Monday, September 8, 2014
Two Letter State Abbreviations
In 1963, the US Postal service began the use of zip codes and two letter
state abbreviations. I still get confused with some of them. We learned
the states and their capitals early in elementary school. We didn't
study state abbreviations, but we should have. What's Mo.? Montana? No,
that's Mt. Mo. is Missouri. Here's an easy one, Ma., got to be Maine,
right? Wrong, Ma. is Massachusetts. Maine is Me. OK, I see, using the
first 2 letters, Minnesota would be Mi. Nope, Mi. is Michigan,
see? Sorry, Mn. is Minnesota. Md. is Maryland, Ms. is Mississippi.
So, does anybody reading this live in Ar.? Arizona, no wait, that's Az.
What other A states are there? Oh, Ak., which is not Arkansas, but
Alaska. How about Newbraska and Westconsin? I used to hear truckers
saying those. How about Mizzoorah? Or Illynoise? Let's have a roll call -
put your city and state and I don't care if you use abbreviations like
S. Dak, Mich, Tenn, or Wash.
Monday, September 1, 2014
Finding The Hidden Sundial
Most afternoons after school I would walk home. I did this from the first grade to about the eleventh grade.
Some days I would stop by my dad's store and then later own walk on home. I would take a different route each day to make the trip be less monotonous. From the1st thru the eighth grade, I loved to walk most days down the railroad track that ran through the center of town to the road going to our house. Sometimes something or someone would get your attention and your route would suddenly change its course but in the end you would finally get home.
One day walking home I decided to sit in an area of grass beside the road and rest as the day was very hot and getting close to school being out for the Summer. While I was sitting there a friend from school hollered from his street for me to come over to his house. He said that I could call home and let my mother know where I was as I had done this often.
On the way over to the road where i had to cross the street to his house I stumbled across something hidden in the grass. When I got up I called my friend Jeff over to see what I had stumbled over buried under the grass but sticking up enough to catch your foot.
Once we cleared away all of the grass and dirt there was a marble sundial with a copper vein to tell the time of day. There was a date on it of 1873 and it had been dedicated by the Daughters Of The Revolution. It had been hidden for many years. We got to his house and called my mother and let her know where I was at and she said that she would come up to see the sundial.
My mother had us go and visit the Mayor at City Hall and tell them what we had found. They went with us and we showed it to him and he was very impressed. They dug it up and moved it to the center of this grassy area beside the railroad tracks and made a New Park and rededicated the Sundial.
Every time I would pass this spot I was always reminded of finding the sundial and if my friend hadn't of called me it might never have been found.
Some days I would stop by my dad's store and then later own walk on home. I would take a different route each day to make the trip be less monotonous. From the1st thru the eighth grade, I loved to walk most days down the railroad track that ran through the center of town to the road going to our house. Sometimes something or someone would get your attention and your route would suddenly change its course but in the end you would finally get home.
One day walking home I decided to sit in an area of grass beside the road and rest as the day was very hot and getting close to school being out for the Summer. While I was sitting there a friend from school hollered from his street for me to come over to his house. He said that I could call home and let my mother know where I was as I had done this often.
On the way over to the road where i had to cross the street to his house I stumbled across something hidden in the grass. When I got up I called my friend Jeff over to see what I had stumbled over buried under the grass but sticking up enough to catch your foot.
Once we cleared away all of the grass and dirt there was a marble sundial with a copper vein to tell the time of day. There was a date on it of 1873 and it had been dedicated by the Daughters Of The Revolution. It had been hidden for many years. We got to his house and called my mother and let her know where I was at and she said that she would come up to see the sundial.
My mother had us go and visit the Mayor at City Hall and tell them what we had found. They went with us and we showed it to him and he was very impressed. They dug it up and moved it to the center of this grassy area beside the railroad tracks and made a New Park and rededicated the Sundial.
Every time I would pass this spot I was always reminded of finding the sundial and if my friend hadn't of called me it might never have been found.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)