CRABBY

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in GRASS VALLEY, CA. It was believed that he had nothing left of any value.

Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital.
One nurse took her copy to Missouri.
The old man's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.
And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this 'anonymous' poem winging across the Internet.

Crabby Old Man...



What do you see nurses? . . .. . . What do you see?
What are you thinking . . . . . When you're looking at me?
A crabby old man . . . . . Not very wise,
Uncertain of habit . . . . . With faraway eyes?


Who dribbles his food . . . . . And makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice . . . . . 'I do wish you'd try!'
Who seems not to notice .. . . . . The things that you do.
And forever is losing . . . . . A sock or shoe?


Who, resisting or not . . . . . Lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding . . . . . The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? . . . . . Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse . . . . . You're not looking at me.


I'll tell you who I am. . . . . . As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, . . . . . As I eat at your will.


I'm a small child of Ten . . . . .. With a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters . . . . . Who love one another.
A young boy of Sixteen . . . . With wings on his feet.
Dreaming that soon now . . . . . A lover he'll meet.


A groom soon at Twenty . . . . . My heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows . . . . . That I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now . . . .. . I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide . . . .. . And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty . . . . . My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other . . . . . With ties that should last.




At Forty, my young sons . . .. . . Have grown and are gone,
But my woman's beside me . . . . . To see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more, babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children . . . . . My loved one and me.


Dark days are upon me . . . . . My wife is now dead.
I look at the future . . . . . Shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing . . . . . Young of their own.
And I think of the years .. .. . . . And the love that I've known.


I'm now an old man . . . . .. And nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age . . . . . Look like a fool..
The body, it crumbles . . . . . Grace and vigor, depart.
There is now a stone . . . . Where I once had a heart.


But inside this old carcass . . . . . A young guy still dwells,
And now and again . . . . . My battered heart swells.
I remember the joys . . . . . I remember the pain..
And I'm loving and living . . . . . Life over again.


I think of the years, all too few . . . . . Gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact . . . . That nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people . . . . . Open and see.
Not a crabby old man . . . . Look closer . .. . See ME!

A Hard Task, accomplished

 Yesterday, May 5-2012 I attended a college graduation. First let me tell you it is not one of my favorite things to do. But it was actually not too bad the invited speaker said something to the effect that you didn't come here to listen to me to tell you some of the old cliches. I would say his speech lasted maybe 10 minutes.


 There were over 300 graduates. And it was over within an hour and twenty minutes. Of course it took 20 minutes to get out of the building, LOL.


The person I was there to see is a young lady whom has had my admiration for the last 14 years.
  You see she'd made a poor choice a few years ago and she became a unwed mother and at the time I thought, OH BOY here we go!


But with her being raised in the shadow of God (whom she did not forget), mom, step-dad, siblings all of the rest of her relatives and friends, her church, she thrived. She had a beautiful baby girl, in fact it looked a lot like her mother.


Then came the day of her wedding, somebody she'd known for years and come to find out he was a Christian also. Another celebration that was so heartfelt that I cried. Me crying, at a wedding!
Click here to read about the wedding)


With their oldest girl now a teenager and the younger 2 in elementary, working full time and attending college it cannot be easy. Well God never said it'll be easy, did He?


Erin were those tears I saw in your eyes as you paraded in? Could you see our tears? Mine were tears of happiness, tears of pride and disappointment. Diappointment that your dad and gradparents were not there to watch. Of course they all had a “ringside” seats and probably shouts of hallelujah could be heard in the heavens as they shouted in joy of your accomplishments.


The reception was GREAT and I am, as the rest of us, are thanking your in-laws for the beautiful gathering.


You might say I'm proud of you, you're right!


Love to you and GOD BLESS


Grandpa Darrell

Self explanatory

Homeless

  I was shocked as I watched this video. Of a school with 600 and some students in this school, over 500 are homeless.

  Like most of you I live in MY small world. I hear snippets of news or going ons around the nation but not really much. I know that MJ died, Whitney died clean and Dick Clark's heart finally gave out. I also watched as the pictures of the 300 puppies were taken from a home. What happened to the people who lost their homes in the last couple of weeks to the terrible storms? That is old news, it does not help the ratings BUT it does not help the people restore what they lost. Are we helping them? Are we helping so & so down the street who is losing their belongings such as home, transportation or whatever. Maybe it is sickness and they cannot work, I've been there and made it through, with a little help. Then when that happens and you're able, you must PASS IT ON. Christianity is a four letter word. LOVE. If the Bible says nothing else it says to LOVE! Sometimes it is hard to do that. especially when you know only one side of the story.
  When somebody does somebody else WRONG we condemn then and go on with it forever, it seems. Not only the person that was hurt needs prayer the culprit who did the hurt needs prayer also, maybe even more prayer. We all know circumstances such as that, just stop and think. Did you pray for the perpetrator
 The networks probably give only 30 seconds on something like this video. We as a church send people out into the world which we must do. BUT we must also help take care of our neighbors. Believe it or not this video is about our neighbors. I'm sure each one of us does as much as they can for our neighbors, don't we?
Watch it and absorb it.


Video


Remember you do not need to go to Vegas to help, somebody.

Darrell

Down Days

This is from one of my down days in Feb.
Did you ever have any "down days"? It has been a little bit rough around here for the last day or two.


1: First this computer would not hook up to the internet. It said turn on the switch, what switch?

2: Second my beloved hearing aid took its final dump.

3: My thought of realizing a pension from the teamsters was dumped this morning.

4: Mother nature dumped a few inches of snow on us (about 8) and I was enjoying the looks of the brown grass in the yards and fields.

5: I cannot seem to get this house straigtened and cleaned up. I was looking for my birth certificate the other day and came across a whole bunch of IRS, bank statements, step son's death codolence cards so I started tossing and shredding. WHAT A MESS!!!

6: I got my bank statement and there is quite a difference in my and theirs balance. Can't find the mistake. So that means I'll have to call in some help, one of my daughters. Damn I hate that! It makes them think I'm getting old. I got news for them, I am OLDE!

7: Google says I cannot enter a video (too long) on you tube unless I have a cell phone. So they can text me permission. What a crock!

7: About the time I figure I have somebody picked out for the primary, they screw up big time or drop out completely.

I'm sure there is a couple of more things but tht'll cover it for now.



I imagine I'm suffereing from depression, not enough for drugs but enough to bring things to a head quickly. I caught myself crying the other day while I was watching a western on TV. I'm always thinking WHAT IF? My mind races a mile a minute with different scenarios on the WHAT IF!.

Few Changes

I've decided to make a few changes and relax a little bit more. I'm not going to worry about your president (he's not mine). How come if everything about the man is illegal, nothing is being done? I do not even know how much 3 billion dollars is, do you? I have to thnk twice about filling the car up with gas, can you relate? I had 38 telephone calls for 2 days before the primary. What a bunch of bull crap. I want a president I can believe in conservative, trustworthy, honest, loyal, one that would be and not a sociopath, a natural citizen, one whose background can be checked as well as his wife's (college thesis). A man that'll back up our constitution not change it to his liking! A man that is not out to appease our enemies. A man that respects his position.



I'm asking why is he still in office? We went through Nixon, Spiro Agnew and have had other set-backs yet this racist is still in office.


Are we so spineless, do you think we have to be so politcally correct that nothing can be done?


Back when I was in hi-school my dad, a member of John Burch, said it looked like it would take armed resurrection to stop this runaway government. WOW I hope not. Was he right?


So don't send me anymore political crap. I'll not send it on!


Darrell

New Title

I hope you noticed the new title (header) on this blog. I've given a lot of thought about what I might write about and usually come up blank.
 Tomorrow March 10th would be my late wife's birthday. She didn't quite make it to the 3/4 of a century mark.
 So in remembrance I'm sticking 2 of her most favorite songs. The first one "Shoutin Time" we first heard at the Quartet Convention in Louisville quite a few years ago. And it is sung by a family group by the name of The Hoppers. I had to hold her back the first time she heard it. I thought she was going to dance right up on the stage.

Another song she loved was by Lynda Randle called God On The Mountain. Watch the video and then I've got a story to tell you.

   One day, at the Quartet Convention my ears (minere's syndrome) was giving me fits so I went out to the RV to lie down, Sally came along and said it was lunch time so she had her sandwich and I went and laid down. 3 or 4 hours later when I awoke, she was nowhere to be found. I knew she liked to hang-out at the Goodman's display and talk with Vestal BUT she wasn't there. Vestal was there so I asked her and she said yes she was here and the last time I saw her she was at the Hopper's. Same story, she'd been but sort of disappeared. Probably an hour later Dean Hopper was walking by and he asked me if I found her. I said no and he said follow me. Out the back door of the convention center amongst the buses and Dean said look around the corner of this bus. There she was all stretched out in a lounge chair talking to Lynda Randle and her husband. The Randles are black but they are Christians.  

 That was the way Sally was, she never met a stranger. When she got ready to leave there was more hugging going on than you can believe. I thanked Lynda and her husband for baby sitting. Boy I got my butt reamed out for that comment for several years. Later on Sally told me that they had the same troubles as you and I have.
Darrell