The Financial Meltdown

Boy, this one's got me buffaloed and I am trying to figure out what happened and what is going to happen. There is a lot of information floating around, but you have to take most of it with a grain of salt. Reporters are famous for getting the facts completely wrong. And, there are people out there with their own agendas who are promoting misinformation or trying to avoid blame.

I am going to just jot down my thoughts quickly and come back and review them in a month or so to see if I am on track.

I have seen some ups and downs before, but this one could cause a paradigm shift in our society. It may be my age and finely developed attitude of cynicism, but our standard of living may have just dropped a notch or two. If you don't believe me, just go out and try to get a loan for something.

The symptom of whatever the root problem is seems to be a liquidity crisis. People are withdrawing funds, liquidating money market accounts, and financial institutions are having to come up with the cash. The markets have been like a roller coaster ride, but I've seen worse. It reminds me a little of 9/11. After that event, the markets were in free fall for a few days. At that time, I stayed in the market. This time I got out - a while back near the top.

And what is this "bail out" crap?! Back in (I think it was) October 1987, there was "Black Monday" when the stock market dropped 20% in one day! But the government did not step in and bail everyone out. In case you are unaware, you and I and all other Americans just spent a trillion bucks to pay the bill on the current mess - and we were forced to put ourselves in debt to do this. This is America, not Russia! We don't do that kind of thing in a capitalist society.

So what happened? Here are my thoughts, although they are probably too narrowly focused:

When Bill Clinton became President, the socialists were pretty much in control for a while. The pent up tendencies of these misguided, overzealous folks went into high gear and they used their newly found power in very stupid and destructive ways.

Over millenia of human existence, practical principals of living have been developed that work hand in hand with so-called natural law, interacting with our inborn human desires, to produce a good and orderly society. This a Godly thing, aka capitalism. But the liberals, when they had the power, arrogantly swept this aside and instituted their own rules. This is an un-Godly thing, aka socialism.

They opened the floodgates for home mortgages so that everybody could own a home, whether they could pay for it or not. Lenders - Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, et al - were rewarded to violate commonsense underwriting principles; they were punished for trying to maintain their integrity. To facilitate the horror show, the Congress pledged the backing of the United States to guarantee these loans. It was a mutually rewarding enterprise: the lenders made big money by making bad loans as fast as possible; key members of Congress (Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, et al) were given fat contributions to help them stay in power. They put our necks on the line, but it was a sacrifice they were willing to make.

This system really went into high gear starting in about 2003 when Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan took interest rates to historic lows. Minimal underwriting standards plus adjustable rate mortgages took the housing industry to new highs. People could buy big homes with big mortgages because of the low rates. At that time, I saw the danger and realized that when the interest rate started to rise, as it surely would at some point, things would fall apart and there would be massive foreclosures.

Well, it happened pretty much as I had foreseen. And I was ready to do my part as a patriotic American to throw a little liquidity into the game and buy some real estate at a bargain price. But then, the bail out. Apparently, the unholy alliance of lenders and Congress got so greedy that they did real damage to the country. The government guarantee of the bad loans was called; Fannie and Freddie were nationalized like we were in Russia or some banana republic. Congress succeeded where bin Laden failed.

So, let's recap -

1. Fat cat lenders make tens of millions (Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick)
2. Liberal social activists' agenda implemented (and failed as always)
3. Democrat congressmen rich and powerful (and now blaming it all on George Bush)
4. Housing prices artificially propped up (diminishing the little guy's ability to profit)
5. I, and my fellow Americans, are left holding the bag for $1 trillion (our dollar devalued, our standard of living lowered)

What is wrong with this picture?

How Social Security Works

The easiest way to explain how Social Security works is to take a look at the movie Dumb and Dumber. Lloyd and Harry travel across the country to Colorado looking for Mary to return a briefcase they think she accidentally left at the airport. As they arrive at their destination, they discover that the briefcase is full of $100 bills.

This creates what is known as a "moral hazard." Lloyd and Harry are too weak to resist the temptation of so much money, and here is what happens . . .

LLOYD: Okay, here's the plan: We borrow a few bucks – just a small loan – from the briefcase, and we check into a cheap motel.

HARRY: Sounds good.

LLOYD: And we'll keep track of the money we spend with IOUs.

HARRY: We'll be meticulous – right down to the last penny.

LLOYD: That way, whatever we borrow we can pay back.

HARRY: Absolutely. We're good for it.

Later in the movie, they get caught by the bad guys who are after the money.

LLOYD: Uh, sir, about the briefcase, I want you to know, my friend Harry and I have every intention of reimbursing you. That's as good as money, sir. Those are our IOUs. You can add them up yourself. Every penny's accounted for.

And this, boys and girls, is how a plan, dreamed up by government bureaucrats, called Social Security works. No need for charts, graphs, big words and technical stuff. This IS the plan!

If you don't believe me, then here is the same explanation given in more sophisticated terms by The Heritage Foundation:

First, the Treasury estimates how much of the aggregate tax receipts are Social Security taxes and "credits" the Social Security trust fund with that amount. Then the Treasury "subtracts" the total amount paid in monthly Social Security benefits from the trust fund balance. No money actually changes hands; these are strictly accounting entries.

Any "money" remaining in the trust fund is converted into special-issue Treasury bonds, which are really nothing more than IOUs. In addition, the Treasury pays interest on the trust fund's balance by crediting the trust fund with additional IOUs. These are also strictly accounting entries, and again no money changes hands. After crediting the trust fund with the proper amount in IOUs, the government spends the extra Social Security tax collections just like any other tax revenue--to finance anything from aircraft carriers to education research.

Many people think that all those billions of dollars that Americans have been paying over the decades are set aside to be paid out as a retirement benefit. In fact the government claims there is a Social Security "Trust Fund." Just one little problem: there's no money in it, only IOU's. Like Lloyd and Harry's briefcase!

Like Lloyd and Harry, our politicians also faced a moral hazard and spent the money, much of it on worthless stuff.

Again, the assessment from Heritage:

The Social Security trust fund is merely an accounting device filled with IOUs that future taxpayers must repay. Far too soon, payroll taxes will be insufficient to pay all of the promised benefits. Unless Congress promptly takes action, taxpayers will have to pump hundreds of billions of additional tax dollars into Social Security to pay the promised benefits.

Social Security's financial crisis will begin far sooner than many politicians claim. In less than three years, the first baby boomer will reach retirement age. Once that happens, Social Security (and Medicare) will be on a slippery slope toward insolvency. While Social Security can continue to use its tax receipts to pay full retirement benefits until 2018, Congress cannot wait that long to act. Misleading the public into believing that Social Security is secure until 2042 or beyond will only make the impending crisis more difficult to avoid.

You can read the entire Heritage article here. It's not very long.

In conclusion, here are Old Weird Dad's rants and observations:

• You can't trust a politician with money - they will spend it every time, usually in some way that helps them get re-elected. After they've spent it, they go out and borrow more money to spend. Their greed is infinite against finite resources.
  
  
• The Income Tax is the root of much evil in that it concentrates great amounts of money, which equals power, in the hands of a few weak, immoral people in Washington.
  
  
• The Income Tax is probably unconstitutional, and it has allowed the Federal government to steamroller the State governments in violation of the tenth amendment which states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." This makes us less free since regular folk have much less influence at the Federal level than the State level.
  
  
• Politicians are like water: always seeking the lowest level and the path of least resistance. Very few of them have the will or even the intention to "do the right thing" if it requires making a hard choice. Many of them are so lost and deluded that they call evil "good" and good "evil." And remember, getting re-elected trumps everything.
  
  
• The IOUs in the Social Security Trust Fund have as much chance of being repaid as the IOUs from Lloyd and Harry. Therefore, Social Security benefits will be drastically reduced for my generation, the Baby Boomers. The only other choice is to bankrupt the country and they have already pretty much accomplished that. Decisions and choices could have been made along the way that would have preserved the integrity of the system, but these decisions were in the hands of people with no integrity.

Watching things play out in our public life over the years has turned me into a rabid cynic, as you can see. I was not always like this. But as the Bible says, we cannot put our trust in men, chariots, and horses - only in God. We need to "lay up our treasures in heaven," in a trust fund that will be there for us. While politics may seem important, it is ultimately God who deals with those who rule over us.

The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases. Prov 21:1 NIV

Hurricane Carla, 1961

I was eleven years old, living in Pasadena, Texas when Hurricane Carla struck on September 11, 1961. It made landfall at Port Lavaca, a little to the south of us, but the storm was so big and so powerful that it caused damage all up the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Damage was reported as far inland as Dallas. It was the eighth most powerful storm of the 20th century, a Cat 5 in open water, a Cat 4 when it hit, with sustained winds of 150 mph and gusts up to of 175 mph. The storm surge was 22 feet at landfall and about 15 feet up the coast a ways in my neck of the woods. In short, it was about as bad as they come.

We lived in a blue collar residential area in Pasadena and were affected by flooding from the torrential rains rather than the storm surge. Pasadena is famous for flooding when there is just a good thunderstorm. We used to make tips as kids helping people push their stranded cars out of high water. I remember walking home from Kruse Elementary School one day in water waist deep. I could have walked where it was only knee deep, but boys will be boys! During Carla the water came up to the doors of our house, but I don't think it ever came in that I remember. I was more freaked out by the high winds and was concerned that our house may get blown down. It had never been through a hurricane before, but it held up fine with no damage that I remember.

We had a good-sized picture window in our living room. I remember watching the pouring rain, lightning, dark clouds swirling, boiling, and trees thrashing around outside. I saw balls of fire low in the sky that looked to me like Roman candles. I wondered what idiot would be shooting Roman candles at a time like that. It was power lines that were hitting together from the winds and shorting out. As I was watching all this, I noticed that the wind gusts were bending and bowing the picture window; sort of popping it in and out. At that point I found another place to watch the storm. Not sure this link will work, but if it does here is the picture window that I watched the storm from. (Alas, Google Street View confirms that my happy little tire swing is gone.)

Verna lived on Hughes Road in Dickinson at that time, right on the banks of Dickinson bayou. She was in a very precarious spot and is lucky to have made it out. I will let her tell her story in comments to this blog or on her own blog (someday). Her story is better than mine.

My Dad had recently bought a grocery store, Thrify Super Market, in League City. It was much closer to Galveston Bay and Clear Lake and was in more danger of flooding. He left us in Pasadena and made it to the store before the water got too high. He and a friend/employee, Mac Malone, rode out the storm inside the store. I don't think there was much damage done but they were trapped there for a while and did not have electricity. I wonder to this day what they did with all the meat and produce that required refrigeration - it was probably a loss. Brother Ronnie reminded me the other day, on the occassion of landfall of Hurricane Ike, that Dad and Mac found the manual cranks for the cash registers. In those days, there were no computerized electronic devices. Although they were powered by electricity, the registers, like everything back then, were purely mechanical, driven by gears, belts, levers, etc. Using the manual cranks, they were able to reopen the store quickly and keep the town supplied with food.

The next day, the storm was pretty much past but there was still some wind. My friend, Daryl, and I rigged up sails on our model cars and sailed them around on the pavement of an abandoned gas station near our homes. At some point, the wind died down for about 30 minutes, then came back. I thought we were in the eye of the storm, but actually the eye of the storm took another path and was long gone.

At some point, I went with my family on a trip around Clear Lake and was impressed by the damage, especially to really big, expensive boats. Many were capsized, or piled up one on top of the other, or still in their slips, sunk and hanging by the moorings. Some had huge, jagged holes in their sides from being slammed repeatedly against the pilings.

Carla degraded to a tropical depression but not before it was north of Dallas. It went through St. Louis, Chicago, across the Great Lakes to Sault St. Marie, and didn't stop until neared the Arctic Circle. One heck of a storm. Here is a neat link if you want to see its path.

Old Weird Dad Encounters Burning Bush

It's been a long time since I made a fire like this. Sometime we will have to talk about fires - house fires, bonfires, grass fires, fighting fires, and camp fires. But not now.

There was another guy who saw a burning bush. I sat right behind him in third grade.

Ah, The British

The surname, "Richards," is supposedly about the sixth most common in Wales. My Mom was a Read; her mother was a Payne; her maternal grandmother was a Bond. On my Dad's side, his mother was a Harrison; his paternal grandmother was a Sabins (oui, c'est Francaise). Verna's maiden name was Hanson, and on her side of the family, her Mom was a Lamb; her maternal grandmother a Hardin; her paternal grandmother a Cloud. So, except for the Viking in the wood pile, we are pretty much from British ancestry. This is a matter of grave concern.

While there are things to amire about them, bubbling below the surface of most Brits, with frequent eruptions, is a wackoism second to none. On one hand, the decadence and insanity of their society is a source of entertainment; on the other hand our family, and much of America, is swimming in that gene pool. And from what I have seen, genetics do play at least some role in who we are.

This bit of review of the family tree was precipitated by reading an article on a British website, The Independent, entitled "Cleared: Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law," which describes a crime committed by green activists that was deemed by a jury to be justified, and thereby legal (in Britain), since their action was meant to prevent greater damage, namely climate change.

Here is the "logic" of this case as explained in The Independent:

The activists put up a defense "of 'lawful excuse' under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 [which] allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage – such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire.

During the trial the defendants said they had acted lawfully, owing to an honestly held belief that their attempt to stop emissions from Kingsnorth would prevent further damage to properties worldwide caused by global warming. Their aim, they said, was to rein back CO2 emissions and bring urgent pressure to bear on the Government and E.ON to changes policies. They insisted their action had caused the minimum amount of damage necessary to close the plant down and constituted a "proportionate response" to the increasing environmental threat."

This is so kooky and outrageous, I don't know where to begin. But that's the British - they can "muddle" through the craziness as if every thing were perfectly normal! Stiff upper lip and all that.

An Anecdote
Many years ago, Verna and I were at her Dad's house and there was a group of young British guys there. Verna's Dad, Hal, was in logistical support for a seismology company and the Brits were part of a ship's crew. After the initial introductions I found that I could barely understand anything they were saying. One of them spoke a little American English and had to act as the interpreter. As Winston Churchill said of America and England, "We are two peoples, separated by a common language."

Other Observations
The best British newspaper is the equivalent of our National Enquirer.

Any website with a .uk must not be taken seriously.

They have become an Orwellian nanny state, with cameras everywhere recording every move and used to enforce politically correct behavior.

The cameras are a good idea since they have allowed their country to be overtaken by Mulims, all in the name of globalism and muliculturalism and other "isms" don't you see old boy.

The quality and availability of their health care is a tribute to the failure of socialized medicine (God protect America from the delusional loonies who want the same for us).

Their largest city: Londonistan.

Their religion: the environment.


Retraction
Ok, I've got to admit that every British person I have ever met has been friendly and fun to be around. I'm sure that, like most societies, 98% are wonderful, down-to-earth people. I know one who is a flippin' genius. And their accent is so cute. So I hereby retract everything I said above.

Rush & Sarah

President Kennedy was assasinated in 1963 when I was 13 years old. I was in the Webster Intermediate gym, and I remember exactly where I was standing when I heard about it. Apparently, this is a common thing - people remembering exactly where they were when they heard the news.

Another event of seismic proportions occurred when I was driving west on Creek Street, between Crockett St. and Milam St. in Fredericksburg in 1991. That was when I first heard Rush Limbaugh on the radio! You may think I'm crazy, but what he was saying was almost as shocking as when I heard the news about Kennedy. This is also a crazy phenomenon; people remembering where they were when they first heard Rush. I'm serious.

You see, like many of us, in my youth I displayed, shall we say, some rather negative liberal tendencies. They say you can't escape from the dark side, but by 1991 I was married, a father of four sons, a Christian, and had seen the light and become a conservative. Also I had developed an interest in politics. I liked political programs, but almost every TV news show, every radio news break, every newspaper article, magazine, all of the media seemed to promote and praise liberals/Democrats and ridicule or put down conservatives/Republicans. I wondered sometimes if my views were really valid - maybe the only people that thought like me were those in my little social circle in Kerrville. This was maddening.

So, that day in 1991 when I flipped on the radio and a guy is practically reading my mind and saying things that were right down the line with my beliefs, it was quite a shock. And that is why Rush zoomed to such popularity - he validated the thinking and feelings of millions of people. We were not alone; we had an advocate, a very gifted spokesman to represent us in the cultural and political wars. (We have another one, too, and He's a lot bigger than Rush.) He was so popular that some restaurants set up Rush Rooms where you could go with your friends, have lunch and listen to Rush. Although his enemies try to discount him, he has had a huge and positive impact on our society. He was very instrumental in helping Republicans take control of Congress in 1994 after 40 years of Democrat dominance.

I don't have a lot to say about Sarah yet - Sarah Palin, that is. But, when she came on the scene, and I heard her convention speech, it was that same kind of feeling as when I heard Rush for the first time.

At this time, the U.S. Congress is held in low esteem by many Americans. Some might say they are lower than whale poop on the bottom of the ocean. Others might express themselves in a more sophisticated manner. But since this is my blog, I'm going with the whale poop. Their job approval rating is about 15%, the lowest in history. This is because most of them are self-seeking, self-promoting, out of touch morons who make every decision based on how it will help or hurt their ability to hold on to their power. (Sometime I will tell you how I really feel.) As Obiwan said, "You'll not find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." I really should be held in contempt of Congress since I actually am in contempt of Congress and they are an organization deserving much contempt. I digress, but I feel so much better now.

So anyways, back to Sarah. She comes across as a genuine person. She is like us, not them. That is my assessment and, if I am correct about her, she will help turn this country around to some degree. I hope that if she gets in as Vice President that she changes Washington, and not the other way around. Beware of the dark side, Sarah!

Remembering 9/11

I was backing out of the driveway at our house in Fredericksburg, heading out for another day of contract work at Diamond Shamrock in San Antonio when I turned on the radio. I heard some people talking very calmly saying that some building had been hit by an airplane. In my mind I pictured a little single engine plane hitting some nondescript building in Podunk, Utah. They seemed baffled - what could this mean? where did it come from? World Trade Center - Blah, blah, blah. Then, suddenly, their voices were filled with shock and horror - "Oh my God, another plane has just hit the other tower!!"

I had stopped in the middle of the street listening to their banter back and forth. When the second plane hit, I audibly declared, "Osama bin Laden!" I am not sure how I knew that.

That day and the ones that followed were like living in a dream or maybe living in denial. It just didn't seem real sometimes. You hoped you would wake up and it would all have been a bad dream. It was very disturbing watching the planes hit . . . tiny figures jumping and falling, falling, falling . . . buildings collapsing . . . dust-covered people stumbling away in a state of shock . . . and trying to imagine if I had been in one of those buildings.

I put flags out on the balcony on Bowie Street (American and Texas), cleaned my guns and took stock of my ammunition, wondered if I was too old to do something to strike back at the bastards that were behind it, kept glued to Fox News . . . Soon there were American flags at homes and business all over town, everywhere. I remember how proud I was to see that, in spite of the loudmouth liberals who hated our country, and seemed to always be given an open mic from the media, that real patriotism was alive and well in America!

Our son, Ethan, had joined the Army exactly two months before on July 11 and he was still in basic training at Ft. Knox. When we talked with him he said he and his fellow recruits knew they were in for a fight and everyone was listening much more closely and taking their training very seriously now. They could not have know then that they would be going half way around the world to Afghanistan and Iraq - and that some of them would not come back. We honor them and all who risked their lives and sacrificed (and still do) to protect one of our most precious possessions - our freedom. And I honor my son, SSG Ethan Richards, Purple Heart recipient. Enough said.

Verna and I were among the first Americans to fly after 9/11. During basic, there was an event called Family Day where you could come to the base, pick up your soldier, and get them out of hell for a couple of days. Wild horses could not have kept us from going. At that time, everyone was wondering if other planes could still be hijacked. A little scary, but we had a soldier who needed a break and this was like our mission for our son and our country, do or die. That may seem a little dramatic or over the top - but it was a very strange time. I was one of the first Americans to be randomly selected for doing the little wand thing and having my bags searched. At that time it was a real novelty and I was honored to be one of the first.

You may have heard about the concept of "six degrees of separation." I took special note of this when we learned of two people, children of friends in Fredericksburg, who narrowly missed being victims at the World Trade Center. One was the son of our next door neighbors; he was scheduled to go to work for a firm in one of the towers the next day. The other, the daughter of a couple we know, was a regular flight attendant (they used to be called "stewardesses") on one of the flights that hit the towers. She was taking the day off and someone else took her place. This made me think that surely people all across the county must have had a similar experience of knowing someone who was there or could have been there.

This was our generation's Pearl Harbor. We will never forget. I was very moved by the first Americans who struck a blow against the enemy - the ones who gave their lives to stop Flight 93 with Todd Beamer's battle cry, "Let's roll!" That plane was headed toward Washington, D.C. and surely would have taken more lives if it had hit its target, presumably the Capital building. And the police, firemen, and others in New York were beyond amazing with the courage to go into those buildings to try to save as many as they could, many of them sacrificing their own lives.

Although it was a dark time, it brought out the best of the true American spirit. That may sound trite, and it may have brought out the worst in a few kooks, but that is my recollection. Even the heathen, hateful Democrat congress joined the Republicans in singing God Bless America on the Capitol steps. (I can just imagine Barama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, watching on TV and singing along with them - maybe with a little twist to the lyrics.) The Democrats even gave Pres. George Bush standing ovations and voted to give him the authority to go to war with whoever was responsible. He said at that time to the other countries of the world, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime."

I may talk about other terrorism issues and the political scene in another post, but not today. Today we just need to remember and honor the people who gave their lives on that day and in the days since.

Registered to Vote?

Some of us are not registered to vote (you know who you are). You must get registered now! And, of course, you must vote for McCain-Palin on the appointed day. You must obey Old Weird Dad. Very, very important for the future of the country and for the fam. This is one of those moments in history when the choice we make in November will take us down one path or another very different one. (Cheech Marin voice: "Do you remember, like in "Back to the Future," when Biff took over the town and Marty's Mom had to marry him and he was like a mui malo hombre?")

Remember: part of being Old Weird Dad is "Old." I've seen this one before when it went wrong - and we are still suffering from four years of Jimma Carter. Barama is like Jimma to the tenth power. Carter was a pathetic joke; Barama will not be so funny. I promise you he is a stealth candidate with an agenda that is in line with his radical Marxist "friends and associates." He seems like a nice guy now - nice smile, nice family, inspiring speaker, lots of charisma - but if he gets in power, unless God intervenes, we will pay the price for at least a generation. So if we could just avoid that part, that would be great.

In future political rants I will get into more details I am sure. But for now, let's take step 1 and get our little fannies out there and get registered to vote!!

Making Movies

My Mom was an avid film photographer. She had this really neat Kodak 8 mm wind-up camera that fit in the palm of one hand. She made reels and reels of family movies. We had a projector, screen, and splicing machine. The small movie rolls were spliced together on the splicing machine by trimming the film, overlapping it and gluing the pieces together with a special glue. These were put on several large and medium reels and kept in the old-style metal containers. This is all in the category of "Man, they don't make'm like they used to." Ronnie has the reels now and we need to get them converted to DVD before they disintegrate. My favorite reel was an old collection of black and white cartoons with Mickey, Donald, Goofy, etc.

Watching the movies over and over, starting near the time they were shot, has the effect of indelibly imprinting the events on your brain. And not only the events, but I can remember somewhat how I felt during those events - I was having fun, I was thinking this or that, I was miserable, I remember that toy (whatever happened to it?), and the like. I suppose I need to get the reels from Ronnie and get the job done. It may be interesting for my sons and Verna to see me in movies from birth to about 10 or 11 years old, but they cannot relive the experience like I can. There are hours and hours of footage, so we are talking boring to everyone except me.

The old Kodak projector: it had a very bright, very hot light bulb and would heat up the room very quickly. And it was very heavy: a solid cast iron structure with machined steel parts. At an early age, I learned to thread it and how to splice the film when it broke. I loved the reverse feature. At any time you could flip the switch and put the action in reverse to make people come out of a swimming pool back on to the diving board, make smoke go back into a fire, and other fun things. When a reel was done, then you had to rethread in a different way and go to fast rewind to send it from the take up reel back to the original reel. And, of course, you had to always keep extra bulbs around to replace them when they burned out. This was a lot more fun that just popping in a DVD. You had to work at it.

The old Kodak camera was pretty versatile. You could do double exposures (which happened sometimes by accident) and you could take one frame at a time. I took the camera to college with me at Sam Houston State and, using the one-frame-at-a-time feature, produced an animated film. To this day, I do not know what happened to that film. Maybe when I get my hands on the old reels it will be with them. Kinda doubt it.

Maybe films, animation and special effects are in the genes somewhere.

Being Born - Oh, That's Easy

Easy for me. My Mom had it a little harder. But I made her work easier by being several weeks premature (and almost didn't make it). She always marveled at how small I was - you could hold me with one hand or something. I always had a mental image of the advertisements in the back of comic books of the miniature Chihuahua in a teacup. Must have had a little lactose problem too because she never gave me milk as far as I know. As a little kid I remember taking lots of giant calcium pills to make up for not drinking milk. Because of this, I never developed a taste for milk and it makes me gag to this day.

So, what is my earliest memory? One of them had to be the mobile over my bed. It was a typical style mobile for back in those days - a couple of arms that spun independently from the larger arm that suspended them out over the baby bed. The objects were brightly colored, 3-D, birds.

Honestly, I probably did not totally retain that memory, but when I was a little kid I ran across the mobile packed away in a box and then remembered it.

She said she named me Thomas and it meant "twin." It wasn't until late in her life that I tried to pin her down - was I a twin and the other one, being so premature, didn't make it? Did she have a miscarriage between Ronnie and me? I think she answered "no" to both of those scenarios, but seemed to be holding back. I guess I should as Aunt EJ; she would know.