Ol' Blue Truck

For My Grandkids!

Dear Olives, Bud-Bud, Dwukie & Wes-Wes,

When I was a little boy, your Great-Grandad had a truck a lot like the one in this picture.  It was a 1954 Chevy with "Don Robertson & Sons" hand-painted on the panel just behind the driver-side door.  When I saw this picture hanging on the wall of the hotel we stayed in last week outside Silver Dollar City, it made me think about one night around Christmas 1964 when that Ol' truck couldn't make it up the big snow-covered hill on the way back home to our house on the farm.
 
It had snowed a lot that day and since Dad's truck wasn't 4-wheel drive it couldn't make it up the one big snow-covered hill on Soast Road.  We got stuck part-way up the hill and had to back down so Dad could put snow-chains on the back tires.

When he got back in the truck, he said, "Hang on boys; we're gonna give it another try!"  I recall thinking something like, "Come on Blue Truck; you can do it!"

Well, that old blue truck came through that night and we made it home just in time to eat supper and get ready for bedtime stories.  I can't say for sure, but I bet my dreams that night included snowmen, firetrucks and Romp 'em Stomp em' Robots.  But that's another story:)

I'll try to keep you posted on "Christmas-Time-Ol'-Blue-Truck-Time".  In the meantime, don't forget to brush your teeth...even though they're just gonna fall out in a couple years to make room for the new ones:)

Love,
Papa

Railroads and Starship Troopers

I don't know who took this picture or where it was taken:  Perhaps somewhere in Colorado?  I'll have to ask Klietus to do a little research---he's a good researcher.

It would be safe to assume the good folks who built the transcontinental railroad across America in the 1860's would have loved to have had access to bridge building material like this.  Instead of using steel and concrete, they would have built this bridge completely out of wood timbers, tunneled through the rock or just figured out a much longer route to get around this hill.  (Now that I think about it, they would have probably put the railroad down below where the modern day folks put the highway you see in the picture.)  And they did all that by hand; thanks largely to the Chinese working man.

If you're looking for a good book about a fascinating event in American history, try "Nothing Like It In The World", by Stephen E. Ambrose.  I first read it in 2000 and enjoyed it so much I'm reading it again 17 years later.  If you don't like reading about things that actually occurred, you might try some stuff by Robert Heinlein.  I'm not related to either guy so feel free to take your pick:  You won't hurt my feelings either way:)

I'll try to keep you posted on railroad building and starship trooper kind of stuff....

P.S.  I'm in no way suggesting that intergalactic storm troopers don't actually exist.  But if they do, where in the snot were they when the blue color working man was breaking his back building the transcontinental railroad....BY HAND!

Right Here!

The older I get the more I try to stay focused on what's going on where I am.  

It seems to be human nature to think the world gets better the further away we get from where we are, but I've never bought into that line of thinking.  Most of us don't have to go far to find cool places to hang out and fun (sometimes amazing) stuff to look at or experience.  All we have to do is avail our senses.

The world is full of joy, beauty and wonder.  It's all around us.  And it doesn't require a passport to experience.  Sometimes those things are just around the corner, if not right in our own backyards:)

I've done a poor job of keeping you posted.  It's easy to get sidetracked from the important things with stuff that, in the end, may not really matter all that much....