Keys To My Heart

When I was much younger, I used to get The Who and The Guess Who mixed up. I learned to love the different styles of both the bands however. It’s exciting that one of the groups, The Who, will be playing at the Super Bowl. I used to have such a crush on Roger Daltry. When I saw the movie Tommy was on tv earlier this year, I recorded it on my computer. I still love their music and hope they play “Behind Blue Eyes,” “Baba O’Riley” and “Who Are You.” Of course, “Pinball Wizard” is a favorite, but I also play a lot of “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “I Can See For Miles,” “Magic Bus,” and “My Generation.” “Squeeze Box” used to crack me up. “The Seeker” is on one of my Rock Band games, but I don’t remember for sure which one. The Who are from Britain, and I think the Guess Who are from Canada, but they are both on several playlists in my iTunes.

I braved the snow today to go to CVS in Loogootee. I could be wrong, but I don’t think there is any place in Shoals that sells Advil Cold & Sinus. That product is the only thing that can keep me going when my allergies are bad. It could be a cold or flu, but I’m hoping it’s just allergies that’s had me down for the last couple of days. The trees were so beautiful on the drive over, so I stopped and took some pictures. After Christmas I bought a small little camera to keep with me so I don’t have to haul the DSL around. The snow is nothing like what Carrie is dealing with in the Baltimore/DC area, but I still thought it was really pretty.

The Indianapolis Colts are going to the Super Bowl, but not until I had sufficiently yelled at Sylvia’s fabulous big screen tv and squashed and banged a Mountain Dew bottle to pieces. I definitely did NOT like the first quarter, but things started looking up in the second one. I did spot Erica, my cousin’s daughter and a Colt’s cheerleader, a couple of times, but they put a great big black text over top her. Why do the tv people do that? If you’re going to have a big sign up on the middle of the screen, at least put background shots, not people’s faces! Good grief! It was a great game though. I’m just hoping that Brock, the teacher whose room is right next door to mine (and a former student as well), will not be too tortured tomorrow at school. I have a feeling he will be because he actually showed up at ND in a Jet’s jersey. Erica’s and Brock’s pictures are below the flash photos from the Indy Star website. All that Blue is beautiful!

First of all, I found some Shoals pictures on Google in the Life Magazine section. Evidently, Life Magazine came to Shoals in 1950 to photograph the Robert Sanders family. Robert had been captured by the North Koreans during the Korean War. I did a Google search and found only one piece of info about him on the website of the Korean War Project. There was this post by Tony Sanders, his nephew, from 1998:

21st Inf Reg

Looking for information re service record of my late uncle, Paul Robert Sanders. Captured and POW for 38 months, Korea. Don’t know a lot about his service there. Life Magazine did a piece on him and my grandparents in their 20 Sept 1950 issue. I have discovered that he was a POW from 7-11-50 to 8-29-53. I believe that he was a Sgt. at the time of capture, not sure.

That would be an amazing thing to have a piece of your family’s life documented, no less than by Life Magazine. The photos they took are really interesting. Here they are in all their black and white glory. My favorites are of the downtown scenes. When did we have trees on Main Street? Well, I guess in 1950, but I sure don’t remember them, and I was born in ‘56. And we had a Ford dealer downtown too? I can’t remember the post office being on Main Street, but I remember when the new post office was built, so I’m sure I went to the old one. What in the world is the building at the new post office location? Was it a large home or a hotel or something? I also love the depot pictures. You can see the Cutsinger Hotel where Lucille stayed (presently the American Legion) and even part of the Sherfick Furniture Factory in the background. It would only be two more years before the factory would burn down. I wish these photos would be in color though as I would love to know if the cars were different colors–like that popular 50’s turquoise color–or if it was not quite the fashion yet in 1950 and so all the cars were shades of gray. Also, was the sign that said Meats part of the original Tredway grocery store? I have a picture of the inside on my genealogy website. Did Coca-Cola give away free signs or something? It seems like every store had a Coca-Cola sign.

My second find was at a YouTube site. After my first success at Google Images, I tried searching for Shoals on YouTube and found this great video. It must have been made by a Terre Haute TV station, although I’m not sure which one. It tells the story of two unusual Indiana Mascot names. Ironically, I lived at both places. Shoals Jug Rox and Speedway Sparkplugs are the featured mascots. I lived in Speedway for two years when I first got married in 1978. It was the time of the Speedway bombings and the Burger Chef murders. Four kids who closed the restaurant were taken out to some fields and gun-downed. Oh, and I also worked there up to a few weeks before–arrrggg. You know, after that happened, I seriously began to wonder about myself. My grandma was in a horrible fatality, and her car was brought in to the Ford dealership while I was at my high school prom–right next door. I go to the University of Evansville, and the whole basketball team and several others die in a horrible plane crash. Then I move to Speedway, and a bomb goes off in a dumpster in the shopping center right next to my apartment. Not to mention the Burger Chef murders where I worked just for the fun of it. I knew two of the four kids killed. Wouldn’t you know that my brother-in-law was in the Pentagon on 9-11 in the very section where the plane hit it?

Well, at least this video is cheery. It shows my sister’s classmate, Mike Harding. And one thing more, the plaster Jug Rock on the principal’s desk in the video was made by my grandmother (the very same one who was killed on my prom night). I know because she created the mold at her flower shop. Are you hearing any weird Twilight Zone music? Doo doo doo doo . . . . . . .

Good finds. Happy hunting.

Christmas is over so I thought I’d upload some of my pictures before I forget. There are more at the gallery site, but I got tired of uploading at multiple sites. You can find them HERE. Carrie got together with her dad before he flew down to see Sarah in Florida. I am so glad that he was able to go there so she wouldn’t be alone on Christmas. Sarah did spend time with her grandma and grandpa Sherfick, and she visited her grand uncle and aunt, Bill & Joan. I’m sure she was very busy at Disney on Christmas too. I can remember one Christmas when the girls were tiny, and Mark & I took them on Christmas Day to the Magic Kingdom. We stayed in Bill and Joan’s place in Kissimmee, had our own little Christmas, and then plowed through the biggest crowds we had ever seen. It was beautiful but stressful. I wish I could have seen Sarah over Christmas, but we talked every day, and I’ll make sure I head there over spring break.

Carrie and I had our Christmas, and then we went to Sylvia and Nicks. Here are a few pictures. Don’t forget to check out the gallery.

Oh, by the way, the graphics I used above are by Tammy DeYoung and can be found at Aimee Asher or at Plum Creek Collectibles. She even has several fabric designs at JoAnn Fabrics and Hancocks.

I bought a little tv to play DVDs after Christmas. There is a great story about this first. I usually go to Jasper or Bedford but for some reason I decided to go to the Washington Wal-Mart for the first time since it was built. I asked for help getting the one I wanted unchained (they had all of the 19″ Vizio tvs hooked together–what a sad comment on our society), and the girl at the register was one of my former students. Ashley looked great, and I talked to her about Mrs. Trueblood and her days at NDE. She said she was married, had one little girl, and another baby was on the way. It was wonderful seeing her!

Now back to the recall. After I got it home I thought it would be a good idea to hook it up to my computer for a 2nd monitor. Well, that didn’t work. I have a Sony Vaio All-In-One, and didn’t realize that it doesn’t even have any computer outputs. I looked on the Sony website for possible graphics card updates and saw my computer cord was recalled due to electrical shock hazard. I checked the parts number, and sure enough, mine is on the list. I ordered the part. They say not to use the computer anymore. They have got to be kidding. Really? I haven’t even got the email response back from them, and I’m supposed to wait until they decide to send me a part?

Back to the output problem. I found a dandy little device that I’m going to get as soon as I pay for my medical bills, Christmas, etc. It will output any monitor through a USB port to DVI or VGA ports on the tv, and it even sends the audio too through RCA jacks. When I’m working on my genealogy, I have dozens of pages open, including my legacy software and my genealogy website. It clutters the screen pretty fast so this would really be a nice fix. Here is the details on the Arkview USB WA62 to DVI/VGA/HDMI.

I also found one from Atlona that says it does video on the extended tv, so I might have to do some research first. Here is a link to the Atlona. It looks a little less cluttered and comes with all the cords needed, but it only does HDMI. I can’t imagine the need to hook up to anything but that though.

So the blog has a new do. I can change out the header and background much easier with only one column although I’m not sure if I enjoy the scrolling so much. I kept the header basically the same for now (not even going to think about making it festive for Christmas as there aren’t enough weeks left to enjoy it). I’ve been trying to feel a little more in the Christmas spirit. It’s a little hard without the kids. Carrie’s coming home, but not Sarah, and I haven’t felt well enough to decorate or shop. I have made up for it with Christmas music though. This past summer I went to the library and brought home stacks of CDs, many of them Christmas, so they’ve been playing a lot on my ipod. I’ve also hit the itunes store. One of my purchases was the lovely CD I Dreamed a Dream by Susan Boyle. Wow! She is just incredible. I think “Wild Horses” is my favorite track on the album. Whoever thought of doing that old Rolling Stones hit in that manner is pure genius!

I’ve also been watching a lot of Christmas shows on the tube. Every year I love watching the White House Christmas Open House, and tonight it was on ABC with Oprah Winfrey. It was good to see little kids in the White House again. Sarah was lucky enough a few years ago, actually it was right after 9-11 in early December, to get to visit the White House at Christmastime and see all the beautiful trees and decorations. She was a member of the Ball State University Singers, and they were invited to both the White House and the Pentagon to entertain the police officers and firemen. Here is a layout from that bittersweet time.

Another memory of Christmas is coming back to mind, and it’s not a very good one either. Right after the White House Show the Evansville TV Channel 25 put on images of the University of Evansville plane crash. Thirty-two years ago this very night I was a senior music major at the University of Evansville. I was in my regular practice mode, spending several hours playing the piano in a little closet-sized room in the basement of the UE Music Building. I took a little break, left my books, and went to the lounge to get a pop. There were kids out in the corridors huddled, some visibly upset. It was shocking to hear that our whole basketball team, all the coaches and some sportswriters, were killed in a plane crash at the local airport. The temperature was below freezing, and the ice had built up on the wings, causing it to crash on the hillside. I knew one of the sportswriters, Marv Bates. He was in a summer class of only about 12 people with me in the summer of ‘77, and I thought he was a great guy. A few of the ballplayers were in my classes too. It was a rough week, singing at the funeral in Roberts Stadium, and then coming home for Christmas (and finding out my dog was killed by a car, by my future brother-in-law, no less). I became engaged to Mark within a few more days, so I can safely say that 1977 was my most memorable Christmas season.

I hope everyone has a memorable Christmas–but only good memories that will last for years to come.