Childhood-Story:

1944 Turf stuff

We chase a kid who bikes into our neighborhood.

He's riding frantically fast - hit by a car at the corner - broken leg.

I meet him later in the year, by accident, and apologize.

I hear:
Stand back, Sweetie. I can't see the ...

Childhood-Story:"The fickle finger of fate
The moving finger writes
And having writ moves on"Our wee boy band of jr high friends
starts saying this to each other in 1950
when life deals us a perceived shit blow.

+- 2009, college and care.
I'm suffering from "Early Onset Parsimony", see:
"Contagious ! The Common Man's College Loan & Health Care Syndromes, Etc !"
Not covered by this criminal nation's non systems for citizen care.
Puke at will !

I watch:
OK. Right here. Now, spin to your left.
There. Now, step back. Good.
Now, sit down next to this beautiful person.
(Smiling - Laughter)

The Sickened:
We think and feel about it more and less.U.S.A. Citizens' Health Care Is SiCKO!
Obama - Doctor Fresh Air - a chance to get better ?!
BUT! Our consciousness, will, power. to move beyond
corporate fascism to Single Payer and Civilization ?! Sad !
Lucky! Our family has a real costly health plan for: babies, hernias,
new hip, colonoscopies, hamartoma, melanoma and on it will go.
We think and feel more and less - about class and money
and luck and entitlement - about empathy.There are people working to change this.
There are also people who say they are not naive.
They tell us this is how it is and was everywhere and forever.
Looking at my images after photo hunting and gathering I know
stuff is always close by; health - housing - sex - war - greed -
injustice and on it goes .....
Good luck to all of us, Bill

Backyard-Visitors:
Friends, Hummingbirds, Chickadees, Titmice, Nuthatches, Sparrows, Finches, Towhees, Woodpeckers, (an occasional Peckerwood) , Doves, Crows (Moses says they're Ravens), Flycatchers, a Jay, Squirrels, Raccoon families - we have 4 feeders, 2 baths, 9 trees: Princess 'Bush', Weeping River Wattle, Himalayan Birch, Strawberry Tree, Norfolk Pine, Japanese Coral Bark Maple, Canary Island Pine, Brazilian Pepper, Roscoe Maple, half a Bottle Brush, bamboo, vines, Edie succulents, all Nancy's succulents-plants-flowers . +

I hear:
... sex ? Are you sure they live like that ?
Maybe most people do ...

I hear:
First of all, Sylvia from Milvia says, 'Hi'.

Childhood-Story:
1949-50 two, six week summers at Silver Pines Camp, 30 miles east of Redding
First summer I don't pay much attention to the Silver Belt Buckle competition.
We collect points for every kind of 'sporting' event over the summer.
We fish, swim, shoot, horse, clean, and big-points! = find an Indian Arrowhead.
Second summer,
I know I can win it if I find an arrowhead in the final days - our totals are posted.
There's a small small lake half a mile over the hill. I get permission to hike over.
Lost Lake is 100 yards long rock-stone shore the length - other side, banks.
I .hands-n-knees. back-n-forth . for three hot-dry hours.
This feeling of "I'm-gonna-find-it" has been with me since '38. I know it well.
Just have to keep on Truckin'.
Hour number four I find my no-doubt Indian Arrowhead.
Two and a half inches, brown-gray, shallow-notched-sculpted to it's point.
Two times I lie face down and cry out loud at my camp:
..Alone in the woods, stick-leader-fly-cool-mossy-creekside. my first fish.
..Alone in the rocks and stones with the Arrowhead.

Walked and hunted for three hours today
Not one single picture taken
This has happened before
Like two days ago
It's always exercise

I hear:
... She's ballin' him right now ...

I hear:
... four years ago I woulda gone back and burned the house down.
Not anymore.

APPROPRIATION- a Buddy !
I know people who Wikipedia:
appropriation

I hear:
Please don't touch. He is our friend.

Every time I go out to photograph
I tell myself, .I ought to be able to find possible pictures in any and every 'environment' I pass through, damn it !
What's wrong, Billy Boy ?!
Nothin’.
I just can't will myself to find a picture.
Something grabs me - I grab it !

I hear:
... if you act right now ...

I hear:
... I love people who do that ...

It occurs to me that you all may have small knowledge of my relationship with my brother since '40.

In the presence of his health situation, and given our familial relationships, this may interest you.

There was some sibling stuff, we fought a bit. 

I knew he was more likable.  The parents knew it - ok.

As kids we rarely played together - didn't share friends or interests.  Not much in common.

I played mostly with older kids.  We didn't hang out at schools.  He went to a different jr hi.

Went to summer day camps alone - went 6 weeks to Silver Pines at 11 and 12 years old. 

Went away to Midland for 10th and 11th grades - went into the army after 1 yr at PCC.
I always had jobs - spent small time at home.

Went to Berkeley and Cal in '61.  We had USPS and phones - no social media.  

We didn't appear to care much what each other did over all the years.  I believe we didn't.

One doesn't know what effects 'changes' will present.  

When the father died it meant nothing - dead to me since '38. 

When mom went down it was natural to help my sister deal in my small ways - only 7 weeks.

Mom was also very entertaining as she went.  It was a quiet emotional experience for me.

My life with mom had used up the sub & noisy stuff over the years.  

We were never hugs-close.  Cerebral sharing we did ok.

Now, I don't well understand his diagnosis and prognosis. I do have the general picture.

He trusts you - his daughter and son - to navigate for him.  

I assume he is way more upset and fearful than he presents.

If I can get thru timing and phone issues I call him once a week. 

Talking to him is what you know it to be.

I have always hoped the best for him.

I am not you.  Sincerely Bill.   04/01/14

Childhood-Story:
1938-1955 Play-Sports-Buddies
Save my life