Category: Uncategorized

This is a repost in commemoration of the 5^th anniversary of this blog (it was first posted 9/25/18)

COLLECTING
I once had a friend who enjoyed collecting antiques. She dragged me all around, picking through people’s old junk, hoping to find something of value that all the people before us had somehow missed. If you’re not into collecting, these forays can quickly become punishment, and so it was for me. Hours of wandering around picking up pieces, of junk, studying them, replacing them, then moving on to pick up something else.  BORING!!!   

My primary joy from those journeys came from the fact that it’s “hungry” entertainment and invariably we’d stop for a meal at some new place where we had not eaten before. Now that’s my type of entertainment. It almost made the shopping worthwhile….. almost!

Once you start collecting, you never stop. If you complete your collection, you begin collecting something else while you continue to try to improve your collection. Avid collectors collect more than one particular item; many collect dozens of different things. It might be old tobacco tins, baseball caps, jack knives, or even old bottles. Hell, when it comes right down to it, old anything.

I soon realized I was going to have to start collecting or die of boredom. In 1976, Michigan had put out a patriotic license plate to commemorate the 200-year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.  It was red, white and blue and very attractive. When it was time to replace mine, I saved it and a number of others that I had found over the years.  So, I decided to start collecting license plates.  The problem was there were thousands of them.  So, I decided to try to get one from every state.  Presto!  I was a collector.

Years earlier I had received a bottle of Avon aftershave shaped like an antique car as a birthday gift from my youngest son. I had always treasured it, probably more because it was a gift from my son than because of its shape. At any rate, one day when we were pawing through old junk, looking for license plates, I came across another Avon bottle car. In fact, I found 2 or 3 of them in the same junk pile. Until that time, I hadn’t realized that there were more than the original I had received from my son.

That day, I truly became a collector. Soon enough, I had 10 or 15 cars in my collection and was anxious to find out how many more of them there might be. Suffice it to say, there were enough of them to make it interesting to attempt to collect them all.

After a time, I was no longer seeing that friend, but I didn’t stop collecting. From time to time, I came across another car to add to the collection. Eventually, I also began collecting eagles. All types of eagles, but preferably of a patriotic nature. They aren’t necessarily old or antique, but they are interesting and patriotic.

Unfortunately, it now seems as though the old antique is me.

********

Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #559

About: Life’s Truths

Quoting Unknown

“Searching for self is a journey for a lifetime,
life is what happens in between.
********

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please check us out at:   

amazon.com/author/richard-lee-king/

amazon.com/author/donnachandler

Kindle versions of most of our books are available at only 99 cents.

My sweetie started this blog on September first of 2018. So, we’re coming up on the five-year anniversary.  I didn’t post my first item to it until the 20^th of that month.  That first article got me started and for a while, I’d post something a couple times a month.  Often it was only a poem from one of the books I had written.  Occasionally it would be something more memorable, possibly from an article I had written for TCPalm.  And sometimes it would be something that I had just then written specifically for this blog.

In honor of that fifth anniversary, I thought it would be interesting to re-post a few of the more interesting or meaningful of those early postings.  Today, I’m reposting an article that originally appeared on October 29, 2018. My memory isn’t what it once was and I’m not certain which of those categories this article comes from, but I ran across it the other day and it brought back fond memories from the days of my youth.  Hopefully, it will do the same for some of you.  Here goes…..

AM I THE ONLY ONE . . . . who has fond memories of my first jackknife?

I don’t rightly recall which birthday it was, but I was really young and I had that jackknife for a good many years. (It was never known as just a knife, always a JACKKNIFE.)  I can remember makin homemade slingshots, usin the big blade on that jackknife to do the cuttin. I’d use my jackknife to peel off the bark and whittle them down to size, then you’d leave it out in the sun to dry.  While it was dryin, usin the small blade of my jackknife, I’d cut an old inner-tube into strips for the slings. Still using my jackknife, I’d cut apart a pair of old worn-out boots to get leather for the stone carrier.

If they were high-tops and had those big long tongues, one pair of boots would give you enough leather for about 6 sling shots. Not that you’d need that many, cause once ya had one ya liked ya stuck with that one till it wore out.  But a good slingshot made a valuable trading item, ya might even be able to trade for another jackknife or maybe a whetstone. If you used your jackknife much, you needed a good whetstone.

I also remember pickin up cigarette butts to tear apart and use the tobacco to roll a cigarette usin the thin pages of the Sears Roebuck catalog for papers. I’d use my jackknife to cut the page to size, but other times I’d smoke them in a homemade corncob pipe.

I’d use the big blade on my jackknife to cut a corncob down to about an inch and a half or two inches then hollow it out usin the small blade of my jack knife. I’d use that jackknife to scrape the outside of the cob to a smoother surface. Then I’d stuff the bottom with some clay from the creek bank. Sometimes, instead of clay, I’d whittle a wooden peg to fill the hole in the bottom of the cob.  Then, I’d poke a hole in the side of it with the leather punch on my jackknife then, using the big blade, I’d cut a golden rod stem down to about 5 or 6 inches and poke a piece of haywire through it to make it hollow. It made a nice stem for the corncob pipe.  I’d stick that into the hole in the corncob and seal it, once again using clay from the creek bank, or sometimes we’d use Elmer’s glue to keep the stem in place.  

I remember ridin my bike 7 or 8 miles to Pleasant Lake and back and occasionally “coonin” melons at “the old log cabin” then usin my jackknife to cut them up. No matter where I went, I always had my jackknife in my right front pocket and a few specially selected stones in the other for use with my slingshot which was always in my right-hand back pocket.

Sometimes I would climb to the top of the maple trees in the back forty. It seemed like you could see for miles from up there. I’d light up my corncob pipe and sit there for hours enjoying the sights. Then I’d use my jackknife to carve my initials as high up in that tree as I could possibly get.

Life sure was a lot different back in the days before color TV, smart phones and You-tube….

********
Gramps use’ta say
R.L.King2012 #556

About: Life’s Lessons

“Learn from the past,
but don’t live in it.”

Quoting Admiral Kilbride on NCIS: “The past is a place to learn from, not a place to live in.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please check us out at:   

amazon.com/author/richard-lee-king/

amazon.com/author/donnachandler

Kindle versions of our books are available at only 99 cents.

My Sweetie and I are both authors. Most of you probably already know that. Between us, we now have over 25 books in print. We write them, then submit them to Amazon for self publishing. That’s about it. We don’t do anything to try to market them, it was never our intent to get rich writing. We write as a hobby, a way to keep from spending all of our time in front of the idiot box.

I mention this because we have an 8-book series which we refer to as the CROW’S LAKE SERIES, which we both believe is some of our best writing. It’s available on Amazon for only 99 cents per issue. We’re still trying to make the entire series available for one 99 cent purchase, but we’ve hit some snags with that. Still, 99 cents per book is pretty reasonable and if you like to read, we’d encourage you to give this series a chance.

This excerpt is from book 1 in the 8 book series, titled THE CROW’S NEST. Books one and two are basically a love story revolving around a murder mystery. Books 3 through 8 are more along the lines of a western as we flash back to the 1890’s, which was the teen years of one of our characters. From there we go back even further, eventually winding up back in the Civil War days, before working our way up through the turn of the 20th century to the days of horseless carriages, indoor plumbing, and electricity. If you enjoy reading it half as much as we enjoyed writing it, we’ll consider it a most gratifying success.

CHAPTER ONE

My name is Tim Hasbrook.  Most all my friends call me Bo.  I wanted to tell you a little story about a time in my life when I had a lot less worries and a lot more energy.  I was determined to put my past in my rearview mirror, pick up the pieces of my life and put them all back together.

It was hot summer evening and I was back in my little hometown after about 5 years of being away.  It isn’t a very big town; most everybody knows everybody else and a good deal more than they should about their business.

I was sitting at the bar whiling the night away, minding my own business, watching a game on TV and having a few beers.  She came walking up beside me and asked, “Is this stool taken?”

I looked up into the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen and mumbled, “No Ma’am.”

She said, “Do you mind a little company?”

I guessed she was about my age, twenty-eight, maybe a year or two either side of it and a darn good looker.  She had blonde hair along with those deep blue eyes and she had her hair in a ponytail hanging about halfway down her back.  The tail was wavy like maybe she had a natural curl to her hair.  Don’t know why I noticed all that at a quick glance, but I’m a guy who pays attention to details, I’ve always been that way.  

I replied, “Nobody been sitting there since I sat down and no, I don’t mind the company, sit if ya like.  I’m likely not the best of company, but I’ll try really hard to be on my best behavior.” 

With a sly grin she said, “Well shoot that will take all the fun out of it.  A little miss-behaving never hurt anybody.”

As I was thinking about the boldness of that comment, I slid the stool out for her and she slipped ever so smoothly up onto it.

Then she said, “What makes you say you’re not the best of company, the cat eat your dog or something like that?”

“No, nothing quite as drastic as all that.  It just seems to be the popular opinion going round these parts; at least ever since I come back into town a couple days back.”

“I guess you’re from around these parts then,” she said.  “I’m kind of new round here, just moved into the old Johnson spread, couple miles out on the baseline road.” 

That immediately grabbed my attention nearly as much as those blue eyes. I said, “I know the place; I used to do a little work for Mr. Johnson back in the day.  My name is Tim, but folks that know me well usually call me Bo.”

“My name is Lindsey, pleased to meet you, Tim; I really hope to get to know you well enough to be part of the group calling you Bo.”  She said, “It must be my lucky day, running into you like this.”

“Pleased to meet ya Lindsey, I prefer Bo and you’re welcome to call me that anytime you have an occasion to call me.”

She went on to say, “You knew Mr. Johnson well then.  He was my uncle, but I never really knew him when he was alive.” 

“When he was alive?  What happened to him, I’ve been out of touch for a spell?”

You can read the rest of this story by going to the Amazon site listed below.

********

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please check us out at:

amazon.com/author/richard-lee-king/

Amazon.com: Donna Hale Chandler:

Kindle versions of our books are available at only 99 cents each.

********

Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #517

About: Success
Inspired by a Millie Cyrus song:

“Generally, the climb is more enjoyable than the summit.”

My sweetie and I have been watching America’s Got Talent for years.  We both enjoy it, and believe me, we can’t say that about everything we watch.  There are times when we’ll watch something that I like, but she just tolerates it.  Once in a great while that will be the other way around, I’ll tolerate something that she likes to watch. Suffice it to say, most often she lets me have my own way. It’s either that, or we watch separate TV’s.

So, as I was saying, we like to watch America’s Got Talent, AGT as they like to bill themselves. However, that title is probably one of the biggest misnomers in the history of television.  I’ve never kept a tally, but it’s my guess that at least half of the contestants (auditioners) are from someplace other than America.  When we first started watching the show, that didn’t seem to be as prevalent as it is now, but even then, a large portion of the talent was not from America.  I don’t have a problem with that, I just find it curious.  If I were naming the show, I think something like, Talent from Around the World, might be more fitting.  But then, I guess maybe TFATW might not have the same ring or pizazz as AGT.

Anyway, I often mentioned that phenomenon to my sweetie.  These guys are from the Ukraine, what are they doing on America’s Got Talent? This girl is from England, this group’s from….. Why is America’s got Talent showing all these act’s that aren’t from America?

Truth be known, she never actually had an answer for me.  She’d be most likely to say something like, “That’s a stupid question, I don’t know the answer, why don’t you just watch the show?”

Then the other night, as we were again watching the show it suddenly struck me, not only do many of those who are auditioning come from somewhere else, the judges aren’t even from America.  NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM! They’re from Germany, Brazil, England and our sister nation, Canada, which technically, I guess is America,,,,, North America. 

Not only does The United States of America not have much of the talent on this show, we can’t even find American judges.

Like I said, I don’t have a problem with that, but I do wonder, are we being duped, America?

Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #507

About: Stupidity

“He’ll never be the brightest star in the sky.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please check us out at:   

http://www.amazon.com/author/richard-lee-king/

amazon.com/author/donnachandler

Kindle versions of most of our books are available at only 99 cents.

A few years back, country music superstars Blake Sheldon & Miranda Lambert were married to each other.  For whatever reason, they decided to part ways.  At that time, they were both at the top of the charts with nearly every song they put out, and truth be known, they both still seem to have a new song near the top of the charts several times every year. 

Anyway, after hearing about their parting of ways, I wrote the following poem.  It’s not really about them, but it was inspired by them…

*******

WORN OUT LOVE
©By: R.L.King – From the book Memories & Time ©2017

They had a good run,
each hitting number one,
and each, winning many awards.
Artist of the year,
lots of fans to cheer,
and each, playing all of the cords.

They moved from the mountains,
to a lake with some fountains,
and a beautiful house on the shore.
Somebody cheated,
things got heated,
now they’re together no more.

Two successful careers,
leaving only time to cheer,
yet many opportunities to cheat.
Running so fast,
no way it could last,
many nights, dead on their feet.

Now single again,
many awards yet to win,
they’re singers without a song.
A soiled dove,
lovers no longer in love,
though it won’t be that way for long.

*********

Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #263

About: Being a Jerk

“In our neck-o-the-woods,
iffin ya was askin fer it,
somebody was always fixin
to see to it ya got it.”

********

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Please check us out at:

http://www.amazon.com/author/richard-lee-king/
amazon.com/author/donnachandler

Kindle versions of most of our books are available at only 99 cents.