A Moonshooters Diary

     This is too funny for words.  But I'm gonna use words to show you what I mean about...let it happen the way it's supposed to.        First, the delivery man left my box (that contained my 'needs to be put together' microwave cart) at the FRONT door.  I tracked that eagerly awaited package like it was a shipment of gold.  And for clarification, my address clearly states...1st floor REAR.  The handwritten note that is on my front door for all to see says, "ALL deliveries to be made in Rear...Thanks".  Grrrrr.   The reason?  I'm a 77 yr. young, man that doesn't like stairs so has NEVER gotten in the habit of using the front door.  The advantage of the back door?  I live on a hill and the enclosed back porch only has 1 step.  And to make matters worse, there wasn't even a knock on the door to let me know that it was there!  Double Grrrrr.  lol      It's a good thing that I...

My honey (aka Sylvia), when she lost patience with my 'writing mode', used to ask me, "When are you going to write your DAMNED book?"  Yep, she used to swear...once in awhile.  Especially when I peaced her off.  Since we met, I talked about being a 'published writer' and she was behind me all the way.  And we met in 1980.  She bought me books that she thought would help, let me take online writing classes and was a very supportive wife.  But when I was 'making excuses' I wish I would've had this so she might understand. Now I'm going to have to get my blog going before this Crocker croaks and has to eat his words.  But the blog seems as far as I'll get...unless I move more than the kitchen table.  I'm OFF...again.  This might be a slow start...but I'm turning on the key and revving up my engine.  Putt, putt, putt. 

     Today I was looking at my clown painting and suddenly, it jarred my memory.  It doesn't take much jarring these days to take a trip down Memory Lane or whatever that street's called.      I don't like to lay the blame on anyone, but since she's deceased, I'll point my finger at Sylvia as the culprit that got me going on my clown collection and my interest in clowns..  It all started several years before when the lady in question and I were just friends.  We were able to become 'best friends' so quickly because both of us had made the promise that we would NEVER get married again after what we'd been through.      One morning at Denny's, while we were having breakfast we had a sort of 'true confession' session.  It was during these we told each other 'secrets' that we would not even tell to our closest friends and family.  During one of these times, I told Syl  my biggest secret that not even my parents ...

     Now I'm at a crossroads.  Should I toss my team sweater... or get out the sewing basket and stitch up the seam and sew a few buttons on?   Most guys would toss it 'cause the ones I know don't have the time to bother or the skill necessary to accomplish that 'feat'.  And girls probably would be easier than guys (I'm just guessing at that one) to vote for the garbage can if they knew how long I had it.  1979?  34 years?       But when it's washed, my cardigan looks like new.  I've worn it every year I had it and it's been a 'good friend' to me when I've been cold...which is part of my nature.  Brrrrrrrr.  Originally, the dark blue sweater had my name stitched on the front and a patch announcing 'King's Skate Country' on the back.  All the members of the roller skating team had one for the occasions we had to separate the sheep from the group that weren't part of the team.  Did I just refe...

     How the time flies.  Two days ago it was Thanksgiving,  yesterday was officially Black Friday and before I know it, Christmas.  I keep getting 'reminders' everywhere I turn.  But this year I'm ahead of the 'decorating' for the Holidays game.  I have 3 items that I didn't put away from last year ('cause I was busy doin' nothing...or sumthin').  I am SO on top of it.       The first is an angel hanging on the frame beside my bedroom door.  It's 'lost' in the other stuff  'to look at' in my apartment.  I now can proudly point to it and give it the center stage of attention...mine.  Thirdly, I have the 'pole'.  No, I haven't taken up pole dancing in my Santa suit, it's a dohickey or thingambob that we used to use to flaunt our Holiday cards on.  Actually, it used to hold bags of potato chips and still has the name of the company that 'it' used to belong to.  I simply hook the...

I've found out (through a source I won't divulge...'cause I forgot who it was), that I could watch TV and movies for free on Hulu.  Now, with the price being with my 'range of affordabilty', I decided to check it out.  At first I went through the 'learning stage'.  I had to, like most other sites I come across, learn to navigate.  Since boating is not one of my skills, it was NOT smooth sailing at first. I found out, that without a TV service I could keep up with my favorite 'soap operas'.  And that's what I started doing.  But curiosity got the best of me.  One day I accidentally clicked on 'Korean drama' and a whole new world opened up to me.  Another country is into 'soaps' too!  Did I surrender to my curiosity?  Do bears do 'do do' in the woods?   But since I don't speak the language, I read the dialogue (I love to read and I do it fast) in order to know what's going on.  Through these 'adventures' I ...

     Ever since I was a kid growing up in Cleveland, music in one form or another has always been an emotional experience for me...and I don't take it for granted.  It's become as much a part of me as breathing.  With it I've learned to:  Smile, laugh, cry, dance, clean house, and myriad of other things.      First came the polka.  Both my parents owned accordions and that was one of their forms of entertainment.  Dad's was 120 bass that my cousin Julie brought back from Germany while she was stationed there in the Red Cross.  Mom had an older 48 bass job.  Through exposure, I liked polkas and waltzes.  I grew up with it, watched my parents have fun dancing (they were good), and since two of my much older cousins (Vic and Al) were taking accordion lessons, little Sonny (that's the nickname my dad saddled me with) wanted to take them too!.  But after learning the basics and having a good ...

Sometimes I wonder about the things that are happening in my life...and I wonder why they happen the way they do.  Is it an accident?  Or...am I finding things that I 'need to know exactly when I need to know them'?   This is an example.  I have a friend who has written a book that inspires me a great deal.  Last night I was chatting online with a new friend who has also written a book.  Which made me think of a book I have in my bookcase, written by the brother/uncle of a mother/daughter duo that I used to work with. (I hadn't met the guy, but he thinks much like I do.) This morning, I was thinking that it would be fun to sit on the couch, listen to piano music and relax while reading the last mentioned book.  When I got the book out, I found a letter I had written to Sylvia, my wife, several years ago when I was taking one of my f2k classes at Writers Village University.  This is what I said in the letter... Hey, baby. Guess what! ...

     In the 1990's after Sylvia and I returned to Reno, NV from our 'adventure' of living in her hometown of Waterbury, CT (which is where I now live...but that's another story), I was working again in a casino. It was a fun job because while I was dealing I got to talk to people and learn all about them.  But as with any job, I needed to come home and relax so a hobby was an answer.  While Syl was busy doing 'her girly thing' I could be bizee doing mine.       Sylvia (before I met her) used to do a lot of work with ceramics.  I still have a large stein that she painted, fired, and won a 1st prize for.  Now I'm not one that would be interested in going through 'all that' so one day at the mall I made a discovery.  Hydrocal.  The unfinished pieces were like unpainted plaster but stronger and didn't need to be fired.  A new hobby began.      First, among all the possibilities in the Hy...

Generally, I don't get 'hooked' on TV shows but this one is too 'hot' not to write about.  In my romping through the all the possibilities that are open to me, I've gotten enchanted by the Korean Drama series on Hulu.  In fact I've been staying up until the wee hours watching it. At 4 AM, I finally finished watching The Great Queen SeonDeok.  Wow!  It came in 62 parts and each one was an hour plus long (plus commercials).  What a learning experience that was!!!  I had to travel back in time (which is ez for me to do as 'history' used to be my forte.  And I went to Korea...a land I thought I'd never visit and learned about the people' I learned that even though I don't speak the language it was filmed in, they had this neat translator thingy that put it all together.  I read my way through it.  And of course that was fun...because I'm also an avid reader.  It was fun for me to see the remarkable way it was put together.  I not on...

Those are the words of a song that popped into my head as I was starting to write this,so... Naturally I had to 'chase the White Rabbit of curiosity' and find out where it led. I get into more 'trubble' that way, which is an adventure in itself. This morning I stripped the bed, including the mattress cover because it needed it and did some house 'chores'. It's fun to me, but I imagine it would be boring to someone else. Then the title of the book that I'm writing popped into my head. "Crocker Barrel Philosopy"? Geeze. Would I even pick up something like that by the name alone? Nah. It sounds like another boring book by some boring guy who thinks he's got a handle on some new fangled kind of philosophy. So I put it down. Hey, wait a minute! I realize that I'm the guy who's writing this book. So then I thunk up another one I can 'play with'. The Adventures of the Crocker Barrel Philosopher . Now...mebbe that's a little...

I decided that since Sylvia died that maybe, using what we collected over 30 years, I'd embark on 'tweaking' our castle a bit. So I started moving furniture, disposing of things I knew she'd dispose of and turning our home into 'different' look. Syl used to say, "If you're not going to use it...get rid of it." The part she forgot to mention is all the cleaning that's involved in a 'project' like that. While I was at work, she'd use sliders under the furniture and move things around. I figured, since she showed me how it's done, I'd get busy and do the same thing. Except she moved a lot faster than I do so it'll take some time to get it just the way I want it. And something a lot of people don't know about me is that I know more about her dolls and teddy bears than most guys would. She was also a great communicator and fortunately, I was a good listener. Most of the time. This is what I started with... ....

Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of a situation. Then deciding what you're going to do about it. - Kathleen Casey Theisen I found this quotation like I find many of the other things in life, by following the 'white rabbit of intuition'. And I cease to be amazed at how many cool things I find. This is one quotation that really got my attention. Take yesterday for example. Hmmm. My borrowed car was stuck in the snow. I decided that I was going to the store. My son, Johnny, went out and shoveled and came back in and said, "There's no way that car is going to get out." But I was determined to get to the store. Hearing that, I made up my mind that it would so I said, "When I honk three times, it'll mean that the car is out and we can go to the store." Yeah, right. It took some shoveling before I realized he was right. There simply was no place to put all the snow. Sheeesh. Delemma. I wanted to go to the sto...

My first introduction to miracles came to me from my parents. They told me about the happenings on January 13th, 1938. My 20 yr. old mother went into labor with me and my dad rushed her to University Hospital in Cleveland. She had a rough time of it. The Dr. told her there was a serious problem and I would have to be delivered Cesarean section. Also, because of the nature of the problem a choice had to be made. He could save my mom's life...or mine, and even then there were no guarantees. Stella (that's my mom's name) made a choice. She told the doctor to save me. She said she'd already experienced life and wanted me to have the same chance. Well...the delivery was made. I came squalling into this world at 1:38 AM on January 14th, and two weeks later than anticipated. The brat (that's me) survived...but the miracle was that my mom lived until 1980. Hmmm. I guess if I didn't make it, I wouldn't be writing this. Anyhow. From then on my life has been series of...

I was watching TV the other night, and some of the commercials are really enlightening. I found this one and it got me to thinking. Back when I was a 'kid' a couple of years ago, cleaning the floor was harder work than it is today. At least I think it was. At that time I was a good 'watcher'. Today, I use a twistable mop and I have a gadget that 'picks up the crumbs'. The broom is what I use to sweep the back porch. Technology is moving ahead so fast I have a hard time keeping up with it. What I know, I realize is just a drop in the bucket, compared to what's out there. And every day there's a new product and a new 'discovery'. Why on earth would I ever believe in the word 'impossible' when it's entirely possible that I don't know about it...yet. But some 'things' I do. Any how, it's 'my theory' and this is just a little sample of what I'm talking about. It might look like a 'commercial'...but it...

I was sitting and thinking about all the things in this Universe that I KNOW about, when another thought popped into my head. Knowing ABOUT does not mean UNDERSTANDING. For example, one couple that I know fairly well has an autistic child. I've seen how supportive and nurturing they are...and how this child has grown because of it. But I didn't understand how 'work and love' go hand-in-hand until I saw this educational video. I still don't know the 'everything'...but I'm one step closer. With all the things that are happening around the world and to many people, it's impossible for me to do the knowing/understanding part of it with any accuracy. I only have 24 hrs. to work with...and have a life to live, so it's a lot ezier to 'assume' knowledge that I don't have and become a 'label maker'. I went to YouTube and found a video that helps me to 'understand' a little more. And I thought it was good a great piece to s...

When I was talking to my friend John about ‘ cancer ’ one day, he said something I thought ‘hit the nail on the head’. He said, “Many people become frightened as soon as they hear the 'word' cancer enter the conversation, than they are of the disease itself. If they would change the word to something else, even if it were a nonsensical word, much of the fear would go away and understanding 'it' would make significant progress." There are many forms of cancer , many forms of treatment available, and many,many survivors and resources available for support. And yet they are all grouped together in one box labeled...CANCER. POLIO was another word that a long time ago had the same effect. One of my earliest memories I brought with me from childhood was in the early part of the 40's. I'm not an expert on anything having to do with that particular one, but I remember the fear on my parents face when the doctor told them I might never walk again, that my le...

Little did John and Stella know, when they met at that dance at Slovenian Home in 1936, that they were going to create a Zumba nut that would write about the ‘polka’ 72 years later. They’re the one’s that got the ball rolling and I’m just the ‘result’. My history in the making. Memory Lane’s gotta start somewhere,and Polka Alley’s is as good a place as any to begin. This morning while I was reading through the newspaper, I noticed that Jimmy Sturr, the Polka King was going to appear here in Waterbury,CT on Oct. 30. That got my toes to tapping and stirred up my imagination quicker than a spoon. At this point it’s pretty EZ for me to do with all the practice I’ve had. I got to thinking about my folks and how dancing was just about the funnest thing they loved to do with their free time...that didn’t cost a lot of money. Maybe that explains why they were so good at it? So I’m living proof that the nut doesn’t fall far from the ‘buckeye’ tree. Did I just say that? Ohio is known as t...

I've been watching more TV lately than I normally used to. Which isn't saying a whole bunch 'cause I'm not a 'glued to the tube couch potato' kinda guy. But there's an new one on this season that I really like. It's called No Ordinary Family . It grabbed my attention because I like to write. Plus I'm a fan of the idea that people can become more than who they are. This story starts as a result of a bright idea! Then to move it along... an 'accident'. And, boy, they sure had a lollapalooza. (Why didn't I think of it?...oh, well). In order to 'spend more quality time together, it was decided that they go on a family outing. A picnic? Nah, too easy. So they all hopped on a plane and headed for 'adventure'. A storm came up, the plane went down and they got plopped in the middle of a river in the jungle. The foursome survived but their real adventure didn't began until after they got home again. Each family member had develop...