It is supposed to get down below zero tonight here in Indiana and I think all my feathered friends know it as they are in a panic mode below the feeder. I wish I could bring them all inside but I know that would be messy and impossible. :) Continue reading In A Panic…
About this time last century quickly finding the horse and buggy business evaporating. They had been left behind when the automobile was invented a couple of decades before. At about the same time a startup called Sears Roebuck and Company was taking business away from many local mom and pop stores. Is Sears and their similar competitors facing extinction here in the beginnings of the 21st century? I admit that I am one of those who buys the majority of my non-food purchases through on-line retailers. Amazon boxes frequently show up one my front porch after their two day journey from … Continue reading The Death Watch For Another Brick and Mortar Establishment…
One of my hobbies (yeah I have many) is to take photos of group pictures from past generations I find in my travels and elsewhere. This one is from the Indiana Historical Society publication.
The right side middle picture was taken in 1916. I enjoy zooming in on these type pictures and trying to imagine what one person’s life in that group was like. Continue reading “Pictures From The Past..”
This five star post is purely visual in nature. It was just one of those minutes that usually goes unnoticed. It was taken about twenty years ago in my first stand alone home north of Indianapolis. The small tree in the foreground was a cherry tree in our backyard. Continue reading Misty Morning..
I know the image of an old person is generally not linked to a dreamer but that is just what I am. Many think old people are just supposed to “sit back and watch”, their dream days are behind them. To that I say poppycock…. :)
Dreaming is a lifelong process that never ends. My earliest dreams were to try to touch the sky. For some reason I have always been attracted to looking up. Even as a very young boy in the early 1950s I could be found lying in the grass on a summer night looking up at the stars and dreaming about them and what the future might hold for me. Continue reading “About Dreaming…”
I spent a couple of summers during high school as a farm hand. A lot of it was putting up hay but some was helping with the planting and harvesting. I hate to admit it but some of these antique tractors were the same models that I drove during those years.
Everything is being automated now. Even the tractors are beginning to be driven by GPS enabled robots. Less then 1% of us are now working the land. Its good to look back on the past to see where we have been. I enjoy the continuing tractor shows here in the Midwest. Continue reading “Antique Tractors…”
If you have tried logging into RJsCorner this weekend you will likely find yourself confused. I am currently bringing up a new theme and that is most easily done in real time. I have had the old theme (layout) for about a year now so it is time for a change. Nothing stays the same much in life or on RJsCorner. I really like this new theme, I think it gives you more options for your visit. The “Featured Posts” at the top of the blog are the most recent six that I am probably particularly proud of. Often times they … Continue reading Please Pardon The Mess…
A part of my “In Search Of America” journeys is about documenting the many different containers used in our past. Each one is as much an art object as it was a functional container for our goods. They come in various sizes and materials. Here is a sample of some I have collected: Continue reading Containers Through History..
For this ISOA post I want to remember my honeymoon lodging at CoCo Palms in Kawaii Hawaii. We were there in April 1986 and it was almost dream like. At that time Kawaii was still very rural and Coco Palms was … Continue reading CoCo Palms…
I have been forgetful lately about one of my pledges here on RJsCorner and that is to write stories about my past. Sometimes I just seem to get too locked into what is happening in the world around me today to remember to step back and celebrate my early years. I know I have some nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews who at least casually follow me here and they have told me they love my stories. So here is one to you guys and I hope everyone else enjoys it as it as well. Maybe you can relate it … Continue reading *My Blue Collar Dad..
Let’s take time now to be thankful for everything we have in life. Given the recent election, this time next year may be a different story :) Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving…
One of the advantages of living in a rural forest area are all the feathered friends that come to visit our feeders. We go through tons of feed and suet each winter but seeing the birds makes the winter a little less dreary for me. Continue reading My Feathered Friends..
One of the most unique places I have ever visited in this country is the “Grounds For Sculpture” in northern New Jersey. It is a fascinating place where you sometimes don’t know if the person beside you is real … Continue reading Grounds For Sculpture…
In Part 2 of my “How Did We Get Here” series on Thursday it was mentioned that there are 7 million men who have quit looking for work. I couldn’t understand that given that our unemployment rate is at historic lows so I decided to look into this further and found the quote below: More than 7 million men between the ages of 25 and 54—prime working age—have dropped out of the labor force. That means they’re not only unemployed but have also given up looking for a job Why aren’t they working? There is no one single reason. Men … Continue reading America’s missing male workers
Here is another post pointing out some of my neurodiverse characteristics associated with Aspergers Syndrome. If you interrupt me when I am in the middle of something I may smile at you and pretend everything is okay but on the inside I am beginning to boil. Hopefully you will let me return to my task and finish what I was doing. Stopping in the middle of a task creates a panic in me that is hard to justify. I just need to finish what I am working on or come to a reasonable stopping point. My working memory is … Continue reading Being Interrupted …
For this 5Star Wednesday I have chosen diners. They are not very prevalent here in Indiana but when we lived in New Jersey they seemed to be on almost every corner. Now I will admit that the food at diners is maybe not 5Star quality but there is just something about the general atmosphere that thoroughly entices me. No matter which diner I went it seemed almost like visiting my family. Inevitably the waitress who came to take our order always said “What can I get for you hon?” ;) Diners just hold a special place in my heart. Click … Continue reading Diners…
Polls used to be statistically scientific studies of trends and thoughts. Today not so much. Due to technological changes and just plain laziness polls just don’t have the validity they once had. 1. Over time, the percentage of Americans who say they would participate in polls has declined significantly, from nearly one out of three in 1997 to one in 10 in 2016, according to Pew. 2. Half of American households don’t even have landlines. The younger you are, the less likely you are to have ever used a telephone with a cord attached to it.Again, pollsters try to correct … Continue reading About Those Polls
Time is running out for all of us. Everyday our life is getting closer to the end. For some of us our time left on this earth is very short and for others it is comparably longer. It is not the amount of time we have left that is important but what we do with it. We can lay back and worry about dying and fear others who might take our life away from us or we can accept that our time is running out as inevitable and just live life the best we can. The choice is ours. Too … Continue reading Time Is Running Out…
I gotta take one last stab at this insane political season before it is over. David Horsey’s cartoon says it all to me. If he is elected I expect he would put his family in as his cabinet so they and tell everyone what he really meant. And then there is Rudy, he is kind of like the loyal dog of the family. SIX MORE DAYS…… Continue reading One Last Stab…
On this 5Star Wednesday I want to celebrate Bent’s old Fort in southern Colorado. It is one of those mystical places where I almost feel the people that were there a hundred and fifty years ago. One of the things that make it special is that it was not a military fort but a commercial trading post. They say it was the source of the TV mini-series “Centennial”that I much admired years ago. 5Star Wednesdays is about one picture or one thought so I will leave you here with my favorite picture of the place. Continue reading Bent’s Old Fort…
When I came across this post in Instagram from my friends at BBC America I had a flashing thought that I may be more British than American. I’m pretty sure my distant ancestors came from the Great British Empire a few hundred years ago so maybe it is in my blood. I love looking at things from a philosophical angle and I devour almost everything on BBC America. We just seem to think the same way. With two hundred and fifty years of history to look back on I kind of think we may have messed up by going our … Continue reading I Might Be More British Than American…
I have visited and posted about Pleasant Hill Shaker Village many times here on RJsCorner but never about it’s sister village at South Union. Unfortunately it did not have the fortunate fate of Pleasant Hill so most of the buildings and even the graveyard was destroyed. But there is enough there to appreciate its unique beauty. This post will concentrate on some of the rural farm artifacts found in just one of the buildings but in another post soon I will discuss its history and current status. click on any picture above to see a larger slideshow view Continue reading South Union Shaker Village..
The quotes below are a nice addition to the recent post about voter suppression. The solution given is to add an amendment to our U.S. Constitution to say that everyone over 18 has an inalienable right to vote. This sounds like an ideal solution to me. A Fourth Circuit panel ruled a few months ago that North Carolina’s voter ID law violated the Constitution because it targeted “African-Americans with almost surgical precision…the asserted justifications cannot and do not conceal the state’s true motivation.” More recently, Berman discovered an email from a Wisconsin Republican official refusing to put up an early voting station at … Continue reading How to end voter suppression once and for all
One of my great pleasures in life are the pets I have had over my lifetime. So I am including a couple of pictures here in my 5Star post to celebrate them. I have to admit that the picture of me is a little dated. It was taken in 2001 when I still had some hair on my head. Continue reading Pets…
I see where the federal courts have struck down some State’s voting laws as unconstitutional in that they were really about suppressing the vote. To me that is a good thing. But in my mind our entire election process needs to be changed to allow everyone to vote when it is convenient for them. Why are we stuck to one work day to cast our choices of who will do the people’s business? One of the basic problems with America’s democracy is that we vote at a much lower level than almost any democracy in the world. Too many of us, … Continue reading Suppressing The Vote…
On my most recent uRV trip I visited the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green KY. I am not necessarily a Corvette or even a car fan but I recognize that Corvettes are a significant part of America. They are our answer to all those expensive foreign cars like Porsche and such. One of the things that drew me to this particular place was the story on the Velocity channel about how the main display area collapsed into a giant sink hole a couple of years ago. Of course this event is a major part of story now for them. I worked … Continue reading Corvette Museum – Bowling Green
“Say something often enough and people will believe it.” I’m not sure who originally said the quote above but it is certainly true during the current presidential campaign. But if you step back and look at the facts it often tells you a different story. The below words are from Red Letter Christians by Kathy Vestal. She has managed to address almost all the things in a small number of words that most people criticize Hillary for. (I hate blah, blah, blah..) : Take, for example, Benghazi. Exactly what did Hillary do? What should she have done? It’s hard for most of … Continue reading “Anybody But Hillary”…
Sometimes 5star images including the one below come from overlooked places. When we do our annual visit to northern Wisconsin to see the in-laws my brother-in-law takes us on a leisurely trip into the hinterland. On one of those recent trips we came across a herd of dairy cows and stopped to say hello. Since Wisconsin is known as the “Dairy State” this scene is somewhat common. I enjoyed our “up close and personal” visit to my dairy producing friends and I kind of think this picture is well deserved of its 5star Status Continue reading Wisconsin Cows…
There is just something soothing about seeing people do good words in Jesus’ name. Given our totally insane political season we all need something soothing. Catholics seem to be especially suited and tuned to doing good works. With that in mind one of the places I visited this year during my uRV trips was St.Meinrad Archabbey in Ferdinand Indiana. It is one of only two archabbeies in the nation. I visited here many years ago but the experience affected me even more this time. The serenity of the place almost melted away my pent up anxiety caused by our current … Continue reading Something Soothing…
There are a lot of things about today’s religious establishments that hinder their outreach to the 21st century population. The glass, or maybe stone ceiling is one of them. Faith leaders grappling with women’s inclusion in religious leadership roles are in danger of the same pitfall. By focusing exclusively on “what is traditional” for their religion rather than asking the crucial question: “What change is necessary for religion to thrive?” they risk alienating 50 per cent of their flock. They also deprive the entire community of the talent, skills and enthusiasm that women would otherwise contribute.Insisting that men continue to … Continue reading The Stone Ceiling of Religions
I am thoroughly pro-life in all its forms. Yes, abortion kills a living being but so does war and executions. Pro-life means believing in the sanctity of life before and after birth. Jesus made that pretty clear in his teachings and I intend to follow him in that and most all other regards. Some folks will argue that the death penalty is necessary for the most heinous crimes, the “worst of the worst.” But it is increasingly clear that when it comes to executions in America, we are not killing the worst of the worst. We are killing the poorest of … Continue reading In the Name of Jesus, Stop Executions
Today’s 5Star post is when I was just starting out treating photography as a serious hobby in 1970. It was taken with my first 35mm camera that is absolutely primitive by today’s standards. The picture quality is pretty low as it was scanned about 6 years ago from the original 5×7 print, but the composition is pretty good for a beginner. :) Continue reading Starting Out…
All we seem to hear lately is how the bottom rung of the employment ladder is stuck at dreadfully low conditions. Part of that of course is the low minimum wage level. Historically, mainly due to GOP gridlock, it has not been increased nearly enough to keep up with the times. But it is nice to see that significant gains have taken place in recent years. The 2015 Census data on income and poverty is out — and for the first time since the Great Recession, it’s unambiguously great news. Median household income was up 5.2 percent compared to 2014 … Continue reading Why America’s good fortune won’t last
I love going to events that include re-enactors. It brings history alive so to speak. The “Feast of the Hunter’s Moon” was one of this events. For this pictorial post I want to concentrate on those folks. This event which is just north of West Lafayette (Purdue) has been going on for about 30 years now. I’m sure many who are in these pictures have performed in a lot of them. Click on any image to see a larger slide show view Even a number of visitors such as the couple pulling the antique baby carriage and the two young … Continue reading Ode to the Re-enactors…
I loved the quote in the title above when I came across it recently on the CNN Channel’s GPS. Too many people want easy-to-understand answers to all the problems around them. So when someone comes along and tells them that the solution to gross wealth inequity is to build a wall around the country they jump on board. When someone tells them that the answer to terrorism is to ban all Muslims and deport those citizens who don’t take a loyalty test They say “yeah, yeah”. In my mind the people who do that are just too lazy to take the … Continue reading The Appeal of Simplicity In A Complex World..
I know the picture here on this 5Star post is not clear or particularly focused but it gets its rating from my memories. It was taken by a small Kodak camera in 1969 and is of my friend Don V. He was the friend that got me interested in Bob Dylan and things “folk”. I will always thank him for that. Even in my deafness I still love those songs floating around in my head. I occasionally bring out my old 33rpm records to just look at them and remember the times. Don got married soon after he graduated from Purdue. … Continue reading Remembering Don V….
Lord knows I have my problems in life, I have even been blogging about some of them in my Celebrate Diversity posts lately. So I can understand how so many women are addicted to their make-up. I also admit that I am not very well attuned to the social scene so I really didn’t know much about Alicia Keys, but I admired her audacity. By baring her bare face, Keys has revealed how makeup can become a crutch and a mask. The very fact that women are so encouraged to apply makeup communicates that we should be concealing our imperfections and … Continue reading About Make-up…
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending The Feast of the Hunter’s Moon in Tippecanoe County Indiana. It is one of the largest re-enactor events in the Midwest. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what was there. More on this in a later post: As Usual click on any picture to see a larger slideshow view Continue reading Feast Of The Hunter’s Moon…
Being deaf my world is primarily visual. So one of my most endearing hobbies is photography. I got my first 35mm camera right out of college. It, besides my 1970 Mustang, was my first extravagant purchase. I have upgraded cameras many times since then and now have a fully digital GPS enabled one sitting beside me on all of my micro-RV trips and even around the homestead. Most of the posts here at RJsCorner are primarily words but I do intertwine them with occasional pictures such as in my search of America. I think it is about time to put more … Continue reading My Visual World…
Recently I visited the Zoar Village in central Ohio that is one of the few villages where the whole town is on the National Register of Historic Places. As is often the case Zoar was platted by Germans escaping religious prosecution by the Lutheran church in the early 1800s. It was a communal colony but unlike most did not discourage gawkers so it has a rich pictorial history that I hope to bring you more of in future posts. For now just enjoy some of the buildings found there. It shamefully seems that many of these type sites are falling out of … Continue reading Zoar Village – Ohio
The title of this snippet post might be confusing to some of you but bear with me. I am not a gambler in almost any form but I have been playing roulette a lot lately. Mail Roulette.. It seems we have a new mail delivery person on our rural route. I’m pretty sure that all of them for the last half dozen years have been contract employees. That is they are not postal workers with life time employment as seems common to most governmental bureaucracies. Our last couple of carriers were less than amazing but this new one takes the … Continue reading Roulette And The USPS…
When I was hearing I enjoyed the songs of John Denver, especially his 1971 album with “Take Me Home, Country Roads” about West Virginia. I certainly enjoyed my visit to WV in 2011 and yes it did have a lot of beautiful country roads. Click on any picture to see a larger slideshow view An especially delightful time was at the State Museum in the capital city. I think it is the best I have ever visited. Continue reading Take Me Home, Country Roads..
There will be much more later but I wanted to give you a quick pic of my recent three day adventure into central Ohio and particularly the Zoar Village. If you are into history it is an awesome place. Continue reading Zoar Village, Ohio
The last few years the concept of simplicity has been a major theme for me. I have spent much of the last year decluttering my life and all the stuff I have unnecessarily collected. That included a closet of clothes never worn in several years and a 30×60 foot barn with decades worth of accumulated junk. For some reason I now find it much more satisfying to live a cleaner life without so much stuff. I don’t know if this is because I can see the end of the tunnel or if this has been a lifelong endeavor that is … Continue reading Simplify…
When I came across these pictures in my database I began dreaming of Pittsburgh and particularly the Heinz Museum. Don’t miss it if you are in the area. Pittsburgh is different from any other major city I have visited. It has a raw edge to it that is a legacy of it steel industry heritage. Click on any picture to see a larger slideshow. Continue reading I’m Dreaming Of Pittsburgh
