The Pickle Jar

The pickle jar as far back as I can remember sat on the floor beside the dresser in my parents' bedroom. When he got ready for bed, Dad would empty his pockets and toss his coins into the jar.

As a small boy I was always fascinated at the sounds the coins made as they were dropped into the jar . They landed with a merry jingle when the jar was almost empty. Then the tones gradually muted to a dull thud as the jar was filled.

I used to squat on the floor in front of the jar and admire the copper and silver circles that glinted like a pirate's treasure when the sun poured through the bedroom window. When the jar was filled, Dad would sit at the kitchen table and roll the coins before taking them to the bank.

Taking the coins to the bank was always a big production stacked neatly in a small cardboard box, the coins were placed between Dad and me on the seat of his old truck.

Each and every time, as we drove to the bank, Dad would look at me hopefully. 'Those coins are going to keep you out of the textile mill, son. You're going to do better than me. This old mill town's not going to hold you back.'

Also, each and every time, as he slid the box of rolled coins across the counter at the bank toward the cashier, he would grin proudly 'These are for my son's college fund. He'll never work at the mill all his life like me.'

We would always celebrate each deposit by stopping for an ice cream cone. I always got chocolate. Dad always got vanilla. When the clerk at the ice cream parlor handed Dad his change, he would show me the few coins nestled in his palm. 'When we get home, we'll start filling the jar again.' He always let me drop the first coins into the empty jar. As they rattled around with a brief, happy jingle, we grinned at each other. 'You'll get to college on pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters,' he said. 'But you'll get there; I'll see to that.'

No matter how rough things got at home, Dad continued to doggedly drop his coins into the jar. Even the summer when Dad got laid off from the mill, and Mama had to serve dried beans several times a week, not a single dime was taken from the jar.

To the contrary, as Dad looked across the table at me, pouring catsup over my beans to make them more palatable, he became more determined than ever to make a way out for me. 'When you finish college, Son,' he told me, his eyes glistening, 'You'll never have to eat beans again - unless you want to.'

The years passed, and I finished college and took a job in another town. Once, while visiting my parents, I used the phone in their bedroom, and noticed that the pickle jar was gone. It had served its purpose and had been removed.

A lump rose in my throat as I stared at the spot beside the dresser where the jar had always stood. My dad was a man of few words, and never lectured me on the values of determination, perseverance, and faith. The pickle jar had taught me all these virtues far more eloquently than the most flowery of words could have done. When I married, I told my wife Susan about the significant part the lowly pickle jar had played in my life as a boy. In my mind, it defined, more than anything else, how much my dad had loved me.

The first Christmas after our daughter Jessica was born, we spent the holiday with my parents. After dinner, Mom and Dad sat next to each other on the sofa, taking turns cuddling their first grandchild. Jessica began to whimper softly, and Susan took her from Dad's arms. 'She probably needs to be changed,' she said, carrying the baby into my parents' bedroom to diaper her. When Susan came back into the living room, there was a strange mist in her eyes.

She handed Jessica back to Dad before taking my hand and leading me into the room. 'Look,' she said softly, her eyes directing me to a spot on the floor beside the dresser. To my amazement, there, as if it had never been removed, stood the old pickle jar, the bottom already covered with coins. I walked over to the pickle jar, dug down into my pocket, and pulled out a fistful of coins. With a gamut of emotions choking me, I dropped the coins into the jar. I looked up and saw that Dad, carrying Jessica, had slipped quietly into the room. Our eyes locked, and I knew he was feeling the same emotions I felt. Neither one of us could speak.

This truly touched my heart. I know it has yours as well. Sometimes we are so busy adding up our troubles that we forget to count our blessings.

Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture you can change a person's life, for better or for worse.

God puts us all in each other's lives to impact one another in some way. Look for Good in others.

The best and most beautiful things cannot be seen or touched - they must be felt with the heart ~ Helen Keller

- Happy moments, praise God.

- Difficult moments, seek God.

- Quiet moments, worship God.

- Painful moments, trust God.

- Every moment, thank God.

Why should the wedding ring be worn on the fourth finger?

There is a beautiful and convincing explanation given by the Chinese---

Thumb represents your parents
Second (index) finger represents your siblings
Middle finger represents yourself
Fourth (ring) finger represents your life partner
last (little) finger represents your children

First open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers and hold them together back to back---

Second, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb tip to tip.

Now try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents), they will open because your parents are not destined to live with you life long and have to leave you sooner or later.

Please join your thumbs as before, now separate your index fingers (representing sibings), they will also open because your siblings will have their own families and will lead their own separate lives.

Now join the index fingers as before, now separate your little fingers (representing your children), they will open too because the children also will get married and settle down on their own someday.

Finally, join your little fingers as before and now try to separate your ring fingers (representing your spouse) You will be surprised to see that you CANNOT....because husband and wife have to remain together all their lives through thick and thin!!!

Please try this out...

Isn't this a great theory?

Do you know how to tell a two-way mirror?

Interesting information about mirrors!

I thought this was good information. Who knows nowadays?

How can you tell when you are in a room, restroom, motel etc. with a mirror or a 2-way glass?

Here's how: I thought this was quite interesting!
And I know in about 30 seconds you're going to do what I did and find the nearest mirror.

Do you know how to determine if a mirror is 2-way or not?

A policewoman who travels all over the US and gives seminars and techniques for businesswomen passed this on.

When we visit toilets, bathrooms, hotel rooms, changing rooms, etc., how many of you know for sure that the seemingly ordinary mirror hanging on the wall is a real mirror, or actually a 2-way mirror (i.e., they can see you, but you can't see them)? There have been many cases of people installing 2-way mirrors in female changing rooms. It is very difficult to positively identify the surface by looking at it.

So, how do we determine with any amount of certainty what type of mirror we are looking at?

Just conduct this simple test: Place the tip of your fingernail against the reflective surface and if there is a GAP between your fingernail and the image of the nail, then it is GENUINE mirror.

However, if your fingernail DIRECTLY TOUCHES the image of your nail,
then BEWARE! IT IS A 2-WAY MIRROR! 'No Space, Leave the Place.'

So remember, every time you see a mirror, do the 'fingernail test.'
It doesn't cost you anything.

REMEMBER. No Space, Leave the Place:

Ladies: Share this with your girlfriends, sisters, daughters, etc.

Men: Share this with your wives, daughter s, daughter-in-law, mothers, girlfriends and/or friends.

behine the scenes of a State Fair

The Alaskan State Fair is scheduled to open on the 21st of this month so it is time for all the arts and crafty people to show off their talents. Have you ever wondered how people earn their ribbons? Well we had the chance to find out how the canning people earned their ribbons, we were recruited to be tasting judges. There were over 500 entries and we arrived at our duty station at 7 pm and we were told that we should be finished by 10 pm and if we stayed until the end of the tasting we would earn 2 tickets each for admission to the fair plus a ribbon that said we were judges. Anyway we arrived (Del, Cathy and myself) at 7 pm prompt and the tables were all set up to hold 8 people, there are 4 judges to each process, so I was paired with Cathy and two other people and Del was paired with 3 people. We had to judge the packaging, consistency, taste, smell. We tasted so many jams, jellies, preserves, marmalades, pickled beets, pickled who knew what, chutney, we had to rate each group and pick 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc, let me tell you, talk about a sugar high, oh my gosh, I tasted some weird stuff, good stuff, fabulous stuff and stuff to die for, at the very end of the tasting they broke out all the salmon stuff, smoked, canned, and by that time there were only 6 of us die hards left out of over 40 people for that tasting, we had to smell, taste, judge the looks and I am sick of salmon. I have never tasted so many different kinds of ways to can salmon, we had peppered salmon, jalapeno's salmon, dill salmon, smoked salmon, just plain salmon, pickled salmon. The reason they saved the salmon for last is if they had opened up the salmon before all the rest of the stuff, then everything would smell and taste like salmon. We finally finshed at midnight but my stomach did not settle down until the morning talk about tossing and turning, ugh, I did not feel the least bit hungry today and right now I could care less if I never had jam, jelly, preserves, pickles, salmon for a long long long time, but I am ready to do it again next year haahhahaah....it was fun.

A view from another country

I am not writing a view from me but a view from another country about our country.

We rarely get a chance to see another country's editorial about the USA .

Read this excerpt from a Romanian Newspaper. The article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title 'C'ntarea Americii, meaning 'Ode To America ') in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentulzilei 'The Daily Event' or 'News of the Day'


~An Ode to America ~

Why are Americans so united? They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs

On 9/ll, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the Army, or the Secret Service that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about Instead the Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.

After the first moments of panic , they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing. On every occasion, they started singing: 'God Bless America !'

I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from h itting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.

How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put into collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy. What on earth can unite the Americans in such way? Their land? Their history? Their economic Power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace, I thought things over, I reached but only one conclusion... Only freedom can work such miracles. Cornel Nistorescu

(This deserves to be passed around the internet forever.) It took a person on the outside - looking in - to see what we take for granted ! GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!

4th of July 08

I love our town of Wasilla, they have the biggest heart when it comes to anything Military, we have so much patriotism in this town. I will share some of the pictures I took of the parade and tell you about what Wasilla did for the 4th of July. We went down to the mall parking lot where I work around 7 am so we could make sure we had a really good spot for everyone, we took the RV so we could have a good place for potty breaks and of course we had the refrig and shady place to sit, the parade started at 11 am so you can see we were really early birds, but not having the experience of knowing what time people show up for spots we were not going to take the chance of losing out, so anyway, we get there around 7, walk over to the Sunrise family restaurant and have breakfast then go back, read the newspaper, by that time it is 8 am, time for a snooze, did not really think we would snooze but the next thing I know it is 10 am and people are starting to arrive all around us. We get our chairs out and wait for everyone else to show up, well,,,,that is another story, anyway, Sarah, Olivia, and Shannon get there in time for the parade, they have so much fun items in the parade I just wish I could show you all the pictures but it takes so much time to upload pictures here and I don't have the patience to wait, anyway, after the parade is over Zach and Jourdan finally get to the RV then they all head down to the park where they have a band playing and free hot dogs and chips, sodas, and whatever else, when they leave Cathy and Rick show up and we sit around and talk and watch the people come and go and by that time the kids return to the RV and we head home. I must say, I did enjoy the parade and our visit in the RV but the rest of the 4th sucked. We did not get together for family time or bar b cue or nothing, after we got home it was just another day, boo hoo...oh well I now know what a 4th of July is in Wasilla, for the most part it is fun but not like the family get together we had in Nevada.

As I mentioned before, Wasilla is very patriot minded. We have Veterens out on the highway every Monday waving their flags at the train station and they do this in rain, snow and sunshine, people will honk at them and they wave their flags back and salute, in August the city will put on a picnic in the park to honor the military and they will read off the names of the military personnel who are serving in Iraq and we can fill out a form to list the names and then they will give us the flag with the one star on it to hang outside our house to show we have military in our home.

I love it here but I miss my family in Nevada very much. I will sign off for now. Love and hugs to all my family who will read my blog.

2008 Alaska Samboree

For those who do not know what a Samboree is, it is a large rv campout that includes people from all over the good old USofA and Canada and it is part of the Good Sam Group. We belong to a chapter here in Alaska called the Northern Lights and I get to do the newsletter each month. It has been a way for me to meet people and to have fun. Each Month from about April through Sept we pick a camping spot all around Alaska to visit and then Oct through March we meet at different members houses and we have a pot luck for our meetings. Anyway back to the Samboree, we only had 65 rigs this year due to the cost of gas but we did get some rigs from Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Montanna, Colorado, Texas and California the rest of us all came from Fairbanks, Anchorage and out here in the Mat-Su Valley. We had games, bingo, crafts, Ice Cream Social, hot dog feed, pot luck night and a tea for the ladies,we had seminars on rv safety and almost anything you would want to know about rving, we had dog show oh my gosh we had so much going on, it was a blast. In the tea we had a quilter who wins first place almost all the time, she has over a 100 quilts and talk about beautiful, wow....wish I had the time and the desire to do quilting, she explained all about different ways to quilt. I made a beaded necklace so I can put my badge on it for the meetings, I also learned another dominoe game called spinner, that is about as much fun as the Mexican Train. Next week we head up to a place called Pinnacle Mountain, but this will be just for our chapter so there will only be about 10 rigs this time. The weather is finally getting beautiful and we are hitting the 70's yeahhhhhhhhhh,,,,I am adding a picture of our sunset and it is 12 am and that is as dark as it gets until about 3 am then it lightens up, but we are now on the downside of our summer and now we are losing about 1 to 3 min a day but we will still have our sunsets much later than you do down below, it really does not start getting dark until about 9 in August. We are going to have our first 4th of July in Alaska, it is a bit bittersweet because we always spend it with the family in Nevada and I am going to really miss that, but I also want to experience the 4th up here in Alaska. I am going to sign off for now I hope all the pictures come out ok and that you can enjoy them.