TO MY GRANDMOTHER

To My Mam-Maw, Then and now, I Love You

C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S

                                          C is for Christ
                                              Who died for our sins

                                           H is for hymns
                                               we sing unto him

                                            R is for real
                                                In our hearts he will always stay

                                             I is for In
                                               The church we pray

                                             S is for Saviour
                                                He is unto thee

                                             T is for Teaching
                                                 to talk and to see

                                             M is for Manger
                                                 What the Christ Child slept in
                                                                    
                                              A is for Always
                                                 The way he will always be, there and then

                                               S is for Sincere
                                                  The way we will always think of Him

Tammy Dillon, 6th Grade, December 18, 1974

The opening of a gift




Watching a child open a gift

Brings out Joy!

It is so much fun to see him

playing with History

With his face so bright,

like a candlelight

His smile wide

like the coming tide

He is happy for the day

For he knows its Christ’s Birthday


Tammy Dillon 6th Grade Dec 17, 1974

"CHRISTMAS STARTED IN OCTOBER THIS YEAR"

The Month Before Christmas

*Twas the month before Christmas*

*When all through our land,*

*Not a Christian was praying*

*Nor taking a stand.*

*See the PC Police had taken away,*

*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*

*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*

*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*

*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*

* December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.*

*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*

*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*

*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*

*Something was changing, something quite odd! *

*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*

*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*

*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*

* At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.*

*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*

*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*

*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*

*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*

*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*

*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*

*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*

*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*

*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*

* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*

*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*

*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*

*So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'*

*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*

*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*

*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,

not Happy Holiday !*

Please, all Christians join together and

wish everyone you meet

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christ is The Reason' for the Christ-mas Season!

Let's put christ back in CHRISTMAS

HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS SEASON pop

ORANGES ARE FUN

OUR SATSUMA TREE

What is a Satsuma? Probably the most delicious Citrus one could ever want to eat. Easy to peel, sweet, can’t get enough, almost habit forming pleasure. Well we have a tree and we are stuffing and sharing with others, it’s been a long time coming.

It all started in 2004, one of the employees at Tex-Air did not like his Satsuma tree and dug it up and offered it to me. Since he had shared his Satsuma’s with me and they were good I told him yes. We went to his house and I picked it up. When I arrived home, Nancy and I dug the hole by our rear fence. We dug it deep and planted it, watered it and put some food for it around it. Well guess what, it lived.

During 2005 it grew well but after blooming and setting fruit, only one or two survived. The tree survived Rita and into 2006. I pruned it, fed it and kept it watered. New limbs and leaves started growing and during the spring very pretty flowers popped out and little fruit showed up. Well needless to say 2006 was not a good year. We did get a few oranges and they were good.

Well 2007 and 2008 were not much better, we kept it fed and watered and pruned. Each year produced a little more fruit; just enough to say it was still alive. Well 2009 came and the tree rewarded us with a bumper crop, a thank you for taking care of it through hard times.

UM UM GOOD!

Think of it as raising children, do a good job of caring for them while growing up and they will make you proud. Life is a never ending challenge.

Does any one took at these Blog Post?

HAVE A GOOD DAY  Enjoy life, POP

New Family Member

Linda Lois and Her Husband Presented our family with a litt bundle of Joy on Oct 22.

Hi Uncle Bill!! I had a baby girl on Oct 22nd....you are a great Uncle again! Her name is Leilani Lois Olofernes, she weighed in at 8lb 8oz and 19" long. She is a cute little mix of Filipino and American!! Here is a couple of pictures. We are all doing very well and enjoying our time getting to know our little daughter. Hope you are well! Love you.

Linda Olofernes

(860) 985-4069

One more time "Go Forth and populate the earth"  Great, have a good weekend
POP

Rock with style

Thanks to Debbie at Righttruth.typepad.com

There is a huge rock near a gravel pit on Hwy.25 in rural Iowa. For generations, kids have painted slogans, names, and obscenities on this rock, changing its character many times. A few months back, the rock received its latest paint job, and since then it has been left completely undisturbed.
Via Email Click images to enlarge
Debbie on September 15, 2009 at 12:19 PM in Military

West coast Lowerys

On 16 March Mary wrote: Hey uncle Bill, here is a picture of my grandson Jacob.

On 16 March UNKA wrote hey Mary this is you in the 1960's beautiful child

This Was my brother Jim I think in 1977 or 78

Your Dad did go to school!

Fat Cheeks Little Jimmy

Grandpa Lowery with Prize Fish, May he rest in piece!

Grandma Lowery, Resting in piece between Bingo and Slots, She is missed much!


This is a special just for Mary, but everyone is welcome to comment, come on people, lets get some news going I have only got another 50 or 60 years

POP

OBITUARY

An Obituary printed in the London Times

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years.. No one knows for sure how old he was,since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons

as:Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
Why the early bird gets the worm;
Life isn't always fair;
and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children,are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but over bearing regulations were set in place.

Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they them selves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion..

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault. Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son,Reason...He is survived by his 4 step brothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on.

If not, join the majority and do nothing. Cheers

Memorable assignments part 4

Working on Helicopters is really great and the pay is good. Here we go again, month one I rented a Room from one our team, it was a very large house and had a big fenced (walled) in yard, Les and Peggy had Satellite TV which he kept switching, we had a House keeper which took care of everything cooking, shopping laundry she was super, Later she came to the states with Les and Peggy.

Nothing exciting happened at work the rest of January and february so I will skip the work stuff. Some time in Feb of 87 I decided to move out and into my own apartment, A friend helped me find one and it was small but nice and we had pool small but a pool any way. The only thing wrong was that it was on a main street and traffic kept moving till after 10 PM But you get use to it.

March was coming up and time to get Nancy down to our Paradise, with the Help of a friend We looked for an Apartment which would be great for Nancy and I, we found one. First floor Living room, Dining room and kitchen. The living room had cement couches and steps to the dining room, the kitchen was pretty good , no more said. On the second floor two bedrooms and a bath. Nothing unusual about that pretty good beds plenty of windows and once again on a street, however this one was not so bad, but we were still behind locked gates. Oh by way the shower had an automatic 110V instant hot water heater, water on heat on, just don’t touch the fitting, that’s where the heater was ouch! I am now well established. Lets Go get Nancy.

Next time TACA to Houston and back.

Memorable assignments ,PART 3

Here we go again, Here I am drinking beer and eating egg rolls, in a third world country with the bad guys doing bad things to the country. Welcome to San Salvador, El Salvador CA.

The hotel we were checked into was a 3 or 4 star hotel, that is before the Earthquake hit late in 1986, I don't know the magnitude but it shifted the hotel about 18 inches, collapsed a children's hospital, moved the US Embassy down the middle and cleared off the side of a mountain, that's not all just lots of damage. The room was nice and clean and was to American standards, The first night I slept well, and had a 6AM Wake-up call.

Up and at-Um Breakfast with Tino, We had breakfast and was as you would expect at a hotel but there was plenty of fruit, Fresh and tropical. Other than that it was really good and cheap.

One of our crew picked us up and headed downtown, our mission today was to process into the Embassy. We got there and went through security had our orientation got our badges and all that stuff. I mentioned before that the Embassy was split in half, sure enough there in the middle of the 2nd floor the hall had moved about 18 or 20 inches the hall was no longer straight.

We left the embassy and headed to our work sight. Illipongo AFB about 18 KM to the south of San Salvador. This was to be our route for the next 24 or so months.

Work is a four letter word! Here we are at the Air Base, our hanger was old, think it was used by Columbus on his journey across the Central American countries from the Pacific to the Carri bean, well maybe not but it looked like it tons of rust, dirt bird poop and lots of birds. You just could not keep them out.

Then to the job at hand, we were a team of 10 men, I would call us experts in the Helicopter field but I guess that could be debated, any way we had the Job. That was to perform scheduled maintenance on OLD Viet Nam era Helicopters which had been rebuilt once or twice, for their age really they were in good shape for as old as they were. This maintenance would be our routine for the rest of our tour in El Salvador. The first day, I experienced my first Tremolo, Earth Quake , a little one but the streets and buildings looked as if they were made of rubber, the poles swayed back and forth and the street went up and down, you have never lived till you ride a moving street.

Thats about all for the first day It was interesting to say the least, more next time
POP

Memorable assignments ,PART 2

Nancy and I had been in Lake Charles La from since June of 1981 and we were happy being there but something was missing, work was not fun any more.

I had taken a Job with ERA and they had been there for about two or three years and were expanding. It was fun being part of a growing company and new things and equipment to explore I really enjoyed it. In 1986 most all the new toys dried up and routine set in, that's where the fun ended.

I had decided to take the job in El Salvador, Central America, Great, pays good, Great company and pretty good benefits. Myself and another replacement "Tino". left Houston first week in January 87 and the fun began.

It's a Three hour flight from Houston to San Salvador and TACA Airlines was a very comfortable airline to fly on, Boeing 737 fairly new and crowded. It seemed that every Native of El Salvador was returning with everything they could possibly load in bags and take on was really crowded. The meal was excellent and the drinks were also plentiful. First stop was Belize, we dropped off passengers and picked up a few. Then off to our destination.

The end of the trip, here we are "home" Tino and I were met by Ernie and we went to his house. It was strange It was late afternoon and didn't get to see too much. At Ernie's place we had a few cold Pilsner beers and Tino had brought some Egg rolls his wife had made they were very tasty considering they were cooked in Bacon grease which is all he had. While setting there you could hear Weapons firing and an occasional bomb or explosion. I thought to myself, what have I gotten myself into?
More to come!
POP

Memorable assignments

Lets say I have been around the world and back again, and have had many great memories and experiences. Perhaps 1987 through 1989 were the best.

Let me post some back ground, I went into the Army at age 18 and retired at age 38 in 1972.
During that 20 years, I was in Korea twice, Germany twice and back to Korea again. During most of that period my first wife and I raised 6 great kids (Boys) and they all grew up and had families for that I am proud but that's not the story.

This is the story, My present wife and I were married in March 1981 and soon moved to Lake Charles, La for a Helicopter company. We bought property and a mobile home and settled in for what we thought would be a great future. I worked there for 5 years, we took the usual trips and vacations. We saw my wife's son and daughter graduate from High School and College on the same day that's hard to do but it got done.

In 1986 my job had become a real pain and was not fun any longer so I left there and went out on my own, Well that was not a really good idea and Jobs were really scarce. In December of 86 I got a call and they ask me if I was interested in going to El Salvador? Not knowing anything, I said yes. In January of 87 I packed up and left, My wife would follow me in four months.

As with most people, it takes skill to write, I didn't excell in that in High School so I will continue this later, I promise I'll try to be more interesting. LATER