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| I've been thinking about veterans and what it means to be one. Here are a few comments:
I'm a veteran (1951-54, the forgotten war - Korea) - which has never been a big deal to me - most of the males of my generation are veterans. If you didn't volunteer, a board made up of "Your friends and neighbors" volunteered you. Most of us waited to be drafted, but I did not. For reasons which seemed to me to be both sufficient and personal, I enlisted in the Army for a three-year hitch.
During that time I was assigned to an infantry regiment, very briefly to a combat engineer company, and for most of my enlistment, to the Transportation Corps as a maritime instructor (Before enlisting I had been in the merchant marine - I was actually in Korea when the war started).
I very much enjoyed my time in the Army, but it was by no means the high point of my life as it seems to have been with many of my peers. My service did point me toward my life's work (teaching). I was offered several inducements to stay in the Army (Promotion from SGT to SFC, a Warrant, even an offer of a job as a civilian GS-3) but I wanted to go back to college.
The GI Bill of that time along with a couple of scholarships and later a Graduate Assistantship allowed me to stay through graduate school. There were a lot of fellow veterans in my classes; it's been said that we, along with the WW2 vets, changed the American college landscape and American society.
Veterans of wars since then have had it both better and worse - better because the casualty rates were less, worse because combat tours were less well-defined and the civilian attitude toward veterans seems to have been less accepting and concerned.
The advent of "All volunteer" armed services has further separated veterans from the civilian world - there are fewer of them. In my day, as an "RA" - regular army enlisted- I was somewhat of a curiosity among my fellow soldiers.
That RA in front of my serial number did get me some consideration and respect from senior NCOs - which I took full advantage of  .
All in all, I'm glad I had the opportunity to serve my country and I'm sure I made a contribution to the success of our efforts in Korea. For many years I stayed in touch with friends I made in the Army - it's surely a place where I came in contact with people I never would otherwise have known - and enriched my life and understanding of our nations culture and society.
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| The Featured Grownups site has a new topic: Seasons' Greetings - A Featured_Grownups writing prompt.
When I was a kid [a very long time ago] the major holidays were anything but times of relaxation and celebration. My mother ran a flower shop and of course the holidays were her busiest time - getting those boquets out the door and delivered required all our help - or at least as much as we could give right on through the holiday.
And as if that wasn't enough at Christmas, my father's job called for him to supervise one of the US's first Christmas Eve yacht parades (late '30s - early '40s). He had to oversee (an often design) the decorations, the route of the parade (Through the major waterways of Miami Beach) and keep the yachts in order and troubleshoot the multitude of last minute problems. If we got home before daylight on Christmas day, we were lucky. That day was spent mostly sleeping.
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| B. What is the nature of criticism? Can one be critical without seeming disagreeable?
To be a critic means many things but the universal nature of criticism is the judgment of the critic of the work or idea being criticised is applied against a standard.
Some critics seem to enjoy being as nasty as possible and raking the author/artist over coals the critic has provided; but criticism is also one of the fundimental methods by which we learn and polish our artistry.
To be critical, means in the most positive terms, to be serious and thoughtful about what you are criticizing.
Most of us can probably remember examples of both sarcastic, vituperitive criticism and criticism delivered in a helpful, even kindly manner - and sometimes both critiques were about the same thing!
Being a critic may be enjoyable, but what makes a "Good Critic"?
Perhaps another interesting question would be: When is criticism called for, when is it not? | | |
| As everyone who has ever looked at an illustrated calendar has observed, New England with its plethora of Maples, Birches, Oaks, and Puckerbrush is at its most beautiful this time of year. Looking across our lake, the islands and far shore are literally ablaze with Reds Oranges, Golds, and Rusts, punctuated with the dark green of the Spruce and Pine.
Our bird feeder is under constant attack by the resident Chickadees, Nuthatches (both red-breasted and white-breasted) as well as a pretty aggressive Hairy Woodpecker. Our resident Red Squirrel has to wait her turn - which upsets her considerably. The ground under the feeder is overrun with Juncos and Chipmunks.
Unfortunately, all this excitement means the birds and beasts are readying themselves for cold weather - as are the ladybugs - who find our nice warm cottage just to their liking and who have begun to scurry around in surprising places.
Our neighbor has been patiently baiting one of our local bears (Stale donuts and molasses). I don't know whether he has gotten more than automatic photos of it yet - or what he plans on doing with it when he does shoot it. Mainers do a lot of hunting and generally eat what they kill. We have no shortage of bears, moose, deer, partridge or turkeys and if you walk in the woods this time of year you had better not wear white and be sure you have on a blaze orange hat and vest.
Our heaters and franklin stove can't keep up with freezing weather - nor can we; so we are leaving shortly - following Fall down through the mountains all the way to North Georgia and then down to Florida's "Forgotten Coast" - the panhandle area. We live about 15 miles south of Georgia and about 20 miles from the Gulf - a block from another lake - one where Canada Geese winter over and make their usual mess. | | |
| How has the economic downturn affected you personally? What changes have you made in your life to save money, pinch pennies, stretch your dollars? What thrifty tips can you share (places to shop, coupons to use, places to eat, etc.)?
From: Featured Grownups
Once again, I think this is a situation where your generation and background makes a difference in how you have been treated by the recent economic downturn.
As a child of the Great Depression (1929-40 - I was born in 1930), I learned some frugal ways early on. My family lost much during that era and my parents really never recovered their previous status. There were actually times when my family did not know where their next meal was coming from, and as sort of decayed Semi-upper class people (They had the breeding and the contacts, but never regained the wealth) they were never really happy in their later life.
I did not develop particularly frugal habits as a child, but I did inherit a healthy distrust of risk and debt.
Eventually I inherited a little money but never invested any I did not think I could afford to lose. Also my frugal wife insisted in getting our money's worth and delaying gratification until we could buy without debt - a practice which seems to be notably missing nowadays.
I made three "flyer" investments: In a software company ; A Federal Savings & Loan; and a liquor store. Yup, all three went under within three years - but I did retrieve some mighty fine wines from the liquor store. Undeterred, I continued to invest , now in Mutual Funds and US T-bills (I liked the idea of the US treasury sending ME money). In the mid '80s I sold the mutual funds and from then on have only invested in Non-taxable muni bond funds, CDs and money market funds. That means we never rode the stock market up during the great bull market - but also we never lost anything (Except those software,S&L and Liquor store stocks, and that was only a couple of thousand dollars).
More importantly, we never tried to keep up with the Jones and never went into debt. Our credit cards are, for example, paid off each month and we paid cash for our last three houses (made a killing on sales of two of them).
Recently, i did move some money from a bad insurance company investment to an investment trust (ING) it lost about what everyone else lost - but has a guaranteed pay-out, and was not an important part of our portfolio - which is now mostly a Revokable Trust for our heirs.
We spent our working lives as teachers, retired early and now have a net worth comfortably into seven figures, with a yearly income of six.
The recent downturn has not changed our spending habits at all - why not? Because we simply followed the general rule of not spending any money we did not have.
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