They call this a softball, ... thanks Joanie S. and Deb. G.!

Jim K's High Notes The Scioto Voice 4-27-2012

High Notes 04-27-2012

In the mid-forties, about 1946 or so; Joe and Bessie Hansgen, with their sons, Joe and Dick lived at 1330 McConnell Avenue, and Howard R. and Mildred Brehmer and their son, Howard (Skip), lived two doors up McConnell Avenue at 1404.

Joe Hansgen was the oldest, then Skip, and Dick.

It was about 1945 or ’46 that Skip’s mother died, and Howard (Every body called him Sticks) and Skip were living in the small cottage alone. They called Howard senior, “Sticks”, I assume, because he was the long-time leader of the Boy Scout Drum and Bugle Corps, which met and marched for practice at Mound Park. Johnny Rowson remembers Sticks too, and said he was our Scout Troop leader at Franklin Methodist, Troop 12. Johnny played drums, and eventually the base drum. I was a member of Troop 12, but not the drum and bugle corps.

I do remember Sticks well, a fine man, whom I got to know better during the 1960’s when I handled his Ed Brehmer & Sons, Painting Contractors account while at the Portsmouth Times. Mrs. Thelma Boormaan was Sticks’ paint store clerk, located at 919 Chillicothe Street. Thelma, I learned, was the mother of Judy, Linda and Bill Boorman, all Lincoln School, PHS students, and fifties contemporaries of mine.

Sticks was a good father to Skip, and he used to invite all of the neighborhood boys to congregate every Saturday morning on the Brehmer front porch, to listen to their radio. Saturday mornings in those days, radio broadcasts were programmed for kids, just as today’s tv broadcasts are directed toward kids on Saturday mornings. In the mid forties, we had no television, but on Saturday we had a steady menu of serialized fare, such as, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, and our favorite, the suspense show, “Lights Out”. Lights Out, to pre-pubescent members of the McConnell Avenue gang, was major excitement, of the horrific kind…you know, ala ghost stories told around a flickering campfire.

There we’d be, everybody but Joe Hansgen, who was old enough to be a soldier, sitting around the radio on Skip Brehmer’s front porch. My brother George, two-years older than I, was a classmate of Dick. He was there, as was Randy Chapman, the youngest of the lot, and me. I can remember one particular “Lights Out” story, which chilled me to the bone. It had to do with a lighthouse keeper, whose small island was over-run by a horde of Norway rats, which escaped from a nearby ship wreck. The lighthouse had a circular staircase, and the tall round house was compartmentalized with closed-off doors and rooms every 15-feet or so, until the final trap-door into the top-most, light bearing room.

The story, punctuated with eerie organ music, held us on the edges of our seats as the squeaking, squealing rats would gnaw their way through each doorway, to the top, and the lighthouse keeper’s family. I seem to remember the rats were just about to get into the top floor, when another ship came by and lured the rats away.

Scary!

Lights Out, according to Google, began in January, 1934 and ran into the summer of 1947. It eventually made its way onto television.

Skip Brehmer, deceased, went to OSU, as did, Dick Hansgen. Skip graduated PHS in about 1952, and Dick graduated PHS in 1955.

A cowboy's prayer ... thanks Ralph!

Cowboy Poetry


Jake, the rancher, went one day
To fix a distant fence.
The wind was cold and gusty
And the clouds rolled gray and dense.

As he pounded the last staples in
And gathered tools to go,
The temperature had fallen,
And snow began to blow.

When he finally reached his pickup,
He felt a heavy heart.
From the sound of that ignition
He knew it wouldn't start.

So Jake did what most of us
Would do if we were there.
He humbly bowed his balding head
And sent aloft a prayer.

As he turned the key the last time,
He softly cursed his luck
They found him three days later,
Frozen stiff in that old truck.

Now Jake had been around in life
And done his share of roaming.
But when he saw Heaven, he was shocked --
It looked just like Wyoming !

Of all the saints in Heaven,
His favorite was St. Peter . So they sat and talked a minute or two,
Or maybe it was three.
Nobody was keeping' score --
In Heaven, time is free.

'I've always heard,' Jake said to Pete ,
'that God will answer prayer,
But the one time I asked for help,
Well, he just wasn't there.'

'Does God answer prayers of some,
And ignore the prayers of others?
That don't seem exactly square --
I know all men are brothers.'

'Or does he randomly reply,
Without good rhyme or reason?
Maybe, it's the time of day,
The weather or the season.'

'Now I ain't trying to act smart,
It's just the way I feel.
And I was wondering', could you tell me
What the heck's the deal?!'

Peter listened very patiently
And when Jake was done,
There were smiles of recognition,
And he said, 'So, you're the one!!'

That day your truck, it wouldn't start,
And you sent your prayer a flying,
You gave us all a real bad time,
With hundreds of us trying.'

'A thousand angels rushed,
To check the status of your file,
But you know, Jake , we hadn't heard
From you in quite a while.'

'And though all prayers are answered,
And God ain't got no quota,
He didn't recognize your voice,
And started a truck in Minnesota '!

IT'S BEST TO KEEP I N TOUCH!!

New Stadium ion Charlotte, NC ... thanks Judi!

Proposed new Charlotte stadium with retractable roof.

Just in time for the Democratic National Convention and Obama's speech.

Thanks Australia ... To Kill and American Thanks ron W.!

And thank you Ron w.!

Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2012 10:27 AM

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Subject: Fw: THANKS AUSTRALIA - THIS IS AWESOME

WORTH A REPEAT!!!!! We are not put on this earth for ourselves, but are placed here for each other. If you are always there for others, then in time of need, someone will be there for you. THANKS AUSTRALIA THIS IS AWESOME Written by an Australian Dentist To Kill an American You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American. So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!) 'An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish , Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan. An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans. An American is Christian , or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than inAfghanistan . The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion.. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God. An American lives in the most prosperous land inthe history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness. An American is generous.. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return. When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country! As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan ... The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11 , 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists. So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo , and Stalin , and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world.. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself . Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American. Please keep this going! Pass this around the World . Then pass it around again. It says it all, for all of us. Please do not just delete. Pass it on first. Thanks!

If I wanted America to fail ... Thanks Sonny H.!

This is amazing and the truth is we are doing all of this, Sonny! Hitler’s voting public right here in the USA and obama just keeps on pushing political lies for their approval. Come on tea Party and real American types. Let’s get busy and take back our America!

Just a voting citizen of the United States of America.

 

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4gnNz0vc&feature=player_embedded#!

God, Please bless the USA!

Czech Prager Zeitungon Article ... Thanks Rick B.!

Some people have the vocabulary to sum up things in a way that you can quickly understand them. This quote came from the Czech Republic . Someone over there has it figured out. It was translated into English from an article in the Prague newspaper Prager Zeitungon .

"The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president."

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Go Big Blue !!

'Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum'