Have I shown you this? It’s an idea I was fooling around with back at the turn of the century. You know, you used to hear that phrase used a lot before the century actually turned but not so much since. I guess all that century turning could get confusing. What was I talking about? Oh, yeah… this was going to be a fanciful strip about these kids who lived in the low country, sort of like son Gene’s family now. I dug this particular one out of some old stuff a few days ago, and it’s been lying around on my desk since. So, I thought I’d show it to you. The boys’ names are Skeeter and Nat. Get it? Skeeter and Nat!! Ha Ha! There are several more of these prototypical strips around somewhere, and if I find them, I’ll show them to you, too.
Saturday in the studio
By Jimmy Johnson
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194 responses to “Saturday in the studio”
Tried to do diary/journal off and on. It is a good way to know yourself if you don’t resort to constant whining and downer comments! All that past time spent lying on shrink’s couches had better pay off somehow. Seriously, I didn’t lay on any couches I remember. I do remember some nice offices and big cushy arm chairs. And I learned a lot about myself.
Here I am listening to wonderful piano classical music and found myself swaying to the music and smiling. So, maybe it was a good investment. But I do not do well in support groups, only tried a few but they were mostly unpleasant and ended badly, meaning I quit.
Talking to myself seems adequate! It’s when I answer you have to worry.
Mike kept journals and I bought them for him to fill. I have never opened them in life and am not sure I should in death. I am looking at a stack in office library right now.
Love, Jackie
Jackie, I’m working on an answer to your question about Weight Watchers and will get back to you soon. You know how long-winded (or whatever the written equivalent is) I can be. 🙂
I did want to say something about Mike’s journals while it’s on my mind. I can’t help but think it would be a tragedy for them to be stored away uninspected or, Heaven forbid, destroyed. They might even need to be published. I sure he realized, even many years ago, there was a good chance you would survive him, so I can’t imagine there would be anything in them hurtful to you. At the same time, I recognize that now is probably not the best time for you to read them. Have you thought about having a trusted friend, one who knew Mike well, review them before you decide on their proper dispensation?
Jackie, start reading them. It will be obvious to you quickly whether or not he was writing for you. I think that it would be a very few people who write only for themselves.
Well,, I am hoping they are about building boats or the books he was reading!
There is a neatly arranged book for every boat he ever built. I found one this week with all this information on woodworking techniques, carefully saved and in sheet protectors and a flippable notebook.
While he was still working on the road he missed boats so much. He was going to build one called the Two Paw dinghy, a small sailboat that came apart in middle and bolted back together.
Our friend (now) who designed it did it more as a yacht tender actually.
Mike wanted to go look at one that had been built in OKC to see what it actually looked and worked like. I was along and having a bad lupus day. I looked at boat, said it was not up to Mike’s standards of building but it was OK and just buy the #### thing and go sail it. Which we did.
Mike took it all over Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico on his sales trips and sailed it where he could find a mud puddle big enough. One of best gifts I ever gave him.Fit in a minivan or a truck bed camper.
Years later I sold it back to original builder who has since improved as both a builder and sailor and is a dear friend. Also my webmaster on my Sail OK site. This all supports my belief that life is an endless circle, never ending and infinite.
Love, Jackie
Village, Don’t forget that we are well acquainted with some of the neighbors. It has been established that the Bumsteads live next door and of course Herb lives on the other side of him. I’ve always wondered why Dagwood and Arlo don’t ever carpool together.
Jackie, It was wonderful of you to be so supportive of his interests. Keep posting. This is like the general store or the café. Always open and someone will be here.
Jerry, among the stuff I have been going through and tossing, I found a half written column of mine that I never used. It was called “Stand By Your Man” and the reason I never finished it is the same reason I started to write it.
I have hundreds of internet and “physical” friends who write me and talk to me. Almost all of them are men and I may know some better than their spouses do. It has always caused me sadness that these men want to share their love, their passion and have no one with whom to share. The wives not only don’t go out, they often are in opposition to their husbands’ interests.
And this isn’t just boats, it can be most anything, like gardens, fishing, hunting, hiking, you name it and men are often doing it alone. That is one reason I love A and J, that Arlo and Janis do stuff together, walking, gardening, beaching and cooking.
Marriage should be support and sharing. OK, I am opening my heart about what I believe but it seems to be JJ’s too and what drew me to his art.
Love, Jackie
Jackie – and anyone else sorting through “stuff”: notebooks, diaries, letters, etc., can be wonderful windows into the lives and personalities of their authors for their children and grandchildren who might have been too young to know or appreciate them. They may also be of interest to libraries, museums, or organizations specializing in particular regions, historical periods (example: WWII experiences, both military and civilian), or hobbies/activities. I’m sure Mike’s boat building notebooks would be useful references for other builders.
Of course, being both a librarian and a bit of a packrat might make me a little biased 🙂
No, Ruth Anne you are totally right. I am a pack rat too and have way too much “stuff”.
Mostly right now we are trying to clean and organize my house and begin to put things where they belong to make it “my house” again. But I am trying to cut down on clutter. I have entire sofa covered in stack of clothing and I am going to find homes for them so they aren’t wasted.
My mom and Mike’s moms were such pack rats that we used to joke about whose mother was going to fall through floor or have the piles of magazines and newspaper fall onto them in bed and suffocate them.
Love, Jackie
Good afternoon Villagers….
I love a dismal, rainy, Sunday, noonish catnip…oops…..catnap 🙂
The rain into a wintry mix is upon us here in S IN. Not looking forward to the morning commute.
Ian came home from work, and said “another $%^&### auger went out, but they did get it put back in. Said they did 192 cases. Good girls…the hens, not the ‘boys’.
Jackie, read those journals for your daughters….they will be a treasure trove of life through the writings of their father.
Think I’ll head to U tube….the men are watching “Smokey and the Bandit”…..uugghh.
later………………..
…on topic…journals….a way of stay young forever….
Warming…contains Bob Dylan and the Last Walt….classic..and I just happened to ‘stumble’ across it….stumbling is good 🙂
http://www.totallyfuzzy.net/ourtube/bob-dylan/forever-young-the-last-waltz-live-video_1c04a1007.html
Aw, sorry to hear David! Hoping you get a match soon!
Came home from work yesterday and immediately began straightening up my porch. All went well until Blacklight realized I was home. Loud yowls from the other side of the door. I let her onto the porch, only for her to immediately whine to be let back in. (Enclosed porch, not meant for year round use – warmer than outside, but by no means warm.) She started yowling again as soon as I let her back in. After a few false starts, she finally came out again – only this time, I wasn’t letting her back in until I was done. You would have thought the world was ending. She sounded like I’d stuffed her in her carrier and tossed her in a snowdrift.
…and I’ll be da$ged, if I didn’t turn around and trip over this…The Law Waltz, but then, aren’t well dancing to it.
Van Morrison
http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A0LEVwty5bJUm0sAAURXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTBsa3ZzMnBvBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkAw–?p=van+morrison+the+last+waltz&tnr=21&vid=618D00D5507541538C15618D00D5507541538C15&l=296&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DUN.608001631040374935%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Ftvpot.daum.net%2Fv%2FXWZJODyR0Dg%24&sigr=114rku08u&tt=b&tit=Van+Morrison+-+Last+Waltz&sigt=10pjpudhi&back=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dvan%2Bmorrison%2Bthe%2Blast%2Bwaltz%26ei%3DUTF-8%26type%3D714647%26fr%3Dchr-greentree_ff%26ilc%3D12&sigb=13c603ara
I WIN…AGAIN….
or worse yet, Indy Mindy….THE VET 🙂
edit button:
we all dancing to it
Debbe, I have a good friend with a beautiful boat he built after he sailed one of ours, named “Forever Young”. I wanted to buy it for Mike this year but he wouldn’t let me.
Jackie, it is one of my favorites….but you have to like Dylan…and if I’m right…he wrote it…gotta whiki that…hey, it used to Google
Jackie, You have remarkable insight. We should have no sorrow for Mike. He obviously led a fantastic life to the fullest.
Mindy, One of the comments that we make often about Cilla is that she knows what she wants and knows when she wants it-now, and she will definitely tell you so. They can be very much like humans, immature and spoiled.
Jerry, I tried to make Mike’s life interesting and better from the day we met. Sometimes I could, and sometimes I didn’t but I tried. How many women would send their husbands off to the University of Hawaii with a beautiful new nose? /Fortunately I ended up able to go too but we enrolled him before I transferred over.
The joke about Mike’s complaint on a location he got at a trade show was “Mike, you could have your booth in an elevator. You’ve got Jackie.” That was how it was, even in retirement. You want to give them whatever you can. I have never been a saint, that title probably was deserved by Mike.
Love, Jackie
I love Lil Abner. The sad part is the only place I can find it on a daily basis has been doing the same 5-6 basic stories for several years now. Most of them from the earliest days when the cartoon was in it’s formative years. Although it does do one Fearless Fosdick, one of my heroes.
And today’s misadventures – I’m out shoveling. I hit a patch of slushy snow, and uncover what appears to be a MASSIVE spider lurching towards my shovel. In the .000003 seconds it took my brain to process the “spider” was an unfortunately shaped chunk of vegetation, I had a major heart attack, and quite clearly I could hear in my head, “Nope. I quit. Massive snow spiders in Indiana? I’m done. I quit. I’m moving out of the planet.”
Jerry – Blacklight is 100% diva. And most of the time I understand her completely – not that I can make her see *my* side though.
Her majesty at the moment – https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/10903880_10155182734815454_8400843231275772336_o.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoibCJ9
Lady Mindy, you are correct to not be blasé about snow spiders. Redshirts have been done in by ice sharks, and on other planets, too.