Life's Lows and Highs ... Sam Kegley

Life's Lows and Highs- SamKat

Consider life's lowest points in disapointments or hurts with the highest points of oh-my-gosh happiness.

A personal low:

About 1938 after Portsmouth''s and the Ohio Valley's horrendous floods of 1937-  My great parents, Forest and Mary Kegley were coping their very best with then Ted, Joan, Bud, Sam, and George, five of the eventual ten kids of the family.

I am nearing seven and wearing my knicker pants.  I felt like a rag muffin or a near homeless refugee kid.  Pre-WW II elastic quickly stretched beyond limits and became non-elastic.  Boys like me had one pants leg held up under the knee and the other pants leg hanging loosely.  That was a low, not understandable by a six year old boy.

A personal High:


I am nearing seventeen in 1949 and I have met this girl from New Boston, Jeanette Weddington.  A while earlier Paul Stamm and Don Ramsey told me of a New Boston Beauty they had seen at Grierson's Restauraunt across Millbrook Lake Bridge in New Boston.  Next evening we rode up to the popular New Boston hangout for the teeny boppers of that era which was called the Honky Tonk.
I was impressed with the appearance of the smooth two-year-older girl, but not to the point of even thinking of a possible romance. 

I also worked as an usher at the Ohio Theatre in New Boston.  Shortly afterwards I would see  Jeanette from time to time, either walking by the show on her way up to another gathering spot for the teens, Joe Day's American Restaurant or in the theatre.  I was more impressed than at first.  She was recognized among most as the excellent jitter-bug dancer she was, and as an attractive and slim, around five feet-six inches tall, good-looking young lady.  I soon became smitten.

Now I had kissed girls at parties even though I was still quite bashful.  The Clark twins, Carl and Clare whom I grew up with, were also Ohio Theatre ushers.  Many times they, not being bashfiul with girls to say the very least, had to goad me into kissing a girl, sometimes even at our boy-girl parties.

I made it a point to meet this beautiful Jeanette.  She eventually consented to let me walk her home from the Honky Tonk, nearly a mile west on Rhodes Avenue.  I found that I could talk with her more easily than any other female.  She made me comfortable with our conversation.  We got to her house and there was a fence with a crooked tree in the yard near the gate.  Close conversations led to closer heads and it happened. Jeanie kissed me!  Of course, this smitten, bashful boy had pursed his lips first inviting the mystic happening.  Took me a while to get to this point of my story but this was a definite High in my life.

Consider also that the latter event happened sixty-three years ago and Jeanie and I will be married sixty-one years next month. 

Sammie Kegley     aka SamKat

Salute to American Services- W.Va Marching Band

Subject: Fwd: Cool thing ever seen W Va marching band do.

 Makes you proud!

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Subject: This is the coolest thing I've ever seen a marching band do.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjPmmCtHmfE  This is the coolest thing I've ever seen a marching band do.  Watch for the propeller on the submarine.

Cumberland Advisors Commentary- Fiscal Cliff

 

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Sent: 12/5/2012 11:47:56 A.M. Pacific Standard Time
Subj: Fw: FW: Cumberland Advisors Commentary - Personal view on Fiscal Cliff

 

My Personal View on the Fiscal CliffDecember 5, 2012

Numerous readers have emailed and asked me a personal question:  “What would YOU like to see happen with the fiscal cliff?”  We thank you for the question.

Please remember, this missive will not be about what is going to happen.  We do not know that outcome and neither does anyone else.  We hold an opinion that there is a deal coming.  We think it will be at the 11th hour or even early next year after we tumble over the January 1 cliff.  But that is just an informed guess.  President Obama didn’t add much clarity to that view in his Bloomberg interview today.  Readers may see it and hear it on Bloomberg.com.

Instead, today’s letter is about what we would like to see happen, and why. My view is simple: until we experience the cliff, we will not understand what it really means.  Hence, we will not act wisely if we do it prospectively.

We believe the markets and citizenry are too complacent about our government.  US investors are used to watching the Washington charade.  Voters, in nearly every congressional jurisdiction, are trapped by limited choices, which is why we re-elect most incumbents.  Our politics are the politics of default choices.

Our markets are driven by forces such as low interest rates and global demand and geopolitical risk.  We go on about our daily business in spite of our broken government.  We engage in a collective trillion economic decisions each and every day, without government help.  Leave us alone and we can pretty much figure out what to do.

We have a broken political system, in which our leaders are about as popular as the proverbial used-car salesperson (according to recent polls).  Most of us feel that way about them but cannot do anything about it, so we go on with our lives and let the self-serving “leaders” in Washington decide our fate.

 

One defining characteristic of Americans is to rally in time of crisis.  We do that in wartime.  We do that with natural disasters like Katrina and Sandy.  We do that with regard to health matters.  We are generous with our charity.  Mainstream Americans are mostly good folks.  But we are reactive, not proactive.

So, let’s see if we can rally to deal with this government crisis.  But we won’t do it unless and until we know we have a real crisis on our hands.  So, let’s have at it.  To get there, we need to go over the cliff and stay there long enough to actually begin to experience what it feels like, and what it means, to be off the precipice.

 

Let’s see what happens when all the income tax credits expire on lower incomes and when 140 million Americans get hit with an average $1000 a year in a payroll tax hike.  Let’s see what the experience is when sequestration kicks in hard.  Let’s watch the layoffs of defense contractors who have to downsize since they won’t be paid by the federal government.  Let’s tax capital and dividends and income at high rates and let our citizens begin to feel the impact in their pocketbooks.  Let’s tax estates at confiscatory rates.  Let’s allow tax-free bonds to be penalized when our schools and sewer systems need financing.  Let’s subject 24 million folks to the alternative minimum tax.  And on, and on, and on.

The political morons generalize in their pronouncements because they fear giving us real details.  Our president repeatedly attacks the rich with class-warfare rhetoric.  He says upper 2% of income but he doesn’t say that many are independent businesses.  Does he ever mention an S-Corp small business that is trying to accumulate capital to grow a business and hire folks?  Many small businesses finds themselves burdened with a marginal effective tax rate above 50% under the present tax system – before we even go over the cliff?  That is where a small business can find itself when all taxes imposed are combined. 

 

Obama avoided this detail today.  He cited CEOs of big companies.  He ignored the half of the country that is small and independent firms even while claiming that 97% of them will benefit. 

 

Obama uses the new-age definition of millionaire: a couple filing a joint income tax return with a $250,000 annual income.  He never mentioned that his failure to compromise means the lower-income tax groups will incur a very high tax hike once we’re off the cliff.  He never admits that some of the lower middle-class tax rates he claims are obtained are in place by using the deception of credits.

 

The Republicans are not any better.  Republicans never say, “We defend the 15% carried interest provision.”  They never explain the details by which many wealthy Americans benefit from provisions in the tax code that are engineered to benefit the few at the expense of the many.  They just say no changes in tax rates.  And now they are clamoring for “revenue,” which means changing the tax code, not the rates. 

 

Readers, please note, it is the effective tax rate that really counts.  Let me repeat and add clarity.  It is ONLY the effective tax rate that counts.

Both Republicans and Democrats are disingenuous.  That is a nice term for lying to us and deceiving us and using fuzzy language to mask the truth. 

 

So, my personal proposal is to have a major fight and a resulting stalemate that persists until there is real pain in the land.  I would like to see my fellow citizens get really angry with Washington and set aside their partisan differences and then throw out some of the bums of both parties.

 

I would like to see us get mad enough and scared enough and clear enough about what’s really happening to us, that we realize we have to pull together to claw our way back from the cliff and get this country on stable ground.

Let me invoke a scene from a movie that will date me.  What I want you to do is throw open the window, stick out your head, and yell “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.”  If you are too young to remember the movie, Google the phrase and watch the scene (YouTube will take you there).

That is what I would like to see happen, dear readers.  We need to open our windows and yell.  Get 314 million of us angry enough at our government, and we will stop this nonsense.  Unless we get that angry, this broken-down system of ours is going to go clickety-clack right off the cliff. 

 

Happy holidays to all cliff dwellers (us).  Get angry.  Tell your congress people that you’re angry.  Whether you’re Democrat or Republican, be angry, be clear-headed, and demand the truth. It’s our country!

 

Thank you for asking.

 David R. Kotok, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer

Dave Brubeck- Dead at 92 ... a Clark Rapalee Favorite

Dave Brubeck’s Thursday News & Views
by Mrs. Tyler Thompson @ 11:00 pm. Filed under Blue Blooded Opinions

“Who is Dave Brubeck?”

Odds are most of you asked that question when you saw this post.
Brubeck was one of the world’s most famous jazz musicians, who
revolutionized the genre with his exotic and challenging rhythms. A
composer and pianist, Brubeck was most famous for his “Take 5″
recording, which you can listen to below:

Brubeck passed away on Wednesday one day shy of his 92nd birthday. I’m
not a jazz aficionado, but in today’s world of synth and auto-tune, I
can certainly appreciate true musical talent, and Brubeck had it. Keep
tappin’ those ivory keys up there for us, Dave. Say hi to Bill
Keightly while you’re at it.

Social Security socialistic Changes ... Thanks Ron W.!

Have you noticed, your Social Security check is now referred to as a "Federal Benefit Payment"?

I'll be part of the one percent to forward this.

I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you.

Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it.

The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a 'Federal Benefit Payment'.

THIS ISN'T A 'BENEFIT' - IT'S EARNED INCOME!

Not only did we all CONTRIBUTE to the Social Security TRUST Fund, but our employers did too.

It totaled 15% of our income before taxes. If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.

If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both your and your employer's contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved! This is your personal investment.

Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month.

That's almost three times more than today's average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration (Google it - it's a fact).

And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had

just INVESTED our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts.

Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff ever did. They took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn't have a

referendum to ask us if we wanted to LEND the money to them for other use!

And they didn't pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently, they've told us that the money won't support us for very much longer. But is it our fault they misused our investments?

And now, to add insult to injury, they're calling it a benefit, as if we never worked to earn every penny of it.

Just because they 'borrowed' the money, doesn't mean that our investments were a charity!

Let's take a stand.

We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare.

Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government!

Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going, for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it.

Then call it what it is: Our EARNED RETIREMENT INCOME!

Most people won't forward this.

Will you?

More Pics from Lyle S.!

KEEP READING!

The "GOLDEN" Years!

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE

Twentieth Century Pics ... thanks Lyle S.!

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 Hi,  If you don't enjoy this e-mail, there is something wrong with you.  But... there is a
slim possibility that you are too young to recognize any of the people shown in
this e-mail.  

JoAnne 

Priceless Rare Photos...

Some of these photos will blow you away.

Enjoy--and further down ~ enjoy the jokes, also.

A Baby Boomer's Time Machine 

Wow, 007!

(and one never seen anywhere before JFK+MM)