Marching through March

At breakfast (can you guess where?) earlier in the year with daughter, Annamarie.

 

 

* The March Sisters from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women: Amy, Beth, Jo, Meg.
*The Ides of March: when Caesar was killed by Brutus.
* March 21: Beginning of astrological spring.
* Saying: ...wild (or mad) as a March hare.
* Synonyms of "march" for children K=go, walk; 1st=march, leave; 2nd=advance, continue, parade; 3rd=hike; 4th=tramp, progress; 5th=depart, stride.
* (Other) synonyms for "march"  = step in time, pace, tread, goose-step, promenade, file, plod, strut.
* Hal March and Bob Sweeney were a radio comedy team, and March later emceed "The $64,000 Question" game show.

Looking through my sources for something about March, I found 2 entries in the Morrow  Book of Quotations in American History. One, from "Marching Through Georgia" by songwriter Henry Clay Work (1832-1884), and one by Philip Randolph, labor and civil rights leader, in a speech to March on Washington Committee, September 1942.

A 2011 almanac distributed by Shelter Insurance contained one bit of March trivia: "On March 25, 1752, Benjamin Franklin founded the first insurance company in America. Ben's company, a mutual company, is still operating successfully. [We] operate on the same sound business principles of Ben Franklin."

Trivia from Arkansas Living (formerly Rural Arkansas) : Presidents with March birthdays are James Madison, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler and Grover Cleveland.

 Another item from the same publication: "Why is March so windy? Part of the reason is that as the days grow longer and the sun warms the earth's surface more rapidly than the air above it, the air becomes increasingly unstable. This causes deep atmospheric turbulence that brings strong gusts of wind."

May your march through the last week of March--Holy Week leading to Easter--and Passover, be one of solemn introspection followed by joy and rejuvenation. #

An update on—and happy birthday to -- Kid Billy

Pat Laster

On Tuesday, March 19, my grandson Kid Billy a.k.a. Billy Joe Paulus, will turn the ripe old age of 23. Gee-whiz, it seems like only yesterday he was 8 months old and asleep on a woman’s shoulder in a foster home somewhere in rural Clark County--on a 72-hour hold from Human Services.

Still asleep, he was moved from one shoulder to another—mine—placed in a newly-purchased car seat and was driven to Benton in Saline County. We were both unaware of what our future together would bring.

Seventy-two hours? How about twenty-three years? His first six years were spent in Benton on West Sevier—across the street from Our Lady of Fatima School. At only $135 a month, the tuition was worth my walking him across the street to (the late) Mrs. Debra Cloud’s classroom and back again after school. He loved Mrs. Debra.

In September of 1997, after the beginning of Billy's first grade, I took a job in Arkadelphia. Before I could secure a house there, I drove back and forth. The Fatima teacher and principal wanted to medicate him for ADHD. I actually asked the teacher (whose son I’d had problems with in middle school) if she wanted me to take him out of school right then. She backed off and said no, so we were good for a time.

I found the perfect house in Arkadelphia on North 15^th Street with great neighbor-landlords. They had a son a little older than Billy. And cats.

Sure enough, Dr. K. the pediatrician, watched Billy for 10 minutes and decided yes, definitely ADHD. He prescribed Ritalin.
 

But that was then and this is now. On the first day of March this year, I watched him sing with both the Henderson Concert Choir and the Chamber Chorale. He stood stock-still for long periods. His hands held the music folder up so that his eyes could flit from score to director without obvious head movement. Focused? Focused? I’d say so!

After the concert, he introduced me to the friend who’d asked him to go in with some others and rent a house in town for next term. I wrote out his part of a down-payment (in addition to paying his on-campus apartment rent: what we do for love) on the spot.

Thanks go to Dr. Jim Buckner, who five years ago, offered KB, from Benton High School, a band scholarship to HSU. Thanks also to the former choral director, Dr. Eaves, who accepted KB into the select choral group, and to Dr. Ryan Fox, present director, for being a supportive friend and excellent—no, superior--choral man. KB is one of only two or three non-music majors in this group. Which makes Grandmother extremely proud.

Two trumpets lie somewhere in our residences unused. I’ll offer one to another grandson who, besides being in a Conway middle school’s orchestra this year (violin), wants to play also in the school band next year.

This “fifth child” of mine is why I don’t volunteer. I think 23 years of raising a grandson should be considered my volunteer work.

As well as my passion. Happy birthday, son.    #    

 

 

 

 

 

Dipping into the fractious waters of current events

by Pat Laster

              I eschew writing columns/blogs—and making comments—about politics, but I sometimes click “like” on others’ Facebook pictures/ sayings/ opinions/ rants, etc.  It’s not that I don’t read about state, nationaI and international government happenings. I do. And I do read many editorials and columns and letters-to-the-editor.

 But I’m going to step out of my comfort zone and do some aping of folks like John Brummett sometimes does with his arrows.

 I doubt I can sling arrows, but the computer might allow plusses and minuses. Perhaps I could use smiley and un-smiley faces. Using entries in my journal as reminders, here goes.

+ - Bravos to Arkansas's Governor Beebe for vetoing the 20-week abortion bill. And the 12-week one.

–– - Boos to the Arkansas legislature for overriding the governor’s vetoes.

+ - Congratulations to Misao Okawa of Osaka, Japan, who was presented with the Guinness World Records certificate for being the world’s oldest woman at 114.

+ - Kudos to Steven Hanley for his feature in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, “Arkansas Postcard Past,” many of which end up taped into said journal. A Mansfield, AR combo gas station/café/ grocery/ truck-and-tourist stop somewhere around 1940 is one such item. The business sold Coca-Cola, Delaware Punch and Sinclair gasoline. During that time gas was 18 cents per gallon.

–– - Poor Land commissioner Rueben G. Dye, on February 24, 1913, put in a strenuous day. He had his office declared vacant by Attorney General Moose, being appointed to it by Governor Robinson and then seeing the house pass a bill to abolish the office––all in one day.  Also Mr. Dye enjoys the distinction of being the only state official in the history of Arkansas [politics] whose office was declared vacant after he had been elected to it. [Maybe that needs to happen in 2013. Just sayin'.]

+ - Willie Kavanaugh Hocker, who died in 1944, designed the Arkansas flag as a result of winning a contest around 1912, beating out 64 others. The flag was adopted February 18, 1913 and made law February 26 that year. The design was unchanged until 1923 when a fourth star was added for the Confederacy.

–– - There are 925 million hungry people in the world and US folks spend $51 billion a year on our pets, according to K. Horrigan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

–– - The US has five percent of the world’s population, yet consumes one-sixth of the world’s animal protein—8 ounces per person per day, and we pay less for it than anyone.

+ - Arkansas has 96 weekly newspapers and 28 dailies, according to Jack Weatherly.

+ - A joke going around, found in Terry Mattingly’s religion column earlier: Father James Martin, a Jesuit, tweeted, “Pope Benedict XVI is raising the bar when it comes to giving things up for Lent.”

–– - After the meteor hit Siberia, a nationalist leader in Russia was reported as saying, “It’s not meteors falling. It’s the test of a new weapon by the Americans.” [!?!?]

+ - Ash-Wednesday-on-the-go:  Episcopal and Ecumenical Catholic priests set up a drive/walk-up place for prayers and ashes in Little Rock.

–– - [Some news briefs beg me (!) to turn them into cinquains:] “Precious, /thirty-one, barged/ into a high school class, / helped daughter beat up another/ student.” [I can’t imagine; glad I’m retired from the classroom--except in occasional dreams.]

+ - “The gift of singing songs …” (title) “Children’s/ choir—Italian--/ sang to Pope Benedict/ in German, his native tongue. He/ thanked them.”  

+ - Long live Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.