zone stuff.

It was May of 1964 and a group of my buddies, five in all, decided we'd drive from our hometown and see a movie in Des Moines which was an hour away. The film was titled 'A Shot In The Dark' starring Peter Sellers and Elke Sommer. Since we'd previously seen Sellers first comedy, 'The Pink Panther', we just knew this would also be a comedic hit. So, we headed out for the Ingersoll Theater and upon arrival we told the film began at 3 pm instead of 1:30. This meant we had to goof around to kill time. As it was, we drove a couple miles and stopped on Grand Avenue which happened to be a major street in that City. It was lined with big Elm trees and magnificent homes built in the post-Civil War period.  If you don't know, because you're too young, the Elm was about to disappear due to a disease but that's another story. Anyway, we happened to park the car and strolled up to four businesses on that street. One was a women's dress shop. Another a candy store. As I said, we were trying to kill time. I happened to be standing next to Steve, a friend, and as we stared through the windows for no apparent reason, I said, "Steve, I just had the weirdest feeling. The girl I'm going to marry lives real close to here." I ask you, what dorky eighteen-year-old would come up with such a thing? I mean, the most important part of my life up to that time was making sure I wore clean underwear. What kid in his right mind would utter such a thing. I don't recall what Steve said in response but I'm sure it was something along the lives of "Oh, shut up." In those days we didn't say STFU!

Let's fast forward to 1969. I was a high school teacher and always on the lookout for weekend activities. Besides, the school in which I taught had 600 people. It was sort of impossible to buy a beer at the local tavern without everyone, including the school principal's dog knowing about it. I had a buddy who was in his senior year at Iowa State. He was in a fraternity and on weekends there were always parties where we could go insane and make fools of ourselves. At one of these functions, I met a coed and I was immediately smitten. We dated for one month and I just knew she was going to be my forever partner. Surprisingly, she felt the same so much so that she invited me to go to her hometown and meet her parents who happened to live in Des Moines. This was a big deal for me to meet her mom and dad and all that jazz. When we pulled into the driveway of her home it hit me square between the eyes and the shocking part is I had not once remembered what I told Steve five years earlier until that moment. The shocker is this. My gal, the love of my life, lived exactly two blocks from the stores on Grand Avenue. Hold onto your shorts because directly across the street from those same stores was St. Augustin's Catholic Church. If you haven't figured it out by now that church was where we were married. As Paul Harvey would have said, "And now you know the rest of the story."

Predestination or coincidence? Seriously? For the big moments in life God always has a plan.

Could This Be WWIII

 There seems to be a great deal of talk among the so-called experts as to whether we're about to enter World War III. Many folks seem to believe it's right around the proverbial corner. Granted, there seem to be multiple wars taking place around the world. To the average person it might seem the earth is a powder keg and they could be right. Biblically speaking many religious types compare Old Testament prophecies with the happenings in the Middle East.

All these wars got me to thinking about the twentieth century and what the landscape looked like then. People, it wasn't pretty. I've copied a listing of conflicts(wars) from 1900 through 1944. Yikes!

List of wars: 1900–1944 - Wikipedia

Memories Lost But Not Forgotten

The things I recall from years gone bye sometimes amaze me. I'm 100% certain I'm not the only one who, usually in quiet times, remembers a situation or person from their past when there is no logical reason to do so. Seems as though these days it occurs on a daily basis. I hate to kick the proverbial dead horse but out of the blue I've come up with names from the 1950's I had no business doing. As an example, it might have been the name of a lady who served me a root beer at the A&W and I'd never seen her before or since. 

One recollection I do have took place during my first year as a high school history instructor in a hamlet called New Hartford, Iowa (pop 600). Don't ask me how I got there but it was late August of 1968 and I didn't have a job, so I'd heard about this tiny school (90 students) needing a history instructor and basketball coach. So, I applied for the job and was assigned an interview which was slated for 9 am. I happened to arrive twenty minutes early. After walking into the superintendent's office and introducing myself I sat down. The super spoke first and said, "Your appointment was slated for 9 am. You arrived twenty minutes. You're hired." Talk about being desperate for a hire.

I was assigned to instruct history classes; 10th grade Western Civilization, American History and Economics which a joke because I had trouble counting change. 

Regardless, it got to be November of that year and one day in class a student raised his hand. Do you remember how I wrote that we remember names and situations from our past and there's no particular reason for it. The student's name was Augie Blake. He was your average student and sort of a wise guy. No wait! He was he was a first-class wise guy and his question was this: "Why study history? There ain't no future in it." I thought about the words he uttered. We spent a few minutes discussing his inane comment and then I forgot about it until a couple years ago and out of nowhere my brain kicked into gear and the entire scenario re-visited me. I taught for nineteen years afterward and never once mentioned this to any of my thousands of students. I wonder why. His words would have been an excellent learning lesson for eternity.

I hope Augie is still alive. He'd be 73 years old today. I also hope he reads my blog. It'd be nice to find out how he felt about what he said He's most likely not a wiseguy. My best guess is he forgot about what he said immediately after the dismissal bell rang

Think about it. Of course, people live for today and forget the past. Do you doubt me? I'll wager a month's Social Security check 90% of people living in the world on November 12, 1918 really believed it was 'The War To End All Wars'.