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Some memories we shared of our childhood
I am still digging for clearer photos of
Jackie - Buddy - Bo

More photos at bottom of this page

Jackie
(Jack)

Buddy
(Sooner)

Is this Bo?
Bo
(Bojie)

Angie
(Cooter/Sister)

Betty - 1955

1956

Betty
(Gale)

About 1955

About 1963
Pat
(Putt Putt)

More photos at the bottom of this page

11-04-1996 - Bo:

"I remember back on Madison Street, Bud, you went to the store to get something and came back ten dollars shy. You were broken up about that to say the least. Mama kept trying to make you stop crying by saying something like "we'll get through this somehow, God knows, we've had worse than this happen to us." But, ten dollars was quiet a chunk of change back then, especially for a nine or ten year old kid. Bo"

11-04-1996 - Bud:

"I believe that ten dollars that you mentioned in your letter, was actually a stamp, for ten pounds of sugar. I remember the time I put that stamp in the mail box, along with a letter, and I had to go back to the mail box, and sit there, until the mailman came, to empty the box. I am not sure, but I think that stamp was worth a lot more than ten dollars.

Talking about Madison Street, do you recall the man who lived across the street? He was more than likely the most popular man on that street. He drove a tanker truck, gasoline, and if you remember, gas was rationed at that time. I don't care how much you pump out of those things, there is always some left in the tank, especially if you can drain the sump pump. Also, he used to give gas to the whole neighborhood.

Do you remember the time I was hit by this car, on the corner of Laurel, and Madison Street? I was going to the movie that day. I remember I was only wearing one glove. Funny how small things like that stand out in your mind. Bud"

11-04-1996 - Jackie:

Bud, I do not remember you being hit by a car. I remember when mother went into labor with Pat, they came and got me out of school at Parkview Elementary School and said they were going to have to send me home to take care of the other kids. I was only ten years old at the time.

Also, do you remember the times that we went to see Vera Bross and her two daughters where they lived in that big house up on the hill by Caddo Lake? We went to get into the boat that had been banked on the edge of the lake and one of the girls told me not to move in my seat because there was a water moccasin coiled up under the seat that I was sitting on. I don't remember what happened after that though.

Also, do you guys remember going to the church where they put us in a dark room and everyone was speaking in unknown tongues? I think that was when we spent time with Eunice Josey, wasn't it? Jackie"

11-12-1996 - Bo:

"I remember Logan Street. That was where we lived when daddy joined the Army Air Corps. I saw this yellow jacket nest and I just had to mess with it. I looked around and found a long stick and whacked it a good one. The next thing I knew, my whole left arm was covered with the little varmints, all of them stinging me with all the enthusiasm they could muster up. I went screaming to mama that they were trying to eat me alive, and she put some baking soda on it which took a little bit of the fire out of it, but it hurt like ---. Some time later, I think it was daddy who took a wad of cloth soaked in coal oil, and burnt the little ____ out.

I remember one of the older neighbor kids had this store bought bow and arrow set. That thing really impressed me. I thought that bow was the neatest thing since that next of yellow jackets got burned out. Bo"

11-22-1996 - Bud:

"The most remembered Christmases I can think of are 1946 and 1949. In 1946, we were taken to this building, down town, where there was a big Christmas tree, and they gave each one of us poor kids a present, mine being a coat. Only later did I discover that it was a girl's coat. Boy, was I embarrassed.

The other Christmas was the time, Jackie, that you gave me a Motorola radio. That was the best present I had ever gotten. I got many a mile out of that radio. You were working at Walgreen's Drug Store at that time. Do you remember when Pa came into Walgreen's, and asked you for a bowl of chili and you asked him if he wanted saltines with it? He had no idea what you were talking about.

You know, I never thought at that time, that we would be considered poor. I know we used to get baskets at Christmas, but I never really put it all together, not that it would have mattered. I think we had a pretty damn good childhood and I enjoyed most of it.

I never thought we were underfed either, but I know when I joined the service, I couldn't get over how much food was in the chow hall. There was food from wall to wall, then they made the mistake of telling us we could have all we wanted. I gained 35 pounds, in basic training, while all of the other people were losing weight. I think they gave us 30 minutes to eat, and I spent all of it feeding my face. The other guys were bitching about how bad the food was, but it tasted pretty damn good to me.

I do remember how we used to have a biscuit for supper, but I never felt deprived of anything. I guess I was just having too much fun growing up. Do you remember the time you and I were fixing coffee, Jackie? It tasted so bad, so we took it back to the store and they gave us another pound of coffee. We did that two or three times, before we discovered that we were using salt instead of sugar in the coffee. We never told anyone about that little mistake. Bud"

11-23-1996 - Bud:

"We knew the R. E. Tackett's in Vivian and we used to buy milk from that family. That family was poorer than we were.

Now, do not take that in the wrong way. I am in no way saying that we were actually poor, I do not recall ever having the lights, gas or phone turned off, nor do I remember going really hungry. We had a radio, record player, stove, hot water heater, ice box (the ice used to cost 10 cents, for a 25 pound block, from the ice wagon, that came around every day.) You know that mother worked at the ordnance plant, (remind me to tell you what happened when I worked there,) while pa was in the army. Pa was making good money in the army, there was no limit on the number of kids they would pay for. At that time, we also were renting one side of the house out, for $15 a month, not much, but the whole house rented for $25 a month, so pa had to pay only $10 a month.

We always bought our groceries from Robert's Grocery, on Laurel, that was before Destrehan's' opened across the street. I remember the kind of vehicle they had, at De'Stephanos', it was a Ford Wagoneer, with the wooden side, and doors. You recall that most grocers delivered, at that time? I don't know if there was any such thing as a supermarket, at that time, but I doubt it.

Remember when Heables opened, on the corner of Laurel and Madison? They used to have these tent revivals on that corner. Do you recall that church we had to pass, on the left side of Laurel, when we went to school? That place used to get really loud. We used to cross the street when we went that way, while they were having service. We often wondered what in hell was going on inside there. Bud"

11-23-1996 - Bud:

"You talk about remembrances, wouldn't it be something if that old house at 1513 Madison Street could talk? As far as I am concerned, that is where our basics began. I realize that we all had many experiences, in places, before and after that house, but for me, that was my upbringing.

Things like Jackie running home from the store, with a bottle of milk, when she got right in front of Bobby Belcher's house, she tripped and cut the hell out of her little finger. She probably remembers that. (Side note from Jackie - "oh, do I remember it, as mother had to rush me to the Charity Hospital - the main tendons were cut, and it was an intern who patched the finger up and he botched it so badly, that I can't bend the finger to this day.

When we used to draw a circle on the living room floor to play marbles, it was too cold or wet outside.

Do any of you remember when we got together and sent a letter to this place, I think it was some radio station, to get mother the title of "Mother of the Week?" She got an orchid.
(It was the Young Americans Club - Jackie)

Really, mother should have gotten the title of "mother of the century!" If it had not been for her, we would not have eaten, many a time. I remember she used to go to work, at Willis Knighton, as a nurses' aide, and then come home to do washing and ironing for other people, we used to carry the laundry to and from these people's houses.

I also remember when I used to go to Sears, on Texas Avenue, and spend most of the day walking up and down the stairs. I still do not know why, it was just something I enjoyed, but nowadays they would throw you in the loony bin for doing that. A lot of times I would walk to town to do that. I know that we sure did a lot of walking when we were younger. It really helped us, health wise, in later days.

I remember, when I went through that bout with blood poisoning, in 1963, my fever never went under 105, and lord only knows how high it went, the thermometers they had only registered up to 108, and they topped out each day. Anyway, what I wanted to say was when I was on the way to getting better, the doctor looked at me and said "you must have been very healthy to have lived through that." So, we must not have been too deprived of all that much when we were younger. It is like you put it, Bo, we were rich beyond measure, when we were growing up.

I think what separated me, Bo and Jack was the fact that we had each other to draw upon. Bud"

11-23-1996 - Bo:

"I remember the Christmas of 1946. There was this big damn Christmas in the Municipal auditorium. All us kids, not just us kids, but it must have been every kid in town made a mad dash for that Christmas tree. That damned thing looked higher than a house there in the center of the auditorium. I was only able to rescue a pathetic little water pump made of tin, but it was mine. I earned the ____ thing.

I don't remember exactly whatever happened to that dumb thing, but I do remember that I was pumping like mad on this dumb little water pump handle wondering just how the water was becoming so intentional, and of course it was screeching like fingernails coming down a blackboard. Daddy snatched it up and went to work on it with a can of 3 in 1 oil. It did fix it for a spell.

That must have been the year the church put that big basket of food on our front porch. As I recall, it didn't have that much value, just a lot of good intentions, gift stuff mostly.

We were rich, damn we were rich, beyond our wildest dreams. No one, including ourselves knew it then, but we know it now. But as it was, many people nowadays would give their front seat in hell to have had our upbringing.

One thing is for sure, we ain't trash. Our genes may have been trash and a lot of people may have looked down their noses at us, but even with the tribulations, we suffered in becoming adults, we are without doubt the sociological wonder of the twentieth century. We had to have something going for us and if any of us can ever figure out what that strength was, we could well save the civilization from itself. Bo"

11-24-1996 - Buddy:

"I was going to tell you something that happened to me, way back about 1967 or so. I was working at the ordnance plant, and I had been there only a few weeks, working on the f-line. We were putting cluster bombs together - you know how money hungry some of these bastards are, and they kept on increasing the speed of the line; it was really an accident, looking for a place to happen. Sure enough, one week after I quit that job, f-line had it. I guess someone couldn't handle that speed, and dropped one of the cluster bombs, they were designed to explode on impact, and when one went off, all the others went too. They were still scraping people off the walls weeks after that. It killed everyone on that line. So, things could have been worse, I guess. Bud"

12-08-1996 - Bud:

"Did I tell you about the time, when I worked at Big Chain on Greenwood Road, that I put the wrong bag of groceries in the wrong car or maybe the right bag in the wrong car of the wrong bag in the right car, ah, what the hell, the groceries wound up in a car they didn't belong in. I was working as a bag boy, and the customer told me to put them in a gray car. I know it sounds stupid, but I had no idea what the color gray looked like. I picked out a car, that I thought looked like it might be gray and it was the wrong car. I was not about to go to the boss and admit I didn't know what gray was. Somebody got a free bag of groceries, and I got in a world of trouble. Bud"

04-24-2005 - Betty Gale:

"I remember playing with my little Cinderella doll; and playing under the willow tree on the side of the house, but not sure where we lived at the time. I also remember playing house with cardboard boxes and playing with my little girl friends in the neighborhood.

A wonderful memory was when I went to Granny Josey's and climbing up on the step stool that she had, and then onto her marvelous feather bed that was so great to sleep in. Granny had a lot of chickens and I remember every time I went out to get the eggs, the rooster would chase me all over the chicken yard.

Another memory that I have is how we went out and collected any kind of soda bottles we could find, took them to the store for a refund of three pennies per bottle, then used that money to go to the Venus Theater to see double features. Also, we would stop on the viaduct as the trains came under, and stand there as smoke from the trains came up all around us. We also wonder how we lived this long after all of us kids ran behind the trucks as they drove down the street spraying for mosquitoes with all of that DDT insecticide being sprayed out as we were running in it.

I loved the period when I was in ballet class. I was able to do that, because I helped the ballet teacher, Ms. Cornett, clean her house, and I received free ballet lessons. That was special to me.

I, too, remember picking cotton in the hot sun and pulling those big heavy cotton bags for so little money. The cotton bolls had stickers that really cut our fingers, but gloves were not a luxury that we were afforded.

And, I STILL listen to those old time radio shows, and just love them! Betty"

05-08-05 Angie

"I remember when we lived on Madison Street in the 1940's. It was so hot that I went to the ice box, opened the door and stuck my feet inside to put them on the block of ice to cool off.

Bud and Jack were supposed to walk me to school in the first grade, but they both left me and were not worried about Sister getting to school at all. I think that was a good thing, because it instilled an independent attitude in me, and made me a better person.

I remember trying to comb Pat and Betty's hair and they screamed as if they were being killed every time. They would say "you are hurting me and I would really jerk them some more then.

Jackie also has a picture of me when I was quite young, with a cigarette in my hand and a mug of water with soap suds in it to make it look like a beer. It was a fun rigged picture.
Jack, where is that picture?" Angie

05-14-05 - Bo

I recall that I was sitting on the floor and my bottom was stinging really bad. Mama picked me up and put me up on a table and changed my dirty diaper. I was really impressed with how expertly she had handled that problem. I recall her putting me back on the floor on my hands and knees and patting me on the bottom saying something like "There, that'll hold you for a while longer."

This was in a two room unpainted shack on Bird street in Vivian Louisiana. It seemed really big to me, even with two adults and two siblings, there was more room here than I would ever need. I recall how high everything was in the house. The kitchen sink or wherever Mama did the dishes and all that were hopelessly high.

We must've lived there in that two room shack until I was at least a couple of years old. I remember picking an orange seed out of an orange I was eating and asking "what's this Mama?"

"That's an orange seed young man." She went on to say "If you put that in the ground and put some water on it, it'll grow into a tree."

I was impressed. Some time later, I took that seed and a tea spoon out to the edge of the house, dug a hole and dropped it in and covered it up. Sure enough, in the next two or three weeks, I seen some leaves coming up through the dirt. I recall keeping an eye on that until it was maybe six inches high.

Some time 'long about then, I recall this man come to visit Mama with his guitar. We didn't have a porch then, just some steps leading up into the house. He would stand at the foot of the steps, Mama at the top of them, and he'd commence singing and playing his guitar. I thought this was really nice of him to entertain us like that. Looking back, I reckon he must have been a door to door beggar who had been at least fortunate enough to have picked up some musical skills at some time during his upbringing.

History tells me we lived in St. Martinsville after that. I remember absolutely nothing about the place. But we must've lived there because that's where Evangeline was born. I guess Mama was so impressed with the love story which had to do with the "Evangeline Oak," that she elected to name her only progeny to enter the world at that particular location after it.

After that, I believe we lived in Ringgold Louisiana. We had this place on the intersection of two dirt roads. Most roads were dirt back then. I recall we had this honeysuckle bush growing on the fence behind the house. They smelled really good. Every time I smell honey suckles, I am caused to remember that place.

Daddy occupied a large part of our attention. We would sit out in the yard and watch for him to come walking up the road, coming home from work. He would pick up one or two of us and carry us into the house. You don't forget stuff like that.

I believe that 'long about then, we moved back to Vivian; to the house next door to the two room shack I was telling you about earlier. This house was maybe twice as big as the other one. It had a generous front porch and a front yard along which ran a dirt road. Granny would come sit on the porch with Mama and watch us play in the yard. She would tie a string on a letter sized piece of paper and I would run like hell with it, trying to get it to do some tricks. I think that some time later, she showed us how to make a kite, using some newspaper, some flour and water paste, a couple of strips from a wooden apple box and some string.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. To be honest with you, I don't recall the arrival of Wanda Ruth or Evangeline or even Betty Gale. I do recollect some of Wanda Ruth's behavior. She would sing while she took potty breaks. As I recall, I was still using the potty with the big handle on the side of it.

I recall on one occasion at that place, I was out in the front yard playing / fooling around. Mama and one of the neighbors were on the front porch, talking about whatever. Maybe they were talking about how the war was coming along. Daddy had enlisted in the Army Air Corps by that time and I guess Mama fretted considerably about him, flying around in those big bombers or whatever as a flight engineer.

Some time later, Wanda Ruth took sick and died. I don't recall much of the misery she must've suffered. I just recall going to her funeral there at that Baptist church way the hell out in the woods, deep in the middle of nowhere." Bo

08-05-05 - Pat

"I only vaguely remember the Christmas parties that we all went to at Margie Sneed's home where she had a lot of us kids over every Christmas. If I remember correctly, Margie kept Betty and me so we did not have to go to daddy's funeral when he died, because we were so young.

I remember when we lived on Stoner, I went to the municipal swimming pool all the time during the summers. I also remember during that time, that Bo saw a scorpion on my back, and he hit me on the back to knock it off. In the 1960's, for three summers, I went to Jackie and Chuck's in Warrensburg, MO. I rode the bus up there from Shreveport, LA and I still have a wooden jewelry box that I bought at Muskogee, OK, when the bus stopped there. Jackie and Chuck nicknamed me "Putt-Putt." I recall that we played badminton and croquet in their back yard. Chuck set a pan of grease on the stove on fire (grease fire) and he threw it in the sink quickly. We went to the base to see Mona and Jim Graddy and we went to the base pool often. I remember a boy that I went out with (I was about 16), he was a college student, and he wanted me to marry him. My first proposal.

I do remember when we lived on Hoadley Street, spending a lot of time going to the Linwood Viaduct and climbing the hill just so we could slide down the hill on a cardboard box. A bunch of us would spend the whole day doing that. It was always so much fun. I remember Halloweens when we lived on Hoadley. You could go to houses and there would be candy apples and other goodies on the porch and you could just help yourself. There was trust back then. Also, I spent a lot of the summertime on Hoadley going to the city park every week and sitting on the grass to watch a movie that was furnished by the city.

When we lived on Stoner I also remember spending a lot of time at the fire station across the street from our house. And, that the municipal swimming pool was directly behind Hamilton Terrace School.

I also spent a lot of time visiting with the Ramsey's on Hoadley to watch television because we did not have one. I would stay until the television went off the air for the evening and we would always stand when they played the national anthem. Yes, television went off early in the evenings in the "good ole days."

When I was in high school, I was assigned to Jennie Jones' class. When I got to her classroom that first day, she called out the names. When she got to my name, she asked if Jackie and Byron were my sister and bother? I told her yes and her comment was "well, I hope that you are as smart as them". I had a long hard struggle in that class after that; but passed with "d's" which you well know were equal to "c's" in other teachers' class. It was always understood at Fair Park that if you got this certain teacher the year before Jennie Jones, you would be assigned to Jennie Jones' class the following year. I don't know if you would find this interesting enough to include, but Jennie has always stayed in my mind. She was a tough, but good, teacher.

Also, I remember that I had to give an oral book report in her class. I mentioned a "red head" person. When I was finished with the report, she asked if any of the students had any comments. One of them quickly called it to her and my attention that it is not correct to say "red head" because the person's hair is red, it should be spoken as a "red haired" person, not a "red head."

Pat (Putt Putt)

10-23-05

Jack:

This house is the brown's house. The house to the left of it as shown in the
picture is the Sim's place. the house to the left of the Sim's place would
have been 1513, ours.

The houses went from right to left, south to north as follows:

The big vacant lot with the "horse apple" tree in it.
The brown's house that had this chinaberry tree in the southern most front corner of it.

The sim's place which had no trees at all to speak of but only one dog named
brownie who ray sims had trained to "sic-'em." They had a hedge around the
front of their house. You may remember, they had a lawn table in their back
yard built from a door of a c-47 airplane.

North of that was us. We had no trees in our front yard and two chinaberry
trees in our back yard. I recall having climbed the one on the north side
regularly. I never even tried to climb the south one.

North of us, was the Mercer's place. They enjoyed a wooden fence separating
the rear of our properties. there was this cute little girl they had who
wore pants two sizes too large for her, who was forever pulling
them up. Mr. Mercer early on, had this 1947 Ford with the sloping trunk that
he would wash at least once a week out on the curb. Later on, he got himself
a 1950 ford (the one with the search light in the middle of the grill), I
guess it was, and continued to wash that poor thing once or twice a week.

To the north of them was the Niel's place. She enjoyed a really big yard,
surrounded by hedges. The grass between her place and the street was
occupied by "sticker grass," grass us kids would not dare walk on for the
stickers getting in our feet.

North of that was Dunlop street.

Turning west on Dunlop, you would go down a steep hill. there was a rarely
used sidewalk on the west side of Madison, the other side of Dunlop, west of
which was a small wooded area. East of that was this big peanut patch. about
a 100 meters north of that was Marino's store with whom we never did any
business.

South of Dunlop street on the other side of the street from us was lord knows
who. Ii just recall they had this rock garden. I recall they had large chunks
of green glass in it, probably taken from a local glass works place.

South of that was a vacant lot.

To the south of that was the Belcher's place. they had this kid, who spoke
with a British accent, who would ride his scooter up and down the
side walk. his name was Bobby. I never could get to like that kid. To this
day, I can hear him saying "I would 'advice[sic]' you...whatever."

There were a couple of more places between them and Laurel street but i
forget who they were.

On laurel street on the north side was Robert's grocery where we had our
account. I would lay you odds, we still owe them money.

Across Laurel Street, there was Sammy's grocery, a convenience store I'm sure you still
remember.

To the west of that on the corner, was a bar, of which name I have long
since forgotten.

I hope this helps you with being able to "get it together."

I am working on the story of my life just now. I'm calling it "the path of
greatest resistance." that should pretty much say it all.

Thanks for the pictures.

Later; bo

06-01-06

jack:

now that you are asking me how i feel about that piece you put
together about mama: it does look like you went to a lot of
trouble, especially about the genealogy.

about zula: i have always put that at being a tarantula since
there are a goodly number of them in the oklahoma area. their
bite frequently results in septic infections. spiders are
right dirty creatures. all that hair on them doesn't help
either. recently, credit has been given a fungus carried by
the brown recluse for the nasty wound they inflict. but i
digress.

i saw no mention at all of daddy's drinking problem. daddy was
about as bipolar as they came, and remain outside the walls of
an institution. read up on bipolar disorder / manic
depression. bipolar folk almost invariably have a drinking
problem. children of alcoholics like daddy are greatly in
danger of becoming alcoholics and if not, they abstain
completely from alcohol. i think it notable that none of us
fit into either of those categories.

wanda ruth died before we got to 1513. i rather think mama did
some "fist pounding on dirt" pleading with god to spare her
little girl. mama never thought very highly of god after that.
from time to time, some poor preacher would come by seeking
new members for his church. mama would slam the door in his
face so hard, you could hear it several houses down.

i saw no mention of any of the places we lived, not even 1513.
shit, we grew up in that house. we moved there when daddy was
still in the army. he took me out to barksdale once and showed
me off to his captain and other cohorts. i thought that jeep
was one fun piece of machinery, especially when we were
bouncing about the area at the end of the flight line. i have
no idea why we ever moved from there. we were paying 25
dollars a month rent on that house.

we lived on borrowed money. we generally had to borrow money
to get daddy back on his feet after one of his all too
frequent drunks which would last 3 or 4 weeks. once at 1224
hoadley, he drank some rubbing alcohol which had been
denatured with wintergreen. he radiated the odor of
wintergreen. i can recall that as clearly as if it were
yesterday.

i recall once at 1513 how mama and daddy sat down at the
kitchen table and dolled out the money from his paycheck.
daddy put 2 twenties and a 5 at one corner of the table and
said, "that's for the rent." i recall him saying, "the
furniture payments will just have to wait, we have to eat."

we moved so many times, i think if we'd moved anymore, we'd
've been homeless. we lived in at least 3 different houses in
vivian before we got to 1513.

i recall once in the 2 room unpainted shack we first lived in
vivian, i was sitting on the floor while still in diapers. i
recall how mildly surprised i was when i looked down and
discovered i was wetting my diapers. that apparatus was acting
all by itself, on full automatic. directly, it got cold
and i guess it started to sting. anyway, i started yelling my
head off. mama picked me up and put me on the table and
changed me. i recall how impressed i was with the aplomb which
mama exhibited in handling that problem. she put me back on
the floor and patted me on the butt and said, "there, that'll
hold you for a couple more hours."

we lived at 1513 for i guess 4 years, maybe more. most
everywhere else, we'd live for only a few months before moving
on, if that. let's see, after 1513, we lived at 1224 hoadley.
i recall a short stay at the wilkenson apartments. then there
was a place we lived briefly in the southern part of town.
there was not a blade of grass to be found on that property.
we must've moved upwards of a dozen times after we left 1513.
i think that at one time, we even lived in cincinnata, (i know
it's spelled with an i but we pronounced it with an a) while
daddy was in the army. on several occasions, mama remarked
about how dirty that place was. she said you could hang
clothes out on the line to dry, and they'd just get dirty all
over again. i clearly recall how at one place, you and buddy
would carry a block of ice hanging from the middle of a
broomstick from the ice house, the two of you holding the
ends.

but all in all, i'd say it was a good piece you put together.
after all, it was about mama and not us. but still, i think it
worthy of mention to include her having to put up with a
bipolar drunk while trying to raise 6 kids.

i'd say more but i got to get down to the flea market. that is
one of the few vices i allow myself in my old age. with the
life i've lived, i deserve every moment of it. but that be a
different story.

later; bo

yes jack:

in a way, it's a bit like hanging our dirty underwear out for
all to see. but in other respects, i think it speaks quiet
highly of us, for even being able to do more than rotting away
in some deep dark jail. the odds were heavily stacked against
us but for the most part, we were able to pull it off. i would
think that in view of those odds, just being on the right side
of the dirt is something to crow about.

maybe it was the same chemistry that drove daddy to drink that
enabled us to rise up out of that mire. i see bipolar syndrom
in all of us as well as your's and buddy's kids. but that same
chemistry is responsible for making it easy to take a chance.
and we all know that if you don't venture, you don't stand a
great chance of gaining much. i know that in my case, i have
taken some really dumb chances and fortunately, i was able to
survive the situation. other times, i took less chances and
still ended up getting pounded into the dirt. it never
occurred to me to say, "to hell with it." i always regarded
that as a disallowed option. a bit like swimming from a
sinking boat to shore if you would. sinking is not an option.

anyway, it's your project. give it your best shot.

later; bo