Making our own kites!

I'm thinking back to a time my brothers and I-plus kids on the block-would make our own kites out of tree branches and newspaper. They would fly just fine. I'd borrow one of Mom's paring knives from the kitchen drawer to smooth out the branches, then cut a little notch in each end for the string. We used newspaper because it was light and more importantly, available.
It didn't take long to make these, but the fun, creativity, and ingenuity of our young minds made these homemade flyers all the more appealing. We created them ourselves, and were very proud to fly them. Most of us always gathered on the school grounds to fly our kites. The school grounds were ideal as they provided a natural runway.
In short, our homemade kites were wonderful, and the best part? 15 cents normally spent on a store-bought kite could be spent on candy.

When is summer ever going to get here? Summer in Oregon can be a strange season that I blame entirely on global warming, road rage, fat free products, and the axis shift. I remember the good old days when summer was definitely sizzlin'! Anyway, just a few days before my birthday, and I'm still waiting for the sun!

Valentine's Day

Happy (almost) Valentine's Day everybody! I can remember this as being the "dreaded holiday" in school where we actually had to give valentine cards to girls. It still seemed fun though, and the best part was that you could actually give your secret love a valentine and she wouldn't even catch on because everyone got one from you! (Of course, your favorite always got the best card in the bunch). Still, the holiday was fun because usually cookies and candy accompanied the celebration. In class, the card exchange was usually done with cookie in hand, thus killing some of the pain.
Who'da thunk that squirming around in my third grade seat, one day I'd actually fall in love with girls?

Anyone who's ever been to my website will know how passionate I am about remembering the 60's. With this said, I would like to welcome all my 60's friends, and my Boomer brothers and sisters out there. I'm recieving so many wonderful messages from all of you that perhaps we can talk more here.

So, here I am, basically trying to learn to type on this new, smaller keyboard with my clumsy fingers. Remember when a keyboard was a Vox organ like the ones used by The Dave Clark Five, or Paul Revere and the Raiders? Remember when text messaging was what we scribbled on schoolyard walls? Better yet, think of the good times when you could get a hamburger, fries and a Coke for 39 cents.

Welcome friends. In here it's always summer, 87 degrees in the shade, the Kool-Aid's free, and from a distant car radio we can hear some of the best music ever produced by a generation.

I was thinking about the Beatles the other day and found a great Paul McCartney clip on YouTube. It's really an awesome clip considering all that Paul has given us. He gets a big surprise onstage and is quite emotional-a testimonial to how much people love him.

The Beatles really strike a sentimental, almost melancholy chord within me as I begin to age with them. In their leaving, they take a bit of our life with them. Those days when we were all young with new pink lungs to scream our loudest, were some of the best days with the Beatles. Anyway, I found this to be a great clip.