Wednesday, March 27, 2013

This Day in History- March 27th

This Day in History: President Lincoln meets with Generals Grant and Sherman to plot the last stages of the Civial War; he would be dead a little over two weeks later after having successfully brought the nation through its greatest crisis in history, 1865; fingerprint evidence is used for the very first time to solve a brutal double murder case in England, 1905; Washington, D.C. gets a vibrant new look as lovely cherry blossom trees are planted along the Potomac, the gift of our friends to the East, 1912; one of the worst earthquakes in U.S. history measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale rocks Alaska, causing an enormous tsunami with 100-foot tidal waves, killing 125 people and destroying large parts of downtown Anchorage, 1964

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Going Around the Corner... and Going Back 30 Years...

Thought for the Day: "Last night I did something I haven't done in several years. I went out to see a friend's rock band play at a local club near West Chester, Pa. He's in his early 60's, as were most of the other band members (a banker, a funeral home director, etc.) They ran through a set which was all fun tunes- the Doobie Brothers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Marhsall Tucker Band, the Rolling Stones- and it took me back 30 years to a time when I went out to hear live music on a weekly basis. Something else happened. As I watched these people in their 50's... 60's... some even around 70 dancing to these tunes, I realized how different this generation was from our parents and grandparents generation- who started looking frumpy and wrinkled and old beginning in their late 40's- many of whom sat on the couch watching T.V. or simply stayed home, rarely going out to do something really fun. Notwithstanding the ones whose figures had turned from slender and muscular to potato-like (most of them) as they jiggled across the dance floor, it was refreshingly fun to watch... and it brought a smile..."