Books

The year is ending and I get kind of emotional about it, in a quiet reserved un-detectable way, but do to that sentimentality I feel inclined now to put in a small entry about where my head is at in relation to the things it's interested in absorbing.

On the book front I'll make it simple by just mentioning what I've got on the plate. I 'm about 3/4 of the way through Salem's Lot by Stephen King, and I've been holding there for about 7 months it seems like. I doubt much I'll finish it. People swore I'd go nutty for the man once i read something other than "the Shining"... I don't know, it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen for me, perhaps a different book will do it.

Independent People by Haldor Laxness, this is an Icelandic book which I'm certain I've mentioned many times. I am actually really almost finished, just like 50 odd pages or so, and it's a pretty big, difficult, for me, book. I have really enjoyed it though. My copy has a special purpose, which I'll get around to mentioning once it's fulfilled.

Omoo by Herman Melville set in the waters around Tahiti and on Tahiti so if you'll notice a certain geographical coincidence in my reading at this time you'll get the relevance of my reading. I'm about 1/4 of the way into this one, I print out 10 pages from a free site online, read them on break and then print out 10 more, in this way I hope to obtain the whole book in both brain and paper sometime in the year 2007.

The Last Cattle Drive by Robert Day I just got this in the mail last night, a gift from Ronnie. We had spoken about it on the phone early in the year, and he was kind enough to remember that and find it on amazon and send it my way. I've already dove headlong into this book, despite all the others I am currently in the middle of because it's just neat. So Far it's set smack dab in the middle of my old stomping ground, and was obviously written by someone from the area, this Robert Day fellow. I really get a bang out of reading about western Kansas, it makes me feel like I really came from a place that exists. Wonderful. Thanks Ronnie. More to come when I actually finish.

Ulysses by James Joyce I received this book in the mail this year, and I should have started it by now. Jason was kind enough to send it this way after it became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to take him up on his challenge to this year run the marathon with him. I want to do that very badly for the record. One day a big package arrives in the post, contained within was this book, inside it said, "Run a Different Kind of Marathon". Don't mind if I do.

How Could I Forget? And the Covers of Singe

I forgot one Singe song to be certain, though it never really hit it's stride until Plaything came to be. It's important to note this one, because it shows that Singe and later Plaything would take a break from taking ourselves so incredibly seriously that we would allow ourselves a little break from it all in order to let it all hang out, and when we wanted to do that, we'd jam on a special tune called "My Favorite Goat"

Starting with a country blues type feel, the lyrics, would seep with energy,
"lately something ain't right, somethings gone a miss, I can never sleep at night, without my goat to kiss"

there would be a build in the music and the first climax of the chorus would erupt,

"Woah, way oh, oh my favorite goat, Woah, way oh, oh my favorite goat, Oh my favorite goat my favorite goa-oat"

Stunning. From there it was an improve jam, usually going back to the regular verse pattern at least once more, to describe more in depth the longing that a lonely farm can feel for his recently departed favorite goat.

From that point the song could go just about anywhere, it was the one place that our band really felt at home improvising. While there may not have been any rules it was always strongly felt by all that we must hit a reggae section somewhere in the course of the jam. There were several times when "My Favorite Goat" would stretch long into the 10 minute opus field, at it always felt good.

We played a live version at our last show at the Old Abandoned Tupperware building, and since then the song has been at rest, except for an occasional solo jam, in the privacy of a bedroom.

Singe Also did our share of covers, I'll list them, for memory sake.

1. Shit List - L7
2. Sweet Dreams - Marilyn Manson version of Eurythmics
3. Off The Wagon - L7
4. Dead Souls - Nine Inch Nails version of Joy Division
5. Dancing with Myself - Billy Idol - Perform
6. So What - Ministry - never done live
7. Polly - Nirvana
8. Kill All The White Man - NO FX

Singe Again

So apparently Devin is on the Singe blogging train now too!! Very exciting.

Picking up with yesterdays topic, the dissection of the creation of Singe songs, but with the added benefit of a short conversation with Devin which has clarified for me a bit the early order of songs written. Yesterday I believe the order I laid out was correct except I forgot to mention the song "The Birth of Robert Kling". Which I believe we wrote right after "Cellophane", but it is possible that we wrote it just before "Cellophane" as well. Any whoodle. The musical part began from Joe, who I remember at the time mentioned it was inspired by the Ted Nugent song "Strangle Hold". My GOD! Nuge. Distasteful, but it was always one of my favorite Singe songs so I can't believe I forgot how early it was in the cannon. Devin's keyboard part in the verse is in my mind sort of a Devin signature part, he can feel free to refute that if he'd like, in his own blog. Lyrically I thought I was being very clever with the idea behind it. I had read in the paper that Timmy McVeigh had rented his Ryder truck of death under the name Robert Kling. I thought this was a fine idea for a song using the point where a persons actions through an alias make them into a person that they were not before... something like that. I also remember that I didn't remember the article all that well when I wrote the song so that for at least a year the song was called "The Birth of William Kling". Glad I looked it up again... that would have been embarrassing.

It's at this point that the song writing gets blurry for me, if I had my notebook from the time, which is alive and well at a box in my parents house I could probably figure things out pretty precisely. I am pretty certain that in the order discussed thus far that the song "Dying World" came next. I had felt the need for an acoustic sort of song, and so I wrote a chord progression for the verse, which Joe snazzed up with his usual palm muting and a nice note run fill. He and Devin then composed the chorus together in a rehearsal. Lyrically I like maybe 4 lines in this song, which is more than I can say for the rest of the songs up to this point.

At this time there also emerged a song called "1/1". I had a verse progression, which Joe of course played better than I did, which allowed it to become a song. Devin for his part got very creative with the DM5, making the entire build of the song up from adding in different percussion sounds as we progressed through it. I remember being so very thrilled with the way it worked and sounded. I told a good friend Dan that I believed we had found "our sound" in reference to "1/1".

Singe played exactly one outdoor show. It was a local music festival at the local college. We opened the show at noon. Joe and I had been so foolish as to not bring our amps, opting instead to go through our multi-effect units direct to the board. which caused a bit of a problem for the men behind the board. The real kicker though was that Devin had forgot to bring the DM5, leaving our drum sounds 27 miles away in Russel. Luckily Ronnie had the DM4, and was able to run home a few blogs and bring it back. All things considered it went better than the circumstance allowed, but I remember the Four of us feeling pretty defeated afterwards. SO much so that we drove the 27 miles back to Russell where we ended up rehearsing for several hours after we had played the show. It ended with us sitting with our instruments on the floor flushing out 2 brand new songs, "A.O.S. B.O.S." and "Step Over". Both songs came from a very organic sort of jamming process, except for possibly the Chorus to "A.O.S. B.O.S.", which I believe was a riff Joe had just been dying to use somewhere. For those of the curious nature "A.O.S. B.O.S." stands for Abs of Steel, Brains of Shit. OH MY GOD! The Horror.

Somewhere along the way, and for the life of me I can't recall where, there was a song called "Reach Inside", or as it was originally titled "The Hole". It was our only Drop D number. And that song, I am almost certain, there is no real recording in existence, barring maybe a live from video camera recording or direct to boom box rehearsal recording. Devin and I always thought it was one of our best though.

Towards the end of the early singe years, and just as we were starting to record the album that has recently resurfaced, "Transformation Through Decay", we wrote the song "Wrapped Around Your Middle Finger". I believe it's a Joe riff that started it, and that I'd wanted to use that title for a very long.

As far as I can tell these where the songs that make up the early Singe years.

From there things get pretty blurry, the songs at this point start to get a little less interesting and defined in my memory, which is odd because this is the point that Mike left, and Chris came in, which for me is the point in the band that I really love and cherish. Chris for me was the best thing that could have happened. He was so positive and excited to be in our band. He revitalized the entire process, except for somehow the song writing didn't really go much farther from that point. We learned all the old songs and began adding a few new ones, but for a strange reason none of them gelled in my mind as much. I would imagine that the lack of recordings of the songs makes up a large part of their diminished recollection, that and the fact that we probably were only making music together for another year at this point, therefore they didn't have near the amount of time to gel in the head the way the early ones did.

Of this time, my favorite, was a song called Peel, which we must have wrote right before Chris joined or right after. I really liked the song, but I don't recall much about it's creation.

There was also a song that I know we played live at least once, based on a riff a I had written, called something like "get away". I think the crowd at the old abandoned Tupperware building was asked to name it, and creative forces that they are came up with that...

There was a very heavy song Joe brought a riff in for, which we humored him in the creation of, I can't without the notebook remember anything else about it. Except it was so much heavier then the rest of us cared for.

So that is what I recall for the time being. That's it. That's four years of collaborative creation between five individuals resulting in 10 years later some blog entries and some old recordings. And at least 2 new bands. And all told something like 10 albums since then. That momentum that we started back then, starting with an awful song like "closed mind" hasn't been stopped yet.


So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

10 Years After (Singe)

So this week, since it's on my mind at it's kind of smack dab at the 10 year anniversary mark of that band called Singe, I decided I'll make a concerted effort to pay tribute in the blog this week and next when I have the chance by making a few notes about that time.

Today I'll start with, but I don't promise to finish, with a look back at some of the songs we wrote, and possibly the order in which we wrote them.

The first Singe song was called "closed mind". It was horrid. Vile. I had some impression in my mind that since my god on earth at the time Trent Reznor wrote all the parts in all of his songs that I would/should do the same. I forgot to take into account that Trent had a lifetime of musical training, where I didn't really even posses a define sense of pitch or rhythm. I started by selecting an appropriately annoying patch on the Alesis DM5, and went from there. The songs was really about as basic as could be. Luckily when I presented it to the band they were able to round it off a bit, to leave it just a tiny bit less annoying then it actually was. For the sake of sport, I'll give you the lyrics to the chorus.
"close you mind to the world outside, it's so much better when you don't have to try"
I'll stop , because it gets ridiculously worse from there.

I'm pretty certain the next song was "Something to Know about Edith". This time I had learned that I wasn't, at least musically, Trent Reznor, though lyrically I don't know that I ever figured that out during the years of Singe, I may have at one time mistakenly thought I was Maynard James Keenan from Tool. Anyway, "Something to Know about Edith" began A heavy palm muted verse from Joe, and then he and Devin worked out the Chorus progression together. For my part I just went along, and later playing what Joe was playing on the chorus and then learning a version of the verse riff so I could play rhythm while he hit his wah pedal solo.
The chorus began with the disaffected youth gibbel of "The way you live your life, I cannot understand..." wow... ew.

Next song up was what at the time we believed was our "big hit single", but in looking back it maybe wasn't, or it just didn't age well or something... The song was called cellophane, and I was pretty convinced it needed a good disco beat. I wrote up a really basic progression for the chorus and wrote some bad lyrics that seemed to be in the verses about a girl at school and in the chorus some plea for possibly that same girl at school to see the deeper me. OH MY GOD. I am gagging on my own teenage self here! What goes through the mind of a child? So I brought the verse chords and the lyrical idea, if you can call and abortion an idea, to rehearsal and I showed Joe and Devin and Mike, making sure to stress the disco beat to Devin, who for his part understood that beat all to well. Joe was fancy enough to add his recently purchased Wah Pedal to the chords in the song in a very nice way, thus reall elevating the accomplishment, then he went so far as to write the chorus progression, and thus "Cellophane" was began. Devin then insisted on adding a steal drum line in the verse. This was a battle. Joe and I found it aweful, Devin of course loved to play it. It took weeks to convince him not to play it, in the end Joe and I finally won that battle and he didn't play it. He would occasionally play it in rehearsal to get our goats, which it did rather well.

I start to get less certain at this point in the process which songs came next, we had by this point jelled to the point where we were pretty collaborative and comfortable with the idea of, how you go about writing Singe songs, so they stick less in my mind then those awkward first attempts at creation listed above. I can say I'm almost certain that the next song was "Microscope". Up to this point there is scant reference to Mike, that's because there was scant contribution from Mike. Mike had never played before, he was a friend of Devin's, I think from their jobs at McDonald's. He was struggling to even play what the rest of us were struggling to write. I had even been playing my instrument longer than Mike. With "Microscope" it was decided it was time for Mike to feel really involved, we insisted that he write a riff, and the rest of us would write a song around it... After some chiding he had a riff, but not one Joe felt he could play over top of, so rather than lower his personal riff standard he would let Mike play his little, Bomp bomp bom bomp bomp bomp bom part, then he would do the kind of echo the riff thing so popular it banjo duels. Eventually the two riffs would work themselves into one, and Devin would play on the old Casio sound module Ronnie had given Devin, then I would come in, with some no doubt profound lyrics about something or other. I will now reveal the secret that it was Mike's first song he had some writing in and it was called "Microscope"... get it? Mike-ro-scope!! Ha! I was sooooooo ahead of my time.

I think next was a song called "Anna 217", which was about nothing I had any first hand knowledge of. It was fun none the same. Joe wrote a neat riff, then I was thrilled to death with myself for writing a part that goes over the top of that riff in the intro, sort of even like a lead guitar part... except Joe was such a more accomplished guitar played that his normal verse riff had the authority of a lead part anyway. The chorus was taken from my "lead part" played in a lower octave, with Joe using Wah Wah as a filter and Devin adding really neatly dramatic Drum Hits. We were all pretty damn proud of ourselves when we finished that song.
I'll leave you for the day with the a bit of the lyrics, because I like to punish my self publicly for not working harder at writing lyrics as a teen.
"she'll take you places that you've never been, until you never want to come back again"

I might write more later, but as the song goes, I'm not sure, I never want to come back again for the time being.

Singed Hair Grows Back

This year for Christmas I received a gift that was pure dead brilliant. Devin and Ronnie went out of their way and did a great deal of digging and compiling and creating. The result was a copy of the Singe Album, Transformation Through Decay. Here is a little tid bit taken from this here blog, on
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
titled:
I am Under it

Singe "Transformation Through Decay" - A lofty and mainly un-finished project for the band Singe. This recording contained something like 8 songs which we recorded track by track in Ronnie's studio, Big Sound. This was my first ever opportunity to build an album from the ground up. We began with Devin tracking the drums on his trusty controller, triggering sounds and samples contained in his Alesis DM5. Next, possibly that same evening but I think occurring over at least one other brief session Devin recorded his keyboard parts. I recall Devin, Joe and I being present for the session. After Devin, Joe Expertly tracked his guitar parts with some overdubs for the solos, there was one disappointing moment where I recall Joe really nailing a solo, only for us to realise we had not actually recorded it, Lesson learned about making sure the record button is engaged. We still talk about the solo we lost between Ronnie, Joe and myself. After putting off the un-avoidable as long as we could we had Mike our bass player come in a do a session. He was horrible. I remember looking at everyone else in the room and being certain we were all feeling the same thing, that Mike was done in our band and that it was blatantly obvious. We rushed Mike through every song, One or Two takes each song. If he made a mistake we lied our asses off and told him it was a good take and that the little mistakes could be fixed later with copy and paste. No sooner then we could get him out the door we had Joe hook up one of Ronnie's basses and we re-cut his parts. Sometime around the time Joe did his guitar parts I recall doing a couple, one I remember actually being proud of, a rhythm guitar part on the song cellophane, having never really played or recorded with a tube amp it was a revelation for me to use a small fender that Ronnie had. The vocals were done In a few sporadic sessions. There were several attempts made to get final mixes that we were happy with, and I'm sure somewhere a cdr exists of these sessions, but I have not heard them since the year they were completed, and memory does not even allow me to pin point which year that may have been. While we were mixing the album things came to a head with our bass player, ending with him leaving the fine state of Kansas.

So imagine my complete total utter shock to learn that the master had been found. And that Devin had taken it up to make a cover for it and everything. In addition to that he gave me a wonderful present of the beginning of a Behind the Music style documentary on Singe.

This was an impressive gift. It had a pretty big effect on me. I was actually sort of paralyzed at first at the thought of having to listen to it. The first time I tried I couldn't really do it. I thought I remembered to well. And I had someone else in the room. Didn't help. So I watched the Documentary a couple times and thought a lot about it. Finally late last night I had occasion to run an errand, thus leaving me time alone in the car to take myself back without having to feel mortified.

The mortification it should be mentioned falls square on the shoulders of the lyrics, which I have to keep reminding myself were written by a 16 year old who really had a flare for over-drama. Once I got the lyrical embarrassment out of the way I was able to enjoy the wonderful gift I had been given. So much of it I remembered, and so much of it I didn't. My main surprise was that my favorite song was one I hardly recalled, entitled "step over". It is also nice to note that it was one of the last songs written for the album, thus possibly showing some definite sign that we were getting better at the craft.

The moment that I guess I totally got over any odd feelings that I might have still had about the whole thing came during a song called "Something to know about Edith". A song I had always been particularly unthrilled with. It was the second song we'd ever written actually. Last night when the chorus arrived, and as Devin had let slip, it was a drastically different version then the original, I had to pull over because I was laughing so hard. It was a really intense sort of energy channeling laugh, and my eyes teared up in a happy way that eyes sometimes have. In thinking about it I maybe never really got to finish all my feelings from that point in time. Devin mentions in the liner notes of the album he gave me that he never truly believed we'd make it, and I can see why he says that, but I did believe that we would. That was insanely naive, but in a way I wasn't wrong. Last week Devin sent me an article from the Hays Daily News, it had story about Joe Lanning and his new band. They play all over the area, and from the music I heard they are excellent. It seems like it's the kind of music that Joe always loved to play. I still get to play music with Devin, and I have made a new musical partner who has greatly expanded my boundaries. I've played in front of more people than I thought I would back then, and I'm now intensely proud of the art we've created.

Singe may not have ever sold a record (because we never really finished that one), we didn't ever play in a town other than Hays, and a new singe song will never be written. The present I received was valuable in so many way, Singe is gone, not forgotten. We did write those songs, and we did record them, I might be a tad embarrassed by the over drama in the lyrics, but I can except that I was a young kid with a lot to learn, and luckily I had people around who could help do just that. Now I'm a young man with a lot to learn and a lot to remember, luckily I've got people around to help me do that. Ronnie and Devin, I can't tell you how much I'm touched by what we did together at that time, and all you've done since, and what you gave me as a gift.

Work Work Work

I'm busy, but I've been meaning to post a few things, so since I'm hyper and I've been doing so much today I can't rest so I just have to do this because I can't stop.

Work has been happening with the band. Gig on Friday, not my best work. Gig on New Years Eve is over 2 hours... we will basically play every song we know. WOWZA!

Much more happening also. Saturday we went out to Seamonster, where we lifted some things that needed lifting, and ended up doing a microphone shoot out for Amy. It was as always a pleasurable experience. We tried an AKG C3000 and an Octavia 219, and 319. Hoag being so kind as to loan the best suited to us, thus we shot out those models and not the ultra high dollar no way in hell you degenerates are walking out of here with that type of mic. Get it? Anyway, I'm looking to make Amy track some vocals tonight for the b-sides to the Slut Buffet Mega Single. I also have a notion to do some guitaring this week.









One of the B-sides, Delay, which is brand new has been really fun to develop. It will be a real treat in my opinion to anyone awaiting new stuff from us. Here are some photos I snapped of Amy in lyrical development. She'll probably kill me.

You can see wine, Arthur and a lot of journals went into the process.

Here is Vincent, in the background on the TV is the title screen to the movie "Won't Anybody Listen" I believe it was the inspiration behind actually doing some work on this particular night.

Amy is a boy.

Two helpful kitties.















one not so helpful kitty.

My new Amp.

Sitting on top of my very first amp.

Food Cooked by Some One You Know

I'm hungry. Today we are celebrating Thanksmas at work. My boss woke up at 5:00 am and cooked a Turkey. I cleaned the kitchen at work for 2 hours. There is mas to be thankful for.

I just ate, it was wonderful. It's such a rare treat to enjoy a meal cooked with pride.

There is much to be proud of. My little sister, whom I adore, is currently finishing her last year of law school at Kansas University. Monday morning by way of instant message she informed me she had an interview with Kansas State Senator Janis Lee for an internship. Less than two hours later my phone rang, it was Odd, she got the part! I have been completely ecstatic ever since. I think I'm far more impressed and excited about it then she is. It means even more to me that she will be serving a state Senator who'd district includes my place of birth, our family farm, the city where I attended high school and college, and the landscape of some of my fondest memories.
Adrienne will be handling calls from constituents, and I assume relaying practical information about those calls to Janis. I like to imagine some old farmer from paradise calling her with a grievance, and Adrienne talking the matter very serious, and following through till the problem is solved. Way to go sis! Some one has to be there for the Kansas Farmer, they feed 192 and you.
Speaking of Farmers, apparently that and ranching was Janet Lee's profession prior to involving herself in the state legislature. That is impressive.

I'm full. I'm happy. I'm proud. Way to go people, lets keep it up.

On that note, SG has been back at work. It's been going smooth and easy. Sunday we rehearsed and I got to spend some real quality time with my amp. I ran it through a Marshall 4 by 12, and got to crank it a bit. Spectacular. I'm really going to enjoy the thing. I've named it Lilly.

Backy and Rested, Working and Paying

So I am in fact, back, back in the office. Working about catching up on what I missed and working to pay off what was spent. It's funny how much free trips cost.

I'll give a run down of the trip in the days to come, perhaps I'll think better of going nutballs like I normally try and do, and just give a basic run down of where we went, where we stayed, what we did and what we thought of it while we were there. Shucks... that seems pretty much what I do every time. I dunno. We'll see how it turns out.

I will say it's nice to be home, and it's nice to know that the world didn't fall totally apart in my absence. We were actually home last week, but being as it was a fine holiday week I didn't really trouble myself with an online account of my goings ons. Things are going on though mind you.

The band marches forward. We have excepted our highest paying semi local gig so far. It's for New Years Eve, which also marks a first, actually playing on that holiday as opposed to just you know playing. Really exciting.

Also, because of the time off last week we were able to get a little ahead of all the little things that there is normally not the time to do, which has been doing wonders for my state of mind and the state of my health. In addition to these benefits there has been some nice progress in band works. Rehearsals getting scheduled for the shows coming up as well as work on new songs. Amy and I were able to work on one of the B-sides for the Slut Buffet Single last night, a song called Delay. Amy basically wrote her part last night, and it's turned it into a pretty stellar song. I'm thrilled.

Okay, Stuff to come. And I've not forgotten about Grandpap's Transcription, I've just been pre-occupied. If you must now though generally he woke up to a nice day, went and had coffee and got stuff to make for dinner. Sometimes walking his wife to and from work before deciding to stay in and watch TV.

outta da office

I'm out, Totally far out. I'm leavin', won't be back for a while. Going down the Tahitian way, Swimming and what not. Don't worry, I'll be back, there will be tales to tell. This is all a happy thing. Happy way to go. I leave work in two minutes. Can you believe me? I could turn out bitter due to this impossible standard of good fortune. More Ray Melvin and trip report upon my return. YAY!

Jesus God... It's Halloween

here I am, pictured as one Hunter S. Thompson, I wasn't really planning on playing the good Doktor for Halloween but Dylan was kind enough to bring over a special shwag box from the fine people at star, who did a little film about Doc, contained inside were a hat, the smoke and the glasses, it was all to easy. I took the easy way out and suited up. We ventured down to the WeHo Carnival for the 4th year in a row. Every year it seems like less and less people dress up and more and more people come to play lookie-lou.. sheesh. Participate or stay home I always say. Maybe I don't, who can remember all the things they going around always saying.

It got me thinking about Halloween past though, and one in particular stood out from my child hood. Having grown up on a farm, outside a small town, the small town was the only logical place to visit in order to collect candy, and as we grew older, to create hi-jinx. This particular Halloween exists in the age of hi-jinx. I was in fifth grade, which would have made me whatever age you are in the that grade, 11 I think. The older kids in Paradise (the aforementioned small town) would every year by tradition soap the windows of the business it what was considered the "downtown" area. This area consisted of a gas station, a post office, and Insurance office, a Co-op, the middle school and several disused structures.
Due to it's small size Paradise did not merit a Police station, keeping the peace fell to the county sheriff, some 27 miles away in Russell. On Halloween it seemed that the sheriff liked to have one of his men at least put in an appearance in all small burgs, which always lent the deed of soaping windows some major excitement.
In order to compensate for the possible arrival of the sheriff, which would no doubt be followed by immediate arrest and jail for anyone caught with a bar of soap near a window, it was important to completely block the one paved road that ran through town first. This was really more exciting than the ritual soaping of the windows that would surely follow it. The gas station, ran by a fellow named Jerry, always provided ample material for the road block. We'd roll out large tires, and anything else that wasn't chained down, and make a nice ordered line of junk which would prevent easy passage down main street. Oh what fun it was. I remember this year we even went so far as to roll and old jeep into road. It was really an impressive road block.
Soon the window soaping commenced. We took after all the local business first, giving them a nice havy layer of soap with no doubt some witty writings. Always in good fun of course.
The school was always reserved for last, and attended to with the most vigor.
It's necessary now, to explain the peculiars of the USD 399, or at least the ones relevant to this particular tale of rabble rousing. When it became increasingly more difficult for a family farmer to actually feed and clothe and house a family by farming folks left small towns like Paradise, and they left in droves. So Paradise, which once had a grade school, a middle school and a high school found they didn't really have enough kids to have all three, or really any of the three. But necessity is a real bitch, and this led to the unification of small school districts, so where proud paradise once had their own school, the found they now needed to partner with the neighboring towns, of Natoma, Waldo, and Fairport, in order to have enough kids for a School district. For grade school we kids were bussed from Paradise to Natoma, then for middle school the Natoma kids would be bussed from Natoma to Paradise, then back the other way for High School. Waldo and Fairport kids had to be bussed to these Natoma and Paradise for everything.
So being a kid in Paradise, it was point of pride to show the kids that bussed in what a great job of vandalism we had done the night before on Halloween. The only problem was that our janitor would do way to good of a job in cleaning off the windows every year. This confounded we vandals greatly. We vowed this year it would be different. We brough all sorts of soaps and sticky sick things to put on the windows, and we soaped to hell and back. Good times. My cousin Travis, who I believe was into heavy metal music at the time, decided that this good old fashion form of soaping was just not going to stick, so he escalated the vandalism a bit. I watched him pull from his bag a bottle of glue, and a roll of toilet paper. He proceeded to glue the toilet paper to the window. Ooh! wow! I was impressed, this would surely delay the cleaning process. It didn't stop there. Travis next pulled a book of matches from his bag, and proceeded to light the toilet paper on fire. I was now a bit scared. Fire on public property is a bit alarming to an Eleven year old. The fire burned on the window, and burned for sometime, even melting the paint off the door fram around it. How the fire didn't crack or break the cold October pane I'll never know, luck was at least a little on our side.
The soaping finished, and few more nerve rattling burning pieces of glued toilet paper completed and we were off into the night, and back soon to our beds.

The next morning when we got to school we were pleased to see that nothing had been cleaned off the windows. My cousin Travis, who was older, had a sister my age, named Andrea, we were the youngest kids along on this toilet paper caper. We became early morning causes for celebration amongst our fellow fifth graders, perhaps a bit to audible was some of the celebration. Due to the volume of the gossip, or the fact the list of potential suspects could not be more than 8, my cousin Andrea and I soon found ourselves face to face with the principal, the interrogation did not take long. Andrea flipped at once, and seeing that the beans had already hit the fan, I followed shortly there after. We ratted out the whole gang, who would have been caught anyway, and the gang spent the next Saturday cleaning our masterpiece from the windows of the school. Good Times.

Addams Family & Scritti Politti

Friday night we had an Addams Family party at the palms to commemorate the release of the first season of the original series on DVD. I got to hand it to Devin for belief before doubt on this one. I ended up with the impression that everyone in our band and our friend group kind of buggered out on the event, thinking in the negative before jumping headlong into it, but ney, not Devin, he's of different metal and he soldiered on. In the end it was totally worthi while and super fun. I am glad he pushed and prodded where he needed to in order to get folks to co-operate. We ended up all dressed (some of us to a minimal degree) as Addams Family characters, playing a fun show to some new faces and some old.
This was the first time I got to use my brand new amp, which I've decided I'll call Lilly, for reasons of tribute to a certain older and ailing dog I know. The amp was really very nice. The palms power is very dirty and has always made my amps buzz, which annoyes me but I got over it. I had a bit of a problem dialing in the sound I was looking for, and it didn't help that about 7 other pieces of equipment were failing, all requiring my attention. I did have some moments of sublime enjoyment, particularly when I hit the bridge pick up during "mondo di corpo", there was definatly something there.
I look forward to taking some time and really feeling out what can be done. At right you will see silly me with said amp name sake. Don't cha love her madly?

Saturday Amy and I spent quality time with our friend Angie, it was good time.

Sunday Devin had invited us to go see Scritti Politti at the Roxy. I wasn't really very familiar with them at all, and I was rather tired and cranky to start the evening, but by the end of the set I was so very glad to have gone. The evening took a super turn when the woman running the "will call" counter recognized marc's voice and gave us all VIP bands, this allowed us access to a table stage side that would have otherwise cost us $150 bucks in beer and food costs. I really enjoyed the quality of musician ship and song craft. Apparently this was their first ever north american show. WOWZA!

overdrive me mad

I can't blog this week, cause I've been waiting for my new amp. It willbe here tomorrow, for various silly reasons I was under the impression that it would be here almost everyday this week. It's really taken a bite out of my state of mind. let's look at it shall we.

Preps

K, so things are moving again. Went to solar city's last night to hear the radio edit of his Slut Buffet Remix, we should have a disc of his work tonight, which can then make it's debut tonight at the palms maybe. We'll see. It's all very good though. The Slut Buffet single, the domestic version for those keeping extreme bizarre track, should be ready to go sometime in early 2007, we'll see. That will be rather good though I think, giving us some breathing room to work on Food Drinks Music with a cool new product to push to a slightly different crowd in the meantime, while hopefully satisfying the lusts of some people that might be termed fans. Should really be interesting to see what really comes out of this thing. The talk now is to do two b-sides, the Solar City Mix, and then have maybe one or two more mixes of SB, plus the album version. Wowza.
The B sides we are talking about is this new/old song that was never finished called Delay, it's been added to and will probably see a pretty serious re-tweak of the elements. I like it, think it will be pretty rad ass. Also we really want to do a new version of Mustache Rides 5 Cents, since it's never near gotten the props it deserves and it really should... People always ask if it's on FAS when we play it live and we are like, no, it's not, and you can't have the one it is on, cause it's bad, but then devin emails them the version that isn't so bad.
Last night we started recording in earnest on the single and on Food Drinks Music, starting with The Apple Falls and Legalease, also working cutting the basic backing tracks for Delay.
I hope to lay down some more stuff tonight. I would also like to wash a few clothes. Amy gets to have a massage, she needs it.
I may work on some more Pocket Pal later today/tonight but we'll see, I'm pretty busy today.

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 8 - 3/22/76 through 5/2/1976

March 22, 1976
Monday
A very nice day in store again, got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Went down to the post office and mailed Two letters this morning. Went down to the post office again this afternoon and mailed letter also to the grocery store. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

March 23, 1976
Tuesday
A windy Sunny day got up at 6:45 feeling great. Went down to the post office an mailed a letter for Rene came back home, Rene and I walked around the yard for a while. Will stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all.

March 24, 1976
Wednesday
A beautiful calm sunny day today. Got up at 6:45 felling great. This afternoon Rene and I went up and made Doctor's Appointment then to the Drugstore got my refill of medicine then over to the grocery store for things to eat. Sill stay home tonight and watch TV.

March 25, 1976
Thursday
A very sunny windy hot day. Got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Didn't do much today except lay around home all day long. Hung out 2 pairs of pants today. Watched some TV that's about all.

March 26, 1976
Friday
Looks like another sunny day. Got up at 6:15 feeling fine. Will leave to go to the grocery store sometime today. Rene and I went to the grocery store and got a few things and came back home and looked around the rest of the day, watched TV last night also.

March 27, 1976
Saturday
A clear sunny day it looks like. Got up at 6:30 feeling fine. Rene and I went to the library then to the store so will stay in and watch TV tonight.

March 28, 1976
Sunday
A sunny cloudy day cool day. Rene and I went to church this morning. Will stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all.

March 29, 1976
Monday - Ray Melvin's Birthday
A partly cloudy day got up at 6:00 Feeling great. Today is my 53 Birthday. Don't know what the day holds yet. Went downtown to Dr. Ca??'s and took a treatment. Also Rene and I went to grocery store. Will stay home the rest of the day and watch TV.

March 30, 1976
Tuesday
A clear sunny day got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Me and Rene went down to the library took a book back . Then to the drugstore got medicine refill for Rene. Came back home got the mail, got a shirt from the kids and cards. Stay home tonight and watch TV

March 31, 1976
Wednesday
A clear nice and sunny day again. Got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Went down to the grocery store and got a few things to eat. Me and Rene will go see Dr. ??? This afternoon then come back home and watch TV tonight. That's all dear diary.

April 1, 1976
Thursday
got up at 6:45 Feeling fine. A nice warm sunny day all day long. Rene and I went down to Dr. CA??'s office then to the hospital after her examination so once again Rene is in the hospital. Will stay in and watch TV tonight all alone.

April 2, 1976
Friday
Another bright beautiful day. I'm going up to the hospital to see Rene. Must got to the store today also. Got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Went down to the grocery store and got a dew things to eat. Took nap this afternoon also went up to the hospital and saw Rene. Stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 3, 1976
Saturday
Another beautiful day. Got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Have to go to the Bank this morning the to the store today. Also to the hospital to visit Rene then stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 4, 1975
Sunday
Another sunny nice day. Got up at 7:30 feeling fine. Rene is home from the hospital now, got released this morning. We will stay in now and watch TV tonight.

April 5, 1976
Monday
A beautiful day in store. Got up 6:15 feeling great. Have to got to Dr. Ca??'s office at 11:00 Am. Rene going down to the court house and talk to welfare office. Went down to the store this afternoon and got a few things. Will stay home tonight.

April 6, 1976
Tuesday
Got up at 7:00 this morning feeling fine. A sunny day again for us. After dinner Rene and I walked up to the Motor Vehicle Department and got Rene's driver's license then came home. Will stay home now for the rest of the day and watch TV tonight.

April 7, 1976
Wednesday
Got up at 6:45 feeling fine. A sunny partly cloudy day in the 70's. Rene and I went down to the library, took back a book. ??????? Then down to city hall and paid some on the light bill then to the grocery store and got a few things then came back home. Stay in and watch TV, that's all.

April 8, 1976
Thursday
A partly cloudy day got up at 6:00 feeling fine. Went down to the ?????'s Garage for a little while. Went down to the post office and mailed letters for Rene (several words here I can't make out??) Will stay in and watch TV tonight.

April 9, 1976
Friday
Got up at 6:30 Feeling fine. Looks like a bright sunny day today. Went down to the grocery store and got a few things to eat. Watering lawn also. Rene and I will go down to Dr. Ca??'s office (can't make this part out ends in watch TV)

April 10, 1976
Saturday
A beautiful day, got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Went down and mailed a letter. Me and Rene went to the store and got a few things, stayed home and watched TV.

April 11, 1976
Sunday
A beautiful day again. Got up at 6:00 Feeling fine. Me and Rene will go to church this morning. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 12, 1976
Monday
Got up at 6:00 feeling fine. A nice sunny day. Me and Rene went to library. She canceled her appointment with Dr. R??? Then went to the store and got a few things. I went down and mailed a letter for her ???????????? Down town. Will stay in tonight and watch TV.

April 13, 1976
Tuesday
Got up at 6:00 feeling fine. A sort of cloudy day. Went down to the daylight shop and had coffee and cheese cake roll. Went and got Rene's Librex (?) refilled and had coffee again. Also went to garage for a while. Will stay home the rest of the day, watch TV.

April 14, 1976
Wednesday
A sunny windy day, got up at 5:30 feeling fine. Rene started back to work yesterday all went fine for her. Went down to the daylight shop and had coffee. Also went back knupp drugstore and had more coffee. Turned out to be a rainy day, stayed in home and watched TV while it rained.

April 15, 1976
Thursday - First day of Passover
A sunny but windy day it looks like. Got up at 5:45 feeling fine, don't know what the day holds yet. Went down town to the floral shop and got cards then had coffee at drugstore. Also went to the grocery store and got a few things to eat. Stay home and watch TV.

April 16, 1976
Friday - Good Friday
A sunny but very windy day. Got up at 5:45 feeling fine. We got an Easter Lilly from Harold and Donna Erway (?), was greatly appreciated by Rene and me. Day went pretty smooth. Stayed home and watched TV, that's all.

April 17, 1976
Saturday
A very nice warm day. Got up at 5:30 went down and had coffee and donuts at daylight donuts shop.

April 18, 1976
Sunday - Easter
Sunny and cool got up at 6:00 feeling fine. Me and Rene went to church this morning. Stayed home and watched TV at night.

April 19, 1976
Monday
Got up at 5:30 feeling fine, sunny day it looks like. Went down to the daylight donut shop and had coffee. Went down to the garage for a while, came back home. Rene and I went to grocery store. Stayed home and watched TV.

April 20, 1976
Tuesday
A cloudy rainy day today. Got up at 6:00 feeling fine. Rene got a ride to work with Pat. Looks like she has to work until 4:00 today. Went down and mailed a letter for Rene and came back and fixed dinner. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 21, 1976
Wednesday
A nice bright sunny day, got up at 6:00 feeling great. Walked Rene to and from work today. Also went down to (Cad of Olds???) Garage for a while. Me and Rene will go to the store this afternoon and get a few things. Will stay home tonight and watch TV. That's all for today.

April 22, 1976
Thursday
A bright sunny day today got up at 10 till 6:00, feeling fine. Walked Rene to work this morning. Went down to the garage for a while, came back home and messed around. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 23, 1976
Friday
A bright clear sunny day, got up at 10 till 6:00 feeling fine. Will walk Rene to work again this morning. Went to the grocery store and got a few things, came back home and fixed dinner. Also went to library to back book. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 24, 1976
Saturday
A sunny but cool say, got up at 10 till 6:00 feeling fine. Me and Rene went to town the to grocery store and got a few things to eat. Stayed home and watched TV.

April 25, 1976
Sunday - Daylight saving time begins
A cloudy cool day, got up at 10 till 7:00, feeling fine. Went down to Holiday home for Sunday school. Rene had work to do. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 26, 1976
Monday
A cloudy cool day in store, got up at 10 till 7:00 feeling fine. Walked Rene to work this morning. Have to go and see Dr. Ruiz at 3:30 then come back home then me and Rene have to go to the grocery store then will stay home and watch TV.

April 27, 1976
Tuesday
A cloudy rainy day it looks like, got up at 20 till 7:00, feeling fine. Walked Rene to work then came back home. Went to the drug store and got my refill of halidol, then came back home. Will stay home and watch TV the rest of the night.

April 28, 1976
Wednesday
A cloudy drizzley day again. Got up at 20 till 7:00 feeling great. Walked Rene to work, also went to the grocery store, then came back home. Also went to the drug store and had coffee and came back home and fixed dinner. Rene and I went down to the church last night and saw a film, it was good.

April 29, 1976
Thursday
Another cloudy day again. Got up at 20 till 7:00, feeling fine. Walked Rene to work then came back home. Rene and me will go to the grocery store and get a few things to eat, then come back home and stay in and watch TV the rest of the day.

April 30, 1976
Friday
A cloudy rainy day, then turned into sunshine in late afternoon. Got up at 7:00 feeling fine. Rene and I went down to court house also to the library, then came back home. Will stay in tonight and watch TV.

May 1, 1976
Saturday
A sunny day in store, got up at 6:00 Feeling fine. Went down to the grocery store and got a few things. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

May 2, 1976
Sunday
A sunny windy day got up at 6:30, feeling fine. Walked Rene to work. Also went to Sunday school, also went to church this morning. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

Jesus God, can this be real?

Wow. Okay. I'm going to Tahiti, or French Polynesia in 25 days. How the hell do I get to do this? My person of significance is very significant, especially in French Polynesia, where she books many trips a year for people with many dollars. So in part, she won a trip out of a drawing. Travel agents that book the destination were allowed one entry in a drawing for every trip that they would book to French Polynesia during a particular time of year. She booked way more than anyone else during that particular time, so her odds of winning the drawing were much better than anyone else. So she won. That gave airfare to the islands and then some meals and hotel. What it didn't include was taxes and inter-island airfare. That can add up. We are going to be there 7 days and will probably visit up to 5 islands. Luckily since she was supposed to take a fam trip (familiarization trip), which would have been paid for by her tour operator. So she agreed to combine her free trip with her fam trip, thus getting meals and taxes and inter-island air paid for, hopefully (Buck Crosses Fingers).

So wow though. I just got my passport this year, and now I'll have had occasion to use it twice. Unreal. In looking at this year, it doesn't seem to me to be all that wild but, if all goes well with this trip (Buck Crosses Fingers), then in less than one year and 3 months, I will have been for the first time to Hawaii, Tahiti, Iceland, Seattle, Portland and New York. With all trips off the mainland being basically free. WTF? How do I have it so good? Could someone slap the fucking shit out of me the next time I am in a bad mood. Can we do that for me please? Good.

Weekend, Waiting fro Grandpap's

So I've not posted any more of my Grandfather's Pocket Pal because I'm waiting for my slacker mother to photo copy more of it and mail it to me. In her defense she has been busy teaching school children something or other.

My weekend was a fine one. Friday night Amy, Marc, Tiger, Devin, Dylan, Angie and I all went to see Electric 6 at the Key Club. They were really very good as always. Playing many new songs of the new album, except for Pink Flamingos, and that I can hardly forgive... Fun night though, I was actually able to find an outfit that I had never worn before, it was really a fun number.
Amy and I ended up walking around the neighborhood late into the night again, talking through issues vital to the day. It was a fun night.

Saturday we slept late late late. Like 5:30 or something. Ouch. We both woke up not feeling all that perfect but our friend Tiger really wanted us to go to the L.A. Burning Man Decompression, so we sucked it up and through on pretty outfits and headed out the door. We picked up Devin & Dylan and headed cross Hollywood. Upon getting to the festival, which was downtown near 1st and Temple, I was starting to be glad we went. It was really an interesting event, and certainly made me want to attend Burning Man at least sometime in the next few years.

We left the Burning Man event around 11:30, stopping on the way home by Solar City's house. We were dying to hear the final mix of Slut Buffet and he happened to be having a party and said he'd just finished it. His party was very good. Many tidy gay men and a well stocked bar and lots and some good eats. After some drinking and mingling we were invited back into the studio for the unveiling. The studio was full of people for the listening, which was really fun, I was thrilled to know that I really believed in the song, and that the crowd gathered in the room was certainly going to love it. After sometime filled with software difficulties and much funny heckling the mix poured out. Very high energy, very good time. The room bursted into applause in the end. Marc say's we have a hit.

Sunday was another late sleep day. Amy woke up not well. I drove to Noah's Bagels in order to make her feel better, returning home with many delights. We spent the day doing little to nothing. We watched "The Pentagon Papers" and "Chinatown", both of which I really enjoyed. We had dinner at Canter's.

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 7 - 3/1/76 through 3/21/76

March 1, 1976
Monday
A cloudy cold day again. Got up at 7:00 feeling fine. Don't know what the day holds yet. Went down town had coffee at Daylight Shop and went to grocery store and got stuff got dinner. Will stay home the rest of the day now ant watch TV tonight, that's all.

March 2, 1976
Tuesday
A cloudy foggy day, up at 7:00 feeling fine. Went downtown to the store and got a few things for the (?????) . Will stay in and watch TV tonight. Temperature most of the day was 30 degrees.

March 3, 1976
Wednesday - Ash Wednesday
Up at 6:00 feeling gine. Partly cloudy day in store for us. Went down to the holiday home and got Rene's small check for her. Will stay home tonight ans watch TV. That's all for the day.

(Buck Note: all this time I was thinking grandma worked at the library, as she did later in her life but that is not so, she wworked in a nursing home at this time, the Hammond Holiday Home to be exact. Of course, I couldn't resist a little map and directions action. This would be the route taken by Grandma to work and by grandpa to walk with her and to go and pick up her check in order to pay bills. )


Start address:
221 W 8th St Larned, KS 67550
End address:
114 W 11th St Larned, KS 67550
Distance:
0.3 mi (about 43 secs)



March 4, 1976
Thursday
A Cloudy cold snowy day. Got up at 6:00 feeling fine. Went downtown to the courthouse, took card to them. Also went went to the grocery store and got a few things to eat. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

(Buck Note: Here is the courthouse)

March 5, 1976
Friday
A clear sunny day in progress it looks like. Got up at 7:30 feeling fine. Went downtown to the store and got a few things. Will stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all for today.

March 6, 1976
Saturday
Got up at 7:00 feeling fine. A clear sunny day in store for us. Rene ans I are going downtown and then to the grocery store, Come home and watch TV.

March 7, 1976
A cloudy day in store, went down town and had coffee. Came back home and watch TV. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

March 8, 1976
Monday
A cloudy foggy day, got up at 7:45, feeling fine. Me and Rene are going downtown this afternoon to the post office, store and bank. We got back home after the things we done so we watch TV tonight.

March 9, 1976
Tuesday
got up at 7:45 feeling great, a clear sunny day in store for us. Went down to the post office mailed letters then went down town and had coffee. Rene and I will go downtown and pay the light bill this afternoon. Will stay Home tonight and watch TV.

(Buck Note: Here is the Larned Post Office)

March 10, 1976
Wednesday
Got up at 8:00 Feeling fine, a lovely sunny day in store for us. Went downtown and had coffee. Will have to go to the Store this afternoon. All the Shopping is done for today once again. Will stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all for today.

March 11, 1976
Thursday
A Cloudy day today. Got up at 7:15 Feeling Fine. Went downtown to the Daylight shop and had coffee. Also went downtown this afternoon fir a while but otherwise a quiet day. Will stay in tonight and watch TV.

March 12, 1976
Friday
Got up at 7:30 feeling fine. A rainy windy day in store for us. Went to the store and got a few things for us. Will stay home tonight and watch TV. That's all for today dear diary.

March 13, 1976
Saturday
A Sunny clear day, went downtown and had coffee. Went down to the library and store. Will stay in tonight and watch TV.

(Buck Note: Here's the walk to the Library)

March 14, 1976
Sunday
A sunshiny day. Me and Rene are going to church this morning. Come home fix dinner. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

March 15, 1976
Monday
A cold cloudy day got up at 7:00 feeling fine. Went down to the post office then on downtown and had coffee at Dutton's Drugstore. Didn't do much this afternoon. So will stay home tonight and watch TV and that's all today.

March 16, 1976
Tuesday
A nice sunny day, got up at 7:00 feeling great. Went down to the store and got a few things to eat, came back home and had dinner. Played cards this afternoon with Rene. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

March 17, 1976
Wednesday - St. Patrick's Day
A nice sunny day in store again. Got up at 6:00 feeling great, don't know what the day holds yet. Rene and me went down to the library, also then to the grocery store and got a few things to eat so will stay in tonight and watch TV.

March 18, 1976
Thursday
A very beautiful day. Up at 6:22 feeling great. Rene and I went downtown to the Doctor's office for check up. Then went to the grocery store and got a few things, will stay in tonight and watch TV.

March 19, 1976
Friday
A very nice day again, got up are 6:00. Looks like a great day. Will go down to the post office for Rene and mail letters. Didn't do much this afternoon so well stay in and watch TV tonight.

March 20, 1976
Saturday
A sunny day in store. Went down to the store and got (???) for the weekend. Will go down and mail letters this afternoon. Stay home and watch TV tonight.

March 21, 1976
Sunday
A Beautiful day in store me and Rene are going to church again. Come home fix dinner afternoon. Stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all today.

Alice Olivia Angel

I have a wonderful 1st cousin Travis, who was pretty much my favorite thing in the world growing up. He and his wonderful wife Natalie just had a baby. Much Love. So cute!

Alice Olivia Angel
Born: 10/09/06 at 8:27pm
Weight: 7 lbs and 7.9 oz
Length: 19 3/4"

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 6 - 2/16/76 through 2/29/76

February 16, 1976
Monday - Washington's Birthday
A very nice day in store for us, got up feeling great and so was Rene. Went downtown to Dr. Code and got some stool softeners for Rene. Will stay home the rest of the day and watch TV tonight.

February 17, 1976
Tuesday
A clear sunny day again in store for us. Got up at 7:30, felling great. Went downtown and got a few things from the store. Stayed home and watched TV in the evening, that's all. Also mailed two letters for Rene.

February 18, 1976
Wednesday
Another beautiful day in store again. Got up around 7:30 feeling great and so did Rene. Went downtown and did the grocery shopping. Will stay home tonight and Watch TV, that's about it for another day.

February 19, 1976
Thursday
Up at 7:45 feeling fine. Another clear sunny day this morning. We had a nice Surprise, Ted & Lois came up to see us and we rode around with them for a while. Stayed home in evening and watched TV.

February 20, 1976
Friday
Up early this morning feeling great, another beautiful day in store again. Have lots to do today. Rene has to go to the Doctor today also. Went to the hospital and got the things Rene left then went to the Doctor, store, library. Stay home and watch TV.

February 21, 1976
Saturday
Cold Blizzard today up at 7:00, feeling fine. Don't know what the day holds yet. Went down to the store, stay home and watch TV tonight.

February 22, 1976
Sunday
a beautiful looking day, went downtown had coffee. Got Rene's vitamins refilled. Will stay home and watch TV tonight.

February 23, 1976
Monday
A Sunny day again. This is Rene's 56th Birthday today. I got up at 6:40 feeling fine. Went down town and had coffee this morning. Next Rene and I are going to post office, library and the grocery store then come back home stay in and watch TV.

February 24, 1976
got up at 8:00 o'clock feeling great. A warm sunny day. Also we had a nice surprise yesterday Sharon and kids came down also Janet and brought gifts for Irene's 56th birthday. Today Rene did some washing and I Hung it out. Also went down to the store. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

February 25, 1976
Wednesday
A bright Sunny day again. Got up at 7:35 feeling fine. Went downtown had coffee at Duton's Drug. Will not have to go to the store today so will stay home and watch tonight. So ends another day of living at home.

(Buck note: Okay so that's the name of the drugstore I missed early on, sadly I could find no address for it. No Neato map. Got say that's the best sign off yet, I like that one.)

February 26, 1976
Thursday
A nice warm day out. Got up at 7:00 feeling great. Went down town and had coffee then went to the grocery store and got stuff for dinner and supper. Rene and I went down to the post office and mailed letters. Will watch TV tonight, that's all.

February 27, 1976
Friday
Got up at 7:30 feeling great. Another beautiful day again. Went downtown and has coffee, came back home fixed dinner for Rene and me. Went downtown to the Doctor's office with Rene and got some stuff for her. Also went to store. Will stay home and watch TV tonight.

February 28, 1976
Saturday
Got up at 6:00 Feeling fine. Went downtown had coffee and we went to the store twice. Washed out my clothes. Stay home tonight and watch TV.

February 29, 1976
Sunday - Leap Year
a Cloudy cool day, got up at 6:00 feeling fine. Went downtown and had coffee. Stay home and watch TV tonight.

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 5 - 2/9/76 through 2/15/76

Talked to mother last night, she was able to fill me in on some of the things I was not understanding. It was most certainly her and Sharon who visited that Sunday at the end of January. Also grandma was in the hospital for a hysterectomy, apparently she had started hemmorging and they had to perform one... I could get more detail I presume.

For perspective I've mapped out the route from their house on 8th to the the hospital, It's important to note that they did not have a car, this would make the trip a tad longer then the 1 minute google maps has estimated.

Here's what the hospital looks like:



Start address:
221 W 8th St. Larned, KS 67550
End address:
923 Carroll Ave. Larned, KS 67550
Distance:
0.4 mi (about 1 min)

February 9, 1976
Monday
Up early this morning and feeling great. Another nice day in store. Will go up to the hospital and visit Rene again. Went down to nursing home got money to pay the light bill also had lunch at (?)peler(?) and will go back & see Rene again then come home.

February 10, 1976
Tuesday
A cloudy looking dat yesterday it got up in the 80's. Up early feeling fine. Will go up and see Rene again today she is getting a lot better. Don't know what the day holds yet. Had a good day went back after supper and visited Rene, That's all.

February 11, 1976
Wednesday
A clear day in store. Got up early feeling great. Went downtown and had coffee in the morning also went to hospital and saw Rene. Will go back this afternoon and evening and take up the gown I washed for her, so comes the end of another (??) day.

February 12, 1976
Thursday, Lincoln's Birthday
Got up around 8:00 o'clock feeling fine. Looks like partly cloudy day in store. Must feed the cats then get around and go see Rene. Did some washing today for Rene and me & went back to the hospital to visit Rene.

February 13, 1976
Friday (Buck note: Friday the 13th)
Up early this morning feeling great. Must go up and see Rene again and I haven't missed a day yet. Hope she gets to come home Sunday. Another clear day in store for us. I'll go back up this afternoon and tonight to visit with Rene then come home and go to bed.

February 14, 1976
Saturday
A cloudy day, up early feeling great. Will go up and see Rene then do shopping this afternoon then back to see Rene again.

February 15, 1976
Sunday
Today Rene comes home from the hospital also a bright clear day in store so far. Will stay home and watch TV tonight. Good to have Rene back home.

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 4 - 2/2/1976 through 2/8/1976

February 2, 1976
Monday
Up early this morning, feeling great. A cloudy cool day early this morning early this morning. Went and took treatment at Dr. Cader. Did the shopping, Rene has to go into hospital today and get ready for her operation the Doctor said she will be alone for a while.

(did i get that last part correct?)

February 3, 1976
Tuesday
Up early and feeling fine. Sort of a cloudy day, temperature 30 degrees . Irene is in the hospital as of yesterday afternoon. Will spend time with her. Went down town, had coffee on my way to visit with Rene.

February 4, 1976
Wednesday
Got up early this morning feeling great, a cloudy day only 10 degrees above. (???) gave me some grapes & (???) last night, brought them home with me to eat, had some for breakfast. Will go back to the hospital and see Rene. Must pay the rent and food bill today. Will go back and visit Rene this afternoon and night.

February 5, 1976
Thursday
Cloudy and Snowy day. Up early and feeling great. Going to the hospital Irene gets operated on around 8:00 o'clock, The Operation went fine, Rene is a little bit slurry yet and in some pain but will be on her feet in the morning. I will go back up this afternoon to her. So ends Thursday.

February 6, 1976
Friday
Up early feeling fine. Will go up and visit with Rene again, she should be in better shape this time. A clear but cold day in store for us. Went down town and had breakfast at Blue Goose. Will go to library today and then back to visit Rene, that's all.

(Buck note: Ha!! That must be the name of the cafe I couldn't figure out early on. Blue Goose Cafe. What was he doing at the library? Was researching book art really something he was into? Is it possible that they actually had a plan that Rene would write a good book and Ray would do the "book art"? What was Grandma's operation? Also props to grampa for cutting back on his TV time.)

February 7, 1976
Saturday
Clear cold day in store, got up early feeling fine. Will go up and visit with Rene most of the day. Paid grocery bill, back up to visit with Rene again.

February 8, 1976
Sunday
A Beautiful sunny day in store, will go up to the hospital and be with Rene most of the day then come back home and watch TV, that's all.

(Buck Note: UG!! Again with the TV, spoke to soon)

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 3 - 1/12/76 through 2/1/1976

January 12, 1976
Monday
Got up early this morning a very nice looking day, sunshine in store. Temperature 30, may get up around 40. Went to the store and got supplies. Will go with Rene and get her glasses today. Got back from eye doctor with Rene. New glasses, will watch TV tonight. That's all.

(buck note: there is a line squeezed in between the two lines about getting back from the eye doctor and the one that starts new glasses. I didn't realize what it said until I was two entries down and I had the clues to figure it out, read below)

Took Rene to the Hospital. Bad day.

January 13, 1976
Tuesday
Got up early this morning what the weather will be I don't know yet. (dunno this one looks like " will help zap & cats (??). Cloudy and 30 Degrees today. I'm going to the I'm going to the hospital to see how Rene makes out. Spent the whole afternoon with Rene in the Hospital she getting long OK. Will stay home tonight and watch TV that's all.

January 14, 1976
Wednesday
A bright sunshiny day have to go to the hospital this morning to see Rene about this and that, will continue later. Rene gets to come home tomorrow. Good Deal. Went downtown had coffee, I'll go back to the hospital this afternoon and visit looks like. Zap gone. Stayed home and watched TV that's all for the day.

January 15, 1976
Thursday
Cloudy looking day but nice. Will have to go to the store then be up to the hospital by 11. Rene ready to come home. Dr. (???) and me are going after Rene at hospital. So ends another good day Rene home now will watch TV tonight.

January 16, 1976
Friday
Got up early this morning a bright sunshine day, Temperature 50 Degrees this afternoon. Went down to hammonds got money for Rene to pay light bill. Went and took medical exam paper to Dr. (???) for welfare (????). Will stay home and watch TV tonight.

January 17, 1976
Saturday
A Bright clear day in store looks like. Temperature at 6:00 34 Degrees. Got up early. Will do shopping this afternoon. Rene & I stay home tonight and watch TV that's all.

January 18, 1976
Sunday
Got up Early this morning, a clear bright day, temperature at 7:00 30 Degrees. Will go to church with Rene then come and fix dinner. Stay home and watch TV that's all.

January 19, 1976
Monday
Got up Early this morning, Temperature at 6:00 30 degrees, Looks like a fair day in store. Rene went back to work again. Went down town and had coffee did the store shopping came home and fixed dinner. Will stay home tonight and watch TV with Rene.

January 20, 1976
Tuesday
Another fine day in store, got up early had breakfast with Rene, she went to work. Will go downtown after a while then come back home and fix dinner. Went down and walked home with Rene. Will stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all.

January 21, 1976
Wednesday
Another fine day in store, got up early have to do some washing and more shopping today. Bet I can handle it though. Got the washing hung outside. What a warm beautiful day. Will stay home tonight and watch TV with Rene, that's all.

January 22, 1976
Thursday
got up early this morning had to eat Breakfast. Looks like another swell day in store will walk to work with Rene. Went downtown and got librex refill and did shopping for supper. Will stay home and watch TV tonight with Rene.

January 23, 1976
Friday
up early and a very nice day in store. Don't know what the day holds yet but will find out. Went down to the library with Rene and researched book art again. Came back home and did my washing. 62 degrees out this afternoon. Watch TV tonight.

January 24, 1976
Saturday
Up and at em Early this morning another warm day in store. Did the shopping at store. Rene had to work From 4 to Midnight. I stayed in watched TV.

January 25, 1976
Sunday
Cloudy Snowy Day. Stayed home and all day as Rene worked last night. Will watch TV tonight, so ends another day.

January 26, 1976
Monday
Up early this morning, feeling great. 11 Degrees above zero. Looks like a clear day in store. Went down town and had Coffee, next go up to (?)tim's(?) and got refill of halidol
Backing bread now. Will go down town do the shopping stay home tonight and watch TV.

January 27, 1976
Tuesday
Up Earl this morning feeling fine. A clear sunny day again it looks like. Went down town had coffee will start dinner then go down and walk home with Rene. Rene has to work all day, will go down later and come home with her, stay home and watch TV.

January 28, 1976
Wednesday
Up and at em early this morning. Feeling Great. Looks like another swell day, supposed to be in the 60's, couldn't ask for more. Went down town had coffee, will go down and see if Rene has to work all day. Rene & I came home for dinner she didn't have to work all day, good deal.

January 29, 1976
Thursday
Up Early this morning feeling fine, looks like another swell day in store. Hope the kids come down sat. Went down town had coffee now watching TV with Rene. Have to do some shopping this afternoon then stay home and watch TV tonight.

January 30, 1976
Friday
Got up early this morning, a beautiful day in store for us. Rene gets her hair fixed today. Has to work tonight from 4 to midnight, will go down and get her check. Went down and got hair cut, will go to work with Rene and that's the way it is for the day.

(Buck note: a day with no mention of TV!!!)

January 31, 1976
Saturday
A very fine sunshiny day in store, must go to the store today and get a few things for the weekend. Went down town and had coffee so much for that.

February 1, 1976
Sunday
A clear day again, kids supposed to come down today, will go to church Rene has to go to work. Will have a grand day with girls & grandma. That's all.

(Buck note: okay mom, who are the kids? you and Sharon? I'm lost.)

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 2 - 1/5/76 through 1/11/76

January 5, 1976
Monday
Sunny and fair
Went downtown with Rene and paid bills then came back home watched TV.
Then went to bed, had a good time. Also had 2 Doctor's Appointment to end the day.

January 6, 1976
Tuesday
Cloudy and Cold
Walked up to my Dental appointment but the Doctor was gone won't be back for a while so appointment is made for Feb. 19th. Some Day.

(Buck Note: the last line written for this day is written in another person's hand writing, I know at some point Grandma takes over in this journal writing for grandpa, sometimes in his voice and sometimes in here own so I would assume this one line can be attributed to her)

A blizzard in the making

(Buck Note: I'm trying to find a weather archive of the area to find out if the Blizzard referred to was an actual weather occurrence or maybe some other phenomenon entirely, i suspect grandma of being just like that, however given the location and the time of year a blizzard would make pretty perfect sense. Gosh buck... Just read ahead... Reference to actual snow coming right up, I guess by now I should have trusted if Grandpa was going to talk about one thing in the journal it's going to be the weather.)

January 7, 1976
Wednesday
Sunny & Cold 4 Below Zero
Early this morning haven't done much yet. Went to the store and done the shopping, will watch TV tonight and call it a good day after all the snow and cold tempurture.

January 8, 1976
Thursday
Cloudy, Sunshine & Snow and even Zero early this morning. Went downtown for a little while had coffee at (?) Drugstore. Came back home put dinner on watched the waltons in the evening so that's the way the day came to a close.

January 9, 1976
Friday
Looks like a nice day maybe. Zero early this morning. Bright and Sunny day I hope. Will do some washing and get stuff for dinner. Made a Doctor's appointment for Rene at 3:00. Will go with her then come back home and watch TV tonight, that's all.

January 10, 1976
Saturday
Cloudy & Sunny but a nice day. Went downtown did the shopping twice(?) go down and was shop with Rene (? that entire fragment is tough to read). Stay home and watch TV tonight that's all.

January 11, 1976
Sunday
A very nice day sunshine all day around 40 Degrees. Went to church and had a wonderful time stayed home and watched TV rest of the day.

Pocket Pal 1976

After my Grandmother on my Mother's side suffered her recent stroke forcing her into a long term care facility, my mother and her siblings were left the task of sorting through some of her things. Among them was an item of extreme curiosity to this related blogger, my Grandfather Ray Melvin's Journal. I never met my Mom's Pop, I've never heard his voice and I had never until yesterday even seen his hand writing. I've seen a few pictures, but that's the extent of it. The address listed in the journal is 221 w. 8th Street in Larned, KS. 67550. According to my mother he had just been released from the State Hospital there after a spell of manic frenzy which had been preceded by 4 years of talking to no one. I would like to have read the journal from those 4 years.
Since it feels appropriate I will attempt to transcribe the journal here, I will probably need some assistance from my Mother in this respect so some of the postings may appear rather incomplete until I can get transcription assistance.
The above picture is of Grandpa Ray and my now ailing grandmother Irene. The photo was taken in 1972, somewhere in Kansas, quite possibly Larned.


Here is a photo of the first page, a photo of a photo copy. Tee hee!

The next page says Notes at the top, then
"Memories and Diary of Irene and Melvin
in -1976-

If you can read it ????"

Upside down on the same page is written:
Laura Irene
Ray Melvin

Special note, apparently Grandpa referred to Grandma as Rene.

The third page also has a curios note, the heading of the page reads
"Advance Planning for 1977"
under which one of my grandparents wrote:
"For Rene to Write a Good Book?? and be kind"

The Actual Journal action begins on page 4,

January 1, 1976
Thursday, New Years Day
Here it is 1976 spent by watching Guy Lombardo
Got up to tet Rene off to work and food(?) & thats about all. Sunny outside, we go downtown to eat home about 2:00.

January 2, 1976
Friday
Sunny & Cloudy. Cold. Went down town got medicine refills (word i can't read?), also stopped at store got food for dinner & supper, need nap, will watch TV.
(Buck note: is this where the strange notion in my family that Lunch was referred to as Dinner originated from? Mother? I once asked why we used to call the midday meal dinner and everyone denied that we ever did, though I could clearly recall it was standard practice in our early days on the farm. Looks like I've got the smoking article here before me. best fess up now.)

January 3, 1976
Saturday
Sunny & Cold went downtown had coffee at blue goose cafe on way back had a mishap. watched TV then went to bed for the day.
(Buck note: wonder what the mishap was?)

January 4, 1976
Sunday
Sunny & Cold stayed home fixing dinner for Rene and me. Had nap while ago. Will Watch TV tonight. Spend day at home.

(Buck Note: I'll hopefully continue this until the completion, even though the entries are not overtly startling there is a lot here for me to try and get in mind. I know nothing but pretty terrible behavior from this man, yet here he is at the end of his life documenting his coffee, nap and TV routine, though most likely on Doctor's orders. As a younger person I never really cared to know much more about Grandpa Ray than I did, as far as I was concerned it was good riddance and so forth. I guess I've come around to wonder what used to make up the meat that moved the bones of the skeleton in the closet, and how can we all avoid a similar fate.)