Monthly Archives: January 2016

Monday, January 18, 2016 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Dream It. Believe It. Make It Happen.

Posted on January 18, 2016 | 1 comment

Monday, January 18, 2016 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Dream It. Believe It. Make It Happen.

Today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., please think about the following two excerpts from his I Have a Dream Speech, delivered on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D. C. Think about the words he said then and review them in light of the world today.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

—-

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Now go out there and make the world a better place.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

Lincoln Memorial Washington D.C. June 2013 Photo: Copyright Delia R. Duffey

Lincoln Memorial Washington D.C. June 2013 Copyright Delia R. Duffey

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Posted in Misc., Politics, Uncategorized

Tagged Dr, Jr. I have a dream speech, Martin Luther King

Friday, January 15, 2016 – The Case of the Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport – College Football and Kangaroos.

Posted on January 15, 2016 | 2 comments

The University of Akron mascot, Zippy Kangaroo University of Akron official website.

Good morning, Class – Before we begin our discussion of The Case of the Tie Me Kangaroo Down HWIT post, let’s take time away from instruction and assess something. From one of the Vocabulary Words portions of assessment practice, “Please use the noun “hebetude” or the state of being dull or lethargic in a sentence.”

Response: “He wanted to get up from the chair, but hebetude tired.”

And now to our group projects. Who wants to go first?

I do. If you read the comments on the actual HWIT site, Reggie Reader commented on the January 6, 2016 HWIT and presented a puzzle about college football and kangaroos.

Nancy Drew, here.

Dear Reggie Reader, I believe I have cracked The Case of Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport. Like all school projects, I did not have any help from my friends, Bess or George (the manly looking George whose real name was Georgia– what was that all about?) or that worthless boyfriend of mine, Ned. I had to do the project all by myself.

The MAIN clue (I so amuse myself) is The Old Main Building on the Sam Houston State University campus that burned on February 12, 1982.

If these responses are incorrect, then I think it was Colonel Mustard in the library with the lead pipe.

“Dear Madam Rose……… Now that most bowl games are behind us…….until 1/11 that is…… here are a series of bowl related puzzlers to ponder while waiting for the Ags to select a QB and/or OC.

A Div 1 bowl team is blessed with a kangaroo for a head coach. Can you name the coach & team

The Potato Bowl (or Potatoe Bowl if you are Dan Quayle), Head Coach for The University of Akron, Terry Bowden.

A different Div1 bowl team’s head coach has kangaroos on his résumé……..as well as the Hall of Fame. Can you name the coach?

Hall of Fame Coach Bill Snyder currently Head Coach at Kansas State served as Offensive Coordinator at Austin College from 1974 to1975.

Yet another Div 1 bowl team, in a record tying victory, utilized a QB who is a member of a kangaroo family. Can you name the team & QB ?

Former head coach at The Ohio State University, Jim Tressell, (2000-2010) played quarterback for The University of Akron from 1975-1978. The mascot for The University of Akron is Zippy the Kangaroo.

Hint….think Old Main.”

I did, Reader Reggie – You son of a preacher man! A Presbyterian one if I recall.

From the Austin College website – Austin College opened in Huntsville, Texas and admitted its first class in the fall of 1850. Its original building still stands in Huntsville.

From the Sam Houston State University website – The university’s original three buildings were: Austin, Main, and Peabody.

Fever epidemics, the Civil War, and difficult economic conditions prompted the College’s relocation to north Texas. Austin College moved to Sherman, a more promising area, in 1876.

When The Old Main Building on the Sam Houston campus burned, efforts to save that building switched to save The Austin Building one of the original buildings of what was called Austin College.

http://buildingshsu.com/m/main_building/

The D-1 Bowl clues were helpful. I almost got side tracked by this Kangaroo – aka in mysteries as “the red herring.”

The head football coach for Austin College in Sherman, Texas is Loren Dawson who played for Austin College before transferring to Arizona State University where he graduated with both Bachelors and Masters Degrees. Coach Dawson returned and served as Defensive Coordinator at Austin College before becoming head coach. The mascot of the liberal arts focused and Presbyterian supported college is Katy the Kangaroo.

Reader Reggie, is there a prize? Thanks for the challenge. I should make an A, but not Bess, George or Ned.

http://www.austincollege.edu/about/history/

2 Comments

Posted in College Football, Education, Native Texan

Tagged Austin College, Bill Snyder, Jim Tressell, Kansas State University, Loren Dawson, Sam Houston State University, Terry Bowden, The Ohio State University, University of Akron, Zippy Kangaroo

Thursday, January 14, 2016 – Me and My Life as told by Kris Kristofferson Songs.

Posted on January 14, 2016 | 3 comments

Thursday, January 14, 2016 – Me and My Life as told by Kris Kristofferson Songs.

To summarize my life in song today, I have another of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century – Kris Kristofferson! Come on – He wasn’t a Rhodes Scholar for nothing! And one does not receive a Master’s Degree from Oxford, Merton College, in British Literature by just warming the seat. Not to mention, he is a Native-born Texan!

All of us who admired Kristofferson during our youth did so, purely for his gifted intellectual abilities. The concert poster of him that was in my McC Classroom was strictly there to motivate my students. It was certainly not the fact that he warmed our seats with his looks causing decent women to chase him. CS? Where was that concert? Ms. Navasota? Have you remembered where we saw Joan Baez – besides Houston? SQUIRREL!

And we continue to admire Kristofferson today even more so for his gifted abilities, the fact he can still warm our seats and the fact that his songs and music tell the stories that formed how a generation sees the world.

Kris Kristofferson wrote the sound track to many moments in our BOOMER lives. These are some really good songs that I think describe me, an outlook on life many of us Boomers share and then one of the reasons that I think the world is the way it is today.

It is the songs I am leaving out that are more interesting about my life but only a very select few know those – usually because the select few were there to share the experience – in some cases to cause it. If Kristofferson was not one of your favs in your youth, perhaps you had not lived enough life to understand or appreciate.

The more familiar you are with each song, the more this whole essay will make sense. If you are really bored at work and/or your boss is out of town or wherever you are accessing this, look up each song and listen to them on YOUTUBE as you read.

Like me – Jesus Was a Capricorn – He ate organic foods; He believed in love and peace,” sandal wearing, with a funky bunch of friends. “Someone doing something dirty, descent folks will frown on…” “Most of us hate anything that we don’t understand.”

Especially if tequila is involved – The Silver Tongued Devil – I’ll live only live till I die; we take our own chances and pay our own dues; the silver tongued and I.

Always – The Pilgrim Chapter 33 – walking contradiction, partly truth; partly fiction;

Still – To Beat The Devil – If you waste your time a talking to the people who don’t listen to things that you are saying, who do you think’s gonna hear?

And you still can hear me singin’ to the people who don’t listen, To the things that I am sayin’, prayin’ someone’s gonna hear. And I guess I’ll die explaining how the things that they complain about, Are things they could be changin’, hopin’ someone’s gonna care.

Oh yes, where is the ibupropin? – Sunday Morning Coming Down – cause there’s something in a Sunday…

The reason the world is what the way it is today – Blame it on The Rolling Stones – Including the holy rolling and stone throwing ones.

Blame it on the Stones; blame it on the Stones You’ll feel so much better, knowing you don’t stand alone Join the accusation; save the bleeding nation Get it off your shoulders; blame it on the Stones.

YES, That’s beautiful!

Thank you Kris Kristofferson.

So hard to select a photo of Kris Kristofferson. I chose this one because I had this album. AKA – today known as vinyl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Kristofferson

“Songs of Kristofferson” by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Songs_of_Kristofferson.jpeg#/media/File:Songs_of_Kristofferson.jpeg

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Posted in Native Texan

Tagged Kris Kristofferson

Wednesday, January 13, 2016 – January 13, 1949 – 12:31 AM – I am born.

Posted on January 13, 2016 | 1 comment

Wednesday, January 13, 2016 – January 13, 1949 – 12:31 AM – “I am born.”

Actually that is the opening line of Chapter One of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens novel. I liked these guys from England much better than Dickens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeIL6e0NpgE

On which album is the song Birthday? Here is a hint: It is one of these.

The Beatles (600x800)

Here is me on the horse. Ask almost any Baby Boomer about getting their picture made on the horse.

Horse (570x800)

Early Miss Magnolia Picture

image5 (494x800)

Notice the left orthopedic shoe – I hope it is on the edge of the magnolia tree. Otherwise, the shoe is not working and did not do its job which explains a lot doesn’t Krystal?

My favorite sister playing jacks with me. My other playmate was the TV in the background.

image5 (800x584)

I am off to school – second grade.

image8 (586x800)

Mrs. Evelyn Shannon’s class. Also THE only second grade class at Magnolia Elementary. We would move from the sawmill that spring.

Patsy Cline with a basketball.

HB and Mama bought the house next to the school from Guinn and Lena Sanders. Yes, it was the house with the “little steps” over the fence.

50 years later I would ride this instead of a horse – not that I spent a great deal of time on a horse, but I do have some pictures as proof. The first bike was my Harley-Davidson, 883 Sportster with Van and Hines pipes for safety. Of course the additional extra loud HD sound was pretty cool too.

Bikes (800x530)

I like tell people for my 50th birthday I got a motorcycle and a tattoo, only one of which I still have. I swear, if you ask which one, I will unfriend you.

At The Zilker Kite Festival in Austin, Texas. Me intimidating a small child. Hey, I rode a Harley! I ain’t backing away from no little kid.

Zilker Kite Festival 13 2013-03-03 108 (800x530)

Photo by Karen Mathews

“Birthday” is a song written by John Lennon–Paul McCartney and performed by The Beatles on their 1968 double album …The Beatles …..commonly known as “The White Album.”

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tuesday, January 12, 2015 – It’s OUR Birthday! Happy Birthday to my Favorite Sister and to One of My High School Classmates.

Posted on January 12, 2016 | 4 comments

Tuesday, January 12, 2015 – It’s OUR Birthday! Happy Birthday to my Favorite Sister and to One of My High School Classmates.

Happy Birthday to Sister Dale and Dear Friend, Mollie!

I know you were paying close attention to detail yesterday and immediately noticed that in yesterday’s post, Molly’s name was spelled M-O-L-LY. Today it is spelled M- O-L-L-I- E. This is because Molly/ie was way ahead of her time as she was in most things and like most young ladies in their teen years, they experimented with the changing of her name. I have yet to determine how some of my classmates and friends spell their first names. I wanted to change my name to Pdelia with a silent “P” but mother would not let me.

As I mentioned in an earlier HWIT post, Mollie and I shared birthday parties at age six and again at age 13. I think we may have had a Sweet 16, but I really do not remember and can find no photographs. Here are some photographs from the party when we were six. It is OK, Celeste to change one of your FB comments – “As I recall, you were rather spoiled” to totally spoiled. Everybody knew it (knows it?).

The Birthday Party of Delia and Mollie – January 12 or 13, 1955 – Age 6 – Magnolia, Texas – Sawmill House

Prior to the arrival of guests

That was the cutest little dress – a black velvetin top with a darling gro-grain black and white checked skirt. I refused to wear it! Obviously, notice who won that dress war. Notice the look of sheer happiness on my face. Perhaps it was the orthopedic shoes. It also appears that I just received a haircut from Barber Clark who was the barber at the sawmill.

Shoes (530x800)

You think I am going to smile wearing this? It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.

The “best” smile I could muster.

The Party

I do not remember those little girls at the end of the table, but the one on the right does not appear to be having a good time. Is that Melanie Swann?

BD 1 (800x495)

You can bet that homemade cake had perfect 7 minute icing with a devil’s food chocolate inside. Still my favorite cake of all time. Notice the cake is already cut from one side? Who did that? Why our lovely Mollie. That is her head in the foreground.

And then my turn. I am so pissed at this point, I am surprised my mother allowed a knife in my hands. Notice Mollie’s ensemble? I am quite confident I gave my mother the best dirty look at six year old can muster –

image10 (800x542)

Miss Mae Emma let Mollie wear blue jeans and flannel shirt and you made me wear this dress! With orthopedic shoes no less!

Kristen, I have seen that same look and silly grin on your face many times. Talk about genetics!

Sweet Memories. Dear Friends.

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Posted in Misc.

Monday, January 11, 2011 – The SECond Week of January or Happy Birthday to Us All! And Roll Tide.

Posted on January 11, 2016 | 1 comment

Monday, January 11, 2011 – The SECond Week of January or Happy Birthday to Us All! And Roll Tide.

Please note: Today’s post continues the birthday wishes from last week including, but not limited to, The Lovely Carol Townsend, The Oracle of the Elvi – Elvis Presley, one of my many alter egos – Diane Keaton and the great Joan Baez – no introduction needed unless you are in your 30’s, then Google or go ask your parents. Please do not confuse my many alter egos with my multiple personalities.

This week and each day this week, there is a special birthday memory from me to you.

Sunday – January 10 – To Pat George: Deer Pat. This here be yore gud fren from long time ago, Odie Lou, wishing you a Happi Berthday!

Sunday – January 10

To: RL

From: DrD

Re: Birthdays: January 10 and 13, 2016

Attn: Needed by COB or on State Standard Time

Happy Birthday, Dear Friend. I still do not understand why we could not get our state agency ID cards with one photo of both of us in the same frame. Separate ID cards, but with one photo with the two of us would have saved the state money and tax payers too. But that was too logical. It wasn’t like people could not tell us apart – especially during your beard years. But it was still fun to argue with the people responsible for the state ID cards – renewal the week of your birthday.

Monday – January 11 – Anybody born today who is saying Roll Tide.

Tuesday – January 12 – Happy Birthday to my favorite sister, Dale Marie. Love you. Have fun in Padre. It might be a bit chilly for your string bikini. I would go with the indoors, a fire and a good book. Love this photo of you and your Cabbage Patch doll. OMG – that is me! And you are about to drop me! Well, that explains a lot doesn’t it? “I am not crazy. My mother had me tested.” (Dr. Sheldon Cooper)

Cabbage Patch sister

Tuesday, January 12 – Happy Birthday my childhood gone too soon friend Molly Harper Fowler

Delia Duffey and Molly Harper – their 13th birthday party @ Magnolia Community Center

and then …

Wednesday, January 13 – To ME! And to two of the dearest friends a person could have been blessed with in their life and that I am blessed to share the anniversary of our births. Carolyn Sue and Nova T. What is even better is that they are both older than I am! LMAO!

Sidebar: Carolyn Sue – Is it true that you and one of your friends ran past security back stage at a concert chasing Kris Kristofferson only to run into his then wife, Rita Coolidge and her security? It’s a wonder we, I mean you and your friend, were not arrested.

Sidebar: Nova – I promise I will ask the next person who comes through the door at the bar to dance, BEFORE the song ends, but they must have a full set of teeth, or at least all of the front ones on the top and the bottom.

Wednesday, January 14 – Larry Martinez – Memory from Mrs. Mock’s 5th Grade Class, Magnolia Elementary School – On the first day of each month students with birthdays that month went to the blackboard (that is what it was called then) and wrote the dates of their birthday. Molly, Larry and I were the January birthdays.

Thursday, January 15 – Lloyd Bridges, father of Jeff and Beau and stared in Airplane and the 1960’s TV series Sea Hunt. I really did not nor do not have any memories of Lloyd Bridges, or his sons but I did watch Sea Hunt as a child and saw the movie Airplane.

Friday, January 16 – George Edward Pickett, Brigadier General, Confederate States of America. Led a charge during the Battle of Gettysburg. It really did not turn out too well. I did not know him either, but I did read the book Killer Angels about The Battle of Gettysburg and the infamous charge, historically known as Pickett’s Charge. Plus – it is Snarky Friday. Life lessons: Do not always charge down the middle dividing your forces into two parts. Nevertheless, live life as though you are leading a cavalry charge!

Anyway, if it is your birthday today, then I hope it is happy and Roll Tide.

1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Alabama, Beau Bridges, Jeff Bridges, Kris Kristofferson, Lloyd Bridges, Roll Tide, Sea Hunt, Sheldon Cooper

Friday, January 8, 2016 – Whole Lotta Shaking Going On! Happy Birthday to The Oracle of The Elvi

Posted on January 8, 2016 | 3 comments

Friday, January 8, 2016 – Whole Lotta Shaking Going On! Happy Birthday to The Oracle of The Elvi

“Warden threw a party in the county jail; the prison band was there and it began to wail; the band was jumpin’ and the joint began to swing. You should’ve heard those knocked out jailbirds sing. Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.”

That’s alright, Mama, but there is a whole lotta shaking going on at the jailhouse rock because you ain’t nothing but a hound dog in a heartbreak hotel, in the ghetto, with a hunka hunka burning love, where wise men say only fools rush in, because I can’t stop falling in love with you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to The Elvi – Elvis Aaron Presley

Born January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi.

How many Elvis songs can you get into one sentence?

From what movie is Can’t Help Falling in Love with You? And the extra bonus question – What was the name of the movie theatre in Tomball, Texas where Madam Rose saw the movie?

How many know that Elvis gave a concert in Conroe, Texas? It was in the old Conroe High School stadium – the campus then became Travis Jr. High – and today the building and grounds are something else in CISD. You must be really old, like my sister whose birthday is next week, to remember stuff like this. Most everybody from Conroe in that age bracket swears they saw Elvis in the Conroe High Stadium in the 1950’s. Some will even swear they had an ice cream cone with Elvis at the Dairy Queen on South Frazier after the concert.

So celebrate the Inner Elvis in all of us today and LET’S ROCK!

Janne, is it a state holiday in Mississippi?

Answers: Blue Hawaii. Winona Theatre – Main Street, Tomball, Texas

“Thank you! Thank you very much! I believe I will go have me a “peanut butter and nanner samwich.”

Elvis

http://www.biography.com/people/elvis-presley-9446466#early-interest-in-music

3 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Conroe Texas, Elvis Presely

Thursday, January 7, 2016 – Throw Back Thursday – WE’RE FROM M-H-S …

Posted on January 7, 2016 | Leave a comment

Thursday, January 7, 2016 – Throw Back Thursday – WE’RE FROM M-H-S AND NO ONE COULD BE PROUDER AND IF YOU CANNOT HEAR US, WE’LL YELL A LITTLE LOUDER!

Great memories of yellow buses full of teenagers screaming this as the band buses rolled into an opponent’s stadium under the Friday night lights. So today is a throwback to all of the Magnolia ISD football teams and especially to this one – 1952 – I think. District 34 B District Champs!

065_65_090 (800x540)

The photographs come from two of the Rickett girls – Tracy and Suzanne (and their brothers – Ricky and Jon too). See the quarterback – your Uncle Mann? That is Big Don in the back field.

The Awards Program is from my collection. It appears most of the team received some type of recognition. Their faces are pretty easy to see since there were no face masks – even during play. Check out the opponents on the schedule.

Magnolia

30 Sugarland 0

19 Klein 12

25 * Cypress Fairbanks 13

13 Tomball 39

31 *Sealy 0

27 * Hempstead 7

12 Angleton 13

20 * Katy 7

33 * Waller 7

15 * Spring Branch 14

*District Game

If my math is correct, MHS had been playing 11 man football for only about 5 years.

Awards Program (800x450)

020_20_020 (800x540) 015_15_015 (800x540) 011_11_011 (800x540)

Still Proud. Still Loud. And Still Magnolia.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016 – Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport!

Posted on January 6, 2016 | 1 comment

Wednesday, January 6, 2016 – Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport! Or Some Puzzling Questions.

A most valued reader of Here’s What I’m Thinking left a football puzzle as a comment the other day. Thank you, Reader Reggie for reading and the comment. I do not know the answers so I am offering the puzzlers to others today. I can think of many D-I college football coaches that are considered donkeys, but I am going have to jump around online to research coaching kangaroos.

And now, jumping to our puzzle.

A Div 1 bowl team is blessed with a kangaroo for a head coach. Can you name the coach & team ?

A different Div1 bowl team’s head coach has kangaroos on his résumé……..as well as the Hall of Fame. Can you name the coach?

Yet another Div 1 bowl team, in a record tying victory, utilized a QB who is a member of a kangaroo family. Can you name the team & QB ?

Hint….think Old Main.”

Initial thoughts.

# 1: Too bad it is not Kliff Kingsbury from Tortilla Tech. It would make such great alliteration.
# 2: Dear Coach Kingsbury, I know you love your alma mater, and you are cranking it up a notch, but just in case you have not heard, the Offensive Coordinator position is open at Texas A&M.
# 3: One QB has already selected the Texas Aggies and with high school signing day now less than a month I am sure others will select the Harvard on the Brazos as their choice. Meanwhile – SEC! SEC! SEC! ROLL TIDE!

Old Main? – Sam Houston State University once had a building called Old Main.

I shall seek intellectual guidance and stimulation at the local Academic Salon where all Aggies go to think deep thoughts.

Campus tour 7.5.2014 2014-07-05 098 (800x600)

If you can solve the puzzle, please contact Reader Reggie for your prize. I think it is a stuffed kangaroo.

1 Comment

Posted in College Football, Native Texan

Tagged Alabama, college football, Kliff Kingsbury, Roll Tide, Texas Aggies, Texas Tech

2015 in review

Posted on January 5, 2016 | 1 comment

Tuesday, January 5, 2016 – I Would Like to Thank the Members of the Academy, my high school English teachers and you.

I am going to a meeting today so read this instead. Remember the goal of Here’s What I’m Thinking is to make at least one person smile/laugh and/or think every day.

Here is the Annual Report from the crunchy number people at WordPress about Here’s What I’m Thinking. Thank you again. Please continue to read and follow in 2016.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,500 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.