Christmas in the Gold Fields, 1849...

Thank you for Bud, Joyce

12-19-05
Every Christmas, I like to read diary entries for the date of December 25. The following is an excerpt from Christmas in the Gold Fields, 1849…
(Two young boys are at a store, trying to buy something special for their sickly parents' dinner.) “‘Herman, look at this. Canned peaches! Could anything be so delicious? Let us take peaches.’"…Jacob fried the flapjacks and made coffee. I mixed flour and water for the biscuits. We had not known salt since our arrival and we used a substitute which was commonly adopted among the forty-niners, gunpowder.” Hermann J. Sharmann (published by the California Historical Society, San Francisco)

Bud-The big doll, pictured above, was given to me by Joyce, an old high school buddy. So far, I've propped him up in several different poses. Right now, he's enjoying the Christmas tree while I'm working on a deadline. Last week, I had two for lunch, so I added him to the festive table as my date (he has very good manners). You'll see more of Bud.

Teen smoking-they say it's down but that drug use is up. How sad. What kind of a country have we created where our own children can't see the promise and possibilities of this great land? Is this a case of bad parenting? Too much money? (Remember, Richard Pryor told us that doing drugs was God's way of telling us we have too much money!) Whatever the problem, it is obvious that we, as parents--for whatever reason--have not created an environment that's good for raising children. We've got to do better.

Quote du jour:

"Happiness becomes a thing to be mastered." Steve Chandler, author of Reinventing Yourself